Riding/Horses – Page 4 – The Roaming Rider

Windridge Cross Country School

February 5, 2018 roamingridersite

When Trainer invited me to a cross country school I was really excited…until I found out the venue was going to be Windridge. Not that I have anything against the facility. It is gorgeous and rolling. It’s not a schooling course though. They have nothing below starter and all the jumps are beefy. However, they started a new winter series and announced an 18″ division. I said yes banking on the fact that those new jumps would be out specially since they were to host the first event the previous weekend and another the next Wednesday.

When I pulled in and looked around though there wasn’t a single 18″ fence to be seen. I knew immediately this wasn’t going to be about jumping.

It ended up being a great day even if I only jumped one actual cross country fence in 1 1/2 hours. Gem jumped four others without me (someone else climbed up) though so she got some good schooling in.

Trainer had me use a neck strap for the first time and now I am addicted. Seriously, how did I ever jump without it??

I’m not really sure what has happened to my mare, but guys…it’s been eight years in the making and holy crap does it feel amazing. We started by warming up walk and trot in a flattish section of the field. Less than a year ago this simple task would have been a complete disaster full of spooks, bolts, hollow tenseness and probably me getting dumped.

Not Saturday. I’m starting to feel like a broken record but….it’s all so new to me! She was relaxed, forward without rushing and listening perfectly. Our transitions were spot on and it was overall pleasant. Trainer was impressed!

The other girl with me was riding Training level so while those two got a few jumps planned out, I wandered over to the warm up fences. They have three stadium fences and a few log piles and I popped Gem over the stadium fences a few times going both up and down the slope.

Then we moved on down the course and Trainer spotted a little red fence with a log on top and wanted me to try it. I couldn’t. I completely wussed out and handed the ride over to the other girl who was asking to try.

She promptly fell off.

I felt bad yet slightly vindicated. Does that make me a bad person? Probably.

Several attempts later she got her over and then promptly stopped asking to ride her. Sorry, Gem. Few people ask twice to take your ride.

Not me, but it is Gem going over the starter sized jump on like the 12th attempt.

As we wandered around I could tell Trainer felt bad. She knew there wasn’t anything I was going to jump out there and didn’t understand why the 18″ fences hadn’t been put out.

I told her I was ok though. I knew it was a risk going there and I was just so happy with how rideable Gem was remaining with big open spaces, lots of standing around breaks and another horse. Any one of those things would have resulted in a terrible ride as recently as last summer and yet here she was being fun. I had no regrets.

So instead she had me working on riding Gem deliberately, getting walk-trot-canter transitions throughout the field along a specified track. We were working on the tasks between the jumps which is something that has always terrified me with Gem’s history. It was fun and Gem was being so good. We cantered and trotted up and down hills and around jumps all with the focus on me being deliberate with the track and Gem maintaining the same pace regardless of the terrain.

The only thing I am brave enough to jump at Windridge

Eventually we found the fake ditch I had done last time and she had me work Gem over it going both directions. Gem was hesitant and this is where my biggest learning point of the day came in.

Trainer told me that I actually have to give Gem permission to do what I’m asking her to do or else it isn’t fair. I tend to ask them get super defensive and in effect block Gem from answering correctly which is counter productive. To be fair to myself, when it comes to jumping Gem isn’t always honest and I respond by riding defensively in order to, you know…not die and die. But it isn’t helping

So I approached it again, put my leg on, grabbed the neck strap and asked her to jump. She was still squirrelly and hesitant but she went over and didn’t get punished by my rigidity. The next time she went even better.

That’s when the second learning point came up.

Trainer asked me what I’m focused on going over a jump. It’s been many months since I’ve looked at the jump (at least one bad habit gone?) and I do look out in the distance. My answer? “I’m focusing on not dying” she laughed and said it’s time to start focusing on my exit. When I jump I’m so focused on just getting Gem over that I forget to ride the backside. When I took the ditch with a very specific exit strategy, Gem felt more confident as a result and we had a much more balance ride.

It all boils down to me being a better leader at all times for my not very confident mare.

Muddy soup Gemmie used to have no interest in stepping in, but will now happily trot through

From there it was on to the water complex which had a broken pump so had mostly no water in it. More broken record here, but a few short months ago there was no way she would have stepped into this let only trotted through. Saturday though she did. I got nailed again for being tense and not letting Gem do what I asked of her, but once I loosened my death grip on the reins and let her trot she was floating and amazing.

We practiced trotting through, turning right, picking up the canter and cantering back to the starting point. The wheels fell off here a little as Gem took it as a race back to the beginning and then got cranky when I made her do simple things like have steering ability and not fall on her face

We followed the other girl around for another 20 minutes or so of watching her knock the socks off the Training level course. I’m not sure what her goals are but she was hitting the mark every single time out there.

After just over 90 minutes we called it quits and I waited for the next group to show up. A student of hers that is doing her first 1* this year was coming to ride Gem over some starter level jumps and I was excited to watch and learn. Part of me wanted Gem to be amazingly perfect and fly over everything, but another part wanted her to have the same issues with a better rider so it wouldn’t be all my fault for how she is. Mean? Maybe?

Trainer jacked all the fences up to 2’3″ height and Gem didn’t say no and made the height look easy. Guess it’s time for me to man up and get used to a bit height sticks.

Then they moved to the course and a simple bright blue starter roll top. It took several attempts but she got her over. It was super eye opening to watch her go with this near pro on her. What I can feel under saddle looks about the same on the ground. Gem is squirrelly. She doesn’t go straight very well and I could see her thinking about noping her way out of it with each stride. It took a ton of leg to get her to go over. Once she popped over the first time she got super proud of herself and Trainer laughed telling the rider “let her think she is an Olympian after that”. The next time over she hopped it no problem and raced away like the king of the world.

Then they tried the starter box but Gem never went over. It was the largest she ever saw and it wasn’t going to happen. You can get an idea from this one though how she goes left a little, then right, then stops. You just never fully know where her body is going to be.

There was a starter green bench next to it and they re routed to that instead.

I talked to the rider on the way back to the trailer and she had good things to say. She had a lot of fun on her, but admitted she was difficult. She felt bad because she couldn’t stop having contact all the way up to and over the jump because the moment she would soften Gem would take that as an excuse to duck out. I know that feeling all too well and I struggle with it. But Gem is smart and hopefully she learns that going over is easier than saying no.

The other thing she commented on was the fact that Gem has no clue to look for jumps yet so each time it catches her off guard and she is surprised. Gem is so busy looking every where but in front of her that she never sees it coming. Her last horse took 6 months of solid xc schooling to learn to look for it so all hope isn’t lost I suppose.

I left wishing I could leave Gem with her for a month of training. Not only do I not have the cash for it but she is in college and couldnt do it anyway. Maybe this summer when she is on her break I can ship Gem off to her. Something to think about.

Regardless, Gem got more than a 15 minute ride in Saturday and some serious education 🙂

Riding/Horses

Jumping

January 31, 2018January 31, 2018 roamingridersite

The weather was looking gross last weekend. Rain predicted all day Sunday and the reality didn’t disappoint. It poured buckets from 7 pm Saturday night to 10 pm Sunday. Gross. Knowing that in advance, I planned to ride on Saturday. A quick look into the jumping book had me shaking my head. Trotting a single ground pole wasn’t my idea of fun after a month of solid flat work. It was time to break out the jumps and go flying over some raised poles once again.

It had been since the beginning of November, so I kept it simple and set up an easy and very forgiving line of two verticals set on a turn. I haven’t measured the standards to know for sure the height but it was somewhere between 18″-2′. I wanted to make it easy enough for our first jump school in forever so as not to punish Gem in anyway for getting something wrong.

The biggest thing trainer yells at me for, and really the only time I officially get yelled at by her, is setting my sights on a jump, presenting Gem to it, then losing my lady balls and pulling her off at the last second. Not good. It basically teaches Gem that it is okay to say no and then adds in the escape route so that the next time she can take it on her own.

When I set up the two jumps, I kept that in mind giving myself plenty of room to circle after, go wide around the second jump etc…without her ever really locking onto the jump in advance.

In warming up, I kept to my more dedicated riding style. I made sure Gem always knew exactly where I wanted her to be traveling and how to get there. It really has made all the difference in how she goes. Gem doesn’t like being left to her own devices and that is my fault for not giving her the direction she needs.

I admit to having some butterflies when I turned and locked onto the first jump. I am a wimp after all. I had her trot in and she took it no big deal at all and then cantered away. The first time through I had her go wide around the second jump and then reapproached the first again and just began to play around with the two in both directions until I felt comfortable and then I asked her to do the very forgiving, not really related all that much, line.

She was very good and listened making the turn to the second jump super easy and never once said no. She didn’t even do her typical squirrelly go left no right no left again behavior leading up to the jump. On my end I made sure she was still between my legs and had plenty of time to see the jump before getting to it.

I’m not sure what has gotten into her lately, but I will take it!

Towards the end of the ride she started to get really fresh going into the jumps. She began taking long spots and launching herself over and then celebrating on the backside a bit. I didn’t want to punish her for having fun but I also didn’t want to reward her new found rushing behavior so after she did one last trip around nicely I called it a day.

I was so happy with her. And myself to be honest. After the initial butterflies disappeared they never returned and I even found myself laughing when she pulled me towards and over the jumps. It was a nice feeling knowing she was going over without question.

Riding/Horses

Exercise 3…Gem Shows Up To Play

January 30, 2018January 28, 2018 roamingridersite

Thursday night was the first time all week I could carve out time to ride after work. I had two goals for the ride: hold Gem more accountable and practice both bend and straightness, both things I got nailed on during the lesson.

Wags — Waggy looking down on her kingdom

Trainer basically had me doing exercise one for the lesson, so I looked up the third one to begin alternating with number two. It was the perfect post lesson exercise: a long figure eight over a single ground pole. Per the book, the goals are to ride the long diagonals straight, have bend through the arcs and hit the pole on an angle. This would meld everything from the lesson together nicely.

As for my primary goal, I’m very good at being super hard on myself when I ride. I’m constantly checking on my various body parts and internally chiding myself for letting my lower leg slip forward, white knuckling the reins, tilting forward etc…. The inside of my head isn’t the prettiest place at times. What I am bad at is doing the same for Gem. I should be making sure her body parts are doing what I ask. Instead I have a “good enough” approach. I wanted to go straight down a side and instead we weave. Good enough. I wanted to begin my circle here but overshot it. Good enough.

Wrong.

I’m tired of posting pics of a single lonely ground pole in the arena, so instead you get life pictures. Wyatt has become obsessed with fishing in the pond.

It isn’t good enough. I need to hold Gem to doing the task at hand. So I entered this exercise determined to ride as deliberately as Trainer makes me in lessons.

I started it even in the warm up period before tackling the exercise. Instead of toodling around on Gem as I get myself under control, I immediately held her to walking a straight line. Instead of stuffing her into turns at the last minute because I forgot to plan ahead, I made sure each turn was thought out several strides out and ridden with purpose.

This down tree lives in one of the back pastures. I asked Dusty to clean it u so I could jump it. He laughed knowing full well I’ll never be brave enough to do so

Gem responded by immediately softening and listening. Who would have thought that by giving your horse actual directions to follow that they would become more rideable? *Head desk*

After I did the rectangle a few times in each direction, I headed to the ground pole and picked up the trot. And Gem was amazing. The best I’ve ever felt under me.

beautiful sunrise going to work one morning

She rode straight along the long diagonal as I focused on a specific fence post to aim for. Since she was balanced and sure of her direction, the ground pole was met in stride and rode as if not even there. What really impressed me was that she actually had real bend in the turn. I was working hard to plan the turn several strides out and do as Trainer tells me all the time: ride her like an old lady driving on ice.

Gem is super athletic and can handle being jammed around tight corners but that doesn’t mean it is right to do it plus it kills all momentum and pace. By planning my turns more carefully she can more easily maintain her balance and rhythm through the turn.

Once we went through my planned arc I could actually feel her body straighten again under me as I switched my focus to the far fence line and picked my line down the diagonal and over the pole at an angle. It felt amazing. I’ve never actually felt her be so bendy and malleable under me before.

AMAZING.

He hooked one of his dump trucks to his tractor and was pulling it all over. Waggy was happy to chase it.

After 15 minutes I called it quits. She was being so good it felt more harmful than good to keep repeating the exercise. She had this one mastered and deserved to be done for the night. Eventually I’m going to have to stop doing that and ride her longer or we will never gain any endurance back but for now I’m happy to give her a big pat and tell her how good she was.

This ride left me grinning all night long. Hopefully I can remember how much better things go when I ride very deliberately and we can continue moving forward and having fun.

Riding/Horses

Wyatt Rides!

January 29, 2018January 28, 2018 roamingridersite

Finally, finally, the girth and bit decided to show up and Wyatt was about peeing himself with excitement to ride. He pulled Nashville in while I was finishing up riding and had him brushed and all four hooves picked out by the time I returned to the barn (with a little help from Dusty but honestly not much, he is pretty good at grooming.)

I hate buying a girth. I wrote about it here regarding Gem and it still sucks now. I can’t for the life of me pick the right length it seems and then it still varies between brands as some have more stretch than others. Anyway, I had tried Gem’s 24″ dressage girth and it was too short. Dusty was there and I asked him what size he would get. It looked to be about 6″ off so we agreed a 30″ would work.

Um, nope. It didn’t even come close to fitting.

I should have tried this before, but had figured there was no way Gem’s 48″ jump girth would come close to fitting the 12 hand Nashers.

Um, yup. It does.

It snugged up on the very top hole on each side and had a bit more wiggle than I’d like for hard work, but I’ll be damned if the thing didn’t fit well enough for Wyatt to ride at a walk. His saddle is tiny and has the shortest billets I have ever seen so that played a big part in it but still. No way it should have worked.

Once we figured that out, we tried the new bit and new to us bridle. The bit worked great (4 1/2″ D ring snaffle) but the pony size bridle was way too big. The throat latch strap was on the top most hole and I could fit two fists between it and his head. The nose band was on the last hole and was both low and too loose but again, good enough for Wyatt’s purposes for one night. Sigh. Some day I will learn to measure these things.

I’m not sure which is the cutest: the kiddo, the pony or that tiny little saddle

Eventually we had it together enough for him to get on. Poor little man was pretty scared. Last time he rode, Dusty had him trot bareback without a ground person to grab him and he hit the dirt hard. He got back on but hasn’t been too thrilled to try again. As soon as he got on he tightened up and started to panic.

I grabbed him though and told him I’d hold on and walk beside him until he was comfortable. He agreed but was still shaking.

As soon as Nash walked on, I asked Wyatt how to stop him and Wyatt pulled back on both reins and said whoa. Nash stopped immediately just as I knew he would.

Wyatt grinned and looked at me.

He then kicked him on and they walked off.

He stopped him again and grinned some more.

Now confident that he was in control, he let me let go and take pictures and video. My ground pole was still down and we used that to teach him steering. He was a bit abrupt and harder than he needed to be, he is 5 after all, but all in all he did a great job steering all on his own without my input to keep Nash lined up and going over the pole.

At one point he turned to face the pole and overshot to the left. He fixed it by turning back right and I heard him say “there we go Nash”. It made my heart melt.

By the time he was done he was grinning and telling me how he was going to train so he could win another blue ribbon at his next show.

It made my night.

Of course I then went online a ordered a 42″ girth, smaller bridle and new pad. Hubby can’t argue cause it is for the kiddo. It’s a sneaky way to get in some good horse shopping.

Remember…get your information submitted by 12 am 1/31/18 to be eligible for January’s Volunteer Challenge random drawing. So far I have $900 Facebook Pony with 8 points and 3 Day Adventures with Horses with 2 points.

Riding/Horses

Bareback Lesson. Nash Style

January 25, 2018January 23, 2018 roamingridersite

After I put Gemmie up, it was time to introduce Trainer and Nash. I had hoped to get Wyatt on him in a real lesson, but my Smartpak order for a pony sized girth and bit got delayed due to the snow twice and still hadn’t arrived by Sunday. Instead I talked to her about my issues with lunging him since that is a task he will absolutely have to perform at our house and she was game to tackle it with me.

Wyatt grabbed Nashville for us and I’ll admit that I was a bit nervous about what Trainer would think. He was pretty much the opposite of what she had wanted me to get for Wyatt and I was really hoping she wouldn’t hate him right off the bat. I needn’t have worried though. She LOVED him. She couldn’t say enough good things about his conformation and then when she watched him move her face split into a massive grin. The boy is FANCY.

But he is also a bit naughty and likes to test the waters to see what he actually has to do (everything according to me) and what is only a mere suggestion (everything according to him). She plopped him on the lunge line and grabbed my dressage whip since my lunge whip is still MIA after a certain 5 year used it to fight aliens. It wasn’t the best set up but it got the job done.

I’m not used to seeing a horse go along without looking like a giraffe. What is this posture?!

He did the same to her, but she is better at it and eventually got him moving out way better than I ever did. Watching him trot made me wish I was riding him instead. He did test her quite a bit and her end analysis is that he was never properly trained to lunge, but he is also a bit naughty and stubborn. Go figure.

After about 10 minutes she had me hop on him bareback to act as a back up aid system. Every time he tried to whip into the center to face her and thus avoid work, I’d stop him with my outside rein. If he tried to halt randomly, my legs were there to keep him moving. When she tried to halt him on voice, I’d be there to halt him as a back up.

And guys??

While Nashville may be a bit hard headed on the lunge, under “saddle” he is AMAZING. All it took was a tiny motion of my butt backwards and a very slight tightening of my ring fingers on the reins and he stopped. Instantly. None of this petering out, tightening my core all the way, hauling on the resin, seriously I mean halt you darn mare, bull crap. I thought halt and he did. I thought walk and he did.

What he lacks in ground work he more than makes up for under saddle. I CAN NOT FREAKING WAIT UNTIL THE GIRTH SHOWS UP!!!

Riding/Horses

The Mare Learns to Bend.. Kinda

January 24, 2018January 23, 2018 roamingridersite

The word of the day Sunday was BEND. We had none the last few times I rode on my own and I was growing frustrated trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Turns out a lot. Go figure.

We stuck to the near end of the arena, using my ground pole chute from a few days before as the farthest point. It is much easier to keep Gem contained in a smaller space than let her gain speed in the arena at large. The lesson was a tale of the bi polar horse. The first 30 minutes Gem was lazy. Like walking as slow as physically possible while still doing what I asked lazy. It was a nice change of pace and allowed me to get some good work in.

No the look of a mare wanting to get work done

First Trainer had me ride a large rectangle working on keeping Gem straight until the turn and then creating the bend in the turn while quickly regaining the straightness after. The teaching point here was that you can’t work on bend if you are never straight in the first place. I had to work on keeping her between my aides on the lines I chose and needed to be more deliberate in my path. It wasn’t good enough to get from A to B. I had to get there on an exact path that I planned in advance and then turn exactly where I wanted.

From there we added in a circle using my chute to anchor the circle at 20 m. Trainer immediately called me out for over compensating with my upper body as I tried to create the bend for Gem by twisting like a tornado. Not useful. Instead I was to have just enough bend in my shoulders to allow me to look 1/4 of the circle ahead at all times and just enough in my waist to shift my weight in the saddle to cue Gem to bend around the inside leg.

Since Gem was being lazy, she actually accepted my lower leg on her side pushing her out into my outside rein. It felt delicious. Is that a word I can use when describing riding? Typically any inside leg results in going faster, so I have to use it judiciously. However, without the proper aides our circle tends to turn into a spiral getting ever smaller as I can’t push her out with my inside leg and catch her with the outside rein. Sunday however I could at least for a few small steps at a time and it created a lovely geometry.

Grumpy mare ears were the flavor of the day

The biggest learning point in the first half was to be more deliberate with my path, my turns and in riding in general. I tend to not hold myself as firm when riding and I need to be greedy with everything.

Then the second half happened and Gem woke up and got angry that I was still asking her to work when…gasp..she began to sweat. Mare hates the sweat. As soon as she starts, she shuts down and quits. Silly Princess.

I love shadow pictures. The arena footing is a whole other story.

We had just taken a short walk break where I got nailed for throwing her away and not continuing to ride (oops!) and took the trot back up when my nice, calm and quiet mare became speed demon. Sigh. The next 30 minutes were then spent getting her head screwed back on and paying attention.

When the circle became too much for her and all we were doing was zooming around throwing in half halts every 2 steps, half of which were being ignored, Trainer had me go back out on the rectangle adding in a 10 meter circle at each corner with the goal being to maintain the pace and not fall into it. We were semi capable of this, but still I heard the tell tale “slow down, slower” from Trainer about half a million times.

Still, there were good things to come out of the second half. First, I didn’t give up. Sometimes when Gem is like this my head shuts down and I get tense, braced and want to get off and cry in the corner. Sunday though I actually laughed at her. I knew she was tired and that this was getting hard for her which is why she acted out however I also knew that if she just calmed the heck down and did what I asked it would all be over and she could go chill out int he pasture again. The biggest teaching point here was that I needed to be patiently persistent in what I wanted. Gem could act out all she wanted but she darn well better stay on my circle or rectangle or whatever and maintain the bend. I had to keep asking and asking and asking until she realized I wasn’t going to go away ever and she had just better cave and do the thing.

By the end of the hour, Gem was pretty sweaty and I was really happy with all I had driven into my head. Basically it boils down to me holding both of us more responsible to getting the work done. No more letting her get away with pushing out on the circle or falling in. I need to be firmer about exactly where I want her to be at all times while actively working and that is a big shift from what I have always done.

The only part f her that tells on her age is her ever greying mane

With endurance, Gem and I had come to an understanding. She was in charge of her feet and tackling the trail in the safest and most efficient way possible and I was in charge of setting the pace. If she needed to canter a certain section, as long as our pace didn’t change, she could. I didn’t mess with her very much and she didn’t challenge my sense of direction or pace requirements. But this is a whole new ball game and I need to get more firm with every part of her. Our path is just as important as the speed in which we get there now and it is a big mental change for me.

Riding/Horses

Finally, a Lesson!! But First..the Warm Up

January 23, 2018January 22, 2018 roamingridersite

Sunday was 68F, sunny and with a breeze. I walked out of my back door at 10:30 am and never walked back inside again until 6 pm. It was glorious. Not only the weather, but the fact that I live where I can always find something outside to entertain myself with for that long and never once get bored. Bliss.

This wasn’t Sunday and it wasn’t bliss, but it was pretty. We got 2″ on Wednesday and it shut the town down.

Sunday also happened to be the day I finally started lessons again. It had been since the middle of November and it was long overdue.

Gem and Pete are no strangers to the cold fluffy stuff. We gave them access to the barn yard and the front half of the barn for shelter which nobody decided to use.

But before I get into the actual lesson, trust me it isn’t that exciting anyway, I need to hash out something that I completely failed at not only in the execution, but also in discussing it with Trainer. Something about following my Gemmie lesson with a bareback lesson on Nash got me all distracted.

Anyway…

The last year of lessoning out at RB was great, but it was also a bit stressful getting home from work, loading up Gem and hitting the road in rush hour to drive through downtown with the trailer and make it there in time. Most of the time I got there with just enough time to tack and hurry into the arena. The few times I was lucky enough to have a bit of extra time, Trainer would start the lesson as soon as I got in the arena anyway. This all meant no warm up before a lesson. I’d hop on and we would get busy learning. Or flailing around. Which was more common.

I do miss how pretty the world is under a blanket of fresh snow

Sunday though Trainer came to me and after I realized that I could in fact perform a proper warm up before the lesson. So I got Gem at 1 pm for a 2 pm lesson, took my time grooming her (mare is staring her spring shed) and tacked up at 1:30 pm. Gem was in no mood to work in a winter coat at 68F, so I planned to take it a bit easy on her and we began by walking.

After 10 minutes I was like…umm ok we walked. Are we warmed up now? I don’t know. Lets trot.

So I trotted for 10 minutes. She was loose, responsive and listening really ell although we didn’t actually do much except trot all around the arena. Was that a warm up? I wasn’t sure but I still had 10 minutes before Trainer was due and had no clue what to do to fill the gap.

You see Gem doesn’t do repetition. She also tends to lose her marbles one allowed to canter and I didn’t want to lose the wonderful horse I had under me before the lesson. I was clueless what all to do and chose to sit on her and wait for Trainer to ask her and then promptly forgot when she arrived.

Which brings me to my question for all of you..what constitutes a warm up? I know it is different for each horse, each ride depending on what you will be working on and likely the day but I’m sure there are some general rules to follow. Like, how long do you typically warm up for? What is the end goal? Waking Gem up and letting her get any wiggles out before the lesson started were my goals, but I’m not sure they were really sophisticated enough. Should I have worked on bend since that was going to be the focus of the lesson? I chose to let that slide and wait for the lesson so as not to hammer it home too much but then that meant we basically did nothing but walk around and trot a bit.

It felt like the 30 minutes I “rode” prior to the lesson were basically just me sitting on my horse. Not sure it really prepared her for anything. Or was very useful. It was enjoyable though so there is that.

Riding/Horses

Little Nashers

January 11, 2018January 11, 2018 roamingridersite

It took a couple of weeks for the dust to settle back down on the herd dynamics. Nash still isn’t quite fully in the mix of things, but Gem has stopped being a total witch to him and is letting him graze near them now. I was shocked at her response to him. She has never once shown any proclivity towards being alpha, but then again she never had a dog sized equine to boss around either. For his part, Nash is in love with them and whinnies in his tiny voice when he is the last man standing in the pasture which is every night because pony needs to learn to not rush the gate.

Speaking of manners. Nashville has been getting some lessons on ground work. He isn’t bad by any means, but I have gotten spoiled with having the Dynamic Duo for eight years now. They know exactly what is expected of them and what lines they can’t cross. Nash needs to figure out what I’m willing to tolerate and what I’m not and I keep reminding myself that it will take time. Stopping while being led is one thing that drives me crazy. I’ll let you know when you may graze. Otherwise keep up! I’ve been doing a lot of simple things while leading him in and out of the barn such as halting randomly, backing him up, turning various body parts away from me. He picked it up quickly and is very easy to lead now.

He has been really great with Wyatt so far. He can lead him (though it hasn’t crossed over as well that he has to listen to him too), groom him, and dismount all on his own. Mounting isn’t happening yet and I’m cool with that for now.

I have failed at getting a complete tack set situated so it’s been lead line bareback rides so far which Wyatt has excelled at. It may not sound like a big deal, but Wyatt was always too scared to do it on Gem and now he hops on up and asks to go over ground poles and jumps and all over creation. He laughs when he starts to lose balance and in general is learning a lot about balance and self control. All great skills for a 5 year old to learn.

I’ve managed to grab a really nice 14″ jump saddle which is seriously one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. It fits Wyatt well with a bit of room for growth too. It was used, local and a great price. I then snagged a used pony bridle off the Tack Hunter app and we are almost all set. The bit and girth are making their way to my house as we speak and were the only new items I purchased. I love used tack!

No clue what brand the saddle is but it is in perfect condition with beautiful leather.

I’m a bit nervous about how he will be under saddle and am hoping I didn’t make a big mistake and buy some psycho crazed pony that will scare the crap out of Wyatt. I plan to use my own saddle on him once the bit and girth arrive and put a few rides on him myself to assess his brain and bad habits. I was told he is lazy but honestly I haven’t seen that at all. We will see what happens hopefully this weekend if it comes in time!

In the meantime I’ve been working Nash after my Gem rides. One thing I’m a bit pissed off being lied to about is lunging (another reason I’m worried about how he will be under saddle since the seller lied about this although I have plenty of videos of him being ridden by small children so maybe it will be ok?). Wyatt takes lunge line lessons so my first question to every prospective seller was about lunging. I was told he was good.

Yeah that’s a big nope.

The first time I tried he seemed either very confused or just very good at playing the game to get out of work. He would turn and face me every time I asked him to move on and if I moved my own body he would just shift to face me again. Hmmm…

I grabbed my dressage whip and got to work getting him to understand that I mean walk when I say walk and that turning to face me was not the answer I wanted. He got a bit pissy about it, but after 20 minutes or so he was walking on going left. Rinse and repeat going right. By the end of 45 minutes he was walking on when asked and only stopping to face me when I said halt.

The walking on was in a straight line only. Boy doesn’t bend at all. Worse than Gemmie by a hundred fold.

That was Sunday. On Wednesday I pulled him back out after riding Gem and was curious to find out if he remembered what I taught him and where we would begin. Turns out he is a quick study as he walked on right away on the first ask. I still couldn’t get him to bend or move out on the circle but at least he was moving every time I asked and even offered up a few trot steps. I’m going to have to do a lot more reading on teaching how to lunge as my knowledge is pretty limited. Thankfully he seems to eat up praise and is learning fast.

So that is where we currently stand with him. Wyatt still asks to ride often and seems to be enjoying him a lot and I’m learning what it is like to have a new to me horse all over again. It’s been interesting so far and has shown me how much I rely on Gem knowing what I mean and how life works with us. It has made me really appreciate her a lot more!

Don’t forget that tomorrow is the last day to sign up for the 2018 Volunteer Challenge. Lots of prizes to be won!

Riding/Horses

Getting Serious Again

January 9, 2018January 9, 2018 roamingridersite

Many years ago Dusty bought me a copy of the 1010 Jumping Exercises book to give me things to work on with Gem in the arena while we lived in WI. I never made it past exercise 1 though I can’t recall exactly why. Residency probably got in the way. Or I just plumb gave up because I had no clue what I was doing.

Regardless, I ran across it again as I was unpacking and decided that it would be a great way to work with Gem at home now that I have some jumps I can play around with. My bigger goal in using the book is learning how to properly set up a course with striding so as to not create something impossible for us to do.

Sunday afternoon was not deathly cold for the first time in nearly two weeks and proved the perfect opportunity to set up exercise one and get going. Keep in mind that I had not really ridden Gem in two months beyond a few times I got on and toodled around at the walk and trot, it has been cold enough that I’ve kept the horses in at night, and I recently changed foods. All ingredients to a great ride, no?

Exercise 1 is very basic: create a 6-10′ chute with two ground poles and ride a 10-20m circle through the poles in both directions. Goals include: proper bend in each direction, being straight inside the chute, halting inside the chute, making sure you exit on the correct diagonal at the trot. The point of the exercise, per the book, is to get a feel inside the chute what it feels like to have the horse straight under you and then how it feels to have the horse bend around the circle.

I warmed up at the walk and trot at large in the arena and noted that Gem was still pretty focused on outside the arena instead of on me. I got a bit tougher with her as she started tripping over herself a bit when I was asking her to turn and she wasn’t paying any attention. It was annoying and she soon learned that I wasn’t having any of it.

I worked Gem in the walk and trot through the exercise making sure to randomly change directions and throwing in some halts inside the chute. At first I was getting very annoyed at myself, and Gem to be honest, because we had no bend. None. Picture a surf board. Add steel. We were more rigid than that. It wasn’t all Gem’s fault though. I couldn’t get my body to function right. I’d remember to turn my upper body and pelvis and not just my head, but then I’d lose my outside rein contact. Id’ pick that back up and my inside leg would fall off her. I’d shove that back into place and I’d find myself with rigid elbows. Those would loosen just so that my outside rein could get lost again.

Doesn’t look any more titillating on horseback

All was about to be lost in a sea of frustration and expletives when my perspective shifted. While I was internally chastising myself about my inability to create bend in my stiff horse, I failed to notice how Gem, a horse who used to view halting as something that happened to other horses, was halting square from the trot every single time I asked, right when I asked inside the chute and then would trot off when asked without walking in between. I failed to notice that while she wasn’t paying full attention to me, she was maintaining her rhythm without constantly speeding up or slowing down. I failed to notice how she walked when asked and trotted when asked and wasn’t breaking in between or trying to tranter off into the distance.

So while we couldn’t bend worth crap, there were still a lot of things to be very happy with. I need to stop being so hard on us both. I did text Trainer though and set up a lesson in the future when our schedules align again to hopefully get myself back on track to where I was in November.

The book wants you to not move on until you have perfected the one exercise, but um..not going to happen. Both Gem and I would get very bored with that, so instead I’m going to alternate between two exercises to keep things interesting for us both but yet not really move on until we are ready. I haven’t looked ahead to number two yet, but if I remember from before it is similar to one only with figure 8s instead of just circles.

Then this happened. Cute tiny pony ears!!! I don’t have a girth or a bridle yet, so Dusty led me around bareback, but yay for seeing the world through tiny pony ears!!! An update on Nash to come later.

Riding/Horses

Proactive Riding

January 3, 2018January 3, 2018 roamingridersite

My intention with starting lessons last year had nothing to do with competition. I’m the least competitive person out there and could care less about ribbons or records. The point was to learn tools with which to help Gem and I better our relationship under saddle, to grow as a rider and have more fun. On Saturday I realized that all those things have come true in a big way and it got me really excited to find out where 2018 will take us.

Farm life has really tired the puppies out. When we finally come inside they immediately fall down and go to sleep. Tired dogs = good dogs.

The weather was gorgeous, the last of its kind for like the rest of eternity apparently, and I took advantage of the afternoon sunshine to hop on Gem and take her for her second ride in the home arena. Historically, she is a nut job the first few rides at a new home barn, so I kept my expectations low aiming for relaxation and a steady rhythm at the walk and trot and tacked her up in the dressage saddle.

True to form, she was tense and paying more attention to the surroundings than the monkey on her back. I focused hard on my position, keeping my elbows back, my legs longs, my back straight and those darn elbows loose. Gem wasn’t as bad as in years past, but she was also no where near the level we had left off at in early November when I last rode her for real. Wyatt was riding Nash around the arena as well which was a novelty to her. I haven’t ridden her with someone else in the arena except for in warm up twice in over 5 years, maybe longer. She was very focused on what he was up to and once they left the arena, she became obsessed with following them making going past the gate a bit frustrating. Something new to work on, I suppose.

The view out the loft. The house is a ranch style but the last owners built a new master bedroom and added a loft. back there as well.

The biggest difference though was in how I handled it, a main goal with starting lessons in the first place. When it comes to flat work, I’ve become a much more proactive and thinking rider than I was a year ago. Instead of the cycle of doom of Gem getting tense and speeding up, me getting tense and handsy, Gem reacting by speeding up and hollowing out more, me getting more braced in the saddle etc…until I gave up and got off in frustration, this time I thought about what she was doing, what I was doing and what I could change.

The latest tool to be added to my box is turn on the haunches. A simple and elementary skill that Gem is not good at doing due to two simple traits of hers: 1) she hates my leg touching her and b) any cue to her, or any answer to a cue she doesn’t understand, is answered by her going faster. It is what she knows. This simple task works extremely well to decompress her. When she begins to get more and more tense and is ignoring all my other attempts to calm down, I shut her feet down by halting. She gets a lot of praise. I set her up for turn on the haunches and ask. Typically she will try to move forward at which point I gently tell her to halt again and repeat my ask. Once she steps over, she gets a ton of praise. I repeat this both directions a few times and then ask her to move on. Usually, when she walks off it is in a much more relaxed manner and we can get back to more work without the fight.

All bundled up against the frigid temps and blistering wind. The last few nights I’ve brought the horses in and closed all the barn doors. New Year’s eve it was in protection against the fireworks and then the others were because it reached single digits and nobody needs to be out in that. I was happy that the barn thermometer read 22 inside when it was 7F outside.

This simple exercise works well for us for a few reasons. First, it stops her feet moving. Since her gut reaction to everything unknown is to go faster, shutting her down to a halt forces her to use her big brain instead. Once halted, this exercise gives me something easily understood for her in terms of cause in effect for praise. She moves her hind legs over even a slight bit, she gets praised. Its a simple progression that she understands which turns a negative session into a positive one pretty quickly. Last, since she has to work pretty hard at getting this, it makes her focus on me instead of the outside world.

This won’t work forever. Once she gets the hang of turn on the haunches the process will break down a bit as she won’t have to focus so hard on me, but hopefully when that happens I will have a new trick up my sleeve.

I bought cross ties for the barn aisle. Hot pink because why not?

Being able to not only work on turn on the haunches, but to have the thought processes in my own brain working enough to stop the cycle and do something else is a big step forward for me as a rider.