Keep Calm and Ride On

This past weekend we got a chance to do a little trail riding without the kids.  DH, MIL and I got into camp Saturday afternoon and quickly saddled up to hit the trails.

We couldn't have asked for a better weekend.  The temperatures were just right and the horses were wonderful.

DH and MIL on the trail

My favorite view (at the lookout)

Cat taking a "Cat" nap

Belle was quite the character

We heard a group of riders coming down the trail so we mounted up and got ready to head out.  One rider told us to stop so she could take our picture.  I think this is one of the few we have of all three of us together.

DH, Me and MIL

Cat seemed fairly content with Sis in the lead and Belle behind her.  Sis wan't thrilled about being in the lead as Cat would "bump" her in the butt everytime she started to slow down.  Cat is a fast walker so she got bumped a lot.

MIL and Sissy

One of my favorite things about Brushy is all of the water crossings.  The horses seem to enjoy them as well.

MIL and Sis

Cat and I

 Sunday we met up with some friends and headed out for the spillway.  This is one of my favorite rides.  Jerry and Julie took the lead so Sis happily took up the rear.

MIL and Sissy

The spillway wasn't nearly as deep as it normally is but it was sill belly deep in areas.

Julie and Jerry at the spillway (and Belle)

Jerry and Hollywood

Headed into the spillway

Cat really isn't THAT short.  There is a drop off in the water.

Heading back to camp (Julie and Jerry)

Jerry and Julie headed down the big hill in front of me.

DH and MIL behind me on the big hill.

We had a great time.  I think the horses were ready to come home.

Belle and Sis seem tired.

Time to relax

Time for some down time in life to enjoy the things I like best - my family & my ponies!

A year of first

This has been a year of first, not only for Cat and I, but also for Shari.  This year I decided to let both of them attend their first parade.

Early this week we did a little preparation homework to make sure we were all ready.  I purchased this "curtain" and the wind was so kind as to help animate it for us.

I'm hoping I can make a PVC curtain holder so I can move this to where we can ride underneath it, but for now this will do.

Cat quickly learned this scary object was a source of rest and seemed to be magically drawn to it.  :)

We borrowed my mom's flag from the front porch to see how the horses would react.  I wasn't too worried about Sis and Abby as both of them have carried flags in the past.  I was a little taken back when Cat was the least worried about the flag.

She was to the point she really didn't care what I did to her as long as she got to rest next to the pretty blue stuff.

If you notice, her eyes are closed and she is pretty relaxed (if not sleeping).

Do you like her new forelock?

Time for the parade!

Shari and Janet patiently waiting for the parade to start.

Cat checking out her surroundings

Someone wasn't supposed to be that far ahead!

Oh yeah, I have candy to throw!

My pretty girl.

Janet and Sis

Shari and Abby

All-in-all the horses were great!  We couldn't have asked for a better day.  Stay tuned for our next adventure................

First (Schooling) Show

I decided to take Cat to her first schooling show on Saturday.  MIL and Shari were planning on showing so I figured it would be good to get Cat out and about in a new environment.  I knew she wasn't ready to show so my intention was to just walk her around and let her see all of the different sights, sounds and horses.

When we got to the show grounds and unloaded she was dripping with sweat.  The temps were high, the humidity was heavy and apparently the air flow in the trailer wasn't that great.  Once unloaded she looked around a bit but wasn't too worried about her surroundings.  I only had a half an hour to ride prior to the show starting so I opted to skip my gw and went straight into the arena.

She felt great!  She had a little pep in her step but nothing I wouldn't anticipate from her first time out.  She wanted to be with Sis so I made sure I kept her on the opposite side of the arena.  When it came time for the show to start I decided she was calm enough so I went ahead and entered her in a few classes.

Our first class was walk/trot.  I knew going in she would be too fast and would have too high of a headset but figured at least I didn't have to worry about other horses blowing past me.  She was a bit nervous going in but it didn't take her long to relax.  At the end she even "almost" started to get a headset.  We ended up placing 5th.

Areas I need to work on: 

- going clockwise she wanted to move with her hips off of the rail.  I'm fairly certain I created this problem by trying to get her hips in to get her right lead departure.  

- speed control

Our second class was Ranch Horse Pleasure.  This was a pattern class so I figured it didn't matter how bad we messed up the pattern, we were getting exposure to the ring.

Below is the pattern:

Walking over the poles was no big deal although Cat did give them the once over as if to say "hey you weren't here earlier".  I was dreading the side pass to the right as I have just recently (last week) started to teach Cat to side pass on the fence.  I had yet to side pass her off of the fence and going to the right is her not so good direction.  With a little bit of practice before our class I was thrilled with her side pass!

After the side pass was the 360.  This is also something we just started working on and I hadn't worked on it from a standstill.  Again, she did awesome!  She took her left lead like a champ (no surprise there for me).  When it came time to switch leads it wasn't happening! lol This again came as no surprise as I have been having issues getting her to pick up her right lead.  Her stop was dead on however her back was a bit crooked.  We placed 5th in this class.

Areas I need to work on:

- Lead departures

- Backing straight

Our next class was Horsemanship.  She wasn't sure what to do standing in line while the other horses walked off one at a time but she wasn't bad.  Her stop was not as good as it could have been and her pivot fell short of her pivot in the ranch horse class.  I wasn't horribly upset as again, we've just started working on the pivots.  Her lead departure (a left lead) was spot on! Her stop was sub par but her back was straighter.  We placed 5th in this class however there were only 5 entries.

Areas I need to work on:

- My own performance since this class is based on the rider not the horse

After the "performance" classes I "ran" her in barrels and poles for shits and giggles.  No, we didn't place in these classes, but I was very happy with her steering.  She didn't get all worked up and moved well through the poles.

Between classes she stood on the outside of the rail and watched the horses go by.  In the beginning it was pretty exciting and she'd get nervous when Sis would leave to go into her classes.  It didn't take her long for her lazy side to kick in and for her to take it as an opportunity to snooze even when Sis left.

Ready to head home for the night.

Looking over at Sis.  Wondering if she's ready to go home too.

She doesn't look all that bad in a short mane.

Dressage

dres·sage  

/drəˈsäZH/

Noun The art of riding and training a horse in a manner that develops obedience, flexibility, and balance. Last weekend I took the plunge and had my first dressage lesson with a German riding instructor from Missouri named Heidi. Saturday I was able to watch Heidi work with a horse and a few of her students before having my own lesson.  It was nice to see how she interacted with her students.  On Saturday I rode Dexter.  Dexter was originality trained in Western Pleasure so Heidi thought I would be more familiar with his gaits.

Online with Dexter

Heidi started me off online with Dexter.  This was nice as it gave Heidi a chance to assess my riding skills (or lack there of) and gave me a chance to get used to Dexter without worrying about steering.  After going through all of the gaits online and having Heidi give me some pointers on how to correct my position she finally turned us loose for a little offline work prior to ending the session.

Sunday I was able to ride Freely.  Freely is a "Premium" Oldenburg mare that was exported from Germany 4 years ago.  Freely is a 3rd level dressage mare and was quite the change after riding Dexter!  

Heidi and Freely

Again we started online so I could get used to Freely's movements.  Freely felt quite a bit different from Dexter and very different from my little ponies!  After working online Heidi again turned me loose and tried to teach me how to do leg yields.

The saddle wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  It actually felt similar to my CA saddle w/o all of the extra leather.  

Trailer Loading

After I returned from trail riding I decided to see if I could get Duke to load in the trailer.  I had the trailer backed up into a "dip" so it didn't sit very high off of the ground.  I didn't expect him to be bad, he has a pretty good temperament, but I never expected him to load this well!

Sorry for all of the clucking and poor camera skills.  I'm not the best at running a camera and a horse at the same time.

I'm hoping to start hauling Duke off property a little bit so here in the next few weeks he's going to have to learn how to get in with the trailer on level ground.  This means he's going to have a pretty high step up and down!

Ridin, Ridin, Ridin by the River!

The weather was perfect last weekend for a ride so a small group of "trail sisters" met up at Walnut Woods for a ride along the Raccoon River.

Some of the trails were still covered in snow.

Some more then others.

Some trails had no snow and were perfect for riding!

She must' have been listening to me as her ears were perked forward most of the ride.

Sporting her new CA headstall.

And her new saddle! (she looks embarrassed. lol)

 We only rode for an hour but it was a great hour spent in the saddle.  I think Lucy enjoyed getting out and about and the work Trish has been doing on her seemed to make her move better.

New Year - New Goals

The New Year always seems to bring new goals.  This year my goal is to ride at least once every month.  I know that doesn't sound like much but in my sometimes hectic world that can be a lofty goal.

I was able to get Lucy out for a New Years Eve ride.

Lu and I pulled the kids around on the sled for a while and then headed down the road.

The wind was brisk and I was ready to be done by the time we returned to the barn.

New Years day it was Cat's turn.

I didn't take her out in the road but instead played in the snow drifts in the pasture.

I asked Shari to come down and get some pictures and video for me since someone *cough* John *cough* is always complaining but this is what I found on the camera.

Myofascial Release

My-o-what?  Yep, that is what I was saying too.  A while back Duke got caught up in the temporary fence so I decided to call a chiropractor to take a look at him.  I have used chiropractors in the past however lately when I've heard people talking about them the name Trish kept coming up.  After talking to some friends I finally got a number for Trish and scheduled an appointment.

Trish isn't your typical "crack'em" chiropractor.  She works more on soft tissue manipulations and what she calls myofascial release or MFR.  I must say when she was working on Duke I wasn't overly impressed as it looked like she was just touching Duke softly and not really manipulating anything.  Oh how I was wrong!

Prior to the fence incident Duke's back legs were nice and straight but after the incident his back right had started to toe out.  He seemed lethargic and just wasn't Duke.  I mentioned the leg to Trish and before she left it was straight again!  Trish worked on Duke 3 times and he's back to his normal ornery self.

I now have Trish working on Lucy.  I've always had issues w/Lucy's back right leg but since she isn't blatantly lame the vets don't seem to think it is a big deal.  Within the first session Lucy was walking better, more freely in the back end then I've ever seen her walk.  I'm so excited to see how Lucy will perform next year now that she is feeling better.

Here is some information about MFR.

Myofascial release is a manual therapy technique that is used to elongate foreshortened connective tissue and muscle. Fascia is another term for the connective tissue of the body that forms a three-dimensional system of support, cushion, and movement. The fascial system forms a web from head to hoof surrounding every muscle, bone, organ, blood vessel, nerve, and cell. Actually, muscle is made up of 98% connective tissue with biochemicals attached that produce a shortening of the connective tissue strands (contraction). When the horse is acutely injured or sustains repeated trauma from training, the fascial system tightens as a protective response.
Over time this can lead to poor muscular biomechanics, altered structural alignment, decreased strength and endurance, and produce overuse muscular compensations. Resultant is decreased performance and functional capacity of the horse. By elongating the fascial system we can restore the efficiency of this system. Therefore, restoring the natural abilities of coordination, strength, and power to the horse. During treatment the therapist identifies areas of hardness or tenderness and applies a gentle pressure into the tissue were the restriction is felt. This is held for 90-120 seconds following the releases through the connective tissue barriers. We have had great success with this treatment approach especially when utilized with other treatment techniques such as joint mobilization, therapeutic exercise programs, and modalities. The combination of these techniques are beneficial in creating pain free movement for the horse.

Here are some before/after videos of a horse I found on youtube (I have no clue who this horse is) that received treatment using MFR.

Here is the same horse after MRF.

Lucy isn't where this horse is YET but she's sure feeling better then she did.  She's striding out further then she ever has (just not quite as much as I'd like).

I get to have Trish work on me tomorrow so I'm excited to "feel" what Lucy feels.