Some Horse Humor

I haven't been too motivated to blog lately but here's some horse humor to amuse :-):

Back to School With Max

Today, Max and I went back to school...in a manner of speaking! :-) Actually, I was helping a friend of mine put on a program at a local private school on horses and the American Revolution. The audience was made up of 4-6 graders so the presentation was fairly simplified. The school was close enough to the stables and my friend's house so we wound up riding over.

My friend did most of the talking and then occassionally I would discuss various things such as the role cavalry in the American Revolution and what sorts of weapons were used. What was pretty neat was that we were actually able to fire a couple of blanks from one of friend's flintlock pistols (this was a private school- no way you could have done this in a public school). The horses, and especially Max were very good and for the most part very patient. Better yet, the shooting barely affected Max.

To cap things off, we had a competition where the kids would run in competition with my friend on his horse- the kids are convinced that they can run as fast as a horse and this is a popular feature ever year (my friend has been putting on presentations at this school for some time). Naturally all safety precautions were observed. It was pretty cool to watch- some of those kids are pretty fast and for a few moments, I wasn't too sure...and my friend's horse is an Arabian! :-)

Naturally, to end things, we let the kids feed carrots to the horses. Talk about hitting the lottery! Max was in heaven with a long line of kids handing hin carrots. Talk about a "Carrot ATM machine"! :-)

Overall, it was pretty neat and the kids asked some pretty intelligent questions. Perhaps there's still hope for America's youth. :-)

Video of Station Fire

Here's an interesting video of the Station Fire taken from the perspective of one camera located in a canyon that was in the path of the fire. I definitely would not have wanted to actually been there...

Angeles Requiem from Tocho on Vimeo.

And Yet More Anza Pictures...

As the pictures have trickled in from the last Napoleonic event Max adn I attended at Anza, I've been posting them to my blog. Here are a couple of nice portrait shots although the background isn't the greatest:

Working My Way Through The Barn

Today I decided to give Max the day off and to work with some of the other horses in my life. :-)

I first worked Max for about two hours, doing various dressage moves for the first hour and then doing sword work (talk about having a sore arm and shoulder after I was done!). I also practiced various dressage moves while working the sword- the goal is to be able side-pass, leg yield, transition, half-pass, etc. while not really having to think too much about it. Overall, it worked out well although I need to work on keeping my hand more quiet on the reins. Max's back was also fine after having been ridden for two hours and it appears that some of the hair coming back.

Next there was Lenny...talk about a horse with a "spring in his step"! It's been strange riding him- he's got such a springy step that I find it hard to maintain a decent seat while at the trot. The walk is no problem (it should be!) and the canter isn't so bad too but the with the trot, it feels like I'm going to get launched out of the saddle. I've taken measures to reinforce proper placement of the legs and ensure that my body remains in the vertical. At this point, I think the key is to also use my calves to keep a firm, constant contact- bascially a light grip.

I worked Lenny at the walk, trot, and canter and did a lot of transitions (the transitions were more for me than for Lenny). I found that as time went on, he became more responsive to my aids and especially my half-halts. I even tried some collection. At the canter, he fell into it once I figured out how to ask him and it took very little to get him to frame up. At the trot was another matter...it seems that the slow trot is not his strong point and with the springy step, it's more difficult to set him up and maintain it. Perhaps this will improve with time. :-)

After about an hour or so, I simply walked Lenny around on a loose rein. What's very interesting is that outside of the arena, he tends to fix on various things and stare at them until I remind him to pay attention to me- no doubt this is due to his being a show horse and I seriously doubt that he ever got out much except to work or show and this belief was confirmed when I decided to walk him down to the wash and have him check out the stream.

WIth a little urging, I managed to walk Lenny down into the wash but he was definately on high alert and uneasy. I decided not to rush things and simply walked him up to the stream as close as I could. Lenny was definately not up for this so I wound up circling him many times, driving him closer to the water's edge. I didnt' really push him too hard and while we didn't make into the water, we ended on a good note and I figured that there was no rush- we can work up to it gradually.

After unsaddling Lenny and putting him back in his stall, I then rode Kisses. Talk about a contrast! Kisses is a Standardbred Pacer who started life as a harness racing horse. In more recent years, she's been primarily used for trail riding and some driving and she hasn't really been ridden or worked in about six months. She's got a nice trot but her pacing is simply horrible (talk about being thrown from side to side). I mostly worked her at the trot with an emphasis on her keeping the trot- Kisses' tendency is to speed up (no doubt from her racing days) into the pace (while occassionally you can get her to canter, it's never for very long). At the trot, she actually has a nice carriage. I mostly worked her at the walk/trot.

I finished by walking Kisses in the wash. She's normally OK on the trail but sometimes she can get excited by other horses (but not all the time) and starts spinning. Hopefully I can take the edge off of this over time.

By the time I was through riding, I was pretty beat and it was definately time for a beer. :-)

Back to Work...A Little Bit At A Time

Because Max is recovering from some sort of a raw spot on his back. The skin has now healed and it appears that there's a little hair coming in. I've severely limited my riding time and so far, it doesn't appear that the saddle and/or saddle pad have been rubbing the area (which leads me to believe that something else was the cause, especially since I hadn't ridden in a week when I first discovered the area). At any rate, it's been close to three weeks but I'm still keeping things light.

Saturday morning found me at drill practice with the Warhorse Foundation and throughout the practice, Max acted perfectly and gave no indication of being in pain or uncortable. We did the usual variety of drills at both the walk and the trot and even tried some new manuevers. What's unnerving is that Max knows a lot of the manuevers and he'll usually do a lot of them without much urging on my part. The only things I have to really control are the speed and position- my theory is taht what seems "right" to Max is not necessarily what I want. What's amazing is that Max even knows when to turn on some manuevers and he gets a little annoyed when the other horses don't execute things at the right time- most of this was while Max was on the outside of the line.

We concluded the drill session by cantering the horses in line, in two groups of three riders each. Max was on the inside (not by design) and he was pretty good on the canter departs- often he gets excited and then loses all thoughts of cantering or listening to my aids- he just dances around. However, I've begun to counter this by applying the aids a lot more quickly and keeping my seat more behind the vertical- I don't fall out of position as easily plus I can drive Max forward a lot easier. Today, though, I didn't have to worry and he was pretty good.

While we only spent about two hours, it was a good work out for Max and he definately earned his bucket today. :-)

One More from Anza 2010

Here's one of the few pictures of me from the recent Anza event. Not too inspirational but he it is...Viva Espania!