Karen, Hope and I met to plan our 2010 versatility schedule at Pine Dell Farm.  Oh a grand time we are going to have.
April 10Our first event involves a bridge, tarp, riding a figure 8 at a trot - posting and then doing it again at a sitting trot; noise, sidepassing over a pole, and a gate. 

May 8th is our soccer versatility challenge. We'll have our natural horsemanship sticks and a ball.  Each rider will have to start at one end of the arena and get the ball to the other end of the arena-thru a goal. The ball can be moved with the stick or with the horse! It's a timed event.  Each participant will get two tries!

We are going to keep a score and have high point winner at the end of the season.  Champion and Reserve Champion gifts will be donated by No Frills Embroidery from Pat Harris. They will be really cool prizes.

I don't have a trailer loading problem with Nova.  I have a leaving-the-herd problem, especially in the early spring days of the year.  We've not hardly done anything all winter because it's been nasty.

Here's our pattern - er - Nova's pattern.

I get her halter on and lead her out of the barn towards the truck and horse trailer. Right when we pass the unattached garage, Nova balks.  Sometimes she rears up and hops around.  I can tell you exactly what she is saying, "NO! I don't want to go!  I want to STAY HERE with my buddies!  Hanging around the pasture with my buddies is a lot more pleasure for me than going with you!"

Depending on how I feel at the moment, Nova gets to circle around me really fast and change directions, move her hindquarters with a lot of effort on her part or back up with a lot of effort.

We continue to the trailer.  Now the pattern is that she will hop up and down for a few moments or go right into the trailer. I don't lead her into the trailer. I send her into the trailer.  I don't tie her. I just flip the rope over her back.

 Usually she runs right out of the trailer. Sometimes she stays in the trailer until I touch the door to shut it. Then she turns and exits the trailer as I grab the rope.

We've loaded in and out of the trailer maybe 10 to 20 times before she gets the idea that she's going to stay in the trailer.

Here it is nearly spring again and I know the pattern.  I decide to change the pattern.

I lead her out of the barn and back her to the trailer.  I back her into the trailor. Surprisingly, it only takes a few moments and she loads herself backwards. She's calm.I ask her to turn towards the front of the trailer. She finds the grain in the bucket and calmy eats.

She gets done and gets to go back to the barn with the herd.!  Heh heh heh...child Horse Pyschology works!

Lucky are the people riding young horses for they get to use two hands with a snaffle bit.

Early last year in one of the Fox Trotter Versatility clinics at Ava, I had forgotten the snaffle part.  I was using both hands with my favorite curb bit.

We had to return to snaffle and we managed.  I've seen pictures now of Nova and I in the arena...ugly pictures with her throwing up her head and arguing with my hands. 

That's the disadvantage of those professional photographers with their 100 pictures a second cameras.  You see the good and the ugly after the show is over.

This year Nova and I "get" to ride one handed and we switched back to a curb bit.  Why use a curb bit when riding one handed?  The answer is that one hand use with a curb puts more or less equal pressure on both sides of the bit. A curb doesn't encourage lateral flexion like the snaffle.

That's the theory, but do your hands follow the theory?

Now let's think about what happens when you neck rein and put pressure on the reins.  Which rein gets to most pressure?  It's the wrong rein. You are neck reining to turn left, but the right rein gets the pressure. 

The horse feels you trying to turn right in his mouth and you are up on top frustrated because your horse isn't turning left.

Here's what else we do.  Our neck reining isn't working so well, so we pull back as we are trying to rein the horse. Mostly we are giving a pull-back and opposite harsh feel to the mouth.  I know this so well, because I do it all the time.  I even curse my hands and they pay no attention.

Neck reining-it's all about body position, leg aides and focus. The actual use of the reins is so light, we humans can hardly deal with it.  Your rein touches the horses neck.  Neck reining-you need to practice riding bridleless.  Just have a bridleless image when you ride. Sadly, with the reins in your hands, that's very difficult.

Hands want to control everything. Hands have no imaginiation when it comes to riding bridleless.  In fact, hands hate riding bridleless.  It gives hands nothing to do.  Hands love to control everything.  Hands are the enemy.

When you are learning to neck rein, use the whole hand when holding the reins.  That helps communicate pressure to just one side of the mouth. In the show arena we get to hold the reins with the 1st finger between the reins that allows some contact with one rein or the other. That helps.

What you need to learn is how to communicate with your horse to have him go any direction other than straight ahead.

There's all kinds of wondrous signals to do that....signals that the horse understands.  Reins are way down the list when communicating with your horse on which way to go and how fast and slow.  Most everyone thinks reins are how to control the horse and there is nothing else.

Versatility people need to learn focus, weight shifts, leg aides and feel.  It's tough.

The picture shows my right hand trying to hold a rein like you do with a rein in each hand and my left hand trying to do a proper "horse show" neck rein hold.  Poor Nova....

What better to practice all the stuff we have to do in the versatility arena than on a trail ride.

Oh wait, that is more difficult than it sounds.  I go on trail rides with people who go on trail rides for their fun.  Little attention is paid to getting the exact gait at the exact time that you want it.

Sally Scott once told me that you can get careless on a trail ride.  My interpretation of that statement is meant that you can easily let your horse to take charge instead you having the deciding vote.  On trail rides it's easy to let the horse decide what gait to pick and to ignore some of your cues.  Nova ignores my slow-down cue quite often when she decides to run down a slight hill...or run up a hill!

In the versatility arena we have these things called cones. 

Cones always mean something.

• Sometimes cones mean stop and back, or 
• Immediately go into another gait or 
• You come upon a cone at a flat foot walk and the rule sez fox trot or
• You might come upon a cone and rule sez go into a right lead canter or
• left lead canter

Get the point?  Immediate transition.  Perfect transitions.

That's not how things work on a trail ride.  Some one sets the speed and the rest of the horses keep up.  There are usually many gait  transitions on trail rides, but your horse is in charge of them. 

It would be better if you were in charge of the transitions.

How wonderful would it be if you practiced perfect transitions on the trail ride.  That would be wonderful practice for the versatility arena. 

Here's one idea.  Count everytime the right or left leg hit the ground.  Personally, I like watching the right leg.  I set my vision to watch the front right leg. I like straight ahead at where I'm going.  No sense watching the horse's body when there are trail obstacles out there to be watching out for! Then I just try to feel the right front leg. Every five strides, make a transition.  You can go from any gait to a back.  You can go from any gait up or down to the next gait.  It's exciting to change gaits every 10 strides.  Gait transitions work a little better every 5 strides. 

It works best if you can get your trail riding partners to do this too! I bet at the end of a trail ride, your horse and you will be more "with" each other and have a better partnership.

 Lo and Behold, it has taken me about 16 years to feel comfortable with what I know.  Sixteen years of lessons, clinics, experiences, horse shows, a few broken bones, overwhelming fear, extreme heat and extreme cold.  This coupled with extreme happiness and the great fun of learning about horses.  I did everything I could to give me the opportunities I needed to learn!

I have become a versatility judge this year.  Not a fox trotter real judge, but a judge of some versatility events at Pine Dell Farm with Karen Moulis and Hope Robinson as master trio planners.  Karen and Hope forced me...not my fault.

I was asked to be a judge for a gaited horse Extreme Trail Horse Challenge.  I couldn't think of any reason I shouldn't do it, so I said YES.

I was asked to be on the board of directors of the Kansas City Fox Trotter Horse Breed Association.  I said Yes. 

At the first board meeting, I was volunteered to plan the Spring Fun Show.  I said YES.

What happened to me...the take-learn-take person that I am?

Two huge events happened to me this year with Velvet and Nova.  Velvet and I "blew Pat Parelli's socks off", we got the highest honor that was awarded at the Parelli Spotlight in the summer of 2009.  Nova and I won World Grand Champion Novice Versatility. Velvet and Nichole won two World Grand Champion garlands at the World Celebration Fox Trotter show.

It doesn't get any better than this.  I'm content that I know something now.  I'm ready to "pay it back". 

What better to pay it back than planning versatility  and fun events.  Other people deserve to have an iota of the fun I've had learning everything about horses in "sixteen years more or less"!  I've had great teachers and friends.

It's lucky that I'm still alive after all this time to pay it back.  I'm nearing Medicare age.  I figure horses and working have kept me doing what I do.

I decided to write a blog about the 2010 Versatility Voyage!  I'll give little tidbits of learning here and there. I'll tell my stories.  I live the journey.  Join me!  Heck, it's still 2009 and I've already started the blog!

Susan
http://mofoxtrot.com/viewpoint/index.htm (Susan's Viewpoint)