Sulphur Springs, Texas

I chronicled the move from Austin to Maine along the way, but due to no internet connectivity, I am just now able to upload. So I will post one entry per day from the trip until we catch up time wise. The fact that I am posting this means we made it safely 2300 miles, but the forthcoming entries will contain details of our adventure.

Our first night of the trip, we stayed at a park in Sulphur Springs, Texas. We arrived with enough daylight to take some nice spotted-horse conformation pictures and get a ride in.







After 6 weeks away, I was excited to just go for a relaxing trail ride. I figured once we hit the trail, Brego would revert back into normal ol' backcountry trail horse. I was very mistaken. Brego used his new dressage skills to really power up hills and motor around. I used to struggle to keep up with our Thoroughbred riding companion. Now Brego was outpacing her, even at a "slow" trot. He just moved big and didn't seem to be in the walking sort of mood. Of course, gorgeous cool weather and high winds fueled his energy.

Brego's balance on the trail had improved as well, both uphill and downhill, as well as his confidence. He moved with remarkable speed over some pretty treacherous, slippery terrain. It was a lot of fun, but not really what I would call relaxing. Especially when we came across a pod of 30 or so wild pigs. Wild pigs make a lot of noise... and they can be mean. Brego did well though and did not spook, just stood at attention until the pod moved on. The rest of the ride though was even more animated because now he was looking for wild beasts in the brush.

I was struck with the impression that although Brego had not grown in the last few weeks, he seemed bigger in every way. I think a draft horse's size is made manageable by his sleep-inducing personality. To have the same size horse brimming with energy and attentiveness is a whole new ball game and I am still getting used to it. Horses very much are the creatures we create. Brego, in his laziness and good natured personality, is the horse I made. My trainer made him into something much more competitive and tuned, but it takes quite a bit to get used to it. It will be interesting to see where we go from here.

Reunited!

After numerous flight delays and getting up at 2:30 am to catch the earliest plane to Austin, I was finally reunited with my big boy. I was over joyed. Brego was more concerned about lunch time. I try not to take the desires of his stomach personally. :)


My dressage trainer rearranged her schedule to meet with me at the last minute because I was a day late getting into Austin (thanks, Delta!). She showed me how she has been training Brego over the last 6 weeks, how to longe him properly to get him engaged, and how to work with him in hand. After being up all night and two very turbulent flights, I was having trouble reacting to Brego fast enough to reward or punish properly, but I think I got the idea.




When I was tacking up Brego again I was overwhelmed by his size. He's not overly tall, but he is BIG. Just big... everywhere. And only being worked 3 times a week has gone to his head. He was pushy and overbearing and definitely confident in his own prowess. Honestly, I was really intimidated by him. Being away for 6 weeks had certainly softened me and I was not feeling well after the flights. I seriously questioned if I could handle him and wouldn't it be better to just not ride.



But, I am glad I did, because Brego is a different horse. Thanks to my trainer's tireless efforts, he's just different. He moves off the leg into a HUGE trot that I can barely keep up with my hip fully opened at the top of my post. He is just so big and expressive. It's very hard to explain, but my manageable plodding boy was transformed into a hair-triggered bounding beast and I had not progressed at the same rate to handle him. He was very well behaved, but I felt like he was on the edge of getting away, not bolting, just being too big, over the top with energy and explosiveness. I know that's what makes a good dressage horse, but after some time off, it was a lot to cope with.



Even leading him, he is "on", starting with a jump in his step and stopping suddenly with his hind legs underneath him. He is tuned, very tuned, and it takes some getting used to.

I just hope I can keep him tuned like this while working on my own reflexes and reactions. I don't want to deaden him again, since this is exactly what he needs.

Early Jumping Training

I've got a few hours before my flight, so I thought I would take the opportunity to answer a question about how I trained Brego to jump.

As background, even though I had ridden hunters most of my life, I had never taken a completely green horse and taught him or her to jump. So there was a lot of learning on my part about how to put together exercises that would ask the appropriate question and build up to a proper jumping course.

I started playing around with Brego on the trails, trotting over logs and such, but not expecting anything from him other than he must go over and not stop. He did fine, as he always does, just packing around in a clumsy, uneducated fashion.

I have a close friend who is also a hunter trainer, so when I started to get excited about eventing, we teamed up and I started taking lessons. We began with setting up canter poles and just asking him to canter over them in rhythm. It was pretty discouraging because he was not truly coming forward and, being green, would miss his stride and plow over the poles. He didn't care if he stepped square on a pole or not. Brego is known as the pole killer.



So then we raised the poles about a foot off the ground, and again, he would either canter over perfectly or just blow through them. He wouldn't make any corrections if he started to miss the stride. In retrospect, I think I did him a great disservice because he needed to be much more adjustable on the flat, before asking him to jump. He just didn't have the instinct you look for in jumpers to get you out of a mess and leave the poles up. He would rather crash through things and stop working so hard. :)

Honestly, when your horse looks like that on the flat, this is what you are going to get jumping...

The first couple cross rails we set up were also very disappointing. He jumped them, but with really awful form and inherent laziness. Again, our lack of preparation on the flat was a big issue. I am lucky in that through all of this, Brego never really let his clumsiness shake his confidence. He would nail a jump and look gorgeous and then the next fence he would tear down, but it never made him want to quit and he never stopped.

So more dressage lessons, more fitness, lots of time in the jumping chute so he could figure things out on his own, and he started to mentally understand what jumping is all about. Poles were not just something you broke because you could and it didn't hurt, they were a kind a test that could be fun! You could actually see him think about the problem instead of running around and lifting his legs at the (mostly) correct time. He's a very smart horse, but the whole point of jumping was lost on him until we started to make things more interesting.

Once I raised the jumps to 2'6"-2'9" and added solid obstacles, he really started to "get it". He started to understand the rhythm of a line and how impulsion made jumping easier, not harder. He would lock onto fences farther and farther out and think about them. And, because of my ammie nature and his size, it was a lesson he needed to learn by himself. I am not good enough to teach it to him through perfect riding.

This picture is from the last time we jumped. And honestly, if we never jump again, this picture proves that he is a successful jumper. It took almost a year to get to this picture, and a lot of trial and error along the way to reach this moment. If I had a thin-skinned, mentally fragile horse, I would have gone to a professional for most of the work. But Brego just seems to like trying new things and is very forgiving.



He's still not very rateable and jumping is definitely something we are lagging in this days. But we'll make it through somehow.

I highly recommend this book on eventing which helps cover some canter pole to cross rail exercises to start a horse to jumping. There's lots of good information out there in other books as well. Just don't give up and listen to your horse. You'll be perfect.

This is just my opinion, but I think that asking horses to drill endlessly over 2' fences makes them worse jumpers. It teaches them to be lazy and not pay attention. Endless drilling is always bad, but especially over boring little jumps. So when Brego and I are stuck and he's not listening, he's bored. If he is calm and obviously not brain fried, I raise the stakes and the fences and then lo and behold, he CAN make the distance. So in general, I don't jump him under 2'6" anymore, because we will always battle a case of the "lazies". I do fewer fences higher or more interesting and call it a day.

Brego jumps out of pastures from a trot or (once) from a standstill at about 4'. We school at 2'9" and he does just fine.

Howdy, Y'all

Today I fly back to Texas to be reunited with Brego. We will then begin the long journey back to New Hampshire and our new home. Hopefully the trip with be uneventful and not generate too much content for the blog, but I will update everyone upon my return.

Have a good week!

The Brego Identity

I have had a couple of people ask me recently if Brego is pure bred Percheron. The truth is, I honestly don't know. Given certain clues, however, it's pretty safe to say that he is, and is actually probably registered somewhere.

His Past

I purchased Brego in July of 2005 from a couple in Houston, Texas. They had Brego, then named Hobo, and another Percheron together in a paddock. They told me they purchased both of them from another local barn in November 2004, but that originally, they were from Canada. They were pretty adamant that neither horse was from the PMU industry. That was the extent of the background information.

Percheron Traits

I suspect Brego is purebred, despite his seemingly random coloring, which is very unusual for the breed, because he displays many "typey" characteristics. His exaggerated action while trotting is very typical for a Percheron as is his single white star. He also has heavy draft characteristics such as big bones, big head, and big feet. So there's no question he's at least mostly draft, and the other common draft breeds have coloring characteristics that Brego lacks. Belgians are sorrel with flaxen mane and tail, Clydesdales are feathered and tend to be sabino, Suffolks are chestnut, etc.

But the most conclusive evidence is his docked tail. For those who don't know, when a horse's tail is docked, it is cut through the bone and tissue to the desired length, usually at birth. The docking of tails is a breed characteristic of Percherons and, what's more, it is usually only performed by the bigger show barns who intend to show their Percherons as part of a big hitch. Horses who are docked for heavy work tend to get a longer dock to encourage at least some hair growth to offer protection from the flies. Horses bred for show hitches or conformation classes tend to get a very short dock. Brego's tail is very closely docked, with approximately 6 inches of tail remaining. You can see in the picture above where the bone ends and the rest of the hair continues. The practice is increasingly under scrutiny and has fallen out of favor somewhat from the working horse communities, including the Amish. However, it remains a largely cosmetic practice among the purebred Percheron breeders. Cross bred horses are almost never docked.

I do not know why he was culled and sold, but I am darn lucky he was. He does truly hate driving, so perhaps he wasn't conducive to it. I allow his tail hairs to grow as much as they can, and thankfully he has enough tail to help him in the summer months. His tail will never regrow however, and those that see how short it really is are often confused and ask me why I cut it off and how long it take to regrow. I don't have a need for a docked tail, so I would never perform the operation on my horses. It's just one of the mysterious clues I have about Brego.

Eventing Percheron?

So, there's the story. It is not my intent to mislead anyone by representing Brego as something he is not. Every indicator points to him being purebred, or purpose bred at least. And I do not show him in breed shows, obviously without papers, so he is not competing in anything that registration is important. Anyone can look at him and see he is not a warmblood or other light breed, thereby granting me some advantage. I would love to find out his true identity and find his papers, but since he is once again a gelding, his pedigree is somewhat irrelevant to his performance.

A couple of months ago, I toyed with the idea of taking him to the World Percheron Congress and having a go on a "level playing field". When I made my inquiries as to whether they would accept a grade horse in classes, I was understandably denied. It makes sense, since I guess some unscrupulous person could masquerade a thick Thoroughbred as a Percheron and clean up. But then, it's not like winning a hack class at the World Percheron Congress is going to light the world on fire with your magnificent talent. :)

I reached a dead end tracking down his past. Maybe someday I will unearth another clue and restart the quest.

New Look for a New Era

I am at the one week countdown until I fly back to Texas and collect Brego. I thought I would take the opportunity (coupled with a little spring cleaning) to freshen the look of the blog a bit. This new look is a little more masculine (for the big Brego) and of course, in his eventing colors -- Blue! The older blog was so, I don't know, teenage angst circa 2003.

If all you do is read the blog as a feed in a reader, pay no attention... you have no idea what I am talking about. There is nothing to see here.

This weekend I will post the final long-distance training photos and video. I can't wait to see all the improvements in person.

Brego has a Surprise

I just got a report from my vet in Texas that the unusual swelling Brego has near his boy parts is, in fact, an undescended testicle that has now found the light of day. For a week or so, we simply thought he was bitten by a snake while laying down sleeping.

So Brego is actually a stallion which explains a lot of his macho behavior, but does not explain his coat coloring *sigh*.

Because of his amazing ability, I am considering offering him for stud once we get the final fertility test to see if he can do the deed with a single, er, asset. I am also getting blood drawn to DNA test him to track down his registration papers. Woohoo!

So if you've always wanted a little Brego, the fates have transpired against all natural odds. Sign up now for a Brego baby!!

:)

Edited To Add: Happy April Fool's Day, everyone!!