Winter Be Gone!

I am SO over Winter it's not funny.... Red however, uses these opportunities to take his dirt baths (can you tell?!).

Today, I took a day off work to get the grey beasty ready for his first show (among other things I had to do) ...

We started with the practise leading and trotting from the shoulder, which I am very pleased to say, he has mastered! He responds to the slightest command or suggestion now (a good and bad thing), but we're still fine tuning, and he's coming along in leaps and bounds...

Then we saddled up and made our way to the roundyard for our normal warmup lunge. Took some great pics of him.... I think perhaps it's about time I brought the lunge rein/side reins back into the picture - so just he doesn't get used to all this running about in circles with his head in the air. Maybe every 2nd lunge.... yes, that sounds like a plan.

After that, I jumped on and rode in the arena for a short while. Just the usual, walk/trot circle work to each rein. Some introductory yeilding etc ... He catches on very quick this boy. Unfortunately, no ridden shots, as I always seem to be out there alone so the only shots I get are from the ground or from between his ears, hehe ... I couldn't ride for too long today (this is Ride 9 by the way) as it was excessively windy and he was feeling a bit unsettled about it .... So we did the basics and called it a day ....

I then took him back and washed his legs and face (way too cold for a full bath; and I washed him after we rode, hence, his dirty face and legs in the pics), trimmed the santa beard under his chin, and thinned/pulled his mane/tail... He's looking very smart now .... All ready to go!!..... A few piccies below of our workout......

First piccy - warm up trot in the round yard....(forgive the blurriness, was off my mobile phone)...

Second piccy - Are we done yet Mum?! I really like this one:

But I'm a Racehorse, not a Showhorse!

Today's traning session was quite interesting; me, hungover from a blacktie function the night before, and him, dragging his toes all the way to the arena in equal protest. But we need to practise, boy, do we need to practise!

We always started by walking (me leading from the ground) to the arena - I figure it's a good warm up, and I'm not one to just jump on 'cold' these days .... Call me chicken, but the words 'cold horse' and 'green horse' are never far from my mind. So we take a leisurely stroll the the arena, tighten up the girth a bit, and do some light lunging to either side with the saddle on. Walk, trot, canter to each direction, and I notice his canter is getting alot better (only disunited once this time, woo!) ...

After we're warmed up, I hop on and do some circlework to either side. His trot is feeling really good these days. Better to the right than the left; but I'm stiff to the left as well, so that doesn't help us. I asked him to canter for the first time under saddle; we got a few strides that was about it. I'm not pushing it though - happy to take it slowly and take what I'm given.

After the ridden work I thought I'd see how his leading skills were, given we're off to the show next week. Errrr, zero to none! So I spent a good 45 minutes teaching him to lead from the shoulder, and trot next to me (now that was a mission!) Once he got the idea though, it was all smooth sailing. We also have to work on our stance, but baby steps really. So we'll be sure to practice that one; along with everything else.

He was less than impressed we had such a comprehensive lesson, and not quite sure about all this 'having to look pretty' stuff... But he's still a willing participant for the most part. He gave me as much of a workout today as I gave him, and I'm sure it was his payback for making him work hard as well..... Running next to his huge trot; keeping my legs glued to his sides, because if I relaxed it was his cue to relax as well (and by relax, I mean stop completely).

Cheeky devil; MY cheeky devil.

Beginners Ring here we come. And beginners we are!

A Re-Mount for the Re-Rider!

Forgive me is m memory is a little hazy, I purchased him in December '07 and have only just decided now is a good time to blog about him. Yes, I am indeed a clever individual.

**As he's an ex-harness horse, and harness work is his speciality, I will not be mentioning our harnesswork in the interest of keeping this blog strictly about his work and accomplishments as a saddlehorse.
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The Story of Red:

If I'm a re-rider, then it makes sense that an ex-racehorse (or any other horse coming from long spell into a ridden career) is a re-mount!!

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I was browsing the Harness Australia Trading Ring, looking for my next Standy. I happened to stumble upon an advert placed by another person looking for a 'coloured' Standy. Red's owners had posted a quick description of him, saying he was grey/roan and was available if the colour was close enough. She never responded. Grey standardbreds come up few and far between, so I decided to jump on it!

Lucky me. I sent an email to the owners asking if he was still available, and if they could tell me a bit about him, include a pic etc etc ... The reply came back he was indeed available; was 10 years old; retired many months ago but was being used to teach the youngins how to be a harness horse. His racing name was Red Ghost; Paleface Adios (very successful Australian harness horse) is the broodmare sire.

It never ceases to amaze me, that these guys so easily end up as dog food. Expensive dog food, when you think of the amount of time, money and training that goes into these guys. So 'Red the Grey Horse', as it where. Interesting name!

This was the picture included in the initial email:

So there he was; in all his greyhound racing glory! Not the best picture of him (he doesn't normally stand so 'under' himself), but I loved him the minute I saw him. It was a done deal, and he was mine. The owners even brought him to me as I was between horsey-transport at the time. From day 1, he was been an extremely willing, extremely honest pupil, not to mention a great friend.

In the 6 months I've had him, we have mastered lunging to either side, canter to either side (on the lunge), yeilding to pressure (groundwork), ground poles and small caveletti's on the lunge as well.

I also took him to a 3 day 'breaking clinic' .... while it was fairly 'natural' style of breaking clinic, there was no games, no carrot sticks, just excellent basic foundation groundwork, desensitising, and mounting on the final afternoon. 'Riding' conisted of walking around the arena with a saddle and halter, turning, backing up, yeilding, stopping: the very basics. The whole weekend, he was a star pupil, and was admired by both the instructor and other participants in the clinic. I was so very, very proud.

Where We Are Now:

With about 7 rides under our belt, we are doing wonderfully! The first 5 were confined to the arena alone. The first 2 were just in the round yard. Ride 4 introduced the trot. Oh and have I mentioned: he has never once paced!!

Currently, we have established some very nice Figure 8's (albeit, very large figure 8's) at the trot whilst in the arena, and he is starting to round down of his own accord. (I've been taking him in fairly small steps, and have left his front end completely alone for this reason.) He's soft and light in the front, and quite responsive to seat pressure. But bouncy, omg is he b..O..u..N..c..Y..... I find myself having to push down deep through my heels just to stay secure - though I suspect as he develops more muscle and balance (and I do the same!!) that will lessen somewhat ...

Ride number 7 was an hour and a half long trail ride, where he did not put a foot wrong. Sure, we just walked the whole way with several other horses, but a gem he was!! He's coming along brilliantly, and I keep in regular touch with his old owners to let them know how he's going. He raced for many years- A rider is just one more thing for the ever-capable Standardbred!

Red Is Going To The Show:

Having since purchased a 4 horse truck recently, I very fortunately stumbled upon the program for a 'Winter Woolies" show coming up in my region. What's even better, a Beginners Ring, dedicated to the green horses!!

Perfect practise for my grey beasty; get him some exposure in the show scene and some more practice looking pretty in our circlework.... (If such a thing is possible, with rusty re-rider and green re-mount!) But the aim iof the game is not to win, but to improve and have fun .... And fun we shall have! His show name will be: In The Red, which was suggested by my partner, as a pun intended to point out that horses seem to keep our bank balances 'in the red'.

Here is a few pics of him now:

Looking pretty - waiting for a workout.................... Sunset trailride - full steam ahead.

How It Came To Be .... the Backstory

Like many, I started my horsey career with a strong dis-taste for Standardbreds, 'they're only for harness racing, no good for ridden work, and they pace!' Can't stop a pacer pacing, right?!

I am what blogger FuglyHorseOfTheDay calls a 're-rider' - an avid rider and showjumping/eventing/dressage competitor in my youth, but now a less fit, quite chicken-shit adult. My bones don't bounce like they used to you know! So what did I do when was looking for my new horse after a long break?? I did what most ladies do, and bought an OTTB. Beautiful mare, but beautifully hot-headed to boot. It was not a good partnership for my first horse back in the saddle after a long break...

And so started my epic search for the perfect horsey partner....... Eventually, I came to hear about Standardbreds; their durability, endurance, honesty, nature, everything! I did my research, joined the local Standie association, and found my first Standy (who came to me for free). He was one truly amazing horse: though, good and bad amazings!! He was strong, athletic, solid, honest, and a looker. But he was also pushy, hated being confined (would literally push the fence/yard down to get out), and paced! Boy did he pace; so bound in muscle memory was this horse, that he could pace over groundpoles and up a steep hill at some speed. When I could get him onto the diagonal, his trot was amazing! Very elevated with spectacular action (especially for a Standardbred not long off the track), you could hardly believe it was the same horse. Many many months of trying to retrain muscle memory later with no success (combined with a series of rather painful personal catastrophes), I retired him. The horse just loved to pace! And I wanted to show in english breed classes, with maybe some low level eventing/dressage thrown in later. Though I can really say he retired, he went to a young chappy to take mustering every now and then. But they had a great connection - and he's enjoying life on 200acres doing not much!

He was the start of my love of the breed! And now, well I probably wont own another horse other than a Standardbred. They truly are an astounding breed. How many other breeds can have a successful career in racing (racing on rockhard surfaces), then retire sound as a bell, then go on to have a successful careers under saddle?! Not many, that's for sure.

Why so many Standardbreds go to slaughter is truely beyond me. It's a very sad state of affairs.