Lameness, Lessons, and Learning

HA! Do you know HOW LONG it took me to come up with that third "L" word to finish the alliterative (I think I just made that word up!) title? HUZZAH!! Anyway, back on topic, while I can still hold my eyes open.

Lameness: POOR CRICKET! She is still unbelievably sore. I have NEVER seen a limp this bad in a horse before other than a founder case in all 4 feet, but this is only one leg. We poked and prodded and wrenched her poor leg around today, TRYING to find the source of the pain, and we're having little luck. Her foot isn't hot, it's not cracked, she's not swollen anywhere, and there's no evidence of abraision. We did find a little hot pocket in what would be considered her "armpit", but it's not tender to the touch, so we have no clue what happened. I'm hoping it's not a fracture or something more serious, although I would guess that would be more than a little tender to the touch if it were the case. Anyway, she's gimping around, we let her into the north paddock to fill her belly in peace (she's low on the totem pole and they push her around on that leg) and also, we tried to get some bute into her as well, to at least make the pain more tolerable. She's pretty sore, but man did she fight the syringe going into her mouth. For having a bad leg, she did surprisingly well.

Lessons: Gave 2 lessons today, both of which were very successful. First came Phoebe. Such a talented rider in such a little package. She rode Princess in my Wintec Wide ("It's actually pretty comfortable" she says!) and had her first (That I know of) cross country gallop, completed in two point, with her whooping and hollering, and Princess looking sheepishly proud (she loves to teach kids, whether she'll admit it or not). I was impressed with the pair of them!

Next came Cynde and Shashi. They had a HUGE breakthrough, and it made me feel wonderful as a teacher. The breakthrough was fairly simple, and that was that Cynde interrupted a RBE blasting circle VERY assertively (but neutrally), then brought Shash in and stroked him with a friendly look. For Cynde, this is HUGE because she's got a fear of being firm with Shash. For me, it was a wonderful breakthrough, because I was the one shouting "INTERRUPT THE PATTERN!" and she listened and acted on it. Makes me feel effective and VERY proud of my students.

Also had some good effects with "Breathing while you act"...Something Farrah REALLY emphasized in the clinic was how important breathing was as you played with a horse, especially with a tense person/pair. From the second she mentioned it last weekend, I realized that breathing, as well as possibly singing (LOL... Farrah, if you ever read this, Cynde was ready to stab me after singing the ABC's 3 times!) while she played would greatly benefit Cynde, because of how tense and nervous she is. So whenver I saw her get tense, I'd just lightly say "Breath while you do that..." and she'd exhale and say "Thank you, HOW can you see that?!" and then she'd get WAY more confident. Interesting, eh?

As far as learning goes, I'm referring to Princess, here. We did some learning of new actions in 3 separate short sessions today. First we played with lifting and placing a single leg (Prep for Spanish Walk and bowing/lying down) and then we worked on getting more energy underneath us in the back up, and then we played with "How SMALL can we canter?" when we went on a trail ride. Prin's doing really well with the bowing, backing, and tiny cantering (Richard was teasing Amigo, saying "Why can't you just copy her?" as he jogged along beside us as we loped like seasoned pleasure riders) but we're still sort of struggling with the concept of picking up a foot and holding with the driving game, though I'm sure it'll come, since she's sort of getting it.

Her bows were probably the high point for me, she REALLY got down low today, on her knees twice (and NOT because I pushed her, either) and completely LB andconfidently. So proud!

Anyway, off to bed. Pray for Cricket please!

Ahhhh...So cute

I had very limited time with my ponies today, unfortunately. Anyway, I got out there with the full intent to play with Cricket, only to find her limping obviously on her left front leg! EEK! Not entirely sure what happened to her, but I'm keeping an eye on it. If it's not much better by Monday, I'll call the vet, but for now, I'll keep her on bute and hope it gets better. Keep her in your thoughts please!

I couldn't decide who I wanted to play with at this point. I know that whoever I choose to spend time with, I always end up going longer than I should, so I wanted to play with someone who NEEDED the time. And thats when the answer nuzzled me on the shoulder. There stood little Knighters. So we haltered up.

Okay, let me just take the time to say that Knight is adorable. Really. He is. I managed to keep myself to a time frame, and honestly we didn't do anything too notable, but knight is just SO DANG CUTE that everything he did was wonderful. We did some circling, some yoyo, and some sideways without a fence (he's GETTING IT...such a smart little guy, it's only the second time we've tried it :)) Also did some stick to me, he got the canter today, and he does it all with this adorable "I'm cute and wonderful, and I know you just want to snuggle me" on his face. So after he did that, we quit. Pix to come soon of his cuteness.

This concludes another Knightly News update. And I'll keep posted on Cricket.

Fear, Frustration, Fluidity issues, and oh, some FUN!

Interesting day today. First let me start out by asking everyone to tell me to GET SOME SLEEP when I complain about being cranky. It's been almost 2 weeks since I've gotten more than 9 hours of sleep, and it's reflecting in my patience and tolerance for silly things.

First of all, my frustration. My theraflex pad has decided that it needs to slip forward when it's being used under my fluidity saddle. Fortunately, as wonderful as the the saddle is, it doesn't follow the pad, but it results in a mess on the back of the saddle when it actually slides OFF. GRR! Here are some of the options I've gone over in my head:

*At first I thought that I might have been driving with my seat without knowing it (I noticed this after playing with the collected canter).

But I ruled that out, because I sat on my thumb, and it came out in one piece and pain free. Also, when I took the saddle off, there was very little ruffling on her back.

*So, is it simply because the pad is dirty?

*Is my horse just getting that uphill?

*Or am I over shimmed?

I'm perplexed. Fortunately, I emailed LP about the problem, so I'll post what she says when she responds.

The FUN in this came in when I decided to eliminate the "dirty" option for the pad, and cleaned it. It was about 85 and humid today. Humidity (and sweat-ICK!) makes my grouchy, and I know from experience that a theraflex pad is best cleaned a tub of water. So, see these photos of what happened next. It's GREAT fun, and it does a surprisingly thorough job of cleaning it!


Feet are better than ANY scrub brush, and you get a good massage while doing it...Win-Win situation!


Doin' the twist-that's the best motion to loosen all that stubborn dirt and hair.


That water has been changed 3 times, and it's still scuzzy.


And of course, finish with a rinse :)



Okay. Now. Fear and fluidity issues. Bear with me, this may be a bit scattered. I have come to the conclusion (temporary or not, hopefully the former) that I CANNOT ride Crest. Or actually no, let me rephrase that, I cannot ride Crest WELL. It is disgusting and sad for me to say, but I'm terrified of him. He's getting more and more LBE every day with a rider,(yay?) but has a tendency to get scared when I'm not fluid with his antics, which is a cataclysmic situation. See, Crest has HUGE bouncy gaits (particularly in trot), and likes to crow hop in the canter. I'm a very naturally balanced rider, and am fairly fluid too. I come from the hunter/jumper realm where the horses have big strides, so I'm used to that a bit too. But this is just...strange. I SOLIDLY refuse to ride Crest in a saddle until I'm somewhat fluid on him bareback. The reason I'm being so stubborn here, is because I don't want to use my stirrups as an excuse to not become a stronger, better rider. But the problem comes in when Crest breaks the trot. I have a really healthy respect for what this horse is capable of since my accident (shouldn't even THINK of that, but it did do some damage) and so when he gets going big, I get tense, whether I want to or not. Now riding in a bareback pad recently has helped IMMENSELY, but still...I KNOW Crest is not offering a nice easy trot for me either. I've seen it on the ground, and experienced it when he's in a good state of mind, and for some reason (probably due to my recent developing fear) I can't get it. So anyway. That's my fear issue. I'm hating it, today we went for a solid HOUR, were both dripping with sweat, and I was almost in tears because I was so mad at myself. I just need to learn to trust him again, and I just kept thinking "What would Linda Do? What would Farrah say?" and that made it worse, because I KNEW I was wrong...so ACK... I know it's me, and of course that's a step in the right direction, but GAH! Mental development in it's finest. I WILL get this eventually!

Savvy out, wish me luck!

Clinic Recap, Part II

Continued recap of the clinic with Farrah Green I attended.

Sunday

Beginning of the Level 2 clinic. I had talked to the clinic hostess early that morning, and we had discussed the possibility of my bringing her young mare, Charm in the L2 clinic. She had two horses there in the clinic. She had taken Charm in the L1 clinic and had some difficulty, being that she was young, LBE and dominant, and a bit concerned about her buddy who was 100 yds away in his corral. Not to mention, her poor owner wasn't entirely sure how to handle Charm's antics, so anyway. I offered to play with her in level 2 because she looked like a fun horse, and Princess had sort of indicated (the look in her eye said it all) that she was in need of a day off.

So, we haltered up miss Charm, and away we went. For the first 20 minutes or so, there was a bit of LBE vs LBE mischief going on, because Charm clearly wanted to test my leadership abilities, and I wanted her to just stand still long enough for me to take a breath. So we just fooled around, I established my personal space, boundaries, made clear that "Yes, Charm, I am bigger and quicker than you...can we play together?"

The rest of the clinic basically ZOOMED by, Charm and I had a BLAST. Farrah would walk by and tease me, saying "You're not having fun, are you Fran?" because I don't honestly think I quit smiling and giggling the entire day. Charm is very mouthy, and towards the end of the day, she was literally picking me up by my pants and silly things like that.

One of the highlights of that day, however, came in the afternoon session, when we played with the friendly game on the fence in preparation for mounting. Charm had never been ridden before, being only 4 years old. I was really looking forward to this, because I had been given permission to give her her first ride. Farrah was patient and talked the group through the steps, getting a horse to sidepass up to the fence, the friendly game with legs and arms all over, and then, very carefully, Farrah directed her attention to Charm and me, (Charm was doing AMAZINGLY, by the way) and talked me through sliding on, then off, then back on, asking her to bend, then sliding off, then asking her to back up, then getting off, then riding a little passenger lesson around, and then giving her a treat, sliding off, and calling it. I've given about 20 first rides in my life, and each one has been special. Well that one meant a lot to me, because I was coached through it, it went perfectly, and to top it off, Charm's owner was almost in tears, she was so thrilled. I felt very proud of both myself, and of course of the horse.

We ended the evening by going out to a nice Mexican restaurant. It was a lovely time, Farrah and I now officially have crossed the line into oddness, with the "I just can't get over how GOOD you look in my shirt, Fran" joke...please ask if you're confused.


Monday

Started out early with a private lesson on finesse. What a blasty blast that was. We started out on the ground. Farrah pointed out to me that when Prin travels on a circle, she doesn't really bend with the circle (hence why I might be having trouble getting her to maintain gait for very long) and that it was more than likely caused by a block somewhere in her ribs, which wasn't aggravated when I rode because my fluidity helped her body do what it needed. Farrah messed around a bit, and found she was really good except for one spot about where the girth came around. So we started with an exercise where I would drive Prin in a circle, and then porcupine that part of her ribs over until she softened, her legs crossed over in back, (while still traveling forward) and her head and neck relaxed and came down. I never would have expected Princess to respond so quickly to a new concept, but she did in a matter of minutes, and the I got on.

Now don't kill me here, but since it was so early in the morning, I don't remember a whole lot beyond a couple of exercises we did here. We played a little with good transitions, and I learned something/had a really big BFO here. Any good transition, up, down, or inbetween, has to start in zone 5. So instead of keeping zone 1 up, I focused on keeping zone 5 DOWN...and MAN did my transitions get better!

Next we also worked on something somewhat similar to what we did on the ground, but we used kind of a shoulder in maneuver along the fence to accomplish the same goal. Princess did really super well with that, Farrah told me she was very impressed with our sideways. And she also paid me a HUGE compliment, that has kind of kept me fueled for the past few days. She told me that Prin and I were well to the point in our finesse (and particularly our circles) that I could get really particular, and start asking for Level 3 and 4 quality in it. I was really flattered, and it's been interesting trying to live up to that.

I'll have pictures from the lesson next week. The guy who took them forgot his camera at the barn and will get it back on July 1st. So stay tuned, he got some GREAT shots.

The rest of the clinic was fun for sure, I had a good giggle in the afternoon riding session because Farrah asked me to demonstrate the 21 minute pushing passenger lesson. Well...lets just say I've never done the full 21 minutes before! I graduated both the old levels, so I never HAD TO. Alls I can say is THANK GOODNESS I had a fluidity saddle to ride in. Prin stepped into trot and maintained it without a single reminder, which was a little shocking, but very cool.

To wrap this whole thing up, I also want to share my little piece of excitement. Farrah harassed me all weekend about assessing Level 3. She REALLY thinks I need to start. So anyway, she kept buggin' me (in an encouraging way) and finally she said, "Fran, I want to, and am GOING to help you film it. Let's get this thing done sometime!" So, um...WOW...I have a PNH instructor wanting to help me finish my L3 assessment. Hell, I'll take it. and Farrah's such an excellent coach and instructor, that I'll get through it fairly stress-free, I'm sure! She also told me that I HAD to come visit her sometime this year. There wasn't an out, I HAD to. And again, I say, hell, I'd be HAPPY to!

So overall, a wonderful weekend. I'll look forward to seeing Farrah again in 2 weeks at the tour stop in Madison, WI, where she'll be on the savvy team.

Thanks for reading, I promise I'll have some pictures sooner or later!

Clinic Recap, Part I

Okay, so I think the best way to do this is going to be to just go day by day, and try not to be too detailed, or I'll fall asleep at the computer. So. I was there for 5 days, Thursday, June 19th thru Monday the 23rd. This entry is going to be REALLY LONG...I'll try to break up the text with some pix, but no promises, this won't be for the faint of heart to read-haha. This is Part 1, (Thursday-Saturday) I'll write Part 2 tomorrow.

Thursday:

We arrived a little later that anticipated, because lord knows I can't get my life together and into the tack room of a trailer on time. It was a relatively stress free trailer ride, although Princess wasn't exactly confident about the clattery dividers of the 3 horse slant. If I end up with that trailer (saving for one now that the saddle's reality, and the one we used is for sale) it'll take some play, but hopefully that works out...and no one get all excited, this is all just speculation, I'm not about to jump into buying a trailer just yet...

This day was a private lesson day, so basically all that happened was I set up and got Prin in her stall (herinafter referred to as the dark pit of doom...she HATED that thing, it was about a foot lower than the level of the aisle, and really stuffy, etc)and caught up with Farrah. Renee also met me down there, she wanted to try out my lovely new fluidity saddle, which I *think* was a hit, though I didn't get a whole lot of feedback because she rode in it while I helped out and played "Carrot stick wall" for Farrah's amazing demo.

Thursday ended with a little trail ride. Farrah rode Caesar, her gigantic QH gelding, and ponied Wesley (WES-WES!!!!) her little Arabian gelding, Farrah's mom, Echo, took her STUNNING Friesian gelding Napoleon, I rode Prin, and another participant, Dana, rode her little Paint mare, Shasta. I was very intregued by how just playing with the order and placement of the horses on the ride can make such a difference in the smoothness (and not so much) of the ride. We experimented with things, and had a pretty good time.

Farrah invited Dana and me to camp out in the back of her horse trailer which was cause for a hoot, here's some photos of our little "house":


Dana getting breakfast ready


And in case you were wondering, no, we did NOT drink all that soda.



Friday

Beginning of the level 1 clinic. Nothing too notable, I experiemented with photography, I'm a little embarassed to say that not much turned out, the lighting was actually really bad, BRIGHT reflective sand and panels, I just couldn't find a good angle. I got a few that I could probably photoshop into being good, but I'm too lazy to do that for the blog anyway.

The participants were too cool, the horses were beautiful, and everyone learned a lot.

Funniest part of the day I think came probably in the afternoon session. Farrah asked if she could borrow my halter and lead to demonstrate an effective phase 4. She tied my halter to the door of a stall, and went about explaining. Well, she SNAPPED a phase 4 down the line, and the snap cracked against the door, and we heard a "tinkle tinkle tinkle"...Farrah effectively phase 4'd the set-screw right out of my snap on my lead rope and broke it...GOOFY GIRL! Anyway, got a couple cool pix of the entire group "Phase 4-ing" the stalls, SO FUNNY:


That evening, I had a REALLY emotional session. I put Prin loose in the arena to play at liberty. Things went REALLY well for the first 10 minutes or so, then she broke away from me, and I just could NOT get her to come back. I was already on edge because I hadn't gotten enough sleep, and then was being reminded of some holes I had in my little things here and there. So when Farrah came over and told me that the reason she wasn't coming back was because I had broken the connection, the thought did NOT sit well. I got a little teary eyed, and looked away, feeling absolutely rotten, thinking "How could I do that to my horse?"...

For those who know me well (and now for those who don't) when I get into deep thought, and then get upset, I go straight RBI...and pretty extremely too. So I walked away, sat down at the far end of the arena and made a pretty poor attempt at hiding my emotions so I could stay in my own head. Farrah, without knowing me at all, did EXACTLY what she should have, she followed me at a distance, stood about 5 feet away, and rubbed my back with the Carrot Stick, until I apparently relaxed (Was a little preoccupied at the time to notice), and then she came and sat down next to me and put a hand on my knee. At this point, I looked up, and to my surprise, Farrah was also crying...If there's one thing I can't stand, it's when someone matches my emotions, because then they get even more extreme...so, I started bawling.

I will spare the details of that for a while, it was erm...kinda touching, but anyway, once I started to collect myself, we actually carried out a really great conversation about self-doubt, and goals, and materialism in humans, stuff like that. Moral of the story, Farrah Green is an AMAZING person. The way she handled that gave me a whole new respect for her, and I really love her for it.

Saturday:

Princess and I participated in this day of the clinic. It was a real eye opener for me, and I found some holes in my Principle games that were preventing me from getting a couple of L3 tasks (Hmm...forhand porcupine game...Prin moves zone 1 really lightly, but zone 2 is sticky...and I wondered why my spins/pivots were poor. Once I adjusted that, it was like someone flipped a switch) Farrah did a good job of adjusting the games to fit our level of refinement though...for example, getting a horse to stop with hind legs crossed in HQ porcupine...haha, EASIER SAID THAN DONE!

I'm not going to lie, I got bored after a while, and so did Prin. We finished on kind of a bad note because she and I were both zoning out, and so I just put her back afterwards feeling kind of disgusted with myself for having such a short attention span (Silly LBE, I am) and went out to situate myself to watch Farrah's scheduled inspirational demo.

Well, right after I had put my horse away, I got a really pleasent surprise. Farrah came over and said "Hey, I had a cool idea. Want to get your horse back out? I thought it would be really fun for you and my mom to ride too, and we could do the demo together."

Being that I've been so dissapointed about Savvy Team, I almost cried when she invited me to do that. I of course jumped on the chance, and so we did the demo together. I started out on the 12' line, did some circling and stuff and then I moved to the 45' line and did zone 5 driving, which was a HIT! Prin and I did zig-zag half passes up and down the ring at the trot and canter (she even did 2 lead changes for me!!!) and then I hopped back on with the halter and 12' line reins, and did some transitions, lots of flying changes, and some dressage maneuvers, then I took the halter off and went bridless, with just my dressage whip, not even a carrot stick (BIG LEAP OF FAITH!!) and that's when the REALLY amazing stuff happened. We were riding to some sort of Techno/Dance track, and i started to kind of prance to the beat in my body (LOL..makes me think of Madison last year...anyway)and then Prin's stride started to feel odd and different. I looked down at my shadow, and abotu fell off when I saw what I did...Prin was elevating her stride in trot. While her head wasn't in or down, her back was coming up and her stride was higher...Prin was offering the best she could in an attempt at Passage!!! WOW!

We ended the demo by all 3 standing up on our horses, then I backflipped off, and Farrah laid Caesar down. It was GREAT!

Demo photos:

Farrah and Wesley


Farrah and Caesar


Farrah and Caesar BB and B


Wesley sitting.


Goin' in the canter...we did some gait within the gait for people, and I think they found that cool.


This is gawky and awkward, but this is actually one of our passage strides. You can see me staring down at the shadow-lol


trottin' around


TADA! What's funny here is that Prin actually looks SMALL in this picture. But let me assure she's still 16.1hh, its just that Napoleon is 17.3 and Caesar is probably 16.3 or 17hh.


Talk about awesome timing with the camera...my backflip!

Also got a little chance to talk about our story and why I did PNH, etc. That was fun, because I'm just dying to share everything I can, of course.

So, end Part I of my clinic adventure. Sunday and Monday held plenty of GREAT STUFF too, but it's now approaching 2:00 am and I promised Mickey I'd ride with her tomorrow morning, so I've gotta hit the hay. Rest of the recap tomorrow, including my opportunity to be coached through giving a young horse her first ride, and also my private finesse lesson, and the huge compliment Farrah paid me, and exciting plans for the rest of the summer.

Stay tuned!

Clinic Exhaustion

Okay...Just got home from a 5 day L1/L2 clinic with Farrah Green, my dear friend and 2 star PNH instructor.

I'm wiped out, and have hardly any energy left to type. So, I'm writing this blog only as a reminder that I still exist. A complete recap of the clinic day-by-day, as well as some photos and revised list of goals will come tomorrow, as soon as I've regained the ability to think and comprehend complete sentences.

For now, all you get to know is that I learned a lot and have a new found motivation and ideas in lots of places in my horsemanship.

More tomorrow.

IT'S HERE!!!!

OMG OMG OMG!! MY SADDLE ARRIVED TODAY!!


It is SO EFFING PERFECT! It is beautiful, very erm...wide, wonderful craftsmanship, smells delicious (YUMMY NEW LEATHER!), and best of all, my ponies LOVE IT!

Prin was UNBELIEVABLE in it, unquestionably better than she was when I rode in Linda's last year. She was light, easy to get collected, and best of all, we were both comfortable doing it!

Crest, well...lets just say any issues I'm having with him are caused by me. I could see the physical change in him on the ground as I played with him, his movement was more relaxed, round, etc, which is not typical for him undersaddle, he's usually pretty bracy and nervous. However, I still cannot ride his trot to save my life, so we've got some fluidity work to do I think. That'll come in time though, and now with the saddle, I've got the means to at least post the trot and do a Pushing Passenger if necessary.

I'm having a hell of a time shimming it though, because Prin's muscling has changed so much since last year. Last year I had a fairly dramatic downhill configuration going on, and this year, I take it Prin's gotten much more uphill, because I felt pitched forward using that pattern. 2 thick and a thin shim up front was a bit too much, saddle ended up sliding backwards and I had some major rough, dry spots, so I think tomorrow I'll try just two thick in the front, and it should be good.

So, completely and totally thrilled with it 100%. I'm having a blast, even with frustrating shim patterns!


Delivery...the UPS man was a little scared of the crazy lady and her camera...


Ripping open the box...My mom was like "Frances...LOOK UP!"


It is beautimous...could my smile get any bigger?


Joggin' on a loose rein...all smiles from both of us


Some more trotting, for those who know Prin, she's not usually the ROUND self-carrying type...and yet, check 'er out!!

I'm absolutely in LOVE with this thing. More pictures to come as I ride in it more and get a better feel for it!