High water

3.51 inches of rain.  That was the official tally for this weekend’s storm.  Needless to say, I didn’t cross the river last night.  I rode Cruiser 3 times on the hill, and Cole and I worked in the arena.  He did much better than he has for the last few weeks.  I was getting the big trot more consistently and for longer durations.  We lasted 35 minutes, and then a couple other horses came in, so I decided I would take him down the hill rather than deal with all the dust.  He was fine on the hill.  I know it wasn’t long ago that a trip on the hill meant racing down and racing up.  What a difference, now.  He walked down like a gentleman and walked back up like a gentleman.  I would have done more, but I am losing patience with the mosquitoes.

Successful weekend rides

I took Cole on 2 rides this weekend with my sister on her horse, Ranger. All I can say is they were dreamlike. Everything he knew how to do, he was perfect. Some new things that we added—like trotting towards home and trotting in new places, he was great. We did try cantering with mixed success. He just doesn’t understand that that is what I want him to do. I figured when he was Ranger cantering, he would understand, but that hasn’t been the case. It’s odd, because when my sister is on foot, and simulates cantering, he understands. Anyway, we did get it a couple times for a very short distance. I’m sure we will work it out—and I hope soon—it was such a lovely, lovely canter. Cruiser has a fair canter, and Mingo’s was tough unless he went fast. Ranger has an awesome canter, and Cole’s seemed more like Ranger’s—for the short distance we traveled. There is a big difference between naturally rear-wheel drive horses and naturally front-wheel drive ones. At last, I got a rear wheel!


I had 2 great solo rides on Cruiser this weekend. We got in just in time, yesterday morning. We were only inside a few minutes when the deluge hit, and only ended this morning. I am going riding tonight, but I won’t be able to cross the river. I will work the hill with Cruiser and spend my time with Cole in the arena.

Some good news—looks like deerfly season is winding down. They didn’t have to wear their bonnets yesterday, and I only saw a couple that were easy to kill. All we have to worry about, now, is the mosquitoes, which is bad enough. I don’t ever remember a worse year for mosquitoes.

Evening Rides

I took my older niece out riding last night. I was on Cruiser and she rode my sister’s horse, Ranger. All went well for most of the ride. She is really mastering posting. On the ride home, we just walked, so I suggested she practiced her hands. She needs to keep them steady with even contact. She is such a conscientious student—she practiced all the way home until she fell off.


When we were crossing the river, which was very low and slippery, Ranger slid a bit in the back and started to fall. A better rider may have been able to stay on—but at least she didn’t throw him off balance and cause him to fall, too. I didn’t see it until she was sitting in the water and Ranger was walking towards us. I got off, but not in time to reach Range’s reins. He walked right by Cruiser, up the river bank and happily for us—turned the opposite direction of home when he got to the top. By now, my niece was up and walking towards us. (Unhurt but soaked.) I sent her ahead while Cruiser and I blocked the path towards home. Ranger was munching a patch of grass that he has probably had an eye on for years. My niece took the carrot that was in her pocket and slowly approached, stretched out her arm and Ranger traded his freedom for a piece of carrot.

I rode Cole in the outdoor arena—first time in a couple weeks or more. It finally dried out enough. Well, the stables next to us had 6 horses turned out, and they were running all around because of the bugs. There was someone riding there and someone cutting grass. We didn’t get much accomplished. A few times, the mower hit something and that spooked Cole. He did try to run once when the other horses ran and he didn’t pay much attention to me. Overall, he did better than I thought he would with the distractions, but it still wasn’t as much fun as it usually because of them. That’s just how things go…

Good Wednesday Evening Rides

Yesterday evening, I found my boyfriend at the barn. I never know when he is going to ride with me. Sometimes, he rides in the morning and still comes out to help me in the evening. This time, he saved his riding so he could ride with me.


I decided to take Cole with him. We did this a few weeks ago with good success. This time, I was going to be braver and trot more. It helped that the trail has been repaired—allowing us to trot a lot more than before.

Now, my boyfriend has limited control with of his horse. He can tell him which way to go and at what gait, but he has very little control of the speed of his gait. Starry goes at whatever speed he likes.

I asked my boyfriend to try to go a little slower, but I was wasting my breath. I’m not sure if he didn’t try, couldn’t succeed or never heard me. Each time he asked Starry to trot, he went at a pretty brisk speed—much faster than when we trot with Ranger, but still slower than when we trot alone. I’m glad to say, though I worried Cole would get excited and try to race, he never passed Starry. We probably trotted a mile, all told, and Cole was perfect. Even when Starry started to canter, Cole just trotted faster. I was very pleased.

Cole did try to trot a few times on the way home when we were supposed to be walking, so I can’t say he was perfect, but he was close enough to me.

I then took Cruiser out alone for a longer ride. I had a nice time on him, too.

Been Doing lots of Riding

I have been remiss in blogging, but that’s not because I haven’t been riding. I’m doing that as much as ever. My nieces have been riding with us, and that makes it all the more fun. Unfortunately, I only have a few more weeks before the older one goes back to Cornell. I sure will miss her company.


I have been asking more of Cole, so that means we have been encountering more difficulties. I could have kept it easy and just taken him on short walk-only rides, but I want to trot, canter and go further. Friday evening, when I took him on a trail ride by himself, he was very annoyed with the bugs. That really does affect our rides. He wants to either go fast or go home. When I ride him alone, his speed of trotting is incredible, and lately, I have lost his good downward transitions. He has been getting excited, and since I have asked him to canter a few times on the trail, he has been offering it on his own, again.

When I ride with another horse, he pretty much will match the speed of the other horse. Well, yesterday, he decided to try and pass up Ranger. The first time, Ranger snarled at him. the second time, I spun him to get him to stop and we headed back towards Ranger so I could put him behind him where he belongs—well, Ranger marched toward him with an ugly face, and Cole just backed away from Ranger in fear. I had him take a wide berth around Ranger, and then we trotted one more time. Cole was perfectly behaved. Where I try to train with positive and negative reinforcement, Ranger is training with positive punishment. I hate to admit it, but I think that Ranger’s method may be working.

Our arena work has been up and down, and it is probably because I am only working in there once or twice a week. That’s okay—that’s what winter is for…

Cruise is doing well, and I am riding him 5 days a week on the trail. each spring, I ask for one more summer. Looks like he is living up to my request. He is energetic and enthusiastic. Last year, he didn’t want to canter. This year, he is cantering quite a bit. Last year, he needed to pause and rest on the hills. This year, he goes straight up. Of course, he is happy to trot forever.

Cole's First Show

He went to his first show, yesterday. Don’t get excited. We just rode to the show grounds and stood on the outskirts for about 10 minutes.  Rnager kept inching forward--he wanted to wander around amongst the activity.  He loves doing that.  There were horses going past us or warming up in the field nearby, the loud speaker was blaring and horses were calling.  Cole behaved well at the show, but as we rode away, I told Ellen I expected an expression of emotion any moment. About a minute later, he jumped and squealed. At least he didn’t let me down.

He was in a funny mood the whole ride.  I think it was the bugs.  A number of times, he tried to spin and go home.  Twice, he nearly collided into the jaws of death--Ranger's gaping jaws.  I think Ranger taught him manners better than I could ever teach him.  We did do some new things, and he was great for them.  All the trotting went well, too.  It was just when we were walking and getting swarmed by mosquitoes that he misbehaved.

With all the rain we have been getting, including right now, I don't know if we will be getting any break from the bugs anytime soon.  I really don't much like summer, and I am so much looking forward to fall.

Scary River

We had another pretty big flood this month. When the water went down enough to cross, we found a large log partially blocking the river bank on the far side, a faster current and funny ripples that weren’t there before. Either the slate bottom got torn up or some big rocks were moved in. It was hard to tell because the water was still muddy.



Kevin tried to go on a ride on his own, and Starry refused to cross. A few days later, he wanted to ride with me to help get Starry to the other side. I took Cruiser and I am glad to say that Cruiser wasn’t worried about the changes at all. The only problem we had with him was he wanted to drink and drink. We just wanted to get Starry across before he thought too much about what we were doing. Eventually, Cruiser decided to cooperate and we made it!



On the way home, Cruiser stepped on what I correctly guessed was a large, flat piece of shale about 6 inches high. He put his hoof on it, started to shift his weight to step up, paused, did it again, paused, and when I asked him to move to the side of the rock, he happily took his hoof off and put it next to the shale. It is so nice to have a horse that thinks before acting.



The next morning, Ellen tried to cross Ranger, and he refused. It looked too funny to him. They worked out a compromise—once he got all 4 hooves in the water, she turned him around and they gave up on the river.



Well, that put me in a tough spot. The following evening, my niece was supposed to ride with me, and she rides Ranger. I talked it over with Ellen, and we decided that I would ride Ranger across and then we would switch horses on the other side. We knew that Cruiser would cross, and that should help Ranger.



I’m glad to say that the water was lower, and now we could see all the large hunks of shale that were washed down; causing the funny ripples. The water was still traveling faster that it used to. I told my niece to start down the river bank to the water. Ranger refused to go first. Cruiser thought Ranger had the right idea—and who was that on his back, anyway, and why did he have to listen to her?



Poor Ranger had to take the lead. I clicked him halfway down the bank and gave him a carrot. That put him in a much better mood. I clicked him when he stepped into the water, too. He stopped and I gave him another carrot. He was nervous. Cruiser wasn’t in the lead like he was supposed to be. I asked Ranger to walk, and he started wading through the water. I clicked and clicked and clicked, but he was so uptight that he didn’t stop! When we got to the other side, I he finally stopped for a click. I hopped off and gave him the handful of carrots he should have gotten if he had stopped while I was clicking. Cruiser finally made it over, and we switched horses and enjoyed the rest of our ride.



The only other difficulty we had was on the way home. I forgot to tell my niece to be careful about the log on the river bank that initially scared Range. I was in the lead and heard a noise. It was Ranger scurrying down the river bank and into the water to get away from the log. No harm done, and it was a good experience for my niece to ride a nervous horse for a few seconds. He calmed down and was fine the rest of the way home.



Soon, Ranger will cross the water as reliable as he used to be. By then, the log will be gone and Kevin will have cleaned the rocks out of the water.

Rain and heat

I am listening to the thunder, and I checked the radar--my weekend plans have just turned soggy.  There will be no crossing the river tonight, and I don't think we will be crossing tomorrow, either.  If it isn't raining this evening, I will be riding up and down the hill.  Same with tomorrow morning.  Alas, this is why I don't like July.  It seems it is either unbearably hot and/or the T-storms raise the river.

The outdoor arena will be too wet.  The indoor arena isn't watered this time of year, so it will be very hot and dusty.

Hopefully, Sunday will work out.

I'm sure we will find fun things to do, though, but I love those trail rides...

I think my niece is falling in love.

I think my niece is falling in love. Last night, she came out for her ride. Since the river was too high to cross, we rode Ranger and Cruiser on the hill. We worked on trotting on the bottom, flat section so she could practice posting. Since she learned most of her riding on Mingo, she never needed to post. He was as smooth as a Cadillac. She loved Mingo, and she still talks about how she misses him. They were 2 peas in a pod. I have never seen a person and a horse fit together so well as my older niece and little Ming.




After our ride, I got her started on watering the 38 horses. With the intense heat, they have been drinking so much. I rode Cole in the indoor arena since the outdoor was still muddy and there was a horse turned out in it. We didn’t do much that was exerting due to the heat and dust. We did walking, bends, leg yielding and sidepassing. Then I through in some walk/trot transitions, some trotting/bending and I was clicking anything that was good. Once he started to do his “show trot” consistently, I decided it was time to work on leg yields at a trot. I only did this once before back in April, so it was like starting from scratch. After about 5 minutes, maybe less, I was getting about a step and a half, and that made me pretty happy. I think he knew what I wanted and was just trying to coordinate it. I was nearly out of carrots for clicking, so I called my niece in so she could ride him a little.



At first, Cole only wanted to follow me, but gradually, he started to listen to her, instead. She is a very gentle rider, and some of the horses take advantage of it, but Cole only did that once—when he wanted to go look in one of the barns and she didn’t want him to. I had to help her get him unstuck. Once she got comfortable, I asked her if she wanted to try a trot. Since she isn’t real consistent with posting, I knew it might be a problem, but if he did his slow, ordinary trot, she should be able to sit it.



I explained that with Cole, unlike our other horses, you squeeze and hold your legs until he starts to trot—and then you release. The other horses will trot with a tap of the heels. I thought the squeeze and hold would be a better approach with him, so that’s how I trained him.



In the past, when I have allowed other people to ride Cole, he has been very difficult to get to trot. Maybe because I had been working him for the previous half hour and he was very responsive to me, he was for her, too. He went right into the trot—and after a few steps—went into his show trot! He collected himself, rounded up and turned on the impulsion. My poor niece! She didn’t know how to sit that! His show trot isn’t fast, but it has so much impulsion that he will throw you right out of the saddle. It takes a person with a strong sitting trot (me) to sit it.



To rescue her, and reward him, I clicked him and treated. He has never offered his show trot with anyone else besides me. She trotted him twice and then I was out of carrots.



I sent her back to watering, and I walked him outside. I wanted to put him in his stall, but my boyfriend had Cruiser in it so he could clean Cruise’s stall. I put him in the crossties, unsaddled him and suddenly—there was my niece. I gave him to her and she led him around the arena.



When his stall was ready, she brought him back and we went to hay the horses. When we were done, I had her sponge off Cole while I cleaned up. What I saw was her relaxing and enjoying herself in a way that she hadn’t been with Ranger this summer or with Starry the year before. I joked with her and said it was because he was black like Mingo. She just smiled and said, “I like Cole.” She may be falling in love…

Monsoon

We got about 4 inches of rain at my house on Monday in 2 storms.  The first storm was just over our suburb, and we ended up with 3 huge limbs down that will need a chainsaw to clean up.  That was plenty rain for my garden.  I didn't need the second storm that flooded northeast Ohio, overnight.  It was bad--setting a record for single day rainfall. 

Our boarding stables was severely flooded, and of course, the river flooded, too.  My boyfriend hiked the trails to see the damage, and the hill that the park just repaired--is wrecked.  I am taking my niece out to ride, tonight, but I am sure we still won't be able to cross the river.  Just as well, as it is going up into the 90s--and the humidty is terrible. 

At least I won't have to water my garden for a while...I picked my first green beans yesterday.