Pushing the Height

Ugh y'all, I'm way behind on posts. And here's the thing: there are many exciting possibilities afoot in Camp Rainbow at the moment. Those possibilities are demanding quite a lot of my attention, which they deserve. That might mean this blog slows down again for a bit. But we're heading into winter anyway, so. I'll do my best to stay on top of interesting lesson recaps and show stuff, if for no other reason than I really enjoy looking back on those, but if you don't hear from me for a bit, don't fear for my life.

Anyway, another exciting thing is how well Mo is going (aside from how cranky and annoying he was on our trail ride this morning). We have, more than a year into riding him, gotten the jumps up to 3' in a school. I don't expect they'll stay here--M's novice horse doesn't necessarily always jump 3', depends on the exercise--but it sure felt good to know that he'd canter down to the middle of a slightly bigger jump and spring over it in as relaxed a fashion as he does the smaller stuff.

All the jumps below are pictured at their final height, not the starting height.

These two verticals are set on the diagonals, so they made for a good figure-8 exercise to get him warmed up. You'd come right lead off the rail to the blue one, around the top of the ring, and then left lead back over the black one. We did that a couple of times until he found a rhythm and was chill.

Then we snuck into this oxer at a bit of an angle because there was a skinny two strides before it, and I wanted him to find each element individually before tackling them together. The first time to it was a tiny bit disorganized and we pulled a rail, but we got that figured out.

The first time we did the skinny I came in between it and the oxer and trotted it, but after that he had to canter it, and eventually we did the skinny-to-oxer line. First time through needed more engine but nothing really went wrong; second time was fabulous.

I loved that the ring was a little flooded, because these barrels were in and out of the water. This one threw him for a bit of a loop, but we got it together and eventually he trotted back and forth over them like NBD. This seems like a legit BN question to me without the water element.

We also played over these verticals. Mo doesn't care about the liverpool. He hasn't seen the carpet in awhile, so he took a peek the first time but was fine after that. They could be ridden in a four-stride line, or each vertical was a five-stride bending line to an oxer. He was good with all of that--always made the steps, never lost his rhythm.

This is probably our biggest accomplishment of the day: he trotted to the rock with no rail over it and jumped it the first time. I had to ride to it a little bit, but he did it, and because the rock has been an issue for us, I hopped off at that point and he was done. 

When I was dismounting, M was all, "Can he please just go BN at the next one coming up?" And it's true. Compare those oxers to, say, anything we've been jumping at shows so far this year. They're a whole foot taller. I think it's good to school above the level, but that's 1-2 levels up from where we're showing. And, frankly, elementary is boring now.

So that's the plan: BN on October 18 at Loch Moy (if you're going and you're not already my friend on FB, add me and maybe we can meet up or something). We're going to go XC schooling one more time, and then I think we've got it. The dressage won't be perfect, but it wouldn't be at elementary either. And as Bruce Davidson says, if you wait for the dressage, you'll never jump.

I think plenty of people would have the horse jumping bigger than this and competing at a higher level at 13ish months in. And that's fine. Philip Dutton would likely already be running him Training. For me, it's not worth the risk of confusing or frazzling him. I know in my gut that he's got enough scope to go Advanced if we want to (not sure that we want to). But I think that eliminated-at-intro to reasonably-attempting-BN is good for one season with a rider who hasn't ridden in a horse trials since the 90s, you know?

The weirdest part is that I'm excited. To event. Ha!

He's So Bad and He Does it So Well

There's your Friday-morning TSwift reference. You're welcome.

Yesterday I took Mo on an XC schooling adventure. M had a couple of other students going so we tagged along, as did my mom on Teddy (M said Teddy got the award for Best Mane).

You can see why.

Teddy didn't really jump, although he bravely stepped over some logs and did the little step in and out of the water. The other two horses and Mo needed pretty much the same school, so that was good.

Good thing: Mo jumped everything put in front of him without saying no at all. He did ask some questions but I put my leg on and he jumped everything. The jumps ranged from tiny logs on the ground to some solid BN questions. He owned the jumping, the terrain questions, all of it. Ditch-to-jump, jump-to-ditch, on the bank, off the bank, funky looking jumps, whatever.

This was, what, my second day with him or something?
He's never cared much about terrain issues. Love that.

Bad thing: He did NOT own the "we're just hanging out" time. It was chilly yesterday, and he was a little up, and he just wanted to mess with me endlessly. He also got nappy about leaving the group a couple times. But if I made him gallop away from them, he would. There was a lot of head-flinging and acting like a dummy, so he's gonna get a running martingale for at least awhile.

This would have been a mild disobedience in yesterday's context.

What was interesting was that his best behavior was when he was pointed at a jump he thought was interesting or maybe hard. Then he'd focus on his job. But logs on the ground are borrrrrriiiiiiing to him now. This is a HUGE step up from where we were at the end of May, exactly four months ago. However, I would like him to be rideable. I think we'll get all the pieces in place. He was acting like a screwball yesterday, but I don't think he really is one fundamentally.

Fundamentally he wants to nap.

The one thing that kinda messed me up with his behavior was that I was taking back the reins too quickly after the jump to defend against his antics, when what I needed to do was stay soft and just let him gallop. We all know this horse needs to be more forward-thinking, and so the worst thing for me to do is to stop him. But always happens, M harasses me until I do what she wants. I'm pleased that I was able to stay soft going TO the fence, and put him between my leg and the jump and leave my hands out of it (and this comes from him now understanding his job, that he's to march down to the middle of the fence and jump over it, so I don't have to keep a hold of his mouth on the way in). I also have my release back and was able to let him jump all the way over the fence without feeling my hand at all. But within a couple strides of landing I was instinctively like "get back here" instead of "go go go." By the end it was much better, and this really is an easy thing to fix. I just have to be aware of what I'm doing, and isn't that a huge part of riding anyway?

Ultimately, I'll take the horse that ably and enthusiastically jumps what's in front of him and yanks my chain when he's bored over the horse that ambles around like a saint but can't/won't jump. That's my preference, and it doesn't have to be yours. Still, I think I can get Mo's brain back into my hands over time. We all know that his brain does sometimes fall out an ear and roll away. This ain't the first time that's happened and won't be the last! I also trust my seat enough to know I can stick a lot of crap, and I trust him enough to know that the crap isn't going to get truly terrifying.

We were schooling at a place owned by a lovely man whose life basically revolves around OTTBs, and he's been in love with Mo for awhile. So when he came up to us after the schooling he was eager to show me (and Mo) that the lock screen on his phone is a picture he took of Mo back in May when we went to the Brian Ross clinic. I LOVE it. I texted it to myself right away. It was worth the trip just for that!

He's not very tall but he IS handsome as hell.

He jumped well enough that if we can get one more good XC school in the next week or so, I might move him up to BN for MDHT on the 18th. We'll see!

Stay Not Freeze

I'm picking up on something. A pattern is emerging. I need to break the pattern right now if I'm gonna progress in my riding.

When M says "stay," I think "freeze."

Example: "Stay still, don't change anything in front of the jump" leads to me NOT MOVING for the last two strides, just sitting there doing nothing. Which is not what she meant, because that translates into dropping the horse, losing the rhythm, and then good luck getting a decent jump. She doesn't really mean "don't do anything," she means "don't change what you're doing." I've got this sorted out while jumping now. Part of what helped was M saying "stay connected" and reminding me to count my rhythm.

Staying in the moment and not abandoning Mosey.

Now I'm having the same issue with transitions. I can competently ride my lovely horse from trot to walk and back now (after like 25 years of riding), but I freeze in the halt ("If I sit here perfectly still, you'll be perfectly still, too, right?" Um, no).

He needs to stop moving but I need to ride him while he's standing still.

And then yesterday, M realized that I'm still riding the canter transitions like he doesn't know what those are--tipping a little forward, throwing the reins at him, driving with my seat. Instead, I need to STAY--I need to sit up, keep riding, do just what I do in the walk-to-trot transitions. But instead, I FREEZE, and do nothing. And then he inverts and runs into the transition because that's what he has learned. From me. Yay.

Goddammit.

I can fix this, I think, by riding Red. His canter transitions aren't perfect yet but I know that on him I can stay sitting up and keep the trot rhythm going (and I bet if I really think about how I'm riding them, they'll get better...). But I need to be sure that when I get on Mo, he's getting that same ride from me.

<3

Is this something you've dealt with? How did you fix it?

All the Angles

Mo and I had a pretty fun dressage lesson on Tuesday that involved schooling the halt (the horse's butt wants to swing right at all times, and he doesn't really get the whole halt thing yet--even though he'll fall asleep standing around--so it's gonna be the next Big Challenge). It was fun, because some of the things we've been struggling with feel confirmed, like bend changes without inversion.

But another dressage lesson recap with no media isn't fun, so let's talk about today's jump lesson instead.

M set up a really cool school in the ring with lots of exercises in it that I'm trying to show you via Paintbrush, which I don't know how to use at all, so bear with me. If anyone can tell me how to make a proper curvy line with this thing, PLEASE do. All the jumps were 2'6" verticals (M said next week we might try for a little more height, yay).

I put the jump numbers there just for ease of talking about them. Jump 1 was a crossrail that I trotted a few times, and then I cantered 1 and 4 off each lead, heading out of the exercise. That being done, and liking the canter my horse had, she had me jump the 6-stride line from 1 to 2. The first time, he wandered all about and we did it in 8. Second time, he was straighter but taking small strides and we got there in 7. Barf. So third time, I kicked on landing and we had the nice 6. It's not a tricky distance, I just have a lazy horse, ha. We repeated the same exercise on the right lead for jumps 4 and 5. Same "look how many steps I can take in here, mom! Like a Paso!" thing. But a forward ride on landing showed him how to find the appropriate striding and not the long spot.

Lines not drawn as ridden, ha

Next exercise was to turn inside of 4 (or 1, if off the right lead) to jump 3. He needed a little more power off the ground the first time, so when I came off the right lead I made sure he had that and he jumped great. We did it one more time to the left and took a break.

Because I'm horrible at using this app, this next exercise was done on both sides but I only drew it one one, as above.

This one gave Mo the chance to meet the verticals on the long side at an angle, since this is something he's still a little green about. We'd come off the long side on the right lead and angle 5, then rollback left, up the long side, angle four, rollback right, canter all the way around the ring, angle 1 off the right lead, rollback left, angle 2 off the long side, rollback right, done. We did this one twice just to iron out timing. One thing we learned about Mo is that he didn't care if we found a short or medium or long distance as long as I knew it was happening and was there to support him, and that went really well.

Then the real torture began. This was so much fun.

Yep.

Now, consider that my horse is not competing at training level. He's at elementary. I think for a horse at his level, this is hard, but he OWNED it. He was a little backed off going from 5 to 3 the first time and chipped for four, but came out in 3 and rode the 2-3-4 line super well. I went back around left to try 5-3-1 again and it went GREAT. And that was the jump school. Honestly, he barely broke a sweat. We went for a nice long walk, and then I gave him a million carrots and told him he's the best horse alive.

Which, of course, he is.

I might be slightly biased

The Physical Technical Ride

On Monday I tortured poor Red with another dressage lesson. My mom came along (so there's video that I'll upload if I get a chance but for today you get screen shots). In the truck on the way to the lesson, I observed to her that dressage lessons make me really nervous but that jumping lessons don't. She was like "You're weird."

Lex thinks everyone is weird

Red and I are still struggling with getting the whole package together. He's great in that he's relaxed and he never feels like he's about to melt down or be naughty, so we really can school everything on a 20m circle forever. Which is boring, but it does have to get done.

I look bored. He, surprisingly, doesn't.

M pointed out that he's a lot harder than Mo because Red is a physical ride and Mo is just a technical ride, and that he's harder than the second level horse we had in over the summer because that horse was just a physical ride and Red is a technical ride. So being both of those things at this point in his life is making it harder for me, the non-dressage rider, to get him to stay connected for more than a stride. I really do have to half-halt every other stride right now or he just gets away from me completely.

This pretty much looks like my life

The other thing that kind of sucks right now is that there aren't any exercises that can help us with this except the 20m circle. Spiral the circle and I'll lose his shoulders. Change directions and he'll fall apart. He just has to stay on the circle and stay round, and until we can do that there's not a lot else to do, except counterbend when he tries to sneak his outside shoulder away from me. Also, I'm not allowed to really sit back at this point, because it shoots him forward and flat, so excuse the "tipping" in the pics. It was kind of killing me, which I guess is how we know I'm getting DQed.

Here are some nuggets of wisdom from M:

"He gets that shoulder stuck over on the outside and then he needs to counterbend."

But I don't need to slouch, gross

"BE. BOSSY."

"Ride half-halt to half-halt so it doesn't get away from you."

"You should be half-halting nearly every stride on this horse."

"As he masters this, he'll be able to maintain it by himself longer, but right now, he's only ever been in a false frame, he's only ever been in a gadget."

"Keep the tempo slow enough that you can put your leg on." (Not advice she'd give me on Mo, ha!)

"You're the side reins, he has to give to you."

"I know this is boring, tedious work, but it's the work that has to get done."

"It's a lot of work, right? You're like, 'This can't be right, I'm doing too much.' But not yet! You'll get maybe one stride of 'Good boy!' and then it's back to it."

A lot of what she said was "outside rein, outside rein, outside rein." I am eagerly awaiting being done with this stage of life with him, because I think when we unlock it, things will progress quickly.

A New Gear?

I'm always telling my preschool kids that whining and complaining endlessly doesn't get them what they want. I've also had to tell Mo this repeatedly. "I hate your leg!" "Well then go forward and I'll stop kicking." Etc.

As Denny Emerson says, the horse would always rather be eating grass than doing whatever you want to do.

But maybe my whining and complaining on here about how hard it is to get Mo's butt in gear has worked and the Forward Fairies have heard me. On Tuesday, the little guy had the best trot work that he has had yet. The transitions within the gaits were outstanding, and when I asked for a longer stride down the long side, I got a true lengthening. His withers came up 2". I nearly wept.

He know he cool

I hopped off soon after, because if the horse shows up and does things that have been hard for him exactly right, his ride can be over.

Then yesterday we had a jump school, with fences ranging from about 2'6"-2'9". M wants to get rid of this lazy little stall-step he does in front of some of his fences, so she had me tap him with the whip behind my leg just before the fence. After doing that a couple times, that step was gone, and his first time over the liverpool oxer was the best jump I'd had on him yet.

One of these days I'll get a decent picture of a jump school. Anyway, you can see the oxer with the rocks in front of Mo. The oxer on the other side is the liverpool. Up centerline is a one-stride, vertical to oxer. Then there are the two nearest verticals. There are several exercises in this school. I started by trotting and cantering the verticals when they were a hole down, then I angled the vertical of the one-stride heading towards the barn off each lead. All of that was peachy. I caught both oxers and the one-stride. No problemo, especially after I tapped him on the way over the rocks the first time. M hiked everything up a hole or two and we went for a somewhat more technical course.

In the next set, we did a bending line from the vertical nearest to Mo's ear there to the liverpool (rides a little funky) and from the other vertical to the rocks (rides great). He was a little green to the liverpool the first time and caught it on the half stride, but in the second go-round I was able to settle him after the first vertical and it went better. Then M broke the news that we'd be doing the one-stride then bending two-strides to one or the other vertical. She told me to slow the exercise down in my head so that there would be time going into the last jump. The first time, turning to the right, we just missed. Green horse, I could have taken a half-halt that would have made it work out. The second time to the right was fine, and then the third time, when we went left instead, was flawless. He was done, we went for a walk. I think he was very pleased with himself.

Today we went on another walk, on the buckle, all around the property by ourselves. He was pleased and relaxed the whole time. Tomorrow another dressage lesson, and then Loch Moy! (Oh, because the Gordonsdale thing got canceled so it's off to run elementary at Loch Moy instead.)

First-ever trail riding ears pic!

I'm so happy to see that my horse is enjoying his work right now. I hope he has as much fun on Saturday as I plan to.

Jumping Legs

Mo had a terrific flat ride yesterday--in the bridle, on-point leg yields, relaxed canter. So M and I decided that for my lesson today, we should, you know, jump some jumps.

And then I pulled into the driveway and saw this. And said, aloud: "Ohhhhhhhh shit."

All jumps please report to the centerline

Eep.

I actually really love this exercise, and I was psyched that she thought Mo was ready for any part of that. As with all of her jump schools, there are various exercises with degrees of difficulty built in, and I figured she wouldn't ask him the very hardest questions. So I walked into the barn like "LET'S GET READY TO JUMP, MO!"

He was thinking more along the lines of bedtime stories.

I have hearts for eyeballs when I look at this.

So I was all, "Good idea, buddy! Rest your jumping legs. I'll get your tack together and you can get up and stretch and then we'll be ready to go."

Or...

Foaling out, there, Mr Belly?

But not to worry. Once I got him up and in the ring, he was forward and happy. I was very pleased. M was riding her young horse too. He's about a year ahead of Mo in his training, but we can do jump schools together sometimes and she can choose the harder options or hike the jumps up another hole when I'm done. I always enjoy the schools where we ride together because I get the instruction and I also get to see her do the exercises and learn. Plus it's fun because we get along so well.


In case you can't tell from my mediocre pics, the line went: chevrons (which we didn't jump but M did later on her more advanced horse), vertical (started out as a cross rail), liverpool (started out with rails on the ground on each side and eventually became a cross rail oxer), vertical, square oxer, vertical, skinny with a block under it. Mo has historically not been a fan of skinnies with stuff under them.

I made him step over the liverpool at the walk and then we both trotted figure 8s over the X. Mo actually took a hard look at the X the first time, which was weird, but we carried on. Then we each did three circles on the left lead over the center vertical. Mo kept trying to break to the trot, and the theme of the day was established: Get the snoozy horse in front of the leg. I mean, that's the theme of his entire life? But when he was in front of my leg in a canter I liked, I could see a distance. When he wasn't, I found that I'd get too far behind the motion and drive him to something, which isn't good. Ideally, I stay with the motion and just keep him in front of my leg. And then, honestly, the distances just show up. For as green as he is, when his motor is running, his canter is really good and jumping is easy for him.

We cantered right lead over the second vertical three times, and that was necessarily a tighter circle because of where it was in the ring. It was fine, though, as long as I kept my leg on through the turn. Then the real work began: Right lead over the first vertical, turn left and jump the next one (making square turns to get straight to the jump), then right over the third vertical, then loop around left back to that vertical and serpentine back down the ring so each jump had been jumped once from each direction.

This was hard for Mo, because things came up fast. If I stretched up tall and kept my leg on, it went okay, though he doesn't always give me the proper lead in the air (no worries, we haven't worked on that at all). But he really did well if I kept him forward. M did the same exercise and also did a set in which she angled each jump. Mo wasn't ready for us to try that so I just watched. Her horse did an incredible job of following her eye. He's going to be a superstar.

Next she had me canter the center vertical, turn, gallop almost all the way around the ring, and then come to the skinny on a long approach, after which I'd make the short turn back. Then I'd repeat the exercise the other way. Mo said no to the skinny at first, but then he was okay after that. I really have to keep his motor running, but skinnies are tough because you also have to steer better. On a horse more broke than him this isn't an issue, but it's a balancing act with him still. He eventually did really well with it. Finally, I'd start with the skinny from the long approach, turn to the square oxer, and then turn back again to the liverpool oxer, then serpentine back up the ring again. It was hard, but he did it. These are the kinds of jump schools that turn into a big step forward for the horses.

The feeling I get from him when everything clicks into place is phenomenal. I can't wait to see where he is in a year.

Jumping, Thank GOD

On Wednesday I finally decided that the balance between "my back doesn't feel great" and "Mo and I both need to jump" had tipped enough in the latter direction that it was time to just get it done, so M scheduled me in for the next day. Fortunately, M is doing a zillion Pony Club C-3 preps right now so the C-3 grid is set up. It's three trot poles, a cross rail, one stride to a vertical, one stride to another vertical, one stride to an oxer. Not too complicated--Mo has done much more technical grids with ease, but this was our first time back to jumping in a minute and we haven't done grids in months.

I was a little rusty--M had to remind me to show the bottom of my foot to the front of the fence so my leg doesn't slip back in the air (I gotta spend some QT in two-point, man). She told me that he's ready for me to be more generous with my release, but that's hard when my base wasn't quite there thanks to weeks of dressage and trail rides (not that dressage riders aren't incredible athletes, but jumping requires different muscles). So that's a goal--get the base back, and release more in the air. I can do this, it's not super hard for me if I'm fit, but I've definitely slid backwards. No worries. I can fix that.

Anyway, the grid progressed as usual--just trot poles, then the poles to the X, then adding the next vertical, etc. He'd come once from each direction over each new element before she'd add the next one. Nothing new there. But every time, he just kinda trotted in and jumped. I'd add a little leg coming down the long side so he would have power through the turn and wouldn't have to change anything when he got there, and I'd close my leg between each jump, but I didn't need to nail him. I know part of the point of grids is that they keep the horse in a bit of a rhythm all on their own, but I really liked how he read it. As always, he just finds his way through without any drama.

Me? Drama?

M put up the two verticals a little after my first time through with both of them, so the first one was 2'3" and the second one was 2'6", and then left them alone after that and focused on making the oxer bigger. And bigger. And just a little bigger.

Until it was 3'. Which isn't THAT exciting until you consider that it was Mo's first 3' fence.

Bam, motherfuckers

I texted my mom after the lesson and was like "WE JUST JUMPED 3' AND MO IS AMAZINNNGGG." She asked how he handled it, and I said, "Without batting an eyelash." Why should he? Jumping is easy for him. I'm not sure we could have built a better jumper. He can really crack his back in the air, too. I'm definitely going to have to get strong in my position again if I'm going to do him justice. Which I really hope I do. He might not have fast shoes (yet), but he's got springs in his feet. While I would never do this because rattling him is NOT worth it, it felt to me like we could have put the rails at the top of the standards and he'd have just kept on trucking through.

Afterwards, M was like "You should be very happy, that was so great, a big step forward." I joked that since he's jumped 3' he's now ready to go novice, and she was like "yeah right, just go ahead and enter training, whatever."

I'm so excited. So, so excited. My mom promised to come get video of him jumping soon, now that she's on her way home from her summer trip, so I hope that works out soon (and that my position is back to decent beforehand, ha, selfish).

I'd say this jump school did the trick in breaking up the dressage ennui. Yay.

Someone Needs Fast Shoes

Oh, Moses. I love you so much, and yet you require so much kicking.

Default speed

So right after I got off Red the other day, I tacked Mo up and off we went for Round 2. A lot of the same principles were revisited, in terms of the horse giving to the contact and moving forward. But with Red, the forwardness is just there. With Mo, it has to be created. He can really step under himself and come round when he wants to, but it takes a lot of riding to get there. I think this might change when the weather gets cooler.

I also think he is getting bored with dressage. I don't blame him. For awhile there, he was going super well and I think that's because we were jumping and doing XC schools and going to horse shows. He was interested. It was fun for him. And then I wrenched my back and ignored it and really threw things off, and then it was just walking or dressage for WEEKS.

The exercise that seemed to help Mo the most on the dressage lesson day was spiraling in to a 10m circle at the trot, and then spiraling out while asking for a lengthening, which ultimately resulted in him getting into a very nice working trot, through and connected, really pushing from behind. For the first time, I really felt him take my hand.

But here's what needs to happen, besides getting him broke to spurs, which is on my agenda for next week: he needs to jump again. And go schooling, and get off the farm, and get interested in life. I'm bored, he's bored, we're all bored with dressage. I love dressage and hope to progress up the levels. I also love broccoli but sometimes I want to eat something else.

Good news is, baby had a grid school on Thursday, which you'll hear about next week, wheeeee.

Dressage Lesson The First: Release the Base

On Saturday, I took two dressage lessons in a row with M. I'd hauled Red over, so I rode him first, and then I got right on Mo. I might be suffering from a little leftover brain frying.

I warmed Red up while M was putting her horse away and whatnot, and he was being a gigantic pain in the butt. He was paying very close attention to everything but me and just yanking my chain. He was a little sweaty by the time M got up to the ring, so she had us start by getting him to give to the bridle at the walk. This involved a lot of inside leg, holding onto the outside rein, massaging the inside corner of his mouth, and... waiting. M came over and took the reins again, like last time, and she, in her words, "stayed on his shit" about it until he gave up and released the base of his neck.

I'm sure he misses winter hacking.

We progressed to trot work, which was just as teeth-pulling, to be honest. He's a lot harder to ride than Mo because his evasions are more ingrained: he speeds up, he stops forward motion, he braces with his head up, he braces laterally and won't bend. And then he gives and he's magical, like you could do anything, just go half pass because why not. But then he's gone again.

A rider more advanced in dressage could surely get him to come round and stay there. M, for instance, because that's what getting your silver medal on an OTTB you trained yourself earns you. I will be able to, but right now we're finding ourselves at a clashing point: his stubbornness about not giving and my imperfect timing.

You want me to do what?

I just wanted to look him in the eye and be all "DO YOU NOT REALIZE THAT YOU ARE WORKING SO MUCH HARDER TO AVOID GOING ON THE BIT THAN YOU WILL BE IF YOU JUST GO ON THE BIT???"

But that might be a bit hysterical.

 M thinks that he just has to believe that I'm going to make him do it and keep him there and then we'll be aces. I really hope so, because he's tricky and weird and it's kind of demoralizing, but I honestly don't think I have a prayer of enjoying a jump school on him until we get this done, let alone progressing in dressage. But it'll come, and probably faster than I think. And if it doesn't? Oh well. He's fun to hack around and he's already served his time as a show horse. But it WILL get done, dammit.

Next up: Mo the Slug.

Let's Do This Thing: Dressage Edition

So as I mentioned in my "stuff I forgot" post yesterday, I've got this new goal of getting my bronze medal. I think it's achievable. I have two nice horses and an excellent coach, so all I have to do is learn to ride.

HA.

It doesn't help that the other day I really hurt my back and now I'm taking this whole week off from riding and all other fun things. Blah. 

But before I injured myself, I told M that I want to do some dressage lessons on Red, and she's like "all righty!" because she loves dressage and lessons. I didn't tell her about the bronze medal thing. I'm still not telling her. She needs to see that I can be successful in dressage and get done what she needs me to get done, so that when I do tell her she's like "EXCELLENT" instead of like "bwahahahaha." You know? Timing matters! (That's what the dressage riders say!)

Poor guy has no idea he's going to dressage

I took him over on Saturday morning. M has given me lessons on him before, almost all jumping, so this time I figured we'd be doing a lot of trotting on the 20m circle while she fixed what she didn't like, and boy was I ever right.

Here's the thing about Red: he does not have a dressagey understanding of the contact. He was ridden in quite the bit/martingale combination as a show jumper, and I just don't think he's got the sense that the outside rein is there to be his support buddy. And until he has that piece, the rest of it can't show up. I mean, he's got rhythm and relaxation down (though who knows what will happen to those at the horse shows). So connection is next, and I'm thinking we'll struggle for a few days and then have a breakthrough and then he'll have that piece for life. Impulsion will be easy. Straightness will be hard, but with M's help, we'll get it. Collection? I don't know how easy that will be for him, but by the time we get there, I think he'll have a lot of different muscles.

So on Saturday what M wanted to accomplish was getting him to release the base of his neck into the contact. At home, he'll trot around with his nose on the ground and no rein contact at all, but that's not quite what we're after. I do think he needed no-reins stretching stuff for his mind and his body, so now we're ready to move on.

Horse or hippo?

The lesson was almost entirely on a 20m circle. Sometimes we'd get it to 10m and leg yield out to try to encourage that outside rein connection. There was a lot of counterbend to get his shoulders where they needed to be, and then transitioning to true bend with the goal of not having an inverted horse. At one point each direction, M walked next to me and held the reins and told me what to do with my legs. She said that she'd have climbed up there had she not been wearing shorts. This was more fun, though, because I got to feel what the rest of his body was doing. He seemed worried about her doing that, so I said, "It's okay, buddy," and she said, "I'm not okay! Tell this bitch to let go of my reins!" I love her.

So now my homework for the week is to get him into the outside rein like a proper horse. It's amazing, he's 17 and can't do this, but his genuine desire to be a good boy will make it quick, I think. Anyone else retraining an older horse to a new discipline?

ALL CROSS COUNTRY ALL THE TIME

That's what it feels like, anyway. M was coaching a school at Gordonsdale last Thursday and invited me to go. I'm SO NOT going to pass up that opportunity (what. is happening. to me). So back onto the trailer went Mosey and off we went.

This time, he started out a little more up and wild than last time. I lunged him before I got on and he trotted around like a madman for awhile and then stopped to eat grass. But getting on didn't settle him immediately this time, so I still had another 10-15 minutes of work to do to organize the trot/his brain. We had two pony club kids and one adult ammie riding with us. They were all looking at me like "oh jesus the green horse again," but I knew that once we started jumping he'd be fine.

OMG HIS BUTT

Soooooo like remember how logs used to look like the Great Wall of China to him or something? At this school he warmed up over bigger logs than he'd been asked to jump at Loch Moy, and it was no biggie at all. Within the first few minutes of the jump warmup, he trotted a course of four logs that involved going away from the group. I was impressed with him. He handled the day really well. There was one very freaky looking brush jump that he thought was scary, but he never stopped at it. And everything we did last time, he was all about doing this time, too. He gave me zero hesitation about anything he'd seen before. We even did the bank into the water like he'd been doing it for a year.

M is incredibly excited about him, as am I. He's made a huge breakthrough. I don't think he'll get another XC schooling in for a couple of weeks, but that's totally fine. He's proven his point for now. There's some work to do in dressage, because he's got a schooling dressage show coming up and I'm going to enter Intro B and C. And C has cantering.

Scary brush at Gordonsdale used hay bales for the ground line. Ha.

You know that feeling when you'd rather point your green horse at the 3' brush jump than try to canter in the dressage ring? Is that what it means to be an eventer?

A Mini XC School for Maximum Brain Development

Last week, I took Mo over to Gordonsdale, a local XC schooling establishment, to run around with my friend K and her green horse (whom I've ridden many times and is super cool). Her horse is much less green than Mo--they were going to be schooling the Novice stuff, and Mo and I were going to stick to tiny logs on the ground and terrain questions.

...because he clearly only has the scope for tiny logs on the ground

The day started off weird because I felt like I was running late, which is rare for me. I was in a little bit of a mood when I got to M's to pick up the stripey-face, and it was made worse when the jerk wouldn't get on the trailer. I finally did get him on, but then I felt even more behind. I texted K to let her know, and since her horse was also being annoying about the trailer, she said it was no big deal.

I arrived about ten minutes after our scheduled meeting time, so nothing criminal, and when I got there, K was on foot talking to a group of three riders who were taking turns cantering a little jump. She came over to me and said that she'd agreed last-minute to coach them and that I could ride with them since their horses were green, too, and then they'd stick around with her while she rode her horse. So they were already into their jumping warmup and my horse was still on the trailer. Great.

I unloaded Mo and tacked him up, and since he looked calm and I was running late I decided to skip lunging. I don't lunge him before I ride him at home, but we were in the middle of a field off the farm and it seemed like a good idea. It might have helped a bit, but I just trotted around for about 20 minutes until he settled in. During which time, of course, the other horses and riders worked up to cantering a mini course. But if I'd asked him to jump during that first 20 minutes, it would have been a rodeo, and I don't like to set him up for failure like that. By the time I felt he was ready to jump, we'd moved on to the ditch.

I don't know about you, but I'm not going to take a green as grass horse on his second XC school ever and point him at a ditch before we've had a few logs to establish that essential "you jump what I point you at, dammit" mindset. He didn't show himself to be at all ditchy in our previous XC school, but again, it would have been setting him up for failure. And, sadly, there were no little tiny jumps to hop over near the ditch, and I certainly wasn't going to leave the group and venture out all by myself. Good god.

So we stood around and watched the other three riders get work done, and I told myself that if the school became "you keep your shit together in a group of horses you don't know and hack out in a strange open space," that would be a very valuable thing for him. Any trip up the road for him is good right now. Etc. Still, I wished I was jumping something.

Oh, you thought this post was about Mo's brain development? Ha! Here's the thing: I've never really loved XC. And I don't think I've been on an XC school and thought "man I wish I was jumping more" ever in my whole life. Plus I was sitting on a super green horse known for some crappy antics lately. But something in the deep recesses of my brain is pushing its way to the surface and making me look at (small) XC jumps and think "yes" instead of "I wish that was made of rails and in a ring." Weird, huh?

Mo finally got to be part of the group at the water. Mo likes water, and he went right in and splashed around. He even did the baby bank out of the water like a champ. I think this relaxed him a lot, actually. He knew he was there to do something cool and he got to be part of the group activity. After we were done at the water, he walked to the bank on a long rein like the other (much less green) horses.

From the Gordonsdale site

Once he figured out that the dry bank was the same deal as the bank at the water, he jumped right up there. Up a few times, down a couple times, all was copacetic.

Also from the Gordonsdale site

We eventually did come to a little log he could trot, and I felt like he trotted it with enthusiasm. We even went down the slide--this super steep hill with a tiny log at the top. He hates going down hills, so I was glad to check that off the list.

The other horses got to do a lot more, and I wish I'd been with them from the beginning so Mo could have jumped more stuff. But I think it was a good day for both of us, and luckily we have a few XC schooling courses available whenever, so it's not as if this was my only shot at schooling for the year. In fact, we'll likely go later this week.

Now we just have to work on this trailer loading issue. It's always something, eh?