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May. 12th, 2007 07:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickHad a nice outing with the horse last night. Trailer tire still (yes, still) leaks, though I've been told that this will be fixed over the weekend. I'm not holding my breath, particularly not since I put air in it last night and it will *have* air in it today for the... preroundup or schooling show or whatever the hell is going on today.
Nick (that's the unofficial name of the IRH. The official, on-the-papers name of the IRH is GF Nile Kaia. I do not like the name GF Nile Kaia, which is largely why I call the IRH Nick.) has decided that she doesn't really want to be caught and drug out for riding every other day or so. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the catching problem, but I'll think of something. Failure is not an option.
I tied her to the trailer for saddling because I'm tired of chasing her around in circles. She should stand the hell still. She *does* tie, so I figured I'd tie her and tack up while she was tied. Horse, who ties well, laid back into the halter. Yeowch! I was, at the time, three feet away, so yo, not my fault, horsie. Because she ties (and because she is tied up with a marine kernmantle rope suitable for sailboats that would support the horse if I chose to hang her up by her head), she stepped forward to let the pressure off and figured that maybe she could stand still for the saddling. She's been saddled about a hundred times and she should know how it goes by now. This dancing around thing -- no. I don't have time for it.
Also, last night we got into it over standing to be bridled. She had been throwing her head up and taking like two steps backward when I went to bridle her. I'd been ignoring it because I can stay with her and reach her head no matter how high she throws it. (I am not rough or forceful about the bridling, the bridle and bit fit her comfortably, and she does know how she's supposed to behave.) Last night, in the throwing-of-the-head, she nearly brained me and I got mad. Enough of this bullshit. I clocked her. (She was surprised -- I don't hit her very often.) Then I went to put the bridle on her again. She threw her head up again. I clocked her again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Every time I went to bridle her, she threw her head, and then I hit her. Finally she didn't thow her head, which was a good thing because my hand was getting sore from hitting her. At that point, I bridled her, petted her, and told her she was a good girl.
It's amazing, the holes in training that I'm finding out about when I'm riding the horse three times a week. All kinds of education going on in these parts, for sure. Horse needs to be easier to tack up. I've made a note. (Interestingly, she's very good about the booties. I can put on and take off the booties without any bullshit.)
Additionally, I tried out the pull-back-until-horse-stops-and-backs-two-steps for when the horse breaks gait. That worked amazingly well. Nick is forward which means she has a lot of gas pedal and not a whole lot of brakes. We will be walking along and she will decide (on her own) to trot. She's not allowed to do that. I am the decider, there. So, I pull back (gradually increasing) until she walks, stops, backs two steps, and then we proceed at a walk again. It took three tries for her to get it. She didn't break gait the rest of the ride. (This skill will need a LOT of repeats before it will work at a "real" ride with other horses a-hellin down the trail in front of her. The herd mentality is a very compelling thing for horses.)
Mostly, though, we went down the trail, polite, ears up and stepping out, like her IQ was normal. Buh?
She trots A LOT faster going downhill. Seriously. I've never ridden a horse that accellerated like that on the downhills. It's not that she's out of balance and just skittering down ass over tin cup, either. She feels quite solid and steady, just cruises downhill at a hell of a clip. She does well going uphill, very forward, very powerful, but the speed she's got on the downhills is freaking unreal.
We had a good ride, fights notwithstanding. We did a couple of splits of lengthy (for where we are now in conditioning) trotting -- six minutes, four minutes, four, four, and six. These were broken up with equal stretches of walking in between. (Total ride time is between an hour and a half and two hours.) We also walk the first half mile and the last half mile of every ride for warmup/cooldown. I have got to get a surveyor wheel and measure off some distances so that Cass and I can have an idea of what speed we are going beyond "trotting". There are a lot of speeds in trotting, from about 5 to 10 mph, and I need a better handle on what we're doing out there.
Anyway, I'll be out of town ALL WEEKEND and missing out on LOVELY RIDING WEATHER for assorted social engagements. Not much in the way of updates for ya'll, but I'll be home Sunday night. Right now, I'm off to shower, pack, and get my covered dish ready to drag to the first social engagement.
Nick (that's the unofficial name of the IRH. The official, on-the-papers name of the IRH is GF Nile Kaia. I do not like the name GF Nile Kaia, which is largely why I call the IRH Nick.) has decided that she doesn't really want to be caught and drug out for riding every other day or so. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the catching problem, but I'll think of something. Failure is not an option.
I tied her to the trailer for saddling because I'm tired of chasing her around in circles. She should stand the hell still. She *does* tie, so I figured I'd tie her and tack up while she was tied. Horse, who ties well, laid back into the halter. Yeowch! I was, at the time, three feet away, so yo, not my fault, horsie. Because she ties (and because she is tied up with a marine kernmantle rope suitable for sailboats that would support the horse if I chose to hang her up by her head), she stepped forward to let the pressure off and figured that maybe she could stand still for the saddling. She's been saddled about a hundred times and she should know how it goes by now. This dancing around thing -- no. I don't have time for it.
Also, last night we got into it over standing to be bridled. She had been throwing her head up and taking like two steps backward when I went to bridle her. I'd been ignoring it because I can stay with her and reach her head no matter how high she throws it. (I am not rough or forceful about the bridling, the bridle and bit fit her comfortably, and she does know how she's supposed to behave.) Last night, in the throwing-of-the-head, she nearly brained me and I got mad. Enough of this bullshit. I clocked her. (She was surprised -- I don't hit her very often.) Then I went to put the bridle on her again. She threw her head up again. I clocked her again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Every time I went to bridle her, she threw her head, and then I hit her. Finally she didn't thow her head, which was a good thing because my hand was getting sore from hitting her. At that point, I bridled her, petted her, and told her she was a good girl.
It's amazing, the holes in training that I'm finding out about when I'm riding the horse three times a week. All kinds of education going on in these parts, for sure. Horse needs to be easier to tack up. I've made a note. (Interestingly, she's very good about the booties. I can put on and take off the booties without any bullshit.)
Additionally, I tried out the pull-back-until-horse-stops-and-backs-two-steps for when the horse breaks gait. That worked amazingly well. Nick is forward which means she has a lot of gas pedal and not a whole lot of brakes. We will be walking along and she will decide (on her own) to trot. She's not allowed to do that. I am the decider, there. So, I pull back (gradually increasing) until she walks, stops, backs two steps, and then we proceed at a walk again. It took three tries for her to get it. She didn't break gait the rest of the ride. (This skill will need a LOT of repeats before it will work at a "real" ride with other horses a-hellin down the trail in front of her. The herd mentality is a very compelling thing for horses.)
Mostly, though, we went down the trail, polite, ears up and stepping out, like her IQ was normal. Buh?
She trots A LOT faster going downhill. Seriously. I've never ridden a horse that accellerated like that on the downhills. It's not that she's out of balance and just skittering down ass over tin cup, either. She feels quite solid and steady, just cruises downhill at a hell of a clip. She does well going uphill, very forward, very powerful, but the speed she's got on the downhills is freaking unreal.
We had a good ride, fights notwithstanding. We did a couple of splits of lengthy (for where we are now in conditioning) trotting -- six minutes, four minutes, four, four, and six. These were broken up with equal stretches of walking in between. (Total ride time is between an hour and a half and two hours.) We also walk the first half mile and the last half mile of every ride for warmup/cooldown. I have got to get a surveyor wheel and measure off some distances so that Cass and I can have an idea of what speed we are going beyond "trotting". There are a lot of speeds in trotting, from about 5 to 10 mph, and I need a better handle on what we're doing out there.
Anyway, I'll be out of town ALL WEEKEND and missing out on LOVELY RIDING WEATHER for assorted social engagements. Not much in the way of updates for ya'll, but I'll be home Sunday night. Right now, I'm off to shower, pack, and get my covered dish ready to drag to the first social engagement.
