The Month of July So Far

So many things to post about. 

I was riding Ladd regularly at Jean's for about a week.

My mom was kind enough to take photos of us, as she did last year.

Every morning I went and rode him, first warming up in the arena, then heading out on the trails. This is Ladd's tattoo ;)

Last week I rode him a couple days in a row and had good rides, but then Thursday he completely changed. We headed out on the trails, cantering along as usual, but he was stronger than the other days. I had trouble slowing him down to make a turn so we were trotting quickly as we turned, right into a field of freshly cut hay. He sidepassed madly into the field, his legs getting tangled up with hay, and he hopped on his hinds and spun and turned. He was flipping out, for no reason. I mean, yes, there was hay on his legs, but I could feel it happening before we even hit the hay field. I turned him around, to head home back the way we came. He wouldn't have it; he didn't want to go forward, nor backward. He sidepassed the length of the field we had just cantered up, and I decided to just give up and let him cross the field and head straight home; I was trying hard to balance and not come off, and I just wanted him to stop. We weaved in and out of big round bales, and I tried to get him a job to do in the middle of the field, to teach him that his behavior wasn't acceptable.

I tried big and small trot circles, canter circles, etc, but nothing worked. He planted his feet, and spun, and backed up, and rocketed forward, completely ignoring all my requests. It was all I could do to stay on him pretty much. I finally gave in completely and headed back to the indoor, intending to work him there.

He refused flat out to give me any sort of calm walk circle worth mentioning. I finally got off and found him dripping sweat. It was crazy.


Then he was moved to my friend Katie's barn, where we have been riding together almost every day.

This month of July I've ridden him 16 times so far. I had a riding lesson on him yesterday with Karin, an instructor I've lessoned with a handful of times. I left yesterday's lesson feeling bummed about my ability to ride Ladd. I do feel I learned more about how to correctly ride and jump him, but I realize now that I'm more in over my head than I thought. He's not a horse that jumps just because you point him at something; his striding, lead, take off, landing, etc, must be perfect, or else he throws a fit of sorts. He's very in-tune to the rider's body position, and I'm not very good at controlling every small motion that I make. He's a difficult horse, and though it's been a pleasure to ride him this month, I'm not cut out for him in the long term.


I posted two videos to youtube, one of Katie and I doing flatwork at her farm, and one of us jumping. 
Flatwork:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t40JApHryL4

and jumping:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUPI0EHjWvc

I went to my first pony club dressage rally at the beginning of July. I went as stable manager, meaning I didn't ride, only helped the other riders with whatever they needed. It was a lot of fun! On August 13th there will be a show jumping rally 3 1/2 hours away that I had planned on taking Ladd to, but I've decided to take Daisy instead. I'm excited for it! We will be trailering over the day before and leaving the horses in a stable overnight. The jumps aren't going to be higher than 2' for my division, so Daisy can definitely handle it.

This was our club at Dressage Rally: 

I've taken two lessons through pony club with an instructor named Abby who actually instructs hunter-jumper riders. I love her! I'm excited to take a few more lessons with her before show jumping rally; she's very positive and a great teacher. 

Today I rode Daisy with western spurs because she was being incredibly bull-headed. Once I got her through that, she was excellent! I have been struggling to train Daisy to give me specific leads on a straight away, and it's been very frustrating. I was getting the impression that she either didn't understand what I was asking, or knew very well but was just being her stubborn self and refusing to do it.

It was the latter. Today with the western spurs; voila! We have our leads! I'm so excited to say that she totally knows what lead I'm asking for when I press her with certain legs with the spurs on. I don't even need to touch her with the spurs, just their presence makes a huge difference! Success at last. I have a feeling the flying lead change is in the future :)

County fair is this coming week! I will be showing Ladd on English day, Tuesday, and Daisy Wednesday through Saturday in mounted games, western, and barrel racing. 

A fellow 4Her has also offered one of her draft horses for me to show in a draft horse show Wednesday night. I'm going over to ride him today to get to know him a little; the classes are very laid-back.
I probably won't post for a bit; busy week ahead! 

A Bit About Camp & List

Camp was really fun! It's good to be back though.
I had a really really super duper great instructor. I'm gonna miss her.

I worked Daisy with a Kimberwicke until Thursday. We worked on direct transitions Monday morning and they went well. Tuesday we did about 40 minutes without stirrups, and it helped SO MUCH. First we did stretches and things to loosen up our muscles and be more relaxed in the saddle, then we worked on walk/trot/canter a bit without stirrups and focused a lot on body position. It was really helpful, and my stirrups went down two holes; felt good. :) Probably should have done that earlier. Tuesday we worked a little on getting horses to track up, and Daisy actually tracked up! I was really proud, but it gets better. :D

We went to horse pond on Wednesday morning and untacked to swim. Daisy went in without too much fuss. It went down gradually with an area where you were able to stand (the horse could) with a radius of about 6 feet before it dropped off. Daisy splashed through all content and then suddenly she was swimming. She was surprised! She turned around in the water and went back to where she could stand. I made her go out again and she turned back again. On the third try, I was persistent and got her to swim her way for real across the pond. It was a really short swim-about 15 seconds-but I was still so proud that she did it! I don't think she really enjoyed it, but she did it for me and I was happy :). My good girl!

Wednesday evening we jumped cross country. Daisy didn't refuse the first jump, but all the ones after that she did. They weren't dramatic refusals; I think with a lot more leg I could have avoided them, but the jumps would have been messy. She would go to a jump with a really good canter, and then just before she'd falter and die out and stop. She'd stand and look for a minute, and then going back and trying again she'd go over fine. Once we did the entire course at the end there were no problems. My instructor said that she thinks Daisy's a good jumper, she just needs more miles and experience because she loses her confidence and sort of second guesses whether she can make it over by the time she gets there; not so much a fear issue. I was still happy with the ride; she jumped well when she did jump, and she got to gallop a bit and she really needed that :P

I had already said that I wished I could try Daisy in a snaffle, and so on Thursday morning my instructor got me a loose ring, double jointed (aka french link) snaffle bit for her. Daisy LOVED IT. I'm so so happy with that, and am definitely getting one soon. (SOON). She stopped pretty easily; she got strong a couple times, but had trouble grasping the bit I think like she normally does to ignore me, so I think for now loose ring is definitely the way to go (perhaps...one day...bitless. ;)). We worked on extending and collecting strides. It went so well! I got a lot of tips. Once we'd worked on both, we did a cool little exercise. We trotted through two poles that were pretty spaced apart and counted how many strides we got in in between. Then we'd extend the horses trot and go over again. If we got one less stride (or more) we'd successfully extended! We did the same for collection. I thought it was a cool way to check ourselves. I was really happy with how Daisy rode over all in the snaffle.

That afternoon we rode again in pony club games--mostly walking or trotting races. They were fun! Our team won :). The best race involved walking your horse down the ring and stopping at the end, dismounting, and getting down on your hands and knees. There were three bowls, and you had to bend down and pick up a marshmallow in your mouth in one bowl, dip it in maple syrup in the second bowl, and dip in rice krispy cereal in the third bowl. You were of course forced to finish running back with rice krispies and syrup running up your nose :D lol!

Friday was so bittersweet.
We worked on flying lead changes (again in the snaffle). We each asked for the changes over a center pole, working on changing our horse's bend as we went. Daisy made me proud! Better even then some camp horses, she changed both her front and back leads in both directions. :) After we went successfully a few times changing over the pole, our instructor had us aim to the side of the pole, still changing in the middle but not over it. Daisy did it! :D I'm SO happy! I can't wait to play around with that tactic more and be able to get a real cue for it. yey! :D And then she got this shot:


Your thoughts?
I think she looks relaxed and in about as much as a frame as I've ever had her in! Her head is down perfectly and she's truly on the bit, and she's almost tracking up! I think I had her tracking up but she was relaxing so much she was getting dull :P. I think she looks really great! I'm a little leaning forward...but otherwise... :)

Sooo....I need to take note of a few things to remember to work on them in winter:

1. Get a snaffle, lose ring, preferably double jointed (don't wait until winter)
2. Get a dressage whip, and use it to "tickle" Daisy back just below her stifle to get her to engage her hindquarters more. The more she engages, the stronger the muscles, the easier it will be.
3. When extending a gait, widen the hands and run the bit, half halting but squeezing and driving forward with your seat at the same time. Work in the ring extending on long sides and collecting on short sides.
4. Squeeze with legs on the inside of a bend to get her to engage
5. Keep hands higher up to encourage Daisy not to be so much on the forehand, but keep in the inside hand just slightly lower and give small tugs to get her to bend.
6. Work on flying changes, really exaggerating body posture and how it changes when leads change.
   

Can't wait for winter and that arena. :)
Possibly more pictures to come, and more news on Lopez, the camp gelding I used in jump lessons :)

Riding Bubba

Pi π Day

Hello, all!
I actually started a post earlier this week, never finished, and decided not to post it at all :) Sooo I'll just tell you about my day/weekend.

Friday, kids from a trade school in the animal science program near us came to see a sort of presentation of Jean's farm. It was SO fun! We went in the arena towards the end and the kids (okk...so some were older than me :P) watched me and two other people demonstrate all sorts of stuff, flat work to jumping. it was awesome! Daisy was really good. The man who brought them their checked over Daisy's western saddle for me (which I stopped using when white hairs started growing in a little) and he said that it pinches her only on her left side because she's more muscled there and that since I ride primarily English anyway it was safe to keep the saddle; yey!

I rode Daisy today and Bubba (second picture). Daisy was great! We worked on flying changes and I got three good ones out of her from right lead to left; I figure we should start easy and once she starts to get it one way we can try the other :).
Then I rode Bubba, for the first time unsupervised! He was very good; as usual. We kept it pretty simple, working on circles (which I did with Daisy, too) at walk/trot/canter. He's awesome!

Daisy comes home this Tuesday...so we'll begin conditioning on the road again. After these two months primarily in the arena, I can't wait! :)

Midterm Week Review ;)

Bonjour, ma amies! Oui, je prends l'examen francais aujourd'hui. :)
(I know; my french stinks)
All done. Stick it in a translator...or use common sense ;).

Helloooo (in native language)! I should start writing in German...hmm...well, anywhoo. I had midterm week this week, so besides Monday I had the second half of Tuesday and Thursday off, all of Wednesday, and tomorrow I technically have off but I'm going to a pretty longgg choir practice. But ANYHOW, I had lots of fun riding this week! First, we start with a little story from wayyy back last Saturday.

Daisy has a stall issue. She constantly tries to rush into her stall at Jean's farm, and she'll run you along the wall if you don't watch out. Jean doesn't allow anyone besides herself or another experienced adult lead her (besides me, of course) into the stall because she's gotten away with it too many times. She just gets rushy, and it's all Daisy can do to keep herself at a walk. So, last Saturday she was behaving just like that with Jean, and Jean made her walk and got her in the stall, but Daisy was in a big hurry to turn around and get to her hay that she spun so fast she wiped out, no kidding. Jean says she fell over completely, had a sort of stunned look on her face for a millisecond, and then scrambled up. Daisy *strongly dislikes* being seen lying down :P. Needless to say, she seemed a little sore riding on Sunday, but not too horrible. She has also gotten much better about going in her stall, with the help of a chain lead. She doesn't rush in or spin fast at all. I guess sometimes you just gotta learn the hard way ;).

I didn't get to ride on Monday, came back Tuesday and worked her pretty hard at the canter. I've had comments from more then one person saying that Daisy is much calmer this year and collected. She collects so nicely at the canter these days; not rushy at all like last winter. She collects beautifully at all gaits, really. I suppose I should clarify, however, when I say "collect" I don't mean stepping under nice dressage collect (Sheesh...I wish!), I just mean, she's much slower and more controlled. I'm very proud of her these days, with the control and her getting "on" the bit so much.

Wednesday was quite a fun day! A member of the Yautzy Road Yahoos, our 4H club, who rides at Jean's farm received an early birthday gift! She'd been taking lessons on Jean's (technically new) Morgan mare, about 24 years, for a couple months and really liked her; the Morgan is quite showy, and this rider just clicks with her, you can tell. After a bit of grooming and ribbon tying, Jean and I hid behind a feed bin in a stall and watched as said rider walked in to find her favorite lesson pony in the crossties with a big bow around her neck and a sign that asked "Will you be my human?". Of course, it was an adorably sweet moment. I taped it...not sure if I'll put it on here, though. In any case, it was sooo nice to see :). We rode after that, and then went to horsebowl (topic: skeletal and muscular system).

Today was collldddd ( about 12 degrees during the day; 8 degrees currently), and we got a blizzard sorta thing, and after our language tests, my friend and I headed to the barn. We mucked a couple stalls, and then rode Daisy. The arena was loud today with all the wind and snow falling off the roof, and Daisy was actually nervous (which rarely happens). I had to walk her past the shaking and creaking "doors of doom" (also known as the horse-eating entrance) a few times inside before she calmed down enough to ride. I got on, got her a job, and warmed her up and she was ok. When I felt she was doing good, my friend (who's been taking weekly lesson about 3 years) got on. I warned her to stop any time the arena got real loud, but there were no problems, and only one time did we need to do that, at which point the human door of the arena (which is handle-less :P) flung open with a startling noise. Daisy tensed a little and looked up all alert, but she didn't move, and it turned out fine. My friend walked and trotted her, and it was pretty cool to see my horse being ridden from the ground. Two things that really stuck out: her hind end seems to have very little muscle, so she doesn't step under much (however I have been doing the exercises :)) and she has an absolutely beautiful long tail that kinda waves behind her when she trots :). I knew there was a reason why I am adamant about long manes and tails ;).

Also, concerning our goals for 2010 (I haven't forgotten) Daisy can pretty much perfectly do a turn on the forehand to the left, and almost perfectly to the right. Turn on the hindquarters is another story; she sorta does it, but she's confused because she thinks I'm asking for a side pass :-/...And I've been working on flying lead changes over poles in the arena that are set up in a pattern-y-thing (Maybe I'll draw a diagram at some point :P) and she does really well over poles (gets the leads I'd say 90% of the time) but won't do a thing on the flat...any tips?

Alright, sorry this is sorta long...Do you like my new layout?
Hope you're staying warm tonight wherever you are!

Foaming: Myth or Truth?

I've been told a few times that a horse foams at the mouth when the rider has soft hands and the horse is relaxed...question is, is this true? Do any of you out there know (have proof?)? I just wondered...Daisy's been foaming a lot lately, particularly today when we worked on flying lead changes...at one point, so much foam was dripping from her mouth that it flew up and hit her in the face :P.

I'm using a stainless steel bit in the photos above (Doesn't copper make horses foam? B/c I use a copper Tom Thumb for western or a copper curb and Daisy never foamed).
Just a question for thought... :)

Saturday, August 15th, Evening Game Show

Daisy and I went to another game show (Gymkhana) on Saturday evening! We had a BLAST. It was an evening game show, started at 5 pm...we finished I think around 9:30 or 10pm. It's been really hot here this week, so it was nice that it was a little later in the afternoon when it was starting to cool down. Daisy was great; better even than at fair, I think. We didn't actually win any great ribbons (so much so that I didn't bother to pick up the ones I did win :-P) but we had so much fun, and that's what counts. She was SO fast; watch that gallop back on the video up there! What a little race pony I have :-P. She LOVES the games; she really does. Unfortunately, I didn't have it filmed, but our cloverleaf pattern was great this time; normally we aren't that great at clover, Daisy doesn't seem to like it, and we end up doing the majority of it at a trot. Not so on Saturday! She kept up a good canter the whole way, a fast one, and even did lead changes. When we turned to race home, she went ALL OUT. She was hauling like crazy; I don't think she's ever galloped like that before! :-P

Be sure to watch her lead changes in the video up there, on our first line weaving :)...and I thought she'd never do that!