I spent the morning helping the farrier with our horses, then got some delicious soup at Mollys (I HIGHLY recommend their white chicken chili!) then rode some horses. I hopped on Bear for a quick bareback walk trot, I figure the more I can sit on these ponies an reinforce "the rules" the better...even if it is only for a few minutes.
Doc was next on my to do list today. He's a 6 year old OTTB bay gelding, off the track since spring. 15.2 hands with a substantial build...I certainly do not feel too big on him at all. He's build like a hunter, thinks like a hunter and moves like a hunter. Super level headed and pretty uncomplicated to ride. Put him in the gait and he stays there. Point him at a jump and he pops over it. I'm working on getting him more supple laterally and working down into the bit...as he keeps his neck stiff and straight and can get heavy in the hand if you let him. If you just want to go on a loose rein joy ride though, Doc's your man! He screams packer potential, maybe a foxhunter or kids hunter. And folks, he's for sale. And budget friendly, too :) Just look at this cutie!
Doc says "I want my own person!"
I want to get Doc started with gridwork soon to get him a little cattier off his feet and improve his jump style, I just need to wait for a day that I have a ground person to help (any volunteers???) He's trotting fences politely and will canter a fence politely too so he seems ready for it.
I also found out why he wasn't a good race horse...I took him out to the track and asked for the canter, and he had no interest in perking up and running...haha.
Next up was Evil. Evil is a coming 4 year old OTTB, off the track since spring. Very gangly with a ton of growing to do...he's currently all legs. Sweetest boy, goofy and mischievous and soooo adorable. He's just working on staying straight an keeping a steady calm tempo. It's hard to expect much from him right now since he's at such an awkward stage of development, but he's starting to carry himself on his hind end more now. He's a tricky one to ride right...his current stage of growth makes him all legs, no neck and so narrow, so he wants to suck his neck in like a turtle and stay straight in his body an lean on the turns. He also reaches out too far with his front legs and not enough with the hind, so I have to ride his withers up AND get him to pick up and put his front feet down a bit faster AND try to invite him to reach out for my hand. He's actually starting to get it, today we had a really lovely ride. He seems to be getting more comfortable in his work as he's not fussing with the bit and twisting his head like he was when I first started with him in September. He has a great canter too.
He's a bit of a clutz over jumps right now and throws each leg over haphazardly and clunks rails. Today I set the jumps up higher an used placing poles in front of a few and rode him really forward and up into them and...well...he can jump! He launched over them...but he really pushes his shoulders up into the air but tries to look at the jump at the same time as it passes under him...it's really funny...
He started to jump them normally toward the end. I guess he just needed a few bigger jumps so he would take them seriously, and so its very clear that he is supposed to JUMP them. I'd like to get him and his rider, Hope, started over some simple grids soon so Evil can start to figure his feet out.
Baby horses are so frustrating. I WANT to get Evil over some good sized grids and start on coursework, but he's only 3 and still growing so for now I have to keep the jumping minimal, just enough to let him start to learn where his feet belong. I have trouble being patient while they grow up! Same with Moose. I'm tempted to pop the jumps up, but she's only four and clearly still having growth spurts. *sigh*
I went over to see Moose and clipped her AGAIN. At least she's a doll for clipping. That was my worst clip job ever. I'm usually very anal about lines and perfection, but I've had to clip Moose four times this winter, so I don't care about the perfect clip anymore! Just get the hair off!
I switched to a regular caveson today. At first she actually shook her head and threw it side to side when I picked up the reins. What the heck? But then she seemed to realize that it was just a normal noseband and all of a sudden...voila! She was reaching for my hand, staying steady and powering forward! 10 meter trot circles? No biggie. Lengthen stride? No prob. Relaxed transitions? Absolutely. Huh. I can't flippin' believe that a simple noseband switch made that much difference. I really do think she thought she couldn't move her mouth with the drop. Weirdo. Hopefully today wasn't a fluke.
I let Moose loose in the ring after my ride to try to get some pics of my clip job (actually I just wanted pics of my purdy pony!)
Too bad it was so dim in the barn :( That is a classic Moose expression! Very "meh". Then I tried to convince Moose to trot around a bit so I could see how pretty she is. Below you can see what she thought of me...
Someone has some major pent up energy! I'm very very glad that my pony seems to like me and doesn't buck like that with me on, because there is NO WAY I could sit one of those bucks.
I also really concentrated on my body today for all of my rides. I have ALWAYS had trouble riding off the right rein. I just can't turn my horses left (Zoolander and I can form a club). Well, I can't turn them left correctly...I can turn left. It's just not pretty. I found that I leave my right hip behind and too far dropped down and my left hip and thigh block the shoulder from coming around. I also find that whenever I use my right leg (bad ankle leg) I draw it back a bit, which also explains why my horses sometimes fall in tracking right and I sometimes feel pitched forward. I also still fuss a bit too much with my arms and hands, a result, I am sure, of my mismatched hips. So I just focused on stacking my spine up straight, keeping my elbows at my sides and went back to the good ol' "hold the tray" visual for my hands, and made sure my right leg didn't swing and my right side didn't get left behind. And lo and behold my horses turn left.
I think one of the most valuable lessons I have learned when it comes to riding horses is that your horse reflects your body. If your horse isn't doing something you want it's because you haven't asked them to correctly or clearly enough yet...so it's the riders responsibility to think it through and find the kink in communication. There are exceptions of course...the spoiled horse, a retraining project, or maybe just an off day can kink communication even if you are asking all the right things...but more horses I get under my belt, and I've ridden my fair share of all sorts of different horses with different histories and different personalities...the more sure I am about the rider being at fault the majority of the time. Even on a problem horse, I may not induce any miracles in one or even a dozen rides, but I can always make a baby step toward progress each ride if I'm patient and think about what I want from the horse and how to ask for it with my body.
So students, if you're reading...if your ride is going crummy, the worst thing you can possibly do is get frustrated and upset with your horse. Stop. Breathe. Reflect. What is happening? What do you want? How can you better communicate that to your horse? Remember, you're riding a 1200 lb animal. If you think you are going to get somewhere getting angry and bullying them...um...think again. You are aiming for a partnership here, your horse is already trying to understand and work with you, so take a second to try to understand and work with your horse!
Lesson with Micheal tomorrow...goodnight!
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