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.