You Can Classic Online Dressage Portal

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 Marina the NH guru at my stable or the folks at Gredos Ecuestre who organize such fabulous long-distance horseback rides.  So here's another one - my dressage instructor Daniela has finally launched her new international online interactive dressage training portal at www.youcanclassic.com.

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 under 5 minutes and many are just 2-3 minutes long.  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.

Here's an example preview lesson I found especially useful working on teaching the meaning of the outside rein.

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 optimized for mobile use- even pulling my phone out of my pocket to quickly refresh my memory is a big help with this.

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 all levels of dressage, 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.

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 personally attest as to the effectiveness of Daniela's training style and her knowledge, feel and experience - 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.

So if you have a minute, trot on over to www.youcanclassic.com and check it out - you won't be sorry!

Wow!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 First Show

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.

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.

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:

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.
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.

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.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bocata/16037449000/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bocata/16038694219/

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!

Mixed Feelings

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I won a ribbon!!!

So yesterday was the big day - my first show jumping competition 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.

So here are the most important nuggets of wisdom I took away from the experience:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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 ;)
5. 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.
6. 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!!!"

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.

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.

Rainy Days

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!

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.

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.

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!

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).

Green + Green

How it all started

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.

Bumps and bruises

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.

Some early vids

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.

Lessons learned

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.

Our first ride

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.

Woooooo!

First ride outside the arena

What we've been up to lately...

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.