So I'm sitting in somebody else's office (very nice office btw) and they're not here yet... Person who showed me in offered use of pc as the one I'm meeting is running quite late. Have to tell you, it's just a little bit weird to be in someone else's space and on their machine, when they're not here! Esp someone I really don't know. Although having lurked their books and their photos I've got a bit more of an idea now *g*
Knowing I was going to come to this meeting, I felt barn clothes *probably* less than appropriate *g* So on my way out this morn grabbed office gear and headed out. All good right? Clothes that I was wearing in Dec to meetings etc. Yeah - turns out nothing FITS anymore. Sheesh. Tis a downside I hadn't thought of! hahaha n not having a belt, couldn't do much about it. Ah well - thankfully most of the time will be sitting!
So first round of horsemanship was yesterday. 1st group I think went really well. Nick was a super-patient model :) 2nd group I *might've* overdone it a bit. hahaha we'll see if any come back next week.
All the horses were insanely high yesterday. No idea what that was about - even Dixie wanted to go for a gallop! Something in the air, clearly. Fortunately had all strong riders as well, so balanced out nicely :)
So I gave in and bought Jack a jolly-ball, since he tries to dig his way out of the stall at night. I've never thought much of these - sort of classified them as a waste of space, not to mention money! - but sobeit. Now he's had it about a week, and I've never actually seen him play with it -- but almost every morning I come in and it's carefully deposited in one of his buckets. Seems boys of any species will try and dunk a ball given an option!
Apollo's been clipped. He's still HUGE - just less fuzzy *g* And has the coolest markings! He was awesome for clipping, but then - he's pretty awesome about everything, so no real surprise there.
So we all know that horses get a little, ummm, concerned when you switch up their routine. My morning routine is feed, t/o boys, ride Sienna, t/o girls (girls after riding so Dixie has the hour she seems to need to eat!). All are used to this system. The other day I really needed to ride Jack, and I knew if I waited till afternoon it'd never happen. So t/o other boys, then tack up and lead him to the arena to ride. Well he was not thrilled at this, but settled quickly enough and I actually had a phenomenal ride. I was pretty excited about that. Return to the barn and as soon as we walk in Sienna starts making her annoyance known. Mornings are HER time. How DARE I spend HER time with Jack. hahaha I had expected Jack to be annoyed at going to work instead of to play, but never occurred to me Si would be annoyed at *not* working.
hahaha ok meeting's about to start so I'm off :)
Why, exactly, do people like winter?
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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Why I love Canada:
Uh huh, yeah right. Those who know me at all will know that photo is really a representation of my love/hate relationship with our wonderful country. What I wouldn’t give to be a snowbird *g* The year I skipped winter by running away to Australia was the best ever. *sigh* And winter’s getting its revenge now!
So last night they were threatening a snow storm, so I decided to camp out at the barn overnight to make sure I could get there in the am. Idea was great, practical reality not-so-much *sigh* Got maybe 4h sleep n that was entirely broken up. Blah. BUT, I did have a 20 second commute to work this am, so that was fun.
Get horses fed, good to go. Take Apollo and Nick to go out to the field, open the door and... No. Door won’t open. Push a crack and see way too much snow. Boooo. Ok so put very confused Nick and Apollo back in their stalls, go out and hike around the barn with shovel to see the damage. N then after a 30 second debate went back again and got my camera:
Ugh, so shovelled that out so I could turn out the horses. Yesterday I had rescued all the hay left from the roundbale (about 2 day’s worth for my group of 4) and put it all in the shelter. Sadly though the shelter is only big enough for two. So after turning out the first two, I spent the next 20 mins hauling hay back out of the shelter to where they can get it safely. Fun fun fun. So all that in the snow combined with the hike to the paddock and back was ummmm exhausting. I’m reasonably fit, but by the time I turned the last horse out, even with the now semi-trampled path, was still dragging. Went to ride my horse and realized... Yup, more shovelling. Had to clear the track to open the arena door. Ok fine. Had a short ride cause really, I was too tired to be effective and Si’s not the best horse to ride in that state. She was good though so we finished with something easy and left it at that.
Brief retreat indoors in search of food and warmth for a moment before tackling stalls. Couldn’t believe it was already 10:30 and I hadn’t even started! Yikes. Eventually dragged myself back out and got to work. Had a huge battle trying to push the wheelbarrow through the snow to the manure pile, so got out the handy-dandy shovel yet again and cleared another path. Wasn’t done chores when my student arrived, but fortunately she’s forgiving of a less-than-usually-organized barn. Teaching was a wonderful break from the barn. I could sit. Hahaha haven’t been so physically tired since the first week. Crazy. Lesson went really well, so that was definitely the highlight of the day. Then back to the stalls – by this point I had to shovel out the manure pile again. Sheesh. At least though it was pretty - HUGE confetti-like flakes, almost surreal...
Was just finishing up when a quarter-boarder showed up to ride, so I decided to ride with her. And got to shovel out the arena again. Oh the joy never ends. Rode Lissy though and she was good, so that was another plus. Working on trying to install lateral aids – only kinda there... She’s getting better though.
Was just a day that never seemed to end. Incredibly grateful to the student who’s doing late night for me today – once horses were fed and barn cleaned up I could go shovel out my car and head out. Sweet. Goal for tonight – bed by 10. Fingers crossed.
But hey, on the plus side, I don’t think I’ll ever need to go to a gym again! Hahaha Walking up the stairs tonight I had that “wow, great workout” burn happening that used to require membership fees and lots of unpleasantness.
Despite this all the groundhogs seem to be suggesting an early spring. Fingers crossed :)
Uh huh, yeah right. Those who know me at all will know that photo is really a representation of my love/hate relationship with our wonderful country. What I wouldn’t give to be a snowbird *g* The year I skipped winter by running away to Australia was the best ever. *sigh* And winter’s getting its revenge now!
So last night they were threatening a snow storm, so I decided to camp out at the barn overnight to make sure I could get there in the am. Idea was great, practical reality not-so-much *sigh* Got maybe 4h sleep n that was entirely broken up. Blah. BUT, I did have a 20 second commute to work this am, so that was fun.
Get horses fed, good to go. Take Apollo and Nick to go out to the field, open the door and... No. Door won’t open. Push a crack and see way too much snow. Boooo. Ok so put very confused Nick and Apollo back in their stalls, go out and hike around the barn with shovel to see the damage. N then after a 30 second debate went back again and got my camera:
Ugh, so shovelled that out so I could turn out the horses. Yesterday I had rescued all the hay left from the roundbale (about 2 day’s worth for my group of 4) and put it all in the shelter. Sadly though the shelter is only big enough for two. So after turning out the first two, I spent the next 20 mins hauling hay back out of the shelter to where they can get it safely. Fun fun fun. So all that in the snow combined with the hike to the paddock and back was ummmm exhausting. I’m reasonably fit, but by the time I turned the last horse out, even with the now semi-trampled path, was still dragging. Went to ride my horse and realized... Yup, more shovelling. Had to clear the track to open the arena door. Ok fine. Had a short ride cause really, I was too tired to be effective and Si’s not the best horse to ride in that state. She was good though so we finished with something easy and left it at that.
Brief retreat indoors in search of food and warmth for a moment before tackling stalls. Couldn’t believe it was already 10:30 and I hadn’t even started! Yikes. Eventually dragged myself back out and got to work. Had a huge battle trying to push the wheelbarrow through the snow to the manure pile, so got out the handy-dandy shovel yet again and cleared another path. Wasn’t done chores when my student arrived, but fortunately she’s forgiving of a less-than-usually-organized barn. Teaching was a wonderful break from the barn. I could sit. Hahaha haven’t been so physically tired since the first week. Crazy. Lesson went really well, so that was definitely the highlight of the day. Then back to the stalls – by this point I had to shovel out the manure pile again. Sheesh. At least though it was pretty - HUGE confetti-like flakes, almost surreal...
Was just finishing up when a quarter-boarder showed up to ride, so I decided to ride with her. And got to shovel out the arena again. Oh the joy never ends. Rode Lissy though and she was good, so that was another plus. Working on trying to install lateral aids – only kinda there... She’s getting better though.
Was just a day that never seemed to end. Incredibly grateful to the student who’s doing late night for me today – once horses were fed and barn cleaned up I could go shovel out my car and head out. Sweet. Goal for tonight – bed by 10. Fingers crossed.
But hey, on the plus side, I don’t think I’ll ever need to go to a gym again! Hahaha Walking up the stairs tonight I had that “wow, great workout” burn happening that used to require membership fees and lots of unpleasantness.
Despite this all the groundhogs seem to be suggesting an early spring. Fingers crossed :)
What did *you* learn at the barn today?
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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(from GRS Blog: www.graduateridingschool.com/blog.htm)
So I’ve taught a particular lesson a few times over the last few days – one of the deceptively simple variety... hahaha but I’ve been sort of amused by the number of “life lessons” coming out of these. Which got me thinking...
Things I’ve learned at the barn (feel free to contribute! I know there are tons I’ve missed!):
- Live in the present. You can’t fix what’s past and if you focus solely on the future, you may never get there. (worrying about fence 12 is no good if you never get past fence 3! Alternately, retirement might be a nice dream, but if you don’t go to work today you’ll never get there.)
- Don’t look back. You hit the rail, whether or not it falls at this point is irrelevant. But by looking back you may mess up the next one too.
- don’t count on somebody else to tack up your horse properly. You’re riding, your responsibility.
- don’t jump anything until you’ve inspected the landing side.
- Always involve all relevant parties in the planning phases of a project. As in rider goes in thinking “we’re going to work on half-pass today” and horse goes in thinking “GALLOP!!!!” – guess who wins?
- Master the fine art of negotiation. Will help solve the above issue :)
- ride every stride. Autopilot will only take you so far, and rarely where you intend to go (see consult all relevant parties above :)
- keep your eyes up. You need to look where you’re going to get there.
- Not knowing how to do something is a perfectly acceptable (and necessary!) part of learning. Knowing how and choosing not to do something is less good. When I bought my first car I didn’t know how to drive standard (how very embarrassing to have to have your mother drive your shiny new car home from the dealership!). I stalled it. Often. For the first few days, n then I got better. That was fine, new skill just learning. Current car I stall about once a year – and every time comes with foul language and a quick look around to see who saw *g* That is not fine, because really I can drive it in my sleep. Stalling now means I was seriously not paying attention and/or did something very dumb. Same thing goes on horseback. If you have the skill, use it. Every time.
- be patient and calm – or learn to fake it! When working with prey animals, signs of anger or aggression significantly aggravate any situation. Treat your boss like a prey animal and soon he’ll be working for you.
- you can learn more from a bad ride than a good one.
- consider your body language. Do you angle your body towards the horse or away from? Look directly at him or down and to the side? How does the horse react when you’re tense/angry/upset? How does she know? You need to be aware of these things because your horse definitely is. When you can see you the way your horse sees you, you’ll have a much better partnership. Now sub “significant-other” in for “horse”.
- ever heard the one about getting back on the horse? Nuff said.
- green on green is rarely a good idea. (ok for adult students only, R rated, under 18 skip the rest of paragraph, etc etc: riding is kinda like sex, it’s much better if at least one partner knows what they’re doing!)
- admit when you don’t know what you’re doing and ask questions! It’s really hard to teach somebody who knows everything, so acknowledge to yourself that you’re there to learn and ask anything you need to. This is perhaps not the best philosophy if you’re the lead surgeon in a heart transplant, but for the rest of us... hahaha
- don’t let one bad moment ruin everything. Yeah that walk-canter transition was pretty much the antithesis of what they were looking for. So what? You can balance a 3 with a 9 easily enough! Let it go, and make the next move perfect! If you focus on “omg that was soooo bad” you’re going to ruin the next few moves too. Rinse and repeat.
- get your priorities straight: water, food, shelter, sleep, fun. In that order. Anything other than those are highly negotiable.
- smarts and skill win out over strength every time.
- speed kills: riding, driving, or drugs. Never a good idea to go faster than you can steer.
- approaching a jump from a different direction makes it an entirely new jump. The same can be said of most of life’s obstacles.
- jumping is dressage with speedbumps. Learn your dressage and jumping becomes easy. Roughly – sometimes the boring and the tedious (sorry to all the DQs out there!) are necessary to succeed at the fun and exciting.
- the greenest horse has something to teach the best rider.
- ride what you're sitting on -- just because she was a pro-star yesterday, doesn't guarantee a repeat performance!
- ride the horse you *want* to have; ask nicely and expect the good response - you may be surprised how quickly you get it.
- if you want to win the good grooming award, you’d better be prepared to get dirty.
- fake it! Make it look like you know what you’re doing and having a good time and one day it will come true :) We are what we pretend to be.
- take credit for flukes “absolutely I asked for that lead change!”
- and then quit while you’re ahead!
So I’ve taught a particular lesson a few times over the last few days – one of the deceptively simple variety... hahaha but I’ve been sort of amused by the number of “life lessons” coming out of these. Which got me thinking...
Things I’ve learned at the barn (feel free to contribute! I know there are tons I’ve missed!):
- Live in the present. You can’t fix what’s past and if you focus solely on the future, you may never get there. (worrying about fence 12 is no good if you never get past fence 3! Alternately, retirement might be a nice dream, but if you don’t go to work today you’ll never get there.)
- Don’t look back. You hit the rail, whether or not it falls at this point is irrelevant. But by looking back you may mess up the next one too.
- don’t count on somebody else to tack up your horse properly. You’re riding, your responsibility.
- don’t jump anything until you’ve inspected the landing side.
- Always involve all relevant parties in the planning phases of a project. As in rider goes in thinking “we’re going to work on half-pass today” and horse goes in thinking “GALLOP!!!!” – guess who wins?
- Master the fine art of negotiation. Will help solve the above issue :)
- ride every stride. Autopilot will only take you so far, and rarely where you intend to go (see consult all relevant parties above :)
- keep your eyes up. You need to look where you’re going to get there.
- Not knowing how to do something is a perfectly acceptable (and necessary!) part of learning. Knowing how and choosing not to do something is less good. When I bought my first car I didn’t know how to drive standard (how very embarrassing to have to have your mother drive your shiny new car home from the dealership!). I stalled it. Often. For the first few days, n then I got better. That was fine, new skill just learning. Current car I stall about once a year – and every time comes with foul language and a quick look around to see who saw *g* That is not fine, because really I can drive it in my sleep. Stalling now means I was seriously not paying attention and/or did something very dumb. Same thing goes on horseback. If you have the skill, use it. Every time.
- be patient and calm – or learn to fake it! When working with prey animals, signs of anger or aggression significantly aggravate any situation. Treat your boss like a prey animal and soon he’ll be working for you.
- you can learn more from a bad ride than a good one.
- consider your body language. Do you angle your body towards the horse or away from? Look directly at him or down and to the side? How does the horse react when you’re tense/angry/upset? How does she know? You need to be aware of these things because your horse definitely is. When you can see you the way your horse sees you, you’ll have a much better partnership. Now sub “significant-other” in for “horse”.
- ever heard the one about getting back on the horse? Nuff said.
- green on green is rarely a good idea. (ok for adult students only, R rated, under 18 skip the rest of paragraph, etc etc: riding is kinda like sex, it’s much better if at least one partner knows what they’re doing!)
- admit when you don’t know what you’re doing and ask questions! It’s really hard to teach somebody who knows everything, so acknowledge to yourself that you’re there to learn and ask anything you need to. This is perhaps not the best philosophy if you’re the lead surgeon in a heart transplant, but for the rest of us... hahaha
- don’t let one bad moment ruin everything. Yeah that walk-canter transition was pretty much the antithesis of what they were looking for. So what? You can balance a 3 with a 9 easily enough! Let it go, and make the next move perfect! If you focus on “omg that was soooo bad” you’re going to ruin the next few moves too. Rinse and repeat.
- get your priorities straight: water, food, shelter, sleep, fun. In that order. Anything other than those are highly negotiable.
- smarts and skill win out over strength every time.
- speed kills: riding, driving, or drugs. Never a good idea to go faster than you can steer.
- approaching a jump from a different direction makes it an entirely new jump. The same can be said of most of life’s obstacles.
- jumping is dressage with speedbumps. Learn your dressage and jumping becomes easy. Roughly – sometimes the boring and the tedious (sorry to all the DQs out there!) are necessary to succeed at the fun and exciting.
- the greenest horse has something to teach the best rider.
- ride what you're sitting on -- just because she was a pro-star yesterday, doesn't guarantee a repeat performance!
- ride the horse you *want* to have; ask nicely and expect the good response - you may be surprised how quickly you get it.
- if you want to win the good grooming award, you’d better be prepared to get dirty.
- fake it! Make it look like you know what you’re doing and having a good time and one day it will come true :) We are what we pretend to be.
- take credit for flukes “absolutely I asked for that lead change!”
- and then quit while you’re ahead!
Winter Semester Newsletter
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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First newsletter posted! Check it out: http://graduateridingschool.com/news_winter11.htm and let me know what you think!
Green on green prepares to bring home red...
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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So I taught one of those lessons last week that leaves you stunned, thinking “I can’t believe I just saw that happen” even hours later. Now there’s two ways that can happen – stunned good and stunned bad. Fortunately for me I tend to experience the former more than the latter, but neither is common. This one was of the stunned good category. N I went home and emailed the story to a friend who I knew would get it, cause, well, some things have to be shared :) I thought about blogging it, but my school’s small enough right now that I couldn’t blur the details enough to protect the innocent so debated whether that was a good idea... Finally occurred to me to just ask relevant student (who I’m pretty sure still doesn’t have a clue how impressed I really was – although she might be getting one right about now ;) if I could write about her lesson n she was all for it.
Alright, so we all know that green on green is not generally a particularly good idea. Now in this case the combination of green horse – The Jackasaurus, who is the always tricky combination of both incredibly smart and very athletic. And green rider – his part boarder who is also very athletic, and only a pale shade of green... She’s right on that level I find so entertaining to teach – has the basics of w/t/c/jump down but comes from hunter world and has really very little concept of flat/dressage/seat/contact/etc. Not for lack of trying, but she’s only just at the point where she’s ready to learn it.
So usually in their lesson we do basic flat and basic jumping and it’s well within both their comfort zones so green on green is a non-issue. But it was “dressage day”. Oh my. Student has never so much as sat in a dressage saddle before, and I can count on my fingers the number of times Jack has been schooled properly. As I’m planning out my lesson, I’m thinking it’ll be more of an intro-to-position type lesson. How to sit, how to ride with the longer leg, proper balance, etc. Very necessary, very effective lesson that generally gets good results, but does not, in-fact, require anything that actually resembles dressage from the horse. Thereby easily eliminating one of the greens from the equation and putting us back in good-to-go status.
So we play that game for a while and student gets bounced around a bit trying to figure out how to sit. And Jack of course decides this is the perfect time to show off his power trot. Typical :) So I let them canter around for a bit to take a bit of the edge off and then went back to working the trot. So we do some work on rhythm, and a whole lot of bending, all the while working on that whole sitting idea when all of a sudden Jackasaurus became WarmbloodJack – my “beginner weight carrier draft” (yeah, that worked out real well) is suddenly floating around the ring, totally through and connected and powering from behind in this A circuit dressage worthy wb trot. And green on green is off to the Olympics. Hahaha yeah ok so that’s a *slight* exaggeration, but at least they won’t be laughed out of the dressage ring at the horse trials. If they can pull that off in competition finishing on their dressage score should end them at the top of the pack.
Had a good laugh though because as anybody who’s ever taught a horse to come through before is aware, when they first start learning to carry themselves properly, they can’t multitask. Which means you have through and connected OR you have gas/breaks/steering. But rarely both at the same time. So she had this lovely walk happening and couldn’t for the life of her get him into a trot. I can honestly say that’s not something I’ve ever had to explain to a rider who’s just learning feel before. Usually it takes a made horse (at least ONE of the pair should know what they’re doing!) for a rider to learn that skill. N Mr Jack was trying his heart out and not understanding what ELSE she could *possibly* want from him.
It was really amazing to watch. And has me pretty excited for them for show season :)
Alright, so we all know that green on green is not generally a particularly good idea. Now in this case the combination of green horse – The Jackasaurus, who is the always tricky combination of both incredibly smart and very athletic. And green rider – his part boarder who is also very athletic, and only a pale shade of green... She’s right on that level I find so entertaining to teach – has the basics of w/t/c/jump down but comes from hunter world and has really very little concept of flat/dressage/seat/contact/etc. Not for lack of trying, but she’s only just at the point where she’s ready to learn it.
So usually in their lesson we do basic flat and basic jumping and it’s well within both their comfort zones so green on green is a non-issue. But it was “dressage day”. Oh my. Student has never so much as sat in a dressage saddle before, and I can count on my fingers the number of times Jack has been schooled properly. As I’m planning out my lesson, I’m thinking it’ll be more of an intro-to-position type lesson. How to sit, how to ride with the longer leg, proper balance, etc. Very necessary, very effective lesson that generally gets good results, but does not, in-fact, require anything that actually resembles dressage from the horse. Thereby easily eliminating one of the greens from the equation and putting us back in good-to-go status.
So we play that game for a while and student gets bounced around a bit trying to figure out how to sit. And Jack of course decides this is the perfect time to show off his power trot. Typical :) So I let them canter around for a bit to take a bit of the edge off and then went back to working the trot. So we do some work on rhythm, and a whole lot of bending, all the while working on that whole sitting idea when all of a sudden Jackasaurus became WarmbloodJack – my “beginner weight carrier draft” (yeah, that worked out real well) is suddenly floating around the ring, totally through and connected and powering from behind in this A circuit dressage worthy wb trot. And green on green is off to the Olympics. Hahaha yeah ok so that’s a *slight* exaggeration, but at least they won’t be laughed out of the dressage ring at the horse trials. If they can pull that off in competition finishing on their dressage score should end them at the top of the pack.
Had a good laugh though because as anybody who’s ever taught a horse to come through before is aware, when they first start learning to carry themselves properly, they can’t multitask. Which means you have through and connected OR you have gas/breaks/steering. But rarely both at the same time. So she had this lovely walk happening and couldn’t for the life of her get him into a trot. I can honestly say that’s not something I’ve ever had to explain to a rider who’s just learning feel before. Usually it takes a made horse (at least ONE of the pair should know what they’re doing!) for a rider to learn that skill. N Mr Jack was trying his heart out and not understanding what ELSE she could *possibly* want from him.
It was really amazing to watch. And has me pretty excited for them for show season :)
It's just like flying a plane...
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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Alright so this week's lesson learned was how to use my ocd/workaholic tendencies to my advantage. hahaha.
So the background... I've been having real trouble finding time to ride my own horse - because, unfortunately, she's rather low priority, and by the time I get to her, I'm exhausted (I know every bo/bm out there is nodding along with this). So I had a lesson last week that was pretty disastrous, essentially because my horse had been ridden exactly once in the week preceding, 4 days earlier, and not by me. And she had no friends in the ring with her and it was early morning and she was feeling pretty good. Well let's just say control was ummmm negligible.
Now financially and time-wise, realistically my lessons should be put on hold for a while. But the thing is, I know way too many people who've burned out in this job precisely because they did exactly that. And stopped riding. And it became all work. And soon enough started resenting their clients. And so on and so forth. So knowing that the lessons are the only thing making sure I ride at least occasionally, I've kept them in. We'll use the business argument of improving my skills is good for business :) And the fact that I really enjoy them, which puts me in a good place to teach others also makes for a worthwhile expense. And it sometimes provides fodder for amusing blog posts :) Which is, of course, an entirely justifiable reason.
So lessons stay. But in order for the lessons to be useful, the horse has to be ridden essentially every day. And I wasn't about to have a repeat of last week's fiasco (my coach was very patient, but I'm not sure how long I'd get away with that...). But up till now, I either fill all day doing other stuff, or by the time I have time to ride, I'm too tired for her (I could hop on Apollo and have a good giggle, but Si I have to be a little more with it ;)
And here's how the ocd/workaholic comes into play. The work will get done, no matter how I'm feeling about the situation it's not in me to leave stalls undone or buckets filthy or arena unraked or horses not properly cared for. But it's easy enough for me to say "Sienna doesn't need to be ridden today, that can wait till tomorrow." So I changed the order around a bit. Horses get fed and turned-out and *then* Si gets ridden. Before stalls are done or barn is cleaned or anything else. Which, I have to say, is ridiculously hard to leave the barn a mess to go "play" when there's soooo much that has to be done. But now my pony's getting ridden every day and is much happier with life, and since I'm awake and energized when I do chores, they're actually getting done *faster*. Sweet bonus there! hahaha As in I'm done working at the same time every morning as I was before I started riding in the am, but now getting to ride too.
Don't know how long it'll last. And I definitely feel moderately guilty "sneaking out" to ride when the barn's not done yet. But for the moment it's a system that's working for me and both Sienna and I are happier with it sobeit -- just don't visit before noon and you'll never know the difference :)
That being said, lesson today and for the first time Sienna was her normal self alone in the ring. No spinniness or silliness. Only slightly higher than she is with friends (which is where I like her to be - w/ friends she's tooooo quiet :)
So my coach shows up and acknowledges that we're in a much better place than we were last week *g* Schools us on the flat for a bit (oh was Si ever not happy with him at one point *g* Let's just say there was lateral work, a wall, and a lunge whip involved...), however - the end of which my tiny totally downhill OTTB is floating around the ring uphill as though she were a giant wb. The most incredible trot I've ever had from her. Even coach had a slightly stunned look on his face. hahaha. We didn't get to canter in the flat portion of today's activities :) Quit while you're ahead type moment.
And then it's time to jump. And I explain the issues I've been dealing w/ this week (jumping out of a trot = hunter school pony. Jumping out of a canter = wingnut frantic ottb. Less of a good game). Ask if we can do some trot gymnastics or something (my theory being, she's approaching calmly in trot but then jumping fences out of a canter). "What, you just want to do easy stuff?" "Well, I want *her* to do easy stuff," I clarified... "you can make it as hard for me as you want. Wouldn't be the first time!" hahhaa so we had a good conversation about that as he's moving stuff around in decidedly not gymnastic fashion *sigh* - I should know better by now.
In the end we ended up working on the wheel of death with poles on each of the quarter tangent points. Trot and canter w/o losing our little brain. Now last summer Si was doing this with all jumps (including 2 bounces at one point) so this IS a huge step backwards. But last week cantering a 20m circle was a challenge, so compared to that it's good. N once a quiet rhythm was established, just playing w/ stride length and line (everywhere from 3-6 strides between the poles) etc. But mostly just reminding her over and over again that there's no need to run. So not terribly exciting and definitely not impressive, but really after the flat work what more do you want? >;-P
What amused me to no end today though were the analogies. I always feel that the stranger the analogy, the more likely it is to work. N I know I've thrown some rather unusual ones out there at people (squeaky toy?) in the past. N I've stolen some great ones from other clinicians too (love Pat's "sit on the couch and grab your glass of wine" for jumping position). So today was all about the mental aspects of riding. Riding is like playing cards - you have to work with the hand you're dealt, and each hand is different, but each hand can win. (this was as we were discussing Si's current mental state compared to where she was 6 mths ago. That horse is all about the mind - she can jump the moon, but keeping her brain between her ears is sometimes a challenge). Ok so fine, I can go along with that.
But the one that really made me laugh was when she's playing a little and he tells me to remember that riding is really like flying a plane. And I start to nod wisely like I entirely understand this, n then think wait a sec, I've never flown a plane. hahaha not that I wouldn't love to learn, but I kinda figure one exorbitantly expensive hobby is enough (haven't learned to sail for the same reason). So telling me to ride my horse the same way I would fly a plane is, well, somewhat less useful. N while I'm puzzling this all out and wondering if he's ever flown a plane, I get the second half of the statement -- "you may occasionally hit turbulence, and you need to ride it out and come through the other side safely and under control." Alright, I'll give him that one. But now every time for the next 6 mths or so that I'm sitting on a horse who decides to be a dork I'm going to be thinking "the captain has turned on the seatbelt sign. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts." But hey, it'll make me laugh, which'll make me relax, which'll make me ride better. Which is essentially the whole point of lessons to begin with. No matter how it's accomplished *g*
So now I'm off to fly a plane :)
So the background... I've been having real trouble finding time to ride my own horse - because, unfortunately, she's rather low priority, and by the time I get to her, I'm exhausted (I know every bo/bm out there is nodding along with this). So I had a lesson last week that was pretty disastrous, essentially because my horse had been ridden exactly once in the week preceding, 4 days earlier, and not by me. And she had no friends in the ring with her and it was early morning and she was feeling pretty good. Well let's just say control was ummmm negligible.
Now financially and time-wise, realistically my lessons should be put on hold for a while. But the thing is, I know way too many people who've burned out in this job precisely because they did exactly that. And stopped riding. And it became all work. And soon enough started resenting their clients. And so on and so forth. So knowing that the lessons are the only thing making sure I ride at least occasionally, I've kept them in. We'll use the business argument of improving my skills is good for business :) And the fact that I really enjoy them, which puts me in a good place to teach others also makes for a worthwhile expense. And it sometimes provides fodder for amusing blog posts :) Which is, of course, an entirely justifiable reason.
So lessons stay. But in order for the lessons to be useful, the horse has to be ridden essentially every day. And I wasn't about to have a repeat of last week's fiasco (my coach was very patient, but I'm not sure how long I'd get away with that...). But up till now, I either fill all day doing other stuff, or by the time I have time to ride, I'm too tired for her (I could hop on Apollo and have a good giggle, but Si I have to be a little more with it ;)
And here's how the ocd/workaholic comes into play. The work will get done, no matter how I'm feeling about the situation it's not in me to leave stalls undone or buckets filthy or arena unraked or horses not properly cared for. But it's easy enough for me to say "Sienna doesn't need to be ridden today, that can wait till tomorrow." So I changed the order around a bit. Horses get fed and turned-out and *then* Si gets ridden. Before stalls are done or barn is cleaned or anything else. Which, I have to say, is ridiculously hard to leave the barn a mess to go "play" when there's soooo much that has to be done. But now my pony's getting ridden every day and is much happier with life, and since I'm awake and energized when I do chores, they're actually getting done *faster*. Sweet bonus there! hahaha As in I'm done working at the same time every morning as I was before I started riding in the am, but now getting to ride too.
Don't know how long it'll last. And I definitely feel moderately guilty "sneaking out" to ride when the barn's not done yet. But for the moment it's a system that's working for me and both Sienna and I are happier with it sobeit -- just don't visit before noon and you'll never know the difference :)
That being said, lesson today and for the first time Sienna was her normal self alone in the ring. No spinniness or silliness. Only slightly higher than she is with friends (which is where I like her to be - w/ friends she's tooooo quiet :)
So my coach shows up and acknowledges that we're in a much better place than we were last week *g* Schools us on the flat for a bit (oh was Si ever not happy with him at one point *g* Let's just say there was lateral work, a wall, and a lunge whip involved...), however - the end of which my tiny totally downhill OTTB is floating around the ring uphill as though she were a giant wb. The most incredible trot I've ever had from her. Even coach had a slightly stunned look on his face. hahaha. We didn't get to canter in the flat portion of today's activities :) Quit while you're ahead type moment.
And then it's time to jump. And I explain the issues I've been dealing w/ this week (jumping out of a trot = hunter school pony. Jumping out of a canter = wingnut frantic ottb. Less of a good game). Ask if we can do some trot gymnastics or something (my theory being, she's approaching calmly in trot but then jumping fences out of a canter). "What, you just want to do easy stuff?" "Well, I want *her* to do easy stuff," I clarified... "you can make it as hard for me as you want. Wouldn't be the first time!" hahhaa so we had a good conversation about that as he's moving stuff around in decidedly not gymnastic fashion *sigh* - I should know better by now.
In the end we ended up working on the wheel of death with poles on each of the quarter tangent points. Trot and canter w/o losing our little brain. Now last summer Si was doing this with all jumps (including 2 bounces at one point) so this IS a huge step backwards. But last week cantering a 20m circle was a challenge, so compared to that it's good. N once a quiet rhythm was established, just playing w/ stride length and line (everywhere from 3-6 strides between the poles) etc. But mostly just reminding her over and over again that there's no need to run. So not terribly exciting and definitely not impressive, but really after the flat work what more do you want? >;-P
What amused me to no end today though were the analogies. I always feel that the stranger the analogy, the more likely it is to work. N I know I've thrown some rather unusual ones out there at people (squeaky toy?) in the past. N I've stolen some great ones from other clinicians too (love Pat's "sit on the couch and grab your glass of wine" for jumping position). So today was all about the mental aspects of riding. Riding is like playing cards - you have to work with the hand you're dealt, and each hand is different, but each hand can win. (this was as we were discussing Si's current mental state compared to where she was 6 mths ago. That horse is all about the mind - she can jump the moon, but keeping her brain between her ears is sometimes a challenge). Ok so fine, I can go along with that.
But the one that really made me laugh was when she's playing a little and he tells me to remember that riding is really like flying a plane. And I start to nod wisely like I entirely understand this, n then think wait a sec, I've never flown a plane. hahaha not that I wouldn't love to learn, but I kinda figure one exorbitantly expensive hobby is enough (haven't learned to sail for the same reason). So telling me to ride my horse the same way I would fly a plane is, well, somewhat less useful. N while I'm puzzling this all out and wondering if he's ever flown a plane, I get the second half of the statement -- "you may occasionally hit turbulence, and you need to ride it out and come through the other side safely and under control." Alright, I'll give him that one. But now every time for the next 6 mths or so that I'm sitting on a horse who decides to be a dork I'm going to be thinking "the captain has turned on the seatbelt sign. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts." But hey, it'll make me laugh, which'll make me relax, which'll make me ride better. Which is essentially the whole point of lessons to begin with. No matter how it's accomplished *g*
So now I'm off to fly a plane :)
What day is it?
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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I was a little tired when I woke up this am, moving a little slowly. And my brain asked "is it Friday yet?" and answered itself with some calculations that "no, it's only Tuesday" and found myself disappointed. I'm sure we've all had this conversation with ourselves - but what made me laugh is how deeply ingrained it is. Because for me, now, the only advantage to Friday is that everybody *else* is in a better mood *g* My easiest day these days is Wednesday. That's the closest I come to a weekend, which means today IS, in effect, my version of Friday (sweet!)
hahaha did you follow that? Just amused me how ingrained the concept of Friday is...
So along with the days of the week holding no special significance, the world continues revolving entirely without me. hahaha now no surprise there obviously, but what was a surprise was how quickly I moved into my own little bubble without the rest of the world. That war between Iceland and Canada could *actually* break out and I'd be completely oblivious (well, until somebody posted it on Facebook!) But really, I'm at the barn all day every day. No tv, no newspaper. I'm sure there's news on the radio occasionally but I rarely catch it. It's a little disconcerting to have absolutely no idea what's going on in the world. So my home page has to become a newspaper so I at least see *some* news when I sign in :) That's my current solution.
And now, off to my bubble!
hahaha did you follow that? Just amused me how ingrained the concept of Friday is...
So along with the days of the week holding no special significance, the world continues revolving entirely without me. hahaha now no surprise there obviously, but what was a surprise was how quickly I moved into my own little bubble without the rest of the world. That war between Iceland and Canada could *actually* break out and I'd be completely oblivious (well, until somebody posted it on Facebook!) But really, I'm at the barn all day every day. No tv, no newspaper. I'm sure there's news on the radio occasionally but I rarely catch it. It's a little disconcerting to have absolutely no idea what's going on in the world. So my home page has to become a newspaper so I at least see *some* news when I sign in :) That's my current solution.
And now, off to my bubble!
A horsey moment...
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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So I think somebody told my horses about this morning's post...
They were all super-high when I turned them out this am. Ok, sobeit. But they settled to their round-bales quickly enough. But then about 2h later I came out and the four who are out together (Jack, Apollo, Nick and Sienna) were just tearing around. Sure enough - in exactly their style...
Sienna was showing off and being ridiculously athletic. Seriously impressive to watch. And motivating all the others to continue their games. Any time one would stop, she would goad them into joining in again.
Nick was nearly matching Sienna for athleticism, but doing so off in his own corner, away from all the others.
Jack was trying to play with Nick (who was ignoring him) and Sienna (who was encouraging him) but being unable to match their athleticism, made it more entertaining by doing things like jumping over the hay and u-turns in the shelter.
And Apollo (who, let's be honest, is more likely to sign up for chess club than the basketball team) cantered (that's the extent of his athleticism) gamely after them trying really hard to join the game. Then would stop and look at them all puzzled as they bucked or reared or spun or jumped and wait till they did something he understood again (like run in a straight line) and then join in all happy to be part of the group.
Then off next door we have Lissy who so very much wants to play with the big kids, doing a reasonable facsimile of Sienna and Nick's movements all on her own. Running her own circles when they did and doing the same acrobatics that they did - just in her own playground.
And Dixie? Dixie watched this all with a martyred expression before reminding them all "hey guys, we have HAY. Priorities!" They, of course, ignored her. So she stood and supervised, nibbling occasionally, but mostly just making sure nobody caused any real trouble.
I will admit, it kinda made my morning.
They were all super-high when I turned them out this am. Ok, sobeit. But they settled to their round-bales quickly enough. But then about 2h later I came out and the four who are out together (Jack, Apollo, Nick and Sienna) were just tearing around. Sure enough - in exactly their style...
Sienna was showing off and being ridiculously athletic. Seriously impressive to watch. And motivating all the others to continue their games. Any time one would stop, she would goad them into joining in again.
Nick was nearly matching Sienna for athleticism, but doing so off in his own corner, away from all the others.
Jack was trying to play with Nick (who was ignoring him) and Sienna (who was encouraging him) but being unable to match their athleticism, made it more entertaining by doing things like jumping over the hay and u-turns in the shelter.
And Apollo (who, let's be honest, is more likely to sign up for chess club than the basketball team) cantered (that's the extent of his athleticism) gamely after them trying really hard to join the game. Then would stop and look at them all puzzled as they bucked or reared or spun or jumped and wait till they did something he understood again (like run in a straight line) and then join in all happy to be part of the group.
Then off next door we have Lissy who so very much wants to play with the big kids, doing a reasonable facsimile of Sienna and Nick's movements all on her own. Running her own circles when they did and doing the same acrobatics that they did - just in her own playground.
And Dixie? Dixie watched this all with a martyred expression before reminding them all "hey guys, we have HAY. Priorities!" They, of course, ignored her. So she stood and supervised, nibbling occasionally, but mostly just making sure nobody caused any real trouble.
I will admit, it kinda made my morning.
Carrot, egg or coffee?
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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Didn't write this and don't know who did, but thought it was sort of interesting...
---
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and
how things were so hard for her She did not know how she was going to
make it and wanted to give up She was tired of fighting and struggling.
It seemed as soon as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with
water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the
first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last
she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without
saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished
the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and
placed them in a bowl.
Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning
to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots.
She did and noted that they were soft.. The mother then asked the
daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she
observed the hard boiled egg.
Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The
daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked,
"What does it mean, mother?"
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the
same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. . The carrot went
in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the
boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile.
Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after
sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The
ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling
water, they had changed the water.
"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks
on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee
bean?
Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong,
but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my
strength?
Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes
with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup,
a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and
stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and
tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot
water, the very circumstance that brings the pain.. When the water gets
hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean,
when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation
around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest,
do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity?
Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
---
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and
how things were so hard for her She did not know how she was going to
make it and wanted to give up She was tired of fighting and struggling.
It seemed as soon as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with
water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the
first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last
she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without
saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished
the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and
placed them in a bowl.
Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning
to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots.
She did and noted that they were soft.. The mother then asked the
daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she
observed the hard boiled egg.
Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The
daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked,
"What does it mean, mother?"
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the
same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. . The carrot went
in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the
boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile.
Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after
sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The
ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling
water, they had changed the water.
"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks
on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee
bean?
Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong,
but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my
strength?
Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes
with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup,
a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and
stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and
tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot
water, the very circumstance that brings the pain.. When the water gets
hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean,
when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation
around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest,
do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity?
Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
This time last year I was searching for a hot place to visit...
Posted by
Lauren Cude Horsfall
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Brilliant but cruel advertising:
Current temp of -20 and a photo of beach and palm trees. And a price even I can afford? Effective cause if not for the farm, I'd be gone. Cruel because I know that and can't follow through on it. Yet *g*. In a couple years hopefully I'll get a warm escape. For now, I know I need those extra layers again this morning...
So as every horse person knows, all horses have their own personalities. But when you buy a bunch all at once, sometimes it takes a while to get the hang of them... I'm starting to get there now. How many of these types do you recognize?
Sienna - if you've been reading the blog for any length of time, you'll know this one already. She's the egotistical sports star. Super calm and athletic most of the time, but when something she doesn't like happens in her little world she'll have a complete drama-queen meltdown and never quite get over it. And really, she'd prefer it if everybody just stayed out of her bubble until she chooses to invite them in. She lives at the end of the barn so as to only have one horse beside her and is quite happy with that scenario. Even if it does mean she gets fed last (which she tells me every day is not acceptable!)
Jack - is the kid who was smarter than the teacher in every class and knew it. But not the geeky one, this is the one who was friends with everybody. The type of class clown who amuses the class because they're bored. Super smart, reasonably athletic, and very personable. That last trait has saved him more than once!
Dixie - is the much older sister. Everybody else is still in highschool and she's finished university and got a job she's good at. Been there, done that, handed down the t-shirt ages ago. When she doesn't like something she lets it be known, but in the professional manner of filing a report with management.
Lissy - wants to grow up to be Dixie. And would prefer never to be apart from her. Lissy is mentally the youngest of the group (although not in years) and really thinks her entire job should be to run and jump and play. She's the little kid who had too much sugar and *really* wants to play with the big kids. That being said, she has enough maturity to turn it off when her job is to look after a new rider -- for them she stands quietly and walks and jogs like a 30 yo school-pony.
Apollo - is by far the most personable of the group. He adores people, horses, cats, dogs, anything that enters his bubble, he wants to be friends with. He's the kid in class who was always bouncing with their hand in the air "pick me! pick me!" May not always have the right answer, but tries super hard and always wants reassurance that he's doing it right and somebody loves him.
Nick - is too cool for everything and everybody. He's the only horse I know who can roll his eyes. Knows his job and is very good at it - if the boss is watching. But if he doesn't have someone telling him what to do, he's going to do the least amount possible and even that with a big sigh so we all know what an effort he's making. Couldn't care less what the other kids are doing -- or even if they're there. Equally happy alone or with others, Nick is fully confident with who he is and what he's doing.
hahaha well that was fun procrastination, out to the cold I go now :)
Current temp of -20 and a photo of beach and palm trees. And a price even I can afford? Effective cause if not for the farm, I'd be gone. Cruel because I know that and can't follow through on it. Yet *g*. In a couple years hopefully I'll get a warm escape. For now, I know I need those extra layers again this morning...
So as every horse person knows, all horses have their own personalities. But when you buy a bunch all at once, sometimes it takes a while to get the hang of them... I'm starting to get there now. How many of these types do you recognize?
Sienna - if you've been reading the blog for any length of time, you'll know this one already. She's the egotistical sports star. Super calm and athletic most of the time, but when something she doesn't like happens in her little world she'll have a complete drama-queen meltdown and never quite get over it. And really, she'd prefer it if everybody just stayed out of her bubble until she chooses to invite them in. She lives at the end of the barn so as to only have one horse beside her and is quite happy with that scenario. Even if it does mean she gets fed last (which she tells me every day is not acceptable!)
Jack - is the kid who was smarter than the teacher in every class and knew it. But not the geeky one, this is the one who was friends with everybody. The type of class clown who amuses the class because they're bored. Super smart, reasonably athletic, and very personable. That last trait has saved him more than once!
Dixie - is the much older sister. Everybody else is still in highschool and she's finished university and got a job she's good at. Been there, done that, handed down the t-shirt ages ago. When she doesn't like something she lets it be known, but in the professional manner of filing a report with management.
Lissy - wants to grow up to be Dixie. And would prefer never to be apart from her. Lissy is mentally the youngest of the group (although not in years) and really thinks her entire job should be to run and jump and play. She's the little kid who had too much sugar and *really* wants to play with the big kids. That being said, she has enough maturity to turn it off when her job is to look after a new rider -- for them she stands quietly and walks and jogs like a 30 yo school-pony.
Apollo - is by far the most personable of the group. He adores people, horses, cats, dogs, anything that enters his bubble, he wants to be friends with. He's the kid in class who was always bouncing with their hand in the air "pick me! pick me!" May not always have the right answer, but tries super hard and always wants reassurance that he's doing it right and somebody loves him.
Nick - is too cool for everything and everybody. He's the only horse I know who can roll his eyes. Knows his job and is very good at it - if the boss is watching. But if he doesn't have someone telling him what to do, he's going to do the least amount possible and even that with a big sigh so we all know what an effort he's making. Couldn't care less what the other kids are doing -- or even if they're there. Equally happy alone or with others, Nick is fully confident with who he is and what he's doing.
hahaha well that was fun procrastination, out to the cold I go now :)
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