mixed blessings

I ended last week not having been able to canter Fi, so not entirely sure if we were going to be able to do the dressage on Saturday or not.

I didn't fancy riding her fresh from the field, possible lame, in a test - so I booked Friday afternoon off work and dashed home to assess her soundness while it was still light.

The weather really could not have been better, cold but crisp, hardly any wind, and bright but not in-your-eyes sun. When I walked down with tack, the middle gate was shut as big sis was due down (half term). Fi saw me coming and wandered down to the gate - there is also a little extra grass that grows behind the gate when it is open... which they get to graze down when the gate is shut. I was a bit concerned that the walk had a hint of unlevelness about it. Then as I walked around to catch her, she made like I was a scary monster and bugged out, at a gallop, to the far end of the field....

I figured she was probably sound enough to ride. Sane enough, however, proved to be a different matter ! For quite a while, when we have been able to ride, I have stuck to 30-40 min sessions as she is not fit and I don't want to stress her joints more than they can cope. Normally within that session she will settle and work nicely.

But on Friday she was just not paying me *any* attention at all. A complete pea brain. Mark Rashid talks about the horse needing to "hand over the decision making to the rider". Well Fi was barely noticing there was a rider there at all. It was incredibly difficult to tell whether she was level of not as she had short strides from tension, uneven tempo and stride from the inattention, and was generally all over the place. Everything I tried, calmly asking, got nowhere. In the end I got sooo frustrated and raised my energy level further than I normally would.I don't like getting to that stage as it is so close to getting aggressive... But finally she started to focus and work. I was getting some fair trot work and run through the dressage test (prelim 12) in walk and trot (but without the free work on a long rein !) and trotting the canter sections. Then I went to try canter.

In the test the canter is between the quarter marker and C, then you canter large, 20m circle at the half marker, large again, across the diagonal and trot after X. I tried that first on the left rein and without the 20m circle. Not too bad though still not very focused.

Then on the right rein.... OMG... she's borrowed someone else's legs - and they are all from different horses ! It felt like a 4 wheel vehicle that had lost a wheel. Really horrid.

Sometimes she needs to warm up a little... so I tried twice more to see if there was any improvement... but each time was as bad.

Not good. By then we had been working for an hour, and she was sweaty but with a much happier look on her face. (She always looks calmer and happier after working).

But I left it til this morning to make a final decision. Fi can sometimes feel worse than she looks, and seems to need to get the kinks out when she's not worked for a while.

She is NOT hopping lame. But there is just something - especially in turns - that is not right. So I called the organiser, and we stayed at home.

I rode Fi in walk and trot. Her attitude (state of mind) was way better today. She worked nicely but I didn't regret my decision.

Then I rode Duds. He did some nice walk and trot work. Then I rode through prelim 12 and attempted the canter movements. I haven't worked on his canter for a while and it is his worst pace. He broke 2 or 3 times on each rein.

So I finished with some work on a 20m circle on trot-canter-trot transitions - looking only for 4 or 5 strides of canter before asking for a balanced transition down. Right rein is his better rein.

Finally I tacked up Rosie (mum has a terrible cold) and warmed her up on line before hopping on. I figured I would work on softness in walk and halt if nothing else. She had a couple of moments of "no shan't" but each time I asked her to soften and back. And there was less objection when I then asked her to go forward.

There were times last summer when mum would tell me she had ridden during the week and got on well - and then Rosie would be a complete cow at the weekend. I think maybe the complete lack of distraction means she can focus better on the rider and what they are asking.

I used a lot of voice - anyone who heard me would have been in stitches as I rode around the arena telling Rosie how "lully" she was (lovely). We did walk and trot, and even got as far as a 20m circle !! amazing !

So despite missing the dressage, I actually got quite a lot done. AND I graded the arena :D

more of the same

The horses were shod last weekend, but on Saturday the ground (and the school) was rock hard. So although I did ride Fi, it was walk work only. The other two had the day off.

On Sunday we had our extra jockey around. It was very windy in the morning so on the grounds of risk, we just turned them out. But it had eased a bit by the afternoon - initially I still felt it was too risky for Fi, so I just worked her a little from the ground. The wind continued to ease so we threw tack on Duds and Rosie and rode them together in "follow my leader" mode in the school. Rosie seems to be getting the idea of this a bit more, and is gaining in confidence. At the faster gaits (trot, canter), she can still tend to take an inner track and not only catch up, but start to over take. D copes with this more easily than mum - mum's back affects her balance when Rosie goes sideways. We swapped as well, which meant I could feel how Rosie behaved when she was following. She can get a little strong and you get the feeling she is not really listening to the rider as much as I'd like. Something to work on.

By the time we finished, my guilt had increased as much as the wind had decreased, so Fi got saddled up and ridden while D and mum tidied up the tack from the other two.

Last night Emila Faurie was doing a demo at Gleneagles. It was an interesting evening, despite two of the planned demo horses being no-shows. (one was there but trotted up lame). The main themes that came up were

- riding forward: he said we all rode so slow, but talked so fast !
- downward transitions: encouraged riders not to use the rein and to ride them forward

but all done with a great deal of sympathy to the horse.

Today it was windy again, but I bunged to western saddle on Fi and did what I could. It was a bit hairy to say the least. For example, there is a oak seedling between the arena and the veggie patch. It still has (dead) leaves on it and they rattle in the wind. The wind was gusty and intermittent, so they would suddenly rattle - which would set Fi off.

I had wanted to work on the dressage test for next weekend (12), but that was not going to be possible so it seemed like a good opportunity to work on focus and "submission" (to the aids). I used one of the exercises from last night: work on a circle and reduce it. At the level I was using it (rather than the rather gorgeous dressage horses from last night !) it was about not losing the shoulder. riding the curve of the smaller circle without too much neck bend, activating the inside hand, and all the time asking for focus and softness. When the smaller circle is good, ride the horse forward out on to the bigger circle.

This was a useful exercise even in walk. I then also did some trot-walk transitions, the circle exercise in trot. And finished up with a couple of canter transitions on both reins (on a 20m circle).

We worked mainly at one end of the school (thanks to the scary Oak treelet).

Afterwards we turned the three bigger horses out without their rugs on, it being such a mild day. They only got (stable) rugs back on for the night at around 21:30.

The bad news is that when we went to fetch the horses in (at around 5pm as the evenings are drawing out again), Fi looked lame. She looked sore in the stable when I was there at half nine :( I'll just have to see how she is tomorrow.