Finding solutions!

Oh my sweet man...I literally am in love with this handsome boy.

We worked out in the big field on the lunge and he was 100% on point and honest.

 Took a stroll down the road...

Ate some tall grasses

All reward for him. He did so so well in our second part of our conversation...

Laz and I had a follow up lesson with our Parelli trainer on Tuesday evening.

We started on the ground and ended up riding it out.

The goal was to create patterns and get forward movement. 

Laz (thankfully) demonstrated what I was having a hard time with; him wanting to listen to my request to move forward, away from his herd mate.

My trainer had me work on keeping his nose tipped (not yanked in) towards me on the ground. She had me ask for a forward trot and/or canter and if he didn't respond to slooowly and loosely use my stick to show him my ask, by a slow and exaggerate way of circling my arm behind me and forward, ending with the stick pointing at him. It worked. It gave him fair time to see my action and make the choice himself to go forward. I got a lot of snorting, and breathing out from him which was great.

We decided it was time to saddle up. I also rode him in my new bridle and D ring snaffle bit to make sure my trainer thought he looked calm/comfie in it for when/if I want to use it vs his bitless. I'm not giving up on bitless, just adding to my options. I'll use all in rotation as I feel I need it.

He did great in the bridle/bit.

So, when we started, he did hesitate on my ask for him to walk out of pasture and toward the grassy side of the road,  and then did his complete stop and turn back, in our ride. So instead of leg/leg/leg, my trainer followed along side with my stick. Laz does not, nor should he fear my stick. It's used as guidance and for happy rubs as reward. So she lightly bumped (note--no whipping) his hind to encourage forward, as I concentrated on looking WHERE I wanted to go--focus and ask with my leg and body. When he went forward, we released any asking pressure, and when we got to our spot, we stopped and gave him rewards with rest, grazing. We worked on spot to spot riding, which was about the distance of half of his large pasture. I rode from a grassy spot to my neighbors mailbox (no mailboxes were harmed) and back. The exercise was to make the mailbox which was the spot furthest from the barn and his calling buddy, the reward. We would then trot, or allow him to canter if he kept his cool back to the grassy spot, turn right away and come right back to mailbox. Rest/reward. We did that about 5 times and then called it a day. It's all about ending on a great note. She had me dismount at the mailbox and pet/praise him and then we walked back to the barn together. 

I was so pleased. I will be working on this more and more.

A funny thing, today when I drove to the barn, I approached the road mailbox that we did break...and the guy was out there fixing it. I pulled over and told him I was the girl who left him the note and how sorry I was. He was SO kind and said he totally appreciated that I was honest and he often enjoyed watching me, Laz and Mason amble down the road. He was shocked that my normally plodding pony ripped on his mailbox. I laughed and said I was as well. I offered again to pay for any new materials and he said it was an easy fix and no harm for a couple of new screws. 

WHEW...

Hopefully no more mailbox murders in our future.

The whipping boy

Last week the weather was a mix of 90 and 60's. I took advantage of the one hot day and gave Laz a nice liniment bath and scrubbed him down, knowing it would probably be his last bath of the season. He used to hate baths, and he now really enjoys them. Just stands and lip laps at the water

So, yea..well, I guess I got yesterday's dirt off.

Someone was literally quite pleased with himself

"Now i reelly cleanz"

Mid week I saw a 5k and a 10k race in Kensington, which is the park I board near. I thought, HEY, this is perfect..we (Billy and I) could do this together and Laz had a farrier appointment at Noon. 

Run, Laz, Lunch-YES!

So, we did. 

I have a love affair with Kensington and I thought it would be the coolest place to do my FIRST 5k in.

It was! The race was small but soooo beautiful and fun. So many positive, encouraging people with Cider, fruit and sandwiches at the end. Oh, and a medal, and an UGLY sweatshirt that I will literally cut into for rags.

After our race.

Billy is an avid runner. I is not.

When I ran (well, when anyone did) across the finish line, they announce your name/age/where you live. It was very cool. I know that isn't new ..but for me, it was!

I ran as much as I could, but walked a lot too. Finished in 37:54

Billy after his 10K cooling off along the lake

Then it was time for Laz to get recasted. We did the same double cast and he grew about an inch of heel--HOORAH!

***

Sunday Funday!

J9 and Kaspin  came to meet us at our barn for a hopeful trail ride. It was raining so we decided to just play and see what transpired. We didn't want to get caught out in a storm/downpour especially since Kaspin is a newbie at trails.

Can you believe that I randomly met J9 at a clinic about 4 years ago and we live about 1 mile apart and board about 20 minutes apart. Crazy. She's been SO awesome to us in our Parelli training and just overall support! I just adore her.

So, we warmed the boys up in the front pasture.

Laz was giving me some indications that he wasn't pleased that his pasture mate Pito wasn't around

Here he is handsomely staring at Pito

"HALP!!"

The sun poked through so we decided to tack up and do a bit of road riding to help expose Kaspin.

Well..Kaspin was TREMENDOUS from start to finish. J9 has done some amazing things for him, it's truly remarkable. I had thought "Ohhh, we will be soooo good for your newbie boy because we do this allll the time" 

Boy did I eat my words. Laz acted like he has never left his pasture. EVER.

He literally would put the brakes on, try Quarter horse spinning around and ignoring ALL my leg/rein asks to want to go back to Pito.

He was 100000% ignoring me.

I was beyond frustrated and embarrassed.

Thankfully J9 helped me through it and we FINALLY got Laz to lead  er FOLLOW the 'newbie' Kaspin who thankfully wasn't feeding into Laz's high strung behavior.

 Yes, that's me below, with a whip/crop made of a branch.

That I used. A LOT. ughhh

I had to literally "beat the sh*t" out of my horse (I kidd of course..wait, do I?) to get him from stopping swirling around to try to run back to his pasture. It was ridiculous. He was not scared, he was not in pain, he was truly wanting to be sour.

I would gently ask for him to continue forward. He would ignore, I would ask again, he would ignore following with a "I'll just turn opposite super quick" and I had to crop his shoulder until he turned to where I was asking. I ended up having to match his intensity which I hate doing.
But it worked and he ended up shaking his head, processing it, and settling down a bit more.

I had to take many mental breaks. Pauses. I wanted to reset him as well. I would start again. Asks and suggest and then TELLS. The reason the 'tells' came into play??? 

He literally ran INTO a mailbox and then broke it off. 

Ya, don't worry...I didn't at all feel like a DumbA## leaving a note in their smashed box of "Sorry my horse rammed into your mailbox, I'm happy to pay for repairs"

He kept ramming me into tree branches, or would step too close to water pipes in the ground. He literally was acting up one of the worst ways I've ever had him do.

I don't know what got into him but I do know this; for a while now, he's been testing me and Sunday it blew up in my face.

 We just continued down the road, and worked on going forward, and listening to my cues. J9 suggested turning around and walking and then circling back and walking him opposite and he FINALLY calmed down and listened.

Even the whole way back, he felt slightly annoyed with me and much more fast paced than when he and I ride either alone, with Mason, or with Pito.

It was just off. We were off. I was sooo disappointed that I had to crop my horse and even more disappointed that he was not listening to me

We did end it all on a good note, with the two boys grazing on our return, so we dismounted and ended it. Kaspin was an A+ student and Laz was a pot smoking D student. 

Scratch that. Laz is an A student..his teacher (me) failed him.

I have a lesson scheduled this week to help me work this kink out.

It was eating at me ALL day yesterday. So much that I was telling my Husband about it while we walked the pups. He really didn't get it until I said "It's like in a heated game of Basketball, and your star Forward asks your Guard, in front of you as the Coach, what play to play?"

He was like "Oh.  Wow."

Anyway, I had to really work on letting it go. I actually saw this and decided, in the end, he did make good choices. It just took awhile.

We'll see what my trainer is able to offer me for this behavior so I can earn his trust and confidence during our rides, at any time. 

Build the partnership instead of us fighting 

He clearly wanted to be just be back in his pasture with his friend and not listen to me. I want him to be able to make decisions but then also trust when I need to make one for us.

After all, this is a team sport.

SnowBunnies

I'm glad that I can approach my resting pony without the stomach dropping fear of "omg why is he laying down?!"  I know him, I know his napping times and this was just one of them. It took a while for me to get here..to let go of fear a bit.  

It had snowed a lot the night before with high winds and low temps so I had blanketed him. He was warm and happy to shed his rug and roll in the snow

We rode a bareback hack. The pasture was literally too pretty to ride in, so I left it alone and we went for a ride down the road

I mean, sometimes, you just can't beat nature or mess it up

We had such powdery snow to plow through, what a good work out for Laz and Mason

 Playing in a side field along the road, where Laz was pawing at the snow threatening to roll

I had to steer him past it as he full on ROLLED with me in the water only last month...I didn't want to test his 'want' again

 Look at how much snow we have already, it's beautiful

 Bare toes

 Relaxing

"I iz sleepin nows..you go homez"

On Saturday, I took a bunch of videos of our ground work for an online lesson I'll have with my Parelli trainer coming up this week. SO excited! For $25 she helps with any 'issues' or sticky spots and we have one going on.

It's minor but I want to nip it in the bud before it escalates  Laz is tossing his head and doing this physical 'thing'..it's not a buck, it's not a crow hop, it's like snaking his head side to side, tossing out his front legs, forward and semi crow hopping/baby threatening bucks.

At any rate, he did it on the trails this past Fall, and lately in our winter work so, I want/need help with it. Looking forward to what she has to say :)

Sunday, I got video of us riding, and dealing with said situation

But despite the tiny misbehaving moments caught on our youtube, Laz was such a good boy...

 We road rode (lol!) and played in the thick soft snow

I used our treeless and need to take the stirrups down a couple of notches-yipes

 Working through some deeper snow/brush aka making a good trail pony :)

 Some trot work (girl, keep you head UP)

 Some stills from our ride

Dressage anyone?! ;)

In all seriousness, he is acting very coltish and I want to know how to handle this. 

It reads as soooo small on video but under saddle it feels big and STRONG

I just want to know 'why?'

Do I channel it? Do I push through? Do I stop him? etc etc...we'll see after we skype to discuss 

The side tossing of his head side to side, in a bareback situation makes it VERY hard to stay on

Being he did this a lot more on our rides, I want to contain/change it now before it turns into a nasty habit.

Speaking of coltish, doesn't Laz look like a 3 yr old below?! 

He's a handsome 11 yrs old :)

Another video still and maybe a favorite photo... what a handsome boy

Speaking of handsome, what better view than your man riding your fuzzy horse

Billy is 6'3" for size comparison, he makes Laz look like a pony. We just walked around and I stuck by Laz's head as Billy got to enjoy 'the feeling' of Laz walking

So cute :) 

You have to appreciate a non horsey hubbie willing to come out to the barn to video tape while he misses football.  

The Lions suck anyway, right??? ;)

 Laz eating his warm mash of hay cubes, beet pulp, spirulina and chia seed

 Not one calorie was burned ;)

Gallop into December

Sometimes things can come full circle.

About 4.5 years ago, I had the major ITCH to start riding again. I started looking at horses to lease and found a great person through Craigslist and we totally bonded. My friend Sam had several horses and she wanted a lessor riding  buddy. We are the same age and it was such a fun fit. From that experience is how I met Laz (when he was dropped off at our farm along with 44 other OTTB's HOT off the track to be sold or sent to slaughter)

I adopted Laz, we moved barns and my friend started her own riding barn about an hour away.

We have always stayed in touch and finally had set a date to meet up and ride.

She trailer-ed her 17.2 WB Seeley, and had a friend and her paint pony join in.

4 years later and we ride again

I had rode Laz for a good 35 minutes to warm him up. He's been WIRED lately with loads of TB energy and just keeps testing me with naughty "IMZ SOOO EXCITEDZZZ" squeals and shoulder pops/neck snaking. So much so, that I need to re-align his bitless to make sure we are still 'connected' lol

Off to the trails

 Sweaty boy. 

Laz did quite well being he's never ridden with these two horses OR MET even except for our way to the trail.  He was a bit more drama llama but still lead the majority of the way, but with much more Arab action (snorty, arched neck, prancy moves)

 Ex-Eventer Seeley loooves to RUN and Laz quickly picked up on this and race time was 'game on.'

Not what I wanted or intended. There are parts of the trail where it's fun to canter, but Laz would racehorse LEAPT into a flat gallop the second he saw Seeley getting ready, and I had to use everything to re balance him and bring him down a bit. He was in racer mode which was fine, but he was listening more to Seeley than me at that point, which was not OK.

 Towards the end, as dusk was approaching and I had a pretty wet horse, I had to remind the group "UH, we need to cool these crazy monkies OUT and Laz needs a mental stop on the racing" 

I'm not into having a wet horse at the end of a ride...or having a crazy amped horse during the trail who now wanted to RUN everything.

This little pony was super chill the whole time, lol

 My friend had brought dinner, loads of delic appetizers; hummus  tabbouli  grape leaves, home made fallefal, etc. I brought a bottle of  South African Foodbarn Rose. YUM

 And our ride below;

Not a bad way to welcome in the winter that is soon to approach

Now, I have some training thinking to do, of how to keep Laz interested in trail riding while maintaining his manners and remaining with me as a partner...stay tuned