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.