It became my ultimate goal this spring, to successfully capture two of my horses as they play against one another down a stretch of open field at a beautiful canter… and that is just what I succeeded to do this week!

So, of course we must start out with some introductory photos. We head out on the trail starting at Palmyra’s Horsemen’s Park. The we involved is comprised of myself (Erica K. Frei), and two of my horses – Scout Sweet Dynasty (Paint gelding) and *Tanjobi (Bashkir Curly gelding). I prefer to take two out at one time, not just because we can cover more ground, but it also takes me less time to ‘work’ both horses.

Usually I start out aboard Scout, for the very reason that he is more seasoned at the moment than Jobi…

And he seems to enjoy the trails thoroughly…

These two make a pretty good pair. Jobi is quite respectful about being ponied. If given the line he’ll hold rank evenly with Scout, and is attentive enough to know just the right moment to trot or canter to keep up with us.

Every once in a while Jobi veers wide to get the best footing, according to him. Neither of these guys are shod, so we take it at their pace. They hold up nicely on the rocky footing and are great about picking where they put their feet.

Jobi never stays away for long however, and is definitely sure to voice his opinions about the matter. I think today he would prefer to lead…

We take a quick break for some re-hydration and a mouthful or two of grass before we take our canter across the field. Jobi also gets a scratch on the forehead and extra attention…

From my vantage point, you would never know just how fast we are traveling. For some reason, the image I had in my mind of these pictures was vastly different from the reality I could achieve from being so close to the action. Still aboard Scout!

Did I mention that Jobi is usually the instigator for some playful antics? He likes to pretend like he is still the stallion and take charge of the situation…

And in my attempt to show we are running, an interesting leg shot…

Jobi is still next to us… and we’re still cantering…

Look at that beautiful curly mane!

One last shot before we take it back down to a walk and mosey our way down the rest of the trail…

I hadn’t originally intended to take on 25 miles on this particular ride. I like to make my way up to doing two 25 mile rides a week in the summer, that is on a good week when time permits.. but we were just getting close to reaching the goal of 25 miles once a week. So, as we got to our normal half-way point, I opted to just keep on going. Not to mention the fact that the next stop has a portable toilet and I did have to pee. So the boys got some nice grazing time in after a great workout.

We also spent a little time checking out the bulletins posted at our rest point… and the boys wanted to read them too.

And it wouldn’t quite be a break without Scout using Jobi as a scratching post…

Before I could put myself back in the saddle and head back home, who do we run into but my favorite student, Miss Julie! Her and her gelding, Hollywood, accompanied us back down the trail for a stretch and it was enjoyable company indeed!

Of course, Jobi gets to take over the lead on the return trip. It’s a nice change of scenery…

Jobi isn’t too excited about Scout working his way to the lead…

What a fistful! I’m lucky enough to have these wonderful horses who make it easy to wander down the trail in pairs. Riding in a dressage saddle down the trail means I don’t have the handy ability to tie off my ponied horse when I want an extra hand, so instead it all gets consolidated and shoved into one hand – lead rope, reins and riding whip. Just so I can get to my camera or a bottle of water I’m satisfied…

And one last one at the end of the ride. Mr. Scout can be seen to my left. I think we were all happy to load back up in the trailer and head home for some grub after this ride!

All in all, a decisively enjoyable ride. It is always nice to run into friends and acquaintances. I also spotted a friend of mine driving past as we were on our way to Horsemen’s Park. Had a great conversation with another woman at the park just before we went home.

A slideshow of these images can be found on our photo gallery (http://www.ericafrei.com/photogallery/) as well as more photos from events, shows, and other horse activities!

I’ve rekindled my need for physical activity. Still cold, still snowy after a new accumulation of 19+ inches just this week alone. I’ve got a bit of cabin fever, combined with watching videos of my old teacher talking about seat training… pushes me out the door. Scout, my love, was quite anxious to be brought into the barn today, perhaps because he enjoyed our last ride all that much, or maybe it is the vitamins he gets after workouts. Either way I am happy to oblige him as he waits at the gate eagerly.

I wanted mostly a light workout for Scout today, considering the predicted drop in temps for the evening combined with a strong wind chill factor, I wanted to avoid any sweating if possible. Keeping this in mind, I had no problem devoting much of the energy to my own development. A light warm-up with walking laps around the arena in hand. Forward, forward, forward.

Once in the saddle we proceeded to resume the laps about the arena, encouraging forward. Combing the reins to encourage him to stretch down into them, take some contact. I played around with the various seat exercises, pretending in my mind that someone else was calling them out in quick succession, trying to separate my mind from the actions. Take the thinking out of it and let it become a simple reaction.

We played at the walk and trot with the seat exercises, then moved back to the walk with more combing the reins. I then moved back and forth between elevating his posture with light half halts and stretching his posture down and forwards with combing the reins. Following that we did circles about the arena of varying sizes, forward, forward, forward, letting the quality of the circle be the tell-tale of the correctness of his tracking.

A very enjoyable ride, very cold by the end, but so rewarding. I will be certainly happy when the spring breaks through and I can justify spending 9+ hours in the barn alone.

Scout’s overall improvement from yesterday to today has been very noticeable. We are looking for forward, forward, forward. A familiar sentiment from my work with Andie… We are getting more energy, more involvement, more mental connection. We had less forward in leading today from yesterday, the temperature difference was noticeable and the horses were soaked today, so understandably he was more stiff during the warm-up. Less distraction towards the arena mirrors.

Moving to lunging, I had a real half halt today! Once I had to strongly give a half halt for the entire lunging session, the rest were very subtle, he was connected, he was present with me. We have been working in the corner much, to encourage more forward while having the support from the rail to assist with balance when giving the half halt as he is still learning it on the lunge. His posture was beautiful! We worked through the walk until he was giving consistency. He is balanced between the left and right as well as his lateral balance, now to continue developing the suppleness that will give the proper tracking up, he is still short though much improved from where we started. His hind hooves step into the hoof print of his fronts, when we started he was a good hoof print behind his front hooves.

The trot work we moved between slowing with the half halt until he was on the verge of walking, and then increasing the stride until he was tracking up at the trot, and again slowing. Going back and forth to both extremes, I then asked for a canter departure from the slowed trot. His canter is still unbalanced, but he is consistently picking up the correct lead. Baby steps. Considering even the attempt of a canter depart was not so long ago a train wreck, let alone the correct lead. It is now balance which is the final issue since he is understanding better that canter is not something to panic about being asked for.

Lovely, lovely..

Andeut

Finding relaxation is often a trying task. Andie, as she is affectionately called, has not had the most relaxing life. From what I have been able to gather, she had been trained using methods to bring her into hyperflexion prior to my purchase of her. My primary interest was only for breeding when I was looking at Andeut, so this did not bother me. I figured if she was much of a handful under saddle not a big deal. So now with the end of my breeding program and my desire to give her some solid training to ensure that if she does have to find a new home it will be a greater possibility of a lifetime home, we are once again stepping hoof in the arena.

A mare who jumps at the slightest of whispers, so far Andie has made large progress. Over the years with inconsistent training I have managed to remedy a handful of the big issues plaguing her from previous training. Her complete inability to stand still for mounting, to walk a single step (her preference was to jig, that is something between a walk and a trot), halt without spinning around in circles, spook and snort at every hint of danger or not, and explode at the trot when asked for the gait. So now I reassess her current issues. In the scope of things they are fairly minor, they are issues I encounter every day when I look at traditionally trained horses, be they mine or others.

We are taking things back to the lunge and in-hand work for now, taking advantage of the cold weather that keeps me from wanting to depart from my warm snow-pants in order to get into the saddle. So leading, we begin. Forward, forward, forward. On the left side she is pretty consistent, she moves forwards with only infrequent hints at balking. Once we make one round around the arena she doesn’t hesitate at all, she relaxes and really steps into her walk beautifully. From the right it cannot be expressed in such kind words. Instead she balks frequently, or attempts. Works to change the bend, often attempts to lose contact and therefore cut off communication with me. When she does move forwards it is awkwardly explosive and then instantaneously halted. She is either on or off, there is no sliding scale. So I work for the sliding scale, I work for the calm and patient response from her to my request.

We do find some scale, some slide, some calm and patience. It is that small window that I praise her highly and move to work on the lunge. Again, we find she loses her sliding scale. She goes so light to the touch that there is no communication, so I move in closer and closer until my presence is enough to send her into the lunge line, to reestablish the communication with my hand. I slowly relinquish the line giving her more space from me as long as she is willing to take it from me. She wants to jig, to jump forwards when I encourage her forwards, and then to stop dead when I attempt a half halt. She overreacts to the movements of my hands, perhaps sensing that they will be large actions on her face or with the whip? They are actions without touch, only visual, and her overreaction causes me to once again reestablish the connection with the hand on the lunge line, and use the whip more in a visual manner – moving it more frequently and consistently without touching her. She settles and begins stepping into a walk, so I train my eyes on her feet, I ignore the rest of her basing my half halts or the use of the whip solely on the action of her hooves between one another.

An interesting observation today, taking her to the left she tracks relatively evenly between left and right hind hooves. To the right however, she tracks up nicely with the left hind, and not at all with the right hind. In my encouragement they both evenly increase in how much tracking they do, but they do not even between the two. Now… given the unevenness of her front hooves this can certainly have a bearing. I am curious to see if this changes at all as she becomes more supple and stronger.

Overall she worked very well, this was one of the calmest sessions I’ve had with her in the 6 years I’ve owned her. She is very nervous in her day to day demeanor, but I will go out on a limb and guess that much of it is the way in which she has been trained and handled through her life. When she arrived she was an almost constant wind-sucker, which has come to an end completely. She would do it out in the pasture, in a stall, when in cross ties, when riding even… I haven’t seen an attempt from her in a couple years. She still lips around by your hand/arm when doing in-hand work, another outlet for her nervousness, and she has a tendency to shove with her head or just dull you out with it when she is nervous. Watching the horizon!