Ow.

I've been out to the born a bit more this week than usual- Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Due to crazy winds and power outages there was no school on Thursday or Friday, letting me spend a lot of time at the barn.

Tuesday, since I had school, I only had time to ride Rush. She was extremely spooky, more so than she usually is. By the end she had calmed down considerably but I didn't want to push it and opted not to do any poles/crosspoles that lesson.

Wednesday I rode Rush, Brie, and Willie. I started with Rush, lunging her first before hopping on. That hack was actually average (average, with rush? never!). She was semi-responsive at the trot and canter, without any mad headlong dashes where I can't slow her down, but she was spooky and did take off a few times. I have yet to feel her canter be as smooth as it was on Sunday.

Next I got Brie out- oh, Brie. I attempted to lunge her, which she was particularly insistent that I not do. I KNOW she knows how to lunge; I've seen her do it. Yet she kept swinging her butt out and turning to face me. After she reared a few times towards me I gave it up and chased her around in the turn out. Brie is a particularly unsettling horse to ride- she's not responsive to leg and she gets angry very easily. She likes to travel sideways, completely ignoring leg pressure. When I nudge her with my heel she moves off of it, but gets annoyed. It's hard to describe how she feels to ride- you feel very loose and uncoordinated and out of control. Anyways, she managed to buck me off. I stayed on for about five, but my center of gravity was pitched out towards the left and I knew I couldn't stay on much longer. We were headed for a standard, and I decided to let go before I landed on top of the standard. That would have hurt MUCH more than crashing into the side. I lay there stunned for a minute or two, just staying still so I could catalogue what hurt and how badly. I also knew if I moved I would probably cry. I've got a huge bruise on my upper thigh and hip, and some pain near my shoulder, but other than that I'm okay. Remarkably it hurt much more the day it happened than the day afterward.

I'm not looking forward to getting on Brie again, because I've seen her do this before. I'm not sure what is pushing her buttons but I do know that she has absolutely no respect for humans on the ground, so I'll be working with her on that before I think about hopping on again. She injured herself somehow in the aftermath- after I fell she went galloping around the ring, then jumped over the half-closed gate and ran around the barn. Then the BO/Brie's owner decided she needed a turn out, and turned her out in the riding ring, where she proceeded to gallop around once and then jump out again. I think she probably hurt herself jumping out, because the entrance to the ring is on a slope. For now I'll be grooming her, maybe hand walking depending on how her leg is.

I hobbled around for a bit after that, then got on Willie and hacked him around for 15 minutes. Riding actually felt better than walking at that point, thank goodness. The thing I love about Willie is that riding him feels like going home. We know each other so well that I can ride him off of seat and leg alone, which is a pretty amazing feeling.

Back to the barn on Friday, since my leg hadn't stiffened up. There's a pretty nasty bruise and the muscles are tender, but it doesn't hurt when I walk. I lunged Rush, then hopped up on her. I focused on circles and staying at an even pace throughout them since she likes to.. rush through them. I made a circle in every corner of the ring, both directions. She was much more supple to the left, so I'm going to start spending a bit more time riding/lunging to the right to try and get her evenly developed. Instead of spending 10 minutes cantering nonstop, I did trot/canter transitions because quite frankly her downward transition is terrifying and half the time I can't stop myself from knocking her in the mouth because she's so jarring. I only did these to the right because another lesson was taking place and by the time they finished she was practically cooled out. I walked her around during the lesson practicing halting on voice command, while sitting deep and squeezing with my inner thighs. She knows the command for trot, and I'm teaching her canter, but WHOA has to be there as well because she's a little tugboat when it comes to stopping.

I was going to ride Willie again, but I really missed jumping to I decided to get on Status for a lesson. He was pretty good, although I could tell how tired I was. I try to take a lesson at least every two weeks because I do get into bad habits. From this lesson I got the input that I was too stiff through the shoulder and neck (although some of this may be attributed to my fall) and too busy with my hands, so I'll work on that.

It's the saddle.

Well. I wanted really, really badly for it not to be the saddle, but it is. I'm going to have to scrounge rides from other saddles until I can find a new one that works for Rush and I.

Want to know how I figured it out? Well, I had my suspicions earlier, which I told you about. Then she was positively ridiculous last Friday, which I now realize is probably because I rode in my saddle. This Sunday I used a friend's. After a week of not getting out (literally- it rained while I was gone), I expected her to be nasty. I lunged her for as long as I could, although we had to keep things at a trot because the ring was still a bit slippery and the last time I lunged her when the ring was muddy she went over sideways. She reared, twice, and had some pretty rambunctious speed bursts with lots of bucking. Of course I expected a tough ride.

Instead, she was pretty damn good. Not perfect, but much better than anything I expected. She was slow and steady and the only thing I can really complain about is that she kept ducking around my contact at the trot. I was almost going to keep it walk trot, and brave the canter the next time I got on, but I decided to stop being a wuss and just went for it. Boy am I glad I did- it was quite possibly the best canter session we've had. I just wanted to keep going and going and going. Usually when she transitions to the canter it's abrupt and unbalanced and she races a couple of strides before I can bring her back; not so this time. She just hopped up into the canter and loped around like a little doll. She did get fast to the left, but her canter was so much more forward than it usually is (usually it's like a jackhammer, straight up and down and crazy hard to sit) that I don't even care.

I'm planning on working more on the canter transitions, and doing simple lead changes through the center for the next few weeks. I'm also going to focus on bending and circling and leg yielding. After we get some more finesse I'm hoping to tackle trot poles and do some pole courses at the canter. And of course some crosspoles thrown in every now and then :)

Hum.

Well, yesterday was an interesting learning experience- namely, getting on Rush after she's been sitting in her stall for four days is not necessarily a recipe for disaster, but it is definitely not a recipe for a productive riding experience. When I got on she BOLTED off like she used to, resulting in me slamming myself in the saddle whilst trying to pull her down to a not deathly terrifying speed so that I could get my other stirrup and have some sense of balance. Though, to be fair, it wasn't as bad as the time she took off and I ended up sitting behind the saddle while she was hopping around attempting to get me off.. that was super exciting! Let it be noted that it's extremely difficult to lift yourself over the cantle of the saddle when you're sitting behind it.

Basically, she spun around and fidgeted and veered speedily around the ring, completely ignoring any ounce of control I thought I might have. And then she walked, not necessarily calmly, but she walked. She was so tense that trotting was a disaster at first, full of bracing and leaning and little canter outbursts when she had hissy fits from going 'too slow' (aka not racehorse speed). I decided fighting with her wasn't doing either of us any good so we then proceeded to SUPER TROT around the ring, and it probably looked adorable, but really the only reason that she was going reasonably was because I left her alone completely and just rode her forward until I could feel her tiring out. And then, miraculously, cantering wasn't half bad- especially in her good direction (right) where she put up no fuss about going at a reasonable pace. We ended on a little crosspole, which she jumped like a champ. I'm glad that the ride was salvageable, although I have definitely learned my lesson about cutting corners in order to save time.

I'm also back in charge of Brie, since the girl who was riding her has now taken on like 7 jobs in the hopes of buying another horse which is just ridiculous. I got on her yesterday very very briefly to put her through her paces and she was very agitated and spookish, but I can tell she's come a long way from where she began. She did have several bucking fits, but I could tell they were coming because she had a hump in her back from the very beginning of the ride. I'm still not sold on her going in a loose ring, but I can't figure out what type of but she'd enjoy; she absolutely HATES D-rings, happy mouths, even the straight bar I tried.. I would try a french link but I don't have one. So. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

I am in NY for a week visiting relatives for Thanksgiving, so there will unfortunately be no horse play until I get back next Saturday

Videos

Tried Rush in a new bit today; she was awesome! I'm also starting to think that saddle fit may be an issue that's causing her to be fast; the saddle that I ride her in is too narrow for her but I don't really have any other options until I find a new saddle. The saddle I rode her in in these videos belongs to another girl and she lets me use it, but I don't want to take advantage of her generosity.

News & Mud

I got to the barn late late late yesterday because I was catching up on homework and laundry. So much laundry. I still have a few loads left to do, after doing laundry pretty much all day yesterday. I blame my hoarding tendencies- apparently I have a thing for towels. Who knew? Luckily I still had time to ride before the Halloween Horse Show began.

May I just say, I absolutely love this horse. She is amazing and so, so capable. I really think my theory of low-key hacks is correct, because she was completely calm and responsive yesterday after not being actually worked for three days, excluding a 10 minute bareback jaunt Friday. It was probably the best ride I've had on her, to date. She was very relaxed and willing at the canter to the right, something she NEVER offers, so I did a lot of canter work. To the left, as usual, she was tense and rushed but towards the end I got some nice stretches where she slowed down a little.

Afterwards I talked to BO (aka her owner) about the lease situation. Since Sami is leasing Status again starting November (aka now) I was out a horse to lease. So.. now I am the proud leaser of Rush, and can honestly say YES when people ask me if she's mine. Usually I go into a long awkward story about how she's someone else's but I'm the only one that rides her etc etc and they get very confused.

It rained buckets overnight so the ring was a mess today. I know it would be weird to have an indoor ring in SoCal but it would be so much easier to keep things consistent if we at least had a covered arena. The ring doesn't have very good footing so it takes forever to dry out, meaning the horses are stuck in their 12x12 stalls until the footing improves.

I hopped on bareback in the blanket again today and Rush & I wandered around the barn and ring for a while. There was a rather large puddle at the bottom of the ring; I decided to be daring and walked her through it several times. I think she enjoyed it; after the initial head down-loud snorting phase she tramped through it happily and even doubled around to have another go without me steering.  

Tuesday/Friday

Tuesday the chica was naughty. Naughty naughty naughty. I got on and attempted to hack around during the lesson that was taking place, in continuation of the trying to get her used to other horses in the ring, but she was so unfocused that everything we did was a fight. Posting trot: fight. Sitting trot: fight. Canter pickup: fight. Staying slow: holy cow, was that a fight. She was not having anything to do with staying relatively slow and I was having zero success making her listen to me. I tend to get frustrated and start to lose my cool, so I hopped off before I started getting angry. She absolutely BLEW UP in the turnout ring- bucking and leaping and galloping full speed ahead at the railing. I swear she almost jumped it a few times. It was then I decided I wanted to end the workout on a better note, so i got out the lunge line and chased her in a circle until she was licking her lips and positively dragging. Then I saddled her up again, made her trot and canter nicely twice around the ring, and called it a night. She was spectacular after I had completely exhausted her; it just frustrates me that it's necessary to run her around that much before she'll listen. She was completely drenched in sweat after that, though, so I spent about an hour walking her out and letting her dry. I REALLY need to invest in a cooler.

Today it rained moderately, but I drove out to the barn anyway to see if the ring was rideable. It was rideable.. and then it started raining again, so I got on her bareback while she had her nice snug waterproof blanket on and just walked her around. I'm hoping hacks like this where everything is low key will get the point across that not everything is a race.

Tomorrow is the Halloween Horse Show, I will be sure to post pictures!

Jumping!!

I love my pony. So much. She's freaking amazing. Word of warning, there are going to be lots of pictures in this post because I love my pony. Beware.

Big smile because I love my pony!

I hopped on Rush about 30 minutes before the lesson was scheduled to start. I've decided to start riding her in lessons to get her acclimated to being ridden with other horses as well as the motions and sounds that come with jumping. For some reason jumping spooks her so I'm seeing if I can get her desensitized this way- she's much less spooky when I'm on her as opposed to when I'm on the ground. Anyways, I walked her around on a loose rein until the lesson started, even taking a few loops around the barn. This worked really well to get her loose and calm and relaxed.

Little ballerina

She moved out really well today, with minimal bracing and rushing. I love days like this because she allows me to actually use my leg on her, both using calves for support and using my leg to get her straighter. Usually when I attempt to straighten her out she just gets fast, which is both frustrating and unhelpful, so I'd take this over that any day!

This was a moment that happened quite a bit during the lesson, however. For some reason when she's not hyper and focusing on going fast, she ducks and weaves from contact and is much less steady in it. Have to figure out the reasoning behind this.

What you see here is me apparently not being able to balance. For some reason on super smooth horses it takes me a long time before I can actually balance properly. This happened on Willie too when I first started riding him- it's like I'm incapable of getting my butt out of the saddle, and when I do manage it my upper body just wants to sink until it's parallel with the neck. I'm going to try shortening my stirrups and see if that helps, but if it's the same thing that happened with Willie, it just takes some time to get used to it.

 

Cantering.. ugh. Still kind of a rough area for us. To the right she's slow and maintainable, but very over bent. She bulges out with her shoulder and shoves her head and hind into the center, but when I try to straighten her out she gets worried and fast. To the left she's just ridiculous.. fast, unresponsive and frustrated. Stupid racehorses to the left.

Smile!

 

Soo.. jumping! We did some. It was awesome. She's definitely not really balanced enough to be actively trained in jumping yet, but she's such a doll. We started with a bunch of poles and gradually got bigger to a cross pole; ironically, as the jump got bigger she got less and less worried about it. She obviously has some worries about going up to the jumps and wiggles a bit, but ultimately she goes over them once I close my leg on her so I am all smiles and happiness right now.

After all that hard work she got a bath and blinded everyone in the vicinity.

Breakthroughs and Feet Woes

Although I've been crippled for the past week in bed, due to severe migraines and headaches, I was able to shuffle off to the barn today for two hours to get Rush out. As of this point in time I'm in charge of riding Rush and Status constantly, and hacking Willie whenever I have time. Brie was taken over by another girl who rides with me and is doing pretty well, and Webbie was taken over temporarily by my friend who needed a horse to take to IEL. However, Status has progressed to the point where I've deemed him safe enough for my friend to lease him again, so she's starting that back up in a day or two at the beginning of November. That will free up more time for me, so hopefully I can get back to focusing on Rush as much as I need to as well as doing catch rides and hopping on anyone who needs schooling.

Addressing the breakthrough part of this post- last week, before headache of death attacked, I finally figured out that instead of attempting to tire Rush out before getting on her, I should just ride her slow. Before I would lunge her until she seemed relatively quiet, then I would ride and struggle with her to keep everything at a decently slow pace. Last Friday I decided to try something new- riding her at a slow pace, and letting her know that I expected her to be SLOW when I was on her- and lo and behold it worked! The next time I got on her (Sunday, I think, since I was too busy Saturday) she was a perfect angel. Walked around on a loose rein to warm up without jigging. Trotted with contact without bracing. Cantered without accelerating on the downhill. It was really an eye opener and I have really high hopes for her progress in the next few weeks.

But.. feet woes. For some reason BO is on a new binge of doing the feet every 8 weeks, instead of 6 (I say for some reason, but who am I kidding, it's because she's cheap). And.. Rush's feet really need to be done. They've gone downhill really fast and it's kinda scary, so I really hope they get done this week sometime or else I need to sit down and have a talk with BO, which I really don't want to do.

Herd Bound

Well. That trip out was not what I expected. I hopped on Status first, hoping to have a quick 20 minute ride on a loose rein. He was a total bore during trotting- I actually had to threaten him with rein thwacks a few times to get him to move off of my leg. The heat was a bit better than earlier today, but still pretty brutal, so as long as he was moving forward at a trot I didn't mess with him (except for the few times I threatened him when he tried to ignore my leg and walk). So going into the canter I expected a lot of the same thing.. and then he decided to be difficult and got really fast. Mind you this was me riding on a loose rein, being quiet and not egging him on at all. So trying to take off was NOT OKAY. Since he wanted to work.. I made him work. Reins got short, leg went on big time, and I made him round up and canter like a gentleman. We did a couple laps around the ring making a circle in each corner, switched direction, did the same the other way, then took a breather so he could catch his breath. Then I asked for the canter again, gradually loosened the reins, and he cantered like a gentleman on a loose rein :)

Since Status didn't take very long he wasn't hot and only took a few minutes to cool down and take back. Then I haltered Brie and took her down to the turnout, thinking I would let her roll and chill for a few minutes then tack up and get on. No such luck. We recently had two rescues delivered and one is stabled next to her, up on the hill without any other horses around.. needless to say they have gotten very close in the past two days. Like.. shit was going down close. So we're going to have to work on that. I stuck her in the turnout until she stopped screaming and trotting up and down the side, then took her out and did some in-hand work in the arena leading her around jumps and doing lots of stopping and backing up until she was listening to me. Then she got to go back.

Unfortunately since I had to do more work with both of those two I didn't have enough time to work Rushie, so I just took her into the cross ties and had some grooming/bonding time with her. That mare is such a sweetheart, I can't even believe how sociable and adorable and amazing she is. I wish I had the opportunity to buy her.. but unfortunately that's not in the cards.

Heat Wave

Okay, so maybe it's not that hot here compared to how it's been elsewhere in the country/world, but I myself spent most of the summer in an air condition room sitting at a computer (this makes me sound lazy, but it was an internship, I promise!) so this week has been god awful. It doesn't help that I agreed to work the summer camp at the barn, which is 9-4 and a whole lot of wishing I had a gun to shoot myself with. So basically, I haven't been very productive.

Tuesday all three got out (Rush, Brie, Status) because I actually had energy at the end of the day to do Status. It helped that he was a super good boy and I didn't have to fight with him about staying slow. Yesterday all three got a day off because I had a private to teach in the morning and didn't have time to ride. And then today.. well, I'm about to head out there. Short story is I was lazy, slept in, was at the DMV during the lunch hour when I usually ride Brie (license woot!), and it's way too crazy hot to ride right now. So I went home after camp and will head out there in about a half hour to get the ponies out.

I realize this wasn't a very informational post.. but I'm not really good at those. I promise I'll give you the low down on these horses someday ("Brie? Isn't that some kind of cheese? You ride cheese?" I can see you thinking) but that day is not today! And probably not this week. Because school is starting, and parents are fleeing town, and holy crap there is so much work to do!

Meet the Herd

I wasn't always an avid rider. That description used to be allotted to my sister, who was always at the barn riding and foot jumping and getting into general mischief. I rode because she rode- it was fun, too, but it wasn't my main deal. I had soccer two or three or four times a week and loved it. Riding was once a week, if I felt like it, and was never a priority.

That changed the end of sophomore year. My sister had left for college a year prior, effectively cutting me off from being 'in the know' at the barn. All the riders were either several years older than me or several years younger, and nobody in my age group- this was why I had remained so distant even though I was getting older and more interested in horses. It probably didn't help that I was still a bit shy and wasn't very good at approaching people. But I dealt with that, and approached the girls who rode there, and BAM. I was accepted. And from then on, it was all horses, all the time.

It's amazing what having barn friends can do. It completely revolutionized the atmosphere for me; changed it so that I actually felt comfortable and welcome. I went to the barn more often, rode more often, and actually wanted to go on days I didn't have a lesson. Since then, with a little help from the all knowledgable sister, I've sprouted into a decent rider who can hold her own on horseback.

So that's me. Boring, I know. Here's the part that we all like- the horses!

WILLIE

This guy is my savior. I've been on him so long I don't even remember- probably close to five years now. He taught me everything- how to stay quiet, how to assert myself when needed, how to jump bareback (although not recommended on him if you want to have children).. the list goes on. He's an amazing horse but is older (probably at least mid 20s by now) and just can't do what I need anymore. This blog is starting up at the last month of me leasing him- hopefully I can push other people on him often enough that one little girl falls in love and becomes his person. I'll always take care of this guy, and make sure he has what he needs, but it's just not practical for me to be leasing him when my abilities so far outdistance his.

STATUS

This not-so-handsome guy is Status. You can't really tell in this picture (winter fluff and all), but he's got weight issues and has been showing rib for the past 2 years. I recently put him on Triple Crown Senior and WOW has he ballooned out! Ribs are still there, but another two weeks and they should be gone. I'm super excited for him to be putting on weight so fast, especially with winter right around the corner. Now Satus here is an awkward situation for me. One of my friends technically leases him, but he is way too much horse for her right now and she isn't able to get out to the barn often enough so he's crazy and hyper every time she gets on. Starting last winter/this spring I started hopping on him and he's become basically a second lease horse for me that I don't have to pay for.. problem is, I've gotten him mostly figured out and she still can't ride him the way he needs to be ridden. I've convinced her to move to another horse for several months so that she can actually learn how to be a better rider instead of staying stuck in a rut on Status, and starting in September I'm going to be leasing this guy.

WEBBIE

 I apologize for the not so great picture, I don't have many of this guy. Webbie was my charge for this past year, as his owner bought him from the BO and then left for college. He's an old conformation hunter who used to win big, but has some soundness issues and starts out really stiff. I worked him as much as I could in order to get him really soft and supple and he is in fantastic shape. Ever since I began getting him out on a regular basis his soundness issues have gone POOF! which is great. This is a really nice horse right here, but I never bonded with him the way I like to with the horses I ride.

RUSH

 This adorable new mare is one of my new two projects, and will likely be a prominent feature in this blog. She's an 11 year old ex-racehorse turned broodmare (3 babies) who was brought down from BO's ranch to be turned into a hunter. I've been working with her for about two months now and we've had some really big break-throughs and set backs, which I'll clue you in on later. This is one AMAZING horse- impeccable ground manners, sweet and docile, incredibly gorgeous mover. Her one fault is that she's very anxious under saddle and can be pretty spooky. We're working through it, but she'll never be a little kids horse in this decade.

BRIE

Please excuse the awful angle and such, this picture does this lovely little mare no justice. She's a bit ugly to look at right now, but once she's all muscled up and fat she's going to be a looker. Same background as Rush- they were actually brought up together. The BO insists on calling her BB but Brie is so much better (racing name was Briefcase Beauty) so that is what I refer to her as. Although she was trailered down with Rush she did not become my project at the same time Rush did- I've actually only been working with her for a couple days as of now. She's a sweetheart and loves attention, and is not spooky at all which makes her so much easier to ride than Rush.

So that's it! I worked the summer camp at the barn today AND rode Rush, Brie, and Status so I am a little exhausted. Tomorrow (hopefully) I'll write about Rush and how things have been going with her, and then sometime in the near future I will give you the low down on Brie. Ciao!