I stayed on!!

Interesting title of this post, no?

Well, let's talk about that. Today, a Poker Ride was held. A Poker Ride is a type of event that is done either on foot, in car, or on horse, or other type of conveyance for fun. Basically you are give a playing card in a sealed envelope at different stops along a preset route and when you finish the course, you compile your cards together to create a poker hand, hopefully a good one. The person who gets the best hand wins a prize, and it's pretty much all by luck, since you don't get to see your cards until the very end. Since this poker ride was on horseback, the envelopes containing the cards were put into large bags hung from trees, so you didn't have to get off and get back on your horse.

So this morning, after grabbing coffee and a bagel, I and my barn mates headed off to this poker ride. It was on a pretty wooded trail that at some points followed a creek, and for a little bit, followed a paved bike path. I didn't get a ton of pictures, and I'll tell you why shortly.

After registration and number assignment, (I was assigned number 13....an ominous hint to turn around and go home maybe? hmmm) we tacked up and Altivo seemed very nervous. There was a road near the staging area that he didn't like, and he decided to back up in fear for a few moments. I calmed him, and after riding him around for a few minutes, he seemed ok, so we set out on the trail.

Oh! Also for funsies, along certain points of the trail, judged obstacles were set up that you could opt to take your horse through for points, and the person with the highest points would win a prize.

Now, the first bag of cards was tacked on a tree on a narrow spot on the trail, and at this point, dear Altivo decided this was not where he wanted to be. He began to back up, and not having enough time to see what was behind us, I decided to duck into his neck and turtle myself as best I could. I asked him to move forward, and he refused. I dug my heels into him, and he stood still, having been stopped by a large tree, where his butt was firmly pressed. One of my trailmates helped pull him out of the brush, and while he was still somewhat upset, he carried on, and we met up with the first obstacle, which was about 50 plastic milk jugs, the one gallon size.
The object was to walk through the milk jugs calmly and without fuss. He was panicking about something, so I fought with him for a few moments, and once I got his focus back, we walked through the milk jugs perfectly.
He likes plowing through things.

The next trail obstacle came up- a truck with a small boombox on the top of it, playing a tape of vicious sounding dogs barking.
We walked by it, like a boss.

The trail was peaceful and becoming prettier by the moment, when we saw our next hurdle. The trail led us down into a dry creek bed, over which passed a road, held up by a concrete and steel bridge. A plain, sturdy overpass to you and I.
A creaky, unsafe, untested, and certainly horse-eating monster of a contraption that should be avoided at all costs to Altivo.
He stopped and looked at the bridge with concern.

Altivo: Whoa! What the....??!?!?!?
Me: It's a bridge. We just go down there and go under it. So go.
Altivo: Hell no! It'll eat me alive! How do I know I'll come out the other side?
Me: It's just a bridge, really. Let's stand here and watch it. See? It doesn't move. We'll be fine.
Altivo: Um, I'm almost certain that it's evil! Evil bridge!! It moved!! It's gonna kill us!!!
Me: No it won't! Now, listen here!
Altivo: EVIL!! RUN AWAY!!!!!!

And he did. Run. Although first he reared up, gave a half buck, and then turned around, and took off the opposite direction of the bridge. Now, I've been taught, that when your horse spooks, you do what's called an emergency one rein stop. Here's a link to a video I found that will help explain it.
I tried that, and couldn't reach forward for enough rein to pull on one side- I wasn't prepared for his spook like I should have been. Also, I was riding him in his bosal, which I now know, wasn't giving me enough control to make his head (and focus) swing around to me.
So off he goes, with me as an unwilling copilot, and I'm frightened, sure, but most of all, during the whole thing, I was ANGRY. How dare this horse not trust me to make sure he's not being eaten by a bridge? How dare he think I would put him into a situation like that? As I was hanging on for dear life for a tour through waist high sticker bushes, I reached up to grab the bridle at his poll. (the poll is the top of his head, sort of between his ears but a teeny bit back)
I was grinding out choice profanity at him through clenched teeth as he ran, and I yanked on one side of the reins with my left hand, my right struggling to hold on to his mane and bridle. Finally, he slowed, and gave another buck. His decrease in speed gave me enough time to grab more rein and yank, which caused my right foot to fall out of the stirrup, which made me angrier. I grabbed enough for him to realize he had to stop, and he finally halted. I sat there in the saddle for a second, and what do you know? That jerk of a horse, who, 30 seconds prior had been SO worried about a murderous road fixture, started to eat the weeds he was now standing in.
Of course.
I took this moment to collect as much thought in my brain as I could, and my inner voice of reason said, ok, now get off while you can and get back to the trail, you aren't going to get him under that bridge with you on him. I dismounted, apparently very gracefully, as some onlookers noted, and walked him back to the trail, through the sticker bushes and weeds.
My trail companions, by this time, realized I was NOT on the other side of the bridge, and were waiting for me with concern. Did I fall off, everyone wanted to know? Was I injured? No fall, and the only thing injured was my confidence in my mount.

We proceeded on foot, under the bridge, which he was still not happy about, but he did it, and up the other side. A short ways ahead, we found a log that served as a good mounting block, and I got back on, not completely out of determination to "get back on the horse", but also because I didn't fancy walking the rest of the course on foot. My hands were shaking so hard I had a hard time mounting, but I did it with one of my buddies holding the beast.
I was still shaking when we arrived at the next obstacle, a water task. The challenge was to walk into a small creek, then out of it. I opted not to participate, still trying to calm my nerves.
We found more bags of cards, and the next obstacle was a large log that your horse needed to hop over, or in Altivo's case, walk over calmly. No problemo! We had to cross a busy road, over yellow handicap ramps, on pavement, and he did well.
The last obstacle was a large tarp on the ground, which he also walked calmly over.

In fact, after his freak out, he was pretty good on the trail, and I was hyper-vigilant about everything, even planning escape routes off him if he took off again. 

So what happened?

Well, for starters, he hasn't been on a trail in about a year. The last ride I went on, he was having lameness issues, so he couldn't go, and the last ride before this one today, I already had family plans, and I couldn't go. So trail time for either one of us isn't what it could have been. Also, I have always been confident that he's "bomb proof", which as I should have known, really isn't a guarantee for anything. Yes, I think, in my limited scope of things, he is pretty laid back, and not a lot fazes him, but I can't assume that he'll feel that way about everything in the world, especially since that's an unfair expecation to place on him, a prey animal. It also gives me false assurance, which can leave me unprepared for emergencies.

1: Not enough trail time.
2: Should have had him in a bit because of reason 1.
3: Not thinking ahead, assuming he'd be ok with anything thrown at him.

What did I do right?

For starters, I wore a helmet. Next, I tried to keep a clear head when he was running, and while it took me a moment, I executed a one rein stop, which stopped him. (Or maybe the realization that he was standing in a field of food. Let's go with the one rein stop idea.) Finally, I got back on him. I didn't let my nerves and new fear stop me from enjoying the rest of the ride.

So that was my day. I'm now mentally exhausted, and I'm waiting for my muscles to kick in and start complaining. I'm considering sending him to trail school, where someone with more guts and experience will ride him around trails till he's better about scary things.

Oh, and the kicker? After we got back and I untacked him, he ate lunch like nothing had ever tried to eat him.

Silly sweaty horse.

So how y'all doin?

So my sister has a niece. For her birthday, my sister and I decided to take her niece on a trail ride. She doesn't get to ride too much, so this was an event that she way waaaay excited about. (ok, I was disgustingly stoked too!) It would've been better on my horse, but hey, trail rides is trail rides, am I right?

We went to Copper Valley Trail Company, in a tiny town called Copperopolis. Yes, it's a real town!! After going over basic safety precautions, we were each assigned a horse or mule. After learning that I have a Percheron that I ride regularly, I was assigned a half Draft horse named Ocho. I'm not really sure that there was a reason for it, other than I like tall Drafties, since I'm sure that any horse on their string was completely dead broke in a windchime factory on a rainy day during an earthquake. No matter, I was just excited to be out on a horse. We rode for around an hour up and down hills, across streams and through fields. It was so relaxing, it just made me wish I were out on Altivo, on our pace and terms.

The trail boss was knowledgeable and friendly, and I have to say, if I were needing to take visitors out on a trail ride, they'd be my first choice.


So I went on a short vacation, as I'm sure you noticed....you noticed, right? Anyway, during my absence, we visited South Carolina, and I ended up not riding for TWO whole weeks!! Thankfully, I asked one of the girls at the barn to ride my boy for me while I was gone.
You know, I think I read somewhere about a study of horses and their long term memory, and apparently it seemed that they DO remember people from their early stages of life, so I figured two weeks shouldn't fade the beast's memory that much.
Ok, ok, so it didn't. But my first day back to the barn, I decided just hopping on and going for a ride probably wasn't the smartest idea. I decided to round pen him
That's where you put the horse in a round fenced area, and, using a really long whip, your hands, and voice, you control which direction he runs, how fast, and when he can stop. It's not necessarily for exercise, but more for the psychological control of it. In the horse world, people say it teaches the horse to respect your cues and directions.
In Altivo's world, it's a major inconvenience, and usually he just plugs through my direction, as if to say, "Okay, stoopid human, I'll let you think you're doing something meaningful here, if only to get you to be done sooner."
However, this time he threw a few kicks as soon as I asked him to canter, which are usually interpreted as a temper tantrum. After his fits, he settled down and seemed fine.
I ordered new reins from Handmade Homestead, which is where his Bosal came from, that fancy nose piece that directs his head without a bit in his mouth. They are a perfect fit, which is good, since we are going on a trail ride this weekend!! Whooooooohooooo!!!
I'll bring pictures back, I promise!

That's it for now, but I'll return soon to tell you the Tale of the Tiniest Saddle Ever. I leave you with a picture of my niece, her friend, and yours truly in the far back!

And I said, HEAL!!

Large white horse was on stall rest. Large white....well, with the weather change, and with his shedding, I've noticed some more black spots appearing. Now, I know that "flea bitten" is less desirable in the Percheron world than "dappling", and here's a pictorial difference:

 Flea Bitten, above, is like white with little black dots, some faint, some strong.

Dapple, or Dappling, is like a gray or black background with white patches.

Altivo seems to be changing his spots again, and it's interesting to see the metamorphosis. So I've been saying, "Large White Horse" and "Large Gray Horse", but really, maybe I'll just switch to "Large Horse".
Large Horse was on stall rest, he played with his Jolly Ball for a day and then kicked it into a corner. Now it gets moved around when it's in the way and that's about all. I made sure to hand walk him every day, as prescribed, and he never limped. Secretly, I think it was his way to get out closer to all of the tall grass out in the back field.
After his handwalking was successful, we put him into the round pen and had him go at a trot briefly, to see if limping came back. None!!!
Yaay!!!
So, I am allowed to ride him, at a walk only, for the next couple weeks, and then we'll start having him trot while bearing weight. Hopefully he will be well enough for our next trail ride.

Speaking of trail rides, I went on a loaner horse last weekend!!! We did the same loop that Altivo and I did last year, only I went on Chinook. He's a Tennessee Walker, so he's gaited, and way forward. Gaited means that he has another type of movement other than walk, trot, and canter. When a horse is "forward", it means he likes to go. Altivo is NOT forward. Altivo is backward. Ok, so backward isn't a real horse term but I don't care.

I found out that the loop we did was about 6 miles, which is just perfect. I'd like to be able to go further, but I'm too out of shape still. Soon, though.
Being a forward horse, all I needed to do was nudge him ever so slightly with my leg and he'd start off at a quick pace, and being gaited means when he trotted, he actually gaited, and you would just need to stay put. No posting, where you go up and down to be a shock absorber, you just sit. 
We meandered through the woods and into the field, where one of the other girls I was with wanted to canter. We all ended up cantering for the fun of it, and
A: I cantered for the first time!
B: I stayed on!
C: I had fun!

I missed my own horse, but it was good experience, just like when I go on Tanna, and any experience is helpful.

Oh! And this Friday night, I'm going to be attending Gymkhana Practice. Gymkhana is a timed event competition, where you do certain things on your horse, get timed and judged, and have fun. I'll have more on that later!

We're famous!! Well, maybe just a little...

Big, huge, massive thanks to the Copper Gazette online-

I was asked to write up a small piece for their online news site. Copperopolis (yes, that's a real town!), is one of the many towns in the Sierra foothills of California- and their news site has lots of local community info, with fun little stories thrown in.
And I'm in it today!! Wooooooo!!!!

I wrote a completely stand alone piece for them, since I felt like I'd be cheating if I used a blog post. So I figured I'd sum up the past 8 months of horse ownership in an open letter to Altivo. Not that he cares, but if you do, here's the link to my article.. 

BigGreenGirl goes Editorial!

Also, last weekend, I went on another trail ride on the OtherHorse. We had a trail ride scheduled for a big group, but the ick is going around, and our rig driver came down sick the morning we were supposed to go. So no ride on the dirty marshmallow horse...which was sad for me, since the trails are really calling to me, and there really is a difference in being on your horse as opposed to someone else's. He knows my signals, I know his body language, and there's just a little more communication there that you and an occasional loaner horse just don't have.


Now, don't take this the wrong way, since Tanna is a great horse- she's very forgiving of a green rider, has a big heart, is very personable, and has a smooth trot and canter...we'll come back to that in a bit.

It's very different grooming and tacking up an OtherHorse, especially this one- she's a Quarter Horse, and I'm used to a Percheron, and that's just one tiny (ok, BIG) difference. Well, their butts are probably the same size.
Oh! So the canter....well, there we were, Tanna and I following HorseFriend and her horse, Freeman. (Kudos to anyone who can guess what breed he is!)

HF says she wants to trot up a hill, and knowing Tanna will follow her, she made sure I was comfortable with it. Trotting isn't scary, so I agreed, and off we went. In her effort to keep up, Tanna switched to a canter, and whoosh, we were flying!! For about 2 seconds, then I slowed her down, scared out of my wits!! Ok, maybe not that bad, but wow, that was a shocker!
HF heard hoofbeats behind her, slowed her horse to turn and look at us, and off flew her sunglasses, inches from the horse's hoof! She hopped off to grab them, and we realized that we were standing in an open field, no rocks or high points in sight...and we ride her horses with nothing but bareback pads. Silly, silly trail riders.

But wait! We put our two horses together, I flexed my foot, and she stepped up, using it as a mounting block. Ta Da!!! One rider up, thank you very much!

So, all in all, it was a good time, and hopefully in a few weeks, I'll be able to take Altivo up and we can go trail crazy!

Until next time!

Cheating again!

Dear Altivo:

I know, I cheated on you again. But I NEVER said I wouldn't! And besides, you probably don't care anyway. Although on our last ride, you had more energy than I've ever seen, almost more than I care to have in a horse, and it was certainly fun to turn you out into the arena and watch you buck and fart your way to a gallop, which you held for 3 laps around!!!
But still, the opportunity to ride trails was too enticing for me, even if you couldn't be there with me.
You've never met Tanna, but she is a little like you. She's friendly and calm, and has a big butt. She's a quarter horse though, so she's way smaller. The ground isn't so far away when I'm sitting on her.
I took a mean face picture, channeling my inner jockey, pretending I'm astride Zenyatta at the finish line- so you can see how much fun we had.  I promise I'll bring you another of my leftover candy canes to make up for this.
I'll be back to inconvenience your life soon, Big Lug!

Love, BGG

In Altivo Update World-

I have one of the barn girls ride him about once a week to keep him focused and make him work harder than I ride him, since I'm so green we don't exactly gallop about the countryside if you know what I mean..  ;)
Well, she reported that he had tons of energy on their last ride, and when I hopped aboard on Friday, he just couldn't stand still!! I never lunge him before we ride since he's so laid back as it is, so I just mounted and started poking around, and he was just amped! I gave him just a little bit of leg and a "let's go" and he started walking in high gear...so I asked for a bit more, and poof! The fastest trot he's ever given me, so fast that posting got difficult, so I sat for it....and I let him go until I felt him start to slow, so I pulled him down into a walk. But wow!! Then after our ride, I put him into the arena so we could do a little groundwork, and he charged around 3 times, so I told him to head the other way, which he did for 2 more laps!!! A thundering Percheron is an awe filled sight indeed!
The only change I can think of is that we've been doing our horsie yoga and he just had bodywork done last weekend.
What a difference! I'm going to visit him tonight or tomorrow night, so I'll see how his energy level is at that point. Ya know, when your horse is healthy, life is GOOD!

YES!!!

That's what I said on Saturday afternoon...at least in my head. Ok, so here's what we've been up to:

Altivo and I had a lesson last week with our instructor about how a horse can possibly be in a horse trailer without breaking it. (in case you don't remember, here's the blog posting explaining that...) So, my teacher brought one of the lesson horses with us to be a trailer buddy. When horses are riding in a trailer, some of them can be more comfortable if they are with a friend, so we made sure to put the trailer buddy in first, then loaded Altivo up.
He went in without fussing, but wasn't too excited about letting the divider close near him. After some encouragement, he allowed it to close and lock, and we stood outside the trailer to make sure there wouldn't be any anxiety attacks on the inside.

He made it that far! We then drove around in a large circle, and ended up where we started. We stopped, we listened. We got out, we listened. All quiet. We opened the trailer, and unloaded him. No issue. Now, this was important, since I had secured a slot in that very same trailer for the impending Saturday- a trail ride at a lake about 20 minutes away. A. Trail. Ride!!!!!!! Trail ride!!!! ahem. Trail ride.

Saturday came, and I could barely contain my excitement!! This was one of the reasons, maybe even the MAIN reason I have always wanted a horse- to go wandering around the wilderness on horseback, taking in the scenery, and discovering trails. All total, there were 3 trailers, and 7 horses. We made it to the lake, and unloaded Altivo.

The look on his face when he looked around was that of shock and amazement. His ears were perked forward, his head was up, and he sniffed the air, trying to figure out where he was. He wasn't scared, just curious.
He must have been quite a sight to see, since some people who were returning from their rides came up to meet him, and one of them even asked if riding him was possible, since they didn't think draft horses were able to be ridden. Say what?? Oh, sillies.....I educated them, and they were very nice with a pretty palomino. 

After tacking him up, I stared at him, trying to figure out how to get on him....mounting him is a pain as I'm 5' 4" and he's 16.2 hands...so I looked around....and found....a picnic table!


I led him to one of the picnic tables nearby, and he stood nicely while I hopped up. All 7 of us started down the trail that would lead to a lovely 2 hour jaunt. Oh, there was one thing he did NOT like!!

 Yes, a yellow wheelbarrow was parked near a muck pile, and as we came around a corner, it seemed to appall Altivo that anyone would make a wheelbarrow YELLOW. He startled, looked at it, quickly determined that it wasn't food, and walked on.  I'm aware that with alot of horses, the words, "Horse Eating" maybe be applied to the beginning of an object to describe things. Like, "Horse Eating Balloon", or "Horse Eating Mundane Object", since, being prey animals, they tend to fear things that to us, seem silly. One of the horses on the trail ride startled at a large rock, so therefore, it became a "Horse Eating Rock". Get it?
Well, nothing beside the wheelbarrow wanted to eat him, even when confronted with a lone cow. (HF calls it a steak-horse, and anytime I think of that, I giggle.)

Anyhoo, we meandered through the lovely countryside, up hills and down them, over a fallen tree, and to a lake bed. And he didn't trip once! I asked for a trot several times, and he happily obliged without the use of a Motivation Stick (aka Mr. Spanker), and he seemed to have a good time. Both of us, being out of shape, were dragging a little on the way back, but I can't wait to go again!!!

So there you have it- OH!! And Monday, he had his teeth floated, and I didn't get photos cuz there's this pesky thing called "work" that I had to do, so that I could pay the vet....but, the vet said there wasn't anything remarkable, just the typical points on the teeth, which to me meant that they needed to be done.
And I'm working on Altivo's Halloween costume- stay tuned for pictures!!!

Improvement? We haz it!

So, first off..

An open letter to Altivo.

Dear Lazy White/Grey horse:
I cheated on you. I went on a trail ride on another horse. A mare, even. I blame HorseFriend. She's the one who threw a bareback pad on her Quarter horse and told me to hop on. She was there with her Morgan, so I can't lie about it- I have too many witnesses. Next thing I knew, we were out on the trail and I just couldn't help it!! I was a little scared, since I was bareback, and her mare is a little green, but her personality is similar to yours so I did all right. I know you won't really care since I bring you apples and pears but I just needed to come clean. Guilt is an awful thing.

We didn't ride for very long, really, and the brush wasn't that edible....so don't be mad, ok?

-BigGreenGirl

Ok, next on the update-
Big improvements with the big horse (my sister said he's as big as a bus....) since I blogged last!!

First, here's what we did.

1. I had a bodyworker touch him. I admit, I was skeptical that the bodyworker would be able to do anything for him, after all, a horse bodyworker doesn't seem to be able to do much, but really, it was interesting watching her. She lifted his ribcage, pushed and pulled on various parts of his body, and yanked on his tail. She showed me how to do certain moves sort of like a "horsie yoga" and how to stretch parts of him to keep things aligned and happy.

2. Asked the trimmer to back up his toes a teeny bit. Basically, he shaved down the hoof in the front of it slightly, so that it gives lazy horses who don't pick their feet up a little more ground clearance as they move.

3. Bought a new bit. This one is a sweet iron twisted snaffle. That means that the part that goes in the horse's mouth is made of "cold rolled steel" which rusts and supposedly has a sweet taste to it. I didn't get the bit for that reason, I got it because I wanted a twisted snaffle bit and the sweet iron one was the only kind in his size....Yeah. Most bits are 4-5 inches wide...he's a 6 1/2. sigh.  Moving on... Twisted means that instead of a straight piece of metal, it's twisted around to give the horse a different feel in his mouth. It doesn't hurt them, but it does make them pay attention just a little more. Here's a picture-

4. 2 times a week he gets a "schooling ride", where he is put through his paces by someone who knows what they're doing.



Now....all of this combined....and the tripping has all but stopped. I took him out this morning for a ride, through the sand arena, the pea gravel round pen, the dirt arena, the back pasture, and the gravel road. He tripped once in the back pasture, because he was staring at a cat in the field and not watching where his feet were going. I worked on trotting him and controlling his direction at the same time, as he seems to be rusty on it, and he trotted willingly and without issue.


I'm overdue for a lesson, but I was on vacation and then the weather got so insanely hot that I backed out of a couple- I can't concentrate when it's 100 degrees out and I'm on top of a 100 degree animal. But I'll blog about it when I take another lesson. Should be soon.

Oh, and I found yet another horse blog that I love- here ya go!!

www.horseandman.com