Feast or Famine

In good news Ed and I were able to get hay in on the weekend. Saturday Mrs. Hay Guy asked if we could take 200 bales.  Of course I said yes. This is essentially two loads with our truck and trailer. The down side? We couldn't get it until around 5:00. The second downside? After so much cold weather we actually had a heat warning.  The thermostat read 37 at one point (or 98 Fahrenheit). Given that it was 10 degrees last weekend (or 50 Fahrenheit), no one was ready for this level of change.

I rode really early and we were both still sweaty at the end.  Carmen was nice and forward and we played with some trot poles.

so many options with this configuration

My goal was soft transitions and suppleness. We had a few discussions that she didn't get to counter flex by the trees when we were working. I am being quite insistent on her attention and listening. We finished by working on the stretchy trot. If I have her honest in the bridle and going to the bit then she will stretch down and carry herself. If I don't have that then it all goes to pot.

In some ways it was nice to go to get the hay later in the day when it was starting to cool off a bit. The field was by a lake so there was a nice breeze. When we got there there was another truck and people there so we drove down to the far end away from them and started to load. The bales were all stacked in groups of three or four and I honestly didn't think anything of it. About 10 minutes in to loading the trailer and a man came down to us and said 'now I don't mean to be a bad neighbour'.
'uh oh' I thought. When someone starts like that nothing good is going to come next. I had noticed them all looking at us when we drove in but dismissed myself as being a bit paranoid.

It turned out that he had some people with him who he was paying to pile up the hay bales to be picked up. We apologised and said we hadn't realized. He went on about us not taking the bales. I looked down the field and said 'okay, but you have them all piled and some of this hay is for us as well so you can't claim all of it. I'm not going to wait for you to get your portion and pick up what's left'. 

He stalked off and then drove his truck down where we were. In the end, Ed and I basically followed the baler picking up the hay. When we were loaded we left and stacked it in the barn.

I was worried that the quality be less because it's so late but it's great.
I am so relieved.

We debated going back, wondering if there would be any hay left. Ed called and left a message asking if we were wrong about how much we were supposed to get but didn't get a call back. In the end we drove back and saw that there were some bales left (not 100 though). We decided to take them and then call our hay guy and tell him how many we got. As we were stacking our hay guy drove in. We explained what had happened and he said to not worry about it. He also said that there was a small field across the road that we could take. We took some of it then and left the rest for the next day. We left all of that load on the truck and trailer and decided to devour eat supper instead. We let our hay guy know how much we had taken. He shared that the other guy had come to him bitching (well that's my word) that we took his hay. Mr. Hay Guy said that we wouldn't have done it if we'd know because we're not like that. Also, that this guy was wrong to pile all of it like that and expect us to wait for him. So I'm glad we told him what happened.

The next morning I had to drive to the airport to do my Nexus interview (scheduled because I was sure that I would have hay by then!).  When I got back we went and got the last of the hay. By then it was stinking hot again. I wanted to ride so I tacked Carmen up and we just schooled the walk. There's a lot you can do at just the walk and it was a good session.

I was looking forward to sunday and having a day of 'rest'. Which I filled with riding in the morning, ring maintenance, barn chores and tack cleaning. But it was a great day anyway. Carmen was less inclined to argue during our ride and settled in to the work.

sunshine, beer, tunes and tack cleaning. What could be better?

While I was cleaning the tack the neighbours walked their steer down the road. I wanted to see if Irish was any better. He was. For him:

Irish: OH MY GOD. They are coming. Wait, where'd they go? 
Carmen: They went into the woods. It's good now. Maybe I should roll.....
Irish: Get behind me! I'll protect you! 
Carmen: *chomp*sure thing. 
Irish: I'm watching!
Carmen: *chomp* yes *chomp* I have never *chomp* felt more *chomp chomp* safe. 
Irish: are you paying attention? We may need to flee at any moment. 
Carmen: of course *chomp* you stay right there *chomp, chomp chomp*

So after a total lack of sun, hay and riding, I managed to get a surplus of those things this weekend. I am dirty, tired, sweaty and you probably shouldn't be downwind of me.

And  I am very happy. 

Oh, You Mean it's Leg to Hand?

First of all, my post about the great Hay Crisis received a lot of comments.It clearly is an issue near and dear to the hearts of horse owners. I had a number of people reach out to me on FB and offer their hay. Which goes to show how good and kind people are.

I recieved a call last night from the people who I get my hay from and they assure me that I will be able to get hay Friday (or possibly Saturday at the latest). Or as she put it 'it's full on haying'

So phew.

I won't be fully relieved until I see this. 

I have been putting Irish and Carmen up in the ring after supper to graze. I don't fully trust the fencing so I stay out in the barn and do chores while keeping an eye on them. I can see a real benefit for Carmen as she taking herself to all the scary parts (because they are also the parts with the most and best grass).

It's really hard to take her seriously when she insists that an area is too scary to be ridden through but I've seen her there eating away. #busted.

yup. totally terrified

I've been shifting the focus of my rides to more on the task at hand and that she can't blow me off because she's looking for trolls in the trees, grass, sky and whatever. We start with a longish rein walking around the ring. If she wants to look at something I let her. Then it's time for work and I expect her to stay with me. 

Some rides that easier than others. On Tuesday she started off quite tense but relaxed into the work and I was able to finish with working on the stretchy trot circle. I started at the walk to explain what I was looking for and then picked up the trot. What is key is keeping her forward and reaching for the bit. 

This was made clear to me at the clinic a couple weeks ago. It's not that no one has told me that  horses need to reach for the bit and a backwards hand solves nothing. But watching riders with the same issue being coached through it really helped it to clarify in my mind. So at the trot I made sure that she was forward and steady on the bit. When she wasn't I put on leg. I refused to take back with my hand (trust me that is really hard to avoid when she sucks behind the contact). Once I had her there I released a little bit to invite her to stretch for it. If she grabbed it I shortened the contact and we started again.  

 I started off with a small reach and then gradually increased it. I could feel her really start to understand the ask. Oh, you want this? After a few rounds of this I called it a day. 

Yesterday she started off calm but was less in a mood to go forward (Carmen: what does she expect, it was close to supper time and I was STARVING).  I didn't give up, even when she threatened to spook. I kept a short rein, steady contact and pushed her forward to my hand with my leg. At times I needed a few pony club kicks to get my point across. 

forward and reaching 

It wasn't a horrible ride, just one with a few more discussions. I didn't work on stretching, instead I focused on transitions and staying over her back, not accepting that she can hollow and fall on the forehand. It was far more work for both of us but it ended with some nice square halts and some true double transitions (trot-halt and halt-trot). And she didn't spook at all or run out through her shoulders (although she tried a couple times).

It's funny how you can hear something and even think you understand it but it doesn't truly resonate until you see it with someone else.

post ride bath and snack

Quietly Panicking

You all have, by now, seen my whiny posts about the weather.

Canada day was cold, wet and windy. 

It's been a horrible spring/summer with lots of cold weather and rain. Not only does that make it difficult to school, it's making it really hard for farmers to get the hay in.

I am literally down to four bales of hay.

As a horse person that is basically a cause for a nervous breakdown.

I am fortunate that my pastures are lush but I don't leave them out 24/7. And to be honest, I don't want to. I don't trust that they won't get spooked by coyotes (which are quite large here).  My fields are also not large enough to leave them out that much. I would end up with no grass, just a field of weeds by September. I use my paddocks as part of the feeding program and manage them carefully.

That said I am leaving them out as late as possible. Which, if you have horses that are used to a schedule is causing some consternation.

um, excuse me? My reservation was for 5:00 and it is now past 6:00

The feed they are on is essentially hay + vitamins (fibre nuggets) and can be fed as a hay replacer. So I've upped that too. But that is not a good fix, especially when you have an ulcer prone horse that you want to keep a slow trickle of food into the gut, not all at once. I semi-joked to my husband that I needed something that would drop a few nuggets every hour to keep her going.....

I have been putting them up into the riding ring after supper which has the dual purpose of them eating the grass that is trying to encroach and feeding them at the same time. This morning I plotted out where I can put some temporary fencing. I can't go anywhere with Carmen because I don't have the hay to take with me.

finally, some ring work Carmen can get behind....

This means that I only need to give them some hay overnight. But I look at my dwindling supply of hay and feel anxiety starting to rise. Normally I would have at least 2 loads of hay by now.

truth

The problem is that there hasn't been enough of a stretch of dry weather to cut,dry and bale the hay. At this point if you deny climate change I'm just going to call you stupid, k? I'm done trying to convince anyone that their google search does not actually make them more qualified then scientists who study this issue. 

I called my hay guy this morning and his wife called me right back. She said that he hasn't even been able to get onto some fields with the tractor because they are too wet. That said, she informed me that he was planning to cut a field tomorrow that he normally reserves for his animals and giving some to his customers to tide them over until he can cut the rest. 

This is making me feel a bit better but now I'm watching the forecast obsessively and it might not be safe to mention the words 'rain', 'cloud', 'rainfall warning' to me in the near future. Please keep your fingers crossed. 

Because I am out of options.

In The Groove

Nothing really exciting is going on here.

Which is a good thing. Carmen and I are hitting our groove and it feels good. it also probably looks like watching paint dry.

Stacie sent me these photos from the clinic back in May

We seem to be getting into a pattern of riding 3 days and then 1 off. Sometimes it varies a bit depending on my schedule and the weather (which continues to be unsettled).

Some of our rides are just awesome from beginning to end. Others are less so. I try to evaluate her mood in the barn and make some decisions from there.

The other day I was planning to ride but when I came out to the barn both horses were quite unsettled. The steers were in the woods across the road. I don't know what the handlers were doing but there was lots of shouting and some crashing and banging. If I didn't know better I would say that they were using the steer to demolish a shed. But we couldn't see.

I decided to spend our time working on our groundwork patterns rather than riding. I was sure that I could ride her through it but I wasn't sure what would be accomplished. So we practiced the patterns from the TRT method. Carmen was really trying to be good about the whole thing and relax. I could see her working really hard on it. We never got to the point of full zen but that's okay. I don't have that expectation of her. I am working on settling for good enough if the try is there.

When we do ride I'm working on keeping her coming from behind and lifting up into transitions, not falling on her forehand. It is coming. She even seems to be understanding the idea of lengthening in the trot and not going faster.

I've not been able to have a lesson for a while which is frustrating. I had one booked for friday but there was torrential rain and a thunderstorm in the morning which caused quite a few cancellations and made it not worth it for Shanea. Instead I rode in the afternoon with Julia and it was a fun ride. A few discussions but nothing major.

We had rebooked the lesson to 7:30 this morning (ugh) but that ended up being cancelled too. So, because I was dressed, I rode anyway really early.  Carmen was a little more opinionated about the far side of the ring- but only on the right rein. I asked her to bend and she gave me the middle finger. I wear spurs every ride now so that allowed me to add some 'teeth' to the bending aid. Which she took major exception to. This resulted in a short but intense discussion that when I ask her to bend I expect Princess Pissy Pants to at least try, not throw her shoulder against me.

With that settled we were able to work on leg yields, transitions and lengthens.  We had moments to discussion but for the most part our work was pretty good. While I might not classify this as a 'good' ride, I would have last year. I find that I'm able to shrug those off and not buy into the whole drama llama thing.

After your horse has grazed quietly under a water slide, it's hard to take her fear of song sparrows seriously. Especially when she's only worried on the right rein.

Of course it's not all about Carmen. I need to make sure that I'm sitting up and back and not tensing with her. I am getting better at just shrugging off the occasional spook and carrying on. this whole zen thing might actually be working for me. 

Trade Secrets: Clinic Recap

Last weekend I attended a clinic on test riding and judging. It was a clinic designed to support educating judges but it was also to assist the riders in improving their test scores.

You may have read Austen's experience with attending an L Program. I thought that her experience sounded a bit, well, harrowing. But when I saw this clinic posted by The Fraser Equestrian Centre (a great place) and at Coveside (another great place. You may recall my posts on riding there on the trails) it was a no-brainer to sign up to audit.

despite a night of torrential rain, the ring on Saturday was perfect

But Teresa, I can hear you say, why didn't you sign up to ride in it?

Honestly, because at the time I had no idea where Carmen and I would be in terms of riding. I figured that I didn't need to throw a large chunk of money at a clinician to be told that bolting half-way through the test would impact my scores. This is also assuming that I would have been accepted anyway. Also, I knew that I would gain more by being able to focus on watching and listening and not having to care for a horse too.

Spoiler alert: it was awesome.

The format was as follows:
- Movement demo on the first day to show the upper level movements
-test rides: training through PSG.

The judge was Elizabeth McMullen (her qualifications include FEI 5*, EC/USEF Senior  and FEI young horse dressage judge). She sounds intimidating. But I actually quite liked her: she had a dry sense of humour which I really enjoyed.

Each rider rode their test while the judge scored and commented over a sound system. Then there was time for a coaching session focusing on some key 'issues'. This was supposed to be with the rider's coach (if he/she was there). Often though, Lib (she likes to be called 'Lib', not 'Libby') couldn't resist  and she would take it over and coach the rider.

Lib coaching a rider

Her comments were pointed but never mean. I liked her dry sense of humour. In one test a horse began to shake her head cantering down the long side and she commented 'needs more fly spray'. Another time a horse was quite enthusiastic in his canter departs. In reviewing the test Lib said 'he was dicking around in the canter depart. But you can't write 'dicking around' so you need to find a different way to say it'.

Everything always boiled down to the basics (doesn't it always?):

• don't throw away points by being inaccurate (clearly she had read my last post)
• the answer is almost always more leg 
• unless it's more bend
• except in leg yield- people bend too much
• at home practice how much you can push so you know at a show- this related mostly to the free walk and lengthened/medium trots
• you keep a horse steady in the rein by being steady with the leg
• most people have too long reins: Lib had them shorten them and then leave the mouth alone
• more snaffle less curb
• transitions need to be clear. Judges hate fuzzy transitions- especially with lengthen to working gaits.
• in the free walk a swinging back is critical to a good mark 
• ride the horse up to the bit don't use your hands
• 
  

A lot of people had trouble with the stretchy trot. Which made me feel better in that I felt less alone. The exercise Lib used was to get a good trot on the circle, bend, and then exaggerate the bend. As the horse began to reach for the bit offer the a little rein and see if the horse will follow it down. If they do, reward. If not don't get upset, just repeat the exercise.

Not every rider had great rides. A couple horses had a bit of a melt down in the ring. Lib did not get on their case- instead she did her best to help them and to figure out what was causing the difficulty. A lot of time she urged the rider to be patient because the horse was trying to figure it out. 

Every rider was given something to work on. Most of the times Lib was clear that there were no quick fixes (well except for being accurate). So she helped them to get things 'better' and then gave them some things to work on at home. 

What was also great was how supportive the auditors were. Even though we were 'judging' and giving scores, everyone was on the side of the rider. During the coaching part, when a rider was successful (like with a good flying change) we all would cheer and clap.  

I enjoyed the clinic so much and learned a ton. It was also lovely to not have to drive for 2 hours to audit a clinic. I took some of my learnings and put it to use in my ride Sunday afternoon. I shortened my reins and when Carmen sucked back put my leg on. It worked really well and I wasn't pulling any more. 

I am profoundly grateful to all the people who signed up to be the riders. They really helped us learn. I hope that they got something out of it too. 

Flunking Geometry

For the longest time I have not really paid attention to the shape of the figures Carmen and I were doing.

I was more interested in whether she was soft and listening as opposed to whether we were riding an actual circle.

But now those chickens are coming home to roost and I need to address the issue of geometry. The judge at our last show made the point a few times that I needed to work on accuracy. Which was totally fair. I wasn't really worried about that at the show but it is important and it's stupid to give away points like that.

Carmen is definitely ready for me to be more clear on this, so in my last few rides I've been really focused on making sure I hit my tangent points on the figures.

Turns out that if you don't work on this regularly your horse gets the opinion that the octohexazoidgon pyramid thingy is perfectly okay. And she is resentful that  I would think otherwise.

my head hurts

I'm trying to keep it simple: circles and serpentines. But it's becoming clear to me that I need to work on this quite a bit more.  This is me crossing the diagonal with the full intention of hitting S with our shoulder.

me: we totally have this!
Carmen: maybe. maybe not. 

 This is us missing S.

also, what am I doing with my right side? 

That we missed S should not be surprising. This is going into Troll Corner after all and Carmen has it well entrenched in her brain that she needs to be looking out for things to run away from, not listening to my leg.

And while it is true that we spend at least some time every ride discussing our right bend along this side of the ring, it is also true that we can should fix this.

I think it's time to dust off this book:

And start using poles and cones to find our way.

The frustrating nice thing about riding is that there is always something new to work on.

Right?

Do you have some favourite exercises to work on geometry? Feel like sharing?

Sunny Side Up

Summer seems to have arrived. Two weeks ago it was like 8 degrees. Now it's in the mid twenties and sunny. It is glorious. It's been making it easy to be outside and do chores (at least as long as the bug spray lasts).

Guiness says that if you get in the water the bugs can't get you. 

Ed spent the weekend mowing the paddocks. I love how they look when they are done:

I could sit on my deck all day and look at this view

My rides on Miss Carmen have also been pretty glorious. At least to me. To others they are likely not anything special. It's like things have clicked and she's decided that it's okay to be a riding horse.

Not that we don't have moments. We do. And when she does spook there's a part of me that is waiting for everything to spiral out of control. But other then the glitch last week where I came off, that has not happened. Carmen spooks, we regroup and carry on like nothing happened.

You know, like normal horse and riders. So the voice inside that tells me that this will not last is getting smaller.

 It feels wonderful to be worried about whether she's coming enough from behind, rather then whether she will leave me behind.

I had a lesson thursday. It had been a long day and I felt like I was riding like a sack of potatoes. But it was a great lesson. We were working on steadiness and rhythm. We practiced a lot of changes across the diagonal but not lengthening. The idea was to keep her steady so that she didn't speed up. Once she has that we can ask for a lengthen from the self-carriage.

It takes some half-halts and awareness of what I'm doing. Also, not getting flustered when we bobble, just regrouping and carrying on.

We finished with some canter work that was pretty darn good for us.

I love how she's looking for the answer, and while she might not always agree, we can at least talk about it now.

Today Johanna sent me a message that warmed my heart:  " you have both been making huge strides- because of your changes. Carmen is a different horse. You made enormous decisions to change and I respect that. It was a great pleasure to see you on Carmen" .

Honestly, she is not a person who gushes or throws out compliments willy-nilly so that felt huge.

Today I rode late morning. I've started to have Guinness out when I ride and teaching him to stay out of the ring. Today I let him out when it was just Carmen and I. Before then I've been doing it when Julia is riding Irish too so that there are two of us telling him what to do.

He looks like he's calling the meeting to order

Carmen did not care at all and he was really good about staying out. Once I noticed that his orange bone was in the ring and he was sitting outside looking sad. I figured he would get it after we went by. Carmen didn't care about this 'thing' in the ring. Anyway, Guinness didn't get it so I stopped her and said 'come on in and get your bone'.  He was looking pretty sheepish as he came in to get it. I love that Guinness is growing into my companion. He really is a great dog. 

It was a good ride and a beautiful day. Who could be cranky on such a day? Not me that's for sure.