I tried to schedule my lesson with Michael for a day it would be raining, so that I wouldn't miss out on a day of nice weather to ride and teach at Knights Landing. But alas, the weather men have been so very off the mark this winter, so today was actually very nice out. It actually made me not want to go to my lesson so I could ride all the project horses and ponies, but I really need to keep taking lessons so I can rock it in the show ring this year. And I think it's important that I keep learning so that I can keep bringing fresh ideas to the table when I teach my own students.
I did manage to ride Eagle and Doc before I had to pick up Moose and head down to Hilltop. Eagle is another of our young OTTB project horses. He's been taking it easy this winter...his brain needs some time to reset...any horse person should know what I mean when I say that! He's really athletic and very alert but easily distractable if you don't keep him on his toes. He seems to do a lot better when he's in very consistent, 4 days a week bare minimum work. And with the weather and ring conditions being sporadically favorable, I can't keep him in that type of work right now. But we had someone interested in looking at him this weekend, so I had to get on and see what I had.
He was exactly how I expected...much too fresh from the time off. I could barely convince him to just walk, so I lunged him a while instead and worked him til he calmed down and focused, then put him away.
Doc was a little grouchy-faced today, but I think he just puts on a show. He never lashes out or bites. I think he's just so laid back that he just wants you to ride him and put him away. He works great undersaddle, no protests or grumpy faces. He just does it in the cross ties pre ride. He likes to fall asleep in the cross ties, perhaps he just doesn't like to be awakened by the tacking up process!
We just worked on walk, trot and canter...continuing to try to teach him to carry himself and go softly into my hand. He still likes to stay too stiff laterally and doesn't like to flex at the poll. Today he seemed to start to understand though and we had some nice, light, well balanced trot moments. Canter needs some work but its easy to work with because he keeps a nice steady rhythm. I think I can only expect so much of Doc as far as how supple I can get him...if you look at his jaw it is quite large, and I think he physically cannot comfortably flex at the poll if I'm riding him in a shorter frame. But since he's built like a hunter, moves like a hunter, and thinks like a hunter...this won't cause any issues. I don't expect him to be a dressage horse. He can work in a longer, lower outline.
After Doc I hooked up the trailer and headed over to pick up Moose, who looked fresh as can be out in her paddock when I pulled in. She's starting to become very snorty. Snort at the clippers. Snort at her blanket. Snort at the mounting block. So today she snorted at everything and walked with a very arched neck and suspicious step. Oh geez. I think winter bores and annoys the tar out of her.
She snorted her way onto the trailer and we headed out. My stupid Garmin took me on some weird back roads to get to Hilltop so our trip was closer to an hour but we got there. She snorted her way off the trailer too. What a goof.
We also snorted our way into the arena.
I was really interested to see if my ride yesterday in the regular noseband was just a fluke. I quickly found that it was not a fluke at all. The ninny really thought she couldn't move forward with a drop noseband on. She wore that thing for two months and never got used to it. Lesson learned: Moose can't stand anything but a regular noseband. Luckily, the drop did get its point across, as she no longer is trying to gape her mouth in response to feeling contact. So I guess some good came out of it all.
But good gracious. For the past couple of months I just couldn't get her to think forward...she'd move forward for a bit then back off and fuss...or move forward and fuss in my hand. Now she's like "I CAN MOVE NOW... OUTTA MY WAY!!!" She is reaching a little TOO hard into my hand and POWERING forward...even though it's a little too much, I'm glad she's finally focusing on the most important thing while riding...forwardness. So now I feel like we can really buckle down and get to work.
Our lesson turned out to be fantastic. We got some really great trot work where I could feel her back really come up underneath me and she too a good steady contact. I was having some trouble getting her to focus on my seat though, since she was too busy celebrating the fact that she could move forward now.
Since she's finally forward and working into my hand we could work on a few new things. We warmed up with shallow serpentines as usual to get her supple and some transitions to try to get her to focus back on me and not so much on pounding herself as forward as possible. Then we worked on her canter a bit again, since I need to work on getting her up in front of me a little more. She had much snappier transitions today, but in her good direction she nearly took off bucking with me! I really do think she's had enough of being in an indoor ring and having to take it easy in her paddock because it's frozen and wearing itchy blankets and whatever else makes her fussy. Last time we saw Micheal I could barely wake her up...and this time I felt like I was riding an even more powerful version of my old horse, Hyde! Those of you that knew him know what I mean...he was always breathing fire when I worked with him. I'll have to do a blog post introducing the horses I have had to those of you that don't know each of them.
I did managed to get her back in hand...after about a full lap around the arena...geez. But then after our warm up we introduced two new things for Moose: the stretchy trot circle and the sitting trot. It's been years since I've been able to practice anything more than walk, trot and canter. I've been riding mostly greenies, spoiled, or young horses since college. So it feels FAN-FLIPPIN-TASTIC to be moving forward in my work again. I am so excited to make some progress.
The stretch circles were okay, I just need to remember not to let myself creep forward in my upper body when I feed out my reins and to put my leg on a bit to encourage her to follow my reins out and down. She did fairly well, but was a little worse on her right side, surprisingly. She got stuck after I fed out about an inch of rein and didn't want to follow further, so Micheal had me hold the inside rein and support with the inside leg a few steps, then relax to try to get her to find the contact. It worked well but I can't get her to follow as far as to the left.
It felt amazing to start to work on my sitting trot again. I used to have a mean sitting trot. It got the point where I hated posting because I could sit the trot all day and I felt more relaxed and effective when I was sitting the trot. And my horses went way better when I sat. But my hips have become tight from lack of practice, plus Moose has way more movement than anything else I'm riding right now. I felt jarred around at first and Moose wasn't happy about it either. I asked Michael to refresh my memory on how my hips should be moving. He reminded me that they should be swinging like a pendulum up and forward with each step, and to stabilize my core. After a few minutes we were able to get into a groove and Moose began to swing along and relax again, and I could feel her back rise up underneath me again which was an amazing feeling. My little quirky mare has a ton more power in her than she tries to make me think.
After we got back home I asked the barn manager where she keeps her jumps. Moose needs to jump. She's bored and she is terrible at jumping so she needs to keep practicing! Tomorrow or Friday I'll set a couple up and let her have a little fun. I'd really like to take her to Swan Lake for one of their winter series Jumper shows in February just to get her out and to let her see some more jumps. Maybe a Blue Goose dressage show too, if she continues to progress like she is now.
Off to wash off a days worth of stinkiness :)
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