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I’m Smiling July 11, 2008

Posted by kimayars Uncategorized Digg! this story! Digg! this story. , 2comments

I’m smiling. I’m happy. I had a great week with my horse.  I haven’t had a great week with him in quite a while.  I’m enjoying riding again.

Don’t get me wrong, I always look forward to riding, but lately it hadn’t been fun.  With our mounting problems I was incredibly stressed out just trying to get on.  Was he going to bolt? Would he get freaked out?  How long until he calmed down?

This week we had four consecutive rides of him NOT freaking out.  And as a result, I’m not freaking out.  Or at least I didn’t freak out today.  Today was the first day that my knees didn’t shake and my heartrate stayed under 180.  For the first time since my show in April I had a RELAXING ride.  I’m thrilled.

Today in our ride we focused again on my hands and keeping them quiet.  It is getting much easier not to pull on the inside rein (although it’s far from automatic), but consequently I have to use my body more in the turns. I don’t rotate my shoulders nearly enough and I can forget to weight the inside seatbone.  So while sometimes I don’t make a pretty turn, I at least have the awareness that I need to adjust other things in my body rather than grabbing that (evil) rein.

So we worked on an exercise called “The Needle”.  It’s a great suppling exercise and would be perfect to try my “new hands” on.  You basically head around the arena at a trot, then at a corner after a long side, do a half-volte, riding a 10m teardrop and change directions.  You head back through two more corners then at the third corner (after your next long side) do another half-volte into a 10m teardrop and change direction again.  It’s like a giant “U” with loops on the end.  I was moderately successful with the hands, and he seemed to enjoy the easy, predictable exercise.  By the end he was relatively light and soft. We didn’t have much impulsion (80 degrees at 2pm is a tough time to ride) but he was being obedient and listening.

The focus on my hands really paid off today when he spooked in one of the corners with the “killer tire” in it (Sherene and I both know this corner well).  Nevermind the fact that the tire has been there for over a year.  It’s still terrifying.  He took one look at the tire as we were going by and stopped dead, then jumped sideways. Twice.  Because I had my hands soft and my body was relaxed, I just went with him. There was no yanking on his mouth, no trying to claw my way back into the center of the saddle. It was eerie. Almost as if it was planned…  (Yeah, that’s the ticket.)  Almost as soon as it happened we were trotting again. Before we hit the next corner he was soft and round again.  He never shied again the rest of the ride.  What a good boy.

So even though it took a few months to work out the kinks, I finally succeeded in turning out a product week riding.  Now we shall see if we can turn it into two…

Of course when I succeed in one thing in life, I fail in another.  My running has sadly been neglected this week and I have a 10k on August 2nd.  Guess I had better get crackin’ on that.

Whoa! July 9, 2008

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cat
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As in, WOW! I rode three times this week and it’s only WEDNESDAY! This has not happened for a few/several months now. It was nice to build off the previous ride while it was still fresh in my memory. More often it’s usually, “Now what was I working on last time?…”

We continued our work on “conversing”.  Me, trying not to be too loud with my hands.  Him, listening to my seat.  I’ll be darned that it’s starting to really come together.  It’s getting easier to resist the urge to pull his nose to the inside.  The releases are feeling solid, meaning he’s taking the release forward, instead of the rein just going all loopy on me.

It was a great ride and I’m super happy with how things are going right now.  He even stood still at the mounting block.  Not one little twitch.  Good boy.

Harmony July 8, 2008

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The word for today is “Harmony”.  As in, “we got it”.

I had a lesson on Tigs today.  I knew it was going to be short because my instructor was late and I had to get to work.  I was still nervous about mounting, but had faith that what I had gone through the last few days with him would still ring true and he’d be a good boy.

And he was.  Stood stock-still while I got on.  You can bet there was lots of praise.

But it just got better from there.

I am HORRIBLE at pulling on the inside rein.  I have somehow learned that corrections are pulling and am either releasing at the wrong time or releasing so big that my contact disappears.  Today, somehow, I seem to have gotten it right.  I fought the urge to pull and tug on the reins. Through the guidance of my trainer, I finally got the idea of and elastic feel in the contact.  It was heaven.  Tigger liked it too.

Today he was the most relaxed and free-est in his movement than he has in a long time.  After 20 minutes of REALLY nice trot work, I called the lesson.  One thing I know about Tigger is that he needs time to digest new things and ending on a positive note is very important for him.  I was so thrilled.  All day I had a sh*t-eating grin on.

In two weeks we have another clinic with Henrik Johansen.  I can’t wait. I might actually have a horse to work with!

The Legend of the One-Eyed Horse July 6, 2008

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Zandee is a horse that Sherene and I both share care for.  He’s a retired lesson horse, 24 years old, and has one eye.  I’ve had a few people ask if he REALLY does have one eye.  Yes, he only has one eye:

The “eye side” (isn’t he cute?):

The “non-eye side”:

Seriously, it’s a little creepy but you get used to it.  He’s totally rideable, an awesome trail horse, and has a really sweet personality.  Sherene and I have been able to watch him relax, play, and just be a horse while on her property.  We enjoy his daily HEMI-sounding nickers and his slow, easy-going way about him. His “scream like a girl” squeals when he thinks he’s going to get his butt kicked (which never happens) always make us giggle.  

For both Sherene and I he holds a special place in our heart because this is the horse we learned to canter on.  He’s a conformational nightmare, yet is able to stay sound.  We know that he came to Sherene’s to live out his final years, and that’s a hard one to swallow. But in the mean time it’s a joy to watch him be a happy and healthy horse.

Productive AND sane! July 6, 2008

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My ride with Tigger went MUCH better than expected today!  Most of it has to do with the fact that he stood at the mounting block today.  :-)

He did move away twice, but I’m learning how much correction is enough.  Too much and I have freak-horse on my hands.  Too little and he starts to push the boundaries even more.  Right now when he moves away, backing him up a few steps is enough to convince him that standing still is WAY easier.

We moved off into a quick walk, but not racing.  He held it together and didn’t run.  After 10 seconds the little drama there was ended and we went to work.  It was nice.

Today we moved on lateral flexions and getting back our suppleness.  For myself I focused on sending him into the bend with my leg, not trying to manufacture it with the inside rein (Damn you inside rein!).  We did lots of circles and serpentines.  By the end of the first half of my ride he was changing bend nicely and was soft yet solid in the contact.  A very nice feeling.

For the second half of my ride we focused on tempo control through my seat.  What better way to do that than walk/halt transitions. This is also a FABULOUS way to demonstrate that your horse does NOT listen to your seat and is really good at “dribbling” into a halt.  I decided to leverage his excellent skills in anticipation and started halting at the same four points on the circle.  After it was clear that he was expecting this, I started adding more energy between points, but still kept in the halts.  It kind of worked (I got a few breaks into trot) but he wasn’t too eager to race off because he knew that we were going to stop pretty darn soon.  At the end I got one halt where all I had to do was close my fingers on the outside rein, stretch up, and exhale.  He got lots of praise and we called it a day on that note.

One thing I adore about him is his ability to retain information.  This works both ways, of course, but I know that working the halts next time will be much easier, even if I don’t come back to it for a week.

I didn’t incorporate any lateral work today.  These basics felt like they needed to be covered first.

Overall, and excellent ride!

(”Cookie?”)

4-mile “tempo” with Beth July 6, 2008

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I’m still not really sure what a tempo run was but I think this was it…

Our original plan was to run 7mi today: We would start from our development, run to Sherene’s house where I would feed the horses, then run back.  Unfortunately the weather was cold and drizzly, and neither of us felt like running for that long.

Instead we hopped in the car, fed the horses, then drove up to Rattlesnake Lake to run out 2mi on the John Wayne Trail.  It wasn’t too bad given that it’s all uphill the way out:

Mile 1 - 10:25
Mile 2 - 10:32
Mile 3 - 9:31
Mile 4 - 8:58

As we were heading up the trail from the parking lot, we heard a bunch of voices. Then out of the bushes came about 30 runners, each with a number pinned on.  A friendly-looking guy was walking close behind and eagerly asked Beth and I if we were here for the “early start”.

Turns out they had a marathon scheduled that morning.  It’s the second year of the “Rattlesnake Lake Marathon“.  They don’t have a half yet, but do have a 10mi and a 16mi.  Might have to keep that in mind for next year.  It looks like they have a couple of cute ones (if you’re into that kind of thing).  Go to www.littlemarathon.com to check them out.

I also “lubed the boob” today.  (Jeff’s gonna blush when he reads that.)  Seriously, I used some of his Chamios Butt’r to try and stave off the rubbing/rawness/bleeding problem I’m having with my undergarments. So far, it appears to have worked!  Hallelujah!

Off to go ride the horse in a bit…

Logbook Activity

Happy Fourth of July! July 4, 2008

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I love Bob Rivers’ twisted tunes. This one is one of my favorites. Enjoy!

Indpenedence Day

200…and counting! July 4, 2008

Posted by kimayars Run Digg! this story! Digg! this story. , 1 comment so far

I celebrated Independence Day by hitting 200 miles for the year today. I’m now wondering if I crank it up if I can run 500 miles for the entire year. It might be an interesting challenge… I’ll have to work out how many miles per week I have to run in order to make that goal.

Todays run was good but they’re still a little tough. Being 75 and REALLY muggy didn’t help much either. We haven’t had any lightning since yesterday, so that’s a plus.

Later today my plan is go to lunge Tigger. Riding is out of the question since there is a high likelyhood of some sort of pyrotechnics near the arena. I just really don’t feel like schooling that today and to be honest it seems a little foolish. By lunging hopefully I’ll take some of the edge off him for tonight. None of the horses will rest easy, I’m sure.

Logbook Activity