Back to Basics: Going Round 101

Thursday 2/7 - Lesson with Kari - Magnum was a terror, nothing worse than he was for the start of the week but not willing to go round; he wanted to piaffe if forced to stand or walk round and was then asked to go forward. Overall frame was too low, he was able to pull me forward but I couldn't get him into anything higher. Lost patience with him towards the end and rode in side reins, he was still resistant and did not want to go forward. Morning ride.

Friday 2/8 Bruce rode him - back to round Magnum, sound and forward. Bruce said he felt tight in his back, possibly from bracing against the gadgets he's been living in for the past few months. Possibly time to have a chiropractor look at him. Morning ride

Saturday 2/9 Magnum was great in a very busy weekend arena - round and rideable although still heavy, after the past few weeks it was lovely to be able to ride him at all. Midmorning ride.

Sunday 2/10 Lesson with Bruce - Bruce warmed him up and finished on him. I need to stop pulling and holding, my hands have gotten very static. I was more successful to the left than to the right, eventually getting him very soft and round at the trot and had trouble getting an upward transition from such a light trot. Morning ride.

Monday 2/11 Magnum did not want to participate in a good ride. However, we were down at the scary end of the arena with jumps. We cantered round on a 10m and called it a day. Afternoon ride.

Tuesday 2/12 No ride - stretched in the AM

Wednesday 2/13 Magnum was magical tonight, busy arena and riding next to rails. He was extremely light in the bridle, both reins were slack and almost in an LDR position at times. Very conscious of keeping my leg loose - I felt like I was Mugwump with air between my leg and my horse. I also dropped my stirrups almost back to where they were before FL shortened them 7 holes, it's going to take a few more rides before I get them all the way back down. I think I ride with a lighter leg in Bruce's saddle so when I do use my leg it's more effective; my saddle doesn't help as much since it's not built out. I also only took a hold of my left rein a few times and made sure to give my right rein forward until it draped in an effort to keep it playful and not snatch at his mouth or get into a steady hold. We did halfpass trot and canter and a few changes across the diagonal. Also did a few walk to canter's, which felt lazy but I was hesitant to push as him since he was so nice to me, his canter/walks were perfect - I think I found the open up feeling to sink into my downwards. Evening ride. 30 degrees.

Meeting Real Parelli's and Double Bridles

Magnum's Status: Making marks on the wall until he is back at the Otterbarn. 14 days and counting..

My Status: Booked Dad's plane ticket so he can come drive home with me. 

GFF: As it turns out most Germans listen to music in english, at least the college/high school kids. I'm getting a german music education and then we rock out to Backstreet Boys or K$sha. GG says it is very funny to hear all the germans who don't speak english mispronouncing the words and those who have no idea what they're saying singing along. Now I'm self-conscious about my love for spanish pop - must avoid it when I'm around anyone who can actually speak spanish. Also, Canada Girl arrived on Friday, she comes from hunter land so I'm not entirely sure why she wants to spend 4 months on a dressage farm. I'm not sure she knows either.. She rode Mags for a few minutes on Sunday and he wasn't entirely amused. 

In the last week I've ridden the grand prix horse a few more times, shown him twice more to potential buyers since TGT is still sick, met Linda Parelli and today had a real lesson for the first time in a week (a real lesson means you get the arena to yourself and the headset goes on for some quality one on one time). 

I'm amazed at the people who have shown up to try out the grand prix horse. They're either extremely handsy on a very soft horse, or they have hardly any concept of going round and forward. Many of his potential buyers have been reriders who want a school master to learn on. I would love to know what they do in their day jobs to be able to afford a grand prix schoolmaster to learn to sit a trot on. 

I'm not sure if I feel let down or justified after meeting Linda Parelli. She didn't do anything amazing with this troubled horse; I really didn't hear anything earth shattering but I also didn't hear anything I wildly disagreed with - the horse was hot, so when he wanted to run in the round pen she made him run, gave him the chance to slow down, and when he didn't take it she drove him even faster.. after five minutes he was dying for the slow work and ready to participate. The trainers here seemed so awestruck by her and they apparently see her on a semi-regular basis. Then she rode the same horse, her dressage was unimpressive, but then again, she wasn't really working the horse on his PSG work, but rather trying to get him out of his hot state of mind. She made him walk bent towards the outside wall until he settled down a shoulder-out, then let him walk straight. At faster gaits she said to 'put him in a hula hoop', basically riding a small shape without ever trying to slow him down and urging him to go fast on it until he decided trying to speed up wasn't as fun as it was before. The same for when he went crooked, she made him go extremely lateral rather then straightening him. I don't understand why the trainers here were so impressed.. it got quick results and it worked, but it was all very basic - all things that they do anyhow.. 

We were talking about spooking with her after she rode - she talked about desensitizing sound sensitive horses like the grand prix horse by just generally being loud. Then, and this was the main thing I disagreed with, she talked about sight sensitive horses - which I was interested in since Magnum still dirty stops phantom fences every five laps. She said we should agree with them, if they want to spook at something we should push them even further away from it until they want to know what it is that they've decided is frightening and want to stop and look at it and play the 'touch game'. 

I think the Parelli's are genius at advertising, I admire the fact that they have so many followers who will pay five times more for a parelli stick than a lunge whip. I don't understand how these highly educated riders think what they're saying is so impressive. When she was talking about how to stop a rearer she said to always take the soft side, or the side to which they are already bending - don't get in a fight and try to straighten them from their harder rein which encourages them to rear. Even though TGT had just been telling me to use the soft side to my advantage on Magnum the day before she acted entranced by this lecture on the EXACT SAME THING for a problem horse. I've decided I'm approximately nine times more likely to believe someone with a foreign accent then someone from middle america - but even the fancy, accented terms Parelli stamps on everything wasn't enough to get me to think this was new information! 

Also, I think it's interesting how closely Walter Zettl works with the Parelli's now - and has since around 2007 if I'm looking at the timeline correctly. Maybe this is why his later books are so different then his original. The CPL says she trained with Walter Zettl for years before he was with Parelli, I assume that is at least partially why she is such a Parelli addict now. She also told me that classically trained horses were the worst to ride once.. 

In my lesson today I put the double bridle on Magnum for the first time ever - I wish I'd taken a picture of what I put on him, the crown had 3/4 of an inch of padding and was almost 3 inches wide, it didn't have a throat latch and instead had a version of a figure eight which softened the pressure points on his face. I do have a picture of the bits because I looked at it the other day and thought the sliding room on the curb was interesting.  These guys also pad all their curb chains - no metal directly on the horses chin. I was also told when I finished that the bridle was about $600 in Germany and the style is apparently gaining popularity there, I don't think I would have been willing to use it if I knew how much money I was piling on Magnum's head. I do mean piling, this thing weighed so much more than a normal bridle that I think the weight alone was encouragement for Magnum to keep him head from going skyward. 

I've always had the idea in my mind that the double bridle would be magical on Magnum - not so much, he was well behaved but he could have been deeper and sharper. TGT was really happy with him and keeps commenting on how different he is since our first ride here. I think Magnum has backslid personally, he's more relaxed but he's not working very hard most of the time.  I'm more relaxed because I can rely on the martingale to keep him round and I'm getting used to riding many of their relaxed horses in martingales which has let me relax; they've also given me several tools to keep from making myself a mirror of his tension. However, today in the double made it very obvious how lazy I am without the martingale as a crutch, it's like a suddenly lack the ability to shake him down or really play with his mouth. He doesn't foam in the martingale because I don't have to move the bit - and he didn't foam in the double because I was failing to move the bit when I needed to. 

I think Magnum had backslid because he won't work very deep ever, even in the martingale. I think we lack power overall, although we did have one wonderful canter lengthening today that TGT was thrilled with and so was I, it was one of the few movements in the past weeks that I would have been happy with at a show. I do think our lateral work is greatly improved, but I also know it's because I can concentrate on the sideways and forget about his head because he's held down with the martingale most days. He had been getting extremely offended when we do actually make him work and is making progress on his airtime when he bucks to get out of work. TGT just has me GO when he bucks and hold him round until he's stretching over his back again. Bucking does seem to release him over his loin area and he's always willing to stretch a bit more afterwards, but I don't like that he's going to it so often - maybe it's time to call the chiropractor and saddle fitter. TGT keeps saying she'll get on him the next ride and see what we're dealing with, but then we always run out of time. Today we worked quite a bit on half pass and a few flyings again - he allows me to straighten him in the double and doesn't use that as his cue to switch like he does in just the snaffle. Our half pass is almost as easy to school now as a leg yield and I'm consistently getting him to lead with his shoulders. We're also schooling much more lateral work in the walk as our warmup; I'm encouraged by the mirrors and wish we had some at the Otterbarn. Actually being able to see him riding on three tracks and cross over cleanly (or not so cleanly), prompts me to do more than ride him in the endless circle that I often get in a stuck on with him. 

Tacky Tack

And this is just a random Florida frog that made me happy.

And this is the barn cat that follows us back to the house after night check every day. His name is Garfield and he gives high fives on command. 

Riding for Clients

Magnum's Status: Back to stomping at flies

My Status: Tank tops and flip flops

GFF: GG is now going to open a frozen yogurt shop in Germany and strike it rich

We rode horses for a client all day today, I rode Heartthrob, who I haven't sat on since my second day here. It was also the first time he's been ridden in 10 days since this flu began and he still wasn't 100%. I wish any of the trainers had been out there and not just the BO, but TGT is still sick, CPL is always absent lately and the last trainer is still on vacation. I definitely didn't do him justice, but I felt mildly better after the trainer who came down to check him out couldn't get him remotely round. This is when I want to shake people about riding them in draw reins and runnings all the time - he's good in the draw reins, if slightly hard to bend, but without them he was extremely hard to get round, almost Magnumesque but less reactive to the leg. The client was telling us about a horse he'd tried out the day before that was trained to PSG but completely ruined with draw reins, the BO immediately starting going on about the downsides of draw reins as well... no mention of the fact that all of these horses getting ridden in gadgets everyday. I also got to ride the grand prix horse again and he was wonderful - he made me look like I knew what I was doing and did perfect canter pirouettes and piaffe, the trainer fired him up and still got everything but it was much tighter but also much more elevated and fancier. The client was walking through the barns asking about horses and he asked what the price was on Magnum. Not for sale, but thanks for making me happy! He said he'd be back to look again when the horses haven't all had 10 days off, but I don't think we'll see him anytime soon - these horses are too much effort once the gadgets come off - he didn't have great rides on any of them. Then GG and I got to ride two more FEI horses just to get them out and work today, we videoed a bit and did party tricks.

In my lesson with TGT she told me that when Magnum spooks I need to bend him hard to the inside, soften WAYYY forward with my outside rein and pat him with my outside hand in front of his withers. It actually kind of works for things we are spooking at outside the arena, still no solution in side for the refusals at imaginary beings on the ground in front of us. 

I'm also getting really good at wrapping feet, I'm soaking and poulticing four a day now. These horses abscess like crazy here for some reason. 

This is why I would not put this in my stalls for the top half of the walls. I originally liked the easy airflow and the fact that it's probably fairly cheap - but half the time when we throw blankets on one of the belly straps catches in it, generally high enough that you have to climb to undo it. So I'm for vertical bars in my future dream barn and not any sort of wire mesh. 

                                             

Tacky Tack of the Day

This is the TGT's favorite saddle pad - I send it to the bottom of the stack whenever it appears. 

In addition to tacky tack, I uncensored my car yesterday, this is what it did look like - Magnum graciously shared some of his duct tape with me. I had to uncensor it because I heard someone on the farm say something extra religious.

Tacky Tack and Working Pirouettes

Magnum's Status: Taking a break today to lounge in the 73 degree sunshine that we came here for

My Status: Breaking the rules and sitting a McDonalds to post this since we've had no internet on the farm for two days

GFF: GG says she's chilly instead of chillin'

Sunday, I rode the grand prix horse again and did working canter pirouettes and a bit of piaffe with the TGT's help, it was lovely and elevated - I was sad we weren't facing the mirros so I could see it. 

I was surprise attacked into putting a martingale on Mags for my lesson. We actually had a very productive ride though, it was much more my style in the sense that we stopped worrying about the horse's emotional state and just rode what was there, as compared to riding with CPL. I was working to over bend him to the inside going fast, she was always telling me to GO, tap him up and make my circles bigger with much more support on my inside leg at the girth and stretched down to keep him from falling in. We focused quite a lot on letting go of the inside rein and feeling the outside rein, towards the end he was holding his frame for several strides with a giving inside hand, which was a nice feeling, but he definitely knew the martingale was there and set quite short. I am still not a martingale fan, I think it is a crutch and will not help me once we get into the show ring - he also knew his game was up as soon as it was on, which to me means he knows it's back on once it's gone. 

We rode with it again Monday for our lesson, this time we went quite slow. TGT and I talked a lot about connection and feeling, that the connection needs to be constant and to wait him out rather than immediately moving the bit. I felt like this was giving him free rein to lay on my hands but TGT said to bend him when he leans into the softer rein (almost always left) and vibrate the harder rein without losing the consistent feel. The only time I actually gave up on the consistency was when he really leaned and then I shook my hand briefly to catch his attention again. The bend is supposed to keep the weight even between my hands and the vibration redistributes the weight evenly as I bring him back to center. We did this all at a slow place, dropped stirrups and slow trot to work him lower, it was quite useful for finding my seat bones as I never (purposely) drop my stirrups on Mags. We also did three flying changes today, the final one was our nicest, the others got quite tense and crooked as I tried to micromanage him rather than just relaxing him down. Once she told me to 'just ride', and sit deep on my seat bones they became much smoother. 

We also spoke quite a bit about my body position, which is where I see the real use of the martingale, more for my sake than Magnum's since it allows me to focus on things beyond his head and neck. TGT want my arms 'empty', or with no tension, she tells me all the time to empty my arms, even my fingers have to be loose on the reins. Another thing both trainers have had me do is to roll my shoulders so I don't take on his tensio; I like this because it softens without giving up the contact. We talk about a low outside hand; today she had me rest my outside hand on a solid point - I had it on the front edge of my half pad to ground myself and maintain the consistency while consciously giving up the inside rein. I am struggling with how straight they want me to sit up while maintaining a relaxed back - I have to think of pulling my chest up and sternum out rather than my back, otherwise I tend to get either very arched, or when TGT corrects me and tells me from the arched position to side deep and on the back of my seat bones, I will get behind the vertical and interfere with myself even more. Sitting up straight and maintaing relaxation is something I didn't realize was so difficult for me. 

Magnum is embarrassed to wear a martingale - I feel like I own a backyard hunter. 

I keep wanting to talk about blankets, but instead I wrote down lots of things I think about their feeding regimen, like the fact that it's absolutely crazy. 

Feeding these horses is the most insane thing I have experienced in horse nutrition. The hay schedule is doable, mostly because we only have to worry about it on Sundays when those workers are off. The majority of the horses get a flake of grass in the morning, a flake of peanut for lunch, than 'snack hay' or about half a flake of grass before dinner grain, then the inside horses get grass hay thrown to them before we leave the barn at night and another flake a night check around 9:30, the horses who go outside have hay waiting in the pastures. But then some get alfalfa, and some get steam hay from the homemade HayGain machine that only sort of works so you still have to hose the hay down because it's not wet enough, and some get regularly soaked hay of specified varieties, but it's not written down anywhere, so I think half the time horses are not getting what they are supposed to. The horses who get steam hay also get thrown more outside at night check, but they're the only outside horses who do. The BO says the horses must have snack hay to get their 'digestive juices flowing' before we feed them grain, I honestly think she lives a bit in the world of 20 years ago horse nutrition, but I'm happy we throw hay all the time, regardless of the oddly worded reasoning behind some of it. 

Peanut hay and grass hay on the golf cart - Magnum is now a snob and only like to eat the peanut.

 Their grain is the most complex, time consuming job in the entire barn. Each horse has to have it's grain prepped in the feed room and about 50 buckets get loaded onto the golf cart for each feeding. But none of the buckets are labeled with horses names and the list of feed isn't in order of the stalls, so you just have to place the buckets in some sort of order and PRAY that you remember whose bucket is whose when you get to the stalls. When I say buckets I mean old bottles with the tops cut off. Then, there are a million types of feed and you have to feed from the buckets of each owner, which there are four (sort of). So oats, barley, beat pulp, ultium, safe choice, preform safe, senior, other type of senior, ultium, something else sweet, alfalfa pellets, alfalfa cubes, CPL's mix and lots more that I'm forgetting about. So each horse gets a mix of two or three of these, then you start adding supplements - all of them get coconut added that smells nothing like coconut, flax, epsom salts, regular salt, MBC, vinegar, oils galore, turmeric and then about 20 different supplement containers for individual horses, many of them more salt varieties. And I felt bad that Mr. M had to have a supplement scooped out at all before we came… Then it all gets soaked in boiling hot water because horses can't eat grain dry here. Dumping the individual buckets into stalls is a complete mess because wet grain does not like to leave the bucket so it inevitably ends up all over you, which his especially nice when you don't have time to change out of breeches. Then you're done feeding, so get ready to wash the 50 buckets you just got dirty so you can make 10 more dirty to set out for horses who get night feed. And… feeding is done two hours later.. that when a fast person does it, the two times I had to do it by myself it took exponentially longer.

This is the golf cart ready to feed the outside horses - when we feed the inside it is triple stacked with buckets.

And I think I'm going to start sharing pictures of the tacky tack I have found here. I thought my pink sparkles were a bit on the wild side at the Otterbarn - these guys have Magnum feeling pretty dignified now!