Well, it's been raining all week and today is the day! I got a chance to finally turn Cool out yesterday for the afternoon before it started raining again, so hopefully he won't be a total looney toon. I tried to clean him up last night the best I could but it's far too cold outside to actually bathe him so he's going to need a really good grooming before we leave tonight. I cant stand taking horses anywhere out in public when they don't look their absolute best! My biggest dilemma is: what on earth do I do with his mane?!?
His mane is suppeerrr long and gorgeous and BF refuses to let me cut if off (I don't really want to anyway because its just so pretty) but it's pretty...non fashionable for a hunter ring. Not that he's showing tonight or anything, but I also don't want him to look like a black sheep. One of my friends suggested just putting it in a bunch of long braids but would that look even worse then letting it be long? Any suggestions?
BF is going to be taking pictures tonight...I will post them this weekend!
Peace.Love.Ponies.
Showing posts with label schooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label schooling. Show all posts
Friday, October 21, 2011
Friday, May 14, 2010
Frustrated. Please Help.
The sun peaked out again today long enough for me to hack both horses out on the trails behind the barn. Emmy started out light but dropping her left shoulder, which she was reluctant to correct and in turn tried to hang on the bit and "pretend" like she had picked it up (sorry Emmy, the rouse is up...it didn't work lol) Her canter started off ok and then went down hill a little when she started pulling again. We fixed that right up though with some canter-walk-canter transitions and then went a step further to a left lead canter-walk-right lead canter simple changes all down the path. At the end, I got up into my "hunter seat" and asked her for her hack canter. She stretched out lovely, stayed light in the bridle and came right back to a walk when I sat down and told her
"woah." It's refreshing to ride her after dealing with Johnny's quirks...
...And speaking of which, I'm starting to get frustrated with both him and myself. I took him out after dinner and hacked the same route that I did with Emmy. Our trots weren't bad except that he couldn't focus to save his life going away from the barn and kept cocking his head sideways to look at something, where in he would then trip over his own feet and almost fall of his face. I tried my best to keep his attention by working the bit softly in his mouth and keeping him between my legs, but when he tunes you out, man does he tune you out...and it doesn't matter what you're doing, he will just blow through your aids with no regard for anything. In the end, our trots were pretty good, until I asked him to trot through some puddles on one side of the trail and he FREAKED out and would swing his hips and leap out of them every time. Seriously Johnny? How many times do we have to walk through the tiny puddle, stand in it, back through it, leg yield through it before you he can just trot through it straight? About million, that's how many, and the only thing I ended up accomplishing was a semi-straight walk through the puddles. Honestly, it's maybe 2 feet long and an inch deep....he's not afraid of water, he's just being ridiculous.
When I finally got half of the response I wanted at the puddles I quit with that and decided to canter him to clean his head. His left lead canters were utter crap...flat and sprawly and running...it didn't matter what I did, he would just hang on me an pull into his hideous Standardbred trot. He wasn't listening at all. In the end, I ended up doing canter-walk-canter transitions, a few times where I had to really sit back and tell him that when I ask him to walk I MEAN IT the first time...not 2039821083209 strides of pulling later. (Surprisingly he threw the right lead multiple times and those canter were quite good for a bad lead) but in general, it was a really frustrating schooling session today. I don't know if part of this is just the lack of suitable riding ground, the lack of work, or the lack of my skills as a rider? We can essentially rule out physical problem because there's nothing wrong with him and it's not like he's working any harder now than he was before. Nothing at all has changed except for being home where he doesn't get ridden as much. Regardless of what may be causing it, we are hitting mental road blocks which were never in the way before. I used to always say that I loved having a gelding now (I'd always had mares before Johnny) because he came out of the stall the same way every day and he got better and better with each ride. Having never owned a gelding, I just assumed that's how they all were but anymore, Emmy is the one being consistent here and Johnny is flying all across the board. I almost want to just turn him out for a little while and start over, but my gut feeling tells me that we've finally come to that point in his training where he's either going to work through this and it's all going to click and get good, or we are going to give up and stay mediocre forever. Turning him out or giving him time off wouldn't help that situation, because eventually, he'd get right back to the same spot again.
Has anyone else had this problem with their STB or even just their normal horse? I don't even know what to do with him right now. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and take him next door tomorrow to use their outdoor ring (say goodbye to $15...) to try and address the issue as best I can...even though their ring is on a hill.
Please help!
Peace.Love.Ponies.
"woah." It's refreshing to ride her after dealing with Johnny's quirks...
...And speaking of which, I'm starting to get frustrated with both him and myself. I took him out after dinner and hacked the same route that I did with Emmy. Our trots weren't bad except that he couldn't focus to save his life going away from the barn and kept cocking his head sideways to look at something, where in he would then trip over his own feet and almost fall of his face. I tried my best to keep his attention by working the bit softly in his mouth and keeping him between my legs, but when he tunes you out, man does he tune you out...and it doesn't matter what you're doing, he will just blow through your aids with no regard for anything. In the end, our trots were pretty good, until I asked him to trot through some puddles on one side of the trail and he FREAKED out and would swing his hips and leap out of them every time. Seriously Johnny? How many times do we have to walk through the tiny puddle, stand in it, back through it, leg yield through it before you he can just trot through it straight? About million, that's how many, and the only thing I ended up accomplishing was a semi-straight walk through the puddles. Honestly, it's maybe 2 feet long and an inch deep....he's not afraid of water, he's just being ridiculous.
When I finally got half of the response I wanted at the puddles I quit with that and decided to canter him to clean his head. His left lead canters were utter crap...flat and sprawly and running...it didn't matter what I did, he would just hang on me an pull into his hideous Standardbred trot. He wasn't listening at all. In the end, I ended up doing canter-walk-canter transitions, a few times where I had to really sit back and tell him that when I ask him to walk I MEAN IT the first time...not 2039821083209 strides of pulling later. (Surprisingly he threw the right lead multiple times and those canter were quite good for a bad lead) but in general, it was a really frustrating schooling session today. I don't know if part of this is just the lack of suitable riding ground, the lack of work, or the lack of my skills as a rider? We can essentially rule out physical problem because there's nothing wrong with him and it's not like he's working any harder now than he was before. Nothing at all has changed except for being home where he doesn't get ridden as much. Regardless of what may be causing it, we are hitting mental road blocks which were never in the way before. I used to always say that I loved having a gelding now (I'd always had mares before Johnny) because he came out of the stall the same way every day and he got better and better with each ride. Having never owned a gelding, I just assumed that's how they all were but anymore, Emmy is the one being consistent here and Johnny is flying all across the board. I almost want to just turn him out for a little while and start over, but my gut feeling tells me that we've finally come to that point in his training where he's either going to work through this and it's all going to click and get good, or we are going to give up and stay mediocre forever. Turning him out or giving him time off wouldn't help that situation, because eventually, he'd get right back to the same spot again.
Has anyone else had this problem with their STB or even just their normal horse? I don't even know what to do with him right now. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and take him next door tomorrow to use their outdoor ring (say goodbye to $15...) to try and address the issue as best I can...even though their ring is on a hill.
Please help!
Peace.Love.Ponies.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Another Video!
Here is another new video of Johnny! Taken today by my friend (who was also sitting on Emmy at the time) Sorry it's a little bouncy and blurry...it's hard to video while riding! Johnny's got two little bobbles...one while trotting and one at the end of the video in his last downward transition. He hates to used his hind end!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R83p72riyRk
Above is the link!
Comment!
Peace.Love.Ponies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R83p72riyRk
Above is the link!
Comment!
Peace.Love.Ponies.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
One good exercise, two good rides
Last week after our IHSA show we took a break from riding for a couple days to let the school horses have a rest. Instead of our normal riding Hunter class, we spent an hour in a "theory" class, watching videos of lots of different hunters and comparing why we thought some were better than others. For anyone who follows the hunter ring at all, you know that Rumba, ridden by John French just won the Hunter Derby Finals with three STELLAR rounds over some really cool jumps. To see the video, CLICK HERE
Anyway, along with that, we also watched some of the 1998 (?) Maclay Finals. We picked apart the course and analyzed how some riders set their horses up correctly or incorrectly for the questions being asked. Last Thursday, we decided to tackle some of those same questions in our class, and M set up a course of ground poles and flower boxes to see where we all were. Let's just say that lots of people had trouble...including myself, although M admitted after the class that she had been the most proud of the way I handled the very spooky horse that I was riding. We decided to ride the same horses again today and work out some more of the kinks. Todays course was a course of jumps that asked many of the same questions. Here is a diagram below (don't make fun of my awesome Paint drawing LOL)
Anyway, along with that, we also watched some of the 1998 (?) Maclay Finals. We picked apart the course and analyzed how some riders set their horses up correctly or incorrectly for the questions being asked. Last Thursday, we decided to tackle some of those same questions in our class, and M set up a course of ground poles and flower boxes to see where we all were. Let's just say that lots of people had trouble...including myself, although M admitted after the class that she had been the most proud of the way I handled the very spooky horse that I was riding. We decided to ride the same horses again today and work out some more of the kinks. Todays course was a course of jumps that asked many of the same questions. Here is a diagram below (don't make fun of my awesome Paint drawing LOL)
We started in a two point or half seat at 1) over a single trot pole and then made a left hand turn to 2) three 9ft trot poles. This was to set up our horses tempo and pace and see if they were behind our leg or not. From the 9ft rails we made a LEFT hand turn around fence 5 and continued down center line to fence 3) a single white plank vertical with a 7ft take off and landing rail, which required a more collected trot then the 9ft trot poles. After landing fence 3, we turned inside fence 7 and trotted up to fence 4) a single yellow flower box flanked by two white plank standards. After 4 we were to canter halfway down the line and then bring our horses back to trot to jump fence 5) a brown riviera box with a rail on top. Landing in canter, we continued over pole 1 again and then turned to fence 6) a single white plank vertical. We jumped that and then rode a bending line back over fence 4 in the opposite direction before continuing for fence 7) which was a single red flower box set right against the rail. After that, we cantered down the long side to fence 8) a white oxer with a yellow flower box and then continued back around to jump fence 5 from the opposite direction and rode a bending line to fence 9) another single flower box. To finish we were to canter down the rest of the diaganol and halt on a straight line.
Again I rode Cruz, the spooky little Thoroughbred whom I have become really fond of. We seriously rocked this exercise...he didn't spook or stop at a single jump and our oxer fence was BEAUTIFUL! I was so happy with my ride and so proud of him! I want to set this same kind of thing up for Johnny and see how he does with it :)
Speaking of Johnny, after class I went out to ride him and worked him in draw reins for about 15-20 minutes, just walk/trot/canter so that he could feel them and figure them out a bit. I didn't want him to get sore, so I didn't ride a whole ton off them (not that I ever really do...) but I just wanted to kind of set a "perimeter" for a frame and then softly encourage him to stay with in that perimeter. I will tell you this though...for the first time ever he really kept his back up and underneith him, and his canter had moments of super round brilliance where he actually got BOUNCY. Not only that, but we also got our right lead canter on the first try :)
I'm home now for Thanksgiving break so I wont get to see Johnny again until Thursday (I'm driving up Thurs, Sat and then going Sunday to see him when I go back to school for the week...we are doing our Thanksgiving on Friday because Mom has to work) but I think I'm definetly going to set up some exercises to work through with him. I think that it's time now in his training to start asking him some harder questions. Clearly, since he did so well at the show, trotting over some small verticals is something that he's got under control and it's time to start teaching him some more things. What an adventure this all is!
More tomorrow...I stopped in to see Emmy, who is super fat and super filthy from living out in the field. I think she's getting bored with retirement though...Dad says she's cribbing all the time (she's always cribbed...just never obsessively) and on everything she can. Not a good sign :( Pookie pony wants to be ridden again? I will have to get down and dirty tomorrow to get all of the ten layers of mud off her and take her out for a hack :)
Peace.Love.Ponies.
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