dancinghorse | Pooka Achieves Reality

The rainy week didn't materialize. We had one squall Tuesday morning and one yesterday that came just in time to kill my ride on keed, but other than that, it was cool and mostly sunny. Very pleasant. Lots of drying out, and lots of things growing--the roadside wildflowers are coming out in force. My aunt was in town most of the week, visiting my parents, and we went to dinner at the Madera Room in Green Valley on Tuesday--very pleasant place, with excellent chef. Great food and great time was had by all.

On Monday the Dread Revision Letter arrived for Song of Unmaking. As I'd feared, it needs a rewrite--but the editorial suggestions are dead on and the new chapters have been coming rather well. The fans are thrilled. The main editorial request (well, demand, really) was for More Euan. L'Editrice is a hero to them all.

So now I am writing new chapters and revising the old, and generally making a new book. Which must be done in three weeks. Well, two, now. This isn't usual--for the most part I just have to clean up some prose and maybe add a scene--but then I've never written a true sequel. My books are standalones with the same characters, and the timelines tend to be years apart. This is "And three months later we find our (anti)hero dealing with the direct consequences of the mess he got into at the end of the last book." Ergo, there is a learning curve. Lucky for me my editor rocks and I was already not feeling so good about the structure of the draft. Once she weighed in, it all came together.

And now we are writing like the proverbial demented monkey, while also (yay!) getting back (finally) on a regular horse schedule. I've even managed to show Ephiny the rudiments of longeing, and Camilla has been asking for work daily. Ephiny has been mulling over her lesson--good mind on that filly--and Camilla has been behaving, up until today, with exceptional goodness. I tried something new on walkies--walking as if I was riding, with very open,"forward" torso, and she responded by hardly stopping at all. The forward gear is coming, yes it is.

On Wednesday I took Pook out for a short road ride--haven't tried that recently because of the spring hormones. He was Poifect. Relaxed, stretchy, no jigging or freaking out. He likes the way I'm sitting on him now. He feels balanced, therefore he feels secure.

Friday was the Good Day. Capria and I had a schooling session in which she worked on my aids in 10m trot circle into shoulder-in. Time was when we'd fall apart and she'd end up rushing like absolute mad. This time we got better, until finally we achieved that perfect, floating sensation of the figure taking shape in space. I had to work on not clamping and not getting in her way trying to "help" her, just sit back and allow the movement. Eventually we got it. This was also Camilla's good walkies day, and Pooka's day of achieving reality--as in, doing walk and trot work just like a real horse. Instead of, you know, a greenie who forgets to breathe and keeps falling all over the place. Because, frankly, his rider can't keep him balanced or give him the right kind of support.

I guess his rider is f inally getting a clue. He schooled like a real horse--walk and trot figures, trot as long as I wanted him to do it, and reasonably balanced transitions. And that was good.

So today we had lessons. It was a busy schedule. Joni rode keed, who is being a Star. He let loose with a gorgeous trot lengthening, and the rest of his work was very nice. My Evil Genius is a dressage horse. Who'd'a thunk it? Then Camilla had a half-lesson. I wanted to work on longeing since she's manifesting that forward gear and longeing is a very good way to develop the young horse for riding. She was a bit stressed to start with. When we free-longed her, she let me know she didn't approve of that by aiming kicks at my head every time she went blasting by. She had some jaw-dropping bucks, too. Camilla is a Powerhouse. However once she got that out of her system, we put her on the line with me in the middle with whip and longeline, and Joni on the outside with leadrope. After some initial confusion about which of us to focus on, she got the idea of the large circle, took a nice contact on the line, and went forward very well indeed. There's a whole new way she has of doing it--instead of grudging insecurity, she's giving us freedom and confidence. This is good. This is very good. Now she gets a few days off to think things over, then I'll see what she wants to do.

She certainly is feeling good as far as movement goes. She's a stunning mover with great power and suspension, and when she has her forward in gear, she's breathtaking. In a lot of ways she's a Warmblood in a Lipi suit. She has the forward issues, the giant movement, and the "pro-horse" 'tude. Not a horse for the fainthearted, no.

Pandora then had a long, rather grueling session of groundwork, during which Pook hung out with me in the grooming area and waited cheerfully for his lesson. First order of business was to do some more taping, since the footing had improved so much--Joni played with him at liberty and he showed off his best moves, including the hey-yaaaa! extended trot and the float-a-foot-up passage. Taping it was seriously cool--it was like taping a bird in flight.

The lesson proper was about quality of walk first. He's a very short-coupled horse with an enormous walk, which is desirable in an upper-level dressage horse but has to be trained extremely carefully or the walk falls apart and becomes a pacey mess. His trot and canter, Joni said, are exceptionally good and will carry him through with nice scores at the lower levels, but we have to let him take lower scores on the walk in order not to ruin it for later. This is the sort of issue you run into with a horse who is designed for the upper levels. Much of the work required to show at the lowest levels is either off base or counterproductive because it's aimed at horses who will top out at those levels--at horses who lack the natural balance of an upper-level horse and who will perform movements ina much flatter, more downhill manner. A horse like Pooka wants to be uphill and round, and will get actively stuck if asked to lengthen or canter without collection. However the lower levels are good in terms of experience and exposure, and what the pros will do is take low scores in certain movements in order to preserve the training while using the tests to teach the horse how to handle himself at a show.

For Pook that means not worrying if his free walk is less than stellar--and not pushing it out of true in an attempt to score well--then picking up points on trot and canter. Those are really good. Though he isn't cantering under saddle yet--he's not ready (see above re. need for collection). Joni says when he is, we'll do it on the longe to make sure I don't get in his face. (Ahh, humility. But then most trainers would be going batwhackers because he won't let anyone else ride him. Joni lives with it and finds ways around it.)

Anyway, to get back to the walk, what he does is overrun his front end with his back end--too much engine for the chassis--and until he can strengthen his back enough to raise his front end out of the way, if he's pushed into a really forward walk, he'll pace. So, his walk rhythm has to be kept a bit on the slow side. I can feel it when he paces--it feels as if he's thudding down on his shoulder.

So, to develop his walk, we rode circles asking for a shoulder-fore going on the hollow side (the right) and asking for his ribcage to bend toward his shoulder on the stiff side (the left). When he softened into this, he could manage a comfortable trot transition. What's interesting is that his issues with walk to trot are the same as Capria's with trot to canter. I can ride them the same way. Lots of thigh but very open and encouraging of forward, outside rein firm, inside rein open and guiding as needed.

And he did his trot work just like a real horse. No stopping, jigging, or veering--though we need to work on his down transition, he sproings into counterbend and falls all over himself. Must Provide Better Support. (I throw away the outside rein when stressed. Aaarrrrgggghhh.) In the trot itself, it was like riding Capria: free, forward, rhythmic, and floaty. It was seriously cool. :)

We did have one faux pas--he turned and chomped my knee while Joni was explaining something at the halt. Apparently he had an out-of-brain experience, forgot I was there, and chomped at a fly. Oops. But that was quickly dealt with and the rest of the ride was impeccable.

Just like a real horse.

Lessons ended with a last bit of taping--we brought out Gaudia for her first video session. She didn't quite get the point, and Joni is so in love with her she hated to chase her, so we got a lot of footage of Gaudia boinging around in tiny circles and snuggling into Joni, but that's OK. The point is to show what a sweetie (and a beauty) Pooklet Number One is. She's a very fine young filly. Also, taller than dad at 22 months. Next to Joni she looks lovely.

Now Joni has the tape and is going to edit it into a real Stallion Tape. Our first. Lipquiver.