A Very Horsie Christmas

I hope that everyone had a very enjoyable Christmas. I wasn't sure how I felt about mine going into it but it turned out to be a very good holiday.

Last year, my daughter was ill and ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks with acute kidney failure. It was quite scary. This year my son is on deployment to the middle east. But we've been able to connect with him pretty often so that has been good. He called early Christmas morning and we all had a lovely chat.

Ripley crawled up on the couch to listen to her owner

We had a lot of rain and then a sudden drop in temperatures which meant that the ring was hard with icy patches. When I can't ride I turned to baking.

cinnamon buns

homemade ice cream sandwich with a scoop of french vanilla,  whipped cream,
hot fudge & strawberry sauce and grated chocolate sprinkled on top

While baking is fun it's probably not the best coping mechanism......

Ed and I had bought a new mattress so we had agreed on 'no gifts'. 

And of course we immediately violated that. 

He surprised me with a new arial shot of our farm. 

looking at the barn. See the horses watching these guys with the drone?

most of our property from the top. 

this is the one he framed

I love seeing these photos. They show all the work we've done over the years. 

My daughter bought me a lovely riding shirt and then completely blew me away by giving me this set:

I mean, can you even?

It's going to look lovely on Miss Carmen. I think we can safely assume that the person who used to heap scorn on people who dressed their horses in bright colours on their horse is now dead. 

The young woman that Irish is teaching to ride really surprised me with these beautiful signs: 

ignore the barn aisle that needs sweeping,
 there's no point until the stall doors are closed. 

We had a lovely dinner with just the three of us. Later I went out to the barn to do the night feed/clean. I was trying to decide if I should take Carmen out and give her a groom. I normally leave the stall doors open and Carmen usually hangs out at the door but doesn't leave. That night I heard her hooves on the barn aisle. 

Get back I said. Normally she would just back up and sigh. This time she actually walked out. I expected her to head to the hay pile across the aisle but she turned and walked down the barn. I wasn't too worried that she was going to leave so I slowly walked out of the stall saying what are you doing missy?

You may think I'm making up what happened next but I swear I am not. Carmen walked to where I groom her, turned around and stood in exactly that spot looking at me expectantly. She was asking me to groom her! I took off her blanket and gave her good deep groom which she appeared to savour. I then cleaned her stall, restocked her hay and water while she watched me. I put on her blanket and said there you go and she went back to her stall. 

This horse guys, she continually surprises me.

T'is the Season

Christmas is fast approaching and, if you follow this blog, you know what that means:

THE (SOMEWHAT) ANNUAL CRITTER CHRISTMAS PHOTO SHOOT!

I grabbed my antlers and cell phone and headed out to con/ bribe entice my beloved animals into cooperating for the camera.

Irish was, as always resigned.

Irish: is it that time again? Did you bring treats? I don't perform for free you know. 

Irish: What do you mean I'm too close? I have to get the cookies before Princess Greedy Guts take them all. 

Irish: This is the best you're going to get. 

Me: I'll take it! 

Carmen: I heard that there were cookies. 

Carmen: Back up? Why would I do that? The cookies are here. 

Carmen: Okay, I'll trust you but make it fast. Also, don't give any to the dog behind me. 

Guinness:  What? No. It's beneath my dignity as head of security. 

Guinness: Mom, this is so dumb. I'll be laughed out of the Farm Dogs Guild. 

Guinness:  I'm only doing it because I love you. But promise me it won't be on the internet. 

Ripley: I'm a guest. I'm pretty sure that makes me exempt. 

Ripley:  This is not my idea of fun. I can't even look at you right now. I'm telling Dad. 

Ripley: Well I guess I look pretty good. 

Willow:  this is new. I think it' brings out my eyes. 

Willow: Make it quick. My patience is fading fast. 

I know it's silly. But when I look back on the previous cards I smile at the fond memories of my beloved animals. Many of whom are not here anymore. At least not physically anyway.


Merry Christmas from all of us at Oakfield Farm. I hope you have the holiday you want.

Then and Now

Carmen is still off in her right fore. I can feel heat in the bulb of her heel (inside bulb) so I suspect that an abscess is making it's way out. Today I put a poultice on it to see if I can draw it out faster.

As I doctored Carmen this morning I realized how far she's come in her trust in me (and her ground manners). She let me frig with her foot and accepted the poultice boot. She was curious but not freaking out. Old Carmen would have been very tense about the whole thing and probably would have flung the boot across the barn.

Carmen: umm, what is this thing on my foot? 
Me: it's a poultice boot and an epsom poultice
Carmen: *waves foot vaguely in air* it feels weird
Me: it should help with your sore foot. 
Carmen: *sniffs it* okay, if you say so. 


Since watching a Warwick Schiller video on being 'present'. I've been trying to to that. In the morning as I pick out her stall, rather then plan my day I chat with her about the weather and my plans. I know she doesn't understand me but it seems that she gets that I'm talking with her and not just ignoring her. I can't explain it but she seems to respond.

It's also the time of year of Facebook flashbacks. One popped up of us from a few years ago and I see how far we've both come in our training.

April 2015

Nov 2016

flash forward

November 2017

And then to this year. Things are feeling much better. Not that there's not tension or shenanigans.

November 2018

Sept/Oct 2019

November 2019

We're getting there.

Going Solo

Honestly, recovering from jet lag is no joke. I don't know why I am struggling this time but I really am. So I took Monday off from riding. Tuesday was cold and blustery. When I came home I really wasn't feeling any desire to ride.

But when I went upstairs to change my riding clothes were just right there. So I sighed and put them on.  I brought the horses in and then tacked up Carmen. I debated how to start my ride. I knew with the wind and chill in the air that she was likely to be spooky.

big sky and horses on high alert

I decided to not over think it. I knew I had the tools and unless she crammed me into a tree we should be okay. So I swung my leg over and walked us out of the ring. Carmen queried whether we were going left to the barn but I asked her to go right. With a brief hesitation we headed out. She was definitely on her toes so I kept the rein a bit short.

We walked into the woods and I'm pretty sure that both of us had a high heart rate and were both trying to hold it together. We walked by a felled tree and the branches must have brushed against her because she spooked and ran forward. While I was preparing to ride a full on bolt through the woods she came right back to a walk.

Camren: *cough* you are telling it wrong. It was a zombie trying to grab my legs. I saved both of us. You're welcome. 

Me: yes dear. 
Carmen: is that sarcasm?
Me: Who? Me? Never! 
Carmen: *snort*

We came back to the ring to school. I tried to shut the gate from her back. While Carmen is awesome about opening it, the idea of closing it seemed to cause confusion. She kept going back to open it just as I was just about to drop the rail in to close it. Finally I laughed and dismounted to close it. She wasn't being difficult- she was just doing what I had trained her to do. (note to self: watch Julia close it when she's on Irish).

After that we went on to have a very good ride. Carmen was still up and had some feelings about things but I stuck to my work on adjusting the aids to the situation and each time she came back. She got quite heavy and on the forehand with our canter so I focussed on the half-halt to set her up and on her hind leg. I could feel her start to shift her weight backwards and lift in front. It was pretty cool.

don't let her fool you- she was as full of energy
at the endas she was at the beginning. 

It was a good ride for both of us. I am beyond thrilled that I was able to hack out on our own. I had tried this before but I had to dismount when she freaked out over a deer (fair enough). I haven't been brave enough to try it since then. This felt controlled and like we were both trying. This felt huge to me.

Me: Well that was fun
Carmen: I admit nothing

"Riding is Hard!"

I had a really fun weekend of fun and learning. Friday I trailered Carmen to the barn and settled her in.  I swear that she remembered the last time we were there, despite it being pretty close to exactly 2 years ago. 

she was fascinated by this orange cat who was completely
unfazed over being snuffled all over. 

That night all of the ones participating got together for the evening 'lecture'. We started by introducing ourselves and our goals for the clinic. When it was my turn I started on my laundry list of flaws and then realized how I sounded. I stopped myself and simply said 'riding is hard'. 

Everyone laughed and that became the motto for the weekend. I know I called it a lecture that night but it wasn't.  Karen had us share and practice things like balance and using our centre to signal. Karen shared a really interesting quadrant to help think about our rides:

The vertical line is energy and the horizontal one is mental state (note, this is not Karen's drawing but it is the same concept). I really liked it and it helped me to think about my rides on Carmen. 

We played with ropes to practice how subtle signals need to be and we even practiced 'riding' each other to see how little change in our posture is required to send a strong signal (no we didn't sit on each other, we just stood over top). 

My goal for the weekend was to really find some tool to target my tendency to lean forward. Karen helped me to feel my seat bones and to feel when I rock back. The goal is to let the horse move my seat bones but to not let them go back too far. I am sure that I'm not explaining it well but the idea is the if we let our seat bones go back too far it encourages the horse to let their legs go out behind and not step under. Karen used the phrase 'close the back door' which seemed to help. 

At first it was really hard to keep that way. Like really hard. Because riding is hard.  But I could feel Carmen respond. It was easier on day 2 but it still required a lot of mental focus. Karen had me stand next to her and she put her hand on my back between the shoulder blades and had me resist her pushing me forward. This helped me to feel where I need to be:

It really helped. When I lost it Karen would remind to feel her hand. 

look at that uphill canter and erect rider! 

On day one we even tried a little baby half-pass:

One of the tools is focusing on the 'X' that is in our back (you can find it by drawing an imaginary line from your shoulders to the opposite hip. The idea is not to use muscle tension (which was what I thought at first) but to pulse the energy down.  Again this really helped.

sitting up, carmen is forward and in the bridle but
I am not pulling. 

I found that I had to keep cycling through my body: core, loose pelvis, back, shoulders. 

It was such a great learning experience. At no time did Karen get frustrated with me or lose her sense of humour. I feel that I got some tools to help me in my rides.  

I plan to keep practicing. 

So I can target the next thing. 

Because, (say it with me): riding is hard. 

But (like I said at the end of the clinic), it is also so much fun. 

Which is why we do it. Because, otherwise we would just be masochists. 

And that can't be true. Right? 

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. 

Reach for It

Carmen and I are embracing this idea of easing into fall. Work is ratcheting up and so I wasn't able to ride again until Wednesday. I also had booked a lesson for then.

Julia came out to ride with us. I haven't seen her for a while and she has gotten a job a few hours away so Irish will likely not be seeing much of her. We are happy for her and sad for us.

Carmen was pretty mellow right from the beginning. It was such a good ride- she was quiet but listening and rarely distracted by the things outside the ring. I am loving wearing the spurs because when she does start looking out in the corners I can reinforce my bending aids without using excessive (and futile) muscle effort. When I use too much muscle I get all twisted and stiff and much less effective over all. With the spur I can give her a reminder and then carry on. Knowing I can impact her bend allows me to stop worrying about what she's worried about and focus on what I want. I am sure that at some point she will really test me on this but I am prepared.

I told Shanea that I wanted to work on using my seat to set the pace and not so much rein. We started with halt-walk transitions. The idea was to use my seat and let Carmen reach for the bit rather then me bringing the bit to her (if that makes any sense. Essentially, stop shortening the reins and pulling on the bit!).

As we practiced Carmen began to reach for the bit and step forward.

When we picked up the trot the first goal was to go forward and straight, maintaining the rhythm.
In fact a lot of this lesson reminded me of lessons with Johanna.

At first Carmen was a bit erratic - speeding up and slowing down. Bending was hard. But I love how patient Shanea is and finally we got there.

see how she's looking for the contact? (in a good way)

After a brief walk break we picked up the trot again, but this time I was sitting and it was to be really slow. From there she can build her strength and it was easier to impact her balance. It was also easier to find a place to 'sit' and half-halt through the seat. I know that Andalusians have a reputation of being 'easy' to ride but Carmen has a lot of movement in her body and she actually is not that easy to sit (at least for an ammie like me!).

It's amazing what you can do when you're not going 90 km/hr.

And it was really really hard physically. I was surprised with how much core strength it took to keep my body in alignment while keeping my seat under me and not be stiff.

walk to trot transition with a special guest appearance...

The weather has turned warm and humid again and I was getting really hot and tired. But I refused to ask for a break. Carmen was being so good and tuned it that it was a lot of fun. Like Shanea said it's great to see her reach for the bit when I give rather then get upset and pop her head up (or take advantage by spooking). 

We then went on to canter work.  At first there was some resistance to the transition- I was getting too tight and she didn't like that. Which is totally fair. But once we got it she became really strong in the bridle. Which meant that my half-halts were not being too effective. On the one hand it was great- she actually was taking me to the corners rather than back peddling. 

Carmen: CANTER, yes! Let's do this! Hang on!

So I didn't want to shut her down. Part of me was like 'eep, if she spooks through that corner I'm gonna die'. The other part was 'yay she figured out the forward part'

What Shanea helped me to realize was that I was holding her in the canter to get her to slow down when I really needed to do half-halts that actually, you know, released. When I started doing that she actually began to respond and come back to me. 

Here's a trot-canter transition that made me so happy. It was the best one yet and it was on her 'bad side'. 

I still have so many things to work on- my shoulders for one thing. They are so tight. I think with awareness and not having to use so much leg I can focus more on that. My core strength for another. I have started back to my exercise class and will keep it up through the winter. There's a lot more rein length I can give her. Now that she's reaching for it this will be easier. Before it felt like when I gave her rein she disappeared. 

But I am also so happy with where we are right now and where we're going. 

Canter? I love canter! Let's go!

Reboot

Carmen and I ended our riding vacation today. It was interesting- this is the first time that I have taken so much time off while I'm home.

On Monday when I opened the stall doors to let them out Carmen came running out beating it to the field. Normally when I open the doors they stroll out quietly, have a stretch and meander off to the field. If this was a habit I would fix it but I figured she was just in a hurry to get to the grass that she had been deprived of all weekend. For the rest of the day she ignored me and spent a lot of time grinding dirt into herself.

I let her be and didn't fuss with her. By Wednesday she started following me around in her field. On Thursday I brought her out and gave her a good groom. She enjoyed it thoroughly. 

I stuck to the plan to not ride until Sunday. And by Sunday I was ready to get back in the saddle. I figured that a lunge first might be a  good idea. 

This was her mood in the barn getting ready: 

I rather be napping

As a ride it was pretty not-exciting. Which is nice. Our lunge work was quiet and when she was 100% I mounted. I wore my new spurs and I think that these are really helpful. Not that she really tried anything but there were some tests. I find that by having them as back up I am able to ride with less tension. When she couldn't evade the corner by running in she did break from canter to trot but I would much rather be fixing that then the steering. 

The focus of the ride was on using my seat to influence her stride. It was fun to feel how that works and I was able to get her to do transitions within and between gaits.  Playing with this allowed me to feel how much a tense seat can block the forward motion. 

I am sure that at some point Carmen will really test my resolve with the spurs. But I was happy with our first ride back to work.  The weather is getting cooler and it's my favourite time to ride. I love that there are no flies. And that there is no pressure to get to a certain level of training. There are no shows to get ready for. It feels like we can take a step back and play. 

Later that day I took the dogs to the lake for a swim. I leave you this video of Guinness. I told him that he couldn't get in the car until he shook. So, because he didn't want to leave, he refused to shake. 

Sigh. Save me from smart dogs and horses. 

Git Along Little Doggie

Carmen has been enjoying her vacation. I am glad that I decided to give her the time. We've been training pretty heavily. I am enjoying the reduction in pressure as well.

But things have not been boring. This morning I was enjoying a leisurely coffee and then took the dogs out for their walk. We have my son's dog for a couple months while he is away and Guinness is enjoying the company.

Guinness loves his Ripley. 

We were just heading up by the barn when the horses exploded and came galloping up the field and then turned snorting looking at high alert down the hill. I went over to check on what they saw and at first I saw nothing. Then I saw a flash of white by one of our spruce trees. 

Uh oh

put the kettle on, we've come for tea

 I quickly ran the dogs back into the house and told Ed They're back!

Ed didn't get the number the last time this happened so I sent a quick text to Julia. She said she would contact them. 

In the meantime the cattle were making their way around the back of the barn, panicking the horses. The little white one discovered the garden jackpot! 

I ran into the barn and grabbed a bucket, threw in some oats and went out rattling the oats. The bigger one (a bull) was very interested and came right up. 

Now to be honest, I don't have a sweet clue about cattle but figured that hungry herd animals are the same. I started walking and they began to follow. The white one was quite a bit shyer. 

follow the oats. 

My plan was that if the bull became aggressive I was going to throw the bucket and get the hell away. But other then being a bit rude he followed right along. I led them across the street and put them back in their field. I couldn't see where they had gotten out. The gate was a single strand so I think they might have just gone under. 

The young owner and him mom came along a few minutes later. I told him that I gave them oats to get them back and I hoped that was okay. He said it was fine. I then offered him some electric rope that I had. It had been given to me but I thought that it was a good use if it kept the little wanderers at home. 

I came back to check on the horses. Carmen was much more relaxed but Irish was still on high alert and kept circling her. 

Are they gone? Are you sure? 

this was taken about 15 minutes later. Still on high alert.

It took him until the afternoon before he would go into the bottom field. I was able to give the dogs their walk. 

Guinness quite intrigued following their scent

I can now add cattle wrangling to my list of skills. Honestly, what do city folk do for excitement? They must be so bored! 

And yes, I now have their phone number. :)