This morning Lynx and the dogs and I worked a little on our dressage test for Nationals, then went for a walk and headed back to the barn because Lynx had a massage scheduled! Jaime Hammond came out again too work on him once more time before we head out of town next week.
Lynx of course remembered her and was very interactive and communicative throughout the massage this time. At the beginning he nuzzled my hands and gave me some reciprocal grooming as she stared working on him. By the end he was very politely asking her to spend a little more time on the effleurage of his forearms with a gentle nudge with his nose every time she'd stop.
Lynx also feel asleep for a bit because massage just feels nice.
Happily he got a good report! All the places where he had some tension last time had resolved, and he's built some good correct muscling over the past month. He's in great shape heading into his grand finale for the ReBrand Initiative Trainer's Challenge.
Lynx and I were invited to a group trailride, at a friend's beautiful farm. There were eight horses all together, which is the largest group Lynx has ridden with, not counting the extra large classes at our last horseshow.
Big groups have the potential to be kind of stressful for a green horse, but Lynx once again behaved as a seasoned trail veteran. He led the group at the beginning, even leading the charge down into and across ine of the dry creek beds.
At one point we reached a field with good footing, and our host offered to let us gallop around the perimeter. There were 5 of us who wanted to go, and the other 3 waited at the trail's entrance into the fields. Lynx did so well with this! Galloping in a group also has the potential to get a horse revved up, but Lynx managed to canter/gallop in the front, in the middle of the group, in the back, and it was all very controlled. Impressive stuff for a horse who's only been riding for two months.
We had quite the conversation as we were getting started. To Lynx, despite being in an open field, going fast with a group of horses was very similar to his time at the racetrack. In the beginning he did pick up the canter, but when he realized EVERYONE was going fast, he switched to his pace.
He's remarkably quick in that gait, and was near the front of the pack. I did have him slow down, rebalance, and then pick up the canter again each time he would pace, and by the end he realized what I wanted.
With all the galloping we've done in our fields at home, Lynx was great galloping in the group once he realized it wasn't a pacing race. He also was very easy to bring back to the walk, and was content riding in the back of the group at the walk. This is a good sign that he'd enjoy foxhunting too!
I didn't have the gopro with me today, but at the slower gaits I did take video with my phone. At the end of the ride as we were approaching the trailers again, we encountered the resident guard goose. We have a lot of wild turkeys at our place, but I doubt Lynx has seen many geese, especially one as gregarious as this one!
In true Lynx fashion, he checked it out, decided it was no big deal, and now he's Goose-Proof.
What a fantastic ride! Group galloping, trailriding through fields and the woods, up and down through the creek beds, and meeting a guard goose. What a day!
Lynx and the dogs and I have been going out early in the morning to ride, and today was a walk day. The walk days are just as important as galloping days for physical and mental development!
I'm so lucky to live in a beautiful place with room to ride like this, and to have such a cool horse and dogs. These are good days leading up to Nationals!
This week here in Southern Virginia it's still summer. We're supposed to get near or just over 100 degrees Tuesday through Friday this week. That means EARLY morning rides for Son of a Lynx. Strictly speaking, he doesn't need to do conditioning gallops for anything we'll be doing at the Nationals horseshow. However, he did come to work with me, an eventing trainer, which means he's being introduced to everything from the three phases (plus the additional things good all-around horses have done like trailriding, bridges, cows....)
That includes learning to gallop cross country in the open. We've had several sessions of this now, and he does seem to enjoy it. If I'm precise with my aids he can pick up either lead, and has a fairly natural flying lead change when we change the bend going around corners. Leads and picking up the canter isn't automatic on a circle like in an arena setting yet, but the fact that he's getting it out galloping in the fields means he's figuring out the cues and that will transfer to the arena later. After cantering up and down hills and changing leads through the woods, cantering on flat footing won't be too hard a mental leap. Plus, it's so good for his fitness.
Lynx has figured out the spots where I usually ask for the canter and then gallop, and now associates my voice cues with it. "Trrrot" with clicking my tongue mean trot, and "CAnter" with a kissing noise means canter. Further kissing and adding leg while the rider is in two point means gallop . To stop, I shift my weight and tilt my pelvis back, then take a deep audible exhale. That brings him right down, so we mostly don't need the reins.
It's interesting that the dogs also know all these voice and breathing cues. When I was trail running regularly with Pascal (on foot), when we'd get to a steeper downhill trail I'd do the bigger exhale and he'd slow right down and stay by my side.
My dogs do their best to keep up, but my retired horse training dog, Rizzo, was really the only one who could truly keep up with a galloping thoroughbred back when she was working. Pascal and Mahzi do their best, but Mahzi, at 70 lbs and 14 years old, is like 85 in human years. She justifiably cuts some corners and waits for us where she knows we'll reappear. Pascal mostly takes the same routes we do, but just catches up once we come back to the walk.
I'm nearly there with the gopro video and taking spectators on a gallop
with us. I still need to fix the visor on my helmet so that it doesn't
flap and hit the camera when we're really moving, but at least I've got
some galloping footage with Son of a Lynx and the dogs now! I may need to replace my SD card as this one is quite old and doesn't seem to be able to process the longer videos. Because of that, this gallop video is kind of short, but still gives the viewer the idea of how he gallops in the open. Not necessarily a requirement for a show pleasure horse, but a nice way to pad his resume'.
This video starts with us catching our breath at the walk with the dogs after warming up at the trot. We pick up the gallop not too far into the video.
Just in case you were wondering how he is after he's been galloping - he comes right back to the trot or walk, whatever is asked of him. Then we stroll around the fields on a loose rein to cool out, the dogs catch up with us, and eventually we make our way back to the barn. If you don't mind me singing (I have some music going on my phone while the gopro is recording) you can ride Lynx's cool out with us here:
The Crystal Creek Piedmont Horseman's Association open horseshow this weekend was a little over an hour away, and it was a blessedly uneventful drive. Lynx and I entered the English halter class, I wasn't expecting to have eight horses in the class! That was about how it went all morning, eight to ten horses in each of our classes. Considering Lynx has only ridden with up to two other horses in the ring at a time, this was a big new experience!
The halter class went as well as could be expected. I neglected to explain to him about trotting in hand ahead of time, so we just paced in hand. The judge recognized him as a Standardbred from his pace as well as his brand, which could be seen more easily since I'd braided him. She said she's a huge Standardbred fan, and was really happy to see I'd brought him today.
After halter we got tacked up and then rode all over the grounds and warmed up in the arena. A large poster flapping on the gate startled a horse in front of us, and Lynx just quietly slowed down and gave the horse the side eye as if to silently judge him for spooking. Of course Lynx would have seen all kinds of things at the track, so posters flapping, the sound system, other horses going all directions, traffic, none of it was a problem for this chill gelding.
I didn't expect the classes to be quite so large for the walk/trot groups, and I didn't realize that they allowed cross-entries. I'd entered Lynx in walk/trot because he's been cantering at home, but I want him to be more confident and balanced before doing it at a show, especially in a large group. However, because they had cross entries, that meant every other horse in our classes was experienced with cantering and was also in the walk/trot/canter classes. Considering the large class sizes (for a local open show) Lynx did really well!
We earned ourselves a fistful of ribbons, and I went back to the show office to pay my tab and get checked out. I told Mary in the office how well run and efficient the show was, and that we'd had a lot of fun! I was able to shake hands with the judge as well and thank her for the long day judging. I've done that job and it's a lot of work! Lastly I found the show photographer, and was able to talk to her about how to get the photos once they are posted.
I was just clearing up the last of our stuff back at the trailer when I heard my name being said over the loudspeaker, and something about Son of a Lynx. I didn't catch what it was about though, so I headed back to the show office. When I got there to my surprise I discovered Lynx and I had won reserve champion for our division for the day, which came with a rather large ribbon! I'm so glad I heard our names and went back!
It was a great day with a great horse. Considering he has less than 60 days of riding training on him, I'm wildly impressed and proud of Lynx. We may have one more local show next weekend, and one more trail ride, then we get busy packing for Nationals in New Jersey!
We're planning to go to an open show tomorrow, so I wanted to just have a fun ride this morning with Lynx, then give him a bath. The dogs came with us, Pascal keeping up pretty well even during our trot sets and cantering, elderly Mahzi wisely cutting corners when needed.
When we were done we walked back to the barn and untacked, we all had a drink of water, and then I gave Lynx a bath. Thankfully he's close enough to dirt colored that it's not a big project. When I was a kid I showed paint and pinto with a medicine hat patterned mare named Docs Bit of Honey, and yes the barn is named after her. I certainly paid my dues in scrubbing with purple whitening shampoo all summer for years in order to do showmanship... sometimes I'm surprised my fingers aren't still stained purple!
Anyway, Lynx stood like a champ for his scrub, only moving when those darn humongous horse flies would go after him. Mostly I could hit and squash them once they'd landed on Lynx, which he very much appreciated. There must be something about him that they like extra well, because they don't go after my other horses like they do him. Everyone is about the same color (it really is bay watch around here), eating the same food (just in slightly different amounts), and if anything Lynx gets bug spray and swat applied more frequently because he gets hosed off more often being in training. Another question for the ages.
He's mostly clean now anyway, and his tail conditioned, detangled, and shiny. We're ready for our next batch of show photos! He got turned back out with his friends and they all wandered back out to the pasture.
