Author: Amanda

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Good, good ride last night. Got there in decent time, groomed and tacked up quickly.

I started out with a bit of an experiment – what I was referring to in my head as the Kinder, Gentler Warm Up. Reallyreally focusing on march in the walk – not caring about bend other than that he wasn’t inverted, or contact other than that I could just feel his mouth lightly. Lots of tapping and really encouraging step from behind. We just kept on walking around the ring, circles, around jumps, until he started stretching into even the very long rein I started with.

Next, trot with the same goal, focusing on my leg and his forward, only light contact and only asking him not to be counterbent, very soft chewing on the inside. He was sticky initially, so I let him canter with the same goal, and he blew out almost immediately; this is a horse who can hold his breath the length of a ride.

Once I was happy with his march and his forward (not without some frustrating moments for us) I started to pick up the reins verrrrry slowly and really ask him to reach for the bit through the trot, then gradually worked him up to a shorter and shorter rein and asked for lift off the inside leg. Nothing truly spectacular but good, solid work.

The canter was the best work of the evening: after all that time to stretch out, I really asked him to step up. Left clicked into place fairly easily, lowering and stretching through his neck while lifting through his withers from my inside leg. Now that he’s starting to let go of his neck in the canter, he’s become quite terrifically on the forehand, which – y’know, technically I should be going right from strength to strength, an uphill forward trot to an uphill forward canter. The idea of a heavy, flat, on-the-forehand as a sign of progress probably makes dressage queens cry. I’d like to see those dressage queens try to ride my horse on a regular basis. As long as I keep reminding him that he *ought* to be using his hind end to spring up in the canter, I’ll accept that for now the only way he can unlock his neck is to be much heavier than is ideal. Once he can loosen his neck, we will put the jump back in. It worked nicely in the trot, it will work in the canter.

Right lead took longer, but I really worked it, long sequences of half-halt/wait, half-halt/wait, kick up off the inside leg but keep him going with the outside leg and judicious whip use. He got there for a few strides and I decided done, but then the trot work was soooooooo good after that that I said, y’know, he’s not quite tired yet.

So we picked up the canter again, left, and came out of the circle down the long side, turned back down a center line, back to trot, then into the right lead canter. Which clicked in even faster this time, and we got a WHOLE CIRCLE and then down a side with him giving his neck to me, cantering up through his withers the tiniest bit, and coming back to me when he threatened to break.

So then we power-trotted on a loose rein, and then we were done, back for a nice trail ride with Hannah and Tucker, and P. and Glory. Even included some trotting and cantering, which I am always reluctant to do on the trails because I don’t know the footing as well as I ought to, even after almost a year. Tris enjoyed it thoroughly, especially the parts where we were cantering uphill toward home. “Zoom, mom! There’s hay in my stall!”

Alas, no riding this weekend, because grad school sucks a lot. I’m trying to put together a good schedule for next week so we can really prep effectively for the show. I’m really not nervous, but I’d like to do well if only for the pictures. 🙂

buck brannaman · natural horsemanship · watching

Buck

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R. from the barn recommended this to me, and while it took me a few days of evening watching on Netflix to get through, I finished it last night. (No fault of the documentary – my life is such that it’s rare for me to get a half-hour at a time to watch TV or Netflix.)

Overall, it was a very well-done documentary that told its story effectively and touchingly. The director seemed to know that Buck Brannaman’s personality was intriguing and charismatic enough to carry the whole film, and let him talk for long chunks of time. He comes across as a truly extraordinary person who’s risen above a horrific childhood to develop a real gift for handling horses.

The second half of the documentary packed more emotional punch than the first half, with two “storylines”: the sorrel stud colt and Buck’s relationship with his daughter, Reata.

The scenes of the colt were utterly heartbreaking. I never caught his name, but he was (is?) a three year old who was pulled from his dead mother and breathed back to life, and the vets figured that he started his life with some oxygen deprivation and brain damage. That’s a tough way to start, but his owner then brought him into the house to bottle feed, never gelded him, and stopped handling him before he turned a year old, turning him out with her entire herd of uncut studs. Flash forward to three years later and she has a horse that, as Buck stated, is as near to a predator as a horse can get.

I won’t spoil the ending of his story, but it was hard to watch. Really hard. Thankfully, no words were minced about how the owner had created the situation and would go on making it worse unless she stepped up and took some responsibility for the danger she had put everyone else in.

The scenes digging into the relationship between Buck and Reata were equally emotional, for a different reason. I was especially struck when Buck mused, watching his daughter, that she was so much like him, and that he was looking at the child that he might have been, had he not been so systematically abused by his father.

In terms of the horsemanship involved, I didn’t necessarily agree with everything he did, but I never found fault with his basic approach: soft, gentle, patient, and unemotional. He was firm when he needed to be and gave when he needed to. It was lovely to watch him ride and handle his own horses with soft, fluid motion. One theme that the documentary hit perhaps a bit too hard was that he was dramatically different from every other horse trainer, which is…not true. Good classical horsemanship has all the same elements he uses. I can appreciate that in the Western horse world he represents a dramatic alternate path, but with a broader lens, he is part of a long tradition.

At only 88 minutes, it’s a quick watch, and it’s available on Netflix streaming. I’d recommend it for anyone interested in horses and horse people.

conditioning · lesson notes

Lesson Notes: Outside Rein

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It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks. I’ve been extremely busy and stressed in the rest of my life, and some of that has bled through to my riding. My last two lessons weren’t great; one was outright awful. Tris is having what T.  has characterized as a “rebellious phase.” We’ve fallen off the edge of the plateau and are slowly climbing up again.

Last night’s lesson was better, though. Tris had his teeth done, and I think that helped him feel a bit softer and looser in the mouth, because he was more willing to work with me than he has been. We even got to some fairly nice work by the end of it, and are slowly touching on good stuff in the canter.

My next step is to really solidify my outside rein. Tris gets so stuck either overbent or stiff as a board that I have trouble feeling that sweet spot, that just-enough-bend moment when I can drive him through to the outside rein. I tend to overcompensate on the inside and focus on that instead of really balancing from outside aids. T.’s new mantra for me is “your inside aids are doing enough.” I’m also working hard to half-halt through my hips instead of using my elbows, which is bearing fruit in the canter.

After a really, really rough patch with the right lead canter we are slowly getting that back. Tris learned a bit of an evasion in flinging his neck and shoulders around, picking up the wrong lead, and then dropping into trot; we’re getting the right lead more consistently now, and I have more ways to fix that problem.

I spoke with T. about a conditioning schedule as well. There has been some back and forth on the COTH forums about conditioning, and I described the two camps to T. and asked for his opinion. My gut, as I explained to him, is that Tristan is not currently fit enough to come off a BN cross-country course in the kind of condition I’d want, so I’ve been doing a schedule that looks something like:

15 minutes brisk walk
8 minutes trot
2 minutes rest
8 minutes trot
2 minutes rest
8 minutes trot
5 minutes rest
2 minutes canter
1 minute rest
2 minutes canter
1-2 minutes loose trot into walk and done.

T. agreed with the schedule. Tristan doesn’t have the base of fitness that many event horses do – he wasn’t started until he was 11, after all – and he doesn’t exactly exercise himself in the field. (T. described at length Tristan’s attitude when others in his field are cavorting around: “You guys, that looks like a lot of work and effort and there is hay, right here, for me to eat. You’re all stupid.” I commented that Tris is constantly saving his energy for when a mountain lion actually does attack, and in the meantime, he sees no point to it.)

Conditioning will also tighten up his ligaments to get ready for the concussion of a XC course, and I’ve been instructed to do my sets in two-point, which will work on my lower leg. I can already see what a difference riding in short stirrups more regularly has made, so tonight it’s a conditioning night in two point for us. I was glad to have my gut feeling confirmed.

We are officially entered at Elementary at the Valinor Farm CT, and will be schooling XC afterwards. We’ll also enter Hitching Post at the end of May at Grasshopper, and are arranging stabling for that.

2012 show season · massage

Mixed Messages

Amanda4 Comments

Good Thing #1: The saddle fitter returned some of my money – my jumping saddle didn’t need to be touched, and the dressage saddle only needed a partial reflocking.

Good Thing #2: I arrived at the barn to see Tris getting the very end of his massage; he was a happy mellow boy. I got to talk to Eva about my concerns, that he had been having trouble with picking up the right lead and that I was getting a bit worried about his hocks. She shook her head quite firmly: his hind end really felt fine, apart from being tight in the hamstrings, which didn’t say to her hocks – just general work. His back also felt great for not having been worked on in so long, so more good news there.

She did bring me over to his right shoulder and point out to me that he was really quite sore in the muscle that ran along the line of his shoulderblade there, and felt that that accounted for the problems in picking up the canter. I asked her what I could do to alleviate that, and she said that with the caveat that she is not a riding instructor, she would stay out of his way and not tip forward over his shoulders when he strikes off, and try to let him reach out more freely with his front end. That made sense to me.

I tacked up and did about 40 minutes of interval work, putting him lightly into contact and getting him stretchy at the trot, and pushing him through at the canter. It wasn’t terribly hard work, and he felt good: springy, smooth, and he picked up his right lead and held it with no problems. Success on all counts!

I spent a while fussing over him and organizing things after the lesson, and ended up talking to T. briefly about my proposed schedule. I was a little sad to hear that he thinks we should get out more in order to prepare Tristan for a recognized event in the fall. Sad is perhaps the wrong word – conflicted, maybe?

My life will become much easier when I finish grad school later this spring, but money and time will still be tight. I’m going to have to work hard to find creative places to take Tris that don’t bankrupt me, or alienate my boyfriend entirely. T. suggested finding places with “structure”; anything where we go and Tris has something expected of him when we get there, meaning not just trail rides but schooling shows. It makes perfect sense, and T. pointed out that he really needs to be on top of his game to get to a recognized, and it wouldn’t be fair to him to push him there without the right preparation. Again – perfect sense. But I do wish for once I could take the simpler route with something…

lesson notes

Lesson Notes: The Thin Line Between Bravery and Stupidity

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T. has been down in Florida living the high life and enjoying the gorgeous weather and training, and L. has been teaching lessons. They teach very different lessons, but both very good. I had been without stirrups for about two weeks before leaving them off for an entire lesson with L., and it worked out okay.

Tonight, I brought my stirrups into the ring and put them in a chair on the corner and told T. that I’d been going without them, and to please order me to put them back on if he thought I needed it – if I wasn’t being effective. He shrugged and said to go ahead without them.

I warmed up at the walk, and then worked a bit at the trot, and then T. called me down. I realized that my lesson-mate was not going to be coming and that I was going to have a private lesson, and as I realized that, T. said, “Okay, rising trot at this end of the ring until you can get your horse more forward. Rising without pinching with your knees OR your thighs.”

I spent the next ten minutes thinking I had done a very, very stupid thing in showing up to this lesson without stirrups, but I was damned if I was going to cave, so rising trot it was. I’m not sure if starting me off like that was a test or just a way to make sure that I wasn’t depending on pinching, but he actually seemed pleased with the work, and Tris did start to move out more forward.

In fact, T. seemed pretty darn pleased with my riding the entire lesson, which was really terrific feedback and validation of the no-stirrup work I’ve been doing. He was happy with my position in the canter, even!

This is not to say I don’t have notes. I also have a homework assignment: watch video of Mark Todd doing dressage on Charisma. I explained that I’ve been focusing lately on not scrunching my leg up to cue aids; when I truly let my leg hang long, my ankles are off his barrel, and I’d gotten into the bad habit of raising my leg an inch or two to cue a leg aid, which was not correct at all. Mark Todd was also too tall for Charisma, so I am to watch and study and ponder.

T. talked me a lot through a truly effective, plugged-in sitting trot as well. Think draping my legs around, think dropping my knees down and lengthening my thigh. We focused most on my core, and he manipulated my body a bit to show me where the power would flow when I really connected the half-halt in through my seat: through my lower back, through my hips, right through to the rein, with no need to lock up my elbow en route. Similarly I am to engage lift through my abdomen and when I really do it right, feel it bump up right against the bottom of my rib cage. For this to be really effective and free, I am to focus on lifting my sternum (my most effective mental picture) and make my shoulders heavy.

I took those ideas out for a spin, and there were whole stretches where I felt more plugged in to my seat than ever before, and as if Tris and I were truly moving together more than I’ve ever felt. I’m thrilled.

Best of all: I’m not actually all that sore. I’ve been trying to go to the gym on non-barn days, and have been targeting my riding muscles specifically as well as a general cardio improvement, and it’s really starting to pay off.

I also gave T. my proposed spring/summer/fall event schedule, and left a check for the saddle fitter. Tris will get a massage on Thursday, his first in quite a while, and then both saddles will get partially adjusted. Then spring shots next Monday. Our first schooling show of the season is a month from Thursday!

lesson notes

Lesson Notes: Sitting Slow

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I’ve had the past few days off, ostensibly to use up some leftover flex days and work on my master’s thesis. I have actually gotten a fair bit of writing done – above and beyond my goal – but I also took advantage of the time to schedule a lesson during the day instead of the evening.

Today’s lesson was almost a jump lesson, but the fence in the outdoor needed a new board, so we headed in for dressage.

I waffled a bit about putting the stirrups back on the saddle, at least to warm up, but decided not to. I’ve been trying to hit up the gym more often and work on the elliptical; the little diagram on the machine says that it works all the right riding muscles. That, combined with a few weeks now of no stirrup work on the flat, meant that I felt more confident about getting through a full lesson without stirrups.

Today was about finding the right balance between forward and too quick. Tristan is naturally a very heavy, behind-the-leg kind of horse. Combine that with the fact that everything we do is a kind of negotiation and it means that I’ve fallen into the habit of nagging him with my leg instead of being truly effective.

So, L. had me really focus hard on what aids I was giving with my legs, when, and whether they were listened to. He got one chance to respond to an aid, and then I made him listen to it. The internet would have you believe that this solves all problems after a few minutes. Not so for Tristan; we’ll have the same problem tomorrow, I’m sure. But concentrating on it at the beginning of each ride will sharpen him up.

He didn’t ever listen perfectly; he’s still not interested in stepping out smartly only on my say-so. But he did pick up his feet quite a bit more – too fast. Because he’s generally so behind the leg, my skill set for riding a quick-moving horse is rusty, to say the least. So ultimately today’s lesson became about sitting slow, using my core to get power and length into his stride rather than simple foot speed, and organizing that with all my aids.

For most of the ride we careened between almost breaking and zipping around, with occasional moments of balance in between. By the end of it, though, we’d gotten closer to where we want to be, and I could feel what I needed to be getting at.

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Riding at Dusk

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Our lesson was canceled last night. I’d had a wringer of a day at work, and wasn’t too upset, as it meant I would get home nearly two hours earlier than usual.

I tacked him up (still no stirrups) and we rode in the outdoor ring for perhaps 25 minutes. Nothing terribly complicated, just focusing on softening and stretching and engaging. We had some trouble picking up the right lead again, but got it eventually.

The most productive bit of the ride was at the end, when I asked him for a stretchy trot. Usually he compensates for that by loading up his front end and trotting more quickly. By sitting the trot without stirrups, I was able to really focus on gathering and slowing him through my seat, keeping my leg on, channeling forward but not fast, while keeping him soft through the bridle. It wasn’t perfect, but we had several strides at a time that were just lovely.

We rode through sunset and into dusk a bit, which made it tricky once or twice to avoid Hannah & Tucker and the jumps, but in general gave everything a quiet, isolated feel that’s really wonderful. I’ll happily ride in the dark in the outdoor if the opportunity presents itself.

freetown-fall river state forest · massachusetts state parks · trail riding

Hacking Day: Freetown-Fall River State Forest

Amanda2 Comments

This winter has been absolutely glorious. Proof that it has been glorious: this past weekend, there was an outdoor jump clinic (will write about that later) and on Monday, Hannah and I took the boys to Freetown-Fall River State Forest.

Hauling out and hacking on February 20. FANTASTIC.

I’m committing myself to being braver about hauling, and Hannah has these wild and crazy plans about doing a Long Distance ride, so we are seeking good, local places to bring the boys to and get in some good hacking. Freetown-Fall river fit the “local” part of the bill (~45 minutes, even hauling) but we were a bit nervous about its advertised motorcycle trails and the fact that it is a hotbed of the Bridgewater Triangle.

Apart from a roving pack of beagles (who were all nice, just very nosy) none of our misgivings came true! Both horses behaved beautifully. Tristan walked right on the trailer – he stopped a few times, but he stepped up when asked, and he never flew backwards. They hauled great. They came off sensible and gentleman-like. They tacked up quickly and easily.

The trails themselves were great. We spent a solid 2 hours walking, trotting, and cantering, and we barely scratched the surface. A fair bit of the trail was hard-packed road, nice for walking but not something I could really trot Tristan on. There were also some lovely technical single tracks, though, and our discovery of the day was a network of glorious bridle trail: perfect springy turf footing that we ran and ran on.

The cutest moment of the day was when Hannah took Tucker for a run up ahead, leaving Tristan behind. Mind, he’s not energetic enough to do more than walk quickly when another horse leaves him, but when Tucker passed out of sight and Tris realized he truly was alone in a cold, cruel world, he let out one long neigh of misery. Luckily for all concerned with his general patheticness, Tucker came back a few minutes later. My loner, antisocial mustang betrayed himself there – poor baby.

Tris was definitely quite tired at the end of the day, and glad to be back at the barn. I left out some bute for him to take a bit of the sting out of his feet and the soreness out of his muscles.

Can’t wait to get back, and if the weather holds, we may be able to haul and hack out much earlier and more frequently than we did last year.

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Ride Notes: Stupid Rain

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The plan was to go for a long hack. The plan did not take the weather into account, and it was cold and drizzly when we got to the barn. I’ll ride through all sorts of weather, but since getting my new dressage saddle I’ve become paranoid about my tack.

Into the indoor we went, to share with four other horses. Despite that, it went better than it usually does; all four other riders were pretty darn self-aware, something that can’t be said for everyone who shares winter ring-space.

Stirrups are still off the saddle, and we worked on cantering more and more. Nothing really remarkable about the ride. We’re trying to find a good balance and straightness in the canter now that I can manipulate it more. Right lead transitions have been getting better, though I lost them for a bit at the end. He was a bit less consistent in the bridle than he has been, which is no doubt due to my insecurities without stirrups.

Ultimately though we finished with some nice walk-trot transitions, focusing on coming up through his shoulders and the base of his neck instead of just flailing into a different gait. ~40 minutes of riding, and then some hanging out during which we discovered that Tris likes cranberry orange muffins a LOT. He’ll try anything food-related once, that horse.

lesson notes

Lesson Notes: Goodbye, stirrups

Amanda3 Comments

I tried an experiment on Sunday. I was feeling a bit slothful and grody from eating nothing but junk food on the previous day, so I pulled the stirrups off the saddle. I didn’t ride for long – maybe about 25 minutes – but it was good. Really good.

So I mentioned it to L. in my lesson on Tuesday, and pulled them for the last 20 minutes of my lesson, and she agreed. Forcing myself to ride without stirrups dramatically improved my balance and seat in the canter, and consequently made him straighten up and pay attention to my aids better. From now on, non-lesson rides will be sans stirrups, and I’ll drop my stirrups for the end of the lesson until I can drop them for the entire lesson. It’ll be good.

My other takeaway from last night was, once again, that I should resort to leg instead of rein when he gets hard in the bridle. We had a long, intense, frustrating conversation about left bend last night, and the only time I made headway was when I stopped thinking of it as a hard against the rein problem and thought of it as a resistance to leg problem.

In a similar vein, I need to work on my application of leg aids. I have a bad habit of inching my legs up even slightly to cue an aid, and I need to think more long and wrapped around instead of bringing them up to put them on. Granted, when my legs stretch all the way long my heels are below his barrel, but still. If I have to bring them up – even slightly – to put a spur on, they need to go back immediately.

Riding Thursday, he’ll get jumped by a lesson kid on Sunday, and then maybe, perhaps, hauling somewhere on Monday? Fingers crossed the weather holds up.