Month: November 2018

This saying hangs in the tack room where Beege lives.  I've seen it every time I go in to fiddle with feed bags, brush boxes, blankets, etc.  Today, however, the message struck a chord because like everyone else I struggle with balancing my time between vocation, avocation, and just being.  The latter is probably the most important but gets the least amount of consideration.

My job takes up most of my time, not just working 40 hours per week but getting ready, commuting are additional time.  Other demands on my time include going to the YMCA 3 times per week to maintain some level of fitness, imagined or real.  Since we don't have servants, we have to clean up after ourselves (where does that clutter monster live anyway?), feed ourselves, which includes thinking about meals, shopping, and actually preparation, plus more cleaning up, doing our own laundry, making the sure the house isn't a pigsty all the time.  On top of that we need adequate sleep, a little down time, plus maybe some planning or preparation for weekend fun.  And the greatest responsibility of all: an Elderly Dog.

Now to the point about horses: when do I fit my two horses into my schedule?  I try to get to the barn a couple evenings a week plus on weekend but I have to make sure that I haven't swam at the Y that morning because Elderly Dog has been in the house by herself all day.  If there's a family or friend event during the week, that either cuts into swimming time or horse time.  Horse time is also 1.5 hours round trip from home if I only visit one of them.  It's two hours if I visit both.  The Y is on the way to work but I probably can't swim that morning because Elderly Dog has been at home all day.

It's also ski season now so instead of spending time with horses each day on the weekend, I'm skiing at least one of the days.  Speaking of seasons, there used to be a seasonality with horse sports or even just riding.  It was similar to ski season or basketball season or hiking season or biking season. When it was dark and rainy we didn't ride (or hike or bicycle); we swam and played basketball or volleyball.  The horses had their shoes pulled and were allowed to hang out in the pasture for the dark and rainy season, which is often November until February.  Now, events are happening all year round, there are indoor arenas and lights and so many things to do no one gets a break even from the fun things.  The danger is that fun things are no longer fun if it turns into a job.

People can engage in their hobbies year round.  If I want to ski in the summer I can by going to New Zealand or Peru.  Or even locally at Mt. Baker or Mt. Rainier to ski the glaciers.   Except around April or May, I'm happy to put the skis away and dust off my bicycle, leg up the horse for summertime riding, put my YMCA membership on hold to trade swimming in chlorine for swimming outside and bicycling.  My job and Elderly Dog are not seasonal; those are everyday responsibilities but to everything else there is a season, including horses.  Everything I've chosen to include in my life make my life whole but no one thing is my whole life.

Yesterday I spent time with both horses. I’d had a riding lesson on Odin the Mustang the previous day and we worked a lot on transitions, mostly to give him the idea of going forward with the lightest of signals: cluck and maybe a tap on his sides with the backs of my calves. Just a tap, no more. He got the idea pretty quickly so we were able to work on turns on the forehand and haunches, which will help with steering. After that he got sticky, i.e. not moving forward with enthusiasm, again so we had a short reminder session that cluck and tap means forward. He remembered and that was the end of the lesson.

These types of transitions work the haunches of a horse. Horses naturally carry themselves on their forehand, which suits them just fine in everyday life. However, riding and performance requires horses to find their balance by using more of their haunches, which requires incremental training and maybe a sore booty at the end of the day.

Yesterday we worked again on trailer loading and hauling a short distance. Odin asks a lot of questions: do I have to? can I do it this way? Ok I’m in but do I have to stay? What if I want to turn around and leave frontwards rather than backing out? You untied the rope, can I leave NOW? In response, I tell him he has to do it this way. It’s for your safety and mine too. You have to wait for me to tell you can leave. Again, it’s for your safety and mine.

Once those questions are answered he loads fine but he still doesn’t like the drive around the block. He was sweaty after I let him out so I did a short ride to cool him out. We walked the perimeter trail of the property, which has crunchy leaves, suspicious blackberry vines hanging into the trail, a dead stick to snort at (did he think it was a snake?) and avenues to get back to his pasture. Every time we passed one of those avenues, he asked if we could go that way, back to his pen. No, we will continue our route to work on your confidence and continue to cool out. Again, this is for your health and well being. We walked mostly around the property but then a farmhand got out the leaf blower. That was too much for me so I got off and we walked the short distance back to the barn. Odin was cool enough to go out to pasture by then, which he happily did.

Then I went to see Beege. I walked to the pasture gate and Beege walked all the way from the far end of the pasture to greet me. I don’t spend much time with him since he’s retired and an excitable Thoroughbred. I don’t want to agitate his arthritis or his brain because it’s hard to get him to let go of his anxiety once we’ve crossed that line so we keep sessions very short. Sometimes that’s not enough for him and I can tell he wants more. Mostly I clicker train him at liberty. We do this little dance: come to me, back up, pick up your feet when I ask, follow me, stop, go right, come to me, back up, touch the flag or plastic bag with your nose. It’s hard to tell him that we’re done because he wants to follow me and do more. I’m working on the signal to stop, which I think will be the back up and stay signal. My preference would be to pet him and love on him a bit before I go but that confuses him so I have to get the petting and scratching done first otherwise he will think there’s more to follow.

I love Beege’s enthusiasm. I wish he was as sound and sensible as Odin. I wish Odin was as motivated as Beege. Maybe he will be in time and ultimately I hope that Beege stays this interested for a good long time.

Day to day, progress seems slow but thinking back over the last few months training Odin the Mustang has gone rather quickly.  I've only had him for 3 1/2 months.  He was well started over 100 days even though there are a million things to do to encourage a horse to be willing and trainable when he was a wild mustang this time last year.  Nothing that has happened to him this year likely crossed his mind a year ago.  He probably thought it was getting rather cold, water might be hard to find, and the forage was sparse but he had his friends and maybe a few enemies to keep an eye on.  That's a full day for a wild horse.

So what's been happening over the last month?  We've gone on a "trail" ride, meaning that I've ridden him on the mowed trail around the property.  The property is over 50 acres and the trail goes through trees, which means walking through dry leaves.  That startled him a bit but Odin handled it well.  He jumped a bit when an old blackberry vine attacked his hind legs but even that incident was short.  We've worked on standing in the cross ties, fully hooked up, committed.  We've worked on trailer loading and took a short drive.  I've ridden him mostly in my English saddle because it's easy and I'm kinda lazy. 

At the beginning of this month, the time changed so there is no daylight after work.  One evening we worked on headlamp training.  Odin has likely never seen artificial light move with a person's head.  It's hard to imagine what he thinks of that.  After initially being startled, he seemed a bit curious about the moving light.  I am less inclined to come to the barn after work.  If I can get out there one work day a week, I'll have to be satisfied.   If it's not raining on the evening I get out there, so much the better.

Last weekend after Odin got in the trailer, we went for a short drive around the block — maybe ten minutes.  He was a sweaty mess when I let him out but he willingly got back in.  And he got back in yesterday.  I left him in there for a few minutes while I went to do other chores, let him out and asked him to go back in.  He likes to distract himself by staring at the tractor, the barking dogs, cars pulling into the parking lot.  I ask him to focus on the task at hand and he does.

Today is sunny and I'll ride this afternoon.  Tomorrow perhaps we'll practice going for a short drive in the trailer.  It's all incremental until it's no big deal.

Beege is doing pretty well, considering he's arthritic.  He still runs around when he feels like it, paces when his pasture buddy leaves.  I've been working on getting him to target a plastic bag.  He's doing fine with that.  With Beege I have to work on the very easy things and for not very long.  After he works himself up it's hard to get him to focus again so I always try to stop before crossing the line.  With Odin, I can cross the line then pretty easily go back to where he's comfortable.

Two months of dwindling light until there will be some hope of evening light again.