Different directions

Maddie has been working in several different directions the past couple of months.  Our friend Joe loaned us a side by side horse trailer, so I was able to work through Maddie's remaining trailering issues.  With the trailer on the property I could load and unload her a bunch of times in short order.  She took her sweet time accepting it, though, and the last time I took her out she still questioned the need to get on and go home.  But we can at least go somewhere without a lot of stress now.

I have been playing with bridleless riding off and on since June but recently I've really opened it up.  Last week I was able to ride in a friend's arena with just a neck strap, and today in our own pasture I rode her with just a dressage whip and no strap at all.  I have not tried cantering yet but we are just about ready.  This video from a couple days ago (when I was using a neck strap) shows about where we are at:

I am also working hard with her harness training so Maddie can plow up a giant garden next year.  She needs to be 100% controllable and comfortable pulling things around, and she also need confidence so she can do the hard pulling required.  Here is some video Katie took over the Thanksgiving holiday:

I have to say that in general Maddie is just incredible these days.  She is pleasant and fun to be with, and she is doing things that no one can believe.  I am thrilled every day when I get to go out back and see her.

liberty coming along

Here is some video Maria shot of me today with Maddie at liberty.  I took her off-line for the first time yesterday and so far the biggest problem is just getting her to give me some space.  I have also lost her a couple of times, especially on the right side.  I'm not completely sure if I should stand up and put a bunch of pressure on her when she leaves, or if I should back up and beg her to come back.  I have been doing a little of both.  For sure, though, I need to be able to put all kinds of pressure on her and have her remain hooked up to me.  It's also going to take me a few times to get comfortable with this kind of dancing.  Gonna have to clean up my act vis-a-vis body language, that's for sure!  Right now my signals towards her are occasionally sloppy.

Battery recharge

I was at Taking the Reins in Madison last weekend, where I was thrilled to watch multiple clinics and experience the first ever Wild Ass challenge.  What a great, informative weekend.  While waiting for the Wild Ass challenge to start I was dumbfounded to see John Lyons standing a few feet away from me, so I walked over and introduced myself.  I was even more dumbfounded when we spent the next 25 minutes talking horsemanship together!  He was genuinely interested to hear about Maddie and gave me some very good advice, most of it boiling down to the necessity of keeping Maddie in my world, and not letting Maddie take me into her world.  Mr. Lyons did a two-day colt starting clinic with 8 horses, and I was able to watch all of this and also talk horses with his two sons, Josh and Michael.  What a nice family.

Equally informative and helpful were the clinics of Ray Ainsworth and, especially, Dan James.  Dan was doing a two-day beginning liberty clinic with several horses and their owners.  Dan is a magician with liberty training and horse training in general.  I have spent the last week doing these exercises with Maddie as a way to increase her focus on me.  This morning I let he off-line for the first time and she was mostly able to stay with me.  The right side was a little trickier but I managed to get nice circles at the walk and trot on both sides.  There is no doubt that it is helping Maddie and my horsemanship.

The bow is coming along, I can get bows now with the whip alone.  I also introduced the pedestal, which she  basically figured out for herself in about 30 seconds.  Lots of fun!

Progress all around

Work with Maddie is sporadic due to the hot weather these days, but we always manage to do something.  Today Tracy came and picked us up and we went on the Caledonia trails for 2.5 hrs, removing trail markers from yesterday's Poker ride.  This was a great exercise, because you have to stop and grab these flags off of trees at about 50' intervals.  Maddie got very good at this work, and I was pleased that the snapping and swinging of the branches did not bother her.  She went out a little hot and nervous, but I focused on giving her release whenever I could and after a while she got calmer.  She loaded into the trailer very easily at both ends, although she backed off hotter than I would like both times.  She also was not happy in the trailer on the ride home and got fairly lathered up.  It was a hot buggy day and I was really proud of her overall.  We traded the lead, walked, trotted, and cantered, and really showed a lot of control.

Maria keeps riding in the park across the street and Maddie is getting better at this.  I don't think she is ready to ride without me on the ground, but Maddie's confidence is improving all the time.  The last time we visited the park, a teenage girl saw Maddie and screamed, loudly, "A horse!"  Maria & Maddie handled it well.

Back in the ring I am searching for impulsion and flexion.  I can get OK impulsion on a loose rein, and decent flexion without impulsion, but can't really combine the two yet.  Her canter in small areas is improving.  She can hold the canter on a 10m circle well.  She has lost weight in the heat and I am thinking an improved diet could help her impulsion.

I continue to hop on in her mud lot bareback and bridleless from time to time.  One night Maria and I were both on her back with no saddle and no bridle!  Lots of fun and it felt very solid.  Maria was in the driver's seat and could navigate us all around the lot.  Maddie is really coming along!

Park Ride

This evening Maria hopped on for a ride out back and we ended up crossing the street and going around the park a couple times.  Maddie did well and they looked great together.  Maddie kept her head up a bit more than I'd like to see, but she listened well and never did anything goofy.

Too much excitement

Had a wonderful short ride on Maddie this morning.  She is able to canter a 10m circle now in my small arena and her overall impulsion is improving.  That sticky half-pass to the right is starting to free up.  I'm really pleased with her progress.  It's really gratifying to have her at home now where I can do quick schooling sessions and work on small, fun stuff.

Last week Maddie reverted a little bit in her overall comfort level here.  I was working in the pasture behind her and startled her, causing her to bolt and jump out of her mud lot!  She took a bit of the fence down with her and gave herself a small scrape underneath her left shoulder.  She went 10' and stopped to eat grass.  For the rest of the day she was nervous and I felt a little discouraged.  Previous to this I had been letting her graze near the house and in the side yard, and I thought she was really learning how to be a quiet domestic horse.

To help things out, we put Sebastian back in the front pasture where they would be divided by a single low fence.  This is two weeks out from Sebastian's gelding and he seems less interested in getting to Maddie now.  Anyway, he did his job of calming down Maddie and she is now back to her old self.  We are thinking that they can be together pretty soon.

I have been goofing off with a tarp hanging over into Maddie's mud lot.  She is able to be directed through it very well and it did not take much work.  I think there is something brilliant about a hanging tarp: the solution is for her to 1) lower her head and 2) go forward.  This is pretty much exactly what I want my horse to do when it is scared of something.  Yesterday evening I hopped on bareback and we rode together through the hanging tarp, and this morning I was able to get her to back up through the tarp (from the ground).  This is fun quiet work and I really think it will make her a better horse.  For this kind of thing I just grab her for 5 minutes when I am walking past the barn and quit when she makes a little progress.

I was lucky to make an acquaintance with the EMM phenom Obbie Sholm over facebook this week.  (http://www.obbieschlom.com/)  Obbie offered to give me some advice about Maddie and we spoke over the phone for about 10 minutes yesterday.  Obbie gave me some of the same advice Byron did concerning Maddie's spookiness: She needs a lot of experience (shows, travelling, etc)  to get over it, and I need to wait for her to come back to me when she spooks.  All mustangs have an advanced self preservation mode, and Maddie just has a  little more than her fair share of it.  Anyway, i was blown away at Obbie's offer of help and very grateful to be able to consult with her.  Obbie will be competing next year at Road to the Horse and Maddie & I wish her the best of success.

Settling in quickly

After a few days Maddie began rapidly acclimatizing to Anarchy Acres.  As of today she has been here 7 days.  I still can't saddle her up due to her wound, but we have both been riding bareback.  In addition, I have pushed her hard from the ground to get over the flies and the new environment.  Overall, she has responded incredibly.  She is a sweetheart in the stall and stands well in the barn aisle.  I have trimmed her feet and every night I scrub out her wound with iodine.  I trained her to pick me up off the fence and have ridden a few times without the bridle.

A few times we have let Maddie and Sebastian up front where the grass is taller.

On Friday we hosted a cookout with friends and everyone made friends with Sebastian and Maddie.  Maria also hopped on Maddie briefly and did a mustang demonstration.  I'm really pleased that they both handled these strange people so well.