"Ami, do you hear that? You need to be rideable, and give me options"

Hmm, well, I had some time off the farm. I traveled in the old brown car (it had its 168,000 mile birthday) to visit home. It got a big pat once it got me in driveway, and not a cross road sooner. I didn’t get much time off horses though; there was only one day I didn’t ride while I was back. I did some beach riding, sat on a 4yo gelding for the first time in his life, and had a few lessons on my favorite gelding, Ari. I had a great time seeing everyone on the little adventures that popped up here and there.

Grady, the 4yo, being backed. 

Not taken from my trip, but this is Ari and I jumping last winter. 

Now, it's back to work in Idaho. Jack has graduated from doing circles in the barn aisle to doing circles in a small outside pen. He adjusted well, the first day he was really thinking about the footing with a person on his back, the second day the footing and his balance was no concern. He tried to turn his head and bite my boot; hopefully he doesn’t ever succeed because I am sure he would enjoy that game!

Tommy has been ridden twice since getting a few visits to the horse chiropractor. I felt a tremendous physical change in him just in the first few steps of walking away from the barn, to arena. It’s quite something and if I doubted chiro work for horses, it would have changed my mind. The first ride to the second ride had a big change, it’s like he is starting to realize his body isn’t going to hurt and being much less defensive in his movement. He’s quite nice when he is relaxed, I hope he gets more consistent.

Ami has had some dressage/flat riding, and did some bank and ditch schooling today. After riding Ari back home I came back and was thinking of my nice ride on him and trying some of the exercises I did with him. She was a bit surprised, Ari is farther along than her, but she accepted the exercises well. Her jumping today was quite entertaining. We warmed up over some verticals with some walls underneath the rails that she thought were something to put some space between her and the fences. Tom kept on saying that Ami needs to be rideable and give me options, not get rev up and attack things. I was wondering if I was riding her too aggressively, causing her to lose some rideability, or if she was just spooking at the walls.

After the spooky verticals, we all went up and worked on the bank complex. We’ve done banks before, but not for a while. I haven’t done a lot of bank work, I know the basics, but I definitely think of them of an obstacle where if you ride a little poorly, you'll have a big problem. What’s nice about Ami is that even though she can be tugging on me when we’re cantering around, when we are going to a bank or a jump she definitely sees the upcoming obstacle, gets serious and balances herself for it. She still gets excited, but she keeps her brain, knows where her feet are, takes care of herself and keeps me safe. At one point we jumped up the bank, cantered a stride across the top, and dropped down. Ami jumped big up the bank with much enthusiasm, took her canter stride and had a “Oh, I didn’t know there was a down element here!” moment before launching down.

The ditch was fine. I had our ditch issue at the clinic in my mind, and chose to walk up to the ditch and let her jump over it, which I was told was a good plan. Ami doesn’t have enough experience cross country to know that a ditch could be coming up, and she’ll stop when she is surprised by one. The ditch was little, and I thought it would be fair to give her plenty of time to see it and jump it, and to avoid any issues. She kept walking, looked, rocked back, and jumped it just fine. We were then able to trot over it with out anyone getting worried about it. 

Fran Clinic!

Fran is the woman who taught me how to really ride. I met her when I was 15 and started working off lessons, riding her nice show ponies and my horse of questionable sanity, and almost no ridability. She and Tom trade off teaching at each other’s farms doing clinics. It was nice to meet all the other Tom-Students and hang out with them, we had 14 people at dinner! 

Nice!

The clinic here was more of a practice horse show than lessons. The morning was dressage, having groups practice components of their dressage test that they would do Sunday morning. A dressage test gives the rider the opportunity to show how well trained their horse is; at the lower levels focusing primarily on quality of the gaits, transitions between gaits, and accuracy of the ring figures. If you don’t ride you would be surprised at how hard it is to get a horse to do a round, 20 meter circle and be told it was "fairly good". The afternoon was jumping. Each group warmed up in the arena over some simple stuff, and the more advanced riders then went out to the field, XC vests zipped up, to jump some natural obstacles. Sunday was judged dressage rides (Fran is a judge, after all) and then in the afternoon each rider picked a jump course to ride, talked about how it went with Fran, and then worked on what they didn't like.

Practicing Novice level dressage 

On Saturday Fran was pleased to see where Ami was in her way of going, which meant a lot to me. For where we are at we need to pay attention to having quality gaits (not to fast, not to slow), quality transitions between gaits (think shifting a manual transmission), and accurate figures (truly round circles, straight lines, even corners). The afternoon jumping got interesting, there was a pony-mare moment involving a five-foot wide ditch and some name calling, but other than that she galloped up to things with a “I’ll jump that sucker like it’s never been jumped before!”

(This is what a normal, attitude and hormone free, effort over a ditch looks like) 

We did dressage tests on Sunday morning. Our overall scores were 35 for Novice A, and 36 for Novice B, which both fall between “satisfactory” and “fairly good,” and are good scores for the sport. She had some tense moments, but I had my own goals which were accomplished (good downward transitions, and my position), so I was happy.  Jumping in the afternoon went well; people commented on how cute Ami was and said it was fun to watch her go around. She jumped some 3ft jumps and gave them much more respect than she does to the stuff that is 2’6”. One of the other participants, Chris, was taking lots of pictures, so I'm spending some time looking at them and seeing what needs to get better. 

Horse shows, backing three-year-olds and so much more

Well, it looks like the weather has changed for the time being. It’s been warm, breezy, and in the 60’s. Of course, when we all went to a horse show on Saturday it felt like January in Seattle, soooo cold! It was a fun day though. We went to Stanton Farm in Deary, Idaho and did some jumping classes. I only heard how I did for one class, the 2’ Hunter, and we ended up with second place. First place went to a professional on a fancy horse. Two other classes were timed jumper classes with some tight turns in a little indoor, then there were two derby classes in a gravel outdoor with portable cross country fences. It didn’t matter what the class was or how it was being judged, Ami jumped very eagerly, never looking at the new fences or giving anything a second thought. She really is so much fun to jump. 

When she wasn’t jumping she was being rather heard bound, which was super annoying. Since she was so good for her first outing in four years, was otherwise being rideable, and was improving throughout the day so I tried to look past it.

I had the opportunity to ride Runoff on the flat. It wasn’t a lesson, which was nice because I was able to work on ideas that I had with her. She took to it well and at the end was doing walk-to-canter transitions right off my aids and had a nice, balanced canter as well. My goal is to have her listening to my holding and driving aids much better before I jump her again. There has been another girl riding at the barn a lot and she actually had a good laugh about how sad my leg looks going not even half way down Runoff’s side. I have to wonder how effectively other short people control such big horses.

Ami’s Monday lesson was good. The three of us did a flat lesson on the hill behind the barn. I’m still missing my dressage saddle, and it’s a bit weird for me to work on things like lateral work in my jump saddle. Another focus of the lesson was canter depart work, which Ami is no stranger too. We would be trotting along, pick up the canter, canter five to eight strides, go back to trot, establish the trot, and repeat. It’s actually the downward transitions that I’m struggling with. I have the habit of thinking just a little backwards in the transition so trying to be soft and still get a good transition is almost a mutually exclusive idea at this point, but it’s getting better.

Oh, BIG NEWS, Jack, the three-year-old, was sat on for the first time this summer. The people who were me last summer did this, but didn’t get much farther than that. The idea is that by August he’ll be rideable and doing walk, trot, and possibly canter. He a bit confused by my leg squeezing him, but other than that he was a gem. 

Here is a picture of Benson and Dexter cuddling. Dexter gets really cold so I imagine he was taking advantage of Benson's larger mass and body heat. 

You need to get everything perfect and hope it works out

Well, I had my first really bad ride. I guess you should see a ride like that coming when the instructor starts a dialogue with “I don’t care if she quits, but ……” It’s funny; when I was younger I used to be sort of snotty if anyone said anything bad about my riding, mostly teenagers never take criticism well and think of themselves as invincible. Now I am in my 20’s, I had a bad ride with Runoff, and I now all I want to say is “I’m OK with not being a good enough rider to jump Runoff. I am perfectly fine riding her on the flat until I can get her to respond to my aids.” I actually said something like that, and was sort of scoffed at. Maybe my expectations of myself are low, rather than fair, I dunno. I have realized I’ll be perfectly content bopping around on oversized ponies for the rest of my life rather than being a master horse trainer who can fix anything and everything. 

In contrast, Ami was a super star, not only for the day but even in looking at where she was on Monday. In one ride she went from nearly running away with me and eagerly over-jumping everything, to cantering around obediently, waiting for my input and respecting my aids at every jump. Tom explained that we both have bad habits with each other, and really need to get comfortable with the leg being put on as a supporting “keep going” aid, rather than rocketing “go for it” aid. We seemed to get it right after he said it, I am sure it could be even better still, because nothing is really 100% the first time in riding. I am really happy though that she has seemed to settle down in two sessions, rather than two weeks or two months, which is realistic with horses.

Ok, it’s time to get wordy. I’m not one of those owners who thinks that their horse is perfect. I know Ami has had her questionable moments over the past seven years that we’ve been together, and I accept that she has been truly rotten at times. However, I know her inside and out, and when she isn’t behaving ideally I know how to work through it. I have faith that it’s going to work out, because I can think back to the hundreds of times it has worked out. That’s a relationship. In contrast, I’ve been riding Runoff for a month or so. She has nice conformation, is well bred, has nice gaits, and has had correct training her whole life. I feel like I know her well enough, and I enjoy riding her, but in the face of adversity she hasn’t done anything to earn my trust. Meanwhile, on Monday I didn’t ride Ami as well as I could have to a new fence. She just about slid to the base, crawled over it, and bless her heart cantered away just as if I had given her the ride she actually deserved. We turned around, and she jumped it again eagerly, obviously not remembering the bad ride she was given a moment ago. That’s why I love ponies. 

Anyways, had a nice trail ride today. I found a spot where Kari and I said "Oh, we're really lost!" and it was literally 200ft from one of the main logging roads. Found this cute little creek, I think it's called Turnbow Creek. 

She needs less "lock on 'n go"

Well, I never knew the weather would be so crappy in June. I was suffering from the impression that I would be getting the horses ridden before it got to be 80’F at 10am, but here I am sitting by the fire drinking hot cocoa. Tuesday it was so awful out, raining and windy  that none of the horses were ridden. Today wasn’t much better, I sort of questioned how much I liked horses as I was tacking up, but at least everyone got out and did something.

Sunday was a work day, the horses (Runoff, Ami, Peggy) just did hill work in the hay field. It’s nice to go out and think “I will move my hands forward each time I post” or “I will sink my heals down” and not worry about jumps, or what else is going on. It’s actually not easy to ride a horse around a course of jumps, or even up to a grid, and keep track of making sure the horse is correct as well as working on position flaws. Usually muscle memory wrongly takes over.

On Sunday I was also told to work on cantering, you know, because horses jump out of a canter and it’s good to practice like you’re riding between fences. With Ami and Runoff, each being part thoroughbred (think ‘race horse’ for anyone who doesn’t ride), cantering was more like easy, slow galloping. Runoff is very comfy and easy, she reminds me of a cat with how light she is off the ground. Ami also has nice gallop, but isn’t as round in her movement as Runoff. However, as far as adjustability and maneuverability, Runoff is like a train (an eloquent, graceful train) and Ami a sports car. That’s what 9 inches and being half pony vs. being one-quarter draft can do for a horse.

After riding Sunday morning I saw a bit of Princeton. I actually went to a western game day where it seemed that everyone who owned a horse and their brother was in attendance doing all sorts of events, all essentially coming down to different ways to kick a horse at a fast canter down the arena, stop and turn around, then spur them into a gallop back the way they came. Maybe they went through a shoot or grabbed a flag, whatever. Quite different from the world of eventing!  The biggest thing I learned was that I never want to live in rural Idaho, or probably any super rural region. 

Monday was more jumping. I did a lesson on Runoff, with Deb on Peggy, and another girl on Dolly. Tom reminded me “Remember, Runoff likes to look at things, even if she has seen them before.” We had some stopping issues last week, teaching me that she requires more than just a half-way decent ride to a fence. I did feel her think about stopping, but she never felt like she was actually going to. I commented that it didn’t feel like the most attractive riding, and got a response that went something like this “McKenzie, please, this is eventing. Good job with the horse.”

Ami finally did some cross country (XC) schooling! Ami would probably tell you that her dad was a good jumping pony, and her mom was a race horse, and when you combine those two things you get what Ami loves to do: galloping over things.  We started over a little 2’ A-frame type fence and she was basically running at it and pretending it was at least 3’. Her canter eventually settled down and she started being a little bit more realistic about the whole idea. Being tired probably helped her with the reality check. Tom said “She needs less ‘lock on ‘n go’”, which is sort of a funny thing to hear about an event horse, because that is what they have to do on XC.  I'm not too worried about it; she was fun, she likes it, and they way she has been improving I imagine just doing more XC will settle her down. 

It is confirmed: Ami, and possibly Runoff, are going to a “fun show” on Saturday.  Hopefully a camera can be passed around and I can get pictures of everyone. 

"Go watch some good dressage, you'll be a better rider"

I realized I haven’t introduced the horses!

Dolly: Middle aged, Draft/TB mare, 16.2hh-ish. She has been here since she was an unbroken 4yo. Steady, slow, reliable, probably wishes she was a plow horse or at least more of a lawn ornament. She goes on the flat, jumps, and is of course super fun to hack/trail ride

Runoff: Dolly’s first baby, ¾ Thoroughbred. She is about 10 years old, 17.1hh. She is steady like Dolly, but much more forward off the ground than her, and isn’t in a hurry. I really enjoy riding her, and I know I’ll miss her when the summer is over. My leg goes about halfway down her belly, and some days I wonder if my femur is long enough to effectively wrap my leg around her (See below for pictures if you don't know what I am talking about!). Here is a picture of me standing with her and Ami. It makes me giggle. 

Tommy: A Connemara/TB gelding, brother to Ami and Peggy (All three are by the Connemara stallion Skyview’s Orion). He is about 9, and is very broke but doesn’t have much for consistent, long term riding. This summer he is being brought back after a year off and the plan is to see how it goes, and it looks like he needs some more body work. His “air freshener” brand on his left hip is from Lone Pine Farm, out of Deer Park, Washington.

Jack: Dolly’s second baby. He is three, and by a TB/Holsteiner. He reminds me of a little brother, a little annoying but super cute and sweet. He is being long lined and ponied from Dolly, and will be backed this summer getting to walk, trot, and hopefully canter under saddle. He looks like he'll grow up into a really fancy dude! 

Peggy Sue: A Connemara/Arab mare, born here and acquired by Deb a few years ago. I actually knew her before they got her when she was on Vashon for a year. She has since grown up a lot, has gone eventing to training level, and done a lot of clinics. Here Kari, my second year Pullman roommate, riding her. 

Tiger: A home bred horse of some sort of TB/Irish/Selle Francais combination, and super fancy and smart. Beautiful face, and when she is done being an awkward two-year-old she’ll turn a lot of heads.  She already belongs to one of Tom’s students and is enjoying being a horse with a big pasture for the time being. This is her letting me take a picture of her. 

As for this week riding has been filled with jumping as well as a surprising amount of time dedicated to visiting Pullman. My current roommates are in the process of vacating so I decided I should like, make sure I have things to cook with, eat off of, and be able to shower as most of those things are owned by other people and vacating with them. Also, I love riding horses and living at the farm, but it’s going to be a long summer of riding three or four horses a day and it’s nice to go back to civilization and hang out with people.

I did courses on Runoff and Ami, no XC except for that one time on Runoff. Runoff tried to see how much she could get away with when I was riding her for the first time. After sorting through that riding her to a fence didn’t feel as freely forward and relaxed as it has been, but hopefully I made an impression on her and we won’t have further issues. Tom told me I did a good job on my last sequence, and I’ll try not to think about if he meant “good job overall” or “good job making yourself ride.” 

Ami was a blast. She was relaxed, she was soft, she was ride-able, she was point-and-shoot, and everything a person would want to see in a jumper. Now we just need to maintain that over an actual course with some height! She let me “just sit” as Tom puts it and kept her rhythm all the way to the base and hopped over it like “Hey Girl, I got this, you just sit up and enjoy the ride. Great job being soft in your elbows.”

I was told that Ami and Runoff are going to a show some weekend in the near future. I think it’s an event derby, so dressage phase and then a combined stadium-cross country phase, all in one day, I think. It could be the “Shedding Off” schooling show with rail classes like equitation and dressage suitability, with some jump courses in the afternoon. We went up to Spokane today to a facility called Deep Creek to watch some of Tom’s students compete in a derby there. Watching the whole scene made me excited to be part of it again. Here is a picture of the jump field from a hill with a training or prelim long on top of it. 

In other news, I rode Dolly with a driving rein (the reins backwards through my hands) and finally felt like my arms were being soft of their own accord, not of my own concentration and will. Also, I was told to watch good dressage, so I am taking that to mean to go watch some on YouTube. Yay for horse-internship homework!