Brief Neep
May. 21st, 2006 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseThere will be more after this week, I'm sure: we're gearing up for TrainerCon, or, moi and a bunch of wild-eyed dressage trainers. Torture Lady is coming from England to teach us from Wednesday through Friday, Teacher is taking a slew of lessons, and TL's friend Grandprixdudette is coming from San Francisco to join us. Pandora will most probably get to torture her. It should be...interesting.
Today was a regular lesson day, as Teacher was ill all week and couldn't come on Thursday. She was in fair to middling fettle this morning, excited about seeing her teacher again, and perfectly happy to do a lightish day here. I was a bit under the weather (nothing serious, just tired) and decided to bring out Camilla instead of Pandora. Camilla has been feeling Abused! and! Neglected! since I took her out of lessons--so much for that idea; I think for now she needs to continue as a lesson pony.
She was delighted to come away from the last of her breakfast, and all the knots and tension she's had in the past couple of weeks were just about gone. She had soft eyes and relaxed neck for her groundwork. In-hand work was more interesting; she did not want to go near the Scary Tree. I had to do two things: keep her focused strictly on me (must also do this when grooming and hanging out), and keep my hands close to her neck. Including the inside hand, which Must Not Pull Inward as it drops her on her shoulder and makes the imbalance worse.
Once we had sorted this out, I rode her for quite a while, relatively speaking. Had to watch that inside hand, deal with issues as to who gets to steer (it's 50:50), and think about keeping her shoulders in front of her hips and not letting her head and neck kink off the line of travel. For now if she wants to veer off on a tangent, I have to follow her, keep her straight, and turn the tangent into an exercise. In the process I discovered that she may try to zap me on the tape gate, but she won't run into a wall and she will listen to input before she crashes. This was useful.
Teacher noted that she's not forward enough, and once she stops tiptoeing along, she'll be able to balance better. I agree with that and will work on making it happen.
Altogether a quite satisfactory lesson in managing the pea-green horse in drunken-stagger phase. Camilla thought so, too. I had to peel her off like velcro afterwards, even with the lure of hay in the turnout.
Tomorrow The Wonder Shoer will be bringing![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
casacorona's Surprise over for Teacher to torture this week. And I must get the house ready for guests. Tuesday must finish getting ready. TL arrives Tuesday night, but Teacher will take care of that. Wednesday morning I'll get up early and throw hay at horses and then go over to watch Teacher ride keed. We should get video and photos at least for some of the festivities.
I'm hoping to ride Capria for the first lesson--to get sorted out--and then ride da Pook. His Boa Boots arrived Friday; unfortunately they were too small. He needs a size 2. (For comparison, my bud's 16.2hh eventer takes a size 2.) The 1's barely came up over his coronet bands and barely met across the front, and that's with his toes on a short and very recent trim. I guess he's not really as little as I keep thinking he is. (It's Pandora's fault. Icon says it all. That's the Beeg Girl and the Studmuffin side by side.)
Anyway, I called KV Vet and they are 2-daying a new set tomorrow, should be here Wednesday, Yog willin' and the Greeks don't rise. They are quite lovely things, running shoes for horses, and very easy to get on and off. Even the too-small ones weren't a challenge to remove.
Yesterday I saddled him up for in-hand work (valiantly resisting the temptation to sit on him--I don't want do ANYthing that will mess up his feet, not after 6 months of waiting for them to grow out) and he was thrilled. Saddle still fits. Horse still likes it. We noodled around the yard and driveway; interesting when he started to passage alongside the arena with a very jealous Ephiny hoo-ha-ing inside. It was rather like having my arm over a giant helium balloon with antigravity generators. (Ephiny needs to get a grip. She gets worked a couple of times a week, wore her bridle and did focus work with me on Friday. She is Not ready to be sat on yet.)
Pandora btw continues to love her new bit. It fits beautifully. Rode her in it and she actually softened and wrapped around my leg on the difficult side. (And yesterday she volunteered a gorgeous canter on the longe, with signs of serious collectability.) It will be most interesting to see how she reacts to being ridden by a Grand Prix trainer. I still say she'll win. 8)
Today was a regular lesson day, as Teacher was ill all week and couldn't come on Thursday. She was in fair to middling fettle this morning, excited about seeing her teacher again, and perfectly happy to do a lightish day here. I was a bit under the weather (nothing serious, just tired) and decided to bring out Camilla instead of Pandora. Camilla has been feeling Abused! and! Neglected! since I took her out of lessons--so much for that idea; I think for now she needs to continue as a lesson pony.
She was delighted to come away from the last of her breakfast, and all the knots and tension she's had in the past couple of weeks were just about gone. She had soft eyes and relaxed neck for her groundwork. In-hand work was more interesting; she did not want to go near the Scary Tree. I had to do two things: keep her focused strictly on me (must also do this when grooming and hanging out), and keep my hands close to her neck. Including the inside hand, which Must Not Pull Inward as it drops her on her shoulder and makes the imbalance worse.
Once we had sorted this out, I rode her for quite a while, relatively speaking. Had to watch that inside hand, deal with issues as to who gets to steer (it's 50:50), and think about keeping her shoulders in front of her hips and not letting her head and neck kink off the line of travel. For now if she wants to veer off on a tangent, I have to follow her, keep her straight, and turn the tangent into an exercise. In the process I discovered that she may try to zap me on the tape gate, but she won't run into a wall and she will listen to input before she crashes. This was useful.
Teacher noted that she's not forward enough, and once she stops tiptoeing along, she'll be able to balance better. I agree with that and will work on making it happen.
Altogether a quite satisfactory lesson in managing the pea-green horse in drunken-stagger phase. Camilla thought so, too. I had to peel her off like velcro afterwards, even with the lure of hay in the turnout.
Tomorrow The Wonder Shoer will be bringing
casacorona's Surprise over for Teacher to torture this week. And I must get the house ready for guests. Tuesday must finish getting ready. TL arrives Tuesday night, but Teacher will take care of that. Wednesday morning I'll get up early and throw hay at horses and then go over to watch Teacher ride keed. We should get video and photos at least for some of the festivities. I'm hoping to ride Capria for the first lesson--to get sorted out--and then ride da Pook. His Boa Boots arrived Friday; unfortunately they were too small. He needs a size 2. (For comparison, my bud's 16.2hh eventer takes a size 2.) The 1's barely came up over his coronet bands and barely met across the front, and that's with his toes on a short and very recent trim. I guess he's not really as little as I keep thinking he is. (It's Pandora's fault. Icon says it all. That's the Beeg Girl and the Studmuffin side by side.)
Anyway, I called KV Vet and they are 2-daying a new set tomorrow, should be here Wednesday, Yog willin' and the Greeks don't rise. They are quite lovely things, running shoes for horses, and very easy to get on and off. Even the too-small ones weren't a challenge to remove.
Yesterday I saddled him up for in-hand work (valiantly resisting the temptation to sit on him--I don't want do ANYthing that will mess up his feet, not after 6 months of waiting for them to grow out) and he was thrilled. Saddle still fits. Horse still likes it. We noodled around the yard and driveway; interesting when he started to passage alongside the arena with a very jealous Ephiny hoo-ha-ing inside. It was rather like having my arm over a giant helium balloon with antigravity generators. (Ephiny needs to get a grip. She gets worked a couple of times a week, wore her bridle and did focus work with me on Friday. She is Not ready to be sat on yet.)
Pandora btw continues to love her new bit. It fits beautifully. Rode her in it and she actually softened and wrapped around my leg on the difficult side. (And yesterday she volunteered a gorgeous canter on the longe, with signs of serious collectability.) It will be most interesting to see how she reacts to being ridden by a Grand Prix trainer. I still say she'll win. 8)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-05-21 03:59 pm (UTC)I'm dying of boredom. Quincy's off being ridden by the neighbor's son at a fun show and Lissa's still having "OMG YOU WITCH YOU TOOK MY BABY THAT I'VE MOSTLY IGNORED FOR THE LAST MONTH" hissy fits by the backyard fence. Grrr. Want to go ride.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 10:37 am (UTC)CAN'T WAIT TO HEAR ABOUT THAT ONE!!
no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 11:53 pm (UTC)