Temper Tantrum

Oh my!! Dan was a monster today! We had our lesson with Rana. We warmed up and had a fairly decent trot half pass. So then we went right to the canter. Our plan was to work on getting sit and jump in the canter. And maybe work on counter canter. So... we started and it escalated super quickly! I don't know if Dan was in a mood... if I was, but... it was a battle! We probably fought for a good solid 20 minutes. He threw everything at me. He just would NOT canter like a proper dressage horse. And heaven forbid if I finally got an actual canter, I tried to half halt. He was bolting, bucking, propping, stopping, crow hopping, kicking out, and just flat out refusing. And everything I tried to do to correct it... he'd come up with another evasion. Sigh... 

We finally finished our lesson with me getting somewhat of a semblance of a canter with him being on the bit and through and soft and while not collected, at least not running. Sigh. I was exhausted! We did have a laugh though that thank goodness I owned him because he would have just eaten someone else alive! At one point I had to kick my stirrups off because my toe kept getting smooshed, so it was more comfortable. It was more comfortable to ride out the bucks, leaps, and kicks... Heathen!

Oh well. You win some, you lose some. Hopefully I at least was able to get through to him and prove that I wasn't going to allow him to not do it. I understood it was hard and I understood he didn't really want to work that hard, but... "no" is not an acceptable answer. "I'll try" and "I'm trying but I can't" are acceptable answers, but... "Nope" and "not even gonna try" are not acceptable answers. Sigh.... Who was it that said Dan's "yes ma'am" was broken?! ha! 

So the plan is to come back Thursday so that Rana can help make sure I don't back down. No more giving up the connection when he's a jerk and threatens me. 

Sunday Funday

Well... today was supposed to be a trail ride with Kelli, Peri, and Liz. Peri ended up cancelling because Cuart had a sole bruise and while he was better, she had a show coming up and we thought it was best he didn't get foot sore right before. Kelli was always a tentative depending on the timing and Brian. Liz had to go early, so we opted for early, which put Kelli unavailable. And then Liz texted me first thing in the morning that she had been up vomiting all night with food poisoning. UGH! So... It's okay! I didn't have to go that early necessarily, but I had scheduled Dan's massage around it and it was easiest to go earlier so we did. 

Except I dawdled a little bit because I didn't have to meet Liz on time, so... we ended up not quite having as much time as I wanted before our massage. We did a nice little hack with a bit of trotting and finished in the XC field. I had wanted to just pop over a few fences so that when we went to Chatt, we had done something more recent than 2 weeks prior to the show. So, we did. We hopped over some coop or something... then went to the sharkstooth! We did it on the first try although it wasn't quite as brave, but we did it. We came a second time and were much braver! Then we did the two coops that were set up on a 3 stride and he did that great! So, we ended with that. Unfortunately we didn't really get to splash or play in the lake, but it's not as much fun without friends anyways. 

Dan got a good report for his massage, although she thought he was out in the poll, so I adjusted him real quick. Hopefully that will help some of the neck issues I'm suspecting are creeping abck again. 

We're getting it!!!

 We're getting it!!!

Despite the fact that Dan made ugly faces at me while tacking up, so I spanked him, which caused him to jump on my pinky toe, which hurt, a lot, we had a good ride. We didn't warm up like we usually do because Jean was talking to us and I was trying to get to Mike's Mom's in time to see the grandparents. But we did a little warm up and then went to work. I had given him bute this morning to see if it made a difference. I think it did. He only turned to his shoulder once or twice today instead of repeatedly. We basically just did our collected work and did some changes within the gaits. He's really listening to my seat now! Well... I'm guessing he's been listening to my seat, but I'm now aware of my seat so that I'm asking for more specific stuff and he's doing what I'm asking, so I think he's listening, when in reality, he's been listening, I just wasn't asking right. But anyways.... yay! We are really starting to get the hang of the canter half pass now. Now that I can keep my inside lower leg off of him. We practiced our simple changes, which have degraded a little bit. BUT, our half passes are better now and we even held a tight 3 loop serpentine which was cool. So yay!

Fun ride! I got some of it on pivo, but haven't been able to edit yet. 

Acupuncture, and resting the neck

So.... I suspect that Dan's neck is bothering him. He's gotten to where he doesn't want to carry himself and when I take up the reins, he's been biting at his shoulder. And I don't think it's his shoulder. I did some acupuncture this morning on his neck, as well as the other usual points, and he really seemed to enjoy it. So I'll have to start doing this more often. :) So, while I wanted to do some more dressage, I also knew that he was going to be uncomfortable, so... we decided to go on a hack with Sissy.  And we had a blast!

 

Oh, he cracks me up!!!  We had fun. He always makes me giggle. And she is almost as funny as him. 

Happy Jumping Dinosaur!!

 

Today was a fun day! We met Jacel at Ashland for a jump lesson. And he was on FIRE! :) She was a little late so we walked to the lake to let him have a drink. He drank a little bit and ate some daisies. Those are for smelling Dan... smelling!! ;) 

 

So then we trotted up the hill and got to the jump arena right as Jacel pulled in. She had her two dogs with her, but Dan didn't care. And they were good dogs. So we warmed up while she set up some fences. And they looked big. But not scary. Like... that's a good novice fence! So yay for that. We worked on striding because... we've gotten to where we can't make the distances and quite frankly, at 17 hands, there is NO reason why he shouldn't put a 3 in a 3! So we had a 4 stride and a 3 stride set up, and then there was a 6 or 7 stride. We warmed up over a single fence and he was good. We had to remember to leg yield his barrel out of the way and then... we talked about how dressage horses are told to go in a gait until they are told otherwise. In other words, you don't have to keep 'riding' so hard. BUT... jumping horses need to have a little constant reminder/encouragement, because the fence backs them off. So, I need to be tickling his belly with each stride. This will help him lift his belly, move his barrel, thus lightening up the front end and keeping the hind end reaching underneath himself. And then, I've got to keep my elbows moving, to keep a connection but not collect him. And then, open my knees, move BOTH my hands to the left to get him jumping straighter, and... viola! Success!

So then we progressed to the 3 stride. The first time through, Dan almost had the 3, but chipped at the last second. But because I was upright and doing the things, he was able to jump it without rolling over his shoulder. We came through again and it was beautiful! In fact, he almost didn't have enough room for the 3 strides! Then we came again, the single, to the 3 stride, and around to the 4 stride. He jumped super awesome through the first 3 fences and then I got all frazzled on whether to push him left or right and panicked instead of just riding what I felt and it wasn't straight, but we got the 3. So then we came back again and nailed it all and then went around to the 7 stride, which could have been a 6 stride, we didn't walk it, but he nailed it too! In 6! We quit with that! He was super. He was forward, in front of my leg, jumping from the hind end, lifting through the shoulders, and... happy! He was having fun too. :) :) 

 

Oh, and.. this morning... there was shenanigans! I had my neurology appointment in athens at 9:30 am. I left at 8:30 and made it on time. Just after I checked in my phone rang. It was Joel. Oh crap!! What now?!? I couldn't answer but texted him that I couldn't. He texted back that two of my horses were out. Dang it! What? How!? I told him I was an hour away and he said he was trying to catch them. Then he texted back about 20 minutes later saying he had gotten them and they were fine. He said he'd show me how they got out when I got home. HEATHENS!! He never said which two it was, but.. I'll give you two guesses. ;) 

When I got home, I found where the problem was. The gate by the arena... and by the cabin... barely goes through the clasp. So if you push on it at all, it pushes right through the clasp. I had it chained so that wouldn't happen. Well, Monday night Mike walked out there to watch me ride and went through that gate I think. And I guess he didn't rechain it. He says there wasn't a chain on it, but... I know I put it on. But regardless, at least they didn't tear the fence down or anything. 

Isolating the Aids

Oi.... I woke up at 6 am this morning with a migraine. I took a prescription pill and was able to fall back asleep until my alarm went off at 7;15 am. Luckily the migraine was gone. But then I was struggling to stay awake while I drove to my first stop. I adjusted 9 horses. But they were all at 2 different barns so.. I managed to get home at 5:30. :) Yay! Mike was already home but he told me it was fine for me to go ride. :) YAY!

So we tacked up and headed to the arena. I got off to go through the gate and Funny was mad again. But she only bucked a little bit this time. Hee hee. We warmed up and then worked on collecting the trot and canter. We did a little bit of haunches in too. And while I was working on collecting the canter, I was trying very hard to keep my weight aids where they belonged. Basically I'm sitting on the outside seatbone, which is lifting my inside seat bone. And then I started to notice that if I put my outside leg on, he held the canter and was fine. But if I put my inside spur on, or even lower leg, he would brace or want to prop and swap. Hmmm.... and they I started to remember that when I wanted him to do a downward to the walk, I used my inside leg. Hmm... Dan might just be smarter than me. So then I focused really hard on it and... sure enough. I could pick up the canter with my outside leg and inside hip lift/swing. Then I could maintain the canter with the outside leg and inside upper thigh. If I closed my inside leg, he'd do a nice downward. Ahhhh!!! Maybe we're on the verge of the change now. Now that I can isolate my aids! (And... shhhh, if I'm doing it wrong... don't tell me! because.. he's not for sale... so if the change aids are to high five my face... if it works, it works! or... tell me, but tell me nicely, because I want to do it right!). So we practiced a lot of upward and downwards and then tried a little haunches in. And yep, if I keep my inside leg/spur off him, he holds it. So then I tried a little half pass, off centerline, not the rail, and we got it both ways!!!!! We also tried a figure 8 simple change with my "new aids" and it was a little sloppy but we got it. Yahoo!!! I rewarded him by quitting with that. But before we quit, we got some good trot work and some good trot half pass. We got a nice rein back or two. And did some collecting at the trot too. 

I feel like I know we got some collected work because he had butt foam :)

Sissy's birthday party

 Today was a good day! We took Funny to Ashland to pony her there for the first time. She was SUPER! (See her blog.... www.funbuns.blogspot.com for details from her point of view). And Dan was super! We met up with Liz and G and Peri And Cuart. Dan was polite and didn't try to eat either of them, which I was a little afraid of since he's been so protective of Funny. 

It was a beautiful day and we had a great ride. Dan was so good and led Funny through the creeks and over the bridges. We had one moment. ;) It was at the tiny creek and we happened across Missy, Indi, Marty and the dogs. We all stopped and chatted and Dan got super antsy. I'm not sure if he was worried about that many horses and Funny... mad that he didn't get to hang out with Indi, or... worried about Missy's dogs? Or maybe it's what happened next?? Anyways, Missy and Marti carried on and we got Dan and Funny over the creek. It took her a few minutes, but really that was it. But once we crossed the creek.... a goat started screaming in the woods. What?!?! They have dogs, but I've never heard a goat there. Dan couldn't see it and started freaking out. He was already backing into the woods with just Missy's dogs, and this was the same. He was backing into the woods... trying to spin.... I was afraid he was going to fall into the creek. So we let Cuart and G cross the creek and then they went back over it and we followed. Funny walked right over! Then we went back to the open field as now Cuart was freaking out too. They settled in the open field and we couldn't hear the goat anymore so that helped! We hacked some more and then went to the lake.  We splashed in the lake and had a blast. Funny enjoyed it and went right in. Then we went to the XC field and walked some ditches and banks. It was a great day!