Bob, Early Winter...

For two or three rides in a row, Bob was going better than ever. He’d taken the bit willingly, which AJ saw as a good sign. Maybe he didn’t dread the use of it in his mouth, because of the way she was consciously very soft with her hands?

It was fun to present the small plank jump, one morning, and the tiny puddle ditch another, because they frightened him and he cleared them — by far — using his powerful body “correctly” - engaging the hind end, rounding his back and lowering his head!

“It’s nice to see him facing his fears” his spectator said.

AJ was glad to sit two or three bucks as well, because, “usually those send me flying, ha”

It was so nice that the saddle was just sitting there waiting for her in the tack room, and that she didn’t need to make an appointment to use it. Although it was true the girth was missing, so she’d just borrowed another and returned it.

*

Jill didn’t know that AJ had once had a job with the Olympic Team. This was only 10 years ago, as a mature working student ha, who’d been promised her own private cottage in Florida for the winter and $250USD per week!  But, it hadn’t lasted very long.  And word on the street was, she “really broke his heart.”  AJ told her the story while accompanying her mounted protege for a winter walk through deep snow, AJ on foot. 

She also told about that swimming feeling she’d experienced through snow drifts, training with another Eventing Team member, another winter, in Canada.

They also talked about how AJ would find another horse to ride, or Retire!!! lol if he ended up moving to Kingston with Jill for 3rd year.  

Meanwhile, AJ’s only other “not-student” had worked on training a nice school horse gelding to do his flying changes over poles in a figure 8 in the arena. A very effective rider, with good position and a great attitude as well!  AJ had been trying to explain to her what riding "with a contact" was all about...

The difference in the aisles ways of the 2 facilities was remarkable!

Awaiting Winter

It was scary that the water bowl in their paddock was broken/frozen. They were turned out about 4am! What time were they brought in to their stalls for more water? It was also horribly deep frozen mud in their “field,” so AJ said one thing they knew for sure about her current horse project was that he was an easy keeper.

They were not doing enough canter work and AJ knew it. But, the new array of trotting poles was definitely having its benefits! He was willing to offer to go long and low after about just 10 minutes riding, that followed just 10 minutes of lunging and ground work. His grey usual paddock buddy turned out to have been turned out in the sanding - so that’s why her mount was spooky in that corner and whinnying through out the ride! He was good about opening the gate to walk through though. He really seemed to hate the black and red pole, and took many good spooks at the random sun beams and shadows they were creating around the ring, but they stayed together and worked through it all. He really needed to start moving forwards next. How to make that happen?

Back home, she was not really worrying if she was eating a bit of the dirt between 3 legged unpeeled organic roasted carrot limbs. The most nutritionally beneficial part is always in the skin/peel right? and there’s minerals in the dirt too! She wondered if she could offer i-pick gifts instead of missed u-pick flower opportunities as a workshare/volunteer duty next summer at her favourite CSA Farm?

Jill knew that AJ had found a way to earn a new set of boots and was finally tossing her original blundstones! She also knew she would be in need of snowtires for the upcoming season, but didn’t want to bring up the finances. She was putting a second set of stirrups and leathers and a house pair of half chaps for AJ on her wish list to Santa instead.

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?