Awesome Dressage Lesson #21

I snuck out of work early so I could get a lesson in before it was dark. And boy am I glad I did. I was a little worried it'd be too cold since it went from 60F yesterday to 30F with a pretty low windchill but it turned out pretty nice. I did a tiny bit of ground work before I groomed and tacked up. Tricia put the bell boots on Axel and off we went. We might have to call them "magic bell boots" because he really picks up his feet when he wears them. We worked on some basic trotting, extending on the long sides and slowing down on the ends. He started to really get moving when asked and once again offered a canter (on the wrong lead). He seems to pick up the canter when I put pressure on with my outside leg. I assume he wasn't trained for the canter cue so it's kind of fun that he goes for it. Too bad he never picks it up correctly and we miss our turn. We had a really nice canter in the other direction as well but he gave it up before the turn.

We switched to crossing the diagonals at X so he could work on bending both directions. Axel really started to "get it" then. He'd extend really nice on the diagonal, make the turn collected, and then pull out of the second turn and extend right away. After several rounds we worked on some transitions. The first trot to walk transition really blew us out of the water when he kept his rear under himself and really went into the walk nicely. Our walk is still slow and it's not quite an easy task getting Axel into the trot, but he's getting better. And finally we worked on backing up a couple times inbetween. He's really coming around.

A Trail Ride and a Picnic

Jeff had "reminded" me that I wanted to go on a trail ride and have a little picnic on top of the hill overlooking the creek. So we packed up the essential October picnic supplies (hot chocolate, cookies, fruit, and goldfish crackers) in the picnic basket and headed out to the barn. We decided to make it a very short trail ride so we could picnic before it got dark. We dropped off the picnic basket at the top of the hill and headed for the woods.

I still can't get Cody to walk down and back up the little dips in the trail. I start reminding him long before the hill that we're going to walk but when he gets to it he bites down on the bit and just runs. On the way back he ran all the way from the first big dip to the big tree before I got him to stop. On the way out of the woods he was set to head home but the plan was to go back to the top of the overlook for our picnic. Cody was not pleased with this idea and it took a few circles to get him to move forward in the right direction. My dressage saddle was slipping back so far on him, he was rewarded with not only a big patch of grass to graze in but I took the saddle off as well. We tied them to some trees and had our little picnic.

It was dark by the time we packed up to go home so I had to tack up Cody by feel. As soon as I have some extra money I'm going to find out how much it costs to have new billet straps put on my saddle. I cannot work with the ones on it right now. It took me three adjustments to get the saddle on right before I could mount without everything coming down on top of me. And Cody being more than ready to go home, did not appreciate the extra wait. I think Axel was acting pretty decent the whole ride, Jeff might argue otherwise but Axel is always an angel compared to Cody lately. So we rode back down the hill in the dark which was a new experience for me. It's a little scary actually. The horses knew the way and can probably see a lot better in the dark than we can so we made it back in one piece.

Tom had already fed the remaining horses so we fed Cody and Axel, shooed Beau out of the barn, and headed for home.

Oh I nearly forgot one thing ;) Jeff and I got engaged during our picnic!

Dressage Lesson #20

Apparently Axel went on a little sight seeing adventure yesterday before dinner. Tom came out to feed and all the horses were in the paddock and front pasture calling. He could hear another horse calling back from a distance. He looked around and noticed something was not right when he realized Axel was missing. Assuming the worst he grabbed a halter and lead rope and headed down the back pasture. He noticed some hoof prints on the wrong side of the fence near the one end of the pasture near the creek. As he came around to the opposite side of the pasture there's Axel, standing on the bridge waiting for someone to open the gate for him. Not sure how long he had been waiting, he had relieved himself on the bridge while standing there so he must have been waiting for a while. So I'm glad he made it back but yikes, maybe I should consider getting the horses microchipped just in case.

So after I dug all the burrs out of his forelock, mane, and tail, Axel was good as new. It was back to riding this time. Axel was acting kind of weird at first, really foaming up a lot with gross green foam. He wouldn't drink any water so we just went on with our lesson. He was pretty spunky at first for a few seconds. He slowed down a bit once we started working which meant a bit of leg work on my part. We were working on getting him to have some momentum. Tricia hopped on for a few minutes so I could see the difference in momentum and no momentum. Boy he's looking good though. I got back on and Tricia tortured me with some rider stretches which promptly left me with cramps in both my upper legs. Then she tortured me even more by taking away my stirrups to work on some sitting trot and keeping momentum. I'm still very bouncy but she said my leg position is a lot better without stirrups. My response was that I was using my legs to hold me on the horse. So all in all it went very well and we're making progress with backing under saddle. I probably won't be able to walk tomorrow though.

Jeff and I have a trail ride planned for tomorrow. Supposed to be the nicest day of the week.

Long Lining - Lesson #19

We decided not to ride last night. Instead we went for a long line lesson. Basically driving the horse from the ground with really long reins. And it's a lot more complicated than it sounds, especially when you throw in a carriage whip. Tricia started out with Axel to show him the ropes (no pun intended). Axel was a little confused at first but he picked it up alright. Tricia drove him around a bit at first and then handed the reins over to me. As usual, Axel was less than speedy. We had to make quite a bit of noise with the whip to get him moving, and even then he wasn't really fazed by it. I couldn't quite handle the whip and the reins at the same time so Tricia followed along with the whip for a while. It seemed like he understood once he figured out that he shouldn't be waiting for leg cues. It was a pretty weird thing for me to get the hang of. Maybe we'll try it again sometime. We definitely need more ground work, that's for sure.

Another Trail Ride

I thought I'd just update here about Sunday's trail ride. It wasn't Cody or Axel though. Jody, Sandy, some of Jody's family members, and I went out to Minnesota Harvest for a trail ride and some apple picking on Sunday. I'm less and less a fan of the Rent-A-Horse type places but since there's only 3 horses that we could ride where Cody and Axel live, that doesn't leave a lot of options for a group of 6. I rode a spunky little QH named Buster. And by spunky I mean, hadn't been a trail horse for very long, wnated to lead the group, and spooked at invisible things in the woods. He did only spook once and handled it pretty well. I asked for a horse that would move out and he was pretty good in that department. We went for an hour trail ride which really is short. Part of the ride (pictured) went through some really nice woods, I wished we would have had more of the ride there actually. Jody's littlest sister was on a little pony named Winkie. The trail leader did keep her on the lead line, and Jordan had a death grip on the saddle horn for the whole hour. But she did declare that she loved horses, just not "nuts" horses, and she asked her dad for a "Winkie." Dad said no. As our last trail ride, Jody got put on one of the smallest horses, and this time, the slowest horse. Everyone else's horses were fairly well behaved. Sandy was on a mare and she wasn't too fond of Buster being behind her. Jody's dad was on a nice Appy that had a gorgeous headset. And Jesse's horse just plodded along like a typical trail horse. The trail leader was really nice and talked with Jordan the whole time. I half thought that might be a fun weekend job giving trail rides, but then I'd never have time to ride my own horses. And I don't think my rear end would ever forgive me.

Fall Trail Ride

I've changed up the blog a bit with a nice grassy theme.

Ok so I'm not the best photographer lately. I took two photos today on the trail ride. Oh well. Anna and Tricia came and picked me and Axel up in Anna's fancy 4 house slant load. Axel jumped right in like a champ. Of course he was most concerned with trying to see Olly on the other side of the divider and gave me a heck of a time trying to snap his halter. We cruised down to the state trail 4 miles away and attempted to unload the horses. And by "attempt" I mean Axel did not want to back out of the trailer. Being a slant load there's no room to turn around safely. Tricia and Anna fought and fought and he would not budge. He did get himself to the edge of the trailer and stepped down with one foot but he went right back in. Finally he got the best of them and turned himself around. At that point it wasn't safe to turn him back around so we let him exit.

After resting a bit and gathering all our junk, we tacked up the boys and headed for the trail. As we guessed, Little Man and Olly were much faster than Axel so we had to trot every few minutes to catch up. I couldn't quite convince him that if he stepped out a bit more he could walk just as fast as they were. We had a few canters that went pretty well. At one point Axel passed Olly (albeit ears pinned as he did it) and seemed to enjoy the fact that he pulled ahead of another horse. Highlights of the ride were: All three horses jumping a big rotten log in the middle of the path, one right after another. Full out galloping up a hill and Axel actually making it the whole way and kept going once we got to the top. And finally, Axel actually whining because he was too tired to keep up with the other horses on the way back.

I think we rode for 2 hours or so. Axel was mighty tired by the end and he's probably going to be sore. I couldn't find the bute so he's gonna have to take it easy. We'll probably have a long line lesson on Tuesday instead of riding. He jumped up in the trailer to head home without an issue. But as prior he wouldn't back out so we had to turn him around to get him out. I think along with the long line lessons he's going to get backing lessons. Maybe I can get Jeff or Dad to build a little fake bridge to practice on. It would be helpful for the young horses to learn to step up on and good for Axel to learn to step off of.

Dressage Lesson #18

Who put a quarter in Axel tonight? Please put one in him every day! Tricia was a bit late as she was tending to her dog that got caught in a trap (she's fine though). I grabbed a lead rope and halter and did a tiny bit of ground work with Axel. I couldn't get him to bend this time but he did the unwinding thing on the first try. I groomed him but this time of year it's kind of pointless, it just ends up making them look dirtier the more you brush. I walked him around a bit and watched Steph work with the kids while I waited. When Tricia arrived we worked on the road end of the pasture and just stuck to an arena shape, no fancy patterns. I dunno if it's the new saddle or the longer warmup or just a fluke, but Axel moved out. He extended his trot for once and I was able to post the trot like a normal person. He needed very little encouragement to keep going and was really rounding and bending properly. He actually even gave me a couple canters. Ok, so it was on the wrong lead and we couldn't make our corner but a canter is like light years faster than his normal speed so we went with it. Still struggling with the sitting trot but it'll get there. I think my legs will be sore tomorrow, not from kicking this time though but from trying to cue properly for the turns. So a big gold star for Axel tonight!

This past weekend we decided that next August Axel and I are going to do the Pine Meadows Schooling Show. We'll probably do intro dressage. So we have a little under a year to prepare. Hehe. I can't wait to get him all spiffed up for a show.

Stephanie was working with Kalani in the round pen doing some long lining. She probably had him working for an hour or more when she yelled something down to Tricia and I. We look up at the round pen and Kalani is laying on the ground. Apparently she asked him to do something and he couldn't figure out what it was she wanted and so he just layed down. He ended up laying there for a good 5-10 minutes before getting up and going back to work. Tricia was laughing so hard. Hopefully Axel didn't pick up any hints from Kalani, that's the last thing I need is him laying down in the middle of a lesson!

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday Steph decided it was time to try and ride Kiko and Kalani. So I went out to provide any help she might have needed. Afterwards we went out to the fairgrounds to get ready for our WCR demo. We ended up warming up the horses by riding them around for a while.

On Sunday morning Anne called and planned to come out to the barn with her 3 year old son for a little trail ride. I went out to the barn a bit early and rounded up the horses and got them groomed. Axel is still kicking the heck out of his own ankles, this time a lot higher than normal, so I wrapped his back legs for the ride. Anne and Bjorn rode Axel double in the big western saddle and I rode Cody with my dressage saddle. I'm really starting to like the new saddle and the ride went really well. Cody didn't protest quite as much as normal. Axel was pretty good and seemed happy. Right after we made it back to the barn it started to rain a bit, we had perfect timing.

Saga of the New Saddle - Dressage Lesson #17

So I finally got to try out my new saddle for real. When I arrived at the barn the horses were already up waiting. They must have been hungry or anticipating the storm. Either way I was able to catch Axel and not have to fight to get him to follow me anywhere. The left side of his spine is still touchy, if I run the curry down that side he flinches but if I press really hard he does nothing. So who knows what that means, hopefully just ticklish. He's black again now that his winter coat is growing in but he's still dirty as ever and brushing him just brings the dirt to the top. Tricia peeked at my new saddle and thought I probably got quite a good deal. She brought her dressage girth for me to try and it fit much better than the one I borrowed. Unfortunately I looked that girth up online and it's 60 bucks. Yikes. When I tried to mount it was evident the saddle is too wide because it slipped around when I put weight in the stirrup. Guess we'll be mounting from a block from now on! It's not so wide that it bangs on his withers at all, just doesn't stay put quite as well. For the price I paid, it's all workable.

We got out the cones again to help inspire Axel as he's been Axel McCrankyPants lately and he seems to enjoy the cones. Overall the lesson went pretty well. Compared to the last lesson I barely had to use my legs at all (that's comparatively though). But the new saddle is going to take some time to get used to, it puts me in a position I haven't been riding in so I'm going to be finding new sore spots for a few weeks. Hopefully I'll get a chance to do some trail rides in the saddle to give me some time to get used to it. It is comfortable though. We still have some issues with turning corners, and me flailing about not getting my seat under me didn't help me help Axel at all. But near the end of the lesson there were a few really great turns, one loops around the cones actually, where he started to really get it so we stopped.

Tricia actually hopped on at that point to give the saddle a try. She agreed that it was quite comfortable. Next time she gets on I'm going to have to take a video because Axel really looks good. She had him turning those corners like (almost) an expert. He's no barrel horse of course ;) She had him stepping out and he looked like he actually had some impulsion for once. He drags his feet though and kicks himself. We're gonna try some bell boots on his back feet so he doesn't hurt himself. But the picking up the feet will have to be some ground pole work I think.