My last goal for the season for Sunny and I was to ride in a large scale horse event, where we’d have to ride with lots of horses we didn’t know and demonstrate patience, tolerance, and good trail manners.  I was also looking for a venue where the other horse owners had a stake in keeping their horses in line, too, just so we’d have a lessened chance of having to deal with the “Yaaaahoo!” sorts of riders.  I had considered a NATRC ride for this, but I decided Sunny and I weren’t in physical shape for one of those, particularly a late season ride.  So, when the Santa Cruz County Horsemen’s Association decided to put on their very first Trail Trial, I was all over it.  It was to be Sunny’s Debut Ride.

A trail trial is a ride where there is a route with a number of obstacles on it, 12 on this ride, and you are judged on if and how you and your horse deal with them.  The obstacles range from exotic animals to “suburban obstacles”, such as birthday parties, and trail obstacles, like logs and bridges. The obstacles can also be tasks, such as dragging an object.  Unlike NATRC, you are only judged at the obstacles, and there is no set pace for the ride.

Your performance is judged at each obstacle. There are some “general horsemanship” rules to follow:  check your girth before attempting an obstacle, never loop a rope around your hand, etc, which are described in Trail Trials rule book.  At each obstacle, the judge tells you the specific rules for that obstacle:  “keeping the white flags on your right, follow the flags around, stepping over all logs in the path, stopping at the intersection with the trail” or “walk to the first paint bucket, then trot to the second bucket and stop.  Count out loud to 5, then walk off.”  The judge then evaluates your performance based on the general horsemanship rules and the extent to which you followed the directions for that obstacle.

After talking with experienced NATRC riders (thanks Susan, Jamie and Diane!), I decided not to try to rope one of our riding partners into coming along with us – it was time for us to do something alone.  Also, I signed up for the last time slot of the day.  My thinking was that (a) we might take a lot of time going through the obstacles, so it was the polite thing to do, (b) it would be easier on Sunny if we didn’t have horses on our tails and (c) if it all got to be too much, we could just turn around and go back without having to pass a bunch of riders on the singletrack trails in Cowell.  My intent was to compete only in the sense that I hoped we’d complete the whole ride and we’d try as many obstacles as we could, but my concerns were behavioral, not technical.

Jennifer & Expression, Jim & Montana

So. The day came.  The event started at the SCCHA Showgrounds then went over to Henry Cowell State Park.  As I said, I had signed us up for the last group.   Jim and Jennifer, friends of friends, had also, unbeknowst to me, signed up for that group.  Jennifer is an experienced horsewoman, riding a delightful mare, Expression.  Jim is a relatively new rider and rides Montana, an Arab gelding on the remarkably exuberant end of the energy scale, and on the Drama King end of the emotional scale.  Jim and Montana really enjoy one another, but I’d heard enough Montana stories to be concerned.  So I pulled up my socks, reconciled myself to a little bit of madness, promised Sunny that we’d turn around if it got too crazy, and met Jim and Jennifer at the first obstacle.

Sunny and her Alpaca Friend - after about 10 minutes of approach & retreat

Sheesh!  The very first fookin’ obstacle was to walk by, within 6 feet, of a pen with two alpacas in it!   Montana and Expression both got by the alpacas stylishly, but the first time Sunny noticed them, she went rigid as an I-beam. We fooled around for about 30 seconds to get within 10 yards of the pen, when I figured it wasn’t going to get better soon, so I hopped off and we handwalked (after several tries) by.  You’re supposed to do all the obstacles mounted unless instructed otherwise, but it seemed stupid to stay aboard and start out badly.  Fortunately, there was about a 20 minute wait before the next obstacle, which was about 20 yards away, so we got to practice, and by the time we went on, we could do the obstacle mounted.  Ha!

Note:  the judges at all but one of the obstacles were wonderfully supportive. When there was time, they let us practice, and were always positive about our efforts.

The next obstacle was a gate, which you are supposed to open and close, keeping hold of it with your right hand throughout.  We didn’t.  We got the gate opened and closed, but it wasn’t pretty. That said, I was pleased – I didn’t fall off and we got the job done.

This obstacle set the pattern for how we did all the obstacles.  Jennifer led and was the first one to try the obstacles,  followed by Montana, then Sunny and I.  Jennifer would wait for Jim, and they’d both wait for Sunny and me.  Most of the trail obstacles were on little side trails, so while one horse was executing, the other horses lost sight of him/her.  Montana is really buddied up with Expression, so this really bothered him, and the pressure built up over time.  By the third obstacle he was jigging, by the 8th one he was bouncing, striking and bucking.  Sunny seemed unfazed by it.  Precious horse.

The third obstacle was to step over some logs, a no-brainer, except this was the first time Montana lost sight of Expression and we got a hint of things to come.

The View from Behind

It was about a half mile to the next obstacle. The “group” in front of us were two beautiful and large dressage horses. They were in superb shape and the young women riding them looked really competent, but it was the *first* time the horses had ever been on a trail.  We had watched them do the alpacas and gate and it was pretty wild, so were were not surprised when they were pulled off the trail to let us pass. The erosion had made a half-pipe, like the skateboarders use, in the trail, which the horses had to walk through, then step over a place where the entire trail was eroded out.  And the trail was on a sidehill, so there was a wall to the right and a drop to the left. This part of the ride leads me to conclude that an obstacle *does* exist, even if it’s unjudged.  Anyway.

Jennifer led the way. None of our horses had a problem with the half-pipe, but Expression took a mightly leap over the hole in the trail, and bolted for aobut three strides.  When Jennifer got her stopped, Montana sort of hopped over the hole and hunkered in by Expression. Sunny thought it through and stepped over the hole and walked up to Montana and stopped.

We waited for the dressage horses after Jennifer suggested that they might need a backstop.  Actually, they were quite reasonable about it, but as they came into sight, Montana decided he wanted to head for home. His first move was to try to climb the wall to the right. He kept slipping down, so he gave that up and started one of those “speed backing” maneuvers, right into Sunny and me.  I yelled at the dressage riders and started backing, too, to get out of the way.  Jim got Montana settled l just as we were going to find out if Sunny and I could push 2000 pounds of sissy dressage horse uphill.  We coulda done it.

The Dressage Horses

Then we went on.  The trail was good, but the dressage horses were puffing like steam engines behind us.  And Expression and Montana walk faster than Sunny, so she had to trot maybe 100 yards out of every 400 yards – probably good for her, but it was hot. Also, it couldn’t have been calming for Montana to have some horse trotting up on him every couple of minutes – but they couldn’t slow down and the dressage horses woudn’t pass us, so we made the best of a bad situation.

There was (no kidding) a 35 minute wait at the next obstacle, which actually worked to our advantage, I think. The dressage people announced they were done with obtacles and they went around us, removing pressure from the rear. There was a little bit of green growth left on the trail edge and we eventually got to stand in the shade, so Sunny got to put her head down and at least look for food, so it was a good rest.

The Line at Obstacle 3 - 35 minutes worth

The obstacle was hard:  you had to back your horse between two trees, then do a turn on the haunches and back out.  This was off-trail, so there were branches and other debris around their feet. I figured Sunny had had enough learning for this hour, so I just rode her forward between the trees, stopped and backed her out, and we went on our way.

I think the next obstacle was walking into a redwood grove, picking up a *huge* stuffed animal from a stump, carrying it around the grove and replacing it on the stump.  There was a woman in the group in front of us who knew EVERYTHING – we had a chance to listen to her during the long wait at the last obstacle – she was an endurance rider who didn’t really *need* to do this ride, but her husband’s horse needed the training, which she could do *easily* but HE should take responsibility . . . .

Anyhow, she got de-horsed trying to get the stuffed animal. Sunny and I did it no problem, as did Jennifer and Expression.  And we moved on.  As a side note, if I could have called down a helicopter to pick us up, I would have – I was SO pleased with how Sunny had done, I felt like we couldn’t stop at a better point.  But I was wrong.

Expression Blocking Montana

The next obstacles were pretty straightforward, except for the waiting.  The main problem was that the obstacles were mostly on narrow offshoots from the main trail, so you had to go out-and-back.  There would be 7 horses stopped on the singletrack, and you’d have to figure out how to let the horses by as they finished the obstacle.  Montana was such an issue by about obstacle 8 that he really had no responsbilities – everyone just did their best to stay out of his way.   Except for Jennifer, who was trying to do the right thing:  she kept Expression across his line, at his head.  One time when he struck, he got her stirrup. She was okay, but it was scary.  Also, at this point, a group of 6, consisting of 2 adults, 2 teens, and 2 kids caught up with us and they were actively unpleasant. One of the adults and one of the kids shrieked at each other at least once at each obstacle until the end.  They were lucky they survived. Actually, I could hear them yelling at the Showgrounds while I was loading Sunny to go home!

Anyhow, the obstacles I remember were (1) ride downhill safely, (2) trot between two points, stop, count to five and then proceed at a walk, (3) cross a bridge and stop on it, (4) dismount to a log, lead your horse around the log, remount, (5) lead your horse to a tie rack, and tie and test your quick release knot.  Hmm.  I’m missing several of them and it seems like there was another backing-up one.   Maybe the rest of them will come to me.

The final one was Deb Cooper’s, a local trainer. She had a cowhide tied around a small pillow or something, so it looked like an octopus with a skirt instead of tentacles, connected to a lariat and the goal was to pull the hide between two markers. Sunny was completely calm watching the other horses do it, and we had practiced pulling a feed bag, so I was really confident – Ha!   It’s the closest she’s come to dumping me in over a year, the hide totally freaked her out.  I tried again and we were able to do it, but only by backing, and she was very concerned. Pride goeth before the fall.

Then we headed for the parking lot. Sunny knew where we were and was in a hurry to get to lunch, so she wanted badly to trot down the hill, so we had our first serious “rider chooses gait” battle.  I won, sort of, I think.

The correct moment to be picked up by the helicopter came as we entered the Showgrounds. A woman was standing on the deck of the clubhouse, working the BBQ, and she started staring at us, then went into the clubhouse and came out holding another woman by the arm. She pointed at Sunny (I’m sure it was Sunny; I looked around and there were no other horses) and said, “Look at that gorgeous little sorrel mare!”  It’s not just me that thinks that!

Oh yeah, when I took Sunny to the water tank, I met the endurance rider who’d been dumped. She couldn’t shut up about how Montana’s energy had wrecked her ride. Sheesh.  I’ve been accurate about Montana’s behavior, but I have to say that Jim did a great job of working with what he had, staying aboard, keeping calm, and keeping his worries to himself.  Jennifer did a good job of leading, too: she took responsibility for Jim and Montana, and I could see her looking back to make sure we were still hooked on and waited for us when we were too far off the back.  This endurance rider should take equal responsibility for her performance.  Although I must admit that I’d be kinder if she hadn’t been such a know-it-all!  Note to self:  act humble, even if you don’t feel it.

Anyhow, I was SO pleased with Sunny’s behavior: at all the obstacles, she just sort of stood and watched, then did what she could.  If teaching her patience wasn’t high on my agenda at the moment, it would have been pretty frustrating, but, as it is, it was perfect.  I am really looking forward to NATRC next Spring.

“To infinity and beyond!”

donna

Sheesh!  It’s been 5 weeks since I’ve exposed you to the Horse Hell that is Sunny’s life.  Lucky you – but your vacation is over, this is going to be a long one.

The week after our beach outing with Sylvia and Doolittle (15 Sept post, I think), I went up to check out the NATRC ride in the Oakland Hills – since I’d signed up to do one in October, I thought I might want to know what I was getting us into.   After seeing the reality, I decided it was *way* over our heads, so we are deferring our NATRC start until next Spring – but we’re really looking forward it.  The NATRC community was uniformly welcoming and informative and it looks like good training with good people and a fun time.  I enjoyed checking out the Oakland Hills ride so much that I also went out and watched the Round Hill ride, which was in October.

Oakland Hills - midpoint watering

I volunteered at the Pulse and Respiration (P & R) checks on the Oakland Hills ride, but I took my camera, and (surprise)  ended up taking pictures instead of taking pulses.  And, after I told the ride manager that Sunny and I weren’t ready for the October ride, Round Hill, I got invited to take pictures at it instead. So I did.   The pictures can of the Oakland Hills ride can be seen here and the pictures of the Round Hill ride (the east side of Mt. Diable) can be seen here.

To recap, I hope not too inaccurately but certainly incompletely, NATRC rides are intended to assess both the conditioning/training of your horse, and your horsemanship – and each are judged separately, so you can have a horse that places well, and a rider who doesn’t.  (Which I just love. Anyhow.)  The rides are set up so that you are expected to spend at least one night in ride camp, and the judging starts as soon as you sign in:  how you park and set up your trailer, the way your horse is tied, how you tack up, etc – and continues, of course, right onto the trail.

For the ride itself, there is a pre-defined route and also a time that you are expected to take to get to certain points on the route, and you get penalized both for being too slow *and* for being too fast.  At the stops, there are horse wellness checks – P & Rs and vet inspections.  Also, during the course of the ride, the judge(s) go out to various points on the route that provide some sort of challenge, and evaluate your performance.  The points will usually (I think) be relatively steep uphills and/or downhills, creek crossings, points where a dismount/mount is required, etc – all the challenges were ones that even Sunny and I have run into on the trail, that is, the skills that were evaluated were ones that are, in fact, necessary to be safe on the trail.

Coming out of lunch

The rides were impressive – 2 days, lots of climbing both days, and over 15 miles each day,  even for the novices, and the average speed (moving average: it doesn’t include lunch or required rest intervals) required to meet the expectation was about 3.5 mph – so Sunny would have had to trot a significant portion of it, since she definitely does *not* walk up hills at 3.5 mph.  (BTW, novices only have to do one day, but can do two if they want to.)  Anyhow, Sunny and I now have our first concrete goal for 2010.  Anybody want to come along?

The next week we had several Major Events.  First, we got invited to go out with the Capo de Tutti Fruiti of the local trail system.  Sunny and I met her at her barn, and her first words were “Hi!  Do you guys mind trotting a little?” And off we took.  My mantra has been “With an Arab, slow has to be taught, go will come naturally” so we have walked all this year – well, no more.  We trotted just about the whole darned ride. Sunny was outraged, but survived.

View from The Top of Fort ord

The next day we went down to Fort Ord with Cory and Jade.  Wow!  What a great place to ride!   The horse-friendliness starts in the parking lot: there is a separate lot for parking horse trailers, with the medians set up so that you always pull forward, both to park and to leave.  And there is a little paddock outside the restroom to leave your horse in while you “get ready” for the ride.

There are 83 miles of trails, according to the website, and the footing on all the trails we were on was great.   From the parking lot, all trails led uphill, which was a change for Sunny and Jade – our usual haunts feature lots and lots of quarter mile climbs, so the multi-mile climb was a mental as well as physical challenge for them, but they did well.  We stuck pretty much to dirt fire roads and single track trails on the perimeter of the park, which gave us great views of our surroundings:  the Bay, Salinas, Mount Hamilton, etc.  We ran into a couple of mtn bikers and a few hikers/runners and all of them were polite and friendly.

I can’t tell you what a great ride it was; we could look off into the distance and see the city (of Salinas), but all we could see in near us were the hills,  with empty trails on them.  There was fog in the air, so the light had that sort of gauzy look, and the wind had a little edge.  Days like that are why I ride.

After a couple of rest days, we were off to the St. Jude’s Benefit ride on the McCrary’s property – where the Lockheed Fire was most severe.  The McCrary’s own Big Creek Lumber, and are wonderful conservators of their environment, and supporters of horse activities in Santa Cruz county.  They usually open their property for a few events a year, and one of their regulars is the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital benefit.  Many of us who’d signed up for it assumed that it would be off this year, what with the McCrary’s being evacuated for the fire, losing a substantial amount of their forest to it, etc – but no – Emma McCrary said she thought that the community would be interested in seeing the damage, so the ride was on.

This was a carefully calculated outing.  First, we roped Susan and Mister, who have chaperoned us on several expeditions, into participating in this one, so I knew that Sunny would have a Good Example to follow.  I expected lots of horses (and wasn’t disappointed – there were 80 riders), but you could leave any time between 9 and noon, and there were, I think, 7 different route combinations you could take, so I hoped that the participants would distribute themselves so that Sunny could see a few horses in the parking area, we’d see a few on the trail, she could ride some new trails, and she could eat some hay after the ride with new horses around.  Oddly, that’s pretty much the way it worked out.

We rode the 6.5 mile option, which, when I mapped it on a topo map, came out to 9.2 miles – GPS just doesn’t know what to do with lots of climbing – and it was all beautifully groomed singletrack, mostly on the coast side of Swanton Road, so you could see the burned areas from the ridgetops.  We crossed four creeks, went under downed trees, and got passed on the singletrack by a couple of fast movers.  Mister was in the lead most of the time, but Sunny stepped up and took the lead for about a quarter of the ride. As usual, Mister was a perfect gentleman and a delight to ride with.  The experience was absolutely what I had hoped for:  Sunny’s first “public outing” was a success in all ways, which I could tell because I had a good time.

Naudia and Judy Being Keyed Up

Sunny got the next week mostly off, except for one ride: we went out with my friend Judy and her endurance horse, Naudia.  Naud is a good citizen, but sometimes it seems like really fit endurance horses just sort of exude a “go-fast” energy which puts the other horses on edge.  Fortunately, it didn’t happen this time: Naud and Sunny just walked along like old rental horses or something. It was fabulous.

The next thing we did was Big.  Pam, another client of MaryBeth’s, has been wanting to ride a new trail up in Valley Springs that goes from Lake Camanche to Lake Pardee.   The trail is 12.5 miles long and Pam was having trouble getting someone to ride it with her.  I was looking to up Sunny’s mileage, so we volunteered.  It’s a point-to-point ride, so we dropped my trailer at the Pardee end and started from Camanche – so we went the uphill direction.

What a great ride.  Pam’s horse George is another Steady Eddy Quarterhorse and they sheparded us all the way.  The trail is mostly on EBMUD land, but goes on and off some privately owned property, so there are about 8 gates to open and close. Sunny and I didn’t know how to do it when we started, but we had figured out an inelegant but effective method by the end of the ride.  The trails range from beautiful singletrack to fireroad.  The only quibble I had with the trails was on the fire roads: they’d been recently gravelled with just the wrong size of rock and George picked up a rock in his shoe, which caused us a few moments of WTF?

The first few miles are along the edges of the lake, so there were opportunities for the horses to drink.  Also, there were about a zillion deer, peering out from the trees, or trotting down the road in front of us.  We’d know something was out there when one of the horses would freeze. If we followed the sight line established by their noses, we’d find one or more deer. I think the largest group we saw was  7 of them, all does.  And, of course, there were lots of birds.

One of the scarier moments was when we crossed under a road with quite a lot of traffic on it – the bridge over our heads amplified the tire noise as the cars passed over our heads, and it worried the horses quite a lot.  After the bridge, the trail started to head up, and turned into  mostly beautiful singletrack – about 4 feet wide and perfectly surfaced.  As we went up, we had a constantly changing view of the Lake Camanche. Finally, we left the lake and the trail followed the course of the Mokulome River – but from about 400 feet up.   In one place for about a hundred yards, there was a wall on our right and, on our left, a border of scrub trees, then a straight drop to the river.  I forgot the Centered Riding admonition about “soft eyes” and focused firmly on the the point where the trail widened!

At the top, there were picnic tables and benches and a tie bar for the horses, so we stopped for a break – we were all ready for one by then. Pam had the forethought to bring sliced apples, which George and Sunny devoured; there was no water after we started climbing, so they were looking for anything that was wet!

The view from the top was crazy – you could see forever: both lakes, the river, an unidentified town in the distance.  An EBMUD employee stopped to chat with us and he said that on a clear day you could see Mt. Diablo.  Hmmm.  I was told by a ranger at Mt. Diablo that on a clear day you could see Mt. Shasta – do you think . . . ?  We couldn’t see quite that far, but it was pretty darned impressive.  Also, when we looked the opposite direction, we could see my truck and trailer parked in the lot – the end was in sight.

Off we went.  We had the only spook of the ride on this final downhill: there was a large boulder by the side of the trail and Sunny went completely sideways in her effort to avoid it. Sheesh!  But I was impressed that she had the energy for it.  After avoiding the Lurking Rock, we had an uneventful trip to the parking lot, where there are horse water troughs, so we watered Sunny and George and headed back to MaryBeth’s, after a perfect ride.

It was a great ride, mostly because of the company, but partially due to the wonderful and empty trail.  The only person we met was the EBMUD guy, and we checked out the sign-in log – you have to sign in before you ride – and there had been only three other riders in the preceding week.  You can do horse camping there, and I think it’s on our list for next Fall, since Pam says there are other nice trails there as well as what we rode.  Also, the trail was superbly marked – even I couldn’t get lost – and the trail markers said it was part of the “Pacific to the Crest” trail. The EBMUD guy said they were trying to create a trail all the way from the Bay to the Pacific Crest trail!  Again, anybody interested?

Note:  Sunny doesn’t get the notion of a non-out-and-back ride. On all the rides described here, she wanted to head for home by turning around right up to the point where she was climbing in the trailer.  I guess it makes sense if you can’t read a map, but it’s pretty funny.

So. Those have been our major milestones in the last month, building up to our final goal for the season:  participate in a large scale ride where we’re on the trail with a bunch of other horses and we have to demonstrate patience and good trail manners, as well as the ability to get down the trail.  That was supposed to be the NATRC ride, so we had to find an alternative.

Well, I know what my next article topic will be:  How to become a better instructor.   Every trainer/instructor should put ego aside and seek lessons from, well, from everywhere.  Learn from horses, learn from your students, and take some lessons from pros in a field other than your own.  Personally, I have always enjoyed learning and have greatly appreciated the opportunities to learn from some very talented horse professionals.  I have learned the finer points of Arabian Western pleasure from AHA judge Kari Abiol-Johnson.  She showed me that the view from my horses back wasn’t the same as the view from the judges perspective.   Pete Bowling, an icon of the AQHA,  reminded me to let the horse choose his discipline, and started me on the path to reining.  And, most recently, Steve Wright explained that there are some big differences between reining and cutting (who knew?) and that adding a cow into the mix can make you forget how to ride!  Oh yeah, note to any instructors reading this: let your clients go with you and see you get a lesson.  I guarantee they will enjoy seeing you on the hot seat and it reminds both of you that you are human!

I had a blast learning cutting, a totally new experience.  At the end of two and 1/2 hours, I sat my exhausted body and mind down in the truck seat and asked Pam if this is how my students felt after a lesson.   With a knowing smile she assured me that they did indeed!  

And try something totally new sometime.  For me it was kayaking last year.  Thats a whole ‘nother story, but suffice it to say that I have no salvagable skill whatsoever on the river.   At the time, I thought it was just a disasterous birthday adventure.  On retrospect, it was a valuable lesson in humility that made me a better teacher.  Now thats a true birthday gift.

I can’t wait for my next lesson!   Maybe this time I’ll be slightly more successful outsmarting a cow.