I've been thinking about this for about a week, mulling it over and trying to get a good post, but that's not happening, so I'll just post it anyway.
Dixie's very unbalanced to the right. I'm left handed. My instinct, when I ask her to circle, is to circle left. These things are obviously connected, and I've started deliberately adding more right-hand turns. It took a while for her to get this way, so it'll take a while to correct it.
I have a barn backpack. I carry apples, powerbars, the GPS with charger, that kind of crap in it. I always sling it on my right shoulder. Same with the Camelbak. Maybe I should try carrying them on my left shoulder?
In the dead of winter, my desire to go work out waned significantly. I just started going to the gym again last week, and I think I should spend more time doing yoga before and after lifting weights. Not sure what else will help me become more balanced, other than general awareness.
Showing posts with label dressage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dressage. Show all posts
Monday, January 11, 2010
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Exceptional!
I just had the best ride ever on my totally awesome mare! She's coming into heat, which makes it even more surprising - but we did it!
Did the mines, with the detour behind the pueblo house - 4.58 miles in 1:29. We had a very slow start! Once we got down in the canyon and turned the Magic Corner for home, I started really working on half-halts. I knew she wouldn't want to pay attention to me, so I didn't ask for any lateral stuff or let her speed up - she'd have really checked out mentally. Just move out, then slow down and collect up, then stretch back out and repeat. When we got up to the better footing, we picked up the pace. She'd speed up and slow down from the softest lightest cues from me. It was so cool! Felt like we were dancing, or like I was holding her hand.
I will say that it wasn't any kind of relaxed ground-covering trot. She'd go faster or slower, but she wasn't sure what gait she wanted so she kept bouncing between a trot, a rack, and a canter. Oh well - nothing's perfect, and it didn't spoil my ride at all.
I was going to meet S when she got home and go back out for another mile, but I just couldn't. Dixie had done so well, and I really wanted to end on a good note. I fed her an apple, cooled her off, and let her go back to dozing in the pasture.
Did the mines, with the detour behind the pueblo house - 4.58 miles in 1:29. We had a very slow start! Once we got down in the canyon and turned the Magic Corner for home, I started really working on half-halts. I knew she wouldn't want to pay attention to me, so I didn't ask for any lateral stuff or let her speed up - she'd have really checked out mentally. Just move out, then slow down and collect up, then stretch back out and repeat. When we got up to the better footing, we picked up the pace. She'd speed up and slow down from the softest lightest cues from me. It was so cool! Felt like we were dancing, or like I was holding her hand.
I will say that it wasn't any kind of relaxed ground-covering trot. She'd go faster or slower, but she wasn't sure what gait she wanted so she kept bouncing between a trot, a rack, and a canter. Oh well - nothing's perfect, and it didn't spoil my ride at all.
I was going to meet S when she got home and go back out for another mile, but I just couldn't. Dixie had done so well, and I really wanted to end on a good note. I fed her an apple, cooled her off, and let her go back to dozing in the pasture.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Finally... presenting Crazy Dixie!
Ta-da!
Crazy mare! from Funder on Vimeo.
Isn't she wonderful :D
Also, um, if anybody reading this can't get her damn horse to stand still for mounting, seriously, clicker train. Traditional pressure-release is absolutely wonderful for some stuff, but I find it really fails me when I'm trying to get, ummm, a negative behavior. Like standing still is the lack of movement. Or holding a hoof up is the lack of yanking, pawing, leaning, etc. For me personally, getting the horse to ~not~ do what it wants and stand still for something is best accomplished by c/t.
Today was my third attempt at mounting via clicker. Dixie tried to walk over to the block before I'd even gotten her bridle on - I had to inform her that I am no Stacey Westfall and she's not actually ready to be ridden bridleless. As soon as the bridle was on, she headed straight over to the block. Me looming over her near side still makes her nervous, so I just got on and off of her off side a couple times then I rode.
I still feel really awkward in the saddle. Something isn't quite right yet - I'm tense somewhere, or I'm leaning, or something. I've been thinking about it all afternoon and I still can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I felt more relaxed, though, and that's a good thing.
I've been reading and thinking a lot about the bit, the bridle, the reins, etc. I got Horse Gaits, Balance and Movement from the library, and it's given me some stuff to think about. It's quite good and apparently it's a classic - I just got it cause it was the only "adult" horse book at my branch, but I really lucked out.
Anyway, she's been PULLING as hard as she can. I tried (last week, some time) just locking my hands and not letting her pull the reins out. That didn't work out - it made her irritable, it made my hands hurt, and it only seemed to make the problem worse. I've been reconsidering - she "should" want contact, right? But she gets mad and yanks the reins. Perhaps my hands are too hard and I'm trying too much too fast.
Today I didn't even try for on-the-bit contact. I let the reins have just a bit of slack, just to where I could squeeze my fingers and she'd feel that hand moving. Whenever she'd try to pull, I'd let her, then as she picked her head back up I'd just quietly pick the reins back up to that same amount of almost-contact. It went much much better; she only pulled a couple of times, and only when I was squeezing too hard.
The next thing I'm wondering - is the horse supposed to curl around your inside leg or move away from it? When I squeeze the reins just enough to get her to turn her head a bit, then give her a little inside leg, she turns inside. Really sharply! I can do, say, 5 meter circles but nothing larger, not without losing the bend.
Outside leg behind the girth works fine, by the way. She calmly moves her hindquarters away from behind-the-girth pressure.
Crazy mare! from Funder on Vimeo.
Isn't she wonderful :D
Also, um, if anybody reading this can't get her damn horse to stand still for mounting, seriously, clicker train. Traditional pressure-release is absolutely wonderful for some stuff, but I find it really fails me when I'm trying to get, ummm, a negative behavior. Like standing still is the lack of movement. Or holding a hoof up is the lack of yanking, pawing, leaning, etc. For me personally, getting the horse to ~not~ do what it wants and stand still for something is best accomplished by c/t.
Today was my third attempt at mounting via clicker. Dixie tried to walk over to the block before I'd even gotten her bridle on - I had to inform her that I am no Stacey Westfall and she's not actually ready to be ridden bridleless. As soon as the bridle was on, she headed straight over to the block. Me looming over her near side still makes her nervous, so I just got on and off of her off side a couple times then I rode.
I still feel really awkward in the saddle. Something isn't quite right yet - I'm tense somewhere, or I'm leaning, or something. I've been thinking about it all afternoon and I still can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I felt more relaxed, though, and that's a good thing.
I've been reading and thinking a lot about the bit, the bridle, the reins, etc. I got Horse Gaits, Balance and Movement from the library, and it's given me some stuff to think about. It's quite good and apparently it's a classic - I just got it cause it was the only "adult" horse book at my branch, but I really lucked out.
Anyway, she's been PULLING as hard as she can. I tried (last week, some time) just locking my hands and not letting her pull the reins out. That didn't work out - it made her irritable, it made my hands hurt, and it only seemed to make the problem worse. I've been reconsidering - she "should" want contact, right? But she gets mad and yanks the reins. Perhaps my hands are too hard and I'm trying too much too fast.
Today I didn't even try for on-the-bit contact. I let the reins have just a bit of slack, just to where I could squeeze my fingers and she'd feel that hand moving. Whenever she'd try to pull, I'd let her, then as she picked her head back up I'd just quietly pick the reins back up to that same amount of almost-contact. It went much much better; she only pulled a couple of times, and only when I was squeezing too hard.
The next thing I'm wondering - is the horse supposed to curl around your inside leg or move away from it? When I squeeze the reins just enough to get her to turn her head a bit, then give her a little inside leg, she turns inside. Really sharply! I can do, say, 5 meter circles but nothing larger, not without losing the bend.
Outside leg behind the girth works fine, by the way. She calmly moves her hindquarters away from behind-the-girth pressure.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
She does *everything*
Oh wow, I'm way behind. Way, way behind.
I'm still riding Champ, every other day. Not much new there - he's gaining weight, slowly but steadily, and losing hair, slowly but steadily. Much to his chagrin I've switched him over to Dixie's bridle (with the d-ring snaffle, instead of his unbroken low port curb) and we are working on contact. It's good practice for me. My hands are steadily improving. So much, in fact, that I am getting baby callouses on the tops of my index fingers, where the reins sit. Not big "I have hard hands and need gloves" callouses, but very delicate callouses from holding the reins correctly for a couple weeks straight.
I've ridden Dixie three times this week. On Monday the BO saw me riding and offered some tips on getting her on the bit. She coached me through a couple circles til I felt the bend - yay! I think I must take at least a lesson a month, to keep in mind what I need to work on. Anyway then she got on Dixie and worked her in a couple more circles... and Dixie trotted for her. It was cool - a very flat extended trot - but WEIRD! I've never had her offer to trot under saddle with me. It's official; I've now seen every major gait possible from her except a running walk. Sigh - I know a good true RW is hard to get, and I know we'll get there one day, but it's kind of discouraging. Like if my racking horse wouldn't rack, or my MFT wouldn't foxtrot.
Tuesday I rode Champ, then the vet came and gave everybody spring shots. I figured they might feel stiff and/or icky Wednesday, so I stayed home.
Thursday was WARM! Finally hit the magic 70*F, so I wanted to ride Dixie then bathe her. Our ride was... very interesting. I was all prepared to not let her yank the reins, but she... didn't. At all. She was completely calm and laid back. She didn't object to contact at all. She didn't freak out, hollow her back, and try to bolt even ONCE. We did some very calm peaceful walk work, then some hand grazing, then a bath.
Her life with me is an exciting mix of fun and horrible. She's coming around to being groomed, all over, every day - that's moving from "horrible" to "almost pleasant," I believe. Then I ride her, which is usually exciting and also becoming less "horrible." Sometimes I hand graze her or clicker train her, which is full on "fun." But then! Then! I bathed her. Truly horrible.
I am pretty sure she's never had a real bath before. She's been hosed down, but I don't think she's ever had a warm water and shampoo bath in a shower stall before. She was not thrilled but put up with it pretty well. I broke my own rule about "no magical horse products" and used Expensive Magical White Horse Shampoo... which worked. She's noticeably more sparkly. Her mane and tail are less dirty but sadly nowhere near white. No pictures til she's cleaner!
Anyway, I wondered if the unusual calmness was a one-off so I rode her again today. She gave me a nice rack at the beginning, then some good walk work with almost no fighting the bit, then a little pacing, then some more nice calm walk work. I let her walk around on a loose rein for a bit, and she walked over to the corner where the jumps and cavalletti are stored. On her own! She very carefully investigated, giving the hairy eyeball to the wood and sniffing at it like a huge dog. When she was satisfied that the jumps were safe, we walked around a bit more and called it a day.
I coaxed her back into the wash stall. Much snorting and eye rolling but she came right in when she realized I was serious. It's entirely too early for me to actually SAY this... but I suspect maybe she's starting to trust me. MAYYYBE.
I'm still riding Champ, every other day. Not much new there - he's gaining weight, slowly but steadily, and losing hair, slowly but steadily. Much to his chagrin I've switched him over to Dixie's bridle (with the d-ring snaffle, instead of his unbroken low port curb) and we are working on contact. It's good practice for me. My hands are steadily improving. So much, in fact, that I am getting baby callouses on the tops of my index fingers, where the reins sit. Not big "I have hard hands and need gloves" callouses, but very delicate callouses from holding the reins correctly for a couple weeks straight.
I've ridden Dixie three times this week. On Monday the BO saw me riding and offered some tips on getting her on the bit. She coached me through a couple circles til I felt the bend - yay! I think I must take at least a lesson a month, to keep in mind what I need to work on. Anyway then she got on Dixie and worked her in a couple more circles... and Dixie trotted for her. It was cool - a very flat extended trot - but WEIRD! I've never had her offer to trot under saddle with me. It's official; I've now seen every major gait possible from her except a running walk. Sigh - I know a good true RW is hard to get, and I know we'll get there one day, but it's kind of discouraging. Like if my racking horse wouldn't rack, or my MFT wouldn't foxtrot.
Tuesday I rode Champ, then the vet came and gave everybody spring shots. I figured they might feel stiff and/or icky Wednesday, so I stayed home.
Thursday was WARM! Finally hit the magic 70*F, so I wanted to ride Dixie then bathe her. Our ride was... very interesting. I was all prepared to not let her yank the reins, but she... didn't. At all. She was completely calm and laid back. She didn't object to contact at all. She didn't freak out, hollow her back, and try to bolt even ONCE. We did some very calm peaceful walk work, then some hand grazing, then a bath.
Her life with me is an exciting mix of fun and horrible. She's coming around to being groomed, all over, every day - that's moving from "horrible" to "almost pleasant," I believe. Then I ride her, which is usually exciting and also becoming less "horrible." Sometimes I hand graze her or clicker train her, which is full on "fun." But then! Then! I bathed her. Truly horrible.
I am pretty sure she's never had a real bath before. She's been hosed down, but I don't think she's ever had a warm water and shampoo bath in a shower stall before. She was not thrilled but put up with it pretty well. I broke my own rule about "no magical horse products" and used Expensive Magical White Horse Shampoo... which worked. She's noticeably more sparkly. Her mane and tail are less dirty but sadly nowhere near white. No pictures til she's cleaner!
Anyway, I wondered if the unusual calmness was a one-off so I rode her again today. She gave me a nice rack at the beginning, then some good walk work with almost no fighting the bit, then a little pacing, then some more nice calm walk work. I let her walk around on a loose rein for a bit, and she walked over to the corner where the jumps and cavalletti are stored. On her own! She very carefully investigated, giving the hairy eyeball to the wood and sniffing at it like a huge dog. When she was satisfied that the jumps were safe, we walked around a bit more and called it a day.
I coaxed her back into the wash stall. Much snorting and eye rolling but she came right in when she realized I was serious. It's entirely too early for me to actually SAY this... but I suspect maybe she's starting to trust me. MAYYYBE.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
OW OW OW DAMMIT DIXIE
She stepped on MY FOOT! There is a huge bruise on it. All my toes work so no serious damage was done.
The foot squashing occurred during a huge grooming session. I finally turned the corner with her coat - she's still pretty shaggy but I can see the summer coat under the extra fuzz. Finally!
I thought perhaps I should try the lunging thing. I don't generally lunge before I ride; it's just not my thing. But she was so crazy the other day that I thought it was worth a shot today. Unfortunately it is not the answer with Dixie. It just got her MORE worked up. When I mounted she was even wilder than Tuesday.
I ended up working through it better this time. We hung out in the corner of the arena nearest her and Champ's stalls. When she calmed down a tiny bit, we started walking in very small circles, near her stall wall, gradually increasing in size. Eventually we were calmly walking the entire arena.
She was horrid about the bit again. Non stop head tossing and yanking. I decided this time to pretty much ignore her. I kept the exact same very light contact no matter what she did, which was a nice hand exercise for me and very annoying for her.
After like 40 minutes she finally gave in and wanted to stretch her neck out. I let her stretch out into very light contact for a couple laps, then slowly picked her head back up and urged her up into gait. We gaited two circles, then back to a walk, switched directions, and repeated. Then we were done!
She's back to switching gaits constantly. I am going to try to get the Reluctant Photographer Husband to come video us this weekend and figure out what she's doing. Feels like pace to rack, then either a couple strides of canter or a couple strides of running walk in the turns.
Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and pretty, then rain again over the weekend. I might take Champ out to the park again while I've got the chance!
I do not, in general, believe in magical fixes. But I am mildly hopeful that getting Dixie's teeth floated will help with the bit. Maybe she has wolf teeth coming in? She's way worse about contact since we moved.
The foot squashing occurred during a huge grooming session. I finally turned the corner with her coat - she's still pretty shaggy but I can see the summer coat under the extra fuzz. Finally!
I thought perhaps I should try the lunging thing. I don't generally lunge before I ride; it's just not my thing. But she was so crazy the other day that I thought it was worth a shot today. Unfortunately it is not the answer with Dixie. It just got her MORE worked up. When I mounted she was even wilder than Tuesday.
I ended up working through it better this time. We hung out in the corner of the arena nearest her and Champ's stalls. When she calmed down a tiny bit, we started walking in very small circles, near her stall wall, gradually increasing in size. Eventually we were calmly walking the entire arena.
She was horrid about the bit again. Non stop head tossing and yanking. I decided this time to pretty much ignore her. I kept the exact same very light contact no matter what she did, which was a nice hand exercise for me and very annoying for her.
After like 40 minutes she finally gave in and wanted to stretch her neck out. I let her stretch out into very light contact for a couple laps, then slowly picked her head back up and urged her up into gait. We gaited two circles, then back to a walk, switched directions, and repeated. Then we were done!
She's back to switching gaits constantly. I am going to try to get the Reluctant Photographer Husband to come video us this weekend and figure out what she's doing. Feels like pace to rack, then either a couple strides of canter or a couple strides of running walk in the turns.
Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and pretty, then rain again over the weekend. I might take Champ out to the park again while I've got the chance!
I do not, in general, believe in magical fixes. But I am mildly hopeful that getting Dixie's teeth floated will help with the bit. Maybe she has wolf teeth coming in? She's way worse about contact since we moved.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Two rides, one injury
Yesterday I rode Dixie and then rasped half my knuckle off. The searing pain in my finger greatly decreased my desire to blog. Today I rode Champ and managed to not injure myself any further. My finger even feels better! Yippie!
So. Yesterday. I got great gobs of hair off of the white yak, but the end is nowhere in sight. Surely this too shall pass? Eventually I figured I'd gotten off enough hair so that the saddle wouldn't slip loose on a magic carpet of fur. Time to ride!
We usually start off our sessions at a brisk rack for a couple laps, til Dixie calms down and decides to try to listen and cooperate. Yesterday, we started off at a brisk canter. We got in a huge fight about whether or not she'd get to canter wildly, then I decided I didn't want to have that particular fight. I let her go.
We cantered around the indoor for about 15 minutes. The first three times she tried to slow down, I goosed her back up into a canter. You want to run? LET'S RUN. Eventually when I figured she'd gotten my point, I asked her to slow down and she very politely did.
We rode around for another 30 or 45 minutes. There's so many things I need to work on, but I don't feel like I know enough to do them properly, or I only know what I want and not how to get it. Pretty depressing. I kept riding anyway, trying to keep pushing her forward with my legs, keep her straight except for when I wanted her to bend, find some contact. At one point she finally wanted to stretch her neck out and down, so I let her stretch out as we walked. Then I very very carefully picked the contact back up and very carefully brought up the energy in my legs. We got a really nice active walk on the bit! We! Me and Dixie! Wheeeee!
I quit on that high note. I still don't feel like I have much of a clue about what I'm doing, but... that was nice.
I turned Dixie back out to roll and grabbed Champ. I was planning on taking pics of his hooves and trimming them a bit, but I haven't found my trimming gloves. I've been trimming for like two years now, surely I won't rasp my hands, right? Wrong. I got both front hooves rolled before I rasped my poor middle finger knuckle. Blood everywhere. I got blood all over my jeans trying to get it to stop, and I almost bled all over the camera before I gave up and wrapped it in a piece of napkin and some vet wrap.
Today I went back for vengeance. Champ did not make me rasp my knuckle - only my clumsiness did that - but he didn't exactly make it easy for me to succeed. He kept yanking his hooves away and whinnying for Dixie, so I was trying to hold his hoof on the stand and put my finger in the path of the rasp. Hmph. So I went in today to make him sweat for my poor finger.
We did w/t circles for a while, then I decided I wanted to try Champ in the snaffle again. I swapped out his bridle for Dixie's and maaaaan he was pissed. But he listened fine! More w/t circles, with me trying to get a canter out of him and no luck at all. He doesn't really canter, he just switches from a very fast trot to a full gallop. I'd really like to have a canter. Yet another thing I don't really know how to teach my horses. :(
So. Yesterday. I got great gobs of hair off of the white yak, but the end is nowhere in sight. Surely this too shall pass? Eventually I figured I'd gotten off enough hair so that the saddle wouldn't slip loose on a magic carpet of fur. Time to ride!
We usually start off our sessions at a brisk rack for a couple laps, til Dixie calms down and decides to try to listen and cooperate. Yesterday, we started off at a brisk canter. We got in a huge fight about whether or not she'd get to canter wildly, then I decided I didn't want to have that particular fight. I let her go.
We cantered around the indoor for about 15 minutes. The first three times she tried to slow down, I goosed her back up into a canter. You want to run? LET'S RUN. Eventually when I figured she'd gotten my point, I asked her to slow down and she very politely did.
We rode around for another 30 or 45 minutes. There's so many things I need to work on, but I don't feel like I know enough to do them properly, or I only know what I want and not how to get it. Pretty depressing. I kept riding anyway, trying to keep pushing her forward with my legs, keep her straight except for when I wanted her to bend, find some contact. At one point she finally wanted to stretch her neck out and down, so I let her stretch out as we walked. Then I very very carefully picked the contact back up and very carefully brought up the energy in my legs. We got a really nice active walk on the bit! We! Me and Dixie! Wheeeee!
I quit on that high note. I still don't feel like I have much of a clue about what I'm doing, but... that was nice.
I turned Dixie back out to roll and grabbed Champ. I was planning on taking pics of his hooves and trimming them a bit, but I haven't found my trimming gloves. I've been trimming for like two years now, surely I won't rasp my hands, right? Wrong. I got both front hooves rolled before I rasped my poor middle finger knuckle. Blood everywhere. I got blood all over my jeans trying to get it to stop, and I almost bled all over the camera before I gave up and wrapped it in a piece of napkin and some vet wrap.
Today I went back for vengeance. Champ did not make me rasp my knuckle - only my clumsiness did that - but he didn't exactly make it easy for me to succeed. He kept yanking his hooves away and whinnying for Dixie, so I was trying to hold his hoof on the stand and put my finger in the path of the rasp. Hmph. So I went in today to make him sweat for my poor finger.
We did w/t circles for a while, then I decided I wanted to try Champ in the snaffle again. I swapped out his bridle for Dixie's and maaaaan he was pissed. But he listened fine! More w/t circles, with me trying to get a canter out of him and no luck at all. He doesn't really canter, he just switches from a very fast trot to a full gallop. I'd really like to have a canter. Yet another thing I don't really know how to teach my horses. :(
Friday, March 20, 2009
Yaks and newscasters
Every spring, it seems like a neverending battle to get the yak hair off of my horses. It's fun, of course - it really appeals to my OCD side to get all the hair off. I got, mmmm, how does one measure the volume of shed hair off of an animal? I got a half a pillowcase full off of Champ, and maybe half that off of Dixie.
Then I had a challenging ride on Dixie in the indoor. She's still settling in, so she screamed for Champ quite a bit. And she wouldn't stand still for me to get a toe in the stirrup for like 10 minutes. And she was having no part of the bit - she tossed her head and yanked at the reins and tried to run through my rein aids, for the whole hour.
But! She listened perfectly to my legs and seat. I mean perfectly. Something clicked since that lesson last month where I tried so hard to show her to move away from my inside leg. And we are finally starting to get the hang of half-halts and halts, the dressagey way.
After I was done riding, I talked to one of the other boarders for a bit. She's got the Other Walking Horses, and she seems pretty nice. At one point, I was talking about Dixie, and I said "She's kinda crazy, but I love her to pieces."
"Excuse me? Did you said you love her... paces?" asked the Other Walking Horse Person.
"No, to PIECES! You know, little pieces?"
"Oh, yes, I'm sorry, it's just, you know, your accent..." the OWHP trailed off, slightly embarrassed that she couldn't understand me.
"Yeah, I know." I sighed. "Yall all sound like newscasters or something."
We laughed and went our separate ways. But that's just one of the things that's so weird about this place. Everybody has the most neutral accent imaginable! And they're very polite, in a very reserved way. Strange place.
I took some pictures but I didn't bring the camera in, so yall will just have to wait.
Then I had a challenging ride on Dixie in the indoor. She's still settling in, so she screamed for Champ quite a bit. And she wouldn't stand still for me to get a toe in the stirrup for like 10 minutes. And she was having no part of the bit - she tossed her head and yanked at the reins and tried to run through my rein aids, for the whole hour.
But! She listened perfectly to my legs and seat. I mean perfectly. Something clicked since that lesson last month where I tried so hard to show her to move away from my inside leg. And we are finally starting to get the hang of half-halts and halts, the dressagey way.
After I was done riding, I talked to one of the other boarders for a bit. She's got the Other Walking Horses, and she seems pretty nice. At one point, I was talking about Dixie, and I said "She's kinda crazy, but I love her to pieces."
"Excuse me? Did you said you love her... paces?" asked the Other Walking Horse Person.
"No, to PIECES! You know, little pieces?"
"Oh, yes, I'm sorry, it's just, you know, your accent..." the OWHP trailed off, slightly embarrassed that she couldn't understand me.
"Yeah, I know." I sighed. "Yall all sound like newscasters or something."
We laughed and went our separate ways. But that's just one of the things that's so weird about this place. Everybody has the most neutral accent imaginable! And they're very polite, in a very reserved way. Strange place.
I took some pictures but I didn't bring the camera in, so yall will just have to wait.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
"Dressage" photoshoot!
But first yall need to see my adorable dog.
Tres cute, yes? (And don't laugh but I made that dog bed myself, out of an old flannel sheet and the stuffing from a crappy pillow. She loves it.)
Ok, on to the "dressage." It's in quotes because it doesn't actually look much like dressage - a gaited horse, a western-ish saddle, jeans. She's in a single jointed D ring snaffle though! That's gotta make it more dressagey. (Also please note I am wearing a helmet and not smoking. It's one for the record.) My husband came and took some surprisingly good pictures and video of us!
Yesterday, I experimented with different bits for Dixie. She wasn't doing fantastically with the wide Pelham, so I went to my parents and dug out what I vaguely remembered as my Tom Thumb. It's not actually a TT - it's got a copper roller thing covering the joint in the middle, so each side moves very little. It's also a good bit narrower in diameter than the pelham. She was pretty "meh" about it - didn't hate it, didn't turn or stop any better in it than in the pelham. Then I thought back to one of my Life Lessons About Horses, one that's stood me in good stead for a long time so far:
There are no magic bits. (In fact, there are no magic items of tack. Obviously there are exceptions, like if the horse bucks because the saddle fits so poorly, but in general there's no magic.)
I dug out the single jointed D ring snaffle. The worst she could do is run away, right? And if she runs away, I'll just circle her til she gets tired. This isn't much different from our "bad" days. There is no magic bit. There is no magical brake pedal. As long as I don't haul back on both reins and poke her palate with the bit, it'll all be ok.
She liked the snaffle, quite a bit. We had no brakes, but she was in a bit of a mood and she never woahs when she's in that kind of mood no matter WHAT bit she's in, so I decided we'd stick with the D ring.
So today we had a long lesson in the honest-to-god snaffle bit. Worked on several horse lessons: basic bending at a halt, giving to inside leg pressure, and speeding up without panicking. I had several human lessons going, too: quit flapping your legs off and on the horse, do NOT thump her with your heels and expect her to stay calm, SIT DOWN when she gaits, and teach her to give to inside leg. All in all we did quite well together - not perfect, but we both tried really hard. And my knee hurts - if I hurt my knee, I must be using my legs in a different and hopefully better way, right?
I got a bit of carrot stretching / bending at the halt. We got Dixie to give to inside leg - to spiral outwards on a circle, basically - to the left. The right, not so much - she's very one sided right now. And I bollocksed the first time I asked her to speed up. We got a really hollow choppy racky thing. But the second time I got a smooth upward transition... to a trot! D'oh. Oh well, both she and I know that she can gait just fine and we'll get a really smooth gait one day :)
Here we are at a halt while I talked with Hardy. I love her alert but calm expression. (By the way, that's a halter on under the bridle, not a weird noseband.)
Pretty picture, stretchy walk. She's not even going fast; this is just how she walks if she's not collected at all.
Here's a video of her "totally normal walk." I think we were working on the elusive inner leg cue, but I'm not 100% sure.
Dixie, walking around from Funder on Vimeo.
Here's our bad upward transition. I thumped her with my heels to speed her up, and she went way faster but very hollow and freaked-out.
Dixie, fast gait from Funder on Vimeo.
And here's our good upward transition. This time, I kept increasing leg pressure without resorting to heels or tensing up, and I got her to speed up! Yay! To a trot. Rrrgh. Still, it's progress.
Dixie, trot from Funder on Vimeo.
Tres cute, yes? (And don't laugh but I made that dog bed myself, out of an old flannel sheet and the stuffing from a crappy pillow. She loves it.)
Ok, on to the "dressage." It's in quotes because it doesn't actually look much like dressage - a gaited horse, a western-ish saddle, jeans. She's in a single jointed D ring snaffle though! That's gotta make it more dressagey. (Also please note I am wearing a helmet and not smoking. It's one for the record.) My husband came and took some surprisingly good pictures and video of us!
Yesterday, I experimented with different bits for Dixie. She wasn't doing fantastically with the wide Pelham, so I went to my parents and dug out what I vaguely remembered as my Tom Thumb. It's not actually a TT - it's got a copper roller thing covering the joint in the middle, so each side moves very little. It's also a good bit narrower in diameter than the pelham. She was pretty "meh" about it - didn't hate it, didn't turn or stop any better in it than in the pelham. Then I thought back to one of my Life Lessons About Horses, one that's stood me in good stead for a long time so far:
There are no magic bits. (In fact, there are no magic items of tack. Obviously there are exceptions, like if the horse bucks because the saddle fits so poorly, but in general there's no magic.)
I dug out the single jointed D ring snaffle. The worst she could do is run away, right? And if she runs away, I'll just circle her til she gets tired. This isn't much different from our "bad" days. There is no magic bit. There is no magical brake pedal. As long as I don't haul back on both reins and poke her palate with the bit, it'll all be ok.
She liked the snaffle, quite a bit. We had no brakes, but she was in a bit of a mood and she never woahs when she's in that kind of mood no matter WHAT bit she's in, so I decided we'd stick with the D ring.
So today we had a long lesson in the honest-to-god snaffle bit. Worked on several horse lessons: basic bending at a halt, giving to inside leg pressure, and speeding up without panicking. I had several human lessons going, too: quit flapping your legs off and on the horse, do NOT thump her with your heels and expect her to stay calm, SIT DOWN when she gaits, and teach her to give to inside leg. All in all we did quite well together - not perfect, but we both tried really hard. And my knee hurts - if I hurt my knee, I must be using my legs in a different and hopefully better way, right?
I got a bit of carrot stretching / bending at the halt. We got Dixie to give to inside leg - to spiral outwards on a circle, basically - to the left. The right, not so much - she's very one sided right now. And I bollocksed the first time I asked her to speed up. We got a really hollow choppy racky thing. But the second time I got a smooth upward transition... to a trot! D'oh. Oh well, both she and I know that she can gait just fine and we'll get a really smooth gait one day :)
Here we are at a halt while I talked with Hardy. I love her alert but calm expression. (By the way, that's a halter on under the bridle, not a weird noseband.)
Pretty picture, stretchy walk. She's not even going fast; this is just how she walks if she's not collected at all.
Here's a video of her "totally normal walk." I think we were working on the elusive inner leg cue, but I'm not 100% sure.
Dixie, walking around from Funder on Vimeo.
Here's our bad upward transition. I thumped her with my heels to speed her up, and she went way faster but very hollow and freaked-out.
Dixie, fast gait from Funder on Vimeo.
And here's our good upward transition. This time, I kept increasing leg pressure without resorting to heels or tensing up, and I got her to speed up! Yay! To a trot. Rrrgh. Still, it's progress.
Dixie, trot from Funder on Vimeo.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Dressage, guns, trails, fishing, and MORE!
Yep, I had a super busy day. It's very springlike here right now - we'll probably get one more nasty cold snap before "winter" (as we know it) is over, but I'm perfectly happy wearing a tank top again!
Dressage
Had a cool lesson today. Let's see - Michelle asked if I'd changed saddles, and no, I haven't. I've always ridden Dixie in this saddle. The change I recently made was to tie the fenders back a couple inches, so that my legs naturally hang in a more balanced position. Instead of fighting constantly to keep them back, they "want" to hang with my heels under my hips. And after watching her yesterday, I'm pretty sure she was just in heat. Why do the highstrung mares always have the worst heats? I may try Andrea's raspberry leaf stuff and see if it helps Dixie too.
Anyway, we trailered over and had a productive lesson. Dixie did ok at a slow walk and a flatwalk, but we kept really falling apart at a rack. She'd go hollow, with her nose up and out, whenever I asked her for more speed. I know that if I grab the curb reins and pull her nose in, she'll gait more smoothly, but that seems an awful lot like riding "front to back" and it's not what I want to explore with her.
She doesn't understand inside leg yet. Obviously this is my problem, and in my defense, I've spent almost a year desensitizing her to leg pressure. She used to think any leg at all in any position meant "go as fast as possible." I've finally convinced her that I don't wear spurs (right now) and I'm not going to beat her with a whip if she doesn't explode into motion when I move my leg. Now it's time to teach her what I want when I move a leg. Anyway, when I bend her into a circle, she sets the diameter of the circle because she doesn't move out away from my inside leg - I can't do spirals with her. We worked on that a bit, got a couple of slightly larger circles, and called it good progress.
And Dixie doesn't bend! Well, she bends ok sometimes on circles or spirals, and she's flexible as all get out at liberty, but she hasn't ever been asked to stretch her neck at a standstill. We did a bit of that too; it's something I should continue working on.
Finally, somewhat against my better judgment, we switched bits. Hardy wanted me to try her in a Tom Thumb. I generally hate tom thumbs, because of the whole broken mouth double twisted wire curb balance on the reins to get them to gait thing. And there's a whole lot of dressage-y sites that hate on the Tom Thumb - apparently it gives conflicting information to the horse cause of the combination of shanks and a broken mouthpiece.
But... if I was doing a perfect job training Dixie, I wouldn't be taking lessons. I didn't think a smooth mouth Tom Thumb was going to actually hurt my horse. Maybe confuse her? Maybe jab the roof of her mouth if I was too heavy handed? But not hurt her or make her scared, any worse than we've done to each other in the past. So I tried it.
She loved it. We'd gone up to the barn to look for one, then over to the round pen to try it out. She didn't fuss with it at all, not one bit, and she seemed to bend very well to it. I'm pretty sure I have a copper roller TT in my giant collection of bits at my parents' and tomorrow I'm gonna go pick it up and try again with her.
I was hoping to get some pictures of Dixie stretching out and down for DiJ's Long and Low post but my husband (aka the Official Funder Photographer) wasn't able to come out. He feels appropriately guilty though so hopefully I can get some pictures this week.
Guns!
After Dixie and I got back to the field, K came running up. "Did you bring your gun? B's got his rifle and I've got my pistol and let's go shoot!" So I headed back home and picked up my gun and then we went and killed the hell out of some inanimate objects.
I love rifle shooting it's the best and yall need to try it!
B has a .22 target rifle with a scope and a bipod. (Little legs that fold out from the front of the rifle, so you can lay down and get it perfectly steady.) He's spent the last week getting it perfectly sighted in. We shot our "targets" from about 10 yards, which is not very far at all for a rifle but fun for us newbies. I laid down and shot the UPC code on a Mt. Dew bottle with no problem, then spent my next two turns with it trying to nail the cap to the bottle. Never quite managed it. It's some combination of my breathing and me jerking (instead of slowly squeezing) the trigger. I did a round shooting from the shoulder, which is surprisingly hard. And I tried propping the rifle in a convenient tree branch and shooting at a snag in the lake, about 50 yards out - never quite hit the snag, but I was maybe 6" off from it. Pretty cool.
Everybody liked my .40 again, and we all plinked away with the terrible .22 revolver. I don't mean to hate on the revolver, but... I don't particularly like the grip, the sights are a bit off, it's louder and harder to hit with than the rifle, and it makes teeny weeny holes in cans. My .40 is incredibly loud and not nearly as accurate as a long gun, but at least it makes satisfying holes!
Trails
After we'd shot up all the ammo, we headed back to the horse field. K immediately jumped me again and insisted that we needed to go trail riding! She and T had gone yesterday, on Poppy and Goblin, and had a great time. They wanted to go again! So we all caught our reluctant horses and headed out. I took them on the "easy" trail, the one that has a bunch of short steep ravines. (The hard trail, by comparison, has one VERY STEEP ravine that's twice as long.) They are kinda wussy and I took pity on them and we walked the horses up and down the ravines, but I did assure them that I do regularly ride Champ up and down those slopes. You've gotta believe that your horse can do it, and trust your horse, but you can in fact ride any hill back there.
Poppy did so well. K is not ready to take Poppy trail riding alone, but she knows it. If you and your horse are going out alone, at least one of you needs to be totally confident for it to work out. When I first got Champ, he had the confidence for both of us. Later on, I got more ballsy and now I can ride a green horse alone... but I don't think K can yet, and she doesn't think she can yet either. But she's got her daughter T and Goblin, so the four of them will be fine together. And in a couple months, when Poppy knows every inch of the trails, K and Poppy can go alone if they want.
She's really doing well with him. I'm so very happy. I do think they'll be perfect together - neither of them wants to go anywhere fast, and he's naturally unflappable, and she's neither googly-eyed or scared of him right now. I am pulling for them. :)
Fishing!
We got back to the field AGAIN about 4:30. But it's February and it was warm and I'd been itching to fish all day. I put a silly artificial minnow thing on my line and fished for about an hour. I hooked one decent-sized fish but it slipped off my hook a foot from the bank. Sigh. Then I hooked a willow tree and had to cut my line, double sigh. By that time it was getting dark and chilly, so I packed it up for the night.
I am bound and determined to catch at least one fish with a completely artificial lure. I've only ever caught fish with live bait. I will figure out this lure nonsense. Also I will figure out a really kickass fish recipe, other than "bread in cornmeal and fry."
Cersei accompanied me everywhere today. After dinner (neckbones, if you're curious) she collapsed on her bed by my chair and has not moved since. If she had a blog, she'd tell an entirely different story... but I bet she's just as content as I am.
Dressage
Had a cool lesson today. Let's see - Michelle asked if I'd changed saddles, and no, I haven't. I've always ridden Dixie in this saddle. The change I recently made was to tie the fenders back a couple inches, so that my legs naturally hang in a more balanced position. Instead of fighting constantly to keep them back, they "want" to hang with my heels under my hips. And after watching her yesterday, I'm pretty sure she was just in heat. Why do the highstrung mares always have the worst heats? I may try Andrea's raspberry leaf stuff and see if it helps Dixie too.
Anyway, we trailered over and had a productive lesson. Dixie did ok at a slow walk and a flatwalk, but we kept really falling apart at a rack. She'd go hollow, with her nose up and out, whenever I asked her for more speed. I know that if I grab the curb reins and pull her nose in, she'll gait more smoothly, but that seems an awful lot like riding "front to back" and it's not what I want to explore with her.
She doesn't understand inside leg yet. Obviously this is my problem, and in my defense, I've spent almost a year desensitizing her to leg pressure. She used to think any leg at all in any position meant "go as fast as possible." I've finally convinced her that I don't wear spurs (right now) and I'm not going to beat her with a whip if she doesn't explode into motion when I move my leg. Now it's time to teach her what I want when I move a leg. Anyway, when I bend her into a circle, she sets the diameter of the circle because she doesn't move out away from my inside leg - I can't do spirals with her. We worked on that a bit, got a couple of slightly larger circles, and called it good progress.
And Dixie doesn't bend! Well, she bends ok sometimes on circles or spirals, and she's flexible as all get out at liberty, but she hasn't ever been asked to stretch her neck at a standstill. We did a bit of that too; it's something I should continue working on.
Finally, somewhat against my better judgment, we switched bits. Hardy wanted me to try her in a Tom Thumb. I generally hate tom thumbs, because of the whole broken mouth double twisted wire curb balance on the reins to get them to gait thing. And there's a whole lot of dressage-y sites that hate on the Tom Thumb - apparently it gives conflicting information to the horse cause of the combination of shanks and a broken mouthpiece.
But... if I was doing a perfect job training Dixie, I wouldn't be taking lessons. I didn't think a smooth mouth Tom Thumb was going to actually hurt my horse. Maybe confuse her? Maybe jab the roof of her mouth if I was too heavy handed? But not hurt her or make her scared, any worse than we've done to each other in the past. So I tried it.
She loved it. We'd gone up to the barn to look for one, then over to the round pen to try it out. She didn't fuss with it at all, not one bit, and she seemed to bend very well to it. I'm pretty sure I have a copper roller TT in my giant collection of bits at my parents' and tomorrow I'm gonna go pick it up and try again with her.
I was hoping to get some pictures of Dixie stretching out and down for DiJ's Long and Low post but my husband (aka the Official Funder Photographer) wasn't able to come out. He feels appropriately guilty though so hopefully I can get some pictures this week.
Guns!
After Dixie and I got back to the field, K came running up. "Did you bring your gun? B's got his rifle and I've got my pistol and let's go shoot!" So I headed back home and picked up my gun and then we went and killed the hell out of some inanimate objects.
I love rifle shooting it's the best and yall need to try it!
B has a .22 target rifle with a scope and a bipod. (Little legs that fold out from the front of the rifle, so you can lay down and get it perfectly steady.) He's spent the last week getting it perfectly sighted in. We shot our "targets" from about 10 yards, which is not very far at all for a rifle but fun for us newbies. I laid down and shot the UPC code on a Mt. Dew bottle with no problem, then spent my next two turns with it trying to nail the cap to the bottle. Never quite managed it. It's some combination of my breathing and me jerking (instead of slowly squeezing) the trigger. I did a round shooting from the shoulder, which is surprisingly hard. And I tried propping the rifle in a convenient tree branch and shooting at a snag in the lake, about 50 yards out - never quite hit the snag, but I was maybe 6" off from it. Pretty cool.
Everybody liked my .40 again, and we all plinked away with the terrible .22 revolver. I don't mean to hate on the revolver, but... I don't particularly like the grip, the sights are a bit off, it's louder and harder to hit with than the rifle, and it makes teeny weeny holes in cans. My .40 is incredibly loud and not nearly as accurate as a long gun, but at least it makes satisfying holes!
Trails
After we'd shot up all the ammo, we headed back to the horse field. K immediately jumped me again and insisted that we needed to go trail riding! She and T had gone yesterday, on Poppy and Goblin, and had a great time. They wanted to go again! So we all caught our reluctant horses and headed out. I took them on the "easy" trail, the one that has a bunch of short steep ravines. (The hard trail, by comparison, has one VERY STEEP ravine that's twice as long.) They are kinda wussy and I took pity on them and we walked the horses up and down the ravines, but I did assure them that I do regularly ride Champ up and down those slopes. You've gotta believe that your horse can do it, and trust your horse, but you can in fact ride any hill back there.
Poppy did so well. K is not ready to take Poppy trail riding alone, but she knows it. If you and your horse are going out alone, at least one of you needs to be totally confident for it to work out. When I first got Champ, he had the confidence for both of us. Later on, I got more ballsy and now I can ride a green horse alone... but I don't think K can yet, and she doesn't think she can yet either. But she's got her daughter T and Goblin, so the four of them will be fine together. And in a couple months, when Poppy knows every inch of the trails, K and Poppy can go alone if they want.
She's really doing well with him. I'm so very happy. I do think they'll be perfect together - neither of them wants to go anywhere fast, and he's naturally unflappable, and she's neither googly-eyed or scared of him right now. I am pulling for them. :)
Fishing!
We got back to the field AGAIN about 4:30. But it's February and it was warm and I'd been itching to fish all day. I put a silly artificial minnow thing on my line and fished for about an hour. I hooked one decent-sized fish but it slipped off my hook a foot from the bank. Sigh. Then I hooked a willow tree and had to cut my line, double sigh. By that time it was getting dark and chilly, so I packed it up for the night.
I am bound and determined to catch at least one fish with a completely artificial lure. I've only ever caught fish with live bait. I will figure out this lure nonsense. Also I will figure out a really kickass fish recipe, other than "bread in cornmeal and fry."
Cersei accompanied me everywhere today. After dinner (neckbones, if you're curious) she collapsed on her bed by my chair and has not moved since. If she had a blog, she'd tell an entirely different story... but I bet she's just as content as I am.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Sunday I'm in love
Robert Smith was wrong. Friday was terrible, but Sunday I'm in love with my mare.
We had a lovely wonderful interesting lesson. Highlights:
First, relax. My upper body started off locked up. Then I got into the groove at the walk and started tensing up when I'd ask her to gait, which lead to a choppy bouncy racky thing. I finally started relaxing when I'd ask for more speed and the racky thing smoothed out a bit.
Next, look, she's lowering her own head. I've been noticing that as I've gotten better hands and more consistent contact, she's been actually reaching for the contact instead of ignoring it or slamming her chin to her neck to evade me. Today I noticed that after I ask for speed, when I slow back down, she really stretches her neck long and low.
She's also almost entirely quit trying to canter into turns. She still "changes gears" in turns, but it's something different from the choppy racky thing, something much more comfortable that feels more correct. I think it's a few strides of a real running walk.
I talked about that with Hardy for a bit. He and I don't think horses can really gait long and low. I'm not 100% sure though. Sara, you know anything about that? Assuming that it's not possible, that she needs a higher head to counterbalance a faster gait, we talked about how to work her head back up and encourage her to collect up a bit before I ask for more speed.
So I tried that. We did a big stretchy circle with her head down, then I picked her head up - super gently, super slowly - then I asked for speed. She was very confused about me asking her to pick her head up, but really willing to try, and we got a nice lap around the arena at the "good" gait.
Then I slowed her back down and offered her some room to stretch back out, but I slipped the reins too fast and you could tell she was a little confused. Where'd the contact go? I picked my light contact back up and she started stretching back down. It was so very sweet, such a nice affirmation that the dressage people are right and horses do learn to like (love? anticipate?) the connection with the rider's hands.
We ended there. It had been an hour and she'd really listened so well and worked so hard for me. And it was a beautiful day, too! It's sunny and 61.
I'm going to try a pad under my saddle next week. My saddle is a smidge too wide for her and I don't have enough clearance under her withers. Alas, this is an imperfect world and I can't spring for a new saddle for her right now. But I think a pad with some shims under the front will help a lot, and the kind of work we're doing right now will help her back fill in and fit my existing saddle better.
I might tempt fate and take the curb reins off next week too. :O She is listening and working so well on just the snaffle reins. I haven't had to use the curb reins in four rides. Sure would be easier without that tangle of leather in front of the pommel.
I'm off to fix my husband's car. We were going to go to dinner in the Beemer last night, but the battery was dead. I need to find or buy jumper cables and see if I can jump it and get it to hold a charge. I hope I don't electrocute myself :(
We had a lovely wonderful interesting lesson. Highlights:
First, relax. My upper body started off locked up. Then I got into the groove at the walk and started tensing up when I'd ask her to gait, which lead to a choppy bouncy racky thing. I finally started relaxing when I'd ask for more speed and the racky thing smoothed out a bit.
Next, look, she's lowering her own head. I've been noticing that as I've gotten better hands and more consistent contact, she's been actually reaching for the contact instead of ignoring it or slamming her chin to her neck to evade me. Today I noticed that after I ask for speed, when I slow back down, she really stretches her neck long and low.
She's also almost entirely quit trying to canter into turns. She still "changes gears" in turns, but it's something different from the choppy racky thing, something much more comfortable that feels more correct. I think it's a few strides of a real running walk.
I talked about that with Hardy for a bit. He and I don't think horses can really gait long and low. I'm not 100% sure though. Sara, you know anything about that? Assuming that it's not possible, that she needs a higher head to counterbalance a faster gait, we talked about how to work her head back up and encourage her to collect up a bit before I ask for more speed.
So I tried that. We did a big stretchy circle with her head down, then I picked her head up - super gently, super slowly - then I asked for speed. She was very confused about me asking her to pick her head up, but really willing to try, and we got a nice lap around the arena at the "good" gait.
Then I slowed her back down and offered her some room to stretch back out, but I slipped the reins too fast and you could tell she was a little confused. Where'd the contact go? I picked my light contact back up and she started stretching back down. It was so very sweet, such a nice affirmation that the dressage people are right and horses do learn to like (love? anticipate?) the connection with the rider's hands.
We ended there. It had been an hour and she'd really listened so well and worked so hard for me. And it was a beautiful day, too! It's sunny and 61.
I'm going to try a pad under my saddle next week. My saddle is a smidge too wide for her and I don't have enough clearance under her withers. Alas, this is an imperfect world and I can't spring for a new saddle for her right now. But I think a pad with some shims under the front will help a lot, and the kind of work we're doing right now will help her back fill in and fit my existing saddle better.
I might tempt fate and take the curb reins off next week too. :O She is listening and working so well on just the snaffle reins. I haven't had to use the curb reins in four rides. Sure would be easier without that tangle of leather in front of the pommel.
I'm off to fix my husband's car. We were going to go to dinner in the Beemer last night, but the battery was dead. I need to find or buy jumper cables and see if I can jump it and get it to hold a charge. I hope I don't electrocute myself :(
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Poppy
I rode the big guy today. We did about an hour of walk-trot stuff. This time I carried the real dressage whip. I think Daun was right, long ago, when she said some horses just need to know you have the whip - he is definitely more responsive to my leg when he knows I've got a whip to back it up.
Mainly I concentrated on me. Keeping my hands still, following him with my seat, keeping my legs still and giving aids correctly. This shit is hard! Worthwhile, but hard.
My dressage book said to use the whip as an aid for yourself - that if your hands are correct and your legs are correct, the whip will "lie close behind and nearly parallel to the rider's lower leg, resting lightly across the thigh." This seemed like great advice, and it kept part of my brain constantly checking in with my hands.
My legs are, amazingly, improving. They don't flop around like they used to, and my toes point forward most of the time. The bad habit I'm concentrating on right now is giving aids with the inside of my legs, not my calves. I'm getting better at that. And I have a tendency to ask for a trot with a squeeze, properly, and then if I don't get a response I turn my toes out and boot the horse with my heels. Heels are a good attention-getter but I need to work on delivering the same energy with a proper squeeze, I suppose.
I found a new (unapproved) use for the whip, too. There's a long straight flat stretch in the back part of their pasture - I trot Poppy away from his buddies, turn, and walk back. There are two little paths that turn left, eventually circling back toward his buddies, so he tries to dart down them whenever we trot away. I kinda remember I could use the whip for more than a hand-position-checking-device, so I started whapping him in the shoulder when he'd try to veer down the little paths. They weren't even hard whacks, just a "hey I mean it don't do that" reminder, and it worked great.
My elbows at the trot are improving too. Most of the time, anyway :)
After our ride I fed Poppy a half-scoop of his grain. The light was right and I got a good picture of a Happy (Dirty) Percheron. (I know, I'm too lazy to be a real dressage rider - I brushed where the saddle went and left the rest of him muddy.)
Mainly I concentrated on me. Keeping my hands still, following him with my seat, keeping my legs still and giving aids correctly. This shit is hard! Worthwhile, but hard.
My dressage book said to use the whip as an aid for yourself - that if your hands are correct and your legs are correct, the whip will "lie close behind and nearly parallel to the rider's lower leg, resting lightly across the thigh." This seemed like great advice, and it kept part of my brain constantly checking in with my hands.
My legs are, amazingly, improving. They don't flop around like they used to, and my toes point forward most of the time. The bad habit I'm concentrating on right now is giving aids with the inside of my legs, not my calves. I'm getting better at that. And I have a tendency to ask for a trot with a squeeze, properly, and then if I don't get a response I turn my toes out and boot the horse with my heels. Heels are a good attention-getter but I need to work on delivering the same energy with a proper squeeze, I suppose.
I found a new (unapproved) use for the whip, too. There's a long straight flat stretch in the back part of their pasture - I trot Poppy away from his buddies, turn, and walk back. There are two little paths that turn left, eventually circling back toward his buddies, so he tries to dart down them whenever we trot away. I kinda remember I could use the whip for more than a hand-position-checking-device, so I started whapping him in the shoulder when he'd try to veer down the little paths. They weren't even hard whacks, just a "hey I mean it don't do that" reminder, and it worked great.
My elbows at the trot are improving too. Most of the time, anyway :)
After our ride I fed Poppy a half-scoop of his grain. The light was right and I got a good picture of a Happy (Dirty) Percheron. (I know, I'm too lazy to be a real dressage rider - I brushed where the saddle went and left the rest of him muddy.)
Serenity
Tuesday was pretty tough.
See, there's a couple different possibilities which would lead to my husband needing to move back to Ohio. There's always the fear that the recession will eat his job and he'll need a new one at a different company. And there are no jobs for his particular speciality down here. I'm not going to go in to it too deeply, but Memphis is a third-tier market with only a handful of his positions, and they don't open up very often, and they're not ideal for him anyway. Anyway, I've been coming to grips with the probability that we'll be packing up and moving away pretty soon.
Tuesday I got down about it. Felt very sorry for myself - why can't things work out like I think I want, I'm going to freeze to death next winter, I'm going to have to take another bar exam, I'll lose my friends and my beautiful southern countryside, blah blah blah. I sniveled for a while and went out and rode Champ. He's my emotional rock, whether he likes it or not.
We had a lovely ride. It was a very foggy grey day. The first big lake had a small flock of mallards, who took off and squawked away, and two Canada geese, who honked and swam in circles and completely captivated Cersei. We continued on, all the way back to the deer shooting field off the back corner of the property, and it looked otherworldly. Champ grazed happily on the green grass while I took some pictures.
The big cottonwoods by the creek are covered in kudzu vines, like shackled giants.
Fuzzy horizon.
Cersei snurfled around the kudzu at the edge of the creek. A minute after I took this, she turned up an armadillo. My very first live armadillo! It was completely unfazed by her - it took two steps and tumbled down the edge of the creek. She growled at it and sniffed where it had been and stared over the edge for a while, then we moved on.
We grazed our way to the end of the green grass, then I thought I'd canter Champ back to the tree line. As always, he had other ideas, and when I asked him to speed up he gaited back toward home. He lives to do the opposite of what I ask, sigh!
Back at the skeet shooting lake, Cersei started not one but TWO deer. I swear, I think deer know exactly how long hunting season is. Before the season, I'd see 2-3 a week, but during hunting season I was lucky to hear a deer a week. Now, two days after the season closed, I saw two big deer from 50 feet away!
By the time we got back, I felt a lot better. Accept the things I cannot change, most people never manage to move anywhere even when they want to, it'll be an adventure, etc. I still get a little overwhelmed thinking about the logistics of a possible move, but if it happens, I'll deal.
Yesterday was the big Ice Storm. Well, it, uh, didn't. I mean there was a little snow on the ground, so the schools were closed, but no real ice. Graham's car had a 4" icicle hanging off the bumper, but that was the biggest piece of ice I saw. It never got cold enough for the ground to freeze. The cats were furious about the snow - they spent all morning in the windows, glaring outside and twitching their tails. They'd look over at us occasionally, but I'm not sure if they wanted us to let them out to investigate or somehow magically make the snow disappear. We did neither.
I got a book from the library that's waaaay beyond my abilities, but I'm enjoying it anyway. Advanced Dressage, by Anthony Crossley. The review of the fundamentals (legs, seat, hands, etc) was helpful for me, and at least I'll know what yall are talking about when you discuss the fine differences between shoulders-in and leg yielding. I'm thinking about buying the previous book, Training the Young Horse.
See, there's a couple different possibilities which would lead to my husband needing to move back to Ohio. There's always the fear that the recession will eat his job and he'll need a new one at a different company. And there are no jobs for his particular speciality down here. I'm not going to go in to it too deeply, but Memphis is a third-tier market with only a handful of his positions, and they don't open up very often, and they're not ideal for him anyway. Anyway, I've been coming to grips with the probability that we'll be packing up and moving away pretty soon.
Tuesday I got down about it. Felt very sorry for myself - why can't things work out like I think I want, I'm going to freeze to death next winter, I'm going to have to take another bar exam, I'll lose my friends and my beautiful southern countryside, blah blah blah. I sniveled for a while and went out and rode Champ. He's my emotional rock, whether he likes it or not.
We had a lovely ride. It was a very foggy grey day. The first big lake had a small flock of mallards, who took off and squawked away, and two Canada geese, who honked and swam in circles and completely captivated Cersei. We continued on, all the way back to the deer shooting field off the back corner of the property, and it looked otherworldly. Champ grazed happily on the green grass while I took some pictures.
The big cottonwoods by the creek are covered in kudzu vines, like shackled giants.
Fuzzy horizon.
Cersei snurfled around the kudzu at the edge of the creek. A minute after I took this, she turned up an armadillo. My very first live armadillo! It was completely unfazed by her - it took two steps and tumbled down the edge of the creek. She growled at it and sniffed where it had been and stared over the edge for a while, then we moved on.
We grazed our way to the end of the green grass, then I thought I'd canter Champ back to the tree line. As always, he had other ideas, and when I asked him to speed up he gaited back toward home. He lives to do the opposite of what I ask, sigh!
Back at the skeet shooting lake, Cersei started not one but TWO deer. I swear, I think deer know exactly how long hunting season is. Before the season, I'd see 2-3 a week, but during hunting season I was lucky to hear a deer a week. Now, two days after the season closed, I saw two big deer from 50 feet away!
By the time we got back, I felt a lot better. Accept the things I cannot change, most people never manage to move anywhere even when they want to, it'll be an adventure, etc. I still get a little overwhelmed thinking about the logistics of a possible move, but if it happens, I'll deal.
Yesterday was the big Ice Storm. Well, it, uh, didn't. I mean there was a little snow on the ground, so the schools were closed, but no real ice. Graham's car had a 4" icicle hanging off the bumper, but that was the biggest piece of ice I saw. It never got cold enough for the ground to freeze. The cats were furious about the snow - they spent all morning in the windows, glaring outside and twitching their tails. They'd look over at us occasionally, but I'm not sure if they wanted us to let them out to investigate or somehow magically make the snow disappear. We did neither.
I got a book from the library that's waaaay beyond my abilities, but I'm enjoying it anyway. Advanced Dressage, by Anthony Crossley. The review of the fundamentals (legs, seat, hands, etc) was helpful for me, and at least I'll know what yall are talking about when you discuss the fine differences between shoulders-in and leg yielding. I'm thinking about buying the previous book, Training the Young Horse.
Monday, January 26, 2009
A study in contrasts
Today was Dixie Dressage #2 and Poppy Solo Trail #1. I want to get these rides written down then I swear I'm gonna go catch up on yall's blogs and my comments!
Dixie
I trailered her over to the main barn and rode for about an hour in the covered arena. The first part of the ride went quite well - she relaxed into it and worked well for me, mostly at a walk working on bending. About every ten minutes I'd squeeze with both legs and kiss for a rack and we'd do a lap or two around the arena, just so I could work on staying loose and keeping her attention on me. She'd always break up into a couple of strides of odd canter around the turns, but she also came back to me and settled back into a rack very quickly.
Then a Horse Eating Lion (or possibly a chipmunk) rustled in the woods on the north side. We were just walking very calmly along, in a gentle bend, with me thinking about giving the right kind of leg pressure and keeping light contact and feeling her bend when KABLAM the leaves rustled and Dixie exploded into a full spook. Jumped straight up, came back down with her legs splayed, spun 90 degrees and bolted three or four steps away. I stayed completely centered in the saddle, which was kinda cool, and she stopped on her own, which was very cool! Somehow I completely lost the reins on the left side, but I had the other set still held perfectly still. Yay us.
After that I decided to see if I could get her attention back on working with me. She was, I think, a lot more distracted. I'm not positive because I did not look at her ears once. How am I supposed to know what she's thinking if I can't focus on her ears? Yes, I could see them in my peripheral vision, but it's harder for me to tell!
Anyway, she was distracted but she still tried hard for me. She was pretty spooky about that corner of the arena, so I worked on driving her into that corner with more leg and really directing her turns out of it. Her new boyfriend came up to the other corner of the arena, and I worked on keeping her moving at the same pace past him every time.
Her new boyfriend is (IIRC?) a spotted ASB named Perry Como. He fell in love with her the first day I brought her out to the place and he's made googly eyes at her from over the fence every time since. It's kinda cute :3
Anyway, it was a good ride. I finished out with a few minutes of loose rein walk with just the snaffle rein, then fed her a couple scoops of grain, then managed to get her loaded and take her home. She's loaded like a dream every time til the last time, when she decided she'd rather stay and live with Perry than get on the damn trailer and go back to her field. Of course I completely blanked out on any horse loading theories, so I thought about it for a minute and decided to make the right thing waaay easier than the wrong thing. I'd walk her up to the trailer (me standing to one side inside) and she'd balk. I'd back her up for about 20 feet, praise, and walk her back to the trailer. If she balked again, we'd back some more. Took about 4 tries before she decided she'd rather make that big step up into the trailer than back up again.
I am so wordy.
Poppy
So I got Dixie back home and decided that Poppy was ready to go trail riding solo and I should put up or shut up. I tacked him up with his bridle, my saddle, and a dinky little whip, dragged a broken chair out past the gate, and we were off! My dressage whip, which actually reaches his butt easier, doesn't have a handle so I have to hold it at all times. The dinky little whip has a wrist loop, so I clipped it to the front D rings on my saddle to have it handy.
We immediately had a disagreement about whether he was out there to eat grass or listen to me. This annoyed him. Then we disagreed about whether he could take the first turn to head back home, and he got more annoyed. We went through a gate, down a narrow bit of trail, up a hill, and he decided he was going to trot. I said fine, trot then, and he trotted a bit then stopped and did something odd. At first I couldn't figure out what he was doing - it felt a little like a canter. But we weren't actually moving and his head was down and OH HELL HE'S BUCKING! I was completely shocked and amused that he was bucking, so it took me another buck or two to figure out what to do. In an attempt to do something I growled "Knock that off!" and booted him in the ribs and he headed out again in a Real Big Working Draft Trot.
Wow. I was seriously impressed. I've seen him do the Big Trot from the ground, of course, but I've never ridden it. I loved it! It was awesome!
I am also very very annoyed with myself and with Poppy. He might not be ripped like Brego or Klein, but he's got plenty of muscle under that fluff. How could I have been fooled by his stumbling WP jog-trots previously? He has outsmarted himself and raised the bar for future work.
We trotted a little further on, past the Skeet Lake, and I came to my senses. He might in fact run us into a tree or off a cliff just to prove that he doesn't have to listen. I decided I could pick my battles and we headed for home - with a twist.
We'd walk, CALMLY YOU BASTARD!, towards home. Then we'd turn and I'd have him trot away again. Then we'd walk, turn, repeat. It was pretty nerve-racking. Apparently I'm not over my irrational fear of Poppy. I have to respond to the very early stages of his unwanted behavior as quickly as possible or he just goes ahead and does what he wants.
We had one more big blow up in the paddock nearest his field. I asked for a nice trot away from the gate, and he trotted then wanted to veer left onto a different trail pointing back to the gate. I pulled his head back around right, booted him in the right places, and he wrenched his head left, did a promising cowhorse spin, and cantered for home. I got really fucking pissed and wrapped the reins around my hands - TWICE, I was not going to lose him if I fell off - and did a YANK-release til he slowed down again. Not pretty. As soon as I got him back to a walk, I spun him around and asked for a trot away from home again and pretended like nothing had happened. We walked one more lap of the paddock, with exceptionally nice behavior, and we were done!
Quite a day. I'm glad I worked both of them today; tomorrow it's going to rain all day and we might have an ICE STORM tomorrow night and we could all die.
Dixie
I trailered her over to the main barn and rode for about an hour in the covered arena. The first part of the ride went quite well - she relaxed into it and worked well for me, mostly at a walk working on bending. About every ten minutes I'd squeeze with both legs and kiss for a rack and we'd do a lap or two around the arena, just so I could work on staying loose and keeping her attention on me. She'd always break up into a couple of strides of odd canter around the turns, but she also came back to me and settled back into a rack very quickly.
Then a Horse Eating Lion (or possibly a chipmunk) rustled in the woods on the north side. We were just walking very calmly along, in a gentle bend, with me thinking about giving the right kind of leg pressure and keeping light contact and feeling her bend when KABLAM the leaves rustled and Dixie exploded into a full spook. Jumped straight up, came back down with her legs splayed, spun 90 degrees and bolted three or four steps away. I stayed completely centered in the saddle, which was kinda cool, and she stopped on her own, which was very cool! Somehow I completely lost the reins on the left side, but I had the other set still held perfectly still. Yay us.
After that I decided to see if I could get her attention back on working with me. She was, I think, a lot more distracted. I'm not positive because I did not look at her ears once. How am I supposed to know what she's thinking if I can't focus on her ears? Yes, I could see them in my peripheral vision, but it's harder for me to tell!
Anyway, she was distracted but she still tried hard for me. She was pretty spooky about that corner of the arena, so I worked on driving her into that corner with more leg and really directing her turns out of it. Her new boyfriend came up to the other corner of the arena, and I worked on keeping her moving at the same pace past him every time.
Her new boyfriend is (IIRC?) a spotted ASB named Perry Como. He fell in love with her the first day I brought her out to the place and he's made googly eyes at her from over the fence every time since. It's kinda cute :3
Anyway, it was a good ride. I finished out with a few minutes of loose rein walk with just the snaffle rein, then fed her a couple scoops of grain, then managed to get her loaded and take her home. She's loaded like a dream every time til the last time, when she decided she'd rather stay and live with Perry than get on the damn trailer and go back to her field. Of course I completely blanked out on any horse loading theories, so I thought about it for a minute and decided to make the right thing waaay easier than the wrong thing. I'd walk her up to the trailer (me standing to one side inside) and she'd balk. I'd back her up for about 20 feet, praise, and walk her back to the trailer. If she balked again, we'd back some more. Took about 4 tries before she decided she'd rather make that big step up into the trailer than back up again.
I am so wordy.
Poppy
So I got Dixie back home and decided that Poppy was ready to go trail riding solo and I should put up or shut up. I tacked him up with his bridle, my saddle, and a dinky little whip, dragged a broken chair out past the gate, and we were off! My dressage whip, which actually reaches his butt easier, doesn't have a handle so I have to hold it at all times. The dinky little whip has a wrist loop, so I clipped it to the front D rings on my saddle to have it handy.
We immediately had a disagreement about whether he was out there to eat grass or listen to me. This annoyed him. Then we disagreed about whether he could take the first turn to head back home, and he got more annoyed. We went through a gate, down a narrow bit of trail, up a hill, and he decided he was going to trot. I said fine, trot then, and he trotted a bit then stopped and did something odd. At first I couldn't figure out what he was doing - it felt a little like a canter. But we weren't actually moving and his head was down and OH HELL HE'S BUCKING! I was completely shocked and amused that he was bucking, so it took me another buck or two to figure out what to do. In an attempt to do something I growled "Knock that off!" and booted him in the ribs and he headed out again in a Real Big Working Draft Trot.
Wow. I was seriously impressed. I've seen him do the Big Trot from the ground, of course, but I've never ridden it. I loved it! It was awesome!
I am also very very annoyed with myself and with Poppy. He might not be ripped like Brego or Klein, but he's got plenty of muscle under that fluff. How could I have been fooled by his stumbling WP jog-trots previously? He has outsmarted himself and raised the bar for future work.
We trotted a little further on, past the Skeet Lake, and I came to my senses. He might in fact run us into a tree or off a cliff just to prove that he doesn't have to listen. I decided I could pick my battles and we headed for home - with a twist.
We'd walk, CALMLY YOU BASTARD!, towards home. Then we'd turn and I'd have him trot away again. Then we'd walk, turn, repeat. It was pretty nerve-racking. Apparently I'm not over my irrational fear of Poppy. I have to respond to the very early stages of his unwanted behavior as quickly as possible or he just goes ahead and does what he wants.
We had one more big blow up in the paddock nearest his field. I asked for a nice trot away from the gate, and he trotted then wanted to veer left onto a different trail pointing back to the gate. I pulled his head back around right, booted him in the right places, and he wrenched his head left, did a promising cowhorse spin, and cantered for home. I got really fucking pissed and wrapped the reins around my hands - TWICE, I was not going to lose him if I fell off - and did a YANK-release til he slowed down again. Not pretty. As soon as I got him back to a walk, I spun him around and asked for a trot away from home again and pretended like nothing had happened. We walked one more lap of the paddock, with exceptionally nice behavior, and we were done!
Quite a day. I'm glad I worked both of them today; tomorrow it's going to rain all day and we might have an ICE STORM tomorrow night and we could all die.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Lesson one on Dixie!
Trailered Dixie to the main barn for a lesson on her today! It sleeted on me for a while and I felt particularly hardcore. (Stop laughing, yall, canceling my lesson would've been a perfectly normal response.) Hardy is German so of course he can't understand why we shiver and whine like we do.
Anyway. He just watched us work together for most of the time, which seemed like the perfectly correct thing to do. He did pinpoint a few things for me to work on right away.
First, he had me move my double reins to different fingers - I swear, I've read or heard every possible way to hold four reins in two hands! I'd been holding the snaffle rein the normal way, with the curb rein coming from below my little finger up through my hand on top of the snaffle. I was also riding with the curb fairly loose and floppy, which made sense to me (I want her to get used to responding to the snaffle action) but was actually counterproductive. Hardy pointed out that with the curb reins so loose, I had to fumble around and tighten them in order to activate them if I needed to. So he had me hold the reins with snaffle between my middle and ring fingers and curb between my ring and pinkie fingers - same as I was doing before, just moved up one finger. And I tightened up the curb rein a bit, til I had light contact on the snaffle and very light contact on the curb. That way when I needed the curb action I could just rotate my thumbs forward toward Dixie's head.
Next, he said I was tensing up whenever she sped up. It's sadly true. I've been working on not leaning forward and becoming a little monkey clinging to her back, but I'm still not truly relaxed at a rack. There's a little fear there, but not much. Mainly it's kind of HARD to truly sit a rack relaxed. It's completely different from sitting the trot, but it's hard in the same way - fast and jouncy is just hard to follow with your seat.
He also pointed out that I was staring at her ears. In my defense, they're gorgeous ears, but that's a big "duh."
She was amazingly well behaved yet again. We got one truly lovely circle - a whole circle, nicely bent! A couple of times she relaxed and stretched down into the bit contact, which was really exciting. And I got a couple strides of RW out of her, when she was racking and I managed to relax into the motion. Yay.
Things I want to work on:
How should I warm her up? She's not really stiff when I get on her, not like a horse that's been stalled overnight, but I'm not sure if I should let her walk around on a loose rein for a couple minutes or start right into asking for some contact and some bending.
Eek, I need to put some "speed up" leg cues on her. She only goes faster for a kiss or a cluck or a thump in the ribs (intentional or accidental!) She does bend correctly to leg aids while turning, which is a vast improvement - when I first got her, any leg at all meant "GO FASTER OR DIE" so I did a lot of desensitizing.
Once I get a clear leg cue for "gait fast please" I can teach a different clear leg cue for "canter please." I think she'll be ready to learn to canter under saddle pretty soon, but I need clear cues.
Anyway. He just watched us work together for most of the time, which seemed like the perfectly correct thing to do. He did pinpoint a few things for me to work on right away.
First, he had me move my double reins to different fingers - I swear, I've read or heard every possible way to hold four reins in two hands! I'd been holding the snaffle rein the normal way, with the curb rein coming from below my little finger up through my hand on top of the snaffle. I was also riding with the curb fairly loose and floppy, which made sense to me (I want her to get used to responding to the snaffle action) but was actually counterproductive. Hardy pointed out that with the curb reins so loose, I had to fumble around and tighten them in order to activate them if I needed to. So he had me hold the reins with snaffle between my middle and ring fingers and curb between my ring and pinkie fingers - same as I was doing before, just moved up one finger. And I tightened up the curb rein a bit, til I had light contact on the snaffle and very light contact on the curb. That way when I needed the curb action I could just rotate my thumbs forward toward Dixie's head.
Next, he said I was tensing up whenever she sped up. It's sadly true. I've been working on not leaning forward and becoming a little monkey clinging to her back, but I'm still not truly relaxed at a rack. There's a little fear there, but not much. Mainly it's kind of HARD to truly sit a rack relaxed. It's completely different from sitting the trot, but it's hard in the same way - fast and jouncy is just hard to follow with your seat.
He also pointed out that I was staring at her ears. In my defense, they're gorgeous ears, but that's a big "duh."
She was amazingly well behaved yet again. We got one truly lovely circle - a whole circle, nicely bent! A couple of times she relaxed and stretched down into the bit contact, which was really exciting. And I got a couple strides of RW out of her, when she was racking and I managed to relax into the motion. Yay.
Things I want to work on:
How should I warm her up? She's not really stiff when I get on her, not like a horse that's been stalled overnight, but I'm not sure if I should let her walk around on a loose rein for a couple minutes or start right into asking for some contact and some bending.
Eek, I need to put some "speed up" leg cues on her. She only goes faster for a kiss or a cluck or a thump in the ribs (intentional or accidental!) She does bend correctly to leg aids while turning, which is a vast improvement - when I first got her, any leg at all meant "GO FASTER OR DIE" so I did a lot of desensitizing.
Once I get a clear leg cue for "gait fast please" I can teach a different clear leg cue for "canter please." I think she'll be ready to learn to canter under saddle pretty soon, but I need clear cues.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Back to the horses
I've got some catching up to do!
Sunday I rode Valentine, and stayed all zen, and got her to trot. It was pretty cool!
Then, back to the field, where I rode Poppy. He did amazingly well! We just rode around the two open paddocks, working on listening to me. Mainly walk, a little whoa, and a few strides of trot. When I got done, I unsaddled him and he wandered about 10 yards away and laid down and took a nap. Poor guy, he's so out of shape and paying attention is such hard work.
Then I loaded Dixie and took her to the main barn and rode her in the covered arena. She was perfect. I mean, absolutely perfect. She was absolutely alert, cause she was in a strange new-ish place, but she was listening to me and perfectly responsive. We rode around for about 30 minutes, working on bending and stopping with just the snaffle rein. Then I walked her back to the truck, untacked her, and led her all around the property hand-grazing the patches of green grass. I was on Cloud 9!
Yesterday I rode Poppy again. T took Goblin and I took Poppy and we went on a super short trail ride. Down the two biggest trails, to both sides of the Skeet Shooting Lake, then back. He remained a very good very calm fellow. All the spooky things he saw - a big tractor tire, a dead washing machine - he'd pop his head up, snort, and want to go sniff them. He's going to be a great trail horse for K :)
I'm really pleasantly surprised at how he's emotionally matured over the years. He was what, a 3 year old when I got him? Very much a big spooky baby with no attention span. That's how he got labeled in my head, and I've just started to notice how he's steadied down, filled out, just matured mentally and physically.
Anyway, after I'd tuckered Poppy out again (he fell asleep sunbathing right in front of me while I talked to B), I snagged Champ and cruelly forced him to carry me to my parents' house. Champ made his displeasure completely known and tried to halfheartedly spook at everything. I insisted we soldier on, at a trot most of the way. I let him graze in my dad's garden, talked with my parents for a bit, then allowed him to carry me home at a brisk trot. One or two more visits and he'll stop thinking there's wolves in their backyard ;)
Today, of course, it SNOWED. It stopped snowing about noon, and it never really got cold, so almost all of the snow had melted by the time I got out to the horses.
I took Dixie on a fairly short trail ride. I got on and she was off like a rocket, and I reminded myself to not lean forward, not lean back, not yank on her mouth, and not try to rate her speed at all. She slowed down after a couple hundred yards and started listening again. Yay! I've noticed that if I try to make her do what I want when I first get on, she gets scared and kind of shuts down mentally for the rest of the ride. But if I let her have that little bit of total freedom at the very beginning, she'll listen and work with me for the rest of the ride. Silly mares! We rode down by the big fishing lake, where two Terror Birds (a pair of mallards) made her spook hard and half spin, but she came right back to me mentally and didn't actually run. We rode for another couple of miles in the woods, then headed for home. She wanted to bolt for home, but I asked her to slow back down and she did. I was really impressed with her again!
I finished up with a trail-trimming ride on Champ. I took a pair of trimming shears, which worked ok on the small branches, but I need to go back with a hatchet or a hacksaw and take out a few little trees. Did a lot from the saddle, but when we got in the really overgrown trails in the woods I got off and led him along, trimming as I went. I got most of the way through our normal woods trail, then veered off onto an old overgrown trail, then hiked down an honest-to-god deer trail, then ended up behind the dam of the Skeet Lake.
This is not good!
The lakes back there are all manmade, and pretty old. Big trees have grown up on the dams, and some time not too long ago one of those big trees fell and took out a chunk of the dam. I think that lake is not long for this world!
Anyway, if you look closely at that picture, you can see the remains of THE SNOW. Perhaps the world won't end tonight. We've got another 6 weeks of the threat of WHITE DEATH hanging over our heads, though.
Sunday I rode Valentine, and stayed all zen, and got her to trot. It was pretty cool!
Then, back to the field, where I rode Poppy. He did amazingly well! We just rode around the two open paddocks, working on listening to me. Mainly walk, a little whoa, and a few strides of trot. When I got done, I unsaddled him and he wandered about 10 yards away and laid down and took a nap. Poor guy, he's so out of shape and paying attention is such hard work.
Then I loaded Dixie and took her to the main barn and rode her in the covered arena. She was perfect. I mean, absolutely perfect. She was absolutely alert, cause she was in a strange new-ish place, but she was listening to me and perfectly responsive. We rode around for about 30 minutes, working on bending and stopping with just the snaffle rein. Then I walked her back to the truck, untacked her, and led her all around the property hand-grazing the patches of green grass. I was on Cloud 9!
Yesterday I rode Poppy again. T took Goblin and I took Poppy and we went on a super short trail ride. Down the two biggest trails, to both sides of the Skeet Shooting Lake, then back. He remained a very good very calm fellow. All the spooky things he saw - a big tractor tire, a dead washing machine - he'd pop his head up, snort, and want to go sniff them. He's going to be a great trail horse for K :)
I'm really pleasantly surprised at how he's emotionally matured over the years. He was what, a 3 year old when I got him? Very much a big spooky baby with no attention span. That's how he got labeled in my head, and I've just started to notice how he's steadied down, filled out, just matured mentally and physically.
Anyway, after I'd tuckered Poppy out again (he fell asleep sunbathing right in front of me while I talked to B), I snagged Champ and cruelly forced him to carry me to my parents' house. Champ made his displeasure completely known and tried to halfheartedly spook at everything. I insisted we soldier on, at a trot most of the way. I let him graze in my dad's garden, talked with my parents for a bit, then allowed him to carry me home at a brisk trot. One or two more visits and he'll stop thinking there's wolves in their backyard ;)
Today, of course, it SNOWED. It stopped snowing about noon, and it never really got cold, so almost all of the snow had melted by the time I got out to the horses.
I took Dixie on a fairly short trail ride. I got on and she was off like a rocket, and I reminded myself to not lean forward, not lean back, not yank on her mouth, and not try to rate her speed at all. She slowed down after a couple hundred yards and started listening again. Yay! I've noticed that if I try to make her do what I want when I first get on, she gets scared and kind of shuts down mentally for the rest of the ride. But if I let her have that little bit of total freedom at the very beginning, she'll listen and work with me for the rest of the ride. Silly mares! We rode down by the big fishing lake, where two Terror Birds (a pair of mallards) made her spook hard and half spin, but she came right back to me mentally and didn't actually run. We rode for another couple of miles in the woods, then headed for home. She wanted to bolt for home, but I asked her to slow back down and she did. I was really impressed with her again!
I finished up with a trail-trimming ride on Champ. I took a pair of trimming shears, which worked ok on the small branches, but I need to go back with a hatchet or a hacksaw and take out a few little trees. Did a lot from the saddle, but when we got in the really overgrown trails in the woods I got off and led him along, trimming as I went. I got most of the way through our normal woods trail, then veered off onto an old overgrown trail, then hiked down an honest-to-god deer trail, then ended up behind the dam of the Skeet Lake.
This is not good!
The lakes back there are all manmade, and pretty old. Big trees have grown up on the dams, and some time not too long ago one of those big trees fell and took out a chunk of the dam. I think that lake is not long for this world!
Anyway, if you look closely at that picture, you can see the remains of THE SNOW. Perhaps the world won't end tonight. We've got another 6 weeks of the threat of WHITE DEATH hanging over our heads, though.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
I have a plan!
I've been plotting this out for a week, and it's been approved by all parties and set into motion. See, K just got a 2 horse bumper pull which she's leaving at the field, and she said I am welcome to use it... so I'm going to start hauling Dixie over to the main barn for my lessons. I think we're at a point where the two of us could really benefit from instruction. She's steadying down a bit and actually listening to my aids and responding to them, instead of fighting or bolting. And I keep noticing things I'm doing wrong, but I know I don't notice them as quickly as I should.
K said I can just use the trailer, but I insisted on bargaining for it with her - I'm going to ride one of her horses (Promise or Poppy) once a week in exchange for hauling once a week. I keep meaning to ride them, but never actually getting around to it. If I feel obligated, I'll actually do it. And Hardy is excited too, and the barn owner's happy, so yay :)
Catchup - Sunday's lesson on Val went better. I get so frustrated with her and instead of calmly giving an aid I tense up all over, which makes Val completely ignore me. I'd been thinking about that last week, so Sunday I tried to ride in a zen-like state of calm, and it worked pretty well. After the lesson was over, when I was cooling her down, I flopped the stirrups over the pommel and dropped the reins and steered her around with just legs and seat. Hopefully I can hang onto that calmness in the future!
Sunday afternoon I rode Promise again. She still weirds me out, with the lop ears, and I don't feel like I know what she's thinking, but we're getting there. Apparently she is mainly thinking "Oh boy oh boy can we run yet?" We walked in a few prancy circles, then I asked for a trot and got a canter, and then I made the classic beginner error of clamping my legs down in surprise, so we galloped away. It only took a couple seconds for me to realize what I was doing, sit back and relax my legs, and coax her back down to a trot. I'm getting better! She's really not in shape to gallop me around, although she is filling out nicely. I'll keep working with her, and her human is doing some lounge line work with her daily.
Yesterday I rode Dixie on the trails and she did quite well. She listened almost all the time! Then I trimmed Champ and made him exercise me on the dead-end part of the street. We walked a lap, to get us warmed up, then we trotted two or three laps. Part of the time I worked on posting correctly with stirrups, and part of the time I posted without stirrups. I know that I need to work those core muscles to build them up, but at the same time I don't want to flop painfully on my poor horse's back. Google Earth says a lap is a half-mile, so we did about a mile or a mile and a half.
I was planning on riding Poppy today, but I actually got to go to work instead. Yay money! I won't have to work tomorrow until late morning or early afternoon, so I'm going to get up early, ride Poppy, and haul Dixie out to the main barn. She needs to visit a few times before I try to actually have a productive lesson on her.
Anyway, I'm never going to be as disciplined as Andrea, but I actually have a plan. Wooo!
K said I can just use the trailer, but I insisted on bargaining for it with her - I'm going to ride one of her horses (Promise or Poppy) once a week in exchange for hauling once a week. I keep meaning to ride them, but never actually getting around to it. If I feel obligated, I'll actually do it. And Hardy is excited too, and the barn owner's happy, so yay :)
Catchup - Sunday's lesson on Val went better. I get so frustrated with her and instead of calmly giving an aid I tense up all over, which makes Val completely ignore me. I'd been thinking about that last week, so Sunday I tried to ride in a zen-like state of calm, and it worked pretty well. After the lesson was over, when I was cooling her down, I flopped the stirrups over the pommel and dropped the reins and steered her around with just legs and seat. Hopefully I can hang onto that calmness in the future!
Sunday afternoon I rode Promise again. She still weirds me out, with the lop ears, and I don't feel like I know what she's thinking, but we're getting there. Apparently she is mainly thinking "Oh boy oh boy can we run yet?" We walked in a few prancy circles, then I asked for a trot and got a canter, and then I made the classic beginner error of clamping my legs down in surprise, so we galloped away. It only took a couple seconds for me to realize what I was doing, sit back and relax my legs, and coax her back down to a trot. I'm getting better! She's really not in shape to gallop me around, although she is filling out nicely. I'll keep working with her, and her human is doing some lounge line work with her daily.
Yesterday I rode Dixie on the trails and she did quite well. She listened almost all the time! Then I trimmed Champ and made him exercise me on the dead-end part of the street. We walked a lap, to get us warmed up, then we trotted two or three laps. Part of the time I worked on posting correctly with stirrups, and part of the time I posted without stirrups. I know that I need to work those core muscles to build them up, but at the same time I don't want to flop painfully on my poor horse's back. Google Earth says a lap is a half-mile, so we did about a mile or a mile and a half.
I was planning on riding Poppy today, but I actually got to go to work instead. Yay money! I won't have to work tomorrow until late morning or early afternoon, so I'm going to get up early, ride Poppy, and haul Dixie out to the main barn. She needs to visit a few times before I try to actually have a productive lesson on her.
Anyway, I'm never going to be as disciplined as Andrea, but I actually have a plan. Wooo!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Look, ma, no stirrups!
I was in a horrible cruddy mood today. All day, I watched it pour down rain and get colder and colder. Cersei awoke from her afternoon nap about 4 and wanted to go play, so I grumbled and bundled up and headed out. (Her afternoon nap is distinguished from her morning nap by a pee break sometime between 11 am and 1 pm, in case you were wondering. A tired dog is a happy dog!)
Anyway, so it was 33 degrees and raining, but I rode anyway. It was Champ's day, and I didn't want to do anything except ride around a few minutes til my mood improved. The ground was sodden and it was almost dark, so I went did a few short laps on the dead-end part of Polk Lane. There are only four houses on that street past my barn, so I felt safe enough out there.
We did a couple of laps walking to the end and jogging back, while I thought about how exactly one posts without stirrups and without falling off. Eventually, I just wiggled my toes out of the stirrups and gave it a shot. I didn't fall off! I can see what a great exercise it is for balance and core strength, and I plan to do it again next time I ride Champ.
Then I got my truck stuck in the mud again. Oh well. I didn't even have a meltdown about it; I'd already ridden so I was pretty chill. K tried to tow me out, but she couldn't get much traction so we'll just leave it there til Wednesday.
The unexpected side benefit was getting to take my husband's 325i to the grocery store. Vroom zoom zoom, it's like piloting a small rocket ship around.
Anyway, so it was 33 degrees and raining, but I rode anyway. It was Champ's day, and I didn't want to do anything except ride around a few minutes til my mood improved. The ground was sodden and it was almost dark, so I went did a few short laps on the dead-end part of Polk Lane. There are only four houses on that street past my barn, so I felt safe enough out there.
We did a couple of laps walking to the end and jogging back, while I thought about how exactly one posts without stirrups and without falling off. Eventually, I just wiggled my toes out of the stirrups and gave it a shot. I didn't fall off! I can see what a great exercise it is for balance and core strength, and I plan to do it again next time I ride Champ.
Then I got my truck stuck in the mud again. Oh well. I didn't even have a meltdown about it; I'd already ridden so I was pretty chill. K tried to tow me out, but she couldn't get much traction so we'll just leave it there til Wednesday.
The unexpected side benefit was getting to take my husband's 325i to the grocery store. Vroom zoom zoom, it's like piloting a small rocket ship around.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Schoolin' Dixie
Today was Dixie's turn again. I took T and Goblin and we went out into the fallow soybean field so I could, uh, pretend to school my mare. (I feel like a bit of a fraud.) Exciting wildlife alert: we saw 9 (!!!) turkeys and a big doe. Oh, and a dead box turtle. The turtle was odd - he was on his back, but I could see that his upper shell had been broken. I'd think that if a dog/coyote/fox had gotten him, the carnivore would've gotten in through the bottom shell, the plastron. So I wonder if a redtailed hawk had snagged the turtle from a nearby lake and dropped it in the field to break it open? Do hawks DO that? Anyway, that's my working theory.
Horse stuff: The double reins were slightly easier to handle, yay! I kept working mainly on following her head as she walked, and helping her bend her whole body into the circles we made.
Her head nod is immense, really it is. I have to move my arms about six inches to follow her when she's just walking around slowly. The head nod decreases as she gaits faster; I think it's a function of that pseudo-collection that gaited horses do to gait.
We had a couple of really nice curves a few times. I can't really do round circles yet - I'm not good at "seeing" the circle in my mind, it's a big field with no frame of reference, and her "sun" is back toward her field. It's funny how dressage articles always talk as if a horse is just floating around the arena, when every real horse I've ever been on has been attracted more to one area/direction. It's like they drift toward the gate, or drift toward home, or drift away from that menacing tree/shadow/horse-eating-monster. This was the first time Dixie had been in that field, so she was naturally attracted to the direction of her home.
Anyway, I worked a bit on keeping the same bend and speed when we were headed toward home and away from it, and I did a few spirals in and out. I'm trying to show her what leg aids are and that they're not out to get her. She used to come completely unglued at any leg at all, and she's still inclined to panic about leg, but she's getting better.
After we headed back to her field, I reintroduced her to a whip. She was astonishingly headshy when I first got her; I'm almost positive the persons who broke her to ride got her to gait by spurring her to speed up and whacking her on the head with a whip if she trotted or cantered. It worked, I suppose, but it left her with just a few issues. I got T to hand me the dressage whip verrry slowly, then I cautiously held it away from Dixie's butt and asked her to walk off.
Then I accidentally let the whip flop a bit and the very tip of it touched her butt so we racked in circles for a while. Sigh.
Once I got her listening to me again I started gently running the whip all over her neck and butt, both sides. After I got off, I kept meddling with her with the whip. She was more intrigued than frightened - she kept stretching out to stare at it and smell it.
Pretty successful ride, all together. I do feel like a fraud, because I know how very little I know. :( But I'm gonna keep plugging on with this, because I don't have the money or the desire to send her away to a high-end gaited trainer and I just haven't found anybody local who is both classically-oriented and familiar with gaited horses. I don't know what I want from her; maybe I don't want anything in particular from her. I think I just want to unlock that awesome mare that's hiding inside the scared one.
Horse stuff: The double reins were slightly easier to handle, yay! I kept working mainly on following her head as she walked, and helping her bend her whole body into the circles we made.
Her head nod is immense, really it is. I have to move my arms about six inches to follow her when she's just walking around slowly. The head nod decreases as she gaits faster; I think it's a function of that pseudo-collection that gaited horses do to gait.
We had a couple of really nice curves a few times. I can't really do round circles yet - I'm not good at "seeing" the circle in my mind, it's a big field with no frame of reference, and her "sun" is back toward her field. It's funny how dressage articles always talk as if a horse is just floating around the arena, when every real horse I've ever been on has been attracted more to one area/direction. It's like they drift toward the gate, or drift toward home, or drift away from that menacing tree/shadow/horse-eating-monster. This was the first time Dixie had been in that field, so she was naturally attracted to the direction of her home.
Anyway, I worked a bit on keeping the same bend and speed when we were headed toward home and away from it, and I did a few spirals in and out. I'm trying to show her what leg aids are and that they're not out to get her. She used to come completely unglued at any leg at all, and she's still inclined to panic about leg, but she's getting better.
After we headed back to her field, I reintroduced her to a whip. She was astonishingly headshy when I first got her; I'm almost positive the persons who broke her to ride got her to gait by spurring her to speed up and whacking her on the head with a whip if she trotted or cantered. It worked, I suppose, but it left her with just a few issues. I got T to hand me the dressage whip verrry slowly, then I cautiously held it away from Dixie's butt and asked her to walk off.
Then I accidentally let the whip flop a bit and the very tip of it touched her butt so we racked in circles for a while. Sigh.
Once I got her listening to me again I started gently running the whip all over her neck and butt, both sides. After I got off, I kept meddling with her with the whip. She was more intrigued than frightened - she kept stretching out to stare at it and smell it.
Pretty successful ride, all together. I do feel like a fraud, because I know how very little I know. :( But I'm gonna keep plugging on with this, because I don't have the money or the desire to send her away to a high-end gaited trainer and I just haven't found anybody local who is both classically-oriented and familiar with gaited horses. I don't know what I want from her; maybe I don't want anything in particular from her. I think I just want to unlock that awesome mare that's hiding inside the scared one.
Post-Christmas rides
So I've had a pretty good weekend. Lots of riding, of course!
Friday I rode Champ back out to the shack and took some more pictures. He was remarkably good-natured about the whole thing. I fussed with my leg position for a long time then got frustrated and rode home without stirrups. Stupid things are definitely hung too far forward. I'm still trying to decide what to do, in the long term, about that.
Saturday I went to Frayser and rode with James. I got to ride Rascal, James' incredibly fast racking horse, and James rode Surprise, who is still a psycho. A bucking psycho at that. Anyway, I took a bunch of pictures of the trails because I swear to god yall wouldn't believe them otherwise.
This is pretty blurry, but it's representative.
More mud and ruts!
Here's the train bridge. The space under the bridge is just high enough that riding underneath on a tall horse, you can reach up and brush the bridge with your fingertips.
It feels very postapocalyptic back there. Junk, trees, four wheelers, and horses. It's not much of a stretch to imagine zombies too.
There's quite a few long smooth straightaways too. Gas pipeline access roads and open fields. It's a nice mix of places where you can really stretch a horse out in his fast gait versus horrible soupy slippy mudholes where the horse has to pick his way along. A good ride with good company.
Cersei came with us, of course. We rode for nearly two hours, and she had a blast. James and I laughed, thinking about her first few trail rides as a puppy. We'd all start out together, me and James on our horses with puppy-Cersei gamely following. After a quarter mile or so, she'd be worn out so she'd run in front of us, sit down, and start barking. James would get off, grab her, and pass her up to me. I'd stick her in a messenger bag and off we'd go again. After a mile or so she'd squirm and holler so I'd let her down. She'd run like hell for another quarter mile before we started the whole thing over again. I guess it was annoying, but they're not puppies for very long. :)
Sunday I had another frustrating lesson. Things are still slowly coming together, I think. When I read Daun's year in review post, I got all depressed. Seven dressage lessons at the start of '08? Aaaarrrgh why do I suck so ba- wait. She's been riding correctly, with instruction, for like 5x longer than I've been bouncing around in blissful ignorance. I'm probably doing fine.
After the lesson, I went and tried Dixie with double reins. JME had suggested it, in the comments on her post about bitless bridles, and it worked quite well. I had the curb for when she got panicked about the strange feel of the snaffle rein, and the snaffle rein actually did encourage her to bend her body instead of scrambling through a turn only using her feet.
I only rode her for about 30 minutes. Dixie needs to build up stamina, but I think it's important to not fall into a pattern of working her hard every time I ride. Whenever I'm out there, she follows me around like a very large and very nervous puppy. I don't want to squash her interest in me.
Friday I rode Champ back out to the shack and took some more pictures. He was remarkably good-natured about the whole thing. I fussed with my leg position for a long time then got frustrated and rode home without stirrups. Stupid things are definitely hung too far forward. I'm still trying to decide what to do, in the long term, about that.
Saturday I went to Frayser and rode with James. I got to ride Rascal, James' incredibly fast racking horse, and James rode Surprise, who is still a psycho. A bucking psycho at that. Anyway, I took a bunch of pictures of the trails because I swear to god yall wouldn't believe them otherwise.
This is pretty blurry, but it's representative.
More mud and ruts!
Here's the train bridge. The space under the bridge is just high enough that riding underneath on a tall horse, you can reach up and brush the bridge with your fingertips.
It feels very postapocalyptic back there. Junk, trees, four wheelers, and horses. It's not much of a stretch to imagine zombies too.
There's quite a few long smooth straightaways too. Gas pipeline access roads and open fields. It's a nice mix of places where you can really stretch a horse out in his fast gait versus horrible soupy slippy mudholes where the horse has to pick his way along. A good ride with good company.
Cersei came with us, of course. We rode for nearly two hours, and she had a blast. James and I laughed, thinking about her first few trail rides as a puppy. We'd all start out together, me and James on our horses with puppy-Cersei gamely following. After a quarter mile or so, she'd be worn out so she'd run in front of us, sit down, and start barking. James would get off, grab her, and pass her up to me. I'd stick her in a messenger bag and off we'd go again. After a mile or so she'd squirm and holler so I'd let her down. She'd run like hell for another quarter mile before we started the whole thing over again. I guess it was annoying, but they're not puppies for very long. :)
Sunday I had another frustrating lesson. Things are still slowly coming together, I think. When I read Daun's year in review post, I got all depressed. Seven dressage lessons at the start of '08? Aaaarrrgh why do I suck so ba- wait. She's been riding correctly, with instruction, for like 5x longer than I've been bouncing around in blissful ignorance. I'm probably doing fine.
After the lesson, I went and tried Dixie with double reins. JME had suggested it, in the comments on her post about bitless bridles, and it worked quite well. I had the curb for when she got panicked about the strange feel of the snaffle rein, and the snaffle rein actually did encourage her to bend her body instead of scrambling through a turn only using her feet.
I only rode her for about 30 minutes. Dixie needs to build up stamina, but I think it's important to not fall into a pattern of working her hard every time I ride. Whenever I'm out there, she follows me around like a very large and very nervous puppy. I don't want to squash her interest in me.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
More catchup!
So Sunday I rode all day. It was sunny and gorgeous and fairly cold, like I mentioned before, so I wore a couple extra shirts and my gloves.
My dressage lesson was frustrating, again. I cannot get that damn pony to trot for love or money. When she did condescend to trot (cause Hardy trotted by on his horse), however, we did something really cool. We jumped!
She chose to trot for me once, and we trotted the cavalletti. We came back to a walk, and Hardy and I talked for a bit, then we convinced Princess Val to trot again, and Hardy sent me over this completely tiny jump - like a low X jump set on its lowest side, really intended to be a trot exercise. I was all "Nooooo way!" and he was like "trot it!" so we trotted up to it... and Val gave a tiny little hop from the trot.
I did not fall off, and I did not yank on her mouth, and I did not even get really off balance. Pretty cool!
At the end of the hour, we swapped horses and Hardy, of course, barely had to squeeze to get her to trot. He thinks that my legs are still a bit too far forward. I am somewhat skeptical and suspect the horse loves to torment me, but I will go next week in a good attitude and try getting my legs a bit further back. I sulk on here, but I do try to listen, learn, etc. during lessons. ;)
After that, I drove up to my old barn and went riding with James. He was riding some big rangy horse he swore was gaited - not his, one he was reriding for the barn owner - and I got to ride SSB. SSB is James' very own young pyscho TWH/SSH. We went on a fairly long ride, over two hours. The trails there are just as bad as I remembered, nothing but deep ruts and slushy mud and roaring 4 wheelers.
SSB is a fun little ride. She's as bad as Dixie used to be about not standing for a rider to mount; you've really got to scramble on board and go racking away fumbling for the off stirrup. She has pretty good steering. When James got her, she was incredibly pacey - he's gotten her to where she does a tolerable and fast stepping pace. If yall are interested, I could go into a lot of detail about gaits, but I feel like I ramble way too much anyway.
SSB didn't have brakes at first, til she got used to the way I ask for a halt. I have a minor talent for teaching walking horses to woah - nobody EVER gives them ANY release, because you "gotta" hang on their mouths at all time. If I can get the first pause, I release really fast and they get absolute loose rein unless they start to move their feet again. It works, it really does.
We had a fantastic if chilly ride til we turned for home. The two long fields on the way back were absolutely brutal with the wind whipping by - my (uninsulated) thighs were numb and my (uncovered) face was burning from the wind. Ugh. When we got back, the flappy loose end of my girth strap was frozen stiff with icemud. Double ugh!
At one point, SSB slipped in the mud and went down on her knees and I was sure that we were both about to get a frozen mud facial. But astonishingly, I never went off balance and she scrambled right back up. And even more astonishingly, I wasn't terrified that I was going to end up dragged or trampled or launched into a tree. The lessons are paying off in so many ways!
I can't decide whether to feel guilty or not. SSB is pretty young and we rode HARD. If she was my horse, I wouldn't ride her that hard. But the thing is, she's not my horse and she gets ridden that hard all the time. I rode her balanced and with kind hands. I didn't push her to GO GO GO, she's just a young psycho who chooses to GO GO GO nonstop for miles. And if I hadn't ridden her, she wouldn't have gotten the day off - just ridden with hard hands instead. Sooo... not my horse, not my rules.
My dressage lesson was frustrating, again. I cannot get that damn pony to trot for love or money. When she did condescend to trot (cause Hardy trotted by on his horse), however, we did something really cool. We jumped!
She chose to trot for me once, and we trotted the cavalletti. We came back to a walk, and Hardy and I talked for a bit, then we convinced Princess Val to trot again, and Hardy sent me over this completely tiny jump - like a low X jump set on its lowest side, really intended to be a trot exercise. I was all "Nooooo way!" and he was like "trot it!" so we trotted up to it... and Val gave a tiny little hop from the trot.
I did not fall off, and I did not yank on her mouth, and I did not even get really off balance. Pretty cool!
At the end of the hour, we swapped horses and Hardy, of course, barely had to squeeze to get her to trot. He thinks that my legs are still a bit too far forward. I am somewhat skeptical and suspect the horse loves to torment me, but I will go next week in a good attitude and try getting my legs a bit further back. I sulk on here, but I do try to listen, learn, etc. during lessons. ;)
After that, I drove up to my old barn and went riding with James. He was riding some big rangy horse he swore was gaited - not his, one he was reriding for the barn owner - and I got to ride SSB. SSB is James' very own young pyscho TWH/SSH. We went on a fairly long ride, over two hours. The trails there are just as bad as I remembered, nothing but deep ruts and slushy mud and roaring 4 wheelers.
SSB is a fun little ride. She's as bad as Dixie used to be about not standing for a rider to mount; you've really got to scramble on board and go racking away fumbling for the off stirrup. She has pretty good steering. When James got her, she was incredibly pacey - he's gotten her to where she does a tolerable and fast stepping pace. If yall are interested, I could go into a lot of detail about gaits, but I feel like I ramble way too much anyway.
SSB didn't have brakes at first, til she got used to the way I ask for a halt. I have a minor talent for teaching walking horses to woah - nobody EVER gives them ANY release, because you "gotta" hang on their mouths at all time. If I can get the first pause, I release really fast and they get absolute loose rein unless they start to move their feet again. It works, it really does.
We had a fantastic if chilly ride til we turned for home. The two long fields on the way back were absolutely brutal with the wind whipping by - my (uninsulated) thighs were numb and my (uncovered) face was burning from the wind. Ugh. When we got back, the flappy loose end of my girth strap was frozen stiff with icemud. Double ugh!
At one point, SSB slipped in the mud and went down on her knees and I was sure that we were both about to get a frozen mud facial. But astonishingly, I never went off balance and she scrambled right back up. And even more astonishingly, I wasn't terrified that I was going to end up dragged or trampled or launched into a tree. The lessons are paying off in so many ways!
I can't decide whether to feel guilty or not. SSB is pretty young and we rode HARD. If she was my horse, I wouldn't ride her that hard. But the thing is, she's not my horse and she gets ridden that hard all the time. I rode her balanced and with kind hands. I didn't push her to GO GO GO, she's just a young psycho who chooses to GO GO GO nonstop for miles. And if I hadn't ridden her, she wouldn't have gotten the day off - just ridden with hard hands instead. Sooo... not my horse, not my rules.
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