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Aug. 23rd, 2011 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickUploading stuff to my garmin website now takes a lot more time than it used to. :( On the plus side, it is still *doable*, so y'know. Yay.
You would not know this from looking at the kid on Callie. She's still making with the crying any time I trot faster than western pleasure jog. Good grief.
All the waterworks make me feel like a villian and a dream killer. Poor quiet kid, very NICE kid, brain like a sponge, suffering in near-silence (I can hear whimpering and the occasional sniffle) behind me every time I go near medium trot. When we go back to walking, I have to look in her wide olive-brown eyes with their lashes all wet and matted. And I ask...
"Are you OK?"
"She's trotting too fast."
"No, she's trotting at competitive trail speed. That's how fast we need to be going."
"She's going to canter."
"Not more than three or four strides. Sit up straight, pull back, and she'll quit."
"Her ears are back. She's unhappy."
"She's fine. Don't worry about it."
"She's going to buck."
"I'll give you five dollars if she does."
*cue tears*
Lather, rinse, repeat. I swear, it's like kicking fat little wriggly adorable puppies, this soul-killing conditioning. And still, we are not going fast enough or far enough to condition the horses. Not trying to kill the kid, but western pleasure jog is not going to get it done at the competitive ride. You have to really trot, like for real. Real trot. Up hills. Down hills. Trotting like for real, like you are trying to get somewhere. There will be walk breaks, but mostly it's pretty brisk trotting.
It's like she has this vision of trotting -- level, safe, good footing and a sedate jog such as you might see in a western pleasure class -- and feels that her vision should materialize as the primary activity for competitive trail. Yeah, western pleasure and competitive trail both involve a diagonal gait with a moment of suspension between strides. The middle gait in western pleasure and the travelling gait in competitive trail are both "trotting" in the same way that hunter hack and the cross-country phase of eventing both involve "jumping". For the non-equine among us, it's like the Volkswagon Beetle and 911 Porsche are both "german cars" or how mice and elephants are both mammals. It's true enough as far as it goes... but despite that, the things don't exactly map one-to-one.
*sigh*
That's the Callie kid. I also have Olivia, aka When do we start cantering? and Jaycee (or similar spelling), who appears to be Olivia-light. Neither one is concerned about speed (or control or steering or not-running-up-the-ass-of-the-horse-in-front-of-them-in-lieu-of-brakes or their own mortality) and both would like to go faster, please. Now. Also, they would like this speed to take place with less learning. "Why does there have to be learning?", they ask me. "Because 4-H is an educational activity. Learning is kind of the point." (I am a laugh riot on conditioning rides.)
Today's topic for the educational aspect of the ride was "How is the competitive ride judged?"
The competitive ride measures the change in your horse from the start to the end. It measures sores/wounds and hydration (big word for eight year olds) and capillary refill and pulse (anyone know what a pulse is?) and respiration and impulsion (explained as how *springy* a horse's trot is -- do they look bouncy and energetic or flat and tired) and stride length and mechanical fatigue like toe dragging and gut sounds (this is a check of normal digestive function -- stressed horses stop digesting).
Later this week: What happens at the competitive ride? What do you have to do at the vet-in? What happens at the pre-ride meeting? What do you do at midpoint? What do you do at the end of the ride? What to expect, as it were. People are happier knowing what to expect when they go off to do new activities. (Okay, maybe not all people. Maybe just me. But these are my conditioning rides and therefore we will cover material that I think needs to be covered.)
Olivia tells me I am a turd and wants to go faster. Alannah (the Callie girl) cries quietly and whimpers if I speed up. Jaycee only sorta-listens and wants to go faster. And Trysta (my allegedly adult rear guard who is watching the kids from behind) was put off again today by Whisper. She's 0 for 2 up against Whisper's sneak attacks. :(
We did 5.24 miles today, sedately. We need MOAR HILLZ. MOAR TROTN!
Y U NO LIKE TROT, CHILD? I AM WILL BOUNCE UR FEAR OUT!!! PWR TROTN!
Y U NO STEER, OTHER CHILD? U WANT TO BE LED? I LEED U. THEN STEERING BE. AND BRAKES. *sigh* (And wine-in.)
Y U NO LISTEN, THIRD CHILD? I SHOUT MOAR LOWDER, REPEAT LERNING UNTIL U LERN TO SHUT UP ME.
ALL CHILDS KEEP UP WIF GROUP (I R GROUP).
ALL CHILDS STAY IN GATE, WHICH IS TROTN, I SAY PLENNY TIMES.
ALL CHILDS PUT TAK AWAY WEN DUN!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO THROW TAK ON GROWN!!!
You would not know this from looking at the kid on Callie. She's still making with the crying any time I trot faster than western pleasure jog. Good grief.
All the waterworks make me feel like a villian and a dream killer. Poor quiet kid, very NICE kid, brain like a sponge, suffering in near-silence (I can hear whimpering and the occasional sniffle) behind me every time I go near medium trot. When we go back to walking, I have to look in her wide olive-brown eyes with their lashes all wet and matted. And I ask...
"Are you OK?"
"She's trotting too fast."
"No, she's trotting at competitive trail speed. That's how fast we need to be going."
"She's going to canter."
"Not more than three or four strides. Sit up straight, pull back, and she'll quit."
"Her ears are back. She's unhappy."
"She's fine. Don't worry about it."
"She's going to buck."
"I'll give you five dollars if she does."
*cue tears*
Lather, rinse, repeat. I swear, it's like kicking fat little wriggly adorable puppies, this soul-killing conditioning. And still, we are not going fast enough or far enough to condition the horses. Not trying to kill the kid, but western pleasure jog is not going to get it done at the competitive ride. You have to really trot, like for real. Real trot. Up hills. Down hills. Trotting like for real, like you are trying to get somewhere. There will be walk breaks, but mostly it's pretty brisk trotting.
It's like she has this vision of trotting -- level, safe, good footing and a sedate jog such as you might see in a western pleasure class -- and feels that her vision should materialize as the primary activity for competitive trail. Yeah, western pleasure and competitive trail both involve a diagonal gait with a moment of suspension between strides. The middle gait in western pleasure and the travelling gait in competitive trail are both "trotting" in the same way that hunter hack and the cross-country phase of eventing both involve "jumping". For the non-equine among us, it's like the Volkswagon Beetle and 911 Porsche are both "german cars" or how mice and elephants are both mammals. It's true enough as far as it goes... but despite that, the things don't exactly map one-to-one.
*sigh*
That's the Callie kid. I also have Olivia, aka When do we start cantering? and Jaycee (or similar spelling), who appears to be Olivia-light. Neither one is concerned about speed (or control or steering or not-running-up-the-ass-of-the-horse-in-front-of-them-in-lieu-of-brakes or their own mortality) and both would like to go faster, please. Now. Also, they would like this speed to take place with less learning. "Why does there have to be learning?", they ask me. "Because 4-H is an educational activity. Learning is kind of the point." (I am a laugh riot on conditioning rides.)
Today's topic for the educational aspect of the ride was "How is the competitive ride judged?"
The competitive ride measures the change in your horse from the start to the end. It measures sores/wounds and hydration (big word for eight year olds) and capillary refill and pulse (anyone know what a pulse is?) and respiration and impulsion (explained as how *springy* a horse's trot is -- do they look bouncy and energetic or flat and tired) and stride length and mechanical fatigue like toe dragging and gut sounds (this is a check of normal digestive function -- stressed horses stop digesting).
Later this week: What happens at the competitive ride? What do you have to do at the vet-in? What happens at the pre-ride meeting? What do you do at midpoint? What do you do at the end of the ride? What to expect, as it were. People are happier knowing what to expect when they go off to do new activities. (Okay, maybe not all people. Maybe just me. But these are my conditioning rides and therefore we will cover material that I think needs to be covered.)
Olivia tells me I am a turd and wants to go faster. Alannah (the Callie girl) cries quietly and whimpers if I speed up. Jaycee only sorta-listens and wants to go faster. And Trysta (my allegedly adult rear guard who is watching the kids from behind) was put off again today by Whisper. She's 0 for 2 up against Whisper's sneak attacks. :(
We did 5.24 miles today, sedately. We need MOAR HILLZ. MOAR TROTN!
Y U NO LIKE TROT, CHILD? I AM WILL BOUNCE UR FEAR OUT!!! PWR TROTN!
Y U NO STEER, OTHER CHILD? U WANT TO BE LED? I LEED U. THEN STEERING BE. AND BRAKES. *sigh* (And wine-in.)
Y U NO LISTEN, THIRD CHILD? I SHOUT MOAR LOWDER, REPEAT LERNING UNTIL U LERN TO SHUT UP ME.
ALL CHILDS KEEP UP WIF GROUP (I R GROUP).
ALL CHILDS STAY IN GATE, WHICH IS TROTN, I SAY PLENNY TIMES.
ALL CHILDS PUT TAK AWAY WEN DUN!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO THROW TAK ON GROWN!!!
