I have no idea how to title this

So tonight was a good lesson.

We started out with a little walking and trotting (including some twenty meter circles) to warm up and then Christina had us go back to walking and was like, "at B, I want you to go into a canter," because we've been working on walk-to-canter transitions but still be doing most of our cantering from the corners. So it's something of a big step to do them in the middle of the long side, instead. Once we were cantering reliably, she had me go up into half seat. Then we did it all the other direction. Once we'd done that a few times, she set up the poles on the ground so they described a twenty meter circle in the middle of the ring.

Like so:

_
| |
--

Except, you know, prettier than that. :)

Anyway, then she had us canter again on the rail and then had me bring him in and go along the poles. We cantered our first circle! (well, it wasn't overly pretty, but first tries rarely are :) )

Then we got a bit of a break from the cantering and she had us do "dressagey" stuff with her calling out the movements. So...like working walk from A to X, halt at X. Working walk to C, track right, rising trot at M, sitting trot from K-X-H...and so on.

There was a bit more cantering but it was starting to get obvious at this point that Kieran was getting tired (we'd done a LOT of it earlier in the lesson, more than we usually do) and I was getting sloppy (also tired. I haven't been riding regularly). So, for the last few minutes of our lesson, partly to let him cool off and partly to work on something else, Christina set up the poles to make an "L" shape with a corridor between them.

Like:

_______
| _____
| |
| |
| |

So we'd ride through it, then back up straight till we get to the corner and I'd have to turn Kieran while he was backing so we could back straight out the other side. There was an obstacle like this at the judged pleasure ride we went to recently and it was the only one we had any real issue with. But that was mostly because it's not something we've done a lot of work on (mostly I've worked on getting him to back straight, not turn while backing!) and I rushed him through it at the ride.

Then, once we got that, Christina made the angle a sharper one. Maybe more like 80 degrees instead of 90.

He got it pretty well. I mean, he caught on to what we were doing very quickly and he just listened to me well (it's amazing how much easier this is when I'm taking my time and really thinking about what we're doing. *facepalm*). After doing it a couple times each direction, we pretty much ended the lesson there. Good pony!

Look, ma, no stirrups!

Though I am riding in the cushy Cashel bareback pad. Considered going without but I didn't want my butt to get all sweaty and dirty so....borrowed this from the barn. :)

Anyway, we've been working on walk to canter transitions. And my big thing here is working on pushing my legs down at the canter as they have a tendency to draw upward. (Hanna said I looked like a jockey)

We also did a lot of walking serpentine and circle shapes and had some practice at standing still when asked to halt. (sometimes he's great [when he thinks we're done] and sometimes he gets fidgety [when he thinks we should still be moving]. So when he fidgeted and danced around, I made him trot out (he was very surprised when I kicked him to go, hah) and then after really pushing him, asked him to halt again. Then he stood.)

Anyway, here, have some video!

Squee!

Tonight we did a lot of cantering again (like, a good half of the lesson was spent doing things related to it).

And guess who gave me one very nice walk to canter transition with absolutely no trot steps between?

It felt so nice, too! He's such a good boy. :)

Also did more with slowing down and speeding up his cantering. Also talked about bridging reins (which I've never really done) and going up into two point while cantering.

And Christina said since he's getting the walk->canter thing, we'll probably now do a lot with that transition and less with trot->canter. We also talked about how he's sort of figured out that the lessons go "warm up walk, some trotting, then working on cantering, then ease it back down again..." and when we get to that middle part, he's already figured out what he thinks I'm going to ask him to do instead of waiting for me to tell him so next time will probably go more like: "warm up walk with circles and serpentines, then straight into cantering, then ease back down."

Oh yeah, we also did a lot of trotting serpentines and spiraling in and back out again and mostly that at the sitting trot.

And a lot with no stirrups. (while Kieran was walking around cooling, Christina had me first do an exercise I think I've mentioned before where I [with stirrups], go up into two point with my hands stretched out to the sides, then slowly lower my chest toward his neck while keeping my leg in the same position, then slowly back up to two point, then stand straight up, then back down to two point, etc. Then she had me do it [without the standing straight up] with no stirrups.)

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.

Someone needs some schooling

So...despite shows and drill team and such like that we've been doing this summer...Kieran and I haven't managed to get much in the way of regular schooling in and it's starting to show.

Somewhere in there, he's developed a touch of herd-boundedness. (OMG THE OTHER HORSES ARE LEAVING WE'RE GOING TO DIIIIIIE!). I exaggerate a bit on how frantic he gets because, for him? It's fairly frantic and foot stompy and jiggy and OMGAGGGHE! But in the grand scheme of How Badly Horses Can Act Up? It's not really that extreme. He did bolt off with me one day when we were all of fifty feet away from the other horses but he stopped immediately upon returning to them (and if we hadn't been surrounded by spectators and about to be called into the ring and I'd had my wits together I probably would've made him go away from the horses again and walk back calmly).

Anyway, he's also been developing bad habits about standing. I think because of nerves or anticipation because at the end of drill team when EVERYONE is standing...he's cool with it. But like, at the Montgomery County fair show the other day, at the end of the English class when everybody's in lineup, he absolutely refused to stand. He kept sidestepping over into David and stuff so we'd circle, come back into place, stand for half a second, start fidgeting into David again, circle, stand, fidget, wash, rinse, repeat.

And in drill team practice, like I said, finish the routine and everybody's standing? He's good. Stand in the starting lineup? Stand in the zipper and wait his turn to trot off? Stand in the lineup for the pinwheel before we start turning?

Yeah, not so much and it's getting to be really obvious.

So last night, after we practiced, I asked if we could spend a few minutes on teaching him how to stand quietly again wherever I tell him to (because we won't get another chance to school on it before tomorrow when we're doing the performance). So first they had me move him out of the lineup and back in and have him stand a minute. And that was fine, because he knew we were "done". So they had me walk him to the other end of the ring and stand facing away from the rest of the horses.

That didn't last so long.

So then they made me take him back to the horses, trotting (working trot!) the whole way, circle around them a couple times, turn, circle the other way, then trot back to the spot on the other end of the ring facing away and stand. He stood.

Then we lined up like we were going to start the routine. He stood. Then we lined up into the "zipper" formation. He started jigging and got made to trot around everybody again several times before reentering formation and being made to stand. He stood.

Then we had to do it again in the pinwheel lineup. Same thing, he started jigging, he got made to work.

He quickly figured out it was easier to just stand until I asked him to do something else.

Here's hoping that carries over into tomorrow. :)

(and I need to remember not to tense up when he does this stuff, but just take a deep breath and sink down in my seat.)

Is it really such a terrible thought?

Someone out there posts for help. They know someone else with a very old (over 30), very skinny (VERY skinny) mare who doesn't seem to be improving condition, though this person has been trying to help her out of a bad situation and is "doing everything right" according to what we're told the vet says. They now are hoping someone else out there has the time and resources to take on this mare and rehab her.

It's already difficult to give away a pasture pet.
It's even more difficult if they're very old and aren't an easy keeper.
Who do you really think will take this mare on and fatten her up?

Can it be done?

Well, maybe. I won't say it can't be. Maybe the person just hasn't figured out what's keeping her from gaining weight. Maybe she has a parasite load or bad teeth or ulcers or some combination thereof.

Then again. Maybe she has cancer. Maybe she's simply in pain all the time (horses don't sit around complaining about it the way humans do, after all).

Maybe it isn't such a bad thought to consider the possibility that instead of passing her on to someone else who may or may not be able to help her, you can give her a happy several days of lots of love and treats and then have the vet come euthanize her.

I expressed this opinion and, more or less, the response I got from most people was that I think she should be put down just because she's old or something. With an implication that the mere thought of euthanasia for a horse with no diagnosed actual health issue (beyond, you know, being ancient in horse years and not gaining weight when fed what is presumably a good diet) is something terrible to contemplate.

You know what I think is terrible?

Keeping that poor mare around, just existing. Passing her on to someone else when it turns out to be a problem you can't deal with. Forcing her to somehow manage through the upcoming winter.

Hell, if I were ancient (in human years) and were borderline emaciated and couldn't put on weight and had the prospect of having several days of happiness and then just going to sleep and not waking up or the prospect of months or more of just existing with no end in sight and no hope for improvement in my lot in life? I know which one sounds more appealing.

Euthanasia is NOT a bad word in animal rescue, people!

Howard County Fair

Today Kieran and I showed in halter, English under saddle, and Western under saddle and have some pictures and a fourth place ribbon to show for our efforts. :)

Every time we go to a show, I end up asking myself, "why do I put us through all this work and stress for this?" I still haven't figured the answer out yet but we did have a few fun moments so all is well, anyway. ;)

I won't even tell you how many baths he got.

Finally, something about Kieran!

So, we rode in the Damascus, MD town parade today.

I should talk about Kieran but I'm going to talk about horse rescue instead

...what the heck IS IT with certain rescue organizations finding "a home" for horses they're pulling out of the frying pan (and possibly tossing back in the fire, who knows?) but then raising money to "bail" these horses and send them to their new homes for free?

If these new homes can't afford $1000 or less (which is what the "bail" often runs) to rescue the horse up front, why are we supposed to feel comfortable that they can, you know, afford boarding and feeding. Or well-fitting tack. Or, God forbid, surprise vet bills? Not to mention all the routine vet stuff and farrier work and dental work, et cetera.

It just drives me nuts that these people are essentially getting a horse for free that they may not actually be able to afford. I know the argument generally is something to the effect that they have funds set aside for regular horse expenses, but the several hundred dollars or more up front would deplete it and then...well...they wouldn't be able to handle the routine stuff so well (at which point I want to say: well save up the amount you think you'll need and rescue one of these horses only AFTER you're able to do both). I can kind of see that (though I still don't like it).

I think I'd feel better with the whole situation if we had something more akin to Kiva. Someone wants to rescue a horse and gets approved as a home or whatever, they can't afford the purchase cost up front (or don't want to deplete their savings, and so on), a posting gets put up and people who want to help out can raise funds to "bail" the horse and send it to the new home. But those funds are actually a loan and the home is required to repay the loan within a specified time period. Those who lent the money can either get back what they put in or they can opt to roll that money over to someone else.

I really like that idea, actually. I think, with proper setup, it might help mitigate a lot of problems I've seen with people donating money and never seeing what happens to it. Plus making new homes responsible for ALL of the costs associated with getting the horse, not just getting one to show up on their doorstep for free.

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. :)