Didn't get to watch Olympics but kept up with the results!  Congrats Teams Germany, GB, and NZ! 

While they were running cross-country I was riding a new race-broke (as opposed to regular-riding-broke) Arab, circling round barrels till she realized they weren't going to eat her, and staying out of the way of the Coach, who was riding one of the team's horses that lately decided to be a bucking bronco.  And hoping that the Coach didn't fall off and break her neck. 

She didn't, I stayed put together and all went well.  And I have a new project horse, Rhapsody.  She's another off-track Arab, about Fringe's age and a cute little bay with a big white blaze.  She's not been known to bolt but I could see her running if she got seriously scared; she's a bit "jittery" around spooky things (like said white jump barrels).  But then what sane horse doesn't try to run if it's seriously scared.  She was nice though; did walk through canter and nothing seriously unnerving about her.  I am under orders for groundwork for her, Rusty, and possibly another horse too, but both Rhapsody and Rusty are notoriously hard to catch (Rusty actually has a catch halter on at last, thank goodness), so Friday may just involve a lot of walking, carrots, and maybe one horse at the end.  Haha.  We'll see.  And then I am scheduled to have an actual jump lesson!  Because the Coach's horses are rushing fences so I get to run one of them through a gymnastic line a while. 

Life is pretty stinkin' good.  :D  

I Got Pictures!

Sooo at long last the Brother (and the Father and the Grandparents) all came over to the barn with mwah on Friday and courtesy of the Brother I got like almost 300 pictures of myself.  And the horses. 

It was awesome.  Although now that I actually see myself doing the things the Coach has been reminding me not to do for ages, I cringe and want to go hide my head.  Hey maybe this will remind me to be good.  :) 

First we did groundwork with the Fringey and that went fine except she was very sore so we did just enough for me to see that she was sore even on the grass, and then we stopped.  Hmm so I give you these pictures of that...

 

Then I had intended to work with Rusty but wanted to just do groundwork with him and since the Grandparents were there I thought maybe I should get a horse to actually ride.  So after some consultation I went and got the Coach's horse, Wild.  He is a 4-5 year old Mustang and she started him and has brought him along.  He's super nice, rather squirrelly when he wants to be, and lots of fun.  Since by definition I had four spotters, I decided I could jump without feeling too dangerous.

These photos were the most revealing.  :-/  Annnd I look like a 12-year-old, which is amusing.  :)

 Legs too far forward

 Looking down, not bending elbows, didn't get this headset nearly enough

 Leaning forward, not sitting up, can we say not relaxed horse?!

 Motorcycle-style corners

 This is off the little jump in the background and not too bad for once though my back could be straighter.

Holding too tight

:D  Well it is good to see your faults, one in particular I couldn't stand to look at and deleted.  Lol.  However we did have some good points.  For one, my heels are usually down now!  For another, I didn't get left behind at all which is great, although we didn't have any bigger jumps I tend to get left behind instead of falling forward if I'm not "with it."  And another, we didn't have any super-squirrelly-ness, which means I was generally looking up and riding forward.  So I'm happy.

I'm not happy that my summer class tomorrow means that I will be sitting inside re-learning algebra when I could be out with the Coach having a lesson and helping her ride a horse afterwards.  But college is necessary.  Sadly.  Lol.  

But I am happy I shall indeed have a lesson tomorrow even if it's not the one I'd hoped for! :)

Tanner Ride

So rode Tanner again yesterday.  Western.  Decided to revisit my roots and see if I remember how to stay in a saddle that won't let me slip every which way. ;)  Well turns out I do, though for the life of me I still can't figure out how to get off gracefully with that crazy horn in the way! Ha. I'm told it went well, really I think it did.  He didn't jerk too often at canter, turned when I asked him to (for better or worse, we had some tight spots due to my asking too early/too much), and generally slowed when I asked him, though he never really does the true Western lope--he prefers to galumph around the arena at the highest speed you'll let him.  Which for me is not too horridly fast--I've been too long schooled in Western Pleasure for that!  Coach says he went well for me which is good. 

I (and the Coach) found a great deal lacking in my posture however so now I am focusing on torturing myself by insisting that I keep a decent sitting position, especially at work.  :)  That should help matters.  And my core strength...sigh...well I work on it and it is better, I have to keep reminding myself. 

On Friday the grandparents are coming!  And I have no clue what to do with them!  Haha.  They've asked to see Fringe so we will go out like usual and I'll ride her if I can find a fuzzy girth (or if the Coach is there and I can persuade her to let me steal one of her rope girths), or do groundwork if I can't.  Annnd after that I have no idea.  Rusty is closer in a smaller pasture now and has a catch halter, so I just may go out after him.  Maybe I'll get the new project pony if the grandparents head home early and I feel like a long walk.  Or perhaps if I'm feeling very brave I shall hop on one of the team horses that's apparently been bucking lately.  Ha, the Coach might well spank me if she found that out, though she hasn't explicitly told me not to ride him.  Maybe I won't do that. 

Canter & Round Robin Lesson

Rode three horses yesterday in two hours, the Fringey and two others.  What happens when the Coach decides to play round robin with horses.  :)  I feel terrible though, Fringe was bolting off for no apparent reason towards the end of the ride but I discovered when I untacked her that she had girth sores on both sides, and one starting under the belly.  If that wasn't causing her behavior, it certainly wasn't helping it.  Ugh now I feel like a horrible person.  :-/  What I get for tacking up in a dark stall; next time I'll tie up at the hitching rack out in front where at least I can see even if it is 90-some-odd degrees.  Or at least stop at said hitching rack and give her a thorough once-over before going into the stall. 

Well we live and learn.  Cantered for the first time today and she did really well; had a little trouble with taking the wrong lead, but posting on the wrong diagonal up to the transition, and asking in the corners, got us back on the right track.  She has a quite nice canter.  Also the girl I was riding with got on Fringe toward the end and she was good for her also.  Apparently Fringe is becoming something of a favorite with the kids; all the better for her.  I guess people assumed if I could ride her, she must not be too bad.  Lol.  Though I will miss working with her all the time, I can still ride her if she hasn't been worked too much, and can do groundwork with her whenever I want.  I would like to get her started over poles and baby jumps on the long line but we'll see what Friday brings.  I now have about a million (okay, a dozen or so) horses I can work with, plus a new "project pony," so I have to choose my priorities more carefully! 

Also rode Tazz, an Arab gelding, and Tanner, another (suspected) Quarter Horse.  Tanner is a nice Western horse that gave me flashbacks to my three years in Michigan with trainer D.!  Except he jerks hard on the reins in canter if you're not careful.  Which me, being small and with not the best core strength in the world (though it is improving!), does not like.  But we worked with it and had a good ride.  Tazz I have ridden before and though he was being a bit more of a spoiled brat than before (i.e. kicking out whenever a request cut across his line of inclination), a bit of hard forward trot work with lots of patterns and variety got him thinking more along the lines of listening to me than of kicking out.  He could also use some back-to-basics work; however the equestrian team are the only ones supposed to be riding him.  I snuck on today by virtue of the round-robin nature of the lesson.  ;)

Planning for Friday groundwork and maybe a ride depending on how I'm feeling, who's there, and what's going on.  We'll see!

Random Soapbox Rant

It never ceases to amaze me, what people will do with animals.  Horses, in this instance.  Went over to a friend's house and went up to see the neighbor's horses, which she has been invited to ride whenever she wants (oh what I would give!...).  First I must say these are not cheap horses.  Though I don't feel at liberty to say what they are supposed to have cost, since I don't know but for hearsay, at least one of them is, not superly, outrageously expensive, but definitely more than your $1500 beginner horse.  There are two are fully trained, show-quality horses, and another little Pony of the Americas that could be brought along nicely with some work.   

But, the girl who owns them is at college.  Well now she's at home for the summer, but apparently has no time for the horses.  And I guess neither does anybody else.  My friend and I caught the POA and the 17+ hh Thoroughbred (I'm guessing the latter is the most expensive one) just for a groom and treat and turn-out again.  Both caked up in mud, matted and overgrown manes and tails, shedding like crazy (though this is half-way through July).  The TB had a nasty nick on his front pastern that hadn't had anything done to it, and was losing hair all over his back and hips for some reason or another, whether poor grooming or sunburn or something else I don't know. 

So I'm not super picky about turnout; the horses I've worked and ridden and learned on have pretty much all been pasture-boarded 24/7, so they get muddy and wet and sun-bleached and sweaty; I'm not one who always has to have manes pulled and tails just so and whites white and so on.  However.  If you're going to have horses, you should take the time to look them over and groom them up every so often, if for no other reason than to make sure they don't have cuts or nicks that could get infected, or random hair loss that might signal something nasty.  If you don't have the time for that, you certainly don't have time to ride, and you should really be thinking about whether you need a horse at all.  And unless you're some super famous person with an entourage of half a dozen grooms and assistants, you should be doing this yourself.  Or at the very least, checking to make sure it's done by whoever you ask to do it.  Not assuming that some parent or someone will take over for you just because you're busy. 

Yeah.  End of rant.  :)  Just bugs me to see beautiful, well-trained horses being pasture ornaments (and rather dirty ornaments at that) when they could be doing so much more. 

Sore Mouth & Another Horse

Yawn.  Man my back.  I joke that I need to find a chiropractor who will sponsor my 1,000-pound-college-backpack-carrying, desk-chair-sitting, awkward-jumping-horse-riding, sore-back-creating life.  Haven't found one yet.  Sadness.  But really? I canter (on the flat) a horse with a rocking sort of gait, and my back kills me the next day?  Something wrong with this. 

The Fringe has a sore mouth for some unexplainable reason (hopefully just a missing/loose tooth), so we rode yesterday in a hackamore.  Which was interesting.  She was really quite sensitive to it, which I'd much prefer to trying to pull through it, but bending/turning she didn't really get the idea too well.  Good thing she's starting to move off the leg.  But that meant we didn't canter as neither of us was extremely secure with this new-to-us contraption.  However, had a very nice groundwork session.

So instead at the end I traded horses with my riding lesson partner and rode Rusty, a big (okay, big compared to the little Arabs I've been riding) Paint Quarter Horse (well he looks like a QH anyway, I'm guessing).  Ha, obviously I don't know much about the critter.  In a dressage saddle.  Which was also interesting as though I've learned some basic dressage movements, I don't think I've ever done anything in a proper dressage saddle.  But.  He was pretty nice, very stiff though, something like a robot.  Did everything I asked (except canter on the correct lead unless I insisted) but didn't exactly have any sort of relaxation or flexibility.  Plus he is quite spooky on the ground.  I got permission to ride him too for free rides/groundwork.  I'd like to do some groundwork with him and see if I can persuade him that people on the ground are no worse than people in the saddle.  We'll see, I know there's at least one other student riding him regularly so I don't want to overwork him.  Presumably he's also quite hard to catch (what is this with giving me all the hard-to-catch horses to free ride?!  Does the Coach think I need more exercise? lol) but there are worse things in life.  The Coach will be gone Friday for a clinic, so I may or may not be riding the end of this week.

Randomness on Instructors

Ah lovely weather why must you have thunderstorms on the day I want to have lesson in the evening??

That is tomorrow by the way, not today.  So may yet turn out fine.

I think everyone who rides has people who have influenced their riding in one way or another.  Trainers, instructors, family, maybe people we've never met, but whose books we've read or whose DVDs we've watched. 

The four instructors I've had so far, in somewhere around seven years of more-or-less-regular riding, have each had their place in my learning.  Oh some of them weren't perfect for sure, but you learn things from everyone.  Por ejemplo (for example):

• D., my first instructor, judge, trainer, coach, champion Paint Horse breeder.  The person who starts you, who sets that foundation--they can either ruin you or bring out your full potential.  She definitely did the latter.  Even if she never really seemed to want me to jump, and allowed my English riding to look horribly Western (lol, no offense to Western, but it looks bad in an English saddle!), she brought me along to the point where, in stock seat, I believed I could ride pretty much anything short of a rodeo bronc.  She introduced me to training, to groundwork, to harnessing my energy and using it to direct the horse.  
• K., my second instructor, a college student getting a traditional degree after attending an equine school.  She spent most of her six-months-to-a-year with me fixing my English seat on the flat, but also managed to drill into my head that "Riders are athletes" and the importance of taking care of my physical fitness if I intended to be a good rider.  Plus setting a foundation of rhythm and relaxation around horses--something I still try to practice.
• S., third instructor, ex-Army girl, graduate of the same equine school as K., getting her masters' degree.  I spent two years with her before realizing that our personalities simply didn't match, and that that was causing riding to be more of a stressor than anything.  But she introduced me to jumping and settled my English seat both on the flat and over jumps. 
• The current Coach (whose name also starts with K, therefore the change to avoid confusion!)-- well, we joke she hasn't been to the Olympics, but she's done almost everything else.  What can I say.  So far, in six months, she has managed to rehab my confidence level, attitude, old-fashioned saddle "stickiness," and gotten me truly passionate about horses again.  All of which I thought were gone for good.  I love this lady!  

They've all taught me a lot though.  Some taught me mostly positive lessons; others taught me "what not to do."  Other random people have taught me one or the other also.  I guess it's a matter of learning what you can when you can, one way or the other.  And, of course, trying to be a positive teacher yourself.

Now let's hope it doesn't rain tomorrow evening!

Coming In

She's coming to me! 

Okay that is the exciting thing from today's groundwork session, that and the Triumph Over the Evil Tractor, which I shall write about later.  :)  The Fringey does not really like to come in to people's space.  Which is nice because she's never running all over you.  But even when you ask. . . she never comes; just stands there and looks at you.  Seems to reflect a bit of her insecurity about people in general.  Today we were doing some free lungeing/circling game at liberty down at the round pen and I had asked her to stop and turn in; however she only about half turned and was being somewhat stubborn, and me having left my lunge whip in the center of the arena (forgetful as usual), I couldn't push her rear out without physically nudging her over which I didn't want to do at the moment.  So I decide to try this over again and turn around to head back for the whip.  And what does she do but fall in and start following me to the center!  Whoa, wait, forget whip!  Good horse! 

Lol, strange things happen from mistakes.  She came in several times thereafter, usually not all the way (unless I turned and walked away and simultaneously clucked at her.  Guess she gets that that means "move."  We'll try and phase it out so she understands the body language as well), but it doesn't matter as on Tuesday she wouldn't come in to either me or the Coach, and today she is coming. 

Plus yes, we saw the Evil Tractor, which had not only its tractor-ie self, but also its forklift attachment raised way up high, and a trailer; and with some walking around, looking at the tractor, turning to see an escape route, and general practice being calm, we learned that said Tractor just drives on by and doesn't do anything dangerous.  Without any bolting or craziness.  Very productive 45 minutes, altogether.  :)  And now we are cleared to canter, officially!

Fringe 3rd Lesson

Well when they say Firefox isn't supported by Blogger any more, they mean it; now it's doing all sorts of crazy things to me and of course, the "only" fix is to try Google Chrome.  Trying to get a monopoly on me much??

Groundwork and riding this morning bright and early and Fringe's foot soreness is disappearing!  YAY!  We could trot on the gravel footing today without getting lame and that is quite good news!  So we went in the round pen and I learned how to do Circling Game appropriately, plus a bit of Yo-Yo, and we worked some at-liberty-more-or-less (meaning were not brave enough to take off the halter altogether!).  Tacked up untied too, which is something of a challenge as Fringe usually gets a little edgy when it comes time to saddle up.  But she did quite well.  Then off to walk-trot mounted and went nicely.  Practiced over some trot poles and worked on the basics of lengthening/shortening stride (mostly meaning speeding up/slowing down as we don't have the skills yet to truly lengthen and shorten strides).  And we have the promise from Coach that around next lesson, barring something going wrong, we should be able to canter!

On other news, first real spook today.  We were having a little cool-down walk/trot around the outside of the (outdoor) arena and all the mares came running in from the field.  Well Fringe thought that was a little strange but I was just thinking she was just going to keep going and looking at them sideways and all big-eyed when whoof she was off!  Lol.  Not very far though and after bringing her back she did mostly settle down.  It was a good experience though as she has steadfastly refused to spook for me so far and Coach wanted me to feel it.

Hopefully I'll get over there again on Friday.  It's so hot these days, I can't really go after work on other days, but I get off at noon on Friday, so try to make it to the barn.  :)  Happy Fourth to U.S. people and Happy Canada Day (late) to our northern neighbors!

Introduction: Fringe

No, I have no pictures.  'Tis what happens when you ride without significant others or family members hanging around with cameras.  I could link up to the website but the pictures there hardly do her justice, they make her look rather fat (she's not) and ugly (not that either).  Someday the grandparents will come, and then we will likely get pictures of some horse or another (no guarantee who) and yours truly.

Fringe (On The Fringe) is a three-to-four-year-old chestnut Arabian mare.  Like most of our horses around the barn, she was bred as a race prospect; but she is one of the "flunkies."  You realize that the moment you get on her.  She--well, let's just say she does not feel like a racehorse.  :)  That's okay, we don't want her to be one any more.  She is really a sweet, loveable, gentle little horse, but currently has her issues as they all do.

Her biggest need right now is basic desensitization to a lot of things, and that's pretty much where I come in (as a college student who theoretically has more time to spend with her).  She is particularly sensitive to anything touching or striking her hip/flank area, though she's come a long way with that and will now let me rub her hip all over with my hand or a curry or lunge whip/carrot stick.  Sometimes she's also been a bit claustrophobic under saddle, though I haven't felt that much in the short time I've been on her.  Right now her feet are sore and have been for the past couple weeks, so we are only doing gentle walk/trot and groundwork.  Umm...so yes that's Fringe.  My first "project" horse.  And I must say--I'm excited! :)

Last week

Last week with Fringe I had a mounted lesson Tuesday morning and then went over Friday afternoon to do some ground work.  I must admit just walk-trot are getting a bit old (lol) but her feet continue to be sore so we can't canter.  She has such a nice way of carrying herself, really it was the first thing that struck me when I first saw her under saddle.  Anyway lesson was good and we stopped early to put her in the trailer a few times since it was sitting up by the barn empty.  Really she is quite a brave little pony; she went from huffing and blowing at the trailer with her eyes all the size of saucers, to hopping in and out a little cautious, but not too worried, and not dragging me out when it was time to get out of the thing, all in around 15 minutes.  Good girl. 

Friday afternoon it was somewhere around 107 degrees and I must admit I thought myself crazy driving over to the barn in such heat.  However I went in the pasture and Fringe actually let me walk up and catch her in around 5 minutes!  Yay!  I know it'd be ideal to have her coming to me, but hey, we work step at a time.  This girl is very tough to catch so it says something about her ability to trust me that she'll let me walk up to her like that.  (Even with grain, hehe). 

Let Coach go home since she'd been outside running camp all day, and went down to the shade to work on Parelli 7 Games.  Ha.  More like me working on the Games since it's been approximately five or six years since I actually had the chance to try them out.  Poor Fringe. . . however it went better than I thought it might.  I most certainly need to refine my skills, but I think I've got the general ideas. There's a lot to work on, however I already made notes on that.

Tomorrow we ride again, first thing (aka 7:00), and going to ask for an official demonstration of how to do this groundwork stuff, so I can see just how badly I stink at it.  :)  Someday I should steal the Brother's best friend's video camera so I can review when I'm working by myself.  We'll see. 

Le Beginning

. . . well, it begins so far back, I don't know if it's worth it to retrace all the steps in between.  We'll get there.  Let's just say that sometime around age 6 I caught the "horse bug" and decided about at that moment that this was not going to be just a passing stage, as some informed me it would be.

Nearly fourteen years later--the bug is still there and growing stronger with every day at the barn and elsewhere.

I returned to riding this past December after a two-and-a-half-year break (more later regarding that) and am currently beginning a sort of assistant trainer position with the beloved new Coach.  First project is a greenbroke ex-racehorse Arabian mare, Fringe.  This is more of a project to keep myself updated than anything else, but if anybody is interested in my ponderings, they're more than welcome to listen in.