Comp Time and Peanut Rolling

This week has been one full of earned Comp Time and because of that, little riding. With my promotion at work, I moved from earning overtime to earning comp time to be used later. My office is short handed and we could end up working up to 5 extra hours a week. I definitely hit 5 this week.

Needless to say, I had horses that needed work. Roscoe especially. One day I could have ridden, but I was feeling sluggish. So we went for a walk in the woods and I had Roscoe jump over some of the trees and barrels. I tried to get pictures, but it was a total failure.

Today I decided to actually ride Roscoe. Well he thought it was too hot to work and he would rather eat his hay bag. He did finally come into the barn with me and get tacked up. Roscoe even picked up the bit on his own. I figured he was ready to work.

In the arena Roscoe decided to act spooky at some differences, so we had to work through that. Then we moved on to just trotting around. He had his normal big trot for a few laps. Then for some reason he figured it was time to roll some peanuts and western jog. His head was so low I worried he would drop and roll. Of course this was the ride I grabbed the fly swisher, dang big horse flies, instead of a whip. So we jogged along and I just kept him going. I did have to flip the swisher around to swat him with the wrist band. Plus while he had his head down, he was not wanting to get off my left leg. Next time I think I need to put the spurs on to encourage him to bend through his middle.

4 years ago DaVinci and 2month old Roscoe

This pony constantly keeps me on my toes. Who knows where he got the idea to roll peanuts. He has never put his head so low under saddle before. Now I have to see if I can lift him up a little so he can get his big trot back. The only other horse that I have ridden who did this is DaVinci. Maybe he learned it from him.

Friday Funny

Thanks everyone for the comments on my last post. Peggy and the horses are doing well. DaVinci and Comrade came away with some weird crud, but the others came away unscathed. Peggy had to be careful the following days to not overheat again.


After that long ride, those four horses definitely had ride time credit. I was going to focus on the two that did not go, but one day I just needed a quite, easy ride. So Rosemary was elected.

Trail Ready, complete with sparkles :)

She is such character and never fails to make me laugh. I came toward her to fly spray and noticed her standing funny. It is amazing how some horses can turn their legs. Her back legs were almost completely pointing to the left.

Left???.... Right???

When we came back from our trail ride, she focused on my lunch bag. I don't know how she knew, but she figured out there was a banana inside that bag. At one point she had her nose inside and only me calling her, stopped her from getting the banana. I told her she had to wait until I ate my part. Then she could have her part of the banana.

Someone found the banana

I have managed to ride Roscoe a couple of times in the last week. He is picking up the bit again when I tack him up, a really good sign. He is not shaking his head or throwing it up at all. His teeth must have been bothering him a lot. Roscoe was happy when I let him go for a trail ride. We are finding our groove again. I think it is time to contact the instructor I know. Roscoe did not feel like posing for pictures though. Ah well next time maybe.

"Hey Mom, I think I see Peggy in the house!"

"911, What is your Emergency?"

Yeah, so that happened...

We made a trip to a huge wooded area that is a wildlife preserve and is used by riders and hikers alike. Mom, Peggy, my sister and I loaded up the stock trailer and headed out about 930. The girls were wearing some cute ear bonnets and we were armed with horse hair swishers. I had a pouch with my phone, a map of the area (such that it is) and treats. The plan was to ride for about and hour and head home.

Fancy one for Dottie

Blingy bead for Rosemary

The trail was a gravel road at first, which the horses were not thrilled with. So we veered right onto a grassier path. All the horses were great, even with the huge horse flies attacking. Dottie showed her hunt background, by taking the lead much to my sister's surprise. We had to tell her to not get too far ahead. They all seemed to think this was snack time too. Especially when we passed corn fields.

As we crossed a water spot, we decided to head back to the trailer. Since we had made what we thought was a loop, it should have been easy to find our way back. Well, an hour or so later we still had no idea where we were at. At one point Dottie was adamant about going a certain way. We did not listen to her and looking back I seriously wonder if she knew the right way. After traveling one way and not finding anything but unending trees, we turned around and started back tracking. Peggy started to have issues with the heat and the worry in us all grew. Things could get really bad. At 100pm, she hit the wall and had to dismount. She laid on the ground in the shade, trying to cool down. It was clear she was not going to be able to get out of the woods on her own.
So I made the call to 911. Did not think I would hear that typical 911 response when I left home today. We had no water, two phones (mine on low battery) and no idea where we were. I was able to say that we were by the power lines just past a water crossing. This trail system had NO MARKERS. Seriously it was annoying. We were now in the waiting mode. Of course I lost connection with 911 and it half an hour to reconnect. The operator said "there are a lot of people looking for you." Oh yay, how embarrassing. Soon after that, we heard a truck. Rescue had arrived.
They were able to give Peggy water and pour it on her head to cool her down. Then fire station SUV arrived and an ATV. The horses just stared at all the people. Eventually, it was decided that Peggy would ride in the EMS vehicle and we would ride out. They gave us directions, which by the way, we were headed the right way. That also meant we had to pony Comrade and get back on the horses. My sister is shorter than all of us and she had to get on 16h Dottie. Peggy gave her a leg up, but it was an ugly process. Mom ended up using the truck to get back on DaVinci since her bad knee could not handle a ground mount. I was determined to get up on Rosemary, but needed someone to hold the off stirrup. I called a cute fireman over (that was a bonus factor to the whole episode), and asked him to hold the stirrup. Que the blank look. Oh, just hold the foot thing. He figured it out and I, whew, made the mount with tired legs.

I held Comrade and we headed out. Quickly I realized Comrade was going to be a pain to pony. He refused to travel by Rosemary's shoulder. With him behind her, he somehow managed to get the reins caught under her tail. I had to drop the reins. My sister was able to get them. Problem solved... or not. Dottie refused to walk with Comrade and my sister is not experienced enough to handle the drama. So Mom ended up with him. Again he was dragging. No way could we go the rest of the way with him like that. Mom was able to undo his reins and hook it to his noseband on one end and the other was eventually hooked to DaVinci's grab strap.
We found our way with tired ponies who were seriously over the gravel. As time ticked away we did not stop worrying until we finally saw some familiar sights. Never have I been happier to see a downed tree. An hour after Peggy left us, we saw her waiting at the gate with the firemen. Lights still flashing on their SUV. With the end in sight, we decided to get off and walk the horses the rest of the way.

Ah the good before the crazy time

Peggy said when she arrived there was 2 county police cars, 1 state police car, EMS, and the truck and trailer that carried the ATV. All their lights were flashing. She also said before they found us, they were 15 minutes away from calling in the helicopter. Fortunately, we stopped in the best location and the land manager knew how to get to us when I described where we were. Peggy chatted with someone who uses the trails often and he said without an app on his phone he would get lost. So at least we were not alone. The firemen who stayed with her kept asking whether we should have returned by now. I don't think they could understand just how long it takes to walk back with one horse being ponied.
We finally headed home just after 3pm. I think we were in the saddle for about 4 hours. The horses all got a liniment rub down and a meal. All the humans had to drink a ton of water. I have to say I can appreciate an event course even more now. I love directionals and clear maps. At least we all made it back in okay condition and the horses dealt with everything like pros. I think we will all feel it tomorrow though.

Finding My Inner Wet Towel

I battle with finding the confidence in my riding to develop Roscoe correctly. Since he has come home, he is so full of energy. And that energy is showing under saddle. My first couple rides, I did not have the right bridle. He was a bit "up." I seriously worried about screwing him up. So we kept things slow.

When I got his bridle in workable condition, we tried again. This time he was still energetic, but less flippy with his head. Roscoe was still not thrilled with his bit though. So the next ride I changed him from the D ring two piece to the D ring three piece revolver bit. He definitely was happier. We walked around working on his focus. This was a tough job for him since Larry was working on the arena. The tractor was in there, jumps all in the middle and the drag in a different spot. He eventually figured out Larry was not doing anything all that interesting and that he could get to work. Except he wanted to trot and he did a bit of a hop too. Did I mention all his energy?

Now my nerves kick in. Is he going to explode? Can I handle what he will give? Do I know the right answer? What the hell am I doing training a 4 year old by myself? Will I ever get us back to where we were before he left?

We continued to walk around as I fought my demons. I remembered when Winston was being trained. His rider said she had to act like a wet towel. She needed to be a quiet, but solid presence on his back that moved with him. A wet towel does not flap or react. So I decided I needed to find my inner wet towel. My pony wanted to trot and I needed to let him. I had to just be a wet towel on his back. It took a few more laps around before I convinced myself I could pull it off.

After all my worries, he gave me about a half an arena worth of really energetic trot before settling into his working trot. I swear he was like "See, no problem." My pony is awesome to put up with me. Some days I think he is training me. We kept trotting and we both enjoyed the release of energy. And as if I was not happy enough with him, Roscoe started reaching down, stretching. All I could think was that there was proof I was not screwing up my pony.

Hopefully, during my next ride the wet towel will only be needed to wipe my brow after another great ride. Plus all the horses had a dental visit so Roscoe should be more comfortable with his mouth.
It is tough to realize I am the one holding Roscoe back, but in the long run I know going slow won't be bad. Right now it is more difficult because I see other Cobs his age doing so much. His half sister who we just brought east when we dropped him off in May, already looks great under saddle. Someday, we will have our moment to shine.

Blog Hop: Time Quality and Quantity

I have long wanted to ask these questions about the time we work our horses. As people we have expectations for the amount of time we commit to work. For me I am expected to work 40 hours a week. A normal day is 8 hours. Whether I am sitting by a door greeting people (very rare) or busting butt completing an audit, I get the same pay.
Time is a factor with riding, but the quality and quantity can be controlled by us. For some a quality ride could involve barrels and seconds of time and for others it could be a ride of endurance lasting days.

So here are the questions:
Work for my horse is defined as ______________

How many days does your horse work?

Do you feel you have to ride your horse a certain length of time to consider it work?

Do you feel you can still get quality work in a small quantity of time?

For my horses, work is defined as anytime I ask them a question and require an answer. It could be mental, clicker training or desensitization or physical, ridden, driven or in hand. That definition really came about with our purchase of Winston. We could not ride him, so defining work as being ridden was tossed out. Two years of ground work and desensitization has made all the difference. The broad definition of work was reinforced with Roscoe's birth. He has worked since day one. When I asked him to pick up his foot for me, that was work for a foal. So when you see one of my horses' names on our calendar getting credit for working, that could be as simple as a giving the kids a pony ride to as difficult as a jumping exercise or intense dressage session.

In a perfect world, I would love my horses to work at least 3 times a week. Well, reality is more like once a week. With 6 workable horses, it is tough. The squeaky wheel, ie trouble makers, tend to get the focus. I wish I had someone to ride with, so the horses could get more work time. I am lucky to have horses that retain knowledge, but also have older horses who do not retain muscle that well.

Growing up, I thought I had to ride at least 30 minutes for my horse to have worked. That was the length of time for a private lesson. As my riding progressed, my instructor knew that if she felt Barry and I had achieved the lesson, she could end the lesson before our allotted time. That extra time would be added to another lesson. Being flexible with the quantity of time worked has been the best tool I have dealing with the different personalities. Some horses do better with a couple short sessions versus one long session. My early years with Comrade showed a gradual increase in work time as his enjoyment in working developed. The best part is that the times we have asked the horses to work much longer periods,like hunter paces, they have been able to handle it.

I definitely think quality work can be achieved in a small quantity of time. Just think about a horse show. Our horses give us, hopefully, their best in sometimes just minutes. Schooling and learning do need more time, but depending on the horse a concept learned should not be worked too much at first. My instructor always said to end on a positive note, so if my horse did the movement correctly, don't push it too much more. Some horses will question whether they are right or not and may change their answer if constantly asked to do the same movement. The Cobs are funny because they may not get a concept the first ride, but will think about it and come back better the next ride.

Getting Readjusted

Hot and humid continue to plague our area, but we learn to live with sweat dripping. The horses get that lovely white dried sweat that is oh so attractive. When they are dry, grooming is normal, but if they are  sweaty then we go to the great summer grooming tool: the hose. Roscoe was looking rough and sweaty so I gave him a shower before bringing him into the barn. As I worked on braiding his Shoo Fly tag back into his mane, I came to the decision to utilize the heat and work Roscoe. His reintroduction to the herd went smoothly, so it was time to see how he would be under saddle.

"Let's Go!"

Unfortunately his bridle did not fair well not seeing the light of day for two months and is not usable. I put on DaVinci's bridle thinking it would work for now. Well Roscoe has a wide head, but it is still not quite long enough. It was workable though so we headed to the arena. I shut the gate and hopped on. He turned and asked "Where's my Sugar?" Oh yeah, he was back. Roscoe set off with that huge, swinging walk and I just sighed. The bridle was okay for walking, but nothing more. But just walking was showing me my pony missed working. He was listening and moving off my leg better than he has before. Not sure where he learned that. I was pretty impressed and now know he has a ton of energy to burn. As I started to melt and began thinking about ending, he would move on as if saying "Uh no way, I am not ready to end the ride." My second ride went about the same, only we did a bit of trotting on straight sides. When I halted him to get off, he walked forward after I dropped my stirrups. He never does that. I hopped off and told him we had to be done. Then to pacify him, I had him trot with me. I did a little circle and he did a bigger one around me both ways. He is definitely ready for some serious work. Now I just have to be ready to handle it. I just found out I got a higher position at work, which will mean a little more pay. Hopefully, it will be enough to start some lessons.
While Roscoe is getting readjusted to being back at home, Comrade, Rosemary and Griffyn were literally getting readjusted by the chiropractor. They were over due and I could tell Rosemary was having some issues. Plus Comrade has had this mystery lameness. He has a head bob at the trot, but just barely, and is working great. The best we can see is it is in the left hind.

Griffyn, red at front, patrolling the barn

Griffyn, our corgi, has really maintained well and has so much less atrophy in his right leg. Even my Dad raves about how much better he is acting. Due to the severity of his injuries, he will never be 100%, but he is definitely in less pain.

Pony Ride Duty, such a pretty Cob

Rosemary did need readjustment in her neck and pelvis. I think she has a long standing issue that we will always have to deal with, but the chiropractor said she was still better than the first time. Mom said Rosemary practically fell asleep during the work. Can't wait to see how she feels now.
I asked Peggy if they found anything on Comrade that might explain the lameness. She said "Maybe." The question is whether the tilted pelvis (up instead of flat), is the cause of the lameness or the result of it. So that will be another wait and see.

One ride is NEVER enough, so Dottie was up

The chiropractor, who is a friend too, looked at the other horses and answered a long had question of Mom's. Dottie always carries her neck low and has some hard bumps. We massage and stretch, which helps her, but it is never gone. The chiropractor confirmed it is arthritis and Dottie most likely injured it in the past. Not too surprising since she used to be a fox hunter. I wish I could afford to get everyone a chiropractic visit since the results are so good. Ah well, we do what we can.

Start As You Mean To Go

That was the the thought Peggy and I came to as we drove home with Roscoe in the trailer yesterday. Of course the debate has been on going for the last month. How would Roscoe be when he came home? Would he still be okay with Comrade? How do we reintroduce him? Well we had two long drives to think about it.
The drive there included a passenger for the trailer. Regalia is a Half Welsh mare that is for sale to a special home.

I met her the morning we left because I had to head home before her arrival. An almost 4hr job interview had burned me out. She is a sweetheart and a bit aloof with strangers. I really liked how she is put together and she has a long forelock. Peggy and I hoped she would warm up to us as the drive went along. Turned out Regalia decided to worry us on the drive. She would not eat the wet hay cubes or drink any water. Peggy even went to the grocery store to buy dark syrup and sweet corn to try and tempt her. No such luck. Every stop we gave her the options, but she continued to refuse. The plus side was that she had a cool travel day and stayed dry. By the second stop I pinched her neck and it responded quickly, so I knew she was still hydrated.
Of course by the second stop the truck was making squealing noises. Seriously, we can't make this trip without technical difficulties. Turned out it was a leaky power steering issue. Between the truck and trying to tempt Regalia, we traveled for 13 hours. By that point, it was a matter of checking in with the foals while Lisa backed the trailer up to the barn to unload Regalia and load Roscoe's stuff. Roscoe was in a new turnout and was focused on the arrival of another mare. We left him to his strutting and went to the house.
It is amazing how time flies when you are talking horses. Peggy bugged out to go to bed since she was the driver. When Lisa asked it I wanted to help put the horses away, it was already 12am. Roscoe was acting the crazy stud due to Regalia and had to have his top door closed. Then we had to herd the mares and foals to the field he came out of. It was cool that the mares continue to remember me and let me play with their babies. They also remember the cookies I tend to keep in my pocket :)
These pictures were taken by Lisa back in June during our visit.

Back at the house we managed to talk another 2 hours, definitely a late night. I managed to get up on time and except for an unexpected distraction I had to text Lisa about, we left close to the planned time. We found a little auto shop to top off the power steering and picked up Peggy's coffee. Just having Roscoe on the trailer, we had a weight lift. He was back. Lisa took awesome care of him, but it just is so much better when he is where he is suppose to be.

The other thing that was a relief was that he ate and drank when we stopped. He also cleaned up the corn that Regalia left behind. Peggy gave him another one later on and he brought me the husk to hold while he plucked bits off of it. Yep our boy was back.

Yum, Corn

He was not 100% sure he was going home and decided to reserve  his judgement until he actually saw home. You know we could be bringing him somewhere else and dropping him again. So at the last stop we hashed out where he would go once we arrived. We decided to take advantage of his travel tiredness and start as we mean to go on and turn him out with Comrade. Larry, bless him, got all the horses shifted so that when we pulled up he could go right out.

Roscoe was so happy to be home. I could barely hold him as we approached the gate. Comrade waited and Roscoe went right at him. We all held our breathe as we waited to see the outcome. They squealed, but it was all normal. Roscoe did nothing out of the ordinary and Comrade was not worried. They trotted around, checking out the place. Rosemary was not happy because we separated the girls completely and she could not check in with him. That was for another day.
So turnout is back to normal, he even was by the girls today. Of course the hot wire had to be plugged in again. Now we will have to see how the riding goes. That was the only thing that did not work out while he was away. With the weather and life in general, Jen was not able to ride Roscoe at all. While he gained some butt muscles, he did lose some back muscle. Time to get him back in work.

Oh and the stabilizer system was totally awesome. The mountain turns were easier to navigate and the horses shifting was muted. The truck stopped and started so much smoother.