Hot Hot Hot

Both the temperature and the Peebs have been hot lately.  It's been at or above 90 for almost a week now, and is expected to get to 105 this weekend.  Luckily I'll be in San Diego where its supposed to be cooler (seriously, WTF Oregon?!?).  Because of the heat, the plan was not to do a whole lot with Peebs.  But apparently the pony had other plans. 

Peebs no like draw reins.  Peebs no like having to use body correctly.

 He's been super wound up and somewhat explosive in the canter.  I rode with draw reins and the snaffle on Friday.  He was actually very good, if pissed.  We had probably some of our best canter work (minus one little buck) and I think all of our rides since then have been payback.  Saturday I was planning on jumping but he didn't want to settle and the couple fences we trotted were a battle.  He kept wanting to canter and was throwing his haunches way to the right.  Once we got a semi-decent trot fence I quit.

Sunday I was going on a field ride with my BO and a couple other boarders. I lunged Peebs before we left, but I think I could have lunged him twice as long as I did.  He was bucking and playing, completely full of energy.  He kept it together for most of the ride.  There was one moment where he saw something he didn't like and started going sideways.  Once we got a couple horses between him and the imaginary monster he was fine.  But it felt like if I put any leg on or asked anything of him he'd loose his mind.  Once we got back to the barn I did a little trot and canter to see if I could put his brain back.  That was a big fat NOPE.  He got more and more wound up before launching a big buck and going sideways.  I sat it but then got off and turned him out in the indoor.  He did run and play a bit more.

He got Monday off, and yesterday he wasn't too bad.  Still wants to get high in our canter work, but we stayed on a circle and my mantra was to sit down and keep my inside leg on to keep him straight. A big part of our problem right now is he wants to get crooked and weak, then scrambles and gets worried and I want to ride in a half seat with no leg.  I need to support him more, and he needs to get over my leg being on all the time. He hasn't yet figured out the difference between "go forward leg" and "hold yourself up leg", at least at the canter. Hopefully next week we can start getting some trainer rides for him and more lessons for me!

Schooling the School Master

Even though it was 95* last night, I finally got my lesson on our barn's school master Tia.  The lesson was supposed to be focused on me and us jumping bigger fences, but didn't go quite as planned.  It was still a great lesson and hopefully in a couple weeks we'll do it again.

Tia is a 14yr old, 16.3 hand Oldenburg/TB hunter mare that came from a big H/J barn outside Portland.  From what we were told, she won a lot in the 3' but couldn't stay sound for the 3'6".  It sounds like she was jumped too much, too young, and now had lameness issues.  She has had at least one foal but we were told she can't get pregnant/hold the pregnancy anymore.  The big barn donated her for a hefty tax write off to the OSU Vet School to use as a research/testing horse but OSU felt like she could still be used, as long as her lameness was managed correctly. She bounced around to a couple different places before coming to our barn as a lesson horse.  She'll never pass a pre-purchase, needs pads on her front feet, joint supplements, and the occasional bute after hard work but is as push button, point and shoot as you get.

Tia and one of her leasees

I've notice over the past couple weeks that Tia's been lacking a lot of top line muscle, so I warmed her up for our lesson in draw reins.  She tends to trick her leasees into thinking she round, and in frame because she'll put her head down but really she's false framing.  It takes a lot of leg, and spur, to get her really round and soft, and she'll do this hoppy/head toss thing to show her displeasure with it.  As soon as I put the draw reins on she gave up the fight and settled into a nice frame.  I still had to use more leg than normal, but I wasn't fighting her and could focus on her bending/falling in issues.  Jen had me spiral in and out in circles to loosen her up as well as making her march out in both the trot and canter.

She tends to have a nice rhythm in the canter, and because of that people don't push her up as much as they should.  She's pretty long backed, and tends to get strung out because she isn't using her body.  In our warm up fences Jen was having me focus on getting a forward pace and marching down the lines.  It was hard for me since she has a much bigger stride than Buddy to adjust my eye, but Tia's such a good girl she'll jump from anywhere.

Good example of how she jumps when left to her own devices.  Long, hollow, and strung out

We focused most of the lesson on a single outside fence set about half way up the long side.  Tia's main issues is that she really over bends right and drifts left.  I had to counter bend her in the corners going right and think of having a strong wall on the left side with my leg.  It went pretty well then we switched to the left.  Her issue going left is that she falls way in and motorcycles around the turn.  We took a couple circles to fix that but then ran into the problem of too much bend and drifting right.

Jen had me think about what I needed to do (inside left leg to hold her up in the turn, then outside right leg to prevent her from drifting) when I had an epiphany like Jen at Cob Jockey did.  I was using too much left leg after the turn and no matter how much I pushed with my right leg, she wasn't going to listen to it.  As soon as I thought about relaxing my left leg after the turn we found a beautiful, straight line to the fence.  Tia even landed on the left lead (she likes to switch to the right) and cantered off nice and quietly.  I had to go do it again to make sure it wasn't good luck and while the second time wasn't quite as good as the first it was still miles better than normal.  Jen said that for Tia, that's a huge accomplishment and something she needs a lot of work on.  I'm going to try and work her a bit on my own so that by the time my next lesson on her comes we can move on and focus on me instead of me fixing her!

Back to Work

I had this whole post all ready on my phone,  but apparently it didn't post.  Grrr!  Buddy went back to work this week after his after show break.  He was cranky on Monday, it was windy and that always fires him up.  We worked in the draw reins and while he threw a major tantrum going left we ended on a good note.

Tuesday he got the day off as we were having a barn BBQ to celebrate my and one of the horse's birthdays.  Yesterday I set up a gymnastic, vertical bounce vertical one stride oxer, and had a blast.  He was rushy at first, just very excited to be jumping.  As long as I remembered to have a forward, active trot to the first fence it flowed very well.  My friend suggested cantering a large circle before coming back to the trot and going to the line and it helped a lot.  I can't let him sucker me into a slow trot; he then scrambles down the line and it gets a little dicey.

Our fire pit at the BBQ

Today he got lunged and I'll do a quick ride Friday in prep for a dressage clinic with Mary on Saturday.  I originally wasn't going to ride, but a spot opened up and I got some birthday money so we're doing it!  I hope we've improved since December when Mary saw us last.  I'm also going to do a ride on Connie's mare Wednesday, the one who was bucking people off.  She's had some time off as her back was pretty sore and we've been taking it slow trying to keep her relaxed under saddle. 

So far so good!

Amy came out today to try out Buddy.  She seemed to like him, and really enjoyed that he has lead changes as the past couple horses she's leased didn't.  They just did some flat work today and she'll ride him again on Friday.

Yesterday we did a flat hack with the draw reins.  I was expecting him to be cranky since I rode during dinner time, but he was really good.  He was soft and responsive and felt great.  We worked on transitions and had some nice upward ones.  A few times he actually picked up the canter on his own!  The only problem was going from a free walk with a long rein to a medium walk with connection.  He would either trot or canter off when I picked up contact or stop and not move.  To work on that, we did about 100 transitions.  We ended by walking around with contact till he relaxed into it.

Getting back to normal

The past week has been both awful and wonderful.  My parents came up from San Diego and the day after the got here, my mom got really sick.  Like not able to keep anything down and have to go to urgent care and be on an IV sick.  Right when she started feeling better, I got sick.  I spent Monday and Tuesday in bed, barely making it out to the couch on Christmas. I feel fine now, but it was a rough couple of days.

My parents had to head back on Thursday while I went back to work.  During the time my parents were here I didn't ride, just turned the boys out and lunged them each a couple times.  I hoped on Bud on Thursday once I felt better, and there was a single fence set out in the ring so we hopped over it a couple times.  Bud was good but pretty bold.  I put him back in the fig. 8 and boy was I glad since we had a couple discussions about running to the fence.  We ended on a good note, considering we haven't really jumped in a few weeks.  Yesterday I worked him in the draw reins; a preemptive reminder about using himself correctly.  Again, he was good with just a couple naughty moments.  Today we just plodded around bareback having fun.  We have our first lesson in over a month on Friday, just to get back on track and start thinking of show season.

Good Ponies

Both Anna and I had lessons tonight.  Anna went first, and I talked with Jen about what I've been working on with her.  They started doing circles at the trot and canter and Anna was able to get Phoenix round and soft.  He looks so much more fluid and sound when he's round, and it makes me feel better about letting her jump him.  Jen had Anna start with some trot poles then moved her to a little line of x-rails.  Phoenix was happy to just trot along and not jump the fence, but  Jen had Anna give him a little squeeze and cluck at the base.  He finally jumped the fence and Anna was able to canter down a line for the first time.  They did a couple times and called it good.

For my lesson, we started with the draw reins on Buddy and worked on the flat on a circle.  While he's defiantly improved, I was still having a bit of trouble getting him soft and round going left.  He was a lot less combative and I felt like I didn't have to work quite as hard. 

We took the draw reins off, and Jen set the fences up.  We really haven't jumped much in the past couple weeks, mostly focusing on our flat work so the jumps were around 2'3".  After a couple warm up trot fences, we started down the line trying to have a nice rhythm and maintain the softness we had during the flat work. Once I figured out the distance to the first fence, the line flowed really well.  We then added a couple other diagonal fences fora little course. 

The right to left diagonal fence was our hard spot for the night.  It was on a slight downhill, and Bud really wanted to fall on his front end and pick up speed.  Jen had me half halt with a lot of thigh, while being fairly soft with my hand.  It worked and he backed off, but then he was too behind my leg.  We finally figured it out, and were able to have a couple decent jumps.  By that time Buddy was pretty tired so we ended with that. 

I'm glad that I can see the progress we're making and hopefully it can continue!

Being a bad blogger

Not much has happened this week.  Had a couple ok rides on Bud.  I worked him in the draw reins again on Wednesday and he was better.  Still not great, and still resistant to the left but I was able to see some improvement. By the end of our ride I was able to drop the draw reins and he would carry himself at the trot nicely both directions. 

Tuesday I had my last field ride with Zoe.  There were some x-rails set out that we worked over, and I ended up giving Anna and Phoenix a little lesson.  I've been pleasantly surprised with how sound Phoenix has been and he looked great working out on the grass. 

Yesterday it started raining, so we brought all the ponies in for the winter.  Luckily I only had to do a half day at work, so I was able to make it out to the barn by 1 to bring them in.  Phoenix and Zoe were utterly offended at being out in the rain.  Both of the trotted up to the gate to come in and Zoe was nickering the whole time.  Buddy could have cared less and seemed offended that he was left in.  I put coolers on all of them for a couple hours and gave each a pile of hay.  We got a new load of timothy this week, and it's super rich.  I'm slowly starting to wean them on it so hopefully no one gets colicky! 

Once I had their coolers on, I realized that I have bought the boys matching black ones with blue trim.  Wasn't my intention and I'm slightly embarrassed. 

Buddy

Phoenix....he makes the 10x14 stall look tiny

Breaking out the big guns

So in our lesson tonight, we basically stayed on a circle to the left the entire time.  Jen had me start trying to get Buddy soft and bendy by doing some figure 8's at the trot.  He was ok, but not great.  I was really having to thump him with my inside leg to keep him going. Same thing in the canter.  I dropped my inside stirrup to try and thump him and push him out to create the bend.  Still not working.

Jen got on him for  only the second time in the two years I've had him. She really got after him and boy was he pissed!  They duked it out for about 5 minutes with him occasionally giving in.  The whole time Jen was cussing him out and calling him names.  She had me grab a set of draw reins and we tried again.  I hopped on him again, and after figuring out my reins (it's been such a long time since I've ridden with two reins!) we tried again. 

I started with the reins loose and slowly started shortening them and asking for flexion.  He gave it to me to a point, then decided to fight me.  I was able to get him back and we moved up to the canter.  He was still pretty fussy, but better.  Jen decided to hop back on and took no mercy.  Once Bud gave in, they had some beautiful trot work.  He was moving forward and really stepping out and Jen was able to loosen up on the draw reins and have a light, quiet contact.  His canter was also miles better.  He was a little over bent to the left, but he was using his hind end and really driving forward with little effort from Jen.

The plan for now is to keep using the draw reins, but do short 20mins or so hacks mostly at the walk and trot while he builds up his top line.  Hopefully he won't fight me as much and I won't have to use the draw reins but we want  to make sure he gets the point.