Ok, today I learned two really important things:
1. Pip is a great horse (yeah, I know, I'm saying that) and I think he'll be a wonderful "babysitter" one day, and;
2. I'm an embarrassing owner, which I need to note so I know when kids are embarrassed by nme, it's not JUST because they're related, I really AM that sort of person.
First, the bad news. I rode Pip bareback today. This in and of itself isn't bad, of course. The events surrounding it were. First, I had to get up on his back. This involved me jumping (rather half-heartedly) from the mounting block to his back. The mounting block isn't high enough for me to just swing a leg over, I have to actually leap up, and lie over his back, then swing my leg over and sit up. It only took about 4 tries. During this time, Pip gave Amanda C. a look of pure, unadulterated horror. BUT! I got up! hooray!
And we even trotted a bit, mostly walked around, since I have *round* thighs (tho I have lost 10 lbs since Jan!) and I was not so steady.
Then, to add insult to injury, I got off and tried to swing up as I had done so easily as a kid. Yeah, that didn't work so good. I did get my leg over him, but there's like no power in the arms, torso, inner thigh and wherever else it's needed to get scrambling. So now I have a new goal! Be able to swing (or jump) up on Pip by the end of the summer. Amanda C. is great, she is just plain impressed that I can actually get my foot onto Pip's back at all, much less dream of mounting that way. However! I will regain this ability!
Ok, the good news: (I know you are all holding your breath!) While I was bareback, we trotted, but once Pip figured out that I was bobbly, he just plain would not trot. I finally got him to do it by holding his mane and really pushing him forward, but I can tell when he's really a made horse, he's gonig to be one of those "oh, sorry, you're not educated enough to canter, let's just walk" sort of horses. IN other words, worth his weight in gold! woo!
Every day I'm just discovering why I have the bestest horse ever!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Break on through....
This weekend was a three day Pip fest. Which I think he enjoyed.
Friday was arena and trail work, where I learned just how to get him to slow down and to get him relaxed and lifting his back.
Saturday was arena riding where we worked on Friday’s lessons, tempo and relaxation.
Sunday was a two hour trail ride (mostly at the walk) and I was amazed at how relaxed and happy he was. The reason it was mostly at the walk was because another rider, Susan, brought her 5 year old grandson, and ponied him. So in the interests of not having an accident, we walked. Susan rode Fiona and Caleb (her grandson) rode Sundance. Amanda on Tango and Pip and I rode behind them, as Sundance can get antsy if he’s following or being passed.
Normally Pip HAS to be first. It’s like a compulsion. He always passes everyone. Happily he is also brave enough to lead everyone as well, unlike Eli who would have to be out front, then when he was there, he would spook at everything. But yesterday he was perfectly happy to just trail along, a couple lengths behind the leaders, back with Tango. Tango is a Walking horse, but actually has a rather slow “regular” walk. His flat walk and running walk are fantastic and incredibly fast. Pip was relaxed, trotted up in tempo, I even got some nice jog steps out of him. And the highlight was me going off on my own into the trees while the other stayed up on the bank so I could get some alone on the trail time with Pipper. He did really well. He was anxious, kept making a sort of squealy-grunt, but he kept going, a nice forward trot. I didn’t let him get too fast, because I know he sometimes gets stupider the faster he goes. And he came right down to a slower tempo when I asked him to do so. He was really great. I’m definitely going to be going out alone more. I don’t usually go out alone because he’s been a total pill. He won’t rear or buck, just plant and refuse to go forward. But I think now we’re at a place where we can go alone. There’s a little mile loop, through the Bosque, across the creek, and back on the wide ditch that we’ll start doing.
I also know that I need to be riding more often, 3 days a week seems like a minimum, but until the time/light change, I may be limited to that!
Friday was arena and trail work, where I learned just how to get him to slow down and to get him relaxed and lifting his back.
Saturday was arena riding where we worked on Friday’s lessons, tempo and relaxation.
Sunday was a two hour trail ride (mostly at the walk) and I was amazed at how relaxed and happy he was. The reason it was mostly at the walk was because another rider, Susan, brought her 5 year old grandson, and ponied him. So in the interests of not having an accident, we walked. Susan rode Fiona and Caleb (her grandson) rode Sundance. Amanda on Tango and Pip and I rode behind them, as Sundance can get antsy if he’s following or being passed.
Normally Pip HAS to be first. It’s like a compulsion. He always passes everyone. Happily he is also brave enough to lead everyone as well, unlike Eli who would have to be out front, then when he was there, he would spook at everything. But yesterday he was perfectly happy to just trail along, a couple lengths behind the leaders, back with Tango. Tango is a Walking horse, but actually has a rather slow “regular” walk. His flat walk and running walk are fantastic and incredibly fast. Pip was relaxed, trotted up in tempo, I even got some nice jog steps out of him. And the highlight was me going off on my own into the trees while the other stayed up on the bank so I could get some alone on the trail time with Pipper. He did really well. He was anxious, kept making a sort of squealy-grunt, but he kept going, a nice forward trot. I didn’t let him get too fast, because I know he sometimes gets stupider the faster he goes. And he came right down to a slower tempo when I asked him to do so. He was really great. I’m definitely going to be going out alone more. I don’t usually go out alone because he’s been a total pill. He won’t rear or buck, just plant and refuse to go forward. But I think now we’re at a place where we can go alone. There’s a little mile loop, through the Bosque, across the creek, and back on the wide ditch that we’ll start doing.
I also know that I need to be riding more often, 3 days a week seems like a minimum, but until the time/light change, I may be limited to that!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Same thing again...
So I rode Pip for about 20 minutes today, just working on him going forward (he's got that) and without rushing. So mostly just tempo, I guess. He did better, still speeding up at the beginning. Also he's much stiffer to the left than the right. So I will make sure I work on that. I have noticed that when posting on the trail, the left diagonal is less easy to post. I suspect this is me, as my right leg is flouncy. But we'll be doing more tomorrow, so I'll post in the evening! And hopefully I'll have some photos of us riding!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Consistency is what I lack
Today I worked on one or two of the issues I'd mentioned in earlier posts; namely going forward and tempo. The 1-2-whack worked very well. I actually only had to do that twice before Pip figured it out. Then we had to work on tempo. Pip tends to rush around, in ever shrinking circles until he finally stops. It's kind of odd, actually, but he's just getting to the middle where he thinks I might decide to get off his back.
Amanda C. helped me out, she was riding Fiona, and she hopped on Pipper, and gave me a chance to see some of what he's doing, as well as hear what I should be doing. That was incredibly helpful. Basically I'm working on using my legs and seat to move him forward into the bridle, and then asking him to also lower his head, so he's not going around hollowed as a birch-bark canoe.
So we did that, asking him to use his rear more, to lift his back, and golly gee, he slowed down, and became a lot easier to ride! I was very happy when I got back on him and he really did feel more under me.
After that, we went out on the trail, because it was just a lovely day, and we didn't want to just go home and eat! (I'm trying to lose weight so that Pip has less of me to lug around!)
Out on the trail, Pip was miles better! He didn't fling his head up, kept a nice steady trot going, as well as a lovely round caner when we went down into the Bosque. Now, I don't often canter him there, as he is usually bombing around, barely missing trees and that scares the crap out of me. But! Today we were behind Fiona, who is working on her canter departs, and Pip picked his up right away. He did get bouncy, kind of crowhopping a bit, but I sat up and back, as instructed earlier, and he settled right in fine. I will say that he doesn't stop very well, we almost ran Fiona down, but we managed.
Oh, and we measured the two of them. They are the same height, just a smidge over 15.1, Pip weighs about 950, and Fiona weighs about 1090, so she's more than 100 heavier than Pip, and she sure looks like it. When I rode her, it was amazing the difference, she has a lot of power, and you go up as much as forward, she deffo feels like a big, solid horse. Pip on the other hand, has a very scooty sort of gait, it's smooth, softer and he sure has some shuffling going on, because uphill, he's absolutely doing a flatwalk or something gaited like that! He feels like he's on his tippy toes all the time, where on Fiona, you can feel her legs landing, boom-boom-boom! It wa hard for me to get used to the difference, I have to say, I like how Pip goes more! But I know I'm biased!
Amanda C. helped me out, she was riding Fiona, and she hopped on Pipper, and gave me a chance to see some of what he's doing, as well as hear what I should be doing. That was incredibly helpful. Basically I'm working on using my legs and seat to move him forward into the bridle, and then asking him to also lower his head, so he's not going around hollowed as a birch-bark canoe.
So we did that, asking him to use his rear more, to lift his back, and golly gee, he slowed down, and became a lot easier to ride! I was very happy when I got back on him and he really did feel more under me.
After that, we went out on the trail, because it was just a lovely day, and we didn't want to just go home and eat! (I'm trying to lose weight so that Pip has less of me to lug around!)
Out on the trail, Pip was miles better! He didn't fling his head up, kept a nice steady trot going, as well as a lovely round caner when we went down into the Bosque. Now, I don't often canter him there, as he is usually bombing around, barely missing trees and that scares the crap out of me. But! Today we were behind Fiona, who is working on her canter departs, and Pip picked his up right away. He did get bouncy, kind of crowhopping a bit, but I sat up and back, as instructed earlier, and he settled right in fine. I will say that he doesn't stop very well, we almost ran Fiona down, but we managed.
Oh, and we measured the two of them. They are the same height, just a smidge over 15.1, Pip weighs about 950, and Fiona weighs about 1090, so she's more than 100 heavier than Pip, and she sure looks like it. When I rode her, it was amazing the difference, she has a lot of power, and you go up as much as forward, she deffo feels like a big, solid horse. Pip on the other hand, has a very scooty sort of gait, it's smooth, softer and he sure has some shuffling going on, because uphill, he's absolutely doing a flatwalk or something gaited like that! He feels like he's on his tippy toes all the time, where on Fiona, you can feel her legs landing, boom-boom-boom! It wa hard for me to get used to the difference, I have to say, I like how Pip goes more! But I know I'm biased!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
The best desensitization process yet!
This desensitizing, you ask, what ever can it be?
Well, it's quite simply: spring time in New Mexico. When the wind blows and blows and it sure blows. Remember the Dust Bowl? Yeah, that happened out here too, and these are the winds that helped get all that dirt to Chicago.
The bad things about the winds, you probably already know: dust, trash, random noises, plastic bags, dust, strange smells from far away, everything drying out, general feeling of twitchyness, dust, average everyday things turning into monsters, you get the picture.
Wind for some reason, turns horses into that little frightened,
primal eohippus trotting through the forest, trying to avoid a big, toothy-jawed eohippus- eater. In the wind, benign things like leaves and rocks become terrible predators that are a master of disguise. People walking and on bicycles become horrible monsters just slavering for a nice hunk of horse. Even birds, those chirpy harbingers of better times, are suddenly vicious pteradactyles swooping down on the
unwary pony.
But what you may not know about wind is it's a fabulous training tool. How many times have you been at a show where the wind kicks up and all of the sudden every other horse is a basket case? They can't concentrate on their rider, only on the wind.
Well let me tell you, for all his gaping training holes, Pip is the master of wind. I'm sure there's some Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings wind master, just call Pip that. (ok, yeah, I have to admit, he's the master of THAT wind too!)
We went out, Team Amanda, with Pip and Fiona. Now Pip is still young (rising 6), but compared with other horses his age, he's not had as much work. Which suits me just fine, as I'm trying to learn to teach him. I'll probably cover that in another blog. So Pip has not got as many arena miles on him as Fiona, the other horse today, who's 5 has.
Fiona is a lovely QH/Paint mare, and she is just a nice horse, and Amanda has been getting her professional training, and I tell you, it shows. She's collecting and doing nice lopes on the trail while me and Pip are still just trotting along.
However, today Pip showed his true colors, and they are /golden/.
We went out around noon, the forecast was wind into the afternoon, the morning had been very calm, so we reckoned that the wind probably wouldn't really get going til much later.
We were wrong.
About 100 yards from the barn, a huge thermal kicks up, leaves, dust, twigs, small insects (probably) went zinging around us, swirling and pulling Pip's mane every which way.
Crap, I thought, here we go, the horses are going to be nutso! I heard Fiona behind me spook at a rock. Well, ou know I thought, we'll just have a nice trail walk. Out onto the ditch, and Fiona is on RED ALERT. She's jumping at everything, rocks, leaves, her shadow, all of it. Pip is definately on alert, but it's more like Amber, and he's moving forward, fast, fast, in that almost shuffle that he can do when he's motivated. He was looking, but moving.
We got to perhaps the most frightening house on the ditch, it's like a junkyard/outdoor theater/hippy compound, and there's always something going on there. Which wouldn't be a problem if that wasn't the exact place we have to turn (away from the gyrating hippies, of course) and navagate a rather narrow dirt berm, with ditches on both sides. It's nerve wracking, because if a horse bolts sideways, you're going in. Pip and Fi round this hazard together, each moving away from the scary ditch (they've only seen 100's of times) into each other. Then sigh with relief when they see the creek. Muddy, leafy entry to the creek? No problem.
We cross the creek, but have to get up on top of the levee, which is high and exposed. Good for seeing any approaching horse-eating monsters. But now we have to descend into the dank, overgrown Bosque, the cottonwood forest that grows along the river! Horror! And mince along the well-worn and wide footpath, around dead trees (EEKKK!) and birds flitting (GAH!). Trotting was for a moment, out of the question, as Pip, being the pushy thing he is, had to go first. And he's pushy, but not stupid enough to actually RUN into the jaws of danger. But eventually he did go, and he lead a fair bit of the way, even with Bicycles, Pedestrians with Dogs, and Other Horses. And moving through everything else, the Wind.
I can say that Fiona, for all her arena training and stuff, had to follow most of the way to keep calm. Pip lead at the trot and the walk, and went past some pretty scary things like the champ that he is. Even on the way back, with the wind blowing hard now, and horses in fields acting like wild animals, Pip came through it in fine form. One spook, and not much at that, a few unintentional lane changes, and a couple full stops, forcing Fiona to take the lead. But other than that, I never felt like I was going to lose him, or that he would lose his mind. It was stellar. He's a superlative horse, I gotta say.
Well, it's quite simply: spring time in New Mexico. When the wind blows and blows and it sure blows. Remember the Dust Bowl? Yeah, that happened out here too, and these are the winds that helped get all that dirt to Chicago.
The bad things about the winds, you probably already know: dust, trash, random noises, plastic bags, dust, strange smells from far away, everything drying out, general feeling of twitchyness, dust, average everyday things turning into monsters, you get the picture.
Wind for some reason, turns horses into that little frightened,
primal eohippus trotting through the forest, trying to avoid a big, toothy-jawed eohippus- eater. In the wind, benign things like leaves and rocks become terrible predators that are a master of disguise. People walking and on bicycles become horrible monsters just slavering for a nice hunk of horse. Even birds, those chirpy harbingers of better times, are suddenly vicious pteradactyles swooping down on theunwary pony.
But what you may not know about wind is it's a fabulous training tool. How many times have you been at a show where the wind kicks up and all of the sudden every other horse is a basket case? They can't concentrate on their rider, only on the wind.
Well let me tell you, for all his gaping training holes, Pip is the master of wind. I'm sure there's some Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings wind master, just call Pip that. (ok, yeah, I have to admit, he's the master of THAT wind too!)
We went out, Team Amanda, with Pip and Fiona. Now Pip is still young (rising 6), but compared with other horses his age, he's not had as much work. Which suits me just fine, as I'm trying to learn to teach him. I'll probably cover that in another blog. So Pip has not got as many arena miles on him as Fiona, the other horse today, who's 5 has.
Fiona is a lovely QH/Paint mare, and she is just a nice horse, and Amanda has been getting her professional training, and I tell you, it shows. She's collecting and doing nice lopes on the trail while me and Pip are still just trotting along.
However, today Pip showed his true colors, and they are /golden/.
We went out around noon, the forecast was wind into the afternoon, the morning had been very calm, so we reckoned that the wind probably wouldn't really get going til much later.
We were wrong.
About 100 yards from the barn, a huge thermal kicks up, leaves, dust, twigs, small insects (probably) went zinging around us, swirling and pulling Pip's mane every which way.
Crap, I thought, here we go, the horses are going to be nutso! I heard Fiona behind me spook at a rock. Well, ou know I thought, we'll just have a nice trail walk. Out onto the ditch, and Fiona is on RED ALERT. She's jumping at everything, rocks, leaves, her shadow, all of it. Pip is definately on alert, but it's more like Amber, and he's moving forward, fast, fast, in that almost shuffle that he can do when he's motivated. He was looking, but moving.
We got to perhaps the most frightening house on the ditch, it's like a junkyard/outdoor theater/hippy compound, and there's always something going on there. Which wouldn't be a problem if that wasn't the exact place we have to turn (away from the gyrating hippies, of course) and navagate a rather narrow dirt berm, with ditches on both sides. It's nerve wracking, because if a horse bolts sideways, you're going in. Pip and Fi round this hazard together, each moving away from the scary ditch (they've only seen 100's of times) into each other. Then sigh with relief when they see the creek. Muddy, leafy entry to the creek? No problem.
We cross the creek, but have to get up on top of the levee, which is high and exposed. Good for seeing any approaching horse-eating monsters. But now we have to descend into the dank, overgrown Bosque, the cottonwood forest that grows along the river! Horror! And mince along the well-worn and wide footpath, around dead trees (EEKKK!) and birds flitting (GAH!). Trotting was for a moment, out of the question, as Pip, being the pushy thing he is, had to go first. And he's pushy, but not stupid enough to actually RUN into the jaws of danger. But eventually he did go, and he lead a fair bit of the way, even with Bicycles, Pedestrians with Dogs, and Other Horses. And moving through everything else, the Wind.
I can say that Fiona, for all her arena training and stuff, had to follow most of the way to keep calm. Pip lead at the trot and the walk, and went past some pretty scary things like the champ that he is. Even on the way back, with the wind blowing hard now, and horses in fields acting like wild animals, Pip came through it in fine form. One spook, and not much at that, a few unintentional lane changes, and a couple full stops, forcing Fiona to take the lead. But other than that, I never felt like I was going to lose him, or that he would lose his mind. It was stellar. He's a superlative horse, I gotta say.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Windy work
I went out to ride today, and there's a storm front coming in. So it was windy. According to NOAA, 25 MPH winds, with gusts up to 39 MPH. And it wasn't raining, which means it was dusty as anything. But Pip didn't seem too worried, so I tacked him up (in the western saddle, since it makes me feel safer) and away we went.
We rode in the arena, amid swirling leaves, bits of things and cans rolling down the road. Debris flitted around us like bugs, and through it, Pip was exactly the same as he'd been last week, a bit fussy, barreling back toward the others, reluctant to go away from the barn, and generally anticipating my requests.
I've noticed that he's dropping his inside shoulder a lot, which isn't easy for me to fix at the blazing trot he was offering. I did do more work at the walk, with circles, bending and that, which he was good at. But when we get to the trot, he just gets strong, or fussy, refusing to go forward. But we kept at it, I did a number of halts, just to mix things up a bit, and so that he doesn't exactly know what I'm doing. I have noticed I don't do a lot of halt, and he is beginning to think halt means "end of riding." But this time it seemed like he relaxed, got going more, didn't balk as often, or as long. So all in all, an ok ride. I was working on using my seatbones, and also on sitting up and back more, not getting a head of him. And we did ok. I felt like I will try cantering him in the arena, which I haven't done a lot of, mostly because it's really not a great area (it's the horses turnout) not exactly square, and the fencing is odd, but it's what I've got. I'm happy that I'm feeling confident enough to canter, since I don't really do much of that except on the trail. Perhaps he'll enjoy working in the arena more if we do canter some.
But overall I'm pretty happy that I can get on and have a good ride, where Pip is paying more attention to me than to the gusts of wind. That tells me he's a pretty solid little horse, and what more can I ask for?
We rode in the arena, amid swirling leaves, bits of things and cans rolling down the road. Debris flitted around us like bugs, and through it, Pip was exactly the same as he'd been last week, a bit fussy, barreling back toward the others, reluctant to go away from the barn, and generally anticipating my requests.
I've noticed that he's dropping his inside shoulder a lot, which isn't easy for me to fix at the blazing trot he was offering. I did do more work at the walk, with circles, bending and that, which he was good at. But when we get to the trot, he just gets strong, or fussy, refusing to go forward. But we kept at it, I did a number of halts, just to mix things up a bit, and so that he doesn't exactly know what I'm doing. I have noticed I don't do a lot of halt, and he is beginning to think halt means "end of riding." But this time it seemed like he relaxed, got going more, didn't balk as often, or as long. So all in all, an ok ride. I was working on using my seatbones, and also on sitting up and back more, not getting a head of him. And we did ok. I felt like I will try cantering him in the arena, which I haven't done a lot of, mostly because it's really not a great area (it's the horses turnout) not exactly square, and the fencing is odd, but it's what I've got. I'm happy that I'm feeling confident enough to canter, since I don't really do much of that except on the trail. Perhaps he'll enjoy working in the arena more if we do canter some.
But overall I'm pretty happy that I can get on and have a good ride, where Pip is paying more attention to me than to the gusts of wind. That tells me he's a pretty solid little horse, and what more can I ask for?
Monday, February 2, 2009
Is this offically a wall?
While most of the North American Continent is having extremely cold and nasty weather, we in the Southwest US are having freakishly balmy weather. Here in Albuquerque, it’s been dry and in the 50’s for the last few weeks. Which means two things: 1. I have no excuse to not ride; and 2. if it doesn’t snow in the mountains soon, the price of hay is going to be worse than last year. Hopefully it will snow soon. As you can see, Pip hopes so too, as he is modeling the very height to yakness, even though it's about 55F out. (that's 12C for the rest of youse.)
As for riding, Pip has had quite a lot of time off. After our Mountain ride in September, he had strangles. That put the kibosh on riding for about 5 weeks. When that finally cleared up, I was off to Australia, so no riding for another 3 weeks. That brought us into the end of the year when it was actually cold and wet (no riding) and now we’re into February, and FINALLY I’m riding again! Hooray!
So the Pipmeister and I had a ride on the weekend. And I learned some things. He hasn’t forgotten his training from the summer. He’s much more responsive to my leg, and isn’t nearly has heavy in the hands. He actually carried himself pretty well. He did get balky trotting, and I’m not entirely sure why. He would just stop and fuss. I am using the dressage whip, as I hate booting him in the sides, and I'm not entirelly confident in my leg control to use spurs just yet. But we seem to be not really getting anywhere.
I am concerned that it could also be saddle fit (I’m using the western, as it makes ME feel secure) but it might be digging in behind his withers. Or it’s just me and my piss-poor position. I know that I’m not keeping my position very well, I feel too loose and wobbly, and my legs feel inconsistent (again why I'm leery of using the spurs). I think I am sitting lopsided (I don’t have any mirrors to use, and no one is watching me right now) and I just can’t seem to figure out what I’m doing wrong, or how to correct whatever it may be. But I also don't feel like I can concentrate on me, when Pip is all over the place too. I'm not doing a very good job focusing on him when I'm trying to remember how to ride well. And it's beginning to show...
However, next ride (hopefully sometime this week) will be in the dressage saddle (it’s closer contact and I’m more used to it) and we’ll see how that goes. Also, I don’t really care for arena riding, and I know Pip doesn’t like it. But I need to get him working and focused on me, rather than anything else. I am also working on losing weight so I’m not so heavy for him, that I can be fit enough to actually ride for an hour without getting winded, and keeping MY concentration so that I don’t lose him.
I also think I need to take lessons, but not owning a trailer or truck, I’m going to have to take lessons on other horses than Pip. But that could be a good thing, since lessons on Pip turn into Pip training, and I don’t really get the training I feel like I need to be doing his training!
So next post will be on training me for training him, perhaps!
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