Back to the Drawing Board

When I was a kid one my favorite cartoons was a scientist named Clyde Crashcup. And whenever he had to fix a failed plan he always said "Back to the drawing board!" So that's been my in my thoughts, back to the drawing board and review the problem and find a solution. Why did that silly horse bolt? And what to do about it?

Ted did some ground work to get Brass back to thinking correctly

I know why he didn't stop, because I'd been using one rein at a time to slow down. Bad human! I dulled the one rein stop. That became pretty obvious when Ted rode him yesterday and tuned that up. So okay I take the blame for that part of the incident but not all the blame.

The one rein stop was reinstalled

So what else happened? Well it's sort of hard to explain but I think he just had been walking and trotting along behind Linda's mare for awhile, and just zoned out. We know he is still green with 6 months of riding, we know he is ADD, we know he doesn't always remember his lessons, and we know endurance riders day dream and zone out so why not the horse. I think you know the scenario - you're going along through lala land and suddenly wake up with a start and ask yourself "How did I get here?" I think Brass did that and scared himself. He bolted, jumped the sagebrush, now I was off balance and trying to pull his head around, etc etc. It all snowballed into a mess.

Ted added some speed and did a few things to spook him up but brass was good

So that's my theory and I'll stick to it until a better one comes along. But Ted and I have cussed and discussed this whole thing. Not that it was any of his fault, oh no - I take the blame for the mistakes I made.

I worked on more desensitizing

Since Brass is so reactive to everything, I decided we needed more desensitizing. Just about the only thing he spooked at all day was trail ribbon. So I hung trail ribbon on his neck, his legs, his head and his back. I took Easyboots and put them around his pasterns and let them flop around and be annoying.

I just kept piling stuff on him and walking him around with it. I rattled it, moved it, tossed it anything I could think of. Put the tarp on him and under him. Put my trimming chaps over him. I tied things to his tail and let him drag them around so stuff behind him wouldn't spook him.

I made sure that he always moved with the packages because the standing horse is not the same as the moving horse. If you do any of this yourself do it in small increments and build on it slowly. And do everything from both left and right sides both. I'd have him move off and then return to me, and then I'd take the stuff off if he was calm and standing still. Maybe this will help the problem of the dirty dog leaving me. "Come to me if you want the nasty stuff off of you", I told him. So this was the lesson that came from looking at the drawing board one more time. and I somehow doubt it will be the last time.

Tough Sucker Woes

Well yesterday was not a great day. It started out good. It was a warm gorgeous morning and I had driven out to Oreana for the endurance ride with my intentions of riding 50 miles on Brass at Owyhee Tough Sucker. 

I saddled up and we did a warm up in the round pen. And I rode out of camp at 8:30 with my friend, Linda Ballard. She needs 105 miles on her mare to finish out her mare's 1000! 

Brass was doing great, he accepted the 25 milers coming by and was eating and drinking. Traveled along fairly relaxed and respectful. Linda and I just walked and trotted along. Then at the top of a long sandy wash about 20 miles out for some reason he bolted, tossed in some leaps over the sagebrush and I simply could not get his head around to stop. Visions of Thunder being a runaway so many years ago rushed into my head. I knew there was rocks at the top of the hill, and sand where we were, so I took the sand and baled. he stopped at the hill top not far from where we were and looked, walked up the next little hill and stopped and looked again. I hoped he would come back to Linda's mare. But he vanished and headed west, which was the wrong way. I tracked him over the hill and he was just a fast speck on the horizon. He was definitely heading for Highway 78 and I had no idea where he would go next. I decided following him was not the right option. I told Linda don't wait for me, I'll walk back to camp.

Then Carrie Thorburn, who was riding the 25, came along on her second loop and called Regina Rose, ride manager. She got the voicemail of course! She left a message that my horse and I had parted ways, I was OK and walking in but the horse was headed for the highway. When Brass bolted he'd torn the front Epics off his hooves with his explosive bolt. So I picked them up and headed over the hill to camp, took a small shortcut. I wondered if he hadn't pulled off a boot and that set him off but I was sure that was a 'No" because I had worked with him having loose boots flop around his pasterns. The whole time I cussed the horse and swore I was never getting on him again. 
I was almost back to camp, here comes Regina on the 4 wheeler. "We got your horse.", she says. My answer, "Can I ride him?" (Who said that?) Yup she said. "Climb on!" So I hopped on the back of the four wheeler and Regina sped off with me wailing, "OH my gosh this is worse than riding my horse!" We got in the car and went down the highway to get the horse. The Sheriff, actually two, were there with him. 
Brass was all nice and calm and Officer Rocky had taken off his hind boots. They are like, this nice calm horse dumped you? I replied, "Yeah he's a bit schizo." Rocky was petting him and asked me his name. "The Big Brass" I told him, "only right now it's "you sorry bastard!" They laughed.  I took Brass and had him flex and give to the bit, I backed him up, basically did all the ground moves. He seemed back to his old self. I climbed on and rode away saying thank you. And I now had Regina's number in case I fell off again. I rode 9 uneventful miles back to camp. 3:30 PM. End of my ride. 
I'm rather stiff and sore this morning but OK physically. Mentally I am very disappointed and trying to analyze what the heck went wrong. Did a boot slip off and spook him and cause him to bolt? Maybe. But I have worked with him with boots just attached to his pasterns so he can get the feel of that boot flopping around on his leg. 
Then Ted came by, as he has been analyzing it all. I told him my tale of woe and he asked a few questions and we came up with some guesses. Endurance involves forward motion, continual forward motion. When I am out alone I stop and circle, do a C pattern, forward, backwards, left and right. But not on an endurance ride. There really isn't time for that. I had him flex every time I got on and off, only circled a few times in the first couple miles. But my mistake "could" have been and probably was - sort of doing a half halt to rate his speed with one rein. This made him ignore the bit and think he didn't have to stop. That coupled with no "come to me" exercises which keeps me in charge could explain the problems. However his biggest crime was in leaving me out there and not coming back when I called him.
So we need more miles with his lessons mixed in. He's like Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes where the ADD kicks in and he sees imaginary dragons. I may rename him Calvin, it's probably better than you sorry bastard! At least in public.
Young horses are easier to train than a 7 year old with issues and a history of mishandling and people problems. He has had it wrong for a long time so he requires much more than the average green young horse. And he is still green even though I may forget this when he gives me the perfect ride. But when he is bad, oh Lordy look out. Right now fixing him is the next step and when Ted left he asked, "Are you going to be home today?" I said "Yes I think so.". "Good" Ted replied, "if he is gone later I came and got him. I need to ride him and figure this out. " 
Oh and by the way, Linda's mare completed at 7:30 and now only need 55 more miles! YAY!  

My Third Job

I sat down and added how much time I worked with Brass the month of March. Holy cow! I rode him 197 miles and have around 55 hours just from March!

That's more time than I spend on my second job, driving bus for Adrian. However in monetary amounts, this third job doesn't pay as much as the other two! However if I were to consider pay in satisfaction, spiritual connections, fun, health (as long as I don't fall off tee hee) then the pay is pretty darn good.

The Big Brass is one time consuming guy with training, ground work and conditioning for rides. This doesn't count feeding, brushing, hoof care, etc. Yup horses and the lifestyle I love is a commitment not a hobby. But I wouldn't trade it for anything else.

New Tricks for Old Dogs

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but you can teach old horse folks and old horses new tricks! My friend, Ted Nicholes and his family, hosted a great horsemanship clinic last week just a couple miles from me. I'm so lucky because I got to go.

Here I am in between my endurance riding friends Pat Murray (L) and Karen Vining (R)

So people often wonder why, when I have been messing with horses my whole life, do I want to attend a horsemanship clinic? I truly believe that we never can learn it all. Horses always have something new to teach us. And one of the things they have taught me is that I need to ride smarter. I need to communicate better than I did in the old days of just climb on and ride. Plus I don't bounce anymore! I go splat when I hit the ground! So I need a better trained horse than I did when I was 22 yrs old and would ride anything that had fur. 

Trish Frahm and Secret gained a lot of confidence over the week working with Ted. 

A lot of people think horsemanship is just brushing the horse and picking out hooves. But it goes much farther than that. Most dictionaries define horsemanship as the art or skill of riding a horse. But that means in order to ride successfully you need to communicate with the horse in a language that he understands, and I don't mean "Whoa dammit!" Even though I have done that, and I suppose so have you at one time or another. I've also read books for years on the subject, studied different master horseman and learned new things as I rode along. But there is always more to learn. 

My ADD kicked in and I found this huge piece of plastic that had blown in. I spied a training opportunity! So I worked and desensitized Brass until I had it over both sides. Notice I am at a 45 degree angle to the front of him so I won't get trompled. Note the slack in the leadline. This is a great exercise for noisy materials plus a horse like Brass who does not like things happening on both sides of him at once. And once I completed the task from the left I then had to do it all again from the right side because righty and lefty can be two different horses.

When I first met the Nicholes family it didn't take long to see they knew how to handle a horse. The skills just quietly oozed out. Along came The Big Brass, a difficult boy at best with a history of people problems, and Ted was the man for the job of calming and training the horse. Not sure why God keeps blessing me with difficult horses but over the years I think I have had more than my share. They certainly are dedicated to improving my riding skills. Anyway, Ted uses the Clinton Anderson methods, and those methods get good results. Why? Because in these simple exercises horses learn to respect their handler, we learn how to basically talk to the horse in his language, and all this builds up to a responsive and supple horse that probably won't embarrass you in public. And yes there are similarities to other horsemanship folks such as Ray Hunt, Tom and Bill Dorrance, and Buck Brannaman - but there are also some profound differences. 

Ted flexing Trish Frahm's mare, Secret. Lateral flexion is very important for one rein stops, turns and therefore safety. 

We began with learning some desensitizing skills that make our horses more solid and take the spook out of them. As Ted says, "Go ahead give your horse a heart attack. They're free. Make noise, be quick and animated, run up to him, get him used to everything before you get on him." This made me laugh because growing up with racehorses and being around different barns where some trainers wouldn't allow any loud noises and us kids couldn't run past the stalls. Dad had always said, go ahead and run and make noise, they'll get over it. And they did. We learned how to be the boss hoss and make our horse's feet move by having them yield their hindquarters and the fore quarters. We learned how to control the 5 body parts of the horse; head and neck, poll, shoulder, ribs and hindquarters. We learned so much over the week that I can't begin to enter it all here but I'll try to summarize it. But you could go to you tube at look at clips of Clinton Anderson training methods as you can others, or buy the DVD's.

Brass flexing nicely

One reason these methods work is horses learn from the release of pressure. Watch the boss horse, all he has to do is flip an ear or swish his tail and everyone scatters. That's driving pressure. The alpha horse moves the other horses feet away and says get out of here! When they leave the boss ignores them and the pressure is released. The reward for the right move is in the release. And it's pretty easy to see that the horses who moved their feet, lost to the horse who didn't really move his feet. So we make the horse move his feet and we win. But when the horse makes you move your feet you lose! An example: ask the horse to back with pressure and reward one step back with the release of pressure. Before you know it you are getting five backward steps. It just builds from there. 

Robin Peterson having her horse yield his hindquarters away from her, notice the hind leg crossing in front of the other. Her body language says, move out of my way! This comes into play not just in riding but in moving that horse when you open a gate from the ground or correcting a crooked back up. Just looking at the hindquarter of a horse backing crooked can make him straighten out. 

We learned how to teach the horses to laterally flex, bringing their nose to our stirrup or toes. Then we learned the one rein stop which I believe is the single most important thing anyone should know. One person said "We never did that in the old days." I guess Al & I were different because we would teach horses to flex and one rein stop many years ago, we just didn't call it that. Ted gave us a round pen demo and also laid Brass down. I may save the latter for blog number two. 

Karen Vining doing a one rein stop with her mare, Abbiroad. 

Lateral flexion and yielding the hindquarters once taught from the ground comes into play from the saddle. Move your horse over, safe stops, turns, a building block for bending at the walk, plus two track and sidepass which are advanced moves. But the horse has to know the basics first. 

Joseph Wieting has Houdini, a mustang, yield his hindquarters from the saddle. Remember in beginning moves that you exaggerate  the teach so as horse and rider learn the cues become less obvious. In a well trained horse cues are often not seen. 

Then after practicing some of these things we did cruise control. Put your horse in a desired gait for five minutes, allow him to travel where he wants, no turning allowed but you can do a one rein stop. The purpose is to further practice the one rein stop, when the horse builds speed you one rein stop, if he breaks gait - you one rein stop. By no turning allowed the horse doesn't get a lot of mixed signals. However with 7 horses we got a bit bunched up which made me nervous but it was good for the horses and all of us too. 

I dubbed it cruise chaos but it wasn't really that bad and no one fell off! left to right, Trish Frahm, Beth Nicholes, Robin Peterson and Joseph Weiting. The horses like to follow and bunch up but no one ran into anybody LOL

In addition to all that we did the sending exercise, lunging for respect stage one and two. Bending or circling at the walk. All that is just the tip of the iceberg of what all of us and our horses learned! It was interesting to note that the horses that came the first day that were pushy and disrepectful quickly improved. The horses who would not give to a rein and flex were doing great by Friday. Saturday we put it all together for different uses. And I think everyone left with a more respectful horse that was easier to handle and more responsive to ride. Therefore they now owned a safer horse which means MORE fun! 

Laura Nicholes, 7, on their pony, Snip

Slaying the Trail Dragons

A couple Sundays ago Ted rode Brass with me. He wanted to show me some pointers to help me communicate better with Brass. This also gave Ted a chance to see how well Brass was responding and how soft he was staying. It is very important for Brass to be soft and have good lateral flexion. In addition to that his one rein stop has to be perfect. Brass needs to give and have a nice reverse and know how to yield the hind quarters. A simple circling exercise continues to keep him soft and supple. This gives me my "handle" so I can travel down the trail safely among the unexpected dangers of bikers, loose dogs, turkeys in the brush, deer jumping up in the trail, rattlesnake, etc.

An unplanned bonus that day was when Brass hooked a piece of loose wire with a hind foot. He jumped but didn't buck or anything. Proving again that good communication with your horse can save you. I have seen horses get in one little piece of wire and go ballistic and it isn't pretty. Brass has been desensitized to accept these kind of things but of course like any green horse, he had to react. After a couple jumps he was stopped and was OK.

But after the wire incident I learned a new trick. Ted got off, picked up the wire and calmly walked towards Brass with it in his hand. "Killer wire" was Brass's thought as he watched it and wanted to back away. But Ted touched Brass with the wire which brought out a jump and a snort, and then he took the wire away. He continued with the wire in a manner of approach and retreat until Brass accepted it. Ted touched Brass all over with the wire including his legs and Brass just stood there. Ted was now bigger, badder and better than the wire. Now the wire was not a threat and Ted was Brass' hero. We all need a hero, someone to offer us protection! Horses know they are prey and everything they don't understand is going to eat them.

I told Ted I would have never thought of doing that! I would've just ridden off and left the incident up in the air, without closure. But for Ted, doing this was second nature. Removing fear of the object helps establish respect and trust. Plus next time he encounters something like this he will have less fear. I was definitely impressed.

I try to ride Brass on the trails four times a week. A few days back the wind was pretty stiff and the tumbleweeds trapped in the fence were jumping up and down. Brass eyeballed them and snorted. I remembered Ted and the wire. So I got off and plucked a small tumbleweed from the fence. I told him, Ted says you have to believe that I can save you from the killer tumbleweed, and I touched him with it. He snorted but stood as I took it away. We played approach and retreat with the bush and he quickly lost interest. I then "set it free" and he watched it roll away and go over the hill. Then he touched me with his nose and I know he said, "Wow, you chased that bush right out of here. You are my hero." I led my tall horse to a high spot for me, climbed back aboard, and off we went without a care in the world the rest of the day.

What are You Reading?

I seldom get many books read over the winter. But this winter I tackled several and I wanted to share. I feel I should tell you that reading has been one of my greatest accomplishments. After my wreck on Thunder and subsequent concussion several years ago, reading was extremely difficult for me. I got a lot of things mixed up thanks to my scrambled brain. My "Owyhee trail sisters", Josette, Linda and Tammie, gave me a book to read while I was recovering titled "Owyhee Trails". I think it took me three years to read it as I could read the words but I had no comprehension. Three pages later I was flipping back to page 1 to figure out what I was reading. I pretty much just looked at the pictures and read the captions for the first two years. Then a couple winters back I finally waded through a real novel! Hey let me tell you that was monumental!

The first book of winter was by Julie Suhr, "But It Wasn't The Horse's Fault".  A woman I have admired for many years. She is a wonderful person and to say she is an accomplished rider is a complete understatement. Julie is the Queen of endurance and I bow down to her. I was honored to "swap" books with Julie. This charming book is not only full of many entertaining whimsical stories but is also filled with lovely illustrations by another talented endurance rider, Judith Ogus. Julie is quite the story teller and you will love her many horses and tales. I love her story about wanting initials behind her name like a Ph.D or D.V.M.. She coined the initials E.R.J. for Endurance Ride Junkie! I can definitely relate to that one! It's a great book with all funds from sales benefiting the Center For Equine Health School of Veterinary Medicine at U.C. Davis. I also have Julie's other book, "Ten Feet Tall Still", also a wonderful read. 

I found Buck Brannaman and The Faraway Horses to be very inspirational. Here is a man who overcame an abusive childhood, and found horses to be his healers. Often people blame their past for the way they are and/or what they become. Despite his early childhood it leads up to his wonderful step family and how he learned more about horses and how to relate to them through Ray Hunt and Tom Dorrance. He now travels around helping others with their horses. Recall the novel and movie "The Horse Whisperer", Buck was part of that movie with Robert Redford. I've read this book twice and watched the movie "Buck" several times and each time I find a new message to improve myself. 

Shannon asked me if I'd like to trade books and I jumped on that opportunity! It is a very fun thing to do! Strike a Long Trot by Shannon Yewell Weil tells the amazing story of Linda Tellington Jones. It is packed full of great photographs of all the people in her magical life. I met Linda many years ago at an AERC Convention in Sparks, NV where she had horses on stage for a TTEAM demonstration that was wonderful. In this book you will find Linda's training regimen for her fantastic mare, Bint Gulida. You'll find how she developed the riding school and TTEAM. A truly fascinating book chock full of many lessons to learn. 

Carole Mercer's book, the Far Side of My Dreams, is packed full of life lessons and adventures. There are so many stories and tales in between the covers that it is more of an anthology of life. She is a strong and determined woman who rebuilds her life over and over. Carole is truly a survivor as she battles to overcome the tragic loss of her daughter. She meets many wonderful and famous people along the path of life and eventually performs at the WEG in 2010 with her Dancing Morgans. The only way the book could have been better would have been with photographs of her many accomplishments. Carole and I also had some fun trading books. Yes Mercer has emerged as one of my life heroes. I'm sure you will find her qualities inspiring. Enjoy! 

This book, A Cowboy's Whispered Psalms by Kip Sawdy, I am still reading. Written by a man who was ready to commit suicide then turned his life all around. Sawdy doesn't hide a thing as he leads you through his struggles, defeats and later victories. He mixes poetry with God's Word and he will inspire you to greater heights and a better way of life. As Sawdy commented to me, "Hope you enjoy it and the Lord speaks to your heart".

If you like to read and look for inspiration, check these out. :) All books can be purchased at Amazon except Julie Suhr's book is obtainable directly from her. 

Come With Me

This week I learnt that Betty Staley, from the "Buck" movie, tells her young horses, "Come with me. I will go with you. We will go together." Now that is true leadership and I loved it. I pondered it as it rang softly in my head. I thought, "Wow, that sounds biblical." There is a hymn titled "You Are Mine" that says "Come and follow me I will lead you home" and there are many variations on this. Matthew 11:28 begins with "Come to me..." . The bible is full of leadership quotes after all, God just wants to lead us in life and to Him in Heaven.

All this week as I rode The Big Brass, when ever he became anxious or hesitant I said to him, "Come with me, we'll go together." Now you are saying horses don't understand those words. If they don't, it doesn't matter. It is our voice of confidence they recognize, they connect with our voice. Our reactions and touch can calm them. Horses crave leadership and our confidence provides that reassuring touch that gives them leadership. The bonus is that the words worked on me too. So I stayed relaxed and Brass could feel that.

Horses have been my teachers throughout my lifetime. Although I haven't always reflected on those lessons or written them down. I'm thinking I need to do more of that. I was given a great gift years ago when I recovered from two bad wrecks, one horse and one not. I never thought I'd be able to really ride again after either one, but here I am doing just that. The injuries needed to heal  and the accidents were only part of the things I needed to fix. Those major wrecks in my life were followed by a reaffirmation of my faith as I was baptized for the second time in life. This time in the cold waters of the Owyhee Reservoir, June 2008, after the Lord spoke to my heart. Perhaps he said "Come with me" I don't remember exactly. I just knew it was time for a new beginning. I always say "but for the Grace of God go I." And now it is a with a new horse giving me new lessons. We'll do it together.

Will the Leader Please Step Forward

After Monday's incident of basically telling the horse, "I don't want to lead any more, it's your turn.", we have been practicing with me as the leader and him as the follower. And in order to do it well I had to think about what defines a leader in a horse's eyes.

As herd animals, the leader keeps them away from harm (predators) and guides them to sources of food and water without falling into horse eating holes or entering a cave where a monster could reside. It means my horse has to think I am bigger, badder and better than any scary thing that he may encounter on the trail. My horse has to view me as a teacher and protector. No big deal you say? Consider this, we don't speak the same language so how do we communicate that we are bigger, badder, better than the trail monster blowing balloons bobbing up and down in the wind or flying tumbleweed at 40 mph? That all goes back to two things, desensitizing the fear and controlling the horse's feet.

This week has been spent reviewing just that. Desensitizing which for Brass is a continual process, and moving the feet through exercises that take him forward, backward, left and right. Control the hindquarters where the engine is and you can do anything. Brass is very quick and athletic and when he yields those hindquarters he wastes no time! But he is very responsive and knows what he is supposed to do, and that is listen to the leader who will keep him safe. Listening to the leader saves my bacon when he becomes reactive over something as it lessens that flight instinct that lies within him.

And of course the question arises as to why it's an issue now when it wasn't a couple months ago? I think because over the frozen winter a lot of training came unraveled. And he needed me to step up to the plate and do my job, and I just wanted to pick it up where we had left off in December. Only it doesn't work that way, we know that. Brain farts get in the way sometimes. The basics have to be reviewed and the correct responses need to be encouraged in order for respect and trust to be renewed or strengthened. Especially in a horse with trust issues in the first place.

Today we put it all back out on the trail again. In the mighty and cold wind. Up the hill we went nice and calm and on a loose rein, as it should be. I led him over a really rough spot in the trail and he did not hesitate to follow me as the front feet slid down into the hole and his nose sniffed the dirt. He got lots of rubs and good boys over that one. Later he jumped once and came right back to me, no problem and we rounded off the incident with forward and backward. At another point where he became anxious it was circles, zig zag and half circles. Left rein, right rein, backward and forward. Pat and Zazu just sat there and watched as we maneuvered around. He figured it out and then as Pat and I talked he became more relaxed and so did I, and all was well. No trailer confusion, no issues. Hooray! Will we have problems again? Probably. But by working on the issues we should be able to overcome any obstacles that get in our way.

Brass as my Teacher

This is not an easy blog to write, yet it is one that I must try share. A year ago when I saw the movie "Buck", he said that what one would learn through horsemanship would overflow into your life and relationships in a way you never knew possible. I have considered this many times and thought I understood. I did sort of but not really - until..........

Monday - President's Day. A day off work. Glorious weather. The slick mud was drying out. It was time to get The Big Brass out in the hills, which we hadn't done since the December snows and deep freezing weather began. And since it had been two months, I was excited to get out but also a bit apprehensive wondering how much of this green horse's training had come undone with a long break. Yes I had ridden him in the round pen and pasture, but that's not the same as out in thousands of acres.

Right from the get-go Brass had an attitude. He hesitated about coming up to me for the halter. He hesitated about loading in the trailer. I am sure he could sense my small insecurity. Once on the trail we were doing great. After a few miles we came to some slick sticky footing and I was off leading. I had intended to go straight out to the road but the footing on this little downhill looked good so I decided to try it. You know, I know that look in a horse's eyes when he says 'Really?" But I went anyway, thinking if he slips a little it'll be good for him, he has to learn how the feet work. He slid a few steps but nothing bad in my eyes. (Mistake one.)

But then at the bottom of the hill along the powerline, suddenly he wanted to take off. The one rein stop worked beautifully and onward we went. I thought he was just wanting to take off and go, and I made him walk and settle down. Later we got into more sticky and a bit deep footing. As long as I was using one rein at a time and taking him left then right, he was fine. But my mind forgot he was green and inexperienced horse for a split second, and I made the mistake of giving him slack to pick his way. (Mistake two) He lunged and was gone! I was looking right between my boots in mid air and watching him leave. A few cuss words escaped! I was fine, ground was soft. Caught my horse. Blamed myself. And figured that was my lesson for the day. Wrong!

After the ride he would not load in the trailer. I spent 45 minutes at moving his feet, doing all the horsemanship things I knew how to do, rewarding every try, but not getting him in. I was hot, tired and confused. He knows how to load, we have been doing it for months! OK fine, give in, call Ted. Recall Ted Nicholes is the guy who trained Brass and helped him overcome many of his issues. Obviously I was doing something wrong. You know I have never "worked with" a trainer in my life but this guy is a God send! The whole family is really. 

Anyway - Ted to the rescue. Ted said it took him a good 15 minutes to re-establish leadership with Brass. I had the poor horse all confused. And by the time he was getting him in the trailer again, Trish Frahm was back with her second horse. I said no worries, I'll just ride Brass again after this trailer lesson. Ted loaded him up twice, I loaded him up twice and it all seemed good. I was thinking that I had not rewarded every try, that I had misread some signals. Mr Brass got to go around another loop of trail. He wasn't tired anyway, and there were several times that when Thunder was younger I'd do double duty on him to correct issues. It was good for both Brass and I to go back out again. 

So back up the hill we went. We had our ride, it got cold and windy, we loaded up just fine, and went home. But Ted, bless his heart, continued to analyze all of this. Remember he knows Brass very well. Ted believes Brass is not a horse that wants to be the leader, he doesn't want my role as leader, but he questions my leadership ability. In other words if I direct him into the cave (trailer) will there be a monster in there? Am I able to protect him? A leader has to be capable of more than direction but also able to give others confidence in their role. 

Out on the trail when I gave him his head I was telling him to find his own way through the mud. Yet he didn't know how because he didn't have the experience. He looked to me for guidance and I let him down. And now he doubts me, he has lost confidence in my ability and he questions my worthiness. He has lost trust. WOW! I have been riding horses for a lifetime and this horsemanship stuff that I have been studying for years via Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt, now Buck and Clinton Anderson, all through Ted, has suddenly shown me I don't know squat. Other horses have been more tolerant of my lack of ability to lead. Thunder recognized it and just wanted to take over and be leader all the time which often led to a battle of wills. And I know now that because of my lack of  adequate leadership and Thunder trying to be the leader that is just how we got into that huge wreck years ago! But Brass and his background makes him different. And he has driven home not just this lesson but one more that hits me hard! I am the same way! OK so maybe you knew this about me, but I didn't. But I question people's ability to lead, not because I want to be the leader, but because I think they are going to misguide me and I'll mess it up. And then I do mess up because of my lack of trust. Oh and this goes farther back when I recall really tough times and didn't even trust God to fix it. I just got mad and quit talking to him. While later I overcame the anger and defeat, and surrendered all to God several years ago, this lesson just now hits home! 

All thanks to one horse and one bad day. Now I have to fix me, and I have to fix me in the eyes of my horse also in order to succeed. 

Hello 2014!!!

    The Year of The Horse! Amazingly enough I was born the year of the Horse. And all that has to be a good thing when much of life is wrapped around horses! 

    

I did get to start New Years Day off correctly, in the saddle!! Linda Ballard and I had a ride planned but her truck broke, so it turned out to be just Blue and I out playing in the snow. The day was gorgeous, the snow was powdery, the air was cold but any ride is a good ride!! 

I can't complain about 2013, I revised and published my book America's Long Distance Challenge II. I made it to some endurance rides and even rode 100 miles at Sun River, bringing Thunder up to Bronze level in AERC. Did a lot of horse camping and watched my best bud, Colleen Martin, complete her first 50 mile ride in about 30 years, aboard my wonderful Blue. 

In 2014 I have a couple new things I want to do. Ride some different endurance rides out of region. And ride on the beach as I haven't done that in years. Do some more horse camping. Continue to let that big Appy hoss teach me some new lessons. It would be nice to try and get an ApHC Medallion with Brass, I haven't done that in 20+ years with an Appaloosa. I'm not sure I want to do another 100, maybe just a couple multi-days with Thunder. But it's all good if it's fun! Happy trails and enjoy your horse my friends! Embrace the New Year!