7 Habits

http://watapama.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/the-ten-habits-of-highly-effective-dressage-riders/

It says dressage riders, but I think it applies to everyone. Some thoughts for life in general, too. ;)

Untitled Post :)

Nothing incredibly new on the horse front. :) Apparently instructor D either forgot or decided not to watch us ride on Wednesday, so the girls and I were all by ourselves while her lessons worked in the big pasture and the jump arena. So I put in 45 minutes on Rhapsody, with a nice long walk warm up, a lot of trot, and some canter transitions. I started letting her reach down a fair ways, then gently holding the reins with an elastic contact, and frequently she stayed there "on" the bit (not really on the bit, but accepting it nicely) for several strides. Also discovered that her canter is "lofty" and free-moving enough that I may have been accidentally letting her canter on the wrong lead--just glancing down, you see front hooves on both sides! Oops! Of course I should be able to just feel for the leads, but I can't always. I make excuses that she's too unbalanced, and that's true, but still. I need to improve my feel for both diagonals and leads. But, first of all, make sure she's going on the right lead to begin with! We don't want to start bad habits on both our parts!

Rhapsody did, however, get a nice compliment from my friend R, who although two years younger than me, is a much better rider (or I think he is anyway), and a trainer in his own right. So I was pleased with that. I'm tickled to bits with her progress, but it's nice to hear that other people can see it too! I wonder if that trot will ever get old. I suppose when we "harness" her canter, that will be pretty amazing too, but right now it's a ways from getting harnessed in any way. ;) Think warhorse Arabian thundering across desert sands--flagging tail and all. Hehe silly goose. For now we ride it, and play with half-halts. Happily she just likes to go, and so we have almost no problems with bucking or otherwise goofing off in canter.

Surge got some groundwork and was very good until she spooked and then decided to put on her best snorty-fiery-halter-horse impersonation. Heh. So I turned her loose in the empty arena and told her to get it out of her system. She gallumphed around a bit, snorting at me whenever she stopped (why at me, silly girl, I'm not the one who spooked you!) and then I caught her and we did a bit more groundwork and went up to the barn without running over anyone. I'm still on the fence about how to best get her to calm down--whether to encourage her to run and goof off and get it out of her system (when possible of course), or to focus on calm, steady, "staying-still" work. I'll just have to experiment with it I guess. Probably some of both and I'll just have to figure out how much is too much on either count. Finding things to really keep her mind busy would help too I think.

New Challenge

Instructor D said that she would like to see me ride Rhapsody and Surge on Wednesday, and possibly take some pictures for Rhapsody's sale ads. (Boo... :'( lol) Me being me, I promptly freaked out that the girls would turn into crazy monsters on Wednesday, so yesterday (Monday) I did a "dry run," pulling them both out and hopping on without groundwork or any other such thing besides a thorough grooming.

Rhapsody lived up to her recent loveliness and was a star. We had a nice relaxed walk and quite a lot of stretchy"ish" trot. I'm going to have to start picking her nose up a little before she rubs it raw dragging it in the dirt! ;) Canter is still a work in progress; she knows not to scoot into it like she's leaving the starting gate, but she doesn't know how to transition to canter without scooting. So right now she trots incredibly fast for a long, long time, and then canters rather awkwardly and can't sustain it. Lol. We'll be working on those trot-canter transitions a lot more now that her trot is solid and relaxed. Also I need to work on giving to the bit and backing up. She doesn't back much and I think that's an important skill every horse should be able to do some at least. And she needs to learn to change "gears" in canter, instead of just going as fast as she possibly can. So lots to work on, but she is being really lovely about it.

Surge however is going to be my new challenge. :) She was okay at walk and trot--not relaxed per se, but not scooty or spooky--so I asked for a canter. She transitioned, took about two strides, and promptly bucked. Then she threw her head down, snaked it around, and kicked out/bucked some more before I grabbed her and informed her no mas of that.  (Prior to that I was focused on staying on! lol) I brought her down to a trot, waited till she was a bit more relaxed, and tried again--same result. So I hopped off and lunged her to see if it was me doing something--nope, same thing. And I remembered that she'd done the same things without any tack on, so it wasn't a tack fit issue. Well well fun times. I got back on and did some more walk/trot without too much of an incident (just snaking her head around once or twice) and called it a day. Decided if instructor D wants to see her cantered on Wednesday, I can lunge her or D is quite welcome to canter her herself! ;)

Still pondering the best way to respond to that. A martingale of course is a quick fix for the head tossing, and I may yet do that just to help me stay on. But really she is just "pushing" me in all kinds of ways, in the saddle and out, so I think I need to do a lot more groundwork and walk/trot and work on respecting me. And forward work. She was occasionally balking at moving out even in trot. So we'll see just how to implement those ideas.  Thoughts welcome. :) For myself, my stupid lower leg was all over the place yesterday. Argh! I tend to lean towards a "chair seat" and my leg has a mind of its own I believe. I need some good two-point, standing in the stirrups, and no-stirrups posting trot to get it back in control!

Week's Rides

I have no idea why Blogger has decided I only want one post at a time on my blog! So frustrating!

Okay. For the training diaries. Last Friday I was feeling quite meh because of my sickness plus it was frigid cold. So I stayed home. This week though I have been out twice and hopefully going out again tomorrow. Monday it was frigid cold anyways! Felt like Christmas and my fingers just about came off!

However I did get quick rides in on Rhapsody and Surge, and a fair bit of groundwork with Surge. She was hyper and super distracted and all she wanted to do was gallop around, throw her head around, and stick her nose over the round pen to scream for her old friend in the next pasture over (who she never was really friends with anyways). Arrgh mares. However with a lot of groundwork on respecting and listening to me, she settled down to the point where I felt comfortable getting on and walking her round, bending both directions, and getting off. Must say I'm rather proud of myself for being able to work her through that. :) Rhapsody was very good; we did walk and trot and though she wasn't as relaxed and stretchy as last time, we still got some nice intermittent trot stretches and went by some scary things--the mounting block where it wasn't supposed to be, people walking around by the arena, and a clipboard on the side of the arena with papers blowing--with nothing more than a sidewise look and an attempt to give them a wide berth. She tried hard in a distracting environment and I was proud of her. 

Wednesday was much warmer (thank heavens) and I just rode Fringe as I (thought I) had an evening appointment. Instructor D was giving a showmanship lesson, so staying out of the way of that kept us busy. We still managed some nice walk/trot work though, and then we went on a trail ride out almost to the river. Fringe was very good and only got nervous on the way back when one of the little girls was playing in the run-in sheds and chute area alongside the road. Can't say I really blame her for not being sure of that. We worked through it and she was good.  Tomorrow it's back to Rhapsody and Surge again, provided it doesn't rain!

Rhapsody Is a Superstar!

Annnd if Blogger will cooperate I took pictures! :)

It's spring break and I have gotten permission to ride pretty much whenever I want, so I headed out early this afternoon to ride or work as many ponies as I could find.

Spring is in the air and the trees are flowering even though it was snowing over the weekend. Lol. Today it was nice and warm and partly sunny though--really felt like spring!

The barn cats got all excited when they saw my car, and as soon as I got out they came trotting over and proceeded to get thoroughly jealous of each other despite the fact that I was petting both of them at the same time! Gotta love the felines... :P

 This is Rafik (well I think that's his name). I call him Rocky. He lives in one of the pastures on the way down to Rhapsody's field. Isn't he the cutest thing? He wanted to investigate my camera.  :) I would take him as a project horse in a heartbeat except that he's owned by a boarder who probably doesn't even know I exist!

 This is a rather bad picture of the girls; they never like to put their ears up at the same time! Rhapsody is far left and Surge on the right. Rhapsody got all prick-eared when she saw me coming to the pasture and headed right over to me, along with Cairo and Surge, yay! I was careful to pet her and "ask" before I haltered her, and she was quite easy to catch today. Surge too, though I don't have to ask her opinion on much...I already know it usually. Lol. I also caught Fringe, mostly to clean her up and make sure her rain rot doesn't recur.

 Grooming time was fun! I ended up with dust all over my eyes, in my nose, and a "dust mustache" on my lip! Ahh springtime. You can see in this picture that Rhapsody was still dusty even after a thorough grooming. And they are all starting to shed!

I took Rhapsody out first since I wanted to have time to do groundwork and ride her. This is my new cheapo rope halter. I wanted to get a picture of how nice the green looks on her, but it was a bit hard as she was being "Velcro pony" and wouldn't get far enough away for me to take a picture!

Our groundwork was great and the ride even better! I took a very light contact (usually I keep a fairly firm hold on her mouth) and stuck a couple fingers in the martingale strap for the sake of hanging on, and she walked round like a trooper, not getting worried or startled except when we unexpectedly came upon a tire sitting in the middle of our path. But that startled me a bit too. I hopped off and we worked with it on the ground, and soon she decided it wasn't to be bothered about.

There was also a new mare in the quarantine pasture running round, screaming from time to time, and acting like a nut. This is of course always somewhat worrying, but to Rhapsody in the past it would've been cause for an all-out nervous breakdown. She was still looky and a bit worried, but listened well and paid attention even so. We did a lot of walk, a fair bit of trot, and some big patterns--circles and figure 8's. Patterns seem to help her relax and start thinking. There were several moments where she really seemed to tune in and begin to "read my mind" as I would think about a move and she would begin it before I thought I'd given any cues! I asked for a little canter at the end, and for once she didn't want to canter! She seemed stiff and didn't get into her usual rhythm at canter, so I didn't push it. We ended with some more walk, pets, and I told her what a good girl she was. Very, very pleased with today!

I did some groundwork with Surge--she still seemed a tiny bit sore and, unlike her buddy, was extremely worried about the new mare--and took all the girls back out. So proud of Rhapsody today! She will get a day off tomorrow, groundwork Wednesday, and hopefully another ride on Friday. Surge will get the week off till Friday, and I'll try to ride Brandi and Fringe on Wednesday. We'll see how that goes!

Learning to Listen...Again!

Well I tried to post earlier today but Blogger was being weird so I gave up. This time I'll leave off all the nice entertaining photos and maybe it'll be better! This is a long post by the way, and no photos because of Blogger's stupidness.  Sad. ;(

I think Rhapsody deserves a better trainer than yours truly. Lol. However she is a very good human-trainer in her own right; I guess we all need the horses that teach us things!

I went out to the barn on Friday and after a little go-round (Rhapsody is still by no means an easy catch) got both Rhapsody and Surge and headed up to the barn.  Well it wasn't that easy. We met the Pony-Eating Gator of Death on the way.  

That was rather a terrifying experience; however Surge was an unexpected trooper so I only had one freaking-out pony. Good girl Surge! On getting to the barn, I belatedly realized I'd left all my stuff (including my rope halter) in the car by the back pasture. Ugh. So I decided to tack up Rhapsody, since she'd been ridden on Thursday, trail ride her to the back pasture, let her go, and drive the car back.  This sounded good except that I forgot two important things.

1. I was still rather tense and emotionally upset from some happenings earlier in the day.
2. Rhapsody despises any kind of pressure, including goal-oriented, high-energy focus that doesn't take her worries into consideration. She's getting much better with this, but I still need to be careful. I know this, but I forgot big-time.

So the whole time I was tacking up I got this sort of look from Rhapsody:

 I was not smart enough to listen however. But then I had my second belated realization--there was nobody around.  Now I may be stupid but I'm not so stupid as to trail ride this horse to the back 40 when no one's in sight. So I pulled off all the tack and decided to do something else. Rhapsody, however, staged a passive revolt. I returned to the stall and what do I see but that she has turned straight around and all I can see is her rear end!

She wasn't eating, wasn't looking out the window--she had her head in the corner and her hiney to me and her whole posture and ear set said plain as could be, "You are being a tense, obnoxious idiot and I refuse to have anything to do with you!"

Oops. 

I coerced her out from the corner with the promise of grain and decided to have a relaxed day. We went out to the arena, did some catching work (with grain treats), and played with the rope around her neck and shoulders--she was starting to get spooky of it again, ugh. Went well, but not much relaxation on her part, though she seemed to have forgiven me at least to a degree.

Then I decided I needed some horse cuddles. Rhapsody is not the usual sort of horse you cuddle with, but she was what I had, so I started scratching her neck and then rested my face against her neck and relaxed, breathed, and tried to "feel" where she was at mentally. 

Almost right off she started licking and chewing--and kept it up for a long time! Then she yawned and yawned and yawned, and licked and chewed some more, and yawned some more, and chewed, and dropped her head way down so that my head was almost on top of her neck! She relaxed her posture, curved her head and neck in toward me a little, and just stayed there. I was astonished to say the least, as I hadn't asked her to do any of this and in fact hadn't even been sure whether she would stand still for me to get that up-close-and-personal with her. We stayed there for a bit, until I stood up and thanked her; then she started grazing. She never, ever grazes in the arena or with a halter and lead on! I just relaxed and we stood there a while until I got cold and she got distracted; then we headed back up to the barn and Surge. 

A very sweet experience though, and reminded me that I have to listen to this horse. She will not take it otherwise. However, that's just what makes her such a good teacher!

Well congratulations to anyone making it to the end of this great epistle. On another note, anybody know anything about endurance? It sounds fun and like a good low-key experience to me, and I think Rhapsody would be good at it, so I'm looking into it but can't find much. Any comments or ideas are welcome! :)