Got fired by the farrier! (Not really)

5/17/2010
I have been trying to keep Risa and Penny bare foot and have been working with two women from the Sound Equine Initiative here in NM.  I really like their work on the horses and how empathetic they are, too!  However, I ride a lot and the horses are always out.  Thus, their feet are really not holding enough hoof to work with. Today we agreed that I should hire a farrier who will put on shoes.  He is coming on Friday and I am a little nervous because Risa is opinionated and she just doesn't like everyone...Hope it all works out! I sure appreciated their willingness to do what was best for the horse, even though that means we won't be working with them!

5/14-5/16 I was in Lubbock.  Tabooli got shoes on 5/15 when I was in Lubbock watching my daughter graduate from Texas Tech!  Whoop (wait that is Tx A&M--but hey I went there so it's ok.)  Unfortunately, one shoe fell off today. I think he got it hung on a tree root as the shoe was off, and bent, near the tree root AND his other knee was skinned.  So, compiling all the forensic evidence...I think he caught it and fell.

5/17 again. Rode Tabooli in the sand. (ride 9) His shoeless foot was sore on gravel, so even though I wanted to take him on his first trip out, we stayed in the arena.  He spooked hard once, but other than that he was pretty darn good.

Move off my leg! Follow the reins! Relax your tongue! Basically, we are talking steering here.  He is a bit heavy on the bit and he is the type that wants to put his head down with pressure on the bit.  Those seem to occur about every 1 in 7 or so (not that I was counting or anything...) The (French) upward rein pressure seems to help him come up some and loosen up his poll and neck (even though the book says we are trying to loosen the tongue).  He is improving on moving sideways when I bend his head left and apply my left leg either through his shoulder or his ribs, but he is not yet consistent! (Right is working, too.)

Leg yield, shoulder in, turn. All of these are variations on the theme of yielding to leg and rein pressure, and working him against the fence while maintaining some forward motion is helping.  In addition to the leg work, we did a little loping--not all the way around as there is no fence on the N end and his steering isn't quite there. To lope off from a trot, I bent his head to the fence and used my fence side leg to push his hip inside. It is the wrong bend direction, but it does help him get his hind end driving without adding too much speed, and into the lope he goes.

Stop and back. Apparently he forgot how to stop and back.  So, we trotted 5 steps, stopped and backed a few steps.  We repeated this until he was stopping on my voice and weight and backing semi light.  It took about 20 repeats. Finished with the gate, which took awhile to complete.  Guess he forgot about that too!

May. Ride 22.  I was going to get on and take off, but first Risa and Penny were with the farrier, then I rode Penny and ponied Risa a mile over to feed the neighbor's horses (and back).  Cometa was out with May, but for whatever reason, he just doesn't count as a companion for anybody...maybe because he is often in is own pen and is very bossy.  Still, he misses them when they go.  Ok, so the upshot of all that Penny Risa activity was that May was pacing and not that relaxed.

I am ALMOST as good as Risa. When I haltered up May (she hasn't tried to avoid this in about 3 tries!) and brought her in to saddle, she settled down a whole lot.  I am almost as good as Risa as a companion!  I feel so important (in my own little world) when the horses start to see me that way. Nevertheless, I figured I better do a little ground and a little arena work to off set the layoff and stressful activity.

Not perfect.  Not consistent, but she light a lot of the time and holds her head in a nice natural way.  We just did more of the usual: move off leg in various ways, stop (and we played NO stand still game--she is just standing still now!), back (a little heavy and needed to repeat a lot until she got a step, release, repeat--always looking for a light soft response and trying to release on that...easier said than done sometimes!), trot, and LOPE.  I know we have loped but now she can lope around the unfenced arena, both directions and not be in a hurry. PLUS, when I am ready to end to a stop, she can stand still.

The trail is full of boogey men in the form of dry erosion spots that have made ditches that we must walk over.  I ended up dismouting and walking May over one particular ditch 5 times--actually she jumped the first 3 times and then was able to sneak down in and cross over.  Got on an rode her over.  Sounds simple, but it was not.  She has decided that backing is a good way to avoid.  I used my legs and the end of the lead rope on her hip to discourage backward avoidance.  She is sensitive so I am not talking whacking her, but more flagging her hip with the lead rope.  Finally she gave it a try and we went back and forth 4 times, better each time.

BIKES and SCOOTERS. The neighbor kids are just really nice.  They were riding their bike and scooter down the big paved hill by the house and so I talked to them so they would talk back so May would think "oh people on wheelie things" rather than "AHHH horse eating aliens from Roswell!" They were super and actually talked to MAY, telling her how well she was doing.

Finshed by riding up the road.  No cars today so didn't deal with that.

Ride 21 and Ride 8.  (5/12) For both I rode in the round pen.  Tabooli loped there for the first time (no wild behavior) and showed a bit of understanding of "move off the leg".  May was relaxed and loped easily.  She is moving a bit stiffly.  I think it is a combo of her club foot and shoulder injury (where she got a 6 in x 6in T torn in her hide by a pit bull last year). She was better when she first got shoes.... Will keep an eye on it.