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Blog Entry # 5 - 11th May 2016
In May 2013 I attended a Barrel Racing School at Gunalda. Gunalda is two and a half hours drive from our home and this would be our first big trip pulling Jay in the float. The float, another hurdle to be overcome. We had intended to leave our place @ 6:00 pm on Thursday night and travel up to Gunalda, unload, pitch the tent and stay the night, ready for an early start in the morning. Well, that’s what we had intended, but Jay had other ideas, he wasn’t getting on that float. Two and a half hours later and I was sitting on the ramp of the float holding on to Jay’s lead rope, Jay was standing as far away as he could from the ramp without causing too much pressure on himself via the tension in the lead rope. Ian and my friend Zalee had long left me to try to calm down and encourage Jay to get on the float by myself. I was ready to give up, we should have been at Gunalda by now, we we’re never going to get there if Jay wouldn’t get on the float. Well I’m not sure what happened but I guess I’m more stubborn than Jay and he finally decided to walk up the ramp. We locked him in and headed off before anyone had a chance to change their mind. So instead of arriving in Gunalda at 8:30 pm we arrived at Gunalda 11:00 pm. We had no idea where we were going, we’d never been there before and arriving at an unfamiliar place in the dark, offloading a horse and setting up a tent at midnight was just the first of a number of new experiences that weekend was going to bring.
First thing in the morning, after the horses were tended to and people were fed, all barrel school attendees and their support crew were asked to meet at the grandstands for the introduction to the weekend. Ian, Zalee and I found a seat a few rows up in the grandstand and prepared to hear what was planned for the next three days. By the time everyone arrived the grandstand was full and some people were sitting on the grass or standing beside the grandstand. It was a well attended event. The Barrel School Instructors were Mitch and Carolyn Shoemake from South Carolina, USA and the event was organised and sponsored by Kerrie Anderson from Gunalda, QLD. Mitch took the floor and started to tell us what the weekend would hold, how it would be run, and what we could expect. It was at the “what we could expect” part that I started to fall apart. I had definitely made a mistake, I shouldn’t have come, I can’t do this, I’m not ready for this, this is too difficult, and then the tears started. If I wasn’t completely trapped be people sitting all around me I would have bolted off that grandstand and headed for the hills. I was trying hard not to let anyone notice that I was crying, but I couldn’t hold back the tears. Then Mitch asked everyone to say where they were from and tell everyone a little bit about themselves. Well I wished the ground had opened up and swallowed me. I can’t stand public speaking, especially when I’m not prepared for it, when it is sprung on me unexpectedly. I have been known to bolt out of workshops and conferences because the guest speaker has asked the group to do a similar exercise to what Mitch was asking of us now, and that was when I wasn’t feeling trapped, and crying. My hands were sweating, I had developed the shakes, and I felt sick by the time it came to my turn to tell everyone my name. Luckily I had been able to listen to a couple of people in between the tears and the shakes and I heard one lady, Amy, tell how she attended the same barrel school last year and it was at this exact point in the introduction speech last year, that she felt sick, started to cry and wanted to pack up and leave. Suddenly I realised I wasn’t the only person to ever feel like this. So when it was my turn to introduce myself I told everyone my name and then I calmly, with an emotionally shaking and cracking voice, explained that I was currently feeling the same way Amy was last year.
Once the introduction was over, we were given instructions to saddle up and meet in the bottom arena for a warm up. I couldn’t get back to our tent quick enough. I really did want to pack up and go home, but Ian and Zalee talked me round and before I knew it I was riding around in the arena with lots of horse and people I didn’t know. Soon after I arrived in the arena, Amy rode up behind me and started talking to me, she helped me to relax in the saddle, to feel a bit more comfortable around all the other horses and riders and before I knew it I had a smile on my face.
That Barrel Racing School was the beginning of a wonderful relationship between Amy and I, and it was definitely where Jay and I completely bonded as a team. Spending three full days in the saddle, doing exercises we had never done before, and enjoying doing them, was the best thing we could have done. And that was confirmed when I was awarded 'Most Improved Rider' at the Barrel School Conclusion Presentation!
Blog Entry #4 - 3rd April 2016
I remember the first time I cantered on Jay (other than the first time I rode Jay), after year of struggles I had with Jay, it was at Pattie’s property and Pattie videoed it for me. It’s only a few short seconds, but the sense of accomplishment, the look on my face and the noises I made show that it was a momentous occasion for me. There were a lot of firsts for me and Jay riding around Patties property with Frank. Frank was only 16 but he was so confident, so relaxed, so knowledgeable and he gave me the opportunity to learn from him, to experience so many riding situations and conditions with him. Frank provided my primary school riding education. As happens so much in life, things changed, Frank went away for his schooling and when Frank left so did my riding partner. It was time for the next step in my riding education. I sought out a riding instructor who would come to my property and give me riding lessons on Jay. That is how I met Susan Marshall from Crown Lodge Centre. Susan came and gave me riding lessons once a week. To begin with we did ground work, working with your horse whilst you are on the ground. Showing your horse what you want them to do when you apply pressure in certain places. I recommend ground work to anyone who wants to develop a relationship with their horse. I had never done ground work before but it really helped me to get to know my horse and learn how to teach my horse what it is I wanted him to do. One of the lessons I learnt from Susan in ground work was how to show Jay to move his back end around but keep his front feet in the same position, moving to the left and to the right. I was so elated when we mastered this while I was in the saddle. All our ground work had paid off!
Whilst all this learning was going on, Ian and I had become involved as volunteers for a couple of regular Barrel Racing events that our friend Jenny held at her property at Harlin. It was my first experience with NBHA (National Barrel Horse Association). Jenny held a two day event twice a year at her property, which was a massive undertaking and required a lot of volunteer helpers. I was keen to be involved because it was all about horses. Ian helped out in the canteen, cooking burgers, sausages, onions, etc... on the BBQ and I helped out in the office taking nominations, memberships and practice run payments. The main part of my job was over just when the first competitors started, so I was able to watch all the action. I used to sit in the office and watch all these amazing riders doing fantastic times and couldn’t believe how brave they were, going so fast, riding so hard and doing so well. I could only dream of being able to do what they did, almost every weekend.
Jenny always encouraged me to bring Jay out to the events when we went to help out. I would take Jay and ride him in the arena on the day before the event started and at the end of each day’s event and introduce Jay to the barrels and just generally ride in the arena. I certainly had no intention of riding him in the event, but it provided me with more riding experience, riding in an arena. At the second or third event that we helped out at, I was working in the office with my neighbour, Margot, and I was telling her how amazing it would be to be able to barrel race, to be able to do what all these competitors do, and Margot said to me, “go and do it, nominate and have a go.” I said I couldn’t possibly, I don’t know how to, I’m not brave enough, I’m not fast enough, I would be too scared. Margot continued to encourage me to have a go all through the morning while we were taking nomination payments and by the time all nominations were in I had decided I would attempt to Barrel Race! I was so nervous, I don’t know what possessed me to nominate. I was thinking, “I can’t do this”, “I will embarrass myself”, “Everyone will laugh at me”, “What have I done”. But with the support and encouragement of Ian, Jenny and Margot I did it. I really didn’t know what I was doing and we just trotted around the barrels but we did canter on the way home and completed the pattern with a 35.107. Most competitors do the pattern in between 16 and 21 seconds. Oh well I guess you have to start somewhere, and start it did. That was my introduction to NBHA Barrel Racing, April 2012, three and a half years later I am still barrel racing and my fastest time to date is 17.771.
Blog Entry # 3 - 5th March 2016
Pattie continued to encourage me to ride, and even organised for me to ride with her 16 year old son, Frank. The plan was that I would ride Jay over to Patties property and then Frank and I would ride around their property. That sounds great in theory, it’s just that Jay had other ideas. On one occasion it took us 45 minutes to ride 600 meters, (it’s a 2 km ride to Pattie’s property) because those guide posts on the side of the road are SO SCARRY! I always called Pattie and told her when I was leaving my place, so if I didn’t show up at her place in the allotted time Pattie would come and look for me. This was one of those occasions when Pattie had to come looking for me. There we were, just 600 meters from our home, stuck on the side of the road. Pattie tried leading Jay, growling at Jay, smacking Jay on his backside, but nothing worked, eventually Jay started moving forward and although it was one step forward two steps backwards, we finally got him moving.
Not too far from our first hurdle was a bridge, our next hurdle. The first time we went over the bridge I had to hop off Jay and walk him across, there was no way I could get him to go across with me on his back. Of course that set precedence and Jay wouldn’t go over the bridge unless I walked him across, or someone else walked in front of him. I started having my partner, Ian, escort us down the road, following us in the car, and then when we got to the bridge Ian would get out of the car and walk across the bridge in front of us, just so we could get across. I mentioned these problems to Pattie and Pattie arranged for Janelle to come and give us some more lessons. We spent an afternoon with me riding Jay back and forth across the bridge, with much support and encouragement from the sidelines (Pattie, Frank & Janelle). Whilst this training session showed me that we could do it, it didn’t quite convince Jay that he could and should cross the bridge every time. I should mention that this bridge is a traffic bridge, for vehicles, cattle trucks, cars, utes, tractors, etc.... and it is a one lane bridge with no sides on it, so people travelling east have to give way to those travelling west and the approach for those travelling east has limited visibility of the approaching bridge, so if anyone is on the bridge, it is difficult to see until you are almost on the bridge yourself. Of course Jay knew when we were approaching the bridge, from either direction, and then the antics started. This caused my anxiety to heighten, which in turn caused Jay’s anxiety to heighten, it was a vicious cycle. I remember going home from Pattie’s one day, after a ride with Frank. Jay and I got about 50 meters from the bridge and Jay wouldn’t go any closer, no matter what I tried. It was late in the afternoon, around 5:00 pm and Jay and I were there for so long I thought it was going to be dark before we got home. I even thought that Ian would get home before us and then have to come looking for us. In the end I made Jay look at the bridge, I wouldn’t let him look anywhere else. Jay kept trying to turn around and head back to Patties, or turn and look in the paddock beside us, he wanted to look anywhere but at the bridge, where we had to go. So I made him look at the bridge and nowhere else. After 45 minutes Jay took a step forward and then another step, so I gave him his head and leaned forward. Jay continued to move forward, towards the bridge. I was elated, then just as we were getting close to actually stepping on the bridge, I heard a truck coming up from behind us. The truck was a ways off yet, but I knew it was going to take us some time to cross the bridge, Jay wasn’t going to do it in a hurry and I was worried that the truck would arrive at the bridge and not see us up in front because of the poor visibility and the fading light, but I couldn’t turn Jay back now, he had taken the lead, he had made the decision to cross the bridge, he was finally doing what I wanted him to do. So we continued on, with me praying that we didn’t get mowed down by a cattle truck in the process of crossing this bridge. I persevered with crossing that bridge for at least another year. Every time there was a problem, either heading across or back, there was always a fight with Jay. Then one day I was visiting a property next door to Patties, Annie’s. Annie’s oldest son Dan was a camp drafter, horse breaker and a fantastic horseman. I mentioned to Annie how Jay hates going over the bridge and Annie said to me “what bridge?” When I told her which bridge Annie replied “Dan would never ride his horses over that bridge, it is far too dangerous, Dan always goes down into the creek and crosses that way, you’re crazy if you ride your horse across that bridge!” Needless to say, I haven’t ridden Jay over that bridge since; we go down into the creek and cross that way. Jay is still a bit anxious when we go down into the creek and back up the other side, but I don’t have anywhere near the troubles I had with him trying to cross the bridge.
Blog Entry 2 - 14th February 2016
When Honeycomb Jay (Jay for short) arrived at the farm he shared a paddock with T-Bone and Porterhouse. Jay loved to round them up, he would chase them from one corner to another, bailing them up. We soon realised this wouldn’t be doing good things for the beef we are hoping to obtain from these beasts, so we organised for T-Bone and Porterhouse to be agisted on the neighbours property. Now that I had a horse, I needed gear in order to ride my horse. I did have an old Indian leather saddle that I used with my thoroughbred, but it was 12 years old and starting to fall apart. So I went down to Pegasus Saddlery, Burpengary, and discussed my needs with them. The owner organised to come out to the farm with a number of saddles, including the saddle I really liked, a synthetic stock saddle for $1,400.00, and try each saddle on Jay to ensure I bought one that fit correctly. After trying all five of the saddles she brought out to the farm, it turned out only one of them fit Jay properly and that was a Status synthetic all purpose saddle for $350.00. I was so disappointed that the stock saddle didn’t fit Jay, but impressed that Pegasus Saddlery didn’t try to sell me the most expensive saddle, but rather the right saddle for my horse. Now I had the basic gear I needed, I was ready to ride my horse. This was when I discovered that Jay wasn’t easy to catch. I headed out into the paddock to collect my horse and go for a ride, but my horse wasn’t interested at all. He would let me get close, then trot away, let me get close then walk away, let me get close then trot away. I hadn’t experienced something this frustrating for a very long time. Of course I tried all the things you shouldn’t do, unaware that I shouldn’t do them. I tried offering him apples, carrots, Lucerne, anything to get him to come close to me. This worked, but set up bad habits.
Jay quickly worked out that I was anything but confident and he had it all over me. Because I was not experienced and he had only been broken in 6 months earlier, I wanted to lunge him before I rode him, but Jay had other ideas. Jay didn’t want to be lunged. It would be 12 months before I sought help with Jay. By this time I was scared to go into the paddock to take the scraps to the chickens, as Jay would chase me, andbe all up in my face trying to get the scraps in the plastic bag. A neighbour, Pattie, from up the road brought a friend of hers, Janelle, over one day and Janelle showed me how to lunge Jay, and how to be dominant. Naturally when Janelle took Jay out into the paddock with the lunge lead, she turned him in a circle and he started lunging straight away, no hesitation. He lunged perfectly, in both directions for Janelle. Then when Janelle handed the lunge lead over to me, Jay just stopped, turned and looked at me. He wouldn’t lunge for me at all.
I’m a timid person, softly spoken; I don’t like conflict or confrontation. So you can imagine Pattie and Janelle trying to teach me to be dominant, teaching me to growl at Jay when he didn’t do what I wanted him to do, teaching me to yell at Jay, and stamp my feet. Pattie and Janelle are both sitting on the house fence (all rugged up because it was early in the morning in the middle of winter and it was cold) shouting instructions to me. “Get angry with him Karen!” “Yell at him like you would yell at the kids!” “Growl at him Karen”! “Stamp your feet Karen!” “Show him you mean it!” Not surprisingly I’m out there in the paddock talking nicely to Jay, asking him to walk on, motioning him to move on like I’m shooing a butterfly away. It took some time, but I started to show signs of dominance and I am still working it on it. Janelle also helped me deal with the issue of taking the chicken scraps out to the chook shed. Again I had to be dominant, when I went out to the chook shed with the feed scraps and Jay came up to me, I had to turn around, put both hands up in the air, including the hand with the plastic bag in it, shake my hands around up in the air and yell. I mastered that lesson very quickly and it worked well. Jay never bothered me when I fed the chickens after that.
Janelle also helped me with the fear I had developed of riding Jay. So once I had worked out how to lunge Jay myself, Janelle got me to get on Jay, with the lunge lead still attached, and then I rode Jay around in circles while Janelle held onto the lunge lead in the middle of the circle. This enabled me to get my confidence back whilst riding Jay. I could walk, trot, stop and back up, all when I wanted him to, and all with the knowledge that Janelle had hold of the other end of the lunge lead. Soon I felt confident enough to ride Jay without the lunge lead, doing figures of eight and going in all directions around the paddock.
Blog Entry 1 - 24th January 2016
I'm a city girl, born and bred, but I've always loved the country; the rolling hills, the sun burnt plains, old corrugated iron water tanks on timber tank stands and windmills silhouetted against endless skies.
Seven years ago I sold our house in the suburbs and bought 'the farm', or 'ranch, as my middle son affectionately refers to it. Realistically 'the farm' is a 100 year old Queenslander on 1 1/4 acres, but we are surrounded by more than 5,000 acres of flat paddocks and rolling hills. When we moved to the farm I was finishing a Diploma of Business and preparing to start a Bachelor of Business and I enjoyed nothing more than sitting at the dining table writing assignments, reading text books and looking out through the French Doors to the paddocks beyond our boundary, watching our neighbour mustering cattle, checking fences, bailing hay and working with his horses. I so badly wanted to be out there with him; I wanted him to show me, teach me; I wanted to do what he was doing.
We did the usual things you do when you move out to the country; we got a puppy, we built a chicken house and stocked it with chickens and a duck named Rocky; and we planted a veggie garden. We also learnt about fencing, as the house yard fencing all needed to be replaced. I was living the dream; I was a McLeod's Daughter! I was digging post holes for the fence, collecting our home grown eggs, and veggies in jeans, a singlet top and an Akubra hat.
Once all the house yard fencing was completed, about 18 months after we moved in, we made our first move into livestock. We purchased two Hereford steers from the local cattle sales; T-Bone and Porterhouse, so named to ensure my daughter didn't become attached to what was to become our staple supply of meat for the next 12 months, or more. Not long after T-Bone and Porterhouse came to the farm, I spotted an ad in the local paper for a "rising 3, ASH, Gelding, 14.2HH $1600". With my limited knowledge I knew that ASH stands for Australian Stock Horse, Gelding means he's a boy, but no longer a stallion and 14.2HH is the height of the horse, HH stands for Hands High, and 14.2HH means he's only just tall enough to be called a horse (14.1HH and smaller is classified a pony), it also means, not so far to fall if I come off! I didn't know what 'rising 3' meant, but contacted a friend of ours who has worked with horses all her life, Jenny, and she told me it meant that he would be turning 3 years old that year. My partner (now husband) and I went out to have a look at the horse. The owners encouraged me to have a ride on him. While I was preparing to saddle up I asked, "How long has he been broken in?" To which they replied, "6 months". If I wasn't worried about looking like a coward I would have walked away there and then. But worry about what other people think of me was more of a concern than getting on a horse that had only been broken in 6 months ago. So, on I got!
At this point I should tell you, I had owned a thoroughbred for two years, about ten years earlier and I had had regular riding lessons over those two years. But after my riding instructor gave me my first lesson on my thoroughbred he advised me to sell the horse, that I was the mother of three children and I could end up in a wheel chair or worse if I continued to ride the thoroughbred. So needless to say, I sold the thoroughbred. But that was my only experience of horse ownership and horse riding.
My first ride on the rising 3 year old Australian Stock Horse, Honeycomb Jay, was amazing, all things considered. I took him out into a big paddock, the owner came with me on another horse, and we rode all around the paddock, walking, trotting and even cantering. The cantering was a big deal for me, it's not something I had done much of, I'm not a thrill seeker and quite anxious on a horse, so to be able to canter on a horse I had never ridden before, this was a wonderful feeling for me. I asked our friend Jenny if she would come and have a look at Honeycomb Jay with me, as really I had no idea what to look for when purchasing a horse. So we made a time to go back out and look at Honeycomb Jay, so Jenny could look him over and take him for a ride. Jenny advised me that she thought he would be a great horse for me. I was so excited, I was buying a horse! We negotiated a price and organised for him to be delivered to us the following weekend. But unbeknownst to me, Jenny thought I had done dressage, Jenny thought I had much more riding experience than I had!
