Booger Updates

Booger continues to do well in her training, and with the addition of our weekly trail ride, she seems to be starting to enjoy the work.

Two weeks ago, she was being a rock star in the ring. I introduced stretchy trot for the first time and she picked it up in record time. It is now her new favorite thing to do in the ring. We also did more (and better) cantering than we've done to date. She worked for an entire hour without showing any sign of fatigue or boredom. It's good to see both her physical and mental fitness starting to grow, though it's a slow process and I have to frequently remind myself that she's just a baby.

That Wednesday, I took her out on trail, and I knew right away that I was going to have my hands a bit full. 

The combine was chewing noisily through the corn field across the street, and it had all the horses up and excited. I hand walked Booger past it to get to the trail head, and her eyes were bugging out of her head. Even after it was out of sight, she kept glancing nervously over her shoulder to see if it was coming up behind us. I waited until I couldn't hear the engine any more before I even thought about getting on the filly, but the damage had been done. 

Booger was extremely spooky for the rest of our ride. Every little thing that happened made her flinch and jump. She was very tense for most of our ride, and I couldn't let my guard down for a minute. Still, I was very pleased about the way she behaved herself despite being obviously afraid. She has really started to think when scary things happen, and that makes it possible for me to ride her through it instead of climbing down and holding her figurative hand. 

The majority of her spooks consisted of either freezing and staring ahead or scooting forward into the trot to get past whatever was bothering her.

The only really bad spook she had was totally justified. It happened when a deer jumped out of hiding directly to our right as we came up the edge of the golf course. I hadn't seen any sign of him, and he suddenly exploded out of the brush, making a ton of noise, and nearly hitting us in the process. I probably could have touched him if I wanted to. I nearly had a heart attack, and I imagine Booger felt much the same way. She whirled to her left and thought about bolting for home, but instead, she let me take control and stopped as soon as I pulled her head around to the right. Then, she stood quietly on the trail, shaking and looking a bit alarmed. The old Booger would have broken her own neck before letting me pull her out of a spook like that, so despite the fact that it was an unpleasant half a second, I called it a victory. 

We finished our ride without much further ado. Booger was still pretty tense, but I didn't have to get off of her, even when we got to the scary mini in the bushes. I only dismounted when we got back to the trail head and the combine came back in view.

Our biggest accomplishment, however, was that we conquered our first water crossing under saddle! And I say conquered because she splashed through there like a champ. As I've mentioned, I had already ponied Booger through water on several occasions, and sent her into the creek without me. It should come as no surprise that our first ride through the river was a complete non-event. I pointed her at the water, and she paused to investigate the footing. I urged her forward and she splashed right in, after which I practically had to drag her out of the water. 

Crummy cell phone photo, but it's proof!

Last week, Booger was a total pill at home. She decided that ring work was really, really boring and she'd really rather do just about anything else (perhaps go hang out with an army of starving wolves in Siberia). She resisted any and all contact, bulged through my outside leg any time we were at the end of the ring closest to the barn, tossed her head, and, at times, flat out refused to move forward. I found myself, once again, wishing for a smaller arena with solid board fence on all four sides. Still, we managed to find a good note to quit on both days that we did ring work.

I told myself that I probably wasn't going to trail ride her on Wednesday. Given her spookiness the previous week, and her attitude over the two days prior, I wasn't sure it would be a good idea.

But then Wednesday dawned clear and bright and it was just too nice not to go for a ride. I tacked Booger up and decided to hand walk her out onto the trail, silently vowing that I wouldn't get on her unless she showed some sign of behaving.

Well, it looks like I have a wannabe endurance horse on my hands, because the second I took Booger out the front of the barn instead of the back, her ears pricked, her eyes lit up, and she pranced happily toward the trail head. I was tempted to throw a leg over immediately, but decided not to break our warm up habit of hand walking to the end of the corn field just yet. 

Talk about a complete turn around! The Booger I had that day was bold, brave, and eager to please. We wound up trotting more than half of our loop, including the places that Booger previously found nerve wracking. 

We repeated our creek crossing. This time, I asked her to go all the way across and back. She would have trotted it if I had let her, but I reminded her that it's nearly chest deep and I don't feel like potentially going for a swim in November! I think this is a horse that would enjoy swimming if given the chance! Silly goose.

Booger moseyed bravely through the woods, trotted along the river bank, didn't even glance at the golf course, and marched proudly past the spot where the deer had attacked us the week prior. It was tempting to add to our loop, but I decided not to push my luck.

Before long, we arrived back at the neighbors'. It's a quiet dressage barn owned by some of the nicest people you could hope to meet. When Lilly left me in the woods a few years ago, the woman came out on her tractor to make sure I wasn't dead on the trail somewhere. They are always warm and welcoming when they see me on the trail at the back of their property, and I have paused to chat with them on several occasions. They also have horses there, but outside of seeing the occasional head poking out of the barn or seeing one ridden in their fenced-off arena (I wonder if I could borrow that some time), I don't see hide or hair of them because they are never, ever turned out. Seriously, I've been riding past this farm periodically since 2008 and have never seen a horse outside without a rider on board.

You can imagine my surprise when I came riding past the back pastures and spotted a horse in one of them. He was a big, dark warmblood and he was blanketed from head to toe. He was extremely excited to see Booger outside the fence in her brightly colored hunting-season trail gear. He was pressing his chest to the fence with his neck arched and his tail starting to rise when another horse came galloping out from the shed behind and to the left of us.

Booger's entire body went rigid and she looked over her shoulder at me with a look that clearly said, "I am about to lose. my. mind." That was just enough warning for me, and I quietly slipped my feet out of the stirrups and slid to the ground. No sooner had my feet made contact with the earth than Booger proceeded to actually lose her mind. Her tail went straight up into locked-and-Arab position and she bolted forward. When she hit the end of the reins, she circled around me, snorting and prancing and trying to veer for home. 

I stood my ground and talked softly to her while the other horses charged around like maniacs. Even if I had never been to this farm before, I could have told you that they don't normally get turned out based on their body language. There was something frantic and mildly terrifying about the way they bolted around their pastures. They were bucking and kicking out, and I heard at least one fence board get nailed. 

Booger's face was pretty priceless. She was staring at these crazed horses like, "That is not how normal horses talk! Something is clearly out to kill them... and maybe me!"

After a few minutes, however, Booger decided that the other horses were just nuts, and settled back down. She walked with me to the end of the turn out paddocks, occasionally glancing over her shoulder, but not doing much about their antics.

Best of all, once we were well past them, she stood quietly while I got back on her, then finished our trail ride like nothing happened. I could have kissed her! That ride made up for the week's shenanigans, and I left the barn feeling extremely proud of my little black horse.

And then Booger wound up having five days off in a row, which I really hadn't planned. 

I gave her the day off on Thursday because I was cat-sitting for Erin an hour away and it was dark by the time I got to the barn. On Friday, the weather turned nasty and the ground was covered in the first snow of the season. Then, Mike and I went on an impromptu weekend trip to West Virginia and Booger got the weekend off. I planned to ride her first thing Monday afternoon, but it ended up pouring down rain (we got two and a half inches in less than twelve hours). To add insult to injury, I threw out my back while lifting a cat trap at the clinic, and could barely stand upright, let alone climb on a horse.

Yesterday dawned sunny and bright and I was determined to ride Booger, come hell or high water. My back was still twinging, but felt better than the night before.

And then I stepped outside and everything was covered in ice. The weather yesterday was 27ºF with winds blowing non-stop and gusting up to 30mph, which made it feel more like 17ºF. It was miserable. Still, Booger had to work, and I was determined to do something with her. 

I pulled her inside and sealed the barn up tight. My BO came down and told me that Booger has been in high spirits the last few days, running around the pastures and throwing her heels in the air. O good...

Then, Booger melted my heart. 

As I've mentioned, she's really not an affectionate horse at all. She greets most people, and especially men (including Mike!) with pinned ears and a snarly lip. She tolerates being touched because she knows better, but she doesn't seek attention unless it's in the form of food. Her interactions with me have become warmer this year (I couldn't even catch her a year ago!) but I really think that's because she finds me interesting, more than anything else. 

But yesterday, Booger came running up when I slid the door to the overhang open, and she was bright eyed and pleasant when I haltered and cross tied her. Then, she reached over and nuzzled me. Then she sniffed me all over like a dog would and tucked her head under my arm (!!!) with her ears up, asking for rubs. I obliged and she leaned into the contact, with a foot cocked and her whole body soft.

"Are you seeing this?!!?" I asked Mike and my BO. I was totally taken aback.

"Aw, she missed you!"

The whole time I was tacking up, Booger kept an eye on me, turning her head to watch me, and stretching her neck any time I got close enough to touch. It was adorable.

I started Booger in the round pen with side reins on. She was great, despite a huge puddle that took up a third of the round pen. She was gawking at the rustling corn next door, and I decided to lunge her in the ring to gauge how she would act.

Good thing I did! She was bolting away from something at the far end of the arena, and even threw in some massive, heels over the head, bucks. ("Does she do that under saddle?" Mike asked, in awe. Thankfully, no.) At one point, she got so excited that she slipped on the footing closest to the fence. She didn't even make an effort to save it and hit the ground on her left side, making me glad I wasn't on her. She came up muddy, but uninjured, and I wished Mike had gotten a picture. 

I wasn't sure I was going to get on her at all after that, but she gradually settled down and gave me the most beautiful trot. 

"If I could get her to move like that with me on her, I'd be satisfied forever," I told Mike. She is such an incredible mover.

Eventually, I climbed on board. Booger stood stock still at the mounting block like a good girl. It was pretty clear that she was still unnerved by all the noise and wind howling, etc. We stood in one spot for a long time as I let her stare at everything around us. She didn't really want to move forward, but I couldn't punish her for what I've been teaching her to do on trail (stop and look at whatever is scaring you). 

Some time later, Booger seemed to realize that we were working on the same circle I had just lunged her on, and she moved out. However, she was still tense and hollow and reluctant. Just as she got moving away from the corn field in a forward fashion, something startled her and she scooted forward. My back and I were grateful that's all she did. I looked over my shoulder and found the culprit. The neighbor's driveway gate wasn't secured. It was swinging violently in the wind, creaking one way and banging the other. 

Still, Booger and I worked through it. It took a lot of repetition, but Booger eventually stopped fussing about the weather and got to work. She never truly relaxed, and I was disappointed that I wouldn't get to show off any of our newly acquired arena skills, but she did the job at hand obediently.

I have to say that I'm pretty proud of the fact that I can take a four year old horse after five days off and ride her in blustery conditions and have her look like this:

She wasn't perfect, but boy did she put in a good effort!

I went home and emailed my BO pictures from our ride, and she replied with a surprise treat for me! Obviously, I know Booger's mom (Lilly) and I can see what traits Booger gets from her. She has her mom's ears, eyes, neck, and barrel. She also occasionally thinks about gaiting, which I am currently discouraging. 

But I've always wondered about her sire. She was an accidental foal, and my BO didn't know Lilly was pregnant until Booger appeared in the straw one day. (For those who don't remember, Lilly was a rescue and got pregnant when one of the stallions at the farm she came from got loose without anyone knowing.) I didn't know if we even knew who the sire was, but my BO often talks about how Booger is the Black Stallion's daughter.

It turns out we know exactly who daddy is, and last night I got to see him for the first time! He is a Proud Silver son out of a Gamaar granddaughter. Proud Silver is a grandson of Bask, one of my favorite Arabian sires of all time. His barn name is "Kia".

My BO was kind enough to share some photos of him with me, which got me going on a Google spree of my own. 

Does he look like anyone we know?

He is a 1991 model, and his line is known for its longevity. He is gelded now, but I dug up a lot of his past foals. The farm he is at currently breeds both Arabians and Foxtrotters, which explains how a cross like Booger came to be. I'm trying to find more on his history, but my BO says he was originally from Minnesota. It's been fun for me to see what he looks like and figure out where Booger gets some of her traits! It's certainly not a cross I would have made on purpose, but I suspect she'll turn out to be an ok horse.

More photos from our ride last night, as well as pictures of  Kia, just because I feel like sharing.

I see where she gets her short back!

This is him at 21!