Grumpy

I’m getting crabby and depressed. It is the winter. I am arena sour, and need to get on the trail. I’m tired of sharing the ring with the other boarders, tired of riding and having people constantly opening and closing the doors, making sudden noises and tyring to talk to me. I’m tired of the wind flapping the doors and ice making strange noises. I’m tired of circles.




I’m as grumpy now as I usually am around Christmas. Bah humbug to winter and arena riding.



That being said, Cruiser is amazingly sound, and that makes me very happy. Please, Cruise, one more good summer…Cole is trotting lovely and consistent. Best of all, he isn’t spooking much anymore.



But we are bored and want to ride outside. Right now, the driveway is a sheet of ice from people driving on the snow we got last week. Even if we could get to the trail, we couldn’t go far. The river is flooding over the banks from the snow melting and 2 inches of rain last night.



I don’t know if the weather will be warm enough this week to melt the mess and allow us down trail this weekend. I really don’t think so.



So I am grumpy.

$5.00 Coupon from my publisher

I got a note from my publisher, Alpine Publications. First, they are now offering select eBooks on their website. They only have a few, right now, but promise to have more, soon. (My book, “Trail Training for the Horse and Rider” is not available as an eBook at this time.)




If you are a Facebook member, you can search for Alpine Publications and click “Like” at the top of Alpine’s page and get a $5.00 off coupon offer for any of their books ordered from their website. I recommend “Trail Training for the Horse and Rider,” of course.



Alpine also now has a reader referral program. If you convince 10 people to buy a book of theirs, you will get a free book of your choice. There is more information about this program on their website. I suggest that you convince 10 people to buy “Trail Training for the Horse and Rider.”



Alpine Publications sells books on dog breeds, dog training, dog care, herding dogs, dog performance training, dog breeding, aggressive dogs, sled dogs, dog rescue, horse training, retriever training, hunting dogs, tracking dogs, books on horse anatomy, horse leg care, horse showing and equestrian skills.



Here is their website: http://alpinepub.com/.

Another Challenging Drive to Work

We had quite a storm today.  It was actually thundering when it first hit the area.  It is unusal to get thunder in a snow storm, and if you do get it, it is only one or 2 thunders.  This time, it kept going and going.  I had trouble getting back to sleep.  When I got up, we had about 6 inches on the ground, and it was still snowing and blowing. 

So what did I do?  I went to work.  If we don't go to work, we don't get paid.  I only had a real problem getting out of the driveway.  I had to stop for traffic, and couldn't get going again.  So, I scraped out the snow under my tires and tried again.  It took about 5 attempts.  There was ice under the snow--it had rained first.  I fell once, but it was on snow, so I wasn't hurt.

I think it will stop in time for the roads to get cleaned up before I go home.  I am getting so tired of this.

I plan to go out to the barn and to my boyfriends for a movie this evening--depending on the weather.  I probably won't ride if the wind is as bad as they predict.  I had so much trouble with Cruiser spooking on Wednesday from the various arena noises, that I don't want to go through that again.  I will just lead him and lounge Cole.  Tomorrow morning should be better.

Hurry up spring!!!

Excerpt from "Trail Adventures and Advice" Chapter 2 - Riding in Cleveland

Riding in Cleveland


I live in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. It may seem an unlikely place for a trail rider, but that is not the case at all. We have a park system that circles the city and is consequently called “The Emerald Necklace.” Within our great park, we have over 82 miles of bridle trails to ride. Anywhere you live in the county, you are less than a ½ hour away from the trails. Most of them are well maintained and easily accessible. There are plenty of boarding stables all along the perimeter of the park where hundreds of people, including me, keep their horses.

Typically, the trails are wooded. There are some hills, fields, marshes and a lot of creeks and rivers. My particular area is noted for a wide variety of lovely wildflowers and gorgeous views of the Rocky River. There is a large diversity of trees in the area, making the fall foliage spectacular. One particularly splendid spot is an old pine forest on the top of the valley. It changes dramatically with the time of day and the time of year. I never get tired of looking up at those awesome pines. Another thing about our trails is that there are plenty of great places for trotting and cantering, and we take advantage of it.

The downside of living in a very populated area is that we must share our trails with many people. I’m not just talking about other trail riders. If only it was that easy. We deal with heavy automobile traffic, pedestrians, joggers, dog walkers, bikes, cross country skiers, roller bladers and miscellaneous strollers, kite fliers, rocket shooters and even a bagpipe player now and then. Sometimes it gets rather stressful. We really have to spend a great deal of time with our horses to get them used to all the craziness out there. Our horses are that much better off.

Tough night at the barn.

It was a bad day at the barn. First, I had to drive through nasty, snowy weather with bad roads and windshield wipers that were misbehaving.




The place was deserted, so I saddled up Cole. As I led him around, I marveled that it wasn’t windy. They predicted high winds. I would be able to get a great ride in. I mounted—and the winds started. It was really bad. Cole spooked only once, but I spooked dozens of times. we spent a lot of the time practicing standing. The main door was flapping nearly constantly. When we did trot, he did exceptional. He engaged his hindquarters more than ever! I am still trying to figure out how to ride this gait, but I am getting better. We kept our ride to half an hour.



I cleaned the stalls, hoping the wind would improve, and it did. My ride with Cruiser was much better. The door was only flapping about once a minute, and Cruiser didn’t care. I decided to try to ride the best I could. I have realized that I haven’t been riding up to par. I rode my best and he did improve. I realized he wasn’t bending—at all! This could be why I can’t get him on the bit. In the past, I when I lost him, I would just circle him with a strong bend, and he would go right back in place. We worked on bending at a walk, and he seemed a little better, but he is very resistant. Possibly physical? It won’t matter in a few weeks, but I will continue to work on it.



I fed—my assistant boyfriend was nowhere in sight. I had to get one more bale of hay from the loft. I am very afraid of ladders. I told myself I could do it, and I did, but even I was surprised how uneasy I was as I climbed up and down the ladder.



Then there was the trip home—and it required all my winter driving skills to get safely home. The roads were not only snow covered. But very slippery. I think there might have been some ice under the snow. i was sure glad to get home safely.

Thunder Unleashed

It was a bad scene. My dad had just gotten home from his travels and greeted his dog. I was sitting in the dining room talking on the phone. I hung up, and Dad came over to see me. The dining room table belongs to Thunder. It is where he eats, sleeps and hunts by watching out the picture window. He has a blanket with his heated snuggle safe under to keep his paws warm. He wasn’t on the table, so my dad patted his snuggle safe to see if it was warm.




A moment later, the dog was on the dining room table. (I can’t believe she could jump that high from a standstill.) She thought Dad was signaling her to jump up. I grabbed her before she could find his food and put her on the floor.



This is where the scene gets really ugly. Thunder saw what she did, charged over and started smacking her—all claws out. He chased her under the table to the other side and cornered her. I grabbed her and pulled her out of the way. He came after her and continued to pummel her. I urged her out of the room to safety.



He was livid. A few minutes later, she ventured back to the dining room. Thunder walked up to her and sniffed her nose. I thought all was fine until he walked over to her side and started to pummel her again. She tried to get out of the way, but he pinned her to my dad’s legs and kept up. Dad moved and she ran off.



After that, he kept an eye on her and attacked her every time he saw her for about an hour. She quit coming to his side of the house until evening, and right before bed, he chased her out of the living room and guarded the door to keep her from coming back.



I brought him upstairs to bed, and he settled down.



I am glad to say that he did a good job with dog training. I left his food on the table, and it was still there this morning. She didn’t go up there on her own and eat it. He just ignored her this morning. I think the crisis is over.



I am wondering if he was returned to the cat shelter by his previous adopters—not because he wouldn’t use the litter box as they told me, but because he was terrorizing the rest of the animals in the house!

Great Riding Weekend

I had a great weekend with the horses.




Friday evening was windy and warm. Cruiser had his best arena ride for the winter. Since it was warm, he was very settled and relaxed. He trotted in a normal manner—instead of like a Saddlebred. It was nice. Now, I am sure that it must just be excitement that is causing him to be so high headed. If I was riding him more vigorously, I think he would settle down and get to work. Since I am only trotting him less than 10 minutes a ride, he doesn’t get to that point. In the past, he usually didn’t settle on a chilly day until we trotted at least 10 minutes. Why would I expect it to be any different now? It was back to chilly the rest of the weekend, so I had trouble getting him to settle down and pay attention. My sister did video us on Sunday, and now I am sure he isn’t lame—maybe just a little stiff—which you might expect from a high-mileage 23-year-old. Also, he isn’t carrying his head as high as it seems to me in the saddle. He hasn’t been spooking hardly at all.



Cole was outstanding. Since it was windy on Friday and Saturday, we stayed on the safe end of the arena. We continued to work on straight walk departures, and he is improving dramatically. We did trotting and lots of transitions.



Now, for the exciting part—at least to me. My sister videoed me on Cole, too, and he is moving more beautifully than I imagined. About a month ago, he started doing this huge trot, and I clicked him for it. He has continued to do it, and we have been working on duration. Everyone told me it was gorgeous, and they were right. My sister has to get the video to me, and I don’t know when I will be able to get it up, but when I do, you will see what I mean. I just kept watching it on her camera over and over while we sat at Taco Bell after our riding. It has been playing in my head ever since. I never imagined this was in him when I bought him. I didn’t see it at the breeder, didn’t see it once I had him and turned him out to play and only saw tiny glimpses of it when I lounged him.



Interestingly, both my sister and boyfriend told me that his paddling disappears when he trots like this.



Since it wasn’t windy on Sunday, we did venture to the scary end of the arena. He was fine on the short end after our good lesson last week. He was still funny on the wall approaching that end, so I thought I would repeat the short end lesson on the wall. We walked along it, and I asked him to put his head down and clicked him for it. After a few laps, I added trotting, asked him to put his head down and clicked for it. It didn’t take long, and I was trotting laps with his head down and his mind focused on me and not out the windows. It seemed like such a miracle to me. He was doing his lovely trot all around the arena.



Unfortunately, they are predicting high winds for this evening, and I don’t know if I will have the backbone to try it with the doors flapping about. We shall see…

Excerpt from "Trail Horse Adventures and Advice" Chapter 1

Mingo has a Fit

My boyfriend, Kevin, has been leasing Mingo for more than a year now. In November, he was going to go on a trail ride by himself. He rode down to the river, and just as he was going to walk down the bank, Mingo grabbed at a branch. Kevin pulled the branch out of his mouth the best he could, but then Mingo started tossing his head around and fretting. They stepped over to the river, and my little horse completely refused to cross. He continued tossing his head around and began to franticly dance about and even buck.

A woman came by and thought that Mingo would cross if he could follow her horse. It didn’t work. By now, Kevin was suspecting that something must be wrong with the bridle. He asked the woman to take a peak. She pulled up his lip, and sure enough, his tongue was over the bit. It probably happened when he tried to eat the branch. Kevin knew he had to get Mingo back to the barn because Mingo was so worked up by now, that he didn’t think he’d be able to re-bridle him safely by the river. He turned Mingo to go up the hill that leads back home. The woman who was trying to help him across the river allowed her horse to run up the hill ahead of them. This was all Mingo needed in his frantic state of mind. He tried to follow, and when Kevin tried to stop him, Mingo started backing up and almost stepped off the edge of the trail into the ditch. Kevin’s guardian angel was looking over his shoulder, and stopped Mingo just in time. It then occurred to Kevin that there was only one safe thing to do. He quickly dismounted and led Mingo back to the barn.

I heard the story with a mixture of pride in Kevin because of his sensibility and horror at the thought of what could have happened. It wasn’t until later in the night that I began to worry about the river. I’ve seen too many people trying to cross that river on a horse that didn’t want to cross, and I have been there a few times myself. When Mingo doesn’t want to go somewhere because he is afraid, there isn’t much you can do about it. A couple days later, I had my opportunity to see if he would be afraid to cross the river. I rode with my sister’s horse, Ranger, down to the river. My angelic, little horse just walked right across.

He wasn’t afraid of the river at all that day; he was upset about the way his mouth felt and was telling Kevin in the only way he knew how. I’m so proud that Kevin realized that there might be something wrong when a normally quiet horse acts very out of character and thought to check his tack. It is something we all should remember.

My Beginning

I remember that fateful day when I got my first horse.  I wasn’t prepared for it in the least. i was only 21, and I finally was out of college and had a real job.  (Same job I have now, 25 years later.)  My mother was in the hospital, and my aunt visited her.  She owned a couple of horses that we used to ride now and then when we were kids.  She mentioned to my mother that she was thinking of selling Brandy.  This was my big opportunity!  This horse was my childhood dream horse!  I told my mother that the next time she visited; tell her I’d take Brandy.  The next evening, my mother called from the hospital and said, “Call your aunt; you have a horse.” She gave me a 22-year-old Morgan gelding.


Talk about unprepared. I had nothing.  I borrowed a saddle and bridle from my aunt, she gave me 2 brushes, a bucket to carry them in and an old screw driver for a hoof pick.  I found a place to keep him that wasn’t too far from home.  Fortunately, the woman who ran the place was used to new owners.  This made a big difference.  She lined me up with a great farrier (who I still use 24 years later,) a vet and put me on a program of worming every 8 weeks.  I was on the path to success.  I didn’t have a currycomb, and as it was spring, so I ended up shedding my horse out by rubbing him with my hands.  Eventually, I found the local tack store and got on some good mailing lists for horse supply catalogs.  These were the days before the Internet was even imagined.

The only thing that didn’t work out was the vet.  I tried using him for a number of years because everyone I knew used him and they swore by him.  I ended up switching because I didn’t feel comfortable with him. He was a grumpy, old curmudgeon that I couldn’t get clear answers from.  My current vet is so much better. I can talk to her, and we can work together very well.  A good vet/owner relationship is so important.  If you don’t feel comfortable with your vet, ask around and find out if there is a more suitable vet for you.

I got my horse, Brandy, on a Monday.  The barn owner pointed me in the direction of the park where the trails were and I could hardly wait to try them.  Saturday, there were some people going on a ride, and I decided to accompany them.  Mistake!  Of course I had ridden Brandy before when I was a kid, not to mention a couple times that week in the indoor arena.  What could go wrong?  The park was ½ mile down the road.  I made it down there all right, but as soon as we got on the trail, I learned that my horse believed that other horses were racehorses that had to be challenged.  He wouldn’t walk with them quietly.  He trotted past all the other horses to get in the lead.  When they caught up, he trotted away again.  Once, he even cantered.  I could see that I was disrupting the group’s ride, so I decided to leave them and go home.  I turned around and found my horse in an even bigger hurry to get home.  The blisters started forming on my hands as I struggled to keep him at a walk.  It was to no avail.  Upon arriving at the barn, he was coated with sweat, even though it was a very cool day.  It eventually dried off, but it sure was hard to get him clean without a currycomb.

I tried riding him a few more times on the trail, but things kept getting worse until the last ride when he spun around and took off running down the center of the street.  That is when I realized I had a big problem.  I called my aunt, but all she told me was that I could sell him if I wanted to.  I didn’t give up . Instead, I decided to do the best I could with him.  I spent many months working with him in the arena.  I read everything I could get, and talked to people.  Even more important, I listened to people.  (By the way, don’t take everything you hear as gospel.  A lot of people sound like experts, and they don’t know a thing.  Be sure to evaluate all the things you hear and not just assume they are correct.)  I wasn’t a very good rider, and he wasn’t a well-trained horse.  We both needed work.  At this stage of the game, I was still afraid to canter a horse!  How could I expect to be trail riding him successfully in the first week that I owned him?  I also got to learn all his little tricks, and he got to learn that he could trust me.

The next spring, I tried trail riding again.  It took some time, but since I understood him better, I had some ideas on how I could get him to listen.  It all worked out fine, and I was able to trail ride him 2 years before he died.  After that, I felt that time and patience could solve nearly all horse problems.  The week after he died, I bought a 2-year-old half-Arab that had very little handling, and his owners called Satan!  I renamed him Cruiser.

The good news is that I learned the most important lesson of all from my first horse, Brandy.  Take your time.  Don’t rush into anything.  Start gradually and get to know your horse before trying anything challenging and make sure that your own skills are up for the challenge.  I slowly trained Cruiser to be ridden without any serious difficulties, and he has turned out to be my constant companion and a fantastic trail horse.

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My Little Thunder