I mean I should probably not actually call these clinic. Really they're more like monthly lessons with my trainer's trainer but for right now clinic works and it's easier to type! This was almost a week ago at this point but still important to recap.
This one was similar to the last one but a bit tougher in a few ways. First, K's trainer had identified our ability level so she was more picky, as I'd suspected she would be, and second, we cantered early on and then Katai lost her marbles a little.
We started out warming up the walk and trot and K's trainer commented that she seemed way more relaxed and rather than just posing and going she was actually softer. Yay! success.
We cantered as part of warm up and it actually went really well. Katai went right into it and let me bring her back calmly. We cantered in each direction and then went back to working on walk. Katai was UP at that point and was not going to be told to go slower than a full hand gallop. With K's trainer's influence we were able to keep everything pretty calm and were focusing and trying to help her relax with lots of pets and verbal rewards when she was trying. we were working on getting her to listen mainly to my seat but she didn't want to listen to us at all in any way at that point.
Not sure why but clean buckets seem to be a point of contention at this barn. They scrub them everyday and they're always super clean.
To her credit she never once pulled any real crap. No throwing down a halt, no bucking, no bolting, and no rearing. About the worst she did was walk through my aids, try to trot, or jig a little so really nothing bad at all.
It was tough though to just keep asking calmly for over 20 minutes just for her to slow down and relax when she wasn't listening at all. We did have a few break through moments and, the next day, it was clear that progress had been made so that was good. That day though was tough especially since I had a pretty bad headache which had been made worse by wearing my helmet and the relative heat after our cool spring.
Oh well, that's horses.
Our homework is all about relaxation. I'm taking it one step further though. Katai (and myself) have always been impatient. She had me pretty well trained to let her just push forward anytime things started to go south since not allowing her to go forward resulted in her going up or striking out.
Me grazing Connor while he dried from his bath I can't believe this was over a week ago now.
Since the first clinic I've been doing a lot of groundwork just working on patience. I don't know where I read it but a trainer I was following somewhere wrote about that having a horse take a step and halt and stand, rinse and repeat, was really helpful in helping them calm down. Therefore I've been working on a lot of groundwork asking for one step at a time with lots and lots of standing. Really, tons of standing. Katai hates it and is trying to figure out why this game is so boring, but, it's been helping.
Of course spring and mare hormones have been making this worse but this week on Tuesday we worked on trailer loading. She was SUPER anxious to hop on the trailer, hop off and be done with things and got angry when I wouldn't even let her on the trailer until she stood calmly. She was trying so hard to tell me that I was wrong and didn't understand but we ended with zero escalation and zero argument with her (relatively) calmly climbing on and off just because I literally stood there and ignored her for at least 30 minutes. We're going to do this a ton more and in the meantime I'm finding all the things I can think of that usually cause her to escalate and we're going to do calm, stubborn and patient on my part, patience training.
Under saddle I'm working on mentally taking the pressure off myself and her. We're doing easy work, lunging in a halter, and spending some additional time doing stretchy forward rides with just a bit more collection. We'll see what the result of all of this is but she's been really chill recently. This weekend I plan to do a bit more collection work with lots of interspersed relaxation to see if we're able to maintain. Things have been promising so far!
Birthday treats photo from almost a month ago, I really need new media!
Pretty much my lesson tonight was about rhythm and half halts. At first it was about dealing with a very fractious pony that didn't want to pony. She was tight, sucked back, fussy, didn't want to take contact etc. Jane said that this is normal and that often when we start to push new things they revert to previous behaviors. She was also likely a bit sore from all the running she did on Sunday.
I had really focused on bendy, stretchy, flexions, and lateral work on Monday but it really didn't seem to help the ride tonight. She had a complete meltdown when I was asking for the leg yield and REFUSED to go forward so I kicked her (a few times) into canter. Jane yelled that it was the right thing to do and I did half the arena pushing the canter before I slowed her back to trot and tried again. Honestly it was almost as behind the leg but the next one was considerably better.
We did a few more and she continued to loosen up but still never really relaxed.
Jane had me canter her around the arena a bunch more in each direction just to burn off a little bit of pony steam. It did help and she relaxed (more mentally I think than physically) a bit.
After a walk break we did some walk/trot transitions. The first round was focusing on keeping her supple and not letting her lock up her neck. It was also helping me to keep the rhythm with my seat. It was a struggle but got better as we went. We worked in each direction and then took another walk break.
Then we did the same but this time the focus was on fewer steps and having me cue at the right time. We never actually really got to that few steps because the focus became helping me cue at the right time. I really struggled at first but eventually got the timing a few times and was rewarded by really feeling her step under with her left hind. We switched, cue the struggle again, and eventually got a few good ones to the right but she really didn't want to step under with her right and when she did I didn't feel it the same way.
Jane wants us to do this at least once a week to make sure we keep working on evening out the strength in both hind legs. Homework is good! Plus I really need to keep practicing my timing :)
Again with the old media
We took another walk break and then did some walk/canter transitions. The goal today was just to practice them. As normal, since I'm a perfectionist, I've been mainly avoiding them but Jane wants me to keep working on them. At the very least we both need to practice the communication and it just needs to become less exciting for Katai. Then, eventually, I'll need to work on the timing with these as well.
Even through the end of the lesson Katai didn't really want to play along and she still never really relaxed. We got some good work despite it but it never really felt smooth like it was.
Oh well, I'm not concerned at all and I fully trust Jane and we'll follow where she leads. I have no doubt that she knows where she's leading us, it's just tough that things that felt pretty and smooth don't right now. It'll be better eventually but right now there are sucky moments haha.
My plan for the rest of the week is to give her a day off tomorrow. Thursday she's going to get a light ride, Friday I'm taking off and then this weekend I'm going to find a day where I can do fun things with her. Jane actually pulled down the pen that she put up in our outdoor riding area so depending on the weather (mainly provided we don't get the 4" of snow that's forecast) I'm going to try to ride her out there just to give her something else to think about. I also think it's time to lunge in the Vienna reins again.
Free lunging from the Sunday where I flew out to Seattle
Momentum is an interesting thing. It's not that I don't have information to share, in fact I almost feel like I have too much information to share, it's more that I just haven't been able to convince myself to sit down and write.
Last year I started to really struggle with my seasonal depression but this year I started taking my vitamin D way earlier so I'm actually doing well. Beyond just being tired recovering from my Seattle work trip I'm feeling great.
Last weekend I rode Saturday-Sunday and then gave her Monday off before my lesson on Tuesday. In those days I had a lesson on Sunday and a lesson on Tuesday. The Sunday lesson we worked a bit on canter and some shoulder in.
Tiny dog is a ham and I think he missed me :)
We did two exercises, one was leg yielding to center line away from the long side. Once we hit X we made a 10 meter circle in the direction of the bend and then, figure eight style, changed the bend at X and did another 10 meter circle towards the other long side. Back at X we'd leg yield back towards the original wall we'd started from.
The second was one that we've done before where we'd shoulder in along the long side, midway down the side we'd go across the diagonal, change the bend prior to hitting the wall and cue for canter. In canter we'd do a 20 meter circle at the end of the arena and then go back to trot and do it again. I LOVE this exercise and Katai does too. We did so much better this lesson than we have in the past and the SI was clearly improved.
Little blurry and tough to tell, but that's a hot tub boat on Lake Union
On Tuesday we did a bunch more canter including shallow loops to work on our counter canter going into 20 meter circles where we'd spiral in and out. Going to the left it was pretty funny because she wanted to half pass to the center rather than move straight. Not what we were asking for and we were able to correct it but talk about an over achiever!
We also worked a lot more on SI and it's feeling SO MUCH BETTER!! It's actually starting to flow a bit more and Jane mentioned that she's impressed with our quick improvement. We worked a lot on the concept of me lifting her with my seat to control the sitting trot rather than sitting down into her back to control the sitting trot. Or as Jane says, "bounce her up with your seat". There were magical moments but they didn't last long and it would take me awhile to get it back. When it worked though it really worked so I'm excited to keep working on this.
Someone had asked for a picture of my Ariat coat.
Here it is, courtesy of the AirBnB Bathroom mirror
In other news I started the first clip of the season today. I got almost all the hair off and got the lines pretty good. Tomorrow I'll just clean everything up. Poor girl is a bit moth eaten tonight and poor Jane probably wondered what I did to her when she saw her at evening feeding. Oh well, I'll finish getting her cleaned up tomorrow. I also got her bridle path cut but I still need to "pull" her mane, do some work on her tail, and I'd like to do one more bath before it gets too cold.
In sad news, her feet are looking pretty thrushy. During most of the year I was keeping up with it but after the past month were I wasn't at the barn as much they've back slid a bit. It will be my focus for this month and hopefully I can get it cleaned up right away!
I'm calling this next couple of weeks #summerbootcamp since we have two (now more like 1.5) weeks to really work on things before I'm out of town for 6-11 days for work. Very appropriately we had another lesson on Tuesday.
The previous Sunday we'd had our makeup lesson from the 4th of July Tuesday and then this was my regular lesson. I hadn't ridden on Monday because I needed to do #adult things such as laundry and grocery shopping. Plus it was hot and Katai had a tough ride the day before for my lesson and was going to have a tough ride the next day for another lesson so a day off didn't seem like a bad idea.
My cell phone photo library tells a
story of what I've been doing recently ;)
I always deal with a lot of rush hour traffic and since I'm driving directly North I spend it sitting directly in the hot sun in a car that doesn't have strong enough ac to deal with it. In addition, this week I got to the barn a bit late since I'd forgotten that my normal way to the barn was right through a road closure for construction #summerinMN. Then the detour had a bad car accident that had the road down to one lane and meant more time sitting in the hot sun in my car. By the time I got to the barn I was already hot and crabby and I hate being late so was feeling a bit stressed as well.
After tacking up in record time we got to the arena the bugs were HORRIBLE. I was being eaten alive and I couldn't get more than a few steps of walk from Katai before she was stamping and bitting at them. We didn't walk for too long before we went to trot since that keeps the bugs at bay.
At least better than the fly spray that I'd coated both of us in...
Again we started with getting her moving out around the full arena. After she was moving well Jane had me ask for a lengthening down the long side. At first we just got rushy steps and then Jane asked me to get her more round.
Most of the time pony goes around like this.
Blurry but you can kind of see
She's soft through the poll, has good contact, and is very ridable but not especially round. Typically we're happy with this but on Tuesday at least she was faking the contact and not really through or using her back.
Jane had me get her way more round and get her neck lower (not overbent, just rounder than she was going). She said it may look too round from above since it's not what I'm used to but she wanted her there and for me to keep her there while I did the lengthening. The next long side I started to figure it out and then the second time I tried it that way it felt like magic. She was really pushing, her back was up and she was really carrying me along. We gave her a break and Jane said "well that really opened a can of worms". I looked up at her wondering what the heck I'd missed and she explained that now that we know she can move that way, she needs to do this more of the time.
Veggie had a great time at the doggy daycare lady's house this past weekend.
He's good at supervising the big dogs...
I had a huge smile on my face. Apparently this pony can really move now that she's getting stronger and Jane really didn't expect it. I didn't either haha.
We switched sides and did the same thing. A bit of trial and error later we had a very similar trot on that side and then Jane had us move on to 3 loop serpentines and try to keep/get the same sort of movement. Honestly it was a hot mess. It was a lot for me to keep track of and Katai was trying to just rush through it rather than doing it appropriately. It's new for me to feel that much power from her and to push her appropriately without just making her run. In the end I was at least getting my serpentines right, the bending right, and not letting her rush with bigger movement than normal but we weren't really getting enough trot still. It's going on the list of things to practice.
My 4th of July project was trying to recreate my favorite cookies in vegan form
They turned out better than the original and after this picture was taken I added chocolate frosting on top of the marshmallows.
By that point I was quite hot and getting tired myself and Katai was also feeling pretty done. Because of how much we'd asked at the trot, and how much we'd asked at the canter on Sunday Jane just had us do a bit of easy canter using the full arena and doing some 20 meter circles. We continued to work on getting a nice, slow, steady rhythm and also on trying to get her rounder at the canter. For this Jane had me focus on lifting the inside rein rather than pulling back. It was tricky for me to get the right feel but I started to get it towards the end. By then Katai was DUN done so we did just a tiny bit more stretchy trot and then called it a day.
She got hosed, I got splashed on and drank some water and then got my stuff put away and headed home for the air-conditioning and lots more water. In the end it felt like another amazing lesson even if my evening didn't start out that way. This tiny mare just continues to amaze me and Jane and I just can't wait to see where we go together.
Just something a little different until I can get more riding footage
After missing two lessons I’ll admit to having a bit of anxiety as I drove to the barn for my lesson this Tuesday. Partially that was just the fact that when I mounted up on Saturday for my first ride back it felt pretty foreign after two weeks off. Part of it was also just not feeling especially confident about how Katai would behave after the time off and the cold front we were dealing with that day.
At any rate when I got to the barn she was quiet and easy to get groomed and tacked up. I later learned that she’d been a hellion for Jane when Jane led her back to the barn but she really behaved well in the barn and also for my lesson so maybe she got rid of all of the shenanigans on her own.
Jane’s early assessment was that between the cold and the time off Katai needed a long warmup and lots of work to get her bending. We had a REALLY nice warmup with her and she was on the bit right away and stretching down and forward rather than doing a giraffe impression. After a fairly long walk warmup we went to trot and Jane wanted me to really focus on getting the contact on both reins and really using my outside rein appropriately.
I think we both expected some fireworks because contact on both reins can put so much pressure on pony mare brains but she was right with us the whole time. She never once got upset and, while I needed to keep the contact fairly active at first to show her what I wanted, we got to a place pretty quickly where she was consistently on both reins. It was a great feeling!
After that we did some leg yields but Jane wanted more crossover than we were getting. I think Katai was slightly stiff and after running around like a goofball all day probably just didn’t feel like using herself. We switched to head to the wall leg yields to help with the crossover. I really struggled but then once I got it at the walk Jane had us do it at the trot. That was way too tough for my brain so after a few good moments (that were really total mistakes on my part since I still couldn’t quite figure out what I was doing) we took a walk break and then went to canter.
We worked on spirals at the canter again and Jane really had me focus on getting my body to bend/turn the correct way and not to collapse or lean. Katai did REALLY well with these! I really think the work with the Vienna reins has been paying off and, of course, all of our ridden canter work is paying off as well.
Our transitions were all pretty good, I was able to keep my position pretty well, especially to the left, and overall this exercise went way better on Tuesday than it has in the past. It’s still a bit of a struggle for me but practice makes perfect :)
I have some great homework to work on, including more of those leg yields along the wall, but tonight will be another night off and then I'll ride/lunge/do a spa day Thursday-Sunday. I've got a make up lesson on Saturday so I'll have another recap this weekend!
I’ve also got an exciting announcement to share soon!
I've had a good week of rides but I didn't make it to my goal this week. With the seasonal change in full swing I've had some headaches (I have a lead on a really good PT that I'm going to try out to see if that helps) and was feeling like I was getting a cold again so I ended up taking it a little easier. Also, at my lesson last Tuesday Katai was a little short in the right front. I wondered if it was just a sore muscled but she was pretty short still on Thursday after a day off on Wednesday so I decided to give her Friday off as well.
She's had some Thrush so that was my first thought and my second was just that she's been working pretty hard and had some soreness and time off would be good.
It turned out that the combination of additional Thrush treatment and a bit of a break meant that she felt amazing on Saturday and was quite the speedy pony.
Back to Tuesday, I had another great lesson! Again, Jane called out movements and I did them and we worked on things along the way. We started with nose to the wall leg yield at the walk which was really helpful and Katai really seemed to figure out what we want. Since then her leg yield has been great and she's really crossing over.
After that we did some trot work and then canter. During the trot work we got the best lengthening that I've had! It was so cool to feel her shift into that higher gear again :) Our canter work was tougher but not bad. She wasn't struggling strength wise, just not wanting to be straight or on the bit. we worked on getting flexion at the canter and I had some of the best trot/canter transitions that I've had. Finally we did some more shoulder in. I'm slowly figuring it out and will keep right on chipping away at it.
Then on Thursday my local tack shop had their 35th anniversary sale. I was invited as a "special customer" to shop the pre-sale on Thursday afternoon. I shopped but am very proud of myself that I didn't find anything that I "needed" enough to buy.
However, I've been wanting to make a trip to the tack shops on the west side which are Dover and a place called Coach House Equestrian. Coach house is my favorite tack shop and Dover has enough variety that it's a great place to try on clothing.
Coach House shopping!
So many cute things!
I ended up not going to Dover just because I found something I really liked and used up the money I'd budgeted on it. So much adulting!
Finally found my show shirt!
I didn't end up buying the shirt though, instead I got a spring jacket. I've been envious of the Rolex jacket that one of my friends has but I found a Longines Show Jumping Ariat jacket that's similar. It was on clearance for less than the shirt and it was the last one so I got that instead.
Then, that evening I had a great ride! Katai was quite hot, mainly because I was doing some work to reinforce my forward aids. Recently she's been ignoring them and freezing up so this time I corrected her each time, rather than just waiting her out, and that made her pretty fizzy. I still got some amazing work including some really, really good leg yields. Also, even though she was fizzy she never really lost it, she was just forward and I just was calm and went with her but still kept getting her slowed down/kept her slow so it was a great ride :)
Look at that lipstick :)
Then, today my plan was to do another Sunday Spa Day but I woke up with a really horrible headache/stomach ache. I really think that all this crazy weather is messing with me. At any rate I ended up laying on the couch watching tv for most of the day and by the time I felt up to doing anything I needed to get chores done to prepare for the week.
My favorite recent vegan meal :)
Since I'm flying out next weekend I'm going to plan to be there every day this week and Saturday (obviously not riding every day) so that she's ready for a week off.
I had an amazing lesson with my pony valentine on Tuesday! After this lesson I figured out at least part of why Jane is so good for us and that is that she doesn't allow me to be such a perfectionist.
Both of us are but instead of letting me get on a 12 meter circle and pick at the trot for 20 minutes to get it "perfect" she just expects me to ride a "perfect" trot while doing lots of other things. When it's not perfect, she gives me feedback and trusts that even if it's not good in that moment, I'll work on it appropriately and make it better. She never thinks anything is good enough and I always get lots of blunt feedback on everything but she also doesn't let me wait until she starts to introduce new things.
Right after I realized this I saw this quote on VivaCarlos' blog and it so perfectly illustrates exactly what this lesson was all about.
"You'll never be ready if you keep waiting to be." iOn my own I would totally just keep waiting because I wouldn't let myself move on until something was perfect and my instructors in the past have supported this or brought this out in me. Jane just doesn't care and keeps on pushing me which is exactly what I need. In this lesson we covered the following: 3 and 4 loop serpentines Halt Medium Canter Medium Trot Shoulder In Haunches In Baby Half Pass Leg Yield Plus, she didn't just have me work on each of these things. Pretty much the whole lesson was her calling out what she wanted next much like a reader would do in a test.
Shiny pony butt! I never thought I'd see her actually shine :)
I don't remember exactly what we did where because it was pretty much one thing after the next but one of the exercises we did was to turn down the center line and then A to E do haunches in which was baby half pass. Then straighten on the wall and at C turn down the center line and do the same thing to E which was haunches in (baby half pass) the other direction. It was SO cool, very tricky and it really reinforced how exact I need to be with my aids for haunches in and how I can't "cheat" with the reins and avoid using my legs correctly if I want to be able to ever do half pass. My favorite exercise that we did though was shoulder in, sitting trot down the long side. Then half way I would straighten her and ride a short diagonal, get the bend, hit the wall and cue for canter. We'd do a 20 meter canter circle and then canter down the long side and transition into trot before I hit the corner. This was cool because a few months ago both of us would have fallen apart at the seams if asked to do those things back to back and now we both held it together a few times in each direction. We also only got one canter lead incorrect!
Yep, it's spring!
This was also the first time Jane had us try medium canter and Katai did so well! Jane asked me to try it towards the end of the lesson and that was where we ended after one really good try. She really lifted in front and lengthened and it felt pretty magical :) During the rest of the lesson we also got at least one really good medium(ish) trot, some great haunches in at the walk (we spent a lot of time there getting my cues correct - MUST NOT TIP TO THE OUTSIDE!!!), a couple of ok halts, really nice shoulder in and a few nice leg yields! Katai was clearly extremely proud of herself (as she should be) after this ride and I was too. Jane had some really nice things to say and it really felt good. It was all messy and the perfectionist in me was crying for a lot of it but I held it together and really rode the whole time which I certainly wouldn't have been able to do a month or two ago. So happy with my amazing baby girl!!!
My previous lesson was one of those where it feels like everything just works. Everything Jane asked I was able to do and it just sort of felt easy. This lesson was not that way and everything just felt messy. I’d accomplish something but it was only with Katai flinging her head or being flexed the wrong way or something. Part of it was probably because we did a few new things and those just don’t always feel easy but I think that Katai is still dealing with the increase in her workload and just felt sort of flat and quick rather than carrying herself like she has been.
Right away at the walk Jane had me do leg yields off the wall to the quarterline and back along the long sides. We did a few, changed directions and did a few more. They were ugly to start off and then got better but I never really felt like we fully got them without extra head flinging and tension. Homework for next time!
Stretchy
Then we went into trot and I was struggling with my posting again. Jane had me do an exercise where I would post 3 times and then sit the equivalent (6 steps) and so on. It really helped me keep my butt in the saddle a bit longer but as soon as I’d go back to just posting I’d lose it again. I haven’t struggled with this much at all lately so it was weird that it was so tough and I think part of it was that Katai was just being more resistant to slowing her strides and was trying to “cheat” by taking lots of tiny steps. At any rate, it got better than it had been so we moved on to canter.
I started to her easier side this time and got a really nice transition and then some really nice canter. Her balance is getting better and she didn’t keep breaking to trot at this lesson. However, she was still running and not wanting to slow down and carry herself. Probably sort of the same thing as the trot and she had some residual soreness in her pony muscles. It was still a huge improvement over the last time I cantered in a lesson and she had enough energy to get through both directions with a fair amount of canter. This one is also just more time and homework for both of us.
Proof that we do canter sometimes, and also of my leaning problem haha
Finally we went to the lateral work. We’d done enough leg yielding to start off at both walk and trot that we went straight to the shoulder in/haunches in exercise that we did last time. We both struggled more this time both because, again, I think she was a little sore or tired and because Jane was making me do it correctly with my legs instead of my arms. It was rough haha.
Afterwards she told me that it’s ok to do it incorrectly at first while I was getting the feel for it but now she’s going to be coaching me to do it more properly or I’ll start to use it as a crutch and have more trouble as we get further along. At this point she said the words “when we get to half pass” and I was THRILLED. She mentioned being surprised at mentioning it already as well and I think she’s really encouraged with how far we’ve come in such a short amount of time. I am too, even if this lesson left me feeling a little tired and discouraged I realize that everything we struggled with just needed more strength or practice which is really very encouraging.
To preface this I have a couple of posts that I was going to split up but I've got a bunch more posts I want to get up including a February Goals post so I decided to just combine these. Sorry if it gets long!
Lesson Recap:
Earlier this month I ended up with a sore back. I'm not sure why, I hadn't lifted anything heavy or done anything that hurt so all I can imagine is that it happened when I was sick. I'm guessing that I either pulled something when I was sneezing explosively throughout the time I was sick or that laying on the very unsupportive couch for three days did something to me. It's weird in that it seems to vary day to day how bad it hurts and that it's behind my ribs on the right side rather than my lower back. Right now on the worst day a couple of Advil kill any soreness so I haven't felt the need to get it checked out but if it continues I will.
For whatever reason on the day of my lesson it was the worst that it's been. I'd been popping Advil all day but hadn't got the timing right so when I showed up for my lesson I was pretty sore. I went to pick up my saddle and had to freeze and just breath for a moment. I was trying to decide if a lunge lesson made more sense but I decided to just let Jane know and see if we could arrange my lesson a bit differently. Because of that we stuck to walk and trot and focused on lateral work instead.
We started with walk warm up to a nice trot warm up. Katai was moving well so we didn't need to focus too long on getting her loosened up. Instead we went to lateral work pretty quickly and started with leg yields at the trot. They were really working for me (for whatever reason) at my lesson and so after a few in each direction we switched to doing shoulder in at the walk.
At first I wasn't doing enough to keep her flexed the correct way but after some coaching for Jane about catching her quicker without pulling I was able to get a couple of successful tries in each direction. Then Jane had me switch to doing haunches in for the first time! We did it at the walk and Katai very naturally just understood so after doing it a couple of times in each direction we went to the trot.
At the trot Jane had me do a new exercise where I would start the shoulder in the way we have been with a 10 meter circle in the corner but then at the center of the long side I would do another 10 meter circle and as I came back towards the wall I would start haunches in and do that to the short side. Other than some very slight fussiness about what I was asking for Katai was brilliant and really thinking and listening instead of just reacting.
After we had the just of it Jane had me do it again and this time she actively coached me to actually ride and keep the bend and flexion and lower/forward/reaching feeling with the bit instead of just letting Katai fling her head in the air. Wouldn't you know it, with her reminders I was able to very successfully RIDE it correctly.
I'm a very visual person so this sort of thing is so helpful!
Both Jane and I were so happy with that as well as being cognizant of my poor back that we ended at that point and did lots of praising of my amazing pony :)
Ride Recap:
I've been playing around with my riding schedule a bit and trying to find something that works for both me and Katai. When I had Sunday lessons I gave her Monday off and then either Thursday or Friday (or sometimes both haha) and that worked really well. I've been struggling with Tuesday lessons because Mondays off work really well for me but not well for Katai and that sort of throws off my whole schedule. This past week I tried riding Saturday-Wednesday and then giving Katai Thursday and Friday off.
Because of that my ride today fell after two days off for Katai and so I guessed she'd be full of energy. Oh boy, was I right.
It was interesting because when I was walking her around in the arena she seemed about the same as she normally is (ie. walking around quickly and sometimes with her head in the air) and normally even if she's a bit amped on the ground she goes right to work once I mount up. Today though my adrenaline started amping up right away which is unusual and I couldn't figure out why. Now I think I was picking something up from her.
I mounted up and she was certainly tense and threatening to rear but never did. She's often better if I go straight to trot which I did and had a gorgeous trot. She was in full suspension bridge mode and on her toes but stretching down in to the contact, if a bit light in the contact, and forward. She wasn't relaxed but she was mostly listening to my leg and other than ensuring she didn't come above the contact I was just focusing on riding her forward and letting her dispel some energy.
Often when she's like this I'll let her decide to canter out of a forward trot and just go with it. Usually she'll canter for awhile, snort a bunch and then when I ask for trot again she's feeling better about life and we continue in a more relaxed and productive way. So when she made the executive decision to canter I went with it. However, a couple seconds in I was having to do a lot more riding than normal and she was alternating head flinging with bolty steps and some slight leaping. I was just concentrating on keeping her forward when suddenly in the center of the arena she bolted straight up. The only thing I really remember was seeing her withers directly in front of me, that's how bad she bronc-ed up into the air. When she came down I yell/growled at her and asked for forward but she was so frozen up that she didn't move and I could tell she was prepared for battle so I did the wise thing and got off and lunged.
She could have taught this horse a thing or two today of course I stayed on
This may be an option as a second career path when I get tired of HR ;)
I needed to go retrieve my lunge line, pull the reins off the bridle, and pull off the stirrups since I knew there would be acrobatics (spoiler I was right). When we got back to the arena I pretty much immediately made her go to canter and oh my gosh was she full of herself. Katai has NEVER been one for bucking, kicking, bronc-ing, or bolting on the lunge so I'm used to climbing off a crazy horse and then having a quiet lunge session and being done.
She was kicking out at her tail, bucking because there was a dark spot in the arena, bolting because she had boots on her back legs (like EVERY time I've ever worked her for the past three years) and frankly just being a bit of an ass. Honestly she didn't get in any trouble she just needed to stay forward and out on the line and basically listen to which gait I wanted. I didn't punish her for the antics because it was so clear to me that she just had excess energy and that's my fault. After all we're trying to create a stronger pony so it's not her fault that she is now stronger and has more energy and then after a break needed to express some of it.
After a few "quiet" canter circles on the lunge I did a few transitions and when she was listening we switched directions. She was mostly good the other way other than acting goosed a couple of times when I asked for a transition. Same thing to this side, lots of canter and eventually some transitions and we ended with a few circles at the walk.
Katai's innocent face
Normally I would have been done but I knew I was feeling a little squigged out about the canter transitions (I used to have major canter anxiety issues before Katai fixed them :) so instead I got her put back together (reins, stirrups, and all) and then mounted back up. We started at the walk but she was still slightly tense so before she got to make an issue of it I went into trot. Almost immediately she remembered that she was very tired pony and just went nicely forward, stretching, and also did lots of snorting. She was also more receptive to my cues to bend her and I wasn't have to RIDE as much as I had before. Before I let it drag out too long I cued for canter in her harder direction and other than a slight head toss she did it and was very rideable in canter. In fact she felt so loose and forward, and had such a nice open stride that I'd say it was some of our best canter to date. Again, I didn't wait too long before I brought her back to trot and after a loop to change directions cued for canter in the other way. This time (easier side) she didn't even toss her head just went straight into it and again I had the nicest canter I've had.
I was so proud of both of us that even with a very challenging and scary start we ended in a good place. Adrenaline and having scary moments usually really brings out my frustration so I was especially proud of how I handled this the whole time and that my thought process remained that it was my fault for not working her consistently and was focused on helping her be my partner again rather than getting angry at her for "doing something wrong". After all we're trying to be stubborn together ;)
In other news it was time for another clip, and my god that mane But look at those withers!! She's looking pretty uphill now :)
Woah, after lots of early January posts it's been awhile since I wrote anything! There have just been a lot of things going on in my life. Not bad stuff, just stuff but it has distracted me from writing anything.
Also, Katai has been reverting a bit back to her old ways. Even though she's still way better than she ever was and I know that the weather, hormones, and lack of recent rides are causing it it's still been tough. It's been especially tough to deal with the lack of relaxation which I feel like was my most fought for gain since working with Jane. However, as of this lesson on Tuesday I feel like we're getting back into the groove!
Katai started off in a good place and actually seemed like she wanted to work. She's just been so resistant that it's been tough to get anything done until mid way through the ride when she starts to soften a bit. This time though she came out of her stall soft and relaxed and despite some mare faces when I was tacking up she didn't put a foot wrong.
Time to make another pony
We started off the lesson as usually by doing a good long walking warm up and then going to trot. We focused again on getting the correct flexion while keeping her neck straight. When she's been so stiff recently we've been using a bit of neck bend to get her softened up but during this lesson we were able to go back to more properly keeping her neck more straight.
Jane had me start out spiraling on a circle only on the spiral in she had me counter flex Katai. I've don't this before (although probably never correctly) but for whatever reason on Tuesday I just couldn't do it. I really couldn't even get close. I muddled through that a few times and then Jane was kind and had me take a walk break. It's homework for next time.
During our walk break she pulled out the cavalettis and put them about 10 meters from short end of the arena so that we'd trot over them as we went down the center line. Then she had me leg yield from the far end from the wall to the center line and go over the cavalettis. Once over them we'd turn in the direction of bend that we had for our leg yield and then go backs straight down the long side and do the same thing in the other direction.
She's just so cute!!
I knew that we were going to do cavalettis and was really curious to see how they'd go. Despite using them several times at lessons in the past (with other instructors) Katai had always just rushed through them so that they didn't really do what they were intended for. This time though the first time she went through them she paused for so long on to legs that I almost unseated myself. The next time she also really paused and sat and used her new strength to get through them appropriately and in about the same rhythm. The last couple of times (probably getting tired) she went a bit quicker but still really maintained her rhythm.
We didn't do too many since we knew how much work it was for her but Jane want's me to do this with Katai at 1-2 of my rides each week. What was really cool was that as soon as we went over them the first time her stride opened up and she really started swinging through her back. Almost as though she had just forgotten that it was possible and this reminded her.
Not my best clip but it'll do. Also her mane isn't as bad as it looks in the photo, it actually turned out pretty cute! AND I clipped her mare beard :)
At the end of my lesson we did some shoulder in at the walk. I've gotten it done in the past but not very correctly and so this was time for Jane to go over my position and the way I was asking and help me do it more correctly. The lesson from this, other than lots of moment by moment commentary, was that I need to allow Katai to do it wrong and trust her that she's going to do it right. Then if she doesn't I just fix it and move on. Yep, Im a perfectionist and this is really tough for me. I made a comment to Jane that I feel like she's our relationship therapist and she thought that was pretty funny but it's so true!
Also, I completely forgot to bring my little video camera but I'm going to try to remember to bring it to my ride tomorrow AND the boots from Hufglocken got here so I'll hopefully be able to share more about those soon!
Yep, I celebrated the end of 2016 with a good, tough lesson with Jane. It had been a couple of weeks since I'd had a lesson and my rides have been pretty inconsistent (timing wise, Katai has been really consistent and I've had great rides just not as many of them as I'd like) so I knew we were going to get a workout but mainly we are just at a point where we can both be pushed more which is so exciting!
Since I haven't posted many details about my rides in the past month I just want to post a quick recap of what we've been doing. That is, doing more work on lateral movements, specifically leg yield and shoulder in. My leg yield is starting to get more consistent now that I'm starting to be able to use my outside rein and both legs (so, so, so hard for me!). We've also been doing a LOT more canter than we had been. Jane was pushing way more canter than I was used to and when we talked she basically told me that at second level since there is about as much canter work as trot work I should be trying to do that with my rides as well. SO COOL TO HEAR!! I think I just about squealed like a kid :)
At this lesson we started off getting the trot to a good place. Academically I know that I'm working towards a pushing, active hind leg and that if that's right everything else will fall into place (at least at this point in our training) but I struggle sometimes to really get there. I can instantly feel when it's correct but between correct and when Katai's faking it a bit I struggle to catch the change. I eventually get it when I'm riding by myself but only multiple 20 meter circles later which isn't helpful. It's so helpful to have Jane right there telling me when it's good or not but I'm still a long way from being able to feel it instantly.
Katai was stiff and wasn't moving as well as she had been since she's spent a lot of time standing around. Both because I wasn't able to get to the barn and ride as much as I wanted and because it's icy out so she isn't moving around as much as she normally would in turnout. We ended up spending about 30 minutes getting her moving better and really focusing on my bending. I was also really struggling with my right hand, really really struggling. Jane made me come back to walk and I spent awhile on the struggle bus trying to figure out the feel of what she was looking for.
The problem is that when I'm going to the left everything works, then I go to the right and everything falls apart. I completely blame my right hand but my left isn't much better. I seem to only be able to move my left arm side to side and my right arm straight forward and back. I also struggle to take a good feel on the right rein so Katai is used to the contact being really light on that side. That means that when I'm going to the right I've got my left arm pointing at the wall (when she's trying to fall in which I'm causing haha) and my right is in my lap. I'm not getting her bent properly because I'm not giving her the ability to take the bit forward on the outside and my right arm isn't supporting her on the inside either. Then I fall to the inside hop bone, a lot, and she falls in more to pivot around that "turning point", ie. we're a bit of a disaster and Jane is very patient.
Of course that's not going to be fixed in one lesson so Jane put us back together to the point where we could continue and I've got my homework.
Then we started working on shoulder in!! Jane had told me to practice it when she saw me before my next ride so I knew she was going to bring it up in the lesson. This was actually much smoother than it has been, maybe because Jane had me using both reins a bit more correctly ;), and after we had a couple good tries on either side we took a walk break and then worked on leg yields.
I'm still struggling a bit with the timing of the aids on these but this lesson was the first where I feel like I had a couple of decent tries in each direction. I actually felt like I rode more evenly to both sides and was able to get the timing of the forward and sideways aids a bit better.
Then we went to canter and Katai felt pretty darn good. She's actually starting to develop a little bit of jump to her canter which wasn't there at all before. She's also starting to be capable of holding the canter a little longer which means we get to have more fun with it. We're working on doing 20 meter circles at different points in the arena as well as riding the full sides of the arena but this lesson we also added leg yields in on the 20 meter circles while allowing her to trot when it felt to difficult. At that point we'd leg yield out and ask for the canter again. Katai did really well, I struggled to sit straight up but after a conversation with Jane at the end on the biomechanics I think I get it and know what to do differently next time.
In all the lesson went for about an hour and we took up the full thing with riding and not just "easy" stuff so Katai was fairly sweaty. It was the first time that we made it through the full hour since normally I don't have enough horse to make it that long or we only get there because we do a lot of talking or walking around while Jane explains something to me. I was really proud of both of us and how much progress we've made but even better, it's great to have more new homework!
Because I haven't been blogging regularly I feel like I've just got all sorts of random life and pony updates. Lucky you, I'm going to just dump them all in one post and then try to get back on the blogging bandwagon over this next week or so.
Katai has adjusted so well to the new barn. She was right back to herself in very little time. I think that she enjoys the quieter environment. I actually have realized how much I enjoy it as well. I've always enjoyed the social aspect of being at the barn. I enjoy talking horses with people and I always feel more motivated to ride when there are other people there. However, knowing that I'll always have the arena to myself and that there won't be people watching means that I have an easier time concentrating on my riding and Katai rather than what other people are doing which is amazing.
Hussy mare is pretty sure she's in love
with Serenade, her neighbor mare
Jane is absolutely amazing! She provides really good, individualized care to all of the horses. What's really nice is that she treats them all almost like they're her own. She really loves Katai and treats her that way. Katai clearly is already very attached to her which is amazing and brings a really good feeling to our lessons where I can tell how much Jane cares about both of us having fun and enjoying our ride. She is able to really strike a good balance between pushing me and being very direct while still making it fun and lighthearted. For some reason (I think because of how reasonable and reassuring she is) my lesson anxiety (that I've had for my whole life with both music and riding lessons) is completely gone. I've never felt better about going to a lesson that I do right now with Jane.
I was going to do a lesson recap on the specific things that we covered on Tuesday but instead I'm going to just dump it here because again, it's more of the same. I'm sure everyone is probably getting tired of reading about how much we're improving, how amazing Jane is, how I can't believe how much progress we're making blahblahblah but that was still the case at this week's lesson.
For the first time we really NAILED the leg yield and got that amazing floating consistent trajectory feeling. We also had NO tantrums about canter transitions even though she was in absolutely raging heat. None, not a single bit of pony tantrum. I seriously don't know what magic Jane is working but it's amazing and worth way more than she charges. We also did a ton of canter in each direction and only had one break down to a trot. Plus, again no anticipating or almost no anticipating of the trot-canter transitions. I was so, so, so proud.
Rough water on Lake Superior
As for my personal life, it's been a weird week. I had taken a four day weekend, Saturday-Tuesday this past weekend so new guy and I had a road trip planned up to Duluth, MN. Unfortunately things didn't work out between us but the shit didn't hit the fan until we got to Duluth and spent a few hours walking around and shopping. At that point we had to endure a nearly 3 hour drive back home. It was an emotional car ride. I was, and am, sad and upset that things didn't work but I'm also proud of myself and how I handled things. In the past I would have just bit my tongue, pouted quietly and then dealt with it very passive aggressively once I got back so the fact that I handled it directly and yet politely was a big thing for me. My mom also has a great way of putting things into perspective and reminded me that this is exactly why trips like this are so important while dating since it causes issues to show up when it's easier to deal with, early on.
It was a dark and stormy day even before we decided we weren't a good fit for eachother
The nice thing was that I then had a couple of days at home Monday and Tuesday which I basically spent recovering since I was mentally exhausted and, I think, also was fighting off a cold. I don't normally go to the barn on Monday but did end up going to my lesson on Tuesday as planned (see above). I mainly try to leave all of this relationship stuff out of my blog for reasons like this. However, I was really confident that it was going to work in the first couple of weeks and then very confident that it wouldn't during this road trip and I don't want to hide the big things in my life either. It's a tough balance and I'll probably handle it differently next time. Live and learn.
The reason I brought up future plans is that part of what was so good about this guy and the reason that I was so excited to have found him is that he had very similar goals in life as I do. Then I was going to share that on this blog and realized that since I really haven't talked about it that wouldn't mean much to anyone here. Since this is already kind of a dump post I figured I'd just stick it here.
So, as mentioned I grew up on a farm. I was incredibly lucky to be able to have horses, goats, bunnies, ducks, etc. and yet I always just wanted to live in the city. However, even though I wanted to live in the city I never doubted that I'd end up in the country again with my own piece of land. It was simply too amazing to be able to care for my own horses my own way for me to board for the rest of my life.
I do love living in the city, pretty much everything about it actually, and I LOVE boarding. It's great to be able to take vacations whenever I want and not to worry about having to do chores when it's -20* out. So, while I'm not in a huge hurry, there's also no doubt in my mind that at some point I want to have my own little farm and a small herd of ponies.
My dream location would be somewhere closer to the west coast. I don't have my heart absolutely set on it but I'd LOVE to be near Portland somewhere. My goal would be to own about 5 acres with a very small european style barn and some really nice large, dry lots with great drainage since ponies can't have much grass. Also, a nice track around the property for trail riding, a nice trailer, very nice fencing, a comfortable heated tack room with washer and dryer and... I could just keep going. There are lots of places that I feel I could be very happy, including near where I live now, but that would be the dream scenario.
Who wouldn't want this perfect tiny kitchen?
As far as living quarters for me (seriously who really thinks about anything outside of the barn) I've wanted a tiny house since before Tiny Houses were so popular. I never really planned or wanted one on wheels but I was going to either build a small apartment in my barn (who wouldn't want to feed the horses in their pajamas) or just a very small house. While I'm still considering a barn apartment I'm also getting very fond of the idea of building a tiny house on a trailer because of the freedom that would give me and also the cost. I'm working hard to get rid of debt and really don't want to turn right around and get myself back in debt. I'd like to have these things before I'm 40 but I also have way too much college debt from my master's degree so I'm trying to be reasonable as well.
Absolutely perfect
Of course not many other people want this mix of things or actually don't want/can't have this sort of life. This guy used to live in OR as a kid and wanted to go back, he actually initiated the conversation about living in a tiny house because I had basically given up on finding someone that wanted that. He also wanted a small piece of property, loved animals, didn't want kids, etc. It was amazing until it wasn't and I'm sad and still sort of dealing with it.
The good thing is that it really pointed out to me what I find most important in life.
No new pictures of Katai so you're getting some of Veggie at the dog park
Last night I had one of my best lessons to date. Katai seems to be switching to winter mode which for her means that she sweet, sleepy, compliant, and very, very fuzzy of course.
I like winter pony!
She was all blinky and relaxed and happy when I pulled her out of her stall so I was looking forward to a great lesson. She stayed really happy through being tacked up and normally if she’s going to be fussy she shows it when I put her saddle or her bridle on. Since she was still just perky eared and soft eyed I knew we’d have a good lesson.
As soon as we started at a walk I started getting her to stretch down and right away Jane commented that she seemed very relaxed but did seem a little stiff. Because of that Jane had me start off doing some leg yield at the walk. I was having a tough time balancing the aids on both sides of her body so she would either fall sideways with no forward or I’d get lots of forward without getting her to cross her legs at all. Jane worked with me a bit and then had me move up to trot.
I was still having similar struggles and Katai was so relaxed that she kept falling back to walk so I felt like I had to over-ride which wasn’t helping anything so Jane had me switch exercises.
He's just the cutest!
First at the walk and then the trot Jane had me do the long diagonal switching between riding the diagonal straight and doing it in a leg yield. We discovered that the reason that I can’t balance my aids is that I’m pulling the outside leg off, like literally hovering it in the air like a wing. After I started to leave it on her we started to get somewhere but of course as I changed how I was asking Katai didn’t know what to do.
We did it a couple of times in both directions at the trot (still on the struggle bus with this one) and Katai was getting jazzed up but not tense!! She never once lost her mind and she remained very soft and pliable, she just didn’t quite understand and because we just let her not understand and figure it out there were absolutely no meltdowns. None.
We gave her a break and worked on me at the walk for a minute and then we went to canter. Jane wanted me to try a different exercise for this. The plan was to do a leg yield from the center line and as we hit the wall cue for a canter, do one 20 meter circle and then go down the long side with a transition to trot prior to the next short side. I have to admit that I cringed a bit. I had done the first part of this exercise with L and after the first time Katai figured out the plan and completely took over prior to the canter complete with lots of tension and pony tantrums (bucking spinning and refusing to go forward). Of course at that time we couldn’t really even leg yield but still, I had some legit concerns.
I went to do it the first time, took a breath, sat and cued for the canter and other than a little leap she didn’t do a thing wrong. I had asked that we start with her tough side so while it was a bit flaily (when your human actually sits on their inside seat bone and you have to carry them with your weaker inside leg it’s really tough to canter!) but it was there! We did the full exercise three times in that direction without a break and had absolutely no pony tantrums. Even better she never once anticipated! She literally stayed relaxed and on my aids the entire time and cantered when I cued and not before. She struggled a bit each time but we just let her figure it out.
Then without a break we switched to our easy side and it was like magic! All of a sudden her leg yield was brilliant, when I sat correctly she picked up the canter right away, and we had the most gorgeous, slow, three beat canter with some jump that we’ve ever had. We did the exercise three times that direction as well and still didn’t have any anticipation or pony tantrums and then called it a bit early.
Pony got LOTS of pets and verbal praise. Both Jane and I gushed over her in the ring and when I was grooming her and she even got a treat. Adult dressage ponies get cookies after particularly good rides after all
