So I totally meant to update after the mental training ride weekend I had with Jaime of Hope Horsemanship in early May, but then put it off too long so I’ll start there as well as recap our 2nd clinic weekend of the year with Tom Moates.

With our spring changes, it means that I can’t just snag Skyler for a ride with me, so we’ve been riding with other folks that I know I can lean on to slow things down when Breeze needs to regroup. Still mainly sticking to just another rider or two, but have occasionally ended up in a larger group of 5 – which becomes hit or miss on his anxiety! Instead of being the steady eddy leader (and sometimes follower) of a pasture mate, he becomes a wound up ping-pong. Either we are fighting over the place in line, or his boredom(?) via constant grass grabbing or head flinging over flies. Leading, he will get somewhat pokey, and then sometimes be testy about horses behind and feeling any pressure from them. It has been an interesting set of things to work through!

I had just a few rides on Breeze after the March clinic before heading to spend a night with Jaime to go for a ride together in early May. Of course, it couldn’t be easy getting there… we had planned for it over the last month – the one weekend we were both free, and that it would not impede on her training for the OD100 – and my truck’s radiator decided to die that Tues. I found a mobile mechanic to see it, and he managed to get it fixed on Friday just in time for me to haul out! It was right up to the last minute in figuring out if I was still coming though. A relatively uneventful trip to her, we unloaded and let him rest a little, then took to some ground work in the round pen to see where his mind was, and working to get the canter on cue. Last time I did this, I kept getting ahead of him and cutting him off by accident, so it is good to have someone there to remind me to watch my position! Breeze was good at giving “just enough” of himself, but he easily goes down to 85% commitment and presence with you if you aren’t keeping him engaged. He was able to canter in that pen, which is tight for a big horse like him! We got to a good place, had some dinner and hot tub time, and headed to bed.

Saturday we leisurely got ourselves going for breakfast and then headed out to a trailhead about 20min up the road from her place. Our plan was to a ride a loop from Hidden Valley that led us back to her house, settle the horses and eat lunch, then catch a ride to pick up the trailers later. It was the longest ride he tackled in a while, and he totally proved me wrong on his lack of fitness due to limited winter conditioning, doing the 14miles with ease, though not to “endurance level average speed” (5mph), mainly due to mental resets needed. The ride started out interesting to me, in that when given the chance to go on ahead and leave Jaime & Khaleesi behind, he didn’t bat an eye. We worked on maintaining connection, which included corrections for the constant head flinging, moving out at a trot and settling back down, and leap frogging. We reached a point about 7miles in that I could ask for the canter, get it – nice and controlled – and he could come down out of it without bracing or running off with me. As we neared home though, my attempts to ask for JUST a trot were met with his answer of “No, Canter, Go!” so we spent the last two miles+ walking and regaining the mind. We made MANY stops to recenter, and at one point I dismounted to do some ground work and hand walk a while to regroup. All in all, it was a very successful ride that you can see more about here on Hope Horsemanship’s YouTube.

Fast forward another month, Skyler graduated from 8th grade and now we have a Freshman and a SENIOR <eek> next fall! Somehow amidst an 8th grade dance, Junior Prom, several track meets and TWO soccer ⚽🥅tournaments I got some riding in here and there, including our first “Solo” trail ride (Skyler escorted us on foot).
I crewed for Jaime & Khaleesi for their OD100 mile completion on June 13-14th 🍾(recap on the HH YouTube channel!) and the following weekend returned to her place for a clinic!

For the clinics I usually keep the horses at another farm to utilize a large arena, but this time I decided I wanted to get more focus on the ground work and the canter, so instead of us roving another 30min north, we stayed at the main location to work. We had a “small” clinic by our normal standards, but it was by far no less interesting, demanding, informative, or fun!

We had quite the mix going, including endurance hopefulls, mustangs with rope and trailer anxiety, and horses restarting careers.

The boys were housed up front with a empty pen in between them and a young Arabian stallion. When grabbing one from the mix, the other two made quite a fuss on Day 1! It didn’t take too long for Skyler to get Prophecy focused while working on the line. She then spent some time working to get him lined up at the block and mounting without moving away. Tom helped her get him centered and she rode him for a bit. He still has a ways to go with stopping or backing softly, and what the reins means, and while he is muscling up some since she started working him March, he still hollows out when being ridden. Of course, he and Breeze are using the same saddle for their wide bodies, so we worked our spots in a way to give us time move tack from one to another.

When it was our turn, Breeze started out singled minded towards his buddy Prophecy back in the pasture calling. We spent quite a bit getting him to let that go when at liberty and then I tacked and rode. He became a ping pong, calling to either Prophecy at one end of the ring, or the resident herd of Jaime’s at the other end. While it was not nearly as bad as prior clinics, getting him to listen the right rein was a task! Tom mounted up for a bit too, and I finished off our day 1 with some ‘rigamarolls’ that can make one dizzy eventually!

Day 1 concluded with a family style dinner and smores by the fire… talking horses, dogs and everything in between.

I went to bed Day 1 and everything hurt! lol. A combination of working Breeze on his turns, and hauling water I think.

Day 2 was a nice crisp morning with Skyler and Prophecy starting us off. She had wanted to try him bareback since riding Breeze that way once, figuring he’s a nice wide one too, so they started with that after settling in and working on the block line up again. Once Skyler was on it was quickly obvious Prophecy was less than a fan, so Tom did some tension release and hanging-human work as Skyler led him around, then tacked up for her to get to some riding. They went from spot to spot in the pen, checking out the ball, and then to me, and then Tom and fans for a “Petting Party”.

Breeze and I were much quicker to get centered and moved from the ground to saddle after a few “raising the pen” moments (when he’d ignore me) to get him focused. We had much better luck with our turns to the left, still some struggles to the right, and he wouldn’t pick up a trot smoothly enough for me to increase speed. He was stuck a bit on P on end of the pen so Tom had me drop the reins, let him walk about, asking for a turn every now again, and just get onto him if he was sticking in a spot for another horse. Well… Here is where Breeze threw a Curveball. He only got stuck at the end of the pen ONCE. Several more times along side part of the pen that was parallel to the driveway, but not P, not Jaime’s horses up the hill…and he was responsive to the asks, still better left than right of course. I don’t ride with much contact, but rarely on the buckle as he can get in a hurry at a the drop of a pin out and about, so this really made Tom and I scratch our heads… Breeze wants NO contact? Mind you, we also ride in a side-pull, not a bit! So, the larger riding pen at home must come together so that we can continue to work on this and see how it goes. Looks like I can make a space 36×60 in our flattest area, plans are being made lol.

Somehow I missed any pictures of Raynee on day 2, but the last horse worked was one of the Akhal-Teke horses Jaime works with at the Preservation Foundation in Lexington, VA area, Surgan. They trailered him over for the afternoon for Jaime to do his first saddling since his arrival. He was a prior dressage horse, so no one expected it to go sideways, just a good chance to see where he truly was with mounting and such, in a completely different type of saddle. The hope is for him to try endurance, and maybe J & I will get to ride together on some LDs. After they left, Skyler got a chance to ride the two-time OD 100 mile Finisher, including the latest National Championship 100 mile ride, Khaleesi, before we hit the road home.

We returned home Saturday evening and got to spend a few moments with Asher before he left at the crack of dawn Sunday for his camp. We more or less gave the horses the week off, with a little bit of ground work for Prophecy later in the week, and then Skyler and he accompanied me and friend riding at our local park. They hiked while we rode the 4.5miles. Prophecy did well, only his second time ever getting trailered to this park, let alone really anywhere in 8 years!

I tried riding Breeze on the buckle more, which to him meant EAT SNACKS all the time lol. He had one big spook and spin over a deer early on that surprised us all, and I stayed with him thankfully. We ponied Prophecy across the creek on the way out, once I got him to stop splashing. The ride itself was pretty uneventful otherwise, until the very end… coming back to the main area there is a split that Skyler opted to take P up the hill instead of the bypass trail. We’ve done this before where other horses split from us and it wasn’t a problem, so I didn’t really worry about it. Well, Breeze apparently did! He caught sight of P heading up that hill, did a big 180 and bolted to him leaping up a small hill/embankment. It was really only a few strides, but I was on the buckle so I was just left to hold on, and in the jump he smacked my helmet brim with his neck/head or I hit a branch? Not sure, I was ducking. Sigh. There is work to do there on not attaching so hard to that other horse.

Now it is time to get my riding ‘arena’ built up and keep experimenting with no contact, in addition to working reins for Breeze, and to get Skyler & Prophecy working reins too.
Next up for Breeze and I is the Harry clinic in mid-August. Hopefully we will have made a bit more headway on things and I bet we will be working on his draw to others a bunch there. I think Prophecy will be tagging along as a buddy, as it is a week away instead of just a few days, and he is obviously who he’s drawn to!