Back in Action

I have been waiting for you 11March!!! One addtional hour to go riding. I dislike winter and every thing it stands for. Not one thing is good about it. The sun is setting later and the weather is showing signs of possibly staying warm. I'm happy.
The first warm day was a little over a week ago. I dicided to skip riding and give the BRH a bath.

64* is NOT warm enough for a bath!

Then it was on to conquor his tail. I love his tail and have had sleepless nights over the bundle of protein that looks like a rats nest. Over the past few months I have dumped conditioner on it and wrapped it until the weather was warm enough for me to fully brush every strand. For the record, I don't think the poor conditioning attempts helped at all.

No! Not the tail! Pleeeeeeasee not the tail!

Perfection---yes, it's dark. That is how long it took me.

The following weekend the weather dropped into the 30's* and the wind was terrible. We decided to pass on the riding in open, hurricane force winds, corn fields. Last week was the first of somewhat consistant days above 45*. We took a few short rides, just becasue the daylight was limited.

Yes, that is a bear in a field...a BIG bear. Where are the bears coming from? Huh, Liz?? I blame Lance!!!!

Thursday was the first day of asking the BRH to put in some effort. I timed the trotting sets and asked him to hold his form for longer than he was willing to offer. The fun thing about riding in the corn/bean fields is the distractions. Olly is easily distracted. This gives us both practice on focusing and I find that we don't get bored as easy. Win, win. We continue on at a good working trot, focusing and I start to feel him engage his hind end and round his back. I release my little finger off one of the reins and scratch his withers and tell him good boy. I then realize that he only held it for a few strides. I turn around and see that he was pooping and not *really* engaging his hind end like I would have hoped. FAIL--I was still encouraging. 

Holy Big Buck Tracks!!!!

Friday knew that Olly would be slightly sore from pushing him a bit the day before so I went out (with Grandma Gracie in tow) to brush and love on him. I also did a few carrot stretches just for the heck of it. I go out in the paddock and bring him to the hitching post. As we all know, the BRH does bow. Not that difficult of a trick to teach, BUT what I found interesting/hilarious was Olly started to bow to beg for the carrots. I wish I could have gotten THAT on video or even a picture. Of course when I went to recreate the incident, it didn't happen.

"Is this far enough to get a carrot?"

Saturday morning I decided that we would go out for a nice long hack. There is so much to explore out here with all this open land. Shana (the BO) did inform me that to the east the farmers are cool if you ride in the fields, but to the west it's a no-go. Fair enough--to the east we go!! It was a bit chillier out. I had a hoodie and my Carhart, which at one point I may of been a mistake. The trotting sets were working me too, but after we broke to a walk I was thankful I had it. We walked along side the road and any path that went through the fields. We did only one canter set, just because I could feel his fatigue from the trotting sets.
Of course, when we turned around to head back in the direction of the barn his walking pace almost double than on the way out.

"Mom, why are all my friends short and fat?"

(We live in QH country)

At the last field, the one we were doing trotting sets in a few days before, Olly was on a loose rein, he took it upon him self to cross into the field and increase his pace. I thought it was so cute. "Mom, can we breeze the last few yards?? Huh? Huh? Huh?"I gathered the reins and let him breeze along, I did make sure to not let him go and push himself, even though I know that is what he wanted. When we got back to the barn he was so tired he just stood there and enjoyed all the brushing and loving.

"Don't worry about the halter Mom, I'm not going anywhere."

Sunday we went around the block. Now normally "going around the block" isn't that really that big of a deal, but here a bundle of 200 acre corn fields make up a block. All we did was walk. Yes. The entire time. Just puttin' some miles on. It was relaxing. I could tell Olly was feeling it from the six miles we had done the day before, but he was happy to go out and see new things. We decided to go west, since we would only be walking. It was nice to just feel him under me walking and relaxing. We talked, and by 'we' I mean ME. The BRH is a good listener. As we're just tinkering along, the BRH stops dead in his tracks. Now, a few years ago this would have been a 10ft lateral jump along with a spin and possibly a 10 yard dart in the other direction, but the BRH today has learned that a simple "WTF" will suffice.
*side note* a few years back I read in a magazine (Equus, I think) where this dressage rider taught her horse to freeze instead of bolt. This is where I got the idea from. The BRH was a bolter. Apparently he was chased by lions when he lived in the African Safari many moons ago. Back to the magazine--She talked about being very observant of your surroundings and trying to spot the 'hazards' before your horse does, then prepare. In the begining I felt like that was all I did was ride defensively. But after a few months I noticed that the bolting turned into just jumping sideways, then the jumping lessened to just freezing in place with your front feet out like a giraffe and now most of the time he just freezes and watches until he's comfortable or I say go. Which ever comes first. NOW, this isn't always the case...the camels got the best of the BRH not so long ago.
Why did the BRH freeze on the hack around the block?

**Freeze stance**

"Uhhhhh what kind of horses are those?? Paint's?"



A Three Hour Tour....

This morning when I got up the temperature was like 30*. And since we did some jumping yesterday, I thought, maybe the BRH would appreciate the day off. Well, I walked outside to let Benni out and it was wayyyy warmer than I had thought. I think my phone didn't upload the weather recently. I ran back in the house and threw all the stuff I had pulled out of the fridge to make my lunches for the week, back and grabbed the first pair of jeans I could get my hands on and was out the door. I had said yesterday that we were going to work on dressage, so I dug out the dressage pad and saddle, along with his dressage bridle (loose ring french link) and got started.

It was really nice out, I had on two shirts, standard Indiana attire, and a hoodie. Yesterday I had on two shirts, a hoodie, my Carhart, jeans and thermal breeches. Today, two shirts and a hoodie...well, and jeans of course.
Indiana weather has a mind of it's own. In the winter it is freaking cold and snowy. We are just about an hour east of Lake Mighigan and about an hour and 45 minutes from the Ohio line. I live about fifteen minutes from the Michigan line. Easier said-I live 10 minutes from Notre Dame. In the summer it's hot and humid. Winter starts in Oct and ends in April or May. I hate winter. And my birthday is in the winter...

So, it was nice out and I thought instead of riding in the arena we would head out for a decent hack. Olly loves to go out on hacks, and this was the best day to do it. We started out going our normal way. We trotted down the field where our xc logs are and turned down the first side road. All down this road there are farms with horses. Olly neighs at every farm to see if anyone will answer. None of them usually do, they are just content to be fat and eating their grass. There is, however, one paint that always comes to the fence. He never causes a problem, I think he is just curious.

Curious Paint and Fat Arab

"Let me know if the TB is interesting, I may get up"

Normally, when we get to the end of the road we turn right (this takes us to the camels). Today, we turned left. As much as I dislike being back in Indiana, I have to admit that it is pretty out here in the country. Flat, but pretty. As we were walking I made mental notes of all the cool places to work on endurance. Whenever we found a lane or something we wanted to explore, we went. I kept an eye out for No Trespassing signs. We would retrace back and continue on down the road. My plan was to go around the block. Next side road turn and that should take us back in the direction of the barn. Well, little did I know we would be on the longest hack in Indiana to date.

Indiana goes on for days. You can see for miles.

We kept on doing our trotting sets and cantering sets. No crossroads in sight. Just enjoying the day. I heard and saw a ton of geese, in the fields and in the sky getting ready to set into the fields. Along the side of the road there were hundreds of deer tracks, and a few were of some massive bucks. One of the wooded areas we walked past was full of pines. Turkeys had to be in there. We crossed to the other side of the road and sure enough I heard them. None within sight, but they were loud, just hens clucking no gobbles. That's the next season up, April, I think. 

In the near distance I see, what appears to b a crossroad. I was somewhat thankful only because I was freezing and we had gone about 3 miles. The closer we got to the "crossroad" the more it wasn't. It was a drive way. How do I know?

Well, I know because there is no road sign and it clearly has the "Indiana Driveway" identification, a hubcap.

So since this was not our exit, we continued on. I did happen to see a promising stretch to canter. And it had a sign-I'm sure the sign said "Made for cantering sets for Pru and Olly." Once we got closer it said "Wetland Preserve." I was close.

I am not sure if you can see the little tank (pond) in the back ground.

We did breeze the little strip of grassy land just inside the Wetland Preserve. I could tell Olly was feeling the long hack and we hadn't even found our "crossroad" yet. As we slowed, I saw a road sign, just after a bridge. Finally!! An intersecting road that would turn us in the direction of home. 

Oh, no...it wasn't a road. It was a sign saying we were crossing into the NEXT COUNTY!!

The Kankakee River

I tried but didn't see ANY roads, other than the one we were on. And by this point it was no longer New Rd it was 300S. I could see cars driving a few fields over and it actually crossed my mind to hoof it cross country to "said" road. The corn fields were acres and acres and the wind was blowing. I was starting to wonder why I made the decision to leave my Carhart in the car. I was fine until the sun ducked behind a cloud, then I really started to contemplate turning around. 

The dirt here is so rich, hence all the corn and bean fields.

This picture (above) was the turning point. We had been out for two hours. I knew that it would be a quicker ride home because we weren't exploring as much, plus Olly had turned on his BRH GPS and was double timing it.

Here is a short clip of the BRH's GPS in action. I do not have a helmet cam, this was on my phone.

Once we were headed back it was a bit quicker pace. You can see the first clip of the video he's really working his walk. After a few minutes, I started scanning the surroundings. Even though I am not a fan of being in Indiana, I am thankful for the beautiful day and everything in my life. I did notice that my immediate "family," the ones I love (outside of mom and such) are all male. The irony...Back to the hack.

While scanning, I notice the tower we passed on the way out, it's about a mile or so from the barn. 

See the antenna? It's the tiny little red stick FARRRRRRR in the background.

Yeah, that's how far we had to go to ALMOST get home. We kept going at the pace Olly was tracking. I just let the sun warm me as much as I could and every few hundred yards I tucked my hands under his saddle pad near his withers.

I promised Olly one last breeze in the xc log field before we made it to the barn. As we were approaching the field Olly's attention was diverted.

Mom!! They are taking our xc logs!!!!

The trucks and bulldozer were hard at work removing the last of our make-shift xc course.

We made our last SLOW canter set down this field and walked the rest of the way home. Olly was beat, but happy and so was I. Total time? A little over three hours. Normally I would have no issue riding for this long, but it was too chilly for just a few shirts and a hoodie.