A Work in Progress....

Good Weather, For January...

2012-01-27T14:04:00.000-05:00

Why do they stand out in the rain when they have stalls?

The snow melted and it's warm again. It's actually 60 degrees here today. We had quite a bit of rain this morning, but it seems to have cleared now and the puddles are drying. It's shaping up to be a pretty nice day.

This week has been pretty full, training wise. Well, full of riding days, anyway. I've decided that this winter, because of the inconsistent weather, I'm just doing the basics with Spider. That means transitions, mostly, with some leg yields thrown in here and there.

My "decision" was sparked by a conversation I had earlier this week. A friend of mine asked me how my changes were coming along. I honestly haven't touched them in over a month. We've had warm days, followed by freezing cold and wind or torrential rain and that's really made my ability to stay on task difficult. I can't practice my "tricks" when the footing's sloppy, I don't like practicing the tricks when it's windy, and I can't really ask Spider to perform like that if he's just coming back from three days off because of bad weather. So, it's been mainly conditioning work and transitions this winter. And, even though we're not doing anything exciting, Spider feels better than he ever has.

Although this is the first time I've ever trained a horse this far myself, I've watched many others train horses to the higher level work over the years. Many riders make the mistake of going straight for the tricks once they pass 2nd level, then drilling them over and over. Many riders also end up doing quite poorly once they pass 2nd level, even though their horses can do all the tricks. The tricks are not the goal of the higher level work, collection is the goal. And drilling the tricks won't develop a horse's collection, because the tricks come from collection. Collection comes from transitions. Transitions are boring as hell, but there's no way around them.

Transitions are also the reason Spider feels better than he ever has, despite the fact that we aren't working on a single new thing. The work we have been doing has created a horse that is strong and fit, but still light and responsive off my aids. I have the utmost confidence that the tricks will be there when I ask for them.

Check This Out...

2012-01-25T13:11:00.000-05:00

I've just come across a great new blog: Equine Biomechanics. It's written by Dr. Sian Lawson, who has a PhD in biomechanics. So far, there's only six posts, but all six are fascinating reads. Head on over to check it out and give Dr. Lawson some encouragement to write more!

Coping With Winter

2012-01-22T16:40:00.002-05:00

Winter has finally decided to settle in here, bringing snow, sleet and ice. Prior to this icy development I was still riding my horse regularly.

I've developed coping strategies for the cold weather. I wear layers of clothing, plus lined gloves. Spider wears his thick fleece quarter sheet. And we drink wine. Not a lot of wine, of course. I certainly do not advocate getting drunk and then trying to ride your horse, but Spider and I do like to have a little nip to get the blood flowing. We split a glass between the two of us:

Sharing is caring.

I couldn't get a good picture of it, but Spider sticks his tongue in the glass and laps it out like a dog. Clever boy. Unfortunately for me, this method leaves a lot of horse slobber in the glass:

This is why I drink my portion first.

I would love to say that I was riding in the freezing cold because I have a strong dedication to the sport, but actually it was much more mundane than that. I had taken the horses off the pasture and put them in the dry lot in an attempt to preserve my grass. The grass isn't growing right now, but the horses are still eating it. If I didn't pull them off, they would eat my pastures down to nothing.

The down side is that the pastures keep them busy and moving (particularly Spider). When confined to the dry lot, the horses start to get bored and fidgety (particularly Spider). A bored, fidgety Spider is a generally unpleasant Spider, so he must be worked religiously any time he is confined to the dry lot. The dry lot, by the way, is about half an acre. It's not like they're really "confined". They're just spoiled.

Unfortunately, snowy conditions have prevented any riding this weekend, so I had to turn the horses back out into the pasture. It was either that, or deal with a bored Thoroughbred. I don't really need to preserve the grass in the pastures, anyway. I can just re-seed in the spring. Re-seeding is much easier than entertaining a Thoroughbred.

A Slacker's Guide to Warm Ups

2012-01-18T10:46:00.000-05:00

Warming up a horse is undeniably the most important part of the ride. It's also the most difficult.

It's hard to figure out just exactly how to warm up. Horses are all different, riders are all different. Really, with horses, every day is different. Every trainer I've ever known has a different "system" for warm-ups. I'm not clever enough to come up with a system, though. I suppose that's why I'm not a trainer! I just cheat.... I let the horse tell me how to warm up.

Generally, I like to start off every ride with a brisk walk on a loose rein with many changes of direction and a couple leg yields. This walk gives me time to establish the idea of "forward" while still stretching the horse. It also gives me time to stretch my own muscles, establish my proper position and ponder what I want to work on in this ride. Most importantly, it gives me time to assess what my horse feels like.

If he's feeling sluggish, we start our work with many quick walk-trot transisitions to get him fired up. If he feels stiff, we stay at walk and focus on leg yields and turns on the forehand before moving on to trot work. If he feels tense, we usually do some canter before trotting (this works well at shows, too). And then there are days like we've been having......

It has been cold here. I mean cold cold. And windy. In the cold and wind, my horse turns into a fire breathing dragon. It's a combination of tense, stiff and psychotic with a helping of way too much energy on the side. So, the warm up has changed a bit. Rather than a brisk walk on a loose rein, we start in a brisk trot with contact. Rather than transitions, we do many changes of direction. We continue in this manner until I feel his energy start to lag, then I put him to work. I end the ride with stretching trot and a brisk walk on a loose rein.

Some days, his energy never lags. I call those "cardio days". On cardio days, we trot around until my energy lags, then call it a day.

With the way the wind is blowing out there today, I suspect it's going to be another "cardio day".

A Play Day

2012-01-10T15:41:00.001-05:00

While I have been working my horse of late, it has been mostly boring work. Transitions, serpentines, etc... It's the meat of training, but it can also get absolutely mind numbing.

Today when I got on Spider I could tell he was just not feeling up to the work. He was sluggish and, while compliant, there was none of his usual willingness. His "spark" was gone. I thought maybe he was sore, since we worked on collection yesterday, so I chalked his resistance up to that and decided we would have an easy day.

At the east end of my arena there is an entrance to a trail that winds through the woods behind my house. It isn't very long or interesting, but it leads to the neighbor's hay field, where I take Spider for gallops sometimes. As soon as we turned onto that little trail, Spider perked right up. By the tilt of his ears and the spring in his step, I surmised that his sluggishness had little to do with soreness. We went down the little trail and into the neighbor's hayfield, where Spider volunteered an exuberant hand gallop up and down the fence line. No soreness there, he just needed a break!

I brought him back to the arena, but our hearts weren't in arena work. I took him for another little gallop alongside the driveway. My driveway runs straight out from the arena and is pretty long, with a nice grassy easement alongside of it. At the end is a big tree.

We galloped down the grassy easement to the end, then I pulled him up into a nice little collected canter around the tree, then let 'er rip back up! When we got to the end, I collected him up and cantered him through the bushes and back into the arena.

We were quite pleased with ourselves after that little romp, but now we were back in the arena. Luckily, I realized (being the conscientious horseman that I am) that we had only gone around the tree in left lead. Obviously, we needed to gallop back down the driveway and go around the tree again in right lead. So as to properly work our muscles and all. We repeated our gallop down the driveway and around the tree in right lead, and ended up in the arena again. Now what?

Well, there is another little trail at the other end of my arena, but it's really boring so we never take it. It just leads straight out to the road and, after Hurricane Irene, it's mostly blocked by downed trees. But, we were just having so much fun, I decided to take it anyway. The first downed tree is in the beginning of the trail, but it's fairly easy to negotiate.

On a lark, I decided to see if Spider would jump it. I kicked him up to trot and pointed him at the tree....

Now, let me just say here that my jumping education is rather lacking. I have had a few jumping lessons, but they were many years (and many, many beers) ago. Also, today I was riding in my dressage saddle. Oh, and I was riding in my super stiff dressage boots and in a double bridle. In short, we were not really set up for jumping. But, we were having a "play day", and we were having some fun, so I gave it a try! I figured he would probably just refuse.

Spider trotted right up to that log as brave as can be. Then, in a feat of athleticism that I honestly did not know he was capable of, he snapped his legs up and trotted right over the log. Seriously. He never hesitated or missed a beat. That log is 18 inches high. I measured it. And he trotted over it. Oh, he is a dressage horse!

We continued down the path until we got to a tree we could not safely cross. Then we turned around. As we approached the first log, the one Spider trotted over the first time, Spider picked up the trot and pricked his ears forward. I allowed it, since we were having a fun day. But then he was aiming for the highest part of the log, which I rather doubted he could trot over. I started to correct him, but he resisted. Not in a defiant or nasty way. He was just like, "Relax, I got this." I decided to trust him, and I went with it. As we approached the highest part of the log (nearly 2 ft, I measured!), I stood up in my stirrups, stretched myself over his neck and took a nice, light grip on my reins. And my boy tucked up his legs and popped me over that log like it wasn't even there. We landed on the other side gently (so gently that this dressage rider's seat was not ruffled in the least) and cantered off down the trail.

Spider was quite pleased with himself. I could feel that in his demeanor: swinging back, lofty legs, collected even on a loose rein. And he had reason to be pleased with himself! He had hauled me, a novice jumper at best, over that 2 ft log like it was nothing. He trucked me over it like it was his job!

Of course, at one time jumping was Spider's job. Spider was a jumper before I bought him. I'm told he went up to 4 ft. But, he hasn't jumped anything in nearly seven years because, well... I'm a dressage rider. I don't jump. I don't even own the correct equipment.

I must say, Spider surprised me today. We spend a lot of our time in the arena, I didn't know he had it in him to leap over trees in a single bound! I'm glad I decided to trust him today, and let him show me what he could do.

I think maybe I'll even take him to one of the local Hunter Paces this spring and see if he likes it.

Trust is a two way street. I ask for his trust every day, but how often do I give him my trust? How often do any of us let go and give our horses our trust? We spend countless hours training them, instilling the cues and obedience in them... but do we ever just let go and let them show us that they're listening?

Auditing

2012-01-03T17:37:00.001-05:00

The holiday season is the most un-inspiring season for my blog, I think. I'm not working on anything new because of time constraints. The winter holidays are the one time during the year I make an attempt to be social. Social with other human adults, that is. My everyday life is filled with socialization: two young children, three horses and twenty or so ducks and chickens... how is that not social? But, during the holidays I do try to actually do things with other grown-up human beings. Which is taxing, mostly because it leaves me little time to play with my horse.

However, in one of my off-farm ventures, I had the opportunity to audit a Lendon Gray clinic. Lendon is a superb clinician, particularly for those riding the so called "off breeds" (aka: non-Warmbloods).  She made a name for herself riding Thoroughbreds and ponies and is a great supporter of the idea that dressage is for every horse.

I suppose I could have ridden in the clinic, but I already have a trainer that I like. He knows me and my horse, he knows our story together. Besides, auditing really provides more bang for your buck. I was able to watch Lendon Gray, an Olympian, train ten different riders and horses for thirty bucks. Not bad!

I think, really, no trainer or clinician is re-inventing the wheel. We are all working on the basic ideas that were set down by our earliest ancestors. I read Xenophon's work, written down around 400 BC, and I see in it the same ideas we adhere to now. And Xenophon even quotes an earlier influence in horsemanship, Simon, whose works are lost to history. We are just not working with new ideas, here.

Every trainer should really have the same thing to say: the basic tenants of horsemanship are not really that different regardless of discipline. The main difference between the trainer you love and the trainer you don't use is in how they communicate with you, the rider.

And that is why I'm such a huge fan of auditing clinics. All these trainers are saying the same thing, and I have already found the trainer who speaks to me best. But, for a fraction of the cost, I can sit and listen to these phenomenally educated people train other horses and riders. And, in watching them do this, I develop my eye for a horse and rider.  That "eye" can only help me become a better rider.

And, even if the trainer in question turns out to be a total nutter, you still get a valuable lesson. And, believe me, I've been to see some nutters, but I still was able to watch a number of horses and riders do their thing.  I was able to see their reaction to the instruction and formulated my own opinions on what should be done. Sometimes, the most valuable lessons are the lessons in "what not to do"! And, now I know to never ride with that clinician. Priceless!

Of course, Lendon Gray is not someone I would count as a nutter.  She's tough, that's for sure! But, also fair and well-rounded. She understands horses and horsemanship, embraces other disciplines and does not discriminate against horse or rider. She is also excellent at speaking to the audience, which makes auditing her clinics a real treat.

I did not take home any huge revelations from auditing the clinic. I did not expect to. What I got was a chance to observe ten horse and rider pairs with the commentary of someone who is not only an Olympian, but also the trainer of National Champions and Olympians. I watched the horses go, thought about what I would do with that situation, then listened to what Lendon had to say. What Lendon said and what I would have done weren't always the same thing, and I gained some perspective and some new exercises to try.

I kind of feel bad. I only paid 30 bucks.  Poor Lendon got cheated.  ;)

Happy Solstice!

2011-12-22T19:26:00.000-05:00

From here on out the days will be getting longer and longer. And, I'll be able to get more done! No more having to decide between chores and riding. Although, it is clear from the number of poo piles out there that I've been doing more riding than chores!

Spider continues to do well in the curb bit. We've even had a bit of a breakthrough.

As you know, I've been struggling with canter work. Walk and trot are lovely, but Spider's canter is green. He tends to be unbalanced and not active enough in the canter. This makes collection and the Third Level "tricks" difficult. I've been doing loads of transitions, to no avail. The canter was just not improving.

Then, I suddenly remembered an exercise my trainer had me do in a previous lesson. We were working on leg yields at trot. Spider's haunches were trailing in every single yield, and my trainer kept yelling at me to "half-halt!!!". I was half-halting, but it wasn't helping. I kept losing Spider's haunches. Finally, my trainer got completely fed up with me and changed the instructions. I was instructed to trot down the quarter line, begin the leg yield, then immediately transition down to walk and back up to trot (while still yielding).

I complied with his instructions, although I wasn't sure what he was getting at. It only took one try of the new exercise for me to understand. I pulled Spider up and turned to my instructor. "Wait, am I supposed to be using the half-halt to block his outside shoulder?", I asked. My trainer gave me his best "WTF?" look, then threw up his hands, rolled his eyes and exclaimed "Finally, you get it!". At which point I nearly fell out of my saddle laughing at myself.

I was not losing the hind end, I was losing the outside shoulder. I was driving Spider up nicely from his hind end, but then letting him right out the front door! I needed to use a strong half-halt to keep Spider from falling onto his outside shoulder. Once I did that, the leg yields were fine. No more trailing haunches.

I have been doing the same thing in canter! I thought I wasn't getting enough energy from behind, but in reality I've just been letting the energy spill out of his outside shoulder!

I had this epiphany while attempting voltes in left lead canter. I ended up running us into one of the bushes bordering the arena. More than once. Not successful voltes, obviously. I was annoyed, Spider was getting frustrated, and I just couldn't figure out why he wouldn't turn. I put Spider on a loose rein to walk for a bit while I pondered the problem. I thought about how he was responding to my cues: he was stiff, not wanting to bend and his haunches were coming in. Aha! Just like my leg yields! I wasn't losing the hind end, I was letting the energy out the front door!

So, I put him back to canter on a twenty meter circle and tried a couple strong half-halts. And by strong, I mean strong. I had already been doing regular half-halts, and they weren't working. I had to get out the big guns to tell Spider "No, you cannot fall onto your outside shoulder!". I took the outside rein, sucked in my abs, huffed out my breath and half-halted for all I was worth. He was absolutely, positively not going to be allowed to fall onto his outside shoulder!

Spider broke to trot, which was fine and a normal reaction to what I had just done. I brought him back to canter and did it again, just to drive the point home: He needs to listen to my half halt. I gave him a minute to process this new information, then did a couple of lighter half halts to see if he would be more responsive. He was, so I tried the volte again. We did not run into the bushes.

More importantly, I suddenly felt the activity and energy in his canter. It had been there all along, I was just letting it escape. Once I re-established a good half-halt, I was able to capture his energy and use it.

And, isn't that exactly what the half-halt is for?

Those Old Cowboys Were On To Something

2011-12-20T14:52:00.000-05:00

I learned a lot of my horsemanship in the tradition of the old time American cowboys. Both sides of my family have several generations of cowboys, and cowboy wisdom, in them. Now, I will be the first to admit that there are some questionable techniques in the cowboy repertoire. But, there are questionable techniques in every discipline. I don't feel that a few questionable techniques are a good enough reason to completely disregard an entire body of knowledge.

And so I pick and choose what I want to take from my cowboy education. Just like I pick and choose what I want to take from my dressage education. I tailor my training technique to suit the horse I'm training and the goal I want to achieve.

Case in point: Ground tying. Ground tying is something you don't really see in the English riding world. For those unfamiliar with it, it's where a horse is trained so that you can drop the reins or lead rope and the horse will stay put, just as though you had tied him up. It's sort of like teaching a dog to "Stay".

I taught Spider to do it soon after I bought him, because I discovered he had a bit of a problem with claustrophobia (more on that here). Essentially, Spider panics if there is too much pressure on his poll (like, when he hits the end of his lead rope). This led to a lot of broken halters and cross ties. I got tired of replacing them, so I taught him to ground tie. Problem solved. If there's no pressure, there's no panic and he stands quite nicely.

Yesterday, as I was just getting ready to mount up, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten my phone in the house. I never ride without my phone. So, now I had a problem: What to do with my tacked up horse while I ran into the house to get my phone?

Lucky thing Spider ground ties. I brought him up on the carport, parked him next to the truck and ran into the house to grab my phone. And he waited patiently for my return.

My cowboy ancestors would be proud. Although, they'd probably wonder why I'm so darn attached to that silly phone!

Real Inspiration

2011-12-11T22:30:00.000-05:00

For many years I have been rather apathetic towards the holiday season. To my jaded, grown-up sensibilities this season has become narcissistic and self-serving. I have seen people I thought I respected become raging maniacs at Christmas, only interested in their own agenda and forgetting the meaning that this time should have. I lost hope in the season, because of what I saw portrayed.

But then, this year, my three year old daughter has become old enough to understand what is going on. She is excited for the tree, the decorating, the food, and the camaraderie that is this season. She is excited to do all these things, and she has none of the negative experiences to dampen her enthusiasm. Her unbridled joy has inspired in me a new hope this season.

I am reminded of another creature who rekindled my joy. Many years ago, I was burned out in my pursuit of being a professional dressage trainer. I had given it my all, but I had been badly injured and many of those who had supported me when I was whole had turned their backs on me in my disability. I was broke and unemployed, with no prospects and no future. I had become jaded with the entire industry. And so, I picked up my toys and I went home. I turned my back on the dressage world, the world that had chewed me up and spit me out.

But, before I burned out and picked up my toys and went home, I had bought one of my sale horses. A horse named Spider. And that horse, through his enthusiasm and willingness, rekindled my passion for dressage. He brought me through my injuries. He taught me that in this sport there is joy, there is love and passion, and there is more than scores and paychecks. He renewed my faith in my sport, and he cemented in me a desire to make my sport better.

I have the same feeling for my daughter now. I see her enthusiasm for the world, and I am determined to make the world meet her expectations.

I know I can't really change the world. I can't really change the sport of dressage, either. But, I can make damn sure that my daughter sees, through me, the world that I have seen through her and Spider. I will try my best to teach her the lessons she has taught me. I know I can't change the world, but maybe she can.

I try to do the same with Spider. He is enthusiastic and willing, and I am determined to make the world meet his expectations. I know we're not setting the sport on fire. But, I hope that maybe someone sees our story and is inspired.

I believe that it is the passionate idealists who refuse to give up that really shape the world. They don't get much credit, but they inspire others who keep the passion aflame. And that's all the credit they'd ever want, anyway.

My Inspiration

Inspiration

2011-12-08T16:18:00.001-05:00

Inspiration comes in many forms. In this case, my inspiration has come from a trip to the Florida Keys.

We just returned from a week long stay in a beautiful island paradise. The temperature was a perfect 80 degrees with no humidity and refreshing breezes. And now I am back in New Jersey, where it is 40 degrees, wet and muddy, and I could not be happier. Obviously, there is something wrong with me.

The Keys are lovely, don't get me wrong, and vacations are always nice, but I never feel right when I am away from my horse. It's as though a 1200 pound hole suddenly appeared in me. I enjoy traveling, but vacations just don't seem "complete" to me. There is always that nagging feeling that something is missing.

As we hiked through mangrove forests, I couldn't help but think that the soil was far too poor for growing good pasture, which led me to wonder how much it would cost to haul in hay. Of course, since the soil is mainly crushed coral, I did deduce that it would make a fine base for an arena. You would have to haul in the correct type of sand for the footing, though. We dined in a lovely restaurant that was completely outdoors, there was just a roof made of palm fronds and timber. It would have made a lovely "indoor" arena. We passed a veterinary clinic, and I wondered whether or not they treated horses. Yup, there is definitely something wrong with me.

I returned from my vacation aching to ride my horse. And so, I very happily put on my coat, hat and gloves to go out today. I brushed all the sticky mud off of Spider and saddled up. We only rode for a short time, and we only did baby stuff. He has been off for a week, and so have I. (Actually, my week off was probably more detrimental than his... at my age, a week of margaritas, nonstop eating and lounging on the beach can put a hurting on you!)

So, we had thirty minutes of big circles and straight lines. We didn't do many transitions between gaits, but we did a lot of changes of direction. I rode him just until my abs started to burn, then called it a day.

It felt better than a week-long vacation in the Keys.

My Boy Is Growing Up!

2011-11-30T15:19:00.003-05:00

*sniff, sniff*

It seems like only yesterday that I purchased a scrawny little Thoroughbred jumper with the intent of turning him into a dressage horse. Several of my friends thought I'd lost my mind, but I presevered.

And that little Thoroughbred jumper has passed a major dressage milestone:

Yup, that's my little Thoroughbred jumper in a full bridle! I am so ridiculously proud of him. I will admit
I was very hesitant to start him in the curb bit. My trainer had told me at the beginning of the year that he was ready, but I wasn't sure. This is my baby that we're talking about, here! While I have ridden horses already trained to the full bridle, Spider is the first horse I have ever trained this far and I want absolutely everything to be perfect for him. So I put it off. They aren't required until Prix St. George, and even then only if you're competing in FEI competitions. At USDF shows, snaffles are legal even at Grand Prix. So, there was no rush.

Turns out, Spider took to the curb like a fish to the sea. The first time I rode him with it, I intended to just leave the curb rein alone, not even pick it up. I would ride with only the snaffle rein, so that Spider could get used to the weight and natural action of the curb. That is the usual way the full bridle is introduced. Spider was not happy with my decision. He reacted quite poorly to the loose curb, and was not happy until I picked up the curb rein. Which really makes sense. Spider is a very sensitive horse. He did not like that curb bit bouncing around in his mouth at all. But once I had it in my hands, he moved into it willingly.

I really could not be more proud of Spider. I am proud that he has reached the point in his training where he has the strength and refinement to accept the curb so readily. And I am proud that I was able to take him to this point. To me, working in a curb bit is a skill to be achieved by both horse and rider. I don't see the curb as means to force my horse into a frame, but instead as a means to refine our communication. Through the curb, I can use the tiniest of movements to "speak" to him. He appreciates my lighter movements, and rewards me with better responses.

We have passed a milestone, but this does not make the work easier. It makes the work exponentially harder. The tiniest of tiny movements are required for the curb and the horse must have more impulsion to work into the bit. I need to ride harder, and yet more lightly and tactfully. One screw up here will undo everything I've worked for. I'm excited, terrified and giddy all at the same time.

I just liked this picture. With his scruffy mane I can totally pretend he's an Andalusian!

Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T12:30:00.000-05:00

I am thankful for a wet tractor seat, because I wouldn't be able to get my chores done in this mud without a tractor.

I am thankful for puddles in my arena, because I have an arena of my very own, puddles and all.

I am thankful for wet and muddy horses, because I am living every little girl's dream. And that makes all the puddles and mud worth it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

And Now For Something Completely Different...

2011-11-19T16:52:00.000-05:00

How cute is that? It was taken with my phone, so the quality is not the greatest. That thing has a shutter speed of about 10 minutes (slight exaggeration, slight).

I took Matilda out on a whim. Her whim, not mine. I was trying to get through the gate, and she darted out behind me to eat grass in the lawn. I couldn't really reward that sort of cheekiness, so I threw her on the lunge line and made her go around for a bit. Then I let her eat grass in the lawn.

She did pretty well, too. Once we sorted out who was in charge. I generally don't do much with Matilda. She gets brushed every day, and her feet trimmed when she needs it. Once or twice a month she gets taken out for the kids to ~~torment~~ brush and have leadline rides on. But, now I'm starting to think there's some undeveloped potential in that little horse. Just look at the suspension in that trot! And check out her free walk:

I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I think Matilda has better natural gaits than Spider. Don't tell him I said that, though. He was already mad enough about me working with Matilda and not him. He spent the first few minutes neighing, stomping his feet and banging the gate. Then he settled down and just gave me the stink eye until I brought Matilda back.

Uncle Creepy is watching.......

Fun Things

2011-11-17T15:36:00.002-05:00

I have been absent from the Internet of late, thanks to a dodgy connection. Ahh, the joys of country life! I do enjoy my rural setting, I just wish the utilities were a little more reliable. Every time a tree goes down around here we lose our electricity, cable, phone lines, and pretty much every other convenience of modern life. And we're pretty much last on the list for getting utilities back up. Oh well, I suppose there's a price for everything. I'll pay this one.

The view alone makes it worthwhile.

I have had one victory against modern technology, though : I figured out a good use for my new smart phone. It plays music! I know, many of you are now groaning, thinking to yourselves, "She didn't know it could play music?!" Yes, it took me several weeks to figure out that you could download music to the iPhone and use it as a stereo type thingy (technical term). Yes, I am iStupid.

But, now that I've figured it out, I'm pretty pleased. I consider myself a music lover. I have no talent for music, myself, but I do have a great deal of appreciation for it. In my house, the radio is blaring almost constantly. And I appreciate all kinds of music, from Classical to That Stuff That The Kids Are Listening To These Days. I think music is less about genres, and more about feeling.  If a song makes you feel good, then it's right. Hmmm, that idea sounds familiar.... it sounds a lot like how to ride a horse.

So, I have my playlist, and I can put my phone in my pocket and listen to music while I ride. The benefits of this arrangement are numerous.    Music has a way of energizing me, and my energy infects my horse. But, my music also gives me something to sing to.

In various fairy tales, the heroine uses her beautiful singing voice to tame wild beasts to her bidding. I can assure you, my singing voice is not beautiful, nor will it tame any wild beasts. Singing does, however, regulate my breathing. Regular breathing helps regulate my posture. That's something that other sports have already figured out, but something riders seem to ignore. I know people who run marathons, they talk about their breathing. I know people who practice martial arts, they talk about their breathing. I know people who practice Yoga and Pilates, they talk about their breathing. I know very few riders who talk about their breathing! Even riders who run marathons, or practice martial arts, or Yoga, or Pilates, do not talk about their breathing when it comes to sitting on a horse! This is something that is very much overlooked in our sport...

I figured out many years ago, when I was riding sale horses and pretty much anything else that no one else would ride, that when I sang to the horse it relaxed and I had a better ride. I did not understand why it helped back then, but it increased my profit margin, so I went with it.

Many years, and a great deal of education in behavior and physiology later, I understand that my singing helped me relax, which in turn helped my horse relax. When we get anxious, our body activates our autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is an animal's "flight or fight" response. When it is activated, our bodies take over our rational minds and send the message to just survive at all costs. Our respiratory rate increases, our heart rate increases, our muscles tense, they tense to the point that we draw ourselves into a crouched position. We are ready to spring into action at a moments notice, either to fight our foe, or to run from our predator. This not really advantageous to riding a horse. Actually, riding a horse goes against all of our self-preservation instincts. Come to think of it, it goes against all the horse's self-preservation instincts, too.

But singing combats that instinct. In order to sing, we must fill up our lungs to capacity. To fill our lungs to capacity, we must breathe deeply. The simple act of breathing deeply resets our conscious and calms our autonomic system. To breathe deeply, we must lift our sternum and drop our diaphragm. These movements require us to engage our abdominal muscles, which then creates a cascade of muscle movements throughout our bodies that improves our posture and balance.

Try it: Fill up your lungs as though you were about to belt out your favorite opera aria, gospel hymn, Aretha Franklin tune, the latest Beyonce hit, or even your children's favorite nursery rhyme. The song itself doesn't matter, the passion and soul behind the singing is what matters. Don't half-ass it, you've really got to get into this song!

As your lungs fill to belt out your song, as your sternum lifts and your diaphragm drops and your abs engage, you can feel your chin lift to allow the song to escape your mouth. That lifting of your chin balances your head over your shoulders. Your shoulders have been brought back and down by the action of lifting your sternum. Your spine has lengthened and is balanced perfectly over your hips by the action of your abdominal muscles. Just by the simple action of preparing to sing a song, you have nearly achieved the perfect dressage position: ears, shoulders and hips balanced perfectly over each other.   All you have to worry about now is your arms and legs, but your exemplary core position and breathing has made them nice and relaxed. They are ready to do just what you tell them to.

So, load up your favorite music device, saddle up and go forth to make a joyful noise! Just like music inspires our passion and soul, so should riding. Sure, you may look crazy singing show tunes while riding, but you'll be crazy like a fox. A fox with good posture!

An Interesting Lesson

2011-11-08T20:31:00.001-05:00

I have an ongoing issue with not sitting straight in the saddle. Specifically, I tend to sit left. Well, to be more accurate, I hang off the left side of the saddle. I know it's because of my injury, since I didn't do it before I was injured. But, "injured me" is the new normal for me, so I must learn to cope with it.

And I have... a few years ago I used to hang off the left side of saddle like a deranged trick rider:

Hey! Where'd they get a picture of me? Just kidding, this picture is courtesy of Wikepedia's "Horse Riding Stunts" article. I am not actually this talented!

Over the years since my injury, I have battled my tendency to sit off to the left. I think that I have been fairly successful, in that mostly no one notices my tendency anymore. An observant person will notice that my horse seems a little stiff to the left, but it takes a keen observer to note that the problem is starting with me. I consider that a "win", since my horse performs as well as most and most people never notice my disability.

My trainer, however, is a keen observer. In my last lesson we were working on flexion, and he immediately noticed our left deficit. He began with the standard fix: Flex the horse left, put on your left leg, give the left rein. It worked, but not really as well as it should have. The more collection I introduce to Spider, the higher I travel up the training scale, the more apparent my deficit becomes. He is a completely different horse in the left rein as opposed to the right rein!

In a fit of genius, my trainer suddenly yelled out "Look right!" Now, this was while we were tracking left, so it goes completely against what we are taught as riders. We are always taught to look in the direction of travel, because that shifts our body into the correct position to apply our aids for the bend. Assuming, of course, that your body is normal. Mine is not, as evidenced by my sitting to the left and interfering with my horse.

In my case, the directive to "look right" while tracking left pretty much fixed my horse! My trainer was delighted, although he did admit that I looked sort of awkward like that. In the space of one lesson, we couldn't really expand this new observation, so we left it at that.

I have, however, expanded on the idea in riding by myself, and I think I've hit upon how to make it really work as a long term fix. I start my left hand bend looking right, I look right for several strides, then I cement that "looking right" feeling into my shoulders, spine and hips while slowly bringing my head back where it should be. I don't know exactly what it is about my conformation that makes me so discombobulated, although there are many suspects (numerous herniated discs and nerve damage, plus a degenerative scoliosis), but this little mental trick works like a charm. In the end, you don't really need to find the exact source of the problem to fix it. Sometimes I think I over-analyze problems, and then over-complicate them and give them too much space in my head, when I should just be moving forward and fixing them.

That's the thing I like most about my trainer. He knows I was injured, but he still sees the rider I can be and not just the rider I am. He is an FEI level competitor and an FEI judge, so he sees a lot more top competitors than I do. And he assures me that every one of those top level competitors has physical issues. So, I guess I'm doing good in that regard: I'm just as injured as the top level competitors! ;)

Tricks For Treats

2011-11-02T22:35:00.003-04:00

I am always amazed at the number of people who are vehemently opposed to clicker training for horses. I was talking to someone the other day who dismissed it in a highly unflattering way. I find it disconcerting that anyone could be so casually dismissive of an idea without bothering to educate themselves on it. There are many ideas that I dismiss, but I always educate myself on the subject before tossing them.

I do not practice clicker training myself, but I know what it is. I know the science behind it and I have no inherent dislike of it. I may dislike some people who claim to practice it, but I can assure you that has nothing to do with the clicker training.

I think much of the problem stems from a lack of understanding of what clicker training is. In operant conditioning, clicker training is positive reinforcement. But what is positive reinforcement?

Most people I interact with know that I have a background in animal behavior and neuroscience and that I work with animals. Thus, I often get asked, "Do you think animals have the same emotions people do?" Depending on my mood, my answer is either "You realize you are also an animal, right?" or the much more accurate, "I think that humans think they have many more emotions than they really do."

We humans love language, it's sort of our thing. Through our language, we come up with many more ways to express ourselves than our less linguistic animal fellows. We define every range of our emotions and, in defining them, give them a bit more credence than they really deserve. What we think of as "emotion", actually boils down to a few chemical reactions in our brains. After all, even in all our glory, we are simply the sum of our chemical parts. And, since no other animal has our fancy words to describe emotions, we humans must fall back on our chemistry for interspecies communication.

Clicker training, as positive reinforcement, can be boiled down to a simple chemical reaction. In every animal's brain, there is a chemical called dopamine. Dopamine makes us feel "happy". We like being happy, so we want dopamine. We want it, we crave it, we will do anything to get it.  A brain typically releases dopamine when the creature it belongs to is engaging in an activity that will increase it's likelihood of reproducing: eating, sex, aggressive displays, and (for social animals) social behaviors. Whether we humans want to acknowledge it or not, we are animals who are here for the purpose of reproducing ourselves and our physiology is tailored to that end. Every living thing's physiology is tailored to that end, which makes it a powerful tool.

So, when an animal eats, the brain releases dopamine. As we have already established, the animal likes that dopamine and wants more. The idea with positive reinforcement is that you combine that "Food = Happy" chemical release with an action. So, the horse performs a desirable action and immediately gets a treat, thus releasing dopamine and making the horse feel "happy". Eventually, when done properly, the brain is fooled and the dopamine is released when only the action is done, no treat required. It isn't "tricks for treats" anymore, it has become an action ingrained into the animal's behavior. That's the science behind clicker training. And remember the list of behaviors dopamine is released for? "Social behavior" is one of those. So, if you scratch your horse's withers when he does something well, you're using positive reinforcement. You don't necessarily need food to use positive reinforcement or clicker training, it just happens to be the easiest thing to use.

How does that compare with the usual method of horse training, the method most of us are accustomed to?   Well, we usually use negative reinforcement. Many people get upset by that name, because we humans have a tendency to associate the word "negative" with "bad". That's simply not accurate, though. The "negative" in negative reinforcement is like a photography negative, it's an absence. In negative reinforcement, a stimulus is provided until the desired action is displayed, then the stimulus is removed. For example, in riding, we put our leg on the horse, the horse moves away from the pressure and we remove our leg.   The reward in negative reinforcement is the removal of the stimulus (i.e., our leg), as opposed to positive reinforcement where the reward is the application of the stimulus (i.e.,food).

But both methods have the same neural pathway. Both involve a reward, both involve a release of dopamine in the brain. The reward differs, but in the end both methods hinge on an ability to provide the reward in a way that the trainee, the horse's brain, understands and will release the happy chemical for.

In short, clicker training is exactly the same as every other acknowledged method of training, so stop being a hater.

Of course, when used improperly, it's a train wreck. But, that's not any different from the conventional methods of horse training, either.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T15:19:00.000-04:00

Trick or Treat!

Spider looks thrilled, doesn't he? I imagine he's thinking, "Why does she dress me up for every single holiday? She has children to torture!" *G*

Just tricks from Evil Cat!

My New Toy

2011-10-28T12:51:00.000-04:00

I finally stepped up into the present and got myself one of those "smartphones". Sadly, it's smarter than me. It took me two days to figure out how to set up my voicemail, another two days to get my email set up, and I still don't really know how to actually make a phone call on it. I just sort of randomly push buttons until the phone finally takes pity on me and puts the call through.

I did figure out how to take pictures with it, though. So now I can share compelling images from my rides with all of you. Like this:

And this:

Well, perhaps "compelling" was a bit of an over-statement. Unless you find the back of a horse's head during free walk compelling. I must say, I am underwhelmed.

In other news, Spider and I continue to plug away. We're even starting to work on interesting things, rather than just conditioning work.

Stay tuned for more info.... maybe I'll even figure out how to take videos on my phone.*

*Not likely to happen

Warm-ups, Plans and Transitions

2011-10-21T17:44:00.000-04:00

The saga of Canter-Walk continues....

I've figured out that the secret is in getting a good canter. But how do you get a good canter? Developing a good collected canter is so individual: individual to the horse, individual to the rider, individual to the day. Some days it just doesn't happen, so we work on something else that day. Some days it happens, but I haven't got a clue what I did to get it there. Mostly, this is because it's just so new. We haven't been working on collected canter long enough for me to establish a warm-up pattern for Spider.

I have many warm-up patterns in my repertoire. I've developed them over the years based on Spider's personality, his physical strengths and weaknesses and his training level. For instance, I know lateral work tends to be a weak point with Spider, as he tends to be stiff and rush. So, if I want to do lateral work I warm him up by doing a lot of turn on the forehand and side pass from the halt. Side-pass is a Western training maneuver generally frowned upon by the dressage community. You will occasionally see extremely Classical trainers using it (they call it "full pass"), but most don't use it at all. As the name suggests, it is a purely sideways movement, no forward steps. Fore and hind legs cross over. I like it for Spider, because he can be a bit bullish and try to ignore my leg. This is the same reason I like turns on the forehand for him, even though some trainers don't like to use them because there is no forward momentum in the exercise. Forward is not really such a problem with Spider, but listening and relaxation sometimes is. (Thoroughbreds!) Those two exercises tend to settle him down and get him listening to my seat and leg, rather than just rushing around and blowing me off.

When I want to work on trot, we do trot-halt-trot transitions. These get Spider's butt under him and get him paying attention to my aids. They also get me off the inside rein, since he won't make the trot-halt transition if I'm hanging off his face. I tend to hang on the inside rein when he rushes, because he isn't properly bent to the inside. Are you seeing a pattern here? Stiffness and rushing!

Stiffness and rushing are Spider's biggest training hurdles. So, most of the warm-up routines I have for him are focused on transitions and lateral work. But, I go by what he feels like that day. If it's hot and he's feeling sluggish, we do a lot of big circles and serpentines at each gait to get him thinking forward. That's not really a usual warm-up routine for us, though.

So, to develop a good canter, we've been doing lots of transitions and lateral work. We start with canter-trot-canter transitions. Lots and lots of canter-trot-canter transitions. From there, I add a couple leg yields at canter and a bit of shoulder-fore. Then we move on to counter-canter. Then, we move up to the really hard exercise: A figure eight consisting of a 20m counter canter circle, then a ten meter canter circle. Once we've got that, the collection is (usually) relatively easy and we can begin to work on the canter-walk transitions. And we're getting more consistent with them. I'd say I'm getting them from right lead canter nearly every time, and from left lead more often than not. He's doing well.

We'll get there, eventually.

First Gumbo

2011-10-17T20:57:00.001-04:00

My son, enjoying his first gumbo.

We had our first gumbo of the season today, which is sort of a big deal. Gumbo means that it's really fall. Fall means that it's time to get to work preparing for next year.

What's gumbo? Well, where I grew up we eat a stew called gumbo in the fall and winter. There is no one, real recipe for gumbo. There are as many recipes for gumbo as there are people cooking it in Louisiana. There are seafood gumbos, poultry gumbos, meat gumbos and, true to the spirit of the people of Louisiana, gumbos made out of whatever the hell you drug out of the swamp that day. What makes it gumbo isn't a recipe. What makes it gumbo is the shared culture of the people of Louisiana. We are from different ethnicities, different socio-economic groups and different heritages, but we are all tied together with the thread that is gumbo.

So what makes gumbo gumbo? Well, it starts with a roux. A roux is made of flour and oil. Any kind of flour will do, and any kind of oil will do. You cook it, very slowly, until it's the color you want: blonde is good for seafood, Creoles prefer a roux that's the color of peanut butter and the Cajuns like a roux that's the color of molasses. I've had all sorts, and they all tasted good.

Once you've built your roux (a roux is built, it is not just made), you add the Holy Trinity. In Louisiana cooking, the Holy Trinity is onions, celery and green bell peppers. Those three things are a constant in every one of our dishes, regardless of who (or what) is cooking.

And to finish it up, there's okra. Most people I know outside of Louisiana don't really like okra. It's a funny sort of thing, and probably an acquired taste. Disparagers of okra will tell you that the stuff is slimy, really slimy. It is slimy, I cannot dispute that, but that slime is the glue that holds our gumbos together. Without okra, gumbo wouldn't have the wondrous, velvety texture that it is famed for. It just couldn't be gumbo without okra.

For the rest of it, well that's up to the cook. It can be whatever you want it to be. Gumbo draws on all the cultures of Louisiana: French, Spanish, African, Native American, and just straight up United States. It's a melting pot of influences, with no influence being "right" or "wrong".

Honestly, I cannot think of a better analogy for horsemanship than gumbo. Rhythm and relaxation are our roux. Our seat, hand and leg are our Holy Trinity. And our passion is okra.

Every discipline, no matter it's final goal, is looking for rhythm and relaxation. We all seek that perfect balance between hand, seat and leg. That's the "Holy Trinity" we are all looking for. And, okra? Well, you cannot deny that there is a certain slime that is holding all of us who are interested in horses together. That slime is both celebrated and abhorred, but it is there (and probably an acquired taste!).

I look at the people of my home, and I see a reflection of many disparate heritages, but we are all drawn together by a spirit of culture that goes back hundreds of years. We, as the people of Louisiana, are drawn together by a land that we all call our own. It's a difficult land, and we have all done our best in it. Despite our differences (African, French, Spanish, Native American, and everything else!), we have created a common culture, outside of the societal norms, because we are united in a common interest: Our beloved land, Louisiana.

I look at my fellow horsemen, and I don't see a culture that goes back hundreds of years. Our culture goes back thousands of years, to the dawn of humanity. Horses are our okra. Horsemanship crosses countries, ethnicities, and cultures. Horses are the slime that binds humanity together.

Because of that history that spans thousands of generations and lifestyles, there are more ways to ride a horse than there are ways for me to count them, and there is nothing wrong with that. We are tied together by our roux and our Holy Trinity, and our okra. None of our recipes are necessarily right or wrong, they just are. Through our gumbo, our love of horses, our shared culture, we are tied together in a way that most people never understand.

And, through our gumbo, our love of horses, our shared culture, I hope that we can be more accepting of each other.

Because most times, although the recipe is different, the gumbo still tastes good.

Lessons

2011-10-12T16:00:00.002-04:00

I rarely take lessons anymore. Not because I think I'm so good that I don't need them. Everyone needs lessons, that's why even the Olympic teams have a coach! Lessons are invaluable no matter what level you're riding at.

But, I have time constraints, in the form of a farm to run and two young children to wrangle. Plus, I've been having problems with my back and neck this year. And so I fall behind in my lessons, much to my poor trainer's chagrin. Luckily, he is also a good friend and thus tolerates my shenanigans.

I think I've only had three or four lessons this year, which is a much lower number than it should be. I know my riding would be much better and Spider would be further in his training if I had taken more lessons.
Back in the day (pre-injuries, pre-children and farm of my own) I took a lot of lessons. It was actually a part of my pay. Despite the freakishly inflated prices in the dressage industry, the actual net income for a professional is pretty low. So, if you're working for a trainer, you can pretty much expect that part of your pay will be in lessons. Trainer's time in exchange for your time. Which actually works out pretty well. Knowledge is priceless.

But still, I am not really a "lesson a week" type of student. I like to work things out on my own. Actually, I have to work things out on my own, because I suffer from a ridiculous inability to do anything in a lesson. I listen, I comprehend, I absorb, then I stall out.

I'm not exaggerating... I completely freeze up in lessons. I become utterly inept, unable to do anything but be a passenger on my horse. I feel completely stupid after the fact, because that drooling idiot in the saddle was not really me. I know how to ride effectively, I know how to get the most from my horse. And yet all that knowledge flies out the window the second my trainer shows up. I become a zombie, waiting for my trainer to tell me what to do.

In some ways it's good, because my being a passenger allows the training I have put on my horse to shine through. As I sit there passively allowing my horse to his thing all by himself, it is obvious that he has gained more strength and self carriage. He displays himself well, in spite of his rider's sudden coma.

In most ways my lesson-induced catatonic state is bad, though. My poor trainer spends the majority of our lesson yelling at me to "Do SOMETHING!" , and we never really get to the fun stuff. I know this is frustrating for him. He sees that there is always improvement in the horse since the last time he came, he knows I'm the only one who rides him, so therefore I obviously do know how to ride. I just don't do it when he's around.

Poor trainer.

Progress In Pictures

2011-10-01T13:58:00.000-04:00

Spider, August 2010

Spider, October 2011

Taking good comparison pictures of horses is a real pain. I never can get it just right. The stance is slightly different, the lighting is off. Plus, Spider has a rather annoying habit of changing color completely between summer and winter. It looks like two completely different horses up there.

But, I did the best I could matching up two pictures so you could see the difference a year of work has made in Spider. He's really beefed up. I can see a significant difference in his neck and shoulder from last year, all that collected work we've been doing is showing.

The first picture from last year shows a long, lean horse. He's well muscled and in good shape, but not like the second picture. The second picture shows a real dressage horse! His neck and back even look shorter from the muscle he's developed. Overall, it gives him a sort of "compressed" look. Like he's collected even while just standing there.

I'm pretty impressed with my little Thoroughbred. As an aside, he's also barefoot and grain-free. Now, I know that lifestyle isn't feasible for every horse, but I hear a lot of people say that it can't be done with competitive horses at all. Well, there's at least one barefoot, grain-free, competitive Thoroughbred out there who's just as beefy as the Warmbloods. So I guess it can be done.

Thoughts For A "Fall" Day

2011-09-25T15:22:00.002-04:00

New Jersey did not get the memo that fall has arrived. We're still hot, muggy, and sticky. Not exactly motivational weather, but I have things to get done. I guess it will have to do.

In my efforts to nail the canter-walk transitions I've realized a few things. Mostly, I've realized that my horse's canter is not really that great. I think it's pretty great, in that he can carry me around in a manner that feels relaxed and soft. It's easy to sit Spider's canter, and he certainly seems round, but there are clues that it just isn't quite where it needs to be to move up the levels.

Clue #1: I still can't do those *&#%^*$ canter-walk transitions consistently! It is, however, getting better. I can occasionally get them from right lead canter. This is progress, it means Spider is getting stronger. The left lead still evades me, but we are steaming ahead. We'll get it someday....

I once audited a clinic in which the clinician used an amusing analogy to describe the proper collected canter. He said, "The horse should ROAR into the canter like a lion!" He even put his hands up in the air like claws, mimicking a lion "roaring". The audience giggled, it was such a silly thing to say. But it's an analogy that's stuck with me for years.

I also remember the very first time I ever sat on an FEI horse. Up to that point, I had only ever ridden Western trained horses and lower level dressage horses. When I asked for the canter on that FEI horse, I nearly fell off! I was not expecting the canter to be so..... rambunctious. He didn't canter so much as he leaped. This was years before I had heard the roaring lion analogy, and I was not prepared at all!

I eventually learned to ride those leaping canters, and to control them. On those leaping Schoolmasters I learned the canter-walk transitions and even the canter-halts. The key is to start cueing the downward transition as the leap begins. The tempo goes: leap, pause, leap, pause, leap. As you feel the horse gather himself for the next leap, you apply your aids for the downward transition. The horse leaps into your aids, and you set him down gently into the walk.

I've realized that I will never get that transition from a gentle, easy to sit, rocking horse canter. It's too flat, there's no pause. I need the leap.

My Spider doesn't leap like a lion, and I don't think he ever will. He just isn't built that way. But when I ride him now and I ask him to collect I get a few strides that roll like a wave. Those are the strides I'm looking for. I feel him roll up from his hind end like a wave breaking against the beach, then a pause, then he rolls forward again. All I have to do is ride that wave up to its peak, then set him down into the walk. It is a strength issue for him, and a timing issue for me.

I just can't resist making a ridiculous pun about it: Sometimes to get ahead, you need to make waves!

Where Are Your Legs?

2011-09-18T15:17:00.001-04:00

My son is just learning to walk. Every step he takes is a conscious effort. He thinks very carefully about how he lifts his leg, where he places it, when he moves his muscles. As adults, we don't think about these things anymore. Our brains have already learned what to do and now we walk, jog and run without any mental effort at all. Through years of practice, we have built up a "muscle memory".

That's how our brains work. We build up memories of motions we repeat often, until eventually we don't really have to think about them anymore. Our bodies simply "know" what to do without us consciously telling them what to do.

Unfortunately, sometimes our memories are not as accurate as they should be. If we learn a skill incorrectly, our muscle memories will also be incorrect. We will repeat the incorrect movement ad nauseum and our brains will resist changing it, until the correct movement feels awkward and incorrect. Even if we are trained correctly, we can still screw it up. In the case of injury, we subconsciously guard our weak points, which causes the rest of our bodies to fall out of alignment. In my case, I know I hunch my shoulders to guard the herniated discs in my neck. I have herniated discs in my neck because I look down when I walk. I look down when I walk because I have nerve damage in my left leg from another injury and I feel the need to look down so I don't trip. It's a ridiculous downward spiral of crap-tacularness.

Most riders I know have some problem like this. The problem itself varies: straight arms, gripping thighs, hunched shoulders, chair seat.... But, no matter the bad habit, the source is an incorrect muscle memory. We have inadvertently trained ourselves to ride that way.

In the last few weeks I have been trying to get rid of my bad habits, my incorrect muscle memories. I have been trying to correct my posture both in and out of the saddle. To that end, I have taken a cue from my son. I am trying to be very conscious of using my muscles properly. I am thinking very hard about where I place my body and why.

As I watch my son walk, I realize that he takes a very proper stance: his head is balanced perfectly above his shoulders, his shoulders balance above his hips, his hips are balanced above his heels. He is young, and is as yet unaffected by the many cares that life will put on him. He has no aches and pains, he has no chores to do, and so he delights in his new found skill. His delight reminds me of Xenophon's words: "If one induces the horse to assume that carriage which it would adopt of its own accord when displaying its beauty, then one directs the horse to appear joyous and magnificent, proud and remarkable for having been ridden."

It seems I must induce myself to assume that carriage which I would adopt if I were displaying my beauty, just as my little son does.

Odds, Ends and Spam

2011-09-11T14:21:00.000-04:00

Blogger has a nifty little "Stats" tag that shows you how many people are coming to your blog and where they're coming from. I like to click on it sometimes to see where my blog visitors come from. I've actually discovered quite a few good blogs to read from my referral sites. However, I have noticed a disturbing trend in my referral sites: Many of them have absolutely nothing to do with riding, horses, or even blogs.

For awhile, one of my major "sources" of hits was a Russian singles dating site. I thought that was a little odd, but Spider is pretty good looking, so I let it slide. But for the last month or so my biggest "sources" have been websites selling crap. Crap like cake pans, online degrees and loans. What's up with that? I began to be suspicious. So, I installed some (free, because I don't actually care enough to spend my money on this) analytical software into my blog. None of these sales sites appear on my third party analytical software. Hmmmmmm...........

I'm not one to make conspiracy theories, but I think Blogger may be trying to spam me. Shame on you, Blogger! And, cake pans? Really? How about you program your web crawler to insert sites with stuff I actually might want to buy?

Anyway... moving on to the actual subject of this blog, which is not cake pans, I have not been doing much of interest this week. I'm still working on Spider's canter, still working on my position and just generally trying to move forward (aren't we all?). I'm still stuck on those wretched canter-walk transitions. It is taking all of my will power to not just try to drill the things into the ground, too. But, drilling them over and over would accomplish nothing because the canter is still not where I need it to be. I could force the transition, but it would not be relaxed and thus not correct. When faced with challenges like this, when I desperately want to get something accomplished but find that it is just not happening, I repeat to myself the wise words of Alois Podhajsky:

"I have time."

My horse does not care if we ever do a canter-walk transition. He does not care about my goals or my pride. He has no goals and no pride. And so I must remember to make this fun for him, even (and especially) if it is not fun for me.

Canter Work, Seat Work, Back to Work

2011-09-03T18:07:00.000-04:00

Since Irene ended up being a non-event, Spider and I have gone back to work full steam. My neck is feeling quite good, I've even been released from physical therapy. Although, there are still some problems, more on that some other time.

For now, we'll concentrate on the interesting bits: horse training. I mentioned in my last training post that I feel Spider's canter work is not up to snuff. I can get half-passes at walk and trot, but fail miserably at a canter-walk transition. So the canter needs work. With that in mind, I have been practicing counter-canter, shoulder in, and spiraling in and out on a circle with Spider. All those exercises will help him to sit down and activate his hind end at the canter. Once I have the appropriate amount of activity, I will begin to collect the canter, then send him back into a working canter until he reaches the point where he can nearly canter in place. From there, the canter-walk will be in the bag.

But, I don't like to work on one thing all the time in training. It is not good for the horse's (or rider's) brain, and it is not a sound way to develop strength. From a physiological standpoint, muscles are built by damaging them. Hard work puts tiny tears in the muscle fiber, which the body then repairs. But because the muscle was stressed to the point of damage, the body says "We need more strength here!". And so the damaged muscle is not only repaired, but also reinforced, making it bigger and stronger so that it will not fail again. The only caveat is that the muscle must be allowed time to repair itself. To compensate for this, I like to work on different things on different days.

So what to work on non-fixing the canter days? Well, it just so happens that during Hurricane Irene I picked up my copy of Heinrich Schusdziarra's Anatomy of Dressage and re-read it. It is one of my favorites. The book details how we ride from a biomechanical standpoint, why we need to ride in a proper position, and what happens when we don't. My re-reading of it has inspired me to be more conscious of my position and to work on it. So, a few days a week I just let Spider go around in simple circles while I think about my seat and leg, which muscles I am activating at what time, and what my upper body is doing while all that is going on. I'm actually enjoying it. Because, as we all know, dressage riders are all secretly masochists.

Actually, it's because my physical therapy has made me feel better and I'm not guarding my spine as much anymore. I feel much more free and able than I have in months, which makes working on my position a pleasure rather than a chore!

Here Comes The Sun

2011-08-28T18:30:00.001-04:00

"It's all right..."

Those are the lyrics to one of my favorite Beatles' tunes, and highly appropriate right now. The sun is shining brightly here right now. Irene has passed. For us here in South Jersey, she was mostly bark and no bite. There is some flooding, because our area had already been inundated with rain this past week, but little wind damage. We were very lucky, and I'm glad I over-prepared.

Now I have to figure out how to get weatherproof livestock paint off my horses. Because, right now, I've got three walking billboards in my pasture advertising my cell phone number to every passer by!

Here We Go.....

2011-08-27T12:28:00.000-04:00

The wind is picking up, the rain has started. Irene is on her way.

We spent yesterday clearing the yard of anything the could potentially become "flying debris" and filling water tubs and every other water tight container we could find. In a fit of genius, my husband decided to fill the kid's wading pool with water. That sucker holds five hundred gallons, which should keep the horses in water for over a week.

The horses themselves will be out during the storm. I've seen what can happen to structures during hurricanes, and I am just not comfortable keeping a horse inside. If a tree should fall or the roof come off, I want the horses to be able to escape. So the stall doors will be open, they can go in or get out as necessary. I've painted my phone number on their bodies with weatherproof livestock paint and braided dog tags into their tails, in case they get loose during the storm. I wrote the numbers big enough that they can be read even from afar, in case the horses are panicked and won't let a stranger catch them.

I've got a big pot roast cooking, which will feed us for a few days. The freezer is packed full of enough ice blocks to keep it cool for several days, plus we have a little generator that will run off the vehicles if necessary. I just made a pitcher of Hurricanes. I think we're as ready as we'll ever be. Now it's time to sit, drink Hurricanes and wait.

Come on, Irene!

Shaking Things Up

2011-08-24T17:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we had a real live earthquake, an exciting thing for this area! My horses did not even notice. They looked up from grazing when I ran out the house just long enough to give me a "What's your problem?" look, then went back to eating. So much for animals being "in tune" with nature and being able to sense these things.

"Umm, Hello.... We're busy! Predict your own earthquake."

Aside from literal earth shaking, I've also been shaking things up a bit training-wise the last two days. So far my riding has been fairly inconsistent this month, so I've been focusing on the basics: forward, round, contact. Since my neck is finally beginning to feel a bit better, I threw in some shoulder-in yesterday.

At first it wasn't great. Spider just popped his outside shoulder and fell onto his forehand, not really crossing over with his inside fore leg or lifting his shoulders. Evading me, little stinker! I tried again, this time remembering to block his outside shoulder with a strong half-halt and to lift my inside rein upwards to free his inside shoulder. Success! I felt his shoulders lift and could see the cross-over in front. In this fashion, we practiced several shoulder-ins in both directions at trot and canter.

Today I was originally going to take a fairly light day. But Spider felt good, and I felt good, and we ended up working for nearly an hour! I started by revisiting the shoulder-ins from yesterday, then we played a bit with transitions within the gaits: collecting the gait, then going back to the working gait. After he was feeling pretty good with that, I decided to try a little half-pass.

I introduced half-pass to Spider a few years ago, but never really polished it. It was really just something we played around with. Since then, he really hasn't felt collected enough to revisit it, because of my inconsistency with riding. Although we really aren't that consistent yet, I decided to throw it out there anyway.

I started at walk, tracking right (his good side). From the corner, I brought him into a shoulder-in. Then turned him right onto the center line (still thinking "shoulder-in"). From the center line, I moved my outside leg back, shifted my hands to the right and began to ask him to move sideways into the bend. And he did it!!!! His haunches trailed a bit, but he kept the bend. It was a very nice "baby" half pass. We did two more tracking right at walk, then tried left. And it was great, too!

Drunk on my baby half-pass success, I tried for more. I stepped it up to trot. Tracking right, we nailed it. The impulsion of the trot even kept his haunches from trailing as much. Tracking left, he broke to a walk as I asked for the sideways movement. I tried again, same result. Obviously, I was going to have to get tricky...

For my third try at trot halfpass left, I asked for shoulder-in from the corner, then turned down center line and kept right on turning onto a 10 meter circle. The circle re-balanced Spider, and as we came back to center line I asked for the halfpass. He nailed it! I was so proud of my little Thoroughbred. We called it a day after that, since he had done so well.

But as I thought about it more, my glee turned into annoyance. I am still struggling with canter-walk transitions. If I can do a decent halfpass, why the hell can't I do a canter-walk transition?!

Luckily, as I stewed, the answer came to me: My canter work sucks. Spider has a very lovely rocking-horse type canter. It's easy to be fooled into thinking we're doing good. Not so with his trot.... If his trot isn't forward and round enough, he turns into a jackhammer. It's pretty obvious that something ain't right, so I fix it immediately. But his canter! I could ride that all day, even with his head in the air and his hind legs trailing. I need to be more conscious of that, and make sure that the canter work is truly correct so that we can move forward in our training.

I guess we'll be doing a lot more canter exercises from here on out!

Ugly Riding

2011-08-21T16:43:00.000-04:00

I used to have my horses at a place with both dressage and jumpers. I was talking with one of the young ladies in training with the jumper instructor one day when the subject of different riding styles came up. She said something to the effect of "dressage riders are all so 'handsy'". I found this statement to be terribly amusing, because she was riding in a pelham with a martingale. I wouldn't be 'handsy' in that getup, either. You'd get yourself killed!

Dressage riders do have a reputation of being 'handsy'. Some of it's deserved, some misunderstood. My hands move quite a bit when I ride. I move them up and down my horse's neck, I shift them from side to side, slide them up and down the reins, I lower them and raise them and squeeze my fists on the reins, all to get a desired response from my horse. It isn't pretty and you'll never see a Grand Prix rider in a show doing it, but it is a part of training.  And that's the difference: "show" versus "training"...

Dressage is about the pursuit of beauty and harmony. The goal of training a horse, as many Classicists have stated, is to make him more beautiful in his movements and carriage. This does not, however, mean that the in-between stages are beautiful. But, that's something most people don't see. It's normal practice to have a horse training at least one level higher than you're showing, so the "ugly" stays at home. That's really a shame. There is so much to be learned from the "ugly riding".

I learned that it was OK to be temporarily "ugly" by being in professional training barns. I saw many of the Big Name Trainers working many horses at many different levels on a daily basis. I saw some seriously ugly riding, but at the end of every ride the beauty came through and the rides ended in harmony. There are many people out there who don't have exposure to training barns. They only see the show work. The shows are nice, and they are something to aspire to, but they don't show the whole picture. I have the same problem with many of the "Classical" works of literature: they are illustrating the ideal, but not necessarily the reality.   I aspire to be like the Classicists, but I know it is a long, hard, ugly road to get there. Most of us are not riding horses we have bred and started ourselves, nor do we have the benefit of many years of correct classical training. We are re-training horses or struggling to learn in less than perfect scenarios. We will be ugly, and that's OK.

I've been thinking about this subject a lot lately, because right now my situation is ugly. It is familiar to me, because I've been through physical therapy before. That is the way these things go, my muscles need to learn a new way to be and that makes things painful and ugly. My back feels worse than it has in years, and I'd love to give up now... but I know that once I've pushed through this I will feel better. My muscles will learn how to support my spine and I will eventually feel better.

Because I am a horseman at heart, I can't help but apply these things to my relationship with horses. Sometimes our horses balk at what we ask them to do. Sometimes they refuse.  I am sure it's because the work is hard and they hurt. But, I have educated myself in their training, their behavior, their physiology and their biomechanics and I know that what I'm asking is in their best interest. It is with that knowledge that I can ask my horse to push through his pain. He doesn't understand why I'm asking for these things now, but I have cultivated his trust. He trusts in me, and I know that on the other side of his hesitation and pain there is good, correct work. It is with this knowledge and confidence that I move forward, both with my horse's training and with my own physical therapy. No matter how "ugly" things get.

Letting Go

2011-08-16T16:42:00.001-04:00

Today marks six years since the riding accident that broke my back. It was the accident that ended my career as a horseman. The lingering effects of that injury are still vexing me today.

In my experience, after a riding accident people go one of two ways: Either you become afraid and eventually stop riding, or you push through because you're just too stupid to learn. I pushed through after my injury, but I will not say that I was unchanged. It isn't fear, I actually had (and still have) a sort of "indestructible" complex. I've already fallen and been broken. I got back up and kept right on pushing. Nothing can stop me now, right? I've invested far too much of my life to give up now.

Except that my body doesn't always cooperate with me any more, and that knocks my confidence more than any fear ever could. I am not the same rider I was before I fell.

Before I fell, I was strong and effective in the saddle. I was quick to react and I could push a horse through any resistance. I was a bulldog in the saddle, and I could ride anything.

After my fall, I am weak and slow. My body doesn't do what I tell it to. Nowhere is this more apparent than in a lesson. My trainer yells "Flex him, flex him NOW!". My brain yells "Left leg, now, Now NOW!!!!" My left leg does nothing while my trainer yells and my brain yells and my horse just blows through me like I'm not even there. And my confidence shatters. I am not afraid to ride, I'm just incapable of doing it. I want it, but I'm just not good enough.

That's how I feel most of the time: Just not good enough. But something clicked in my last lesson. A simple idea that I've heard a million times, and expressed a million times, cut through my doubt.

A simple idea: "Don't rely on your strength, you'll never be stronger than a horse."

I've spent so many years mourning the rider I was that I've failed to see the rider I would have become and the rider I still can become. With experience and finesse the bulldog of my youth would have mellowed. She would have become a sensitive, tactful trainer of horses. She would have used her brain to ride a horse, not her strength.

I had that epiphany after about the millionth time riding in a circle listening to my poor trainer yell "Activate him!". I stopped my horse and protested, "I'm trying, but I don't have the strength!". His response was simple, and not a new idea: "Don't use your muscles, use your brain.".

Of course! I know better than that, I am better educated than that.... but it so easy to fall back on our strength. It is so easy to be bullish. Far easier than actually sitting back and thinking about the problem. Far quicker, too.

My lack of strength is not my problem. My reliance on my strength is my problem....

Viva Volte!

2011-08-12T17:36:00.001-04:00

I have not done much riding this week, as my neck has been bothering me. I started physical therapy this week. They've got me in traction for 10 minutes every session. For those unfamiliar with traction, your head gets put into a sort of vise thing and then stretched up. Sort of like the Medieval torture device called "The Rack"....

Actually, it feels pretty good while it's on. The stretching relieves the pressure in my neck from the herniated disc, which also relieves the pain. Unfortunately, it also stretches the muscles in my neck, which then get sore later in the day. I was also given "homework" exercises to do to help strengthen my neck. Well, I have an exercise to do. It's a deceptively simple one, too: while lying on your back, press your head into the floor as hard as you can without moving your chin up or down. Hold for ten seconds. Repeat ten times. Seems easy, but it's kicking my ass! Most people spend a majority of their day hunched over at a computer, driving, or sitting in a chair. This position causes the muscles in the back of the neck and shoulders to become stretched and weak. My "homework" exercises strengthen those muscles back up. Judging from the burn I'm feeling in the back of my neck right now, I had some pretty weak muscles!

Since my neck is bothering me, I'm taking it easy, focusing on quality and not quantity. To that end, I've broken out the volte. Why volte? Well, it's a really small circle (typically 6 meters, but who's measuring?). In order to execute a really small circle, the horse needs to be forward, on the aids and balanced. Every time I begin to feel that Spider is getting strung out, I turn into a volte immediately. He is a trained horse (In spite of my various physical issues and general inconsistency. He is ready for 3rd level, but his rider is holding him back.), and as a trained horse he knows how to volte. So, when I ask for the movement, he rebalances himself automatically so that he can comply with my request. Good boy! And especially good for me, as I don't have the physical strength to rebalance him myself at this point. Of course, what makes it especially, especially good is that Spider's ability to balance himself in the voltes without me needing to organize him is actually an important milestone for a riding horse: self-carriage.

And so we are volte-ing away here. We aren't working on any of the "tricks", aside from a bit of shoulder in and haunches in to loosen up. I am confident the tricks will be there when we need them, though, because I have layed, and am always maintaining, a solid foundation in my horse's training.

I've also found a working student, who has really been invaluable for cooling Spider out. She's a little short, but I still think she's working out nicely:

My daughter and a very fine Schoolmaster.

Weird Stuff My Horse Does

2011-08-09T16:28:00.000-04:00

To say that Spider has "personality" would be a bit of an understatement. He's quite the character, actually. Over the years I have owned him I've noticed several eccentricities about him.

He takes stretching very seriously. Every morning before breakfast he executes a very nice Downward Dog Pose before he eats. Breakfast is very important. One must be properly warmed up.

He also does his Yoga before other activities, like splashing in the puddle in his pasture:

Puddle splashing is serious work. You could slip and pull something if not properly stretched.

His flexibility comes in handy for other things, too. He's really an innovator when it comes to scratching his butt. Most horses just back up to a post or the side of the barn, but not Spider. Spider sits down on the ground and scoots his butt like a dog.

Sadly, I have no video of this particular peculiarity, because it's pretty hilarious to watch a giant horse scoot on his butt across the paddock. I'm working on it....

Thank goodness he does all that yoga......

Get In Your Box

2011-08-05T12:56:00.000-04:00

I once cliniced with a person who used this phrase to describe a way to ride a horse. You imagine your body as a box, then you ride the horse into that box. The visual didn't work well for me, but I do find it amusing to yell "Get in your box, dammit!" at my horse when he's not cooperating. This post is not about figurative boxes, though. I'm actually talking about a literal box.

I've discussed my corner cutting before. It's a bad habit, and I've endeavored to fix it. My arena doesn't have a fence, so I took my cavaletti (and other lumber I scavenged from around the property) and made myself corners to ride in. Unfortunately, I don't have enough cavaletti to ring the entire arena, so I just made a smallish box. It's about 20 by 20 meters, I think. (I sort of just eyeballed it)

The Old Masters used to ride in very small arenas. I always assumed that was because they didn't have the wide open spaces over there that we have in America, but it has recently come to my attention that it's actually an advantage to ride in a small arena. The corners come up quicker, you need to prepare more. This is not a bad thing for me, since my corner riding finesse is seriously lacking.

The corners should ideally be ridden in shoulder fore. In my case, they should be ridden in leg yield. Not because that's literally how they should be ridden, but because I need to exaggerate it that much to compensate for my slacking and my horse's natural stiffness.

After the fifth or sixth (or possibly twentieth, who's counting?) time Spider and I blew through the corner, it finally clicked. All the sudden I had the feeling..... the feeling we live for in dressage. The feeling that I could wing his hind end around like crazed motocross rider, that I could launch him across the diagonal like a rocket. The feeling that I was sitting on his hind legs and the entire horse was stretched out in front of me.

In working through the corners, thinking "leg yield", Spider's collection and flexibility have improved greatly. I am pleased.

Of course, the Old Masters didn't always ride in the arena. They also took their horses out into public parks to ride. Now days there aren't too many public parks with bridle paths left, not in New Jersey anyway, but there is always the neighbor's hay field and my pasture to ride in. It's important to not do too many tight circles with a horse, bad for the hocks. Plus, Spider likes to have a little gallop sometimes. He is a Thoroughbred, after all.

Back To Work

2011-08-02T18:22:00.000-04:00

Getting back into the swing of things is always difficult. Laziness is written into our biology at the most basic level. Evolution favors streamlining. Things that aren't really needed are lost, like the human tail and most of our horse's toes. These things happen because the metabolic (energy) requirement for creating and maintaining the structure outweighs the benefit of having it. Nature favors a low energy output. See, laziness is good!

Unless, of course, you're trying to train a horse. Then laziness is slightly less than desirable. Inherent laziness aside, Spider and I starting to settle into a good routine. I work him every other day and we work on something different every time. Some days we focus on trot, some days canter or lateral work or collection. There are so many areas of our training that need improvement, it really isn't hard to change up our routine!

We are not working on anything new. I am being a bit conservative, partly because of the heat and partly because of my continuing back issues. I fired the Physiatrist I saw previously. He wanted to work up my lower back first. My lower back is not giving me the most problems right now. And, really, I know what's wrong with my lower back: I broke it! Yes, it does cause me pain, but that pain is mostly background noise and rarely bothers me in the saddle. Whatever is going on with my neck is acute, severe and prevents me from riding, so let's address that first! Plus, because his practice was affiliated with one of the big hospitals in Philadelphia, his appointments were booked up for months in advance. It would have taken him the better part of a year to work up my whole back and get a treatment plan in place. I don't have time for that.

To that end, I found a very nice Orthopedist right here in my little Podunk town. He is even featured on a very large billboard along the (only) major highway in our area. Exciting! So what if he isn't affiliated with the finest Sports Medicine practices in Philadelphia? He listened to me, and (aside from one admonition that riding was "very bad for my back", that was shut down very quickly) is doing his best to figure out what is going on with me. So far, I've only gotten an MRI of my neck, it showed a herniation between C-6 and C-7. The Ortho thinks there may be more going on, though. From his examinations of me, he feels that my left shoulder and my left elbow are involved, too. These three competing problems are combining into a Voltron of Pain and that is what's causing my neck to seize up. Great. For now, I have a referral for physical therapy. I will go to physical therapy for a month, and if I haven't improved then I'll start having injections.

Funny side note: The Ortho started to describe the injections and I was like, "Oh, I know what they are. Sport horses get them all the time." Then he described how the injections would be done: We would start by injecting my shoulder. If that didn't provide relief, then we would go to my neck. My response: "Oh, just like nerving on a lameness exam!" And people say horses are a silly hobby....

And now on a completely unrelated topic...

I am very proud to announce that my dear Lucky Duck is the proud Mama to four absolutely adorable little duckies! I had worried she might be lonely all by herself, so earlier this spring I bought her a boyfriend:

Rex, Lucky Duck's handsome new fella'

I am pleased to report that Lucky is a lonely duck no more! Her new little family is just beautiful.

Awwww......

It Ain't The Heat

2011-07-29T17:36:00.000-04:00

It's the sun!

I'm a fairly heat tolerant person. I grew up in the South, it gets disgusting, sticky, oppressive hot down there. Heat and humidity are my friends. It's the sun I can't stand.

It doesn't help that I'm also very fair skinned. I have no protective layer of melanin to protect me, I just turn red and miserable as the sun cooks my innards like a microwave.

Spider, on the other hand, seems utterly unaffected by the heat. Which is a good thing, but it's also really, really annoying. I'm starting him back into work slowly after our extended, heat induced hiatus. Currently, we're working every other day and just the basics: forward, round, relaxed. He doesn't really get "slowly", though. Thoroughbreds just don't do "slow". They're not so good at "relaxed", either.

Because it's still hot (with no end in sight), I've taken a cue from from other animals and become crepuscular. That means active at dawn and dusk. It's a fun word to say. Try throwing it into your next normal conversation and see what kind of reactions you get.

Normal friend: "Hey, how 'bout this crazy weather?!"

You: "Yeah, I've totally become crepuscular"

*watch with glee as normal friend splutters and tries to figure out how to end this awkward conversation in a dignified way*

Sheep Attack!!!!!!!!!

2011-07-23T17:52:00.002-04:00

Horses are odd creatures.

I am always amazed at the things they tolerate from us: noisy trucks and tractors, being hauled around in trailers, bridles, bits and saddles (not to mention the bouncy, flopping ape in the saddle). Horses are truly tolerant creatures. We put them through so many confusing, frightening scenarios and they never bat an eyelash. Which is why I'm always surprised at the completely random things that set my horses off.

My horses frequently spook at other animals. Particularly Spider. Vinny and Matilda would much rather eat grass than worry about the goings on outside their pasture, but Spider is always on the alert. He vigilantly protects his herd from the masses of turkey, deer, squirrels and small songbirds waiting to attack. And by "protects", I mean that he runs around like an idiot, blowing and trumpeting, while "his herd" ignores him. Sometimes Vinny joins in the running and blowing, but only if he doesn't have anything better to do right then.

But, every once in awhile, a truly scary animal shows up. Like when Spider first saw the neighbor's goats. He spent the rest of the day pacing the fenceline, trumpeting a "challenge" to his new rivals and and circling his herd. The goats ignored him (because goats are smart), and he eventually gave up. He had Vinny and Matilda all riled up for most of the day, though. Or the time another neighbor's pet steer showed up in the front yard. Even Matilda was scared of that, and nothing scares Matilda. Truly, non-equine domestic livestock are monsters to be feared.

Today, we barely survived a sheep attack. That's right. A sheep attack.

Let's back up.... so as to begin this story at the beginning.

When I got up this morning, I looked out the front window and noted: "Hey, the neighbor across the street got some sheep. Neat." I thought nothing more of it. It is brutally hot here. My days are consumed with hosing down horses, dumping and then refilling water buckets (my horses prefer cool water directly from the well and I'm a big, giant sucker) and trying desperately to stay cool. The heat index here is 120 F. It's just ridiculous. The horses are barely moving, and they're still dripping with sweat. Imagine my surprise when I look out the window and see them running around like idiots. Why are they running?!? It's a million degrees, do they have a death wish?!?

I ran out onto the porch to see what had them so riled up. Nuclear holocaust? Alien invasion army? Zombie apocalypse!? I saw nothing. Oh wait, I saw sheep.....

It is over 100 degrees and I am standing on my front porch, sweating profusely, while my idiot horses run, blow and snort at fluffy sheep across the street. Annoyed, I yell out, "Boys!" (Matilda, being more intelligent, has realized that sheep are no threat and is no longer running) "Boys!! It's friggin' sheep. Stop being stupid and settle down. Easy!". Vinny, hearing me yell, stops running and turns to face me. He snorts one more time, but the fun of it is over. So, he resumes grazing. Spider is unconvinced. He stands at full alert, watching the sheep. Every so often he looks at me, then back at the sheep, as if to say: "Do you see that?!?! Do you see those things?!? They are going to come over here and eat us! Why are you not concerned?!?!"

I retreat to the air conditioned comfort of the house. I also make a mental note, "Note to self: A certain bay horse is bored and needs more work. Obviously, the heat is not really effecting him."

Really, I don't know what I'd do without him to protect me from the marauding gangs of sheep that torment our neighborhood...

Sheep. Can you see them?

Seriously, that is the best image that I can get of the offending ungulates. We live in the country. "Across the street" means across a highway, plus some acreage. So, that greyish, sort of sheep shaped blob is the offending creature. There's a couple more sheep, but they're hidden by tall grass (lying in wait for their attack!). It's not something I'd be getting upset by, but what do I know? I'm just a floppy ape with a saddle!

UPDATE!!!!!!

Sheep are still super scary. It's hard to tell from this fuzzy footage, but they are wreaking havoc on the neighborhood. Havoc!

Sheep!!!! Do you see them, now?!?

Run Away!!!!!!

A Blip In The Radar

2011-07-21T17:44:00.003-04:00

So,

I was all excited to be done with showing, so that I could get back to training. Except I made a slight miscalculation. You see, I stopped showing because the last show I went to was hot and buggy and I was like "I am so not dealing with that, or putting my horse through that." Unfortunately, Mother Nature heard me and she was all like "Oh, you're gonna puss out because it's 90 degrees? Well, here's 100 degrees! How do you like that, Hon'?"

So,

Here I sit, melting, not riding my horse. But, I'm reflecting! So, that's good.

I got a book, a really good book, recommended by Muriel (a regular commentator here, and a good horseman*, too). The book is "The Rider's Pain Free Back" by James Warson, MD. I got it yesterday, and I read it yesterday. It was just that good.

For years, I've been hearing the same thing from doctors: "Stop riding." "Riding is bad for your back." Well.... thanks, Sherlock! Riding is what got me into this mess in the first place, obviously I know it's not good for my back. But it's my heroin, it's my drug, my addiction. It isn't optional.

Do you think for a hot second that I would have a farm if horses weren't my everything? Why the heck would I get up and clean stalls every morning if this was optional? Why would I seed and mow pastures, drag arenas, pick up poop and bust my ass riding if this "riding" thing were just a hobby? Why would I spend my time following every veterinary journal's publication on equine physiology and behavior? Why would I spend my money bringing in the best trainer I know to teach me horsemanship? Why on earth would I expose my children to the hot mess that is the horse world if I didn't think that it was wonderful, fulfilling, and one of the greatest endeavors that any human can undertake?

But, the doctors who have worked on me don't see that. They don't see the addiction that is horsemanship, and they don't see the positives of my lifestyle. They see a battered 30 year old woman. A woman who has more aches and pains than they can address. They see a patient, falling apart in front of their eyes. They can only see the physical aspect of me: the spine that is degenerating, the arthritis, the muscle spasms. They don't see the soul of me, the psyche of me: the person who rides through the pain, the person who is strong and capable and tough, the person who has learned the greatest lessons of her life on the back of a horse. The person who knows that every single good thing about her personality was taught to her by a horse.

James Warson sees that. He is a horseman, himself. He understands that this lifestyle is not something that is optional. And so, he does not lecture on what we should and should not do. He simply illuminates our anatomy, he talks about the types of injuries we sustain as riders and how this effects our riding. He talks about different disciplines, and how that effects riding. He talks about the horse's conformation, and how that effects a rider's pathologies. He gives many examples of exercises to help alleviate and strengthen a rider's weak points. But, he never says: "Don't ride."

Most of the book was not new to me. I have a background in anatomy and physiology, so I understand how our bodies work. I know the exercises I need to do to keep myself fit, I know what I'm working against, biomechanically, with my injuries. But it is just so nice to hear an actual expert confirm that! And, I did learn a few new stretches to try for my specific issues. I also learned how my specific injuries relate to riding, biomechanically. That is invaluable information.

I leave you with a recent picture of Spider. I think he looks pretty good:

If you remember, I had a couple of posts about following his physical progress this year, and I'm pretty pleased. Here he is from earlier this year:

* I always say "horseman", regardless of actual gender. I detest the term "horsewoman". It's misogynistic. I do not need a separate category. I can compete with the men, we are equal. And, really, "horseperson" just sounds dumb and PC. My autocorrect software doesn't even recognize the word. We are all horsemen. Don't you pat my head and call me a "horsewoman", because I guarantee you that I've got bigger balls than you, anyway.

Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

2011-07-17T18:32:00.001-04:00

This whole "show" thing has really derailed my blogging. Which is unfortunate, because I've had some really good "Aha!" moments in the last few weeks. Luckily, I'm pretty sure I'm done with showing for this year, so we'll get back to training and I'll have more time to ~~ramble incoherently~~ discuss that.

I know there are those out there who are pretty "anti-competitive dressage". Hell, I'm one of them! I hate showing. Absolutely loathe it.... I never think a show is an accurate representation of my horse or my horsemanship at all. In a show, I have just a few minutes to display everything me and my horse have worked on together. I have a few minutes, and a few movements, to display our story together. I can't do it. I just can't condense all my work into those moments and movements.

And that's why I'm happy every single time I go down the centerline. The judge doesn't know my backstory. The judge doesn't know I'm riding a 16 year old Thoroughbred ex-Jumper that I re-trained myself. The judge doesn't know that I'm trying to come back to competition after breaking my back. All the judge knows is what I present in those few moments in the ring. I will be scored on those moments and movements that I present, right then. And I am so damn happy to be there. Every time I ride down centerline, I am proud of what I have accomplished. The judge might give me a bad score, but I earned that score, and I am so proud of it.

A show is exactly what it proclaims to be: You're showing off. You're showing off your horse and your skill at that moment. And I think that's how people should go into it. It's not about "winning" or even getting "good" scores. There will always be someone there who is better than you. Someone will have a nicer horse, a more expensive trainer, fancier gear, maybe they take training shortcuts to get better scores. It doesn't matter. You're there to show off your horse, your partner. It just isn't about what other people are doing.

Even though I hate showing, and I'm pretty terrible at it, I still recognize that it's an important part of horse training. I don't want to ride around in my own arena tooting my own horn forever. I want to be able to take my horse to other farms and show him off. And, I know he isn't everyone's "ideal" of the perfect dressage horse. I'm not everyone's "ideal" of the perfect dressage rider. So what? Why should I let ideals define me?

I'm doing the best I can with what I've got. And I'm really proud of that.

So, get yourselves out there, show off what you've got, and be proud of every single score you get. Because you earned it. You earned it through blood, sweat and tears. You earned it through training your horse to the best of your abilities and, no matter what that score is, you should be proud of it. Because only you know what you did to get there.

Do-Over

2011-07-11T18:35:00.000-04:00

Since my performance at the last show was less than stellar, I decided I needed a do-over. My do-over was yesterday, and I'm pleased to say that it was much better, although still not great. I received a 60%. My ultimate goal is to get my USDF Bronze Medal, and 60% is good enough to count towards that, so I am satisfied.

Still, it was not an ideal performance. I was actually surprised at my score, I thought we had done much worse. Spider was tense and sucked back behind my aids. The entire ride felt forced and chaotic. But, I guess that didn't show through in our ride as much as I thought it did. A friend who was also showing that day even commented on how relaxed Spider seemed. Ha! He felt like a balloon full of rocket fuel and squirmy snakes. I suppose that goes to show how different "look" and "feel" are. The comments I received from the judge reflect the tension, although not in those words:

"wavering"
"rushing"
"unsteady"
"more bend"
And her final remark: "Well suited pair, but often needs more secure connection and more organization throughout."

That sentence sums it up pretty succinctly. I have no idea why Spider decided he just didn't want to be there that day. I could argue that it was hot and buggy (he hates bugs), or that the warm up ring at that particular farm is an indoor (he hates indoors), or that he was just having a bad day. That's the nature of equestrian sports: two animals who speak different languages have to get it together and perform 100% correctly, at the same time, on the spot with no second chances. Some times you do this better than others. I'm very proud that Spider held it together in spite of the fact that he was upset and performed for me well enough to get a 60%, though. And he didn't do any flying lead changes, either. He was a good boy!

Still no pictures, I was all by myself this time. It's really quite difficult to take pictures of yourself riding!

As Predicted

2011-06-30T11:34:00.000-04:00

Our performance at the show was less than spectacular. I started warming up too early, about 40 minutes before the test was to start. Then my test started about ten minutes late. I really had no horse by the time I entered the ring. At home I rarely ride longer than 45 minutes, and I never ride that long in the heat (it was nearly 90 degrees F yesterday). So, that was mistake number one.

Even though he was tired, we were still putting in a pretty mediocre test. Which is OK by me, mediocrity is my greatest strength. The lengthenings were terrible, because he was tired he was just quickening his stride, rather than actually lengthening. We got 5's on all of them (that's "sufficient" in dressage speak). The rest of the movements were 6's ("Satisfactory"). Pretty good for the first time out in four years, at a rated show and not having ever actually done the test before.

And then we got to the second shallow canter serpentine. This is the movement where you come off the rail to X, then back to the rail without changing lead. Spider and I have been working on counter-canter a lot lately, and he's getting pretty good at it. He can do full circles in counter canter, I figured that shallow serpentine was in the bag. The first serpentine, in left lead, was fine. Spider is less balanced tracking left, so I wasn't all that worried about the second serpentine in right lead canter. Except that he was getting tired, and tired Thoroughbreds like to rush. He rushed to X and I failed to correct it before the counter canter.

And then he did a beautiful flying lead change at X. Crap! I tried to get him to change back, but he was already rushing towards the corner. Then I made another miscalculation. I decided it would be better to just counter-canter around the corner and do the transition to trot at C, rather than try to break him to trot early and pick up the correct lead. I wasn't sure I would be able to get him cantering again in the corner. So, we did a lovely little counter-canter through the corner, transitioned to trot at C and finished up our test. Unfortunately, the movement calls for a transition from right lead canter to trot, not left lead, so we got a bad mark for that movement as well as the counter-canter. The judge was quite generous, though, and we received 4's for the counter-canter and canter-trot transition (they really should have been 2's, "bad").

In the end, we scored 57%. Not very good, but a hell of a lot better than it could have been. The 5's on the lengthenings hurt our score, as one of the lengthenings has a coefficient of 2 (meaning that score is actually worth double the points). And that lovely flying lead change really sunk us (the counter-canter also has a coefficient of 2). But, now we know what we need to work on. First order of business, getting the arena back in order so I can actually practice the tests properly!

Oh, and the battery in the camera died, so there are no pictures. Which is kind of a good thing, I suppose. No need to preserve that train wreck for posterity! Next time I'll be sure to charge the batteries before I go out, though.

Cutting Corners

2011-06-28T09:00:00.000-04:00

"Ride the corners!"

Dressage riders hear this all the time. It's a good practice to be in. Riding fully into the corners of an arena gives you extra space to prepare for movements and a nice place to half halt before lengthenings or lateral movements. How many of us actually use the corners fully every day, though? I know I don't. And my corner cutting has come back to bite me.

I went out to set up my letters, so as to practice my test before the show. As I was measuring for the length, I kept coming up 20' short. I measured several times. Always short. I was quite confused. Until I noticed that my arena was oval shaped, not rectangular. Aha!

Weeds are always a bad sign.

When I set my arena up, it was a rectangle. What happened? Every time I rode, I cut the corner a little. Then, every time I took the drag through, I cut the corner a little because I was following the horse's tracks. Over time, the arena became an oval and I lost ten feet on either end. Crap!

It's not the end of the world, as it's easy to fix. I just need to bring the footing back out to the corners again. (This also solves the mystery of why the footing was getting a little deep in the middle, by the way.) It will only require a few hours on the tractor. Unfortunately, I don't really have time for that before the show. So, I guess I'll be going into this test pretty much cold. I've done pieces of it, but never the whole thing through. Luckily it's not a complicated test, so I should be fine.

^ ^ ^ ^ Famous Last Words ^ ^ ^ ^

Bureaucracies

2011-06-22T10:15:00.000-04:00

I hate bureaucratic nonsense.

For the first time in four years I'm taking Spider out to show. Which means I need to do our memberships. Trying to figure out what I need for a recognized show is frustrating. Really frustrating. But, while scouring the USDF website, trying to make sense of the bureaucratic mumbo jumbo, I came across this page:

http://www.usdf.org/competitions/competitors/membership-checklist.asp

It's a handy little guide to what memberships you need to compete and qualify for different shows and awards.

Spider and I have decided that we're going to do First Level Test 3. Mostly because if I'm having a bad back day I'll need to post. Right now I just want to get him out and back into "show mode". We'll conquer the harder stuff later in the season. Maybe....

Hunger And Hope

2011-06-17T15:30:00.002-04:00

Fragile as a spider's web
hanging in space
between tall grasses,
it is torn again and again.
A passing dog
or simply the wind can do it.
Several times a day
I gather myself together
and spin it again.

Spiders are patient weavers.
They never give up.
And who knows
what keeps them at it?
Hunger, no doubt,
and hope.

"Love"
May Sarton 1912-1995

I came across that poem last week at Desert Canyon Living and it immediately struck a chord with me. Partly because my horse is named Spider. I won't lie, since acquiring Spider I have developed a definite affinity for the little creatures. But, also because it illustrates so perfectly where I am at right now in my life. I am fragile, my horse's training is fragile. The slightest disturbance can and does destroy everything I have built. But, like the spider, I pick up the pieces and start again. To some it seems that we're running in circles. Sometimes even I think that I should just give up. But I have a hunger. Without horses, without riding, I feel empty. And so I gather myself and begin spinning again. My hunger drives me and I can only hope for a positive outcome.

I have good days with my back and I have bad days. It's frustrating, but that's just the way it is.

Yesterday I had my first appointment with the physiatrist. Being a specialist, he won't really say anything until the full barrage of tests are done. Being a specialist, that will take forever. I need to get an MRI and an EMG done, then I'll be back in to see him in August. August! That's half of show season, right there! I had intended to be starting 3rd level by the end of this show season, but something tells me my back won't be fixed by then. Actually, the diagnostics won't even be done by then. This specialist only wants to work on part of my back at once, starting with the lower. Which makes sense, since the lower back is what's causing all the problems, but it's just so tedious. I'll have the MRI done of my lower back, the EMG done on my left leg (EMG is to diagnose and locate nerve damage), then meet with the Dr. to discuss those results and treatment plan. Then I'll have an MRI done of my upper back and neck and an EMG on my left arm, then meet to discuss treatment plans for that. At this rate, it will be 2012 before I get an answer! Well, perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration. It feels like it will take forever, though.

On the bright side, the Dr. didn't say anything about limiting my physical activity (not that I asked, but still...). So, I guess my show season is still open. My saddle is pretty heavy, I figure if I can lift over my head to get it on my horse's back, then I'm OK to ride!

Catching Up

2011-06-05T08:29:00.000-04:00

Yeesh, the computer has been giving me fits lately. Blogger has been acting up, not letting me upload pics, post comments or edit posts, and my home DSL is being naughty, too. That's the price I pay for living in the boonies, I suppose. Something is always going on out here: trees go down, reckless drivers hit poles, errant groundhogs cause a ruckus. Well, I don't know about the groundhogs, but the other things happen on a regular basis, frequently knocking out power, cable and phone lines. We switched from cable to satellite because the cable was always going out and we thought that having a satellite dish would fix that. Evidently not.

In horse related news, Spider continues to do well. It took a few days for both of us to adjust to the new saddle fit, but once we did his canter improved tremendously. Right now we're working on counter-canter to build up his strength and flexibility in canter. He still throws flying changes out when he becomes unbalanced, but they're becoming less frequent. The changes he does throw out are cleaner, too. Less of a "fall" into the new lead and more of a collected "leap" into the new lead. Before I ask for counter-canter, I've been asking for shoulder-in (if we're walking and I'm going to ask for the "wrong" lead) or shoulder-fore (if we're already cantering and I'm just going to change rein) to establish and/or exaggerate the bend. Seems to be doing the trick. The canter is still not quite good enough to get a canter-walk transition from, but it's getting there.

I've also re-introduced the half pass. I had started working on it a few years ago, then abandoned it because I wasn't riding consistently enough. I saw a clinic with Conrad Schumacher (on RFDTV) in which he was showing someone how to introduce half-pass. He had them begin with a volte at walk, then half-pass at walk and about halfway across the ring ask for trot (still half-passing). I thought that was interesting, I've never seen it trained that way. When I began teaching it to Spider years ago, I just went for it straight from trot: volte, then think "shoulder-fore", but ask for a sideways movement, too. Sometimes I'd get a little half pass, sometimes I'd lose the bend and end up with a leg-yield. Schumacher recommended starting at walk because you can clearly establish the aids and the bend more easily at walk, then when you feel the horse is ready, ask for trot. I haven't felt that Spider is "ready" yet, so I've only done it at walk. Eventually, we'll graduate to trot, I'm sure (maybe).

Actually, my sitting trot is abysmal because of my back and neck. I can't sustain it for very long without becoming stiff and painful. I've made an appointment for the 16th of this month to see a group of spine specialists. Previously I've always seen orthopedists and neurosurgeons, who divide patients into two groups: "Good Surgical Candidates" and "Go Away". I'm always in the "Go Away" group. This time, I will be seeing a doctor who specializes in rehabilitative medicine. We'll see what he says.

Spider doesn't care about sitting trot, half pass or counter canter. He only cares about green grass!

Shark Fins and Saddles

2011-05-27T14:47:00.000-04:00

When I bought Spider, I owned four saddles. None of them fit him. I tried at least a dozen more. None fit. I had to bite the bullet and have a saddle custom made for him.

It's Spider's giant, shark fin withers that make things difficult. He's narrower than a "narrow" tree, and they just don't make off-the-rack saddles in tree size "shark fin".

"Da-dum, da-dum, da-dum" (scary 'Jaws' theme music)

The thing about custom saddles is that they're, well, custom. They're made to the exact specifications of the horse's back. But, horses' backs change over time and the flocking in the saddle gets worn and compressed and thus the saddles have to be checked and refitted periodically. The saddler's reccomendation is to check the fit every year for a saddle that gets used as much as mine does, but it has been two years since mine was checked. Bad owner!

I've observed over the last few months that I'm leaning forward badly when I ride. Others have noticed this, too (my trainer said I looked "like a Hunter"). This past week I also noticed that Spider seemed a bit bridle lame in the trot. And the canter work has been ridiculous: tense, refusing to come round, breaking gait, just bad. I finally put two and two together. The saddle wasn't fitting properly. It was coming down on his withers, pitching me forward and causing Spider to bobble onto his forehand. No wonder he was resisting sitting down in the canter, every time he did that saddle must have been slamming into his withers!

So yesterday I had the saddler out. He confirmed my suspicions: poor saddle fit. The fun thing about the saddler is that he takes tracings of Spider's back every time he evaluates the saddle. That means I have a sort of record of the shape of Spider's back over the years. This year's tracing was shocking. Somehow, in spite of being in consistent work, Spider's back has gotten narrower and his wither higher! I made the poor saddler redo the measurement to be sure. I suppose it must be age... Spider turned 16 this year. Or perhaps he isn't quite as fit as I thought he was. Who knows.

We decided not to take the tree in any further. The saddler reflocked the saddle and I'll put a no-bow pad under the pommel for now. We'll re-evaluate the fit in the fall. If Spider's back is still the same after a summer's worth of work, then we'll take in the tree.

No-bow pad under saddle pommel. I moved the saddle back a bit for illustrative purposes, ordinarily it would be further under the saddle.

Lions

2011-05-22T12:03:00.000-04:00

Today we were supposed to work on lengthenings. That was my plan. I should know better. Plans are silly, ephemeral things.

In a lengthening, or an extension, the tempo of the gait should not change. When done properly, you should be able to close your eyes and listen, and never be able to tell that the horse performed the lengthening or extension. That requires relaxation. If the horse becomes tense, the steps of the lenthening become quick and the rhythm of the gait changes. The stride becomes choppy and, when asked to come back from the lengthening, the horse breaks his gait or sucks back behind the aids. Tension is the enemy.

Unfortunately, someone was being tempermental. It just so happened that two cats were fighting in the woods behind the arena. They seemed to just be regular house cats to me, but Spider knew better: they were actually wild lions hell bent on eating horses. Also, they were ten feet tall and had lasers for eyes. Thank goodness he was there to warn me of the impending doom we faced.

Thankfully (due to his diligence) we were not eaten by the ~~tiny, domestic housecats~~ Laser Wielding, Ten Foot Tall, Horse Eating Wild Lions. We also didn't really do any lengthenings. We did figure eights and serpentines instead. I find that working in complex patterns is excellent for taking a horse's mind off of lions and other things that lurk in the bushes (like velociraptors).

Velociraptors!

Before and After....

2011-05-16T11:09:00.001-04:00

Long time no post, eh? I've been busy. Spring is always busy: there are pastures to seed and fertilize, gardening to be done, stalls to be stripped.... the list never ends.

In one of my last posts I mentioned that Spider was rather lacking in muscle in his hind end and talked a bit about what I was doing to correct it. I mentioned taking "before and after" photos, so here is the "before":

This is not the greatest photo. Spider was in the process of shedding out. His winter coat is seal bay, his summer coat is reddish bay. This gives him a rather odd "two-tone" look in the spring. He also managed to get a nice scrape on his hip and he was refusing to hold still for his picture. All in all, he looks like a wreck here.

I took that "before" picture on May 6th. Since then, we've done raised cavaletti, tons of transitions between gaits and worked in the pasture on the grass. I took this "after" picture yesterday:

Not bad for 10 days, especially considering that he didn't actually work for all of those ten days. One of the many things I love about Thoroughbreds is how quick they put on muscle. I work him about 4 days a week: one day lunging over raised cavaletti, the other three under saddle doing various exercises (mostly 1st and 2nd level stuff).

As far as my back goes, I waffle in between being totally bummed about it and being completely defiant. What do doctors know anyway? Horsemen are cut from a different mold than the rest of humanity. We put our bodies through stresses that most people would crumple under for fun. A little bit of back pain isn't going to stop me.

I think my husband said it best. After listening to me whine about my back for a day or so he said "You're still the same as you were before you found out how bad your back was." He's right. Three weeks ago I had a sore neck and rode my horse just the same. I was blissfully ignorant of my degenerating discs. I can't let a mere diagnosis get in my way. I've learned over the last five years that activity is my friend, no matter what the doctors say, and that no one can tell me what I'm capable of besides myself.

FUBAR

2011-04-27T10:50:00.002-04:00

Diagram of the vertebral column from Gray's Anatomy

If you're not familiar with the titular acronym, it is a military expression that essentially means: "Not a good situation".

My x-rays were not good. Ironically, I have avoided seeing doctors for several years because they all said the same thing: "We can't fix you", "You need to stop riding/gardening/doing the things you love." And this time was no different.

Followers of this blog are likely aware that I fractured my L-5 vertebrae five years ago. My x-rays showed that in the past few years the disc between L-5 and S-1 (os sacrum) has degenerated. I expected that. The degeneration has caused my lumbar (lower, L) spine to curve significantly to the right (scoliosis). The scoliosis has caused my Th-9 vertebrae to twist and the disc between Th-8 and Th-9 to begin degenerating. My upper thoracic (Th) spine has been compensating for the lumbar scoliosis by curving to the left, which is causing degeneration of my Th-3/Th-2 disc. I was not expecting all that. I have three discs degenerating: one in my lower back, one in the middle of my back and one in my neck. That really stinks.

So, I can't be fixed. The chiropractor thinks I can be made more comfortable, though. We are instituting a plan of chiropractic adjustments and physical therapy.

What does this mean for my riding? Not a damn thing. I have gotten this far against the wishes of many doctors, and I'm not giving up now.

I Smell Like Ben-Gay

2011-04-26T08:55:00.000-04:00

I have reached that awkward age where I am no longer young, but I can't really complain about being old yet. Which stinks, because I'd really like to complain about being old.

Why complain? Well, I've injured my neck. I wish I had a really good story about how I did it, but unfortunately I just woke up with it. Yup, that's right..... I injured myself sleeping. How does that even happen?

I saw the chiropractor yesterday, he took a bunch of x-rays and we'll go from there. In the meantime I'm taking it easy, longeing Spider for conditioning, and working walk and a bit of canter under saddle. Walk and canter don't bother my neck, but trot is a little.... jarring. Spider has a typical Thoroughbred trot, very up and down. It's OK for posting, but spine jarring if you get out of sync with him while sitting. Sitting that trot may have had something to do with my neck injury, come to think of it.

Until the x-rays come back there's not much to be done. I ice it, rub on Ben-Gay (I prefer to think of it as "people liniment", sounds less "old" that way) and whine. Whining makes everything feel better. So does wine, come to think of it. I should combine the two.

In the meantime, I set up a little cavaletti grid for Spider to work through. I had noticed that, while his overall muscle tone is good, his hips look a little hollow. The muscles of the hips lift the the hind limbs upwards and forwards, so work over raised cavaletti will help build up those muscles. Hill work would also help, but I am rather lacking in hills here in southern NJ. I'll have to remember to get a picture of Spider for a "before and after" comparison...

Equine Therapy

2011-04-18T10:09:00.000-04:00

I have this cat. He's awful. Even by cat standards. He pees on things, makes a ruckus in the middle of the night that wakes me up, hides at the top of the stairs to whack me on the head as I go up and is just generally loud and annoying. But, my daughter loves him. And so, I put up with the awful cat.

Awful Cat

A few days ago the awful cat got out of the house and ran off. My daughter was heartbroken. She asked for him every day, especially at bed time. The awful cat used to sleep with her. Because my daughter was heartbroken, I was heartbroken. Stupid cat.

Needless to say, it had been several stressful, tear laden days in our household with my daughter sobbing over her lost cat and me tearing my hair out.

And then last night I heard a noise on the porch. I opened the front door in time to see the awful cat dart down the porch. I ran to the back door just in time to see the cat run around the garage and through my arena. I turned all the floodlights on and ran after him. The stupid cat ran off into the woods and wouldn't come no matter how much I called him. But, Spider came up. I hadn't ridden him in a couple days, the weather here has been awful with storms and high winds. As I stood in the arena, with all the floodlights on, eyeing the western end of an east bound cat, I thought to myself "Hey, it's pretty bright out here. I bet I could ride." So I did. And as I rode around all my troubles melted away. It's amazing how a good ride can make you feel better. I don't think there is a problem in the world that couldn't be solved on the back of a horse.

And that's how I ended up riding my horse at 10:30 at night.

It was a good ride. Thanks, awful cat.

By the way, the awful cat is back as of this morning. I have mixed feelings about it, but my daughter is thrilled.

Spring!?

2011-04-05T15:52:00.000-04:00

Dandelions blooming in my arena.

It is with great hesitation that I even write this: I think spring may have sprung here.

I probably just jinxed myself right there. Bring on the snow storms! The picture in my header was taken April 7th, 2006. It was Spider's second dressage show. The wind was blowing a gale and it snowed on us during our test. Snow! In April! So, I don't expect our current good weather to last.

But, we have been having good weather and I have gotten quite a bit done with my horse. I am officially making this the year that we conquer 2nd level. We've been dancing around 2nd and 3rd levels for what seems like forever. I've been noodling around far too long. Spider knows the work. I am confident he could actually do 3rd level with no problems if I would get off my bum and work with him consistently. He has a good flying change, the collection is there (albeit mostly untapped because of consistency issues with the rider). Our biggest problem is actually the counter canter. It's iffy, at best. It isn't a matter of him not being physically ready to do it, either. It's a training issue. Spider was a jumper, he was trained to change his leads automatically. I imagine that in his day he was a pretty good jumper, too: when I got him he would change his leads exactly when he was supposed to regardless of the rider's input!

But, that's an excuse. And I'm going to declare April as another Month Of No Excuses. The fact of the matter is that I can control his leads when I am actively riding my horse. When I lose my focus and fail to set him up things get wonky. And so, we have been working on counter-canter a lot. I started by asking him to take the wrong lead on the long side (That was actually my trainer's idea. He also kindly pointed out that the reason we were having so much trouble was because I was collapsing my core and leaning forward in the canter. As he put it: "See, it's not a problem. You just need to ride like a dressage rider." That was a part of the ass-handing I posted about before.)

I digress.... I started out by asking for the wrong lead on the long side. As I said, with Spider it's a training issue. He will take the "correct" lead unless the rider makes it crystal clear that the counter-canter is desired. Since I'm the rider, that means that his failure to take or maintain the lead I want is my fault. This means I need to concentrate, set him up and make my aids clear. We prepared by trotting the short side. As we approached the long side, I flexed him in and out of the circle a few times, ending with flexing out, then asked for the counter canter. By only counter-cantering on the long side (straight) I also eliminated an opportunity for him to second guess me. Spider wants to change his leads when he changes direction. The mistake I was making was by going whole-heartedly into the canter serpentines (called for in 2nd level test 1) without first making sure that my horse understood what I wanted. He needed to understand that I really did want him to canter on the "wrong" lead. By asking for the "wrong" lead on a straightaway and then being preemptive, asking for trot before he had a chance to change, I reinforced the idea that the counter-canter was what I wanted, without having to resort to punishment (immediately asking for trot after an unwanted change, and then counter-canter again, what many trainers suggest for this type of problem).

Spider responded to this tactic nicely. So nicely that we stepped it up a notch. Once I was happy that he would take the wrong lead when asked, and maintain it until I asked for the trot transition, we graduated to 20m circles. In the past, I have attempted 20m circles in counter-canter by taking the correct lead on a circle, then attempting a figure eight or serpentine with no change of lead. It wasn't really working for me. Some days we got it, most days it failed. With this in mind, I asked for the counter canter on the circle. Not a change of direction with no change of lead, but actually asking for the "wrong" lead on a circle. To prepare, I flexed him into the circle, then flexed him out. On the "out" flex, I asked for the counter-canter. Now, it wasn't perfect. He picked up the "correct" lead on several of our tries. When he picked up a lead I didn't want, I immediately transitioned down and the asked again until he got it. When he picked up the lead I wanted, we cantered two full rounds on the 20m circle, then took a walk break.

We'll keep going with that, until he consistently takes the lead I ask for. Then, after I am satisfied that he understands that I do indeed want him to canter on the "wrong" lead, we'll graduate to the 2nd level serpentine.

I've Been Hit By A Truck

2011-03-29T15:44:00.000-04:00

Not a real truck. A figurative truck. Although, my body certainly feels as though I was hit by a real truck.

Last week I had a lesson with my trainer. I love him because he is conscientious and caring. His lessons are not for a set time. He teaches until he feels that you have understood the lesson. This is a wonderful thing. Unless, of course you want him to arrive to teach you at a set time. He is notoriously late. So, we have a system. He calls me when he leaves the previous farm to come to my farm. That gives me about thirty minutes to get ready. Which is plenty of time, unless I go out to get my horse and see that he has rolled in sticky mud. Which is what happened at my lesson earlier this week.

Mud

I was faced with a challenge: Do I leave the mud on my horse and warm up properly? Or do I get the mud off and start my lesson unprepared?

I went with option B and was, unfortunately, not even on my horse when my instructor got to my farm. And it only went downhill from there.

In short, I had my ass handed to me. It has been a long winter. Spider is not in the greatest shape. I am not in the greatest shape. We are certainly in no shape to warm up in front of a Grand Prix rider and FEI judge. We have lost a certain amount of discipline in our work and that is readily apparent in our warm ups.

The warm up is the most important part of a ride. It sets the tone for everything else you do and speaks volumes for our technique as riders. When performing for the judges, most riders (ideally) look the same: quiet, elegant, restrained..... but, when warming up you show the true colors of your training style. In this case, I showed that my true colors are inconsistent, stiff, and slow to react. Not acceptable.

In that vein, I have worked for the past week to remedy that. "Inconsistent, stiff and slow to react" is not representative of my riding style, but I have allowed myself to become complacent. I could make a lot of excuses about long winters, spring chores and the hazards of riding by yourself, but those are just excuses. Instead, I chose to say "This is not 'me'. I am better than this, my horse deserves better than this, and I will fix it!"

And that's why every muscle in my body is screaming for mercy and I feel like I've been hit by a truck......

But, my horse looks and feels amazing.

What Is Intelligence?

2011-03-22T16:50:00.001-04:00

Simply put, intelligence is the ability to solve a problem. What is a problem? Well, that depends on perspective. It's subjective. If problems are subjective, so is intelligence.

I used to teach freshman level biology for a university. Every year, I would have a new crop of naive former high school students. They thought they were pretty smart. But college is a different game from high school. Inevitably many would get their very first bad grade ever in my class, and they would show up in my office completely distraught over how "dumb" they thought they were.   And I would laugh, then ask if they thought I was dumb. "Of course not!", they'd say "You teach the class". Then I'd ask if they could guess what my GPA was as an undergrad. It was a 2.0. For those unfamiliar with the American system of Grade Point Average (GPA), a 2.0 is a "C" average, or 70%. It's the absolute bare minimum for not being kicked out of the University, and also the bare minimum to graduate.

And now you know what a complete slacker I am. I'm not advocating that as a good way to get through college. But, that story serves to illustrate my point. I wasn't too dumb to do the work, I just didn't see bad grades as a "problem".   If I liked a course, I did well. If I didn't like a course, I put in just enough work to pass. Is that attitude any different from your horse's?

I see this quite a bit in riders, I am guilty of it myself: the rider is asking the horse to do something, the horse isn't responding, the rider keeps doing the same thing over and over again, the horse keeps noodling around, the rider throws up their hands and exclaims "Why doesn't he get it?". The rider is giving a cue, but the horse doesn't care about the rider's cue. It's not his problem.

A horse isn't dumb. Horses are pretty good at solving problems. They just don't see things the same way we do.  A horse's "problem" is much different from a human's. For instance, for dressage we know that the best way for a horse to go is round and forward, but the horse can't see that. The horse feels the weight of a rider on his back and thinks "Ugh, this is hard! I'll just pull myself around on my forehand with my head in the air. That's much easier." We need to convince him otherwise. In order to tap into a horse's intelligence, you've got to make sure he recognizes the problem.   Obviously, we aren't going to be able to show him all the studies proving that correctly trained horses suffer less injuries. The horse's point of view is much simpler than that. The horse needs to think "Hey, I get a reward when I do this." or, "She stops doing that annoying thing with her leg when I do this. " He needs to think of how to solve his problem, whether his problem is "I want my reward" or "Stop doing that annoying thing". And once he has been presented with a problem to solve, he needs to be allowed to figure out the solution. This is the "feel" that is talked about in correct training.

It doesn't mean that we sit there like sacks in our perfect dressage show position and wait for the horse to "get it". It means that we get proactive in our aids so that the horse can understand what we want from him. We stop the evasions immediately, anticipate the problems and instantly reward the desired behaviors.

Trot Poles And Such

2011-03-20T22:34:00.000-04:00

The poles you put on the ground and make your horse work over go by many different names: trot poles, ground poles, cavaletti, torture devices. I have no idea why. I suspect it is like everything else in the horse world and just a case of regional vernacular. Or perhaps those words mean different things and I'm just ignorant of the subtleties. It doesn't really matter I suppose, I use all those words interchangeably to mean "things you stick on the ground and ride or lunge your horse over".

That's what we did yesterday, trotted over poles. I've been wanting to do some conditioning work for awhile. My pastures are still muddy, and I'm tired of basic arena work. Spider is forward, he is round, he leg yields, renvers, travers, shoulder ins, shoulder fores and does a mean turn on the forehand. We are bored with that. But, I don't really feel that he's working consistently enough to start training something new. I am beginning to feel uninspired.

So, I got out the trot poles. Actually, they're landscape timbers. You can use anything as cavaletti. I happened to have some landscape timbers laying around, and so they got used. One of these days I'll get around to painting them white. Maybe.

I like to lay my cavaletti out in a half circle. That way, the distance between the poles is varied. You can choose your spacing without getting off the horse and adjusting, very handy for those who ride alone. You'd think that after nearly 5 years of riding the same horse I would have the spacing figured out, but no. I like the variability of the half circle, anyway.

I set them up so that the narrowest distance is 50 inches and the widest is 100 inches. It just so happens that my booted foot is 10 inches long. I use that as my measuring device, hence the rather odd, arbitrary seeming distances. It works well, though. I let Spider go over on a loose rein a few times to find his "sweet spot", then we go from there. At the end, I had Spider go over the narrow end to encourage him to lift his legs higher, sit down and collect. Difficult work, but he handled it well. Next time I'll probably lift the poles off the ground a few inches with blocks to encourage even more engagement.

Today we worked on canter, mostly transitions between trot and canter and shoulder fore. I'm trying to develop balance and collection to help with counter cantering and simple changes. It went well, but the canter is not quite ready for more difficult work yet. Patience is a virtue. As Podhajsky says: "I have time"....

Spring Forward!

2011-03-14T08:11:00.000-04:00

Mud everywhere.

Every winter day I face a difficult question: In my limited hours of daylight, should I do all the chores, or ride my horse? I hate that decision. Some days I procrastinate so long in making the decision that I don't get anything done.

For the last few weeks, the sun has been setting later and later. A sure sign that spring is coming. And now we've set the clocks forward, giving me an extra hour of daylight in the evening. Woohoo! An extra hour to get things done! (I'm not a morning person. I get up early, but I don't get much done in the morning)

Now, if this mud ever dries, I can take Spider out to the pasture and do some much-needed conditioning work. We're both a little flabby. And we're getting bored with the arena. This winter has been far too long...

Bon Mardi Gras!

2011-03-08T20:20:00.000-05:00

"Where am I and how did I get these beads?"

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

"Let the good times roll!"

Lengthenings And Lateral Work

2011-03-03T13:09:00.003-05:00

Oomphless

I'm beat. The weather has been tolerable, and I've gone on a fitness blitz of sorts. Of course, since Spider has had so much time off, I can't just dive right back into work. We've been working every other day so far. To build a muscle, you need to stress it. But, you also need to allow it to heal. Muscles are built by making tiny tears in the muscle fibers. The body then repairs them, making the muscle bigger and stronger. With this in mind, when bringing a horse back from any sort of layup I like to use an "every other day" schedule.

Spider is doing well, even after a winter's worth of inconsistent work.   He is consistently working over his back, but the work lacks "oomph!". "Oomph!" is my word for the next level of forwardness. Obviously, for a horse to be round, working over the back, on the bit, in a frame, or however you want to say it, the horse must be forward. That is the basic idea of dressage training, and what we all strive for. But, at some point, the horse needs to have some "oomph!" to take him to the next level.   I have been trying to cultivate Spider's "oomph!".

What I need to do is get Spider to engage his hindquarters more. And that's where lengthening and lateral work come in. One day, I had him do haunches in and shoulder in down one long side, then lengthen down the other long side. We did that at trot and then at canter. In the canter, I had him do shoulder fore down one long side, then lengthen down the other. For Spider, lateral work in canter is a great way to help him balance. He tends to get strung out and on the forehand at canter, particularly left lead. I don't ask for haunches in at canter, because Spider already wants to go with his haunches in at canter. No need to encourage that.

Since we had worked hard at trot and canter in that session, for the next session we worked at walk, halt and rein back.   This is difficult work too, more difficult than walk and trot, but in a different way. Walk, halt and rein back is more like strength training. It requires the horse to really push from his hind end, rather than allowing his own forward momentum to carry him. Since it is difficult, I had him take frequent breaks at free walk to stretch.

On our last ride, the day before yesterday, we worked more on the trot. I had him do 10 meter circles, then leg yield across the arena from the cirlce. I like that exercise, it really gets the hind end working.   Eventually, I will also use ten meter circles to ask for half pass. That's a few months away, though.

Now I have to figure out what to do for today. It's much cooler today, I suspect Spider will be revved up, especially since yesterday was his day off.  That means we may just end up cantering. That fits well into my plan, anyway. I don't like to repeat the same types of exercises over and over.

Of course, there is no "every other day" for me. So, while Spider languishes on his day off, I'm still working: cleaning up poop, getting the garden ready for spring, housework, etc. Which is why I feel like I've been hit by a truck. At least I know my horse will stay sound......

Tattle-Tale

2011-02-24T21:12:00.000-05:00

I need to clean my boots something fierce. Proper leather care is important, it makes all the difference in the life span of gear. It's a good opportunity to check for wear and tear, too. And, sometimes it can tell you things about how you use your gear. Whether you want to hear it or not.

Case in point, the inside calf of my boots.

Right Boot Left Boot

As you can see, there's a bit of wear there. That's normal. What's not normal is how much more wear is on the left than the right. I took a close up of the left, for illustrative purposes:

The wear pattern wraps around the back of the boot. That's not good. It means my left toe is pointing out while I'm riding. I'm going to have to be more conscious of that.

My left leg is my bum leg. Several of the nerves going to it were injured when I broke my back. It does not always do what I tell it to and I'm not always sure where it is or what it is doing. Makes things interesting, especially when navigating stairs. Or riding. I have to be more conscious of that leg. When I go up or down stairs I look directly at it the whole time. It's tricked me before. When I ride I check its position frequently, but I guess I've been lax about checking lately. I will have to fix that.

But for now, I'm just going to clean and polish the boots. Problem solved!

How To Plan A Ride

2011-02-21T18:41:00.000-05:00

"Dressage horse? Where? I'm just a fuzzy, muddy pet."

Step 1: Analyze your horse's training level extensively. Plot out your training goals. Plan every movement for your ride.

Step 2: Get on your horse.

Step 3: Realize your horse is too tense/rushing/stiff/sore/pigheaded and you are too out of shape/tired cold/hot/cranky to keep to "The Plan". Scrap the plan and ride the horse you're on.

Ah, "Ride the horse you're on". I tell myself that all the time, usually when things aren't going my way. I've been telling myself that a lot here lately.

This winter has been hard. Snow, ice and frigid temperatures have conspired to keep me out of the saddle. Then I got the plague, which kept me out of the saddle longer.

When I finally got back to riding this week, I found a horse that had a lot more energy than I had. Unfortunately, none of that energy was focused.

After a short warm up (short because he was ready to go and I needed to shorten the reins and put him to work), I started to work on walk-trot transitions. I got canter. I decided to go with it. It wasn't my plan, but at least it was something.

At first, I got carried around the arena by a horse with a lot more forward momentum and energy than I had. I was struggling to keep up, wondering what to do with all this energy. We were careening around, it wasn't good. I was getting tense, Spider was getting tense because I was tense. Things were just not going my way.

Sometimes, it's good to remember that there is a living, thinking creature at the end of those reins. In between that expensive, highly engineered ergonomic bit and that flashy, Swarovski crystal emblazoned bling-bling browband there is a brain. A brain that is completely alien to ours. That brain has its own agenda. It has it's own wants, needs, language and personality and they are different from our own.

And so, I let go of my plan. I relaxed, I put my energy into my seat. I had a horse that wanted to canter, so I focused the canter. I took the canter down the long-side, lengthened it. I brought it back. Then I did it again.

That's all we did. Just cantering. Lengthening the canter and then bringing it back. I focused on keeping the tempo regular, his frame good, my position good and overall just letting the energy flow. I think he needed it. Later on , when we're both a little more fit, we'll work on the more precise stuff.

I must say, I had a hell of a good time blasting down the long side on a horse with too much energy. I highly recommend it.

The Plague

2011-02-18T08:09:00.000-05:00

The weather here has been gorgeous. High 50s/low 60s F, sunny, no wind. And what am I doing? Laying on the couch. Why? I've got the plague.

Okay, maybe it's not the plague. But, I've caught whatever wretched crud is going around. It's settled into my lungs, so whenever I walk more than a few feet I start coughing. I'll ride when I have the sniffles, that can be managed. But, it's hard to ride while hacking up a lung. Upsets the horse.

I have been out and about around the yard a bit, though. Fresh air is good for the plague. As I was messing around in the garden, I saw this:

Winter is almost over!

Why I Fell In Love With My Horse

2011-02-13T20:31:00.000-05:00

Jane, over at The Literary Horse, has asked her readers to tell why they fell in love with their horse. I read (and love) her blog, so here goes: A little story about how I met Spider.

Four years ago (nearly five, now) I was the manager of a dressage training facility/sales barn. Part of my job was riding the sale horses.   There was a little bay Thoroughbred jumper that came through. His name, I was told, was Spider.

Spider wasn't that interesting or impressive. He looked like a jumper. He moved like a jumper. While I was riding him one day, someone said to me "He'd make a nice Hunter.". I'm still not sure if that was a compliment or not. It didn't matter, he wasn't mine. He was just another sale horse to ride. When he sold, I would get 10% of his sale price.

I never met his owners. He had been shipped down from Northern NJ. I never even talked to them. I never got a clear story of why he was for sale. Sometimes it was "he was sour" or "wild over jumps" sometimes it was "they bought a new horse and can't afford two".   In sale barns, you never get a good story, anyway. It doesn't matter why they're for sale, they're just another sale.

One windy day, I was working this little Thoroughbred named Spider in the indoor. We were on the inside track, several other riders were on the outside. Suddenly, a gust of wind rattled the wall and two horses bolted past us towards the door to the barn. Spider spun and started to bolt. I expected that. I pulled him up and put him back to work. He complied without argument. I was not expecting that. He didn't really know me. He'd only been with us a couple weeks or so. Most horses, in an unfamiliar environment, especially a high stress environment like a busy training/sale barn, with a strange rider and horses bolting would have dumped the rider and high tailed it back to the barn.   Spider wasn't trying to ditch me, though. As silly as it sounds, I got the impression he was taking me with him. It wasn't "Hey, there's a scary thing, I'm outta here!". It was "Hey there's a scary thing, let's get outta here!" I'd never been on a horse like that before. I was immediately impressed with this Spider.

As I worked him more, I became more and more impressed with the bay Thoroughbred named Spider. He wasn't fancy. He wasn't flashy. But he had a heart of gold and always tried.

One day, as I was currying him after a ride, he turned his head to groom me back. I stopped and looked at him for a moment, then said "Don't get attached to me, you're not mine." He just looked back at me. I think he already knew I was his.

I bought him a few weeks later.

Related Posts:
A Story - More about why I bought Spider

Yoga

2011-02-12T08:56:00.002-05:00

Obviously, this isn't a current picture. I refuse to post any more pictures of snowy, dreary winter scenes. This is one of the roses from my garden this past summer. I can't remember the exact name of it, but it's a very nice plant.

Calm, Forward, Straight asked me about my yoga routine. I had mentioned that I do my routines by myself. There are no gyms or yoga studios near me, and even if there were, I wouldn't have time to go anyway. I have two young children, a household to take care of and the attention span of a ferret with ADD. Getting in the car, driving to a gym and doing an hour long yoga workout would take up far too much of my time and attention span.

So, I've developed my own sort of practice. If you're not interested in yoga, the next paragraph will probably be pretty boring. Feel free to skip ahead. I'm just going to list the sequences I do. I'm going to use the translated names, because I can never remember the Hindi names for the poses and can't spell them anyway. Every morning I do several rounds of a Sun Salutation. My Sun Salution is: Mountain pose, Raised arm pose, swan dive to forward standing bend, flat back, hop or walk back to plank, four limbed staff, up dog, down dog, repeat. I do that sequence as a vinyasa, alternatively using each pose to inhale or exhale. To open my hips and stretch my hamstrings, (which always get tight from riding), I do a sequence of Warrior II, Extended Side Angle, Warrior I, Triangle pose. I also have a balancing sequence consisting of Eagle, Tree, Warrior III, Half Moon, Revolved Half Moon. The balancing sequence is great for strengthening the legs and core. I generally hold each pose for 4-5 deep breaths.

The sequences I do are mostly pieces of full workouts that I can do anywhere, anytime. Sometimes, I'm standing in the kitchen cooking something and I think to myself, "Ooh, my hip feels a little hitchy. I think I'll do some yoga." Then I do my hip opening sequence. It's just that simple. In this fashion, little pieces at a time, I can usually do several rounds of each sequence every day. If I tried to do a full hour long practice every day, I'd never be able to get it done.

Breathing is very important in yoga. As you breathe in, each breath expands the chest, lifts the rib cage and lengthens the spine. As you breathe out, you deepen the pose, draw the energy in and center yourself. The breaths don't need to be slow, just deep. I've found yoga breathing to be very beneficial to my riding. As I sit in the saddle, I can use yoga breathing to correct my position, engage my core, sit more deeply in the saddle and relax. As I breathe in, I lengthen my spine. My rib cage lifts. My shoulders slide down my back. My leg reaches down the side of the horse. As I breathe out, I engage my core. My seat relaxes into the saddle. I draw my energy into myself and into the saddle. I have found that a side effect of breathing out like this is that the horse moves more energetically forward. Because of this, I often breathe out when asking for upward transitions. I breathe in when asking for half halts or downward transitions.

I generally don't have to concentrate too hard on breathing anymore, but occasionally I find myself short of breath from breathing too shallowly or holding my breath during a difficult movement. That's when I consciously use the yoga breathing techniques to focus myself. I also find them helpful in maintaining the correct position during canter work. Like many riders, I tend to fold up and get short in my legs during canter work. Concentrating on my breathing, lengthening my spine and legs during the inhale, engaging my core and sinking deeper during the exhale, helps with this.

The nice thing about yoga breathing is that you don't have to be insanely flexible to breathe. Believe me, I am not insanely flexible, or even kind of flexible. You just have to concentrate a little at the beginning, and soon it will be second nature. Anyone can do it, even those of us possessing the attention span of a squirrel on crack.

Conditioning Work

2011-02-08T21:25:00.000-05:00

That's a picture of Spider and I the first winter I had him. It was cold that year, and windy. We were boarding at a place with an indoor, so work wasn't impossible. It probably should have been, but I was a lot ~~younger~~ dumber then.

In the face of this year's arctic blast, I'm being more conservative. Not that I really have a choice, since I don't have an indoor and everything's icy. The unfortunate side effect of that is that I'm really not getting a lot of exercise lately. Farm work generally keeps me pretty active, but I've been cooped up in the house for too long with this miserable weather. I'm starting to feel sluggish and squishy.

I exercise every day. Not because I'm one of those annoying super fit "gym" people, but because I have a bad back. Daily pilates and yoga workouts are the only thing standing between me and a Rascal Mobility Scooter. When I don't exercise, I get sciatica. For everyone that's never had sciatic pain, it sort of feels like someone is trying to jam a steel rod down the back of your leg with no anasthetic. I am not a fan of that, so I do my workout routines. My routines are tailored to keep my lower back and abs fit, though. I rely on the farm work and riding to strengthen and tone my legs, arms and upper back. No outside activities = I turn squishy.

Of course, I live in the boonies. There's no gym within a 30 mile radius. I've practiced pilates and yoga for so many years that I can do it by myself no problem. I've never taken any other sort of exercise classes, so I'm pretty lost there. Well, I did take a belly dancing class once. I thought it would be really good for developing strength and range of motion for riding. And it is, for people who have rythm, talent and can follow simple instructions. That's not really me. It takes every brain cell I have just to remember how to breathe properly during pilates and yoga. Wiggling my hips and arms around in a circle in time to music is way beyond my capabilities.

Given my lack of talent for aerobic activity, I turned to the internet. We have a Netflix subscription that allows us to get videos over the internet. Perfect. Except that most of the videos are way too complicated for me. Seriously, I've spent most of my life learning to remain perfectly still on top of a large, moving animal while giving imperceptible cues. And now I'm supposed to throw my arms and legs around spastically in time to music? Does not compute. I did eventually find a couple videos made for the aerobically challenged, though. So, I've been doing those.

I really hope this weather breaks soon. I'm not sure how much more "fitness for dummies" I can take.

Like A Duck On The Ice

2011-02-05T16:00:00.000-05:00

Have you ever seen a duck on ice? It's hilarious. Maybe not so much for the duck, but it certainly makes me smile.

Our duck, named Lucky, has taken up residence in the barn for the winter. At least someone is using it, my horses prefer to stand under a tree. Every morning during feeding time Lucky comes waddling over as fast as she can, hoping I might spill some grain. Ducks are not the quickest or most graceful creatures on land when the footing is perfect. In the ice, she slips and slides in a quite comical fashion.

Aside from laughing at the duck, this ice is quite miserable. It is melting, but at a glacial pace.

To add insult to injury, the post that I accidentally snagged with the chain drag snapped off at the ground. I'm not sure what happened, although I suspect that one of the horses may have run into it after sliding on the ice. They were running around a few hours before I noticed it was broken. I don't have a clue why they felt the need to run around, other than to give me gray hairs or a heart attack. Rotten beasts! Luckily, they escaped injury.

It is also possible that snagging the post with the tractor cracked the post and that's why it failed, but I'm trying to blame someone else for this mishap. It doesn't really matter who broke the post, anyway. It will have to be replaced.

For now, it is "rigged". The ground is frozen solid, so I can't put a new post in, or dig up the cemented in base of the old one. This particular post is necessary for keeping the fence up, so just leaving it is not an option, either. So, I decided to tie the broken post to the gate. The gate is solid, as is the gate's post. Problem solved. Sort of.

Obviously, I am not the one who did this. My husband came out and used ratchet straps to hold everything together. I would have used baling twine.

I will concede that his ratchet straps are probably a better fix, though.

Don't tell him I said that.

Foggy Morning

2011-02-02T16:10:00.000-05:00

It appears the snow/ice storm passed us by. Three cheers for that! Although, I do feel sorry for everyone out there who got hammered. I had my fair share of that weather last year, it was no fun.

It's been pretty warm here the past two days, in the 40s F, and the snow is starting to melt. It's been foggy for most of the day. And not the pretty "Scottish Moors" type of fog. More like Stephen King's "The Mist".

On the bright side, I did notice this:

What's that stuff?

Oh, that's right! There's an actual arena under all that snow. I had nearly forgotten!

It's supposed to freeze again tonight, so I doubt I'll be able to use my arena for riding any time soon. I might be able to use it as an ice rink, though. Too bad I don't know how to ice skate.

Really?!

2011-01-27T15:41:00.001-05:00

Just when the snow finally melts off my arena, we get another snow storm. Winter is toying with me.

It's only six inches or so, not too bad. But, still, it's annoying. I'm ready to be done with snow and ice.

At least the horses don't seem to mind. I am always amazed at how well they weather these storms. They go about their day as though nothing happened, content with their lives while I grump and whine about the inconvenience of the weather. They accept life for what it is. They are secure in the knowledge that they have everything they need and they can be happy with that.

I suppose I should take a lesson from them.

Back To The Grindstone

2011-01-24T16:18:00.000-05:00

I've been feeling oddly motivated the last few days. It's cold, I have a cold, but still I've been compelled to go out and do something with my horse. Must be a side effect of the cold medicine. Or, perhaps just the fact that the snow has mostly melted and I can get outside to do things. I was going a little stir-crazy being cooped up inside. I'm not really an "inside" type of person.

Last Thursday was the first day the snow had really melted enough for me to use the arena. I took Spider out for a short ride, only 30 minutes. It was really just a warm up, no real work and nothing new. We walked, trotted and cantered with contact, did lots of transitions and then were done.

Friday was cold and windy, and I felt crummy from my cold, so I lunged Spider in side reins. I wanted to work on lengthenings and medium trot, but just didn't have the energy to keep up with him in the saddle. Not that keeping up with him on the ground is easier, I just have less to think about.

Saturday was a real treat. I trailered over to a barn with an indoor for a lesson on long-lining. I had introduced the concept to Spider earlier, but lacked the finesse (and knowledge) to really get him working over his back on the lines. It's something I wanted to learn, as I can see many good applications for Spider's training with them. Spider is a clean slate as far as the upper level movements go, it can be easier for some horses to learn the more difficult movements without the weight of the rider interefering (particularly when said rider has never trained a horse to perform that movement before and is using her horse as a guinea pig). Also, it is impossible to see the movement while you are sitting on the horse, and thus can be difficult to tell what is going wrong (and it will go wrong, trust me!). I want to get good enough with the long lines to school the movements both in the saddle and on the ground. So, I asked for a lesson in it.

My trainer was able to get him working well with little effort. I am very proud of that. I had thought that my work with Spider and ground driving was just playing, not really accomplishing anything. I couldn't get him round on them, so we weren't really working. But, he knew what they were and knew what to do, so when asked for roundness (and collection!) he was ready and able to comply. Which just goes to show even "play" has its purpose. In this case, our play desensitized him to the feel of the lines and got him ready for more serious work.

Sunday I was curious to see how he felt after being worked on the long lines, so I hopped on him for 15 minutes or so, despite it being absolutely frigid outside. He felt great. Sore, but still great. Light in the contact, full of forward energy.... really lovely.

Today is freezing again, but tomorrow promises to bring a "warm spell". I want to ride again tomorrow (just too cold today!), then try the long lines again by myself later in the week. I got some good pointers on how to use them, I want to revisit it while it's still fresh in our brains.

Stylin'

2011-01-21T18:45:00.000-05:00

I just love when these awards make the rounds. I get to find all sorts of new blogs to read.

I really love reading blogs. It's what I do while I drink my morning pot of coffee.

This prestigious award has been bestowed on me by:
Just A Girl And Her Horse
Calm, Forward, Straight
Adventures In Colt (Filly) Starting

So, now I have four duties to perform:

Duty #1: Thank and link back to the person who awarded you. Links done, and a hearty "Thank You!" to all who nominated me. I'm glad my silly ramblings have touched someone. I hope my mistakes keep others from making the same mistakes.

Duty #2: Share seven things about yourself. Ha! Here goes:

7 interesting things about me:

1. I'm not all that interesting.

2. I'm a Stay at Home mom to a two year old and a seven month old. But, before that, I worked with laboratory animals. Many people are surprised to learn that.   They think it is at odds with my love for animals. Quite the contrary. Animals are necessary for research. Modern medicine, both human and veterinary, would be nothing without them. These research animals make the ultimate sacrifice for us, they give their lives to make ours better. It was my job to ensure that those animals had the very best life and I loved doing that. My work with lab animals has also affected my ideas on horsemanship and husbandry. Every effort is made to ensure that lab animals are happy and stress free. Their psychological health is as important their physical health. That's an area of husbandry that is mostly overlooked in barn management and even pet care. Working with lab animals opened up an entirely new world of husbandry for me, and I am thankful for that. And, next time you're at the barn patting your happy, healthy, vaccinated horse, be sure to thank a rat!

3. Five years ago I broke my back in a riding accident. I still have some numbness in my left leg from nerve damage and I have an awkward gait, but I'm otherwise OK. I thank Pilates and Yoga for that! If I didn't stay fit, I know I wouldn't be doing as well right now.

4. Every room in my house is a different color. None of those colors are white. I love color, and I love surrounding myself with color.

5.  I love gardening. It's my favorite hobby.

6. I don't consider riding a hobby. It is an all consuming passion. You don't break your back for a hobby!

7. I am really bad with computers and the internet. In fact, I just figured out that it's possible to compose posts in Blogger without using HTML. All you have to do is click on the tab that says "Compose".... How embarrassing.  While the internet and computers were blowing up big time, I was trying to be a horse trainer. Sadly, I was left behind.

And now for the really hard part. You're supposed to award 15 other recently discovered blogs. Just 15? I can't do that. Besides, I'm really late to this party, so just about all the blogs I've recently discovered have been awarded already.

All except one.

Pop's Compost.

"Pop" is Annette's husband (from News From Aspen Meadows). He brings a riotously funny male perspective to this "dressage" thing. He only blogs sporadically, but...... perhaps with a little encouragement, he would write a little more often!

1 AM

2011-01-18T15:01:00.002-05:00

It's raining, Hooray! Hopefully all this snow will melt. We're supposed to reach a balmy 38 F today. I may have to put short sleeves on!

Last night it was freezing rain. At around 1 am the baby woke up, which woke me up. His room is on the south side of the house, facing the pastures. From his window I could see Vinny standing out in the pasture by himself. That in itself wasn't unusual. My horses aren't really that attached to each other, they're more room mates than herd mates. But still, something didn't seem quite right. As my eyes adjusted, I realized his blanket was twisted up around his neck and he was trapped. Poor Vinny!

I've been having all kinds of trouble keeping a blanket on Vinny this year. Because of his stringhalt, he gets his hind legs stuck in the blanket frequently. I can't use the regular straps that come on the blanket, as they don't break easily and he becomes stuck. I finally ended up replacing all the regular straps on his blanket with baling twine. That way, when he inevitably gets his legs stuck, the twine breaks and he can get free. He ends up removing the blanket a lot, but at least he doesn't hurt himself.

Last night, he somehow broke all the twine and then got the blanket wrapped around his neck (probably rolling). Then he managed to step on the trailing end of the blanket, quite effectively trapping himself. Being a sensible old man, he stayed right where he was and waited for someone to come rescue him. His pasture mates had abandoned him and headed back to the barn (nice to know who your friends are!), leaving poor Vinny to stand in the freezing rain alone. It was a lucky thing I woke up when I did.

I put on my coveralls and headed out to rescue him. It was a simple matter, I just needed to unbuckle the chest strap and the blanket came off easily. Silly, I should have thought to put twine on the front buckles so they would break away, too. I took the blanket back to the barn to survey the damage. Not too bad, the twine did its job.... it broke before the blanket did. There's yet another small tear in the lining and the tail flap was half torn off, but the blanket is still serviceable. The lining wasn't too wet, either. It was dry enough to put back on, better a slightly damp blanket than none at all in the freezing rain. I loaded up my pockets with more baling twine and grabbed a towel to dry off Vinny, then headed out to tie his blanket back on. That done, I threw them some more hay and headed back to bed.

Sometimes I miss boarding out. I'm pretty sure my horses don't, though.

Avoiding Boredom

2011-01-15T09:42:00.001-05:00

The snow has still not melted. Stir craziness is setting in. I haven't ridden since January 4th. I haven't done much of anything outside since January 4th. Well, aside from dragging hoses around the yard and moving snow. That doesn't count because it's boring, too.

I've pretty much given up trying to keep Spider occupied. So long as he isn't destroying anything expensive, I'm leaving him to his own devices.

For myself, I've been reading. I don't have any new books to read, so I picked up an old favorite: "My Horses, My Teachers" by Alois Podhajsky. It's a sort of memoir of the various horses that he worked with over his career. My favorite section, of course, is where he talks about his dressage horses. I love that many of his dressage horses, including his Olympic mounts, were not bred specifically for dressage. Most were Thoroughbreds. Podhajsky was a cavalry man, and the cavalry simply bought whatever horses they could get cheaply. It was the cavalry man's job to make the best of his mount.

Podhajsky is best known for being a Master of Classical Dressage and his work at the Spanish Riding School. His book "The Complete Training of Horse and Rider" is generally hailed as the Bible of correct classical training. To be perfectly honest, I've never much cared for "The Complete Training of Horse and Rider". I find it dry, dull and not really pertinent to anything I do. (I know, BLASPHEMY!)

On the other hand, every time I read "My Horses, My Teachers" I find something that pertains to a horse I'm working with. Same author... What's the difference?

"The Complete Training of Horse and Rider" is a manual for training a horse from the ground up and riding a perfectly trained schoolmaster. A great thing to know, for sure. But, I can't afford perfectly trained horses (and I don't think they're very much fun, anyways) and I don't much care for babies. Almost every horse I've ever backed came to me either from another discipline or previously trained but with a host of issues. I guess I just have a thing for "bad boys". *lol*

In "My Horses, My Teachers", Podhajsky talks about his horses on a much more personal level. He talks about how he trained them individually: their problems, their strengths and how he molded his training to fit them. That's much more interesting to me.

It's good to know the theory and the correct way of doing things, but application is much more fun.

Not As Bad As It Could Have Been

2011-01-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

We only got around 4-5 inches of icky white stuff, not too bad. Funny, a few years ago 4-5 inches of snow would have sent me into a panic, then hibernation. But after last year's 3 ft of snow, 4-5 inches is just annoying.

My arena has all but disappeared under the snow, the wind is picking up and it's about 22 F out there, so I don't think I'll be doing any work with my horse. Oh well, spring will eventually arrive.

Just think warm thoughts.....

Global Warming My.......

2011-01-10T17:12:00.003-05:00

I know, I know... Global Warming is so 90s. It's "Global Climate Change" now.

Not that this is unusual weather for New Jersey in January. It's cold, snowy and windy. Although, while I can remember it being this cold here, and I can remember it being this snowy here, I cannot remember it ever being this cold and snowy here.

More snow is in the forecast for tomorrow. This is why the big trainers (and everyone else with money and sense) go to Florida for the winter. I don't qualify for any of those things (big trainer, money, sense...) So I'm here toughing it out.

Our last snowfall only brought about 3-4 inches, but it's been so cold that it hasn't melted. With this new storm promising 7-10 inches, I have a feeling that I won't be riding much for the next few weeks at least. I'll have to get inventive to keep my stir crazy Thoroughbred busy and sane.

Today I let them back out into the pastures. Everything's frozen, anyway. It really doesn't matter if they're out there or not. Plus, it was an opportunity to take cute pictures. Spider ran around and annoyed Vinny and Matilda. He feels that it is his job to "herd" them. He believes that he is a wild stallion, leading his herd.

Vinny is unimpressed.

Neither is Matilda.

Matilda is much more interested in searching my pockets for treats. See the fuzzy lump in the lower right corner? That's Matilda. Vinny, realizing Matilda is on to something, is heading over to get his fair share. The "Wild Stallion" is oblivious.

One last shot of the "Wild Stallion" showing off for the camera.

Magical Horses

2011-01-07T13:59:00.008-05:00

Last summer I accidentally caught one of the fence posts with the tractor's chain drag. Of course, it just happened to be the fence post with the latch for the pasture gate on it. It didn't pull the post out, luckily. It just shifted it a little. Not enough to mess up the fence, but just enough so that the gate won't catch the latch anymore. I tried to push the post back, to no avail. So, I've been using baling twine to keep that gate closed. It's really not a big deal, it's an interior gate, so if the horses break the baling twine they just end up in a pasture, not loose.

Since there's really no grass to speak of right now, I've been letting the horses have access to the pastures. They like to roam around. Of course, they poop wherever they roam and it does get annoying having to pick all that up.

So, yesterday afternoon I locked them into the dry lot. I was thinking that would keep the poop confined to one area, and thus easier to clean up.

This morning, when I went out to feed, there were no horses in the dry lot. They were in the pasture. The gate I had shut last night was standing wide open. A quick check confirmed my suspicions: they had pushed on the gate and broken the baling twine. No big deal, but since it was snowing and I hadn't had any coffee, I decided to fix it later.

Later rolled around, and I set forth to re-baling twine the gate. It was shut. I was confused. This is not a gate that swings readily by itself, and it isn't windy. Also, the horses were on the inside of a gate that swings out. For them to have shut it, they would have had to pull the gate towards them. How did the gate get shut? Upon closer inspection, I was even more confused. The gate was shut and latched.

Now, I know that latch didn't work yesterday. I had two mysteries. How had the gate gotten shut and what on earth had shifted that post to make the latch work?

My best explanation is that when they pushed on the gate to open it the post shifted again. Then, coming back through, the open gate must have snagged on one of their blankets and they pulled it closed. Never mind the fact that the ground is completely frozen and pushing on the gate would have actually pushed the post the wrong way. Also, none of their blankets are torn. I didn't say I had a good explanation, I said it was my best one.

My husband had a much better explanation: "They're magical horses."

Well, now that I know that I'm going to be getting their magical butts to fix a lot more stuff!

The Garden State

2011-01-06T08:30:00.001-05:00

My little farm is tucked away at the very southernmost end of New Jersey. Our area is still mostly agricultural, a tiny pocket of green in the most densely populated state in the Union. My husband's family lives in northern New Jersey. During the holiday season we always end up making the trek north to see them. We usually take the Turnpike to get there.

The Turnpike is a Jersey icon. It's the major artery through the state, cutting straight through the middle. Travelling the Turnpike will give you a pretty accurate slice of what life in the Garden State is really like. Over the eleven years we've been making this annual journey up the Turnpike there have been a lot of changes. At first it was mainly farmland up until you hit the middle of the state. Slowly, inexorably, some of the farms were sold off and housing developments sprang up. But there were still a lot of farms. This year I noticed that construction is under way to widen the Turnpike. I'm not entirely against that, the Turnpike is always congested with traffic. But, I was sad to see that many of the farms I have enjoyed seeing as we drive up are being swallowed by the construction project.

I saw one barn still standing right on the edge of where the new, widened road will run. At one time it must have housed some twenty horses, but now it stands empty. An empty barn is sad thing to me. I couldn't help but imagine the horses it must have housed at one time. Were they race horses? Jumpers? Maybe even dressage horses. It doesn't really matter what they did. They existed, they served us and they enriched our lives. And now their barn, once filled with the warmth of their bodies, their smell, their sounds.... their barn stands empty and cold along side the Turnpike.

It seems like that's happening all over America. The rural lifestyle is disappearing, swallowed up by townhouses and shopping malls. We Americans live in a culture where agriculture is a luxury, not a necessity. Again, that's not necessarily bad thing. We certainly don't have to deal with the problems that our rural ancestors did. Our food is plentiful and easy to obtain. We aren't slaves to the weather and seasons. But, while our lives improve, are we losing touch with our heritage?

That empty barn made me very sad, but at the same time thankful. I am glad to have horses in my life. I am glad to be a part of preserving horsemanship for the future. Because that's what we are doing, those of us who choose to have horses in our life. We are preserving an important part of our cultural heritage for future generations.

Through us, the knowledge of horses and horsemanship will pass on to future generations.

No Excuses

2011-01-04T16:51:00.004-05:00

It's cold. Really cold. I didn't really want to ride today. So, I wandered out to see if my arena was frozen. It wasn't. No excuse there.

So, I saddled up the horse and off we went. We warmed up. He wanted to be goofy. So, we went straight to canter work. I cantered the goofy out, then we did some more of those shallow serpentines I wrote about last time. From there, I decided to try something a bit harder. I put him on a twenty meter circle in canter. The goal was to do four strides of canter, then transition down and do four strides of trot, then back to four strides of canter, etc. Not sure why I picked four strides, that was pretty arbitrary. But it really wasn't about the number of strides. The point was to get thinking about the transitions and get Spider active.

It wasn't perfect. We totally nailed the four canter strides. Not so much the trot strides. I always forget to ride the downward transition. I know better, I know to ride all the transitions. I just don't always do it. So it ended up being four canter strides and like eight trot strides for the most part. At the end, I actually managed to get four trot strides tracking left. I was pretty proud of that, left is our hard direction.

Bolstered by my transition success, I did some more of the shallow serpentines and then went for broke. Rather than turning back for the rail at X, I kept going straight across. That's right, I was going for the full figure eight - no change of lead. And he did it! Full figure eight, no lead change. The counter canter wasn't the prettiest, but he did it. And tracking left! So, then we did right lead. No problems. I told him he was the finest piece of horse flesh on the planet and we called it a day.

The best part: When I got off he was all foamed up around the bit. It was truly the icing on the cake!

More Cantering

2011-01-03T17:29:00.004-05:00

The snow has melted and my arena is in great shape. That means it's time to get back to business. Spider couldn't be happier, he loves the attention.

Unfortunately, he still has a lot of pent up energy. So, we cantered again. It wasn't quite as bad as last time, he wasn't spooking at everything. We managed some decent walk-trot-walk transitions in the beginning. But it was obvious that his head wasn't in it. So, we cantered.

Just like last time, I made him round, kept him in front of me and kept him steady. And we just went. I did mix it up a bit, though. For the last five minutes or so of the ride I incorporated the First Level shallow canter serpentines. Every long side, I rode to X and then back to the rail. We did that both directions. Spider complied beautifully.

Not bad, not bad at all.

New Year's Resolutions

2011-01-02T08:35:00.006-05:00

I don't make 'em. Not because I think they're silly, just because I don't generally think that far ahead. I tend to live in the present. Perhaps that's why I have more of an affinity for horses than my fellow humans. For a horse, the past is over, the future is uncertain and neither is really worth dwelling on.

That's not to say that I don't have goals or make plans. I do, I just don't have them set out for the rest of the year. I prefer to plan more immediate things, like my next ride. Even then, there's a level of uncertainty. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've set out with a goal for a ride and then ended up doing something completely different because my plan just was not working. That's the thing about working with animals, they have minds of their own and aren't necessarily going to fall in line with your plan.

I've actually been thinking a lot lately about what exactly it is I'm doing with this dressage thing. I'm not really all that goal oriented. I hate showing and I really couldn't care less about winning. So, why do I do this?

I work hard at training my horse, but that's because it is something I am passionate about. I also believe that I have an obligation to my horse to not half-ass his training. Anything less than my best is bad training, and bad training is unfair to him.

For me it's about the journey, not the result. Sure, I'd like to train Spider to Grand Prix. PSG is more realistic, given his age. But still, that's not really a goal, it's just a natural progression of the training. It's a result of the journey, but not a destination.

I enjoy riding and I enjoy dressage. And, for me, that's enough.

Nothin' Doin'

2010-12-31T16:07:00.005-05:00

Well, it's still snowy here. It just hasn't gotten warm enough to really melt the snow yet. This weekend promises to bring rain, which should thaw things out. Not that it matters, Spider has a boo-boo on his lip. Right where the bit would rub. It's a nice scrape about the size of a dime. I haven't a clue how he did it. He's really not that prone to getting banged up. I suppose he must have stuck his nose somewhere it didn't belong.

On the bright side, the area of the arena I cleared is thawing quicker. There are patches of footing showing through, getting bigger every day. It's not fit to ride on, though. The sun warms the snow during the day, then it re-freezes at night, creating slick ice patches. No good for working horses.

Vinny, my old gelding with Stringhalt, is holding up really well. I was worried about how well he'd be able to get around in the snow, but he gets around just fine. That horse is like a cockroach, he adapts to every conceivable environment and thrives. He's an old style imported Swedish Warmblood. Truly a marvel of Swedish engineering!

Happy New Year's Eve to all! May your evening be full of champagne and your hangover mild!

Me, I will probably fall asleep on the couch sometime around 10 pm, just like every year ;)

A Bit Of Whimsy

2010-12-27T18:07:00.007-05:00

I've started to dig my arena out. I have to use a lot of care, as I don't want to disturb the footing. I only took off the first 6 inches of snow in half the arena. That doesn't come close to clearing the arena, but hopefully the decreased volume of snow will melt quicker, enabling me to use at least part of my arena sooner.

In the meantime, I have to figure out something to do with my horse. Spider, you see, likes to have a job. His job is being ridden. When he doesn't have a job to do, he starts to invent jobs for himself. Like, herding the chickens, tormenting the other horses, trying to remove the stall doors and other generally undesirable activities. These behaviors are generally kept to a minimum by the simple fact that Spider has three acres to roam. On his three acres he can usually graze and run and keep himself busy. Today, however, his three acres are covered in a foot of snow. He is confined to a small area that has been beaten down just outside of the barn. So, he has been herding chickens, tormenting Vinny and Matilda and really just being obnoxious.

His need to do something became very apparent when I went out for evening chores. He was dancing around, trying to get my attention, biting the other horses and just generally being a pest. But what could I do with him? Everything is still snow covered.

I took him out of the pasture, intending to try to lunge him in the snow. The minute I had him out, he calmed down. It really seemed that all he wanted was some attention. And that's when I had a sudden idea. An idea to do something I hadn't done in many, many years.

On a whim, I decided to ride bareback through the snow. I didn't have his bridle with me, so I would have to ride with just the halter. But, snow is soft... I've fallen off into it before with no injuries. And so I hooked up two lead ropes to Spider's halter and led him over to the mounting block.....

I honestly have no idea what came over me. I have never ridden Spider bareback. I have never ridden Spider through the snow. I have ridden bareback and through snow before on other horses, but not for many years. But, I had an idea in my head. And once I have an idea in my head I always follow through.

I had to fish the mounting block out of the snow drift it was encased in. Then, after freeing it, I was confronted with another obstacle. All those many years ago, when I used to ride bareback, I had much shorter horses. Even with a mounting block, I need a stirrup to get a leg up over Spider's back. I had no stirrup. The only way to get on was to hop from the mounting block to the horse, then swing my leg up. I was not sure how Spider would react to that. But, I have experience with mounting from the ground and mounting green horses. I put that to work.

From the mounting block, I leaned over Spider's back. He flicked his ears back, but seemed otherwise unperturbed. Feeling bolder, I hoisted myself halfway onto his back, as though I were getting an unbroken horse used to my weight. Again, no reaction other than an ear flick. I decided to go for it. I hoisted myself up, then somehow managed to wiggle my leg up and over Spider's back. It was no mean feat, but Spider never moved a muscle.

Once I was up, I found a comfortable spot on his back and off we went. We only walked. I tested my brakes, they were there. I tested my steering, it was there, too. We were on!

Originally I intended to keep him to the part of the arena I had plowed. Spider, however, had other ideas. You see, when we hack out I tend to allow him a lot of liberty. Normally in our rides I choose the pattern, duration and speed of our travel. But when we have an easy hacking day, he's always allowed to choose our path. I figure that as long as he's a good boy and isn't choosing the barn as our destination, what's the problem? I would not allow just any horse this sort of liberty, but Spider has never steered me wrong.

And so Spider set off through the snow drifts. We just cruised along, Spider choosing our path through the snow. We cruised around the arena, down the driveway and back, then around the front yard. I made a few corrections in our course along the way, mostly just suggestions of where to go. I trusted Spider to find the best footing and make his way along.

It was marvelously invigorating! I can't remember the last time I had so much fun riding. And we never went faster than a walk! I honestly felt like a kid again, full of the wonder and magic and sheer joy of riding a horse. It was a truly magical bit of whimsy on an otherwise cold and dreary day. And it reminded me of how lucky I am to have horses in my life.

And Then Winter Set In

2010-12-26T15:16:00.003-05:00

Just a few days ago I was giddy at the thought of the days getting longer. I guess Winter heard me and said "Haha! We'll see about that!" The flurries that I was able to ride in yesterday turned into a full blown snow storm for today. The expected accumulation is 8-12 inches for my area. Yuck.

My arena, with its sand and rubber footing and excellent drainage, has held up wonderfully so far. I really could not be more pleased with it. Especially since it was a do-it-yourself job. I know people who have hired professionals and spent a considerable amount of money and do not have arenas as rideable as mine. Not bad, considering that neither me nor my husband are engineers. Of course, it doesn't hurt that our area is very sandy and rocky, drainage isn't really a problem.

I'm excited to see how my arena stands up to this snow. I drug it after I rode last night to get rid of any hoof prints and divots that might accumulate ice. I'm not sure what to do after the snow falls. I don't want to try snow blowing or plowing, as that may disturb the arena surface. I may try removing the top most layer of snow with the front end loader, then dragging to break up whatever's left on the surface. This will certainly be a project where I make things up as I go along. But, that's how I do pretty much everything. It won't be new territory.

For right now, I'm content with sitting in my sunroom, enjoying a glass of red wine and watching the snow fall. In a few hours I'll have to venture back out to feed, but I'm trying not to think about that now.

A Christmas Ride

2010-12-25T16:30:00.004-05:00

What could be better than riding your horse on Christmas Day? Well, probably riding your horse when it's 70 degrees with a light breeze, rather than 31 and snowing. But that's not the point.... I live in New Jersey, I have to work with what I've got.

Aside from being 31 degrees and snowing, it was a nice ride. I hit upon a bit of an epiphany, also. In my last post, I was complaining about the time it takes to warm up. Not that I'm complaining about warming up, warming up is the most important part of training a horse, but when it's cold out warming up takes a long, long time. Spider and I are not spring chickens. He is 15, I am..... well, lets just say that I'm considerably older than him. We get stiff in the cold.

So, as I was warming up today I noticed that, while Spider was quite stiff he had a lot of energy. Cold weather makes crazy horses. At one point in our warmup, as we dashed sideways across the arena because a very scary, horse eating sparrow was in a bush about thirty feet from the arena, I thought to myself "Hmmm, maybe I'm going about this all wrong."

You see, I've been trying to focus on moving up the levels. And I'm getting nowhere. Spider is stiff, I am stiff, it's cold and he wants to act like a three year old. (No offense to three year olds, most of the ones I've met are actually much more sensible than Spider) But, what I have is a horse with a lot of forward energy to burn off. So, why not just go with that?

I decided not to bother fighting with him. I kicked him up into a nice, forward and round canter and we cantered all the way around the arena. I don't know how long we cantered for. I don't know how many laps we did. We changed leads a few times through trot. I kept him round, in front of me and steady. Did we work on counter counter? Nope. Simple changes? Nope. Medium gaits? Nope. But, we had a blast, anyway.

Merry Christmas!

Winter Solstice

2010-12-21T17:11:00.003-05:00

Today was officially the shortest day of the year for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. From here on out, the days will just get longer and longer. And that's good news for anybody who needs to do things outside. Here in New Jersey, it starts getting dark around 4:30. I'm sitting here at 5:11 and it's pitch black out there. Yuck.

Limited daylight means limited time for chores. There are lights in my barn, but my horses don't live in a barn. They roam freely over three acres, pooping wherever they please. And someone needs to pick up that poop. In spite of my efforts, those lazy beasts refuse to learn to handle a manure fork. So, that leaves it up to me. I also have two children, so my time for doing chores and riding my horse gets limited to nap time. Nap time is only about an hour, so I always have to choose: ride the horse, or clean up the poop. To be perfectly honest, I usually choose ride the horse. I can always de-worm the horses later.

I jest, of course. Proper manure removal is an integral part of farm management. And, the longer you put it off, the longer it takes to clean up. And when it's frozen to the ground it's really a pain to get up. Thus, I do not get to ride as often as I'd like to.

At the clinic last week my trainer was very pleased with my work. His only criticism was that I need to push harder, ask for more and step the training up. And he's absolutely right. But, these things are easier said than done for the adult amateur on her own farm in a cold winter area. The deck is really stacked against me. I'm doing really good if I ride three times a week. And the first 30 minutes of each ride is spent getting me and my horse warmed up. Then what? It takes forever to get warmed up and then I work on the same thing I've been doing. Spider and I are running in place right now, not losing ground but not gaining it, either. It's frustrating. But it's not a reason to give up. Today was the Winter Solstice. The days are only getting longer now and we'll have more time.

Phew!

2010-12-13T15:41:00.004-05:00

I've finally recovered enough to write up my clinic experience. Let me tell you, Spider and I were both sore and tired from our adventure.

I must admit, trailering horses is not my favorite thing in the world. I'm pretty much a nervous wreck from the time I close up the trailer and get into the truck 'til the time I get out of the truck and open the trailer back up. It's not lack of experience, either.... I've trailered horses all over. It's really just me being neurotic. There are just so many things that can go wrong, and we've all heard the horror stories!

Spider does not help my neurosis, either. He is not the best horse to trailer. He loads just fine, I don't even need help to get him on or off the trailer. But the entire time you're moving, he is too. Literally, the trailer rocks from him dancing around back there. I have no idea what he's doing, but it's completely nerve-wracking. And then, when you actually get to the destination...........well, let's just say that Spider knows how to make an entrance!

This time was no different. We arrived at our destination, trailer rockin' and rollin', and found a nice place to park far away from everyone else. I try to keep the debacle that is unloading Spider away from others, out of politeness. The owner of the farm kindly offered to help, so I asked if she would undo the butt bar in the trailer. I also warned her that Spider likes to make a scene, so she should probably stand back.

In true Spider fashion, he waited patiently for me to tell him it was time to back off the trailer, then flew backwards down the ramp and stopped at the bottom to trumpet like a stallion. Then, after being satisfied that everyone on the property knew he had arrived, he proceeded to dance around me in circles like a Lipizzaner on crack. The farm owner's response: "What was all that?"

That, my friends, is how Spider makes an entrance.

He's done this as long as I've owned him, this "grand entrance". The most comical thing about Spider's grand entrance is that he's really not out of control. He never hits the end of the lead rope and he never goes faster than I'm going. He leaps and dances around, looking very big and impressive, but I can easily handle him with just a halter and lead, no need for a chain. It's all just for show, and I indulge him his vanity. Once the saddle and bridle go on he's all business, and that's all I really care about. Plus, I find it sort of amusing. It certainly makes me look like a better rider, being able to tame that "wild beast". If they only knew what a pussycat he is.....

We warmed up without incident. Like I said, once the saddle and bridle are on Spider is all business. He knows his job. The clinic was held in an indoor arena, which was really nice since it was snowing. Just flurries, but they still sting when they get in your eyes.

The other nice thing about riding in an indoor is having walls to work against. My arena doesn't have any fences or walls, and I like that for some things. It really helps with straightness. With no wall to work off of, the horse is just as straight as you are. There's no room for mistakes there. However, there are other exercises that are much better when done against a wall. My trainer knows this, and was lying in wait.

I knew I was in for it when he picked up a driving whip. We were going to bring the activation to a new level, get Spider's rump underneath him and get him really pushing off from the hind end. He had me walk Spider down the wall. He tapped Spider's rump with the whip while I flexed Spider in and out and (tried) to focus the energy up and over his back. If Spider jogged, it was OK. I was not to tighten or stiffen up when he jogged, just supple him. Jogging was not a bad thing, so long as he stayed round and I didn't stiffen. Jogging was actually sort of desired, it meant we were getting a result...more activation of the hind legs. Spider figured out the exercise waaay before I did. I had to be reprimanded several times for getting stiff.

After that, we worked on stretching and suppling at walk and trot. I have a tendency to throw the reins away when allowing the horse to stretch. This is not correct, the horse needs to "chew" the reins from the rider's hand. He needs to remain round and on the bit in spite of having a longer rein.

I was also left with a "trick" to get my hands in the right position. I tend to ride with my hands low and wide with my thumbs pointed in (very bad!). My trainer had me ride with my thumbs pointed out. Straight out. Obviously, that's not correct, either. It's an exaggeration, just like riding with a whip behind your back or riding with no stirrups. You exaggerate the movement, which is uncomfortable and awkward, then the correct position feels right.

All in all, it was a good time. Spider and I managed to not look like the Beverly Hillbillies in front of the auditors. Although, Spider did feel the need to blow and snort at them every time we went near that part of the arena. I ignored it. It was really no surprise, anyway. He does the same thing at the judge in shows. I didn't get to watch too much of the other rides, as I was taking care of my very needy and obnoxious Thoroughbred, but what I did see was nice. There was a nice mix of upper level and lower level horses, "traditional" Warmbloods bred for dressage and "non-traditional" breeds (including an off the track Thoroughbred). I like that sort of eclectic mix, it makes things more fun.

By the way, I put "traditional" and "non-traditional" in quotes because I don't believe in the hype over certain breeds of horse in dressage. Dressage is for all horses, all riders and all disciplines. Some choose to take it a step further and compete in dressage. But, I still don't believe that there is a such thing as a "dressage breed". I've beaten fancy Warmbloods on my Thoroughbred, and I've been beaten by Quarter horses. Take that, DQs.

Getting Ready

2010-12-10T11:27:00.002-05:00

I'm going to a clinic today. It will be the first time Spider has left the property in over a year.

I decided last week that I needed to do some preparing so I don't look like an incompetent boob. I figured that a lesson was probably in order before I go to the clinic, just to be sure I was on the right track. Trying to explain that to my husband was pretty comical.

Husband: "Why do you need to take a lesson, I thought the clinic was a lesson"
Me: "It is, but I need to get ready so I don't look like an idiot."
Husband: "So... you need a lesson to get ready for your lesson....?"

Why is that such a difficult concept? Non-horse people are weird.

Anyway, I had my pre-lesson lesson last Thursday. Essentially, it was just polishing up my position and Spider's frame and energy. I have a tendency to ride with my hands low and wide, it's a bad habit I picked up from riding untrained horses. In the beginning of a horse's training you can ride like that, to sort of "show" the horse where to go. It's not necessarily the most correct thing to do, but it gets the job done. Spider's progressed to a point where he needs to find the contact himself now. I'm also starting to bring his neck up and my low, wide hands are interfering with that. My other problem is not following at the canter. When cantering, the rider's inside hand and hip need to follow the horse's movement. I've gotten a bit stiff, which is blocking Spider from jumping into the next canter stride.

I felt really good about the lesson. Then the weather turned miserable, windy and cold, and I've ridden my horse only three times since my lesson. So, I'll probably end up looking like a backyard rider anyway. Oh well, if the shoe fits......

Leg Yields. Or, Consistency Is Key

2010-12-08T12:56:00.002-05:00

On my last post, Muriel asked me a question about leg yield aids. Aids are such a pain in the butt. Sometimes literally... Ha!

Personally, I love leg yields. In a leg yield, you're asking the horse to move sideways and forward away from the direction of the bend. It's a great way to get the horse's inside hind leg moving and get the horse to push into the outside rein. When I practice leg yields I like to release the inside rein completely to see if I can still maintain the bend and outside rein contact with just my seat and leg. It's a fun little test of the aids. My aids for the leg yield are as follows: Say we're tracking right (right bend) and want to make a leg yield to the left. I drop my right seat bone into the horse and apply my right leg at the girth. My left seat bone and leg stay off, allowing the horse to move sideways. If the hind end starts to lag, I move my right leg back slightly and push in rhythm with the inside hind to say "move your butt!" If the horse falls onto his outside shoulder or quickens his pace I half halt on the outside rein.

As I was thinking of my aids for different movements to write the above paragraph, I thought to myself "That's really confusing. Those are almost exactly the same aids I would use to make a circle tracking right, ask for right lead canter or half-pass right. How the heck does my horse know the difference?"

There are so many subtleties in the aids. Pressure from my seat bones says "bend this direction". Pressure from my leg says "move this hind leg". The rest of my body makes a hundred fine adjustments to regulate and clarify what my seat and leg are asking for.

So, if I wanted to make a circle tracking right, I would weight my right seat bone. My right leg would activate the horse's inside hind leg (if needed) and my left leg would block the horse from travelling sideways. To pick up the right lead canter, I would weight my right seat bone. My right leg would activate the inside hind leg and I would shift my weight ever so slightly back to signal the upward transition. My left leg again blocks sideways movement. For a half-pass right, my right seat bone gets weighted to ask for the right bend and my right leg activates the inside hind, but this time my left leg is applied just behind the girth to push the horse sideways into the bend.

Now, those are just my aids. I've learned through the years that many people have different aids for those movements. I don't think there's really a right or wrong. It's really about consistency and results. I'm not one of those people who says "Oh no, you can't do it like that! So and So who wrote a book on classical horsemanship says to do it this way so therefore that is The Only Way to do it ever!" Please... realistically, you could teach a horse to do a leg yield every time you tapped the saddle pommel three times. It would look a little weird in a dressage test, but is it wrong? Well, I'd actually have to check the rule book to see if it's a violation to tap the saddle in a test, but outside of showing I wouldn't call it wrong. Silly, perhaps, but not necessarily wrong.

I got a little side tracked there. My point is: If you're consistent and are getting good results, keep doing what you're doing. If not, then it's time to try something else. The aids I described are what I have learned and adapted over many years, many trainers and many horses. They're an amalgamation of what has worked for me.

That's not to say that I don't enjoy reading books or talking about theory and classical horsemanship. I love theory, it's just about my favorite thing ever. I also believe it gives the rider a great foundation to work from. But, I also know that nothing in horsemanship is ever set in stone. You have to take the theory and use it, play with it, and adapt it to your horse and your riding. Have fun with it.

Still Cantering

2010-11-29T14:14:00.001-05:00

Spider was really sore last week. I can tell because he was being a little balky and squirmy under saddle. He's never blatantly defiant, he just tries to evade me. That's not a bad thing, the soreness, it means he's building muscle. He got two days off because of the holiday and seems to be feeling much better.

In one of my last posts, Jean of Horses of Follywoods suggested counter-canter as a great muscle building and balancing exercise. It is a great exercise, and it's usually one of my favorite exercises. Just not with Spider.

Spider was a jumper before I got him, and as such was taught an automatic flying change. Automatic as in "I will change my canter lead irrespective of my rider's input". It took nearly two years of work to get him to stop doing it. And, when he's unfit, he still does it. The second he comes unbalanced in counter canter, he swaps leads. And it isn't a clean, powerful leap into the new lead, like a dressage flying change should be. It's more of a shoulder-dropping fall into the new lead. Very frustrating.

When I encounter a problem, I like to go back to the beginning. To break Spider of his automatic change the first time I first improved the quality of his canter. I practiced lengthening the stride, then shortening it in circles and straight. I flexed him in and out of circles, paying special attention to not flex him out for too many strides at a time because he'll change leads. From there, I began to use the First Level shallow canter serpentine. First Level Test Four calls for a shallow serpentine from the rail to X and then back to the rail again. At first, I sort of cheated on this exercise. I would canter to X, then leg yield back to the rail. I did this to avoid changing direction, so that Spider could figure out that I didn't want him to change leads. As he began to get the point, I began to ever so slightly point him in the new direction. As his balance and confidence grew and he began to "get" it, I asked for more. Then, one day out of the blue he had it. We were able to do the exercise flawlessly, and then do an entire figure eight with no change of lead. Then we tried the Second Level Test One three loop serpentine. No problem. It took awhile, but in the end it was almost effortless. Slow and steady wins the race, I suppose.

So, I'm doing the same thing again. Right now we're up to flexing in and out of the circle. When I feel like he's balanced enough, we'll go to the shallow serpentine. Hopefully I won't have to use the leg yields this time. I think it's just a fitness issue, I can't imagine he could have forgotten how to counter canter. Well, maybe. "Automatic" training can be very hard to break.

Moonlit Rides and a Conundrum

2010-11-28T15:40:00.001-05:00

Spider had Thursday and Friday off since we had to do family things for the holiday. And then Saturday went by too fast. Suddenly it was 4:30 and getting dark and I hadn't ridden yet. I mulled my options. Option one: Suck it up and ride in the dark. Option two: Wimp out and look like a backyard yahoo at the clinic Dec 10th. I hate looking like a backyard yahoo. Plus, I was inspired by Carol at Dressage Training Journal. She wrote about a moonlit ride recently that sounded just heavenly. I must admit that there is something magical about working a horse in the dark. We humans are such visual creatures, we tend to throw all our other senses away and just rely on our eyesight. But in the dark there are no distractions, it's just you and the horse.

We just worked a bit on suppling, bending into and out of the circle. We walked, trotted, cantered and then called it an evening. It felt good.

The conundrum: What do I do about a blanket for Vinny? He still lifts his hind legs up too high and he got one leg caught in the belly straps of the blanket. Luckily, he didn't hurt himself, but he did rip the belly straps off the blanket. I tried using the blanket without the belly straps. I found it in a heap in the middle of the pasture this morning. I probably should have known that would happen. I'm going to try sewing one strap back on nearer the front of the blanket, where a girth would go. If that doesn't work, I'm all out of ideas. Maybe I could just wrap him up in insulation and vet wrap for the winter? *L*

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T12:47:00.003-05:00

Horses enrich our lives. They teach us humility, forgiveness, unconditional love and patience. Horses give us power and grace that our bodies do not have.

Horses have also left an indelible mark on our history. They plowed our fields, pulled our wagons and carried us into battle for thousands of years. Our society was built on the backs of horses.

Thank you, Horse. We couldn't be here without you.

Feeling Better and Canter Work

2010-11-22T08:31:00.003-05:00

My shoulder is back to normal, thankfully. I started riding again last Friday. I'm trying to stick with a 2-3 days on, one day off schedule for Spider. I have to get him fit and suitable for public presentation by December 10th. Why Dec 10th? I signed up for a clinic. Spider hasn't been off the property in over a year, I figured he could probably use the experience. Plus, there's a nice little dressage community building up in my neck of the woods, and I figured I should start participating. The clinic isn't really anything special, it's with my regular trainer, but it is a chance to get out, be seen and introduce myself and Spider to the community. Which means I need to get my butt in gear so that I don't look like a yokel.

For the last few rides I've worked on canter with Spider. His trot work is just about perfect. The trot/walk transitions are smooth and he can volte, lengthen, leg yield, shoulder-in, travers and renver in trot pretty consistently. I haven't worked on half-pass yet, we were only just starting that last year. No need to get ahead of ourselves. But, I'm happy with the trot. So, now it's time to move to canter. He wants to be crooked and unbalanced in the canter. It's a fitness issue, and the only way to fix it is to get out there and do it.

I'm applying the same plan to the canter that I used to get his trot work up to snuff. Transitions, transitions, more transitions, and suppling work. Right now, I make the upward transition to canter, flex him into the circle, flex him out of the circle, then back to trot. Lather, rinse, repeat. For variety, I send him down the long side and ask for a lengthening or a leg yield. We've done a few 10 meter canter circles here and there, but he tends to come unbalanced and fall on his forehand in them.

We'll get there. I have time.

Outside Pets

2010-11-17T11:57:00.000-05:00

In the wee hours of the morning I was awakened by a storm. The wind was howling and rain pelted the house. It was quite a racket. I got up and turned on the floodlights to check the horses, to be sure no limbs were down on the fence and the horses were snug in the barn. No trees were down, but the horses were not snug in the barn. They were standing out in the cold, driving rain, butts to the wind, happily munching on grass. They have the choice of going into the barn or staying out. I've found that 90% of the time, they choose out. Funny, I've always been told that show horses are delicate, sensitive creatures that cannot possibly live outside. I guess mine didn't get the memo.

They should know that they shouldn't go out in the rain. They might melt.

And they certainly can't go out in the snow. It's much too cold, they wouldn't like that.

Hmmm.... well, I am still glad that I provide them with stalls. Horses need a soft, secure place to sleep in.

Or around.

That's not to say that they never go in their stalls. I occasionally find them in there. Although, they seem to be confused as to how to properly use them.

One horse per stall, boys. You fit better that way.

And, while we're on the subject of "what horses can't do", here's a picture for all the people who think that dressage is unnatural and forced and that horses at liberty don't move like that:

I'd also like to give a shout out to all the Dressage Queens who think that only purebred, papered Warmbloods from Europe can be competetive dressage horses.

I'm feeling cheeky today, must be the wind ;)

Injured

2010-11-16T10:34:00.004-05:00

Me, not Spider. Thank goodness!

I'm a pretty rough and tumble sort of person. And I don't always think things through. This often leads to me doing dumb things. Like trying to throw hay bales directly from the slick pickup bed into the hay room, or clean the water tubs while reaching through the electric fence. Just last week I was standing on top of the tractor using a hack saw to cut down a tree limb. I did briefly think to myself "Maybe this isn't one of my better ideas". But, I couldn't think of any better way to do it, so I carried on. I've also been known to use hay bales as makeshift ladders. Heck, I've even used the horse as a ladder, mostly to remove small branches that hang over the arena. I sit on his back, reach up with the hand nippers and cut off the low-hanging branches that hit me when I ride. I figure that's the height they need to be trimmed to, anyway. Why not? He only dances around a little bit, he's mostly gotten used to it.

So, how did I hurt myself? Pulling on a sweatshirt. How ignoble. It's not even a good story. I was a little chilly, so I decided to put on a sweatshirt. While pulling it over my head I managed to pull a muscle. The big muscle that runs from your neck down to the bottom of your shoulder blade, the trapezius. Right now it's the ouchius maximus. For the last two days I haven't been able to turn my head without getting blinding pain down my neck and back. It does seem a bit better today. It's mostly just sore now, not stabbing pain.

Needless to say, I haven't been riding. I thought about it. But then I thought that would be a pretty dumb thing to do. I'll try a little gentle stretching today, see how that goes. It's raining anyway.

And now for some good news.... Vinny's trotting again! You may recall that Vinny, my old retiree, contracted Australian Stringhalt over the summer. For a while there he couldn't trot, because of the way his hind legs were moving. He cantered everywhere. Well, last night he trotted up for dinner! His movement has been less exaggerated lately, but this is the first time I've seen him trot since he first showed symptoms. I'm quite pleased that he's making progress. I was really worried about how he would manage if we got a lot of snow this winter. He can stay in the stall, but Stringhalt horses aren't really supposed to be confined. Movement helps them, confinement makes them worse. Plus, I worry about him falling and getting cast in the stall. He seems to be doing just fine though. I shouldn't have had any doubts. Nothing ever gets that cheeky old bugger down!

Related Posts on Vinny's Stringhalt:
StringHalt and Dandelions
Hot and Steamy
Hot and Steamy, With a Chance of Hurricanes

Catching Up And Breeches

2010-11-14T09:00:00.003-05:00

Fall is a busy time. It's actually my least favorite season because there is so much to do, and so few hours of daylight. It's getting dark here at around 5:30 pm now. I can get stuff done after dark, there are lights outside, but I find that my motivation wanes with the sun. I suppose I might have that "seasonal depression" I see on TV drug commercials. Once it gets dark, all I want to do is go inside, snuggle up on the couch and go to sleep. I think I was really meant to be a hibernating animal. *L*

Anyway, since I'm busy all day and hibernating at night, I've fallen woefully behind on blogging. Spider is doing quite well. He's staying consistently round, still a few bobbles when doing transitions, but otherwise very consistent. I can't remember the last time he tripped. I've started sitting the trot more and more. That's nice, I have a lot more control when I'm sitting. I've never been very good at posting the trot. I have to remember to take a picture of Spider, too. He's filling out quite nicely.

I'm also undertaking a little project. Well, I'm contemplating planning a little project, anyway. I need new breeches. Unfortunately, I have a taste for quality, full seat breeches. My favorite brands are Pikeur (expensive) and Miller (no longer manufactured). My two favorite pairs of breeches both have the same problem: after years of use and abuse, the seats have worn out. But, the fabric is still good. They're my favorites because they fit wonderfully, the fabric is a good weight and they're very comfortable. I just can't bear to let them go. So, I had a cunning plan. I will make new seats! I have a sewing machine. I'm not a particularly talented seamstress, but I'm not starting from scratch, either.

After careful examination of the breeches, it seems pretty straightforward. I can pull the stitching and use the old seats as a template. Now it's just a matter of choosing a material. I'd love to do leather seats. I love leather seats on breeches. But, this is my first time doing this, so I should maybe be conservative. Once you've stitched leather, there's no going back to fix a mistake. If you try to remove the stitching, the holes remain and the piece is ruined. So, I'm thinking synthetic.

I've priced everything out, I can get enough leather or synthetic material for about 5-6 seats for the price of one pair of breeches. Even if I ruin a few yards of material, it's still a good deal. But, like I said, I'm still in the "contemplating planning stage".

Anyone out there ever try this sort of thing? Was it an unmitigated disaster? Or, is the high price of full seat breeches just a racket perpetrated by manufacturers who know that horse people will pay through the nose for stuff?

The Brown Marmorated Stinkbug

2010-11-03T12:48:00.000-04:00

If you are lucky enough to live in a part of the world that has not been inundated with these things, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about or why I'd dedicate an entire post to these things. But, if you live in the Northeast U.S., you probably just said "UGH!"

We are experiencing a stinkbug infestation of Biblical proportions this year. Seriously, they're everywhere. And they stink. When startled or upset they release a sort of chemical smell. It's not the most unpleasant smell, but it is pungent and the little buggers are constantly releasing it because they're always somewhere they shouldn't be. The things have a serious death wish. They climb into clothing, under and into saddle pads and blankets, the cushions of the patio furniture, feed buckets and tubs and anyplace else they shouldn't be. They also have a penchant for just randomly flying into you for no reason, too. Then they get all offended and release their stink. Really annoying.

Aside from being annoying, they don't seem to do much else. I think that's the most annoying thing about them. Flies and mosquitoes bite, but that's how they get food. Grasshoppers eat my veggies, but again, that's just part of their nature. These things are just obnoxious pests that serve no purpose whatsoever. It's like Nature's cruel joke.

Originally, I was fairly indifferent to them, since they seem pretty harmless. But then I had a horrific encounter with one and realized that they were not only suicidal, but they were trying to take me with them.

I was dragging the arena one day, minding my own business, when the assault occurred. I was getting ready to ride, so I was wearing breeches. This particular pair of breeches has a bit of a gap in the back. My hips are much wider than my waist, so any high waisted breeches I own tend to gap at the waist. For some reason, the manufacturers of breeches think all women riders have the physique of a twelve year old boy, I have to get a larger waist size to get them over my hips. But I digress.

As I passed under a tree, a stinkbug fell straight down the gap in my breeches. I very nearly wrecked the tractor.

I can only imagine what it must have looked like to an outside observer as I flailed and screamed and tried to remove the stinkbug, while the tractor careened around the arena. Tractors have very sensitive steering. Wild flailing is not a recommended way of driving them.

I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me to stop the tractor and get off, but to be fair, I was being assaulted. One cannot think clearly under those circumstances.

I eventually managed to get the offender out of my breeches without wrecking the tractor. Thank goodness, I do not want my obituary to read "death by stinkbug". Ever since this unfortunate incident, I have loathed the homicidal little buggers.

Needless to say, given my stinkbug hatred, I was quite pleased with the hard frosts we've experienced here over the last three nights. I gleefully imagined all the horrid little stinkbugs freezing to death as payback for ambushing me on the tractor. Take that, stinkbugs!

This morning, as I was tidying up the feed room, I picked up a fleece cooler I had thrown over the feed bins to dry. Guess what I found, alive and well?

I hate stinkbugs.....

A Hypothetical Answer

2010-10-30T12:43:00.003-04:00

The overwhelming majority seems to be in favor of fixing the canter, then re-doing the transition. I can't believe no one picked up on the most obvious answer: Don't make a bad transition! ;)

Unfortunately, it's not always that easy. In a perfect world, you would think, "Oh, the horse has lost impulsion, or contact, or both and won't be able to make this transition.... Abort!" But, that takes a lot of precision, quickness and "feel" and doesn't always happen. I have heard good arguments for both of the hypothetical scenarios I put forth. I think it depends on where you and the horse are in your training.

If you are on a young or naive horse, I think it is correct to keep the canter, fix it if you can, then transition downward and re-do. The young horse is still learning the aids, he may not understand if you correct him when he did what you asked to the best of his ability.

On a more experienced horse who knows the aids, it becomes a really grey area in my opinion. On one hand, the horse complied with my request, he cantered. On the other hand, I'm not just asking for canter anymore. I'm asking for a quiet, collected transition and a good canter. So, if the horse doesn't comply, I should probably immediately transition back down and re-do. But, if I'm in a bad, unbalanced canter, my downward transition will be bad, and I will get a bad trot that I have to fix. And then I will have made two bad transitions when what I was trying to do is make one good one.

Generally, I like to fix the canter, then transition downward and re-do. I don't like to make a ton of bad transitions. But, I can see where that logic may eventually fail me. In operant conditioning theory (the theory we use to train animals) the "aids" fit into negative reinforcement. You apply the aid until the horse complies. The aid is uncomfortable, the reward for the horse is the release of the aid. The immediate correction, which involves a bad downward transition and then an immediate request for the upward transition, is also uncomfortable for the horse. The horse learns that if he does the transition correctly, the way you wanted it, the aids will be released.

A bad transition happens when the horse comes off the aids. Now, why did the horse come off the aids? Is it because you allowed him to? That goes back to not making a bad transition. Don't allow bad transitions, then you won't need to worry about fixing them. Ha!

In conclusion, I think I will be doing my best to not make bad transitions. I will prepare, prepare, prepare and if I feel that my transition might be bad, I will abort, re-collect and then try again.

In the event of a bad transition (which is probable) I'll just wing it. *L*

A Not So Hypothetical Question

2010-10-28T19:26:00.003-04:00

As I was working Spider today, I thought of something. We were working on trot to canter transitions. Specifically, we were working on making the trot to canter and canter to trot transitions good.

Say you are making an upward transition from trot to canter. Say you make a bad transition. Your bad transition results in a bad canter. Do you immediately transition back to trot and redo the upward transition, possibly risking making a bad downward transition as well? Or, do you fix the canter, make the downward transition and then redo the upward transition?

I can see pros and cons for both scenarios. But I'm interested in everyone else's opinions.