>I can’t sleep, so…

>…. want to hear about my ride?

It was a pretty good one, although Tucker was a little distracted.  The wind was pretty strong this evening, and my one complaint about my awesome super-sized indoor is that when the wind blows, the sides turn into giant tuning forks and they make this rather loud vibration noise that sounds sort of like the gong show.  (Or maybe more cowbell?  Told you, I can’t sleep.  I’m punchy.)

So every time that noise sounded, Tucker lost focus for a minute. I’d get him nice and straight and then the noise would start and he’d just ever so slightly twist his head in that direction and shift just enough that I’d lose the straightness, or he’d bring his head up to look, and slow down a little, and I’d have to re-establish the forward momentum.  All in all, not huge issues, but kind of annoying.  My hope is that he’ll get so used to the noise that eventually he won’t react at all. 

I wanted to work tonight on keeping him straight, especially tracking to the right when he wants to overbend to the inside, and since I needed to keep him focused, I did this with lots and lots of figures, reverse turns, half circles, big circles, little circles, serpentines, figure eights, leg yields, all the time thinking about turning his shoulders off my outside aids.  I basically need to keep my left leg on, my left rein to left hip, and keep my right hand giving and flexible while I am tracking right.  Since he’s developed a comfort zone of being over-flexed right, I pretty much can’t stop thinking about these aids, or he falls back into the wrong place.  Sort of like when you are trying to fix something in your own position (like my right elbow, which appears to belong to a very perturbed chicken, or a little tea pot). 

I did a lot of work at the walk tonight so that I could concentrate on my position and my aids.  Once I felt my horse start traveling straight, balanced, and forward, I knew I was doing the right thing.  Then we’d move up to the trot, and when I’d lose it, I’d come back to the walk and get myself centered again. 

I’ve also started working a lot of walk-halt-walk transitions into my rides, working really hard on not letting him lean into the bridle at any point in those two transitions, and making him stay connected back to front and straight.  I swear, sometimes I feel like he’s bargaining with me.  “Okay, I’ll stay light up front, but how ’bout if I swing my hips right?  No?  Okay well I can stay straight, but I’m going to fling my head up in the air and get disconnected.  Still no good?  How about hips left?  Really, no?  Okay, fine, picky-picky.  Sheesh.” 

To test the straightness, I worked with a cavaletti that was set up on the center line in the middle of the ring, concentrating again on turning his shoulders and not letting him bulge to the outside to give himself more room (which he does a lot over fences).  I had a breakthrough moment at one point toward the end of the ride.  I was trying to keep him straight, tracking right, and he kept blowing me off, and then we’d get to the cavaletti on the half-stride because he was crooked and it was changing the track and the pace.  I actually said out loud to him, “You know why this is happening right?  Because you’re ignoring me?”  (Yeah, I really do expect him to be able to rationalize.  Yes, I do realize that’s insane.  What’s your point?) 

I came around the next time and decided not to protect him.  THWACK.  He smacked his right hind on the cavaletti, hard enough to make a horrible noise.  I cantered off and thought, well, I guess that’s what happens when you don’t listen.  Amazingly, the next three times he decided he could actually respond to my outside aids.  He stayed straight, and we had no trouble cantering over the cavaletti right out of stride.  Huh.  Lighbulb moment.  I protect this horse way too much. 

Once we successfully completed this exercise, it felt like a good place to quit for the night.  So we ended with our big stretchy trot and I told him he was a good boy.  All in all, it felt like I accomplished a lot, even if the ride wasn’t always that pretty or smooth.  We had some really lovely trotting and cantering moments where he was nicely balanced and straight, made some substantial progress with the walk-halt-walk transitions, and the cavaletti exercise toward the end definitely taught me something. 

Okay, I have a lesson tomorrow morning so I really need to get some sleep.  I’ll be counting minature ponies (more fun that counting sheep, right?).  Hope you are all sleeping soundly with visions of sugar plums dancing in your heads….

>Renaissance Man

>What’s the only thing that could possibly be better than your horse returning a loose baby draft horse to his home, spending 2 1/2 hours on the trails wandering through the woods, galloping through hay fields, keeping his trail mate calm and relaxed, and walking home on the buckle, in a hackamore?  That same horse spending the next day in the ring for a lesson, getting down to business doing some serious flat work and jumping around a 3′ course.  He is truly a renaissance man.  The kind of man I’ve always dreamed of, in fact.  Up for anything, dependable, reliable, smart, brave, honest, devastatingly handsome….

On Sunday we went for a lesson at Alicia’s farm.  I spent Saturday afternoon body clipping him after our trail ride, so he was looking extra gorgeous, all dark and sleek and shiny (another plug for SmartShine).  Before my lesson we discussed my lesson with Sarah, which was very helpful.  (Note:  This is the mark of a truly great trainer who is not an egomaniac — something hard to come by in the horse world.  Alicia appreciates the benefit of getting another trainer’s perspective and wanted to discuss it with me, as opposed to so many other trainers out there who would completely lose it at the thought of their students ever doing anything so disloyal and sacreligious as taking a lesson elsewhere — heaven forbid!  Do you know that some trainers don’t even let their students take clinics?  Talk about insecure… sheesh.  But I digress.) 

We started off at the walk asking him to do some lateral movements to get him stepping under with his inside hind leg in both directions.  Then we did the beginnings of a turn on the haunches.  We didn’t worry too much about maintaining an inside bend (that can come later).  Instead, we started off on a small circle and spiraled it down, focusing on keeping him coming forward as the circle got smaller until I was asking him to turn on his haunches, pushing him off my outside leg.  He got the concept right away and did this really well in both directions.  This was a good exercise to get him engaged behind and coming forward, and light on both reins.

Once Tucker was warmed up at the trot, we worked on some collection and extension exercises.  We would do a small circle in the corner asking him to collect, letting him elevate his frame a little, with a slight shoulder-fore to avoid letting him bulge through his shoulder to avoid collecting.  Then Alicia had me follow with my hands for an extension coming out of the circle (so my hands slid about 4-5 inches toward his ears) and Tucker reached down for the bit and held a longer, more relaxed frame, in front of the vertical and stretching down and out, but he stayed light in front and pushing from behind for the extended trot (we’re not talking about the kind of “extension” that I see in dressage tests here, mind you, just a bigger trot than his regular working trot).  For Tucker’s conformation and build, this is a great exercise for him.  It really makes him work hard and push from behind, but stay relaxed through his back and swing through his shoulder.

In the canter, we worked on getting a similar carriage out of him on a big circle.  Once we had a good, engaged canter in his normal working frame on the circle, I followed more with my hands and used a lot more leg and seat to push him forward and get him to stay engaged but in a bigger canter and a more relaxed, lower frame.  He did the same thing he did at the trot, when I gave with my hands he followed and reached down for the bit but stayed light (good boy!), though it was hard to hold the canter together and not let him get strung out (my thighs were burning!).  We could tell this was really making him work, because after holding this canter for two circles he broke back to the trot right out from underneath me, which made us laugh (“Um, guys?  This is super hard?  Trot now?  Please?”). 

We re-established our canter and then worked on figure-eighting a set of cavaletti, where we had no trouble getting the left to right change but could not get the right to left.  I had a couple of little break throughs on the lead change issue (or, Alicia did but somehow also managed to get the concepts through to me too).  First, Tucker likes to bend right, so when I go for my right to left change, he’s bent right, not straight.  So, when I ask for the change, he just falls in with his left shoulder, swaps in front, swings the hips out and there’s no chance we’ll get a full change. Second, I sometimes try to ride my 17hh warmblood like he’s a 12hh welsh pony.  I stand in my stirrups and lean for the lead change (this doesn’t really work with little welsh ponies either, but I think when you weigh 65 lbs it doesn’t really matter what you do up there).  I also plant my hands on his neck when he raises his head and gets quick for the change.  This move is also known as RVB:  riding very badly. 

We then carried our cavaletti exercise over to figure-eighting a small jump in the center of the ring, landing and turning right, then landing and turning left.  We worked on the same thing, getting him straight instead of bent right.  When he’s bent right coming to the jump, this turns into bulging through the left shoulder, drifting left, landing on the right lead, and missing the right to left change (see how this is all connected?).  When we come to the jump straight, with a little counterbend out of the turn, he stays straight to the fence, the distance works out better, and he’s more likely to land his lead in the direction we’re going, or get his right to left change.  (Remember that line from Cocktail with Tom Cruise?  “Light dawns on marble head!”)

Next we jumped this same fence bending left 5 strides to another small vertical, landing right.  I find these short bending lines exceedingly difficult, even when the jumps are itty bitty.  HP’s do bending lines in 10 strides, across the entire diagonal of a huge hunter ring, where you have plenty of room to find your track and get straight for the last few strides.  5 stride bending lines make us nauseous.  You have to count and turn at the same time.  It’s madness.  So, the first time we did it in 6 (we got a little, er, lost).  Then I came through the turn to the first fence with more pace (reminder from previous lessons — jump in with more pace if we want more pace in the line itself) and we got 5, but jumped out huge (I thought there was one more, he didn’t).  The next time, Tucker knew where we were going and helped me out a little (this horse is going straight to heaven one day), so we did it a little more directly and the 5 worked out perfectly.

Lastly, we did some course work.  Started out with the bending line in 5, landing right, then long approach to a single 3′ oxer on the outside off the right, then the triple (vertical-oxer-vertical) across the diagonal, landing left, and then a forward 6 down the outside line, vertical to oxer.  As opposed to my last couple of lessons, this time we did the triple in a collected four to a forward three, and the last vertical was set at 3’3″ (the rest of the line was around 2’6″/2’9″).  The first time the bending 5 was great, but the outside oxer was a little tight.  I have a bad habit of taking my leg off when I see the distance, instead of keeping my leg on and stay still.  But, because he backed himself off and I stayed back with my upper body, he jumped it well anyway.  We landed left and missed the change, so I did a small circle (which was part of the plan) and asked for a little counter-bend on the way in to the triple.  We jumped in quietly, put in the four strides neatly, and then I gave him a big release in the air over the oxer, landed sending him forward, kept my arms following and my leg on, and he made it there in three strides easily.  Then, since I knew that the last line was forward and he landed forward, I tried to maintain that pace all the way around the corner and the six was beautiful.  I’m starting to realize that I can actually signal in the air when I want him to land forward through how much of a release I give him:  I can either land with a little feel or land with a following hand and almost no contact at all, and that changes how big his first landing stride is (I think I used to know this, once upon a time, and I’m re-figuring it out).

We did this course twice more and each time it got a little smoother.  I was so pleased with his adjustability.  He had to stay collected for the five stride bending line, then get a good, steady rhythm to the oxer, then collect for the four, move up for the three, and go forward for the six.  I never would have thought he’d be adjustable enough to do a collected four to a forward three in the same line, that was such a huge accomplishment for him.  We finished by doing the oxer just one more time and I changed my track a little to get a slightly better distance, which we did.  He jumped it fabulously, and then we landed left and I remembered to lift my hand when I asked for the lead change and I got it.  Love ending on that note!

>Fun with Gymnastics and Success with Collection

>Sunday was my first day shipping back to Alicia’s for a lesson and it went very well.  Since Tucker has lived there for two years, he wasn’t at all fresh or nervous.  He was very relaxed and really worked hard for me.  Alicia rode him on Friday night (which always helps), but this time as an extra bonus I was around to see her work with him, which always teaches me a lot.  I got to see how he moves laterally when he’s engaged and crossing over with his hind end, how he looks when he’s travelling straight, and watch his canter go from forward to collected but stay engaged.  For some reason seeing it makes it easier to replicate, it’s like envisioning what I’m asking him to do makes my aids a little clearer.

So, the flat work portion of our Sunday lesson was very good.  He was straight and forward (for the most part) at the trot.  We worked on asking him to straighten off of my outside aids (instead of popping his shoulder) but not letting him counterbend, so that he held a correct inside bend while staying straight, instead of just switching the bend.  We did some shoulder-ins, at the posting trot, and they were very good.  Alicia pointed out that my right hand was blocking his forward movement because I was burying it in his wither as I applied more contact, so I concentrated on keeping my right elbow at my side and my right hand elevated, and the shoulder-ins tracking left got so much better.  I was very pleased to figure this piece out, since I had a hard time with shoulder-ins on my own on Saturday.  His canter in both directions felt wonderful today.  He was forward and engaged and stayed really soft the whole time.  And… we got a clean lead change, left-to-right.  What a good boy!

Then we worked on the above gymnastic, which included Tucker’s first time jumping a bounce. (!)  It started out as a ground rail, 9 feet to a 2′ vertical, 10 feet to another 2′ vertical (the bounce), then 18 feet to another ground rail (which later became the oxer you see in the photo), with a placement rail halfway in between.  The first time through the bounce he rushed a little, but I worked on staying relaxed and getting a slow, collected trot coming in, and it got better and better.  Then the last ground rail became a vertical, and then an oxer (around 3′).  The first time through when he saw the new element he sped up, but each time he got better and better about collecting his stride to fit into the 18-foot one stride (which, for those of you who don’t jump, is a very collected one stride.  They’re typically more like 21-24 feet long).

I love gymnastics because I get to concentrate on my position (plus, they’re really fun!).  Alicia had me spread my hands wide in the air, for an automatic release, which forces you to balance on your own without leaning on the horse’s neck.  This really helps me — it gets my weight in my heels and keeps my upper body following the motion instead of getting ahead.  I had to work on keeping my back flat, not rounded.  When I first concentrated on keeping my back flat, I opened my upper body too soon over the oxer, instead of staying in jumping position until he landed from the jump. The next time, I stayed closed, but my back rounded.  Then I finally put them both together and kept my back flat and upper body closed until landing, and could really feel the difference in how he jumped.  Amazing how much our position changes their way of going.

Then we added a fourth element, two strides to a 3′ vertical (a little hard to see in the photo above because the rails are dark).  The two stride was set about 3 feet shorter than normal (about 33 feet instead of 36), so he had to maintain the same collection he had through the bounce and the one stride.  When that went well, we kept going to the triple on the diagonal (the same one we worked on last week, collected four strides to another collected four strides).  The first time through, I asked him to wait in the first four, and he blew me off and ended up on top of the middle oxer.  He seemed to realize his mistake and wait for further instruction in the second four, where I had to close my leg and tell him to keep going.

Then we went back to the gymnastic and through the triple again a few more times, and each time the triple got progressively better.  The last time through the triple, in the second four, he was so correct with his collection.  He shortened his step without losing impulsion, instead of just slowing down.  I sat a little deeper, closed my leg and hand, and actually felt him compress, but the canter stayed engaged, his front end was light (yay for flatwork paying off!), and the jump was lovely and soft. 

The last three times through the gymnastic though, we had a major left drift between the oxer and the last vertical (common Tucker strategy for giving himself more room).  The drift was actually happening in the air over the oxer, he’d leave from the middle and jump to the left, so we’d land and I’d have to veer him back to the right to get to the vertical.  Alicia pointed out that he was taking advantage of the spread hands and automatic release, so the last time through I kept my hands together and he was perfectly straight (so happy the flatwork is translating to the jumping, finally).  Since I had done all that work with the automatic release, my hands were together but I wasn’t leaning on his neck, so my balance was more secure, and he jumped a lot softer and rounder.  I have to remember that feeling for my next few jumping sessions. 

Then we headed back home and I wrapped his legs up for the night with some sore-no-more, cleaned my tack, and put fresh bedding in my trailer.  And took a few more shots of my handsome boy, this time with a real camera, instead of the camera phone (laser beam eyes set to “off”). 

Just a question:  How can you possibly resist this face?  I don’t know how anyone could help but fall in love with him.  I certainly can’t.  I absolutely melt every time I see him. 



>"Finding a Distance"

>There is a great thread on COTH right now about how to let the horse find his own distances, though I fear that it may be about to spiral downward into an online cat fight due to a snarky comment or two.  Regardless, there is some great advice there about establishing a good canter and then letting the horse find the distance himself, so ignore the snarkiness and have a look. 

I’ve been working really hard on this, because I feel like I am on the brink of getting it…  I’m slowly clearing the cobwebs out of my mind…  Starting to get a complete picture of what I’m supposed to be doing rather than watching vague concepts float around in my brain…  Feels as thought it’s just slightly out of my reach… but I can almost get a finger tip on it if I stretch up on my tippy toes…

Here are the things I’ve pieced together (also known as, the things Alicia has been repeating to me for a couple of years now, that may finally be starting to sink in):

• Pace is the key.  Establishing a good, forward canter rhythm, and not letting it change on the way to the jump, is really what it’s all about.  I’ve learned that I am a slow poke by nature.  Whenever I think I have a good canter, I need to send him forward.  When he feels like he’s going too fast, that’s just about right.
• From a forward rhythm, the horse has plenty of good options.  If he’s engaged and moving forward, he can easily extend his stride a hair to make the long one not so long, or he can balance on his hind end if it’s going to be a little tight.  Most of the time though, it comes up right out of stride if the pace is good, which to me says that the horse is rating himself and finding his own take off point.  If he’s crawling to the jump, it’s either the ugly chip, the long-and-weak, or chase the last three strides to get there (which typically sends us into orbit). 
• Straightness is the second most important issue, if not equally important.  If your horse bows out, drifts to one side, bulges through a shoulder, swings his hips out, etc., that’s going to change your track and make the distance that you both saw out of the corner suddenly become miles away.  I know this because it’s one of my favorite ways to screw up the long approach to the single diagonal oxer. 
• The rider needs to support, but not micromanage.  This means neither extreme will work.  The rider can’t pick-pick-pick, change her mind, or shout out seven different directions three strides out from the fence.  (That last one typically causes Tucker to roll his eyes at me in disgust.)  On the flipside of that coin, the rider can’t sit there and do nothing.  Supporting leg, supporting seat (whether that’s a half seat or a deeper seat), and a light contact are still necessary.  Staring up at the treeline, taking your leg off, and leaning forward toward the jump is utterly unhelpful.  Trust me, I know these things.
• Lastly, the horse needs you to hold your position still.  If you start moving around, it’s going to change his rhythm or track.  Plus, a good position will hide a multitude of sins.  When my shoulders are back, my hand is up and following, my knees aren’t pinching, and my weight is in my heels, Tucker can pretty much make any distance look okay.  Even if it’s a chip, if I hold a good position and stay the heck out of his way, he’ll still jump it pretty well.  Conversely, if I climb up his neck, stand on my toes, lean off to one side, and shove my elbows out (picture a drunken chicken trying to peer over a fence), I can almost guarantee that he’ll jump badly, knees pointed toward the ground, neck arched, back inverted, instead of swinging through his shoulder with his front end up in front of him.

I’ve been having better luck practicing these things in the hackamore.  For some reason, I’m much less tempted to take too much contact and slow him down on the way to the jump (maybe because he’s so much softer).  We’ve also been doing a lot of work on making me go forward to the jumps, which makes a world of difference.

In my last lesson, we were jumping a triple across the diagonal (vertical/oxer/vertical), and they were set at a steady four to a steady four.  The first time I tried to get a conservative distance in.  That didn’t work though, because then I had to move up for the first four and therefore had too much horse for the second four, which ended up being about a three-and-a-half.  The second time I went forward to the first jump, had to collect in the first four, and then just steady a little for the second four.  The third and fourth time, I got the same forward rhythm going in, and by then Smartypants had figured it out for himself so all I had to do was stretch up tall and support with my leg and seat.  Ohhhh…. I get it. 

Then we kept going to a long approach on the other diagonal to a vertical, which was set at 3’3″.  My goal here was not to micromanage, just keep counting the rhythm.  He saw the distance from way back in the corner as we turned off the rail, and I just stayed still, kept counting, and kept my leg on.  Success!  Every time we jumped it, he found it right out of stride from a nice, forward, engaged canter (which of course felt way too fast for me), and he jumped it beautifully.  I’m sure it helped that we spent pretty much the entire first 40 minutes of the lesson getting him straight on the flat, because we didn’t have any issues with straightness to the jumps.  Also probably helped a little that I was riding the greatest horse in the world.

>So Damn Lucky

>That’s what we are.  Do you know that?  Horse people are the luckiest people on Earth.  We have virtually no free time.  Every coat we own has hay and dirt on it somewhere, and vaguely smells like damp earth.  Our cars are always a mess.  Many of us can’t put together an outfit that doesn’t involve breeches and tall boots.  We are all usually broke, or about to go on a spending spree at the local tack shop that will leave us broke.    But we are so damn lucky.

Through our horses, we get to be stronger, faster, braver, and more agile than most people can even imagine.  We get to fly.  On a regular basis, we get to meet new challenges head on, we get to feel an adrenaline rush and push through it and do something great, something we were previously too scared to do.  We get to feel how making a tiny adjustment (a shoulder an inch farther back, more weight in one stirrup, a little more give in one elbow) can influence the entire way of traveling of a 1200 pound animal.  Maybe even most importantly, we get to forge these complex, deeply personal, spiritual, life-changing relationships with the horses in our lives.  They are our companions, our children, the loves of our lives, our teammates, our partners, our teachers, our best friends. 

I was trying to explain these concepts to some family members on Sunday morning.  My grandmother seemed genuinely curious about why I do this.  I couldn’t quite articulate how I feel about my horse, but I tried.  I wondered out loud what non-horse people do to replicate the way I feel about riding, and my horse.  How does someone without a horse get to experience anything like the feeling I get when I jump something big?  When do they find themselves in a situation where they have to work through their fear or anxiety and accomplish something, and how can they live without that regular feeling of elation, satisfaction and pure joy that we get from a really great ride?  And most of all, how would I even know that my life is on the right track without seeing how happy my horse is?  How would I know that I’m a good person without seeing how much my horse loves me?  These sentiments were, generally, met with blank stares, and then some vague musings about other people “playing sports too” and most people having these types of feelings for “other humans” (and, by the way Marissa, you’re not getting any younger, are you ever going to get a new boyfriend?).

Despite my inability to explain it, it was all perfectly clear for me on Sunday afternoon.  I got to the farm and had the whole place to myself, it was so quiet and peaceful.  My horse was in one of his really expressive, affectionate moods when I went in his stall to say hi.  I groomed him and he kept turning around and grooming me back with his muzzle.  Then I had a bunch of things to organize before my lesson and he was just hanging his head out of his stall and watching what I was doing, following the sound of my voice and watching the doorways when I came back in.

We had a great lesson in the hackamore.  We worked hard on the flat.  I had a really tough time getting him going forward at the trot.  There were times when I had to outright kick him with my spur to get any reaction at all.  Eventually though he did start getting his act together and the canter was good.  We worked on going forward and holding him straight.  Seems like in the hackamore, since he couldn’t evade by locking his jaw or leaning, he was more prone to bulging through his outside shoulder.  We corrected it though, and got him going straight and forward. 

When we started jumping, we worked on carrying that straightness and forward rhythm over to the jumps.  Since he was a little on the quiet side, I really had to work on sending him forward out of the turn to the jump.  We started with a tiny little jump on a left lead circle, and Alicia pointed out the spot in the circle where he was slowing down so I worked on closing my leg and sending him forward there, and paying close attention to the canter rhythm by counting.  Since the jump was about 10″ high, I could just concentrate on the pace and keep sending him forward without thinking about the jump itself.  I was able to really feel the difference between coming forward all the way to the jump and letting him slow as we rounded the turn to the fence.  Same distance, but one coming forward and one slowing, and the jump felt way better coming forward.  Then we picked another little jump off a right lead canter circle and did the same exercise. 

Then we worked with two single jumps on the diagonal, a vertical off the left lead and an oxer off the right lead.  Started out at about 2’6″ and 2’9″, and just repeated a figure-eight pattern over them.  We worked on the same thing, coming forward all the way to the jump, keeping my leg closed, and keeping my hands up and following.  I loved jumping in the hackamore.  He was landing so softly and jumping really round.  Then Alicia put both fences up to 3’3″.  I have to say I was kind of intimidated by the oxer, but we did each fence twice and he felt so amazing!  I kept my hands elevated (it felt like they were all the way up in front of my face but of course they weren’t) and kept following with my arms. I realized I was tempted to take more contact on the way to the jump and had to force myself not to touch him.  He was right on it every time when I just left him alone and kept going forward.  And he was so incredibly light.  The hackamore is amazing!

The last time we jumped the oxer he jumped it so well…  he was soft, and round, and made a big effort but since he was so relaxed and forward, I didn’t get jumped loose and was able to hold my position in the air.  It literally felt like flying.  Such an incredible feeling.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever ridden a horse that jumps as well as he does.  I think he had fun too.  He walked back to the barn with an extra little spring in his step and he kept licking his lips.  Then when I turned him out for the night, he paused for a minute and just pressed his nose into me and closed his eyes before he walked away. 

I’ve been turning these moments over in my head for the past couple of days and every time I do, they make me so happy.  The grooming, the flat work, that light as air feeling in my hand on the way to the jump, the mid-air, defying gravity, flying feeling, and that sweet moment in the dark when I turned him out.  And that, my friends, is why we are so damn lucky.

>Live from New York

>Good morning Tucker fans!  We are blogging to you live from HITS-on-the-Hudson IV, where the Wunderkind is completely living up to his name.  He has been fabulous so far, and I am convinced that I am the luckiest girl in the world.  I can honestly say I’m not taking one second of this for granted.

First of all, this is my favorite horse show.  There are a million places to ride, including a HUGE schooling ring for the hunters (so big it fits about six schooling jumps across the middle, lined up end to end, with plenty of room in between and on either end for multiple horses to pass each other in both directions.  The footing is perfect in the schooling rings, the show rings, even the lunging area.  The rings are a nice size for Tucker, and the lines are set up just right for him.  The jumps are pretty but not intimidating.  Everyone has been incredibly nice, from the people working in the horse show office who patiently answer questions, to the guys at the in-gates who constantly have to juggle the order to get everyone in the ring, to the grounds crew who wait for your horse to walk by before driving their big fork lift past you.  This is just a well-run, beautiful, fun horse show that I look forward to all year.

And the horses!  You have never seen so many beautiful horses in one place in your whole life.  One after another, they parade past you like Breyer horses come to life, in their beautiful tack and their fancy scrim sheets.  You look across the schooling ring and it is a sea of fat, shiny, gorgeous athletes doing their thing.  Back at the barns they walk around peaceful and contented with their day’s work, totally comfortable with life on the road.  I love them all.  Hunters, jumpers, eq horses, ponies… they are all spectacular.  I have to force myself not to gawk sometimes, some of them are just so painfully lovely. 

And then there’s my fabulous boy.  He has been everything a girl could ask for.  We got here on Tuesday afternoon around 4:30, unpacked, settled him into his stall and then went for a quick lunge until our eyes went back into our head.  Then we joined Alicia and Outsider, Kathleen and Reggie, and Dana and Joe for a ride down in the Grand Prix schooling ring.  Tucker felt springy and loose and so happy to be working.  We worked on some lead changes.  The left-to-right was perfect every time.  The right-to-left we were having a little trouble with, so Alicia watched a few and coached me through it.  The aids are very simple: it’s both hands, both legs, keep him straight, send him forward, and then signal the change with an outside spur as he’s beginning his canter stride.  He can make things complicated because he starts bouncing up and down or winging his head around trying to grab one rein or the other, but when he stays focused and relaxed, they are easy for him.  We got one after a couple of tries, and then quit with that. 

On Wednesday, Alicia showed him in the Low Hunters, and we think his second round was the best one he’s ever done.  He was relaxed, and adjustable, and jumping round but softly.  He was nice and straight through the two-stride.  And he got his changes!  We were leaving it up in the air whether I would show him or Alicia would in the first class yesterday (Thursday) but since he was so fabulous, we decided I would do both rounds. 

Yesterday, I did the Low Hunter undersaddle at 7:30 a.m., and he was 4th out of 12!  Amongst some very fancy horses, so I was extremely pleased with him.  He hacked very well, but got a little worried in the second direction canter when a horse played a little right behind him, so I never got him quite fully relaxed in that canter.  Still though, he didn’t do anything naughty despite the commotion behind him, just raised his head a little, so I can’t penalize him for it.  Then we had about 2 hours until his turn in the order to do his jumping rounds, so we went back to the barn and put him back in his stall to hang out for a while.  I heard them say they had only seen the first 15 horses at 9:15, so I knew they were running a little behind, and took my time getting ready.  Then we made our way down to the ring (which is about a ten minute walk) and met up with Alicia and the rest of the crew.  (I love our barn.  We all come watch each other’s rounds, and it makes me feel so good to cheer on my friends and have them there supporting me.)  Alicia had just done a great round on Outsider so we looked at pictures and joked around a bit before it was time for me to start warming up.

I did some flat work, some shoulder-ins and leg yields to get him accepting both reins, and worked on getting a forward, rolling, balanced canter.  Then we jumped a cross rail and three oxers, and he was perfect, so we headed up to the in-gate.  (I love that he doesn’t need to jump much before he’s ready for the ring.  It really makes me feel like we are saving him up for a long career.) 

Our jumping classes were awesome!  He was adjustable, and quiet, and I actually had to close my leg a little and send him forward (and remembered to do it!).  When I wanted him to move up, I just had to squeeze a little and he’d respond, and when I needed to collect, I just had to sit up tall and use my seat, without really changing anything in my hand.  Ideal! 

And…. drumroll please… we got our right-to-left changes in both classes!!!  We decided to have me wear a little pair of spurs since he was so quiet the day before, and it made all the difference in the world for the changes.  I usually wear spurs at home, but not in the show ring, because he used to get so forward in the ring.  But now that he’s so relaxed and quiet, that doesn’t seem to be a concern, and we thought it would help with the changes.   For the rest of the course, I really don’t use them, just squeeze with my calves when I need him to move up.   But when I wanted the right to left change in the first class, I asked pretty hard with my spur, and he gave it to me.  Then in the second class, he knew I meant business, and I could feel him setting himself up for the right to left change in that corner, which is exactly what I want him to do. 

In the lines, he was straight, adjustable, and jumping round but not jumping me loose.  He only lost his straightness two times.  One was in the first class, he drifted right in the two-stride, so Alicia reminded me to keep my weight in both heels evenly, and it was much straighter in the second class.  The other time we lost our straightness, we had a long approach to a single oxer on the diagonal, off the right lead, and he just wanted to bulge through his left shoulder and grab the left rein a little, but I think I managed it well.  I decided to sit down, collect the canter and get him straight with my left rein and leg, and add a stride.  We did, the jump was good, and I was able to get him straight by the time we a couple of strides out.  I was a little worried that it was going to look like a chip, but Alicia said I worked it out well. 

So, as I’m sure you can imagine, I am living on Cloud Nine right now.  Today he just goes for a light hack, and then we do the Adult Hunters Saturday and Sunday.  Off to the horse show for me to cheer on the rest of the Whitmere team!

>A little progress with straightness; The wound saga continues

>Between the heat wave and the self-mutilation, Tucker had a full week off last week.  He didn’t seem much worse off though, he felt happy to be back to work.  Unfortunately, all the progress we made toward getting him straighter in the week before seemed to have vanished.  I had a pretty solid flat session with him on Saturday, and we had a flat lesson on Sunday.  I still want to hold off on jumping him until the swelling is gone in his leg and I know it’s in the clear.

On Saturday all I really worked on was getting him to go forward, which was a challenge in and of itself.  It took the entire first half of the ride to get something above a Western jog.  The trot was fairly abismal, so I decided to canter first and then come back to my trot work.  After the canter something seemed to unkink itself, and then I got a nice freely-moving forward balanced trot.  He still resisted the contact on the right rein so I never really got him straight, because when he grabs the left rein, his hips swing to the right, and if I straighten his hips but don’t get him accepting the right rein, he’ll just pop his right shoulder out.  But, I figured forward and straight-er was better than how we started so I quit on a good note.

In my lesson on Sunday after struggling to get him to accept the right rein for a while Alicia had me flip both reins to the right side of his neck.  So, I still had one rein in each hand, but my left rein was basically useless, since it was on the right side of his neck.  The point was to give him no choice but to accept the right rein because that’s all I had, and prevent me from riding entirely off my left rein.  This meant I had to use a ton of left leg to keep him straight.  After doing this exercise, I realized that in general, I need to ride him with a lot more left leg.

Tucker, of course, didn’t understand the objective of the exercise and swung his head completely out to the right, so he was trotting around staring at the wall.  Hmmm.  Talented little horse I have there.  Just as I was starting to think to myself that this was completely pointless, though, he actually started accepting the right rein a little.  Apparently trotting around with your neck at a 90 degree angle from your body becomes uncomfortable after several minutes or so?  He still wasn’t completely straight, but at least he contemplated the idea that I could push him with my left leg into my right hand.  I have a feeling we’ll need to do that exercise a few times to actually accomplish its purpose, but it was helpful.

As for the wound care department, I was trying for the first two days to keep it open, on the theory that it would form a scab best that way, and the Alushield would serve as an antimicrobial layer.  Unfortunately I think it is a little too deep to start healing that quickly, so I’ve decided to keep it wrapped for a few days until it starts to form a scab.  I consulted with a few friends whose horses have had similar injuries and the consensus is that’s what the vets usually say.  So, for turnout I did a gauze pad with vet wrap (not too tight, because I was worried about putting pressure on his tendon, but snug enough that it wouldn’t slide down).  For tonight, since he’s staying in due to thunderstorms, I did the same thing under a standing wrap.

Yesterday and today, instead of just scrubbing with betadine/novalsan, I flushed it out really well with hydrogen peroxide in a syringe, which I think really helped to clean it out.  Under his wrap, I switched to a more heavy duty topical treatment, Equaide, which prevents proud flesh, is a heavy duty antibiotic, and generally helps with healing.  I don’t know if it’s actually developing proud flesh, but the fact that there’s no scab forming after four days and it’s a fairly deep cut makes me want to take all precautions.  He’s also been on SMZs and will continue that for another 4 days.

I stopped at CVS tonight and got non-stick gauze pads, because I noticed when I took his wrap off tonight that, although the wound was very clean, it was really stuck to the gauze.  That certainly won’t help with scab formation.  I also got some saline solution to keep flushing the wound.  I remember the vet telling me something when Lilly had her last absess about hydrogen peroxide, that it’s good in the beginning, but after that can dry out and kill healthy skin cells trying to heal. 

I took pictures, but they really aren’t coming out well enough to show you guys any meaningful detail.  What I can say though is that there was a white to yellowish discharge on Saturday after being left open, but only blood tonight after being kept under the wrap.  I think that’s good.  There was also white fleshy-type material forming in the center of the wound, which easily came off when I gently scrubbed on Sunday, no such stuff tonight.  Those two things are making me think that the wrapping and the Equaide are helping.  I don’t plan to wrap indefinitely because I think that would create its own set of issues, but at least until there is a scab forming and the swelling comes down.  The good news on the swelling front is that even without icing or work today, it was only swollen around the perimeter of the wound, rather than from knee to pastern, as it had been on Thursday through Sunday.

The saga continues, but all seems to be moving in the right direction….

>Slate Cleaned

>I considered just putting a big black square as my post today… to symbolize the clean slate that I clearly need.  Thank you for all your comments on yesterday’s post.  You’re all absolutely right, of course, I need to avoid over-analyzing and dwelling.  So, tonight I set out to put the bad rides of the past week behind us and have an enjoyable, light, productive flat session. 

First off, I set myself up to have a good ride.  I told Alicia that I would turn out Tucker’s turnout buddies, Rodie and Junior, when I was done riding, so that he wouldn’t spend the entire ride gawking at their field and wondering what fun he was missing.  I also rode inside, rather than out in the field.  We are getting new footing in the big outdoor ring this week (!), so as of today there are several large pieces of machinery and a huge pile of sand out there, and while Tucker isn’t usually a spooky horse, I didn’t want to set myself up for an issue this evening.

I tried to pick back up where I had left off in my lesson on Saturday afternoon with our flat work.  We worked on straightness, getting him to softly accept contact on both reins while traveling straight, and then accept the outside rein in the bend.  There were ground rails set up, a single one in the middle of one long side, and a line on the other long side.  I practiced traveling straight down the quarter line over the poles, accepting both reins, keeping his haunches tracking behind his shoulders (instead of swinging out) with a supporting outside leg, and then doing a shallow “s” over the poles, practicing changing the bend and getting him to bend through his middle and step under with the inside hind, so that he’s fully engaged and bending through his whole body instead of just in front of the saddle.

Tracking right, he likes to curl himself to the inside, over bend and pop his left shoulder (which all goes back to him constantly seeking the left rein), so I need to be careful to keep him a little straighter with my outside aids.  I worked on some counterbending circles and thinking about turning him with my left rein and leg.  Tracking left, I have to be careful to keep the bend with my left leg, rather than left hand, which is tough because he really wants to balance off the left rein and often tricks me into holding him up on the left side.  He’ll even twist his head a little, tipping his ears to the left and his nose to the right, in an effort to get more contact on the left.  This is all, of course, stemming from un-evenness in my riding, which I am working hard at correcting.  Mostly, carrying my right hand and keeping my right elbow at my side so that the contact on the right is soft and following (making it more pleasant for him to accept), and making sure, especially tracking right, that my shoulders follow his ears, instead of my left shoulder back and right shoulder forward, which makes me twist my hips and makes the weight in my seat uneven, further encouraging him to be uneven.

At the canter, I worked on straightness and collection and extension, using the ground rails.  I first worked on getting a medium canter, flowing but balanced, to the single rail.  I worked on turning out of the corner using my outside rein and leg, and then having him very straight, between both hands and both legs, all the way to and from the pole.  I noticed he wanted to drift back out to the rail upon landing, so I took that as an opportunity to get him accepting the outside rein and almost asked for a slight leg yield to the inside to keep him straight.  Once I had a good working canter and was happy with straightness in each direction, I worked on collection and extension by alternating between putting four strides between the two poles and then three strides, and then back to four.  Not surprisingly, the hardest part was getting him to collect and go back to four strides after doing three.  It was tough tracking left to get him to collect but stay soft and keep the impulsion.  The first two times he wanted to bounce off my hand and come above the bit, but the last time I really concentrated on closing my leg and pushing him into my hand as I asked for the collection, and that made it softer. 

I was overall very pleased to feel how adjustable he has become though.  A few months ago, we did a similar exercise with a line of cavaletti and I really struggled with it.  So, that’s a significant sign of progress despite how discouraged I felt on Sunday.  For more on progress, visit Kate’s blog, A Year with Horses.

>Flat lesson

>I had a great flat lesson tonight.  I’ve been having trouble keeping him straight so I wanted a flat lesson to work on that.  Man did I work my little tail off…

I got on a little before Alicia came into the ring and worked on walking in straight lines.  I’d ask him to stay between both hands and legs straight down the quarter line for half the long side, then ask him to leg yield just 3-4 steps, alternating left-to-right and right-to-left.  I tried to do the leg yields toward the mirrors so I could be sure that his haunches and shoulders stayed in line. 

Then we started off the lesson walking big circles.  To really get the correct bend and have him reach under himself with the inside hind, I had to ask him to bend through his middle with my inside leg at the girth, keep him straight on the outside rein so he didn’t just bulge through his shoulder, keep my outside leg back and on his side to keep his haunches from swinging out, and open my inside hand. 

We moved on to the trot, and worked a lot on the same bending and reaching under through the inside hind, as well as getting him to soften into a steady contact on my outside rein, bringing my outside rein open and back.  Lots of transitioning from sitting trot to rising trot, while maintaining the same forward rhythm and active engagement, which required tons of work with my seat and leg.  Alicia told me to think about using my whole leg, not just my calf or my spur, both for the bend and to keep him between both hands and legs down the long sides — which really helped — but man am I sore right now!  By the time we were done with the trot work though, I had a really great trot:  light and forward, soft and bending, elevated in front and engaged behind. 

The canter was tough but it did steadily improve.  We started off the left.  My trouble with his left lead canter all stems from my right hand.  It’s another chicken-or-the-egg scenario.  As to various bad habits that we’ve developed, I constantly find myself wondering whether Tucker started it or I did.  Probably me, maybe a little of both, but I always wonder. Tucker doesn’t really like to accept the contact on the right rein, so he resists it.  As I’m trying to hold the right rein, and not let him pull it out of my hand, I end up burying my right hand against his neck, with the old “piano hands” and my elbow ends up sticking out instead of resting at my side.  Of course, this creates a very resistant feel on the right side, which Tucker doesn’t want to give to, and then since he’s braced and stiff on the right I end up trying to soften left, which is exactly what he wants because he’d much rather take the left rein than the right. 

So we worked a lot on getting me to lift my right hand and bend my elbow, so my elbows are softly following but I have a consistent feel on his mouth and he has nothing to brace against (no buried right hand).  Interestingly, when we started cantering a cavaletti, which was set in the middle of the ring on the center line, the first three circles he’d dive to the inside (left) to try to avoid the contact on the right side.  So I had to really work at pushing him out with my left leg, carrying my right hand, and feeling the right rein — a little open and back toward my hip.  I have to remember when he falls in to the left to correct it with my left leg, not my left hand.  By the end of the left lead canter he was accepting my outside right rein, so then I just had to keep the canter forward and connected with my seat, keep him bending around my inside left leg, and keep my right leg back in the turns to keep his haunches from swinging out.  (Oh, is that all?)

Since it was such a good canter, I was able to keep the forward and the softness through the downward transition and he really reached through with his hind end into the walk.  We’ve been working on that downward transition for months, so I was really happy that he did it right.  I think he’s finally understanding what we want.  He couldn’t seem to figure it out at first.  He was walking when we asked, so what was the problem?  Now he understands that he has to walk and keep coming forward from behind, not balance against my hand or fall forward through the transition.

Then we moved on to the right lead canter.  Big thing here is that I actually have to push my left shoulder forward in order to follow him around the turns.  Since I always want to be taking the left rein, that necessarily brings my left shoulder back.  So even though my hips turn toward the inside to follow him, my upper body is actually twisting and I end up resisting him not just through my shoulder but also the small of my back.  But when I forced myself to push my left shoulder forward, all of a sudden he was softly accepting both reins, not hanging on the left rein or trying to bulge through his left shoulder, and holding the right bend without over-bending.  So… in other words… once I finally was sitting straight… he started going correctly.  Amazing:  (1) how simple this solution is; and (2) how incredibly awkward and unnatural the “correct” position feels. 

The right lead downward transition was tougher but after several attempts we finally got a good one.  It’s funny, tracking right we actually got two good downward transitions but he only trotted for a step and then stepped right back up to his canter.  Doesn’t seem to fully understand that when I’m sending him forward into the downward transition, I don’t mean “keep cantering.”  I think that might mean that my contact is less consistent to the right.  I might be letting go of the contact at the last minute instead of keeping a feel of his mouth.  I’ll have to pay close attention to this during my next ride.

So, overall, a very technical ride but an excellent lesson.  I love a good solid flatwork session.  Always makes me feel so productive. 

Update on the stitches:  I took them out yesterday and it looks great.  Should heal really nicely and hopefully won’t leave much of a scar.  Man was he glad to get those out — they were definitely starting to itch!

Coming soon:  Pictures of Tucker free jumping… I promise, you will be amazed.  I’m beyond impressed with him.  My horse is a rock star, plain and simple.