So since right around New Years, Cadence has been acting a bit strange. It started off with her being a little tense during downward transitions, then she started to stiffen during downwards transitions, and before I had time to really register what was happening she had morphed into a full blown temper tantrum throwing nutbar. This (naturally) surfaced when we went up to my coach's friend's farm (who also happens to be a two time Olympian, among other accomplishments) for a dressage lesson. I still haven't posted the video from that day because my computer has run out of disk space, so it's stuck on the camera. Anywho, that was mid-January and we're still working through this bout of hyperactivity and attitude.
Originally, I blamed things on Cadence being in heat, and us upping the pressure on her dressage work by increasing the amount of lateral work and collection that was expected of her. Then, I blamed it on an increase of energy due to the cold weather (which prevents them from being basketcases out of doors) and copious amounts of second cut hay- a reasonable conclusion to draw as she never protested to upwards transitions... only down! I'd ruled out saddle fit issues, back soreness, and as she wasn't acting like it was a pain issue, teeth didn't seem likely either. However, I'm beginning to doubt my original conclusion that teeth aren't the issue. This original epiphany came when Cadence was flat out refusing to halt... until out of desperation I jerked back on the neck strap of her running martingale. Then, miracle of all miracles she stood! Also, unlike your standard attitude issue, she's perfectly polite on the ground. I free lunged her today, and she would halt and back up off voice commands with me half way across the ring.... so maybe its not as attitude related as I'd originally thought. It has only been 9 months since her teeth were last done, but she has an exceptionally small mouth (and is still relatively young) so the vet did warn me that her teeth may need more frequent attention, and alhough I'm generally pretty good at guessing what's going on with miss Mare, I'm as prone to errors as the next person. So I set up a vet appointment for next week to get Cadence's teeth done, AND her vet check for travel papers! Yay!!! Hard to believe it's just over a month until we leave....
Showing posts with label Bad Mare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bad Mare. Show all posts
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Sore Backed Ponies
This is how Cadence expresses her displeasure with me for riding her when her back is sore:
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Blogging Fail... Update Time
During one of the most important times in my young mare's life, I've failed in my attempt to chronicle our experiences. But as whining won't solve it, I'll just do my best to recap.
May:
May started off with a positively disasterous xc school. Cadence was in heat, and proudly displayed some of t he worst behaviour I've ever seen from a horse. She didn't want to leave her buddies, she was hot-headed & inattentive, and requesting even the most simple of tasks would result in her grabbing the bit, refusing to move, or leaping up in the air and bolting. She'd spin, spring, and bolt if you asked her to trot, turn, halt, walk, move, stop moving, etc. and the behaviour continued on for almost two hours. At the end we'd worked through enough of it that she was humble and willing to calmly jump a few fences from the trot and the canter. We even hopped down a few banks just to be sure. However, a few days later we encountered the same behaviour at home only this time it was triggered by me asking her to bend right in the canter, and refusing to let her say no. Her behaviour became so dangerous I actually asked someone to come stand in the ring with me while I rode her so they could call 911. Again, it took 1.5-2 hours until she'd trot calmly around the ring... but we never really did get that right bend. Sometimes though you just have to cut your losses & quit while you're ahead.
Since Cadence's behaviour had approached (and then surpassed without so much as a backwards glance) dangerous, I gave her to my BO for some bootcamp style ground driving & lunging. Then after a tumultuous few sessions, my coached hopped on her once for me before I took her back.
June:
June started out with me working through the remnants of Cadence's bossiness. There were still some tough rides, & a few sticky spots but we worked through it successfully enough to go off property for a stadium school in early June & head off to a Bronze dessage show about half way through the month.
The jump school actually went pretty well. The jumping part was fine- whe wasn't leaping, barging, bolting, or grabbing over jumps. In fact the only issue we had arose from a trailer pulling in as we were warming up. I guess one of the boarders had hauled out somewhere, but their return (and the subsequent situation of the trailer near the one corner of the ring) was both distracting and terrifying to the mare. Approaching that corner of the ring would lead to spinning, shying, bolting, leaping through the air, grabbing the bit, etc. At first I tried correcting her, but as she was legitimately frightened (and not just acting up) this really only led to her getting more wound up. The only thing that really worked for getting her head back on her shoulders? Pointing her at a jump. Then she was rideable, calm, and focused. Silly mare.
Cadence also did pretty well at the dressage show considering we still didn't have much of a stretch in the trot. We scored 56% and 63% in Training 2 & 3 respectively. She would have been far more successful had we not cantered through the trot stretches, but considering the fact that a month prior we'd been leaping through the air at the suggestion of right bend? I was pleased. She placed 3rd in T2 and 1st in T3.
Her jumping had been improving in the weeks since her May madness, and we ended up going to a local Saddle Club show & riding around the 2'3 hunter courses. She was well behaved for the most part, but a little strung out. Still, we made it over everything, never touched a rail, and had something that resembled breaks too! An improvement from previous courses we'd done ;)
July:
In July the Mare finally started to really pull through. We went out xc for the first time since her episode in May, and had an awesome day. It was just Cadence and a baby who had never been out xc before, so we chose somewhere small. They just had 1 field of jumps, ranging from intro to novice, but it was perfect for what we needed. Mare Face was a super star, & the only issue we had was when a bird flew out of one of the jumps! Fair enough... jumps regurgitating living animals is really quite terrifying!
On the 21, we went to an XC derby and Cadence cruised around her first official XC course. We trotted several of the fences, and had one refusal at the second fence, which was a scary log that kind of surprised her as you had to cut through a tree line and then it was right there on the right. She just spooked at it, but we circled around & hopped over it. There was actually a mistake later on in the course (at another jump through a tree line) because I circled her & brought her back down to a trot. There was a young kid jump judging, they counted the jump as a refusal even though the fence hadn't been presented. Anywho, even with that error (& a few time faults picked up from trotting half the course!) we still came in 2nd place and had the fastest time.
Dressage went quite well considering it was right after xc, and we scored a 68%. We would have done better, except I goofed up our entrance & rode to C instead of tracking left to H... ah well! Stadium was also good with a clear round inside the time.
August:
August. Well, August has been amazing. On the 11, Cadence and I completed our first event. She won Open Pre-Entry (lowest Canadian division... kind of in between Intro and BN) by 12 points, scoring a 75.59% in dressage (36.8 penalty points), earning 0 faults stadium, and going clear XC but picking up a few time faults to end on a score of 42.8 pp. The event was fabulous- wonderfully run and the courses were spectacular! There was a skinny in stadium, and one out xc too. Cadence had never really jumped a skinny before, so I was pleased when she popped right over the little blue fence in our SJ round & doubly pleased when she jumped over the skinny log (flanked by trees, & flower pots, and all sorts of scary things) out xc with not TOO much convincing from me ;) Overall, the day was wonderful, & I could not have been prouder of my girl.
May:
May started off with a positively disasterous xc school. Cadence was in heat, and proudly displayed some of t he worst behaviour I've ever seen from a horse. She didn't want to leave her buddies, she was hot-headed & inattentive, and requesting even the most simple of tasks would result in her grabbing the bit, refusing to move, or leaping up in the air and bolting. She'd spin, spring, and bolt if you asked her to trot, turn, halt, walk, move, stop moving, etc. and the behaviour continued on for almost two hours. At the end we'd worked through enough of it that she was humble and willing to calmly jump a few fences from the trot and the canter. We even hopped down a few banks just to be sure. However, a few days later we encountered the same behaviour at home only this time it was triggered by me asking her to bend right in the canter, and refusing to let her say no. Her behaviour became so dangerous I actually asked someone to come stand in the ring with me while I rode her so they could call 911. Again, it took 1.5-2 hours until she'd trot calmly around the ring... but we never really did get that right bend. Sometimes though you just have to cut your losses & quit while you're ahead.
Since Cadence's behaviour had approached (and then surpassed without so much as a backwards glance) dangerous, I gave her to my BO for some bootcamp style ground driving & lunging. Then after a tumultuous few sessions, my coached hopped on her once for me before I took her back.
June:
June started out with me working through the remnants of Cadence's bossiness. There were still some tough rides, & a few sticky spots but we worked through it successfully enough to go off property for a stadium school in early June & head off to a Bronze dessage show about half way through the month.
The jump school actually went pretty well. The jumping part was fine- whe wasn't leaping, barging, bolting, or grabbing over jumps. In fact the only issue we had arose from a trailer pulling in as we were warming up. I guess one of the boarders had hauled out somewhere, but their return (and the subsequent situation of the trailer near the one corner of the ring) was both distracting and terrifying to the mare. Approaching that corner of the ring would lead to spinning, shying, bolting, leaping through the air, grabbing the bit, etc. At first I tried correcting her, but as she was legitimately frightened (and not just acting up) this really only led to her getting more wound up. The only thing that really worked for getting her head back on her shoulders? Pointing her at a jump. Then she was rideable, calm, and focused. Silly mare.
Cadence also did pretty well at the dressage show considering we still didn't have much of a stretch in the trot. We scored 56% and 63% in Training 2 & 3 respectively. She would have been far more successful had we not cantered through the trot stretches, but considering the fact that a month prior we'd been leaping through the air at the suggestion of right bend? I was pleased. She placed 3rd in T2 and 1st in T3.
Aww, look at the sweet innocence. If only she acted that way!
July:
In July the Mare finally started to really pull through. We went out xc for the first time since her episode in May, and had an awesome day. It was just Cadence and a baby who had never been out xc before, so we chose somewhere small. They just had 1 field of jumps, ranging from intro to novice, but it was perfect for what we needed. Mare Face was a super star, & the only issue we had was when a bird flew out of one of the jumps! Fair enough... jumps regurgitating living animals is really quite terrifying!
On the 21, we went to an XC derby and Cadence cruised around her first official XC course. We trotted several of the fences, and had one refusal at the second fence, which was a scary log that kind of surprised her as you had to cut through a tree line and then it was right there on the right. She just spooked at it, but we circled around & hopped over it. There was actually a mistake later on in the course (at another jump through a tree line) because I circled her & brought her back down to a trot. There was a young kid jump judging, they counted the jump as a refusal even though the fence hadn't been presented. Anywho, even with that error (& a few time faults picked up from trotting half the course!) we still came in 2nd place and had the fastest time.
Dressage went quite well considering it was right after xc, and we scored a 68%. We would have done better, except I goofed up our entrance & rode to C instead of tracking left to H... ah well! Stadium was also good with a clear round inside the time.
A video with clips form all 3 phases at the xc trial
August:
August. Well, August has been amazing. On the 11, Cadence and I completed our first event. She won Open Pre-Entry (lowest Canadian division... kind of in between Intro and BN) by 12 points, scoring a 75.59% in dressage (36.8 penalty points), earning 0 faults stadium, and going clear XC but picking up a few time faults to end on a score of 42.8 pp. The event was fabulous- wonderfully run and the courses were spectacular! There was a skinny in stadium, and one out xc too. Cadence had never really jumped a skinny before, so I was pleased when she popped right over the little blue fence in our SJ round & doubly pleased when she jumped over the skinny log (flanked by trees, & flower pots, and all sorts of scary things) out xc with not TOO much convincing from me ;) Overall, the day was wonderful, & I could not have been prouder of my girl.
She looks a bit long & low here... better in the video
Not my best moment, but look at the scenery!
Way to use your neck mare... over the smallest jump on the course!
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