This has been a challenging weekend at the barn.  Ike was a perfect gentleman as usual, but the horse flies were particularly evil.  Saturday morning was warm, humid and overcast which must be perfect fly pestering weather.  When the horses saw Ms. C and I headed for the barn, they all starting milling about their gates hoping that we’d save them from the flying menaces.  Three of the menaces then attached themselves to Ms. C’s big chestnut mare who started bucking and cavorting to try to free herself from their grasp.  You could see them hanging on for dear life; I swear you could hear them snickering.  The poor mare could not stand still long enough for us to place her halter on her head.  While Ms. C dealt with the mare, I went to rescue Cigar.  He stood patiently and let me whack 3 of the menaces to the ground.  When the chaos died down, we managed to kill 8 and stun 3 or 4 more.  It felt like a scene out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

My rides yesterday and today were steady.  Ike’s topline continues to get stronger and stronger, so our connection is improving as well.  We aren’t so on again, off again as we were this time last year.  It is nice to not have to constantly adjust my rein length…maybe it is really a combination of better riding and Ike’s strengthening, but who’s keeping score…

As I ride I try to implement the words of wisdom from my lesson.  So much to do while riding:  remember the wise words of Ms. C, half halt, shift weight to left, breathing, half halt, readjust weight to the middle, defend Ike and I against the air attack, half halt, down transition, open rein, keep fingers closed, close rein, look where we are going, and the list goes on and on.  It is no wonder that our progression is glacial.  I need to learn to multitask while riding like I do in the rest of my life.  Scary that the rest of my life is sometimes easier than the ride – must be the horse flies.

                                                           Photo by High Time Photography

It is Friday which means that Ike and I had our weekly lesson with Ms. C.  I’m wishing that our hot tub was filled because it would certainly relieve my tired arms and legs.  She put us through our paces today and announced that Ike is ready for more demanding work.  Now we are not talking hours and hours of relentless work, but that he is ready to hear and respond to more subtle aids and for me to finesse his body parts – move just the shoulders, step under himself and engage the hind end, and show more flexion.  Sure, not a problem…for a more coordinated rider.  I’m the one who struggles to disconnect her own body parts so that I’m not sending mixed messages to Ike.

We always start with a relaxed walk and then pick up contact for our medium walk.  No knuckling down necessary today, just a few well-timed half halts.  Time for trot.  I swear that sometimes it still feels like I’m riding Marmaduke.  All parts are moving but none are talking to the other parts to see where they are going.  It took a good fifteen minutes to establish a solid trot – I find that it helps to throw in different sized circles and short diagonals to finally get body parts working in unison.  Ms. C noted that we are struggling less and less with centrifugal force, so I am now using some inside leg to engage the inside hind to get Ike to step up under himself and to find that inside-leg-to-outside-rein connection.  A year ago that would have caused that outward force to send us into the fence.  I swelled a bit with pride in how far my big man has come.  Started with a basic trot circle and then with Ms. C’s direction, applied leg pressure.  Oh, that is what that connection feels like.  Cool.

Time to try some shoulder in under Ms. C’s watchful eye.  As I’ve said before, I don’t have the feel for the correct angle yet.  I’m pretty sure that when I try shoulder in when I’m alone, all I’m doing is overbending Ike’s neck.  This is why I take weekly lessons.  Since Ike and I are learning together, I need to hear what aid to give and exactly when to give it.  Ike gets uptight when he struggles to understand what I’m asking.  The dressage whip only adds to that stress when he sees it in his peripheral vision.  “Drop the whip!!”  Yes ma’am.  That helped both of us.  We struggle more to the right than to the left, but I guess even horses show some left or right dominance.  No mastery of this skill yet, but feeling better about the progress forward.  So now that the shoulders are under control, it was time to….

Canter!  Just as with shoulder in, we struggle more to the right than to the left with canter these days (remember that right lead debacle during our last Training 1 test?).  Ike gets in his own way with that dominant right shoulder which can push his weight to the outside.  The whip was back in my left hand to help encourage the weight to the inside for the right lead canter transition.  I asked for the right lead while on a circle and then cantered a couple of circles before heading down the long side.  I tried asking for shoulder fore like I had on the left side.  Not sure exactly what my body parts did, but Ike’s interpretation of my aids was a lovely flying change on the straight away.  Cool!  Ms. C asked me what I did, but to be honest I don’t exactly know.  I know there was leg movement and weight shifting, but to my dismay, I probably could not reproduce the moment at this time…

But hey for a brief moment today, we were flying…and it was cool.

It is always amazing to me how a horse who has his own paddock with secure board fencing, a roomy stall where he prefers to spend 80% of his time, and a relatively simple lifestyle can turn his tail into the horribly knotted ball of hair in a 24 hour period.  How is this possible??  Why does he engage in such madness?  A primitive form of owner torture?  So I spent my barn time on Tuesday trying to work the rat’s nest out of Ike’s tail.  I used an ungodly amount of Cowboy Magic Detangler trying to preserve as much of the tail as possible.  I cringed as long strands drifted to the ground.  Ike casually observed my efforts with a bored look on his face.  His tail is fairly thick with coarse strands of hair, so just as I would finish working on one spot, I’d spy another.  I think I was successful, but work kept me away from the barn on Wednesday, so all I could do was cross my fingers and hope that there was enough Cowboy Magic to prohibit any re-formation in my absence…

Success! I am happy to report that Ike’s tail was tangle-free today.  Of course since I could now turn my attention to other parts of Ike’s body, I noticed that his whiskers have gone way beyond five-o’clock shadow and are approaching unkempt status.  Bad, bad horsey mom.  Should I feel shame?  [I don’t]  We aren’t going anywhere any time soon, so is it really a crime to let Ike go au naturale?  Dare I tell you that his mane is also getting rather long and desperately needs thinning?

Once the thought of mane and whisker maintenance passed and bare minimum grooming was completed, I tacked up for a ride.  As soon as we emerged from the barn, the buzzing terrorists mounted their attack.  What fresh hell is this?  I’m betting that the only pesticide that was effective against these evil creatures is now banned by the EPA for the toxic effects on an endangered species.  We made a mad dash for the mounting block and trotted off hoping to outrun the horse flies long enough to break a sweat.

Ike was a bit braced to start – he usually is after a few days off.  So this meant many walk-halt and walk-trot transitions, some half halts to get is attention, and when they failed, I resorted to knuckling down while squeezing and releasing repeatedly until I felt Ike soften in my hands.  Not something I’d do in the show ring, but decided that it was what I needed to do in that moment.  Moved on to our trot work and tried the Training Level Test 3 shallow loop.  We need to work on the bend to start and end the loop.  It is a bit abrupt at this point and I can see a judge hitting us hard for the lack of flow.  Also continued to school leg yield.  I have to be very careful that I don’t get too aggressive at this point in Ike’s work; he is narrow behind and can interfere when he gets off balance.  I am trying my best to give the correct aids and keep the correct bend so that he doesn’t lose confidence in his lateral work.

After 30 minutes, the flies starting landing on Ike and the sweat in my eyes started burning, so we opted to be weenies and be done.  Got Ike hosed down and left him munching hay in the comfort of his stall.  Got a good look at my hair in the rear view mirror as I got in the car…talk about a rat’s nest!  Where is that detangler?

The weekend is winding down.  Virginia has finally received some much-needed rain and the grass in the paddocks is attempting to make a late summer comeback.  The horses are very busy trying to eat the green shoots as soon as they emerge;  we give them hay, but you can tell that they believe that fresh grass is so much better.  Can you blame them?

When I arrived at the barn on Saturday, there was a smattering of raindrops on my windshield.  It was my hope that I would get my ride in before the rain began in earnest.  Ha!  What is it they say about the best laid plans?  Wouldn’t you know that as soon as I swung my leg over Ike that the rain became more steady.  Well I was already in the saddle, so we continued on for as long as I could see through my glasses.  The high point of the rain was that it kept the wicked horse flies away – there was much rejoicing on my part as well as Ike’s.  The rain also seemed to encourage Ike to keep his head down and steady.  We quickly worked through walk, trot, and canter.  Played a bit with leg yield.  Ike has a loooong back, so I find that my whip is a necessary tool while teaching the lateral movements.  My leg is a decent length, but sometimes not long enough to speak effectively to the hind end.  I’m finding that I have to use my whip judiciously or Ike’s response is a tad more than I expect or want.  After 30 minutes we threw in the towel.  No need to rinse the sweat off Ike, the rain already took care of that chore.

No rain while I rode this morning, but Ike and I were wet none-the-less due to the nearly 100% humidity.  I was the first one to use the arena after the rain, so it was a great opportunity to work on straight lines, circles and square turns.  We worked at the walk and trot since the footing was slick – why take a chance when there really isn’t a pressing reason to do so?  We are straighter than we used to be but you can still see where we fall to the right just before we turn left…#&$#%, hmm, the rider still needs to gain control of that outside shoulder…I bet a half halt would help that.  I bet if I did half halt, it would be a bit too late and we’d still manage to fall right.  Grr…one of these days I will master the half halt and escape half halt hell or hopefully at least end up in purgatory.

If you Google the term half halt, you will get 98,700,000 results.  Is that all?  One of the basic riding skills we should all master, but that is easier said than done for people like me.  Let me explain – I’m not the most coordinated person.  I did not participate in sports that required balls, unless it was necessary to pass gym class, since I lacked even rudimentary eye/hand coordination.  My mother enrolled me in ballet class hoping that it would help instill some degree of grace in my movement, but ended up calling me Grace because I had none.  The half halt requires a certain degree of coordination in order for it to be given effectively.  Squeeze legs, engage core, squeeze fingers with the correct amount of pressure, release, repeat as necessary.  Yeah, sure, just that easy.

Well as I predicted yesterday, I failed with my half halt timing today in my lesson.  We were working on square turns at the trot.  I rode three corners when I hear Ms. C ask, “How was your timing on that turn?”  Hmm, I could have tried fudging it and saying that I thought it was spot on, but I knew better.  “It was late.”  So I try again, this time with Ms. C’s direction.  It is always so easy when you have someone telling you when to do it.  Then the only thing you have to figure out is how loud that half halt needs to be for your horse to respond.  Ike and I are still working on the half halt scale.  Sometimes I have to be VERY LOUD with the half halt to affect any change – typically on Ike’s “lalalala, I can’t hear you” days.  Other times when I am that loud, Ike hears walk or halt.  Honest mistake.  We are a work in progress.

Worked on some lateral work after my half halt debacle.  Attempted shoulder fore and shoulder in.  We wavered between the two as well as being over bent and showing no bend or flexion whatsoever.  Ah, training a young horse with a big body.  While we are not confirmed in either shoulder in or shoulder fore, I am happy to report that Ike can hold the bend longer than he could 4 months ago.  Forward progress!  We then spent a short time with leg yield.  I have to report that the rider needs to be better coordinated with leg, seat, and hands to help Ike achieve better sideways movement.  When I do achieve the proper aid sequence, surprise, Ike’s movement improves.  I know, it is a shocking revelation.

The nice part of working on controlling Ike’s shoulders for the lateral movements is the improvement in his canter.  Wow, his transitions were lovely today.  We also could manage round circles…r-o-u-n-d.  It is amazing what you can do when you can control that outside shoulder.

Now if I can just duplicate the feeling on my own…