Texas Warmbloods and Korean Overlords

If I'm honest, things did not go quite the way I planned. My plan was to wake up around 07:00, ride Ziggy for the first time this week, run out to the barn, ride Saga, and then drive down to Houston and check out a horse for Zhizhu. Well, I made it home at 0200 from work Friday, and more or less just collapsed into bed. I regained consciousness at 10:00, at which point Zigs was going, "DUDE. W.T.F. WHERE IS MY BREAKFAST!" I shambled outside and fed him, came in and changed clothes to go ride Saga, deciding to ride Ziggy this evening.

That was the plan anyway. I made it to the barn and pulled Saga out of his stall and he was like, "Who are you?", until he realized that I bore carrots, then he wouldn't leave me alone, which reminds me a lot of Zigs. I had to remind him that was stay still when we are groomed once or twice, but other than that I groomed him without incident. Putting the saddle on took a bit, however. His saddle has these little panels the come forward of the pommel, which made it a bit difficult for me to tell when I had the saddle in the right position. I wound up taking it off and putting it back on several times before I was satisfied that it was in the right place. To his credit, Saga was very patient with me, although I could tell he was thinking, "Are you sure you know how to ride horses? Because you certainly can't put on a saddle!". That sounded like a challenge, so I got his bridle on him, and off we went into the arena.

When JJ asked me if I could ride him this weekend, she recommended that I just do walk/trot, and work on forward. I started out walking him around to get a feel for him, and two things were readily apparent: 1) He is a big boy. 2) He has a lot of action in his walk. A lot more than Zigs does. Once I'd walked him around the arena for a bit, I decided to ride around the property at the barn. As I expected, he was very well behaved. After walking him for a while, I was satisfied that I was well in control of him, and started trotting. Now, when JJ asked me to ride him while she was out of town this weekend, she told me two things:

• His canter is sub-optimal, don't bother.


• Work on forward.

Now, allow me to preface the following by saying, any time I ride a horse that I'm unfamiliar with, I take really light rein contact, and I give cues like I'm riding a stick of dynamite with a lit fuse. That said, when I asked for trot, forward wasn't an issue. I immediately got a very forward, rhythmic trot when I asked. He was a bit hollow, but he's still getting used to this whole Dressage thing, so I didn't worry too much about it. I did ask him to come round, and much to my surprise, I actually got it for a few strides. To be clear, I was surprised I was able to give him the right cues to get the desired result. Not that he was capable of going round. As I told him, "You're JJ's horse. I know that you can come round."

After doing a few trot/walk transitions and taking a walk break, I decided to see if I could sit his trot. I started off by posting to make sure I got a good rhythm, and once I liked what I had, I sat down. Remember when I said that JJ told me not to bother with the canter? I don't think Saga got that particular memo. pretty much as soon as I sat down, he cantered. From where I was sitting, it actually felt like a pretty nice canter, but since JJ told me to stick to walk/trot, I put him back down into trot. Ever since JJ came over that one weekend to help me with my brakes, I feel like my down transitions have improved leaps and bounds, and all it took was to just keep my shoulders back. I tried sitting trot again, and this time, we stayed at trot, and I was actually able to sit it pretty well. There's really not too much more to report about the rest of the ride outside of that it was a lot of fun, and very relaxing. I'll be riding my horse tomorrow, and I think I'll do a trail ride, and maybe a tiny bit of two-point work and jumping. More tomorrow!

On the Road Again

It's been quite the horsy weekend so far!  I had a Friday off of work, so I went with my Sweetie to check out several prospects down in the Houston area.  First up was a cute little Strawberry Roan Mare down in Sugarland.   Zhizhu and I were a bit uncertain about this mare going in, because a day before, we received a call from one of the other trainers whose horses we were due to look at that day saying that the mare in Sugarland's owner had called her asking her if she could come and fix some of the mare's problems.  

..Problems!?

According to the trainer who called us, the mare had reared when the girl first got her, and at the right lead canter would turn and go to the center of the arena, completely blowing off her rider.  After hearing this, Zhizhu and I almost called and canceled our appointment to see the mare, but after talking to Zhizhu's trainer and Saga's mom, we decided to go ahead and keep the appointment. The ad had her as 15.2hh, but she was maybe 14.2. That was a bit shorter than Zhizhu would have preferred, but not necessarily a deal breaker. I was going to look pretty silly on her, but she'd suit Zhizhu's height ok. After grooming her, and picking out her feet, Zhizhu and the seller went and took her into the round pen to see her move, since the seller had apparently rolled her ankle and wasn't in condition to ride. I never like it when I go to look at a horse and there's no one there to ride it before I hop on, so I usually ask if I can watch the horse move in the round pen. It won't necessarily let me know if the horse is going to be a complete lunatic under saddle, but it will tell me if they're a complete lunatic. At least, that's the theory. At any rate, while Zhizhu watched the mare in the round pen, I switched out my saddle's gullet to fit the mare. Almost on cue, as soon as I was done with the gullet Zhi was walking back to me. Reading her body language, I determined that nothing crazy had happened in the round pen, so we saddled the mare up.

Out of force of habit, we asked if there was a mounting block we could use, before I realized that I could quite easily mount from the ground. I hopped up in the saddle and off we went. Since she was so short, her movement was drastically different than what I was used to. I really don't know how to qualify it other than that she just felt weird. She really didn't listen to seat commands and tried to rush at the trot. She also didn't understand how to round, which I found kind of strange, considering she came from a Hunter background. Of course, it's possible the hunters use different cues than I'm used to. Sort of as a last ditch effort, I shortened my stirrups to jumping length, and trotted and cantered her in two-point. Once I went up into two point, she seemed to go, "Oh! I know what we're doing now!", and listened a bit better. I didn't have any of the problems with her that the seller had mentioned to the trainer, and decided that she was just fine for Zhi to try out.

As I'd sort of expected Zhi didn't like her much. She wasn't really a bad mare but, neither Zhi nor I clicked with her. So, it was onto the next batch. The next batch was a pair of ex-racehorses. One of which was grey, the other was a bay. In the videos we saw, the grey looked nice and quiet, and the bay looked a little hot. As it turns out, the truth was the complete opposite. Not that I'd necessarily call the bay quiet per se... I'd consider him to be more responsive. He took really really light cues and he stumbled and bucked with me. The buck wasn't a "get off me.", it was him spooking from me coming unbalanced. Zhi really liked the bay, and if I'm honest, I did rather like him to, but I'm seriously concerned about my wife having a horse that sensitive. Let me be clear though, it's not that I doubt Zhi's capabilities, its just that although the horse is 9, he really doesn't have much life experiences. I let Zhi up on the bay, and I'll admit that he took good care of her. He acted like a totally different horse while she was riding him. Which is certainly very positive, and indicative of a good mind, but I think at this point, before making the decision to buy this horse, I want to take along somebody with more experience to ride him and tell us what they think, because I feel like this horse falls into a gray area that at my current level of experience, it would be unwise of me to make a decision.

Last up was yet another ex-racehorse that Zhi's trainer passed on. To cut a long story short, this guy was what most people think when they hear "ex racehorse". He was hotter than the sun, and spooky as all get out. I rode him all of 5 minutes before deciding there was no way in hell I was letting Zhi up on him. Hell, Zhi didn't even want me to get up on him. In the future, I'll listen when she says that. Now, before y'all get up in arm's, Zhi's trainer hadn't gone out to see the horse yet, she had simply seen the ad and talked to the seller over the phone, and the horse sounded good on the phone. I can't really fault her for that, I lost count of all the horses I went to look at that sounded great on the phone, but were a totally different story in person. Tune in next week, where the search will continue! :)

Boing!

I'm probably going to fall asleep writing this post, but we'll see how far I get. Before I go into today's horsy activities, there's two quick additions /corrections to yesterday's entry. They are enumerated below, for simplicity:

1. I tend to drop my right hand so that it is not level with my left. This must end.


2. I am not so much leaning to the inside as I am collapsing my right side. I only do this on the right rein. This must also end.

Now that that's taken care of, on to today. As promised yesterday, Saga's Mom came over to help me out with jumping. I will, of course, go into more detail, but I would like to start things off by saying it was a significant improvement over Pine Hill. Not that Pine Hill was bad, oh no, Pine Hill went quite well! Perhaps that what I should say is that today, Saga's mom was able to help me fix the problems I was having at Pine Hill. To review, they are also presented in a numbered list, for simplicity and consistency.

1. Not being able to rate Ziggy to the jump.


2. Not being able to bring him back down to a trot after the jump


3. My Two-point was weak

Defying conventional chronology, I'm going to cover the problems in reverse order. As it turns out, my two point was weak because while my back was straight, I was rolling my shoulders forward. As soon as I straightened those out, my back instantly felt better, stronger, and straighter. The next revelation was with my legs. I don't want to say I was gripping with my knees, but I was doing something with them that was causing them to become pivot points to throw me forward. Saga's Mom told me that my base of support should be my calf, and that, combined with fixing my shoulders completely changed things. I felt significantly more secure, and the next couple of fences I took him over, it was a lot easier. I wasn't having to work nearly as hard to stay with him. I'd have to check my jumping pictures to be sure, but I think I had been having a pretty bad problem about getting left behind on the jumps.

Fortunately, I never was bad about catching Zigs in the mouth, which reminds me of the of the other problem with my two-point. Because I am so concerned about catching him in the mouth, I tended to throw my upper body forward over the jump, which to a TB (well, any horse, but TBs in particular) means "Run! For the love of God, RUN!". It turns out that all I needed to do was to move my hands forward, and leave my upper body where it is.

The last problem with my two-point form is my heels. As with most new jumpers, I have a habit of letting my heels come up when I'm coming in to the jump. This largely seemed to fix itself after I fixed my knees, but I still had to think about it a little bit, since it had sort of become a habit. Once I had all these things right, going over the jumps felt so much easier. I don't quite know how explain how it felt previously other than that going over the fence was hard. I felt out of balance, and was really having to work to keep everything where I thought it should be. Once I fixed all my positional problems, going over the fences felt like I was just sort of floating. I think that's because I wasn't putting my hands down on Zig's withers to try and balance, and because since my knee was relaxed, I could let my angles close and open back up the way they're supposed to. I wish i had some pictures so that I could go back and review them, but maybe next time. Now that I have jump standards and some landscape timbers I'll be able to get a lot more jumping practice in. (Only once a week, though!)

Now that we have covered the jumps, let's move on to the exits of the jump. I didn't have any trouble whatsoever bringing him back down to the trot. I think this is due to several things:

1. I was no longer leaning forward after the jump, so I wasn't encouraging him to run.


2. My reins were an appropriate length, so when i made it over the jump, I hadn't pitched him away.


3. After fixing my position in two-point, I was in a balanced position, so I was able to give more effective cues

I'm sort of running short on time now, as the vet's due to arrive any time now for Kanemura's brain surgery and Ziggy's annuals, so I'm going to have to shorten up the rest of the post. Regarding being able to rate Zigs to the jumps, I think that I was successful at it for the same reasons above. Another thing I'm getting better at is judging when I've done all I can, and I just have to ride what I've got over the fence and fix it on the other side. The thing is, during my un-lesson, I really didn't think "Oop. This is as good as it's gonna be, just ride.". It just happened instinctually. It may be that I've just gotten better at knowing how many strides out from a jump I am. At any rate, Sunday went a long way towards convincing me that going GAG at Pine Hill is indeed possible, if I can keep riding like that.

Later in the evening, Zhizhu and I drove down to Canyon Lake to check out a horse for her. He was a really pretty, big TB, but he was hotter than the sun, and not for a beginning rider. That's really all I have time to write now, I need to go corral the critters before the vet gets here.

The Rein of Duchess

So, to continue where I left off last night: I arrived at Duchess & Lucky's house at around 19:00 last night with the intent of putting Sonata through her paces. As Duchess' mom and I were tacking up, Sonata was doing her usual "wake me when it's time to ride", but something seemed different about her. I can't quite put my finger on what it was, she didn't seem to be in any distress, she just seemed to be tired. Duchess' mom informed me that she had been to see the vet that day, and had her teeth floated, so that may have been it. At any rate, Duchess' mom suggested that we take it real easy on her and just walk her around the arena. It was funny she said that, because when she mentioned it, I was just about to suggest the same thing. I don't know why, but something in Sonata's demeanor made it clear to me that she needed to get a pass for the night, and if there's one thing I have learned about horses, it's that you should always trust your instincts. I've only ignored mine twice, and wouldn't you know it, both of those times resulted in a trip to the ER.



But anyway, back to last night. We finished tacking up, and just before we walked down into the arena, I reminded Duchess' mom that she wanted to work with me on longing. So we slipped Sonata's halter over her bridle, and tied her to a pole while I worked with Duchess. Longing went pretty well, except for some reason, I can't make my voice have a rising intonation when I give the trot command. Walk and Canter are no problem, though. The most difficult part of the whole process was managing taking in and letting out slack in the longe line in the same hand I hold the whip in. Cash, the first horse I learned how to longe, didn't need a whip to longe, so I was used to having two hands to manage the longe line. The intent behind this exercise is to get me able to longe Ziggy, but Ziggy's going to be a bit more of a challenge as he really doesn't respond to voice cues, and has a habit of walking around for half a circle, stopping and turning in, which I hate. If I'm longing a horse, the last thing I want is them in the habit of turning in to face me. I know that a lot of people see that as a sign of respect, but if the horse gets a wild hair, and decides to take off, they're pointed right at you! Duchess' mom gave me a few things to work on with Zigs at home, so I'll be trying to set aside at least one day a week to only work on Longing. The longe line I have now isn't exactly ideal, its one of the ones that has a length of chain attached to the clip. I know, I know. I bought it when I didn't know any better. I'll replace it as soon as I have moneys. I promise. I really want to be able to longe Ziggy so that on the days he's feeling fat and sassy, I can get it out of him on the longe line before I get in the saddle, which is quite appealing. It's also another method I can use to condition him on days when I don't feel up to riding, or don't have the time to ride, but still want to work him. Plus, I kind of like being able to stand on the ground and watch a horse move. All of these are wonderful goals, and I will work towards them in the ensuing days, but for now, I'd like to return to last night's narrative.



After "flying the wild mare", Duchess' mom asked me if I would like to ride Duchess, since I did the work of longing, and she'd just walk Sonata around for a while. I believe my answer was something between "Hell yes," and "I'd love to!". I hopped up on her, and immediately the first thing I noticed is that she has a lot of head action when she walks. I also found her to be a bit resistant to bending and flexing, but I largely chalk that up to the fact that I'd never ridden her before, and she was testing me out. She was very comfortable to ride at the walk, and while I was tooling around getting used to her, Duchess' mom teased me, "Isn't it your mission to ride all of our friends' horses?" I informed her that yes, yes it is. Every horse will teach you something different, and plus, I just plain like riding horses. I'll hop up on just about any mount offered me as long as I believe it's within my skill level. Up until that point, I'd ridden Cash, Lucky, Red, Taran, Sonata and Saga, so Duchess completed the set, at least until Zhizhu gets a horse, or the Baron gets a new one. ;) When I went to trot Duchess, I was reminded to give her a steady outside rein so that she wouldn't rush. I took what I thought was a steady outside rein, asked for a trot, and wouldn't you know it, she rushed. It was then that I realized she requires more contact than Zigs does. It took a couple of laps around the arena, but I eventually got a nice sane trot, which was quite good, but would have been lovely if I could have gotten her to put her head down. As a test, I sat back down and asked for a walk, and if I'm honest, it took a bit of doing. I was rather happy about that, because one of the other reasons I like riding other people's horses whenever I can is that I make sure to try out things that I have trouble with on my own horse to see if I have the same amount trouble on the new horse, and see if I can fix it. Or at the very least, get better about whatever my problem is. Obviously downward transitions are something I need a lot of work on, so I worked on those, and made some improvements. Once we sorted out walk/trot and trot/walk, I was asked if I'd like to try to canter her.



It may shock and amaze you, but again the answer was yes. I knew from watching Duchess in action that she has a really nice canter, so I was eager to try it for myself. I was also eager to see if the work I've been doing on my canter transitions has paid off, as it is another area where I am currently struggling. The first trot/canter was a bit rough, but after dropping back down to trot and trying it again a few more times, I was able to pretty much get canter on demand. By that point, the sun was going down, so I walked Duchess out and we untacked. I really like Duchess, and I think if I was 5 years ahead in my riding skill, I would be a lot better with her. I don't think I did that bad, but there were points where I was calling over my shoulder to Duchess' mom, "I can ride, I promise!". On the flip side, there were also fleeting moments of brilliance. Of course, that pretty accurately describes my state of riding now on any horse I ride. Fleeting moments of brilliance punctuated by long stretches of, "I can ride, I promise! ". Some days it's more "I can ride, I promise!", but horsemanship is a journey, not a destination.

ZOMG Sparkly Pony!

Yet another "I'm really tired and it's late, but I want to put some thoughts to keyboard before I fall asleep" entry today, I'm afraid.  In the interest of not walking in to work tomorrow with QWERTY embossed on my forehead, I'll get right to it, if you don't mind.

Actually, since I'm typing this with my eyes closed already, I'm thinking that even an abbreviated blog post isn't going to happen tonight. So, instead, I'll note the key points of the evening, and write a more detailed post during my lunch break. Fortunately, Blogger's post by email tool works like a champ, so I'll use that for the time being. anyway, the main point of the evening is that instead of riding Sonata, like I'd planned, I wound up riding Duchess. More on it tomorrow. The short version is: She's a neat horse, and I enjoyed it. Interested readers may tune in tomorrow. Uninterested readers mayalso tune in tomorrow, but I think they may find the subject matter unappealing. Off to collapse with me.

Suck it, Korea

Just a short post tonight, as not too much horsy went on.  I was supposed to ride in a jumping lesson tonight, but my Korean overlords issued a diaboic edict, mandating that I was to attend a conference call at 18:30 tonight. I was... unhappy. At any rate, I got out of my conference call, and booked it out to the barn. Happily, I made it at the halfway point of the lesson. If I couldn't ride, I could at least watch and try and see the comments my trainer was making on everyone's form, and mentally apply them to the areas where I'm lacking. I don't know if that will actually help at all, but it certainly can't hurt.

Anyway, as the lesson wound down, one of the women I ride with from time to time asked me if I would like to hop up on her gray Hanoverian, and pop over a few Xs. I must have been looking rather wistful. This horse is a gorgeous Gray gelding, but sometimes he can be a bit of a goof to fences, so I'll admit I was rather surprised that she was allowing me up on him. She's a really good rider, and as stated before, he can be a bit of a goof. I asked my trainer if it was ok, (Read: Vanessa, am I really skilled enough for this horse?) She said, "wear a helmet". So, I borrowed Gusty's mom's helmet, and went ahead and hopped over a few fences. It was a lot of fun, and he was a very good boy. Just what I needed. I hopped off and tanked her profusely, belatedly realizing that I was still in my work clothes. She told me that I was very nice to watch, and I looked great on him. I'm sure that was just her being polite, but it was nice to hear just the same. ;) Tomorrow, I should be heading over to Duchess' house, and putting Sonata through her paces. Expect a post with more actual substance tomorrow.