Ride 26: Schooling in the Open

I no longer have a round pen (haven’t had for years), or a fenced riding ring or arena, and these are all useful tools when working with a horse that needs basic or more training.  I do have a collection of jump blocks and PVC poles (the latter originally purchased for various drainage projects, but aside from those tools–useful as they are–I could use an all-weather arena as a place to let me and the horse concentrate on certain types of work on a safe surface.  Still, improvising can work almost as well.  In the north horse lot I’ve set up raised and ground poles, and started walking Rags over the poles both before the outside trail work and after.  Outside, in the 80 acres, there are both mowed trails (making it easy to see if we’re staying in the middle) and broader mowed areas of various shapes and sizes.

Today’s ride included both types of schooling plus a pleasant trip on several of the trails.   I started with two trips (one each direction) over the raised walk poles.  The poles are set up between jump blocks, making an extra visual signal for Rags to judge distance.  One end of each pole sits in the hollow on top of a block laid flat, with the other end on the ground; the first several poles alternate which end is up.  After an initial straight section of five poles, there’s a curved section (poles are angled fan-like around the turn) and then another short straight section at right angles to the first.  Rags had problems with it the first time he went through it, but today did quite well.  The purpose is several-fold: to make him aware of what’s on the ground and where his feet are, so he become more sure-footed in natural conditions, to develop a slightly slower but still “forward” walk (he tended to rush in at first, and bang into the poles.)  To learn the aids that will be used when we start trotting over poles.   And to learn to handle obstacles at varying heights, as the pole on tthe block is  about twice as high as the pole on the ground.

Once out on the grass of the Near Meadow,  we turned left, down to the lower end, then right through the grass dip, and up onto the trail that led to the SW corner of the Dry Woods, picked up Central Walk and headed west again, slightly downhill to the Diagonal, the trail that angles NW.  From its end I turned him toward the creek (to practice going between close-spaced junipers that would rasp on my helmet) and then a short walkaround and back out the same way.  A right turn onto the lower trail that ends up along the east edge of the Creek Woods, to meet Center Walk  at its lower end…and another right into the Entrance Meadow (a bit spooky for horses as it’s not large and is surrounded by woods.  Then back out, and south again just east of the Creek Woods, down to the broad mowed area around and beyond Cloud Pavilion.

Last time I’d ridden him in this area, we’d done some weaving between various junipers, but this time I used the wide, straight, open area to work on leg yield.  Rags hadn’t been making much progress with leg yield, and this gave me the space to keep asking for a willing, supple yield.  He started off stiffening against my leg, and throwing his head, but I kept the pressure on until the first steps that were part-sideways, then let it up, then asked again.  And again.  Suddenly, he seemed to catch on, and shifted steadily sideways while going forward.  Much praise and petting, and a cookie.  I let him have a short stretch of going straight forward, then asked for leg yield to the other side.  He is stiffer that way, but figured out how to do it, and did it.  HURRAY.  We made a smallish circle there, and then one the opposite direction, and then another try at leg yield.  Not perfect, but much better…both the zig and the zag of it.  I used leg yield then to take him back over to the trail nearer the fence, and he moved willingly.  I asked for halt; he stopped almost square, and I gave hm a cookie again.  Rode back into the Near Meadow, then into the north horse lot and walked the poles again.  I struggled with both mounting and dismounting today but was very happy with Rags’s performance.

A single Black Vulture was waiting for us and watching us closely as we came up to the corner of the Near Meadow, early in the ride.  Scout for the Undertaker Family?  Probably.  Didn’t see or hear other wildlife, but we had fairly noisy aircraft .  And lots of signs of spring coming…wild plum, bluebonnets (not blooming, but the rosettes fattening) and other forbs.  Grass just beginning to show in some areas, greener in others. Lovely day.