Some Pictures

Relaxation

Izzy was marvelous this morning. She was quiet and relaxed on the ground, fine on the lunge line, and excellent under saddle. I didn't ask for too much because I was running a little late, but we had such a nice ride.

This isn't a very interesting post. It's hardly fun to read about when everything goes well...

So, let's talk about horse boots. I love boots. I like buying them. I like putting them on. I like how they look. I like the protection that afford. I do not, however, actually believe that they provide any support. That said, I'm lucky to have a horse that doesn't really need any support anyways. My current leg protection options include:

-royal blue polos (set of 4)
-white polos (set of 4)
-leather open fronts (pair)
-neoprene galloping boots (set of 4)
-white fleece-lined dressage boots (pair, with the hind ones in the mail)
-no-turn black bell boots (pair)
-white velcro closure bell boots (pair)

I like to put boots on Izzy because I figure that a set of boots is vastly cheaper than a vet bill. I also like how cute she looks in them. In addition, I think it's easier to see evenness in her stride when her legs are all the same color... Maybe that's reaching a little far.

I can't be alone in my weird boot fixation. Does anyone else use boots? Why or why not?

Where I'm Thankful for a Naughty Pony

I had a lovely ride this morning. I got Izzy forward, and she stayed soft and balanced almost the whole time. She's still absolutely not allowed to focus both ears on something outside the arena for more than a split second before I change the subject and get her back, and I'm thinking this is something I need to keep. She's a very smart horse and the more engaged she is in what she's doing, the more we both enjoy it. I need to challenge her enough to hold her interest.

It boils down to this: the end result of Izzy rearing the other day is an increased connection between us. Twisted, but true. It's a very aggressive reminder that Izzy is not a horse I can just play around on. She is an athlete, mentally and physically, and I need to respect that by giving her something to do.

Also, while riding today, I realized that my lower right leg is way too loose. I let it slide forward when I post, and then it slaps the saddle... My Ansur is telling on me again. When I focused on keeping my legs underneath me and giving Izzy a little squeeze every time I sat, the problem went away.

Other things:

I cleaned all my tack yesterday and it's gorgeous. I love riding in clean tack. If I had a little more time, I'd probably clean it every day.

Read this post. I stumbled across this blog the other day, and I love what she has to say.

The Vice Queen. Sigh.

It warmed up nicely yesterday, so I made it out for a ride. I free-lunged Izzy in the arena because she hadn't gotten out Sunday, thinking she would enjoy a little free time. She mostly ignored and trotted around visiting other horses. Keep this in mind. It's important later on.

She was fine to tack up, but when I put her on the lunge line, she lacked impulsion and seemed more focused on what was going on outside the arena than in. Oddly, there was really nothing going on. I was the only person at the barn. We'll call this clue #2. I just wrote off the laziness to the somewhat-slick footing.

She stood completely quietly at the mounting block. I'm hoping this isn't related to clue #3, which was that she hesitated to walk off when I asked her to, which meant she was ignoring my aids.

We made it about a hundred feet before we heard a funny noise. Not scary, just odd. It sounded like a wheelbarrow or something, but there was no one around to push it. Izzy completely ignored my aids and spun around to face the noise. I figured that she won't get to do that sort of thing at shows, so I spun her back around to face the way I wanted to go. This might have been clue #4.

Izzy went straight up. Yes. In the air. As in rearing with me again. Sigh. I managed not to pull on her face, but I had missed all four clues leading up to this, so I didn't have time to think and pull her in a circle while sending her forward. Instead, as soon as her front feet hit the ground, I leaped off. I ignored my shaking legs as she reared again and pranced in a circle. I marched her to the fence, grabbed my lunge line and a whip, and IMMEDIATELY, I sent her forward. Fast.

She galloped for a good five minutes one way, then the other. Rearing, especially in this instance, is the ultimate refusal to go forward. It wasn't a reaction to pain, like it was last time. It was her alpha mare side saying, "I will do this and you won't stop me." I realize that I've been lenient with her lately, and not as dominant on the ground as a horse of her makeup requires. After lunging, I got back on her.

Let me clarify something here for any new readers: Izzy's vice is her refusal to go forward. Rearing is an exaggeration of that vice. I'll probably never entirely get the rearing out of her completely, but I can see the warning signs and more than likely prevent her from doing it on all but the rarest occasions. If you have a horse that rears, please, please, please seek professional help. It is an extremely dangerous issue, especially if it is allowed to fester. Oh, and don't ride alone. ;-)

So. I got back on Izzy with one thing in mind: she needs to go forward off my aids. I let her get behind my leg and I put up with her antics instead of applying the proper discipline. At this point, she knew I was PISSED. I had recovered my self possession to the point that I was steady again. I wish someone was there, just in case, but this was an important point to make with Izzy, and I needed to make it now.

She did stand nicely for mounting again, and I rode her forward from there. As in almost rushing forward. Forward from the seat, leg, and whip. We didn't walk, because walk isn't our strongest gait right now and she would have a lot harder time going from a faster gait to rearing than from the walk. I rode for probably 20-30 minutes, doing trot/canter transitions each way. I didn't let her use the footing as an excuse. Anytime she even thought about looking around, I changed the subject. If we were going forward and she looked around, I'd make her go sideways (and forward).

By the time we were done, she was doing quite well. I took her tack off, since it had been a hard day for her, and turned her loose in the arena. She was nice and quiet and followed me around. When I led her back to the hitching post, she just ran into me. Not hard, but she was challenging my status again by getting in my space. Obviously, after her performance under saddle, I couldn't let this happen. I whipped out a rope halter, and we did about five minutes of ground work to enforce the "go when I go, stop when I stop, go backwards when I walk in to you" mentality.

Then I put her away.

This morning, I rode again. It was a short ride, since I bet her rear end is sore from rearing and I don't want to aggravate it and cause a pain issue. Still, we worked on the same thing. Ironically, when I asked for our first canter departure of the day, she bucked. Grrr. This mare has not bucked under saddle before.

If it's not one thing, it's another.

Where Izzy Learns a New Trick

It hasn't rained in like 4 days... I think that's a record for 2010 so far here. Saturday, my friends came out to ride. We only had two treeless saddles for the three of us, so we all went bareback. It was quite fun, until the neighbors started flying around a remote-control plane. Even that was ok, until the neighborhood dogs went nuts barking at it. Miss Izzy has a thing about dogs, so she cantered sideways all the way across the arena.

It was pretty hilarious and not that hard to ride. I wonder if I can replicate that move at a show... I'm thinking not.

I'm gambling that despite the current outside temperature of 20f, the clear skies mean that it will be warm enough to ride outside in the afternoon today. Cross your fingers for me.

Fun Day

Thanks for your comments yesterday everyone; I'm glad I'm not the only one is ok with setting boundaries with trainers.

It rained all night and I cleaned this morning, so by the time I was done, I didn't really feel like trekking over to the Doom Bubble to ride. Instead, I turned some of the girls out in the arena. Cassie, my old TB mare, and Ellie, her Hanoverian friend, are probably going to be ridden by a couple of my friends tomorrow, so I figured it was best just to let them get the willies out. They had a ball galloping around in the mud. When they were done, I groomed them and put them away.

I turned Izzy out by herself because I don't really trust her loose with someone else's horse. I'm always afraid she'll hurt them and I'll be responsible. So instead, Izzy and I did a couple of leading exercises. She did a great job just responding to my body positioning; I didn't even have to apply any pressure. Then she ran around like a maniac and I let her go back to breakfast. I figure the day off will do her good. It's too easy to get excited about the progress we're making and forget to just let her be a horse. She's still not back out in the pasture because of all the rain and mud, so she does need to get out every day and do something or she gets really bored and nutty.

This summer, I'm hoping to be able to trail ride her at least once a week to give her a mental break. Plus, when in heavy work and out in the pasture, I usually only get her out 6 days a week, so she can relax.

Cranky Day

I rode Izzy yesterday, and it was wonderful. She didn't spook, despite the dumb kids playing baseball by the arena. She was forward and soft, and our biggest problem was that she'd prefer to do a nice canter transition instead of a lengthen trot. Not exactly horrible. (Oh, and the jeans are fine.)

Today was not so good. She was cranky and uncooperative. She spooked at stupid things (or nothing). She didn't want to be forward much at all, but I think that's partly because it did rain a bit overnight, and the footing wasn't what it could be. We had a few nice moments, but she was in a mood, and then I got to be in a mood, and then someone else came in to ride, and I decided it was a good time to be done.

I made a decision that it is not a good time to talk about other borders, because I really wouldn't do them a service. When my horse is being irritating is not a good time for me to make personal observations. We did manage to end on a good-ish note. It might be a good time to talk about trainers, though.

In a comment on my last post, Jean made a comment about letting a trainer go too far with her horse. I'm not naming names, but there are several trainers in this area that I might go to for a lesson, but I would absolutely never let them on my horse. Our philosophies on horses are just too divorced for me to ever be comfortable with that, regardless of how good of a "rider" they are. I'm an adult (sort of) and I'm comfortable telling people no. I don't just mindlessly do what I'm told anymore (not that I was ever good at that).

I wonder about kids and less confrontational adults, or even just horse people who aren't as confident in their skills and knowledge. It's easy to second-guess oneself and say, "Well, I wouldn't do that, but s/he knows more than I do". That may be true. It's possible that we our oversensitive about Precious, and she really just needs a good smack once in a while to tell her it's not ok to run all over people, HOWEVER, if you know that, odds are you need to set boundaries, with both the horse and the trainer.

My solution is that even though I'm not currently in a situation in which I need firm boundaries with trainers (since I'm doing the training), I'm already setting them in my head. I know certain people that I will never let on my horse, and I will (and do) advise friends the same way. I watch people work before I take a lesson from them or let them ride my horse. I am willing to step in and take my horse away if I don't like how they're handling it.

Has anyone else set and/or used boundaries with trainers and instructors?

I Love My Pants

I'm not actually sure that I do. The title is just the name of a song my brother made up and sang a lot when we were kids.

I have the jeans. I tried them on with half chaps, and they fit fine. They look like well, jeans with half chaps. I'm almost wishing I had fuller legs, so that the jeans looked more breech-like. I mean, I don't wish I was flabbier, but I do wish I looked more suave, I guess. Sigh. I'm not really a looks-oriented person, but I do love traditional turnout, which jeans are not. That said, they are comfy, and if I decide I hate riding in them, they'll be fine for hunting and hiking and whatever else.

I'm currently coveting some full seat breeches to see if they ride and wear better, but it's definitely not in my budget for a while now. In the mean time, check out this movie preview that a friend sent me: If Horses Could Speak . I have not watched it with sound on, so you're on your own if you're a work. It's subtitled, so it's ok.

I don't ride at a level (or barn) where hyperflexion is common or practiced or even really seen. I've withheld any judgment on the topic because I simply haven't been able to the the research, and I've mentioned before that I don't think "No way vs Yeah huh" is really an argument worth listening to. Still, this has promise. I hope to see the full length movie.

Things to Think About

I'm taking the plunge and buying something for myself today. I go through breeches at an incredible pace. I always have. I have a friend who patches them up for me, but even that's getting expensive. I asked Cathy about the durability of the more expensive breeches, and she gave me a great little cheat secret: jeans. I know this sounds obvious, but I almost never wear jeans to the barn, except my nasty old pair that I muck in. I don't like how they feel in the saddle and they don't really bend well. She said that Fred Meyers carries a type that is pretty elastic and pretty cheap, and they last her quite a while. So, much as I hate shopping, off to Freddy's I go when I'm done at work.

Do you remember the bit experiment? (Sorry Shannon, I know it's not scientific at all.) I put Izzy in a loose ring KK to see if she liked it. Well, Sunday it was precipitating a lot, so we used my old bridle and the eggbutt french link. Guess what? She hated it. She has become a loose ring kinda girl. Oh well. Thankfully, Cathy still doesn't need the bit we're using, so I'm ok for now.

Our ride today was pretty darn good. The canter transitions are coming along. I feel like the more I clarify my aids and understand what I want, the easier it is to respond. We also did a lot of lengthen/shorten work in the trot. Have I mentioned that her lengthen is amazing? It's like flying. Ahhh... So good. We did a little bit of leg yielding. I like to keep her listening though, so we rarely just go down center line and leg yield to the rail. I prefer to start at the rail, leg yield to the middle, and then leg yield back to the rail. That way, Izzy is responding to my aids rather than just falling over.

So, do you think jeans and half chaps will look cool, since denim breeches are ridiculously expensive, or tacky, because they aren't real breeches?

Awwww

It's Izzy's one year-anniversary of being with me. We kind of celebrated yesterday; the weather was super crappy (snowing and mud, yay!) so we tried out some new stuff. I introduced her to side reins on the lunge line. We just did a little walk/trot stuff with the reins as loose as they would go. I don't plan to use them regularly, but I figured she might as well know what they are. She was completely unphased by them, which was nice.

Then we switched it up a bit. That's right folks: we tried ground driving together. It was very interesting. I knew it would be challenging, but I had an almost-impossible time keeping the lines more or less the same length. Thankfully, Izzy was quiet and responsive, even if I couldn't really get her to talk a straight line. She wasn't even slightly bothered when the lines rubbed her rump or anything. What a good girl! I figure this is something we can keep working on when it's too messy to ride.

I wish I had something sweet and wonderful to say, but I don't really. I love my pony, and I think she's great. I love her temperament and her cute face and her silly personality. She gorgeous and athletic, and I can't wait to show her off this summer. She's come a really long ways in a year; one year ago we were working on things like leading that had been overlooked in her elementary years.

Today, I was able to take her to the Doom Bubble by herself, lunging quietly, work her through her spooks under saddle, and walk, trot, and canter both ways with minimal resistance. Lovely girl.

I do have some pictures from yesterday. Look for them later this week.