For all my horse riders out there, you should take the time to check out the videos on demand.  Last week George Morris taught 13 of the top equitation riders in the country for 5 days.  For those who were able to watch throughout the day – the lessons were broadcasted live for free by usefnetwork.  I chose to catch up after the fact.

Some of the guest speakers this year were Dr. Deb Bennett, Anne Kursinski, Dr. Tim Ober (Vet), Dean Pearson (farrier).  I still haven’t watched all the videos yet, although I think I’ve seen everything up to Day 3.  Most of the videos from the last three days were not available until last night.

Photo Cred: Usefnetwork

I watched the clinic last year and I have to say it was nice to see George Morris teaching this year.   The thing I remember most about last year was the slight lack of coherence between the clinicians since George was unable to teach last years clinic.  One day a clinician would ask the riders to shorten their reins the next clinician would tell them to ride with a little longer rein.  Some clinicians wanted their hands low, some wanted their hands high.  Some wanted the riders using a crest release, others the automatic release.  And while I’m sure it was good practice to be able to ride well in all of these different positions, as a rider I wouldn’t have enjoyed that format.

Photo Cred: Usefnetwork

This year with George teaching all of the mounted sessions – there was a definite way to ride and the riders were reminded of that on the flat with and without stirrups, while doing gymnastics, and over courses.  It made more sense to me at least.  Another thing I noticed was that the guest speakers all added to what we were already hearing from George in the riding sessions.  Dr. Deb really got the heart of straightening, flexion and collection – showing the physical reasoning for riding the way George Morris tells us to.  Anne Kursinski showed her own flat exercises with a sensitive mare, expressing the importance of leg to hand and flatwork.

Photo Cred: Usefnetwork

I still haven’t watched Tim Ober and Dean Pearson’s sessions so I cannot comment on how they changed from last year, but I did learn a lot from them in the previous year.

The biggest change that I noticed in my own riding from watching this years clinic was the leg to hand in the straightening exercises.  I’ve always used an opening inside rein and inside leg to move Tia onto my outside aids, but I was applying them together, using my inside rein in conjunction with my inside leg.  When I practiced the inside leg alone – I immediately got results.  As soon as I had her on my outside rein she became round.  I’ve never been one to see-saw in order to get Tia’s head down, but I found that through solely applying my inside leg and finding connection with the outside rein, I was able to get roundness, without even touching the inside rein.  She was happy to come into the contact.  I know they say “less is more” but I had never seen it so clearly.

Photo Cred: Usefnetwork

The other thing that I learned ,that sort of reinforced what I already knew, was Dr. Deb’s bird and thread theory.  Tia has been a little nervous about the far end of the ring because she can see through the tree line to the horse farm beyond.  She can also hear the horses walking through the leaves and she gets spooky when we approach that end of the ring first thing into our ride.  I always used circles as a way to get her attention back on me, but what I found really interesting was Dr. Deb’s idea understanding the horse’s threshold for being O.K. and having awareness to ensure that we aren’t forcing our horses past this comfort zone.  I won’t get into what the bird and thread mean in the theory – you’ll just have to watch the video to understand.

The why in this circumstance really interested me and made sense.  I know I mentioned this in last week’s post – but the theory or the why behind what we do is just as important as the what.  George Morris said that he was being selfish when he got Dr. Deb to come as a guest speaker, because he was the one that wanted to learn from her and get inside her head.  Yes, it hopefully helped the students in the clinic and the auditors watching – it for sure helped me – but he was after the knowledge for himself.

I hope that you get a chance to watch some of the clinic.  Usefnetwork does a real favor by allowing those of us who would not normally be able to get this kind of training, to audit the clinic.  You can find the videos at USEFNETWORK.

Then tell me what your favorite part of the clinic was – surely Morris one-liners will be at the top of your list!

Happy Tuesday!

Happy New Years Eve everyone!

Over the weekend I had read an article about the importance of striving for excellence as a horseman.  Not only were riding lessons important and time in the saddle, but also reading and studying the masters when you’re not at the barn.  Basically the point was that if you are teaching a lesson you are focused on the problems at hand and the exercises needed for the horse and rider to progress.  Riders aren’t always able to get the why of what they are learning.  There just isn’t enough time to teach theory.  So where are riders and trainers supposed to look for additional knowledge?  In books, magazines, and online websites.  Knowledge is everywhere and easily within reach.

My Dad bought me How to Ride for Christmas.  I planned to donate it to the barn where I teach – but then yesterday I opened it up and started reading.  And then I kept reading.  It’s amazing how much I was able to learn from a book that is ultimately designed to teach the basics.  What I had ignorantly forgotten was how important it is to go back to the basics.  Things like how to maintain rhythm, to correctly obtaining bend and flexion.  It was amazing how these refreshers made me realize the little mistakes that I was making everyday.

Something that Tia and I have been working at is the half halt.  I’ve read that when you correctly ride the half halt you must relax your body but only for a beat.  Well try doing several true relaxed half halts in a row.  It’s almost impossible to get your body to post up and then relax into the half halt.  Instead what I read in this book made the concept click.  This book says instead that the rider half halts for several beats until the horse rebalances.  You close your hands and legs pushing the horse up into the bridle to build impulsion and bring the horses weight back onto his hindquarters.  When the horse lightens its front end you give with your hands.

So what’s correct?  For me, it’s whatever works for you and your horse.  That’s why continued study of horsemanship and riding is important.  The more you read – the more you have to pick from and sort out.  Theory is important – and while your trainer may not be able to give you reasons why in every lesson for every exercise, they are easily accessible.

I put some of my new knowledge to work today.  I had been working on shoulder in and instead of providing an exercise to get Tia to naturally move into the shoulder in I had been forcing it.  So today I did a 10 meter circle before moving into the shoulder in.  By already bending Tia around my inside leg and rein – I was able to continue this bend along the rail as we continued straight.  It was amazing how quickly it came.  Suddenly I was able to easily get Tia into the shoulder in and have her relaxed and stepping forward.

So while it’s difficult to always explain the why when I’m teaching, I’m going to start trying to incorporate it a little more.  And maybe it will spark an interest in the students to do some studying on their own.  I can only hope

In the New Year I am determined to continue my individual study of horsemanship while also FINALLY taking a riding lesson and showing Tia.  It’s time for us to move up and while the funds for showing and consistent lessons may not be in the bank, I can still at least make sure I take one lesson and enter one horse show in the new year.  Along with of course my other new years resolution to volunteer one day per month as well.

Well that’s my little rant for the day.  Happy almost 2013!!! Stay horsey my friends

Tia was really clumsy on Sunday.  It was rather unsettling.  In the video you can see Tia trips about 10 times.  Most of which happens during our downward transitions.  So today we spent the entire time doing downward transitions from trot to walk and walk to halt.  I gave her lots and lots of half-halts to help her not fall on her face.  She doesn’t completely eat dirt in this video but I promise you, she takes a knee far too often for my comfort.

The problem usually occurs right before she needs to be seen by the farrier, and Emma has also noticed that Christopher’s feet seem a little long in between trims so I’m going to ask the farrier to take a little more hoof off than usual.  Hopefully this will help to correct the problem.

In general Tia leans all of her weight onto her front legs which means one bad step could mean falling forward and stumbling onto her knees.  Whether the tripping stems from her long feet or not, she needs help with her balance.  During the canter I half-halted just about every stride as we worked outside of the dressage ring, going up and down gentle slopes.  I was very happy with her balance and she only stumbled once or twice in the last few minutes of our ride when she started to tire.

I would really like to take Tia for a gallop this week.  I will have to ask around the barn to see what trails are available for riding, and then dress up in some blaze orange so the crazy deer hunters, who hunt with dogs, don’t shoot us.  I won’t get into that whole thing, but let’s just say that I am not a fan.

Oh – gotta share – I was realizing that my shoulders are slouched while I ride, and as much as I try to remind myself as I ride, I focus more on what Tia needs to be doing (like not falling on her face) than fixing my position.  I came up with a solution to train myself.

This is not a paid advertisement for Toyota…

As I backed out of the driveway I accidentally hit the sticky note with my arm so I moved it to the dash in the center of my sped-o-meter.

While driving, I have been putting both hands on the steering wheel (instead of my usual one-handed driving) and pulling my shoulders back while I have my arms stretched forward simulates riding closely enough that I can feel the pull on the tops of my shoulders that are tight from having bad posture.  And having a little sticky note next to my sped-o-meter means that I am constantly reminded to pull my shoulders back while I drive.  Perfect solution right?!

Emma turned Christopher out after I rode him last week.  He immediately went looking for Sophie, his pasture buddy.  He trotted to the back of the pasture then came back towards us.  When he didn’t find her after the first pass he whinnied and then started galloping around.  I quickly whipped out my iPhone to record the action.

There is a path between the trees and the paddocks where Sophie is standing but Chrissy clearly doesn’t notice.  Instead he runs past her several times before coming up with his own plan to blaze a trail to get to her.  Just goes to show you that even the brightest of ponies sometimes lack common sense.  Once they are reunited Sophie shows Christopher how it’s done and walks her way along the path to where we are standing.  Silly Christopher, always making things harder than they need to be!

I checked Tia late last night to find that she was still doing well.  Yay.  She seemed really happy to see me.  I checked her temp one last time and then headed home.  This morning Emma and I both went over to check on her and then go see Chrissy.  Tia’s cut was still looking good and she seemed alert and happy to see us.  I gave her a good grooming session and then sprayed her down with bug repellant before sending her back in her paddock.  I’m relieved that her cut is healing up well and I think I will hop on her tomorrow since she still hasn’t shown any lameness.

So we did it again.  And he walked right on.  So we did it again.  And he walked right on again.  It was seriously amazing.  Christopher normally has a pretty firm idea of what he does and does not want to do.  Once he figured out that I wasn’t going to let him back 30 feet away from the trailer every time he got upset, he just gave up.  So then Emma walked up to the trailer and swung the lead over his neck as he walked past her into the trailer and voila!  Self-loading!  Boo yah!  You CANNOT say that this pony isn’t smart!   In fact that’s probably part of the problem…too smart for his own good, except for today.  Today he was just smart enough.

So we decided to go back to this afternoon to see if he really learned something or if he’s just faking us out.  Feel free to make bets on it – I honestly think it’s a 50/50 shot.

I have been in near panic attack mode since visiting Tia yesterday afternoon.  Now that I can finally breath again I can take a few minutes to relate to you how this all went down.

I arrived at the barn yesterday ready to ride.  I had just jumped Christopher at Emma’s barn and he had been fantastic!  I think he is definitely ready for the show this weekend.  But back to the story, I was already dressed to ride, I just had to get Tia ready.  I laid all of her tack out and then went into the pasture to find her.  Once I got near her she started walking away.  This was unusual as she is normally walking to the gate to see me as soon as I pull up in my car.

She wandered away from me, this way.  And then that away.

Finally I caught her and we walked back to the barn.

I made her stand and then proceeded to brush her.  This was when I noticed a few spots of blood on her white sock.  When I looked closer I could see that she had a cut about 2 inches long and about a third inch deep on her ankle.  UGH!  I grabbed some betadine surgical scrub and took her over to the wash stall to clean it up and get a better look.  The cut was looking deep but was now very clean.

I called Emma to come over and take a look.  As I waited for her to arrive I cold hosed her leg, well as much as you can really cold hose a leg with only slightly cool water.  Tia stood quietly on the cross ties for about 5 minutes before feeling claustrophobic and flying backwards.  Super.  I stood the to the side telling her it was OK as she proceeded to break her leather halter and fall back on her haunches into the sitting position.  It would have been extremely humorous if I didn’t have a loose horse with what appeared to be a pretty deep cut on her ankle.

After a minute she finally let me walk up to her and put her broken halter around her head and hold it together as I let Emma examine her leg (Emma had shown up as I was catching Tia).  After confirming that the cut did seem pretty deep and possibly could have effected the joint I took her temp and jogged her.  Not lame, no fever.  Her leg wasn’t hot or swollen and besides the cut, nothing seemed to be wrong.

Well I knew that there was a possibility that something was very wrong and that her joint could have been compromised.  So I put some antiseptic on a wad of cotton, stuck it to her cut and vet wrapped it to keep it clean.  Then I waited until this morning to see what the damage was.  I expected her hind leg to have blown up like a balloon and be hot to the touch, and for her to be running a fever.

My heart was pounding as I got to the barn.  I looked into Tia’s stall to find her standing nicely on both hind legs with no visible swelling.  Good.  This is good.  So I walked in and felt her leg, no heat, no swelling.  Excellent.  So I grabbed a thermometer – no fever.  Awesome!

Now the only problem is that I had run out of vet wrap.  I didn’t want to take the bandage off to check it if I couldn’t put a fresh one on.  I should have had extra on hand but of course, I didn’t.  So I went home, got Addie ready to go to her vet appointment and grabbed some vet wrap on our way back.

Addie and I stopped at the barn on our way to the house and I gave Tia a thorough grooming followed by changing her bandage.  I lunged her briefly to make sure that she still wasn’t off and was glad to find that she still had a normal temperature.  I can finally take a deep breath and relax knowing that Tia’s cut is already healing well.

Fall – the most wonderful season ever – is finally here and with it comes many holidays and family get togethers.  My family does secret santa and this year because we have a few members traveling abroad, we are getting our christmas shopping done extra early.  I already have many christmas ideas for my loved ones, and of course have a running list of things that I want just in case someone asks…you know me, always prepared!

One of the top gifts on my list is a membership to EquestrianCoach.com.  I am always on the hunt for horse information and this site is really amazing.  Top riders and trainers post training videos, so that you can actually SEE the exercises performed as they are explained.  EC.com provides information from top judges, coaches and trainers that I would otherwise never have the opportunity to learn.

The reason I’m more and more interested in this site is the teaser videos that they post.  Bernie Traurig (whom I follow on twitter) has recently posted a video about getting a dull horse in front of your leg AND keeping them there!  Jeez if there was ever a more fitting video that I could use with Tia!  Miss Lazy Pants is getting better about listening to my body signals, but there is definitely room for improvement.

Unfortunately, this is one of those things that I am putting off joining until I get a job, but for those of you who are interested in learning from the top equestrians, and whom have jobs, I fully recommend that you check it out.   EquestrianCoach.com.

Do you know who this little pony is?!

Christopher Robin!

And EMMA!

Christopher is gearing up for a jumper show in October.  He is going to do the 2’6″ jumpers!  Just had to post this picture in case you didn’t know how adorable he is!

Here’s a quick update about Tia.  The farrier put shoes on her yesterday.  They are still on her feet today!  She now has a smaller shoe on the front right, this won’t necessarily help widen her foot, but it will at least allow her foot to grow a little longer until next time, when, hopefully, we can try again with a bigger shoe.

Grumpy Tia

She’s still being rather piggish about the shoeing process.  She won’t hold her leg still and dangerously flails it around once the nail is tapped through, but not bend over – causing great anxiety to both me and the farrier as we both avoid being stabbed by the very pointy nail.  Thankfully there were no injuries yesterday but it was quite a process.  I’ve tried pulling her leg to the side and holding it between my legs, just as the farrier would do, to help her get used to the feeling, but even after doing this every time I pick her feet, she still shows no progress.

I read in a practical horseman in one of the issues this summer, that one way to teach a horse to stand for the farrier is to pick up the horses foot, and if they pull it away start to lunge them, and make them move their feet for a few minutes before trying again.  Tia does have that strong desire to use as little energy as possible, so this may in fact work for her.  Obviously this would be done outside in an arena or on the grass – not in the aisle – just to be clear.

This will probably be my next move, as I don’t want anyone to get hurt the next time Tia is shod.  The trailering exercise that was similar in nature worked really well for Tia and she now loads very easily, so maybe the feet moving thing is the trick.  If it is, I will be sure to let you know!

I met Emma at the barn this morning.  It took me a little longer than normal because I rode my bike.  I suppose it was good exercise, but I kinda forgot that Michael took my car this morning and both trucks are out of commission momentarily, so I was running (biking) late.

Emma already had Christopher groomed by the time I got there, so I got my boots, chaps and helmet on and then quickly tacked him up.  Christopher has been in a stall for the past week now because there are no appropriate paddocks for him to be turned out in.  This means that he has a lot of energy and our rides are usually very exciting.

He was surprisingly calm today – very little spooking – yayyy!

We did have one mishap though.  Apparently flower boxes are really, really scary.  I stayed on, but only by the skin of my teeth.  Emma was impressed – I have cat-like reflexes, don’t worry about it.

The scariest cross rail ever!

Altogether he jumped very well.  We trotted a few courses mostly so that he would learn to think “slow” after the fences.  He’s a very quick learner.

Tia was grumpy.  I’ve been working on getting her in front of my leg, which had been going well.  But as soon as I started working in the ring again (we have been hacking around the farm mostly) she got pissy.  I knew that we had to start jumping quickly because that always turns her mood around.  We trotted and cantered the same courses that I did with Christopher.  I never have to worry about Tia stopping but she did put in a big effort over the flower box also.

Riding two horses a day has been good exercise for me.  I can tell that my position is pretty tight when I get on Tia. I use a lot of muscles staying still on top of Christopher and keeping my weight and height as neutral as possible so that I don’t influence Chrissy with my size.  This is important because I could throw Christopher’s balance off considerably.

I think I’ll take Tia back out of the ring again for a while.  She just gets so bored in the ring.  I’m not sure what it is about having four walls around you, but apparently it zaps the fun right out of training!

 ”All I wanna do is eat grass, can’t I just focus on eating?”