Finding some balance

August 27, 2011 2 Comments

An ancient Barnesby all-purpose saddle

As soon as we caught our breath from the show, Christy and I started to zero in on the (myriad) problems in my ride.  One glaring issue really popped out – my posture.  In almost every moment, I was tipped forward, with a closed hip angle and my lower leg creeping back.

Drat.

So we started working on my position, which isn’t fun.  Fundamentally changing how you ride is tough.  It feels awful.  You feel out of whack and it’s tough to be effective. It’s no fun but having reaped the benefits of this sort of work last winter on Maddie I know that the payoff is worth it, even though it feels like you’re riding like total crap for a while.

The work started in my first lesson post-show.  Christy had me work on finding my balance in my new saddle, starting with asking me to stand in my stirrups.  I stood, briefly, then teetered and collapsed.  Stood again, swayed, grabbed the bucking strap, and collapsed.

We played with my leg position, but it was clear that that I wasn’t going to be able to balance myself with my legs behind my knee blocks.   With my legs wedged behind the blocks, I was pushing against them, and they were acting as a fulcrum, causing me to tip my upper body forward, and my lower leg aft.

So we started over.  Christy had me lift my knees up – waaay up – to isolate my seatbones.  Once I was sitting properly on my seatbones, she had me bring my legs softly down, draping them over the blocks, in order to keep my hip angle open.   She asked me to stand again, and I was able to stand more steadily in my stirrups.

We picked up the trot, focusing still on finding and keeping my balance.  It was a struggle but eventually I was able to find the ‘sweet spot’ and suddenly, it felt like I was floating above the horse.  Derby responded, rounding his back and striding out.  The value of riding in balance was undeniable.  On subsequent rides, I worked through my mental checklist, starting with my seatbones, and working on finding my balance, which frankly didn’t get much easier.  I was able to bring myself into alignment for brief moments, but I’d rapidly lose it and start over.

In my heart of hearts, I realized an ugly truth.  The Albion’s balance isn’t great for me. It’s very comfortable, cushy even.  But the balance is off, and the deep seat and grippy leather make it tough for me to move.

Drat. X2.

Today, when I was running errands, I wandered into the local tack shop and poked around amonst the used saddles, surfacing with an ancient Barnesby all-purpose similar to that pictured at the top of the page.    It was in lovely shape despite its years, with a shallow seat and teeny-tiny blocks.   The seat and flaps were hard and slick.  In other words, it was the polar opposite from the Albion.   After a quick consult with the saddler’s apprentice, who pulled Derby’s wither tracings and confirmed that the narrow Barnsby was potentially a decent fit, I tucked the saddle under my arm, doubled back to my house for a longer girth, and headed to the barn.

The saddle did indeed look like it fit Derby pretty well, so I tacked up and got on.  It felt pretty good – hard and slippery – but balanced and solid.  I stood in my stirrups to test that aspect of the balance.  And I stood easily.  This was a good sign.

I had a decent ride but this saddle will definitely take some getting used to.  I do like how flat and non-restrictive it is, enabling me to move and find the right position, versus holding me in one spot.

I think the Barnsby will work well for now, as I re-build my position.  Heck, I don’t mind showing in brown tack, either, so if the saddle ends up being more than a temporary thing, that’s fine too.  (In fact, I found – and ordered – a brown bridle with a dropped noseband tonight.)

To be continued….clearly.

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One week

August 11, 2011 5 Comments

Derby and I have been working really hard recently, and we stepped it up this week.  The quality of the work we’re doing has improved almost exponentially.  We have a long way to go, but progress is a great motivator.  I feel like we’re really starting to generate some quality movements, and I’m finally, finally starting to ride.  I’m not saying that we’re there.  Not at all.  But we’re better!

Six days ago:

Last night:

And a special thanks to Christy, who’s been tireless this week!

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Cramming

August 10, 2011 5 Comments

Practice braids. My first ever. Meh.

With the show just days away, I still have a lot to do.   And I got a rude awakening last night when Christy reminded me that USDF rules apply to this show – meaning jackets, braids, the whole kit and caboodle.   Crap! Braids!  I was planning on rocking a nicely pulled mane.  So tonight I experimented, and came up with something that will look OK and won’t require me to learn how to sew in button braids, yet.  Some additional practice is needed, however.

In addition to the braids, we also had a long list of things to address in the lesson, chief among them the free walk and downward transitions.  We made some progress in the free walk – if I get really active and push with my seat, I can get Derby to stretch and swing.  A bit.  This is very much a work in progress.

Our trot work is almost pretty.

Downward transitions went better.  Christy had me work on getting Derby more in front of my leg by having me trot, walk one step and then immediately trot again.  This forced me to use my half halt and within a minute he was working very nicely – his back was up, his hind engaged and we had good contact.  When we added the halt through a medium walk we had our best executions of this movement to date.  Not perfect, but markedly better.

Our trot work was better too.  Christy worked with me on being more assertive (and nagging less) and we had a more forward, quality trot tonight.    So, progress.

In other news, the mosquitoes are close to plague levels.  The nights are lovely and cool, but the horses are being pestered by ravening hordes of evil airborne bloodsuckers.  Because it’s cooled off, I hauled out Jag’s old fly sheet and boots, and I festooned Derby in protective gear.   It looks goofy, but while the others run and roll, he stands quietly. As long as it stays cool, I’ll keep him decked out in his bug suit.

I think he looks kind of cute. In a pathetic and dorky way.

 

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Homework

August 7, 2011 Leave a comment

I’ve been cramming in as many lessons as my schedule – and Christy’s – will permit.  I’m glad I did, because it’s paying off.  Today, riding solo, I had a solid ride and even logged a few improvements.

As I mounted up, I ran down my mental checklist.   Don’t accept the wrong answer, like sluggish responses, a hollow back or an up-flung head.  Correct problems immediately. Hold the contact.  Use my seat and legs, not hands.

After letting Derby stretch a bit, I started more serious work at the walk.  He was a bit locked up on the right side, so I worked on suppling him, flexing right and left, then bending and a little shoulder in, while staying round.    Moving into the trot, things improved.  Our upward transition was really nice and Derby was a lot more forward. He stayed nice and round as we motored around.  I had to work a bit on roundness and connection as we did 20m circles, but we produced some good work and Derby was moving beautifully laterally.

For fun, I asked for a canter, and got a decent upward transition and a much more forward canter than I had in one of my lessons last week, in which I had to really encourage Derby to move out.

Next, we worked on some transitions, practicing halting through a working walk. The first few were ugly, and Derby’s elevated nose told me all I needed to know – I wasn’t riding him into the contact – I was giving him rein as we slowed.  I tried again, holding the reins, keeping my shoulders back, and engaging my core.  Better.

We finished up doing some relaxed changes of rein across the diagonal, and then some elongated figure 8’s, bisecting the arena across the centerline.  I wanted to do a little work on the tight turns off the diagonal and onto the centerline I’ll encounter in the tests.

Overall, I was pretty happy with the ride, especially the fact that we were able to maintain decent quality throughout most of the ride.  It’s back to boot camp starting on Monday.   I’m glad I was able to get my homework for today done.  While I wouldn’t call it “perfect practice,” it was an above average ride for me.

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Glimmer of hope

August 6, 2011 3 Comments

He's a good buddy.

Well, after today’s lesson, I have a little more hope for our outing next weekend.  Unlike Thursday’s ride, which was about 95% icky and about 5% acceptable, today I was able to maintain a rounder horse, steadier contact and a nicer gait.  Derby was moving very nicely off my aids, and our geometry was decent too.  Transitions still need work but I have six rides until we trot down the centerline, which is plenty of time to tighten the screws.

So this ride was much improved.  I’m starting to believe we won’t make a terrible hash of our walk-trot tests next weekend.  Needless to say, I’m relieved.  I think Christy is, too!

What was the secret to today’s significant improvements?  Actually, there were a few.

    • Intention.  Christy gave me a little pep talk, saying that I need to be more demanding of myself, and the horse.  “Require the response,” she reminded me. “Ask nicely once, and then use your whip if you have to.”  Sage advice, and it worked.   Our gait quality was much better.
    • Immediacy.  There’s no reason to go around half a lap with a hollow horse.  When Derby goes hollow I need to correct him pronto.   My timing is getting better but this does still need work.
    • Steady hands & hold the contact.  This means closing my fingers, holding my hands steady and quiet (and keeping them independent) and adding a little pressure before transitions.  Adding pressure before I require (yes, require, not “ask for”) a movement is a great reminder to not throw the contact away.
    • Inside leg, inside leg, inside leg.  Ride the horse from my seat.
    • Use the core.  Keeping my core engaged adds to the steady contact – especially in transitions. If I collapse my core when I do a transition, I’ve effectively given away the reins.  Derby, God love him, is an opportunist, and he readily pops his head up and nose out when I let him.

So, things were better today.  Looking forward to getting back on tomorrow!

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Whup@ss

August 4, 2011 Leave a comment

At least his back is up, but this is a pretty stodgy trot

I’m taking Derby out to a schooling show next weekend.  We’re not ready for much and are just going to do walk-trot tests.  Why am I bothering? I’d like to take him out and about, and it will be fun to ride in a full size arena.  On the up side, the new saddle is working well for him – he’s not sore and is working comfortably. But we have just two weeks of introductory work, and are just working up to 40 minute rides.   Gait quality is an issue, my riding is still rusty and we both have a long way to go in terms of fitness.

Ugh, we are so not ready.

We’re focusing on getting Derby in front of my leg, gait quality and transitions in my lessons.  The pressure of a show – even a schooling show – is undeniable because I’m a bit of a perfectionist and Type-A sort of critter.  In actuality, this may work out well, because these three things – getting the horse forward and generating quality, correct gaits and riding lots of transitions are exactly what I need to get down to build Derby’s condition and move forward in our training.

But dang, I have a long road ahead of me.

The trot is getting a bit better

For the last couple nights, Christy has had me focus on riding from my core, while also asking for forward, keeping my hands quiet and bending the horse into the outside rein.  This is all basic stuff, and ten months ago, these movements were instinctive.  Presently, that’s not the case.  I feel like I’m multi-tasking and it’s tough.

Christy has been drilling me and man, I am feeling it.  My abs are sore and my legs hurt too. I spent extra time giving Derby a little massage tonight and hand grazing, because I bet he’s feeling it too.

The instructions come rapid fire from the middle of the ring.  Hold my reins.  Steady my hands.  Close my fingers.  Leg on.  Ask for more.  Make it happen. NOW!  Bend him.  Inside leg.  Come on, bend!  There! Leg on!

Rinse, repeat.

A respectable trot, though I need to sit up straighter, engage my core, and round the horse.

I’m not expecting killer scores.  I’ve decided that I will be happy if my test comments do not include the words “lacks energy.”

Importantly, the urgency of the looming outing is really helping me focus on forward, gait quality and transitions.  Who knows when we will make our recognized debut – that is months and months away – but I promise you, we will be fit, forward and correct when that happens!

Now, off for a warm shower and some advil.  Dang trainers.

*ouch*

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The new saddle arrives!

July 25, 2011 2 Comments

The new saddle - an Albion K2 Genesis

I believe the saddle fit woes that kept us grounded are finally over – the new Albion K2 Genesis that arrived last week is working well for both Derby and me – so far.

From my perspective, the saddle is extraordinarily comfortable and well balanced – it accommodates my long femur and my decided preference for a closer contact feel and a narrow twist. Derby seems to like it too – he’s relaxed and isn’t showing any resistance.  His back soreness is almost gone.

The saddle’s arrival coincided with a week of brutally high temperatures, with heat indices of well over 100 for the week.  While it wasn’t pleasant, it didn’t impact my riding.  I was planning on doing light rides with Derby at the outset, just 20 minutes or so, mostly walking – and that’s what we did.   We stepped it up to 30 minutes with more trotting yesterday.  We’re not working on much at all at the moment – getting the horse back into condition to support real work is job one.  I’m starting to ask for some stretching and transitions, and am doing so incrementally.

In other news, some bad habits are back in force – namely, the toes-out, knees-out position I fought to overcome on Maddie last winter.  Because I’m still not working too hard with Derby, I’m picking up rides on other horses so I can sustain my own efforts longer.  Lots of two-point work is ahead of me.  And I have to work on stretching my hip flexors – so I can roll my whole leg inward.  Ugh.  Back to square one!

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Penance

July 1, 2011 6 Comments

Me & my buddy Frank

We had another up and down week, Derby and me,  as his back got sore again after my ride on Sunday. I *did* try another shim in my Mattes pad, which could have caused the soreness. Or, maybe after his winter off,  we’re asking too much too soon with multiple trot sets and stretching.  Who knows.

So he had a few days off,  just longing, and after discussing it with Christy, I decided that I’m going back to square one in terms of building fitness.  Hour long rides at a walk for a week.  Then introducing a couple short trot segments of no more than five minutes each, and then gradually increasing the trot, and adding short canters in about a month. And – hand to God – I swear on a stack of Bibles that I won’t mess with the shims and padding.

So on Wednesday we walked,  in hand, in the outdoor arena.  Walked and walked, in the deeper footing, over poles.  Derby signaled his boredom with sighs but plodded along next to me.  Because we weren’t mounted, and because I also needed to get a workout in, we also jogged a bit – the two of us, me in my big Wellies – around the outdoor.  As I was putting Derby away, Kim arrived, running late, and asked me of I could ride Frank, as she needed to get on Prior but both needed some work.  I was more than happy to hop on my old pal, and spent the ride doing penance for Derby, trotting around in two-point, and posting from a half-seat, keeping my butt out of the saddle as much as I could.  Gaahh.  I need to do more of that kind of work.  It kills.

On Thursday,  I tacked up Derby for one of our walking rides.  I had asked Christy if we could hack out off the property a short way, just so I could see how Derby would be.  He’s done lots of trails and schooled XC – and as expected, he was fine.  I was a little trepidatious – I generally am with most “first time” moments – but he was a good boy – even when we had to weave through pine trees and wade through belly-high grass.  We got out a little way – having tackled the parts of the trail I don’t love (pine trees, a drainage ditch, the tall grass) and Derby started acting a bit nervous.  Not bad, at all – just a leeetle looky and snorty.  Because a good experience was important to me – I am putting my own confidence back together and am frankly managing my experiences by setting myself up for success –  I asked Christy to turn around.  She was surprised but I wanted to get back before I had any issues.  A successful maiden voyage was the desired outcome.

We headed back, and Derby felt tense and was a little spooky.  This was all manageable – on the spookiness Richter scale, where 1 is a look and 10 is eating dirt while your horse flees into the next county, this was a 1.5.  No biggie.  And that was the point.   Getting out and back successfully and quietly is the first step I needed.  And it worked – I’m eager to take Derby back out, and am certain that he’ll be fantastic on the trails.  And we learned later that three was another rider in amongst the pine trees, and she had flushed a deer, so Derby’s avid interest in what was going on elsewhere was legit.

We ended the ride schooling bend in the outdoor.  I need to work on establishing a more forward, marching walk with Derby, who tends to get slow.  Anyway, it was a good night.  However,  I still find myself riding defensively.  I have to get it through my head – and into my instinctive reflexes – that this horse isn’t Maddie.  I can trust this boy. I *need* to trust this boy.

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It’s all connected

June 12, 2011 Leave a comment

A riddle wrapped in an enigma, slathered in mud.

For the last week my interactions with Derby have been on the ground – my saddle doesn’t fit him well, and he started to get a little sore after I rode him for a short duration, despite using a slightly wider gullet that looked better balanced on him.  As I noted earlier, he started to get a little resistant shortly into our ride – light on the front end and unwilling to move forward freely – signs, in my experience, that the saddle is uncomfortable.  However, after the ride his back wasn’t sore.  The next day, however, was a different story – Derby started to show what I’d call mild soreness.

I was out of town in the middle of last week, and I asked Christy to do some training rides on Derby, if his back recovered.  However, on Tuesday he was very sore, and Wednesday he wasn’t much better.  On Friday, Christy went over him more thoroughly, and discovered that Derby was also very sore in his left hind muscles.

Horses are like dominoes.  One thing can affect many others. Atlanta is a good example of this – she was very back sore a while ago, when she was due for hock injections and had some shoeing issues on her hind feet.  Now that she’s had her hocks done and the shoeing problem has ben addressed, she’s going beautifully, and her back feels good.  (She sure used it in the training ride she had with Christy last week!)   Christy suggested that something else was going on – that one short ride in a less-than-ideal saddle could cause this much persistent soreness – such as a slip in the mud or torquing something during turnout.  I put him on the longe line today to see how he moved.

Moving to the left, he looked fine, stretching while he trotted, moving out willingly and tracking up.   He stepped neatly into a canter when I asked.  Everything looked good.

It was a different story going to the right, however.   He was short behind and didn’t stretch while trotting.  When I asked him to canter, he swapped leads behind.    We stopped.

I hadn’t been giving him any bute, because I wanted to gauge the recovery of his back. And tonight, after we stopped longing, his back looked pretty good, but his hiney was still pretty sore.  I gave him a couple grams of bute, and after discussing it with Christy, decided that a short ride tomorrow – mostly at the walk,  and focusing on stretching, would be the plan.  I have a Schleese saddle on trial that looks like it fits him pretty well.  We’re going to do gentle “horse yoga” – bending, stretching and giving – but I won’t be engaging his hind legs.  We’ll just work on straight lines and big loops.  Hopefully, he’ll recover in a few days – our saddle fitting is tentatively scheduled for the 16th.  Hopefully I’ll have a saddle I can ride confidently in soon.

 

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Riding back to front

June 10, 2011 1 Comment

Derby and I are still awaiting a saddle fitting, which has left us temporarily grounded.  My friend Cathy generously said I could ride her lovely mare Atlanta in my lesson on Thursday, however, a couple days of business travel and a wild thunderstorm the night before had wiped me out.  I groomed and tacked Atlanta, and handed the reins to Christy, for a previously scheduled training ride.

I used to watch Christy ride all the time, before she turned pro.  These days, my opportunities to see her ride are much less frequent, and I when I do see her ride, it’s usually on one of her own horses.   Watching her ride Atlanta was a rare treat, because it’s fun (but also very humbling) to see the effect correct riding has on a horse – especially one as fancy as Atlanta.  Needless to say, the mare sure looked different than when I’ve ridden her in the past.   There’s a reason why I have a day job, I guess.

Atlanta has had some time off recently, but is going beautifully now.  Christy focused her ride on stretching the mare, and working her over her back to help build her top line.  This is exactly the type of work I will need to do with Derby, once we get going.

Atlanta is uphill, working over her back, and stretching beautifully into the contact.

Christy started her ride on Atlanta softly asking her to release her neck and become supple.  She started with a little shoulder fore at the walk, and then upped the lateral work ante from there, moving the mare’s shoulders and haunches in and out, asking her to to step under herself and reach, reach, reach into the bit.

They moved into trot, and Christy continued to insist that Atlanta reach into contact and stretch.  It was a textbook display of riding back-to-front, and the mare really responded, covering a ton of ground, working in a lower, stretchy frame.

As cool as that was to watch, watching the canter work was even cooler.  The mare’s back was up, and her canter was balanced and something to behold.

I have always enjoyed watching Christy ride my horse, even though it is (as I mentioned earlier) it’s humbling.  I’ve ridden Atlanta a couple times, and it was all I could do to invite a little stretch at the walk.   Riding bigger gaits back to front is, at the moment, something I struggle with.

I watched and learned, wide awake, and inspired.

A beautiful, uphill canter, again with nice contact.

 

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