A First (Always Unexpected) Snowfall

When they’d first got started that morning, he was so fresh she decided to get off and lunge a bit. So as to give him a chance to run and buck and play a bit, without having to ride through it. It was something she did more now she was older, and more hesitant about falling off!

After she’d mounted, they’d used the trotting poles in the less complex but still very useful and new arrangement. She was also able to ask him to do some leg yielding down the long sides, which he would do, but which always seemed to speed him up. AJ did not trust his canter, and was not quite satisfied with his straightness at trot, and not at all pleased with his head carriage or relaxation either, but he’d been working 40 minutes. He was quite furry in his lack of winter blanket and she didn’t want him to get wet and sweaty. When she was getting ready to quit for the day, he delighted her by offering to stretch his neck long and low while keeping the trot. Fantastic!! Finally some new ground!! She praised and praised and praised him as they went round a few times both directions.

When she asked for a walk to begin to cool out and really finish on a positive note, he took a big spook at a bird flapping across the arena behind him. So, she asked him to return to trot, long and low again, and then ended the riding session.

Jill said, “See, when are you in tune with somebody, there’s not much to talk about, it just happens.” She wondered how long AJ could continue to incur the mileage expense of riding him for her, now that her income level had changed so much. “Did you know the word manage comes from the riding ring - menage - and that Xenophon wrote the first book on business management?”

Of course the fool took another big spook in hand when the bird did another flap past, ha.

AJ told of a clinic she had attended that Sunday. “You know how when you lie down on your massage therapist’s table to you relax and start to breathe better, and start to release the tension in your body? Our EFT demo/practice horses were like that in the cross ties!”

A Recent Royal Season

When AJ had managed a staff of 32, she had been required to submit quarterly reviews, summarizing all the day to day feedback she’d given to the employees. She got so good at it, they used to send extra “problem” employees into her department so that she could sincerely try to coach them to better performance, while accurately documenting all employee issues in compliance with HR law in case they had to be terminated. Jill wanted to know if that’s why she was calling herself a “trainer” on the resume she’d drafted for a potential employer, lol. She was suggesting an edit because the horse lady owns and rides the 20 horses and only wanted an exercise rider... "Obviously, she is the trainer."

AJ laughed that it was true she hadn’t really trained Jill’s horse much in her absence. “I am pretty sure a photo your mom could have taken from that arial view of that “campfire,” in the middle of all of the trotting poles laid out, would have been perfectly at C, dead centre in the middle of the arena. Her in-person-horse-buddy, Jill's mom, had said she arrived in the lounge just in time to notice the steaming manure mountain in the cold area.

What was really nice to see was the big bright glossy picture of a top horsewoman, in action, posted on the bulletin board on the way in. A handwritten caption had been added on a big yellow post it note. “Beezie Madden even grabs a bit of mane to save her horse’s mouth.”

For the second time this week, AJ felt blessed by how the poles were all laid out in the riding ring in a perfect schooling formation. In a big, complex arrangement she wanted to have, but didn’t want to double check measurements for, or set up herself BEFORE the exercise of riding. Those poles can be heavy! Her specialty was riding the bounce bounce spook spook boing bounce of them, not the dragging them around, ha. She was excited for access to an exercise to cultivate balance, focus, suppleness, elasticity… she knew it would also support coordination, including hand/eye, in both horse and rider. But was she surprised to find as she worked over them, that it was also helping them with straightness. Their number one priority!! There were at least 4 lines of 3 poles, plus 4 lines of 2 poles, each with their perfect spacing. And yet, you could make perfect centre lines, both short and long, as you rode figure after figure over and around them.

After the 30 minute workout, that actually loosened up her back very nicely as well, she raved some more “Besides, if you were trying to set that up for yourself as a boarder, you would have to put it all away at the end as well. So as not to leave the ring a mess for any upcoming lessons, so it would be twice as much work. AJ had invented a new exercise to try by the end, which was trotting between two poles in a line, a STRAIGHT line, right in the middle, on the same angle. “They keep him straight — plus, he’s afraid of them. Probably always will be” her companion obviously wasn’t as optimistic as AJ was about the activities. AJ was grateful also, to notice that while the formation was the same two rides in a row, the poles themselves were different colours. Such a subtle new challenge and pleasure!

Jill agreed that when working over ground poles horses use their backs more correctly, and use greater flexibility to bend in their joints. Was AJ’s encouraging him to stretch his neck long and low over them working? Yes, and, yes, was extraordinarily careful not to catch him in the mouth. She loved how the work was getting the horse to begin balancing himself and using his hind quarters more, instead of reliance on his head and neck for balance. What would a pattern/layout course look like to use to begin to learn how to shorten and lengthen stride in different gaits?

AJ was encouraging Jill to start a band now that she was in university. “Is this because you always wished you started a band in high school?”

They lamented that a friend of theirs had made an appearance on DNTO’s program about the Royal Winter Fair that weekend, appearing on CBC before ever guesting on hoofbeats!  And it was a bummer that neither of them had had a chance to attend the festivities this year.

Friday The 13th

Its true AJ had been fired, and an action she had taken that she said could be misconstrued was written up in the reprimand letter as her saying “it was the wrong thing to do.” She had hated how the district manager had pulled a skid in his car when he saw her out back, before their meeting, as he was on his way to dump garbage into the dumpster. She laughed and told him she’d hated it when her former manager put on his name tag as soon as she walked in the building… she thought worse luck was not being able to find a tuner at home. It was raining and made her want to play guitar… she’d got started only playing when the din on the roof of her home would camouflage her efforts.

Trotting poles trotting poles trotting poles, little ponds in the sanding, trotting poles trotting poles. My day has a nice rhythm to it so far! (p.s. BRIDGE, pilons and the gate 2X) she wrote. She was thrilled to think, for the second time in row, “what a nice ride!” He had lowered his head at least twice over poles, and lots at the water. Was he learning to trust her hands? She knew that sometimes training a horse was like watching paint dry… And she sent Jill an email “I think Bob is looking at the scary place the burn pile USED to be... here he is at the end of a very nice ride.”

Did you read the article about “accidentally UNtraining your horse?” Jill had, but thought it should just be called “Training your horse with bad habits,” because they both knew that 100% of the time you are around a horse you are training it. AJ was still having trouble with item “4. Veering to avoid an obstacle or scary object. The scenario: You’re riding along a straight line in the arena and heading toward a banner attached to the rail. As you approach the object, your horse veers so he doesn’t have to pass the object closely.”

She said that first of all, it drove her nuts that he stopped dead to make manure, and that second of all, it was infuriating that he wouldn’t just travel through it afterwards, always deaking out one way or the other to avoid trodding along in the straight course his rider was dictating.

Jill had posted a link on Facebook “I love this show! And, not just because of all the horse facts…” They were considering editing segments of it to air on hoofbeats — was that allowed?

Spooky Hallowe'en

It was annoying that he kept taking off in the hayfield, or big ring, for several strides with his head turned so far left. When he pulled a spook like that, and took off, the only/safest way to stop him was to tighten the circle left. It was becoming an over-used emergency measure between them.  She could have almost put her finger IN the snaffle ring of his bit. Meanwhile, if she knew he could behave, what she really wanted to do was gallop. As if she was staring down mortality, and fulfilling a last life wish. Not just a steady, forward canter in half seat either. For 50 or 100 acres! To hit the rhythm where gallop changes from clattering hoof beats to a steady hum, with his head moving more than the flash of legs beneath. “To the speed where you can hardly believe anything can go this fast without the axles breaking and the machinery all flying to bits.” She'd liked how the magazine article she'd tweeted described it -- it feels like flying.

AJ had taken a riding day just to bond with her horse buddy like she used to do when she was a teenager, hand grazing and grooming him on the line. She was trying to do as much as possible from the right side, because she found him to be such a one-sided horse. She thought she probably looked like a chicken and inexperienced to the farm owners, but whatever! She also did a bit of ground work including lunging, especially to the right, and insisted he stop at the end of the line when she asked, instead of turning in, or worse, turning completely around… It took several repetitions.  They also walked past the scary junk pile, over and over. He was learning to spook away from her, instead of always to the right, with his tucked in to the left, as if unaware of his leader.

On her second riding day of the week, she’d concentrated on riding “no hands.” He wasn’t acting too frisky and it seemed to work, they even made a couple of transitions to halt, with absolutely no use of the reins, no contact with his mouth whatsoever -- out around the edge of the hayfield.  She'd felt calm and brave riding absolutely on the buckle like that, to test out a new theory.  She was wondering if it was when she shortened her reins that made him quicken, inciting her to shorten her reins etc.

The head trainer was dismissive of her efforts, you should "only close your hands on the reins" for a transition…  It was also discouraging to simply feel like riding, and arrive ahead of/unscheduled at the farm, hoping to ride in the beautiful weather, to learn the horse was reserved to be ridden by a beginner at the in-house Hallowe'en show. It haunted her how the trainer said he had previously been her horse and he was easy to round up, because AJ didn't understand what she was getting at.

Dear Cat Sitter,
“Before I started letting them out, the black cat was peeing inappropriately and I was to the point I was thinking of having him put down. You have to hold him sideways for a snuggle, and its always with a countdown. 10-9-8…  You can let/leave him out into the backyard, I have to trust him to look after himself. The black and white cat, on the other hand, is a big fat lazy bones, always hissing or meowing, hiding and worrying/overeating about something… while always demanding attention. She is really down right snuggly, and she’s good at spooning. She'll probably stay in while I'm away?  Thanks for making sure they have food and water.  Please help yourself to dried spearmint and fresh fennel from the window ledge?”

It was AJ's first time leaving the cats in the care of a non-roomie, which she did find a tiny bit unsettling...

A Bit of Thanksgiving

AJ reported that walking around at the breeding farm was a joy. Firefly was in the yearling paddock by now and had become very friendly, instead of shy or spooky. The newer foal was harder to visit around its grumpy, protective, very large and well filled out dam, who looked to be in foal again already — is that what made her such a grouch? Or was she that moody anyway? The little bay had eventually approached the human visitor and AJ was surprised to find herself thinking the equine’s coat must feel like what a fawn would feel like if one were to ever pet a baby deer.

When asked, AJ told the mounted rider it had looked to her eye like the horse was forwards enough. She said to see him bending and rounding up in his experienced way, made her very jealous. “The only thing I would suggest is that you work on keeping that frame and flow THROUGH transitions, because he did pop his head up and scramble a bit through the transitions, upwards and downwards."

Watching the head trainer ride a temporarily boarded horse was a mix of inspirational and frustrating.  Because AJ was so very far from obtaining any similar results with her current mount.  She sincerely hoped the horse would get some "real" (world class) riding lessons from Santa at Christmas.

Jill chided AJ on having her horse loose in the arena without covering the mirrors. They both knew that a horse could perceive a mirror as a opening and accidentally jump into it.  "No wonder at that place they think loaning you draw lines would be putting them in the hands of a novice!"

On recent rides AJ had been doing only short lengths of the hayfield and was constantly trying to vary the routine. She wanted to get him to pay attention to her! He was a sensitive horse, but he was only sensitive to whatever he was thinking about in a given moment, he was constantly oblivious of the fact that he even had a rider, and that they were supposed to be working as a team!!

She admitted that she missed having loaner time in the barn with just her and a horse buddy. It was one of the benefits of her history of horsemanship, but it wasn’t a part of the current deal. Not that she would ever mention it to such a lovely, helpful, pleasant human-horsey companion, but her introverted nature was well aware the barn time wasn't energizing to her.  Overall, she was extraordinarily grateful to be riding regularly a couple of times a week.  It was nice to feel safe and he was a nice horse.  She also appreciated that there was always something new set up at that farm - a new small course, or a new mounted games obstacle or flag or bridge or ditch to school -- that she didn't need to preplan or set up herself!

Jill was laughing about a mistake she'd made on hoofbeats radio -- she'd been mentioning how she wanted to start a "Riding With The Stars" segment but had actually called it a "Riding OF the stars" thing, ha. Would "Horsing Around With The Stars" make a better column/segment/show title? She would start by reaching out to Corb Lund, a known, actual horse person.

AJ was proposing a feature for the show about having an isolated horse on a property. They were herd animals of course, but could you get away with just providing a goat as a horse buddy, or maybe a llama? She recounted how she had once seen a miniature donkey line up horses for turns one at a time at their paddock's water trough. She'd also said the CEO of the Canadian Equestrian Federation's hand shook in hers when they met for the first time, because he had been reading her blog and found her to be a very compelling writer. Should she try and arrange a guest appearance?