A Pretty Boring Update

So 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!).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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.

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.

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.

Got new boots by the way!  They're synthetic, we'll see how they do.  But they were 50% off! :D

Side Reins - A Quandary

Thanks to Horseproblems.com.au for the photo!

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.

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.

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?

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 (Daniela herself, Reiner and Ingrid Klimke, Sue Morris, Will Faerber, 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.

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.



By the way two other random things to mention:

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.

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.

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.

I'm Not Proud Of My Jumping Technique

In 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.

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.

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.

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.

Random notes

Today's post is pretty mixed - mostly just stuff I may find useful or fun later on.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

On a Roll

We have really been making progress the past week or so, and I want to share our successes.  In our lessons, Starbuck is much more responsive and although my leg aids are still not as light as I'd like, I find that after warming up I can use much less leg than I had to a month ago.  She's also starting to give to the bit and round out a little from time to time - for now we just have fleeting moments of her moving correctly but if I can nurture them and not screw things up they'll get longer and longer until she realizes that it's really in her best interest to lower her head, flex her poll, round her back and reach forward with her hind legs rather than to run around with her head in the air, her back hollowed out and her legs all strung out.  She's also been behaving exceptionally, very little spooking and only a few bucks and those mostly only when I use the whip which tells me I need to be softer with the whip anyway.  And what's most rewarding is that she really seems a lot more focused and motivated - I don't know if this is her realizing that I'm trying hard to make her life easier and she's returning the favor, or if it's the transitions or the trail riding or what, but it's noticeable enough for even Marina to comment on it.

One annoying habit of hers which I've been puzzling over is her falling out, especially going to the left.  This, much like the dull on the leg thing, also only started when I began working her on a contact and after several sessions of just being frustrated and trying to pull / push her back into place with legs and reins I finally decided that it was more of a balance / straightness problem than an obedience problem (without being able to throw her head up in the air, she has to figure out new ways to balance herself, and if one foot pushes harder than the other it's normal for her to go sideways).  So I tried a different solution - weighting my inside stirrup when she starts drifting out through her shoulder - and it works wonders!  It's also a good reminder to keep myself centered and pay attention to my center of gravity since I tend to slouch this way and that if I'm not careful.

Here's something fun - I actually recorded an entire lesson on video thanks to my husband's recent acquisition of an open-source "GoPro"-style camera (one of these really light-weight cameras with attachments so you can wear it around) - if you're interested in at least seeing what it's like to ride Starbuck you can check out the videos here.

Her bugbites are also much better than a few months ago - I think a combination of the blanket + mask, thrice-weekly baths with the new shampoo (chlorhexidine and aloe vera instead of just chlorhexidine) my vet recommended and an herbal anti-itch cream which I bought at the tack shop are finally paying off.  She still has some bald spots, but a lot less than before, hardly any of them with the skin broken, and she's not as obsessive about rubbing herself on the tying posts and whatnot.  I also changed her bedding from hay to pressed wood pellets, which expand, turn into powder and clump together like kitty litter as they're exposed to moisture.  This not only makes mucking out her paddock a lot quicker, but it also makes it possible to remove almost all traces of poop and pee from her bed (not to mention semi-decayed hay) which means less flies and hopefully less fly bites.  Here are some pictures, already I'm reaping the benefits of the 10-minute muck-out and with any luck her bites will get even better.

And last but not least, we've been trail riding fools lately!  Last Saturday after our morning lesson there was only one student for the next class so José Luis (the kid who helps out around the stable) took him out for a trail ride, and me and my friend Mar went with.  Sidebar - isn't the name "Mar" (which means "Sea" in Spanish) a wonderful name for a girl, especially one born on an island?  I love it.  Anyhow it went really well on the way out, but on the way back it seems like Starbuck got her second wind and went a little crazy with the passing cars.  No harm done except for some really freaked out drivers, but it definitely made me decide to use the butterfly bit for outings, at least until she's more consistent.  Then I was supposed to go on a trail ride with my German friend René on Sunday but had a hangover, so agreed to go with him on Tuesday after work.  This one was much better - Starbuck's best friend Coco came along for the first 20 minutes or so but then turned around and went home, so we got to work on (and survived!) some separation anxiety there, then I was really proud of her for going over some brightly painted speed bumps that René's horse Rodrigo balked at.  And we even went down a rocky streambed for about 200 feet before deciding it was going to be a pain in the ass and heading back, but just getting up and down the steep bank to the streambed was a challenge to be overcome.  She behaved really well on this one and even though we were on unfamiliar roads with narrow streets with stone walls and barking dogs on either side and cars and bikes passing and she was nervous, was able to overcome her instincts and stay under control.  I need to remember that it's better when I push her just a liiiiitle bit beyond what I know 100% she can do since it builds both our confidence.

But yesterday was the cherry on top of my trail riding sundae - we went on a longer 2 1/2 hour route (the same one we did a few weeks ago) and not only did she hardly spook at all even with cars speeding past us at 55 miles per hour at some points and rabbits and partridges exploding out of the brush at our feet, but we even did a nice controlled canter several times and were nearly as comfortable leaving the way as we were following René and Rodrigo.  We did a little hillwork too - at the far point of the trail ride there are some lovely hills with different inclines from pretty flat to extremely steep which are also handily covered by tall pines and dotted with blackberry patches, so we went up and down a few times just to show ourselves we could.  We're also getting pretty good at moving sideways to get to ripe blackberries and carob beans - which is good practice for the upcoming fig season.

So I'm really enjoying our progress and hoping that the inevitable setback, when it comes, won't be too disastrous.  But mostly I'm just grateful to her for all she's giving me and trying really hard not to screw it all up.

...and Nervous Nellie

This is an old photo btw

Can I eat my words please?  Nervous Nelly was back with a vengeance yesterday at our lesson in Sa Fita.  My instructor over there had asked me to wear spurs for yesterday's lesson and boy am I glad I decided to ignore him.  He had never seen her like this and was completely blown away, and I had to keep reassuring him that she's just like that every now and then.  Spooks all over the arena, gallops I could just barely get under control, freaking out at every sound or movement, rodeo bucks... it was Spooky Starbuck's Greatest Hits and then some.

But... (and you know me, there's always a but) it ended up being a very positive session for us.

After warming up, I wanted to keep doing some halt / walk / trot transitions in the "spooky spots" until she calmed down, but after a few minutes my instructor set up a jump and told me to take her over it.  I was pretty dubious about the wisdom of this but figured I could deal with any contingencies and so we went for it.  And to my surprise, she did fine -  there were still the same spooks, stampedes and bucks that I was getting in trot and even walk, but they didn't make any difference in our ability to take the jumps.  We went up and up to about 2 1/2 feet and then added some scary plywood panels painted with red and black spirals to make the obstacle look like a psychadelic, twilight zone wall.  She dodged it the first time, which both me and my instructor were expecting, but then I took her back around at a trot and after a little zig-zagging hesitation she jumped it.

So I learned two really important things yesterday which I think will really serve us both in the future, especially in stressful situations like a show or a particularly gnarly moment during a trail ride.  1.- Even though she's spooky and freaking out and barely under control, she still IS in fact under control, and 2.- Giving her a job to do, even a high adrenaline job like jumping doesn't make it worse, it makes it better.

Boring Bess

If you're one of the two to three people who read this blog regularly, you may recall that a while back I was a little worried about Starbuck's growing tendency to run off with me after a spook, ignoring all rein aids.  And you may also recall me saying that hopefully in a few weeks I'd be worrying about something else altogether.  Well, boy was I not wrong on that one.  And what, you may ask, am I worried about now?  Surprisingly enough (or not), our new problem is too much woah, not enough go.

Now I'm not sure whether this back-and-forth stuff is common to all mares, or all young horses, or all horses in general, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Starbuck and I are given to extremes.  Even my farrier the other day told me "I just don't understand - sometimes it's like she's an old lesson nag who's been getting shod for decades, then the next time I come out she just can't stand still".  And the same is true for our day-to-day rides - I never know what I'm gonna get.  One day she's Boring Bess, the next she's Nervous Nell.  There are trends, however, and her latest trend is way more in the Boring Bess direction.

Ever since my dressage lesson with my friend José I've been working on riding Starbuck with more rein contact.  Note that I'm in no way talking about pulling on her mouth or forcing her to bend her neck or even asking for flexion of the poll.  I'm simply talking about firm, steady yet flexible contact still allowing her to carry her head however and wherever she wants to.  But if she had a tendency to be sluggish using no rein contact at all, now she's downright Jabba-the-Huttish.  "More leg!", my friend José said in our dressage lesson.  "More leg!", Marina tells me every time I ride with her.  "More leg!", instructs Toni over at Sa Fita.  And I dutifully apply more leg, more leg, ever more leg...  Until I noticed grooming her the other day that she actually has spots on her side where her hair's worn down from me kicking and nudging her so often.  So "More leg"?  I don't think it's that simple.

I think the problem is not how much leg I'm giving her, but how often I'm giving it to her.  After reading around the internet for a while, I'm pretty much convinced that my problem is that I never let up.  And hey, if you keep getting kicked no matter what you do, sooner or later you'll stop trying so hard.  So I made a vow the other day - even though I know she won't respond to a squeeze of my calves, ALWAYS start my leg aid with only just that.  And then simply escalate until she does respond.  And then STOP - no more leg until she slows down noticeably.  No more squeezing each time I post, no more nudging with each stride just to get a decent walk.  And never, NEVER use the crop without using my leg first (sometimes I use them interchangeably).

So does this sound like basic riding skills that everyone should have, and that no one without them should ever attempt to start their own horse?  If so, you're probably right, and I make no excuses for myself except that I'm willing to change.

Sa Fita

A couple of months ago I bought a Groupon for classes at the stable down the road from mine with the idea of giving Starbuck and I some new experiences and perspectives on our progress.  I've been busy getting my Spanish driver's licence (yep, I even had to take lessons all over again) so I didn't start right away, but I finally passed my driving test and as a reward called up to see when I could have my first lesson.  So this past Sunday at 10:45 a.m. Starbuck and I set out for Club Hípico Sa Fita with butterflies in our stomachs and determination in our hearts for our first ever time riding at another stable.

I had a hangover, having had dinner at a friend's house where liberal amounts of amaretto were ingested with dessert, and had only slept about 5 hours (the irresponsability of this didn't occur to me until the morning after) and on top of everything it was even more blustery than usual, with enough wind to have to hold the numnah on her back until I got the saddle on top.  So I was really skeptical of how things would go.  But of course as my dad has commented more than once, when I have relaxed expectations often Starbuck performs much better than I expect her to, and this occasion was no exception.

On the walk over (it's about a third of a mile) she gave a little spook at some styrofoam panels the neighbors had put up to reinforce their fencing (classy!) which were creaking in the wind, and the last 300 yards were a little stop-snort-start-y.  Aside from that she behaved really well, with very little prancing and no rearing or other craziness, walking through puddles and giving the bikes, cars and roadside goats, chickens and dogs little more than a passing glance.

I used the rope halter and short longe line to lead her over, so when we got to the stable (right on time!) I took advantage of that to longe her a little bit in their arena, especially by the places she seemed worried about.  After about five minutes or so of that, I switched out the halter for her bridle, mounted up and started exploring their ring.  It's maybe 50 x 35 meters or a little less and has lots of brightly painted, interesting obstacles set up in different formations - there are some basic "traditional" jumps, some plastic traffic barriers, cavaletti stands, painted panels to keep the horse from dodging a jump sideways, some plastic "water obstacles", traffic cones... you get the picture.  There's also a big puddle in one corner thanks to the recent rains, and in the other corner right outside the arena there's a little wooden gazebo type thing with coke and snack machines, which makes creaking and cracking noises.  There's also a kind of warehouse on the far side of the arena where people load things into trucks noisily and then drive the trucks off.  She was a little jumpy with both the gazebo as well as with the trucks, but seemed to realize that we were there to work and got right into it.

My instructor is a young guy - maybe 20 years old - named Toni who obviously has lots of experience jumping but gave a few "quick fix" suggestions which raised some red flags for me - like using side reins while jumping so Starbuck would be more collected.   But he ended up giving me some really great advice about my posture and specifically about improving my release of the reins when Starbuck moves her head forward to jump, as well as pointing out that I could praise her more often.  And he gave me lots of compliments on how well muscled Starbuck is for her age, and how well behaved, etc... so of course I ended up absolutely loving him.  After a few minutes of walk and trot weaving in and out of the obstacles and getting closer and closer to the scary stuff, we did a couple of laps in canter to warm up and started jumping.  We started with a little cross-rails obstacle which he quickly changed to a vertical and then we just started going up and up... after 6 or 7 jumps to the left I could tell Starbuck was starting to get worn out (and me too!) and asked him if we could change to the other direction.

So we turned around, lowered the jump again, and did the same thing heading right.  At one point when it was pretty high, she struck the bars with her hind legs.  On the second try, she struck again but we just made the circle again with a little more energy, went into the jump superstraight and jumped the same height again and she cleared it nicely.  Since she had done so well and I wanted to make it very clear that she had done the right thing by giving her the best reward I can think of (stopping work), I told him that as far as I was concerned we were good to go on the jumping.  "OK", he said, "by the way, do you know how high that is?"  It was 95 centimeters - in other words three feet!  I'm fairly sure we've never jumped that high before, and it wasn't even a big deal until I knew about it.  So I gave Starbuck lots of scratching on her withers and neck which she loves since she's so itchy, cooled down and walked her back home with the biggest smile on my face in years.

I'm going to cut this off soon since I could probably keep writing about it for ages with how elated I am at this demonstration of our progress, but I just want to add a note that on Monday we had another lesson which is where the videos are from - she was obviously a little tired and we ended up hesitating a little before some of the jumps which we'll have to work on, but we did a course of 6 jumps at 80 cm height, twice!  The videos are from the end of the lesson when my friends Virginia and Belén came by to give us their support.  And to cool down we went for a walk in a huge field they have behind their stable with no other horses, and aside from a spook when a partridge burst out of the brush like 6 feet away from us she was very calm and centered.  It really felt like she was looking to me for reassurance that this was all OK, and getting it.

What a good little mare I have!

Dressage Lesson

My friend José, son of Gredos Ecuestre guru Gaby Mendez, is amazing at dressage.  Not only has he helped his father train horses for his trail riding business and fix clients' problem horses since he was a kid and given riding lessons at his dad's stable more recently, but he's also ridden and trained professionally at a couple of breeding operations in Spain, so even at the tender age of 23 he's got loads of experience.  And he's also a really nice guy and fun to be around, so when he told me he was coming to Mallorca to work at a very exclusive stud farm I was thrilled.  So yesterday I showed him around Palma, and in return he very generously gave me a dressage lesson after lunch (hopefully the first of many if I have any say about it).

Right off the bat, he told me to raise the snaffle as it was apparently hanging too low in her mouth to act effectively, and I had to put the noseband back on my bridle (I don't really care for nosebands and had taken it off) and tighten it way more than I had ever tightened it before.  I was worried that Starbuck would find this uncomfortable and fight it, but it didn't worry her at all - no nodding or head shaking or pulling, and right off the bat she started to have a little foam at the corners of her mouth and munched on the bit a little.  Then I mounted up and started riding and he started giving me some pointers which I'll list below in more detail.  But here's a quick summary: We started out taking up much more contact with the bit than I'm used to, and as a result I haven't worked so hard physically while riding for years - I think Starbuck thinks that bit=brakes and when she has more than just the barest contact she has to be pushed to keep going.  Also, any time I change anything about my posture, the rest of my body seems like it has to work overtime to keep from falling out of place.

To make a long story short, both Starbuck and I (and probably José as well!) worked much harder than we're used to yesterday, but got some really positive results - for example I figured that her accepting a steady contact and flexing at the poll correctly would take weeks if not months to achieve, but yesterday after only 20 minutes or so she was starting to get the picture and carry her head more vertically, even if only for a few moments.  And even though I had to constantly push her harder than I normally have to and he wouldn't let me use the whip as much as I wanted to, I could still feel at times that I had much more "horsepower" at my disposal than usual.  So here are the pointers I can remember as well as the exercises we worked on - it looks really basic but believe me, it was extremely exhausting!

Warming up - walk / trot

• Spread hands to width of my body, elbows bent.
• Exterior hand remains still and firm with fingers closed, interior hand slowly spreads towards the center of the arena / circle flexing the head and neck inward and then back again, straightening the head and neck. Elbows remain bent!
• Repeat until the head and neck go down, then release (open fingers slightly) and add leg to maintain impulsion.  
• Repeat every time the head comes back up.  Walk and trot with this "lengthening" pattern.
• After several circles of her doing the exercise correctly, go large and release the reins so she can stretch down and forward, then change diagonal and repeat.

Normal work - walk / trot / canter

• Hands together near the withers, elbows bent.  Hands still.
• Fingers closed, leg on to maintain impulsion.
• If she fights the contact, keep elbows bent and fingers closed and wait.
• If she leans on the contact, give her more leg to move her forward until she lightens, then release (open fingers slightly).
• If she looks at something outside the arena, flex her head to the center by opening my inside rein as in the warm-up and then straighten her back up.
• Build up impulsion but don't allow her to advance before transition, then ask for transition with steady building leg pressure (not kicks) while maintaining contact.  Maintaining contact is key for a good balanced transition.
• I can use the whip lightly to increase / maintain impulsion, but always using the leg first.
• After several circles of her doing the exercise correctly, go large and release the reins so she can stretch down and forward, then change diagonal and repeat.
• End with forward trot on a long rein (but still with contact) several times around the arena.

Overall pointers:

• Never cross hands over the withers - one hand on each side of the withers
• Keep my elbows bent
• Keep my hands closed except for release
• Maintain steady but flexible contact at all times, even with long reins
• Sit up straighter (3 point seat)
• Legs behind the girth so I don't have to kick and can simply squeeze
• Steady leg pressure instead of kicks
• More leg than whip and always leg before whip
• Use whip more lightly, only enough to get a little more energy, not enough to startle

When she was good...

Starbuck is a creature of extremes.  Remember the Longfellow poem about the little girl with the little curl?  Well Starbuck's about like that - when she's good she's just so damn good!  Here are some of the things we've been busy doing for the past couple of weeks instead of writing blog posts ;-)

• Using a neck rope / balance rein in combination with the regular reins for steering and stopping cues as well as trying to improve Starbuck's balance
• Riding (walk, trot and canter including figures of 8, backing up and turns on the haunches) in the round pen with only the neck rope and nothing at all on her head

• "No hands" downwards transitions and ever-sharper upwards transitions, even to a canter
• "Parelli class" using only a rope halter and one rein attached to the halter to steer relying on seat cues to stop

• "Parelli class" using no reins and only a carrot stick to steer relying on seat cues to stop

• Some lovely jumps entering with rhythm and impulsion and leaving at a nice steady canter without bucking
• No longer using the butterfly bit at all and back to using the hackamore 75% of the time with the snaffle only when it's windy or there's a lot of spooky stuff going on
• Actually tracking up!!!

I've been really having a blast lately, especially since Starbuck's performance is on a higher level than some of the newer horses and I can feel like instead of struggling to keep up with a mid-level class, we're actually up there with the leaders most of the time.  And of course riding bitless and bridleless is another huge thrill for me - I feel like the connection I have with Starbuck is much more honest and puts us on a more even playing field, which when she's amenable to my plans is wonderful.  When I ride with less tack I feel pretty confident that #1 I'm doing a pretty creditable job on her training and #2 she's really doing this because she wants to.

However Starbuck is, after all, a teenager and so like Longfellow's little girl, sometimes she's downright horrid.  At the start of the Parelli lesson she realized she had the freedom to put her head down and eat the grass growing at the edge of the arena, or bite other horses on the butt whenever she felt like it and it took me a good 10 - 15 minutes to get her to agree to what I wanted to do (ride around calmly in logical patterns without stopping for snacks, maiming or even threatening the other horses and their riders).  And last Monday I was working on activating her hindquarters and tracking up when a gust of wind blew over a jump standard which made a loud noise as it hit the ground, sending Starbuck off on her best rodeo bronc imitation to date.  I lost my stirrups but rode out the first three or four bucks pretty well, tried to turn her in a circle, lost my balance, got bucked into the air, landed hard with my pelvic bone on the pommel and with the next buck landed on the ground.  Boy was I pissed off that after such a major spook, when I got up I found her five feet away calmly munching on thistle flowers and looking at me like "Who, me?" - I know it's a blessing that she's able to instantly chill out after completely freaking out but just at that moment I wasn't amused.  Maybe it had something to do with all the arena sand in my panties.

Anyhow no harm, no foul - I got right back on sand and all and finished what I had planned to do for the day, and in the end I guess I got what I wanted - her hindquarters certainly had to be engaged to accomplish all that bucking.

Spooking Lessons

Thanks to spookink.com for the photo!

When I told my husband the other day that we had done "spooking lessons" at the stable the other day, he quipped "So did Starbuck teach the class?".  And of course, when it comes to finding excuses to spook and discovering new and fascinating movements in an attempt to unseat me, there's no one more qualified.  But in fact the lesson was focused on ways to confront spooks and techniques for getting and keeping our horses' focus on us instead of on the legions of monsters lurking behind every fencepost.  For some time now even some of the veteran lesson horses at the stable have been giving little spooks every now and there are several new youngsters at the stable to liven things up - enough so that Starbuck is now mostly considered "a normal horse" instead of the barn rebel.  So Marina decided enough was enough and decided to spend an entire class working on how to deal with spooks.

Marina's technique:

1. If you feel a spook coming on, relax your seat but close your fingers on the reins.  Marina's a big proponent of opening your knees more than the classical equitation stance, but the fact of doing so automatically causes your weight to sink into your heels, giving you a better balance than otherwise.  So if you see a spook coming on, the idea is to relax your seat so much that your knees "flap" like butterflies with the motion of the horse.  And closing your fingers on the reins (note - not pulling back) tells your horse that you mean business.
2. Don't stop and face the scary object unless you're planning to go over it.  Try not to even acknowledge it.  Walk by it purposefully as if it weren't there.
3. Focus on where you want to go and direct your horse's feet there.  Choose a realistic path (if your horse is deathly afraid of the new jump standard, plan to pass by it within 5 feet rather than 5 inches the first time) and stick to it with military discipline.  Focus on the feet rather than the head and don't let your horse swing his hindquarters away from the scary thing.
4. Slow down if you need to.  It's better to slow to a walk or even a stop in order to go exactly where you want to, than trot or canter on a path chosen by the horse.
5. If your horse spooks anyway, don't just circle back to the spook spot again and again.  Attempt to keep your horse facing in the direction you want to go and get back on the path (and to the gait) you had originally chosen as quickly as possible.  Marina's theory is that if the horse gets to circle away from the spooky thing he thinks he's won the battle, even if he has to go back again.

To "encourage" some spooks out of the older horses, Marina spread some old saddlepads on the ground and draped some others over cones and jump standards where they flapped merrily in the breeze.  And the folks in the bar collaborated by doing things like moving their chairs and tables around and spraying down the pig pen with the hose.  And we started working all over the arena but spending most of our time near the bar and the tractor, first at a walk and then in trot and canter.  The result?  I won't try to deny that there were a couple of spooks, but the fact was that we ended up going where we wanted to go at the speed I wanted to go at nearly 100% of the class, which is way more than I can normally say.  She was much more focused on me than she usually is and the ears were swinging forward - backwards instead of forward - sideways.  And her transitions were really on target - no hauling on the reins all the way across the arena to get from a canter to a trot.

But the true moment of glory came later, when it was our turn to try to walk over the saddlepad spread on the ground which all the other horses had either dodged or jumped.  She stopped, lowered her head, snuffled at it for a few seconds, snorted, snuffled at it some more and then walked over as if it weren't even there.  Been there, done that ;-)

Frankenhorse, Great Expectations and other stories

 before...

 after... no, it's not just you, there's no visible difference aside from the direction of the light

My sister apparently has taken to calling Starbuck "Frankenhorse" for her freakish appearance - and indeed lately she does look like two or even more horses kind of haphazardly thrown together.  She's probably shed about 50% of her winter coat, mostly from her head, neck and legs, so there she's fairly uniformly shiny black or at least very dark brown.  But her torso, chest and hindquarters still retain large splotches of thick, fuzzy brown and yellowish winter fur.  Here are some more photos I took before and after giving her a bath in the hopes of getting her to shed a little quicker, quite obviously it didn't work since there's no noticeable difference between the before and after pics.  She does seem less itchy though so that's a step in the right direction.

 before...

 after...

I love this time of year, it's not unlike very very slowly unwrapping a present (if wrapping paper were made of fur and caused allergies) - as over the course of a month or so my fluffy yellowish stuffed animal horse turns into a sleek, shiny black steed (and then promptly turns yellow again).  And if all goes well this year and we can manage to not destroy the flysheet before Summer's over, maybe we can even avoid the sores and bald spots from all the itching.  Speaking of the flysheet, I agreed this weekend with Marina that she's going to go ahead and start putting the sheet on her every morning and I'll take it off in the evenings - I know it's early but there are already a fair amount of flies and Starbuck already has several itchy flybites.  If I leave it until any later she'll end up scratching the flysheet to pieces.  She totally looks like a horse from outer space in her fly gear, I'm glad she seems to have no idea of how bizarre she looks in it because she doesn't seem to mind wearing it at all.  Maybe with the light color it reflects heat and she'll actually be cooler, or at least stay dark longer.  I can only hope.

On another tack, my dad e-mailed me a very intuitive comment about my previous post where he reminded me that I tend to have elevated expectations and get nervous and wound up and suggested that by not feeling 100% and only riding because I really wanted to, I was actually more relaxed than usual and that Starbuck had picked up on that and was correspondingly more relaxed as well.  I think I proved him right again on Saturday - I had a pretty good lesson on Wednesday, Thursday I didn't go to the stable (Thursday's my CSA day) although my friend Lola rode Starbuck and Friday I got tied up at work and only had time to run by the stable and give Starbuck a good rubdown for about 30 minutes before I had to go home.  So I was really looking forward to riding Starbuck on Saturday, especially since the weather was wonderful - about 65º, sunny and hardly any wind.  I blissfully tacked her up, mounted up and rode breezily into the arena and started warming up.  UNTIL. WE GOT. NEAR. THE. TRACTOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Someone had lifted the hood of the tractor and LEFT! IT!! UP!!!!  Turning an unassuming piece of farm machinery we've ridden by nearly every day for the past three years into A HUGE HORSE-EATING MONSTER!!!

*sigh*

Nearly all of the rest of the class was spent either recovering from full fledged spooks (i.e. working on our "walk to extended gallop to walk" transitions) or attempting to avoid them in the first place by trying to keep my seat relaxed but my aids businesslike.  And after the umpteenth time she stumbled over a trotting pole and nearly went to her knees because she was paying more attention to the tractor than where she was going, I lost it.  Too much frustration, too much trying to relax my body when my mind was wound to the breaking point... I honestly broke down crying in the middle of the class and had to take a time out while I sobbed into her mane for a minute.  I was really really close to giving up and walking out of the class, but knew how much I would regret it later and decided just to finish the class no matter how badly I rode or how crazily she acted.  I was so emotionally exhausted I just didn't care as long as I could finish the class.  So I got in line after the rest of the horses in the class and what do you know?  After one or two "token spooks" she settled down and started working normally, and spent the last 10 or 15 minutes of the class with hardly any silliness.

So obviously there's a pattern here - I think when I set the bar too high maybe I overface her.  So something to focus on over the next few rides is to make a concious decision before mounting up to not try so hard and to accept whatever she's willing and able to offer up that day.  And as a matter of fact yesterday I decided she was so skittish and I was so exhausted from Saturday's catharsis that I decided to ride her in the roundpen to work on some "seat building" exercises, and it ended up being one of the most positive things I could have possibly planned.  I was able to ride her without using my hands at all to work again on balance like I did that day with Marina, to work without stirrups and to do some trotting with my eyes closed, and she was able to practice walking, trotting and cantering without me having to constantly urge her on.  And once again, cantering around in circles with my arms out like airplane wings and slowing her to a trot, then a walk and then a full stop with my seat alone, I was able to feel like my goal of us being able to work together seamlessly isn't so far off after all.

The Ears Have It

Thanks to As the Herd Turns for the photo!

Thanks to Belinda Skipper for the photo!

Hangovers and skittish horses don't mix.  That's what I was telling myself yesterday as I was driving to the stable with a splitting headache, the result of lambrusco + amaretto (oh sugar you evil dog).  It was beautiful and sunny, but it was also superwindy and considering that Starbuck hadn't worked at all since Tuesday, in my weakened state the last thing I wanted to do was deal with constant spookiness.  Plus when I got to the stable the thick coat of mud that Starbuck had accumulated by repeated rolling over the last few days sealed the deal.  So I wimped out and asked Marina if I could ride one of her horses and she assigned me Chadwick, her Holstein stallion.

Chad's not the kind of horse I'd ever look to buy, he's a little ponderous and very laid back and doesn't have much of a spark.  He's also very large and has a long, not terribly comfortable stride.  And there's that stallion thing - he's really well trained and a dream to ride, but you can't tie him up just anywhere and you have to be a little strategic while riding, not getting too close to other stallions and mares in heat.  But as I said, he's very well trained and behaves extremely well under saddle so it was fun to not have to worry about spooks or tantrums and focus on my posture and moving with the horse for a while.  So a really nice lesson.  But as the lesson went on, the wind died down and I started to regret not having ridden my little girl, so after the lesson ended and I had unsaddled and left Chad in his paddock I decided to ride Starbuck too.

We gatecrashed a little girls' jumping lesson, so it was five 10 year olds and us keeping things exciting.  Starbuck had a couple of spooks but mostly did very well during the lesson but what mostly stood out to me (and what inspired this post) was one point when the little girls were working on a lengthy jump course and Starbuck and I retired to the top of the arena to work on our own.  Since we don't do transitions much in lessons, I decided to work on them so walk - stop - walk - trot - walk - trot - stop - trot and so on.  At first of course there was a lag in response times and a certain tendency to pay too much attention to scary things like tiny birds flying into and out of the brush nearby.  But after only a couple of minutes I noticed a different kind of energy coming off of Starbuck's body - more impulsion in general and a much quicker response to the aids.  And I looked at her ears to see if she was about to spook and she had them swivelled back listening to me, just like in the photos above!  And the best part was that she kept them swivelled back for a good minute or so while we continued our transitions.  For anyone with a well trained horse, this is no miracle, but for me it was a triumph - she's never given me her undivided attention for so long that I know of, and it was a real pleasure to be so in tune with her that I could simply think "trot" and tighten my calve muscles and off she went.

Definitely transitions are something to continue working on in the future.  And one of my goals for the next month or so is to think about and identify more exercises that "get her attention" in the same way.

A Pleasant Surprise

Go ahead girl, you've earned it :)

Yesterday was a fabulous sunny spring day so I was really looking forward to my riding lesson this morning, but when I woke up it was cold, cloudy and really windy!  Now, this week I've had a fair number of social commitments so I hadn't ridden her since Tuesday and I really wasn't in the mood for a stressful ride, but I decided to bite the bullet and ride Starbuck anyway.  And I received an extremely pleasant surprise - she behaved extremely well and we had a really nice lesson!

"The after class grass club"

Of course, there were a couple of spooks but they were prompted by very strong gusts of wind whipping up sand-devils and things like that, and the best thing was that the spooks were controlled - sure she broke into a canter a couple of times but within two or three strides she was back to a trot and focused on the exercise at hand again.  I also felt a lot more secure and able to release through my seat - I read a great post on Horse Listening, one of my favorite horse blogs, the other day about the ability to tell your horse "Yes" or "Good girl" in lots of different ways, and during the spooks I was very concious of trying to release both with my seat and with my hands as soon as Starbuck showed the first sign of getting herself under control.  Very happy about our work today, and feeling like all our hard work is really paying off.

Giant horse-shaped insect?  Medieval battle gear?  Or just Starbuck in her fly mask?

I also got Starbuck a fly mask the other day and tried it on her today, at first I think she thought it was a halter because she stood still for a while like if she were tied to something, but then she seemed fine with it.  Hopefully she'll wait a while before absolutely destroying it, I feel a little bad for making her wear something so goofy looking but she's already starting to get bald spots from scratching her fly bites, and it's not even April.

What's that rectangular black thing you have in your hand?  Can I eat it?

Lastly, I've decided to take some classes at another stable which is really close to mine - I saw that they had a Groupon for 5 classes for 30€ and today I walked over to ask them if I could do the classes with Starbuck and they said yes!  I think it'll be a really great way to introduce Starbuck to the idea of working in another arena, without the stress of a show.  Of course, getting another perspective on my riding will be great as well!  I'm very excited to get started and see how I like the lessons although I'm also a little nervous about Starbuck acting up or having the teacher call me out on my terrible posture.  We'll see how it goes.