Tag Archives for Horse

Time to Regroup

013Have some news to share with Ike’s friends – we will not be headed down our first centerline this coming weekend.  It is not through any actions we have taken or because of any injury.  We received an e-mail Saturday night that let competitors know that the show was cancelled for lack of entries.  Say what?!  We attended this same show last year and while it was not full, it was well attended.  The dressage chapter that organized the show did a wonderful job and had nice prizes and ribbons, so I’m flabbergasted that they didn’t get enough entries to hold the show.  So what to do, what to do?

Made the decision to attend a Rebecca Langwost-Barlow clinic this Saturday.  While it won’t get us any scores to use to qualify for the Region 1 GAIGs, it will get us off the farm and under Becky’s eagle eye, which like Ms. C’s eye, doesn’t miss a thing.  Nothing.  Nada.  You can’t even readjust your reins without it being noticed because as you readjusted, you caused your horse’s head to waggle.  Grr.

Why is it such a challenge for me to keep my reins at the correct length?  Can’t blame Ike since he has become stronger and much more stable with the contact.  Guess that leaves me as the culprit.  Grr, again.  Years ago when I taught riding lessons, I’d kid with students about having spaghetti fingers holding the reins – basically no grip or feel at all with all fingers dangling like noodles.  I’ve heard the advice to imagine that you are holding a baby bird – not too loose and not too tight. I’ve also tried the trick to press your thumb down on the rein while your hands are closed around them.  Despite knowing all this useful information, I still find myself with little feel in my hand because I have allowed the reins to get too long.  This isn’t going to help our efforts to escape Training Level either.  Perhaps some tacky glue applied liberally to my gloves?  Probably not a good idea.  I’d end up with my glove stuck to Ike’s mane and end up having to roach his mane to remove the glove.

Don’t have much time to regroup and get ourselves ready since I did receive confirmation that our show on May 5th is a go.  Going to attempt Training Test 1 and 3 and hopefully get one of the scores we need to qualify for regionals.  Hopes are high that we will achieve the necessary score.

The other goal for this season is to clear the 70% mark at any Training Level test.  We missed it by less than 1% at the end of last year.

Stay tuned and keep fingers crossed!

 

Master the Half Halt, Escape Training Level

463The title of this post kind of sums up this week’s riding lesson and it is going to be my new mantra…I think it would also make a fabulous book title as well.  It is a sobering realization that Ike’s success in the world of dressage is completely dependent on my ability to master the elusive half halt.  Before my riding career is done, I would love to say that I could execute a correct half halt and that I was able to be an effective rider at something other than Intro and Training Levels.  The half halt is the necessary skill to claw my way out of these lower levels.

I have written quite frequently about my struggles with learning a correct half halt.  Could probably be the poster child for How Not to Half Halt.  You know you are doing it wrong when your trainer screams, “Stop pulling on the reins and squeeze your fingers!”  “Stop squeezing your fingers and release.” “Close your legs as you squeeze your fingers.  Your lower leg is not on your horse.” Oh, yeah.  Yes, I do realize that I need to perform these movements as part of a correct half halt, but when the 1200 pound freight train ignores my gentle squeezes, the mind goes blank.  The arms, fingers and legs then start doing whatever they please until my blank mind reboots.

Another key point that I need to add to the list of skills to master is the ability to keep my reins at an equal length so that when I do half halt, I do not cause my horse to end up crooked.  Then I also have to make sure that my dominant hand doesn’t do more than my other hand whereby making Ike even more crooked.  Lots of crookedness plus my blank mind equals one very unattractive picture.  Think of a worm wiggling down centerline.  Pretty, huh?

With less than two weeks until the show, we schooled the movements of the tests during my lesson as well.  Lots of reminders from Ms. C to half halt my outside rein to help straighten Ike.  Yes, there was a lot of crookedness on centerline, on circles and on my long diagonals.  The centerline crookedness was subtle – Ike was slightly flexed to the right.  Worst part was that I couldn’t tell that he was, but I bet the judge will see it.  On circles, I need to make sure to let go of my inside rein a bit and utilize my outside rein to turn my horse…just don’t let that outside rein cross over the neck.  Arrgghhh!  So much to think about to be an effective rider – no wonder my brain likes to reboot regularly to help clear out the clutter.

Fingers crossed that one of my reboots doesn’t occur as we head down centerline nine days from now!

Just a Little Off the Sides Please

388Snip, snip, snip.  Less than two weeks away from our first centerline of the year and it is time to get Ike some spring maintenance.  Be afraid, be very afraid.  Hide your horse if you see me with scissors in hand.  These hands are capable of mass destruction of a mane/tail/forelock with a single snip.

Anyone who knows me knows that grooming is not my forte – you need only look at my hair to know that hair styling is not in my genes.  I admittedly have ridden my horse with just enough of his coat cleaned (read: mud clumps removed) to make room for the saddle, girth, and bridle.  Sometimes I just don’t see the point in spending over an hour grooming and then only have enough time to ride for 20 minutes.  Why not do less brushing and get more saddle time?  Who is going to see me?  The other horses?  The birds?  If it bothers you, then just view us from afar.  Think of it like viewing an impressionist painting.  Up close, it is just a bunch of messy brush strokes.  You have to stand back to truly appreciate the full effect and beauty.  Move over Monet.

While spring is in full force here, the horses who were not shaved for the winter are still shedding their winter coats…everywhere.  I did spend almost an hour the other day currying and brushing.  When I was done, I could still see more winter coat hairs mocking me.  “Ha, ha, you missed me and 1000 of my best friends.  Whatcha going to do now?”  Ride, you little hairy fool, I am going to ride.  Can’t improve my half halt timing or Ike’s rhythm while standing in a stall covered in dirt and hair.

Yes, most days I chose to ride, but with a licensed dressage show looming on the horizon, I really do need to address Ike’s winter length hippie mane.  I have not done squat with it since show season ended last year.  It is at least 6 inches long and his cowlick is quite prominent.  Even that length is too much for my “cheater braids,” so we must thin and shorten those locks to make them manageable.  I honestly do try to use a proper metal, mane comb to thin and shorten the mane, but I quickly tire of the task, and just like with my braids, I look for time-saving short cuts to get me to the endpoint faster.  There aren’t any shortcuts in training if you do things correctly, but grooming is one place that I do try to save some time.  Enter my scissors, plastic thinning comb (http://www.bigdweb.com/PLASTIC-THINNING-COMB/productinfo/244041/) and dollar store thinning shears.  Ta-da!  A shorter mane without the fear of overthinning in one place and not enough in another.  I typically leave the forelock alone or risk the crooked bangs look that I use to sport as a child.

After 40 minutes, my arms tired and Ike got bored with me, so the mane will have to be finished on another day.  I look at it this way, in a way we are a Monet painting to the judge for most of the ride.  We are at least 20-25 feet away from the judge and on the move, so they really don’t have much of a chance to study our mane length or braid quality.  Better that we focus on our movement, rhythm, and transitions since last I checked, there is not a score for quality of grooming….thank goodness!!

Feel the Rhythm, Feel the Beat…Sort Of

463The newest obsession in my life?  Trying to put together a musical freestyle for competition this summer.  Ready or not world, here comes Baby Huey dancing down centerline.  Ike of course is too busy swatting away the early spring flies and renovating the barn to care about this new obsession.  So all the details of the production fall on my shoulders.

I listen to our music while I work; I listen to it in the car; I hum it when I don’t have any other option.  Over and over and over again.  I now understand why it is so important for the rider to like the music as well as having it work with your horse’s gaits.  Who wants to listen to crappy music repeatedly?

I try to imagine which parts of the musical pieces will work best for the choreography I’ve drafted.  We aren’t talking a high degree of difficulty since all we have to work with are Training Level movements – no lateral motion, no canter pirouettes, no flying changes to  jazz things up.  Just basic walk, trot and canter.  With the time constraints placed on the freestyle, plus the compulsory movements required, that doesn’t leave a lot of spare time for extra flair.  We will have to get into the ring, dance and prance, and halt before the clock strikes 5 minutes gone and we turn into a pumpkin and a mouse wearing riding boots.

Ms. C has been pressed into service in this endeavor.  I hijacked our weekly lesson to brainstorm freestyle ideas.  I brought the small CD player from home and set it up on the mounting block.  Even with the volume at the highest setting, it was almost impossible to hear the music if I moved more than 15 meters away from the speakers.  That is going to be a bit of an issue.  Hard to tell if things are working if you cannot hear the music.  Issue number two – even though I know the CD player works just fine indoors and that the CD has no problems when played on the laptop or in the car, when I blasted it outside, it skipped, skipped, and skipped some more.  I would just get our rhythm in time with the music, and it would skip, and then we’d be a half a beat off.  Half halt quickly!  “You are still off the beat – listen for the clap.”  Grr.  Just can’t escape those half halts even while trying to have some fun with music.

Overall, I think Ms. C liked my initial attempt at choreography.  She gave me some great tips to improve it and to also give Ike and I some wiggle room especially with our transitions.  No point setting ourselves up for failure from the start.  By the way, hats off to those who are responsible for writing the regular tests for each of the levels.  I now have a greater appreciation for how difficult it must be when the tests are rewritten every four years.

While all this freestyle planning is fun and interesting, we can’t lose site of the fact that two weeks from Sunday is our first show of the season followed quickly by our second one the following weekend.  If we can’t get the scores we need from the regular tests, all this musical freestyle planning will go no where but home…and the audience there (the hawks, horses, and the barn cat, Annie) aren’t always appreciative of all our hard work.  Guess we will refocus and knuckle down this weekend.

Working On Our Un-Musical Freestyle

475Greetings!  Sorry it has been a few days since I’ve updated the blog.  Ike and I have been busy enjoying the spring weather that has finally appeared in the Mid Atlantic region.  While enjoying the weather, I’ve also been contemplating our musical freestyle routine.  It seems simple enough on the surface: pick some cohesive musical pieces and then choreograph a routine with the music.  For the more musically inclined, I’m sure that it is simple.  For people like me who can’t tell an A from a C when listening to someone sing and who believes that sheets of music look like hieroglyphics, editing music pieces into a cohesive musical performance is almost an impossibility.

At least we have three pieces of music that I know work for Ike and I thanks to the Riding to Music Clinic with Michael Matson.  We have them on an audio CD that is either in the CD drive of my computer or in my CD player so I can listen to the pieces over and over and over as I try to determine which parts of the pieces could work for a freestyle. Too bad that I just can’t head down centerline with the pieces as they are right now.

Mr. Matson recommended some free music editing software called Audacity, so I have downloaded it onto my laptop.  I managed to do it without too much hassle.  I then copied the three music pieces onto my laptop so I had working copies to edit.  Yes, I was able to do that as well.  And then things got sticky.  It turns out that the pieces were in a format that Audacity could not play or edit; the software which is smarter than I am about music formats suggested that I convert the files to .wav files so that I could edit them.  Back to the internet I went to find some software that could help me.  I downloaded that software (and a bunch of “crap” since nothing is truly free), and after a couple of false starts, I now have my three pieces of music in a format that can be edited…supposedly.  I stared at the Audacity screen for quite a while the other night.  The best I could manage was to play the music and then stop it.  Yeah, yeah, guess I will have to try to decipher the manual.  I don’t have high hopes.

Luckily I have a couple of friends and some friends of friends who are musically inclined.  I’m hoping that they can show me some basic music editing skills that will get me started in the right direction or at least past the start and stop buttons.

While I struggle at home to edit, I also need to overcome the obstacle of how to listen to the music while I ride.  Currently, I do not own an iPod.  Yes, really.  I do not.  Do I really want to invest in one just for this purpose?  While it could be helpful, it won’t help me if I enlist Ms. C’s help in the choreography for the routine.  How will she hear the music?  I have a Bose system, but do I really want it exposed to the dust and dirt at the barn?  Nope.  My only option right now is a small radio/CD player in our guest room.  Fingers crossed that the volume can go loud enough that I can hear it at the far end of the arena.  I think Ike is tiring of listening to my off-key humming of the parts of the music that I can remember.  Sadly, the only part of the trot music that sticks with me is the tune “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,” so poor Ike has been subjected to it repeatedly for the past week.  I’m most certain that he is decidedly not dreaming of any white form of precipitation.

Looks like the weather will cooperate until the end of the week, so we will give my little sound system a go in the next day or two.  Wish us luck!

Alison

P.S.  Thought I would fill you in on Ike’s barn renovation work.  Sigh, I guess it was not enough that Ike decided to nibble on the critical infrastructure of the barn.  He has now broken off the chain of the ceiling fan hung above his stall.  Well, Ike, I hope you like the speed of the fan since we will no longer be able to adjust the fan speed.  I fear that we will have to raise the fan higher or risk Ike eating the fan blades.

Lesson Tip #345 – Do Not Head Butt Your Trainer

013More importantly, do not let your horse head butt your trainer.  I should have reiterated this lesson to Ike before our weekly lesson with Ms. C.  She was on the ground trying to help me unlock Ike’s jaw so I could achieve a hint of left flexion.  I’m pretty sure he knows what she wants him to do, but like the errant child, he sometimes fights the fight just because he can.  Ms. C kept after him until he finally flinched an inch.  She let go of the rein and the bugger deliberately clunked her with the side of his head.  If I had not witnessed it, I’d say that there was no way he did it on purpose.  Needless to say that he received a stern reprimand from Ms. C.

Ike must be going through a rebellious phase.  The list of transgressions continues to grow.  If he was a high school student, he’d be on Out of School Suspension for a few weeks for his recalcitrant behavior.  So far since the start of the new year, he has chewed the barn’s support beam, destroyed the old boot that we tied in his stall, refused to load on the trailer for the clinic, tried to bite me while tightening the girth, objected to my leg when asked to move, stomped on my foot a couple of times, bolted with me on board, snatched the reins from my hand on a few occasions, and now we can add head butted our trainer.  Sheesh!  I want my quiet, obedient 3-year old back.  Maybe?

While his behavior has been questionable at times, when he does set aside the naughtiness, there is a talented young horse emerging.  This time last year we were lucky if we could trot a circle that approached a round shape; more often than not Ike’s hind end would drift to the outside.  And canter circles?  Forget about it – we definitely only had canter ovals.  Heck, we were lucky if Ike could pick up the correct lead and if we could make the turn on the short end of the arena without me losing a knee.  We had lateral movement last spring only because Ike was so unbalanced and I was not strong enough to stop the sideways drift.

We are definitely coming out of winter this year with more strength and stamina.  Ike’s body is starting to fill out and look less like a gangly giraffe baby.  His back is strong enough to accept some sit trot and to maintain a connection in the canter (at least for most of a circle).  My skill set has improved which may be the best accomplishment from our winter work.  I dare say that my half halt timing is better and even better yet, rather than just slamming on the brakes in our down transitions, I can guide Ike to a smooth down transition where he stays up in his withers and bridle (oh, yeah, use your legs Alison rather than just your reins – dare I say a light bulb moment).

Weather is warming up and we are gearing up for that first centerline of the season – have hight hopes that we might actually hit that 70% mark this season.

Termites are to Wood as Ike is to ___?___

001So do you think you have the answer?  Hay?  Grain?  Grass?  Carrots?  All good answers, but all of them are wrong.  It was a trick question.  The correct answer is “wood.”  Let me explain.  I called Ms. C yesterday morning to check in on the boys.  She told me to start saving my money because I was going to have a rather large bill coming due soon.  I scratched my head since I could not recall any large outputs of cash upcoming.  “Well, guess what your horse has done?!?”  I asked which one since they both seem to have it in them to cause mass destruction and chaos.  She then proceeded to inform me that Ike had decided to chew on one of the main support beams for the barn wall.

Umm, oh.  Great.  Baby Huey is now tall enough with a giraffe-like neck to reach the one piece of wood that he really shouldn’t destroy.  I guess we will have to cover the beam with chicken wire to prevent further damage. (A side note:  The commercially available No Chew sprays did nothing to curtail his noshing of the window frames and stall door last winter.)  Before it is all said and done, Ike will be living in a chicken coop.  We already had to strategically place chicken wire over the light switch to curtail his favorite nighttime game of “Lights On, Lights Off.”  That set off a few nights of stall trashing by the other horses until we realized what he was doing.

So enough about Ike’s latest bad barn habit.  Let’s discuss his progress under saddle or lack thereof.  This was another week that kept me out of the saddle for a few days, so I asked Ms. C to ride Ike to assess where we are with only 30 days until our licensed show debut.  Guess who has a lot of work to do?  Correct, the rider.  Always the rider.  The horse can only be as good as the rider makes him.  If you ride the horse to beep bop around the ring with no connection, then that is the horse you will end up with in the show ring.  And that is our issue.  I need to do a better job at attaining and maintaining a steady connection for most of my rides.  Ike is now strong enough to maintain it IF I can get him through and working over his back.  So it was not a surprise that we worked on getting that connection during my lesson today.  My ability to get Ike to that happy place will be the difference between 5.5’s and 6’s for scores or 7’s and 8’s (she says with stars in her eyes).

Ms. C kept me focused for the entire lesson and finally we achieved nirvana.  We had a lovely, fully connected trot and I managed to maintain it for more than a few strides.  Phew!  I am capable of learning.  Will have to let you know if I can achieve it again tomorrow when I’m on my own.   Will also let you know if the barn is still standing…

Snow, Snow, Go Away

IMAG0270This photo about sums up what Ike thinks of this late winter/early spring snow and cold weather.  Pphhtthhbbbttt!  Just when he decided to start shedding his winter coat, Mother Nature decided to unleash the snow flakes.  How are we supposed to prepare for our upcoming shows when we are grounded by the crappy weather and I’m stuck at home shoveling the sidewalk?  I’d even foolishly loaded up the winter blankets to take them to be cleaned.  Guess I will hold onto them for a few more weeks…my poor car will just have to be perfumed with “eau de horse blanket” for a little longer.

The best thing about snow this time of year is that it doesn’t stick around for long.  Hopefully we will be back in the saddle again Tuesday afternoon when the temperatures return to the 50s.  My recent rides have reminded me how much work there is to get done before show season kicks into high gear.  I set high expectations for myself and Ike.  What can I say – I am a perfectionist at heart and it irks me to get a 6.0 or 6.5 when I know we are capable of 7.0’s and higher.  I’m pretty sure that the judge’s at the licensed show aren’t going to be giving away scores just because Ike is cute.

Our centerlines are still rusty.  We are in good shape until it is time to trot on after our halt.  If I’m not careful, Ike likes to giraffe his neck rather than staying soft in my hands.  “Look over there!  I think there is something I need to see.”  Ugh.  Then we wobble and bobble, and our straight line gets wavy.

Trot circles are okay as long as the rider doesn’t overbend Ike’s neck.  Canter circles are stronger than last year, but there are still days I worry that we might knock over a few rails of the arena.  If Ike gets a bit too forward, then it is debatable on whether or not we will down transition in the right place or just in the general vicinity.  If I half halt too loudly, we trot too early.  If my half halt is too quiet, then we bound along like Tigger for a few extra strides.  Either way we get nailed by the judge.  Boo hiss.  I’m still hoping that dressage scoring considers dropping the high and low scores like ice skating before calculating your final percentage.  Don’t think it is going to happen in the next month, so I’d better keep working.

No progress on show season grooming.  Perhaps that is something I can work on while Ike hides in his stall from the snow flakes.

Keep thinking warm spring thoughts!

What a Year It Has Been!

140Do you know what the significance of today is?  I didn’t until I logged onto my WordPress blog page.  It is the one year anniversary of Ike’s Centerline Adventures!  How far we have come since we started chronically our exploits.  I looked through my photos from this time last year to see if I had a similar one to the one above that I took last week.  As you can see, Ike is sporting a decent winter coat this winter and is beginning to fill out.  Below is the closest I could find for comparison.  015

Poor boy didn’t have any winter coat last year…I think he is starting to lose his baby face and gain more of a topline.  He has grown two inches at the withers and is now just a hair shy of 17 hands.  I know for a fact that he is heavier.  I know this because it hurts a lot more when his hoof and my foot try to occupy the same place on the ground at the same time.  My toes and my Mountain Horse Winter Riding Boots don’t stand a chance against Bigfoot with his steel shoe.  You can clearly see the shoe imprint on my boot.  Luckily, you can not see that same mark on my foot.

After some late season winter weather and work kept me out of the saddle for 3 days, Ike and I finally got back to work with our lesson yesterday.  Ms. C continues to school us in the basics because that is what we need right now.  Our throughness is questionable some days, non-existent on others, and fleeting at best.  I’m getting better at getting Ike to where he needs to be, but I still have miles to go.

I saw a quote on Facebook on My Virtual Eventing Coach’s page the other day that I really liked and sadly, it describes me to a tee, “Keep your hands forward thinking at all times, don’t be ‘stealing’ from the hind legs.”  Yes, I’m a thief.  If I am constantly pulling backwards or overbending Ike’s neck in one direction thanks to my “grabby” left hand, then he will never be able to truly push from behind and stay straight.  Most of our lesson was spent getting Ike through and connected at the walk and trot.  We had to do it at a slower rhythm to help Ike understand, and once we achieve it, we asked for more gas.  But wait Alison, don’t throw him away just because you are going more forward!  Oh, yeah, squeeze those fingers, engage that core, pull your shoulders back and show Ike the way.

Ride every stride.  I should adopt that as my new mantra during yoga rather than om.  I might actually remember it!

Entries are sent for our first two shows of the year.  A new year is getting ready to unfold.  Stick around for year two of our adventures.

Swwwwwiiinnnngggg and Not a Miss

005In case you were wondering how Ike and I did at the ride to music clinic today, I can inform you that I could not be prouder of my big boy.  We came home with three awesome musical selections.  But before I fill you in on the clinic details, I must share that we almost didn’t make it to the clinic.

I arrived at the barn early today since someone decided to take a mud bath yesterday and was too wet and icky to scrub clean.  Great, I love chipping caked on mud out of a winter coat first thing in the morning.  Thank goodness that the luck of the Irish was on my side this morning, because Ike managed to remove most of the mud himself.  He had obviously rolled in his fresh sawdust last night and those lovely chips of wood did a bang up job at removing most of the funk.  After a brief grooming session, we decided to load up early so that we could watch my two friends ride and select their music.  Ike had other ideas, “No, I do not wish to leave the farm today and you can’t make me get on the trailer.”

That is right, someone showed off his mule genes for almost 45 minutes.  I had to dig deep into the recesses of my memory to remember all the lessons that Mr. Revelle taught us last year: do not back away or walk away from the trailer, use the stud chain appropriately, reward any effort, say “load up” as you lightly tap the hind end with the whip (note to self – purchase a longer piaffe whip or have arms stretched to reach the go button on the back-end), remind Ike that the only correct answer is to get on the trailer….I seriously thought that we weren’t going to make it on time if at all.  Finally, Ike sighed and calmly walked on.  Huh?  Why all the fuss???  He would not share his rationale.

Made it in time to see one of my friends ride and select their music.  It is a fascinating process.  Mr. Matson first establishes your beats per minute at the walk, trot, and canter.  He then looks through his 1400+ musical selections and finds music with the correct beat.  The music is played.  Both the rider and the audience give feedback.  No, just not right.  Yes, that works.  No, that overpowers the horse.  The selections are narrowed and the rider gets the ultimate say.  Amazingly, you could tell when the rider and horse liked the music – things flowed easily and beautifully.

Then it was our turn.  I let Mr. Matson know that Ike was young at that we were not always consistent with our rhythm and tempo.  He said not to worry, we would have music.  I’m still thinking that we will get Pan Banging Baby music.  So after our warm up, he had us ride on a circle around him while he used his electronic metronome to establish our beats per minute.  Beep, beep, beep.  Okay, time to pick music.

First up, the trot.  Amazingly enough, the first piece worked and worked well.  Was that really that easy?  Yes, yes it was.  Turns out, Ike likes swing music.  We tried a few other pieces, but the first one was spot on.  The walk was next and finally the canter.  I have to say, I love our canter music.  All three pieces are swing – I guess it is in keeping with his namesake, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was a five-star general during the 1940s when swing music became prominent.

So we came home with our music, now comes the hard part for this non-musical person – editing the pieces and creating the musical freestyle that meets the USDF requirements as well as our limited Training Level abilities.  Stay tuned!

Alison

p.s.  Big man walked right on the trailer to go home.  Good thing, I don’t think I had enough energy for another epic battle.