Horses Can Be Naughty...

I swear, she does not mean me!  (Photo taken before the demise of the right cross tie.)

I trimmed Harley's feet today.  I didn't take any pictures, because the lighting was poor, but his feet are looking very good.  I cross-tie my horse when I groom him, tack up, or work on his feet.  I know a couple horse people who prefer ground tying, but this is something that I have not taken the time to teach Harley.  I am sure that he can learn just about anything, but I consider cross ties one of my chosen "conveniences".  Thankfully, I have a horse who stands between the ties for as long as necessary.  Even if he shifts around, he respects the ties.

Today, I went to attach the right cross-tie and I saw that the clip was broken.  Apparently, one of the other horses spooked and busted the clip.  The bailing twine tied at the top of the tie held sturdy, even though the metal clip snapped in half.  Horses are strong.

I tied Harley's cotton, blue lead line to the hanging, lifeless cross-tie with a slip-knot.  This made for a longer tie than usual, but it held fast and I could pull the slip to untie it quickly.  As I was trimming his feet, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.  It was Harley's muzzle sniffing the ground.

"Harley, How is your face on the ground?"

Since, he stayed still and seemed pretty content to stretch his neck down while I worked on his feet, I just let him be.  Before long, I felt my jacket russling slightly.  Harley's muzzle wiggled like the end of an elephant trunk as he nosed my back pocket.  I kept working, ignoring him, but vigilant for any teeth or test nips.  None came, but his nose did leave and return a few times once he realized that he had more freedom than usual in the long cross-tie.  Hopefully, his gentle nosiness meant that he liked the grooming his feet were getting.

After his feet were finished, it was time to eat, and then time to go out for the night.  I walked Harley in my left hand and his buddy in my right.  Harley is a pretty big walker when his hay is waiting, but his equally food-motivated buddy, walks like a slug.  Harley and I had to kind of drag him along.  I gave him a couple looks that said, "What is your problem?"

Once at the paddock, we walked through the gate together and both horses turned to face me, which is polite horse manners.  Harley made a motion to nip his buddy's chest.  I corrected him and made him move over so that he could not pick on his buddy while I was taking his halter off.  Harley is the alpha, but he is not a nasty alpha.  I was wondering why he was so bitey toward his paddock mate as I removed his halter and then I understood why.  His buddy committed a huge bad-horse behavior.  He ran threw the gate.  The gate that was right next to me.  I am always mindful of where the gate is, because a swinging gate can be a dangerous weapon.  Of course, this time I was not mindful of shutting the dangerous weapon behind me.  I foolishly thought that the horses would be more interested in their hay.  Harley was.  My good boy did not follow his buddy.  He turned and headed for the hay.  "More for me!'

When I went to catch his buddy, he started to trot away from me, so I gave him a hard whack on the butt with my lead line, which had a leather popper on the end.  He trotted off and headed for the barn as if he was about to receive his second dinner.  This horse is allowed to run in from his paddock to his stall for dinner at night.  Many other horses on the property are also granted this "privilege".  I ask that Harley always be walked in, and this situation is a good example of why I do not approve of this practice.  Since the horse is used to running through the gate, he looks for opportunities to do just that, even when dinner has already been served.  A friend intercepted him in the barn and I took him back out.  I was very annoyed.  Not only was his behavior potentially dangerous, but the "habit" was not going away anytime soon.

I think Harley knew what the other horse was thinking, because he had been making to bite him on the chest, which would have sent the horse backwards.  I stopped Harley's correction, only to the have the offending horse rudely run past me.  I was reminded of another similar incident about a month ago.  I was holding the same horse from Harley's back.  Harley was fussing over his buddy and tossing his head at him.  I made Harley quit, and then his buddy bit him on the neck!  I think that I have learned my lesson this time.  Harley knows his "nudgey" paddock buddy better than I do.  If he feels that the horse needs a correction, I should just let him give it to him.

Oh yeah, and next time, close the gate!

Riding Reflection: Lift Thine Eyes

Today was our follow-up ride after last week's lesson.  Did I mention that those are few and far between around here?  I love watching videos from other rider's lessons, especially if I can hear the commentary from the instructor.  The more detailed the better, as I start to sort of feel what it is like on the horse in the lesson.  I nearly always learn something that I can take home to Harley.  If you have a good (overactive) imagination, vicarious learning can become real learning!  But today, I had my own lesson with which to digest and experiment.

We had some company in the ring, so I did not let Harley go willy-nilly around the ring this time, but I did my very best to melt my seat.  I did not practice the standing exercises from the lessons, because I was pressed for time.  There I go cutting corners already!  Oh well, at least I made a point to really feel my seat in the saddle.  My entire seat.  From the front all the way to the back.  My seat felt like a platform, seriously flat and stable.  I tried to concentrate on this feeling no matter what we were doing: walking, trotting, transitioning, turning.  I practiced some sitting trot and tried to keep my seat melted as we transitioned to walk.  I could feel myself wanting to lean back, but I resisted the temptation.  I actually had a little trouble explaining to Harley that I wanted him to walk.  He slowed his trot more and more until he was almost trotting in place.  It was like really, really awesome.  Then I sent him forward and asked him to repeat the tiny, collected trot.  This worked well going to the right, but he transitioned to canter when I attempted the same thing on the left.  That usually means that he was shifting his weight back.  He was either not quite able to collect his trot that much going left or he just wanted to canter and thought that would be easier.  Going forward is never a bad thing, so I just rode the canter and continued to focus on my seat as a wide platform.  His canter was quite straight for the left lead and balanced.  The downward transitions to sitting trot were easy.  Cool beans.

I made a new discovery.  I have a much easier time keeping my seat melted when I am looking ahead of our path of travel.  I am guilty of staring at Harley's beautiful neck and mane.  I know that I should not be looking down, but he is so pretty.  I do not get to see him all the time, so when we are together I just want to look at him constantly.  I wonder what it is like to be adored that way?  He seems to handle it well.

So if I can convince myself to look ahead, my focus softens and so does my seat.  Harley's balance reaches new heights and I can keep my legs where they should be and my upper body over my feet.  Coincidence?  I think not.  Now if I can just keep it (my eyes) up!

Lesson Reflection: Melt Your Seat

How does a rider melt her seat exactly? 
And, more importantly, why would she want to?

First of all, this "melt your seat" phrase is mine, but the concept belongs to my teacher.  She gave Harley and I a lesson yesterday in the saddle!  I am not embarrassed to admit that this was my first riding lesson since the spring.  I have met with my teacher for groundwork and bodywork lessons, but I have not been in the saddle under her scrutinizing eye for quite some time.  My teacher is very kind, but I still didn't want to disappoint.  I knew Harley wouldn't.

In my last "rideless" riding lesson, I learned (again or to a new degree) how to position my upper body over my feet.  This allowed me to find an upright, supported posture without leaning back or bracing.  I have been practicing this concept while riding Harley.  I pretended that I was pushing a wall in front of my knuckles.  If you are trying to push an imaginary wall, you cannot pull back on your horse or lean back and brace in your seat or lower leg.  When I got it, Harley definitely had that back to front feeling without me driving, pushing or worrying about inside leg to outside rein aiding.  Seriously.  I think that those aspects of dressage can be overdone and make riding mostly mechanical.  I learned the mechanics for years.  I don't want that to be my focus anymore.  I want the art and I believe that Harley is the unexpected mount to meet me half-way in this journey. 

While practicing my new position and awareness, I noticed that my seat would often dislodge from the saddle.  I had been trying to counteract this by "closing my seat" with muscular effort, mostly from my core.  I told my teacher about this and she had an exercise ready for me.  I dropped my reins and placed my hands, palm down on Harley's withers.  I had to feel my entire seat in the saddle and slowly walk my hands up his neck.  The farther up his neck I walked, the more my lower leg had to come forward and the more my lower back had to stretch and flatten to keep my seat in the saddle.  I repeated the exercise my walking back down his neck and continuing behind the saddle.  The challenge was to keep my seat in full contact with the saddle no matter where my upper body went.  This required that I let many muscle groups around my pelvis relax. 

The first exercise was not so bad, until she asked me to raise my lower leg without tightening my butt.  That is really difficult. 

In fact, it felt impossible. 

Every time I raised my knee and thigh, my "hindend" tightened.  I tried making tiny movements, but this did not fool my teacher.  I whined a little bit, "but they are all connected."  So then she told me to just raise my heel a little to move my knee.  Whoa.  That worked.  Somehow, my seat muscles stayed relaxed even though I was moving my legs.

"This is the way you must allow him to move your leg.  If you let your knee rise and fall slightly with relaxed thighs, that is your trot."

I took my reins back and we moved on to work on the circle.  I walked and trotted Harley, trying to maintain relaxed seat muscles.  I am telling you.  This is deceptively difficult.  You cannot work hard.  You cannot overwhelm yourself with trying.  Those things are counter productive.  The only way that I could find success was to prescribe a sort of softness or gentleness to my body.  No big movements.  No tight muscles.  Do not think work.  Do not think perfection.  Then it might just happen.

And it did.

I felt my entire seat contacting the saddle, from the front to the back.  The whole surface draped around the saddle.  I felt like a heavy cloth with no muscles.  If I started to tighten the muscles and try to leg on my horse, he would stop.  I had to keep my legs forward, but underneath me.  Apparently, Harley had read the lesson plan.  If I kept my seat melted and my legs under my shoulders, he flowed along like butter.  His neck was long and his strides carried my seat and my lower leg forward.  It was so cool.

And then it got cooler.

My teacher asked me to try walking my hands up his neck while he was trotting.  Granted, this was not on a lunge line, but there is a fence around the ring, so I let my reins go long and tried walking up his neck.  I kept posting the trot at first, but that became awkward, so I decided to sit.  Harley approached the exercise and my melted seat with gusto.  He powered along with a long neck and sought contact with my long reins, as I inched up his neck and then walked back down again.  I raised my heels and knees slightly in rhythm with his strides as I walked my hands behind the saddle.  I was so focused on keeping my seat melted into the saddle, that I did not realize how Harley was trucking along until my teacher exclaimed,

"You can slow down if you what, but look how he is just carrying you forward?"

Harley was power-trotting around the ring, and I was sitting in the saddle with one hand resting on the cantle and one on the reins.  I couldn't resist laughing.  Harley was funny.  I was funny.  The lesson was funny and, man, did I have a rough week at work.  That was exactly what I needed.

"This feels so awesome!"

I didn't care that it was fast.  His trot was so forward and the strides were long and comfortable.  My knees flexed in time with his strides and my seat remained firmly glued.  I didn't feel like I was activating my core.  I wasn't working hard.  I was just sitting in a posture that was not creating any resistance to my horse's movement.  If that's not a reason to melt your seat, I do not know what is.  Now that I have "felt the melt", I hope that I can make it happen again!