Ram Tap Diaries

Today we left for Ram Tap (late, of course) and I formally gave up on getting any of the back entries done for this diary. I’m sorry! I hate losing the record of his learning process but it seems that I only have time to either train him or write about training him and I know which one is more important.

We didn’t get out of the door until almost 4:30PM which means we expected to drive right into Monday night Seattle-area traffic, one of the most congested in the nation. I swear we had a guardian angel riding on the roof though because we never hit it! Thanks to having my mom in the truck we were able to skate right by what little traffic we found in Bellevue and Renton by using the carpool lane and otherwise never hit the brakes except to get gas. We were both flabbergasted and incredibly grateful for such an auspicious beginning to our trip. Two hours into the drive we passed Happ’s and drove into the most beautiful sunset. We’d been dodging in and out of heavy rainclouds the whole way and the sun as it set sparked rainbows off of the spray in the headlights, the rain in the fields, anything and everything wet. We kept count and by the time it got dark had seen two double rainbows, three bright strong single rainbows, and a myriad of mini-rainbows that would flirt in and out of our sight. The clouds themselves were unusually dramatic and layered, looming over the freeway with their dark burden of rain but caught broadside by the strong light of the setting sun until they were stunning works of shadow and light towering above us. When the sun finally sank below the horizon and colored the sky a brilliant pink we were driving past a selection of rivers and wetlands that reflected it like a mirror  and I was hard-pressed to keep my eyes on the road. It was one of those moments where it feels criminal to be in a car. You want nothing more than to roll the windows down, tip your head back to taste the moist clean air, feel the last brush of warmth on your face and revel in the perfection of the moment before it passes by. THIS is what life is made of.

Ahh.

Sadly of course the rest of the drive was spent in the dark missing all the gorgeous scenery through Oregon, but Mom and I got in some good conversation and we finally pulled into the Barnes’ Ranch south of Grant’s Pass at 2:46AM. Our friends Neil and Sharon had cleared out a stall in their barn for us and filled it with fresh clean straw so thick that my normally long-legged mini would soon look like a dachsund standing knee deep in it. We let him settle in the trailer for a few minutes while we sorted out the accomodations then led him in and watched him roll repeatedly and tunnel long trails with his nose like an ecstatic puppy in its first snow. I broke into giggles when he looked up with his forelock full of straw and sneezed. It was obvious that he was going to be perfectly content in this giant, airy stall so I hugged him goodnight and left him settled in with an armful of hay while I went to bed in the guesthouse cheerfully dubbed the “Holiday Inn.” Ah, sleeeeep…..

Gosh, my little boy is so darn cute. I got home too late to drive him tonight so I led him over to the neighbor’s to use the treadmill. He bounced the whole way there so I decided to turn him loose in the roundpen before loading him into the “walk box” to be bored silly. He happily took off cantering and bucking for a few minutes but seemed quickly bored and I began to jog with him on the inside track because I know he likes that. It rapidly became a game of “Can’t Catch Me!” with him trotting faster and faster to keep up and me throwing in sudden changes of direction just to watch him roll back and buck. Pretty soon I switched to the outside and was running as fast as I could while he spun in place in the center and lunged me. He loved that! Then I’d run towards him and send him bucking for the rail where we’d both take off flying around like maniacs and racing to see who was fastest. I was laughing out loud, great peals of laughter, and he was gleefully bucking and crowhopping and stamping his forefeet at each dodge and turn until the two of us simply couldn’t run anymore. If we’d been puppies we would have collapsed in a heap together at that point.

What fun!

It touches me every time he does something like that because it’s such a trusting thing for a horse to play with you as a herd member, sans any whip or lead or treats, while still being respectful of your space. Poor I-learned-humans-aren’t-to-be-enjoyed Spyder has been coaxed over the years into playing games at my invitation, but he’s never invited me to play in his own. Kody is still young enough and open enough that he does and it’s still a thrill for me.

When we were done I left him to cool out in the roundpen while I got the treadmill ready and said hi to the horses in the barn. Kody flung up his head and actually trotted over to me when I reappeared and loaded easily onto the treadmill where he quickly remembered what to do. I gave him ten minutes at a good clip with brief periods of shorter or faster for interval training and then called it good since the lights had gone out on the timer shortly after I loaded him and we were operating by the moonlight coming through the open barn door.

He bounced all the way home with no sign of the previous day’s cloud over his head, grazing and trotting alternately and evidently enjoying neckreining out in front of me at a touch like some kind of ground-driving western horse. Silly pony! But I was so happy to see him like this after all the worry about him on the warm days that I wasn’t about to rein him in. Let him have fun while he feels good. He’s earned it. 

And boy is it March! Last Thursday there was five inches of snow on the ground and I couldn’t get the trailer out to go to our lesson. Today we had record highs of 68 degrees and Kody was overheating just standing in the barn aisle, nevermind driving. Our lesson was fairly short due to his fur-induced heat apathy but what work we did was quality.

Before we moved to the nice cool indoor arena for dressage work we ran some cones outside with Lisa guiding us. Kody was his usual golden self, picking up steam at the site of an ingate or outgate and trotting calmly across the little bridge he’d never seen before. The only rough spots came when we dove into the serpentine at the bottom of the hill and found that the long grass disguised a virtual swamp! Our borrowed Frontier cart rolled to a soggy halt and Kody had to apply some muscle to haul us to dry land. Then of course that bright new grass on the hill was irresistibly close to his mouth and he lost control of himself long enough to snatch a few mouthfuls. Lisa was howling with laughter as he completely ignored the whip and refused to move. Silly mini! He’s usually quite good about keeping his head up but there is no grass at our place yet and having fresh green shoots waving two inches below his mouth was apparently more than he could take.

Upon completing our cones work we walked through the barn on our way to the arena and as I passed the coiled watering hose I was struck with sudden inspiration. I asked Kody to halt, which he did quite nicely, and then back up until we were even with the hose. Lisa came up behind us and asked if he was refusing to go forward and, admitting that it was my idea, I drafted her into sluicing him off to buy us some time to work before he overheated again. He must have been hot because he stood quietly for the cold water hosing! Of course proceeding directly from the hose to a deep dirt arena was probably not the best idea….he thought seriously about rolling for a few minutes. And while we managed to prevent that he did succeed in turning a free walk on a long rein into a demonstration of how to dig a trench in the dirt with his nose! Only Kody.

This was our first lesson with the new Myler low port mullen mouth and Lisa was highly approving of that bit for him; he went wonderfully in it as he has since I bought it. She also had a lot of positive things to say about my hands today- I guess all of my ground-driving over the last two weeks has paid off! Without really thinking about it not once did I lock my elbows, bring my hand in instead of out, throw away my contact, overcorrect or otherwise drastically mess up. As a result he never counterbent and gave me lovely circles, even smoothly trotting from the quarterline to the rail on a correct bend with no fighting at all. Those smooth tracks in the dirt were the prettiest things I’ve seen in a long time! They looked like this:

         1  1

        1  1

   1  1

1  1

1  1 

It was, all in all, a good day.

I was going to cool Kody out by walking up and down some hills behind the arena but he kept looking longingly at the track. I decided the flooded grass area between us and the track would make just as good of a training opportunity and probably a much more pleasant one on such a warm day so down the hill we went and waded right in. Kody was in heaven standing cannon-deep in cool water browsing on the grass that sprouted through the surface. I remembered I had my camera with me and snapped some cute pictures as the UPS truck went by above our heads.

Once back to the barn I decided it was time to clip at least a little. The warm water washrack at the barn is broken so his lower half got another cold water bath (which he was actually very tolerant of) while I chatted with my friend Sheryl who happened to be at the barn that day, and then he was parked in the sun to graze and dry a bit. I used a blowdryer and my new Double K clippers for the first time and I’ve got to say I think I prefer the Oster Clipmasters I’ve been renting all these years. They’re a lot louder, but they sure take the hair off faster!

In all honesty though it may have been how damp he was that caused the problems with uneven clipping. He also wasn’t as clean as I usually get him because I felt bad about the cold water. We’ll see how it does the next time when I do the full body clip.

Meanwhile at least you can see his neck and head again! I love my furry winterized boy, I really do, but there’s something to be said for actually being able to see his neck in pictures and getting rid of that itchy beard. He gets it full of nasty aged beet pulp cleaning out Spyder’s feed tub and it’s impossible to groom it all out. Anyway, here he is with a really minimal trace clip. I ended up leaving his belly alone as it was getting late and the temperature was dropping.

I have scheduled all my lessons up through Ram Tap and there aren’t many left. So much to do, so little time!

When I got off work at 3:30 today I rushed home to work Kody as it was both dry and warm for once. Not warm-warm, like 60’s or anything, but at least not-cold! Woohoo! Although he was being well behaved I could see he needed to burn off some excess energy so I turned him loose in the arena to run before attempting to do anything with him. His response was “WHHEEEEEEE!!!” A couple of warm-up laps at a walk and trot, some rollbacks and pirouttes and he was off! He tore around at a greyhound gallop with his belly to the ground and wouldn’t stop until he was sweaty and panting. Silly pony! He expressed how done he was at that point by grabbing the big metal gate in his teeth and trying to lift it off its hinges all by himself.  Oy. Little pirahna.

At this stage it still takes a while to groom him as I haven’t clipped yet and he’s shedding like a maniac. You could hide a squirrel in his coat and never notice! So first we curry, then we use the shedding blade, then we brush and pick feet and brush mane and tail. Tonight we also scissored mats out of his jaw hair and ears. Oh joy, said both of us. He was especially thrilled when I brought out a pail of lukewarm water and a towel and sluiced off the sweat. On the other hand he was good about it beyond an initial objection and got much praise for being a Professional Pony. I LOVE what I see under the distortion of all that fur! Can’t wait to clip this year.

By the time we were done with all that it was getting dark. I rolled my eyes and changed plans from driving to ground-driving. It’s better than nothing as at least it gets him some dressage work. I stopped to put on his sliding side reins once we were out on the road and he stood very well despite the fact that it was the beginning of a drive. He may learn “whoa, stand” yet! On the other hand he became very fussy with the new bit under the pressure of the side reins and wouldn’t cross the puddle I pointed him at, so there’s always something to work on.

So here’s the part where we went nowhere. I drove him Achenbach to the neighbors’ (you know, the ones with the giant new barn and arena and the National Champion minis?)  and this time the lights were on, the horses weren’t already eating dinner, and there was no one to disturb. Woohoo! So we played with the treadmill. Yes, the professional-grade, made-for-horses, honest-to-God miniaturized treadmill. I got permission earlier this year but between one thing and another have never gotten to use it. I introduced him to walking onto it during the last visit; this time I took off his bridle, borrowed a halter off one of the stalls,  experimented with the controls, got him loaded and tied and turned the monster on. I discovered there is very little as funny as watching a horse’s first encounter with a treadmill!

Picture this: A bright-eyed little chestnut is standing cross-tied in this narrow metal-walled thing that looks like a ramp onto an airplane somewhere, complete with sloping black rubber floor. He peers curiously back at you as you flip the power switch, set the timer and prepare to ramp up the speed dial. He has no idea what’s coming.

One hand placed reassuringly on his rump, you slowly twist the dial and the floor starts to move. His eyes get very wide as he scrolls back to the end of the leads and his neck stretches out to its full extent. You say “Kody, walk on” just like you do while driving and he rolls his eye to look at you but responds from long habit by taking a step forward. Praise fills the air and again the neck stretches out to its full length as the floor scrolls inexorably backwards. Step up, praise. Step up, praise. Increase the speed a little so it is more natural to walk forward. Walk on, Kody! Good boy. You increase the speed once more until it appears to be a comfortable walking pace for him. Now he walks too fast and bumps into the wall in front of him. He throws his head over it but finds that when he does his toes kick the wall with each stride. Backing off he ends up at the end of the leads again and has to hustle forward. Finally, smart little horse that he is, he finds his rhythm and settles into a steady marching walk with his nose to the wall. Good boy!

Now it’s time to play with the speed dial. It won’t go quite fast enough to maintain a trot as I’d hoped but he obediently breaks into a trot each time I ask anyway. What a good pony. We turn down the dial and settle back into a brisk walk as the neighbors arrive to get their horses in.

For awhile all is chaos as a dozen loose mares swirl around the treadmill and find their stalls and their dinners. Kody watches wide-eyed, occasionally forgetting himself and bumping into the wall or being whisked backwards as he stops walking to look. My cell phone rings with a call I’ve been waiting for and I get distracted answering it. I realize I’ve left him on the treadmill too long and turn it off, causing Kody to come to an abrupt halt and stand there trembling slightly with the look of someone who has just stepped off a ship and still feels it moving. I let him stand until he seems steadier, then gently back him off the ramp and turn him loose to wander the barn aisle and visit. He quickly makes friends with the whuffling black gelding on the end who sneaks him wisps of alfalfa through the stall bars. Come on Kody, it’s time to go home. Off goes the halter, returned to its hook on the wall. On goes the bridle, the surcingle, and the reins. On with my coat, my gloves, the whip. And out into the chilly evening we go, headed for our own warm barn and a load of sweet-smelling hay.

And man was Kody a brat. Apparently the Whiteman’s Winter Drive on New Year’s Eve wasn’t long enough because he was just wired today. Lisa (that’s Lisa Eckhardt of the Driving Training Center, my instructor)  approved of the idea of going to Ram Tap and had us work on basic training level stuff for the entire lesson. The only fun thing we did was learn the beginnings of the Achenbach method of driving at my request. New fact I learned: Driving one-handed for the first time bears a remarkable resemblance to driving drunk! LOL Kody and I were weaving all over the ring, just never where I wanted to go.

I can be heard on video muttering, “Tilt thumb right to go left, bring hand down and left to go right…wait, the other right! Arghh!” Lisa, my mom, and I were all giggling by the end of it. I kept driving until I began to get a feel for it though, so next time should be better.

I made a quiet resolution at the end of the lesson to ask for a different lesson plan in two weeks. I don’t like the drop in Kody’s trot quality- I want to do the kind of work that I know gets him going with good impulsion. He’s better than what he showed today.

This crazy idea popped into my head a few days ago and no matter how hard I try I can’t seem to give it up. My friend Breanna Sheahan showed up with a new avatar on the Lil’ Beginnings miniature horse forum and I posted to find out who the new horse was. Somehow, I ended up admitting that I was pondering Ram Tap. She was no help with reining me in and by the end of the post, I guess I said I’m going!

You can read our discussion here:

http://minihorse.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=70180&hl=

I have butterflies in my stomach every time I think about it. This is a looooonng and expensive trip for a training level horse!