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This past weekend was one of education. For Blue, it was lots
of review. For Sarah and her horse, Lily, everything was new.
And we all know how much horses just LOVE new things.
Saturday we went to Pacific City to show the horses to
the ocean. The ocean just roared with laughter as Spooky LaRue and Jiggy McGee
refused to get their little tootsies wet. They got pretty close a few times,
but mostly they worked very hard walking (or jigging) through deep, loose sand.
The nice thing about Bob Straub State Park is that there are some nice trails
through the trees on the sound side, so the beach isn’t the only place to be.
We started in the woods and did a few miles to settle the horses before coming
out on the sound side where the horses could walk in the wet sand near water
that wasn’t roaring or even moving, really. Then we worked our way over the big
dune. After Sarah and I had imaged all the worst-case scenarios of the horses
seeing the water and turning tail (Sarah and I are both great “planners” in
that way), it was really a nonevent. As long as we kept a couple yards between
us and the advancing tide, both horses were pretty tractable.
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Sarah and Lily |
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Blue with some big ol' rock in the distance |
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Sarah and Lily getting a bit closer to the scary water |
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Blue would rather go this way, thanks |
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"Please get at least one of me so I can prove this happened!" |
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Through the looking-glass |
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A twist on the usual ears photo |
Nevertheless, Lily jigged without pause all day long. She
jigged in the sand, she jigged in the woods, she jigged in grassy meadows, in
the parking lot, on the road—everywhere. And she trembled when she was not
jigging. She was shaking hard all day with contained tension and excitement (I
think).
Honestly, I believe that if Blue had been there with a
horse who was more of an “old hand” at the beach, he probably would have done
much better with all the new things. He was still very good, but I felt like
there were many times where Lily’s nonstop anxiety would start to permeate his
cool-as-a-cucumber persona. He and I would be trying to work our way through
something—say, walking through the stink-cloud of a rotting seal—and just as he
was thinking it out and easing forward, Jiggy McGee would go bounding past us
and work him back up again. This same dynamic would definitely be a factor on
Sunday, too.
Sunday we did the Waldo Hills Heritage Ride, a 10-mile
trail ride southwest of Silverton. It was only about 15 minutes away from where
we board, so it would have been crazy not to go, right? For me, the training
goal was to show Blue that we could go to a big field full of trailers, start
with a group of horses, and not go into orbit. We would WALK. All day. No
trotting allowed at all. He had to put on his big-boy pants and be a good
mentor for Lily, who had never seen so many horses in her life, and had
probably never picked her way down a steep, rock-strewn trail before.
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Lily's posture didn't change for the first five miles. She was in deer-in-headlights mode until lunch. |
Adding to the degree of difficulty was the presence of a
few people and horses he knows from ridecamp. In fact, as luck would have it,
Brenda and Bonnie started right in front of us, and Blue wanted to catch them
from the moment we hit the trail. He went straight into a 5 mph Business Walk
and was A Horse On A Mission all day. Fast as he was, I kept him out of the
trot. (Small victory! Hurray!)
All this walking ended up being punishment for me more
than him. By the end, my right hip and ankle were both on fire and all the toes
on my right foot were numb. The stirrup turners didn’t solve my problems in
that sector at all. They did, however, make it easier for me to keep my
stirrups on my feet and not bend up the cages like usual. I guess the verdict is that the turners have
merit but they weren’t the revelation I was hoping for. Five hours of nothing
but sitting the walk made me sorer than many an endurance event. By the end, I
could barely dismount!
Blue had a pretty stressful day, too. Like I said, he has
a very fast, powerful walk when he wants to use it. And he REALLY wanted to use
it on Sunday. Unfortunately, Lily’s jig was quite a bit slower. So I kept
having to stop poor Blue to wait for Lily to catch up. Typical greenie that she
was, she would freeze and forget how to move forward anytime she wasn’t right next
to another horse. So I’d stop Blue, and
he’d throw a little tantrum as I turned him back to go get his young charge,
and we’d fight it out, and she’d stick close for a few minutes before falling
behind. Then we’d do it again.
Sarah and I had both hoped that several hours of work in
sand the day before would take some of the starch out of Lily’s sails, but she
was still a very excited horse. I was glad not to be the one riding her. Sarah
has kind hands and a good seat, so she just stayed with Lily as she pranced for
a couple hours. She piaffed into the lunch break, and I gratefully dismounted
from Ol’ Reliable to get the feeling back into my toes.
The lunch stop was very cool. Down in a holler, they’d
set up straw bales to sit on and even had musicians there to keep us
entertained. It was mostly string instruments, and I’d describe the music as
old timey bluegrass. Just a great atmosphere. Plus, when I told the ladies
serving the food how much Blue loves watermelon, they gave me a big pile of end
pieces for him. Lucky boy!
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All of the people turned around just as I snapped the photo, but the gray horse there is Bonnie. |
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Lunch camp was already clearing out by the time we arrived. |
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Looking toward the hill going out of the lunch stop |
The trail out of the lunch stop was a long, steep uphill.
I saw many, many people charge up it at a dead run. Tempting, but no. Blue was getting
upset watching other horses leaving while I lounged around. I think he might
have been confused/upset that there was not his usual vet check followed by a
huge mash of special ride-day sweet feed. So anyway, when I mounted up to
leave, he was being a real butt. I could tell he just wanted to get going. At
that moment, he was not being a great role model for Lily. I one-reined him
around until a big group on fat paint horses started up the hill. We fell in
right behind them. Blue thought about being naughty all the way up the hill,
but Lily was suddenly the docile one. She flat walked up the hill with very
little spring in her step. After the hill, we went into a few miles of narrow
single-track interspersed with water crossings. With fat paints in front and
behind, we were the spicy filling in a calm-horse sandwich. Blue was grumpy
about going so slow, but Lily was finally relaxed. She crossed slick, rocky
streams like she was born doing it.
Out in the open, we left the safety of the sandwich and
started to really boogie. With all of her jitters out, Lily discovered her 5
mph Business Walk. Nothing if not game, Blue went right along. Lily actually
got out in front and went along fearlessly. She hadn’t spooked at anything all
day, and now that she was finally relaxed, too, she looked like a real trail horse!
Back at “camp,” both horses ate some sloppy mash, and
Lily loaded like a pro (previous loading attempts had taken upwards of 15
minutes). What a difference a wet saddle blanket makes!
To be honest, I think it is Sarah who probably grew the
most from this experience. She is an arena rider (dressage mostly) who hasn’t
done much on the trail. As we went along Sunday’s ride, I listened to her
entire outlook change. She leans toward the earth-mother, crunchy granola
side of horse ownership anyway. I have no problem with that. If she wants to
feed exotic supplements and do Parelli and massage and leave the horse
barefoot and be skeptical about immunization and try to psychoanalyze an animal
with a walnut-sized brain, that is her business. But by the end of the ride she
was talking about how she hardly ever rode more than about 20 minutes before
feeling guilty for “pushing” Lily. She was worried the mare might be getting
sore or tired beyond that point. She was worried that after our Saturday ride at the beach, Lily
might not be able to complete a ten-mile trail ride.
To some degree, she was
giving Lily a vote in everything they did. If the horse showed signs of
discomfort or tiredness, she’d back off. And you know what that does to a
horse. Lily had become a gifted actress!
This weekend showed Sarah that she has vastly underestimated her horse. (AND
HERSELF!) Both of them have a lot more staying power than they ever imagined.
Now she is talking about how she wants to make an eventer out of Lily while
they are both still young enough to enjoy it. I vote YES!
Speaking of staying. I'm not going to OR100 this weekend after all. I had been trying to talk myself into doing a 50 there, but looking at the weather report and my checking account, and thinking about how much pain I was in after a mere 10 miles this past weekend... well, I need to make some more adjustments before I do another ride. So we'll get conditioning for Foothills in October. Let's just hope the rain holds off that long!