tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11126183895958240352024-02-02T05:57:47.721+01:00Guiding StarbuckStarbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.comBlogger231125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-83360146736772521552015-05-17T20:23:00.001+02:002015-05-17T20:23:15.877+02:00In Hand CollageOK so Daniela my dressage instructor has gone back to Germany and then she'll be in Ireland for the next couple of years - great for her, not so great for me :S I'm glad I have <a href="http://guidingstarbuck.blogspot.com.es/2015/01/you-can-classic-online-dressage-portal.html" target="_blank">her video training site</a> to watch for inspiration, and luckily we were able to make a lot of progress before she left :D<br />
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But to top things off Starbuck has somehow injured her right shoulder - she doesn't want to extend that leg fully and limps at the trot. So my vet recommends paddock rest along with 30 minutes of walks daily in addition to the <a href="http://www.audevard.com/en/produits/ekyflex-arthro.html" target="_blank">insanely expensive joint supplement</a> Starbuck will be taking for the next month. Most days we just walk down the road to <a href="http://guidingstarbuck.blogspot.com.es/2014/06/sa-fita.html" target="_blank">Sa Fita</a>, where I took those jumping lessons last year, but I figure a little in hand work in mostly straight lines won't be too terrible. I'm especially careful to not make sharp turns to the right or work on any lateral movements at all so as not to load her shoulder and I'm pretty sure my vet wouldn't be 100% on board, but I figure it's better than her spooking on a walk and doing some of her patented piaffe - rear - buck moves whenever a truck passes / pheasant shoots out of the bush / dog barks close by / leaf falls off a tree.<br />
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And since I was able to convince <a href="http://guidingstarbuck.blogspot.com.es/2014/08/photos-photos-and-more-photos-and-update.html" target="_blank">my husband</a> to come take pictures today I have a fabulous collage to share!<br />
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Have a great Sunday folks!Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-56130052548111993632015-03-31T19:37:00.000+02:002015-03-31T19:37:00.107+02:00Videos!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Wow I just realized I hadn't published anything since January (although I had an unfinished draft which I'm publishing today with a fake date) - I knew I was slacking off on the blog but I hadn't realized I was slacking off THAT much. Here are some videos from last Saturday's lesson with Marina - just to kind of show our progress. Daniela has me riding with ONE draw / running rein - in case my English equestrian term is off what I'm referring to is a long rein which attaches to the girth between her front legs, then runs up through the bit ring and back to my hands. This gives lots of leverage and allows me to pretty much force her head down when I want to - for instance if she gets stargazy when her best friend's in the parking lot or for canter departs where she tends to throw her head up, I can bring her head back down. I know this is not an ideal situation and really hope to be able to get rid of the lot of auxiliar reins soon, but with the videos I've confirmed two things which make me a little bit less apprehensive - for one I'm not riding her behind the vertical except for specific situations (spooks, temper tantrums, etc...) where she herself sucks back and goes behind the bit, and these situations are really not very common at all - I mean this might happen once for a few seconds every three or four rides. For another, I note that the draw rein is loose a lot of the time, which is what I was going for - to use it only for a few seconds, then drop it again.</div>
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The truly important thing that's coming out of all this is not just that Starbuck's learning to carry herself correctly and flex at the poll (although this is pretty awesome), but that I'm learning what it feels like for her to be actively using her hindquarters and "working through the back". I never really understood this phrase but now I think I'm starting to - there's much more activity (and it's harder to ride!) and I can truly feel the energy coming up from the hind legs, bounding through the back and topline and then cycling back down to my hands through the reins. And now that I can feel it, I can ask for, identify and reward it promptly and accurately.</div>
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And best of all, she's so damn fun to ride these days! And I really do get the feeling that she herself is enjoying it more now that she's realizing just how strong she is.</div>
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<br />Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-22350525637940752822015-03-17T17:49:00.001+01:002015-03-31T14:26:42.194+02:00A Pretty Boring UpdateSo since I haven't posted in so long I wanted to at least leave my thoughts on the last few rides I've had with Starbuck, I think we're really making a lot of progress but I'm not 100% comfortable with how we're making it (think auxiliary reins and spurs). But I've put an expiration date on the auxiliary reins at least (after March I won't use them anymore) and honestly if one month of artificial aids will solve years of incorrect posture, I'll be pleased as pie. I'm sure that plenty of folks have the talent and experience to show a green horse how to move correctly without any auxiliary reins or whatever, but I'm pretty sure by now I'm not one of them (yet!).<br />
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Saturday 07/03: Lesson with Daniela, rode with makeshift chambon and spurs. Worked on neck flexions, lots of in-hand shoulder in. Daniela rode Starbuck at trot and walk (afterwards she was a dream to ride!). Taught Starbuck to lower her head when I flex her head to the inside by turning my hand (think about holding a mug, then turning the mug sideways to look at your nails). When she lowers her head, I scratch her withers with my index fingers. Did lots of transitions and really got the idea of how we should be working. Lots of trot - canter transitions, and towards the end of the session she was cantering with her head held low. And no spooks! At the end of the session Dani taught me the aids for in-hand pirouettes.<br />
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Sunday 08/03: Rode with Amanda and Virginia, practicing reprise "Alevín Equipos". Warmed up with in-hand flexions and shoulder in, then put on the chambon thingy and mounted up. Rode with spurs again. Spent the first 20 minutes or so working on my own in walk (shoulder in on a circle then leg yielding diagonally in the other direction), trot and canter attempting to repeat the exercises from the previous day and going over some ground poles at the trot. Then followed Amanda and Virginia riding the reprise - it's funny how Starbuck's got loads of impulsion when she's trying to catch up with other horses! Trot was a dream, but canter was very bucky as she wanted to turn it into a race. We managed to make our transitions in the right places though and even rode by the bar several times without any drama. Cooled down on a short walk outside the stableyard.<br />
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Monday 09/03: Got to the barn late after work, longed with only a rope halter focussing on lowering her head, keeping her moving without constant nagging (Parelli circle game), activating her hindquarters and doing lots of transitions. Did a few rounds over Marina's yellow and blue cushions and then stacked a few up for a really low jump. Fairly intense longeing session and I ended by trying out her ground-tying skills while returning the cushions to their place but she spooked with the cushion sounds and raced around the arena a couple of times before I could calm her down enough to stop - I think she was a little afraid of the longe line streaming along behind her. But we just cooled down for a little longer at a walk and she forgot all about it.<br />
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Tuesday 10/03: Went to the barn at lunchtime (yay!), did 15 minutes of in-hand warmups with flexions, shoulder in, turn around the shoulders and then worked on pirouettes - got a few solid steps in each direction. Put on the chambon (no spurs today) and mounted, worked on more flexions (both to the side and vertical) at the halt and then trying to transition to walk without her throwing her head up. Shoulder in in walk, then transitions to trot once again trying for her not to throw her head up. A little heavy at the trot today so after a few minutes I rode several trot - canter - trot transitions to wake her up a little, which helped. Leg yield in trot across the diagonal, not bad to the left but a little more yucky to the right. Letting the rein out so she can stretch downwards in trot and then transitioning to canter, but after several tries to not go near a certain fencepost followed by a gnarly spook I pushed her into a more powerful and shorter canter for several 20 meter circles followed by a nice strong trot in both directions. In the end I let the rein out for a little more stretching and cooled down in walk working on the "head down" aid, halt transitions and a few more flexions.<br />
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Saturday 14/03: Rode with the chambon and without spurs - probably because we were in a class setting again with other horses ahead of us Starbuck was really moving along without me having to nag much at all. We did a lot of flexions at the walk and trot in the class, then did some "carrousel" work where I rode side by side with Cinthya and the gelding she was riding. This is really hard at first because you have to keep the same rhythm as the other horse+human and keep your eye on them the whole time to make sure you start and end exercises at the same time. But once Starbuck got over having to work right! next! to! another horse (ears pinned, eyes rolling, butt wandering all over the place) and we got into the swing of things we had a really good time. It was a highly satisfying ride :)<br />
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Sunday 15/03: Went on a trail ride with friends Cinthya, Amanda and Virginia - Starbuck really behaved well and didn't spook much more than the other horses. With Daniela's OK, I took her out without the chambon and she kept her head down most of the time (it helped that she was trying to snag grass and daisies along the way). We changed position with the rest of the riders pretty constantly and worked on some leg yielding and shoulder-in back and forth across the path along the way. A couple of almond trees had even left some of their blooms on for us to enjoy.<br />
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Monday 16/03: It had rained all morning so I just longed her with only the rope halter in the arena at the top of the parking lot (the sand is more like really fine gravel and doesn't get slippery like the regular arena). She was really full of beans especially when her friend Coco who was grazing nearby got taken back to her stall. So lots of bucking and racing and bunny-rabbit galloping until with changes of direction and gait and speed I got her attention back and we could get back to work. But honestly it just wasn't the right day for "precision" work so mostly just did lots of trot-canter transitions and worked on keeping her attention, then ended with lots of changes of direction (this ends up being like a quarter pirouette if we do it right) and some shoulder-in at the walk.<br />
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Today 17/03: Starbuck got shod this morning and I try not to work with her when she's just been shod. So just went out to the stable on my lunch break, fed the cats and let her graze in a makeshift paddock for a while while I watched her. What a great way to disconnect from the office.<br />
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Got new boots by the way! They're synthetic, we'll see how they do. But they were 50% off! :DStarbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-69822083663774944402015-01-26T20:08:00.000+01:002015-02-10T19:55:31.614+01:00Side Reins - A Quandary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.horseproblems.com.au/Photo's/Mouthing/sidereins.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.horseproblems.com.au/Photo's/Mouthing/sidereins.gif" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.horseproblems.com.au/Damage%20to%20horses%20mouths'%20by%20using%20side%20reins.htm" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Thanks to Horseproblems.com.au for the photo!</i></span></a></div>
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Every now and then you just have to bite your tongue, swallow your words, take things back. I am now doing something I honestly never thought I'd do and have actively disapproved of and criticized from time to time.<br />
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I started using a "tie down" - in addition to my regular lesson with Daniela my dressage instructor I also requested a "minilesson" from her on lungeing since she has always told me to use side reins and finally convinced me, but I didn't want to start without her showing me how. So now when I lunge Starbuck (Daniela has instructed me to lunge every other time I ride, so Sunday ride, Monday lunge, Tuesday ride, Wednesday lunge... although with the rain we've had and barn kitties to neuter it's been more like Sunday ride, Monday lunge, Tuesday lunge, Wednesday lunge, Thursday take the cat to the vet, Friday get the cat back from the vet...), after warming up in a "long and low" position at walk and trot without anything at all, I put on the side reins so her nose is just a couple of centimeters in front of the vertical when the reins are taut and do about 15 minutes of work (mostly trot with some transitions) before detaching them and doing some trot and canter work without them, then cooling off "long and low" again.<br />
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Instead of buying fancy side reins, Dani assured me I could simply use some old reins I had lying around - the kind made of cloth webbing with leather nubs every 4 inches or so - and tie them to the saddle girth or the surcingle. They go straight from the bit to the girth (fixed point reins) and at the moment I'm tying them a little below the height where the girth is attached to the saddle. The nubs help me remember exactly what length to tie them, too. The idea is to see how this goes and then decide whether to keep using them and how, change to another type of auxiliary rein like sliding side reins or drop them altogether. So far so good, right?<br />
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But here's the thing - even though I said yes to this, I am still terrified of the side reins. I mean having-anxiety-dreams-about-them, keeping-my-hands-from-shaking-when-I-attach-them terrified. In the past I've used elastic reins noce or twice when lungeing Starbuck and even a couple of times riding her in the roundpen for seat improvement exercises (no reins or no stirrups or no saddle or a combination thereof). But they've always been loose enough that she could put her head up as much as she wanted, and I've never dared to use any other type of "tie down" mostly because I think it's the kind of thing that can very easily turn into a disaster by someone who's ignorant of how to do it. I'm afraid I'll put her into a false frame her body won't be able to handle or ruin the sensitivity of her mouth or make her sore or sour or give her irremediable back injuries or cause her to flip over backwards and all other kinds of bad things. However Daniela has assured me that none of these things are likely to happen as long as I use them correctly and responsibly at the exact length she's shown me to set them at for now and keep Starbuck moving forward. Also, I figure with so many people I admire and respect using them (<a href="http://www.youcanclassic.com/" target="_blank">Daniela herself</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Training-Young-Reiner-Klimke/dp/0851319270" target="_blank">Reiner and Ingrid Klimke</a>, <a href="http://www.classicaldressage.co.uk/html/side_reins.html" target="_blank">Sue Morris</a>, <a href="http://www.art2ride.com/blog/the-correct-use-of-side-reins-2/" target="_blank">Will Faerber</a>, etc...) I shouldn't knock them until I've tried them. And I have to admit, Starbuck looks so gorgeous in them that sometimes I get distracted just looking at her.<br />
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So here I am swallowing my words and steadying my hands, and hoping both that the benefits (like improved topline musculature, actually tracking up, steadier rhythm, better acceptance of contact, more impulsion and rounder movement) outweigh the risks and that in fact, the risks themselves will prove to be mostly a figment of my overactive, anxious imagination. I'll keep you posted, in the meanwhile if anyone has any experience using auxiliary reins with their own horse for lungeing I'd be thrilled to hear it.<br />
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By the way two other random things to mention:<br />
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I changed bits a couple of weeks ago - started using a 13 mm three-piece full cheek snaffle. It's thicker than the old D-ring and even though it's 100% stainless and doesn't have the fancy copper insets the D-ring does she definitely seems to like it better. More slobber, more chewing and as soon as I put it in her mouth when bridling her she drops her head down.<br />
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And on the ridden portion of last Saturday's dressage lesson, Daniela pinpointed leg yielding and walk to canter to walk transitions as things to work on in the next two weeks, as well as continuing the shoulder in at walk to trot transitions. I'm so glad my friend Cinthya decided to offer to take these lessons with me since Dani will only come for two people (she lives halfway across the island) and I feel like we learn so much. On top of what I'm learning, Dani is very encouraging about Starbuck which makes me feel like as clueless as I was going into this (and still am now) I haven't screwed up too bad.Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-87969370829308660982015-01-21T19:13:00.000+01:002015-01-28T15:17:22.907+01:00You Can Classic Online Dressage Portal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As you guys know, every now and then I like to give a little shout-out to folks who I feel provide an excellent service for horsepeople, like <a href="http://www.equitecbalear.com/" target="_blank">Marina the NH guru</a> at my stable or the folks at <a href="http://www.turismoecuestre.es/" target="_blank">Gredos Ecuestre</a> who organize such fabulous <a href="http://guidingstarbuck.blogspot.com.es/2014/06/trashumancia-i.html" target="_blank">long-distance</a> <a href="http://guidingstarbuck.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/cristo-de-la-luz.html" target="_blank">horseback rides</a>. So here's another one - my dressage instructor Daniela has finally launched her new international online interactive <b>dressage training portal</b> at <a href="http://www.youcanclassic.com/">www.youcanclassic.com</a>.<br />
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Now I've honestly never been much of a fan of video learning - my impatient and ADD brain prefers books and articles to videos as I'd rather scan ahead and pinpoint exactly what information I'm interested in rather than watch an entire 10 minute video in order to find the 2 minutes which I actually end up finding useful. So I was pleasantly surprised when I found that nearly all the videos on the portal are <b>under 5 minutes and many are just 2-3 minutes long</b>. And each video is dedicated to just one exercise you can do with your horse, with condensed instructions on how to best do so and basic troubleshooting - no long and rambling introduction or conclusion "selling you" on why to do it or summing up all its possible benefits. The first time I visited the site I found myself viewing one video after another until I discovered I had spent about an hour watching without ever getting bored or impatient - and those were just the "preview" lessons.<br />
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Here's an example preview lesson I found especially useful working on teaching the meaning of the <b>outside rein</b>. <br />
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As you can see, in just two minutes I have a new exercise to apply while riding Starbuck, easily incorporated into our daily routine. And the nice thing about a video rather than a book or article is that the movement you're looking for from the horse as well as the correct rider position is visible throughout. Also, more and more I'm learning to try to visualize (literally, create a picture in my mind) what I'm trying to get Starbuck and I do when I ask for a certain movement which is proving difficult for her to understand - and being able to simply replay the video either in my mind or -since the website is <b>optimized for mobile use</b>- even pulling my phone out of my pocket to quickly refresh my memory is a big help with this.<br />
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Daniela recorded the videos, which are available in English and in German, with her two horses - her fabulous Prix St George level warmblood and his son, a 6 year old colt who's just starting out. So there are videos for nearly <b>all levels of dressage</b>, from beginning groundwork both on the lunge, double lunge (ground driving) and in-hand or the young horse's first lateral steps to tempi changes and collected canter. And not only dressage is covered - gymnastic jumping, games and warm-up, winter, obedience and stretching exercises to keep your horse interested and supple are also featured. There's also a blog where you can get a better overall idea of her training philosophy and a forum to share your experiences or ask questions, and aside from the free "preview" lessons and blog posts there are several subscription levels with a huge library of "Pro" videos, from a one-day pass to a "gold" subscription which includes video coaching, direct contact with Daniela and discounted clinic prices.<br />
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I highly recommend the website to anyone who's looking for some fresh ideas to incorporate into their training or riding routine (especially if you like groundwork as much as I do) and can <b>personally attest as to the effectiveness of Daniela's training style and her knowledge, feel and experience</b> - in the past two months Starbuck's movement, attitude and even her conformation (yay topline muscles!) have improved unmistakably and I feel much more confident about working on our own now that I have these new resources at my disposal and have started to reap the results. And what's most important to me is that she's very sensitive to the horse's comfort and future wellbeing as well - for instance at the moment she has me using side reins when lunging but we warm up and cool off without them and only use them for short periods of time, and when riding after 10 or 15 minutes of "hard work" (i.e. lateral work or using more than a light contact) she always reminds us to have a rest walking actively on a loose rein. And I can honestly say that Starbuck enjoys her work more now that she's starting to build the muscle to make it physically easier and is learning that her body can do new, powerful and fun things.<br />
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So if you have a minute, <b>trot on over to <a href="http://www.youcanclassic.com/">www.youcanclassic.com</a> and check it out</b> - you won't be sorry!Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-3230917915843137672015-01-16T20:20:00.000+01:002015-01-19T16:24:53.762+01:00Wow!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Once again this is an old post but I want to publish it anyway so I'll have it for later (periodically I read my old posts to motivate myself or just cringe over my past foolish mistakes). Last Wednesday I had a great lesson with Starbuck, we did a few low jumps and it just went really smoothly - her rhythm was good, I didn't have to nag too much at her and we arrived at each jump really well, without zigzagging, stalling or jumping from too close or too far away. And even though it was a nighttime lesson with the arena lights casting scary shadows, she didn't spook once. I gave her extra carrots and went home with a big smile on my face.<br />
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But that was nothing compared to last Thursday. Since I was the only person who showed up for the 7 p.m. lesson and I have the exercises from the last post to work on, I told Marina I was happy to ride on my own so she could have an early night but she told me she'd stay for at least a little while and give me a bit of coaching before I started working on my own. So since we had her full attention, she set me to working on inviting Starbuck to arch her neck downwards and lighten the rein contact at a walk. We've been working on this a little at a time at the walk for quite some time now and mostly she knows that when I squeeze the reins gently several times it means for her to lower her head. So we did that, on a fairly long rein (just short enough to have a constant light contact) and also focussed on keeping the hindquarters active by drawing my legs a little further back than usual and using the crop to tickle her (rubbing her against the direction her hair grows in for instance). And when I could consistently get her to do it, I worked on getting her to stay there for longer and longer. When she lightened the contact, I could really feel her back arching up beneath me and see the way the muscles in her crest swayed with each stride - it was an incredible feeling of lightness.<br />
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When I had several strides in a row at the walk, we did a few transitions into trot attempting to maintain the same low head carriage, flexed poll equalling soft contact and raised back through the transition. Needless to say it all fell apart. But we finally got one where she raised her head a little, then went right back into the correct position. We then did the same work in trot we had done in walk and let me tell you when we got a few steps in a row it felt amazing. It felt like riding on Pegasus or a springy magic carpet. After lots of changes of rein, a few rests where I let her put her head down on a loose rein and some more transitions to walk and back to trot when I "lost" the physical sensation I was going for, we had gone from no strides to two strides to nearly half of a 20 meter circle with her carrying her head and back in this position, lightening the contact. We felt like we were flying at times, and even though she was completely focussed and not at all spooky, far from having to nag at her to keep going I even had to slow my posting action from time to time to keep her from getting ahead of herself. Both Marina and I just kept saying "Wow!" and ooh-ing and aah-ing over how well she was working.<br />
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We finished up at a canter which is the gait which is hardest for her. I honestly didn't expect her to achieve this "mini-self carriage" at all but I asked for it anyway. The first try didn't go so well, and she bucked going into it. The second try she still bucked but wasn't quite so heavy on the reins as the first time. On the third try Marina told me to try to "visualize" the same feeling I had in my seat at the walk when she went "light-and-down". And it worked! Only for two canter strides, but it was such a good start and much better than I hoped for.<br />
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Since then I've been able to "recapture" the same feeling at times, not like that day but certainly more than before. And our lesson with Daniela on Saturday very obviously benefited from it - she mentioned how much we had progressed since the last lesson. I just need to remember to ask for it every day until it becomes a habit.Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-63515118605704878622015-01-14T19:34:00.000+01:002015-01-14T19:34:00.646+01:00Impulsion:Control<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So Starbuck's back on the "Go" stretch of the Whoa / Go cycle. After nearly three weeks of being nearly bombproof, she's suddenly started spooking again at absolutely nothing and I even got dumped again the other day (no harm done luckily). On the other hand, she's much more responsive to my leg aids (and needs less nagging to keep going) so that's a nice change. And talking to some stable-mates the other day I realized, with Starbuck I either have impulsion (go) or I have control (whoa) but the moment I have one I lose a considerable amount of the other and get around a 80/20 ratio (if it's a good day) instead of the 50/50 I'm working toward. I guess this is probably a fairly common occurrence in horse training and it probably shouldn't have taken me so long to figure out the relationship between the two, but there it is. Sometimes I have a hard time recognizing the obvious. <br />
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I think one reason is that up until now I've been subconsciously happy enough to relinquish impulsion for control, but I realize that's been a pretty big mistake. For one thing, as my personal muse <a href="http://www.carolynresnickblog.com/lounge-lizard-to-pegasus-%E2%80%93-using-the-round-pen-to-develop-the-gas-pedal-in-your-horse/" target="_blank">Carolyn Resnick</a> says, the most important thing to have when training is a gas pedal. And my gas pedal takes like a minute to go from 0 to 60 when I'm asking for it (of course when there's an imaginary tiger in the bushes she can channel her Thoroughbred race horse ancestors in about 2 seconds). For another, if I only practice being in control when there's next to no impulsion, how can I hope to control her in stressful situations (trail rides, shows, etc...) or when she's just feeling silly? And finally, if we want to progress in dressage or even get her moving in a healthy, sustainable way, I really need to be able to command those hind legs to get moving and support her instead of trailing along behind.<br />
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So if this is all about baby steps and setting us up for success and taking our time, what seems to me to make sense is to work on the two issues together in alternating or combined exercises, trying to even out the ratio. And if in a month we have 75/25 instead of 80/20 I'll know I'm on the right track - I know I can't hope for 50/50 right off the bat but at least I'll know in which direction to keep going (or that I need to choose a new one). So in addition to what Daniela and Marina have been suggesting in my lessons with them, we're working on the following exercises:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Walk - Canter - Walk - Halt transitions</li>
<li>Trot - Halt - Back - Trot transitions</li>
<li>Trot from one side of the arena to the other like your life depended on it, then stop and rest for as long as you were trotting. Then turn around and repeat.</li>
<li>"Slower - faster" transitions within each gait, especially at trot and canter</li>
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On the slower - faster transitions within each gait, I recently read something on <a href="http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.com/horse-forums/good-impulsion-exercises-300455.html" target="_blank">a forum</a> which resonated with me - <i>"I think it's important for a lazy horse to feel both ends of each gait; if you are constantly driving forward, forward, forward, you won't get anywhere, and your horse probably won't figure out what you want. Instead, if you ask for a little at first, then gauge back, then ask for more each time, you will find a bigger improvement."</i> I already try really hard to not have my leg on constantly, but this is really good to keep in mind - I can't just ask for her to lengthen her stride on the entire long side of the arena right off the bat and expect her to do it well, or be motivated to do it better the next time. So I'm going to start asking her to lengthen and as soon as she does it stop asking, praise and let her drop back into her normal stride. Then when she consistently lengthens as soon as I ask for it, I'll ask for a few more lengthened strides, then move up from there.</div>
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And once I have control not only of "whoa" but of "go" as well, I think we'll be a lot closer to our long-term goal of working happily, healthily, sustainably and safely together.Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-77004869208224831052015-01-11T20:59:00.000+01:002015-01-11T20:59:25.194+01:00Starbuck's First Show<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last Sunday there was a "social" horse show at my stable (here, a "social" is a non-federated, non-official horse show) and Starbuck and I finally made our debut on a 60 centimeter course of 11 jumps! Since I've had so many days off from work thanks to the holidays and some recovered overtime, I've been able to ride her nearly every day for the past two weeks or so which has really paid off. She's been much more focussed and obedient and has hardly spooked at all during all this time, so I was pretty confident about the show, even though that little voice in the back of my head kept telling me our good streak will end at some point and that there were lots of things (paper tablecloths, lots of spectators, loudspeakers, applause...) which could potentially set her off.<br />
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I got there bright and early to dress her up (orange orange orange!!!) but even so I was too late to view the course on foot with Marina, so me and two other girls went around it with José Luis. Then I was finally able to put the finishing touches on her getup (I learned how to put on polo bandages just for the show and even did her mane and tail with orange rubber bands) just in time to get ushered into the warmup arena with the rest of the folks in my class. In the warmup arena she was cool as a cucumber - there was one corner she was a little worried about but we were able to ride through any potential antics and apart from a few warmup jumps with José Luis coaching I mostly just did lots of transitions to keep her fresh and interested.<br />
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When it was finally our turn we trotted into the arena, posed for the photographer and then set off towards the first jump. I had a hard time getting her into a canter for the first three jumps and the third she jumped nearly from a standstill, but then it was more or less smooth going (well, for us). I tried to make our turns wide enough to go straight towards the obstacles, keep her cantering with energy between jumps, use my outside leg to create more impulsion before each jump as well as leading with my hips instead of my shoulders, using my outside rein, relaxing my seat, keeping my weight in my heels and keeping my chin up. Needless to say I failed utterly at the majority of these things but I like to think that I was able to do at least one at a time and sometimes two. But she didn't refuse any obstacles, we didn't knock any bars down, we didn't have any fights or bucks or drama or spooks and we didn't even come in last - we actually finished 7th out of 10. And for me the two greatest achievements were:<br />
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1.- Even though it wasn't terribly cold that day (I ended up taking off my jacket and rolling up my shirtsleeves as soon as I got off), Starbuck was hardly sweaty at all when she finished which for me means her mental and physical condition has improved a lot. <br />
2.- I was really concentrated and a little anxious during the first half of the jumps, but actually enjoyed the last half and by the time we took the last one I had a huge smile on my face.<br />
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All of the 60 cm contestants got a prize for participation which ended up being a free private lesson with Marina so I am pleased as pie and excited to use it. The photos were taken by my extremely generous husband (all 300 or something photos here), as usual with his photos I absolutely love most of them but others make me cringe - sometimes I wonder if he's cataloguing moments of conflict or terrible riding on purpose, if he's really that clueless about equine body language and rider posture or if he's just messing with me. I guess the difference is simply that when I take photos I consciously try to tell a fairy tale where Starbuck is always happy and pretty and I always ride well, whereas he doesn't have the same ulterior motives. It's always a fantastic reality check though since I tend to look at everything through rose coloured glasses and assume Starbuck's as thrilled as I am about stuff (she's usually not unless it's edible). For instance these are the two photos he posted to his Flickr account - flattering? I think not... and Starbuck's mouth looks horribly painful in the second photo. What is NOT visible is that she was actually pulling down on the reins herself to try to eat the grass I had decided to pose in.<br />
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Still, it's always interesting to see how other people see us, especially non-horsey people. And it was a marvellous day and a terrific experience. Can't wait for next time!<br />
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<br />Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-66211094245112947842014-12-24T08:29:00.001+01:002014-12-24T08:29:42.882+01:00Agility<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Sorry guys, this is an old post (from December 9th or so) which I wrote and forgot to post. But I definitely want to post it to remember the exercises so here goes:<br />
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Yesterday (well actually about 18 days ago) was a bank holiday in Spain (immaculate conception day, if you can believe that) and since we had hardly any classes last week due to rain, Marina ignored her no-class-on-Mondays rule and gave a regular riding lesson in the morning and a groundwork agility lesson in the afternoon. I was too busy flying back from Madrid (a nice trip by the way) to go to the regular lesson but I did make it to the groundwork lesson, and boy am I glad I did - we had a great time and I really got some good advice from Marina to put into practice.<br />
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We started out with a little longeing to warm up, and then Marina put us to work on a sort of obstacle course she had put together - we had to stay at any of the "stations" long enough to get the horse to go through it correctly, then move on to another one. If any of the "stations" got to be easy, we had to up the difficulty level by standing farther away from the horse, or doing it in trot rather than walk.<br />
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Here's a diagram of the different stations, the smiley face is the person and the green arrows are where the horse is supposed to go. Below the diagram is a brief description of each station - all of them were to do in both directions.<br />
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1 - Two tires about 3 feet apart inside a square formed by four jump poles (maybe 8 - 9 feet long each). The person stayed outside the square, the horse inside. The horse had to make a complete circuit of the square without stepping outside, then change direction through the two tires. This was incredibly difficult, we only did it well like 3 times.<br />
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2 - This was a larger, partially open square made of the blue and yellow <a href="http://www.dualaktivierung.nl/index.php?eID=tx_cms_showpic&file=uploads%2Fpics%2F10_02.JPG&width=800&height=600m&bodyTag=%3Cbody%20style%3D%22margin%3A0%3B%20background%3A%23fff%3B%22%3E&wrap=%3Ca%20href%3D%22javascript%3Aclose%28%29%3B%22%3E%20%7C%20%3C%2Fa%3E&md5=d30edaa8d7bf36ce010b0fb27956c500" target="_blank">cushion-like training bars</a> with two cones placed in each corner. The person was inside the square, and the horse had to go around the square between the bars and cones, without stepping outside.<br />
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3 - This was a simple low crossrails jump using two tires as the standards.<br />
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4 - Parallel jump poles in an "L" shape. The horse had to go between the two poles without stepping outside, with the person outside the poles. Starbuck and I even did it backwards a few times.<br />
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5 - Three pairs of cones for the horse to walk between, with the person walking alongside. This was really easy until I tried to get farther (like 3 - 4 feet) away from Starbuck, then it was much harder to get her to go through the cones.<br />
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6 - Ground poles to go over in a circle. Using only my dressage whip and not having a longe whip, it was difficult to keep her at a trot, but we ended up figuring it out.<br />
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7 - This is a solid "wall" made out of plywood in an elongated pyramid shape for the horses to jump in a circle.<br />
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8 - Two tires about 6 feet apart. The person stood back about 6 feet away from them and had to send the horse in a figure eight between and around the two tires. We've done this before so it wasn't impossible, but she would still "skip" a tire every now and then.<br />
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The main thing I took away from the lesson was that instead of just "ignoring" incorrect responses and trying again, Marina suggests I try really hard to stop Starbuck before she does the wrong thing and re-set it up so she can do the right one. For instance, going around the figure eight tires, I often have the problem where I "undersend" and she doesn't quite make it around one on one side. Until now, I've always simply let her finish and then try harder the next time. But Marina says that if I see she's going to "miss" a tire, I should stop her, back her up if I need to and re-send her - repeating all of this until she does it right. And I could definitely tell she was thinking about it and trying to work it out when she finally made it through and I was reminded of an article I read way back when I started working with her, about replacing the flight response with a problem-solving mindset so the horse gets in the habit of thinking before it reacts. I don't remember who wrote it, but it's definitely something to keep in mind when working with Starbuck.<br />
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Marina also recommended that instead of just doing 10 minutes of walk to warm up before ridden lessons, I work on some of these exercises to warm up and get Starbuck focused on me. I think this is a fabulous idea and am going to try to remember to do it!<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10204613266325702" target="_blank">Here</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10204613520572058" target="_blank">here</a> are two Facebook videos of the lesson (sorry if the visibility's limited, a friend of mine made it), I definitely hope we do more like this in the future.<br />
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Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-63350244801329004822014-12-23T08:46:00.001+01:002014-12-23T08:46:54.532+01:00Christmas Card<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-91629948067572938682014-12-04T20:46:00.000+01:002014-12-04T20:46:00.155+01:00Too busy to writeI've been really busy with non-horsey stuff (Thanksgiving anyone?) these past weeks and haven't been posting much, on the other hand there hasn't been a whole lot I've wanted to write about on the horse front. But here's a brief (well, as brief as I can be) summary just to keep things recorded:<br />
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Uneven trot thing - doing much better, although there have been a few times she's once again been kind of stiff and uneven especially when starting out a ride. Transitions seem to work really well loosening her up. Also been doing a lot of turns on the haunches. <br />
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Behavior - she's once again starting to oscillate between almost completely dead to my leg aids and needing to be pushed every stride or absolutely electric, spooking and running away with me every few minutes. I'm hoping this is one of those "two steps back before the big step forward" things, and the truth is that the other day we had a ride where she was pretty electric and just barely controllable at first but with just the right guidance was much more fun to ride than usual as I didn't have to push her constantly. So maybe it's a matter of me becoming comfortable with her kicking it up a notch.<br />
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It's been a rainy week and she's hurt her hoof (see more below) so she had a couple of days off, then yesterday when I took her out to the parking lot to lunge a bit she had a spook and shouldered me off the path. I'm pretty bummed that this is something that keeps happening - granted it hardly ever happens any more and when it does she doesn't actually run me over like she used to, but she's still not beyond shoving me aside and I'm painfully aware that this is evidence of her lack of trust and respect for me. Anyhow I've been thinking about it and I think that my response when she does this is inappropriate and may be in fact making things worse - I tend to get aggravated, make myself larger and get her focussed on me (in hopes she won't run me over) in a fairly aggressive way, jerking at the lead rope, tapping her with my stick and reprimanding her or even giving a quick "Hey!" shout. But if I think about it rationally, a whisper would probably do as well (or better) as a shout, and the truth is I can't expect her to trust me if my response to her being scared is effectively scaring her more. So next time, I'm planning to try to keep my body language as non-threatening and neutral as possible and talk to her calmly, reassuring her there's nothing to be afraid of. Whatever happens it will be a learning experience.<br />
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Dentist - so the equine dentist came over from Barcelona on her yearly visit and everything was more or less fine. A few points but nothing to write home about. Starbuck behaved nicely (the sedation helps) and it went much faster than expected. Sandra Fortuny's my dentist, she's more expensive than just having the vet float their teeth but I really like her and think she does a really good job, plus she's really good and patient with the horsies. She studied (she's actually a qualified equine surgeon) for a while in the US and did her residency at the animal hospital near Aqueduct race tracks.<br />
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New boo boos - her new bald spot is healing nicely and starting to have a thin layer of fur, and she has less fly-scratchy scabs than she does in the dead of summer, but she still has them. And it's not surprising, as there are still a fair amount of flies. I lent my fly mask to a friend whose horse has eye issues, but I'm thinking I may have to keep the fly mask on her year-round. She's the scabbiest on her cheeks where she scratches herself with her hind hoof. And what blog post would be complete without a new wound? When I went to clean out her feet on Monday I noticed she was missing a chunk of her front left hoof and frog where I'm guessing she stepped on herself with one of the studs on her horseshoes. It wasn't bleeding and didn't seem to hurt her when I probed it and cleaned it out, so I wasn't too worried but I checked with my vet and she recommended bandaging it with gauze and disinfectant for at least two days so that's what I've been doing. After four days of bandaging she isn't lame at all and the wound has grown noticeably smaller so today I just cleaned it but didn't put a bandage on her and we'll see how it goes - she'll have a rest this weekend since I'm going to Madrid.<br />
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OK, I think that's all for now. All in all we're making progress, I'm just going through a phase where I'm feeling very doubtful and inquisitive about what we're doing and where we're going, and especially about our relationship. We're still at a level where I have to ask / nag / demand and I wonder how much of this is her, and how much of it is me (pretty sure it's nearly all me). I know there's a better way to do things, and having just finished reading Alois Podjasky's "My Horses, My Teachers" I'm really motivated to try to find it. But right now I'm completely at a loss as to how to motivate her in more positive ways - I'm getting better at this but she's just not the kind of horse that responds much to cuddles. Anyhow it's simply yet another daily reminder of the mindblowing amount of things I still have to learn about horses.<br />
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Got to remember my mantra - Try different things.Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-16961657719135203762014-11-18T07:52:00.003+01:002014-11-18T07:52:35.139+01:00I'm Not Proud Of My Jumping TechniqueIn the past few years since I started riding again, I have gained lots of horsey abilities I am pretty proud of. Handling an unruly horse from the ground, roundpenning, stickability in the saddle, ... these are things I do fairly well. But man do I stink at jumping. I mean, that's not to say that my overall riding technique doesn't leave a LOT to be desired, but it's in jumping that I really notice it. And yes, I've taken a lot of lessons, but I guess it's an example of the importance of practice and muscle memory, because I STILL bring my heels up and am unable to be effective with my leg aids going into a jump, and I STILL forget to give enough with my hands for the horse to use its head / neck freely as we go over the jump.<div>
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So that's my pre-apology for these fairly terrible videos you'll see in a minute - I am off balance, not driving her effectively toward the jump and catching her in the mouth on the way over. Of course, the fact that she was not happy about having to work on the scary side and I had to hold her in with the reins and use way more contact than I normally do didn't help things, nor did her frequent spins and bucks which were NOT caught on tape (this is why I do one at a trot). At any rate it was interesting to see and a good reminder to keep taking lessons on a "normal" horse from time to time to practice improving these things without the additional stress of simply trying to stay on.</div>
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In other news, we're doing much better on the unevenness front - last week it was kind of rainy so on Tuesday instead of riding I just longed her and she was completely nutso, piaffeing and prancing bucking and doing her crazy gallop which makes her look more like a huge, clumsy jackrabbit than a horse - she would snort and then spook at the echo of her snort... in the end it was a fun show but I was thinking "great, tomorrow she'll be even lamer". Well I was wrong - it seems almost like she needed to really reach her full range of movement to get better because the very next day she was already moving much better.</div>
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And finally, what blog post would be complete without a new health issue? On Saturday a friend of mine was leading her filly around the stableyard and stopped at my paddock, then while we were chatting the two fillies put their noses together to say "hi, who's the boss here?" as mares do, her filly won and Starbuck reared up, hitting her head on the stall ceiling. Note to self - only allow socialization outside stall. Anyhow she scraped her head up pretty well - as if she didn't already have enough bald spots from scratching herself - and developed a pretty nice goose egg on her nose, but the vet just told me to clean it and treat it with Furacin and give her a couple of antiinflamatory packets and in the end she was fine. If we end up going to the show this weekend (which in light of the videos I'm reconsidering) I'm thinking of painting the bald spot white so it'll look like a blaze instead of a wound.</div>
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Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-10456285163157620702014-11-10T21:23:00.000+01:002014-11-11T13:47:09.607+01:00A bad day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We had a pretty bad day yesterday, Starbuck and I. We were accompanied by Virginia and Coco, René and Rodrigo, Ana and Pepa and Carmen and Trueno - right off the bat Starbuck was very possesive of Coco and pinned her ears and pointed her butt at anyone who came near. This was annoying but not really troubling to me - I tend to just ignore the pinned ears and try to see it as an opportunity to improve my leg aids getting her rear end back on track. In addition to acting bitchy, she was also really full of beans - trying to get in front constantly and just general ADHD stuff - for instance when we got to a park with some hills where the other horses just walked calmly, she just had to gallop up, nearly unseating me when I lost my stirrups. Thank goodness I remembered to grab mane and turn her in a circle.<br />
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It went on and on - nothing too terrible for the most part but just her being only barely controllable, which wound me up, which wound her up even further, which made things worse. To look on the bright side, it was a really interesting new route we'd never been on before with what looked like plenty of new places to explore on future rides, we did a fair amount of trotting on varied terrain so she was able to use her muscles differently than she does in the arena, and she was certainly tracking up the entire time. One of the things I think is so valuable about our trail rides is that I don't tend to have to push her and can really practice trotting and cantering without constant leg cues, and yesterday was no exception - only I ended up with a sore back, a tension headache and blisters on my hands from the reins, so I don't even want to think about (but am making myself acknowledge) how her back and mouth must have felt.<br />
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On the way home things were even worse - she broke into a full out gallop several times and to discipline her I took what may not have been one of my best decisions of all time - every time she broke into a gallop I'd turn her around, walk her to the end of the group and only let her catch up with the group at a walk or a slow trot. This understandably pissed her off even more, but I can't always let her have her way, especially if it entails unsafe behavior around other horses. Anyhow this strategy worked more or less until we got back to the hilly park, where the rest of the horses walked down the hill and since she wanted to gallop and I wasn't able to rate her, I wouldn't let her go after them. We circled and circled at the top of the hill and as the rest of the horses moved on out of sight she got more and more frantic until finally my friend Virginia came back with Coco to rescue us and we followed them down - at a trot, which was faster than I wanted but slower than Starbuck wanted. I guess this is an example of “a good negotiation is one where both parties walk equally unhappy”. I am now convinced that what I should have done is get off then and walk her down in hand, but I was too frantic to think clearly about anything but my aids and immediate strategy for not getting us killed.<br />
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The most serious scare was when we passed some people who were fixing a stone wall on the side of the road - a little old lady helping them started telling me "How lovely to see people riding horses out here in the countryside on a Sunday" when two cars passed us and Starbuck freaked out, lunging towards the poor little old lady before getting back in line and passing her. She didn't get closer than about 5 feet, but still - it was still much too close for comfort and I felt awful for the poor lady. I was so freaked out I don't even remember if I apologized. Then only a few minutes later Carmen's horse Trueno got a little closer to Starbuck's rear end than she wanted and she gave a mini buck and then a BIG buck when he didn't heed the first one - thankfully he wasn't close enough for her to reach him but still... I was really losing it at this point - after two hours of tension and barely controlled explosions I was starting to really feel angry and superfrustrated and noticed that I was starting to do things like jerk on the reins and use the whip as a punishment. So as soon as we got off the road I stopped her as soon as I could and jumped off and led her the rest of the way back to the stable, which was good for both of our backs anyway. But I was feeling guilty, pissed, and scared.<br />
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By the time I longed her in the arena (no way she was getting off easy after the ride she gave me), showered her, rubbed her down and gave her a nice pile of hay, I was able to be a little more philosophical. I do think my biggest mistake was not getting off earlier but trying to muscle my way through her craziness by riding, so next time I'll bring my long lead rope so I can do some emergency longeing if I need to. Lesson # 1 learned. Other lessons: it's important to be reminded from time to time that no matter how well she behaves on one trail ride (or lesson, or show, or whatever...), it's no guarantee she'll behave so well the next time, and that I can't get cocky since I still can't necessarily control her all the time. I'm also going to get a green ribbon for her tail to give people (myself included) a visual reminder that she's not completely predictable, and I will never again stop right in front of a little old lady, even if it means being rude. <br />
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Mostly, I have to remember that we all have bad days, and I can't get bogged down or discouraged by this one, no matter how harrowing it was. After all, it wasn't SO bad - we discovered a new route and went on a trail ride in sketchy (wind, dark threatening clouds) weather without maiming anyone, including ourselves. And although it was touch and go at some points, I WAS still able to control her in the end. I'm even trying to be optimistic and remember that usually when she has several really bad days close together it generally signals a learning spurt. But still, next year she's getting liability insurance - it'll be one less thing to worry about.<br />
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Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-67588754694312496622014-11-07T20:30:00.000+01:002014-11-07T20:30:00.721+01:00Why I'm glad I'm fat<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://badeventer.blogspot.com.es/2014_01_01_archive.html" target="_blank">Thanks to "Tales from a Bad Eventer" for the photo!</a></span></div>
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"Thank God my ass is so fat" is not something that tends to go through my mind on a daily basis. In fact my lifelong struggle between wanting to be hot and wanting to subsist entirely on a diet of cheese, pork products, fried food and elaborate desserts pretty much makes me tend to think the exactly the opposite, cursing my oh-so-American "curves" fairly regularly. But I sure was grateful for all that extra blubber last night - and I bet you can guess why ;-)<br />
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So here's what went down - it's been pretty rainy for the past couple of days and we've all been jonesing for a ride. Last night the rain had stopped, but not long enough for the arena to be usable. So yesterday my stablemates Amanda and Maria Jose decided to at least ride around the barnyard on the walkways going by all the paddocks. Somehow the fact that we would be riding in the dark except for the moon and a far away bulb throwing some freaky shadows, that it was still really muddy and that the horses hadn't been ridden all week failed to deter us, so we saddled 'em up, jumped on and started off.<br />
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First obstacle - horny stud colt on one side of the track, playful and bored horses bounding up to see what we were doing on the other. Starbuck got a little exuberant and broke into a trot to get to the head of the line while Maria Jose's horse Compay decided to teach horny stud colt a lesson by throwing a few bucks. Maria Jose wisely got off but Amanda and I kept going.<br />
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Second obstacle - scary corner where the horses could see their own shadows. Starbuck wheeled around and tried to gallop back where we had come from, luckily dodging poor Maria Jose. But I wheeled her back around and we were able to walk (well, prance) past it.<br />
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Third obstacle - terrifying hay bales covered with horrific tarps. All three of the horses stopped in their tracks and didn't want to pass the evil hay bales. Maria Jose tried to walk Compay in hand past it first but Starbuck and Melyne (Amanda's mare) were getting nervous so I decided to pass her. There was a moment where Starbuck got stuck, then I tapped her with my crop and she shot forward, then sideways, then backward, then whirled around in a circle and started to gallop off. During this I was mostly just trying to stay up there and do a little damage control since we were a little too close to the roof of one of the stalls for comfort, but I ended up putting too much weight on one stirrup so when she galloped off the saddle slipped down to the right side. Between me hauling on the reins to slow her down and the saddle being way off center, she got pissed off and threw a few bucks and I went down on the third, landing squarely on my right butt cheek. But she didn't get very far before I went down and it didn't even hurt (and still doesn't this morning), which is why today I'm celebrating my tendency to chunkiness. Yay cheese!<br />
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Anyhow after walking her by the offending hay bale and its dangerous drapery several times and letting her snort at it a few more times, I got right back up and this time was able to ride by without incident. We made several more loops of the stableyard and in the end really enjoyed our ride in the moonlight. So I'm not happy I fell but I am happy I didn't let the fall ruin what ended up being a good learning and desensitizing experience and a fun ride with friends.<br />
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Going back in time to Monday, the day before all the rain started, I decided to give Starbuck kind of a light day and started just longeing her, but then got inspired and decided to ride her. But to keep things low-key, I rode her with only the rope halter and lead rope instead of her normal bridle. It's the first time I'd ridden all over the whole arena like that - the other times I've ridden her in a halter we blocked off the "non-scary" section to ride in, so I was pretty proud of us. It took me a while to remember how to switch the lead rope from one side to the other without smacking her in the face with it, and it took her a while to realize I really meant her to go where I was asking her to go, but in the end we really covered the entire arena doing lots of serpentines and figure eights and walking right by the bar and pigpen and whatnot at a walk, then doing some figure-eights and circles at a trot and a couple of circles in canter. <br />
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Some positive things I took away from this: she didn't buck or dash off at a full out gallop or otherwise misbehave at any point, so that was a big trust-booster for me. Also she had her head way down the entire time and was really actually using her hindquarters - you would have taken her for a western pleasure horse if it weren't for the saddle. And finally, over the course of the 40 minutes or so that I was riding her we really progressed from "I'm completely going to ignore your aids" to "You don't really want to go over THERE do you?" to "I guess we can do that if you say so" to "OK, let's do it". As much as I hate being bad at something, it's good to experience both the humbling sensation of not being able to do the simplest thing like walk in a straight line for 10 feet but also the cause-and-effect goodness of that kind of progress from time to time - it reminds me to not get so frustrated when things don't go like I want them to.<br />
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And finally last Saturday I had my first dressage lesson with my friend Virginia's old teacher Daniela who also taught a clinic I attended a few years ago - my friend Belén (owner of Lady Utopia, an even younger filly than Starbuck - and yes, that's her registered name) and I have decided to kick it up a notch and do some semi-private (just us and the teacher) lessons once every couple of weeks to see if we can make some real progress on both our riding and the girls' way of going this winter. We got one of our friends to tape it and as soon as I have enough patience and time and computer resources to upload the videos I'll do a dedicated post on that.<br />
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Have a great weekend folks and remember, being chubby has its benefits! XDStarbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-45033999115861334522014-10-24T20:27:00.000+02:002014-10-24T20:27:00.915+02:00Photos! And a couple of trail rides<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This post is old because I never got around to uploading the photos until now. So two weeks ago I used my feminine wiles to convince Sergio to come out and visit Starbuck with me, dropping a casual hint that since I had given her a bath with my special shampoo for black horses she would be very photogenic. So we ended up with a lovely photo shoot to show off our new and improved relationship, which I'll showcase below.<br />
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In other news we had a lovely lesson that Saturday morning including a few low jumps where she showed lots of impulsion and a fair amount of straightness both going in to and coming out of the jumps. Her trot was much more even as well, especially after she warmed up. And Sunday I went out on a trail ride with Carmen, another friend from the barn. I was very proud of us because our two horses had always simply followed more confident horses on trail rides and had never gone out "on their own" before. Carmen's horse Trueno (that's Spanish for "Thunder") wasn't really up to leading, but neither was he really willing to accept Starbuck as a leader at first. And Starbuck was pretty sure she didn't want to go in front. So the first 20 minutes or so were really a struggle, as we fought their urge to turn around and hustle back to the barn and sat out the inevitable spooks passing through "mad dog alley" (this is about a 200 foot stretch of road where the houses on either side seem to have about 8 dogs each who are completely freaked out by horses). I had to use my crop more than I'm proud of, but hopefully I'll be able to rely on it less next time and really when moving traffic is involved the choice is pretty clear. My goal for Christmas is to be able to ride without a crop. <br />
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Our brand new fancy schmancy reflective saddlepad will hopefully make us more visible to traffic (thanks to Carmen for the pics)<br />
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Once Starbuck figured out that I really meant to keep going and not let her take charge, she calmed down and kept up a really nice rhythm (except for a little bit of balking at some big brightly colored trash containers) and led the way for the whole ride. She even let Trueno trot beside her nicely without any ear pinning or other threats, and kept up a nice even, rhythmic trot with only a slight tendency to turn her head to the left (back towards the stable, not surprisingly). We even "practiced" walking on the sidewalk in one neighborhood and stepping on and off the curb - no problem! So all in all I'm pretty proud of myself for persisting and not freaking out when the going got tough and extremely proud of Starbuck for being able to trust me enough to take it all in stride and even be the leader for once.<br />
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This week I've been sick, but Sunday we went on another trail ride with Virginia and ended up walking all around a park and going through some "obstacles" (like a kid's jungle gym, a platform for people to do steps on, some low-lying poles...) which was loads of fun and I think a real confidence builder for Starbuck. The only thing which really freaked her out was a kid on a skateboard, and walking past the racketball courts - so two things to keep in mind to work on. And yesterday I rode her in a lesson and she was much better with her unevenness / limpy thing. This weekend she'll get another rest since I'll be out of town, so hopefully we'll finally start seeing some real progress.<br />
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Here are the lurvely photos... unfortunately my favorite ones were lost in IT-land but this gives me an even better excuse for Sergio to come and take more ;)<br />
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Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-73864290531572478452014-10-10T21:27:00.000+02:002014-10-10T21:27:00.338+02:00Mixed Feelings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This week is one of mixed feelings. On the one hand, Starbuck's still uneven at the trot and doesn't reach as far underneath her with her right hind. While it's not exactly lameness, I still don't feel confident working her 100% and it's something I have on my mind pretty much constantly. She has no visible swelling, hotspots or pain anywhere in her legs. At the walk she's perfect. At the canter she's perfect. But trotting (especially going to the left) you can tell that there's something wrong. My vet has ruled out tendon or bone issues and is convinced it's back or hip tension causing this, I've had the physical therapist out to work on her and between holidays, rain and preparing for the show with Vent she's had what amounts to about a month and a half of paddock rest with a few interludes of hour-long hacks, lungeing and very light riding. <br />
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Since she was doing better a couple of weeks ago but has now reverted to her old gimpy highjinks, I'm a little tempted to call up the "specializes in lameness" vet and ask for a second opinion. But both my vet and the physical therapist advised me to work her normally, with an emphasis on extensions. So I've decided to keep doing just that for at least a little while longer - if she gets worse or doesn't improve at all after a few weeks I can always stop working her and call the other vet and if she gets better then great. I'm trying to be objective about it and remember that when I personally have pain issues (especially back pain), generally the only way I can get it to go away is through exercise.<br />
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On the other hand, we are really reaching a new level in our relationship which I'm absolutely thrilled with. I'm convinced that my focussing on giving her more positive feedback and trying to dial down the negative feedback (less scolding, more praise) is really having a great effect on her behavior and motivation. I'm also able to use lighter and fewer aids than before and hardly ever get to the point of having a battle of wills. It actually feels like she's listening to me and waiting for my next instruction, and I hardly have to nag at her to keep going at all. In our lessons, to try to ensure that she doesn't just go around and around "practicing" unevenness, Marina has suggested that I do lots of transitions and work a lot over ground poles and tires and stuff so she has to think quick on her feet. We're also doing a fair amount of turns on the haunches to loosen up her back (which she's starting to get pretty good at), shoulder-in to build her up a little for more impulsion and trotting poles to work on her abdominal muscles. <br />
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As a result of all of this, her transitions are really getting spot-on - right when I ask for them, with ever-lighter aids and less dragging of feet than she usually does (trot? you REALLY want me to trot? are you SURE about that? oooooookay...). And after about 20 minutes of warming up with walk-stop-walk and walk-trot-walk transitions, her trot is definitely a lot more even and the irregularity is barely noticeable. But best of all? Her canter has improved immeasurably! Tuesday and Wednesday we only did transitions, never letting her get more than 5 or 6 canter strides in before going back to a trot. But yesterday she was moving well enough I decided to let her keep going for about a 30 meter circle to the right, and it was the best canter I've ever experienced on her. Smooth, rhythmic, energetic, even a little floaty... it was like a dream come true! And in the other direction it was almost as good, although there was a little head-shaking (probably related to the unevenness thing). And best of all? In the three lessons we've had this week, even now that it's dark enough for the arena lights to cast long and scary shadows, she's only spooked ONCE - and even that was when another horse spooked first, and she didn't take off galloping, only jumped to the side and spun a little.<br />
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So I'm really having a blast riding her both out on the trail and in lessons, and we get along much better on the ground - she pays much more attention to me and is a lot less bargey now that she knows that a neck rub, a "good girl" or a carob bean are right around the corner. And best of all, she seems to actually be enjoying our rides nearly as much as I do. So if we can get her movement and back issues worked out, we'll be right on track.Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-59150247148875571672014-10-06T19:39:00.000+02:002014-10-06T19:39:00.765+02:00I won a ribbon!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So yesterday was the big day - my first <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show_jumping" target="_blank">show jumping competition</a> ever! As I mentioned before, I rode one of Marina's lesson horses (the fabulous Vent) since Starbuck's still not 100% back in condition after her long rest due to achey back lameness and also so I could safely indulge in any of my own nerves and jitters about the competition without compounding them with hers about the van and being in a strange place. And the course I jumped was only 60 cm (just over a foot and a half), so most of my co-competitors were little girls under the age of ten - in fact everyone who finished the course without their horse refusing or knocking over a jump was considered a "winner" and got a ribbon (like ME!!!). Although I felt a little silly for being so cautious (especially since I shared my horse with an nine-year-old), I think in the end it was a really good strategy and I was bolstered by the fact that four of my adult friends from the stable were also competing at the same level. Also, instead of freaking the $*&# out I was able to focus on things like having a terrific time, jumping the course neatly and learning as much as possible for next time.</div>
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So here are the most important nuggets of wisdom I took away from the experience:<br />
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<li>You have to wake up really, really early on show day, especially if you're using hired transport. And we're lucky enough to be only 20 minutes away from the club that's hosting these "Winter Social" shows, I can't imagine what it'd be like to go to a show on the other side of the island. As it was my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. to get all my stuff together and be at the stable to load my horse by 6:30. Thanks to my mom I have a fabulous porcelain "to go cup" to truck my coffee around in, and I had most of a leftover almond croissant to munch on, otherwise I wouldn't have had breakfast. Next time I'll prepare a little better so all I have to do is get dressed and grab coffee and a duffel bag on the way out.</li>
<li>The order of the jumps is easier to remember than I thought it would be. Honestly one of the things I was most worried about was forgetting the order and being eliminated for jumping the wrong one, but after walking the course once with Marina coaching us and giving us tips on how to best negotiate each one of the jumps, walking it again on my own and then mentally going over it a few times it ended up being a piece of cake.</li>
<li>Things go a lot quicker than you expect. When you're watching a show and there are 30 participants in one class, it seems to take forEVER. But when you're waiting on the sidelines for the little girl sharing your horse to finish, then walking the horse back to the tying posts to change his tack because the little girl's saddlepad color doesn't match your fabulous new shirt, then realizing you left your keys with a friend back at the arena so you have to run up to the arena and run back down to the tying posts, then tacking up as if possessed by speedy demons, then trotting back to the warmup area where your instructor is yelling "what took you so long", time moves really quickly. Wisdom to take home - either don't share your horse or wear neutral colors, and have a "car keys strategy" worked out ahead of time.</li>
<li>The warm-up jumps are one-way only. People either get angry or laugh at you when you jump them the other way. 'Nuff said ;)</li>
<li>As I actually suspected at the back of my mind but superstitiously didn't want to mention beforehand, I didn't feel nervous or get "stage fright" at all, at any moment (even after I jumped the warm-up obstacle the wrong way). Being in front of a crowd focusses me and generally makes me perform better than otherwise. I remembered to salute the judges, to take Vent by the possibly scary yellow jump at the end, and was even able to remember most of Marina's great advice - breathe and count strides between jumps, outside leg and outside rein and listen for the horse's hind hooves going into a jump to make sure he's squared up. And as a result, I am really proud of the way I jumped the course.</li>
<li>Show jumping is FUN! The songs they had playing during my course were "In the jungle the mighty jungle" and "It's a small world after all" and at one point I thought "this is just like an amusement park ride". And my first thought after finishing the course and giving Vent a nice neckrub to say thanks was "I wanna go again!!!"</li>
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I also just want to crow a little about my barn - I am so lucky to have a place where my ambitions and dreams are not seen as laughable, ridiculous or unrealistic but valid, special and laudable. At any other barn, I would have been laughed out the door for wanting to debut at 60 cm instead of 80 cm (or train my own horse, for that matter). At Equitec, I found not only friends who wanted to do the same but an instructor who encouraged us - better to ace 60 cm than to risk an elimination or worse yet, a fall at 80 cm. It's truly a place to form, nurture and achieve your equine ambitions no matter how off the wall they may be with lots of support from administration and barnmates - the very opposite of what I've often experienced at other centers. So whenever I gaze wistfully on some other club's covered and perfectly dimensioned dressage arena, jump course with self-draining geotextile footing, showers and dedicated changing rooms for humans, or picturesque mountain location, I remember that none of that can ever compare with the friendships I've forged in only a few years at Equitec.<br />
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Next stop, coming up November 19 - doing the 60 cm course with Starbuck and the 80 cm course with Vent or another one of Marina's lesson horses.<br />
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<br />Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-72930959996508486462014-10-01T21:12:00.000+02:002014-10-01T21:12:00.614+02:00Rainy Days<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In autumn I'm always struck by how much Spaniards are like Southerners regarding the weather. Except where Southerners totally freak out about snow and seem to have had no prior experience negotiating it, Spaniards freak out about rain. Driving in the rain? If you venture out at all (people will actually call in late to work because "it's raining too hard, I can't drive") you have to go like 35 mph on the interstate, and people dodge puddles and do other crazy crazy stuff with their cars like, well, like Southerners in the snow. No one dreams of walking without an umbrella even if it's only drizzling and once again, lateness due to "waiting for the rain to stop" is completely acceptable in social situations, since if your hair gets wet you are doomed to die of pneumonia. And riding? Forget about it! <br />
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I will say in the folks at my stable's defense that since it only rains like 15 days out of the whole year it doesn't make much sense to have things like covered or self-draining arenas and the sand's kind of thin on the ground. Add that to the fact that the ground at our stable has a lot of clay in it and you get dangerously slippery footing even in the arena for a few days after a downpour, especially if your horse is both clumsy and prone to spooking. It rained all day Sunday and Monday, so even though it was nice yesterday, riding in the fenced arena was out of the question and a couple of friends suggested going out on a trail ride. Now I was at a wedding all day on Saturday and due to the rain, Starbuck hadn't gotten out of her paddock since Friday. So I was a liiiiitle apprehensive about taking her out (roads! motorcycles! manhole covers! bikes! farm animals! trucks! barking dogs! big white canvas bags full of rubble on the side of the road!) after so many days without any exercise but wanted to get the "rainy" season off to a good start and said yes.<br />
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I shouldn't have worried. Aside from a few snorts at some gigantic and fantastically smelly hogs we encountered and a few strides of "collected canter" on the way home she was as cool as a cucumber, even when we trotted along a gravel road passing people out walking with strollers and dogs (sometimes she gets a little strong at the trot out in the open). She was relaxed - even lazy - on the way out and we practiced going first, second and last in line, passing the other horses and having them pass us, and the only worry she seemed to have was snatching fennel flowers as we rode past them. I tried to remember to praise her as much as possible and we ended up having a really nice time.<br />
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I'm so proud and excited that we have reached this point and am looking forward to NOT having our training schedule put on pause for 3 days every time it rains this winter!<br />
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By the way on Sunday I have my first show jumping competition - not with Starbuck since she's still not 100% fit after taking time off for her backache / lameness thing, but with Vent, one of Marina's horses. He's a stubborn little beastie right on the height line between pony and horse who I really adore riding - for a lesson horse, he's got a fair amount of "spark" and will dump you (or try to) if you piss him off. Strangely enough I'm not nervous about this (yet).Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-17100765687113067752014-09-22T20:14:00.000+02:002014-09-22T20:14:00.479+02:00Horsey Bachelorette PartyThis weekend I participated in a horsey bachelorette party - I've been tagged in a lot of the photos on Facebook but wanted to "interpret" them on here for those of you who may be interested. My friends Belén and Cynthia organized it all and I thought it was so original and fun that it needed to be immortalized :) The blushing bride is my friend and stablemate María José whose wedding is next Saturday.<br />
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Since we always have a riding lesson on Saturday morning, we figured it would be easy enough to start the party there and just continue on for the rest of the day. So while we were saddling up, we called her over and gave her her first test - she had to wear a garter, gloves and a veil during the lesson - doesn't she look cute?! Lots of cries of "Viva la novia" (long live the bride) ensued, and made our lesson even more fun than usual. I broke out my helmet cam and my brand new helmet strap Sergio gave me for my birthday (no more ribbons y'all!) and video'd the entire thing which you can see here.<br />
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After the lesson we went our separate ways to muck out stalls, groom, mix food and whatnot and then took María José up to the bar for a coke while some of the girls hid the rest of the tests around the stable. Basically each test was tied to something around the stableyard with a ribbon and had the test itself as well as a clue as to the whereabouts of the next test enclosed in a brightly colored envelope. First she had to succeed at the test and then she could read the clue to get to the next test. The tests were organized as though she were preparing for her wedding - so the first one was "practice wearing your veil".<br />
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So once everything was in place, we called her back and gave her the clue to find her next test (rehearse the procession), which was that she had to make the stable's star stallion Chad walk with her 5 steps. This was easily accomplished with the help of a few carob beans. Then we all trooped to the paddock of Compay, the horse María José leases, where she had to "make sure they were soulmates and prove their complicity" by convincing him to lift one of his front feet for ten seconds (this is a "begging" habit he has which María José tends to scold him for). At first it seemed like it wouldn't come off, but with Marina's advice she was able to get him to hold up first his right leg for a count of five, then he switched legs and held up the left one for another count of five.</div>
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She then had to prepare a "special meal" for "her guests" (in this case a couple of ponies) using three different kinds of feed which they had to eat up completely - this wasn't much of a test since we honestly don't have any very picky horses at the stable. Then, since our stable's in an old orange grove, she had to find three oranges "since they've run out at the bar and can't make any more cocktails". They weren't ripe yet so we just let her point three out to us.<br />
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Her next test was to "make all her guests feel welcome" and get the two potbellied pigs at the stable to come to her and stay still long enough for a photo, at first she was a little worried since they tend to be really screechy (the horses certainly seem to think they're carnivorous monsters) and she thought they might not be very tame but they are sweet, if morbidly obese, pigs and behaved very well. She didn't even need food to get them to come to her. After that, she had to "get the party started" by leading us all in a disastrous conga line to the parking lot where her next clue awaited.<br />
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Then we had an even sillier test - María José had to "make sure the party was jumping" by giving each of us a number from one to ten and then we had to invent a jumping course one by one to do on foot. In other words, person # 1 (yours truly, thank God) had to choose one obstacle to jump, then person # 2 had to jump the first obstacle and then choose another one, then person # 3 had to jump the first two and choose yet another one and so on and so forth. And once all of us had gone, the bride had to jump all of them as well as another of her choosing. We had lots of fun imitating the horses we normally ride, with bucks, spooks, zigzagging before the jumps, etc.... although it was around 90º and superhumid so most people got over those kinds of capers after about the 4th jump ;) It did make us all a little more aware of what we ask our horses to do for us in the summertime.<br />
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The last test was to "immortalize the moment" by arranging all her guests with the ribbons that had come with each test to make the outline of a horse - as you can see this was easier said than done especially since once again, it was like 90º out and humid, and staying in the sun holding ribbons after dancing the conga and jumping over obstacles felt pretty sucky compared to getting in the pool.<br />
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After all this, there was a fun "ending ceremony" where she had to match up photos of the horses at the stable to be "maids of honour", "groomsmen" and "guests" and finally we went to Belen's house for a dip in the pool and some pizzas.<br />
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All in all very silly and the most "G-rated" bachelorette party I've ever been to, but really a lot of fun and a day to remember fondly.<br />
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<br />Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-62980559811323198512014-09-15T19:37:00.000+02:002014-09-15T19:37:00.506+02:00We're Baaaack<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Me and Starbuck and my Daddy</span></i></div>
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Well the last month or so has been pretty hectic for me and I haven't posted in a while - this is in part because I haven't been riding much, but also because my parents came to visit! :D :D :D We had a really good time and I was so happy to be able to share a little part of my life with them, as well as pretty much pretend to be a tourist for two whole weeks. So I guess it's all for the best that Starbuck wasn't quite up to snuff during their visit - that way she got a nice long rest and I was able to focus on spending time with my folks without worrying about not riding. Let me rewind a little:<br />
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Shortly after my last post a month ago, Starbuck started to do her not-extending-her-right-hind-well thing enough that I could feel it at a trot, so I only rode her at a walk for a couple of days working on lots of stretching and extension (leg yielding, shoulder-in, walking over cavaletti and through tire obstacles and whatnot) hoping she just needed some rest. But she didn't get better so I called in my vet, who recommended a massage session. Out came Pascual to give her a massage, who said she definitely had some lower back pain and showed me some massage techniques to use in the future. The first few days after the massage she was visibly sore and didn't want to trot at all, but the first day my parents got here and came out to see her she was apparently feeling much better since she bucked and farted her way around the roundpen at an all-out gallop when I asked her for canter - the expression "full of beans" comes to mind.<br />
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So there I was, all optimistic that I might be able to ride her and show off in front of my parents, when the next day I came out and saw that she hadn't finished her breakfast and seemed kind of down. So I took out my trusty thermometer and sure enough, she had a light fever. Panic ensued, since I was going to the other side of the island and knew I wouldn't be back for a few days. But my vet calmed me down (it's SO nice to have a vet who always answers your calls on Sundays without any complaints) and after giving her some bran mash with EQZone (Spain's answer to bute), clearing the rest of her breakfast and her hay out of her paddock and asking Marina to not give her anything more than a little bran mash for dinner and re-check her temperature in the evening I was able to leave without feeling too bad.<br />
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When I finally was able to come back to see her after a few days, she hadn't had any more fever issues (I got a friend to check her temperature every day while I was gone) but she still had some residual leg-extending stuff, which I had hoped would clear up. She was still a little gimpy a few days later after my parents left, so I asked my vet, who told me to give her another week of longeing with as much extension as possible to see if she improved or not. The first few days were pretty un-promising but finally on Saturday she really started to move well and by yesterday she was nearly back to normal - she would put in a gimpy stride every now and then but when you asked her to extend she did it well.<br />
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To celebrate, since it had been a month since I last rode her and I've been seriously jonesing for some Starbuck, I saddled her up and rode her at a walk to cool her down from her longe session. Man did that feel good! :D Marina's suggestion (with vet's blessing) is to intersperse light riding (mostly walk, some trot) with longe work in the deep sand at the end of the arena and over cavalleti and tire obstacles to work on extension and picking her legs up.<br />
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In other news I will participate in my first show jumping contest on October 5 - not with Starbuck since I don't want to push her recovery, but with Marina's feisty little pony Vent. And if all goes well, Starbuck will have her show jumping debut a month later at the beginning of November. Keep your fingers crossed for us!Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-7888145546444196202014-08-13T21:12:00.000+02:002014-08-13T21:12:00.163+02:00Photos, photos and more photos! (and an update)Had a really good week last week, riding-wise. Aside from a couple of spooks, Starbuck's really working incredibly well - she's more focused and responsive and seems more motivated than I've ever known her to be. I'm really trying to work on lightening my leg aids - basically what I'm doing is to give her the lightest possible aid I can (at the moment, this means lifting my leg out about a centimeter and let it fall back with its own weight), and if she doesn't react to it, then giving her one firm kick accompanied by a swat with the crop. Then I don't touch her at all with my legs until she's either broken gait or slowed down noticeably. After about three of these, she generally gets to reacting to the light leg aid - until she doesn't any more and I have to give her the kick/swat again. But each time I get more and more responses from the light aid and more and more time between having to nag at her and I only just started this on Friday, so I do think we're on the right track.<br />
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That's my thing to improve - her thing to improve right now is accepting contact and flexing at the poll. So in our warmups we spend a good amount of time on an exercise José taught me - at the walk and trot I open my inside hand at the elbow to flex her head inwards and wait until she lowers her head a little, then straighten her back up, then when her head goes back up, flex her inwards again. Then when we start really working, I take up a fairly light contact and keep my elbows flexible but clamp my fingers down on the reins. With the contact this light she can still poke her nose, so I do walk-trot and trot lengthening transitions to try to get her hindquarters activated as well as shoulder-in if she starts looking to the exterior, which generally tends to get her to curve her neck and flex somewhat at the poll, at least for a few strides.<br />
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What I need to remember is that Rome wasn't built in a day, and that we'll need to do this wrong for hundreds or thousands of times in order to get it right. I do feel like we're really progressing - she's not fighting the contact like she was a few weeks ago, and I'm not quite so heavy with my legs.<br />
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In other news my husband (finally! XP) came out to the stable on Sunday to take some lovely photos - here are some of my favorites, and you can see all of them <a href="http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/bocatacalamares/library/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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These two I'm not at all proud of and I feel pretty evil looking at them but I want to make sure to remember this daily - in all of this striving for the right contact and being on the bit, I MUST keep in mind that I have the power to make her supremely uncomfortable, even with (what I consider) a light contact. This is me trying to straighten her far-too-bent shoulder-in and just kind of muscling through her reluctance, next time I'll remember to try shifting my weight to the outside before tightening the outside rein.<br />
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<br />Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-65223170302986674512014-08-07T08:00:00.000+02:002014-08-07T08:00:05.503+02:00Green + Green<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://guidingstarbuck.blogspot.com.es/2011/08/how-it-all-started.html" target="_blank">How it all started</a></div>
Three years ago my husband gave me an untrained, spooky, affection-starved warmblood filly for my birthday. Three years ago I embarked upon one of the most challenging, stimulating and rewarding journeys of my life so far (and believe me, I've had a few). Three years ago to this very day I started this blog. When I decided to take on the challenge of training Starbuck with very little (funny, it seemed more at the time) equine experience under my belt, I was definitely blinded by the fact that I'd always wanted a horse more than anything else in the world and here one was, right in front of me! I was also completely unaware of just how difficult and frustrating it would be and how important real life experience is, and having read accounts of three-day colt starting clinics, easily convinced myself that with enough love, patience and the internet we'd be galloping off into the sunset in no time. In retrospect, I am awed and amused by my foolishness and lack of foresight, but at the same time am so very grateful I didn't know any better. I also have to thank Marina, my husband and my parents for having enough faith in me to encourage me to take on the challenge, even though they must have been much more aware of the risks than I was.<br />
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<a href="http://guidingstarbuck.blogspot.com/2011/08/calm-after-storm.html" target="_blank">Bumps and bruises</a></div>
There's an old saying that goes "green plus green makes black and blue" referring to a green horse and a green rider, and I have to admit that the risks were (and still are, to a certain extent) considerable - I've been kicked at, stepped on, run over, dragged behind, bucked off and head-butted more times than I can count. Any of them could have incurred broken bones or worse, and didn't (well, maybe a toe or two). And what I was even more afraid of than bodily harm - training Starbuck so badly that she would be unrideable for me and ruined for anyone else - could very easily have happened had Starbuck been one of these really sensitive, fearful horses instead of being nearly as stubborn, brash, clumsy and confident as I am. But as it turned out, she had enough 'tude to put up with me having absolutely no feel or timing for the first few months, and I had enough 'tude (and luck and apparently rubber bones) to keep getting up, dusting myself off and getting back on.<br />
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<a href="http://guidingstarbuck.blogspot.com/2011/08/finally-video.html" target="_blank">Some early vids</a></div>
The crazy thing is that what I thought would be hard were the easy parts and vice versa. Longeing? I figured it'd be a piece of cake and didn't even bother to learn how to do it with a "normal horse" but it turned out to be near impossible the first few times - she would either spook and gallop off, dragging me behind her (the little known sport of horse-skiing), or stop and turn to look at me so that she ended up longeing me rather than the other way around. She had no problem with me rubbing plastic bags, feed sacks and eventually even full-sized tarps all over her body but absolutely refused to pick up her hind feet for what seemed like forever. And the thing I was most apprehensive about - our very first ride - went so well that I would never have predicted that three years later she still throws the not-so-occasional buck.<br />
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<a href="http://guidingstarbuck.blogspot.com/2011/09/lessons-learned.html" target="_blank">Lessons learned</a></div>
What I really appreciate about having started Starbuck myself is that I have so many priceless memories from before I ever even got in the saddle - the sacking out, the early days at the tying post with my three loops of baling twine, the first time she wore a numnah and girth, then a saddle, then her bridle with a bit..., the first time I worked her in the roundpen (newly built just for her), the first time I triumphantly took her on a walk outside the stable grounds to a nearby orange grove, all the groundwork... In fact, I'm actually thankful she was spooky and rambunctious enough for me to put off riding her longer than I had planned, since the Parelli games, roundpenning and other groundwork really cemented our relationship and taught me a few important lessons (like how important feel and timing were, and how to start developing them) without even having to get on.<br />
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<a href="http://guidingstarbuck.blogspot.com/2011/11/our-first-ride.html" target="_blank">Our first ride</a></div>
And the first ride? I still remember how elated and grateful to her I felt, and the wonder of her movement melding with mine as Marina led us around the roundpen. Then the first ride on our own when I discovered that she didn't really mind me being up there (although she definitely resented me squeezing and kicking her until she figured out what it meant). The first five or so rides, we really progressed by leaps and bounds and I figured I had it all figured out. But then we rode in the big arena for the first time and I realized just how wrong I was. It turns out the first rides were the easy ones, and the hardest ones were (and probably are) still to come. And after the first few months in the saddle teaching her the basics of go, turn, faster / slower, back, sideways, stop and stand still, more than working on her I've mostly been working on myself, to paraphrase Ray Hunt. My balance and "stickability", the consistency of my aids, my ability to keep my body relaxed when my mind is freaking out, my striving for an independent seat, not to mention little things like courage, patience, equanimity... you get the picture.<br />
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<a href="http://guidingstarbuck.blogspot.com/2012/06/woooooooooo.html" target="_blank">Woooooo!</a></div>
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<a href="http://guidingstarbuck.blogspot.com/2012/06/first-ride-outside-arena.html" target="_blank">First ride outside the arena</a></div>
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<a href="http://guidingstarbuck.blogspot.com/2014/05/when-she-was-good.html" target="_blank">What we've been up to lately...</a></div>
Over the past three years we've come pretty far - from just worrying about staying on, to figuring out how to start, steer and stop, to working on correctly performing gaits, simple movements and transitions and by now are so far along that my main concerns these days are more about me refining my aids so they're less bothersome, and Starbuck moving her body in the most efficient, comfortable and sustainable way for her. Which is in itself a lifelong pursuit, so I don't see us getting bored anytime soon. And if we do get hung up along the way, we can always get back on track with a little jumping (up to 3 feet now!), trail riding, bomb-proofing, TTouch massage, riding over trail obstacles, longeing, in-hand or liberty groundwork, riding bareback, with a parelli rope halter or just with a neck rope, simply spending quality time together sharing territory or something we've never even tried before. So does green plus green equal black and blue? Sure, but somewhere down the line all those bumps, bruises and hard lessons have slowly and surely changed our relationship to solid gold.<br />
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Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-82531870876127123642014-08-05T20:47:00.000+02:002014-08-05T20:47:00.563+02:00Random notesToday's post is pretty mixed - mostly just stuff I may find useful or fun later on.<br />
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Anyhow first is my photographic ode to the shampoo and itch cream I've been using on Starbuck for the past month or so - it works really really well, much better than anything else I've tried so far.<br />
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Then some mixed photos and videos of Starbuck and Coco indulging in some mutual grooming, aren't they cute? This is the only time you can tell that Coco's really the boss since they share food nicely and herd each other around pretty equally. But Coco is the one who decides where the scratching gets done (back and butt as opposed to Starbuck's preference for neck and chest) and also the one who reminds Starbuck when she's getting lazy with a sharp nip.<br />
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Now this is pretty random but as it's horse-related I wanted to share - here's a video some might find interesting of the horsedrawn carriages that ferry tourists around downtown Palma heading into town from Sunday morning. Some of the horses are a little skinny for my taste and you can see saddle sores on some of them where the harnesses rub them, but for the most part they seem pretty healthy and I'm heartened by the fact that I see the carriage drivers giving them water and spraying them down for flies throughout the day and that some of them wear things like brushing boots. I know it's highly politically incorrect but I figure there are worse lives for horses than this (like spending 22 hours a day in a stall like some "performance horses" here in Spain). At any rate I love seeing horses while walking around town as well as the contrast of new-meets-old, and I also love hearing them clip-clop down my street as they leave town in the evening.<br />
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Another note - on my vet's recommendation I've changed her feed and instead of mixing straight up crushed oats with alfalfa pellets, crushed corn and fortified sweet feed, I've replaced the crushed oats with a different kind of sweet feed (Pavo Basic Plus, which was supposed to be the same as Pavo Nature's Best but in pellet form, but actually has slightly crappier nutritional statistics so next time I'll get the Nature's Best). I think she's not crazy about the change, but according to my vet the sweet feed will be easier for her to digest. It doesn't seem very intuitive to me that sweet feed would be more digestible than plain grains, but hey - humans certainly need to process (grind, soak and cook) grains to be able to use them nutritionally so maybe she's onto something. I'm interested to see how it goes.<br />
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Also, a lameness update - Starbuck was absolutely fabulous in Saturday's lesson, more (but still controlled) energy and better response to the aids than usual which may be the result of 5 days of rest and light work. I still gave her a nice massage and only did flat work to make sure I didn't overdo it, but then on Sunday I might have screwed up. My trail ride got cancelled so I joined a jumping lesson some of my stable buddies had scheduled with the resident "barn boy" - you know, the 18 year old kid who works his fingers to the bone in exchange for free lessons and use of the best horses for showing, and maybe something somewhat resembling pay every now and then. At first all seemed normal - Starbuck was a little lazy at the trot and a little skittish with the kids cannonballing into the pool - pretty classic. And she threw a few bucks at the canter, but since I was riding her with my crop on the outside to try to activate the outside hind leg, I didn't think much of them. We started out with a low "laboratory" of three bounces, which she did pretty well and those are the videos I post here.<br />
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But then we started working on jumping from up close - there was a trotting pole only about 4 feet away from a low cross-rails jump - and she just went bonkers! Bolting at the slightest noise, near impossible to steer, bucking on the way out of the jump... At one point I lost my stirrup and was pretty sure I was going down, but was somehow able to stay on and get myself back in position. We finally did it right once - fairly straight and rhythmic going in, good form over the jump and at the very least no bronc show coming out - and I decided to call it a day. I figure that she was probably a little sore still from her croup thing and this is her way of complaining. Although it might be the new feed, and it might just be her being bratty - she's been behaving really well lately so it's about time we went through a rough spot. Something to keep an eye on at any rate, and I probably shouldn't have asked her for even small jumps so soon after being sore.<br />
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Finally had an excellent trail ride yesterday - we walked all the way around a huge almond grove, flushing at least 6 rabbits and as many or more pheasants. Then we headed back by a way Starbuck and I had never gone on before through a semi-rural neighborhood. Cars, bikes, motorcycles, vans, barking dogs, sewer lids, plastic bags and empty beer cans underfoot, little old ladies with canes... we survived it all and were on a long rein by the time we got back to the barn. So very pleased with our progress as far as trail riding goes.Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-32619944060094308372014-08-02T20:39:00.000+02:002014-08-02T20:39:00.635+02:00Wild Wild West<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After getting shod on Tuesday Starbuck was slightly lame and shortstrided for a couple of days - she had some muscle cramps in her left croup probably from either overcompensating for being tenderfooted from the shoeing or possibly thanks to the "airs above the ground" she likes to practice in her paddock (which always remind me of the time I was "dancing" along to the Savannah St. Patrick's Day parade on TV as a child and threw my neck out so bad it got stuck there and my parents had to take me to the emergency room). Anyhow she had Tuesday off because of her new shoes and then Wednesday when I realized she was lame I put her away without trotting or cantering and Thursday all I did was longe her for five minutes - yep, still lame - and then give her a long massage.<br />
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But by Friday I really was jonesing for some Starbuck, so I decided that if she was at all better, I'd try René's western saddle on her and just ride her at a walk. On the longe she was really much better - hardly any lameness and tracking up much better than earlier in the week. And when I mentioned my plan to my friend Toñi (short for Antonia), she said she'd been wanting to do the same thing! So we hauled out René's big old cowboy saddles - boy are they heavy! - and after much puzzling over how to do things like fasten and tighten cinches, shorten stirrups, remove saddlebags and whatnot we finally felt confident enough in our saddling skills to mount up.<br />
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Starbuck was a little worried about it for the first 5 minutes but after me getting on and off about 5 times to adjust the cinch and stirrups and then walking around for a while she figured out that in fact the thing on her back wasn't a ravenous puma but basically just me with about 25 extra pounds. Toñi's horse Twister also had no issues with the saddle, so instead of joining in the lesson, we just practiced "neck reining" around cones and whatnot in the dressage arena - one-handed riding is something we really need to work on. But since we were only working at a walk, I had put her hackamore on her, and after a while she started catching on. This is something I need to work on bit by bit when I'm warming up and cooling down, and on trail rides, being able to steer with a bottle of water (or ice cold beer, or wineskin) in your hand is really useful.<br />
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And just because I'm a child of the 90's (well, an adolescent of the '90s) here's some gratuitous Will Smith to go along with this post ;)<br />
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Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1112618389595824035.post-7871171176308951742014-07-30T20:30:00.000+02:002014-07-31T14:57:31.249+02:00Trail Ride Vids<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
I'm still on a GoPro kick - I figure when I'm old and grey and can no longer ride (or just in the winter when it's rained for two weeks straight) it'll be fun to look back at these moments. I also find it tells me interesting things about my riding - the video is much more jarring at a seated trot than I'd like. Anyhow on Sunday we went out on our classic two-hour, 8 km trail ride and I strapped on the camera again - I guess the camera only records for an hour because about half the ride is missing. Anyhow the part that was recorded is in my opinion the best part and we'll go back soon anyway so I'm not worried.</div>
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Anyhow in case you're interested in the type of terrain we ride through I've uploaded a couple of the prettiest bits which also happen to be spots where we trot and canter. And if you're interested in seeing more including Starbuck's stellar behavior on country roads, you can see all the videos from the trail ride <a href="http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/bocatacalamares/library/Rutas" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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<br />Starbuck's Humanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11508748764943082398noreply@blogger.com0