50 riding things

Fifty questions about riding, of which I’ll answer most…

1. How old were you when you first started riding?

I've ridden the pony rides since I should just about walk. I started taking lessons at 9.

2. First horse ridden:

Sundance, a white appaloosa gelding who was a total saint. Last I heard, he was still packing around the kiddies and doing a fabulous job.

3. First horse trotted on:

Same. He didn't like to turn right, though. My arm ached by the end of the lesson.

4. First horse cantered on:

Oh... probably also the same. I'm not sure.

5. First Horse fallen off of:

Simon J, a black grade morgan gelding. He taught me a lot. Especially about being exactly where he wanted me to be over a jump, or he'd dump me on top of it. That was probably my first fall.

6. Most recent horse fallen off of:

Izzy. It was one of our first rides. She did a major spook that I wasn't ready for and I came right off. Conveniently, the weather was really crappy (it was march), so we got to do lots of ground work before I had to get back on.

7. Most terrifying fall:

I've never really been terrified. My most humiliating fall was when good ol' Simon J dumped me on top of the biggest oxer (all of 2'3") at the 4-H English show in front of everyone. And then I had to get back on and do it again. The judge said that she'd lower, which I thought was a marvelous idea, but my instructor jumped right in that and said that no, I would jump it at the same height. So the judge backed off and I had to make that stubborn old horse jump a humongous oxer. At that point, I think we got over it because I was more scared of being further embarrassed by my instructor telling the judge what to do than the dear of pain. It was good for me, though. Going over that jump again, and then having to do it in the next class really taught me to get a handle on my fears.

8. First horse jumped with:

Simon J

9. First horse who ran away with you:

Cassie. She was pretty fresh off the track and she (rightly) thought I hadn't lunged her very much. Since it was a nice, cool morning, she took me for a racehorse gallop around the arena. We made 8 laps. I lost my stirrups, then my reins. When I finally fell off, she did a sliding stop beside me. She had no idea why I got off in the middle of her workout.

10. First horse that scared the crap out of you:

Shower, a flea bitten grey thoroughbred mare who was never on the track. She was blind in one eye. As we hacked up a trail to the show arena, she didn't realize that her blind side was a fairly significant drop off. My 12 year old legs could hardly keep her going straight. That was a very bad show.

11. First horse shown :

Simon J.

12. First horse to win a class with:

Shower. After dumping me twice at the terrifying show, she cleaned up her act, and we won ribbons in all our classes at the next one. To include, of course, a beautiful blue ribbon in the maiden rider class.

13. Do you/have you taken lessons:

I took one lesson a week from 9-17. At 17, I started college and horses faded to the back ground. I had a couple lessons and rode in a clinic once on someone else's horse, but I'm just now starting to get back into the swing of things.

14. First horse you ever rode bareback:

Simon J.He was pretty old and fat at that point, so the hardest part was trying to grip with anything at the trot because he jiggled so much.

15. First horse trail ridden with:

Prince was his name. Or at least, that's what I called him. We went up to an outfitter's in the mountains because my dad knew how badly I wanted to ride. As we were waiting for the horses to be saddled, I caught sight of the most beautiful chestnut I had ever seen and knew I wanted to ride him. Fortunately, I got to. He was an excellent trail horse, as were the rest.

16. Current Barn name:

Uh... I try to keep it a little anonymous here. Not that I think you're stalkers, but no sense leaving that open, right?

17. Do you ride English or western?

English always. I confess, despite living in the west for most of my life, I still do not know how to put a western saddle on.

18. First Horse to place at a show with:

Shower. Simon was steady, but it took us a while to do well together.

19. Ever been to horse camp?

Nope. Those were expensive and usually required both a horse trailer and owning your own horse. I just got my first horse this spring, and I've never owned a horse trailer.

20. Ever been to a riding clinic?

I used to do dressage clinics all the time. Maybe next year.

21. Ridden sidesaddle?

Only in my dreams. I really want to, though.

22. First horse leased:

Cassie, the OTTB who ran off with me. She was/is amazing and I love her.

23. Last Horse Leased:

Cassie... I'm a one-horse kind of girl, I guess.

24. Highest ribbon in a show:

1st. I also got a medal when my team won the regional championships. Go us!

25. Ever been to an ‘A’ rated show?

I'm a low-budget rider. To me, an expensive show costs over $100. I can't imagine paying $1200 for a show.

26. Ever competed in pony games/relay races?

Yes. Super fun.

27. Ever fallen off at a show:

Many, many times. It's pretty embarrassing at first, but I'm over it now.

28. Do you ride Hunter/Jumpers?

I hope my horse will be a hunter/jumper. We'll see.

29. Have you ever barrel raced?

Yes. Once on Simon J and twice on Cassie. Simon was happy to trot around, but Cassie really got into it.

30. Ever done pole bending?

Yes. Not Cassie's favorite event. She just likes to straight-up run.

31. Favorite gait:

A nice smooth, morgan trot.

32. Ever cantered bareback?

Yes. Also galloped and jumped. I like bareback.

33. Have you ever done dressage?

Yes. Cassie got a 70 once and I was very proud. I think it was first level... maybe training 4. I don't recall. She's too nervous to go far in dressage though, so I took First Class to regionals instead of her.

34. Have you ever evented?

Yep. That was Cassie and I's favorite thing to do.

35. Have you ever mucked a stall?

Ask me if I can remember a week between turning 9 and now that I did not muck a stall. There were two. Once I was so sick I couldn't get out of bed for a week. Once I was on my honeymoon. That is all.

36. Ever been bucked off?

Yeah, but it was my fault. I didn't tighten the girth enough, so when I stepped into the stirrup, Star, the paint horse, felt the saddle slide and took off bucking. I hit the ground pretty hard.

37. Ever been on a horse that reared:

Izzy... but again, it wasn't really her fault.

38. Horses or ponies:

I've actually never ridden a pony outside of pony rides. It's too late now. I'd smoosh the poor thing.

39. Do you wear a helmet?

Always. Except the first time I rode Izzy after she reared. It was so hot that it felt like I had a helmet on. Once I realized I didn't, I got off very quickly.

40. What’s the highest you’ve jumped:

3'9". That was the summer before I started college. I just kept putting the jump up. I was so sick that every landing hurt terribly though, so we finally stopped there. After that day, the weather changed and I idn't get to ride seriously again until this year.

41. Have you ever ridden at night?

Yep. Not on trails or roads, though.

42. Do you watch horsey television shows?

I don't even have the converter box hooked to my tv, so I haven't seen a television show since sometime in June. I don't really miss it.

43. Have you ever been seriously hurt/injured from a fall?

Nope. I'm lucky there and I know it.

44. Most falls in one lesson:

Probably two. I used to be a pretty timid rider, so my instructor didn't push us too hard. <3 Cathy.

45. Do you ride in an arena/ring?

Yes, but mostly because the city has moved in and enclosed our barn. :-( We should be moving out to a place with trail access this winter, though, and I'm excited for that.

46. Have you ever been trampled by a horse?

No. That would be awful.

47. Have you ever been bitten?

Yep. Cassie was the worst bite I got, but again, it wasn't really her fault. Cathy was pulling her mane, which Cassie hates, so Cassie snapped and my hand happened to be in the way. That hurt.

48. Ever had your foot stepped on by a horse?

Yep. Worst one was Shower; she stepped on me from her blindside and I couldn't get her to move. Thanks to my always wearing safe footwear, however, no serious damage was done.

49: Favorite riding moment:

Finishing X-C at our first big event. We were galloping up to the final fence and I realized that at that pace, if anything went wrong, we would both get very hurt. I just trusted Cassie to take care of it, and she did. I don't think we placed because we missed a fence, but it was a glorious ride.

50. Most fun horse you’ve ridden:

So far, Cassie. Izzy's getting to be pretty fun, though.

Attention Spans

Yesterday, the new farrier (Toni), commented that Izzy's attention span is roughly 20 minutes. She recommended working on that by asking her to focus for longer periods of time and gradually expanding what Izzy is capable of doing.

That seemed like sound advice as I reflected on it later. Then I realized something: my attention span is only about 20 minutes as well. That's why Izzy can only focus for that long.

Nuts. Yet again, Izzy problem comes from one of my weakest points.

Trouble in Pony World

Remember how a week or so ago I was promising that I wasn't going to go nuts and get into all that "natural" stuff just because I'm getting a treeless saddle? Well, I still mean it, but Izzy needed her feet done in a bad way. The regular farrier, who I wasn't too thrilled with, wasn't scheduled to come out for several weeks, which irked me. His schedule never seems to line up with when she needs her feet done. I talked to a friend of mine about it, and we had her farrier come out early to do both our horses.

Yes, she (!!) is a barefoot trimmer (!!). First off, there aren't a lot of female farriers in Idaho. It's just sort of a man's job, and Idaho is old school and patriarchal enough that not a lot of women even want to do that. I don't have a problem with a female farrier, but it was unusual enough to note. Second, yes, she does barefoot stuff. I figured it's not a big deal. Izzy isn't wearing shoes right now anyways, so what's the difference?

I was actually quite pleased. She was good, quick, and gentle, and she talked to me about my horse's feet. I like that. The other guy was fast and efficient, but he never said anything and rarely answered questions. Izzy threw a fit about her last hoof, so we just turned her out, did the other horse, then came back and finished Izzy. It was mostly an attention span problem, and I was pleased with how she (the farrier) handled it.

All's well that ends well. Plus, she's $10 cheaper than the guy I didn't like.

In other news, I got Bear out again today. I'd left him alone because with the presentation last week, I just didn't have time to deal with his form of neurosis. I really didn't have time today, either. It was 10 by the time we were done with the farrier, and I needed to get to work. I hate being late to work because I always have to leave early anyways to get to school. Nothing like a full schedule.

That said, I didn't rush Bear. He's one, like most others, that just needs time. I find him frustrating because he just doesn't have an attention span. He kicks almost constantly when I pick up his feet because he's forgotten I'm there and can't figure out why his feet are stuck. It's not malicious; it's just dumb. He was ok to groom, fussy about the saddle, and then absolutely wouldn't take the bridle. Michelle assured me she'd put it on him in the past few days, but then managed not to be there when I was trying. In her defense, she spent yesterday in the emergency room. (Needle in foot=much pain.)

I finally got the bridle on him with another boarder's help. She's a shorter lady used to dealing with tall horses, so she showed me how to ask for him to put his head down and eventually he just gave up and took it. He was awful in the arena. I think he needs more turnout, because he would just jump straight up in the air, then explode bucking, then stop to look at something, all the while forgetting I was there.

Apparently, his owner is claiming that a friend of hers beat this horse around the head and that explains his behavior. I don't really buy that. First off, just being a big, dumb, pushy baby explains most of it. Second, he's not headshy. Sure, he's not wild about complete strangers running up and grabbing his face, but he doesn't have a meltdown, either. Third, and I guess this is a completely different topic, but who on earth just lets their "friend" beat a horse around the face? Maybe I'm imposing my high standards on others, but there's no way I unleash a newbie around a horse until I've drilled into their head that they will absolutely never hurt it. As for more experienced people, I never let them alone if I distrust them at all.

Anyways... I'm soldiering on. I'm thinking about asking for a contract type agreement so we both know what we're working with. I don't feel like training someone else's horse just because I'm a nice person. (I'm really not that nice. Just try beating my horse around the head and you'll find out.) While I know the owners intend to pay me, I think the best path forward is to discuss exactly what they're willing to pay, what I want to make, and how trained the horse is to end up being. It's hard to make decisions without knowing this sort of thing. Also, I rather want them to provide the tack. It's their horse and if does something stupid, I'd rather mine and Cathy's not be damaged. Is that so unreasonable?

Amazing Weekend

I rode Izzy yesterday and today and she has been great. I'm finally able to get her up off her right shoulder a little, which makes left lead canter circles dramatically easier. (YAY! We can turn.) I meant to work on taking her out on straight, long lines at the canter to improve her balance today, but we started by doing some walk/trot transitions. Her first one was lovely. No resistance, no pushing up into my hands. We did another. Same. I let the reins out a bit and we walked. Without picking up the reins, I softened her mouth just the tiniest bit and asked for another transition.

She did it. Same, soft, lovely motion she'd done before, only this time she stretched all the way through it. We walked and lengthened the reins and did one more transition. She was lovely.

Then the stupid neighbor kid started zooming around on his battery powered car behind a wood fence so all Izzy knew was that she could see shadows behind the fence and hear weird noises. I could have made her work through it, but after the lovely relaxation she'd been demonstrating, I just let her be done.

And did I mention that I didn't lunge her today or yesterday? Yep, she's fiinally developing her adult brain. Today she seemed to have a little sauce, so I did warm her up with a few big trot circle on a long rein, but she didn't even offer to do anything silly.

Have I mentioned that I love my horse today? What a wonderful girl.

As an aside, I've been worrying about Izzy a little bit. I really want to jump again, but I don't know if she does. I keep wondering what I'll do if she's not a jumper... dressage is great, but I really want to have a go at those fences again. Then again, even if she doesn't jump, if she stays this amazing, it might not matter. We'll see.

I am so ready for my own saddle

I met a new student of Cathy's today. She seemed very nice and competent. I liked her, all except one thing.

We both were riding horses that used the one ansur saddle.

And where she was a new student and I didn't have a lesson, I obviously bowed out of this competition before she ever knew it was an issue. I don't like other people to feel awkward because they're using something I want to borrow. I thought about doing another lunge session with Izzy, but we already did one this week and I know it's not great for her joints, so I just groomed her well and put her away. She was thrilled.

In other news, one of our boarders has a horse she wanted to event on. He came up lame a couple weeks ago, and the vet's diagnosis was arthritis in the sacroiliac joint, which means no jumping, no serious dressage, nothing. He can still be ridden, but obviously, he'll never do what she wanted to do. She took the poor horse home, but brought out her other. The new boy is an absolutely adorable haflinger pony. I like him. I'll have to take pictures.

School Project

My presentation is almost ready to go. I'll get to see Izzy tomorrow!

Plus, I just sold one of my horsey items that I need to sell to pay for the new saddle. Hooray!

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...

Three days off!

I just got back last night from a few days out of town. Miss Izzy was somewhat happy to see me, but I let her run in the arena for a few minutes before I tried to get her to focus on me at all. Even though she lives out in a pasture, she still needs to blow off steam before she works.

Anyways. A lesson rider needed the treeless saddle while I was out to ride, so I worked Izzy on the lunge instead. We did transitions, then trot poles, and finally graduated to a tiny crossrail that she jumped very well. I was pretty glad I wasn't on her though, because she was kind of spooky and jumpy and it was nice to work through that without worrying about falling off or getting hit in the head.

Izzy looks super cute in her surcingale. I think I've mentioned that before.

When Things Go Right...

I had another pretty good ride on Izzy. She had several wonderful moments, notably two (that's right, 2) stretch circles at the trot and of her own volition. She also learned how to do a turn on the haunches in less than a minute. She had to learn because today she decided to lean through her left shoulder instead of her right. I switched my whip and focused on riding from my inside leg to my outside rein, but she still leaned through, so we stopped and did a turn on the haunches to get her to move her shoulder. I was impressed by how quickly she picked it up.

I'd say she's doing very, very well. Apparently, other people have noticed, as now a fellow boarder has asked me to train her daughter's 4 year old know-nothing gelding.

I'm flattered and I'll probably do it because I need the money to pay for my own pony, but I'm not thrilled about it. Here's why.

1) The horse is a big boy (like 16.3ish). His owners are/were scared of him, and he learned to push them around. After a couple months with us, he's finally learned not to chase people, but there's still that mentality.

2) The daughter is a girl I have zero respect for as a rider. She's the one that Izzy pinned her ears and lunged at because the girl couldn't be bothered to look where she was going and kept running up her tail. This is the same girl who only ever rides the horse her parents bought her (so she could win) in lessons and shows. The four year old? Yeah, he was raised at her house and she never bothered to handle him. At all. This girl rode her horse in draw reins and PULLED HER OVER because, well, I don't know why. It was scary. The poor mare clearly hated the draw reins. The girl wouldn't let up. The horse lost her balance. Girl pulled her over almost on top of herself. The other boarders were rushing to see if the girl was ok. I just wanted to slap her. Her comment after what was clearly a traumatic experience for the mare? "Well, I hope she learned her lesson." What? That draw reins are scary and bad and painful?? I think she already had a grip on that. Grrr. I know said girl can't train the horse herself (she's never ridden a greenie in her life), but I feel bad prepping a horse for someone so useless.

3) The people who have worked with this horse since he got here taught him some lovely habits. Today, he tried to roll on the saddle and struck out when I wouldn't let him. He kicks when his feet are picked up and has an attention span shorter than that of the average gnat. I know all these problems are fixable, but it's irritating to have a horse with this many bad habits and zero useful training.

Oh well. I'll keep you updated on how it goes. I console myself by realizing that I already blew my USEF amateur status by shoveling horse manure, so I might as well get paid to ride horses, too. Oh, and new boy's name is Bear. He's a Holsteiner.

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.