From Sunday to Weds

Lots of things to chew on and think about, especially the way that I type on here about what I've accomplished and what I have left out in my posts. I tend to not post every little thing that is done between Memphis and I and only post out a few specific highlighted items that stand out in my  mind. I am going to slow this down a little and work a little harder to put back in the specifics of each ride, each interaction, and each time I do anything that relates to a horse.

On the outside looking in at what is posted it becomes clear that there is a need for more details about what I think is the correct action in response to a reaction from Memphis. Otherwise, I am leaving the reader with a question and open myself up for heavy criticism. I realize that that is something I need to work on and if I am criticized that is perfectly fine but it makes it harder to convince somebody that I've done the right things if I've left out the most important details in the beginning,

So I give you Weds ride with Mr. Memphis, in more detail, and a little better flow of events than before. Lets see if this makes it a little easier to understand my own background and Memphis'.

Wendsday:

 We both started today as we always do. His furry little head poking through his stall as if to say "hello you". I halter him, lead him to the wall, and we start a grooming session. I always work these sessions slowly, rubbing heavily in his favorite places: his shoulder and his neck. I get a huge sigh of relief personally from stress from grooming him and I know he seems to enjoys it just as much.

Next up is lunging, while he seems nowhere near as hyper as Sunday, I still wanted to see how he was doing and just work through some gaits with him. He starts out walking quite nicely and quietly, picked up speed nicely when I asked him to, and then with a little bit of pushing got into a canter. We worked both directions, lots of stops, and lots of gait changes. He did very well and acted like a gentleman. Nothing out of the ordinary.

We then go back to the wall and start in on the saddling issue. He let me put on the pad with no issues. Just because he gave me such an issue with it on Sunday I decided to try a few more times. He sulled up a little on the third, so we stopped and slowed it all down some. He was allowed to see the pad again, smell the pad, lip the pad, and let me rub it all over him. So we started again with putting the pad on his back. He got upset again, so once again we slowed it all down.

 Then I started turning the wheels in my head. When he is allowed to play with the pad he is fine, he lets it touch him and is fine, and 90% of the time he is just fine with the pad going on. Here I started trying different scenarios with it. Playing around a few times with it I figured out he freaks out the most when the pad is lifted up higher than my shoulder. Get it close to his eye level and its over in his mind. The saddle pad will eat him and the world is going to come to an end.

Ok, so we slow it down some more and we work with the pad up above his head, around his head, above my shoulder, and so on. He calmed down quite quickly when he realized that the pad isn't eating me, him, or going to fall down on him from the ceiling. Once again, after the pad issue he saddles just like he should and everything is right in the world with Memphis.

Lunge him with the saddle on just to look at him move with it on and make sure he is ok with the world again before I get ready to ride. Once the bridle goes on he is annoyed. I can see his ears go back into an annoyance stance, not pissed, just annoyed. No tail swishing, no stomping, no ear pinning, or anything of the sort that would indicate to me I've got a firecracker on my hands. Just a "not this crap again" look. Memphis is not a fan of the barn, but its what I have to do until the arena dries out from all the rain. I don't have an option of just not riding him like I've had in the past. Sigh.

Get mounted up on him and he stands just like he should. Then we start off at a nice walk. A trail walk, dog walk, or walk whatever you want to call it it was slow. I was not looking for speed, so when he started to speed up he got slowly checked back down to the walk.

My goal was to work on steering only with him. So, I was not looking for speed here just looking for the correct direction. My requests were made with leg, neck rein, then direct rein. I was consistent in what I was doing and never strayed from what I was asking him. He got heavy leg first, then neck rein pretty much immediately with the leg, and lastly with the direct rein. He knows that when I ask with the leg its a push over to the other side, he got that really quickly when we worked on it before I got pregnant. So when I'm pushing I am already asking him to move over, then I combine that with the neck rein to tell him to turn. Eventually I would like to stop with so much leg and just use neck reining, but right now he is 75-80% at best with consistency on neck reining.

We worked on figure 8's and some mid direction changes for about 30 minutes. I then changed it up a bit and asked for some speed for a lap or two around the barn just to give him something else to do.

I did notice a few things in this ride since I was doing more thinking in this ride than my previous ones. He for one has an issue with right hand turns. For whatever reason in his mind right hand turns mean speed up. Left hand turns do not. Now this could be anything from him just being silly, a pain issue, or a refusal attempt. We did quite a bit of right hand turns to try to figure something out. I started with myself first, such as am I accidentally moving a leg, am I sitting differently, is my foot bumping him, is something on the saddle rubbing him, and anything else I could think of. I've noticed as well that he tends to do this in the beginning of the ride and will cease it once he gets warmed up and gets a few checks from me.

The only other thing we did was backing under saddle. This one he still does not quite understand, but it is also something he has only attempted 2-3 times under saddle. He'll get better at it I'm sure with time.

Otherwise this ride, in my mind, went quite well. Near the end of steering work it was clicking in his mind that the rein placed on his neck is a left or right turn. It wasn't a pretty turn, but I'm not expecting perfection just yet, just a acknowledgment that he is starting to understand.   He took a step back under saddle when asked.

None of it was completely pretty, but I'm working VERY hard to work out the kinks with him. I am seeing progress from him being ridden by me 2-3 times a week. More progress than I thought. On Sunday I fully expect him to move off of just the neck reining instead of leg and neck. I will also expect a little easier transition into backing than Weds night.

He's a good boy.

Updates in the land of chickens and horses

I know, it's been awhile since I've posted anything here and to those that used to read this quite often, I am sorry. My life has been a little hectic I'll say as of late! But lets jump right into some things that I know you have been dying to read about:

Memphis:

Oh this horse. I have leased him out to a 4H kid since her horse split his hoof at practice. (why shoes are important) Figured Memphis could use the work and he is usually pretty calm under saddle. We did a tryout with her first and he did remarkably well and so off to leasing she goes.

Then the insanity starts. Like the absolute insanity. Like so insane that I've been going insane about it. Gaiting.

That is a horrid word.

Gaiting.

If you ever in your life decided to oh I dunno, lose your mind over the most trivial thing such as riding a horse, then go ride. If you ever wanted to go completely insane, buy a gaited horse.

Gaiting.

This hasn't been on my big to do lists for oh, I dunno, ever? I mean it's important but, its never been that big of a deal to me because well, I liked just going fast and smooth. Who cares what gait he was in since I don't show? Now, its a big deal. I may be able to ride but if I don't know exactly what the horse is doing, then I'm not a.) qualified to be teaching somebody to ride and b.) probably should enlist outside help for myself.

Now, on bullet point a, I am going to teach this girl how to ride Memphis and right now she is still trying to learn how to control him, so I'm not too concerned about her and riding. Onto bullet point b. This one I've actually gone and found a TWH barn, somebody that shows them around KY, and hired her to help me. This lady put me on some of her walkers and had me feel them out so I could feel their gaits and know exactly what I was looking for in the saddle. I figured out what Memphis was not doing, what he is doing, and we worked a little on my form. (namely turn my feet in and if I ride two handed I need to grasp the reins instead of lightly holding them)

Saturday we started Memphis on Red Cell to try to get some weight on him. I know this is not a weight builder supplement, but my barn owner gives it to horses a little lower on weight since it for some reason aligns the stars in a horses body and they start to process food better. ( I really have no idea how this magical stuff works but all her horses she has given it to end up looking great) She warned me it could make him a little .. ummm... hyper?

Sure crazy barn owner lady! Lets give my horse a supplement that might make him MORE hyper? WHY NOT THIS IS A GREAT IDEA!

Yesterday I decided I was going to try to get Memphis into some gaiting using those new fangled skills I learned at my lesson on Saturday. It was muddy outside so I decided that I would work in the barn. Small space, but sometimes that is the best space to get work done. Did I happen to mention all about Memphis being hyper?

Took me 10 minutes to saddle because Memphis started doing his "THE SADDLE PAD IS A MONSTER THAT WANTS TO EAT ME" routine he did when he used to be on sweet feed. I mean its fine and dandy, I can handle a melt down and not get hurt, but I'm going to have to get him over that crap because the kids use him now. Anywho, then he did his "YOU MOUNTING ME IS GOING TO KILL ME AND MY LIFE IS OVER" crap, again stuff he pulled while he was on sweet feed. I swear you get him hyper and refusals start happening everywhere.

We had about 4 come to Jesus meetings over mounting. I started nice, you know just walking him back over to the mounting block once or twice. Then I started to get a little meaner.. you know backing him up a bit and then bringing him back to the block. Then I just got downright ugly.. you know... the coming to Jesus meetings where I WILL kill him and I AM the horse eating monster. Took 4 of those before the last one was super ugly and he though death had just come for him.

At this point a novice horse owner would have given up. In fact a novice probably would have given up at the saddling issue as a 1100lb animal throwing himself backwards, half attempted rears, and every muscle in his body screaming RUN!!!!!! would scare most people back to their beds under the covers. I guess I'm over his stupid tantrums, he isn't allowed to win with me.

By now, I'm still not completely insane and I go ahead and hop up. Stirrup is all effed up so I go into fix it and its a little long... oh well I think.. I won't be up too long and Memphis is usually a level headed ride...... I ask him for a simple walk and all I want is a slow contained walk out of him, which he does really well. Then I feel him start to tense up, like you can feel his back tensing up in the saddle.

Before I had a chance to gather up my reins off he goes. I automatically dig my heels down in the stirrups, one hand goes to the saddle horn, the other hand starts to gather up my reins, he's in a full blow canter almost pace, running me into the wall, ow that's my knee, spooked over me hitting the wall, quickly changes directions (think he would make a great barrel horse) that would make a seasoned barrel racer cry with joy, and bolts to the other side of the barn. I don't have time to half halt him, I don't have time to think really before he plows into the end of the barn. So I dig a little deeper, tip his nose slightly to the right, and ask for the whoa.

Just like that he plants his feet and I lean back slightly bracing in the saddle with my upper thighs and the balls of my feet as hard in the stirrups as I can. Good boy.

We stand for a second to regain our thoughts a little, I pat him and tell him good boy for the stop and off we go again. This time I am a little more cautious about what I'm doing. We get a good loop around the barn and I squeeze with both my legs, lift the reins up quite a bit while bringing them in so I have good contact with his mouth, and give a little cluck.

Great balls of fire, I got a decent flat walk out of him. Did it twice and called it a day.

Guess he can and will do a flat walk, I was just never asking the correct cues out of him. Now to make him do it again and again and again. Next time outside... preferably when he's had a little turn out time.... 

Asking too much too fast

I saw Memphis last night and did ride. I'm a little perturbed that he refuses to rack in the arena and wants to only skip to various ways of pacing. I'm not happy. BUT right now I'm working on reining with him not so much what gait he is in.

I can also proudly say that I am over my fear on him. When I first started riding him again in August I was terrified to go over a walk with him. Last night he had some serious SPEED going and I paid no attention to it. The only thing I want to get done is reining work. I want him to get out of direct reining. This is a two-fold approach for me because A.) I'm lazy and B.) it makes trail riding more enjoyable for me.

It's boring mundane work. Ask with the leg first, then ask with the rein on the neck, then ask with direct reining.

I'll dumb all this down a little. Leg aids with a horse are many many things. They tell a horse to go forward, tell a horse to move over, tell a horse to change a gait, or a whole list of things that I don't even know about. (can we say dressage anyone?) Right now Memphis only knows that legs mean go. A small tap on his side with my heel will make him move forward. Another tap and he speeds up. A good tap can really make him bolt.

Your calf is the next step up from your foot telling the horse to do something. This in my line of riding tells the horse to move over. (later it will help with switching gaits, but for now its move over) I use my legs to help "push" Memphis the direction I want him to go. So if I want him to go right, I'm going to push with my calf on his left side.

Later in this I am going to finesse this and use it for a tool called sidepassing which means that he will move laterally over for me (that's the best word I can come up with) but for the moment it just means go right or left.

Neck reining is much like the leg aids but much more refined. It's just lay the reins on one or the other side of a horse's neck to tell them to go whichever direction. So if I want him to go right then I lay the left reins on his left side of his neck.

Direct reining is just that. I want him to go right then I pull on the right rein. I directly tell him what I want him to do. This is cumbersome on trails as what I'm wanting is a relaxed ride, not to constantly be in a two handed riding position to ride.

So this is all I'm doing right now. Him and I got a walk down to a science. Now we are moving to reining. This could take a few weeks before it's perfect and we move onto the next lesson which will be more complicated leg aids. Then we are going to move back down to gaiting.

I started out wanting to work on gaiting first but that started to fall apart when I realized I was wanting more complicated things than Memphis knew how to do. So I've had to back track on what I wanted and start more with the basics.

Wow this is longer than I wanted.

Short update

I realize that I haven't posted on here a whole lot lately. That has a lot to do with just life always getting in my way. Silly life trying to make my adult life busy!

I'm in a precious balance right now of time management and absolute chaos. Sometimes I just want to say eff it all and sit down and do nothing. The problem with that though is that nothing gets done if I do that. So, I have to somehow find the motivation to keep moving forward. Which, I will admit, right now is beyond hard. Hell, last week we had two days of eating dinner while standing looking at each other.

I know I'm just bitching a little but it's all I can do. This weekend is already chock full of things to do. I hate that. Oh well.. enough bitching...

Lucille is growing like a weed and she is quite the happy baby. I can't believe she is almost 8 months old! That's 4 more months of buying formula and then she's onto pure solid food. That is absolutely insane to me. She's crawling around now so now I have to keep my floors extra clean (add that to my list of things I must do at least 4-5 times a week) and I gotta make sure her two retarded brothers don't step on her.

Memphis is doing just fine. Rode on Sunday for the first time in October. Was nice. He has such a big motor but I did notice some tail swishing at his wanna be refusals. I rode in split reins this time around so I could back up my commands if needed. I only needed to show him once.

My seat is still not where I want it to be, but that will come back with time. I feel bad for Memphis as I know he has to be like "mom what are you doing up there!". I'm back to where I was at the end of my lesson days, but my seat isn't as secure as it was right before I got pregnant and I was riding a few times a week. Oh well, haven't fallen off *yet*. (I know I just somehow doomed myself in the eyes of the horse gods who are laughing at me right now)

Brought my saddle with me again today. Plan on getting the poles set up in the arena and doing some more leg work and neck reining in. He is starting to put it all together. It's slow moving but he is learning. That's all I can ask of him. It's boring mundane work... push with leg, neck rein, then direct rein. I'd like to just neck rein or just my legs to guide him and get away from direct reining.

My big dumb idiot that is actually quite smart!

Long time no post

I've been under the weather lately so no posts from me. Oh well. Haven't seen Memphis in about 2 weeks. How sad is that??!!

Anywho, I'm still getting the message out somewhere. :D Even if my early methods were a little .. erm.. interesting... people seem to still be reading this blog. Hot dog I might be onto something. ha!

I had a mom tell me tonight that she was analyzing her daughter riding a horse. She was going over everything that I preach on as far as stirrups, helmet, horse, and safety.

Guess I'm getting somewhere!

That's all I have for today.

Lot's of riding as of late

I know I know, I usually post up after every ride, but I've actually put in quite of bit of time in the saddle lately. This has immensely helped my confidence in the saddle and on top of that has been helping Memphis and I both figure each other out.

I went on a long trail ride today again and I was able to be relaxed enough to let him open up on the trails. This is a huge change from early this summer when I started riding again. As long as he listens to me when I ask for something, I'm really a happy camper. There was some refusals, which I wish I would have had my split reins instead of the roper reins, but in general he is a willing horse. I can also tell a difference in him with me. He will actually stop on a trail and wait with me whereas before he would continue to do what he wanted and it was always a struggle between the two of us.

In all, I'm going to be sore. But I am very pleased with today. He is such a good good horse.

Horsey reflections

I started looking back through my older posts of Dodge and even some of my early postings of Memphis. I LOVE reflecting on things like this because as I read back I realized how little I did know and how far I've come now. Some of the way's I did things I realize were probably not the greatest, but I know if I had never done them then I would not be who I am now. I also know that I'm still learning and I currently have a solid foundation so far of how I would continue to move forward.

With Dodge, I expected too much from her too fast. I took a horse that was neglected, skinny, and hadn't been ridden in a few years, and expected her to perform to how I thought she should right off the bat. Not taking into serious consideration of how slow I really needed to take things. Most of what I did was fine, but a lot of it was just newbie stuff. Like putting her in an O-ring and expecting her to have a woah HAHAHAHAHA

With Memphis, I have taken for granted his gentle nature and up until just this past month I finally was able to grit my teeth and get firm. Not only firm, but also take a few steps back and see I'm asking too much on a foundation that isn't built yet.

This is a learning process. I've been learning :)