Sometimes I Ride Too

If you're sitting over there like "yes SB is shopping and thinking thoughts about horses, BUT WHAT IS A ZB DOING PRECIOUS?", well, this post is for you.

SHE IS WEARING POM POM HATS

When we left off, Zoëbird had just figured out cavaletti and I took a lesson her.



 That's pretty much where we are.

Ha.

Before all y'all Zoëbird fans riot on me, the little lady is doing fantastic.

We're in the middle of a streak of unseasonably warm weather, which means we got to put in record-early first rides outside the tiny dark indoor.

Full disclosure: every time I rode C-rage outside the indoor the first time, he bolted with me. Baggage much? YES.

EARS OUTSIDE

I am pleased to inform you that ZB was a freaking CHAMPION OF OUTSIDE and like.

I R REAL TIRED MUM

Yeah one of our best rides lately and she didn't put a foot wrong. What's more, I'm starting to trust her and expect that and I was actually able to keep my stupid brain stuffed in it's head and things were good.

Then we had our second ride outside, so like honeymoon's over.

pic actually from first ride, but is representative

Yup still a champion. The one big thing I'm learning is that if I want to work her hard when it's above 40f, I will definitely need to clip her. I'd been avoiding clipping because I was so much enjoying not blanketing and she seemed super happy with our mild winter buuuuut that's just going to have to happen.

I do make an effort to mix things up, so I set a wee tiny jump for her.

Uh.

It's a work in progress.

10/10 cutest horse

I definitely wondered how it would be to start with a baby draftie type. Would the training be boring? Would my brain get on board?

What I've found is that my favorite part of horse training is learning to communicate with the horse, which I am already doing with Zoë on a basic level and she certainly has no shortage of things to communicate right back.

Plus.

I cannot say enough about how fun this little lady is. She shows up and tries her hardest every single day. She wants to do the right thing. She's sassy and opinionated and just a darn cool creature.

The Big Exciting Updates You've All Been Waiting For

best at poles

I feel like my blog has a shocking dearth of exciting things to talk about lately. I mean, I wanted to write a riding update last week. I was really excited about all the progress we were making. I started typing "you guys we CANTERED OVER GROUND POLES and Courage wanted to whig out but I rode like a BADASS and we FIGURED IT OUT and F*** YEAH GROUND POLES."

But like... would you read that?

No. No you would not. Not even if you were my mother.

HEADSHOT

In fact, you'd be like "SB, western pleasure horses do that ALL DAY LONG. Can't you try a little harder?"

Ok. So then I hopped on in the indoor and had THE BEST RIDE EVER for us in dressage. Walk. Trot. Canter. Both leads. Direction changes. Courage was soft and uphill and balanced and relaxed.

And I was riding alone, so obviously there is no photo evidence besides a fancy head shot.

So I was going to write a post about that, but then I realized I was literally bragging that my horse could walk, trot, and canter in a 20 meter circle in an indoor, which is like, less impressive than a horse with 30 days under saddle who can do the EXACT SAME THING.

Sigh.

doing it right eventually

I know I'm going slow with Courage because I want him to learn things the right way. I know there's no point in jumping until he's rateable on the flat, then over poles. I know I'm being ridiculous and going too slow and that I could just ram and jam and screw flatwork and I know that makes better blog fodder.

I mean, let's face it: if I was all "HELLZ YEAH JUMPING 3'6" ON C RAGE", everyone would be like "omg you're so amazing and your horse is sooooo cool". But when I say "yep cantering ground poles," even my response is "yawn hella boring moving right along".

but is it fancy enough?

All that to say: Courage and I are working away at the all-important basics. We're making, slow, steady, non-linear progress.

Oh, and I might have some exciting updates soon.

Lesson Recap: In Which Courage Busts All the Moves

PUMPED

To start, I apologize for my total lack of related media. It wasn't a visually dramatic lesson and it was in fading light and it did require every ounce of my concentration, so pictures weren't so much happening.

Anyways.

S came out last Thursday evening. I hadn't been able to ride Courage since early Monday morning and HO BOY LEAPING AND CRAY CRAY.

I even lunged him first. Then when I got on he was ok to walk, a speedstar in the trot (wtf where is my lazy horse) and freaking unmanageable at the canter. Like we seriously spent 5 or 10 minutes of cantering around at the beginning of the lesson while Courage dolphin leaped and flailed and spooked at absolutely everything. He probably spooked more in 10 minutes then he's spooked in the entire rest of the time I've owned him.

At least I was riding like a total badass.

Unrelated cute dog picture

So after we more or less got through that, we started the lesson. S said that Courage is doing really well in that he's figured out it's his job to always get to the other side of the jump. To this point, we've been setting distances and poles around him. Now it's time for him to learn to fit himself into the poles and do (dun dun dun) FOOTWORK!!

So we did. She set up two lines of 4 poles each. The poles were set 9' apart. The idea was to trot in and be able to put three trot strides in each 9' section. Given Courage's mental state, we compromised and decided two was good enough for now.

That is to say, he would trot the first one and then leap and flail into the horizon. The tricky part was really finding the balance of letting him figure it out and how much for me to help him. We know he really hates any pulling on his mouth at all, but he also can't be a total pig about it if he also wants to leap and flail.

DOOM

With many theatrics, we finally got the striding right and the ride just so and then S ADDED IN JUMPS. So picture 3 poles 9' apart, then a 2' jump that we still needed to trot to. Courage did alright with the little vertical, but HO BOY he nearly lost all the marbles when she added barrels to his canter poles.

But hey. I kept riding like a very tactful badass and by the end, we could canter through those poles on a 9' stride including the barrels and trot through the grid I neglected to photograph that was the same thing only with a vertical. 

And then I shaved him. Because hair.

It was a fantastic lesson and not just because S went to hang out with some friends from an old barn afterwards and bragged about me (not gonna lie, that felt good). Courage was doing very hard mental work, but instead of checking out, he was very expressively staying with me. I rode great. I was at no point over-horsed or afraid, and we got some new tools to work with as we progress through the winter.

Also. One should not let one's super fit OTTB sit for four days in cold weather and then expect a good ride.

So yeah, guess what he did all weekend?

I'm bringing an 8 second timer to the barn today.

When Things Don't Go According to Plan

Not like poles. Poles are pretty freaking linear.

Horse training is not a linear process.

Horse training is not a linear process.

Horse training is not a linear process.

Horse training is not a linear process.

Horse training is not a linear process.

I think I need that tattooed on something I look at on a regular basis. Not my forehead, because who sees that anyways?

Look at us floating through trot poles

Sigh. I wrote up this bubbly happy training post about how Courage is going really well on the flat and I can feel progress every ride and we can trot and canter through lines of poles and jump single fences and all is well. 

And then I set up a perfectly logical trot in grid. 4 poles, 9' to a crossrail, 18' to a little vertical, 9' to a placing poles. Or thereabouts. 

The best at launching over placing poles.

And yeah, epic fail. In case you doubted his scope, I can assure you that my little man is capable of clearing both an 18" vertical and the placing pole set after it in a single bound. Multiple times in a row. 

Since I wasn't doubting his scope at all (let's face it people, the horse hasn't even had to try yet), I was not thrilled. Especially since I couldn't really make it better. We knocked the vertical down to poles and got the back side slightly more combobulated, but it was never what you'd call good and his brain was perilously close to just fleeing the scene altogether.

No, I don't know why this placing pole is ok.

So we finished up with something else and called it a day. 

I've pretty well been in a funk since then, despite two days off and a pretty kickass ride (with no poles) on Monday. 

Don't misunderstand me here--I'm not mad at Courage or blaming him or even upset with our program (such as it is). I know it's green horse stuff. I know we'll work through it (or not. And then just never do grids, which I guess isn't the end of the world either. It's not like we're aiming to be competitive grid jumpers). 

I have wanted these so so long. Finally mine, argyle polos.

I know all that. I'm just frustrated right now.

I tried making myself feel better by playing with racehorses, but I just got hit in the face so hard that I couldn't see straight. 

So then I thought I'd try retail therapy. 

That helped a little.

Making the bitching wait time worth it

Then this happened... I think I feel a lot better now. 

So I don't know where I'm at. My inner traditionalist screams that it is impossible to have a jumper who can't do grids, which are the very foundation all of decent jumper training. 

My modernist side reminds me that we must tailor the training to the horse, not the horse to the training. 

My rational brain keeps chanting "NOT A LINEAR PROCESS" and whatever's left is like "STFU I GOT A DAMN COOKIE MONSTER BONNET." 

Lesson Success. Finally.

He is the best at lessons with S

After much hemming and hawing (by me), S came out for a lesson on Sunday. You probably remember her as our fantastic biomechanics coach. She's also the only instructor that sees my little man on anything like a consistent basis and I really just needed straight up feedback on what in the world I was supposed to be doing with him.

I told her what we've been through recently. I told her what we've worked on. I didn't realize how upset I was about all this until I was very matter-of-fact-ly explaining it to her and realized just how badly I wanted to cry. And I'm not a crying person. And neither is she.

So I didn't, but I feel like I should get some bonus points for keeping it together.

Sprenger on the hunter bridle. Works.

Anyways. She basically said that it sounds like we're looking at a couple of issues combined. In no particular order:

1) Courage is opinionated about life and doesn't quite accept me as the alpha in our relationship.

1) Courage doesn't quite understand how to use his body in relationship to a jump just yet. He's green.

1) Despite his amiable demeanor, Courage is really picky about how the bit/HIS FACE are handled.

1) My cross country anxiety isn't helping anything.

Interesting note: of the three issues, only one of them is all me. S, while an amateur herself, pointed out that the trap ammies tend to fall into is immediately mistrusting and blaming themselves in all situations. While that isn't bad, it allows horses to skate by with some slightly bad behavior and sets them up for worse problems in the long run.

So lesson.

We started just doing lots of forward and back transitions. The focus was on PROMPTNESS. In order to address the greenness/alpha issue, I needed to set him up, ask, and then KILL HIM IF I HAD TO ASK AGAIN. Because he is clever, I only had to do that once. The entire ride.

Hole punch not available. Knot tied.

Next, we added in a highly sophisticated piece of equipment used by respected equine professionals around the world: a neckstrap. Because I'm a tack 'ho, I have a purpose made one. Obviously. Anyways. We adjusted it so that it was short enough to sit about halfway up his neck (measurement very approximate) and I got a crash course in it's uses.

Then we jumped.

Specifically, we trotted over poles. To address the "DON'T TOUCH MA FAYZ" issue, I had to ride forward (!!) around the turn to the jump, then put both hands on the neckstrap and just sit there. He could do anything he wanted and I just had to not ever touch his face for any reason on the approach, the jump, the landing, or really even several strides afterwards.

So felt like we galloped this, but just canter

As S pointed out, it's not even that I really catch him in the face (other than the deer leaping). It can be as simple as putting him back together too soon after the jump and not letting him finish the mental process. Or pulling on him on a crossrails derby course. Or whatever. Mentally, that's where he's at and we have to address it.

The poles went up to crossrails, then verticals, then even an oxer. We trotted into the oxer (with placing poles on both sides), and cantered the vertical. Every jump, I had to come around the corner, grab the strap, and just.kick.the.horse. GO.FORWARD. I don't know why riding freely forward is so damn hard for me, but that's where I'm at.

Now oxer certified. Finally.

Courage was good. He started out really apprehensive, but especially in our last round, he started to accept the exercise and really take me to the fences. His eye got softer and the ride got a little easier.

S says he needs hundreds of these jumps right now. Not big or hard or scary, but freely flowing forward, so he can build new memories and learn what he's doing.

We both need it.

Me and my neckstrap, we're getting acquainted.

Anatomy of a Jump: Fail Friday Edition

Some of you may remember the time I broke down frame-by-frame the most perfect jump Cuna and I ever had caught on film. I thought it was a pretty great post.

Well, now we're doing it again. Only like... the other way around. Instead of a "how to jump it right", let's talk about "how green horses jump that sane people wouldn't publicly share on their personal blog".

Because, what fun is sanity anyways?

Let's get going!

The Takeoff

This is Courage and I in a jumping lesson. He's been going through the grid and the jump has been raised incrementally. We've just added a back rail, which means that in order to clear it, he needs to maintain impulsion to be able to jump both up and across.

photo via HorselessinHalifax

Unfortunately for me, Courage saw the new question and backed off while he tried to figure it out. I added leg, but he's not quite broke enough (or obedient enough) to respond yet.

So here he is trying to answer the question by leaping AS HIGH INTO THE AIR AS POSSIBLE!!!

Of course, the more discerning among you are saying, "But SB, if C-rage expends all his energy launching straight up, how does he plan to carry himself forward so you don't land in the middle of all those poles?"

The Airtime

photo via HorselessinHalifax

Not to worry folks! Courage has no intention of hitting that monstrous jump. Obviously.

The only thing to do at this point is to suck his hind end up and LEAP LIKE A DEER!!! It's a little less efficient than, you know, pushing forward off his hind end. Take it from me, though, the little man can get the job done.

Now you might critique my position in these shots. It sure looks like I'm jumping up his neck in the first one and here I'm sort of levitating above his back with completely useless legs and that oh-so-helpful indirect inside rein.

Those are all valid observations. I would welcome any and all position help, because trust me, it's all about to go downhill...

Well, all but me anyways. I stay up about a half second longer than Courage does because physics are (not) my friend!

Ahem. So the reason that upper level jump and event riders advocate for a "bascule" over a jump in which the horse springs up with his front end, pushes off with his hind end and his body describes a lovely arc in the air is because the rider is capable of staying in balance with the horse and equitating all the way through.

photo via wikipedia

If the horse rockets straight up, then generates forward momentum by sucking his ass up to his chin, well, instead of describing an arc, you are describing a roller coaster ride, complete with long uphill climb and then dropping directly out from underneath you at the apex.

You'll notice McClain Ward never looks like this.

You'll also notice that the nice folks on the roller coaster are in fact belted in so that when the roller coaster inevitably plunges downward, there is a limit to how high above the seat they can levitate.

So keep all that in mind as we approach the next stage of the jump.

The Descent

I know you're all thinking "well, it really doesn't look THAT bad. Like, what is she complaining about? Lots of people jump 4' on green horses and it clearly isn't the end of the world."

No. No it is not. 

Here's Courage doing his best roller coaster impression. 

photo via HorselessinHalifax

At this point, I should probably just give it up, throw my hands in the air, and hope for a decent picture. My vanity forces me to point out that not only did we clear this jump, but Courage landed in balance and cantered away AND I STAYED ON, but I probably shouldn't brag about that unless I want to get bitch slapped by karma.

Which I don't. 

So... boys and girls, this is why all that flatwork I talked about yesterday is important. This is what happens if your green horse isn't recognizing you as leader (leg=go now) and isn't broke enough (hm, maybe I should have some impulsion) to save himself. We certainly have a plan moving forward and I will write you a full lesson wrap up later, but for now, I hope you're enjoying my deer leaps just as much as I am. 

Or possibly more, since you just get to laugh at the evidence instead of riding through it. ;-) It's a thrill, that's for sure. Happy weekend!

Wherein Courage Jumps Grids and I Stay On

Radio silence over here. Nothing quite as exciting as flat rides and dealing with life and all that goes along with it. That said, I went all crazy go nuts and entered the little man in the event derby next weekend. We are (of course) in the largest division with the least shot at a ribbon, but no way he's ready to move up at this point.

Anywho. S was back out to give us a lesson this weekend. She liked what we'd been working on and thought it was in his best interests to do some more grid work.

because 12" crossrail=SCOPE CHECK

It was actually quite funny. Courage is green as grass obviously (see: deer leaping over cross rails), but he seems to have a handle on grids. Point down the middle, move feet as indicated by poles. There is some super hilarious video I hope to get soon to share. We started upping the ante a little.

His thing about launching himself into the air over the babyest of jumps makes for great photo ops, but completely precludes "bascule" of any kind. Which you know, we'll sort of want if we ever want to jump clean or make strides or do a course, much less go in the hunters. 

The best at crossrail grids

We started with a placing poles before and after a single crossrail and built the grid up gradually. Courage is a little weaker to the right, recent racehorse and all, so S added some guide rails on the ground to help keep him straight during/after the grid.

It was pretty funny to be able to work on my riding and position while riding the little man. He was quite serious about being the best at grids (even if he's O.V.E.R. flatwork right now), and I practiced exhaling to the base of the jump and keeping my weight in my heels.

S added a final placing pole after the grid to make C-rage actually pay attention and place down over the fence instead of his signature launch into the stratosphere. He deer leaped it the first time we came around because the setup made him a little claustrophobic and contained.. I mean, I was just riding the grid and focusing and feeling the footfalls and keeping my brain slow and all off a sudden I felt like I was 2' out of the saddle and my feet were levitating above the stirrups and my hands were grabbing his ears because his head was in my lap and then he sort of dropped out from under me.

I said something really classy and figured I would be getting closely acquainted with the arena sand in about a half a second, but he landed in a straight line and cantered away quietly and I was still in the middle of him... So there's that.

Jumping like a normal horse. This makes me excited.

We did a couple more lines, and Courage discovered it was possible to in fact jump the jump he was presented with instead of the training/prelim fences he likes to imagine.

Of course, then he decided he ought to be done. 

And S thought he needed to jump a tiny course.

So careful.

The course got done, but not before we "galloped" (aka tried to get his canter going again) several laps around the arena and deer leaped the blue barrels a few times and had some general pissy fits. Still. His brain stayed in his head, I stayed on his back, and we ended on a really good note.

All in all, I think it was excellent prep for our upcoming intro BN debut. Here's hoping, right?

Grid Night, Take II

Before the brain came out the first time

I mentioned our less-than-stellar debut at our trainer's weekly grid jumping night. It went badly, didn't improve, and was no fun. Soooo... since my BO was going again this week, I decided to take Courage along this week and give it one more chance. If it didn't improve, then we'd quit pushing and just do lessons until his brain figures out how to handle poles.

We got there. He was semi quiet, so I hopped on and immediately had a serious case of the "I don't want tos". I didn't want to be there, didn't want to ride, didn't want to deal with his (perfectly natural) tension. I also didn't want to address the border collie hiding in the weeds by the arena with a squeaky toy that was making irregular but alarming noises.

We can do contact

I considered just getting off. And then I was like, "Well, you don't have to jump, but dammit you do have to march forward into a contact."

So we did.

And then I started moving him off my legs and changing directions and holding my outside rein, and then I was bored of walking, so we did it at a trot. He was actually feeling quiet good. I swear after one flat lesson last weekend he grew a new muscle in a neck and kicked his training up to a whole new level.

And then the instructor was all, "Does he want to trot through the poles?"

So we did.

In our flat lesson last week, she'd talked about how if I bring him under powered to jumps, then he feels like he has to leap, which changes his balance and causes the flailing as he tries to figure things out. Hm. I intentionally took him more forward with a little loop in the reins and he trotted through like a pro.

She started adding in little crossrails. By the end of the exercise, he would trot to the first jump, then land cantering and canter through the crossrail grid. In balance. With a loop in the rein.



<3

Seriously having some Courage love here. My little man is ready to start doing real horse stuff.

So brave

When we were done, we went and hacked around the property with all the horses in his group and even lead the way back to the trailer, which included boldly marching through an ankle-deep puddle on the road. Guess who is the best at puddles?

PS I attempted to add grid video. Let me know if it works. 

The Preamble

The best at putting his head down

I knew I wanted to take Courage to a super fun out of town cross country schooling during spring break, so I thought it was in my best interests to haul him over to my eventing trainer's facility. Once a week she hosts a "grid night" that's just an inexpensive way to get horses out and jumping. Every time I planned on going, something came up.

Until last week. We were scheduled to leave for the weekend on Thursday, grid night is Wednesday... so we chucked him in the trailer and went. My thinking was that he was pretty perfect last year, so why would this year be any different?

In case you are wondering, here are some reasons why:
1) He hasn't been anywhere in three months, which makes his world very small
2) I haven't put a lot of pressure on him in that time, so his tolerance for difficult things was reduced
3) He's feeling really great physically, which makes him expressive
4) He's just plain out of practice.
5) There was a big storm system blowing in

So....

Looking good

He came out pretty quiet. I handwalked him around the arena, and he looked at things but wasn't super reactive.

He was a little vocal, but otherwise fine. I hopped on.







At first, all was well. We walked and trotted around and worked on settling in. It wasn't his best work ever, but I seemed to be getting his brain.

And then the wheels started coming off. He went all classic-insecure-gelding on me and started screaming for his girlfriend.

She screamed back.


Wheeeeee.

Going in

I tried to keep him focused by beginning the exercise. Just our luck, it was a ridiculous amount of poles. Sadly, we are just not the best at poles quite yet.

We walked through a couple times, then went to trot. I was hoping that the walking would help him do things calmly.

Going out

Yeah, not so much. We'd trot the first pole, then canter, then leap and flail on the way out.

I tried not to get in his face, but he was blowing through half halts and ignoring me and then pissing off if I touched his face. I tried bringing him back to walk or trot mid-poles, and that was a no go too.

VROOOOOM

I tried staying in balance over him and looping the rein and we just charged faster and nearly flailed our way into another green horse.

See, when Courage flails, his whole topline goes hollow and he tenses the bottom of his body. His ears are practically up my nose and his legs are moving like pistons that don't go anywhere.

It's not hard to stay on, but it's very hard to channel that into anything useful.

Oh, and we started screaming and panicking even more. I don't think his girlfriend was even calling back to him at this point. We were approaching full-on melt down mode.





Oh goody. I don't really think it's productive to push a high-strung horse into a meltdown, because they're already reacting to pressure. Besides, I'm trying to string together calm, positive experiences to build on for the year. I don't need to teach him that traveling is scary. He seems to have a handle on that.

I broke it down for him and gave up on the exercise. We walked through the grid once in a relatively calm fashion, then moved on to something I thought he could be successful at.






Hellooooo trot figure eights.

I just serpentined him around the jumps and through the poles and made him focus a bit. It wasn't that great of work. He was having trouble going forward and continued to be very tense and scream for his girlfriend.

He managed for a while, but then we started just skidding sideways and giraffing.








I made him do a few more figure eights and then took him to stand in the group and just chill. We chatted with friends and stood on a loose rein until the group finished. Then I hopped off and stuck him in a stall until his girlfriend finished up the next group.



And he spent the next hour and a half kicking the walls and screaming like an idiot.

Still. Despite the fact that it was all in all a pretty un-fun experience, I finally felt ready to face the year. We could do so much better and I wanted to kick both our butts into shape.

It was time to get out there and DO STUFF.

It's good I felt like that, because we were scheduled to leave the very next day...

(to be continued)

PS Many thanks to Alyssa at Four Mares, No Money for all the lovely pictures.

PPS brace yourselves for the photo-extravaganza of awesome. SO. STOKED.