Wizard Ride 255: ¡Que Vida!
Wednesday, 6/29/11
What a life Wizard leads. When I arrived on Wednesday morning, I brought him into his stall from his paddock to feed him some alfalfa hay, under a fan- he lost weight, so I’m trying to put it back on him. Then, he got a good grooming and a very quick ride. We rode outside since there was a breeze and the flies were not too bad. We worked on my equitation and on forwardness, which ended up being a fun ride for Wizard. I focused on my leg and seat, and played slow-and-fast on the long and short sides of the arena. He very much enjoyed the part when I let him hand gallop on the long sides, snorting and digging in as he accelerated.
I cooled him off, gave him another pile of hay, and his work was done. What a life.
Wizard Ride 254: I Am a Tree
Monday, 6/27/11
Two days after our adventures in Assunpink and in the Horse Park of New Jersey, Wizard and I embarked on a trip to the New Jersey Forest Nursery with Lily and Rachel. Map Here.
Wizard was displeased with the deerflies on the way out. I had doused him in fly spray and rubbed his ankles with Belly Balm. Our last trip to the tree nursery was over as year ago, but with only a few wrong turns, we arrived there pretty easily. Wizard got tense and a little snorty through some of the hairier parts of the ride, but for the most part was pretty good. He balked just a bit at a big hill, but then was willing and rode up it. He was a sweaty from nerves, but kept his cool.
We crossed the wooden bridge with ease, and hopped a few little logs. In the back of the tree farm is a long horsepath, which is delightful for trotting and cantering. The footing is a little sandy but not too loose, and the path is wide enough for two horses. Wizard had several Bill the Cat moments (photo below) and forgot how to place his feet, but was controllable even when he was excited. By the end of the loop, he was beginning to find his rhythm. It reminded me of how he used to ride on the farm trails. Time fixed all those issues, and I think the same will happen if we ride the tree farm more often.
Wizard walked nicely the whole way home, through the neighborhood (video above), and down a new trail in the woods. Lily, as always, was sterling.
I hope to get out to the tree farm more often this summer. The horse path is a wonderful place to work on trotting and cantering up and down gentle hills.
Back at the barn, Wizard got a bath and was put to bed with hay.
Practice, practice, practice.
Wizard Ride 253: Rider
Saturday, 6/25/11
My friend Erin came from Maryland with her lovely Morgan mares Belle and Esme and picked up Wizard for our trail ride in Assunpink Wildlife Management Area.
Esme, photo taken this spring…
Wizard loaded onto the trailer like a CHAMP (woo-hoo!) and was quite happy with his equine companions. We tacked up and met up with Christie and her filly, Brigid, who was started under saddle this spring. Esme is also pretty green, so Wizard was the second-most seasoned trail horse on the ride! Belle is the trail princess, and she has been everywhere. The flies were not too bad, and Wizard was equipped with his Nose Net and a fly bonnet. The weather was wonderful- after a week of sporadic rain, some of the trails were wet but totally rideable.
For the beginning of the ride, Wizard was a little balled up with energy. I expected this, and did my best to settle him into a good walking rhythm. On narrower trails, he was fine, but in the huge open fields, he would get a little prancy. He also likes to prance up hills, but my biggest pet peeve ever is letting horses blast off at a faster gait than you want. So we WALKED the hills, not the most relaxed walk ever, but better than a jig.
About a mile into the ride, Wizard settled into the walk I was looking for; he has a delightfully swingy and ground-covering walk when he is relaxed. The larger group of horses meant that sometimes they were riding alongside him, which was fine unless one of them trotted ahead of him. Then, he would get antsy and dancy and fussy and not really pay attention to me. In the words of Dr. Deb, Wizard’s “birdie” leaves the building.
At one point, one horse trotted past him up a hill and he went into a leaping, cantering, pulling, sideways, clumsy tantrum. He does not rear or buck, so it’s fairly simple to sit, but it definitely feels a little like riding an octopus wearing roller skates. He threw the tantrum once again when we reached The Horse Park of New Jersey, where we strolled through the cross country course. Someone trotted ahead of him, and there I was again, cantering, sort of, on a horse who felt like he had no head because it was tucked so low.
I’m not really sure how to work on the issue. It never usually happens, since the trails at my barn are narrow and nobody usually trots past me when I’m walking. I would like to work on it, though, since I’d love to do some hunter paces with him. I guess one answer is to always be the leader and never allow anyone to pass us when we’re walking, but that’s so controlling and limiting. I’ll need to think on it.
So for about 20% of the ride, Wizard was wound up or fussing, but for the rest of the ride, he was delightful. He was fine on the lead or in the back of the pack, but he definitely prefers the lead. The only time he spooked was when one of the horses we were riding with separated and walked around a group of trees. We met face-to-face and BOTH horses jumped! It was hilarious.
When we reached Stone Tavern Lake, Wizard was interested in wading in the water, but the ripples seemed to freak him out a little. All the mares got into the water and were even playing and pawing. Wizard stood at the verrrrry edge. I could feel that he wanted to try it, so I tried a few different angles and walked toward it a few different ways. I did not force the issue, and eventually, he got the hang of it and walked in like a pro. Maybe next time, he’ll wade a little more.
At the Horse Park, we explored the hills and paths that make up the Jersey Fresh cross country course. It was really cool to walk in the footsteps of the eventing greats- of course, they galloped those steps, ha ha!
We returned to the trailer and let the horses graze for a little while before they loaded up and went home. I gave Wizard a much-needed hosedown and put him back outside with his paddock buddies. Hopefully, we’ll have a few more off-the-farm adventures this summer.
And I blazed
in the last orange hours of the day,
until the dust hazed and hid us away.
Wizard Ride 252: Goodbye Horses
Friday, 6/24/11
Before work, I took a trail ride with my friend Kris and Philadelphia, the Morgan mare she was leasing. Philly is an amazingly awesome mare, and she is heading back to her owner this weekend. We’re all going to miss her very much, but it helps to know that she is in very good hands. Kris and I took the big loop of trails, and rode the route backwards from our usual direction. Philly was full of pep, and trotted a few parts of the trail, much to Wizard’s surprise. Due to the recent rain, there were a few big puddles along the trail, and Wizard marched through them all. The rain also made the trees quite wet, and the low-hanging branches gave us a shower as we ducked under them. The flies were bad on one leg of the trail, but the rest of the ride was pretty clear.
Wizard Ride 251: I Come From the Water
Thursday, 6/23/11
After a night of thunderstorms, the outdoor arena was full of puddles. The footing was sloppy but secure, so Wizard and I had a quick ride in the arena and pretended we were eventers. We walked, trotted, and cantered, splashing through the puddles. I kept the ride short and simple so Wizard did not strain himself in the unusual footing. He felt great, and it was a fun break from our usual routine. He did need a good hosedown to get all that mud off of him!
His father was a mudder… his mother was a mudder…
Wizard Ride 250: I Close My Eyes
Wednesday, 6/22/11
Before work, I rode Wizard in the outdoor arena. I feel better about any of my concerns about him not being quite himself- he was perfectly 100% normal. I warmed him up at the walk and trot and then began our “homework” from our lesson last Thursday. I concentrated on weight in my stirrups and on opening up my chest. Wizard and I worked on trot and canter poles. In order to remove myself from the equation of him getting tense over canter poles, I shut my eyes as he cantered over them. It helped! I fiddled less with rein and distance and he get less anxious. We did two outside lines and then a pole on the short side. Once he settled into a nice cantering rhythm, we added one cross rail at the end of the ride, so he was cantering a little “course” of poles and one little jump. It was fun!
Wizard Ride 249: Dark Entries
Tuesday, 6/21/11
After a fun mini photo session in the arena, Wizard and I went out on a twilight Summer Solstice trail ride with Kris (pictured above with Philly), Rachel, and Ashley. It was getting dark, so we rode around the short loop at a walk. Unlike last year, the fireflies were not quite out in full force. Wizard seemed a little out of sorts. He was not walking as long/fast as he usually does and he was a little grouchy. When we got back to the barn, I trotted him around the outdoor arena for a few laps. He felt responsive and willing. In the barn, I took his temperature just to be sure something worse was not going on, but it was normal (99.5). His appetite is fine, and there is nothing outwardly wrong. He just does not seem quite right.
Wizard Ride 248: Bust a Move
Monday, 6/20/11
Monday looked like it was going to be the nicest day of the week, and I got out of work at a reasonable hour. After taking some artsy photos of Wizard (I’ve been neglecting the poor guy in my photo portfolio lately), we tacked up and hit the trails with Rachel and Lily. There has not been a lot of rain lately and the ground was firm, but the horses handled it fine. We trotted most of the ride, cantering down the nice flat lane, and walking in the narrow spots.
Along the last long leg of the trail, Lily decided she should trot alongside Wizard, and it was fun! There were no snakey faces or sideways glances, and they kept in step with one another. It’s funny, because I sometimes think Wizard thinks she’s his track pony.
Back at the barn, I removed a tick, groomed him, and gave him some hay. Wizard has dropped weight in the past few weeks and I’m trying to figure out why and work on it.
Wizard Ride 247: Crazy Rhythms
Thursday, 6/16/11
Wizard and I had our first riding lesson since this winter. After warming up, we focused on the goal of the lesson, which was rhythm and adjusting Wizard’s stride while keeping him focused and relaxed.
The FIRST thing Carole noticed was weakness in my right leg. It was loose and I was not sitting straight in the saddle. We worked on adjusting my position and focusing on where I am putting my weight. I need to work on closing my fingers, and using the upper inside of my calf instead of cheating and curling my lower calf on Wizard. My leg is bowing instead of sitting securely on his sides. I need to put more weight on the inside of the ball of my foot to balance out my weight.
We started out trotting two outside lines with two poles each. The poles had about 14 trot steps between them, and when Wizard was loose and I was riding forwardly, we got the strides each time. If I jammed up the trot or Wizard missed the distance, we added a step. Wizard stayed wonderfully relaxed through the trot work. Carole added a few poles and we trotted 3 trot poles on one line.
As we added lines of trot poles, Wizard settled nicely into the work. I felt him sit on the bit contact much more consistently than he did in the past. We are both really getting better with rein contact.
After the trot poles, Wizard and I trotted a cross-rail. For the first time ever, he trotted it!!! Usually he leaps, but all the trot poles seemed to give him confidence to trot the jump. We trotted the single a few times, and then trotted a line of two cross-rails, trotting in and cantering out and then stopping a little before the fence. I worked on establishing my rhythm long before the jump so I was not micro-managing him right before the fence.
Next, we graduated to trotting in to the first jump, cantering out, and then doing a simple change at the end of the line and cantering a single pole on the diagonal. For Wizard, cantering poles is more of an ordeal than jumping. He leaps, he rushes, it’s a production. Our first simple change was not great, either. But he beauty of a lesson is having someone on the ground who can coach you through a sticky patch. Carole worked with me on the timing of my leg aid to pick up the correct lead, and Wizard settled over the pole after a few tries, and a LOT of half-halting on my part. Whew- I got my money’s worth!
Wizard Ride 246: A Change is Gonna Come
“Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backward, or sideways.” H. Jackson Brown
Wednesday, 6/15/11
GORGEOUS weather for a morning ride. Wizard enjoyed a flake of alfalfa hay while I tacked him up, and then we went into the indoor arena for our ride. I warmed him up at the walk, first on a loose rein, then with contact. Wizard has a habit of getting “selective hearing” in the beginning of a ride with leg aids. Usually, I ride without a crop, and simply get him on my leg with lots of transitions, but today I carried a crop for the first few minutes of trot work. Wizard needed the tiniest tap just once to remember what my legs are for, and was light and responsive to leg for the rest of the ride.
At the trot, we worked on circles and along the rail, getting contact and establishing feel. Our circles turned to serpentines, as we practiced degrees of bending. Then, we got to the meat and potatoes of the ride: cantering figure 8s with simple changes at the trot.
Odd duck that he is, Wizard finds simple changes more challenging than flying lead changes. The trot-to-canter transition is still rushy and awkward for him unless we are both totally “in the zone”. I backed off on the transitions for a while and worked on improving his trot and doing lots of transitions to increase balance and power in the hind end. This seemed to help, since our attempts were a little less awkward than previous canter transition sessions. It was still less than graceful. Wizard has more difficulty picking up the left lead than the right lead most of the time, and when he gets tense, the trot in the center is not straight and is not relaxed. We got through a few figure 8s that I deemed acceptable and I ended the ride with a walk around the property to cool him out.
It is tough to decide when to push and when to step back. I always tend to step back as my first instinct, but usually Wizard does well with a gentle push.
Rock and Racehorses: The Blog 
