Sunny Morning

I'd forgotten what a blue sky looked like!  It was nice to take advantage of the morning sun.  Clouds were already building and rain was on it's way so I made sure to get out to the barn in time.  The day before I spent the morning assisting the local horse community in working on our upcoming Equestrian Skills Park!!  Exciting stuff and can't wait to see it implemented!

I decided it would be good to refresh Dani on some groundwork since I haven't been out much due to the rain.  We did some round pen work.  She's getting better on turning in; I guess remembering is more accurate.  She already knows this stuff.

I then reminded her about backing using body language and the stick as a signal.  We also worked on turning on the forehand and then the "salute" as I like to call it where I move around to her outside with active body language and ask her to move her hindquarters away.  She's gotten that down pretty well.

She does it so well that even when I was not trying to move her but take a side picture she would still turn and salute giving me two eyes.  Dani is around 969 or 953 based on the weight tape.  I'd like to get her down some, 900 maybe?  Really there is a place on her shoulder and then her tail base that shows there excess fat.  She's more at a level 7 when she needs to be a 5 on the body condition score.  Hopefully wearing a muzzle during the day time will help and if this darn rain stops I can get out to exercise her more often!

It's so great that even despite the rain she is doing well.  Her legs aren't showing signs of scratches or other issues and her summer coat is starting to come in nicely.  She's getting shiny!  She always seems to get a little darker in the summer and then sometimes has developed some dapples.  Fuzzy or smooth though she's my pretty girl.

What a Boon!!!

I feel special today!  I love watching and reading Julie Goodnight's shows and articles about horsemanship.  She has a great way of explaining things and breaking down issues into "digestible" parts.

http://www.equinekingdom.com/data/education/
horse_anatomy/digestive_system.html

Today, Julie Goodnight posted on her Facebook page that canter was the topic of the day; she and Heidi were working on an article for Horse Illustrated.  Somehow she had found my blog where I posted back in 2012 about the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo.  At the Expo she discussed a lot about the various gaits and I was excited about her input on canter transitions.

As you all know canter is the gait I've had most of my accidents and where most of my fear has sprung.  I look forward to the article since I think Dani and I can work on this very soon.

I have to say though, what a boon!!  Julie Goodnight's post on Facebook sent readers to my little itzy-bitzy blog where I ramble about everything, don't show my horse or compete, and often get off track from purely horsie things (kitties, trailers....etc) but I guess that describes a lot of us huh?  

Thanks Julie for the shout out!  I feel very special indeed and I think you know you have a groupie for life in me.  LOL

Lazy Pony!!

Sometimes Dani will run around the arena with her tail up and all snorty.  Each time I've not gotten my phone camera out fast enough or didn't have my phone with me.  I tried to get her running around the other day but she wasn't really that interested.  I'll get a good video of her prettiness someday or perhaps get a helper husband to film while I get her running a bit.  

You can see how fuzzy my girl is though!  What a silly little pony she is!

I CANTERED!!!!!!!

When I arrived Thursday evening to see Laurie for a lesson she was already in the barn throwning haybales in the storage area.  The smell of fresh hay is always a welcome scent!

Divine and the other horses were in the stable since it had been sort of raining in the area, more so in town.  Laurie had me tack up Divine in the arena since Gadiel was in and having a mare standing in the aisle in front of him would be just too much for the poor guy to take!

I haven't been riding since before the Quintessential Arabians Get-Together in March.  I have yet to go back to Cloverleaf farm for another lesson, honestly I don't want to pay for two sets of lessons, one with Laurie and one with this other gal.  I'd like to just stay going out to see Laurie for now.  Once I get my own horse I'll have to see what happens since I still won't be able to trailer in for a lesson.

It was great being around Divine and she was a pretty good girl, not too fussy standing tied.  I still have issues bridling, she put her head right down for me but the mouth did not open and then I think she got impatient with my hands all tickling her muzzle.  Eventually with Laurie there to work with me we got the bridle on.  I gotta tell you if I find a horse that isn't difficult to bridle all this practice with patience and time spent working with a mare who is picky about the process with pay off since it will be a breeze!

We worked on turning at the trot and going down the center line straight but also making the nice curved turns on each end.  See diagram.  Divine is great at turning left but turning right she just falls apart!

So here's what Divine and I should have been able to do.  Nice smooth curves (forgive the drawing) with easy turns and a perfect line down the center between the green and purple cones.  One time we would turn left the next we would turn right.

Well....here is what we ended up doing!  LOL.  I didn't turn Divine soon enough going right so we nearly rammed into the wall of the arena.  The other turn on the near end of the arena had us going way off course that we had no chance of getting in between the two middle cones!

So then when we were done with that part of the lesson Laurie said "let's work on canter".  I'm glad she didn't say that until then, I would have been tense the whole darn lesson!  No lungeline to be had so it was just me and Divine.  Apparently Laurie has been working with Divine since at the canter she would be on different leads on the front and back and change the back every few strides.  Something odd like that but she's been doing more work with her and Divine has been going pretty well.

So we got Divine going nicely at a trot in a circle around Laurie, to the left, Divine's best side.  As I kept going round and round in the circle Laurie would say okay she's ready, and then I still wouldn't ask Divine to canter....I was almost about to say, I'm not ready but I didn't.  I swallowed those butterflies that were creeping up from my stomach and went for it.  When she was nice and collected I moved my outside leg back, nudged and made a kiss sound at the same time to get her up into a canter.  We went around the circle halfway, maybe even less.  I didn't lose a stirrup and felt pretty good!  Yipee!!!

Laurie had me go a couple more times, each time the transition was better and I didn't bop her in the mouth with the bit, I followed her pretty well with my hands and I think with my seat....especially for being so tense.  I have to say I was delighted for the short canters we accomplished, Divine didn't spook from a stirrup hitting her elbow, I didn't feel out of control and most importantly, I stayed in the saddle.  All in all that's a win in my book!  Hahahaha!

I think that was a big step, getting over the fear of cantering on her, seeing that her canter wasn't going to be a terrible thing and wasn't going to be mad crazy out of control either.  I was very happy!  After the lesson I cleaned Divine up and gave her a couple treats (I forgot to bring the ones we all had made last month!).  Pstar was ever cute in her stall, that's pretty much par for course.  I said goodbye to everyone and then headed home. 

What a great ride!  Not perfect by any means but a nice relaxed canter....at least more relaxed than I have done before.  I'll get there, this was one hurdle to get over, now it's just a matter of getting even more comfortable with Divine and cantering for longer and really relaxing/moving with her.  Hopefully I can get out for another lesson soon!

Julie Goodnight at the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo 2012

I was so excited about seeing Julie Goodnight at the Rocky Mountain Horse Expo!  We went up Thursday night to stay at a hotel and be there for Friday, Saturday and Sunday....well we only did Friday and Saturday.  We slept in on Sunday but that's another story!

The first day we went to Part 1 and 2 of the "Natural Ride"  Julie demonstrated the physics of riding and why we position ourselves the way we do.  It was a refreshing new look at riding for me, at least the way she explained it.  There were two horses and riders in addition to Julie and Twyla.  There was a cute Pintabian and a palomino.

 Julie explained the footfalls and demonstrated her body movements with the gaits using exaggerated movements of her body as she rode.

What really helped me was learning how to feel the diagonal that you are on by feeling the horses outside rear leg as it pushes you upwards...your outside hip is lifted and this is the correct time to rise.  This seems to work better on a curve since that outside hind leg would indeed need to move forward and cover more ground but if you pay attention to the lateral side to side motion you can feel your hips lower and rise with the horse (kind of like you are trotting too!).  I'll have to do some practice!  I wish I had my own horse to practice and feel the trot and know what diagonal I'm on even in a straight line!

Then Julie went onto the canter in another one of her presentations.  This time it was just Julie, Twyla and the gal who had the Pintabian.  They worked on stopping with little rein use, Julie had a neat way of explaining and showing how to really work your seat and not so much the reins.  It's still easier to say than do but watching her presentation and her standing on the ground showing our body positions during different cues was a lot of fun. 

The canter is something a lot of us fear and it often has to do with that first swinging up and then down of the head as the horse begins.  That makes sense.  She stated that you lift the inside rein as you press with your outside leg to help lighten the horses shoulder to get the correct lead.  I think that's the order...see I need to pay more attention rather than take pictures huh!!

Most of what she went over is in her principles of riding DVD set that I plan on purchasing.  I really enjoy watching her show on Mondays so seeing her at the Expo was awesome!  I will certainly have to attend clinics and perhaps at a future date when I have my horse go to some with my horse.  I know that things will come up that I will like to have the Goodnight eye on!  She also has several weekend Yoga and Riding vacations where it's several days of concentrated riding, yoga and good times.  How fun would that be!

I was also pretty impressed that my husband never picked up the magazines he brought to read when "he got bored", he was captivated the whole time watching Julie!  Awesome!!  And of course knowing me, I just have to say I really appreciated and applaud Julie for wearing a helmet during her clinics and encouraging others.  The other riders wore helmets as well, it's most likely a Julie Goodnight requirement!  Rock on!

Courage and the Fear of Canter

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." ~Ambrose Redmoon


I think the hardest thing about fear is facing the fact that you indeed do have fear. I don’t want to be fearful and I don’t like the sense of being out of control, especially being a 30 something adult. I’ve cantered many times on Willy but have had a pretty big spill on him when his canter evolved into a fast gallop. The one time I tried to canter on Millie she did a swift right turn that I wasn’t expecting and then decided I would stay at other gaits with her and forego cantering for a while. Of course I never did end up cantering her!

Even though I had a spill on Willy I still did canters afterwards but stayed within the property boundaries where fences would stop him from the all out gallop. Thinking about it though, did I feel more secure in the canter because we were going up a hill usually rather than being on a flat surface? I know that trotting down a hill makes me a bit nervous, so cantering would as well. Going up a hill is perhaps easier to balance since I don’t feel the pull of gravity so much? Why is that?

I’ve made the thoughts up in my mind that when I cantered on Divine in the ring that one time that I was unseated because of cantering in a circle rather than in a straight line. Now I realize, especially after all this trot work, my seat gets tense in scary situations and that’s why I lose my balance. It had nothing to do with the situation. Even though I’ve had some nice canters on Willy that I enjoyed, there is still that fear deep in my subconscious that I need to bring forward and confront. I need to truly relax while riding and be able to ride up hills, in circles, on turns, straight-aways and yes maybe even down hills (though I wonder about speed and down hills on the poor horses joints!).

So today after I tacked up Divine, with more bridling issues (totally another blog post all together), I got ready to go into the arena with Laurie who had the lungeline out. She mentioned cantering a bit today and I felt my stomach jump at the thought.

We started to warm up with sitting trot and then posting trot. My legs still wiggled a bit during posting trot and Laurie had me work on that a bit. Then it was time to get in a few strides of canter. Laurie told me to hold onto the saddle if I wanted, which of course I did. With an English saddle it’s hard to hold onto it with my short arms, they are fully extended reaching the saddle and I wonder if it makes me tense up but I’m not going without holding on right now that’s for sure! The first couple times were pretty scary; one time around I freaked out and grabbed on really tight with both hands. I also lost my stirrups several times as my legs crept up from tension. Oh if I’d had a blood pressure cuff on!!

I was so scared and frustrated that the tears flowed; I felt so silly being an adult and crying like a baby from fear of a canter. Laurie understood and let us walk a little so I could calm down as she discussed that several bad falls can cause that fear and it’s natural. She related the scary fall Uschi had where she cracked her helmet when she fell. I luckily haven’t had that bad an accident but the fear is still there and is still very real. I doubt anyone who hasn’t had a fall can truly understand this concept.

As an adult I don’t have the “nothing can hurt me” mentality I did as a child. If I think back on my riding from childhood I don’t know if I ever had someone work with me on the painstaking task of seat and legs. I rode the canter and had fun but did have a few falls when things got a little scary. Perhaps I could never truly let go and relax back away from the scariness; grab a hold of my fear and settle back into the gait. That type of reaction is not “natural” so having someone work on me doing transitions, getting to the scary part and working through to a settled and “non-falling off” end is really important at this stage in my riding. I feel ridiculous crying about this fear and the frustration that “I can’t do this, it’s not difficult, what’s wrong with me” kind of thoughts.

 

I just have to realize that whether I like it or not, believe it or not my past falls from childhood and recent falls have stuck with me. It’s time I face up to those fears and take it from step one. Laurie is the best person to be able to help me through this. Look how far I have come with trotting, and sitting trot! I can’t fully xplain the feeling I have at the trot now compared to before. I feel very secure, sure there is room for improvement but I don’t feel a need to grab for the saddle, even when I can on the lungeline and completely hands free. My seat moves with the horse comfortably. I’m not quite as comfortable as I am at the walk, and who knows I may never be, since as gaits get faster there is always that “chance something could happen” in the back of my mind that I doubt will ever fully leave.

After the lesson I gave Laurie a big hug, still crying a little as I recovered being back on the safe ground again. I’ll get there, I will. Starting riding again in my 30’s is hard. I have the memories of the ease and fun of riding from childhood but I now realize that my technique was not sufficient back then and I was probably just blessed with the luck (or stupidity) of youth to not realize it! Now as a grounded adult taking some time to work hard at getting a solid seat and facing head on with my fears, will help me regain some of that ease and fun of riding I remember so fondly from childhood. Hindsight is always 20/20 isn’t it?

“Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow.” ~Mary Anne Radmacher