How to hang up a longe line

Here's a technique taught to me by my first trainer, and one I've faithfully followed ever since. I actually cringe when I see longe lines just hung up loose, even if they are neatly coiled.

Step 1: Your longe line is a mess. No matter how careful I am while longeing, by the time my horse is back in his stall, this is always what my longe line looks like.

Step 2: Smooth the whole thing out, and fold it so the loop is down and at the bottom of a large coil; this is about two feet long, total.

Step 3: Coil the whole thing up, being careful to keep it flat and smooth. I do this step over my arm, and just laid it down on the tack room floor for photographic purposes. Leave the snap as a tail, about half as long as the coil itself. Once you get to know your longe line and have done this a million times you'll get a sense of how long to make the coil to get the optimal tail length - but there's really no wrong length as long as it's shorter than the coil.

Step 4: Double the tail OVER the coil, a few inches from the top.

Step 5: Wrap the remaining tail around the top of the coil - snug but not tight, so that the coil stays together but not so tight that it's distorting.

Step 6: When you've got a tail that's a bit longer than the remaining height of the top of your coil, come around from the back and up and through the top. If I'd just gone through from the back, it wouldn't be as secure: you want that last wrap around the side of the top before you go through.

Step 7: Pull tight! You've basically made a knot, and the bulk of the longe line means that it's tough to make it too tight. (Not impossible, though, especially with those nylon longe lines! So be careful.)

Step 8: Hang your longe line neatly from the snap. Gravity means the knot will stay.  You can also slide a hook through the knot itself if the hook is too thick for the snap; it's not quite as secure, but it works.

Does anyone else hang their longe lines this way? any other techniques that leave a neat and secure longe line?

WW: Longeing

Short longeing session: I'm trying right now to focus on building muscle and strength, not necessarily fitness, so that means shorter, more intensive sessions right now.

Spring[ing]!

We are both still alive! Work is stressful, my brain is in a very bad place, but it's also 60 degrees outside today and I am going to ride in my regular breeches tonight come hell or high water.

Here have a video of sassy Tristan longeing on Monday to tide you over until I can make my brain do actual thinking and writing things.

Spring[ing]! #longeing #roanpony #rescuehorse #saveahorserideamustang

A video posted by Amanda G. (@beljoeor) on Mar 9, 2016 at 7:45am PST

Always have a plan when you longe!

Here are a couple of things I have heard people say or I have read on horse blogs:

"I never longe, it just gets them more fit for no reason." 

"If I don't longe him first, he's completely wild!" 

"I'll throw him on the longe line first for a while and let him take the edge off." 

"Longeing is boring, I'd rather be in the saddle!"

"Longeing is just an excuse to throw a bunch of gadgets on a horse, and all gadgets are evil."

All of these statements have one thing in common: a fundamental misunderstanding of the powerful tool that longeing can be.

There are tons and tons of articles and passages in books that can give you specific exercises, but here's my takeaway for the day:

Never longe your horse without a plan.

What do I mean by that?

First, ask the question: why am I longeing my horse?

Possible answers: he's too lazy, he's too energetic, he's cold-backed, I don't want to ride, I want to see him go, I want to work on something specific.

The difference among the answers there is that some of them are actual specific reasons and some of them are general. If he's too energetic, why? Is it because he's generally an "up" horse? Is it because he's been in for a week? Is it because there are distractions around, like at a show? Is it because longeing makes him nervous? Is it because you've taught him that being longed means he can fly around like a kite for twenty minutes?

Dig deeper, and look at what you are actually addressing. Brain? Fitness? Focus?

Then, have a goal in mind. Know what your horse will look like at the end of a longeing session, and what you can do to get him there. Know what the intermediate steps will look like. Know how you'll handle yourself, what you'll ask of him, and how to shape his behavior and his movement to get to that end goal.

If all that sounds familiar, it's because longeing, when done well, is basically the exact same thing as riding. You're using aids to shape a horse's behavior and movement.

Example 1: When I first backed Tristan, we did a lot of longeing. Anytime I introduced anything new to him, for months and months, I did it on the longe line. Saddle? Bridle? Boots? Different saddle? Different girth? Different bit? You name it, if it was going to be strange to him, I put it on, then put him on the longe line. For these sessions, I was looking for him to start off a little startled, but to get him focused back on me and doing productive work. I didn't just let him tear around until he got over it; I asked for transitions, spiraled him in and out, and basically did things that would test his focus on me.

crappy photo, but productive longeing session.

Example 2: The more high strung horse. Your horse won't focus on you at a show? He comes out of his stall in mid-air? Ok, sure, put him on the longe line. But have a plan. For a horse like that, I would do transitions, starting low and going up as he proved to me he was going to keep his brain. Lots of transitions within gaits, primarily looking for a response to "easy" as a calming and slowing method. I'm ok with energy, as long as it's controlled and directed. Are the transitions sharp and clean? Can you shorten the time between them? For this type, I'm going to keep a close eye on body language: where are his ears? What does his overall musculature look like - tense and bunched, or loose and relaxed? Is he tipping like a motorcycle, ready to take off again at any second? Is he hauling on the longe line or maintaining a steady tension? By the end I want a horse that will transition off of voice command the second I finish saying the word, who has an overall "loose" look even if he's moving forward, whose inside ear is kept on me, who is not testing the longe line.

Example 3: The specific goal session. I do this one a lot with Tristan still, as a regular part of his conditioning program. I'll think about what is lacking in his under saddle work, because I'm not a great rider or because something about the under saddle work is impeding him. Most often, this is quality of gait or a specific type of strengthening (back, hind end, etc.).

Last night, it was about strengthening his hind end. So I warmed him up, looking for him to release tension and focus on me. Say that took 10 minutes total, walk and trot both ways. He started off a bit lazy, and sharpened up and loosened up, dropping his head, stepping under more in his walk, and on a relatively steady circle. Then I went back to the mounting block and added my butt bungee thing because I wanted the resistance for his hind end.

I knew that a successful session for this would look like him moving normally or even a bit better than he does without the resistance band: tracking up underneath, using his back (one reason I like to longe with just a surcingle or without tack is that I can really see his back muscles work), keeping his head low and relaxed, and keeping his own rhythm without me remind him with the whip constantly. That took about 15 minutes, and each thing I did was with that end goal in mind. Sometimes that meant asking for a few strides of canter, to loosen his back. Sometimes that meant nagging him a bit with the whip to really use his hind end. Sometimes that meant an "eeeeeeeeasy" to get him to go from short quick frustrated strides to longer and looser strides.

After I got what I wanted, I took off the resistance band and handwalked him around the edge of the arena for another 10 minutes to cool him down and get him off the tight circle. Total elapsed time 35 minutes, with a tired but focused pony at the end.

So, really, all I'm trying to say is: have a plan. Have an end goal in mind, take steps to get there, and don't just flail and say that you hate longeing and it's useless. It's a tool, like so many of the other things we do with horses. Giving it up is your loss.

Wordless Wednesday: Longeing the Wild Mustang

Winter Longeing

Though it is a slow start, we are slipping into winter. It's been cold and rainy the last few days, and I have been less than motivated. Mostly I've been either taking care of 8 million things around the house or lying on the couch reading/watching Jessica Jones on Netflix.

I am getting out on and off though, and last night I got home and my husband said "go to the barn. I'll have dinner ready when you get back," which I think was a ploy so he could spend the next three hours playing Assassin's Creed on our new TV, but I'll take it.

So: longeing. I wanted to make it productive rather than simply stretching, so I set up poles in a "circle of death" exercise.

I just clipped the line onto his halter and focused on getting a consistent forward stride, improving his tracking up, and improving the way he used his body over the poles. We started with five minutes of walk each way, then I moved him to the other half of the ring and let him trot without poles for three minutes each way. His trot has been sticky lately, so I let him jump into canter when he wanted to, buck around a little bit to loosen up when he wanted to, and focused on the end game of a smooth, consistent trot at the end.

Tristan may not have fancy gaits, but when he clicks in, consistency is definitely one of his biggest assets. Given proper support in the form of driving aids and framing he will move those hind legs like a metronome.

Then we moved back over to the poles to work over them in the trot. I watched his legs to see how he was using them, and the muscles of his back, and of his stomach. It was really gratifying to see that he tightened his stomach, lifted his back, raised his tail, and dropped his neck. His ears stayed pricked throughout as he hunted down the next pole. He loves jumping so much, I sometimes think pole work that I leave him to figure out - like longeing over them - is a partial substitute.

Like the consistency of his hind end, he's always been a horse that likes to have a say in figuring out his footwork. When we jumped regularly, I never counted strides. (I know, hunters, I'm sorry, but I am telling it like it is!) I focused on getting him put together, focused on the quality of the gait I was riding, focused on keeping him straight, and let him figure out what he wanted for striding. He would usually flub the first few fences but as I worked harder on getting a better quality horse to present, he would start to get into it and would adjust his own striding as we approached. Every time. If I trusted him, he figured it out.

midway through figuring it out

He started off a little stilted and not quite figuring out his placement. He would get to the pole on the same wonky striding every time, placing his left hind right at the base of the pole, then hitching a little bit awkwardly as he didn't have a good angle to lift his right hind over it. Every single time, his left hind would almost tap the pole, his right hind would have to swing awkwardly, his head would raise, and he would look slightly frustrated.

Then, he started to shorten his stride before the poles one stride out, which resulted in some missteps and kicking the poles. Then he started two strides out, and once he started to figure it out he very quickly had the whole thing figured out and was absolutely nailing the striding, getting the pole perfectly in the middle of his stride and carrying an elevated, more swinging gait through the entire circle.

This happened in about 3 minutes at the trot. When I swapped to the left it took him less than 30 seconds to adjust his striding again and he just sailed through it without any mistakes. I asked him for just two circles at the canter, and he was so into it he would've kept going, though he was a bit tired.

Give me a thinking, figuring-it-out horse any day of the week, you guys. I will put up with an awful lot, but I can't abide stupidity, especially deliberate obtuseness. I have never met a stupid mustang yet. (Obnoxious, opinionated, spooky, deadheaded, yes, but never, ever stupid.)

Total time elapsed was about 25 minutes, but it was a hugely fruitful exercise for both of us.

Unsettled

Last night, I drove around the many, many washed-out roads to get to the barn (about which more later). I was meeting someone who wanted to look at my trailer at 6pm, and I got there at 5, so I longed.

It was, to say the least, dissatisfying. Tris was not particularly interested, and showed only glimmers of good work. He was capital-L-Lazy, and would not step out in the walk and kept hopping into the canter in the trot.

He settled into a lovely trot going left, finally, nice and stretchy but never settled in going right, even after some canters to get him warmed up and blowing. He just looked uncomfortable, stiff, and discombobulated. I couldn't place a specific problematic area: I watched his hocks, his front feet, his stifles, his back, everything to see where he was not using it effectively or not weighting properly. I was stumped. I can't describe it any more than he just wasn't using his body well, at all. His legs were clean, cool, and tight, his back was not sensitive, nothing obvious was out of sorts.

So who knows. It's possible he's been stuck inside the last few days and not getting as much moving about time as he needs. He's definitely due for his Pentosan, and that niggling in the back of my mind about hock injections has started again. We'll see.

Between that, the fact that the people who came to see the trailer did not buy it (they were lovely, but it wasn't right for them, sigh), and the tripling of the length of my barn commute due to washed out roads, not the best night ever.

Riding Update: Conditioning & Longeing

What about my actual horse, you might ask?

Well. Not much exciting.

I'm riding, which is in and of itself exciting after the winter/spring we had. So there's that.

We've done about two weeks of a conditioning program. I am an expert at rehabbing this horse now. I spent some time really thinking hard about how to push him, looked for some new tools (reviews coming soon) and we've been diligently pursuing trot sets and planned days off since. I'm working him 4-5 days a week, huzzah for that.

Sunday, I came off. It's been four days now and I keep getting new and exciting aftereffects: mostly throughout my back, which seems to have re-aggravated an old riding injury. It's not dire, but it means I've been moving more slowly and making my fiance bring up all the boxes from the basement to unpack.

Since then, I haven't felt up to hijinks, so I've been longeing in his chambon. I love that thing. With the understanding that it does really make him use his muscles, I'm longeing for ~35 minutes, then giving him a day off. Probably I will get back in the saddle on Sunday.

Summer means bath season again. Baths are the WORST.

The good news is after 40 minutes of longeing on Tuesday, which included canter in which he had to put his damn head down, he was only slightly warm to the touch at the end. It was a muggy, humid day in the 70s, so the fact that he was a) not blowing and b) not warm made me feel good. He was clearly a little muscle-tired, and drank half his bucket when he got back to his stall, but more of a good workout tired rather than an out of shape exhausted.

He's also in good weight and I like where his topline is headed. I just have to stick to my guns and keep pushing him instead of getting nervous and backing off.

Lunatic Longeing Pony

I worked on Christmasy things for my day off yesterday: made cake for cake balls, worked on some crafts, wrapped presents, crocheted, all of the above.

I also hit refresh on the package tracking for my Secret Santa gift approximately eight hundred million times. DAMMIT, UPS. I was so on top of things, and then it turns out it was a three week order and the shipping was slooooooooow. SIGH. Today, hopefully!

Anyway: when I headed out to leave, Arya ignored the food I had left for her and sat in front of the door and whined so hard her whole body was shaking. She is already the whiniest dog in the whole world - crying is her love language basically - but this was a cut above. So I gave in and brought her to the barn.

Now, the last time Arya came to the barn and hung out in my car while I was riding, she puked all over the driver's side of my then-brand-new car. Like, everywhere. I was cleaning puppy vomit out of the window buttons with a goddamn toothpick.

Anyway. I walked her around a bit and we worked on focusing and behaving when everything in the whole world was more exciting than focusing on me: eating poop, eating snow, playing with other barn dogs, eating hay, eating poop...you name it. She's nowhere near off leash ready yet, so that involved quite a lot of "WHOOOOO" and hitting the end of the leash, and then having a focused session about behaving on a loose leash, getting treats for touching my hand, re-focusing on me, walking when I said...etc. Some people can let their 14 month old dogs off leash. Arya's brain would immediately unspool out of her ears and she would never come back. Ah well.

Then, the test: I put her in my car, settled all the various snacks out of the way, closed the door, and kept my fingers crossed.

I opted to put Tristan on the longe line. Just bridle, no surcingle and chambon. He's been working really well that way, and today was another example. He's in a great weight right now, and feeling good from the pergolide and pentosan. He moved out nicely, and responded well - even felt good enough to throw a couple of bucking fits as his back loosened up.

He worked for about 25 minutes overall, and over a pole from time to time. As I've been longeing him more and more, I'm learning that he doesn't longe very well at the canter. He tips in, and I have no good way to correct him in the longeing setup I'm using. (I could go to double lines, but I haven't done that with him in years and quite frankly I'm lazy.) He motorcycles and drops his inside hip and bends to the outside. That pushes him off balance and leads to a bit of a frantic scramble. He'll get half a circle or so of a good pushing canter (and he's starting to lift through his back the teensiest bit when he does that, which is exciting), and then fall in and scramble.

Trot, now - he works beautifully at the trot on the longe line. Nice and lifting and after a canter, a loose back and stretchy gaits. He's becoming a pleasure to watch, truly. It's so nice to see him building strength again!

He actually got a bit warm from the longeing, so I left him under a cooler with a note for the barn staff to put his blanket back on at grain time - just about 45 minutes later.

And Arya? Behaved perfectly. Cried and screamed up a storm when I got back to the car, but we stopped for McDonald's on the way home, and some fries went a long way toward rehabilitating me as a parent in her eyes.

Monday Morning Longeing

After a short hack out on Sunday -

hold please, I need to complain.

AFTER A SHORT HACK IN THE SNOW ON SUNDAY. YES, SNOW. NO, IT DIDN'T STICK AND IT WAS ONLY SPORADIC AND FOR 10 MINUTES. IT STILL COUNTS.

Anyway. After a short hack out on Sunday, Monday was for longeing, for a couple of reasons: I didn't have all day to tack up and go through a lengthy warmup for a dressage school, I didn't really want the kind of work that a dressage school promised, and I wanted to get back in to using the chambon and the resistance band.

(Side note, someone on COTH linked to my original post about my homemade resistance band and it has taken off in the last few days. Kind of cool!)

I was very glad I had chosen longeing, because I got a nice, clear progression. He started off a bit stiff when loose, and chose to canter for a while instead of trotting. I let him, because it was a nice, soft, semi-balanced canter, not careening around, and if that's how he wanted to warm up, I was ok with it.

After 15 minutes of warming up, I put the chambon and resistance band on. Initially, he fussed about them both, but within a minute or two he actually settled in to the work nicely. He had some lovely, LOVELY soft, stretchy work, especially to the right. Huge difference in length of stride and the way he used his body. I worked him for another 10-15 minutes, and then put him away in his wool dress sheet - he was the teensiest bit warm, and I wanted him to cool out but not get cold quickly, especially since the temperature has plummeted 40 degrees in the last 2 days.

I'm still learning and feeling my way through how to handle and manage him with blankets and the winter coat. When I got to the barn he was wearing his quilted stable blanket with turnout sheet over it, though it was about 35. I felt under the blanket and he felt cozy - not too warm at all. Good!

After a little while of putting away tack, I put his blanket and sheet back on and out he went. I scattered two flakes of hay all over his dry lot so he'd move around a bit, and he was happy as a clam when I left.

PS - Don't forget to vote in the Marguerite Henry Readalong poll! So far, King of the Wind is handily in the lead; add your vote for that to ensure its victory or pick another book.

PPS - Giveaway alert! Check out Equestrian at Hart for a Spreadshirt custom t-shirt giveaway.

Why Blogs Are Useful

I woke up Saturday morning thinking about the way Tristan wobbled downhill on Friday night. I didn't like it. I kept mulling it over and over again, remembering the feel of it. I remembered that he felt okay, strong and fresh even, on the flat and on gentle inclines.

Then I was skimming back over my blog and I re-read my Thursday night post about longeing on the circle of death, and a light bulb went off.

I overworked him a bit on Thursday. All those poles worked his hocks and his stifles and gaskins, and he was too sore/tired to balance himself properly going downhill. The work we did in the dressage ring - steady, rhythmic, workmanlike but not spectacular - was just what he needed to stretch through there.

Ever feel like you're constantly having revelations just a little bit too late to actually help? Yeah. I wish I'd given him a little bute Thursday night. Still, I'm glad to have an explanation rather than worrying. I was actually flirting with the idea of having the vet out to do a lameness eval.

Longeing: Re-Introducing the Circle of Death

I got to the barn last night and the ring was littered with random stuff: chairs, poles, jump standards, cavaletti blocks. The two lessons that had just wrapped up were beginners, and they were working on steering.

Sweet. Since I am at such a dressage-centric barn, I almost always err on the side of laziness and leave the poles in the corner. Now I had an excuse to play with them!

I longed in the halter only, and started off with some quick warm-up circles in an open area, then transitioned to a circle of death exercise. (We've done this more in-depth before; for diagrams, see this post.)

I started pretty aggressively, with poles set on the second highest setting of the cavaletti blocks.

The middle of these options.

I only set cavaletti on the outside end, to create an angled pole. Things started kind of ugly, with Tristan either ducking inside the circle or doing super-awkward dives and hops to the cavaletti in order to get over them. He hates to touch them, and will usually clip one only once, but he does resort to ridiculous antics to get over them. He's a horse who "does his own footwork" in that he will get you over the jump, but he is rarely hunter-pretty at it without some serious work.

We had an argument about ducking inside the circle, that resulted in some bucking and cantering and kicking out, but after 10 minutes or so of going both ways, he started nailing the striding and taking the poles in stride, really stretching over his back and articulating his hock and stifle to do so. I made sure to give lots of praise for each one correctly achieved, and he clearly started gaining confidence and hunting them out, instead of avoiding them.

I then dropped the cavaletti blocks and dragged the poles to the outermost bounds of a 20m circle, and worked on cantering a bit. The first few were exciting - Tris slid right to the "base" of a pole and launched himself in a deer leap that would've cleared a 3' fence, then landed bucking and snorting. He then proceeded to jump each one, awkwardly, in turn. Then he decided to drop to a big beautiful flowing trot stride over each pole. Finally, he took the poles in a canter stride and then started putting together an entire circle of even canter strides. It was pretty neat to watch.

I was pleased with his work, overall. Tonight: long hack with some uphill trots.

Also, to add, A Gift Horse is doing a giveaway of a Dapplebay t-shirt. I love those shirts. Go, enter!

Wheeeeeeeeee

You may have noticed an excess of non-current postings last week; sorry! I did that thing where you're not supposed to tell the internet you're out of town, so no one robs you. Or something. Anyway, I was off all last week for my brother's wedding out of town, and I'm back now, and I have 567 blog posts to read. O.o

Last night, I swung by the barn to longe Tristan and loosen him up before his massage, since he hadn't been worked in a week. The barn manager warned me that he had been a jerk on the way in - stopped to eat some grass, and when he was reprimanded started rearing and bucking. She said they'd had a discussion, which I am 100% ok with - good behavior is his #1 rule.

So I put him on the longe line and foolishly did not take that into account and he was a LUNATIC. Not even for Tristan, for any horse. I lost count of the good back-cracking bucks and kicks out and half-rears and sprinting around and whooooooo boy. What was supposed to be a 15 minute loosening turned into a 30 minute schooling, followed by 15 minutes of walking up and down the driveway to cool him out. I have some charming rope burns on my hands because I got complacent and forgot my "always wear gloves" rule for handling horses. That'll teach me.

J. noticed immediately during his massage that he looks brighter, his muscle tone is dramatically better, and he just has a spark back to him.

We are at 5 weeks into the pergolide, and I'm declaring victory. :D Tonight I get on and see how he feels under saddle. This could be fun...

Poll Results for Longeing/Lunging/Other

So the results have been in for a little while but I have been a very bad blogger.

With 19 votes, here's how it came out:

13 votes, or 63% for "lunging"
5 votes, or 26% for "longeing"
1 vote, or 5% for "other"

(Dear "other," what do you say instead? Come let us know!)

Check out the comments on the original post, too. I tend to agree with Carly: lunge is a forward movement; longe is what the horse does in circles around you.

I wonder if it's a difference between British or American spelling?

Longeing Regimen

In addition to Tristan's long slow distance hill rides, I've been longeing 1-2 days a week.

Whole lotta gear. Half pad, surcingle, elastic thingy, longe line, chambon, side reins.

Typically we start out with a walk both directions with the chambon and the elastic thingy. 

When I first started back up with the longeing, I tried out the side reins, to see if they worked for him now that he had a better idea of self-carriage.

NOPE. I don't have pictures, but he basically inverted his neck and braced against them and never once softened and in fact was clearly building strength in all the wrong ways. Back to the tack box, side reins.

I do really like the chambon, though. It's firm but gentle, and it reinforces the things I want, namely, don't keep your head at a 90 degree angle to your body. It does not do anything about his nose, simply encourages a lowered poll.

Clearly we have some work to do, both on my photography skills and on his tendency to fall on the forehand in the trot when I'm not nagging every step.

See what I mean about the chambon, though? He is, yes, a bit on the forehand but he's actually doing a little bit of coming up through his back thanks to not having his ears in the rafters.

All's well that ends well!

Progress

Some small pieces of progress!

My hand is still healing but I've downgraded the type of bandage I'm using and I am slowly regaining mobility. Should be able to ride by the end of this week. I'm scheduled for barn chores this weekend.

In the meantime, still free longeing. Last night I got back to work after a few days out of town visiting family, and Tris was fresh and raring to go. He bucked and farted and galloped around and was generally naughty for quite a while once I asked for a trot.

We did some work on discipline issues: if you're going to spin around and let fly with your hind end and generally give me the middle finger, then you are going to keep moving, no matter what. I would test him occasionally in asking him to turn or waaaaaaalk, and when I got an immediate, obedient response he was allowed to walk again. If not, back to the big forward trot for him!

I'm actually really liking what the free longeing is doing for him: it allows me to really focus on his hind end engagement and get him moving forward and through. Without the added complication of the longe line that's all we're doing - and since he's free longeing, I don't have to worry as much about torquing his joints and/or overdoing it. He's basically going 'round and 'round the arena in exactly the same way he would under saddle.

So he has to have a big forward walk and trot and use his back for the entirety of the work, which is doing great things, I think. He's still clearly gaining muscle through his back and neck and hindquarters. It's so nice to see the progression! Last night, some of his big forward fancy trot had a ton of suspension (caveat: for him); his front feet were practically floating off the ground for a few strides at the time as he sat back on his hind end and really engaged his hocks.

It also lets me really see any imbalances. For example, right now his right hind is tracking...maybe 1/2" shorter than his right hind. So we worked to the right and through transitions to get him to step under more, to flex that hock more. It didn't say to me pain or problem, just stiff and a bit uneven.

Free Longeing Some More

Against all odds, I made it to the barn last night for about 1.5 hours in the middle of a 14 hour workday. I even beat evening grain, which doesn't always happen!

We free-longed again and he is getting even better. We had one or two incidents early on, and near-ish to the end when he was getting bored and sick of me he let fly with his hind end in my direction and took off, but he regretted it. (You want to run, pony? Go ahead, keep running!)

I like free longeing right now; even though I still can't grip a longe line, I can get and keep him moving, and he travels the entire circumference of the indoor, so it's easier on his joints. I can control his stride and keep him forward, and praise when he stretches down. It's even a little bit of exercise for me as I jog alongside him in the trot. And it's great for our communication: by the end of the session he was adjusting his gait and position by my body language alone, and his response to voice commands had sharpened up considerably.

We did 10 minutes of walk each direction, 5 minutes of trot each direction, 2.5 minutes of walk-trot transitions both directions, and then a few minutes of trot-canter transitions; I didn't time those. I basically ran him through a few until I felt he was responsive and had a smoother transition and then called it quits. I wanted to drill the walk-trot more for muscle-building purposes.

Tonight, hopefully more of the same, and then out of town for four days - of course, four of the nicest days we've had in months. It might even hit 40!

Spicey Pony

I snuck away from work for a little while today, in the middle of my second 12 hour day in a row. Because I only had a very small window, I just tossed Tristan on the longe line nekkid. Halter only.

He was pretty up, and blew right through my commands to start with, and did a fair amount of bucking and farting and cavorting when I asked him to walk on. Then the apprentice barn dog, a 12 week old Australian Shepherd, thought it would be great fun to caper about with him, and Tristan agreed.

Tris actually loves dogs and the puppy was lucky that was the case; he would run a step or two along with Tris, and Tris took off bucking and farting. The puppy spooked and sprinted back in the aisle and then snuck back in for a few more steps.

I don't mean to say I was making light - the puppy was clearly not allowed in the ring, but Tris was being enough of a handful that I couldn't shoo the puppy out myself. He would leave the ring when ordered but only for a few seconds, and after three or four play attempts the barn manager arrived and dragged him back to his crate in the tack room.

After that, Tristan settled down to be a bit more workmanlike. He had some nice stretching out and some big forward movement. We worked on transitions for a while, particularly tracking left. His left hind has always been weaker, so we really worked hard at walk-trot and trot-canter transitions on voice command. They sharpened up nicely, and we schooled them a bit to the right.

Tristan is so often so laid back and quiet that it's easy to let him be a little sloppy in his voice commands, so today was a good opportunity to really drill those. We also worked on halt-walk and ground tying. I also worked a bit with a new voice command I'm installing, turn on the longe line. It's only useful when longeing in his halter like this. He turns to the right nicely but doesn't always want to turn to the left.

In all, I was pleased with the work he did, even if it was only 25 minutes or so. I had a nicely forward and responsive horse, who kept one ear and eye on me at all times and was responding to my body language. I'll get up early tomorrow before work to ride, and then Sunday and Monday am covering for barn chores so I'll ride after both those days as well.

Longeing after a few days off

The cold snap has broken here in the great white north. Yesterday, it was up to 20F. Today, it will go up to 30F. I haven't even buttoned up my winter work coat or worn gloves in the last two days. Our furnace is occasionally turning off and not working overtime in a desperate attempt to keep the apartment marginally warm. It's amazing.

Last night, I headed to the barn. I'd spent all day thinking about what kind of ride I wanted to plan after a week and a half off. Sure, he'd walked around for about 45 minutes on Monday, but he hadn't had any proper work in 10 days.

The more I thought about that, the more I re-thought the idea of riding at all. I decided to longe. As it turned out: good decision!

I started with a good hard curry all over to loosen his muscles and dig in to his coat, since I hadn't been grooming him much in his time off either - the barn picks his feet out 2-3x a day so I knew he wasn't exactly suffering, plus I felt bad pulling his blanket just to groom him for 10 minutes. (There's no logic there, I know.)

Then I put on his surcingle and the chambon, twisted the reins of his bridle up into the cheekpiece to get them out of the way, and we headed into the ring. Almost immediately, I was very glad I had longed! He was a bit keyed up and antsy while I was attaching the longe line, but I attributed that to the fact that I'd pulled him from his stall just as the other horses were getting their grain, the poor baby.

I sent him out on the longe line, and before I even had time to bring up the whip to point at his hindquarters, he exploded. Buck, fart, crowhop, take off, you name it. Two whole circles around me! I know, some of you with very "up" horses are laughing at me right now but this is Tristan. Any bucking exuberance is extraordinary. I have to admit when he first took off I was laughing too hard to really pull him back, but he eased up nicely when I asked him too.

He was clearly a bit stiff all around, and I was glad both that I'd grabbed the chambon and that I was longeing. He clearly relaxed and came through bit by bit through the whole session, which lasted about 25 minutes. He still had some energy at the end, but I hadn't been looking to burn energy, just to loosen him up, and he was coming through quite beautifully in both directions at the walk and the trot. He even made some attempts to stretch in the canter, something we've been working on a lot.

He was generally saucy through the whole session, and would occasionally stop and turn in. When I sent him back out in the direction I wanted him he would snort and let fly with his back feet and prance around a few strides before settling in. Nothing really naughty, more playful and just a touch uncooperative and spunky.

Tonight, I'll get back on him and do a more thorough ride, probably incorporating poles.

In a horsekeeping note, after a three-round botulism vaccine (!), all the barn horses are now on round bales. Tris is very, very happy. The barn manager mentioned that she was a teensy bit worried about Tris - thought he looked a little bloated when he came in - but he laid down and took a nap and then pooped a lot. So...just a pig.

Winter Mocks Plans

First - Hannah put up some terrific photos & video of the GMHA sleigh rally - go and check them out!

After a gorgeous day on Sunday, I arrived at the barn to do chores on Monday morning to find the vilest weather possible: mid-30s and raining. All the snow and slush had frozen solid overnight, and the water was pooling on top of the ice. It was impossible to walk with any speed. The assistant barn manager and I spent nearly an hour chipping gravel from the frozen pile at the back of the barn, shoveling it into a wheelbarrow, and then scattering it in front of the barn to try and create a path with some traction to get to the paddocks. About three quarters of the way through, the rain picked up and started blowing sideways and we reached the joint decision not to turn them out anyway.

But it was a damn fine path nonetheless.

I put Tristan's waterproof sheet on him, grabbed some hay, and put him out in the shed paddock you can see in that picture anyway. He hung out in the shed, and I checked on him every 20 minutes or so to make sure he wasn't too cold or wet or generally disgruntled. All the other horses got a turnout rotation in the indoor to stretch their legs while we did their stalls. Tris managed about 2 hours outside before he asked to come in, and he got cozied up with a cooler in his stall with some hay for a little while - and then he got his turn in the indoor to keep the baby company.

SO FLIPPING CUTE.

Baby Greta was so happy to be out of her stall she bucked and farted her way around the indoor, and Tristan even put up some antics, cantering around and following her and making some leaps through the air. I wish I'd thought to get a video of it!

When stalls were done, I settled in with a snack to watch a jumping lesson. Prince heard the crinkle of my cheese & crackers wrapper and opted out of focusing on the job at hand.

Whoops.

Then Tris got longed with his chambon and his rubber butt-thingy. I tightened up the chambon so that it would actually kick in if he flung his head into the air and after some cranky flailing, he settled in to some beautiful stretchy work. I really do like the chambon: it's the sort of thing that doesn't trap him into a particular way of going, but reminds him without harshness when he's dramatically bracing. He was even starting to soften in the canter!

Tonight, the plan was to ride and incorporate poles at walk and trot, but when I checked the weather forecast this morning I discovered that we're not predicted to get into double digits, and the wind chill is far, far below that. I'm still a bit torn but it looks like the smart thing to do will be to stay home, since it'll be too dark to hack (my preferred too-cold activity) and we won't get any productive work done in single digit temperatures. Booo.