Well, it's been raining for four days straight...

Hence my inability to get out to the barn. The road is underwater and Mrs. Karen has to use her humongous truck to keep from getting stuck.

Anyways, I have some footage of my front yard from about an hour ago. The water's even higher now. It's supposed to rain like this for another week or so... ugh.

The little wood thing poking out of one of the pictures is a ruler. And yes, the white thing is a pool floaty.

OT- Best Icon Ever!!!

Light schooling and schlepping around the barn. I love my horse.

Today, I really didn't feel like riding, but I figured neither of us are ever going to get any better without some effort. Spent a good thirty minutes fussing over him and tacking up- he's finally putting on some weight, and his coat looks really good from all the corn oil he gets. Did some "carrot stretches," worked on massaging the knot on his neck a little more, went through my bag of treats trying to figure out what flavor he likes best. The usual. He's really soaking up all the attention- totally an in-your-pocket horse.

Went out to the ring and worked on being on the bit. He's definitely more comfortable now that his teeth are floated-didn't cross his jaw at all today and I even took my cavesson off. He's not a huge fan of any sort of impulsion and was really behind my leg at first, but after a while I got him to wake up and got a nice, schwung-y trot, per one of my favorite sites, Sustainable Dressage.

(http://www.sustainabledressage.com/rollkur/work_stretch.php)

We alternated between a working frame (for his level of muscle tone- basically, attempting to get him to accept contact, lift his neck, and bring his face a few degrees in front of the vertical w/hock engagement, of course)and a long and low stretch. We'd walk briskly for a few strides with correct attitude and then we'd stretch down. Moved up to trot- we'd trot around the arena twice with correct head and neck positioning and then we'd do long and low for another lap.

No cantering today. I want to fix my brakes before I start moving up to a faster pace. We did a lot of up-down transitions and he's doing better, but I'm trying to teach him to stop off my seat so that we can use rein aids as a last resort. I want the progression to be
1. Restrict with seat.
2. Half-halt.
3. Say "whoah"
4. Fixed rein.
5. Absolute last resort- cavalry stop.

That way, he'll have fair warning and several opportunities to listen up before I start demanding a response. The cavalry stop is basically if he runs through my aids repeatedly and we are in danger of getting out of control. I'm not anticipating needing it, but it's good to know.

Unrelated..

I've spent too much time on the FailBlog.

see more pwn and owned pictures


see more pwn and owned pictures

Funny how this always seems to happen.

Intermediate jumpers group lesson, day 1:
Berky and I end up in "time out" on the rail. For twenty minutes. Practicing flexion.... at the walk.

How did this come about? Oh, the wonders of a.) no brakes b.) no calf strength and c.) no concentration. My tall boots died on me, and I never realized just how un-grippy my lower leg is until I was cantering around the ring on the wrong lead with a frantic instructor yelling, "Turn him into the fence!"

Argh. Losing headway is so much fun. Berky got over-excited when we were cantering, and he really bored into the bit and ran. The other riders had to come off the rail while I tried to slow him down. It was not fun. The bulk of our lesson consisted of the other girls playing "Add a Fence" and me attempting to round him up onto the bit. He has a huge knot on his neck that appeared over night, evidently, and no topline muscle at all, but Allanah (trainer) is mad about being on the vertical, so.....yeah.

Eventually, he got the idea and would round up without much asking. That was pretty nice. By that time, however, Allanah wanted to hop on him. Poor Berky. He was a bit of a snot and she nearly backed him into the ground. He did eventually give in to her, but the process was not pretty.

The result?
Allanah: So he's yours now?
Me: Uh, yeah.
Allanah: Oh... well, he's a handful..
Me: *thinks* Excellent. Funny how I always pick the spazzy ones.
Allanah: What are you riding him in?
Me: A single-jointed smooth mouthpieced eggbutt.
Allanah: Not anymore you aren't. (Goes to car to get scary corkscrew snaffle of doom)
Do you have a martingale?
Me: Yeah. A running one....and a breastplate that doesn't fit.
Allanah. Hmm. Well, I think we'll be doing private lessons from now on, ok?
Me:*thinks* Aw, jeez.

Tara: *jumps in* Well, if you need help, I'll be out tomorrow.
Me: Uh, yeah, thanks. I may.

So I have my fingers crossed that he won't be a total maniac once he puts on more weight. If so, well, we're going to work through it, I guess. Argh. I'm stressing out now. By the way, the dentist was out. Found three hooks, an impacted tooth, and a broken tooth. He gets antibiotics from now on.

Is this justified? It really sucks having so little confidence, honestly. I'm not going to sell him unless I have to. Call it sentimentality, but I am so sick of shopping. He's spound, he's talented, and if he's crazy, we're going to work through it, dammit. *Tries to bolster own self-confidence*

Anyways, he walked down the runway to greet me today and stuck his head in the halter by himself. At least I'm doing something right, (I hope.)

My equitation has suffered

Oooh yeah. Intermediate group lessons with Allanah start Tuesday, evidently not a day too soon. Berky and I were going to do some grids today, so we were just cantering, lalala, all peaceful like, and then I thought, "Ok, we need to half-halt. We're getting strung out." No. Brakes. WTF? He's usually so good!
Ergh.

So after six or seven strides of "te-rrot" accompanied by half-halts, we shifted down a gear, trotted a 20 m circle, and tried again. No better. Oh, I was aggravated. Repeat this seven or eight times, and he finally got the message. Oh, and my parents were taking photos, most of which featured me with a collapsed inside hip and wonky facial expression and Berk waaay out in orbit above the bit. Excellent.

So we have a 21" crossrail set up that I was going to trot and canter over. Something tiny to build up my confidence and that wouldn't stress him out too much. Well, he's plenty scopy, is all I can say about that. The first time, we took it from a fuddy-duddy working trot, and he few over it. Second time, I tried to ride him to a little bit deeper place. He took a HUGE long spot, I got left behind, and we cantered off. Great. Last time around, I try to just let him take the striding and get into two-point six or seven strides out. Just let him figure it out and keep me off his back, right?

So the problem with a horse that usually shows 3'9, especially when their being ridden by a greenie with confidence issues, is that they evidently jump everything like it's 3'9, i.e. with their knees to their eyeballs and a good two feet of clearance at least. Or at least Berkshire did today. The last attempt was by far the worst. Somehow, I still managed to get caught by surprise, he frikking LAUNCHED,and I literally ended up cantering around on his neck. He was unphased. My dad was yelling, "Heels down! Sit up!" which was really ironic, considering I had my arms wrapped around his neck and had no contact with the saddle whatsoever.

Both of us survived, somehow, and when I finally stopped him and got off, he gave me this look like, "What's the matter? We were just starting to have fun." Well,at least he's tolerant....

We ended up putting a halter on him, setting up an impromptu jumping chute with the offending crossrail, and longeing him over it until he got the idea that, "Hey, this thing isn't as big as I thought it was. I can get away with...less! than my biggest effort." One of the few times I was ever pleased when a horse got lazy.

Anyways, lessons will be sooo helpful. Embarassing, because most of the group will get to see me ride like crap, but helpful. I had made a lot of headway up until Sammie's lameness, but I kind of lost most of it when I went six weeks without riding seriously, much less jumping. Either way, some instruction will be welcome.

Most of these make me want to yell, "HEELS! HEELS! And give him some rein! GOD!" at the top of my lungs. Oh yes, and they feature the weird tie-die shirt that makes me look huge and I would never be caught dead in. Fun, fun.

Huge trot. WAYY above the bit. *Sigh*


Three cheers for hunched over, unbalanced cantering!



Really, these are going to end up on the "Bad_Riding" LJ community....of which I am a member.

Man, it's been a while...

So an update. Sammie went lame inexplicably toward the end of my lease. Had the vet out, found an old tendon injury from his stint on the track that had evidently flared up...and that his owner never told us about. Needless to say, we didn't buy him after all, so he went home in mid March when my lease was up.

I just recently bought a ten year old, nearly 17hh TB named Berkshire who is underweight, but otherwise healthy. He showed to 3'9 when he was in shape, and so we are bringing him back into condition. Group lessons start Tuesday, which I am a bit nervous about, but I think we'll do fine.

He is a total point'n'shoot jumper and has no dressage training. He doesn't understand bending, but boy, he can pop off a lead change! Needless to say, we have some work to do. But hey, I have all the time in the world, and he's a sweetheart, so whatever. We've been working long and low to try to stretch his topline out and improve lightness and balance. He banks in nastily at the canter,so we're putting muscle on in trot and doing simple straight-line cantering.