reinersblog.com

Tomorrow is Jim’s day because he gets to rope with Mike Beers in the annual WestStar Arena Open Roping. I showed up a day early because they have a little party for the ropers the night before. The ranch is about an hour and a half drive for me. I took this first photo on the drive—a piece of a carnival probably headed to the Ellensburg Rodeo for this holiday weekend.

On the way over, Jim called and told me that Leo had gotten hurt in his horsie hotel paddock, no one knows how. I’m sure Leo knows, but he’s not telling us. He’s probably too upset about the 5 stitches he got in his right leg. I can’t ride him for 10 to 14 days. I’m so glad it wasn’t too serious.

Here’s Jim and I, you can’t see it, but he’s holding a tube of nasty paste antibiotics that we have to give Leo for a few days.

After squishing that into Leos mouth, we headed over to the dinner party. The ranch is offering $100,000 in cash and prizes this year. They had all the prizes on display. Here’s the saddle that I told Jim he needs to win. Trophy saddles are fantastic.

Tomorrow I’m going to have a riding lesson first thing in the morning. I get to ride that beautiful bay that I fell in love with a few weeks ago. Then I’m off to the big roping. I haven’t seen the legendary “littlest cowboy” Clay O’Brein Cooper yet, but I’ll be on the look-out tomorrow for sure.

Wow! You sure had a lot to say about the turn-around. Thanks so much for all the help. You know the best part about it? Now I know I’m not the only one that thinks it’s a difficult maneuver. It’s really hard to get the hang of! They (the they, you know who they are) make it look so easy.

I got to go to my third Les Vogt clinic last weekend, as you know (only my second on horseback). During his clinics, there is free time where he’ll let you choose what you’d like to work on and have him help you with individually. I chose to spend most of my time, under the watchful eye of Les, doing turn-arounds and the collected sequence stop.

I think the two maneuvers have one major thing in common, that thing that Les is always saying, “It’s all in the neck!” This clinic really hammered home the importance of that. If the horse isn’t supple and soft in the neck, the maneuver will always fail. I don’t know why it’s taken so long for that to sink in to my noggin.

With the turn-around, I worked on the approach a lot (riding into it like Al says)–bumping the back of the horse up to the front, always keeping the form of the neck. When the neck was right I could make the attempt. I really had to pay attention to my hands (drrr). The inside rein (hand) helps create that bend where you should only see the horse’s eyelashes, and the outside rein (hand) controls the speed and also helps to keep the form of the neck. With Les supervising several attempts, I feel like I’ve really got the idea now and realize that it’s going to take a lot of practice before it becomes second nature.

I get it now. Basically, there should be no resistance in the neck whatsoever. None. Thats where I need to work with Leo right now, but he’s pretty dang close (I say this with no small amount of pride).

Amanda, you were talking about some hip issues? I think you said your horse might be swapping ends a little? Leo does that too. I watched Les have some riders really go to work on that. If the horse is swapping ends than one thing he suggests is “having a conversation” with the horse about it by pushing the inside hip to the eye, before trying again. Also, where is your foot/leg? Have you tried cuing from farther back, like you would to move the hip in a turn on the forehand? You probably already know that but just in case–it might help hold the hip in.

Leo is home! Finally! He looked like he’d been in cowboy bootcamp all summer. He just looked really wore out and soooo happy to be home. He hadn’t seen green grass all summer and his little nose was sun burned. The best part was seeing him and his pasture mate Shadow say their hellos. Cuuuute!

I let him have a few days off to relax, and then I hopped back on. I got so frustrated today over turn-arounds. I’m just not getting it at all.

The exercise: When I’m practicing a turn-around, I’m walking a bigger circle, then I cut to the middle of the circle, turn around, and walk or trot out. I repeat that over and over until I hate myself for being so lame at it (and sometimes I stay up til 2 in the morning to blog about how lame I am at it).

How I ask: I bump with my legs to the center of the circle, then I take out the inside leg so he’ll turn.

The problem(s): I think I’m messing up with my hands and my body position.

Questions: Do you guys lean to the inside with your weight? Do you lean back? Do you look into the turn (twist your body in the direction of the turn, almost like you’re looking over your shoulder?) What about your hand position?

I’ve seen that hand position should be the inside rein higher than the outside rein, with hands pretty close together. But it seems to work better for me if I almost guide him with the inside rein, almost pulling him around.

The results I’m getting–how I know I’m messing up: Either I bunch him up so much that he starts that dreadful hopping around with his front end; or I give him too much slack and he walks out of it.

Sometime I feel like I was born to train horses. Other days I feel like I should quit and take up Ping-Pong. Today I felt like I needed to take up Ping-Pong. Ugh!

I’m so glad Leo is back though. I missed him bunches.