Who are you and what did you do with my pony?

In an ironic twist of fate, the weather went from mid nineties and sunny to mid fifties and blustery in the matter of a day. When lesson time rolled around yesterday, I wasn't even sure I wanted to ride because it was blowing so hard. Izzy seemed ok, though, so I went ahead and got ready. As far as spookiness goes, she was a superstar. She had one stumble/spook thing, but that was our only mishap. She wasn't even worried about the rest of it.

Unfortunately, nothing else about the lesson was superstar like. I was prepared to hear a lot about my position and how I needed to change to best help her. Unfortunately, she decided she absolutely could not under any circumstances go forward. So, instead of actually working on something that could help us out in general, we spent pretty much the entire lesson just getting her to trot either direction. When we wanted to canter, Cathy had to chase us around with a lunge whip for like three laps, just to get her started. It was frustrating.

I figured that she was probably tired, since I'd turned her loose in the arena to test the waters as far as spookiness, and then I'd lunged her after that to make sure the spectacular airshow she'd put on wasn't going to be repeated. Cathy mentioned that it might also be her reaction to the temperature change and wind; instead of being spooky, she just kind of locked up. I guess the lesson was moderately useful, but definitely not what I was looking for.

So today I go get her out... WE HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM. It's so frustrating. It's still cool, but no longer windy. I even got Cassie out first and lunged and groomed her, to make sure it was plenty warm when I got Izzy out. Still nothing. I got off, held the inside rein in one hand and my whip in the other hand. We practiced going forward when I cluck, even without the whip. When she seemed to understand, I got back on. Still nothing. I got off again, put the lunge line on, and repeated the lesson. What little trot I had gotten out of her before had been short and choppy, so I tried to keep her calm, and ask her to go forward. There's no sense in getting her tense, because then she won't understand what I want.

After lunging both ways with an emphasis on her going forward when I ask for it, I got back on for the third time. This seemed to go better. We didn't get stuck anywhere, but she still didn't want to go forward. I just pushed her through it, and made her trot and canter both ways. As soon as we finished our left lead canter, I got off, loosened the girth, and lead her out of the arena.

Why is this so hard?

We're going on a trail ride tomorrow with some calm horses. Maybe the change of scenery will do her good. I'm crossing my fingers that it doesn't get me bucked off.

Return of the Sticky Spot

After a pretty crappy day for me yesterday (which Izzy had off), we went back to work today. I'm trying to keep that freely forward that we developed while "hacking", but ask her to work again.

So far, I've had mixed success. She's doing really well to the right--walk, trot, canter--and I'm happy with that. The left is another story. She'll walk/trot ok, but if I ask for the canter, she gets very tense and just goes out whichever shoulder is more convenient at the moment. I'm thinking that it's more a psychological issue than a physical issue for her. I also think that it doesn't help that my left side is weaker and so I don't use my left leg as effectively.

So... I'm unsure as to whether I need to just not even try to canter on that side for a while and try to develop her (and my) muscling, or if I should just keep the reins loose and ride her forward to a messy-but-there canter. Fortunately, our lesson is tomorrow, so I should have a new opinion there. Then again, our lessons are so infrequent that we rarely get all the way to what I'm currently working on. There's always something that I glossed over that needs work instead. Thankfully, everything seems to be related, so it works out.

Anyways. Once again, as soon as she felt the pressure, Izzy returned to her "sticky spot" mentality. She didn't actually stop there today, but she sure wanted to. I found that I could ride her best through that area if I just clucked to her but didn't push with my seat or legs or anything. Throw in a random assortment of lessoners and boarders and a cold, windy day, and I'm pretty pleased overall with how things went.

Now I want to go home and make cookies. Stupid school, getting in the way of my dreams. ;-)

Did I mention that I lunged her this morning and she was a total doll who paid perfect attention to my voice commends? I love this pony.

Test Day

I'm short on time because I'm studying for a test, so I'm sorry if I haven't read and commented on your blog yet--I'll do it tomorrow.

Anyways, what's distracting me from the test is looking for another horse. Not that I can actually have one... Still, I really, really want a 16+H ex-racer TB gelding, any color. No real reason other than that I'm curious about big horses, and I love OTTBs. I DO NOT HAVE time, money, husband's consent, or any other crucial things like that. Still, a girl can dream.

Tack cleaning tonight. :-)

Summertime Saturday

We had a lovely ride this morning. The arena was freshly groomed for a clinic later on, but we were the only ones out. Again, I just let the reins be really long and the contact really soft. We just went freely forward and it was great. Izzy didn't even think about stopping in either of her sticky spots.

This leads me to believe that a large part of our problem was caused by me letting her meander around and get behind m leg. Nuts.

I was talking to a rider getting ready for the clinic on my way out, and mentioned how well Izzy was doing. She made a comment about how she wishes she could just work on her horse, but the focus always seems to be on her. It was meant as a sideways compliment, but I don't think she really understands where we're at. This lady is a very competent rider and horsewoman. I have lots of a respect for her. She's old enough to be able to afford horses, but young enough to still be a good rider. I, on the other hand, don't have much money, so I mostly work Izzy on my own. I have trouble judging my own equitation, so I know that when we are able to take more lessons, my form will be crucified.

Oh well. I'm looking forward to a lesson on Wednesday, hopefully a trail ride Friday, and maybe another lesson next week on an older, trained horse. I hope all your weekends are just as nice as mine.

Running Late

My husband had the day off work today, so I slept in until (gasp) almost 8 am. That's pretty late for me. As soon as I was up, I darted off to ride. Izzy was fairly good today, but because I was an hour later than usual, she arena was a lot more busy with people who don't steer well. It's really hard to do concentrated work when you're watching out for a beginner rider and trying to not get run over by a careening draft horse. Still, we had some really nice trot work to the right and a lovely, lovely right lead canter depart. It was our first time cantering in my new saddle. We didn't try to do too much to the left for the aforementioned reasons.

I think I've come up with one other possible reason for Izzy's resistance to going forward in areas other than the sticky spot. She's kind of a lazy girl anyways, and if we keep in mind her stiff side, and then throw in her tendency to get behind my leg and stop before, it looks like we have the answer. So, while the sticky spot problem I think was psychological and I hope we've overcome it, the non-forwardness is probably a riding problem. I need to focus on getting her forward and not letting her fall behind my leg. When I mentioned a couple days about that it could be a horse problem, a rider problem, or both, I wasn't thinking that it could be all three. My mistake, I guess.

I also rode two other horses for Cathy today. One was Cassie, my old OTTB girl. I call her mine, but I've never properly owned her. I just leased her for like five years. Someone else is now interested in leasing a horse, and Cathy wanted me to get on the girls to get them going a little bit. Cassie was really good until I went to lunge her, and then she almost ripped my hand off. Silly old girl. I ended up just taking advantage of a brief quiet time in the arena and let her run to her heart's content. She felt a little off from having her feet done, though, so we just walked.

Then I got out Ellie, a chestnut Hanoverian/TB mare. She's our resident example of bad conformation.
Here's a friend of mine riding Ellie. She (Ellie) toes in badly in front and I think her knees are twisted in slightly. That said, she a total puppy dog on the ground and very nice to be around. In regular work, she goes really well, and she could probably show comfortably up to first level dressage or so. She used to jump, but I don't think I'd do that to her anymore. She's just been hanging out in the pasture with Izzy for the past couple months, so she resembles a sausage right now. Poor happy fat pony.

A happy thing that happened today was that Izzy actually came up to me when I went to go get Ellie. She just wanted some attention, and was really sweet. Usually I go get her during breakfast time, so she's not too keen on being caught and certainly doesn't hang around when I turn her loose. It's nice to know my pony likes me too.

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.

Making Plans

I feel much better today, but Izzy was still very up and stiff going to the left. I think it's partly because she's stiff on her right side. When we go right, she stretches through her left side, but she's probably hollowing her left side just a bit. When we try to go left, she's stiff/sore, and doesn't want to stretch her left side.

At least, that's my opinion. I finally understand what a wonderful dressage clinician tried for years to drill into my head at least. She'd be thrilled, if a bit dismayed that it took me so long to get here.

There is probably more going on that I'm aware of. I know my equitation isn't what it once was, so now that we're working on refining the aids, things that I did that didn't matter now matter a lot. With that in mind, I'm on the schedule for a lesson next week, or sooner if someone else cancels. Cathy owes me a couple lessons anyways for working while she was out of town, so this should be good.

It's also possible that this is like Izzy's rearing on the lunge. We'd work through it, then it would come back, then we'd work through it, then it would come back... every time we worked through it, she understood a little more, and now she hasn't done it in quite a while. (Knock on wood.) At any rate, if she's not going forward, there is absolutely no point in trying to push her into jumping, so we're just waiting again. I was really hoping to get her started this fall, then let her have the winter off, then pick it up again next spring, but it's more important that she understand the basics well than that she can half do a bunch of advanced moves.

Oh, horses.

Hmm.

I'd recommend starting reading my post by going to Kate's blog and reading her post from today. I woke up way too early this morning and I was in a lot of pain. Back, neck, shoulders, head, everything from the waist up hurt. It was weird because I really didn't do anything out of the ordinary yesterday. I lifted some hay bales to help feed, but I do that pretty regularly and it's never bothered me before. I feel better now, but there are still twinges of pain.

I think it could be related that when I rode Izzy today, she was ok to the right, but absolutely not going forward to the left. It could be partly lazy green horse stuff, as she was doing it a little bit before this week, but to have it come to a head right when I'm hurting too? Seems weird enough to be related.

Also, I think I'll have pictures by this weekend or early next week.

Brand New Saddle

I would post a picture, but, typical of me, I forgot to bring anything like a camera out to the barn with me. Whoops.

Anyways, it came late Thursday night, exactly as described. It's an older Ansur KonKlusion, which is their eventing model. It's treeless, but it does have a gullet of sorts. The new model can be seen here: Here's a picture that the seller sent me:

It's a bit darker right now because I very thoroughly cleaned and oiled it last night before I went to bed. The scuff marks are mostly gone, but some things are just a part of an old saddle and that's why we love them. For those of you who are adamantly opposed to Ansur business practices, this one was actually made in the Peter's Tack era. (For the record: I am neither for nor against their business practices. I just like their saddles.)

It definitely feels different than the Classic I was riding. The Classic looks something like this. A Classic is basically a glorified bareback pad. There is no gullet. You sit on on (or into, I guess) the horse. Horses for the most part seem to really like them. I guess I'm so used to it that I didn't really think about gullets and spine clearance on Ansurs. Here's a picture of my best friend riding Cassie in a Classic:

It was one of Cassie's first rides this spring and my friend hadn't been on in over a year, so they look pretty good considering. The KonKlusion (or KK) has a seat to it and almost a twist. Maybe the newer models do have a twist; I'm not wealthy enough to find out. It's a bit more secure feeling than the Classic, but it sure was different.

At any rate, I'm unfamiliar with gulleted but treeless saddles. When I put the new one on Izzy this morning, it looked like the pommel was going to rub her, so I put a little wedge pad underneath it. That kept the pommel off her withers, but after I'd ridden for a while, the gullet was right down on her. So... I don't know. It wasn't hurting or pinching, because her head goes straight up in the air when something hurts. All Ansur saddles are built on the same basic Flex Core, and the Classic sits on the horse's back directly, so maybe it's ok? Still, it seems like a gulleted saddle ought to have gullet clearance.

If that's true, there are various pads made specifically for this purpose. They're kind of spendy, but maybe I can find one used. You'd be surprised what a little dedicated searching can turn up. ;-) Still, if it's not bothering her, is it a problem? I don't know.

In other training news, the weather changed this weekend while I was gone. That always gets the horses a little excited, and as such, Izzy was pretty distracted when I was riding her. When I asked her to move off my left leg and she wouldn't and then I made her, she threw a fit, complete with a nice buck and a lunge forward. After that, we finished out the day by doing lots of bending left and right with little leg yields. We didn't canter because I want to know more about the saddle issue before going much further.

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.