The Best Way to Beat the Heat

If you have a horse and a pond, you better put them together on these hot summer days.  Check out Hudson’s first swim with me clinging on like a remora on a great white.

Thanks, Matt and Heidi, for reminding me that a horse + deep water = FUN!  Matt is my hubby’s son, and he and his girlfriend Heidi moved to Florida, where they are doing all kinds of great things, including riding horses into the surf and swimming with them.  It made me start reminiscing about swimming our horses in farm ponds in the past.  Oh, Hudson…

A pause for a pretty red mare

Might get that bucket?

DeCato Copper hasn’t had much air time on this blog, so I thought I’d post a few pictures of this pretty little BLM mustang mare.

DeCato came to live with us after I saw her advertised on Craigslist, and requested a photo.  When I saw more skeleton than horse, we went and got her, brought her home, isolated her for a while, got her vaccinated, and then integrated her with the others.  The former owner didn’t feed her enough or handle her much after getting her from a BLM auction at Cornell two years before.   He didn’t have experience training any horse, let alone a mustang, and she was beyond his abilities.  

Where be that bucket?

She lacked minimal care, and actually had never even had her feet trimmed while he owned her.  He said that when he told farriers that she was a wild mustang, they refused to work on her, but honestly, I was picking out and filing her feet within about three weeks of bringing her home, and I’m no Buck Brannaman. 

She was also being housed with a two-year-old stallion at her old place, and the fact that her life with him didn't result in a random foal is either a miracle or a testament to this mare's determination in keeping him away from her reproducing parts.

Might still get the bucket...

Last I measured, DeCato still hadn’t made it to 14 hands.  She’s the low horse in the group and herd-bound and spooky when handled.  I have ridden her a bit, and she never tried to buck, but she’s a challenge because of her insecurities.  I’ll have her working more this fall, after I am happy with Dee’s and Starlight’s progress.

DeCato has shown me that she’s a very smart mare, but prefers to be with the herd.  She’s the self-appointed security guard of the group, always on the look-out for something dangerous on the horizon.  I guess when you’re a horse born on the plains of Nevada, you might carry a higher level of paranoia than these fat and comfy stock horses and the drafty beast who hang out here.

She’s the only solid color horse here, a rich chestnut with a sprinkle of roany white hairs in her coat.  She dapples up in the summer and has a slight curl to her coat in the winter, which isn’t surprising, since the Ely, Nevada area where she came from does produce some curly mustangs.

...except Hudson has the bucket.

Oh, and the former owners identified her as “Dakado” in their ad, which I thought was an interesting name, but then I heard them call her “Dakota,” and realized the interesting name was just bad spelling.  Well, it stuck as “DeCato,” and the “Copper” part is in honor of her penny-red coat and the fact that copper is produced in the area where she was born.

Enjoy the pictures of this doe-eyed mare with the pretty head and shiny coat!

An Honest Horse

“Make me as big and open as the plains,
As honest as the horse between my knees”

From A Cowboy’s Prayer by Badger Clark

I rode an honest horse tonight.    

Starlight carried me for about 40 minutes on the trail, including the narrow path through the woods at the back of our property.  That was another first for her, and it included navigating some of the toughest terrain she has encountered.  It’s not hard by any experienced trail horse’s standards, but the stretches of muddy areas that are normally puddles in the path at the bottom of the hill, the sticks and limbs that had fallen across the path, the leaves on overhead branches that sometimes touched her head as we went by, and the blackberry bush-covered area that she wasn’t totally convinced was actually a trail, these were all new to her.

So was being harassed by deer flies on the trail, and having a rider continually reaching forward to smack them off her ears was also new (why do I bother buying fly spray?  I might as well shred up the money I spend on it, mix the shreds into a paste and spread that on her ears).

As she carefully stepped down the steep hill on the other side of the field, I let myself admire this steady little mare, who hasn’t said “no” to anything I have asked of her so far, in her young riding career.

Later, I watched her grazing with her herdmates in the pasture as the moon came up, huge and orange in the east, and I appreciated spending the evening with an honest horse.

Horse Events, July 13-17, 2011

It's a fairly quiet weekend in terms of horse activities, but of course the biggie is the Stuart Horse Trials in Victor, NY.  This is a great opportunity to participate in or watch an FEI rated competition that includes both local and international equestrians.  

Have a great weekend!

July 13-14 Houghton College Adult Dressage Camp 

Ssession 2 (with FEI trainer Eddo Hoekstra), Houghton, NY.
For details:   Jo-Anne Young at (585) 567-8142 or joanne.young@houghton.edu

July 14 -17: Stuart Horse Trials

Townline and Murray Rd Victor, NY

Stuart Horse Trials started out in 1990 as a very nice local event where about 70 novice and training level riders competed. While it remains the highlight of local competitors' event schedules, the trials now draws top international level riders and their horses who compete at the preliminary and intermediate levels and in the international CIC* and CIC** competitions. The 300 competitors come from all over the United States and many foreign countries including Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Hungary, India, and Mexico and are cheered on by more than 18,000 spectators.

For details:  http://www.stuarthorsetrials.org/

July 16-17 Eddo Hoekstra Dressage Clinic

Chestnut Ridge, Gasport, NY

For details: Sue Williams at (716) 772-2707/2957 or wiliamsbrg@aol.com. For entry forms, go to www.chestnutridgeequestriancenter.com

July 17: Open Horse Show Series

Stoneybrook Farm, 428 Shaffer Road, Newfield, NY

Classes for all levels of Pleasure and Hunt seat riders

Two Venues & the best prizes of any local horse shows!

Series High points compete for:Charles Owen Helmet, Mountain Horse Tall Boots, Ariat Paddock  boots

For details:  www.stoneybrookfarm.info  (607) 564- 0063 or www.carriagehousesaddlery@zoom-dsl.com (607) 387-3422

Striving for Good

I was listening to Denny Emerson’s interview on the Stable Scoop podcast the other day, as he talked about his new book, How Good Riders Get Good.  During the interview, he said something that got under my skin and made me start itching.

He said that the way you can tell a really good rider is to take away the rider’s stirrups and see if they can still ride as well without them.  Better yet, take away the saddle and see how they do. If they ride as well without stirrups, or bareback, you've found a good rider.

Riding Bareback No. 2 by Joyce Geleynse

Comments like that, from someone as renowned and respected as Denny Emerson, motivate and challenge me.  I know what he described is not the only measure of a good rider, but being able to ride as well without stirrups or a saddle definitely means the rider has an excellent seat and is so fit, balanced and supple that she seems to have an almost instinctual ability to move with the horse.

When I was younger, sometimes I was just too plain lazy to put the saddle on the horse, so I would jump on bareback and go off on the trails, walking, trotting and cantering bareback, staying on uphill and down, over obstacles, through spooks.  I barely gave it a thought.  Who WAS that girl?  And why is it so hard to do that now?

Since I restarted my horse life, about eight year ago, I have only ridden bareback twice.  TWICE in eight years.  I should be ashamed of myself!  And both times were under very controlled conditions at a slow pace.

Here I am at age 11, about to enter bareback class on CG. That's my sister, Nan.

So, on my last couple of rides on Hudson, I have dropped the stirrups.  I haven’t been brave enough to cross them over the pommel yet, like I used to do in Pony Club, or when my sister wanted to torture me (she was my coach for a few years).  Hudson doesn’t seem to mind them dangling at her sides, and I feel better knowing I can jam my feet in them if I need to.

Now THAT's a back that doesn't need a saddle.

The only times I needed to tonight were when we got speedy, as before I asked Hudson to jump two naturally fallen logs on the trail.  I wanted the stirrups for the jumps and the subsequent charge up the path through the woods.  I know, I know. I’m
a chicken. 

The other time I wanted them was during a gallop in the upper field.  For the rest of the ride, during a variety of trot speeds on an up-and-down path, and also once during a sideways spook when a ruffed grouse surprised us (they are quite the loud wing flappers, those grouse), I rode comfortably without stirrups.  I was conscious not to lean on the reins and kept my body balanced over my seat bones.

My legs did get tired from the unusual stretching that occurred without stirrups, but that was the only toward the end of the ride. 

I’m not there yet, but this will be something I’ll continue to work on this summer, until I’m comfortable enough to jump on Hudson bareback on the evenings when I really want to check my balance, my seat, my harmony with the horse’s movement.   

Or maybe I’ll do it when I’m just too lazy to put on the saddle.

Horse Activities in the Twin Tiers, July 9- 14, 2011

Here's the line-up of horse activities in the Twin Tiers for this weekend. It doesn't look like I'm going to have a horse ready for Paint-O-Rama, darn it, but maybe I'll stop by to watch for a few minutes.  I can check out next year's competition!

July 9: Blue Ribbon Driven 4-H Clinic

Sweet Water Farm

Route 492
Jackson, PA 18847
For details: ph: (570) 756-3268; akropf@nep.net

July 9 – 10: ESPHC Summer Paint-O-Rama

Chemung Co. Fairgrounds, Horseheads, NY - 4 APHA/PtHA Judges: Gary Miller-MO, Kathy Miller-MO, Gary Streator-OH, Sally Jo Ward Freund-WA
For details: Show Manager: Patti Cerio ~ (856) 931-1116 ~ email: pcerio@aol.com
Show Manager: Kathy Reinert ~ (607) 965-8601 (h) ~ (860) 428-7669 (m) ~ email: mjrkmr@hotmail.com

2011 Class List (New as of May 31, 2011)
2011 Show Fees (New as of May 31, 2011)
Pre-Entry Form (New as of June 20, 2011)

July 9-10: Genesee Valley Hunt, USEA recognized Horse Trials

Geneseo, NY. Levels are Beginner Novice thru Preliminary.

For details: Contact Billie Hill at (585) 350-8029 or billie.hill309@gmail.com

July 9-10: Troy Area Horsemen’s Association

Alparon Park, Troy, PA.

Saturday: Game Show

Sign up 2 pm

Sunday: All Breed Open Show, PAC approved, starts at 8 a.m.

For details: http://www.taha-pa.com/index.htm

July 12-14 Huck Finn Classic Horse Show

NYS Fairgrounds Country Max Race Arena and Stables

For details: 315-682-1933 Visit Web Site nblumenthal@twcny.rr.com

Starlight's Road Trip

I tried to warn her.  Starlight, that is.  I told her last night and again this morning, “You’re going to a show.”

She probably didn’t believe me.  I wouldn’t have.  Who would take a pony who is still learning to keep her balance under a rider and who has only cantered three times under saddle, to a show? 

I would.  And I did. 

Starlight looking anxious before our walk at the show.

If you read this blog regularly, you know I have been looking for a chance to take Starlight off the farm, but not too far away.  Yesterday the opportunity opened right up for me.  I happened to drive by a little horse facility called Crystal Valley Riding Club in South Corning, and I could see they were getting ready for an event.  

I stopped my car and asked a nice man, who was repairing a fence, about it, and he confirmed there would be a show starting at 10 on Saturday.  It was a Western games show, but it wouldn’t have matter if it was a miniature horse chariot race, I decided right then to bring Starlight.  It’s close to my home, is attended by a friendly, relaxed group of people (I had ridden there once before) and it has lots of grassy space to ride a pony who might be a little nervous.  I wasn’t going to enter the classes, but just to give her the experience of being ridden at such an event.

Contemplating the unknown.

All the way up until the moment we left for the show I was wavering back and forth about doing it.  It seemed fairly random to pack up a pony, drive 10 miles, ride her around a Western games show – in English tack – and then go home.  And the drive is no cupcake. 

My friend Trish commented that to trailer a horse to my house you have to travel roads that are narrow AND windy AND hilly, and that is coming from the less steep direction.   Today, we were going the steep route, and it is narrow and windy and hilly in the way a roller coaster is narrow and windy and hilly, not what I like to trailer a horse on.  But hey, we live here.  If we are going to go anyplace with the horses, narrow and windy and hilly it must be.

I first took the empty trailer for a test drive, since it has been sitting since April, was satisfied that it was road-worthy, and prepared the pony for a trip.

Twenty minutes and some hot brakes later, we were at Crystal Valley.  Starlight, who had whinnied all the way down the hill, the poor, scared thing, continued to whinny all around the show grounds as I led her.  We walked past trailers, tied horses, lots of dogs, temporary paddocks, an inflatable kiddy pool and giant inflatable red ball as tall as a Shetland pony (thank you, to the people who brought them.  This is just the kind of thing I wanted her to see!).  We saw folding chairs of every description, experienced children darting about, as well as strange horses riding up on us. 

She was nervous but not panicky after the walk, so I saddled her up and repeated the above while on her back.  I had worn jeans over my field boots, instead of breeches, but nothing could disguise my dressage saddle and hunter bridle as we rode among all the Western saddled horses and people wearing cowboy hats.  We did get our fair share of stares, but I joked it off, “Oops! We don’t match!” and nobody minded. 

Mellowed out and sweaty after our ride.

I took her in the warm up arena and we rode around with other horses in a ring for the first time at the walk and trot.   

Starlight did just great.  She was cooperative through it all, only had a couple of spooks the whole time, and got a lot of compliments.

“She’s so pretty!” many people told us as we went by.   I was so proud of my black and white pony who was as pretty in behavior as in physical form today.

All told, we were there just about an hour, then we packed up and came home.  Some people might have said it was a waste of diesel to be there such a short time, but it was all I wanted.  The plan was exposure, and riding in a strange place among strange people, horses and things, and for everybody to come home happy. 

Mission accomplished.