Dealing with the Unexpected

 

First of all the happy update: after giving Carmen 4 days off and 3 days of NSAIDS she seemed to be completely fine. I did some free lunging and she looked good. The next day I rode her to see how she was. 

Me: okay Carmen we're going to have a nice quiet ride. Lots of walk and some gentle trot. 

Carmen: 

She was quite sassy and even managed to sneak in some big dekes/spooks. So I decided that this was a good time to work on getting her to soften and relax even when she wasn't feeling like she wanted to. And we did. 

I have to say that my biggest triumph with Carmen is not that I can ride out her antics or even prevent them. It's that I can get her to the other side of her rage to a place of calm.  

Since then we've returned to normal work and things are going well with her. Mostly.  I'm just happy that her injury was not serious. 

Remember Oliver the kitten who appeared on our doorstep? Well he's settled in quite nicely. But we think he's deaf or severely hearing impaired. He really doesn't react to noises, quiet or loud and sometimes I think we startle him because he didn't hear us coming. Thank heavens we took him in because there's no way he'd have survived outside. I'm glad we found him. He's now officially an indoor kitty. 

nothing like a box

My rides on Quaid are going well. I've been focusing on up and down transitions to make them smoother. They are getting a lot better.  Our trot-canter transitions feel really good. The down ones still need a ton of work. 

closely watching my sand delivery for the ring

I've done work of setting up things that are distractions in the past. But lately the universe is doing it for me. They've started to clean up the property next door. It has involved some heavy equipment and possibly a chain saw. Yesterday I was riding Quaid and we were doing really well.  We were cantering up the long side by the next field when he started throwing his haunches in. 

Hmm. Come back, regroup ask again. This time going down the long side we start going sideways. I bring him back and he starts doing his move of planting his front feet and spinning on them. I immediately start riding a 10 metre circle. On our second circle I see what's going on: a large truck pulling a trailer drives right beside us and over to where the junk is. 

Me: aha! Now I see the issue. 

Quaid: I saved us! Time to abort. 

Last year I might have dismounted and called it a day. I checked my watch and we'd been working for about 40 minutes. But I didn't want him thinking that when the world throws a surprise we can stop and exit. So I returned to work: walk, trot and canter transitions on the circle. I ignored the truck (which was gone now anyway) and I gave him other things to think about instead of 'where did it go and what if it comes back?' 

Once we had a lovely transitions and, more importantly, his focus, I called it quits. I was happy with both of us. I am pleased that I feel more secure on him and less worried about what might happen. And, of course, this makes me ride with confidence and give him confidence as well. 

Tomorrow I take both horses to Krista's for our lessons. I'm pretty sure that it will have some moments for Quaid but that's what it's all about. 

Unexpected

 So months ago I signed up both horses for a test riding clinic. I've done it before, the idea is you go to the venue and practice the test with coaching. It's a low-stakes way to get the horse and rider some show experience without the added pressure of judging. 

Unfortunately, there weren't enough people to make it feasible to go ahead and it was cancelled. But I have a full size dressage ring so I reached out to a couple people and offered that they could come to my place to practice. It would allow me to have 2 lessons and give Quaid the excitement of people coming and going. 

the horses are starting on the back paddock 
for short periods of time. Quaid is very happy

In the end only Tanya and Suzi ended up coming. I put myself as the first ride and decided that it should be Quaid. I figured that Tanya would pull in while I was riding and I didn't want him running around in the field and maybe hurting himself while I was riding Carmen. It also gave me time to do ground work first. 

I've been practicing the work I did in the CJ clinic with working with Quaid until his focus is willingly on me and he's relaxed. Funnily enough, those go together.  Jane came up and we talked about how things were going. I said that I thought things were going really well. I told her that I had signed Quaid up for the first show but just for one test: Training L1. That way I could do a really good warm up, ride the test and then be done. I wouldn't have to worry about tiring him out for his second ride. She said that she thought it was an excellent idea, especially for young horses. 

She started us off walking the test pattern while we talked it through. She was really nit-picky about hitting the lines and tangent points. Which I appreciate because I can get a little 'that's close enough' in my schooling.  (I actually really liked that and have incorporated it into our warm up). 

After that we did our warm up of trot and canter.  As we were starting there Tanya pulled in. Quaid was a bit distracted by that but not too much. Then Carmen flipped a switch and began to bolt around her field just beside the ring.  It completely caught me off guard because she doesn't do that. Like she might run a little but she's generally not a fan of self-exercise. 

you can see Carmen in the background here
while I try to not panic that Quaid was gonna panic. 

Jane was giving me instructions to just ride my horse like I've been riding him. I was NOT to get grabby or tight.  It was hard. I was worried he would bolt and leap around in response to Carmen.  Jane took us to the far side of the ring to get my focus back. Not Quaid's. Because other than a few seconds of 'what is going on' he just settled in and waited for me to tell him to what we were doing. 

the bravest little toaster

 Even when Tanya brought Suzi up by the ring he was so good.  Like he wanted to look and broke canter a couple times but he wasn't freaking out and he didn't get annoyed at me for giving him instructions.  (FYI, I was really happy that Suzi was there because I need to practice with distractions). 

a screen grab of a canter stride. I just thought it was funny-
like we were being picked up by aliens. 

We practiced the test and it went really well. He did break from canter early near the end because he was distracted cantering by Suzi. Jane then just had me canter him all the way around the ring.  Which we did with zero issue. Which is great given some of the canter issues we had last year.  

I love this one

Some takeaways: 

• we're progressing each ride and lesson and it shows. I need to stop expecting him to be resistant when things are going on
• Quaid will stay on me as long as I am also connected and ride with intent. 
• I'm sitting up much better (i.e., riding less defensively)
• I need to practice more sitting trot- he thinks he's either going to walk or canter when I sit. 
• downward transition need work: I shut him down too much and he falls on his forehand. 

He's a brief clip: 

There's a lot to improve on but I just love how quiet and unflustered we're being. 

After I put him away (and stuffed him full of carrots and praise), I went to get Carmen. Whomp Whomp, she was lame. I think in her silliness she strained her stifle. She walked out of it a bit but was not able to have a lesson. Like at 16 she decides she's going to experiment with lameness?! Anyway, I have her on Bute and quiet turn out. She's already walking better, pretty normal but I'm not sure if we'll actually be able to show or not. My plan is to call the vet tomorrow after I see her without the Bute. (I'm not spiralling, you're spiralling). 

In summary, Quaid is being quiet and mature. Carmen is being silly and wild and things are never normal around here. 

but look how handsome my pony is! 

Of Saddles, Spooks and Intention

 According to my watch I rode a total of 22 times in April. Which is way better than the total of 4 for March! It's been pretty even between the two of them. 

It's been an interesting start to training. Carmen had a few days off with what was probably an abscess or stone bruise. She was off with zero heat or swelling. It's also possible that it's the saddle.  The saddle fitter was out and she said that while the saddle fit wasn't terrible she probably needed more room for her shoulders. I figured it was coming and she's bringing in some saddles for me to try.  She's moving sound now so I think that, while the saddle isn't doing her any favours, it was more hoof related.  I can't argue because I've gotten 11 years out of it and you can see how she's changed:  

2015

2025

That means that Quaid has been stepping up. I had another lesson on him last weekend and it was so good. Even better than the week before.  

Last year I had an issue with wasp nests around the ring. So this year I bought some fake ones and hung them around the ring. I totally underestimated how scary the horses would find them. So I had to work through that. Carmen took all of 10 minutes and she was over it. But, in fairness, this is the work we've spent 10 years doing.  While she's been spicy this year, she's also been really rideable, so it's fun. We've not had any big explosions this year.  Not that the spooks aren't there, they totally are. I just think my timing in answering her questions has really improved. 

Quaid, however, was really upset by the nests. So I've been working on it with him. Yesterday was a rare gorgeous day so I decided to work both of them. I rode Carmen in the morning and was a great ride.  I then headed off to karate where I was worked hard.  Because Sunday was supposed to be heavy rain (which it is), I decided to work Quaid after karate, despite being tired. 

I spent some time working him on the ground by the nests and he was fine. I then hopped on. It started fine but then he began to object to going by the nests. I was working through it and then he started to act up even when we weren't by the nests. It felt less like an uncertain horse and more like a horse asking me some fundamental questions. And not really liking my answers.  

I was all alone and wasn't feeling too safe. So I hopped off and I put him to work from the ground. Rather than working on him being quiet and soft, I was working on him listening to me and following my guidance. When he was all 'yes ma'am'  I got back on and we went to work. I realised that I was probably being too tentative about asking him to go forward and letting him set the pace because of his worry about the nests. Now I worked on keeping my intention super clear and not worrying if my ask was not perfect and stopping. I asked him to deal with me and my asks and go forward. There was some judicious use of the crop to reinforce the leg. 

And it worked, he went forward and focussed on me and not on all the things he was being distracted by. I swear one day I will learn, lol but maybe not.  But if we can't work through stuff at home we have zero chance of doing it elsewhere.  So I think my homework is that we go forward and follow my lead. 

Now it's May and soon it will be time for our first show.....