ACTHA–Take One

Well, the first ACTHA ride is over and we made it home in pretty much one piece.  I’m sporting a swollen eye that is turning an impressive shade of purplish red, (That is one thing I do well, bruise!) and Dee has a small scrape down the inside of her right hind leg.  Stay tuned to learn the stories behind the wounds.  :0)

I am still trying to wrap my mind around the whole experience.  It was a great weekend and I hope to have many more weekends like this with many improvements in horsemanship along the way.

When we first arrived, the barn manager showed me how to get to the pen. We went through the barn with horses on either side of the isle and then through a hallway that was maybe three feet across (concrete walls that were 12 feet high) and six or eight feet long, then down another isle with horses on either side.  My first question was “is there another way for me to get here?”  she was nice enough to remove the few horses that were turned out in a nearby pasture so I could walk through there and avoid the barn route (WHEW!)   Dee was pretty good…she came out of the trailer okay and was very attentive to the surroundings, but respectful as I led her to her pen.  We were in a pen with no other horse nearby at first, so she got pretty worried when I walked away.  She wasn’t alone for long though, when I returned half an hour later with some hay, she was making friends with Lloyd, a seven year old quarter horse with a kind eye and a relaxed nature who had moved in next door while Randy and I were setting up the trailer.  I believe Dee was very relieved to have the company and they bonded quickly while I chatted with Nora, Lloyd’s owner who had come in from Ruidoso to enjoy the trail riding events.

The night went smoothly, although I had a hard time sleeping between the thoughts of our first ride and some neighborhood dog who was apparently not thrilled with being left outside all night.   I was up bright and early and noticed that Dee wasn’t eating all her hay, but she was drinking water and I felt that was the most important thing.  She also did not greet me when I came to feed her, but hung out with Lloyd instead giving me just a quick glance.  I left her and went about getting ready for the morning. 

It was during the rider’s briefing that Dee had her “scaring event”.  Apparently she was rolling and was a bit too close to the wall of the covered area of her pen.  There was a gate there that was tied back to the wall.  She got her back legs caught in the gate during the roll and the struggle of getting out of that mess caused a huge racket and all kinds of dust.  We all of course looked in that direction, but it was hard to tell where the excitement was coming from.  I believe it was one of the kids that lived there at the facility who said “she’s caught in the fence!” – then several who were in charge of the place headed in that direction, by then the horse had gotten loose and things were quieting down.  I didn’t know it was Dee until the dust cleared and I could tell that the family was gathered at her pen gate.  Randy and I left the meeting and went to check it out.  Someone had a halter on her and they were trying to look her over but she was dancing around and nervous, when I got there she calmed down enough to stand still for inspection, but continued to shake and her breathing was very fast.  Poor thing was so scared!  She had some blood on her lips, but a quick inspection didn’t show any major damage – she had bitten her tongue during the struggle and it had already quit bleeding.  There was a scrape down the inside of each hind leg, between hock and hoof – but nothing deep and no more then a drop or two of blood involved.  Randy went and grabbed my halter and lead and I took her out on one of the turnout pastures and moved her around, looking for any lameness.  She was okay physically, and calmed down within a few minutes.  Too bad it wasn’t the only thing that bothered her mentally the whole weekend!

At the risk of this turning into a VERY long blog post, I will break things down into two lists; things I learned about my horse, and things I learned (or was reminded of) about myself. 

Things I learned about my horse:

1. She DOES know how to go backwards – very quickly (okay….VERY-VERY quickly)
2. She DOES NOT like it when there are 15 other horses and riders BEHIND her.
3. She DOES NOT like it when there are 15 other horses and riders IN FRONT of her.
4. She does not trust goats.
5. In a small group of horses (no more than four including herself) she likes to be the leader.
6. She does not trust cows.
7. She DOES NOT like to be told what to do (okay, I already knew that one)
8. She can go down steep hills – FAST
9. She can STOP instantly while going down a steep hill.
10. She learned some Arabian tricks from Moli.  (one of the helpers on the ride even asked if she was part Arabian.

Things I learned about (or was reminded of) myself:

1. I DO NOT enjoy riding in reverse at a high rate of speed.
2. Trail riding is much more enjoyable at the walk or easy trot than at the “nervous jig”
3. Black barrels are apparently more scary to a horse than blue ones.
4. Silver tarps are REALLY more scary to a horse than blue tarps (uhm, what was that about a black eye?)
5. Even crazy horses have sane moments.
6. Enjoy the walk – you can’t always expect it to be offered.
7. It’s great to have friends with calm horses. (thank you Kit and Nora and your trustee steeds Jr. and Lloyd – you guys made our first experience the best it could be!)
8. Even sane horses have crazy moments.
9. I have gotten pretty good at the dismount.
10. The work I have done up to this point has been worth it.

Okay Okay…the black eye.  One of the obstacles we had during the ride was to walk across a tarp on the ground.  They had it anchored pretty good, so the wind couldn’t blow it around, and Dee has been over, under, and around a tarp at home in just about any configuration you can think of, in fact, it is one of her favorite toys.  We had already been pretty successful at four other obstacles, so I didn’t think it was going to be too big of a deal.  I wasn’t expecting to get over the tarp within the time limit…but didn’t think she would be scared to death of it either.  I approached the tarp with the expectation of going around it, then double back beside it, then attempt actually looking at it.  But SHE intended to avoid it all together by exiting stage right.  Which is where the judge was standing…I managed to keep her from running over the judge, then waited for her to stop, but did ask her to at least turn her head towards the tarp.  We managed to get around the first time – then worked are way slowly back by.  I decided to just pass by a third time and knew time would be up and we would call it good and move on.  The judge asked if I wanted to work with her (we were the last group of riders, so there was no rush) so I waited for her to settle, facing the tarp and dismounted.  Then, from the ground I asked her to step towards the tarp and she did…then lowered her head to take a sniff.  I let her get a good whiff, then asked for that one step forward that would have her actually touching the tarp (in hind sight, backing her away from the tarp first would have been a better idea).  She did take the step, but when her foot landed on the tarp, it made that scary killer tarp sound and she went immediately airborne – looking to land on the other side…long-ways across the tarp (not across the corner, which was where I thought she would go) and guess who was in the middle?

On her way OVER me – some part of her head collided with my cheek – smashing my sunglasses into my face.  Impressively (this is me…looking at the bright side) I was able to stay standing and hold on to the reins; and when she landed on the other side of the tarp she was facing me and when I had no reaction she dropped her head and let out a big sigh.  I reached over and rubbed her between the eyes, told her what a good girl she was and turned and walked off the tarp.  She followed as if there was never an issue, staying on the tarp,  and walked right out of the obstacle area and stood waiting for me to mount. 

I guess in that one moment she pretty much let out most of the anxiety she had been holding onto all weekend, because she finished the ride out at a perfect walk and completed the next obstacle calmly (even though she did not take her eye off the cows that were laying in the field right next to the obstacle) …she walked through the little maze without touching a pole or offering any resistance to my cues. 

She even walked past the pens full of horses – with Jr. and Kit on one side and Lloyd and Nora on the other – we made it the whole rest of the way without playing bumper horse with either one.  (oh…add “she likes to play bumper horses with fellow trail riders” to the list of things I learned about my horse this weekend)

Thanks to Kit and Nora, Dee and I made it through the weekend in almost one piece – it was nice to ride with folks who were supportive and understanding!  I think we will try it again.

Oh, by the way.  We did finish both days in a calm matter...and she was able to go through the barn and down that narrow hallway with me several times with no issues.  She scored a 28 out of 60 possible points (10 points possible per obstacle, and the two she got zeros on we did do, just not within the time limit) and I scored a 35 out of 60 (same two zeros) not bad for our first outing uh?