Watch out MONK!

You cannot see it in this picture but Psuntana has his boots glued on.  I was using the Gloves but he has a little bit of scratches on the front of his right pastern which rubs and bleeds with the Gloves, so we glued on some shells.  Psuntana is a good barefoot horse and has pretty nicely conformed feet and can go almost anywhere barefoot.  When I start conditioning a horse I like to use the boots to help suck up the concussion and it also means I can take him anywhere without a worry.

Psuntana has been on a couple of 15 to 20 mile rides and is doing great.  He is learning to trot the single tracks and trot down hill.

The above picture is "US" dressed up in western garb which is not the norm for conditioning.

Psuntana back on the trail

Sunshine and 15 miles at Camp Far West

CFW with the Cows.

Barefoot and muddy, with maybe half the trails being decent, were the conditions at Camp Far West, and full of cows. Psuntana, who a year ago was scared to death of cows, and water, especially if it moved. Today he examined the mud puddles and the creeks and then trotted right through them, chased the cows and mostly trotted... Mosty trotted, that is so unusual, but I think the mud and the icky trails had something to do with that. I think what I was most amazed at were his working Heart Rate and his recovery. It was rare when he did not drop to 60, when stopping to open a gate, which only takes a minute or two. He did get a couple of runs in, but held lots in reserve.

All in all I was impressed, his attitude was good, he was always willing to move out when the conditions were good enough, he is very athletic and easy to ride. He seems like he will make a great endurance horse. We opened and closed the gates while mounted. He took a couple of passes, but he did much better then horses who have been doing it for years. Something to say for having a smart horse.

When we got back to the trailer, after about a 2 mile trot, he was down to 54 by the time I pulled the saddle, which was within 60 seconds...., not bad for a rookie. I put him on a 30 foot dog leash and let him graze the green grass in the parking area.

Looking forward to my next ride on Psuntana, he keeps a old man young.....

Lightning strike

Does Lightning strike twice in the same location??

I am having so much fun with this horse I can hardly contain myself. He is such a smart young man, and wants to please. He has yet to lean how to trot much, he goes from the stand still to a cantor. As I remember MONK did that when I first started riding him. I am just going to kept riding him and only ask for the trot when I think it is necessary and see how he progresses.

Psuntana is a great barefoot horse, not very big feet though, but very nice feet, nice wide frogs. Half of the time I ride him the gravel roads he only has front boots on. Most of the under saddle conditioning is done barefoot, we have great trails right now, nice and soft and not too muddy.

Psuntana just loves to run, he his a very easy horse to ride, he neck reins wonderfully, so when you are going Mach 1 you can easily direct him to a less rocky path.

If he gets scarred and decides to spin, you can stop him in a nano second, even in a halter. I ride him mostly in a hackamore.

He will do his first 50 in March and am sure he will be more then ready. When the weather starts getting better we will start doing a few 20 mile training rides.

My gut tells me that this little horse could be almost as good as MONK. He is much smaller, so will not have the stride, but so far his recoveries have been great for a green horse. I really really like this horse, he is keeping this old man young.

We will have to wait a few months to see about the lightning strike!!!!

Training Ride at home!

Beautiful fall day. I had plans of trailering out today to maybe Camp Far West where I could ride Psuntana for a couple of hours. He is almost getting to the point where I can get some consistent work out of him, at least on the wide open trails. Like most young horses he does not seem to want to trot much. He has a nice little cantor that he fells very comfortable in with nice transitions. I remember when I started MONK, he was pretty much the same, loved to cantor, now he has a top speed trot of 18mph, and seems to prefer his trot. So, I will basically ignore his lack of trotting and just get him legged him anyway we can.

We started out a little late today and it is getting darker earlier. I rode him at home, I have a 8 mile coarse which has several thousand feet of elevation gain. I can tell that he is much more fit then the last time he did this route. I let him work at the 180+ HR for up to 5 min and then walk him until he is back down to 120. Today, it took about 30 seconds to get back to 120 where a couple of weeks ago it took 3 minutes. I also let him run a little on the mile hill back up to the ranch, and he actually tried to run away with me, which he had not done before. He was really pretty fast. When he decided he didn't want to stop I made him go a little faster and farther then he has before and cranked on the hackamore until he stopped. I did get off and tighten up the chin strap for a little more whoa power.

He finished out the ride with a recovery of 6 min to 60 BPM. By the time I pulled his hackamore, breast collar and boots he was 65 in about 3 min. It took him the other 3 to loose those 5 beats. This is pretty common in my experience with a unfit horse. Lots of time you will see the HR swing back and forth... If you recover too fast, your probably not stressing your horse enough... 60 in 10 has been the norm forever, but tons of variables. I tend to more cooling out these days and not look for that 60 in 10, but guess as to what it might of been. Not very technical but hope it works.

Psuntana is a barefoot horse, with not very big feet, very nicely formed, and slightly toed in. He wears Gloves from Easycare for his foot attire, we only use these for rough terrain or gravel roads, otherwise his does all his work barefoot.

I am having lots of fun with this youngster. He is a very fun horse. If our conditioning keeps going at this rate he will be ready for a 50 pretty soon. I have done 18 miles with him, that is his farthest, and it was at a pretty slow pace.

His body has already changed considerably, he has lost most of his hay belly.

How soon we forget!!

Psuntana has been with me for probably 3 to 4 years.. I rode him very little when I first got him as I was concentrating on my big Shagya Stallion in my quest for a horse to compete in the World Equestrian Games in 2010. The Shagya did not work out, but another young horse that I all ready owned sure did. His name is MONK. The link to his blog and his steady move to be in Kentucky in 2010 for the USA team is in the link section.

Now that MONK has little to do, other then stay sound and fit I find myself with not much to do. So I started Psuntana back to work. I will show you pictures of what he looked like 30 days ago, he has already lost most of his hay belly. He is a good eater and time will tell if he will make the endurance cut. He has the attitude and a nice body. Good feet, but small, he has always been barefoot, and I do most of his rides barefoot. I do boot for hard terrain or rocky roads.

Psuntana is not to the point yet where you can really do any conditioning.. He is more at the looking around, going sideways, and backing up stage.

You really tend to forget what riding a green horse is like, especially if you have a horse like MONK who does everything well. Psuntana is very quick and can spin on a dime, but if your paying attention and have hold of the reins, you can stop him quickly, he responds instantly, which is very lucky for me.

Psuntana was trailer trained when I got him, which I am very happy about, because I have had my share of problems with trailering horses that don't do well, very stressful, and you dread having to go anywhere with them. He jumps right into the trailer, any trailer, and is a very happy horse.

Our first water crossing 30 days ago took maybe 30 minutes.. It was maybe 2" deep and a foot wide. Since that time I have had him in the lake a little, crossed several larger flowing creeks. He does not jump right in, but if you make him go across it a few times, he does jump right in, and does not hesitate the next time you come to it. Smart horse... learns quickly, just needs lots more time on the trail.

Couple of weeks ago we were riding where they were having a poker ride. They had done some heavy chalk lines across the trail at one point. You would of thought I was asking him to jump off a cliff, but after a few patient moments of just asking and not pushing he decided that it was not going to hurt him and crossed it. We then crossed it again and again... He looked at it on the way back but crossed it right away, smart horse.

We will be trotting fast down the trail and there might be a wet spot or a puddle or some white rocks and he will put on the breaks like right now... I am pretty attuned to what he might do, and he telegraphs most of his moves, which is good for me, as I need that extra nano second these days to react in time.

All of these first ride jitters that Psuntana is having brings back memories of starting MONK and how you never thought they would settle down and learn. A good feeling for a old man who hates getting old.

Nothing like a young horse that learns quickly. Psuntana is slowly getting a little endurance. He is more then ready to do a 25 mile ride. I am not a big proponent of doing the 25 mile events as I think it creates a mind set that is not good for a distance horse. I am probably wrong and many people have very successfully taken young horses from the 25 to the 50's and then onto the 100 mile events. Actually I like the way I did it with MONK, he was more then ready for his first 50 and knew that he would more then likely to ten his very first ride, but that might just be MONK.

Psuntana was done a couple of rides in the 15 to 18 mile range and a handful in the 8 to 12 mile range. He is doing great, recovering quickly, but again, not much speed, just the slow legging up miles that he needs to remain sound.