Riding a Good Horse

I have to admit, my horse is a saint.  Some way to start off a post, eh?  I should also probably clarify that, though saint-like, there's no denying she's far from perfect.  In fact, in the eyes of many riders she would probably be just about as far from saintly as you could get.  She's willful and opinionated, she's quite sensitive, and she loves to go.  However, her intelligence and athletic ability means she can take something foreign and new to her, and make it look easy.  For example, we rode our first leg-yield in a clinic.  While it started off dreadfully (seriously... she refused to move, in typical "you don't know what you're doing, so I'm going on strike" Cadence fashion) but within 15 minutes she was leg-yielding perfectly.  It was like point-and-shoot leg yielding; just head for the wall at the right angle, and as long as you occasionally check her tempo she'll just leg yield away... making me look pretty darn good!  That's not to say there's no tension, or  iffy moments, but she just picks up on things so quickly that even when I'm not 100% sure what's going on she's got my back.

This is on my mind because of the lesson we had Friday night.  Now that we're in the winter training season, we've been ramping up the flat work.  After some decent trot leg-yields (we have a bit more trouble with those, because I have a bit more trouble controlling her tempo w/o losing the lateral momentum.. but they're still fantastic seeing as we've worked on it less than 10 times...) my coach decided it was time for us to introduce shoulder fore and shoulder-ins to Cadence.  Now, this is an area I'm a bit greener in. I've worked on shoulder-in... less than 5 times before.  I know how to ask, and what it feels like, but trying to explain this to a horse who's got no clue wtf you're asking them for is a little more difficult, because while I know what is right and what is blatantly wrong, I struggle a bit more in the grey areas.  However, Cadence was brilliant and definitely saved me a bit.  She just gets things so quickly, and is flexible (not to be confused with supple) and co-ordinated enough to just simply do it without too much work.  So in short, I've been blessed with one heck of a good horse.

When we bought her, we paid for talent and brains... but I don't think I truly appreciated just how important that was at the time.  Most riders foray into the world of competitive riding on a safe, trained horse.  I competed at my first 'real' show on a pony most people were afraid to ride (he had no breaks... not even an emergency break.  Your emergency break was called dismounting) and that I'd decided to lease and train up a bit.  He was, and is, the most brilliant horse I've ever known, and taught me more than I could ever hope to learn.  However, he did not make it look easy. We rode around hunter courses at mach 10, warming up in our hackamore and switching into the bitted bridle at the in-gate. We circled endlessly to stop, and NEVER competed in flat classes.  Those required breaks. He was unathletic, and while he had a decent looking jump, isn't a stellar mover.

 The pony.  Isn't he cute? I miss him.

Oh, and ignore my saddle sliding back in the jumping photo...

While Cadence has had her fair share of 'face-palm' worthy moments, (such as getting eliminated from her first two real shows because of a shed and a barn... terrifying, apparently.) she DOES make things look easy.  Or at least easier.  She can jump out of just about any distance, and is bold as the day is long.  We consistently score well in dressage partially due to her training, which is slightly above what you'd expect to see at the level, but also because she's simply lovely to watch.  I can goof up: mess up the shape of our circles, not get her into a good relaxed trot, hit a dreadfully incorrect distance, jump her out of an awful turn, and she saves my ass every time because for the parts of the test we do properly, she's golden.

Cadence having a 'face palm' worthy moment...

It may be true that we may have a disadvantage, with both my horse and I being relatively new to the sport of eventing, in many ways she's taught me more than a school master ever could.  She'll still save me when I get a bad distance to a fence, and I'll stick her out when she has a 'Cadence moment' and flips out at a shed, or a miniature pony, or whatever it is next time.  In some ways, its a bit of a bizarre notion- after all, she's still a total green bean.  However, when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. We're a team.  When I drop the ball, she's there to catch it, and when we enter the wonderful world of learning new things, I (theoretically) am there to lead her through.

Trail Rides and Training

I haven't posted much recently, because it feels like I haven't had anything to write about.  Its not that nothing's been happening, but rather that since our action-packed competition season's come to an end, we're without big exciting news to relay and I've apparently forgotten how to do the other stuff! Anywho, last  Sunday I trailered Cadence into what has to be the premiere trail riding location in Ontario, and is probably one of the best in Canada... not that I'm biased!  It was the first time in a long time we've gone somewhere and haven't done dressage, xc, and stadium.  We were meeting a few old friends, so while we waited we did some dressage in a nice large grassy field (with the loveliest footing I've seen in ages!) while families picnicked around us and commented on how beautiful my beastie was!  When we were done I could totally see her thinking 'right, now onto the jumping'! No such luck, little mare.  We had a lovely trail ride, I panicked about trotting her on hard footing (that wasn't really that bad... but I like to worry), and she had a temper tantrum when I didn't let her gallop with the other ponies which resulted in me forcing her to walk while she pranced and snorted for a while.  She eventually settled though, and was brilliant.  While the riding part was fun, the scenery we encountered was absolutely gorgeous!  The whole place was lit up by brilliant golden light filtering through the canopy of orange and yellow leaves, and falling onto moss covered rocks, leaf-laden trails, and pristine babbling brooks. Even if that description makes it seem like a unicorn covered in rainbows and lollipops should appear prancing through the water. Either way, it was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

On the training front, show season's over which means we're free to get back to the training side of things.  Since August, we've focused mostly on keeping Cadence happy, maintaining the same quality of work, and not getting her rattled.  Its not that we didn't improve or didn't learn anything new, but rather that our focus shifted from tackling new concepts to perfecting what we've got.  We'd deal with any issues that arose, but other than that it was mostly just reviewing the basic stuff, keeping her energy levels down, and making sure she happy.  While I feel that this type of ride should probably make up at least half of a horse's training schedule, pushing onward, challenging yourselves, trying new things, and being unafraid to get a little dirty can be just as rewarding.  Doing only what you're good at lacks the spice that keeps things interesting.  In short, I'm ready for a challenge again!

We had one of those lessons the other day.  After warming up through a little gymnastic and cantering some oxer a few times, my coach set up two cross rails on a serpentine.  We started at the trot, focusing on landing on the correct lead.  Naturally, Cadence was perfect so after two attempts we tried it from the canter. The goal of the exercise is to canter into the fence on one lead, and land on the other.  The original plan was to just introduce the mare to it in the trot, and save the canter for another day... but she was so bored with the trot, we moved right on into the canter.  I was incredibly impressed with how well she did.  Did she change leads every time? No. Did we have some ugly, disorganized, awful fences? You bet!  But all things considered, she was brilliant.  That's the stuff I miss. I miss the ugly, disorganized, craziness. Because out of that, you blossom.  If you only have daisies and rainbows, what is there to work towards?

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 ;)

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!

Cadence and the Cross Country School: Part 2

Continued from part1...

We made it to the farm we were schooling at (an absolutely gorgeous facility with jumps ranging from 6 inch logs on the ground to banks that could hide a horse... not a word of a lie) 5 minutes early!  Quite a feat for the person that has a reputation for being a little late, a little disorganized, and a little too calm about it all.  I used the extra time to walk Cadence around, show her some of the fences, and then hop on her and hack her around a little to let her chill out.  She was tenser than I'd ever seen her before, but it didn't help that she was in heat, AND we'd been chased by a dog while hacking around the top end of one of the fields.  Not the best way to start the day.

As we warmed up, things didn't really improve.  She was tenser and jumpier than I'd ever seen her before, and was prancing/skitting around & a few times she felt dangerously close to going up in the air.  We managed to warm up relatively incident free, but she was still way nuttier than she's ever been before.  It turns out that this was just the start of things.  We followed the boys (Cadence's half brother via her sire who's the same age as her and is beyond awesome, and Cadence's half brother's half brother [they're out of the same dam] whom Cadence is in love with) over a little log, and while Cadence was good... she was a little on the nutty/forward side of things.  My coahc and I had decided to take things slow with her, and her behaviour in our warm up only enforced this decision, so while everyone went off to jump a wee tiny combination of 2 logs set on a bit of a curve, we waited so that we could jump them both individually first.

Once everyone was done, we headed over and attempted to start by trotting a circle in front of the fence.  Every time we got to the one portion of the circle, Cadence would get stuck, start backing up, refuse to move, try to spin around, ripping the reins out of my hand, pawing, or any other number of nasty dirty little tricks.  I'd push her through it, and we'd get going again.  Circle, push, stop, push, circle, repeat.  The cycle went on.  After a few minutes, my coach figured out that the issue wasn't just Cadence being an ass, and was in fact her attempting to go stand with her buddies.  Sure enough, when my coach relegated them to a different area, we had issues with a different part of our circle.  Keep in mind that all I was asking was that she trot a circle here.  Nothing spectacular, nothing extraordinary, nothing hard at all.

Anywho, I kept working away, convinced that Cadence would not "win the war" as my coach put it, and that instead she really would complete the very simple exercise laid out for her.  As her plans kept getting thwarted, and I kept on pushing her behaviour got worse and worse.  She started leaping into the air, and bounding forward.  I'd have to 'grab' the bit back from her, and work to settle her again... at which point she'd refuse to move.  At one point, when we were circling rather successfully at the trot, she grabbed the bit, leaped twice through the air, and leaped over the side of the jump.  That was the closest I came to being unseated- I lost both stirrups, had my reins ripped out of my hands, and barely managed to keep my butt in the tack.  We spent probably 45 minutes working in front of the jump, and moved on, largely for the sake of everyone else who had just been standing & waiting while my horse goofed off.  

While the other three jumped some fences back down near our warm up fence, Cadence and I practiced trotting toward and away from the group.  She had a few 'moments' but nothing terrible.  We even went and jumped our original log a few times with enthusiastic, but overall pretty good results.  Then, everyone came back and stood by us while we attempted to jump the log one final time.  The affect of the other horses was immediate, and we regressed within a matter of seconds.  The moment I'd turn Cadence onto the line of the jump she would literally go up in the air and leap towards the fence.  To call this behaviour dangerous would be an understatement.  So once again, we spent 45 minutes attempting to walk or trot a circle in front of the fence with similar but more dramatic results.  When she finally settled, in stead of jumping the jump we moved on. After a short walk into another field, we quietly walked down into their water hazard and back out again without so much as a glance at it.  Then, while everyone else jumped a little log and bank combo we waited.  Then they did some ditch work, and we waited some more.  Finally, after some more 'leaving and returning to the group' exercises, Cadence and I hopped over a little fence in between two trees without a fuss.  Then we headed into another field and jumped a little log on the ground and a thin slanted rail type fence on a circle.  We even cantered them!  Yay for calm well behaved mares.  Then we hopped down a bank a few times without an issue.  To finish we returned to the first jumps and jumped the warm up log a few times (she didn't even try to canter before hand) before heading to the bending 2 stride combination where all our troubles began.  Luckily, the mare calmly jumped through the line twice (oncebending right, and once bending left) before we called it a day.

To be continued...

Jump, Whoa, Wait, Repeat

For any of you that have ever endured the torture that is the 'circle exercise' (4 jumps dividing the four quadrants of the circle) then you understand the dread I felt when I was informed of this lesson's jumping exercise.  Two jumps is bad enough, four is... just not fun.  It's a wonderful exercise, especially in training the forward or hard to turn horse.
For those that haven't done it, the goal is to jump the jump, rock the horse back (or bring them back to trot to start), turn a nice square turn (effectively spinning them on their haunches when they balance back), release, and jump the next jump.  Rinse, repeat.
Cadence and my last jumping experience didn't go too well (mostly due to bad planning on my part) but her warm up was good and she was nice and responsive, especially considering the two other horses in the ring (one of which is a very green horse/rider combination)  She had a nice long canter warm up in which we concentrated on maintaining her nice calm canter, without too much fuss.  I was especially proud of the fact that she maintained that nice bannana bend to the right!
Anywho, we started the jumping exercise with one jump and three poles.  After trotting this a few times each direction, we popped up two cross rails.  Starting with just the two jumps allowed me to instill the immediate 'back' after the fences (coming right back to a WAITING trot before going to each pole/fence) and then when we added the other two fences, it wasn't all that difficult.  It took her a few tries to find her legs, but she remembered enough that we were able to jump, come back to trot, and then head to the fence with her rocked back and waiting, not galloping like a bulldozer.  There were one or two 'oopsies' each direction, but I just corrected her, (not heading for the next jump) and then continued on with the exercise.  When we tried it in the canter, I was surprized with how amazing she was!  So good and calm.  Better to the right than the left; it was easier to get her to bend right than it was to keep her fromgoing through that right shoulder.  However, she picked up on a very difficult exercise perfectly her first try.  I was so pleased.  Her jumping and dressage are now both at or above the level of Bailey's when I stopped riding him, they far surpass Arty's, and well none of the other horses I ride/have ridden really compare.
On an interesting note, we tried her in a 5" loose ring (no hooks or anything harsh like that) myler and she seemed to do pretty well with it.  I think the action's good (especially to help with her right side bend issues) but I think they're a little too thin for her... she was still a wee bit fussy with it.  I'll either ride in the myler or her regular snaffle tonight; still not sure.

Well, it's not the saddle...

... its just mare-itude.

My coach rode lil miss Cadence yesterday, in her saddle, and had the same experience with her that I did.  Great w/c, NO right bend in the trot though.  The only difference is that when she couldn't get it, she got off and long lined her.  The fact that my coach couldn't get her to bend makes me both disappointed and happy.  It pleases me because if a former Canadian Olympic team member who's ridden at the FEI level in both dressage and eventing can't get her to give, then I shouldn't feel bad about not getting it. Its displeasing because, well, she won't bend!  After a 45 minute long line session, Cadence did give in and release that right side.
Apparemtly this 'new development' is solely attitude based.  My job is to be more firm and demanding.  I think I deal quite well with nervous horses, as I can keep my calm, but I know when to push.  The bossy ones however are a little bit of a new experience, and more of a challenge.  I'm not exactly submissive, but I am not 100% comfortable with asserting dominance.  However, the observations my coach made did strike a bit of a chord, so I guess I'm going to have to toughen up a bit.

On another note, I have a blog rec: If you want to have a laugh, go check out The Dressage Curmudgeon.  Read it from the start, and enjoy; you can thank me later.  Have a great weekend!

Onto the Outside Rein

Cadence has been absolutely fantastic, as of late.  Her two lunge sessions with my coach worked wonders in regards to getting her balanced, even, and giving to the right rein.  What that's meant for us is that now when we canter left, I can actually use my right rein and
A) Check her back
B) Soften her
C) Bring her underneath herself
D) All of the above
Answer: D) All of the above, although C is still more theoretical... theoretically the usage of my right rein should allow me to use that, BUT we're still working on getting the first two 100% of the time.
However, the lunge sessions have also allowed us to truly start working on some collection and extension in the trot.  In my opinion, her canter is still not balanced enough to get it there, but we've had some absolutely beautiful moments in the trot.

In Launa news: One of my good friends who is currently on a riding hiatus due to injured horses and school is looking at part-boarding Launa until she's sold.  I think it'll be good for both of them, and I hope all works out!  She's coming to try Launa out tomorrow, so cross your fingers.
Launa and I also upped the height of our jumping last night.  Now we're jumping a cross rail that's 2'3 on the sides, versus 18" :)  She's such a cutie.

100th Post of the Year

Personally, I don't think that that's anything particularly important, but I've decided to add tags to all my posts and this seemed like a likely reason to start. However, I couldn't just START doing it... so I'm going back and adding tags to ALL OF THE PREVIOUS POSTS.  Apparently I'm insane.  So far I've gotten through 2010.  So happy 100th post of 2011 to all you Riding From The Ground Up readers!  All two of you ;)

On another note, I don't know if I've ever mentioned Launa.  She's the seventeen year old Arab who was backed last winter that I've been riding for her owner since July or so... Cute little chestnut mare.  Anyhow, now that school's started and I'm not readily available any more Jen (BO who does some of her training/conditioning work) and Judy (owner) have decided I'll be riding her on Tuesdays and Thursdays... the days I DON'T come to the barn.  I love my luck.

Eventful Day

Wow, its amazing how long it takes to gain muscle, and how quickly you lose it!  Amazing, and wholly unfair.  I know some types gain muscle as easy as 1 2 3, but not me.  Anyhow, there is a point to my rambling and complaining.  Today I headed out to the barn to meet (and ride) for the first time the little 5y/o mare that my coach had been raving about for quite some time.  I say little, when in truth Cadence is a sturdy 16.1h mare. 

Anyhow, she's got the most beautiful colouring.  She looks a little redder than she is in the picture, but you get the point.  She's got a tiny splotch of white on the inside of her front left, like a half coronet band, and a star but thats it.  She's also exactly my type of horse to ride.  Forward, but extremely soft.  NO leg necessary for upwards transitions; cluck, and she's off.  She is very green as of current, and very right handed, but apparently she's improved quite a bit in the four days she's been down here.  So from what I hear, its mostly just muscling. My only conformation fear is that she looks a little narrow from behind.  I don't think its much, and I didn't even notice till I looked at this picture, so mabe it was just a one time thing, but I'll give it another look.  Its tiny and very minor, but better safe than sorry, eh?

The first video is a quick one of my coach riding her, going in her bad direction.  Then after that, next up was me.  Now, Arty's very foreward, but not overly sensitive to downward aids.  Upward, he's light as a feather, but ask him to slow and its like lalalalala.  Bailey's not slow, but not forward or overly sensitive either.  Oh, and Z (my coach's little dressage mare) is lazy.  Awesome and fun, but lazy.  I'll get to that later though.  So getting used to Cadence was a little tricky for me.  Plus maybe I'm just underestimating myself, but I sort of felt rather out of place on her back.  I felt like I was constantly going to disappointing someone, or do something wrong, or ruin this lovely little mare.  I don't have low self esteem, but apparently that changes when I ride. On another note, I figured out how to edit my videos, so the next one is a short one since the last one took far too long to upload.  I think (so long as I upload the right one) that this should be the first time I trot her.  Either that, or a clip of us cantering in her bad direction.

Anyhow, before I mentioned something about Z.  So after Cadence was done, it was Z's turn.  The objective being to let me see Cadence, but have a lesson on Z.   I was honoured that Lynda (my coach) let me on her again, seeing as I'm the only other person that's been on her back.  She was so much better this week.  Lynda's gradually increasing her work load, so this was her fifth ride this week, and she wasn't overly pleased.  Unfortunately, as her responses were a little lackluster I had to put all my effort into getting her more responsive.  This is where the part about me losing muscle comes in.  She was amazing though, such a gorgeous horse!

Anyhow, my coach wants me to try to ride Cadence a few more times this week before she leaves on Friday, so I'll be out to see her again Monday.

Lesson and update on Bailey

Well, I have good and bad news to report , so I think I'll start with the bad.  Bailey's going to be off for another month.  He's doing a lot better, but Bailey's Mom really wants him to make a full recovery, so we're going to err on the side of caution.  I suppose that's not necessarily bad news, but more disappointing. 
On the plus side, Bailey's Mom and her husband are going to be having a baby this spring!  So Bailey's going to have a sibling to share his Momma with ;)

Also in the good news category, I had a lesson on my coaches horse today.  It was more of a learn how to train young horses lesson, and for me a learn how to use draw reins properly lesson.  I tend to shy away from draw reins, as I've seen them misused so many times.  However, when riding a young green horse they can be really helpful.  Z was fantastic!  She's going to be a great dressage horse, and I was honoured to be able to ride her.  Needless to say, I was also a little nervous.  This wasn't helped when my coach informed me that I was one of the first people, aside from herself, to ride her.  Z kept looking into the middle at my coach as if to say
"Why aren't you on my back?  What's she doing up there?"
It was a ton of fun, and I guess I did alright, since I've been invited back to ride her once a week while Bales is off.  I wish I'd gotten some pics, but no such luck.  Anyhow, happy new year everyone!