At the Barn #58 - Measurements, smeasurements... In the Arena # 116 - As the world turns...

Rundown on the electric project:

Dug a (200 ft x 8 ") trench. Had a trencher to dig the first three inches - the rest I had to hand shovel. Glued and laid conduit in trench.

 

 

 

 

 (So - at one point in the planning stages, I had given an estimate of the length of service wire (pricey) needed to get from power pole to studio. I said 200 ft should cover it. A piece of wire of undetermined length arrived.)

"Should we measure the mystery wire? I have a rolling measuring tool!"

"No - we don't want to unroll the wire. That would be stupid."

Ran fish wire through the conduit. Fish wire got bound up a little over half way through. Had to dig out and cut conduit. Had to unroll wire to push it through the conduit. Measured the unrolled wire. (168 ft) measured the length of conduit laid. (172 ft) Add in what runs up the boxes. (10 ft)

I made a few calls and found a scrap piece of service wire just a minute down the road. Had I been forced to drive 1 1/2 hours to the nearest Home Depot and back...

Upshot on the electric project:

I now have properly connected power to my studio, a couple of weatherproof outlets on the outside of the building, a breaker box and an outlet inside my studio. Running wire, fixtures, lighting on the barn and rewiring the tack room will happen at some point in the future.

It was an absolutely exhausting weekend. I learned a lot about rigging up electricity, and cooperation. While I sure don't want to make the connections at the poles and to the breaker boxes, the rest of the job wasn't too difficult. (And the dogs had a blast!!)

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Val and I had a beautiful ride today. After reading smazourek's thoughtful post about neck reining and dressage, I headed out to the barn pondering turning, steering, reins - neck and not.

I have been taught "inside leg to outside rein." My best understanding is the inside leg gives the aid to turn (and leg yield), as well as something for the horse to bend around. The outside rein affects balance and carriage (half-halt), and stabilizes the neck. While you don't pull the head around with the inside rein - lead the horse by his nose - neither must you abdicate contact on the inside rein - it balances the outside rein contact - "Keep the neck straight!" and creates bend. 

"The rider must learn to guide (or 'steer', or 'turn') the horse mainly with the seat and legs, driving the horse in the required direction, and with the outside rein. Though both reins are an essential part in the "orchestra" of aiding whilst guiding, they play only a relatively small, passive laterally stabilizing, framing (channeling) role of the horse's neck and shoulders. Erik Herbermann

I have not worked much on bending with the inside rein, as I arrived to dressage with a healthy case of "inside rein-itis," which rears it's ugly head when I get flustered or stop concentrating, though I may be ready to experiment with bending now. So far it has been safer for me to do as little as possible with the reins, other than concentrate on contact.

Speaking of contact - I took much more of it than usual this afternoon, with very good results. Val did some nice reaching, and used his hind legs. We had decent forwardness off of light leg aids as well. Val's response to my leg is improving every ride. I hardly touched my whip. For the first time in months we did multiple whole circuits of the arena at the trot keeping the tempo steady and with fluidity. Val was super willing, and the ride was super fun. Love my horse!

In the Arena # 106 - Bareback dressage - it was fun while it lasted + chores get done...

Amidst all of the saddle shopping excitement, we managed to fit a couple more rides in this week.

Wednesday, we worked on building up our fitness with more trot work. I am finding leg aids tricky to apply effectively and consistently (half halts especially) without stirrups. This resulted in petering out / unbalanced corners. I also suffered (worse than usual) from inside rein-itis, which skewed our steering. My big clue was how I kept swinging Val's rump almost into the electric fence. I guess admitting you have a problem is half the battle...  almost getting shocked helps too. Yes - I forgot to turn the fence off before our ride. As per usual, once we got some forward action, the other issues were easier to resolve. We ended the ride on a good note with a series of crisp transitions.

On Thursday I set up a cone course. Time for remedial steering class. Let me tell you, steering works waaaay better when you keep the outside rein contact steady. Being a classic over compensator, when I get rattled and have to think about handling the reins, I tend to abdicate inside rein contact entirely, before (eventually) finding balance. Once I got it together, Val appreciated my efforts and rewarded me by reaching for the bit and smoothly motoring around the cones. For a few minutes there,  I would think and Val would do. Sublime. Then we commenced to do an excellent imitation of a barrel pattern - extreme slow motion style.

Theoretically, we only have one more week of mandatory bareback rides. I'm awaiting, dare I say anxiously, the tracking number of my new Sattermeister saddle. Yes - Sattermeister. Haven't you heard of them? Ummm - me neither. While compulsively checking each and every dressage saddle available on ebay one night, I ran across a pretty saddle with an unrecognizable name. I emailed for extra pictures and asked if there might be another name stamped on the flap. Could Sattermeister actually be Sattlermeister - master saddler in Austrian -  maybe? Email came back with happy gullet pix, and the words Karl Neidersuss 17 W Symphonie. After mulling over it for a day or two, I emailed back offering something between the starting bid, and the buy it now price. They said yes. Who knew you could do that? I'm just not cut out for the stress of ebay auctions.

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Other goings on... I began unpacking and organizing my jewelry studio - finally. And, the seemingly endless search (over a year) for an electrician to run power to my tack room, studio and light pole may be over. Cool - next winter I won't have to shine my car headlights on the paddock to pick poop in the morning. Equally as stressful as the saddle search, and oddly enough equally expensive.

one side hay barn...

one side studio...

piled high...

oh - it exploded!

Made me tired just watching..

us too...

zzzzzzzzzzz...

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 :)