horses — Blog — Pick a Beauty

What a week! We have covered a lot of ground and Oliver is coming along just as expected. Our focus centered on exposure to some real-world scenarios and then moving forward with the riding work we started the weeks before.

On Friday, Sean took Bryce and I (and Boone and Oliver) up to Longmont to expose the horses to a trail context and all the things they might meet traveling off property: bikes, runners, strollers, etc. Sean chose the Boulder Fairgrounds, which is close to where Sean used to live and train horses, so he knows the area well. It was a perfect place to explore and to see how the mustangs responded to new and unfamiliar things.

Getting both horses in the trailer was actually pretty uneventful. Boone walked on first and clearly he recalled all the practice they have done preparing for and actually loading. I led Ollie on and he simply followed. It was his second trailer ride ever, the first being his 7-hour ride down here two months ago from South Dakota.

Once at the fairgrounds, we unloaded the horses and started off on the trail. We immediately met other pedestrians and folks on bikes. While interested, both horses continued on with little change in demeanor. Our first “obstacle” was walking under one of the pergolas and through some picnic tables. Boone didn’t blink and Oliver followed suit. We all laughed a few times, perhaps a little relieved, but also an acknowledgment of how the work we have done thus far has paid off.

Down the trail a mile or so there is a waterfall and we took the opportunity to bring the horses to the river to see if we could get them to get their feet in. This took some convincing for both geldings. Though Oliver has been great with the tarp and walking through puddles on at the ranch, he balked a little at the running water and it took about 10 minutes to convince him to go in. Once in, though, he loved it. He drank from the river and splashed a little, eventually getting all 4 feet in. Boone essentially did the same.

We moved on over some bridges and while both horses definitely noticed the first steps onto the bridges, they moved across each one, definitely aware that they were in a new context, but confident. Bicylists passed by, some of whom dismounted, but others didn’t and again the horses were aware but very brave. On our way back to the trailer, we walked down a steeper slope to the water’s edge, which Oliver wasn’t so sure of, but with a little literal prodding (there were sticks in abundance) he leaped down and then back up the bank. A jumper in the making.

I think the walk physically tired us humans out more than the horses, but they were clearly a little mentally worn out when they again loaded in the trailer to head home. It was a great success on all fronts and I think I can speak for Bryce and myself in saying that we feel confident in the trail potential in both Boone and Oliver. They rocked it.

One of my takeaways from the walk was that Oliver is still very pushy and he is learning to move off from pressure, rather than into it. So, the next day when I came down to work on groundwork (which we did outside), my focus was giving him clearer messages in the hopes to increase his sensitivity. He is moving out at the canter better now, especially when I am better positioned, and so I focused on lots of changes of direction. He got away from me once, mainly because I was positioned poorly when asking him to move out and he was headed straight away from me faster than I could pull his head around. Thankfully, Sean was riding in the next ring over and was able to help me catch him. I was able to get him moving again without drama and once we were done working on transitions, Sean demonstrated some exercises to use outside to keep Oliver’s focus. We also worked on leg yields (from the ground) and I was able to get a better handle on how to work with Oliver on moving away from pressure properly in this context.

We were back in the saddle for our next two sessions. I did some groundwork with Oliver in the first one and Sean did a quick ride (Oliver was still super tired!) basically working on walk-trot transitions and taking direction moving around barrels, etc. Today, Sean rode first and got our first canter steps (to the left and right) with Oliver while being ridden. We are taking this skill VERY slowly because Oliver’s balance is still developing and even without a rider he struggles to get the correct lead in the front and back. What ensues can be a bit of a panic on his part and while this is fine for groundwork, it could get messy with a rider. I stood in the middle of the round pen to help move things along and we were able together to get Oliver to transition relatively calmly into the canter for about half a circle and then settle him back into a trot, walk and whoa (and of course some work on the back up at the end).

I rode Oliver today for the longest I have thus far. It wasn’t anything fancy: we walked at the walk in the arena, moving around barrel and basically practicing moving forward and taking direction. It took me a few minutes to settle in and I am admittedly not precise with my signals, but they are coming along. I was able to figure out (with gently shared guidance--ha!) how best to hold and move the reins (my tendency is to pull out instead of up) and how to better use my leg and seat to move him forward. He is still hesitant, but he relaxed a little and the better I got at giving cues, the more his responses improved. Rocket science, I know.

My hope today was to get to the point where I feel comfortable riding Oliver alone to keep up the work Sean and I are doing together during training sessions and I think I’m there. We will have to see how this plays out when I have the opportunity, but I am really excited to have the emerging confidence required. We have basically settled on the fact that because of Oliver’s age, he will be ridden lightly for the next few years, if only to give his body a chance to grow and to develop balance. Thus, my role for a while is going to continue to include a lot of groundwork and as much riding as Ollie can physically handle. We are in it for the long haul with this one and want him to be healthy and sound for years to come.

Our focus this coming week, I think, will be to continue to build on what we have worked on so far with Ollie under saddle: transitions, moving off of the rider’s cues, the back up and doing all these things both inside and in the outdoor arena, but we will see what Sean has in store for us both. I am also going to try to find some way to preserve Ollie’s last front lower baby tooth, which I gently (read persistently) wiggled free from his mouth this week because I could no longer take his snaggle-toothed smile.