A Free Lesson For You -- On Your Couch

That's right, it's YOUR turn to giggle in sadistic glee while someone else has to do two-point sans stirrups.

This week was the annual George Morris Horsemastership Training Session down in Florida.  Sans George Morris due to illness, from which he is now on the mend, fortunately.  I confess, I don't usually watch it because George Morris is so fond of, well, George Morris.  But I tuned in this year because his shoes were filled by renowned jumpers Anne Kursinski, Beezie Madden, Kent Farrington, and Mclain Ward and it was generating a lot of chatter over on COTH.  And if Chronicle folks have their knickers in a twist, I just HAVE to check it out.

Go watch it now, particularly the first day.

Anne Kursinski gave a masterclass on flatwork.  Each and every horse in there went better at the end of the session and each and every rider became more effective and more connected to their horse.  In essence, she told them, don't pose up there like a phony equitation zombie, be inside the horse, not just on top of him, breathe with the horse and improve him. 

She got on a horse who was giving his rider quite a bit of trouble, resisting the contact and rearing. I'm a very visual learner, so watching her work through that and seeing the quiet, patient way she taught him to accept the aids with incredible steadiness and fairness to the horse was like an epiphany for me. None of it was terribly new information but for some reason, it brought everything together for me.

The next morning, I got on Encore, I translated what I had seen into the feel of my body and we crashed through our dressage roadblock like a runaway transfer truck.

I guarantee there is information in there for you too. Anne does two groups (I only watched the first, about 1.5 hours) then Beezie does a demo ride with a new horse of hers (the last hour of the 3 hour session of day 1). Beezie explains that the horse has been showing 1.5 m (4.9') jumpers but is very green to flatwork, which baffled my mind, but ok, I'm not Beezie Madden.

There are still two more days to watch; I've checked out the farrier session, picked up a few handy tips, finessed my gymnastic work with Kent, and introduced a horse to the big water with Mclain.  All for $0, exactly in my price range.  I've included the link to the channel on USEF Network above, but in case you missed it: click here.

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Solo's New Relationship With An Old Friend

With three horses to ride (our BFF, lifeshighway, is out for 5 months following rotator cuff surgery, so I am teaching Pete the coarser points of dressage, which he is phenomenally cute at), I am blessedly busy, but with the irritating requirement of actually showing up at work every day, there are just not enough hours to give them all the time they need.

Solo at his last event, last May. 

I have been trying to keep Solo doing SOMEthing at least twice a week. He still has good days and bad days; the good days are magical, the bad days are disheartening. I have his Adequan lined up and ready to inject once I have a clear time window. I can't keep up with his hay belly, though, and his hopeful eyes torment me.

I'd been working on a friend to ride him, but alas, she did not jump at the chance to absorb free Solo karma. Fortune finally saw fit to give me a moment of epiphany, however, and I sent a text message to a young girl who used to ride the BO's enormous Oldenburg mare prior to her sale:

"Would you like to ride Solo?"

Within ten minutes, I got back, "Yes, I would love to!"

I was thrilled -- Charlotte is a high schooler who catch-rides 3' to 3'6" hunters for an area trainer on our local C circuit. Not only is she the most selfless, kind, and well-mannered teenager that I think I have ever met, she is a lovely, quiet, soft rider who can win a hack class like you would not believe. I would not have to worry about Solo for a second and she would be the perfect match, a light ride for his temperamental back.

We met at the farm last night so I could show her Solo's quirks and brief her on the type of ride he needed these days. She has ridden him before, back when he was fit and muscley (sigh) so I tossed her up and proceeded to show her where his buttons were.

Keep in mind, Solo has rider-trust issues. He's been beaten with whips and generally, when anyone except me rides him, he watches me with a white, wide eye of worry. He behaves, but pathetic, concerned face with wrinkly nose and unsure ears betrays him. As a result, I have to be very careful when faced with a choosing a person who will ride him without my supervision. 90% of the time, he will offer no problems, but if he has a strong opinion, he can turn into a lot of horse and he can spin faster than anything I've ever sat on.

So my heart was happy when Charlotte asked him to trot and he stepped out in a lovely, swinging hunter trot with a relaxed neck and a bright and perky expression. I told her that she should feel very special, as she is the only one I have ever seen given the Solo "seal of approval." He was happy.

I could tell from his energetic and easy trot that he was having a good day, so I warned Charlotte that when she asked for canter, she'd better sit up tall and be ready. Sure enough, Solo leaped into the air and gave an enthusiastic buck of joy as he struck off in his favourite gait. As I laughed, I was so grateful for Charlotte and what she could offer to my very special guy.

I hope that she can continue to ride him at least once a week for me. It's a wonderful gift that she is giving and I so hope that this works out for a while. I would like for spring to find him a bit fitter and slimmer than his current state and he certainly needs to keep moving, both for his physical and mental wellbeing. I will continue to ride him lightly as well, but with much less pressure on time now that the responsiblity of keeping Mr Shiny going can be shared with someone else who loves his wonderful red hide too.

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You Are Not Forgotten

Sometimes it is just very hard to write.  I try not to let my personal life (well, the non-horsey parts) bleed into the blog.  I don't think it's relevant or very useful for you or even very entertaining for the most part.  But when the universe kicks you in the teeth -- and then follows up with some kidney punches -- and then takes a bat to your kneecaps -- and then runs over your prone body for good measure -- it can be difficult to compartmentalize, despite that being my speciality.

I will keep trying, though. I cannot promise overflowing humour for a bit but I will try to avoid strangling noises, that doesn't make for very fun reading.

I am back home and back to my red boys. Solo insists on tormenting me with loving cuteness, following me around the pasture with big eyes, begging me to put a halter on him so we can go play.

Encore is very irritated with my attempts to play saddle fitter and find a dressage shaped something for him. We tried out a Verhan Odyssey, a Passier Nicole, and a Prestige 2000D today -- I only rode in the Verhan, but set the other two on him, along with a Baines endurance saddle, just to eyeball the tree. No winners yet, but I took lots of pictures and made a lot of faces. I still want to try an Albion on him, a County, and perhaps a Stubben, but haven't found a demo yet.

It's cold, with a 30 mph gust of ice-wind cutting through you, so it's hard to focus on your work. Winter has finally wandered in and I'm holding my breath hoping it wanders right back out very soon.

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Just Relax

Sadly, I shall be away from blogland for the rest of the week, as far as I know.  This renders me unable to share my dorkiness genius and impeccable humour with all of you for a whole five days.  It's ok, just let your sobs out.

So I leave you with this:  when one does not clamp down, grit teeth, obsess, nitpick, nag and expect instant perfection during training rides, when instead you relax, keep goals simple, realistic, and light, those rides go 1000x times better.

Thank you, Master Of The Obvious. 

You'd think that after enough years, a person would not need to be reminded of this.  You'd think.

So ponder away, enjoy your rides, have a wonderful week, and prepare for next week's posts, which will include detailed instructions on how to buy a unicorn and some more totally awesome Stuff Saturated With Solo Karma for sale! 

 

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Is It A Coincidence That "Saddle" And "Satan" Begin With The Same Two Letters?

I don't think I can describe saddle fitting any better than I did here:  a form of torture akin to holding one's hands in a campfire while being poked in the eyeballs with sharp sticks. If you have any special needs whatsoever, it adds an extra layer of "fun," like a rabbit slowly chewing off your toes while your hands roast.

Encore and I got to spend three hours with the fitter today.  Oh, did I not mention that he's a different shape than Solo?  Of course he is.

It's not so much width -- comparing their tracings shows that Encore is only a bit narrower than Solo, which will no doubt change as the former continues to gain muscle and weight.  It's the longitudinal profile, withers to hips.  Solo is very scoopy, with a big dip in his back and hollows behind the withers.  This is a saddle fitting nightmare.  Don't buy a horse like that!  Encore is fairly flat and short-coupled.  Saddle fitters love horses like him, lots of saddles can sit there nicely with relatively little effort.

In case you didn't figure out the nightmarish part yet, it's the fact that I bought saddles, especially my beautiful dressage saddle, to fit curvacious Solo, with obligingly scoopy tree.  That doesn't work so well with flat horse.  Naturally.

The jumping saddle wasn't too bad, we switched to the medium-narrow gullet (Encore's giant withers!) with the understanding that as he develops more, he will probably end up in the medium by spring (Solo was medium-wide, just for reference).  I'm not a fan of the changey gullet trees anymore, the tree points are so short, they made lots of pressure points on Solo, plus, we can't quite get the wither clearance we want, but it's what I have, the saddle fits me well, and it rides well, so I wanted to try and work it out.  I've just ordered an Ecogold half pad and we think it will provide enough lift and cushion to tide us over till his back develops enough to lift the saddle a bit more.  We think.  Only way to know is by doing, so once the box arrives, the moment of truth shall come!

My beautiful, wonderful dressage saddle that fits me perfectly?  It will probably need to be replaced at some point, but I'm not willing to let it go yet.  Not only does it fit me perfectly, I still need to ride Solo in something and he sure as shootin' isn't going in a medium-narrow jumping saddle, LOL!  So, I told fitter to see if she can buy me some time.

Turns out even time has a price.  $130 to be exact.  Apparently there is some worldwide sheep shortage that has driven up prices (I am not kidding, she actually told me this).  Perhaps I should invest in some Merino lambs?

At any rate, between flocking shifts and front and rear shims in our fancy new pad #2, we were able to flatten out the saddle enough that it no longer rocked on Encore's back and he was once again willing to lift and come round.

As my horse is now the proud owner of a small fortune's worth of saddle pads, I fully expect him have mastered at least the Beginner Novice dressage tests by the end of the week.  Since they also had a Herm Springer Duo bit (which I've been dying to try on Encore) on super bargain sale, I further expect extended gaits and shoulder-in by next Tuesday.  Little bugger better get cracking.  

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