I love torture... Wait what?

Yes, I'll say it. When I've done something that works my legs or abs and I feel sore after, I make a point to do it again and again. Torture? Bring it on.

"Yes, may I please ride with this torture cube for another hundred thousand rides? Pretty please?"

My trainer has built in a torture response into me: "Yes, I would like more torture please."

I've realized riding torture is good for you, and if you stick it out and work through it, you'll be far better off in the end. Or maybe that's what I tell myself and I'm really just crazy for looking for tough exercises and things that make me hurt for days after.

Perhaps that's why when she's away and I teach lessons the girls say I'm tougher than she is! I say it's because I have to answer to her... but maybe they're on to something.

Anyway, I had a lesson last night. We talked a little about Sunday, and what I needed to accomplish before Aug 15.

• Crisper transitions: extended walk to medium walk to collected walk to canter, medium canter to collected canter, extended canter to collected canter, trot/walk to halt to rein back. Every upward transition strikes off with a purpose. (An interesting note about rein back, I asked how to get the diagonal pairs, she said rein back faster. No dragging or reluctance backwards. No gently backing up. No flying backwards inverted or harshly either, but back with a  purpose. Like, that's a complete doh. Apply the idea with his super connected walk work, and Mikey was rein backing like a champ and the movement was over before I knew it.)
• Keeping the tempo and better bend in lateral movements- thinking medium trot in each one, not collected.
• Get our centerlines straightened out- Mikey tends to step out with one hind or we wobble. It's easy points.
• Work with the cube to fix my position faults to make all of the above easier!
• Keep doing some flying changes, however they're not going to make drastic improvements in two weeks, so just keep asking on occasion and working them in, but no working just on them. I'll be ok without them if I can clean the other items up. And maybe if I can clean the other items up they'll get a little better on their own.

Such a small list right?

I did a little warm up, and as we chatted we paid attention to the walk work, halts and rein back before mixing in some canter. She pulled up the test to see exactly how the walk work read, which lead us to doing the following:

• Come out of the corner in medium walk.
• Extended walk for some portion down the long wall.
• Back to medium walk.
• Ask for collected walk by thinking about bringing my shoulders up and back like I'm trying to push back a recliner that doesn't want to go (no leaning back), legs back and 'picking up' the belly, lighter seat to give the back somewhere to go.
• All the while maintaining steady non-elbow-locked contact, and then asking for canter in the next corner. It must be a connected canter- no shuffle steps, no inverted. He must strike off with a purpose.
• Maintain the connected canter.

So the first thing that happened was Mikey tried to trot through the extended walk. He doesn't do that. It was like he was saying "No, we don't do extended walk on the wall, we do it on the diagonal. We trot here." Then I'd get to the collected walk portion and he'd try to lock up, or swing his hindquarters one direction or another to avoid having to use his butt. Once I got past that and had him where I wanted him in collected walk, I'd ask for canter and get sidepass pissy pants. It took some tries to iron out, some swats with the whip on the left hip to try harder, and eventually we had some excellent transitions. No big motions from me, just steady seat, steady hand, supporting leg, very upright posture.

The confusion about what we're doing at any given moment led my trainer to direct me to not do any movements where they belong in the tests. Extended walks on the walls, not across the diagonals. Mikey has to listen to what I'm asking him to do, not what he thinks we should do. This was part of our downfall in the canter in 3-1 on Sunday (and is not a new issue). Canter at 2nd level and 3rd level always does something after a corner. He's conditioned to hit the long side and either go forward into medium or extended canter or go sideways into half pass, or do something besides track forward and straight. 3-1 has 10m canter circles at V and P, so you have to make it past K and F in collected canter. Mikey says, "What're we doing now? Huh? Huh?!" and we end up battling each other and his canter gets wishy washy and then good bye points and we're screwed for the next movement.

A graphic for your viewing pleasure.

Coming down from the canter each time, she had me shift my shoulders back in that same recliner feeling (engages my core and thighs) and pay extra attention to keeping my lower leg under me near the girth. When I let it get behind me, I flop forward and all is lost in the transition. I tried to keep in mind the slowing the canter down to the speed of a quick walk that I learned from A Enter Spooking, and soon enough we were canter-walking round and promptly. Sweet.

After the torture work in walk and canter, she grabbed my cube from a fence I had set it on, gave it to me, and asked me to just go around so she can get a gauge on how it affects me and Mikey.

My trainer is one strong lady. She fetched the cube from where I had set it down and as she walked back with it she held it in front of her and supported it the way you should, as was like "Ooo. Hmm. It really engages the abs. Even I feel it." I'm glad that me feeling the burn before wasn't me being weak. Even the lady who rides 5-10 horses a day in addition to mucking 17 stalls by herself every day feels it.

Anyway, the first thing that became obvious was Mikey's intense dislike for the cube. I asked about it, if it was me engaging my seat too much for him to handle (he doesn't always appreciate a fully engaged seat from overweight me or even good weight Trainer, in fact you can make him explode from it). She didn't think so, she reminded me that whenever we change something to a more correct ride, he always retaliates that he has to work harder to meet our new expectations. He was just pissed off at the steady connection in my hand (and a bit from the deeper seat). I fiddled with his walk a bit, trying to use leg and seat to get him to meet the bridle. His usual evasion became very plain- if he started shifting his hips around, you better believe it that I was sitting slightly crooked and so he flung himself around in response. He couldn't stop to have a temper tantrum either- I had no contact with his face and my seat and leg kept saying "March on!"

Trainer had me move on to posting trot to free up his back a little and get him thinking forward again. She was very pleased with how the cube effected my sit part of the posting trot ("It really doesn't give the rider any other option but to sit deeply and properly!"), and equally pleased that it was forcing my lower leg to sit where it should up near the girth. I have a horrible habit of letting it fall well behind the girth, which of course leaves no where for it to go when I need to use it behind.

Once Mikey started to accept that my steady hands weren't going away and that he had to come up and meet the bridle, he slowly softened. Just a bit. Not a true connection or good enough throughness, but just a hint of willingness to meet the bridle.

Trainer had me swap to sitting the trot, and it was a glorious thing. It was EASY to sit his trot. She had me do some shoulder in and pay attention to the tempo. Mikey continued to relax further. She had me really stretch up in my spine and bring together my shoulder blades, which had an immediate effect on Mikey- he came through and connected like the awesome boy he is. I could go from sitting to posting to sitting, and I never interfered with his back to make him uncomfortable so he never changed his throughness. AWESOME!

I worked that feeling in the shoulder in, paying super attention to what my hips were saying (sitting that deep and correctly sure made it obvious how to use them properly!), and pay attention to what my legs were saying. My lower leg hung at the girth, and I could put my calf on him and inside seatbone and he'd respond wonderfully. When I ask for shoulder in left, he usually swings off the rail immediately, then I crush him back into left bend and back to the rail. The cube made it obvious that in the steps out of the corner left and right before I ask for shoulder in left, I dig into him with my right seatbone, and his natural response is to leg yield away from it. As soon as I got more control over it, we stopped drifting so much.

Next she had me do some trot halt trot transitions. The downward was a touch rough to begin, but it slowly led to very square halts. I asked for trot on, and Mikey would invert and I'd lose my contact and connection, but he'd step off with a purpose. She said that that is how hard I hold onto him going into the upward transitions, I hold so much and lock my elbows and drop my hands that I make him invert and I slow him down when in reality, he does want to step off with a purpose. Eventually they got a bit better as he trusted that I wasn't going to shut him down.

She had me half pass next. It became quite evident in the half pass left that I would lose my contact with the left rein, then lose a lot of the quality of the movement. The cube forced me to be steady, but not take back my hand to maintain the contact. I need to find a more forward half pass to make Mikey find the connection, and keep the bend from my seat and leg. And oh yea, No collapsing either direction. Same stretch up through the spine. I don't get a floppy contact to the left rein in left half pass without the cube because I'm taking back rein to force the contact to be there, not correct riding! The right half pass was pretty decent, just needs to think a bit more forward. One of the right half passes was the best she's ever seen us do. So yay!

We ended with a bit of stretchy posting trot. It wasn't as hard as I thought to let the rein out while holding the cube. Mikey enjoyed his stretch, and I had to learn how to do a stretchy trot without falling forward.

She loved the cube, but warned me against using it all the time. It puts both of us in a good place- we both use the right muscles and tire out quickly. She said to use it just a couple times a week to avoid the good muscles getting overly sore and creating a resistance issue because he's sore (we don't care about how sore I get, I'll push through cause it's good for me!).

I think tonight we'll do some long and low work. Just easy stuff that's stretchy. I'm sore from two days of the cube plus two days of Fitness Blender workouts (I love them!). Tomorrow I'll bring the horses in for AM feed, then take Mikey for a short trail walk before I get picked up to go to the mini trial this weekend.

Trainer already has plans for a cube clinic on 8/8 where a bunch of us take turns riding with it for 15-30min. Well hell. I look forward to it! More torture!

(faux) Equicube final verdict: A+++

First Faux EquiCube Ride

"Momma, why are you here? Is it to hose me off? I'm so warm."
When it gets to be 90 degrees +, Mikey sweats something fierce, this was BEFORE we rode. :-(

So yesterday I ended up riding even though I didn't think I would. The temperatures really aren't supposed to drop all that much this week and I needed to get riding again before the weekend, since I won't be around to ride. My trainer also called to ask if I was riding last night, and if so, could I turn out the horses when I was done. She needed to go teach at another farm in the evening and it was just too hot to put the horses out when she needed to leave. I really needed to get Mikey working again since he's been on vacation since the show, I like helping and it's a "you scratch my back, I scratch yours" type deal. So off to the barn I went!

Mikey was ridiculously sweaty when I pulled him out of his stall. Brushing him was a fail because I actually made him foam from bushing him. He just melts on days like today. It's a big reason I often don't ride him when it's this hot. My trainer has pulled him out on days like this and just hosed him down to try to make him more comfortable. I swear he smiled when I hosed him down after our ride.

I didn't even bother putting on my tall boots, it was too hot. I usually wear FITS all weather full seat breeches with deerskin patches, but it was too hot today so I was wearing my new pair of full seat FITS tights. I usually wear those on days I'm going to work and ride to try and save wear and tear on the deerskin.

I took my cube down to the outdoor to practice with. I figured I could walk around for a while and that'd be hard for me, easy for Mikey.

My homemade cube. It is a bit wider than the real cube, and a hair heavier.

This is the real cube.

If you want an ab-master, make or buy a cube. I am strong in my core. I had a gym membership a couple years ago, and it came with a free personal training session to learn how to set and use the machines. When it came to leg and core machines, the trainer was like, "I don't know what to do with you. I've only had a couple women be this strong." The cube whipped my abs and back muscles.

Walking over up and down terrain to the outdoor holding that damn cube was a pain in my back. Literally. The muscles next to my spine were screaming bloody murder. My chiropractor had told me several years ago that I ended up with so much back pain in those muscles because they weren't balanced with my ab muscles. They were too weak. Well holy piss, I wanted to die. So naturally, I kept going.

I had a lot of trouble connecting Mikey to the bridle. I had my reins a bit longer than I should have, thinking I'd ask him for long and low. I definitely was sitting straighter, taller, and was finding my seatbones with ease. I think Mikey was surprised by the amount of seat contact, and it was a lot for him, so he inverted instead of looking for the bridle. I pushed for a lot more walk with my leg (another thing was it quieted an overactive seat in walk), and he finally connected a little. I think if I had gone around and warmed up a little without it, Mikey would have been a bit better prepared for such a deep contact.

I asked for trot, and I had no problem sitting the trot (it was easy with the cube!) until I got tired. I do like the cube for posting trot. I have trouble finding that deep sitting position in the sit part of the posting trot, and with the cube I didn't have a choice. It was there.

Picture of the sand bag weight in my cube.

I also found I couldn't hold my hands forward like I wanted to- it was too hard to hold up the cube because at that point I had to hold it up with my arms. Since I couldn't do that, I had trouble following Mikey's movements with my elbows. That was a big problem at the show- coming down from medium/extended canters to collected canter, I'd lock my elbows and force Mikey to either invert or plow through. I also couldn't flex him right to counteract our tendency to connect to the left rein both directions. I'd check my rein length to make sure they were even, but still had trouble getting an even connection. It was still better than it was a couple months ago, and I think with some ground eyes it wouldn't have been a problem. These are the only meh parts I have about using the cube.

Trot shoulder in to renvers to shoulder in worked out very well with the cube once I had Mikey more through in the trot. He never thought about fighting me or inverting or changing tempo. I did find he drifted a bit to the left, and I had a hard time correcting it because I was getting tired. The canter was incredible. I found myself using my seat more, and he'd connect much faster and truer.

I found myself lowering my hands a bunch of times (bumped the cube into Mikey's neck, sorry Mikey!) and I found myself trying to widen them too to get what I wanted. I had to keep them still.

I did take away the cube to finish up because I was getting frustrated and Mikey was definitely getting sensitive.

What a difference! Hands up and together, I was able to follow with my elbows without the weight. I wish I had had my tall boots and my whip, Mikey was a bit tired by then and I needed to give him a couple taps on the left hip. I think my hands actually got too high. They definitely didn't want to drop down anymore.

By the time I got back to the barn, Mikey and I were both exhausted. It was still 90 degrees or so out, he did some good work over his back after I figured myself out, and my abs and back were killing me.

I have a lesson tonight in a couple hours, and we'll cube it again.

Cube Verdict: We'll see. It'll definitely up my back and core strength, and get my hands back up and together and get me to stop dropping my hands to get what I want. I'll feel better after a lesson with it with Trainer checking me from the ground. I may see about having husband made it narrower. He said he could do it, but wanted me to give it a try first.

If you're interested in buying the Equicube, it's $80 plus $15 shipping. Or you can make the one my husband made with this material list. Husband spent about $20, but he already had some of the more expensive materials. It's around $38 if you have to start from scratch. If anyone wants to make it, let me know and I'll add some notes about how my husband put it together (just some tips he had for making one).