All the little things

Whelp, it's only been approximately eight thousand years (or five months, same thing) and one cancellation due to a gimpy LF foot, but I finally got the lesson train rolling again.

Farrier was nice enough to poke around Opie's tender tootsie Tuesday morning on the grounds that "If I was a hugging person, I would hug you for actually training your horse to not be an asshole for the farrier." To which I was all, wow Farrier, your job must really suck because ground manners are life and I just assume everyone else lives by that rule. He was, of course, actually sound that morning and has been since, but he did hoof test a little tender in one particular spot. Farrier pulled the nail there so that in case there's a latent abscess it will have a place to go. The consensus was probably just bruising though, and if he continues to be too tender to deal with the frozen ground we'll give him some pads.

the cutest penguin around.

On to the lesson!

As planned, I had BM get on him for the first ride. I found this to be a huge help with Bobby who could look easy from the ground while you were actually working your lady balls off to keep him from spiraling apart. I wanted BM to get a baseline feel for how Opie's body parts actually moved and know that she would have an idea of what I was talking about during lessons when I was having a problem with something.

you can thank emma for these pictures as my phone was buried in my pocket with
my hands until she texted me mid-ride. it was so fucking cold i only got a few though.

She gave me a lot of good stuff, brought to you by my fave: bullet points!

• He has a good walk, better still after a a few transitions to loosen up. 
• Agreed he needs to use the base of his neck and stretch down and out better. Thought he was probably galloped in draw reins as he likes to default to that signature curl. 
• Slow down the trot. Once he learns to slow down and shift his weight back, he'll lighten off the forehand and it will make it easier for him to use his neck properly.
• He's light in the contact--but he's either light and lovely or straight up pulling you out of the saddle, there is no in-between.
• He's sharp off the leg, but maybe too reactive. I think BM had a harder time with this because I ride in spurs every single ride and she only uses them when she thinks a horse needs a corrective schooling. She's stronger with her leg than I am because of it, and I think Opie was kind of jumping to obey quicker and more reactive than he does with me. Simple difference in riding styles though, not worried about it. 
• He gets hotter off the seat than in half seat which is weird because jockeys aren't exactly known for urging down the stretch with their seat bones digging into a horse's back, and neither of us has a particularly driving seat. I mean, let's be real, I live for a slow, collected trot or canter. We'll stick to canter in half seat for now until he's stronger.

i didn't say they were good pictures. i was huddled in the corner
and not moving for fear of losing my small bubble of heat.

These are all for the canter--the main reason I wanted her to get on him:

•  If he loses balance, back to walk or trot and try again. He doesn't have a real half halt so there's no re-balancing within the canter yet. 
• Zero tolerance policy for a bad transition. Don't want him to learn that running into them is okay, and even if I don't ask perfectly, the level of drama he's giving is not okay under any circumstance. 
• Scatter the canter throughout the ride, don't just follow the w/t with it and end there. Don't let it become A Thing. 
• When trying to get the right lead, he forgets he knows how to do anything--suddenly doesn't know how to move off the right leg or that he can bend right. Once he gets it though, it's better than the left lead.

the elusive right lead

angrily trying to yank BM out of the saddle instead of
picking up the right lead. such sass, much drama.

Overall, her impression was that he's going to be a fun, easier-than-Bobby horse and what more could any rider ask for? He's far more forgiving in that he can get upset over something and throw a tantrum, but once you move on, so does he. The ride doesn't have to end because his brain quit working for the day like a certain big bay moose we all knew and sometimes loved. 

He doesn't have any glaring issues beside the standard green, young OTTB problems with balance and strength. 

My homework is: counted walk; work on as long of a rein as I can at as slow of a trot that he can manage without dumping onto his forehand; and lots and lots of canter throughout the whole ride.

the morning ended with me chucking my gloves at this asshole's
head to get him to stop standing here weaving and screaming because
momo was being ridden and all he was left with was a stupid pony
and an entire bale of hay. his life is the worst. 

Cue maniacal laughter

I'll have you guys know I have been keeping my shit together so well lately. My horse is lame-ish, but that's fine.

NO ONE IS PANICKING.

EVERYONE IS CALM.

be like momo. he's calm even when his face is being eaten.
(they're besties, i promise.)

We've had one of those obnoxious winters so far where it's been really, really good at getting cold, but it hasn't been so great about snowing. It will warm up-ish for a day or two, rain, and then BAM BITCH--freeze solid overnight and turn everything to icy, deadly mud ruts with no cushion.

Opie came up a little foot sore the other week and while I was hoping it was a quick-acting abscess, Farrier agrees that it seems more like stereotypical bruising. Which is worse. Because that shit takes forever to heal up. She'll be out tomorrow to take a look at him to double check, but it's been a really exciting time of packing his feet, giving him Bute if he seems especially ouchy, and nailing those straight lines at the walk and occasionally trot.

It's been so cold though that missing out on real training rides hasn't been too much of a downer.

don't be like me. always wear your helmet!

We did, however, miss out on game night and our first lesson of the month. He's sound-ish, but I want BM to be able to get on him and ride him with no limitations, so that's been pushed back indefinitely. Fucker.

In other news, I was out at the barn today to do my due diligence--walk my horse in straight lined laps of the ring, and deliver him a 5lb bag of carrots in hopes I can teach him to smile--when Opie decided he just really looks up to Indy (both metaphorically and literally as I'm pretty sure Opie could stroll unhindered beneath Indy's belly) and flopped his dead fish tongue out of his mouth.

NO. STOP.

BM suggested a bit change so I swapped his french link out for a thinner single joint. It didn't make a difference, and he wasn't actually being fussy with the bit. He just stuffed his tongue out and went about his business. BM then suggested maybe he'd bit his tongue and it was just swollen and uncomfortable. I hopped off and started digging around his mouth looking for a wound or sore or something.

LOLZ GUYS I FOUND SOMETHING.

what is that about not looking a gift horse in the mouth?

Obviously the dentist will be getting called. In the meantime, if anyone has any insight to share, throw it at me! He has zero problems with eating grain, hay, or snacks, and he had no issues with us stabbing him in the mouth with our fingers repeatedly.

I feel like I need to update the blog name to Poor Woman and Her Long List of "WTF is wrong with you?!" Horses.

Book Review: The Athletic Development of the Dressage Horse

Title: The Athletic Development of the Dressage Horse: Manege Patterns
Author: Charles de Kunffy
Where to buy it: Used on Amazon

This is my second de Kunffy (and not de Knuffy) book review. After enjoying the last book so much, I browsed through some of his other titles and added this one to my Amazon wish list to pick up later. I still had Bobby at that point, and while he had reached the end of his soundness, I was still holding out hope that I was going to get to ride him again. The thought of having a book with a bunch of dressage exercises to ride through put it on my priority list, but a couple weeks later I had to put Bobby down and I never got around to buying it.

Then I was used bookstore browsing one of the times I was out at my mom's in November and I saw it on their shelves. It was $9, so more than I could have bought it used on Amazon, but I grabbed it anyway. Nine bucks for some de Kunffy wisdom? Sold.

I finally got around to starting it a few weeks ago. I read probably four or five books while trying to slog my way through this one. While I really enjoyed and easily made it through Training Strategies for Dressage Riders, this book felt more like a tedious school assignment.

As in the other book, he starts off philosophizing about generalities of the sport horse. I like reading these insights, and I like that he again points out that the best way for a horse to be a horse is to turn them out and let them interact with each other.

From there he starts talking about training the very young, just-broke horse. I was able to pull some useful points out of this as while Opie is certainly already broke to ride and knows how to balance a rider on his back, he's still very much green broke.

One of them was that horses will volunteer actions that we maybe didn't ask for, but should roll with anyway. "Opportunistic riding" basically installs the thought into the horse that everything he does is "allowed to happen by the rider's will." Does he canter instead of extend the trot? Pick up the wrong lead? A horse that's constantly told No will start to get confused and resent the rider. He's not advocating for letting the horse get away with murder, but reminds the rider to make sure their aids are correct and that the ask isn't beyond the horse's ability. "Riders should correct their own, not the horse's, behavior first."

From there on out, the rest of the book had me dragging my nails down my face. He quickly jumps from a horse that has no training yet to one capable of schooling all the lateral work, pirouettes, and changes. While he does point out the difficulty of these exercises and that you shouldn't attempt them until the horse is ready, I had a hard time staying with it when my own horse is just now getting the concept of two whole steps of leg yield at the trot. I think I would have been able to commit more if I was still riding Bobby and these exercises were pertinent and achievable.

Even so, some of the manege patterns were...well:

excuse me as my eyes cross in confusion 

The writing in this book felt more like a dry, ultra-descriptive, ultra-intense training manual than the friendly read-through vibe the other book gave off. That won't be a problem for a lot of you, but it's not my style of learning at all, and I had a hard time getting the paragraph I had just read to stick in my head.

although there were a couple of not book related
picture pages that i guess were nice to look at?

However, there were still quite a few good gems I was able to pluck out.

• On how unnatural it is for horses to be ridden. "Both are creatures of precarious balance, even when left alone to cope with the ground." Amen, sir.
• On collection: "This shifting of the horse's center of gravity towards the haunches liberates his forehand from unnecessarily weight and liberates it from stress. The forelegs being the weaker, riders have learned early the value of saving them and conserving their health." Makes perfect sense of course, but I liked the imagery of this one.
• "Horses will do almost anything from the rider but read his mind." The rider must make sure they're aiding correctly, judiciously, and clearly. The horse will guess to its best ability, but it can only do what the aids are asking it to.
• For the spooky horse:

• "We must remember that it is not sufficient to let the horse move forward, but rather we must ask him to carry forward. ... we ought to insist in our gymnasticizing that the horse move 'forward upward'."
• It goes against the horse's instincts to move away from leg pressure; they instinctively lean into it. When the rider's calf is correctly wrapped around the horse's barrel, it should rest against the muscles that cause the haunches to react by contracting when stimulated by the rider's leg, therefore increasing the activity in the haunches. Active haunches enable him to move away from the leg pressure. I was able to relate to this a lot with Opie who still struggles with going into my leg sometimes instead of away from it.
• OMG, never do haunches-in at the canter. The horse loves to use it as an evasion. He brings this up approximated 47,008 times throughout the book.
• Important that when doing lateral work at the walk to routinely let the horse walk on a loose rein at the free walk to stretch the topline. "Never allow a lazy stroll, but keep a marching attitude."
• The turn on the forehand encourages the horse to "lean and dwell on the forehand", but it also serves as a useful exercise to get the horse off your leg and moving the haunches. 
• On lateral work: "Explosive, impatient young horses will not benefit much from these movements... Premature drilling of these exercises can be harmful and can also cause resistence. ... Infinitely delaying more difficult tasks can also be counterproductive in training strategies. Progress can only be made by challenging the status quo." 

The few actual manege patterns in this book don't come until about the last third of the book. I was able to book mark three that I wanted to try when my horse is a little better trained.

I felt like I deserved a good wrap-up for getting through the last training chapter, but instead the book just...ends.

abruptly, the end.

I would recommend this one to riders that have an easy time processing large blocks of detailed information. That person is not me. I'm glad I got through it, but this isn't one that's going to get a re-read from me.

Lost Conection

Things have been moving along slowly and steadily with Dopie. Mostly slowly.

Riding Bestie was up last Friday so we went on a nice trail walk through the melting snow on the first nice, sunny day of the century month. Opie earned his gold star by leading the whole way, dealing with me yanking his blowing quarter sheet straight every five seconds, and not dumping me on my ass while I was mid-quarter sheet yank with one hand on the buckle completely turned around when he fell through a watery ditch. Riding out in winter is so fun, guys.

picture of errant quarter sheet by sarah

I was able to budget in enough money to finally start lessons again next month which couldn't have come at a better time. While I don't feel at all like I'm in over my head here, having a trainer on-site that I want to work with and whose training process I trust really shuts down any burning desire to battle through the hard stuff on my own.

You've turned into a massive shit at the canter? No problemo. Guess who gets to deal with it next week? Not me!

bad baby horse? never!

I feel like Opie has reached a point in his canter where he's no longer so weak and unbalanced that his only option is to listen to me or fall over and die. However, just because he's slightly stronger and slightly more balanced does not mean tuning me out is suddenly an option either which is where his little pea brain is headed. We might still fall over and die, it will just be at a higher rate of speed.

So I've shelved the canter until next Friday when BM will be riding him for our first lesson, and she can get a feel of what all his various disjointed baby horse body parts are doing to best help me going forward.

In the meantime, there are still a gazillion other newbie issues to work through.

like going on his third halter in three months since he officially
killed the first and the second one rubbed his giant noggin. 

His mounting block issues were resolved through candy bribery. He now stands quietly and politely while I get on and waits patiently for his cookie to be doled out for doing so. Only now he thinks the second the candy is in his mouth he's free to move about the cabin. Nah. You've still gotta stand, amigo. The feet don't get to move until I say they do.

He's also been a bargey asshole on the ground the past few days, so we've been reviewing the Personal Bubble and Don't Pass My Shoulder rules.

Really though, the main focus has been trying to rid him of the false frame mid-neck bulge that looks cute as shit as he prances around, but is obviously no good for anything.

so adorbs. such a faker.

I do love that his default is not to llama but to frame up, and while he takes the connection nicely and lightly, it's not correct work and I'm massively paranoid of fucking him up and letting him get away with cheating. He's got a short neck as it is, the last thing I want to do is encourage him to make it even shorter especially in the wrong part.

He's easier to convince to stretch out at the walk, but at the trot it's a big issue. I can float the reins at him completely and he won't move an inch. He holds his rhythm--he doesn't take advantage and blow off--which is nice, but there's literally no horse in my hand. Riding him more forward does nothing. He just opens up his stride and stays stuck in his little self-set head carriage.

I've been trying to talk to him by sponging my ring fingers softly as a little, "Hello, things are happening in your mouth. Would you like to participate?" That helps one day, but not the next, and then only a little the day after that.

He'll get there. If Bobby taught me anything, it's that stretching can be just as hard as collection to learn. That's our main focus at the moment though. We do a lot of walking, occasionally with some baby leg yields and moving the shoulders around to break up the boredom.

i also try to let him do some jumpies to break up the boredom,
but WOW is he bad at it.

There's a game night at the barn this weekend we'll be participating in. No real training will be going on there obvi, but any time he has to Horse in a crowded ring will serve him well in his future show horse glory days. Hopefully.

momo selfie photo bomb. this horse and his selfies, guys.
he's so #basic sometimes.

WW: Happy Birthday Opie!

dopie celebrated his fifth birthday on saturday

he did not want to share his bag of birthday carrots

and did the #angryunicorn birthday hat proud

side eye is better with a party hat

those ears tho

he really hates ralph. i do too.

it snowed 2' that morning, everything was frozen, cars were getting stuck in the
parking lot, and i slid to my knees in a giant puddle within two seconds of arriving
helping push someone out. it wasn't the most fun party.

the derp is strong.

Tough Love

Poor Opie had a long six days last week. I had originally planned on giving him Friday off as I'd worked him all week and had already chained Hubby into coming out to the barn with me Saturday, but he was being a complete terrorist in his stall while I was turning out because he had lowly first cut hay instead of second and couldn't even. I couldn't even with the attitude, so despite feeling like shit he got tacked up yet again.

while i love and fully advocate for ground work, i'm not big on longeing down a horse.
however this thing is so fucking lazy i can pop him on the line for five minutes and have
his full and complete attention under saddle right away. #winning

The intense warm up we got at the end of last week reportedly made everyone hot and tired while it seemed to do the complete opposite to Opie. He turned into a certified sass machine and was full of himself under saddle.

His trot work continues to be his strong point. He's pretty maneuverable at this gait, and if I buckle down and ride him for what I want, he usually responds. His walk is naturally pretty nice, but he's naturally pretty really lazy so I do occasionally have to get after him to get it swinging. Once he's there though, he seems content to let it roll.

default walk right off the bat. not the worst.

The canter. Ohhhhh the canter.

I should feel grateful that it's even where it's at now as it took Bobby a full year to be able to canter a twenty mete circle. That's not an exaggeration. It does, however, vacillate between "Wow, I've really got something here." to "Wow, how are you still cantering while you're essentially doing a hand stand?"

The end of last week was the latter.

He struck off into the left lead squealing in exuberance every single time, and while a lot more bargey than I would have liked, it wasn't too horrible. On Saturday with his new bit (more on that in a second), he was magically not ripping my arms out, but also finally seemed a little tired. Right now I'll take flat and controllable over giant and pulling.

To the right, on Thursday we switched directions and he immediately got anxious. I went through the routine of doing some circles, some serpentines, and some transitions to settle him down, and he finally stopped chomping. I asked, got the left lead, brought him back, and tried again. He was not having it to the point where I finally told him to get over himself and get on with it. I wasn't being unfair. I wasn't asking him to do something out of the realm of his experience. I was setting him up for success.

Right then BM walked into the ring and told me he got in trouble the night before for being a little stud coming in at night. That was exactly the feeling I was getting. He was no longer anxious, he was angry. He tried bullying me out of what I wanted by rooting the reins out my hands and diving onto his forehand insanely bad. I finally got it, but every time we turned he tried ripping the reins away and turning the opposite direction. He wasn't successful, but we ended on me winning the turning battle after he struck out at the wall with a front leg as we were turning and almost falling over.

Attitude. The Side Eye King has it.

On Friday I stuffed the right lead in within the first five minutes of my ride. I didn't let him build up to it, got it over with in a flash, and moved on. Which left him the left lead to try all his midget baby horse tricks, and at which point I made the executive decision the friendly copper eggbutt is momentarily getting kicked to the curb in exchange for a slow twist until there's a line of communication at the canter that doesn't involve bodily pulling me from the tack.

Saturday he landed off the jump in good spirits so I asked for the right lead straight away. He willingly gave it, then took a wonky step on the short side that you can see in the video and pulled up the slightest bit uneven. He was completely sound the next day, so I'm assuming he stepped on a buried frozen manure ball or clump of frozen footing. So long as he's not lame tomorrow, I will refrain from freaking out. Probably.

why yes, i do treat the shit out of him.
i also beat him when he's bad, so it evens out.

The thing I like about this horse--well, to be fair there are several things, but the thing that keeps me from braining him at the canter--is that there is a brain in there. He's not a spooky horse, and he stands up to pressure. I think he's just reached a new comfort level and is starting to test things out. I'm okay with that. I like that some real personality is coming out, and hopefully I can figure out how to channel it for good instead of evil.

Despite how I wrapped up my last post, I really want to focus on not being a passenger. I need to ride him like an experienced, trained horse even though he's not yet. If I never teach him the things I want him to know, if I never ask anything hard of him, then he's most definitely never going to be able to do them. I need to stop being so cautious and up my expectations--of myself almost more than the horse.

he's pretty fucking cute.

I started in on my second de Kunffy book last night (The Athletic Development of the Dressage Horse), and right off the bat found this quote that fell right into place for me:

The rider and coach should often do what the horse enjoys doing but they should also like to learn what must be done. Thus, the virtuous rider knows both the pleasures of harmonizing with the best of the horse's achievements and repeating successful lessons that give both his horse and himself pleasure. But the rider must also learn of the pleasure that comes from a  decreased threshold of pain. The virtue of greater endurance for what must be endured. 

What we've been working on

Nothing! We've been grounded since before Christmas, you're all caught up, the end!

the dopeasaurus rex says that's fine by him, there was no
cookie shortage on his end.

In all actuality, we completed our third ride since before Christmas this morning so things are getting pretty serious. I don't really buy into the whole, "Your horse's lungs are going to bleed and he'll develop pneumonia and you'll both die." thing when it comes to cold weather, but since I do barn chores every morning during the week, I do buy into being able to say a big old nope with no shame when it doesn't hit (positive) double digits for two weeks straight. I'm already tired, and cold, and cranky, and the very last thing I want to do is take my horse's clothes off and stay cold, and tired, and probably cranky even longer.

Plus I was able to justify it to myself further. Dopie officially turns five Saturday, he's only been off the track since the end of October, and I don't want to burn his little brain out by ramming things into it in less than ideal conditions. Mental and physical vacation for the baby horse, yay!

Only Opie was not really down with this plan after the first week or so, and BM finally texted me in the middle of the day to tell me my horse was yet again being a monster outside--weaving, running the fence line, screaming his brains out even with his two pasture mates hanging out calmly just behind him. You know, just everything I hate horses to do.

"wow, sounds naughty. what sort of horse does that?"

I have no idea how to go about fixing those issues aside from waiting for the snow to melt so they can wander out further and start nibbling grass, and making Sir Lazy of the Laziest tired enough that chillin' with his homies is a far better idea than being obnoxious.

I put him on the longe a couple days last week where he was Satan incarnate, but when I finally got aboard for the first time last Thursday, he was absolutely lovely to hack around for fifteen minutes. I even took him outside for his first solo trail ride where he doped along and didn't make a peep.

Then we dipped well below zero, and I was shoveling two to three times a day for three days straight to keep up with the fucking blizzard we got, and I didn't get back on until Monday. At which point he did make a peep--several peeps in fact, though I suppose all less ear piercing than when I first got him.

if someone would just pay attention to me instead of being so concerned about
everything anything else going on...

Regardless of the minor problems going on elsewhere in Opie's little world, we are getting a lot done under saddle. This kid doesn't take steps backwards, he retains everything good or bad. He's smart and sensitive, and he tends to get frazzled when he doesn't understand what you're asking. Also he's pretty lazy so he's not above throwing childish tantrums when he does know what you're asking but it's hard, so no thanks, maybe if he flings his giant head and tiny neck around you'll be super intimidated and quit. Yeah, no.

"work smarter, not harder. then you get more cookies."

So here's where we're at in the baby dressage horse getting its learn on stage of training.

Bend: He, unsurprisingly, had no concept of what this is, and I felt like it was the biggest issue with picking up the right lead. So I went to the ground because that's where I'm more comfortable introducing new issues, not being any sort of real dressage whiz--or, you know, having any real understanding of keeping up with my horse's body parts in real time while I'm riding. After my concussion, my brain is so slow to process while riding, and it just frustrates me and then the horse and things spiral down unnecessarily. After a few in-hand sessions, the wheels got turning in Opie's head, and now we can mostly get proper bend around the corners and on big circles. Sometimes the steering still fails, and sometimes he'd just rather not so he gets mock offended by my leg and swishes his tail to show me his vast displeasure before quitting and just doing what I ask because lazy.

Leg: Putting it on does not mean go, except when it means go. This is very confusing for Opie who initially was like, "Okay, you said don't go faster when you add leg, so I won't!" and then I try to squeeze to get him to move forward more and he's all, "Nope, not falling for that. You said no going faster!" He's getting better about listening for other aids when my legs do something, and he's got quite a cute little shoulder-fore and leg yield at the walk now.

Canter: I've said it several times before--our arena is long, but really narrow so balancing around the short sides is hard fucking work for a baby racehorse with a huge canter stride and next to no sense of balance. He flip-flopped at the beginning on which lead was easier for him, but he's firmly in the left lead camp now. I finally wised up this morning and shortened my stirrups a hole to canter which was a massive help for me being able to sit and use my body with him. I'll get video this weekend of his canter so hopefully it comes across, but for how small he is, his canter is enormous. Even Riding Bestie was all, "Whoa, I was not expecting that." when she rode him. We can now do several circles in a row on the left lead, but the picking up the right lead is cause for much angst for Opie. If he gets upset and doesn't pick it up, we go back to the walk and trot until he's calm again, and then try again. If he picks it up, we do a lap, come back to the walk, and then cookie.

bobby never put his ears forward either, but at least he wasn't always shooting me
dirty side eye while looking like a petulant donkey.

Nothing we're working on is out of the ordinary for where he's at. In fact, I think he's a thousand miles ahead of where he could be just due to his natural affinity for seeking the connection and being light and easy on the bit. He doesn't llama, and he only tries pulling when he starts getting anxious which usually goes away after a couple of chill-out laps.

He's able to carry a little more forward at both the walk and trot without losing his balance and tripping over his own feet and falling on his face. That is not an exaggeration. It happens just like that.

I messed up so many things early on with Red, Storm, and Bobby that I'm probably going too slow with Opie, but I don't want to lay down another incorrect foundation. However, I'm also far and away a more educated rider now than I was with any of those horses. Part of me really wants to scramble around and dig up money for lessons that unfortunately just aren't in the budget quite yet, but at the same time nothing we're doing is out of my realm of experience. He needs strength, and he needs to learn about his body parts, and I'm more than capable of getting him to the point where BM can actually teach us things instead of telling me to do exactly what I'm doing. Just gotta trust the process!

and keep feeding cookies. obvi.