I took Fantazia on a fairly strenuous ride Tuesday, because I am going to be very busy for at least a week. With so much work, I won’t get the opportunity to ride much. This way she can do some rest and recovery. I wore my GoPro on my helmet. I’m only just learning which settings to use, and I still haven’t got the angle perfected. On this ride, I wanted to capture some fun videos of tricky terrain. Sadly, the camera was not tilted down enough, so we can only see the tips of Fantazia’s ears. So what was supposed to be a blog post with cool videos has turned into one about training in steep terrain with my opinionated mare.
Why? I shared a video on the AERC Facebook page that got so many comments I could not address them fairly there. (See the post and read the comments here.) So I’ll do it here, though, after describing the ride.
Jump to:
The funny moment that is the main subject of this post
Everything that could be going wrong to make her do that
Our ride
In keeping with my desire to condition in the heat, I waited till after 10:30 to go down to the barn. By then it was 80F. Fortunately Fantazia has learned her lesson about summer rides, and she took a good long drink at the water trough at the start of our ride. The average temperature was around 85F; it was coolest up on the ridge (around 80F).
Above: Our goal, as usual, was the peak in the distance. The purple line marks our path down (approximately). We approached from the north (to left of peak).
My goal was the usual: climb up to our nearest peak (3261′) and come back down. I wanted to do steep, not fast or far, so we went the shortest, steepest way up and back. Total distance was 9 miles. Total elevation gain (and loss!) = 2,733′. We got to the highest point (3100′; we didn’t summit the peak) in 1 hour, 25 minutes. (Training barn is at ~800′, but there are ups and downs.) Total time: 2 hours, 55 minutes (moving time = 2:42:48). I let Fantazia choose her pace most of the time.
Above: A bit closer to the goal, with our trail marked in purple.
We’d completed the first big steep climb, but you can see we had a lot of climbing left.
Why do I let her choose her pace?
It’s often a Bad Idea to leave it up to the horse to determine how fast you go. But Fantazia knows these trails very well. She knows how long the steepest inclines (35% grade) are, where they level off… how much long slow grind is left. So if she decides she wants to trot or canter up something horrible, she knows what she’s in for. And I do let her rest when she wants to. She’s fit, but not so fit she doesn’t get tired when she gets overly ambitious.
Above: Fantazia was probably a little cranky on the way home, because we did some steep hills, and she chose to go up faster than was probably entirely smart on a hot day!
Once we head home, I might occasionally have to check her, but not much. It’s so steep she won’t get in a big hurry. She doesn’t want to roll down a mountain any more than I do. There are lots of rock and trees in the way.
Our main disagreements are about Which Way to Go. Not how fast. Fantazia knows which ways are easiest/shortest/more likely to have grass.
The funny moment that is the main subject of this post
I usually get off Fantazia and lead her down steep hills. (I tail her up the steepest ones.) The last long downhill slope is about 1.5 miles from home. Because there is a clearly better “side” of the dirt road the entire way, Fantazia tends to follow me rather than go at my side (where she prefers). By that time, my GoPro had zero battery, so I couldn’t put it on the back of my helmet to film Fantazia, so I used my phone to do a selfie-with-horse video.
As soon as I saw Fantazia in the screen, I started laughing so hard I had to stop recording. She was (silently) pinning her ears and nipping at me in the air. Never close to touching. As soon as I turned around, she put her ears forward and looked angelic. You could practically see her halo.
I tried to capture her change with my camera, but never got a good image. Below you can see her behind me, which she thought I couldn’t see her.
Everything that could be going wrong to make her do that…
The vast majority of comments on my post were humorous: “what a sass pot” “She’s a red mare nothing else needs to be said!” “YOU TOO SLOW MONKEY GIRL!” “just a little attitude goin on there!!!” “Oh, she’s spicy!! Love it!” “She’s like. I’m gonna bite you, wait you feed me never mind” “I think she’s pretending she’s driving this pathetic weakling ahead of her down the trail. I’m a teacher. Kids do the same thing behind us in the hall. :
Then there were those that really got it: “Please video again and when she is doing her foolishness turn around real fast to face her. I want to see the look on her face lol I bet she’ll have a full on halo.” Yep. I tried to catch it, but mainly got sky and trees, I was laughing so hard.
Above: Left and center, Fantazia when she thinks I can’t see her. As soon as I turn around, she puts her ears forward and looks docile (on the right).
But then there were the gloomy comments.
“I think she has some serious issues with her place in your herd. She most obviously does not look at you as a leader”
The funny thing is that Fantazia is not at ALL dominant. She’s bottom of the herd with other horses, and very respectful of people’s space. She never steps on me, even when I’ve fallen in front of her feet on steep hills. She would never bite me… and anyway, if she wanted to take a chomp out of me, she’s had numerous opportunities these last 14 months. I lead her all the time.
I first rode Fantazia when she was five and had little more than a month’s training. (See my post on When I met Fantazia). Like most of the horses I worked with for her breeder, she has always had very good ground manners. She used to be hard to catch (and you still cannot catch her if you have a fly spray bottle in your hand), but once you had a halter on her, she has always been very respectful.
She is not pushy and she will not bite me.
“Don’t lead her by the reins attached to the bit. You are making the bit clunk and bang in her mouth.”
Several people pointed out that she could be objecting to the bit banging in her mouth. Some said it looked fat and heavy. Well, it is fat but it is not heavy. It is a thick hollow snaffle; a very gentle, lightweight bit that Fantazia likes. It doesn’t bang because it fills up the bit-area of her mouth and can’t touch her teeth anyway. She’d have to open her mouth wide for it to be able to move much. (You can see the bit in the picture to the right.)
More importantly, I’d know it if it pulled on her at all. Fantazia comes to a screeching halt when a rope or rein touches the ground and/or when she feels the least little tug on her bridle or halter or bosal. I have to secure the other rein to prevent it from falling to the ground, or hanging too low for Fantazia’s comfort… Else she’ll stop immediately.
When I lead, I leave her a very long rein, and she can choose where to go. She likes to walk or jog beside me, but on this particular road, it’s a lot easier to follow the well-trodden path of the cattle. If you (human) try to walk on the harder parts, you will probably slip and fall. Been there, done that. The horse won’t fall but she will slip and have to exert more energy. Fantazia is all about conserving energy.
She’s also great about not stepping on me. I have fallen in front of her and she’s managed to keep clear, even when trotting down a nasty slope.
“Looks like she is in pain”
Many people thought she was in pain. Now, if I did not know her better, I would wonder the same. In fact, I always worry about pain when going downhill, because she is very slow when it’s steep. Partly she slows down to be careful (hurting herself is not on Fantazia’s agenda). But too careful downhill movement is often a sign of pain. She also wears her hind shoes out faster, and slides her hind feet on downhill bits. This can be a sign of hock pain.
Fantazia has had more than one full lameness exam, by a lameness expert, with the aid of computerized gait analysis. When we looked really hard and squinted, we found a few places that could possibly at some point cause trouble. So she’s had her hocks injected and she’s on Adequan. It really didn’t make any difference in her movement, but it makes me feel better.
Still, I always worry about pain. So this was the only negative observation that really resonated with me. If she did the biting and ear pinning when I was in the saddle (she doesn’t, at least not on hills), I would worry. If she did it when I was looking, I would worry. But she doesn’t.
She does pin her ears and gnash her teeth when I ride with other horses, especially when she knows them. When my boyfriend and I share the arena, she starts threatening his geldings from ten feet away. When I used to pony her with Beroni, or vice versa, she’d spend a good part of the time with her ears pinned and teeth snapping. (See my post on ponying.)
She also does it when I am leading her around the place, in her halter… especially when we’re late for a meal. I’ll try to get a video of that and share it here at some point!
It should be noted that this was a challenging ride! She was tired by this time. See the video below of us making the last major climb:
Exciting moments
We saw a Golden Eagle. There is a pair that nest in a nearby outcrop, and I frequently see them together. This time there was just the one. I did capture it in a video, but I’m not sure if it will be big enough to identify.
We saw a feral pig. Got that on video too, but it’s definitely a bit small. I think the wide screen view makes seeing smaller things more difficult.
We went down some very hairy slopes. I meant to capture the first and scariest on video, but I messed it up.