Appreciation

Why is it so hard to appreciate what we have when it comes to training our horses?  I have been feeling a bit frustrated by the slight regression with Stinker.  In reality it hasn't been bad or really much of a step back.  He has just needed some lighter days with less drilling, which is totally normal. I am not ok with working for days on end and not having a mental break.

Last year this time, he wouldn't walk under saddle.  Period, not at all.  I could get very reluctant halts with lots of inverted piaffe.  I thought I would be happy when he would just freaking walk.  In January, he started walking consistently.  I was happy with that for all of five minutes (slight exaggeration, it probably was closer to two weeks) and then I moved on to wishing he would stretch.

We figured out the stretching, then I moved on to another thing and so on and so forth.  I need to remember to take a moment and enjoy what we can do and stop worrying about what we aren't doing.  All of that will come with time (and its own set of problems).

I should appreciate the fact that I rarely cry because I am so frustrated with my horse now.  Can't say that about last fall.  Side note:  Crying is my default emotion it really isn't hard for that to happen.  Watch a sappy commercial=cry; read a happy article=cry; get really hungry/tired=cry...you get the point.

I appreciate the fact that when I am feeling lazy I can hop on my horse bareback and not even loop the lead rope around for reins.  He even seems to love me...ok that is only when I have his bucket of timothy but I am the only one that feeds it to him, so he loves me damn it.  Oh and he loves me when I have honey crisp apples.  He is so spoiled that he won't eat red apples any more.

We really have come a long way together and I do appreciate the journey even when I get muddled down with all the details.  I thought about posting a direct comparison from last year to this year, but last year was to cringe inducing.  It is all there for the world wide web to see if you really want to look.  I am just not making it that easy :)

Walkin' On Sunshine

The weather has finally cooled down slightly.  We are in the 70s at night and upper 80s durning the day (with humidity it feels more like low 90s).  While it is still warm I at least don't feel like I am going to die of heat stroke.  Come on fall get here already!

In other news, there isn't too much going on.  Stinker and I are just walking and working on straightness.  In exciting news he will back under saddle without freaking out now.  And he has mares that chase him when I am riding him.  I am so sick of them following us and peeing every where.  Thankfully, he doesn't get distracted unless they start sniffing his butt (and I really can't blame him for that).  I will leave you with this little gem...

Rewinding

In light of the issues that have been popping up and Stinker's inability to think through things, I have decided to take a few steps back.  This week we are just going to be walking.  He still has to move off my legs and be soft, but I am not even going to think about trotting.

I am hoping that I have just been pushing a little too much and this is him telling me that he isn't ready for it.  That is totally ok, I am not on a timeline.  What I don't want is to keep pushing him if he is feeling fried and ruin his work ethic.  He still seems to enjoy getting out and working and I really want to keep it that way.

We have super classy things like this...

So far things seem to be working fairly well.  Saturday we walked in the ring.  For some unknown reason the ring is his security blanket and he actually relaxes better in there when we are struggling.  We still had some of the same issues (OMG legs!!!), but overall it felt productive.

I really don't know how people get cute selfies

Sunday, we walked on the hills.  I was actually pushing my luck because they were turning horses out right as I started riding.  The horses aren't led in and out, they are just turned out in groups and they run up to their pastures.  It just so happened that the pasture with the hills is the one that all the groups run through.  Stinker loves his turn out, seriously he had to have a mat put in the front of his stall because he dug a hole pawing waiting for his group to be let out.

My most majestic beast

I was quite pleased with him.  He looked and got a little tense, but didn't get rude or jig.  Even when his buddies were let out.  It was a very low key ride, but it was the first one in quite awhile that there was not any sort of meltdown.  He went to work, did his work, and was very polite when we were done.  I am cautiously optimistic that this rewind will  put us back on track.

Where O Where...

Has my left bend gone?  I have stumbled on an old problem recently.  When I first started riding Stinker he had a love for bracing through the left shoulder and letting his haunches trail to the right.  I spent several months at the beginning of this year working on straightening him.  You know when we had panic moments like this....because LEGS CAN NOT TOUCH!!!!

My mamma said that legs are the devil

Then something started to click in his brain and he realized he could do that and we started progressing nicely.  It started small with just a bit more resistance, but then the vet did chiro and I assumed that the resistance was going to be fixed.  Then a certain idiot (*ahem* Stinker) stuck his leg in the fence and was lame/sore for awhile.  And I attributed the resistance to that.  Last week I finally had to face the fact that I had a problem.

He can move like this...he just doesn't

Unfortunately, S was at the AECs all of last week (S and her student totally kicked butt) so I didn't have a lesson.  I readily admit that I am very dependent on lessons.  When I get left to my own devices for too long I start thinking to much which leads to a lot of self doubt.  I think it had been almost three weeks since I had a lesson, but I finally got a lesson on Thursday.

I love his mismatched white on his lips

At the beginning Stinker felt great, he was bending both ways and warmed up quickly.  He was adjustable at the walk and felt really soft.  The trot felt really good too, especially to the right.  The left wasn't quite as good, but it wasn't bad.  Then we came back to the walk and the wheels fell off.  All of a sudden my horse that was ok with moving off my leg didn't want to be touched with it.  He actually spooked when I moved one of my legs...

Giraffe mode engaged...

WTF horse what am I supposed to do with you?  In warm up we had done leg yields and shoulder fore in both directions.  Ten minutes later it was OMG CAN'T HORSE!!!!  I tried walking him on a long rein to settle him (failed), I tried figure eights to settle him (failed), I tried every suppling trick S and I know (failed).  He just kept getting more and more worked up.

Not the crazy eyes I was getting

Finally, I said fuck it and took him across the diagonal(ish).  Every couple of steps I changed the direction (aka the drunken sailor exercise).  Then I made him do some really shity (like really really really shity turn on the haunches) and we did the drunken sailor act again.  I didn't ask for anything except he had to move off my seat and legs.  I didn't care if he shoved his head up like a giraffe and jigged, as long as he was moving forward and turned I was ok with it.

Someday we will get this under saddle

He finally started sneezing and actually giving as we turned.  I asked for some walk and he was back to being loose.  I am sure that there is a better way to break up the tension and get things flowing, but for now we will be drunken sailors.
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September Conformation

I realized three weeks into August that I forgot to take pictures for the monthly conformation progress. Oops. I guess 8/9 is pretty darn good.

Lately I've been feeling a bit discourage.  We've forgotten how to bend left, he looks like he is losing a bit of weight, and I'm frustrated with my riding.  That being said I was pleasantly surprised by one set of comparison pictures.  So without further ado here are the shots in comparison to February (bottom).

He did not want to cooperate with the pictures, so he looks a little wonky, but you can see how his neck is starting to fill in at the top.  He still has way too much under neck, but at least there is some upper to go with the lower now?

He is slowly gaining in the top line department and I think his loin/back area is looking stronger.  I like the progress, but I also get a bit over whelmed at the amount of progress we still need.  Can I just fast forward through the building stage and have a hunky horse?  Oh yeah the hunks weren't in the budget...

This is the one I was surprised about.  Stinker has a long history of bracing through his left shoulder and letting his haunches trail right.  This has been a problem for him as long as I have known him (even pre EPM).  In the February picture you can see how his spine actually curves to the right.  It isn't the way he was standing, that is just how it looked.  In the top part, you can see it is much straighter.  This didn't require any extra maneuvering on my part.  This is why I love dressage!

Bunches Of Nada

Sometimes you just need to hop on your horse bareback with a halter and meander around.

I've been having some problems lately with my hips. It's nothing new but my old stretches just aren't cutting it. My latest problem is my knees have started hurting. They don't hurt when I rest but on the other hand if I don't move enough my hips hurt. I've been playing what joint hurts the most lately.

I haven't been pushing for much when I have been riding because Stinker dislikes tight hips and my knees don't appreciate stirrups. Mostly we have been playing on the hills. We went for a short trail ride with some of the girls (he was mostly well behaved). I gave him a bath and fixed (actually screwed up) his mane. I still haven't figured out how to trim his mane evenly.

He has been protesting against the alfalfa/timothy mix I have been trying to use up. Seriously, there were a couple pellets of safe choice in that bucket that he just had to eat instead of his pan full of alfalfa/timothy. Keep in mind I tried to feed him safe choice for awhile but he stopped eating it. As in refused to touch it even if I tried to hand feed it to him.

Overall, I have been enjoying our light week. And I'm hoping to get myself lined out so we can get back to the real work this week. 

Why I Don't Trail Ride In The Summer

If you recall last summer I wrote about the trail ride from hell.  I attempted to pony Stinker off of another boarders horse durning his rehab and well we ran into a bit of a spider problem.  Big ugly spiders everywhere.

This little guy was in the bathroom at work (not scary like the spiders)

Friday evening I was feeling lazy and it was getting close to being dark, and I got the bright idea of taking Stinker for a trail ride.  I figured we could wander the paths and it would be a good change of pace.  It was a good change of pace, except I forgot about the #$#@* spiders.  And since it was getting dark, I couldn't see the webs at all.

Of course rather than change the plan, I just ducked and clung to his neck like a monkey and prayed.  He was really good and was happy to truck along on a loose rein.  There was even someone shooting somewhere and he was chill enough to grab a couple bites of grass.  Typically I would discourage that behavior, but since he wasn't a hot tense anxious mess I let it slide.

No spiders here

On the way back from the fields we caught a spider.  The web was stuck between Stinker's ears (at least it wasn't me?) and I could see the spider crawling on his ears.  Of course I start freaking out, because how the hell am I supposed to get the spider off?  Who the hell wants a giant spider crawling on their not so steady horse?  The last thing I needed was to get dumped because of a freaking spider.

I was trying to come up with a plan of how to get the spider off when I noticed it was hanging off Stinker's nose.  I was hoping it would drop onto the ground, but Stinker started tossing his head.  The spider decided that his face was a better place to be, so it started crawling back up.  I will admit I started squealing at this point.  Stinker then starts biting at the spider as it is swinging from his nose.  WTF horse!  You don't want that damn thing in your mouth.

From a much more peaceful ride

I honestly don't know what happened to the spider, because it disappeared from my view and didn't reappear.  I am going with it got smart and dropped off onto the trail.  All I know is I am not going for any more trail rides in the summer, I was convinced I had a spider on me for the rest of time, and my horse was actually really good.  He didn't freak out when I was ducking, he didn't freak out when I was freaking out, and he walked the whole time with minimal fussing.  I see more trail riding in the WINTER when there aren't the freaking spiders.