I love my arena

It's SOOOOO nice to have an arena at home!! I was able to get up semi early and sneak in a dressage ride before I drove to Florida for my K taping lab. Good pony! We did some pillar work and then started a little dressage ride. We pretty much walked mostly, did a little trot, and I may have sneaked in two canter circles. :) We also worked on the shoulder in now that I'm understanding how to make my body work better. And of course, that meant he got it better! Duh! 

Meanwhile, Funny and Fleck were at the gate most of the time harassing us. Hee hee. Sillies. We all 3 trekked back together. Hee hee... oh Dan!

 

JUMPING!!! and pillar work with meg

So... today Meg came out to work with us on the pillar work. She was so helpful!!! We went up to the arena and I showed her what I was doing and explained some of the issues I was having. She watched and then worked with him for me and showed me some good things to try/incorporate into it. 

Basically.. she thought that he seemed to be overstimulated a bit with touching, so... try to work from a distance with him. I can use the flag as a guide. Once he starts releasing the muscles better, then we can go back to more touch but for now, he needs to be a little bit on his own and process on his own. She also suggested helping him shift his weight back first so he didn't feel like he was falling forward when he did let go. Also, practice walking at different speeds with his neck released. If he loses it, stop him and shift him backwards. (It was cool how you could actually see him rock back and carry himself!). Once he's a little more relaxed I can work on light touch in his neck... stroking the brachiocephalic and sternocephalic and do gentle circles to help relax the fascia. 

When I do get closer... to avoid getting into a "game" with him and having him bite at me and chew on me, if I stand more at his shoulder so he really has to work to come around to get me, it'll make it harder for him and easier for me to block him and redirect rather than having to correct after the fact. And to keep in mind that less is more. I'm only looking for small steps of abduction, small weight shifts back. Reward those and they'll get bigger and better. She did say to that the mouthy horses might have headaches, so I can do some of the fascial work or craniosacral work to help alleviate headaches before we start. 

And the last bit of helpful info she had was to maybe use the cavesson instead of the rope halter because then it might be easier to lift the lead rope out of his way rather than trying to pull it out of his mouth. hee hee... 

But yeah... super cool. She had him almost targetting the flag and that helped keep him from just rolling forward. He got a lot of good releases and yawns and seemed much more rocked back and still soft in his neck. Cool! Lots of homework. 

After she left, I did a few things and then we went for a ride. I couldn't help it. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't as big of a mess as I had been over the low wide oxer. And if we were going to go run training at Poplar.... eeks! Yay.. I'm not that big of a mess. :) We went in the jump arena at Ashland and it looked like it was set up at Novice/Training, so we just popped over a course after a few warm up fences. No big deal. :) It went smoothly. Yay! Oh, and we did warm up with our pillar under saddle work too. 

After we jumped we went for a hack and I couldn't help it. We popped over a few small XC fences too. It felt so good to gallop and jump after not doing it for so long. Ahhhhhh.

We jumped! And got smiley faces

 And Oh MY!!!! I do NOT need to not jump for that long again. It was bad. ha ha. So bad. My arena was awesome though. :) 

Dan started off kinda lazy. We did a triple bounce, low. He kinda just basically cantered over the first one and then realized he was jumping and finally picked his legs up to jump. He didn't knock the poles, but it was awkward. Bless us. It never really got much better. ;) ha! We did it a few times and he actually started to jump but he clipped his left front heel bulb and was super lame for a minute. Ding dong! Once the sting wore off he was fine and we carried on. 

 

After we did the bounces a few times we did a low wide oxer with placing poles. The goal is to teach a horse how to properly bascule and jump up and over. I made the comment that he felt like he was jumping super big and Jacel explained that a low wide oxer makes you think it should be a flat jump, but that in reality they have to maintain the same arc as they do over a skinny jump and in order to do that, the arc has to be bigger and taller. It should maintain the same pace and height in the arc and the width instead of just jumping flatter and longer. She drew me the arc over the poles in the sand and it made so much sense. And then we were laughing because I said it was an upside down smiley face! We joked that my FB post could be "Our jump lesson was so good my trainer drew smiley faces in the sand for me" instead of "I was so bad I needed a diagram". ha ha. And man, I hate placing poles. I could not "stay" with Dan. He kept jumping me out of the tack. I finally got somewhat where I could stay with him, but damn that's hard.

 

Then we moved onto the one stride. And again, Dan was lazy. (Or somethings wrong, or he forgot how to jump and/or canter since we've been only walking and trotting for so long!... and I don't think we did too much... although I probably should have not done quite as much). The first one he basically barely got over and almost ate it on the out. Then we had a couple of rough goes through, one with a two stride. That's when Jacel was like... "okay, he's being lazy. Pop him behind your leg.. not on the shoulder". And once I did that it was fine. He jumped it like normal. We did two more good run throughs and quit with that. 

Ai yiii yiii... I am RUSTY!!! But Dan was at least jumping well over the oxer. I had my pivo on but didn't put it on follow so it just sat where it was. So I only got some video of the low wide oxer. And good grief... what on earth is my upper body doing??! Poor dude. But at least he looks good!

Ahhhhhh Sunday

 Ahhhh.... I spent Saturday at Poplar cheering Peri on and by the time I got home, there wasn't much time to ride. Plus Mr Hight was still working on the arena, so I did a little round pen work with Dan. We did our pillar work and then did a little bit of lunging working on the correct "leads" at the walk. Basically, pillar 3. He has to reach out with the outside shoulder so he stays upright vs leaning in. 

So Sunday I got up and went to Church and then Mike was going to be home at 3ish so I did my chores... cleaned the house, caught up laundry and dishes, watered the flowers, and then... snuck in a ride. I'm so glad I was able to. It was just such a beautiful day. I was so tempted to stay out even longer, but I also wanted to get home to see him, so... I did managed a little dressage work and a fairly decent hack. 

We had a good ride in the arena. We just keep plugging away with our pillar work under saddle and our Rana homework. Although I did sneak in a canter or two. ;) 

Then we went for a nice long hack with a little trotting and cantering. We crossed the creek and did the big hill. Time to start sneaking back in some fitness if we want to show at Poplar in a few weeks. It was a great ride! We both had fun. 

Another Good lesson, also with sissy

Today we went to a lesson with Rana and brought Sissy along. They hauled well and weren't as bad as I thought there. I groomed them both at the trailer together and tacked Dan up with everything but his bridle. Then I put her in a stall. She was screaming for him and looked like she might consider jumping out the window, so we shut it. Dan was jumpy and calling for her but he did let me walk him down to the arena. We walked around a good bit and he was trying. He would brace and invert and call.. but then he'd feel gentle pressure and he'd let go and soften his neck. Then he'd pick his head back up and call and then soften again. Eventually, about 15 minutes in, he started to focus on the work. And she had stopped calling out at him too, so that helped. We got some good work in and he was really trying hard to be a good boy. 

Rana told me to keep my elbows at my hips. I was confused because I thought I was... so I asked for clarification. She wants my elbows slightly in front of me... at my front and middle belt loops... not literally at my side. OH!!! Ha ha. I tried it and it's freakin' hard! She was cracking up at my face that I accidentally made at her. hee hee. And dang... that's hard! It's like basically using the equicube because my core was struggling! Ooooohhhhh... that's good info brain! Keep that in mind Holly. :) 

We also did our trot half passes again. She reminded me that my body should mimic what I want his body to do. And it's not just turning my shoulders.. my whole body (legs and seat) also need to move. Like... exactly how I half pass at the walk... do it at the trot. Duh! But for some reason I get locked up in the trot. Especially going to the left. But we had a really good one at the end where he just floated over! He's in between my aids and soft and not bracing or fighting me. It's lovely! Big change from when we first started this and I was fighting him so much. 

But yeah. We quit with that because he was trying super hard and put in some good work. I untacked him and let him have a few bites of grass and rinsed him and then he sat quite quietly in the trailer while we worked Funny. GOOD BOY! Maybe we can start making this a regular occurence and they'll get used to it and not be so loud. 

Good Ashland Ride

 Ahhh... today was a good day. I met Kelli at Ashland. Apparently Marvin felt super last Friday after I worked on him on Wed. But then he got four days off and Tuesday he felt awful for Rana. Super crooked and just.. unable to do anything. So, I offered to check him again. He was cranky when I first started but once I adjusted his pelvis, his eyes got soft and the wrinkles in his nose disappeared and he almost went in a trance. I ended up doing some pillar work with him too and then taped him for an extra bonus. And then Kelli and I rode. And she said she thought Marvin felt great! Yay! Dan was pretty good too. We had a decent ride and even did a tiny bit of canter too. :) It was hard and he couldn't hold it for too long while staying correct, but we had a good circle or too. 

Then we went for a hack. Not terribly long, but not super short either. The boys were good and it was a pretty day. :) 

 

After I got done riding I ended up taping Dan. (Sadly, this tape, which is expensive, didn't last more than 12 hours on him either! Good grief!)

Progress!! Sweet sweet progress

Ahhhhhhh!!! Yay! We had a good lesson today! I needed that! Rana was excited about our progress and his muscling and neck development. And he was trying really hard to be soft and happy. :) We had a good ride. So good that we even added trot half pass back in. And he's getting it. It was soft and relaxed and not at all braced or fighty. It took a little finagling for me to get my body right and get his shoulders leading, but there was definitely a few steps of lovely half pass! Yahooo!!

After that she was going to show me how to do the lunging like in the book. So we put the cavesson on. She said that she was just going to show me the gist and stick to the walk because he was so good he didn't want to piss him off, and unfortunately, in the beginning, you tend to piss them off when you lunge this way. But he did well and figured it out quickly and she kept it very short and simple and quiet and so we quit with that. :)