Red Iron Ranch

Warning! What I am going to attempt to tackle is NOT from an expert, in any way, in terms of having a deep understanding of dressage principles. Perhaps some wh...o know more will chime in, and it certainly won't offend me to be corrected. I want to talk about that word "contact." First of all, it is absolutely possible to ride a horse its life-long through, perfectly comfortably and successfully on little to no contact to speak of. Heck, think of the thousands of trail horses, pleasure horses, all over the world who happily go along on loose reins. (See first 2 photos of Roxie). I was told that the "tricky" thing to remember about rein contact (following photos of Roxie) is that it is not "about" the mouth, or even about the head and neck of the horse. It is "about" having a connection toward which to encourage the hocks/hind legs to take a deeper step, so that in addition to having the element of push, the rider can create an element of lift. In essence, if you push a horse forward into no contact, the horse goes faster, but he isn't being asked to step under and lift. If you try to "set the head" by pulling on the reins, the horse may curl under, but his hind legs remain out behind him. So, logic suggests, the way to create "engagement." the act of stepping under and lifting, is to push into a degree of restraint, which may be called "contact." The horse must absolutely trust the hands and aids of the rider, because if he rolls under or inverts, it prevents the "circle of energy" from taking place, where the horse reaches under, lifts energy over its back, repeat, repeat. So, nothing to scare the mouth or make the mouth overly submissive, like draw reins or hard bits, or fixed, hard hands, because the saying goes, "negotiated driving aids into negotiated containing aids" to create that energy loop. I get lots of horses off the track who are either a little scared of contact, or ignorant of contact, and winning that trust is mission number one. It is not a simple thing to learn, or if it is, it evaded me for a long time, not that I always get it right now.

The Christmas Elves did not disappoint this year, bringing treats for the horses, family, and new puppy. They even thought to bring a low calorie option for the ponies! Thank you Kim & Erika for always thinking of everyone! Merry Christmas!

Update for boarding stables. Ours is a pretty low key place, so no appointments needed. But only one person / family in the barn at a time, and you will need to wear a mask and sanitize to go inside.

Jack LeGoff had a system of conditioning that he called interval training, and because fitness is something that many haven't had much experience with, here are... some of my old notes about Jack's program. It is a sequential way of building condition so as to harden horses and to try to prevent injury. First, the horse had to be generally healthy. Teeth, shoeing, nutrition, saddle fit, turn out, grooming, all the basics in place. Next, the horse had to be fit enough to handle interval gallops, so before even THINKING about interval work, all those long, slow months of walking, trot sets, to build a sturdy base. So let's say the horse can go for an hour, hour and a half trail ride, trotting some hills, pretty darn fit, but not galloping fit. So, think every fifth day, an interval session. 1. Walk for at least 25 minutes, to get the horse ready. 2. Three five minute trots, 2 minutes rest between each set. So that is 19 minutes, 3 times 5 plus 4 of walking. 3. Walk another 2 minutes after the third trot set. Now at 21 minutes. 4. Now canter at about 400 meters a minute for 4 minutes. Walk 2. Canter 4. Walk 2, Canter 4 more. Walk home. You will have done 15 minutes of trotting, with rest breaks, and 12 minutes of slow cantering, with rest breaks. That might be your FIRST interval gallop session. In five days, you do it again, pretty much same times, same speeds. Every five days, do it again, and GRADUALLY add some speed to the canters, keeping the minutes the same. Or, you can keep the speeds the same, and have the sets 4 and a half minutes, instead of 4. Don't add speed and distance at the same time--- Monitor, monitor, monitor legs, tendons, general attitude. Back off at any major sign of lethargy, any hint of swelling. It is a sort of learn on the run process. In a couple of months, or three, the horse might be ready to compete in a preliminary horse trials. I don't know how many modern trainers still use interval training. It sure worked for old LeGoff--- Edit---Jack told me that he got some of his ideas from the track coach who helped Roger Bannister break the 4 minute mile, so maybe these theories originated with human runners?

Old time horsemen have long said that "a kind horse has a good eye". Do you believe that the eye is the window to the soul? I do, absolutely! And with that in mind, I recently took my camera out to our herd in the pasture. This is what they had to tell me.

Super interesting