Winter Storm Atlanta 2014

A winter weather storm hit Atlanta and shut the city down.  The horses did not seem to mind very much though.

Spring Ride

Went for a ride today at Kennesaw Mountain. Khari was quite full of herself. I have not been paying as much attention to her as I should have. The weather, changing barns, and time have prevented me from riding as much as I have wanted too. So we loaded up and hit the trail today. We walked and trotted for about two hours. We also worked on crossing bridges as she has developed a dislike of them recently. Also noticed she was doing a funky trot today. Looking forward to our next ride.

New Year, New Barn

So this year started off with moving to a new barn.  We found a little barn not too far from us that we are going to lease for awhile.  It needed some work, but so far is turning out to be really nice.  There are a couple down sides to having your own barn:
1.) You are there by yourself
2.) This barn does not really have a place to ride
On the upside you can pretty much do what you want as long as owner is okay with it. :)  All in all really enjoying the new barn.
So with warm weather fast approaching I am beginning to start thinking about what rides I would like to do this year and getting together a training strategy to get Khari and myself in shape.
Here are some pictures of Khari at her new barn :)

Horse Training

I have continued to work with my horse over the last several months.  The summer, this year, was too hot to do much riding.  So with fall here, my horse and I have been putting in some quality time.  Being an Arabian she is always going to be a little temperamental.  But over the last few months I have seen her start to come out of her fear/flight instincts.  It has been a rewarding experience to see this kind of change in horse like her. 

Tarps have always been a hard thing for her, it moves, makes a noise, and they come in different shapes size and colors.  A true monster for this horse.  She is now starting to lip the tarp.  I was so excited.  Hopefully one day she will be able to confidently walk right under it and not blink and eye.
Until next time...Rebekah.

Horse with a Sore Back

My horse has been off the last half of November, December and January due to a sore back.  We started doing light ground work the first of February.  She had lost all of her muscle tone.  The vet was not sure as to why her back was sore because her saddle fit properly.  We have a new pad and are taking things at a much slower rate now.  Here are some pictures that were taken a few weeks ago.

You can see from the above pictures that she has very little hindquarter muscles and her forequarters are also under developed at this point in time.  Her coat, hair and hooves are very healthy.  She also has all of her energy back and is not sluggish now or resistant.

Week 4

This week we mainly focused on the same thing all week.  Riding, riding and more riding.  I rode 4 days this week and kept it to an hour and a half to 2 hours, 30 to 40 min of trotting with the same time spent walking and 5 to 10 min of canter somewhere in the middle. 

Khari's mouth seemed sore after 2 days this week of riding in a full cheek snaffle, so I rode in a rope halter one day, and then went back to her Myler comfort snaffle.  Her head quit bobbing up and down and she seemed more relaxed.  Her back, legs, and feet seem to be handling the work fine.  I did notice a little thrush in her feet so I started a bleach and water treatment to kill it.  All in all she seems to like it.

My goal is to slowly increase the distance, with shorter days of speed training.  I need to find a few longer trails and take her on them.

Week 3

I am just now getting a chance to write down my thoughts from last week's training.  The weather here last week was rainy so it put a bit of a hinderance on my plans, but I did get in some good riding.  We focused on trotting for about 30 to 40 min with about 10 min of cantering and then 30 to 40 min of walking with some small uphill terrain.  We did this 3 days last week.  We had an in between day where we walked for about 30 to 40 min inside because of the rain. She had been shut in all day. 
I have been mointering her wieght and so far she seems to be maitaining.  She appears to be putting on muscle, but not losing weight.  I have also started feeding her Vitamin E so lactic acid won't build up in her muscles and a flake of timothy mixed hay at night.  On nights when I work her and she sweats, she gets electroylites and extra beet pulp and alfala cubes with her feed.  On nights she is not worked she gets her normal ration.
As for myself I have also started trying to build muscle up in my own body esp. my upper body, abs, and core, so that I can support myself better when I ride and have a better fitness level for the both of us.  I have dropped below 120 lbs. which is not good.  I am getting back my "runner's body" which is not enough muscle.  Since I would already be "underweight" for endurance runs and would have to pack weight I am going to begin to work on adding extra muscle and not just losing fat.
Until next time...

Endurance Training Week 2 Days 3, 4, and 5

This week the weather has been really weird, but that is horseback riding in Georgia for ya.  It has made riding a little more difficult.  I decided to try riding in my western saddle and see how my horse would do, previous to that I have been riding in my Isabella Dressage saddle.  Monday I rode for 2 and half hours mostly pretty slow.  Tuesday I went to get her and I noticed she was moving a little stiff so I let her pick the pace and a weather front was moving in, so we took a break and worked on a pole pattern and the clover leaf pattern.  She got a good hose down and cool off time.  I think she was stiff because I used my western saddle.  I had ridden her almost that long before with no previous problems. I have found a forum that has been really helpful and linked me up with some other endurance riders.  http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.com  You can ask questions and meet all kinds of people.  Not that you should take everyone's advice, but it is still nice to meet people who want to do the same things as you.

Endurance Training Week 2

Yesterday we did a shorter, faster workout about 3 miles of alternating trot and canter.  Khari was a little warm and breathing fairly hard but she recovered pretty quickly. Within about a quarter mile of walking her breathing and heart rate had visibly come back down.  I am trying to find a heart rate monitor and GPS specifically designed for endurance riding.Today we rode for 2 and half hours.  Started off at a walk.  Trying to get her to extend her walk.  Some luck today.  Khari was a little full of herself because she had been in her stall due to heavy rain, but calmed down into a fast trot after about 15 minutes.  Very little cantering today.  Maybe half a mile at most.  It is hard for me to keep track of the distance.  I think I really need the gps system that will keep track of my mileage, mph, and our heart rates.Khari seems to be handling the work load pretty well.  I switched to the western saddle the last two days to help her get used to the heavier weight.  I am going to have to pack weight though because I am below the feather weight division.  The western saddle caused a little soreness and I am going to go back to the english saddle for the extended corral training.  I just haven't made a decision on a good endurance saddle yet.  My husband is convinced that we need to build one because he is not happy with the weight distribution and the potential for sore spots on a 100 mile ride.  Technology has come a long way and he is surprised that there are not more exotic materials used in endurance saddles.  He has a couple of engineering buddies that might work on the problem. 
I have been washing her off when the weather permits and it is not to chilly and rubbing her down with Sore NoMore or some kind of linement.

Endurance Training Day 3

Yesterday I rode 3 1/2 miles.  A little bit of cantering, some trotting, and a fair amount of walking.  It took us about hour.  Which after reading several articles, is apparently really slow.  But as it was only our second day I was really happy with my horse.

Today we rode for 2 hours and 20 min.  The break down was something like this: 1 mile of cantering flat, 3 mile of trotting mostly flat with a few hills and a lot of walking the rest of the time.  She seemed a little winded after the first 3 miles because they were done kind of fast but then she settled and her breathing relaxed.  She is used to doing trot and canter work.  It is not abnormal for her to trot for 20 or 30 min and canter for 10 min.  So far she seems to really like this new training style.  She likes that we are going out of the arena to ride.  I also tried a short trail ride by ourselves today and she did great.  Her confidence seems to be improving by the day.

Endurance Riding - A New Chapter

My horse is now 10 and still full of herself. She is so much fun now! I am going to start training for an endurance ride and or a competitive trail competition. I am going to use this blog to keep my notes and other things that come up.

A few weeks ago I went on a weekend trail ride. While I had been riding my horse 4 to 5 days a week for probably an hour or so at a good trot I was pretty surprised that she got so sweaty and she seemed a little stiff and sore after we came home. So I gave her some light work for 2 days after we got back and then let her her have the next 5 days off. During that time I decided to measure my arenas and that is where the problem lay. While I had been riding, I had not been riding long enough or hard enough. Now that I know how many laps it takes to make a mile in my round pen, outdoor arena, and indoor arena. Where do I start?

I thought I would see how she would do with a 2 mile warm up in the round pen. My horse is used to warming up before I ride her, so I thought no problem. While she handled the 2 miles, mostly trotting. with some cantering she was more winded then I thought she would be. I then gave her a breather and went and got tacked up. We rode 2 more miles at a trot in the arena and then did a mile of slow hill work for a cool down. I really paid attention to her breathing and how she felt under me.

Today I am going to contact her vet and see if he can email me or tell me anything specific she should be eating and try and research some more about endurance riding.

New Day

I ordered Parelli's Level I kit. It came yesterday. I have already played the friendly game, yo-yo game, and driving game. She did great! It actually worked. It also seems much more polite. My husband is not very supportive. I think it is because his attitude is not positive and he does not communicate well. Working with my horse is like seeing me in a whole new light. I keep thinking in the back of my head how are these techniques applicable to dealing with people and the girls. It is definitley getting me more in tune with my body language and facial expressions.

Last Few Days

I had her shoes pulled Thursday. She seemed a little sore, so I have not done much with her the last few days. I went to the Georgia Arabian Horse Association meeting today. It was informative and I meet a few people. I have decided to do the Parelli program. It should be here next week. Can't wait. Not much else is going on right now.

Still Cold

All this cold weather makes it hard to do much with Khari. So I am pretty sure I am going to take the plunge into barefoot trimming and let Khari go with no shoes. I worked with her today on more free lunging, brushed her down, and noticed that her coat looked a little dull. I will be keeping a close eye on her to make sure that she is feeling ok. With it being so cold I do not know if she is getting enough water. I took some more pictures of her today and will be posting them soon. I finally found someone to come and work with me and Khari. She has been working with horses for 40yrs. She follows natural horsemanship techniques so I am very excited. But it will not be until February. In the meantime I am going to re-read Pat Parelli's Natural Horsemanship book. Hopefully I am going to have her shoes pulled on Thursday.

On the home front my youngest daughter almost started the house on fire today, peed on the porch, and touched the fire poker right after it had been in the fire. Its hard being 3.

Another Cold Day

Today was another cold day in Georgia. Very odd for this part of the country. Today I worked on some round pen work with Khari. We worked on free lunging, leading with no rope, bending with no rope, and having our face and ears rubbed. I am working up to clipping. She does not really like to have her ears touched but with persistence she is making progress. I also took a few more short videos you can check them out at www.localequine.com. I am also considering taking her shoes off. I have found several websites support ting no shoes. It actually cuts off almost all of the blood circulation to the lower leg.

End of the Snowy Day

Last night when I went to the barn I cleaned out Khari's stall while she stood and patiently waited for me. I then took her blanket off and checked her over to make sure she had no cuts or sores on her from being in her stall all day. We then did some longeing and backing to get her blood flowing. I posted short video clips of lunging and backing her at www.localequine.com .

Snow Day

Today we are suppose to get 1-3 inches of snow. I wonder what my Arab will think of the snow? I am really glad that I purchased a new blanket from Schneider's 6 months ago. My husband thought it was overkill because we live in Georgia, he grew up in Montana, and it generally doesn't get very cold. She has stayed absolutely gorgeous though without growing a great furry coat. It was definitely worth it.

I also bought her a hood to keep her mane (lycra slicker hood) from getting ragged. This has doubled as a neck warmer for her on days like today. Definitely worth the money. I didn't realize how much mud it would keep out of her mane on rainy days. Georgia clay seems to get everywhere when it rains.