In the Arena #57 - Letting go

Bad weather on the horizon (what the heck else is new) so Val and I rode at lunchtime today. He was napping when I arrived, but roused and made himself available for grooming + hay in the run-in. It must feel terrific to get groomed when you have all kinds of extra hair hanging around, falling out, getting matted up under your tack. And having lunch served at the same time - seems decadent, in a Roman empire kind of way. Dogs have owners, horses have servants as they say ;)

Trot, trot, trot! Posting, two point, sitting, posting without stirrups, loose rein - it was a trot + half halt fest. Val felt it was entirely too warm to expect that much exertion, but we persevered. Worked more on driving and increasing the contact, but still allowing with my hands. This resulted in some reaching, slight but (I'm pretty sure) it was there ;) Also pretty sure I was not always releasing my hands / giving forward in my half halts, or not quickly enough. Whenever I caught myself today I followed up a few rounds on the buckle or very loose rein. In fact, I think blocking with my hands pervaded my ride, as Val offered the rein back (when I hadn't asked for it) quite a few times. Blocking with my hands + off of my seat. Sorry Val! Luckily he doesn't hold grudges :)

I dismounted and prepared to undress Val when it occurred to me - it's warm out, Val is tired from hard work, quiet around the barn... hello - perfect time for a mini trail ride. We walked out to the small arena, mounted, did some circles there and then explored the property. Calmly. Nonchalantly. Pleasantly. Without Val's neck all tight and his head way up in the air on the lookout for imminent danger. Perfect :)

It's not that I think Val is some sort of super hot tb - he most certainly isn't. He can do a pretty good impersonation under the right circumstances though, such as our last out of the arena foray - the super train wreck trail ride. He had a serious case of drama llama going on, and bolted out the front gate almost unseating me... and this was before the ride even started.

I know that Val wasn't thinking of that today. I know it's up to me to forget about it. Every uneventful ride we have brings me another step closer to letting go... another step closer to the freedom of trail riding. *smile*

In the Arena #34 - The art of riding is the art of not interfering with the horse

Yesterday was simply beautiful, once again. We've had a string of gorgeous warm days... time to take advantage. I slipped up to the barn around lunchtime, groomed and tacked Val up. We built on Sunday's work, culminating in trot / halt, halt /trot transitions. More improvement in forwardness and accurate school figures + lots of trotting. Val was blowing and snorting, seeming very engaged during our trot work. A lovely, relaxed ride.

As a result of sorting through photos from the clinic on the previous evening, and noticing my many posture infractions... leaning forward, weight off to the left, twisting my upper body, elbows flapping like chicken wings... I spent this ride focusing on keeping my body centered and even in the saddle. Oh, easier said than done.

I've been reading Franz Mairinger's Horses Are Made To Be Horses, and these thoughts resonated with me:

"The better the body control is, the more consistent the aids will be. Then the horse will learn quickly and the rider and horse will understand each other. The control must be such that the rider knows what every part of his body is doing and every movement must be independent of every part of the body. We do not normally think about what we do with our body, but to be a good rider we must do so. The rider does not have trouble with the horse; the horse has trouble with the rider."

A lofty goal... will I ever get there?

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My farrier made it to the island for our appointment today after all. He complimented Val's fitness and great attitude during his trim. (last visit we had that cowboy come to Jesus meeting) Smile... I love my horse. We have made great progress in the last few months. It's gratifying when others notice too.

 

What is less than gratifying are some aspects of being the barn owner. At the last minute the farrier changed our appointments, making them about four hours earlier. The appointments were originally set for after school, so that Lorraine, Cowboy's owner, could hold her horse for Will. As we were expecting heavy rain later and in consideration of Will's schedule, I caught and held my boarders' horse for the trim, rather than making Will wait while I hopefully got in touch with her mother, who isn't the most experienced horse handler. She (the mother) gave me some flack when I called to tell her the situation. I suggested she might want to thank me, and that first consideration goes to the farrier who drives seven hours round trip to see us, and who has no replacement. Rock and a hard place...

Clinic notes: Day one and two

Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the horse through his glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their having taken form so far below ourselves. And therin we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. 

In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not bretheren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth. 
Henry Beston

We arrived safely on Friday afternoon. Got Val settled in, unpacked and it was time for dinner and a movie. Dinner was delish and the movie - Secretariat - not so much. I won't go into all the things that weren't satisfying - it's very much a Disney movie - enough said.

Saturday morning. Val and I are up first for our lesson. It was seriously cold and windy, blanketing overnight weather and a shock to the system.  We've been spoiled down at the beach - but no matter.
 Our warm-up was excellent and to the point. I handled the entire warm-up myself with little input from my trainer, validating the hard work we've been putting in for the last month or so.

After fifteen minutes of loose rein work and some simple figures we moved on to the trot. Val is slowly but surely reaching and using his back. I focused on allowing hands and driving with my legs - if he ain't reachin', you ain't drivin'! - plus re-balancing with some half halts. My trainer commented positively on the changes in my seat since our last visit (!) We only had a little stickiness, that she pointed out happened when the next student was bringing her horse into the arena. Chalk that up to distraction. I didn't make the connection at the time but she is right. All in all I couldn't have asked for a better start to our clinic.

Sunday morning. Colder and windier. Val didn't notice or care. He really seems to enjoy working, getting playful and sweet as we tacked up. I had more of a struggle with allowing hands, and even weight in my stirrups - sticky hips - in this session. Val responded in his usual way by challenging my leadership. Although I don't enjoy when this issue comes up, I got a lot of good ideas about how to keep it from happening (the goal) and dealing with it appropriately when it does while I'm on my own.

The answer is to break everything down to it's simplest components. If I'm having trouble with the turn on the forehand, make sure I'm getting a halt. If he's blowing through my aids (he was) then really get the halt, not the halt plus one step. I decided my course of action was do as many walk / halt transitions as necessary, gradually increasing the number of strides between the transitions, to get him focused back and listening to me and my aids. I am really happy to say that I worked this out myself, without constant feedback from my trainer.

She reminded me that not only must I allow and give with my hands, but I must also allow and give with my heart. This comment hurt a bit, but what she meant was that Val absolutely knows if I am not trusting in him. Horses know what is in your heart. And (as usual) she was right. I was holding back. As soon as I gave him 100%, he gave me 100%. After getting on the same page we did the most beautiful trot work we've ever done, long, low and relaxed. Smooth round circles. She also stressed that when we are struggling with something, I must be aware when to keep asking versus when Val has given me something - even just one step in the right direction - and therefore deserves to be rewarded. You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em! :)

Sunday afternoon. Time for a longing session. My trainer had computer work to catch up on so another of her students and I longed each other on the students' lovely 17 hand thoroughbred Howard. Very satisfying session. As instructive when you were the long-er as the long-ee. When on the ground I really aware of the way I used the longe whip affected Howard's stride length and smoothness. I had him reaching and using his back which I felt good about. When on board Howard, I was reminded of how far Val and I have to go - Howard uses his back. His trot almost threw me out of the saddle for the first few strides. A cadillac. I haven't ridden another horse besides Val for nearly a year. Getting longed is a great reference for whether you balance on the reins or not. I will say that I was better that I'd imagined I would be. Pleasantly surprised. My hips and upper arms are indeed sore this morning.

Unforeseen horse handling opportunities have popped up :) I had to catch a very wound up mare - who was running her legs off in the arena due to a gate left open. Another student was just chasing her around with a lead rope... not effective. I grabbed a bucket of grain and things calmed down immediately.

This morning two horses appeared on the property and had everyone riled up, running the fence lines.  My trainer took the truck to find the owners and the next door neighbor and I - armed with carrots, hay and lead ropes - rounded the strangers up.

Oh, and Val showed another side of himself this weekend - the escape artist. He got out of his makeshift paddock three times, and had a little middle of the night gelding party that got us all out of bed. We've finally got him somewhere that will contain him. All's well that ends well.

I have some pictures but no cable to upload - so I'll post later. Off to a tack shop (!) to look at bareback pads.