Drawing Down the Neep
Sep. 16th, 2006 10:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseI'm going through one of those phases of not being able to keep up with personal communications. Working hard. Riding not so much--we've had a lot of rain. Though today is the sort of day we usually get in October: dry, mild, slightly chilly overnight. The mud is slowly starting to go crackly. I think there is a May apple growing under the Party Tree: lovely plant with very short-lived, beautiful trumpetlike pink flowers, and fascinatingly spiky seeds.
Lessons were conclusively rained out a week ago Thursday, but Sunday's lessons did happens, and so did this past Thursday's. The reconstruction of Pooka's neck continues. He's doing it himself as far as he can, and the shape of the hypertrophied muscle is changing. We do have to be careful, as sometimes he gets the funnybone sensation and either his ear droops or he shakes his head and looks nonplussed. But for the most part he's doing very well, with soft eyes and the revelation that the neck the kuering judge (a year ago today) called short is in fact quite long.
He's a deceptively built horse in some ways. He tucks his neck into his shoulders and makes you think it's thick and short, but it's really long. And his legs are not short, either; it's the deep barrel and generally low-slung chassis that create the illusion. Which is why he does so well when crossed on big, rangy mares. He's not as far against that type as he seems.
Anyway. He has been very funny about his lessons. Last Sunday Teacher happened to be standing next to the mounting block waiting for me to come up and mount, and he interpreted that as, "Shit! She's going to ride me!" He would not stand still. Instead he swiveled around until he had presented his left stirrup to me. And stood like a rock for me to mount. Thursday she tried the same thing, and sure enough. Bugged eyes, backpedal, swivel, present to his preferred rider. For them as asked how he indicates his preference, I hope this is clear enough?
When I longed him a week ago Sunday, he pulled against the line and his ear drooped, so I've been opting not to warm him up that way. Walk in hand instead around the arena once, then mount, and sit and let him find his balance under me. Bend his neck with this seatbone or that. Slide tailbone to encourage him to lengthen and lower his neck. Then proceed in walk from there. He likes this. Lesson consists of encouraging him to give me his back by riding lots of wiggly bits, then Teacher comes into the act with corrections.
My left side had been collapsing something awful in schooling, and Teacher spotted the problem: with the mares I have to tilt off to the right in order to sit straight, but he's been using this to make me more crooked than before. The solution was to hang off the left--and I mean really hang; it can feel quite insecure, but if I do that, suddenly he's straight. He's dropping his left hind and over-lifting his right. My not playing into that is helping to equalize his body.
Rein aids still need to be rather idiosyncratic--keeping his ears level may mean lifting the right rain up by his jaw and keeping the left rein in normal position but shifted over as an opening rein. If he straightens out, return to default. This is hard because it tempts me to collapse that pesky left side. Again. But we persevere.
His walk is getting very good--long, horizontal neck, level or slightly withers-high movement, and good engagement behind. His eye is soft and he relaxes through his body.
Sunday we introduced trot for the first time in quite a few months. Now we understand that the head-shaking and crowhopping are the result of his neck being out of alignment, so it's very important to have a good walk and go quietly and smoothly into the trot. And keep ears level. And not let him tip me forward--this tips him into his forehand. And keep my tailbone in gear. And not slide off to the right, but stay hanging out over that left hind.
He did nicely then, and better on Thursday; when I had everything in gear and asked his front end to lift, he had some lovely, elevated, soft and elastic trot. Teacher noted that he's breathing (he holds his breath when he's tense) and he's not locked in the base of the neck as much as before. The one problem we had on Thursday was that he was so exuberant (in Teacher's word) behind that he was clipping his front heels and threatening to pull his Boas off. I had to slow, shorten, and collect him...and that was when he gave me the lift of the forehand and it was lovely.
He's always had too much engine for his chassis. The trot is a launch; he leaps into it. If his front end doesn't get out of the way, there are problems.
Interesting in that this horse is totally It for dressage; everything about him is designed for it. He's got the mind and body, the movement, everything. But it's still not easy. All that talent overwhelms him and he runs into a completely different kind of trouble than the more normal sort of horse. Instead of not being engaged enough, he's too engaged. Hence his years of foot problems. So, instead of asking for more, we have to throttle him down a bit.
It's a nice problem to have, I have to say that.
Additional notes: Ride up over the tops of the hands (hands feel Up when in default position). Remember to keep focus in direction horse is moving--no tilting head or body off the line of travel. And of course, keep left side from collapsing.
This is helping a lot with Pandora btw. And Camilla. Capria hasn't had a ride in a couple of weeks--we took her shoes off and her feet reshaped themselves nicely but got too short too fast, and she ended up very sore. Wonder Shoer came last week and put front shoes back on. She promptly went dead lame in the right fore--bruise; I was afraid she'd blow an abscess, but she never did. By Thursday she was sound, yay! Ride for her today. Can't wait. I miss riding my Capria.
In other news, Oreo is a Moose. Huge. He's getting better about having his head touched, which is good. Fly mask soon, then halter. The rest of him I can handle and scritch everywhere, no problem, and he's getting easier to restrain, if lightly. We Make Progress.
Lessons were conclusively rained out a week ago Thursday, but Sunday's lessons did happens, and so did this past Thursday's. The reconstruction of Pooka's neck continues. He's doing it himself as far as he can, and the shape of the hypertrophied muscle is changing. We do have to be careful, as sometimes he gets the funnybone sensation and either his ear droops or he shakes his head and looks nonplussed. But for the most part he's doing very well, with soft eyes and the revelation that the neck the kuering judge (a year ago today) called short is in fact quite long.
He's a deceptively built horse in some ways. He tucks his neck into his shoulders and makes you think it's thick and short, but it's really long. And his legs are not short, either; it's the deep barrel and generally low-slung chassis that create the illusion. Which is why he does so well when crossed on big, rangy mares. He's not as far against that type as he seems.
Anyway. He has been very funny about his lessons. Last Sunday Teacher happened to be standing next to the mounting block waiting for me to come up and mount, and he interpreted that as, "Shit! She's going to ride me!" He would not stand still. Instead he swiveled around until he had presented his left stirrup to me. And stood like a rock for me to mount. Thursday she tried the same thing, and sure enough. Bugged eyes, backpedal, swivel, present to his preferred rider. For them as asked how he indicates his preference, I hope this is clear enough?
When I longed him a week ago Sunday, he pulled against the line and his ear drooped, so I've been opting not to warm him up that way. Walk in hand instead around the arena once, then mount, and sit and let him find his balance under me. Bend his neck with this seatbone or that. Slide tailbone to encourage him to lengthen and lower his neck. Then proceed in walk from there. He likes this. Lesson consists of encouraging him to give me his back by riding lots of wiggly bits, then Teacher comes into the act with corrections.
My left side had been collapsing something awful in schooling, and Teacher spotted the problem: with the mares I have to tilt off to the right in order to sit straight, but he's been using this to make me more crooked than before. The solution was to hang off the left--and I mean really hang; it can feel quite insecure, but if I do that, suddenly he's straight. He's dropping his left hind and over-lifting his right. My not playing into that is helping to equalize his body.
Rein aids still need to be rather idiosyncratic--keeping his ears level may mean lifting the right rain up by his jaw and keeping the left rein in normal position but shifted over as an opening rein. If he straightens out, return to default. This is hard because it tempts me to collapse that pesky left side. Again. But we persevere.
His walk is getting very good--long, horizontal neck, level or slightly withers-high movement, and good engagement behind. His eye is soft and he relaxes through his body.
Sunday we introduced trot for the first time in quite a few months. Now we understand that the head-shaking and crowhopping are the result of his neck being out of alignment, so it's very important to have a good walk and go quietly and smoothly into the trot. And keep ears level. And not let him tip me forward--this tips him into his forehand. And keep my tailbone in gear. And not slide off to the right, but stay hanging out over that left hind.
He did nicely then, and better on Thursday; when I had everything in gear and asked his front end to lift, he had some lovely, elevated, soft and elastic trot. Teacher noted that he's breathing (he holds his breath when he's tense) and he's not locked in the base of the neck as much as before. The one problem we had on Thursday was that he was so exuberant (in Teacher's word) behind that he was clipping his front heels and threatening to pull his Boas off. I had to slow, shorten, and collect him...and that was when he gave me the lift of the forehand and it was lovely.
He's always had too much engine for his chassis. The trot is a launch; he leaps into it. If his front end doesn't get out of the way, there are problems.
Interesting in that this horse is totally It for dressage; everything about him is designed for it. He's got the mind and body, the movement, everything. But it's still not easy. All that talent overwhelms him and he runs into a completely different kind of trouble than the more normal sort of horse. Instead of not being engaged enough, he's too engaged. Hence his years of foot problems. So, instead of asking for more, we have to throttle him down a bit.
It's a nice problem to have, I have to say that.
Additional notes: Ride up over the tops of the hands (hands feel Up when in default position). Remember to keep focus in direction horse is moving--no tilting head or body off the line of travel. And of course, keep left side from collapsing.
This is helping a lot with Pandora btw. And Camilla. Capria hasn't had a ride in a couple of weeks--we took her shoes off and her feet reshaped themselves nicely but got too short too fast, and she ended up very sore. Wonder Shoer came last week and put front shoes back on. She promptly went dead lame in the right fore--bruise; I was afraid she'd blow an abscess, but she never did. By Thursday she was sound, yay! Ride for her today. Can't wait. I miss riding my Capria.
In other news, Oreo is a Moose. Huge. He's getting better about having his head touched, which is good. Fly mask soon, then halter. The rest of him I can handle and scritch everywhere, no problem, and he's getting easier to restrain, if lightly. We Make Progress.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-16 07:20 pm (UTC)I missed horse neepage! Yay for Pooka!
And woot for Oreo! One of the Arab colts I was trying to help with a few years back ended up SPOOK central about his butt. That was very unpleasant to retrain. I moved before it was worked out, but I hear they finally worked it out through scritchy-therapy. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-09-17 01:10 am (UTC)What's with the Lipizzan "Whoa Nellie" trot and "Ah, nice" canter?
no subject
Date: 2006-09-17 02:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-17 03:44 pm (UTC)And hurrah for Oreo's head. Every day in every way, better and better.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-17 05:35 pm (UTC)Glad to hear his neck keeps getting better. :) I can't imagine how difficult it must be to correct something like that on a horse through training.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-17 08:32 pm (UTC)And thank you for these posts -- they're wonderful.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 10:32 pm (UTC)Make sure you leave yourself some nose to breath with -- too long on the grindstone is a problem!