Vet Trip, Ride 3, New Horse, and a Longe Lesson

Shamrock had a super busy week.  Friday I trailered him in to the vet, where he had his teeth done, a coggins pulled, and got his vaccinations.  His teeth were pretty bad, two big hooks and two ramps.  

I gave him a day off and went on a short bareback ride Sunday, looking for the halter he managed to lose his first day home.  He was a perfect gentleman and even allowed me to keep light contact with his mouth throughout the ride!

Then today I had a longe lesson.  It was my first longe lesson and I really enjoyed it!  We started out with lots of stretching and warmup exercises for me. 

Twist from side to side

Windmill each arm individually

Arms out, palms up, flip hands over until palms are up again and arms twisted
Turn with hands on horse's back, elbow straight, let shoulder move freely to follow horse's movement 

Toe circles 

Lift leg off horse, rotate back, put back on horse

 

Do each 8 times for maximum effect...any more than 8 times won't make you stretchier so it's pointless to go past 8 reps.  

After the warmup we did a lot of trotting, 7 strides posting, 7 strides 2-point, 7 strides sitting, and then repeat. 

And finally, this morning I went to look at a pony with my cousin, we liked him a lot and we're going to go pick him up tomorrow...hopefully he'll be Shamrock's buddy since Clifford still has the donkeys.  I'm also going to work with Cowboy to get him better trained, so I'm excited about that!

A Riding Plan for the Next Week...

Today I sat down and developed a riding plan (not necessarily goals) for the next week or working with Shamrock.  The big thing that *I* need to work on for my lessons is posting trot and 2 point, building up my muscle endurance so that I can do it for a whole lesson without dying.  (I haven't ridden hardly at all for the last 3 years!).  

Shamrock's big issue is being very resistive to contact.  He'll be getting his teeth floated tomorrow to ensure it's not a teeth problem.  I'm riding him in a KK Ultra so I know it's not a nutcracker effect problem and the bit is neither very fat nor very thin.  He's just used to being ridden on a very loose rein, as he was being geared toward becoming a barrel horse and a roping horse.  

So I will be focusing a lot on ground work over the next week.  Before each ride we'll begin with in hand work (conveniently in the covered part of the stable, before heading into the hot 90 degree sun!).  I'll be doing flexions with Shamrock, bending and massaging his neck to release muscle spasms, turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches, and sidepassing in hand.  

For the under saddle segments of our rides we'll do lots of trotting on a loose rein, alternating between posting trot and 2 point.  We will also do a little cantering just to keep it up, a big circle in each direction along with a long side of the arena.  I plan to ride at least four days over the next week (beginning tomorrow).

If those go well I'm planning to continue with the in hand work and and the lots of trotting under saddle (with a bit of cantering) and then add some longe work.  Shamrock doesn't know how to longe, pers se, but he does work in a round pen well.  I want to progress to the point where we can use loose side reins and also do some long reining to work on his bit acceptance issues without dealing with my weight too.  

Of course some of our goals may change depending on how *my* lesson on Monday goes!

Ha ha, already updated my plan for the following week!  I'm also going to start doing very shallow serpentines ala Eddo Hoekstra, once he's a little more accepting of contact.

Home, Rides 1 and 2

Shamrock is home! 

He traveled great, it took a few minutes for him to load because he'd never seen a ramp before, but he sniffed and took a step, and sniffed and took a step and paused every now and then before ending up in the trailer, nice and calm.  It took around 45 minutes to get to my cousin's house.

Once there, we put Shamrock in her grass arena, and he enjoyed the grass momentarily.  Then he realized that there was a horse and two donkeys out in the main pasture that surrounded the arena.

Clifford came over to see Shamrock.  He wasn't impressed and promptly left to gather up his two donkeys to keep them away from Shamrock.

Shamrock obviously wanted Clifford to come back, so he trotted and cantered around the ring a couple of times.

But then he decided he'd rather graze, so that's what he did...after a few hours we let him out with Clifford and the donkeys, where they all ran around a lot, just to run, no fighting or anything.  Eventually they settled down and everyone pretty much ignores Shamrock now. 

He moved on Sunday and I rode him Monday and Wednesday.  He was a really good boy both days, a little lazy, I think because he ran so much the day before and also because I was asking him to accept light contact, which he really isn't into at this point.  

So the next ride we did in hand work prior to going into the hot sun.  We did some flexions on the ground as well as worked on turning on the haunches and forehand, and sidepassing.  This seemed to help when I did ask for light contact for our ride.  But I still rode mostly on a loose rein, alternating between posting and 2-point until my legs were tired.  Then we cantered a couple of large circles in each direction and called it quits.

After the ride I cleaned his sheath, which he was really good for after some initial wariness!

A Trail Ride and a Lesson

Sunday afternoon I went on a trailride with Shamrock, his older owner and her horse. It was *awesome*, though a little disconcerting with the steep hills we were going up and down. Shamrock did great on the actual trail portion, and even went into the water first whenever we had to go into or cross a stream. He got a little spooked by a deer when we were out in the open (it jumped straight out at us!) but was fine for the rest of the ride.

Then I had a lesson Tuesday evening, and it was *awesome*! I'd been having trouble with my Albion, it seemed like it was confining me and forcing me into somewhat of a chair seat. My new instructor helped me to discover that by changing the angle of my hip and actually leaning forward a little (so that I was actually upright instead of leaning back a little like I'm used to doing even though it looks and feels straight)gave me greater weight in my feet and allowed me to be sitting with a straight line from ear to hip to heel...I was even able to shorten my stirrups a couple of notches!

After this epiphany we worked on alternating between sitting trot and two point, so that I can get used to the "correct" feeling of those positions for repeating them on Shamrock. I'll have another lesson in two weeks and between now and then I'll work on building up my own strength in those positions.

The big breakthrough came after the lesson. While mounted my instructor discovered that the muscle running from my armpits down my side are incredibly tight...they felt more like bricks than loose muscle like they should have. So she had me do some stretching exercises to help release and relax those muscles. There's already a huge difference in them today and I'm going to keep doing the exercises over the next two weeks to improve them even more.

We're moving Shamrock to his new home on Sunday, so I should be able to get more and better pictures of him after that!

Dropped the ball...but picked it back up!

So I kind of dropped the ball on the whole posting thing...but I'm back now! With my *own* horse!!!!!!!!! Kind of crazy how it worked out, but I am the proud owner of a breeding stock paint gelding named My Dance Til Midnight. He's a complete sweetheart, only 5 years old, and very well started. He walks, trots, and canters under saddle, but otherwise is a blank slate. I plan to teach him to be an all around horse...learning dressage and jumping for me, but how to trot slowly and neckrein for more inexperienced riders. So, meet Shamrock!


I took a couple of screen captures from the video we took while I was trying him out, so at least you'll be able to see him!