August 14, 2011 - Twilight ride

I rode Rory in the evening twilight tonight.  Totyo was alone in their paddock, but didn't fuss too much about being alone since he could see Rory in the sand ring.  Rory was very good.  He did a beautiful three loop serpentine, crossed the diagonal nice and straight so we could do the serpentine again off the other rein.  As he came around the corner Rory drifted out towards the sand pile, then suddenly spooked and leaped away towards the middle of the ring.  I lost one stirrup and would have come off if he hadn't stopped.  We turned and went back around the corner in the same direction and I realized he was spooking at the mark from the tractor bucket beside the sand pile where the barn owner had taken some sand away.  I tried to get him to walk on the bucket mark but he wasn't having any of it.  I dismounted and lead him across, but he still wasn't willing to touch it.  He climbed halfway up the sand pile, slid down onto the mark and after a couple of passes it was kicked up enough with hoof and foot prints that he was okay walking over it.  I remounted and we walked over it again before returning to the work.

We trotted the serpentine and did a little canter.  The right lead was okay, but again I really had to work to get him to canter on the left lead.  He kept picking up the right lead.  When we did finally get the left lead Rory fell to the inside and didn't keep it for very long.

I dared to take him out round the grass field in front of the arena at the end of our ride.  He was very good apart from the little refusal to go past the big sunflowers on the corner of the lawn.  We went past, giving them a wide berth just in case they had plans to bop Rory.  The four horses in the front field came over to the fence to see who was going by and Rory looked at them, but kept walking when I asked him to go on.  We came back between the arena and the barn, setting off the spotlight on the corner of the arena.  Rory started when it came on, but didn't actually jump.  I'd forgotten the light was there - the days are getting shorter again.  I was very pleased with Rory tonight!

August 11, 2011 - Sit!!

Rory on the way to sitting down

 We had a full peanut gallery today.  I set up four trot poles today, one of which was a cavaletti.  Rory started off well, but Totyo was interested in
all the action in the sand ring and came down to hang over the fence.  As Rory trotted by Totyo bounced and invited him to play.  Rory speeded up, but settled when I told him to take it easy.  Each time Rory went by he got more distracted until he got too interested in playing with Totyo and took off towards the fence.  I checked him with the longeline and as he put the brakes on, his hind feet slipped forward and for a moment he ended up sitting on his bum like a dog. 

 Rory got up quickly and faced me.  Totyo was still bouncing around, but Rory had decided he was going to pay close attention to me.  I got him to walk and he looked okay so I asked for a trot.  He looked fine at the trot as well.  I longed for a few more minutes and sent him over the poles a couple of times before mounting up.

Rory was good under saddle.  We walked and trotted over the poles and around the ring.  His right lead canter was good with an easy transition, but he really didn't want to take the left lead.  Several times he gave me the right lead instead.  I finally managed to convince him to take the left lead, but he really wasn't happy and broke to trot after only a few strides.  I didn't push for more because I felt that he'd probably done something when he sat down that made the left lead uncomfortable.  Hopefully he'll be back to normal after a day or two to recover.

August 8, 2011 - Blackjack!

Just skimming past the X end of the cavaletti

 Rory was good on the longeline as usual today.  I set up three trot poles, using a cavaletti on the lowest height as the middle pole.  I also put out a canter rail.

We walked over the trot poles so Rory could have a look at them and realize that the middle one was a little higher than the end ones.    I haven't quite got the hang of getting a good halt from Rory yet.  He tends to swing his hindquarters to one side or the other as he stops.  I tried to correct the swing today and it just made the halt into a bigger mess.

 The first time I aimed Rory at the trot poles he trotted up to them nicely, straight and forward and then swerved left at the last moment.  I wasn't able to keep him straight and I hoped he wouldn't bang his legs on the X end of the cavaletti.  He did have boots on, but I really didn't want him to run into anything.  Rory came back to a walk after his narrow miss and I explained to him that I'd really rather he didn't swerve away from the poles.  We returned to trot and went over the single pole before trying the trot poles again.  This time he managed to go over them, if not quite in a straight line.  Even when he was a little crooked Rory was willing to stretch his stride a little so he could maintain the rhythm of his trot.

Rory cantered on the left lead first today.  We went round the ring and over the pole before changing the rein.  It took a couple of tries to get the right lead, but after he got it we managed to canter all the way around the ring.  About halfway round he did almost break to trot, but responded to my leg when I asked him to keep going.  Progress!

At the end of the ride I walked him over the trot poles, and then around and between them in a rough figure eight.  The circles were a bit uneven in size and shape, but he was listening to me.  Totyo had come down to the fence a couple of times and Rory had ignored him for the most part.  He watched Totyo when we were close, but never tuned me out.

Today was the twenty first day that I've been on Rory's back.  I'm quite happy with his progress given that he's been ridden for less than four hours altogether.

August 3, 2011 - Not quite right but still willing

Two poles four and a half feet apart

 Today I set up two ground rails four and a half feet apart (the standard distance for trot poles) and one pole beside them.  Rory was good for longeing, but he didn't seem quite himself.  There wasn't anything really obvious, but he wasn't as happy and he kept dropping his carrot chunks, sometimes a minute after I gave it to him.  He took the carrots from me without hesitation and seemed to be chewing them.  The only other obvious sign was more saliva production than usual - to the point of dropping gobs of clear saliva when he opened his mouth.


Left lead canter

  The ride went all right and Rory quickly figured out the trot poles.  He would trot straight towards them without needing course corrections and then try to drift to one side or the other a couple of strides in front of the first pole so our path wasn't always straight over the poles.  We cantered on both leads, and over the single pole.  Rory was a good boy despite whatever was not right.


Cantering over a pole again - easy!

 I remembered a horse I knew years ago who we nicknamed Slimer because of the great gobs of saliva he always dropped on people.  It turned out that he was eating burrs and had some stickers stuck in the cheeks and gums of his mouth.  Rory had been fine when I fed him in the early morning, but he had nibbled the top off a weed that the horses normally don't touch.  I wondered if that was causing his gobbery mouth so I flushed his mouth with salt water in case there was something stuck in his cheeks or tongue. I had some trouble flushing as he swallowed the salt water several times!  The salt water seemed to help as he was back to normal by the time he got dinner in the evening.

July 28, 2011 - Ground rails

Totyo and the old guy were up in the shelter when I brought Rory out to the sand ring today.  He was looking for them a little, but still listening to me as we did the quick longe exercises.  The other two horses appeared as Rory was trotting round on the second rein and he got a little forward.  I had to bring the circle smaller to remind Rory to keep his attention on me and after that he was very good.









I mounted from his right today, doing a quick on and off to check the stand still training.  We headed off around the ring and walked three circles that were quite recognizably circles.  I had set up two ground rails nine feet apart and offset so that we could go over either pole, or both depending on the line of travel and I walked him over them before moving to trot.  Having the ground poles out showed me that Rory is still a little wobbly on his line of travel.  The first time we headed for a pole Rory was busy watching Totyo at the water trough.  He didn't hit the pole, but he realized it was there at the last moment and wobbled even more.  The next time went better.  We trotted over the other pole before trying to go over both.



Trot over two rails even if not quite straight

  Rory managed to drift off to the left just far enough to barely miss the first pole the first time, but made it over both the second.  The rhythm of his trot got a bit uneven as he tried to work out where his feet needed to be.  I've had him trot poles on the longe so it wasn't too hard once he started paying attention.  After a little canter I changed rein and asked one of my friends to push one of the poles over so they were lined up evenly.  That made our approach a bit easier as I didn't have to worry about missing poles through last moment wobbles. Rory was very relaxed as he trotted over the poles even the first times when he was trying to figure things out.


At the end of the ride I asked my friend to push one pole right over by the fence so we could try cantering over it.  Rory was great!  The pole didn't bother him at all as he tried to figure out how to handle it.  The first time he almost got over the pole in the suspension phase of the canter, but caught a hind toe on the pole and had to put it down a little earlier than he'd planned, but didn't get concerned about it.  The next time he arrived at the right place and just stretched his stride a bit to get over the pole.  When I watched the video clip I was astonished at just how far he steps under himself.

Red arrow shows just how far Rory steps up under himself

July 26, 2011 - Here comes trouble!

Today I felt like the real work was beginning.  Rory's circles were round and he maintained a nice regular trot through the figures.  His canter transitions were easier as he's understanding what I want.  Everything was going really well and I was enjoying the ride when Trouble dropped in to add a little excitement.





Here comes Trouble!

  During our first canter we were cantering along the fence at the same time as Totyo was cantering towards us on the other side.  When they met Rory turned away from the fence, put his head down and bounce bucked - not to dump me, but to express himself in play with Totyo.  Bounced a few times as I brought him to a halt and then I explained to him that he was playing with me and he needed to ignore Totyo right now.  He could play with Totyo all he wanted later.


...and closing fast on the outside is Totyo!


 Rory wasn't entirely convinced and we did some transitions and figures to remind him.  As usual it didn't take long for Rory to settle back to his cooperative self and we finished the ride.  Near the end of the ride we were trotting along the fence and Totyo came cantering up from behind on the other side.  Rory flicked his ear back to track Totyo's progress, but calmly continued trotting along even as Totyo cantered past.  I was really pleased!

The farrier came later in the afternoon and Totyo and their buddy were on the list.  I brought them both in so they'd be ready, leaving Rory all by himself.  He whinnied and paced around the gate area a little bit, but wasn't too upset.  I wanted to take some pics while waiting for farrier to arrive and went into the neighbouring paddock.  Rory kept coming over to where I was standing by the fence and getting too close for pictures.  I hid in the shelter that is shared by the two paddocks - he went round to his side, and I ducked out before he got around, and he came back to see where I'd gone.  He wasn't worrying about the other two while I was near him which should make it easier when we go away to shows.

What'cha doing over there?

July 23, 2011 - Minor distractions

At the beginning of the ride Rory had a little extra energy and tried to tell me where we were going and how fast.  I mostly ignored him and just concentrated on getting him to walk where I wanted to go.  After a halt to remind him to listen he was fine.  We trotted a bit then stopped to answer a question from the barn owner.  Afterwards we went back to trot and Rory dropped back to the walk when he got to where Totyo was standing on the other side of the fence.  I got him back into trot and Totyo jogged along just behind us to the corner.  Rory kept an eye on Totyo but trotted on round the end of the ring without slowing down.  On the left rein he tended to fall to the as we came down the long side towards the barn.  The other long side was the one against Totyo's fence and he didn't drift away from it.

We managed to canter on both leads today.  Rory was a little sticky to first get into the canter, but once he'd made the first transition the next ones were easier.  On the first left lead canter he almost broke to trot in the first corner, but I put my leg on and pushed him on and he kept the canter.  The second time he really fell to the inside as he stepped into the left canter so I turned it into a big circle before continuing down the long side (he drifted in again).  The right lead canter was very short at the end of our time, but he got it.

We did some more trot and changed reins, and at the end I discovered he responded well to the voice command "trot up!" that I use when I longe.  This will help me teach him to trot more forward off my leg and reminds me to use more vocal commands as he's learning.  In thinking about the ride later I also thought that I should avoid interuptions from other people.  Since I'm only riding for fifteen minutes, stopping for two or three minutes to talk to someone really cuts into Rory's training time.