Happy Feelings

I went out to ride yesterday and had a frustrating time. Izzy was leaning out both shoulders, spooking at random things, and generally ignoring me like an obnoxious teenager. We had a few good moments, but they weren't connected.

When I got home last night, I spent some time thinking about our ride. I was using an inside opening rein to turn, but that just encouraged Izzy to pop her outside shoulder out and lean through it. For obvious reasons, I'm not a huge fan of this maneuver. In an ideal world, I would be able to open my inside rein and ride her from my outside aids, but we're simply not there yet. It's coming.

Today we needed to work on the same things we did yesterday, so I tried to approach it carefully. It was late, so I didn't bother lunging Izzy. She was fine. I worked on keeping both hands pretty much together on top of her withers and riding turns from my body at the walk. This is a pretty basic concept, but Izzy's young and inexperienced enough that it seems earth-shaking to her. She does lean either direction, so I tried keeping her balanced and centered by holding the outside rein steady and giving the inside rein while using my body to turn and my legs and whip as a reminder.

Izzy had a meltdown.

She didn't want to work, didn't want to go forward, didn't want to listen. She backed way off and tried to get behind my leg. I just sent her forward and kept asking. We made big circles, even in the scary areas, but she had to go forward, first and foremost. Then she tried running in to canter, but she didn't realize that she was simply playing in to my plans. I want her balanced at all three gaits, and what we were working on was not gait-specific. So I rode the canter and continued to ask.

It took several circles, but she started listening and moving. It almost seemed easier for her at the canter, but maybe that's because she's not as coordinated so I can influence her more easily. When she could trot a circle in each direction, staying under my weight without leaning out either shoulder, we were done.

And thank you everyone for your input on the previous post. It's a topic that I may revisit.

The Trouble With Learning

I did manage to get out for a short while yesterday afternoon. It was windy but not cold, so Izzy and I did some walk/trot work after I turned her out to run like a wild pony around the arena. She's a good girl. I put her back before working too hard because it was time for the evening feeding.

As I'm sure most of you are aware, my first and foremost occupation right now is being a student. I'm in a social science field that I enjoy, and I'm a very active student. I research (sometimes for pay), and attend academic conferences. I like reading research.

This is why the horse world bugs me. So much of what we do is based on tradition with zero research involved as far as I can tell. Person A says, "You absolutely must do this", while Person B claims that if you do what Person A said, your horse will be lame for the rest of it's life. Don't even get me started on Person C.

The only rational response is the one that I think we've all adopted: we listen politely, evaluate what we hear based on our knowledge, and do a lot of trial-and-error to see what works. That's ok, I guess, but horses have been with us for centuries. Millenia, even. There is a lot of money in the horse industry, even if none of us are blessed enough to have it. Why is there not research to support any of these assertions?

For example, on a yahoo group I'm a member of (Jean is the founder, I think), a question came up on how to best store a saddle. I gave an answer that while slightly unconventional, came from my direct experience. I was immediately shot down by someone who claimed that what I said was wrong. Maybe I am wrong. I'm open to that. I'm just irritated by an argument with no supporting claims, no research, no anything.

Sadly, that type of argument is the one we hear the most. Am I just a crazy nerd for wanting some evidence?

I Miss My Pony

I've barely seen Izzy lately, and it shows. My husband and I were at Borders last night. I (surprise!) ended up in the horse section. I love to look through their books, but I rarely buy anything. It's usually a bad selection and overpriced, so if I do find anything I like, I just go find it online. I know, I know, that's not going to keep Borders in business.

There were a couple books that caught my eye. One, Beyond the Track, is very tempting. It's all about retraining an ex-racehorse, from the pre-purchase inspection to advanced riding. I'm fascinated but I know better than to buy a book that is just going to make me want another horse even more. One project pony is enough.

I looked at two other books, and was rather appalled. One was on natural horse care or keeping horses naturally, or somesuch. Obviously, the book was promoting a certain agenda that I'm not totally sold on. It has some fairly solid-sounding advice about feeding horses, but when it delved in to tack, it just started to annoy me. In every picture, the tack was ill-fitted, cooked, poorly adjusted, and/or dirty. It's one thing if I put up pictures on my blog of dirty tack, which I don't. I'm not getting paid by anyone for it. It's quite another to publish a book like that.

The other book was on fixing problem horses. I'd provide a link, but I didn't pay attention to the title and a brief amazon search isn't turning it up. In nearly every picture in this book, the horses were in either draw reins or martingales and the riders were helmetless. In addition, the riders' positions looked a lot like mine right now: unpolished. Another picture featured a barrel racer with a tie-down connected to her horse's poll. Over the poll was a chain.

I'm disgusted. I know it's not "traditional" to wear a helmet and ride western, so I'll leave that alone for now, but english riders without helmets in a training book? Really? I can thank my helmet for the fact that I'm here today, so this bothers me.

Next off, while I acknowledge the book did not specifically advocate using draw reins and martingales in the text, certainly showing them in all the pictures has an equally powerful effect. What are they thinking? I'm not totally anti-draw rein. I think they can be used briefly and tactfully to further a horse's training by an experienced rider. That certainly does not extend to someone who is buying a book to train their horse. And martingales? Really? I used one on Izzy briefly after she gave me a concussion from throwing her head. I became convinced that she threw her head due to discomfort at her withers, and after getting my new saddle, took it off. She hasn't thrown her head since. I understand some high level jumpers and eventers wanting martingales to prevent accidental concussions like the one I got, but beyond that, I do not support their use. If you are training a horse, the martingale should become unnecessary and again, they should not be marketed to people who will use them because they saw them in a book.

As for the chain over the poll... I have no useful words. Maybe it would help if we made the rider and photographer try doing similar athletic feats with their arms chained down. Hm, sounds like it would be easier and kinder to instead do things slowly and let the horse develop balance than just chain their head down and hope for the best... just a thought.

The other treasure I found was a book by Mark Rashid, who Kate is a fan of. While looking through his book, I realized that he is the author of a book I read when I was pretty young and haven't been able to locate since. Score!! I love his methods and writing style, so when my bank account has recovered from ordering my bridle, I'll be looking in to getting some of his books online. The book I read of his years ago was the one that gave me the idea for dealing with Izzy's sticky spot problem. Hooray!

Oh well. I'm hoping to sneak out and ride this afternoon, which means I need to get cracking on homework right now.

Good News and Bad News

After one of the worst weeks of my life (I only wish I was joking), I still have 50 pages to write by Thursday. Also, it's frigid outside.

The good news is that Izzy is happy and well, if a little neglected. She certainly doesn't mind a little more time off. Also, my teachers have been very understanding, so I won't have to turn in all 50 pages on Thursday.

The bad news is that my Thanksgiving break will now be spent writing a very important paper instead of riding. Such is life.

So again... I may not be blogging much for a while longer. ;-) Thanks for understanding.

May Be Offline...

Izzy was wonderful this morning. She probably wouldn't have made a dressage teacher happy, but she made me happy, and that's the point.

I have had a pretty serious family situation come up. Coupled with the massive amount of school stuff I still have to do, I will probably not be posting much for at least the next week or two. Send prayers, happy thoughts, and good karma my way.

Reflections

Thank you for all your input! Here's the plan for now:

1) General fitness. I used to be in incredibly good shape, but the past couple semesters have been dreadfully busy, and I let it slide. To remedy this, I'm trying to incorporate more activity into my routine. For example, I have a few free minutes in the morning, so I'm doing cruches and pilates before getting breakfast started. I'm trying to walk my dogs at least a half hour a day, which is good for me and them. I'll look for other ways to add to this.

2) Reading. It's been a long, long time since I had regular lessons, so I need reminders of how I'm supposed to ride.

3) The riding buddy is a good idea, but it's hard to find someone who rides at the same time I do and my schedule isn't flexible enough to change right now. I can probably find someone to swap lunge lessons with or something like that. It's not so much that we'd teach each other as just have another set of eyes on the ground, keeping the horse going forward. Izzy wouldn't be much good for this, but Flash or Cassie could do it.

4) I'll just say it now. I'm terrified of seeing myself on video. I don't like the sound of my voice recorded and I don't like to see what I look like. I think it's a lot worse since I've put on weight, too. This is something we can work towards, but I'm not ready for it yet. (And yes, I hear the argument that if I do it now I'll be able to see how far I've come, but some things are best forgotten.)

Now that I'm aware of the magnitude of the problem, I think I can make strides to fix it. As Kate mentioned, I need to realize what I'm doing and how it affects (effects? I can never keep those two straight) Izzy and any other horse I ride.

And now, back to the homework that's kept me away from Miss Izzy the past several days. :-(

5) As the weather gets worse, I do traditionally ride bareback. I have ridden Izzy bareback a couple times, and she's ok with it, so we will move on to that when it's too cold to do much else. In the mean time, we'll work as hard as we can with a saddle.

PS Bear with me on the header. I'm trying to change the picture, but it's more complicated than I thought.

Ideas

I am blogging twice in a fairly short period of time, so if you haven't seen it, there are Izzy pictures in my previous post.

That said, I'm still dismayed by my fairly dismal equitation. I am working on a remedy. I can't do a lot of lessons now. Maybe after the first of the year I can work more and afford some, but then the weather will be crappy.

So I'm making do with what I have. The USDF Guide to Dressage came in the mail yesterday, and I'm already 60 pages in. It's supposed to be a pretty basic book, so I can use it for position reviews and the like. Plus, once Thanksgiving break hits, I'll have a little more time because I'll have turned in all my paper and I won't have class, so I can ride a little more. There are several horses in need of exercise. The field looks like this:

Izzy-obviously. She's getting to be pretty fun, so I should be able to focus more on position and technique than just going forward. I can already see huge improvements in her from what we learned in the clinic, so there's hope.

Cassie-she's pretty much just standing around. Cathy wants me to ride her more to get her in shape for someone else to lease her anyways, so this is an excellent option. The only reason I haven't ridden her is that I just don't have time right now.

Ellie-Izzy's pasture mate. She was quite happily on a lease, but the girl leasing her had to give it up for her sports season. College scholarships have to come from somewhere. Ellie is a difficult horse to ride, which will give me some variety.

Gabe-He's a TB gelding of uncertain age... I think in his early teens. His owner is away at college and can't ride him right now. He doesn't have much dressage type experience, but he's pretty easy-going. I rode him a lot two summers ago, before I had Izzy.

Flash-A paint mare trained through second level dressage. This is another case of the owner being away at college. She's a friend of mine, so I may even try to take a lesson on this mare. It's the closest I'm going to come to an advanced horse, I think.

My advantages are that my saddle (loving the treeless) will fit all of them, so I won't have to compete for tack. I have a bridle for Cassie, and Ellie and Gabe each have their own unique bridle.

I will also try to watch as many lessons as possible, but I think clinics are pretty much over for the year. :-/ I've never watched horsie type videos, but they're fairly expensive and I don't know anyone who has them, so that's out for now. Any other recommendations?

A Lovely Weekend

The weather was beautiful and Izzy was in a mood to cooperate. It was great. A good friend of mine came out and took pictures of us on Saturday. She got some marvelous shots of Izzy, but a lot of the riding pictures emphasize just how much I need lessons. Ugh. At least now I know what I look like, and it's not pretty.

I have enough pictures to keep posting them for a while, but here are a few.

Lunging Day

After a monumental effort towards school work yesterday, I was back out to ride this morning. Or at least I thought I was. It was warm, but the sky was threatening, so I tacked up Izzy quickly, then started lunging. As soon as we got in the arena, the wind picked up and the sky got darker.

She was pretty dramatic about the whole thing. She tried galloping and bucking. She tried whinnying to her friends. She even spun around and ran the wrong way, which was comical, because after three or four strides, she realized she was going the wrong way, so she spun back around.

I decided that it probably wasn't a good day to ride, all things considered. I lunged her in both directions until she settled, then worked on transitions on, then put her away. I don't know if she learned anything, but I didn't feel like riding a crazy horse today. Besides, if I broke my arm, I wouldn't be able to write the next 60 pages I need to finish to get my new bridle.

Seriously. ;-)

Where Izzy Is Good and I Feel Sick

Blogger just ate my post. WHY?

Anyways. The gist of it was that I'm trying to write 80 pages in the next 15 days. So far, I have 10 done. Also, I have a horrible stats test coming up. When I complete that goal, I will buy the beautiful bridle. You can see it here.

I did try to ride Izzy this morning. I got her all ready and felt like crap, so we pretty much just walked around and worked on changing bend until I went home. She was a good girl and after a few minutes, she really relaxed.