I was determined to have a good ride today after feeling pretty bad about my rides the last couple of weeks. I marched right into the barn and told Harry who's boss.
Instead of playing around with the rope halter and longe line, longeing without any tack on, I cleaned him up and tacked up, going out to the pole in the arena to longe with him. As soon as we stopped walking he wanted to bolt out and start longeing but I made him wait until I was ready to start working with him. I looped the pisador around the pole (darn, I should've taken a picture) in a way that if he pulled, it would tighten the part of the jaquima that is built around his head, behind his ears and apply pressure, but it was also easy enough for me to release if we got in a dangerous situation without either of us getting hurt.
Today was probably the longest amount of time I've spent longeing him since we had decided that he had the basic idea, way back two years ago. He ran around that pole like a bat out of hell and it was okay for me because he wasn't dragging me with him due to the poll taking the force of him because of the knot. We worked at longer distances and shorter distances, both directions. It was easier for me to get him back out longeing when he fishtailed out and wanted to back away (which he couldn't because of the knot) and continue working. After galloping around for a long time, he calmed back down into a reasonable gait and we stopped.
For the longest, I've been switching between the barbada rein and the bit rein when I ride, using the barbada rein to warm him up and the bit rein when we're ready to perform. Today I used both reins at the same time. I think that it had more of an effect on him because his speed was easier to control. We also worked on flexing while walking, something I've never done with any of the horses before, but I know that it's a good stretch for them while they're warming up. He got the general idea flexing to the outside wall, but more often than not he thought I wanted to reverse when I wanted to flex to the inside.
After getting him collected and right where I wanted him where he was being responsive and performing, about an hour into our ride, I tied up the barbada rein and just worked off of the bit. He was a little jumpy at the transition at first, but settled right into it, with the last 20 minutes of work being fantastic. I could not have been more proud of us! We both ended in happy moods and accomplished what I wanted, which was to longe better and be more collected in gait. I still have to work on finding the exact speed of largo that he likes without pacing or breaking.
When Harry and I were all done, I got on Brie. My ankles were hurting, so I rode her without stirrups. At first I was just going to walk around with her because I wasn't using the stirrups, but I got up the courage to go through a full session with her, working her corto and largo and everything! She got upset a couple of times when Nick came up behind her with his horse, but she always does this. This is why we can't show, she hates horses being too close to her. I need to figure out a way to fix this, so if you have any suggestions, please tell me!
Eventually, I got enough bravery to canter her without stirrups. It was fantastic! I felt like I was flying and was perfectly able to balance myself. I was literally grinning the entire time. Too bad I never have a camera! Argh, I swear, I need like a personal photographer following me around.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Day 201
Guess who's back!
Yeah, after going to the doctor on Friday, it turns out that I don't have a stress fracture in my foot and am good to go! I have to admit, after not walking on it for about three weeks, it's really sore today.
I guess I just expected Harry to be wonderful and for us to have a magical moment because I was able to ride again. As if! He was absolutely dreadful. I even got so fed up with him longeing that I asked my mom to help me out (imagine that!). Eventually he calmed down for me longeing, but then riding was a trainwreck in itself. I felt like I was fighting him the entire time. Now that we've taught him and encouraged him to largo and go fast, that's all he wants to do. I spend a good 2/3 of my ride trying to collect him and get him to slow down. His passes across the board were awful because he kept going out of gait at the end because he'd speed off of them. To add on top of it, every horse on our side of the barn was out in the arena today, along with the horses that Nick was training, PLUS Nicks' daughter Brianna kept running around and squealing (she's 6). Harry almost fishtailed out into her once and I felt bad and scared and I'm sure Nick gave me a dirty look but I couldn't bear look over at him after that, even though Brianna should have definitely not bolted out into the arena so close to where I was working. Ugh. Chaos.
After all was said and done, I got on Brie. Good old Brie. It's so bizarre, going to her and having great rides after I used to cry about how she wouldn't listen to me either only a year ago. While it's frustrating to be dealing with Harry's quirks still after two years of owning him, I need to look back on how long it take to make real progress with Brie and how much of a change there is in her. In short, it took me, on my own, shoot I can't even remember, at least 4 years and a month's supply of mare hormone balancing supplements to get to where we are now together. And while I may feel some days like today that there is little hope for Harry and I, at least there is hope.
Yeah, after going to the doctor on Friday, it turns out that I don't have a stress fracture in my foot and am good to go! I have to admit, after not walking on it for about three weeks, it's really sore today.
I guess I just expected Harry to be wonderful and for us to have a magical moment because I was able to ride again. As if! He was absolutely dreadful. I even got so fed up with him longeing that I asked my mom to help me out (imagine that!). Eventually he calmed down for me longeing, but then riding was a trainwreck in itself. I felt like I was fighting him the entire time. Now that we've taught him and encouraged him to largo and go fast, that's all he wants to do. I spend a good 2/3 of my ride trying to collect him and get him to slow down. His passes across the board were awful because he kept going out of gait at the end because he'd speed off of them. To add on top of it, every horse on our side of the barn was out in the arena today, along with the horses that Nick was training, PLUS Nicks' daughter Brianna kept running around and squealing (she's 6). Harry almost fishtailed out into her once and I felt bad and scared and I'm sure Nick gave me a dirty look but I couldn't bear look over at him after that, even though Brianna should have definitely not bolted out into the arena so close to where I was working. Ugh. Chaos.
After all was said and done, I got on Brie. Good old Brie. It's so bizarre, going to her and having great rides after I used to cry about how she wouldn't listen to me either only a year ago. While it's frustrating to be dealing with Harry's quirks still after two years of owning him, I need to look back on how long it take to make real progress with Brie and how much of a change there is in her. In short, it took me, on my own, shoot I can't even remember, at least 4 years and a month's supply of mare hormone balancing supplements to get to where we are now together. And while I may feel some days like today that there is little hope for Harry and I, at least there is hope.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Day 200!
A couple of days late, but Ta-Da! My first ever vlog post, made especially for Day 200 of training!
In short, I only rode on Sunday. I now have to wear crutches and a boot cast because I may or may not have a stress fracture in my foot and I made a horrible decision to ride on Sunday in order to get footage for this, but I'm glad I got to make the video. After this post, I'll be on leave for a while because I won't be able to ride and therefore won't be able to train. But I might be able to get some lessons in with this one girl I want to instruct who hangs around our barn a lot. We'll see!
Basically, I didn't actually train very hard on Sunday because I was more concerned with taping. But Harry was awful. He was so bad at longeing! You can get a glimpse of this from the clip. I think that while I'm sitting out at the barn and watching everyone else ride for the next couple of weeks, I'll be reading up on how the heck to finally get this longeing problem solved, once and for all, because it's one of the most aggravating things on the planet. Other than that, he really was a doll.
I even rode Brie for a little bit too. We cantered (as I show you) =] She's getting better at it with me, although I think my mom asked a little too hard because Brie kept trying to bolt out! Then again, my mom uses double reins on her now and Brie clearly thinks those are for babies, so I can tell she's mad about that too all the time.
Nick and his family are officially moved in! Now they just have to paint and arrange their apartment just the way they like it and Paco is waiting for his new apartment to finish being constructed so he can move out of the downstairs office into a real home! Nick seems super nice, but I'll just be wary of him until I see him ride.
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