Building Blocks

Phew, what a whirlwind of a weekend!

After smoothing out the resin on the trailer and giving it a new paint job - it looks so good! -

Factor and I loaded in for our inaugural journey: a lesson with Silke Rembacz!

I will pause here and say that writing that sentence makes loading him sound easy - and his first load of the day went relatively well. I could have prepped my helper better, and frankly myself, but we got him loaded with minimal try, even though it took a few loads. But more on this later.

From there, we took a short drive over to the clinic, and unloaded with a very excited horse. He was more “up” than I’ve seen him, breathing fire and vinegar for a few minutes, though mercifully kept all four on the ground. Two other trailers were parked nearby, dealing with their own charges. After a few minutes walking and trying to encourage him to graze, but he was too excitable to want to put his head down. We opted to go into a stall and let him settle.

Factor’s excitement didn’t go away after some time hanging in the stall, though. No sooner had I mounted did he try to run off, something he’s never tried before, and I was instantly so glad we had mounted with twenty minutes to warm up before our lesson time with Silke.

We were looky and excited, but he didn’t bolt off with me again. We walked, and stretched, and seemed to find safety between my hands. He began softening, and we started to get a lovely set of shapes as we moved. There was lots to stretch, and as we moved into trot work, I actually found that he felt…’quiet in his body’ is the only way I can describe it. He had energy, but it wasn’t bubbling over. He was more at my leg than in front of it.

As we came down the long side (and a gloriously long side it is) our lesson naturally assumed itself as Silke stepped out from the viewing section and instructed us through some figures in our trot work.

He was a touch more leg-on to ride through our lesson, but oh what a fantastic lesson it was! I was touched to hear that Silke remembered my boy from our last clinic ride, and we were able to show off some new connection in the bridle through this one. She gave him another compliment on his walk, and overall seemed quite pleased with how we worked together. A number of times through our ride, I found myself verbally giving Factor praise in the same airtime Silke used to tell me that our adjustment had the desired effect.

We worked on straightness by riding the quarter lines, adding circles in serpentines, and spiraling in and away. This lesson we were able to achieve lovely softness at the trot, with somewhat adjustable connection and relaxation into a working frame.

The canter work was where we had the most to work on. As with the rest of the ride, we played with outside flex - inside flex - half halt on the outside rein, and by the end of the lesson we started to achieve some of that same softness in his canter! It was wonderful, big and floaty, and I could feel the grin broad on my face through the last several minutes of the ride. By the end of our lesson, both of us had worked hard and had done really good things.

Tools we took away:

using outside/inside/half halt in repetition to create softness and supple
staying off the wall to build straightness and conscious listening to the aids
working in a frame for solid portions of our ride - he has the strength building now, and can be asked to carry himself
riding the straight line as a circle
when asking for right lead, sit for a few trot strides first to help him balance

After the lesson, we took our first ever hack out!

Our friend Leah gave us a tour of the farm on her pony Buzz, walking us out around the barn and up around some gorgeous hay fields. We followed a dirt road towards some riding fields, and Factor saw his first cross country jumps up close and personal. The stacked logs were worth a semi-sideways walk, but beyond a few tense steps, he really was a well behaved baby.

We rode to the top of the hill, where some jumps were set up in a small course, and Factor and I used some of the communication skills from our lesson to achieve a connected, forward trot around the jumps on the hill.

He was, simply, super.

We took a long path back around the outside of the paddocks, and Factor got a chance to investigate an absolutely amazing cross country bank set up - he give it a brief look, then proceeded to find a shoot of grass growing between the big square logs, and had no qualms whatsoever about moving around on them. By the time we were back on the cross ties, my boy was thoroughly tired, and - in my estimation - ready to go home.

Wrong.

He was nothing short of an absolutely pill to load. It took the better part of half an hour, with success granted by way of a chain in his mouth and a lunge line scooping under his butt. (Thank god for Leah, seriously. I would not have been able to load him alone.) On the drive home - which I will note was just as quiet a ride and gentle on the turns as the ride there - I considered something a friend said to us as I was beginning to get to know Factor:

“Every horse has a hole in their training.”

Well, I have certainly found this one. Now that my trailer is in working order, we are going to practice trailering on a regular basis - even if it’s just we’re loading for a ride to a parking lot down the road.

Interestingly enough, I read an article in Eventing Nation today talking about the phases to getting your working relationship figured out with a new horse. I’m enjoying putting Factor and my progress into their mental framework - I think we are warming into the “Norming” phase.

The following day was another big one for my lovely guy - moving barns.

We once again loaded into our trailer, with the assistance of Leah and the lunge line, and with one one hiccup…during which Factor escaped our grasp and ran around the barn… we got him loaded and secured. He fussed a bit more standing in the trailer while it was still, but once we were under way, he was a good traveller. I talked to him from the open driver’s window during the red light stops, but all in all the journey was an uneventful 20 minutes down the road.

Once we arrived at our new farm, everything seemed much more relaxed. Factor didn’t kick the ramp as we waited, and a number of curious riders and farm staff came to greet him and say hello. The owner came up and helped me back him off the ramp, introducing herself to him at the same time. He unloaded quietly, on just his regular snap lead, and stood calmly with me while a few of us looked him over.

He was noticeably less sweaty than his last four trailer rides, which I was glad to see. Hopefully a combination of calm driving and positive end locations will help him recognize that the trailer is a safe place too.

We took a walk around the training track that circles the main outdoor space of the farm, and Factor took in everything - all the horses, the outdoor rings, the grass - completely in stride. Not a funny or jiggy step did he make and at no point was he a rude counterpart on our walk. At the end of it, he was turned out into a paddock in the middle of the action and I left him alone to get a feel for the rhythm of the farm.

The day after our move, I did a simple bit of ground work with him, asking him to yield space to me and cross his hind leg under him as he did so. Sometimes he shows me a little bit of freshness when we start these exercises, especially if he hasn’t had a chance to burn energy. He was, again, the perfect gentleman. He moved out away from me on our circle, and offered some beautifully balance and self-carrying movement at the trot and canter both directions, and listened intently to my voice and verbal asks the whole time.

With such a good little work, we called the lesson done, and went for a walk and hand graze.