West Coast Spring

I'll let you in on a little secret - I love the sort of rain we get in this part of the world. Don't get me wrong; warm, sunny days are hard to beat, but there's something to be said for a quiet west coast rainy day, particularly in the spring. It's so fresh, and the smell is amazing with all that new greenery filling the air with oxygen. I'm more than content to put on my best rain gear and head outside, even though by now I'm certain there isn't any rain wear invented that can keep me totally dry all day!

Sadly for me, no one else was feeling the love and my lesson was cancelled.

Bridget says "nope, not going out there!"

As do the barn cats 

And Ginger

Ginger's rain sheet obviously not a go for the Midge lol - I see some shopping in my future if I have any hope of keeping her clean. I have my doubts that even a smaller size in this brand won't hang below her hocks and knees - sorry Midge, looks like a career as a blanket model is unlikely! 

And...this is why the blanket was considered - a break in the weather and everyone else ventured to the pasture. Midge opted to stay behind and dig through the composted manure looking for who knows what. I suspect the black dirt I am currying off of her can only come from this place too - no mud or dirt in the fields at the moment! Piglet - I can only imagine her joy when that compost gets spread in the pasture lol.

Rolling Along

Since our last update, Midge has been out for a long trail ride, as well as a short ride to the ring with a buddy yesterday. She also had a couple of well deserved days off!

I notice we're still struggling a bit with sharing the ring. It's not dramatic or bad, but she's constantly monitoring where the other horse(s) are, and like the jumps, there's a definite pony magnet effect happening. Hopefully our clinic next weekend (in a group setting) will prove useful helping with that or at a minimum give us more miles with other horses in the arena. I'm planning to ride in the day ahead and camp out, then ride home the day after. That's a few miles for the baby pony so she'll have a pretty relaxed schedule this week. She'll have today off, then I have my regular lesson tomorrow then will give her Wed/Thurs off to charge up the batteries! Ginger may have to get called back into service lol.

Overall though, I'm still super pleased with little Midge - she's way more consistent, and these days it all feels way less green than it has been.

In other news, I have a potential job lined up in a nearby town. It would mean more big changes, but it is a good compromise - I can keep my 'real' career and come home weekends and holidays. G could visit me on his days off. To keep it horse related, the area has a couple of excellent coaches and boarding options, and coincidentally hosts the show series I was going to travel to this summer. Obviously, I'd rather stay home but I'm not getting many hours at the job I'm at. We're OK with that, but I do love being financially independent and am easily bored if I'm not working.  I think I'll be happy whichever way it works out, but if I'm honest I'd really prefer to stay home and somehow magic up some more hours delivering the mail! :)

Go Bridget Go

Just a couple of pics and a tiny video of Bridget jumping. Enjoy!

Best Lesson

Subtitle: Hard work really does pay off!

Our lesson started out on a high because Coach S passed us cantering along the side of road (we were late, oops) and had to look twice because she thought I was riding Ginger. Because "since when does Bridget have a canter like THAT?!" (Insert huge smiles)

Floaty Ginger canter video still from forever ago.

After having a quick chat with S about where we`ve been at this week (so much canter but a wipeout, excited pony loves jumping, but steering and softness a bit lacking. Also, my back hurts and I feel like I'm bracing my shoulder) we agreed flatwork was the order of the day, with some baby jumps to finish as a reward if pony behaved.

We started out with some haunches in at the walk. It`s time to increase the difficulty by asking for her to be straighter through her neck and really step under with her hinds. No issues there, so we moved on to some rollbacks (trot to halt parallel to the long side, then push the shoulders around -aka turn on the haunches towards the fence-, essentially doing a 180, then trotting out again). I know those are more of a western thing, but they`re really excellent for shoulder control, and force you to do accurate transitions in order to set yourself up right (you can`t let  your horse fall on the forehand or stop crooked or your turn will stink!) My old dressage coach used to do a similar `square`exercise, only difference I can see being squares only require 90 degree turns and come dressage approved  ;) S always has us start with exercises to `check in` on how much control we have of our four corners, and then usually builds exercises from there to address whatever she`s seeing.

Pictures are just recent randoms to break up my giant rambly post

 Since today`s `check in`showed some stiffness in Bridget`s neck to the right, we moved on to some trot spirals, in which my feel in the rollback exercise became more apparent. Pony is tipping her nose in and bracing to the right and it just generally feels yucky. S`s opinion is since this is a newish thing she might just be sore herself and/or reacting to my stiff shoulder. Rather than keep doing it `wrong`and teaching her to brace, we came back to a walk, then the halt, and simply asked her to bring her nose around and stretch correctly through her neck without leaning on me. Mission accomplished with much groaning and complaining from pony, so we respected her opinion of it being pretty hard today and left well enough alone.

We moved on to rising trot on the rail, then some leg yields at the trot from centerline to wall. As with the haunches in, I was encouraged to stop treating her like a baby and expect her to be straighter (ie correct angle, lead less with her shoulders) and stay on the bit throughout with a nice tempo. Previously, we`ve been asking properly for a few strides, then giving her a release. She knows what I`m asking, and was surprisingly balanced and game to try playing like the big horses. I was very happy with her. After a couple of lovely efforts, we upped the ante and asked for canter once we leg yielded to the wall. And boom, beautiful canter departs. Asking her to bend or be on the bit at the canter after the first few strides is still very much a work in progress, but S was super happy with the effort given, as was I. We have a canter, at last! The refinements will come. As a side note, S got a good laugh at how our impulsion magically increased as we headed towards my little jumps that were still set up in the middle, then lost enthusiasm as we passed them by. Since the ring is quite small, the effect is pretty funny and apparent, like a giant pony magnet :)

We finished up by doing the same figure eight pattern over crossrails I had set up from my last ride. We just trotted them since Bridget was excited to finally get to go over them and we more wanted to remind her they are no big deal and continue working on keeping her balanced through changes of bend and being a little less heavy in my hand. In  my baiased opinion, I think she rocked it - we had a gorgeous floaty trot and she was really pushing along with her hind end and carrying herself - the earlier stiffness was gone and my shoulder thanked her. 

I know this is a big long detailed lesson recap and you`re probably wondering what exactly gives it best lesson status. I hope you`ll understand when I say it was all in how my ride "felt". It felt like she was totally with me a lot of the time. It felt like it was effortless, now and then. It felt she was carrying herself for minutes at a time. No more being excited about a moment - there were multiple minutes! And best of all, it felt like she was committed to giving me her best, After all our struggles this winter, that's a huge and unexpected treat. I'm sure our readers have read between the lines and figured out just how tough and independent (and frustrating!) this little mare can be, so even the small successes mean a huge amount to me. To have a few breakthroughs all in the same lesson qualifies for 'best ever' status!

Progress

Now that Midge has decided cantering is a thing, with every ride she is showing huge improvements. She's finally able to canter and think about my aids all at the same time and she's getting really confident. After months of teeny baby steps, this is a huge treat!

I feel like her shape has changed substantially these past few months - she's much less the round thelwell and more the sporty Sec D, Will have to do a before and after. People have been commenting she looks like she's grown, but it's just her topline looking a little more impressive and her belly a little more toned, giving the illusion of longer legs/height.

 In an effort to be somewhat prepped for a show season, we returned to the ring today for another ride (also there is a hungry nasty cougar in the area and I'm paranoid he'll jump on us and bite me if I go on the trail alone. Irrational, but whatever - the ring is my happy place at the moment :)

Please no cougars here, thanks

I had planned on doing a bit of flatwork, but Midge warmed up so well and was so soft and responsive I kept it short so as to not bore her to death. I put my little jumps back up as a treat for her instead. We trotted them in a figure eight pattern. She's all about figuring out stuff like that so after about two reps she was trying to cut corners and take the direct route. So we had to pause for some proper 20 m circles and chill out a bit. Continuing on with her theme of being super agreeable, she immediately got the message and stopped trying to dart over at the crossrail after every turn, offering instead some of the nicest and softest 20m circles I've ridden on her. She was being really honest about staying where I put her, no bulging or falling in. As a reward, we returned to our little pattern and upped the ante by cantering out over the x. Pony was super smart about her leads, even the right one was no big deal. To keep it easy and positive for her, I asked for nice big canter circles around the jumps rather than our little figure eight and she happily obliged. At one point on a circle on her stronger side I felt her lock on to a jump and sort of offer to go there. Why not? I thought, and on the next pass I went a little wider and set her up a little more carefully and pony happily went across the diagonal and cantered her first baby crossrail. I was so pleased, particularly as she swapped leads over the fence and didn't try to rush after, thinking to continue our little figure eight pattern. I gratefully declined that offer and instead circled and let her know what a good pony she is, We ended on that excellent note :)

The obligatory posed pic

 For the record, I was thinking I'd send Midge to a pro to be started over fences once her canter was stronger. My experience jumping totals some local stuff as a teenager and 8 months of lessons last year. Obviously not a resume for starting baby ponies jumping. But I feel pretty darn comfortable right now and we have S on hand for lessons and help and riding if need be. The people around me seem to have faith in me, and I have faith in the pony, so for now she stays home and we remain in it together :)

Modelling the world's cheapest bridle :)

I do realize this has turned into Bridget's blog lately. Ms Ginger is doing just fine and enjoying the spring weather and pasture, along with her daily grooming. She also trotted out sound yesterday!  Now to find the motivation to get her going again for the eleventy billionth time. As you can see, she's looking for something to do :)

Shoulders Back, Look Ahead

 Our lesson is postponed to Tuesday, since the ever cool S is teaching a fire fighting course all weekend! S's course may come in handy for me as well because Ms Bridget was on fire herself all weekend. I have no idea what's got into her -it's been unseasonably warm and she's sweaty and miserable in the remnants of her winter coat. You'd think that would mean a slow and lazy pony. Yet she's the opposite. My job as a rider is slowing the little mare down and getting her to relax. She's all about leaping off my leg and doing her very best giraffe impression. I think what's happened is she's finally decided canter is fun and figured out she can do it and I'll be pleased. So right now in her mind the answer to everything is to canter. Leg yield = canter, moving shoulders = canter, asking for bend = canter, etc, etc. She was also super interested in taking me to the 'jumps' I left in the ring and was a bit excited about that. I've created a monster :) I'm not overly concerned since she is at least thinking forward and interested in figuring out what I want, which is a million times preferable to disinterested and lazy. We can work with this new Bridget!

Just a zoomed in shot of her cute little face

We spent a lot of time doing circles and spirals on Saturday, reminding pony she can work on the bit and bend around my leg all at the same time. Apparently that sort of stuff goes out the window when you are a newly invented racing and jumping pony :) I had left my jumps as trot poles on the ground and got a pretty exuberant leap over the first, so we did that a few times until she realized it was just a trot pole and actually not exciting at all.

When I finally did ask for a canter, it was a really nice depart, but gradually gained speed until it was pretty quick. As the rider, I was thinking of letting her go forward and staying out of her way, and failed to correctly read the situation. Unfortunately, baby pony wiped out around the corner. The good thing is that she stood up quickly and was totally unharmed. Also, after hating myself in the previous post's photos, I was super focused on keeping my hands and head up and my shoulders back, which meant what could have been a nasty rider fall was prevented  I ended up with both feet on the ground, but stayed right in the tack.  Funny how proper equitation is also effective and safe :) After a walk and trot to confirm we were all no worse for wear, we had a lovely (and much more careful) canter. It seems baby pony actually can sit her butt down and rebalance in the corners when asked - who'd have thought? :) We're going to hack up to the ring again today - fingers crossed she isn't stiff after yesterday's misadventure.

From the other day - Hunchy McHuncherson needs to sit up straight!

I'm still unsure whether we're going to hit the first show of our little season, but we're prepping as if we are planning to attend.

Motivated

Here in the middle of nowhere, our little equestrian world has three types of people:

1. The people who have their horses as pets and rarely ride
2. The people that trail ride
3. The people that show

That's probably a somewhat normal breakdown of horse lovers, except I find it odd that numbers 2 and 3 rarely cross paths here, I'd also venture to say group 2 has a bit to say about group 3's decisions which doesn't help narrow the gap. Horse people + small town = about a million judgements. I can think of maybe a handful of people who train and show their horses but also aren't adverse to a trail ride now and then. The area I board in is full of trail riders, and Bridget and I have lately been facing the first world problem of having to tell people we aren't into a ride with them because we are going to the ring to practice instead. We're turning to the dark side lol. With spring well and truly here, I'm wanting to scale back the trail rides to twice a week or so, and increase the schooling sessions to maybe 3 times. Of course we have a nice 20 min each way hack to the ring so Midge still gets her time checking out the neighbourhood on the buckle!

Anyway, no exciting news to report, so far this week we've done 2 rides a the ring and one big trail ride. Of course we also have lessons ahead on the weekend! We're also 2 weeks out from our clinic we signed up for, and a month out from my tentative first show date.  Midge has been forward and happy, but we're still struggling with the giraffe impressions at the canter. Pretty sure that's just a strength issue and will come with time, just as it did in the trot. I'll leave you with a few pics of yesterday's ride:

Looking fancy!

Our little jump set up - I wanted to get her cantering out and thought we might have more space (and a helpful corner) if we set up on the diagonals.

Looking so pretty in the trot these days

Whee!

This is our typical canter right now :)

 Finally, G did't get any little jump shots but he did accidently shoot a 3 second video instead. It's kinda cute lol:

TOABH: 18 Things

Happy Birthday Archie!

This week, Beka asks us to list 18 things we love about our horse.

Since we all know the million and one things I love about Ginger (and to save you reading 36 things), we'll pick the new girl for this one. I'm not even going to attempt a rhyme like Beka, so you get the less creative version :)

In no particular order, the things I love about Bridget:

1. I can take her anywhere and put her in any situation, and only rarely does she get upset or create any drama. Even then, she's cute so everyone forgives her.

Maybe her 10th ride or so, and she was cool to head to the lake for a swim with a big group of horses.

2. She happily drinks water on the trail. Puddles, creeks, lakes, whatever, pony is sensible and drinks.

3. She's scared of very little and trusts her rider if she's unsure of something.

4. She's kind. I can let anyone handle her and not worry.

5. She's wickedly smart and game for just about anything.

Particularly sleeping.

And eating.

6. If I have one of those rides where I hop on and regret not longeing first, it's not a potentially life altering mistake.

7. She stands tied wherever I tie her. No fussing.

Except she does know how to untie herself. But she doesn't leave the scene so we're cool.

8. She's actually got some kinda fancy moves hiding in that pony body.

9. She doesn't care what the horses around her are doing. Or even if they like her.

She's a gangster.

10. She's sturdy and tough, and an easy keeper - minimal feed and no shoes!

11. Bay with chrome. My weakness.

12. Not mare-ish (opinionated, yes, but fingers crossed, no crazy in heat nastiness)

13. She has a super luxurious mane and tail. And will stand for hours while you groom. My Little Pony for an adult!

Groom me more, please!

14. Comfy to ride bareback on.

15. If you fall, it's not that far, and chances are you weren't going very fast and deserved it!

16. Also, re: the above, she stops and waits for you, increasing the chances of successfully hopping back on and pretending nothing happened.

17. She's 'helpful'. Helps set up jumps, helps put on her halter or bridle, lines herself up with the mounting block or gate and waits. That sort of stuff.

"Human minion - put that one over there with the other one"

18. Super keyed into her people. Happy to stand around with you or follow you around with minimal supervision.Tries to get into the barn and open gates to come visit her people. G says she's more dog than horse.

Fun Weekend

Rock star

We trailered back up to the main exhibition grounds yesterday to continue on with our show prep weekend.

Both my 'S' friends were there again, and we had a few new additions as well. Unfortunately for me and my mini jump course, all the poles were quickly used up building a crazy trail course. I did have fun playing in there as well, so my disappointment was pretty short lived. We'll be back soon for a jump course.

We started out with a short lesson, and then moved on to the obstacles. I started with a line of cones (about 8) set 9' apart. The idea is to leg yield through them in a zig zag pattern. It really forces you to be precise with your aids because 9' isn't as much space as you'd think. Once we were successful at the walk, we moved up to trot. I started with every second cone and got it done although it wasn't pretty. Honestly, we never did go through perfectly at the trot - I ended up having to cheat a bit and let Midge lead a little more than idea with her shoulders. Still, good practice - I should be setting up stuff like that at home to keep us honest!

We moved on to a bunch of raised poles set in a figure eight pattern. Ideally, you'd canter them, but they were on maybe 10m circles, and there is no way Midge can do that! So we trotted and pony was champion of the trot poles.

Next up, we moved on to a 10' square box marked out by poles. The idea is to trot in, circle at a trot inside the box, and trot out. It's doable, but you really need excellent shoulder control. I suspect Midge could do it on a good day, but yesterday she was fairly distracted by all the goings on and managed 3/4 on our best try. Another exercise that I may bring back later because it really forces you to be precise. It's easy to think I'm getting it done in a bigger space, but  when the boundaries are visually defined it becomes apparent we're pretty sloppy! I'll go back tomorrow and take some pics of the trail course - it's pretty cool.

After all the exercises involving discipline and control, it seemed an opportune time to let Midge have a good canter. She was a little stickier than she's been in the past couple of weeks, but I was pleased to get it done with minimal drama or sucking back. Unfortunately her big stampy feet (she sounds like a freight train!) spooked a friend's horse partway across the arena. We took that opportunity to go back to our mock flat class and did a lot of passing at the trot and canter, purposely cutting it a bit close. Midge was unsure, but settled in. Excellent practice for sure!

We finished off with a nice trail ride that included a lake, bridges, and cantering some logs. Fun! Since I ended up being in the saddle for 4 hours yesterday, Midge gets a well deserved vacation today. We'll get back at it tomorrow - we've got some shows to prep for!!

Modified Weekend

The weather just isn't cooperating for our camp out mock show weekend, so we cancelled the camping part. The camping will still happen,  we're just going to reschedule for another weekend. For this weekend, we're salvaging our plans somewhat by trailering in to the exhibition grounds each day and riding regardless of the weather.

Big ring is big,! About 200x400 ft. People were taking lessons in the part marked out for dressage so Bridget was spared and got to do the little x rail in front instead :)

Day 1 went well - Bridget trailered like a champ so that's always a win with a new trailer and horse buddy to share with. On arrival, the place was pretty busy, but there were only three of us in our group: myself, trainer S who I shared the ride with and normally take lessons with, and my best friend (another S), whom I've ridden with since we were kids. Best friend brought both her show horses, while trainer S and I just brought one each. Since this weekend is intended to be a show prep one, we warmed up as per usual, then ran through W/T/C/reverse as a group to imitate a flat class. I know many of you probably do this every week in lessons, but I ride mainly alone and the other two are also on young horses so it's good practice for the baby horses, particularly when they're not used to cantering in a group. Next up, we just worked on the things we'd like to improve and tried to help each other out. For me, that was obviously canter and I'm pleased to say Bridget did alright - not as good as she's been recently since I think the big ring intimidates and backs her off a bit, but we got both leads for a few large circles without much fuss and I was happy. We popped over a little gymnastic a few times and she was fabulous there too, so we spent a lot of time hacking around on the buckle watching everyone else work. Both the S's are light years beyond me in terms of riding and training so I always pick up handy tips. Bridget was mostly patient to watch the others - I just put her to work bending, trotting, transitions within the trot,, shoulder/haunches in, etc whenever she got a little distracted. Being a lazy  pony she caught on to that program quickly and was actually really well behaved and steady. She received many compliments from other riders, mostly because she's cute and quiet rather than any awesome things she did lol.

Haven't ridden a horse yet who doesn't think the announcer's booth is the scariest thing ever, particularly as we store spare barrels and poles beside it.

Tomorrow we're going to set up a bit more of a cross rail course for me (what a treat to have the room for an entire course!) along with a proper trail pattern course for best friend who rides western. I'm actually looking forward to the trail course as well - it will be interesting to see how the bridge goes - we've mostly got it mastered on the trail but she can still be uncertain. The pattern part I'm pretty sure I'll stink at, but it's good practice.

We discussed show plans a bit today and I've got some tentative things mapped out, depending on how our canter progresses. I have a standing invite and they're encouraging me to come along no matter what, even to enter walk trot classes for the outing, but I'm torn on that - so much $$ and travel for very limited classes or tests offered. I'd rather wait and have a better canter and be able to enter more classes. Unfortunately neither of my show buddies are interested in eventing so I'm looking at open shows or dressage/hunter/jumper stuff. First one is mid May which is maybe too tight of a deadline!

W 2 C

Midge offered a walk to canter transition today! (On our way out, not even on the way home!). Although regular readers might suspect this is an April Fool's joke, it's really not.

I must have looked pleased because two separate people that I saw in my travels commented on the lovely day and how happy we looked to be out for a ride.

Bridget got a free pass from the ring and we just had a nice quiet trail ride in the sunshine with a friend. Midge is the best at babysitting, after all. I could probably rent her out as a green horse trail buddy, the demand for her company is so high :) She cares not what other horses do and rarely gets impatient - I love that about her.

I've been having some lower back pain and feeling like I'm sitting crooked in the saddle. Again today, I was sore and stiff when we got home, even though I rode the last few km without my stirrups and made an effort to stretch my back and legs out. Finally, when I was untacking,  I noticed my stirrup leathers weren't even and the right one was 2 holes shorter. No idea when or how that happened, since I don't tend to adjust them ever, but I feel very stupid for not checking such a simple thing sooner! Fingers crossed, we've solved the mystery.

Anyway, what I really wanted to post here was that I just say I really, really love my newly forward and cantering pony!  That's all for today, I just had to share my excitement!