Just Another Hack in Paradise....

Hack day today!! Lately when I've been riding Dollar, I've been staying in the arena to work on some dressage. In theory it works, but not for him. After spending a couple days in there, I decided we were long overdue for a hack day. Once he's spent too long in an arena, he gets very slow and lazy and just plain down. So when I got out to pasture today, I brought my tack along with me, caught him (although he was more interested in eating) and tack him up quickly.

Before our hack, he looks like he's not sure what we're doing

Went out on the road and he changed from a slow and lazy 18-yo to a feisty 2-yo. I had my spurs on just for encouragement, but didn't really need them. Set out at a brisk walk down the road and I'm proud to say that there were no feet issues!! They're toughening up!! Of course, Dollar being Dollar likes to walk on the side of the road where all the rocks are. And no issues at all!!

We started out at a brisk walk and then progressed into a jog/trot. He was moving quite nicely, so I just let him have loose reins while we were hacking. He started out at a jog, but then quickly proceeded to take advantage of this and stretch his legs out into a trot. Why doesn't he do this in the arena?? Because it's Dollar and he's a gentleman.

Surveying his surroundings

We headed down the road just going along. Dollar was looking all over the place since he was on a loose rein. When I moved him into a trot, he actually started to stretch out a little and gave me a little bit on an extended trot! We alternated between the walk and trot just to get him working a bit. Once we hit some pavement (about 1 mile from our place), I moved him onto there to help toughen up his legs. He didn't seem to keen on that at first, but still went trotting on there. He was feeling awesome so I asked him for a canter. He went into his canter (again on a loose rein). I let him canter for ½ mile and brought him down to a walk when we reached the corner.

We walked around the corner and kept walking for a while. OK, walking for a while was in MY mind, not in Dollar's. He decided that we should keep trotting (he figured out that we were going home) so I just let him. As long as he's not running home (no more of that EVER AGAIN!) he can trot home all he wants. While we were going down the 2nd mile, we found some cows!! Yes I took a picture. Lol. Dollar wasn't interested at all, he was focused on his mission.

Cows!!

We continued on our way and when we got to the ½ mile marker, I let him canter the ½ mile to the corner, while doing a little bit of sprinting. He loved that! Trotted around the corner and alternated between walking and trotting home. We were on the 3rd mile and into a head wind (which was extremely cold!) so Dollar walked home as fast as he could. Turned the corner for the last half of the 4th mile and extended trotted back to pasture.

When we got there, he was doing pretty good, not breathing too heavy and still looked like he could keep on going. I untacked him, put my stuff away and pasture. Going for another hack tomorrow!!

Why I Quit Reining.....The Rant

OK, for some of you who don't know me all too well, I'll give you a little bit of my riding background before I go onto my rant. *Please be advised that this is my own opinions about this. Everyone is entitled to their own*

I had started riding when I was 8 years old (when I got Dollar back in 1994), I started Western because that was the only thing that I knew and that was around. Around 10, I ventured into the world of Reining and got hooked. I was hoping to go to high levels, but alas, I haven't. Too many horses switches always leaving me down at the bottom and (as I grew up and older) realizing the world of Dressage, Jumping and Eventing. But I stayed in Reining to please my Dad and that we could do something as a family. Now that I'm 25, I would really like to do something that I WANT TO DO. So, onto my rant and why I'm quitting Reining and Western.

It's not really that I don't like riding Western, but it's more for a change of pace. Dressage seems to be right up my alley in a couple different ways.

One being that every time you move up a level or two, there are new things to learn. This doesn't happen in Reining. You may move up levels, but there are no added maneuvers to learn, nor does the difficulty get higher, just the competition. Every single Reining pattern has the same maneuvers, just in a different way. No matter how high you go in Reining, there will always be: 4 spins in either direction, 1 big fast circle, 1 small slow circle, 2 lead changes, 3 sliding stops and 2 roll backs. In Dressage, it's always getting changed up and I like that. I've been getting tired of running the same patterns time after time and my horse always anticipating everything.

Two: The jerking of the horses mouth in Reining and the exessive spurring. This turns me off in a couple of ways. I've seen way too many Reining horses start rearing because of the constant jerking on their faces in order to get them to get thier heads down on the ground. I'm sorry, but there is no real need for that. All your doing is just hurting the horse and making them pissed off at you. And the exessive spurring. How many horses have I seen that have had their sides all bloodied up because of someone using Rockrinder spurs on them because they didn't want to do something. This is something over the years that I disapprove of very greatly. Is it that serious that you have to jerk your horses mouth and make him bleed in order to get him to do something? There must be a different way.

Three: The fact that Reining horses are not conditioned or in shape properly. How many Reining horses have I seen that are not even properly conditioned?? These horses are basically loping/running for almost an hour during practise and that's it. A little bit of warm up and cool down. There are no such things as taking them out for hacks or trail rides to get them doing something different. I have actually talked to some people about taking their horses out for hacks as a change of scenery and they looked at me as if I was on crack. And a Reining horses best runs (if they've been Reining since 2 years old as most do) are done by the time that they're 6. And then their on the down turn being used as lesson horses. It's not fair to them being bound in a stall all day, loping/running for almost an hour and then back in the stall. They need a change of pace, otherwise they go sour. This is where I like the Dressage stuff. They actually encourage you to go out for hacks and work different stuff so that your horse doesn't go sour and to get them conditioned properly. My Dad actually gave me shit because I wasn't working Dollar in the ring all the time and was going out for hacks instead. You can't really condition a horse in a ring, they need other stuff as well.

So we (me and Dollar) have made the move over to Dressage. After 15 years of doing Reining, I need a change of pace and something more challenging (and that makes more sense for the horses well being).

Enough said.

Work-out and Video!!

Well, today turned out to be a busy day. My sister picked me up close to 10 am so that I could watch her kids while she rode her horse at my parents place before she had to work at noon. The nice thing about this arrangement is that once the kiddos were down for a nap around 1, I could go ride my horse.

Once my sister was done riding, I had a couple minutes to quickly go grab Dollar. So I grabbed one of the 4-wheelers and tried to get it going. It decided not to start. So I tried the other one and couldn't get that one going either. So I just resorted to grabbing a bicycle and cycling over to the pasture. Could tell that I haven't done that in a while. My legs were KILLING ME!!

When I got to the pasture, I couldn't see the horses anywheres. Oh oh. And Dollar wasn't coming when I called his name (sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't and decides to make his mom worry). So I went and checked out the bushes. I finally found them (trying to hide on me), grabbed Dollar and headed towards the gate. Thankfully, this time Mars didn't follow us. Once I got Dollar out of the gate, I hopped on him bareback with halter and lead rope and made the trek home.

I was a little apprehensive to see how his feet would do since his barefoot trim last week, but they held up nicely. He was being a little picky as to where he was walking, but he always it. He actually prefers walking in the ditches than walking on the road, so that's where he always heads to. Silly boy.

Got him home and threw him into pasture with the other horses until I could ride him once the kids go down for thier nap. Once the kids were down for their nap, I went out to grab Dollar and decided to take a video of him lunging so that you can see how he moves. He moves a little stiff, he is 18 after all, so I'm trying to keep stretching him out and finding some supplement stuff to give to him to help him with that issue. He looks pretty good lunging, just being his stubborn old self and moving slowly.

Once we were done lunging, I tacked him up in his English again and worked on some simple Dressage stuff, basically working on our half-passes and straight lines. He warmed up pretty good and was doing some decent half-passes, but he was not very willing to move his butt very fast. I had my spurs on and even that wasn't encouraging him. I actually hopped off at one point to find the whip, but couldn't find it anywhere's. I have a feeling that Sam left it somewhere. Oh well, that just means that I go and buy my own. Mwhahaha.

Anyways, Dollar did pretty good during our work-out, but I could tell that he needed to go for a hack soon. Unfortunately with the kids sleeping inside, I couldn't leave. But luckily, I have a couple day soff next week that we can go for hacks and we're also going for a trail ride with my friend Kelly next Saturday, so that will definitely brighten him up.

After we were done our work-out, I put him back out in pasture and went inside to check on the kidlings.

Dollar Has Gone Barefoot!!

Today Dollar is going barefoot!! Yes!! Ever since I've started reading the Eventing-A-Gogo blog, I have been contemplating going barefoot with Dollar seeing as he is getting old and really has no use for them anymore. I mean, he's not showing all the time now and there's no need to be throwing money away on his feet, when they are such low maintenance.

So I headed down to my parents place today, went to pasture to grab Dollar, bring him home and start cleaning him up. I really need to work on his tail more. It's so full of knots and everything, it really does need a good combing out. I attemtped that today, but even sprayed with Konk, he was not standing still (it didn't help that we were outside either. He always has to move). So I combed out his mane and left his tail alone. He was just swishing it way too much for mne to be able to do anything to it. At this time Keith had called me and said that he was ready to be picked up from work. I reminded him that I was at my parents place, waiting for the farrier. He didn't sound too happy. *Sigh* 

What was supposed to be a 3:00 appointment turned out to be a 3:30 appointment. Yes I know, farriers and vets are always late. I'm just a punctualisist, so I'm always early or on time and it irks me when other people aren't. So Bonnie showed up around 3:30, got all her stuff ready and Dollar was the first one up. I told her that we're pulling Dollar's shoes and he is going permanetly barefoot. She actually agreed with me that he should. So she pulled off all his shoes, fixed up that one that he took a chunk out of and trimmed him all up. And his feet look way better!

Front Left

Back Left

Back Right

Front Right

Front feet

Back feet

While we were trimming up Dollar, Mom decided to hop up onto Hunter, Sam's barrel racing Percheron. Even she agreed that he was very tall (he comes in around 19 hands) and Sam took her around for a little walk to let her feel what he moves like. Mom just looked at Sam afterwards and told her that she was crazy to be riding him. Lol.

Mom on Hunter

Once Dollar was all done, I brought him back to pasture and let him get re-adjusted to his new feet. He hasn't been barefoot since he was 5, so he'll be getting some days off to get used to them again. He was pretty good on the way back to pasture, didn't see him limping or anything associatted with newly bare feet, so we'll just have to hope for the best and make sure that everything's going smoothly. Hell probably get off until next week Wednesday (that's the next time I can make it down here. Stupid work), so hopefully his feet will re-adjust.

Oh, and if anybody has any suggestions on how to toughen up his feet now that they're not protected by shoes, feel free to send them my way. Always looking for new stuff for him.

Welcome!

Welcome to Quarter Horse Dressage!!

This blog is going to follow my journey, travels and adventures in my new world of Dressage. Oh, and my horse of course. Our journey will cover a lot, including getting my 18-year-old QH back into shape to start showing Beginner Dressage next year, our newly-started Barefoot Journey and anything else that happens in our life together.

Thanks for reading!

Starting out in English with Dollar

Well thank you Mother Nature for ruining my plans for today. See my hubby starts work at 6 am, so I thought that I'd drive him to work and then go ride Dollar to escape the heat. Haha. It was FREEZING outside and wasn't even 20*. Yes this was cold compared to last week when it was almost 30-something degrees EVERY SINGLE DAY and the Humidex was INSANE! So this was my plan: go ride Dollar in the early morning to escape the heat and it would be easier for both of us. Seeing as it was pretty cold outside, I opted to wait until noon to see what the weather did. So I did some stuff around the house and got Dollar's new grooming tub ready (yes!!) and left the house around 12:30.

Got down to the barn (which is conveniently located at my parents place), brought my stuff to the barn, grabbed my bridle and the 4-wheeler and gunned it off to the pasture where Dollar is, about ¼ mile away. Yes, I could've taken my car, but I had warmer clothes in there if I needed them. Walked out to Dollar in pasture, where of course, he stood like the perfect gentleman. Unfortunately, I had to spend some time re-adjusting his bridle because it was used on another horse that I was hoping to do Dressage with, but ultimately was told no by my Dad, so the bridle was fitted a bit small for Mr. Prince's big head. And he kept yawning at me! As if saying that he was bored already. Oh Dollar. I tried getting a picture of it, but as soon as I got my camera out, he stopped yawning. Oh well. Once he was all fitted with his bridle, we headed towards the gate and home.

Well, at this time, his pasture buddy Mars decided that it would be cool to try to charge the gate to come with us. Haha, yeah right Mars. No can do. And that's when I noticed that Mars was lame. He came up to the fence and just held out his front left leg totally off the ground and looked like he didn't want to put weight on it. Huh, weird. Seeing as we were already at the gate, I left Dollar standing there and went to take a look at Mars' leg. Couldn't feel any heat, so I made myself a mental note to let Sam (my sister) know when I got back to the house. Once I got Dollar out of the pasture (and continually trying to scare Mars away from the gate), I hopped on him bareback and started our ¼ mile hack home.

This is the really nice thing about having Dollar out in pasture. I can ride him home and start warming him up on that ¼ mile ride back. He usually has more energy when heading towards home, so we alternate between walking and trotting, just to get him a bit warmed-up before we do more riding with the saddle. Yes, I do more warm-ups in the ring once we get to actual riding. The other nice thing is that with the ride home, I can assess how he's breathing because of his heaves and figure out our riding plan on the way home. Well, today he was huffing and puffing a bit, along with a tiny bit of wheezing possibly. I say possibly because he is out of shape and sometimes confuse the being out of breath and wheezing. He is a bit weird in that department. Got him home with no issues (other than wanting to run home), got him in the coral, put up some of the gates that were down and turned him loose to roam around while I got his grain ready. I did go chase him around a bit, which he loved. As I was mixing his grain, he tried getting into the barn and when that didn't work, he kept following me back and forth, hoping to get some grain. Once I was almost done mixing the grain, I ran into the house and grabbed some vegetable oil and some Nature Valley granola bars. My friend over at The Jumping Percheron says that her horse loves them, so I decided to try them on Dollar. He just about took my hand off! Guess he loves them. Lol.


Once I was done mixing his grain, I gave it to him outside and then went to cleaning the barn. See, normally we kick all the horses out during the summer, but because it has been so wet and everything, Dad's been keeping the Reiners inside so that they don't lose their sliders. Well, they're still stuck inside in thsi 30*C heat. Feel so bad for them. And I couldn't kick them out while I was cleaning because otherwise they'll chase Dollar away from his grain and I need him to eat all that. Sigh.

After I was done cleaning the barn, I took some photos of Dollar's feet, seeing as this is the last days that he is wearing shoes. The farrier is coming tomorrow and those shoes are coming off permanently. He is 18 and is on very light work duty. He has been wearing shoes since he was 5 and there is no reason for him to wear them (yes, Andrea converted me to going barefoot). I know that there are better solutions for feet and just not realizing this until now. So, starting tomorrow, those shoes are off and we're going to be looking at doing stuff barefoot. Never mind that he old, and he doesn't really need them, they also hurt my wallet as well, since it's about $20-30 more just for shoes.

 Left Front

 Left Back

 Right Back (yes he took a chunk out of his foot. Oh Dollar...)

 Right Front

Trotting around the arena

Enjoying his grain

Anyways, I tacked up Dollar in English and started warming him up. During our warm-up, Natalie showed up and said that she was go get Mars. I told her about his leg and she said that she'll check it when she gets there, grabbed the 4-wheeler and took off. We continued on our warm-up just doing walking and jogging, getting him to loosen up. I tried getting him into a trot, but he was back to being slow and lazy. Dang it. I wanted him fresh! Oh well, we'll deal with it.

A couple minutes later Natalie called me to ask me to come help her get Mars home. Natalie was leading him with the 4-wheeler because she knows that she can't ride him home, he's just too pumped full of energy. But apparently, he was trying to go in front of the quad and almost trying to kick. So I went down there on Dollar (they weren't too far from home, about halfway between pasture and home) to get Mars home. Haha, yeah right. I grabbed the lead rope and let Dollar slowly start walking towards home. Mars?? Well, Mars was high as a kite and I had to continually tell him to slow and calm down. Nope. I had to keep his head held up high so that he wouldn't pull any stupid stunts, yet he was still trying. So Natalie took the quad home and then walked to us, grabbed Mars and walked with him home. So glad Dollar doesn't act up like that.

Once we got back home, I continued working Dollar. He was being very light and responsive (as always) of everything I asked for. Around this time, Sam came home with her barrel racing Percheron because she wanted to do some work with him. And Natalie was riding her horse. Yes, it was a bit crowded, but we're used to that.

I worked Dollar both ways walking, trotting and loping. I actually had to get my whip to use with him to get him to actually trot. He just didn't want to lengthen his strides at all. And the whip seemed to help.

After going both ways and working Dollar quite a bit, I decided to have some fun and set up a little jump for Dollar. So I took our Barrel racing cans, set them on their sides and made a tiny cross-rail (I'm not kidding. Maybe 1 foot) and proceeded to trot Dollar over that. Well, it seems that he has retained that information that we shouldn't touch any jumping poles at all. So while we were trotting over the tiny jump, Dollar was daintily clearing the jump with out no hesitation at all, unlike Reno (post link here).

And then Sam decided to try something with her Percheron. Seems she might have an idea making her Perch into something like Klein. So I took down the poles so that he could get sued to just jogging through. Yeah...ummm...No. He jogged up to them totally fine and then balked when he saw the barrels. So Sam had to convince him that it was safe to go through the barrels and just kept going back and forth until he did it without hesitation. Hey, he might have a new career after all.

After Sam was done with the jumps, I set them back up, but put the poles straight this time, so they were maybe 2 feet and let Dollar lope over them. Again, very dainty with how he jumps. And no hesitations.

All tacked up in English!!

Oh, and the best part?!?! I got some video. I will say this before hand, that yes, I was not hearing a helmet, I know I should and I always do (except for this time). I couldn't find my helmet anywheres and I wasn't planning on jumping today. But I did find it and it is will all my other stuff with strict instructions to my sister not to take it for her speed events.

Once we were done, I put the barrels and poles back where they belonged, grabbed Dollar and took him back to pasture. Tomorrow....Dollar's is officially going Barefoot!!