I posted this on the JL Discussion Board as well but thought I may as well post it on my own blog too. There is a thread on the JL board where you can post about your last ride, I have enjoyed reading these posts. I realized that I too could participate in this particular thread since I had recently had a little ride on a very cute sorrel gelding named "BJ" at Stevens' Training Center.
I last rode on Tuesday. I took my daughter to a riding lesson at this reining trainer's barn, when she was done he asked if Katie, my other daughter would like to ride and when she said no he asked me. I said yes.
I was nervous but not for long, nervous energy turned to extreme excitement/pleasure. I had forgotten what it is like to ride a really well trained horse. Oh my. My face was sore from smiling.
I started at a walk, leaning my reins on his neck for turns so quick and smooth, a slight squeeze to go into a jog. I wasn't expecting such a bumpy jog/trot. The trainer yelled out, "He's a whole lot smoother at the lope!" So after basically years, I had my first real good lope, around and around. I think the trainer was a little surprised I loped right away and so he quickly yells out, "If you're gonna stop make sure you say "whoa" before you pull on the reins so he doesn't stop too fast" Okay. I whisper"whoa" and just start to pick the rein up, he is already stopped. A horse that stops at the suggestion, ahhhhh.
The trainer says, "Get a real good feel of what he rides like cause this is what your horse is gonna be like." Can't wait.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Lesson with Harvey
The sun is just coming up, shining on the pond and making the grass glitter as I walk across it to feed the horses. The air is clean and fresh, a dog barks, the lone goose is resting, watching my dog and I as we pass him. Actually more watching my dog than me as he likes to round up the geese when he sees them, me, well, not so much, not really into running.
I am a bit early today as I need to get back to the house and get Brooke up to go for a lesson with Harvey. Usually getting her up is a chore, getting her up on a saturday almost impossible but when I yell up, "Hey Brooke do you want to get ready and go for another lesson with Harvey?" there is a moment of silence and then "What should I wear?". No groaning and moaning, her feet hit the floor and she is ready before me. Unusual. Katie opted to go to Kara's and spend some time playing with her at her spot on the lake.
It was a nice drive, we passed the time singing with radio, Tim Horton's breakfast and of course a "French Vanilla". At one point she says her tummy is bothering her, nerves, I remember them well. We get to the barn and Harvey is just walking out with a lovely palamino gelding. "Grab the last horse on your left, throw this saddle on him."
Now normally, Brooke getting a horse ready is an hour long affair but she is improving, I only got one horse brushed and stall cleaned before she was ready. What a nice horse, really nicely muscled gelding and I forgot to ask what his name was and so did Brooke.
So Harvey is riding the pretty palamino, Brooke is riding the dark sorrel and Molly[Harvey's wife] is riding a grey stallion. Let me tell you something about this stallion, he is beautiful and not just a little bit, I know that my camera is in the car, surely I can get up there and get the camera before she is done riding. [I think Pepper would really like for him to be the father of her baby someday.]
I climb up the hill, ran through the alley, found my camera, ran back through the alley and down the hill, sat down, turned on the camera, low battery, I am hoping it will last long enough to get a few pics. Hit the button to take the picture and the camera shut down, not even off, not even closed, just quit working totally. Lucky for me I happened to see Katie's camera in the back seat pouch when I was up there to get my camera so I ran up the hill [did I mention that I don't really run?], through the alley, grabbed the camera, ran back through the alley and back down the hill just in time for Molly to get off the beautiful grey stallion "Lizard". Never got his pic but no matter, I was really here to watch Brooke and try to remember a few of the things that Harvey is trying to help her with.
So he gets her to walk around for a bit and then jog/trot and finally loping, loping and more loping. Circles please. Lots of circles.
Things we need to practice:
Sitting straight in the saddle;
You can tell she leans because the saddle horn shifts to one side or the other. This is not good because the horse is constantly trying to get himself back under you and it is easier for you to correct him as apposed to taking a header over his shoulder. Good to know.
Be a little more aggressive when turning;
If he doesn't turn when you lean the rein on his neck, apply leg pressure. You apply the opposite leg to the direction you are turning ex., left leg pressure to go right. Apply pressure not kicking. Kicking does bad things he said there were 2 of them and I already can't remember what one of them was but the other was it would cause a problem and you just don't need that.
Sit up straight with legs back more;
Brooke sits back too much in the saddle, with her legs at the girth or forward. Her legs need to be a little more back so that she isn't cuing at the girth. So shifting her pelvis and trying to keep her legs under herself is our goal
If he doesn't stay still when you 'whoa' then back him up and whoa again, if he doesn't stay still when you 'whoa' then back him up and whoa again until he stands still when you 'whoa'.
I am sure there were other things he said but I just can't remember them at this point. Maybe tomorrow.
We had a good drive home, picked up some electric fence and a few Harvey's burgers. Good drive, managed not to get a ticket but did not look forward to telling Katie I was using her camera........
I am a bit early today as I need to get back to the house and get Brooke up to go for a lesson with Harvey. Usually getting her up is a chore, getting her up on a saturday almost impossible but when I yell up, "Hey Brooke do you want to get ready and go for another lesson with Harvey?" there is a moment of silence and then "What should I wear?". No groaning and moaning, her feet hit the floor and she is ready before me. Unusual. Katie opted to go to Kara's and spend some time playing with her at her spot on the lake.
It was a nice drive, we passed the time singing with radio, Tim Horton's breakfast and of course a "French Vanilla". At one point she says her tummy is bothering her, nerves, I remember them well. We get to the barn and Harvey is just walking out with a lovely palamino gelding. "Grab the last horse on your left, throw this saddle on him."
Now normally, Brooke getting a horse ready is an hour long affair but she is improving, I only got one horse brushed and stall cleaned before she was ready. What a nice horse, really nicely muscled gelding and I forgot to ask what his name was and so did Brooke.
So Harvey is riding the pretty palamino, Brooke is riding the dark sorrel and Molly[Harvey's wife] is riding a grey stallion. Let me tell you something about this stallion, he is beautiful and not just a little bit, I know that my camera is in the car, surely I can get up there and get the camera before she is done riding. [I think Pepper would really like for him to be the father of her baby someday.]
I climb up the hill, ran through the alley, found my camera, ran back through the alley and down the hill, sat down, turned on the camera, low battery, I am hoping it will last long enough to get a few pics. Hit the button to take the picture and the camera shut down, not even off, not even closed, just quit working totally. Lucky for me I happened to see Katie's camera in the back seat pouch when I was up there to get my camera so I ran up the hill [did I mention that I don't really run?], through the alley, grabbed the camera, ran back through the alley and back down the hill just in time for Molly to get off the beautiful grey stallion "Lizard". Never got his pic but no matter, I was really here to watch Brooke and try to remember a few of the things that Harvey is trying to help her with.
So he gets her to walk around for a bit and then jog/trot and finally loping, loping and more loping. Circles please. Lots of circles.
Things we need to practice:
Sitting straight in the saddle;
You can tell she leans because the saddle horn shifts to one side or the other. This is not good because the horse is constantly trying to get himself back under you and it is easier for you to correct him as apposed to taking a header over his shoulder. Good to know.
Be a little more aggressive when turning;
If he doesn't turn when you lean the rein on his neck, apply leg pressure. You apply the opposite leg to the direction you are turning ex., left leg pressure to go right. Apply pressure not kicking. Kicking does bad things he said there were 2 of them and I already can't remember what one of them was but the other was it would cause a problem and you just don't need that.
Sit up straight with legs back more;
Brooke sits back too much in the saddle, with her legs at the girth or forward. Her legs need to be a little more back so that she isn't cuing at the girth. So shifting her pelvis and trying to keep her legs under herself is our goal
If he doesn't stay still when you 'whoa' then back him up and whoa again, if he doesn't stay still when you 'whoa' then back him up and whoa again until he stands still when you 'whoa'.
I am sure there were other things he said but I just can't remember them at this point. Maybe tomorrow.
We had a good drive home, picked up some electric fence and a few Harvey's burgers. Good drive, managed not to get a ticket but did not look forward to telling Katie I was using her camera........
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Our Equine Affaire Experience
Anxiously I waited for the bus to drop the kids off. This was the day, we, Brooke, Sharon and I, were heading off on our trip. It had been planned for months. The maps were printed, gas topped off, bags packed, medications packed, snacks and drinks, we were ready.
A tearful good-bye to my youngest along with one more check over the bus drop off at Nana's and we were off.
Yay, I thought, we were going to make to it the border in daylight. That was my plan. Last time we went across the border, it was the first time I had driven across and it was raining, dark, foggy and for some reason I was scared out of my wits. This time we were going to make it in daylight. We only stopped once, to get a Harvey's burger for dinner. That was a treat and it didn't take long as we went through the drive through, only about 15 minutes.
About 15 minutes from the border we noticed that we needed to turn the lights on, it was dark, it was raining and again for some reason I was terrified going across the border. Had we left just 1/2 hour earlier we would have had daylight. We had no problems other than an idiot driver cutting us off as we wavered back and forth along the road trying to decide where we supposed to be. The lanes are not well defined. We crossed, knew this time that we needed to go to the right to avoid oncoming traffic, again, no lanes but also not much in the way of traffic.
For some reason there was no neon sign pointing the way to Equine Affaire, so we had to wing it and head west on I90. Took the wrong turn for the inn we had picked out and ended up staying at an Econo Lodge, which surprisingly was very comfortable.
The rest of the trip was good other than I forgot or lost the trip tick and still don't know where I packed it. I did have driving directions from mapquest and the navigation system[NS] in Mom's van. Kind of funny thing happened, mapquest and NS do not follow the same route. It seems to kind of make the NS a little frustrated when you don't turn the way she says, we had fun with that a little bit.
Still fighting with the NS we found our Inn, forgot my US credit card. No problem though, I had given it too the lady over the phone and though she wasn't supposed to, she let us stay.
Rested for a while, decided to check out the pool. Too bad I didn't check before hand, the pool is closed til middle of May but we were still allowed to use the whirlpool. Yahoo.
Really good, amazingly good, breakfast included in our stay. Scrambled eggs, bacon, waffles, yogurt, fruit, cereal, muffins, toast, bagel and juice or coffee.
We watched Chris Cox the first and second day, he is an exceptional clinician. The first day he talked about getting the horse to lower his head. Teaching the horse to find his headset and establishing a cue for it. The next day I thought we were going to be watching him deal with a bucking horse but no, that was on the day we were leaving so we watched him help a couple horses with lead changes. Following the clinic he gave a reining demonstration on his horse, Pepto, that left Sharon and I with tears running down our cheeks. I know, I know. Brooke was slightly embarrassed.
We also got to see a little bit of John Lyons, he explained a few exercises to help with speed control and also introduced his sons Josh and Michael. I didn't even know he had 2 sons. We got to see Jana and their new baby Ryder, what a sweet little fella. They are a very family oriented business. Nice people.
Stacy Westfall discussed improving steering and teaching neck reining. She gave a good exercise to practice involving cones. She is a good clinician as well.
The shopping was phenominal but not really inexpensive, just so much to choose from.
We really enjoyed the Pfizer Fantasia show on Friday night. A hitch of 8 haflingers entertained us at the beginning along with the OhioDrill Team. John Lyons brought in Preacher and Charlie, Tommy Garland riding a Texas Longhorn Steer, Aaron ? doing a reining demonstration, Dutch Warmblood doing a dressage demonstration, a lady riding an Andalusian doing some kind of dance with a stick, very good but I can't remember what it is called, something like garrocha?? The Donnert brothers juggling on horseback, the Icelandic riders, a team of 4 welsh ponies demonstrating their cart racing around obstacles, a family did some mounted shooting and trick riding and finally one of the Donnert brothers did a skit with an appaloosa horse "Chief Bear Paw" the 4th[amazing].
There were so many things to see and I only saw a handful. I guess we will have to go back next year. Maybe next year I will have a better idea of how to go across the border.
A tearful good-bye to my youngest along with one more check over the bus drop off at Nana's and we were off.
Yay, I thought, we were going to make to it the border in daylight. That was my plan. Last time we went across the border, it was the first time I had driven across and it was raining, dark, foggy and for some reason I was scared out of my wits. This time we were going to make it in daylight. We only stopped once, to get a Harvey's burger for dinner. That was a treat and it didn't take long as we went through the drive through, only about 15 minutes.
About 15 minutes from the border we noticed that we needed to turn the lights on, it was dark, it was raining and again for some reason I was terrified going across the border. Had we left just 1/2 hour earlier we would have had daylight. We had no problems other than an idiot driver cutting us off as we wavered back and forth along the road trying to decide where we supposed to be. The lanes are not well defined. We crossed, knew this time that we needed to go to the right to avoid oncoming traffic, again, no lanes but also not much in the way of traffic.
For some reason there was no neon sign pointing the way to Equine Affaire, so we had to wing it and head west on I90. Took the wrong turn for the inn we had picked out and ended up staying at an Econo Lodge, which surprisingly was very comfortable.
The rest of the trip was good other than I forgot or lost the trip tick and still don't know where I packed it. I did have driving directions from mapquest and the navigation system[NS] in Mom's van. Kind of funny thing happened, mapquest and NS do not follow the same route. It seems to kind of make the NS a little frustrated when you don't turn the way she says, we had fun with that a little bit.
Still fighting with the NS we found our Inn, forgot my US credit card. No problem though, I had given it too the lady over the phone and though she wasn't supposed to, she let us stay.
Rested for a while, decided to check out the pool. Too bad I didn't check before hand, the pool is closed til middle of May but we were still allowed to use the whirlpool. Yahoo.
Really good, amazingly good, breakfast included in our stay. Scrambled eggs, bacon, waffles, yogurt, fruit, cereal, muffins, toast, bagel and juice or coffee.
We watched Chris Cox the first and second day, he is an exceptional clinician. The first day he talked about getting the horse to lower his head. Teaching the horse to find his headset and establishing a cue for it. The next day I thought we were going to be watching him deal with a bucking horse but no, that was on the day we were leaving so we watched him help a couple horses with lead changes. Following the clinic he gave a reining demonstration on his horse, Pepto, that left Sharon and I with tears running down our cheeks. I know, I know. Brooke was slightly embarrassed.
We also got to see a little bit of John Lyons, he explained a few exercises to help with speed control and also introduced his sons Josh and Michael. I didn't even know he had 2 sons. We got to see Jana and their new baby Ryder, what a sweet little fella. They are a very family oriented business. Nice people.
Stacy Westfall discussed improving steering and teaching neck reining. She gave a good exercise to practice involving cones. She is a good clinician as well.
The shopping was phenominal but not really inexpensive, just so much to choose from.
We really enjoyed the Pfizer Fantasia show on Friday night. A hitch of 8 haflingers entertained us at the beginning along with the OhioDrill Team. John Lyons brought in Preacher and Charlie, Tommy Garland riding a Texas Longhorn Steer, Aaron ? doing a reining demonstration, Dutch Warmblood doing a dressage demonstration, a lady riding an Andalusian doing some kind of dance with a stick, very good but I can't remember what it is called, something like garrocha?? The Donnert brothers juggling on horseback, the Icelandic riders, a team of 4 welsh ponies demonstrating their cart racing around obstacles, a family did some mounted shooting and trick riding and finally one of the Donnert brothers did a skit with an appaloosa horse "Chief Bear Paw" the 4th[amazing].
There were so many things to see and I only saw a handful. I guess we will have to go back next year. Maybe next year I will have a better idea of how to go across the border.
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