The diver and the ex-racehorse

Once upon a time, there was a woman who--like many women do--discovered horses later in her life and, once hooked, jumped in with her whole being. Then, a little bit later in life, she discovered scuba diving and--as with the horse fetish--dove in with all the enthusiasm previously laser-focused on soft noses and not landing on the hard ground.

Much hard work and cool sunglasses make for pretty poses.

 Why on earth she, er, I decided we needed two such gear-intensive, expensive hobbies could be worthy of a deep and philosophical conversation... or seven. Luckily, there just isn't time to figure out what I'm making up for with all of this because there's just too much fun to be had.

A gnome in scuba gear!

However, trying to balance the two interests has not been easy and--try as I might--there doesn't seem to be a way to do both things at once. I'm also pretty sure the warranty on my gear would not cover horse-induced damage like trampling or being dragged through the sand--probably with me still in it.

Forcing my horse to wear scuba gear in the name of art?

"Hey, Calabar.. why don't you hang out on the beach and wait for me while I go play underwater for an hour? Oh, and do you mind if I weigh an extra 70 pounds with all my gear on on our way out to the beach? What was that? Carry it my own damn self through the deep sand? Oh...um, okay."

It is plausible that he would hang out on the beach and wait for me. Maybe. Carrying the gear out is a definite no. He says he is NOT a pack mule and the beach is for rolling in the deep sand and running on the hard-packed sand, not for doing something silly like going underwater. Who would want to do that, anyway? Crazy human.

"You are out of your mind, silly little neoprene-clad human."

And Lena says things that inflate--like BCDs--are for eventers, not cow ponies. Notice there are no photos of her in anything resembling scuba gear, oh no.

"Oh, no. There will be no scuba gear on this beautiful face."

So until I find a way to merge my two worlds--which would likely incur the wrath of animal rights organizations across the planet--I'll just have to dive some days and ride other days.

Life could really be a lot worse.

Horse stories

Having seen a recommendation, I am currently reading (and thoroughly enjoying) The Eighty Dollar Champion by Elizabeth Letts.

While inhaling words through my eyeballs, I came across this description of what the Remount Program was looking for in 1912--a "usin' kind of horse." Sounds a lot like Lena Rey, except of course she is a mare and not a gelding or stallion:

"..bred to be well balanced, with well-sprung ribs and a deep heart girth to provide plenty of lung capacity, a well-developed set of withers to hold the saddle in place, lots of sufficient bone to stay sound, and a foot large enough to provide a solid foundation."

It does, however, slightly fall apart with this part:

"...temperament was a factor, with emphasis given to 'a gentle disposition and a willing mind.'" In Lena's case, sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Doesn't matter, I love Lena Rey for who she is. Just as I love Calabar for who he is. And the point of Snowman's story is just that--at least as far as I've read so far: Love them for who they are and what they offer and offer them the same in return.

That is what makes a companion, that is what makes a champion.

The holidays approach

I have to confess that I'm not much for the commercial hype of the season. It may be that shopping is one of my least favorite activities--unless it's for new boots or tack--and then only if I have the money to spend. I know. Totally bad for the economy, right? Too bad.

I try (not that I always succeed) to treat my family nicely all year and not save it all up for some arbitrary season so that the holidays do not become drowned in obligation and annoyance at said obligation.

But dressing up the horses for a holiday photo shoot? That is right up my alley. Unfortunately, it was not up their alley, but we got some nice photos nonetheless.

Enjoy!

 This may be one of my most favorite shots of Calabar ever taken. Thanks to Katie for capturing it.

Just a neat artistic shot, also taken by Katie.

I am holding the antlers on his head. He is unimpressed. 

 Katie likes this shot because it looks like she made Forrest do this on purpose. I'll never tell.

We did get a group shot or two, here's one.

Me and my fuzzy mirror.

 Calabar and Jess, posing.

Katie and Forrest posing.

Lena Rey, feeling left out of the posing. Poor Lena.

Be a part of the solution

This is exactly (EXACTLY) what I was talking about in my earlier posts when I said we, the horse industry, need to take responsibility for our own.

This article in Forbes (thank you to Natalie at Retired Racehorse for posting) shows that the Thoroughbred racing industry is making progress by starting to support and partner with the myriad of Thoroughbred adoption/retraining organizations out there. It is a start, and even baby steps get us closer.

If the racing industry can do it, so can the rest of us.

Trail ride video experiment

I took four short videos on our trail ride last weekend and then had to find a video editing tool to turn them right side up since I shot portrait instead of landscape.

Luckily for me--though not necessarily for you, dear readers--I found one. It not only lets me re-orient the video, it also let me combine the four short into one longer montage. And with no editing, the transitions are even okay. Obviously, I need to play more, but I am okay with the output I got after a mere 15 minutes of work.

Now--barring any technical difficulties--you will all see why my horse is the best chiropractor I've ever had.

My three muses

Writers and artists rely on muses--spirits or spirited humans--to inspire their creativity.

My muses are of the four-legged variety, though I also think of my dad almost every time I sit down to write. (And not just from an English teacher's copy-editing viewpoint.)

Lena was my first muse, full of energy and sensitive nearly to a fault. She was willing to mold herself to whichever rider climbed aboard that day, and so very strong and balanced in her movements.

The brain is always working in this spotty head

Bar, of course, was my second muse and has inspired tales and prose I didn't know lived within my brain.

Smallest ears of the three, this horse of mine

And now there is Forrest, who with his very arrival has presented delightful challenges to my darling daughter and provided a whole new perspective.

Baby face

Such fabulous muses, so many stories yet to unfold.

On the bit

Not having much in the way of training in my life--well, except for on-the-job-stay-in-the-saddle-or-else training--this term hasn't meant much to me. Nor, for that matter, has collection. Particularly when I watch other people and their horses in what seems to be a parody of that term.

Lena is collected much of the time, it's just the way she is. One of the things Cheri said about Lena is she was always so confident, so sure of where her feet were at all times.


Bar is learning, and I can see the difference in his topline and in his overall strength, movement, and confidence every day. I can tell he feels it, too, knows his body is more in balance and therefore stronger.


But on-the-bit was an odd concept for me. We learned to ride Lena with a loose rein, only picking up her mouth when we wanted her to do something.

Bar had no idea what to do with a loose rein, and I'm afraid I didn't help early on by grabbing his face when I'd get nervous.

In a book I just finished, The Byerley Turk by Jeremy James, he talks about the style of riding I've seen encouraged--holding the horse back with your hands while pushing him forward with your legs. His description is from the perspective of a Turkish groom who has traveled miles with the first Thoroughbred and knows what kind of response this might lead to. It does. The rider who used that technique ended up in the dirt, and that kind of makes sense when you view it from the horse's perspective. "Make up your mind!"

The concept itself is important, but figuring out what it really meant eluded me and therefore was not easily translated to my dearest darling opinionated Thoroughbred.

This post by Glenshee Equestrian Centre, to which I was directed by Kate at A Year With Horses, makes more sense than anything else I've read, seen, heard, etc.

This last paragraph sums it up, but the whole post is definitely worth a read:

"Rather than the rider demanding the horse both yield to pressure while paradoxically accepting a strong contact, the rider offers a gentle contact and the horse, once he knows he can trust the consistency and fairness of the hand, will seek that gentle contact wherever the hand may lead, and allow the hand to shape his entire carriage and movement (the action of the rein through the body) with that same light feel. This, to me, is what it means to be “on the bit.”

I am looking forward to practicing with this methodology a little more, and I'm sure Bar is too. ("Finally she's making sense!") Lena already gets it for the most part, but it certainly won't hurt to play with it with her as well.

The thing I love about horses is there is always something new to learn. When there isn't, I'll just have to invent something lest we all get bored.

The many faces of Lena

Lena is a very expressive--some might say dramatic--mare. She does not hide her emotions well, though she does tend to over-react nine times out of ten--usually just to have something to do.

Today we surprised both horses by driving the truck (one of the trucks, that is) right up to their paddocks to unload a sheet of plywood. (Lena is also a kicker which necessitates replacing the plywood on her shelter periodically.) "Well!" they seemed to say, "They've never done this before! How odd!"


Lena watched carefully as Steve began to unload the plywood, predictably taking a step back as he slid it off the top of the truck.


Bar was unimpressed and turned his butt to the whole process. Aren't ex-racehorses supposed to be more worried about things? And wait, shouldn't he have the stable vices?

But I digress, as usual. We are talking about the most lovely spotty mare on the ranch in this post, not about the most handsome Thoroughbred on the ranch.


She has many expressions, this mare of ours. She is smart and playful and curious. She needs a lot of input and doesn't always get enough, though we're trying to be better. She is a beautiful horse, both still and in motion, and she is why I'm here today blogging about horses in general and Thoroughbreds more often than not.

Thanks, Lena Rey. You're one of a kind.

I can always find them

Really, no matter where I go, I can find horses. Of course, that's undoubtedly because I'm as horse-crazy as a 12-year old girl and go looking. Be that as it may, I find them.

In New York, I accosted carriage horses. In Portland, I once chased down a mounted police officer--possibly mildly alarming him. In Austin, I snuffled noses with several big draft horses pulling carriages. In Las Vegas, I went to the Tournament of Kings show at The Excalibur just to see ponies.

I suppose one could reasonably call me obsessive.

Steve and I spent quite some time in Golden Gate Park this weekend, and I managed to find horses there, too.

The Polo fields are more like soccer fields these days, but my nose told me there were still horses nearby and lo and behold, the SF PD keeps a stable there, too!

The horse above was the most gregarious of the bunch, but I obeyed the signs and did not dispense treats--much to his dismay.

This was the first time either Steve or I had really explored the park and it seems like a great place to ride, but we haven't found evidence that's allowed for non-Police persons.

We did find evidence (aka road apples) that horses had been out in the park a few places, though perhaps they were on official business only. Ma'am.

Lazy barn day

It takes a lot to keep me away from the barn, especially in nice weather, but some stupid germ succeeded in doing so yesterday. I didn't know I could sleep so much in one day, but I can and I did.

Today, I was determined to get to the barn, even though I'm still not feeling one hundred percent. I might give it 73%, tops.

We did get off to a rather slow start, however, because Steve is working diligently to finish updating the website for our friends at Slide Mountain Ranch. Firefox is apparently giving him fits with an image size and placement bug that only happens the first time the page loads. However, I convinced him that a barn break was necessary.


We grained and cleaned paddocks, then Steve took Lena out to ride and I took the boy down to the round pen. We were all pretty lazy, but Bar did give me some beautiful work--including a lot of neck stretching all the way down to his toes while cantering. Those shots turned out too blurry, so I deleted them, but I love the extension in this picture--especially that front leg. (That's the bowed tendon, folks.)


Then I did one of my favorite things and got on Bar bareback. I started doing this, oh, several months ago and I don't really know why. It seems silly on one hand to get on a horse you're scared of--as I was at the time--with nothing but your butt and a halter and lead rope. And yet it is something that has worked for us for some reason. Maybe it's because I don't ask for much more than a walk--not with those TB withers of his, ouch--or maybe it's because we just play with obstacles and simple requests, like walk-halt. Maybe just because it imparts a level of confidence and trust. Whatever it is, it was a nice diversion on a mellow, lazy Sunday.

Loving the sun

Finally the blankets can be off! Nights are still a little cool, down to 40-45 degrees (yes, this is cold for us California natives), but it is up in the low seventies during the day! The horses seem absolutely thrilled to be naked--and therefore able to fully enjoy rolling around in the dirt in their paddocks. Not to mention with the time change, we now have another hour of light in which to play (or clean, depending).

I admit to being less thrilled just now because I am not allowed to put my newly-replaced convertible top down for another 8 days or so. (And it better be sunny a week from Friday or there will be hell to pay.) Apparently, new tops have to stretch? Drat.

I'm sure once I'm driving to the barn with the top down (in 9 days), radio blaring, and sun shining down (because it better be), I will be as happy as a little clam.

The horses really did get worked last night

Don't let that last post fool you, the photo was from yesterday and all three horses--including the beavers--got worked yesterday.

Of course, tonight we had to drop off a car at the mechanics and I had massage scheduled to try and get my back under control (even Bar's rocking walk doesn't help) so they got no love tonight either. Well besides the adoration that is ever-present in my heart, that is.

It will be a miracle if that post is still standing tomorrow.

Where this horse thing all got started

This is Katie, circa 1995 or so, at a birthday party at her dad's that included--oh yes--pony rides.

It appears that I was doomed eons before I even knew it.

A friend of mine recently moved in with her long-time boyfriend and in the process of packing, found a card I gave to her several years ago. This friend is also a horse-y person, though hasn't owned her own horse in several years. (She's smart that way.) In this card, I wrote that if I were rich, I'd buy us a ranch and a couple of horses so she could ride--as long as I didn't have to.

Teena smiled and chuckled as I read this back to her the other night, and Steve and Katie laughed outright.

How did they all know what I didn't? That I was a closet crazy-horse lady?

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Entering the next decade

Supposedly, all horses have birthdays today, which means Lena is 9, Bar is 10, and we don't yet know how old Sammy is. On day one of the new decade, Sammy was purchased for real, she and Lena got ridden, and Bar and I enjoyed a walk down the driveway and some puddle training.

Lena was very glad to get out, Steve had a pretty good ride, and it went a small way towards making her feel less neglected. It was bad enough when Bar came along and she had to share, but adding another horse has her Royal Spottiness feeling a little more bent out of shape then normal these days. Bar, on the other hand, reached through his pen bars after Katie put Sammy away as if to say, "Welcome to the herd!"

Lena will just have to get over it.

Katie paid Peter $1 and got the bill of sale for Sammy today, plus wrote her own check for board. She said she's never been so excited to give someone money before and has been picking up more work already to support her new horse habit. Luckily, we have more than enough extra tack (shocking, I know) for her to not have to worry about that part of things for now.

Sammy is loving the attention, even getting her mane and tail trimmed a little more today. The first time we took her out, she had huge tangles in her mane and her tail was dragging on the ground. We cut the tangles out of her mane, but it looked a bit like a hack job, so Katie has been cleaning it up over the last few days. Sammy has a great tail, and it just needed some TLC to get it looking even better.


Unfortunately for Bar, the indoor arena (it being rainy here today) was too full for us, even though he was in a super mellow mood, so I decided to groom him and take him for a walk down the driveway. If it had just been Steve and Katie in there, we would have gone ahead, but there are just a few folks who get nervous when we get in the arena, which then makes me nervous, which in turn makes Bar nervous. It's just not worth the headaches. Yes, one of the goals for this year is to get us past that with at least most of the people at the barn. (There are always going to be a few we will studiously avoid.)


While cleaning his feet, though, his left front (the upright) felt warm to the touch. Hm. He was putting weight on it, didn't seem sore, and wasn't limping on or favoring it at all, so we went for our walk. Nothing. No head bob at a walk or a trot, no stumbling, nada.

So we worked on going through puddles and some of our basic ground work skills, then walked back to the wash rack and rinsed his foot with cold water, just in case, and applied lots of iodine. He's probably fine, but we'll keep an eye on it over the next few days.

Then we took silly pictures of him and me while waiting for Katie and Sammy to finish their ride. This one is my favorite--my expression looks awfully guilty, like we got caught smooching. Notice he is licking my jacket, too. He is such an affectionate horse, much more than Lena. Not sure if it's a gelding thing, or if it's a racehorse thing, but while he can and usually does give me proper space, he also really likes being loved on. As you can see.



Happy 2010, may this decade bring new (but good) challenges, many rewards, and lots of fun and adventures to all!

Weird local horse mystery to share

This is a story from our local paper about an old horse skeleton (complete with saddle and tack) found in a park.

I wonder if somewhere back down the trail from the horse skeleton, there might be a bucked-off human skeleton? Or did they just walk back to the truck and go home without the horse? Very odd indeed.

Happy New Year

Yes, it's New Years Eve and I'm at home, on the sofa, blogging. I guess I'm just not much for being out there with the rest of the world.

It's been a crazy year in a lot of ways. It started off with losing my job of six years, but thankfully finding a new one a month later. (And still liking it so far, a nice bonus.)

It's been a year of watching my father struggle with his increasingly poor health, being sure to treasure the time I spend with him now and value the pieces of myself that come from being raised by him.

It's been a year of balancing both horses with a more professional job--one where showing up disheveled and muddy after going to the barn first doesn't really work. That has been hard for me, because it always seems there is more to do. Steve frequently reminds me our horses get more attention and exercise than 80% of the horses out there, but it is easy to feel inadequate when I see Lena's "I'm neglected" face staring out through the pen rails.

It's been a year that included watching Steve heal and get back to riding after an accident that could have been much worse than it was, but is still causing ripples here and there. (The vertigo tends to pop up sometimes, which is aggravating.) The feeling of mortality is a bit unnerving, but it reminds me to belly up to the bar and live life because the Mack Truck could be waiting right around the corner.

And finally, it's a year in which my daughter has started figuring out her own path--which (as of yesterday) includes her own horse, a sweet little Quarter Horse mare named Sammy. I would not necessarily have recommended this for her, but there are times as a parent you have to step back and let them figure it out. This is one of those times and she will learn something no matter how it turns out for her.

I don't know what 2010 has in store for us all, besides another birthday of course, but the lessons we take from this year are sure to serve us well into next.

Happy New Year!

Reflections

As the first decade of the 21st century winds down and I take a moment to reflect, it seems to me that horses in general--and my horses in particular--have given me a great gift.

They have also given me a lot of challenges and--this year in particular--some rather terrifying experiences. I am truly thankful that Steve's injuries have healed, were not worse than they were, and that he will still get on and ride. Someone asked me shortly after the accident if we were going to get rid of the horses and I have to confess it had not even occurred to me to do that. Luckily, it never occurred to Steve, either.

Both horses have had influence on and from us in 2009, each tossing their decidedly different quirks and personalities into the mix.

Lena has gotten less attention from me this year, and I haven't decided yet if that's good or bad. She has definitely made it clear that she would prefer to remain horse numero uno, at least where food and human focus are concerned, but on the other hand, she really doesn't need to be the center of attention for all three of us. I do have some goals for her for next year--mostly figuring out ways to get her out of her spooky little head by giving her other ways to use that big brain besides levitating sideways at the mere sight of something new.

Bar has gotten the bulk of my attention this year, and that will probably continue to some extent in 2010, though with a lot more work from the saddle going forward. Partly as a result of the ground work--and partly because of my own stubbornness and his willingness to keep at it with me--the trust (and fun) level between us has progressed. That's pretty exciting and keeps me focused on what we can do together, rather than what reaction I'll have to have to counter-act whatever thing he might do. Better not to send out those self-fulfilling prophecies in any case.

I don't really do resolutions, but I do like coming up with a plan for each horse for the next year. Nothing exact, mind you, but something that gives us all something to work towards in the never-ending quest to be better horse-humans.

Extra horse time

Steve has recently started playing music with some friends a few nights a month, which means he gets to expand his guitar skills and I get extra time with the horses! Quite the win-win situation!

Most evenings, I have just enough time to work both horses a little (in the round pen), or one horse a lot. Over the last year, this has meant that Bar has gotten the lion's share of my attention because, frankly, he needed it more. However, with winter here, Lena has started to benefit from my slightly lower energy level. After a long day at work, in the cold and dark, ground work sometimes wins out over coming up with a creative under-saddle lesson plan. It also helps that a lot of the improvements in Bar have been due to the foundation work we've done on the ground, so it will be interesting to see if Lena benefits from it as well.

Tonight, the horses both got exercise (and all-important rolling-without-blankets) in the round pen, then plenty of currying, massage, and brushing.

It suited all of us just fine.

Winter antics

Lena hadn't gotten much exercise in a couple days, and it had been four for Bar, so it was definitely hitting critical mass tonight. Weeknights don't offer enough time to ride both horses, but they really needed OUT, so we headed to the round pen.

The first thing each of them did--after being blanketed for several days--was roll. It's not that they don't lay down while in their protective gear, but rolling is really a treat for them this time of year. And roll they did. Lena got both sides at least once, and Bar very thoroughly rolled twice on one side, then twice on the other, before he would even consider any exercise. Not that I blame him, of course. It would be hard to be inside the same clothes, skin and hair starting to itch, day after day after day. Bleh.

And the exercise for both was mostly productive, if only to get at least a little bit of the spit shaken out. Lena was thoroughly distracted by another boarder and her Thoroughbred, Romeo, and proceeded to raise up her tail and gallop around snorting to get his attention. Luckily, Manna is a very good rider and took it all with good humor. "It's good for him," she said, correcting Romeo's dancing. Nice to have people like that around my nutty horses--people willing to take responsibility for their own horses, and also accepting of other horses and their sometimes less-than-docile behavior. Thankfully, Lena did settle down, give me her attention, and get a decent workout.

Bar definitely wanted to stretch his legs, so he got to canter a bit more than usual, though it was peppered here and there with some trotting to get him to work on his transitions some more. And then he had to show off with some bucking when another barn-mate went by with two of his girlfriends from the big pasture. Sometimes he is such a boy. He did also settle down and relax into a nice, smooth, steady trot, listening to me talk to him and sing The Dixie Chicks like I usually do.

Both got carrot stretches, too, so were nice and limber by the time they got back to their paddocks to finish their dinner.

Winter is hard, but it invites more creativity to help keep them entertained and interested in what we're doing. Sometimes it's just a matter of tossing in one thing that's a little different, like a ladder sitting in a different place or asking them to cross an obstacle in a new way. Sometimes it's just trying to ask them for something in a way they understand.

Who exactly is training whom? You have to wonder, don't you?

A funny thing called trust

Trust is a funny thing--delicate, fragile, and easily shaken.

Both Bar and I have trust issues, but he has shown me over the last week that he's willing to work with me, even when he isn't exactly sure what I'm asking. That's a big (huge) step for him.

Now I owe him a little more of my trust, and I'm finding it bit by bit as I get on and ride him more.

His tolerance seems to have increased, probably in direct correlation to his confidence and--I'll give myself a little credit--the time we've spent and consistency of work we've done. Instead of taking advantage of my seat wavering out of balance, he slows down and lets me get back under control. Instead of flying off the handle when he can't figure out what I'm asking, he tries to do something familiar to see if that's the right thing. He even gives me his attention when he hears the grain cart go past, or when other horses go by--both former triggers for eruptions or even just grumpiness.

My friend Karen said her horse Bobby--also an ex-racehorse--was and is her best teacher. Lena Rey is an excellent horse and a tremendously gifted teacher and without her, I would never have been able to keep working with Bar. He, however, has taken my horsemanship to levels I never considered, and that don't appear to have a limit.