working equitation – The Hermits' Rest

A Horse Is a Sport, of Course

What are your favorite sports to watch and play?

My favorite sport to watch is, by far, American football. I’ve watched it my whole life, so it’s part of me, I guess, even with all its myriad of flaws and issues (high school boyfriend’s dad played in that last championship Detroit Lions team, and I now realize his odd behavior later in life may have been affected by blows to the head, for example). But, it was fun to watch football with my dad, and now it’s something Lee and I have in common. Note that I also enjoy baseball, which my dad played and took watching very seriously. And I actually enjoy watching golf. I just can’t believe how well people can get tiny balls into tiny holes. The only sports I’m not fond of watching are basketball and hockey. Just not part of my history, I guess.

What sports do I like to play? Well, as a kid I played football and baseball with the neighbors. If I weren’t so stubby and slow (and female) I would have played longer. I’m not exactly talented. I liked tennis in college. But the sport I do now is our version of working equitation, which is an equestrian sport. I think it’s a sport, I mean, there are competitions and prizes, so sure. So yes, my horses and I do sports.

Speaking of those powerful beasties, I got to enjoy them a lot today. That was a nice change from it mostly being too cold or wet to interact much. I took two work breaks to de-bur Drew and Apache, but I could not get them very clean. They keep rolling.

Tarrin came here for lessons today, which is always a treat. I really needed her to look at Apache and help me with his issues. Sure enough, the first thing she did was find where his abscess was hiding! It was under a flap of sole.

She did a lot of scraping, then we rummaged through all the stuff in the tack room and found Betadyne to disinfect it, an antibacterial spray to treat it, and the mud stuff I bought to protect it. I can repeat when the mud disappears.

Tarrin also measured his feet for boots. Note the feed dish full of burs.

Once he was treated you could tell he felt better, because he lifted his other hoof for the first time in a month. That meant he could stand to lean on the sore one at last. We took him out and lunged him a bit, too. He had a harder time going left than right, but was happy to trot around. He seemed so happy to do stuff again.

What he wasn’t happy about is that Tarrin figured out a way to get his pills in him with a syringe. I’m so happy to have a large supply from the lady who sold us our horse trailer. Now I just have to keep shoving them in.

As for Drew, he started out acting really odd, like trying to nip when I groomed him. He seemed to have a stomach ache. That scared me. It probably was because the horses ran out of water. I didn’t know the water had been turned off again. My poor fish. Sniff.

I was too busy to photograph Drew, so here are three of the hens. They enjoyed the sunny day.

But he improved as I worked with him on the ground, and we ended up having a really good lesson. He did so well at things that had been frustrating earlier. I’m getting able to relax more when riding, and it’s almost getting to be FUN.

And finally, here’s the sofa as I found it this morning. They are exhausted from barking at coyotes.

So yeah, those horse buddies are my sport. They are also so nice to be with. They are now both patient for bur removal, so it’s our bonding time. Ahh.

Sort of a Equitation Vacation

I’m tired but happy after a weekend where the only job I had was to drive to a place full of horses. And this morning’s drive had so many hawks and herons to enjoy that the hour flew by.

Today we were back at the Highlander Ranch in Waco for a Working Equitation dressage clinic with Doreen, who is a great clinician. Watching people work on refining their riding skills was really helpful for me. The stuff I’m learning in my lessons was reinforced very well. I guess it makes sense, because Doreen and Tarrin used to do clinics together.

I’m glad I got there in time to see more advanced people in their sessions. That shiny horse from yesterday did leg yields and side passes at a canter like a dream. but he had things to work on, too. It was nice to see Doreen as patient with absolute beginners as with the experienced riders.

I learned all about dressage patterns, which are exercises designed to showcase a horse and rider’s skill and finesse at whatever level they are at. They look for precise turns, straight lines, perfect stops, and smooth transitions.

Each rider and horse had different challenges, so it was fun to see how they worked in them. Everyone improved! It was especially cool that there was only one experienced dressage person in Sara’s group, so they were all thrilled at their progress. They’re all planning to come back!

The most interesting skills they worked on were transitioning between walk and trot and doing “half halts” to signal that something is coming up and keep the horse’s attention. They did an exercise showing how it helped stops be better. Here’s Sara doing it.

I was the only person dedicated enough to just watch this stuff, but my own horses aren’t ready for it, so I may as well learn and support my friend. By the way, Sara got a nice prize for being one of the most improved students. That had to feel GOOD!

I was very impressed with Aragorn. He was solid as a rock. He was great when they practiced the obstacles all by themselves and just super in the clinic. He paid attention and did everything he was asked. Now Sara knows he was worth his cost, and she sees the wisdom of waiting until they were good partners before doing stuff like this. Yes!

Now I can look forward to working with my guys as much as possible this week, even if it’s cold. I want to keep doing better!

Aragorn Has a Good Day

Woo I’m tired, but I know who’s more tired. This guy:

I followed Aragorn and Sara up to the same facility near Waco where we first discovered working equitation, Highlander Ranch. There, he had his first clinic, and first experience off ranch since she got him. He was a trooper.

I learned a lot from the clinicians, Doreen and Kiki. I can take the ideas straight to Apache. Great ways to stay straight and do transitions, etc.

Here’s Sara successfully spearing a ring with a lance with Kiki helping.

Sara and Aragorn did a great job on all the obstacles and learned how to fix any missteps.

The double slalom, the hardest one.

I also enjoyed all the other horses and their riders. They ranged from a woman who had never tried the discipline but had a very willing horse to Aragorn’s breeder, who cantered everywhere.

Here’s a cool horse. He was so shiny and was so sweet, and had been abused, but you’d never know it.

We also had Trixie join us, and now she’s ready to participate, too! It was such a laid-back event, but full o’ education.

I enjoyed the facility, too. Wow they have a HUGE barn, where Aragorn got to rest after he learned his stuff.

I am so tired, though of course Aragorn and Sara are more tired. But they can be proud of themselves. Here are a few more photos. There will be more tomorrow!

I’ll take lots of videos of Sara learning dressage techniques tomorrow. I took a lot today, so she can analyze her technique to improve. I’m glad I got to tag along.

My First Horse Show

That’s right. I’d never been to a horse show until yesterday, when Sara and I returned to the beautiful McClennan Community College Highlander Ranch for a working equitation competition. Fun was had by us, and we sure learned a lot!

Amazingly beautiful grounds with immense oaks.

It was hard not to drool at all the gorgeous gaited horses, Gypsy vanners, and giant warmbloods. but, thanks to the very welcoming people at Heart of Texas Working Equitation, we did learn what was going on, what the goals of the dressage and obstacle competitions were aiming at. What fun.

Here are Pam and Jed in the dressage part of the competition. They won!

We lucked out in that two really experienced women were sitting near us, and they were nice about explaining what made a good horse, what made a good rider, and the history of some of the competitors. That made it lots of fun.

Our favorite of the many great stories we heard during the day was about Pam and her gray paint/something fancy Jed. It turned out he had a year like Apache did last year, only worse. His feet were so bad that they recommended he be put down, but they managed to nurse him back to health. This was their first time in the arena since 2019 (well, they didn’t compete last year anyway, but he wouldn’t have been there).

This is BEFORE she got the overall best rosette! We were all so happy for her.

He is such a great horse that I see why she didn’t want to lose him. He basically slept between his events, breathing so heavily on Pam that her shirt was wet. Then, when she put his bridle on, he perked up, went out, and won the obstacle course, too!

I just cut the nice lady’s head off, because all I cared about was her horse. It’s the family pet, raised by them, and with an incredibly laid-back disposition. He also aced every move and won the more advanced class.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was very happy to get to see my first Gypsy vanner horses in person. These are small but robust horses that were used to pull wagons, but also had to be very tame, because they were always around children. They are a perfect “Suna size” horse. And of course, there is the hair. The glorious hair. Brush, brush, wash wash, braid braid. Sounds like a good retirement hobby to me.

This one is their stallion, doing the gate opening activity. The judge is behind them. Can you see how long the braid is that’s keeping his mane out of the way?

Naturally, these are really expensive horses, so I will admire them from afar. But, they are living My Little Ponies!

See how short they are compared to the thoroughbred on the left

It was also fascinating to watch all the gaited horses, which have a different, smoother “trot” than quarter horses and most other horses. The horse looks quite busy when gaiting, but the rider is smooth as if they are sitting on a couch. I am really tempted to get one of those, since Apache has a really rough trot (one of the horses in the show did, too, and its rider was bouncing around at both trot and canter). I’m afraid I was too enthralled with the warmbloods and hair horses, so I didn’t get any photos.

I did enjoy one little quarter horse, mainly because she was such a great size. This is the one where Sara asked if she was a former brood mare, and her owner said no, she was a nightmare. But, she did pretty well considering her history of not doing much until she was older, and was a very friendly girl

It was exciting to watch the experience riders, who were on Lusitano and Andalusian horses. Those are the big ones. They are able to do all sorts of collection moves, fancy walks, snazzy trots, and things I will never do in my entire life, but are fun to watch.

This lady had TWO giants, this one and a gray

The final part of the day was where they ran the course as fast as they could. That was a lot of fun. Two of the most fun were when Doreen, the woman who did yesterday’s clinic, didn’t go fast, but did the whole course as smoothly and with as few extra steps as possible. She wasn’t getting scored, because her gaucho pants had knocked over something and disqualified her in the obstacle course. She was a great example of taking one’s mistakes with grace, and showed that even the experts have mishaps.

But the most fun one to watch was a woman who raises Australian stock horses. She and her horse ran that thing like a race, and it was a hoot to watch. And in this part you are allowed to cheer. It was a great way to end the day!

I look forward to doing some of these obstacle things with Apache, if I can ever ride again, and to taking some lessons to become a better rider, even if I’d never get past the first level of this stuff!

Thanks for bearing with my horse love. I am moving on to another topic soon, I promise!

I’m TIRED but Happy

Today Sara and I went back up near Temple to watch a working equitation show. Fun? Yes. Nice people? Yes. Pretty horses? Drool. Yes. I’m just going to share two pictures of two beautiful horses. I’ll write more tomorrow.

Buy me a Gypsy Vanner, please?

An Equitation Educational Event

Today Sara and I went and did something together! What? Yes! We ranch ladies went off and did a horse thing somewhere near Waco. We hadn’t done anything together since last year!

We went to a beautiful facility and audited a working equitation class. The clinician was really nice and let us stand close enough to hear her. It was tons of fun learning all the things horses and riders do in this relatively new sport in the US.

The hay thing simulates a cattle chute. the barrels and sticks you do a turning pattern through.

The idea is that working equitation includes aspects of cattle working from European, US, Mexican, and South American traditions. There are dressage elements (fancy horse steps), cattle working elements, finesse, and speed.

There were lots of different horse types and riders.

Another cool thing about it is that riders wear apparel from their own tradition. So you see all kinds of saddles, tack, and riding outfits. Some horses are big Andalusians, others are gaited horses with fancy walks and runs, while you also see quarter horses, too. Sara and I sure enjoyed all the beautiful animals and skilled riders!

This rider on a deep brown gaited horse is working the barrels.

My favorite of the things the students learned was picking up a pole in a barrel, snagging a ring on it and depositing it in another barrel. the gate opening task was fun, too.

That’s the pretend gate you have to open and close without “letting the cows out.”

I can see why Sara is interested in this sport! We learned all the patterns and figured out some of the skills we’d need to learn (me way more than Sara). Now we just need horses that are healthy and can learn with us. I still have faith in Apache.

Tomorrow we’re going to watch a show, which also will have dressage. This is all new to us cowgirls, but everyone was so nice to us, supportive of each other, and eager to learn. The horses all seemed to be having fun, and most of them were sweet animals, too.

I had to take this, because the flowers will get mowed soon.

In other news, there were more floods and rain today, but some fence work did get done. And I got to play with Vlassic much of the morning.

Another fun thing this morning was watching how curious the cows are about all the fence work. They are compelled to explore each new piece.

And the little steer has been so cute and friendly. He kept coming up and licking my hand with his rough, black tongue. I can’t wait until Haggard joins the friendly cattle (hoping that will be tomorrow, since he is officially cleared).

Anyway, despite the rain and more rain, it was a fun and educational day. Hope yours was, too.