dancing horses

dancing horses

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Prescription

At the same time I was battling the flu, Mother Nature decided to be passive aggressive and warm up. The temperatures literally went from -13 to +10 (celsius) in 24 hours. It was killing me that I was unable to go out and enjoy the January Thaw. 


It' an understatement to say that I miss riding. I honestly think that it's an important part of my mental health. I haven't really been able to ride since last year. Yes I know that was Dec 30, so like 3 weeks, but still last year.


Friday I felt a lot better but not really full functional. Or even half. I decided to not ride (adulting sucks) but made plans to join up with Julia and ride on Saturday. 


Irish: me too? Cool. 

I started with our ground work pattern and she was fine. I practiced her parking herself at the mounting block a few times. Here's a video showing some of our work:

You can see that she really wants to eat the grass that is on the other side of the block. Carmen is really good and staying true to her goals. 

My goal for the ride weren't anything huge- I just wanted her to walk around the ring calmly and in a relaxed fashion. Walking was really all that I was up for although we did do some (very tiny amount) of trotting. When she would get tight I would work on the pattern to help her relax. Part of that pattern is to not hold with the rein. That's a work in progress but it's coming. We finally were able to walk the entire ring with her on a long rein and then stopped.


good for what ails me
Julia and I made plans to ride again on Sunday. I decided to do a little bit of ground work in the morning and then ride in the afternoon.  I've been pushing things, asking Carmen to relax in her more tense areas. My tools were the tarp, my dressage whip, a whip with a plastic bag attached and a stick with some ribbons.

When I got into the ring I picked up a rock and threw it out of the ring. But of course I missed and it the board with a loud noise. Carmen jumped and then immediately put her head down to relax herself. Which was really good because I hadn't asked her to do that. She's starting to figure it out for herself.

Carmen can be really good about ignoring me when I play with the tools. Tristan says that you have to 'ask a question worth answering'. Which means that if the horse has zero reaction then you have to up the ante. Not to frighten them but to help them seek to manage themselves when spooky things happen.

I put the bag over her back and she was all like 'yawn. silly human.  But in upping the pressure I put it over the other side of her so that she saw me in her left eye but the bag in her right. That got a reaction. Quite a large one. I held the bag there until she stopped (I had to help her by disengaging her hind end) and then dropped her head a bit, then took it away. A few trials later and she realized that when it went over her back, as soon as she dropped her head it went away.

I worked on that from both sides. She was much more worried about it on the right then on the left. Which is in keeping with her spooks under saddle. It helped me to realize something too- I think that when I'm riding and she's focussed on the inside aids (like we always ask) and then something moves on the other side it causes her to react.  Knowing that can help me work on a plan to help her figure out how to deal with this.

I also used the stick with ribbons- which was great because the ribbons are kind of like fluttering birds (another thing that really bothers her).

Going over the tarp is no big deal. She feels really confident with that so I used that periodically to help answer the 'easy' questions. I don't think anyone can learn if everything is super hard.

photo fail: it's hard to take a photo while doing this!

While I was up in the ring doing the ground patterns with Carmen  Julia sent a text saying she couldn't come. Because I am all alone I decided to not ride. I worried that it would make me more tense and that would undo the work I had been doing. I was disappointed but still happy with the work we did. While I answered the text Carmen decided to chew on the ribbons.

I am feeling much better now and I'm sure that the horse time and time outside have a lot to do with it. Also, Ed's care. :)

20 comments:

  1. Great work with Carmen. I think she's really learning to relax herself and that's going to be a real plus when you're in the saddle too. Glad you're feeling better. Fresh air and horses usually do the trick.;)

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    1. Translating it to the saddle work is the main goal and I am determined to get there.

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  2. Ed's definitely a keeper. Glad you are feeling better. There are so few days in the winter that are nice enough to do things so it really sucks when you're sick on those days. You never seem to be sick on the days when it's really cold and miserable out and you're stuck inside!

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  3. so glad you're feeling better!! and actually i really like your approach of "ground work in the morning" and "riding in the afternoon." that twice-a-day approach is actually how top pros like Boyd Martin condition their horses. the highest intensity training stuff (think: intense dressage or jump schools) take up the least amount of time, but then the horse spends much much much more time in lower key conditioning type work, which helps keep them in the mindset of "work" and seems like in Carmen's case this translates to your ground work. cool that it feels like it's working for her!

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    1. Yeah, I thought it would be a good idea. I'm going to try to do more of that.

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  4. I feel you on the not riding! I have gotten a couple of light flats in on borrowed horses this year, but other than that, I haven't ridden since before xmas.
    It sounds like the program you're doing is really helping you and Carmen. Nice job!

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    1. If the weather was nicer I'd offer Irish up to you to flat on. He'd love it.

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  5. You are wonder woman!! Be careful you don't push yourself too much...

    I'm glad you were able to spend some time with Carmen - both in and out of the saddle!

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    1. Not wonder woman. Just deperate to sit in the saddle. :)

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  6. Being sick when the weather improves and you're an outdoorsy person who loves horses is the worst part of being sick! Like, why can't it just be negative eleventy billion for the duration of sickness so there is no FOMO? :-p So very glad to hear you're on the up and up and that you were able to spend some time with Miss Carmen!

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    1. It really is I get itchy at the best of times if I don’t get outside. But once it warms up....

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  7. You're definitely on the right track with relaxation. I'm glad you got some saddle time in. I think I need the same RX.

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  8. I'm glad you are starting to feel better but I definitely agree being sick is the worst especially when the weather is nice. Though just sitting out in the sun can do wonders.

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    1. Sitting in the sun can do wonders. We’re a few months away from that being possible.

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  9. I feel that way about endurance... that it's important to my mental health. I ride almost daily since it's my job (for better or worse) but I definitely feel myself slipping into crankiness if I don't get some good, long trail rides in on a regular basis...

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    1. There’s something about being on a trail that is magical. I don’t know how I’d do with endurance but it would be fun to try.

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  10. Hi Irish!

    Hey, I've got a video for you since we were talking about tack rooms and I think you'll like it.

    You remember Blue Hors Matinee?

    https://youtu.be/uDA9_va7naM

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    1. Is that the tour with Matt Harnacke? I saw that the other day. What a place!

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