A lesson in compare and contrast

So recently I've been working with Otter on getting him to carry his own heavy head instead of him trying to get me to carry it.  We got into this bad habit because when I was first getting him into work again after his injuries, he wasn't strong enough in his back end to really use it like he should.  We've managed to get around going with him slightly heavy this summer because we weren't doing anything too high level, but I knew that it needed fixing.  Since we are going into winter, and he is getting a lot stronger (and also a lot heavier) I decided this would be a good time to go back and patch up this hole in his training.  It has been going fairly good, over the past month he's gone from only being able to support himself for 5 to 10 minutes without getting heavy to now being able to ride for about an hour carrying himself with only a few reminders.

Our ride on Wednesday was like that - he was light in his front end, and it's amazing how much easier it is for him to bend correctly when he is using his hind end.  I've also realized that he has a huge tell on how much he is using his hind end - if he isn't using it, he shuffles his front feet through the footing, and when he is pushing off of his hind, the shuffling sounds stop.  We did walk-trot-canter transitions and they were beautiful with no rushing, no head tossing, etc.  It was a really good ride.

Yesterday, not so much of a good ride.  Could tell when I got on and was asking him to step up through the bridle, and he just wanted to get heavy...  Our conversation went like this:
Me:  Please carry your head.  It's heavy.
Otter:  Ok, I will
*two steps later
Otter: My head is really heavy, why don't you carry it for me?
Me: No, self carriage is important, carry your own head.
*Cue Otter's temper tantrum

So after varying degrees of temper tantrums, he eventually decided that it was much easier for him to carry himself vs throwing his hissy fits.  Ended up with about 10 minutes of the nice work that we had on Wednesday. 

He tends to have this moments any time we start doing something new.  He'll be great for a few rides, then decide it's hard and throw a hissy fit to see if I'm actually going to make him do it, then he'll very rarely have a problem with it again.  Occasionally, if it's something really hard or he really doesn't want to do it (like laterally work- he is extremely short bodied, so it's hard for him to do shoulders in/haunches in) we skip straight to the hissy fit. 

I'm hoping we have gotten it out of his system and he'll be good today if I manage to get out there.... It's really cold outside, and I keep finding things I could do inside instead. 

A picture of Otter I took for my photography class.  I got a 100% on it!

Challenge November update:

No Stirrups - Doing okay.  Been dropping them when I can. Rode most of the  time on Wednesday without them, and did a bit yesterday before his hissy fit. 

Planking - failed miserably.  Was following the program then got to several days where I couldn't hold it for the required time (around day 18).  Not sure  if my positioning had gotten screwed up or what.  Decided to go back a couple of days to a point where I was comfortable and have been really inconsistent about doing them since.

Thanks for reading!

Oh ,almost forgot to mention - If  you are like me, and can't have enough calendars - Farnam is giving away free 2014 calendars if you go to www.farnamhorse.com/horsecalendar

Lost time

So I definitely did not decide to start a blog and then disappear for almost two weeks.  Life just kinda got busy.  So this post is going to be a short and sweet recap of what has been going on.

Wednesday (Nov. 6):
  

Why yes, he does look handsome in purple!

 

Hacked around then schooled some jumps.  Had one minor blow up when he dropped a rail and I had to get off to fix it, then when I got back on he decided to buck when I asked for the canter, and rush the next couple of jumps, so we went back to trotting a small one till he decided to get over his pissy-ness.  Also did some no stirrup work.

 

Saturday and Sunday (Nov 9-10): 

    Went to a Buck Davidson clinic with my trainer and another girl from the barn.  It was freezing!!!  Really glad I went though.  Learned a lot of stuff, which I put to good use when I rode after the clinic on Sunday.  Also learned that I am so not fit enough to ride with Buck. The warm up exercise he had everyone doing wore me out when I tried to do it during my ride.

 

Wednesday (Nov. 13)

     Flatted.  Honestly don't remember much from this ride.  Guess that means he was good?

 

Thursday (Nov. 14)

   Jumped again, trying to do one of the exercises from the clinic.  Exercise was:  a ground pole, two strides to a small jump, then two strides to what would have been a bounce if the poles were up.  Jump up through the line, then turn right between the first and second bounce standards, then come back through the line and turn left between the first and second bounce standards.  Rinse and repeat.  Really difficult at first, but as I continued through it, it got easier.  The exercise was designed to force you to really balance for the turns along with using outside rein/inside leg, but also making sure your horse knows where his feet are and being responsible for their own balance. 

 

   Otter got super sweaty doing this -he has returned to fuzzball state despite being clipped once this fall already, so I put his cooler on him and returned him to his stall to dry off.  Hung out with my friend while she rode, then hopped on her horse to hack him around/jump him a bit.   Was a lot of fun to ride a different horse and really good for me. 

 

Saturday (Nov. 16)

  Took advantage of the slightly warmer temps and flatted outside, Otter was slightly up and wanting to explode through trot/canter transitions (which we had an issue with at our first and only show together so far), so we spent about an hour working on transitions and relaxing.  Again, sweaty pony, so sponged him off, then hand grazed him.

When he finally dried off, I put him back in his field and then grabbed my camera since I needed to take some pictures for my photography class.

 



 

After his photo shoot, I put his sheet back on and headed home.

 

Sunday (Nov. 17)

  Jump schooled again.  Worked on the exercise again, went much better, although Otter started figuring out when he was suppose to turn, and was automatically turning vs letting me steer.... Ended by going over an oxer a couple of times.  He was super chill today, taking everything in stride.  Love my pony when he is like this.  Super sweaty again today, took him almost an hour to dry enough for me to put his blanket back on, so clipping him a second time is definitely in our near future. 

 

Barn again on Tuesday or Wednesday.

 

Thanks for reading!









Part pig, part horse - a Porse?

Barn time again last night, although I was struggling with the motivation to go (I wanted to be out there, just didn't want to drive the hour long drive out there and deal with the traffic.) since it's getting dark during my drive out there now.

No problems catching the big man, although I did go say hi to his friend first (man, does he have me trained or what?  Might need to work on that...).  I groomed up my very muddy boy, since he is half OTTB and half pig, he can't walk by a mud puddle without rolling in it.

Note:  While this picture is from the spring, it is a good example of what he looks like anytime there *might* be mud in his pasture

Even older photo.  He loves the mud.  I was not warned about his strong affinity for mud when I bought him.

Headed to the indoor to ride and was almost done warming up when another boarder stopped by to ask me a question, which turned into a 10ish? minute chat. Otter was all for hanging out to talk, so much so that when we went back to work, he let me know how unhappy he was about continuing to work by swishing his tail every couple of strides.  Oh, you want me to actually bend?  Ok I'll do it, but I'm not happy about it *tail swish*  Now you want me to carry my own ginormous head and I can't just lean on your hands?  *tail swish* 

He got over himself fairly quickly and so I dropped my stirrups and did my stirrup-less work for the day. Fairly happy with how this is going for the most part.  Sitting trot has definitely improved.  Had the best right lead canter departure we've had in a long while.  Left lead was bleh-y.  

Couple of things I noticed, we are both weak and stiff on our left side.  He's stiff and doesn't like to load on his hind end in general due to past injuries (side note, need to remember to call my vet today since he is due for more Pentosan), and my left leg just doesn't have the strength to bend him around it, plus I have a tendency to turn my left hand down so that my thumb is facing my right hand. (seems to be a strength issue - possibly from an old injury?) So going to try to work/focus more on those.  

Looks like there won't be any lessons tonight in the indoors, so should be able to jump - yay!

November challenges:

No-stirrups :  Did 15 minutes, walk, trot and canter.  2! laps around the ring at a posting trot (thought I was going to die on the second lap...)

Planks:  Still going.  30 seconds the past two nights and it'll be 40 seconds tonight.  

Thanks for reading!

I hate Daylight savings time changes

I woke up crazy early this morning because of the time change, so I ended up getting out to the barn earlier than I normally would have on a Sunday.  When I got there, I dug through my tack box for my medium gullet plate for my dressage saddle, because I've been thinking about changing it for a little while now, and the chiro visit kinda confirmed that I probably needed to change it (Otter was in the medium narrow plate).  Once I got that switched over, I headed out to get him.  Keeping in mind my experience from Friday, I went over and greeted his buddies first then walked over to Otter.  No issues catching him today.  

I groomed up my muddy boy and tacked him up, then headed into the indoor since the outdoor arena looked sloppy.  I lunged Otter for a few minutes to see how he was moving and was happy to see that he was moving pretty freely and evenly behind (he has been slowly getting over a minor stifle strain resulting from acting like a fool in turnout.  He's pretty dramatic about even minor things).  I hopped on him and starting warming him up.  During warm up I was really excited to notice a big difference in how he was moving through his shoulders and neck - much more loose and forward moving than before the adjustment!  After we finished warming up, I decided I would do some no-stirrup work before both of us were too tired.  I've been working on walk-trot and trot-walk transitions a lot recently, trying to get him more responsive to my aids.  The upward transitions have been going fairly well, but downwards have still been kinda messy.  Otter is a bit heavy on his forehand due to him not liking to use his bum, and due to his big movements, I have a tendency to hover over the saddle vs. really sitting deep into it, especially during downward transitions.  So during our no-stirrup session today, we worked on transitions, and I feel like I was much better about sitting deeper in the saddle since I didn't have the stirrups to brace against. As a result, I felt like our downward transitions were much cleaner today than they have been recently although they still can use a lot of work.  I also did a lap around the ring at a posting trot sans stirrups.  All in all, I made it about 10 minutes today before I gave up and put them back on my saddle.

Once I got my stirrups back on, we worked on Otter using his hindquarters more, and did some trot poles and some canter departures.  Really happy with how our ride went today. 

No barn tomorrow night, since I work then have class.  I'll go out again probably on Tuesday and do some more flat work then jump either Wednesday or Thursday.  Really looking forward to jumping him again, since it's been a while because of Otter being sore.

 

Challenges:

 

No stirrup November:  Did 10 minutes today, walk-trot transitions and posting trot.  Will try to do 10 minutes without all this week, then go to 20 mins next week.

 

 

Plank challenge:  Did the 1st day of it last night (20secs), easy breezy. 

A new game and the chiropractor visit

I went out after work yesterday to get Otter for his visit with the chiropractor.  I gave myself plenty of time, knowing that since it rained, he was going to be a muddy mess.  One of the girls was bathing her horse in prep for clipping when I arrived so spent a couple of minutes chatting with her before I headed out to get Otter from his field.

Once I got up to the field, it was obvious that Otter was enjoy the slightly cooler temps that the previous couple of days.  I approached him, and as soon as I got within a few feet, he took off to the other side of the field, tail flagging with a very lofty trot.  So with a sigh, I headed over to him again, only to have him taking off again.    We continued this game (for that's what it was to him, it was very obvious that he was enjoying himself) for several minutes before I got frustrated since we were on a bit of a time limit (the chiropractor had just gotten there and was starting on the other horse he was doing).  I went back inside, grabbed a couple of treats and went back up to the field.  First time I tried to approach him, he still wanted to play his game, so hoping to inspire a little bit of jealously, I gave a couple of treats to his BFF who had been sedately watching his antics.  Otter glanced over, but otherwise seemed disinterested in the treats.  I tried to approach him again, and SUCCESS!  he let me halter him up.  I fed him the rest of the treats and led him in.

I was able to knock most of the mud off of him before the chiro finished with the other horse and then it was his time.  Since it was this chiro's first time working on Otter, I gave him a run down on his past injuries, and what we've been doing.  He went to start working on Otter, and at first Otter was extremely reactive and tense.  The chiro started at his poll, and slowly worked his way down, working on both sides of Otter.  By the time he got down to his wither, Otter was looking much more comfortable and relaxed - I, on the other hand, was not doing so well.  For whatever reason, while I was standing there holding the lead rope, I had started sweating and was getting tunnel-visioned.  Having passed out in the past (always while blood was being drawn, or similar things), I knew I was about to pass out for some unknown reason.  I managed to get one of the other boarders to hold Otter while I went and sat down.  5-10 minutes sitting down, some water and a couple of sunflower seeds and I was back to normal.  Still not entirely sure what caused the lightheadedness, but general consensus was low blood sugar.  I still feel embarrassed about the situation - I'm not one to make a scene and the other barn girls fussed over me a bit when I was sitting  down.

I resumed my leadrope while the chiro was just finishing up and flexing and stretching Otter's legs.  I have to say I was impressed at just how flexible he was!  I can't wait to see what Otter's extensions and lengthenings will look like when we get to that level in his training.  Since I had missed the rest of the work done on his back, I asked how badly his pelvis/iliosacral area were out (since that was where I felt like he had been most locked up, and had been fairly reactive before the adjusting started) and the chiro replied that he had been out but after he had adjusted Otter's withers (big adjustment - he said they moved a good bit) that the rest of the back had fallen right back into alignment with only a few small adjustments needed.  That was very interesting news to me, because it wasn't one of my suspect areas. 

After the chiro was done, I blanketed Otter back up then returned him to his stall so he could eat.  I went out to eat some fantastic pizza with one of the girls from the barn and her friend (thinking that if low blood sugar was the cause of the near fainting spell, I needed to eat something) and hung out with them till I headed home. 

November Challenges:

Planking:  Totally forgot about this last night, so I'll be a day behind on this. 

No Stirrups November:  Didn't ride last night, and have decided I'm going to catch up on stuff at home today, so will start this tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!