Well, we had a lovely weekend at Coyote Creek in
Angel Fire, NM.
Remember me? I've had my horse 3 months now,
and I've had a horse trailer for 1 month. I started the horse with nearly
a month of ground & arena work, because he didn't stop or turn. Did
road conditioning (interval training) for the last 2 months, and he's gone from
not being able to trot 1/2 mile to being able to handle 10 miles of mixed
walk/trot/canter pretty well. It was just 2 weeks ago that I finally felt
comfortable enough with his reining and stopping to ride him in our canyon-y
pasture full of trecherous rocks, trees, and cactus. ;-) We've come
a long way, baby. So the next step was obviously to enter our first CTR
ride.
We got to the ride ok. Got setup, checked
in. I learned that trotting on longe is not enough - he has to trot in
hand, too. Didn't realize he had to do both. Anyway, we got past the
checkin in fine shape. Found out that the hay I bought (supposed to be
grass) was alfalfa, and I had to wonder how my horse would be after a day of
standing by the trailer eating it. I think in the end it was a good thing
he got to eat all that alfalfa hay - he needed the steam. I saddled up the
day of the ride, and headed out. The first obstacle right at the start was
to walk down a short hill to a creek crossing. Coyote creek was only 6" to
a foot deep, but it was really wide. Wider than anything near home.
As a result, I had the first (but not the last) horse to refuse the
crossing. So we went nearby to a better spot to cross (where there was no
hill). Rhythm still didn't want to cross. He'd stand right by the
water, but wouldn't step in. Enter a horse named Rocket. Rocket is
another young Foxtrotter, he refused the first obstacle, but wouldn't get near
the river. He'd dance and prance and spin away from the water. I
moved back from the water while Rocket's rider tried to get Rocket near the
water (let alone across). Finally, there were 3 horses dancing and
prancing at the water's edge. The horsemanship judge told me to get off my
horse and lead across first. Well, ok. Brr, it was a cold
creek. I lead my horse across, and he went just fine. Next was
Rocket. Rocket's rider got to the middle of the creek, pulled on Rocket,
and finally with one GIANT leap, Rocket landed mid creek. The terrified
horse collected himself and took another GIANT leap (we are talking stadium
jumping, folks) and landed on the other side of the creek. It was an
amazing display of equine athleticism. Rhythm (my horse) later crossed
every creek we came to without incident, and happily stood in the water to
drink. Rocket and the other dancers and prancers never quite overcame that
fear of the water, even on the small creeks.
The ride traversed up a beautiful mountain, through
the spruces and firs, aspens and ponderosas. It was gorgeous and the sky
was blue. The next obstacle was backing about 7 steps between two trees
(very narrow opening). Most of the novice horses didn't back up well at
all, let alone get close to the trees. My horse backed up well (we work a
lot on that), but we missed the trees by a long shot. One thing that I
think was a mistake that a lot of novice riders made was that their horse would
back up a couple steps, and instead of releasing the pressure (reward) and then
asking for more steps back, they just keep trying to pull their horse back
further. The horses would get confused and stop backing up because there
was never any release for their good behavior. My horse would have
backed up forever, but I've got to learn to "steer" him backwards. I don't
have the knack of that yet.
At the first P/R, I wondered how my horse would do
since this was our FIRST RIDE IN THE MOUNTAINS ever! Well, the road
conditioning paid off - he was 11 & 11 - in fine shape to continue.
The horsemanship judge (who knew me by name after the water crossing) hailed me
by name, I thought she looked suprised I had made it so far. :-) I
really enjoyed that judge - she had a good sense of fun. The next obstacle
was a mount up, which we perfomed flawlessly. I think that suprised the
judge, too. Hey, my horse does know *something*. Tip:
For those of you learning, the judge wanted to see people put their left hand on
the mane of the horse, and their right hand on the front of the saddle, not the
back. The judge said when you put your hand on the back of the saddle, you
are more likely to pull your saddle sideways. I had learned this about a
week earlier from a lesson I took with my horse.
By then, I was riding with the drag rider. We
were nearly dead last (I say nearly because there were some people who
ended up behind us somehow). The drag rider kept telling me I would never
make it if I didn't make my horse MOVE OUT - kick him and MAKE HIM GO.
About the time I though she was going to kill me for being so slow, we heard
other riders behind us. :-) I think they saved my hide. (I
really ended up liking the drag rider - she has a great sense of humor,
too).
The names of the legs of the ride were things like
"Mud Hill", "Rock Hill", etc. Then before lunch came "Snake Hill".
Snake Hill was sooo tough. It was very steep, it was muddy, it was rocky,
and it zig-zagged back and forth in short switchbacks. I thought my horse
was going to fall down Snake Hill and kill us both, so about 1/2 way down I
dismounted and lead my horse down behind the drag rider. He'd never been
on terrain like that without a rider on his back, and I believe it was asking
too much for him to learn to negotiate the trail with me on him. I told
the judge, and he said that since I was a first time rider on a first time
horse, it was forgiven. Yea for that! The next obstacle right before
lunch was the sidepass, which I have not trained my horse to do (we started
ground work on it, but I haven't tried it from the saddle). I passed on it
because I knew we weren't ready to do it. My horse is ready to learn
lateral yields, and next year we'll sidepass like pro's. So -2 for that
obstacle. The other thing he had us do was a trot out doing a circle in
both directions (after lunch), and my horse did that just fine.
The horsemanship judge hid in the woods and
observed uphill travel and downhill travel. I did good downhill, but got a
note on my card about "heavy in the saddle" uphill. I am not sure exactly
what she wanted to see... Maybe more of a lean forward??
At the last P/R, my horse again did really
well. 11 & 3. He had a small puncture on his coronet band
(probably from a stick or rock on a steep downhill section). Lots of
horses had a little leg damage from the rockiness of the ride. Anyway, he
was fit to continue. I waited for the horse behind me to finish up.
It was an older arab with an experienced open rider. When the horse
cleared the check, the rider mounted up and the horse did some
lovely acrobatics, and during one of the spins actually slammed into the
back of my horse, who promptly woke up and slothfully moved out of the
way. :-) The rider of the arab went bouncing down the trail
chastising his horse, and I woke mine up and asked him to walk out, which he did
The vets, p/r people, and drag rider all laughed when I told my horse, "Wake up
honey. It's time to go," after watching the arab bounce down the
trail. Whew, only 3 miles to go.
There were a few people behind me (2 or 3 I think)
who had been detained at the P/R hold. I rode in the last 2 miles with one
of the drag riders while the other drag rider waited with the others. My
horse was exhausted, but he was walking along ok. The drag riders
horse (he's an endurance horse) kept making faces at my horse trying to
entice him into a race. Yeah right. We crossed Coyote
Creek twice at the end, and happily rode to the finish in second to last
place. He vetted out in great shape - and the next day looked good as new
(no galling, sore spots, or anything). We took third in our division -
though I am not sure if there were only three of us :-). I was so happy
just to finish, and to have a very healthy horse at the end.
We did this ride for experience and for training,
and I feel like we came out winners. Thanks to everyone who helped us
along the way. I'll post some pictures later and send the link after I
suck them out of my digital camera tonight. There are two more rides in
this region in October which I will try to ride in, and next year maybe we'll go
from being "pretenders" to being "contenders".
Hope you enjoyed this story. It's been posted
to CTR and Ridecamp.
m