1,2 1,2 1,2 1,2

Well, I couldn’t stop the riding bug from biting me once again. With Balloo on vacation (hopefully) for the winter, I decided to seek outside guidance on my riding. I haven’t really taken many lessons in recent years other than from my friend Heather here and there, but I felt it was time to get reacquainted with the basics and get on some other horses. Initially I had hoped to take lessons with both Heather and a friend of a friend Christy, but Heather is lacking in the lesson horse department and Christy is actually quite far and lately my schedule has not been conducive to getting all the way over there. Thus, I set out to find an instructor in Madison.

After leaving a myriad of messages and googling the far depths of the internet, I finally found a barn to lesson at. My new instructor is a follower of French Classical Dressage – something I know absolutely NOTHING about. My new mount is a lovely OTTB (surprise, surprise) who more closely resembles a quarter horse but retains the temperament of my favorite breed.

Within the first few lessons, I have realized that I have developed more bad habits than I could probably list. I honestly feel that a lot of them come from riding Balloo only. His gaits are beyond smooth, and you could sit backwards and he would still probably listen just fine. Keegan is not so forgiving. If I slip a hair out of alignment, he changes his tempo and hollows his back like none other. If I move slightly against him, he assumes I am not interested in the gait he is performing and will transition down; we are still attempting to complete a whole lap of canter.

The biggest message from my last lesson is the importance of rhythm and how exactly we influence that. Balloo ignores my seat; I know this is a bad thing, but I have never really known how to get him to be more responsive to it (looking back, it would probably be a good start to leave my half-seat behind.) Over time, without the influence of my seat, I have come to rely heavily on my other aids. If I needed to go a tick more forward it was leg, coming back a bit relied on my hand, and heaven forbid we need to turn – you get the picture. This is wrong! I should have realized this when, on the last ride of Balloo being here, I let go of all the tension and micromanaging I held in the reins and he floated.

Tension free at last (or at least a lot better than usual). Even though we bobbled above the verticle, he was much more willing to move out instead of cramming his neck in.

So, flash forward to last week. My instructor and I have been working on loosening my leg, and getting my toes a bit more forward so I can put the correct part of my leg on Keegan. In doing this, she has noticed that I tend to grip quite often with my leg (unfortunate) and even worse I nag, nag, nag, nag, nag with it as well (unforgivable). This is probably why Keegan starts our lesson so responsive, and by the end, he borderline ignores me.

Regardless, as we were trotting around and I was trying not to nag but also trying to telepathically make him pick it up a notch, my instructor mentioned four words that I have shouted across numerous arenas, “Post a little higher!” So I did. Wouldn’t you know that suddenly I had a big, flashy trot to work with? I played around with it a bit – post big, bigger, smaller now, teensy – and each time Keegan responded accordingly. How amazing it felt! The slight problem was that in my effort to “stay with the horse” I was compromising what I wanted from him; when he slowed down, I just went right along with him allowing it to happen, but then I would punish with my leg for something that I condoned (.o wonder my horse ignores my seat.) So, in the meantime she has me counting to keep my rhythm: 1,2 1,2 1,2 1,2. We’ll see how it works this week!

Fits Like a Glove

So, I finally had a spare moment. The first one in the last month. Of course I would decide to spend it in my new saddle atop my favorite Thoroughbred. I recently managed to pick up a Bates Caprilli All-Purpose saddle off E-bay for a ridiculous steal. Even though Balloo had been off, I couldn’t turn it down. Honestly, I didn’t even know it the saddle would fit him (or me for that matter), but I was counting on the fact that I have had good luck with Wintecs before and it is a 19″ seat.

When the saddle first arrived, I sat on it atop the arm of my couch. Well, I didn’t so much sit on it as I hovered over it trying to assess the fit. I had a good feeling after that, but it continued to sit abandoned on my saddle rack until today.

This morning I gathered the saddle and as many pads as I could find (I should mention that the saddle only came with the WIDE gullet installed.); I was bound and determined to get it padded up enough to make it reasonable to at least sit on him for 5 minutes – hopefully. I started grooming Balloo and getting him ready for the ride as soon as we got there. I swear he kept looking back at me with an expression like, “Are you serious? It’s my breakfast time!”

The second I put the saddle up on his back, I knew we had a winner. Even with the wide gullet in, it fit him MUCH better than his previous saddle. Since when did my horse become such a porky beast? Moving on… I still padded it up a bit to keep it off his withers and to level the saddle out, but in the end I had no qualms about getting aboard – at least until we got to the arena.

About 10ft from the door, I realized I had made an epic mistake this morning. While I had remembered to grab the saddle and every padding substance in my apartment, I completely forgot my stirrups! Could I ride without them? Sure, why not. It’s not like he and I haven’t been off for over a month. And we certainly weren’t trying out new tack. Why would that possibly be a bad thing? My leg muscles disagree with my initial decision. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

I’m fortunate in that my barn has a GINORMOUS mounting block where I can literally just slide my leg over Balloo and step onto him. So getting up was not a problem at all, and once I was up I realized that getting the saddle had been the best decision ever.

Shame on me for dropping my shoulder like that, but look at that stretch in his neck!

The first thing I noticed was how little leg I had to use to get him moving. Sure, he was plenty fresh, but even lateral movement seemed to come a lot easier so long as I was in the right place. There was the other big improvement. I wasn’t fighting the saddle! At all! I just sat there, and my leg hung in just the right spot. I will need to work on closing my hip angle a tick when I remember my stirrups as I tend to rock back onto my pockets and drive a bit too much, but my leg wasn’t slipping forward when I did it; I was genuinely in a driving seat.

I have always said that I could care less about how a saddle fits me so long as my horse is happy. I can’t even begin to explain how awesome it is that this one not only does the job for him, but it fits me too. It may not be the best jumping saddle (as I worry that the flap won’t be forward enough), but it will be precisely what I need to perfect my flat work! Hopefully I get another moment to spend on him before the big move!

I wanted to practice my position. I don't think this looks too bad.

On a slightly more serious note: I find it funny that when you mention that a horse has become resistant, most equestrians will tell you to check your saddle’s fit. I know I have harped on the subject to people I’ve helped with horses and even to people I barely know. Resistance = Discomfort, period. Looking back, I wonder how much of Balloo’s resistance I wrongly attributed to lameness. Sure, he was still stiff as all get out in that blasted right hind, but that will never be 100%. Riding in this new saddle, I had a new horse. We backed, we softened, he even chewed the reins out of my hand without me even doing anything! I’ll continue to harp on about saddle fit to anyone and everyone because I have now seen the 180 degree shift it can make in a horse’s attitude and overall work performance. I’m hoping we can keep it up.

Relocation Round Two

Balloo is going home. That might sound confusing seeing as he is with me in Madison currently, but I really feel like his home is where I took him from at the start of summer. His home is in the decrepit pasture with his friends.

The semester is amping up with no sign of a respite. I haven’t actually ridden Balloo in weeks, and I honestly don’t even know if we’d be able to ride with as stiff as he appears. I just know that a winter on the big hill with ice, snow, and 15 other horses will not be nearly as kind to him as a winter in his nice flat pasture with a few kind friends.

Looking back on the summer, I am incredibly proud of the progress we have made. I have gained back more confidence than I think I realized I had lost in the first place. I managed to rediscover the fun that riding should have always been. And, I even improved my position, timing, and overall connection with my horse. For a mere six months, I wouldn’t say we did half bad.

I’m hoping to have a free moment sometime in the next week to hop on Balloo at least one more time before he goes if for no other reason than to try out my lovely new Bates Caprilli. Still, if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen, and I’m OK with that. My old man deserves to just be a horse.

Stop While You’re Ahead

When I was little, I learned to play cards from my grandpa. Even though we would bet for change (pennies, nickels, and dimes), I still learned that I shouldn’t push my luck too far in one game. If I was doing really well in poker, I’d ask to play “Kings on the Corners.” If I had made more than the previous day, I would walk away and we’d go watch boxing or something of the like. No wonder I never had an issue with gambling. I wish I had the foresight to realize just how valuable the same reasoning could be to riding.

Balloo and I have not had a whole lot of time for riding lately, but last Friday I decided to make time and get a good ride in. My goal of the day was to jump around a small 4 jump course of cross rails, which based on our previous ride, I thought would be quite doable. He’s been an absolute superstar at jumping lately, and he had been moving fine in the pasture, so I didn’t see a reason for my goal to be unrealistic. Well, here enters new rule of riding #3172: Be flexible.

As we were warming up at the walk, Balloo felt great. He was willing to bend and soften. The only issue I detected was a slight hesitation to move off my right leg, but then again what else is new. The butterflies were already settling in my stomach anticipating the end goal, so I was probably a bit distracted at this point as well. We continued to just walk for a good fifteen minutes before we bumped up to a trot.

SQUEEK, SQUEEK, HALT!

I am fairly certain that is what we must have simultaneously looked like and sounded like as we picked up trot. He was more stiff than a 2×4, and more than that his gait felt a bit funny too. Luckily, there was another rider in the arena who I was able to ask an opinion of. She definitely agreed that something was off and we isolated it to the rear hind, but we also agreed that it looked like he might work out of it. We spend the next twenty minutes with me just trying to stay out of his way while I threw the reins to him. (He has gotten incredibly good about taking contact and I didn’t want him to even think about really working until we loosened up that hind end.) Finally, I had a horse again.

We relocated to the outdoor for a bigger area to ride in, and he improved even more. Even though I should have stopped there, my mind was set on coursework. I felt like if I didn’t even try it, I would just be making excuses to not do it. I’ve been really working on getting my confidence as a rider back, so I wasn’t about to let that happen. This combined with several people telling me that he didn’t look stiff at all gave me the push to move on to the jump field.

We worked on a simple course that consisted of a cross rail on the diagonal to a 5 stride combination cross rail to flowerbox vertical to a diagonal flower box oxer. We started out rocky mainly because I wasn’t doing my part to send Balloo forward TO the fence instead of letting it sneak up on us, but soon we were nailing it. We had a lovely round and where we should have stopped, Balloo decided to try to pull me back to the barn for the third or fourth time since we had started. I had had enough. We spun around and went to work going away from the barn. After that I thought I should probably revisit the course so we could end on a positive note. Too bad it wasn’t in the cards. We wound up pulling a rail and having a super ugly jump over the last fence.

I sat there kicking myself for even trying it again. I knew we were both tired. My legs alone were shaking every time I went into two-point, so I can only imagine how tired Balloo was. To look on the positive side, we were able to jump a whole course and he wasn’t terribly sore the next day either. I know that overall it was a really good ride, but I should have stepped away sooner instead of going “all in.” Lesson learned – until the next time I forget it.

Wrench In The Gears

Lately (as you may have noticed), I have not had much time for riding. This alone seems to have knocked Balloo and my fitness back down a few pegs, but we’re working on that. For me, the prescription is starting up my yoga ball workouts again to try to build my core. For him, the prescription is trot sets on the lunge line.

Our lunge sessions usually go off without a hitch other than Balloo having far too much energy for such an old man and needing to blow off some steam at the beginning of each session. He’s even become a pro at turning around when I step in front of him, a sure sign of the apocalypse. However, tonight did not go so smoothly.

I started to get that funny feeling in my gut that something was off when he went to blow up on the lunge and wound up cross-cantering. This horse is so automatic on his leads that he would consider it a sin against the core of his being to pick up the wrong lead – unless he’s trying to prove a point. Usually that point has one of two meanings: 1) Your inside leg is slipping back and you really ARE asking me for counter canter, or 2) OUCH! Seeing as I was not on his back at the time, I have to believe the later was at work.

I slowed Balloo down to a walk and analyzed his gait. Both hind legs were moving at the same regular pace, and they were both taking the same stride length as well. Still, something looked funny in his right hind. It literally appeared to get stuck like when your windshield wipers get old and skip across the window instead of gliding smoothly. Ugh, not again.

We moved back up to the trot and less funny movement occurred, but when it was there, it was there. The funny thing is that he was still absolutely willing to offe3r bigger trot and decent canter. Additionally, it seemed to diminish at least in frequency as the session went on. Realistically, I know that I own a 17yo OTTB. He is bound to have some forms of arthritis creeping up on him and making his jointly run less that ideally. I still vote that I don’t have to like it.

It was raining all day. I get creaky when it rains, so I can only imagine that it mist have played a role for Balloo too. In the meantime, I have MSM on order from Dover and we will be beginning it STAT. I’m also planning on picking up some liniment at the feed shop tomorrow and giving his hind end a thorough rubdown after we ride. Hopefully this is just a stiff thing and not a lame thing. Only time will tell.

We’re Back!

I sometimes wonder if the horse I have now is really the same one that I bought 5 years ago. True, we had some amazing times in there, but the ones that stick out the most in my mind are all too often the worst ones: bucking, rearing, charging fences, etc. Looking back, there were times where the only word I would have associated with riding was frustration. Now, it is incredibly hard for me to remember what it was like to be absolutely terrified to ride him, especially after rides like last Sunday.

Sunday was the perfect day for a trail ride: 70s, slightly overcast, and bug-free. I made my way to the barn early and left my photographer at home this time; we wouldn’t need him today, nothing monumental happens on trail rides. Luckily, Balloo was close in the pasture so getting tacked up took no time at all.

Heading out to the trails, Balloo was not entirely convinced that we needed to be going alone. At several points, he thought about fighting me on the issue by stopping in his tracks or becoming a drunken sailor down the road. I firmly held my ground and encouraged him on, but I couldn’t help feeling slightly disappointed that it felt like he didn’t trust me. I started thinking about our relationship over the past month and the conclusion I reached wasn’t pleasant; I honestly wouldn’t blame him for not trusting me. Recently, just about every time we’ve done “work” (which in itself had become a rare occurrence) there had been some fight in it – not exactly the relationship you want with your partner.  So, I set my mind at ease by deciding to make my ride all about fun.

Ironically, as soon as I decided that, I picked up my reins and Balloo came round in the most luxurious walk I have ever gotten out of him – so much for a ride full of R&R. Maybe I just try too hard. I decided to try a trot: If he gave me round, great! If not, oh well, it wasn’t our plan anyways! Wouldn’t you know that I got springy, forward, powerhouse trot? Trying not to press my luck, I let Balloo go on a longer rein for a while while we picked our way through the woods near the barn. Yet, the seed was planted.

We were there before I knew it. The cross country field of the neighboring barn rose up in front of us like Atlantis resurfacing in the Pacific. I knew Balloo and I were on the same wavelength as soon as he spotted the fences and picked up the pace. He was on a mission.

Knowing full well that I have not done nearly enough preparation to be jumping cross country, I walked around checking out my options when I spotted the bank jump. These had always been a strong suit of ours, so it seemed appropriate that we could walk up and down one a few times before heading back to the barn.

Balloo had other ideas. I started him off by walking down the bank a few times so that he knew it was there. He was a perfect gentleman and didn’t hesitate in the slightest. However, when we turned around to head up the bank, all bets were off. He caught me off guard the first time when he exploded up the bank cantering away as if to tell me that he needn’t be babied. The second time, I allowed him to pick up a trot before the bank and let him set the tone for how he wanted to do things; I was just to stay off his back and hang on.

When we successfully mastered the bank, I saw a lovely ditch with a log about four strides out from it. Perfect. The ditch was the first question posed to Balloo, and although he took it a bit larger than expected, he had no real issues with it. The log was smooth sailing as well. Surely it would be too much to ask him (and me) to put all three of these elements together. Wouldn’t it?

I gathered my reins and decided that the best course of action would be to take the ditch to the log and then loop around left cutting between the two elements to the bank. Seemed simple enough, right? The first run was a bit rocky. We missed the log entirely (by choice) and the leap up the bank was uncoordinated as a foal standing for the first time. But dangit, I had gotten this far, I wasn’ t going to let him down by being a bad pilot.

So, I gathered my reins and took several deep breaths. My mantra, “weight in my feet, leg on, weight in my feet, leg on,” was playing like a broken record in my head as I bumped Balloo into a trot. We circled out of tradition – although subliminally I think I was trying to avoid the inevitable – and headed towards the ditch. Like clockwork we were over it. “Look up!” I shouted to myself in my mind as we headed to the log at a brisk canter. 1, 2, 3, UP! We were over the log! “Holy cow, we’re still alive!” My mind rejoiced. Wait, wasn’t I supposed to TURN. I sat up and used my core to collect Balloo. I think we did a quarter pirouette with as sharp as he cornered. We rounded out the rest of the turn and headed towards the bank. 4, 3, 2, I watched the bank get closer with every stride. When we got to the base, I felt every muscle under me coil as Balloo soared up the measly 18″ bank and charged away, ears pricked, waiting for my next command.

Funnily enough, after trying the sequence a few different ways and nailing it each time, I felt an attitude shift in both of us. Balloo didn’t question my leadership once on the way back to the barn, and I didn’t doubt his abilities either. I guess the term wanna-be eventers isn’t so much of a stretch anymore. We are officially back!

Testing… 1, 2… Testing

I am absolutely loving that Autumn has decided to grace us with her presence in the midst of August; I have had enough of Summer’s fiery spirit. This morning was absolutely beautiful in the low 70s, perfect weather for a ride.

I began my ride by warming up with lots of small walk circles and figure 8′s as I always do. Much to my chagrin, Balloo was perfect. How could we go from fighting to perfect overnight? Well, I was riding with spurs and a whip. This is part of the problem. Balloo is very responsive when he feels that he has no alternative, but if I don’t look like I’m going into battle, we’re not going to get anywhere. Still, I was focusing on not using either tool unless we absolutely needed them. Once we were able to successfully ride bend in both directions at the walk and trot and I felt like I had control over his shoulders, I decided to play a game. The dressage test game.

I know I didn’t remember it perfectly, but I did remember most of the test that Balloo and I rode at our one show several years ago. It was a beginner novice test that actually had some relatively tricky movements in it truly designed to test your control of your horse’s movement. I wanted to use the test as a learning experience to see where we need work.

We began strong with a quarter turn on the haunches to hit center line dead on. I am amazed that all the work we have been doing on limiting his outside shoulder tolerably has paid off tenfold in the quality of his square corners. We actually had a great connection coming down center line, and I couldn’t help but smile broadly at how fantastic it felt to be so put together.

The next movement was a sharp right turn at C to M and then across the diagonal M-E. This was another test of Balloo’s maneuverability which he passed with flying colors. I tried to remember how to ride such a tight turn without losing forward. I sat up, held outside rein and supported with inside leg at the girth. It was like driving a Ferrari. He stepped up and under himself to power through the corner while crossing over in front to realign himself with a new destination.

Then came the tricky part. Once you made it to E, you continue on to A where you circle left 20m. That went fine, but the trick of the test is that you canter about 3/4 of the way through your trot circle. I set Balloo up for the transition, but he was anticipating it for some reason and picked up the wrong lead. To make matters worse, we lost all semblance of soft and relaxed at the canter rushing the circle and pulling against my hands until he finally broke gait and switched his lead. It was as if he knew he was wrong, so he just wanted to get it over as quickly as possible before he got in any more trouble. Later in the test the same thing happened when we did our circles to the right: same wrong lead, same rushing to get through it.

In between the canter circles was walk. That used to be my most dreaded portion of a dressage test due to out walk being about as inconsistent as the stock market. Now, however, I think it’s one of the highlights. We still need a bit more energy, but the contact and bend are good and so is the tempo. Moving from walk to trot was also nice albeit a bit slow. He picked up a little baby trot before really moving, but he didn’t throw his head up or pitch a fit. I consider it a success.

Running through the test made me realize two things: #1) I ride better when I have a destination. I think that’s part of the reason why I fair better in lessons as well. Someone is telling me where to start and where to end my journey. #2) We need to focus on downward transitions. I tend to either hold too much and not let him go forward into the change, or I hold too little and flop him down. It’s like driving a manual; you need to use the clutch, or in my case the half-halt, to downshift. At least I have something to really practice for my next ride!