dancinghorse | Happy Birthday, Capria!

She's 18 today. Old enough to vote, but not, as Teacher noted, to go clubbing. Just give her time.

She's the first, the original, the one to blame for DHF. She's ze keed's mom and my first Lipizzan and my best teacher, and the heart of the farm. She won't leave it--if we try to go to a show or clinic, she gets violently ill and has to be brought home to a large vet bill. Probably we need to take a box of her native earth with her. Or something.

So she stays here and is spoiled shamelessly and gets told how lucky we all are to have her.

Today for her birthday she got a lesson, though not with me (which was rather an issue, but she decided it was OK after all). My neighbor has had to retire her wonderful little ranch horse; he's quite old and his right knee will no longer support a rider's weight. She's shopping for a new riding horse, but meanwhile Teacher has recommended lessons on Capria. This has caused a bit of Angst as Capria has been known to be a bit, well, spicy, and while she never has blown up under any rider, there have been times when she Would Not Stop Trotting. Scary to be run away with by a horse under perfect control. But S has been riding with Teacher for some years now and is quite a nice rider, and Capria has been loving her tack lately, including her Swarovski bridle. Yes, with crystals on the browband, gold buckles, and the swan logo. She's all about the bling. And she's been really loving the way Teacher is making us ride.

And it was a very good lesson indeed. S was grinning from ear to ear when she finished. "Can I come back next week?" Teacher was pleased. S needed the confidence builder, and Capria provided the goods. Capria was pleased with herself after all.

Later she got her Mom time, lots of carrots and a chance to pig out in the hay pile before dinner. She's a happy horse. Also, spoiled. But she deserves it.

My lessons went well. Pandora has made tremendous progress in the past couple of weeks. I'm not making her work all that hard or long, but she's getting something every day, whether it's longeing, riding, or walkies. It adds up, and with a Lipizzan, that means lots of muscles building up really fast. She's really starting to be able to lift her withers, and she's getting some serious action under the hood. There's a big engine in there and it's starting to come into gear. I can get her pretty together, and it's getting better, but for Teacher she's starting to look amazing. Teacher can get her into what's known as a second-level frame (i.e. collected, round, forward, and balanced) for several strides at a time, and more every week. A few more weeks and I'm going to get antsy for

lynnesite to come and photograph a ride. At the very least we need a portrait of that big noble head in its baroque-repro bridle, looking like a period painting.

Poor baby was plumb tuckered after today's lesson, got hosed off and taken in for a long drink, then had a good roll and was up and ready for more. She not only gave everything she had, she was happy about it. She actually had smiling ears on when Teacher got on after me.

Pandora
5-4-06

-Seat bones
+feel as though you've removed all flesh between your seatbones and saddle [eeuuwww]
+center them over twist or drop them down on either side of the twist
+keep seatbones up toward pommel--use visual of aligning seatbones with pommel

-Core/trunk
+lengthen up the front--energy up
+keep diaphragm forward and toned
+be willing to feel rigid (military) in trunk--but stay loose in limbs
+drop energy down back
+keep lower back wide, tailbone down, pubic bone lifted

diagram depicting energy down back, horse sits behind; energy up front, horse lifts up front [she does, too]
opposing energy forces

Arms/hands
-attach elbows to hips
-keep hands light and full of helium
-keep elbows heavy and weighted

-Beware of blocking Pandora with arms and hands [i.e. why she wouldn't trot last week and tried to bully me this week]
diagrams: NOT arms down and elbows out, :) hands up and elbows close and bent

Diagram of energy flows through horse and rider
energy of shoulders, elbows, back downward influences hindquarters to sit down and this energy moves back up through the horse's abs toward withers and neck
energy of hands and front upward and straight line from elbow to bit, energy of horse flows up over neck and down head and back along reins to hands/arms/elbows (feel it in the triceps)

Energy flow of Straight Forward horse: not a circle [as commonly depicted i.e. "circle of aids"]: a figure 8 or infinity sign

Diagram of energy flow of horse above bit--on forehand--crooked
energy of back upward drops horse's back and sends energy down onto forehand
negative energy flow of hands bearing down drops back and raises head and neck and sends energy down again onto forehand

[horse ends up off balance, hollow, head in the air ("llama neck")]

In Capria's case, this results in rushiness. Pandora gets sticky or won't steer.

She is, at this point, still crooked (a crooked horse cannot collect or balance correctly) but much less so, and she's getting better every time I ride her.

So that was edifying. Pandora has now become a typical Classical-Syndrome horse: only perfect if her rider is perfect. Yowch.

Pooka had more of a lesson than I thought; I was about to bag it but somehow ended up bringing him out and bridling him up and taking him out of the arena for some in-hand work up and down the driveway. I had to not let him push me around, not let him get looky, and keep him in his own space with outside aids (rein, whip standing in for leg). This was a surprising lot of fun as we did wiggly bits through the cactus, dealt with hormone-induced ADD, and pretended I was on his back instead of walking in my own little bubble beside him. After that we stopped to talk about clinic details--Torture Lady will be here in just three weeks--and he had to stand and have his bit fiddled with and not get fidgety. He was quite good in fact, and very happy. He does love to hang out with his people. It was particularly notable in light of the fact that we were standing at the Scary Corner, right where the driveway bends out of sight of the horses. Usually that's a place to get all bent out of shape, but he was relaxed and cheerful.

And that was a good lesson day. I fell over afterwards, but had to get up and get to work. Nearly done with Tor book. Copyedits of Shattered Dance are in, and thanks to mail snafu (they never arrived, I found out two weeks later) must be done muy pronto. Good thing I'm not going to the Nebulas this weekend.