Studying

I sat on a straw bale out in the pasture with my art history text book, taking notes. I had two carrots that I gave Blu. He was eating his hay and getting attacked by Ginger. Oh, and it was FREEZING!

Natural Horsewoman Out

Beware of Reins

I mounted from two barrels. He had a bridle on, but I had no reins. I had reins available in case I decided I was ready for them, but I am still weary of riding with a bridle—much prefer the sticks. Who would think that I would have to get used to riding WITH reins?? I used transitions to build up impulsion. Pretty soon, he was cantering very nicely. His downward transitions are so much better bridleless. How cool. I gave him a 4 minute break on the rail (standing) when he began to canter transition so nicely.
We started up again and made sure we still had the canter. Since resting, he lost his impulsion and I had to patiently build up from a weight shift when I squeezed to a canter. However, it only took 3 minutes to achieve light transitions and he was getting the right number of strides for counting strides. I transitioned into the figure eight with simple changes. Since the pattern is new, there is no track, so he had to work a little harder to do the pattern in the fresh snow. He was still quite maneuverable.

I got down and Blu followed me around at liberty while I moved cones and equipment. I attached the finesse rein to the leather buckle at the ring of the snaffle—not on the snaffle—for a safety net. Then we began to do the figure 8 pattern. It is safe to say that this has gone out the window a bit. He used to be so good at it. Toward the end, he was picking up on past sessions and I could see him connecting dots. We did get something new—the canter while I was in zone 5! It was so easy for him, I didn’t think about how impossible that would have been for him 4 weeks ago (before I started this cantering program) until just now! Today, to change direction, I had him stop in the middle, settle, I change sides and off we go. I made the rest shorter or longer and sometimes did not change direction because the feel on the circle was not good enough. Maybe we can try it at true liberty some time soon . . .

Blu followed me at liberty to his pasture and then to his stall. It felt like a good ending.

Natural Horsewoman Out.

A Break for Blu--and Let's be Honest--and for Me

Today has been a good day. I woke up very early and did homework, ate a good breakfast, then took a short nap before heading off to school (I know, a nap after you just got up from sleeping? But it was a late night with my text book . . .). In art history, I wrote a response to the "essential feminism" of the female artist and it made me think about the spheres that men and women occupy in the horse industry and the stereotypes each of us is pushed into like dolls in a doll house. It was a busy one, though. I was literally running to get a project turned in for my typography class, but I learned a lot about typeface--even more about seeing the small details and responding to the "funny feelings" you get about the tiniest discrepancies from the established norm of a given typeface. The development of that detecting mechanism within myself is very relative to the detection of small nuances of my horsemanship.

That is why I decided this afternoon that Blu and I would go for a trail ride instead of working on the lead change ladder. We both needed a break from that stuff!

Blu was such a partner when I was putting on his halter. I stepped out side and he was halfway in Hoosier’s run-in stall. I called him and he backed around poked his head out and we met each other halfway. Like I said, he was perfect for the halter. Even though that is such a basic exercise, I appreciate that he does it so cooperatively and I will not be taking it for granted any time soon.

We went to the two barrels on the edge of my homemade arena. I directed him their from zone 5. I climbed on a barrel to play the squeeze game. I was patient and appropriate and he was getting quicker at keying in to the idea that I was sending him through the gap and not to the barrel. I gave him rest when he was lined up properly and with that patient, slowly chipping away manner, he understood it so much better and became less and less defensive. He also stopped and sidled closer to the barrel I was on—invitation? : )--several times. I rubbed him and rewarded him but sent him on again after.

When I stepped across to the other barrel, I gave him some time before I asked him to step under me. When I did ask, he was very soft and responsive to the line. However, once he had his neck under me, he took some higher phases to continue on. I just needed another step and I think he thought he was in place when he wasn’t. The main thing is that this is such a big squeeze game and he has been so easy from the start. Love it.

We went on a bridleless trail ride. For the gate, he was quite dull. It is strange that having a bit in his mouth so quickly dulled him down. . . hmm, I must do better! Blu seemed pleasantly surprised when we continued past the driveway, but he got tight and tense when we were approaching the northern neighbor’s property, so we turned around and went to the south.

I played the sideways game on the fence with him. His sideways is not very nice looking. He goes forward and does not understand to move sideways with front and hind quarters. It started out with lots of blocking and what I was feeling like was noise. We did two lengths in this manner that antitheisized elegance and peace, then I decided I needed to do better at returning to neutral and staying quiet. Finally, we had breakthroughs. I gave him lots of rests—always when he was in the correct position or had moved together. At the end, he really understood to move the FQ and HQ simultaneously and he was relaxed. Phew!
We trotted home and I got down in the yard. He followed me at liberty to the barn and I let him clean up the hay room.

Natural Horsewoman Out.

Lead Change Ladder Day 4

Freestyle, 60 mins) I played with the lead change ladder inside my arena.

Today, I switched to my arena for the lead change ladder. The setting was definitely much more suited to it. We got through swinging the shoulders a bit.

Natural Horsewoman Out.

Sorry about the brevity!

(On Line, 15 mins) I did some sideways and then the squeeze game for mounting.

(Freestyle, 45 mins) Lead change ladder session 3. I got a little bit better at staying focused, still fighting the setting. Maybe I will try out the arena tomorrow. Sorry for the brevity!

This was a session in between work shifts, so when I finished, I was hustling back to work. I rode bareback, but the driveway had really inappropriate footing for walk-canter transitions.

It is over a month later, and I don't recall the details :(

Natural Horsewoman Out.

Lead Change Ladder Day Two

I feel like I have finally had a real breakthrough in my feel so I can get the rapport and respect I need with Blu--the stuff we lack when Blu is swishing his tail. Today, he did it even less as a result of my new feel.

I started in a new way: I opened the door from several feet away and maintained my position there. I couldn't see any horses. I let the drama of the void in the door way build before I called out to Blu. I heard feet shuffling. Blu appeared into my view and I played peek-a-boo with him. After a few minutes, Ginger popped into view. I backed her up by wiggling my carrot stick in my hand. As Ginger backed away, Blu came to the doorway.

I sat and stretched while Blu ate in the aisle. He was very cooperative when I put on his bridle. He sought out the bit and kept his head in position throughout. I put the halter on over the bridle and hooked him up to a feather line.

As we went off to the drive way, I had in mind to keep Blu next to or ahead of me, rather than trailing behind me. I feel like he's often way back there and when it is such a constant thing, it feels like a lack of partnership. So, Blu walked next to me.

Our first deal was sideways. I had three buckets set up 22' apart, each with a cookie on it. I got him sideways to the first one without moving my feet, then the other two. Each time got better, but he was still dragging something and not moving both together (as in his FQ or HQ). Next, I switched to him coming to me. I saw him thinking about coming to me with just the stick floating over his head a few times, but it did not go any further than that and I had to use the string over his back gently wiggling. He tried to go forward a few times and I just stopped moving (I was about 7' from him) and wiggled him back into place. When arrived to the other side, I switched sides and he came towards me in the other direction. I did not notice a difference between the two sides.

I turned the feather line into two long reins and drove him from zone 5. It was a bit wiggly and unsure and when we got to the trailer to go sideways, he was very unconfident and confused about what I was asking when I wanted him to go sideways. I stayed patient through his experimentation. When we arrived at the other end of the trailer, I opened the tack compartment and put on the English saddle that was in there. Blu was looking at me as I saddled him up, but he was not pinning his ears and he had a soft face.

For mounting, my dear friend Anna had the most creative idea for me to try. I set up two barrels on end, stand on them with a foot on each, then ask Blu to squeeze under me and between the barrels and I sit gently on his back. I was standing on the barrels and just about to ask Blu to try it when my brain kicked in and I realized I needed to be a bit more lateral about this. So I stood on one barrel and played the squeeze game through the 2 1/2 foot gap between the barrels until he was doing them fluidly. At first, he was aiming toward a barrel. I played the ambassador of yes and simply backed him up and sent him forward again--no bracing. Next I had him squeeze through while I held an arm over his head. When he graduated going between my legs, it was easy as pie!

We were working in the driveway today. I don't know if that was a better place than the snowy yard from yesterday, but I do know that I was very uncomfortable with the saddle between me and my horse. He was kind of making progress with the transitions, but that saddle was frustrating me.

I used a snow drift to stop him, once. However, he stopped out of balance, leaning to far forward and so he kind of stumbled up the drift a bit--kind of like falling up the stairs. The lurch sent my saddle rolling down his side. He was in the drift up to his belly in snow, but I was plopped next to the drift a bit.

One of my greatest fears is having my foot stuck in the stirrup and being dragged. With my boot stuck in the stirrup and Blu hanging his head waiting for instruction, I freed my boot in a panic. I pushed the saddle back on, unbuckled the girth, and pitched the whole thing into the drift. I shakily remounted him. Blu was just ho-hummy and happy as a clam. I knew it was a silly thing to panic the way I did.

We arrived to a nice canter-walk transition and I called it a day.

Natural Horsewoman Out.

Lead Change Ladder Day One

On the 45’ line:
I had a goal of getting as little tail swishing as possible. I was first very particular about where and how he stepped through the gate. That got him very interested. Then we worked on going sideways to the end of the line while I stood still. I had it set up so that he would go sideways on the fence and end up at the gate at the end of the line. He was worried, at first, but he found relaxation and got himself straightened. Still need a more consistent sideways-together motion of HQ and FQ. I had a hand-in-the-mouth moment during that. He was feeling nibbly so I played with his tongue and rubbed his gums.

Then we went out and played the circling game. My goal was to get 10 laps 6 feet away at the trot without breaking gait. It took a while, but we did it. Also, SO much less tail swishing today.

(Freestyle, 30 mins) First time riding in a bridle in a LONG time. I bridled him from my knees and he was SO good. I went through the first 2 steps of the lead change ladder to see what I need to be focusing on with him (relaxation, canter/walk transitions). The depth of the snow varied from 8 inches to 3 feet, so it was a work out. Our step one (relaxation) was going sideways on a circle with his head pointing toward the center of the circle. It was easier for him to go sideways to the left. Then I did the fluid rein until he blew. We did canter/walk transitions until he was staying "up" when we went to the walk and getting light on the canter transition. When it felt good, I pushed him into a faster canter and he did a 10 foot slide stop—that is an improvement from the 4’ stops he has been doing. We were both pretty tired and I walked him out on the ground for 5 minutes.

(Liberty, 15 mins) While Blu cleaned up Ginger’s stall, I groomed him. I also cleaned out his peepee. Yuck. I climbed on the wall and looked at his back from head to tail. It looks like his left ribs were out further than the right ones. That would explain why he was better at going sideways to the left than the right.

In reflection, I feel like today I had a good start, but that the field of varying depths of snow is not a good place to work on cantering. He needs somewhere with structure. I found that we were just flitting about in the open without much direction. This would be good in an arena, but Blu seemed more distracted by how many places he could go than concentrated on the transitions.

Natural Horsewoman Out.

Relativity

Today, my family hosted one of our relatives who was over to see how pregnant Ginger is looking these days. I rode Blu and showed her what we are working on. We were going along great with our cloverleaf until Blu went through the fence. It seemed that he was drawn to the new lady up at the front and hoped to go hang out with everybody. He wanted to so much that he did it 2 or 3 more times, completely destroying my delicate fence of binder twine and curtain rods that has been up since NOVEMBER! Sigh. I laughed a lot.

My mom recorded quite a bit of it. I noticed today, rather, I felt, that Blu was much more maneuverable at the canter. He was able to do much sharper turns and maintain gait. He broke gait often, but I still felt a real change in him and his understanding of the pattern. Tomorrow, we begin flying lead change ladder.

Today, Blu's slide stop tracks were still about the length of the carrot stick.

I will complete this update, later. In parting:

Activity 2: Explain in each of the 10 qualities of a natural horseman in your own words.
Quality #1: Heart and Desire
Heart and desire is the fire of the horseman—the being that results from a gallon of horse being poured into the human and an ounce of human being poured into the horse. It is what causes the human to make the time to do what she wants to with her horses and it is what causes the horses to want to spend that time be partners with her. It causes those left-brained introverts of mine to run fast and jump high when, left to their own devices, they would stand out in the pasture and graze all day. Heart and desire of horse and human results in the synchronization of the agendas of the two species. The "fire" is fragile in some, but it is strong in me and my horses. To cultivate it, the human must continue on her journey with the horse and survive the crests and troughs therein.

Natural Horsewoman Out.

Snow Day with the Fam

We went out to set the horses free from the barn; they ate inside this morning because of the wind that would have blown all their hay away. I got in Misty's zone 5 and began literally pushing her around. I was just pushing whatever direction she was going. I thought I would get her moving and playing with me--usually after being inside, she wants to run a bit. She was not pinning her ears at all, but as she slowly moseyed to the water trough with me jumping up and down and saying "Yeah, Misty, let's go to the water trough, then! Let's go!" she clearly had a look on her face of embarrassment.

I pushed her to the gate and pushed her into her pasture. Then we played. She came to me and stood on the pedestal with all four feet. Then I pushed her off the pedestal and got on her from there. My family arrive and I asked if someone could get me a savvy string. I waited around for a bit, but no one heard me, so I put my coat around her neck and Misty raced around the pasture. I knew where all the obstacles that were buried in the snow drifts. Misty did not need much steering, but she was very responsive to my coat. It was fun. Now her blood was up. I let her get relaxed. I took her to the pedestal and got down. She chooses the pedestal all the time as a place to relax.

Then I got news that I had to go to work in a few hours. I was quite devastated. Today, was a snow day. My university hasn't had a snow day in 32 years. Today, thus far had been magical. It was going to be a magical day of horses. If I had to go to work for 3 or 4 hours, I was going to need to go inside and do homework. That's what I did after standing somberly with Misty on the pedestal. She was a good shoulder to lean on.

After an hour of homework, I found out that I only needed to work for an hour or so. So, a session with Maggie and my mom was back on!

On the ground, I had Blu on the feather line. I was working on our circling game. He sent very nicely, putting his forequarters onto the track I had chosen for him. We had to do lots of half-yields of the HQ, at first. We were having trouble staying in the canter. At one point, he got very worried and was going sideways. I just drifted with him. We ended up on the other side of the pasture. He relaxed. His circles were much better. When I started talking to my mom and Maggie, he was circling 1 foot from me (just the walk). I suddenly realized he was doing this and thought "what are you doing?" He did not stop, just kept walking around me. I think he was trying to tie me up :D. He had maintained the canter, now and I felt that we were ready to ride.

I got on from the tire pedestal. He was looking at me funny. I held the carrot stick up and waited until he relaxed.

In the 100X50 arena, we warmed up by recreating our follow the rail tracks at all gaits. When I started the cloverleaf pattern, it was there. I felt him KNOW what we were doing! It got better! We did some spins in both directions at a slow-medium speed without any forward correction. Then, I ended by jumping out of the arena :D.

We went on a ride around the property, me and Blu bridleless. It was relaxing.

Today was a nice surprise, but now it is back to reality. I love my family and my horses.

Natural Horsewoman Out.

Monster Storm--Not Monster Horse

Today, when we got home from school and work, us horseladies watched me appear (in the audience) of my latest savvy club DVD and then we hustled to the farm to button up the barn and perform other preparations for the coming snow storm. I nailed a tarp up in front of Hoosier's doorway to the outside and got Blu's outside door locked shut. We unloaded some more of Maggie's hay from the horse trailer and covered what was left with a tarp inside the horse trailer. We braced the giant barn doors shut with tires. We cleaned up the yard of all my "horsemanship buckets" so that when the neighbor plows, he doesn't need to worrk about where the snow drifts go. Once everything was all set, I was free to go play with my Paint :)

I had two carrot sticks and a savvy string. Blu was by the gate eating drifting hay (The snow was coming down, now, and the wind had been present all day). I gave him a cookie after a horseman's handshake then tied on his neck string. I let him eat a bit before leading him to the cistern. He was not immediately cooperative, but he stepped into place after I cued him to. He raised head and I rubbed his lips until he relaxed, then I sat gently on. We stood for a moment. When I asked him to yield his front end, he did so in a perfect isolation. I only asked for about 3/16's of a turn so he would stop in position over a piece of drift hay. Surprise!

As we headed to the gate, swishy swishy tail. At the gate, I let him eat hay when he was in position. He had pretty nice isolations and was very patient.

When we left his hay, he followed Maggie's path (Maggie was recording our session). When we got onto the track of the 100X50 foot arena, I could feel him knowing he was on the track. But when we got to the first corner, he was thinking about going over to Maggie. I gently corrected him and he settled back on his track.

Here is where Maggie began to record us. Here are my notes from the recording:

• Blu was relaxed checking out the barrels as we went by. When he stopped at one, I was going to correct him, but as he moved his HQ around to face it, I thought better of it and asked him to continue his HQ yield so that we were facing the other direction. NO TAIL SWISHING!
• I asked for the trot and got a big swish, pinned ears, and then he cantered . . . I was surprised. It was a very energetic canter. He completed a lap on the rail w/out stick, but broke in the first corner after completing the lap. No tail swishing as I asked him to get it back, but it took the entire short side and corner before he got it back . . . then he broke after a few strides . . . but got it back again at the next corner.
• He maintained through the next corner and I ran him down the next long side into a slide stop that looked like his usual 4-6 foot and then a nice no swish back up. I tossed a cookie onto the barrel and he sidepassed the one step to the barrel without going forward.
• We stayed at the barrel for about 1 minute. When we started off again NO TAIL SWISH :D
• I headed onto the clover leaf pattern and Blu did not swish his tail, though I did need to go up to the stick phase.
• Everything looked quiet until I got to our next leaf and he began to protest when I asked him to trot. He put his nose in different directions. I just kept him on the pattern and held steady. He gave one big swish before settling into a trot.
• He broke to the walk briefly after our next turn and when he went back to the trot, he bobbed his head at me, but did not swish.
• He broke at the next corner, but did not do any negative reaction when I asked for the trot.
• Now, I ask for the canter. He does not swish, though he does physically have difficulty going into the canter. I stay patient and let him get his bearings.
• It looks really nice for the first corner, but the second corner breaks. I go out of the picture, but I think he swished before picking up again.
• He has success in the next corners, though, so I drove him down the center line and plowed to a stop--it was really on the forehand.
• I backed him up with my seat then asked for a FQ yield. It took him several turns to get it right, but I stayed light and released when he had a 1/4 turn--it was just the "beginning" of the session. I gave him a cookie after a lateral flex.
• Now I asked him to step sideways. He took several steps forward. I played with it for a moment and got some nice sideways steps.
• Then, as we headed forward, tail swishing returned, but not such an upset face. Okay, it got to be an upset face several paces later.
• Now, we have changed directions to a left going cloverleaf at the canter. The first whole pattern was not as bad as yesterdays, but it was a lot of confusion, not cantering, countercanter, not following focus, and tail swishing.
• He kind of mentally petered out and I let him relax into a nice jog for about two clover leaf patterns before asking for a canter. Those patterns looked very nice and relaxed on his part.
• When I asked for the canter, he swished his tail.
• Made two really nice corners.
• Broke in the 3rd corner, but no tail swish to pick up, again--but did start counter cantering and going erratically.
• After one particularly "bad" center line, I redid that section for a better feel. Got it.
• On a corner Blu tried to cut too shallow then came suddenly to his turn for the clover leaf, he slipped and caught us.
• He swished when I asked him to walk then jog. He was going fine, so we continued.
• I did a lap of follow the rail at the canter so Blu had a chance to do that corner regular style. He was fine with it--no worry or avoidance.
• Returned to the erratic clover leaf pattern--still erratic.

Maggie went in. I had to stop to say good bye to her, and I decided I better just stop and let Blu settle for moment--I better just stop and let myself settle I did 3 or 4 cloverleaf patterns at the trot. I felt the feeling I had not felt in this direction. Blu was going into a zone that allowed me to be neutral, truly. When I went into the canter, we quickly found the same feeling of relaxation and unification.

I stopped him on the bindertwine fence then spun him a few times at slow speed. Then I did a pattern to the right and when we got to that same spot again, we jumped out of the arena instead of turning. I decided that would be cool when I stopped in front of it, but I knew he need to be going a bit in order to jump.

Blu jumped without hesitation and we zoomed through the pasture to stop and back up. It was just our way of welcoming this monster storm/blizzard.

Natural Horsewoman Out.