On Sunday we had our show, this is our second "big" show of the year, a real three phase Horse Trial. Horse Trials are ran with 3 rides and the combined score determines your placing, first dressage, then cross country and finally stadium jumping. Unfortunately since we haven't been riding much this past month due to the fencing project, having a friend in town and volunteering last weekend, I really only had a week to prepare for the show. My next show is in 2 weeks and I swear I will be better prepared!
I was super busy on Saturday and was successful in accomplishing everything on my list! Loading and filling water tank? Check! Cleaning tack? Check! Loading tack? Check! Loading show clothes? Check! Hay nets? Check! Bathe horse? Check! Ride horse? Check! I was very happy with my accomplishments Saturday night around 8p as I was riding. Until I realized I had forgotten to go walk the cross country course because I didn't write it on the dang list. DAMN!! Timing was going to be tight, I only had an hour and a half between dressage and cross country and walking the course usually takes at least a half hour. Damn!
I was lucky enough to have RB4 and another friend come help me and their help was awesome! They braided him, helped tack/untack him, rinsed him off and kept great company with me, I certainly couldn't have asked for much better help. Dressage was a little rocky, both the TWH and I were a little tense and it seemed to show. He started our warmup by shuffling the trot instead of truly trotting and half of our warmup consisted of lengthening/shortening the trot in an effort to get the true trot back. As we went around the ring I realized I had only practiced the pattern once in the past month, way to go silly! I went through my memory, hoping I remembered the pattern, when the judge ran the bell. Damn.
We made our way into the dressage ring and the TWH dumped himself on the forehand and worked hard to stay there the entire ride. I tried fixing some of it by doing a little lengthening after our first turn at C and while I thought the trot felt really nice, it only earned us a 6. The judge seemed to love our canter however and surprisingly enough both canter departs and canters earned us 7's! My first transition down went quite smoothly and the freewalk was good but inconsistent in the stretch. His trot at A was prompt and I worked to get a little lengthening before our circle at C but didn't get much. Our second canter/trot transition was a little rocky with him pacing 2-3 steps before picking up the trot but we finished nicely. Needless to say I was a little shocked when I got our test, she gave us a four for both canter/trot transitions. A FOUR?!? I really, truly think it was a bit undeserved, the first transition he had only a single step of pace! One could chalk it up to imbalance or whatever like i normally get, I could understand if we were showing 2nd or 3rd level dressage but this is the equivalent of training level :-( She gave him a 5 on his gaits saying that he paces out of the canter and is lateral in the walk but she did give me a 7 for my position and seat. Her comments said he was cute but gets lateral in the trot and walk. Ugh.
I was reminded that we are paying for one persons opinion at that moment on that day and I shouldn't get too upset about it. I heard a competitor say the same judge wrote "Horse doesn't seem to want to be here today". I was fairly happy overall though, we got a 39.5 score and it put us 5th out of 15 in our class. Time to hurry up though, we gotta walk the cross country course!
Monday, August 19, 2013
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Back in the saddle. Again.
With a big show coming up this weekend, my second every Horse Trial with the TWH, it is time to get my butt in gear. I had a lesson last week with H and didn't get to ride much afterwards due to other life events, last weekend was filled with volunteer stuff from 9a to 5p each day and I was too exhausted to ride Saturday. Sunday, however, I knew I have only a week left to prepare so up I hauled myself onto the horse.
Sunday we did some basic dressage, working some on the shoulder-in that we worked on in our lesson in addition to lengthening and shortening to get some of the flexibility back. TWH worked really hard and even with having butt sweat he still had barely enough gas in the tank to do some fitness at the end of the ride. I only did a quick 2 minute canter set as we had worked really hard that previous hour and we haven't been working on fitness so I didn't want to push him. It was interesting riding as when I rode the App he would go and go and go (and go) even when he was tired until he was just done. With the TWH, however, it is different. It is like you can feel the gas tank level and as the needle falls, you can feel him slow down overall. It is a cool feeling.
I rode Monday morning in my jumping saddle, I figure since I will spend the majority of my time in the dang thing on Sunday I should probably get comfortable in it again haha. I did some basic stretching and worked on some transitions before getting into two point and cruising around. And I did cruise around. For about 5 laps before collapsing in a slobby, unfit heap back into the saddle. I knew I hadn't ridden in the jumping saddle for almost, what, 2 months now? But I didn't realize I was THIS bad, sheesh. I did several smaller sets of two point and worked the TWH on lengthening and shortening in the trot before biting the bullet, heading outside and forcing myself to do a 2 minute trot set of two point.
Admittedly it wasn't as bad as I expected and at the end of the two minutes I could certainly feel the burn but wasn't about to die like when I started the ride. Progress success! After a good (long) walk break I repeated my 2 minute set except I kept it in a canter, thankfully the TWH wasn't too huffy and puffy at the end of 2 minutes. We gotta get to 5 minutes by Friday! My goal this week is to ride 1-2 times a day, ride only in my jumping saddle until Saturday and to get fitness back for my two point and the TWH's canter.
I was successful in riding Tuesday and Wednesday morning and plan on riding again tonight. This morning I was finally able to stay in two point for a full 4 minute set, fitness success! I am certainly feeling the pain, my legs are doing what they can to protest my two point attempts. It is not, however, stopping me and if we keep going at the rate we are I should make the goal of 5 minutes by Friday. Tomorrow I have a jumping lesson with H, now that I have the new pasture I have enough room to jump outside (!!!!!!!) so I can have more than 2 jumps in a row! I have enough standards for 4 jumps and there are 14 poles so hopefully we can put something cool together. Progress success!
Sunday we did some basic dressage, working some on the shoulder-in that we worked on in our lesson in addition to lengthening and shortening to get some of the flexibility back. TWH worked really hard and even with having butt sweat he still had barely enough gas in the tank to do some fitness at the end of the ride. I only did a quick 2 minute canter set as we had worked really hard that previous hour and we haven't been working on fitness so I didn't want to push him. It was interesting riding as when I rode the App he would go and go and go (and go) even when he was tired until he was just done. With the TWH, however, it is different. It is like you can feel the gas tank level and as the needle falls, you can feel him slow down overall. It is a cool feeling.
I rode Monday morning in my jumping saddle, I figure since I will spend the majority of my time in the dang thing on Sunday I should probably get comfortable in it again haha. I did some basic stretching and worked on some transitions before getting into two point and cruising around. And I did cruise around. For about 5 laps before collapsing in a slobby, unfit heap back into the saddle. I knew I hadn't ridden in the jumping saddle for almost, what, 2 months now? But I didn't realize I was THIS bad, sheesh. I did several smaller sets of two point and worked the TWH on lengthening and shortening in the trot before biting the bullet, heading outside and forcing myself to do a 2 minute trot set of two point.
Admittedly it wasn't as bad as I expected and at the end of the two minutes I could certainly feel the burn but wasn't about to die like when I started the ride. Progress success! After a good (long) walk break I repeated my 2 minute set except I kept it in a canter, thankfully the TWH wasn't too huffy and puffy at the end of 2 minutes. We gotta get to 5 minutes by Friday! My goal this week is to ride 1-2 times a day, ride only in my jumping saddle until Saturday and to get fitness back for my two point and the TWH's canter.
I was successful in riding Tuesday and Wednesday morning and plan on riding again tonight. This morning I was finally able to stay in two point for a full 4 minute set, fitness success! I am certainly feeling the pain, my legs are doing what they can to protest my two point attempts. It is not, however, stopping me and if we keep going at the rate we are I should make the goal of 5 minutes by Friday. Tomorrow I have a jumping lesson with H, now that I have the new pasture I have enough room to jump outside (!!!!!!!) so I can have more than 2 jumps in a row! I have enough standards for 4 jumps and there are 14 poles so hopefully we can put something cool together. Progress success!
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
When there is no suspension, can it be created?
Has it really been over 2 months since my last lesson? This year is just flying by. I finally took a lesson with H, it was another dressage lesson because I haven't been riding enough for a jumping lesson. The main goal of the lesson was to see how my position is and to get H's opinion on TWH on if I should keep forging forward or if I should look for the 3rd horse.
Overall the lesson went well. I am always reminded how disappointed I am when riding TWH with H because we never have these brilliant moments where she has me make him do something amazing. When I rode the App, I got that feeling regularly and loved her lessons. With the TWH, not so much. A lot of times it is like having someone just dictating my ride and this ride wasn't much different. We started at the walk and then I went to the trot and putzed around, working to keep my hands together and in front of me. H said that she had to get used to seeing him move again, she forgot how differently he moved.
We went the other direction and she had us do a few figure 8's to see how he is handling the changes of direction, which turned out to be fabulously. The last dressage lesson we were having a really hard time with him dropping his right shoulder when making a 10m circle to go up centerline so she was happy he appeared to have fixed that issue. We worked on some spiraling in and out to see if we could get some back to front connection and he would get it for a step or two but then would lose it.
She then wanted to see if we could create suspension in his trot. He has a huge stride in the trot but has virtually no suspension. She suspects this is because of his ambling gaits, he is designed to not have suspension. His trot is great but still technically flat. She had us try some shoulder in and then leg yielding to try to create some suspension without any additional suspension being created. She had us trot over some poles to reinforce the suspension but as soon as TWH was over the poles he went back to his calorie-conservative, ground eating trot.
We finished up by playing with some canter transitions and she was quite pleased with his progress, when she last saw him he would still have some pacey steps but he is now picking the trot up right away in the canter/trot transition. Yay for us!
Overall we didn't actually accomplish much. My position is really good, I just need to keep my reins shorter so the hands are more in front of me. I need to try to weight my right (bad) leg more. We spent a lot of the ride talking about goals. I told her I wanted to get through Novice, go to Training and even dabble in Prelim if I could before I got old and broken. I know my beloved TWH won't be competitive past Novice and will only be competitive at Novice at local shows. He can't help that and we don't seem to be able to make it better. I think I am going to finish out the season with a show Aug 18th, Sept 9th and finish it up October 5th. After that I think I am just going to find that third horse and make it a goal to have that horse in training for my next show horse. TWH will either play with Novice next year while I work on the project or will be my everything else horse. He is willing to do everything/anything I ask of him and he is a great companion for my aging Appy. I guess that is where I am and wanted to share, a little disappointed that I can't make him work out better for what I wanted but I am not throwing him away. We will see how things go, I have a lesson on the TWH next Weds in a jumping lesson. Might as well have some fun!
Overall the lesson went well. I am always reminded how disappointed I am when riding TWH with H because we never have these brilliant moments where she has me make him do something amazing. When I rode the App, I got that feeling regularly and loved her lessons. With the TWH, not so much. A lot of times it is like having someone just dictating my ride and this ride wasn't much different. We started at the walk and then I went to the trot and putzed around, working to keep my hands together and in front of me. H said that she had to get used to seeing him move again, she forgot how differently he moved.
We went the other direction and she had us do a few figure 8's to see how he is handling the changes of direction, which turned out to be fabulously. The last dressage lesson we were having a really hard time with him dropping his right shoulder when making a 10m circle to go up centerline so she was happy he appeared to have fixed that issue. We worked on some spiraling in and out to see if we could get some back to front connection and he would get it for a step or two but then would lose it.
She then wanted to see if we could create suspension in his trot. He has a huge stride in the trot but has virtually no suspension. She suspects this is because of his ambling gaits, he is designed to not have suspension. His trot is great but still technically flat. She had us try some shoulder in and then leg yielding to try to create some suspension without any additional suspension being created. She had us trot over some poles to reinforce the suspension but as soon as TWH was over the poles he went back to his calorie-conservative, ground eating trot.
We finished up by playing with some canter transitions and she was quite pleased with his progress, when she last saw him he would still have some pacey steps but he is now picking the trot up right away in the canter/trot transition. Yay for us!
Overall we didn't actually accomplish much. My position is really good, I just need to keep my reins shorter so the hands are more in front of me. I need to try to weight my right (bad) leg more. We spent a lot of the ride talking about goals. I told her I wanted to get through Novice, go to Training and even dabble in Prelim if I could before I got old and broken. I know my beloved TWH won't be competitive past Novice and will only be competitive at Novice at local shows. He can't help that and we don't seem to be able to make it better. I think I am going to finish out the season with a show Aug 18th, Sept 9th and finish it up October 5th. After that I think I am just going to find that third horse and make it a goal to have that horse in training for my next show horse. TWH will either play with Novice next year while I work on the project or will be my everything else horse. He is willing to do everything/anything I ask of him and he is a great companion for my aging Appy. I guess that is where I am and wanted to share, a little disappointed that I can't make him work out better for what I wanted but I am not throwing him away. We will see how things go, I have a lesson on the TWH next Weds in a jumping lesson. Might as well have some fun!
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Project overview: Top 10 lessons learned
With the completion of my fencing project, I certainly learned a lot. I figured I would jot some of them down in case it would help anyone else.
1. Make a budget for your fencing project. Have a heart attack at the figure. Did you survive? Good, now double that number, that is closer to the actual cost. Watch out for that second heart attack.
2. Never underestimate the usefulness of that third person. Two is always better than one but it is amazing how much a third set of hands helps. Four is good too but then you are boarderline crowded unless you are really good at project management. Three is the magic number.
3. If you know your project is going to be super expensive, try getting supplies well in advance. For example we started buying the split bolts back in December. By the time our project rolled around, we are needing to purchase only a single bag of them to finish. Instead of gifts we asked for fencing supplies, for example we got 4 bags of fence insulators from my mom.
4. Check the prices of things at multiple stores, they are usually close in price but not always. I went with Electrobraid fencing because my App is still around because of it after being caught up in a fence when he was 10. I checked the price of the copper split bolts from Electrobraid vs buying them from the Depot or Lowes or Menards and they were about the same price. I bought the zip ties at Harbor Freight as they were a lot cheaper. We compared prices of galvanized ground rods vs copper at TSC, the local hardware store and the local farm store, they were about $20 for a 4 foot section (counting other materials). When at the Depot on Sunday, apparently their copper ground rods are $10 for an 8 foot section. Damn, we already bought and installed 4 ground rods. Live and learn.
5. Landscape timbers do not make good fence posts. In a lot less than 10 years your fence will be holding your fence posts up, not the other way around. I have pictures to prove it.
6. Having a tractor with a front end loader is awesome. Having a really small tractor is even more awesome.
7. They make this thing called a Ratchet Rake for your front end loader. It is an amazing thing and will clear heavy brush like you are sweeping a floor. Beautifully destructive.
8. No matter how big your wood chipper will be, unless it is a tow behind model it won't be big enough. Trust me.
9. Don't cheap out, if you are putting your paycheck into this project, spend the extra $4 for the better material. You are expecting this to last 20+ years so get the better stuff. This counts for gates (don't bother with the painted steel, go galvanized), ground rods (copper conducts way better) and even fence post types. You may be able to save $100 by the end of the project but the extra $100 will make things a lot better.
10. The horses will not clap their hooves in appreciation as you work your behind and checkbook off. Maybe when it is done but they will not while you are working on it. Ungrateful animals.
1. Make a budget for your fencing project. Have a heart attack at the figure. Did you survive? Good, now double that number, that is closer to the actual cost. Watch out for that second heart attack.
2. Never underestimate the usefulness of that third person. Two is always better than one but it is amazing how much a third set of hands helps. Four is good too but then you are boarderline crowded unless you are really good at project management. Three is the magic number.
3. If you know your project is going to be super expensive, try getting supplies well in advance. For example we started buying the split bolts back in December. By the time our project rolled around, we are needing to purchase only a single bag of them to finish. Instead of gifts we asked for fencing supplies, for example we got 4 bags of fence insulators from my mom.
4. Check the prices of things at multiple stores, they are usually close in price but not always. I went with Electrobraid fencing because my App is still around because of it after being caught up in a fence when he was 10. I checked the price of the copper split bolts from Electrobraid vs buying them from the Depot or Lowes or Menards and they were about the same price. I bought the zip ties at Harbor Freight as they were a lot cheaper. We compared prices of galvanized ground rods vs copper at TSC, the local hardware store and the local farm store, they were about $20 for a 4 foot section (counting other materials). When at the Depot on Sunday, apparently their copper ground rods are $10 for an 8 foot section. Damn, we already bought and installed 4 ground rods. Live and learn.
5. Landscape timbers do not make good fence posts. In a lot less than 10 years your fence will be holding your fence posts up, not the other way around. I have pictures to prove it.
6. Having a tractor with a front end loader is awesome. Having a really small tractor is even more awesome.
7. They make this thing called a Ratchet Rake for your front end loader. It is an amazing thing and will clear heavy brush like you are sweeping a floor. Beautifully destructive.
8. No matter how big your wood chipper will be, unless it is a tow behind model it won't be big enough. Trust me.
9. Don't cheap out, if you are putting your paycheck into this project, spend the extra $4 for the better material. You are expecting this to last 20+ years so get the better stuff. This counts for gates (don't bother with the painted steel, go galvanized), ground rods (copper conducts way better) and even fence post types. You may be able to save $100 by the end of the project but the extra $100 will make things a lot better.
10. The horses will not clap their hooves in appreciation as you work your behind and checkbook off. Maybe when it is done but they will not while you are working on it. Ungrateful animals.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Finally. Done. A long post a long time in the making
I did something today that I have been looking forward to for 5 months. Something that has been quite expensive and laborious. Today, I turned my horses out.
Back in February we had our 10 acres property surveyed so we could fence off 90% of the property for pasture. The difficult part is that we live in the middle of an older forest and there are parts of the property you can't walk through without bringing a weedwacker, nippers or a machete. Even after the property lines were staked, to actually walk the line required walking several feet on either side of the line to get around bushes, vines and branches. In March we started clearing the fence line, trying to clear cut 10 feet in from the property line , taking down tons of young trees, heavy brush, twigs, bushes, branches, things with thorns, living and dead things. Progress was ridiculously slow due to the nature of what we were clearing and the fact we did it all with 2 person power. Armed with nothing but a chainsaw, weed wacker with a blade, a pair of super awesome Fiskars and determination we made progress foot by slow foot.
By late May we made it to the "end" of our western north/south line. We were excited because that line was the thickest and started to hope that maybe we would get the line cleared by the end of the year! We started stocking up on supplies that would be needed, buying many rolls of Electrobraid fencing when we got a 10% off coupon in the mail, buying the copper split bolts when we could, asking for fence insulators as gifts and more. About this time my riding dropped off significantly, if you haven't noticed lol. I rode to prepare for my show but that is about it.
By mid June we hadn't made the progress we would have liked on our east/west line and were afraid maybe the project would drag on until September. The remainder of the fence line required cutting lots of big trees, the thing about big trees is that they have lots of branches making it just as hard to clear this line as it was to clear the previous line. We ended up with some amazing help the last week of June and beginning of July that helped us push through and over the week of July 4th we finally broke through and could consider the clearing our fence line Done. We were then able to borrow a post hole digger and set 95% of the fence posts by July 7th when our week long vacation was over.
Since then, between hay and fence, it has been a non-stop list of things to do. Hang the fence insulators, set the corner bracings, run the fence, stretch the fence, build a temporary fence to section off an area full of trash, weedwack fence line, buy gates, dig up existing fence wires, bury new fence wires, dig ditches, take down the old fencing, the list goes on. Mornings before work, usually lunch hour and evenings after work have been filled with fence or hay prep work making for very long days with little to no fun and/or horse time. This past weekend was going to be THE weekend. THE weekend that the fence was going to be Done. I was so excited about having time this past weekend to work on my project as I desperately need to get back to a more normal schedule and ride more. While I was successful in clearing the "trash fence", building the trash fence, weedwacking the fenceline and getting the hay for the winter, alas I fell short of finishing the fence. Again.
With being foiled yet again and still facing the fence project, we decided Monday night was going to be The Night. We were going to finish the damn fence! SO and I both got out of work as early as possible and he brought home some chinese so we didn't have to cook and were outside working by 545p. We buried wire under the new "big" gate and then went to wiring everything up. Things went fairly smoothly with tightening the fence, running the jumper wires and then zip tying things so they are tidy. We did have to make a change on our eastern north/south line and add a second set of rollers as it just looked like having a single roller was going to let go and break, that fix took up an annoying large amount of time. We got it done though and while we added the last jumper wires via tractor headlights and came inside at 945p, we were DONE.
This morning I went out at 6a and moved the last of the old fence out of the pasture, plugged in the charger and tested everywhere. Everywhere I tested had a very consistent 8600 volts. Success! Everything has worked! Our (very) hard work is paying off by having not a single issue with the voltage! I doused the horses really well with fly spray and took both of them for a walk along the fence line. I wanted them to see the fence line and I also wanted to walk the line to ensure that the fence looked 100% correct and nothing was shorting out anywhere. It was funny as the boys were both fairly snorty at things, they were very cute but were very respectful on the lead line and I had no issues walking through the woods leading both at the same time. When we finally got up to the front I took their halters off and off they ran! All of about 15 feet before putting their head down in grass hahaha! They have now been out in their new pasture for 3 hours and haven't gone anywhere new, go figure.
Tonight we are going to try to finish up the last bit we have, we need to finish building the fencing for our winter sacrifice pasture and then we will officially be Done. They now have 7-8 acres of room to run around in and will now be outside 24x7 except for when feeding times and when the weather is really bad. It also means I shouldn't need to feed hay for a while which should help my hay pile tremendously. I am so happy to finally be done. So, so happy. Maybe now I can start riding and blogging again.
Back in February we had our 10 acres property surveyed so we could fence off 90% of the property for pasture. The difficult part is that we live in the middle of an older forest and there are parts of the property you can't walk through without bringing a weedwacker, nippers or a machete. Even after the property lines were staked, to actually walk the line required walking several feet on either side of the line to get around bushes, vines and branches. In March we started clearing the fence line, trying to clear cut 10 feet in from the property line , taking down tons of young trees, heavy brush, twigs, bushes, branches, things with thorns, living and dead things. Progress was ridiculously slow due to the nature of what we were clearing and the fact we did it all with 2 person power. Armed with nothing but a chainsaw, weed wacker with a blade, a pair of super awesome Fiskars and determination we made progress foot by slow foot.
By late May we made it to the "end" of our western north/south line. We were excited because that line was the thickest and started to hope that maybe we would get the line cleared by the end of the year! We started stocking up on supplies that would be needed, buying many rolls of Electrobraid fencing when we got a 10% off coupon in the mail, buying the copper split bolts when we could, asking for fence insulators as gifts and more. About this time my riding dropped off significantly, if you haven't noticed lol. I rode to prepare for my show but that is about it.
By mid June we hadn't made the progress we would have liked on our east/west line and were afraid maybe the project would drag on until September. The remainder of the fence line required cutting lots of big trees, the thing about big trees is that they have lots of branches making it just as hard to clear this line as it was to clear the previous line. We ended up with some amazing help the last week of June and beginning of July that helped us push through and over the week of July 4th we finally broke through and could consider the clearing our fence line Done. We were then able to borrow a post hole digger and set 95% of the fence posts by July 7th when our week long vacation was over.
Since then, between hay and fence, it has been a non-stop list of things to do. Hang the fence insulators, set the corner bracings, run the fence, stretch the fence, build a temporary fence to section off an area full of trash, weedwack fence line, buy gates, dig up existing fence wires, bury new fence wires, dig ditches, take down the old fencing, the list goes on. Mornings before work, usually lunch hour and evenings after work have been filled with fence or hay prep work making for very long days with little to no fun and/or horse time. This past weekend was going to be THE weekend. THE weekend that the fence was going to be Done. I was so excited about having time this past weekend to work on my project as I desperately need to get back to a more normal schedule and ride more. While I was successful in clearing the "trash fence", building the trash fence, weedwacking the fenceline and getting the hay for the winter, alas I fell short of finishing the fence. Again.
With being foiled yet again and still facing the fence project, we decided Monday night was going to be The Night. We were going to finish the damn fence! SO and I both got out of work as early as possible and he brought home some chinese so we didn't have to cook and were outside working by 545p. We buried wire under the new "big" gate and then went to wiring everything up. Things went fairly smoothly with tightening the fence, running the jumper wires and then zip tying things so they are tidy. We did have to make a change on our eastern north/south line and add a second set of rollers as it just looked like having a single roller was going to let go and break, that fix took up an annoying large amount of time. We got it done though and while we added the last jumper wires via tractor headlights and came inside at 945p, we were DONE.
This morning I went out at 6a and moved the last of the old fence out of the pasture, plugged in the charger and tested everywhere. Everywhere I tested had a very consistent 8600 volts. Success! Everything has worked! Our (very) hard work is paying off by having not a single issue with the voltage! I doused the horses really well with fly spray and took both of them for a walk along the fence line. I wanted them to see the fence line and I also wanted to walk the line to ensure that the fence looked 100% correct and nothing was shorting out anywhere. It was funny as the boys were both fairly snorty at things, they were very cute but were very respectful on the lead line and I had no issues walking through the woods leading both at the same time. When we finally got up to the front I took their halters off and off they ran! All of about 15 feet before putting their head down in grass hahaha! They have now been out in their new pasture for 3 hours and haven't gone anywhere new, go figure.
Tonight we are going to try to finish up the last bit we have, we need to finish building the fencing for our winter sacrifice pasture and then we will officially be Done. They now have 7-8 acres of room to run around in and will now be outside 24x7 except for when feeding times and when the weather is really bad. It also means I shouldn't need to feed hay for a while which should help my hay pile tremendously. I am so happy to finally be done. So, so happy. Maybe now I can start riding and blogging again.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Ditches do us in
Saturday was the clinic with the TWH, something I looked forward to greatly because 1. I have never gone to a clinic before and 2. It was very affordable! The dressage was a 45 minute lesson and was on time despite my writing the time down wrong. I was ready a good bit too early lol. No worries though, we were ready for dressage and the instructor was quite nice. Very chatty, I think she talked more about her personal students and how the TWH is very similar to a horse she is working with and the challenges she is facing with that horse, but she was nice. 90% of the ride was working on the trot within a 10m circle and then spiraling out to try to get the TWH to actually connect his hind leg to the front. It was hard and tiring however we did actually get a few steps of true collection each direction. She really liked his canter and said it was a better quality than the trot. She also agreed with H in that he would be a good training level horse and we could go have fun at first level dressage however we quite likely won't be competitive because he just doesn't have the connection due to what he is. It was a little disappointing hearing it, however it was good that two separate people agree that he will be maxing out in his dressage at no fault of his own.
Our cross country lesson was a bit more of a fiasco as the lesson was at 2p. I was getting ready and at 1:55 I saw a bunch of people warming up so I hurried up and got over there only to find it was the group that was supposed to be starting at 1:30. I hung by myself until around until 2:15p when I finally saw the barn owner. I asked if she knew where the 2p lesson group was, afraid I had missed it somehow. She went to look for them as I went back to the trailer. Apparently the previous group was also running late and the instructor was making her way over. The lesson finally started at 2:40p and I was with a group of 4 others.
Overall the lesson went well. The TWH rocked the course. I was a little frustrated again as the instructor gave little to no feedback and basically babysat while I jumped things. This seems to be a trend in my jumping lessons, something that frustrates me a little as I want feedback, that is why I am taking a lesson. I could jump stuff myself any day. I finally asked her how my position was, what could I improve on and she said we were doing great. My 2 point is good, I have a good release (which I worked really hard to do that day) and my lower leg is quiet and solid. I KNOW I am not perfect but I didn't get any better help so I guess I am perfect :)
The only issue we had was when we jumped the ditch, something I knew would be an issue. The TWH doesn't like ditches for some reason and will refuse or stop and jump from a standstill. The first time we presented him to the ditch he stopped and thought about running out. I kicked pretty aggressively until he went over and we worked at it 6 more times until he would just pause before going over instead of stopping. Not too bad IMO. The fourth time over I landed wrong and actually braced myself for the snapping of my bone, my middle finger was in some mane and hit his neck at just the right angle, I swore it was going to dislocate or break. Thankfully it appears it is just sprained, but ow!! Figures it was over the ditches. The instructor also said he is not stopping as much as I think he is though, he looks like he is pausing and not stopping so while I need to push him, he is not actually refusing most of the time. So that is good to know.
I was happy with how he rode and he got a nice, deserved roll when he got home. This week is a lot of fencing work as we are aiming to finish our pasture expansion project by this weekend so no riding is in sight. The horses, however, should be super excited with the expansion project and they better start clapping their hooves in appreciation!
Our cross country lesson was a bit more of a fiasco as the lesson was at 2p. I was getting ready and at 1:55 I saw a bunch of people warming up so I hurried up and got over there only to find it was the group that was supposed to be starting at 1:30. I hung by myself until around until 2:15p when I finally saw the barn owner. I asked if she knew where the 2p lesson group was, afraid I had missed it somehow. She went to look for them as I went back to the trailer. Apparently the previous group was also running late and the instructor was making her way over. The lesson finally started at 2:40p and I was with a group of 4 others.
Overall the lesson went well. The TWH rocked the course. I was a little frustrated again as the instructor gave little to no feedback and basically babysat while I jumped things. This seems to be a trend in my jumping lessons, something that frustrates me a little as I want feedback, that is why I am taking a lesson. I could jump stuff myself any day. I finally asked her how my position was, what could I improve on and she said we were doing great. My 2 point is good, I have a good release (which I worked really hard to do that day) and my lower leg is quiet and solid. I KNOW I am not perfect but I didn't get any better help so I guess I am perfect :)
The only issue we had was when we jumped the ditch, something I knew would be an issue. The TWH doesn't like ditches for some reason and will refuse or stop and jump from a standstill. The first time we presented him to the ditch he stopped and thought about running out. I kicked pretty aggressively until he went over and we worked at it 6 more times until he would just pause before going over instead of stopping. Not too bad IMO. The fourth time over I landed wrong and actually braced myself for the snapping of my bone, my middle finger was in some mane and hit his neck at just the right angle, I swore it was going to dislocate or break. Thankfully it appears it is just sprained, but ow!! Figures it was over the ditches. The instructor also said he is not stopping as much as I think he is though, he looks like he is pausing and not stopping so while I need to push him, he is not actually refusing most of the time. So that is good to know.
I was happy with how he rode and he got a nice, deserved roll when he got home. This week is a lot of fencing work as we are aiming to finish our pasture expansion project by this weekend so no riding is in sight. The horses, however, should be super excited with the expansion project and they better start clapping their hooves in appreciation!
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Making him think
So riding this week isn't going so well since my arena flooded Monday, again. This time I built a semi-permanent dam with clay and a landscaping pole so hopefully this crap stops once and for all. Only time will tell. I rode in the rain on the road Monday night in an attempt to ride the TWH at least some before my clinic and while it was hard to ride much dressage when riding just in a straight line on the road, we did work on transitions and it wasn't too bad. It rained too hard Tuesday night to ride on the road and I still had puddles in my arena so I had to give the TWH the day off.
Wednesday I checked the arena and the puddles were gone and while there were some soft spots still, I could now use half of my arena so I took advantage and rode. When I went to hop on, the TWH had stepped forward a full 2 steps ahead of the mounting block. I told him to back and he actually didn't, surprising since he listens so well. He does know how to back on a lunge line so I asked again and might as well have been talking to the arena wall. That started a quick groundwork session to sharpen his responses and the TWH made a Very. Bad. Choice. When I smacked him in the chest with the reins when he didn't back by a voice command, he picked his front feet off of the ground. Very. Bad. Idea. As a reformed rearer, one that was bad enough his owners had considered putting him down, taking ones hoof off of the ground is absolutely Not Tolerated for any reason. I let hell rain down on him for a good 30 seconds. I made sure he understood I could kill him if I wanted to and that rearing is never, ever a good idea. Then I just walked away from him. He trotted off, happy to be away from the lunatic, but when I walked over to him he came right back to me.
We did some basic yielding exercises before I asked him to back by voice (instead of body language) and while he visibly stiffened, he didn't rear. He also didn't back. I grabbed a lunge line so I had a little more control and it took all of 5 minutes before he remembered how to back by a voice command, even if I was beside or behind him. Good horse! For his "test" I stood at his stifle and made him back until his head was at my shoulder, all without stepping away from me, and when he got to my shoulder he very purposefully turned and placed his head in my chest and just held it there. It was so sweet, like he was saying "I'm sorry mom! I got it figured out, I know I was bad". I love working him and watching him think, he is expressive enough you can absolutely see what he is thinking.
The rest of the ride went pretty well. I only had a circle of arena I could use and I knew I only had a ride or two before the clinic so I kept it simple by asking for transitions and basic flexion and he gave it to me willingly. Looking forward to Saturday, I don't know if I will have pictures but will try to get some. One of the bigger reasons I don't post many pictures is my slow internet speed, a 500k file can take a minute or two to upload and a 2mb or bigger can take 5+ mins to load. Let's not even get started on video, my cattle sorting video took almost 45 mins to upload :( At least I have "high speed" internet, even if my download speed is .66mb and my upload speed is .32mb today.
Wednesday I checked the arena and the puddles were gone and while there were some soft spots still, I could now use half of my arena so I took advantage and rode. When I went to hop on, the TWH had stepped forward a full 2 steps ahead of the mounting block. I told him to back and he actually didn't, surprising since he listens so well. He does know how to back on a lunge line so I asked again and might as well have been talking to the arena wall. That started a quick groundwork session to sharpen his responses and the TWH made a Very. Bad. Choice. When I smacked him in the chest with the reins when he didn't back by a voice command, he picked his front feet off of the ground. Very. Bad. Idea. As a reformed rearer, one that was bad enough his owners had considered putting him down, taking ones hoof off of the ground is absolutely Not Tolerated for any reason. I let hell rain down on him for a good 30 seconds. I made sure he understood I could kill him if I wanted to and that rearing is never, ever a good idea. Then I just walked away from him. He trotted off, happy to be away from the lunatic, but when I walked over to him he came right back to me.
We did some basic yielding exercises before I asked him to back by voice (instead of body language) and while he visibly stiffened, he didn't rear. He also didn't back. I grabbed a lunge line so I had a little more control and it took all of 5 minutes before he remembered how to back by a voice command, even if I was beside or behind him. Good horse! For his "test" I stood at his stifle and made him back until his head was at my shoulder, all without stepping away from me, and when he got to my shoulder he very purposefully turned and placed his head in my chest and just held it there. It was so sweet, like he was saying "I'm sorry mom! I got it figured out, I know I was bad". I love working him and watching him think, he is expressive enough you can absolutely see what he is thinking.
The rest of the ride went pretty well. I only had a circle of arena I could use and I knew I only had a ride or two before the clinic so I kept it simple by asking for transitions and basic flexion and he gave it to me willingly. Looking forward to Saturday, I don't know if I will have pictures but will try to get some. One of the bigger reasons I don't post many pictures is my slow internet speed, a 500k file can take a minute or two to upload and a 2mb or bigger can take 5+ mins to load. Let's not even get started on video, my cattle sorting video took almost 45 mins to upload :( At least I have "high speed" internet, even if my download speed is .66mb and my upload speed is .32mb today.
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