Saddle Fixes...

I've noticed for a while that my saddle doesn't seem to stay where I put it when tacking up. Sophie doesn't act as if she minds it, but it bothers me. I know that the saddle fits because from everything I've read, slipping forward means the saddle is too narrow, which this saddle definitely isn't too narrow. So I did some searching on internet messageboards and discovered that quite a few people have a problem with slipping saddles on horses with far forward girth grooves, especially on breeds like Arabians and Morgans.

The first plan of attack seems to be using a non-slip pad. Many people seem to use Thinline pads, so I'm going to try that since I have one. Then I'll try the non-slip material you can line cabinents/drawers with. If those don't help I'll try a crupper. It seems like a lot of people have good luck with non-slip pads, so I'm hoping it works for me too. Many people use a foregirth, which looks kind of like a medieval torture device. I've read that it can pinch withers, but I've read that some horses have trouble adjusting to a crupper, so we'll see.

I'm also going to try my Wintec girth because it's grippier than the one that came with the saddle. I like the girth it came with, but I like the Wintec better overall. It's also much easier to clean and I feel that it has more give and I don't have to tighten the saddle as much either. So, I'll try both at once and see if it helps, and if it does, I'll try them individually to determine which one did the helping!

It'll be interesting to see if Sophie reacts to the Thinline pad too. When I tried it with Jessie I saw no difference (though he did start reacting better to my seat when I took it off!). It'd be cool to see a big reaction like what everyone says they see with their horses when they try a Thinline pad. Plus, I have this pricey piece of equipment that I have and haven't used in a year but don't want to sell because as soon as I do I'll need it, lol.

Boy Can I Relate...

Sophie was in heat today. I thought something was up when I went to get her in her stall. Normally she turns toward the back of the stall when I get the halter off the hook, and then I walk into the stall where she stands and waits while I halter her. Today she didn't wait, she moved away, and away, and away. Hayley said that she thinks Sophie's in heat about that time, as she was walking down the aisle, and that Sophie had been pushy while being led the last couple of days.

She was very dirty, mainly just very dusty as we don't have any mud right now but she's getting her winter coat which of course holds in more dust. She did give me a wild eyed look when I went to saddle her, but otherwise, was just about normaly for tacking up. I walked her around longer than normal before mounting. I was a little worried about the ride because maybe she was so bad for my instructor due to being in heat. The timing would be right. I even left her mane unbraided so that I would have something to grab onto if I needed it.

I warmed Sophie up at the walk, just trying to keep a steady contact without her raising her head and keeping my elbows "loose" and allowing my hands to follow her mouth. To my surprise, she was fine, just walking around, looking at stuff a bit. It wasn't terribly pretty, but there were no tantrums. We picked up the trot and I was working on some baby spiral circles on a long rein when my instructor finished up watering and started the lesson.

We worked on a 20 meter circle to begin with and then changed direction. Sophie was definitely more head tossy than normal, but not nearly as bad as when my instructor rode her a few weeks ago. And there was no rearing, or stopping of forward motion. After we were sufficiently warmed up we tried going large and leg yielding on the long sides. It went ok, but not as good as she can do, she would start out against my leg and get rushy and braced. So we went back to a 20 meter circle and did spiral circles, trying to focus on leg yielding out evenly, not leading too much with the shoulders. That worked a lot better, but it still wasn't terrific and she was throwing a bit of a tantrum at one spot on the circle every time around.

So Kim set up a little pattern for us with 2 cones and 2 barrels. Once again I was surprised by how much Sophie looked at the barrels, Jessie never looked at everything like that, unless it was *really* different. But it's just something I have to get used to with a new horse, especially when she is in heat. The obstacles were to give us focus points on where to circle and leg yield to, without depending on the wall for it. And to give Sophie a focal point (in the form of barrels). I'll try to draw it up to explain with pictures.

I had to sit the trot for most of the lesson, I'm weird in that sitting is easier for me than posting. I'm sure that's due to some flaw in me, but I find it much harder to time my aids when I'm posting too. We had some great leg yields going to the left, the right was much tougher, though we did go straight sideways at canter speed for one of them, I almost fell off she scooted sideways so quickly.

We cantered twice, and it was nice. I worked on relaxing and following with my seat and sitting up and not staring at her head. It is still hard to develop contact with her at the canter, so I do lots of giving the inside rein to reward her for not fling her head in the air. I was also concentrating on sitting up for the actual transition, I think it went really well. After our last canter we did a stretchy circle and Sophie was trotting along with her nose practically on the ground.

One cool thing Kim said during the lesson, while we were going to the right even, was that we're lucky that I have good hands and a good seat, because if Sophie was owned by someone that didn't it'd be a disaster. So I took that as a compliment on me and not an insult toward Sophie, lol. I think she was impressed by how well Sophie did inspite of being in heat. She was definitely more reactive when I really sat deep on her, but she was very tolerant of the couple of times I accidentally tapped her with the whip. The worst she did was swish her tail fortunately.

Oh, one thing that we noticed was that as we got into the obstacle exercise Sophie became much more responsive to my outside aids. Her trot became a lot nicer once she started really listening to me as well. I need to find the chiropractor's number because I think she will benefit from a check up. She doesn't seem sore, but with the obvious difference between left and right when she's in heat I just want to check. I'm also going to start her on Mare Magic or some other mare supplement to see if that helps with her heat cycles. She's very quiet when in heat, but her behavior when handled is definitely different.

A New Leaf...

I'm attempting to turn over a new riding leaf, to become a more conscientious rider and an overall better person. This week I'm attacking my diet and exercise. I used to work out semi-regularly, and sometimes I would spend 2 months or so working out a lot. Ever since I went to Korea I've slowly started gaining weight, there, due to stress eating and limited healthy choices. Then since coming back I've had trouble getting started exercising and had some medical setbacks that prevented me from doing anything aeorbic or lifting weights.

So now Craig and I are both working on eating healthier, and eating less processed food. I'm trying to cut out the pop tart for breakfast and eat cereal. Forcing myself to eat more lean protein (grilled chicken for lunch three days in a row before being allowed red meat). So we'll see how it works. I've fired up FitDay and have started logging my food and activities.

Of course, dinner tonight is Strawberry Shortcake, but I didn't put nearly as much sugar on the strawberries as the recipe called for, and I did a half Splenda/half sugar mix for the sugar in the biscuits and the sugar on the strawberries.

The Way of the Air Force...

I realized that I probably haven't explained my job very well. I try to keep this blog solely to horse related events because my life isn't interesting enough for a blog about it, but in this case, my job is having an effect on my horse life, and through my thesis I have discovered that the outside world in general, doesn't have much of an idea as to what the Air Force is really like.

My Job

Normally I am a Civil Engineer in the Air Force, which really means I supervise people or projects (or both). However, the Air Force has a program where they pay people to go to grad school to get technical degrees. Most of the degrees are in things like Nuclear Physics or Rocket Science, but my husband and I are majoring Engineering Management. As a part of the degree we are required to conduct research and write a thesis, otherwise, we don't get a degree. Graduation is supposed to be in March, and it is *bad* *bad* *bad* if you don't get your degree!

Air Force Life

I have lived in NJ, Korea, and now Ohio since graduating from college in May, 2003. Generally Air Force officers stay put for 3-4 years, and aren't eligible to ask to move until they've been in one spot for 2 years. When I first started my career it was 3 years in one spot, but due to the budget they have extended that by a year. Some things, like short tours (Korea, Turkey, Iraq, etc) without your family are only 1 year, then you must move, unless you elect to stay longer. Grad school is another example, we started school in September of last year, and once we graduate we have to report to our next base within a week or two, depending on how far away from Ohio it is.

New Base

My husband and I are in a unique situation because we are the same rank and work in the same career field. This makes it harder for us to find a base because they need to have enough room for both of us. Plus, we needed the base to have something other than regular civil engineering, either what's called a MAJCOM (Major Command) that oversees a group of bases or a special interest group that goes out and builds bases in new locations. Our options were in Virginia, Illinois, California, Florida, or Nevada. Neither of us really want to go west of the Mississippi if we can help it. And Illinois and Virginia had no room for two more officers. So, that left Florida.

Technicalities

In order to get a new base we have to submit a development plan, outlining our potential career and listing the bases we desire. We did that and were told that we've been penciled in for Florida and orders should "drop" or be "cut" by the end of the month. So, until we have orders we are tentatively going to Florida, but it looks very, very good. Once we have orders we will have a RNLTD, which is a Report No Later Than Date, or, when we need to show up at the new base, in uniform, and sign in.

Moving

Moving sucks, but it's not too bad, because the Air Force takes car of just about everything. They send movers around the time we ask for them (provided we give them plenty of notice). The movers pack everything up and take it away. When I moved to NJ the movers arrived with my stuff the day after I arrived (they picked it up 2 weeks earlier). Moving back from Korea was another matter because we had to get our stuff out of storage too. There are some things they don't move, cleaning supplies, cats, horses, candles, the usual stuff. We're still working on the logistics of moving our 2 cars and the truck/trailer but we'll worry about that more when it's closer to time to go.

So, that about sums it up. It hasn't completely sunk in yet, because we don't have orders yet. And even then it probably won't sink in until a month or two before moving! I also wanted to add, normally it doesn't work out this well! (And it still might not). There are lots of bases in places where not enough people volunteer to go so some people get sent there despite their wishes. And, we could still get sent somewhere where we don't want to go, so knock on wood for us that it doesn't happen, because I am looking forward to the idea of moving to horse country, even if it is a bit unnerving.

Back to the Book Club...

(I've decided to revisit The Gymnasium of the Horse now that I'm back on track with my riding. I'm still on the notes I took while going to Portland, but will start reading and adding to them again this week. Once again, my comments will be in lavender.)

The rider needs to keep the parts of his body that meet with the horse soft and natural. If this is done with the seat "he will soon feel the movement of the horse's legs and will be able to distinguish each individual one; he will thus have the means at his disposal with which to control them as if they were his own."
(This is something that I've just started really focusing on, softening my legs and keeping them soft. I think my focus between now and next lesson will be softening my legs and keeping them soft, sitting up straight, keeping my shoulders back, and looking up. Emphasizing all of them, but especially soft legs and look up.)

Knee Pressure-lighter than calf pressure, only effective on highly trained horses

Other driving influences are the whip, long training whip, and click of the tongue.

Soft spur contact=Bite of insect=bringing that hind leg up quickly and flexing as if to bite; it cannot be used as a driving aid

A jab of both spurs=only driving aid that can be given with spurs

"Forward is the motto in the equestrian art, as anywhere else in the world."

(This reminds me, the thing I'm really going to work on for Sophie is staying *forward* while I work on me. Because I can perfect it all I want when she's plodding, but it won't do me any good when I do ride her forward.)

The rein hand determins direction as well as the tempo of its various gaits.

Good hands are "the result of a perfect seat and fine feeling."

"A person can be a master of riding if they only have good hands; but can't be a good rider with bad hands."

(Note to self: work on softening legs and improving seat!)

"The influence of the hands becomes a guiding aid only by correct coaction and interaction with the aids of the legs and seat."

The graduations of contact-light, soft, and firm

Light contact-directed toward the haunches in upper level riding

Soft contact-directed toward balanced or military riding

Firm contact-directed toward the shoulders in hunt and race riding

Light hand-when the fist is half open so only the thumb and forefinger hold the ends of the reins, used for light contact; rider is slightly behind the vertical, reins slightly longer and hands are closer to the body

Soft hand-closed so that the last joint of the fingers is extended and a hollow fist is formed; used with soft contact; rein tension is greater, body is vertical, hands are a hands width from body; only good for military horses

Firm hand-closed fist so that all of the fingers help keep the reins at the required length; body is in front of the vertical, hands are at greater distance from the body to accomodate stronger pulls

"Contact is correct...as long as the horse reacts or responds to the action of the hand."

"The main task of the outside rein is to maintain the required elevation of the forehand."

"The alternating slight yielding and taking of the reins which is so necessary for maintaining a sensitive, lively mouth is produce in a fine way by repeated opening and closing and softly raising and lowering of the hands, and by a twist in the wrist so that the little finger alternately faces the rider's body or the horse's neck."

(This is what I was talking about with the new releasing or giving that Kim had me doing in my last lesson. We never did it with Jessie, but she likened it to acting as if I'm going to shorten the reins, but just in the hand motion, to help me get the idea of the give rather than the big inside rein give I'm used to doing.)

The Supporting Aids-weight in the stirrups, open seat, and the proper distribution of the weight of the upper body

The Downside of Florida...

Oh my gosh, blanket shopping is driving me crazy. Sophie wears a 72. Jake wore an 80-82, Jessie wore a 78. So I have 1 horse and no blankets. And I won't need much in the way of blankets after this winter either! So I'm trying to find a balance between price and quality. Normally I would just get what I wanted from Schneider's, because that's where I buy my blankets, but I don't want to spend a lot on blankets that I won't be using for a few years, so I'm looking for 1200 denier blankets for as close to $100 as possible.

I'm thinking I may get 2 midweight blankets and 2 sheets, along with some liners so that I can add warmth. I would like to give Sophie at least a trace clip, depending on how much she sweats once the weather gets cooler. But we'll see.

I did ride today, just 30 minutes and working on my position mostly. Relaxing my legs, sitting up straight, looking up. My thighs were still sore from Thursday's lesson and I'm sure Sophie was sore, I also tried a cheapo blanket I got from my local feed/tack store to verify her size and have *something* on hand for her. It's a midweight, so it will probably be my backup blanket because it's only 600D, I'd like to get at least 1200D or better for her main blanket.

Where do you guys get your blankets, or do you blanket?

Lesson Warm Up...

These first couple of pictures are from when I was warming up on my own. I was focused on encouraging her to move out and reach for the bit. I was trying to ride on a longer rein and mainly paying attention to my position. I've noticed that my legs are always tense when I ride, so I'm trying to keep them relaxed and sit back and keep my head up. When I say I ride with my legs tense, it's not constantly squeezing her every stride, they're just not relaxed. Of course, I had a lot more trouble maintaining it during the "real" part of the lesson.

Oh, I'd also like to mention that I was wearing my shoulders back device for this lesson. I think it helped a lot, it was more of a reminder than anything, though I could feel it working. My shoulders ached the next day (along the top of them). I took a day off before riding again to give my shoulders a chance to recover. I plan to ride in it every ride, as it didn't limit my movement at all, I mean, it's made of cloth and velcro, if I *really* wanted my shoulders forward they would go forward!

And always, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.


And then warm up once my instructor entered the ring.






Drool...

The Meat of the Lesson...

These pictures are of the meat of the lesson. Once we got really working. We started on a 20 meter circle and then moved on to trotting around the ring, and then leg yielding down the long side.



Coming past our mandatory walk through the sunlight patch...

The was the worst BTV moment we had, there were very few pictures as BTV as this one was.



Around this time I started sitting the trot and was able to start producing better corners as a result. I have a lot of trouble with some things while posting (leg yielding specifically) so I did some sitting with Sophie. Which means I hunched my lower back a bit but it does seem to be better in some of the pictures.




Leg yielding...




Leg yielding again...using a lot more hand than needed...


Giving the inside rein while leg yielding. Something we worked on was giving both reins a little (not as much as pictured here) to give Sophie extra release as a reward. We already do a lot of giving the inside hand, but this is going to take a lot of muscle memory, because it's supposed to be quicker and a shorter release, I'm used to doing big releases.

Having just finished a leg yield I think...

I'm not sure why I have so many more pictures of us going to the left than the right, that may have been the time that Craig's kitten invited himself to the lesson and Craig stopped to visit.

Cool Down and "Spook" Pictures...

So that the posts are in order for viewers I'm starting with the end of the lesson and a couple of random pictures. First, our cooldown, ie, stretchy circles! Sophie loves stretchy circles, especially after she's been working hard.

Overall, I think that my position was better as far as sitting up straighter and looking up, but I kind of forgot about those things when doing stretchy circles, I was too busy watching her reach for the bit!







She really didn't want to go past the open door because not only was it open, but a truck was parked right there too! Oh my god, oh my god. The first two times she stopped to look and then walked on, and it slowly got better from there (we were trotting around the whole arena at this point). However, I'd like to point out that upon reversing I had to walk her the first time and then after that she trotted just fine, so she did learn something, lol. And after 7 or 8 laps she was trotting past it just fine in the first direction.

Cheez Its=Yum...Scooby Snacks=Yuck

Today Sophie got to try Cheez Its and Scooby Snacks. She *loved* the Cheez Its. The Scooby Snack she deftly spit out while Craig and I watched without actually seeing her do it. She begged for more Cheez Its, which is fine with me, since I eat the Scooby Snacks and Craig eats the Cheez Its.

I did have a lesson today, it went pretty well. We warmed up on a longer rein and then went to a shorter rein for the real work. I'm also going to have her seen by a chiropractor to ensure the bendy neck isn't due to pain and just muscle memory. She doesn't seem to be in pain as she will work correctly without any fussing as long as I ask properly, but we'll see.

I do have pictures, but haven't had a chance to get them posted yet. Hopefully tomorrow!

Quick Update...

I was out of town for the weekend and had no power until this evening due to Ike making his way through Ohio. So, we'll see how Sophie is doing tomorrow. I have no idea yet if I'll be having a lesson on Thursday or not, I cancelled last week's lesson due to school interfering.

Cantering Pictures...

Oh boy, you guys are in for it. The rest of the pictures, all of the cantering pictures. Fun, fun, fun.

First, our canter transition, the first one and it was wonderful. It may not look wonderful, but, all I had to do was sit deep, slide my left leg back and poof, canter, it was the next stride and I didn't have to kiss. She came a little above the bit, but is normally much worse.

Of course, this was us just a few strides later...

And then, just some more cantering pictures. Obviously I have a much bigger problem with riding defensively when cantering. Next time I ride I'm definitely trying to sit up more. I do have a shoulders back device that I might try strapping on too, lol.




***********************Begin Canter Sequence***********************
In this canter sequence you can see the problems we have with BTV at the canter. I guess my problem is that I don't push her forward enough and maintain the right jump at the canter, but honestly, it feels plenty forward to me when we're riding! I'll probably hold off on doing a lot of canter work. I might do some work on transitions if we get too bored, but that's it.











***********************End Canter Sequence***********************