As you may know by now, we are in training for Craig Cameron’s Extreme Cowboy Race that will be held in April during the Equine Affaire here in Columbus. If you haven’t already, read my story on our website (http://www.centralohiohorse.com/trail_tales2.html) for an overview of the different things we are working on and about the race in general.
Cows and Cantering
This weekend we attended a clinic. I am not going to publish the name of the clinic at this time. It was not a good clinic for me, but may have been for others that attended. I believe as with most things, what works for you and your horse is very individual and personal. What may work for one person, may not work for another. There were some positives and “not so positives” that I will share with you here.
Positives:
1. I got to ride all day! (always a positive on a relatively nice weather day in January).
2. I had the opportunity to canter in a much larger arena. As a result, Rio was drifting outward each time we tried to make smaller canter circles. This was particularly bad cutting across the arena. We don’t have this issue in our home arena since so far I have stuck to going around the outside. In fact, I have been more focused on keeping her from dropping her inside shoulder. To keep her from doing this, I have been applying pressure w/my outside leg and rein. When making the smaller circles, this inadvertently causes her to move away from my leg and “drift” outward. As a result, I have learned to use my outside leg more effectively and to essentially remove my inside leg.
3. Our first exposure to cows was pretty much a non-event. Rio was very attentive when the 10-12 cows entered the arena but she did not react very strongly other than trying to back away from the cows when asked to move forward. I was able to get her very close to the single cow several times.
4. I received some 1-1 advice and direction that was helpful.
5. I met some very nice horse people!

Not so positive:
1. Rio’s energy level was low, low, low (more about that below)
2. The clinic itself wasn’t very well done compared to others we have attended. It was a bit unorganized. Beginning and ending times were not clear.
3. The clinician certainly knew how to ride and is probably quite good 1-1, but was not good in a group setting. It was nearly impossible to hear him most of the time. He did not have a microphone.
4. The clinic was less of a clinic and more of one big group lesson.
5. We didn’t work on all of the items that were advertised.

Flying lead changes, spins and spurs (oh my!)
Sunday, January 13,2008
I decided to try spurs as another aid, given that Rio seems to be ignoring my legs more and more. I also thought using them might make her responses “crisper”. She did not seem to mind them and really was more responsive and attentive. I was nervous about using them since I have not ridden in them before. I don’t think I’ll need to jab her with the spurs. She’ll do fine just being reminded they are there from time to time.
Tim, the owner of our barn, trains horses and has been around the quarter horse world for a while. I asked him is he would give me a lesson on lead changes. I wasn’t sure if Rio had ever been trained on flying lead changes. I wasn’t sure how to even find out! I also wanted some help on spins, but I first wanted to check to see how much work might be in front of me on lead changes.
Tim had me lope a couple of circles going to the left. After 2-3, he had me make smaller circles by cutting the arena in half. My work from the clinic the day before really helped me as I need to push with my outside leg to keep her in the circle. After 2-3 smaller lope circles, he told me to come about midway into the circle (in the middle of the arena) and then change all cues—in other words, move pressure from the outside leg to the inside leg and inside rein to outside rein. This is essentially reversing the cues I was using for the left lead. I couldn’t believe it……she did it! Boom! She switched from the left to the right lead without missing a beat.
To ensure this wasn’t some kind of strange fluke, we did it again 4-5 times going different directions.
We worked on spins for a while. She has the concept down. I need to refine my cues. I am still working on finding the exact “button” for the leg cue. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Where my leg is positioned relative to the cinch seems to make a huge difference.

Oh, and the spurs helped on all counts I am sure!

Hard Keeper?
I have continued to struggle with keeping weight on Rio. Her energy level continues to decrease and her ribs are clearly visible even through her shaggy winter coat. Over the last month, we have added rice bran and changed her hay to a better blend (richer hay). We are also going to feed more hay throughout the day. It’s been cold here and I am sure the combination of the cold and additional work is really taking it out of her. I felt so bad for her last night as she is clearly not herself and just seems to be wasting away.
Several months ago, we heard an equine nutritionist talk about feeding horses that have various activity levels. She advocates using beet pulp as an addition to a horse’s diet. You can read more about beet pulp and its advantages in these two articles. www.equussource.com/articles/nutrition/102706_feedingbeetpulp.jsp

http://www.horsechannel.com/horse-health/horse-beet-pulp-13003.aspx?cm_sp=InternalClicks-_-RelatedArticles-_-horse-health/horse-beet-pulp-13003

In addition to more hay in her diet, I am going to switch to Triple Crown Complete feed for a while. We will give this to her in place of the sweet feed she is getting today. We’ll introduce it gradually in order for her digestive system to adjust. I am also planning on blanketing her during cold days/nights so she doesn’t have to use as much energy to stay warm. I have also decided to lay off the training schedule until February. This will give her over two weeks to put some weight back on and hopefully get her energy level back up.
That doesn’t mean I won’t go out and ride her. We can do light work, like bending and yielding to my leg. There are a couple of other desensitizing activities we can work on as well.