Bending

When I rode Tex a few weeks ago, I immediately noticed that he has no clue or ability to bend to the right.  On a circle, he travels stiffly, like a board.  His nose pokes to the outside, almost in counter-bend.  The idea of bending around my leg was completely foreign to him.  He's not Gumby going left, but is able travel with some bend that direction.  He never bent to the right for Brett either.

All photos in this post by Buffy (thank you!)

 Come to think of it, he can't lunge to the right.  He is totally flummoxed.  And then he gets worried because he doesn't understand.

When he's worried, he can't think and then he has a melt-down.  I've been very careful not to exert pressure when I work with Tex.  He is very pressure-adverse, very pressure sensitive.

I talked to one of the wranglers at Alisal about Tex.  She's a very solid rider with great horsemanship skills.  She started out eventing as a kid and then fell in love with Quarter horses while in college.  She has experience in all disciplines -- and loves them all.  I described the "can't bend to the right" issue to her and she immediately said, "Was he a roping horse?"

Well, yes, as a matter of fact he was a competitive roping horse.

She nodded and then explained.  There are different styles of riders in roping, but many of them train their horses to come out of the box and get the steer and that's it.  They never have to bend right; they bend left to be positioned correctly.  She said she's ridden a lot of roping horses that were stiff as a board.  "Hmm," I said, "kind of like race horses who are used to running in one direction and have to learn to go the other way?"

Exactly, she said.

This morning, Brett and I moved the boys up to the top pasture for the day.  Tex was willing and ready, meeting me when I came into the pasture with his halter.  I tried a couple carrot stretches.  Bending to the left, his muzzle brushed his side -- plenty bendy.  Going to the right, you could walk between the space between his nose and his side.  He's one tight pony.  I see lots of carrots stretches in his future.

And I plan to ask Mark Rashid for some guidance as well.  The timing of our clinic with him (in two weeks) is perfect.

Alisal 2016

Last Wednesday morning as Brett and I made the six hour drive to Alisal, we talked about how green it was going to be there; we wondered if the lake would be back to normal levels and how much water would be in the stream that winds its way through the ranch.  Afterall, we've had a pretty wet winter.  The snow pack was at 130% in January and rainfall is at normal levels.  Sure, February was warm and dry but our rainfall stands at just over 30 inches since last October.

Alisal is located in Southern California, inland from Santa Barbara and about two hours north of Los Angeles.  When we arrived, the ranch was quiet -- which is exactly why we chose mid-week in February to go.  It was also very warm, about 84F, and dry.  The stream was dry.  The lake level had dropped even further.  They are afraid it might dry up completely.  Rainfall on the ranch is only 6 inches.  El Nino has been a bust for Southern California.

All photos in this post are from Ana.

We had a wonderful time, of course.  The grass was short but it was green.  The cattle, young steers, were adorable and everywhere we rode.  They dotted the hills and blocked the trails and tried to join our rides.  We ate too much food -- even though we rode every morning and every afternoon, we gained weight.

Kyle, Camille and Ana arrived on Friday and stayed through the weekend.

Camille rode with Brett and I on the advanced rides.  We do a mix of loping, trotting and walking on the advanced rides, cutting across pastures, climbing the hills and going as far as we can.  I rode four different horses, all new to the ranch, while we were there.  When horses arrive, they are assigned to a wrangler who spends three months to a year (depending on the horse) getting them used to cattle, and gates, and riding in line, and all the wildlife.  The first horse I rode was looking for a reason to be naughty and buck.  I doubt he will be there when we return next year.  The other three horses were compact, fun rides.  Brett spent his time on one horse, a 17h grey, who was also new to the ranch.  He was a bit impatient but Brett got along with him fine.  I think he has a 50/50 chance of staying.  The big horses are purchased for big riders; often men who have little to no riding experience.

Ana and Camille

Kyle and Ana went on the intermediate rides.  Ana has ridden before but not in quite a few years and she wasn't ready to go loping through herds of cattle.  Smart girl.  Confidence is everything.  She did ride, every ride, and fit right into our Alisal routine (which is all about food and riding).

Ana and Kyle

We got back home late Sunday night.  The weather was dry in our absence. They keep promising us a wet March.  Fingers crossed.