It's a March Miracle

For the past month or so cantering on the right lead has been pretty damn awful.  Turning to go up the long side of the arena by the barn is especially bad.  I know part of the problem is I tense and anticipate, which causes Peebs to tense, but that's only a small part of it.  I knew getting his teeth done would help, and when the vet suggested I call the chiropractor I did.  TS came out last week and Peebs was a mess.  Dropped right in his poll (why it feels like he tilts his nose left), locked in the neck, and dropped right in the hip.  I once again felt like an awful pony mom.  From now on whenever we have major issues going right the chiro will be my first call.

I did an easy ride the day after the chiro appointment then was gone for the weekend. When I got back I was slammed with work and didn't get to ride till Wednesday.  We were stuck in the indoor since it was raining but Peebs felt pretty damn good.  So good that I had to drop my whip. I was trying to focus on what my trainer had said in our last lesson, getting up in front of my leg and lots of changes of bend and direction.

Miracle of miracles we can canter up the long side without being an asshole!! #🦄 #norunningaway #noheadtossing #nocounterbend

A post shared by Molly Basney (@mollybasney) on Mar 30, 2017 at 5:47pm PDT

Yesterday I rode outside and OMG Peebs was amazing.  Absolutely the best canter right in a long time.  He was forward, but listening, didn't get counter bent or twisted, and didn't try to bolt up the long side.  I had on the teens video us, figuring it would jinx us, but nope, he was still great.  Our canter left felt great too; it was so soft and easy.  I can't wait to jump him today and see how he feels. 

ALL the Cookies

Cookies come from this room

Peebs earned himself ALL the brownie points and ALL the cookies in our lesson on Thursday.  He was relaxed, quiet, and happily went around trotting in and cantering out of the lines.  Made me feel super confident for our show this weekend. 

This is my "You're going to land on your left lead damn it!" position

We did have a couple little bobbles.  We were supposed to trot in and trot out of a bending line, and I asked too politely and he kept cantering.  About half way down the line I gave in and let him canter on.  It was a nice line, flowed well and looked good but I wast told to not let him get away with that.  We fixed it the next go round.  Our second oops was when he tripped coming into the outside line and it felt like he almost fell over the little plank at the first fence.  It doesn't look as bad as it felt on the video.  Isn't that always how it goes...

Grid Work Round 2

On Wednesday I was way too motivated and rode both Tia and McKenna after work.  I did Tia first and let McKenna get her crazies out in one of the outdoor paddocks.  Before I got on I added another fence to the one stride from last time.  I had it set as a crossrail, one stride, crossrail, one stride pole to begin so I didn't overwhelm the big mare.

Switching the stirrups on Tia's new saddle really helped.  My ankles weren't dying, I was able to keep my leg quieter and underneath me better. When we first started over the grid I wasn't staying up in two point long enough after the fence, kept sitting down too soon but that got better as we went along.   We did the two crossrails a couple times to make sure she was good and I had the distances set right.



This is her staring at the photographer and trying to land and go sideways

I got off and put the last fence up to vertical.  Coming to it the first time I felt Tia look at it and hesitate and we lost our impulsion to the first fence. I legged her on and held mane.  One of the bet things about Tia is that she might not know what you're asking, but she'll try.  She'll look at something and hesitate if she's not sure, but as long as her rider is confident and supporting she'll go for it.  We had a bit of a leap to the last fence, but coming around to it a second time she figured it out and adjusted herself.  We did the whole thing probably 5 times and each go was better than before. 




She's just so darn cute!  I however need to fix my chicken wing elbow.

At least until I asked my friend to video.  She stood pretty much directly in front of the line, along the back rail of the ring and Tia looked at her hard coming into the line. She backed off, and ended up rubbing all three fences.  When we landed she took about a stride then ducked around the turn to make sure we didn't run over the photographer. I made her come back a second time and we ironed everything out.

Turning a Fail into a Win

We've had a pretty mild winter this year, drier, warmer, and sunnier than normal.  The weather was foggy in the morning all last week, but would burn off in the afternoons.  I rode McKenna on Thursday, starting inside because she had had a few days off.  She was good, a little excited but listened to me and offered no baby moments.  It was sunny and I hadn't worked her outside for a few weeks so outside we went.

I had heard the neighbor's lawn mower going, but McKenna has to grow up and deal with distractions at some point.  Right as we walked outside one boarder pulled up and then one of the 4H girls' dad drove up in his work rig, a big excavating truck.  The boarder tends to leaver her border collie in the cab of the truck when she's at the barn and McKenna's spooked pretty hard at him barking and running around the cab before.  Then the neighbors started their tractor and were grateing new gravel for their driveway. 

I decided to hand walk McKenna around the ring a few times till she stopped looking like a deer in the headlights then got on.  She was so tense and obviously distracted but she couldn't decide what was scariest. We did another two laps at the walk then I got off and told her she was good pony for not freaking out or trying to kill me.

She says "I wasn't scared". Don't believe her.

Friday I was able to get off work early and get out to the barn to ride in the sun again.  She seemed to be calm so instead of starting inside then going out, we just headed to the outdoor.  But again, right when we walked down the barn aisle one boarder's horse (the same one with the barking dog) ran out of its stall.  Luckily she was right there and caught the horse but her other horse, in the stall next to the escapee, started rearing and freaking out.  So of course McKenna freaked out and bye, bye cool and calm pony.

I threw her on the lunge and she spent  about five minutes being a complete spaz and running till she was blowing.  Once she came back to reality she was pretty lazy and just loped along so I stopped her, got on, and put her right to work.  Lots of circles, figure 8s, transitions to get her baby brain focused.  She was still tense, but didn't really pull anything naughty.  We finished by trotting over a little pile of poles and a small cavaletti.

I got lucky Saturday and other than my BO doing some spring cleaning of tack and blankets I had the barn to myself.  A quick lunge and I got on outside.  She was much more relaxed and willing so we did a quick walk-trot including the pole piles and cavaletti before cantering.  We did a few circles then added cantering the pile of poles.  This is only the second or third time cantering poles and every time before she would be strong/rushy/nervous/a baby.  But yesterday she was quiet and calm about it.  Even when I couldn't find a distance and sat there like a lump she just quietly figured it out and kept going.  My BO said she was looking great and I was able to convince her to video us with my phone.

She still needs some strengthening in the canter, especially going left, but that will come.  I'm just so happy we went from beyond freaked out baby on Thursday to quiet, calm pony on Saturday.

Good Times All Around

Despite the tension/drama in the barn after 4H Fair, both Anna and I had great lessons yesterday.  Anna's still nervous about cantering/jumping Phoenix since she was bucked off a few months ago but is slowly making progress.  They worked on transitions, trot poles, and finding a rhythm. Jen was having Anna count out loud while cantering around and relaxing into him.  It worked because by the end of the lesson Anna was cantering cross rails!! 


I love how soft and relaxed her hand is!



 

Buddy was convinced he shouldn't have to work for my lesson and was pretty lazy during our warm up.  We had to do the same 3 stride line from last week, but they jumps were tiny.  Bud put no effort into them and I was chasing him down the line. We almost took out one of the barn cats too, she kept walking around the jumps and at one point was winding herself around Buddy's legs as I stopped to talk to Jen.

His not impressed face

We then worked on a triple Jen had had me set up; a two to a two.  We started with the first two fences and once we got that Jen added the third.  Again, Buddy lacked motivation coming into the line but it still flowed really well.  Jen had me take a single fence before going to the line to help with our rhythm but I don't think it really did that much good.

Jen took some video with her phone, and of course that time Buddy decided to forget about his lead changes.  We went back and fixed them then called it quits.

We're going to try again to do a lesson on the school horse mare next week since the farrier wasn't able to get out to do her feet in time.


Honeymoon is Over

After almost two weeks, our honeymoon with the pelham is over.  Buddy was very sensitive in my lesson yesterday, tossing his head and not wanting to give.  He was still better than he was in the slow twist but not as good as he has been.  Oh well, such is horses.

Jen was having me ride with a loop in my reins and thinking about squeezing my hands closed for the half halts instead of pulling back.  It was so hard to have loopy reins and for the whole lesson my hands were my main focus.  It went better than I thought it would, and he softened and relaxed by the end.  Since my hands and elbows tend to be my weak areas (when I get nervous I lock my elbows and shorten my reins) I was really proud of myself for working thru it.

After warming up we worked on a line that should have been a 5, but we didn't have the pony power and went for a 6.  The approach to the first fence was short and uphill, and combined with our hand/bit issue I just couldn't get him forward enough for the 5.  Once we got a couple nice 6's with a somewhat happy pony we moved on to a bending line in 4.   For the most part it was pretty nice, as long as I had him forward to the first fence.

We did the bending line a few times then Jen wanted me to do a rollback to a 3'ish oxer. I wasn't too sure we could do, we would have to turn immediately upon landing I was sure I would pull on his mouth too much and piss him off.  The first, and second, time we took the outside turn and it was pretty nice.  I didn't even care that the oxer looked big. 

Ignore crappy cell phone quality.  The inside turn was before the red oxer

 

To compromise, Jen put the oxer down to a vertical and had me do the inside turn.  The first few tries were awful, he hid protest the sharp turn and I lost our impulsion.  We did manage a couple good times thru and called it quits with that.

Summer is here!

It's finally stopped raining every other day, and Rick and Connie were able to get the last repairs done on the pasture fencing, so ponies are going out 24/7 now!  Buddy and Zoe seem to be in love, and are currently pasture mates.  Phoenix is going out with another gelding, but since Phoenix can be Houdini-like he's coming in to one of the all weather paddocks at night. Right now, there's enough grass so the ponies doesn't get fed hay (Phoenix does get a couple flakes at night) and for the moment, Buddy and Zoe have had their grain cut back to just enough to mix in their joint supplements. 

I jumped Bud tonight; just set up a couple fence and kept it simple.  I had one of the other girls video and was able to get a couple cute still shots from it.  Unfortunately we had a couple issues, as seen in the video, but I know what we did wrong and how to fix it.

We were a little behind the pace to the first fence, and I felt like I had to hold him to the short spot while keeping my leg on.  The second fence....oops.  I was thinking right leg, right leg, right leg and about two strides away remembered to pick up my left rein.  At least we still made it over!  The oxer was pretty nice.  We were a little short to it, but it felt good.

I'm going out of town till Monday, so both Bud and Zoe will just hang out in the pasture till then.  It's perfect timing!