Hippoi Athanatoi

This week’s lesson was a painful experience. My back hasn’t been great for a long time but lately its been really bad and this Tuesday was probably the first time I’ve had serious pain while riding.

Needless to say, it didn’t improve on my weak focus. :P I rode Nelson and we worked on getting the inner shoulder into the body in preparation for a transition. We rode straight down the center line, picked which way to turn right off and then rode with the new inner side prepared for that turn the whole way. The transition came a bit after the halfway poin.

To start with Nelson was an awful lot like a sewing machine, his little legs just moving up and down rapidly, and he was not too interested in waiting for me at all. I did take that conflict without prompting from Ulrika, so go me for that, though I wasn’t able to be completely consistent in my application of the rules. But he did stop pulling my arms out of their sockets. However, once we got to the cantering my back just said “owwie” and even though Nelson has a great canter, I just couldn’t sit it well enough which had me lapsing back into my over-active canter riding.

I was also constantly messing up where I was looking; I kept looking inwards which of course had my hips turning the wrong way. I have to remember to focus on the outer ear when cantering, but it just feels wrong somehow. Towards the end, I did manage to get my eye right at least and I managed to sit somewhat better, but overall I could have done much better. Fortunately, my back is now a good deal better following some pills and an acupressure kind of thing that you lie down on, so I am hoping next week won’t be so bad.

I haven’t actually missed two weeks of reporting, just one. Last week was theory and I wasn’t able to go then anyway. Unfortunately, I will also be missing next week, which really sucks because its a jumping lesson.

What about the dressage almost two weeks ago, though? Well, my memory is sketchy. ;P Heddvig was still feeling a bit so-so, so Ulrika asked me to make sure I was getting enough forward momentum before I start to ask for collection. Normally the momentum is there, but now I have to readjust for her being a little more laid back. Once we got to the cantering (more counter-canter by way of a curved line along the length of the arena), she did better. Laid back definitely goes out the window once we start cantering. ;) She really struggled with cantering along the whole curve, but mainly it was her giving up when it got a little harder. Once I asked her to keep going, she did pretty well.

I am definitely feeling a lack of motivation, though, and its leaving me a little less focused. I enjoy the riding, but I feel a bit lost. I guess things are much the same as they were before I started riding Murphy; I ride because riding in itself is fun, but I don’t necessarily feel I am accomplishing much or making any tangible progress. I like getting better, but when riding once a week and with my fear issues, I will only get so much better. So, being able to improve a horse and develop alongside of him was a new, fantastic experience. And now that I have done that, going back to “just” riding feels like its lacking something. Then again, can’t rule out that Heddvig won’t keep improving as well—she’s made a lot of progress, as it is—so we’ll see. But right now, I keep looking for something that isn’t there.

I’ve ridden Heddvig the last two weeks as well and its continued to be a little hit and miss. The second to last time we tried a new saddle which moved around less on her broad, round back but which ultimately ended up being a little too low in the back. The main thing I took with me from that lesson was to keep working on being more decisive; I need to ask for quicker responses and I need to assume that she will play along. Once I did that, towards the end of the lesson, I got some really nice canter departures. Oh, I also need to work on how I sit her canter at times, since I don’t quite have my hips aligned right. But I think the saddle made it worse than usual.

Last week we combined the canter departures exercise with the riding good corners exercise and rode a curved line along the length of the arena so that we effectively were riding a counter-canter through that curve. Heddvig once again started out feeling a little off—Ulrika isn’t quite sure what’s up—but once we got to the cantering she got rather charged up and we had some pretty explosive departures. Still, I hope they get a handle on what is bothering her; it seems quite subtle, but its hard to say if its just something seasonal or an actual issue. She sweats a bit more than she should (though she is a bit overweight and not in super shape), but that’s the only really clear sign of anything.

The main issue for the these last weeks have otherwise been my back, which has been fiercly bad. I am pretty crippled for a couple of days following each lesson, so need to figure out what I can do to strengthen my lower back and limber up better before the lessons. I suspect its Heddvig’s broad back that is the culprit, at least in part.

The chaos continues, so no wonder that I completely missed writing about last week. I’ll just have to make it two for one.

The previous Tuesday we had our second of two jumping lessons. I had Nelson, just like the week before, and we continued to work a lot with turns. The trickiest part of the exercise was a two-jump line across the middle of the arena. We were asked to start turning just right before the second jump and I kept underestimating how fast Nelson would turn. It felt like a very useful exercise for getting a better sense of turns and how to prepare for them. We also jumped some more straight-forward lines, again focusing on letting the horses sort most things out themselves, and Nelson and I got to jump a bit higher than usual which always is fun. We generally keep the jumps pretty low to keep from wearing on the horses too much, but its one of those things I like doing because its something that could scare me but it doesn’t. Have to appreciate the little things.

This last Tuesday it was back to dressage and back to Heddvig. Good canter departures was the theme of the evening, from walk on a small circle and going into canter on a larger circle around the others. I wasn’t really happy with how I did, on the whole. Heddvig was very sweaty before the lesson and Ulrika pointed out that she has sweated a bit much lately. So, when she felt a little less energetic than usual to start with, I think I ended up being cautious about asking too much for her. And cautious Linda tends to mean way too cautious and generally ineffective.

So…end result wasn’t so inspired. I am getting better at just taking for granted that she will canter and not overdoing my aids, but the work outside of the canter wasn’t focused enough from my side.

I’ll just pretend that its entirely on purpose that I am posting last week’s riding recap on the day that I am going riding again. ;P And in any case, I can’t think of too much to say about this lesson. We jumped for the first time this semester and I was put on Nelson. He’s a pretty uncomplicated jumper and as we carried over some of the dressage work from last week (like working on making sure the horses do not turn until asked to do so) he caught on to the exercise pretty quickly. Looking at some photos afterwards that were taken during the lesson, I do need to keep working on not getting too far forward over his neck when he jumps, however. We’re jumping again today, so I will try to keep my own position in mind since he doesn’t really need a lot of help.

Things continue to be rather chaotic around here (I am not sure, for example, if I am doing 1, 2, 3 or maybe 0 classes this semester), so a lot is slipping through the too-wide cracks. Hence, just a few short lines about last week’s lesson before its Tuesday again.

Black pony (Heddvig) was exchanged for white pony (Nelson). Continued focus on good corners, but the main exercise was transitions. This is very good for Nelson who is very good at picking his own pace at any gait and barrelling along, putting a lot of weight in your hands. You really need to get him a bit off-balance in order to be able to affect how he moves and find a calmer, more balanced pace.

In the past, this has been a definitive issue for me as my own sense of rhythm is shaky. But something really does seem to have clicked over the summer and I was able to get Nelson to a stage where he carried himself quite well at the trot and even came down and forward with his head and up with his back. Considering the set of his neck (he’s got a very well-muscled underside and a very short neck), that’s a good accomplishment. We also managed some pretty decent canter.

Of course, I can’t put my finger on quite what I am doing differently now as opposed to before the summer…

Oh, look, its Tuesday again. Life has just piled up on top of me lately. I am hoping this weeks lesson will help perk me up a bit and if it goes like last week, the chance is good.

We stayed with the theme of very controlled turns and straightness without the help of a nearby wall. To start with we worked on weaning the horses off from automatic turns at the corners by riding straight into the corner and coming to a half as soon as they wanted to start turning on their own. Heddvig responded quite well to this, though she did get a little stressed at one point but Ulrika reminded me to make sure to always make it clear to her what she needed to do to get away from any pressure. She made the point that mares often get stressed more easily since they have to think about protecting themselves and a foal, and Heddvig has had some foals as well.

Once she felt we rode the corners fairly well, we added turning in down the center line. The turns onto and off the line were important, of course, and also the straightness of the line itself. Again I had some issues with turning too late to the right at first, but after a while I had the hang of it and Heddvig ended up very nicely balanced. She often gets a little rushed, but her trotting towards the end felt very good. Its probably the best balance I’ve had out of her so far, so that did perk me up a bit.

So, time for the autumn semester at the riding school. Or rather, it was time for it about a week ago, when I had my first lesson for a while. The second one’s coming up tomorrow.

I rode Heddvig (so far, that’s an “of course”, don’t really have any other options right now) and we didn’t exactly get a soft start, though Ulrika didn’t push us too hard either.  We worked on straightness and tracking by way of turning in across the arena and riding towards the central mirror. Turning onto the line and turning off the line was done with minimal bending so that straightness could be achieved faster afterwards.

On the whole, Heddvig is fairly straight. She throws out her right shoulder a fair bit when coming towards the turn away from the line, so it took a bit of work to avoid making the turn to the right too difficult for her, but other than that she tracks pretty well both at walk and at trot. We also managed some decent cantering towards the end, though I had forgotten which side was her difficult and tried going right at first. That wasn’t so successful to start with.

She seems to have stayed at more or less the same level as before the summer in terms of cantering, though she seemed to tire a bit more quickly. But hey, so did I, and my legs felt it the day after.  As for my motivation…well, its still a bit lacking. I feel pretty directionless with my riding right now and that is very odd because I didn’t really realize I had a direction before either. Not until I lost it.

It has been a while since an update on what we’ve been up to with Ringo (and what Ringo has been up to with us). That’s not so much for a lack of things to report but because I’ve generally been feeling too frustrated with him. Today, that cup just about flooded at the Boxer Championships.

Shows this year have been generally abysmal in terms of his behaviour. First day of My Dog in January was a disaster with him being super-charged and not very friendly towards other dogs. We even withdrew from the second day. At the local special at the beginning of the summer, he growled at the judge. Last weekend in Sundsvall, he had major issues with other dogs, but showed okay other than that. And today he so crazy the judge disqualified him because she couldn’t judge him. He actually behaved very well towards the other dogs, making me think he was in good balance, but then he just whirled around when she was going to check his teeth and feel over his body. Worst, however, was how he got stuck staring at something (I have no idea what) when I was going to run him. He almost dragged me out of the ring.

And that (well, the summer shows, anyway) followed on 10 weeks of obedience training with a very good trainer and some pretty significant steps forward in terms of obedience. We’ve also seen the trainer’s trainer twice during the summer for some one-on-one consultation. Now, I know it will take a long while to sort things out, but I don’t know if I have the energy for it. If I manage to improve on one thing, a new problem crops up. Right now, I feel like giving up on shows and obedience and forgetting all about Ringo being a working dog. Problem is, he really needs the training, but I find it hard to motivate myself to do it if I can’t have the goal of competing him.

I think someone is getting a lump of coal for his birthday next weekend instead of a stuffed toy. ;P Then again, he’ll be looking at me with a sad, wrinkly face all week…so probably not.

Taking a little break in the Midsummer eating & drinking (well, eating, anyway) before it is time for the cake, the whipped cream and the strawberries to write a short concluding post for this semester at the riding school.

For our last lesson, the weather was a bit windy and chilly, so we rode inside. We had the option of riding bareback and I gave it a go on Heddvig. I did last year too, on Murphy, but that worked a little better as I actually managed to canter then. On Heddvig I could feel when I tried it that while I might manage the canter itself, the transition would likely see me on the ground. Other than that, I was able to ride her pretty efficiently at a walk and at a trot while bareback, so that was still very good. I was just as amazed this time with how aware it makes you of how you sit on the horse, and I wish I had the opportunity to do it much more often. Heddvig seemed to like it too.

Now she gets a lighter workload for some weeks and then a complete rest for 3-4 weeks. I expect her to be rather round in August… For my own part, I don’t think I will get a chance to ride anything before the lessons start up again around mid-August, though perhaps I will see about arranging something. I will busy training Ringo, though, so that might have to be enough. I am hoping I will feel a little better about it next semester, too, though it might take longer still to get my heart really back into it.

This week we finally got to jump out in the field and we all had a great time. There’s not a lot of jumps, just a few logs, but that was plenty for Heddvig. She has shown herself uncertain about new jumps indoors and logs in a field were clearly very scary. I had quite a few refusal and it took a bit of work each time to get her over the logs. However, her actual jumps were rather wonderful, with no effort spared. She has very quick legs and tucks them in nicely, not exactly what one would expect from that kind of horse. I was certainly pleased that I didn’t find myself at all unnerved by her being a bit skittish and that I was able to firmly tell her what I wanted her to do.

And, for extra fun and games, someone was there with a camera…

In case the log wants to eat me, I will jump waaaay above it.

I look good, but my rider needs to straighten up.

I couldn’t help but to feel sad that I didn’t get a chance to do this with Murphy though, as he would have loved it so much.

Of course it rained during the day when we had planned for some jumping out in the field. So, more dressage and more counter-cantering, though at least we could ride in the paddock. Usually its too dusty by the time its warm enough to be outside, but the rain made it just right.

To get us thinking about riding for counter-canter, we started off riding the horses bent against the curve in corners and on circles. I think it worked surprisingly well on Heddvig; I probably concentrate more when doing it the opposite from “normal”, which would account for some added efficiency. But that’s about the only advantage I get from doing anything reversed. The rest is…confusion.

Left and right is not something I handle well as it is and I can easily confuse myself about just which leg do I sit down on in a rising trot (not only do I suck at sensing it, I also find it impossible to see if I am sitting down on the correct leg so I usually think of it as rising with the opposite leg instead) and how to tell which canter I’ve got (again, I suck at sensing this). Imagine what happens when I am asked to make the inside the outside and the outside the inside, to keep sitting down on the correct leg (which is now the opposite of what it normally is) and to ask for counter-canter.

So, yes, not only am I trying to do this on a fairly hot-headed draft horse (albeit of a fairly light model), I am trying to do this while being confused about what is what. Given this, the result wasn’t too terrible, but it still annoys me that anything like this gets me so confused. The best part was probably after Ulrika helped me sort out how to ride Heddvig before canter when she’s getting really charged up; I could really feel it when I found the right balance.

Last Tuesday’s lesson was one of those that didn’t necessarily deliver any “wow” feelings during the lesson, but I guess I did alright anyway. When it came to cantering Heddvig, I assumed that she would manage fine. I used the whip to just tap her on the shoulder during the canter to keep her going, and didn’t get all worked up about keeping her going. I just rode and expected her to manage.

And for the regular canter, she did. She really is capable of keeping it together for quite a while now.

Then we got to the counter-canter, and this week Ulrika told us to just ask for counter-canter without the aid of a circle or a turn that would make it more like asking for regular canter and then ending up in a counter-canter. It felt like a tall order, and it was, but I did try and on a few occasions Heddvig actually managed. Afterwards, Ulrika told us that she had asked us to do something too difficult on purpose, just to see if we’d keep riding decisively. I’d say that worked pretty well for me.

Last week was a theory lesson (discussing training methods and horse behaviour) and this week Ulrika was missing in action after an encounter with a rusty knife. So, we had a substitute and we did some strengthening exercises for us riders.

This basically involved starting out with what we thought were stirrups for jumping and successively shortening them until they really were. ;P Seems all of us had gotten used to jumping with rather long stirrups. I know I have from riding smaller horses, because really short stirrups for jumping makes me feel too tall. But, actually, it didn’t feel so bad on Heddvig with four holes shorter than usual. Although, it was a bit hard to follow her jumps from trot like that and to help her find her canter after the jump. But just galloping her like that worked quite well, and she once again managed a pretty nicely balanced and not too fast canter for several laps on a circle.

My legs also managed just fine, and no sore muscles the next day. I’ve got pretty fabulous thigh muscles, it seems. ;)

More of the same this week; I am still not feeling that my riding is quite “right” but Heddvig is making rather amazing progress. And, admittedly, this week I did get something of a good feeling with some of the canter, with things clicking both mentally and physically.

Ulrika told me that Heddvig actually cantered a full circle in one of the lower groups last week and that she’s not seen this sort of development in a horse before. Certainly, it is very striking how she’s progressed over (I think) around two years at the riding school. For the first few months, she was apparently pretty difficult (I don’t think I got a chance to ride her more than maybe once during that time), and then I guess she made slow progress during the following year. And now, in the last few months, the pieces have started to fall into place.

The main exercise was the same as last week, with a change from one circle to another to produce a figure-of-eight pattern and where we would start with regular canter and move over into counter-canter at the changeover. I was mindful of my co-ordination issues and tried to concentrate on not changing my seat at the change of circles. It was easier to focus on that this time around since I was also told to let Heddvig handle the cantering mostly on her own, just supporting her with the whip on her inner shoulder and a properly pulled-back outer leg. In the end, we managed half a circle of counter-canter on two occasions. Very well done of a horse that a few weeks ago couldn’t manage a full circle of regular canter.

In other news, I was drooling over the latest addition to the stables. Sort of a bigger version of Heddvig, at least in terms of his looks. He’s Zimba, ten years old and half Frisian. I think I would like to try him, but I am not sure I can handle him. He looked smaller than I had thought at first but he seemed a little frisky. Maybe I will consider taking a private lesson on him to see. Gorgeous horse, at least.