jerk

I had other words for my horse last ride, but this is a family blog…oh wait, no it's not, but I've calmed myself a bit.

new tights, I'm in love with houndstooth!

Heading out for a little lake loop, just wanted a short, quick ride so I could get back and watch some football. I didn't boot because the footing is great. I naively thought "He's been so good, we can trot and canter the whole loop, be done in a hour, I'll be home by 1:00."

dreaming of a lake at normal level, even though we lose this trail

Not to be. I missed almost the whole first half of the game. Oh, but this is a horse blog. Ok, we headed out, down Barking Dog hill, my poor mistreated horse (who hadn't been ridden in four days) trudging along. He heard some hikers ahead and got a little perkier, stepping out. We passed them, and down onto the lake trail. Nice trotting, passed a friend heading the opposite way, still good behavior.

Then there were some horses standing next to the trail. We passed them, and Major thought the race was on. Even if they were still just standing there, facing the other direction. An argument ensued between me (trot like a normal horse) and Major (I must race everywhere at all times) idiot.

Then his tiny pea brain saw tiny horses in the distance. Obviously those horses were winning the endurance race. And our earlier argument escalated into full-out war. There was no forward movement that was not him being a rushy idiot. So we kept going, and going. Passed the turn for home, where he normally will begin to think twice about misbehavior: no reaction. Take the tough rocky upper trail (barefoot): no reaction. Haul him into a circle: momentaty ceasing of naughtiness, then back to old bahavior. I was getting pissed off, which is not good or useful.

walking hill

walking road

So we walked. There would be no fun cantering. There would be no trotting, not a single trot step. There would be no jigging. Any behavior other than walking received either circling, backing many feet, turning around, sidepassing, or other not fun behavior.

It didn't help.

actually standing at the pond, momentarily

walking by alligator rock

We did manage to stop at the pond momentarily and stand still, where he wouldn't drink (but I saw a  bobcat, that was awesome). Four miles later we crossed the road close to home, still trying to jig, and I offered my jerk horse to the endurance riders heading out. He could stand to be ponied for a bit, right?

still trying to jig home

He does behave better when we go at speed for 15+ miles. But I do not want to put more miles on, as he just gets fitter and fitter and I think it's too much to not have time off, etc. He behaves nicely in the arena, so I can't fix this there.

So what to do? I guess some walking rides, listening rides, to see if he gets it. Though I think he will. It's when we add in the speed combined with seeing other horses. He isn't herd bound, just way too competitive. He will be 11 this year. Shouldn't he be over some of this crap?

Of course after the ride he was a hot, sweaty mess. He tried to drink his sponge water. His feet looked awesome (glad to know he can do it barefoot if needed). I still gave him carrots.

Sure I love him, but I don't like him much sometimes. Jerk.

…cannot reach the carrot, trying to strangle myself…(he was supervised of course)

Dear horse thief

To whom it may concern (horse thief!),

I would like to request that you return my horse ASAP. Sure his cute face is deceptively similar, but I noticed the changes.

Do not be deceived, the original version is missing!

I did not notice at first, as we walked through the muddy forest. We were going to keep it quiet, a nice barefoot ride on newly-soft trails. We picked up a trot without any crabby ears, and he listened nicely to slow through the puddles and slick muck.

first puddles of the year

on our way to losing his mind

Out at the lake, this "new" Major was apparent: this horse only comes with three gaits: jig, manic extended trot, and runaway canter.

Luckily he also came with a stop. Notice I did not say a "whoa." But he could be dragged to a stop eventually. I took some photos of the lake for evidence. See the pricked, excited ears? This is not the crabby, supposedly tired from a season of training horse I had two weeks ago. This is not even the horse I had last week on a nice lake ride with friends. Some dark evening you came and replaced that horse with the "new" Major.

threatening skies, low lake, excited ears

"my" rock high and dry

see all the rocks? no wonder there is Granite Bay and Rocklin towns nearby

canal puddle muck, this poor horse had to walk right through the middle after stupidly trying to walk on the side

At this point I was pretty suspicious, but the next part of the trail confirmed it. We left the canal trail to take the upper trail home. This crazy beast continued the manic 14-mph trotting, through my entreaties to "easy," "slow" and "whoa, dammit."

here there were trees to "slow" our flight. Excited horse didn't even want to eat grass!

If you were testing my resolve to one-rein-stop on slippery singletrack and muddy dropoffs, don't worry, I always maintain that ability. This Major did too, little good it did. Over and over. And again. Repeat. Oh boy.

I thought we'd continue on, to at least wear this new horse out a bit, and continued towards Rattlesnake Bar. I thought the craziness would dissapate, because this new horse still obviously knows where home is, but he wanted to just keep going! It however did not seem prudent, as this trail was way too slick for antics.

This trail seems to lead to the Hobbit Shire...tucked among the rocks I suspect.

Turning for home it was totally obvious that my horse was switched. Even on a trail my original Major knew, this horse was doing the little jumping spooky my Major used to do, long ago. And jigging. When asked to maintain a simple trot, I only got freight-train pulling. So we jigged home.

I do thank you for at least leaving a semblance of brains, so when we started down the muddy embankment and started sliding this Msjor kept his footing and did not worry at all as we slid about 10 feet. He also clambered over the newly-fallen tree blocking the access road/route home.

On the road home we can often walk quietly. This horse had to prance, so I walked alongside, trying to keep up. At home he tried to roll in the arena with his saddle still on, and once untacked pretended to be the original Major, by going right back to his leftover breakfast, and asking for carrots.

Now, I know some of this may be my fault: I joked with another rider the other day, saying we could mix her horse's excitability with Major's calm attitude. Maybe you're not a thief, maybe this is some sort of "Freaky Friday" (the original, not the dumb new one) or "Big" and magical powers were involved.

Either way, I'd like my original horse back. Any one of these too-early dark evenings would be fine. Sooner than later would be best, this Major was exhausting. This Major will require some arena work, which I have very little time for, and remedial walking behavior lessons. At your earliest convenience, I'll leave the gate unlocked.

Thank you.

barefoot

In the last month I've ridden 55+ miles (those are just the GPS trail miles), all barefoot, over some pretty tough terrain. Major's feet are looking better and better. I know there is plenty of room for improvement, but he is sound on all the trails we've ridden on, enjoying himself and I am happy with the growth i'm seeing.

As a caveat, I will say that taking photos of your horses feet with your iPhone is not the easiest task. Some of the shots are just the best angle I had, both in the February pictures and the new April versions. I'll hopefully get better at this (and use my real camera!) It is hard to hold the clean foot, juggle the camera, hit the button...in the first set the ground was wet and he put his feet down, sorry for the mess!

February 1:

Comparing the two I can finally see the frog filling out, and maybe the heels decontracting a tiny bit. No deep sulcus any more (thanks to Pete Ramey's goo). I'm looking forward to more months of improvement.

April 10: