Did you break out in song in your head? <lol>

The over arching theme of working with Breeze and the clinics we attend with Tom Moates boils down to “can you let go of that thought?”

For Breeze and I this is a constant discussion. He gives just so much of his commitment to my ask and struggles to give 100%. His thoughts are easily interrupted and distraction from all around makes him want to drive the bus. Tom remarked how less anxious he is now than a year ago, so we’ve made good improvements, but still have a ways to go.

Our weekend away for the first Roving Clinic of 2024 started out uneventful, hitting the road Fri am and finding little traffic <thankfully> on our way over the mountain and to Warm Springs. Breeze got to stretch and relax in a paddock for a while at a the farm of a newbie to our roving as a participant (audited last year) during her session and while we ate lunch. Breeze is what I consider herd bound and slightly buddy sour when he knows/thinks there are other horses around – so the fact he could hear and sometimes see other horses got him riled up and when I went to collect him for our slot and tack up, he was running the fence near the gate calling. Of course my mind says “this could be fun” <insert sarcastic eye roll here> but with a few reminders he walked well to the trailer and stood nicely for his tack up. Initially we started on the ground, during which the ceiling fan in the gazebo area caught his attention, then the other horses, then the fan, and so on. The work began to have him let that thought go to be able to look in the direction he was asked and walk off nicely under saddle. Tom hopped on a bit there to help shape things and worked with him on his backup too… which is super sticky and high headed, not relaxed. He certainly made Tom work, who ultimately removed both coats he had on for the cool day we had!
A quick trailer ride down the road afterwards and we set him up in a pen at Jaime’s place for the rest of the weekend; my trailer just a short walk down the road in a neighbor’s pull off. We finished up the day with her horse Wyoming – who also must drive the bus – but has much stronger reactions than Breeze (a Mustang that sees it all as life or death), and more often. It was neat to see how far they’ve come since moving her home in November!

Day 2 was a mostly reversed order, except Breeze & I were up first on a cool drizzly morning. Lots of things to test out our connection of mind and body… First the walk from his pen to the trailer – calling for the girls and head high. Once we reached the trailer, unlike the day before, he was a bit of a ping pong for tacking. Right away he was distracted and unable to give me his attention for more than a few seconds on the line. We spent a good bit right there in the grass by the trailer working on letting things go and finding me. Then we walked up to the ‘trailhead’ where I planned to ride a gravel road “alone” and work on focus with Tom’s assistance. There we were closer to where the girls were and the calling began again. He came around to finding me a bit quicker, and was still available to me when I’d ask after he would get distracted and look off after a noise. He stood relaxed while Tom and I chatted after for a good 5 or 10min, with a few check-ins to prove he was “there.” Then it was time to hop on! He eagerly went off, a few calls, and head high. We worked on directing on his thoughts, and going up and back to the gate, and of course backing. The forward thoughts were definitely there, but asks to do something else resulted in a lot of discussion – in other words – bottom lip flapping due to anxiety – his telltale sign. Overall it was a very successful “ride” for us as he mostly lost focus on the idea of the other horses and we went where I asked, eventually. I took him back to the trailer and untacked while Jaime and Tom started with Wyoming. He enjoyed some Replenimash for being a good boy 🙂

Jaime and Wyoming worked on similar things – the draw of other horses, sound distractions, and directing thoughts and feet – in her front yard and field. Then we had lunch and were off to see Chance again just a short trip up the road! They also “went into the wild” as Jaime said, exploring outside the arena with confidence. To finish up the day we headed a bit away to Dani (I missed that stop the first day as they were early am), said our farewells to Tom, and grabbed dinner a country diner on the way back to Jaime’s.

For once I wasn’t rushing back home after our Tom slot! Jaime and I had previously discussed that if the weather was nice that I’d stay an extra night so we could get on trail and work on things there too (and get to ride together which we haven’t done in ages). Breeze had a similar reaction about walking back to the trailer with his mind on those girls back there, but did well once tied to tack up. I did some ground work on my own with him while waiting on Jaime to come down with Khaleesi and Samwise. He let it go much faster, and then stood with a foot cocked at the trailer while I sat on the step – until he heard them coming towards us. We headed to the trail head again, a few more circles to refocus and away we went! He’s generally excited to get going and we did some “look here” moves as we went up to the woods. We stopped a few times along the way to regroup when I could tell “he’s not here” – it was great to have someone along checking in on me/us and willing to say – OK Let’s stop and try X. It took a bit of convincing, but I finally got him to take the lead on a portion to see if his ‘head diving maneuver’ continued when asked to slow his pace… that it did… just another layer of him to address. More regrouping and off again… we hit a really nice stretch where he was content with the pace I set and focused. That is where it felt so effortless and free blazing down the trail. (pics of me courtesy of Jaime!)

I generally found it really hard to work on him AND me though. I’m still adjusting to the saddle feel AND trying to position myself correctly to help my knee. The latter component fell by the waste side as staying aboard was more important! I admit, I reverted a few times… Jaime was there to catch me though and ask WHY did I just do that? … old habits die hard, but I’m committed to getting it sorted out!

It is apparent the reins don’t always mean something to him, especially when he has his own thoughts on a matter, and I’m seeing some new evasion techniques as we work through that. We’ve ditched the bit, and I can’t say I regret it. I always thought it gave me more control, but it really doesn’t seem to matter if there is one or not – maybe it was just a security blanket for me. I love his Vudu Tack rope bitless bridle, but it isn’t providing all the clarity we need in these early stages so I just ordered him a Navy/Gray/Silver Side Pull from Trail Blazers Tack, complete with some bling 😉

What’s on the docket next? First, a horse show weekend for Skyler and we have a few more weekends of soccer games for both of them. Skyler & I are planning to attend (registered) the Eastern Shore Ride mid-May together so she can experience riding her horse on the beach. I went in 2019 with Sully… quite an experience! I’m hoping we can keep our two moving together like on our home trails and keep some distance from the faster groups to just have a fun ride. All else fails, I get on the ground! Hopefully we won’t be swimming too much but Breeze is a water lover! Wonder if Scooby will want to swim too?
I’m definitely planning more Tom clinic attendance this year, and my first ‘goal’ of the year is to get to the Old Dominion anniversary ride in early June. I had hopes of a 55, but we haven’t had any longer training rides yet so thinking we’ll do the LD and test out the waters there of our mind and body togetherness. In July there is a Mark Langley clinic nearby I will hopefully audit at the least; don’t think I can swing the cost of participation unfortunately, but there is still a lot to learn as a fence-sitter!