Sad Way To Learn Several Lessons

After almost 1 year of lessons I offered to lease Tonto's horse from the instructor.  By this time, he and I had come to an understanding.  He was tolerant of my mistakes and I would put up with his sometimes obstinate behavior.  When were at our best, I felt an exhilaration that was unlike anything else I had ever experienced.  I suppose this is the reason we ride horses.  When it feels like you are dancing, i.e. you ask your horse to move a certain way and the horse responds correctly, you realize you've just communicated with an animal that is bigger and stronger than you and yet is so graceful, it can carry you gently at all of the gaits with it's back lifted up and it's legs driving underneath you.  You want this feeling to last forever.

Well the instructor agreed to lease the horse to me for one year.  We shook on it and I paid in advance.   She went on vacation for a week.  During that time, the horse and I had several successful rides.  When she returned,  just before Thanksgiving,  the weather was turning colder.  We discussed moving the horse to an indoor arena for the winter so that I could ride throughout the winter and the instructor was agreeable.  I told her I would call her after the holiday and we would look for a farm to move him to.  The Friday after Thanksgiving turned out to be one of the most disturbing days I've ever experienced.

My wife and I were cleaning up our house from hosting Thanksgiving dinner and the phone rang.  It was the instructor and she was sobbing so hard on the phone that I could not understand anything she said so I asked her to compose herself.  For a moment she did and she told me that Tonto's horse had died in a freak accident in the pasture.  I was crushed...she began crying again and I said I'd call her back later.

Now I had heard how fragile horses actually were.  It is hard to imagine an animal weighing 1100 pounds and 20 times stronger than a man is fragile.  They pull wagons loaded with people, they run 35 or 40 miles an hour in races, they pull a plow through fields, yet a small misstep can cause bones to break, tendons to tear, or muscles to pull.  In my leased horse's case he fell, while running on some wet grass, while he was turned out in a pasture, and landed on his shoulder.  This caused him to break his scapula, which is a large, paddle shaped bone stretching from his shoulder to upper leg.  Amazingly, after breaking the bone, he limped into the barn and collapsed in the aisle.  The vet rushed out but she could not save him and he was humanely euthanized.

I had a hard time processing the loss.  For a month I did not want to talk or think about horses.  Making the connection I had and then having it suddenly end left an emptiness that I had never felt before.  When I would flip through the stacks of magazines in the basket next to my chair in the family room my emotions would oscillate from anger to sadness.  Eventually, I called the instructor to talk and she immediately said "I've got another horse for you, when can you begin riding?"  I was a little taken aback, how could she just up and get another horse.  Didn't she know how much I cared for the one that died.  Our handshake agreement was that I would lease Tonto's horse, not a different horse.

So I went to the farm to see the new horse and he seemed pretty enough, sound enough, and she relayed to me that he had a show record, (that means he had competed in events at shows throughout the state and he had won or at least placed high enough to distinguish himself).  Also, he was nine so he was likely to be very calm when I rode him.

I told her that I'd think about it and that I'd call her to let her know what I wanted to do.  Finally, I agreed to ride the new horse, beginning in the spring.  My day job was and is very busy during the winter months.  This time away from riding allowed me to keep up with my workload and to further distance myself from the loss of Tonto's horse, which I was still struggling with.  He was my first horse, even though I was in my middle 40's, he was still my first horse.

Finally the snow melts, which in Michigan can take until mid April, the tulips poked through the ground and I knew it was time to get back in the saddle.  I decided to get a new saddle since all this time I had been using one provided by the instructor.  It never fit me quite right and besides, I wanted to start completely fresh.  So I went to a local tack store and I bought a new work saddle.  It was dark tooled leather with a dark suede seat that held me in place much better than the all leather seat on the saddle I had been using.  I took it out to the barn and the instructor brought out the new horse for me to saddle up.  The saddling went smoothly, I could tell he'd been there and done that.  We walked out to the arena and I mounted up.  He was taller than the Tonto's horse.

As soon as I asked him to walk off I began to forget the sadness and I became excited about my new partner.   I noticed his stride was a little bit longer than I was used to.  I could feel the movement being a little different than the shorter saunter that Tonto's horse exhibited when he walked.  After a lap or so I felt comfortable and I asked him to trot.  At this point the instructor yelled out to me, "He's going to feel a little different."  Now what, I thought.  Well I found out.  His trot was bouncier than the gentle jog I was used to.  I also noticed that his trot covered a lot of ground.   I asked him to stop and then I asked the instructor why he felt that way.  She then told me he was a hunt seater.  "A Hunt Seater"!  Now I didn't know much but I had seen enough to see the hunt seat horses in magazines and on videos and I knew that wasn't what I wanted.  I also knew that if she thought I was going to ride in those funny pants, which I read in a magazine are called breeches, I would look absolutely ridiculous.  I am 5' 9" and I weigh over 200 pounds with gusts up to 230.  Fat boys don't look good in breeches.  Trust me.  Thoughts of disaster began to creep into my head.

The instructor walked up to the horse and I and explained that he can do the all around events, not just the hunt seat.  I had no idea what the all around events were.  I read the APHA Journal that night and found out they are everything that you can do in a show arena other than what I wanted to do.  Trail, for instance, is an all around class.  The trail class consists of obstacles that you have to navigate in a prearranged sequence without the horse touching or knocking down any of the obstacles.  The obstacles could be poles layed on the ground in a pattern, bridges that you have to walk over or fences that you have to open an close.  You have to complete this course using the various gaits as they have been prescribed by the person laying out the obstacles.

I have to keep this simple, I thought to myself, and I didn't want to get too far ahead of myself so I told her that I would just like to ride for a month or two on the new horse so that we can get connected.  I know she sensed my dismay and I think she was hoping I'd jump at the chance at doing something completely different but I just wanted to get back to what I already had.  I had doubts that would ever happen but I wanted to try, plus I had this new saddle.

I asked the instructor what do I do to make the trot more comfortable and she said you should "post".  A new term.  I had no idea what she meant.  I asked for an explanation and she actually said the following, "rise and fall with the leg against the wall".  A response came immediately to mind but my mother taught me never to speak those words to a lady so I simply asked her to explain in more detail.  After a little time I felt I understood.  What posting really means is to lift yourself up at your knees such that your seat is out of the saddle in cadence with the movement of the horses outside front leg.  As his leg goes up, you go up and as his leg goes down, you go down.  This was measurably more comfortable than the bouncing up and down I was doing before so I thought this was worth continuing.  All we did on this day was trot.  We trotted and trotted until my legs and knees felt like jello and I had to stop.  I think it was three laps.

Learning the equestrian term "spook".

After two weeks of riding Tonto's horse at a walk and a trot my instructor said we were ready to work at a lope.  I was excited to begin this part of the training because honestly, the walk and trot are pretty boring.  As a new equestrian I know it is essential to know how to control a horse at the slower gaits, but once you feel you've mastered the basic commands (this never really happens because you never totally master commanding an animal that thinks in two dimensions while you think in three), it is time for something more challenging.

In the practice arena, with my instructor standing in the center, she tells me to move my outside leg back about 4 inches, apply a little pressure with my outside calf, keep my inside leg at the same position and don't apply any pressure, keep my shoulders square, lift my reins slightly while keeping my right elbow bent, keep my head up, sit deep in the saddle and kiss.  I kid you not, this is what she said.  Now if I had all of the skills to do these things simultaneously, while seated on a horse that was moving, in my first attempt at a lope, I wouldn't have needed an instructor!  So in my mind I tried to break it down one step at a time.  I moved my leg back 4 inches, hoping I was using my outside leg and not the inside; I often got confused which was outside and which was inside.  I thought it would be easier for me to think of the inside as the drivers side and the outside as the passenger side and this worked until we turned around!  I tried to keep my shoulders square, I lifted my reins slightly and I think I kept my elbow bent, I kept my head up, I wasn't really sure what she meant by sitting deep in my saddle, but I convinced myself I was doing it, and then I kissed.  To me this seemed an absurd command.  Who thought of this?  Could you imagine Tonto kissing to his horse Scout or Roy Rogers kissing to Trigger; I couldn't.  When after doing all of these things the horse lifted his head up, and instead of loping, he began trotting at what seemed to me to be a blistering pace.  Not only that but any hope my instructor had of me "sitting deep in the saddle" went out the window as my rear end bounced up and down on the seat like a basketball.

The instructor yelled whoa!  Shockingly, for me, Tonto's horse actually stopped.  I did not.  I now am laying across the top of the horse's neck and hanging on to his mane so that I won't fall off.  The instructor is laughing quietly and I could hear her say to herself, "wait until he spooks".  She instructs me to sit up straight and start over.  This time she adds the new dimension of trotting along the wall, following all of the other instructions and then as we round the corner into a turn, kissing off.  Yes I said kissing off.   Well I collected myself, tried to follow all of the commands, trotted down the wall and as we turned I kissed off Tonto's horse.  He loped!  He actually loped.  I felt like we were running in the Kentucky Derby we were going so fast, but we were actually moving at a pretty leisurely pace.  The instructor said to me, thank God she was talking to me this time, go half way down the rail and ask the horse to stop.  Why, I thought, but I was in no position yet to question her so I said "Whoa," and  low and behold, Tonto's horse stopped.

We repeated this process until I could make one entire lap around the arena at a lope.  After a few tries we succeeded and the lesson was over.  The instructor told me to practice that for a week on my own and then we would have our next lesson.  This process repeated itself for several weeks, a lesson improving my technique, followed by a week of practice.  After three weeks or so I felt pretty confident I could maneuver the horse in any direction, at any gait, and then get him to stop.  Which lead to my understanding of the term "Spook".

A little explanation of the training facility is needed here.  This farm was in the country, on a dirt road.  The arena was outside and was originally used to train trotters for the track.  The arena extended to a point on the property such that the far end was about 100 feet from the back of the house next door.  It was usually quiet except for the cackling of pheasants.  They are beautiful birds and the horse was used to the birds making noise.  On this particular day I was loping around the arena without any particular care.  It was warm, so the windows on the house next door were open, screens were not on the windows even though flies were plentiful 100 feet from a horse farm.  As I practiced, lap after lap, I became more and more excited about the relationship that I was now developing with Tonto's horse.  He and I were able to communicate better than I ever thought possible.  On one of the laps, as we approached the far end of the arena, I noticed the neighbor sticking his head out the window.  What I did not know was this was the first day of pheasant season. Now, to any farm near a home occupied by someone similar to this neighbor, I would suggest a third  barn sign.  The sign should list the first and last day of all of the various hunting seasons in the area.

The horse and I rounded the back turn and headed away from the neighbor's house.  As I think back on it now, it's pretty funny, but at the time I was terrified.  The neighbor fired his small gauge shot gun at phaesant, while he was leaning out of his bedroom window.  Tonto's horse demonstrated to me what spooking meant without any doubt.  It meant he was going to jump, 15 feet to his left, and if I didn't stay on his back, he didn't care.  I barely stayed on with only one leg in the outside stirrup (now I remembered what the difference was between inside and outside).  My heart was up around my adams apple, my chest was pounding, and I shouted out an exaltation to God.  Okay, maybe it wasn't an exaltation, but I know God's name was involved.  The neighbor, being the kind of guy that shoots at pheasants out of his bedroom window, was laughing his fanny off.  I hadn't been this mad in a while, but I hopped off Tonto's horse, ran over to the edge of the arena, and started yelling at the laughing man leaning out the  window with a bird gun.  If he'd have been closer, and unarmed, we would have taken this issue up outside.  Well, I'd have been outside, he'd probably have stayed in his bedroom window!

At my next lesson I explained in great detail everything that happened and my instructor said, "So he spooked."  That is how I learned what the equine term spook meant.

The Horse Journey Begins

The kids have moved out and are settled.  The college bills are paid, maybe even the wedding, and you're too young to just sit around.  You try golfing or skiing or cooking or traveling, and while they are all enjoyable and give you a measure of satisfaction, you still yearn for more.  Then one day, while you're driving through the country with the top down on your convertible, (yes you bought a convertible while you were going through that mid-life crisis) you see a beautiful green pasture surrounded by trees and there is a mare and her foal running along the fence line.  That's it!  You're convinced, you want a horse.  The connection with another living thing that is totally dependent upon you to care for it, nurture it, ride it with the wind blowing through your hair.  You picture yourself riding freely and easily through a meadow with a blue sky up above, mountains in the background, maybe a stream or river in the distance.  This is what you want, this is what you've been missing.

Come on, I can't be the only one who had this happen to them.  If you're still reading this, it probably happened to you as well.

Well, if this has happened to you, and you haven't bought the first horse yet, GOOD!  STOP!  Read this post and those to follow and then, if you want to buy your first horse, go ahead.  I'm not trying to talk you out of buying a horse, but I want to share with you the mistakes I've made, the money I've wasted, the sadness I've felt before I realized what I did correctly and what joy I've gotten out of being around the most beautiful animal God ever created.

So I began my equestrian adventure by taking riding lessons.  I didn't really know how to go about this but I heard about a farm that was giving lessons, so I called and was told to come out and "we'll see what we can do for you".   I get to the barn and it was clean and organized and filled with horses that looked to me like Pegasus.  One was black like I pictured the Black Stallion to be, except he was a gelding!  I didn't know what that meant yet but I was soon to find out.  Then there were three that were spotted with large areas of white.  I had a flashback to my childhood. Tonto's horse and Little Joe's horse looked just like this and I said to myself, now that's for me.  I told the farm owner that I'd like to learn how to ride one of those and she said "the only one you can ride is a three year and he's not finished but he can use some extra work and if you're willing to try, I'm willing to teach you".   (When you are told your horse "is not finished yet" this means it's had a saddle on twice and been ridden once.)  Anyone who knows me knows that if someone asks me if I'm willing to try something it's a foregone conclusion that I'm going to jump into the deep end of the pool.  There is no such thing as doing things gradually in my way of thinking.

So off we go.  I commit to taking one lesson a week on the not quite finished three year old gelding that looked like Tonto's horse, and riding two additional days on my own to practice.  The first ride went smoothly enough.  We worked only at a walk and a trot.  I practiced steering.  I practiced stopping.  I practiced backing up.  All of this seemed easy enough since when I arrived at the barn the horse was saddled, had his bridle on, legs wrapped, and all I had to do was step on and follow the instructor's commands.  I thought - this is a piece of cake.  Then came the next morning.  It turns out that there is a muscle group along the inside of your thighs called the adductor muscles.  I found out that you really use these muscles when you ride a horse and apparently I didn't use them for much else.  When I woke up the next morning, I could barely get out of bed and when I tried to walk I realized why John Wayne walked the way he did...I was walking the same way, involuntarily!  It took two days for the pain and stiffness to subside.  This did not discourage me, though, because I thought eventually I'll build up my leg muscles and it won't hurt any more.  So off for my first solo practice.

This time Tonto's horse did not have his saddle on and he did not have his bridle on and his legs weren't wrapped and his feet weren't picked, and so on.  I've had one lesson on a horse, except the ride on the pony at Belle Isle when I was six (by the way that horse looked like Tonto's horse too), and I've got no one to show me what to do.

This barn had two signs on the wall when you walked in.  The first sign was a liability law sign that said if you die, the barn is not at fault and there is a law that says so.  The second sign is a list of "Barn Rules", the first of which was written in the following bold letters:  IF YOU DON'T KNOW, ASK.  Well I don't know, and there is no one to ask, so I tell myself, this isn't rocket science, I've read magazines and seen videos, I can do this.

 The process of getting Tonto's horse ready to ride took almost an hour.  I had a blanket but no pad, I didn't know what cinch to use, I barely knew what a cinch was (that article was in the next issue of Equus), and I didn't know what bit to use or even how to get it in the horse's mouth.  As for wrapping his legs, no one wrapped my legs when I worked out so I figured he didn't really need his legs wrapped.  By this time we were ready to ride, Tonto's horse and I were not on good terms, which is a polite way to say he had turned into Custer's horse as he was getting slaughtered at Little Big Horn and just wanted to get out of there.  This horse no longer wanted me around, but I thought, I can't give up now so I walked him out to the mounting block in the arena where he stood still just long enough for me to lift my still tender right thigh high enough for me to clear the cantle of the saddle (I read about saddle parts in Horse and Rider so I was an expert),  and we were off.  He didn't exactly wait for me to get ready but I was just so happy to get on I didn't care.  I took two laps at a walk, jumped off satisfied and exhausted and walked Tonto's horse back to the barn to untack.  That was my first solo ride.

Let's talk about pasture maintenance.  Our pastures are seeded with four sources of forage, Timothy, Alfalfa, Orchard Grass and Clover.  We have three pastures for turnout.  One pasture is 2.5 acres, the second is 2 acres and the third is 1.5 acres.  During the year we use all three pastures.  Since we keep no more than ten horses on the property our pastures have held up very well.

In order to keep the pastures healthy and providing good forage for the horses we spend a good deal of effort on maintenance.  The first step in maintenance is fertilizing the pastures.  In order to know what fertilizer to use we take soil samples and have them analyzed by the county agriculture extension.  Usually, the pastures require an application of lime and nitrogen.  Our soil is clay based and is naturally deficient in this elements.  The only other time we have apply chemicals is to kill weeds and dangerous grasses.   For example, two years ago we had two of our paint horses develop severe sunburns on their soft, pink skin.  This was painful for them and we had never had this happen before.  All of our horses are turned out with fly sheets in the summer and some, including one that came down with a sunburn, wore a full face fly mask.  After analyzing all of the potential causes for the unusual sunburn we narrowed down the problem to Alsike Clover.  Alsike clover was not planted in our pasture, it spread from adjacent fields.  It turns out that eating alsike clover increases the photosensitivity in horses.  This is a real problem with horses that have white faces, especially white muzzles, nostrils and lips.  To solve the problem we applied weed killer specifically formulated for pastures.  Unfortunately, this weed killer had the side effect of killing most of the alfalfa.  We then broadcast alfalfa and it is now mixing in on two of our three pastures.  In the future I will just spot treat the clover with a hand sprayer.  This will take a little more time in the short term but it will save time in the long run.

We mow our pastures every four weeks.  We use a rough cut mower attached to our tractor.  We keep the pastures at 6"-8" in height.  This keeps the forage more palatable for the horses and the forage retains more of its nutrients.  If it were to grow longer, developing seed pods, the nutrients would be used up in the seed development process and the forage would not taste as good to the horses.  If it is cut shorter the soil won't hold as much moisture and the fields would dry out during the hot summer months.  Other monthly chores include week whipping along all of the fence lines and dragging a harrow over the pastures to break up the clumps of manure.  Breaking up the manure piles helps to keep the fly population down and it helps to add nitrogen throughout the fields.

While I am working in the pastures I always check the fence line.  We have electrified rope fencing, which works very well for our operation.  It is low maintenance, durable, and easy for the horses to see.  The horses have all tested it once but they have never tested it twice!  Breaks in the rope are uncommon but the guides that are screwed into the fence posts do come out from time to time.   It is usually a matter of just reattaching them to the post.  The only other maintenance to the fence is periodic retightening.  This is easily accomplished with tools provided by the fencing supplier.  I check the fence charger every month using a volt meter.  I check each pasture's fence line in several spots just to make sure of conductivity.

Pasture maintenance take a fair amount of work but it definitely results in well fed horses.

Horse Breedings for 2015

After quite a bit of research, we decided to breed three of our mares this year.  One mare, Hot Lopin Lexus, (Blazing Hot x Born Lopin), will have two foals by Invitation Only.  We own one and friends of ours will own another.

Our mare Hot Cookies Only, (Invitation Only x Shesa Hot Cookie), will have a foal by Charlie Hilfiger.  This will allow the foal to be double registered with the APHA and the AQHA.

Our APHA mare Zippos By The Bay, (Zippos Sensation x Good Enchantment), is in foal to APHA sire CR Good Machine.  This is the second time we have done this cross.  We are doing it again because the first time was so successful.  It is hard to find a good nick for APHA mares because not only do you have to work out the movement, beauty, conformation and temperament, but then you have to try to increase your odds of getting color.  CR Good Machine has been a good color producer and we like all of the other characteristics he brings to the breeding.