What a week

I am posting this on MONDAY as I got busy Friday and never finished this post. Do I really ever finish anything anymore???Uck.

Yes, it is Friday and yes, I am VERY glad. Not that I worked all that hard this week. I was off on Wednesday....if only every work week was four days. Oh, and with the same amount of $$ coming in. It's my blog...I can fantasize if I want to.

Had some pretty great horse time this week. To begin with, my fence was completed last Friday. So what do we do Friday night? Bring the horses home for a visit of course. We brought them home and introduced them to their new deluxe space. I don't think I have mentioned this before but Rio and Doc are not turned out together where we board. When the ladies are in heat, Doc will oblige and try to mount if he can. This is most likely due to his late in life gelding. He is never mean or agressive about it, but some of our barn mates took offense that their mares were potentially getting more then they are...(oooh, did I really say that?) So now when he is turned out, he has to be by himself. I mention this bit of background to give you an idea as to what transpired almost immediately when we put Rio and Doc together. Rio shamelessly threw herself at Doc and he proceeded to do what nature programmed him to do. We were actually a bit amused but then realized the neighbors with kids might not be. Since there really wasn't much we could do other than separate them, we let it be and hoped things would slow down.

Its not like the horses went at it ALL the time. No, they would graze a little, heat up a little, graze a little...you get the point. Just when I thought they were over it...boom, there was Doc up in the air yet again. Horse porn in its finest form...sigh. I just hoped the neighbors weren't at their windows at that particular time. What did they expect when they moved to the country?

We kept the horses home until Monday. We got the chance to ride around the neighborhood some on Friday. No major incidents or mishaps.

On Saturday, we joined the Rocky Fork Hunt Club for a Hunter Pace at Longhill Farm. We decided to join the "moderate" speed group, thinking if we jogged most of the way we would be okay. It was a gorgeous day and a tremendous turnout. There were over 100 riders. Our friends, (real fox hunters) joined us as well. They went in the fast group. Here is Rio waiting to get all dressed up for our ride.

There were 22 teams in our "moderate" group. The optimum time was 30 or 40 minutes to run the entire course..doesn't really matter which since we were SO far off the time. We mostly trotted but cantered along the way as well. Apparently still not fast enough. You know we spend all of our time trying to slow our horses down when we are training...its tough to speed them up for this type of thing. Rio's lope is about as "fast" as Doc's current trot. We are thinking we need to be in the "slow" group next pace. Also, many of the other horses are long-legged, fast movers..not like our slow-going quarter horses.

I think we came in last...sigh.

Karen and Holly on the other hand, came in second in the fast group.

Here they are after the ride. Holly is on the left and Karen on the right.

The next pace with this group--Rocky Fork Hunt Club in on September 13th. More information is available on their website.

On Monday, we took a lesson with Terry Myers. Terry is a well known Western trainer who has trained many, many winning horses. His place is located in Ostrander--about 20 minutes or so from us. Brenda and I got there at 7pm and didn't leave until after 9pm.

Rio was a bit hopped up as there were scary cows with big horns out in the fields. Terry said next time we come, he will put the cows in the arena with Rio and that will get her used to them in no time. Oh, and I won't be on her for that exercise!

It was not one of our better evenings horse behavior-wise. At least not for me. Rio did not listen very well. Terry told me I was to "hyper" and was signaling her to go faster. He encouraged me to slow my breathing and to breath "out loud". Now, really I don't think I am hyper in the least...scared maybe but not hyper. Maybe I am a bit type A, although not compared to some type A's I know. Brenda says maybe he can tell something about a person right when he first meets them. hum....

He DID point out that I was in her mouth too much (duh) and gave me pointers on pulling up instead of back. VERY helpful. I have been really struggling with the whole mouth thing and would agree that I use my reins way too much. He said she was rather "sticky"...meaning she was leaning on my leg and was not as responsive to me as she should be. Well, yeah...she was in a terrible mood that night.

Brenda had the opposite problem as Doc didn't want to go much. She really had to keep alot of leg on him to keep him trotting. Terry gave her some good information and pointers too. He focuses alot on your seat and how the rider is using her aids. I really didn't listen much to what he was telling her since I was sort of mad at Rio, but it seemed as if it was helping. We definitely plan on going back for more lessons. Terry also spends time training the rider at first rather than the horse. This will be very helpful as we continue to progress. Frankly, I have no idea if I am a bad rider or a halfway decent one. I just know I stay on most of the time. Maybe I look really stupid doing it...how would you know unless you take some lessons?

Just when you think we could not possibly cram any more horse stuff into one week, we had a clinic on Wednesday with Kerry Kuhn. An all day clinic focused on riding and horse behavior with a very, very good clinician...heaven! We first met Kerry during the Best of America ride at Smoke Rise last year. We then met up with him again for another BOABH ride. This one was at Midwest Trail Ride in Indiana. I posted about Brenda's great experience working with Kerry during that time. Brenda had just bought Doc and was having all sorts of problems on the trail. Particularly with crossing any type of water. Kerry lives in Kansas, but was going to be in Ohio for another clinic so we arranged to have him come to our boarding barn to conduct a clinic. There were four clinic participants in addition to us.

We spent the morning working on ground work. Mostly lunging and keeping the horses out of our space. The participants were all levels of riders. I would say that Brenda and I were the most experienced (well, we have been to the most clinics for sure). People had different things they needed to work on and different goals for the day. Most of what I worked on was staying out of Rio's mouth and working on more response to my legs.

It was a day well spent. We started at 10am and did not finish until well after 5pm. Kerry has a very direct manner and spent a ton of time working with each individual. Kathy from Smoke Rise helped out and provided great training along the way. She also has a kind manner and a way with horses. We are going to ride with her again at Smoke Rise in October.

Kerry travels the country with the Best of America by Horseback group. You can see the show on RFD-TV. Kerry also conducts a variety of clinics and participates in horse expos. This week he is in Illinois for a colt starting contest that is part of the Illinois Horse Fest. Best of luck, Kerry!

Having fun at the clinic! Notice Laura's footwear!

A preview of our new website feature

Hopefully you know that I in addition to this blog, I run www.centralohiohorse.com. I am in the process of adding a new feature to the site. This new page will be a one stop spot for trail information in and around Central Ohio. I have had the best intentions to create this page for along time but other obligations have gotten in the way. Well, yesterday when Brenda and I wanted to go someplace different to ride, I had to wade through five different sites to find the information we were looking for. We ended up going to Carriage Hill Park outside of Dayton, but more on that later.
So I started a map that has all the places (public) to ride. These place include Metroparks, State Parks, State Forests and anyplace else that is open to public riding. Future enhancements to the page will include trail descriptions along with our own editorial assessments. We are hoping that people will also provide us with their opinions, their experiences and reviews. This information will help all trail riders make better informed decisions when looking for a new place to ride.
Here is a preview of the map. I'll continue to make improvements and have it posted to the site sometime soon.

CommunityWalk Map - Ohio Bridle Trails

Always Waitin' for the Weekend

Seems like anymore, I spend a good amount of time wishing the week would go faster. My weekdays are filled with work, laundry, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, football practices, dr's appointments, and soon enough, kids homework, school activities and football games. You may notice something missing.....horse stuff! The daydreaming about horse stuff is about the best I can do.
Now, don't get me wrong. I like my job...really. It's just that I would rather be outside traipsing down the trail then sitting in the office under the florescent lights. The fact that suffering through the work day inside then allows for me to enjoy the things I want to when I am not here, is very front of mind. I try not to forget that I am truly blessed with many things. It's just that is is so darn nice out today....sigh.
We have some good stuff planned for the weekend. We will be attending the Rocky Fork Hunt Club Hunter Pace on Saturday. A couple of friends of ours belong to the Hunt Club and will be going as well. We haven't decided if we will go in the moderate or slow group (the scenic cruisers!). You run in teams of 2-3 and try and get as close to the pre-set optimal time as possible. Part of the challenge is that you don't know the optimal time until you find out eh results in the end. Thinking we might try the moderate but not sure what the creek crossings may do to our time. Maybe we'll just go with the slow group this time out to be on the safe side. Whichever we choose, it should be fun.
We have tentative plans to do some training with Terry Myers in Ostrander on Sunday. Terry has trained world champion horses and still trains and conducts clinics. He has an obstacle course set up at his farm, too. He gave a clinic during the National Cowboy Day celebration at Rod's Western Palace last month. He talked alot about rider positioning and balance. I am hoping that he can give me some pointers on my seat and on our control/collection at faster gaits. (specifically the lope). Rio is coming along nicely in the trot but we fall apart some at the lope. Have I mentioned that I have almost no steering capability at the lope when I ride w/one hand? I am hoping to learn how to use my aids, including legs and seat, more effectively.
The fence we are building at home is nearly complete. Over 1000 feet of Electrobraid fencing. It is basically the whole perimeter of my back two acres...the field we never mowed. We spaced the posts 25 feet apart and also put in a 12 foot gate. This is going to make it so nice when we want to bring the horses home for a weekend. It won't solve the issue of what to do with them if a storm pops up since I don't have the $$ for a run-in yet. I guess there is always the garage if it gets too bad. There is a big tree they can stand under for shelter if need be.

Cow Continuation

I ended my last post rather abruptly because 1. I got tired of typing and 2. I had to cook dinner (ugh). I thought I would take up where I left off last and that is with the cows being brought in...

Everytime we circled the end of the arena that was open to the pastures (where the herd was), Rio looked at it suspiciously and tried to avoid the opening as much as possible. Instead of joining most of the brave others in bringing the cows in, we decided to hang back at the other end of the arena. Rio typically does not like cows in a crowd and especially thinks horned cows in a crowd are to be avoided at all costs.

The first phase was to only bring one cow in at a time. This did not seem to bother Rio (or Doc for that matter) very much. Lynn taught us how to move the cow around and how to keep the horses on the cow's tail in order to move it and stay with it. The hard part was keeping the rein hand very loose and low. I tend to pull in her mouth too much and not use my legs effectively. When you watch good cow horses and riders, you can see that the rider really trusts the horse to go after the cow. In many cases, the rider is just holding on while the horse does the hard stuff.

Doc took to this very well. Seems like his "cow pony" ancestry really shows up when the cows are around. He chased the cow and did'nt seem bothered. He also seemed like he knew what to do. Sometimes all a horse needs is a job to make them very responsive and energetic.

Rio did okay too. It was fun (and a bit of work) to work the cow. You really had to concentrate and try to keep the horse focused.

We worked the individual cows and then brought the herd in so we could learn a little cutting. We first practiced loping around and around the herd. This helped the horses become accustomed to the cows moving around and gave them a way to move their feet. Rio was not as enthused about going into the herd to try and cut out a cow. This was definetly not her favorite part of the day. As usual though, she didn't spook or anything. She just got a bit more goofy than normal and tried to avoid the moving cows.

Toward the end of the day, we worked with a remote controlled, mechanical cow. This was FUN. The "cow" is attached to a line that runs the length of one of the walls of the arena. The cow can be stopped and turned around by the remote. I found this very challenging but a great way to teach the horse what to do. Rio really figured out what to do about 1/2 way through and was rolling back and f0llowing the cow like she had done it all her life toward the end.

I can't wait for our next chance to work with cattle. Lynn at Smoke Rise ran a very nice clinic. We learned quite a bit and had the chance to work on things we needed work on. It was a small group so we got lots of attention and riding pointers. Lynn taught us how to use our spurs the right way and helped us understand a bit more about leg pressure and balance. Unfortunately, Brenda and I had to leave at 4pm as I had to get back to get the kids to football practice. Otherwise, I think we would have stayed until midnight!

Horses in the garage and cow fun

We brought the horses home for the night on Monday since we were planning on leaving very early on Tuesday to drive down to Smoke Rise for our clinic. We have a temporary corral that the horses hang out in since neither Brenda nor I have a barn or fence at this point. Since we have no shelter for them, we try to avoid bad weather days.

Around 2am, I woke up to flashes of lightning. It was like someone was flicking a light off and on outside of my window. The lightning was frequent and bright. I thought "hmm, maybe its just lightning in the distance, it will probably pass". As the minutes ticked by the lightning became more frequent and the thunder started to boom. I couldn't get back to sleep. I kept wondering if the horses were freaking out. I knew Brenda would be up and would have checked on them. I didn't want to leave Brenda on her own to have to deal with two horses if the weather really got bad and if the horses really got bothered. So, I got up and called.

The horses were fine. Just standing together in the corner apparently oblivious to the inclement weather. As I was downstairs, the wind picked up and the rain started to come down. I decided to go over to Brenda's to get the horses out of the weather. So, in my pajamas and looking quite glamorous, I drove over there to figure out how to get them into shelter.

Our only option for shelter was the garage. Brenda and I ran down to where the horses were. They looked at us like "what the heck are you crazy, hooded women doing here in the middle of the night? Leave us alone, we are sleeping". We grabbed the lead ropes and lead the horses up to the garage. Rio looked at the garage floor and mats rather suspiciously at first but then walked in quietly. Doc followed behind.

So picture two wet women in various sleeping fashions, a bedraggled, sleepy husband and two confused horses standing in a garage with a storm raging outside at 2:30 in the morning. It was quite surreal to say the least. We gave the horses some hay. They munched happily like they always hang out in a garage in the middle of the night. I have to say, I was very proud of them. They were not bothered in the least and really took it all in stride.

We hung out in the garage until the storm passed. When we thought it was safe, we put them back out in the corral. I drove home and went back to bed.

Bright and early the next day (as in 6:30am!), we got ready to leave for our two hour trip to Smoke Rise. Brenda's alarm didn't go off so she had to spend the whole day unshowered. She still looked glamorous and honestly, no worse for the wear. We were both certain that the night in the garage had been a dream.

Brenda and I joined our friend Sue and her pal Tracy, for a cow clinic at Smoke Rise Ranch in Glouster (near the Hocking Hills). It was Sue's birthday. Lynn from Smoke Rise ran our clinic. There were a couple of other Smoke Rise folks in our clinic as well. It rained the whole trip down. We were discouraged with the weather and hoped it would clear up. It ended up being somewhat cloudy most of the day. We spent the day in the indoor, which is huge has very nice footing.

We started in the morning by working on turning on the forehand, stopping, backing up and roll backs. After we were warmed up, the cows were brought in.