mud, mud, glorious mud....

well it's been a little windy and raining this week, and Fi managed to lose a shoe (we believe Friday sometime). The mud makes it highly unlikely we will find it. As she has extra support on the outside of her shoes, getting her reshod means getting a new shoe made for her as well, so it may take some time. It looks like she might have tweaked her front leg at the same time.

So this weekend I rode her in Saturday, but stuck to walk and a little trot in the school. And then long reined on Sunday.

Fi hates the mud and apparently often stands the other side of it looking plaintive when it is time to be caught and brought in for her dinner. Yet it doesn't stop her doing high speed exits out of the paddock onto the bigger field when they are let out for some grass. Which is probably how/when she pulled the shoe off..

She worked well in both sessions, offering some nice softness - especially in the long reining, which may mean I have some reflecting to do on my seat and legs when riding, or indeed whether I am using my contact differently in each situation. Her state of mind was good - calm and quite focused. (Even though it seems she is in season).

Anyway, on Saturday I also long reined Rosie and Dudley. I worked Dudley first, working him on a halter and (single) line around the arena in walk/trot/canter first before putting the long-rein on and working him in walk and trot, asking for softness. I worked on halt quite a lot with him as he was trying to walk through it and not really settling in the halt.

Then I set out some cones and blocks (with some help from Rosie's rider) and long reined Rosie. As I had not long reined her for a few weeks I started off with straight lines and getting forward and basic steering revised. And then I started doing shallow loops off the long side, across the diagonal and down the centre line. Building in halts, changes of pace and so on. She was a good girl and cottoned on quite quickly but still sometimes tried to dictate where we were going relating to a cone/block. At the very end her rider had a go as well, just in walk (as she would struggle to keep up with the trot) and it seemed to help with both "intent" (of where they were going to next) and steering.

The idea was to work on something on day 1 in long rein, and then do the same thing day 2 under saddle. In the event we worked more on 20m circles under saddle, but it was all in the same theme. The ridden work is improving, with trot her best (and mose forward) pace. They haven't cantered for a while as I feel they need to work on other things, especially steering, before we go there. (Cantering out on a ride has been fine, and steering is generally not an issue out - but we have not been going out the last few weeks due to the weather and the wish to not neglect Rosie's education). When we get a nice forward trot with some basic steering, that will be the time for canter in the school.

With the 20m circle in trot, Rosie was going out the edges across the width of the school, but turning short along the depth, so it was a bit of an egg shape. By riding quarters of a circle, and asking for transitions up and down from trot, we went from "make me trot" and an egg shape to "why don't we keep trotting" and a 20m circle :D

Its small steps - but those small steps soon add up.

horses not courses

rereading the last few posts and I realise how little I have actually written about the horses - what have I been thinking ?

We are making progress with Rosie. The long reining that I started a few months back has worked well and seems to have built on the lunge work to give her more confidence not to be in your pocket the whole time.

And I've been able to build further on that by taking up the same position (as when long reining) when she is being ridden - initially by myself, then leading Dudley, and finally hopping up on Dudley and riding behind her. I still carry a whip just to lean forward and tap her as I do when long reining.

She is coming up with a few evasions - veering into the school or out onto the fence, but is finding they don't really work. It may get worse before it gets better, but we have our feet on the road :)

I have also been leader a couple of times for a little girl. Rosie was less impressed with that so we will revise her leading over the winter to check she remembers what she is supposed to do. I need to keep up with long reining as well. Perhaps put some cones out and do some work on steering that we can then repeat under saddle ?

Dudley is perfectly content in his "uncle" mode with Rosie. I feel a bit bad that he has had less work and came back from Mark R's clinics all fired up to do things with him. But it was bitterly cold on Sunday and Rosie takes priority as she needs regular work to keep the progress going. I don't think he really minds ;)

Fi worked well on Sunday as well, tho I am a little concerned that her high speed exits from the paddocks into the big field have tweaked her front leg slightly :( so a light weekend won't have done her any harm.

Its November, so it must be Mark Rashid time

Ho hum, what better time of year to spend sitting in an indoor school for 8 hours a day than....

freezing November !

Anyway, I now have a tonne of notes to write up. I travelled back from the clinic Saturday so only had one day to ride this weekend. (and the weekdays are too dark at this time of year, the horses are in by 4pm).

One of the things Mark talked about was the "figure 8" of movement in the rider's hips as they rode. Of course this is about the *movement* not about the physical hip joint, as the left side of the hip could not suddenly end up on the right with the person still facing the same way and not in agony !

But what was described was a looping flow of movement/energy from side to side. In all dimensions, not just in one plane.

He also talked about how the rider mirrors the horse's movement. In walk, the stride length is pretty close for both a walking human and a horse. And walking at that stride length is something we humans "practice" (do) all the time. Which explains why sitting a walk comfortably is rarely a problem.

But as we go up the gaits, the stride length increases. And we humans rarely practice moving at that longer stride length. Even if we don't actually have to "walk" on the horse as they trot, we do have to be able to absorb that movement in our hips.

As my mare has DJD and this sometimes affects her movement, I was thinking about this as I rode today. Effectively I could monitor how she was by being aware of that figure 8 and how it was moving. (One of the triggers to getting her diagnosed was that she was not moving the rider's hips other than in the vertical plane).

And then later, after riding, I went for a short run (18 mins). And I got to thinking that actually when you run you DO have a longer stride length. So if you run with correct posture, you ARE practicing that longer stride. Does that mean I am improving my sitting trot by running ? I guess it is difficult to isolate that aspect as the shear improvement in fitness and (hopefully) reduced weight will also help with sitting trot.

And then, as I ran along, I suddenly became aware that the same figure 8 was working in my hips; I could feel the change from one loop to the next. All of a sudden all I could think about was the figure 8 ! When I got to the end of the run and went back to walk, the figure 8 kept going...

spooky ;)

taking count

I love the way learning is a cycle. And everytime you come back to something, you find something new in it. It is like reading a much loved book - the kind you can come back time and time again.

I went to my first MR clinic in 2005 - the one I rode at - came home and got on my mother's pony (my mare had a sore back) and went "go soft!" and bless his cotton socks... he DID. (I did already know he was physically capable of going this way, as I had schooled him before).

Then I went and watched another clinic with Mark - and saw a much better way

You start by asking for softness for *three strides only*. You ask for softness and if they give for one, or two strides, you keep asking. But as soon as they stay soft for three consecutive strides, you release the ask (and let the rein out). The "release" is for the same amount of time it took you in asking to get the three strides. i.e. if it took 2 circuits of the school of getting one stride, then another, then two, then another one, and so on before you got THREE, thats how long you release for before you ask again.

You start this in walk. And you work on asking for 3 strides until they start to give 3 with some consistency. And then you go to asking for 5. So the next time you ask, when you get to the third stride you don't release, you carry and only release if they stay soft for all 5 strides. Again do this til it gets consistent, then go to 7, and 9...

around the 7 and 9 point you could try trot - but you go right back to asking for *3* strides of softness

Because Fi offers softness readily - unless I brace of course - I have not tried the "counted steps of softness" exercise with her before.

But this weekend I did - partly cos it was windy and I wanted something at walk we could both focus on.

And also cos I had so recently described on a discussion forum, so it was on my mind, and I thought I should "walk the talk". I had the sudden realisation that I had always seen it as a *horse* exercise to help the horse see what was being asked for, but that it could equally well be a *rider* exercise. (like with my above example about coming home and asking the fell to "go soft !" - the *rider* needed to realise there was a better way to ask ;))

Anyway, off we went. Fi has DJD in her left hock so does sometimes show some stiffness on the right rein. When I normally ask, I can get some resistance to softening there. But using the "counted steps"... wow ! She got it after a couple of tries and I confess I went from 3, rapidly to 5, and then to much longer... but then I knew she already could do consistent softness if I asked right And the *quality* of what she offered was totally out of this world. I was so pleased with her. It reminds me again that what you get when you *ask* is way different to what you get if you *take* .

brain like a sieve

well I would post more often, but I forgot both my username and my password (DOH !)

And what with one thing (my horse being diagnosed with DJD of her left hock)
And another (my partner of eleven years leaving me because he was lying about something, and me then finding he had been lying about practically everything for the whole eleven years - had another partner despite living with me, another child, etc etc)

Anyway, better late than never as they say !

During the summer, Fi's lameness and/or movement issues seemed to improve slightly, raising my hopes, and then regress... it was the classic one step forward, one (lame) step back. The crunch came when I had some time off during the week and booked a lesson. But for various reasons the instructor had to call off that day and was coming the next. So I rode anyway, in my western saddle. The next day, I was warming her up on line as the instructor was due... and was a bit concerned. But as I started riding it became clear Fi was doing a fine impression of a camel. Fine if she was a camel, but not so fine when she is sposed to be horse and was not designed by committee !

So, called the vet - he came out the next day and said "yes she's lame" (uhuh....) and she was booked in for x-rays. I was a bit concerned before hand - if the x-rays were clear, where did we go next ? If the x-rays weren't clear, ... you guessed it.., where did we go next ?!

The original intention was to start with the near hock, and then maybe look at the near fore (the one she pulled going through an electric fence in April). But he didn't go any further than the left hock. I saw the x-rays and she had hooks, fusion, translucency - all in different bits of the hock :(

So - DJD.
What next ?

Well then came 7 injections, one every 4 days, of Adequan.

Funnily enough she seemed much better after the x-rays :rolleyes:

Anyway, she has subsquently had a Bowen treatment, at which my borrowed synthetic dressage saddle was deemed not to fit. I've been riding her in the western saddle at weekends and she has been fine. She is on Superflex (NAF).

Actions I must take:
refit my Easisit GP or sell it
saddle fitting for a new english/dressage saddle, if the Easisit is sold
sell my old western saddle (to help fund new saddle)

and lose some weight ! I lost fourteen stone went it walked out the door, and then almost another stone of my own with all the stress and emotional turmoil. If I can keep a more sensible level of weight loss going - who knows, I may get to ride Rosie yet !