Cavaletti (and pig) of Doom

Apologies for the following lesson summaries with zero media. But lots of fun exercises! Thanks to Amanda for the title inspiration. 

Last Friday, Butterball and I had a great lesson. We started out with a single ground pole on a trot circle. And even with the one ground pole I could feel him suck back to sort out his feet. Hmmm. Okay, good move EM. Once we got the single pole flowing by moving forward rather than slowing down we started cantering. Predictably that showed the same problem. But speeding up feet doesn't mean taking the long spot. So there's that. 

Then we moved to a single cavaletti at the canter, keeping the same curve and pace. We practiced aiming for the outside stripe by leg yielding out to it. That kept me from making the side of the circle with the cavaletti flat. Next we compressed a bit and aimed for the inside stripe. He's not strong enough to do a bunch of the inside stripe in a row right now, so we alternated between inside and outside stripe. Phew. 

I honestly felt exhausted by this point, but we persisted. We moved on to stringing a few jumps together, all with poles 2-4 strides out from them. Ride the canter to the pole with that leg yielding out feel to keep an inside bend. Then let him figure the rest out, that is his job. And it went great. We did one through at a lower height then she raised them up a bit. That went swimmingly as well, so she asked if I wanted to try it without the poles. I was completely wiped out by that point though and he was being very, very good, so I said no. (Wow, look, maturity on my part, quitting while we're ahead)

I did ask her to clarify some about seeing a distance vs micro managing him. She said with this better turning and prep I would be able to see distances further and further out and we'd have a canter that we could either lengthen or shorten to get there smoothly. She also said sometimes I'd miss and he needed a good, soft canter and willingness to be quick with his feet to fix those misses. That's what we are trying to cultivate. She said it more eloquently than that, but that's my interpretation to get down the gist of it. 

The next morning I loaded the very good pony up in the dark to head to Sweet Dixie to do canter sets. It had FINALLY rained Friday night, but since we're headed to Stable View this Friday I didn't want to take any chances with his feet and lime rock. Plus Sweet Dixie has hills. 

Our canter sets for this week were 5 minutes a piece. That was a lot for both of us. Also I should've studded him since he slid a little bit on the downhills. We just settled for taking those much slower. 

Monday we went back to EM's for another lesson. This time a new cavaletti exercise was set up on the short side of the arena. Ground pole, three strides to a bounce of cavaletti, three strides to another ground pole. To the right we eased through it just fine. To the left I COULD NOT turn after the last ground pole and most often we were landing from the bounces on the right lead instead of the left. EM and I identified that I am collapsing down through my left side while throwing my weight into my right stirrup and pulling him off balance. Think about lengthening the left side of my body and then it all got better. 

We were about to jump a course when the pig who lives at the barn appeared. Butterball has met the pig before, but had a meltdown then too and seemed like he might jump out of the stall. He could've dealt on Monday, except just as he was coming to terms with the pig's existence on the hill by the arena, the danged thing moved. And then he couldn't again. We did a few circles and tried to put together a bit of a course. He pinged right through the one strides in spite of atrocious distances to them because he was flat out bolting out of the corners. It was... something. Not really practice for riding the horse I usually have. Plus his nice KK loose ring has zero stopping power when porcine species are involved it seems. 

I'd never seen him this upset 

Poor stressed Butters

We decided to put him up for an hour and let him calm down. I tried putting him in a stall, but he felt trapped there and that was a poor plan. I brought him back out and hosed him and tried to get him to graze at a distance from the pig. An hour later he was no more calm than he had been, so we tabled it and planned for a Wednesday redo. I certainly was not the model of calmness and encouragement that he needed either, I'd never dealt with this version of him, which isn't really an excuse. I mentally regrouped and made plans to arrive an hour early on Wednesday. 

EM locked the pig up immediately when we arrived on Wednesday. But when we pulled in, the pig was on the hill, vaguely in view of the trailer. I have never thought that the back part of the trailer with the top doors open but ramp still up looked inviting to leave over until I watched Butterball basically fling himself from one side to the other while panicking about the pig. I had come armed with a pocket full of cookies though and kept shoving them into his mouth until I got the ramp down and him off the trailer. We then made a circuit of the ring, stopping frequently for snacks. By the time I got on he was much more himself. Anything pig shape/height on the ground was still cause for suspicion, but he was able to put his brain back in gear and cautiously investigate things rather than flat out panicking. I was also able to be more patient, calm, and encouraging. 

It was amazing how lengthening the left side of my body helped with the walk leg yields we did to ease over to the scarier edges of the ring. I've ALWAYS had a hard time leg yielding to the right. Once I lengthened the left side of my body while maintaining even weight in the seat bones, the right leg yields were just as easy as the left. Crazy. I've asked multiple trainers about this problem and never gotten a satisfactory answer, I must have been doing it so subtly that no one could pick up on it till EM found the hole while jumping/turning. 

The cavaletti exercise for Wednesday was another deceivingly simple but not at all simple cavaletti with a slightly rolled out ground rail placed in the corner. Just canter smoothly over it as part of a big circle. Easy peasy, yes? The first time we came around the corner, keeping the feel of leg yielding out and completely lost it over the cavaletti. He swapped from left to right lead and ricocheted out of the ring. Oops. Okay, keep the feel of circling. The next couple of times to the left were better. To the right it was pretty easy. We then moved on to a course and put together 8 jumps relatively nicely. The last line was a five to a one, and we got down to a tight five. I realized on about stride three that I should've sat up a bit more in between, but he still popped willingly through the one stride from the tighter spot. We cleaned that up and then called it a day to save some Butteriness for the upcoming weekend at Stable View . 

Headed to get a drink after returning home. Peep the nice long streak of hair he took off his butt for no good reason. At least he didn't actually cut himself though. 

Foto Friday: Majestic Oaks

I can never resist the galloping golden pony 

Photos by Lisa Madren 

Wednesday (Water) Walks

Butterball and I went back to Dinner pond two weeks ago. We started with some fitness work: 

And then moved on to the best part, the splish splashing. I had my phone in my pocket in a ziploc bag and every time the bag crinkled he thought he was getting a cookie. 

Starting the fitness work

Close to the end, we made a nice little loop (ft the lime rock showing through that probably bruised his feet)

This was a not fully thought out trip so I didn't have his normal rope hackamore in the trailer, but we made do with Goggle's rope halter and long line, creatively placed. And just went bareback without the pad this time

Pretty view of the water between his ears

Took such a long drink after the conditioning work, happy pony

We shared dinner pond with some vultures. Who were probably there for their dinner - someone had left a mostly stripped clean deer carcass. Charming. 

Selfies on horse back are hard 

The happiest butters

Trying to get him out of the lake was like trying to get a kid to leave the playground. I let him wander and swim for about 30 minutes then needed to get on with my day. I'd point him at the edge and he'd make it almost there before U-turning back towards the deeper spots. I'm so happy I've found something he loves this much. He does so much for me, it's nice to be able to do something that I absolutely know brings him happiness. 

Few random pics from a click-and-treat exploratory hand walk around some spookier stuff in Ms. GY's front yard where he was enjoying day after show grazing privileges. 

This wasn't scary, he was munching on hay scraps 

This was a little scary

But we touched the things and got cookies

Does he not have the absolute cutest face?? 

Touch this

Touch that

Touch that... I ran out of cookies at the tarp. He touched this and then stared at me wondering why the cookie button broke. 

HIS DAPPLES 

Finding his own snacks because I ran out 

Who is Counting Anyways? - Majestic Oaks Recap

Butterball and I went to Majestic Oaks on Saturday for the schooling show. A coworker was kind enough to switch with me so that we could practice stadium (and XC!) once before heading up to SC for Oktoberfest. 

He got socks and tail bathed Friday afternoon

I dressaged at 8:28, jumped stadium at 11:15 and then headed over for XC right after that. Since Majestic Oaks is very, very familiar to me, I opted not to go walk the day before. We loaded up in the dark, Butterball and Mr. GY's horse, and headed out. We arrived around 7:45 and I slowly got dressed and tacked. In dressage warm up I discovered that Butterball can actually form significant attachments to other horses. He was bound and determined to call for his buddy every minute or so. Ms. GY kindly took his friend further away and he kept a lid on it in the test. I only did about 15 minutes of warm up because, let's be honest, we were there for the jumping. 

And the judge, while scoring rather generously, called us out on the "more" of everything that was needed. More consistent tempo, more bend, more balance, etc. I don't really like Novice B and did almost lose my way once, so I'll consider it a win that I didn't get lost. Our 31.9 put us in 9th/11 with the first place score being a 26.4. 

Stadium featured a course with a number of related distances - 8 strides between 1 and 2, 9 strides between 3 and 4, and 7 strides between 5 and 6. Then it finished on a two stride oxer to vertical, exactly what we had not executed at Stable View. 

In warm up I remembered my wandering eye that I noticed over the summer and focused on keeping my eye ON THE SAME SPOT on the fence. Wouldn't ya know it, it helped. I'm still not honestly sure of the balance between micro-managing him that EM was trying to fix and acknowledging if our spot will be tight or long so I can add leg or wait a tiny bit accordingly, but I decided in warm up to ride him the way PW had me riding him successfully in May and June. My friend came and set fences for us and when I almost turned back to jump a larger than Novice oxer in warm up, she said "You're not going to gain anything by doing that. Just ride him forward and keep your shoulders up with your leg on, no matter what spot you get to." Turns out that was just the advice we needed because we went in and did that. 

I used the corners to try to take EM's advice (and every trainer before her really) to not let him get behind my leg through the turns. Leg on, surge forward, then softly balance before the fences without sitting deep and driving his back down. We got 10 strides between 3 and 4, I needed just a bit more leg the first two strides of the line and then it would have flowed nicely. And then we got an ugly chip stride in to the oxer at 9A. But I sat up and believed that my very capable horse could get out and we put three tiny strides in and then jumped the vertical just fine. Which, truly, if it had just flowed over the oxer I think I would have gained less confidence. 

After lots of pats for the pony we went over, got booted and vested up, and headed to XC. 

Warm up went well. The course was so-so. The first few jumps I was anxious and DEFINITELY shoved him past the actual spot and got rewarded with two chips at the base. We mostly fixed that by the end of the course, aided by NOT fixing it at the fence before the down bank which was right before the trakehner. The trakehner here has made me nervous ever since I was jump judging when a horse had a rotational and had to be euthanized. So I have a good amount of respect for it and actually channeled it appropriately this time by creating a nice bouncy show jump canter that got us at an appropriately slightly close spot so he could bounce right on over. 

Fence three where I first got it together a little bit

Fence five - corner

Looking towards the half coffin. He's SO CUTE 

Rails towards the ditch 

Getting the trakhener right

Second to last 

With our two clear jump rounds we moved up to 4th

Huge thank you to my friend/coworker and Amanda and Hillary for the media and support. My coworker said after XC she felt like BB was maybe not as comfortable as he could be behind. He's definitely not lame, but now that she knows him pretty well, she felt like he wasn't quite himself. I had the same thought out on XC: He wasn't changing cleaning right to left, and left is usually his preferred galloping lead AND he had a couple slightly crappier than normal jumps even when I did my part. I *think* what happened is I bruised his feet again. We did some canter sets on the edges of dirt roads near the pond we've been swimming in. And around here those dirt roads sometimes contain lime rock. I could hear the hardness change as we went and then saw new bruises pop up on his feet a few days later. It would also explain a lesson last week where he was *not* particularly helpful about leaving the ground. I'm going to see about putting him in pads behind. And also haul down to what I know is softer footing for our canter sets. I do plan on supplementing those canter sets with our water treadmill days as well, which should be nice and easy on his feet. 

Letting Go

So... I've been micromanaging my horse and now he doesn't know how to deal on his own. At least that is the general gist of the lessons last week. Also, GET OFF HIS BACK. Even prior to EM doing several training rides on BB, I had contemplated that we have, in general, a much easier time out XC jumping SOLID fences of the same size that we have been fumbling over or in front of in the ring. I had figured it was because there is less time for me to screw with him... JT taught me the general rhythm of up off the back, gallop (canter quickly at novice LOL), eight strides out shoulders come back, seven strides out, lightly sit, six strides out if the balance isn't up and we're not on a slightly shorter stride, then half halt with leg and hand, then wait for the fence. Cool. Rinse and repeat is about all you do at novice. Combinations are barely related at this level. 

EM said to me, when I related this again after discovered that he much prefers me out of the tack, that she felt like we didn't talk enough about the different paces in stadium, but that same kinda feel should be there. 

On Monday, EM started the ride. She moved him through the paces I had watched several times over the Wednesday through Friday training rides. Walk-halt transitions controlling where each foot lands, no falling to pieces and dropping his back and splaying legs. Then move on to walk-trot. The neck stays long and stretchy during the transition. Then trot-canter, moving legs forward into the canter. The canter has to be flowing forward with a long, soft neck and back before it can be collected a little bit a la rounding up a ball of energy not shortening it back. 

Then I hopped on and we played with those concepts a bit. It took a lot of focus to get the halts right. Interestingly the method was almost the exact opposite feel of the method that JV had me working on. His approach was to focus on promptness. Which had (mostly) created square halts, an improvement on our wiggle into the halt practice we'd had prior. But had also led to him saying I should put a flash on the bridle because he was hollow with his head up and mouth wide open as he fought the bit. He clarified that he did not mean to strap his mouth shut AT ALL, just prevent the WIDE open gaping that was happening. EM's method 

I struggled a little bit with *what* exactly to do on the way to the cavaletti if I wasn't managing every stride. Bring the pace up through the corner, then sit quietly with leg on, hand present, let him sort it out. But he has to stay straight. That is also my job. But let him fall through his left shoulder and then correct it, don't guard against it happening in the first place. 

You can see the marked difference between the first and second course when I got up off his back more. We quit on the second course. 

On Tuesday I started him out. I expressed that I was worried that the warm up, where I was being insistent on him lifting and softly swinging from the get go, was going to lead to him being dead to the leg again. EM said no, he's working differently and correctly, he needs this much support right now. I do feel like with my non pro timing of aids that I need to be cautious that every leg aid still gets a response. Even though we're prioritizing relaxation and long neck over forward energy to begin with, that doesn't mean the impulsion we've developed with JV, that way of him carrying himself forwards without me having to ask every step, can go by the wayside. 

We jumped just two courses on Tuesday again, EM said that she was trying to emphasize to him that although this way of working potentially *felt* harder, it was actually shorter and sweeter when he came out and did his job. The courses felt great, he just flowed around and I didn't have to panic about distances. 

We'll keep playing with this concept during two training rides/lessons in the upcoming week. 

Foto Friday: Okay, the Braids Were Worth It

He's SO DANG CUTE. I think I'm in the middle of saying thank you to the judge tho. 

Stretchy pony 

In spite of my face, I was delighted to be trotting down centerline on a Butterball

All photos by Liz Crawley