Breaks are good things, apparently

So it's been over a week since I last rode Kieran and I had a lesson today (we didn't have one last weekend, long story).

I was going into it this morning thinking, "hmm...maybe we could just go on a trail ride? Maybe I should call Jessica and tell her I think I'm getting sick and not to bother coming over?

You get the idea.

But I didn't do any of that. And I'm glad I didn't! Even warming up, Kieran was really ready to go and listening and he gave me two gorgeous canter transitions and nice, collected, uphill canters.

Today's lesson involved a canter grid of poles set something like so:

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Sort of like a bounce, one stride, one stride, bounce. The idea being to get Kieran figuring out how to negotiation things that aren't set nice even distances apart.

We started with them just trotting through on the ground. Then cantering through on the ground. Then slowly raising a few up as if they were cavaletti.

Oh yeah, and we did some nice trotting spiraling circles during the warmup and also when Jessica was re-arranging poles as needed we'd do some trotting around encouraging him to stretch out and that was nice as well.

Anyway, by the end of the lesson, it looked more like this:

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Basically a cavaletti at the top with a "bounce" to a low (like...a foot) crossrail and then two strides to another cavaletti.

He'd had some trouble previously, either between me not getting my timing right, him being lazy, or some combination of the two.

The last time through it was just about perfect. Jessica said she could tell I saw my "spots" just right, that I pushed him forward or half-halted at just the right times, and Kieran cantered over everything without knocking anything. Seriously beautiful. (no pictures, hah!)

Anyway, I was grinning ear to ear and we ended the lesson on that note.

Obviously, a bit of a riding vacation agreed with him! :)

Jumping Courses

Okay, this is not at all to scale, I just whipped it together to give you an idea of what the layout looked like for my lesson today. Hopefully, there will be pictures later but I have to wait and see what Jessica's boyfriend got (he was playing ground crew for us today because she was riding one of the horses she has in for training...that was extra training for Kieran too since he had to listen to me and not pay too much attention to drifting over to where the other horse was).

Anyway, we started out by warming up with a nice walk, then doing the trotting circles in the corners and cantering down the long sides thing we did last week. Despite the temperature having dropped about 20 degrees overnight and it being really windy, Kieran was really relaxed in the warmup and while forward and "there" not...too forward. :)

Then Jessica had us canter both directions over the poles (that's what the thinner lines are). One set was about 3 strides apart, one was about 4 strides apart. The idea was just to get him into a nice canter, canter over the first set, then keep going over the next set and so on. A lot of today was "we've spent a lot of time just getting him over single things and then stopping to talk about it and then doing it again, so now you have to push him forward after a single "thing" and keep going so we can connect it all together".

Then she had the jumps set up. The two angled ones and the one in the middle on the bottom were all using my jump blocks and were just single poles to make verticals. The angled ones stayed at 18" the whole time (and now that I'm looking at it I realize I angled them the wrong direction, pretend they're angled with the outside sides pointed toward the upper corners, not the bottom corners). The vertical on the bottom started at 18" but later we shifted the blocks around so they were at the 2' level. The jump in the middle was made using a pair of jump standards Jessica brought and started out at 2' and near the end of the lesson she had it bumped up two holes to 2'6".

Anyway, a lot of the idea was just to go straight, keep moving forward, and for me to plan out what I wanted to do as we go along. She didn't tell me a particular path to take, she wanted me to decide and make good choices. It was actually really difficult because I've been taking lessons for so long that I've gotten used to letting the instructor tell me what to do and where to go when they're there.

So we had a few false starts, though Kieran of course was pretty good, he never refused a thing. Though like, after we knocked over the same jump (the vertical at the bottom) several times Jessica asked, "okay, so what are you doing that that jump isn't working for you? Maybe you need to do something else." So we talked about it and I changed up what I was doing (went around and did one of the lower jumps first, then came back around for that guy) and it worked.

By the end of the lesson we were able to do the whole "course" without knocking anything over and with me choosing where to go and how we'd get there. Kieran stayed game the entire time. I'm actually really surprised how well he's taking to do this but he seems to enjoy it. One of the other little exercises Jessica had me do with him in the middle of the lesson was to trot in to whichever jump I wanted and get him to canter out and then just sort of get up out of the saddle and allow him to keep going as much as he wanted as a reward. Basically we made jumping into a game today instead of just drilling over and over and he really seemed to take to it.

One of the other things Jessica said today is that I think we need more space to get set up and ready than we actually do. Or well, than Kieran actually does...it's still stuck in my head. So we were coming into one jump but we were a little catty-corner and I stopped and Jessica was like, "why'd you stop? You were totally there!" and I was like, "but it wasn't perfect! we didn't have enough room!" (and that was while that jump was still one of the 18" ones) and she was like..."Kieran is clever enough to figure some of this out on his own even if you don't set him up absolutely perfectly as long as you're up there telling him he can do it, he'll respond okay, Mom." And you know what? She's right. He will. It's actually a little scary that he's so willing. I mean...it's a lot of responsibility up there!

Anyway, it made for a good lesson, even if it wasn't as structured as they usually are. I think it worked for Kieran too. It made for a nice change of pace. :)

Exciting ride today!

So...I went for a trail ride on Kieran now that we've been shown the trails. The BO had texted me earlier in the week and mentioned they'd done some trail clearing, and I thought that she had just meant that they'd cleared out the one tree that was pretty much totally blocking one path (you had to bushwack to get around it). Alas, they also moved the two logs lying over the trail in two places that were perfect to hop over. *sigh*

Oh well!

Anyway, Kieran was a champ. Sometimes he can get a bit insecure riding out alone be he was just fine and ready to explore with me.

The exciting part, you ask? Well, we'd started trotting down this one section of trail when all of a sudden, pretty much out of nowhere, we trotted up on these three guys who were apparently out shooting shotguns for the hell of it. (Myra says if it had been her on her horse, she would have been left in the dust...but Kieran was really good after the initial "oh crap where did THOSE guys come from?" reaction) I had no idea they were going to be back there and they had no idea I was going to be back there. It was...awkward. But they were polite enough and we moved on. I could hear them shooting from time to time but we managed to avoid each other the rest of the time (well, except for near the end of the ride when I took a wrong turn and almost ended up in someone's backyard and had to backtrack. They were headed that way to go out when I turned around to get back on the trail I needed to take).

Other than that, Kieran and I got in some good trotting and cantering (a lot more trotting than cantering) and I was able to do a lot of the trotting in two point with little issue! Not sure why it's so much harder in the ring, LOL.

Kieran seemed to really enjoy himself once I finally let him open up a little and not just mosey along, hah!

And it turns out the dudes I ran into are related to the guy who owns the land I was riding on so at least they were some random strangers. Well, from my perspective, I guess they were...but you know what I mean!

Also, anybody have any sweet itch remedies? I think that's what Kieran is developing on his neck and I want to nip it in the bud before it becomes a big problem. Currently I've just slathered the area in SWAT, but there's got to be something more I can do. Here's a pic!

Kieran Torture

Proof of what a terrible horse owner I am:



Yes, those are blue sparkly fairy wings (I love the dollar store!). Yes, Kieran is wondering why someone won't rescue him. ;)

In other news, I free jumped him a bit tonight. Set up the chute with first a low crossrail, the cavaletti, and then the jump at the same height we had on Sunday. Ran him through a few times and gosh, he was being lazy! So I changed the crossrail to a vertical and did it again and he did better. Then I added a single barrel to the middle of the last element, and changed it so the crossrail was the second element and just put a ground pole as the first element (since I was adding in the barrel, I wanted to make the other things simpler, and use the crossrail to kind of funnel him to the middle of the chute).

So he comes through and totally puts on the brakes at the barrel. Like, "wtf, mom, don't you remember that thing might eat me?" So he tries to go around, but there's a wall on one side and a rope on the other and me over there telling him to "go over, okay!"...so he did, from a standstill. Heck, I would have taken him just bulling through it like he's done other things. So then he figured out he was capable of jumping over the one barrel and we did it a couple more times, but I noticed he was trying to jump to the far left of the jump (next to the rope, where there was no barrel).

So I added a second barrel, and at that point the jump was set up the same way as it was on Sunday (except that Christina only had it as a single jump, and I still had my chute set up).

Hah, he ran right on through for me, but when he got to that last jump, he totally cleared it with a few extra feet than he needed to. So I sent him through a couple more times until he did it more reasonably and ended there with lots of praise and a cookie. Now, at least, he knows he can do it. I'll probably do it again with him at least once more before we try tackling it under saddle (and when we do again, I'll probably ask Christina if we can't set up a similar grid since I think it helps him find his spot).

Oh yeah, I also had finally remembered to bring a tarp up because I just wanted to get Kieran to walk over it at some point (one of the obstacles at a judged trail ride some of the barn folks went on had a tarp that the horses had to cross). Well, as soon as I shook the thing out and just laid it on the ground, Kieran came over to inspect it. One hoof on the edge and a snort. Then he looks at me. He paws at it. Snorts. Paws. Looks at me. And I coax him toward me from across the tarp (I had been planning on leading him but since he was so willing to come over on his own...) with a treat. He streeeeeeeeeetched his neck as far as it would go but didn't move his feet. So I just put a little pressure on his halter and he came right on over. Then I led him over again (no hesitation that time). Good pony!

I feel it was a pretty productive horsey day.

Ouch, my pride

Jumping lesson today. Christina set it up so there was the caveletti on one side of the ring (at B) and then on the other wall (at E) was an actual jump (started with a crossrail, then made a vertical. Jump cups were set at 2'6") and in the middle on the F->H diagonal there was a "crossrail" with very ghetto plastic chair standards (the other set of proper standards is still frozen in a pool of ice. I threw some road salt around them today in hopes they'll unfreeze at some point this week. Problem is that they're sitting in a spot that stays shady most of the day).

Anyway, warmed up, then trotted over everything a few times from different directions. Then Christina asked if we wanted to canter and I was willing to give it a shot. (for this, we just stuck to the stuff on the rail and didn't cross the diagonal. He doesn't do flying lead changes yet and those would be some pretty sharp turns) I noticed it was easier to jump when Kieran was cantering, but looking at the few videos we got? I was still jumping ahead and coming back down too soon and just generally not looking good. Kieran was his normal saintly self.

Then Christina decides to add barrels in front of the jump with the comment that it wasn't actually any taller than what we were just jumping. Which, it wasn't.

So I steeled myself.

And we went.

And I stared at those barrels like they were going to eat me if I took my eyes off 'em!

And Kieran was, quite naturally, convinced they'd eat him too!

So he whipped out of the way at the last second and remember how I said I was jumping ahead? I was already halfway out of the tack when it happened and so...

...off I came! And landed right in front of Kieran's path somehow (I had a fleeting vision of his huge hooves trampling my poor, mangled body). Saintly, again, he stopped as soon as I hit the ground and so...I did not get trampled.

Nothing hurt, in fact, but my pride. Dusted myself off, got back on, Christina removed the barrels, but left the jump up and we went and did it again. Got jumped out of the tack this time (he jumped higher than I was expecting. Those invisible barrels might eat him!) and the Christina turned it back into a crossrail and had us trot through/over a few times just to give Kieran something easy to end on that we know he does well. By that point, the lesson was over.

I told Christina I could make a jump out of the barrels to free jump him over to give him a chance to learn how to do it without me on his back messing him up and then we could give it another shot.

And here's one of the videos. Not of the fall (we didn't get it on camera, alas) but hey, there you go.

EDIT: Video didn't look like it was working, here is a link: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150380374455062&comments

Lazy day (for me! Not so much Kieran)

Today I wasn't feeling overly motivated to ride but I felt I should do something with Kieran, so we did free jumping again, this time going a different direction than usual. I also set up the chute so hopefully it'd work as a series of bounces (at about 9 feet between each). By the time I had help so I could video and not chase him so much myself (leave that to the kid), he was starting to get tired, so he's not really cantering through here. That said, I think he still makes it through pretty well.

Afterward, I hooked a long lead rope to his halter and hopped on bareback to walk him around and wait for him to cool out. He went pretty well in the halter, turning and stopping easily so now I'm considering trying him in a hackamore.

So I ended up riding today a bit after all. ;)

Lesson tomorrow!

Can I get that canter again, please?

Got my saddle back today so went to try it out and it seemed to be working well. Kieran was certainly cooperative, though we still had some of the "swing the butt away from the mounting block" thing. So, he got one "grace" step away, and the next time he moved as I settled the mounting block back into place? I smacked him on the butt with my crop and sent him off at a trot then asked him to whoa when he came back around to the block. He did it one more time, I sent him off again, and this time when he whoa'd, he actually stood there the whole time for me to climb up the block, get in the saddle, and get situated.

So here's hoping next time I won't have to do it at all. Cross your fingers!

Anyway, for our ride, we did some warmup walking and trotting and I kept to doing a lot of the work closer in to the middle of the ring and letting him walk/rest on the rail. Once he was warmed up, we did quite a bit of cantering and he gave me a lot of really nice transitions and one really really nice, forward, but a bit more collected and balanced than usual, canter. Now if I could just figure out how to ask him to do it that way more often! ;)

After that, we dialed it back a bit and I got off and rolled out the soccer ball. He stood to let me back on (lest I chase him around again!) but I could tell he was like, "but you got off! that means you're done!" which was part of why I got off to do something, then got back on. ;)

Anyway, we chased the ball around a bit and he's getting really good at trotting after it and he's figuring out I want him to push it away from the wall when it gets stuck.

Once we were done with that, I hopped off and pulled off his tack so he could walk around (and roll if he wanted to) while I cleaned up the arena.

All in all, he was a really really good boy. And oh! Here's part of the email I got from Christina yesterday regarding him:

Just wanted to let you know that [Student] rode Kieran in her lesson tonight. [...] He really was a good boy and helped her confidence increase ten fold.

I just wanted to say thank you for letting your awesome horse give lessons! He has helped [Student]'s self esteem more than you realize :)

What a nice warm fuzzy. :D

Woo, trails!

Okay, so it was grey.

And cold.

And there's still some white stuff sticking to the ground.

But who cares? We went on a trail ride!

Well, we being me and Kieran. And the trail being the woods at the back of the farm. Hah. First, though, we had to work on mounting.

And I don't know if it's all the work we've been doing with stretching or the fact that I was using a different saddle today (and yesterday) that meant that Kieran didn't even look sideways at me today when girthing. Good sign? I certainly hope so.

Anyway, we got all tacked up and I took him into the ring, my pockets full of treats. My idea was to stand him next to the mounting block and if he stood for more than a second, he got a treat. If he tried to move off, I sent him off at a brisk trot (reins tied up and secured so he couldn't get caught up in them) then asked him to whoa near the block and started the whole process over.

Had to send him off once before he'd stand quietly at the block (without me standing on it). Then had to do it a couple more times before he stood quietly with me standing on the block and then I finally was able to get in the saddle. He proceeded to continue standing nicely while I fiddled with stirrups and suchlike. Here's hoping the lesson sticks in his little horsey head (but if not, we'll just do it again).

Basically, it's too much effort for me to fight with him about standing and continually following him with the mounting block until I manage to get him to hold still just long enough so I can throw myself into the saddle (and I'm sure that last thing isn't helping his attitude about the block). It's simpler to send him off and then let him relax by the block and like yesterday's lesson shows, he understands that sort of arrangement.

Anyway, once I was in the saddle and settled, we left the arena and went walking up the driveway one direction, then came back up the other way at a trot and continued on up into the woods. In there, we made a few loops that allowed us to canter up this one hill that has a (small) log partway up. He hopped over it pretty well the first time. The last time I think he actually landed a foot on it and continued going (*sigh*).

We also just wandered the woods and I made sure to go check out one section of trail where I knew a washout had happened and try to see if there was an easy way to avoid that so we could just re-route the trail. Didn't seem to be, so now there's this ditch in the middle of the trail. (there was always a bit of one, but last year it got really deep and it's not step-overable any more). Possibly, if the trail had been clear of snow, I'd have asked Kieran to go over it, but as it was, it was pretty visually deceptive about how firm the footing was (there were sticks in the ditch, and with snow over them, it looked relatively solid, but I knew it wasn't). So we just turned around.

No big deal, plenty more places to ride. I even let him paw in the stream some.

After riding around and doing lots of trail-trotting (and a nice hop over another log that I didn't anticipate, hah! I thought he'd just trot over) in the spots I knew were relatively clear/even/smooth and a couple more short uphill canters, we went and rode in the ring.

He was noticeably better today about riding on the rail and we also did some work trotting over the poles (several were still out in approximately the same place as yesterday) and some more cantering and short canter transitions (turning at a corner and asking him to canter across the diagonal before coming back down to a trot).

To cool out, we did some walking on a loose rein and then I hopped off and gave the borrowed saddle over so someone else could ride and I led him around the outside of the barn and riding ring before coming back into the arena and doing some more walking in there.

When he was cool and not breathing hard (but still damp, bleh), I took him in and gave him a good grooming and some quality time with his new toy: a handheld massage thingy that vibrates (I got it actually to get him to associate the buzzing sound and the vibrations with something good so that when we go back to working with clippers, maybe they won't wig him out so much).

All in all, a good horsey day.

Eclipse Ride

I did, indeed, go up to the farm last night/this morning and did, indeed, ride Kieran at around 1am. Could have ridden out in the pasture (moon was still bright) but I was going bareback and with frozen ground outside...didn't feel like risking the landing should I slide off, half asleep. ;) So just rode in the ring with lots of walk-halt transitions, circles and turns, a bit of trotting, and a short canter in each direction.

It was nice, though I'm sure the poor pony was confused, "why are you riding me THIS late????". But he got treats and a quick roll in the arena (AFTER the ride and I took off his bridle) so I'm sure it didn't bother him all that much. :)

Now...off to work!

And now pics from Saturday!

Amanda riding David


Good thing Kieran, at least, looks cute! ;) I put the hat on him when he wasn't cooperating by putting his ears up.


Because it started out on my head!


I have no idea at all what I was doing here, but I figure I'll share my embarrassing moments too.


Christy riding Warlock, a former park police horse (not a GG horse, though. But still a draft!)


Christina on Tax, her 18 yo OTTB.


Huh, they did get some pics of us riding!


These must've been in the warmup before I did intro B.

Great Ride on Saturday!

This past Saturday, I spent mostly up at the barn and late in the afternoon, I got to ride Kieran. Soon enough, we'll be well into "crappy weather" season meaning if I want to ride, I'll practically have to only ride in the ring. So, to stave off the day when Kieran gets completely fed up with riding in there (and believe you me, we try to come up with a little something different to do with him for every lesson so he doesn't get bored and sour of working in there), we went for a hack around the farm. Which was something I haven't really gotten to do in a while since up until recently, I had no free weekends to go hang out at the barn and ride and it would be too late in the day on the weeknights when I got there.

Now, the last time before this that I'd ridden him alone around the farm, he was pretty insecure about the whole thing. Nervous to walk down behind the ring toward the hay barn, nervous to go up the hill toward the trail entrance. Whinnying for his friends every few minutes. He didn't do anything bad, but he was definitely reluctant.

Not on Saturday!

First we rode up the driveway toward the mailbox, just moseying along so I could get a feel for how he was doing. Then we walked back up the driveway toward the house and along the fence toward the trail entrance. Still fine, even with the horses in the field over there watching very intently. There's an open, relatively flat, spot up there, so we did some 20 meter circles at the trot.

Then I looked over at the woods and the entrance to the trail and figured "what the hell?" and rode him in. He was really ready to go, walking forward and paying attention and not at all worried that we'd left his friends behind. Even when we scared a herd of deer into running off through the woods, he just stood and watched them go by.

We didn't do the whole trail, just down the hill, across the creek (dry right now), and down to where it usually gets kind of mucky and I always have to wander around till I pick up the trail again. Didn't want to go all the way through because we'd end up down behind the hay barn near the round pen where Mattie is being kept and then she'd get herself all worked up (had surgery, can't be running around and whinnying but wigs out too much if she's kept all the time in a stall, so the round pen during the day is a good compromise). So we just turned around and followed our tracks back except, after you cross the creek again, instead of going around and up the hill, you can go straight up it. So Kieran and I cantered up it. He even cantered smoothly over a low log in the way (I saw it coming, was thinking "crap, I should probably slow him down...except he's going to end up cantering right over it and he's done poles in the ring before..." and indeed, that's what he did). It was such a nice canter, too.

After that, we walked down the driveway again to the mailbox, then came back up the driveway at a trot (and a bit of canter up the hill part [the driveway isn't paved]). Did some more trot circles up in the flat area then went around to the other side of the house and went about halfway down the hill over there (again, didn't want to go too far down and either get all the horses in the field riled up or set Mattie off) and trotted back up.

That was mostly it. We also went back into the ring (I closed the ring gate from horseback ;) ) and did some cantering both ways and continued to work on going deep into the corners. Then we just cooled out by walking and did lots of turns instead of just going around at the rail.

It was a very good ride.

And on Sunday, I had my lesson and for a while there...it wasn't so good. Because we were back to diving into the ring (mostly when trying to do those twenty meter circles) and stuff. I was getting frustrated Kieran was getting frustrated because I was getting frustrated, etc. So our instructor got on him so she could feel what I was complaining about. She didn't have nearly as much trouble, but she did say he felt really stiff through his neck.

The verdict on the sticking-nose-out-diving-into-the-middle-of-the-ring issue? I'm grabbing and holding too much with the outside rein and if I'd just let go a bit and give and release with that rein (or even just think of kind of wiggling my hand), he doesn't feel the need to brace against my hand (hence, diving in when given an opening, to get away from the pressure). I feel like a dumbass, but the lesson got much better after I became aware of what I was doing and started focusing on not just holding on with the outside rein (which, I knew I was doing to an extent, because I felt like I "had to" to keep him from diving in...but I was just perpetuating the issue).

And, there we go and there you have it.

No riding pics from his weekend, but here's a picture of the pony in his field.