Last week was a theory lesson, and another round of loose jumping, so I didn’t have too much to say about that. The most interesting bit was seeing how Vermir, a relatively newcomer to the stables, followed our instructor around. They’d had a bit of an argument some days before about who should be in charge. He clearly lost. ;)
Yesterday, we were back to dressage. I got Murphy, but unfortunately both him and I were lacking a little in motivation. Or perhaps it was just my slight lack of focus that did it, though it wouldn’t be the first time that he decided he wasn’t keen on working. He was also in a really bad mood towards the other horses, although he was quite pleasant to deal with in the stables.
More snow, more frisky horses, more jittery nerves. That’s about what I had expected from today’s lessons, and its more or less what I got. Since I knew there hadn’t been any lessons for a few days because of Easter, and since its been cold and snowy for a whole week now, I expected Fleur to be quite a handful if I got her again. Which, of course, I did.
Fortunately, she had been exercised some, though she wasn’t exactly calmer today as my instructor had thought she would be. In fact, she was a bit more tense, and I wasn’t able to get her working quite as well as last week at walk and trot. However, because there was only three of us, we had plenty of time and room for the warm-up and I was able to get some more cantering in before we started jumping. At first, I kept her way too short again and got her bouncing up and down more than she cantered forward, but then I forced myself to let her have a bit more rein, and she actually didn’t really increase her pace, she just stopped bouncing. So, getting to feel that before we started jumping helped keep me from pulling her back too much and losing the flow entirely.
My plans to post a timely account were foiled by figure skating and by Easter. However, last week’s lesson can be summarized quite well like this: It was cold, Fleur was jumpy, she spooked me but at least I stayed on her the whole lesson.
I may not have mentioned it in so many words before, but I am about the least brave rider you will find. I was in a somewhat bad accident when was about 10, and I never regained the confidence I had before then. For the first few years after the accident, I freaked out if a horse so much thought about doing something I hadn’t asked it to do. Eventually, it got a little bit better, but now the natural timidity that comes with getting older has kicked in, leaving me with a fairly limited range of horses that I can handle.
Bad Linda. I missed posting about last week, and now just about all I can remember is that I rode Sammy and he (as usual) got really frisky when we did the cantering because it was an exercise were we did the transitions in the same spots each lap. I think I was fairly pleased with the overall result, though.
I am also going to have to keep this weeks posting fairly short and sweet, because my arm is very strained from the work I’ve had this week. I was back on Murphy again, but unfortunately it was because Sammy had injured himself. He had both front legs wrapped and a small cut on the left. He’d apparently come in hurt from the field, though our instructor hadn’t been around just then so she wasn’t sure how bad it was. I hope it isn’t too bad, since he’s getting on in years. I made sure to give him some extra treats and petting, but he did look a bit bothered by one of the legs at least.
Murphy was, once again, in stubborn pony mode. He tried all sorts of evasions with me to start, though it actually made sure to remind me to ride him with fairly high demands right off, so in a sense that was just good. I think this was probably the most ‘tough’ I have been during a regular lesson, and it really paid off. I informed him I wanted him to work, and soon enough he was working. That is, as long as I kept after him. He was very quick to slip into contrary mode, even though he clearly enjoyed the work.
I managed to get some fairly good trot on my own, especially once I removed my stirrups after the warm-up was done, and then with some help in the canter it came out nicely too. The transitions to canter actually worked pretty darn well right off (I do so much better without my stirrups), but the transitions from canter were more of the ‘falling into trot’ kind. So I was told to ask for more work in the transition, and to just lay my whip against his outer hindleg during the transition to get it more under him. It made quite a difference. It still came out a bit ‘rough’, because Murphy’s coordination isn’t great, but at least he retained momentum and hindleg activity.
On the whole, being more decisive and a bit ‘tougher’ right off paid off, and for the most part Murphy had fun too. I just wish I could ride all horses without stirrups for a while, because it makes a big difference. Of course, then I’ll probably forget how to use stirrups, which might not be so good.
Another week on Gamir turned into another week on Murphy, and I wasn’t exactly about to complain about that. Murphy seemed pretty pleased too, especially when treated to many minty treats. I am not entirely sure what he (or any of the other horses) think of my occasional habit of ... well ... sort of ... singing to them as I tack them up, but at least they don’t run away in fear. Of course, they are tethered ...
After last week’s luxury of being all alone, it was back to a regular lesson and back to someone other than Murphy. In this case, Gamir. The worst part about him is how surly he is to get ready, but last time I managed pretty well with plenty of bribes, and it worked fine this time too. He basically needs to be distracted a lot to keep him from getting testy. He was probably also fairly comfortable as far as his back goes, because he didn’t feel particularly stiff (like he sometimes can be) once we got started.
Yesterday I struggled with my translation work as my right arm and shoulder started ached something fiercely. Most likely, its a repetitive strain injury of some kind, which is not exactly great if I am considering a career at the keyboard. I have had smaller issues over the years, but over the last weeks it has escalated, making each new job progressively more painful. So, that depressed me.
Until, that is, I got to the stables and got a nice surprise. We were supposed to have a theory lesson, but its a winter holiday week for schools so we had lots of early cancellations and the one other person who was supposed to show up called and said he wouldn’t come. So ... the instructor asked me if I wanted to ride instead? Did I? Oh yes. Fortunately, I had worn okay clothing for riding, since I had expected us to be in the stables for the theory. So, I had my coat and my gloves, though just regular non-riding tights and walking boots. But with a borrowed hat and whip I was ready to go. And I got Murphy, too. Of course, he was a little surprised to quickly get tacked up (we were a bit late since the fellow called just as the lesson started to say he wouldn’t come ;P) and to not get any candy, since I had forgotten to bring any. But he complied. ;)
I am so out of my routine of posting Tuesday evening or Wednesday that it isn’t funny. No wonder I don’t get much else done on time either, and its all a sure sign that I really need a lot more equi-theraphy than just once a week right now.
The lesson was, of course, good. Of course in the sense that I was on Murphy, so its hard for it not to be good. Even when, as the case was this time, Murphy wasn’t all that enthusiastic. In fact, to start with I was worried he was a bit sick, as he was very sluggish and kept trying to stop. It didn’t really feel like disobedience either, and until he had a poop in a corner his sides felt a bit bloated. The poop was fine, though, and the instructor took a listen to his gut and pronounced an all clear. He remained a little ‘off’, though, but I would guess he was just a bit tired.
Or maybe he was grumpy because Nelson was being a pest in the stables. He kept standing with his head across into Murphy’s stall, jealous of the attention (and the treats), and when I turned Murphy around after tacking him up he tried to take a bit out of him. ;P I bet he’s in trouble next time they’re out together.
Late again. ;P Definitely starting a trend, here. Though, there wasn’t that much to reflect on this time, to be honest. The lesson came out a little light-weight. Enjoyable, though, not the least because I was finally back on Murphy. Probably because we did some combined jumping and flatwork again in preparation for next weeks jumping.
Whether Murphy was as happy to see me again, I am not sure. As soon as I got on him, it became very evident that he’d done mostly lessons for lower groups lately. He questioned everything and tried every trick in the book and then some to escape work. In fact, most of the horses seemed to have a bad day, because at the end of the lesson our instructor said she was pleased with us but disappointed with the horses because they had kept getting it wrong even when we did it right. Of course, that’s a good learning experience. Pushing the button does not always get the expected result. And I needed a refresher course in being firm as well as more clever than my horse. ;P
Murphy did shape up after he realized I was not an easy-to-fool beginner, so I don’t think he did particularly poorly. I had some issues with the exercise, of course, since it involved getting the right canter-lead again. I still don’t have a good sense of it, but I am working on not looking down to check. At least not looking down with my whole head. I do think my canter transitions are getting pretty solid, though. I sit quite still most of the time.
Afterwards, Murphy seemed discontent with my demands during the lesson, because his teeth got a wee bit close to my face as I took his saddle off. ;P
Well, there was no comparison between this week’s lesson and last week’s, but no surprise there. I was on Sammy again, though, and I was glad I got a chance to actually work on him a bit. He started off the day by accidentally biting me, however. He was really muddy, and he is very sensitive about how he is being brushed, so he didn’t appreciate the process of getting the mud out at all. As a result, he kept snapping at me, but without actually intending to hit because he’s too well-mannered for that. Then he misjudged the distance and got me across the knuckles (owwie) and boy did he look very ashamed of himself afterwards. Stod very still too for the rest of the grooming and tacking up.
Last week was ... no good, though it didn’t really have with the riding to do. As a result, I was barely there mentally for most of the class, and the results were predictable. We were supposed to work on more precise control over legs and shoulders, down to controlling which leg started walking first from a halt. Just the stuff I need to develop more of a feeling for, so I hope we continue with it today. I did manage a bit more control than usual over Sammy’s body (my control over my own body is still ... debatable), and some pretty decent trotting, but that’s about all I recall.
This Tuesday, the spring semester starter. A week earlier than usual, so I was a bit concerned about the weigh-in, seeing how close to Christmas it was. But it worked out fine, so I have the same selection of horses as the last few semesters, including Murphy. I didn’t get him, though. We were doing more canter work, so she put me on Gamir so I could concentrate on myself instead of having to help out Murphy so much. As always, getting Gamir ready is a bit unsettling, as he can get really grumpy, but I found that bribing him worked really well to distract him when he was being saddled. He’s not at all mean-spirited, he just has bad associations to being saddled, so distracting him is a pretty good method.
I am, once again, exhausted after taking Ringo to another show. This time, however, my efforts did pay off better than yesterday. He got his first prize for quality, though he only placed fourth (aka last) of the dogs that were awarded the red ribbon for quality. This probably had something to do with his behaviour (which was better than yesterday but still not good) but also with the fact that the judge apparently prefers lots of white markings on boxers, and Ringo is a ‘plain’ rather than ‘flashy’ boxer with hardly any white at all.
I started off by doing lots and lots of practice runs in the ring. This did seem to have some effect, because during the initial run with all the dogs in his class, he didn’t act up. He then waited pretty patiently (I did work a lot with him, though, asking him to sit, lie down, crawl, etc) as the dogs ahead of him received their individual evaluations. Then it kind of went pearshaped when the very nice judge said an enthusiastic hello. If we had been allowed to run before she checked his teeth, I think we would have done much better, but as usual I was too shy to ask for this. As it was now, he got really charged up and picked a fight with me when we were doing our run alone. Elio had to step in and correct him with some water. ;P He remained very excited, though, and I was convinced for a while that she’d send us off because he wouldn’t stand still after running either.
Fortunately, she’s a boxer owner, and she told me to calm him down first by just asking him to sit or lie down. Once I heard from her that she was okay with me taking a bit of extra time, I relaxed so much and was able to get him to stand decently. I thanked her profusely for her understanding, and I was so thrilled that I ended up with a red ribbon. I did get my hopes up as I saw she was taking her time to write her critique, but I didn’t dare to believe it until the ribbon was handed to me. Whew. Ringo then behaved nicely for the rest of his time in the ring, even stood quite well as she did her final comparisons, and the fourth place felt very good to me.
It was further improved as one of the major and most skilled breeders and showers came up to us to talk about our problems with Ringo. He gave us soem very good advice, and said that we need to get much better at seeing when Ringo is about to get all wound up, because once he gets there its too late. He gets totally blocked and just won’t listen to anything. So learning to break off the behaviour when he starts thinking about it is what we need to do. Harry also noted that since he is ‘plain’ but has a very good head, we should aim mainly for speciality shows (arranged by the Boxer club or, I would guess, the working dog club, since we have done well at such shows too) since those judges aren’t as focused on the flashy white markings and are more likely to appreciate his breed characteristics. Given this, getting a first prize for quality here felt even better.
So, I am glad we went. We also managed to acquire a replacement for a favourite toy that was torn apart a while ago, a duck that quacks. Ringo is now a very happy boy.
Dog show time again. Actually, Ringo has been to another show these past few months, but my parents had him then (they were visiting my brother in Stockholm) so there wasn’t much to report other than the fact that he behaved very, very badly. I will, however, belatedly be adding the critique from that show. You see, it goes nicely with the critique from today, which was also pretty terrible on account of him behaving very, very badly. Basically, the judges kind of rule him out right off because they don’t get a good look at him. And I have no issue with that. I just don’t know what to do about the fact that he gets so incredibly wound up. Today, I didn’t have any sleeves for him to bite. So, he did what he did with my dad last time and attacked my feet. He’s very resourceful. ;P He almost had me thinking he’d do fine, as he posed nicely at first. But then, when we were due to run together with the other dogs, he turned into mini-Cujo.
Oh well. ;P We did have some fun to lighten up things, though. While taking him out to the fairly nicely arranged doggy toilet (an area with sawdust and little tree stumps for the discerning male dog ;P), he ended up doing that whole back-leg kick and scratch after peeing. He did it so vigorously that he almost sent a poor chihuahua flying and probably shocked it for life when the sawdust came flying. He also got sawdust all over, I think, a little yorkie that looked like he had been groomed and readied for the show. Oops. ;P
Head is good for his age. Well-proportioned. Chest is adequate for his age, the topline could be somewhat better. Adequate angles. Very sloppy movements, needs to be better behaved.
Oh, I almost forgot. ;P We have another show tomorrow, heh. We’ll see if I want to look like an idiot two days in a row or not. But I am trying to tell myself that this is all just social training for him right now. ;P
This week, I figured I had better get my post out on time, or Christmas would swallow it up entirely.
For the last lesson of this semester, our instructor decided to give as many of us as possible horses we really like. So, I got Murphy. Not ideal for the exercise, but I was nevertheless very pleased. It has been a while since I rode him, after all. I am not sure he had missed me, though, because while I tried to get all the mud off him, his teeth came perilously close to my nose. ;P Not my fault that he was all dirty, but he seemed to feel it was.