I know. I know. This one is so far behind that it’s hardly relevant. But I want to chronicle the things that happen to me in the horse world and this one definitely deserves a post.
L. told me that she had classes for flat and jumping on Saturday and Sunday at the showgrounds. I definitely wanted to go watch and take pictures. I love being at horse shows. Its super exciting. I don’t know if I would still be able to maintain the same attitude if it was me showing (likely no) but I love attending. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to attend on Saturday as I had plans for the early afternoon but I ended up making it.
The classes were running an hourish behind schedule, which means I arrived in time to hang out at the barn with L, Carey and another lady whose name I’ve forgotten for a while before L needed to tack up and warm up. I volunteered myself to carry the hoof oil, whip, brushes etc she needed to polish up before entering the ring. L warmed up and then headed in for her rounds.
Dante is a goofy baby still and got surprised by the first fence but looked so lovely over most of the rest of them. I videoed so if you’d like to see those, take a look at her post here. Not the most perfect hunter rounds ever but it was the first show he had gone over fences and it was very contained for a four-year-old. I hung out with L while she put him away and then watched a few jumper rounds before leaving. Nothing says a good weekend like spending a chunk of time at a horse show!
We did more grids! Some jumps were set up in what looked like a one stride to a one stride. I was out there Saturday morning (14th) with no one else riding. Perfect time to do some more jumps. I got off Scarlet to drop all but one jump to poles to start. It’s always nice that he will just chill right where he is when I’m moving jumps. Not perfectly ground tied but he does it when we are in the arena.
Step 1
The spacing was not right. It ended up being something like 1.5 strides to 1.5~2ish strides. I’m super glad that I had decided to put everything down to poles instead of just diving head first. I moved the middle jump back to try to make it an even 1 and 2 strides. We did the poles again. Not quite right. I moved the middle jump 2 more times and then the third jump once to get the proper striding happening. Oh well. It worked out eventually.
Step 2
As you can probably tell from this picture, this is actually when I moved the third jump. The angle was weird and we were getting an odd line through that was messing us up. We had to do this a few times because Scarlet’s momentum was not very forward. (more on that later)
Final step
By this point, Scarlet was getting a little annoyed with me and me with him. We chunked our way through the grid twice with him trotting after the second jump once and after the first the second time. I tried to not get too frustrated with him and got a much more forward canter and we made it through at the canter with some strong leg.
A lady who was turning her horse out in the arena came over to the rail and I made a comment on how he was just done with me. She asked if I would want some advice as she used to be a trainer. I said sure. I’m always open to advice. Whether I take it or not is a different story. She told me that I was holding him back and pushing him forward while we were going through the grid, which is why he was so annoyed with me. I needed to release better. Okay, I thought, let’s do this again. She was nice enough to video for me.
I thought about over releasing as we went over the jumps and we made it through very smooth. I called it a day and thanked her for videoing.
Later, I reviewed the video and showed L the video and I realized that my hands suck. They are so far back just normally that over releasing legitimately did not show. Trainer D has had to remind me to carry my hands forward and up during the lessons and I thought I had been doing better. Seeing this video, I still have a long way to improve and I really get what she was telling me now. The wonderful thing about videos is being able to see yourself as other people see you. My main goal for riding for a while is going to be HANDS FORWARD!!! XD
L. and I had been talking about needing to get together to ride again. Initially, it was supposed to be at my barn with Scarlet but as the designated day crept closer, it was looking to be a scorcher. My barn is inland and there is generally a 20-degree difference between the coast and inland area. That weekend, it hit 100 and did not cool down at all during the night. The forecast said it would be about 90 degrees by 10am. Given that that sucks, we decided to switch to riding Dante instead. L’s barn is near the coast and is much cooler than mine.
I arrived at the barn and chatted with L while she was grooming Dante. There was no one around at her barn so it was really peaceful. Dante has grown into such a lovely boy. He’s so wide now. I can almost not believe he is the same horse I met almost a year ago. He is such a lover boy too. He looooooves the attention and just wants it all the time. He has his baby moments but is so well behaved for a 4 year old.
L took him out and gave him a warm up. I’ve never watched her do a ride that wasn’t a warm up before a show. It was very enlightening as to how she manages to get 100 transitions during a ride. She transitions all the time. Half a lap of trot here, across the diagonal, walk some, trot again, canter a bit. She’s super varied and I could definitely see how it’s so good for the horse. I’ve got to give it some serious thought on to how to implement something similar with Scarlet. Transitions make him anxious because he is always attempting to anticipate what I want next so that many will hurt his poor little brain. I need to work a bit on figuring out the right application for him.
After she rode around and made sure that he didn’t have any wiggles in him, I got to get on. I was so nervous. I’ve never ridden a horse as young as Dante. And I was pretty terrified that I’d do something stupid and ruin him for forever. Obviously, that wouldn’t happen. I’d have to be a horrible person and abuse him or something to ruin him, rather than not being a great rider. Still, irrational thoughts am I right?
Dante has so much suspension in his gaits. The difference between him and Scarlet is… ridiculous. Obviously, there’s a lot of genetics etc going on there. There is also almost a 2 hand difference in height which helps. But Dante really floats across the ground, even when I’m not riding amazing. L urged me to canter and after some serious trouble (I really should have just picked up my reins and tried to ride! Ugh. If she lets me ride again, I’ll do better!) we cantered. He’s so flowy and effortless. I didn’t canter much because L’s saddle did not fit me. At all. I found myself sitting super forward and almost on the pommel itself. Not comfortable for extended riding. lol
It was super fun. It definitely gave me a better idea for what I’d look for in Future Horse. I don’t know that I will ever have the budget for a horse of Dante’s caliber but maybe I can find a really raw somewhere in between Scarlet and Dante version? XD
I love hanging out with horse friends and always feel grateful when they trust me enough to let me on their horses. 🙂
I was only a little bit delayed on this past riding lesson. Just about 5 weeks instead of 5 months. I try to take one a month as that is what is within budget at the moment. Sometimes the weeks don’t work out for that to be perfect but it keeps me on track to have someone look at my riding every once in a while.
I brought my saddle this time and rode in it. I’m not very educated in the ways of saddle fit so I was worried that it wasn’t going to fit Brad well. Trainer D checked it before we got on. It fit him well enough but was going to cause me to lean forward a bit due to the balance of the saddle on him. I could definitely feel that. I’m thinking that the shimmed pad I use for width on Scarlet might be a good idea with Brad as well. I’ll try it next lesson I have.
Trainer D was finishing up a previous lesson so I started warming myself up after I figured out the curb rein I was riding with. I’ve never ridden with two reins before so it felt a bit awkward to pick up and loosen my reins. I fumbled with my fingers every time.
Brad was quite sluggish at the beginning, per usual. He isn’t interested much in flat work. He likes jumping and never is sluggish there. I actually had to stop him and adjust my spurs so that they were above the spur rest so I could get after him to get moving. It took a bit but we got to a decent pace with Trainer D’s input at the end. My canter departs were pretty good. I’ve been working on asking and not giving until Scarlet canters so Brad also got that treatment and we actually got up into the canter nicely.
Trainer D had me canter in a half seat and I flubbed that by not putting my leg on before leaning forward. Brad obligingly listened to what my body was telling him and dropped to a trot. Perfect lesson horse. Always willing to listen to EXACTLY what I tell him and no more. We did it again with me remembering to ride actively and it was fine.
We took a walk break and I updated her on some of what I’d been working on on my own and the things that I thought I needed to improve on. One thing that I specifically need to focus on is staying up after the jump and not immediately landing on Scarlet’s back. She agreed that that will come with doing more two-point practice and being conscious of it.
The approximation of the jumps in the arena w/terrible paint skills.
Trainer D pointed us to a small verticle fence (grey) set at the end of the arena and told us to canter over it both ways. We did. It was smooth and nice. She said she could see that I’d been practicing waiting for the jump. She raised it and then had us jump it on the right lead and turn the corner to another verticle set somewhat perpendicular to the first (dark red next to blue). I did not balance myself correctly and we motorcycled around the corner, which led to us getting a terrible distance to the fence. I told Trainer D what I felt and she said that I needed to spread my weight more into my left leg. I did better the second time around and the corner was smoother.
Trainer D then had us take the blue diagonal line. She wanted me to get it in 5 strides. I went over and got 6. For all that Brad is a big horse, he will happily take a slow methodical stride to a fence rather than a big stride. We tried a couple more times and I couldn’t quite get the 5. I’d get a chip 6 but I just couldn’t figure out the 5. Trainer D explained it to me that I will get him to the fence and then sit there doing nothing. I have to really ask for the 5 if I want to get it and mean it. I did it again and we got it.
This is the part where I can’t remember the actual course and I’m pretty sure that I missed a fence because of the last little bit. We headed over the first grey vertical to something else that put us on the other end of the arena. Then we circled around to the right past the green jumps and went over the blue diagonal in a 6. I can remember the blue diagonal because the turn to it was a sharp one and I kept messing it up so we broke that part down.
I wasn’t turning well enough to get both the fences properly in line. I gave Brad a terrible line to the first fence and we flew over the second one as a response. It wasn’t great. We had to break that turn and the blue line down. I was stuck in fast mode from the previous blue line attempt and needed to leave the canter alone and just focus on the turn to the jumps. It took a few tries but we eventually got it. It was quite warm so we called it there.
I have a video of the blue line but it was sent over text so it looks like it was taken with a potato due to compression. I’ve asked Trainer D to email it to me but I haven’t gotten it yet.
My friend and her kids came to visit and ride again. I’m really enjoying teaching them how to manage themselves around Scarlet and how to ride. Scarlet appreciates all the treats he gets when they visit as well.
We started the day off by going to the tack store. J wanted to get some breeches as riding in jeans isn’t very fun. She also thought about getting some boots vs tennis shoes. I didn’t think much of it. She used to ride when she was younger so I agreed that she’d probably feel more comfortable in those when riding. I figured she’d get the low-end breeches and low-end boots since they don’t visit to ride very often.
She got ROMFH breeches.
And some nice short boots.
And a helmet.
I should have guessed we would get more than we came for. Horse people are horse people even if they don’t ride much anymore.
Her kids both got small curry combs that fit their hands better than mine. I’m pretty pleased with that because they both were much more excited to groom with “their” brushes. XD
We also tried to see if there happened to be a saddle there that the kids would fit a bit better than my saddle. An 18 seat and two tiny children don’t really fit well. My stirrups didn’t even get short enough for their legs. There were a couple of smaller English saddles that we had them sit in but they were… expensive. Way too expensive. We’d need to find something secondhand for them as they aren’t riding often. There were no small western saddles. When we asked the kids, they both said they’d rather ride in an English saddle anyway.
J was awesome and got Scarlet a new fly mask and a new saddle pad. It’s a lovely teal color with a yellow/tan edging. It looks quite nice on him.
When we got out, the kids helped me groom like last time and I hopped on. It’s an interesting balance to work Scarlet enough that I’m not worried about him getting too excited while being ridden and not riding so long that the kids go nuts with boredom. We also had to switch saddles as K from the barn lent us the one she used for her son when he rode. It fit the kids much better and we had shorter stirrups.
J got on to ride a bit but ended up not doing too much as she’d increased her leg work out during the week and had no leg muscle left for riding. Then the kids got on. I had C walk Scarlet in circles about me as I tried to instruct her on steering. It was… quite a funny experience. Scarlet would turn with her but he would just do a 360 and head back to me instead of out to walk a circle properly. We eventually got some okay circles both directions and did about half a lap of trotting with me running beside the horse. C managed to keep her balance quite well and I was pretty proud of both of them.
L got on after C but he was getting cranky and didn’t want to walk around on his own. That’s unusual as he is the one way more into animals but we rolled with it. I put a lead rope on Scarlet and we walked 4 or 5 laps together before he said he was done.
I’m hoping I can either borrow K’s saddle again or find a smaller saddle for the two of them for cheap. I definitely think that they will benefit from having the shorter stirrups as we continue riding. I did overhear C saying she wanted to do this more and her mom offered to get her lessons near where they live so fingers crossed that the bug has bitten another person!
Saturday, June 30th I didn’t have a concrete plan for riding. It was pretty empty and I just hopped into an arena and started warming up. We did some bending and transitions and I decided that I was done with arena work. I wanted to push Scarlet down the trail a bit, just to see if we can get a bit farther than last time. Trail walking is quite a good cool down.
Guys.
WE WENT THE WHOLE CIRCUIT! BY OURSELVES!!!
It was amazing. I tried my best to stay super relaxed and just keep lightly insisting on going forward. And it worked. Scarlet wasn’t in love with walking on his own but he never really got super tense. He would swing his head toward the barn every once in a while to stare (you can see the barn for the whole circuit) but I didn’t feel like he got more than mildly anxious about leaving the barn behind.
I don’t have any pictures because I wasn’t going to jinx anything by pulling out my phone and then having him flip out and dump me. But it was great y’all. We started jigging a tiny bit on the backside of the loop as we were heading toward home. But there is a difference between jigging from “I want to go home” and jigging from “OMG EVERYTHING IS GONNA KILL ME”. It was definitely the former so I just kept insisting that we walk. And we finished the loop. And I didn’t fear for my life while doing it.
I’m so proud of him. It’s really hard for him to go alone away from other horses. We’ve never really had the opportunity to do trails at any other place we’ve lived so we aren’t really experienced.
I gave him extra grain as a reward, though I’m not sure he knew what it was for. I’ll definitely be doing this again and again before the summer light goes away. It will be great to use it as a cooldown. I’ll wait till we do it a handful more times before I try to head out there without some work in the arena to drain off energy.
My little sister was in town for a work conference and we had previously told her we’d take her to the Safari park for a past birthday if she ever got her butt down to visit us. So she took this opportunity to get down the weekend before her conference and visit us.
Sunday, we took her to the animal park where she was extremely happy to pet the goats. We both did 4-H growing up and she had two pygmy goats that were her babies. One of them was extremely dog-like and loved her to pieces. Unfortunately, animals don’t live as long as humans so she was missing goats a lot. The petting zoo is meant for kids but we are kids at heart right? 😉
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After seeing the wild animals for a few hours, we went and rode Scarlet during the evening. It was quite fun to see someone else ride him. She hasn’t ridden in quite a long time but did pretty well. Her helmet almost flew off at one point due to her head being super small compared to mine. She got a bit of good trotting out of Scarlet after really working at getting him moving forward.
It was good to have someone to take pictures of and to watch ride Scarlet. I don’t get to see him move very often as I’m always the one on him. It looked like he was swinging his hips out a lot on the left lead canter but I’m not sure if that was the angle I was sitting at, her riding or him actually doing that. But it was cool nonetheless. And again, media!!!
Continuing on the vein of we are awesome, more jumping happened.
On a weekday evening, I wanted to do some more jumping. The jumps were set a bit higher than I normally set them. Not a lot, maybe a hole or two. But I’m pretty conservative about setting my jump heights. It’s my biggest fear that I will set them too high and we will crash and Scarlet will get hurt and it will all be my fault. But after successfully doing the grid, I felt more confident that Scarlet and I were in sync about our jumping.
We had a good warm-up and I took us over a cross rail first. Scarlet’s gotten really good at just taking on a jump in a line and listening to me when I say to turn off and not go over the second one. We do that a lot when there are oxers or high jumps set on a line. After a couple of jumps, I turned us to a purple verticle set up on the short end of the arena. Scarlet jumped over it like it was nothing. I took it another time or two before heading to a verticle set up on the diagonal. This one was about a hole higher than the previous verticle. It is also about 3-4 strides off of the rail so the turn doesn’t leave one much time to prepare.
I was a little concerned about this one and wasn’t super sure that we were going to do well. I grabbed mane and…. took my leg off. Scarlet responded by slowing down and ending up with no momentum at the jump. He gallantly launched his whole body upward and levitated forward over the jump, saving my ass. Hanging on and praying was the wrong response. I appologized to him and we did it again, this time with me doing my part. And it wasn’t lovely, we didn’t hit the prefect stride to take off from but we made it over.
We did that verticle and the other one a few more times and Scarlet was just… so pleased. He kept launching himself well and with some effort even though we didn’t get it right each time. He definitely told me that he likes the higher jumps more than the smaller jumps. Okay buddy. I’ll try to put my big girl pants on and get us jumping bigger things with more frequency.
Hi all. It has been a while since I’ve posted which is unfortunate because I had a lot of really awesome things happen with Scarlet that I’m really happy with. But the other things in life *cough*work*cough* have been burning me out so much that I just couldn’t make myself get on the computer to write about them. So the next few posts will be some catch up work.
First, let’s talk about some gridwork we did!
Scarlet and I had never really done gridwork together. I’ve never ridden it in a lesson before and didn’t really trust myself to set it up. We’ve ridden lines where there is a 4-6 stride length between two jumps. We haven’t done that much either as Scarlet has a tendency to rush jumps. We have been working on getting that to go away and he has gotten better on single jumps but two still gets him quite excited.
I was out on a weekend morning (no exact date is what happens when you delay too long Alex! SHAME!) and there was no one else out at the barn. There was a diagonal 1-3 line set up that I’ve been wanting to try with Scarlet for a while but haven’t had the guts to do with it all set up. Since I was alone, I thought this was a great time.
I took down all the jumps except for a small cross rail at the beginning, leaving the other two as a pile of poles. After a good warm up, we headed over the first jump. I tried very hard to get a good turn. The turn for the side with the one stride is a little tight from the corner but I wanted to go from the 1 to the 3 so we would have more time to regroup if we totally biffed it over the one stride. I got a decent turn with enough balance and Scarlet locked onto the fence. I did my best to just think forward and straight and not interfere otherwise.
He did great. We just cantered right on through. The one stride is quite long for small little Scarlet but he was quite happy to stretch for it and then rock his way through the three stride.
I had us to the first fence only again with a higher cross rail as I set it at basically ankle height the first time. He had no problems so I added the second fence. The turn was a bit sharper that time so we had a bit of an awkward stride into the one stride and it took a lot more jump to get over. I took us around it again and got a better angle. Scarlet happily hopped over both fences.
Then I put up the third fence. And Scarlet powered through it. I was so freaking proud of him. The one stride is a long one and then the three stride is pretty accurate. Scarlet really had to push for it but he didn’t feel like he was speeding up or trying to rush the fences. He did such a great job for me as he rocketed over them. I was so so so proud of him. And really disappointed no one was out there to really watch.
There was a girl lunging her horse in the round pen and I was so happy with Scarlet that I told her what we did and that we’d never done it before. She said “Oh I missed it! Go do it again!” So I did. And she watched. And she saw how awesome my little horse is.
It felt a little silly to want/need someone else to tell me how awesome we were but I’m okay with it. The grid was something we did on our own, no help, no instruction and we rocked it. I’m looking forward to trying it again and doing more jumps like this in the future.
The Horse Dream 