I am a Lemon

Yes folks it is official I am a lemon and I ride like one. Perhaps I should rename my blog. Hmmh let me see now JustLikeaLemon or Lemon Squeezing for Horses.

Today we worked in the school once again, poor Charlie, but he needs the consistent work and the turnout is currently much reduced. He can't be a couch potato.

Firstly we lunged on straight lines and circles and then over trotting poles. Did beautifully and then had a little paddy and jumped over the first two and was very silly. I dealt with this the only way I know how which was to calmly tell him he was naughty stop him tell him not to be silly and then asked again. It was obviously out of his system as he trotted very nicely on both reins.

One issue which concerns me is that there has been a lot of tail swishing must keep an eye on that.

So then I took on the guise of a lemon. The little black devil on my shoulder said 'No don't ride today he has been naughty he might be even naughtier'. The little fluffy wuffy bunny on the other shoulder said 'Get on or you will start finding excuses not to ride'.

So I mounted. Just in case he had an issue I did the saddle smacking and thumping thing before I got on legs astride whoosh I was a Lemon.

I decided that Tori would suggest quality not quantity so didn't intend riding for ages. I rode around on both reins in walk trying to keep my arms and hands light and keep any tension out of my body. Oh and of course breathing was handy too.

We asked for a nice trot and got a nice trot on the left rein did some walk halt walk decided no circles just half circles keeping everything large. Did some more trot and changed to the naughty rein.
Right said the lemon to herself no tension allowed we rode around and asked for trot no probs no head tossing did some transitions and then sure enough as I rode along the long side thinking now where should my weight be he did the lock shoot sideways thing so the lemon squeezed for all her might legs on ride forward shift weight and......hoorah no bounce back onto the track nice trot then transition to walk. Did a little more trotwork and changes of rein.

Then deciding discretion was the better part of valour the lemon dismounted and left her boy to have a roll.
The lemon then went and blew her nose and had a little cry. Still we had no head tossing mostly good trot transitions and no bouncing.

That sodding horse I used to own whose name I will never say out loud has a lot to answer for as it is he who shall not be named who has destroyed my confidence but me an Charlie will get it sorted.

A bit about the Upwards stuff

Further to my earlier ramblings there is one interesting aspect of Charles behaviour and that is that the little mini rear is Charlies weapon of choice. What I mean by this is that when he is out in the field and his besty JB chases him or bites his bum the does the same little elevation and toe flick. So am I dealing with a horse saying 'not today thank you' rather than 'never I am in pain'?

Just a thought.

Up, Down, Sideways and Forward

Well here we are on Wednesday no further forward.
I don't think we have gone backwards we have moved forward at a tangent and are now in a different place.

I lunged Charlie in the Pessoa Saturday and did some successful groundwork.

I decided I had to know what element of the shoulder in made him rear so I broke it down into building blocks. I probably went over the top with treats as each stage got a reward but he did a very acceptable bit of shoulder in on both reins very happily twice by the time I had finished. I am now wondering if the lunge whip under my elbow flapped and startled him we ditched it to do the work this time.
We repeated this work on Monday i had some lovely lungework and he is beginning to understand increase and decrease of pace in trot. However when I rode I had head tossing again and Charlie invoked a new issue. A sort of napping rear only tiny but.......angst kicks in big time for me.

So Tuesday we had our Tori lesson things went very well and we discussed my hands and contact as the head tossing only occurs when I am on board. We had another of the mini rears too which we felt was him napping near the gate.

Fast forward to today lunge work in Vienna reins then some ridden work.

Hoorah no head tossing ✔

Do some trotwork and the napping mini rears appear but only on the right rein can't work out if its napping or not they are fixed by a positive leg application and in one case a bit of a boot X

It seems odd that once forward again he feels lovely so has he got a problem or is it something we need to work through?
I think only time will tell

Less is More

Wishing I was Younger

With every horse I have owned I feel that what I am learning can be put to good use to benefit the next horse. My most pleasant learning experience was with Gulliver obviously over 13 years we had our ups and downs but he was probably the one horse who paved the way for Charlie. As I have failed dismally in the posting of Charlie photos I am going to treat you all to a little bit of Gully. I bought him at 4 and retired him at 17 (his age not mine). Now of course I have to pick photos that make us look good.
Ummh let me see now I like these two so there you go.

26June2005

Autumn2008



 

I am now finding chunks of some of the best of my learning experience from two instructors I had during the Gully years namely Emily and Irma beginning to gel quite nicely. Now I am learning with Tori I feel another great layer in my education being slapped on top of the old wallpaper of earlier teaching. So if I had bought Gully now as a 4 year old I would be doing such great things but then maybe I didnt have the understanding or the time I have now.

We have the Book

Quite by chance I saw a post on a Facebook group referring to "Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage" by Phillipe Karl. I have only just started to read it but it is reiterating the teaching of all three ladies and has reminded me that Less is in fact More and is also clarifying where I want to go with Charlie and why. Someone once taught me how to get a horse in outline. I cannot recall the exact words but it involved a leg or two. a bend and a circle and was to be done robotically when I asked why this worked was told because it does.

Now I am happily in the land of you do X because this is how the horse moves and understands and currently my favourite word is Légèreté (I have two other favourite words Wine and Chocolate but they are no use to Charlie). The other word I need to keep to hand is a little daunting Biomechanics.
I like to read and ponder and lets hope I get past the first few pages. I have a better understanding of why it is so important to train Charlie in the school in order to stay on board when we are out and the chips are down. I just hope it doesnt take me 13 years.

So the Future is Less

Already using my positively charged brain I have had some success with the lad. Keeping it simple but also hit the buffers on some issues with him but perhaps I now understand why which of course is half the battle. I never have the camera to hand so the best I can offer of Charlie is a piccy of his lovely clip.

The Charlie Responsibility

We hate Snow

What have we done since my last post. Hmmh let me see now. Friday was horrendous the day of the massive snowfall.
I am a weed when it comes to driving in the snow even with a 4 x 4 I learnt how to do it last year but have the memory of an inebriated Goldfish. I drove to the yard with a little bit of terror and a bit of a tear. Last time I drove in souch horrid conditions it was on a grocery run to my late parents I remember it well as top of their list of requirements was pickled onions. Charlies is carrots.
I turned the equivalent of Tigger on speed out in the paddock and as I left all those who had turned theirs out half an hour before were bringing theirs back in not me or our field mates.
He cmae back in at lunchtime and we lunged and rode. Nothing of note he was the normal happy chappy although I will say he looks better and better.

Saturday he was much calmer going out and in the afternoon I worked him in the split pessoa for half an hour and Sunday he had a day off. Ok I lied I had a day off he had a bit of a pamper session.

Blue Mondays

Monday we hit the buffers a little and I think this will be the pattern in weeks to come that I will always get at least one non productive day. The particular exercise that causes us grief is on the left rein asking for a bit of leg yield. Theoretically on the ground I ask for a little flexion to the inside, lift the bit a little and then ask his shoulder to step over.
Charlies reaction is to do a mini rear I havent decided if this is beacuse I am doing it wrong or he finds it difficult  or old pain memory.

My ridden work wasnt great either lots of head tossing. So to this I say Pah!

Leaderless on Tuesday

Well this blooming weather is really getting me down and now the Goddess of Charlieness who we shall call Tori cancelled our lesson. :( The school was booked for horrid early so we went in and worked properly.
I spent quite some time warming him up in walk first and decided to de-stress the bit ring issues of Monday by just walking round the arena holding the lunge line and the rein up close to the bit to show him he isnt going to die.

 I then impressed myself by doing polework and the boy was ace. I kept extending the poles to get him lengthening and he took it all in his 'Stride'.:)

We finished off mounted and I was very impressed by our ridden work. We had some lovely work in walk and trot and it was only when I started to play with lateral work we got the head tossing so I backed of a little and made sure I dismounted when we had done some good work.

The issue of throwing his head up into trot transitions has almost 100% disappeared.

The Responsibility

There is such a great responsibility owning a Charlie. He is a wondeful trusting soul and he proved this again today as we pootled down the track to his field. I stopped at the barn to pick up some hay to top up what was in the field and I just left him ground tethered.

Basically that means drop the lead rope say 'wait wait' and go ito the barn to get the hay and Charlie.... thats exactly what he does he just stands and waits. I am not kidding myself I know that if he was surrounded by luscious grass or another horse came past the desire to wait will be low on his agenda but at the moment I am the carrot providing centre of his universe. That is a heavy burden to carry I musnt let him down.

Whoops and a bit more Ooh

Today I approached our schooling session with trepidation as we all know pride comes before a fall and I was quite pleased with him yesterday.

I again lunged in full tack and Vienna reins working equally on both reins and was happy with movement and attitude.

I held back for a while asking for the increase and decrease of pace just in case it was a one off and decided to work on a how slow can we go in trot. Unfortunately on his weak rein I was so focussed on encouraging him to trot slowly I had a serious attack of elbow misplacement.

Tori has shown me how to carry the stick of death (Charlie's name for the yellow lunge whip) in my elbow so that I can feel it touch the ground and know where it is unfortunately I got carried away and the end of it must have gone somewhere wrong. We had a mini explosion for which I apologised but it was quite a nice mild explosion.

We got our increases and decrease of pace in trot but I didn't think they were as good as yesterday however I am a bit greedy for improvement.

Again hardly any jumps into trot mostly very nice transitions.

We removed Vienna reins and mounted. I only rode for about 15 minutes but was very pleased. We tried to remember to get our contact correct. Had nearly no head tossing and had some nice transitions to trot.

I did a little shoulder in on both reins in walk and I swear blind I could feel his inside hind step under him.

We also achieved trot circles with no falling in or out in fact I was so pleased with him that when I got a nice transition in walk to halt I dismounted fast before I could ask too much a mess it up again.

A little bit of ooh.

Following yesterday's lesson we approached our work today with a more positive attitude. That said Charlie always has a positive attitude to schoolwork. As usual we started in Vienna reins on the lunge.

First bit of success 95% of transitions into trot on both reins showed no toss of the head. I gave him lots of warm up in walk as it is so cold and did spirals in and out and another plus he has learnt not to rush the trot on BOTH reins.

In trot I concentrated on getting near his quarters so he was stepping under with his inside hind.

I decided to try the slow trot on the short end and up the pace on the long side. He has this down to a fine art on the good rein but last time I tried it on his weak rein threw himself at it fell into the middle and tanked.

Well today result. I repeated the exercise on his weak rein and there was a dip of the head a sort of moment of suspension and an increase in trot pace whoo hoo!

We did some pole work and I reminded myself that the first time we used poles he was very erratic on his weak rein not so now.

I popped on board for the end of the session and we had the odd head toss in walk but I know it's up to me to ride that correctly. We had some very nice work some lovely trot transitions and all of it with a lovely soft back under the saddle.

Rescued by Tori Rendel again

Taking a Step Back

So following on from my last post I have actually progressed, apparently. As Charlies issue is not working into the contact on Sunday I popped him back into the split Pessoa (Vienna Reins plus Bum pusher) and didnt ride. I started to feel that perhaps he was looking better. We are ceratinly not getting the hop into trot we were having originally.

Monday we lunged tacked up and he is looking like he is going better but the old problem of falling in on the right rein came back with a vengeance. I rode for 20 minutes trying to get the best walk.

Tori to the Rescue

Our lesson was at 9 and it was flippin freezing so I put Charlies saddle on a good Half hour before the lesson and left him wrapped up in his turnout dress.I wont drag out the detail of the lesson but lets just say if I can keep my hands and arms soft and my brain in gear there is a lot less head tossing.

We used the scientific approach I lunged in Vienna reins no head tossing.
Tori lunged me in trot and got him working in the Vienna reins no head tossing so its not my weight on his back (whoo hoo blow the post Christmas diet then). Then I took up the reins and we just got the occasional head toss when I didnt have my arms relaxed and soft. So unfortunately, yet again, the answer is in my hands.

Unfortunately my arms have always been my Bete Noir so maybe its a good job I have a Cheval Noir (ok Dark Bay then.Whats that in French?).

I also discovered how easy he is to correct on a circle on his good rein just by gently closing my inside hand.

The right rein is obviously going to continue to be a work in progress. But we will achieve.

Dont Push your Luck

It has become obvious that my deisre to get Charlie out Hacking to deal with my fears is not actually what he needs...yet. He needs the constant steady work in the school keeping him interested and helping that balance on the right rein.

Not to self read your own blog more from the start.

Life never goes as planned.

Life never goes the way you mean it to so its inevitable that Charlie and I have had a set back. Only a small one but in the world of lost nerve it feels huge.
Thursday was good we worked in the school and then I rode Charlie down the track to the barn. It was wonderful and he was a very good boy.

Our work in the school on Friday was not quite as planned and Charlie had a couple of hiccups. Undaunted I took him out of the school for a bit more walking and went down a different track on the farm. When I stopped he napped quite strongly and tried to turn around so I politely requested another 3 or 4 steps and then asked him to turn before it became his idea and as he naps to left I turned around right.

I have to deal with my fears so back at the yard we went up to visit the chickens a track from Annas world of frightening times.
He was not a very happy boy and had a temper tantrum and threw his toys out of the pram. Mini rear pawing the ground and throwing his head around as if I was pulling his teeth out. But this was buckle end with nervous Nellie holding the neck strap so I know I was innocent.

So today it is one step back. Maybe I have been doing too much with him I don't know so I lunged him in the school in Vienna reins and then concentrated on getting 20 minutes good walk. I took the lunge cavesson off in case that was upsetting the boy but he started off very well and started head tossing.

So I guess it's watch this space. I have to keep reminding myself that it is only two weeks since I started riding him again.

Knots and Carrots

Down

Following  Fridays success I decided not to push it an just did ridden walk work on the Saturday and then let Charlie have Sunday off. Ok I lied I let me have Sunday off.

Monday we tacked up in the split pessoa and basically I lunged a seaside donkey who wasnt going anything like as nice and I must admit I was really down.

Getting tied up in knots

Cue a lesson with Tori on Tuesday what a relief the Vienna reins were too long. It was difficult to adjust by sliding so Tori tied some knots in the rope. We lunged the boy and he looked good so then we put me on board and we trotted some more then worked off the lunge finishing off by doing lots of Shoulder In, Reverse Shoulder in and Tori trying to confuse my addled brain with Biomechanics putting my weight in the outside leg on the right rein to assist Charlie so he didnt fall in so much.
I didnt realise I had so many bits of my body that needed to move indepemdantly.

What ever happened to flapping your arms and legs and just giving it a kick? Oops should not have said that.

Carrot Stretch Girl

We now have a system with the carrot stretches  that works well for the boy and me. It basically involves cuddling his head and waving a corrot in front of his lips he seems to really enjoy the game and doesnt run away because he cant reach the carrot.

Fizzy Physio

We had the Physio Grace Fairburn out Wednesday to check that nothing had gone astray now we are on board. she was really pleased with him so much so that she clapped her hands in Glee. She watched on the lunge and ridden and found that his back was actually better after being ridden and he doesnt carry his tail as much to the left as he did we now have a bum waggling exercise to do to strengthen up the inner thigh (his not mine I might add).

Grace said we should do some lateral work to improve his way of going so yet again I have a Physio and Trainer who havent met but sing from the smae songbook HOORAH!

Now its just me then

Here is my dilema before surgery I had the rearing from hell ride then the bolting up the field and a trip to A & E so riding in the school is step 1 now I have to be brave enough to gently hack :(

Week 1 ridden work complete

From Brazil to Austria

And so we complete week 1 of ridden work after the sudden surprise of being told we could ride last week Charlie goes from strength to strength. I didn't lunge in the Pessoa until Wednesday as we had been concentrating on sitting on the fiery beast and were lungeing in saddle and side reins. He hadn't forgotten and returned to clockwork mouse mode.

Yesterday was lesson day and Tori came armed with her modified Pessoa bits. Basically the ropes that go from the back strap to the bit ring etc were detached and a clip added. We now call these Vienna reins apparently. Interestingly when I googled Vienna reins it mentioned Bill Noble an instructor I had lessons with many years ago when I didn't know enough to absorb all I was taught.

We lunged Charlie in saddle bridle and Vienna reins and he started to work very well in them so the ridden work at the end of the lesson was in trot on the lunge whoo hoo. As ever better on the left than the right but there always has to be something to work on.

Tori ,she who must be obeyed, recommends I don't start hacking out too soon we have a lot of work to do strengthening him up and developing an understanding of contact and self carriage.

Today I had cannabilised my Pessoa with some clips from an old leg strap and set to work making my Vienna reins. Mission accomplished I tacked Charlie up and set to work in them. Couldn't decide how short they should be so I kept them long.

Again he worked quite well. We waited for a presence on the yard and popped on to do some ridden work. He was a good boy and Harriet popped in to watch us. With Tori's parting words about trot ringing in my ears I did a trot transition and 3 or 4 trot steps on each rein and I am happy to report the transitions were lush. And it's only 4th of January.

Waiting for Harriet

Dont try this at home

Charlie really enjoys his carrot stretches but as his owner I am falling well short of his requirements. this boy has a neck like a vice, a mouth the size of Rambo croc and great enthusiasm. This could be why, last night, I suddenly found my self sat on the floor (straw and poo) beside his back legs as a snatch and grab caught me off balance. He then proceeded to gaze at me on the floor wondering why I suddenly needed a rest.
He also proved my failings today mounted as I was checking his girth and he believed there should be a minimum of one carrot proferred.

And Harriet

Well I am still waiting for the photos from Harriet but I can forgive her and will post later if they ever appear. Today we shared the tiny school for a session on both the boys. In fact we shared the school with her lovely dog Kizzy as well she and Charlie know each other and he was quite happy walkin round with a Tizzy Kizzy trotting around.

We had a decent amount of walk today but the boy is way over bending Tori will sort us out there we did some tentative shoulder in and counter shoulder in which wasn't brilliant but I was quite pleased with it. I should add that this is the first time I have ridden without lungeing first. I did, however, walk him for a while before climbing aboard. He seems a little confused that after months of leading him I want to be up top and the way he stared at my bum I think he was suggesting a post Christmas diet was in order.

Harriet left the school first , I asked her to, and we did meet some separation anxiety as Charlie was shocked that his pal had gone out so the lovely JB stood outside the door until Charlie settled. Then a quick dismount and JB was promptly removed while Charlie learnt he wouldn't die when his friend left but he would get minty treats.

HAPPY NEW RIDE!

A beautiful day

What a fantastic start to 2013 a brilliant sunny day. I decided today was the day to do more stuff and had yet another cunning plan.

I had not lunged in the Pessoa since I was told I could start riding 5 days ago. So today we did some Pessoa work thank goodness he hadn't forgotten and we did a little canter on each rein which I think is improving but that may be wishful thinking. I made sure we had yard company and mounted up. We had a bit of a mooch around and then Harriet came and sat with us while we rode.

I invoked the master plan

Harriet was ready to go and get her horse JB , Charlie's field buddy, in. So Charlie and I hacked down the track with her to the field and back again. It felt so good to be out on the lethargic boy.

It's really important that I walk out rather than just in the school because I tend to get locked in to riding indoors.

So Yippee Kay AY bring it on just a shame 20 minutes of walk can be so tiring. There will be photographic evidence but as ever I am waiting for Harriets Photos.