Happy Valentine's Day, Saps

Today was a whirlwind day.  Between an impending snowstorm (that eventually fell through) and some crazy life drama, I came home from work and really just wanted to crash on the couch.  In fact, I was all set to do just that when I thought, nope.  I have to see my Valentine.

And he was waiting for me with his velvety soft nose to give me kisses.  I mean, who needs a man when you can have this:

Me and my Valentine

I hope you all got to be with your loved ones today - horsey or otherwise!

PS: I found out today that I passed the bar exam.  I guess I might end up a lawyer after all.  Thank god.  'Cuz lord knows my Valentine ain't cheap.

Just another day at the looney factory

On Sunday I wasn't really feeling good, but I felt compelled to go to the barn.  I decide, you know what, I'm going to just get on my horse without lunging.

I love my horse for being the kind of horse that you can do that with.  While everyone cautioned again and again that this was a horrible plan since the horses have been a little wild lately, I just threw my leg over and Walker ambled off at a turtle speed.

Let's be honest.  The one time this horse has ever been fresh, he had been on stall rest for 9 months.

Gorby Guts devouring his apples

We worked a lot on lateral moves as I had promised and also on circles.  Although I'm happy with how forward he has been going large, he loses impulsion in the corners and on circles.  So we worked on a 20 metre circle to remedy that.

The circle also gave me the chance to work on lateral movements because I constantly had to leg yield him in or out to stay consistently on the circle.  He was ok but not as light as I wanted him.

We also worked on actual leg yields.  I was really happy going right - like I wish I had videotaped it happy.  Going left was a whole lot of just crossing the diagonal and screw the leg yield.  Meh.  Next time.

Then the lady who I have been helping brought her horse into the arena.  She started lunging while I was riding, and her crazy ex-racehorse standardbred mare managed to rip free of its halter and took off careening around the arena.

No big deal.  Just an angry Walker-hater mare galloping at us with its teeth bared while I'm riding my horse and its owner is chasing after it.

Once again, I say: "Thank god I have a sensible horse".  His response to this was like, "What is wrong with that mare" and continued on about his business until I got to a place where I could dismount safely (i.e. not be run over) and help her catch the horse.

Just another day.

PS: Check out Hillary's contest.  I want soap.

A Case of the Mondays (and Tuesdays)

Monday Walker was still a little winded, so we had a short ride, all trot, no canter.

On Tuesday, in an effort to nip this in the butt, I decided to lunge him and then ride bareback.  I knew that if I rode bareback, I wouldn't work him as hard because I would be working myself much harder so that I didn't fall off.

We did a little jogging and some cantering.  Nothing too exciting.  It has been awhile since I've done any bareback work, and needless to say, my body was feeling the burn pretty fast.

On Wednesday we got our weekly snow storm.  I'm not even kidding.  It has snowed every Wednesday for about a month.

Saturday I rode again with the lady I helped out last week.  We rode together this time, and I encouraged her to trot for almost 30 minutes (which is about 20 minutes longer than last week, and 30 minutes longer than she would have trotted on her own).

When we were done our ride, she told me that she loved riding with me and that I gave her the confidence she needed.  Which made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  Then she gave Walker an apple as a treat and I'm sure he felt all warm and fuzzy inside too.

Walker didn't work that hard on Saturday because I was trying to make sure that we weren't in her way, but after she left the arena, I did a little cantering to see where he was at with the huffing and puffing.  Three circles going large in each direction was enough to have him puffing, but I can't forget that I also lunged him hard before we rode.  He has always been one to pant while he canters anyway.

The three (well, six) circles was a good baseline though.  Perhaps I'll use that to help increase his fitness level, if that's really the problem.  I am starting to think it's a combination of still being out of shape (which is understandable since he's only been back to consistent work for a month or so) and also the weather.  It has been fluctuating a lot here.

Now I'm off to the barn again today.  I'd like to get him as responsive off the leg laterally as he has become going forward.  Dare I dream!

Lazy Crazy

Walker was lazy crazy on Sunday.  I can't explain it other than that I put him on the lunge line, and he was completely fine - not fresh, not contrary, nothing.  But every so often, for random reasons I couldn't explain, he would take off like a rocket ship, buck or do something mustang-like, and then totally go back to jogging like a WP horse.  

Under saddle, he was panting to the point that I was nervous.  At one point, he actually took a giant intake of breath as we were cantering - we had, after all, cantered one half of the arena.

  

He's definitely out of shape, but I don't recall him panting this hard the other day.  He only got a couple days off.  Usually he breathes heavy at the canter (because lord knows how hard it is to do work), but then calms down once we slow down.  On Sunday he continued to breathe heavy after I stopped cantering and was really puffing during our forward trot session.

Needless to say, I only rode for about 25 minutes because it seemed imprudent to push too much.  Maybe it was just a fluke or the warmer weather.  I'll have to keep an eye on it.

I also ended up giving an impromptu riding lesson on Sunday.  Because lord knows I'm oh so qualified for that (*imagine that said with extreme sarcasm).

One of the ladies wanted to get on her horse and didn't want to be alone in the arena, even though we were all in the barn.  To give you context: she is just a beginner rider and owns a four year old off the track (although never raced) standardbred which she acquired greenbroke as a two or three year old and who has had one year of professional training.

Need I say more?

To the horse's credit, I actually think she's fairly beginner-safe, but she's extremely forward, which really isn't this lady's thing.  She takes lessons on another horse and is very diligent with her groundwork, but she doesn't ride her very much.  

She's also the heartless wretch mare that beats up Walker in the field.  She has attitude a plenty.

In terms of helping her out, I think she really just wanted reassurance that the horse wasn't going to freak out or take off if she squeezed her legs too tightly.  Of course, my response to every slight misbehaviour is "boot her!" which she does not do.  But I did help her get her trotting a bit around the arena, which she seemed appreciative of.  A good ride for all, I guess.

Missed a Spot

When I moved into my apartment in May, I was most excited about the storage room.  Why?  Because I was going to turn it into a tack room extraordinaire!

And I did.  In fact, for months, the rest of my apartment stayed a disaster while my tack room was pristine.

After I wrote the bar, my mom came to visit, and she pretty much cleaned and organized everything in my apartment.  Everything but my tack room of course.  And for good reason.  Because it looked like this:

Which is me saying that I think I have a day of cleaning/organizing ahead of me soon.  

In other news, my ride on Wednesday was a success.  I decided to scrap all the bad vibes that came out of Tuesday and just work on something completely different.  I decided that while I am super excited about how forward he is getting off my leg, he is still being lazy about his lateral movements off my leg.  Forward, yes.  Sideways, no.  There's still a whole lot of kicking going on.

Ironically enough, I did not necessarily solve these problems but ended up solving my problems from Tuesday.  Isn't that always how it goes?  Because my brain was focused on something else entirely, I was able to get Walker to canter nicely in both directions, although of course the weakness persists slightly to the right.  

I'm actually so happy with Walker's progression.  There was a time when you would have to kick at every stride with big Western spurs on to get this horse to move his butt.  Now I can gently drape my legs on his side and he will go.  It's so easy to get caught up in the next step in your training that you don't realize all the progress you've made so far.  

So cheers to Walker.  He drives me to drink, but perhaps he doesn't get enough praise for being a totally awesome, incredibly intelligent, level-headed and lovable pony.  And he's cute to boot!

PS: Don't forget to check out SheMovesToTexas for her breeches giveaway.  Apparently it is unacceptable to wear breeches to the grocery store :P

Ebb and Flow

On Tuesday I spent two hours at the barn - a half hour lunging, an hour riding, and a half hour working with a feed bag.

Walker was pretty calm on the lunge line which I took as a good sign.  Consistent work is always a blessing.

My ride was not so good.  I got all caught up in the good thing I had going in my last ride and tried to push it too far.  Lately I've been noticing that his right lead canter simply isn't up to snuff - like there's a weakness there.  I kept trying to get him to push through it, so he became vocal (i.e. he threw a couple well placed bucks).  I was also trying to get him to put his head up so totally my fault - trying to work on too many things at one time and also pushing too hard.  I can always count on Walker to let me know when he's not cool with what we're doing.

Butt shot.
The only horse on the planet who continues to get fatter in Winter.

After that, I worked with the feed bag.  One of the girls at the barn was trying to get the horse she was riding to walk over a feed bag as part of the desensitization training they do in the Program.  Since Walker's only fear is bags, I decided that it probably couldn't hurt to finally introduce the concept to him.  I know, I know.  I've been lazy.  And avoiding it.

I was actually quite proud of him in one regard.  We managed to have our entire ride in the arena while this girl flipped this bag through the air and while her horse freaked out over it.  Luckily, the sound wasn't that audible and Walker doesn't really feed off the fear of other animals.  For a brief second I thought that maybe he wouldn't be afraid of the bag when I got it out, but nope.  He was not impressed.

We started out with him not wanting to be within 10 feet of it, but by the end of the half hour, I got him to stand at the edge of it and sometimes step on the corners by accident.  I consider this a win.

Meanwhile, the other girl spent an hour and a half working on this.  I kid you not.  I applaud her determination, but there comes a point when you need to give in.  That horse was not going over that bag.  I told her to quit while she was ahead, but she was of the mind that she was not "ahead" since she had gotten the horse over the bag every day this week.  

She told me that she's a firm believer in the adage that most people quit just as they're about to succeed. I disagree - at least in this circumstance.  There comes a point where you do more harm than good, at least in my lowly opinion.  And as a person with my own phobia (needles - let that be the last time that word is ever spoken on this blog), I told her straight up that if she had put me through that, she would have only made things worse.  

But to each their own.  I guess you have to know the horse you're dealing with.  If there's one thing I do not do, it's judge other horse people.  Of course, I have no problem with judging idiot non-equestrians :)

Transitions

I once had an instructor who insisted that every time I halt my horse, I back him up.  He wanted the horses to get into the habit of rocking back on their haunches instead of falling into a sloppy halt.  That was back when I was a kid so that was all “whatever” for me, but on Sunday during my ride, I decided that this might be a good lesson for Walker.

 

On Sunday, I worked on being forward again with a lot of upward transitions, but this time I worked on some downward transitions to accompany them.  There was a lot of halt, back up, walk/trot/canter off, halt, back up, etc.

 

I used to do things like this a lot, but I was actually really impressed with Mr. “I live on my forehand”.  Most of the time, the upward transition from the halt was kind of whatever, but of course I was looking more for an immediate reaction than anything else.

 

Then two beautiful times when I asked for a canter, he launched into a nice, actually collected (or at the very least, connected) canter - not heavy on the forehand at all.

 

Don’t get me wrong.  Each time lasted for literally one stride, at which point he promptly said, “Yeah.  This is a lot of work”, but I was excited all the same. 

 

First of all, I wasn’t intending to work on this since my goal was just to get him to shoot off my leg like a rocket ship.  This just proves the power of transitions.

 

Secondly, I have only ever achieved that kind of beauty when Walker was feeling like a nutjob (and was thus extremely forward, almost uncontrollably so).  As far as I can remember, this is the only time where he was feeling normal that I have gotten him to really use his big butt in that way.

 

Finally, he is out of shape so I’m content with the single stride a couple of times.  I read blogs and articles about horses losing weight during the Winter and all that, but not my porker.  He’s as round as a bus and contentedly so.  He puffs like an old man when we canter and loses steam pretty fast.  But oh well, that’s what getting back to work is all about.

 

The moral of the story: the upward and downward transitions go hand in hand. The key to one is the other. In my humble opinion, at least.