New Evidence Of Roos Progress

It's been a bit since I've update this blog, but I have alot to share. Below are two videos of me working Roo at the canter. One is traveling to the right and one is traveling to the left. You will see how light he is becoming in hand and how controlled and smoothly he travels. We have worked diligently, particularly in overcoming some issues to his left side canter, and we are making great progress.

Videos speak louder than words, so just click on the links below and watch each one. Enjoy! Let me know what you think!

Elaine (and Roo of course)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq3ZouBYDdg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aiy81e3KT98

Roo Working Hard

Here is a video of my recent dressage lesson with Roo (2/20). This past weekend I was able to ride him 3 days in a row. Day one on my own with a friend riding Eagle. Day two dressage lesson with Michelle. Day three, hunter lesson at Leah's. He also DID a lesson for me (1/2 hour of walk/trot) for one of my student's Carolyn later Sunday. She loved him and he is such a good boy that I trust him implicitly.

Enjoy! (I had to figure out how to use YouTube in order to post the video. That is harder than riding for someone like me who has no idea about technical things.)

Working With The Big Man

Roo has come so far since my last post to the blog. I am riding him regularly now with two separate trainers, one a hunter instructor and one a dressage instructor and both top of the line in what they do.

Both have been on him and both feel he has so much potential, is very versatile and has a great mind.

We travel on the trailer without incident back and forth to two different barns for our lessons. In the winter, my dressage trainer has been coming to ride him and give me lessons at the barn where we board, so we aren't missing a beat in terms of Roo's training.

I happen to really love this first picture of a quiet moment between myself and Roo. He is so appreciative of good care and lots of love, and that is what I try to give him every day.

Both of these pictures were taken in October while still at Stuart's training facility. You can see how nicely Roo is working in the second photo.

He really has never given a moment's problem while mounted, and in fact, learns quite fast and retains what he has learned very well.

My plan for the upcoming show season is to take him to a few shows to experience what it's like to be around alot of people and horses in one setting.

My traveling to the different venues for lessons has made him patient in the crossties and patient with new experiences. The fact that we are now boarding at a farm which has goats, sheep, chickens and rabbits along with horses, has exposed him to a tremendous amount of "live" activity. I find that he only occasionally "looks" at something, and more with inquisitiveness than with an attitude toward spooking in any way. Once or twice in his initial training he might have spooked at a cooler hanging over a saddle rack or the gate, but never for very long, or in any continuous manner.

Here you can see Roo at the my hunter trainer's facility. We are cantering poles. He does this quite nicely and did from the start.

I am still waiting another year before jumping him. He will be 5 in May, and later this year we will begin jumping very small crossrails. But cantering obstacles such as poles is great for his balance and confidence.

He has alot of admirers among my own students and friends. I've only allowed my trainers and a few of my very knowledgeable riders to "test drive" him. But I trust him. He does not have a mean bone in his body.

I know it's been a while since I've updated the blog. I am retiring at the end of this year from my full-time job and will only be teaching part-time at the University, so I hope to be able to pursue more riding time and more blogging time associated with that riding...especially where Roo is concerned.

He continues to be a real joy in my life!

Riding With Roo!

Today I went to Stuart's to ride alongside he and Roo. I rode Scarlet, the cute little dun mare. Since Pennsylvania has been cooperative and we've had a run of dry days, we finally got to move outside to the outdoor arena/pen area.

Stuart had an exercise which he and Roo were doing and which I was to mimick with Scarlet. It involved cones as gates, and going in and out of the gates at walk, trot, canter. It was a great drill. Here are some photos of Roo and Stuart at work in the arena. Doesn't Roo look GREAT!

Stuart says Roo is a good horse. The only thing Stuart said I need is a few small children to skip and run around him, as the only thing he's spooked at to date was Stuart's daughter, Hannah, skipping. So Hannah made sure she came outside today and skipped up to the house while we were working. Stuart has encouraged her to skip all around when he is working Roo. Roo did not seem bothered at all by it today.

Here are some shots of Stuart and I riding together in the arena. Scarlet just turned 4 this year too.

And below, just because I love to see them I've added some additional photos of Stuart working with Roo in the outdoor arena/pen area.

At some point I think I may be learning how to rope cows....LOL. Why not? I don't think I've done that yet and I've done pretty much everything else except race.

Finally, when we were done in the arena, Stuart and Roo let both Scarlet and I, plus another rider, on a 20 minute trail ride. We went on dirt roads, down steep paths, up undefined trails, over a bridge, into a stream, and did exercises all the way along the trail. Roo was unbelievable. I cannot believe he has only been there since August 16th. His mind and actions are those of a much older and much more ridden horse. Of course he is still green, but he is just so pleasant about everything. Just like I knew he would be.

So I'll end with a few photos: one of Roo leading the trail ride home, and two of Roo and Stuart opening and closing the gate to the arena. Stuart makes everyone open and close the entrance gates themselves on horseback. It's good for the horses, and for the riders. I am enjoying my time at Stuart's and soon I'll be up on his back riding him under Stuart's tutelage. Can't wait!

Hope you enjoyed these photos! I'll be posting more next Thursday after my next session with Stuart and Roo! Hopefully the weather will hold out and we can go on a longer trail ride.

Happy trails!
Elaine and Roo

Welcome Back

It's been quite some time (June of 2008) since I last updated Roo's blog. New work activities, causing more on-the-job travel, and keeping up with my student's riding lessons have given me little time to post. I've had to maintain two work-related blogs and you find that when you are posting to blogs each day, you really don't want to post at night.

So I'll admit, I've been lax in posting. But I haven't been lax in my work with Roo. I haven't been able to work him every day as I once did, but I did make a point of working him three times a week (no matter what). Roo has to his benefit, a good memory, and an incredible will to please. We never really had to start over two days later when we learned something new, just practice it again.

In that time I've worked Roo both on and off line, and with and without saddle/bridle. Finally in March of 2009, just a few months shy of Roo's 4th birthday, I began sitting on him regularly. First bareback and then with saddle. I had to buy him a special draft bridle because the bridge of his nose is quite wide. It's a handsome black, buttery leather bridle and we opted for a Myler comfort snaffle as his first bit, mostly because the one I purchased is acceptable in the dressage ring.

Most of our in the saddle (or bareback) work was simply letting Roo wander around, with an occasional whoa change of direction using the bridle. As work activity became increasingly hectic during the growing season with an Agricultural program I work on, I realized that Roo needed CONSTANT and CONSISTENT work from me and I could not provide it. So I called my friend Stuart Rybak and arranged for Roo to spend a few months with him.

On August 16th we transported Roo to Stuart's Northeast Horsmanship Training Center near Damascus and the photos you see above and below were taken four days after Roo got there.

Stuart is a very tall, lanky young man. He works with Craig Cameron and has appeared on RFD TV. Stuart and Elizabeth Rybak worked with my horse Eagle as well, once I had brought him home and worked with him for six months. Eagle is such a good and admired horse today, I thought...why not the same for Roo?

As you can see, Stuart and Roo are getting along just fine. In the photo at the right, Roo has a great head set already. There are cows in the arena and Roo is fascinated with them. Before long, he may be actually working to "move" them around in the arena.

Roo will be at Stuart's for 60 days. I will be visiting twice or three times a week, and learning the follow up I will need to keep Roo working in his new regimen.

So here are some neat stories in chronological order since Roo moved to Stuart's training center:

• On day two, after working Roo on the line, Stuart saddled him up and saw a boarder taking her horse on a trail ride. He decided to follow her horse along. He noted that Roo walk, trot, cantered on the ride, crossed a bridge and went into water up to his belly and all was well.


• Roo has since been on many trail rides and on the dirt roads. He is not afraid of deer or turkeys and Stuart says very little bothers him. The last trail ride he went on, he was the leader.


• Roo has had the chance to be turned out with a mare. She's a cute little pony mare and I got to rider her this past Saturday. He likes her. Stuart believes that geldings (especially young ones) who may have not been turned out with mares need to be as they "get over" them and then you have no problems in the show ring.


• Roo can do a lovely turn of the forehand, and is getting mighty good at side passing. He can almost spin as of this Saturday (8/29/09).


• Roo got his FIRST PAIR OF SHOES this past week while at Stuart's. Stuart's farrier said that in his 30 years of shoeing horses, this is the first "big horse" he's liked. No issues at all for the first shoeing. (I religiously picked up and cleaned Roo's feet and also pounded on them with my hands and tapped on them with my hoof pic.)


• Roo has learned to tie quietly. He has always been good in crossties, but I haven't spent as much time tying him to a solitary object. I always smile when I walk into Stuart's barn and see Roo, this large horse, waiting patiently while fastened to a round pen panel (which he could easily make short work of) in order to be saddled. Eagle is the same way. I never have a problem even looping Eagle's lead rope over my stall saddle rack and he just stands there.


• Roo is a much different horse now. He is light in his front end, easy to lead (two fingers on the lead rope) and has unhitched his back end and front shoulders to become more fluid.

I promise to keep this blog updated as Roo progresses through this training, as well as his dressage training, which is to follow.

Hope all of you following Roo are well! I love the big guy more than you can know. He has always been a joy. He is my heart horse.

Happy Trails!

Elaine and Roo

Abscess Wars....

Darth Invader and his evil abscess minions were systematically traumatized today by young Luke I-Can-Make-Em-Walker, the farrier. Invader was quelled by Luke when he pulled out his trusty saber tool and dug out the abscess, and actually found another small one. After pressure was relieved, Roo was walking much better. The areas were packed with medication and Roo is to be left unbandaged to drain at this point. The Dark Force has once again been placed in a hasty retreat situation.

As that wise green guru, Yo-Duh might say....."Walking good, am I."

The Camera Adds...

Remember, the camera adds 10 pounds! So Roo is not really FAT! He is just big. Although he looks somewhat rosey gray here, he is really getting very light over his top line, with darker gray dapples along his sides and down his legs.

Notice his two buckets? He likes his water. And, as you can tell hanging in the corner, still loves Himalayan Salt blocks.

This IS NOT a flattering photo, but nevertheless shows him (just after a roll in the arena too....see the arena dust on his rump?) to be longer and wider!!

ANTI-SOCIAL?

We really are not trying to be anti-social. I just can't believe how fast time has gone by since last posting to this blog. In that time Roo has really filled out more and looks less juvenile and more like an adolescent teen!

We have also celebrated another BIRTHDAY! Roo was three years old on May 25th, 2008.

He is pictured here with his buddy, and my other horse, Eagle. Eagle really seems to watch out for Roo in the turnout field. Eagle is the head of the five member herd in this particular pasture, which consists of Andy, Sin, Roo, Emmett and Eagle. This picture was taken in mid-April (last month) on a very nice day. We are finally having a real Spring season here in Pennsylvania, not leaping into 90 degree weather from the winter. So that makes for nice, even temperatured, breezy days and cool nights.

We had a wedding in the family on May 17th. Just before leaving for Miami, Florida, where the wedding was held, I saddled and sat on Roo for the first time since he arrived in Pennsylvania. My husband, Paul, walked him around on a lead rope quietly while I just sat there. Roo never blinked. He didn't even turn around to look at me to check out what I was doing. I simply wanted it to be a very quiet time of just relaxing with me on his back. So that's all we did.

I have been allowing Roo to enjoy his adolescence with very little demands. Yes, we groom every time I am at the barn, we free lunge sometimes, lunge on the line sometimes, long-line sometimes, and still practice some of our "tricks" when the mood strikes us right. It is amazing how much Roo remembers. There went an entire month where I did not do a single trick in our repertoire, and then one day I decided to ask him to "back" from about five feet away just by using my hand signal. He did it!

We found out this shot season that Roo really does hate his shots. I was not there for them this year, and he gave the vet somewhat of a hard time. However, the vet and barn owner managed to finally stand him for what needed to be done. I have a feeling things would have gone better if I were there. I happened to be away at the time of the shots this year. We do shots in two segments. I have never liked given all spring shots at one time. So the 4-way and large animal rabies are given one time, and West Nile/Potomac Horse Fever are given another time. The first round went very well for Roo's shots, with no issues, but the second time the vet visited, Roo had his number and knew immediately as he entered the stall that the man carried needles. Like I said....he doesn't forget.

We are going to work on this issue. But Roo really trusts me and I do feel that my presence will make a difference. I'm going to be sure to insist I am there the next time shots come around in the Fall.

I am looking forward to working with Roo over the summer. We are going to do some different things, including working out in the big pasture, and much more time spent in the outdoor arena this year. We only had a glimpse of the outdoor arena last year here and there, but this year we are going to work down there quite a bit over the nice summer evenings.

Roo has his very first abscess brewing at the moment. It is in his left rear hoof. We think he may have a small puncture wound right next to the frog, causing the issue. So he has had some stall rest (which he hates, and which causes Eagle to yell for him all day outside of the barn windows and Roo to yell back for Eagle) these past few days, while his hoof has been bandaged. Our routine is cold hose, soak in epsom salts and betadine wash, dry, Icthamol pack the area, apply gauze pad, diaper, vet wrap and finally that layer of duct tape. He is at the toe pointy stage right now. My farrier comes tomorrow to check the hoof and see if there is any drainage possible. He will then pack it with a medicated packing, and I will go back to the routine the next day. Roo will probably have to stay inside until the end of this week. I have been hand walking him and taking him out to a very small paddock right next to his stall area (one that is intended for just this type of use with convalescing horses that can't run around too much). Because there is good grass and clover in the paddock, he is very happy to just quietly graze there while I watch him.

I am hoping this abscess passes quickly and that he is back in fine form soon. If things do not get to a point where I am satisfied by the end of next week, I will be loading him up and taking him to my hoof and leg vet in New Jersey. I am such a pessimist when it comes to horse injuries. I'd rather get the horse to my vet and not have to worry.

I will keep you all posted.

Roo is actually a very good patient. I don't know that he has ever had his hoof soaked for any length of time, but he has been very good about trusting me to put his foot in the bucket, very good about wrapping, and even good about being unable to go outside for a bit. I hate when horses cannot go out, so I am diligent about his exercise or time out when I am at the barn.

Pharaoh, my appendix quarter horse, came to us with such very bad hoof issues, he was not allowed to be on regular turn out for a year. I remember going every day to the place where he was stabled at the time, and taking him out for hour long walks and grazing in hand. Sometimes two hours. We would also go in the arena at the end of lessons and play with the cones and poles there. Pharaoh had an abscess once that started in May and lasted 7 weeks before finally being fully over. That was not the longest haul I ever did. The longest was our TB Petey, whose leg was injured in November of 2005, and finally 2 and 1/2 years later in October of 2007, Petey finally was able be turned out without ANY support bandaging on his leg. Thank God both of these horses are doing well today in terms of their feet and legs.

I am tenacious, so I do what needs to be done. Keep reading. I'll write more each day as we progress through abscess land with Roo.