Easy & Yassss

This is the face of a horse who was so forward at the trot for the first time that I actually had to slow him down.

And a damned cute face it is.

Wednesday's ride, which I kind of dragged myself out to, felt like a bit of a breakthrough.

When Stitch picked up the trot, heading away from the gate, he propelled himself forward down the long side. I had to take a slight feel of the reins to steady the trot a bit, while saying "easy" to him. 

This continued through the ride, however most of the time "easy" was followed by "yasssss". It finally felt like he got it. This was the first ride that I thought I might even be able to ask for a canter, but I'm not ready for it yet. I want our steering to be a bit better first.

This is the body of the horse who looked level on Wednesday (my mom and I both were saying so), but by Saturday looked bum hight again.

Stitch moves nicely off my outside leg to steer, but hasn't figured out moving away and bending from my inside leg. Now that we don't have to focus so much on getting forward at the trot, we will start to add a bunch of steering, which will hopefully help him get the idea about the inside leg.

Here's hoping that the breakthrough sticks!

First Ride Out

We've been experiencing a last kick at summer this week. The daytime temperatures have been beautiful, it just takes all day to get there. It now gets dark by about 7:30 in the evenings, which makes it difficult to get a chance to do any riding outside after work as I don't get to the barn until about 6pm.

This week, my day off happened to be on one of the nicest days of the week, so I was determined that I would be riding outside. I was really hoping to head out to one of the stubble fields that surround the barn, but would need a barn mate to babysit Stitch and I. If that didn't pan out, then I would settle for walking around the yard. 

I put a post up on the barn's Facebook group the night before and there was one person who was able to join me (and a whole lot who I will try to get out with on a weekend). Plans were made and we were riding out at noon on Monday. 

We had two options on where to go. The field on the opposite side of the road had been planted with potatos this year. They were harvested a couple of weeks ago, which of course involves digging the rows up. We couldn't tell until we got over there just how deep the rows were going to be. Last year I took Cisco over at the end of the season and they had harrowed the field and it was a foot deep with loose top soil. Not great to walk through. If that is what we were heading into, we were going to move down the road to the stubble field, which is a bit further away but would be easier to walk in. 

It turned out that the potato field was the perfect place for a walk - there was a packed road all around the field, wide enough for probably 3 horses to walk side by side. Perfect to be able to walk around on a loose rein and chat with a friend. Especially when your horses were behaving perfectly, as ours were.

This was Stitch's 14th ride. I was pretty confident that he would be a good boy on his first ride out, and I was right. We did almost the whole thing on the buckle. There were short moments where he had to lead, and lots of time that he was behind.

Stitch was in the lead when we came around a bend that the bushes were hiding a big, scary green monster - some sort of John Deere harvesting equipment. Stitch gave it the hairy eyeball but stayed in the lead to get us past it. 

This is passing the big scary green monster. 

The only time that he needed reassurance from his babysitter was almost at the end when we apporached the pipeline site. It's a small chainlink fenced area that has large white pipes that come out of the ground, a small shed and a flagpost with a wind sock. I'm not sure what he saw there that worried him, but he gave it a very wide berth.

It was a perfect first ride out for a baby horse. Now I just need the weather to cooperate so that we can get out there again before winter sets in. 

First Pole Course

As we have started working on steering at a trot, Stitch has shown an interest in the poles and jumps that seem to inevitably set up when I ride. He' s always seemed to have a thing for poles - even when I was long lining him he often made a beeline for them. 

Last Friday I finally got a free arena so that I coul set up a simple pole course suitable for a horse on his 13th ride. Namely, single poles on each quarter line and diagonal. Nothing fancy at all. But more than enough for an unfit baby horse.

We picked up our trot along a long side and Stitch immediately dove to the inside and took us over a pole. Like I said, he likes poles!

I didn't do much of a warmup with him once we got trotting - he doesn't have much stamina at this point and I wanted to get the fun stuff done before he ran out of energy.

We did our little 4 pole course two times. The first time, the first three poles were good, and just before we turned to the last pole he surged forward, which ordinarily I would be stoked about, but it meant that the turn across the diagonal, which was right after the pole on the quarter line, was a little wonky so when we got to the last pole he was a bit off balance and stalled out over the pole. 

For the second course, I just wanted to keep him going without stopping until we made it over all the poles. Again, the first three poles went well, but then Stitch was pretty sure that he was dying and dropped down to a walk along the short end. With a tap from the stick of encouragement, we got going again. The last turn across the diagonal was only slightly better than the previous time, but he was better balanced over the pole so kept trotting. Until the corner after the pole - he had to stop to poop.

Other than the last turn, everything else was nice and straight, before and after the poles. and Stitch used the full length of the arena. The turns were nicely bent to the inside and he turned nicely off of my outside leg. 

It looks like poles will be a good way to keep Stitch coming forward and working on turns and lines. We'll definitely be doing it regularly.

Making Slow Progress

Rides 8 through 12 weren't terribly exciting (just as I like them to be). We are continuing to focus on Stitch thinking forward, which is coming along nicely. I would say about 80% of the time he is forward. He tires out easily (poor unfit baby horse) so the sessions are still very short. When he slows down due to complete and utter exhaustion (according to him) I ask him for just a little bit more - around the corner, or down the next long side, before asking him to come back to walk.

We got outside for a walk after a quick ride. Steering wasn't great, but we got where I wanted to go, in a somewhat drunk fashion.

We're adding some steering at the trot. Simple stuff - diagonal lines and big circles. He moves nicely off my outside leg as a turning aid but doesn't really have the idea of bending around my inside leg yet. 

It's been hard to get the arena free of stuff set up all over the place, which in some ways is good because it gives us things to aim to go around, but in some ways is bad because we can't do small circles or really direct turns yet. 

It's also bad because Stitch seems to want to aim himself towards the thing in front of us, whether it be a pole on the ground or a 2'6" oxer. I turn with the intent of going past it, he hones in on it, and I have to pull him to the side. Is he going to be the horse who gets me back in the jumper ring? We'll see in a couple years. He's only jumped once on the lunge, and let's just say he is not a naturally gifted hunter. 

I'm starting to feel that he is asking questions. Can I slow down yet? Not yet bud, just a little more trot first. Do you want me to go into the corner? Why yes, thank you for that! There are moments where he still slams on the brakes from a trot, but they are getting fewer and I'm able to get him going again right after. Although, I still haven't started getting after him for stopping to poop. We'll leave that until next year. 

Stitch can now do a mean turn on the forehand away the wall. He halts from a walk when I close my thighs. We've started some baby leg yields at the walk - I think he's just on the cusp of figuring them out. 

I'm still planning to stop riding him for the winter at the end of October. That's only about another 12 rides if I continue with the current three days a week schedule. That's not enough time to perfect anything. I'm looking at this fall as a chance to introduce him to a bunch of things. He's a smart cookie, and I don't think he'll forget very much over his vacation. 

Rides 13 and 14 had a couple of firsts happen - but I'll write them up for later in the week. 

I'm Weak

I'm behind on blogging again. Stitch is up to his 14th ride, most of which haven't been too exciting,  but there have been a couple of notable firsts. I do most of my typing on my tablet and I hate using the on-screen keyboard. I can't find my Bluetooth keyboard, so another one is on it's way from Amazon and I can get everyone caught up on our hijinks.

That's not the only online purchase I've made recently.

I know, I said that I wasn't going to buy any blankets for Stitch until he stopped growing. But I had a moment of weakness when I found a deal.

A local-ish place is getting out of Horseware, so everything is 40% off. Sizes were limited, but I did a quick look, you know, just in case. I don't know in case of what, but just in case.

There was one thing that they had in the size I would need. Something that I've coveted for quite a while. Something that would look great on Stitch. And something that I totally didn't need.

The dopamine hit is real.

I waited a whole day before saying fuck it and buying it. 

I love it and it looks great on Stitch.

The classic gold/red/black Whitney cooler.

It retails for $150-$180 in Canada. I got it for $90, so I consider that a good deal.

I've wanted one for a long time, but just couldn't justify buying yet another cooler to add to my collection (which I think is down to 6?), especially since it doesn't have a full neck, which is the only reason I was permitting myself to buy another one when the time came.

Now, Stitch isn't going to be working this winter, and won't be clipped, so he won't be wearing it for a while. I just hope he doesn't outgrow it - it's only about one size too big at the moment. I thought it would be bigger on him.

Although, if he outgrows it, it might make it onto my couch....