Selena Ride 26; Wizard Ride 96: Sticktoitiveness

Monday, 9/14/09

Another dose of top-shelf Jersey weather. Ahhhh!

The horses have been spending all day and night outside and I can feel a difference in Wizard and Selena. Both are more focused and settled.

I rode Wizard for about 15 minutes at the walk. We walked around the property with Mary the Morgan. I did not take him in the arena because I’m still trying to figure out if his resistant behavior from a few months ago was more physical or behavioral. He stood quietly for mounting (and cribbed on the fence- little booger!) and was a perfect gentleman for our walk.

Selena was also fantastic- this may have been our best ride yet. This was our ride plan:

– walk on loose/long rein for 10 minutes
– trot on a large oval, asking for contact and asking for a stretch
– walk and ask for leg yield in both directions, using the wall
– trot in figure 8, making sure to make them loopy without too much straightness at the center
– trot in large oval, asking for a longer stride on the long sides and as shorter stride on the short stride (I hesitate to call it lengthening since we are not at that level)
– ask for the horse to stretch and chew the reins at a trot on a large ciecle
– walk to cool out

I got more bend tonight than I’ve ever gotten before and Selena is responding really well to my half halts, meaning that I’m doing them better. Hooray! I did not feel quite as secure in my position as I did last week, but I think it is because I was doing so much hiking and activity last week. I need to keep it up.

As a final exercise, I lined Selena up with Mary the Morgan, horse show style. Selena stood quietly and sighed as if to say, “I’ve done THIS before, silly!”

I asked Mary’s owner to leave the arena before us to work on separating Selena from other horses. We’ve done this exercise a few times and Selena is becoming more and more relaxed.

Progress is a powerful thing. It makes all the difficult days so worthwhile.

Ride Plan Evaluation Time

“We want to understand the nature of the horse, respect his personality, and not suppress it throughout his training. Then we are on the right way.” -Dedication of Basic Training of the Young Horse

According to Ingrid and Reiner Klimke’s Basic Training of the Young Horse, suppling exercises in the first year include:

1) 10 minutes of walk on a loose rein (or a long rein for horses with poll problems).

2) Rising trot on a circle.

3) Changes of rein in trot: out of a circle, across short and long diagonals.

4) Frequent walk/trot transitions.

5) Trot/canter transitions on a circle (approx. one of every two circles).

6) On the long side, lengthen the stride, maintaining the tempo.

7) The “stretchy circle” (or straightaway), allowing the horse to chew the reins out of the rider’s hands in rising trot.

8.) One shallow loop on the long side.

9) Three-loop serpentines in rising trot with loops instead of straight changes of direction.

10) Leg-yield to the outside (head to wall).

11) Turn on the forehand.

Now it’s time for me to incorporate more of these exercises into my rides. The transitions have been highly successful but I need to do more than my cone-circle.

Riders who may be reading this blog: would you care to share some of your favorite suppling exercises as well as how you design your ride plans?

Selena Ride 12: The Great Outdoors

Monday, 8/17/09

Here in New Jersey, the dog days of summer have been more like medium-sized spaniels. Even the hottest days are not so bad this year. The sun is strong but there have been very few truly unrideable days. Flies, mosquitoes, and ticks are ugly, but the heat itself is bearable, especially since I normally ride at night :^)

Selena’s heat cycle appears to be calming down and she was perfectly responsive and sweet during our ride. I rode her under the lights in the big outdoor arena- I thought about riding indoors but it was too cool and nice outside. There were a few bugs biting but we dealt with it. We did a long walking warmup with leg yields and circles, followed by work at the trot. We worked on three-, four-, and five-loop serpentines, as well as “skinny” serpentines (riding the long sides and turning at the ends).

While I am working on Selena, I am also working on my own riding. I can feel a lot of weakness in my legs and seat, especially when we are riding at a big working trot in the big arena. When my riding improves, Selena also improves. At the end of the ride, I worked on a 20+ meter circle on a long rein, asking for her to stretch down into the bit. It was humorous at first, with her keeping her head the same the whole way around, not taking contact and not stretching. I sat, waited, and kept riding. Kept riding. Kept riding. Seat, leg, hip. Loosened the spine. Aligned the shoulders. Tempo, tempo, tempo. And WHEW, her neck stretched out the right way, down and relaxed.

Hooray! I am getting her supple and she is getting me fit- it’s a good match :^)

Wizard Ride 43: Follow the Leader

Sunday, 2/1/09

The unseasonably warm weather gave me a touch of spring fever. Wizard must have felt it as well since he was a complete mudball when I saw him tonight. I took an Oster Mane and Tail Brush and curried him. He protested the amount of elbow grease I used but not as badly as he has in the past. After I took the crust off of him, he barely looked better, but at least he had no mud on him. That’s the good thing about a bay horse with minimal white :^)

I longed Wizard for about 15 minutes, including 5 minutes of walking as a warmup. We worked on spiraling in and out at the trot as a suppling exercise. At first, he was a little confused and stopped to face me- he usually just goes into auto-pilot when he trots on the longe so the new work was a big question mark for him. Once I refined my commands, he understood and came in and back out onto the circle in both directions.

After longeing, I rode for about 10 minutes. We played “follow the leader” with Christie and Mary the Morgan. We followed about 7 lengths behind them and rode around the arena, walking patterns and between obstacles. Wizard was fantastic- we both responded really well to a new exercise. One of the reasons we did this schooling is because several new boarders are at the barn and I think that we’ll be riding in company more often. Usually, I ride in the evening and we are by ourselves.

Since we were trying new things, I dismounted from the right side. Wizard’s reaction? No biggie- he stood nicely as usual. Tomorrow night, we’re planning a mini lesson with Sarah- I’m looking forward to it :^)

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 :^)