Friday, October 31, 2014

Two Cat Night

Last night the cats were simply pathetic looking and wanting to snuggle, so my husband and I let them sleep in bed with us. Normally this is a big no-no because I am somewhat allergic to cats (I've been able to take it down a notch using a herbal allergy medicine- "Bio Allers Pet Dander" or something like that, if you want to know more, ask). But last night, Penny snuck into bed with me, then Nickels wanted to be in front of the space heater (it was in the 30's last night), and well, we don't really deny him anything. He's sickly and cold all the time and just wants to be warm. I'm tempted to make him a fleece lined sweater. My husband tried putting him out in the hall, and Nickels just looked at him like, "why can't I come in?" and then marched right between his legs to go sit by the heater.

I actually slept through the night, which was great, and woke up to find Nickels nestled against my stomach and Penny between the comforter and sheet nestled in behind my knees. I was cold when I went to bed, but add two snuggling cats and I was quite warm! And of course they've learned if they don't want to be kicked or pushed in the night, come sleep by me, because I will never disturb them.

No pics today, sorry!

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Remembering Freely Forward

Mikey has been extra lazy on his right hind leg. It's always been so, but the past couple days it's been worse.

I hurried out to the barn yesterday to ride before the rain came though (it never did) and before it got dark (it did). Ha. Anyway, days like that I will work Mikey straight through as much time as I can get before having to go back to the barn. Sometimes it's 20 min, sometimes 40. I got about 30 min in yesterday.

I remembered from my lesson that I had used my forgotten whip to help get jump in the canter. I used the same idea on the right hand side of my horse in the trot yesterday. He was really leaning on my right leg, and not bending well. I remembered the more forward from lesson, and the forward lesson I gave to my friend's horse a week ago, and decided to time a tap with the whip with the step of the right hind. Any time I lost the freely forward in the trot, or her leaned in the corners, tap, and he straightened right up and moved out.

I had been struggling with connection yesterday as well. I try not to ride in his double too much because I find when I go back to his micklem and snaffle he doesn't always connect well. He's lazy, his trot is hard to sit, and combine the two and I'm exhausted just maintaining what he's doing so I sometimes forget that I carry a whip all the time for a reason, to use it in times like these! The tap tap with the whip found the extra energy I needed, and he connected right up in trot.

After that we worked on maintaining the softness and connection in shoulder-in to half pass, and shoulder-in to haunches-out. I stuck with simple stuff that we can get right quickly since I didn't want to open a can of worms and run out of daylight (ie flying changes are for the weekend).

We had a lovey stretchy trot to finish, then I walked him back to the barn.

And how did I reward a good job? I pulled his mane.

Sorry Mikey!

"Mom!!!"

Neat and tidy again. I shaved his bridle path, whiskers, and "goat hair" (the hair under the jaw) too.
He got treats before and after. Yesterday was a good day to do it because it was 79 degrees, he had just worked, and so theoretically it should be easier to pull out. He also needed to dry a little, he was sweaty!

I plan on riding him the same way tonight and possibly tomorrow, then he's on vacation Friday and moving to our new barn Saturday!

And now in honor of National Cat Day, an amusing picture of Penny from last night for you to take with you on your travels:

"Whacha doing?"

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Quiet Sunset Walk

Last night I took Mikey out for a quiet walk around the fields. If you mosey, it takes about 15-20 min. There were no rules tonight except walk/mosey on the buckle. I always trail ride/walk him in his cross country gear... one so it sees use, two just in case he does his spook and spin and gets stupid.
 
No rules and a lazy day also translated into me unhooking the cross ties and taking off his halter when it came time to put his breastplate on, and never reattaching anything while I got his girth on and put on my tall boots and helmet. I just popped his bridle on after I was ready. He's such a good boy, he knows to stay in the isle and wait for me.
 
He was so thrilled to do yet more work. When we didn't turn to the outdoor he perked right up!

Staring off at the horses that were out on the hill.
Ed is 18 hands of naughty!


I didn't cross tie him fully after we got back. So he checked his feed bin for leftover dinner. Don't ask what's up with that hind foot. He had it out behind him as he stretched to his bin, then decided to relax it.

He's lost a little weight since growing his winter hair... and topline because I just haven't been working him as hard in Sept/Oct as I did all summer. And he's got withers, that's for sure. He's not a real pleasure to ride bareback.

And I let him get away with the cross tie shenanigans because when he is hooked to both, he stays there and doesn't move a muscle. When he's not hooked to both, he doesn't try to go in the open stalls or leave, he just stands to the side and looks in his feed bin. Majority of the horses in our barn either ground tie or are taught to stand in the cross ties without moving until we take them out. When I take him places, everyone complements me on his excellent manners and how he just waits patiently for me to come back. Anyway, last night was rule free and he enjoyed it!

Monday, October 27, 2014

More Flying Changes and a Haircut

I had a lesson Sunday morning since it's the last one I'll have before I take Mikey for the winter, and since it's on a weekend, we wouldn't be on a time constraint. I wanted another lesson to work on the changes. He's been good, but I wanted to make sure I was on the right track.

Basically what we came up with was he's too quiet and not connected enough. Quiet was good when he was nervous and bolting to the poles and jumping around the arena. We failed a bunch of times on the good one til I got more forward, and then my trainer asked to sit on him when I tried the other way and just never got an answer from him.

She asked for a lot more forward, and used more of everything except her seat to hold him together- he shuts down on the changes if we use too much seat right now, but he splits the front and back end and disconnects right before and into the change. Essentially, we're going to hold him together when he wants to split, and carry much more impulsion and jump in the canter. Eventually we'll add seat back so we can ask from the seat, but right now he's so iffy on giving anything that we're going with a lighter seat and a little more of everything else, only if he goes to split.

And keep the straightness before the change. Very straight or bust.

I sat on him again after she did, what a difference! The hop and jump were there, and he was there, so when he went to split or rush, it was easy to hold him together and force him to do the change actively and correctly. Basically, quiet is good, but he needs to be jazzed up a little and up and connected. I need to play the fine line of being nice to him because he's learning, and forcing him to remember what he's supposed to be doing.

And I'm excited that we either get the clean change, or nothing at all. Yes, it's an all or nothing, but that means when I get it right, he gets it right, and when I'm wrong so is he. Fixing the late behind is harder to do I think.
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I also think I'm going to go back to 2nd after getting my bronze. I'll ride 2nd 3 and 3rd 3, or whatever they decide on for the new tests. Centerline scores is implementing a new rider rating system, detailed here. I'd like a 3* rating eventually, and to get that I need to go back and get 7 more points at 2nd level. I don't mind hanging out at 3rd and getting those scores. I will put my medals above the rider rating though, I don't have much time left with Mikey to get to PSG, and I'm not a professional so the rider rating doesn't do much for me.
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I did clip Mikey on Sunday before my lesson as it's going to be 70 and 77 today and tomorrow, and I knew he would be too sweaty after my lesson yesterday to clip him. Right now he has what we're calling a "blanket clip" where I full body clipped him everywhere under his blanket. So he has all his neck hair still and looks slightly ridiculous, but it's better than that shaggy horse.

Shaved pony. I'll shave his neck later this week when I get his blankets. I'll clean up the edges at that time too. And pull his mane, trim his bridle path and ears and whiskers. Basically make him show worthy!

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Quiet Saturday... and a Creepy Evening

So this post is about the last 24 hours.

I rode Friday night, and realized Mikey needs his winter hair cut. He's disgusting looking. This was from about 20 min of work. He also needs a mane pull.

Sweaty, hairy mess. I hate that he looks like a backyard pony instead of a nice dressage horse.
I got up early Saturday morning to head out and ride during the day when it won't get dark on me. That was very exciting! We had such a great ride. He was feeling lazy in the trot so I skipped right to our canter work. When he's feeling especially lazy or quiet, trot just doesn't do anything for him. We worked on our flying changes today since I had the daylight to work on them until I was happy with where we quit. We are still using poles, but they are on the short diagonals near X instead of on the rail like the German Riding Master had them. This is because while Mikey respects the boundaries of the dressage arena wall, sometimes he gets a head of steam going into the changes and I don't want to accidentally jump out of the arena because he misread the pole question. I came to the follow conclusions:

To get the left to right change:
  • Forward canter
  • Straight and through
  • Softer hands than usual and allow the head and neck a bit lower than desired
  • Very clear seat bone and leg changes
To get the right to left change:
  • More forward canter than the other direction
  • Extremely straight and very through
  • Extraordinarily light contact, allowing the head and neck to become much lower than desired in almost a stretchy canter
  • Lighter seat than desired while still trying to be clear with the seat bones and leg, but not leaning forward so much that I put too much weight over his shoulder and thereby discourage the change.
The right to left change is much harder for him. He has more trouble with the left hind when it comes to all things dressage, it's just a weaker leg so I'm trying to make it easy for him while he learns how to change his body.

The L2R changes were all very good today until I botched the forward or straight requirement. The R2L changes failed unless I was very straight, very through, very soft. That's the harder direction for my hips, so that's not helping Mikey either. I got 3 or 4 good ones L2R, so I left those alone and worked the R2L until I got 2 good ones in a row (we were pushing 45-50 min by then).

This is where I do my dressage. The jump field surrounds the arena. It has a lot of stadium jumps and a handful of XC.
Meandering around the jump field.
Mikey was a disgusting mess when we were done again. I talked to my trainer about clipping him now and using an old blanket to keep him warm until his are back from wash/repair/waterproof. We decided he'll be fine with the extra medium weight I have in addition to his sheet and rambo fleece cooler. I contacted the blanket lady, she'll have them for me by next weekend, so only a week or so. I am still going to clip him now because Monday and Tuesday will be in the 70s and he'll be way too warm and I'll be working him and I don't want to be at the barn til 9pm drying him.

Licking the gate after eating his treats. I don't know why, he always licks metal or wood after eating any kind of treat. I like this field the best, it has lots of tree cover by the gate, but opens up to a couple acres of grass.
Close up of the previous pic. See? Licking away.
I spent the afternoon at the bank dealing with an account that should have been closed and got overdrawn when I paid my Macy's bill. First time I've ever overdrawn an account :( I didn't realize I didn't put my new account into my Macy's online bill pay, so my bank name popped up and I was like, yes, that account please. Only there's no money in it cause it was closing! Afterwards I picked up cat food for Nickels, had lunch with my mom, and walked in the park with Mom and her dog.

My husband lit a fire tonight, first one of the winter season!

Nickels warming his butt.
Penny laying on top of the cat tree in our front window.
So before the fire, my husband was on his way back from doing car stuff with my dad in OH. So I was home alone, and I had the front curtains cracked open for the cats in our 9' b 6' picture window, porch light on, tv on, and I feel asleep on the couch. I'd been hearing things all night, but around 8:30pm someone came to the door, rang the doorbell and woke me up, and then wasn't at the door when I looked through the peephole. Way to creep me the hell out. Not cool. I found an axe and put it near the door. I was on high alert already from the banging outside (I figured it was the wind), but the doorbell ditch put me over the top. All I could think was they watched me sleep through the crack in the curtains then rang the bell so I knew someone was watching me. Come ring my doorbell again, I'll answer with an axe in my hand. Best I can do on short notice. We're going to get some motion night cameras and put them outside and hook them up to a DVR or something so it records when anything happens outside.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

The Importance of "Freely Forward"... or even just forward!

Not a whole lot going on. The weather is finally breaking and I'll be able to ride almost every day before Mikey moves to his new barn.

I went to visit my friend that owns Mikey's new barn on Tuesday, and saw her ride her horse (swedish warmblood) and I got to have a sit on him. He's a neat horse and a very, very safe horse. He's never going to be naughty in a way that makes his rider nervous, and he's in general lazy. He's going to make you work for every step.

He also is a horse that never had a forward button installed. He knows how to canter pirouette and piaffe and is offended by your seat. I used my seat to ask for shoulder-in in walk which was fine, but I asked for it in trot and he piaffed away. To the point where I couldn't get him to stop. No rein contact, leg on, clucking, kicking, whip, he just piaffed more. I quickly found that when you don't hold him together (aka hold his face) and try to ride him properly from your seat and leg he becomes quite offended and quits on you by either piaffing (if you're in walk or trot) or starting canter pirouettes. It's not his mother's fault he needs held together, she said his old owner put him in a double to help get the frame and tuck his nose in. Basically fake it til you make it.

He and I went at it for a little while, meaning I skipped to canter to get more forward and as soon as I added leg and seat to push him to continue cantering when he tried to quit he switched to cantering in place and hopping back and forth. I eventually settled on the thinking, "Fine, if you don't want to go forward my way, you'll slow down/go backwards my way." It only took 3 cycles of this, where he would quit cantering for one reason or another (I kept little to no contact on his face so he had no excuses, and I kept my seat almost electric to keep the forward- Mikey would have been in the next county), and as soon as he'd break or hop or anything, I'd force him to stop all motion immediately and back up. This is not my favorite method because naughty horses tend to think about rearing or doing something else naughty, but he was none too pleased at my insistence. Three back ups later, I had a very through, connected, round horse who continued to canter until I said otherwise.

I tried to go back to a little shoulder-in in trot so his mom could understand how to ride it better by watching how I asked, but we went back to that same piaffe stuff. I ended up taking a very light steady contact, the same as I would on a green thoroughbred who just needed to practice searching for the bit and accepting the light contact, and then electric-seating him until I got my forward. He's not very quick to make the change to piaffe, so any time he'd think about switching, I'd take my outside rein and pull his nose towards the arena wall to break his thought process. He'd change from evading to saving himself from running into the kickboards and then end up going forward like I wanted him to (he was in no danger of hitting the walls or scraping his face on them, I promise. I'm not a sadist.). I maintained that forward to the bit feeling, and about 5-10 min later of constant support he finally switched from halfway connected to fully connected and light in my hand.

As soon as he softened a little, I would soften a little. He softened all the way, he got rewarded with posting trot. He lost connection, back to sit trot. We did a little more of this, then I gave him back to his mom.

She got on him and said "Wow! His back is up!" and then I coached her to getting that same forward trot (she stuck out the sitting trot like a champ!), on the soft rein (she's good at light contact- she never liked holding him together as it was not correct), and through. I had her focus for forward and straight. Keeping herself straight, him straight (we sacrificed bend, but once he has forward back consistently it'll be fine), and her hands on both sides of the neck and when she used one to use it from the elbow with the soft wrist. Once she got him through and soft, she practiced switching between posting and sitting trot following the same rule I set. I then had her change directions on the diagonal, and if he broke the connection at all, 20m circle back around and try again, coming out of the corner forward and straight. I told her don't give him an inch, because he's not going to give you an inch! He has to give first. She was fabulous! I also told her I wouldn't work on anything lateral until he answers the forward question off the seat. You have to be able to get out of the lateral movement promptly if he shuts down, and right now you'd end up in piaffe.

Afterward she said she had stopped working him from the seat because it had pissed him off so badly, and that I'm not the first one to say "more forward!" The big wig trainer that her trainer goes to see and another not quite local trainer had also said that she needs to find more forward, and you can never go wrong with more forward. Her boy just needs a week's worth of very forward, no nonsense rides and he'll be done with the shut down stuff. He's not bad, he just knows what he can get away with! She said she likes consistent lessons and supervised work, so she'll see her trainer once a week and then I'll teach her two lessons a week while I'm there. We're very excited for a good working winter!

Here is a horse graphic because I don't have any new horse pictures.

And I am totally stoked that I got to ride a piaffe, even if I didn't mean to! He's a super neat horse that likes doing the dressage "tricks" and after we get this forward thing worked out, I'm going to ride him a few times to practice flying changes simply because if I am even halfway right he'll give me the change. That way I get confident and quiet about them, and I can take that back to Mikey.

But here is my little sickly cat in our front yard with his scarecrow army:

Monday, October 20, 2014

On the Road to the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** 3 Day Event!

I forgot something else I wanted to share yesterday!

I work with a 3* event rider instead of a straight dressage trainer. I like it that way. I go visit straight dressage people every now and then, but I love working with my event trainer. She's near the top of her sport and isn't afraid to tackle something she doesn't need to do on her own horse in competition (ie canter pirouettes or tempi changes or piaffe/passage), and she's a smart rider who can figure out how to ask for things she's never done and know if the answer is right or not. That's why I stick with her, she develops independent thinking riders. She got me out of my need for hand holding that was holding me back.

Anyway, she went to Fair Hill's CCI 3* this past weekend to get the last qualifying score she needed for Rolex, and she got it!


Road trip to Kentucky for Rolex 2015!!!