A little cross-country

The past week has been spent supporting my daughter's horse habit in several forms.  I took her to a hunter show, and she had her first dressage lesson with Freya and my instructor.  Both of those things went really well, and I plan to do a post about the dressage lesson next.  But first, I wanted to share my daughter's first experience with cross-country jumping.  She has been desperate to try it, but the barn we board at doesn't have a course yet.  (One is in the works, but hasn't been built.)  

As luck would have it, though, the owner of Olaf, the gray mustang that Gemma borrows for the occasional hunter show, invited Gemma to come to a cross-country schooling session at a nearby farm.  So we headed out one evening last week to give it a try.  I honestly expected that Gemma would get on for a few minutes and try jumping a small log or two and we would call it good.

Instead, Gemma got to go over several jumps, including a couple of pretty good-sized logs and what I'm told is a training level bank jump out of water.  It was amazing to see how confident Gemma was and how honest and reliable Olaf was, despite the fact that he'd been giving his owner a little bit of fussiness earlier in the schooling session.  (I am convinced that he knows Gemma is a little kid, and he takes extra good care of her as a result.)  Gemma ended up jumping everything that Olaf had jumped with his owner, with the exception of one brush jump that was hard for Olaf to do without some help from a more experienced rider.

Gemma's regular instructor was at the course schooling one of her horses, and she led the way over the jumps to help Gemma figure out where to go.  I think that was a great strategy because Gemma had literally never been on a cross-country course before, and I'm not sure that she even knew what cross-country jumping was before we got to the farm.  She just wanted to try it because she knew people who did it.

Here are a few pictures and videos of the experience:

 

In this video, Olaf takes his job of introducing Gemma to cross-country jumping very seriously, as he goes about the speed of molasses in January over the first jump:)

 

Then Olaf and Gemma went over the same jump from the other direction at the trot.  What really warmed my heart about this jump was how Gemma gave Olaf a rub on the neck after the jump.  She had watched another student school over the fences and the instructor had suggested the student give her horse a pat after the jumps because she was a sensitive mare who was struggling with some anxiety.  Gemma took the advice to heart and patted Olaf several times as well.

Gemma and Olaf were doing well, so the instructor decided it was time to try something bigger.

And then another bigger jump.  (The person saying, "Holy Crap" in the video is me, with what sounds like a crazy North Dakota accent.  I really could not believe my eyes at that point.)

And the grand finale was the water into the bank jump:

It was a wonderful way to introduce Gemma to cross-country jumping, and it was also a reminder about how confidence-boosting the right horse can be.  I know several people at my barn who have purchased horses that seem to inspire more anxiety than anything else.  The owners are good riders and the horses are good horses.  But they aren't necessarily the best match.  Sometimes, no matter how beautiful the off-the-track-thoroughbreds are, their athleticism is simply too much for the average rider, and an older quarter horse gelding (or a sometimes stubborn and independent mustang) would be a better choice.

Olaf isn't a fancy horse in this area, which is full of well-bred and well-trained thoroughbreds and warmbloods.  But in my opinion, he is worth his weight in gold, and I keep pinching myself because I can't get over how lucky we are to have the opportunity for Gemma to ride him and develop her skills.  Once again, I can see how much horses have to teach us when we let them.

Herd Dynamics

One of the things I have always been fascinated with is how horses behave in a herd situation.  Because I've almost always had to board my horses, I've had a lot of opportunities to see different herd set-ups and watch my horses adapt to new situations. Most recently, I've been watching Freya settle in to her new herd.  Her previous owner had mentioned that Freya tended to be bossy, to the point that she suggested I consider using Regu-Mate.

I have to admit that I didn't take the suggestion seriously.  I've very rarely seen mares in herds that would need such significant intervention.  And Freya had given me no reason to think that her behavior would be so intense.  But I have been keeping my eye on her in the herd and watching for signs that she was causing problems or behaving aggressively.

One thing that I think can lead to resource guarding and aggression is limited food and/or not enough space.  Luckily, the barn I board at has good-sized paddocks and while the grass isn't that great, there are round bales out for most of the year, so the horses always have something to eat.  I think those two factors help create an environment where horses are less likely to engage in undesirable behavior.

When I first turned Freya out with a couple of horses from the herd - Star and Butters - there was pretty minimal drama.  Star and Butters are low drama horses to begin with and aside from wanting a certain amount of personal space, they aren't too picky about who their herd mates are.  Those three mares continue to get along so well that I feel comfortable letting Gemma bring either Star or Freya in from the field by herself.

Freya did initially have some concerns about the only gelding in the herd.  I suspect it was because as an off-the-track-thoroughbred, he lacked some social skills.  I have noticed that sometimes horses without good social skills are treated more roughly by the herd when they are first introduced and sometimes they continue to struggle to find acceptance.  In this case, I think Freya continues to keep the gelding away from her, but otherwise leaves him alone.

When I added Donut to the herd, there was initially not much excitement.  But as time went on, Freya and Donut butted heads quite a bit.  Donut had been used to asserting herself without much pushback from the other horses.  But at two years old, that level of assertiveness is probably not attractive to an older mare with her own assertive personality.  So every day when I turned Donut out with the herd, she and Freya would engage in some posturing by running around and kicking at each other.  Nothing serious, but they definitely were engaged in a significant discussion.

I decided that it might not be the worst thing for Donut to have an older mare educate her a little about herd social structure.  I suspect that in the wild, it would be very uncommon for a young mare to engage in leadership activities in a herd.  So I think it is a good thing that Freya has a more assertive personality and has been helping Donut understand that sometimes she needs to back off based on another horse's signals.

And interestingly, the two mares have been getting along better and better.  Just yesterday, I found them eating together at the round bale and later, both of them came up to me at the fence for a special treat.  They didn't fight over the treats and were respectful of my space and each other, as well as little Butters, who came over to investigate, as well.  So I'll be interested to see how the relationship between the two continues to evolve.

Riding Freya

Now that Freya is settled in with her new herd and most of the kinks in their relationships have been worked out, I decided that it is time to start Freya on a regular riding schedule where we work on schooling and conditioning.  I'm hoping to eventually get to the point where Gemma and I can ride her 5-6 times a week and she gets a variety of activities, with schooling in the arena, hacks around the farm, an occasional horse show, and some trail riding at the many places Nimo and I used to ride.  But that will take some time.

To start with, Gemma and I are alternating riding her.  So Gemma rides her one day and I ride her the next.  I'm keeping the rides short and low-key for now mostly because we are in the middle of what I do not affectionately call The Seventh Level of Hell.  July and August in Virginia are like a death march in terms of heat and humidity, and I have no interest in bringing a horse into fitness during this time period.  Freya seems to tolerate the heat well, and she is energetic and enthusiastic about her rides, but I am not up for anything longer than 20-30 minutes at a time.  So that is what we are doing.

What I discovered is that when Freya is left to her own devices on a long straightaway or just on the perimeter of the big area, she has a tendency to get quick and not think about where she is going or what she is doing.  She doesn't do anything bad or scary and neither Gemma or I have any trouble asking her to slow down or halt or turn.  But it doesn't serve any purpose.  So what I asked Gemma to do and what I do is constantly work on patterns or circles or changes in direction.  We are doing that at the walk and the trot.  It's already made a huge difference in her walk.  She is now quite happy to walk more slowly, even on the perimeter of the arena.  

Here is an example of some work with cones that Gemma tried yesterday (you may need to switch to the Desktop version of this blog to view the video):

 

What I love about this work is that it is helping Gemma learn how to maneuver Freya and it keeps Freya's brain occupied.  They did so well that we headed out to the field next to the arena to try something similar.  This time, Gemma used a couple of jumps that were set up in place of cones.  Here is a video of what they did:

 

You'll also notice that Gemma is riding in western tack.  Ever since she became a fan of the show, Heartland, she has been desperate to ride in a western saddle.  I bought an inexpensive used saddle at a local tack store, and it seems to fit Freya well.  In fact, pretty much every saddle I put on her fits well.  She apparently possesses the shape that most saddles are made for, and I have to admit that it is a refreshing change.  Nimo's back conformation was really challenging to fit, and out of the countless saddles I tried with him, I only found a couple that seemed to fit reasonably well.  So I'm really appreciative of Freya's conformation right now!

It took me awhile to figure out the correct girth size, and I had to order an off-billet for the saddle.  (I should have bought one at the store, but it never occurred to me that the saddle would actually fit!  I figured I would be trying saddle after saddle!)  We still need to punch a couple of holes in the stirrup leathers to get them to a length that works for Gemma, but I had already reached my melting point just getting the saddle on the horse yesterday.  

Anyway, Gemma is in heaven now that she has a western style bridle and saddle for Freya, and I think that I may enter the pair in the little schooling show that my barn hosts each month.  Gemma is already scheduled to show Star this month, but I'm thinking she can show Freya next month.  Instead of the traditional dressage test, though, I'll see how they do in western dressage.

I've been riding Freya a little as well.  My focus for our rides is a bit different than what Gemma does.  When Gemma rides, my goal is just to get the two of them communicating with each other and working quietly.  For my rides, I'm focusing on helping Freya learn to balance herself better.  To that end, I did some experimenting during my most recent ride.

My first step to finding balance with Freya was to find softness.  I'm a huge fan of Mark Rashid, and I love his concept of softness.  I think it is quite similar to the dressage idea of submission, except that I think he frames the concept in a much better way.  The use of the term submission brings the ideas of dominance and leadership and all sorts of other things that I think are often counter to the end result, which is a horse that is open to communication with the rider and can respond to aids without tension and stress.  Whereas thinking about it as softness brings in ideas of gentleness and quietness, which I think are much more positive and effective concepts when it comes to the way I want to work with horses.

Freya feels very stiff to me under saddle.  She is responsive to aids, but she has trouble truly bending through her body and yielding at the poll.  Both of those are pretty important for better balance, but achieving them is easier said than done.  I spent four years with my current instructor working with Nimo to achieve balance, and it was very rarely easy.

So I started the ride trying to find an opening to start communicating about bending and yielding at the poll.  I went through a variety of techniques that I've learned over the years.  The first one I tried was riding on a 15-meter square.  This technique is super effective with Star.  The reason it works for her is that she has to bend at each corner to do a quarter pirouette.  Usually 2-3 squares is all it takes for her to start to soften her body and yield at the poll.  But Freya was really resistant to the pirouette, so the square didn't help her.  I also discovered that if I used much pressure on the bit, to try to set the boundary for where I wanted her head and neck to be, she would happily back herself all the way across the arena rather than yield her poll in the slightest way.

Next I tried a diamond exercise.  This is an exercise that I found to be effective with Nimo.  It comes from Jec Ballou's 101 Western Dressage Exercises for Horse & Rider (#3).  If you are in a dressage arena, you use letters A, B, C, and E as anchor points for the diamond shape.  You start at A, ride a straight line to B, ride one stride straight, then turn to C.  You proceed around the arena, going straight to the next letter in the pattern, riding one stride straight, and then turning to ride straight to the next letter.  I thought this pattern would ease the turns a little, and it allows alternating between more shallow turns on the long sides of the arena and deeper turns on the short sides.  But again, it was a no go.

Then I decided to try shoulder-in down the long side.  Freya absolutely very mechanically performed shoulder-in.  But there was no softening in her body, even when I held the shoulder-in through the corner.

Hmmm...I had one more idea.  Both my instructor and Jean Luc Cornille have told me that sometimes certain horses really need the impulsion from the trot to help them find their ability to bend.  I had been doing everything in walk so far, so I thought I would try trot.  At first, Freya decided she would trot as fast as she could and she zipped around the arena at a speed that would have given Nimo's super Friesian trot a run for its money.  So I added circles to slow her without pulling on her because I already knew she wouldn't respond well to pressure on the bit.

And finally!  It was just a few strides at first, but her trot completely changed.  It went from a wooden, mechanical feel to the softest, most comfortable, slow jog I have ever ridden.  I'm not sure what it looked like, but based on how it felt, that trot should be the standard for all western jogs.  I felt like I could ride it all day.  I'll have to confirm it with my instructor at our next lesson, but I suspect we might have found Freya's Pignot jog, which is a term from Science of Motion used to refer to a slow, sustainable trot that allows the horse to work in balance without the additional challenge of collection.  (You can read more about it here: Quolibet Z Part 2)  It is different for every horse, and it is basically their own personal frequency that works for their body.  It isn't a collected trot.  It is a conditioning trot.  It is named after the gentleman that Jean Luc Cornille learned it from.  The man used it as a way to condition his eventers.  It is also a great warm-up trot and achieving it forms the foundation for collected work.

I was super excited, and I worked with Freya a little more to see if we could find that trot again.  And we did.  So the key to unlocking softness for her was trotting smaller circles.  Now that I have figured that out, I'm hoping I can use that feeling to help her learn how she can move in balance at all gaits.

I suspect that because Freya's natural temperament is reasonably compliant, she has learned to do the things people ask her to do.  But she does them without putting her mind and body into how she does the things.  Whether it is a protection she has developed because her riders weren't as skilled as they should have been or because she was asked to do things without proper preparation or some other reason, I don't know.  But now that she has given me an opening, I'm hopeful that she can learn that her involvement in what we do matters.  That she can move her body in new ways that will help keep her sound and athletic for many years to come.

And so the work of peeling back the layers of her protections has begun.  I'm looking forward to sharing our progress!:)

Freya's Story

When the message from my friend came through with a YouTube video, there was no text.  Just the video.  She is prone to sending me videos from YouTube and TikTok that amuse her.  Things like riders falling off their horses spectacularly and cute cats playing practical jokes on their owners.  So I didn't click on it right away.  I was at the barn, as is usual these days, and wanted to get through all of the tasks before I tested the theory that I wouldn't actually melt in the run of extreme heat and humidity we were having. 

I saved watching the video until I got home, and was astonished to see that it was a video of Freya as a two-year old.  I had done a Google search for Freya after I bought her, but hadn't found anything.  My friend, however, has exceptional searching skills and she had managed to track down one of Freya's previous owners.  In fact, the previous owner still had an album of pictures on her Facebook page from when she had listed Freya for sale.  (Note: if you can't see the video below, try clicking on "View Web Version" at the bottom of the page.  For some reason, linked YouTube videos don't always show up in the mobile version.)

 

I decided to send the previous owner a message because it looked like the farm was still active and it was a business that occasionally sells horses and has a riding lesson program.  I had no idea whether I would get a response or if the person would even remember her.  As it turned out, I got a response almost immediately and the woman remembered her very much.

She was extremely confused as to how I ended up with her and asked if I had bought her from a woman named Susan (not her real name).  I said I thought I must have because that was the name on Freya's Coggins test that I had received in the sale packet from the auction.  The previous owner (let's call her Kathy to help keep the story flowing) said that she didn't think there was any way Susan would have sold Freya at an auction.  She was a special horse and would never be sold that way.  In fact, Kathy considered Freya to be so special that she said if Freya ever needed a new home, she would be happy to take her back.

Then Kathy suggested that she put me in touch with Susan, who as far as she knew was supposed to still have Freya.  I got the impression that Kathy and Susan were friends at some level and at least occasionally still chatted about Freya.  So Kathy set up a Facebook Messenger chat group for all three of us and brought Susan into the conversation.

That was how I discovered Freya's story.  

Kathy had bought Freya as a weanling from her breeder.  She had raised her and showed her a little in-hand as a yearling.  She also shed light on the scar Freya has on the front of her hock.  Apparently, she had gotten her leg caught in a fence as a yearling.  Kathy said the wound was significant because a lot of skin was torn off, but that the wound didn't go deep, and that it had never caused Freya any issues.

Once Freya was two, Kathy listed her for sale because that was what she did for her business.  Susan bought Freya when she was about two-and-a-half and trained her under saddle for her riding program.

The riding program at Susan's barn seems like it is for more advanced kids who are jumping 2'6" and 3' in bigger shows like ones down in Florida.  Given that hauling from New England, where Susan's barn is, down to Florida is a big effort, it became clear to me that Susan's program was definitely at a level well above what we have at the barn I board at.

And that is why Freya ended up for sale.  Apparently, she started having issues when she was asked to jump more than 2'.  After injecting her right hock a couple of times without seeing the results she wanted, Susan decided that Freya wasn't a good fit for her program and in fact, she thought the best fit for her would be a trail riding home.  (This is something that doesn't quite make sense to me.  I mean, really?  A horse that can cart kids around a show ring and jump 2' is a valuable animal, and is worth its weight in gold around here.  The only thing I can think is that Susan didn't want to risk Freya going to a home where the owners would be tempted to push her further than she could go, so she decided to market Freya as a trail horse to avoid the show-type homes.)

So she listed her for sale as a trail horse, which Freya did have experience with.  Susan said Freya was good on trails and could go out with other horses or on her own.  So after owning Freya from age two-and-a-half to eight years old, she sold her not that long before the auction to a man who said he would use her for just that - trail riding.  And that is how good horses end up at an auction.

Because that man was not a regular guy.  He was a horse trader.  And he took Freya to the auction where I bought her.  I don't know how much, if any, profit he made on the sale because I don't know how much he paid for her, but I will give this guy credit.  He was good at recognizing a horse that could be flipped.  He shamelessly used pictures of Freya that he got from her owner's Facebook page in the sales listing for the auction.  And he was also good at lying, at least to a certain degree.

He clearly misled Susan about what he was going to do with Freya.  Maybe he didn't lie outright, but he gave her the impression that he was just shopping for a trail horse for himself.  And he lied to me when he said the seller was a good friend of his.

But the good news is that he didn't lie about anything else, as far as I can tell.  All the things he told me about Freya were confirmed by her previous owner and most of those things I have confirmed myself with Freya over the past couple of weeks.  She is friendly and likes people.  She loads in a trailer easily and hauls well.  She stands in cross-ties for a bath.  She leads well.  She has a good temperament for Gemma.  She has been safe for Gemma to ride, and I have managed to ride her too:)  I don't know about the trail riding yet, but she has yet to spook at anything beyond taking a couple of steps sideways.  She has been exposed to tractors and other farm equipment, running dogs, screaming kids, hang-gliders, small aircraft, fireworks, gunfire, lots of vehicle traffic, chickens, cats, and lots of general barn activity without blinking an eye.

Freya even tolerated wearing some celebratory decorations:)

 

The photo of her jumping that I saw in the sales ad was a bit of a misrepresentation because Freya has struggled with jumping higher than 2', but I wasn't at all surprised to hear that she was having trouble.  For one thing, if she could jump more than 2' and was all the things she was reported to be, she simply would not have been for sale at the price I got her for.  A horse that can jump 2'6" or 3' is a very expensive horse, even if that horse isn't suitable for a kid to ride.  For one that a kid can ride, I think you would be lucky to find a horse like Freya for less than $15,000, and most of them go for much more than that in this area, even if they need hock injections or other physical maintenance.

I could tell that Susan was very upset to learn that Freya had gone to an auction, because her intention had clearly been to sell her to a good home where she wouldn't be exploited.  But she seemed happy to learn that despite the auction sale, Freya ended up in a good place.  She was a wealth of information about Freya and I believe she did her best to be honest with me about any perceived shortcomings Freya has.  For example, she can be bossy in a field with other horses.  And she had front shoes put on about a year ago because Susan though she was short-striding a bit and she thought the shoes would help.

Both my instructor and I noticed the short-striding in front after I pulled her shoes.  But I don't see any lameness.  And the short-striding is only apparent under saddle.  So I suspect that with a little physical therapy, we may be able to partially or completely resolve it.  I also think that getting her hoof balanced and using some Hoof Armor to toughen the sole will help.  In the meantime, she is quite rideable and very willing to work!  She basically begs to come out of her pen every time we see her and clearly wants to be doing something rather than nothing.

In terms of her bossiness with other horses, it's hard to say.  Freya has only been out in the field with the other horses for a day - we kept her isolated for a little over two weeks as best as we could just in case she had picked up an illness at the auction.  I found the initial introductions went very well.  I put her in the same herd that Donut and Star are in, and that herd is a very low key herd.  Donut is probably the bossiest one there and that is only when it is time for her to come in for breakfast or when she sees her people.  Otherwise, she will be submissive to the other horses, who basically don't ever get excited about anything except their grain meals.  I suspect that if Freya wants to be in charge of the herd, she won't get much resistance because the other horses really don't care that much.  And that lack of resistance may defuse her bossy behavior.  Or she may never even demonstrate it.  After introducing her to the herd and some initial running around and posturing, it seemed like she really just wanted refuge from the flies or to eat.  

Yes, there are three paints in the herd.  Freya even has her very own Mini-Me with Butters, who is the small paint pony.

One thing I did notice is that after she went out with part of the herd during the day yesterday, she was a little calmer.  I had noticed that she fidgeted a bit in the wash stall before turnout with the herd, but afterward, she stood as still as a statue.  I noticed the same thing under saddle.  She had just a little edge that was gone last night when I rode her.  I suspect that while she appeared to be handling her isolation well, it was causing her some worry, and after she had a day hanging out with Star and Butters, who are both really quiet horses, it helped her relax a bit and feel more comfortable.

My instructor had recommended that we not try to do any real work with her until after she was being turned out with a herd.  She had seen and felt that same "edge" that I had and she felt that Freya would be better once she was with other horses.  It's hard to know for sure with just one day, but so far, I think that will be true.  Gemma and I have done fairly minimal work under saddle with Freya during the last couple of weeks.  I had gotten on once and Gemma got on once and both times we just walked.  

Gemma was on cloud 9 when she got on the first time!

Last night, we had more of a regular ride, and I rode for about a half hour and walked and trotted Freya in the big arena and practiced one of the intro level dressage tests to see how she did with steering.  Then Gemma got on and did the same.  I admit that I was a little anxious about it, not because Freya has ever done anything wrong or exciting, but because my mom brain always has a little part that is screaming when Gemma is around a horse.  I know all the ways people can be hurt with horses, and I know that Gemma doesn't know those ways.  Like many kids her age, she thinks she knows everything, and I worry she'll get hurt because she is overconfident, even though Gemma pays attention and generally keeps herself safe when she works with horses.  That said, Gemma absolutely trotted Freya better than I did.  Probably because she doesn't have a litany of disaster scenarios running through her head like I do.  Or maybe because, like many horses, Freya recognizes a kid from an adult.

In terms of things we need to work on going forward, we do have a couple.  One is that Freya has some level of anxiety about a mounting block.  I get the sense that maybe she is used to people getting on and then either allowing her or asking her to immediately get moving.  So we are going to work on helping her understand that we want her to chill at the mounting block and even take a short nap.

Another is working on helping her balance under saddle.  This is something that I expected to have to work on no matter what horse we got.  Most horses don't move in a balanced way and Freya is no exception.  In particular, she tends to move with her head way out and nose stretched even further.  That is putting her on her forehand and causing her to rush her stride a bit.  I've got a lesson scheduled with my instructor in a couple of weeks, and I expect she will want to work on slowing Freya down and asking her to bring her awareness to how she is moving.  Right now, Freya just moves on autopilot and she lacks an inner awareness of how she moves each leg and places it on the ground.  She also doesn't seem to know that she can generate a connection with her rider.  So we will work on refocusing her attention from outward to inward.  And I suspect that once we do that, there will be no stopping this lovely horse.