Roheryn's Retraining

Roheryn went to his first little off farm endeavor! It was my first time ever eventing or even going around a cross country course and Roh’s as well. We took him to a local event on Saturday and he was amazing. He was a little hot warming up in the grass field surrounded by horses, but settled for dressage. I had never ridden a dressage test so that definitely hurt our score and I was a little disappointed I didn’t ride it better. 

He was great cross country though! He backed off to the first jump (a log off of a turn on the top of a little hill) but with some spur and and a little growl he went right up and popped over it. He didn’t peak at anything else and cantered right around the course with a loop in the rein. I was really pleased with how game yet rate-able he was. 

Stadium he was also perfect for. We trotted everything because he doesn’t have the confidence yet to canter up to strange jumps (or at least I didn’t think he did!) He didn’t peak or care about anything and he felt so confident I let him canter a few, which he did without batting an eye. There was one jump a few horses were stopping at (an orange end jump that came up quick) but he couldn’t of cared less. 

We ended up second in our division to earn our first ribbon together! It was just intro but I was still so excited. I’ve been firmly in hunter/jumper land for over ten years and eventing has always been something I’ve wanted to try. Its definitely something I want to do again!

No pics from the event, but here are some from schooling the day before. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp9S0PbTun4&feature=youtu.be

I finally have some over fences footage to share. Roh has started to get very consistent around courses. He is still trying to figure out how to get deep to a fence, as he much prefers leaving long to having to rock back and get a little closer to the fence. 

He’s figuring it out very quickly though, and his swaps are pretty much auto. As far as his form goes, I think he will make a very cute hunter. He jumps square and even with his knees. In this photo he is a little loose but that is because of the small jump, a bigger one would have him snap up a little more. I’ll try to get more pics and even a video later.

I really could not be happier with how well Roh is coming along. His canter has improved by leaps and bounds. His flatwork is great too. Right now at the walk and trot he can collect, extend, bend, engage and frame, and leg yield. He’s stepping into the canter much more reliably now, and his downward transitions are improving.

He still needs to work on collecting at the canter, but thats more of a muscle thing right now then training. He understands slowing down and compressing, but lacks the strength in his hind end to sustain it. He’s got a fairly big canter stride so its even harder for him. However he has a solid lead change on the flat and I don’t think it will take much for his leads to become auto over fences. Ironically I haven’t been able to work on it because he lands correct almost every time. I’m also very used to asking for a change in the air (which he does really well.)

He’s started jumping a little bigger (and by bigger I mean 2’6” instead of 18”.) We’ve introduced solid objects and scarier jumps like coups, planks, colored rails, and barrels. He has yet to peek at any of them. His jump is super nice and round though and he jumps out of stride really well.

I’ve hacked him out alone and in company and he doesn’t care. He’s great on trials and crosses water (albeit a little reluctantly.) Sorry if this is a little long, but the end of the semester really caught me off guard and I’ve been very busy. I just wanted to give a little status update on his progress so far.

What are my focuses right now? I really want to improve his downward transitions. They are better, but still not as sharp as I would like. That is the main thing I’m focusing on improving right now in his flatwork. Also he tends to jig when I pick up my reins, so I’m working on him not anticipating me. Over fences I really just want to get him more confident. He’s young and inexperienced, and just needs a lot of jumping to build up his experience. We’ve found that if I sit trot him up to a new jump he pops right over it with no hesitation, but he doesn’t have the confidence to canter right up and over a brand new fence. It will come, and I’m encourage by the fact that no matter how scary the jump he will go over it the first without looking at it if you ride up in a strong sit trot. He doesn’t balk or anything, he just needs a confident rider on the first approach. Once he’s over it anyone could get him around. 

We’re heading to our first off-farm endeavor on May 26th (assuming everything goes well.) Its a local event and will both our first times doing any eventing, so it should be interesting! It will be good for him to jump around a course of jumps he’s never seen before. I plan on trotting everything to give him a good first “show” experience.

My predictions for this event: I think dressage will go pretty smoothly. Coming from the canter into a nice, framed, working trot will be the hard part for him, as will the free walk into the medium walk (meaning I have to pick up my reins and he needs to walk, not jig.)

Cross country I think will be the easiest part. Stadium jumping could go completely fine if I ride well - if I get distracted and don’t support him to the base of a jump I think he might back off too much. 

Anyway, I’m excited and really impressed with how far Roh has come. I wish I could take more credit for it, but he’s just been a blast to work with so far!

I’m going to dress my horse up for Easter and this was a little bit of a trial rune. Yes, he’s behind the vertical…I think he was trying to escape his hat haha. 

I’m determined to make this horse bombproof and he is well on his way. Roh was a very good sport and didn’t care about anything I put on him. 

Good news: Roh got front shoes on last Wednesday and feels amazing. He’s got great feet and is 100% sound without them, but with the ground hardening and putting him into full time work we decided to put front shoes on him. He feels amazing…he steps out a little more and has this wonderful swinging gait. Its like him at 110% perfect. 

Bad news: Five days after getting them, he pulled his front right shoe. Bleh. And I was really looking forward to riding him today. We had an usually muddy weekend, and he went out into the big field where most of the geldings live. So he was the new guys and has been running around like and idiot. That plus the mud made me have a feeling he was going to pull a shoe. Now I have to wait until the farrier comes on Wednesday to put one back on.

In other news, Roh’s canter has improved by leaps and bounds. He still is stiffer to the right and doesn’t really want to bend at the canter, but I lunged him in side reins and then got on him and he was amazing. I’m constantly surprised by how level headed this horse is. I rode him in spurs on Friday because he was so tried from being out in the big field. Then on Saturday I couldn’t find my little spurs so I just rode him in bigger ones. He was a little like “woah, wait, what are those” but immediately chilled out.

Then he dropped a plastic bucket on himself. -facepalm- He was trying to eat a plastic bucket we use to hold crops, umbrellas, etc. He dropped it onto himself from a high ledge in our indoor. I prepared for a spook or freakout but he just kind of went “huh.” And thats with it making a fairly loud racket too. Good boy! (Now if you could just keep your shoes on…)

As promised, if a litte (a lot) late, here is a video of me riding Roh! Please don’t judge me by my equitation, what little you can see of it through my ten layers is probably hideous. It was horribly cold and I’m lucky I could even feel my fingers enough to know what I was doing. 

This is about…three? weeks old. We weren’t really cantering under saddle at this point so its a strictly trot only video. You can see here we do the spiral in/out exercise, as well as him starting to move off of my leg in an attempt at a leg yield. 

Whelp, you know what they say about the best laid plans!

I went out to the barn Friday to start my spring break with a ride on Roh, and instead saw this. He probably cut himself on the hay feeder or a branch and it was infected. He’s been on stall rest and antibiotics since then. I’ve been keeping him wrapped except when we hand walk. 

Today, four days later, it looks a lot better. Its still swollen but doesn’t seem to be bothering him as much and the cuts are healing well. I’m hoping to salvage some part of spring break and maybe be able to ride him later this week. 

He’s been a trooper though. I expected him to go crazy sitting in a stall but he’s been a gentleman about walking quietly when I take him out and standing on the cross ties when I wrap him. 

Its bad timing since my mother came to visit me at school this past weekend and meet him, and I was hoping she’d get to watch my ride him and maybe even sit on him. She’s completely not horsey, but he’s been so quiet I think he would have been fine on a lead. 

Anyway, its a testament to Roh’s disposition that after three days of stall rest I could hand his lead over to my mom and get some photos of her with him…and on a windy day no less!

So I mentioned in my last post how Roh decided to listen to me and learn to canter. He’s still be good about it but one of the big things my trainer and I are going for is to get him to carry himself. He will let me slow him down, carry him, and be in my bridle but I don’t want him to need that. 

Would you want a horse that falls apart if the rider isn’t supporting them? If he can carry himself and canter slowly and balanced on his own he’ll be an easier sell. So instead of having me ask him to slow down with my bridle, my trainer and I have been working on pushing him to slow.

This is what we did with him at the trot first and because he is naturally a “push” ride, he figured it out pretty quickly that he could go slow without me asking him to. But Roh is an OTTB, and to him canter means go fast and turn. 

So last week I rode him Wenesday and my trainer had me go out onto the rail and ask him to canter. Roh’s transitions are very good if I use the verbal cue “canter” and this is where the lunge-work pays off. His canter was fast, unbalanced, and he dived in around the corners. So what did I do?

Sit up, sit back, loop the reins, and leg him. And leg him. And leg him. I didn’t drive him or urge him to go faster, but I did not let him break to the trot. Its easier for a lot of horses to trot fast than it is to canter slow, and Roh is one of them. After a few loops he started to settle into a much nicer medium canter. Once he held that for a minute, his reward was getting to break from the canter. The idea behind this is that he can go steady and slow without a rider asking him to. I don’t want him to be the kind of horse who needs to be constantly rated. 

I let him walk and catch his breath and then we did the same thing in the other direction. He caught on much faster this time around, and it was also his better direction. 

He got Thursday off and then I rode him Friday and Saturday. Friday was the same thing, not great one direction and then starting to catch on in the other. But Saturday he started off really nice and calm. He actually picked up his canter and held a really nice slow, steady canter for a few strides. He did speed up when I applied inside leg to push him out onto the rail in the turns, but it wasn’t an huge reaction or change. 

One of the girls I hacked with saw him both days and remarked on how different he looked even from Friday to Saturday. She even got on him on Friday and walk/trotted him and thought he was super easy. I’m glad other people like him so far, since eventually I will want to put a bunch of different riders on him to get him used to different people. One of my goals is to make him a very easy horse, and getting him used to all different levels of riders will help with that.