Home On The Range 2014 – Rough start but got a lot better!

First ride of the season. My goal was to do a 50 at a moderate pace (probably right around 7 hours).

We got to camp in good shape, got camp set up and then I took Bunny for a ride.

Let's just say she was far from perfect. She was full of herself. Once we got out by ourselves she was fine but around others on the trail she was a competitive pain. The tough part is that if I ride with others at home she doesn't view them as competition but at a ride, things are different.

If I would have been smart I would have taken that information I learned from riding her that afternoon and decided on a very conservative start plan. I don't know if my brain was clouded by the killer cold I was trying to beat off or what but I didn't do that.

We had some problems with starts at the beginning of last season. We do well if we can get going and find our little niche by ourselves. She's good with passing horses or being passed once in a while if the other horse then moves on out and leaves but just going a long in a big mob... Not so good. Last season we had a great start where we found a little calm spot between the front runners and the rest of the gang and I was hoping to find that again.

At the start it was just a long line of folks heading out at various speeds. Instead of waiting till the end or a sizable gap, I jumped into what I thought looked like a good spot and hoped that the trail would settle us all out pretty soon.

First couple miles wasn't too bad but then we got into a bunch of people and things got bad. Bunny seems to have a level of competitive horse chaos she can handle and when that is exceeded it's like a little switch flips in her brain. She tunes me out and decides the only option is to win this darn thing. At that point I'm only in her way.

Now let me just explain, in case you aren't sure, why I don't just let her go at this point. It's not safe. She's not listening one bit, the only thought on her mind is to be in front. I have no wish to die, endanger her or others and no wish to ride a horse who is not listening to me. From the time I was little I can remember my Grandpa telling me, “If you can't make that horse mind, get off and walk”.

I tried a few things to get her attention back and finally did the only thing I could think to do, make her walk her back up the trail the wrong way, by all the rest of the horses heading out (my apologies) and wait till we were in the back and then work on listening.

I was discouraged, embarrassed and tired. I work very hard to train my horses to be good in all kinds of situations and I could just hear people thinking “Good grief, she needs to work with that horse”. I had a couple ladies commend me on my outstanding horsemanship. I appreciated them looking on the bright side and not commenting on what a brat my horse was being.

It took 12 miles of one rein stops, half halts, shoulder in, haunches in, more one rein stops and lots of singing hymns (more for my sanity than hers) to get her attention. At 12 miles we stopped for water and a friend was kind enough to hang out with us for a few minutes. Then we got on the trail, got out by ourselves and I had my wonderful mare back. I sent up a big thank you prayer that she had come around before my energy gave out, stupid cold was making things tougher than they already were.

 The country and trails was lovely. Here we are just as she was calming down.

Photo by Monica Bretherton

The rest of the ride she was great! She behaved wonderfully, listening to my every little cue. We finished 12 place in 6 hours and 58 minutes.

One of the best things about the ride was that my foot did great!!! It was a little tired at 25 miles. We had a 20 mile loop after that and I was a little worried. Just into the 20 miles, however, that tight tendon loosened up a little more and it was great!

The 20 mile loop ended up being our favorite. It was lots of wide open dirt and gravel roads and even a few cows, which she didn't bat an eye at.

Here we are both enjoying the 20 mile loop, cows and all!

Photo by Monica Bretherton

 

Towards the end of the ride I could tell she was getting a little tired. I'd ridden with a heart rate monitor and during her 12 miles of fit throwing I watched her heart rate soar to 180, on a regular basis. Once she calmed down it was running a touch higher than normal (due to 12 miles of anaerobic activity). She vetted well though and had a good attitude.

Dick Root, the head vet, loved her. Her final vet check he told me “Every time I see this horse she just tickles me more”. He gave her a big hug and said “I love this horse!”

I wrote up this much yesterday and then felt discouraged. Discouraged because I'd really like to be perfect, and I'm not. And writing it all up and admitting I'm not perfect is hard. But I can learn from it and hopefully others can too.

So I feel the need to point out a few good points, mostly to make myself feel better.

She handled great at all her vet checks, including checking in. There was time where she was pretty fidgety and didn't want to stand still.

She was calm in camp and ate well. She also was happy to eat on the trail.

She never bucked or reared. She did jump around some and tried to accelerate without me noticing.

So here's what I learned.

She is a good horse but she is competitive and that's part of what gives her the heart that she has. She's also fairly new at this sport and we're still figuring things out.

Now I know that she can feel competitive toward new horses on a trail ride on Friday afternoon. I'll enlist the help of some friends who have steady horses she doesn't know and do a bit of training that way.

I'll keep working on ways to start relaxed and not have her get overwhelmed. I honestly thinks she wants to be good and listen she just has a limit of what she can take before race brain takes over.

For a while that means I'm going to start in the back. My apologies to all of those people I'll pass later, I'll do it nice and respectfully, but I think it's my best bet for not overwhelming her.

Keeping her calm and relaxed is going to be key when we go more than 50 miles.