So Cello is starting to feel less like a free-range buffalo and more like a developing dressage horse. I gave his owner a lesson on him yesterday and it was fantastic. He goes for her much like he goes for me, always letting you know whenever one of your aids is ineffective or you've neglected to take the time to prepare or prevent things. The better you ride, the better he goes.

I rode him today and he was quite good - but hot again. He wasn't hot with his owner yesterday, but he was a bit spooky. They are preparing for a big derby on the weekend so mowing the cross country field and moving jumps and stuff - he notices everything. Also I think he's getting fit and feeling good! His topline is really starting to develop - you can clearly see the muscle growing in front of his wither and along the top of his neck  - the dip in front of his wither is filling in nicely. Also his shoulders, croup, and haunches are getting larger. It's amazing how quickly their bodies adapt to a workout regime!

I switched his bit back to his double-jointed loosering - he wasn't feeling like I anticipated he would in the thicker single-jointed bit, so I switched him back. He feels better - maybe his mouth is smaller than I thought it was. Anyways, he feels better and has more suds (lip foam).

I am continuing with the leg yields on the wall and now from the centerline to the rail, and they feel almost like he's been doing them forever - but they are better off my right leg than off my left - he's a very one-sided guy, his left side is going to be his achilles heel for a while. I am not quite sure how I'm going to sort it out yet. I need my coach to come up and give me her opinion. For now I am just making sure he doesn't show me his right jaw when travelling on the left rein, and making sure to ride him in shoulder-fore at all times, encouraging the left hind to step up and under. I need to think about it a bit more, what exactly I need to do to fix it properly.

He has learned shoulder-in, travers, and also the fundamentals of half pass. I played around with turn-on-the-haunches today, but not an immobile TOH, more of a working walk pirouette. To the right they are easy, going left, not easy. Ugh.

Also, since he was not friendly with the whip when I first started riding him, I have slowly been incorporating it into our toolbox, so he isn't afraid of it, and has learned what I expect from him when I tap him with it. He's not running away from it any more, he just gives an extra oomph to his stride by lowering his haunches and bending the joints more. That was all so I could entertain the notion of starting half-steps with him. Half-steps are fun for the horses - many opportunities to praise big-time and give sugar. Hell, I'd do half steps if it meant I got that kind of treatment!

So I started those today. The way I start half-steps is from the saddle, in walk. I make sure the horse is in shoulder-fore, is round on the outside rein, and feels like he wants to take my inside rein forward and down. I half halt, still my seatbones, bring both legs back from the hip about an inch, and tap directly on the top of the croup with my dressage whip. If the horse goes faster, halt or half halt and bring them back underneath your center of gravity, trying again. They must learn not to rush off in the walk, just to start moving their hind legs, preferably in a trot rhythm, without bracing through the topline. I don't care if they kick out once or twice, trot, bump their croup up, etc. All I want is a reaction from the haunches that does not include bullying past my hand or tensing up in the neck.

Cello was smart - within a few minutes he understood when the little adjustments with my legs and seat meant, and all I had to do was tap once or twice on his croup and he gave a few little half steps. When I trotted a bit afterwards, it felt like a 3rd level trot - he found his suspension and cadence. It felt great!

Cantering was fine today too - I've decided to do walk-canter transitions because that's how I train my young horses and I find it means less chaos, and a simpler way to teach them to canter in self-carriage, instead of on the forehand from trot. I have said before it is much harder to do a good trot-canter transition keeping the horse from getting on the forehand or speeding up, than it is to just pick up the canter from a walk. Cello feels more organized, more supple and less tense when I do this.

So, all in all it was a very productive day! He's feeling pretty good and even the barn owner said he looks much better now than she has ever seen him in his whole life. Granted, he had some not-wonderful years, but still it's a nice comment.

Rode Cello this morning at 6:00 am (before work) and he was hot! I don't know if it was because he's not used to being ridden before breakfast, or if he didn't get ridden hard enough yesterday (his owner rode him) but he was a little snorting firecracker. So, because he gets stiff when he is tense, instead of warming him up going large, and going on circles, I immediately rode him in rising trot head-to-the-wall leg yields, both ways. We just played with the angle and the flexion, and the rhythm and tempo. When he started out he was not supple and resisting the contact a bit, so I stuck him in an under-tempo trot and just waited it out, making sure to ask him to be round with my outside rein/leg, not my inside rein. Doing this type of LY, you really have to be mindful of that. 

Once he startet stretching to the bit and asking to be let out longer in the neck, and started swinging in his back, I was able to let my reins out and adjust the tempo so it was a little bigger trot. He then felt supple enough and warmed-up enough in his back to be able to make little transitions within the trot and elasticize him longitudinally that way. 

The beauty of warming him up like this is that when he's hot, he likes to go too much forward, and I HATE discouraging a horse from going forward with my reins, so instead, the physical barrier of the wall, which he was angled into in the LY position, kept him in check speed-wise, so I didn't have to. Horses respond much better to this in the contact than if you just keep shutting them down, than asking them to have a nice contact. They get confused. 

After that I did some really relaxing, supple canter circles each way, which is coming along so much better now (he's giving me a nice place to sit, and letting me ride both sides of his body). 

Still his biggest weakness is his left side - the ribs like to push against my leg, and he avoids flexing that way. I really have to make sure I always ride him hollow on that side, get the left flexion honestly THROUGH, and keep the connection honest. It's too easy to just abandon the left rein and try to just rie him off the right rein (he can fake it well)

It's been a few days since I last posted an update, and there's a lot of good news to share :)

Cello worked 3 days consecutively during the week, and I gave him friday off - which meant I wasn't exactly sure what kind of horse I would be riding today. He also had shoes put on all around for the first time in a year. He's got pretty nice feet so it isn't a big deal for him to be shod. He's simple. 

Anyways, Since I've started riding him, I never really felt like I could move individual body parts around or manipulate his shape laterally. He always felt a bit hollow diagonally - meaning he didn't really fill up my outside rein (especially the left rein) and give me a 'sweet spot' to connect him. Today, finally, I had him. Remember how I was saying I had started doing head-to-the-wall LY during the stormy, cranky ride in the indoor? Well since then I haven't been able to expand on it because we were riding in the huge jumper ring that doesn't have a rail - it kind of slopes up into some grass on 2 sides, and has a solid, square rail on only 1 longside. The shortsides are not squared off. It's a funny shape. Anyways, you can't do head-to-the-wall LY if there isn't a consistent line to follow, so I haven't been able to keep up with it. 

Today I rode him (for the first time, alone) in the dressage ring down below, and he was *really* good. Granted, he had his little contact blips like he does, but I was actually able to teach him how to LY and to shoulder-in. He's VERY in need of being ridden in shoulder-in position, because he likes to travel with his haunches in and his shoulders out - and that's why he doesn't connect to my outside rein. That makes half-halting impossible, and there's no way to do proper canter transitiont (and get the correct lead) if he's pointing his shoulders outside the arena. So, suprisingly enough (to myself and a couple people watching) he let me into his ribcage to push him up into my contact, and he accepted my outside rein and leg to be able to bring his shoulders in. It wasn't easy, and I am sure there were some ugly-ass moments, but I finally got the positioning that I needed him to be in, and wouldn't you know, the rushing stopped, the contact issues dramatically decreased, and we had some beautiful canter.

His canter was always very rushy, flat, and he never gave me a nice feeling in my hands or seat (or legs, or ANYWHERE) before. But today was excellent - felt like he was swinging over his back, maneuverable, adjustable, and soft. His tempo was so much better and he was really listening to my seat. 

That's another thing I worked on - his transitions are crap. When he feels you prepare for a walk-trot transition, say, or a trot-canter transition, he tenses his whole body, throws his head up, and hops up into the transition. That tells me that he's never learned how to stay connected over his back in the transition, and that whoever was riding him last pulled back (or at least blocked him from going forward) at the moment of the transition. Everyone remember to allow the horse's neck to take your contact forward an inch or two in upwards transitions. Don't ever set them tightly, or worse, pull back, to "keep the horse together" - it will always cause this hopping, ugly up trans. So I worked on that - walk-trot-walk, trying to keep him soft, in the shoulder-in positioning, and not allowing him to draw out the transitions for more than 2 strides. He must immediately react to my seat giving the down-trans aid, and he has to stay in front of my leg and nice and soft. 

Did I forget to mention that? About the shoulder-in part - in trot-canter transitions especially (or any trans, really) I really have to use all my aids to deliberately put him in an honest shoulder-in position, every single time. I can hear Leslie (my coach)'s voice in my head from when I was younger -"maintain the shoulder-in positioning during your transitions to keep the horse straight, his hindlegs coming through, and his balance off his forehand". It's so true, and it is so important. 

So, today was awesome in that he let me manipulate his positioning, I got some really appropriate LY and SI for his stage in training, and he let me push on him when I needed to. I only ride him for about a half an hour every time, and he gets a lot of walk breaks. 

My back's a little sore right now so I may go hang upside down on our inversion table and put a heating pad on it. We did a lot of work in the yard the past few days so that's probably what's bugging it. 

--Oh, someone asked me how exactly I teach the horse to halt at the loose-rein walk from my pelvis only - it's the very first step to teaching a horse how to respond to your seat, and learn to respect it so you're not always using your hands as breaks. 

What I do is walk along nicely, letting my seat follow the horse's walk rhythm, until I pick a spot on the path that I want to halt at. a few strides before we hit that spot, I stop allowing my seatbones to swing with the horse - by rotating my seat up and back, as if I were trying to bring my hips towards my belly button. You can't see it from the ground, but boy, does the horse feel it. if you keep your lower leg supportive a bit while you do it, the horse will step underneath himself into the halt.

When you first attempt it, the horse will probably ignore you completely and keep walking, so within 2 strides of you stopping your seat, if he doesn't respond, you need to say "whoa" and if he doesn't stop in one more stride, use your reins quickly, both hands, check him back like you would if you were about to walk into a puddle and didn't want him to get his toes wet. Back him off a bit. There's nothing wrong with training your horse to be sensitive to your seat - and if all he's used to is your hands asking him to stop, then that's where you need to retrain him. Start using your hand-brake as a correction instead of your main aid - use it as a last resort. It's his 3rd strike. Seat, voice, hand. If you're disciplined about making corrections quick enough to actually *teach* the horse what you're asking for, then you'll see a huge difference pretty quick.

One more win you guys. GO CANUCKS GO!

So today was interesting. It's been super nice weather here lately - about 30 degrees and dry as a bone. Today was a whole 'nother ball o' wax! It downpoured from 12 noon to about 7 pm - so when I got to the barn at 5:30 after work I wasn't really sure what to expect. Cello has never been ridden in the indoor arena at the barn, and the rain was SO LOUD! I tacked him up anyways and took him over to it.

He was nervous and snorty at first, so I handwalked him around so he could get used to the height of the walls and just chill out. I walked him until he started breathing well and didn't have a wild look in his eye. After I got on him I loose-rein walked him around for a bit, and then when I shortened my reins he started to get a little fresh and threw in a couple hops and a buck. Needless to say, I got off and just trotted him around me a bit on the longe and made him do some transitions from trot to walk. He seemed better so I got back on and just put him to work.

He was pretty nervous and fresh - he had yesterday off completely. I just put him into a trot rhythm and established a medium-short rein length and rode him forward into that contact, changing directions often and giving him lots of pats when he relaxed a bit. He was pretty looky.

After giving him a bit of a loose-rein walk break, I picked up the contact and worked on leg-yields on the wall - he's never done a leg yield before (!!) so it was fun to teach him how. Tracking left (leg yield off the right leg) he picked it up pretty quickly and stepped nicely into my outside rein, staying round and relaxed in his back. I have to remember to keep my outside leg on more consistantly in the leg yield. My muscle memory  has some holes!

Tracking right, leg yielding off my left leg, is where he has some stiffness. He's much stiffer on the left when he's working - it feels like his haunches want to fall in, his shoulders want to stick to the rail, and I can't quite get him on my outside rein - but I want to wait a bit to see if it will work itself out when he gets stronger before I pick on him too much - right now as long as he stays reasonably straight and doesn't act like a pig against my left leg I will tolerate it. It's also the side he licks with his tongue when longing - so probably his previous rider was crooked and rode with way too much right rein - and that made him so stiff on the left and not willing to bend around the left leg.

Anyways, I chipped away at the leg yield that way for a bit until he got the idea (sometimes a rider needs to be happy with "winning ugly" for the sake of the horse's mental health) and picked up the trot. We did some trot-walk transitions on the rail, stretched out a bit, and then back to the free-walk.

I wanted him to halt very quickly from just my seat aids on a loose rein, so I worked on that for 5 mins, and now all I have to do is shift my pelvis a bit and weight the back part of my legs and he halts immediately and stands quietly. That's a safety thing for me. Also it sets them up for obedient half halts later on!

Tomorrow his owner is riding him. I hope he's better for her than he was today!

GO CANUCKS GO!

Cello's getting shoes put on on wednesday, which should ease my mind about riding him in the sand and around the property with naked feet. I am paranoid about horses getting footsore in dry, hot climates. It just sucks all around when that happens.

We're also looking for a sheepskin fuzzy for under his saddle as he needs a bit more padding - his saddle fits well but feels like it could use a boost.

I'm going to ride him tomorrow evening, as well as another girl's big warmblood. She asked me if I would ride him one or two days a week to get some things sorted out and put on the changes, so I will if I feel 100% in my back still. If her horse is too bouncy or stiff in the back I will have to decline - I don't want to take chances now that I feel good finally.

Did you guys SEE that hockey game? What the french, toast? 8-1 Boston? That's like a touchdown, a conversion, and another conversion. That's just rude. I'm going to go buy a Boston Creme Donut Vancouver Creme Donut, and stomp on it with my foot. Ugh.

GO CANUCKS GO!

Jun 5'11

So today I rode Uccello for the 2nd time - and I knew what to expect. His previous rider (last year) was a really young hunter rider who didn't really know how to ride him very through or connected. As a result, he started flipping his head, hopping up and down, and being tense and agitated. 

Fasst forward to now: It was my 2nd ride in 2 years, Cello's 2nd ride since October '10 and it went pretty well. He is right back where he was before - with the tension and the head flipping, but I'm not too concerned about it. It doesn't feel like he wants to evade and back off, or anything unsafe, so I should be able to sort it out within a week or so. 

Basically what my plan is is to ride him 4-5 days a week just walk-trot-canter, and treat him kind of like a baby. He's only had a grand total of 3 years under saddle - one when he was a baby, and two as a hunter/dressage low-level horse. So really he hasn't had any formal dressage training, or much consistent progression. He has an amazingly kind, playful temperament, and physically he fits me really well. He's the perfect size. 

Today's ride went pretty well - he's not really sure what to expect from me, so he gets a bit nervous at first when I get in the saddle. I just let him walk on a completely loose rein until he snorts and starts breathing well. When I go to collect my reins I have to keep him supple on both sides of the bit, and remind him to stay forward off my leg, or he gets tense and wants to flip his head. 

That's the whole deal with his head-flippy thing. It's not a contact problem, it's not an attitude problem. It's a body/suppleness problem. If he's not 100% in front of my leg, he kind of tenses up throughout his back and the base of his neck, and then he gets worried that I'm going to "fix" it by tooling around with his mouth. That's probably how it was dealt with in the past - so I've got to make sure that the minute I feel him suck back and get tense, I have to send him forward, supple his inside ribcage with my leg and keep a nice supporting (but forward) contact so that he can go over his back and not feel stuck. 

He feels much stiffer to the left - leans on my left (inside) leg and I don't know him well enough to use my spur or give him a good thump to get him OFF my leg - so I'm just pushing him over gently and taking a nice outside rein contact. Also, at this point my priority is to keep him happy and stress-free in the bridle, so if I were to kick him through on the left I think that would disrupt that. So for now, I'll allow a bit of left leaning, until I can be sure my outside (right) rein contact is not compromised when I go to adjust the left ribs. 

I worked on transitions with him too - he feels like he's used to being abandoned in the contact and just kicked forward in the upwards transitions, and just pulled back on in the downwards transitions. He doesn't really know how to stay connected and supple through the transition yet - bit he is learning very fast and within a few minutes he knew what I wanted.

Also with him, he's used to being ridden very overbent (deep?) and he reverts back to this when he gets tense, if I don't allow him to back off and flip his head. So, it's his safety spot - he feels like he wants to be way too round and low. I don't want him there - I want him as low as it takes to get his back and hindlegs going, but not so low that he's on the forehand and incorrect. It's a balancing act.

Some pics from today? Sure!

1) This is where I want his neck. I have his back (behind the saddle) and he's still lifting through the shoulders.

 2) Just a touch too long of reins here, but his hindlegs are still trucking through, so not a big problem

 3) Not round enough - see his back behind the saddle? hollow. And his throatlatch is closed, neck too short.

 4)Not too bad. Could have shorter reins and push him up more.

 5) Like this - better connection and he's moving forward well.

 6) He's going to have a beautiful second trot - very expressive in front and behind.

 7) I want him a touch higher than this - but this will do for Day 2!

 8) Oops! my correction sucked - he's too high here. See his underneck? bulging and this makes him drop his back.

 9) good bit foam!

 10) This trot is almost ideal. In the pics above I had him too low, too high, and now this is almost just right. Wish his neck were 2 inches longer though.

 11) His canter is pretty wild - He kind of bombs around like a hunter so I need to teach him to let me push on him and then halfhalt the energy back. His canter is big though, he's got an engine!

 12) He's got a funny shaped neck kind of - it's short and has no muscle tone. But I love the amount of contact he is giving me here - Not too much (see the bit rings are not pulling too much) but enough so I can access his hindlegs when I half halt.

 13) This is where I'm going to have to keep him in the canter for a few weeks - This neck length is perfect for  me right now, I just really need to sit back more and shorten the stride behind - he's too open behind the saddle. Good contact though.

 14)I'm just starting to let him stretch here for cool-down. I'm really happy how much he's shortened behind the saddle, while still stretching out and down in front, and lifting through the shoulders. rockstar!

 15) And he gets a big pat for stretching properly - look how round he is behind the saddle, how far under his hindlegs are reaching. I love this horse!

I know I've only ridden him twice, and we are both coming back from long layoffs, and we both have physical and emotional baggage, but I'm happy with today. I got shit done!

That's it for today. GO CANUCKS GO!