Bucket List: Vedauwoo

It was thirty years ago that I left Denver and drove north to meet my parents camping at a recreational area know as Vedauwoo, located between Cheyenne and Laramie. I had no idea how I would feel driving Happy Jack road for the first time, headed for the back entrance to a place that would help shape my life over the next thirty years. As I drove west on Happy Jack, I had to pull the car over and stare at the shape of the hills south of the road. Something deep inside me recognized those hills, had ridden those hills on swift horses, had walked alongside the travois drags of the People. (Think of me how you want, but I truly believe we live more than one life and I lived and fought and died in a land shaped like that of Wyoming). It was 1987, and that was when the dream of riding that land one more time from the height of a horse was added to my bucket list, held deep in my heart.

On Saturday, J and I made that dream come true:

As the road curves around these rolling hills the huge shape of a buffalo greats the drivers.

This is actually an advertisement for Terry's Bison Ranch, but I still love seeing the outline of the buffalo against the wide open sky.

Driving into Wyoming.

Driving Happy Jack from Cheyenne toward Laramie.

So hard to tell, but the smoke from the Montana wild fires was intense.

It would effect J's ability to handle the altitude, and my ability to breathe.

Plus, my eyes have been stinging non-stop for days.

Wyoming isn't really flat.

And I love the rock formations and energy found all through the Rockies.

We turned off Happy Jack onto this washboard road.

Back a couple of miles are established corrals. This is where the Happy Jack endurance race used to be held. When we got there, the corrals were full, so we found a place to pull out and park the rig.

We didn't need the corrals, since we were just doing a day trip.

Ashke knew we were in country we hadn't ridden in before.

Much snort. Totes excited.

It looks flat, but honestly, we spent the day going either up or down.

So much sky.

Staying close because there be monsters lurking.

Although, spooking three separate times at the same patch of purple wild flowers was a bit much.

Wide Open Spaces

And Aspen patches near the creek.

We rode up and down the access roads, mostly.

Although, Ashke and I did do some off roading.

He was pretty much on fire for the first hour.

Poser

He bolted up the uphill. The only time during our ride that he tried to gallop away.

We get to the end of one of the roads and there is a single pine tree standing in a huge open space.

J said "that looks like a tree asking to be struck by lightning."

Sure enough.

The expanse just dwarfs everything around it.

And now I know where I get the "straight legs sticking out from the saddle" riding form I've been struggling with when I indoor ride. It is my "brace against the downhill" riding position.

Yay for me!!

Found a trail I thought J and Ashke could do.

Crossing the little creek.

Trying to find a trail when the one we were following petered out.

Can't blame J for waiting. Especially when the trail went no where.

A few clips from my GoPro. I loved riding among the Aspen.

We rode for almost three hours in the hazy smoke of the Montana wild fires and did almost 8.5 miles. Between the elevation gain and loss, plus the altitude (8200 feet) J was struggling with maintaining her breathing. Plus, there were a ton of campers tearing around on ATVs, dogs, and vehicles to contend with. We did find a sweet new camping spot we want to try, sans horse. It is close to the creek, which will make the dogs happy. (Just need to remember to bring towels.) 

We loaded Ashke and made the hour and forty-five minute drive back to the barn, arriving about 6:30. Ashke was a trooper and traveled very well. He seemed to enjoy the trails and new environment. I think I would like to do it again next year, only this time park the trailer near "our" stomping grounds - the area where we are more familiar with the trails - and ride from there. I missed riding among the stones and rock formations, plus I think it might be a touch flatter on that side of the area.

Spurs

There is a line in one of my favorite movies that I always thinking in my head anytime someone mentions spurs. It is from The Man From Snowy River and it is part of the bunkhouse scene, when Jim is being kicked off the ranch. One of the other ranch hands, Curly, is badgering Jim verbally about breaking in the colt, then suggests that Jim might have broken in the young woman as well. His comment "tell me, did you have to use your spurs?" is what I think every time I think about spurs.

I know, TMI.

So, last night's lesson was stimulating, challenging and exhausting. My legs were sore and wobbly like wet noodles when we were done. I don't know why - it was such an easy lesson.  :)

I put out five cones in the double slalom pattern so we could work with reference points in our ride. Amanda had us start with serpentines at the trot, adding in the transition to the walk after a few minutes, and then adding canter departs once it was obvious Ashke was warmed up enough to canter. I'm still working on not throwing away my hands when asking for the canter, but also making sure I'm not pulling either. It is a fine line between the two and I didn't realize what a very nasty habit throwing my hands forward when moving into a canter I had retained from when I was young. It is probably the hardest thing to relearn that I've been working on. If I throw my hands away, then the contact is inconsistent, but if I don't follow a bit with my hands, Ashke gets claustrophobic and banged in the mouth.

Yeah, I'm that good.

I talked to Amanda about Ashke backing. It's a problem, because of him dragging his feet and although he is so much stronger than he was, he really doesn't understand why he needs to lift them up. The night before I had tried teaching him to back over a ground pole and that wasn't fun. I talked to Saiph about it afterwards and I guess that's the horse equivalent of stuffing a cat in a shoe. Ashke acted like I was trying to kill him. We did get one or two clean backwards steps over the ground pole, but neither of us enjoyed it and I need to find a different way. I shared all of that with Amanda and we talked about a couple of different things I could try. Then Amanda had me work an exercise that is actually prep work for piaffe.

We were to trot forward in shoulder in, halt, back one step and trot off while maintaining the angle and bend. The theory is that the horse has to really step up with his hind feet, snapping them up. We didn't get a clean back step, but we did get a clean, snapping forward step, where he was really have to use his haunches. We only did it three times in each direction of bend, since it was really working his hind end and it was still early in our ride.

After that exercise, we moved to leg yields at the walk. I am really thinking about riding the Intermediate A test for our last WE show, partly because leg yields at the walk suck, and partly because Ashke is really good at changes through the walk (simple change) which is actually easier for us than changes through the trot. We will see. Anyway, he gets really slow at the leg yield, which could be seen as resistant in our test. We moved to more shoulder in after the leg yields.

Then Amanda had us do shoulder in serpentines, which caused thick black smoke to pour from both our ears (mine and Ashke's). The exercise went like this:

The X marks where the change of bend happens.

So, we started with a shoulder in position that would match the bend of the turn at the edge of the arena, as we moved around the corner the shoulder in became a quarter of a ten meter circle, and then we were supposed to transition into a shoulder in in the other direction at the apex of the circle. The first challenge was for me to wrap my head around which direction we should be bending, since I have a tendency to do it backwards. Then I needed to communicate the parameters of that exercise to Ashke. Seriously. Smoke. About the third attempt, Ashke just stopped trying to bend through his body, I asked Amanda to retrieve my spurs. (I bought them awhile ago, but hadn't had to use them yet.) We got them on and tried the exercise again. Amazing how much more clearly Ashke heard my request and made the effort to do the exercise correctly. We were actually achieving counter bend at the apex of our turn, at least for a couple of steps.

Amanda explained that when horses reach the point we are at, sometimes they get muddied in their minds about what we are asking for. Sometimes, the spurs help with clarification on what is being asked. It was certainly the case last night. We moved to haunches in after to see how he responded to my requests with the spurs. I think my ask must have been much more clear to him, because he was able to do that exercise cleaner than he has in the past.

Up next, Amanda had us ride the drum pattern around the cones we had set up. The circles were huge, but we were mostly working on keeping his haunches in at the canter on the circle, and the transitions through the walk between the drums. We worked that pattern in both directions which blew the boy's mind again, since he really wasn't sure he had heard me correctly when I asked for the left lead. This is a great example of why you should work both sides and not just ride the drum pattern. Maybe next time, I should ride the barrel race pattern for the cloverleaf, rather than the WE pattern for the drums.

After the drum pattern we did the double slalom in one direction only. Our only issue was our transitions were a little early, although the canter depart was in the correct position. I have to keep riding the canter for one or two more strides before coming down to the walk. That's mostly me getting tired and Ashke anticipating.

The next exercise was working the single slalom in varied patterns. We only had three cones up, so Amanda had us circle the final cone and ride back through the three. Then the next time we did that pattern and then circled at the end and rode through the other two, turning those into a figure 8. He did really well, but I could feel how tired he was beginning to get. Amanda could see it as well.

We finished up with trotting a spiral circle around a cone, starting with haunches in as we spiraled in, then leg yielding back out on the spiral. We did that spiral exercise twice, then added a canter depart as we widened the circle and cantered off in a straight line. We did it moving counter clockwise first, then turned and worked the exercise in the other direction. That time, when we cantered off, I could feel Ashke beginning to struggle. He was wiped out. We transitioned down to a walk and both Amanda and myself said he was done at about the same time.

He wasn't sweaty, except under the saddle pad, but he was tired. We are doing some pretty heavy weight lifting and although the challenge is fun and exciting, we are both pretty exhausted by the end.

DIY: Saddle Girth Giveaway!!

DIY is doing a TSF girth giveaway. Go check out her contest.

https://diyhorseownership.com/total-saddle-fit-shoulder-relief-girth-review-and-giveaway/

That Time When I Busted my Ass

Literally.

Although, I think the original injury was on June 25th, during the infamous mattress incident. When I came off Ashke I landed on the edge of the boxspring on my butt and the metal edging cut across my right buttock cheek at an angle. I think it compressed/pinched the sacral tuberous ligament into the SI joint on the right side. It has been bothering me ever since, especially when driving, and has been getting progressively worse as we've gone along. On Wednesday, in our lesson, that tendon finally released (I heard a pop) and the tension/pain radiated down my bicep femoris and into my calf muscle. I thought I had ruptured my hamstring (bicep femoris) and had tears in my eyes at the pain. You will see at the end of the Serpentine video the moment it happened.

With that said, here is the lesson recap.

We started with shoulder in to loosen up his hind end. Then we started working on the canter to the right.

We are still figuring out the bit situation. He does gape his mouth a few times in the video, but Amanda said it was happening when he was leaning on my hands.

It got better as he started holding up his end of the deal.

 Canter to the left. 

Serpentines at the trot and then canter

We moved to serpentines at the canter, just getting him to wait on my request and to not anticipate the canter. You can see me grab my ass at the end of these. (We did the tun on the haunches to go to the right because spooky corner.

The pain was pretty much an 8 out of 10 and Amanda suggested I get off and walk it out a little bit. I did so and could feel where the muscles were screaming at me from my lower back to my heel. I went to get back on with a muttered "if I can ride with a kidney stone . . . " while Amanda just shook her head at me. 

We worked on haunches in, wanting to give my butt a break from having to control Ashke at the canter and to assess how I was going to do. We followed that with leg yields at the trot and some shoulder in at the trot.

Then we did slow trot - fast trot - slow trot exercise to help me gain some  control when we do speed in WE without cranking on his mouth. Then we did that exercise at the canter and Ashke went "Wheee". I swear he just wants to be a race horse.

Then we went back to riding quietly - which is much harder than it might seem, given the nature of my boy.

That was the end, pretty much. My buttock and leg was hot and swollen. I unsaddled, rinsed Ashke off and headed home. 

My leg is doing much better by Friday. I have an appointment for next week to have it looked at and in the meantime I am doing gentle stretches and taking lots of ibuphrophen. 

I so did not appreciate my twenty-year old body when I had it.

Thoughts on Bits

So far, I have had four rides in the Garcia bit . . . one lesson ride the first night we tried it, one trail ride on Saturday and two arena rides on Sunday and Monday. I believe we are in the middle of the Halo effect, as far as the bit goes, with brilliant rainbows and sparkly showers of happiness. I'm almost afraid it is too good to be true.

In order to continue to document this journey, I want to get my thoughts down now about how he is responding to this bit. That way, if things change, I can go back and look at our journey.

First off, a jointed bit of any kind will not work with Ashke. I have tried pretty much all of them, and even though the online bit selector quiz says "myler level 2 comfort snaffle", that is one of the bits we have tried, and short of tying his mouth closed (which I will not do), that bit is too harsh for him.

Second, the width and thickness of this bit seems to be something he is more comfortable with than past bits. The Mona Lisa mouthpiece is wide and heavy. The Spanish bit I have been riding in is heavier than most of the bits I have tried and the Garcia bit is heavier still. The thought behind a thin bit is that it has more bite to it, since the pressure applied is focused across a smaller surface in the horse's mouth. The thicker the bit is, the more surface it covers, and the less pounds per square inch. The thinner the bit, the more pressure on the bars of the mouth and the thicker the bit, the more diffused that pressure is.

• Ashke seems very comfortable in this bit. He opens his mouth to accept (not always the case in the past, so this is not a given) and immediately begins to play with the roller. When work intensifies, his tongue is quieter as he focuses, but then he plays with the roller while we take walk breaks.
• Crazy as it may sound, he is so much more responsive to my seat that I'm still a little in shock. Last night we were doing canter-walk transitions without him blowing through my ask and he was listening well to my seat and legs.
• Lateral work is at least as good as it has been. Backing is better. We are struggling a bit with bend to the right, but I am wondering if the base of his neck is out again. (It seems like every time he plays with his neighbors something happens and he wrenches himself.)
• He is very responsive to this bit and has yet to throw his head up or brace through the jaw. The weight and feel of this bit encourages him to reach down and seek contact, something that he hasn't been as comfortable doing in the other bits we have tried.
• I don't think he will ever have a "quiet" mouth. Some of us do not. I have a tendency to stick out my tongue when things get hard, and watching my son play video games tells me he has inherited my trait. I think you are either born with the need to use your tongue to do things (have you ever watched Michael Jordan play ball?) or you aren't. I think horses are the same way. Ashke moves his mouth when he is concentrating. Its usually his lips, and he doesn't do the tongue thrust thing unless he hates the bit, but his mouth moves when he is trying to do what I am asking him to do. (I think this may also be why Nilla sticks her tongue out when she is jumping. Some things are hard and need the extra help.) 
• Ashke has a very high play drive. During the winter, he drags his empty water trough out from under the fence to bang on it with his feet. He has dog toys in his stall to chew on and squeak. He plays with both geldings on either side of him, playing bitey face through the poles of his pen. He has to have clips on his stall doors that prevent him from opening them, clips on the outside gates of the horse runs so he can't undo them during turn out, and the clips have to be used all the time or the likelihood of finding a loose horse wandering  around inside the barn is very high. He is curious and inquisitive and very agile with his nose. Giving him a bit he can play with has had the same effect as giving an active child a fidget spinner to distract them. I can hear and feel him play with it during our walk breaks.
• Probably the only downside I have seen so far is that he will not be able to eat on trail in this bit. Or take treats. The food gets crammed into the hood of the bit and the roller will not spin. 

During our ride last night I had an epiphany. I cannot just allow him to fall out of the canter. I need to use my connection to him through the bit to help him remain balanced through the transition. Saying that makes me feel stupid, but for the first time last night I could feel what I was doing wrong. We were doing canter-trot transitions on the serpentine and he sort of locked up his hind end and stumbled down into the trot. He has done this before but I have always kind of blamed his physical issues for the stumble. Last night, I could feel how my position effected his ability to transition and I needed to give him more support through the process. We tried again and this time I held up my end of the deal, giving him the support he needed and we didn't have a cross-firing issue for the rest of the night. Neither of us are ready to do this one handed, which I thought might be softer on his mouth, and he is reaching for the bit when I'm not keeping up my side of the conversation.

Additionally, he did not get as upset last night when we were working on canter work as he has in the past. We did serpentines with canter-walk-canter transitions, then worked on the shallow serpentine, similar to the single slalom, without the poles to guide us around. I was very pleased with all of the canter we did and then we went back to working on the trot (I need to make sure we are not just stopping at the end of the canter work, since he starts expecting to be done and gets a bit pissy when we aren't). I was working on bend to the right through the trot by spiraling in and out on a circle, then went through the shallow serpentine with him again. He offered a canter a couple of times (I need to be really clear with my outside aid as to what I want) but I just laughed and asked for a transition down. Mostly, we worked on connection and communication with the new bit.

Dowdy Draw

 Saturday, J and I headed to Boulder instead of Wyoming because eclipse. I'm so amazed at the number of people who drove north to watch the eclipse while parked in a huge field next to hundreds more people who had done the same thing. And I'm not really surprised at the enterprising capitalism of the hotel and motel owners who tripled their rates for the event. I am very happy that my parents drove to my sister's place in McCall, Idaho to watch it from the comfort of their cabin.

Me? I will watch the shadow over the sun from my desk at work.

Saturday, though, we drove to the Marshall Lake trailhead in Boulder. We grabbed lunch prior to our ride, but didn't pack enough to cold drinks to last the ride (doh!). Ashke felt loose and ready to go when we hit the trail. It was supposed to top out at 90 or so, but it ended up almost 96 on the day. We headed east from the trailhead, then turned back West to ride the canal. Then we started up the hill for Greenland Mesa.

 The hill up . . . it's probably 600 feet of elevation gain.

 J making it look easy.

 From the top of Greenland Mesa looking west.

Ashke loves riding right next to J so he can bump her bag with his nose.

He pins his ears at her when she doesn't give him a peppermint. 

Not in a mean way, but in a "gosh why aren't you paying attention to me" way.

 When we got to the far side of Greenland Mesa, J was struggling with the heat. It was a lot hotter than expected and she was way overheated. She asked about turning back, but when I pointed out that we would have to climb the hill she had just ridden down, she opted to continue on. We crossed the street at Hwy 93 and it was pretty apparent that J was going to have issues if we couldn't get her temp down. She had heat stroke in 2005 and it's still effecting her. I suggested we try the cattle pond just over the hill from where we were. The water isn't drinkable, but Ashke could have some and J could get wet. We got over there and she pulled the packable towel she always carries to wet and drape around her neck. Ashke went in belly deep and splashed water all over, while letting me know he would really rather lay down, which I stymied, the spoilsport I am. Once we were all cooled off, I told J that once we were down the draw, we could head for the river that flowed out of Eldorado Springs, where we could cool off again. That seemed to be a good plan, so off we went.

 Getting closer to the flatirons

Just before we started down the draw, we stopped and shared some sugar cookies, which seemed to help our energy level, then we headed down the draw.

I love this trail, but it is so rocky.

 For the first time on this particular trail, Ashke didn't fight any of my requests to move from one side of the trail to the other, to step slower, to use his butt.

Just after this video, we came across a crashed mountain biker who had stuck her front tire between two rocks and flipped herself over her handlebars. J went into "always be prepared mode", cleaned up the long scrape across the woman's shin, then added a compression wrap with bright blue vet wrap. The injured woman could stand and push her bike up the hill, which is good, since I wasn't too keen about loading her on Ashke to get her out of the canyon. I had dismounted as we approached, since Ashke dances less with me on the ground. And steep hill side to fall down was motivation enough for me. We mounted up and headed down.

There are parts of this trail that get very open to the downhill side and Ashke is usually somewhat spooky about the uphill side, which increases my nervousness. But on Saturday, he was rock solid.

This is the trail down after the one switchback. It was so rocky that J couldn't ride her bike over them.

I asked Ashke to walk very carefully, and slower than normal, behind her without him bracing his jaw, throwing his head up, or jigging down the trail. And he listened, with his head down, a light contact with the bit.

We went to the trail head for Dowdy Draw instead of heading up community ditch, where we crossed the road and headed further west toward the river. It was every bit as beautiful and cold as I remembered. Ashke waded right in and drank deeply, while J shed her socks and shoes, clambered through the shallows and straddled the low branch hanging over the water. Ashke got a good cold soak in the fresh water, while the temp of the water brought down J's core temp. She also refilled her water bottles for pouring over her back and shoulders further down the trail.

 I love these little hidden spots you can still find in the area.

 J's favorite part of the trail, just before we get back to the trailer.

Finishing the ride

11.25 miles with lots of beautiful terrain. It would have been better if it had just been ten degrees cooler, although the heat and the brilliant sunlight were part of what made the river so wonderful.

The Garcia Bit

Amanda's mom purchased a Garcia bit in the early 70's and showed in it for years. Amanda has been talking about this bit for a while and I did some research into the bit. I want to share that with you . . .

It started in 1894, when young Guadalupe S Garcia left his home and business in Santa Margarita and moved to Elko, Nevada where he opened G.S. Garcia Harness and Saddlery. He made quality products: beautiful bits and spurs, sought after by working cowboys every where. He and his craftmen build the World's Fair Saddle, using the finest leather, gold, silver and diamonds. It won gold medals at the St Louis World Fair and the Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon. No one else in history has ever won both. When he died, he passed his business to his three sons: Les, Henry and Eddie. Eventually the business moved to Reno, NV where it was known as the Garcia Bit and Spur Manufacturing Company. He was also the proprietor of the Elko rodeo grounds, which later became known as the Elko Rodeo or Elko Stampede, the predecessor to today's Silver State Stampede.

In 1978, Doug and Paula Wright, from Elko, bought the Garcia company, merging it with the J.M. Capriola Company in Elko where Guadalupe first started. (Jim Capriola worked for Garcia in the early 1920's before leaving to start his own business that eventually ended up buying the Garcia Bit and Spur Company almost 60 years later.)

Today, Garcia bits continue to be built by carefully trained Mexican craftsmen who proudly continue the tradition of the Garcia name. The same mouthpieces and cheekpiece designs are used that were used in Guadalupe's time, with the addition of a few new, select cheekpiece designs. The bits and spurs are in the Vaquero tradition, which would actually compliment our Spanish attire. They are incredibly well balanced and hang straight in the horse's mouth.

This is the bit I am currently testing on Ashke:

 Two and a half inch Concho bit

 Mona Lisa mouthpiece with copper cricket roller under the hood

How it looks in his mouth.

The rings where the reins attach are fairly small. When we tried the bridle on Tuesday we had bridle chains on the bit to attach the reins and neither Ashke or myself liked them. Any slack in the rein caused the chains to swing and that was a problem. We also didn't have a great way to attach my reins, since the ring the reins were supposed to attach to was too small for the width of the leather. I had ordered a pair of rein connectors to try the pelham bit (which he hated) and suddenly had the item shown below that I am never going to use on a bit.

The leather is fairly narrow and fit the ring on the bit very well. I attached the narrower leather strap to the bit ring, then cut the second piece of leather off the center ring, then attached my reins to the ring. I had snap clips I could have used, but I really don't want to ride out on trail in snap clips. All it takes is a rub against his leg or an object and my rein is no longer attached. They can also effect how the rein hangs off the bit. Using the rein connectors meant the reins were attached, the weight on each rein was the same, and the drape of the reins was really good. I also like the look, plus any change of reins will be simple.
My thoughts on the Garcia bit:

1. It is a very well balance bit that hangs straight in Ashke's mouth. The bit has some weight to it and I think it is the weight that encourages him to relax at the poll.

2. Ashke loves the cricket roller. He plays with it a lot when we are walking or standing still. In our lesson on Tuesday, he would stop playing with it when we were working on the things that were more complicated, but when we were stationary or just walking you could hear it clicking in his mouth.

3. It causes a lot of saliva. Not so much when we are just walking, but when we are working, the slobber was dripping from his mouth and from the slobber bar.

4. Something about this bit allows me to be really light with the reins. He listens and pays attention to my seat and legs much better than in the other bit. The contact between my hands and his mouth is consistent and soft, and he reaches down for the bit. Even on our eleven mile ride today, Ashke and I had contact the entire way. The one attempted bolt was stymied by the lightest touch of the reins.

5. We rode down Dowdy Draw and the last time we rode down the Draw Ashke fought me the entire way. It has always been a struggle to get him to pay attention to where his feet are and he hates to be asked to go slow. That fight always included his throwing his head straight up in the air and bracing his jaw against my hand. Today, he minced his way carefully down the trail, on the bit, at the pace that J could walk her bike down due to the rocks. Not once did he toss his head up. Not once did he brace against the bit.

6. For the first time, when we were trotting and I lifted him with my heels, his head came down, rather than him inverting and rushing forward.

7. No rubs, pinches, or other problems after four hours of riding. I am going to have to keep him from eating on trail unless I put the halter on him, since the food packs into the hood and keeps the roller from moving. 

I have been given permission to ride in this bit for a couple of months. I will probably continue to ride and train in this bit until after my final show on October 14th. If Ashke is still responding to the bit this well at that point, I will purchase one of my own. Nothing like a fancy, special bit to match his handmade, ordered from Spain just for him, saddle.

This is the bit I think I want to order, if we get this far:

And I am leaning toward either the blue inlay or the silver overlay . . . . I really like both. I could also do black inlay, but it would push my cost up by $25. I think I am partial to the silver, honestly.

I will stay with the Mona Lisa mouthpiece in the same width as the bit we are riding in.

Now we just need to see if he likes the bit in three weeks, the way he does now.