Trail Ride with Denise

Two weeks ago, Denise and I managed to get together for a short trail ride at her house. For those of you who don't remember Denise, she owns Sienna, the little gaited Amish mare that I worked with last summer.

Sienna says hi.

 Denise lives right around the corner from me and has a trailer. It's really a shame we're both so busy because it would be very convenient for us to ride together regularly, and I wouldn't be slowing her down like I do with my endurance friends.

Sienna Updates

Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook already know that I am dealing with some bad news regarding Booger. I am not ready to talk about it yet (and am still awaiting some test results), but I will share the story as soon as I know more.

In the mean time...

Pretty girl all tacked up.

Sienna has been coming right along in her training (no surprise there). These days, her owner is riding her out in the big pasture in between lessons both at the walk and gait. I think we're getting ready to go for her first off property trail ride in the next couple sessions (if the weather ever cooperates... we seriously get rain every Tuesday).

Look at this sweet face.

The other week, Mike got done with work early and came with me when I worked the mare. It worked out because Denise was away that day, and I felt better having another person on the property just in case.

The only photo I took. Love this barn.

We tacked up at the hitching rail while Mike got to meet Enya and the pony.

Enya is still suspicious of me.

We went in the dry lot where I did our routine flex, mount, flex again. By now Sienna is a 'pull out of field and ride' type.

We went right out to the field and rode around. We walked all over, then gaited all over. Sienna was perky and relaxed. She definitely understands that her job is to carry the silly human around. Good girl.

She was swishing her tail, but I love her expression.

Model status.

We haven't cantered yet. Sienna gets a little uneasy when I ask for more than gaiting speed. She canters well on the ground, so I don't think it will take much to bridge the gap under saddle. She's happy to gait fast or slow, and has really clean gaits, which I totally love. The more I ride her, the more I think she's a TWH.

Not sure how to go faster. Good effort.

It was a lovely ride on a gorgeous summer night. Denise is thrilled with her progress and is already talking about all the trail ride adventures they will have together. I think having a second horse to share with friends and family is an exciting concept for her... and not too far in the future!

I can't say enough nice things about this mare.

Sienna Updates: Riding in the Pasture

I am really hoping to have Mike come with me to Sienna's one week. I bet he would get some really lovely photos, and the little mare is really starting to come together nicely. I asked her owner if she would be ok with a photo session one night, and she's all for it. I bet she'd love a before and after post to share on the auction rescue pages.

It has been raining every Tuesday like clockwork, and yesterday was no exception. I texted to confirm our lesson time and it was sunny. I walked to the bedroom and put on my breeches. When I turned around, it was pouring. Luckily, Sienna is only a couple miles down the road so we were able to just wait it out. The rain turned out to be a good thing, because it cooled the weather and got rid of the bugs just long enough to get a session in without them.

Sienna's owner has been doing her homework in between sessions, and has been sending me updates. She did several ground driving sessions, including some in the back pasture, and also sat on the mare a few times. She has mostly been working in the rope halter because we were still finding the right bit.

Yesterday, I finally remembered to bring Dancer's old bridle over to try on Sienna. As I suspected, the bit fit her perfectly. A few adjustments later, Sienna was finally in a bridle with a noseband that fit her properly. The brow band also looked stunning on her if I do say so myself.

We started off with some bending and flexing exercises on the ground. Until that point, I had only asked with the rope halter, because the loose ring snaffle would have slid right through her mouth. Not surprisingly, Sienna transferred the concept to the bit immediately. Good girl! She makes all of this look easy. I am thrilled that her owner can appreciate the little things that are a big deal with horses, because Sienna is the type of horse people take for granted, skip steps with, and end up in trouble with down the line.

Vertical flexion, on the other hand, was met with a ton of resistance, some grinding teeth, and some sassy head tossing. I hear ya loud and clear, Sienna. We'll revisit that concept later. Still, she's reinforcing my theory that she was not a riding horse in her past life.

So I cut right to the chase and got on her. As always, she stood like a lady at the mounting block. By now she gets the game. The weird human comes and sits on me. I walk around in a couple circles. The weird human gets in her little blue car and goes home. 

At first, Sienna seemed pretty worried about the bit. She seemed to be expecting something, and it wasn't good. She would walk a few steps, then fret about the bit and come grinding to a halt. I switched my reins to one hand, planted that hand on her withers with just enough contact to prevent Sienna from throwing her head down or rooting the reins out of my hand. That's it.

I went back to my French and Algebra analogy. We are working on steering and stopping while going forward (ground driving). We are working on carrying a person and going forward (sitting on her in the pen). Some day, we'll put all those concepts together, but not all at once.

Once Sienna realized that I wasn't going to get all up in her mouth, she relaxed, I added some steering with a bump-bump of one leg or the other. We went around and around the pen and I added a little bit of rein to back up the steering.

Next thing I knew, Sienna was marching around that pen with no hesitation, I threw in a few changes of direction and let her have a loose rein. Good girl!! She was acting like an old school horse, not a green broodmare.

I upped the pressure to see what would happen, and Sienna tossed her head in protest. So we spent a few laps on that, until no amount of 'nagging' seemed to bother her. Then, I clucked and kicked and asked her to go. Sienna picked up a lovely gait, no problem. Smooth as butter!!! Her owner commented, "That looks very comfortable!" I confirmed.

The nice thing about this mare is that she has really nice, clean gaits. I don't think we'll have to micromanage her like I do with some of the other gaited horses I ride, and that's awesome!! When I told Sienna's owner that theory she laughed and said, "I'm glad you have experience with gaited horses. I didn't even take that into consideration when I hired you, so I guess I got lucky!"

Sienna seemed to be enjoying our session, and we still had some time left, so I decided to try her in the back pasture instead of the dry lot. Sienna is not at all spooky, and I felt confident that she wouldn't have a problem with this next step.

This is the part I wish I had Mike for. I rode around the back pasture, golden rays of the setting sun hanging heavy in the post-rain air, the Amwell Valley sprawling behind me, and Sienna's deep chestnut coat gleaming in the light. It would have made for an incredible shot.

Sienna did pretty well considering it was her first time being ridden outside the pen! Her pal, Enya, was screaming for her back in the barn, but she didn't seem to mind much. Ironically, Sienna would actually slow down and relax when we turned towards home. Most horses are sluggish going away from the barn and in a hurry going towards it, but Sienna was the opposite. More like, "O, goodness... the lady is taking me away. She's definitely taking me. O gosh... O.. phew... we're going home after all." Silly girl.

Sienna's owner did get a brief clip with her phone, so that will have to do as your visual!!

I advised Sienna's owner to do more ground driving away from home this week. In fact, I think ground driving out on trail would be a great step. In the mean time, I told her she can definitely ride the mare at the walk in the pen. If she gets brave, I'm sure she'd be fine gaiting around in there as well.

I think we'll have this mare out on trail by the end of the summer :)

Introducing: Sienna

I have a new training project just down the street from our house. She is a total sweetheart, and a bit of a JR lookalike, all of which makes me totally adore her already. Her background is a bit of a mystery, but that has never stopped me from writing up a story.

One year ago, Kris from Omega Horse Rescue was at the New Holland Auction, one of the most notorious auctions in the country, and definitely the worst one within driving distance of here. The last horse to go through was a liver chestnut mare with a white blaze. She was reportedly gaited. The mare was led through, not ridden. The two things that stuck out about her was that she had a kind eye and what looked like a pregnant belly.

The mare was bought by the kill buyer for $575. Kris begged to have the mare checked to see if she was in foal. The on site vet (no idea who) took one look at her and declared that it was just hay belly. No internal exam was performed. No blood work was drawn. I later found out that she was still lactating when she arrived in quarantine.

The mare, kill broker #9399, was loaded into the meat truck, destined for a gruesome fate.

But Kris couldn't get the mare out of her mind. She called the kill broker and asked if she could pull the red mare. He was agreeable and let her go for $100 more than he paid for her by the pound.

The mare was unloaded off the meat truck and networked through Facebook, where two strangers teamed up to save her life. Wendy in Pennsylvania had the money to pay her pull fee and her bills, but didn't have a place to stick her. Denise, here in NJ, had a spare slot at her little farm around the corner of my house. They worked out a deal. Denise would give the mare a place to live, and Wendy would pay her bills. They named her Sienna and she went into quarantine before moving in to the farm just around the corner from my house.

Sienna's history is largely unknown.

She is gaited with lovely ground manners and a sweet disposition that indicate she was probably handled pretty extensively once upon a time. Her gaits and her 'shape' make me think she's probably at least part TWH.

She was led through the auction, which implies that she wasn't broke enough to cowboy through and/or came from someone who said she isn't broke to ride. I do know one of the cowboy types at New Holland hopped on her in the parking lot. Word is that she stood quietly while he got on her, but when she took a step forward a moment later, she went off 'like a Mexican jumping bean'.

Quite possibly her only riding history.

Her lack of riding knowledge, her broody belly, and the marks from where a halter grew into her nose, combined with the fact that she comes from Dutch country makes me think she was probably an Amish broodmare who stopped producing.

The vets aged her at 11 years old.

Sienna spent a year with Denise, learning that people are good and kind, learning to stand quietly for the farrier as he rehabbed her neglected feet, and getting to just generally unwind.

Posing with her patient farrier.

Home sweet home.

In the spring, Denise and Wendy started to entertain the idea of getting a trainer to work with the mare, to evaluate where she is in the training process, and to determine whether she might be suitable for life as more than just a pasture mate. Denise is friends with Booger's owner, who was quick to put in a good word for me.

Denise called me just after I picked up Jupiter for full training. I was extremely swamped, and Booger's owner had told Denise that I might not be able to take on any more clients. Still, it was a five minute drive, and I am looking to localize my business. I told Denise that I would be happy to come out and do an evaluation, at the very least. There was some talk of putting the mare in full training, which probably would have resulted in her having to be wait listed. Instead, we've gotten on a very nice once-a-week training schedule, which is working out nicely for all of us... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

So on a Saturday one month ago, while Mike was working, I drove out to meet Denise and Sienna.

I was instantly in love with everything about the property. The whole thing is fenced in completely with fence that works for both dogs and horses. There is a large grassy pasture as well as a small, square dry lot. The property opens up onto the Amwell Valley Trails. The barn is quaint and well planned. There are two full sized stalls and an overhang, as well as a small pony stall. There is a hitching post as well as plenty of tack storage. It's the type of place I could easily see myself owning some day.

As it turns out, Denise and I have a lot of people in common, and share many common interests. She knows the owner at Animal Alliance, the spay/neuter clinic I worked at before I settled in at McSNIP, and Denise fosters dogs for them regularly. Her own two dogs are small, mixed breed rescues who warmed my heart immediately. Denise also used to compete in CTR, and her mare, Enya, is an Arabian who was rescued from another small world person we (unfortunately) have in common. Denise also owns the world's cutest Welsh cross. He's roan and was a stallion until Denise pulled him from the auction too. I want to take him home and spoil him for all of time.

Clover the precious...

But back to Sienna...

Our evaluation session consisted of a bunch of ground work. Sienna, who is normally very in-your-pocket, knew something was up right away and didn't want to be caught. It didn't take long to get her, and Denise provided me with a rope halter to work her in.

I assessed all the basics... yielding hindquarters, moving the shoulder, circling, stopping, changing direction. What I found was a horse who wanted to please, and worked really hard to figure out what I wanted. She did know how to yield her hindquarters, and do a pretty decent circle on the lunge line, so she wasn't completely unhandled in the past. Still, she was extremely reactive, and a little bit fearful when we first started. Moving her shoulders was a totally new concept, and she just about panicked any time I wanted to do anything on her right side. It didn't take long for Sienna to figure out my way of lunging, and she grew calmer and more relaxed as we went.

Thanks to the small, square dry lot, I was able to work Sienna at liberty on the very first session. After some initial gaiting away from me (and boy does she gait!) Sienna settled back to focusing on what I wanted. She learned to turn in towards me almost immediately,and grew more and more in tune with my body language as we worked.

We finished off the session with some join up, and once I 'hooked' her the first time, Sienna was in my pocket and laser focused on my subtle cues. Good girl!

I left Denise with a ton of homework to do over the course of the next week, and we agreed that Tuesday nights would work for our lesson slot.

The next session was much of the same. We worked on lunging again, and Sienna was much, much calmer. Denise had done some work with her in between sessions, which certainly helped.

You can see her gaiting at the beginning.

That day, I also introduced bending, like I do with everyone. That started off with Sienna panicking and running in circles, but she got the concept pretty quickly. Before long she was bending both ways, both towards me and away. Then I did my 'untangle' exercise, in which I pass the lead behind the horse's hindquarters and ask the horse to bend, then disengage to do a 360° turn. She picked that up quickly as well, so I taught Denise a few exercises she could do with Sienna to solidify the concept before our next session. I also told her it was time to start finding tack for the round, gaited mare. 

Last week, Denise had a saddle and a borrowed bit ready for me when I arrived. Sienna allowed me to bridle her with no fuss, but didn't seem to know what the heck to do with the bit once it was in her mouth. She gaped her jaw, rolled her tongue, and looked slightly alarmed, though she didn't act on the panic. Hmmm... that's not a good sign!

We put the bridle on hold and assessed the saddling situation. As I expected, Sienna didn't mind the saddle one bit, even as I cranked on a girth that was honestly one size too small. With the saddle in place, I did some more free lunging to make sure there were no secret bucks to be had. Sienna gaited beautifully around the dry lot, changing gait and direction with the slightest of cues. Good momma.

I did some quick bending, and Denise had obviously done her homework. 

I thumped the stirrups and Sienna just about leaped out of her skin. She can be pretty agile despite her body type! With minimal desensitizing, however, she stood stock still while I did my very worst. Good girl!

So then it was time to stand on the mounting block and go through it all again. I unceremoniously chucked the block at her and she didn't even flinch. I'm always very loud about everything I do, so that when a 'normal' person approaches softly and quietly, the horses sort of go, "O, is that all you've got? Crazy Lady over there throws the mounting block at me before she mounts..."

Sienna was completely comfortable with me standing up above her, and, after a slight hairy eyeball, did all her bending, stirrup thumping exercises like a champ. Before I knew it, I was leaning across her back.

Not the least bit bothered.

Eventually, I asked Sienna to walk off. She was reluctant and tense. She did eventually take one step... then two... Then, as promised, she hunched her back and grunted. I quietly slid to the ground and waited. She threw several stiff-legged, but weak bucks, then stopped short and came up to me as if to say, "I don't know what just happened!"

So we did a lot more desensitizing, carrying weight, and practicing moving with me draped across her back.

By the end of the night, I felt comfortable enough to throw a leg over for the first time. As always, it was a non-event.

Yesterday, I went back for our fourth session. Denise had another bit for me to try (a loose ring, happy mouth) and had bought a bigger girth to spare poor Sienna. We're still hunting for the right bit size. Despite her short stature, it would appear that this little mare takes a 5 3/4"-6" bit! Eep!

We tacked Sienna up. Again, she rolled her tongue and fussed with the bit. This time, I left the bridle on and attached a pair of long lines. That's when it became very clear that while Sienna's riding history may be shrouded in the unknown, she most definitely does not have driving experience. She spent the first several minutes flailing and trying to face me any time I tried to get behind her.

But, as with everything else, Sienna figured this game out in record time. I cannot emphasize what a good and honest and willing mare this is.

Before long, Sienna was ground driving like a pro. We did circles and figure eights and even gaited around a good bit. I installed reliable brakes, mostly on verbal command, and got her comfortable with standing still with her back turned to me. Perhaps the cutest part was when she figured out that I would let her turn her neck to look over her shoulder at me so long as she didn't move her feet.

The process went something like this:

Walk. Turn left. Turn right. Whoa. Turn to look for approval. Rinse, repeat. 

With better verbal cues and forward button installed, I went back to working with the mounting block. I clipped the lead rope back to the rope halter for this part to keep things simple. I compare it to French and Algebra. I can speak French and I can do Algebra, but please don't ask me to solve an Algebra puzzle in French!!! We're working on the bit. We're working on forward. We're working on carrying a rider. We are not working on all three at once!

After a little more laying across Sienna's back, I felt pretty confident that she understood that forward was possible without bucking. So I lined her up with the mounting block, put a leg over, and asked her to walk off. She was slow, hesitant, and deliberate, but she most definitely did it. After some more attempts, I felt sure enough that I picked up my stirrups.

Denise took a video of our first real 'ride'. She shared it on Facebook this morning with the following caption:
"Moments that take your breathe away......drum roll please......Sienna's trainer rode her around with a halter today,training session #3. Many thoughts flew through my mind during those moments. I thought about Sienna's precious life, her sweet personality, her fear, her overreactions, her trust, her looking for acceptance, her love of humans, her dented nose from a halter on way too long and way too tight. I wonder what is wrong with her, why she was brought to the auction and if anyone ever saw her for the special horse she is, how many babies did she have, was she no longer good for breeding. All she wants to do is please. She has a kind heart and is looking to bond with her human. And then there is Dom (trainer), brave, calm, patient, in touch, only asking for a little at a time, not out to impress me, focused, professional, ..... I am feeling very grateful today and hopeful!"

I am so happy to be working as part of this story. This is the kind of horse that I adore. She seems so grateful for her second chance, and so willing to try things that I'm not sure she's ever done before. It's possible that she was a well broke trail horse somewhere in PA, but it's certainly not looking that way. My guess is that she's just a kind broodmare who is willing to tolerate a lot from people she trusts. As a result, she's coming along faster than I ever dreamed when I told Denise up front that, "I'm not guaranteeing I will get on this horse, but I can come out and do an evaluation."

Sienna is a lucky girl, and her story renews my faith in humanity to some degree. Stay tuned!