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.
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