What's Up With Courage

Lately, this blog has been mostly SB having meltdowns and stress shopping, which is pretty good entertainment I think. But hey, my wild-mustang-dressage-stallion is still burning hay, so I thought you might want to know what's going on with him.

rawr

When we (more or less) left off, he was in pro training 2x a week and I was riding the other days. Then BAM no riding for me. Between the godawful weather and Courage being a "challenging" horse, trainer said that riding him 2x a week was a hazard to everyone (she's not wrong) and we agreed to pick up again when I'm back in the saddle.

tail straight in air=no fun for anyone

Courage was essentially untouched for the month of December. It was mostly because I was at home in crippling pain, but Lindsey made me feel good about it by saying he probably needed a brain reset anyways and maybe a month to himself would give us more information and let him de-stress a little.

all wild mustangs wear blankets. yes.

Welllllllll let's just say the information I garnered was that Courage does really, really poorly with time to himself. The horse went feral. He was uncatchable. Un-handle-able. Unlikable. He spooked at everything and the few times I saw him, was a complete idiot. Like. Let's not talk about the night it took me 45 minutes to catch him in the indoor and then he soaked through two coolers. (And made me late on pain meds and omg that night hurt very very much).

horse shaming has it's own billboard

I'm finally starting to feel human again (many thanks to Ashley the Ninja Goddass, aka my Physical Therapist), so Courage is going back to work. Auntie Crystal recommended vienna reins for him, and despite my initial misgiving, these babies are life changing for Courage.

um hellooooooo

However, godawful weather has been a constant around here. Not a joke--we're breaking all the records since before they started keeping records. Which is stupid. But regardless, between me feeling like a steaming pile of poo most of the time and the roads being somewhere between "dangerous" and "terrifying" for most of the past few weeks, I get to the barn about three times a week.

who recognizes this horse? i do not

We're just lunging in vienna reins, which is actually super interesting to do with Courage, but not super interesting to talk about doing. For example, Courage physically doesn't understand how to step up into the canter like a dressage horse--he just tenses his underneck, braces, and flings himself. The shit transition translates into a shit gait and the whole thing is a shit show.

what? no. surely not this horse!

So. Since I can't ride, I've spent lots of time experimenting with how to explain to Courage that he can step up from behind and stay soft in his body. We do lots of spiral in/spiral out with w/t transitions until he's forward and through. And then we do trot/canter transitions with the same idea and just stay calm and patient.

withers lifted, hind legs stepping through. omg.

See, most of you checked out already because lunging is massively boring to do, much less to talk about doing. BUT. You'll notice that is a canter picture. And I don't usually post canter pictures because canter is not our thing.

i made a trail of shavings over the ice!

The Ninja Goddess says riding is 1-2 weeks out. The realist in me says riding a certain Wild Mustang Dressage Stallion with no turnout in a spooky indoor with snow sliding off the roof in subfreezing temps is not a great idea for a recent neck injury, even when one has a brain injury to impair one's judgement. The weather man says we're in for a deep(er) freeze.

this is why you have no friends, weatherman.

But spring is coming, I will get better, and someday, I will sit on my horse again.

Dammit. Just you wait.

And Another Lesson!

Courage and Diva

I found out early Wednesday morning that Courage and I could wiggle in to a baby lesson with our fancy eventing trainer that afternoon. It was a group lesson with three other greenie babies, so I figured it was the perfect opportunity for us.

Courage unloaded like a champ, let me tack up, and then spent the next ten minutes or so posing dramatically in various places around the giant arena. He didn't spook at all, but he's the sort of horse that really likes to see everything.

Once I got on, we were put to wok doing some leg yield out on 20 m circles at the walk and trot. The goal was to get the hyped up greenies a bit disengaged (and less zoomy) while getting them focused on us. Because the arena is massive, we all got our own circle to work on.

"Check out my flailing move, Diva."

Then she had us roll right up into canter. I tried to think positive and stay focused and whatever, but it took about half a circle before we were flailing and leaping our way across the diagonal of the giant arena with a certain little blaze face pretty much in my lap. I'm starting to get used to it, so I kept my heels down and leg on and sort of got him combobulated before we ran in to anyone. Just glad none of the other babies decided to go with us, lol.

We got put back on our circle. I did some changes of direction to change his focus a little, and our instructor kept having me pat him with the outside (right) rein. We were able to put in two decent half circles at the canter without leaping, so we called that good enough.

Then we moved on to trotting a pattern of poles. There were a lot of poles in a row, which is something Courage is not the best at. He gets a little overwhelmed when he sees that many things to do. Definitely something to work on. He was pretty funny as he tried SO HARD to figure out what I wanted. We would trot through the first few, then sort of canter and then just LEAP out. Our instructor had me trot in, then halt, then walk or trot out a few times and he started to do better.

He's got this

Well, until we had to canter. We trotted the first set of poles, then were supposed to canter the second set. Courage's flailing isn't so much scary as annoying and bizarre and hilarious, so we picked up the canter, leaped our way through the poles, and took off flailing across the arena.

Our instructor had me keep him forward, but put him on a circle and put him to work. We went through the exercise several times, and while the flailing never quite stopped, it got quite a bit less dramatic and protracted.

Then we added jumps! Now we were trotting over two poles and a crossrail, turning left, jumping another crossrail across the center of the arena, and then cantering on the right lead through the last set of poles. The goal of the exercise was to work on turning and balance. I expected C-rage to be a nutter, but he surprised me. He was totally unimpressed by the trot poles and X, stepped right over the next X, and then I opted to trot the rest.

And then we did it again. He hopped the first X and deer leaped the second one because we added fill. I stayed with him and kicked on and we landed in the most balanced right lead canter that we maintained all the way around the end WITH NO FLAILING!!! WOOHOO!!! He trotted the last poles, but I was happy with him.

Take aways from the lesson:
1) We're on the right track. Courage was comfortable in the group, good in company, and pretty easy to deal with. His good work is very good.
2) It is better to deal with the random forward/flailing thing than to have to kick him constantly.
3) It is important to address the flailing now. Keeping him forward is the right idea, but I also need to change his balance and put him to work IMMEDIATELY so he doesn't get the idea that he can just piss off for a few strides when he's in the mood for it.As our instructor put it, "if he thinks he can do that for 4 or 5 strides and you have a jump in 3, you're in trouble."

Rocking their sexy coolers!

I'm hoping to hop on him today, then I have ANOTHER LESSON on Saturday, this time with S. So many lessons! I love the holidays. Happy late Thanksgiving to everyone!

Conformation of the Event Horse: Thoroughbred Edition

I've been mulling this idea over for a while, and I think I now have a pretty cool progression to show as far as Cuna's conformation, how it affects him competitively, and how he's changed while with me. However, because I am an average student of conformation, I thought that I would include a perspective from one of my favorite experts, who also happens to be my favorite photographer, the wonderful EllieA. (All shots by EllieA.)

In order to illustrate how conformation and muscle structure relate to athletic output in performance, I've included a trotting and cantering shot taken the same day as each conformation shot. While Ellie is a smashing photographer who makes us look awesome, I'd say that the pictures were representative of where we were at in our training at the time.






Basic stats:
Hakuna Matata (Cuna)
17 years old
Thoroughbred (OTTB)
Career eventer

MARCH

March 20, 2012

TSB: At this point, I'd had Cuna about a month and in all fairness to him, he'd been out of work all winter and the month he'd spent with me was not terribly intense. I was building confidence over low fences on the flat and he was toting me around. As an out of shape, unbalanced adult ammy, I was not the picture of balanced perfection.

EA: In this photo, Cuna looks like a horse just getting back into regular work. His overall structure is good, if a bit unbalanced front to rear. Ideally, the structure of a performance animal should be balanced, with equal angulation in the front and hindquarters. In layman’s terms, I'd like to see the shoulder angle (from the wither to point of shoulder to the elbow) match the rear angle (from the point of hip to stifle to hock). A horse built this way is generally a more stable athlete, less prone to injuries, and has an easier time with collection.

Cuna is built nicely uphill. He is straighter in the hind end (notice the straight line between stifle and hock), but has a nicely sloping croup. He has a decent shoulder, and is long bodied with a lovely long (some might say giraffe) neck. He is ever-so-slightly over at the knee. You can see the beginnings of muscle development in the shoulders and hindquarter, but his neck and topline aren’t quite there yet. I don’t like how his neck ties into his shoulder/withers in this photo… it looks abrupt and awkwardly set. You can tell he isn’t completely comfortable.

March trot

TSB: I probably never posted this picture before because it's not the most stellar trotting shot ever, but it's how we were working. Loose rein, in an arena, going forward. I was determined to learn everything I could from Cuna, so I neglected fitness work in favor of jumping small things several times a week.

March canter

EA: Much of what I discussed in the conformation shot holds true in motion. At this point, he hasn’t developed the muscle tone and condition to carry himself properly. In the trot photo, he is moving downhill, and not tracking under as well as he does in later photos.. His neck is kind of hanging there awkwardly and his topline appears underdeveloped. He has more reach in front than drive in the rear, and if you were to draw triangles between his front and rear legs, you’d find the rear triangle to be smaller. At the canter, he looks a little better, but you can still see the imbalance and his discomfort at being asked to be light in the front and track up in the rear. This is partially due to structure, and partially due to condition.

MAY

May 20, 2012

TSB: The next set of shots is from May, a mere 60 days later. I have to say, the first thing I notice is just how much I love Cuna's summer coat. He is fit and shiny, with ribs well covered in flesh. Cuna and I had progressed from putzing around the arena 5 days a week to trotting and galloping in the hills for fitness regularly.

EA: The change in muscle tone between this picture and the last one is dramatic. Everything looks “tighter” and more defined. Cuna looks much more comfortable in his own skin, and has a much softer and pleasant expression than the last photo. His shoulder and hindquarters have continued to develop and strengthen. However, his neck and topline are perhaps the most strikingly different part of him. His neck is well muscled—especially along the top—which helps it to tie into his shoulder/withers more smoothly. His topline shows obvious muscling from withers to croup. Even his abdominal muscles are showing definition, and his belly is tighter and more athletic looking. Really, his whole “framework” appears much stronger. All of these improvements will make dressage/flat work much easier and more comfortable for him, because he now has the physical ability to lift his front end and have it be supported through the topline and hindquarters.

May trot

TSB: I was addressing confidence issues over fences, so Cuna was coming off our first cross country schooling together (hot mess) and a two week jumping intensive to address issues raised. We were still a new partnership, but with consistent lessons and five or six days a week under saddle, we were starting to really do well together. Because the root of my issues was jumping, he and I spent lots of time with the sticks and did little-to-no dressage work in the proper sense of the word.

May canter

EA: Cuna is moving in a much better and more attractive frame at the trot. His whole front end looks smooth and efficient, and he is tracking up better in the rear, although not perfectly. He appears a bit stiff in the hocks, which would make sense knowing his age and work level at this point in time. His topline looks lovely, and he appears relaxed, happy, and workmanlike. At the canter, he looks much smoother and lighter in the front. His neck and topline are beautiful, and you can see the muscle development in his chest, also. He is in beautiful condition with a lovely, shiny coat.

NOVEMBER

November 12, 2012

TSB: As much as we loved our last barn, we moved with our trainer to a new place in a flatter locale at the end of October. We have taken several dressage lessons and worked hard on improving connection and engagement. That said, all of our trails are now flat, so that steady hill work that was a major part of our workload four days a week is no longer a regular thing.

EA: In this photo, Cuna’s condition tells me that he has experienced a change in the type of work he is getting. While he still has fairly even muscle tone, he has lost some of the dramatic muscling on his neck and topline. You can tell this by the way his neck and back tie into his withers, as well as the increase in slope from croup to tail. He seems to have kept similar muscling in the hind end, but perhaps lost some in his shoulder. His abdominal muscles appear even tighter than the last photo, though… this tells me that he has been doing a lot of work involving that area. He still has a pleasant, kind expression and seems like a very happy guy.



TSB: We are constantly improving--I can feel changes in how Cuna and I work together from week to week. It's exciting, and now it's documentable. We do spend more time in the arena now, working on connection (that elusive outside rein) and we've even developed some baby lateral motion. Cuna is not the most supple horse in the world, but the more we work, the better he is.







 
EA: Cuna is noticeably lighter in the front end than in any of the previous shots. At the trot, he shows marked improvement in rear flexibility and drive. He shows lovely engagement and is tracking up in the hind end very well for a horse of his conformation. I would bet you that if the photo was a straight side view, the triangles between his legs would be about even, front to rear. That is great. At the canter, he is using his front end well but doesn’t seem as strong looking as he does in May’s canter photo. At both the trot and canter, he is carrying himself in a decent frame, and looks much more comfortable using his body like this—something that is much changed from the March photos.

WRAP UP

TSB: Working with Cuna has been a fun adventure. I didn't realize just how much he'd changed until I put all these shots side by side. Many thanks to EllieA for her insights!! Also, check out her blog for a post on our last photo session together. Super fun stuff. :-)


EA: It was very interesting to see how different types of work influenced Cuna’s muscle development, quality of gaits, and attitude. Generally, what I noticed in the conformation shots held true in the movement photos. Overall, I feel that the May photos show Cuna at his most fit. However, the November photos present a picture of a more supple horse that has an easier time staying collected and engaged. I am intrigued to continue following their progress!

Pony Feet

Rest assured my friends: despite my inconsistent riding and blogging, my tiny little brain has been churning like mad lately. Here's the root of the issue: hoofcare.

A huge number of bloggers keep their horses barefoot with pictures of healthy hooves, sound horses, and even competition results to go along with them. Of course, there are plenty of you out there who do the same with shod horses, but...

Izzy spends most of her time barefoot, in general. I like it because it's cheap and I'm poor. She got front shoes on this summer because she was not dealing well with flood irrigation and the ridiculously rocky footing we have in the desert. In theory, I'm fine with this. I wholeheartedly believe that some horses can go barefoot and some can't, and there's no point in worrying too much about it one way or the other.

Here's the kicker--while I will never pretend to be any sort of high performance athlete, I do run to keep myself fit to be a rider. I have found that I am at my best when using the very least in footwear--minimalist shoes that allow me to feel "barefoot" while protecting me from the hazards of an urban environment. I am more balanced, have better posture, am more comfortable, and am far more aware of how I am using my feet and my body.

Furthermore, Andrea mentioned some months ago that in her observation, horses were frequently more clumsy when shod, to the tune of tripping and stumbling more often. At the time, I wrote it off as circumstantial evidence from a biased observer (sorry), but that was when my mare was barefoot and almost never tripped on anything.

On to the past month. We still have nasty, rocky footing. Izzy is fine walking over the rocks in her shoes, but when we work, I've noticed that she tends to trip a LOT more than before. Yes, the footing is crap, but it's been crap all along. It's just that now her ground feel and feedback is reduced that she's begun having problems.

There is an obvious solution to this: pull the shoes. This is what I'd do this time of year anyways. The only problem is that as of 11/1/11, Izzy and I are moving in with beloved event trainer to spend 6 months working hard. That is exactly two weeks from now. (OMG 2 weeks from this very second I will be with my pony at the barn!!!!)

Two weeks simply does not seem like enough time to try and re-transition Izzy to barefoot in preparation for a serious training regime over presumably also-rocky terrain. In fact, it seems rather hair-brained. I'm going to contact my (very pro-barefoot) farrier and get an opinion, but I'd like some thoughts from you guys, too. How long would it take to successfully switch a shod horse back to barefoot? Have you done it? Are you currently (or have you in the past) dealt with barefoot performance horses?

Am I completely insane to even think about this? My plan was to stay in shoes for 6 months, then go back to barefoot when we moved back to our current barn, but 6 months is sounding like a long time of a stumbly horse.

If you have a barefoot horse with occasional tenderfoot issues, how have you dealt with it? Please, share your thoughts. Obviously, if I'm going to move on this, it needs to be sooner rather than later.

World's most beautiful big mare appreciates your opinions.

I Think I Found the Answer

Energy supplements are off the table. Here's why:

I rode Izzy Friday for a jump school. She was fabulous, as per the usual and I think I'm starting to catch up. She hasn't really wanted to go forward into contact lately, so I rode on a looser rein and just had her go forward, period. It seemed to work reasonably well, though she flipped her nose a couple times in the canter. I didn't worry about it too much--after all, I was intentionally asking her to do something she didn't want to.

Saturday she had off since I was volunteering at a show.

Sunday was the most amazing day we've had all year in terms of weather. Almost 60f, sunny, light breeze. The track is finally dry and had been worked, so I put Izzy jumping tack on her to go do some intervals for the first time this year. Unfortunately (I thought), the barn owners were doing a lot of work with the tractor and they had it right on the spooky road I'd need to go down to get to the track. I figured that spooky road+tractor would be too much for a pony brain, so I took her to the outdoor arena to warm up before we went to the track.

Now, some basic info: my jumping saddle is a collegiate convertible. As in, has a tree. It fits Izzy well enough. It's not perfect, but she seems to think it's ok and since there isn't a saddle fitter within 800 miles of me, I'm letting good enough alone.

She lunged just fine, so I mounted. Her walk was ridiculously slow and behind my leg. More than usual. I tried leg and whip and everything with precious little result. It was stupid walk or break to trot. Fine, I thought, we'll trot. She gave me a nasty head tossing transition to a choppy, ridiculously slow trot. When I asked for more, she started throwing her head and threatening to go up, a threat I always take very seriously from her. I tried a couple different things to get her forward and not-head-tossing. All failed.

Ok, plan B. I dismounted and unsaddled her. Since her saddle fit isn't perfect, I thought perhaps she'd changed shape again and was now uncomfortable. Usually, I'd expect her to start showing that when tacking up, but it was worth a shot. I looked at how the saddle sat on her. To me, it looked the same as before. A little too wide in front, but with shimmed with a pad that has a tiny front lift, fits reasonably well. Huh... We walked back to the barn. I put her jumping saddle up and pulled out our treeless dressage saddle. This is her happy place, so if there's a saddle fit issue, putting it on will correct the behavior.

She was fine. I took her out to the arena and got the exact same response--fine on the lunge, head tossing and rearing threats under saddle. Huh. I checked her back Friday and today and it was totally fine. No knots, no soreness. She's totally sound and even in all four legs. I had a brief chat with two of the other boarders. One mentioned that her horse flips his head when he thinks his browband is too tight. Despite the fact that she's gone in this bridle for over a year, she did just get a new dressage bridle with a roomier browband, so maybe she changed what she likes.

I switch the bridle. She's quite patient about it. Huh. It just doesn't make sense to me. She's been a little fussy about bridling, but I'd attributed that to the cold weather and cold bits of winter.

I decide to wait for Terri (hooray western trainer!) to go out and check our latest configuration. I had two thoughts: 1) she might be able to see a problem I'm not feeling correctly and 2) if Izzy does flip over on me, at least someone will be there to scrape my bloodied corpse off the ground.

As we're waiting, the other boarder and I start talking about Izzy's bit/bridle arrangement. Loose ring, double jointed, copper mouth, comfortably fitted. She walks over and starts feeling along Izzy's face where her teeth lay. Right side: nothing, no reaction. She went to the left side. About halfway up, Izzy opened her mouth and put her head up.

BINGO!

Tooth issues. We tried one more time and got the same reaction. Poor mare... it explains so much. She hasn't wanted to go forward into contact because, well, ouch. She went really nicely in the western tack because there was no contact and a minimalist bridle. She's just been picking at her hay because it hurt to eat. It might even explain some of her explosiveness lately--the only thing she's been eating well (other than treats) is her senior, which is grain based.

Huh. I thought she'd slowed down on eating because it was warmer and she didn't need it to keep warm. I was wrong.

Now I'm setting up a dentist appointment for my horse... it will be sometime after her manicure this afternoon.

IT FEELS SO GOOD!!!

I know I can't have as many lessons as I want, so it's in my best interests to read up on riding a lot and audit anything I can. It's not the easiest or most fun way to learn, but it's certainly the cheapest. My car was in the shop the other day and it cost a third more than it was supposed to, so I am left with a whopping $30 in my checking account until I get paid. Yay!

Obviously, a lesson was not in the cards. Plus the outdoor is unusable right now and the footing in the indoor is crap, so it's hard to get really good work in.

I wanted to get a new book on dressage to work on over the next couple months, but that's not really a good idea. Fortunately, I have the USDF guide to dressage in my little library. I pulled it out and read 2 pages yesterday. It was weird--I just kind of opened the book and started reading. I was on a section about the walk and how to ride it. Izzy has a lovely walk naturally, but under saddle she tends to suck back behind my leg and not want to go forward, which has me doing all kinds of stupid things and our walk looks like crap.

So. After reading the section, I went out for our ride. I meshed what Cathy talked about in our last lesson with what I read in the USDF book and sections I gleaned from 'Kottas on Dressage' that I was oogling at Borders. I focused on keeping my shoulders back and head up, creating the ear-shoulder-hip-heel alignment. I bent my elbows in order to carry my hands up and forward, which creates a straight line from my elbow to the bit. I stretched up through my core and down through my legs, allowing them to "hang like strips of limp bacon". I don't know why that image caught me, but it did.

Then I asked Izzy to walk forward. One gentle squeeze with my calves. She sort of responded--she started to slowly ambled forward. I asked for more--she ignored me. I escalated, first with a firmer sqeeze (and release), then adding the whip. She gave me more and I backed off. Sometimes I forget to reward her with a release, which means we ride around with her ambling, my legs locked on, and my heels up. Not a pretty picture.

As soon as I released, I noticed that Izzy would return to her lazy amble. I repeated the sequence of the aids and released as soon as I got a response. I asked for more; she trotted. As the book directed, I rode the trot for a few strides, then brought her back to walk. Trot was more forward, so it is sort of correct. For about 15 minutes, we just worked on walking and changing directions with the occasional halt thrown in. To halt, I practiced "zipping up my abdomen" which worked really, really well. It's weird how Izzy knows aids that I didn't know enough to teach her. Smart mare.

I must brag about this: we had about 3-4 strides of a lovely walk with Izzy connected from back to front, hind end engaged, neck stretching down to the bit and the withers as the highest point. It felt AMAZING!!!

I tried to transfer some of the awesomeness we were practicing into our trot work--going forward, staying soft and in position. I kept Izzy and myself honest by doing a trot circle on the bit, then sliding my hands down the reins to do a stretchy trot circle so she was reaching down while staying balanced and forward.

Wow, what a ride.

I noticed that when I had Izzy truly engaged, her walk/trot transitions lacked the head-tossing resistance we've had lately. Win!

Things to work on for next time:

1) MORE! Specifically, continue to ask and then release when getting a response to my forward driving aids in order to allow Izzy to learn what I'm looking for.

2) Less! When Izzy does what I want, I need to be sure I give a quick break instead of constantly niggling with my aids to get something else.

3) Halts--Izzy likes to stop, so I need to remember to keep my leg on as I zip up my abs to halt. This will produced a square and more balanced picture.

Oh, and the funny thing? The dressage bridle I ordered like a month ago showed up yesterday, so I came home from my ride to have a dressage-y reward waiting for me. Sweet! The odds of a ride today are bad. Wednesdays are super busy. I will be out tomorrow, though, and I can't wait.

Sick Day

I woke up this morning and felt like I'd never gone to bed. Plus, now I have a sore throat and runny nose and a headache. :-(

The obvious course of action was to skip my run, get dressed, go riding, then come home for soup. Why, what else could I do?

I'm glad I did. I still feel like crap, but the ride was so worth it. Because Izzy was so quiet yesterday and we galloped around, I decided to forgo lunging and just warm her up with a long walk. It went really well. I focused on keeping her marching forward and let her stretch whenever she offered it. After 10 minutes or so, I picked her up and off we went. We're gearing up for a schooling show, so I wanted to work on transitions. At first, Izzy totally ignored my seat and would toss her head if I tried touching the reins in trot/walk transitions. I broke it down for her. We did walk/halt transitions. If she halted in a balanced and quiet way, we walked on. If not, I asked her to back until she gave (ie released tension and dropped her poll). It took a while and several times we had to back all the way down the short side of the arena, but she finally decided to co-operate.

After that, it was smooth sailing. We did walk/trot/canter transitions and she was lovely. We did trot/halt transitions. She can do them within a stride and she has a naturally square halt. Then we progressed to transitions within the trot; instead of actually halting, we'd do a half halt and practiced our shorten/lengthen trot. She has an amazing lengthen when she's balanced. We didn't actually practice our tests, but I don't think we need to. Plus, it helped me to find a good, quiet way to work through her initial resistance.

Win! Also, the schooling show was moved back from Wednesday to Friday. That gives us a little more time to get ready and means that our lesson is on for tomorrow and we get to JUMP again!

PS I'm 90% done pulling her mane and her fetlocks and bridle path are now trimmed. Behold the power of cookies! Seriously. She will stand still for anything if she has a treat to suck on.

PPS The mare has apparently opened a store under her registered name. I'm awaiting royalties.

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?

Ok, I Admit

Today was not our best day ever. It definitely wasn't the worst, but we had too much unresolved conflict.

Izzy had another big spook at the beginning, but again we worked through that, which was good. We also had some very nice moments in trot, specifically when we worked on shortening and lengthening. That said, the footing was pretty crappy and we were steering around someone else the whole time, so it wasn't quite the workout I pictured. Izzy decided she didn't want to go through a mud puddle, and then she thought she would ignore my leg. She ended up going off my leg nicely, but then she didn't want to go forward.

She's a little bit like her mommy, in that she gets really upset sometimes, especially if she doesn't quite understand what I'm asking. Unlike her mommy, however, I can keep working through it because her brain does stay with me, it just gets frantic. I'm thinking that we both would have been better served if I incorporated the walk breaks I've been using the past few days to let her know she's doing alright.

I miss summer.

So, my plan to improve: I'm doing some extra work for Cathy this weekend, so I'll see if I can get on the lesson schedule for this upcoming week. To keep progressing, I need input. I need to do a lot more canter work (and transitions), so given the choice between braving the indoor alone and riding in crappy footing with someone else, off to the indoor we will go. In the iffy footing, I really feel like it's unfair to ask Izzy to really take a big, forward trot, and even if we get it, we have to stop almost immediately to avoid hitting someone else.

Also, I timed out workout today: 35 minutes. That's probably ok for now, but I want to build towards working an hour at least. She can develop fitness at slower speeds so when it comes time to start earnestly conditioning for an event, she will have a huge head start.

Mon Dieu! Le cheval s'est presque arrêté!

In case you're like me and you don't know any French beyond "Mon dieu!", the title says, "The horse almost stopped", which was as close as the online translator could come to "half halt".

At any rate. We continued to work through the weekend on transitions through the halt, which has resulted in so much improvement. Izzy is much more responsive, both about halting and about going forward. We handled the Doom Bubble all alone on Sunday, and we rode outside in the wind and the mud today.

Here's what the title refers to: after about half an hour of warming up and doing transitions, I asked Izzy to halt, then go again before she stopped. She did it. That means, we did our first quality (and rudimentary) half halt. Obviously, I've had to rebalance her under saddle before, but this one caused a definite change in her way of going. It also confused her somewhat, poor girl.

Other than that, I also introduced backing. I've waited a long time to do this, because in my mind, a horse that rears as an evasion doesn't need any help learning to get her front end light. We have back a few steps here and there, but today I was actually asking for it. I got a variety of reactions. First, she did it. Then she completely locked up and wouldn't do anything. Then she ran backwards and wouldn't stop. We managed to work out a happy medium and just take a few balanced steps back. We're working towards an exercise I read about in which the horse halts, backs, goes forward, backs, etc. The idea is to swing the horse's weight and balance back and forth, which takes a great deal of coordination for both horse and rider.

Sounds good, right?

PS I really like my title. You may see more French in the future, but rest assured, I don't understand more than two words of it.

PPS I'm sorry if you saw this post before I edited it. I accidentally translated to Spanish! Ha. That shows you how much I know about foreign language.

Ahhhh

The outdoor arena footing was good yesterday and today, so I rode Izzy in it. We have had two amazing days in a row, and I've probably jinxed it by talking about it now. Whoops.

Anyways. I've been working on keeping my reins shorter and doing the trot/halt/trot transitions that Katie recommended for us. I start by doing halt/walk transitions, but I make sure that we're walking forward, not just toodling along. It's going really, really well. Because I'm using my seat more,I'm sitting deeper in the saddle, which makes us both more secure and balanced. Then, when we start trotting, it's so completely natural that everything just flows. Outside distractions are blocked out. We had one transition from a forward trot to a square halt to a forward trot. It was gorgeous.

Say with me: ahhhhhhh. These are the days.

Canter/halt/canter transitions are stewing in the back of my mind, but we probably need a lot more practice cantering before we do too much with that.

I rode Cassie again yesterday, and she was wonderful all over again. As the weather improves, I'm going to have to look more into the reining thing. It's not like we'd ever compete, but it sure sounds fun.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

We were in the Doom Bubble again today. Usually it's just our lessoner friend in with us, but someone scheduled a beginner lesson at the same time today. As a result, Izzy and I had to stay on the same end with our friend to avoid mowing over the beginner. We had to do a lot of lengthening and shortening since the lesson horse moves quite slowly. I've noticed that Izzy seems to tighten her body, then drag down on the bit, and completely ignore my body. In large part, I think that's due to me getting stiff, which isn't exactly helped by the cold. She gets better if I change the bend every couple strides, but it's still not great. We couldn't do many spirals today because there were other people around.

Oh well. We worked really hard. When Katie rode Izzy, she said that she knew the aids, but commented that our half halt/brakes weren't that good. I feel like I finally have Izzy going pretty well forward, so now we need to learn to slow down. We did a lot of big trot to shorter trot transitions, but it would take me a whole short side to get her to slow down. Ugh. Definitely need more work there. I'm thinking we may take some time to do what Frizzle is doing with Salem. Still, it's a pretty new concept for her because so much of our time has been spent going forward. I'm really looking for more quality downward transitions, both in and between gaits. She has a tendency to lose all her forward energy in a transition instead of going forward and down... if that makes any sense.

Cathy's out of town this weekend, but I'm hoping we can get on the lesson schedule next week sometimes. Beyond that, do you have any exercises that will help with softening us up?

Thank God for Cowboy Books

Even before I got to the barn today, I decided we were going to take it easy. Either there's something wrong with my riding or there's something wrong with my horse, or we're just not connecting well. If we had access to trails, it would have been a definite hacking out day. (Alas, we do not.) When I got Izzy out, I tacked her up and put her on the lunge line. I haven't been lunging her lately, but I wanted to see if she would be stiff under saddle. If she was, then I was going to take the saddle off and see if it was a physical stiffness or if we were having saddle problems yet again.

To my surprise, she actually went better to the left than she did to the right. Ok... at least that pretty much rules out a saddle problem. She still did try to lean through her left side a bit, but we can fix that. We did some walk/halt/walks in hand to get her a little more responsive. We're working on lining up at the mounting block, and she did a pretty darn good job of it today.

After much contemplation yesterday and this morning, I think that part of the problem might be my approach with Izzy. All along I've said that the advantage to starting an older horse is that they can physically go as far as you want to. This is true. I don't need to worry about interfering with growth and development. HOWEVER, her brain still isn't quite grown up and just as important, her muscles probably aren't ready to do quite as much as I was asking her for. Yes, she can bend and stretch and push from behind, but it's hard for her.

So, today I made it a point to keep her on a loose rein and just do some walk/trot transitions. I didn't worry about her head or her bend or anything like that. I made her stay out on the rail and change gait. It didn't have to be immediate and I praised her when she did what I asked. As usual, she was very good to the right. When we went to the left, I was kind of at a loss. I don't just want to do a circle in her happy area of the arena. She needs to go through that sticky spot, but I didn't want to stress her out. That got me thinking. Her mother, my old OTTB, hated pressure. Even the thought of heavy contact was enough to cause a meltdown. Izzy can cope a little better, but there's still that side of her. So, how was I to get her through the sticky spot without any pressure that would make the problem worse?

Then I remembered years ago when I used to read cowboy training stories and books. They were usually funny and not written as technical manuals, but they got the point across. I remembered one book (can't even remember the author or the character names) in which they got a horse that was afraid of water to cross a stream by making him stand by it until he got bored enough to go forward. I decided to give this method a shot. The worst that could happen was that Izzy would like standing in the sticky spot and not want to go forward, but she already does that.

So we did. We trotted down the long side of the arena, then I brought her to a walk before the spot. About 10 feet before she would have stopped on her own, I halted her.

And we stood there. We just looked around. I didn't let her turn her head too much, as I wanted her to think about going forward, but I didn't ask for it. We watched another boarder grooming her horse. We listened to the droning of flies. We stared at the grey mare next to the arena.

After a minute or two, I clucked and asked Izzy to go forward.

She didn't move.

That was ok. I wanted her to think about going forward, but I wanted her to go forward when she was ready and without any pressure from me. We stood a little while longer, then she took a step forward. I praised her, clucked, and we walked off. The next time around the arena, we did the same thing. She stood for slightly less time, then off we went again. After that, we went right through with no trouble at all.

Pretty amazing, if you ask me. I'd have never even thought to do that if it wasn't for that book all those years ago. I'm sure we'll encounter this problem again, but at least now I have a strategy to deal with it.

God bless you, old cowboy.

PS My pony is absolutely gorgeous. I <3 her.

She's a Princess in Her Own Mind

Keeping in mind the advice about lengthening attention spans, I decided to work Miss Izzy a little harder today. We've had several days in a row where I got on and she was so good that after about 10 minutes I just got off again. While I definitely believe those days are a part of training, so are the days where we ride for longer than that. Besides, I'm leaving tomorrow morning to be out of town for three days, so she'll get a nice break.

My plan for the day was something like: get her stretching and bending in the warm up. Do some big trot circles to get her going forward. Work on trot/walk/trot transitions. Work on trot/canter/trot transitions. Do a little turn on the forehand/turn on the haunches, and then finish up with some nice walk trot transitions so she doesn't think she's done after she canters. While executing this plan, I wanted to work on remaining loose and supple in my body, because I know that my stiffness will make her stiff and resistant. (See? We're finally incorporating some dressage principles.)

Sounds reasonable, right?

It ended up being a pretty hard workout, but we did pretty much stick to the plan. However, there are things that Izzy has been doing that I've been letting her get away with. Today, I decided that it's not ok anymore if she just wants to run straight through her shoulder. She does need to respect/listen to my leg and seat rather than just try to lean on my hands. She did not think those things were nearly as important as I did. Our transitions weren't as pretty as they've been other days, but by the end of the ride, she was doing them. We did a lot of exaggerated bend/counterbend type stuff, with a little leg yielding to get her to pay attention to my legs. I think I'll be sore tomorrow and I'm sure she'll appreciate the day off, but I'm glad we did what we did. I want her to actually start listening to me now.

And my saddle is supposed to come today. I'm pretty psyched.

Not a Jumping Horse Yet

The weather is surprisingly cool here, which seems to have Izzy more alert and forward than usual. When I lunged her, I had to wait a while to start asking her to do anything because she just needed time to settle. She was quite good and we ended our lunging session by having her hop over the small crossrail we finished with yesterday. So far, so good.

I did mean to try to actually jump her over that under saddle as well, but other things came up. We did a lot of walk/trot transitions and shorten/lengthens in the trot. She was a little sticky about her upward transitions at first, but the more we did them, the more relaxed she became. Her canter transitions aren't quite as efficient as they used to be, but I think that's a residual effect of the fitting saddle. Before, she didn't want to go forward, so she'd tiptoe around in the trot, then leap into the canter when asked for it. Thus, the transition was immediate, but the gait was choppy. Now that she's using her back, she's more comfortable going forward in the trot, so she'll do a really big trot instead of a one0stride canter transition.

Oh well. It's coming. I have encountered a new behavior, though. She's learning to stretch down and she's learning to carry herself a little bit. She hasn't quite sorted it out yet, though, so now she's stretching down and curling. Right now when she does that, I lift my outside rein and ride her forward, but I'm open to suggestions. Any ideas? Anyone else dealt with this? I don't want to hit her in the mouth (obviously), but I'd prefer she reach forward and down.

Oh, and no Bear updates because I have a big presentation this week in school and I'm focused on that... as you can tell by the fact that I'm posting here...

She's a Lady

Izzy was really, really good today. It's almost like riding a trained horse now. She still flips her head a little bit during transitions, which I think is a remnant of trying to find her balance just a few short months ago.

Today, we worked on figure eights and changes of bend through both the trot and walk. The figure eights consisted of two 15m circles. Since I'm aiming towards an eventual jump/event career with Izzy, I want to get her used to changes of bend and direction. I'm looking towards maybe hunter/jumper flying changes by the end of the fall, so I need her to understand both a figure eight and changing gaits at the middle. She really picked up on it quite quickly. We also worked on spiraling in and out of a 20m circle and we've started being baby lengthen/shortens in the trot to help her learn to carry herself. Here's our most exciting news: we did an actual canter each direction. Up to this week, her canter was more a slow gallop at which we careened around and tried not to run into the fence. Forget lateral aids or trying to turn. It was a survival thing.

No longer. Izzy has mastered a nice, slow canter that I can actually ride forward and work with. It's a beautiful thing. I want to start working over trot poles and small crossrails again, but I'm waiting for the new (jumper) saddle to come. I figure that gives us about another week and a half to continue to finesse what we're learned. I probably need to get with Cathy and discuss what reasonable goals look like for the next few months. I don't like to just train aimlessly.

A funny thing about Miss Izzy: I tacked her up this morning without her princess hat, as we call it. It's just a crocheted ear net to keep the bugs off. I figured that she can't do dressage or hunter classes with it, so she needs to learn to go without it sometimes. She did not think that. As soon as we stopped lunging so I could take the reins down from her throatlatch, she thought, "THERE ARE BUGS ON MY EARS!!!!" and wouldn't stop shaking her head. I actually had to have Cathy hold her while I went and got her princess hat so she could focus again.

This from the pony who doesn't even get to wear a fly mask because she's always letting the boys take it off.

Teenage Day

Izzy's at that stage where she's starting to figure out what to do, but she isn't sure she really wants to do it. I know that pretty much all horses go through this, so I'm not worried, but it is kind of frustrating. Ten days ago, we could walk, trot, and canter both directions. We were starting baby leg yields, and had turn on the forehand down pretty well. She got a little stuck once in a while, but nothing to be concerned about.

Then came the rearing incident, the ensuing rest and saddle checks, and then the major head-throwing /spook incident.

So now with all that behind us, I went out today. I knew that we wouldn't get much canter work in, because I'm still building up confidence again. I did a lot of work with Izzy on the lunge, doing transitions up and down. She's getting pretty responsive, and only picked up the incorrect lead once. I don't get after her for that. Right now it's more important that she canters when I ask her to than that she always has the lead I want. When I felt that she was relaxed and listening to me, we stopped. I adjusted her saddle a little bit to make sure it didn't slide forward. Then, as usual, we walked all around the arena to look at scary stuff. She wasn't particularly worried about anything, which was nice.

She stood quietly to be mounted. I've been careful to give her a loose rein when I mount; I'd rather she walk forward and make me circle her back than that she feels trapped and thinks rearing is a way out. Not that she was trapped last time she tried that. I don't know. Anyways, we did quite well doing our walk/halt/walk transitions, then walk/trot/walk. She was still fairly responsive and listening. Rather than having her ears locked on outside stimuli, she held them with one forward, one back. I was thrilled.

Then I took her down to the non-scary end of the arena to see if we could do one canter before we quit. Here's where the problem cropped up. She decided not to go forward. Her biggest evasion is to get behind my leg and back out of things. I'm not as quick at catching this as I should be and she's determined enough in doing it that we have to do a lot of work in this area. So, instead of cantering, we worked on walking. I tried to be mindful of why she was backing out. It wasn't related to bending a certain way (which could be related to saddle problems) or going at a certain gait. There was just one 30 foot stretch that she decided not to walk forward in.

Because the problem was locational, I did the same thing we did with trot poles a few days ago. I let it be ok for her to walk through that area. I didn't try to force her to trot. We just walked and walked and walked. When she tried to stop, I would squeeze with my legs, keep my weight behind the motion, and not let her back out. If we stood, that was ok, but we couldn't go backwards. After about five minutes of this, she could walk through there. Then I would trot her up to the point where she seemed to get sticky, walk through that, and trot again. When she seemed comfortable, we tried trotting through. It worked the first time, and I got off and took her saddle off once we where out of the sticky spot.

She's just one of those horses that doesn't respond well to being pushed. She needs to figure it out on her own.

In other news, I still hurt a lot from Sunday, but it's mostly muscle soreness from rafting, I think. I've self-diagnosed the head hit as a concussion of a minor degree. I read the Mayo clinic website about it, and I don't need to see a doctor unless something gets worse. That's reassuring, because I really loathe going to the doctor.

Transitioning

We did lots of transitions again today. I have to focus pretty hard with her because (like her mother) she likes to pull me forward when we do downward transitions. I petted her and told her she was a good girl after a nice transition, and let her stand and think after a halt. I think it helped. She's no longer the horse that absolutely doesn't respond to aids. Instead, I just squeeze my legs and off we go.

So much better.

I went to the tack store today to get myself some new breeches. I only ever have one pair and I buy a new one about every 2-3 years, roughly the same time the old pair has holes in the leg, crotch, or both. The jumping boots I was coveting were still there, so I bought them, too... She doesn't even jump yet. I don't know if she'll like it or be good at it, but they were half the normal price and exactly what I wanted. I couldn't get a better price online, and yes, Brent will shake his head at me. Anytime I have to justify something like this, he knows I didn't necessarily need it. Oh well.

Well, Hopefully That's Over

I stuck to my plan for this morning. Izzy ran for almost 10 minutes, then I tacked her up quickly. I left off her splint boots and just brushed her off quickly instead of doing a thorough job and making her spotless.

We did so much better. She didn't rear on the lunge. I just put her out there, sent her forward, and as soon as we had walked, trotted, and cantered both ways, we were done. When I got on, we did transitions. Lots of them. I tried to ask for a transition every 5 or 10 steps, so she had to think constantly. At the same time, because we were the only ones in the arena, I got to focus more on my position and aids then on not getting hit by people who should be able to steer. We're still just doing walk/trot stuff, but I think we're getting to a place where cantering won't be unreasonable.

I realized yesterday that the turn on the forehand that Cathy had us work on is actually the prelude to lateral work. Perfect! I need to get Izzy moving off my leg a little bit, so we worked on this too.

All in all, a successful training day.