Working in the Lines

Since I am not riding at the moment, Harley and I have been doing most of our work in the lines: one or two.  On afternoons after work I usually lunge him and save the long line sessions for the weekend when I have more time.  Harley has been working like a champ.  Yesterday, I lunged him and he demonstrated his skills for a barn-goer who was interested in the art of lungeing.  Harley did all his transitions from verbal commands and stretched his head to the ground with this lovely springy trot.  He got compliments for being so obedient and relaxed.  Thinking back to how he used to motorcycle around me on the line and could not handle the balance to canter a circle that small, I realized that he has come an amazingly long way.  I never really considered him a model lungeing horse, but I guess he had other plans!

This past weekend we returned to the long lines for the first time since the failed experiment of raising the lines to the upper rings.  Thankfully, the experience had melted away and he had no resentment for the lines now comfortably placed in the middle rings on the surcingle.  We got right to work with some nice walking and stretching into the bridle.  I love how the long lines allow me to warm up my horse with circles and straight lines, just as if I were riding.  I try to turn my hips and shoulders before using my hands to turn my horse.  It is a fun challenge to see how little I can do and Harley understands.

In the walk, most of the changes of direction are relatively easy, but the trot is a whole 'nother thing.  I cannot allow Harley to trot straight ahead for very long, because I am walking with him.  My lines have to be organized and my hands nimble for clear communication.  Most of the mistakes that I make in long lining come from the lines getting too long or too short and trying to manage the whip.  I absolutely hate catching my horse in the mouth, because I didn't manage my lines properly or turn him soon enough to prevent myself from getting left behind.  His expression tells me that he understands that my intent was not to hurt his mouth or turn him rudely, but it still disturbs the flow of his work, which can be very nice.

I am trying to develop some strategies for effective long lining.  This is what I have so far:

1. Give my hands separate jobs.  Keep excess line draped (not wrapped!) in one hand and the whip in the other.  The whip-hand is also responsible for re-draping extra line or letting more line out.  This is still not easy, because I have small hands and the whip gets heavy.
2. Keeping the whip in my whip-hand (right), move the whip from one side to the other when we change direction.  This means that the whip is crossed over the lines when we are traveling right.  So far, this seems to be less awkward than trying to transfer the whip to my left hand, which is holding a bunch of line.
3. Always have excess line available.  This is important if I need to let more line out so my horse has time to turn or so he can stretch.  This is also important if the horse jumps forward suddenly.  Thankfully, that is rare, but it is a possibility.

Long lining reinforces many concepts from riding and I really like how Harley and I can still share a connection through the bridle, but it is definitely a different art and has its own feel.  I am looking forward to finding ways to finesse our practice.

If you have any strategies to add to my list, please let me know!

Rider Confessions

The last time that I rode my horse, I was hung-over. 

"Hung-over the saddle" that is and specifically the pommel.  I think that I might actually be hitting the stage where I no longer fit in the saddle.  I am about 31 weeks pregnant, for those who may be wondering what on Earth I am talking about.

I rode Harley on the last day of Spring Break, April 5th.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day and he was blissfully free of coughs.  I rode him for a short time after our (less than stellar) long-lining session and he wanted very badly to canter.  The canter was wonderful, but I chose to stand in my stirrups.  It just didn't feel right to sit anymore.  I could barely stand high enough to keep all of myself out of the saddle and off the pommel.  With dressage length stirrups, this was a challenge.  We returned to posting trot, as Harley offered a lovely stretch and I found that I was having the same trouble in trot.  Sure, I could raise my stirrups a few holes, but raising your center of balance is contrary to a balanced position and security in the saddle.  Obviously, giving up either of those things in not an option, especially when Harley is carrying two of us!

I think my saddle days are over until after our baby's birthday.  Tomorrow, it will have been two weeks since I rode my horse and I already miss it.  I know that this is for a very good reason, but it still makes me sad to think of not riding him for months.  I am also not sure when I will be able to ride him after the baby is born.  I really, really, really hope that I do not have to have a c-section.  Thankfully, so far there is no reason to suggest that I will.  I need my core muscles in one piece to ride my horse and I cannot imagine not riding for the entire summer.  Now that notion really makes me sad.

I have still been visiting Harley and working him from the ground.  We have had some really nice lungeing sessions.  He has been feeling good and so eager to work that his transitions have been spot on from just my voice.  He has also been stretching his topline and touching his nose to the ground as he trots around me.  He looks so beautiful that it just makes me want to ride him more!

I am really glad that I took the time to teach my horse and myself groundwork exercises long before I ever knew that there would be a time that I couldn't ride my horse.  However, this doesn't change the fact that I long for that swinging motion in the saddle.  Nothing else quite compares.

Long Lining and Allergy Update

Allergy Update:
Harley coughed so little yesterday, that I almost forgot to give him his allergy medicine!  We spent several hours together and he only coughed a few times.  We had a long lining session and I rode him a little bit and he barely coughed at all!  Yay!  Today could be totally different, but I am still going to celebrate yesterday.

I tried something new.  Grooming seems to send him into coughing fits, even if I groom him in the washstall outside, so I decided that he needs a "dust mask", just like I used to wear to clean stalls.  I draped a small towel from the noseband of his halter.  He looked kind of silly, but it actually worked.  No coughing!  I might try an old t-shirt next time, since it will be a lighter material.  He seemed to think that I "forgot" the towel and kept trying to grab it with his mouth.  So his dust mask doubled as a source of amusement.  I fed him some treats to inform him in terms that he can understand that towel = good.  I guess this is just one more use of a towel to add to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

Long Lining:
Since I had a week off, there was a long list of things to get done that I normally do not have time to do.  With the baby coming in less than three months, it was more critical than usual that I take advantage of this time off from work to get some work done at home.  Of course, this includes Harley.  I trimmed his front feet and I am happy to say that the preemptive strike worked.  No hoof wall separation or flare developing and the trim was pretty fast and easy.  His hinds will be next time.  Re-introducing Harley to the long lines was also on my "must do" list.  Although I am feeling great, my saddle days are definitely numbered.  I needed a couple days where I did not have to rush to bring out the surcingle and lines so that Harley and I could get reacquainted with long line work, before I feel too much like "Humpty Dumpty". 

Our first shot was on Monday.  Unfortunately, Harley's allergies were not cooperating, but he was still willing and the work was not strenuous, so we were still able to have to some fun and accomplish my goal of re-introduction of the lines.

Harley was just about perfect.  Unfortunately, I cannot take photos while long lining and I did not think to bother someone else to take any, so you will have to take my word for it.  He looked great!  I had power-steering.  He stretched into the lines almost immediately and used his back and topline in some really beautiful ways.  We circled, we went straight ahead, we walked figure eights and even trotted figure eights!  The last time that I tried trotting figure eights we had some trouble maintaining the trot for the direction change (and I had some trouble keeping my lines from tangling), but this time Harley just marched right through the change and I managed to keep my lines in check.  It was too easy.  The grand finale was a little bit of canter.  Cantering in the lines is still new for us, but you wouldn't have guessed it by the easy way he picked up the gait and rounded up into the contact.  I was delighted.  Long lining this spring is going to be fun!

The only thing that did not go excellently was the trot-walk-trot transitions.  For some reason, he preferred to shorten his trot and do this beautiful little collected trot instead of transitioning to walk.  I am not terribly worried about fixing our communication for that one.  I rode him later and realized that I release the reins when I ask for walk.  In the lines I mistakenly increased the contact, which must have told him to stay in gait and collect.  What a problem, right?

Trial and Error with emphasis on Error:
Training a horse involves experience, time, and some trial and error.  I do not like to make training mistakes, but I also think that you have to make some, or you never learn what not to do.  I made a training mistake yesterday.

After Harley's hoof  trim, I decided to take out the lines again and re-test, but this time I got the brilliant idea to put the lines through the top ring on the surcingle.  I normally use the middle ring with him and he likes this very much.  I have tried the top ring before and it was a fail (he balked and felt trapped), but I was tempted to try again.

Why use the top ring?

• The upper position is closer to my hand position.  Harley likes my hands carried above his withers.  The middle ring seems to pull down on him sometimes, which is contrary to our training MO.  
• I drape the lines behind his butt and I thought the top ring would make it easier to keep the lines up and out of harms way.

Harley was very tolerant, but it became clear that the upper ring is still wrong for him.  He did not stretch into the lines at all and by the end of our trial period, his back was completely turned off.  There was no swing in his step, although it sort of looked like he had more suspension in his front end.  I think this was false suspension and result of him pulling his forehand up instead of lifting with his abdominal muscles.

Eventually, he sort of went "on the bit", but his neck was short and the bloom of muscle infront of his withers was missing.  My teacher and I have worked diligently to help him release that part of his neck, so that was pretty much a deal-breaker for me.  The look in his eye was unmistakable, too.  He gets this blood-shot looking edge to his eye when he is stressed and unhappy.  His mouth was also barely moist.  He usually has a nice rim of foam.  He did his best to work forward, but eventually started to tune me out and ignore my vocal commands.  I am not opposed to pushing my horse's comfort zone for the purposes of growth and improvement, but that is not what this was. 

The final straw was the line getting stuck up, under his tail!  I cannot believe that he didn't freak.  His tail was clamped down pretty tight, so it was just a matter of time before he gave the lines the "hoof".  I reset the lines to the middle ring after that and chastised myself.

"Never try the top ring again.  Never, never."

Oh well, live and learn.

It took several minutes for Harley to relax and get even close to the wonderful work that he did on Monday.  He stretched his neck and back in relief immediately, but was resentful of the lines.  He showed his resentment by rooting against them aggressively as he walked around.  I gave him as much slack as I could and told him "no", when he rooted.  My power-steering was temporarily gone.  Thankfully, he was mostly back to normal after a few minutes. 

Harley is a forgiving horse, but he did inform me that I owed him a canter under saddle after that.  I obliged and it was a wonderful canter indeed!  That was what finally made him (and me) feel better about the whole thing.  Some happy snorts and stretchy trot were my apology accepted.  Thank goodness!

Memoirs: A Horse Girl & An Unquiet Horse

As a therapeutic riding instructor, I have worked with a fair number of donated or nearly donated (reduced-price) horses.  I have also test ridden and handled potential therapeutic mounts.  All of these horses had something in common: an owner or seller who described the horse as quiet and easy to handle.  I learned with time to take the opinion of owners and sellers of potential therapeutic horses or any sale horse with a grain of salt.  I do not mind if the horse has a quirk, one thing that really bothers him, or needs some remedial training.  What I do mind is the horse of an owner/seller who misrepresents their animal to the potential harm of others.  Such misrepresentation may not be intentional, but ignorance can cause just as many problems as outright deception.

For example, many years ago I test rode a horse who was outwardly quiet.  He stood quietly for grooming and tacking up.  The apparent trainer of the horse confessed that he liked the horse and found him easy to handle, but that his girlfriend let the horse get too nosy.  I made a note of this comment and said nothing.  The horse was taken out to a large round pen with high solid walls, the kind that you cannot see over.  The trainer worked the horse in the round pen, demonstrating the horse's obedience in all three gaits and both directions.  Then the trainer got on the horse and rode him around the round pen.  The horse never missed a step and moved on a loose rein like a good, Western mount.  The guy also stood upright on the horse's back demonstrating that the horse would stand reliably.  This was very impressive.

After observing the horse safely handled and ridden, it was my turn to handle him and to get on.  After some basic leading, I mounted the horse and he stood quietly.  I tested his "whoa" after taking a few steps forward and repeated the test several times using different degrees of rein pressure, seat, and my voice to see how sensitive the horse's brakes were.  Then we moved up a gear and I rode the horse in all three gaits in both directions.  The horse went just as easily for me as it had for the trainer and I rode him entirely on a loose rein, as I had seen the trainer ride him.  My employer and I were wise to the fact that horses may behave differently in different settings, so we asked to ride the horse in a fenced-in arena instead of the round pen.  The trainer obliged and we walked the horse to an outdoor riding ring.

The horse was mostly the same fellow in the new ring, except for a new discovery: he had no interest in rein contact.  Now, I do not expect a future therapeutic horse to be a dressage horse, but acceptance of the bit and contact with the bit is basic training for the ridden horse.  This horse was mildly rude about the contact if I shortened the reins.  This told me that the horse had some holes in his training and possibly some leadership issues.  Since his reaction to rein pressure was not huge, we considered that he was just not used to any sort of riding except that on a long, loose rein.  A horse that goes on a loose rein is desirable for therapeutic riding and considering his apparent good manners, we decided to take the horse on trial.  Our usual trial period was thirty days.

After getting the horse back to the farm, I made plans to work with him right away.  This was our typical procedure, as we wanted to see what the horse was like in an unfamiliar setting.  Once again, the horse stood nicely for grooming and demonstrated basically good manners.  We usually have to train more stringent rules about personal space and leading into therapeutic horses, but this horse seemed to be equipped with a reasonable foundation.  I took the horse into the indoor arena, with plans to work him at liberty, before tacking him up and riding.  I had watched the trainer work the horse at liberty and had a reasonable idea of what to expect from the new horse.  Or at least I thought that I had a reasonable idea...

Once in the indoor, I made my first mistake and this was most definitely my mistake.  I took the horse's halter off and turned my back on him to shut the gate.  The horse immediately followed me to the gate, intruding on my space and possibly thinking about walking out of the open door.  I suppose working with so many compliant horses that had been trained to stand and wait had made me complacent.  I forgot that I was dealing with a horse that may not have any of the understanding that I expected him to have, despite the obedience that I had observed the day before at the horse's home.

I noticed very quickly that the horse was following me, so I turned around and "got big".  This means that I made myself look physically taller by throwing up my arms.  I was telling the horse to back off.  This is a technique that I had employed many, many times to stop a horse in its tracks or deter a horse from entering my space.  Before I could move or react, the horse spun around and kicked into the air with both hind legs. 

It is difficult to appreciate how fast horses can move, until you see them in real space and time.  The kick was aimed at my head and, no doubt, would have made contact if the horse had really wanted to hit me.  The horse trotted off a few feet and stopped.  I stood in front of the open gate, shocked by what had almost happened, but physically unharmed.  I never in a million years expected that horse to react so violently.

Now the gig was up.  I knew there was more to this horse then we had originally been led to believe.  If this situation were to repeat itself in the same manner today, I would walk away right then and call the owner to come pick up the horse.   

Of course, I demonstrated less than swift learning skills in this story as the horse had clearly warned me with the resistance to contact and the double-barreled threat to my face, but I eventually did learn my lesson and will never make the mistake to "get big" to a foreign horse or work a horse initially at liberty again.  That was a lesson learned by the skin of my teeth.

At the time, I was not sure if the behavior was a true indicator of the horse's nature or a fluke that I caused by surprising the horse.  He had ridden and handled so easily the day before that I decided to continue my plan to work him at liberty in the indoor.  Truthfully, the horse had been so much fun to ride that I was really looking forward to riding him again and this pushed me to overlook the undeniable act of defiance.

Sometimes humans have thick skulls.  I am no exception.

I walked out into the arena with a lunge whip (at least I was not so stupid as to forget that) and asked the horse to start moving.  The horse reluctantly walked forward and stopped.  I swished the whip again, assertively, but careful not to surprise him this time.  The horse stared at me.  I asked him to move again, but he just stared and did not budge.  I increased my demands, swishing the whip with more energy and strength, clucking, and telling the horse to "walk" while walking closer to this very strange animal that was behaving less and less like the horse I had met the day before.  Finally, I was so close to the horse that I had no choice, but to give up or press the issue.  I was a fool for doing so, but the trainer in me was roaring.  I decided to press.  I whacked the horse smartly on the butt with the whip.

You would think the horse would have reacted more aggressively, but he only tossed his head and started trotting.  Feeling that I had called his bluff and asserted that my will was just as strong as his, I gained confidence.  I kept the horse trotting all around the indoor ring, swishing my whip and clucking if he showed signs of slowing down.  I value fairness, so I tried to forget any ill feelings that I had toward the horse for his previous behavior and praised him for moving out at my request.  I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that I had the situation under control.

And then the horse threw me for another loop.  This horse picked up the canter and dropped his head and neck all the way to the ground.  At first I thought that he was showing signs of submission and stretching, but once he reached the next corner of the ring, he turned and headed straight for me at the ring's center.  His teeth were bared, his ears were flat against his head, and his eyes were looking directly into mine.  His expression said one thing and he said it clearly:

"I want to kill you."

The gelding ran at me with his snake mouth open and his eyes as red as the sun.  All assertiveness left me.  I had the whip in my hand, but I forgot it was there.  Every cell in my body screamed,

"RUN!"

I dodged around a barrel, trying to create a barrier between my person and the wild animal in pursuit of my flesh.  The horse skidded to a halt, spun around, and came after me again.  This time I ran for the open fence at the front of the arena.  I could hear the horse behind me, but I didn't dare turn around.  I dove between the rails of the fence like a swimmer entering the water.  Dust and arena footing flew against the fencing as the horse stopped and spun again taking off, but this time away from me.  My friend and fellow instructor had walked in to see the monster's final attempt to savage me.  We stared at each other in utter disbelief.  My heart pounded in my ears and I felt light-headed knowing what had almost happened.  That horse had the shortest trial period in the history of trial horses.

For some reason, I had to convince my boss that the horse was truly dangerous.  My friend and I relayed the story, but it just sounded too crazy and she had seen the horse go so obediently the day before.  My employer had never seen a horse behave as I had described and frankly, before that day, neither had I.  I was worried that another staff member at the farm might attempt to work with the trial horse, which was common practice.  I was even more worried that another person might jump at the challenge to try and "tame" the animal that chased me.  I knew that type of person well and that no story would suffice in discouraging a determined personality.  My own mistake at ignoring the horse's dangerous initial behavior was proof of that.  I offered to show my boss exactly what the horse was capable of.  Let's just say that I am a fast runner and I feared for another person's safety enough to risk going head to head with that horse one more time.

True to the story, the horse came after me again with very little provoking while my boss was standing at the fence.  I had planned a path of escape this time and weaved a line around barrels before exiting swiftly between the rails.  My employer's face was priceless.  I do not think that she believed her own eyes at first.  This was a horse recommended by its owner/seller to be used for compromised riders and handled by volunteers.  We will never know for sure why the horse behaved so much differently at its home base or if the seller and trainer were aware of the horse's extremely aggressive tendencies.  That was one quiet horse that I was happy to never see again.

Rider Confessions

Sometimes, I get angry.

Truthfully, this should post should be called "Horse Handler Confessions", but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

I found myself very frustrated and angry the other night after teaching lessons.  I was angry with a horse.  Rest assured, this horse was not Harley.  It was the black Percheron horse, which we use for lessons.

I know intellectually that there is no point to getting angry at a horse.  If I pick the situation apart, I guess that I am really angry at all the people who have touched this horse since he began his training.  This horse is very nice under saddle.  My gripe is with his ground manners.

Although my interactions with this horse were pretty minimal on this particular evening, every interaction that I had with him annoyed me to the point where I wanted nothing to do with him by the time he finished his dinner and had to be turned out for the night.  Problem number one arose, when I attempted to bridle this horse for a lesson.  The fact that I have to use the word "attempted" makes my blood start to boil.  I have bridled many, many horses over the years including tall horses and draft horses alike.  I have bridled horses that put their heads on the ground and make things easy for you (I love you, Harley.) and horses who throw their heads up and refuse to open their mouths.  I have never failed to bridle an unwilling horse until the other night.  Every time that I try to bridle this horse, he tries to walk away and this instance was no different.  I had the reins around his neck and I was ready, so he did not walk away, but he did sweep his big head and neck away from me.  Twice.  Once he realized that he was not going to be able to walk away he put his head as high as he possibly could.  I was able to bit him, but I was too short to put the crown over his ears.  I just could not reach.  The barn manager finally had to help me by encouraging him to put his head down, which he would do for a second and then jerk it back up again.  Needless to say this put us behind for the scheduled lesson I was about to teach.

The riding lesson itself went fine, but once the lesson was over, I had to hold the horse while the client was leaving.  A small child unexpectedly stopped right in front of this big horse, so I asked him to halt and he continued walking forward.  I asked again and he ignored me.  I had to resort to pinching the underside of his neck to get his attention and then MAKING him back up by pushing on the bit and his chest.  This is the complete opposite of how I like to work with horses, but this horse's attention to his handler was so poor and the situation was such that I could not allow him to walk forward and make a mistake.  I was admittedly angry at this point, but outside of pinching the horse, I did not act on my feelings.  I walked him back to the barn and decided to remove his bridle in his stall, so that he could not walk away from me.

And I failed again.

Unknown to me, the horse had grain in his bucket and walked away as I was trying to unbridle him.  Thankfully, I stopped him before he got his nose in the bucket and rewarded himself.  I promptly removed him from the stall and marched him back into the aisle.  I realized that I would have to ask for help again to remove his bridle.  I turned around and suddenly became aware that there was a crowd of people in the barn.  Everyone from staff to clients.  I decided to wait for a moment until the group dispersed so that I could untack the horse without so much commotion and people...ehem... underfoot.  I was standing at the horse's shoulder, directly next to him.  Not in front of him.  I was holding the reins under his chin.  He was adequately restrained in every way except that his attention span and body awareness are zero.

Do you know what this horse did?  He stepped on my right foot.

I very, very rarely get stepped on by a horse.  The few times when I have been stepped on in the past twenty-five years, the horse (any horse) realized that they were beginning to squash me and immediately lightened the load on my foot to basically nothing.  I have been working with, riding, and handling all sorts of horses in that time frame.  All different ages and breeds, males and females.  I am quick, which helps me avoid a possible foot-squashing situation, and most horses that I work with do not want to step on me and make every effort not to hurt me if they ACCIDENTALLY do.

I think this horse stepped on me on purpose.  I was right next to him and he moved his foot sideways and planted it on my little toe.  My toe did not break, but it hurt and it was not easy to move him off of my foot.

My anger was threw the roof at this point, but I still did not act.

I wanted to smack that horse, so badly.  But I did not.

I got some help.  We untacked him.  He ate his dinner.  I let someone else turn him out, because I could not stand to interact with him one more time that night.

I love, love, love horses.  I love my horse so much.  But this horse made me so angry and frustrated.  This horse needs some serious work and I know how to do ground work to improve obedience, but this horse annoyed me so much that I do not want to spend time with him to help him improve.

I do not like to admit that a horse can make me angry and I do not think that many horses have over the years.  But this one got me.  At least I feel a little better having written about it.

Has a horse ever made you angry?

Wracking Up The Stars

Harley is on a roll.  He has collected many stars in the past two weeks.

Star number 1: A body condition score of 5+ and clean blood work

Star number 2: Super floaty trot (Dare I say, cadence?!)

Star number 3: A smooth, flying change from left to right

Star number 4: Being a model ambassador for the horse

Star number 5: Lungeing through a deep puddle of water

I just can't keep up, but I am loving it.  

The fall vet visit was a blast, because we did not have to have the conversation about how to improve his weight.  I also had blood work run to ensure that he does not have an infection hiding in there.  When you have a horse with allergies who periodically coughs, you have to be careful that the allergy symptoms are not covering up another illness.  His blood work came back absolutely perfect.  He is healthy as, well, a horse!

Harley has had two sets of children visit with him in the past two weeks.  He stood like a champ for both visits, waiting patiently while little hands patted him, brushed dirt off his coat, and laughed at his funny faces.  Little children inevitably forget that they are not supposed to walk behind the horse.  Harley is a good first-horse for children to be around, because he is very forgiving of those types of mistakes.  He stands solid and, even with his sensitive nature, is not bothered at all by the excitement and unpredictability that accompanies little kids.  I was so proud of him and it was a lot of fun to introduce little children to a big horse.  Parents and grandparents alike commented on what a nice horse he was.  They were preaching to the choir, but I still liked hearing those compliments.

I rode him during afternoon lessons last week, so we had a little audience.  Harley was moving out so beautifully.  I could feel the energy traveling from his hind legs to my seat, up to my elbows and down my lower arms to the bit.  There was no break or kink in the lines.  I could adjust the tempo or stride length and the connection remained, true and powerful.  At some point, I could see and feel his shoulders coming up and swinging freely.  I almost called out to the barn visitors,

"Are you seeing this?"

But, this would have been in vain, because they were not riders and would not have been able to see what I was feeling.  I kind of laughed to myself at that thought.  I would have to enjoy it alone. 

Harley was floating. 

I have been working on myself a lot lately.  I keep imagining that there is room from his hind legs to keep traveling forward through my seat and waist each time we make a transition or while we are moving forward.  This is keeping me more upright and reminding me to keep my core fully engaged.  I have discovered that I have a bad habit of collapsing my waist and opening the back of my seat.  I think the image of his hind legs stepping forward has made me aware of this.  It is almost like his hind legs step forward and tip my seat forward out of alignment if I am not thinking about keeping my seat closed and receiving that energy.  I did not realize that I was doing that and quite a lot, especially in the canter.  My position must be better as indicated by that floaty trot and he gave me some of the absolute best walk-canter-walk he has ever done on the same ride:  relaxed, balanced transitions with barely anything in the reins.  He was listening so closely, I could feel him in my mind.  Please allow me to remind you that I am a very scientific person, but that was how tuned in he felt.  I could hardly believe it, because walk to canter is very challenging to his relaxation and canter to walk is very challenging to his balance.  Improving the rider's position is such an effective way to improve the horse.  It was like all the static was gone.  I love relearning that over and over again.   

And to think, when I started years ago, I thought that dressage was more about the horse.  
I was so wrong.

The clean, smooth, gorgeous flying change in his more challenging direction arrived on a previous ride after lots of circle work, tempo changes, and more walk-canter-walk transitions.  Harley felt very through and connected along the inside of his body.  This is work continued from a previous post where I described how I have been using the inside rein more.  That's right.  The inside rein.  I have been neglecting it for a long time, with the feeling that using it was bad.  I guess I had "inside-rein-guilt-issues".  They are dissolving quickly and as a result, I believe that Harley's suppleness, throughness, and relaxation have improved, with his balance following closely behind.  Having the inside rein improve his balance is so counter-intuitive to me.  I see use of the inside rein as something that sets a horse off balance, but this has not been the case.  I guess that I should acknowledge that the inside rein is not working in a vacuum.  All of my aids are present.  I must just be learning how to let the inside play its part more effectively.

And finally, I lunged Harley yesterday.  He walked.  He trotted.  He cantered.  He stretched his neck and back, all in a plain halter.  No extra gear necessary.  We practiced transitions and then I drew the line in to decrease the circle.  He trotted smaller circles around me with beautiful bend and balance, as if he had an invisible rider.  Then I asked him to trot through a big, deep puddle at one end of the arena.  I let him enter the water and do whatever felt natural to him.  I fully expected him to walk or stop, but he didn't.  Harley kept trotting and picked his feet up as he pranced through the water.  He did try to drift to the side a little, but the puddle was so wide that there was no going around it, so with a couple repetitions he was marching straight through.  He started dropping his neck, in stretchy circle fashion, and dragging his mouth through the water, coming up with water dripping from his cheeks and jaw as he continued to trot around me.  Tons of praise and "Good Boy's" were in order after that!

Harley.
You are a five out of five!

Stars sound delicious.  More, please.

The Importance of Following Through

I do not play golf, but I have heard the age-old advice to "follow through with your swing".  I suspect this advice applies to baseball, shooting baskets, and lacrosse.  I have little to no experience in those areas, but I do have experience with horses and here is where I believe the importance of the "follow through" rings true.

I worked with a new horse today.  A very big horse.  He is a good horse and I like his curious, sweet personality, but I did notice something about him within the first minute that I met him.

He likes to invade my space.

I greeted the horse, but before I could even open the gate, his nose was up my sleeve.  Cute, right?  Wrong.  I do not think this is cute.  I do not mind if a horse sniffs me and I do not mind if a horse who knows the boundaries of being around human beings places his nose in my hand.  I pet Harley's nose this way all the time.  However, I do not like a new horse who knows nothing about me getting so personal.  I want a new horse to be a little more cautious, like the kids on the first day of school.

I started leading this nice horse and found that his leading habits mirrored his "nose up the sleeve" habits.  I had to hold the lead line on the right side of his chin, while leading left, to keep his face out of my lap.  Let me reiterate that he is a very nice horse.  Bully would be too strong a word, but when a creature weighs 1500+ pounds (I said he was big!), it doesn't matter how nice the creature is, if he is walking on top of you.

So after testing his leading habits in both directions and attempting to get a trot in hand, I decided to re-educate this sweet guy.  My technique is to swing the leather popper at the end of the lead line toward the horse's shoulder.  If the horse understands this cue, he moves his shoulder away from the line.  If he is really in tune, the line does not even swing.  I just move my arm or my hand or direct my intent at his shoulder.  This horse did not know the lesson yet, so he ignored the swinging line.

The next step was to let the swinging line hit his shoulder.  If he did not respond, then the line kept swinging at his shoulder.  If he responded by walking into the line (into the pressure), the line swung with more intensity.  If he tried to back up or planted his front feet and swung his quarters away from the line, the swinging continued.  Basically, the horse had to figure out that the only way to get me to stop swinging that pesky line was to step his shoulders out of my space.  This required persistence and timing on my part and here is where the follow through comes in.

The horse initially walked into me with his shoulder when I asked him to move away.  I swung the line more intently and he threw his head up and braced his body.  He made that horrified face that horses make when they really want you to stop whatever it is that you are doing.  I think this is where a lot of people lose their follow through.

The worst thing that I could do at that moment, is stop swinging that line.  If I stop swinging that line, I am telling the horse that planting his feet is the response I want.  I am also telling him that acting scared is a valid coping mechanism.  I am also telling him that it is safe to hang out in my lap.

I do not know about you, but I do not want a 1500+ animal to prefer my lap to any other place on this planet, because let's face it, that would not be safe for me!

So I followed through.  I swung that line and when the horse looked horrified, I swung it some more.  After ten long seconds, he decided that standing in my face was not a good idea and hopped his shoulders away from me.  He hopped away and took off at the canter.  Luckily, I am used to the feel of a cantering horse at the end of a line, so I turned his face and allowed him to canter around me.  As soon as he jumped away, my line went dead.  The swinging stopped.  I did not punish him for running.  I didn't say anything.  I just let him canter until he wanted to stop, which was within half a circle.  Twenty minutes later he was walking next to me, but at the end of three feet of line.  Now he would trot when I asked and no longer made the scared-face.  He even stretched his neck down and started to look quite pretty.  Best of all, I no longer had a nose up my sleeve.  If I had given in to his incorrect responses when I started swinging the line, I would still be walking with a giant in my pocket and very little control of his feet and body.  In other words, I would not be safe.

The fact that he learned the lesson so quickly shows what a really nice horse he is.  I just like to admire him with some space between us.

A Bodywork Lesson

More than two weeks ago, my teacher visited the farm to give my friend and I a lesson.  This was during the super-busy-crazy-week culminating in the Sunday horse show in the pouring rain.  Since my lesson was scheduled for a Saturday and Harley had worked very hard under saddle that week preparing the tests, I decided that an actual riding lesson was not on the cards.  Her lessons never wear us out, as she is a very horse-centered instructor and not the type to push us physically for an hour in the heat of July, but she does always give me lots of things to think about and new habits to start formulating as I practice.  She adores groundwork and asserts that the most efficient way to change postural habits in a horse is through ground exercises and bodywork.  So over the years, Harley and I have participated in a number of ground lessons and some bodywork sessions.  The weather being as it was, bodywork in the barn sounded like exactly what we needed to balance out a nonstop week and relax before strutting our stuff the next day.

My teacher usually begins with my horse's neck and poll.  She asks him to telescope his neck forward and down, open his throatlatch area, move his neck laterally, and nod so that he has released his poll.  From there she usually moves to his shoulders, ribcage, belly, and works her way to his hindquarters and tail with breaks to let him "think" and feel what his body is doing.  She describes the work that she does with him not as "exercises or massage", but as movements or postural changes to make him more aware of his body.  Bodywork, as she demonstrates it, is all about body awareness.  I have seen her do work with several horses and one of the things that she stresses is having the horse stand balanced over all four feet.  Since most horses are inclined to stand with more weight on the front end, Harley being no exception, she encourages the horse to rock his weight back to his hind end and she does "exercises" (I need a different word for it!) to help the horse realize that he has a hind end and he can use it.  Harley is, in my opinion, notorious, for standing with his back dropped.  While standing in the aisle, he will belly-lift until the cows come home and nearly to the rafters, but once I stop asking him to hold his tummy muscles in, he just lets them hang.  Of course, I encourage him to engage his abdominal muscles and, therefore, lift his back under saddle and I can see him lift on the longe and in the long lines, but he is not one to stand at rest with lovely posture.  This is at least partly conformational, as he is built somewhat downhill behind the wither (a saddle-fit challenge, I might add), and partly habitual.  My teacher tells me that when he stands with his back dropped, he is standing on the forehand.

However, on this particular day, after a few minutes working with him, she stopped and asked me,

"What has changed with this horse?"

I had already told her about the show and that we were preparing the tests and then I told her that I had been working on our homework from our June lesson: riding Harley with an emphasis on letting his energy from behind lift his shoulders in front of me, uncollapsing my left side, keeping my outside elbow and making sure to keep my inside hand lifted to correct my tendency to drop it.  It didn't feel like completely new stuff for us, so I was not sure what could have been terribly different.  Then she showed me Harley's back and explained how it was more lifted than usual.  She also demonstrated how released he was in his neck and more so in his shoulders than on previous occasions.  She said that he felt distinctly better, maybe the best he had ever felt.

Cue huge smile.

That is always something that I like to hear.  And, believe me, my teacher does not dish out gratuitous praise.  For example, previous not-so-pleasant-moments in our training past have included: too much padding under the saddle, an ill-fitting (although newly purchased and expensive) saddle (which initiated an arduous saddle search), unbalanced teeth and the necessity for a new equine dentist, bracing riding habits in me, and incorrect postural habits in me and Harley.  It would not be an exaggeration to say that there were way more things to fix than things that were going well, but I remained optimistic in between periods of discouragement and never gave up on my horse.  He is just too darn cute and smart and sweet not to tackle every hurdle in our path and, gosh darn-it, he is MY horse.  It is moments like the one where my teacher proclaimed him "wonderful" that keep me going and feeling like all our time and hard work has been with purpose and justification.  Man, that felt good!

Please allow me to clarify that "wonderful" does not equate with perfect, so there are still improvements to be made.  My teacher showed me a spot on his neck on the right side where he is still holding a bit of a brace.  This presents itself as a small bulge at the base of his neck.  The bulge is actually one of the large, lower vertebrae, indicating that he is also not completely releasing his right shoulder and ribcage.  I confirmed that the right is his more convex side under saddle.  My teacher showed me how to encourage him to first telescope his neck and then very gently push the bulge back into alignment.  We were not adjusting his skeleton like a chiropractor, we were adjusting his posture and this released the muscles he was holding and corrected the problem.  After a couple repetitions, Harley could maintain the corrected posture on his own for about ten seconds and then he would "slouch" and the bulge would reappear.  With practice and reminders, he can learn to release those muscles with more consistency.  Now that I am aware of this, I have been able to feel when they are released under saddle and when he is not carrying his right shoulder or giving in his right rib cage.  Ironically, this is the side that is easier to ride and I *thought* was easier for him to collect, but now I am wondering if he was propping himself up with that right shoulder.  This happens to be the direction where he is more likely to flip his head going into the canter, an indication that he is dropping that shoulder into the transition.  Aha!  Now it all makes sense.  Since then, I have been asking for a definite release going right when traveling on curved and straight lines and into the transitions.  I believe that I am noticing a difference, even though I still find him easier to ride going to the right.  I also looked for these things in the long lines.

My teacher worked on Harley's ribcage, asking him to move it from one side to the other and showing him that he can stretch the area between his shoulder and hip, by gently pressing those two points away from one another (especially on the left side).  Harley clearly liked this feeling and dropped his neck while enjoying the stretch.  This was all done without any kind of tie, so that Harley could move around, object, or express himself, as this feedback is very important information.  One of the last "exercises" was asking him to touch the end of his tail with his nose.  On the left side this is a piece of cake.  That is his concave side!  On the right, he could do it, but it was clearly more effortful and he did not really want to reach for his tail.  If I ask him to practice, he should get move flexible in his ribcage and stretch his left side more.

Carrot stretches are often the recommended practice for this type of stretch.  I just want to mention that I have done some carrot stretches with Harley, but they do not elicit a slow, mindful stretch in him.  He is too enthusiastic about food and will wrap his body in a pretzel very quickly to get what he wants.  My teachers says that this movement is "spastic" and not really the release we are going for, so I mostly abstain from carrot stretches.  Every horse is different.  I know they do a lot of good for many horses.  We asked him to reach for his tail by holding the noseband on his halter and holding his tail toward his nose.  He understands that he is supposed to seek a release from the pressure by reaching in the direction we are asking.  He stays calm and relaxed with this technique.

The last thing in my lesson had to do with counter canter, but I will have to share that another time.  And, yes, there was counter cantering, but not by Harley!

Wait and see...

July 2012: A nice picture demonstrating good neck posture.  The bulge that my teacher showed me is completely absent here.  Look at Harley's chest and move your eye up the jugular groove.  The bulge was a few inches above the groove in the area of his lower neck that is in shadow.  Since he is walking here, I believe that this photo also demonstrates that his posture in motion (dynamic) is better than his standing posture (static).  I am also loving his crest muscle.

June 2012: I am not sure if this picture is really showing a neck bulge, but if you look at the lower portion of his neck, just above the jugular groove, there is a little bit of a bump that looks somewhat out of place.  He is also not demonstrating a lifted posture made obvious by the resting hind.  Clearly, he is more interested in the carrots which are walking out of the talk room then the camera or standing nicely.

A few moments later, he is happily eating a carrot, and giving us a good look at how he does the horse version of a slouch.  He is letting his ribcage hang between his shoulders and hips like a sling.  It is okay, though, because he is still cute and lovable.

From our June ride and photo session: This is from our warm up (first ten minutes), but he is already moving nicely in a level balance.  His tummy muscles are engaged and he is just about stepping into the tracks of his front feet.  I like the soft arch to his neck and the reach into the bridle.  If you look just behind the saddle, his back is visibly lifted.  I think Harley is just one of those horses who looks better while in motion.

Harley insisted that I tell you that "Carrots do not stretch", but he is still more than willing to reach for them.

Long Lining: A Fresh Perspective

Yesterday, I decided that I wanted to do something different with Harley.  We rode on Monday and Wednesday with suppleness over the back and tempo as our main goals.  It felt like he remembered our work from Monday by the second ride.  We had some very nice trot work where I could feel the energy flowing right over his back, maybe better than I have even felt in him.  There was an opportunity for him to tense up his back when another horse trotted by.  He shortened his neck and tightened up, but this time I was able to coax him to stretch again with lots of leg taps and a steady outside elbow.  I am certain that I tend to give in to him too often.  I do not want to exert massive control over my horse, but I am not doing him any favors by dropping the support or giving him fuzzy boundaries.  I need to be more responsible in this way as a rider.  That is my personal goal.

The stretchy trot was better.  He stayed slower in the tempo, but now I think that it was too slow and we lost the connection over his back.  He was stretching down and forward, but I did not feel the energy coming over his back like I did earlier in the ride.  I imagine that it will be very difficult to keep that energy without losing his balance forward in the stretch.  This is going to be a challenge, but I think we will be much better for the practice.  I coached myself into staying tall in the saddle.  Leaning forward was not going to help him balance.  Again, more responsibility on my part.

Back to yesterday...
...I thought about lungeing him, but I began picturing him doing his fast nose-to-the-ground trot.  It is beautiful, but I thought that it would contradict our training goals at the moment.  And then I remembered the long lines.  We have only long lined once this summer and I had meant to do more.  The summer is not getting any longer, so I decided to pull down the surcingle and go for it.

I made a change to my long lining technique.  I finally decided to give up trying to hold the excess line in my left hand and just let the two lines drag behind me on the ground.  I do not like this, but it did give me much better use of my hands and I could finally direct Harley through a figure eight without fumbling the lines.  I was also able to be much softer with the rein cues and I could feel more, so that I knew when to give the rein forward and when to hold for support.  Harley appreciated the change in technique and he went very well.  He moved into the bridle and looked very round and beautiful.  It was so neat to be able to "ride" my horse and see him at the same time.  This is a major benefit to long lining.  Unfortunately, taking pictures at the same time is beyond my capabilities.

I made some interesting observations.  Harley moves nicely in the lines and rounds up while in gait stretching into the contact, but his first reaction is to break the connection in the upwards transitions.  This was especially bad going into the canter, where he did a couple head flips that I would say were just plain disobedient.  The other thing that I noticed was that when we took a walk break, rather than stretch evenly down with his neck, he rooted against the reins, jerking them through the rings in the surcingle.  He continued to do this even though there was slack in the reins and I was not holding him.  I tried tapping him forward to encourage him to stretch evenly and less abruptly.  This helped a little, but I could see that this was a problem.

Is that bad behavior that should be corrected or is he objecting to the placement of the lines in surcingle?

I ran the lines through the lower ring which he has seemed happy with in the past.  I tried the upper ring once and I got the impression that he "hated" it, but now I am wondering if the top would be better.  It would be more similar to my hand position.  I am a little concerned that the lower rings are pulling him down too much, disrupting his balance.  Using the upper ring would also mean that the lines would not have to drape behind his hindquarters, which proved problematic when I had to half-halt strongly on the outside and I believe the line pinched him, because he kicked at it.  Or was that just more freshness?

The long line work was very good for practicing transitions.  I carefully maintained the contact and asked Harley to trot or canter.  He was obedient about moving forward, but he wanted to flip his head, which I read as "tightening his back".  My plan to change his habit was to gently sponge the outside rein as he was transitioning up.  This worked and he showed me that he is capable of making the transition nicely and with a quiet position.  Of course, this was easier going into the trot than the canter.  I felt like I had to concentrate and focus completely to the get the timing right.  I wanted to support him without restraining him or conflicting the upwards voice command.

The right lead canter was excellent.  As close to perfect as I could have hoped.  He was forward and round.  It only took two transitions to quiet his neck/back tension and then he blew through his nose and seemed to enjoy himself.  The trot between canters was light and easy to guide.

The left lead was more challenging.  The canter itself was okay to pilot, still forward and relatively round, but the trot afterward was so heavy.  Holy cow!  He pretty much blew through my half-halts and barely stayed on a circle around me.  That was when I had to half-halt so strongly on the outside rein that he kicked at the line.  It was not pretty, but I was glad to have the opportunity to see what he looks like when he does that.  We took a few circles in trot to settle down and feel balanced again; then we went back to the canter transitions.  The canter felt much more controllable than the trot afterward.  I had to really half-halt on the outside rein, while keeping the inside rein so that he didn't leave the circle.  I also had to give the outside rein, so that he could bend around the circle, otherwise he had no where to go.  It was very challenging and then I remembered later that this is only the second or third time that we have cantered in the long lines.  He finally backed off in the trot and balanced himself instead of running like a freight train.  I think that this is just one more thing that I need to be vigilant about under saddle.  If he were someone else's horse that I was riding, I would not let him get away with that.  From the ground, I felt like I was seeing him from a distance with a fresh perspective.  Undersaddle, it did not feel the same way as it did from the ground.  He was very, very strong and ignoring my equally strong requests to rebalance.  We did improve by the end of the session, but I could see that this was good for us and we need to do more.

After a relaxing walk around the ring several times, I pulled his tack and let him eat some grass in the ring, so that I could wrap my lines before giving him a shower.  I wondered if he would be upset with me for being hard on him and demanding that he maintain his frame or slow down.  To my surprise, he walked up to me, completely tack free, and stood right next to me while I organized the equipment.  I just kept petting him and telling what a good boy he was.  I guess I thought he would be mad at me.  It is tough when you love the horse you are training.

Lungeing: Trying Walk to Canter

Last week, Harley and I finally had a regular schedule.  I was able to ride him for two days in a row, lunge on the third day, and go on a short trail ride the fourth, before heading out for a family reunion for the weekend.  The weather was very pleasant with temperatures in the low to mid eighties.  We were in heaven.

Harley gave me some excellent stretching work and sitting trot.  He was very happy to reach forward and down and stay there for as long as I kept the reins long.  I could feel his back swinging as his hind legs stepped under my weight.  Once I shortened the reins we went to sitting trot.  I felt him do something kind of interesting.  It seemed like he sort of steadied himself for a stride to balance under my seat.  Then he trotted forward and was very easy to sit.  He stayed light in front the entire time he was trotting and through changes of direction.  We practiced some trot-walk-trot transitions and I paid special attention to keeping him marching to the bit in the walk.  This is our most challenging transition, because he likes to drop the contact and curl up a little bit or root down asking for a walk break.  I have been trying to incorporate the medium walk in more of our work sessions so that he doesn't just associate the walk with a break.  This seems to be helping, but, like with people, horse habits die hard.

The theme of keeping the working mindset in walk carried over into our lunge session on Wednesday.  I warmed Harley up in the walk and trot and then over four trot poles.  He floated over them without touching a single one or missing his stride.  Five of my feet, toe to heel, seems to be the magic distance.  I think that is about four to four and a half feet between the trot poles.  I always praise him for a good trot over poles, because he used to hollow over them.  Now he finally knows how to carry himself and judge the distances at the same time.  Then we moved on to canter and he demonstrated what a pro he has become once again.  Not only did he canter smoothly and in rhythm, he kept the canter nicely until I asked him to trot.  I encouraged him to keep cantering and then realized that he was going on his own. 

Good Boy.

We went to the left after warming up on the right.  Harley did a nice free walk at the end of the lunge line, taking a break and waiting for me to ask him to move up a gear.  When I wanted to trot, I bounced in place, imitating the energy needed for trot, and clucked.  Instead of picking up the trot like he usually does, Harley stepped calmly into the canter.  He picked up the outside lead, but the transition was so nonchalant and smooth that I praised him.  I repeated everything that we did going right in the new direction, but I kept Harley's new trick in the back of my mind.  Once we had cantered a couple times on the left lead, I asked him to come back to walk.  Of course he thought this meant he was done, but I wanted to see if he would canter from the walk at my request.

I waited until he walked half a circle and then I lifted the line a little and gave my verbal half-halt "And..." with a higher tone, which means that we are going to move up a gear.  Harley's head raised inquisitively; he was listening and realized that I might be asking for something he was not expecting.

"...caann-terr."  I hopped a canter stride, imitating the gait as I had with the trot.

Harley was momentarily flabbergasted.  He leaped at the end of the line, incredulous to what I was asking.  He did not canter, but looked at me with wide eyes.  Apparently, I was challenging his idea of how things should progress on the lunge line.

I calmly asked him to walk on and after he had walked half a circle, I repeated my request.  This time he ran a little bit in trot and then burst into the canter.  I praised him and immediately asked him to come back to walk.  Now that the wheels were turning, bringing him to walk was a bit challenging.  His excitement was up and he could not resist trotting around me with his head in the air.  I gently made the circle smaller, asking him to walk the entire time.  When he was still trotting a twelve meter circle around me, a couple well-timed half-halts on the line brought him to walk.  I gave a long steady pull on the line when his inside hind was on the ground.  This steadied his weight onto the inside hind, encouraging him to shift down a gear.  I do not watch the hind leg to get the timing.  I just feel it out, like when I am riding.  Harley finally relaxed and walked a small circle.  I allowed the circle to get bigger and then asked him to canter again.  Harley leaped into the air once more and pulled back on the line.  I coaxed him to continue going left by swishing the lunge whip slowly with my right hand.  I asked him to canter again and told him that he had the right idea.  He turned and trotted a couple steps and then cantered.  I praised him and immediately brought him back on the small circle and repeated the half-halts until he walked.  I did not care if he only cantered one stride.  The goal was to pick up the canter from the walk, nothing else.

By the fourth try, Harley was ready to think more and react less.  I watched him gather himself and organize his inside hind before picking up the canter.  Even though he did not pick up the canter directly from the walk, like he did by accident earlier in the lungeing session, he demonstrated that he understood what I was asking and was trying to figure out how to honor my request.  As a reward for his efforts, I let him go forward in a big trot on a larger circle around me.  He immediately dropped his neck and started relaxing and moving his lower jaw.  When he looked calm, I asked him to canter from the trot.  I wanted to make sure that he was not anxious about cantering on the line, even though the new request had clearly been somewhat stressful for him.  He smoothly transitioned into the canter, just as he had before the new exercise.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  That was a major accomplishment for my horse.  I had been able to push his comfort zone on the line and he worked through it and found his confidence after the exercise was over.  Anxiety used to linger for a long time on the lunge line, which was why it took me years to teach him to canter without galloping like a madman at the end of the line.  Now, he is seasoned enough to bounce back from a training exercise that raised his excitement level.  That is a seemingly small thing, but a very rewarding feat to witness.

Friendly and Fresh

When I stepped out of my car today, I heard Harley whinny from his paddock.  How sweet.  Couple the fact that he hadn't seen me in a week with the notion that his buddy was already in the barn and I had one lonely pony.  He was waiting at the gate when I got there and I could not resist giving him a kiss on his velveteen nose.  He eagerly shoved his nose in his halter as I gave him the once over.  Besides some tangles in his mane and tail, he looked relatively clean.  I have cared for grays before, so I know how messy they can be.  Even though he is very light-colored, Harley is not much of a mud worshiper.  Off-white seems to wear dirt rather well anyway.  I walked him back to the barn and he was all happiness with shiny, bright eyes and a swing in his step.

I got out the grooming kit and set to work.  I hadn't gotten far and was just brushing his neck, when the barn owner mentioned that I did not appear to be wearing riding clothes.  Alas.  I wanted to ride, but my body was not quite up to it yet.  I had only gotten one good night sleep in the past week and was prone to coughing fits.  I am sure that Harley would take care of me, but I have difficulty setting limits when it comes to riding.  I would end up riding for an hour, working up a sweat, and possibly setting myself back another week.  I am already fighting off two infections.  I do not need a third!

So I purposely did not wear riding clothes.  I knew that this would (most likely) keep me out of the saddle.  Although, let me tell you, Harley is one charismatic fellow and difficult to resist.  Despite creeping thoughts of "just a walk around the paddock", I stuck to my guns and the grooming kit.

I barely finished responding to the barn owner's inquiry by confirming that I was not riding today, when Harley started to paw with his right front foot.  I was standing on his right side, brushing his neck.  Before I could finish scolding him for his behavior, he deliberately brought his right front leg to the side and plopped his hoof on top of my foot!  I was so surprised that I barely knew how to react.  His hoof was gone almost as soon as it grazed my foot.  His stunt had been without pressure or force against my shoe, so I was completely unharmed, but no less stunned by his clear demonstration of frustration.

"Excuse me..."

"...but it sounds like you said..."

"...no riding?!  What gives?"

 (These pictures are from a different day when Harley was demonstrating how he can stretch his front legs on his own using the "elbow touch" Spanish walk precursor exercise.  I thought they were more amusing in this context.)

"What do you mean?  We are not riding today?"

Rather then continue my original notion to scold him, I just apologized and told him that I would give him a good grooming. 

"We will ride later in the week.  I promise!"

Harley is definitely not the kind of horse that likes to be idle.  I think that I underestimate this sometimes.  He is rarely fresh, but this behavior definitely qualified!  No offense Harley.  I do not like to be idle either, but I do want to be able to speak above a hoarse croak and without coughing incessantly some time in the near future, so I am just going to have to give it some time.  I know that I could get up there and ride today and it would be no problem, until I felt worse later.  Thankfully, spring break is just around the corner.  Plenty of time for resting, riding, and cleaning my house, because that needs to be done, too!

What do you think?  Did Harley recognize that I was not wearing riding clothes?  Did he understand when I said "no" to the question about riding?  What does he understand exactly? 

Apparently a great many things!

Dancing With My Horse's Backside

Think two-step meets a shopping cart.

I am describing my attempts to get Harley to roll his backend under as demonstrated in the very nice video posted at It's Quarters for Me.  Horse yoga.  I read this interesting post and watched the very clear how-to video and thought "I could probably stand to do some stretch work with Harley".  Every time I see my teacher, she immediately starts working his shoulders and neck.  My friend at the barn does all kinds of stretches with her horse.  Even the barn owner does the occasional carrot stretch with his trail horse.  I think that I have fallen behind the ball.

I am going to start with what Harley is good at.  He is really good at the belly lifts.  He can lift his back so high that it looks kinda unnatural.  I think this is a benefit of being rather rectangular in shape.  He has a long back and loin and they have an impressive range of motion.  Of course this does not mean that he stands with his back up all the time.  He doesn't.  He lifts it under saddle, but I should take the time to breathe with him and do a few sets on each side.  Nice and easy with a long exhale, like I am doing yoga, too.

You know what?  It was fun.

Harley is also good at carrot stretches.  I wouldn't say that he can go all the way to the stifle, as that would take some dedicated practice, but he can wrap his long body around like a bow.  A friend once nicknamed him "Gumby Horse", because he reached for the carrot she rested near his hip on the first try.  This makes it really easy for him to bend under saddle.  Too easy.  I spend more time reminding him to be straight then actively bending him.  Another benefit and challenge of being long-bodied.

The front leg stretches are an excellent addition to our new routine.  After a couple sessions, he has figured out how to extend his front leg without stepping down onto the stretched leg.  He seems to have already gained some range of motion and is finding it easier to straighten his knee.  Harley absolutely LOVES this exercise.  He lifts his foot up for me and nearly does the exercise by himself.  I just support at the pastern and lower his leg forward.  He actively licks and chews and sometimes nuzzles my back.  We are so keeping that one in our box of tricks!

The tail pull got a mixed review.  I thought that he was pulling against the resistance that I was providing, until he rested a hind leg, sighed, and looked back at me like, "Are you going to hang down there all day or can we get saddled up already?"  Do I not weigh enough to create meaningful traction?  Harley seemed pretty "blah" about that one, but I will give it a couple more tries.

Then came the dance (Well, actually I tried to do the exercises in the same order as the video, but this was the funny one.)  I found the spot described in the video on either side of his tail.  My hands were resting on his hindquarters about seven inches or so below the top of his tail.  I tried gently pressing his muscles and watched his hips to see if he started to tuck his butt.  FAIL.

Harley felt the pressure on his backside and immediately tried to interpret what I wanted.  He sauntered to the left.  He sauntered to the right.  He tried stepping forward.  He tried stepping back, but did not want to step on me and then would side-step again.  I tried to stay behind him (Normally, I would say, "Do not stand behind a horse!") as he side-steped which caused him to step forward or side-step the other way.  I followed, trying to apply pressure on either side of his tail and trying to watch his hips.  Unfortunately, I am too short to see over his croup, so I could not really tell if he was doing anything other than shifting around.  A couple times, I think that he might have started to tuck his pelvis, but I really could not see clearly.  At some point I realized that what I was doing probably looked dangerous or completely ridiculous or both.  I decided to call it quits and try another day.  Our waltz was created by what I thought was gentle pressure.  It seemed like Harley moved as soon as I applied any pressure at all.  If I applied no pressure, he did nothing.  If I applied stronger pressure, he just danced more.

I think that this yoga stretch could be very beneficial for him.  The practitioner in the video suggested that if your horse cannot do a stretch, then that is probably the one that he needs to do.  Okay.  I will try again, but how do I explain this one to Harley?

Lungeing: Back To The Future

I am finally feeling better, although I also feel like I ran the gauntlet this week.  There were deadlines to be met, meetings to be had, projects which never gelled, and me with my energy at half mast.  I am so glad that it is Friday (yesterday)!  This was one of those days where I had to force myself to go to the barn.  That does not happen very often, which demonstrates how drained I was feeling.  Gray clouds and the weather forecast threatened rain, as I backed out of the driveway.  I decided that today might be a good day to lunge.

At the barn, a deliciously muddy Harley met me at the gate.  The mud was dry so he cleaned up pretty easily.  There is something satisfying about making a dirty horse clean again.  Harley was very helpful and bright-eyed, lifting each foot for me before I even reached to pick it up.  I brushed him on Wednesday, but we had not ridden since Sunday, which was promptly followed by my cold shutting me down for the week.  He obediently lifted a front leg when I touched his elbow.  Oops!  I forgot that I had originally used that cue to train our version of the Spanish walk.  That was a year ago.  Harley did not forget!  He was hoping that we were going to have some fun together.

Out in the ring, I set up a couple trot poles.  Harley stood like a statue while I unwrapped the lunge line and snapped it to his halter.  I like to use the inside ring on the nose band to encourage him to flex toward me as he circles.  The lungeing session started out pretty normal, except that the trot poles were not working out too well.  He has been trotting over them undersaddle better than ever, but now he seemed to be having trouble with the spacing on the line.  I adjusted them once and then demoted the trot poles to walking poles when he almost slipped trying to push over them.  I guess the ground was too sloppy.  Harley stretched his neck very nicely in trot, reaching nearly to the ground at times.  I thought how nice it was that we could pick up where we left off the last time we lunged many, many months ago...

...and then I asked him to canter.

HELLO!  What is this?  Harley started hopping around and then racing at the end of the lunge line.  Thankfully, he does not try to run off the circle, but he did show me some creative and rather acrobatic leaps.  I tightened my grip on the lunge line and felt like I woke up for the first time all day.  It was not totally clear what Harley was doing at the end of the lunge line, but I saw some counter canter, some lead changes, and some cross-cantering.  He also tossed his neck, leaped up in a very nice uphill way, and motorcycled like the good ol' days.  Wow!  I have not seen that Harley in a long time.  I felt like we went back in time.  My horse turns fourteen this month, but you would not have guessed it by the antics he was pulling on the lunge line this evening.  What happened to my experienced statesman on the lunge line?

I do not know if it was fun, pent up energy, better condition (He is looking GOOD!), or some of the disobedience that I have met undersaddle at the canter recently (him wanting to change leads on his own), but Harley was a bit of a maniac.  Although I believe that he was having a good time at first, I think that my horse started to scare himself, because the look in his eye changed.  I have noticed that when my horse is stressed or upset, he gets this extra rim of reddish brown around his eye.  It almost looks bloodshot at the edge of the brown iris.  That was how his eye started to look.  He may have been goofing off or having fun in the beginning (i.e. being full of himself!), but his fun quickly changed to a loss of balance and that made him start to panic.  The more he panicked, the faster he ran.  He started to snort forcefully through his nose and turn his head and neck in toward me.  This did not help his balance, but it did show me, beyond a doubt, that he was worried and not sure how to stop "freight train Harley".  I did my best to stay calm, but I had very little control with the line.  Sure my horse was circling me, but the line felt like a wiggly piece of spaghetti.  I knew that Harley needed to find me at the end of the line to feel confident.  Only then would I have a chance to help him rebalance.

I took up some of the slack in the line and bridged the line between my whip hand and my leading hand.  I tried to keep the line from getting slack by keeping some tension on the line with my whip hand and reaching forward up the line with my leading hand (in this case my left hand, since he was traveling left).  Harley was bouncing around at the end of the line very unpredictably, so this is easier said than done.  I talked to him, but I could see my soothing words were not helping.  He would transition down to trot, but the trot was worse than the canter and he kept turning his head and neck in like an exaggerated shoulder-in.  He was very off-balance and his nerves were escalating.  I was concerned that he might slip and fall, so any hard, fast corrections with the line were out of the question and certainly were not going to take his weight off the forehand.

I asked him to canter again by slowly cantering myself at the center of the circle.  Cantering allowed him to slow his feet down, which were moving at a crazy tempo in trot.  I exaggerated my canter strides making them as slow as I possibly could.  I brought him back to trot and then to canter again.  With each transition, the connection on the line became more consistent and his tempo slowed.  At last he slowed down enough to find a rhythm in his gaits and a connection with me on the line.  I actually saw him lick and chew in the canter.  That was a really good sign.  Harley's neck arched, his tempo returned to normal, and his hindend engaged with noticeable lowering of his hindquarters.

The year was twenty-twelve.  Harley was BACK!

After two very nice canters on the left lead, I was certain that my horse had regained his balance and his confidence.  He stretched his nose all the way to the ground in trot and then walked with lots of relieved snorts.  He halted on a dime, like he always does, and I walked up to him to tell him what a "Good Boy" he was.  For all that activity, he was barely warm with just a little moisture around his chest, neck, and legs.  His eye looked bright again and he relaxed his neck down as I stood next to him and patted his soft fur.  His excitement was not completely gone.  He repeated some of the same airs above the ground going to the right in canter, but returned to the Harley who knows how to balance himself on the lunge line before we were done.  He performed one very nice left to right lead flying change somewhere in the middle of his goofing off.  I swear he looked right at me to ask, "Did you see that?"  I praised him for that one and did my best not to praise or punish for the rest of it.

In my opinion, Harley is a good example of a horse who cannot be chased to "fix" his problem.  I have watched horses run in the round pen to fix certain problems.  I have even done so myself, with a very lazy horse that I worked with before Harley was around.  Chasing Harley would only make matters worse.  Creating hard tension against the line would allow him to brace and fall on his forehand more, while leaving the line slack left him feeling abandoned.  I had to find a way to keep him calm and slow down his feet, but just stopping them wasn't good either.  He stopped a couple times during his second motorcycle impression, faced me, and looked completely frazzled, almost vibrating with energy.  Standing still seemed to build his tension, because he had not found the balance that gave him confidence while moving.  It is a difficult thing to send a horse moving off again after he has been running on the line and now is stopped in front of you.  My instincts told me that he had to keep going.  He could only make it back to the future, if he was moving forward.

Buckskin Bloopers Video 2011

Happy 2012 Everyone!

Love,
Val and Harley

My Favorite Jacket and Carrot Time Video

 You know that you are a horse-dork when...

...you wear a jacket with your horse's name on the back!

My name is on the front, which comes in mighty handy at a barn.  No misplaced jackets here!  I thought that I would get made fun of (playfully, of course) for wearing my horse on my jacket, but most people just exclaim that they want one and ask where they can make a customized jacket brandished with horse personalization.  My husband found the design and ordered it at Superior Stitch Embroidery.  My favorite jacket is surprisingly warm for the lightweight material and serves me well for all the cold weather months.  It is also machine washable.  A must!  The "Harley Jacket" was my birthday present a couple years ago.  This year my husband ordered me this:

Yes, that is a matching "Harley Hat".  I love it!  My husband is awesome!

Now I am completely surrendered to Horse Dorkdom and it was mostly my husband's doing.  I find this to be terribly amusing, since he does not like the funny looks that we get when I wear my breeches and riding boots for a couple quick errands.  I have yet to transfer my school things into this messenger bag, because I do not want to ruin its newness.  The horse is so pretty!

Practicing a few Spanish walk steps

 

The beginning of a nice soft turn with only implied pressure.  See that my feet and shoulders have started the turn?

Turning our feet some more.

If you compare his stockings to the summer photos in the right side bar of the blog, you will see how much light-colored winter fur has replaced his dark stockings.  His nose is also black, now.  Harley is becoming a polar bear again.

Harley takes his carrots very seriously.  He can fit an impressive number of baby carrots in his mouth at once, although I have never counted.  I do not want to throw that challenge down or I may be facing a buckskin chipmunk cheeks.

Enjoy!