Introducing Cattle

This morning I was able to haul Lynx to Chris's family farm to ride, and I was given permission by the neighbor to ride Lynx around his cattle.  My goal for today was simply to have Lynx see, smell, and be in the same area as the cows.  Especially since it was just me with Lynx and he didn't have a buddy horse to show him the ropes, I wanted this to be a really boring introduction to cows.  

 

 

I'm happy to report we had great success!  First we cruised around the farm a bit to look at the the old farm equipment and see the old buildings.  Lynx handled everything like a pro, even letting me grab his ears to squish deer flies that landed on them.  At one point I wasn't sure if a wire gate was open or not, so we started down a little narrow trail and then saw it was closed.  Lynx was great, I asked him to back, and he just maneuvered his way backwards out of the little trail and then we turned around.

https://youtu.be/kHGJN7ymcHQ 

 

We then rode in the fields in the vicinity of the cows, so he could smell them and get a good look.  At one point we were in a field next to the cows with some trees and a fence between us, and the cows were wallowing in a pond.  As we approached, not one but FOUR great blue herons took off.  The flapping and squawking startled the cows who began lumbering around and sloshing through the mud to make their way out of the water.  Lynx did his "big spook", which is when he kind of hops in place, putting one foot in each direction, just in case.  He then just stared through the tree branches and assessed the situation.  Deciding it wasn't an emergency after all, he resumed his walk through the field.

When we eventually made our way into the cattle's field, I had to dismount to get us through a wire gate.  I don't like to do wire gates from horseback because of the hazards of wire around horse's legs.  Lynx was fine with this, and was very mannerly about going exactly where I gestured so I could refasten the gate behind us.  I then remounted from the ground, and that was the first time Lynx has been mounted without a mounting block.  Again, no big deal, he just waited for me to get situated and then we carried on.  I normally like to use a mounting block because it's so much easier on the human, the horse's back, and the saddle, but when trail riding like this it's not always possible.  So it's a definite bonus to have a horse that can be mounted from a block or from the ground when necessary.

Once we were in the field with the cows, we walked along the edge of the grass until the cows and Lynx noticed each other.  Initially Lynx walked and watched, and the cows leisurely wandered away from us.  We never got too close, again because I was aiming for a boring introduction to these livestock.  At one point, though, the cows got curious about us.  They all gradually turned as one to face us, and began walking towards us as a giant black mass.  It was right about then that I could feel Lynx's heart start pounding.  It's a funny sensation when a horse is truly on alert, because you feel the horse's heart beating almost as though the girth and saddle are vibrating.  

 https://youtu.be/8B3dDKqmFkI?si=R6hxAyiKk6Ui76L4

When something has the potential to really scare a horse, I try to make sure I continue talking to him throughout the experience.  This is for a couple reasons, the main one being that I don't want him to forget he has a human he knows riding him.  It could be much more exciting than anyone wants if the horse forgets he's being ridden, I move, and then he panics thinking that a predator has somehow gotten onto his back.  I continued talking to Lynx, and he listened to me and never did get too anxious.  Ultimately he took a step or two towards the cows, which caused them to all slowly turn around and move away from us.  That was all Lynx needed for reassurance, and he calmed down to watch the last of the cows and calves trot by to join the main group.

We then proceeded to go back out the field the way we entered, again dismounting and remounting and of course closing the gate behind us.  We toured a few more fields on our way back to the main house, and then went down the driveway over the wooden bridge to where I'd parked the horse trailer. 

https://youtu.be/1BNtQIduzvc?si=_MCTrgE7drAKdgkn

Lynx sure did well for his first time riding at this location, first time seeing this much farm equipment and old buildings, first time seeing cows, first time walking over a bridge, and doing it all on his own with only me for moral support.  No dogs, no other horses, he just trusted me to keep it all in hand and we had a great time.

Once we got home again Lynx paused before hopping out of the trailer, almost as if to ask, "do we have to be done?  This was a fun field trip!"

Building Gmnastic Exercises

I had Chris here to help me this morning, and the footing was good enough that Son of a Lynx and I could do some gymnastics work at home. It helps so much to have someone who is willing to be ground crew, rearranging jumps and replacing poles that get knocked down.  Saves me a lot of time and getting off and on!!

Here's the first thing we set up:

This gets the horse warmed up, being careful with his feet, and introducing the idea of multiple obstacles in a row.  I have it set along the side of the ring, so you can ride around it warming up, but it's basically along the wall.

Next we worked on going over two crossrails, with one stride between them.   After watching the video back I realized they need to be a bit closer together, to make the spacing more easily achievable for him.  For now, though, when the jumps are so small I don't mind weird distances.  They teach him to think through the footwork, which gives him the skills to reason through difficult distances.  It also transfers into work outside the arena, giving him the idea of how to navigate difficult footing or terrain out on trails.  

The third step is to give him a couple ground poles to a small vertical.  This shows him a different shape of jump, and a different line as this one goes through the diagonal of the ring.  The ground pole under the vertical stays there, to give the horse a visual of a ground line, which helps him assess how high the jump is. 

When we raised the red vertical we kept the ground pole under it as the ground line, and removed the middle ground pole to give him more room for take off.

Then we start putting it all together as a course!  First we jump through the green and blue crossrails, then trot around the end of the ring, and go over the red vertical.

 

Lastly we use the same jumps, changing only the green to be a vertical, and sort of do the course backwards.  I try to do everything from both directions to keep the horse as symmetrical as possible, and teach him how to jump things no matter which way we approach it.

Here's the video of the whole thing at the end of the ride.  Lynx figures things out so quickly, we rarely need to do any steps more than once or twice, and then he has it.  It helps that it's a very logical and systematic progression, so he can anticipate what comes next and get it correct with very few repetitions.  He does also have such a big stride, and can really lift his legs up while still in the trot to go over most of these small jumps.  Once the jumps get bigger he'll start jumping them more normally instead of kind of climbing over them at the trot, but introducing all the ideas, the styles of jumps, the footwork, can all be done over small fences.  This is much less pounding on his body, though it's a definite plus that he's 10, sound, and done growing so I don't have to worry so much about developing joints!  

https://youtu.be/RSS5xFjCOog?si=H4uQqUZvLgIfKyso 

 

I love starting "older" horses under saddle (like not two to four year olds) for many reasons.  They are physically mature and can handle more physical workouts.  They are mentally mature and have much longer attention spans than babies.  Even if it's the same amount of time in a workout, I can put more information into the session without overwhelming an adult horse.  It's especially nice to have off the track horses because they've already seen so much of the world and life, that the stuff I introduce isn't scary or threatening, it's just another interesting thing to learn.  

Son of a Lynx is really an incredible example of what a Standardbred can learn and accomplish in a very short time.  He has everything going for him:  age, looks, intelligence, truly sensible temperament, and is learning how to be a sporthorse incredibly quickly.  He's quite the ambassador for the breed!  As Nationals at the Horse Park of New Jersey approaches, I'm getting excited to show him off, exhibit him with only a few weeks under saddle and show what he already can do, and in a calm and confident manner! 

Looking back through the blog, his first ride/first sit was on July 11, making tomorrow exactly four weeks of riding.  He's trail riding alone or in groups, with or without dogs, in any position in the line.  He hauls to friend's places and the vet, went to a horse show and won a bunch of ribbons, and is now jumping small courses and gymnastic exercises both at home and in other places, in an arena and out in the fields.  That is a LOT to have learned in just one month!  We've got five more weeks until Nationals, and with all he's already accomplished I'm really eager to see what he'll be doing by then!

Jumping Progress

In a severe storm last night, my place was dumped on with rain.  The thunder felt like it was sitting on top of my house, and a couple times I thought I should check to make sure none of the nearby outbuildings was hit by lightning!

Everything was fine, and my horses were nonplussed.  They just enjoyed the cool rain after a hot day, my three grazing in the storm, with Son of a Lynx hunkered down in the shelter of a tree.  I reminded myself that they were in thunderstorms like this all the time in Colorado, so no big deal to them being outside.  We got several inches of rain in a short period of time, and my place still had standing water the next morning.  Good for the pasture, not as good for footing to ride in!

 

Thankfully my photographer friend Lena O'Brian invited us to ride at her place again, and while she'd had the lightning and thunder, no rain had fallen to make the fields slick.  She was kind enough to not only set up some jumps for us, but also be ground crew while we rode, fixing poles we knocked down., AND she took photos and video of us!  We're so grateful to have her nearby!

 

Son of a Lynx has seen jumps and poles many times now, but because of the footing situation at my place, today was the first we really could really have a proper jump school.  I introduced him to distances, bigger crossrails, small verticals, even walking over tires.  It's a lot to learn how to balance while carrying a rider, trotting around turns, and then adding obstacles to hop over!  This made for a complicated enough ride that Lynx was definitely interested in the questions I was asking him.

It started well, with us walking around each of the jumps in both directions so he could see everything out of each eye.  We also had the good opportunity to ride with Lena's daughter as well as our friend Kathy, so Lynx is getting the experience of riding with other horses in the ring with him.  It's important that he sees others working and occasionally jumping over fences, and doesn't get worried or excited about what the others are doing.

Once he had a good look at everything I got him warmed up with some trotting, which he pretty much picks up right away now without pacing first.   We then trotted over the small verticals and crossrails so he had a chance to jump each thing individually.  You can see in the approach photos that he's really starting to "hunt" the fences, which means he's begun looking for which jump is next, and focusing in on that one.

Because we've done the ground pole work and so much incorporating cross rails into our regular rides around the fields, Lynx is very adept at lifting each foot high enough to get over the obstacle.  He can trot over most of these like they are cavalletti, taking them in stride.  I don't mind this at all in the beginning.  When we're just starting like this I'm only asking for forward and straight, and to go over each thing.  It doesn't have to be pretty, he just has to get over it calmly and learn how best to maneuver his body, including each of his four legs.  It's always a little humorous to watch them at these very beginning stages, because you can almost see the horse counting in his head, "one, two, three....  now wait, there's a fourth leg to get over this pole?!"  Eventually as I raise the jumps higher and he physically MUST jump to clear it, he'll actually do more "jumping" and less "stepping", but for now the goal is to go over them calmly and straight. The jump will come later once they are bigger.

I let him do it however he wants the first couple times we try it, and then I start offering suggestions to him to make it easier.  For example, this crossrail was small enough that he COULD trot over it in stride, but he could also jump it.  I helped him to see his distance to jump it by using my voice, repeating the word "ready?"  with each stride, and then making a kissing noise when he should take off for the jump.  This helped him a lot, and he started hopping things once I assisted him like this.

As with every horse new to jumping (and in his case, even still very new to riding itself!), there are always a few bloopers.  This cross rail he did fine a couple times, and then he got distracted on an approach and forgot about steering for a second.  I don't let them go around it in these situations, I kept him aimed at it even though he was too crooked.  He ended up hitting the poles and the standard with the side of his body, knocking the whole thing to the ground.  Then he calmly walked over what was now oddly spaced ground poles.   

No big deal, it's all learning how to play the game.  In general horses don't like to knock things over or hit things with their feet and legs, so there's no need for me to discipline him or make a scene.  I just had him try again, and look how he focused in on the jump this time on the approach!

He zoned in on the jump, found the middle, and hopped right over.  This horse is a problem solver, and as long as I, the rider, don't stress him out about mistakes, he figures it out and does it right on the second try.

He's figuring out how to lift feet together, first the fronts, then the backs.

I'm happily starting to get a few nice canter strides after we land from some of these jumps.  I think this is how he'll start cantering under saddle.  When he figures out jumping and gymnastics are more easily done from a canter I'll encourage it when he makes that realization.  When he was harness racing he was pulling a cart, and the horses aren't allowed to canter in that situation.  He doesn't yet realize that he is allowed to do it in this new riding job, but when he does he'll have it.  He's given me a few good canter strides so far, and I'll continue to encourage it.  He's very naturally picking up the correct leads for which direction we're going, which tells me his balance is coming along well too.

Here's the video from his last "course" today. He was getting a little tired, which is why he knocked down the fences he did, but ended well with a good effort over the last one.

https://youtu.be/AZTqluSWgt8 

 

After we were done, Lena had us line up like at a horse show at the end of the class for ribbons and placings to be announced.  We all had a little giggle at the size of Lynx's personal space bubble.  He didn't want to walk up too close to Dylan, even though they know each other.  When Kathy rode Dylan a little closer to us, Lynx would carefully and politely sidepass away until he had the space he wanted between them.  This little scenario played out several times just like that, and then Lena just took the photo while we all laughed.

We cooled out with a ride around Lena's farm, Lynx was in the back this time.  I want him to learn to be in any position in the line, front, middle, or behind, so if his future owner wants to trail ride with him he's good in any spot.

 Once we got home I let him loose in his stall and run area, and he had himself a long drink.  He's been good about drinking when we travel, but there's nothing like your water in your tank at home.

Bareback Hack Around the Fields

I had an appointment this morning, so Son of a Lynx and I went for a quick ride around the fields in the bareback pad this morning. He did great, once more behaving as though riding without a saddle was something he does everyday.  I am so impressed with him, he is such a sensible creature and takes each new thing in stride.  

I feel like he has the rare skill set of being able to think through new questions and obstacles eclearly and quickly.  I often spend a lot of time teaching horses how to be brave in the face of new stuff.  When they are faced with something unexpected, they can handle it because they are accustomed to new things, not just that one particular new thing.  For example, tarps.  I don't care if a horse ever wants to walk on a tarp, I want to teach him how to handle himself in the face of novel situations, and exposing him to things like tarps helps with that.

https://youtu.be/NJx_8Gabpwg?is=WGjZtN14v-Wo_c46

Starting Cavaletti and Gymnastics

It's been soggy here since we've had some rain, which is fantastic news for my pasture and has also made my place kind of a slick and muddy mess.  I try to be careful with footing when even small jumps are involved, especially for a horse still figuring out the footwork.  

As a result we only did a very little bit today, though I did introduce cavalletti, and the idea of a bounce through crossrails.  We started just walking through the poles, then did a little trot through.

https://youtu.be/urT4mDSkFMw?is=Rcyt8XSTMDeYkGDM

Here's a little gopro video from the ride this morning.  Apparently I still need to angle the camera down a little more so that you can see Lynx's head and ears and not just a screen full of cloudy sky....  But at least it's something!

https://youtu.be/WJ2ncdDUNzM