Homework at Ashland

 Today Dan and I hauled to Ashland to meet Kelli! She got there before us and was working so when we got to the arena we hung out and watched her ride for a bit. I got some video for her. Dan was actually pretty good about sitting with me, except he drooled all down my arm. Ewwww... Ha ha. After she was done I got on and Dan and I practiced our Kelly homework. It's hard. But we managed some nice work. Kelli said that he definitely looked less on the forehand but it was definitely better when he was connected. When my reins went spaghetti loops, he lost it. And.. I know! I can feel it. When he's connected, he's soft and his back comes up and he feels springy! But the problem is.. I'm not willing to have tighter reins to keep the connection. In other words... my whole purpose is to get him to reach forward and down and out. I want his neck to be as long as possible. That is first and foremost. The second thing is that I want him connected. I want a nice soft steady connection. And I get what Kelli was saying. She's not wrong. But I'm willing to sacrifice the connection a little bit in an effort to keep his neck long. I'd rather feed him the reins and lose the connection to a loop than have him shorten his neck, hold, and get behind the vertical. He still does that anyways. Ha! But for Kelli and Marvin, he gets super tense and short and her method is to keep a connection no matter what... even if that means she has to shorten the reins and come back with her hands. And again, she's not wrong. And I'll do that too, but... I'll err on the side of throwing the reins away. I always want to be feeding him more rein if he'll take it. And he does....but then he looses the connection, so my reins get loopy. And that's okay. I'm okay with that. Because when he shortens his neck, that's sooooo bad for his neck arthritis! So we'll take the slow route and get our connection through a looser longer rein. But she did have a good point in that when he's got no connection and is on the forehand, that's not good for him either. Yep! And I'm trying! I'm trying my best to keep him connected but feed out the reins as much as I can and to keep the connection as soft as possible with his neck as long as possible. 

 

So we did our walking and trotting and cantering and he was good. It wasn't all perfect and I lost the connection a good bit, but we got some nice work. And it was hard work, so he fell out of it some, but that's okay. I'm not fit yet either buddy. :) But we did get some glorious moments of true connection, true self carriage, and lifted back! After we finished and Kelli and I talked through the whole connection vs floppy reins thing... she made my day. She told me that I should be very proud of what I had done and accomplished with him. In general... and overall. She said that very few people would have picked up the pieces as many times as I have for him and not just that, but also gotten better results each and every time. She said that looking at him go the last few rides, he just looked so good! She said I should be proud of myself and him. And I guess I am. It was so nice to hear her say that. We've worked so hard and I've done everything I can to help him. 

 

Then we headed out on the trails for a quick hack. Kelli had to head home so Dan and I were by ourselves. We went to the little lake first and oh my gosh.. the pollen!! Then we went down to the big lake and I let him have a splash. He was having a blast, but dude... my saddle!!!! So then we went for a short little canter in the fields and headed up the hill back to the trailer. Good pony!!!

 

Then, I don't know what I was thinking... I loaded him up and told him I would go get him a treat. Apparenlty I did not put the ramp up. I did the butt bar. I put away my things and gave him a cookie, but never checked the ramp. When I pulled out I thought it seemed a little loud but it's always so bumpy and ridiculous there... Then when I pulled onto the road, again, I thought it was a little loud but there was a huge semi pulling cars near me, so I thought it was him. And no one said anything. I should have looked. I don't know why I didn't. So then we turned right onto 81 and as we were by the church, a white truck passed me and then put their hazards on and slowed down and started waving. At first I was like "jerks... don't pass me then slam on your breaks"... "Ohhhhh!!!"... I pulled over and they yelled "your door is open". Ooops. Poor Dan!!! He was so brave. I'm so grateful that God protected him and my ramp. One of the bumpers had just fallen off, so I was able to grab it. But the ramp itself was fine. Jeesh!!! Thank you nice people for telling me!!!

Homework!

 Whoo hooo! I got off work early enough today to hop on Dan. I'm so grateful for my current farm, my awesome arena, and this lovely weather today. I put on a tank top! And still had a few beads of sweat rolling down my chest and back! I mean, it is March, but barely!

So we did our homework. We walked on the buckle (Oh, I did swap out to my longest reins!) and focused on getting him to where he was carrying himself not just plodding along on the forehand. It would have been super to have my arena mirrors up, but.. I was able to look at our reflection in the sand. He was pretty good about it and I felt like we were accomplishing it! Then we went to the trot! He was good and we worked on all the things. He didn't seem quite as bad about going behind the vertical today. He seemed to stay neutral or with his nose out a hair at the trot today. Yay! Then we cantered and it was a little harder to do what I was supposed to. But I think I did. We had some decent canter too with him not relying on the outside/right rein. But it was hard to get him to take the connection reliably and when I dropped the outside rein, I was also dropping the inside rein most of the time. Oops! But still, I think we made progress. 

And then he got a little quick! I'm not sure if he was just excited... or fatigued, so he sped up to help make it easier for him. I'm guessing a teeny bit of the former and most of the latter. So we got a nice balanced slower trot and then we quit! 

Good boy!! He got a quick rinse as it was warm enough and he was a hair sweaty. Then he got to go back and munch all that new green grass!

 

LOOOOOOOONG Ride!

Today was a long day in the saddle! Poor Dan. :) 

We signed up for a lesson with Kelly Eaton at Ashland! YAY! We've missed her so! I was hoping to get there with 30 minutes to tack up and warm up but... life, so I only had 15 minutes. And despite wearing a sheet last night and it probably being cool enough I could have left it on... the weather app said it was a lot warmer than it felt, so I took it off. I figured he would roll but hoped he wouldn't since it was still a hair chilly. Yeah, he did. Luckily (maybe) not in the red river sand but in the dark brown wet dirt. Which meant he literally had dried clumps on him. Argh. Luckily Kelly texted she was running 15 min behind. Perfect!
 

(He was also stalling when I went to bring him to the trailer to go to Ashland... maybe all those flowers you're eating is what is giving you gas goofy!)

I was able to get Dan groomed and we headed to the arena for our pillar warm up. We got 1 lap in and then I realized it was 5 minutes past my lesson time. Although Kelly wasn't there yet, but I wanted to get on so I could warm him up, so I got on. We did our zig zags and our 10 meter figure 8 walk work. He was a bit sluggish. There was a little bit of shock and ahhh, but there wasn't much shock going on. Doh! So then Lexi walked up to say hi and we sat and chatted for about 10 minutes. At that point Kelly texted and said she needed another 10 minutes. Lexi had mentioned she left her jacket on one of the XC jumps and would have to go walk and get it. I offered to ride Dan down there and retrieve it since he was clearly annoyed with the arena and Kelly had said it would be another 10 minutes. So we did. We hacked down there and said hi to Aubrey and then hacked back. Then I got the other texts. Apparently one of the students fell off so they had to fix some things, hence Kelly running behind. But she was okay! Hee hee. Not a problem at all. I'm on my horse! It's sunny and pretty out. And I'm on my horse!!!

So Kelly got to the arena and I told her where we were at and what my hopes and plans were. So she asked to see us on the circle at a walk and asked if I could get him to really stretch and draw a line in the dirt with his nose. Oh yeah.. we do that easily.. but not really connected! So she watched and then we talked. She said that for him, to help him build up his body... we needed to get longitudinal connection and suppleness first. She wanted him to stretch on a connected rein to teach him how to start unlocking himself and carrying himself. She wanted his nose to be parallel to his cannon bones, so not poked out. And she wanted his nose between his fetlocks. Wow! Tough! So we tried. And we got the hang of it. He started out rooting and fussy and doing all the things to not do what I asked, but then.. he got it. And then he kind of liked it so he went there a good bit. Kelly wanted me to basically keep a soft connection to his mouth but every time he softened, feed him a little bit of rein, as long as he kept the connection. At one point she was like "You're gonna need longer reins"!. Yes.. why? Why are all my reins so short? I know the one pair is cob reins, but... this was supposed to be horse reins. She laughed and said "if you trust him enough, unbuckle them"... and followed it with "or later, add a piece of string to lengthen them". So we carried on a bit and then she actually said "How much do you trust him?" so I immediately unbuckled his reins and rode with them split. He was fine. :) And it was cool. I could hold even soft pressure and he would start to give, and if I gave, he'd follow me a bit more. We got to where he had his nose between his knees (Not yet to this fetlocks, but we got a little closer by the end), his forehead parallel to his cannon bones, and tracking forward. She told me to watch his ears and as soon as he offered to go correct, release and reward! But don't just throw him away. Soften the connection and feed him the reins but keep him connected. No spaghetti loops! She also reminded me that it may not *Feel Good* but to reward the effort before it felt good. It will eventually feel good but not yet. Although to be honest, when he was marching and where she wanted us, it did feel good! He actually started to feel like his back was lifting and moving! And we talked about how, yes, techically he's on the forehand. But this was in such a way that he was unlocking and unbracing and learning how to use himself and actually learning how to carry himself with his hind end. And it did feel much nicer than our old version of stretching at the walk. He didn't feel like he was tipped over his front end and just running. He actually felt like he was carrying himself! Sweet!

So then she told me to buckle my reins and try it at a trot. He started to brace as soon as I "picked up" my reins. Sigh. But we worked through and I kind of ignored the transitions for now and we trotted. Kelly pointed out that when he's walking, he tends to cheat by sticking his nose out! Which I thought it was we wanted - forward, down and out! But the way he was doing it, he was cheating. And by poking his nose out, he was bracing. Ahhhhh. Okay! But... he's sneaky smart, and when we trot.. he cheats by pulling his nose in and going behind the vertical. So when we walk, pull his nose in a hair to get his forehand parallel to his cannons. When we trot, I had to push him forward and encourage him to follow my giving reins forward and out. We started to get the hang of it! She told me not to worry about anything else right now. Don't try to balance him. Don't try to round him up or get him to lift and bend. Just... focus on that connection. She told me it might take 4-6 months. UGHHHHH... Patience is not my virtue. She said I was getting fancy legs trying to get him to stop leaning and tilting and to not do that. It wasn't that it was wrong.. it was correct riding. But she thought he wasn't there yet and we needed to establish .... aha!!... basically a relationship to contact first. *Isn't life interesting!! Oh how we learn things! 

So then we cantered! Again, I kind of ignored the transitions and just got to the canter. When we went left, he was hanging on my outside/right rein. So she wanted me to ask for him to soften to it and then drop it. Like... throw him away. (Only in the canter and the right rein. The rest of the time, soften to the connection). Drop him! Then he has to carry himself. Otherwise, everything else was the same as in the walk and trot. Keep a soft connection and feed him the reins as he takes them. No sphaghetti noodles. Except I was instructed to drop him on the right rein at the canter so he would carry himself. She said we may only get 2 strides before he falls out of it. He thinks he needs me. He doesn't, but he's not strong enough to hold himself yet. So, we get 2 strides and we reward. Then maybe in a few weeks we can get 3 strides of it. Going right was harder actually. Because it wasn't so glaringly obvious that he was hanging and he was kind of going self carried.. I didn't know what to do?! Do nothing! Well, not nothing. But do what I did at the walk. Hold the soft connection. Keep his nose between his chest. Keep his ears pointing so that his head is parallel with the cannon bones. So we tried. It got better.

So we quit with that. There were a few things that at first I was like "no... cause....." but then the more I started to hear what she was saying and why she was saying it.. it makes sense. She basically finally explained to me the difference between a horse going on the forhand and a horse stretching. FINALLY! And she gave me tools to do it! Because at first, I was like "Ugh.. I'm working so hard to get him off his forehand.. no, no... I don't want to go on the forehand". BUT.. that's not what she's saying. She's saying we have to go a little on the forehand but we do it correctly and build him up so that he can carry himself on his hiney and not you holding him there. I like it! Oh and in the beginning of the lesson we talked about how he probably could do classical dressage... with a long neck. But it would be unkind to ask him to do the shortened neck dressage version. Yep! She said that the length his neck was in our trot today was the length his neck needed to be for 3rd level. Oh!! And I'm assuming.. it will come up, but it will still be that long. 

She reminded me that there's a straight line from A to B but that sometimes, due to injury or whatnot, you have to take the curved path to get to B from A. Dan and I are on that rainbow path :) But we'll get to B. And hopefully, we'll get there sooner rather than later and sound! 

So then Judy and Sarah were riding in the arena next to us so when I walked away with Kelly they said hi. I stopped to chat and catch up and then we went for a hack together. We walked around the small lake and then along the creek and then up the big hill. Poor Dan... just lunging and walking for 2 months and then the 4th ride back I make you do the big hills! Whoops. He seemed fine and happy though. We had fun!

I was starting to get sore in my bum and when I got off I realized why! I had been in the saddle for 160 minutes. Probably longer as I don't think I started equitracks until I had done a few minutes of warm up. We did 6 miles. Granted, 1.5 hours of it was walking. :) Good pony!

 

A beautiful day!

 Ahhh... what a lovely Saturday! It was warm, sunny, and beautiful out! Dan and I loaded up and went to meet Kelli and Marvin at Ashland. 

We started off in the arena, doing our pillar work and the Jec zig zag in hand. He was a good boy. Then I hopped on. WE started off walking and doing our figure 8 exercise. I even did the square box walk thing that Jacel reminded me about in my lesson with Lyric this morning. Then we picked up the trot and did some slow trotting... our economy trot. He didn't feel as good as he had felt the other rides. But he wasn't lame. I focused on keeping his nose between his shoulder blades so yay for that! But he just felt...I don't know... not good. He was fussy and was biting at his shoulder a little bit. And just... seemed unhappy. His tongue didn't come out though. So, we went back to walking for a bit and went back to our 10 meter figure 8 circle until Kelli was done riding. I wanted her to video so I could send it to Dr. Kate. We picked up the trot again and Kelli was videoing. I focused on just keeping a slight contact but soft and keeping him slow and off his forehand. And, despite that being what I was doing before, he was better suddenly. He got a bit fussy at moments, but he was trying. We did a few minutes of trot and a little bit of canter and it was nice. His canter is still a bit lifted and braced going into it, but it's way better than it was before we saw Dr. Kate. And it had some really nice moments. We finished with a quite lovely trot across the diagnonal. Not a real lengthen but... a baby lengthen. And one of our nicer ones! He stayed nice and lifted and it was a true lengthen, not just a faster trot. We quit with that! Sadly, we didn't quite get the super good stuff on video, but Kelli caught the tail end of it. So... okay! Yay! He almost feels better than he did before we left off. But he's weak still and can't hold it for long. But that's okay! Me too, buddy, me too! And no tongue!!!

Most of our ride

Then Kelli and I talked about the saddle and she took some photos of me in the saddle to see about my jumping position. Yay! Then sadly she had to go so Dan and I went on a solo hack. He was a bit lazy and just wanted to eat all that green grass. I didn't let him go in the lake either because.. not my saddle! But he did drink from the green lake. And then we cheated and had a little canter over the log in the field next to the lake and then another little canter over a tadpole log on cross country. :) :) 

Darn weather

 

So... I was supposed to have a lesson on Lyric with Jacel this morning. The weather didn't cooperate so we ended up postponing it until Sat. But then the weather stopped raining (in time for my lesson doh!) and looked like it was going to stay clear until 11 or noon. I guess I should have ridden Dan first, since he's rehabbing, but.. I didn't. Because my brain was stuck on "ride Lyric". But anyways... point is... after I rode Lyric, I figured I could sneak Dan in. Yeah.. the radar lied! Of course I spent a tiny bit more time grooming him because he had been sprinkled on and then rolled in the arena sand pile so he was orange!!! But we got ready to go and I decided that I would try lunging him first to help do some rehab. But then as soon as I got in the arena and did one lap of pillar work, it started sprinkling. Which, no big deal, except I don't own this saddle... and it's getting rained on! I probably should have just headed in, but... I thought I'll just get on and cover the saddle. So I did. We did our walk homework - the figure 8. We did shallow serpentines/zig zags. Then we trotted. And... he felt kind of icky. Oh no! Worse tracking left. Not his usual hopping rein lameness, but... not a legit lameness. So we kept at it. It would come and go. And I didn't necessarily consciously realize it, but... when he was overbent, that's when he was wonky. So I was already focusing on riding him straight, but also bending his barrel, so we just kept doing that. And we had some nice moments. We cantered also and again, we had some nice moments. He didn't feel as amazing as he did the previous ride, but he still felt pretty good at times. Well, not too far into our ride.. it started raining. Like legit rain, not just sprinkles. Sigh.. We finished up with one "lengthen" down centerline. Which also was not nearly as good as the other day. In fact, it wasn't great at all. But it was raining and I wasn't into it, so.. fair enough. We grabbed the pivo and the tripod and disconnected everything and then headed back in. Luckily I was able to dry and clean the saddle and there are no spots. 

Then later I had sent the video to Kim to get her take on the saddle fit and see how he was going in it. She told me that he was cheating and over bending and that was putting pressure on C5-C7 and would cause a rein lameness. So I needed to really focus on keeping his head straight - his neck between his shoulder blades and his nose between his shoulder blades. And that would eliminate that rein lameness. She also said that the saddle wasn't the cause. He was moving quite freely and that was just his compensations from before. Yay! Glad I was at least subconsciously aware of it. And now I can focus on it. I do think I am going to try to do some virtual lessons with her. She's so helpful and she had Dan going soooooo darn nice!

And then tonight while I was letting their food "cook"... I pulled Dan out to do some bodywork. I just made him lift his back - pillar 2. We also did some neck stretches and some pushing forward and pushing back. I'm trying to be good and do this more often.