Teach Me Tuesday: Contact

This is a funny topic that seems to be wildly polarizing. I've ridden with a lot of different trainers. Some of them are like "OMG MOVE THE BIT IN THE HORSE'S MOUTH SO IT'S NOT DEAD" and others are like "OMFG STOP MOVING THE BIT BC OBVIOUSLY YOU ARE A FAILURE"

Or something. Those possibly aren't direct quotes, but I tried to capture the essence.

Now I assume that we're all of the school of thought that we do in the moment what works at the time for the horse that we're riding, but what does that look like for you? Hands still? Fingers moving? Hands moving? Eff it and loopy reins?

One Year of Dressage!

I meant to do this wrap up a year to the date from moving to our current barn (11/24) and that didn't happen. Instead you're getting it more or less a year after our first-ever dressage lesson (12/6ish).

Here's an honest trotting shot from our first-ever legit dressage lesson. In the post, I talked about how Courage had a short, quick stride (thanks to me), just dropped his neck at the withers, and took multiple laps of the arena to do a single decent transition from walk to trot. At this point, the plan was to do dressage for three months, then go back to jumper land in the spring.

December 2014

 December actually brought nicer weather and more lessons. Courage and I were making great, if elementary, progress. Our next shot in in another lesson. You can see Courage is taking much better strides and starting to go forward. He's pretty well on the forehand, but he's at least thinking about the contact, even if that thought process=gaping mouth. Still in jump tack, still aiming for jumper land.

December 2014

Don't worry--I'm not going to make you look at a trot picture from EVERY SINGLE MONTH (not today, at least). If we fast forward a year, we have this:

It's been a long, personal struggle, but Courage and I are committed to dressage. It's a great fit for us right now. We've spent the year doing lessons and clinics, plus getting out and showing in pursuit of a more broke, less-green horse. We did decently at training level for the year and have now doubled down in pursuit of first level next spring. This shot is Courage in a clinic a couple weeks back. I just love the engagement and connection he's showing.

November 2015

 And then this is less spectacular, but it's me riding on my own in the almost-dark at the end of the month. Courage has really starting accepting the contact and letting me ride him. We've switched over to dressage tack, my position has started changing for the better, his neck is developing like whoa, and GODDAMN look at the difference in his ass(/topline).

November 2015

We have been through a lot together in the last year. Courage is turning into a really awesome horse, I'm learning things I never knew about dressage, and I'm excited for our goals together.

More than that though, I love what this year has done for our relationship. After everything this spring, we finally reached an accord. Courage is really MY horse now. I don't threaten to sell him after another giant spook at whatever-it-is this time--I just laugh at his antics and put him back to work. I've had a crappy history as an adult with horses in which the longest I've had any creature is 3 years.

I'm looking forward to blowing that number out of the water with this little guy. <3

Princess Horse Goes Pauper?

western bit, knockoff bit, sprenger bit

I thought I'd blogged about this, but maybe I didn't. Anyways. In the past year, Courage has decided that he will ALWAYS ONLY EVER go in his one true love bit--a $225 sprenger that I happened to get on a great consignment sale price for $40. That was a great bargain, but I'm not paying $225 for ANOTHER bit and I'm not changing the bit back and forth every time I change bridles.

It took me six months of searching, but I finally found an appropriate knock off this summer (for like $15), and it's been great.

Until now.

Courage had an easy week due to needing some downtime/bodywork and I was online shopping for some stuff for my trainer. One of her requests was a giant, old, heavy single-jointed snaffle. She has one that she uses for starting colts, but she's working with a horse now that is HUGE and won't fit in the normal colt bridle and really needed a 6" version of her favorite bit.

So I found it for $10 shipped online and bought it for her. The only problem was that I also found a 5" version that was also $10 shipped.

And I like bits.

And hey, who doesn't need a colt starting bit for $10?

So I bought it and chucked it on a bridle. I hacked on the buckle in it one day and that was fine, but that proves nothing.

Then the day of our ribbon photo shoot (which was also our first post-bodywork ride), I rode in it.

And omg. I think we have a new bit. Courage has a long history of being weird about contact, opinionated about bits and nosebands, and gaping his mouth open for giggles. Or gnashing his teeth--whichever sounds fun on any given day. He has one of the driest mouths I've ever been around. It's not optimal.

Sprenger left, $10 bit right. IT"S SO FAT.

I rode Courage in his usual loose cavesson with the new bit, and he trotted around sucking on that bit like it was candy. Foam flecks came out of his mouth and some even stayed on his lips.

Can it be? A $10 solution to a $225 problem?