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Nov. 7th, 2008 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickSo, the red idiot, aka Nick, Nicknick, GF Nile Kaia <-- actual name, Goofball, etc. She spent the summer on mommy track and has recently rejoined the realm of riding horses.
Yesterday was the first actual riding day. Now, I have been easing Nick back into the "riding horse" thing because she's not really a warm and fuzzy in-my-pocket sort of horse at the best of times. Callie horse will come running for half an apple core and some scritches before being ridden hard for an hour, and she'll come running day after day after day, happy to see me. Goof, on the other hand, will not come running EVER. The best she will do is amble halfheartedly in my general direction. She won't come at all if I look like I might want to ride her. Over the years, by dint of considerable effort, I have gotten her to where she doesn't run away very fast or very hard or for very long. This is probably as good as she is ever going to get.
Anyway, I've been feeding her without any work involved for a couple of weeks to see if I can get her to come when called so that I can get twenty minutes of riding time on her after work four days a week this winter. If I have to burn daylight chasing her ass around the field, there will not be any time to ride her... so I'd rather not do that if I don't have to. (And if it happens two or three times running, Nick will KNOW that the way to not be ridden is to evade me for twenty minutes. She's not stupid, just surly.)
I rode her yesterday. She was not amused about the riding thing. This was the first time since lessons (it's been a year) that I'd been on her for more than "amble up out of the field with a halter on" riding, so I was a slightly different me than she'd been expecting plus also she'd had a year off to boot. Oh, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I asked for contact. She was not amused. "What the fuck? Get OUT of my mouth. Quit, quit that. What are you DOING!" (She doesn't talk. She rooted her nose down to her knees, trying to yank the reins out of my hands. She shook her head like to get rid of flies, to see if I'd let her have the reins. She jigged and went all hollow-backed and rude. Lather, rinse, repeat, for twenty minutes.) I asked her to bend and to move off my leg. She was like "Who the hell do you think you are? Forget this! NO. DO NOT WANT." (Again, Nick does not actually use words. She threw her weight to the forehand and went sideways with her neck out like an L shape. She steered like a boat (no bending, body straight, ass end flying out around turns). She leapt forward as if she were afraid of my leg (known to be not true) and acted like an idiot in general.) It was not particularly a fun ride. I did my twenty minutes in front of the encroaching dark and I put Nick away and I went home and was depressed. I was a bad rider. My horse was a bad horse. I'd not learned anything at lesson for a year.
Today (beautiful weather), I called Nick up out of the field and put her in front of her bucket. She ate the food in the bucket, at least until she saw me heading towards her with a saddle. At that point, she picked her head up OUT of the bucket and left, head carefully out to the side so that she didn't step on the twelve feet of lead rope that she was dragging along on the ground. (I said she was smart.) I followed her around with the saddle (unproductively) for a while while she laughed at me and then I put the saddle down, re-caught Nick, who knew the game was up as soon as I'd set the saddle down, HELD her still, and saddled her. (She ignored the grain, offended, once I put the saddle on her.) Whatever. I put her leftover grain on the trunk of the car (out of the reach of wandering calves. Yes, they're loose. No, they don't get run over on the road. No, I'm not sure how that works, either.) and bridled her up and hopped aboard.
We went across the road, to the hayfield that's been cut short for the winter. I spent about five minutes having stupid with the horse and suddenly *whoomp* there it was.
Me: I'd like a headset with light contact. No, really, I totally would. We did this all day yesterday. I'm not moving my hands or elbows. Give me a headset. Accept some freaking contact. Look, shithead, I'm not moving, here.
Nick: Get the fuck off my mouth, you asshat. You won't LET me stop and you won't let go of the reins. Why won't you... Oh. OH. OK, I get it. You want a headset, don't you? Yep, you do. *puts head in proper position* Oh, that's lots better. Okay, looks like you have elastic contact going on, here. *chomp chomp chomp* There, I think I've got it. Anything else?
Can you work off my leg? With bending?
Sure. *bend bend bend* I can do that.
Will you circle left?
Fine, we circle left, body bent on the arc. This good for you?
Uhm, yeah.
Can you circle right?
Circle right, body bent on the arc. Is this OK?
Yes.
(Do I have the correct horse? Heavy mane, cute ears, weird light bay color. Looks like the right horse...)
Hey, how about some shoulder-in?
Feels like you want shoulder-in to the left. Wotcha. I'm on it.
Other direction?
Shoulder-in to the right? Got it. Ryoukai. Side-side-side-side. Whaddya think of THEM apples? Lookit dem feet cross. :)
Okay, Ms. Smarty-Pants. Now I would like you to stretch down and seek out contact. Can you do that?
Stretch down? Oh, yeah, watch me. This is *easy*.
WTF? I had NOTHING yesterday and today I have all systems go? What the fuck just happened here?
Srsly. What The Fuck.
Okay, horse, we're done for the day.
If we're done, dipshit rider, I'd like the rest of my grain now.
For real, it was like a switch went on in her brain. She gave me a really first-class effort on all fronts (and all of it -- headset, contact, working off leg, shoulder-in, doing pretty circles, reaching down into stretches -- was new material) today. I'm not used to seeing that from my *smart* bitchy horse. (I always figured she had it *in* her, the problem was in getting it out.) I realize that not all days from here forward will be progress like today. There are still a lot of things to work on, but wow. It was a very encouraging day.
Yesterday was the first actual riding day. Now, I have been easing Nick back into the "riding horse" thing because she's not really a warm and fuzzy in-my-pocket sort of horse at the best of times. Callie horse will come running for half an apple core and some scritches before being ridden hard for an hour, and she'll come running day after day after day, happy to see me. Goof, on the other hand, will not come running EVER. The best she will do is amble halfheartedly in my general direction. She won't come at all if I look like I might want to ride her. Over the years, by dint of considerable effort, I have gotten her to where she doesn't run away very fast or very hard or for very long. This is probably as good as she is ever going to get.
Anyway, I've been feeding her without any work involved for a couple of weeks to see if I can get her to come when called so that I can get twenty minutes of riding time on her after work four days a week this winter. If I have to burn daylight chasing her ass around the field, there will not be any time to ride her... so I'd rather not do that if I don't have to. (And if it happens two or three times running, Nick will KNOW that the way to not be ridden is to evade me for twenty minutes. She's not stupid, just surly.)
I rode her yesterday. She was not amused about the riding thing. This was the first time since lessons (it's been a year) that I'd been on her for more than "amble up out of the field with a halter on" riding, so I was a slightly different me than she'd been expecting plus also she'd had a year off to boot. Oh, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I asked for contact. She was not amused. "What the fuck? Get OUT of my mouth. Quit, quit that. What are you DOING!" (She doesn't talk. She rooted her nose down to her knees, trying to yank the reins out of my hands. She shook her head like to get rid of flies, to see if I'd let her have the reins. She jigged and went all hollow-backed and rude. Lather, rinse, repeat, for twenty minutes.) I asked her to bend and to move off my leg. She was like "Who the hell do you think you are? Forget this! NO. DO NOT WANT." (Again, Nick does not actually use words. She threw her weight to the forehand and went sideways with her neck out like an L shape. She steered like a boat (no bending, body straight, ass end flying out around turns). She leapt forward as if she were afraid of my leg (known to be not true) and acted like an idiot in general.) It was not particularly a fun ride. I did my twenty minutes in front of the encroaching dark and I put Nick away and I went home and was depressed. I was a bad rider. My horse was a bad horse. I'd not learned anything at lesson for a year.
Today (beautiful weather), I called Nick up out of the field and put her in front of her bucket. She ate the food in the bucket, at least until she saw me heading towards her with a saddle. At that point, she picked her head up OUT of the bucket and left, head carefully out to the side so that she didn't step on the twelve feet of lead rope that she was dragging along on the ground. (I said she was smart.) I followed her around with the saddle (unproductively) for a while while she laughed at me and then I put the saddle down, re-caught Nick, who knew the game was up as soon as I'd set the saddle down, HELD her still, and saddled her. (She ignored the grain, offended, once I put the saddle on her.) Whatever. I put her leftover grain on the trunk of the car (out of the reach of wandering calves. Yes, they're loose. No, they don't get run over on the road. No, I'm not sure how that works, either.) and bridled her up and hopped aboard.
We went across the road, to the hayfield that's been cut short for the winter. I spent about five minutes having stupid with the horse and suddenly *whoomp* there it was.
Me: I'd like a headset with light contact. No, really, I totally would. We did this all day yesterday. I'm not moving my hands or elbows. Give me a headset. Accept some freaking contact. Look, shithead, I'm not moving, here.
Nick: Get the fuck off my mouth, you asshat. You won't LET me stop and you won't let go of the reins. Why won't you... Oh. OH. OK, I get it. You want a headset, don't you? Yep, you do. *puts head in proper position* Oh, that's lots better. Okay, looks like you have elastic contact going on, here. *chomp chomp chomp* There, I think I've got it. Anything else?
Can you work off my leg? With bending?
Sure. *bend bend bend* I can do that.
Will you circle left?
Fine, we circle left, body bent on the arc. This good for you?
Uhm, yeah.
Can you circle right?
Circle right, body bent on the arc. Is this OK?
Yes.
(Do I have the correct horse? Heavy mane, cute ears, weird light bay color. Looks like the right horse...)
Hey, how about some shoulder-in?
Feels like you want shoulder-in to the left. Wotcha. I'm on it.
Other direction?
Shoulder-in to the right? Got it. Ryoukai. Side-side-side-side. Whaddya think of THEM apples? Lookit dem feet cross. :)
Okay, Ms. Smarty-Pants. Now I would like you to stretch down and seek out contact. Can you do that?
Stretch down? Oh, yeah, watch me. This is *easy*.
WTF? I had NOTHING yesterday and today I have all systems go? What the fuck just happened here?
Srsly. What The Fuck.
Okay, horse, we're done for the day.
If we're done, dipshit rider, I'd like the rest of my grain now.
For real, it was like a switch went on in her brain. She gave me a really first-class effort on all fronts (and all of it -- headset, contact, working off leg, shoulder-in, doing pretty circles, reaching down into stretches -- was new material) today. I'm not used to seeing that from my *smart* bitchy horse. (I always figured she had it *in* her, the problem was in getting it out.) I realize that not all days from here forward will be progress like today. There are still a lot of things to work on, but wow. It was a very encouraging day.
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Date: 2008-11-08 05:44 pm (UTC)Now, if you'll excuse me, I have 36 hours to research and write a first draft of a paper that I've known about for two months...
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Date: 2008-11-09 02:50 am (UTC)The only educational part of the riding happens along the wall where the camera is located. The two short sides and other long side of the school are not very important in this video.
The deal with shoulder-in is that the horse's body is angled while he is traveling straight. His outside SHOULDER is IN off the rail, which is why this is called shoulder-in. The original track is along the edge of the school. In the video, she's using the turn from the short side to put him into the right position and then HOLDING him in that position as they go straight (with the horse angled) down the edge of the school. Done properly, there are three rows of hoofprints along the rail with shoulder-in... the outer hind (beside the wall) makes ONE ROW of hoofprints, along the wall. The inner hind and outer fore make ONE ROW (the middle row) of hoofprints. The inner fore makes ONE ROW (the inner row) of hoofprints.
The feet crossing (in my original comment), you only see that from the side and only at pretty decent extensions. The side-side-side, that's the "leg" part of left-leg/right-rein that the instructor is yelling.
For the part of the video where she's riding TOWARD the camera, Right Rein half-halts (kind of pulls back gently) to say "not so much forward" (so that you don't zoom off the tracks and into the middle of the school) and Left Leg goes side-side-side (with rhythm to match horse's strides) to keep the horse moving down the track sort of slantways. (Left rein, if anyone is wondering, keeps the horse bent just so rider can see a hint of eyeball and the curve of the nose. Right leg supports to keep the butt from swinging round away from all that left-leg-side-side-side action. Where she's riding AWAY from the camera (end of the video) she needs Right Leg, Left Rein because she's doing the other shoulder.