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!

Jump ALL the Things

I think McKenna's latest meltdowns have been in part because I'm asking her to work harder like a grown up pony and adulting is hard, and that we've been focusing on dressage and haven't done any poles/jumping in I can't remember when.  The mare's brain has been slightly fried so this past week was focusing on jumping all the things.

Last Monday I decided to lunge her first in the vienna reins then over a cavalletti. I started it small, about 6", then moved it up to 18" then 2'.  Back and forth each way trotting and cantering at each height till she was able to chill and do it nicely.  I then adjusted it to make an oxer, going right since that's her easier direction.  She didn't bat an eye at it and while she tends to go from the long spots, she had no trouble over the baby 2'3" fence.

I like this one because it looks like she's doing some fancy jazz dance step with her hind end.

Tuesday was our now weekly jump lesson.  I'm committing to at least one lesson a week thru the summer.  I definitely realize that I need help figuring out a well rounded riding plan for Miss McKenna and in the two I've already had there's been great improvement.  Like last time we started inside with some w-t-c.  She was a bit strong in the canter but really turning my body to the inside and lots of little half halts helped.  We then went outside and trainer had me immediately go over the little crossrails set up from the previous lesson.

The first time McKenna didn't know what was coming and trotted over them no problem. But once she realized what we were doing she promptly ignored me and attempted to run at the fences.  We did some circling before the fences to make her think we weren't jumping and it kinda worked.  Trainer then had me walk down the rain and start trotting once we turned onto our approach.  The mare was still strong, but waited for the most part. 


McKenna got Wednesday and Thursday off and Friday I set some poles up in the indoor since it was raining.  We trotted back and forth and she was great so I added a crossrail after the poles.  Again the first time she was caught unaware by the jump and hopped over it no problem.  The following times she wanted to get strong and stumbled a bit through the poles.  She ended up figuring it out and I think I'll continue with the placing poles before the fences.  The more I can get her thinking about her feet and slowing her down, the better!

Kick On

McKenna and I had a lesson Tuesday night with our jump trainer that was a continuation of McKenna's current "I don't wanna, I don't like it" trend.  Poor mare seems to be going through some teenage rebellion and growing pains. 

We were put right to work on a circle asking for a forward trot.  Trainer thinks I've gotten too worried about where her head is and getting her round, and that we need to take a step back and get our flow back.  The trot was actually pretty decent, she was just a bit harder to get going and soft tracking left than right.  The training wheel really came off in our canter work.  We'd canter a circle or two then McKenna decided she was done and would break to the trot.  Being the nice mom that I am, I would let her, then trot around till we had a nice soft trot and ask for the canter again.  Trainer said McKenna was very easily taking advantage and I needed to nip it in the bud.  As soon as I started to feel her break in the canter I was to kick on and boot her forward.  Forget about it being pretty, or soft, or where her head was, she needed to go until I said stop.

But she's too cute to get mad at

It's not like she's out of shape or unconditioned to canter more than two circles in a row.  She just doesn't want to.  She did protest with some head flinging and a couple little hops the first time I got after her, but got over much better than she did her tantrum on Sunday.  Baby steps for the teenager.

We had been riding inside (and sharing the ring with a western pleasure rider) but trainer wanted to see how she'd be outside and work on some trot poles.  It had been raining off and on all day but was currently not raining so we headed out.  The ring was wet, with some little puddles but McKenna's a PNW born-n-bred pony so she didn't care at all. We started trotting around and of course it starts sprinkling but trainer made us stay out there.  McKenna was more up and alert outside but I was told to not worry about it, just get her going forward and focus on the trot poles.  The poles were set at about a stride and half and my job was make her wait and add for the two.

Gimme cookies

It for sure wasn't our prettiest trips through poles but that wasn't the goal.  We did four or five trips through the poles, fitting in the two steps, and each time got better.  McKenna was still not as round and soft as she could have been but she was listening and not taking off or being naughty, even when it started raining harder and we were going directly into it.  She did lay her ears flat back and hump her back up but I kicked on, and she went through the poles and halted nicely after. Yay mare! 

Let it Go and Just Breathe

McKenna and I had a lesson Tuesday night. It had been storming off and on all day Tuesday, but our outdoor arena was usable. My trainer had another lesson before mine so as I was getting ready to tack up she said that we would be outside. I've never ridden McKenna outside in the wet arena, and with a little chill in the air I was a nervous wreck thinking about how naughty she had been the previous week and what she would be like that night. Note to self: don't psych yourself out before the lesson begins!

I had turned her out in the indoor for a good hour before my lesson, hoping she'd get some of her energy out.  She was pretty relaxed and chill getting tacked up, if a bit confused as to why she had to work when it was dinner time.  But once we hit the outdoor arena she puffed right up and felt super explosive.  I'm pretty sure I had a terrified expression on my face because my trainer said to head inside and that we'd start in there.   I put the mare on the lunge line and let her play a bit, not that she did anything, while my trainer finished up her previous lesson.

At least she looks cute

To start the lesson my trainer had us do lots of transitions by calling out different gaits, never letting us go too long in one before switching or changing directions.  It kept both McKenna and I off balance, which worked in keeping me from anticipating and her from building up too much.  I would have expected it to do the opposite, but that's why I'm not a pro.  We had some decent w-t-c work, not our best but definitely not as bad as last week.  My trainer told me that my mantra should be "just breathe", and that I was holding my breath and tensing up.  And when I'm tense, the mare's going to be tense.

Trainer then wanted to go back outside and conquer our demons.  No getting away with an ok ride and not doing the scary things under her watch.  So back out we went.  She had me put McKenna right to work, doing leg yields and breathing while she set some trot poles.  She set them a little short and the first time we approached I felt McKenna think about just jumping all three at once.  I was told to breathe, half halt, then let go.  And what you know, it worked!  Once I relaxed, asked McKenna to slow down, then released and let her, she did.  Our other big take away from the lesson was to let go.  If I continuously hold her mouth, she's going to pull right back at me and we'll get into a tug of war.  She's not a complete baby anymore that needs her hand held or constant re-balancing.

We did a few trot pole courses, two outside lines and the diagonal lines, never doing the same thing twice.  Trainer reiterated what TS told me at our last dressage lesson, McKenna's too smart and knows when she's done something right.  I can't keep drilling her, I have to constantly switch it up.  We ended by cantering circles at the top and bottom of the ring and trotting in between.  The mare wanted to get uppity, but somehow we managed to keep it together. It's hard to trust that she's going to be good when she keeps feeling explosive but other than feeling that way she didn't do anything naughty.  Forward baby steps are still better than backwards steps.

Death by Trot Poles

In a continuation of the simple-but-oh-so-hard exercises I had a lesson on Tia Sunday that kicked both of our asses. I had been talking with my trainer at the beginning of the lesson about the clinic and joked that she'd have me do an all trot fence/pole lesson and while she laughed and said no, I managed to jinx us.

Tia is not a super fan of trot fences.  She likes to either loose all forward impulsion and then kinda collapse over them or canter the last stride before the jump.  It's a balancing act between enough leg to keep her forward but not get her cantering, and supporting with your hand but not holding her. Since she's such a schoolmaster she knows we do a couple trot fences then move on to the funner, bigger stuff so she kinda checks out during warmup.

We were to start warming up over three small verticals, at the trot, a single outside, singe diagonal, then an inside rollback to an outside. The first fence actually was pretty decent but she wasn't convinced she had to come back to the trot for the other fences.  She did canter before the diagonal and our rollback left a lot to be desired.  Trainer then had us just focus on the rollback, making sure I was looking early and asking for the left lead to make the turn easier.  Tia then decided to get twisted and drift sideways to the last fence so we got a placing pole to help keep us straight.

Accurate representation of us

While the turn and approach to the last fence got easier, the mare kept rocket launching the tiny jumps.  So trainer put out a placing pole before the jumps. Didn't faze Tia any, she just launched from farther away or did a super short canter stride between the pole and the jump. At this point both my trainer and I were laughing that the point-and-shoot horse was having a fit over such a simple exercise and I repeated that we were going to spend the whole lesson on trot fences.

We got more placing poles before the jumps and Tia completely lost it.  She stopped and (very slowly) ran out of our line of 3 placing poles. It felt like she had no idea what to do or where to put her feet. Coming back around to the diagonal I really had to hold her hand and support  her, hands up and plenty of contact and a supporting leg. It took her many, many tries with some, as my trainer said, truly terrible jumps.  A few times it felt like she straddled the fence with her front feet on one side and her back end on the other. I've never had so many bad distances in one lesson.  Once she finally she figured out the trot poles and we could trot the two fences nicely we quit. We had spent almost a full hour on those two, seemingly simple fences.  The poor mare was super sweaty and look exhausted so she got a nice warm bath and turned out into our all weather paddocks for the rest of the day.