Fairy Floss Update

 Fairy Floss Update

I have had Fairy Floss for more than a year now, and she went from a special needs cat that I wanted to help in tribute to my previous cat, Thunder, to being my best little pal.

As you may recall, I adopted her from the Cleveland Animal Protective League because nobody wanted her.  She has skin allergies that were hard to control.  She was at the APL for 6 months, except for a short time she was out for adoption and was returned because of her allergies.

I was able to manage them fairly well through last fall and winter, but they flared up in the spring, so we were back to the vet.  We did some experimentation with bathing, worming and medicines before the vet figured out where most of the problem was stemming from.  A blood test showed that she was allergic to a number of things but most allergic to yeast--and she was getting yeast infections in her ears.  Now, I treat her ears once a month and flush them out twice a week.  She is still itchier than the average cat, but she is so much better and doesn't need any other sort of treatment.  The hair is growing back on her belly!

Then there was the incident with her torn ligaments in June.  Most of the problem was caused by her getting tangled up in my legs, but some of it might have stemmed from all the steroids she had been on to treat her allergies.  Steroids can cause ligaments to weaken--which I am positive contributed to Cruiser's torn suspensory after we treated him for a few months with steroids for that awful cough he had.  Anyway, the operation was a success.  I did everything the vet said, and she healed quickly, but she still had a little limp.  The vet felt she may never have full extension of the leg after the operation.

Once she was cleared to have regular activity, I set up a physical therapy box for her.  It is a long, low box with three poles to step over in it.  So, she has to step over the side of the box, step over each pole and step out of the box.  If that wasn't enough, I put a small box outside each end of the physical therapy box for her to step up onto each time.

You may wonder how I got Fairy Floss to participate in her physical therapy sessions--with clicker training, of course.  She was a clicker cat before that accident ever happened.  I had her jumping over jumps and through a hoop, climbing up boxes and spinning.  It took no time at all to teach her a physical therapy routine.  She just loves it.  She would go through it 12 to 15 times a session.  

Wouldn't you know it--my instincts were right.  She no longer limps; even at a trot.  

The silver lining to the dark cloud of the accident was that the x-rays showed that Fairy Floss has severe arthritis in her hips.  I am now treating that, too.  She can run faster than ever!

She has become extremely attached to me and follows me all over the house, sleeps with me at night and loves to cuddle.  The only way I could have a better cat was to get Thunder back--she is that great.  She lost her home because her previous owners got a baby and she became depressed and quit using her litter box--a terrible thing to happen to a cat.  I am so happy I was able to give her a happy ending to her sad story--and she did the same for me.

I am so glad to adopted special needs cat.  

A Blog-Free Ride

A Blog-Free Ride

If you are looking for some exciting reading here, you can just give up on it.  There is nothing to write here, and I am so happy about it.

We decided to take Trifecta on a ride in the "other" direction.  Yes, when he crossed the river, we planned to go to the left instead of the right.  Going to the right is a much easier ride.  It is also prettier and has better places to trot.  Another advantage is that you can go further without having to cross the river a second time.  For all these reasons, we ride to the right more often then we ride to the left with all the horses.

I have only ridden Trifecta to the left once and that was about a month ago.  It wasn't the greatest ride.  He did well until we were going down the hill that leads to the second river crossing.  We were partially down when someone came galloping up the hill at top speed towards us.  I didn't know how Trifecta would handle that, but he managed to do it with much composure.  The rider struggled to stop before reaching us, but she did stop in time.  She warned us that there was a man on a horse that was going to be coming up right after her, so we were braced for it.  A minute later, we could see him down by the river.  We yelled down to him to not run his horse, and he struggled to keep him at a walk in vain.  Finally, he jumped off his horse and led him up the hill.  We thanked the rider for his consideration, and we proceeded down to the river.

I have no problems running up hills, but I will only do it when I know I will be able to stop my horse.  Also, I make sure my horses understand that we will only run up a hill when it is my idea.  They must know how to walk up a hill before I will ever let them run up it.  Some horses just love to do it too much--and there might be someone with a green horse coming down the hill...

That morning, Ellen and I were a little shaken up after that experience.  When we got down to the river, we discovered the bank was very muddy and the weeds were very high on both sides, making the river bank very narrow.  I asked Trifecta to go down it, and he was hesitant about the mud.  When he got to the bottom, he skirted along the narrow edge of the bank--doing everything in his power to avoid stepping into the river.  I wasn't going to make a big fuss about it--as I didn't plan to cross that day, anyway, but Boy did I struggle trying to get him to turn around to go back up.  After that, we just went back home.

Now, for our second trip on this trail.  Ellen was joining me on foot once again.  As we were leading down the driveway, Simon, our lovely barn cat friend, jumped out of the bushes to greet us.  He then wanted to follow us down the driveway, so Ellen picked him up to bring him back to the barn.  I decided to just go on without her and let her catch up with me.  

I led Trifecta down the driveway and down the street with no incident.  I mounted Trifecta from the ground, asked him to go forward and away we went.  As we got to the first slope, I looked back and saw that Ellen had caught up with us, but she was staying back so I could do everything on my own.  He was perfect all the way down the hill until we got to the river bank.  It was very muddy from some recent rain, and he decided he would go around the mud by going to the right.  Now, I know from experience that it is extremely muddy in the direction he wanted to go.  The best way to go is all the way to the left side of the bank.  I was struggling with him.  Ellen saw and called to him and clearly pointed to where we wanted him to go.  Not for the first time, Trifecta followed her hand directions and corrected his course.  I have never known a horse to be so in tune to his people.

He was a little slow to step into the water, but he has been lately.  When he did go in the water, he walked right across without any fussing this time.  He got clicks and treats for doing so well.

Trifecta was very excited when we turned to the left after crossing the river and marched down the trail; looking everywhere.  After a short distance, we have to cross the street.  There was no traffic, so we went straight across.  On the other side of the street, there is a short but very steep hill to go up.  He marched up the hill in perfect form.  At the top, we stopped so he and Ellen could catch their breath.  We walked across the top and headed down the other side.  This is where we had the problem with the running horse.  This time, the trail was clear so we rode right down to the river.  I didn't plan to cross it, but I wanted to see if he would step in it this time.  The path was still very narrow, and the bank was muddy, but he went straight down, paused at the water and stepped right in!  Hurray!  He got a click and a treat.  I asked him to take a few more steps, which he did willingly and he was clicked again.  I slowly and carefully turned him around in the water, and we walked up the muddy bank and headed up the hill.

Partially up the hill there is another trail that just goes out to the street that we like to take just to get a little longer ride.  Trifecta had never been on it, before, so we gave it a try.  We weren't that far along when a group of about 10 runners came flying down the trail towards us.  We asked them to stop and walk past, and they did--warning us that there were a lot more coming.  No sooner did they say that when we saw another group--and then another.  Trifecta was perfect for all the runners.

We got to the end of the trail, turned around and headed back towards home.  Our next big challenge was riding down the short, steep slope that leads to the road crossing.  He has struggled from day one with going down steep slopes, but recently he has learned how to control his feet.  This would be a huge test for him.  He was amazingly perfect.  We crossed the street and went to our first river crossing.  There he went right down the river bank and crossed like a dream.  We rode home with no incidents.  Trifecta was nearly perfect on a challenging ride.  All the pieces are starting to fall into place...

I am still smiling...

More Group Rides

More Group Rides

Our next opportunity to take Trifecta with another horse came about a week later.  This time, we chose to take him with Cole.  Ellen loves spending time with Cole, so she was all for the idea.

Cole hasn't spent much time with Trifecta, so Tri was very curious about him.  Once again, I had to continually remind Trifecta to not crowd Cole.  It wasn't so bad at a walk, but when we tried to trot together, Trifecta kept trying to rush up behind Cole.  We practiced it in short spurts, and he did start to improve.  Finally, we tried trotting with Trifecta in the lead.  That worked so much better.  We did see some people we knew but only stopped for a minute to say, "Hello," and then headed on our way.  Ellen stopped and talked to them for a few minutes and left us to go on our own.  Trifecta didn't mind leaving Cole at all.  All was going well when we suddenly heard hoof beats rapidly approaching--Cole was catching up; and he was catching up fast.  I stopped and turned Tri to watch, and Ellen stopped Cole at a safe distance.  I was glad Trifecta handled it with such maturity.

We walked all the way home with no incident except for Trifecta trying to rush up the river bank to catch up with Cole, again.  This time wasn't as bad, but it did show us that Trifecta was bothered when the fellow horses went out of sight.

The next week, we tried a ride with Dante.  Dante added a complication--he walks too slow for Trifecta.  Tri was also more determined to crowd him than he was with Cole--since they are best buddies.  Trotting was trickier for the same reason.  Don't get me wrong--there were some wonderful moments, but we had to work for them.  

The most difficult thing he did on that ride was when we crossed the river to go home.  Because of his rushing, we had him go first.  He didn't want to go down the bank.  Once we did, he went right into the water and started crossing fine.  About halfway across, he changed his trajectory to go downstream.  I had a tough time straightening him out, and when I finally got him to the other side, he tried to circle and go back into the water.  I made him stand while Ellen crossed, and we followed them up the bank.

I was totally confused by the behavior, and then it dawned on my in a frightening way--I think he wanted to explore the large hornet's nest that is hanging off a tree branch in the center of the river--about horse height!  Not a good idea!

On the next ride, we went back to Cole.  Trifecta was better with Cole this time than he was the first time, but we still had our frustrations.  When we crossed the river on the way out, Trifecta wanted to go to the left on the trail, and we wanted to go to the right.  That involved a lot of small circles and frustration.  He was also worse about going around the corner at Willow Bend.  That has been an issue all along, but instead of getting better, it has been getting worse.  I have a plan for that for the next ride.

Once again, he didn't want to go down the river bank to go home.  Instead, he wanted to go down the trail in the direction we didn't want him to go when we crossed the river on the way out--more small circles and more frustration.  There were a couple friends on their horses on the other side of the river waiting for us to cross.  Once I got him in the water, he did fine until we were halfway across again.  I wouldn't let him drift downstream to visit the hornet's nest, so he decided he was just going to stop in the water and wait for me to change my mind.  Nothing would get him going.  Ellen then yelled over to our friends to say something.  When he heard their voices, he got curious and decided to go over to see them.  

The problems I have with him are so odd.  He barely spooks and when he does, the spooks are small.  I certainly understand his fascination with other horses--no is a very friendly fellow.  I know those things will work out in time.  Our biggest disagreements are about which direction we should go, and he is very adamant about it.  Even being able to follow another horse doesn't seem to help.  My gut feeling is that he is curious and wants to explore new areas.  At Willow Bend, there is a short trail that leads out to the street--which he really, really wants to go down instead of the bridle path.  I know that one day I will laugh at all this, but right now, it frustrates me.

We have continued to work in the arena, and he is doing better and better all the time--except when he wants to go one way, and I want to go in another...I am sure it is all connected...

First Group Ride

First Group Ride

Other than one ride on the hill where Ellen rode Dante with Trifecta and me, she has been accompanying us on foot.  He has been doing so well, that we decided it was time for Mission Chestnut.  We were going to take the chestnuts on a real trail ride together for the first time.

We chose a weekday morning when the park would be the quietest.  Well, we always are riding on weekday mornings, but this time, Cole would have to wait until later for his ride.  We led the horses to the mounting block at the trail head and saw an old friend, Chris, on her horse, Gus, coming towards us.  She said there were vehicle tracks on the hill and voices at the bottom, so she didn't feel comfortable riding by herself and was going back to her barn.  I invited her to join us.  If they were doing trail maintenance, it would be a short ride, but if not--it was too pretty of a morning to not go on a trail ride.

We mounted and headed on down the hill.  Trifecta was transfixed with Gus, and he kept trying to get close to him.  I, in turn, kept asking him with my leg to move away from Gus.  We got to practice this move many times over the ride, and he got more and more sensitive to my leg--what a wonderful lesson.  He learned to not crowd other horses and to respond to lighter leg pressure.  I am sure it will transfer to other situations.

We didn't get far down the hill at all when we saw the park's Cushman tooling up the trail.  We told Chris to not worry--they would stop as soon as they saw us--and they did.  The park maintenance people are always very considerate to horseback riders.  I can't say enough about them.  They completely stopped their vehicle, and the horses, including little Trifecta, marched right by.  Now we knew that the trail ride was on because they were just driving through to inspect the trails.  

When we got down to the river, Gus stepped in to take a drink.  Trifecta did the same, but he decided he wasn't thirsty and got tired of waiting for Gus, so he crossed.  That is great because lately he has been oddly sticky at the river.  He wants to wander upstream and downstream instead of going across.  The other horses followed, and away we went.

I warned Chris that she just might end up in a blog--hoping that it would be a good one.  Gus took the lead.  Though he is a gaited horse, he walks at a normal speed.  Trifecta followed, and Dante took up the rear.  Trifecta wanted to be with Gus, but then he would change his mind and refuse to go forward because he wanted to follow Dante.  I just couldn't get him to go--so I brought him behind Dante--then he wanted to be with Gus again.  This happened a few times--the worst time was at the Willow Bend spot where we have struggled with for quite a few rides.  He refused to go down the rocky slope until he saw Dante head down--then he marched right after him--then past him--then past Gus.  He was going to be the leader.  

The Cushman showed up again--since they were inspecting this trail, too.  Of course, they stopped the vehicle to let us go by.  Trifecta barely even glanced at them.  Ellen stopped and told them about a different river crossing where the weeds were very tall and encroaching the trail--making it very narrow.  They said they would take a look at it.  There are a lot of disadvantages to riding in a very suburban park that is close to traffic and filled with a lot of park users--but there are advantages, too.  The trails are maintained and the park staff is very responsive to clearing trees that are blocking the trails and such.

Trifecta marched in the lead until we got to the next river crossing.  He wanted to go play in the water--which we have been doing the last few rides, though we haven't crossed, yet.  We had a little fight to get him to turn around.  At that point, Gus took the lead again, and we headed home.  By this time, Trifecta was happy to follow Gus at an acceptable distance, and we didn't have any trouble until we got back to the river.  Gus and Dante got across and up the bank before Trifecta even got in the water because he was fussing around at the bank.  He crossed the river faster than he has been because the other horses were no longer in sight.  The next thing he did--which Ellen and I both expected--was try to run up the bank to find the other horses--typical baby horse.  I held him back, and he didn't go any faster than a trot--and was walking by the time he got to the top.  There he found the other horses and settled right down.

The rest of the way home was uneventful--just the way I like it.

It was a very successful first group ride, and I am sure they will only get better after this.  

Thanks for the pictures, Chris!

The Next Ride

The Next Ride

We were back to a weekday ride, so we didn't have as much time to take Trifecta on a real trail ride.  I rode him a little bit in the arena while Ellen cleaned her stall.  When she finished, we went on one trip on the hill.

The plan was to do exactly what we did on the last ride but with a few less clicks.  I clicked for walking a few times at the barn and on the driveway.  He was a little sticky, but not really bad.  Trifecta was happy to march down the street to the trail.  Once I mounted, Ellen walked away and didn't look back.  I asked Trifecta to walk.  He hesitated--then stepped right out!!!  I clicked him after 3 steps.  I meant to go 6 more steps, but in the heat of the moment, I added wrong and thought I should go 8.  I should have stopped at 6, and all would have been fine, but at 8 steps he started to veer off the trail.

I straightened him out, asked him to stop and then asked him to walk.  This time, we made it to 8 steps, and I clicked.  Then next time I went up to 12 steps before clicking.  At that point, I quit counting and only did it when he was doing great.  A few times, he did try to veer a little, and I was able to correct him with my legs.  Overall, he was awesome!  He did learn from the previous ride!

We turned around at the end of the trail and went home with no drama at all.  

My plan is to continue this for a while and keep reducing the clicks.  I believe we are headed in the right direction.  

Four Day Blitz

Four Day Blitz

It is getting too warm to ride outside in the sunny arena, so I decided to do some hill work with Trifecta on the weekdays.  Ellen has to go to work after we ride, so there really isn't enough time to ride the Big Guys and then take Trifecta out on a real trail ride, too.  Of course, I could go alone, but I really like having Ellen following along with me on foot.  She is so helpful.  Most of the time, I don't even have to tell her what I need or plan to do--it is like we are of one mind.

So we went back to doing what we were doing last year when I first started taking Trifecta down the hill to the river.  We would get back from our first ride and Ellen would clean Dante's stall while I saddled up Trifecta and started riding in the indoor arena.  When she was done with all of her chores, we would take Trifecta down the hill.

Day one went fine, except Trifecta wasn't on the same page.  He suddenly decided he would prefer not to go out on a trail ride.  He was sticky in the driveway and on the street.  When I mounted at the trail head, he veered off the trail and tried to go into the woods.  He tried to the left--he tried to the right.  I was having the toughest time getting him to stay on the trail and go straight.  This was not actually any different than in the arena when he would refuse his trot transitions on the fence--only when we were going counter clockwise.  I struggled through it just like I did in the arena, but this time there was a cliff on one side and a deep ditch on the other...

Once we were about halfway down the hill, he went steady and straight.  We did one trip on the hill, turned around and came home.  He was completely fine on the way back.

The following day, we repeated the same thing--and so did he.  I was more prepared for it, so he wasn't quite as bad, but still it was discouraging.

The next day was Saturday, so we had time to go across the river to the real trail.  He pulled the same tricks as before, but they weren't as bad.  Once we got across the water, I did some trotting and he was great.  In the past, he was reluctant to trot and leave Ellen, but he seemed willing to move out this time.  We did walk/trot transitions and all went well--except for the few times he tried to swerve off the trail.  

I was far from Ellen when I asked him to go around a corner that also goes down a slope.  He refused.  I think either he thought he was supposed to turn around there to go home here, because we have, or he didn't like the stones he has to walk through.  I waited for Ellen to catch up, so he could follow her--he didn't.  We had to do a lot of coaxing and luring with handfuls of grass until he went down.  Once we managed that, I trotted a little ways, turned around and headed towards home.  When we got to the spot that he refused, we turned him around to try again.  Once again, he didn't want to do it.  Finally, he did and got rewarded.  We did it one more time, and he only hesitated a little that time.

The following day, we decided to repeat the ride.  This time, I had put some thought into it and done some research to tackle our problems.  Clicker training was going to come to our rescue!  (Again,)

I saddled him up and led him into our indoor arena.  There, we practiced our walk transitions, and I clicked him when he did well.  I got his attention.  When I asked him to walk out the arena door, I clicked him.  This time, he only hesitated a little on the driveway--more clicks.  Trifecta's head was in the game.

At the trail head, we practiced our walks and whoas, which of course, he got clicked for.  When I mounted and asked him to walk, I felt a pause and then he stepped forward.  He got clicked for 3 steps, then 5 steps, then 8 steps and then a dozen.  A few times, I could feel him starting to veer off, but now I was able to correct him with leg pressure.  He kept getting better and better.  Whenever he was really good, I gave him a click.

The last few times I crossed the river, he has been reluctant.  I decided to employ this technique going down the river bank.  It helped, but it still took him a bit before he would go in the water.  Once he did, he walked across fine.

The ride went really well until we got to the corner with the slope.  He just stood there and refused.  Ellen suggested the circling technique.  It only took 2 circles.  As I finished the second circle and had him pointing in the right direction, I urged him forward.  I felt him take a big step, and we were on our way down.  Of course, we clicked him and praised him.  I trotted off down the trail.  He stopped where I stopped him a couple rides previous.  I asked him to trot again--only to have him try to stop where we stopped the day before.  I was able to keep him moving, and we kept going a little more--then I asked him to stop, we turned around and went home.

All went well on the way home until I made a fatal mistake.  At the river crossing, we stopped to talk to a couple people with a dog.  They admired him and wanted to watch him cross the river.  I have mentioned how much Trifecta enjoys being around people before.  He decided they were his friends, and he didn't want to leave them!  They saw they were causing a problem and left--then he crossed.  Note to self: be careful where you stop and talk to people with Trifecta.

One very bright spot of our ride--he passed up 3 small groups of horses without making a fuss.  One of the horses was even his buddy, Starry, being ridden by his other buddy, Kevin.  This has been one of his biggest problems in the past.  I think he is just becoming more mature.

I could be wrong, but I think the reason he was trying to go off the trail was simply curiosity.  He wants to go exploring; it's what young, male horses would be doing in the wild.  I think he is just getting a little bit bored with the hill.  I needed him to understand what I wanted--and basically, that is just how I fixed the problem in the arena.

As a side note, I did have another part of the plan that I didn't have to deploy.  If he would have successfully gotten off the trail or even just put up a big fight about it, I wasn't going to click him right away when he went straight.  My fear was that he would chain the behavior.  Chaining is a useful training tool, but it is possible to accidentally create an undesirable chain.  I didn't want him to conclude that if he veers off the trail and then goes back to going straight that he would get a click.  It would just encourage him to veer off.  It is something to always keep in mind when you train with a clicker.

The plan was to have him walk straight for a few steps, ask him to stop and then ask him to walk straight again.  At that point he would get a click, and not associate the good behavior with the previous bad behavior.

I do know that all of this would be easier if we just followed another horse, but I am trying to train him to be independent.  It really pays off in the long run.

A Typical Young Horse Trail Ride

 

A Typical Young Horse Trail Ride

Riding a young horse on his early rides is usually filled with hiccups because there is so much for them to learn.  We had a learning ride today.

As usual, I rode Trifecta with Ellen on foot.  Some of the hiccups probably wouldn't be there if I rode him with another horse, but this gives Trifecta a chance to learn how to be independent of other horses.  Sometimes, he can be a little dependent on Ellen, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing most of the time.

Poor Ellen, this means she has to cross the river on foot.  The river was a little higher than it has been because of the rain we just had, but it was totally doable.  Trifecta didn't want to step into the water at first--which is really unusual for him, so I told Ellen to go ahead and cross first.  Once she was about halfway across, I asked him to walk and he stepped in immediately.  It turned out to be one of his better crossings.  I halted him twice to keep him from building up speed, and he did stop nicely.  The bottom of this river crossing is extremely slippery, so rushing is the last thing I want him to do.

We passed Kevin up on the trail.  He was digging out obnoxious rocks and writing political stuff in the dirt.  I thought Tri wouldn't want to leave Kevin, but after a greeting where Kevin gave him a treat, Trifecta marched on without a backward glance.

Ellen walked with us as we fought off the mosquitoes.  He really hates the bugs and kept wanting to stop and scrape them off.  I was so glad when we got to the section of trail that we have been practicing our trotting.  Trotting is better than any bug spray on the market.  I left Ellen, and we just trotted off.  He was perfect--very steady and calm.  Instead of turning where we have been and repeating the trail over and over to practice our trotting, I decided to go further down the trail.

The trail goes up a little slope, around a corner and down a little slope.  This was only the third time I have ridden him past the corner--and he decided he wasn't going when he got to the bottom of the slope.  He gets himself all twisted up when he doesn't want to go forward.  He ended up backing all the way up the slope.  The rocks on his bare feet had to be uncomfortable.  When I was back on top, I was happy to see Ellen was catching up with us.  She saw what was going on, passed us up and grabbed a handful of grass.  He stood for a few seconds and thought about it--then marched right down the slope.  She gave him the grass, walked a few more steps and got some more.  Trifecta was changing his mind very quickly.  

Ellen had her clippers and was trimming some low hanging branches, so we traveled down the trail without her.  When we made it to the next corner, I asked him to trot.

The last time I was on this part of the trail he was pretty excited, so we worked on our walk, trot, whoa transitions all the way down the trail.  This time, he seemed so calm that I decided to just keep trotting to see how far we could get.  He was great.  He continued trotting very steadily.  Every now and then, I could feel him slow down a little, and I would just give him some leg and he would keep going.  I could feel my smile getting bigger and bigger.  We were almost to the next river crossing, and I asked him to stop.  The next thing I knew, he made a right angle turn and went off the trail.  Such a young horse move--I think he wanted to explore.  They all seem to do this a few times.  Fortunately, the area had no underbrush to get tangled in, so I just circled him and sent him back on the trail.

We turned around and walked towards Ellen.  He was all excited about finding her, and he did throw in a few trot steps a couple times.  I just told him to walk, and he listened.  We found her and walked on home.  The bugs were really bugging him again since we were just walking, and he still tried to trot a few times.  (Apparently, he learned that trotting is better than bug spray, too.)

We only had one spook.  I am glad to say he is a horse that seldom spooks, but at the young age of 3, he still has moments.  I heard a car along the road hit a puddle-and Trifecta jumped in the air.  I quickly spun him about, and he stopped like nothing happened.  Such a silly guy.  I think he was just a little excited to be going home and was looking for an excuse to express himself.  

When we got to the river crossing, Ellen told me to cross without her, and she would catch up.  It sounded like a good plan to me, so we proceeded very carefully down the river bank.  It has a rut going down the center that he is obsessed with and has ended up in it a few times.  As I guided him away from the rut, he decided trotting down the bank was the best idea ever.  All I could see was us hitting the slippery bottom and falling.  I told him "whoa" and he did, though we were a few steps in the water by the time he stopped.  He then proceeded to walk calmly and carefully across the river to the other side.  If it wasn't for the trotting, it would have been his best river crossing ever.

As I thought about it, I realized I may have cued him to strongly with my leg to keep him out of the rut.  Since he probably wanted to trot anyway, he decided one leg on his side was as good as two--so he would trot.

The trip up the hill was uneventful.  As I led him down the street, there was someone in a large truck that stopped to let us cross the road. That shouldn't have been a problem, but when we got across, he tried to trot around me to get to the truck.  I think he wanted to visit.  That is what happens when you have a horse that just loves people.

I call that a great trail ride for a green trail horse.  Sure he did some things wrong, but he is learning.  It is all very exciting for him, and he isn't always sure of what I expect of him.  Everything that he did, he has already done in one form or another when we were riding at the barn.  His worst incident was when he balked on the trail.  We have found a pattern in his behavior.  When we are doing something that doesn't meet his expectations, he has a little tantrum.  I believe he thought we were turning there because that is what we have been doing. Once we got past the spot, he no longer seemed to care.

When we got back, we took Dante, Starry and Cole on the same ride.  It was nice to look around at the wildflowers and such on the second ride.  I didn't see them on the first one.

Starry Becomes Barn Sour

Starry Becomes Barn Sour

Yes, it is true!  Starry, one of the most reliable horses, decided he no longer wanted to work.

In early May, Kevin had a terribly unfortunate accident with Starry where he fell off, broke multiple ribs and punctured his lung.  That meant he wasn't able to ride for quite a while.  Starry decided he liked his retirement.

By the time that Kevin was able to ride again, we were right in the middle of one the the buggiest summers ever.  The mosquitoes were atrocious--and Starry hates bugs.  Kevin took him on his initial ride, and all Starry did was fuss about the bugs.  It was right about the time I started riding Cole after his terrible colic, so we decided to keep it short and go back home early.

After that, was the Fourth of July weekend and so much rain, that Kevin didn't have another ride for a few weeks. This one was longer, and Starry was totally bug crazy.  This happens most years, but after a few weeks, he settles down.  Kevin was a wreck.

Now honestly, Kevin was having some problems with his confidence.  Who wouldn't under the circumstances.  I think that played into what happened next.

The next time Kevin tried to ride, he couldn't even get Starry out of the driveway.  The following ride was worse.  Starry wouldn't leave the barn.  We did get him to go out the back door, but once he got outside, he refused to go anywhere.

A few days later, he tried again by joining me on a ride with Cole.  Once again, we had to take him out the back door, and he got stuck.  Instead of quitting, Kevin got off to lead him to the trail.  That worked, so Kevin just led him down the hill.  There is a mounting block at the bottom.  Kevin got on and walked Starry down to the river--and he wouldn't cross.  You can just imagine how Kevin was feeling at this point--he was just shattered.  He led Starry home, and I went on my ride by myself.

Though Kevin was crushed, he was still determined.  We told him to spend time walking Starry around the barn; going in and out of the door and walking down the driveway.  When Starry was good, we wanted him to click and treat him to show Starry what he wanted and to make it a fun project for him.  Kevin followed our advice, and they started to get better.  One day, he was able to lead him partially down the street.  He was ready to try the trail again.

One morning, Ellen and I were going to take Trifecta down the hill.  Ellen was on foot.  The river was too high to cross.  Kevin decided to join us.  He led Starry to the trail and mounted at the mounting block at the beginning of the trail.  Trifecta, always enthusiastic about trail riding, marched down the trail.  Starry decided he wasn't going to follow.  Kevin got off and tried leading him down, but Starry was reluctant and troubled by the bugs.  Kevin's nerves were frazzled, so Ellen took over.

Ellen is awesome.  She used her clicker training skills to get Starry focused and working.  He was getting clicked for walking well and then she added in "head down and walk."  We find that to be a wonderful cue and have taught it to all of our horses--including Starry years ago.  Starry settled down, Kevin got a break from him and Trifecta just marched on with great enthusiasm.  We did one trip on the hill and when we got back, we had Kevin ride Starry around in the arena.

The next day, the river was still too high to cross.  This time, I was taking Cole down to the river.  Ellen was on foot, and Kevin decided to lead Starry down himself.  We told him to put the saddle on, even though he wasn't going to use it.  That way, Starry wouldn't know what was going to happen.

Starry was so much better this time!  When they got to the bottom, Ellen offered to take over just to give Kevin a break.  She continued working on Starry's training, and Kevin was able to walk up the hill at his own pace.  When we got back, Kevin rode him in the arena again.

The next day, the river was low enough to cross, so we were going to give it a try with Starry, Dante and Cole.  While all this was going on, Dante went through a spell where he didn't want to cross the river, too.  Ellen failed 2 days in a row with him, and she was also very upset.  She was able to get him to cross the next couple times--and he actually crossed really well, but we weren't that confident that he would cross this time.  All we needed was for Starry and Dante to start playing off each other.

Kevin led Starry to the mounting block at the bottom of the hill.  I brought Cole down, and he was having a drink.  Dante followed and Starry followed Dante.  Starry loves following Dante-they are great buddies.  Ellen was nervous.  Kevin was nervous.  I was nervous, too, but in a way, it was the worst for me because I couldn't do anything but watch.  Dante crossed first with little hesitation.  I followed and then Starry stepped right in.  We made it!!!!

The rest of the ride was uneventful.  We repeated it the next day, and it went just as well.  Kevin's confidence was coming back.  The following day, he rode with a friend and Starry was great.  After 2 more successful rides, Kevin decided to mount at the mounting block on top of the hill, and everything went fine.  Starry is back!

More Trail Rides

More Trail Rides

We had 2 more trail rides.  Though I wanted to do a bunch of consecutive trail rides--the weather just didn't want to cooperate.  After each ride, we would get a lot of rain, and I would have to wait for the river to go back down before we could do it again.  Also, we are only doing them when Ellen doesn't have to go to work, so that limits us, too.

The river crossing on our second trail ride went better than the first.  Trifecta was happy to walk along, slowly, with Ellen when we crossed the river.  Everything was going so well that Ellen and I had the same thought--we would try a little trotting.  This was way ahead of the schedule I had in my head, but I wanted to see where he was at.  We got to a great spot for trotting, so I mentioned it to Ellen--and she said she was just thinking of it herself.  If we both think of it, it has to be a good idea.

We both thought we would do it the same way we originally started trotting Cole on the trail--which is the same way that we worked on slowing Trifecta on the steep slopes on the hill.  I made him stand and wait while Ellen went up the trail, and I then asked him to trot to her.

I didn't know what to expect.  When we did it with Cole, he was rather scary.  He went fast and big and Ellen had to be very brave to stand her ground.  (That is how we taught him hand signals to stop.)  I asked Trifecta to trot, and he acted just like he was in the arena.  He gave me a moderate, smooth trot and readily stopped right in front of Ellen.  It wasn't scary at all.  We only did it once.  My real goal was to ride all the way to the next river crossing.  He had never gone that far before, and it would make the ride about 3 miles round trip.  

Once we get past Willow Bend, the trail is well away from the street and very easy to ride.  It went great except for all the mosquitoes.  In fact, the whole ride went great.  We made it home with no problems.

Ride #3

We had a new plan for our third ride.  Based on our success trotting, we decided that that would be our goal.

We got back to the good section of trail, and I told Ellen to walk up ahead.  We waited until she turned around and trotted to her.  Trifecta stopped when I asked him to, and we clicked and treated him-and then we repeated it a number of times until we got to Willow Bend.  We then turned around and went back to the beginning of the stretch of trail.  Each time, she went further away from us.  Each time, he traveled a little faster.  

We repeated the exercise.  This time, he got measurably faster and once he even broke into a canter!  I didn't make a big deal about it, but since I didn't ask him for it, he didn't get clicked.  (This is also the way we introduced cantering on trail with Cole--so it will probably be in his future.)  We were getting towards Willow Bend, so I told Ellen I wanted to go on my own.  At first, Trifecta didn't want to leave her, but once he got going, he was wonderful.  I asked him to stop and clicked him for it.  We then turned and walked towards Ellen.  

I told her I wanted to do a much longer stretch on my own, so we went back to the mud puddle, turned around and trotted away from her.  Once again, he was great, but as we neared the spot where we previously stopped, he surged to get there.  Since that wasn't the lesson I wanted him to learn, I kept him going past that spot and told him to stop in a different spot.  You have to be careful with clicker training that you don't teach them the wrong thing.  It is such a powerful tool.  I didn't want him to learn to rush to a certain spot to get a treat.  I wanted him to learn to keep going and stop when I tell him.

It was all such a total success!  Instead of continuing on to the second river crossing, I told Ellen that we did enough for the day and we went home.  The rest of the ride was wonderfully uneventful.  I believe I have a terrific horse!

Real Trail Ride on Trifecta

Real Trail Ride on Trifecta

One day last month, I met Ellen at the barn and she asked me what I wanted to do that morning.  I told her that I wanted to take Trifecta across the river.  It caught her totally be surprise--which was a good thing.  She didn't have to worry all the night before about taking him on a real trail ride.  

Last year, I led him across the river and on the trail a number of times before I started riding him.  Once I was riding, we did the hill a lot and finally one real trail ride before the weather got bad, so this wasn't completely new for him, and the ride last year was very successful.  Where Ellen was nervous, I was like Trifecta--very excited.

Ellen was going to walk with us.  Talk about having a wonderful sister--she was going to cross the river on foot.

Going down the hill was uneventful.  We passed up the exit ramp for the river, turned around and went to the bank.  My thinking on this was to prevent him from refusing to pass the river ramp when I just wanted to ride on the hill.  I had a lot of problems with him last summer doing just that, and I didn't want to lose all the progress I made with him.

He was so excited when I told him to go down to the river.  He didn't want to wait for Ellen to roll up her jeans--he just wanted to cross.  I made him wait.  Ellen hooked up the lead rope, and we stepped in.  It only took a couple steps to know that she wouldn't be able to safely walk as fast as he wanted to walk, so she unhooked him.  He did walk faster than I wanted him, but I was able to get a "whoa" which helped slow him down.  He walked up the bank on the other side, and we waited for Ellen to catch up.

She hooked the lead rope back up.  I didn't think we really needed it, so she made the rope very slack as a compromise.  She would just be an emergency brake.  We walked quickly and uneventfully down the trail.  I decided to turn at Willow Bend--which would make it a 2 mile ride.  The bugs were ferocious, and they really aggravated him.  Is there any good bug sprays out there?  

On the way home, there were 3 joggers that came towards us.  They walked to pass us and then started jogging--and that spooked him.  I am just not used to him spooking!  It was just a little spook--he shot forward a few strides, and I was able to stop him easily.  He settled back down very quickly, and that is so important.

When it came time to cross the river on the way home, he tried a whole new method.  Instead of walking fast to get across, he wanted to stay next to Ellen.  Since Ellen had to go slow by necessity, he did the same thing--matching her step by step.  It made us laugh. Trifecta often makes us laugh.

What a wonderful first ride!  If this is his starting point, I really don't foresee many problems.