Work dat ass!

My horse and I are both lacking something. And I hear it is the key to all things great. When you have it, mountains move, you may even hear violins...

The result of it is a horse working from behind and you not pulling on reins like some first-day-of-lessons newbie. It's called muscles y'all. I have none and Miss Tea has none, and it sucks.

So many muscles involved--maybe I should switch to trail riding.

Lesson Monday was all about working this issue. Miss Tea is kind of like riding a plank; straight, long and rough. And then there is me; kind of like a bag of Jello, jiggling and wiggling along on said plank. My goal was to bend that darn plank and keep the Jello in the bag!

We started with exaggerated flexion at the walk, inside bend and counter-bend, and once that felt soft we moved on to trot with the same exercise. I discovered her right bend was much more of an effort for her and subsequently for me and my weak legs.

Then the canter. I am ashamed to say both Miss Tea and I can only make it about three quarters of the arena in good form and then fall apart. After two laps of canter (with most of it looking like ass) both Miss Tea and I were huffing and puffing and needed a break in the middle. This is where having a group lesson comes in supper handy--the other person goes out for a turn while you get a nice long break (collapse on your horse and die a little) before heading out for more torture much-needed practice.

We didn't get in any jumping this lesson, but really, I don't think I could have even managed to hang on over a jump by the end.

We ended the lesson with a lovely blow-dry for the girl as it was -10 outside and she was quite lathered from our workout in the heated arena (Yes, HEATED!!XOXO). She had never seen/heard a blowdryer before, but she stood beautifully for it--scared to death, but willing to be good for me--love her!

Now who thinks I will work any of those muscles again before my next lesson? Silly girls, I don't use muscles outside of lessons!

Winter play

This morning as I sat down to start work, I got a lovely little email from my boss not to log on this morning as work was low...you know what that means! Horse time!

When I had fed horses an hour earlier, it was cold for sure, but no wind, no snow. With news that I had some free time, I ran to bundle up and head out to full on snow and wind. *^&%$!!.

Too stubborn to be defeated, I grabbed Savvy girl from the paddock and brought her to the outdoor to play.


Isn't she beautiful!? :)

But even this attention-loving beast was a little pissed at being out in the nasty weather, so I brought her into the cozy little tack shed for some loving up.

So happy to be inside!

And just when my fingers were frozen solid, the sky started to clear.
Right. &*%$ you winter.

Snow baby. XOXO

Marathon struggles begin

I hate you winter. Go away!

 

It is now no longer about my horse's training. Forget the jumping. Don't even think about cantering. The ground is frozen and slippery.


I just want to riiidde!

It is now all about keeping water from freezing. Storing hoses in the house to keep them thawed. Freezing my fingers trying to do barn yard maintenance.


Feeding and feeding and feeding the beasties and swearing at them when they eat the wood fences if there is a two-minute gap in hay being available.




And this is just the beginning! The snow will get deeper and temps will get much worse.

The struggle gets harder and harder every year.  All I can do is feel so defeated today.

Maybe tomorrow I will buck up, bundle up and play with the horses. Or maybe I'll just keep all my fingers and stay the heck inside.

 





Know thy self, know thy horse

Many of us who ride come across times where issues will come up with our horses where we are unsure if we are dealing with a physical or a behavioral issue. It can be incredibly frustrating not to mention expensive to sort it all out. If praying for the anomaly to magically disappear doesn't work, we are left with endlessly analysing the issue in our minds, annoying anyone who will listen with the details and then perhaps bringing in the specialists.

The dilemma is, if your horse is misbehaving, you may need to push through the behavior, but if your horse is sore, you really need to stop and fix the issue if you can...so what if you are not sure?

My Miss Tea has left me wondering what the heck is wrong with her more times than I can count. To my own defense, I am dealing with a hypochondriac of a horse--she can be seriously over dramatic.



Melman and Miss Tea would get along fabulously.

She will definitely not hesitate to let you know she is uncomfortable, and quite possibly dying. When her teeth are floated, she will be found with her head in the corner of her shelter, leaning on the wall, and will not move for TWO DAYS.

If I change her tack in anyway, lunge first or regret my fool heartedness. Seriously. Different saddle = buck. Different girth = buck. Different saddle pad = buck(just to let me know she's paying attention).

I have had this horse since she was 6 months old, and 7 years later, I can say I am catching on to her form of communication. It was actually quite simple--uncomfortable in any way = buck. Great, I like simple math. But then there was the overwhelming task of figuring out what nuances in her bucking style meant so we could possibly, oh I don't know, something like MOVE FORWARD with her training?!

Who me? I don't know what that human is talking about, I'm perfect.

When I was first training her, bucking happened when introducing the canter. Not that uncommon in horses and we got through it after a few months. From there she was fabulous for about a year, and then came up sore. The soreness first presented itself as bucking in the canter. She would initially start to canter just fine, but then it would feel like a moment of panic and then bucking. I eventually discovered it was a back issue and was luckily back to riding after about two months.

Another type of buck I have come to know is the "you are not riding good enough" buck. Usually this presents itself after a jump where my timing was off.

And then the "I think I would rather just trot today" buck where the tail gets involved and she basically gives my legs the finger.

At the end of the day though, I feel encouraged to know I am better equipped now to tell when she is hurting versus being naughty, when to push and when to back off. This horse just keeps bringing on the lessons!

Hear comes honey bee bee

This weekend I attended Diversity Horsemanship's Halloween Fun Show. It was a perfect way to wrap up an incredible year of hard work, successes, fails and progress. I came away from this show with a better idea of where Miss Tea and I are at, and I feel I can move forward with a more clear plan of what I would like to work on for the future.

I started the day off with Hunter Line class (for those of you who say what the heck is that like I did, it is a hunter course with rails on the ground to show how good your lines are and horse's way of going, etc.)

Boom! First class, first place...can you say "sqeeeee"!

Then Hunter Cross Rails...um...went off course. Boo.

Jumper Cross Rails was hot mess because cantering a course is still new to us, but oh so fun! That was followed by Hunter 2' and Jumper 2' where we both improved and managed to squeeze in an 8th placing and a 4th.

Super gorgeous pony being very brave for me over the "severed hands" Halloween jump 

We then had the Hunter Flat class that was huge! I think there were around 16 or 17 horses in it! And I got 2nd!!!!! VERY PROUD OF MY PONY!!!

So then I got to relax and start breathing by around lunch time for the Costume Class. So much fun! There were a lot of really creative costumes to look at. My favorite was the horse dressed as a Pinata that kind of reminded me of a giant snuffaluffagus. :)

 I finished my day with an attempt at barrel racing...more like barrel trotting with a leisurely canter at the end.

This show had such a positive vibe and I was so happy to be a part of it. It was especially fun to watch good friends doing an amazing job with their horses. I'm so proud of them!

I left the day exhausted, so happy with my horse, and pretty sure I have some work to do with canter. Canter departs, lead changes, extended canter, oh ya...and my hands! Still need to work on my release.

stomach flips

I'm not going to lie, these past 6 years have been filled with a whole lot of fear and hard work trying to get rid of it.

Some days, just the thought of riding fills me with dread and I wonder what the heck I am even doing with a horse. Horse agility saved me from giving up. I spent a year and a half building a solid relationship with my girl, working together to build trust and courage and the both of us growing more confident together. It also allowed me to get her out and about, fix the trailering issue with lots of play days, seeing new places and having fun without the stress of "riding".

Just when I thought we were both in a good place, learning to jump fences brought us both back to insecurity, doubt and wondering why to bother.

The most important lesson I have learned through this journey is to trust myself and do what I feel is right for me and my horse. I may not be a great trainer or even a good rider, but I do know my horse and how to get the best from her. She's an incredible girl and will try so hard for me, as long as I am there for her in a strong, confident yet compassionate way and give her time to think things through.

I just finished up a ride this afternoon that made my heart sing. It was just a light warm up, a little soft long and low, easy canters and without any stomach flipping or debate, aimed her at the jumps and cantered around like air time ain't no thing! She even through in attempts at flying lead changes, bless her heart!

There is a fun show this weekend at the barn I take lessons at and I am feeling optimistic. A little scared, but more excited. It feels like a great way to measure how far we have come this year and also a chance to just have some fun and enjoy horse time (of course I am entering the costume class, and yes I am doing barrel racing in an English saddle!). Wish me luck :P

Tuesday Lesson

I have always been leery of addictions. Besides its obvious negative associations I have always simply been too stubborn to allow myself to be seen as controlled or driven by something outside myself.

Horses brake that rule for me. Namely jumping! This addiction is so strong, it outweighs my intense fear of things going wrong and getting hurt.

Last night I felt the high I remembered from years gone by and it happened over a 1-foot cross rail jumping course!

Our lesson began with a course set up, but with all rails on the ground to get situated, work on our lines to and from the jumps, using our space and being good little hunter riders. Then the cross rails went up and we road it at trot, hunter style. My girl did a great job and it was a lovely little stress-free jaunt.

We all were practicing for the upcoming fun show at the barn, and most of us were planning to enter the jumper class as well, so next coach talked to us about the difference between hunter and jumper rounds and how to change our ride.

My first time out was so timid and I missed all the tight turns I was supposed to attempt. On my second try at it something came over me. I small glimmer of the fearless competitive gymkhana girl showed up and off I went! Coach said "ride her like you stole her!" and I certainly tried. :) There might have been some extended canter here and there.

That. Felt. Good.