C.S. Wilson's Blog, page 13

Doing It My Way, Part I

I started the New Year determined to make headway with Skeeter. That sounds weird, because she's green broke, but she's still got so much to learn (as do I).

We had a break in the weather on January 2nd and we got to work. It was awful. Not a damn thing went correctly. There are two things I despise in horses: pushiness and being food driven. Skeeter was both on the 2nd.

I tried to work through her pushiness and keep her head out of the dead grass. For God's sake, she has a 1,200# round bale all to herself, she does not need to graze. I tried to stay calm, keep my cues clear and work through it, all the while seething. Eventually, through a lot of ground work, I got her paying attention to me and decided to bridle her and go for a ride.

On New Year's Eve I had changed out her bit and bridle to Estes' old bridle and Skeeter's new Myler combo bit. She had done beautifully with it - I worked her over the withers and she gave to pressure beautifully. The bit sat nicely in her mouth and she was much quieter with it than she was with the snaffle.

She doesn't look so thrilled, but she's a mare.Since she had handled her new bridle so well, I didn't anticipate the fit she threw about having it put back on. It's not like she threw a huge fit, but Jessica has her so well trained that I was surprised she tried to toss her head up. She thought she might get away with it, but her mommy has bridled some of the worst horses around, so she lost and had to wear her pretty bridle.

I worked a bit more on ground work and then decided to mount up. I still can't find my damn stump so off to the trailer we went. And then her brain fell out her butt again and she forgot how to line up at the trailer. I continued to try to channel Jessica and stay calm with clear cues. Didn't work. I got frustrated because I figured I was doing something wrong and decided to walk her over to a pile of pallets, intending to use them as my mounting block.

Skeeter lined up beautifully, so I shortened her left rein a bit to tip her head toward me as I mounted. Just as I put my left foot in the stirrup, she decided that by tipping her nose to the left I must have wanted her up on the pallets with me, so up she came.

I'm not even kidding. I went from, "I'm really trying hard not to be pissed as hell at you" to laughing my ass off in about half a second. I backed her down from the pallets and lined her up again, chastising her to behave herself so I could mount up. Again, just as I got my foot in the stirrup, she stepped up on the pallets. It was not so funny the second time and my frustration meter skyrocketed.

I decided someone was trying to tell me that riding wasn't going to happen, so I backed her back down off of the pallets and we did more groundwork until I could find a decent stopping point.

When I turned her back out into her pen, she seemed as frustrated and relieved as I was that we were done.

I stomped into the house, absolutely livid with both of us. It took a while for me to calm down, but once I did, I realized I was trying to be someone I wasn't.

Skeeter knows what to do - she's fully trained. Green, but trained.

I mulled it over throughout the day and realized that I'm not Jessica, I can't be her and the harder I tried the more frustrated I got.


Eventually it dawned on me that I just have to do me. Me is a bit more abrasive than Jessica, a bit more impatient, but I like to think I'm still fair. I never get after a horse just because - I ask them once, give them a chance to respond, and then tell them.

By the time I went to bed, I was feeling much better and much more confident.

Colorado Mustang Days

Jay and I might have lost our minds. You know, even more than usual. Last year during the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo, we spent a great deal of time watching the Mustangs compete in Colorado Mustang Days (CMD). We decided it was a good goal to strive for this year.

We both entered in three classes as amateurs: Pleasure, Mustang Race (similar to extreme trail), and Freestyle.

Skeeter spent 45 days or so at Jessica's getting green broke, but I haven't had as much time to work with her as I had hoped. If I'm lucky, we work twice a week and I've ridden even less. Copper is still at Jessica's for training - his 60 days is definitely getting stretched out because of the weather. When Copper comes home, Jay will have approximately four weeks to work with him before we head out to CMD in Denver. I feel like Jay's going to have an advantage because Copper will be fresh from training, while Skeeter has been sitting more than working.

Needless to say, I'm a bit nervous and a whole lot terrified. I've never shown at all, in any way, shape, or form, in my entire life (and neither has Jay). I know that we'll be fine and that should anything happen, we'll work our way through it and that this is supposed to be a learning experience.

Jay is handling it like he always does - nice and calm. Talk about someone who is unflappable. He and Copper are mirror images of each other.

Skeeter and I are mirror images of each other, too, and that might not be a good thing. I tend to be more high-strung and prone to blow-ups. The good thing is after a blow-up, I'm calm, so there's that.

If you happen to be in the Denver area in March, swing by - we'd love the support.

Off Property!

I'm very late in posting this. Believe it or not, I was too excited to post after it actually happened, which is kind of weird. Skeeter asks daily if we can go work. I'm not kidding. Daily. I would love to be able to do it, but between weather and work, it's just not happening for us.

On Dec 22, I finally had enough time to spend hours with Skeeter. It was a balmy 45* and no wind, so off we went to work.

I wasn't rushed at all, so I tacked her up and we spent time working on the longe line. When I was sure she had gotten her "woohoos" out (as Jessica calls them), I bitted her up and changed from the longe line to my lead line and worked on some small circles. Since she hates flexing to the right, we worked on some turn-arounds in which I loop the lead rope from her halter, behind her butt, and pull from the opposite side. If I want her to turn to the right, the lead goes along her right side, and behind her butt. I stand on her left and pull on the end of the lead rope. This is an exercise Jessica has done with her, but it had been a while, so it took her a few seconds to remember how to relieve the pressure. When I got a couple of good, soft turn-around in both directions, I decided it was time to climb up.

I set out four small, orange cones in what was supposed to be a square, but was more a trapezoid, as "targets". I get bored just wandering around, so I thought that if I had the cones out I'd be able to amuse myself and keep her engaged as well.

I couldn't find the stump I normally use to mount up with - it seems to have disappeared in the snow - so off to the trailer we went. It took a bit to get her lined up with the trailer's running board, but we managed and I finally stopped futzing around and mounted up. I don't know why I always get a sudden attack of the butterflies before I step up, but I do. She's never once - ever - given me anything to worry about, not even our very first sit, but I still have to dig deep as I swing my leg over. Once my butt hits the saddle, though, the butterflies disappear, because my body knows what it's doing. Muscle memory, at least in my seat, takes over.

Skeeter willingly went over to the cones and we started trying to ride patterns through/around them. She's still so very resistant to the right - I'm certain she's not in pain or has any physical issues, she just hates it. Mare. We made some very ugly turns around the cones in both directions and then she stopped, pointing southeast. It took me a second to figure out what had her attention, but soon enough it became clear that there was a little plane headed our way. I let her stand there and watch it, rubbing her neck and telling her it was okay. We watch the plane get closer and closer and Skeeter was fine, fine, fine until it passed right over us and suddenly she was not fine.

Luckily, her "spook" amounted to a bit of quick-feet and a mini-rear before she settled down. As soon as the plane passed, she was fine again and then I realized that my cell phone was vibrating in my pocket. When we ride in the mountains, we don't have cell service, so I've never actually talked on the phone while one my horse. At first, I thought about ignoring it, but it was Mom, so I took it as a teachable moment and answered. Skeeter did just fine standing there while I talked to Mom for a few minutes, but in the short period of time I talked to Mom, Skeets got "stuck". Her feet grew roots and she was going nowhere.

It always feels like forever when you're kicking a stuck horse's sides, but once you start the cue you can't stop it until you get the correct result. Let's just say I got a lot of flutter kicks in that day.

We worked on some more ugly circles and flexing before I felt like we had to leave the backyard. I was getting bored, even with the cones, and at some point it needed to be done. Skeeter was not perfect, but she was listening well, and by God we were going on the farm road.

I quickly texted L.E. to let her know we were headed up the road for a bit and we'd be back shortly.

I cannot even begin to describe the feeling of freedom once we stepped foot off the property and onto the farm road. I was elated and started to feel like a real rider again. Skeeter busted through the snow nicely and managed to keep her feet even when we slipped a touch in the mud.

We didn't get far, because once she realized we were headed away from home she started getting really up. Not in a bad, "I'm afraid to be away from home way", but in a "woohoo, I'm free!" way. Part of me wanted to just go with it and ride until she was tired, but another part of me (probably the smarter (or more cowardly) part) decided we'd gone far enough. She gave me a nice two-reined stop (nicer than any stop I'd ever gotten from Queen Estes), and turned nicely to the right to head back home. We walked calmly back the 100 yards or so and saw L.E. watching us, so I decided to by-pass the trailer and walk on to talk to L.E.

Just crossing back over the property line.Skeeter walked on nicely until we got near the alleyway to her pen and then did another spooky-quick-feet-mini-rear thing. Don't know what it was about, because as soon as she was done, she kept moving forward. Crazy mare.

We talked for a few minutes and then I got down. Skeeter always groans when I dismount. I know I'm overweight, but she doesn't have to point it out at every ride!

Despite the two spooks, we had a good ride. I had a full week off of work, and thought I was going to get to work with her every day, but that didn't happen. Holidays and procrastination, don'tcha know. Now the weather has gone from cold to frigid and won't warm up again for a few days. Looks like Friday or Saturday will be the next time I'll have a chance to take her out.

She really is a good girl who tries hard.

Snow Day

Yesterday was an unexpected snow day for us! I was so excited to have the whole day off of work and had dreams of being able to take Skeets for a long walk on the farm roads in the fresh snow.

Riding in snow is one of my all-time favorite things to do. There is something so calm about riding a good horse in fresh snow - it's very peaceful for my soul.

I didn't dare to hope that I'd get to ride yesterday, but I did hope for a nice, long walk.

I made Skeeter some warm beet pulp and took it out to her, thinking we'd work after she had some breakfast.


She was pretty thankful for her cereal. Since she's been back from Jessica's, I haven't been giving her beet pulp because she came home at such a great weight and had a whole round bale to herself. Once I got a good look at her, I was glad I'd taken the beet pulp out to her.

She was a bit chilly and wet, so I spent some time roughing up her coat with my gloves to get some airflow. The snow on her back was good, but the wetness on her sides wasn't. Roughing up her coat helped her dry pretty quickly.


I still had plans on taking her for a walk at least, but those plans went right out the window when I realized how spooky she was. She was careful not to run me over, but several times, she spooked and bolted. I suspect the storm brought out the chupacabra and she was smelling it on the wind.


Whatever critter was out there had her watchful and on edge most of the day. We'll have to try again for another work day. Maybe Friday we can have some work time.

I know that one day I'll be able to go out with a bridle and hop on Skeeter bareback and go for a ride in the freshly fallen snow, but that one day is pretty far off, which had me missing Queen Estes fiercely yesterday.

Riding at Home

This mod has been rough; my work schedule has been brutal and I've been feeling really guilty about not working with Skeets, but I'm up and off to work by 7:30 am and get home from work about 9:30 pm. One day, I decided that I was going to take a few hours off in the middle of the afternoon and work with her. Except that my boss scheduled a meeting right in the middle of the time I planned to be gone. I was *determined* to get some time working with Skeeter, so the second the meeting was over, I was out the door headed home.

I got home at 3:15 pm, jumped into some jeans and had Skeeter out of the pen by 3:30. I was feeling the time crunch since it gets dark so early right now.

I rushed her through her longing, only spending fifteen minutes or so before deciding to get on. She had just barely started paying attention to me on the longe line, but I said "good enough" and bridled her up.

I should have spend more time on the longe line. We had to spend quite a bit of time remembering how to line up at the stump for me to mount. Then we had to spend more time remembering how to flex and give to the rein.

Once she was sort of soft on the rein we started "riding" around the back yard. She's so heavy and unresponsive sometimes it's like riding an old plow horse. We rode serpentines and circles. Turning to the right is still something she's resistant to, so we spent a lot of time moving to the right.

I tried not to be frustrated, but I know I need hours to work with her, not just a few minutes here and there. I wasn't frustrated with her, but with work because I had thought I would have a minimum of three hours to work with Skeeter, which we both need. Instead I barely had an hour.

We ended our ride on a good note, just as she was starting to soften and pay attention, but I was cussing a blue streak because I know I need more time. I had wanted to get out on the farm road and start getting some miles on her.

Since she's an only horse right now, she always wants to be outside of the pen and asks daily if we're going to work. I'm feeling some serious "horse mommy guilt".

This past weekend was Baking Weekend, so I was up at Mom and Bill's from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon, but I needed some Skeeter time. I knew we wouldn't have time to ride, but by the time I got home, I had about half an hour before sunset, so I grabbed her out of the pen and we went for a visit at our neighbor's. It was the first time I've had her off our property since she came home and I took her over to a place with 11 other horses.  She did very well. There were a couple of times she forgot her manners, but getting set to doing circles worked pretty well at reminding her of them.

Since my neighbor's horses are all been-there, done-that lesson horses, I knew they would be just fine with a stranger visiting. Their laid-back attitude helped, I'm sure. Skeeter got a little high-headed when she smelled the other horses coming up their driveway, but settled right down.

Despite my "horse mommy guilt", I was very proud of how well she did and am looking forward to the day when I can ride her over to the neighbors.

Visiting the neighbor's was hungry work.

Jay's 2nd Lesson

Between Jay's crazy work schedule and his lingering creeping crud, it's been a while since he was able to hook up with Jessica for another lesson with Copper.

Cops is coming a long way, and still has a way to go. He's such a laid-back horse, but wants things done his way (you might have noticed he wears his stubborn pants proudly).

Wondering what Jay's going to ask of him. Only his second time in the "big boy" saddle. He'd worn a little, lightweight one previously.He's looking really good with the near daily exercise and is learning new things. He might learn them faster if he'd take off those stubborn pants once in a while, but overall he's doing great. Already, he's much quieter with the bit than Skeeter is. She constantly wants to play with it; Copper just settles it in his mouth and carries it like a gentleman.

Jessica's plan is to start the hang-all-the-crap-on-the-saddle training in the next couple of days and hopes to be up on him by the end of the weekend.

Copper is also very left-sided, so much so that Jessica has taken to handling him primarily from the right-hand side. She turned his halter inside out and now catches and halters him from the right. He prefers to approach people with his left eye and wants to keep people on his left side, so she showed Jay a trick she learned to force him to use his right eye. Unfortunately, I was freezing and didn't get it on video.

Basically, Jay just flashes his fingers (open-close-open-close-wiggle-wiggle) at Copper's left eye until it becomes annoying and Copper gives him his right side. I'm certain it's not a vision problem - Copper does not at all appear to be blind in his right eye, he just wants everyone on his left side.

Jay's 1st Lesson

It's been almost exactly two weeks since Copper moved over to Jessica's. Jay was supposed to have had his first lesson earlier in the week, but he caught the creepin' crud and rescheduled for today.

It was cold and Jay's creepin' crud has manifested itself in a nasty cough, but he cowboy'd up and headed out into the frigid temps. Jessica was just finishing up another lesson when we got there, so Jay and Copper hung out. Two weeks is a long time to be away from your horse, and I'm not sure who was more glad to see the other.

"Hi Daddy, remember me?"
"Hey, Buddy, I still love you."
AwwwI put together a long(ish) video of Jessica working with Copper and then a few minutes at the end of Jay working with him. I'm a bit jealous of Jay's natural talent - he just seems to know when to release pressure or up it, while I still have to think about it.

Sunday Fun Day - Copper

After both Skeeter and I had been exercised adequately and ended on a good note, it was Copper's turn. As you might recall, the horse switch did not happen on Thursday because we couldn't get Copper into the trailer.

We've not worked with a flag with him because he hated it, and we didn't want to make things worse, so we just let him be when it came to the flag. I understood it was a problem on Thursday when we couldn't drive him into the trailer with it. His default escape plan is to back up, so when I tried to put pressure on him with the flag, he'd bolt backward.

Jessica had her hands full working him out of reverse; it seems to be his favorite evasion, followed by rearing. He dragged her all over the property going in reverse for a very long time, but she couldn't let up with the flag. We had inadvertently trained him to back up with it because when he'd go bolting backwards, we'd stop, thinking we were doing something wrong. We were - we stopped. If we had stayed with him until we got forward motion - no matter how long it took - we could have probably gotten him into the trailer ourselves on Thursday.

Unfortunately, we reinforced that back was the right answer and she got to undo that training. He's one stubborn redhead, so it took easily a half an hour before the thought to move forward. As soon as he did, she stopped badgering him with the flag. It took a good bit more time before she could reliably get him moving forward off of the flag.

When she did, though, it was time to take him to the trailer, where she completely screwed with his mind. The trailer became a place to rest. As long as his head was in the trailer, she didn't bother him, but when he moved away from the trailer the flag started up again. Copper is a smart horse, but sometimes it takes a while for him to shed his stubborn pants. Once he realized that the trailer was a good resting place, he started asking to go put his head in.

Eventually, the head wasn't enough, so she started pressuring for the front legs, then the back legs. It took about twenty minutes to get him in the trailer the first time, but after that he pretty much self-loaded. When he loaded and unloaded two or three times, Jessica deemed him trailer trained enough to haul to her place.

It took a while to unload him at her place - he really, really likes the relaxation of the trailer - but he unloaded nicely and followed her up to his new home-away-from-home.

(The video is very long and at times like watching paint dry, but it's cool to see his progress.)

Sunday Fun Day - Skeeter

Since Copper was 1,200# of Nope on Thursday, we scheduled Jessica to come out and work with both of us. First, she worked with me and Skeeter, and then she worked with Copper on trailer loading. It was a long, amazing day.

My niece, Autobot, came over to observe our lessons. We were trying to talk her into doing the Youth Division of the Extreme Mustang Makeover next year, but she's decided that it's too much of a time commitment. I completely understand. Jay and I were willing to sponsor her (adopt the horse, pay for the feed, etc.), but it's an hour and a half round trip from her place to ours so I agree with her decision not to do it. I wouldn't want to make that commute every day before or after school either. But if we had a spare bedroom, we'd just move her in with us for three months and it would be a totally different story. :)

Anyway, I pulled Skeeter from the pen before Jessica got there and started grooming her, but she was wound up. I should have worked her first. I managed to give her a half-hearted grooming session and then we got to work.

Skeeter didn't get worked on Friday or Saturday after she came home because we had chores in town most of both days, so she got two days off to settle in. Boy was that a mistake. She had two days of pent-up energy when we went to work.

With Jessica's coaching, we worked on circling and longing. Now, I work at a livery, we didn't have much time for "fancy" stuff like ground work. Once a horse accepted a saddle, we just rode its hide off until it was well-broke. This round pen, circling, and longing is all new to me. I've been working on it for the last couple of weeks at her place, but I'm still not very comfortable with it. Since we don't have a round pen, it's important for me to be able to longe her when she needs it. I am not a proponent of longing every horse before they get ridden, but during the training period it's nice to get the "woo-hoos" out. I'm getting way too old and the ground is way too hard for me to "buck it out".

Skeets had some attitude issues that included throwing a hoof at me and telling me very clearly to eff off, but we worked through it. Once her energy came down to an acceptable level, we threw a couple of saddles on her to see which of the two I had to choose from fit the best. She's got thoroughbred-y withers, so finding a fitting saddle could be tricky, but I have one that's okay.

The saddle that fits her the best is the one we started her saddle work in, so I feel good about choosing it in the first place. She was still feeling a bit "up", but not dangerously so. I might have put off riding her, but who knows when I can get Jessica back for a lesson and I definitely wanted other people there on my first ride at home. We don't have a round pen or an arena, so all of her "wet saddle blanket" training will be done "in the wild". I think I rode for less than half an hour, but feel much more comfortable than before I rode. We worked on steering and I worked on not neck-reining. I've got to break that habit for a while.



Her 'workout' schedule with me is going to be much different than with Jessica due to my crazy work schedule. The way I think it's going to work is groundwork on Tuesday/Thursday and riding Friday/Saturday/Sunday, weather permitting. I can't just let her sit, not with Copper gone, because she needs constant stimulation or she'll get destructive.

Fingers crossed it will work out nicely.

Skeeter's Home!

Copper is still here, though he was supposed to go to Jessica's yesterday.

We gave ourselves an hour to load Copper, thinking that would be plenty of time to be patient and get him in. I had let him explore the trailer earlier in the week and he was not afraid and was willing to investigate, so I truly thought an hour would be plenty to gently introduce him to the trailer.

Thursday morning came and Jay got Copper ready. I opened the trailer and Copper walked in just like a pro. But ... we had thought about the work it was going to take to get him in the trailer and not given one thought to how we were going to secure him. I was trying to talk Jay through how to close the slant gate and he was trying to do it with his left hand while keeping Copper in place with his right, but there's a super secret way to release the gate that neither of us knew at the time. We decided to leave the slant gate open and treat the trailer like a stock trailer, so Jay released the pressure on Copper and made to get out of the trailer. Copper took that as an invitation to get out as well and backed out right behind Jay.

I got in the trailer and fooled around with the gate release until I figured out the super secret way to open it. Since Copper had loaded like a pro to begin with, we didn't give loading him a second thought.

Two hours later, we still couldn't get him loaded into the trailer.

We tried everything: being patient, adding pressure, adding bribes, moving his feet, and plain old brute force. It was not happening. I texted Jessica and told her that he must be part mule, as stubborn as he was being. She laughed and said we could probably see his ears get longer by the minute. She was right.

Copper was done, Jay was done, I was done. Even Grandpa Bill was done.

After a flurry of texting, she offered to come out and do a loading lesson for us over the weekend. We headed out with the trailer to pick up Skeeter, even though Jessica offered to keep her until Sunday when we took Copper to her place. I had my heart set on getting Skeeter home, so off we went.

We were disappointed that poor planning on our part (not knowing how the gates worked) meant that not only did Copper not get to go on Thursday, but that it caused frustration and stress all the way around. I tend to think that everything happens for a reason, even if we don't know what that reason is and even if we are disappointed at the time.

When we got home and got Skeeter unloaded, she was a bit distracted and 'hot', so we spend five minutes or so doing groundwork to get her focused. I would have worked her a bit longer, because she was still a bit distracted, but Copper was losing his mind in the pen. With the moisture we've had, the pen is a slippery, mucky mess and we were worried that he'd slip and hurt himself, so I turned Skeeter out into the pen.

They settled in with just a couple of bucks and dove into the hay. Not nearly the homecoming we thought we'd get to see, but they were obviously happy to see each other.

This morning, watching them both back out in the pen, I decided the reason that we couldn't get Copper loaded was because we needed them both home for a while. My heart is happy having both of them here; Jay's heart is happy having both of them here; and even L.E. has mentioned how nice it is to look out and see them both.



Copper is going to training on Sunday, we're sure of that since Jessica is coming out to the house to do a trailer loading lesson, but I needed them both home for a couple of days (even if I didn't know it). I'll also get a riding lesson at home to help transition us to working and riding here.