Just a Little Bad Romance

While talking to a horsey friend the other day, I realized that not everyone spends as much time in bookstores as I do. More specifically, some of you are missing out on the hilarity that is cover art for romance novels featuring horses. Without further ado, I bring you these gems from the internet:

bitch rides that horse like a couch. also is she like 7 feet tall?

yes, that is totally how reins work

definitely not racist

tiny man with compensation horse? read more to find out!

but how much longer does the left leg have to be to qualify for para?

no wonder the horse can only turn left, dumbass
question: does he even have a right leg?

how can crotchless people also be in romance novels? that seems contradictory

i really can't explain what's happening here. heavy reins there bud?

definitely how men respond to me in breeches

Thor on a Horse. ok now this i would watch.

Seriously. Dying. I realize that romance novel cover artists probably aren't paid well enough to be equestrians, but you'd think they covered basic anatomy in art school? Apparently not. Who else has some gems I should be aware of?

In Search of Confidence: Use Your Resources

This was an epic outfit

I've talked about how I lack confidence. Now I want to talk about what I'm doing to get it back.

On the Ground
Jess (if you don't read her blog, you should start) recommended Jane Savoie's "That Winning Feeling" to me. I believe her specific recommendation was "I don't usually like this kind of book, but it's really good". I got it on Amazon for like $4 shipped and started in. I haven't even finished it yet, but I already love it.

This outfit was great too

Program Your Subconscious
According to Jane, our subconscious is a powerful thing. Instead of just letting it run wild and screw us over, it makes way more sense to harness that power and use it to our own ends. To do that, she recommends positive self talk--saying "I will" and "I can" instead of "I'll try" and "I hope". She's also really big on visualization. I really latched on to this concept because my biomechanics coach reminds me that the human brain can only process one thing at a time. That means everything else has to be muscle memory. The nifty little aside is that the brain really can't differentiate between created memories and actual memories sooooo....

It's ok. I visualized this already.

I visualize. I try to do it every night before bed and on long boring driving stretches. I don't just visualize the action I want to internalize. I focus on the minutiae. I'm cantering to the jump. It's a good, forward going sort of canter with a steady rhythm. My heels are down, my hands are level, my eyes are up, my core is engaged, my leg is on. I picture exhaling to the base of the jump and putting my leg on. We jump across, land in a straight line, and canter away.

And then I do it again. I'm really specific about the type of jump I visualize. Things I'll see, things I know will bother me. I realize that's maybe not practical for shows, but I'm not worried about that right now. I want to set myself and my horse up for success.

I think he cleared it

In the Saddle
Everyone should have a Lindsey of their very own. I'd be sunk without her. Lindsey helps me tag team on Courage--she puts rides on him for me now and then and she's always giving me helpful pointers when we ride together. It's not that I can't ride--it's that I can get in a mental rut and it is really helpful to get those quick reminders. (I wish I could say I was equally helpful to her, but pretty much I just share tack and hold the video camera.)

Work That Conscious Mind
Here's where I really benefit from reading through old blog entries. I try to review lesson write ups and then ride. I want Courage forward and off my aids. I want him responding to me. I want his mind so busy processing what I want him to do that he isn't staring off into space and inventing monsters to spook at.

It's hard work for both of us, but it really pays off. When Courage starts saying "yes ma'am" and toeing the line, I know we're ready to jump. Right now, that means he has to put his head down (joys of remuscling an upside down neck), go forward and back within gaits, and do a solid leg yield each direction.

A little more reasonable

The Big Plan
 I know that putting pressure on top of fear is completely useless if you're trying to work through the fear (different story if you're trying to save the world, but I sort of don't see a scenario in which I need to jump 2'6" on my greenie to avert planetary destruction in the near future.)

So. I've been setting jumps at my comfort height. Sometimes poles. Sometimes 12". Whatever. I let that be the height for the day and I jump it until I'm bored. Then afterwards I think about how fun it was. I smile (release the endorphins!!) at the memories and I incorporate in emotions from other times I've had fun jumping.

Tuesday we jumped through the course that Lindsey set for Prisoner. We did the baby crossrail until I was happy with how I rode it. We did the bigger crossrail until I was happy. Then we strung the two together. Then we added the barrels and the vertical.


One step at a time. Each when I was comfortable with it. On my timetable.

There is a time to push and I time to just create calm, positive experiences and really soak them in.

I did a photo editing thing

Does It Work?
I think yes. Not only do I have fantastic jumping pictures, but I think I rode better than I have in ages and I feel very happy with the ride. Courage did some typical green horse wiggly stuff and I was able to confidently ride him through and git'er done. That is the ingredient I was lacking and I feel like it's back.

I'm going to keep things slow and advance when I feel confident and continue to use the hell out of my resources, but I'm on the right track and I'm excited about it.

A Jumping Fool

Haha. I call him "the light at the end of the tunnel".

Cuna, post lesson today.

Despite my only missing a single blogging day, we have a lot to catch up on! I have had two (count 'em) jumping lessons on the big red man.

Here was day one. Two single verticals and a one stride. The goal was to work on waiting with your position for your horse while remembering a small course.

It was my first time to actually jumping Cuna over anything more than 12" tall, so it was kind of an adventure. The awesome thing about Cuna is that he actually knows his job, so I would put him on a line and sit there and he would take me to the fence. So cool. I could trust him to go, so we could come in long or short or just right, and he'd take care of himself as long as I stayed out of the way.

Oh, also--old man can buck. I grabbed his face over one jump accidentally and he had a head-flipping, bucking fit about it. Right. Do not grab face. Grab mane instead.

He's a super balanced sort of guy, so we could really crank around the turns (which was NOT the goal of the exercise, but did happen a couple times). All in all, it was educational and get this, fun.

Yes, I just said a jumping lesson was fun. The only unfun part was that my lesson buddy is working like a maniac on fitness so we did jumping position at all three gaits for like 10 minutes. I can barely walk today.

DAY TWO

Here we go! I had a couple hours notice that I would have another lesson today. About 30 minutes after finding that out, I thought "Huh. This is the point where I should be mind-numbingly afraid and just want to die."

But I didn't. I can't quite say I was looking forward to it, but I wasn't afraid of it.

I came better equipped this time--I put on my brand new spurs of my very own (they have rolly balls. be jealous) and a better fitting bit on poor Mr. Cuna.

We had a good warm up with a new lesson buddy, then got ready for what is fondly known as "the circle of death". I drew a paint diagram for those of you who aren't familiar with it.

Four verticals set six comfortable strides apart. It can be five long, nasty, sprawling strides, or even seven or eight pogo-sticky strides.

Each of us took a turn. Pick up a canter. Start your course. Jump! Land-one, two, three, four, five, six, jump! Land-

And so on. We had to make a circle with six strides between each fence with the four outside jumps set as 2'6"ish verticals.

Cuna is super mobile and super straight. Also he jumps. Hence, I have no idea why y'all think this is so hard. :p

I'm kidding. It was challenging, but we made it through.

Then it got hard. You see the blue fence in the middle with the blue groundlines? The new course was Top red, Yellow, Bottom red, around black jump, over blue jump, left to Top red, Black, Bottom red.

Whoa.

Those are not easy turns, even on a straight, jumping kind of horse. Oh, and the center vertical? That is taller than I have jumped in a really, really long time. My mind pretty much just exploded, and I was supposed to go first. I told myself that Cuna was just fine at this height and I aimed for the top red. Boom, boom, boom. Got the three. We careened around the black fence, but I got my eye on the line for the vertical and never even noticed how tall it was. Boom. Flying change and left now! Boom, boom, boom.

It was engaging, but I didn't feel terrified or overfaced. Stephanie put the jumps up a bit for our lesson buddy so they were 2'9"ish all around. I felt a twinge of nervousness wondering if we were going to do that, but then I remembered: hey. I just jumped this whole thing without freaking out. What's a few more inches on the big guy?

I was a tiny bit relieved when Stephanie told me that the old man had done enough for the day and we didn't end up going over the bigger fences, but it wasn't that knee-knocking relief that it used to be.

A quote keeps floating through my head. It's from "Afraid to Ride" by C.W. Anderson, which was one of my favorite books ever when I was a kid. (Ironically, it's about a chestnut TB.) "A bad horse took her courage away, but a good one can give it back."*

Anyways. It's not that Izzy is so very bad, but Cuna is being very good.

*I almost cried writing that. Weird.

More Equine Fun-ness

To clear up any confusion from the comments:

1) JIMMY WAS ROBBED!! I agree with Frizzle, Solo, and the rest of the smurfs.

2) It would be really funny to meet up with a blogger friend.

"Hi, I'm SprinklerBandit."

"I'm ManyMisadventures."

"Sup, yo."

I kid. I have met Denali's Mom (who is AWESOME) and that was a total blast. So, PNW peeps, you need to actually go to stuff. ;-)

3) Kennewick is not as dumpy as Pasco but it is more dumpy than Richland. None of the three are particularly desirable. That is the extent of my knowledge of the tri cities area.

On to the main topic for today. In my other life (the one where I actually am forced to talk about things not horse-related), I am a total book nerd. At a used book store, I ran across a copy of Solo Schooling by Wendy Jago. It ended up coming home with me, and I'll be honest: I'm intrigued by it. Ms. Jago is an NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) practitioner who focuses on coaching.

What I really want to talk about is the section of the book on motivation--both human and equine. She lists a continuum for each trait and says that horses may fall anywhere on the continuum. Here are some examples:

Preferred Information Chunk Size

Small ______________________Large

Likely characteristics of a small chunk horse

May get anxious when a lot is going on -- can become overwhelmed. May seem more secure when he can grasp or do things step by step.

Likely characteristics of a large chunk horse

Gets the idea quickly. Anticipates routines from slight indicators (whether in the stable or the school). May over-anticipate and not 'listen'. May 'guess'.

Yeah, Izzy falls hard on the large chunk side of the equation.

Direction of Motivation

Towards_____________________Away From

Likely characteristics of a 'towards' horse

Will 'have a go'. Tends to be bold in approach, forward going, and enthusiastic. May be overbold or careless. May enjoy new experiences or situations and be curious about them rather than alarmed. Will like praise and may not respond well to being corrected.

Likely characteristics of an 'away from' horse

When in doubt, will flee. May be easily distracted or intimidated by new or unknown things and experiences. Becomes anxious when he 'gets things wrong'. Responds to disapproval and is fearful of punishment. May be easily cowed, by bossy humans or other horses. May need reassurance. Careful.

Ask yourself if your horse is drawn towards carrots or driven by sticks.

Izzy is well in the left-hand side of this column. She loves trying new stuff. She is intensely motivated by food and praise and isn't super worried about me being upset with her.

Method of Approach

Options___________________Procedures

Likely Characteristics of an Options Horse

Tolerates new experiences, new situations, new tasks well. Is curious about new things. Not bothered by changes of routine. May get bored easily and when bored, may get stroppy or switch off. May be rather 'gung ho'.

Likely characteristics of a Procedures Horse

Dislikes change in routines. Learns routines easily and repeats them, sometimes without being asked. Has a good memory for something once learned. May be anxious about change. Accurate and precise.

Options is definitely Izzy's style. It's not that she falls 'somewhere on the continuum'; that is her. All the way.

Source of Reference

Internal_________________External

Likely characteristics of an internally (self-) referenced horse

Can be bold, courageous, and fun. May not always listen to his rider. Not easily influenced by praise or correction. Can be willful or stubborn. Wants to do what he wants to do, when he wants to do it. May tend to argue with his rider. Can be cheeky or pushy. May be dominant in the field among herd of friends. Has clear likes and dislikes.<--This is my horse in a nutshell.

Likely characteristics of an externally (others-) referenced horse

Likes to please. Hates being told off. May be less dominant or even bullied in the herd and tends to regard his rider as though he or she were a superior horse. Can be passive and will switch off rather than rebelling. Needs a lead from his rider. Likes to know what's wanted so he can get things right.

Anyone else seeing Izzy as a firmly self-referenced creature? Haha, yeah, me too.

There is a ton more in this book and lots about interpreting the rider, but it's basically pointing out one main thing: Izzy and I are complete polar opposites on pretty much every element of the scale. It's incredibly useful for me to be able to read through this and see us so clearly. This week, I've been riding her with that in mind, and I think it's really helping. I knew she wasn't stuck on routines and got bored easily, but now I have a framework in which to put that information.

Instead of working on something over and over with her, which I tend to do, because I like small chunks of information and methodical progress, I'm switching things up. Walk. Halt. Turn on the forehand. Trot. Halt. Back. Trot. Shoulder-in. Circle. Halt. Haunch turn. She's so much more engaged and interested and it's good for me to stretch my comfort zones.

So, all in all, very useful book. Along with the character traits, it lists training recommendations, personal stories to illustrate information, and lots more I've just barely gotten into yet.

Raining...

I'm reading "Western Training" by Jack Brainerd. It seems to be a pretty good introduction to the basic concepts of western horses/training, though it isn't as detailed and in-depth as I'd like. I want to know how to sit in the saddle, what the aids are supposed to be like, how exactly to teach a horse to neck rein (not so trusting of youtube), that sort of thing. Still, this is an excellent starting point. Mr. Brainerd sounds like an old hand from the respectable version of natural horsemanship stuff--he's friends with the likes of Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt. He has a lot of things to say, but mostly what I'm getting right now is that Izzy and I need some pretty serious trail riding time. Basically, in order to work on straightness, attentiveness, and a host of other important things, we need to get out of the arena and go somewhere.

Makes sense. It's just that it's been pouring down rain all morning and I'm not sure I'm that brave. Plus, all the "trails" are going to be super muddy. Hm... the new bravery challenge, I guess. If you have any book recommendations for me, please add them in the comments. I realize I've specifically cultivated a following of mostly english riders so this is maybe not the best place to ask, but whatever. I will distract you by posting pictures!!

I finally settled on a pair of boots for Izzy. What settled me was the matching saddle blanket. ;-) Basically, Izzy does tend to interfere up front a little bit. Since I'm asking her to do new and different things, I wanted to have boots to protect her. It could be argued that I have boots already, but I think dressage boots (or worse, open fronts!) look totally ridiculous with the western saddle.

Thus, I furiously bargain-shopped around town and across the internets, looking for good quality, affordable boots. Remarkably, the best deal I could find was at a local tack store. Win!! I walked in the door, determined to be professional and buy black. Then I was confronted with all different pretty colors... and I realized that I'm never going to be professional western anything... and that there isn't a national show for Oldenburgs doing western... and I could get absolutely any color I wanted.

I admit, I was REALLY tempted by the neon green ones, but I own absolutely nothing in neon green. Not even a pencil. That left blue camo, pink, pink camo, blue, and white. Also orange and some other colors I was less excited about. I have not been a "pink" person since I was like 3, but I was quite interested in those, too. The trouble with a black horse is that absolutely everything looks fabulous on her, so she doesn't rule anything out. Finally, I noticed the blue saddle blanket (on sale) that matched the blue boots and I picked up both of them.

Another view. Silly mare. I think she likes having her picture taken, though she is fairly convinced that most pictures should be of her nose only.

The lighting in these pictures sucks. Sorry... Maybe the others will be better. Don't get your hopes up too high.

These are pro equine boots. They are probably not as cool as the professional's choice boots that are the industry standard, but they are oodles cheaper and quite well made. I looked at the professional's choice and was impressed by the newer models, but even the used boots are so pricey. Yikes. I kept reminding myself that this is a fling and there is no need to invest my life savings in it.



Here is a close-up of our bitting arrangement. I was really impressed at the difference having a chin strap made. It's not that the bit actually came through her mouth, just that it had little lateral stability and slide side to side a lot. Leading and lunging and anything like that was a no-go because the silly bit constantly needed readjusting.

After I put the chinstrap on, the issues went away. Plus, now the bridle hangs better because the bit doesn't just fold. Not a big deal, but I like things to be neat. As Cut-N-Jump mentioned, it goes on the bit rings in front of the reins so that it doesn't interfere with them. It needs to be long enough that it doesn't affect the action of the bit, but short enough that Izzy can't get it in her mouth, which would defeat the whole purpose of it. Also maybe cause panic.

Maybe someday I'll even get pictures of me riding Izzy. Wouldn't that be novel?

I think I'll close out with some random adorable animal pictures.

The sleepy beagle, my loyal running buddy. I can't think of any human partner that would look out the door at 38 degrees and pouring rain and think, "OH BOY!! I want to go for a run", but this little beagley face does it every time. As soon as I put my shoes on, he starts leaping into the air and squeaking with joy. It's infectious. (The joy, not the leaping and squeaking.)

I can safely say that I would not be as devoted of a runner as I am without his faithful encouragement.

And Lewis, the faithful Corgi. He enjoyed running when it meant we went to the ditchbank and he got to run free. He is less enthused about running on a leash, and NOT INTERESTED in going more than 2 miles.

One time, I took him four miles. The next day, I got the leash out and he wouldn't even look at me. This boy does not do distance. Can't say I blame him, what with those short little legs.




What did cats do before there were fleecy blankets to nap on? I have no idea.

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.