Little More – horseweblog.com

2012-02-17

Friday, February 17 2012

I rode Magic this morning. I brought some ground poles to the barnyard. We lunged over them. He had no problems with the poles. We rode some in the arena. Today it felt like we are making progress. A good feeling. We rode around the Oak pasture. A good ride.

Do they ring a bell at the race track? Like at the starting gate?

I was in the garage this morning and heard a horse running. Little More came flying through the yard, across the driveway, running hard all the way to the barn. Little More is a “warhorse”, a retired Thoroughbred that ran 54 races winning $120,000. I’ve had him 5 years. He is a wonderful horse. He is not sound, dropping his off hip at the trot. But he is always laid back, relaxed, taking care of himself. Some days, like today, he does not want to go to the pasture with the other horses and I just let him have the run of the place. He likes to graze in the Oak pasture through two open gates and the yard away from the barn. I could not figure out why he was running. He is healthy and often feels his oats but it looked like he ran too hard and too far just to be expressing exuberance. It looked like he was spooked but that is very unusual for him. And I saw nothing. Then I remembered that I had just rung a bell, an old school bell that I am fixing up as a door bell. It is a big bell. Maybe I should not install this “door bell” if it will upset my horses, I have several OTTB’s, every time somebody comes to the house and rings the bell. BTY, all is well, Little More did not injure himself.

2011-10-09

Sunday, October 9 2011

Magic and I rode a little in the arena, around the Oak pasture and up on Shirey Mountain. I really enjoy riding him with his new attitude. So much energy and no inclination to vent it in the wrong direction. If we are going along the trail and come to a fork and I direct him to go the undesirable fork, (the fork that leads back to the barn is usually a horse’s first choice) Magic never complains. He is very willing. I do not know how horses and people ride in an arena all the time. My experience is that horses enjoy variety. If I ride in the arena all the time, I reach a plateau rather quickly and it does not improve from there. It may be that I lack the skill but I do not make improvement by doing it again and again. This is obvious to me right now because Magic is doing so good on our rides but today in the arena he still had the wrong bend on the right rein. I commented in this post that he seems to be so willing to do the right thing on the trails. That said, my lack of communication skills must cause the incorrect bend, not Magic’s unwillingness. As much fun as we are having, we can keep on working on it. It was a good ride.

2011-10-04

Tuesday, October 4 2011

Little More and I rode around the Oak pasture this morning. When I mounted Saturday and today Little More seemed unsteady. Saturday he was so unsteady I jumped off. I have had a horse do that before that became unsteady when I mounted and actually fell. It seems like the same thing that happens on some horses when you first tighten the girth. They seem to loose control and fall backwards. The horses I have noticed it on were either new to the saddle or either had not worn a saddle for a long time. I got back on Saturday and made a short ride. Today he was not so unsteady and was able to move off. Little More seemed a little off today and Saturday. I trimmed his feet Saturday before the ride and he might be tender-footed. I am taking short rides until I feel that he is 100% and able to do more. I never have ridden him enough for him to feel comfortable trail riding away from known territory. I rode him for about a month in the spring of 2010 before I noticed the lameness in his off hind when trotting. He did show me that he was a horse I wanted to ride.

My farrier, Dale Moody, came yesterday. We put new shoes on Magic and trimmed 4 others. Magic was very difficult to shoe. He pulls his foot away, usually at just the wrong time. Dale has been very good to show patience. Dale has kept his cool but it is very easy for a farrier to loose his temper when a horse acts like that. It is dangerous. We have expected Magic’s behavior to improve with time but that has not happened. Dale has shod horses for me for 35 years and we’ve never had a horse give us this much trouble. Lots of green horses too. I tell Dale Magic is a good horse in other respects. Dale says that is kind of like “Well, other that that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?” I need to look into tranquilizers or something else.

However, the result of the shoeing has shown dramatic improvement. Magic was not able to keep shoes on for much more than 4 weeks at first. When he was barefoot, he was tender-footed and got stone bruises. He often limped for a week after shoeing. He kept the last shoes on for a long time and walked perfectly this morning. Thanks to this blog, I can produce this chart of his shoeing:

Shod Removed / lost Duration

02/21/2011 04/19/2011 8 wks 1 day

04/28/2011 06/04/2011 5 wks 2 days Quicked/Abscess

06/07/2011 07/26/2011 7 wks Started with stone bruise, OK in 2 weeks, OK until end

07/26/2011 10/03/2011 9 wks 6 days Gimpy one week, OK till next

2011-10-02

Saturday, October 1 2011

Rode Little More this morning. It is the first day of deer and bear archery season. Lots of hunters in the woods and on the roads. Little More and I rode in the Ash Pasture and the Sycamore pasture. It was a nice ride.

2011-09-29

Thursday, September 29 2011

I rode Little More today. It has probably been over a year since I rode him. He has a lameness that is not noticeable at a walk. At a trot he drops the off hind hip and there is no improvement. Little More is such a nice horse. I am going to work him at a walk and see if he can do that with no discomfort or deterioration of his mobility.

Little More soliciting Sophie and Maggie — Little More loves good people

He would be such a nice trail horse and I know he would enjoy it. He loves people more than any horse I have known. Little More is what is known as a true “War Horse” in the Thoroughbred world having run 54 races and winning over $150,000. Sadly there is great temptation to get one more win out of a horse like that and they run them until the horse is broken. Little More does not have to run any more races. We did have a very nice ~~ride~~ walk today.

2011-09-15

Thursday, September 15 2011

I have plans tomorrow to take Magic on his first trail ride on the Buffalo. The plan is to meet at the north end of the bridge at Pruitt at 9:30 and ride upriver. I have moved the mares into the Oak pasture. It is a big pasture and they have not moved very far from the gate in two days. It is a new pasture for them. Magic and I rode to the gate this morning and said Hi. We also rode around the Sycamore and Ash pastures. We loaded in the trailer twice. The weather is decidedly like fall. Magic was fresh but controllable.

2011-07-05

Tuesday, July 5 2011

Rode Magic today. He did good in the arena, making improvements every day. Our limitation now is I can only get the left lead for the canter. Rode in the pony pasture, around the Oak pasture and up on Shirey Mountain. Every once in a while he might see something that makes him look twice. He does not have a knee jerk reaction. He does focus his eyes and head on the thing but it is not a start or jolt. It is actually smooth in comparison to other horses “alerting”. I enjoyed the ride.

It has been Newt’s turn to ride for the past few days but I have put it off. It is very hot but there is something else. I am exhilaration after a good ride and that has not happened with Newt lately. I am not making the progress I want with Newt. It is my limitation not Newt’s. I do not know what else to try that will not be too much for the limited attention I get from Newt. My feeling is that if we are not making progress, it can get boring and we might end up going in the wrong direction. So I am not going to ride Newt for a while. Sometimes it is best to do nothing and be thought a fool than to jump in and remove all doubt.

2011-05-07

Saturday, May 7 2011

I groomed Newt this morning but he did not seem like he wanted to ride. I lunged him just a little at the walk. I could find nothing wrong but I did not ride, just turned him out in the pasture. I later saw him race Little More down the fence line so there is nothing wrong.

Checked Magic’s hoofs. He seems better this morning. I was expecting to have to get the shoes off today but I will wait and see. If the shoes are not the problem then they will protect his tender feet. I saw him walk in the pasture this afternoon and he is better.

I groomed and rode Little More. I have not ridden him in almost a year. He is a lot of horse and I thought I might see if he can be ridden at a walk. I learned a lot from him when I was riding him last year. He had not been groomed in some time and it was nice to get it combed. His mane would probably mat-up if not combed occasionally as it seems to retain the dead hair rather than let it fall out. Little More was restrained. We were in the round pen and the footing is not the best.