Meltdown - Not just the snow and ice coming off the roof

The Michigan winter seems to stretch indefinitely this year. It comes with the 'added benefit' of sunshine during the day which means ice and snow are coming rather noisily off the roof.

Yesterday was a really busy day at the barn and my shortcomings in terms of focus and relaxation were blatantly apparent. My lesson was during the time horses are brought in from the pastures through the indoor to the barn. There was handwalking, riding, longing (with whip cracking) going on, all the while the ice was coming off the roof.  Saumur was really awesome in dealing with all the commotion. I, OTOH, not so much. Sandy said she'd like to find a way to half-halt ME to get my attention back on track!

I see the deadline looming (only one month left before the boys go home!) and I am desperately trying to get the most out of every lesson. With all the commotion my concentration is shot and I end up back at the basics. This, of course, is always good, but it worries me that I'll never be able to do the advanced movements. Obviously, with all the stress at work I have a hard time dealing with any additional pressure. Maybe I should just go back to trailriding??

Nevertheless, at the end we still managed very good half-passes and I liked the exercise half pass to quarterline, straight, then haunches to the wall, and from there half pass in the opposite direction.

On a very positive note, Luanne from Schleese Saddlery came to adjust my saddle yesterday and she paid a huge compliment to Sandy and me: Saumur is absolutely even on both sides!! When she tested the back for soreness there was not a flinch in sight. Saumur gained 1" on girth measurement. While filling out the paperwork, Luanne mentioned that it is not often that she can mark the box "even"!

So, my nerves might be completely shot - but hey, the important part is: My horse is even, strong and healthy!

Control the feet = Control the horse

Still dealing with spooking issues due to light rays coming through the door, frosted mirror, and ice sliding off the roof. We have been working at stopping instead of pushing Saumur by the 'scary' object. He is actually now most of the time in a frame of mind where he stops himself!

Sandy had a good way of explaining it: Horses sometimes get scared of the reactions of the own bodies, the feet move automatically faster than the horse realizes and then the horse gets even more scared. It makes sense, thinking on how our own heart rate sometimes instantly goes up as an automatic reaction to an event.

This also reminds me of my earlier cowboy clinics. The cowboys always stress that you have to have control of the feet in order to gain control of the horse. Maybe chewing and spitting tobacco would give an added edge?

The different gears of trot - and musings on the drug of choice

Saumur felt awesome today, no 'weird feelings' about his back. Guess once again (!) I worried too much. He was in work mode from the start, light, soft and swinging. Repeat from yesterday: transitions! Trot - walk - trot, no slacking, no "maybe" response. "Maybe" got us a reinback. Crisp and sharp were the key goals today. We did trot half-passes to shoulder in, i.e. rail to X half-pass left, straighten at X, then shoulder-in right. When we are on, we are on, and it felt really easy. Then we proceeded to going from lengthening to collected trot, with the goal being half-steps. Saumur gave me glimpses of good half-steps and that put me straight up to cloud 9 :-). Yes, that's what a great lesson with an awesome horse and a passionate teacher can do for you. Better than any drug! At least, it is my drug of choice.

I'm off to Mexico City tomorrow, and even though I am not keen on the trip, at least I only have to worry about keeping my white hind-end safe, and not about Saumur. Last night I thought about the choices in life. I have a job that I enjoy most of the time, but that comes with a large amount of stress, responsibility and pretty severe time constraints, not to mention travel to places that are not exactly safe. However, from a very early age I knew what I wanted: A (hopefully interesting) career that would keep me in my drug of choice! Even though I get the blues sometimes and whine about the stress, being tired, being away from home and not having enough time for my horse, husband, friends - I am darn lucky!!

What is he tattling on me?

Sandy is back from her well-deserved trip to Florida, so our days of 'leisure riding' are officially over. While I was in Quebec last week Sandy rode Saumur and he worked well. They have been working on canter pirouettes and fine tuning the changes and he has been a very good boy.

Imagine my surprise when Sandy in my lesson today told me that Saumur was tattling on me! Basically, he was telling her through his body. Sure enough, Sandy could feel how I rode him and this is how he 'tattled' on me. Mainly, I still have a tendency to ride him like a lower level horse, in a low frame, lots of long and low breaks. Sandy explained that while in principle this has merit, it does not help Saumur with his work in collection. He needs to build up strength to keep the frame for a longer period of time. My constantly going back to long and low is not helping.

Another key item is doing frequent transitions, which he needs and I am not really into. I mean, why bother with a transition at every letter, especially when the going is nice? :-) But again, there is logic behind it. It keeps Saumur on the aids and makes him much more responsive. Today we worked on four canter strides - walk, four canter strides - walk, and so on. Amazing how the prep work with the "1,000 transitions" set him  up for it. The same is true for going to collected canter: If Saumur is listening to my aids, a squeeze of the fingers does the trick. I also still have work to do on getting my center of gravity more down in the saddle...I think tonight I'll be dreaming of the good old days of galloping and jumping in two-point cross country, not a thought of collection in mind (too busy focusing on staying on!).

If only he could talk - at least sometimes

When you are with a horse for a long time, you are like an old couple. You know him so well that any minor change is very noticeable. Last night Saumur's back just didn't feel right. Nothing major, just a 'kink'. It was noticeable in the walk and rising trot, better in the sitting trot. I jumped off and put him on the longe line to take a look. As I couldn't see anything noticeable I asked for the expert opinion of Amy, Megan and JP. They confirmed that nothing seemed amiss.

So, what now?? I already made an appointment with Luanne, the saddle fitter, even though I don't feel anything major out of balance there. Saumur just had last week Dr. Weaver (the chiropractor) work on him. Either he slipped on the ice/mud or my other suspicion might be right: A dirty sheath. Yes, the issue not many people like to deal with. Last year we needed the vet for an 'emergency cleaning', and his back last night felt similar to that issue.

Hmm, that always brings back a VERY embarrassing moment at work: Years ago I called my vet's office to get some tips on how to go about this (I only had mares until Saumur). As I am great at multi-tasking I had the phone on speaker while doing something else. All of a sudden I hear the loud voice of the vets ancient assistant blare through the office "Oh, honey, he's just like a guy: All you need are warm hands and lots of lubricant!". Needless to say, my face was beet red for a very long time that day.

So, I'd rather have Saumur tell me what the issue is - and hope he only whispers the request for warm hands :-)!

Here comes the dentist - or the wrath of Blondie

Yesterday I spent six hours at the barn - time flies when you are having fun, and sometimes also when not. The equine dentist was supposed to come at 9 a.m., of course he showed up at 10. Off to a good start - I was already miffed because daylight savings time started that weekend, which meant I had to get up at 6 a.m.

It is amazing how a horse that went through so much in his life can still be trusting. Saumur, who when I first got him was literally trying to go through walls to get away from the vet or any other male that wanted to touch him (i.e. saddle fitter) stood there without sedation (!) and calmly had his teeth floated. His left side always needs more attention. Doug, the dentist, is such a calm guy and takes his time. He takes care to account for the bits the horses are using, in Saumur's case his double bridle.

Chambord (aka Blondie - he is a 'very blond' Palomino), on the other hand, was a completely different story. He was MAD! Now there is a horse that usually takes things in stride, doesn't get rattled easily, and you'd think the dentist wouldn't be a problem. It wasn't last time at home. Well, yesterday was not his day apparently. My arms still hurt from trying to hold him. In all these years I never had a horse show his emotions like that, it really was the equivalent of the 'evil eye'. The last thing I wanted was him giving me another broken nose. And with the kicking and rearing I thought I was getting pretty close. Once we were done Chambord was just a ham again. Go figure. Worked like nothing ever happened.

Well, on the bright side, I got a spotless car in return. After I gave JP an earful about his 'evil Blondie' he took great care of my car :-) But he still got the better deal!

Riding in good company

Last night was one of the rare occasions where I got to ride with other people. Usually I either have a lesson or I ride at times when rarely other people are around. Yesterday we had Linda, JP, Amy riding with us while Megan was handwalking Savannah in the arena. Aside from the fun of socializing it is a good practice for the busy warm-up areas at the shows. Southview Farm truly has a great group of people, it is one of the rare places without 'dressage queens', bickering and back-stabbing. Some of Sandy's clients have been with her for 30 years, that is quite telling!

Saumur was a true trooper, he hadn't been worked in three days. I got on, and he was happy and relaxed. We kept our focus and even sneaked in a couple of clean changes. Poor guy, though, as a 'thank you', he got paste wormer afterwards  (followed by treats).

How the "Happy Baby" improved my position

Yesterday I had one of the best rides in a lesson in a very long time - and the best part is, I was able to recreate it today! Saumur felt just awesome, soft, supple, relaxed - motoring along happily. And all that despite being cooped up inside due to freezing rain. When he feels like this, everything seems easy. Our turns on the center line were much more precise, which allowed us to stay straight on the center line all the way from C to A, no wiggling.

My big 'Aha' Moment came in the canter. For the first time I was keeping my thighs relaxed and that in turn gave Saumur confidence that all was well. I was thinking of the "Happy Baby Pose" from my Yoga class (you lay on your back, feet in the air and bent, with the hands holding the feet and then you rock on your back). Yes, it sounds pretty strange and I wouldn't want any uninitiated person see me like that. But it sure opens up those hip joints!

I've been going regularily to Yoga classes for a month now and despite my apprehension at first I have to say it really helps me relax and it does help me with my riding. All that stretching and bending... I really never thought Yoga would be something I could get into (I'm rather tightly wound, to put it nicely) and my mind never shuts up. Guess it's what I needed. The interesting thing is that the person that gave me the idea is an old rodeo cowboy with a body that has seen its share of bad falls and  broken bones. When I asked him how he kept fit to still get on horses he said one word: Yoga!

The "other' Right

Sandy has been working with me on getting more precision in moving Saumur's shoulders. We've been working on haunches in to shoulder in, then back to haunches in. This is a great exercise in preparation for the half-pass, as my half-passes seem to like 'haunches leading'. Here is the challenge, though: Sandy says "take your right hand an inch off his neck"... and my brain translates it to "Where is right?". By the time I have it figured out we are at the end of the 60m arena! No kidding. My brain can hop in a heartbeat through several languages but left and right (or any direction) are something entirely different. I've taken to cheating, in that the only ring I wear when riding is my wedding ring, so when I have to figure out left and right I close my fingers and feel the ring on the left. How sophisticated is that?? But hey, it works. We managed really good half-passes both sides.

Leadership 101 - Or it's all in your mind

How come I have no problems keeping 'my guys', aka my sales team, in line (or so I think!)? Saturday Sandy had to treat me to another 'lecture' on leadership. Tell me something I don't know :-)!

Saumur is a timid horse and the low man on the totem in the pasture herd. He looks to me to give him confidence. What seems feasible at work is not so clear with him. I look out for things he could spook at, that of course makes him more aware that HE should check things and voila - here we go again! Right back to the question "is it him or is it me?" In the end it's all a mind game. As soon as I pretend all is well, we can ride through ice falling off the roof without a hitch. But how to control this hyper-active brain of mine all the time??

There was a great article in February's edition of Cavallo (a German riding magazine) on how the preception of the rider affects the horse's performance. It really hits home.

Case in point: When I ride Chambord (JP's fairly green Palomino QH of breaking my nose fame) I don't even think that he could spook. Chambord goes along without the slightest inkling that a ray of sun might be a major threat to him. I am more relaxed, he motors along - and all is well :-)