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....

Thinking Forward

I'm back to work this week (sad face) so Stitch is getting his workload dropped down to three days a week (maybe a lunge on a fourth day on occasion). He was ridden six days last week, which is too much, but the first few rides were only about 10 minutes each and most of the rides have been at a walk. I wanted the repetition for the first few rides, but now that we are past that I'll drop it down. I'm kind of going with the 3 years old = 3 days a week rule. 

Ride #8 was on Monday. Again, the focus was on forward at the trot, with generally minimal steering. If all went well, I was hoping to take him for his first walk around the yard under saddle. It gets tough to get outside when I have to ride after work at this time of year as it's getting dark so much earlier, so I like to take advantage of the daylight when I can. 

Stitch had had two days off, so I was hoping that this would help him think forward - and he was!

I used my brain and started the trot heading towards the gate. The impulsion was kept through the short end and I didn't have to work as hard to keep him going down the long side.

Unfortunately, the arena footing was a little wonky as they had watered but hadn't harrowed yet (the quad used to pull the harrows had been out for repairs, they were picking it up that afternoon) and there was one spot that he keeps tripping over something. I can't figure out what, other than that the footing changes a bit from deep to shallow maybe? So I tried to avoid trotting through that section, which meant I didn't get full laps. But I was much happier with his forward thinking through this ride. He wasn't perfect, I'd say he got it about 80% of the time. 

Again, we didn't do a ton of trot, but we did go outside for a walk. There was quite a bit of activity happening, and other than trying to look at something and gravitating to the right when I was trying really hard to go left, he was quite good. We didn't fall into any gopher holes so I would call that a win. 

Redemption

After the previous day's ride where Stitch's butt came up behind me when he had a little hissy fit about having to keep trotting past the gate, the focus for ride #7 was going to be just focusing on forward. I really don't care too much about steering at the trot, he's not diving all over the place, he's just cutting the ends a bit short, but until we get forward I don't want to fuss about anything that's going to back him off. 

The first trot was definitely not as forward as I am looking for, but it got better and better as we got going. We didn't have any issues getting through the short end by the gate, he backed off a bit but kept going, but then he kept backing off heading down the long side into the opposite end. 

I was going to be done, but thought, nah, I just want to do one more short end by itself, from B to E on the track. 

And Stitch nailed it. It was super forward, no stalling out, with definite intent of going forward. It was the perfect decision and the perfect place to end the ride. 

We found a lovely little laneway at the end of our road that I would love to ride down when the leaves start dropping. Unfortunately, the people that live at the end of the road are not horse people and do not like anyone trespassing on their property. We might have to try to get some pictures from along the road.

Our rides are still quite short- homeboy is not at all fit (and neither am I judging by the amount of huffing and puffing I hear in the videos), and I want to make sure that he wants to keep trying for me. 

There were some moments on this ride that I finally felt Stitch getting a bit steadier underneath me which allowed me to anchor myself better in the saddle. There's nothing like a baby horse to make you feel like you are a beginner rider again!

No Longer the Golden Child

The golden child's halo slipped a bit on ride #6. 

I had gone into the ride with the plan of just working on getting him trotting forward, with the goal of being able to trot a full lap of the arena. Turns out that was exactly what was needed.

I've always said that Stitch has more whoa than go, and I figured that getting him going was going to be my biggest problem. He has a natural engine behind him once he's moving, just convincing him to get moving might be tough. 

He'd had the Wednesday off, and I was hoping he wouldn't go too much backwards. Sometimes the greenies seem to forget everything after a day off.

He seemed ok at a walk; still remembered how to steer. 

Eventually, I picked up the trot to the left, starting at the end opposite the gate. He picked up the trot fine, trotted forward down the long side towards the gate, and stalled out as we approached the corner. I asked him to trot again, got no reaction, ramped it up a bit, dug in my heels, and up popped his back end. 

Very much the toddler equivalent of no, I don't wanna.

Very much not acceptable. As cute as it was, I can't condone it. 

It's also not a complete surprise that he got sticky at the gate - the first couple of times that I lunged him at that end there was a little bit of a hissy fit about the expectation to keep going.

I had my assistant stand in the end with the lunge whip to help encourage him through the short end, which got him through the short end, but then he stopped and planted his feet on the other side. 

Enter Mr. Tappy.

I kind of figured he'd be a horse who would need to be ridden with a whip, but was hoping to not have to do it so early. But if that's what it takes, so be it. 

Mr. Tappy worked his magic, and Stitch decided that he could keep on going. 

We ended up doing a lap and a half at trot in both directions, so that we could go through the short end twice and we didn't come back to walk on the long side until he was trotting forward.

And then he redeemed himself by figuring out his first steps of turn on the forehand.

This horse is smart. I need to make sure I keep him thinking that this is fun, or he may choose to use his brain for evil.

No Ego

When people have asked me if I was going to start Stitch myself, I said that was the plan. I'm in no rush, I don't have a demanding client that wants the horse to be doing all the things within 30 days, so I can take my time and do things slowly. 

I've been saying that I have no ego in this - I will be asking for help. Hopefully, it was just of the lead me and hold my horse the first few times type of help, but if I felt it was warranted I would employ the services of a pro to put the first few rides on. It doesn't appear that they will be needed. 

Thankfully, Stitch has not yet developed an ego, because he's been getting so many compliments from people at the barn that it would go to anyone's head.

He keeps hearing things like:

He's so handsome.

He's so shiny.

He's such a nice shade of bay.

He's got such a good brain.

He's looking so good.

He's so tall. (This came from a quarter horse person, lol)

He's so cute.

He's so friendly.

Now that he's under saddle, he's such a superstar.

I really need to just let him get scruffy over the winter so that I don't have a 4 year old who thinks he's the shit next year. I don't want him to get a big head and have to buy a new bridle to contain it.

Ride #5

The original plan on Tuesday was to meet my assistant at about 3:30 after her appointments and do a bit more trot on the lunge with Stitch before hopefully trying it loose.  It didn't work that way - my helper's day ran late and she couldn't come until early evening. I had gotten out to the barn at the original time and could have done something useful like clean tack, but instead I sat on my butt and watched the colt starter work on some of her new horses. 

This porcupine was crossing the road on my way home. He plunked his butt down and stared at me and had no inclination to move very fast.

I thought we would be in the clear to get Stitch done before lessons started, but no such luck. That meant that we wouldn't be able to lunge. I wasn't worried about trotting him by myself but figured I would need help with getting him going, and if the arena was too crazy it would still be a good experience for him just to walk around the chaos.

I only had her lead me a few strides away from the mounting block. He steps back a couple of steps when I get on, and I don't love that feeling. I'll work on that in the next few days. 

There were three intermediate riders and a few jumps set up. Stitch walked all the way around the ring like he'd been doing it for years. He steered exactly where I wanted him to go, and other than the fact that he bulged a bit to the inside as we walked down the track you wouldn't think this was only his fifth ride.

When it came time to trotting, we went right first, and I had my helper "lunge" us by waving the lunge whip behind us. We did it about 3 times, getting a bit more trot every time, though as soon as I tried to steer we lost the trot. I was trying really hard to stay off the contact and out of his way, but being a baby he's wobbly and that makes me wobble and I end up pulling on a rein at some point. 

When we swapped to the left, I asked my helper to wait on the whip, I think he has the idea and let me try to ask him to trot first. Sure enough, we got it! The first time took a few steps of revving up into the trot, the second time only took a couple of steps. We managed to get down one long side and most of the way around a turn before we lost it. 

Also, wtf is my left wrist doing? I'm sure it's because my reins are long (and I'm sticking to that story) but I'm gonna have to work on that!

After we trotted, I picked up a light contact at a walk, just enough to keep a feel but not put him in any type of frame. He didn't change his walk at all. Tracking right (the better side for both of us) I was able to keep a right bend shape, going left is going to be our tough side. 

Super happy with the ride. There were jumps to dodge, horses to stay away from, horses all resting in the middle while the baby had to stay out on the rail, horses cantering towards and past us, and he did it all with no concerns on his part.

The only thing he did was a little stumble on a front leg when we were trotting. Not sure if he stepped on something or forgot that he has four feet to figure out. We'll keep an eye on that - I haven't seen him do it to date.

Ride 4

Stitch's fourth ride happened on Monday. My helper was the same person who helped me on ride #2, and she immediately noticed how much his confidence had grown in just two rides.

I had her only lead us around for a half circle before we walked around solo. We used almost the whole arena - there was a coil of white cable that had been left at the far end, I'm assuming for some improvement job, that many horses were convinced was a pile of snakes. Stitch noticed it, but I chose to turn early and not risk finding out what his spook felt like. So we used about 3/4 of the ring.

That was all going well, so it was time to try a trot!

I had my assistant hook us up to a lunge line and out on a circle we went. It took some encouragement from the whip, but the first trot was about 12 steps before I asked him to walk. He just felt a bit unsure, so I wanted to give him lots of praise and tell him how smart he was. We did it again to the right, about another half circle, before changing to the left.

By that point, he had it all figured out. He picked up the trot much quicker, and kept it longer. I was once even able to get him to keep trotting from my leg when he wanted to stall out near the gate where a horse was waiting to come in. 

We left it at that for the day with plans to do more trot the next day. 

There are a couple of things that we'll have to make an effort to work on in the next few rides. First - he's taken a couple of steps backwards at the mounting block after I've gotten on. I think I will need to do a ride where get off and back on 3 or 4 times and see if that fixes it.

Second - stopping to poop. Nothing major, but I'll have to convince that he can walk and poop at the same time.

Third - parking. There were a couple of times in this ride where I stopped to sort something out, and though he initially stood still, he got a bit antsy pretty quickly. He kind of does this unmounted as well, he loses patience and then wants me to play with him. We'll work on it as much as his 3 year old brain can manage.

It's been a good start to the week!

Ride #3

 On Sunday I had to get up bright and early (which sucks on your vacation) to be at the barn for Stitch to get his pedicure. Our appointment was originally scheduled for later in the week, but my farrier had a last-minute opportunity to take a trip to Norway so she asked to reschedule.

She's happy with how his feet are doing and said he's got good sole depth, which I noticed as he hasn't been ouchy whenever we've gone for a walk down the road. First time in a while that I haven't had to baby my horse when walking across gravel! It also hopefully means I can keep him barefoot for a long time to come.

I finagled someone to help me with my ride I tacked up right after Stitch's trim. It was early on a brisk morning and Stitch was being a little restless in the barn, so I wasn't sure if that was going to affect him in the arena. I did a minute or two of hand-walking just to be safe before hopping on. 

His first step was sketchy - it felt like his butt got high for one step, so I quickly grabbed the neck strap just in case, but my assistant kept walking and that was the only blip. Not sure what it was.

I had her lead us around one circle each way before unclipping the lead.

Stitch was much more forward than the previous day, with fewer sticky moments. His sticky spot changed to near the gate though. 

We did a bit more steering than the previous day and was mostly able to stay on my chosen path - I'm not going to call it a circle by any means.

Before hopping off we did a couple of short walk/halt/walk transitions, which he did promptly from light leg/seat aids and my voice. His brakes are fabulous.

It was still just a 10 minute ride. The plan will be to walk a little further around the arena on the next ride, and maybe introduce the trot on the lunge if everything feels good.

A very boring video - don't feel bad about fast forwarding or watching only a few seconds!