What a fine Mother’s day!

At 9:24 am we finally headed out to Cerillos—finally! (MY fault and we were late, but our friends, Jim and Terri, were expecting us to be late, so it was ok....? Hmm. It is probably not good if your friends expect you to be late). I had put the pack saddle on Risa and was not satisfied with the fit (even though we did fitting yesterday, today it seemed too tight), so I poked a few new holes and got it looking somewhat better, thus we were late.

Cerillos is a State Park http://www.cerrilloshills.org/ near the town of…drum roll…Cerillos! South of Santa Fe. It is a badlands-type setting and had hundreds of active mining claims (copper, silver, galena, turquoise) on it in the late 1800’s. It now has a nice set of trails for horses, people and bikes, along with interpretive signs and some interesting views of the some of the mines.

The wild flowers were out (April and May showers did bring what they promised) and we saw arrangements of purple verbena, red Indian paint brush and white apache plume together. There were yellow chocolate flowers with dark centers and bright yellow perky sue’s. The yellow wild zinnias hug the ground in little clumps while the striking white and pinkish easter daisies are low growing but seem to prefer the solitary existence. The thistles were just about to open up. The bloomers there are just a little ahead of the flora in my neighborhood. It is more open and maybe just a little lower in elevation.

The temperature was in the 70’s and there was a pleasant breeze. I wore a long-sleeved shirt (as always—my fight against future skin cancer—but what about my vitamin D levels??) and had Risa “pack” my jacket on the Decker. I never needed the jacket. (I left off the panniers for today’s training ride). Penny led both the group and Risa.  Risa ponied behind—sort of behind. As the day progressed, we switched from Risa behind Penny to Risa behind Cometa and back again.

Except for the one stretch where Risa decided the cinch ring was REALLY annoying and she was trying to bite it, kick it and get the whole rig off by rubbing on the 4-wing salt bushes along the trail, she was calm and stayed in line. The cinch ring problem was that she started to get a little sweaty and things were itching. Fortunately, after I checked everything and saw that nothing was pinching, she recovered her composure!

It was a fine ride and great company with Jim and Terri.

Jim and I  stopped for an ice cream treat.  We ate that when we got home, and watched a movie on TV. Then I went out to ride May and Tabooli......

May was first and I saddled up and got on. No ground work at all. My plan was to just head out on the trail, but then I thought I should do a little arena work. She did well, but is still a little fussy with the bit and not consistently light and responsive. Not that she should be perfect at this point, but still something to keep focused on improving.
She was pretty easy under me and when that is the case, riding is like a Zen thing and not really work.

We did the usual basics with lots of cue and release on the turns to work on lightness. I have been using a more upward pressure on the bit (lift up with my hands instead of sideways or down) after reading through some info from a clinic my friend Kathleen went to, and I am very happy with the lighter feel for most of the horses. It is not my goal to build a horse with an elevated head carriage, but this method, which can build to that, does not seem to be causing that at all in the youngsters. In fact, it seems to be helping them find and hold their natural head carriage.

We went out on the trail. The rocky uphill stretch (100 feet/ 50 feet? ...short) is hard for May. The work is hard, the footing is tricky and thus it is mentally challenging. She didn’t want to go at first. We rode a little loop and I checked out the wild flowers.

Perky sue, verbena, Fendler bush which has big 4-petalled white flowers, some penstemons just getting close to blooming, a yellow low growing mustard, lots of non-native weedy mustards in yellow, white and purple. The purple has a sharp smell that I find hard to describe. And the lovely primroses that look like some much toilet paper strewn all over the fields—big white flowers!

May didn’t like the For Sale sign, but she had no problem with the old culvert or the big bulldozer. She didn’t cry once and seemed to enjoy the trail. She also, on cue, went up to a telephone pole and let me tear off a sign for a lost dog. (The dog was reunited with her owner). She finished with the gate and did that in one squiggly swoop—we never lost the rope but it could have been a bit smoother.

Tabooli. Highlights! I rode in the arena and he put his head way down in the sand, suggesting that he was either going to roll or fling it up and have a bucking spree. (ok ok so he hasn’t had any bucking sprees..I am still cautious). So, I asked him to bring up his head. No response. I pulled. No response. I pulled hard and tapped him with my legs. HUGE response. Oops. He popped up, bucked twice (little bucks) and ran off. I asked him to turn and not much seemed to be registering, so I figured we were just going to go on a bit of an adventure. He actually only went about 40 feet (by now you know my estimation abilities are suspect)—but really he didn’t go far. He didn’t leave the arena area, if you include the parking area as part of the arena area. (There are fences on 2 sides and a embankment on one side. The other side is open). He has a really smooth lope, too.

Insight: He is not a bad or mean horse at all, so he actually was not in trouble. He wants to cooperate, but his threshold for panic is funny. He will have little reaction to many things, but every once in a while, he overreacts. It is spontaneous, not planned, and his breathing gets jerky, so it is clear he just lost it for a minute. I believe the key will be, of course repetition, and NOT over reacting myself. Pushing him toward his limits while providing reassurance that he is really going to be safe with me, not get in big trouble, as long as he is trying.

We went right back to the arena and kept on riding. Walk, trot etc. Finished with the …gate! Opened, dropped, went through, worked to get back and closed it.


5/10-the wind is HOWLING outside and as I write this I am watching the driveway periodically get up and blow away. Unless that is the arena blowing up here….could be both. Not sure I want to go out there and ride. Seems like a round pen day to me.

Wind died down and I rode all four in the round pen where it is somewhat sheltered. Of note:
May (ride 19) loped and was very relaxed (stood still when ever I asked! ) and light in everything.

Penny’s western pleasure lope is improving and her head set is more natural. Her reining spins are slow but light.

Risa’s lope is super sucky and needs a ton of work—she falls on her forehand and then is all out of whack. More sideways, and leg yielding and pivots and stop and back and try agains helped.

And Tabooli (ride 6) didn’t seem to have enough gas in the tank to manage a lope, so I guess I will have to light the fumes tomorrow to spark him up! But he is setting his butt down when I say “ho” with almost no rein pressure at all. Can we say “not in a hurry”?