Well, I came off my horse again. Sunday. Nothing broken, but I pulled a muscle in my back.
Champagne and I had gone on a nice trail ride together, just the two of us. We had a few differences of opinion during the ride, but he eventually did agree to see it my way.
Starting out he didn’t agree with my decision to go on the trails without other people, and was bouncing and snorting across the roads and grass until we got to the trails.
Then we came to the long, steep hill called “The Pipeline”. The trail at that point is as wide as a road, steep, and moderately rocky. The footing is good, though. When we first came to it, Champagne balked. Just wouldn’t move forward at all. He also tried his favorite trick, which is to back up. It was early in the ride, so I asked him to cross the trail, and go on another section which also climbs the same steep hill, but is a narrow path and a little winding. He didn’t realize he was going the same way.
After we’d been out about an hour, we had wound back down to the base of the pipeline and again he said he couldn’t possibly go up it. After refusing and backing and threatening to bolt and thrashing around in the brush beside the trail he eventually did agree to go up the pipeline, although he stopped three times on the way up to indicate his displeasure. He doesn’t like to back up downhill, though, which was in my favor.
Once it had been demonstrated that I was the one in charge of our heading, and since we’d been out awhile, I headed back.
All along the pasture fence and across the lawn, he was again bouncing and snorting. He doesn’t like the old barn with open stalls that we have to walk near. After rounding that barn, the home fields are in sight, but upon rounding the barn, SUDDENLY! There was a WOODPILE! The same dreaded woodpile that had NOT MOVED in nine months! And it was STILL THERE!
He jumped off the ground with all four feet, wheeled, and bolted. I came off and landed on my right side and back. After bolting for about 20 feet, Champagne suddenly thought, “Oh, hey, I could be eating grass!” And began to contentedly graze.
I was afraid that he would not let me catch him, and might run into the road or trample the crops growing nearby, but no, he was fine. So I caught him, finished riding him home, groomed him and put all the stuff away. But I was having a bit of discomfort upon any twisting and bending.
Today, three days later, I am soooo stiff and sore. It is very hard to turn over at night. Walking is OK as long as I go slowly, and I can drive, sit (straight), stand, type, and reach over my head. Still, that wretched creature! And so much for my deeper seat. Ratz.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Midsummer horse update
Ken and I were talking this week about our respective hobbies: I am warming up a bit to flying (a little bit I hasten to add) and he is growing fond of Champagne-as-a-pet. Ken is basically a softie for animals, and Champagne has many cute and endearing traits which are easy to like. I am not as afraid of flying, though I can’t picture myself taking the plane out for a spin on my own.
When Ken showed up for his lesson Wednesday, Champagne and I were in the outdoor and his ears came up, his neck rounded more, and his trot quickened as we headed toward Ken at the gate. I know that some geldings don’t like men, but clearly Champagne knows Ken and is happy he’s part of the herd. That’s endearing.
On his ride, Ken was working on softening his pelvic area and suddenly he was riding much better. Kathy the barn manager and Nancy, a boarder, both commented to me how much better he looked, and I could see it myself. Much less stiff, much more moving with the gait. He was practicing sitting the trot, and then the trot rising. He said that half-seat work the lesson before had really helped. I get a kick out of seeing his progress, and of course I love it that he likes my boy and my boy likes him.
For my part, the canter issue seems pretty well resolved. I can tell that Champagne can tell when I am about to ask for the canter, and I can feel him getting ready to respond. That’s great! Of course now there are a couple of other issues. For one, he tends to drop out of the canter unexpectedly. For another, when I try to do anything else (like slow or speed up the pace, sit even deeper in the saddle, or turn) he also drops out. On Wednesday we were trying trot/canter transitions, and he got all tense and frustrated, and was kind of bucking/kind of hopping/kind of cantering in place. I am now thinking that it will be another year before I can begin working on changes of lead.
In the meantime, if the weather is flyable this weekend we’re going to Vermont to visit my brother. If it isn’t, I’ll get to ride. So it’s all good, I guess.
When Ken showed up for his lesson Wednesday, Champagne and I were in the outdoor and his ears came up, his neck rounded more, and his trot quickened as we headed toward Ken at the gate. I know that some geldings don’t like men, but clearly Champagne knows Ken and is happy he’s part of the herd. That’s endearing.
On his ride, Ken was working on softening his pelvic area and suddenly he was riding much better. Kathy the barn manager and Nancy, a boarder, both commented to me how much better he looked, and I could see it myself. Much less stiff, much more moving with the gait. He was practicing sitting the trot, and then the trot rising. He said that half-seat work the lesson before had really helped. I get a kick out of seeing his progress, and of course I love it that he likes my boy and my boy likes him.
For my part, the canter issue seems pretty well resolved. I can tell that Champagne can tell when I am about to ask for the canter, and I can feel him getting ready to respond. That’s great! Of course now there are a couple of other issues. For one, he tends to drop out of the canter unexpectedly. For another, when I try to do anything else (like slow or speed up the pace, sit even deeper in the saddle, or turn) he also drops out. On Wednesday we were trying trot/canter transitions, and he got all tense and frustrated, and was kind of bucking/kind of hopping/kind of cantering in place. I am now thinking that it will be another year before I can begin working on changes of lead.
In the meantime, if the weather is flyable this weekend we’re going to Vermont to visit my brother. If it isn’t, I’ll get to ride. So it’s all good, I guess.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Phantom menaces
All hail the sun! It is back! Imagine . . . maybe we’ll have some nice days after all.
Riding in the bright cool sunny evening is such a pleasure. Champagne, too, seems more willing to work, and we’ve had some very nice canter sessions. He seems more responsive to my leg, and more maneuverable. I wonder, though, if riding “patterns” will ever get automatic for both of us.
We have also had some interesting conversations about where we will go. After working in the outdoor, I usually ride him around the perimeter of the property to cool down. That means we leave the ring, go down a small grassy hill, along a track that crosses two little streams, along a dirt road with a tomato field on one side and a wooded depression on the other; then a turn along the second side of the crop field along a dirt road with a stone wall along one side; another turn along the top of the crop field with trees and brush along the left hand side, through a narrow place between trees on one side and a paddock fence on the other, and then back up the grassy hill to the barn.
Champagne is dubious about the safety of the wooded depression and sometimes spooks there; as well, he has seen deer across the stone wall, so he is concerned about the safety of the dirt road.
Yesterday, after the torrential rains and tornado warnings of the week, the landscape is a bit different. The two small streams are now more like ponds than streams, and the places where the road crosses them are narrow and partly under water. The crop field slopes toward the wooded depression, and some soil and mulch had washed across the dirt road, leaving swirly patterns of darker and lighter dirt. As well, a tractor had driven on the dirt road, leaving a cross-hatched tire pattern. Oh my.
First Champagne decided we couldn’t cross the two small streams. Much backing up and turning around and snorting and sidling. I kept asking that he cross, and he was pretty forceful in resisting, but I finally got him up to the first stream, where we had to snort and sniff the puddles. At last he walked through.
Then we came to the swirly patterns. Definitely a danger. More backing, turning and snorting, but these I had to control more because the tomato plants are being trained up metal stakes, and he could get injured if he thrashed into them. Eventually we minced around the swirly patterns, and they did not actually eat us.
Then it was on to the tractor tracks. Those were beyond suspicious: those were an actual menace. Impossible to walk across them!! More acting up, snorting, head tossing, balking. Deeply worrisome!
In this way we made it all the way around the cool-down circuit and back to the barn. Throughout I was more amused than anything, and tried to remember to sit deep and calm in the saddle, not look at any one of the obstacles other than just as a passing glance (because the more I stare at something the more he thinks it is a concern), and to tell him what a good boy he is and that it is all okay in my calm, soothing-while-grooming voice. So even though we had some really nice canter sequences in the ring, I think I enjoyed the cool down lap the most!
He was very cute when we got back to the barn, too. I don’t have pockets in my pseudojeans riding tights, and usually I give him a piece of carrot for standing still as I dismount. Last night I had the carrot piece in my brush box in the barn. But Champagne is used to getting it right away after I get off, even before I loosen the girth. Last night he kept bumping me with his nose: Carrot. Carrot. Not hard bumping, just a nudge. Carrot. The bumping stopped after we went inside and he had his carrot. He may not be a very person-centric horse, but he has a definite language and speaks very clearly.
Riding in the bright cool sunny evening is such a pleasure. Champagne, too, seems more willing to work, and we’ve had some very nice canter sessions. He seems more responsive to my leg, and more maneuverable. I wonder, though, if riding “patterns” will ever get automatic for both of us.
We have also had some interesting conversations about where we will go. After working in the outdoor, I usually ride him around the perimeter of the property to cool down. That means we leave the ring, go down a small grassy hill, along a track that crosses two little streams, along a dirt road with a tomato field on one side and a wooded depression on the other; then a turn along the second side of the crop field along a dirt road with a stone wall along one side; another turn along the top of the crop field with trees and brush along the left hand side, through a narrow place between trees on one side and a paddock fence on the other, and then back up the grassy hill to the barn.
Champagne is dubious about the safety of the wooded depression and sometimes spooks there; as well, he has seen deer across the stone wall, so he is concerned about the safety of the dirt road.
Yesterday, after the torrential rains and tornado warnings of the week, the landscape is a bit different. The two small streams are now more like ponds than streams, and the places where the road crosses them are narrow and partly under water. The crop field slopes toward the wooded depression, and some soil and mulch had washed across the dirt road, leaving swirly patterns of darker and lighter dirt. As well, a tractor had driven on the dirt road, leaving a cross-hatched tire pattern. Oh my.
First Champagne decided we couldn’t cross the two small streams. Much backing up and turning around and snorting and sidling. I kept asking that he cross, and he was pretty forceful in resisting, but I finally got him up to the first stream, where we had to snort and sniff the puddles. At last he walked through.
Then we came to the swirly patterns. Definitely a danger. More backing, turning and snorting, but these I had to control more because the tomato plants are being trained up metal stakes, and he could get injured if he thrashed into them. Eventually we minced around the swirly patterns, and they did not actually eat us.
Then it was on to the tractor tracks. Those were beyond suspicious: those were an actual menace. Impossible to walk across them!! More acting up, snorting, head tossing, balking. Deeply worrisome!
In this way we made it all the way around the cool-down circuit and back to the barn. Throughout I was more amused than anything, and tried to remember to sit deep and calm in the saddle, not look at any one of the obstacles other than just as a passing glance (because the more I stare at something the more he thinks it is a concern), and to tell him what a good boy he is and that it is all okay in my calm, soothing-while-grooming voice. So even though we had some really nice canter sequences in the ring, I think I enjoyed the cool down lap the most!
He was very cute when we got back to the barn, too. I don’t have pockets in my pseudojeans riding tights, and usually I give him a piece of carrot for standing still as I dismount. Last night I had the carrot piece in my brush box in the barn. But Champagne is used to getting it right away after I get off, even before I loosen the girth. Last night he kept bumping me with his nose: Carrot. Carrot. Not hard bumping, just a nudge. Carrot. The bumping stopped after we went inside and he had his carrot. He may not be a very person-centric horse, but he has a definite language and speaks very clearly.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Love puddle: not
My Dad used to say that I made all my animals into “love puddles”. I would socialize them and handle them and get them used to having affection showered upon them until they became trusting and cuddly and relaxed around people.
My rabbits would lie upside down in my arms, and Misty, a doe, would let me handle her new babies right from birth. Cliff, a blue jay I raised from before the time that his little feathers fluffed out of their pin shafts, would swoop down out of the trees and nestle in my neck. My current cat Nikky was adopted from an animal rescue place. She had been given up for biting and not using her litter box. Now she is the most placid and loving of animals, and her only fault is that she wants affection all the time, and it isn’t always convenient. In fact, my Dad warned me when I began to have children: Do not make love puddles of them!
When I bought Champagne, his former owner said he wasn’t a very demonstrative horse. I thought I’d be able to fix that quickly enough. But, well, not yet. Other people’s horses nicker when they see them. Well in truth, other people’s horses nicker when they see me. Not Champagne. Some other people’s horses come when they call them. Not Champagne. Other people’s horses seem to want to be with their special people. Champagne doesn’t seem to differentiate among people. Mostly he cares about whether he is going to be fed. He will be cute and beg for a treat, but that’s just bribery working.
I know he knows me, and I know he thinks of me as one of his herd. He has learned many tricks. For example, when I say “pick up your foot” he lifts his hoof for me to clean. I have taught him to stand still and not dive for a carrot held right under his nose until I say “Okay”. He does seem to trust me, and will go into many situations he thinks might be dangerous and will quickly calm after a spook when I tell him he is a good boy and the situation is fine. When I hand-walk him and let him graze, he is willing to stop eating and be led to a new area (mostly because I seek out clover beds for him).
But he does not: come over and bump me with his nose; snuffle in my hair; perk up and come to the stall door when I get to the barn; lean his head on me; indicate where he’d like me to scratch him; act jealous when I pat other horses; seem eager to go out and do some work.
The only real opinion he expresses when I am tacking him up is that he lowers his head so I can easily put the crocheted fly mesh on. (He also chews on the cross ties when I put the saddle on, which I interpret as anxiety.) Other than that, his opinions are all about food or not walking in certain places. He’s been mine for a year and a few months now. I am still working on him. But I am beginning to wonder if he just doesn’t have the capacity to build a connection.
My rabbits would lie upside down in my arms, and Misty, a doe, would let me handle her new babies right from birth. Cliff, a blue jay I raised from before the time that his little feathers fluffed out of their pin shafts, would swoop down out of the trees and nestle in my neck. My current cat Nikky was adopted from an animal rescue place. She had been given up for biting and not using her litter box. Now she is the most placid and loving of animals, and her only fault is that she wants affection all the time, and it isn’t always convenient. In fact, my Dad warned me when I began to have children: Do not make love puddles of them!
When I bought Champagne, his former owner said he wasn’t a very demonstrative horse. I thought I’d be able to fix that quickly enough. But, well, not yet. Other people’s horses nicker when they see them. Well in truth, other people’s horses nicker when they see me. Not Champagne. Some other people’s horses come when they call them. Not Champagne. Other people’s horses seem to want to be with their special people. Champagne doesn’t seem to differentiate among people. Mostly he cares about whether he is going to be fed. He will be cute and beg for a treat, but that’s just bribery working.
I know he knows me, and I know he thinks of me as one of his herd. He has learned many tricks. For example, when I say “pick up your foot” he lifts his hoof for me to clean. I have taught him to stand still and not dive for a carrot held right under his nose until I say “Okay”. He does seem to trust me, and will go into many situations he thinks might be dangerous and will quickly calm after a spook when I tell him he is a good boy and the situation is fine. When I hand-walk him and let him graze, he is willing to stop eating and be led to a new area (mostly because I seek out clover beds for him).
But he does not: come over and bump me with his nose; snuffle in my hair; perk up and come to the stall door when I get to the barn; lean his head on me; indicate where he’d like me to scratch him; act jealous when I pat other horses; seem eager to go out and do some work.
The only real opinion he expresses when I am tacking him up is that he lowers his head so I can easily put the crocheted fly mesh on. (He also chews on the cross ties when I put the saddle on, which I interpret as anxiety.) Other than that, his opinions are all about food or not walking in certain places. He’s been mine for a year and a few months now. I am still working on him. But I am beginning to wonder if he just doesn’t have the capacity to build a connection.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Spangles
Hmm, the beaded headgear for Champagne needs some work.
I put it on him for the first time a couple of weeks ago and took a few pictures, but I wasn’t happy with them because he doesn’t look photogenic enough. I figured I’d try again later when I had a willing assistant to catch his attention.
Meanwhile we rode on the trail, and he looked quite splendid. But the next time we rode on the trail he kept tossing his head, and some of the beads and bells fell off and rolled away. I think it was a failure of the crimper things I used to hold the ends of the strings. I also wondered if the beads were annoying him and that was the reason for the head tossing.
Sunday that was answered by riding with the plain fly mesh and still we had head tossing, so I think it is flies around his eyes, not the beads. But I’ll have to reengineer the whole thing, alas.
I put it on him for the first time a couple of weeks ago and took a few pictures, but I wasn’t happy with them because he doesn’t look photogenic enough. I figured I’d try again later when I had a willing assistant to catch his attention.
Meanwhile we rode on the trail, and he looked quite splendid. But the next time we rode on the trail he kept tossing his head, and some of the beads and bells fell off and rolled away. I think it was a failure of the crimper things I used to hold the ends of the strings. I also wondered if the beads were annoying him and that was the reason for the head tossing.
Sunday that was answered by riding with the plain fly mesh and still we had head tossing, so I think it is flies around his eyes, not the beads. But I’ll have to reengineer the whole thing, alas.
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