At the barn #42 - Why I didn't ride today (Part 2) or I made the boxes and Val made the dirt :)

Rewind to yesterday evening when blogger was on some kind of fritz, and I didn't get to post this...

48  4x4's cut
4 raised beds
An entire box of deck screws
3 drill batteries - 2 that wouldn't hold a charge + 1 that ran out
2 borrowed drills
5 or 6 new blisters / calluses
3 ticks (pulled off)
2 splinters (pulled out)
+ / - 40 wheelbarrows FULL of composted manure
1 aching back

After losing most of Wednesday afternoon due to equipment malfunction, the garden boxes are finally finished - building, filling and planting.

Some thoughts...
How full can you fill a wheelbarrow and not tip over pushing it up a hill? Is it advantageous to shovel ambidextrously?  (Yes - more even soreness.) Don't get a lady drill (12 volts) - it's just can't hold up to real work. A lady hammer is another story however. Projects always take half again  twice as long as you planned for :)

I'm well past the age when birthdays are a big deal, but yesterday was the best one I can remember. (Of course my memory is not what it used to be...) After a thoroughly pleasant day at work, I headed up to the farmette to finish preparing the beds for planting. Since I got done well ahead of schedule, there was even time for a quick ride before my dinner plans. Dinner was spectacular, and best of all, the chef, a friend of mine, gave me a tour of their new kitchen garden. We made plans for him to come help himself to more of the manure I have stockpiled, and I may have a future customer for produce from the farmette.

Our ride started on a grand note, with me pulling off my first graceful bareback mount - one smooth motion. I spent the ride focusing on the timing of my leg aids. When I gave the aid just as Val was about to pick up his hind feet, we got a really nice reaching big walk. Made some headway with contact, and we had good energy. It had been a week since our last ride. I think we both were glad to get back to work. Well, I've been working my fingers to the bone... Val has been "working" on his subliminal messages about grazing, grass, things to eat that are green...

In the Arena #39 - You're not the boss of me...

We're having a brief window of warmer weather - from mid 20's to the 40's - so Friday was the time to ride, because it's not expected to last. A coastal storm is on the way. Apologies to those folks who live in the frozen north... I know you all have it much worse.

I stopped in at the barn yesterday for a mid morning ride. It was one of those days when Val challenged my leadership under saddle from the get-go. I caught myself (early) getting frustrated, losing refinement in my aids and generally making things worse. I took a deep breath and focused on correctly aiding, making sure to escalate the aid until I got an answer. Val reacts to stronger aids (dressage whip) by making an audibly shocked gasp - which I interpret as "holy cow - she really means it!". This always makes me laugh, which probably helps as much as anything else.

Once we re-established leadership, the rest of the ride went really well. We got some nice halts off of my seat. Maintaining steady / consistent contact with the outside rein is getting easier, and Val moved out well off of my leg with good energy. I rode without gloves and again the contact felt great. I guess I need to find some different gloves that don't interfere with sensitivity in my fingers... any suggestions would be welcome. We finished the ride with the best on the buckle work we've ever done - steering well in both directions and even some turns on the forehand.

When Val and I have started a ride with this kind of disagreement in the past, I have often let my emotions get the best of me, and struggled just to salvage the ride. I'm really pleased with Val, and myself, that we moved forward and even broke some new ground. Yea team!

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Today (Saturday) is our village Christmas parade. Val and I are not riding - the weather won't be fit, I'm sacred of noisy fire engines + kids on tiny motorcycles, and he still needs to break in his Simple boots. Next year Val!

For most of the last seven years my parade mount was Ginger (Virginia Dare), the coolest ever Banker mare, who reintroduced me to riding. She is the reason I'm here blogging, that I'm learning dressage and that I found Val as well as my little farmette. I can't imagine how my life would be if I hadn't met her.

Sadly Ginger passed away this spring as a result of a choking incident, at 34 years old. She participated in every Christmas parade we've had - 15 or so. No matter where she started out in the lineup, Ginger would make her way to the front of the herd before the end of the parade route, passing horses way bigger and way younger. She understood parades, and knew where her rightful place was. We will be missing her terribly today.

In the Arena #33 - The unbearable lightness of being...

Today we had our first ride since returning from the clinic. I gave Val a couple of days off after we got home. He was a little foot sore and unfortunately took a pretty big chunk out of his right front as he exited the trailer. More on that later...

Sunny, warm, and most especially no bugs. Perfect weather to ride. Breakfast, grooming, tack and we were off. I'd be lying if I said that I was a 100% confident about how the ride would go, but much of what I worked on at my trainer's was organizing our sessions, not getting bogged down, and keeping the momentum going. Happily there was no need to worry :)

We warmed up with some work on the loose rein, then proceeded to transitions, turns and 20m circles.  Billie from camera obscura has a wonderful post today exploring the concepts of "on the bit" and "on the aids", where she discusses thinking the transition, thinking your aids, before you act - the result being you can employ the lightest aids possible.

Val and I worked on this idea at our clinic, and again this morning. I "thought" about my turns, allowing only my eyes to go where I wanted us to follow. And voila, a smooth turn with a straight neck and the lightest of aids. Conveniently, this concept also addresses one of my most persistent issues - getting ahead of my horse with my upper body - as well as the ever popular "inside rein-itis", which I am well on the way to conquering.

We moved on the trot. Did I mention that this is the first time I have asked for the trot (at home) in many, many weeks? My last request was met with crow hopping, shoulder lowering and head shaking which I'm certain was mild in the big scheme of things, but still intimidated me. Today's success reinforced that my problems (and they are my problems, not Val's) were due to lack of confidence, persistence and resolve. My request for the trot this morning was met with a lovely transition and a horse who was reaching. Also, I was pleased with the state of my seat... it felt deep and even.

To finish up we did some squares with turns on the forehand at each corner. A funny thing about my horse - I really can't get away with just drilling exercises predictably. For instance, he anticipates our rein changes the moment I switch the whip to the other side. That Val - he keeps me on my toes lol. Extra carrot cookie stretches for you mister. :)

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While at the clinic I had time for some reading. I highly recommend the book "Dressage Unscrambled" by Bill Woods. It's a collection of short essays that tackle the sometimes way too serious world of dressage riding with an entertaining yet informative point of view. It had me laughing out loud and marking pages for future reference. After that I moved on to Franz Mairinger's "Horses Are Made To Be Horses" which I am still in the midst of. This book is included on Grey Horse Matters' excellent book list, found here. Also a high recommendation. Happy reading :)

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Now, back to the missing hoof chunk...

Wednesday was my day to check in with the farrier. Next week makes six weeks, so we're due to see him. Our farrier travels three hours and stays over night to do our horses. I am the organizer of the visits - setting up the appointments and reminding the owners, keeping track etc. It takes a little legwork, and some notice to get everyone on the same page.

When I called I caught him working a horse, so he told me he'd get back to me. Tried him again Friday and still haven't heard back. The following week being Thanksgiving, we'll be on to eight weeks between trims by the time the holiday is over. If I had heard from him while in Virginia, i.e. in a timely manner, I had options for other farriers, which I do not have here at home. Of course this happens when Val has the worst looking feet he's ever had. I'm trying not to be super irritated about the situation.

I did recently order a good hoof rasp. Any advice about how to tide Val's feet over would be greatly appreciated. I am familiar with how to use the tool, just not sure what my goal should be :)

Clinic Notes: Day three and four

Monday afternoon. One of my goals for this clinic was to figure out how to accomplish the warm-up in a timely and efficient fashion, without relying on input from my trainer. We only work with her every few months, so we need to do this confidently on our own. Without spiraling down into a battle of wills or stalled out in one of the corners. Done. Addressing conquering our steering stickiness / leadership issues has made a world of difference.

We moved on to some gorgeous trot work, initially full arena on the rail, moving on to the quarterline and then school figures thrown in. Both directions (!) Everything felt smooth, workmanlike... best of all easy and FUN. We also worked in two point for a while to adjust my ankles and their lack of springiness. Let's just say it's been thirt- (cough, cough) years since I rode in two point. Oh - did I mention that this was done with another horse in the arena with us. A year ago I would have had a total (internal) melt down at the thought of having a lesson with another horse in the arena. A superlative ride. We have come a long way, and I just love my horse :)

Tuesday. I groomed / tacked up a horse for my trainer, then watched her ride for a while. Afterwords we switched off for a longing session. I rode Star, a very well built and powerful thoroughbred mare, with big gaits. Most of this session focused on my position, and how to use my driving aid / legs to encourage Star to carry herself. Another issue we worked on is my (bad) tendency to lead with my chest and get ahead of my horse. Acknowledging that you have a problem is the first step as they say... We also did a bit of sitting trot work. It is very challenging to process all of the information that I get in my lessons, and when we do position work - changing so many elements at once throws me for a loop. It would be interesting to see how my afternoon ride on Val would be affected...


Later that afternoon. Another great warm-up, getting right to work, and again with company in the arena. My seat felt fantastic. Apparently I was able to incorporate some of the input I got during the longing session. Val really enjoyed the extra room he had to breathe since I was not pinching with my knees. It showed in his gaits.

At this point my trainer suggested I try some cantering. We decided it would be best to ask for the transition from two point, coming into a corner, and after a couple of aborted attempts we did canter. I was totally disorganized and frankly - extremely sore from the longing earlier. I elected not to try again, not wanting to open a can of worms with this new step we were taking, that would have to be resolved. I felt a bit like I was being a chicken, but honestly I wasn't sure I could count on my body to do what I wanted - we were getting on three hours of riding for the day. Also - it was dinner time and the other horses who weren't still at work were doing mad dashes, bucking up and down the fence lines. Val was focused and attentive considering the distractions. Instead we worked on transitions and turns on the forehand, ending on a good note. Another great ride :)


                              

In the Arena #26 - Staying put

I was supposed to meet this week's boarders at the barn around midday anyway, so I tacked up and rode while I was waiting. Another perfectly gorgeous day here on the island :)

We warmed up and spent some time with the cones again. Staying even in my stirrups and on my seat took much less effort today (success!). Mostly - I was reminded of how light it is possible to be with my rein aids... it's the difference between the amount of contact in each rein, not strength of the aids. Another thing I need to remember is not to throw away the contact entirely when I am opening one or the other rein. When I got it right, we were turning both directions smoothly and flowing around the cones. I'm constantly challenged by how subtle good riding must be.

Now, for the exciting part :) Val was pretty looky on the way out to the mounting block... and at the far end of the ring, and on the left long side... and in the cones... admittedly it was very windy and the weather has cooled off considerably.  Can you tell where I'm going with this?

Sure enough I ended up riding out two spooks (!) The first one was fairly minor. I put it out of my mind and continued working. The second one was major... sudden dropped shoulder and head with a LEAP to the left, complete with snorting and flared nostrils. Not only did I stay on, I stayed in the center of my saddle and didn't even snatch Val in the mouth.

At this point my legs felt like jelly, but I thought I'd better ride a little more before we quit - not wanting to associate spooking with the end of working, so we walked around on a loose rein for a few more minutes.

This is where riding by myself gets scary. I always carry my cell in my pocket, and I always wear a helmet, but today reminded me that as much as I love my horse and riding, unexpected things can happen.

The best I can do is continue to improve my seat and balance, so that when the unexpected does happen,  I will have a better chance of staying on my darling horse. Keeping fit will help me recover quickly should we part ways and I hit the dirt. And Val won't think about what happened today next time we ride, so neither should I :)

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There were presents for Val waiting on the porch when I got back home from the barn. A new tarp for his "porch" area, and a plush new cooler / extra blanket layer. We got green with grey trim, to match his existing blanket collection. It's so cushy and soft.

The cooler I found at Tack of the Day. Thank you to Gingham at Pia's Parade for the tip about this great bargain site :) Check it out!

In the Arena #24 - A revelation

Saturday was a superb day... got to the barn early, did my chores, groomed Val top to bottom and then had a beautiful ride - our third this week. That is one of my goals for the fall and winter - three rides a week (at least). Now that the weather has broken I believe we'll be able to achieve it.

What made the morning extra worthwhile is that I had a breakthrough related to coordinating my aids... or more accurately I realized that I had mostly been thinking of / using my aids - hands, arms, seat and legs - separately. While I knew intellectually that the aids must work together, a "symphony of the aids" as Erik Herbermann says, I really hadn't had a feel for it before yesterday. There have been moments when it happened, but I wasn't conscious of it at the time. I'm psyched to see where this takes us.

Afterwords, Val got a nice rinse + carrot cookie stretches, and we did some exercises that his massage therapist recommended. She also told me it would be good to use one of those rubber curry things on the under the saddle and girth areas to bring the circulation back. Val approves of that suggestion :)

Yesterday was pretty close to a perfect day. It was everything I dreamed about before having my own horse.

In the Arena #19 - Just what the doctor ordered

Having a (hellishly) irritating day? (lawyers... neighbors burning toxic trash... frustrating clients) My prescription is to head straight for the barn without delay! If mucking, raking and moving hay doesn't heal you, give your horse a long loving groom, tack him up and ride, ride, ride :)

Goals for our ride yesterday:

1. Be in the moment / focus and maintain attention for the benefit of my horse

2. Ride Val like the horse that I want him to be / use the lightest aides possible 

3. Visualization and thought as the first level of aiding

4. Lose my expectations (see #1)

We did some lovely relaxed work: good walk/halt transitions, maintained nice contact, minimal resistance. In the last part of the ride I gave up the reins, halting and turning off of my seat and legs only. It has been quite a while since our last ride, and this was a great way to get back into the swing of things.

It can be challenging to be the only dressage rider in your riding community. "Don't you get bored just going around in circles?" I've been feeling concerned about our (lack of) progress lately. Thank goodness for my trainer and our "phone lessons". She keeps me from getting too discouraged and reminds me (gently) to watch my attitude. Thanks Erin :)