Best Ride Ever on Dawn! and Thoughts on Tracking Up

I've been working with Dawn now for about three and one half years, since my younger daughter left for college.  Dawn has been in our family now for 11 years, since she was four years old, but for most of that time my younger daughter was one who rode her.  Dawn was very much the horse I didn't want to have - she was at the limit of my abilities to handle and deal with - she's very forward and has been nervous and reactive.  But she wasn't going anywhere - she's a forever horse - so I just did what I had to do.  My riding has evolved a lot in the past three years - I've learned a lot.  And after my very bad fall off Pie in the summer of 2011, I had to overcome a lot of fear and uncertainly and step up for my horses in a big way.  The work I did with Heather and Mark in the spring and summer of 2012 made a huge difference - my understanding of how to ride effectively has really grown and I'm now able to actually do a lot of it, not just think about it.

Dawn has been a big part of my growth in horsemanship - I had to improve to be able to ride her effectively.  Today was a big milestone - we had our best ride, ever, hands down.  Nothing big happened, but I put into place my pre-ride checklist described in the last post, and Dawn just stepped up in response.  It was extremely cold - 27F with a wind chill of 21F when I was riding - and the arena doors were open.  Dawn was very alert and forward, and had had a day off, but she really connected with me while I was doing my (and her) warmup.

I'm finding the small circles exercise we've been doing very helpful.  When horses bend, they really don't bend much if at all in the ribcage - the way the ribs attach to the spine prevents this - the bend is really in the head and neck, the shoulders in front of the ribcage, and the hindquarters behind the last rib.  And it's all about the feet, and where they're stepping in relationship to the body and to the other feet.  I've found the small circles exercise to be a great check on lots of things - relaxation, how well I'm riding/directing the hind feet, straightness (paradoxically - more on that below) and softness.

When I ride the small circles exercise, what I'm doing is asking the horse to walk the perimeter of a small circle, with a uniform bend and with the hind feet tracking up to the front feet - no hindquarters in or out and no overbend in any part of the body - such as overbending the neck to the inside so the shoulder pops out.  And the objective is to do this with softness - no pulling on the reins, just soft contact, or driving with the seat or legs.  It's harder than it seems to do this properly, but if you can, you've got the key to straightness - it has to do with what the hind legs are doing.  If you look at most horses going down the rail, they're not straight (even if they're not competing in western pleasure) - since horse are narrower in the shoulders than in the hindquarters, the hindquarters tend to track slightly to the inside since that places the outside of the horse's body equidistant to the rail.

Dawn and I did a good bit of this at the walk today, and then at the trot, and I think it was the foundation of how wonderfully she relaxed and softened at all gaits today.  We ended with our best canter work ever - she stayed soft, round and forward on both leads and was able to carry herself in a large circle really well.  It was just delightful, and I kept coming back to my relaxation and breathing, and feeling/thinking the rhythm, as a way to keep her cantering well.  She was outstanding!

Red and Pie were no slouches either today, and my rides on them were also excellent.  Once again, I tried to do my own proper warmup, and we also did the small circles exercises.  Red tends to be a "gumby horse" and overflex in the neck.  Pie tends to "motorboat" - where his front end rotates around his hind end - rather than track up, particularly to the right.  If the horse is doing the exercise well, the hind feet will track the line of the front feet exactly - it may even look like the horse has only two feet if the arena has been freshly dragged.  If you see two separate lines for front and back feet, the horse isn't tracking up.

Red did pretty well with this at the walk in both directions.  With him the key to not overbending in the neck is to make sure he's not overflexed in the neck, and keeping the forward.  We had a very good session - we didn't trot small circles since he's still rehabbing from his injury - where his trot work was ultimately relaxed while still forward.

Pie did very, very well too.  He struggled with the small circles at first, particular to the right, where he would tend to motorboat and lose the hind end, or else pop his shoulder out and overbend.  After he got it pretty well at the walk, we did trot work in small circles - alternating with forward straight line trotting to give him a break - and when small trot circles weren't working well, we went back again to walk (if you haven't got it at walk, you won't have it at higher gaits), and then successfully back to trot in a slightly larger circle, which was what he was comfortable with.  Success!

I told all three horses how fine they were - I think they get it - they all looked pretty pleased with themselves.

And big news - Pie has completely his 30 days of full dose doxycycline for Lyme disease.  He appears to have made a full recovery - his muscle soreness and crabbiness, as well as his strange dull/extreme spook/dull demeanor, have disappeared, and he's a sweet, athlethic, young (sometimes looky but no big spooks) horse - the horse I bought back in the winter of 2010-11.

It was a very good day with horses.

Pre-Ride Checklist

Whenever I ride one of my horses, we do a good long bit of walking first.  I'm looking for relaxation and forward, both, and usually start with a loose rein or very light contact, asking the horse to stretch down. We may do some large circles or big loop serpentines as we walk.

But I also try to do/feel certain things myself as we walk around, as how the horse is going to go will come from me, and how I'm going.  It's the combination of entering/blending/directing, leading to feel and connection, that I'm looking for in myself.

I start with my own relaxation and forward.  Relaxation, for me, starts with neutral posture - for me keeping my eyes and chin up (no looking at the horse's head) and shoulders open (but not forced back - that would be a brace) makes a big difference.  I try to maintain this posture throughout our work - no leaning forwards or back. Next is relaxation in my body, allowing my seat and back to move with (never drive) the horse, and letting my legs drape softly (never push or drive).  I do a body scan to check for any points of tension, and breathe into them and then breathe out and let them go.  Breathing - it's so fundamental.  As we walk around, I breathe in relaxed rhythm with the horse's footfalls, and try to breathe "into" the horse.

Once we're at that point, I'm starting to be "in" the horse, and blending and feel can begin to happen.  If it's working, I can start using my energy, and the feel of the reins and my seat and thought to direct the horse, feeling the hind legs - we start doing some more challenging figure work at the walk, such as small circles with a nice bend, forward and tracking up with hinds following fronts, and I ask for a bit more softness.  I start asking the horse to bring the energy up - a more vigorous, long-strided walk - and down - a shorter stride - using the feel of the rhythm and my breathing.

Only then do we move on to more work at trot and canter.  I find if I take the time to center myself, mentally and physically, I'm much more "with" and "in" the horse, and feel is possible.  Now this is the ideal - sometimes I just don't get there in myself, or get distracted and off-course, and that shows up in how the horse works.  But since I'm trying to make these things a regular practice, and try to keep coming back to them, particularly if we're struggling with something, I find they really do work.

Must go ride . . .

Freezing Day with the Chiropractor

It was unusually warm for two days - temperatures in the 60sF - but last night the temperature dropped abruptly and today we're in the mid-30sF with a howling wind - brrr!

Today we had the chiropractor - all three horses were worked on.  I tried to take some pictures, but the low light mostly defeated me.  But here are a couple showing how much Dawn (the bay in the first three pictures) and Pie (the chestnut in the last picture) enjoyed their sessions:

I didn't get any photos of Red - I had to hold him as he was fidgety and nervous.  He did need some work on his hindquarters, but otherwise was in good shape.  Dawn and Pie both needed quite a bit of work.  Both were very demonstrative, both when things were sore and also when they got good releases - at the end Pie was lolling his tongue and giving huge yawns.  I've found that good chiro work makes a huge difference to how my horses feel, and how they're able to go for me.

Red Plays Pick-Up-Sticks

Some of these photos are a bit blurry - taken with a cell phone by someone else at the barn - they show Red playing pick-up-sticks.  I've always know he was smart . . .

Here he is, with a large piece of split rail fence - there's an old one, non-essential - along the edge of the geldings' pasture - he's looking pretty pleased with himself - love the ears!:

I love the contrast between little Red and the big warmblood he's offering the rail to:

He's got a firm grip on things, and seems to have figured out the center of gravity of the rail as well:

Just have to love such a smart, playful, horse - he's Mr. Personality Plus!

Back to Basics

Whenever things aren't going quite right with a horse, it's a good idea to look to the basics - there's something there that needs to be fixed.  Recently, my rides with Dawn have involved a lot of bracing on her part, particularly at the canter, or at the trot after she's cantered.  And the result of the bracing is that Dawn isn't able to sustain the canter, particularly on the right lead - she flattens out and falls back to trot.  The solution, as it usually is, is softness.  And for Dawn to be soft, I have to be soft.  Today, we worked at first on walk and trot, with my goal being to maintain a very light contact and to encourage her to stretch down - we needed to have relaxation first - for Dawn this is fundamental - she's always very forward, but I need to be sure relaxation - mental and physical - is there first, and I have to offer it to Dawn for her to be able to offer it back to me.  At the canter, once trot was relaxed (but still very forward), I tried to maintain a very soft contact and just let her move - she was very forward - but I try to maintain the thought that I can ride as fast as the horse can move.  She did very well with this, and was able to hold the canter on both leads (with no unrequested lead changes) for several laps of the arena at a time.  It was very, very good, and I told her so.

Red and I had a good ride in the afternoon.  When we started out, he did some head shaking and one little buck - I had the back cinch a bit too tight (!), so I got off and loosened it, and after that things were fine. His trot work was very good, and we even tried one length of the arena in left lead canter - his easier lead.  He worked hard and I was very pleased with him.  He was tired when we were done, but his rehab is progressing very well.

Pie and I also had a nice ride.  At the canter, he did invert his neck quite a bit, although he did have more moments of softness as we worked.  He had a new bite mark on the right side of his neck that may have been sore.  All three of my horses are getting some chiro work on Monday, which I expect they will all enjoy.

If I offer softness to my horses, I will get it back in return.

Red and Pie Cope (with Different Things)

Red and Pie both got to employ their coping skills yesterday, and both did very well.  It was a cold, windy and rainy day, so all the arena doors were closed - this was new for both of them.  While I was riding Red, we were completely alone in the arena, except for people coming and going, knocking on and then opening and closing either the big overhead doors or the doors to the outside.  Red found this all a bit alarming, particularly when he could hear people and horses moving around outside the now closed outside doors.  And he was by himself - he's happiest when there are other horses in the arena - but he coped with that as well.  His eyes were big, and there was some snorting, but he went right to work and we got in a very good session, with lots of trotting.  He did this for me despite the fact he was still nervous - we had repeated episodes of pooping. Every day we work I try to work him up to the point of fatigue but not past it.  The quality of his gaits tells me how we're doing - as he tires, his trot looses some of its impulsion.  I told him what a fine Red horse he was.

Then Pie had the exact opposite circumstances to cope with - an extremely crowed ring with lessons going on and horses jumping.  He also had to deal with the doors opening and closing, and did very well with that.  He was less worried than Red had been, and we had an excellent walk/trot/canter ride, with lots of obstacle/horse avoidance.  He cantered well in company and was able to navigate a number of pretty tight turns to avoid other horses.  I was delighted with him, too, and told him so.

I'm proud of my boys - they've both come a long ways and just keep getting better.

Pie Perfects the Canter, and Posture Isn't Softness

I had three good rides today - it was cool - temps in the mid 40sF and cloudy.

Dawn and I had a ride where we struggled a bit with softness.  Dawn is one of those horses who will give in the upper part of her neck, while bracing with the rest of her neck - you see a lot of horses who do this - it has a characteristic look, where there is a curve behind the poll and then the neck is straight - and braced - behind that.  Dawn is also built somewhat downhill, which makes self-carriage more challenging for her.  There were also some distractions - a horse that was galloping around in turnout and screaming - that made things more challenging.

What I was getting with Dawn today was posture - the position of her head and neck and body - round, with top line longer and and core engaged - but without mental softness.  She was still tense mentally, particularly after we did any shortening work - she seemed to feel constrained, which made her rev up.  Despite her physical appearance of softness, from the inside she wasn't soft.  I'm not getting that lovely lifting feeling from her right now that indicates true softness.  Posture isn't softness - softness comes from the inside of the horse, and while posture is part of the picture, it isn't the whole thing by any means.

It may be that Dawn, due to her downhill build and relatively straight shoulder, just can't carry the posture that true softness tends to produce.  I need to work with her on a longer, lower carriage that will allow her to move to the best of her physical ability, without her feeling mentally constrained.  The question is, can she do any shortening work or collection, without loosing the feeling of softness - I don't know yet but we'll figure it out together.

Red did a lot of very nice trot work today, with even better concentration - he came right back to me whenever he was distracted.  He's now able to cope with my carrying a dressage whip without being worried, which is very good.  His trot is improving, and he did quite a bit of work today.  Tomorrow, if he's still feeling good, we may essay a bit of canter . . .

Pie worked today on perfecting his canter work - it's coming together very rapidly.  After our very good session yesterday, today was even better.  Pie was able to carry his canter around the ring for a number of laps in each direction, and his softness was even better - instead of a number of strides of soft canter, we had a number of laps of continuous softness.  There is now no appreciable difference between his canter on right and left leads - his right lead used to be more difficult but that is no longer so.  He was also able to carry himself around the corners with ease, and whenever the softness was lost he came right back to it.

I'd call that a good day with horses! (and be sure to vote . . . )