Kids vs. Horses

I was finally able to meet up with my trainer Ulla for a lesson today. It's been over a month since my last one and it was great to get some insight again. Ben was acting really scared of the east end of the arena today. Especially in the corner where Ulla usually sits, he was shying away every time we passed. A few times it was really bad and he didn't even want to approach it and I had to keep all of my aides on and not loose any contact as I passed. He jumped and shyed, bucked and kicked, twisted and bounced all over the place. Luckily I have a very good seat and stayed with him the whole time. A few times I felt like I was riding in a rodeo! But there was NO WAY I was going to let him get me off. Sorry Ben, I'm stuck to you like GLUE! It's a good thing too, because I really don't want to fall off. The last time I slipped off was about 7 years ago when I was still into jumping and I twisted my wrist in the process. That was no fun! But since then I've had a very solid record for staying in the saddle....knock on wood!

While Ben was throwing his fits today, Ulla mentioned that I needed to view him like a child throwing a tantrum. I've definitely got experience there! She said to just ignore him and keep asking him to do what I want him to do, be consistent and don't give up. Don't reward him by responding to him verbally, even if you are saying "NO!" or "STOP IT!" because he's looking for a response, even if it's a negative one. Only until he starts to relax and give you what you've been asking him to do is it okay to reward him by lightening up the aides. Ben has two ways of evading: resisting by throwing a fit or rushing. Both show that he is not willing to listen and trying to avoid what I'm asking of him.

Despite his tantrums today, we were overall successful. By the end of the lesson I had managed to keep him forward in all of the gaits and calmly move past all of the "scary" things at the end of the arena. I just have to remember when riding Ben to always be one step ahead of him, not only with my eyes and focus, but in everything that I'm asking of him. Don't just anticipate him acting out, but think about what he will be like afterwards so that I'm not sending him a tense or nervous message.

Ulla also commented that I'm lucky that I'm so patient. I had to laugh under my breath, because this seems to be an on-going battle with me. In riding I can be patient, but with my kids, sometimes I just loose it. Owning a horse requires a lot of commitment, which I love to give, but so does raising kids. It's no wonder most horse women have to choose "Kids vs. Horses." They both take a life long to raise and you have to take one step at a time. Who knew that while riding (which was supposed to be my break from my kids) that I would be learning so much more about how to be a better parent. I guess it all goes hand in hand, like it says in Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child [horse] in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

All Bundled Up

I actually stayed warm today even though it was in the upper 20s while I rode! On top, I wore a ribbed turtleneck sweater, fleece vest and a fleece jacket. On the bottom I wore long under ware under my breeches and wool socks in my riding boots. What really kept me toasty though was Ben's fleece quarter sheet. Normally I would take it off while riding him, but being so cold out, I didn't want him to catch a chill either. So I kept it on him and draped it over my legs and it was great! This is about what I looked like when riding, only this photo was taken out of the Dover catalog. At least we don't have snow on the ground yet!

This is the best invention for winter riding!

A Real Dressage Test - Galloping at Gazzam

This morning while I was on the ferry my riding instructor, Ulla, called me to cancel my lesson. Apparently they are still doing heavy construction over at Barnabee and working really close to the indoor arena and it's freaking out all of the horses. Plus since it's been in the uppers teens at night lately the ground is frozen and so the outdoor arena wouldn't have been an option. I was sad to have my lesson cancelled since it's been about a month since my last one, but if we would have had one I'm sure it would have been a disaster. Probably a bit like this:

A Real Dressage Test

BASIC LEVEL


A Enter extraordinary serpentine.

X Halt.

G Try again.

C Freeze in horror at Judge's stand. Take opportunity to salute hurriedly.

C Track to left in counterflexed bolt.

E Irregular polyhedron left, 20 meters, plus or minus 5 meters.

FXH Change rein unextended jig.

H Canter, or counter canter, or crosscanter.

M-F Working out-of-hand gallop.

A Just try to walk.

KXM Tesseract, stopping at each corner to rub nose on foreleg.

C Down center line, working trot bouncing.

X Pulley rein. Halt. Salute, exhale.

Leave arena in free walk, loose language under breath.

Sadly, all equestrians have probably all been there. But that is what bonds us together, right?

So, to make up for the cancelled lesson and to get out and enjoy a bit of sun despite the freezing temps. I took Ben on a trail ride up to Gazzam Lake. Well, maybe I should say I took Ben for a walk, since I had to walk him 1/3 of the way before he would let me get on him. Ever since he encountered a coyote on the trail last year, he's been really goofy and resistant to trail riding. He thinks something is going to pop out of the woods at him and in order for him to be confident enough to move forward I have to hand walk him. I feel a little silly doing so, since I feel like I'm walking a 1100 lb. dog that is a complete scaredy cat. But luckily about 1/3 of the way into the trail he's calm enough and I can convince him to move forward and then we have lots of fun galloping through the trails. All the extra adrenaline is actually nice, since it allows him to carry his back higher and arch his neck. Even though we weren't in the dressage arena today, we practiced lots of shoulder-in, haunches-in and half-pass along the trail. The perfect combination, DRESSAGE ON TRAILS!!

Search the Clouds

The weather was a little crazy while I was riding this afternoon. All of a sudden a huge black cloud came sweeping across the sky and dumped rain. It was SO LOUD pounding on the metal roof of the indoor arena that it startled both Ben and I. Luckily I had already been riding for 35 minutes and had achieved the goal I had set out for today so I decided I should get off before I got bucked off and let Ben free lunge around the arena. He had a great time kicking up his heels and ripping around the arena at top speed without his saddle and bridle on. It was great to be able to watch him run around free and really made me appreciate what a beautiful animal he is and how thankful I am to own a horse again. I look forward to the time each week that I get to spend with him. It's such a blessing to be back on track with what I LOVE to do!

More paintings by Kim McElroy can be viewed at Spirit of Horse.

Too Much vs. Too Little Energy

Today I was supposed to be riding in this, but due to being sick all last week I didn't have time to prepare for it. I was very sad to miss it, especially since Henrik isn't coming back from Denmark again until March. Hopefully by then I'll be super prepared and Ben will be in better shape than he is now. On the bright side at least I saved myself $200 by not attending!

So instead I took Ben out for a ride to Barnabee today. After 10 days of no work, he was full of energy and I on the other hand am just getting mine back. There were a bunch of construction workers there today driving around in their tractors and making all sorts of noise. A couple loads of gravel and heavy rock were also delivered, which added to the craziness. Under these conditions I figured it was best to not ride Ben the full 45 minutes. Honestly I didn't know if my cough would have even allowed me too anyway. So I lunged him for 20 minutes (10 in each direction) and let him get all of his bucks and silliness out. Then I hooked him up to some side reins for 5 minutes to see how he would react. I have never used them with him before and he looked really sad wearing them, so that didn't last long. For the last 20 minutes I got on him and rode. That proved to be just the right amount of time. Since he was already a little tired at that point he was very easy to handle and performed really well for me. I didn't ask him to do anything too hard or complicated though. Mostly we just worked on balance, stretching, bending and lots of changes of direction.

Warm-up at the Canter

Today I had a riding lesson and since I hadn't ridden Ben since last Wednesday he was very antsy and it was hard to get him to concentrate and relax. Ulla thought it was best to warm him up at the canter and that really seemed to work well. At first we just cantered along the track of the arena a couple of times and then we worked on a figure 8 and changing leads at X through the trot. After he was relaxed with that we changed it up a bit so one of the 20 meter circles was at the trot and then after the change of lead at X we'd start cantering in the other direction. This helped a lot and really got him to concentrate and move forward. We also worked on the large figure 8 the full length of the arena and crossing the long diagonals. At times it was a bit hard since the sun started to break through the clouds and was practically blinding me when I was riding from A to C along the long side.

Ulla also had be work on creating Ben's forward power and keeping it consistent with no resistance by lightly tapping or tickling him with the whip until he would give. At first he was a little annoyed by the whip, but once he gave up the resistance I stopped with the tickling as a reward. This really worked and for the last 10 minutes of the lesson Ben was performing at his full potential. It was a little frustrating to take almost the full lesson to get that far, but I guess I should expect much when he had the last 4 days off, there was a rain storm for the first half of the lesson and I had just given him his Adequan injection while tacking up. Hopefully I'll be able to find someone else to be able to help me ride him more consistently so I don't have to deal with this attitude of his every time I ride.

Ben's New Hair Cut

This afternoon I went over the the island and gave Ben a trace clip. It was the first time I've done one like this before since in the past I've just body clipped horses and that's so much easier since everything is clipped except the legs. I opted for a medium trace clip since I figured the high trace clip would have left him too naked and cold.

Ben was much better than I expected he'd be while I was clipping him. At first he was a little ticklish along his legs and belly, but after a few minutes he settled down and stood very nicely for me. Note, the clippers I borrowed from Ulla are super loud! Definitely NOT to be sure on Jena, since she is even afraid of my quiet ones.

BEFORE

AFTER

The high trace clip would have gone all the way up to the edge of the saddle pad and half of his neck would have been clipped as well.

Hopefully with this new hair cut it will help Ben from over heating while I'm riding him and allow him to cool out faster afterwards.

Back to Back Ds

When I rode Ben this afternoon I worked on a new exercise with him to allow him to collect more and work on his hind end engagement. I rode him on a 20 meter circle at the trot and then turned it in to back to back Ds. This seemed to work really well for him since it gave time while on the center line to be straight before we had to collect and make a turn toward the wall. This allowed more collection on the outside aides and while turning I incorporated swing turns to engage his hind even further. He was very willing throughout this whole exercise.

Afterwards, I worked on his lateral work by leg yielding down the center line toward the wall. If he started to resist at all I would stop and either make him do a turn on the forehand or back up for a few steps until he was once again engaged.