Building a Canter: Back in the Saddle

Back in January, I talked about how I was working to build a canter for Courage. It was all on the lunge line, because I wasn't cleared to ride.

If you remember the post, I started working towards creating good moments in the canter itself first.

I'm now back in the saddle (if not riding well) (SOB), and I was fascinated to see how all the lunging would turn out. Our first intentional canter was last Sunday. It wasn't brilliant, but it was quiet and obedient and check out this canter moment:

#perchypotato

Interesting similarity there, wouldn't you say?

Next in the lunging progression was to get the transition into canter more balanced and back-to-front, which took weeks of training to get to and then even more time of careful, thoughtful training to solidify.

it's actually gotten better but screenshotting lunging video makes me want to gouge my own eyes out

Of course, this isn't a perfect 1:1 ratio we're talking about here--I was able to control a lot more variables from the ground and if Courage had some "moments", whatever, my feet were on solid ground. Under saddle, I'm leery of "moments" because they make my body mad. Oh and I can't ride for shit. And get tired in like 4 minutes.

But. In my lesson this week, Courage apparently decided to discard the "be perfect and take care of mom" card and throw the "right lead is haaaaaard" card in the mix instead.

um hellooooooo have we met?

There was definitely no sitting down to play dressage queens and lots and lots and lots of my trainer saying "give. don't brace. give. forward. give." while Courage remembered that cantering right is something he actually can do, thought it's admittedly hella hard with a giant, off-balance #perchypotato inhibiting him.

BUT THAT TRANSITION AMIRIGHT

So we had a lot of this in between:

air time!

giant Courage buck!

And it was good, because I do know that right lead is hard for him so I need to not make it harder by bracing my knees and holding with my hands. Also it was fascinating to ride through in draw reins vs the standing martingale--in the standing, I'd grab the neck strap and get super braced in my shoulders and way too involved with my upper body. With the draw reins, I know he can't 100% flip himself inside out and blast off, plus I have nothing to grab, which means I kinda have to listen to my trainer.

Apparently she has some good ideas, too. Weird.

Anyways. I never actually sat down on him because that was too much pressure for his brain that day (plus who are we kidding I suck at riding the canter right now), but after finally making my body do what trainer was suggesting, we ended on this canter:

this i will take

So I guess the answer to "will the lunging work translate to under saddle, since a lot of things change in that process" is yeah pretty much I'm riding a whole new horse.

I mean. My feel is waaaay off right now, so I naturally told my trainer how those were our BEST TRANSITIONS EVER and she was like "yes, you're very smart, shut up" and then I watched the video and realized that perhaps our left lead transitions were less stunning.

feet on ground does = win

Less stunning still means calm and rideable and ready to move forward, all of which are new since last fall. Plus, when I asked for canter, he cantered vs just sort of thinking about it for 10 strides and then maybe or maybe not bolting.

I have a long ways to go in terms of rehab and after this ride I most definitely went home and laid down and took a lot of drugs.

so thrilled with him

AND I just have to share this trotting picture because I super love good trotting pictures.

right?

It's slow going. It's going to stay slow going. But at least it's slow going towards a light on the horizon now. I'm excited to see what we can do as I get more balanced and able to ride and he gets more confirmed in this new "cantering" business.

PS and yes there is video but due to laying down + drugs, I didn't get it edited last night.

What Are We Waiting For?

When I had Cuna and was doing unrecognized BN eventing, I remember telling a friend that I wanted really cool $300 breeches but I was going to wait until we were going recognized novice at least because I didn't want to look pretentious.

Friend, ex-marine, cancer survivor, and all around kick-ass person said "But you aren't guaranteed tomorrow."

Cuna ended up with laminitis in both front feet and we never made it to a recognized event.

I never bought $300 breeches.

I don't know that my life is poorer for the lack of overpriced sport-pants, but it's an interesting thought. Now I have Courage and eventing is definitely not in our future, but we're hacking our way through first-ish level-ish dressage-ish and starting to semi-think about second level. I'm riding in a bargain pair of field boots that make my legs look pretty ridiculous and I day dream a little bit about custom tall boots.

Which I said I'll order when I have second level bronze scores.

Why? I don't know. It's just an arbitrary line in the sand that I drew to differentiate when I'd be doing "real" dressage vs screwing around like I am now. I mean, I'm working my ass off (as much as is possible whilst not screwing up my rehab, ugh) and I have been for a couple years now.

And, yeah, if I was the "dressage or die" type, I'd be better served to sell Courage and get a horse with more natural aptitude for the sport, but I'm not. I'm doing dressage because it's what Courage wants to do and given his conformation and movement, he'll take me as far as I can go as long as I learn to manage him correctly.

So it's not that I lack commitment--it's that this is what equestrian sport is for me. It's relationship-based and daily, not big show goals and winter circuits and $$$$$$.

And I'm not guaranteed tomorrow.

or today, really

I'm super pumped to go hang out with Karen for Rolex and she's already informed me that shopping for custom boots while there is on her radar.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about it--I'm not planning any big shows with C this year for personal, non-financial reasons. And I keep wondering--why wait? I know I want them. It's not like if I'd sprung for the dream breeches back in the day that I'd regret having them now.

def would have regretted not getting this "synchronized peeing" shot

Why do I need to be doing "real dressage" to have a fun thing that would bring me joy every day? And just because I say 60% at recognized second level is "real" doesn't mean that the high and mighty dressage queens will agree with me. I'm sure there's someone who thinks custom boots before your first individual (not team) Olympic gold are pretentious.

A post shared by PS of Sweden (@psofsweden) on Mar 5, 2017 at 5:21am PST

But why does their opinion matter? They sound like an uptight bitch I wouldn't be friends with anyways.

And hello does that horse look like imaginary future Courage or what??

So tell me, people of blogland--when are beautiful custom boots a reasonable choice?

Invictus Half Pad Review

I've had a lot of half pads. I had a dressage-cut Ogilvy (OMG SO HUGE) and switched to a correction Mattes (fit, but no rear roll sob). Last fall, I decided that the Mattes was a little too bulky and creating pressure ridges under the panels of my saddle, so I needed something new. I went with the Invictus Necesse pad for it's super-modern tech, low profile design, and hell, I had a coupon.

Construction

came with cool bag too

The Invictus website does a fantastic write up of their products--the basic idea is that if you whack them with a stick, the pad "freezes" and aborbs the impact without transferring (much) of it on to the horse. Thus, your motion in the saddle is transmitted to the horse, but sudden impacts and jolts are filtered out. Seems cool. (Noted: this entire paragraph in laymen's terms. For science, ask a scientist.)

non slip top

What that translates to is a thin, spine-free design half pad that's non-slip on top and mesh on the bottom. It doesn't have a washable cover or custom colors like Ogilvy, but after 6+ months of use, my white pad is pretty much a white pad and if I want to it to look more white, I could hose it off I think. 

mesh bottom

Fit

Here's an interesting one. Trends in half pads vary by discipline, so it's normal to have a dressage cut model and a jump cut model (see: Ogilvy, Mattes). Invictus doesn't. There's basically one size, one cut. I ride in a 17.5" dressage saddle that no one calls small, and it looks like this:

It doesn't hang out all over the place and it doesn't create ridges under the saddle. The front is a little more curved to accommodate a jump saddle, but it works just fine under my dressage model. 

holla

Durability

I never review something straight after I buy it. I like to put a lot of miles on it, get it dirty, clean it a few times, and generally abuse it. I mean, otherwise you get those hordes of fangirls that are all "SQUEEE I GOT X TRENDY THING AND NOW I FEEL TRENDY", which like. If you want to feel trendy, fab, but that tells me nothing about said product. 

shown: wear

So after about six months of use, the Invictus pad has some black rubs on it from my black saddle, but those go under the saddle and don't change it's function. I've dropped it in the dirt, had sweat soak through the pad, whatever, and it's pretty much fine. No complaints here.If smudges bother you, maybe don't get white. 

Value

The Necesse pad runs around $250 retail. Ogilvy is $230, Mattes $230 (rear trim, no shims), Thinline Trifecta (shimmable, with trim) $180, Acavalla (gel+sheepskin) $220. There are others, but my point is, it's not out of sight price-wise, especially not when you consider the trendy half pad market. And hey, this is trendy + science! Winning combo. I paid somewhat less than the $250 and word is their are new options coming out, so the odds of hitting an old model sale are good.

Is a half pad worth $200+ dollars? Eh. It depends what kind of issue you're addressing and how much you feel like spending. 

Likes

Science sounding stuff in the name; compact and easily folds in half to store on top of my saddle; low profile design has minimal impact on saddle fit; clean and simple look.

Dislikes

This is maybe minor to some, but kind of big for me--I like to pull my saddle pad up into the gullet of my saddle so it's not creating pressure points on Courage's withers. When I did that with my mattes or ogilvy pads, they stayed right where I put them. This pad slides down and take the saddle pad with it. It technically stays off his withers still, but it does not stay where I put it. Thus far, it doesn't deeply offend me but I can definitely see it being a problem.

Conclusion

If you want something less than Ogilvy in terms of filling up under your saddle and are ok with completely giving up custom colors, this pad would fit the bill. I see it as more of a competitor with the old thinline pads before sheepskin and quilt. Those admittedly were even worse for wither relief, so it just depends what you're looking for. If you want to know if this pad costs enough money and drops enough buzzwords to give you a platform to look down on people who don't have one, I'd say no. It fills space. It's trendy. It's not magic.

If you want the latest and greatest in magical tech, this pad is right for you. If your saddle basically fits, it probably won't make it worse. If you're happy with what you have already, I don't think you need to drop almost $300 for this.

A Look Back

that look when I photograph someone other than him

 It's hard to get excited about people rehab. I hurt a lot, I ride badly, my horse is being a saint but nothing overly photogenic or inspiring is happening. I struggled with how to make "I toodled for twenty minutes and then I laid on my couch the rest of the day" more interesting and then Teresa pointed out I haven't done a progress post in ages.

So blame her.

Here's Courage in March of 2015.

first clinic!

We'd just started out in dressage. I think we were still planning to go back to jumping at this point. This was a very good moment for us--"put head down" was pretty earth-shattering at this point. I'm in my first dressage saddle and I I'm all set for one hell of a rough year, but I don't know it yet.

Let's skip ahead a whole year to March 2016.

so warm!

In spring 2016, we had a successful year of training level outings under our belts and were thinking about first level. My position is better and Courage is covering more ground, but we were definitely at the point of soft-or-forward, balanced-or-sideways. ie, not really ready for first level.

It's technically not March 2017 until tomorrow, but I didn't think of that until just now, so you get a February 2017 picture for this year.

awwww

This is definitely not the spring I was planning--winter was brutal and I'm coming back from an injury. I've been pretty bummed about our lack of brilliance under saddle, but even just comparing this shot to last year at this time, I guess I still see progress. From the hips down, my position is ok. Not great, but ok. My hands are actually better--less camped out on the horse and more semi doing something. We won't talk about my neck and back cuz they're angry.

Even with a lackluster ride though, look at Courage. OMG LOOK AT HIM. This is his under-powered-take-care-of-injured-mom baby trot and he's killing it over there. I can't ride his good trot right now (or let's be real, ask for it), but his work on the lunge line shows me he's developed a moment of suspension, which is a whole new world for us.

fanceh

 So yeah. I'm not thrilled with where I'm at right now. Most of this past winter is a blur of prescription drugs and Netflix marathons, but you know what?

We're getting somewhere.

this is not me but i took this picture on my phone and kinda love it

Bones

One of us is a dinosaur. One of us is Sue.

Apparently, 8 weeks on your couch and then sloooooowly starting to person again is not a recipe for peak physical fitness or excellent riding. I was kind of hoping we could roll with the whole "my muscles are too useless to have muscle memory so let's forget those bad habits", but no, that would be too easy.

As my trainer pointed out, I know that I'm weak and unbalanced and useless (and Courage DEFINITELY knows), so I overcompensate by being tighter and trying harder and making it worse. I mean. That doesn't sound like me at all? Shut up.

I was struggle-busing my way through a lesson, which is mostly my trainer watching me walk my horse around while calling out "try not to fall off" and "take a break", when she said something that sort of rocked my world.

"Let your bones get into the right position and and your muscles can just support them".

whaaaa

Profound, no?

sigh yes this is a good moment now

And then we trotted a solid half circle like badasses.

And then I went home and laid on my couch.

But next time I'm strong enough to get on, I'm excited to build on that.

Why Bitless Dressage is Stupid

An MS Paint Special brought to you by SprinklerBandits Blog.

Premature PS: If you're looking for a serious discussion of this topic, hop on over to Austen's blog. If you like snark, ms paint masterpieces, and have your popcorn ready, keep on reading.

There's an article going around right now about yet another petition to allow bitless dressage, which at present isn't allowed in competition by any credible organization anywhere in the world. This is fairly unusual--the only other thing people are as united against is child porn, but let's not think too hard about that.

Instead let's think about dressage. It's done by people on horses.

This is a person.

this cool person has a top hat

 This is a horse.

In case you missed the big red flag there, a horse weighs around 10x what an average person does. Interesting. Hold that thought.

Next, a HUUUUUUUGE component of dressage is having the horse "on the bit".

pictured: not on the bit

Why? Because dressage isn't a series of party tricks performed in a big top tent for a paying crowd. It's an art, a dance even, where two separate entities together become something more than either one is on their own. A person doing dressage without a horse is just an idiot in a tail coat and a horse doing dressage without a person is out of control.

What's more "on the bit" doesn't mean "head down, nose tucked in". That's called "head down, nose tucked in" or "hunters" or "trail riding" or what-have-you. Head-down-nose-tucked-in is fine, but it's not "on the bit".

head-down-nose-tucked-in

When a horse is on the bit, it's the first step in a larger dance. It's the moment where the horse and the rider change from having two minds and two balance points and two ideas about life to one. It's where "awkwardly tripping over the other person" becomes "ballroom dancing". It's not static--this is a dynamic tension between horse and rider that is the first and most elemental step to all the steps that ever follow.

and you thought i was a one-trick pony

That's why it's not piaffe when your OTTB inverts and jigs. That's inverting and jigging. There's no connection (whaaaaaaat it works on so many levels)(all puns intended).

So let's circle back around to that first part.

Horse.

Human.

Size.

There's a reason "bull in a china store" isn't a pleasant descriptor of dance or dressage. Think about it. The horse outweighs you by a factor of 10. Human biology is such that even if we can lift 10x our body weight, it's not a pleasant, graceful, melding of two entities. It's raw, Neanderthal-esque brutality.

And I'm not saying that to piss on Neanderthals--they surely serve(d?) a mighty purpose, just that purpose wasn't horse dancing.

this chap does not have a top hat

A bit is the Colt .45 of the old west (God didn't make all men equal--Mr Colt did. C'mon. Keep up.). Because we puny humans are exponentially smaller and weaker than our equine partners, we need a way to be in balance with them that doesn't involve sheer 1:1 force, because given the simple physics of human vs. equine size, that force is and must be unreasonable to both human and horse.

In simple fact: a bit is not a device to allow humans to muscle horses around. A bit instead permits two-way communication between two partners whose two separate balance points have become one single point.

A bit is the lifeline of communication. A bit allows us to whisper straight to the horse's mouth without all that trouble of shouting at it's face like an asshole.

top hat doesn't make it a good idea

So bits. They give us the nuance of communication between human and horse in a way that both parties and understand and respect. They enable the balance that takes us from awkward tripping in a high school gym to the show ring and beyond.

Now yeah, a few of you are going to get up in my face and MY HORSE CAN BALANCE WITHOUT MY HELP JUST FINE AND I CAN BALANCE WITHOUT HIM AND THE BRIDLE IS JUST FOR STEERING YOU MEANIE PANTS BLOGGER YOU.

To which I say:

And also:

1) If you're not part of the balance, maybe you need to reconsider what the hell you're doing up there. But. Who am I to judge your very majikul konnektion and yes that was three ks figure it out.

2) The number of people who believe they don't need a bridle vs the number of people who actually don't need a bridle is a scary, scary number. Of ALL the accomplished equestrians I know across all the disciplines, I can think of 1 person who I would trust in public (you know, like at shows, which is what we're talking about) without a bridle and that person told me in no uncertain terms that in her mind, riding without a bridle is stupid because of the vast capacity for things to go wrong. You think your bridle is for steering. I think you're a dumbass. I guess that's as far as it gets.

And to clarify--I'm not hating on riding at home in a halter or hackamore or whatever scary-ass bitless leverage contraption you've strapped on your horse's head. Do whatever the hell you want. I'm just saying that at shows, your logic is invalid. The level playing field is predicated on all of us actually trying to achieve the same thing. So like. Go ahead. Be a champion of head-down-nose-tucked-in, but just don't do it at tense-inverted-jigging show if you want to win.

Ok internet. Go nuts.

Training While Broken: Courage Style

Thank you stupid car accident, I still feel like poo most of the time and my body doesn't work and my brain doesn't work super great either. I'm bored to tears by lunging right now and our outdoor arena is just starting to be rideable.

that makes both of us, i think

The few times I've sat on C-Rage this year have been in the safe confines of the indoor. You know, small, no windows, no room to get up serious speed if he decides to peace the hell out. It happens.

So because I'm not the rider I ought to be right now and Courage is the horse he is, I've made some different choices. For example, does anyone else remember how C likes to hardcore bolt and flail in the spring? And how the first ride outside ALWAYS necessitates bolting? No? Well maybe it's just me but if I weren't massively lazy, I'm pretty sure I could dig up posts about it for you.

am massively lazy. insert dr chiweenie image as diversion.

Soooooo our first excursion to the great outdoors was on a lunge line. With Vienna reins. In the safe end.

oh hullo there sexy

That went shockingly well--not a single bolt or flail, just positive forward energy. Let's look at that again.

dead sexy

The next day we worked back inside and C was definitely a little sore and tired from that much brilliance. Also kinda batshit due to the fluctuating turnout from the weather. Then we came back outside again, this time to do some groundwork in a rope halter.

i will take this

The whole idea was that I wanted Courage relaxed and focused on me, now in a "new" and definitely more interesting environment.

omg arena was worked!

Then came our first lesson since November! If I was a smarter person, I would have ridden inside but dammit it was 41f and sunny and the footing was perfect. Oh and I'm totally coasting on this thing where Courage knows I can't ride for shit and despite being a LUNATIC on the lunge half the time, he doesn't put a foot wrong when I ride him. It's possibly the sweetest thing ever.

look who's not bucking me off

I'm not going to lie to you and say it was perfect. My body is useless and doesn't do what it's told. My brain seems to process about 10 seconds behind constantly. My trainer was very, very patient and the worst thing Courage did the whole time was pick up a little canter stride instead of trotting forward, but he came right back when I lost my balance.

such a good boy

Note: I always tell my trainer the secret to this horse is to half ass it and ride like shit. I might be more right than I know.

Of course, the FOUR WHOLE (kidding, more like 2.5 if you count walk breaks) minutes of trotting was about as much as my stupid body felt like coping with, so our next session was in the rope halter. As much as I hate having my schedule dictated to me by pain, it's forcing me to think through how to address our problems differently.

So problem. When I ask Courage to do something he thinks is hard, he gets tense and flings himself around. Also problem: he thinks the top of the outdoor arena is scary.

opinions. we haz them.

So I took him to the top of the outdoor arena and did some groundwork exercises until he was focused and relaxed. Success level one: scary place not scary.

Then I looked at the scary ass mess of ground poles in the corner. Fun fact: C HATES ground poles. He's actually more ok with jumps than poles.

So I led him over them at the walk. That was fine. Time to make it harder.

I sent him over it at the walk on a circle left.

That was a little rushed, but ok.

Then I asked him to change direction and walk back over them.

BINGO

He didn't like me off his right side, he didn't like the poles, and he didn't like the scary end. He threw his shoulders in my direction and his head up and slammed it in reverse.

God damn I love ground work for this stuff. First things first--no horse gets to push into my space, even if they're ten feet away on a lunge line. Running over me is NOT an option. (PS and if you don't train your horse like this, do not ask me to handle it. I have zero tolerance for being run over.)

Next things next. When I say "go forward quietly", I mean "I am the boss hoss in this here shindig and I say it's safe to proceed quietly SO GIT YER ASS OVER THAR NAOW".

his yes ma'am face

Now, I have to qualify that statement--Courage is a sensitive horse with a hair trigger. In our relationship, a "big" reprimand is me swinging the coiled lunge line at his butt. Not hitting it. Swinging it at him. It's an unusual day if I really even pull on the rope. Because he is so reactive, I don't get excited when he slams it in reverse. I let him go so he doesn't feel trapped and don't reprimand unless it crosses the line into naughty.

And even then, when I say "reprimand", for this horse, I mean a tug on the rope and saying "knock it off, asshole" out loud in a normal tone.

This horse is not representative of all horses, but he's my horse and this is the method that gets me the best results. I don't feed his drama and then he comes back to me.

And maybe it's stupid to say this, but the biggest factor is the release--so he does something well and I immediately take pressure off by turning away, let him stand, and stare at my phone until he finishes licking and chewing.

So. All that. We fixed "go over there quietly" and we fixed "pay attention to SB" and we fixed "scary end omg", and then we went back to the poles.

hey look who can walk like a sane horse

 I guess I should add something here--I have no idea who set the poles or what the hell they were trying to accomplish. On this day with this horse, I wanted him to relax and look where he was going so I didn't "fix" them to a more correct distance. I wanted him to think through a problem calmly. No shits given about proper striding.

admit you kinda love his mud dreds

And by the end of the session, I had a horse working calmly through a difficult exercise with a soft eye and a soft body on the scary end of the scary arena. We call that "Success Level Two".

I certainly wouldn't choose to be this way and I don't know how well this is going to translate going forward, but it's a whole new way to spend time with Courage and we're making the best of it.