Return to Riding

Well Peebs' summer break is over and it's back to work.  The chiro came out and said his hips were good, but his neck and poll were out again.  Pretty sure his neck will always be wonky; its where he likes to hold tension and his under neck muscles are super developed.  She did complement me on how much his top line has grown but it will always be a battle to keep his neck from being upside down.

Like this, his go to spook is to stick his head straight up in the air.  Here he was freaking out over the misters that were put up in the barn aisle.  It got up to 108 and even then he still hated getting wet.

I also got his hind shoes put on, but I'm thinking that probably wasn't necessary. I haven't noticed a difference in the week or so that he's had them. But we've mostly been doing flat work so we'll see once we start jumping a bit more. If I still don't notice anything we'll pull them.

Our first few rides back were rough.  I wasn't trusting him to not be crazy after almost a month off so I was holding his face too much and was too handsy.  I finally set out a bunch of ground poles one day and just trotted and cantered them while repeating to myself "Don't touch his mouth!!" And what do you know, he was pretty good.  I had set some of the trot poles a bit short and he completely biffed it the first time and even though I wanted to do some major half halting coming in the second time I didn't and let him figure it out.  Which he did fine on his own. He's got a good eye and is smart so I need to trust him to figure out the distance a bit more. Its hard because McKenna just wanted to run and jump ALL THE THINGS while Buddy didn't give a crap about ground poles and would fall all over them.

Wouldn't you want to hold that face?  It's the cutest face ever!!!

The day after our pole extravaganza I added three trot poles before a pile of poles that became a cross rail, then a vertical, then a bigger vertical. I wanted to set a gymnastic but was too lazy. Again, I had set the trot poles short, actually too short, but Peebs made it work. I just focused on getting him in straight (didn't always happen) and my body over the fence. He was great so we quite after a few goes. I'm going to try and set up a gymnastic today or tomorrow to play with.  And hopefully next week we can get back into regular lessons.  I haven't had one since the show 6 weeks ago!

Your Monthly Update

I didn't really mean to go almost a month with out blogging, oops!  Not a whole lot has happened, good rides and bad rides, some good lessons and some not so good lessons, some very grown-up big kid work out the mare, some complete baby moments where she lost her mind. 

I'm a big kid now...maybe

We had one lesson where my fear and insecurity took control.  Mare felt spooky and was convinced she had to run in one particular spot in the ring.  It was tracking left, as we came around a corner and went on the rail between a jump on the quarter line and the arena fence.  Every single time she'd drop her butt, throw her head, and try to leap forward.  I regressed to a complete beginner, including curling up in the fetal position while grabbing her mouth, thinking we were going to die.  My trainer ended up hand walking us around the ring till I was completely mortified and calmed down.  We did eventually manage to trot twice around the arena without any hysterics on both the mare's and my part before calling it a day.  The big thing that helped, when I remembered, was to breathe and not grab her face when she wanted to explode.  If I let her go a stride or two without getting on her case, she would stop on her own.  It's just so very hard to break that instinct to hold on for dear life.

Soon after that lesson her favorite spot to spook became next to the tree of doom!!!

But since then, minus the spooking at the tree of doom, we've had a couple good lessons.  We've set up placing poles before and after the jumps to help slow the mare down and make her think instead of just hauling ass to and away from the jumps. I'm splitting my rides between the jump and dressage saddles but I think McKenna's learned that the jump tack = jumping = fun! so I'm going to do more flat work/non jumping rides in the jump saddle.  Have to mix it up and keep her on her toes.  We've had some nice dressage work and got our first steps of actual leg yield in the trot going left.  Hopefully in the next month we'll be able to have a lesson with TS and continue on.

It always makes me laugh looking at his big belly and super long stick legs. He really should be hand shorter than he is.

Phoenix is very fat and very happy. I've been out to see him a few times but hadn't run into PO for awhile till this weekend.  She apologized for getting my horse fat but I'd rather him be that way than skinny, especially at 20. I talked with her about cutting back his feed and poor pony is only going to be getting half the alfalfa he was getting before.  I'm such a mean mommy.

All The Poles

I'm apologizing in advance for big pics with no captions. Blame mobile blogger. Also pics are from last week as there's no photographic proof of my lesson.

After last weekend's canter pole excitement I was determined that we could show off our fancy new skills in our lesson this week. Unfortunately right as my lesson started it began to rain and we had to move inside. While McKenna is normally better behaved inside (not as many distractions and/or spooky things), doing poles/jumps inside tends to make her more nervous. 

I had warmed up prior to trainer's arrival so we trotted a lap or two while she set poles (one on each long side) for us. We started cantering just one of them and halting on a straight line. Mare got a bit strong but after she bumped her nose into the wall she realized stopping was a good thing. We then moved on to cantering a circle after the pole really exaggerating the bend because she was convinced she was a motorcycle.

After we proved we could go both ways trainer used our little rail raisers and put one of the poles up to 1' and told me to go for it. Our first canter fence! McKenna didn't realize "the jump went up" and demolished it the first time. But after that she was foot perfect. 

Towards the end of the lesson she had a tantrum because she was tired and done. She started flinging her head and her bonnet was flapping up and down. It was pretty funny and distracted me from gettting mad or picking a fight with her about her head. I was told to just stay steady and ride her through it and she finally quit. 

Leaps and Bounds

Last Saturday I started McKenna on MagRestore, a magnesium supplement that she was on with her old owner.  Magnesium deficient horses tend to be hot, unfocused, nervous, and can't stop moving.  Basically all typical OTTB traits.  When McKenna came to us, she was so calm and relaxed we thought she was drugged.  Since then she's gotten hotter and more ADD when being worked.  They told us that she was on this supplement, but I wanted to see how she was off it.  While she's not "bad", I do think the MagRestore really helped quiet her down.  My barn owner wanted to try it on a couple of her horses so we went in together and bought a big tub of it.

Right now they are on a loading dose, but I can see that McKenna's starting to respond to it.  She doesn't need as much lunging before we work as she did a week ago.  She still tends to be a bit ADD, and isn't as relaxed as she was the first day, but I can see a difference.  Hopefully she'll continue to get better.

And as far as working her, she's been great.  I lunged her in my barn owner's lunging draw reins for the first time this week.  The lunging draw reins are tighter and work them a bit more than the side reins so I was a little nervous at to how she'd react.  She didn't care at all and seemed to figure out what was expected of her pretty quick.  We'll start working them into the weekly routine from here on out.

A bunch of poles had been set up in the outdoor arena so after our work in the lunging draw reins I took her outside and lunged over poles.  A circle of death was set up and we started with that.  Again, McKenna didn't care and while she got a little rushed and wasn't totally straight or in the center of the poles she went around really well.  We then moved on to a set of three poles and she rocked it.  Went over then like she does it every day.  My friend convinced me to set up a little vertical and see how she did, so I did.  She obviously isn't sure what to do with her legs, and got a little nervous and rushy after the jump, but relaxed after a few tries.

I promise she has a head