Relaxation

So today is all about the work that I need to do! Pip is doing well, we're solid on the trail, and I've begun working on arena stuff. Today I decided to ride a training level dressage test. Amanda was going to call it for me. Sadly I didn't bring my test! So I did my best to try to ride what I remembered. Which wasn't tons of things, however, I did most of the movements. Pip and I struggled a bit, mostly because he hadn't been ridden for 2 weeks, and also because the other horses (except Tango) were out in the back pasture, having fun. Tango was the sacrifice to Pip's sanity, just to keep things kind of normal.

Considering all that, Pip did pretty well. He was rushy, went toward the pasture quickly, went away slowly, and didn't listen great, but you know, it was about dinner time, he was the only horse not having a great time in the field, and I had had a 3 beer lunch a little before this. So while I was relaxed, I wasn't quite as accurate in my position as I would have liked. And of course this was the day I had my camera! So I included the best photos from the bunch. Sadly the delay on a digital camera meant there were lots of missed shots. But oh well!

I think he looks pretty dang good! We're getting more relaxation from him, and he's just dang cute in his dressage togs!

Other People's Horses

So today, instead of riding Pip, or even one of Amanda C's walkers, I rode another friend's quarter horse and Arabs. This is Fancy and me cantering. Fancy is very fancy as you can see, and she is just my size, about 14.3, 15 hands maybe, and built like a Cadillac. She's a little shorter than Pip, but heavier, and longer. She had a really nice jog, and her canter was nice, even though she did buck a bit. She was a bit upset at having to work, she's been of a few months. I know I would also be upset at having to work if I'd been lounging about for months.

One of the Arabs is a large, big moving dapple gray, who's built like a tank. He is broad and tall and just lovely, with a big bouncing stride that was very hard to sit. His canter was great, huge and rocking horse.

The other is a little chestnut who is so well trained, I rode him bareback, and the entire time felt as secure as I did in the saddle on the gray. WE didn't canter, as I was not feeling completely secure in my seat, but I'm happy to be getting lots of bareback practice, as I think it will help me and Pipper. Especially with my being a bit uneven. We'll see.

But it was great because I got to ride really well trained horses, both of them, and got to practice a bit for MY riding, as opposed to building Pip's skills.

And I have to say, I think I"m a better rider than I was before I started Pip, that's for sure. I'm less perchy and my hands are quieter than I remember. So it was a really great experience, not even including the fact that Pat's horses are just plain sweet as pie and lovely to work with.

Stealth dogs!

If you walk, cycle or ride in residential neighborhoods you know what I'm talking about. Many people have dogs, and a lot of people in the western US have dogs. I live in the western US. I have dogs. When I take them for a walk in the nieghborhood, we usually encounter other dogs in their yards, barking to alert me that I am not invited to their yard. As these dogs well know, if they didn't bark and carry on, I might just sneak in there and well, do something. So these guard dogs are really the first and best defense (in their minds) for protection against marauders. When I trail ride, Pip and I encounter a lot of these types of dogs, the barky warning dogs. That's fine; the horses may spook a bit, but it's all good.

Then there are stealth dogs. These are much less common, and much scarier for horses and people. These are the dogs that don't bark, they just quietly get themselves where they can rush you and scare the snot outta you. We found two today. We were riding along, the horses were already on higher alert because we'd caught an old, napping horse by surprise and had a mutual scare. Amanda C was riding Fiona off the trail, and by a fence, because Fi had been worried about it earlier. I had taken Pip down there, but was moving back to the main trail, as there wasn't really a lot of room for two horses.

Suddenly Pip and I were moving very very fast away from that property and toward the ditch. Then that time slo-mo thing happened, where you say "holy crap! I'm not falling off, and I'm not going into that ditch!" and you get yourself organized and do an emergency stop. Pip stopped, turned to look, and I saw two red dogs slinking back to the property next to the one we'd been riding by. they didn't look espeically proud, more like shocked that their plain of eating horses hadn't gone so well.

Happily, neither myself nor Amanda C. fell off, and the horses were fine, if very jumpy for a bit after that. And the great thing is, by the end of that ride, both Pip and Fiona were fine, relaxed, moving forward, listening and happy. Yay for a really, really solid horse!

Woot!

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!

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!

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!

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!