THE MONTH OF MAY

(Betsy & Zoe @ Top O' the Hill Farm) This morning Zoe and I went for a quick ride for the first of May. We had already planned our route - over a trail we have not traveled in years. Part of it is a cross country ski trail, with some nice little bridges here and there and beautiful scenery and woods. I am not sure why this trail had become a forgotten memory.. but last week's adventure reminded us how beautiful it is....more

(Carol & Phantom) Well, I know there is a big difference between the trail and the ring.  Guess I was hoping some of our "fluid rhythm" would carry over into the woods.  Gads, was I in for a surprise!!   Wednesday evening Phantom and I and Tom and Ron(Tom's horse) attended a clinic and I couldn't have been more proud.  Our horses listened, responded, trusted us while others were fighting with their mounts, pulling on the reins and shouting, "stop it ,STOP IT, STOP IT!!!!!!! "   I felt badly for those who were struggling but they worked through it and with Austin's(our trainer) help they were able to move on and have a very productive evening.   Okay, now it is Thursday evening and the plan is to go out riding in the woods with two of our neighbors.  Tom asked, "Which horse are you going to take?"  I answered, "Phantom.  We have doing so well together I am anxious to get her out on the trail.  She has not had much trail experience and I believe she will do quite well."  I cursed myself with confidence!  Five minutes into the trail ride, it was if all training techniques were flushed!!  I forgot how to sit in the saddle.  Phantom wanted to move out fast then faster.  Gads!!  Where were the arena fences!!  Where was all of that fancy seat work I had been working on?  What the heck was happening with my leg cues?  Why am I jerking on the reins calling out( in vane I might add) "Phantom, PHANTOM, PHANTOM !!!"  Where my beautiful, well behaved, excellently cued Phantom??  Whose horse is this anyway??  You know when things like this happen I first try to look at what I am doing.  It is hard to process when you are on a horse that just wants to go forward and fast.  I remembered what Austin has often said, "As long as you are on the horse, you are alive."   Now I could have blamed the new trail adventure, the other horses, etc. but I can't do that with a clear conscience.  I had not best prepared Phantom for the adventure.  So,after a few one reined stops and backup movements, we were off again.  Another 5 minutes, the same thing happened but the good news is that it took less time to get back in the groove.  We went on to complete a two hour ride with only a few more forgetful moments. I love that girl and I hope she gives me another chance today.  Oh by the way, guess what we are going to be working on??????!!!!!!

(Susan & AhD) Conquered several streams today and even some steep banks.  Turns out AhD was a latent Stream Expert.  We did quite a bit of exploring today, some of it at quite a fast clip, because my little Curly made the mistake of giving a little scoot when I asked him to trot in a circle near the beginning of our ride.  So, I decided he would trot for the next solid hour, up and down, in and around trails in the woods.  We trotted through clearings and muddy patches, around twisty trails and straightaways, up hills and down hills.  Trot, trot, trot!  Long before we stopped trotting, lo and behold, the Attitude disappeared!  At the end of our fun adventure today, we gave the little horse-crazy girl across the street a pony ride.  I'm grooming her to be my riding buddy when my daughter goes off to college.  Of all my horses, she's always liked AhD the best.  Who can blame her?  :)

( Zoe @ Top O' the Hill Farm) Now that we have the sun shining and the grass growing everyone must be very busy. I feel like I have been running in every direction. The therapeutic riding center is getting very busy so I am finding it harder and harder to squeeze in my rides so to solve that problem I rode OYY Mercedes to my house in order to ride in the evenings. She needs the exposure to trail and I enjoy the benefit of having her here. She has settled in and is truly enjoying her time on the trail, from my house I can get on trail and stay on it for an hour or more without crossing any roads. She is not concerned by anything we see, deer, porcupine, dogs, mud and water. She just keeps up this steady jog that is so comfortable. Last night when we were out I thought of the RAC obstacles, Mercedes and I were on a new trail and we came to a tree across it. The tree itself was not very high but it had all these small branches sticking out and up. I was not sure how Mercedes would feel about this but thought lets walk up to it and see. Well she just stepped right over it and had all the small branches either tickling her belly or she broke them off with her belly. Good thing we had done the tickle noodles with her so she was already used to the feeling. She didn't even bat and eye and we continued on our explorations for the evening. I have seen this with a lot of the horses, since doing the obstacle course with them they have been much more sensible out on the trail. It has been very fun to see the carry over from ring to road/trail. Enjoy the day and I look forward to hearing about other people's rides.

(Susan & AhD) I had three nice trails rides on AhD this weekend.  For some reason, the black flies are not a problem, and believe me, I'm not complaining!  We crossed many streams, saw deer and coon tracks, and even followed in the path of a moose for about 1/2 mile today.  We also rode by a pair of nesting Canadian Geese, so I took AhD on a wide circle around them so we wouldn't disturb them.  I'm sorry my camera batteries are dead, because I really wanted to share the spectacular view from the top of the local Sanitorium Hill.  That will be for another day.  My pink saddle blanket needs a good washing and my inner thighs feel like stretched rubber, but my soul feels great!.  I have two rides scheduled with a friend of mine next weekend, so I hope to share some pictures soon.

(Linda @ Creekside Curlies) Last winter, when the snow was on the ground, and I seemed to have lots of excessive energy, a gal from our county 4H office contacted me. She requested I provide enough horses for a class,  to be judged by a qualified judge, and the 4H'rs themselves. The judging "show" is a learning experience for the kids, to see "other" breed horses, and to learn to judge quality in each and every breed. At the time, it seemed like a simple plan, just load up 4 horses, head to the fairgrounds, and set a fine example of being a supporter of the 4H and our future horsemen/women. But, in reality, it was more than just a moments work. We strongly believe in never taking a horse off the ranch, that is not at its best, so a little ( now, I DO mean little,  fresh hoof trims, and one around the arena, to show they know how to lead OK --it had been a very busy week ) fresher course in handling, was in order,  plus, my horses never go off the ranch without looking their absolute best, after all, you never have more than one chance to make a first impression, and maybe even repair an impression folks have of curlies...you know,  that lunk headed/poor conformation/shabby coat so folks have in their minds.  So......Sunday morning at 7am, baths started, baths, trimming to look presentable, mane and tails groomed to the nines, new halters and leads packed  for class presentation, hay bags, water buckets, it all had to be loaded, and we were on our way!  A friend came and hauled 2 horses for me...sure my trailer is a 4 horse,  but really only a 3 horse with the tack room, so we needed help! Ohhs  and Ahhs greeted our horses as they were being unloaded...I do have to say, they all looked mighty fine, at the top of their game, they all glistened in the very hot sunshine....nothing like a little good health to top off the package. I took 4 horses,  Flitty Wren,  Legacy, Kallie and Breezy....the judge would judge them as a complete class, they would only compete against each other, but hey, I could learn plenty from what she thought.  Mostly youngsters, 3 horses under the age of 2,  they ALL did so well.  They patiently stood tied to the horse trailers, until their class, behaved themselves just fine in class, then returned to the trailer for those hay bags full of hay, and a bucket of water. It was horribly HOT,  we have had a week of above average temps, and frankly, as a human, I have not adapted so well. The horses seemed quite undaunted by the heat. Me, on the other hand, downed bottle after bottle of water...and ended up with quite a sun and wind burn, did I mention the wind was quite strong?  I was so proud of all the girls...the wind, whipping garbage around everywhere, they never took a misstep!  Not even when one of those "horse eating plastic bags"  came through the arena, in front of them during their line up, not a foot was moved!  I took one photo, with the 2 duns, Breezy and Legacy at the trailer, with a jet liner in the background, they never moved a foot on that either.....Here are a few pics from our day....The judge approached me later in the day, with compliments on my horses conformation/looks/grooming.. .she had seen a curly before, but it was nothing like this group of gals....I think bucketheaded and nappy coat, were her terms for that previous encounter ;-) She commented on all the girls, lovely heads/faces, and their stellar attitude....esp...in comparison to some of the other classes, who also had young horses, but did not have the manners.  Her placings were as follows.....1 st ....Flitty Wren,  2nd  Legacy, 3rd Kallie, 4 th Breezy...she also told me that Legacy and Kallie were basically a tie, but since Kallie is quite rump high right now, in a growth spurt ( she is a yearling )  she had to place her just below Legacy......and she did say, she REALLY liked the blacks,  Flitty and Kallie.  As I drove home, I thought of my day, the work involved and the joy of seeing our youngsters do so well...on so many levels.

(Susan & AhD) We did something fun tonight!  Ian, my youngest son, who is 11, rode AhD double with me on the trails.  At first, AhD did not remember riding double, but he warmed up to it fairly quickly, and off we went.  We had an interesting ride!  We had two woodcock burst up in front of us in the path, and then later on, ran into two porcupines!  They slowly waddled off and each climbed a tree while AhD, Ian and I watched.  Ian and I thought it was really cool to see porcupines on the trail, but we are not so sure what AhD thought of them...perhaps he was thinking more along the lines of Black Spiked Devils.  I am very grateful he didn't spook at the woodcock or the porcupines, though, since he had Ian aboard.  AhD received lots of pats and hugs from Ian for being such a good boy!

( Zoe @ Top O' the Hill Farm) (Mother's Day ride) Today was a beautiful day. A little breezy, lots of sun-- cool enough so no bugs (it's black fly season). I worked around the house, weeded gardens, picked up more winter debris... then it was time for our Sunday ride. Zoe and I decided to ride through the McDonald's drive through just for fun....more

(Susan & AhD) Today AhD and I met up with my friend Audrey and her QH Treasure and Lab Allie and went on a Memorial Day ride exploring some trails.  We had hot but beautiful weather.  It took AhD about an hour to settle down, and it was a great lesson for him to learn how to tolerate a dog on a ride.  He only kicked at Allie twice.  We climbed a local mountain on trails and saw some beautiful scenery.  While passing through the Sand Pit on the way home, all hot and sweaty, AhD decided a roll would be nice, and proceded to lay down and do so.  Yes, while I was on his back!  THAT was interesting.  I stepped off and kept him from rolling all the way over and breaking my saddle tree, but then when he got back up, he decided to "do" his other side to add insult to my injury.  Of course, Audrey got a big kick about it and couldn't stop laughing.  I said, "I should have taken a picture of THAT!"

(Carol & Phantom) All good things take time.  I think my Mom and my Dad taught me that.  However, in our fast paced, now or never world that notion gets lost in the mayhem and patience flies out the window.  Gads!!  Can't let that happen though when you are working with horses.  Phantom is reteaching me patience and it is paying off with big dividends.  We are becoming a team built on trust, respect and love.  Can't ask for much more!!  Over the past few weeks we have been working on lateral flexion(which really helps with vertical flexion), getting after inappropriate behavior ASAP without sitting in the saddle for five seconds asking her why she did that(no nagging) and then responding, being more aware of my body movements so I am not miscuing her, improving my timing and taking more time to reward her with a pet with we do good stuff.  Our trail rides are so much more productive!!  Our arena work is the same.  Last night at the clinic we worked on side passing and it was so much fun!   She was relaxed, attentive, me the same.  I kept mixing things up for us so we didn't get bored( I think we are both a bit ADD).  Only once did she feel the need to flip her head and try to canter off.  A few tight circles to the left, then right followed with more lateral flexion in both directions, stops from a walk and trot(tucking under with the hind), pets for doing better and we were back on track.  We finished the evening with trotting and then slowing to a walk by using just my seat(on a loose rein) and turning using just leg cues.  What a girl!!!  I am so proud of Phantom.  Today I am going to work with my other horse Warrior.  He side passes quite well so I can practice with him and be more precise when I work with Phan(she is a bit more sensitive).  Gosh this is so fun and I am learning sooooo much!!!