JR Ride 1 (Session 4): Macaroni and Cheese

Monday 2/16/09

JR was kind enough to keep one side reasonably clean after his bath on Thursday. My friend Sarah remarked that his color was so pretty after the bath that he looked like a bowl of macaroni and cheese. Perhaps that can be his jumper show name ;^)

I tacked him up and we did a short longeing session. We worked at the walk and trot. He broke into a canter a few times and I used it as an opportunity to bring him back to the trot with verbal cues. JR is a lot heavier on the longe line than Wizard- it does not bother him at all to pull on the line. I do my best to use pressure and release to keep the circles reasonably round. JR was barely winded when I was done longeing him. He’s getting a little fitter and not getting as excited on the longe line. Hooray!

My friend Sarah rode JR for about 10 minutes. They walked, then trotted a few large figure 8s. She hopped off and said, “Your turn!”

I mounted up and was immediately amazed how sturdy he felt. He’s just over 15 hands but he is so round and substantial that my leg did not feel too long at all.

His mouth is way less sensitive than Wizard’s mouth. He did not mind if I played with the bit at all. I need to make sure I don’t get too handsy with him. He rode nicely in the Happy Mouth bit. It allowed him to keep very comfortable contact but he also had plenty of stopping power. I’m starting to really like these bits.

We walked for a few minutes, and then Sarah prepared me to trot. She reminded me that the first few steps might be a little bumpy because he’s green and finding his own balance. The trot transition actually felt easier than Wizard’s. I think it reminded me more of Alibar’s old trot- very Quarter Horsey. We trotted on a 20 meter circle each way, then rode around the entire arena. We worked on figure 8s and I learned how to work him through the center to help him balance, as well as how to ride him past the gate, where he likes to slow down. The lesson lasted about 20 minutes, which was really the most real riding I’ve done in months. The work I do with Wizard is much more at the walk and our trot work is in smaller bits, but JR is balanced and comfortable enough to start trot work already.

It felt really nice to do some meaningful work in the saddle. Speaking of the saddle, it was sliding to the side! The girth was definitely tight enough but the saddle still slipped. JR has nice withers but he is a round boy. I’ll need to do some tinkering to see if I can get the saddle to sit better on him.

When I was done riding JR, I groomed Wizard and brought him out to the arena to let him loose and stretch his legs. He seems a little more comfortable. I’m looking forward to the farrier appointment on Saturday. Hopefully a set of shoes on Wizard and a trim for JR will have me riding much more frequently.

Wizard Ride 35: Stirrup Kisses and Dumbo Loses the Magic Feather

Tuesday 1/6/09

I broke my sessions with Wizard into two mini-sessions today. I longed him in his new Happy Mouth King Dee mullen mouth shaped bit so he could get a feel for it. Although the bit looked big, the plastic sides actually push the bit away from his cheeks. The mouthpiece itself fits him perfectly. Wizard normally takes a 5 or 5 1/4 inch bit bit Happy Mouth bits tend to need to be sized up so he wears a 5 1/2″.

We longed for about 15 minutes, mostly for a little fitness and to work on our walk-trot transitions. He was the perfect little horse and did everything I asked. I put him back in his stall and he ate his dinner while I watched some other lessons and hung out at the barn with my mom.

Later in the evening, I tacked Wizard up for our ride. For the past 4 rides or so, Wizard has become more reactive to the saddling process. I changed him to a sheepskin saddle pad but I see no difference- if anything, he’s more agitated. Once the pad and saddle are on him, he does not react to the girthing process, which is strange to me.

Wizard is also sensitive to grooming. I purchased the softest brush I could find, but he still flattens his ears when I brush him. I let him give his editorial opinion for many sessions, but I finally had to reprimand him recently. I simply yelled, “ENOUGH!!!” and bumped his neck with the hard part of the brush. He quieted himself immediately and I praised him profusely when he relaxed.

As much as I hate, hate, hate to scold any human or animal, Wizard was simply getting too pushy about grooming. I try to let animals tell me how they feel about things, but after 30+ sessions and with him getting more and more opinionated, I finally had to let him know that this is unacceptable. And he listened with one loud word and a brush bumped against his neck.

After we tacked up, I rode Wizard indoors for about 15 minutes.

We started with Stirrup Kisses, a suppling exercise known by many other names and one that crosses disciplines from dressage to western pleasure. I asked Wizard to turn his head to my right stirrup by pulling the right rein toward my hip, while releasing my left rein to allow his neck to bend. When his nose is close to my stirrup, I release the right rein. Then I did one to the left, reversing the cues. Wizard was quite good at this exercise and even held position on both sides. He’s a bendy guy!

Then we worked at the walk, which felt fantastic. My seat felt more relaxed and I rode confidently. Wizard responded with a big walk that I call The Dinosaur Walk- kinda like this.

The trot was not as smooth :^) Without my Magic Feather (aka my friend Sarah), I could not trot Wizard as well. We also were riding at the far end of the arena (away from the gate and barn) because the arena was watered but had not yet been groomed. The trot was just-OK, but I lost my quiet seat and began to fiddle with Wizard’s mouth again. Argh- SO frustrasting!!! More rushing, less balance on my part. My timing was off. Wizard even broke into an awkward canter at one point when he had trotted himself off balance. Good to know that I have plenty of stopping power, even in the Happy Mouth Bit ;^)

We DID get a few nice moments at the trot, but none nearly as nice as the ones from the night before.

After one last decent little trot, I went back to the walk with Wizard. The VERY good part was that he was perfectly willing to go back to the Dinosaur Walk immediately after trotting. He was relaxed and willing, even after a few clumsy trots with me.

Back at the barn, I worked on Wizard’s bow- he’s slowly learning how to lift one hoof and bow down like a little circus pony.

Wizard has Wednesday off. Thursday night? Another session with Sarah and Sarah :^)

Wizard Ride 32: A Pedicure and a Happy Mouth

Saturday 1/3/09

Wizard had his feet trimmed by my local farrier. He saw good improvement in the feet and was pleased with how they held up. Wizard has thin soles so I expect that he might be too tenderfooted to do a lot of riding over hard surfaces. Right now, he seems just fine barefoot and I plan to keep him barefoot as much as possible.

After his pedicure, I turned him out in the big outdoor arena and did a fun free longeing/liberty session. The weather was sunny and the ground was not frozen. The arena was dragged so the footing was quite nice. Wizard ran around like a youngster and after he got his ya-yas out, he began to longe in circles around me without a longe line. He’s so much fun. My mission is to get this same mood and behavior under saddle. At liberty, he’s like a big Golden Retriever, as my mom remarked.

I longed Wizard for about 15 minutes. He jumped around and fussed at the far end of the arena, but he was in the ring with a silly young Thorughbred who was bucking on his longe line. I gave Wizard a pass. When the other horse left, he longed just fine. I used a mullen mouth loose-ring Happy Mouth bit on Wizard for the first time. Improvement, but still a lot of chewing. My reins are so long that my hands are past the laced portion. He stretches down, but it does not feel like those nice toe-touching stretches that we want in dressage. Then the reins are totally long, and he scrunches his neck up really short and tucked under and then he tenses up and bounces a little bit. I’m trying to just let go and allow him to trot, but it feels so awkward and crooked. I’m sort of wondering if he’s going to do the porpoising thing from Ride 4 again. So part of it is my own trepidation and part of it is me over-analyzing everything.

So we just worked on walking this time out. He was tense and started doing a little bouncing but I got a flat-footed walk eventually. We rode for about 10 minutes. Now that the weather is milder, I’m hoping that my friend can hop on and take him for a spin tonight and maybe give me some pointers.

Here were are. Wizard is chomping on the bit. The rein was looser in the frame before but I’m tightening it here. You can see how low he wants to carry his head. I’d let him carry it that low but then he tucks his head up and I have a foot of extra rein. Also note the neck strap. It’s too short to really help me until we are trotting and cantering.