Cory & Jade head for the ocean

I seem to be turning this blog into a journal of Sunny’s progress, but it’s a natural way for me to capture these things as they happen – so tell MaryBeth to rein me in if it bothers you!

Last Wednesday, Sunny and I took our first Big Girl Ride. In order to qualify as a Big Girl Ride,

1. The ride has to be longer than an hour.
2. We have be alone.
3. We have to go on trails that are new to Sunny.

And we did it.  We left from our barn, crossed Calabasas, went through Morning Sun ranch, descended into Larkin Valley on a new-to-Sunny trail, and came up by the bale of hay that so frightened Sunny when we went out with Cory and Jade.   We walked and did some trotting.

Just out of the barn, I was worried that we weren’t going to get to Calabasas by sundown (about a mile) – she slow-stepped, and dropped her head at every patch of grass to grab a bite. But she didn’t look scared-stiff – she acted more like I used to on my way to take a test:  going slow to give fate every opportunity to intervene with some sort of natural disaster and give me another day to study.  After we got into the valley, she loosened up quite a lot.

We were out for about an hour and a half, and I think we did about 4 – 4.5 miles.  And I *did* hand walk Sunny for parts of the ride, but I think it was a total of about 100 yards.  Anyhow, we got through it and I think it’s only going to get better.

Jade & Cory in the lead, as usual

Not wanting to rest on our laurels, Cory, Jade, Sunny and I went to the beach on Friday.  Cory scoped the local access points out beforehand, and we ended up at Salinas River State Beach, which was perfect.  It is at the end of  Potrero Road in Moss Landing, has a huge parking lot, suitable for turning horse trailers around, great beach access, and a beautiful beach, which looked like it went on forever.

When we got there, the parking lot was virtually empty, so we unloaded and saddled up.  Cory suggested that we take the long way to the ocean so the Girlz would have a chance to get used to the environment, so off we went down a roped off corridor through the dunes. The path was from 8 to 12 feet wide, with the rope about three feet off the ground.  The footing was  pure dry beach sand – I was leading Sunny and I sunk in about 3 inches per step.  It was really tiring to walk through, although the view was beautiful:   to the right was a big sand dune, but the Salinas River and the whole Salinas Valley were to the left. And the path was a gradual climb, so we kept seeing more.

Cory & Jade see the ocan

We finally got to the top and could see the ocean. (I should note that Jade led through most of this stuff.  We tried to have Sunny lead a couple of times, but it was clear that Jade was frustrated with the pace, so Jade resumed leading.)  Jade was a little nervous when she saw the waves from the hilltop, but Sunny was unfazed.

Jade & Cory on the beach

We descended to the beach, and walked parallel to the ocean.  The posted rules asked that horses stay on the “wet” part of the beach, so Cory and I were encouraging Jade and Sunny toward the water, but Jade and Sunny were clearly more interested in getting closer to the dunes, so we compromised:  we walked the damp water line. As soon as Sunny realized she was in damp sand, she’d sidle out of it. As soon as I realized that we were on dry sand, I’d move her back.  It looked like Jade was doing the same thing with Cory.

We came on a post in the sand – it looked like it might have been an old piling for a dock about 100 years ago – and Jade blew up a little.  In addition, we turned around and saw, still quite a ways a way, a group of about 8 horses and riders coming toward us.  The wise thing to do seemed to be to remove the mares from environment while everyone was having a good time, so we headed back.   Our timing was about perfect – the other horses, which turned out to be a group of rentals, were still a couple of hundred yards off as they faded out of site, and as soon as we started descending, Sunny and Jade could see Cory’s trailer, which encouraged them.

Hanging out over lunch

Back at the trailer, we pulled the mares’ saddles, gave them lunch, and sat down with our refreshments.  We chatted with a woman who said we ought to take the mares back out to the beach on line and let them “play” in the water.  So we did.

The waves *are* a little disconcerting!

The waves just seemed to make Jade mad – she turned around and kicked them!  Does this remind anyone else of King Canute trying to turn back the tide?  A couple on the beach stopped to watch Jade’s antics, and commented to Cory, “She’s frisky today, isn’t she?”  Ha.

This much sand can't be all bad . . .

I took off my boots, rolled up my pant legs, and  just started walking parallel along the water line.  A wave would come up over our feet and startle Sunny, but I’d just keep walking, and pretty soon the wave would recede. It was perfect – all I had to do was walk straight and the waves did the approach and retreat for me!  And Sunny never thought to blame me; I think she thought I was a fellow victim.  After about 10 minutes, she actually was able to walk through a wave that was knee deep on me, and Jade relaxed enough to roll, so we called it a day.

We’re going back, with luck next week, and see if we can make the riding part of the experience more relaxed for all involved.

And when we got back to the barn, the fledgling hawks were, well, fledging, I guess:

Fledgling hawk from Dream Valley Ranch

What a great clinic that turned out to be!   Now, a week later and I’m fullay recovered from the virus I unfortunately had & I THINK my horse is close to sound.

I rode my horse, Honey, today for the first time in a few weeks since she became lame. At the clinic I rode Dakota (I borrowed Esther’s horse–thank you again!  Dakota took care of me!)

So, today was a test of both how smooth Honey would be after a lay-up and how I would ride after the clinic.  Being windy and feeding time I was pushing a few of her buttons just getting her saddled.  Honey used her backwards glance and threatening lips to warn me of her intentions and to let me know her opinion.  I tried the new “NipBuster” which did the trick and had Honey a bit puzzled by this new defense.   She  just tested a second time then wanted to see what it was that got her.

She started out nicely under saddle as we eased around the immediate area.  As I headed toward the steep hill she had her first argument.  She would NOT go forward.  We circled and backed and repeated.  Again.  And Again.  We did a pattern.  Still, she would not go forward toward the hill, away from her pasture.   So, plan B: I got off & used my stick to lead her up and down the steep hills to the arena.   She stood like a soldier and did not take a step away as I mounted.  A new watering device had been added to the arena so we had to go and check that out.  No problem.   No arguments in the arena and she willingly did the walk trot and canter.  As her usual MO she had to TRY to switch from trot to canter without me asking…but instead of me saying OK as I might have before the clinic I consistantly made her wait until I told her to move into the canter.  She listened.  Why not end on a good note?  Of course she was good~ I knew better than to ask too much of her after the lameness!!…but I think I rode her in there all of 20 minutes…well, better safe than sorry – so much for hitting the trail tomorrow.  Guess I’ll be doing some more reviewing basics and making sure we’re ready.   Actually I’m looking forward to making some obstacles – I’ll introduce her to some empty plastic bottles & have  her step over like we did at the clinic and I’ll bring an old tarp to step over.

One thing that made me laugh today is that this ranch that I board at is in a rather exclusive area of the Peninsula.  One of the neighbors on the hill was having this huge house party with a house band.  The band music played loud enough so it provided me the rhythm that I could enjoy like at the clinic!  Thank you whoever you are!  I found the music really helped me to relax and gave me something to sing to: mix of oldie covers “Lay Down Sally” “BrickHouse” etc and newer – Los Lonely Boys “How far is Heaven” and “Crazy Dream”.   Not a bad band, either, I wonder who they were!   Well, any comments on how to get her to go forward under saddle when she is resisting??   I feel I hit a mental rubics’ cube & I need to step away and see it’s really just a simple block.  Or is it?   Thanks for any comments or suggestions!

I liked your story of the FearFull Area and P-R-P, Donna.  One thing that Harley taught me is to have his head facing the FearFull Object with my leg on gently pushing him away from the FearFull Object as we pass slowly by.  He can look, but doesn’t feel trapped, I guess.

Today I plan to ride around the ranch with a friend and approach the trail around the back pasture.  Still on the ranch, but another level of “out of the arena” for me.  Oh – yes, another comment for you-all about Pressure-Response-Release.  It works for me and my anxiety, too.  Instead of stuffing my fear and putting myself too far outside of my comfort zone, I take little trips outside of the zone (physically or mentally), come back and digest them, then the zone gets larger so my next little trip is further out.

I also wanted to write a bit about our progress without spurs.  We had the best dressage lesson ever yesterday.  Woo hoo!  Anja (my instructor) was tentatively supportive last week when I entered the arena without spurs and said that we’re working on lighter cue and response communication under saddle.  It was an interesting, but awkward lesson, and seemed that, although I’ve learned not to kick and Harley has learned to respond to lighter pressure, I need to learn to keep my feet more parallel with his body.  This keeps my spur zone away from him and allows me to keep contact with my stirrups in all gaits (this is theoretical, you understand) by maintaining a tiny pressure on the little toe at the outside stirrup bar.  I felt like a cartoon character in the lesson, but learned enough to keep me challenged in practice rides during the week.

Yesterday it all came together.  Not only the new quiet leg and parallel foot position, but also the addition of a responsive and connected outside rein.  Oh my heavens.  First off, Anja was impressed that Harley was going forward with vertical flexion in a fairly short time.  That was great.  She then “changed the rule” that I keep my outside rein locked back (that’s because I used to throw it forward, especially in transitions) and gave me permission to have flexible contact with the outside rein as well as the inside.  SO, for the first time ever I experienced minutes-long connection in harmony with my horse with independent lower leg, seat, and hand.  Wow.  It was so complicated that, at one point, I started off with my mouth open and felt that it was open, but couldn’t close it because I’d maxed out my 6-ball juggling capacity and didn’t want to drop a ball.  So, I rode around with my mouth open

Thanks, MaryBeth, for handing me the key to a new level of riding!

Sunny threw a shoe on Monday, the day after we got back from Cowgirl Confidence Camp (C3), so I didn’t start practicing our mounted stuff until Thursday. We did do ground work all along, and she was pretty good on the ground, and, when I finally got on, darned good under saddle. Until today.

For whatever horse reason, she was so tight it felt like she was walking straight-legged, like she couldn’t bend her knees.  And softening her rib cage was right out.  And she had that high-headed Arab look that I hate.  So,  I think I now know what being “scared stiff” feels like. And I have to say it’s a bit contagious.  Anyhow, I really like Sleepy Sunny better than Scaredy Sunny.

One part of the arena seemed to be particularly horrifying, so I used that.  We rode around the arena until we got to a point where her head went from high to way-high and her ears laser-locked on a point in the Zone of Maximum Horror.  I stopped her, kept her in one place until she could do  horizontal flexion both ways, and drop her head at least a little, then rode away.  I repeated this for about 35 minutes, trying to get closer over time, although not monotonically, and by the end, she could march up to the arena fence, put her head down and *look* into the area, although she was still uneasy – but not panicked. (FWIW, it was windy, and I think that she was scared by  a feeder with loose hay in it that would sort of riffle in the breeze.  Sheesh.)

So.  I clearly did the pressure->response->release thing when getting her to do the flexions, but I think that the approach/retreat was also a p->r->p thing too, in that riding her near the zone and asking her to listen was pressure, her effort to cooperate was her response, and leaving the area was the release.  I think.  

Any thoughts?  Anything you would have done differently? 

wanna ride?

donna

Hi All,

I just got back from MaryBeth’s Cowgirl Confidence Camp.  I started writing and couldn’t stop, so it’s a “page” not a blog post.  To read it and see the pictures, click on “Cowgirl Confidence Camp C3-09 Report” under the “Pages” category on the right side of the blog page. 

To fellow campers – if you have any additions or corrections, please let me know – the pages tend to stay up longer than blog posts, so it’s worth the time to edit them.

wanna ride?

donna