Tails From Provence

Equifeel Championnat Départemental

I had the best of intentions to do a non-horsey post during the week, but we have visitors at the moment and between getting up to the horses and spending time with Granny and the BFF, I haven’t had much time for anything else. Sunday was so exciting that I’m going to defer the non-horsey post once again (it involves pickled garlic, fly spray and a couple of recipes, and I promise it’ll be worth the wait).

Sunday was the Equifeel Championnat Départemental – Equifeel Regional Championships. It was being held on our home turf, GAEC de Pimayon. For the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of preparations going on. There’s been loads of strimming (weed-whacking in Americanese I think) and general tidying-up, and MC and I have been busy preparing our horses and practising our Equifeel skills. (For anyone who hasn’t read my previous blog posts on the subject, Feeling our way Along, Joucas Equifeel Part 1 and Joucas Equifeel Part 2 Equifeel is a format of competition for Natural Horsemanship.)

It’s the norm to inform Club-level competitors (that’s me) of the tests they will face on competition so, last week, Alexandrine told me what we’d be facing. There were to be ten tests in all. That’s a lot – on the two occasions I’ve done this previously, there were either five or six tasks to perform. Also, one of the tests involved the horse being at liberty. My guys are still not 100% reliable at liberty, although they’re improving. Aero still gets a bit befuddled sometimes and Flurry just takes the mickey (HAHA! I’m free! I can do what I want!)

We’ve been practising hard for the last two weeks. Aero is really good at lateral movement and backing up, but he gets excited when jumping and can get very confused about what I’m asking. Flurry is calm and reliable when jumping and understands the game now – pop over the jump, turn and pop over it from the other direction – but he finds the lateral movement difficult and he gets confused about backing up. We were also facing l’epreuve de van – loading in a trailer. I didn’t expect any trouble with Aero – Tansy used to stand at the bottom of the ramp, point at the trailer and he’d load himself – but Flurry is a rogue and a chancer and has always tested me if I try to load him when I’m alone.

The trailer was set up for us to practise mid-week, and I had a go with Flurry. He was awful. Planted himself at the bottom of the ramp and said MAKE ME. Alexandrine was there, but there was no point in her helping to load him; instead, she directed me. Touch him behind the withers with the whip. Tap instead of touch. Tap harder. Build up the pressure by tapping faster and harder (up to a limit, I hasten to add!) until he steps forward, but the instant he moves forward, remove the pressure. At this stage, Flurry and I are now halfways across the field where the trailer is parked, but he moves forward finally, I desist immediately, we walk all the way to the bottom of the ramp again, he puts two of his feet onto it and then swings out to one side. Block him on that side… he swings to the other… block him on the other side. He’s just being a sausage, she said. She was right, he knew exactly what I was asking! I persevered and, five minutes later, Flurry was in the trailer with me stuffing carrots into him and telling him how good he is. He shot out backwards before I asked him, so he had to go back in again. A little quicker, this time, but he still tested me. Alex suggested I go and do a couple of things he finds easy, give him loads of praise and then come back to the trailer again, so I did this. Wonder of wonders, he hesitated for maybe two seconds at the bottom of the ramp and then walked in. Result!

The day before the competition, I ran through all the exercises with both horses. Flurry walked into the trailer first time, without even an instant’s pause, but Aero decided to act the fool. Gah. Horses! Still, I was confident that I’d be able to load them both within the two minutes time allowed on the day.

The weather has been magnificent recently, up to 35C by day. A little hot for working the horses, but I’ve been getting up really early to avoid the worst of the heat and the flies. There was a change forecast for Sunday – thunderstorms and rain, with the temperature expected to drop by 15 degrees. Saturday evening was hot hot hot. Was it really possible that Sunday would be any different?

At 3.30am, I was awakened by crashing thunder overhead and then the torrential rain started. It was still pelting down at 7am. The farm would be a sea of mud and, being on top of a mountain, it would be dangerously close to the lightning. Would they go ahead with the competition? Oh yes they would… a lot of work had gone into organising it and it was going ahead, with fingers crossed that the storm would pass. But the weather-gods were kind to us and the thunderheads moved on at about 8am, leaving cloudy skies and occasional showers.

After the storm had cleared

I had two very helpful photographers on site, the LSH in an official capacity as event photographer and the BFF in an unofficial capacity. Rather than go through the competition step by step, I’ll let the photos do the talking.

Waiting to start with Aero

Finishing the four-leafed clover with Aero. You have to run loops around a four blocks set out in a cloverleaf pattern. Puff. Pant.

Waiting to start the four-leafed clover with Flurry

RUN RUN RUN… but the lead rope should be slacker…

Finished! Good boy!

Reverse slalom. Stand still at the pole…

…and then reverse your way through a zig-zag. Those blue things are called ‘plots’ in French; I don’t know what we’d call them in English!

Aero is pretty good at this but we went for the 10 point option where I’m allowed to follow him. For 15 points, I’d have had to stay behind the pole while he zig-zagged all by himself.

Jumping on the circle. We did the 15 point option, but Aero did his customary WTF? stop at the first attempt so we lost two points

Aero on the tarpaulin. I went for the 15 point option, where the lead rope is connected via a light elastic, so you can’t drag the horse around; the horse must walk on to the tarp, pause for 10 seconds and then walk off

Flurry walking onto the tarp.

I was really pleased with both horses here and I reckon we can try this at liberty for 20 points next time

Jumping the double. For 10 points, you run along just outside of the line of jumps. For 15 points, I’d have had to be 1.5 metres away and for 20 points, 4 metres away

Flurry demonstrating lateral movement.

I was delighted with him, he didn’t rush and he didn’t get his legs in a muddle, but Aero lost an uncharacteristic four points here. I was going for 15 points with him, and I think I lost focus. He became confused – Forward? Back? Oh, sideways.. but he had walked over the pole at that stage and were penalised for it.

The pivot, or pirouette. The horse must keep his hind legs in the circle and move his front end around sideways. The hardest part is getting the back feet into the circle!

Normally we struggle with this, but the horses rose to the occasion and they both scored a faultless 10 points here

The circle. The horse must do two laps in one direction, turn and do two laps in the other. For 10 points, I was allowed to stay out with the horse…

…for 15 points, I would have had to stay within the first circle and for 20 points, I’d have had to stay within the second circle

Va et vien – reverse and return. For 10 points, you follow the horse as he reverses for 4 metres; for 15 you stay at the start as I’m doing in this picture while the horse reverses 4 metres and for 20 points you stay at the start and the horse reverses 8 metres over a pole on the ground as well. Aero is great at this, perhaps I should have tried for 20 points but he scored an easy 15. Then I lost my head with Flurry and tried for 15 with him, too, forgetting that he’s not so good at this. He was totally confused and I ended up saying I’d just take the zero as I walked down to help him figure it out.

The trailer. Aero having a minor blip…

…before going in very well, despite (or maybe because of) the fact that his bête noir, Grisou the donkey was approaching the fence behind him. Flurry did this perfectly, too! Hooray!

Alexandrine and family were very happy with the turnout. There were 21 competitors in my section; five in the elite section and everyone turned up, despite the very dodgy weather.

MC and Quieto strutting their stuff in the Elite section

Practicing the pivot beforehand. This Arabian is grey, but he lives in an area with ochre in the ground, hence the orange coloration!

It was lovely to see this Friesan mare getting a kiss on the nose from her owner every time she completed an exercise, whether she succeeded or not.

There was a barbecue and loads of food laid on when everything had finished, so I went to get Granny while they added up the scores and prepared the food. We were back just in time for the prize-giving. MC won the Club Section with Quieto… but guess who was second? Me and Aero, no less!!! Yippee!

Not only that, but Flurry and I were fifth, too! We came home with loads of loot – two bags of carrots, a salt lick, a head-collar, 2 plaques and 2 rosettes to add to our French collection.

See? I told you Sunday was exciting.

Masker Aid

Aero’s zebra rug is doing a good job. In general, he is noticeably less bothered by the flies than Flurry and MoMo. The weather has been getting steadily warmer and the flies have been getting steadily worse. There are loads of the small annoying ones that go into their ears, so he’s shaking his head a lot and he just looooves it when I stick my fingers in his ears and give him a good scratch. I always use the fly bonnet when I ride him now, and I’ve been toying with the idea of using the zebra striped fly mask that came with the Bucas Zebra rug.

The thing is, I’m not sure he’ll be able to see clearly through it.

A few of us tried it on to see.

It IS possible to see through it, but looking through the different coloured stripes is different.

My gut feeling is that it would be fine on a horse in a clean, fenced pasture full of grass, but my horses live in a paddock full of scrub oak, juniper and pine trees. Don’t get me wrong – I love their paddock. It’s ideal for barefoot horses. But I’d be worried about Aero poking an eye out on a branch he hadn’t seen if he’s wearing the zebra mask. At the very least, I reckon he’d pull it off on a branch as he walks around.

So, for the moment, I’ll just use it to give him a bit of relief from the flies when I’m doing routine maintenance on his feet.

If I remember rightly, the little ‘ear’ flies died down later on in the summer. If not, I will try the plain mask that came with his old fly rug.

Have any of my readers used the zebra fly mask?

Tags: bucks zebra rug, summer in provence

Birthday Fun

Long-time blog readers might remember that I’ve experimented with riding Flurry in the bitless configuration of the Micklem bridle. I found it ok… but not perfect. Flurry always felt heavy in it, and particularly unyielding for arena work. I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to trail-ride bitless, it would be ok, but that was before my little adventure with Marie-Christine! Now, I have no intention of trail-riding bitless – I want to be able to stop when necessary!

So I had pretty much abandoned the Micklem as a bitless bridle. And then, I started to get notions about riding Aero bitless. Why? Well, there are times when he clearly tells me he doesn’t want the bit in his mouth, by clamping it shut when I go to bridle him. Some days, he opens his mouth willingly; others he just says “NO.” He’s a good horse and an honest horse and if he there are times when he doesn’t want a bit in his mouth, well, maybe there’s a reason.

The first day I rode him bitless with the Micklem he was surprisingly good. I spent a lot of time in halt initially, teaching him that when I lift my hands, I’m asking him to lower his head. He seemed to get the idea, so we set off in walk around the arena. Now he seemed to have forgotten what he had just learned, so I halted again and spent another ten minutes just lifting my hands, putting pressure on the reins and dropping them completely when he submitted. Off into walk again and he was better this time… we tried a little trot, we tried a few turns and circles and all seemed good. We even tried a canter circle on each rein – the brakes and steering worked but I’m sure he wasn’t ’round’ like a dressage horse! I was very pleased and I continued to use the Micklem a couple of times a week, but Aero’s outline deteriorated steadily. He just stopped listening to my requests to lower his head, and there were times when I felt I was really hauling on his noseband, to no effect.

Last week, I rode him bitless in my lesson to see if Alexandrine could help. She watched for a while, saw what was going on, gave some advice and eventually suggested lowering the noseband, but nothing changed.

Finally, she suggested I try riding with the rope halter.

I’ve never liked the idea of riding in a halter – the notion that both reins are attached under the chin just never sat comfortably with me. Surely you need a rein on either side of the head to be able to steer? But, I had asked for Alexandrine’s advice, and I figured I should try it. The Micklem was removed, the rope halter was fitted and I mounted.

What a revelation. Within minutes, he was dropping his head obediently every time I asked. We worked long and low for a while and then we worked on asking him to close the angle of the jaw, bringing his nose in and working in a more correct ‘long and low’ outline. Aero loved it, and became looser and looser the more we did. I finished the lesson on cloud nine and I came home to the LSH saying “For the first time ever, he really felt like he used to look when Tansy rode him.” The reason there was such a huge improvement? Well, the noseband of the rope halter is far narrower than the thick, padded Micklem noseband, so he feels the slightest pressure and the slightest release immediately. Yes, it’s technically more severe – but I never felt like I was hauling on it, as I had felt with the Micklem.

I’ve ridden him with the rope halter a couple of times since, mostly working on turns and circles. These aren’t great. It seems I rely on the bit far too much for turning! Riding with the halter will really improve how I use my legs and how the horse pays attention to my leg and body aids. So although I will never ride a dressage test in a rope halter, it’s a really good way of improving my riding so that I become less dependent on my hands.

Yesterday it was Aero’s turn to be ridden, but I decided to ride Flurry. Well, it was my birthday and I wanted to share it with my favourite little yellow horse! My plan was to do some schooling for half an hour and then practise our travail sur sol for the Equifeel competition that’s coming up, so we rode up to the arena, carrying the rope halter.

Flurry was in great form – supple, obedient, willing. We ran through our repertoire – circles, serpentines, straight lines, leg-yielding, direct transitions, shoulder-in, haunches-in. Well, why don’t I try him with the rope halter, I thought. Just for fun.

Wow! Turns, circles, weaving in and out of obstacles, leg-yielding, all with a weight shift or the touch of a leg! I barely needed to use the rope reins to steer at all! It seems that Flurry is far more tuned-in to my body language than Aero. Well, it makes sense – I made Flurry what he is and we really understand each other. He quickly grasped the idea of working in an outline with the rope halter, too. I was thrilled.

Eventually I dismounted and we took some selfies :

Selfie!

Can I eat the iPhone?

Then we finished up with some ground work, practising his remote halt. He’s supposed to halt wherever he is when I raise the schooling whip, and wait there. He’s not as good as Aero’s, but he’s improving.

What a great start to my birthday.

The rope halter was my birthday pressie from the LSH

Birthday hug

The rest of the day was pretty damn good too. Granny and the BFF are visiting (the BFF was Granny’s present to me this year, great idea!) and we all went for lunch in the Cafe de la Gare at Bonnieux. This place was made famous by Peter Mayle in A Year in Provence and, up to last year, was still owned by the same family. We were disappointed to find that it has been taken over by a Pierre Cardin operation and is now staffed by handsome but inefficient waiters. They are still doing the €14 set menu lunch, but they no longer include your wine and the whole place has a posh feel to it. Although the food was good, we won’t be rushing back any time soon. It has lost its charm.

The day ended with a trip to Forcalquier, where a friend was having an art exhibition. We had fun chatting and sipping wine, before going for a birthday drink with a bunch of other friends, where we chatted, sipped more wine and ate chips (French fries). And I got one more present… look very closely…