Training my horses during competition (Road to Tevis #89)

Last weekend I took Fantazia and Jazz back to the desert for the xpride that was supposed to be in the Cuyama Valley. Not surprisingly, given the current weather in California, we were rained out. I was really looking forward to the change in scenery Cuyama would have brought, not least because my horses had already been in the desert three times since the beginning of the year. Cuyama was moved to our Laurel Mountain site, where we had been just six weeks previously. (Read about my experience at that ride here: Two surprise wins and one BC.) Partly due to their familiarity with the area and partly because I have not had time to ride much, Fantazia and especially Jazz acted up. Training my horses during competition is not my idea of fun, but it had to be done!

Jump to:

Some explanations for their poor behavior
Day 1: Fantazia won the 55-mile ride
Day 2: Jazz did not win the 50!
The good news–Fantazia ate very well!
What’s next for Jazz and Fantazia

Some explanations of their poor behavior

Not enough training

To be fair to my horses, they’ve had zero training at home since summer. By training, I do not mean conditioning (miles, exercise). I mean schooling. Learning to be a good equine citizen. Learning what the bit and aides mean. Bending, leg yielding, leads, turns on haunches and forehand. The only such training they’ve had is the necessary to go through gates without me dismounting.

For Fantazia, this doesn’t matter that much. I have invested days and hours into her training. She might be rusty, and her nerves in competition will never change, but she is trained. (See my many training idea blogposts for what I’ve done with her in the arena.) Jazz, not so much. Because of my lack of time (and current lack of arena), almost all his time under saddle is spent on the trail. It’s not that you cannot train outside the arena. It’s just that some horses learn more quickly when they are focused on one thing. Jazz is one such horse. (And I am one such rider!)

Not enough riding

Not only have my horses not received any schooling, they hadn’t even been ridden at home since mid-February. Again, for Fantazia that doesn’t make much of a difference. She doesn’t need riding when we are going to so many endurance rides (Western Mojave was just two weeks before Cuyama/Laurel Mt.) In fact, given her arthritis, she really benefits from a break.

Jazz still needs riding between frequent rides. He might not need conditioning, but his mind needs schooling. He has no physical limitations, and the last several rides have not been arduous. Yes, he won, but that’s because nobody else wanted to go fast. I don’t go fast. This time, when other riders did go fast, we did not win. Even if I hadn’t decided Jazz needed to listen to me and trot slowly or walk most of the way, we wouldn’t have won. He’s not ready to trot 10 mph for miles.

Above: For our pre-ride, I ponied Fantazia with Jazz, They hadn’t been ridden since our last endurance ride.

The last few rides were easy and lightly attended

I could ride alone without pushing the horses or forcing them to go slowly. When people passed us, they did so slowly, and no one passed after the first half of the loops. Fantazia does fine when other horses pass at the beginning, but once we are headed back towards the trailer, she doesn’t like to be passed, especially on the second loop. And she never likes other horses to go by at a canter! (Maybe they are running away from lions!)

Jazz of course simply has less experience. The last time Jazz had had to ride among a lot of horses was at the beginning of Fire Mountain. Because he was fixated on turning around and going back to base camp, he didn’t really pay much attention to them. By the time he didn’t know how to get back to the trailer, we were out of the crowds. Last Saturday, I waited till everybody else had started before mounting up. That’s a lot more peaceful! But, because we took it easy and passed people slowly, our crowd timing was poor. When we got to a busy trail, Jazz was fixated on going forward to get back to camp. Then we had to ride within sight of horses the entire time.

In short, both horses wanted to go fast, and I wouldn’t let them. They both finished their races calmly and with a lot of fuel left over, but I was exhausted.

Day 1: Fantazia won (!?) the 55-mile ride

Loop 1 was easy

The first loop of Day 1 was actually very enjoyable. Just as we had done at Laurel Mountain, Scott Lucas and I ended up in front and rode together most of the way. Sometimes Scott would lope ahead, as his horse prefers that gait. Sometimes, Fantazia, who walks and trots faster, would end up ahead. Fantazia did not drink until the very end, and it was a 35-mile loop. I wasn’t worried, however, as she had eaten and drunk well the night before. She also took advantage of the green desert and grabbed filaree every chance she got.

Our average speed on Loop 1 was 6.4 mph (6.7 mph average moving speed), which was slower than we had gone at Laurel Mt. (6.6/6.9mph). We did take several photo breaks, just to capture the beauty of the desert. You can see what a beautiful day it was in the pictures below.

Loop 2 turned into a training ride for me

I started a bit earlier than Scott, but he soon caught up, and we proceeded calmly. We let our horses graze whenever they wanted. We did a lot of calm leap frogging. (Watch a video of us riding together here.) I took a long video trotting alone to share on YouTube as per a few requests.

In retrospect, perhaps we took it too calmly! At some point after the halfway point, I turned around and noticed riders approaching behind us–and, as Scott noted, they were in a hurry. We picked up the pace (in other words, we started trotting), but we were not interested in racing, so when they cantered up behind us, we let them pass.

That’s where Fantazia lost her marbles.

It’s not that they were going that fast. They were cantering. It’s not that the trail was that narrow. It was a road, there were two tracks.. But in Fantazia’s little brain, they blew past us. Not long after that, two more riders passed. They were only trotting, and they were careful to pass slowly, but by that time Fantazia was worked up. It didn’t help that she really wasn’t tired, or that I got stubborn about her not zooming down the trail.

At first, Scott and I stayed together, but after a while I had to slow down and make Fantazia pay attention. She was cantering sideways; that’s how she pulled a muscle at Cuyama Oaks two years ago! I would have dismounted had there not been a weird looking bus broken down near us. The people were probably not dangerous, but I did not want to risk getting off a fractious horse. So Fantazia danced and pranced and made angry snorting sounds for about half a mile before I found a place I could school her in circles for a bit. When she finally gave up and started to walk we proceeded down the trail.

A curious case of competition (in)justice

Years ago, when I was around 11, I won an English equitation class despite having fallen off. My Morgan gelding dumped me at the far end of a large arena. I grabbed him, hopped back into the saddle, and proceeded as if nothing had happened. Though I did not know it, the judge’s back was clearly turned. (Falling off means disqualification!)

For years after that, every time I would complain about an unfair placing at a show, my mom would remind me of my unfair win. It all evens out, she’d say, and that was a pretty big example of you not deserving to win that you need to compensate for.

Well, I must have paid that one off, because now I’ve incurred another competition debt.

How Fantazia won the 55…

The trail led along Brown Road to Wiknich, where ride camp is, about a mile south. Not far past the Ridgecrest shooting range, it then doubled back to the left. Scott had been talking about that earlier, but I still forgot, and would have ridden straight back to camp had my watch not warned me I was off-course. I could see Scott in the distance, heading to camp. I shouted at him, but what with the distance and the wind, he didn’t hear me. After a while I gave up and turned around. As I did so, another rider–Kerrie Tuley rode up and affirmed that yes, we needed to go that way back into the desert. Kerrie had actually listened to Dave at the ride meeting and read the instructions.

… by not going off-course

The reason I prefer to follow a gpx file is that I never read instructions.

Kerrie and I rode the remaining 4 miles or so together. Fantazia was still in a hurry, but I made her wait for Kerrie’s horse. It was good training! And I wanted to end the ride in a calm state. We did, walking the last mile and a half. Kerrie insisted I go first, even though we both got off to lead out horses in. I thought I was in fifth place, so I didn’t care. I didn’t even weigh in for best condition.

When I brought Fantazia back for her completion vetting 10-15 minutes later, I was surprised to see the riders I thought had finished before me ride in.

They had all gone off course! And so Fantazia achieved her second win despite having let four people pass (five if we include Scott), having a big meltdown, been subjected to schooling mid-ride, and being forced to walk most of the last five miles in to ride camp.

Day 2: Jazz was worked up for most of the first loop of the 50

But the start went well….

And this was a great improvement! At Laurel Mountain he was a monster at the start. (Read about it here.)

At the Western Mojave ride, I had waited to saddle up until everyone had left, wanting to avoid the nerves of the start. It worked. We started 15 minutes the last rider. Jazz was calm, we walked the first half mile, and then slowly caught up with everyone. The only issue was that he did not want to leave ride camp. This time, I thought, I’d leave when he could still see other riders, but after the initial rush was done. I saddled up around ten till seven. Ride camp was exciting. There was a loose horse. There were many horses acting up. Fantazia was bouncing around in anticipation of Being Left Alone.

Jazz was calm. He walked out of ride camp. He’s a fast walker, so we quickly caught up with Nina and Dave. I passed them, knowing that Nina’s horse wouldn’t appreciate a strange horse joining them. Jazz didn’t want to pass. (Hey, ride camp is back there! Hey, can’t I ride with these horses going slow? Maybe they will turn around!) So I made him trot. I had to insist, but once he got going, he was forward enough. We began to catch up with others.

Then it started falling apart.

About 4.5 miles in, we caught up with a bunch of horses. We weren’t going fast–between 7.0 and 7.5 mph. Jazz had passed a few groups calmly. But then we got to an uphill, narrow part of the trail. Other horses slowed down a tiny bit. My horses don’t slow down on hills. They put their heads down and continue at the same pace or speed up if I let them. I needed to pass, and began doing so. Jazz wasn’t happy at the tight quarters, but he did all right until another horse came up behind us and wanted to pass. (Maybe? Not sure).

Jazz was not nice. He wanted to move sideways and cut them off… among other bad behaviors. I had been trying to keep fairly slow so as not to rile other horses up, but at that point, I urged Jazz forward. For more than one reason, I didn’t want a kicking, biting, and shoving situation to happen. I let Jazz move out, hoping that space and a little tiredness would help him calm down.

Nope.

It just got worse from there.

We still had at least ten horses in front of us (remember, I started last). And another ten plus behind us. So Jazz could see other horses 80% of the time. He never calmed down. It was 28 miles of half halts and pulling. He didn’t drink and he didn’t eat. Because he was focused on other horses, he spooked constantly. He neighed on a regular basis. He did not get tired. I got more tired with every fighting mile. One of his spooks caught my left leg in a bad place, and my knee started to hurt. Even though I had gloves on, I could feel the blisters forming.

In retrospect, I see that I could have let him go faster. Our average speed for the loop was 6.7 mph (average moving speed 7.1 mph). His average heart rate was 104 bpm, despite a lot of cantering (it peaked at 162 bpm on a hill) and the continued emotion. It might even have been better to have fought less with him.

I never do learn, do I. I got it in my head that he was not going to trot at 10mph or even 9mph. For most of the loop, I held him under 8.5 mph, though I did allow him to lope or canter regularly. At the walk, I let him go as fast as he wanted (he does 4.5 mph easily). But I know now that Jazz is quite comfortable trotting at 9.5-10 mph. I am not, but he is.

I didn’t want him to go that fast because it was only two weeks since his last ride. Although Jazz has amazing cardiovascular capacity, he hasn’t been doing endurance long enough for his hard and soft tissue to be ready for “speed.” Yes, we’ve won races, but it wasn’t because we went fast. So I forced him to go “slow.”

The cost of going “slow” was an upset horse and a cranky rider

Jazz was pissed when we finished the first loop and so was I. He finally drank at the final water troughs, not quite a mile from ride camp. I got off and led him in. He pulled and stepped on me. He reared. As soon as he could see the rigs, he started neighing.

At the water troughs, his heart rate had dropped below 60, but as soon as Fantazia answered his neighs, it shot up to 70. He wiggled and fidgeted and took a full minute to pulse down. (I know, not much, but we’re talking a horse with a resting heart rate of 32-34.)

I decided to leave late on the second loop to avoid the crowd, and to walk the entire way if necessary to keep Jazz calm.

Loop 2 was much better

Just to get Jazz’s mind focused, I put his saddle bags on him. We only use those when I am going to collect rocks and plants, so he should associate them with poking along slowly. I didn’t put the heart rate monitor on him. There was no point. Then I waited until no one else was about to ride out, which meant we had an hour and 15 minutes of hold time.

We walked most of the time. Average speed was 4.4 mph (average moving speed 4.9 mph). I got off to take pictures and identify plants with my Seek app. We allowed many riders and horses to pass and by the end of the loop, Jazz was able to do so relatively calmly. Every time he started pulling, I’d get off and start taking pictures of plants.

After a while he gave up. I got off at the water troughs again and led him in. He didn’t pull and he didn’t neigh. He allowed his pulse to be taken without trompling us.

Training my horses during competition might not be something I enjoy, but at least it was successful. There is something immensely satisfying about having a horse be calmer at the end of the ride than at the beginning–and not because he’s tired! Jazz wasn’t at all tired.

Above: I took a lot of pictures of plants on the second loop. That gets my mind off of controlling Jazz’s every movement, and helps him understand that we’re not there to race.

The good news–Fantazia ate very well!

My last blog post was about the difficulty I am having feeding my horses lately. They don’t want to come in for their grain. (Read about it here: Effects of an irregular feeind schedule.) As a result, Fantazia is far too thin. I was worried in large part because she has never eaten well at rides. True, she does better when Jazz is there, but she has never eaten as much as she does at home (when not mooning after the neighbor’s horses).

This time she ate everything I put in front of her. She not only ate her normal ration, but several pounds more a day. I calculated she ate 7 lbs of Ultium Gastric Care and at least half a pound of Max-E-Glo rice bran a day, plus a lot of hay (mainly alfalfa).

What’s next for Jazz and Fantazia

I was hoping the Nicholsons would be able to do a Club ride at Cuyama in a few weeks, but that didn’t pan out. My next endurance ride will be Montana de Oro, June 3rd–supposing my entry gets in on time! If it doesn’t, I’ll probably drive up to River Bend in Red Bluff. I’ll ride Jazz. Fantazia will hopefully be pregnant by then. If she’s not, she still doesn’t do well in the heat.

That’s more than two months before competing again. Jazz doesn’t need that much time, but I simply cannot make it to any rides sooner than that. The semester ends May 12, and I need to be here. That’s all right. I’m hoping for a superbloom and many rides amongst the poppies in the hills around my house.