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.