Ephiny's Second Ride
Aug. 20th, 2010 12:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseEphiny had ride number two yesterday. She’d had a little ground work in between lessons, but with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tcastleb away for a week, and me not inclined to ride a totally green horse when there’s no one around in case of need to call 911, she got a nice long time to process her data.
Very interesting session. She was a little high and flighty about the Scary Tree while we were doing groundwork to get started, but she didn’t do courbettes, she just got looky. That’s a big change for her. She also had an issue with her right stifle—boinked it a couple of days ago, and I had seen her resting it a fair amount along about Tuesday, but she wasn’t overtly lame and hey, S is a masseuse. I figured a lesson could only help.
So S worked with her for a while, getting her to get inside her body and balance herself. She got cranky. Tossing her head around, practicing evasive maneuvers. Took her a while to relax enough to add me into the mix. But that was good. I’d rather the horse was difficult in a lesson, when the teacher is there to help, than perfect in lessons and a stinker outside of them.
And, this being ride number two, she could very well have decided one was enough. It’s hard to predict what a horse will do in those very early sessions (see above re. 911). Later on you learn what triggers her and what you can trust her to do and not do. At the beginning? It’s all new.
So, she got her massage and her brain challenge, and then I plugged in for some groundwork. S had one key instruction: “Breathe her right stifle, from your occiput down to your seatbone.” Which in English means, essentially, breathe and relax and loosen up my right side as I worked with her, because a horse will mirror the human if you do the work (ground- and under saddle) right.
Mounting was absolutely no big deal to her. She had more problems with standing square first. Me on her back? Suited her just fine. As far as she’s concerned, I’m part of the equipment, like her saddle and bridle. We’re all good, she’s good.
Her problem was figuring out what to do with her body as S asked her to get it together, get straight, get her hindquarters under and working. She got stuck.
This happens. They all reach a point at which they get square and grounded and all of that, but then what do they do? Unsticking them is a bit of an art.
For this, S kept on with the bodywork, similar to what she did last week, but adding in changes of bend and direction. Ephiny would get stuck at the change, but as we went on, she figured out how to make it work.
Then we tried having me steer. Er, not so much. She got seriously fussy with her mouth. Ephiny has a prehensile tongue and is naturally mouthy to begin with; she could, if she saw the percentage in it, tie a cherry stem into a bow knot with her tongue. True fact. Last week she figured out how to get her tongue over the bit (the flash strap takes care of that). Homework for the next week or two: in-hand work in saddle and bridle, “riding” from her shoulder. That should get her sorted out pretty quickly.
So S went back to leading from the ground, and we worked in my asking with leg when S asked with whip, for both forward and, a little bit, bending. She took to that quite well. She went forward off seat pretty well, too—got to second gear, which felt really nice.
So, hands we can work on, and also the whole concept of using her body as a unit, with the back end fully connected to the front. Pook has issues with that, too; she’s not at all unique in that regard.
Poor thing was all sizzlebrain by the time she finished. I had to pour her into the grooming area to get her saddle off, then she pretty much snoozed the day away, except for breaks to eat.
The part that really pleased me was that she is totally unfazed by having me on her back. She likes it, it feels good, it’s natural. The problems she’s having are body-awareness problems, which many horses have to deal with much later (q.v. Pook, Camilla…), if they every get a chance at all. I’m very much in favor of them happening now, because while it makes for a very slow, gradual, painstaking start, it will pay off hugely later.
S agreed that this is not a horse who could start in 30 days. She’d fry. She needs a lot of time to process, and a lot of time to figure things out. A very slow, methodical, careful process is best for her. That’s typical for Lipizzans; she’s not unusual, or unusually slow. The payoff, as I said, comes later, when she’s got things sorted out and is comfortable, Then she’ll be amazing. She is so smart, so talented, and so clearly hardwired to be a riding horse. Taking our time now means no holes in her training, and no problems that will crop up later.
She’s happy now, but still very, very thinky. The wheels are turning and turning. I’ll be interested to see what happens in a day or two, when I ask her for some groundwork again.
tcastleb away for a week, and me not inclined to ride a totally green horse when there’s no one around in case of need to call 911, she got a nice long time to process her data.Very interesting session. She was a little high and flighty about the Scary Tree while we were doing groundwork to get started, but she didn’t do courbettes, she just got looky. That’s a big change for her. She also had an issue with her right stifle—boinked it a couple of days ago, and I had seen her resting it a fair amount along about Tuesday, but she wasn’t overtly lame and hey, S is a masseuse. I figured a lesson could only help.
So S worked with her for a while, getting her to get inside her body and balance herself. She got cranky. Tossing her head around, practicing evasive maneuvers. Took her a while to relax enough to add me into the mix. But that was good. I’d rather the horse was difficult in a lesson, when the teacher is there to help, than perfect in lessons and a stinker outside of them.
And, this being ride number two, she could very well have decided one was enough. It’s hard to predict what a horse will do in those very early sessions (see above re. 911). Later on you learn what triggers her and what you can trust her to do and not do. At the beginning? It’s all new.
So, she got her massage and her brain challenge, and then I plugged in for some groundwork. S had one key instruction: “Breathe her right stifle, from your occiput down to your seatbone.” Which in English means, essentially, breathe and relax and loosen up my right side as I worked with her, because a horse will mirror the human if you do the work (ground- and under saddle) right.
Mounting was absolutely no big deal to her. She had more problems with standing square first. Me on her back? Suited her just fine. As far as she’s concerned, I’m part of the equipment, like her saddle and bridle. We’re all good, she’s good.
Her problem was figuring out what to do with her body as S asked her to get it together, get straight, get her hindquarters under and working. She got stuck.
This happens. They all reach a point at which they get square and grounded and all of that, but then what do they do? Unsticking them is a bit of an art.
For this, S kept on with the bodywork, similar to what she did last week, but adding in changes of bend and direction. Ephiny would get stuck at the change, but as we went on, she figured out how to make it work.
Then we tried having me steer. Er, not so much. She got seriously fussy with her mouth. Ephiny has a prehensile tongue and is naturally mouthy to begin with; she could, if she saw the percentage in it, tie a cherry stem into a bow knot with her tongue. True fact. Last week she figured out how to get her tongue over the bit (the flash strap takes care of that). Homework for the next week or two: in-hand work in saddle and bridle, “riding” from her shoulder. That should get her sorted out pretty quickly.
So S went back to leading from the ground, and we worked in my asking with leg when S asked with whip, for both forward and, a little bit, bending. She took to that quite well. She went forward off seat pretty well, too—got to second gear, which felt really nice.
So, hands we can work on, and also the whole concept of using her body as a unit, with the back end fully connected to the front. Pook has issues with that, too; she’s not at all unique in that regard.
Poor thing was all sizzlebrain by the time she finished. I had to pour her into the grooming area to get her saddle off, then she pretty much snoozed the day away, except for breaks to eat.
The part that really pleased me was that she is totally unfazed by having me on her back. She likes it, it feels good, it’s natural. The problems she’s having are body-awareness problems, which many horses have to deal with much later (q.v. Pook, Camilla…), if they every get a chance at all. I’m very much in favor of them happening now, because while it makes for a very slow, gradual, painstaking start, it will pay off hugely later.
S agreed that this is not a horse who could start in 30 days. She’d fry. She needs a lot of time to process, and a lot of time to figure things out. A very slow, methodical, careful process is best for her. That’s typical for Lipizzans; she’s not unusual, or unusually slow. The payoff, as I said, comes later, when she’s got things sorted out and is comfortable, Then she’ll be amazing. She is so smart, so talented, and so clearly hardwired to be a riding horse. Taking our time now means no holes in her training, and no problems that will crop up later.
She’s happy now, but still very, very thinky. The wheels are turning and turning. I’ll be interested to see what happens in a day or two, when I ask her for some groundwork again.
