In Which a Strategem is Discovered

The third blog post in a row! (Well, fourth, if you count the video I posted today). This whole blogging thing may well be verging on becoming a habit. In the spirit of learning from yesterday's lessons, I changed up my approach to my rides today. Since I had to run to the grocery store, and was rather tired today, I was sorely tempted just to ride one horse or the other.

At least, until I remembered something L taught me at the clinic this weekend: A riding session doesn't have to be an hour long. You can go as little as 20 minutes as long as you go in with a plan, and are focused. That's exactly what I did, and it worked really well.

As is my usual preference, I rode Shadow first. The plan was to work on my hands, and keep Shadow stretching in the walk and trot. That's it. forcing myself to only concentrate on two things seems to have been the magic bullet. While I was more conscious of Shadow stretching and me keeping my hands up, it seemed that the other elements of my positioning that I need to fix just sort of fell into place. Moreover, I noticed that when things would fall out of place I could feel when it became "wrong". I would then quickly divert my attention to fixing the issue, and then go back to stretching Shadow and watching my hands. I did spiral in/spiral out on the circle, leg yield, voltes with lengthening and shortening strides and a little bit of shoulder in. They weren't all perfect by any means, but Shadow was very willing, and did a good job of stretching when asked. There are two questions about stretching that I want to ask a trainer the next time I'm in front of one.

1. When Shadow will stretch, after a couple of steps, he'll pick up his head and take away contact. Is that a strength thing, or an evasion?
2. At what point do I start putting more emphasis on getting him to come round on contact?

For my ride with Ziggy, I decided I would devote my focus to my ever-present core problem, since Ziggy will stretch and come round without any problems, and I was kind of bored with concentrating on my hands. Happily, my hands mostly behaved themselves. Keeping my core engaged went pretty well at the walk, but at the trot it was pretty hit and miss, and more miss than hit. Ziggy has a much bouncier trot than Shadow, which is one of the reasons why I decided to work the core thing on Ziggy. I figure, if I'm doing it right, when Ziggy's trot gets particularly bouncy, I'll be able to actually *sit* it, and not flop all over the saddle. The good news is, I did have a few flashes of brilliance, and although I wasn't always able to do anything about it, it was readily apparent to me when I was doing things wrong.

Once, when I had a pretty good trot going, I tried a canter transition on the right lead, and just got a unbalanced, strung-out trot. I then remembered that:

• Ziggy is 24.
• Ziggy is a Thoroughbred
• Ziggy has arthritic changes in his right hock.

It was about then that 2 and 2 added up to 4 and I recognized that our best chance for success was to start the canter on the left lead. After putting the trot back together and changing rein, I gathered him up and asked for canter again. It sort of worked. I did get a pretty good uphill canter, but he snuck in a few steps of trot, which I think was me not being clear enough with the lift of my inside seat bone. The actual canter was really nice. My core stayed engaged, and I played a bit with extending and shortening strides, and even got a bit of leg yield in.

A few times when I shortened the strides, I forgot to use my legs to keep impulsion going, and predictably, Ziggy dropped into a trot. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I learned or, more accurately, internalized something that I've known has been a problem for pretty much as long as I've been riding. On my downward transitions, my shoulders hunch and I curl forward, which makes my lower back arch, and me a hot damn mess in the saddle. I've been hearing it in lessons and from Cash's mom for years, but tonight was the first time I was able to consciously feel, analyze and internalize the transition from everything going well, to falling apart. In an attempt to capitalize on the new information, I picked up the canter again, and re-attempted the downward transition. This time, I felt things falling apart, and was able to at least put my shoulders back into position before becoming a hot damn mess. I wanted to try it again, but by this point, I was pretty much out of light, and it'd been a quite successful ride, so I called it a night, and will focus more on my downward canter transition when I ride Zigs tomorrow.

So That's Where the Eggs Have Been

I have been lax in my blogging duties of late. I rode yesterday, and didn't blog about it. Without further ado, I shall make amends for this transgression. After a very good phone interview(I have another one with the same company tomorrow), I ran outside and tacked Ziggy up. Since I was in such a good mood, I decided that I'd do some jumping. Like I usually do, I set up one jump on a flat approach and another one on an uphill approach.

For a warmup, I took Zigs for a quick walk around the neighborhood. I guess our clearances came through when I wasn't paying attention, because the dogs in the neighborhood were nice enough to allow us to pass by without challenge. The only thing I had trouble with while we were out in the neighborhood is that Zigs always wants to counter-flex, and keep an eye on what's going on on the other side of us. Fortunately, that was pretty easily solved with some half-halts. I'm getting really good at those at the walk. He still blows them off at the trot and canter. I'm not sure how much of that is him, and how much is me. At the canter, I'm almost positive it's my fault. At the trot, I think it's probably a bit 50/50. Once I can afford to take lessons again, that's one of the first things on my list to work on/figure out.

At any rate, after warming up around the neighborhood, I went back into my pasture to start jumping. Before I actually started going over jumps, I trotted around the pasture in two-point, so that Zigs could get a look at everything. Not that I thought he was going to spook or refuse or anything like that, I just always like to give him an idea of what we're about to go do. Of course, I'm not completely sure of the wisdom on that, as some day, when I start doing Horse Trials, he's going to have to jump courses cold. But for now, I'll keep doing it my way. I mis-judged my positioning of the first jump, which made the approach a bit difficult, since it was at a weird angle. It took a lot of doing to come at it straight from one direction. While I was riding, I was cursing my self for that one, but after talking to Saga's mom about it, she informed me that I had inadvertently created a unique training opportunity for improving my approach to jumps! It was very nice of her to salvage my feelings like that. ;) Outside of a tricky approach on one of the jumps, the rest of it actually went pretty well, although Ziggy likes to try to jump fences right of center. Either that or I set him up right of center. I think I had him going in straight. The next time Saga's mom comes over, I'll try to remember to have her look for that. I also don't feel like I was closing my angles enough over the jumps, which I'm pretty sure is due to the fact that I'm not relaxing my hips enough.

That being said, Ziggy was very happy to be jumping, and took to it with great gusto. I am also glad to report that I didn't catch him in the mouth, which is my #1 no no when I'm jumping. I can be out of balance, and look like crap over the fence, but I'd better not catch my horse in the mouth. Anyway, after several good jumps, it was getting pretty hot, so I called it a day and un-tacked. All in all, it was a good ride, and capped the day nicely.

Today was Dressage, and on the docket was canter, and some more work in two-point. I began my warmup by walking on a long rein, getting Zigs to really stretch out and step under himself. After doing that on both reins, I picked him up and started doing an exercise that Duchess' mom taught me. I think I've mentioned it before, but in case I haven't, this is how it works. you walk 10' diagonally, stop, turn on the forehand, and walk the opposite diagonal for 10', and lather, rinse, repeat. Ziggy keeps trying to go behind the bit on my turns on the forehand, and I haven't really been able to figure out why. He does it on both reins, so I'm not sure what's going on. In the meantime, I'll keep working on it, but the next time the Oracle is here, I'll ask her to work with me on it. After walking, I moved to trot in two-point, and did my penance to Epona. I still feel like I'm staying way too upright in two point, but my legs were absorbing the shock like they were supposed to, and I felt pretty in balance, so I guess I was doing it right. After I finished the Dressage test in two-point, I did some cantering in two-point. It went pretty well, at the very least Zigs seemed to rather enjoy himself.

I took a walk break and then proceeded to canter, which still needs a lot of work. I still need to fix my transition, I have a habit of trying to lean back like I'm in a recliner. I did manage to get one up transition without doing canter by Laz-E-Boy, so that's progress, I guess. The other big problem I keep having with canter is that I lose my stirrups. Fortunately, I spend a lot of time riding without stirrups, so when I lose them, it's not a total disaster. Although, I suppose that sort of also works to my detriment, since because I can keep my balance at the canter without stirrups, I'm not terribly worried about keeping them when I go in to canter. This is probably also something I should fix before I show. The only problem is, I can't really figure out why I lose my stirrups. Maybe I'm not keeping my heels down? The next time I ride, I might have Zhi watch me and see if she can see something that I'm missing. After cantering on both reins, I decided to call it a night.

I have another interview tomorrow, and I'll probably go ride after that. Although, it'll be 15:00 by the time I'm done with it, so that might be a little hot. I probably won't ride very long. I might wake up early enough to ride in the morning, but let's be realistic. I'm on vacation. Riding tomorrow night won't work, as Zhi and I are headed over to her trainer's place for a lesson for Zhi. More about that, later!

In Which it is Discovered that Horses Have Fashion Sense

At long last, I will now relay the events of Monday's lesson, as best I can remember them. Which is to say: not very well. I suppose that is to be expected when one comes into work on a Tuesday morning and learns that the deadline on the Big Giant Project™ they are working on has been pulled in by a week, and proceeds to stay at the office until 0100 crunching trying to finish the work that he thought he had an entire week and a half to complete. Not that I'm upset about this, of course.

No, actually, that's a lie.

At any rate, before I begin, there is an anecdote that must be shared. This morning, I was running late to work due to having overslept. I fed Ziggy, and went in to take a shower and get ready. Once I'd dressed for work, I went to let Zigs out of his stall, just like I usually do. Most days, I'll open the gate and he'll mosey on out, sniff noses with the donkeys, take a drink of water and park in front of the round bale. Today, I opened up the gate, he surveyed his domain and decided, "Ooh, look! I have alfalfa molecules in here!" and then proceeded to clean the alfalfa molecules up. I really didn't want to go to work today, but my over-developed sense of duty kicked in, so I walked into the stall and said, "Come on Ziggy, I'm running late for work." He picked his head up, thought about it for a moment, turned towards me and sneezed on me, getting horse snot all over the shirt I was wearing. The really funny part? I was wearing a Samsung T-Shirt. Efficient, and insightful. I knew my horse was German. The Thoroughbred has spoken, it is time for a new job.

So, here's what I can remember of the lesson: I got the canter pretty much immediately when I asked for it, and I'm beginning to not have to lean back like I'm sitting in a recliner to get it. After cantering, we did shoulder-fore. Although, if I'm being honest, the other riders in the lesson did shoulder in and Sonata and I did, "Shoulder-fore is hard, I'm gonna pop my shoulder and just walk out of it. K?" I know Sonata knows how to do it, and will do it if asked properly, but at that point, my legs were totally shot, so I really couldn't say, "No, mare, I said, lateral. Oh! And, I didn't wind up owing Duchess' mom another breakaway halter. ;)

Tonight, I went out to Zhizhu's lesson and took pictures. It looked to me like she had a great lesson, but I'm sure you can read more about it over on her blog

Riding Exactly the Same Way the Spanish Riding School Doesn't

Yeah... I'm not sure what to say about last night. Perhaps the best description is that last night's ride was everything that Monday's ride wasn't. I got home earlier than usual from work, and as I was debating on what to do for my ride, I had sort of decided on doing another ride around the neighborhood. Things probably would have worked out better if I'd actually done that. But, after getting home and taking a short nap, I got up and decided that I should do Dressage instead.

Should have gone with the trail ride. I was a total mess, Ziggy kept hollowing and rushing, and because my position was crap, I couldn't make him round up or go on the bit. The good news is that I was able to get canter exactly when I wanted it. So, yay. That's really all the coverage I feel last night's ride needs. Over the weekend a friend is coming over to help me out, so that should help things significantly.

A Good Day in the Saddle is Better Than a Bad Day at Work

For the second time in as many weeks, my soulless Korean overlords saw fit to release me from my toils at a reasonable hour, so that I could attend yet another riding lesson. Twice in a row is nice, but it will take three to make a habit, and I have confidence that even now, my overlords conspire against such an event coming to pass. But, the diabolical machinations of a soulless corporation will not sully the triumph of today! No sir! Onward!

As with just about every lesson I take, I once again climbed aboard Sonata. In the warm up, she was taking a lot of leg, and wasn't very round. But today, I would not be deterred. Instead of continually using my legs, I went to my whip a lot quicker, and that seemed to yield significantly better results. I founder her a lot more responsive to the leg, and it was a lot easier to get her round. The primary focus of the lesson tonight was to work on trot transitions. All of us had a different goal, and mine was to keep Sonata round when we transitioned up, and when we were trotting. I had a lot of success getting her to come round once we were trotting, I did have to have some discussions with her about actually going to the corner and staying on the rail, though. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, however. I used all of the techniques that I learned last Thursday,( opening my rein far out while supporting it with my leg, posting my inside hip to her outside shoulder) AND THEY WORKED! Sonata dropped her head, went round, and moved where I wanted her to go. The one nit I can pick is that my heel kept coming up when I was having to put my leg on strongly. Once I noticed it, I started making a concerted effort to keep my leg long, even if I was having to really use it strongly.

Of course, this was about the time that my trainer started yelling at me for over posting. ;) I attempted to focus on doing both things, and I actually was able to do both at the same time a few times. I took special care to try and remember the sensation so that I'll hopefully speed its storage into my muscle memory. To cap off the trot, we did 20 meter circles on each rein, (long my achilles heel), and, while not circles per se, they were at least evocative of a circular shape. Plus, I was able to actually keep her out at 20 meters, which was a marked improvement from Thursday.

At long last, I come to the coup de grace. The Canter. I've made no secret of the fact that my canter transition is a source of continual frustration. I am happy to report that tonight was a notable exception. We started on the left lead, and when I first tried to sit for the canter, I basically forgot to ride, and got a really nasty fast trot. So, I re-balanced, and sat again. This time I actually remembered to ride and got a nice canter. I took the whole arena, and as an added bonus, when I went down to trot, Sonata didn't try to stop. I was pretty happy with that, but I had the right rein to contend with, which is typically the one that always gives me fits, even on Zigs. I switched reins across the diagonal, and in the second corner, i sat, asked, and immediately got canter. I was over the moon. I took her around the arena once, and let her quit on that.

As though it wasn't patently obvious, I am quite satisfied with both my and Sonata's performance tonight. Hopefully, my rides will continue moving in this direction. It would certainly make me more confident about doing the horse trial in October!! No riding tomorrow, sadly, as I'll be going to the Gym to start with a new personal trainer. (My Gym buddy's co-worker is actually a personal trainer and has volunteered to help us out.) Wednesday, however, will bring the Alfalfa addict back into service. More then.

Christmas is Saved

So, I stayed up until about 2:30 checking on Zigs periodically last night. Right after I wrote the post below, I went to check on him, and he was actually up, walking around and took a long drink from the water trough. He still looked like he was still in a bit of pain, but unfortunately, I didn't have any Banamine to give him. I called my vet this morning, and when I take him in for his annuals, she's going to teach me how to give injections, and give me a vial of Banamine to keep in case this happens again. Zhizhu was nice enough to stay awake the rest of the night and keep an eye on him. I feel kind of bad for having to ask her to do that, but I had to come in to work today.

Anyhow, when Zhizhu woke me up this morning, she told me that Ziggy continued to improve throughout the rest of the night, and he was actually grazing at the round bale, and looked like he felt right as rain. I threw on some clothes and went out to check on him, and when I did, he was standing outside his stall waiting for his breakfast. I scooped out about half his normal grain ration, put it in his bucket, and let him in the stall. He happily trotted in and started chowing down. I went back inside and called work explaining that I was going to be late, and laid back down in bed to get some more sleep. At about 08:00, I rolled out of bed and took a shower and then got dressed for work. Once I was dressed, I put on my boots and went out to turn out Zigs. Much to my delight, he had finished all his grain, and was eating his alfalfa from last night. In short, he was acting like his old self. He walked right out of his stall, took a drink, and went to hang out with the donkies. From the looks of it, it seems like it was just a case of us upping his feed too quickly, and giving him a tummy ache. He'll get tonight and tomorrow off, and I'll pick him back up one either Sunday or Monday and see how he's doing. One of the other things I'll be doing is getting him some better alfalfa. The stuff we had to buy the last time around are these little tiny compressed bales, and are very stemmy, and not very green at all. Of course, I'll be keeping a close eye on him in the coming days, (a huge benefit of having my horse at home!) and seeing how things go.

Hopefully, that will be the extent of my excitement for the summer as far as his stomach issues. What I am hoping for, however, is plenty of excitement as far as improving my riding goes! Speaking of which, I seem to remember that I owe you, dear reader, not one, but two rides to document. May it never be said that I do not honor my debts! I shall use conventional chronology, and report the events of my ride on Wednesday, proceeding on to releate the details of my lesson yesterday, finally detailing my plans for my rides this weekend and beyond. I do hope that you will find said chronology an acceptable vehicle for narrative. Is everybody with me? Splendid. Let's begin, shall we?

Wednesday, as prognosticated in Tuesday's post, I resolved to work on my two-point. Before I dove into that, however, I worked on doing round trot and canter circles. On the left rein, they went quite well, I found Ziggy relaxed, forward, and fairly nicely bent. I did notice that I have a habit of wanting to overbend my horses, so I tried to make sure that I wasn't doing that. Satisfied with my progress, I switched to the right rein, and while the circles did not go nearly as well, there was indeed progress. The main problem I had was that Zigs would try to fall to his outside shoulder and try to cut the circle off. Well, I suppose in the interest of not embellishing the truth, one should omit the word "try" from the previous sentence when reading. My other issue, which I am fairly convinced was due to my position, was that my half-halts weren't really all that effective in getting him to round up. But, as mentioned previously, I was getting a shape that was something approaching round in its concept though not necessarily so in its execution. While not precisely my stated goal, I am prepared to call it progress. Since the trot went so well, I decided to try some canter circles in as well. I am pleased to report that I not only managed to get my up transition within a stride or two of when I asked for it, but Zigs was also doing significantly rounder circles at the canter than he was at the trot. I think that as far as Zigs is concerned, it's easier for him to canter than trot. The down transitions were... rough, but for this ride, the objective was two-point, so I didn't sweat it much.

I gave Zigs a walk break so we could both re-organize and re-group, and I then gathered up my reins, and asked him to trot on, going up into two-point. In the spirit of continuing honestly, and constructive self-criticism, I must report that I do not feel like my form was correct. I am fairly sure that I should have been feeling more weight in my heels, and that I shouldn't have been resting my hands quite so heavily on his neck. I also think that I did not have my back in the correct position, as after a while, my lower back began to hurt. All was not lost, however. I did notice that I was allowing my knees an hips to flex and bend to compensate for Zig's movement, and all things considered, I did feel fairly comfortable up there. Although, if I could get someone willing to put me on the end of a longe line, and critique my form, I would certainly not turn that down. Not that I am dropping hints, or anything like that, though.;)

Feeling a little adventurous, I decided to try two-point in the canter as well. It started out well enough, but as I headed towards the gate, he cut a really sharp right turn. If I had my heels down and my weight up off of my horse, this would not have been a problem. Since none of the above was true, my right foot popped out of my stirrup and I nearly pitched myself off over his shoulder. By some miracle, I managed to regain my balance, but I was then in the realm of Cross Country Attack Pony. Eventually, he and I negotiated an armistice, and I decided to work on lengthening and shortening his stride at the walk to finish out the ride.

Those are the events of Wednesday, digitally logged for your entertainment, my entertainment, and future reminiscence. Moving forward in our chronology, we inevitably come to the day known as Thursday by the Gregorian reckoning. Taking cues from Wednesday, Thursday proved to also be an interesting ride. At long last, I was able to take a lesson on Sonata. Since it had been a month since last I had a lesson, I was sort of expecting sub-optimal performance on my part. Sonata had just recently seen the chiropractor and gotten her hips injected, and I must say, she was moving quite nicely. She had a lot more swing in her walk, bounce in her trot, and was a lot more willing to canter on both leads. That being said, I completely lacked the ability to get her to go round,or get her to circle. It was one of those rides where you're telling your training, "I can ride, really! I promise!!" In order to get her to go out to a 20 meter circle, I was having to open my outside rein to well past my knee, turn my upper body completely to the outside of the circle, put my inside leg on strong, and post my inside hip past her outside shoulder.

By the time we stopped for water, my legs had the consistency of something between Cool Whip and Jello, and I hadn't even cantered yet. Fortunately, I got to rest my legs for a bit while my trainer talked. After a drink of water, I went up to canter. First was the left lead. I got the canter pretty much immediately, which was good, but the problem was getting her to do a 20 meter circle. I kept overshooting one set of cones, and undershooting the other. Again, I was having to haul on my inside and outside reins to get her where I needed her to go. I eventually got it on the left rein, so we switched to the right rein. That went considerably less optimally. In the interest of efficiency, the right rein can be summed up in the final 2 minutes of it, during which my trainer was yelling, "I DON'T CARE IF IT'S NOT PRETTY, MAKE THAT MARE CIRCLE! COWBOY HER IF YOU HAVE TO!" It was most certainly not pretty, but I did make her do 3 20 meter circles. After the third one, my trainer told me that was good and we were done, which was good, because at that point, I didn't have any legs left, so you can imagine my shock when I dismounted, and two objects below my waist supported my weight.

I will be riding Sonata again Sunday morning, before heading out to my Dad's ranch for father's day festivities. With any luck, I will keep my legs after the ride is over.

Interview with a Psycho Pony

The full moon is over, but I don't think Zigs got the memo.  My plan for tonight was to do  some work on spiraling in and out on a circle, do some turns on the forehand and do some trot and canter to round the ride out.  It all started so well...  I had a couple of very successful spiral ins/spiral outs, and then went to turn on the forehand.  This also went well.  However, Zigs was beginning to protest about being on the bit for too long.  I informed him that that was too bad, and he had to deal.  After a few more good turns on the forehand, and no protesting about being on the bit, I let him stretch down and free walk.  

"This is awesome!"  I thought.  "I should trot!"  Well, Zigs must have read my mind because he immediately started trotting.  He got a pass on that one because I probably did think too strongly, and on a horse like Zigs, sometimes that's all it takes.  I brought him back to walk with the intention of making him wait until he stopped anticipating before I started trotting him.  It worked fantastically well in theory, but my weak link is that this was practice.  Out of nowhere, he'd start trotting on me, and sometimes I would have to resort to yanking teeth to get him back down to walk. He was also rushing like all get out.  These discussions went on for about 20 minutes or so until I finally started getting a sane, consistent trot when I asked for it, and a down transition... sort of when I wanted it, kind of, goddammithorse HO!  Just to round out the ride, I asked for the canter once I had a good trot going.  The good news is that I got canter when I asked, and that my transition was sound.  The bad news is that I asked for canter, and got hand gallop, emphasis more on the gallop.  To make things even more exciting, someone had been kind enough to go in and disengage his brakes.  I tried sitting deep and making my core solid granite.  Nothing.  I tried yanking teeth, nothing.  So, I went to the old standby the one rein stop.  

Did you know that my TB can canter a 5 meter circle?   I didn't.  He can also do a flying change across the diagonal and do a 10 meter circle.  At long last, I put psycho pony back in his box and got a walk.  By this point, I was pretty annoyed, and was thinking I had to do something to salvage this ride.  So, I decided to work on halt from the walk.  It was a little rough at first, because Zigs was really pulling against the reins, and I was having to use far to much rein for my taste to get him to stop.  As an experiment, I let my reins out, picked up a walk, and selected an arbitrary point in the pasture to stop at.  I imagined that when I wanted to slow down, I was shooting grappling hooks into the ground from my heels that Zigs had to pull out before he could move.  They got heavier and heavier until nothing Zigs could do would pull them out.  Lo and behold, IT WORKED!  I didn't even have to pick up the reins.  Just to prove it wasn't a fluke, I tried it twice more, and it worked just as well each time.  After the third successful halt, I decided that was an excellent note to end on, and pulled his tack off and hosed him down, since he'd worked up quite a sweat, and there wasn't enough light left to completely walk him out.  

As soon as I let him off the halter, he immediately kicked up his heels, bucked, and went flying around the pasture, so I guess he just wanted to run. ;)  Hopefully my ride tomorrow will go better!

Must Be a Full Moon

Well, last night was quite the ride. I decided that last night, I would take a break from working on brakes, and instead focus on turns on the forehand, and canter transitions. The turns on the forehand didn't go so well. I did ok on turning to the left, but when I tried to do them to the right, Zigs kept doing laterals instead of spinning. I tried in vain to figure out what exactly it was I was doing to cause it, but came up empty. Maybe I wasn't giving a strong enough rein cue? Dunno. I kept at it until I got at least a quarter turn on the right rein, and I decided that that would be good enough for now, and put him on the buckle to let him stretch down, which he did quite nicely.

After a walk break, I warmed him up a bit with some sitting trot, and worked a little bit on getting walk exactly when I wanted it. It's not 100% yet, but it's getting better. Once I was satisfied with the results I was getting, I picked up a trot, and asked for a right lead canter. What I got was a rushing trot, so back to walk we went. I've been told that when that happens, it's because I didn't give the right cue, so I decided to try it again. I put my outside leg back scooped with my inside seat bone, and boom, instant canter. I don't think that walk/canter is easier than trot canter, so assuming that's true, I'm the problem. we cantered around for a bit, and I went back to a trot on the left rein and tried the canter transition again. He rushed into it, a bit, but I still got the canter. I did some circles with him, and went back to walk, which took me far too long to do. One of the next things on the list to work on is my down transitions from canter. After I've been cantering and I transition down, I tend to let my horse trot forever before I try to go back down to walk. I don't know why I do that, I'm certainly not feeling like I'm going to fall off, and it is well within my abilities to get a walk from the trot. So, it's going on The List™ of things to work on.

The last thing I decided to work on was a little canter in two-point. So, I picked up a nice, rolling canter and then I got up into two point. From out of nowhere, Ziggy started BOOKING it across the pasture. we went from Canter to a full on Gallop. I think Ziggy was trying to tell me that we could have run the Belmont. In his defense, I think I might have gone up into the ground-covering gallop position, because I remember my stomach being really close to the horse. I have to admit, it was a lot of fun, but my pasture really isn't big enough for galloping. After reminding Ziggy that we were not in fact at the Belmont stakes, I decided I had had enough excitement for one night, and walked Zigs out. While I was walking out, I was mentally re-playing my ride, and I have to admit, I wasn't very satisfied. I know the things that I need to fix with him, and I'm working on them, but I know I'd be able to make better progress with them if I was able to ride him with a trainer on a more regular basis. When the Oracle was here last, I got a lot out of my lessons with her on him. I'd like to figure out a way to ride him more consistently with my trainer, but right now, that would mean either buying a truck, (Which is the plan, just not until later in the year), or begging the Baron to swing by on his way to lessons with Duchess and Lucky, and get Zigs. I really don't want to do the latter, as it just feels like way too much of an imposition. They're already being nice enough to bring Sonata for me, and I do get a lot out of riding her, so I think the plan is to keep riding her and just quit my whining. ;)

From Little Acorns Do Mighty Oaks Grow

Two posts for the price of one! I love that Blogger allows you to post via email. Shortly after I posted the previous post, I headed home from work, and got home a little after 18:00. Since it was still bloody hot outside, I decided I'd decompress inside for a bit before going out to put my Alfalfa addict to work. After checking email and other various and sundry things on the tubes, I changed into my breeches, and went outside at about 19:30, and the weather was perfect. Ziggy must have been ready to work, because he walked right up to the trailer and waited for me to tack him up.

I decided that tonight, I was going to focus on my transitions. Specifically, Canter and stopping, with a heavy focus on stopping. I'm serious about going to the horse trial in October, and right now the thing I view as my number 1 must fix is being able to slow down my horse. If September rolls around and I can't bring Zigs from a canter to a walk in 4 strides, I'm not going to the trial. I do not want the technical delegate walking over to my trainer and asking her, "Why can't your student stop his horse?". I might be being a little too hard on myself as far as this goes, but I have good reason. When I first started riding, I was riding a friend's horse around the arena at the barn, and was having trouble getting him to trot. As we came around the long side of the arena, he decided to teleport sideways over the railroad tie outside of the arena, almost running over one of my other friends, and a girl who was grooming her horse. That's when it really hit home that horses can be dangerous not just to me, but to other people on the ground, and that if I ever lost control, people could get seriously hurt or worse, and it would be my fault. As I'm fond of saying, every horse will teach you something, and that particular horse taught me the importance of remaining in control of your horse at all times. This would be why I'm working so hard on it now so that September comes around, my biggest worry is where I'm going to buy my tall boots, and what color eventing vest I'm going to buy. And as for the canter, there's no deeper reason behind it beyond not wanting to get eliminated in Dressage because I couldn't make my Thoroughbred canter on command. It's a point of pride, or something.

I started out with walk/halt and I'd basically just pick a point and say "hell or high water, his feet will not move past that point." That went pretty well, although I think I'm having to use too much rein for walk/halt. Be that as it may, 95% of the time, Zigs was at a standstill when I reached the point that I'd picked for the halt. The other 5% of the time, he was maybe 2 or 3 strides past it. For now, that's within acceptable tolerances, but by September, I want to have all 4 feet stopped precisely at the point I pick 99.999% of the time. The don't have to be square, just not moving. I'll get stop first, and work on square later. I spent probably 20 minutes working on just walk/halt and after I got three good ones in a row, I put Zigs on the buckle and let him stretch and move out. When I picked him back up again, I did a little bit of on turn on the forehand to give him something for him to think about. I was trying to do the exercise where you walk the short side, turn on the forehand, walk down the short side the opposite direction and turn on the forehand again to go back the way you came, but I can't walk into the turn on the forehand yet. I have to stop, then turn and walk again. If I try to walk into it, Zigs tends to pop his shoulder to the outside and start doing laterals.

Once I was reasonably satisfied with the walking work, I picked up a trot. This time the agenda was trot/walk. I started out by saying, "Ok, I'm going to trot 4 strides, and then walk.". That didn't work so well, as I spent so much time counting my trot strides, I kind of forgot to do things like ride, which made a down transition nigh impossible. So, I went back to picking an arbitrary point in the pasture, and hell or high water, walking once I reached that point. That went considerably better. After several good trot/walk transitions, I upped the ante, and used the same strategy of picking a random point in the pasture, and coming to a complete halt exactly at that point. I'm not gonna lie, the first several were kind of embarrassing. I'd get a halt.... 20' away from where I wanted it, and I had problems with him sneaking forward. Since thinking "halt here" wasn't working so well, I started visualizing imaginary grounding spikes shooting down from my stirrups at the point where I needed to stop, and slowly, things began to improve. After a while, I was trotting him at a pretty good clip the entire length of the pasture, and fairly reliably getting a halt where I wanted it, or at the very least, close. Of the times when my halt did not go as well, I wound up 4-6 strides off of where I wanted. Again, not optimal, but definitely a marked improvement. By this point, I really wanted to work on canter, but I didn't want to move on until I nailed at least one trot/ halt from all the way across the pasture, heading towards the barn. The third attempt was the charm, and I again gave Zigs his head back, and let him walk and stretch.

After a stretch break, I did a bit of shoulder in to get him back into a working frame of mind, and once I felt that he was being responsive enough to leg, I put him back on the bit, and started thinking of my plan of attack for the canter. The most important thing for me as far as today's canter went. was that I got the canter immediately. I started the way we usually do, pick up a trot, and ask for the canter on the circle. I got it, for sufficient values of "immediate". And by "sufficient values", I mean half the circle. I'd ask for canter and get a crazy fast trot. After the third attempt, I got pretty frustrated. I went back to a walk to think for a bit and figure how how to make this exercise easier for Zigs and I both to succeed at. I remembered that while the Oracle was here, she suggested that I do walk/canter transitions, as that would make it easier to make sure my body was in the right position. As I remembered, Ziggy did that transition pretty well when I rode with her, so it was well worth a shot. I'm really glad I decided to do that because on the first time I asked for a canter, I immediately felt what the problem was/is. When I shift my outside leg back for the canter transition, I try to put it way too far back, which throws me out of sync with Zigs, leaving him to say, "Ok, seriously, dude. What the hell?" I then halted for a minute, and practiced feeling the moment when my outside seat bone leaves the saddle, it turns out that it's way earlier than I was thinking. Armed with this new-found knowledge, I immediately tried a canter transition, and got it a couple of strides after I asked. Then it was back down to walk, and another few tries. When the fifth canter transition rolled around, something justt "clicked", and I got it right after I asked for it. Wanting to prove to myself this wasn't just a fluke as well, I switched rein and got the same result on the right side! Of course, tomorrow, I expect to have the same troubles at canter again, because that's just the way these things work.

I was running out of daylight, but things had been going so well as far as the downward transitions, I wanted to at least try canter to halt. This was a big challenge, as once Zigs starts cantering, he really doesn't see a reason to stop unless forced to. He also tends to have a nice rhythm for the first few strides, and then he tries to rush. I had to resort to yanking teeth amore than a few times, and I was starting to worry that I'd just ruined my ride. With daylight fading, I set a very simple goal. I was going to get a canter, canter a quarter of a circle, and halt before I made half the circle. On the second try, I got exactly that, and immediately decided to quit there. I still have quite a ways to go as far as improving my brakes, but I feel like I made several good strides in that direction, and I hope to continue my work this weekend. I probably won't ride tomorrow, but I'll definitely ride Saturday and Sunday. More then!

Must be something in the air...

(Trying out Blogger's post by email function, so if the formatting on this post is weird, that's what's going on.)

Well, it's Tuesday, and since Ziggy got two days off after XC schooling at Pine Hill, I figured it was time to pull him out of his stall and put him through his paces.  Tonight, I decided the ride would be about two-point, up transitions, and practicing the "cruising gallop" versus the collected gallop positions.  I am happy to report that the up transitions went very well.  I had to work a little bit to get the right lead canter, but that's not too much of a surprise, as that's his weaker side.  I was able to pick up the left lead like clockwork, so maybe my problems with the canter transition are behind me??  I can but hope.

The two-point went decently.  I'm still not 100% convinced I have the right form at two-point, and I feel like I'm having to put way too much weight on my hands on the horse's neck.  I'm also having a difficult time reconciling that with the critique I got when we were schooling this past weekend that I hold my hands up too high.  I suppose I could do something radical and ask my trainer: When is it OK to rest your hands on the horse, and when do they need to be off the horse?  Of course, if any of you reading this would like to chime in, feel free.  One of the other things I'd like to do is take a longe line lesson.  I'll probably try to set one of those up next month, as there's several things I'd like to work on without reins or stirrups.  Not that I'm expecting to fix everything in one lesson, but I'm hoping to at least be told what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong, and what I can do to fix my inconsistencies.  

The cruising galloping position vs. the collected galloping position really didn't work at all.  There were moments this weekend when I could feel it, but today, it just wasn't happening.  Of course, this is something that's apparently three levels above me, so I'm not expecting great strides of progress in it just yet.  I'll keep working at it, and hopefully as I approach that level, I'll get closer and closer to being able to make the switch successfully and consistently between those two positions.  

So, why all of the sudden intense focus on my jumping position?  Thought you'd never ask.  My goal for the summer is to improve my riding to the point to where I would be able to ride GAG at a horse trial, and not embarrass myself, or my trainer.  I looked up the GAG Dressage test, and I think I can do it.  It won't be a sub-30 penalty test or anything like that, but I feel like I can get through it cleanly, and not have people watching saying to each other, "What in the hell is he doing here?".  As far as XC goes, I can make it over all of the GAG fences on the Pine Hill course with one leg on each side, and myself in the middle.  Well, I can make it over the fences one at a time.  I have yet to actually string them together and jump one after the other.  I feel like I need a *lot* of work on both myself and my horse to make sure I can jump XC safely and cleanly.  As far as stadium goes, I've not seen a GAG stadium course, so I'm not sure whether I'd be up to that one as well.  But, at any rate, I will spend the summer practicing as hard as I can, and we'll see where I am come September.  Hopefully, I'll be able to twist Saga's mom's arm into hauling Zigs and I out for another XC schooling sometime soon.I'm falling asleep as I write this, so I think I'm going to go to bed.  Tomorrow I'm heading over to Duchess' house to go ride Sonata.  I was supposed to ride today, but Duchess' mom and I decided that tomorrow would work better for the two of us, so tomorrow it is.  Until then!

Progressing by Leaps and Bounds Or: Hell yes, I cleared a 2'6" Oxer

As you can see, I had a jumping lesson today.  Zigs was fantastic.  There was no stopping, no refusing, and no rushing!  We started the lesson by trotting on both reins, and I made sure to get him on the bit, and nice and light in my hands.  At one point, I had him going in a rather nice collected trot.  Then, of course, we cantered.  I had trouble picking up the right rein, due to my aforementioned problem with my knees coming up.  On the left rein, I made a concentrated effort to keep my leg "long" (as long as it can be with my stirrups at jumping length), and had a much easer time of it.  The only thing I don't like about jumping is having my stirrups so short.  I don't feel like I'm sitting as deep in the saddle as I do with them at Dressage length, but that's the point!

The first fence we did was a simple X with trot poles in front of it. I can't even begin to articulate how nervous I was as I made the turn to come to the jump. two strides away from the trot poles, Ziggy said, "Dude. Got it.", and I relaxed. He trotted in smoothly, sailed right over it as if it was nothing, and landed in the canter, looking for the next fence. We came around and did the fence several more times, and he was steady and consistent. After we'd all made it across a few times, my trainer changed it from an X to a straight across rail. Just like with the X, Zigs jumped the rail fence like a champ, and landed in a canter, looking for the next fence. After we'd all taken that fence several times successfully, our trainer changed the fence from a straight rail, to a bounce with an X. Ziggy took that one like a champ, too. At this point, it was pretty hot, and Zigs was blowing a bit, so I bowed out for a while, and walked him to give him a little more rest. We had also been taking plenty of rest breaks in between fences, but I just wanted to make sure that I gave Zigs as much time as possible to recover between jumping elements.

While I was walking Zigs, everybody sailed over the bounce, so our trainer made an 18" oxer after the bounce, seen at the top of the post. (It was the prettiest picture.) I went over that one with Zigs twice, and again walked him, to take it easy on him. After I'd walked a while, my triner announced the last fence, and proceeded to make a 2' 6" oxer after the bounce. l was expecting her to say, "Ok, that's enough for Ziggy", but no, she sent a few of the more experienced riders over it, and then said, "Ziggy, go.". Being the trusting sort, I picked up a nice, forward trot, and as I made my turn to go on the jump line, one of the more experienced riders asked, "How big is that Oxer?" To which, I replied, "I don't want to know!" as Zigs happily sailed over the bounce and fence. When we landed on the other side he was like, "That was AWESOME!". A picture of the illustrious jump is below:

As you can see, I was left behind, my release is not as high up his crest as it should be, but at least I'm looking somewhere resembling up, my heels are familiar with the concept of "down", and I didn't come off. Since this is only my fourth time jumping, I'm prepared to call this progress.

During the entire jumping lesson, I found Ziggy quite responsive, brave, consistent, and forward, without resorting to summoning psycho pony. I only really ran into two problems with him during the lesson. The first being that once he lands in a canter, he wants to try to canter into the next fence, which I believe is the "correct" thing to do, but not what I'm ready for at my current riding level. The second being that he spooks when another horse drops a rail. It isn't a bad spook, he just crow-hops a bit and tries to run, but all I had to do was half-halt, and he came back to me.

I, on the other hand, wasn't doing a very good job of keeping him straight on the exit to the jump, and as you can see in the pictures above and below, my release leaves much to be desired. But, hey, I didn't come off, and I didn't (as far as I can remember) catch him in the mouth. All in all, it was a great lesson, and I'm looking forward to doing more jumping in the future with him! My hope is that I can do a GAG horse trial with him at some point in the Fall or Winter. But of course, I really need to get a more consistent Canter transition, and going XC schooling would likely be helpful. ;)

I won't be riding Zigs tomorrow, as he is getting a well-deserved day off for being such a good boy! For now, I'm going to bed, as I actually have to work tomorrow.

Thank the Goddess for stubborn horses

They teach you a hell of a lot when you aren't paying attention.  This morning, I went over to The Baron's house and hopped up on Sonata.  My plan was to work on sitting trot, and to work on my canter transitions.  The sitting trot actually went pretty well.  There were brief moments where I was able to sit Sonata's Really Big trot.  Nowhere near where I want to be, but hey, it's progress.  If I keep working at it, I'm sure there will come a point where I can sit it without problems, and then, I'll be able to sit just about any horse.  That's the plan, at least.  The canter, as per usual, was problematic, and at long last, I've figured out why.  

What I thought I was doing was bringing my outside leg back, and just not picking her up with my inside seat bone.  What I was actually doing was pulling my knees up which pulled both seat bones out of the saddle leaving Sonata to say, "Ok, dude.  Seriously.  WTF do you want!?  How about this:  I'm going to trot faster, because that sure as hell doesn't mean canter." Step one is admitting that you have a problem. ;)  I started really concentrating on making sure my leg was long before I asked, and things went better.  My brain knows exactly what my legs need to do, but my muscles aren't necessarily always obeying it.  I was also reminded of a few stretches that will help with that.  I'll make sure to do them during my warmups from this point forward.  Once I felt that I was getting the canter on a more consistent basis, I picked up the lance and took a few runs at the quintain.  Well, I tried to, at any rate.  With the lance in my hand, my canter transition went to hell again, so I decided to simplify.  I put the lance back, and grabbed the dressage crop to hold in my right hand, with the reins in my left.  I finished off my ride working toward getting a consistent canter toward the quintain.  Sonata was pretty tired by that point, so I got a few good ones, and left it at that.   All in all, it was a good ride.  It wasn't necessarily the prettiest, but I feel like I did make some genuine progress.

As a random sidenote, (well, maybe not too random, since it is horse related) after my ride I went truck shopping.  A friend of mine works at a local Ford dealership, and he called to let me know that they just got in an 06 F-250 King Ranch edition, fully loaded with just 27k miles on it.  I went to look at it, and it is indeed tricked out, and a very pretty truck, but when I drove it, while it was very quiet, I found its handling to be a bit clumsy for my tastes.  I'm not sure if it was just that particular truck, or indicative of Fords in general.  To contrast, I've driven two Chevy Silverados from two different model years, and I found them both to be very comfortable, and to have significantly better handling than the Ford.  Plus, Chevy's Allison transmission is awesome, so that's another point in their favor.  On the way home from the Ford dealership, I passed by a Dodge dealership, and since I had nowhere I needed to be, I decided to pull in and see if I could get behind the wheel of a Ram, in the interest of doing due diligence.  (Ok, yes, fine.  I like driving trucks. ;))  I must say that I didn't like the Dodge at all.  (Sorry, Popeye.)  The interior isn't as nice as Chevy or Ford's, the brakes are way too sensitive, and there was far too much play in the steering for my tastes.  I've also heard that Dodge diesels are notorious for needing a new transmission after about 100k miles.  Since a diesel isn't really considered "broken in" until at least 150k miles, that seems an unacceptable lifetime.  I suppose if I really wanted to be through, I should go to a GMC dealer and drive a Sierra.  But really, I already have.  I'll just pretend that the Silverados I drove had a GMC badge on them, and call it good. 

After I got home from the various dealers, Jan and I discussed our current options at length, and we've come to the conclusion to put the truck search on ice for a while.  Waiting will enable us to be able to spend more money, and also to get a better deal, because honestly, now isn't exactly the greatest time to be buying a new vehicle.  We'll likely pick things up in September or October, when the 10s are coming out, but there's still 09s left in stock.  But, that's enough about that, this is a horse blog, so I should get back to horses.  Or, on second thought, since it's almost 0100, and I'm riding tomorrow morning, it might make some sense to get some sleep.  I think I'll do that.  

Witty title to be added later

Ahh,... a three day weekend ahead of me, and you can bet that there will be much riding.  Hoping to get things off to a good start, I tacked up Zigs.  I started out trying a bit of spiral in and spiral out on the circle, and was reasonably successful, but I wasn't strong enough with my outside rein and leg, so there were a couple circles that were more egg shaped.  I also tried a couple of turns on the forehand.  Those went considerably better.  I still have trouble walking into and out of them, but if I start from the halt, they go considerably better.  Since Ziggy is an OTTB, left is always easier than right.  I think from now on, I'm going to start by doing turns on the forehand to make sure that both of my legs are working, and that he's listening to them.  And, I'll make sure to do lots of them on the right rein. ;)  I also did some leg yields, and those actually went pretty well.  I'm having more success at keeping him from just popping his shoulder out and walking, rather than crossing his back feet.  All in all, the walk work we did went pretty well.

Then it was time for trot.  The good news is that I'm getting pretty proficient at sitting Zig's trot, and I actually had to let my stirrups down a hole. (yes, my heels were down). The bad news is that yet again, I had trouble with my downward transitions.  Zigs was also speeding up when we turned towards the barn, and my attempts to rate him with my seat really weren't working that well.  Unfortunately, my patience was not with me tonight (Bad week at work.) and rather than actually trying to figure out what I was doing that wasn't working, I went back to walking.  Now that I've had a chance to decompress and reflect, I realize that I was either just relaxing, which allowed him to just keep going on his merry way, or in an attempt to make a "brick wall" to slow him down, I was really just turning into a total sack of potatoes and bouncing all over the place.  The visualization I use when my down transitions have been good is that I turn my core into a set of really stiff springs that are in their stretched state during the "up" beat, and in their neutral state on the down beat.  When I ride tomorrow, I'll make sure to reinforce that image before I start trotting, so that it's fresh in my mind when I go to transition downward.  But, back to tonight's ride.  

After I'd had my fill of trotting for the day, I decided I'd try to do some canter work.  As has been typical lately, my up transition to canter was only about 40% effective.  When I worked with The Oracle last weekend, I uncovered several problems with my canter transition: 1) I tend to set my inside rein so that he can't have his head to come up and through for the depart. 2) I don't get my outside leg back so that I can "scoop" him up with my inside seat bone, and 3) I'm curling up my upper body, which totally negates what my seat's saying.  I think it's time to go back to the trusty longe line for a while to sort that out. 

Tomorrow, I will most likely ride Sonata in the morning, and then ride Zigs in the evening.   Of course, there will be a full report tomorrow night.  I know this entry isn't exactly the most coherent, but it's been a long week, and I'm a little tired. ;)