Weirdness

So for the first time in quite a while, I rode a horse other than Kieran in my lesson the other night. Kieran, you see, had just had his teeth done earlier in the day so he got the day off in case his mouth was sore.

So I rode Dobbin, a Belgian cross gelding who is built like a tank but smaller than my guy (barrel-wise and height-wise and stride-wise). Nice guy, a bit further along in his training than Kieran is (his canter departure is more reliable), but he's not as fit as Kieran is (he just came to the barn not so long ago and hadn't been ridden for months before that). Anyway, by the end of a half-hour lesson, it was obvious he was pooped.

But before that...OMG it felt so weird riding a different horse (and in different tack than I've grown accustomed to). His stride felt all wrong and his trot felt all wrong (and don't even ask me to sit it, it isn't pretty. Plus Dobbin hasn't really learned about rating his gaits so he doesn't really "get" slowing down the trot. He thinks if you say slow down you want a walk). Eventually, I got the hang of it, and we even cantered a little bit before he got tired.

It was definitely a good thing to ride a different horse but I really missed riding my boy. :)

Anne and Sundance

It's a long story that I don't feel like typing up tonight but, basically, this was the horse I had as a kid and the colt she foaled. I came across these pictures and figured I'd share. Click on them to make them bigger.

Gratutious Photo Post

If you click on them, they should go bigger.


Someone made this barding for him (er, me) for Christmas!

From the photo shoot I mentioned earlier.

Making Progress

Okay, so the other day, we decided to ask Kieran for a canter again. You might remember that a while back (at least a month ago, maybe a month and a half) we decided to back off of asking for a canter because he didn't really seem to be ready yet.

Now, I won't say what he did was beautiful and it did take a couple tries, but it was still much easier for him (and me!) to get it when we did and he did give me a nice, balanced, slow canter. Good boy!

Then last night, Christine showed me how to ground drive him and he took to that like he'd been doing it his entire life. Eventually, I would like her to help me teach him to actually drive, if only so he has another "life skill" in his repertoire.

And tonight was my actual lesson. Christina asked me what I wanted to work on and I said I wanted to work on the movement from the Intro B test where you go from like, K -> X -> H (instead of all the way across the diagonal) or F -> X -> M. So we did that at a walk and a trot till it started to look like he was anticipating the turns. Mostly to get me focusing on when and where I need to cue for the turn and get him doing it more snappily. I have a habit of cueing too early, especially at K for some reason (for a lot of things, I don't know what it is about that particular corner). We did a bit of free walk, which was much better than before. And I also said I wanted to work on transitions with him because while he slows/stops with the best of them, generally, getting those upward transitions isn't as easy. One thing that was a bit difficult for me was when Christina had me trot in to a corner (Say...F) and make the turn as if I'm going across the diagonal but do that at a free walk. So I would want to cue for the walk after he finished turning but for what she was wanting to see me do, that was too late and he'd be a couple of strides into the diagonal before downshifting. So the idea was more that I needed to half halt about the time his nose got to the letter, start turning, and when his shoulder is passing it then ask for a walk.

And then I said wanted to canter again. I won't say it's pretty, because it isn't, and I still need to remember he needs more rein going into the canter than a horse that's already schooled for it (but recent lessons on the lunge and exercises where I have to drop the reins have helped me feel better about giving more to him so he can move up to that gait) but we got a few strides twice going each direction and not as much of the fast choppy trot as before. Christina said that we can work on keeping him in the canter later anyway, the important thing now is to get across to him the cue for it so he picks it up more reliably. :)

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with how he's progressing.

He was also much more attentive to my leg tonight (as far as listening when I push him back toward the rail) so that's cool too.

I'm also planning on taking dressage lessons with a local dressage instructor once or twice a month on one of her horses. I think it'll help me both to get someone else's perspective on my riding, and to be able to learn some of this stuff on a horse that already knows what it's doing so I know how it's supposed to feel when Kieran does it right. :)

Some people seem to not understand "negotiations"

I'm currently on a search for a Western saddle for Kieran, as I've mentioned before. I have found a Western saddle that actually fits him, so I don't have to go treeless. Unfortunately, that particular saddle belongs to a friend of mine (and I'm kicking myself because I'm the one who pointed it out to her, LOL). So I've been looking at similar ones online everywhere. Obsessively.

Also kicking myself because I saw exactly what I wanted on Ebay last week but dithered and while I was dithering, someone did Buy It Now and got it. Hah!

So since then, I've been in contact with various people regarding their saddles posted for sale. One person didn't want to use paypal (which makes me kinda nervous, what if I send payment and they never send the saddle? At least with paypal I might be able to get my money back).

Anyhow, someone else had the saddle listed for a bit more than I'd seen it elsewhere in my searches. I mean, obviously not as much as it would cost new, but more than I'd seen it listed for used. So I asked them if they were at all flexible on price and then they asked me how much lower, I quoted something closer to the price range I'd seen it sell for (a bit lower than I actually expected us to settle on) and they contacted me back with, "thanks but no thanks" and I'm sorta like, "what? no counteroffer?"

Was that silly of me to expect? They wanted $475 for the saddle (which is more than I really want to spend. I mean, I've seen older versions of the same brand of saddle go for $300 and less and the newer ones to go for about $400). I offered $400 including shipping, expecting maybe they'd go for $400 PLUS shipping. That sounded reasonable to me. Apparently not to them. No big deal, I'm not in any hurry and I'm willing to wait for the "right" saddle to show up. :)

Update on the "my dressage pony" post

We rode around the farm yesterday and then came into the ring for a short session. Did some free-walking across the diagonal and worked really hard to remember to have him straight before I give him the reins and then focus on exactly where I want to go and it was much better.

Also did 20 m circles at B and E and they were much better as well. Could be because we were alone in there, could be because he'd had time to absorb what I was asking of him, could be because I was asking more clearly. Whatever the reason, I'll take it!

Also, some friends of mine came to take pictures of us riding outside on Saturday (one of the few times I've ridden without a helmet! I felt naked, but safe on him. ;) ) so hopefully soon I'll have some nice pictures to share.

Saddle Fit, Argh

Yeah, so the Western saddle in the last post definitely won't fit Kieran. Too tight over his shoulders. I mean, he rides okay in it, but I'm sure if I did anything long with him, it wouldn't work and as nice of a saddle as it is for the price I got it at, it's not worth making him sore just to have a Western saddle.

Anyway, no big deal, Christine wanted it so we worked something out and I am not out any money. But now I need to find a saddle. I was tempted to just buy a new Simco draft saddle but if it didn't work for some reason, I'm not sure I could sell it so easily and I definitely wouldn't be able to get my money back.

I think I might go back to my original idea of a treeless. I really like the look of the Barefoot Atlanta and I've ridden him in a treeless saddle before and did just fine.

My Dressage Pony

So I was looking up local schooling shows in the area and came across one later in the month that will be doing (among others) the USDF intro tests A&B. This, we can do. We are nowhere near read to do a test with cantering (ahahahahaha). So I mentioned it to my instructor and she was like, "oh yes, we can do this, I'll print out the tests and we can look at them tonight!".

So we did!

She called out the movements and had us do them (only went through each test once or twice fully, other than that it was just practicing the individual movements.) Discovered a few things:

1. Not only do I have to make my aids stronger than I should, the fact that Kieran is white in the barrel area and my feet and legs are not makes it that much more obvious.

2. We need to do a lot of work on actually round circles (we were especially flat on one side of the circle going a particular direction. Not sure if it's something about the ring, something about his fitness, or I just wasn't using enough inside leg).

3. We need to work on free walk. Typically it isn't something I do when I ride, really. And right now I still have to have some contact to the reins to keep him from drifting inward (not sure if he'd still drift inward if the ring was empty. He might've only been doing it because Christina was standing in there).

Anyway, with school classes for me being over (yay! Can't wait for the shiny "you graduated!" piece of paper!) I have quite a bit more free time on the weeknights so I should be able to actually get up there more than once or twice a week (God willing.) which is what I had intended to do in the first place but...life happened.

Also, last week I bought the pony a Western saddle. Still deciding if it actually fits proper. People online seem to generally agree they think it's too tight. People in real life think I should ride in it some more first to really be able to tell (sweat marks).

Here's what it looks like:

Pony Rides!

A friend of mine flew in from Texas yesterday and I ended up dragging her to the barn with me for my lesson. Poor thing isn't used to the cold, but she thinks Kieran is pretty.

Yesterday's lesson was a lot more about working on Kieran than working on me. Lots of circles, weaving through cones, and trotting over poles. And then, with just a few minutes to go, Christina says, "are your legs tired yet?" and I say, "almost" and she says, "well if they're not tired yet, I want you to drop your stirrups."

Apparently, the look on my face was priceless.

But I dropped my stirrups and did my damnedest to post without them around the ring and over the poles.

And then we were done and I asked my friend, "you want a pony ride?" So we got her (in a helmet!) and mounted up on Kieran and cooled him out (not that he even broke a sweat) walking her around the ring.

Apparently it was her first time on a horse since she was a kid and first time ever in an English saddle. And Kieran just plodded around the ring with me. (he always looks confused when I get off him and someone else gets on, LOL). :)

General Stuff

Got up to see the pony on Saturday. Was worried he might be a bit sore since the ground finally froze (of course it's since rained so I imagine it's muddy again...until it freezes again). Spent a lot of time just grooming him and getting him looking almost actually clean, even his fetlocks! Then we went into the ring and I hopped on bareback and Mr.Sometimes-I-forget-how-to-stand-for-mounting stood like a statue. It was, actually, the easiest mount bareback I think I've ever done, even the ones when I was a kid and mounting a much smaller horse. Maybe all the balance work I've been doing with Christina is paying off. ;)

Anyway, we mostly walked around with a bit of trotting and lots of breaks just to stand around and look pretty. (The best part about sitting on a horse bareback in winter is how WARM they are!) Then we went for a quick trot up the driveway and walk back down and we were done!

I sent off a quick email to Christine today to see if maybe she'd show me how to ground drive him. I think it'd be good experience for him (and I've never done it) and it certainly can't hurt to teach him and might be a good option for something to do on days when riding just isn't going to work for whatever reason. I'd love to eventually be able to hitch him up to a cart and take him for a sping around the neighborhood, I bet he'd look pretty flashy. ;)