I set up the arena with a free jumping chute this morning to get some photos and videos, and decided to send Note through. I couldn't remember if I'd done it with him before, but he definitely remembered! I walked him through once with all ground poles, and he very clearly knew what we were doing. So I set everything up as small jumps and let him go! Kimberly Hale Photography took the photos and video.
This first photo I love because he poses so nicely over the small oxer of crossrails. Head down, knees up, ears forward. It's a very small fence but he makes it look classy.
The vertical was also fairly small, but he jumped it nicely.
When I realized he definitely had done it before, I made the last fence larger.
Note happily cleared everything I set up, he's a very tidy jumper.
Here is the video of his last run through the chute:
It's fun to see what my horses can do all on their own. To my chagrin, when I went to save these photos in Note's 2021 folder on my computer I realized I didn't have any other photos of him this year! He's quite out of shape since I haven't done anything with him, but at least he enjoyed himself over fences today.
This
time of year I sure miss trail riding. Here are my three Thoroughbreds
on long distance rides, Highboy and Raven are always barefoot and never
have had issues, Note wears front shoes for rocky terrain.
One for Nothing, Note, at Beaver Ponds at Jack's Gulch up Poudre Canyon in Northern Colorado before the fires in 2020.
Note at Fort Robinson in Crawford, Nebraska in 2019
Colorado High, Highboy, on Pronghorn Loop at Soapstone Prairie in Northern Colorado in 2015
Highboy at Mueller State Park in Colorado with a view of Pikes Peak in the background in 2018
Raven at Red Mountain Open Space in Northern Colorado in 2020
Raven at Crested Butte in Colorado in 2018
We'll get back to trail riding once the weather improves....
This past weekend Owen and I took Rizzo and Note to Jack's Gulch up in Poudre Canyon for a long weekend of trail riding. As usual Owen ran on foot, and I rode. Rizzo stuck right with us for all 26 miles over the weekend!
Thursday we arrived and got settled in, and Note had a wild temper tantrum in his stall/paddock because he thought this was the strangest horse race to which he'd ever been hauled. He eventually gave it up and decided to eat his hay bag instead. The next morning we got up early and I tacked Note for the day's ride. He began the ride doing airs above ground, excited and cantankerous and ready to argue with me over every shadow and small puddle he needed to pass. This included rearing up, spinning around, and double-barrel kicking at nothing in particular.
Due to a small error on my part where we went right instead of left at one of the intersections after the trailhead, our first day trip ended up being much longer than we had planned. It consisted of extremely rocky terrain with steep hills, drop-offs, water crossings, bridges, and excessive mud (I dismounted to get Note through it and sunk up to my knee!). However, by the end of the nearly three hour ride over thirteen miles Note was truly mentally and physically tired. He would casually glance at a shadow and walk past. He'd notice a puddle and avoid it. He actually stood, tired, and ate his mash and hay quietly once we returned to camp!
Saturday we did a shorter, six mile, ride to the three main water crossings through the river which was quite low. I practiced going in and out of the water with Note, as well as walking around in the water. The first dozen or so attempts at water I ended up backing him in because he had decided that he would refuse to go in the normal way. This meant I backed him down banks, over rocks, down stairs made of tree roots, over all kinds of odd entries. The hikers watching gave me odd looks, and Owen explained to them that he didn't want to go in forwards, so I took him in backwards. Backwards wasn't as scary for him since his "guns" went into the water first. After repeatedly entering and exiting the river from all angles and directions Note finally just gave it up and walked in and out like a civilized creature.
Luckily we had Rizzo to show us how it was done.
On Sunday we did one last ride in the morning before we had to leave the campsite. This one was the trail I'd originally intended to do as our first go. It had a long stretch of good footing, where we could trot and canter with logs down all over the trail. It essentially looked like one of the complicated gymnastics I set up in the arena at home, with logs shaped like ground poles and small jumps at all angles. Note had some really nice footwork, trotting through some and bouncing through at the canter at others. He seemed relieved to have something familiar to do! There was one other spot with a larger fallen tree across the trail, which required Note to actually canter and jump it. He seemed so pleased and confident going over something he'd seen before at home. As a bonus, this last ride also went through all the same water crossings we'd done the previous days, so he had another chance to do it forwards.
This trip was a blast. Note really needed the long trail with extreme technicality to realize that he should ration his energy and skip the temper tantrums. I wouldn't usually ride a horse this hard when they are new to trail riding, but Note has never been a usual horse. This worked out really well and now I can officially say Note is another Mountain Thoroughbred!
A last minute decision led me to take Ferriana out to the back pasture to gallop and jump a little, and Kim H was walking with Sara at the time. Since Kim H had her camera on her she took a few pics of me and Ferriana during our impromptu cross country school.
This next photo is a great illustration of why it's difficult to ride Ferriana over fences - she is so extremely careful with her hind end that it's easy to get popped out of the tack on landing.
I also rode Note this morning with Gillian on Silver and Sara on Dancer.
Silver was looking dapper in pink, with a borrowed pink browband to top off the ensemble.
Dancer did ok as well, and Sara did take her to hack around the back forty after we were done riding. I need to take a look at how Dancer's saddle is fitting her. She's been avoiding standing still for mounting, and was a bit grumpy for getting girthed up prior to her ride. Most of the time those two behaviors are the horse trying to say that the saddle doesn't fit quite right. She also had been very heavy on her forehand, taking long steps with her front legs and short ones with her hind legs. This results in her putting her head down, but not lifting her back. Another good example of why "headset" is not a good indicator of hind end engagement.
Over the past couple weeks we've been working on an exercise that improves steering and introduces corner jumps to the horses. The object is to go exactly through the middle of the green X made of ground poles, and then raise the center of the X. Once that is going well you can add in other cross rails in front and after the X. Eventually I raise the outsides of the green X poles so that the horse is jumping a corner. But you have to start slowly, with something small and manageable like ground poles.
It's a deceptively difficult exercise. The more experienced horses like Sam, Beauty, and Silver were able to figure out the game quite quickly. Ferriana has taken a disliking to small jumps (spending too much time with Highboy, perhaps?) and was leaping over the X in an entirely uncivilized manner. She also told me she needed her teeth looked at again, too. This first photo shows her agitation at trying to bend left, which she physically couldn't do with her teeth as they were. She had a dental done in April, but occasionally equine teeth will hyper-erupt, meaning that a large amount of tooth will grow into the mouth. When this happens the wear on the teeth isn't even, which caused her great difficulty sliding her jaw. That prevented her from bending left through her whole body and caused some dramatic moments while jumping.
This one looks like her best Tennessee walking horse impression (she's actually half hanoverian and half dutch warmblood).
And this one was just plain awkward! It cracks me up that I'm sitting still in a plumb line while that kind of twisting is going on beneath me. It's also worth noting that this should have been more of a cavalletti exercise that she could trot through, and I'm using the dressage saddle.
Ferriana did have some nice moments, too.
Rizzo likes to help with these exercises too.
Note has been getting some rides in as well, during which he looks lovely in some shots.
And in other shots you can see his temper loud and clear.
But all's well that ends well and he finished his last workout at liberty with a bow.
