My birthday ride

Team Tucker celebrated my birthday today with a trip to the lake :)Technically my birthday was yesterday. Karen gave me a nice photo of Tucker and I standing next to each other. By the way, I am now 59 years old and riding my first riding horse :)

I managed to get nervous about taking Tucker somewhere new with a different trailer and Brownie the horse was already in the trailer but Tucker is a trooper. He loaded no problem and I learned how to load the horse. Tucker backed out no problem either.

There's lots of obstacles at the lake. We did the platform, the mailbox, the zigzag, the barrels, the poles in buckets. Oh yeah, and the pool noodles across the interior of a plywood box.

We got a lesson today and that included backing up in a zig zag. Also, bending around poles and barrels.

We jogged and we do look better at the jog and there was a good 200 feet that we just floated together.

Trotting is still my nemesis :) We jogged and trotted in the round pen. We did transitions walk, jog, trot, walk, whoa. Karen said I did mange to look better at the trot :) I can't really post but I am trying.

I can't believe how much better I am at turning hind and fore. Woot!

To finish up we did a nice walk out onto the dirt road and down by the overflowing lake. We haven't had water in this lake like this in years.

Tucker is still a lookey loo but I am able to get his attention back better.

Horse time equaled about 4 hours and at least 2 1/2 hours in the saddle.

I forgot to mention something important that happened yesterday. During my ride with Tucker, he started acting funny, odd, strange. Non cooperative.

I told Tucker "What is going on here? You aren't usually like this!"

I was turning to comment on that when my trainer said "What is wrong with the girth?" I hadn't done the girth properly, I guess, because it was working loose.

I was so glad I was trying to listen to my horse. That was a catastrophe avoided.

Karen said, "That horse is trying to take care of you!"

The other thing I forgot to mention was, when we were done with our ride and waiting our turn to tie up at the trailer, I hugged Tucker's muzzle to me and stroked the far side of his face. He sighed and said "I am so happy." Tucker has a sweet side.

It is nice to know that Tucker and I are learning each other's nuances.

Tucker and I work alone

Tucker is getting a nice meal but only after he worked for me :)

I saddled up and had a relaxing good time with Tucker. We were all by ourselves today and we took it all at a pace that I was happy with.

I took him through the new obstacle course with the big logs spread out a horse length apart. He did pretty good. around through the brush trail, through the weave poles, through the cowboy curtain that was not hanging down. It was windy yesterday.

Through the zigzags and over to the barrels.

Did drop your head. Yep, we had some problems with backing but less today. Same with give me your head flex to the side.

I tried hard to do good rein management.

We went into the arena. He wasn't too happy but I gave him a carrot piece at the blue barrel...twice. Later, I had him flex his head towards me and gave him a carrot piece that way from each side. I did have him jog in the arena but at least he got a couple of treats while he was in there.

Out of the arena and back on the obstacle trail. I even had him jog just a bit between obstacles this time.

Took Tucker out front and decided what the heck, let's go down the sand road.  We had a small argument when we got to the street. I was patient put made him give me his head. After a few tries we got straightened out and got moving in the right direction.

We had an argument when we got to the neighbor's house. He said, 'We are going home. I said, "We are not going home, flex and give me your head. Do not back, flex and give me your head." Using some firmness and appropriate releases of pressure, I got him pointed the right way.

I said "We are going to walk, now" off we went with a few taps on the sides with my feet. We made the whole way [1/2 a mile or so] crossed the street so we could say we went somewhere new [about 100 feet] turned around and headed home the way we came.

He did get a little like 'I want to jog'. I told him we don't jog home.

When we got home, I dropped the gate opener so I had to dismount without a block. I had him facing the gate so he couldn't move forwards. I got off safely!

Since I was already off I decided we could bring the big rolling trash can in with us So horses on the right, trash cans on the left and in we went.

So that coming home wouldn't be a good time, I walked on the lead into the round pen and had him do some groundwork like back and turn the hind. I tied him up, loosened the saddle, took off his bridle and left him standing there for a good 20 minutes.

I hosed him off and slicked him down and cleaned his feet.

Then, he got that reward he so wanted, "Lunch is served."

That was at least an hour and a half in the saddle! I was out there about 3 hours total.

Team Tucker is all tuckered out

Team Tucker is all tuckered out.

Long day started about 9am and got all done about 1pm.

I tried on the breast collar for Tucker. I also added his leather strap for his saddle to replace the nylon strap. Groomed and saddled and mounting went pretty smooth.

Headed over to my friend's house and she met me and we went the long way around the block to get to her place.

We tried to go straight on a piece of conveyor belt.

We went through the ponds and over the bridge and around the tires and something totally new: The pool noodle gateway.

We successfully negotiated the pool noodle gateway in both directions.

I thought he was getting kind of bunched up at the big pond and I was worried he was going to jump. He didn't.

We did really badly at the multiple logs in a row. Honestly, I just don't think he has done that before and he gets to rushing and it turns into a mess. He got totally tripped up and it was a little scary.

I am going to work at home by spacing some logs way apart and we can do one at a time.

We played with the big ball. Brownie the Wonderhorse did it first and then Tucker pushed it. Getting him to kick it was a bigger challenge.

We did a bit of jogging.

We went up to the ice chest where a bell was hanging that I was supposed to ring. Tucker reached up and dinged it himself!

I got a few tips and tricks to work with.

Coming home was a bit of a challenge. He wanted to walk fast and we were on the back trail home.

He stopped to look back at where Brownie might be and then he did a jiggy sideways little jump thing. I stayed cool and calm even though it was not expected. I don't know if a fly bit him or if he was upset about leaving his friend.

He started to jog but I slowed him down. We got on the sand road and he wanted to trot but I slowed him down.

We got in the gate and he started trotting to the back and I was like "hold it. No, no, no." Got him slowed down :)

Closing the gate and dismount went pretty good.

Beautiful day with less smoke and less heat! I enjoyed this but my butt is sore. Yes, there were some challenges but I am happy overall.

I saw a saddle at the saddle shop I want but it is a fair amount of money so I told the guy I would think about it. The cantle is the right height. It has a new wade tree still under warranty. Padded seat. Turned stirrup leathers that are soft as butter. He'll let me try it out if I don't like it I can bring it back. If I wasn't getting a new roof, I would not be hesitating to try that sucker.

Tucker Update

Team Tucker - a couple of not training related questions and a bit of an update.

The smoke is horrendous yesterday and today. It is a brown, smelly, irritating mess. On top of that it is around 100 degrees for the last few days. No riding, darn it.

This is my first time saddling Tucker on 6/16. Note the look of concentration. I still concentrate but I am able to tack up in a lot less time now :)

Tucker is starting to be more of a love bug. He is very good about me touching his feet to work on them and put the donut on. I usually do that while he is eating. I nicknamed him Secretariat because of his long neck and his propensity for eating. Fortunately, he isn't actually a race horse.

When I feed him his good food, he stopped rushing me after I used the flag a couple of times. Now he stands by the rail and looks away until I slide the food bowl in. It is very cute.

Since he is new to me, it took me a couple of weeks to figure out what is best to feed him. He dropped a little weight but now he is getting plenty of orchard grass with a SMALL amount of alfalfa and 2 quarts of Total Equine a day. His butt looks fabulous.

As for Tucker's scratches. Looking a lot better. I tried the veterycyn but boy was it expensive. It did help but not very quickly. After a week, I switched to desinex/fungal cream/triple antibiotic. Last couple of days I am using Nitrofurazone. Both sets of goopier stuff have helped. The scabs are coming off a little at a time and healthy tissue is forming. I do have to make sure I brush off his ankles a couple of times a day since the goopier stuff attracts sand.

His donut for his right fore foot does seem to be helping with his shoe boil. Looks less irritated although it is still puffy. I am putting it on him in the evening and taking it off in the morning since I rarely see him laying down in the day time.

Tucker has what I am pretty sure are big insect bite bumps on his neck and his back.

I am thinking I need a fly sheet which I have never used before. Not sure what to get. The flies are terrible this year. Also a fly mask. Again, never done that before with my little guys but Tucker seems to be affected more than the little guys. Maybe it's his color? We have giant horseflies this year, too, never had them before.

To do those things I will have to measure him.

Any suggestions on the fly mask, fly sheet? Things to know? It is so hot here I hate to put anything on him but the bumps aren't nice.

Tucker and I practice what we learned in our lesson on Monday

Well, it is incredibly hot out there but....the day started cloudy so about 9am I said "Hey, no excuses, get out there and ride that horse." So I did.

Once again the results were a bit mixed but, over all, it was an improvement. Getting a riding lesson did help.

Mounting block was no problem.

I got the gate open like a pro [almost].

From the saddle I worked on flexing his head without backing up. Sometimes he did back up but I made sure I didn't release the pressure until he stopped backing..

Flexing the head turned into some pretty good turns.

I worked on head down. That helped me work on jogging which I do think I sat the jog a little better today. I also managed to sustain the jog better.

We started out by going through the trail obstacle course. He thought I was turning him to go into the arena so he turned into a pill. We got straightened out and went right by the arena gate because I was just trying to go to the log fan!

I took him out front, got off at the mounting block, checked the cinch and then had trouble getting him to stand still for the remount. I had him walk in a couple of circles around me, rinse and repeat about 4 times and he decided to stand at the mounting block.

He wanted to go back to his pen so we had a couple of patient discussions where I asked him to flex his head towards me. Yes, a couple of times it turned into backing but I won the day and we got on track for a little more jogging and some casual walking.

Once I decided we were done, then we walked to the back. I asked him to stop at the gate and I managed to start closing it. "Step" got it closed a little more, step, a little more. Then, I got him into the pen.

He says "We are going to the dismount."

I said "Nope, we gotta finish closing the gate." We got turned around and I maneuvered him carefully using the reins. Then I used a hind end move over. Reached to the gate and I even got the chain latched today.

I am thinking about an hour and a half of riding.

I finished off by brushing, cleaning the feet and hosing him off. He did good. I slicked sort of dry and threw him some hay.

My friend came over and I got that cute photo of Tucker and I.

Team Tucker got a lot of lessons today!

Team Tucker got a lot of lessons today! Trainer came over.

I feel like Tucker backs when ever you touch the reins!

I got some tools in my tool belt today.

We did ground work and I rode.

Flexing the head to the right and the left in the saddle

Asking the front feet to cross over using ground work.

Being firm when asking for a forward motion.

Having the horse drop his head during groundwork and from the saddle. Drop your head is similar to back but it is just a shortening of the reins, holding the reins low and closing the hand around the reins with out leaning back and with out pulling.

Tucker backed and backed a few times with the left side flex but then as soon as he stopped I let off the pressure. After awhile I could flex his head and neck without him backing at all.

Then, that could, after some practice, become a smooth turn when "walk" is added to the flex. I looked pro a couple of times :)

I had a small stick to use as a tool for him to see waving and that convinced him to jog sooner than later :)

We had a discussion when I turned him and wanted to go the other way in the pen. I tapped his butt with the stick and told him we were moving forwards and we were not turning around to go back his favorite way! Just a tap nothing abusive. My reins aren't long enough to spank him.

We had one more discussion and then it all went pretty smoothly after that. We did some nicely collected jogging. We are definitely a work in progress.

Tucker is seeing me as more of a leader more of the time! I am definitely gaining some skills.

I have lots to practice.

3 hours today

Team Tucker Training Day

Team Tucker Training Day

I was determined to do some stuff with the horse today. Stuff like turn hind, turn fore, jog or even trot a bit. Try out the new trail course.

I cruised him around to show him the new obstacles. Then, took him into the arena.

He doesn't like the arena :)

We had a mixed day. He wants to back at the drop of a hat.

We did some successful hind and fore turns. We jogged and trotted a bit while I tried to get the feeling for posting. Not too much. I finally jogged half way around the pen several times.

I actually managed to back him in a curve several times. Just something I wanted to try.

We got into a couple of small arguments. I tried to consider what to do about that. I think I am going slow but I bet I am not going slow. I think I am trying to be light but I bet I am not being light.

Anyway, a couple of times I made it clear that we were going to move forward or make the turn. Seems to have helped.

We went back out on the course and did some of the obstacles. We looked at the cowboy curtain several times and eventually I did the weave poles and then cruised through it. It isn't tall enough so I had to duck. I was happy with once. We'll get it taller and then try it again.

I did some hind end turns in the zig zag obstacle. I cruised him around the outside of the round pen and then up front where I asked him to jog in the driveway circle. Then, we turned and walked and jogged the other way.

We relaxed in the shade a bit and then I took the back way behind the garage then around the round pen and then home.

Since he had been lobbying to go home for the entire time, I tied him up and he is standing out there right now. Hey, getting home doesn't always mean grass hay and good times!

My plan is ground work with the saddle and bridle on and make backing up a non option just because I touch the bridle or rope or ask him to turn. :)

Also, keep going with the intermediate riding videos.

I'm proud. I was working by myself with no one to help except Hubby took a few photos and left. We mounted and dismounted with no problems. We did have some success at my goals and we are going to keep trying at this thing called riding.

2 hours riding

Tucker got his donut

Team Tucker

I got Tucker's donut for his right fore foot to prevent the shoe boil.  He doesn't seem to lay down much in the daytime so I have been putting it on overnight.

Tucker and I managed to get saddled up in only about 15 minutes today including brushing, fly spray and cleaning the feet!

Mounting did not present any issues.

A lovely evening for a ride. Met my neighbor and her horse Brownie and we went to her friend's house about 2 miles or so away.

Tucker and I met other horses. We both behaved politely :) We did a couple of simple obstacles and watched Brownie do a few harder obstacles.

We had dogs barking in yards and bunnies and ATV's and neighbors outside. We did fine.

My ability to communicate with Tucker to have him move just his hind or fore isn't great but we did manage to do that several times. Also, I asked him to move sideways to allow me to touch a rope gate and Tucker did it!!!!

Home as dusk was descending into darkness. A nice brushing, foot cleaning and some hay.

I sprayed his scratches on his back feet with vetericyn. They look improved but boy is that stuff expensive. I am switching to anti fungal and anti bacterial cream after this if it still isn't cleared up all the way.

That was 1 1/2 hours in the saddle!

It is going hot so my plan is to watch the reining videos of CJ's and then work on that late evenings or early mornings by myself. Wouldn't it be fun to be improved before my next ride with my neighbor? Surprise :)

We go it alone

Team Tucker

I was out of town for three days so I had to ride Tucker today no matter what!

I couldn't get a hold of my friend so I tacked up and cruised around the back acre. Tucker was very happy when he saw we weren't going into the big pen to use it like an arena.

Then, I went up front and cruised around the big circular driveway.

Then, I decided it wouldn't hurt to open the gate with my handy automatic gate opener button.

Well, I decided to go get the mail. Then, to go up 10th street. Then, it wouldn't hurt to go across the desert trail, now would it? Pretty soon I was at my friend's house.

At first Tucker didn't want to listen very well although he is not a really bad horse. He wanted to turn into a neighbor's driveway and he was looking everywhere craning his neck to watch for things.

I steered him around a couple of puddles but tried not to nag him. I got him on the trail where he needed more guidance and needed to pay attention to me. That helped some.

My friend was home. I stopped to talk to her. TUcker started calling and calling to Brownie so I said "Great, you holler, I turn you in a big circle." Everytime he hollered I did a big circle. Pretty soon it wasn't a priority for Tucker to holler :)

Tucker and I tried some new things like multiple downed limbs and stair steps up between tires trail. We did the pond which he did pretty well at. The super narrow bridge which is a metal loading ramp that is just 6 inches off the ground. He decided to try it after some approach and retreat and then following Brownie. It was rough the first time. We got half on, half off. We managed to abort the mission and the second time went just fine.

I do have some rein management issues but honestly did pretty good. Tucker did well at trying new things although he needed to see Brownie do it first on a couple of the obstacles.

My friend showed me how to break the gate opening down into smaller steps. She opened and closed her gate and the Tucker only had to get maneuvered around to open it and stand there next to it. I managed to get Tucker to step to the end of the gate, we turned while I held the gate. I let it go and it opened itself. That was a big enough step for today.

We walked the horses back to my place. We had llamas run up to the fence at the blue house. Tucker was taking a good look but didn't seem bothered. We talked to someone on the road while more llamas showed up on the fence line. Tucker looked and looked but didn't seem bothered.

I managed to close the gate to the home pen. Wasn't pretty but it is safer to get off the horse with the gate closed [I didn't try to chain it closed it is just with the visual effect of the closed gate there is no temptation for the horse to bolt through it for whatever horse reason while I have one foot in the stirrup and trying to finish getting off].

That was about 2 hours and 15 minutes on horseback today. Maybe more.

PS -

My Tucker. So far, it's all been okay although he likes to look around a lot! It got us into trouble on the trail my first time out alone. He insisted we go right. I wasn't so sure. I didn't whoa him soon enough. We ended up on the holey side of the trail. His back foot went into a rabbit hole. He was calm as a cucumber. I paused for a bit and then said "Well, gues we better get out of this mess.. Let's go." He got us both out of there.

Team Tucker does groundwork

Team Tucker

My first attempt at a horse selfie :)

It's hard owning a new horse in some ways. I do feel like Tucker and I are bonding. I also feel like Tucker totally does not see me as the leader.

I haven't done much ground work. Maybe two times since I got him on 6/15 or about 5 weeks ago.

I did use the bag on a whip. He isn't afraid of it.

Today we worked on staying out of my space again. Also back. By the time we were done today, when I said "Back", he did!

I worked on turning the fore. Maybe still not our best thing but improved. Turning hind is going pretty good.

Stop when I stop...improved. move out on the lead and walk around me...improved.

I decided to hang out with him and just sit for awhile on the blue barrel. He finally decided to come see me and he got some rubs and some scratches. He wanted me to brush the flies away from his eyes so I did. I got a couple of selfies.

To finish up, I decided to see what he would do at liberty in the 100' 100' pen

I pointed and said "Walk". The first thing he did was fling his front foot at me as he jumped out sideways and I shook the bag and he got moving.

After a few tries got him to move out from a fair distance away. Then he took off galloping. He went around three or four times. I dropped the flag down and let the life go out of my body and said "whoa". He did whoa.

I got him to turn. Same thing on the other side. I'm in the middle of the pen and he just starts galloping. After three or four times I said "Whoa" and he stopped.

Had a turn without asking but I ran up there and got him going the right way again.

Towards the end I asked him to trot and he did. He galloped and then went to a trot when asked on each direction.

I actually think the galloping was fine. He really needed to get moving and let that energy out.

I let up on him and he stood still while I got his halter on and then desensitized him to the bag by rubbing it on him.

I let him eat a little grass on the way back to his home pen. When I said we were done, I meant we were done eating grass!

We were almost to the home pen when he kept going straight instead of turning with me. He was totally focused on the back yard instead of what he and I were doing. I told him in no uncertain terms that was bad, back up and get off the top of me.

He got some fly spray and some vetricyn on his heels. He was sweet and walked over for a little more attention while I cleaned the pen.

I am happy I did the ground work even if he is a well trained 17 year old horse with lots of experience.

you must commit to working with Tucker in order to have the kind of relationship you desire. It won't happen on its own, so get in there and work with Tucker to establish that relationship. I wish you great success and satisfaction.

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 I think I am committed to working with Tucker it is just that I have been riding him and not doing groundwork. I have been told he doesn't need groundwork, he needs to be ridden. Which he does need to be ridden. I, personally, think he also needs ground work. So, I will be riding him at least three times a week like I have been but I will also be doing ground work from now on because I think we need that. I am becoming more independent as a rider which will help me ride more times a week At first, I didn't feel secure trying to tack up and get on and manage the horse without someone here. Now I feel more confident about getting the saddle on properly and riding him although I still like to ride when Hubby is home so I have someone to call if I feel I am needing some help for some reason. Soon, I will be riding even when someone is not home.