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Aug. 30th, 2011 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickMore pony updates, which I am certain everyone is thrilled to read. Mostly, just more of the same. Ponies. Children. Trotting, with an emphasis on "faster" and "downhill, too" and "in two-point" and all kinds of wonderful educational topics as we whirl along... but damn it, I'd be happy as hell if we could just manage faster.
Garmin sez we are not going fast enough. I have approximately 24 days to make faster materialize. Meanwhile, one of my timid kids is vacationing in Boston for a week. Boston will be there after the competitive ride, child! You're ten -- you could stay home by yourself and condition instead of vacationing, ffs. Where are your priorities, here?
All I can say is that if you can't freaking commit to the practice, you're going to find the actual competitive ride rather terrifying (because of speed and trotting) and difficult (because of insufficient core strength for the aforementioned trotting). Don't come crying to me, then, child.
まだまだだね
Things we still need to work on...
J. needs to work on her in-hand trot outs. Horse does that lazy old mare bullshit, neck all stretched out and walking foot-draggingly slow, when poor small child inquires about trotting in hand. I think perhaps a dressage whip might help matters along. But anyway, we're going to practice trotting in-hand with her. I refuse to have children at the competitive ride who cannot trot out their ponies. All ponies who attend the competitive ride shall trot in hand easily, on a draped lead, as fast as their children can run.
J. needs to be able to rate her horse better. Nasty horse gets pissy when feeling "left behind" and crophops with small child. (Small child has not yet, to date, fallen off during said events.) Child's seat tips forward when attempting to hold back pissy mare, lacks security. :( Child could be more communicative when an issue is imminent instead of waiting until in the middle of the issue to say something. (I can hear Lala in the background and she's not even here. "The child is eight. Eight year old children are not very good at foreseeing issues and thus cannot forestall them but can only inform you when the issue has flowered and needs immediate, adult resolution. It is your job to foresee all issues and shut them down before flowering." I point out at this juncture that THE CHILDREN ride behind me. I ride in front. Trys is my eyes-n-ears in the back of the ride. She's going vacationing in Scotland or some such bullshit here directly. For two weeks, I believe, which is going to leave me ALONE with the Dreadful Children. I hope I don't kill them. I may have to enlist help in the personage of Cass, who is in no way interested in this project. I am not real interested in the project either, but I have to have a child sponsor or I cannot enter the ride.)
A. needs better posting skills. We've fixed her stirrups and I think that the posting will mostly resolve as we go along here. (I also put J's stirrups up a hole today to see if that helps her two-point mojo.) Also A needs to relax a little on the lower leg and work on putting feet less-far into stirrups. And needs to not get pissy with the horse when the horse is not doing what child wants b/c child's cues are confused, ineffective, or otherwise useless. And the notion of rein contact as an ongoing conversation between the horse and the rider, yeah, that'd be nice. The "no contact" to "tight WHOA" transition is somewhat yank-y and upsets Callie, who would like more of a constant handhold. (Not gonna get "reins as conversation" until seat is more stable. One thing at a time.)
Both J and A need to be more secure in their seats, on downhills particularly. A, and also J to some extent, need more tolerance of speed, do not like how fast we go... and we are not going fast enough yet.
O needs more patience to let A and J answer some of the questions. She also needs better steering and not-letting-her-horse-run-up-another-horse's-butt skills. (All of the children need this, but I expect it of O, who is not a first-year rider but who has been on ponies since she was about two. She is currently nine. My other kids are first-year riders.)
W needs to freaking *attend* conditioning, for starters. I'll get on what he needs once he starts showing up more regularly.
And I need to work on keeping my heels down and having more patience. Whims also needs more trot-out practice, which I will do this week, joy joy. Nothing I love more than practicing trot-outs in my freaking work boots.
I've started the group doing riding exercises to lessen the monotony and to give the children something else to do during the walk-to-let-ponies-breathe sections.
Currently, we have stretching. Arm above head to same-side toe, to opposite-side toe, to pony's butt, to pony's ears, to pony's chest, to straight out from shoulder. Right now, we do these at the walk and hold each stretched position for four of Whimsy's steps. I am not entirely sure where these came from, but they seem somewhat useful (at getting the children to move around in the saddle, to feel the gaits, to balance better, to develop the muscles needed to regain position, to build some confidence) and we're going to keep doing them. Once we can do them easily at the walk, we're going to do them at the trot. :) (The children do not know this yet. They will whine when I tell them. They whine a lot.)
Garmin sez we are not going fast enough. I have approximately 24 days to make faster materialize. Meanwhile, one of my timid kids is vacationing in Boston for a week. Boston will be there after the competitive ride, child! You're ten -- you could stay home by yourself and condition instead of vacationing, ffs. Where are your priorities, here?
All I can say is that if you can't freaking commit to the practice, you're going to find the actual competitive ride rather terrifying (because of speed and trotting) and difficult (because of insufficient core strength for the aforementioned trotting). Don't come crying to me, then, child.
まだまだだね
Things we still need to work on...
J. needs to work on her in-hand trot outs. Horse does that lazy old mare bullshit, neck all stretched out and walking foot-draggingly slow, when poor small child inquires about trotting in hand. I think perhaps a dressage whip might help matters along. But anyway, we're going to practice trotting in-hand with her. I refuse to have children at the competitive ride who cannot trot out their ponies. All ponies who attend the competitive ride shall trot in hand easily, on a draped lead, as fast as their children can run.
J. needs to be able to rate her horse better. Nasty horse gets pissy when feeling "left behind" and crophops with small child. (Small child has not yet, to date, fallen off during said events.) Child's seat tips forward when attempting to hold back pissy mare, lacks security. :( Child could be more communicative when an issue is imminent instead of waiting until in the middle of the issue to say something. (I can hear Lala in the background and she's not even here. "The child is eight. Eight year old children are not very good at foreseeing issues and thus cannot forestall them but can only inform you when the issue has flowered and needs immediate, adult resolution. It is your job to foresee all issues and shut them down before flowering." I point out at this juncture that THE CHILDREN ride behind me. I ride in front. Trys is my eyes-n-ears in the back of the ride. She's going vacationing in Scotland or some such bullshit here directly. For two weeks, I believe, which is going to leave me ALONE with the Dreadful Children. I hope I don't kill them. I may have to enlist help in the personage of Cass, who is in no way interested in this project. I am not real interested in the project either, but I have to have a child sponsor or I cannot enter the ride.)
A. needs better posting skills. We've fixed her stirrups and I think that the posting will mostly resolve as we go along here. (I also put J's stirrups up a hole today to see if that helps her two-point mojo.) Also A needs to relax a little on the lower leg and work on putting feet less-far into stirrups. And needs to not get pissy with the horse when the horse is not doing what child wants b/c child's cues are confused, ineffective, or otherwise useless. And the notion of rein contact as an ongoing conversation between the horse and the rider, yeah, that'd be nice. The "no contact" to "tight WHOA" transition is somewhat yank-y and upsets Callie, who would like more of a constant handhold. (Not gonna get "reins as conversation" until seat is more stable. One thing at a time.)
Both J and A need to be more secure in their seats, on downhills particularly. A, and also J to some extent, need more tolerance of speed, do not like how fast we go... and we are not going fast enough yet.
O needs more patience to let A and J answer some of the questions. She also needs better steering and not-letting-her-horse-run-up-another-horse's-butt skills. (All of the children need this, but I expect it of O, who is not a first-year rider but who has been on ponies since she was about two. She is currently nine. My other kids are first-year riders.)
W needs to freaking *attend* conditioning, for starters. I'll get on what he needs once he starts showing up more regularly.
And I need to work on keeping my heels down and having more patience. Whims also needs more trot-out practice, which I will do this week, joy joy. Nothing I love more than practicing trot-outs in my freaking work boots.
I've started the group doing riding exercises to lessen the monotony and to give the children something else to do during the walk-to-let-ponies-breathe sections.
Currently, we have stretching. Arm above head to same-side toe, to opposite-side toe, to pony's butt, to pony's ears, to pony's chest, to straight out from shoulder. Right now, we do these at the walk and hold each stretched position for four of Whimsy's steps. I am not entirely sure where these came from, but they seem somewhat useful (at getting the children to move around in the saddle, to feel the gaits, to balance better, to develop the muscles needed to regain position, to build some confidence) and we're going to keep doing them. Once we can do them easily at the walk, we're going to do them at the trot. :) (The children do not know this yet. They will whine when I tell them. They whine a lot.)
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Exhausting
Date: 2011-09-02 11:34 am (UTC)At least the kids are old enough to listen (basically) and young enough that they haven't latched on to that pre-adolescent snottiness.