Another Year of Equestrian Living

Simple Lead Changes

2012-02-09T18:48:00.001-06:00

This has been a cold and tiring week. Also Robin has been swamped at work. When she is busy it makes me feel busier, too. But I did manage to get out for a ride this afternoon even though I was still tired. It was great, as no one else was there.

Also, the arena just got dragged and groomed. It has a little too much sand in it, so the sand tends to really pile up along the edges and in the corners. After a while it starts to feel small and cramped in there. I was excited to try out the more consistent footing.

It did make things kind of deep everywhere, but spatially it felt better. Particularly when we started loping. We did a nice long warm up, and then I quietly pushed him into a lope. He was really smooth and happy to hug the rail. We made quite a few laps and I was particularly surprised at how much longer the straightaways felt.

After a few laps we were settling in and I remembered that I want to start working on simple lead changes. So after coming around the next bend I kept Bear turning and guided him into the middle of the arena, brought him down to a trot, and then sent him off while cuing for a right lead.

I wish I could say we did it really nicely. We can, afterall, get really smooth downward and upward transitions. But when you add in the fact that I'm turning him, bringing him down, and then setting up for another lope, I wasn't quite able to do it how it appeared in my head. Everything was slower and choppier, but we did ultimately get it. We kept going and every lap and a half I'd guide him to the middle and ask for a lead change. We got a really good one going off to the right and then I let him rest.

He was super tired. I guess all the deep sand and transitions made things a little tough on him. I gave him a while to recover (during which we had some not so great walking, trotting, and stopping) before doing another round of lead change work. This time we started off to the right for a few laps before working into the changes. Again, not as good as I would have hoped, but I think they got better a little bit faster. They were certainly fun, but we've got a ton of work to do. I think I remember Buck saying he does thousands of simple lead changes before even attempting a flying lead change. Well, today we got maybe a dozen.

To Hackamore, or Not To Hackamore?

2012-02-08T06:56:00.004-06:00

A few days ago Robin and I were watching a training video by Mike Bridges. It was not the most exciting of videos, but it did offer a lot of insightful commentary on bits and the variety of heads and mouths on horses. At one point he talked about how horses with thicker lips might not be quite as soft to the snaffle bit as horses with thin lips. But then when you get those horses in another set up, like the hackamore or spade, they can be exceptionally soft. Hearing that I was pretty sure Bear had thick lips. Not because he isn't soft, but because he is kind of thick everywhere.

And sure enough, he does. The next day we got out for a ride and I looked at a few other horses in the pasture and closely compared Bear's lips to Steen's. Bears are quite a bit bigger and thicker. Interesting. So I thought, maybe I'll spend a few days in the hackamore and see how things go. I might just surprise myself.

The start was slow. He was good when I'd ask for a soft feel, but lateral flexion as I'd come to know it was gone. It took a few minutes of baby-step flexes to even start to get it back. We'd walk around easily and not think about our headgear, and then we'd work on stops and backs and flexes.

Thankfully each time I asked for a stop or a flex it got better. That continued throughout the whole ride. Also, he stayed good with the soft feel. I think have the pressure right on the nose makes a lot of sense to them.

After some good warming up I decided to try the lope. And this is where the old Bear came out. He could tell something was different, so he tried his hardest to get out of loping. It is funny that half the time he loves it, but if he thinks he might not have to do it, then he makes it hard on all of us. For this ride he chose to lope in the teeniest, tiniest circles possible. I actually didn't even know he could lope circles like that. I was wishing I had my spurs on so I could more forcefully push him out, but I didn't. So we just continued to lope small circles with me attempting to push him out into larger circles. He tried to stop a few times, but there was no way I was allowing that. Finally he got the idea and gave me some nice laps around the arena. And that was more or less where we ended the ride.

The next day we went out and again I used the hackamore. The start was slow, but not as slow as the day before. We were certainly making progress. Over the course of the ride we did all our normal stuff and even got some pretty nice loping in both directions.

But things weren't all great. I just couldn't send clear messages all the time. And the weirdest mix ups would happen. We'd be doing something like walking along the rail and I would bend him into a circle with maybe a 10 or 15 foot diameter, and halfway around the circle he would just veer in the other direction. Not like he was pissed and trying to show me where he wanted to go (I know what that feels like), but more like he was just given a strong signal to go that way.

Of course, things like this can only mean that I am not a great hackamore operator. And the only way to get better is to use it. But wow can it be frustrating. I don't think I'll use it a ton just yet, but maybe over the next couple of months I'll do some hackamore weeks and see what kind of progress we can make.

When Things Go Wrong, Simplify

2012-02-01T13:55:00.000-06:00

These little words of wisdom come from Dan John. Dan is one of my favorite people to read for advice on working out and getting fitter. The reason I love his stuff is because he breaks it down into very digestible chunks and also his advice applies just as directly to life, relationships, and work as it does exercise. Buck talks about the same stuff. Get better with horses, and you'll get better with life, he says. For me I have to look at it from both angles.

Now, nothing has gone "wrong" really. It is just the saying, but what haven't been working well for me in months are whirly-gigs. Walking out with your horse, then halting the front end by disengaging the hind and then halting the hind end and bring the front end over. If you do it right it looks like a very cool dance step and you go off walking in the same direction you were originally going.

In the middle of the fall I was able to do these quite regularly with Bear. As with most things, we were better doing them to the left than the right (I'm still trying to figure out whose fault this imbalance is, and I kind of think we are both to blame). But then things went wrong. Bear would start whipping around rather than disengaging. Then he started turning super fast, tight circles. I couldn't figure out what was going on, so I more or less stopped doing them.

A few rides ago I started slowing down and breaking up the whole movement so that I could think about it. I'd try a whirly-gig, and when that didn't work, I would just work on disengaging the hind end a few times. And that would be it. Another ride I would try a whirly-gig, again it wouldn't work so I would disengage the hind end, pet him for a good job, and then ask him to bring the front over. And that was it. I found ways to simplify the movement, then I slowly built things back up. If we ran into a problem, I just went back to whatever step we were comfortable with.

Then yesterday we just started getting the whirly-gigs. Now they weren't all pretty or ideal, but each time I asked for one we were able to get some clear steps in the right direction. I didn't drill him on this, I just did one every 5 minutes or so and showed him how excited I was when we got it.

This would have been exciting enough, but really he whole ride was awesome. I'm not sure if it was because the bails were low, the temperature was warm, Bear was tired from many rides in a row, or if things were just clicking because I was working on keeping them simple, but I'm inclined to think it was the latter.

And I did do a teeny bit of loping to ensure that we get some every ride. And we had some big strides with the loping, too. Robin and I were running together and I had a little bit of hard time keeping Bear off Steen's butt. So I would apply some medium pressure to the reins to check his speed.

He responded by giving me the biggest break at the poll I've ever seen or felt. It was quite amazing. His pace would slow a tad, but his body filled up with so much energy I thought we were going to leap past Steen. I guess that is what true collection is all about. It happened a few more times when we got close to them, but then I asked Robin to watch us after she was done loping and he again gave me the monster soft-feel even when we didn't have to worry about running into anything.

With so much great stuff happening in the ride we kept it short and sweet. It was the kind of ride where it felt dangerous to push things, like that would make everything fall apart. And it has left me with a lot of excitement to get back out there and keep practicing. But today we're all going to get a day off.

Sixty

2012-01-30T18:34:00.000-06:00

Today is the second to last day of January and it was 60 degrees. That is nearly twice what the average temps are. Very odd. But not unwelcome. If we had a ton of snow, I would have been disappointed. But we had just enough snow that the warm temps melted it all and turned the ground soft and mushy. So even though it was gorgeous out, we still rode inside.

Bear and Steen were a little bit off when we pulled them out of the pasture. There is a new horse out there. Well, an old horse, really. He used to live in this pasture a couple years ago, but I'm not sure he ever met Bear. Anyways, he is a large (like 17 plus hand, large) quarter horse and is quite dominant. So the guys were slightly agitated. Steen came right up to us, as he does when he is uncomfortable in some way.

We tacked outside to enjoy the late afternoon sun, but then headed in for the ride. It was cooling in the dusk anyways, so we didn't miss too much prime sun time. In the arena Bear was good. He is still loose and moving nicely, but he was a little distracted.

Despite this, we had a really great ride. I don't know how to talk about all the things I worked on without it sounding like a list, so I'll just hit the highlights. Fairly early in the ride I was going through some transitions and since he was backing so, so nicely, I decided to work on backing with energy and then push him right into a trot. He got it on the first try, and each one got better and better.

Once we were thoroughly warmed up we moved on to loping some nice circles with Robin and Steen doing the same. Bear was super smooth and happy. I think these past few times I have done enough running to curb his enthusiasm in asking me to lope, because today he was never offering the lope. A few times he got lazy and dropped it, but it really took no effort on my part to keep him going. Loping to the right he was a little tight, but he relaxed into it. He was more inclined to drop it in this direction, but again, picking it up was no problem.

Robin then moved on to another exercise, but I kind of wanted to keep working with the lope. So for the first time I would just ask for really short sections of loping. Like 1/4 of the arena. I'd get a few strides and then soft feel him down to the trot or walk. He was great going left, so we switched it up and spent more time working to the right. This was much harder on him. Quite a few times he was resistant to picking it up, and he would give me a stiff neck and veer into the center of the arena. This was not a big deal for me since I had my spurs on. I just had to time things right and I could get him going. We only did about 5 or 6 transitions to the right and I started to notice they were getting better. Finally he gave me a really good one and then I let him rest.

This is something I am getting better at lately, recognizing a good effort and rewarding that with a brief rest and then moving onto something else. I did this a few times today (with whirly-gigs, loping, transitions, and tight right circles at the trot), and I think it really contributed to our good ride.

The one funny moment of the ride was a fairly dramatic spook from Bear. There were some kind of noises outside the arena. Steen gave a big move and then Bear lept into a pretty lofty and energetic run. It is funny how many things can go through your head when your horse starts running, but I wasn't very worried. My seat felt stable and relaxed and I just kept the reins in my hands and held onto the horn. He brought himself down to a stop and stood around a little sheepishly. It was just another one of those things that is good for my horsemanship.

All week is supposed to be warm and dry. So hopefully we can log quite a few rides. Maybe it will even dry up enough that we can get out into the fields without worrying about tearing them up.

Good Rest

2012-01-29T18:52:00.000-06:00

After two days off, Bear was happy to see me this morning. He came over to say hi and followed me with more energy than he often does. I was hoping this meant he was feeling better. I let him loose to roll and wander around the indoor, but he wasn't really interested in doing much. So I had to coerce him to move. I hardly pushed him at all, but he took the excuse to run around, tossing his head back and forth and throwing in a few high, twisted kicks. It was all very playful, and he even moved into a super relaxed lope while calmly watching me. This was definitely a good sign.

He came right down and was happy to stand for grooming and tacking. In the arena he was quiet and attentive. Despite his earlier playfulness, I still took a long time warming him up. We walked around working on soft feels, backing and disengaging the hind and fore quarters. After about 10 minutes of that I was ready to move on to faster things, but I had told myself I was going to give him 15 solid minutes of walking to warmup. Then I remembered I wanted to introduce haunches in at the walk. So for the next few laps when we would hit the straight-aways I would ask for collection and then use my outside leg to move his haunches off the track towards the middle of the arena but keep him moving forward. We did this quite slowly, and he responded very well to the exercise. I think it helped in getting him more mentally and physically limber. He liked the challenge of thinking about what I was asking, and having to reach forward and in with his hind legs seemed really good for him.

After that thorough warm up we moved on to our other stuff. The soft feel was coming much more regularly at the trot, and his downward transitions were wonderful. I don't think I had a problem with any of them. The only not quite so great part of the ride was his energy level. He was moving good and paying attention, but he didn't have that light, sprightly feel he often gets. But really, it wasn't that bad.

I did get him moving nicely in the lope, just to see if he was still feeling good. And I was hoping it would wake him up more and get him a little excited. Just like a few rides ago, Robin and I loped in the arena together. This one was a little more involved than last time as Steen took a moment to get going and then once he was running he veered towards us. So there we were loping just off of Steen's hind end. Bear was getting excited running so close to Steen, but it was easy to keep him listening to me. I briefly transitioned into a walk (which he did a great job with) and then got us loping again so that we had some good space between us. We got quite a few laps in, and he felt great.

We took a break to cool down, but Bear was not all that excited with the loping so I didn't really need to bring him down. We proceeded to run to the right just to keep things even. Again we ran with Steen. Bear was giving me a very steady and relaxed lope (much better than the last two times to the right), but he wasn't too keen on staying on the rail. I didn't fight it much at first, but when Robin finished her round of loping I kept Bear going just a bit longer so that I could concentrate on getting a nice circle on the rail. It totally worked.

I cooled him out with some simple walk, trot work with a few whirly-gigs thrown in there. He was starting to get tired. I was still interested in working and was asking him for some roll backs and urging him to take off at the trot. They were so so, but then he gave me a really good one. I decided to end the ride on that note. It is supposed to be 50 degrees tomorrow, and I don't want a tired or sore horse.

He was falling asleep while I untacked him and stretched out his hind legs. And when I turned him out into the pasture he really wanted to hang around for some pets. It was a great day at the barn.

Discretion

2012-01-26T19:23:00.000-06:00

It is a difficult thing to have. Today I deadlifted after not doing it for a little while. I was excited to get back to it, as it is one of my favorite lifts. But I had to take it easy to ensure that I could do more in the not too distant future. I think I got the intensity just right.

Bear, it would seem, did not exercise the same discretion yesterday. It appears that his exuberance at the lope has cost him a little bit in terms of mobility. Today he was stiff. And very slow to warm up. It does not help that the winter lot resembles a lumpy ice skating rink, so I don't think he is moving much on his own. But still, he was probably pushing himself a little harder than he should have yesterday. He is lucky that I was not planning on pushing him at all. I'm happy that I only loped him for a few minutes at most.

When the lot has bad footing we often let the guys roll and romp around a little.

He is getting to be an old guy (17 in a few months), and both of us can easily forget this. In the last two weeks I think I only rode him once. None of my winter rides have been hard, but I do need to ensure that I get more frequent, non-demanding rides in so that he can keep feeling good. That seems to be what works best.

So today we spent a long time walking around, backing up, and doing some whirly-gigs. When I thought he was as warmed up as he could be from walking, we moved into the trot. It was not an energetic trot. We spent most of the time working on our transitions in and out of the gait. I didn't let him trot for too long, and I let him pick the pace. I was happy that a few times he moved out a little bit more.

The transition work was really good. Most of the time when we were moving from the walk up to the trot I could just open my legs a little bit and gather some energy into my thighs and butt. It is hard to explain. It felt almost like flexing my muscles, but I was also somewhat loose at the same time. Only twice did I have to close my legs to encourage him to move out. Every other time he gracefully moved into an easy trot when I would shift my weight and open my legs. It was quite cool.

And that was about it for the ride. We finished with a lot of stretching, and I rubbed down both of his hind legs. He seemed to enjoy that. When I put him back out into the pasture I thought he was moving better than when I brought him in, so that is something. There is a chance of snow tomorrow so I will probably use that as an excuse to read, drink tea, and make a nice dinner, so Bear can get some rest. But if I'm really lucky I'll get to ski.

Stand and Lope

2012-01-25T22:03:00.001-06:00

Those are Bear's two favorite gaits. It is funny as I tend to forget about the second one when we haven't been practicing it. Like in the late fall after I had taken a tumble and we weren't riding is spaces that were great for practicing the lope.

And though I have not been riding a ton lately, since late December I've been doing a good job of working the lope into every ride. In the beginning there were some difficulties. In fact, on a couple occasions Bear's reaction to picking up the lope would make you think it was his least favorite gait. Not so. Once he gets into a little bit of shape, he can't not lope.

Last Wednesday I went out for a solo-ride that I never blogged about. It was great, there was not another person at the barn the whole time I was there, and I had a wonderful time. But when Robin asked about the ride, I said it was not that great. Really, it was just different. Bear kept jumping into the lope. I've experienced a number of different times where we will be trotting and then he will show me that he would prefer to lope by continuing to trot with his hind end but throw in a few teeny hops with the front end. It is rather funny. But on this ride he was jumping into the lope from the walk. That was new. It took me a few minutes to get him really listening to me again.

Of course, he still wanted to lope even after we worked on a lot of other things. So after a few good rounds of transitions, we loped. And we loped, and loped, and loped. He wanted to stop a couple times, but I just gave him a little encouragement with my hips and kept on running. He was loving it. I think it was our most relaxed lope yet. And by the time we stopped he just stood there blowing and licking his lips as if he was thinking, 'finally we got some good running in.'

Then we had a week off with some weird weather. Now it is getting nicer and Robin and I are making a push to get into a riding habit again. Still, I was a little tired and planned to have an easy ride. Bear was in a super relaxed mood and paying very close attention to me, which was great. I even thought he missed me.

But while we were working on things at the trot, again he was telling me he wanted to run. I hadn't even decided on whether or not I wanted to work on that today. We had enough to polish up at the walk and trot. But he kept insisting. So finally I just rocked my hips in an encouraging way when he was feeling goey, and he picked up the smoothest lope I've ever felt. I thought last week was good. No. This was the best. I had never felt a transition like that before. Robin saw it and was equally amazed.

After a little while of running we transitioned down to a walk and again Bear was super pleased with himself. We worked on a few steering exercises at the walk and I was about to ask for a lope on the other lead when Steen and Robin started running. I got out of the way to let them go, but then I slotted in a little behind them and we were able to both lope together. We'd never done that indoors before. It worked perfectly, even in our smaller arena. And the horses were extremely relaxed.

It was really the perfect ride to get us going again.

Friday the Thirteenth

2012-01-13T20:17:00.000-06:00

And it was wonderful. I finally feel back to my normal routine of working, exercising, and riding. This afternoon we drove out to the barn to hang out with the guys and check out Steen's leg. He was hanging out in the indoor arena with another injured horse when we arrived. I left Robin to tend to his leg and tromped through the drifted pasture to get Bear. The gates were opened up to let them get into the low lying areas of the other pastures, so horses were everywhere and I couldn't see Bear.

Turns out he was on the other side of the bail, out of the wind with his head absolutely buried in the middle of it. When I walked around the bail and saw him I said, "hey big Bear," and he pulled his head out and jumped straight up before he realized it was me. Kind of funny. I'd never startled him like that.

Inside he was a little restless since Steen was getting treats and he wasn't. But he calmed down and I got him groomed and tacked. After a brief bit of groundwork I hopped on.

He was quiet and pretty responsive. Since our last rides have been pretty bad with the feel, I had planned on really focusing on that. Particularly at the trot. We started at the walk, and he was good. He only picked up a little trot a couple times when I didn't ask, but I was able to soft feel him back to a walk.

After we were warmed up I asked for the trot. We spent many minutes working on feel. Once I would get it three or four times in a row, I would then use the feel to bring him down to a walk. He was continually improving at both of those things. So then we went for the lope.

And the lope was awesome. Robin watched as I loped around and around with a big smile on my face. I was really able to direct him around the arena with my legs, and since things were so smooth, I felt I could work on transitions more than I have been recently. So we got some walk, trot, lope, trot, walk, lope, walk, stop, etc. Every time I asked for the lope he picked it up with ease (except once). He also gave me the biggest stop I've ever felt. Robin was laughing at me as I fell forward a bit. But Bear just stood there licking his lips knowing he did an excellent job.

I cooled him out for a few minutes and then called it a ride. We only rode for 30 minutes, but I swear it was much longer than that. When I hopped off I had to look at my watch multiple times, because I couldn't really believe it. I suppose that is a sign of a good ride.

Catching Up

2012-01-12T18:38:00.003-06:00

Well it feels like we are well into the new year, and I haven't blogged yet. It felt like I made it through the holidays and was ready to get back to my normal routine, but I forgot that we were having Robin's brother Jesse and his wife Susie visit for a long weekend. We had a fantastic time with them, but I didn't get a whole lot of riding or blogging done.

When they planned their trip a couple months ago, we had no idea what would happen as far as weather. I kind of hoped we could all go skiing, but in many ways the 50 degree days we had were better. We got in some runs and bike rides and a great afternoon at the barn.

It was so warm we all hung out at the hitching post outside for some grooming, then we rode in the outdoor arena. Robin and I warmed the guys up a little, and then we handed them over. Jesse climbed on Steen and Susie rode Bear. At first he didn't want to do much, but once they got moving both Susie and Bear did great. Bear is really starting to lose his reputation of being a bad ride for visitors. He was listening to her leg and rein cues, walking nice circles, stopping, and even gave her a pretty nice trot.

Jesse was having a little more trouble on Steen, but he stuck it out and made some progress. After that he hopped on Bear for a little bit and they enjoy a little trotting around the arena.

When they were done I took Bear into the arena for a little loping practice. It was warm and he was a little hot and tired, but he wasn't sluggish at all. It also took no effort to keep him going. He just tipped right over into a super smooth lope in both directions. It was by far our best indoor lope yet, going both right and left I had no trouble keeping him on the rail. I think he is getting more and more fit, and we're also getting more comfortable loping in that space.

The visit did make things a little busy for us, but we were also able to sneak out for a mid-week ride before the current storm storm rolled in. It was a lovely afternoon and we planned on riding on the strip. Unfortunately, Steen had a cut on his leg. He actually had it when Jesse and Susie were here, but it really didn't look too bad. Once we were able to take time and clean it all out and explore the area, we could see it was a little bit worse than we thought. Thankfully he is not favoring it at all, but Robin thought it would be best to just clean it, wrap it, and not ride him. Probably smart.

While she took care of her patient I took Bear out to the strip for a short ride. In our recent time off he has lost some soft feel, particularly at the trot. So we did a lot of trotting with me trying to remind him how to respond to the bit. I guess he got better, but I feel like we'll have to get back to practicing this more and more.

He was soft to the bit while we were backing, and he was especially good at backing circles. One of the bummers about the ride was that a huge portion of the strip was a little torn up by a sod cutter. And it is the exact spot that is perfect for loping. So I didn't really think we would run, but then I decided to run him out and back on the strip. It was the first time we'd done it since last spring. We started by going away from the barn, and he picked up a beautiful lope and had no trouble holding it on the slight downhill. We dropped to a trot and then came back up. Going slightly uphill and toward the barn Bear was inclined to really dig in. He felt solid and I wasn't worried about him, but I do like him to have a softer feel while we're loping. So we'll have to practice this some more. I think it will take some time, and some sessions where we really get a lot of running in. This ride I only went out and back a few times.

And then we called it a night. Now here it is almost half way through January and I've only managed a couple short rides. But I'm not worried, it is already way more riding than I did last January.

Last Ride of the Year

2011-12-31T19:55:00.001-06:00

It was 50 degrees. We planned on riding outside but the winds were kind of outrageous, so we just rode inside. It was a pretty good ride. I was hoping for just a nice, relaxing time with my horse. This week I was tired and we didn't get out to the barn much. I usually have a slow down with winter. Maybe that is starting to happen.

The ride was good. Bear and Steen were both warm and a bit sluggish. Bear was actually very stiff in his lower legs when we were doing some groundwork, but he seemed to loosen up pretty quickly. After I had been on for just a few minutes he was much, much livelier. When we started trotting and working on some transitions he kept telling me the next transition should be into the lope. Since he was stiff in the beginning I wanted to keep warming him up, but I guess he was good.

We started loping and it was very easy and relaxed. He was moving good and staying on the rail and not trying to get out of it at all. Robin said he had that happy Bear expression on his face. It was truly the best indoor lope on him I've ever had. We went for quite a few minutes. He was certainly worse going to the right, but now that we've got a good base of fitness going, I'll feel better about pushing that direction more.

After the running around we worked on 'the routine.' We had not done this in a while, and I messed up on the first round. Then we got three pretty good ones in a row. For the first one our timing was decent, but Bear kept dropping the trot and I had to work hard to keep him going. After that he figured it out and was much better.

We rode for an hour, and that gave me 109 hours and 5 minutes for the year. Sometime last spring I noticed that if I just averaged 10 hours a month that I could get over 100. So that became my goal. Not a very big goal, but it was enough for me to really accelerate my abilities on horseback.

Here is the month to month breakdown if anyone is curious.

January 0
February 2:35
March 4:30
April 9:20
May 14:50
June 10:30
July 5:05
August 11:15
September 12:15
October 12:40
November 12:55
December 13:10

Not the most even of years. The spring was a long build up until some great riding in April and May. That is when Bear got super fit. Then there was a lull in the mid summer. Bear had a super minor injury, and it was hot. So we didn't ride much. Things got going again at the end of the summer, and then we attended the Buck Brannaman clinic and the stuff I learned there really carried me through the year.

Next year I think my goal will be 150 hours. Not huge, by any standards, but it will be a little bit of a challenge.

Back to Stiff

2011-12-27T11:33:00.000-06:00

Since we had all our riding gear with us, we decided to swing by the barn on our way into town. It was a warm afternoon and no one was there. The guys were both sleeping in the pasture, so I don't think they were thrilled when we pulled them out to work.

We rode inside as we were both a little tired as well. Robin has been working on suppling up her bosal and mecate and it has made a huge difference. It probably helped with the good ride she had.

Bear, on the other hand, could have used some suppling and softness over his four day vacation. When I got on him he was his usual quiet self, but he felt like a different horse through the reins. He would flex nicely, but that was about it. Soft feel, backing, gentle turns, all those were missing. It was almost like someone with super heavy hands rode him the whole time I was gone. It was a little disappointing since we had been going so well together.

But it did give me some stuff to work through. I was tired, so it was a little difficult for me to stay patient and soft, but I did my best. It started to work, too. Over the course of our hour long ride we worked on flexing, serpentines, getting the soft feel and multiple gaits and did lots and lots of backing. For some reason this was his worst thing. Instead of tucking his head he would hold it high with his nose out. I had to patiently hold some pressure to get him to move. We got to where going straight back was decent, so then we did a lot of backing in circles and zig-zags. I was able to get some of that softness back, but it was a little hard on both of us.

Because of the heat, Bear was also just generally sluggish. So we did a little bit of loping just to liven him up and get the blood going. He was great to the left. He perked right up and followed my leg cues. To the right, stiff. Really stiff. A few times we got into some tight spots where I thought we might run into the wall. At the last second he would respond to my legs and reins and give me a sharp bend. These were by far the sharpest turns I've experienced at the lope. At least now I know what we're capable of.

Robin watched these parts and she did notice that he was not moving great to the right. So he does have some stiffness somewhere. I didn't push it, and we cooled down with some non-demanding exercises. Hopefully the light work and little bit of running will help him loosen back up.

This week is supposed to be warm. Like in the 50s warm. It is kind of nice, but I'm also wondering where my winter is at.

My First Non-Robin Lesson

2011-12-23T11:31:00.001-06:00

On Thursday afternoon my Mom took us to her huge hunter/jumper barn for a treat. The three of us were going to have an hour long, semi-private lesson. On Thoroughbreds. Going into this ride I was a little nervous. Things have been going really well for me lately, but I really only know Bear at this point. And I am not a confident enough rider to always handle different situations well. So I had no idea what to expect.

When we arrived we poked around for a bit and then found out the horses we would be riding were tacked up already. I had a dark brown guy named Chip. I'm not sure exactly how tall he was. My guess would be 16.1 or 16.2. Certainly taller than Bear, but not enormous. It took me a while to adjust the English stirrups, and I even had to get some help from the instructor after I was mounted. But in the end I was fairly comfortable in the saddle. It had a more generous cantle than I was anticipating, and the lack of horn didn't bother me in the slightest.

We walked around for just a few minutes, but really that was just for us. The horses were warmed up. So we moved into a posting trot and stayed there for a long time. I have not really been working on my posting since we've been indoors (Bear's trot is so much slower inside), but the loftiness of the Thoroughbred trot and the hunter saddle made posting feel like the most natural thing to do. And it was really a lot of fun.

The instructor would give out little pointers to all of us as we trotted around. For me these were mostly about my fingers on the reins (I like to lace my fingers in the reins when I'm softly collecting my horse, and I think the hunter/jumper school likes a firm, full hand grasping the reins) and of course my diagonals. When I'm posting outside we are rarely making tight turns, so I have spent no time thinking about diagonals. Thankfully I have been thinking a lot about where my horses feet are, so I picked up on the diagonals pretty quickly. I didn't get any instruction about keeping my heels down or fixing bad posture, so I felt really good about that.

After maybe half an hour of moving in and out of the posting trot, we worked on the canter. Initially we tried to get them all going together, but each of us were having different problems with our horses. So we went one at a time. This was good for me because the cues for getting into the canter were a little different than what I'm used to. I was able to watch and listen as Robin and Mom had their turns.

When I was up it only took a couple of tries (mostly because I like to start by asking with less force than I think I'll need) to get Chip into a nice canter. It was fun and easy to ride. One of the big things I learned in the lesson was about moving down from the canter to the trot. The instructor told us to collect them a little more and have a bit more pressure on the outside rein, then just move right into posting and the horse will follow. Chip was great with this (of course, I'm sure much of that was due to his excitement to stop running). It will be fun to work on this with Bear when I get back home.

So all in all, the lesson was really great. It was fun to ride with Mom in her natural environment. She was definitely the better poster of the three of us. Unfortunately, she drew the short stick when it came to horses as hers was not so keen on the canter. She was able to work through it and get a good ride, though. She is hoping next time she can ride October, the horse Robin rode. He was the most solid and speedy of the bunch.

Lope Transitions

2011-12-22T08:52:00.008-06:00

On our way out of town we decided to hit the barn for a ride. We would be taking all our riding stuff with us to Chicago for a lesson at my Mom's barn, so it really didn't make any difference if we packed all that stuff or wore it.

Lately our indoor rides have been longer than we thought they would be. This has been great for getting Bear back in shape. Which I think I can say he is now in better shape than he was right before Thanksgiving.

I kept this ride very active and constantly switched in and out of all the exercises we are working on. Bear has been responding to this approach very nicely. What I kept coming back to was working on our lope. This was by far the most loping we have done since maybe sometime in the summer. I spent many rounds going in both directions, but instead of just pushing him into a lope for a while and then getting a big hard stop out of him, I would keep him going between the trot and the lope with a soft feel and a shift of my seat. He responded to these transitions really well. Although he did get a little excited at times during the trotting. Usually a few requests for a soft feel would bring him back.

Since we have been loping quite a bit I am sure that is part of the reason I had such a good ride. I think the other reason was I was back in spurs. The spurs Robin got me for my birthday were too narrow for my boot heel. Also, the shanks were pretty long. So we got a bigger spur with a slightly smaller shank, and today I wore them for the first time. I am still adjusting to them, but I was significantly more comfortable than I thought I would be. And when it came time to keep loping, it really only took the slightest bump with the spurs to remind Bear that he should keep moving out. I really only had to do that in the beginning, too. Bear is such a funny guy, often I just need to show him I mean business once and then things are great.

We left the guys out in a slightly muddy pasture to hang out over the holidays. We have been getting a lot of rides in (far more than I thought we would in December), so I'm sure they'll enjoy their days off.

Double Work

2011-12-20T18:29:00.000-06:00

Today was the first day of my vacation, so I went to the barn this morning with Robin (she still had some work to do, but she was game for some horse time). The days and nights have both been warm lately, and that means the winter lot is a mess. I should have gone out there in muck boots, but I didn't.

Bear was on the bale but not really eating. I was trying to convince him to come to me by starting to play 'the game.' It wasn't working very well, and I had to make him move some by tossing the lead rope at his hindquarters. That worked, but he just moved to a muddier part of the pasture. I slogged to a different vantage point and continued.

Unfortunately, Bear was not interested in coming to me. I could have walked right up to him and put the halter on anytime I wanted, but since I started 'the game,' I kind of had to finish it. Besides, there were foot deep puddles of muck I'd have to wade through just to get to him. Robin had no trouble getting Steen to come to her. She was inside and grooming for a while before she brought me my muck boots so I could more effectively play 'the game.' She's the best.

I got Bear moving around and he would think about coming to me, but he never did. I actually gave up. I'm not sure how long I played or how many times we went across the lot, but I got sick of it, and a little mad at him, too He is certainly smart enough to figure this out. So I just haltered him up and then took him to the indoor arena where I proceeded to play 'the game' some more. I didn't want him thinking he got out of something.

He ran around for a few laps, stopped, and then came right to me. Thanks Bear. You could have saved us a lot of trouble if you did that half an hour ago. At least he got a lot of exercise loping around outside and inside. When I was grooming and tacking he was standing there like he does after many of our mentally exhausting rides. He actually looked a little surprised when I pulled the saddle out; he probably thought he was done.

Robin was much faster than us, so they had been riding for a little while when we got in the arena. I didn't do much groundwork and just hopped on. He was excellent with the soft feel, and we proceeded to walk around and mix in some backs and backing circles (each time he left some excellent circular footprints in the sand).

Once warmed up we started trotting and worked on the feel, but mostly I concentrated on getting that feel and then using my seat to bring him down to a walk. We were much better at this today. After a particularly good transition I remembered what I was doing on the previous ride, getting a good change and then moving to a new exercise.

So we proceeded to work on what Robin and I have been calling 'whirly-gigs,' getting the horse to separate the hind end and forequarters by first stepping under with the hind and then bringing the forequarters across. A few weeks ago Bear and I were doing a pretty good job with these. And then something went wrong. When I would ask Bear to halt his front end and step under, he would sometimes do it, but he was always stepping over and giving me some super sharp turns from the forehand, too. It didn't feel great, and it certainly wasn't what I wanted. I decided to give them a break for a little bit and hoped that in the time off we could both figure out what wasn't working.

Sunday night I re-watched Buck's hackamore DVD. It was excellent to see for a second time, and I got what I hoped would be two crucial pointers (the second will come later). When initiating a whirly-gig, keep the supporting rein completely clear of the horse's neck. Only when you stop cuing the hind end and bring the outside leg into play do you apply the supporting rein. As soon as I watched that I thought I was maybe not keeping my hands as wide as I should have. I used to ride with them much wider, but now that I've been improving on my leg cues I have brought them in closer, and often I just use one hand.

So today I tried the whirly-gigs again, but I was conscious to keep my hands far apart. It worked. Mostly. Sometimes I would either mess up or Bear would get a little confused and try to hop through with his front end, but mostly we did an excellent job. I got a few good ones and was poised to keep going when Robin reminded me I should give it a break and then get back to it. Thanks, honey. That is exactly when I need to hear such advice.

With all our quiet and precision based exercises going well, we decided to move into the lope. Robin loped Steen first. It was her first time doing it in the hackamore. They both looked pretty darn good. Steen was cruising without a worry in his head, and Robin was completely off the reins and just using her body to guide him around the arena. It was cool.

Bear and I, well, we were nothing like that. Just like in lopes past, it was easy for me to get the first few strides out of him, and then he would drop into the jackhammer trot and make things really difficult on me. I got some timely kicks and was able to keep him going, but it was pretty short lived. The rough trot is extremely frustrating, and it is hard for me to ride and give the kicks when I need to. And then I was annoyed at the little Pomeranian hanging out in the arena. I felt I had to keep an eye on her and keep Bear going. I didn't really, but it was an extra distraction I didn't need.

Robin volunteered to get her out of the arena. That changed everything. Not the absence of the dog, really, but both her and Steen were out of the arena, too. So Bear didn't have his magnet spots. The first time I asked him to lope after they left we were able to run for a while. I stopped him, trotted some, and then got him going again. I had to stay on him to keep him going, but it was nothing like our previous attempts.

We ended up going both directions, multiple times. It was by far our best loping inside yet. Robin snapped a few photos of us. The light wasn't great, so they are a little blurry, but they are better than no photos at all.

We finally got to lope long enough that we were both able to relax.

And I could always lean back and get a hard stop from him, though here I was caught off guard by the hard stop and drifted forward a bit.

It ended up being a long workout for Bear, and he was pretty tired at the end. But he is looking and feeling much better. Both moving around in the winter lot and under saddle he was great. He is finally starting to get in shape a little. He's still got plenty of Bear-gut, but when you are behind him it doesn't protrude nearly as much as it used to.

Title Generator?

2011-12-18T17:50:00.000-06:00

I need one. Titles seem to be the most difficult thing for me. Even when I have bad rides, it is harder to come up with a title than anything else.

Today was a great day. The barn was super crowded because Duke was there to trim feet and we were having a little end of the year potluck. Quite a few people beat us there, so we just went with what has become our normal farrier day routine: quickly tack up and get a ride in before it is our turn.

It was forcasted to be even warmer today than yesterday. And though it was earlier in the day, the sun was already heating us up. Robin and I both rode in less clothes than usual. Since we didn't know how long we would ride, we stayed close and just rode on the strip. Except for one other boarder who was doing a few exercises with her cute Icelandic Pony, we had the area to ourselves.

I was curious to see how Bear would be, as we had a less than great ride yesterday. I did go armed with a plan. This morning we watched Buck's second video on making a bridle horse. This one focused on the hackamore, but it also had some excellent pointers for just riding. One thing that I was again surprised by (and I've known this for a while, but that doesn't mean it is easy to do) was how much Buck goes from one exercise to another. He doesn't dwell very long. He works on something until he gets a small change and then, boom, onto something else. Of course this really forces the horse to think, but for a relative newbie like myself, it is extremely taxing on the rider, too.

And as such, it is easy to not follow through on. The first 20+ minutes of our ride were very mediocre. I was trying my best to be relaxed, soft, and keep things varied. Sometimes I was successful, but often I wasn't, and then I would find myself doing the same exercise over and over again. This doesn't help Bear at all. Generally, he really knows his stuff, so he can get bored. He doesn't care if I need to practice something, even if I'm being nice about it. He just checks out a little more.

So when my frustration was building a little, I took a break. I just sat there and snapped a few photos of Robin and periodically gave Bear some pets. Robin was having an excellent day in the hackamore. The video this morning also helped her out quite a bit. She's got some more shots on her blog, but I got this nice one of them backing up after a pretty great stop.

Then Bear and I got back to work. And we were doing much, much better. We worked on some relaxed trotting and getting a soft feel, backing, backing in circles, and serpentines. I have been getting better at these since I figured out that Bear's head needs to be elevated a little bit so his poll is just above his withers. When I get that, I can feel that his shoulders are opened up and he is much more balanced. But I have always struggled to keep him moving through the serpentine nicely. I asked Robin for some help, and she pointed out that I wasn't bending him quite enough. I probably let that slip when I started focusing on head height. So she watched us do quite a few serpentines and pointed out the good ones and the bad ones (like when he would stop walking forward and just turn in funky circles), and also called out when I should give him relief or demand more.

It was a really big help. Both Bear and I were in higher spirits. Robin had such a great ride that she ended early, but I wanted to keep going.

I was worried for a second that Bear would be pissed that they were leaving, but he just watched them walk away and got right back to work with me. I kept our momentum going and was very good about stopping after I got a change. He gave me some wonderful collection at the trot.

We backed in circles quite a bit. It was fun to see Buck back his horse in a zig-zag. I often worry about backing too much, but as long as you give a timely release, it shouldn't be a big deal.

All in all we ended up having a really fun ride. He was happy with the challenges, so I'll have to work extra hard to keep things more exciting for both of us.

After the ride he was super relaxed. I did a little more grooming and some stretches while he caught a quick snooze. Then it was time for the trim. He is always great if I am able to get a ride in before hand (he's just good if I don't get the ride in). Duke said his feet are looking great, and that is always nice to hear.

Nice Weather

2011-12-17T20:11:00.000-06:00

At least for the past two days. The middle of the week was down right yucky. I ended up giving Bear three days off because of the weather, and just general tireds on my part. In fact, it was a little hard to get to the barn Friday afternoon because the week felt so long and tiresome, but we were glad we did.

We found the guys aimlessly wandering the pasture as the bales were gone. This was great for Bear. He has been eating too much, and I was worried I would find him even bigger after his three days off. Instead he was in a good mood and looking trimmer.

We had an easy ride in the arena with lots of trotting. For almost 20 minutes (not completely in a row) all we did was trot around with me asking for a soft feel. He was awesome at it. He would give it to me almost instantly, and since he was so tuned in to me he was listening to my legs and seat. I could speed him up or slow him down with my thighs. It was great.

Then Robin asked if we wanted to lope. I said sure. I did, really. It is just that right now it takes some effort. But the only way to get back to it is to keep him going. So I got him into the lope. He picked it up very quickly. It was so smooth and relaxed I was all prepared to just go with the flow. But then after two strides he dropped it. This became a pattern.

So I got into a rhythm of asking him for the lope, riding out his sloppy transitions in and out of the lope and doing my best to keep balanced so I could kick him when necessary (sounds harsh, but trust me, it wasn't). At one point I kicked at the perfect time and he just went into a nice easy lope. From then on things got easier.

All in all we loped longer than we did last time. He is not good at staying on the rail, and while I'm getting better at using my legs to direct him at this speed, I've got a lot of work to do. I also figured this was maybe the fourth or fifth time I had loped him inside. Bear doesn't love it inside, so I'm hoping things get better with time.

Today the temps were supposed to be even warmer than yesterday. Robin and I ran some errands in the morning and then got to the barn just after lunch to hit the peak heat of the day. We weren't the only ones with that idea. Within in a 20 minute period Robin and I and three other boarders arrived. Plus the barn owner and the women doing chores were both there.

Thankfully we had already planned on riding outside, so we didn't have to vie for any arena time. We quickly tacked up and then headed out to the big pasture. We hadn't ridden out there in over a month, so I was excited to get back there. The sun was shining and felt very warm. There was a slight breeze, but it never felt cool out there.

Things started out great. Bear was walking out and giving me the soft feel regularly. After a long warm up we made our way to the hilltop, and things deteriorated from there. Bear was edgy, stiff, and not paying close attention to me. He would shy away at his own shadow. His stops and backs were awful (very un-Bear). And at the trot he was very fast and rough. I rubbed a bit of a sore spot on the inside of my right knee from riding it out. The new saddle has been great, but I guess it isn't great enough to allow me to ride poorly through some really stiff and fast trots.

We did work through things some. The trotting got better in time. Bear was unbelievably gassy and bloaty since they did get new bails last night, so he was pooping like a machine. I'm sure that wasn't helping things. In between trotting sessions we would work on our short serpentines (these got to be pretty good) and soft feels. In the end, we got a good workout.

I was getting tired of riding when Robin asked if I wanted to go in. There were some hunters in the distance, and being on a hilltop not too far away from woods and open prairie grasses made us a little uncomfortable. We walked back and discovered we had the arena to ourselves, so we rode a little more. Robin worked on some loping and I checked in with our trot. Much better inside. Serpentines were good, too.

I do wonder if he was a little touchy because of our last ride on that hilltop. We did ride in the pasture about a month ago, but the last ride on the hilltop was over two months ago when I fell off. He definitely got a little scared in that fall. I had never seen him take off so hard before. He was galloping up and down steep hills that he doesn't even really like to walk on. So maybe we just need a little time up there.

Trying to redeem himself after a highly mediocre ride.

I rode with the camera in my pocket the whole time, but we only thought to use it at the very end. I guess that is what happens on difficult rides.

A Tired Bear

2011-12-12T19:02:00.001-06:00

Today was warm and Robin was swamped with work, so I went out to the barn on my own. Bear was doing his best to bury his head in the bale and get all the good stuff. He must have been at it for a while, because he pooped four times today. Lately he has been pooping less, which I think is good, but today was just like the old days.

The place was quiet initially. Bear was clean, and I groomed and tacked while he half dozed. Yesterday I just hopped on without any groundwork, so today I made sure to go through a few things. This is when I noticed how sluggish he was. He was paying attention to me, but it was hard to get any life in him. Something about the way he was moving left me inclined to not really get after him.

So I just climbed on instead. We warmed up with some walking and then proceeded to spend almost the whole ride trotting. This is when I became sure he was fatigued. He was listening to me and all my cues, but his body had no spring in it. Still, I knew I wasn't going to hurt him by keeping him moving at a trot. And it was an easy trot.

While moving around the arena I mostly let him trot the pace he wanted to. Occasionally I would open up my legs and get a little more life into him. He responded to that. Then I would be nice and ask for a soft feel and let him go back to a slower trot.

Since he was so tired, he was also very willing to slow down or stop at anytime. I took that opportunity to work on transitions. Mostly trot to walk transitions. I'm trying really hard to get it so that I can ask for a soft feel and then change the motion of my hips from 'trot' to 'walk.' I think it has been three rides that we've been working on this. The first one was surprisingly good. Then it got bad towards the end. The second ride was just not that great at any time. Today we had a few bad ones and a few good ones. I do think they are almost all my fault. I'm struggling with finding the difference in going from a trot rhythm to a walk rhythm. And it is hard for me to not get frustrated since I know we have done it before, and also when I don't quite get it right, Bear is inclined to trot faster. That is definitely not ideal.

Today we had an excellent trot to walk transition and I decided to praise him lavishly and let him rest. He seemed pleased with himself; I patted his head and he licked his lips. I decided to make that the end of our ride. I walked him around just another minute, but didn't demand anything more of him.

While I was untacking he didn't move a single foot. This is not totally uncommon. He does like post ride naps. But his head was so low, and then when I went to grab his supplement he still didn't budge. Usually he creeps forward and tries to get his face closer to the feed. Not today. He stood stock still and just moved his head a little forward.

I'll definitely give him some rest tomorrow. Maybe even two days.

A Little Loping

2011-12-11T17:53:00.002-06:00

Very little loping, actually. I said a few rides ago that I wanted to get Bear moving out a little more. It is easy to come up with excuses for not doing it. Mine are that he got sore last time, and then I got a new saddle and didn't want to push things too fast. Not sure if they are good excuses, but there they are.

So today we loped, and he was not into picking it up at all. He has gotten used to not loping, and he has a huge gut on top of that. But after thoroughly warming him up I pushed him into the lope, and he just shook his head at me and trotted faster. We did that for quite a few turns around the arena. Finally he let out some gas and poop and gave me a decent lope. I didn't make him run for long, but I did move him in and out of it four times, I believe. It is a start.

Moving out a little better in October. Hopefully we can get back to that, and some nice soft feels, too.

Hopefully now I can get back to loping him regularly. He is starting to look a teeny bit more fit. They did get new bales the other day, though. That didn't help anything. But at least his shoulders and haunches are looking more muscled. I still can't believe how fat and and out of shape he got in just 10 days. It's not like we weren't riding leading up to the break. True, we weren't running around, but we were spending hour long rides in the hilly pasture and doing more than a little trotting.

Anyways, he is coming around. That is all I can ask. The other things we did today went well, too. Actually, better than the loping. The arena was crowded when we arrived, but I just took my time grooming and tacking and by the time I went into the arena it was just Robin and I.

I worked on moving Bear out at the walk, and he was very responsive to my open and rhythmic hips. Before long I could tell he was interested in trotting, so I asked him for it and he again gave me a beautiful, relaxed trot. I was consistently getting the soft feel, too. I think I only had to hold the feel for more than a few steps once or twice. Most of the time it I got a very quick tuck. I think he was feeling good.

And it was this thought that led me to push him into the lope. Didn't really work, though. It required a ton of effort. Perhaps more on his part, but I'm not certain. Anyways, we got it eventually. Then I went back to trotting just to keep him moving and working, and he was super energetic. A few times he started hopping like he wanted to lope again. I didn't let him. Instead I would just ask for the soft feel. At this point in the ride he was giving it to me instantly. I could feel his body collect and simultaneously relax and flex. I wouldn't hold it for long, and then he would go back to a fast trot. But again, I'd just pick up the reins and he was with me.

It wasn't that long ago that I was having a tough time getting him to respond to a feel at the walk. Now I can get him to hold it at the walk and continually give it to me at the trot. I've also been paying more attention to his poll, and he is keeping it just above his withers when he gives me the soft feel. This is really exciting stuff. But I think it will be quite a few more rides 'til we've even started getting it at the lope. It should be fun working on it.

Still Good

2011-12-10T13:47:00.000-06:00

The first ride in the saddle was not some kind of one-time experience. If anything, Bear was moving and feeling even better today. And he was equally as stiff coming out of the pasture today as he was yesterday..

Robin and I got to the barn early so we could beat any other potential weekend riders. It worked, as we had the place to ourselves. It was cold, but nothing that we couldn't handle. Adding my fleece neck warmer to my riding outfit worked perfectly.

Bear was quiet and content again. I groomed and tacked quickly and then took a few minutes to snap some photos of Robin and Steen. They had beat us by a lot since Robin was going bareback. Steen was feeling exceptionally energetic today, so Robin was going through some groundwork before she got on.

Steen's been filling up on hay AND getting fit. He never used to look this big.

We joined them and started by walking on the rail to warm up. When Bear gets stiff I like to make sure he has adequate time to loosen up. I would ask for the soft feel at least twice per loop (later on we were getting it more than that), and he was responding much better than yesterday. We moved up into the trot and Robin said she didn't think she had ever seen him look so relaxed trotting in the indoor arena. It might have been true, he did feel good.

Again we spent most of the ride trotting. I added a teeny bit more pressure when asking for the soft feel, and I believe it helped. We started getting it with some regularity. Every once in a while it would take us a half a lap or more to get it, but we did always get it. We went in each direction, spending more time towards the right, and after Bear gave me a series of very quick soft feels I let him rest. He was looking particularly proud of himself after that.

I let him rest for a minute and then we moved to the middle to walk in some spiraling circles. Robin used to have us do this last spring when she was giving me lessons. I was not very good at it. Now I'm using the exercise with just one hand on the reins and Bear is making significantly better circles than he was back in February. It felt good. I really am thinking he can feel my seat better with this new saddle. Robin would always talk about the connection she would feel with Steen through her sit bones and I never really had that. I thought I just wasn't riding good enough, but maybe it turns out my seat was just too far off Bear's back for either of us to feel one another.

We ended the ride with continuing to work on the trot and getting a soft feel. Things were going so well that I started holding the feel and bringing him back into a walk. I asked for this a few times yesterday to horrible results. The first few today were better, but not great. Then all of a sudden he started nailing them going both from the trot to the walk and the walk to the trot.

It didn't last. But that is OK. I made sure we ended on a good note with the transitions and then went back to just concentrating on the feel. Robin ended her ride before me (she started before me, too) and snapped a few nice pictures of us. This one is a little blurry, but you can really see the excellent collection we were getting at the trot, even with a pretty loose rein.

I'm still feeling the saddle out. At times I was a teeny bit uncomfortable, but mostly it felt good. Better than yesterday. Bear was so good today that he didn't even mind when I paid more attention to the saddle than him. If I had to rearrange myself in the seat or check on my clanking stirrups, he just kept on trotting in a nice, semi-collected state.

This was also the ride where I hit my 2011 ride goals. 100 hours in the saddle. I set the goal sometime back in May when I realized I just needed to average 10 hours a month for the rest of the year. I thought it would be tough, but doable. It ended up being a little easier than I thought, and that included some unexpected hiccups in the year. I didn't expect July and August to have such low numbers. But it didn't matter, the fall was gorgeous, and I was really motivated to ride after going to the clinic in September. I went into December needing only 4 hours to reach the goal.

I'm not sure what my 2012 goal will be. Maybe 125 hours. If I actually ride in January and February that would be quite doable. I think I'll wait until the end of the year before I make any decisions, though.

Another Saddle

2011-12-09T19:25:00.003-06:00

As I mentioned a little bit ago, I've been worrying about the fit of Bear's saddle for quite some time now. So I decided to just get a new one and see how it goes. I found a great deal on a used McCall wade. It felt like a good move to make, because if it doesn't work out I should be able to turn around and sell it for the same price I paid for it.

Obligatory staircase/saddle rack shot.

We headed out to the barn this afternoon and it was cold. Not quite super cold winter temps yet, but they are coming. The lot had new bales, but both of our guys were tucked up into the windblock staying out of the wind and getting a little bit of sun, too. Leading Bear out of the lot and into the barn was slow. He was super stiff. It is a shame that we had a bunch of rain right before the ground froze, so the winter lot is a series of treacherous, frozen bumps. So that means he doesn't move much right now. Hopefully this weekend it will warm just enough to thaw a little.

Inside he was content to doze while I played around with the saddle and groomed him. It appeared to be a good fit on his back. The tree is a little narrower than his other one, and I was initially worried that it was too tight. But I think it hugs him quite nicely.

In the arena I did a little more groundwork and kept it rather undemanding so that he could loosen up. His legs were still so tight. I figured it would be a slow ride, and I just hoped the new saddle wouldn't bother him any more than he already seemed bothered (physically, that is, mentally he was happy as a clam).

I climbed on, and he was his normal, quiet Bear self. We walked around and he loosened up in time. After quite a few minutes of just walking along the rail it was Bear who decided he wanted to trot. I don't always let him do that, but in some situations I figure if he wants to cruise around a little more, then we can.

So we trotted. Last ride was really pretty bad. His trots were fast and stiff and he was even a little anxious. Today was completely different. He carried his head in a level, relaxed manner and gave me a very consistent and nicely paced trot. At times he would still stiffen up or give me a few fast steps, but it was nothing like some of our past trots, and he always stayed loose somewhere in his body. Outside he doesn't brace much, but inside has been completely different these past few rides. Today it was great to feel him moving freely again.

Turning some easy circles in the sun beam. Also, you can see my awesome new birthday barn jacket.

That was most of our ride. Only forty minutes but we spent most of it trotting around. I worked on reminding him about the soft feel at the walk and also started asking for it more consistently at the trot. We could get it, but it would take awhile. I kind of feel like I'm asking too softly. Maybe a little more firm the first few times would help him realize what I want.

For me, the saddle was interesting. Definitely different than my other one. It is much closer to Bear, which means I feel like my legs are spread further apart (Bear's big right now), and it also felt like there was some more leather in between me and my horse. Perhaps partially due to the twisted stirrup leathers. The seat is hard and firm, which I think I like, but I really just need to spend more time in it.

The plus about being closer to my horse is that we don't seem to have as many communication errors when we are backing in circles or working on a series of tight turns focusing on my legs and seat. This was a little funny since I didn't quite feel like I was using my legs as effectively as I usually do, but if my pelvis and seat bones are more involved, then it might not matter.

So I'm hopeful that this turns out to be a good move for us. It might not be the perfect saddle for either of us, but if Bear is moving better and staying loose and relaxed, then I think it could be a winner. Hopefully it wasn't just a fluke ride.

Another Birthday Ride

2011-12-07T19:12:00.018-06:00

This time mine. Yesterday I turned 31. Things are now slowing down at work and I was able to sneak away early in the afternoon. It was a little cold and damp out, so we had some tea before heading out to the barn. And we also got our first video from Giddy Up Flix. It is basically like Netflix, but with all horse videos. As far as I can tell, they have pretty much every horse related DVD out there.

The first one we got was the beginning of Buck's Making of a Bridle Horse series. We watched a few minutes of that before heading out. It was definitely interesting to see examples of some of the stuff we've been working on. Mostly things with collection, transitions, and getting a visual on what a horse looks like when he tries some of these new things. Buck rides a few different horses in the video, but he spends most of the time on a young mare that has 10 rides on her. She is interesting to watch.

Out at the barn my goal was to keep working on the soft feel and holding it through the transitions up to the trot and from trot to walk and trot to stop. I think I remembered to do it almost every time.

I think. I was distracted by one of my birthday gifts. Robin got me a nice set of spurs with some plain leather spur straps. I'll have to get some pictures, soon. Bear can be a rather sluggish horse at times. We have rides where he is really with me and thinking all the time, and then there are lots of rides where he just isn't paying attention. I always wonder about his past. He is a quiet and gentle horse, and someone has put a lot of time on him, but it might not have always been quality time as he does look for release in places other than me.

So yesday I tried the spurs. And I must say, I was a little gun shy with them. Lately I've been getting better at using my legs for everything I do, but with some metal sticking out from my heels I didn't feel so confident. We worked through some things slowly so we could both get used to them. I think Bear was better with them than I was. He was great at disengaging his hind end, and he really only gave me a couple of surprised responses when I gently used the spurs. But I never totally settled in, so I only used them for the first half of the ride. I will keep practicing, though. As being effective with them will definitely require practice.

The second half of the ride was possibly worse, though. I'm sure Bear was responding to my little insecurities and adding that to the fact that he seems to hate the indoor arena. Oh, and just to play with fit and make sure things were OK, Robin and I changed saddles. She has a really nice saddle, but it isn't MY saddle. As a result, I probably wasn't as smooth and relaxed in the seat department either.

A little blurry. I'm sure that didn't help with my balance, either.

So by the time we started trotting around I had a very energetic, yet stiff, horse. It was really hard for me to get him to stay on the rail and relax. We worked on it for a really long time, alternating trotting along the rail and in small circles to encourage some lateral bending. Eventually we made some progress, but not much.

It wasn't the best ride for my birthday, but it wasn't bad either. And it was the kind of ride that has left me thinking about all the little things I was doing. Hopefully I'll be able to make the next one better.

Back Inside

2011-12-04T19:04:00.000-06:00

I can't even remember when our last indoor ride was. I know we had a brief indoor ride just before one of the ferrier visits, but I think that was back in the early summer.

This is definitely a good thing. I enjoy the fact that we have an indoor arena, but I also like to ride outside as much as possible. This morning, though, it was cold and damp. Yesterday it rained off and on all day long, so the ground was soaked. But it was very comfortable in the indoor.

While tacking up I did notice that Bear was a little tight in his back. I spent some extra time rubbing him down and he seemed to relax into it nicely. But then when I put the saddle on and went to do up the cinch he was really moving around a lot. That is unlike him. He does like to fidget, but never when I'm actually doing stuff with him.

Still, he was in good spirits, and I figured we would just have an easy ride. We started things off slowly by just walking around, then walking the same amount of steps forward then back. We moved into some serpentines and brief neck reining work and he was good with all of it. Robin and Steen were loping circles around us, and we weren't bothered in the slightest.

When we moved out into a trot along the rail we both felt good. He was moving in a nice, relaxed manner and I was feeling great in the saddle. I have long had an overly tight right hip, and for the past week I've been working on it pretty hard. I think I'm making some progress, because I never remember my hips and legs feeling so relaxed in the saddle. I also noticed all this going to the right (our least favorite direction, which is why I started with it).

So I was surprised when we started going to the left that he got a little pissy. I got a few head tosses from him, and at one point I thought I felt him limping. I asked Robin to watch us trot and walk and she agreed, it looked like there was a slight limp.

His attitude was good, and as we walked things did improve and I couldn't feel anymore limping. I didn't do anymore trotting, we just walked along the rail, and I worked on keeping him there with my legs. We made some good progress there. Since we've been doing almost all of our rides out in open spaces, following the rail is not really a strong point of Bear's.

After the ride I gave him some more massages and stretched out his legs. He definitely has an inclination to get tight on the right side of his back, and for a while I've worried that it is related to his saddle. When we first got this saddle back in March it helped quite a bit as it was a pretty big improvement over the other saddle we were using. But in reality, it is not a great saddle. For the past few months my long term plan has been to get a really nice saddle with a rawhide covered wood tree from a maker that has a reputation of fitting their saddles to a lot of different horses. Bear is a very standard type of Quarter Horse, so this shouldn't be too difficult. Now I'm just wondering if I should act a little sooner and get him a nicer saddle for the winter. He certainly isn't getting any younger.

Out of Shape

2011-12-02T19:35:00.000-06:00

Since I fell off Bear almost eight weeks ago neither one of us has been in great shape. I have been able to keep my riding up pretty well, so Bear still got out for some nice walk/trot rides, but we haven't been doing much more than that. I've also been feeling somewhat stale from not being able to lift weights or ride my bike.

But in the last couple weeks I've been getting back to things and feeling much better. Unfortunately that coincided with a vacation in Tucson and Bear had almost ten days off of riding, which also meant ten solid days of eating. Judging by the look of Bear's belly, I'm pretty sure he treated each of those days like they were all Thanksgiving.

On our Wednesday ride he was so happy to be out and about he was continually giving me the trot without my asking for it. And it wasn't the kind of leap into the trot that horses do when they are defiant or pissy, he was just saying, 'you know, we could go a little faster at this really nice trot pace if you like.' So I indulged him. Things were going so well that he started doing these floaty little hops with his front end that felt oh so close to a lope. If he was up for smoothly transitioning into the lope I was going to let him, but things didn't get that far.

So today I was thinking we might get back to loping. We did a long warmup with mixed trots and walks and backs and neck reining and Bear was very quiet and willing. Then Robin and I played a mirroring game where one person chose a gait, when to stop, turn, go, etc, and the other person had to follow. It was fun. Bear was good in the beginning and then his turnarounds got a little worse. Steen was good in the beginning and then he got a little better. Go figure.

After that game we did a little loping. We had a nice trot going and I just pushed Bear into a lope with my legs. He picked it up easily, but I'm not sure we went any faster. We were certainly more vertical, but the gait was so slow I had a hard time getting into rhythm. We only kept it up for a very short amount of time. Robin was laughing at how lazy he looked.

When we tried to do a little more, he was very resistant to picking it up. He felt stiff and just, well, out of shape. Really out of shape. I did get a couple more lopes out of him, but I didn't want to push it. So we went back to other things. I'm hoping to get back to working on the lope in almost every ride. Bear has such a wonderful lope, so it will be fun. But I know we need to work on the soft feel and smoother transitions.

The highlight of the ride was definitely trotting around with me steering on a loose rein with one hand. I do this at the walk quite a bit, and we're getting better at it. Occasionally I'll try it at the trot, but it has not gone well until today. At one point I gave him a strong leg cue to get with me on a turn and he moved into the trot. So I followed that through. He neck reined very nicely and I only had to correct him with my other hand once or twice. Then, after trotting for many minutes I pulled my hand back slightly and sat deep in my seat and he stopped on a dime. I had no pressure on the bit because my reins were so long, but it didn't matter.

These are some of the great things we've been experiencing together lately. We're also getting better at starting from a stop, moving up into the trot, and turning off leg cues. It is really cool. Months ago I thought we were getting along much better, but when I compare that to now, well, it just doesn't compare. Now if only we could both be in shape at the same time . . . .

The Comfort Zone

2011-11-30T20:34:00.000-06:00

We got back into town over the weekend and I had a busy few days with work, so I couldn't get out to the barn. I was also a little tired from all the travel, so I didn't really mind.

Today was a nice afternoon, though. Sunny and not too cold. We arrived and I saw Bear snoozing by the windblock looking large as ever. He hardly even woke up when I was getting the halter on him. Inside he was unbelievably quiet and happy to be hanging out with me. He was sniffing me all over and rubbing my back with his mouth. It was really funny; he usually doesn't do that.

Out on the strip he was just as relaxed as inside. I spent the first four minutes just sitting on him and marveling at how solid he feels compared to Rojo. I'm not a big guy, and I think of myself as being fairly athletic, so I don't cause too many problems getting on horses, but with Rojo, I would swiftly climb on and he would almost fall over. With Bear, nothing moves. He's like a rock.

I spent the rest of the ride working on our usual things. Bear was quiet but very attentive. In the beginning he did exhibit some signs of wanting to get near Steen. The first time he did I gave him a moderate amount of outside leg to push him out and he jumped into a trot. I decided to let him go and he just kept on trotting. Robin said he looked thrilled to be moving around. He doesn't give himself much exercise in the winter lot, so it is nice to know that he does enjoy moving about when I ask him to.

The second time he tried to get near Steen we were already trotting, so when I sharply moved him off my leg he gave me some pissy head tosses. They were more funny than anything else.

Those happened in the very beginning of the ride. After that he was pretty amazing. We worked on the feel at the walk and even a little bit at the trot. We backed a lot of circles and he was really happy with neck reining around the strip.

Towards the end of the ride we were working on smooth trots and getting both big stops and big, energetic starts as well. These came along quite nicely. At one point I was getting a decent soft feel at the trot and then I sat deep and asked for a stop, and he gave me the best stop I've had in weeks.

Robin was thrilled with what she was working on with Steen, and right then she suggested we end the ride. I totally agreed. I think Bear licked his lips for full minute after that stop and after I got off. I think we were both extremely happy to be hanging out together again.

Working with Rojo

2011-11-27T20:14:00.001-06:00

Over Thanksgiving Robin and I got out to Southern Arizona for a week to visit her family. As always, it was a really good time. And we definitely spent a lot of time with the horses. For the past few visits I've been working on getting a little closer to Rojo, my mother-in-law's red Missouri Fox Trotter. He can be a little shy and insecure sometimes, but lately he has been spending more time with people and I've been getting better with horses.

Last May was the first time I rode him. It was only for about 5 minutes, so I couldn't really tell much from that ride. This trip, though, I rode him four times, for a total of a little over 2 hours. And I learned a lot.

I definitely learned that he likes me. He is a horse who looks to his rider for support, and if the rider can't give it, then, well, then other things happen. We took things slow enough that I felt confident, and because of that, he felt confident.

We started by working on getting a soft feel. He responded better than Bear. Of course, when I started this with Bear I had never felt a feel, so I'm sure that was a big part of it. Or, maybe Rojo has been ridden by people who work off feel. Hard to tell. He is in his late teens, so anything is possible.

In the first ride we progressed from getting a soft feel on the ground, standing, and then at the walk. Even when I pushed him into a trot/fox trot (I often didn't know what I had), he would tuck and respond to light pressure. He is very responsive.

But he also feels like something other than a horse. More like what I imagine a giraffe feels like. It wasn't until our last ride that I could ask him to do some serpentines without worrying he would fall over. We did make progress with them, and all in all, it was a fantastic experience riding Rojo for four days. I had never taught another horse things I know. It was fun. I also think it could change the way I look at working with Bear.