Lesson time again

This week I was off from work so it seemed like a good time to get a lesson in. It had been a while since my last one; other events and activities kept getting in the way. Bestie hasn't been ridden much recently for the same reason. I had a hockey tournament this past weekend, so I rode Friday, but then didn't ride again until Tuesday, right before my Wednesday lesson.

When all was said and done, I ended up being on her for about an hour and ten minutes ... slightly (!) more than the half hour originally scheduled. We trotted a bit at the outset, then Caitlin set up some markers to follow for patterns. But we started doing turns on the forehand and turns on the haunches and never got back to the patterns.

After about 40 minutes of mostly unsuccessful attempts at these turns, I called it quits, feeling like my head was going to explode. For some reason, none of the aids necessary for either movement were intuitive to me, and flip-flopping from practicing forehand to practicing haunches over and over just got them all jumbled in my head. And if they were jumbled in my head, I can only imagine what Bestie was thinking ... most likely, something along the lines of "what the heck is she asking me??"

I used to do turns on the haunches with Dude, and I was remembering it as a fairly simple maneuver.  I finally told Caitlin I just needed to take a break and read about it at home to get it straight in my head. But then, to complicate things, one article I read online said that turning on the forehand is a waste of time; that generally riders are trying to get horses OFF their forehand, so why waste time teaching them to turn on it? Or maybe that uncomplicates things, giving me an excuse to be DONE with forehand turns. :)

The bottom line is that I need to get the how-to's straight in my head before I get back on Bestie and make her crazy with my fumbling.

Do I need the $150 saddle pad?

Julie at the barn asked me about my saddle a few weeks ago as she is in the market for a Western saddle. Her question led me to realize that I've now had the saddle four years (where did the time go??), and the saddle pad for the same amount of time. No complaints with the saddle; I love it. But the saddle pad is another story.

When I originally bought the pad, I selected that particular one because I couldn't find anything else in the stores in our area, the print went well with the saddle, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money since I wasn't really convinced that I'd be riding a lot. I believe I paid about $35 for the pad. It's nothing great, just a typical Western looking pad with a woven print top and faux fleece bottom with some sort of padding in between.

Now that I'm riding more, and another person is also riding Bestie, I am not liking the pad. In fact, it's gotten to the point where I feel kind of irritated whenever I look at it. Why? A) The fleece is fake - not breathable at all and it has gotten sort of crusty feeling in spots. B) The pad is quilted, so it has flat spots and poofy spots, and the fill seems to be redistributing oddly, all of which I wouldn't imagine would be comfortable to Ms. Bestie. C) It is 32 x 32 inches, and while she is indeed short-backed, I think a slightly bigger pad would hold its place more securely under the saddle.

So I've been poking around the internet for weeks looking for a pad. I want wool. Real wool. I want it to have a snappy pattern that makes me happy when I look at it. It needs to be sized something like 33 x 33 or 33 x 34. I want wool fleece, real wool fleece, on the bottom. All those tacky bottomed pads kind of give me the willies. And it can't weigh too much. I've seen some pad descriptions proudly proclaiming a weight of 5 pounds or heavier, and that just seems like too much for my dainty mare.

Which brings me back to the $150 pad. It meets all of my criteria. Every single one of them. But I'm hung up on the price. It just seems like a lot of money to pay for a pad. But it IS the only one I've found where I've been able to say "check, check, check" as I run through my criteria. And the construction does seem more equine back-friendly, hopefully hedging against future chiropractic expenses. And presumably a $150 pad is of great quality and will be around forever. I think I'm talking myself into taking the plunge.

Perfect

This is what Tuesday looked like in northern Vermont ...

... so, needless to say, I was itching to head to the barn after work and ride Bestie. All through the afternoon hours, I thought about it with anticipation. Got to the barn, saddled her up, and off we went. It wasn't a long ride, or a ride where we perfected something that had been a challenge. But it was a great ride. Really fun. Maybe Bestie was pleased about the beautiful day, too. Maybe she fed off my happiness and feeling of relaxation. In any case, it felt like we were both "walking on sunshine."

I thought back to Tuesday afternoon at my yoga class last night. Our teacher was talking about meditation, and how it may allow you to have these insights that flash at a moment's notice. She described a recent instance where this had happened to her, and how it was a perfect moment. That's how I felt on Tuesday. Perfect. And I'm going to try to just accept it and be grateful and not be too greedy for such moments. I'm sure there will be more.

Horse Dad

That's my husband on the right, with his mom and older brother. I'm guessing he was maybe about two years old. He sent me the photo in an email with the subject line "my first horse." When I opened the message, the only words were, "guess I never found another one so nice." I'd venture to say that's probably a true statement, given his horsey experiences. That faintly alarmed look on his little face might be due to the fact that he was having some premonition of what the future would bring: a succession of horsey misadventures.

These have included going on a trail ride with a raging fever rather than telling his mom he was sick and missing the ride; going on a trail ride -with pneumonia- to celebrate one of our wedding anniversaries (he actually didn't know he had pneumonia, he just felt really really bad and rode anyway); suffering a torn Achilles while hanging from a horse that took off with him in the process of getting into the saddle (on a multi-day trail ride to celebrate another anniversary); and being on the receiving end of a sound kick to the thigh as an innocent bystander near two ponies who went from nosing each other to expressing their dissatisfaction at each other's proximity by Kicking Out. Ow.

Given all this, I can't really blame him for not exactly embracing the horse experience. But he has ridden Dude a couple times with no ill effects, and when the kids were showing he could be counted on to hold the reins when one of them needed to eat lunch or run to the bathroom, or to give a leg up when mounting blocks were MIA. He might have done all this with the same slightly unsettled, perplexed "what's this all about??" expression captured above, but he did it. Thanks, Horse Dad. :)

An A+ view of a lovely fall afternoon

Today started off very rainy, but by the time I got to the barn in the late afternoon the sun was starting to peek through. After the rain the emerging fall colors seemed to come out a bit more on the trees. The horses had gone outside despite the weather and were muddy and happy. I lunged Bestie in the indoor arena to check her out; Caitlin said that she had been a little ouchy on Monday after the farrier's visit, but she seemed fine. Just dozy, trotting around with her eyes half closed and her lower lip hanging, but waking up enough each time she passed by the open door to swing her head around and look for any activity outdoors. 

Why a horse says "no" - a checklist for riders

I receive the Holistic Horse email newsletter, and I love that the topics covered seem to coincide fairly frequently with something I've been wondering about or dealing with. This happened recently - as I've been learning to work around Bestie's pretty emphatic "no's," this week's newsletter contained a link to Kim Baker's Reasons for Resistance. Pain, fear, confusion and lack of respect - seems like a fairly straightforward checklist to keep in mind. And short - I like that - easy to remember when dealing with a horsey "no way."

Steps forward, steps back, steps forward

I'm really enjoying my lessons on Bestie. We've been working on figures like serpentines and figure eights to give her and me something to think about, and also to give her a smaller area to work in so she doesn't get so crazy fast. Although, as I said to Caitlin today, thanks to the lessons, I feel less panicked when she does speed up because I have "tools" to work with in these situations, whereas before I just felt a rising sense of panic and usually dragged on her to get her back to a walk.

We seemed to be clicking along, so I got a little overconfident and decided to ride out with Katie on Dude to the outdoor ring. I hadn't ridden Bestie in about four days, but I thought she might have been ridden by a girl who is going to work with her a couple times a week. Well, turned out she hadn't been ridden since I'd gotten on her, and she was a total pill once we got to the outdoor ring. Very fast, very "up," and no fun at all. She had one little fit early on, then calmed down and we returned to walking around the ring (no way was I going to attempt a trot).

Once we decided to head back to the barn, she exited the ring fine, but started having a major fit in the field, backing and spinning and jumping around. They were haying in that field, and she had walked by the tractor fine on the way out. But on the way back, it was like she was just using it as an excuse to throw a temper tantrum. I thought I was going to pop off a couple times, but managed to stay on and finally got her to stand. At that point I decided to err on the side of caution and I jumped off.

Dude and Katie walked on ahead, and I led Bestie back to the barn. She was spinning around me, so I kept making her stop, asking her to back up a few steps, then walking forward again. It took forever to get back, but I kept stopping and getting her to back up every few yards until she calmed down and walked more slowly. I put her on the lunge line once we got back for a few minutes with some transitions to make her work and burn off some steam.

I've ridden twice since that time, and she's been good. Today we doubleteamed her on Operation Get Bestie to the Outdoor Ring :). I rode for a bit, then directed her out to the field as Caitlin walked alongside. She tried a few times to spin, but Caitlin told me to rein her the opposite way and be firm about it, and Bestie gave in. After we got past the paddocks, she walked out to the ring, but she certainly wasn't relaxed. We walked around the ring a bit, and she slowly relaxed, although once we got to the gate she tightened up. I kept her in there, walking circles around the jumps a few more times, before we headed back. Pretty uneventful, all in all. Caitlin suggested doing that - striving for a relaxed walk - a few more times before attempting to trot out there. I'm not sure what this is all about ... she used to walk out fine. Never a dull moment!