The View From Up Here

Well, the weather took a cold turn today from yesterday.  The high temperature today was the 41 degrees at 5:00 am and it just went down from there. The wind was blowing from the north and all of the horses were feeling frisky! Considering all of this, Tex worked very well this morning.

I decided to show some visual examples of what I am looking for when I talk about bend and flexion, and what better way to show it than a front seat view...

These two photos show the contrast of the left turn. I am asking with my left leg and light left rein for Tex to flex slightly to the left so he can make a bend through his body to follow the round pen around counter clockwise. In the first photo he has gotten distracted and is counter flexed and not with me. The second photo is about 4 steps later, he is starting to come left, but not with much feel, he is still pretty stiff.

This is about 1/2 of the circle later, and he is really starting to be soft, his ears and relaxed neck tell the story here. So when we get the right answer, even if it isn't quite perfect we change and do something different.

Like bending right. We haven't go that very well yet. He is willing, but doesn't quite understand the concept. So, we keep working, I persistently ask for the same thing (in this case, right flexion from his jaw, through his neck and back through his body) in the same way. He will get it in time.

 

Then we go back to the first thing that we were working on and get the best bend yet.

Everything flows together and it is a great feeling and a good View From Up Here.

 



Greener Grass

What a beautiful day we had in South Central Kansas! It was sunny and 72 degrees, so after a very good ride this morning and a fun outing with my family Tex got a bath with his new Espana Hair Products. Carol Lambe suggested that if we start with a clean horse the waterless shampoo and the detangling spray will work really well, and it was a great chance to get conditioner in his tail.

 

So I recruited Emily (my 7 year old daughter) to help

 

She was great holding Tex while I bathed. He was just happy to graze.

 

After his bath Emily insisted that he needed more grass and wanted to take him on a walk around our property, so off they went to find Greener Grass.

 

What a sweet pair!

A Growing Tail

I am so excited to have ad a chance to work with Carol Lambe and her wonderful hair products Espona SILK. Carol read my original blog post lamenting about Tex's short tail and she contacted me to see if she could help. Carol sells the products through

her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/CarolandHank

CH Enterprises - Corporate Reps/Distributors for Espana Silk Products and she came out today to introduce me to the products and show me how best to use them on Tex (and some of my other horses)!

Tex loved the attention! And his coat, mane and tail LOVED the Espona Products! He looked and felt so clean and I will be using it not only to help his tail grow, but to clean him up before shows this winter and to keep him looking great!

 

 

After the pampering Tex I did some groundwork and I rode him a bit in the round pen. He was so relaxed and waiting and listening I decided that we were ready to canter. He had been struggling with really reaching in the canter when I was lunging him, but he seemed so much more comfortable after Dr. Quinley Koch did her chiropractic magic on Wednesday that I was fairly confident that he could canter under saddle today.

Sometimes it is the little things that are just thrilling! He has two leads and he was stepping under behind. He carried me with my deep seat and long leg and was unsure, but not scared. We have a long way to go before we are ready to canter in a dressage test, but the foundation is there and he is learning what life off of the track is about, and that is why we are here.

 

 



Road Trip!

Tex (and his friend Grady) got to go on an adventure today. Now, I understand that life as a racehorse has exposed Tex to a lot of stimulating sights and sounds, but there are things like indoor arenas with mirrors, that he may have never seen before.

 

It is easy to work a horse exclusively at home and really feel like they are making great progress. Part of this challenge is for me to push myself outside of the arena, so in order to do that I have to leave the safety of the round pen and home arena and hit the road.  

 

I am so lucky to work at a wonderful barn where I can take may horses! Tex got to stretch his legs and enjoy time in one of the paddocks. See, not all trips involve work!

 

Then we loaded up again and headed over to Tricia Kaufman's barn. A beautiful, peaceful barn and indoor that Tricia has so generously let me use many times in the past. When we got there I took Tex in the indoor where he had a chance to admire himself in the mirrors and start working on focus in a new environment.

 

We also got another great surprise while we were at Tricia's. Dr. Quinley Koch of Elite Equine was there doing chiropractic work on some of the horses and she offered to fit Tex into her schedule, for a discount. And, Tricia covered the cost! I just love how so many people have been pulling together to help Tex!

 

 

Tex LOVED his adjustment and I am really excited to see what changes they made. I have never had chiropractic work done on any of my horses and am very interested in working with Dr. Quinley in the future.

 

Thank you again to Dr. Quinley Koch of Elite Equine and to Tricia Kaufman for offering Texas Citizen such a great chance at a new life!



Patience

Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. (Hebrews 12:1)

 

 

Ahhh, this is a tough one for me. I want everything NOW and horses don't work that way. Tex was great today. It was getting dark and the herd came by again and hung over the fence so we did a lot of small circles, working on focus, bending and relaxing at the walk. It amazes me how much a horse (and myself) can learn when we S-L-O-W down and take the time to learn things the right way, without the tension that speed can cause. And since Tex already knows all about speed, slow is the fastest way to get accomplish what we need.  

Learning Curve Part 2

This is much better bend!

 

And here is why I work so hard to get the bend and focus while I am on the ground

So when I get on, I know that I can keep his attention and keep him focused on me and where I want his feet to go. 

This lateral work has been the key for me to help the horse with every step of his riding.

 

 I am continually amazed at Tex. I watched his races... he looks like a race horse, he went into the bit, he moved like a racehorse, but when I got on today he was not what I was expecting, he didn't ACT like a racehorse. He stood for me to mount, he wasn't bothered by my leg, he listened to my seat, he was quiet, soft and mostly focused (it is tough for even the most seasoned horses to deal with the herd in the back pasture wandering through the woods and watching with their heads over the fence). The best part was when he did become unfocused, I just had to go back to bending.

 

We started in the round pen, but he was so good there that we got bored so I had an idea... Now, I have to admit that I watch horse training DVDs and there is an excellent one with Tom Curtain about retraining racehorses. In this DVD he opens a gate from one of the horses, and that horse became VERY agitated, so this crossed my mind when I decided to open the gate with Tex.

I didn't need to worry! He even moved his hips over so we could get out! 

(I think Evan stopped taking photos because he was a little concerned too)

 

Since I tend to push my luck trying to find new things for my horses I took Tex over the log

He didn't even slow down!

 

We did more circles and bending exercises outside and then trotted around. He has a fantastic sense of rhythm and carries himself without any trouble.  He again amazed me with his willingness, not to mention he has a great trot!

 

I could have ridden another hour, but the weather was starting to get pretty wet and I had other horses to ride so we finished with a good pat and I can't wait to get on tomorrow

 

 

 

 

Almost time!

Tomorrow is exactly 120 days from March 22 and THE BATTLE OF THE X's! That means two great things...I can start working with Tex and we only have a few months of this challenging ( ie cold, wet, dark) weather and then back to warmth and dryness!

Tex has been settling into our routine. He is in a stall at night and then out in one of the runs during the day. He is getting acquainted with Dublin, Twix, and Grady and starting to figure out how things work around here. He has met the kids and dogs and is very comfortable with it all.

I have also been getting to know him. He has a cute high pitched whinny, he LOVES to eat, and he takes a bite of grain and then a sip of water (I was wondering how his water bucket got so dirty over night!) He doesn't always know that I am there and he has trouble with committing to me being on his right side, but he does love attention and will leave his nice warm shed and meet new people. He is noble and confident and everything that an athlete of his caliber should be. I can't wait....

A Tale of a Tail

Evan (my wonderful husband) and I trekked to Fort Worth on Nov 15th to pick up Texas Citizen. It is an easy 6 hour drive from our home in Douglass, KS straight down through OK to TX. It was a cloudy, dreary day but we had a great time. We picked up Tex at Remember Me Rescue in the drizzle on Sunday morning. He is an amazing boy! He hoped right on the trailer and off we went...

 

The snow started about 2 hours into our drive and our lovely 6 hour drive there turned into a white knuckle 7 1/2 hour drive home. Luckily, Tex must be well traveled because we didn't hear a peep from him the entire trip. He was curiously looking out the window at each gas stop but was never concerned, didn't paw, didn't move around, what a trooper!

 

We got home in the dark, cold and snow at 7:00 Sunday night. The temperature had dropped from 45 degrees to 14 degrees during our drive. Tex settled in and was so happy to see a little grain and lots of hay and water that he didn't worry about his new blanket, or his new friends.

 

That was when I noticed that HE HAS NO TAIL! Ok, so not no tail, but really not much of a tail, like not even to his hocks, it is VERY short! So that is why this is the Tale of Tex's Tail.

 

So over the course of the next 4 months, along with watching his training progress I am going to be keeping an eye on his tail to see if there are any changes. He is getting the best food (Purina Ultima donated to him by William's Ace Hardware in Andover, KS) and I will do my best to remember any magic remedies to make tails grow. Keep a watch out for our tail!

 

 

 

The journey begins

Texas Citizen is a very special athlete with an amazing chance. He was a great race horse winning $109,380 on the track during his 28 race career. He ran 4th in two stakes races in LA and was in the top three 10 times in his career.

 

I am honored to have been chosen by Remember Me Rescue to work with Tex to prepare him for his life after the race track. I submitted a resume, photos and videos of me riding to a committee looking for trainers willing to work with OTTBs (Off the Track Thoroughbreds) and then compete in an all Thoroughbred show and Trainer's Challenge called the Battle of the X's in Fort Worth, TX. I will be working with Tex for 120 days and then will be taking him to the show in Will Rogers Coliseum.  

 

This Blog will document Our journey together...