Free jumping and other lessons

Rory is a little bored these days.  Now that he gets fed twice a day with Totyo I'm not giving him mini lessons every day.  I do tend to go through his paddock at some point during the day and if I have some carrots I'll run him through a few yielding exercises, but it's not the same.  I took my other horse for a hack around the back fields today and Rory watched us go as if he wanted to come along.

After my ride I brought Rory in for a quick grooming, put his bridle on and took him out to the arena.  I let him go and he did his usual run around for a while.  Totyo was screaming nearly non-stop but Rory only whinnied back once.  Eventually he came back to me when he'd finished running.  I decided to see if he'd free jump a cavaletti today and set up a cavaletti with a couple of guide poles/standards.  I lamented my failure to recharge the camera batteries and considered waiting for another day, but decided we might as well give it a go.  Rory followed me back and forth as I took the various pieces out of the corners and set them up.  He kept trying to rub his face on the first standard as I carried it out.  Once everything was set I sent him out around the arena.  This free longeing is not something I've done with him - usually I let him run as he will with just the odd bit of encouragement to keep going if he gets stuck in a corner.  The first time he galloped over the cavaletti, not really noticing it was there.  The second time he didn't get far enough out to the track, missed the chute, change directions and trotted over the cavaletti from the other direction (no chute on that side).  I laughed.  Rory was very relaxed about the cavaletti and banged his toes the next time through lack of effort in his trot.  I did manage to get him to canter it a couple of times and he got a awkward distance once which didn't upset him.  I'm happy to see that he doesn't feel it's a big deal to trot over a cavaletti.  We've done it before with me leading him so it wasn't a totally new experience.

After I put all the jump pieces away I clipped on the lead rope and stood him up as if for a conformation class.  He stood well and then I turned him and walked halfway down the arena, came back and then trotted all the way around the outside of the arena.  Rory was very good, giving me a nice, long strided, relaxed walk and then staying with me at the trot even around the turns at the far end (I was on the outside).  He did get a little fast as we came back towards the door, but I slowed him sharply when he didn't listen to the light reminders to wait for me and then continued in the trot past the door.

We had a little walk around outside before going back to the barn for a quick brush and his rainsheet.  I want to leave it off to relieve his shoulder rubs, but it's supposed to start raining tonight or tomorrow.  The new darts in the blanket neck line are holding, and they seem to be lifting the buckles up high enough to take the pressure off his shoulders.  I can't tell yet if the rubs are getting worse or staying the same.  I think they're not getting any worse.  The heavier blanket is ready for the colder weather with shoulder darts added and seams sprayed with water proofing.  If we get the colder weather...

December 23, 2010 Distraction can be a good thing

The arena at the new farm is a CoverAll with wood walls up to the base of the canvas roof.  In the wood walls are vents to allow for air flow.  Those vents are pretty much at eye level when I'm riding and I find myself peeking out to see where Rory is as I ride along that side of the arena.  The vents are small, but Rory's bright blue blanket stands out.  On Thursday I was riding in the arena and peeking out as usual when I caught a glimpse of blue and thought "That looks like Rory's outside his paddock!"  I stopped a couple of vents down and took a better look.  Rory had escaped.  I could see the gate hanging open and Totyo inside the fence in the corner wondering how Rory managed to get to the other side of the fence.  Fortunately my other horse is a very good boy and could be left for a few minutes on his own in the arena as I ran out and returned Rory to his paddock.  Rory hadn't gotten very far, just to the pile of not-so-good hay that had been removed from one of the other fields.  He was picking through looking for anything decent when I got out there.  He briefly considered running away from me, but then stopped and I put him back into his paddock.  I'm not sure how the gate could have gotten opened.  I go through it fairly regularly, but apart from round bale delivery no one else does and the latch is awkward enough to do up that I have to pay full attention to it.  Anyway, no harm done, and no two year old hooligans tearing around the property at high speeds...  Good thing I was a little distracted from my riding.

I took Rory's blanket off on the 18th.  The lining I'd sewn in had come unstitched, leaving the mesh to crawl back over Rory's tail again.  Since the weekend forecast was nice enough I took the blanket off and took it home to redo the extra lining.  Rory was happy to be naked and went off to play with Totyo.  It seems that he forgot all about blankets because when I brought it back Sunday evening Rory acted as if it were going to eat him when I put it back on.  We've had a couple of blanket desensitizing sessions since and he stood still while I threw it over him last night after his "stand politely on the cross ties" lesson.

Free Running

 This week I took Rory out to the arena for a little playtime and longeing practice.  I put his bridle on and found I had to let the cheeks down to the next hole on both sides as the bit was too tight.  I expect some of it is the winter fuzz that he's growing, but some is probably growth.  His coat is getting very dense and longer as he prepares for the colder weather.  Those "in the know" are predicting a normal temperatures with more snow than normal winter for this area.  The normal temperatures are colder than the last few winters have been and my other horse has grown more coat this year than in the past few, which leads me to believe we will have a colder winter.  Rory is still too young to be growing the "just right" amount of winter coat yet - I find the young horses just grow yak coats indiscriminately for the first few years.

I also had to loosen the nose on his nylon halter.  It was fine without the bridle underneath, but needed a little extra room once I had his bridle on.

When we got out to the arena I let Rory off the lead and he had fun tearing around, and up and down with very little encouragement from me.  I stood and took pictures and enjoyed the show.  I did ask him to change directions once and after that he changed several times on his own.

After he'd had his rip around Rory was content to come back to me and I did a little liberty leading, halting, backing up, and swinging his haunches away.  With the carrot rewards Rory was happy to comply, though he did walk away briefly the first time I tried the swing the haunches exercise. 

Walking back to me after the run

Longeing was next and Rory readily went out on the circle and stayed out.  I let him go a little bit further out on a slightly larger circle today and he was willing to stay out that far.  Without my asking he did break into a trot going left once, but came back to walk when I asked him for walk.  He had that little bounce in the trot step right at the beginning that told me he was thinking about cantering, but settled when I said "eeeasyyy".  I was quite pleased and he got pats and carrots and "good boy"s for his efforts.  We also worked a bit on the right hand circle and he was equally willing to stay out.  I asked for a few transitions and then we finished up with some trot in hand.  I thought he might be a little up from his gallop earlier, but he stayed at the trot and with me.

Totyo whinnied regularly while Rory was out of the paddock, but Rory didn't answer him today.  After our arena work I gave him a quick brush before putting his rainsheet back on and returning him to his paddock.  Both of the darts I'd put in the blanket's neck had come out - I'll need heavier thread to redo them.

Rory has settled into his new home quite well.  He's getting fed with Totyo morning and night and is nicely respectful when the person comes with the grain buckets.  The boys play quite a lot, and all three horses share their shelter and hay bale without arguements.  Rory does always whinny when he sees me taking my other horse to or from his paddock, but only when it's the brat, never when I have another horse.  The brat just ignores Rory.

Running water

Rory with one foot in the stream

 The new barn has a stream running across the property.  It's not a real stream, but rather a drainage stream for the lake in the neighbour's field.  The BOs did a lot of work this summer to prepare for the wet seasons and there is now a neat swale running across the property out to the ditch by the road.  All but one paddock has a culvert to allow dry passage to the paddock gates, the other has a gravel base.  When I saw the water rushing along on Thursday I thought it would be a great opportunity to introduce Rory to walking through moving water.  He was very good about it and followed me across easily.  At first he tried to step clear across without getting into the water, but after a few trips back and forth he didn't worry about plopping a foot in.  We went and took a look at the neighbour's lake but didn't go wading as I didn't have suitable footwear.

The next day it snowed and the water was a black strip against the white.  I took Rory out to see that it was the same deal, and this time persuaded him to stop with his front feet in the water.  He was completely unconcerned about the water even against the snow.  Good boy!

Big boy on the cross ties.

We had a bit of longeing practice in the arena on Friday as well.  Totyo hollered for Rory while we were gone, but Rory didn't get upset about being away from his buddy.  Rory's getting pretty good about going around to the left so we did a bit of work to the right as well.  He was a little iffy about "Out" when we started, but improved with a little practice.  I asked him to go for longer without a carrot today, probably too long a couple of times.  I broke up the longeing practice with some leading and yielding, and a bit of trot in hand round the arena.  He was very good and stayed with me even when it was plain he would have liked to kick up his heels.

I borrowed the barn's measuring stick to see how tall Rory has gotten.  He's 15.1 1/2 right now.  I let him sniff the stick before measuring and he didn't mind it at all.

The new rainsheet is rubbing Rory's shoulders a bit - just roughing up the hair for now.  I had thought that might happen since the chest buckles are lower than they should be on him.  I had my needle and thread handy so I sewed a couple of darts into the neckline to raise the front.  Hopefully it will be enough.  It's tough to find blankets for the young horses.  They're neither pony nor horse proportions, and they're still growing. 

Returning to the basics

Rory had the weekend off to play with Totyo and settle into the new paddock.  On Monday I brought my other horse over to the new barn.  Rory recognized him and whinned a few times, but Brat ignored him.  They're in different paddocks, but in sight of each other.

Last night I trailed Rory around while I taught a short lesson.  He was pretty good, but a little pushy because he didn't want to stand still.  I paid just enough attention to him to get him to stand, or back up, or turn, or yield away from me as I concentrated on what my student's horse was doing in response to her aids.  Rory improved as time passed and after the lesson was done I took him for a trot in-hand around the arena.  He was very good and stayed with me quite nicely.  I had expected a break to the canter, but he was good.  Until their older buddy went into the barn for the night and Totyo was alone.  He started calling for Rory, which got Rory a little excited.  Rory called back a couple of times, but a few quick yields and turns got his focus back on me and he was well behaved as we returned to the paddock.

Today's lesson was to come into the barn, get the blanket off and stand politely on the cross ties for grooming.  He shifted a bit in the beginning, but then stood very well while I groomed.  The aisle is much narrower in the new barn so it is a different experience for him.  I was quite pleased with him.  The new rainsheet was wet on the inside along all of the stitching lines.  Fortunately most of the stitching is low so he only had a couple of small wet patches.  I'll have to clean the blanket and spray the seams with a waterproofer once he gets into the winter blanket.  I'd better spray the seams on that one too.