Blog Hop

So I have been horrible about my blogging this year, but I will get on that. In the meantime Aarene started a blog hop so I figured I would join in.

Here we go!

Here's the directions:

• Answer the questions (below) on your own blog, and leave a link to that post in the comments here.
• In your post, invite readers to answer the questions on THEIR blogs, and link those blogs to yours AND to here.
• Let's see how far this can travel!
• Pictures!  Let's see lots of pictures of people and horses!

*  Introduce yourself!

*  Introduce your horse(s)!

*  What's your favorite horse sport?  Do you cross train in other activities?

*  Who else in your family rides?

*  What's your proudest equestrian accomplishment?

*  What was your lowest moment as a horse owner/rider?

*  What's the most important small thing you ever learned in a lesson?

*  Do you have any riding rituals or superstitions?

*  What are your short term goals for yourself/your horse?

*  Long term goals?

*  If time and money were no object, what is your dream equestrian vacation?

*  What kind of horse activities were you doing 10 years ago?

*  What kind of horse activities do you think you'll be doing 10 years from now?

*  What is the quirk about your horse that you like most?

*  Introduce yourself!

Laura, crazy horse girl, trainer at Riding Journey, photographer

*  Introduce your horse(s)!

The one and only red headed thoroughbred mare! Journey, or Rare Journey the one who started me on my journey to become a better rider. 

Diesel, my  Akhal-teke Sporthorse. My jump all the things pony

 And the infamous Spookaloosa, Quick or Viva Sozar (please do not call him Sozar, everytime someone does he spooks. ) 

*  What's your favorite horse sport?  Do you cross train in other activities?

Endurance of course, and I do really enjoy the challenge of a 100. I do a ton of dressage work with everyone, and event my jumper pony! I always wanted to event since I was little. 

*  Who else in your family rides?

My cousin and that is about it. 

*  What's your proudest equestrian accomplishment?

I have two. Completing Tevis with Quick and getting Diesel to the recognized event at Inavale this year. 

*  What was your lowest moment as a horse owner/rider?

The toughest was when Diesel coliced. It was an all night colic, he wasn't even 3 yet. I hadn't had him a month, and he had just finished a purge worming. The vet believed it was due to a worm die off. I walked him all night, (before and after the vet was out and before the vet came out again in the morning) and finally when he was able to stand without rolling I sat in a chair while he stood with all four legs splayed and we waited for the vet to come again.

 2yr old baby Diesel. He has no neck!

*  What's the most important small thing you ever learned in a lesson?

Breathe. I remember when Trish first told me she did her down transitions on a breath. I was blown away, sure that I could never be that subtle. Up and down on a breath. It is pretty amazing.

7yr old Diesel, working on stretching his neck out. 

 

*  Do you have any riding rituals or superstitions?

No really. Aside from checking gates, etc like crazy. 

Taking Journey out for a ride after her horrible stress founder. 

 (a story for another day)

 

*  What are your short term goals for yourself/your horse?
Complete more 100s on Quick. Take Diesel novice next year and show in in 1st level Dressage. Have a nice normal canter on Journey... simple things in life

 

*  Long term goals?
Show through Training level eventing (or higher, but being realistic here) Compete in International level endurance.

*  If time and money were no object, what is your dream equestrian vacation?
Everywhere.

 

*  What kind of horse activities were you doing 10 years ago?
 I had no idea what endurance was!

*  What kind of horse activities do you think you'll be doing 10 years from now?
Hopefully the same things I am doing now. Maybe making a living off of it, but doubt it. 

*  What is the quirk about your horse that you like most?

Quick likes to untie himself and has an amazing sense of humor. Diesel is highly opinionated, I've given him the motto "here hold my beer, watch this". Journey well, she is super sweet and wants to snuggle.

 

A Test of Training

I will be honest, there are many times that I find myself wondering if I have done a good job with a horse or is what I am doing with that horse productive, am I good enough to be training horses? Usually these thoughts are when I am falling asleep, or driving somewhere. Or after a bad ride, almost always on one of mine. (hardly ever a bad ride on Quick oddly enough) My inner critic has gotten worse, I used to not worry about that sort of thing. Now that I am upping my game it is happening more often. Sometimes I reach that moment of wanting to quit, then I look a one of the horses and know that I could never do that, that the thought itself is silly.
On Sunday I shut my inner critic up. There was not a bad thought she could pull out. Nothing. Silence.

In a last minute decision I took Foo to Grizzly on Saturday night. It was my first time hauling over the pass in my new truck! Entirely nerve racking until I was actually doing it, then I had to laugh because pulling my aluminum straight load with only one horse in it was so much easier than driving Paula's 3 horse gooseneck with two horses and all of the stuff we needed for ride camp. I love this truck. I am still horrified that my trailer was quite green, I didn't have time to clean it. I got done my lesson, and hooked up and left.

I got there as they were having the ride meeting. Set everything up for Foo, registered and vetted her through. This was not only a huge test of Foo's future as an endurance horse, but also a test of how well I had trained her. Foo loves trail work, compared to the issues I have had in clinics and shows, all of the time spent on the trail has been different. Last year at this time she could barely handle a dressage show, intro- walk trot level. Yet it was in an arena, and she is not an arena horse.

In the few short years I have been in endurance I have come to want a few things in the horse I ride. That does not mean that Quick is there yet, he had a lot of deep emotional and mental issues to work through. Foo did not.

First I want a horse that walks out of camp on a loose rein. One day she might get ot the point of racing with someone, but before that she MUST walk out on a loose rein.

Second, I want a horse that listens, that I can rate with just my seat on a loose rein. I know there are times when you need contact, but generally, loose rein and listening.

Third, I want a steady tempo. Especially with the longer distances the more consistent pace you have the better.

There are more, but that is what you can train into a horse.

Foo camped well. I wasn't sure how she would do completely alone. I braided her and dressed her for the cold evening. She kept asking for more food. Which isn't a bad thing, a good eater is awesome.

"I know you are in there, feed me!"

In the morning Foo was once again asking for more food. She said she knew I was in there and needed to hurry up with her food! She wasn't upset when the neighbor horses left. I watched the time and saddled her up. I planned to start behind everyone. 

We milled around camp, running into people I know. We stopped to talk to Brenda about Badger. I learned more about his sister Bonnie who Brenda had owned. I had to cut out conversation short! I had to leave!

We made our way over to where Anna was taking numbers. It was 7 minutes after 8. Everyone else was pretty much gone on ahead. 

Foo walked out of camp on a loose rein. 

Walked. On. A. Loose. Rein. By herself. 

At the end of the pasture where the trail heads out there is a fenced off circle that you go through with a cattle trough. Now that was terrifying. But we skittered past it giving it a snotty hairy eyeball. Off we went. It took Foo a mile or two to settle into her stride. I could tell when she was getting a little overwhelmed, her head would go up and she would start to bounce at the trot. A little leg and asking her to drop her head and she was better. She did spook a few times, which is very unlike her, but given the situation I felt she was doing really well. They only happened when she was feeling insecure.

She was quite funny when she saw horses ahead of us. Her head went way up and she stopped, as if to say I have never seen horses before!

The only time she got really forward was when we caught the two chestnuts on the first loop. She wanted to take off at a canter to catch them and try to race them. I was able to really sit and keep her slower, even if she did break into a canter. They stopped to let their horses eat and we continued on. Back to the steady pace.

 

I wondered how she would react to the water crossing. I didn't really want to be like the horse that jumped over it last year, we had done little water crossing but not something big. She was a little snorty at it, but went in with little encouragement.

 As we came back into camp I expected her to try to take off to get back to the other horses. Instead she walked in on a loose rein. She hadn't drank much the whole first loop, she had found those metal cow troughs to be a bit scary. She really tanked up at the regular rubber troughs in camp. She pulsed down right away and vetted through. Back in camp she chowed down her food and kept asking for more. Apparently Quick had told her at rides you get lots of chow.

We left for the second loop the same way we did the first. At a nice walk on a loose rein. Foo acted as if she had done this every day of her life and it was nothing new. I could hear a horse calling to Foo behind us as we went along. As we neared Lone Pine i could see signs of cows. Once we passed the huge Pine and came around the corner there they were! Right in the middle of the trail. Foo's head went up and I could tell she was a little bit upset. The cows were right in the middle of the trail and on both sides. There wasn't really a clear way to get around them. So I asked her to move towards them and then started calling out to the cows to move. I figured they have probably been herded by horses before, Foo was asking if I was crazy but wasn't resisting moving forward. Once the first cow started to move she was surprised, cows would move for her! She started moving forward more confidently then. The horse that was behind us caught up with us at that point and we both went on the way.

After we crossed the road the chestnut went on ahead at a faster pace. I had no problem rating Foo and keeping her where I wanted her. We continued on by ourselves. When we went through the next gate I noticed the gal coming back towards us, she had missed a turn. We rode together the rest of the way. At one point I heard a horse coming up fast behind us. Wait, GALLOPING to catch up. Foo was upset by this and started dancing. I had to tell the gal to SLOW DOWN THIS IS A GREEN HORSE. Even if I am riding to top ten on Quick I still slow down to pass horses, especially if these are horses on the tail end of the LD or 50 (depending on what distance I am doing). The gal apologized saying she didn't know. I mean there was a red ribbon in Foo's tail, mostly because she doesn't like to be crowded, but that doesn't mean much to some people. We were sandwiched in between the two chestnuts, and Foo didn't like it. She was fussy and hard to keep at a steady pace. So I pulled her off to the side and got behind both horses. That was much better. She drank at the water and off we went.

Mile after mile she kept up a steady pace. She averaged 5.3 mph the whole ride. I was quite impressed with how well she did. We ended up 7th out of 14 with a time of 5 hours and 41 minutes. A solid middle of the pack ride. We did show for BC, but because I had to be up for work at 4:30am the next morning, I left before getting her ride card back. So I do not know her vet score.

Overall I was very impressed with how well Foo did. All of the work I have done the past year to keep her calm, thinking and not reacting and consistent has really paid off. In many ways she is an easier ride than Quick is, well for one thing she is very obvious when she is going to spook, unlike the Spookaloosa. Quick still has things he needs to work through, plus I did train him to be a trail monster. I feel Foo is well on her way to being a long distance horse, keeping with the same quite consistency at rides would solidify it. Sadly there was no ride photographer since the two that were there last year (Jala and myself) were riding, so no ride photos!