Saturday Riding

I rode Dandy today to prep him for our lesson tomorrow.  When I went to the barn Thursday evening, I discovered that he had a 11" by 1" scrape on the inside of his right flank.  There was also a four inch scratch lower on his rear cannon bone that had bled.  His leg was slightly swollen.  I figure he must have been rolling and stuck his leg through the fence and then yanked it out scraping his whole leg.  It wasn't terribly serious, but I got a bit upset that it could have been much worse.

Today, the swelling was entirely gone, so I practiced cantering and counter-cantering, trotting figure eights and ten meter circles and simple lead changes.  He's getting really good at changing leads.  In fact, I don't have the bring him back to the trot.  When we're cantering on one lead and I push with my inside leg and bend him the other direction, he takes a trot step and then jumps right back into the canter on the other lead.  I hope we'll get to work on flying lead changes soon...

I took him over a single crossrail about a dozen times in both directions, and he seemed to be moving out really well.  Thursday night, he was a bit short at the canter with his leg sore.  This was the test to see if he's ready for a lesson tomorrow.

Paige is giving me a group jumping lesson along with a few other girls around my age at the barn.  She said that when they did a group lesson over Christmas break, she had them switch horses halfway through, so they could feel what it was like to ride another horse.  If I let someone else ride Dandy, I'm worried I'll never get him back!

Lesson at LCCC

Dandy and I had our first lesson at Laramie County Community College on Sunday morning.  It started at 9am, which meant that I had to leave the house at 6am to get down to Loveland, load Dandy and bring him up to Cheyenne.  The whole time I was thinking it had better be worth it, and it totally was!

Dandy loaded without any trouble, though he was not pleased when I threw a winter blanket on him just before loading.  He was so upset by the strange blanket that he rested his head on my shoulder for almost a minute to calm down.  He went in the trailer the first time I asked, but I unloaded and loaded him about five times before shutting the door just for practice.  I was worried he might think he was setting off on another 9-day road trip.

When we arrived at the indoor arena, which was HUGE (I'll get some pics at my next lesson), Dandy was agitated.  I tacked him up as quick as I could, brought him in the building and tied him up with a row of horses.  The instructor, Suzy, had everyone introduce themselves and say why we had signed up.  She's originally from San Diego and her expertise is mainly dressage.  She told us that she is into yoga, which was evident in the lesson that followed.

Suzy taught us a breathing exercise and had us practice for a while on the ground.  Then we brought our horses in the arena (which is so big it had arena seating) and mounted up.  We mostly just walked, clearing our heads and practicing breathing.  This was surprisingly difficult for me, because I realized that I have been concentrating so hard on my riding position recently that it was difficult to only think about breathing.

I have improved my position tremendously in the past few months according to Paige, but I discovered that all I think about while riding is where my heels, toes, calves, seat, hands, shoulders and eyes are. This was a bit upsetting.  I've been working so hard to be a model riding student that I've become obsessed in the head.

It wasn't until about 45 minutes into the lesson and after a long talk with Suzy that I finally calmed down and only thought about breathing.  We spent the whole lesson just walking, but it was kind of exhausting breathing so deeply.  Dandy calmed way down, and I let him have a very loose rein.  He seemed much more relaxed than he usually is. After the lesson, I loaded and unloaded Dandy a few more times without difficulty and headed home.

It wasn't till yesterday that I felt the full benefits of the lesson.  I went down to ride Dandy last night and it was like we could do no wrong.  I used the breathing mainly during the warm up instead of taking that time to force myself into the perfect position.  He seemed enthusiastic and energetic, and everything we practiced (even the counter cantering) we got right the first time.

I quit riding after only 30 minutes, because I felt like we did everything so well.  Even though I wasn't thinking about my position constantly during the ride, it looked correct in the arena mirrors.  Maybe I'm starting to get a feel for the correct position so I can actually relax and let muscle memory take control, but I think the breathing exercise definitely cleared my head so I gave clearer signals.

My next lesson at LCCC is the Sunday after next, so I'm going to keep practicing like a good little student until then.  I think that these lessons will help to balance out all that I'm learning in my lessons with Paige.  I guess it wouldn't be worth all that driving if it was more of the same.

Dandy gets a midwinter bath

Counter Cantering and a classic Dandy move

Paige introduced us to something entirely new in our lesson today: the counter canter.  Not to say that I have never cantered on the opposite lead to the direction I'm traveling before (that's happened plenty!), but I've never done it deliberately.

I've been working a lot on bending Dandy as we travel around the arena. While trotting, I bend him outward for a side, then inward on the next side and then straighten him out for the next two sides. This is how my gummy worm horse is learning to finally walk a straight line.  He spent most of his years of professional training in a round pen where straight lines were not a requirement.  

Today, we stepped up this bending from a trot to a canter.  It wasn't challenging to get him to bend to the outside while cantering on a circle, because he's so flexible.  The hard part was convincing him that he should pick up the lead to match that outward bend.

Dandy spent the past two years in Alaska with mom, who loves to ride but has no interest in high-speed maneuvers.  During my first few lessons with Paige, he had to relearn the signal for picking up a canter on the correct lead.  Unfortunately, when you give Dandy a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

He tries so hard to please that when I signaled him for a counter canter using my inside leg instead of my outside leg, he was scandalized.  He gave the typical Arabian signs of shock: toss head and tail, snort and repeat. But despite his initial shock he did what he was told and cantered around the arena bent to the outside on the matching lead.

I swear I could fold Dandy up like a pretzel and give him the same old signal and get the same result.  If he was a human, a fitting career choice would have been circus contortionist.  In fact, he was bent so far to the outside (his choice) while counter cantering that I had to straighten him out a bit.  He seems to enjoy deliberately over-flexing in any direction.

After trying this out both directions, we cantered on the regular lead in both directions. Knowing Dandy, he would try to counter canter every time for the rest of his life if I didn't remind him about cantering on the inside lead.

We moved on to jumping next, and Dandy jumped 2'3"!  It wasn't a crossrail so Dandy, after knocking it down the first time, had to really lift up his legs.  He's getting much better at timing his approach to jumps at the canter.

Dandy had one naughty moment this lesson. He's been feeling good since I raised his grain last week. While cantering down the long side of the arena approaching one of the giant mirrors, Dandy pulled one of his classic moves (that got him deported from Alaska). Upon seeing his reflection for the hundredth time today, he suddenly jumped sideways about ten feet.  Fortunately, I was sitting on him pretty securely and was able to do a quick one rein stop, but I could have killed him and would have if he had dumped me! You made the smart choice sending him to me, Mom.

Tomorrow, I'm taking Dandy to a two-hour lesson at Laramie County Community College here in Cheyenne. They have a huge indoor arena, so I signed up for spring lessons.  It's going to be a large group of riders, but I think it will be good for him to see new horses, try a new arena and get some travel under his belt (besides his traumatic journeys to and from Alaska).

We are planning on competing in the crossrail class at our first schooling show on February 20.

First lesson back

We had our first lesson since returning from Christmas break on Saturday morning.  I was dreading it, because I didn't want to feel like we had regressed. Paige didn't give us any break after two weeks off.  It was exhausting for both Dandy and me, but we didn't seem to have lost any ground in our jumping progress. 

We practiced riding without stirrups quite a bit.  Also, Paige has devised a torturous exercise where I can only use one stirrup.  It's even worse than trying to post without any stirrups, because it's hard to keep your balance in the center of the horse.

Paige had me try out a new stretch in two-point intended to improve my position and strength over jumps.  She made me trot around the arena in two point.  About every 20 steps, I stretched my arms up Dandy's neck toward his ears and close my hip angle so I was almost laying on his neck.  I wasn't allowed to actually rest my upper body on his neck. From that position, I had to raise myself back up into two-point using only my core strength and without rounding my back.  I was really terrible at this! I definitely need to do my pilates video more often.

After these medieval exercises, we were finally allowed to jump.  Paige set up a series of gymnastics, which are jumps that are only the length of a canter stride apart.  This keeps horses on their toes, because once they land from the first jump they have to immediately jump again and again.  Dandy still needs lots of work on his timing while jumping.

When I jump more than one jump in a row, Paige has me widen my hands so the reins form a V down to the bit.  That way I can catch Dandy if he tries to run out on the jump in either direction. 

He was a bit nervous at first, but I sat really upright in the drive up to the gymnastics maintaining his momentum, and then I was light with my seat and hands over the jumps while he hopped through. The middle jump was a crossrail and he always jumps much higher and fuller over those.  It felt like hop-JUMP-hop the first few times, so we worked on evening his pace through the gymnastics to jump-jump-jump. 

Whenever we begin jumping in a lesson, Dandy starts off nervous and tries to run out on jumps, but after a few times, he gets really excited about jumping.  I think he feels intimidated, but when he remembers how easy it is, he starts to have fun.  It feels great to have my horse so eager to work!  It reminds me of pole bending runs with Cat.

First ride back

Thursday, I rode for the first time since abandoning Dandy for Christmas in Alaska. We had a breakthrough the day before I left, jumping over two feet in a riding lesson.  I wouldn't call our ride this week much of a "breakthrough" but at least I took the edge off a bit in prep for our lesson this morning.

I should have know Thursday was a bit too cold to ride.  Even with an indoor arena, Dandy was the only horse out of the 80 at the ranch whose owner was crazy enough to be riding.  I wore three pairs of pants and four tops.  I felt like a marshmallow, a marshmallow with no feeling in its extremities. 

Despite all this, we practiced walk, trot and canter transitions and turns.  It was hardly a workout for Dandy, but I was fearful of him breaking a sweat due to the cold.

Dandy spooked a bunch at random things.  I thought we had worked past spooking, but I guess a few weeks vacation was enough for him to forget all common sense.  He was especially bothered by the arena mirrors.  At one point while trotting, he was so astonished by his own image that he screeched to a halt and nickered.

So this ride wasn't much of a success, but if he behaves in his lesson later today, it will have the desired result.