Pony Love

Time to catch up on some writing!

Let's see...

It was a gross sloppy week so lessons and riding were minimal. I did get to ride Bear and Greyson a couple of times. Bear is feeling frisky lately and his attention span has mysteriously disappeared...so we've taken a step back in his work...but a equestrians we all know that when working with something with a brain of it's own, sometimes we have to take a step or two back before making progress again. He's been a bit too forward again but he'll chill out again.

I do suspect that someone has tried to teach Bear flying lead changes far too early in his development, and it is really making it difficult to keep him calm, cool, straight and balanced in his canter. Whenever he gets fast and flat, and I half halt him, he gets rigid and starts flipping leads in back, then maybe in front, then in back again, etc. When I feel him get tight like he want to flip, I have to drive him forward a few steps and try to rebalance him again, but some days he just gets so tense and it's all I can do to just keep him on the correct lead. And this is a perfect example of why we don't want to rush a horse through their training. Training a horse is a gradual process that spans over years, building up muscle, balance, forwardness, connection, maturity...one tiny step at a time. If you skip steps, you get a Bear...too quick, too tense, mentally fried. Lucky for Bear, he's got a great head on his shoulders and isn't at the fried stage yet.

Greyson is such a trooper but oh so clueless about how to use his body. Surprisingly he has taken to ring work with a positive attitude...he just is clueless about what I want from him. I'm getting progress in his walk and trot at getting him up in front of me an reaching into the bit. He's also figuring out how to bend his body and step up under himself. The canter is where he's really stumped. That head and neck go straight up and he lumbers along, flat and quick, til he can't hold his canter anymore and breaks to trot. He likes to tilt his head inward and careen around on his inside shoulder. I keep him straight on the outside rein and ask for that inside hind to swing into it which is helping, but there's a ways to go. I really ought to lunge him so he can find his balance without a rider first. Maybe put him in a neck stretcher to make it really clear that he needs to relax over his back and at the poll. I bet some canter work straight up a hill would help too...he will have to stretch over his back to get up the hills.

I rode Evil again and attempted to introduce him to gridwork. I chose a really bad day for it...it was horribly windy, and he was very resistant and distracted. We spent plenty of time on polite transitions and suppling his trot before I started jumping. I set up a simple grid with three jumps at one stride distances with a trot pole coming in and groundpoles to guide him straight through the grid since he is still a bit wiggly. I set up the third jump first so he could get the idea, then added the second jump. We never made it to jump three. Evil needs a lot more work on stretching over his back as he will jump completely hollow at times, but he took the exercise pretty willingly. I'd like to free jump him a few times so he can figure it all out. He act like he has ten feet instead of four sometimes, and all of them are left feet!

Moose has been good. She was way too lazy yesterday but the temperature was a little warmer than usual, which seems to make her sleepy. Today she was right back to being hot. When I got on her and let her walk around, she was snorting...I felt like she was gearing up to rocket off. But she does ride so much better when she's hotter...she really pushes forward and reaches for my hand. But, she also becomes jumpy when she's hot.

We jumped today for the first time in a while. I have a small indoor to work in so I only set up two jumps, one on each diagonal with a placing pole in front of each. She was very scrambly with her feet but I'm trying to stay quiet and balanced and bring her to the jump and let her figure out her own feet. The jumps are awkward at times but I want a horse that learns from her own experimenting and experiences how to handle any jump...I don't want a horse that learns to be dependent on me to hold her hand to the jumps. That's when you get a horse that drags you into a jump, leans, rushes, and can't handle it if the rider can't be there to micromanage them to each jump. My horse needs to be able to navigate the jump efficiently, safely, and responsibly on her own. My job as the rider is to guide her an stu balanced and quiet, and let her do her job.

I had to put my jacket on one jump to get her to pick up her feet because she will try to jump too flat and take put the rails. The jacket worked great for a few jumps, then she realized it wasn't a threat and got careless again.

I think I need to be very careful about how I approach training Moose to jump, since she really lacks the natural talent for it! I think I will have to jump only once or twice a week, a few jumps per day. Every jump will have to be set up to encourage a very lofty round jump...so placing poles, different fillers, a frame poles, overs, etc, all of a decent height so she takes it seriously. Jump each only enough times to get a good, large jump effort, then be done well before she gets too comfortable and careless.

At shows, warm up over a cross rail a time or two. That's IT. When she gets tired or too comfortable is when she gets sloppy, so I won't let her get to that point.

We will see how it works out at the next show, but at the Wilson show a few months ago, she rocked her first 2'3" course, didn't touch a rail and gave me a smooth ride. I didn't practice much at home an warmed up minimally at the show.

I finally had two days of lessons this weekend. It was nice to see some of my students I haven't seen in a while. I can't wait til spring when w can all get back to some serious work! I'm especially excited because some of my students are specifically asking to work on dressage...I would die of happiness if I get a little posse of dressage queens together :) I think they will find just how much more there is to riding a horse and all the wonderful things that can be accomplished by taking flatwork seriously! It's an eyeopener for sure!

Bed time!