Awesome lesson!!

Tonight Christina said, "it's only for a half hour, but I'm going to make it FEEL like an hour!"

And then she told me to drop my stirrups and trot around the ring. Then back to a walk. Now do a walk to canter transition and canter twice around the ring. Now do it the other direction.

Only after all of that did she set up a teeny crossrail with a placing pole. I got the choice of going over it without stirrups or without reins. I chose reins, hah. I don't think my stirrupless two point is nearly up to par.

Anyway, the first time around, we went over it with reins (just in case the spacing was wrong), the next time around, as we got to the placing pole, she had me drop my reins. Then after, pick them up, go around again, go over without reins and remember to put your arms out to the sides.

Then we did it from the other direction.

Then she made it a tiny vertical.

Kieran was really good and the last time through, even though you could tell he was starting to get tired from all the cantering, he went over the jump really well nor did he try to stop right after like he sometimes wants to. One time through, I went around the whole ring with no reins and we more or less stayed on the rail, hah.

My biggest problem tonight was that my feet kept sliding "home" into the stirrups. I don't know why as this isn't a usual problem for me. We think it's just that all the time off from riding and I'm still gaining back what fitness I had and thus tensing my legs upward at the canter again. It's always something. :)

Oh yeah, and he gave me a bunch of nice walk to canter transitions. Now if we can just learn canter to walk....

Trails!

Went on a nice two hour trail ride with Christina yesterday in the Patapsco State Park. I am so going to miss that place when we move, LOL. We got to wade in the river (on horseback) which Kieran gets a kick out of (he loves stomping in the water). And we had two of our longest-ever trots on the trail. We also popped over a couple of logs. Mostly, we just enjoyed the day, it was nice. There's something to be said for big group rides, sure, but I have to say I've had the most fun trail rides when it's only a couple of people. Kieran seems more relaxed, too.

The ride was also a really good length. Any longer probably would have been too much for him since we're still working on getting him back into shape (and definitely would have been too much for Vegas who has a harder time in the heat and isn't quite as fit as Kieran is currently).

Guess if we do any riding today, I'll have to go easy on him. :)

Games

Still waiting on the pics from yesterday.

In the meantime...had a good lesson today. Spent the first half on me (lots of trotting and cantering in two point. It was easier today than on Thursday, for which I'm grateful). Second half, we did "games". Christina had set up a few things for us to play with. One was just the tarp, laid on the ground between two poles and we walked and trotted over it (Kieran didn't even look at it twice, since he's already been introduced to it). Then she'd put a small bucket on top of one of the barrels and wrapped the handle with silk flowers and had me walk up to it and pick it up as we walked by, go around, then set it back down again. Easier said than done since I had to time shifting my reins to one hand until just a split second before I reached the bucket (since Kieran doesn't neck rein) and if he wasn't in just the right position and I didn't lean down the right amount...I wouldn't be able to scoop the darn thing up.

Once we were doing it reliably from either side, she had us do it at a trot.

She also had the pool noodles (I picked a bunch up from the dollar store last year so we could do goofy things with them with the horses) stuck in one of the other barrels and had me do the same thing. Walk by, pick one up, walk around with it (and this time, pass it over Kieran's neck and around my back), then stick it back in the barrel. Then we did it at a trot. Then she had me trot to it, pick it up, pick up a canter, and canter back to the barrel to put the noodle in. Finally, she held one of the noodles up a little higher so I could reach it more easily and had me canter to her, take it from her, canter back around, and give it back. ;)

Fun times and it made the lesson really interesting for both me and Kieran. I mean, I still had to work on using my legs and core to stay on the saddle, even when leaning over the side, plus Kieran had to listen more to legs and seat than reins about where to go.

All in all, a much improved lesson experience over the last one, LOL.

Going back to farm tomorrow (yay, holidays!). Unsure if I'll ride or do something else. May not decide until I get up there.

Mounting and other tales

So I posted a while back that I was going to try sending Kieran off when he refused to stand for the mounting block and then let him stand beside it and relax while I got on.

Yeah, he's decided he's supposed to run off when I get up on the block (it also did not help that it seemed like every time I went to put my foot in the stirrup, a big sheet of ice would slide off the roof so he had extra incentive to be all, "running awwaaaay!"). I think he thinks it's some kind of game, now because after a few tries, he finally will stand stock still for me to get up, get situated, and go.

So anyway, I won't be using that technique anymore to make him stand. Even though he's very food motivated, I don't really want to do the treat technique because he'll come to expect them. And he knows when I've got 'em and when I don't.

Though I suppose I could combine that with the clicker I have somewhere and clicker train him. I bet he'd pick it up quick. :)

Anyway, lesson was no cantering (don't ride for two weeks and any riding stamina I have goes to crap) but did lots of trotting over ground poles, then cavaletti and a low vertical (not enough to get him to jump, really...I think he did once sorta) and lots of work for me on waiting to go up into two point until I feel him actually pick up his front feet to go over the rail.

Also lots of ice sliding off the roof giving Kieran an excuse to spook and Christina to yell at me, "don't let him stop! Send him forward!" since my reaction is to tighten up and hold on instead of...sending him forward.

Anyway, it turned out to be a fairly productive lesson. I told Christina I think I might switch to doing two half hour lessons a week instead of one full hour as I think those would be a better fit for us and enable me to do more consistent work with Kieran. Plus, if I go a bit early and have him warmed up ahead of time, we can jump right into working for the lesson and I think we'll get just as much bang for the buck, so to speak.

And I don't have any pictures of Kieran today, but here's one of Kate:





She's a very itchy mare and someone outside the frame is itching her belly. ;)

She's also available for adoption from Gentle Giants.

Nearly bought it

Hey, my previous post was my 100th post! Go me! :)

In other news:

Yesterday was lesson day.

Since the ring was being used before my lesson, I took Kieran out onto the driveway and we walked up and down it for part of our warmup. Also gave me an opportunity to work on him standing for mounting outside (as opposed to in the ring) and at something weird (a plastic chair, since the block was...in the ring). Once the ring cleared out, we went in and did some more warm up, lots of random turns and circles.

Christina had us start the lesson with lots of transitions. First just walk->halt, stand->walk (halting at every other letter). Someone didn't much feel like standing but he got over it. ;) Then some walk->trot transitions (trot 10 strides, walk 10 strides). Also had us do the spiral in->spiral out thing at a trot and had me do two-point trotting around the ring, then sit a while, then two point, then sit a while, then two point, etc.

Also did some cantering, mostly working on transitioning within the canter. So we'd get going, then I'd half halt to slow his canter down along one side of the ring, then use seat and legs to speed him up going down the other side of the ring. I will be honest and admit most of the time I didn't feel a very dramatic difference, but Christina says it was pretty obvious from the ground. I also nearly bought it doing this exercise. Somewhere in there, I lost a stirrup (no big deal, keep going!) and Christina said something like, "you don't need stirrups!" and I was like, "she's right!" so I dropped the other one instead of retrieving the dropped stirrup. This was fine till, going around a turn, I got a bit off balance and started sliding to the outside. Then Kieran went to trotting (bounce bounce bounce bounce trot) and I kept sliding. (it did not help my saddle felt extra slipper yesterday! Plus blue jeans over my full-seats cause it was coooold) Managed to grab mane and stay on but Christina said she was sure at one point that I was going over and it would've been a sloooooow motion fall. ;) Would've been my first fall in a while (knock wood!) but I guess I'm not due yet.

Did some more cantering after that and probably other stuff I'm now drawing a blank on but then went into doing turns on the forehand. Christina dragged out a couple of ground poles so they looked like this:

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And had us go up to the corner on the outside (so standing to the left of the vertical pole) with Kieran's shoulder just ahead of the horizontal pole. Then ask for the turn on the forehand so he'd be facing to the right and we'd continue along the new pole.

Going to the right was crap. Part of it, we surmise (after repeating doing turns from both directions) is that he's just stiffer going that way. Part of it seems that when I'd encounter resistance turning him that way, I'd use more of my right hand but I was also using more of my left hand (which I shouldn't have been doing) thus giving more of a "back!" cue than a "turn!" cue. For some reason, this didn't occur so much going to the left as he gave me several nice turns going that direction. We ended this exercise when we got a decent turn to the right.

Then Christina rolled the ball out and had us chase it around, basically, "roll it around the ring one way, then roll it back around the other way" so it had us work on steering. Also, when it would get caught up against the wall, I'd have to maneuver Kieran alongside the wall so we could push it back out. This tended to involve the turn on the forehand (and you could see him going, "oh! this thing has a purpose!").

After that, we just cooled out (but he wasn't very warm by that point since the last part of the lesson had been pretty low-key, physical-work-wise) and I turned him out.

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Tonight, the gals at the farm want us all to show up really late so we can watch the lunar eclipse. I'm planning on going (though it's going to totally screw up my sleep...oh well!) and I figure this is a good excuse too to get up to the farm really late and ride Kieran at like..midnight (the "party" doesn't start till 1:30am). He's going to be so confused! :)

Even more dressage!

Yesterday was the last dressage show of the year at Pleasant Ridge (same place we went a few weeks ago). This time, we brought a whole passel of people from the farm and were scheduled to ride after lunch (was nice). There were a few crazy moments (someone got bucked off her horse, someone else's horse spooked [later], a horse got loose and went on a tour of the farm) but all in all, I think most everyone had an okay day (even the girl who got bucked off ended up with a ribbon "for bravery" because she got back on [a different horse] and rode again later).

I had a few issues with Kieran. Mostly because most everyone in our group rode in the class before mine so they all left and he was left alone (except the two ponies, but they were tied on the other side of the trailer and so didn't count as far as he was concerned). He made with a lot of swinging his butt around and dancing and calling for horses who didn't respond to him. ;) (the swinging the butt around thing is going to require a Come to Jesus moment, I think, as it's indicative of other pushy behavior that's been surfacing and I want to nip in the bud)

Anyway, by the time I got tacked up and got him up there, it was partway (I guess?) through our warmup time. And then he was a jerk about standing for mounting (this is really only something that can be fixed when we go places and I'm dependent on other folks for trailering) so by the time we got to warming up, we didn't have much time. I ended up being the first one in the class to go and did the 2007 Intro A test (could've done the new tests but wanted to do the old ones so I could compare with my scores from last time).

Here's how we did:

1. (5 points) Fairly straight entry. Maintain halt, some crooked steps after X.
2. (5 points) Counter bent
3. (6 points) Active trot steps, tight in back
4. (5 points) Good energy, bent outside
5. (6 points) Obedient transition. Clean rhythm.
6. (5 points) Head bent left. Needs more march and straightness (I think that's what she meant by "str")
7. (5 points) Prompt, but looking right
8. (5 points) Circle too large, but good energy.
9. (6 points) Overshot center line. Fairly square halt.

Remarks:

Willing, kind horse. Good tempo. Keep working on steering. Great potential.

Score: 54.5% (2 points higher than last time!)

So this time we had absolutely no problem being forward (and I attribute that a lot more to him being so antsy and "up"). And yeah, bending around corners and in the circles just plain sucked. He wanted so badly to get out back where his friends were, he wasn't really listening to me (and I would not be surprised if I was bracing with the outside rein exactly like I'm not supposed to do though I tried not to do that). Pretty sure I could've used more leg on him as well (inside leg, that is).

One thing the judge mentioned to me after the test was that when he did that, to not just use my leg the "normal" way but maybe try turning it inward so I'm sort of poking him with my knee/toe . I imagine she meant more as a way to fix it and not something I should do all the time but it sounds weird to me. Anybody else do anything like that?

After that, had to sit around a while waiting for next test, so we did some walking in circles in the driveway area and then he was finally willing to stand quietly, so we did that.

Then, another warmup, and this time I got to ride the entire warmup but it felt like he was only really getting loose and listening to me right at the end of it. Then it was time to clear out and I was like...third or fourth. I should've kept him moving outside, but since he was willing to stand quietly (and I was glad for that, as opposed to the dancing around we'd been doing earlier) I let him do that.

So this test was 2007 Intro B:

1. (7 points) Fairly straight and balanced halt.
2. (6 points) Help horse bend in corner.
3. (5 points) Circle not accurate, horse looking out.
4. (6 points) Broke on short side, fairly straight.
5. (5 points) Looking out but obedient.
6. (5 points) Allow horse to stretch. Better second half. (she told me after the test she really wanted to see us riding completely on the buckle but I was still keeping a bit of contact with his mouth because I was worried he'd try to duck out the door)
7. (6 points) Fairly fluid but looking out. Better than last test. Help horse bend in corner.
8. (6 points) Steady, straight, back more relaxed, but help in corner.
9. (8 points!) Straight and balanced halt.

Remarks.

Better! Keep working on correct bend and allow horse to stretch in free walk. :)

Score: 58.5% (12.5% higher than when I did this test three weeks ago!)

Again, we got about midway through and things seemed like they were settling into place. Christina and I suspect that he just needs a lot of time to warm up so he's not so stiff at the beginning (today in our lesson, we did just that and I think it helped).

Anyway, I ended up with a 2nd place ribbon for the first class and a 3rd for the second class. :) Kieran got a couple very large carrots.

There are pictures, but they were taken on someone else's camera so I have to wait until she sends them to me.

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Today was lesson day and we did the long warm up like I said. (walking serpentines then trotting this pattern of teardrop shapes in the corners and 10 meter circles at E (or B, depending on which side we do it).

Basically, trot down toward H, then turn in a teardrop shape that has you hitting the wall again at E, then start a ten meter circle and then continue to K where you do another teardrop shape that brings you back to E and do a 10 meter circle and then continue on to H...

Basically gets him thinking about bending and listening to me. He does it much better on the HEK side than he does it on the MBF side (and since you end up doing it through both directions, I don't think it's a directional thing). Even Christina commented that we were staying on the wall better on the HEK side (and it's always like that).

We also did the barrel thing again to get him stretching his back legs under him.

Then we worked on cantering and lots of transitions. First we did cantering all the way around the ring, then twenty meter circles at A and C. Then she had us go back on the rail again and walk ten strides, canter ten strides, walk ten, canter ten (with the eventual idea that we'll shorten it even further) to get him really listening and jumping when I said to go. He did better at transitioning up than back down (kept wanting to trot on the way down).

Then Christina set up a cavaletti at X and had us do some trotting over it (probably just for the change of pace) and we did that from both directions and worked on getting Kieran really forward to it (so he'd pick up his dang feet!).

Then she had me do a short bit of cantering with no stirrups, then trot around the ring once with no stirrups (posting!), then we were done and it was time to cool out. I ended up taking off all his tack and letting him follow me around while I cleaned up the ring. He also took the opportunity to roll. And we played a bit with his ball (he's hilarious when he rubs his face on the ball and then yawns at me). After that, the day was pretty much done because everybody else that normally lessons is sick (and I'm on my way there, ugh).

My horse canters circles around your horse!

Today's lesson, we warmed up with some serpentines (both walking and trotting and the trotting I had to do posting without stirrups. Ow.) Then we did trotting around the rail but doing 10 meter circles in the corners (sitting the circles, posting along the wall, still without stirrups).

Then we worked on going over the intro A and B dressage tests (the old ones, not the new ones) as we'll be showing in them this coming Saturday. Mostly that involved us riding around and Christina calling out the movements whenever she felt like it (as opposed to doing the tests straight through over and over). We did run through each test once in full, though.

I continually have to remind myself (or be reminded) that if I pull on his head with my outside rein, it doesn't actually help (as he braces against the pressure and tries even harder to fall inward) but if I just keep a steady, light contact and "bump bump bump" with the outside rein AND not forget to keep light contact with the inside rein, he goes pretty straight and where I want him to go.

Near the end of the lesson, we also did some cantering, basically, cantering all the way around the ring once, then continuing to do a 20 meter circle at B or E still cantering. And as long as I kept weight in my outside stirrup and kept my inside shoulder back, Kieran did really really well. I'm very proud of him. We'll probably start working on the new canter movement for the intro C test soon (basically: go into a 20 meter circle at A or C [I forget which] at a trot, cue for the canter, and before you come out of the circle, go back down to a trot) as so far, we've really only asked him to start cantering [i]then[/i] go into a turn or a circle, but not canter while already having started the circle.

Also had a nice ride yesterday on my own. Mostly we rode around the farm and in the woods and did some cantering up hills and some trotting on not perfectly even ground (one of the driveways along the barn and arena). Then we went back into the arena and I convinced him to chase the horse soccer ball around a bit. He still doesn't really get that it's supposed to be a game, but he humors me. ;)

In non-riding-training news, I did some work with Kieran today on accepting the presence of the clippers (for everything else he's so unflappable about, the fact that he doesn't go for the clippers [even sedated] is a little odd. Or funny, I haven't decided which. Maybe both). I took him into the round pen so we'd have a relatively open space that was still enclosed in case he got away from me, two pockets full of treats, and my little battery operated clippers. First I just worked on getting him to stand still with the clippers buzzing near his face. We had quite a bit of him walking in circles around me but if he'd stop and stand, I'd cut the clippers off and treat him. Once he was doing that relatively reliably (if snorting and giving me the hairy eyeball still a bit), we progressed to him letting the non-blade part touch him while on. If he'd stand for that, I'd cut them off and treat him. A couple times I treated him while the clippers were still running (see? you can get good things even when the evil nasty clippers are on!). Finally, I got him to tolerate the blade end (he can tell the difference) of the clippers touching him and we pretty much let it end there.

All in all, we probably weren't at it more than ten or fifteen minutes. He still doesn't trust them, but he didn't continually jerk his head away when they touched him (what he tried to do when I tried to clip his goat hairs before a show a while back) so I figure a few more treats sessions and me not acting like there's anything to be afraid of, and he'll settle right in to it.

Anyone have any suggestions on anything else I should have done?

Kieran might make a jumper yet!

Tonight, we warmed up with serpentines (walking and trotting). And then Christina had me either walk or trot Kieran until we got to A or C, then turn on the centerline, and when he was straight, do a canter transition, then canter down centerline.

Well, that was the idea, anyway. You could tell Kieran was like, "wtf? But there's no WALL!" Still, we got a couple strides of canter out of him, both ways (up and down), and I bet next week when I ask him, he'll pick it up more quickly. Basically, just trying to lesson any dependence on the wall (and hey, it makes it so he's "working" in the middle of the ring too and not just out on the rail).

After that, Christina set up a jump at X, starting out with another low crossrail and a ground pole leading in to it. Basically, we just trotted over it with me having to go into two point when he did. Then she would play with the configuration. Ground poles on both sides or a low vertical. Or low crossrail followed by a ground pole a stride away, followed by the cavaletti. Just doing different things to get him to raise his feet, basically.

At the end, it was just between a foot and 18 inches high and we got him to "jump" over it from each direction instead of trotting over it.

I told Christina that if we'd tried to do this six months ago, he'd have kept knocking poles down, but tonight he was doing really well at not just bulling through it and trying to get over it. Yay!

Oh yeah, she also pointed out it looked like he was listening better tonight when I was pushing his butt over while we were on the wall (see my complaints in the previous lesson post about him drifting in and cutting corners). And she said it looked like I was doing better too myself with keeping my leg still and going into two-point without having to think as hard about doing it.

Poles and other fun things

Lesson tonight!

After warming up, started out with lots of trotting. I was complaining to Christina about how he drifts in and cuts corners and doesn't seem to listen to my leg when I try pushing him with it though in other contexts he understands leg pressure means move over (like when we did the backing up exercise and I had to move his butt around, or when we've done turns on the forehand, or the bits of sidepassing we've worked at and so on). I can't decide if he just doesn't understand in the "going on the rail" context that inside leg pushing him means "move away from pressure nao plzkthx" or if he's just being lazy.

Really, it's probably the latter combined with the fact that I've been pretty inconsistent about really making him go deep in the corners (especially if I'm concentrating on other things at the time) so he doesn't feel like he "has" to. Anyway, we worked on it for a while but he was still cutting corners and Christina said from the ground it looked like I was doing the right things so she got on to see what it feels like and how he responds.

1. She commented on how much of a workout it can be to keep him moving/get him moving. ;)
2. She rode him around the ring and the started riding him, basically, straight at the wall in the corner, stopping just before he'd "hit" it, then turning him into the wall and going back the other way. Basically, so he'd have to listen to what she was telling him to do and where to go instead of just going on autopilot around the corners.

The conclusion is that for a while, I'll have to be really conscious of not just going around on the rail and when I do, I have to really think about taking him deep into the corners. Otherwise, I can do the sort of thing she did, stopping, turning in to the rail and going back the other way. Also, if I want to do circles, probably better to do them in the middle of the ring rather than on the ends (since a 20 meter circle on the end is basically cutting the corners off).

I got back on, went around a couple more times and when he was not leaning on me as much as before, we called it quits to that particular part of the lesson (partly because I was getting tired of working so hard pushing him around and keeping him moving and partly because we didn't want to repeat the exercise too much where he just got irritated about it).

After that, Christina set out trotting poles and we went trotting over them on one side of the ring, then she set up more on the other side. Then one side was just trot poles and the other was a very very tiny crossrail (like...6 inches). Then after he was trotting over that without hitting it, she raised it to be a vertical (so probably like 9ish inches high? I don't know, it was higher *shrugs*). Then she added in a cavaletto in the center of the ring on the diagonal. (most of the trot poles were being used to make the "jump" and one each was in front of the "jump" and the cavaletto. One pole was left out of the original trot pole group so basically, the ring looked like:

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| |--|            x                  ___
| __         x//
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Where the thing on the left was the vertical, the x's in the middle are supposed to be the cavalletto, and the lines are just poles.

Then, finally, she raised the "jump" again so it was another crossrail but this time about a foot high. Once he went over it both directions without knocking it over (only did that once), we called it a night and I cooled him out. He's not really been exposed to jumping, so it was just really good he was paying attention and picking his feet up (instead of bulling through the jump as he has done in the past). He actually seemed to like it and a couple times I could feel him kind of picking himself up...not jumping really, but kind of raising his shoulders as he trotted over.

Christina also pointed out the times he'd hit the jump (not knock it over so much, but not lift himself enough so he'd get over without hitting it) even though I was in two point and had my eyes up...my shoulders and chin were pointed down. She pointed out the last couple of times that he did really well, I had not only my eyes up and looking ahead but my chin up and my shoulders back and that really helped him be able to trot over it nicely.

Oh, and he stood completely still for mounting without my hands ever touching the reins till I was read to go. :)

Working on the weekend

I'll get some pictures and things up soon of the rescue expo at the Montgomery County Fair (Kieran was a star! Who's surprised?) but in the mean time, here's me talking about our lesson yesterday. :)

Now, we only rode for about a half hour (and my legs were DYING by the end of it, I was sure we'd gone longer than that but Christina assured me she'd only planned for a half hour lesson since she figured we'd do a lot of no-stirrups work and I wouldn't make an hour, LOL).

So, I mentioned rating his canter (which I think I've talked about before). She said okay and had me get him to canter and then work on half-halting (but using my legs to keep him moving) to slow down and then use my seat and legs to speed up again.

Guess who proved me wrong and did it really well (I think only once or twice did he seriously try to break back into a trot and even then, a squeeze with my legs and a push with my seat kept him moving)?

So we started schooling walk->canter transitions instead. Without stirrups (mostly for the leg-work for me and because I have a tendency to draw my legs up and lose my stirrups anyway so I think Christina wanted me to work on pushing them down without considering the stirrups). We haven't really done walk->canter transitions. Pretty much every other time I've asked for a canter, I've done it out of a trot so we had to go back to what we did when I was originally asking for canter transitions from him. Really strong outside leg cue, maybe tap with the crop, etc. He figured out pretty quickly that I'd be asking him to speed up so a "working walk" wasn't too difficult to get out of him. :)

Anyway, by the end of the lesson, Christina's yelling at me, "push your leg down!" and I'm like, "I'm trying!" but I couldn't make it go so we backed off the cantering.

And then she made me post around the ring with no stirrups. I about fell over.

We finished walking him out with me on the ground because I wasn't entirely certain I could keep myself up there any more. =P

Come to think of it, though it was hard at the time, I don't think I could've worked myself all that hard because my legs aren't sore today. Huh. Something to keep in mind. :)

Anyway, with the renaissance festival starting up this weekend, I'm switching back to doing lessons on weeknights so I'll go back again on Thursday. Not sure what I want to work on, yet. Possibly Christina is going to bring her horse (he needs the workout too), in which case we might work on that whole "standing where I tell you to and not necessarily right on top of the horse beside you" thing.

OMG a post that isn't about Kieran!!!!!!11!

So the big pony got his teeth done today and was therefore not up for any riding. I ended up driving over to Christina's parents' farm where she keeps her horses and ...somehow... ended up riding both.

See, Christina had a baby a bit back so her horses have pretty much been out of work though both have been ridden a couple times since she had the baby. However, she obviously can't ride both horses at the same time so she asked me if I'd ride one and I got to pick which.

I originally chose Vegas, the draft cross (or whatever he is, some kind of mutt) she adopted from Gentle Giants, because I've ridden him before. And he was okay riding around in the barn (they don't have a ring at her parents place so if she wants somewhere "contained" to ride, she rides the circle of the aisleway around the barn.) but once we got outdoors a bit, he started gettind jiggy and stuff and I didn't feel overly comfortable (and I started remembering how impressively he's able to buck when he wants to, even though he is currently fat and out of shape!) so Christina said we could switch and I could ride her other horse, Tax, instead.

Now, Tax is an 18 year old TB that doesn't always realize he's not a racing horse anymore and hasn't been one for a while. I've seen some of the things he's capable of pulling. But today, he looked pretty relaxed and easygoing so I hopped up and...he remained so! So we rode around (walking, her horses aren't up to doing any more than that right now) her parents' farm, up in the woods, up and downhill, for maybe about an hour. It was nice.

And now I get to say I've ridden the dreaded Tax on an trail ride, LOL. :)

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). :)

And the pain continues!

Tonight Christina got out the lunge line and I rode for most of the lesson with no reins. We did some work on asking Kieran to stop/slow when I took a deep breath and tightened my abdominal muscles and sat deep in the seat. For that we needed a bit of rein at the beginning but then he got the idea.

We also did posting trot with my hands out to my sides, half seat, and sitting trot. Look ma, no hands! We did several other balance exercises but the one that I thought was the most interesting (as well as the one that made me say to Kieran, "I'm glad you're such a good pony!") was right at the beginning and near the end of the lesson Christina had me pull my feet up so my knees were basically pointing to the ground and my feet were up closer to the top of his back. This really made me use myself for balancing on him and made me really sit in the center of my seat instead of tilting forward or back. I felt like it was stretching me out too (despite having my legs bent). And yes, Kieran was very good for me doing this. We only did it at the walk. I'm not sure I could sit his trot like that. ;)

Christina also had me drop my stirrups and go without for a while. Managed to half-seat all the way around the ring with no stirrups. Not sure how I did it but yay! :)

I also had to remind myself at one point that I was paying for the privilege of being tortured like this. ;) I imagine I'll have to do the same next week.

Poor, tired, pony

So I had a lesson to make up from the other week and I knew I wouldn't be able to make to my regular lesson tonight so I figured when I did my make up last night,we'd just do an hour private instead of a half-hour private and handle both lessons at once.

I started the ride with the crop in my hand and I think it helped because he didn't seem to start out the lesson going, "oh hey she has a crop that means go fasterrrrrr!".

Kieran was also very good last night about standing for mounting (after getting a couple remedial classes on it ;) ) and waiting until I was ready to go before walking off from the mounting block (when I asked him to). Even so, we still did some work walking and halting and asking him to back up and even asked for a halt from the trot and then back into the trot a couple times.

Still didn't get the wonderful canter we got last Wednesday but did manage to canter a couple strides in both directions. A lot of it is me, every time I ask for the canter, I seem to collapse in on myself and pull my legs up out of the stirrups and hold too tight on the reins and obviously there's no way I'm helping Kieran do his thing. I told Christina it was frustrating because I remember I used to be, you know, good at this. But that was on well trained school horses who already knew what I was asking for and I think Kieran's done the turbo-take-off thing just enough that I'm getting defensive (but not in a way that would actually keep me in the darn saddle). Just need to remember to breathe and push my heels down into the stirrups and sit up straight. Anyway, after we managed a decent canter departure in each direction Christina had us go back to trotting. Trotting weaving patterns around cones. Trotting over poles. Sitting trot. Trotting in two-point (argh). By the end of it, it was obvious Kieran was getting tired and it was all I could do to keep my leg on him to keep him moving.

He's also furry enough that he was sweaty all over so we spent a while walking together after.

But all in all, it was still an improvement over Friday's lesson. Kieran was obviously in a more cooperative frame of mind and Christina said I looked about a hundred times better and more relaxed last night than before. So I'll still call it a win. :)

Unfortunately, I've got a lot of work to get done over the next few days so I'm pretty sure I won't be getting out to see him again till Saturday. Bleh.

Cantering breakthrough

So tonight was lesson night for me and Kieran. It was also my first ride in my new jointed stirrups from horseloverz that I got for like $16.90 during their dollar days a little while ago. They're heavier than my other stirrup irons but I think I like them. They also seemed to help my leg. Christina mentioned it seemed to move a lot less tonight than I've had a tendency to do before and asked if I'd been riding more since the last lesson but really? I haven't ridden all that much recently (argh). So I'm attributing it to the stirrups (and leathers that are even).

Anyway, when the lesson started, Kieran's brains had flown off somewhere. Didn't want to stand quietly for mounting. Didn't want to stand once I was on so I could get myself together and get both feet in the stirrups. Just plain wasn't as cooperative as he normally is. Which...Christina pointed out something I tend to forget because he usually is so good: he's still a young(ish) horse. He's still pretty green. He's going to have these moments.

So we spent the first several minutes of the lesson walking then halting. Walk, halt. Walk, halt, back up, halt. Walk, halt. Walk halt, back up, halt, walk. You get the idea. Once he was listening again and his brains were back in his head, we started the lesson proper.

Trotting was mostly in big figure eights through the ring and trotting over poles set in the center. Nothing terribly exciting that needs writing about or terribly different from things we've done before. He did fine.

Then Christina hands me a crop. And tells me we're going to try cantering. Remember how excited I was just to get a few strides out of him in there? Yeah. So anyway, I've only carried a crop when asking him to canter so right away he knew something was up and his energy level went up (I think, for a while at least, I'm going to start carrying a crop all the time so he doesn't anticipate "oh, she's going to tell me to go faster! I'll go faster!"). He also knows which corner he's typically been asked to canter in so even just on our first trot around, he tried to go turbo trot there and then had to bring him back down, etc.

Anyway, our first several tries weren't pretty. I probably got in his way a bit and we're starting to think that going to the left is his weaker side. Got a few canter strides out of him but then coming into the next turn he'd drop back down into a trot (Christina says he kept stopping because instead of looking up through the turn my gaze was getting drawn downward for God-only-knows-why). So then we tried going right, which....we hadn't actually done before. Still took a couple of attempts but then he got it and we managed to continue the canter for one and a half times around the ring. I'm pretty sure he would have kept going, really, but I figured by that point he had it and asked him to trot. Good lord, he's so amazing. I really love his canter and once we got it that last time it felt really good (previously the turns were a little scary). Of course it probably helped I had it together too, sitting up straight, leg on, looking up, and so on. :)

Anyway, Christina says he has no excuse to not canter in there now. ;)

After that we did a couple more of the trot-over-the-poles thing just so he doesn't get the idea that once he's cantered it's the end of the lesson. Or that once we start cantering we're going to keep asking for it.

Then Christina went to help the next student get ready and I spent a while walking him around cooling off (he was steaming in the night air, kinda cool looking). I may have sung to him while we walked (the acoustics in there are pretty good!).

He also got plenty of treats for being such a good boy.

I think I'm going to go treat myself now (fudge!).

Night, all!

Cantering in the indoor (and the rest of the lesson was good too)

So last night we had an hour-long semi-private lesson (another horse and rider in the ring with us). I kind of like switching it up so sometimes he has to ride with other horses (which also means we have to work on rating gaits because when there's another horse, he tends to trot faster and then I have to work at slowing him down so we don't constantly pass/run up their rear end) and then sometimes he has to ride alone, both of which are good experiences for him. Also, with the semi-privates, sometimes he has to stand in the middle of the ring and wait while the other horse and rider do something and sometimes he has to go on the rail and ignore the horse waiting in the middle.

Anyway. Christina had me start out the lesson with no stirrups and do some posting at the trot which...I wasn't terribly successful at. Or at least I don't feel like I was. I couldn't really get the rhythm down. Eventually, she let me pick my stirrups up again. I'm kind of convinced they're simply too long (I have 'em on the shortest holes) as when I post or do two point, I'm not really clearing the saddle (and I know you're not supposed to be way out of it, but I feel like to even get out at all, my leg is going kinda straight). I'd just make more holes but the stitching is coming loose anyway so I just should get a new pair. Anybody have some dark leathers (havana or black. Preferably black) that are 54" or so?

Apparently when I start out a lesson (it seems to get better as we go along and I think a lot of it has to do with me not riding as often as I should lately so I haven't built up the proper muscles) my leg moves A LOT. Especially when posting. So Christina kept having to remind me to keep my calf on. I kept feeling like to do this, I needed to bring my heel up and do something funky with my feet. Whatever it was, it wasn't correct. So then I had to stop and do it correctly before I could feel like what it should be feeling like. And then whenever I go up to post I have to remember to keep my calf on because apparently my leg goes "out" instead and Christina says she saw a few inches of daylight between my calf and my horse. By the end of the lesson, I think I'd worked it out and gotten it down, but I know I'll have to do it all over again next week, ugh.

We also had to go around the ring once in two point which....well, my heel dropped a lot more for it but it was just hellacious to stay up. I couldn't find the right spot which is another reason I think my stirrups are too long as I know in the past (in other saddles, on other horses) if I brought up my stirrups a hole or two it got easier to balance. Though in my case it also got easier to balance when Christina told me to bring my hands forward. I think I had them still about the spot on his neck where you hold them normally (maybe a little forward of that) and when I brought them up more, it did get easier.

We also did a little bit more of trotting a weaving pattern through cones, and trotting cloverleaf-esque shapes in the indoor (trot down centerline, turn left at C, left again at E, cross X, turn left at B, go back down the centerline, then turn...basically, whatever direction Christina called out :) And don't forget to change diagonals!) with trot poles down the centerline.

And before I got too tired from that, Christina asked if I wanted to try cantering Kieran. See, he can canter under saddle. I've done it out on the trail, and did it a tiny (crappy) bit at Saddleview. But I hadn't been able to get him to do it in the indoor (except on the ground, on the lunge line). It's kind of a small ring and it's pretty difficult for a lot of the horses there to pick a canter in there under saddle so we rarely do it. I'd tried it with him a few times but it just wasn't seeming to work. We'd come out of a corner, I'd sit and bring my outside leg back, he'd speed up, but he wouldn't canter.

Christina figured it was at least partly because I take my reins up shorter when I prepare to canter and because he can't really lift himself into it yet (still needs to pull himself into it, we think), he'd go to stretch down and hit the end of the reins and...basically I was keep him from going up into the next gear. So I gave him a looser rein, held a crop (didn't even have to wave it at him) and again, nice working trot around the ring, come out of the corner on a long side, sit and bring back outside leg. Hard. (He still doesn't know "outside leg means canter" so have to do it more exaggeratedly than "normal"). He managed to get it a few times, just a few strides down the long side, but he did it! He has such a nice canter. Now we just have to work on steering. ;)

Of course, most of what we do will still revolve around walking and trotting, but it's nice to know I can get him to canter in there if I want to.

Discussed with Christina that maybe it would be good for us both to do a few private lessons on the lunge line. He lunges pretty well and then I can more ensure I'm focusing on giving good cues with my leg and seat and not having to rely on the reins as much.

Also, after the lesson, Christina hopped on Kieran, just to see how he goes (she hadn't ridden him yet.) and she really liked him. Said he felt really comfortable. :)

Trotting Cones and other adventures

Figure I should get right with posting about tonight's lesson or I won't remember what all we did and why it was cool later. (For the record, last week's lesson was bareback and I was not as sore as I expected I would be the next day. Woo.)

Anyway: Tonight! We threw a lot of new stuff at Kieran, partly to make sure all this riding he's doing in the indoor stays interesting (he has a long winter of indoor riding ahead of him, and I don't want him to get sour to it) and partly a lot of the exercises we had him doing were with the aim of encouraging him to start using his hind end more and not travel as much on the forehand.

He took all of it without batting an ear. Just "...uh, this is what you want me to do? Okay! Here goes!". He's so awesome that way. :)

Things we did:

Trot poles: something he's done before, but I need to work on squeezing as we go over them so he doesn't slow down and looking forward instead of down at the poles.

Very very very low pole on a jump standard. Can't even call it a jump. Did it with crossrails and a tiny vertical. Mostly with the idea toward getting him used to going between the standards and giving him something a little higher to trot over to encourage him to pick up his feet. I did better at looking ahead with this (don't ask me why the poles on the ground are so much more interesting, LOL).

Weaving through orange traffic cones: Something he's never done before. We did it at the walk and the trot and he got the hang of it pretty quickly. I was actually surprised at how easy it was for him. Of course, in the future I'll have to remember to change my posting diagonal with each change of direction but Christina didn't get after me for that tonight. :)

A few turns on the forehand: I'd done a bit of this with him before so he got it pretty quickly. We did a couple along the wall and then tried one away from the wall which wasn't quite as pretty, but it just means it's something we should work on more.

"Rollbacks" at the trot. Basically heading down at just about the quarterline and then turning toward the rail in a tight turn and heading back the way we came. Also done first at the walk and then at the trot. Something else I was surprised at how little trouble he had (he used to stop/slow in the middle of 20 meter circles) but he didn't stop at all tonight. An exercise that was definitely intended to encourage him to really use his hind end for pushing.

Oh, and Christina had me drop my stirrups while warming up at the walk and "post" without stirrups. Then do two point without them along the long side of the arena. That's so my legs become less dependent on the stirrups as I have a tendancy to brace. But I have to say I feel so dumb doing this exercise because I don't feel like I'm actually getting out of the saddle (because I'm not, and you really can't, especially at the walk) and I figure I have to look dumb doing it. But hey, if it helps, I'll do it. :)

All in all, I was amazed at how much we managed to cram into the lesson tonight.

(I also have to say I'm kinda glad I switched to Christina even if my original reasoning was just for scheduling purposes, I feel like I'm actually getting somewhere now instead of just getting on and trotting around for a half hour. Of course, it probably helps that I'm riding Kieran with her and so a lot of it is focused toward his milestones so when we do something new with him, it feels new to me.)

So that fall finally happened...

I've been telling people recently that since it's been about a year since I started re-riding, I felt like I was coming up due on an actual fall. I'd really only come off once since I'd started riding again and it totally didn't count because I landed on my feet.

Until last night.

I went up to Gentle Giants to ride with a few other people but I wasn't sure who I wanted to ride. Christina suggested Humphrey, a horse I hadn't ridden before, actually one of the Thoroughbreds that are there (he's both getting re-worked by Christina and being used as a lesson horse). Before she'd started riding him a couple months ago, he'd been basically out to pasture for about two and a half years. I've seen him ridden a few times and I'd thought about doing so myself in the past so I figured....why not?

The first half of my riding I did in a saddle and we were just fine. He's a little looky and a little nervous but it wasn't a big deal. Once we did walk/trot/canter (actually managed to get him to go both ways cantering, but he was obviously more reluctant to go to the right cantering and it took a few tries. Remember: he hasn't been worked a lot up till recently so they're still trying to get him fit) a bit and by that point they needed the saddle I was riding in for someone who was going to take an actual lesson. So I hopped off, took off his saddle, and got back on bareback. I probably wouldn't have done this except his trot had been relatively smooth when we'd been going earlier so I figured we'd be okay. I wasn't planning on cantering him again, after all!

For the next few minutes, trotting with him was pretty iffy. He had cantered and now he was like, "but why can't we go fast again?" and it took some work to bring him back down (I mentioned Thoroughbred, right?). Still, not too bad, and finally we were just walking around. I was thinking of getting off him pretty soon, actually...

When my foot knocked against the arena wall as we went by and it scared him. He spooked, stone dust hit the metal wall too, he spooked further and I, previously very relaxed and loose sitting on his bare (slick!) back slid right off. He went one way, I went the other and landed on my back. Ow.

Then he stood there staring at me from a few feet away like, "OMYGODWHYAREYOUONTHEGROUND?"

Luckily, I didn't injure anything, though I'm sore but I don't think I'll be riding him without a saddle any time soon. I actually think if I'd still been in the saddle, I probably could've saved myself from falling (all the way) off. Though it's possible me hanging on him would've spooked him more so maybe it's a good thing I wasn't.

Either way, I had my fall, now I shouldn't be due for another one for a while.

In other news, next weekend I'm starting private lessons at a new barn. I'd already been planning to ask to work more on no-stirrups and last night is really just more incentive to do so (yeah, I know I'm crazy).

So the next few weeks should have me making updates like, "OWWWWW my legs are sooooore *whine*". Can't wait!

Whee!

Once again, all sorts of stuff to talk about, it's been a while. I'll just focus on the last couple of weeks thought.

Monday before last, I rode at Columbia on Handsome. Let's just say it wasn't my best lesson ever though Kristy told me a lot of it looked to be me being too tense and getting frustrated with myself because things weren't going perfectly and really, I looked fine if I'd just relax. Near the end, I started to get to that point, but still, I felt like I could have done better.

This past Monday, I rode him again and our ride was about a million times better. One of Handsome's little things he does to entertain himself in lessons is to vary the speed he's moving at. Not change gaits, just...slow trot faster trot slow trot faster trot, and so on. That didn't happen so much, or maybe I was just more aware of it and able to keep him at a steadier pace. We also did a little jumping and that was also much easier, though I still only got him to canter out once. I still haven't really gotten "keeping leg on" while being up in two-point. Too much to think about all at once!

The lesson ended on a notsogreat note, though, when one of the other riders fell going over the jump. She probably would have been fine if she'd hit dirt but she hit the standard instead and it knocked the wind out of her and, I think, she sprained her ankle. Will probably find out what all exactly happened tomorrow when I go in for the Monday lesson.

---

Also, Tuesday before last I went up to Gentle Giants and rode Treadway who I believe I've blogged about before. Also not one of my better rides on him. I was riding in the dressage saddle they have (in anticipation of a dressage lesson I took today) but the stirrups were too long (on the shortest hole and wrapped twice and still just a bit too long so I kept pushing my feet forward in them) and the way the saddle is, it encourages one to sit up more on their crotch. Which, I guess, is better for dressage, but on Treadway?

See, he used to be a fairly highish level eventer and his owner taught him to go faster or slower based off of her seat. So if you sit back on your seatbones, he'll go at a reasonable pace. But if you tilt your pelvis forward? He starts speeding up. You don't even have to have leg on him. So basically, Christine said it looked like he was running away with me (at the trot), though he did break into a canter once (the first time ever with me). It ended up being a fairly frustrating experience.

This past Wednesday night, I went back up to GG to ride but took Big Red out for a spin instead. It was kind of nice to ride a horse you have to use leg on to get to move. :)

Thursday (New Year's Day), was a big New Year's auction up in Thurmont that Christine wanted to go to in hopes of finding a draft or two who needed saving. It turned out there were no drafts at the auction (out of ~100 horses), but there were a few draft crosses (or, as near as we could tell, they looked it). There were three horses we ended up figuring we'd try and bid on. 1) The most adorable drafty large pony (small horse, actually) thing I've ever seen. 2) Something that looked liked a cross between a Clydesdale and a Standardbred. 3) A possible Fjord cross.

We ended up with the first guy and the person we were bidding against is a known horse dealer who likely would've been hauling the poor pony up to New Holland on Monday. Anyway, he's fat and fuzzy and possibly blind in one eye and probably about twenty but he's the most willing little guy ever and has a funny gray patch over the top of his neck.

Christine ended up not going for the Clyde cross because, if I recall right, she was worried it wasn't actually sound. The Fjord ended up getting bidded to out of our price range and went to what looked like a good home, so that's good. :) One of the last horses of the night, however, was this poor Thoroughbred mare that nobody seemed interested in and Christine took pity on her. The mare's only 12 and her racing name was Our Sister Gina (OSG). She goes w/t/c, auto changes, and jumps! Somebody put the training into her so it's kind of amazing she ended up where she did.

The same goes for the Big Grey Pony (BGP). He goes w/t/c, is completely unflappable (so far), and if you point him over a jump, he'll do his darndest for you. It wouldn't suprise me if he was somebody's hunter pony or something once upon a time. Another one we can't figure out how he ended up at auction because he's just that awesome.

So anyway, both new horses got ridden yesterday. Laura the instructor rode OSG and was very impressed with her. Nick the farrier already is in love with her and it's likely that they'll be adopting her.

I got to ride the BGP and I am in love with him! If you'd asked me what kind of horse I wanted even a week ago I never would have described this one (save that he's grey) but he's just so cool.

And then today. Today was the dressage lesson. I'd won it back early in December at a silent auction GG held during their wine tasting fundraiser. The lesson was donated by Hilary Moore. And she was gracious enough to come out to GG to give it instead of making us haul Treadway out to where she is. I think that's kind of awesome, personally. :)

Anyway, I've talked before about how riding Treadway is complicated, even though he's a great guy. So we explained about his history to Hilary and I explained what I was looking to get out of the lesson (that I've been riding a while but at a place that does a lot of hunter/jumper stuff so dressage isn't really emphasized but it's something I've been interested in and want to learn more about). She started me out with Treadway just getting him to walk relaxed (because generally, once he gets going, he wants to get moving and then I have to hold him in with my hands....or so I thought) and then to walk->halt transitions and back up to a walk again. She had me do this by just keeping a light contact with the rein and instead squeezing with my seat and upper thigh (but keeping my calf off!) and eventually? He stopped! Once he held still, I let him walk again and we repeated till he would stop reliably. He learned that I had learned his language, more or less.

Then we did it in the other direction. Once that was going well, she had me move him up to the trot and then we worked on trot to walk transitions. Then, once he was reliably listening to me, she had me rate my posting so if I sped up posting, he'd speed up trotting, if I slowed my posting, he'd slow his trot. It was the first time I ever felt a horse do that (it may have happened in the past, but I wasn't looking for it so I can't point to it as an experience). Finally, after we both seemed relaxed and in control, she had me take him up to a canter and then do canter->trot transitions. This was more difficult but not as bad as I'll admit I anticipated. Once we'd done all of this both directions, she went out of the middle of the ring and hand me go from walk to trot to canter in both directions on my own initiative. That is, she wasn't telling me when to do it, I had to decide to do it myself. The idea being how you know you can go to a lesson and you think you get it (this goes for just about anything) but then you get home or try it later and it doesn't work how you remember? This was was my chance to try it "on my own" and then ask questions about what worked or didn't.

It wasn't as successful as it was when she was in the middle of the ring, but we weren't terrible either. It's just a lot of work to have to do all the remembering of what you're supposed to do at any given time! :) Plus, we were both getting tired by that point so that made it more difficult too to get things done properly. One thing I noticed is it became harder to use my leg and I started relying more on my hands which didn't help things. Still and all, we ended up on a pretty "up" note and I'm pleased.

Oh, most of the time she also had us going in a large circle around her instead of up and down the long straight sides of the arena. This partly helped rate his speed and also required me to work at getting him to bed, so I also had to remember to use my inside leg to push him "out" while using my inside rein to bring his head in just a bit. Also probably the first time I've really used my leg to try to move him somewhere side ways (so to speak) and it didn't cause him to speed up.

Anyway, it was a really good lesson and I'm glad I took it. Though it does look like someone is thinking about adopting Treadway in the relatively near future so I don't know how often I'll be riding him, it's all stuff I can use with other horses, I think. I mean, my big reason for wanting to learn more about dressage is to learn to ride more quietly and I definitely manage to accomplish that with Treadway today. :)

Lastly, I ended up at the end of the day getting the BGP out of the field and bringing him in to get groomed. He can't get really clean until it's warm enough to bathe (and I'm disgusted somebody ran him through the auction ring without cleaning him up first) but I was able to get some dirt off him and clean out his feet and make his tail not-tangly. I really adore this guy and am thinking I might want him for myself.

Though Christina the instructor also mentioned that they (or she at least?) was hoping one of her students (a little girl who's been taking lessons on the lesson pony there) would want to adopt her (or rather, her parents). I can't get in the way of a little girl and her first pony but I can keep my fingers crossed that they can't end up getting him, right? :)

And after all of that? Have a picture of the BGP's adorable face!