How to Make the Perfect Ammy Horse

Zoebird turns five this month. (I'm committed to calling her 4 until her actual birthday. For reasons.) 

R NOT FUNNY MUM

She's a big lady. She isn't particularly tall, but she's wide and strong and sturdy. 

and she looks so fetch in purple

She's in training twice a week, where my trainer puts w/t/c dressage basics on her for 20-30 minutes a ride. If they a miss a day or a week, it's not a big deal. It is important to me that ZB learn to be a solid equine citizen. It is not important that we hit a competitive goal this year. 

I'm at the barn at least four days a week outside of the trainer rides. I try to be sure Zoe has a solid day a week to be a horse with no particular expectations. 

hand grazing ftw

1-2 times a week, I try to get on and work on something productive and related to dressage. 

clearly i need lessons

Outside of that, I just don't worry about it. ZB is a big lady. She's growing. By all accounts, she has another couple years of growing to go. Her body is big, but her joints haven't closed. 

PRANCIN OVER TARP

We spend a lot of time wandering around outside the arena. Learning to be completely relaxed in arena traffic. Playing with tarps and other fun toys and expanding her natural intelligence and curiosity. 

BARREL HORSE

I want to have a solid show horse eventually, but I have years to do that. Right now, I'm focused on developing my very cool baby mare into the fun, safe partner I've always wanted. 

HELPIN MUM GET HELMUT

That looks different from day to day. Not gonna lie, it completely melted my icy black heart when a special little girl came to the barn and Zoe just put her head down and closed her eyes and let her forelock get braided. 

JUS BEIN DISNEY HORSE

I'm in no hurry. Every day is fun. I look forward to just spending time with ZB and it doesn't even matter to me what we're doing. 

WANT SMOOSH SHORTY DOG

We have time. 

#nailedit: Training Breakthrough

I maaaaaay have mentioned the other day how I broke my horse and she completely forgot how to turn right. I possibly did not mention how toodling in a western saddle while giggling hysterically also completely broke the rest of the steering.

NOT R WANT TURN NO

GOOD NEWS GUYS.

I did some actual riding and I fixed my horse AND found a new secret way to do it.

Here it is:

1) Pick up your outside rein. Bend your elbow, close your fingers, HOLD A CONTACT, and alllllllmost think counter bend.

2) Apply your inside leg to keep your horse's body straight and connected.

BOOM.

I was so proud of myself for figuring this out.

And then I was like "wait inside leg to outside rein... have I heard this before somewhere?"

Nah it's totes new material.

i will distract you with how cute we are

On the Bit or on the Buckle: Dressage Clinic Round II

Let's just agree cold medication does not make organizing one's thoughts easier and bear with me as I try to put words in an order that make sense.

Let's also agree that trainer rides are THE BEST THING ever for working ammies because omg "phoning it in" would be a generous description of how I'd been riding the two weeks up to the clinic, but the combination of trainer rides and having a champion baby mare means it was actually a really good experience for everyone. WUT.

Soooooo we last rode with this clinician back in like... October? At that point, she said many wonderful things about ZB's ability and told me 1) ZB will be very easy to get on the bit and ride correctly but 2) she must learn to come up and over to the bit, never ever down. This is a function of conformation--if I pull her head down, she'll dig a hole to China she's so on the forehand.

This is a concept that I really stressed in my daily riding. That's why you saw lots and lots of photos like this:

I wanted her going forward with her head up out of the way of her shoulders.

Right of the bat, clinician was like "wow she looks like a different horse have you done turns on the forehand?"

I sort of made a croaking noise. (Answer: trainer has done them with her. Go trainer!)

The idea was to teach ZB that leg=stretch down. Thus, I'd ask her to stretch in the halt, then ask for a single step of turn on the forehand, then immediately ask her to stretch down again. The idea being that she'd start to anticipate the stretch and associate it with the leg. (omg let the anticipation work for you. horse nerd training brain loooooved this.)



Of course, there are other answers then the right answer and because ZB is a clever lady, she started offering those as well. I think my favorite quote here was, "You do the right thing and wait for her to come to you." The was no punishment or rushing and because ZB is a champion baby mare, she pretty consistently started picking the right option. (um swoon srsly can you ever she is just the best).



Then we had to overcome some mental obstacles on my part--I'd give up to easily (but she wants to look at that other horse!) or overcompensate and do too many other things. Since I was asking ZB to bend to the inside, she just kept taking a smaller circle and I was getting all pretzel-y trying to make it big. Clinician pointed out that "she's not going to want to stay on the smaller circle. Let her make the mistake and then let her learn to listen to your leg."

Oh yeah I guess that super makes sense too huh.



The funny thing about this lesson is how I'm describing it in so many complicated sounding steps, but the actual riding of it was very simple. Once ZB was stepping up with her inside hind and reaching down with her neck, if I rode consistently and correctly and let her come to me, she connected across her back from inside leg to outside rein.



Of course, leave it to me to find interesting ways to screw things up. The moment we switched directions, I started overbending ZB's neck, which would cause... nothing good, haha. (It's not like I have a massive amount of baggage about turning right. OH SNAP YES I DO.)



The next video is a long one, but we started really putting it all together. Basically, I needed to be aware that she's learning every stride. If she's pulling, I need to change something so she has more good strides than bad strides. "On the bit or on the buckle" is our new mantra. That means either I am expecting her to work correctly or she is free to do whatever, but no weird half assing things in the middle.



We didn't actually get to canter this time out, but we talked about how to transfer those same concepts across.

It was a really fantastic lesson for both of us--I've felt like Zoë was ready to take the next steps, but I wasn't quite sure what those steps looked like. Now I feel confident going forward that we can work on these concepts and progress. At no point did I feel like either of us was overfaced or out of our depth and there was definitely a huge change in ZB's way of going in the lesson.

And now it is time to re-up my DayQuil.

buckle sass

Smoosh Champion!

I try not to be THAT BLOG where everything is always roses and there are never any struggles and it's magic land where everything just works all the time and the toilet has probably never even backed up at an inconvenient time (real question: is there a convenient time for the toilet to back up? even if the plumber is there. do you want him to see your poop?).

sunsets ftw

But you guys.

Omg.

Have you met my baby mare?

SMOOSH

She's cuter than shit. Can't even with how cute she is.

And then like.

w/t transition champion

Ugh she's the goddamn coolest horse to ride. She shows up to work every single day. Her answer to every question is HOKAY MOM ILL TRY. She's honest and sassy and fun. If she knows the answer, she does it the best she possibly can. If she thinks she knows, she gives this adorable little ear pin/head twist like U WANT THIS and gives it a shot.

As long as I'm fair to her, she gives 110% every. single. day.

first ride in an english saddle since a wreck? HOKAY I B PERFIKT

All of that is awesome. She may not know a lot, but she makes every ride worthwhile.

See and then I get off her.

sorry/not sorry that my barn crew is this cute

And you know what?

She is just as much fun on the ground.

I love her boldness and curiosity. No timid spooking here--she marches right up to unusual occurrences and sticks her smooshy nose right in the middle of things to see what's going on. She's never met a stranger. She's not afraid of anything. She's super smart and she thinks about things without ever getting panicked.

time to go #Zoesploring

It's not that she's some paragon of perfection who's schooling third and I'm over here shopping for a double bridle. She's a baby. The steering is getting pretty good and now we work on complicated things like doing up/down transitions without hollowing and collapsing. She's not on the bit. She's not inside-rein-to-outside-leg.

oh and lunging her in a flat halter is fine

She is fun every single day.

What else could I ask for?

Bootcamp Begins!

I'm naturally a very driven person who tends to be a little high strung. Which, whatever. That sort of personality is why I can have a horse as an adult--self aware enough to work on my own, motivated enough to make it happen when things are hard.

and i use dik dik pics as emojis

I aspire to be honest in this space, so without saying anything negative about past four legs, let's just agree that the level of explosiveness I have dealt with in the winter especially took it's toll on me.

In a twist I hadn't thought about, I really don't ride in the indoor arena at all except in the winter after work, when I am usually alone. And the weather is bad.

Which means I'm addressing demons I'd completely forgotten about.

With a four year old.

Who has limited buttons.

sometimes you gotta gallop for SEVERAL STRIDES

That has made the past couple of weeks interesting in that WOW I did not realize how far behind the curve I am mentally.

I think the whole thing shows up in an even more ridiculous light because of how completely and utterly non-plussed Zoe is by all of it. Like. I mean. The indoor arena footing got redone. There are now dressage letters on the wall and (gasp!) a black mark where a tractor tire grazed the wall. Most other horses in work are apparently losing their shit over the offending mark.

it's over there somewhere

And has ZS Zoebird so much as batted an eye?

No.

She has not.

oh look a mildly interesting tarp billowing in gusting wind
whatevsies

What's more, I'd say she's been foot-perfect indoors, but that would be leaving out just how incredible the little lady is. Not only have her feet been perfect, but she's totally willing and on-task and just... wonderful.

I mean, I gush over her, but that's because she's pretty freaking amazing.

also totes adorbs

Anyways.

I certainly have my issues to sort through and I will, but they're the sort of thing that take time and patience and repetition, which again, is fine. It's just not the best for advancing Zoe's training, because she already understands how to toodle around on a long rein while mom remembers how to breathe.

meme via Courage Has Opinions

I was planning to stick Zoe in pro training starting next month, but our trainer had room in her schedule to start this month. It's turning out to be a great arrangement--Zoe gets competent, focused rides twice a week by my trainer. I ride on the weekends and as I have time during the week. If my brain needs to toodle or do groundwork or whatever, it's fine because I know the training is still happening.

And the less pressure is on me, the more I'm able to pull it together and actually have a good time. I'm learning that when I ask Zoe to go, she puts her little head down and just motors and you know what?

closest thing i have to riding media right now haha

It's pretty damn fun.

Unexpected Bonus

I know I've said this a million times, but Zoë is unlike any horse I've ever had before. That's a good thing. I was definitely ready for the new challenges, but they are still challenges. 

um never had a horse let me do this before <3 

For example.

I started a new job last week, which is fantastic. However. It's mentally a lot of work to learn a whole different way of doing things.

Plus daylight savings time.

Plus fall/winter weather arriving.

All of which equaled not necessarily wanting to saddle up and go for it after work in the dark on a baby.

Especially on a baby who is a little bit coming into her own and enjoying the fall weather. Nothing she's doing is bad or unmanageable, but it means I need to get on and ride or like, not.

smooshes gotta smoosh

Here's the fun part though--Zoë starts bootcamp next month, which means I'm totally not worried about the riding. I can not ride from now till December and she'll still be #Zoëfabulous, because that's the kind of lady she is. Or I can get on her and toodle and have her be absolutely foot perfect, then let her tear around the round pen after and see what a smart baby knows when she's working and when she's playing. (Did that too.)

such a fancy lady!

Oh yeah. Round pen.

We hadn't actually used said implement since Zoë graduated to the big arena for canter practice. It's out of the way and I hadn't really thought about it and I'm not really a "round pen" person in terms of wanting a horse to pointlessly run circles.

But when it's late and I'm tired and forgot my lunge line in the tack room? Oh hell yeah I'm learning to be a round pen person.

#effor

In our clinic, I learned that the canter is the key to improving Zoë's other gaits. Getting the canter under saddle right now takes more brain cells than I can rub together on some work nights, but 10/10 I can ask her to be responsible for her own balance and do a bunch of transitions in the round pen.

Another challenge I've been dealing with is that Zoë's bugaboo is loose horses running around--if the pasture horses take off when I'm working her, she gets very distracted. She hasn't been naughty about it under saddle yet, but it's definitely a topic we come back to.

unrelated but how cute is she?

I really don't like getting after horses a ton with a lunge line and dragging on their face/mouth. I also don't like the idea in a big arena that she might learn to get loose under duress if I were to lose control of the lunge line.

But you know how to eliminate those variables?

Oh yeah round pen. NIFTY.

So yup. Put her in the round pen. Horse outside went a little nutso. Zoë was like WUT R THAT MUST CHECK OUT and I was immediately able to send her forward and put her to work and get her attention back on me and work through it in a couple minutes without ever pulling on her face or worrying about losing control.

you're getting weekend pics because 1) we are adorbs and 2) the lighting is hella better

Also cool is just dealing with Zoë's brain in these circumstances. She's a naturally forward going gal, but she's happy to come back when I ask her to. Instead of like. Checking out and leaving. (One of us has baggage. #itsme).

this angle hides how dirty her tail is

I'm definitely looking forward to being back in the saddle and doing the "normal" sporthorse training stuff, but I love all the value I see coming out of our quick evening sessions too.

Wherein Zoë Has An Opinion

Zoë is a fascinating horse for me--she is so cool, yet so different from any horse I've ever spent time with. She has this fantastic "let's do something" attitude. She is 110% try. And she's just so... straightforward?

SMOOSH CAMERA

This past week, I was stressed about things outside the barn and it definitely impacted me when I showed up. I was tense and spooky and not a great influence.

Zoë is a champion, so she still brought her A Game and was lovely.

But then Friday was cold and windy and blowing in a storm and I was alone at the barn, so the smartest thing to do seemed like putting Zoë on the lunge line and go a little forward. Every time I asked for an upward transition, she was a little resistant. Not naughty per se--just a little head shake and DONT WANNA and then she'd go.

sass!

Which. Eh? She's no self-propelled OTTB. She's certainly allowed to be a horse. Horses have opinions sometimes.

Then I asked her for canter and she gave an honest-to-goodness crow hop (!!) before setting out (and I yelled at her and made her RUN REAL FAST FOR A REAL LONG TIME because NO CROW HOPS).

And again. She's four. She's a mare. The weather was changing drastically. Her work has gotten a lot harder lately. She might be a little body sore. She might have popped a little baby attitude. Besides, it was a crow hop and it was not repeated. We're not exactly talking about a giant red flag being towed behind an airplane here.

cannot get enough smooshy face in my life

Later that night, I was texting a friend about saddle fit and hoop trees and how fast babies change.

And while everything that had happened could be quite simply explained by Zoë being a baby mare who's a little body sore and having a case of the dont-wannas on a crappy day, it just seemed like maybe a dark orange flag fluttering in the breeze. I haven't had her that long, but everything I know about her is that she's very, very genuine. She likes having a job. She likes going to work. She loves attention and people and cookies and everything about being an ammy horse.

For a horse like that, who does something out of character?

Hm.

also she got her first hat from Leah and T 

On a hunch, I grabbed a different saddle I had sitting around my garage and headed out to the barn Saturday. I started to tack up normally. Sat her usual saddle on her.

Instantly pinned ears.

Hm.

Took her saddle off. Put back up saddle on.

Pleasant ears.

Then took her to the arena and stuck her on the the lunge line.

Her first walk/trot transition was a little stuck and head shaking.

Then she went nicely forward and every transition after that was smooth and flowing, both on the lunge and under saddle.

awwww 

Again. She's four. The weather just changed. I was definitely in a better frame of mind Saturday than I was early in the week. All of those factors could be are related. Further testing is required etc.

To me, learning Zoë's tolerance level and how she communicates is so critical at this stage. It allows me to make better choices going forward. If I'm going to cultivate her awesome work ethic and develop her trust, she needs to know that she can express discomfort and not have to work through pain.

Can you even?
You cannot.

Zoëbird Goes to a Clinic

I signed Zoë up for her first-ever fancy dressage clinic for last weekend. I mean. The mare is W/T/barely C so it seemed a bit preemptive to be like "yeah totes I'll pay $$$ to have someone tell me she's not broke", but I'm really, Really, REALLY picky about instructors I'll ride with and I wanted to support the clinician coming in. (Background: last time she came, a friend who has a hot, sensitive off-breed horse rode with her and the clinician went through stuff it took me MONTHS to work out on my own with C in about 30 seconds. WUT TAKE MY MONEY.)

tired clinic baby

Anyways. I went to audit/check out the route and parking conditions on Friday and watched lovely riders on lovely horses have lovely rides and while I still liked the clinician, I was kinda like, "What am I doing here?" 

I mean. As much I as love my smooshy mare, a finished dressage horse she is not. We like toodling and adventures. We aren't super cool and good at stuff. 

The organizer kindly offered to let me come a couple hours early so Zoë could hang out and acclimate before our ride. 

open bars=social hour

I need to start getting used to this, but Zoë was so low-drama that it was absurd. She's all O HAI EVERYONE IM ZB and that's that. Literally put her in the stall with hay and didn't hear a peep out of her. 

MUST SMOOSH

It was the first off-property "work" outing for both of us and one of us was definitely having some OTTB PTSD (me) and so got ready plenty early just in case there was shit to be lost (also me). 

stall+paddock

Zoë was all "O HAI CHICKENS IM ZB" and "O HAI HORSES" and that was pretty much it. I did put her on the lunge line and then I saw ZOEWILD.

Which means.

She cantered TWO CIRCLES with her tail up. 

Then was am "AM TIRED WALKIN NOW".

Time to go! I hopped on and was having an almost out of body experience like OMFG AM I DEAD BUZZING AHHHH and Zoë was like "Y R THIS EXCITING WE R WALKIN". 

Giggle. Baby mare. 

The instructor had us doing some interesting stuff:

1) Diamond shape - circles, especially on babies, kinda get all over the place and aren't super useful. Instead she set out 4 markers and had us make a diamond shape around them. This made me be very honest about where we were and where I was placing her feet. Leaning in/out was super obvious and the straight lines between the markers were telling. 

go around markers

2) Following her nose - Zoë isn't trained/balanced enough to really understand moving off my leg to correct straightness issues at this point, so instead, I had to keep Zoe's body in line with her nose all the time. If we leaned in, then point her nose out and steer out. Or the reverse. The diamond shape was helpful for this. If you're bulldozing cones, you're leaning in. FYI. 

3) Shoulders up - At this point in her development, ZB is a bit downhill and pulls herself around with her shoulders. To help her overcome this, it is critical to keep her poll the highest point. If I ask her to stretch down at this point, she'll just trip over her own head (it's... happened) and run downhill. The stretch will come after she learns to lift the base of her neck. For now, head up. 

4) Giving - at the halt ONLY because of aforementioned tripping-over-own-head issue, we did a cool exercise where I'd ask Zoë to halt, then hold one rein steady and give the other forward. This isn't a seesaw on the mouth thing or whatever--just give one rein and wait for her to soften. If she went backwards, I'd ask her to step up and halt again because we never pull or go backwards onto the bit. If she lost ambition, I would "fluff" her with my leg but not have her step forward. Once she gave on one rein, we'd switch to the other. 

5) Forward - I love toodling and it showed. "Walk to the rhythm of the trot" was something I head a lot. Also MARCH and ONETWOTHREEFOUR. At this point, I need to be very concerned with rhythm for Zoe and that rhythm needs to be CONSISTENT and GOING FORWARD. --This one is kind of funny for me because I have so much baggage with C that I had some anxiety about really moving out. In the context of this lesson though, I got tools to manage the forward (HANDS UP REINS SHORT) and it all felt really comfortable. 

6) Half Stop - at a more polished stage, it would be a half halt. At this point, we want Zoë with me and listening to me so when it feels like she's lost her balance forward or is pulling down on the reins, ask her to stop and then the moment I feel her slow down, go on again. This was tricky for me, because again, I'm used to hot horses so I kept asking for a BIG stop and she'd stop. And then we were stopped. Ooops. I definitely need to get more sensitive and release AS SOON AS she gives vs getting too excited about whoa. 

7) GoStopGO - Clinician had us canter left HANDS UP GOING FORWARD and it actually felt really good. Then she's like CANTER RIGHT and I definitely did not tell her we'd never cantered right before. Zoë gave the same effort she's given at home--plowing forward at the trot and almost falling down, but not quite cantering. Clinician wanted her quicker off the leg with her hind end going quicker. Aka. Make her hotter. This is something I DEFINITELY would NOT have done on my own because again, OTTB PTSD. But instead, we did a series of very crisp, prompt W/T/W/T/W and revved the engine, creating a desire to go forward. Then we attempted to go W/T/C in about 5 strides and if she didn't get it right away, came back and revved the engine a little more. It took a little bit (mostly for me to accept that this wasn't a scary idea) and then BAM canter right. What's more, with the front end lifted and the forward moving thing, it was actually a super fun canter to ride. 

canter!

After the first canter right, we did the giving exercise again. Zoë had a full-blown Zoëmeltdown. 

Which is to say. 

She stood there and flipped her head for a while. And then she was like FINE and stopped. 

#zoewild meltdown

When we finished, we were both completely exhausted but Zoë had a big, soft learning eye and my little mind was blown. It was so good to push ourselves a little and find out what we were capable of and working towards. I needed someone to a little bit hold my hand and a little bit kick my butt to move us forward. Plus, Zoë is just such a different horse from anything I've ever had--it was so good to get more input on how to ride her more effectively. 

And because I am just so proud of my baby mare, here are things the clinician said about her:

Oh, she's really smart. 

She's going to be so easy to get on the bit.

She moves forward so nicely! 

She is going to be a really fun one.

Oh yeah. That's just a grand prix dressage trainer saying lovely things about lil Ms. ZB. 

It was a great experience for both of us and I'm excited to do our homework to get ready for next time. 

and now we are so tired