How Green It is!!

Riding to Open Space 2 day clinic with Avery

This is an experience on going way beyond my thresholds. Haven’t trailered Cici anywhere in over a year +. Which horse will I have at the clinic? How will I feel? Can I handle her? How will Cici react to playing with other horses in the arena? How will she be riding outside in wide open spaces? Our comfort zone is trail riding in heavy woods. What have I gotten us into?

Cici steps off the trailer at Avery’s new farm, with every foot firmly LB. Even Avery is surprised LOL. She (Cici) is focused on me and isn’t the least bit phased by the four geldings in the clinic. They, on the other hand, are all immediately taken with this blond girl! All four drop their tongues, as well as other anatomical parts when they see her.

Initially I am a bit shaky and tell Avery that I am at the edge. She asks, “What can I do to help?” Such a simple question from a mere slip of a girl, and oh so comforting. With that simple question I know all will be fine.

We play in this huge indoor arena. We play outside on a sandy arena and on grass. Tall, tall grass that has been mowed. Cici is so LB I am wondering where is my usual RB horse LOL. When we finally move over to circle on the grass and she stops to eat and I ask her to keep going she displays her BBB. I can laugh and ask her to keep moving those feet. She settles back to LB quickly.

In the afternoon we saddle up and again start out in the indoor. Avery mentions to the other people in the clinic about introverts, and Cici. How they look so calm cool and collected and then can explode without warning. No one had noticed Cici's BBB earlier.

Asking Cici to trot and maintain the trot is the challenge. She starts off okay but quickly starts to argue with me about stick to the rail. "Stop touching the reins" I politely ask her to go back to the rail but she has other ideas. So I go with her ideas and turn toward the center of the arena and do direct to indirect disengagement. Quicker and quicker. Takes a while before Cici begins to reconsider leaving the rail. Same with asking for trot. What I come away with is the importance of out persistenting her. This is another threshold for me. That I can indeed out persistent her.

Her trot is more relaxed. Not a jarring up and down trot but a smooth flowing trot. Even Avery commented on it - she had asked in the morning how long I had had her on the new supplements - only a couple of days. Clearly its her mind. Cici's mind - more relaxed - not worrying and thinking - and its being expressed in her movement. How cool is that?!?!

When we go to ride outside I am focused on stick to the imaginary rail in the "sand ring". Another threshold - riding out in the open. Realize this is much more about me than Cici. She is doing fine. I just need to get in harmony with her fine. Avery is there - supportive, encouraging, and slowly making her idea of trotting in this ring - mine. I have to smile. I am trotting around the ring in an open field with no fences.

Day two we again start out online in the indoor, then move quickly outside. I am more confident and have Cici circling half on the sand and half on the grass. The footing is a bit wet and uneven and again she displays her BBB for everyone's benefit - much bigger this time. Avery suggests falling leaf pattern - so off we go across the grass. So much space to play with. I can really ask for her attention, keep those feet moving, change of direction, maintain gait. What a blast!

In the afternoon we are ready for our trail ride. Avery gives us tools for impulsive horses (direct, indirect reins/hindend disengagement), for horses who are upset about other horses passing- Cici (turn their noses toward the offending horse and sideways them away), and what to do when we come to a huge open field - form a big circle everyone facing inward - and let the horses eat the grass.

It is an amazing two days. So much to think about. And things to play with. Excited that Cici handled everything so well.

Well....when we finally get home and open up the trailer....Cici is a raving RBE! Head up like a giraffe, soaking wet, screaming her head off and can't wait to GET OFF THE TRAILER. She just about plows right though me! Where did she come from? Maybe I loaded up the wrong horse?

The next morning, Saturday, I am at the barn at feeding time. I gather up her hay and walk into her paddock. Mary is on the other side of the fence feeding Cici's girl friend. Cici does not even acknowledge me! She nickers to Mary. I am standing right in her paddock, two flakes of hay in my arms and she is ignoring me! Mary leaves and Cici looks right at me and turns her butt to me and just stands there!?!?!?!?!

Totally blowing me off. She NEVER turns down hay. I am not going to put it down until she comes to me. (By the way, Casey has grabbed one mouthful and is totally torn about what to do - stand by his woman or eat.) We have a stand off for a couple of minutes. Finally she turns and walks to me and reaches out to take a small bite. Not a greedy bite, a teeny tiny bite. Who is the mare and what has she done with my beloved Cici!?!?!?!

I put the hay down and she walks over and eats. I leave her alone for about 20 minutes and then come back to the paddock with her halter. We need to reestablish some respect, some relationship. She does not even pick up her head. I start swinging my rope. She eventually leaves her hay and goes to the water trough. Now this is something I always allow - it usually goes she looks at me as I enter the paddock, leaves her hay and gets a drink. Then she comes to be haltered.

Today she drinks, chews, looks at me, chews some more, takes another drink think about it and walks two steps towards me, then turns sharply to go to the hay! Catching game is on! She winds up running into the shed - hahahaha you can't be behind me now. And she just stands in the doorway looking at me. And I stand looking at her. A Mexican or maybe Massachusetts standoff. I keep looking at her and finally, finally she slowly, oh so slowly, walks out of her shed to me.

I remember thinking when I signed up for this clinic - Two full days with Cici. Take our relationship to a whole new level. That's for sure LOL!

Fisher Cat Trail

Went out again with V for our second trail ride of the season and she said lets do the Fisher Cat Trail. So named for the two Fisher Cats we saw climbing big pine trees off the trail. Have the Sleeping Deer Trail, Red Tailed Hawk Trail, Precipice Trail, oh and the Cart Path.

The Fisher Cat Trail has this one steep hill that Georgie likes to tack across - zig zagging his way down, and Cici likes to skip down it. Today Georgie took it straight and Cici took her time. Its steep enough that while leaning back I grab hold of the cantle.

Lots of downed limbs and a few downed trees littering the trails. Some we just stomp through - that is Georgie's MO, and Cici is if he can do it so can I! - some we walked over and a couple we had to make adjustments to the trail.

Just before we get back there is a pool of water off the trail. I call it Violette's Pond for one of the other riders I first saw there hand walking her horse. When it gets dry during the summer this is a place of lush grass. Today the pool is still and V asks me "How's Cici with water?" as she starts to walk Georgie through it.

Cici stops at the edge and takes a sip. Then a longer drink, takes a couple of steps into the pool and then she starts to splash. V said, "Oh no, you know what that means?!?!?! She's going to roll!" I don't think she is but just to be safe, I don't want to go wading myself, I ask her to turn back to land and then circle her back into the water.

Georgie is standing quietly in the water near the other side. Cici needs a bit of encouragement as she really wants to do more splashing. And then we get to the deepest part and the water is over her knees. She plows through to the other side and keeps on quietly walking on.

Its strange to acknowledge that I am now much more comfortable riding on the trails than I am in the ring. I remember years ago my fears about trail riding and comfort with the ring. A balance would be nice. Comfort no matter where I'm riding.

Stumpy and the deer

There is an old tree stump around the corner on the trail out. When V noticed it for the first time she thought it was a wild pig! And that he was going to charge! We've since named him Stumpy.

Today as we were heading to the Precipice Trail, I saw deep in the woods another larger stump. I hadn't noticed it before but now that the leaves are gone everything looks so very different. Constantly seeing things that are now exposed.

Cici was walking along quietly and I kept looking at this large roundish form. Just as I was about to mention it to V and ask her what we should name it, I glanced to the side and realized there were two large deer standing silhouetted among the bare trees!

It wasn't a stump! It was a full grown deer lying down deep in the woods! We continued walking down the trail and the deer continued resting.

Trail Super Star

Out on the trails today with M on one of her Friesians. Cici has never been out with him before, this was their first date. As we left the barn and went up the trail I noticed she was actively looking about. She was attentive and had her head up and ears were dancing. After about three or four minutes she relaxed and went into following mode. I realized she had been acting like she was out on the trail alone! Lead horse who has to stay alert! Guess it took a little while before she was willing to believe the Friesian knew what he was doing.

We decided to do one of the new trails in the opposite direction from the way we have, and when we came to the trail head saw it was posted with a No Trespassing sign. There wasn't one at the other end, hmmm how interesting. So off the trail we went. Bushwhacking! With the Bulldozer (the Friesian)!

No creature has been through these woods of downed trees and saplings growing up inches from each other. The Bulldozer leads the way and Cici closes her eyes and just walks through anything and everything. She even cuts her own trails when she thinks he is going the wrong way. She doesn't even bother to go around some of the saplings, just walks over them. Well she gets caught. Two saplings conspire to basically trap her left front leg in a V. She can't go forward, she can't back, "Time to get off Mom". She is calm. Not paniced, just stands and waits for me to fix it.

There are more trees right to her left and the saplings are bent that way, only clear side is on the right. Glad I've done all that practicing of mounting and unmounting from both sides as I don't give it a second thought but hop off the right side. I give it a second thought afterwards.

Well these two saplings where really tight up against her chest and armpit. I wrestle the smaller on to the ground and step on it to hold it down. Now I'm trying to figure out how to get the larger one which has a trunk of maybe 1-1/2". Have to bend it away from her and then step on it with my other foot to hold it down. They are both too green to break. And now I ask Cici to walk forward, over the trunks of the saplings. Feels like I'm caught a strange game of Twister LOL!!!!

She calmly walks out of the puzzle and now I am on the ground and we all continue our bushwhacking. The area is so dense there is no room for me to mount back up. We continue clambering over downed trees, thick underbrush and finally connect up with the trail. Mount back up.

I think back to how Cici just stood there. Calm with complete confidence that I would extract her. What a Super Star!

Goddard State Park

I don't even know where to start. Today got up at 6:00AM to get to the barn to trailer with Rebekah to the Bay State Trail Riders Association's trail ride at Goddard State Park in Rhode Island. This is a ride I've heard about for two years. The trails are along the edge of Narraganset Bay. This is an annual ride, so its in the summer and hot. I never felt I could ask Jeeps to trailer that long a distance in the potential heat, then ride her for about 2 hours and then trailer back. So each year when Rebekah headed out I felt a pang of...well envy.

But I did it today with Cici! We had a wonderful amazing time. We had runners come up behind us. The first time she did a little spook. We passed a guy on a bike. Dogs. Cars. Crossed a road. Walked on the road. Saw a deer in the woods. Other horses, both coming up behind us, in front of us. Even heading the other way. Waves lapping the shore. Voices coming out of where? Had to walk through big puddles. Mud. Along trails in the woods, that then opened up on one side or the other to large expanses of ocean (okay bay) or grassy fields. Pass picnic tables. Did I mention dogs? Barking dogs. Hikers.

And through all this I was comfortable. Cici did her snorting most of the time. There were only short periods where she was truly relaxed and really lowered her head. I did not ride with a casual rein. I kept them bridged and worked on not having contact, but I did have them short enough so I could take contact easily.

I did a lot of yawning, like Kelly Sigler did in the clinic, to see if I could relax any tension I might have and to get Cici to relax. Apparently I was doing it loud enough that Rebekah asked me if I was going to be able to stay awake! LOL!

When we reached the end of trails and began heading back Cici really started to toss her head. I think she was just tired of the bit. The half way point was about what the longest of our home rides is. So I got lots of arguments from her about any sort of contact.

I learned I need to work more on her zone 5. Things, people, animals coming up behind her. More in zone 3. Saddling her in the field where she was more interested in the grass than me. Mounting, well I mounted from the right. Although out on the trails at one point we heard loud voices but could not see the people. Patrick would not go forward and Cici this time would not go forward. I hopped off and hand walked her past and then mounted from a tree root from the left. And zone 1 - the bit issue.

And I passed another threshold!

A Doe

Out trail riding today with Rebekah and her horse Patrick. We passed a young doe standing in the woods about 5 feet off the trail. She stood still and watched with interest as we walked by. I don't think either Cici or Patrick noticed her as she didn't move.

The bugs were out in force, the little ones, and Cici was getting annoyed at them. I noticed that she will walk faster when she is annoyed. I swished her a lot and she seemed to forget about them.

Then on the way back Patrick walked right by our doe again. She had moved up the trail and was now standing in the middle of the blueberry bushes. We walked by her and seems she decided at that point to bound up the hill. The sound of her, maybe her movement, caught Cici by surprise and she, yup she took off. Boy was I caught off guard. But stayed on and got her to stop. Fortunately Patrick was ahead of us and since he had totally missed the deer he was just quietly waiting. Once we caught up with him, Cici relaxed and I went back to casual rein. Hmmm how interesting! My emotional fitness is growing.

Firsts

When I went out on the trail on Monday the bugs were pretty bad and going for Cici face and neck. She was doing a lot of head flipping, trying to get them off. Rebekah commented that I had forgotten my swish. I said I left it behind because I hadn't checked Cici out with it.

Well I did today. She was in the barn and I just took it out of my cubby and she startled in place. Hmmm how interesting. So I added it to the pile of stuff I was taking to the outdoor ring. Who needs a carrot stick when there is a swish?! She was quite leery of it. So lots of approach and retreat - walking away and letting her catch up. Waving it about. Gently letting it touch her side. Just taking my time. No hurry. No big deal. And after about 20 minutes I could swish her face from either side, up over her ears, under her jaw, up and down her neck. I friendlied the swish all over her body.

By the time I had tacked her up and mounted—from the left—I was able to swish her from the saddle. And this was a good thing because Kara showed up and we went out for a late afternoon/early evening ride in the woods. The bugs were out biting and I was able to swish Cici free of them.

Oh another first. First time we lead the whole way. She wasn't sure at the beginning going past Patrick's paddock. But I just asked and she went on. She quickly took the responsibility of leading seriously and didn't make many attempts to eat. So I was able to ride on a relatively casual rein. Those firsts sure seem to be piling up.

Trail Ride

Its been the Fourth of July looong weekend and I've enjoyed the trails with Cici and friends, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and....today Rebekah and I trailer over to Noon Hill for an "off property" ride. Cici was a delight in just walking on the trailer and immediately chowing down on the hay. The drive is maybe 12 minutes, unloaded like the pro she is and stood quietly while I tightened her girth, put her bridle on and mounted.

She was ready to go! Patrick decided he didn't like the look of what looked like a plaster cast of a dinasour bone, don't ask me what it was doing at the trail head, so Cici lead off. Ears forward and a swinging walk. Now this is the first time I've taken her to a new trail. Okay I've gotten over the first time to a clinic, and the first time out on a trail ride. Guess I am making a bigger thing about it. More about my thresholds LOL, not hers. Hmmm how interesting. I write thinking I'm writing about Cici and I find I'm writing about me.

She was walking out! And we were leaving Patrick behind. We swapped off leading. Deep woods, tall trees with vibrant canopy of greens. The beginning trails are wide - some rocky most smooth ground. The only sounds are the birds and horseshoes on rocks, creak of the leather and our voices. Didn't see anyone. Squirrels, chipmunks, birds, a toad yes.

Cici walked through mud, water, over rocks, downed trees, up a rock wall, over a wooded bridge. Nothing seemed to faze her. And I didn't do too bad either LOL.

Thresholds

Life is funny. I went to a clinic with Kelly Sigler, 3 Star Parelli professional, and learned what I needed to learn, but it wasn't what I was expecting to learn. I took a one hour lesson with Kelly on Sunday after auditing all day Saturday.

I was excited to be trailering Cici to a Parelli clinic. The last couple of years with Jeepers I hadn't wanted to trailer her any longer than 15-20 minutes to an event. Oh we did trailer to local spots for trail rides, but clinics were always beyond our reach. This clinic in Rehoboth was about 50 minutes away.

Cici loaded with no problems, but in the end just didn't settle. When we finally got to Johnson & Wales she was wide eyed and soaking wet. Linda helped me unload her and said, "Oh she'll be fine" as Cici dropped her head to immediately start eating grass. She would walk a bit then eat, walk a bit then eat.

Me? I was an immediate wreck! Talk about emotional fitness. I found I had stepped over a threshold I had not even considered existed. I thought this might be emotional journey about letting go of Jeeps and moving on with Cici. But my anxiety was a total surprise.

Linda was a rock. She told me to breathe. She told me, again, Cici was fine. She told me I was here to have fun. She told me we needed to do more of this trailering LOL.

Once in the indoor and walking Cici around to see all the new things I quickly realized she was fine. I was still the basket case. Kelly suggested taking some deep breathes as I'm sure I had stopped breathing the moment we got Cici off the trailer. I started talking and telling Kelly about Cici and what we had been working on. As time went on I was able to focus more and more on the why I was there, and less on the oh my god what happened.

Kelly was great. She used all the tools I've learned in natural horsemanship, to help me. She took the time to explain things, to make suggestions, to adjust what I was doing, to compliment me, to help me move on. We played with the big green ball! And got it on Cici's back! I can't wait to go to the barn today and grow what was started yesterday.

Emotional fitness. Who knew I was taking a clinic on crossing thresholds and developing my emotional fitness?!?!