Happy Gotcha Day Penn!

Penn has been offically mine for a year now! He came home August 15, 2015, but today was the official "I'm keeping him" day.

8/11/2015

8/11/2015

8/11/2015

8/17/2015

8/23/2015

8/23/2015

4/3/2016

5/8/2016

5/22/2016

6/4/2016

6/12/2016

We've certainly done a lot in a year! Official compare post is coming at the end of the month after our next show on 8/28 (which hopefully goes well so that I have good video to compare/contrast!). This is the same show Penn went to a week after coming home last year, so I thought it was a good place to compare.

How to Make Eventing More Viewer Friendly

So I was watching the Olympic gymnastics the other night. They'd have a gymnast come on, give name and country, and the vault or whatever they were going to do. They performed, the perfect score and the gymnast's score were given, applause.

You know what? I still haven't got a clue what they did except some incredible flips and rotations. I don't understand the scoring system, or how it totals up. A little research, and I would of course. But I'm still a happy viewer.

Gymnastics is simply popular. I can't believe everyone knows the scoring system perfectly. They just enjoy watching, knowing what moves were being done, and knowing when it was a good score.

You know what else? If I didn't already know a lot about eventing, I would have been confused at what was going on while watching the Olympic Eventing live stream. A lack of viewer needed information occurred.

Not even close to Olympic Eventing.
Ignore my slipped leg. I had to let the stirrup out 3 holes to ride with a sprained ankle I could barely walk on.

Let me put this out there: most people will tune in on tv or the live stream. If they already like and know something about the sport, and can make the trip, that's when they show up in person to things like the Olympics, Pan-Am Games, Rolex, etc.

Rolex Head of the Lake, 2015.

During the xc, I had a tough time knowing who I was looking at and where they were at on course as I jumped around on the live stream (my attention was split by the stream and my job functions). Maybe I'm a horrible horsey viewer because I don't recognize everyone, sorry, but that is how non-horsey people feel watching.

I know everyone has their own colors on xc, but I was miffed that there tended to be very little unity in apparel theme (for all countries) - simply a USA logo saddle pad and I think some blue shirts. I know the equipment is expensive, so how about matching helmet covers with the flag like the swimmers? Something very visible, yet doesn't infringe on rider's personal taste in safety equipment (because matching air vests are totally out, I get it). Non-horsey viewers need some kind of easily identified unifying theme, or else they don't know who they're looking at.

Rolex coffin complex, 2015

I tried matching pinnies to a horse/rider number sheet. Only the pinnies weren't always easy to read quickly. Every time they would cut to a different pair, I'd have to place them again, because the name/country prompt didn't always come up or stay up. Not hard if you've been watching, but definitely hard if you're just tuning in.

Think about it for a non-horsey person: if you didn't easily know who you were watching, would you keep watching? You can't assume viewers will understand horse colors either - horses to non-horsey people are brown, black, or white. Don't believe me? My husband, who is wonderful and has been showing with me for 7 years now, finally knows the very basic colors. But he's still going to tell you the bay horse is the the brown one, and he can't tell bay horses apart without riders. To non-horsey viewers, chestnuts and bays will always be the brown horses. They'll never be able to look for chrome or horse breed shapes, so it's with the riders that we need to create identifying features.

Mikey making a leap into water... me being defensive about it.

I think it would be good to always keep the rider name/horse/country up on a graphic, in addition to the penalties and time. Keeping up a 'fences completed' and 'out of' would be great too- for people just tuning in and for people who were flipping around like me. Yes, this would take some active input by people who know what they're doing in the computer side, but come on, they have to exist! If they don't, let's create them.

You know what else would be fun for viewers? To know just how fast those horses are running. Distance divided by time, yo. A quick on the fly graphic in miles per hour or kilometers per hour, not meters per minute. That's not helpful to viewers who don't understand how we dictate pace.

Steeplechase = Zoom!

Dressage. Oh the fun-as-watching-paint-dry sport (not my view, I love it!). I can identify all the moves in dressage. Non-horsey viewers can't. Let's get a graphic up that also has the rider/horse name as well as the move they are doing. You want people to know what a half pass is? Or how about the basic walk, trot, canter? Label them constantly. Remember doing your times tables and timed math tests in school that taught you by repetition? That's what a non-horsey viewer needs. Constant information of what is going on. Commentators aren't enough. They talk about what's going on, yes, but they also talk about past events and things that are not immediately relevant to what the rider is doing at that exact moment.

At major events, a preliminary running total percent is shown on the score board. Perhaps we could get some kind of running percent on the graphics on the live stream? Constant numerical feedback of scoring for the viewers.

For the record, I think dressage and show jumping NEED to keep their white pants and shads and coats. It's a formal occasion, let's dress like it. I'm not sure how you would show team uniformity there, aside from having everyone from each team perform one right after another.

Umm, not an acceptable flying change.

Also, jump heights anyone? The only height I heard on the live feed was for the xc brush fences. Maybe they said it at the start of the program, but I missed that part. Show jump heights- team was one height, individual a little higher. Never was the exact height identified. So I know advanced is 3'11". Does that mean the team show jumping was under height? Or was the individual show jumping over height? Viewers tuning in in the middle won't know. Fun facts people! Repeat them!

Gymnastics competes for short time frames of a couple minutes tops. The shortest time frame of the Equestrian disciplines? The Show Jumping at 60-90 seconds. Dressage tests take 5+ min, xc takes a whopping 10+ min, though we don't see the whole thing, just the jumps. What gymnastics has is short bursts of competition, then score and what happened, all as one compete unit. I tuned in and in about 3 seconds, I knew who was competing and what was happening. It takes too long to figure that out on the Equestrian disciplines.

Something else that was missing: a running score for each team as a graphic. I wanted to see a leaderboard far more often than they were showing it. Commentators saying the score is great, however a quick visual of the top 3 teams or the top ten riders would have been nice to see more often. This is tough since there are 4 rider rotations, but I think it could be figured out. After every gymnast, they had a new team total and placing. More "who's winning" information please!

Eventing (and Dressage and Show Jumping) is not as popular as gymnastics. No amount of name changing, scoring changes, or shortening of tests is going to make a non-horsey viewer understand. I think we need to be able to quickly educate viewers or quickly describe what's happening for people just tuning in. What has to happen are easy to follow and informative graphics, even if they take up some of the screen.

It doesn't matter how pretty the dressage is, how exciting the cross country is, or how wow the show jumping is, if extremely relevant information can't be expressed to the less-than-knowledgeable viewer quickly, they'll change the live feed to something else. Commentators aren't enough.

What do you think blogland? How should the sport be changed for the sake of the audience? Or do you agree with me, that we could do a better job getting relevant information across to the viewer?

Obstacle Trail Awesomeness!

OMG guys, SO MUCH FUN.

Penn is a total badass.

It turns out 3 of the ladies at the barn were going to a local obstacle trail practice instead of just the one I Facebook messaged and asked to tag along with. They all compete in judged trail rides (and haul out to trail ride all over the place). So we loaded up the two trailers and off we went!

Rocking matching boots and saddle pad, a dressage saddle, and a bling browband.
At a western riding event.

First of all, all the western riders thought Penn was adorable. And they thought my tack was so pretty, haha. Here I was worried about first impressions when I opted not to bring my "off property" helmet (aka the good one I use for lessons, clinics, shows) and the brown reins on my micklem.

Sneaking cat pictures in, because how adorable is this?
Sophie just wants to sleep and Felix just wants to cuddle!

They finally got the shelf space worked out :-)

I started off by leading Penn around- I figured we've only played with this type of thing once, he probably needs a refresher. I led him over the tarp (non-issue), then took him over to a shower curtain that was cut into strips and you had to walk through it. Poor creature, he just didn't understand. He wasn't afraid of it, but he didn't understand how to go through it. I ended up pulling a couple strips together to make a "door" which he promptly ran through. I walked him through it by hand a bunch of times. Each time, he kept super close to me and followed through the exact hole I created when I walked through the curtain. If I got too far ahead and the curtain closed, he'd dance and get stuck on the starting side. I got him to walk through once before I went through, so I let him walk away from it. I led him a couple times over the bridge (which was hard to do because it wasn't wide enough to stand next to him, but I had to keep moving so he didn't step on me!). I figured it was now or never and climbed on.

We went back to the tarp first (no problem), then revisited it curtain. Penn walked right up to the curtain, and was like, "I DON'T UNDERSTAND!" I ended up reaching forward and pulling the curtain a little to create an opening, which Penn promptly ran through. I patted him and brought him back around. He started to get the idea after the wind blew the curtain a little and I was ale to steer his nose into an opening. After that, he'd poke his nose out in front of him and pin his ears back and let the curtain slide over his face, all while calmly walking through.

Nose first!

We tried the bridge next- he was like, "OMG I have to go over it by myself!" He stretched his head and neck out and took a good look, then trotted over it. Lots of pats and I turned him around and tried again. He cantered it this time like a tiny up bank and down bank, but as a bounce, haha. More pats and "good boy"s and I brought him around again. Soon enough he was walking calmly over it. definitely still giving it the hairy eyeball, but as long as I gave him his head he was more than willing to go.

I revisited the tarp since that one is easy, and took him over to where they had a broom and 1.5' diameter green ball. I didn't see the broom at first, so I figured the horse was supposed to push the ball, even if the ball was a lot smaller than other balls I've seen for that purpose. So I marched Penn up to it, slowed him down so he wouldn't run it over, and slowly pushed him into it. Well he went, no problem, then was completely surprised when the ball rolled. Like, he dropped down, legs splayed, dodging right and left, trying to back up. So of course I ran him into it a few more times and then he was kicking it like a pro, even interested in following it around... until he stepped over it and it hit his back legs. I had him push it back to it's starting place, patted him, and let him move on.

By this point, someone had lit two flares and spaced them so you could figure 8 around them or just walk between. Off we went! Penn was a little skeptical at first, but with a little leg he VERY carefully walked between the flares, and kept on marching! I tried to get him to stop in between the flares so I could grab a pic, but he was having none of that. He'd been really good about everything- no running or spooking, but as soon as I shortened the reins and asked him to stop, he just ran through me and became very nervous. I took him back through, didn't touch the reins, and he walked calmly, yet carefully, through. Interesting.

They had a big stick/small log on a long rope that we could drag around, so I decided to try that. Penn was more concerned about the rope than the thing it was attached to. It took a few minutes to get a hold of the rope, and then another few minutes to convince him that it wasn't going to hurt him. After that, he easily drug the stick/log around, and even let me shorten the rope and maneuver him around the barrel we were supposed to circle so that the stick/log wouldn't hit the barrel. I have video of it too!

Sorry it's vertical, I wasn't in control of my camera!

https://youtu.be/LMnZ2gDCWmI

Some less notable activities:

• We walked through pool noodles cut in half, then each half attached to a jump standard in such a way that it would touch him on both sides as he walked through. Non-issue, it was like it wasn't even there.
• Mailboxes: take "mail" out of one box and put it in the other. Not cool with that, it made noise as I opened and closed it and he wasn't expected that. I let him sniff the box and he was like, "Oh, ok." I opted to not attempt to move the "mail" from one box to another.
• There was a hard walled kiddie pool with water that he wanted no parts of. He already has water issues, so I only made him walk up to it and investigate it with his nose.
• Hula hoops: OMG no. Bad bad bad. It was the only time he got a little out of control. Someone was kind enough to hand me one, and he promptly tried to run away from it... well I'm sitting on him holding it, so it "chased" him. Poor creature. I eventually got him to tolerate it enough to walk around a little, but eventually he had enough of it and started to squirt sideways again so I was forced to drop it. I made him walk over it, but I'm not overly worried about a fear of hula hoops!

We spent about an hour milling around and linking obstacles together, and watching some of our barn-mates do them properly. Penn was so good, and I was pleased that I had his complete attention the entire evening (as if he'd pay attention to anything else!), but he either stood quietly watching everyone else, or he was focused on whatever obstacle we were doing.

You can see the tarp, noodle thing, broomstick polo, kiddie pool, bridge, and dragging stick.

Overall, they had:

• a small diameter black pipe cut in half, dressed up like a spider, that you had to walk over (a wee jump)
• hula hoops
• broom and ball (for broomstick polo)
• a hard sided kiddie pool with water
• a bridge
• a large stick tied to a rope to drag around
• a tarp
• poles set on a zig zag to back up through
• a single barrel to jump
• a curtain to walk through
• two lit flares
• two mailboxes to take mail in between

I had him sniff the "jumps", but had zero desire to try and jump them, or walk over them. He's also not so good at backing up (side effect of 'go forward, ALWAYS!'), and has a rearing tendency, so I opted not to try that either since it frustrates him and I wanted to keep him happy.

This was an interesting trip through Penn's psyche. He absolutely wants to be good and brave, and is so frustrated when he can't do what I want. It let me know just how well that first lesson I taught him stuck (go forward when you're scared, no matter what). I've taught him that he will be ok, as long as he keeps moving forward, and apparently I've done a good job assuring him that's the case because it's what he does when he's afraid. Examples: Diving through the shower curtain when he saw an opening. Not wanting to stop between the flares, then blowing up when I tried to force him to stop. Running over the bridge the first few times. When I'd bring him around and present the question again, he was notably calmer going through.

He did absolutely everything on a long rein. If I shortened at all, he got nervous. It was a bit eye opening really. When he gets looky and spooky in the ring, what do I do? I snatch up the reins and try to force him to bend properly and look away. I need to experiment with application here, but it seems he's found a happy place where he stretches and travels very forward when he's nervous. I need to figure out how to apply that when he's nervous or looky in the ring.

I tested the thinking on a trail ride last night- it absolutely works. If I give him a longer rein, he'll stretch and look, then keep moving. If it's really terrifying, stop, stretch, look, then he'll walk past. The stopping isn't something I want to encourage because it's not always an option, however, good experiences are good for his bravery because in reality, he's still a baby.

It has been suggested to me (by none other than my BO) that this should be Penn's next endeavor.
I laughed. Then thought about how to go about it.
Costumes are allowed in musical freestyles right? ;-P

One Year Later

One year ago today, I lost Mikey.

I'll have to dig up the high quality versions of these pictures sometime.
They are among my favorite pictures ever of us (and one of the very few times I rode without a helmet).

A lot has happened in that one year. Penn is here, we are going to first level championships in a month and a half.

Pennsylvania Pete

Every day post-Mikey has gotten a little easier. At some point, Penn wasn't wearing Mikey's halter anymore. Penn started wearing Penn's halter. Nothing is still Mikey's (except the Jaguar since I still have it and Penn can't wear it). Everything is now Penn's.

Penn uses Mikey's halter and lead rope.

I've had to sell some of Mikey's things to get things that fit Penn. The first thing to go was Mikey's TSF girth, which the company graciously allowed me to trade for a used one that would fit Penn. I actually told it goodbye as I picked the last few chestnut hairs out of it and boxed it up. It was the hardest thing to get rid of because it was the first thing of Mikey's that I had to get rid of. The first very permanent step towards moving on. It's stupid, I know. But it belonged to Mikey.

Every day post-Mikey I feel like I'm forgetting him a little more. He no longer dominates my thoughts. Penn does. I find myself thinking of Mikey less often. I don't like that, but it's probably a natural progression in healing from a sudden and tragic loss. Mikey was the background on my computer at work until May. Right now, he and Penn share an image on my desktop. I know that eventually Mikey won't be on my desktop at all- I'll get some super shot of Penn and he'll take over.

Facebook is great for the memories. It shows me all the pictures of us competing as the year passes. It's shown me some great things and made me smile to think about all the fun Mikey and I had together. Mikey even became my temporary profile picture last week.

All smiles.

I still can't get through the blog posts about his death without crying. I don't cry uncontrollably anymore, but I think it will always affect me. I don't look forward to tomorrow when Facebook memories brings up the post where I shared with everyone that he was gone.

Right up there in my favorite pictures, even though my lower leg is crap because my stirrup is 3-4 holes too long because my ankle is sprained.

Over the last year, I've been slowly adding to a huge 'what if' post with a more detailed description of what happened that night and my thoughts. It compared what happened to experiences other people shared online with aortic aneurysms.

I finally deleted the post. It had thoughts and details that don't need to be shared with anyone or remembered. It wouldn't have changed anything except damage my healing. We didn't know anything was wrong with him. Deleting it finally let me let go of "OMG, you killed him. You should have known there was something wrong with him." That's a statement that has been haunting me for a long time.

I wonder when Mikey developed his issue that caused such a dramatic bodily failure. He had some of the best ears listening to his heart and monitoring him back in February 2015 at his surgery. They gave his heart an A++ for strength and proper sounds or whatever. It's what let them continue surgery for almost 2 hours. They would have flagged it immediately if something sounded off. I asked if him being put under could have done something to him, everyone said no.

There was NOTHING we could have done to prevent it because there are no symptoms until the horse is on the ground, dead and bleeding out. A strange question that came through my mind at the time: "Ok, how do we make the blood go back in?" My brain wasn't processing that it was already too late. I was just in shock at the time and the tears didn't even start until hours later after I got home.

It was sheer luck that I wasn't sitting on him when he died because he would have killed me. I'm not saying it as an offhand remark- I'm quite serious. A rider would not have lived through his fall. I'm lucky it didn't happen when I was on him and alone- he would have landed on me and if the impact didn't kill me, waiting for someone to find me would have. Helmet or no helmet, I would have been dead.

Steeplechase = Awesome

I don't regret getting Penn so quickly. The way it came across on here seemed overly cheery for just having lost my partner of 11 years. I spent days crying my eyes out after losing Mikey. I was miserable and not about to write just how miserable I really was because I'd already said everything, and I didn't want to write one sad post after another. The first time I was happy again was when Mom and I came to a decision on Penn and I called the sale barn and said, "We're coming back to give you a check." Penn is not only the right horse for me, he was the right horse at the right time. He needed all of my attention and energy. He was so lovable and cuddly (and still is!), and he needed to be ridden everywhere. I can't imagine how dark that time in my life would have been without him.

Such a baby face.

I guess I'll go see my big brown tissue tonight and give him a big hug. We'll go for a walk by ourselves and maybe I'll tell him a little more about his big brother.

8/2 Lesson

Lesson Tuesday night was great. Penn brought his looky to lesson, which is nice. Sometimes when I'm having a problem it doesn't surface in lesson.

Since we only had a half hour, it was a lot of work straight through (I accidentally scheduled the farrier on lesson night, which meant he was of course 40 min early and got there as I was walking out to lesson- he assured me it was fine, he had some paperwork to do). We got to lesson outside, since that's where I'm a bit nervous with his lookyness.

Child's play in comparison to this lesson.

Trainer started by having me trot him on a circle (which was fine), then move off to doing some leg yields from the quarterline to the wall... and Penn promptly started being looky and spooky. The routine went through the following progression:

• In trot to the left, Leg yield quarterline to wall.
• Leg yield quarterline to wall (or at least a few steps) then half pass in.
• 10-12m circle in the second corner of the short side, half pass across the diagonal. When the half pass gets iffy, change to leg yield, still going across the same diagonal, to make him finish it. We usually only got to the centerline of this arena (it's way wider than a standard dressage ring ad his half pass has almost zero sideways cover since it's not true half pass), repeat the circle and half pass leg yield the other direction. (everything to the right was away away from trainer, everything to the left was coming towards her). Repeat many, many times. (this is where he decided to spook at everything... cats, poles, arena dirt pile from the drag, Trainer sitting on the mounting block, a horse being turned out, someone walking through the field. He is notably worse to the left since I have a more difficult time getting bend left. there were some 10m circles near the dirt pile that involved thumping of the inside leg)
• 10-12m circle to shoulder in left down the long wall (towards trainer). Careful not to ask for too steep an angle. 3 tracks is not much angle for Penn.
• Up centerline, shoulder in left on centerline, change to shoulder in right halfway. Turn right, shoulder in right down the long wall (towards trainer). Turn up centerline (away from trainer), swap shoulder ins, turn left. Repeat several times.
• After the turn back to the long wall, pick up the canter and canter in shoulder fore down the long wall back towards trainer. Trot before turning up centerline. Lengthen trot down centerline. Repeat to the other direction. Change the transitions on centerline to collected trot to lengthen to collected. Repeat.
• Keep the canter, turn up centerline in canter. Trot on the straight line, pick up the new lead on the straight line, turn the new direction, lengthen canter down the long wall, collect, turn down centerline. Repeat.
• Do the above again, except change centerline to trot, then walk, then pick up the new lead from walk. Repeat each direction.
• Stretchy trot on a big circle to finish.

That pretty much took up a half hour, esp the part with the battling over the spooking. We were both dripping in sweat!

I am horrible and have ZERO new media of us working. Eventually I will have new media!

Overall, she got after me about keeping my hands down when he spooks, and to use it to my advantage to get more collection. When he's looking, he's not inverting and staring, he's mostly just lifting and bulging the shoulder and turning his head the wrong way. She warned me not take the bait he was offering- aka pull the inside rein to reestablish looking in the correct direction. Big half halts and a ton of seat and leg to remind him (less hand than I've been doing, oops), and use that new lift to my advantage.

She really liked his work, looking and spooking aside. She said, "When he's focused, he is such a HUGE mover." She thinks a lot of the looking came from riding him inside too much combined with him being super fit (ok so maybe I won't be adding trot sets to our routine). Mikey used to do it too if he worked all the time inside. He basically got bored going in circles and looking at the same 4 walls, so he'd come up with off task things to do. I've been riding Penn inside a ton since our meltdown at the end of June- I felt more comfortable dealing with him where I had 4 walls, and then it became blazing hot out so I just wanted to stay out of the sun. No more of that, I was told to ride outside all the time, and if it was truly a scorcher, ride 15min inside and then 15min outside. Do a ton of transitions on simple patterns to keep his focus.

She also said that after the show season is done, give him a month off to just be a pet, not a show horse or a horse in training. I think he's earned that. I was going to give him some chill time anyway, he's been working so hard for the last year that I'm sure he could use a break.

She asked if I had pictures from when I first got him, I said yes, she said just wait til you compare now and then! I'll do something for FB of course, but I'm so excited for the one year mark on here where I can do a real compare/contrast. Penn is going back to the same show he went to last August, so I'll use those two shows to compare instead of his actual purchase date etc.

Tonight, obstacle trail practice! SO STOKED!

Long Lining & Fairfax Girth Rides

Wednesday 7/27
So long lining has become my new "I don't want to ride or do anything but the horse still has to work" activity. It was so hot last week, I only worked Penn twice in the evening.

Remember the wiggles he gave me going straight in the long lining video?

I decided to attack that first before double lunging, so I stuck Penn on the 5 loop serpentine and off we went.

Surprise surprise, he bulged and folded to the left when he knew we were going to be turning left, so he's essentially counterbending into the lefthand turn. He does that to me under saddle all the time.

This has been a bit tricky for me to solve on the ground: he's bulging left, and pulling the right rein only makes it worse. Tapping on his left side with the left rein gets quite a dramatic temper tantrum that I definitely don't want to get worse because he'll be rearing next (nope nope nope nope). So I got a little creative.

Every time he would bulge left, I'd give the left rein entirely and pull him onto a 10m circle right until he stopped trying to go left. Then I'd set him up, do a change of bend where it should have been, and 10m circle left.

After traveling up and down the ring once, he gave up on that and was happy to go straight until I told him otherwise. I debated doing the exercise in trot, however that would require a bit of running and it was too hot for that. His double lunge work was good, but he continues to be looky. I got after him a little and he went back to work nicely. Very happy I opted not to ride that night!


Fairfax Performance Girth - Short Event

Penn's new (to us) girth arrived last Thursday! It's all very exciting. It had some big promises (copied from their website):

"The first girth to be based on scientific research and proven to improve the horse’s performance by:

• Dramatically reducing pressure (up to 82%)

• Significantly increasing range of movement (up to 33% in forelimb protraction compared to the horse’s normal girth)

• Eliminating gait asymmetry

Team officials were so impressed by the girth they asked us to keep it a secret and delay its launch until after the London Olympics because they thought it would give Team GBR an added advantage. 

It is also the only girth to be tested using pressure mapping (by Pliance) and gait analysis (by Centuar Biomechanics)."

The girth comes in a bunch of varieties, per your needs: dressage girth, event girth (same as dressage but it has a D ring and extra buckle in the middle), long girth, short stud guard girth, long stud guard girth. The dressage, event, and long girths also come in a narrow gauge option for horses who have small chests and rib cages. If the horse measures less than 20cm across the flat area between elbows, they need the narrow gauge. Penn is on the hairy edge of that when I measured him. I had to go with the standard girth no matter what because the narrow gauge wasn't an ebay option and I wasn't about to drop $400+ on the girth to get one new.

The cats were adorable last Wednesday.

Friday 7/29
I got to use the girth for the first time on Friday for our ride. Penn didn't give me his usual angry face when I hooked up the girth, but he wasn't happy either: "There's something different, I don't know what to make of it, but I don't think I like it, but it's not the same..." Basically his face went through a ton of emotions but he didn't completely pin his ears like normal.

I got on, and Penn started off with some weird stopping stuff- like, I put my leg on, he takes a couple steps and stops. Then I put my leg on again and he repeats. He started doing this to me on the long lines Wednesday, so I think it's something bad carrying over. I got him out of it and it didn't resurface.

I started by walking our serpentine and then trotting it. It seems our session Wednesday held because he wasn't nearly as bulgy with his shoulder. He wasn't particularly bendy, but at least he was straight.

I ran him through his paces and asked him to be a bit more up, and he was fine. Super looky out the doors though. He never lost his throughness when he'd stare, but it makes me wonder what I'm doing wrong. He never used to stare this much, and I can't drill him all the time to keep his attention.

However, even though he was a bit looky, I was able to post the trot the entire time. I've never been able to post the trot and keep the throughness while he's been that looky. He felt very solid under the saddle. He wasn't hard to bring back from the staring, just hard to prevent the staring. He wouldn't invert to stare, he'd just turn his head. In fact, he was so nice and through- his back was up, the muscles at the base of his neck were engaged, and he was reaching for the bit. The only thing that was different was the girth. So, one point to the girth?

I get the feeling it should be further forward, but that would mean I have to put my saddle further forward, or pull the girth forward, neither of which I'm doing.

Saturday 7/30
Saturday was supposed to be long and low in the outdoor day, however, it was pissing down rain and I didn't want to get wet, so I tried in the indoor without much luck. He just wanted to look out the doors, so I made him work somewhere between his new working frame and long and low.

Truck's new tires are on.

Side note, Penn got put in 'time out' Saturday morning (I wasn't working because I was at the mechanic having my trailer inspected and my truck tires changed!). The horses spent the day outside even though it was raining, except Penn. (I'm totally cool with that, It was a lot cooler than it's been- 80ish degrees- and I'm funny about their backs getting rained on and then tight). So anyway, apparently Penn decided to lose his marbles when it was time to come in for breakfast. He was jumping straight up in the air, bucking, kicking, trying to run the other horses, and almost kicked another horse in the head. BO's daughter knew I was riding after the mechanic, so they left him in his stall in "time out" so he could get ridden before being allowed out. I didn't know any of that when I got there, I was just like, "Hmm, you're in. They must know I'm psycho and wouldn't want you out getting rained on. Cool." I plopped him back in his stall when we were done (he happily munched hay and was chill after that).

I revisited our leg yields in this ride. I walked them all first, which actually turned out well. The first level zig zag- I really got a feel for how you have to be counterbent coming out of the turn to make it happen- when I did it right, he had an excellent steady leg yield right. It did peter out as we got closer to X, but it was a much steeper leg yield because I was doing it in a small ring, not standard. In trot, I revisited the leg yields from 1-2 and shallow loops from T-3 (since I haven't ridden a shallow loop in ages). I ended up working the leg yields from the quarterline to the wall in trot- Penn wasn't focusing well and I needed to make them easier.

I used the leg yields to get into canter, and then cantered whole laps around the ring. That didn't work out so well- he wanted to shoot across the ring when he caught sight of anything outside any arena door. I prepared for it as best I could the next time around the ring and he eventually did it less and less. I rode a couple shallow loops in canter, and then stuck him on a circle to do a bunch of trot/canter/trot transitions, most of which worked out really well. I'm so pleased that even when he's looky, I can still get him to hold himself up in the downward transitions. We did a quick stretchy trot to finish up and then I let him quit for the day.

So, maybe a second point to the girth? I donno. It's certainly NOT magic, but the looking isn't new. Being able to post the trot and adjust/correct him is new though. He also was iffy that morning when I did up the girth instead of outright offended.


Sunday 7/31

The goal of our ride today was to go outside, do long and low work, and be good. Check, check, check!

I rode him in the pelham, as Trainer suggested for our long and low day. Took him outside, hopped on, stuck him on the rail like we were in a pleasure class (note our outdoor doesn't have a wall of any kind, just an oval shape). I wanted to do long and low using the entire ring because we've been stuck on some variety of circle for the past month and haven't spent much time going straight, or doing simple things like mind numbing on the rail work. He kept jumping around, on and off the rail, and I kept having to put him back on it. He was a bit looky in walk, so I put him to work in trot to give him a little more to focus on.

I really thought about what my hands and legs were doing and saying. When long lining- I'd never pull my inside rein to circle or turn and keep my smothering hold on the outside rein. Why would I do that riding? I've had so many instructions over the years, "the inside rein turns you in" then "the inside rein does nothing" "the inside rein helps with bend" "turn from your outside aids" and so on. This has really caused me to positively SMOTHER the horse with my outside rein and to never give it in the slightest. Well, on a circle, you have to give the outside rein a little! The outside of the horse's body needs to get longer. Our outdoor has curved short sides- not flat sides like the indoor. So I pretended that the ends of my arena were large circles. Give the outside rein a hair, open the inside rein since he wants to stare outside. Well of course he fell in. Add some inside leg to a supportive, yet not a brick wall, outside rein. He happily stretched down, stayed on the rail, and focused. Whaaaa? The bend wasn't great, and I had to constantly remind him of it since he wants to look around, but I'd just remind him and he'd go, "Oh yea!"

I did a circle or two each direction in trot, changed rein across the diagonal for the new directions, then went off to canter left first. Same thing, don't smother with the outside rein, inside leg on to keep him from falling in. He cantered laps around the ring, did a large 35m circle, then I took him across the diagonal and tried to do a simple change to the right lead... that didn't work out so well since I'm pretty sure he was tired from all that canter (but he didn't fall into the trot like he used to). I didn't even ask for a simple change, instead I rebalanced the trot properly and asked for the right lead when we hit the rail at the end of the diagonal. Off to canter! The right lead is much better balanced than the left. He happily trucked along for a lap or two before I decided to bring him back to trot nicely, then to walk.

Long rein and quit for the day. He did about 15 min of work, but he did exactly what I wanted, and I behaved by not smothering him!

No point for the girth. I donno if the girth had any play in him being good, or if I just decided to help him out by trying to be a better rider.

End Thoughts:

The fairfax girth definitely sits better on Penn than his TSF girth. He seems to like it more- hooking up the girth isn't quite so offensive anymore. It's not even tightening the girth that's the problem- he's angry about it as I'm pulling it under his belly and before it reaches the billets. He isn't reaching around to bite the crossties now. If it does actually feel better, I'm sure it will take time (and a chiro adjustment- he was out in the sternum last time so I'm sure he's out there again) for him to learn it's not horrible. Or he may just be this way. So far, the girth is definitely not a magic solution. However, I've had some noticeable improvements: he's much more through and absolutely carried bigger gaits this past weekend. I was able to post the trot because he took direction well (maybe it was all the long lining we've been doing, maybe he's just getting better again, maybe it was him being more comfortable with the girth). I'll certainly keep using it! I'll be keeping it, if only because it does fit him better than the TSF girth and he's not quite so offended by it. Further review of the girth TBA.

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Tonight we have a shortened lesson because I mistakenly scheduled the farrier for a lesson night... so lesson at 6:30, farrier due in sometime after 7.

Tomorrow is going to be quite exciting, I found out about a Wednesday night obstacle trail practice at a local farm through Facebook, and one of our trail ladies is going! I asked if Penn and I could tag along, she said sure! I'm so excited to take Penn and to play with tarps, bridges, and pool noodles off property! I'm quite sure I will be the only english riding rider there, so it should be fun!

Long Lining Demo

Long lining: An excellent tool to have in your tool box.

I'm prefacing this whole thing with: I am not a trainer. My own trainer started Mikey on the lines for me, then handed him off about 20 min later after he had a good grasp of it and had run him through all of his paces. I long lined Mikey a TON before helping her start a very troublesome mare who definitely gave me a crash course in when to let go and how to read the horse for when shit is going to hit the fan (rearing, spinning, bolting). I believe someone else started Penn on long lining as he seemed very chill with the whole deal when I tried to start him. Mikey and Penn gave me good experience in the basics, the troublesome mare gave me troubleshooting experience for sure (she had ZERO self preservation instincts). PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, use your trainer to help you get started. If a trainer is not available and you still want to try, use a dead broke horse to get going and keep it simple! Horses seem to either react well to long lining, or they lose their shit and can seriously hurt themselves. This post is how I long line and is based on my experiences with two well behaved horses and one very very naughty mare.

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Several of you have expressed interest in learning to long line, but lament that there isn't a trainer to get you started (again, see above!). I took my helmet cam to the barn with me to show you how I do it.

Dressed to play! Also, matching!

You will need:

• A dead broke horse, or one that already knows how to drive or long line. Most horses that know how to ride and steer usually take well to it.
• A surcingle (a saddle will do, but I've never done it with one)
• Saddle pad of some kind (I like using a half pad and regular pad because surcingles just never seem to fit right).
• Two long lunge lines - I prefer these ones from Schneider's because they are all cotton, clip together if desired, and are the longest lines I could find at 24'.
• Snaffle bridle, sans reins.
• Horse leg protection (optional, but I recommend it)
• Gloves
• Helmet (optional, I don't wear one normally to long line, but would never judge if someone else wanted to!)
• Whip (optional, I prefer a very long dressage whip, almost driving whip length)
• A trainer (preferred) or willing victim friend to help get you started.

Too much on the forehand, but still an attractive picture.

Getting Started:

Before I took Mikey and Penn into the ring to get going, I rubbed them all over with the lines. Mikey was always funny about ropes/tapes running the length of his body (made measuring for blankets interesting). I didn't want either horse to panic about the lines touching them. I unrolled the lines and draped them all over and across as much of the horse as possible. No idea if either horse really needed this, but it made me feel better.

I use the bottom ring on the surcingle. Yes, your hands are near the top ring, but putting them through the bottom ring seems to keep the horse steadier. I want steady since Penn's problem is unsteady. I also hold the reins like I would regular reins, not in a driving hold.

The first time you long line, use a completely enclosed space. If you have an indoor, use that, and close all of the doors so there aren't any distractions for the horse (I didn't close them in my video because Penn has done this many times before). We started troublesome mare in a smaller flat field. Not ideal, but it was the best space available.

Stretching while I get my shit together and attempt to take pictures of him.

Hook up your lines while you have your friend hold your horse. Get behind the horse, far enough back so they can't kick you (a reason I like my 24' lines), and cluck and ask the horse to walk on while your friend leads the horse forward. Don't aggressively slap them on the sides with the lines- work up to using the lines as your leg. Have the friend lead the horse around for as long as it takes for the horse to become comfortable and understand going forward with a person behind them. I had my friend slowly walk away from Penn rather than stop and let him pass her by. It was a non-event for him though. He was mostly confused about why there was a person up there to begin with. If your friend has long lining experience and you've never done it, let your friend hold the lines and you walk by the horse's head. After the horse gets it, swap places.

Things to remember:

• This takes A LOT of coordination.
• Keep a good pace behind the horse. The horse shouldn't be pulling you along, but there shouldn't be excessive loop in the rein either. Keep a steady contact.
• The lines act as both hand and leg. Direct pulls act like your hand, taps/slaps against the horse's side act like your leg. I rarely use the the whip- mostly just to ask for canter while on the circle.
• Every cue you give will be amplified by the time it reaches the horse. Heavy in your left rein? You'll be dragging the left side of your horse's face into a wall. All the time. Small corrections with your hand may cause the horse to turn one direction or another when you're just trying to stay straight. Straight is excessively difficult.
• You will have to "ride" every step. "Constant vigilance!" as our favorite Auror says. If you use the right rein, you have to give the left by an equal amount. Everything is the same as if you were sitting on the horse.
• Hands together, just like you were riding. No pulling hands out to the side or splitting them up. You'd never steer with them 3-4' apart while on the horse, why would you do that here? Shorten your lines or encourage the horse to walk faster so you keep a steady contact. When turning, let the outside line slide and give instead of splitting up your hands (for small 90 degree turns I give my hand since it doesn't require much slide), then shorten the lines as appropriate as you straighten. This really helps you learn to keep your elbows at your sides and use your core to half halt.
• You can let the ends of the lines drag on the ground, or carry them in your hand. Starting out, let them run on the ground (and don't clip them if you got the ones I recommended). I usually only clip them once I'm on my circle, otherwise I'll hold them in my hand or let them drag. Let them drag for your first few times so you can easily change rein lengths as needed.
• REMEMBER TO ALLOW YOUR HORSE TO TURN! You will run him into a wall otherwise. Poor Mikey. The way the lines amplify your cues, the horse will not be able to turn to stop themselves from running into a wall. I made this mistake several times the first time I long lined Mikey. I had to haul on his mouth to get him to stop so I could organize myself so I could allow him to turn.
• Keep it simple and if either of you are getting fried, quit immediately. Don't mentally (or physically) exhaust the horse. It's easy to do on the lines because the horse can't lay on your hands or use you as a crutch. Penn never goes for longer than 20 min. That said, you can probably spend 30-40 min just walking behind the horse doing stupid basic steering figures so you can learn to steer all over again and stop drunk driving.

I recorded getting started with my helmet cam. I'm a bit further back than I usually am, mostly because I wasn't sure what it would look like in the video. You may have to turn up the volume- I couldn't get the video editor to turn it up. It was 93 degrees and muggy on Sunday when I recorded this, so bear with the puffing as I talk to you.

Things to do your first time long lining:

• Stick to the walk. You could spend an hour behind the horse practicing steering. And then spend another hour the next day practicing steering again. Repeat until you're not inadvertently driving drunk most of the time. Have fun running behind your horse for trot and canter. Try it at least once after you've got the basics down. I can't stay on my feet in sand, at the proper pace, and attempt to steer or work the horse correctly all at the same time, so I don't trot or canter off the circle unless it's to go straight for a couple strides to move down the ring.
• Walk basic figures: 10m teardrop reversals (like in the video), diagonals, centerlines, quarterlines, 20m squares. Pay attention to your geometry and the horse's projected track vs the desired track. Don't try leg yielding or shoulder in or anything fancy until you can steer.
• Pay attention to if you have a heavy hand (I bet you do). Is your horse's head always cocked one particular direction? I'm heavy in my left hand and outside hand.

On the circle:

You can see in the video that Penn's hindquarters are in for most of it. That's an issue I have because I'm way too heavy on my outside rein. I smother with it to try and get the turns to happen. I am not excellent at working on the circle. I can do enough to get Penn to balance and hold himself up. This is where you'll notice your horse's biggest weaknesses. Penn's canter was so unbalanced as of Jan/Feb this year that he couldn't hold himself up for more then a quarter of a circle on the lines. He'd fall and trip all over himself (that's how much I held him together). He can hold it well for about a circle now- I tend to bring him back to trot early to make a good transition happen.

Blooper reel: I asked for canter while attempting to take pictures and he didn't appreciate the stale hand. He took off and bucked. This was just before, I was so mad that my rapid fire missed it!

Pay attention to bend, circle size and shape, and walk with the horse. None of that standing still in the middle stuff. This is an active participation activity. Spiral in and out is a good exercise to do, and it takes a lot of coordination between shortening/lengthening the lines and giving correct instruction to the horse.

Better canter. Still a little zoomy and wanting to lean over the inside shoulder.

I mostly pay attention to keeping Penn as uphill as I can, and standing up and not leaning over his inside shoulder. You'll have to half halt and urge for forward and it will be like you're riding.

You can double lunge with the outside rein coming up over the spine, or behind the haunches. I like the feel that over the spine gives me, but behind the haunches encourages more stepping under. I have trouble with the outside line creeping up under the tail, especially in canter. I think this is because I'm too heavy in my outside rein.

I don't have as many tips for working on the circle, mostly because I'm still working that part out myself and I think it's very horse specific. I do know that I now despise working with a single lunge line and side reins. They feel stale and dead to me after having a feel of each side of the bit using double lines. Right now, I'm trying to encourage forward so Penn gets uphill, but it's a fine line between uphill and then running and being downhill. We're working on a strength issue right now, both on the lines and under saddle!

So proud of himself.

By the way, when I get pictures of him working on the lines, I usually hold them like the fillis hold on a double bridle. I feel like since if I use one, the other should give, this let's me have a small say in what's happening as I attempt pictures.

Troublesome Mare:

I debated with whether to include this section about the mare, however, I wanted to share my experience of when the shit hits the fan.

I wrote about the troublesome mare a while back. In fact, I worked with her on the day of Penn's PPE. She was having a problem with moving forward and Trainer wasn't comfortable sitting on her anymore, so she opted to swap to long lining to get the mare moving forward on her own. Trainer walked her forward for me, but as soon as she'd move away, the mare would violently react to my gentle tugs to steer:

• Rearing - I'd take the lines, and just like you would on a horse that's starting to rear while you're sitting on them, attempt to break the upward motion by pulling the head to one side. I would work her back and forth until the upward motion stopped, let her rest, then politely ask her to move forward again like nothing ever happened. Crude? Yes. Effective? Yes. The mare never got further off the ground than a few inches.
• Spinning - She'd spin and wrap the line around her neck 2 or 3 times. I removed all pressure from the situation and just try calming her with my voice. I'd unwrap her carefully, reset, and ask her to move forward again.
• Bolting - As terrible as it sounds, I simply let go of her after making an attempt to stop her. Getting dragged is NOT worth it. We'd catch her, then reset so she wouldn't learn that pulling away would make us go away. She'd gallop full tilt for laps around the field, and never once stepped on the lines, just FYI.

These were all responses to simple cues like pulling the right rein to turn right. No tapping with the line, nothing. Basically, the goal was to remove all pressure, let her decompress for a moment, then start again. After 20 min of this, she eventually gave in to walking and turning right and left, but we could see her wheels turning to try and figure out how to get out of it. Don't start with a horse like this one, use the most broke horse you can find.

Just like air conditioning?

I hope this answers anyone's questions about long lining and how I do it. Please please please, if you decide to give it a try, don't do it alone and use your brain about how much is too much, and quit if things are going wrong.

Nom nom, more zucchini please!
Who knew? Horses like zucchini. And Penn happily ate it. And he won't eat apples.