D's father died on Friday. He was a lovely man, who loved horses, and loved sharing his love of horses with those around him. The barn was quiet and sad this weekend in reflection of the loss for D and his family, but also for everyone loss.
So for that reason our group lesson for Saturday was canceled, although three of us and D and C's daughter went out and had a bit of a fun ride in the sun.
We did manage to find out whats going on with Lucy's lope, All that flexibility though her body, and slowness that I've been working on is paying off, but I just needed to push her hips a bit more to the inside to allow her to keep her stride and rhythm without loosing the cadence that the flexibility is building.
We also worked on the trail gate, we had someone open it and we 'pretended' and did all the gate steps with out actually using the rope, and then C picked up the rope and rubbed it all over her then stepped back, and handed the rope to me and I hooked the gate to the standard. So we still have some stuff to work on but we are leaps and bounds from where we were last week.
Showing posts with label western pleasure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label western pleasure. Show all posts
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Breakthrough!
We had a moment tonight! We warmed up pushing her hips around then moving into doing the same at a jog. We then thew in some jog squares pushing her front end around (almost a turn on a haunch at each corner) also mixed in some two tracking (I was going to do side passing as well but was so happy with her lope I got off before I remembered to do them!).
Her lope was great tonight, slow, easy, light and loose though her entire body but rocked back on her haunches enough to keep a good stride. She's really getting it! I could even pick her up and rock her back without her getting upset or breaking, she just sat back and slowed down. Such a smart little mare! I yelled at D to come watch from the other end of the barn I was so happy with her. I hope to ride tomorrow night then I've got my IV on Thursday. Hopefully the rain will be up by then as we really need some accumulation time in the outdoor before the show next month, And then back to a lesson on Saturday.
Her lope was great tonight, slow, easy, light and loose though her entire body but rocked back on her haunches enough to keep a good stride. She's really getting it! I could even pick her up and rock her back without her getting upset or breaking, she just sat back and slowed down. Such a smart little mare! I yelled at D to come watch from the other end of the barn I was so happy with her. I hope to ride tomorrow night then I've got my IV on Thursday. Hopefully the rain will be up by then as we really need some accumulation time in the outdoor before the show next month, And then back to a lesson on Saturday.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Ethics or the lack of
A couple of issues have come up over the past couple of weeks that have made me question the ethics of the horse industry.
I'm only going to slightly touch on the abuse, its there, realize it, and do your best to look after your horse, because the breed associations don't seem to want to.
And I'm not just talking about starving horses or beating them, I'm talking about the underhanded abuse that is done to get a horse in the show ring. The bosal rubs, raw mouths, and spur marks. I am very thankful that my BNT that I trained with wouldn't let anything like that happen to a horse in his care. (Heck we were horrified when one of the kids got new boots that rubbed the hair off on her HUS gelding! She wasn't allowed to go to the next show as punishment!)
Sure there are accidents, and sometimes tack doesn't fit right, but take the time to let the injury heal, don't cover it with make up to get the horse in the show ring.
Both Oscar and Lucas have had their tails 'done'. Lucas' was done via injections. He had most
of his movement back, but couldn't lift his tail up when he was excited. Oscars tail has been broken in multiple places. Of course its possible that he could have broken it as a youngster (Sophie, my friends foal did come out of the mare with a kink in the bottom of her tail, vets told her that a kink in the bottom is common). How much do you have to hate a horse to break its tail multiple times? He can use it a fair bit now, but like Lucas, he doesn't have full use.
The new "Novice" rules for AQHA.
Personally in 2013 I can enter the show ring again as an amateur ( and a Novice at that!) Most likely I will show novice in the riding classes if I have a chance to show AQHA again. I will not show novice in halter. Been there done that got the T-shirt.
Recently they changed the rules, now only your past 3 years worth of points count to your novice eligibility. So you could be a youth would champion in western pleasure, sit out your college years and come back as a novice in Amateur. Sure there is the Rookie division, but you can only stay in that until you get 10 points.
Although nothing has been finalized yet, it seems like AQHA is trying to keep the top layer of exhibitors happy and to hell with the rest of them. I think what really gets me is the people on the pleasure horse forum who were so excited to go back to novice. They had 100's or even 1000's of points in the events they wanted to show novice in, but there new horse 'wasn't competitive yet', or 'the new trail patterns are too hard'.
I've been on the fence myself about showing novice or not, but with only 1.5 points to my name let alone my lack of loping skills at this point makes my arguments almost non relevant when compared to the people who seem to want to "go back novice".
Trainer ethics, or the lack of.
A local trainer has now been though 3 local barns (all within 2 hours of each other) and has left nothing but burnt bridges, used up client credit cards (he was using a clients CC given to him for horse show expenses to purchase feed for his entire barn), abused horses (were talking way worse that what I mentioned above) lawsuits, and illegal horse paper transactions.
This year one of his students won a top 10 at congress and another built him a 15 stall barn.
I don't get it. How do this people not see the mess and run as fast as they can from him?
All of this boils down to one thing.
How much is the blue ribbon worth?
I'm only going to slightly touch on the abuse, its there, realize it, and do your best to look after your horse, because the breed associations don't seem to want to.
And I'm not just talking about starving horses or beating them, I'm talking about the underhanded abuse that is done to get a horse in the show ring. The bosal rubs, raw mouths, and spur marks. I am very thankful that my BNT that I trained with wouldn't let anything like that happen to a horse in his care. (Heck we were horrified when one of the kids got new boots that rubbed the hair off on her HUS gelding! She wasn't allowed to go to the next show as punishment!)
Sure there are accidents, and sometimes tack doesn't fit right, but take the time to let the injury heal, don't cover it with make up to get the horse in the show ring.
Both Oscar and Lucas have had their tails 'done'. Lucas' was done via injections. He had most
of his movement back, but couldn't lift his tail up when he was excited. Oscars tail has been broken in multiple places. Of course its possible that he could have broken it as a youngster (Sophie, my friends foal did come out of the mare with a kink in the bottom of her tail, vets told her that a kink in the bottom is common). How much do you have to hate a horse to break its tail multiple times? He can use it a fair bit now, but like Lucas, he doesn't have full use.
The new "Novice" rules for AQHA.
Personally in 2013 I can enter the show ring again as an amateur ( and a Novice at that!) Most likely I will show novice in the riding classes if I have a chance to show AQHA again. I will not show novice in halter. Been there done that got the T-shirt.
Recently they changed the rules, now only your past 3 years worth of points count to your novice eligibility. So you could be a youth would champion in western pleasure, sit out your college years and come back as a novice in Amateur. Sure there is the Rookie division, but you can only stay in that until you get 10 points.
Although nothing has been finalized yet, it seems like AQHA is trying to keep the top layer of exhibitors happy and to hell with the rest of them. I think what really gets me is the people on the pleasure horse forum who were so excited to go back to novice. They had 100's or even 1000's of points in the events they wanted to show novice in, but there new horse 'wasn't competitive yet', or 'the new trail patterns are too hard'.
I've been on the fence myself about showing novice or not, but with only 1.5 points to my name let alone my lack of loping skills at this point makes my arguments almost non relevant when compared to the people who seem to want to "go back novice".
Trainer ethics, or the lack of.
A local trainer has now been though 3 local barns (all within 2 hours of each other) and has left nothing but burnt bridges, used up client credit cards (he was using a clients CC given to him for horse show expenses to purchase feed for his entire barn), abused horses (were talking way worse that what I mentioned above) lawsuits, and illegal horse paper transactions.
This year one of his students won a top 10 at congress and another built him a 15 stall barn.
I don't get it. How do this people not see the mess and run as fast as they can from him?
All of this boils down to one thing.
How much is the blue ribbon worth?
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Maybe I can ride after all, Lesson #2
Well we survived our second lesson. We rode with one of the kids who trailers in for lessons as D thought it would be good for both of us. The plan was to work on some trail obstacles, and D didn't want to set up for both our lessons so he thought combining was a good idea, plus both of us need practice riding with other people.
So we warmed up doing circles 10m and 20m, changes in direction though the center from A-C and from B-E. We worked on the different bends the horses should follow on the 10m versus the 20m. For me this mostly involved keeping Oscars shoulder up and inside leg on to keep him from falling into our circle.
Once we've done this a bunch in both directions, we would do our 10m circle then canter out for 5-10 strides then back to the jog. The idea was to keep a bit of the bend out of the 10 meter into our lope (shoulders up haunches to the inside).
After a little walk break we worked on getting the bend for our circles on the straight wall while going straight and asking for a lope. We'd lope 3-6 20 meter circles then back to a walk and work on shoulders and hips while walking.
We had some great jog work, and I felt like I finally figured out Oscars lope. I wasn't afraid to use my reins a little bit, to help me frame him up a little bit especially when it was something we were working on at the walk and the jog it was just a continuation of that.
I felt like I was really able to RIDE him this time rather than just being a passenger at the lope. We had some absolute great lope steps and some awesome transitions from the walk to the trot. I had some moments where I was like "This right here is why I love western pleasure". And no not the head bobbing sideways lope that you see at the shows, but the soft easy slow lope that's so wonderful when you find it.
D said that Oscar's legs were the best he's seen them in a long time.
And we never got around to trail, but that was ok too :)
So we warmed up doing circles 10m and 20m, changes in direction though the center from A-C and from B-E. We worked on the different bends the horses should follow on the 10m versus the 20m. For me this mostly involved keeping Oscars shoulder up and inside leg on to keep him from falling into our circle.
Once we've done this a bunch in both directions, we would do our 10m circle then canter out for 5-10 strides then back to the jog. The idea was to keep a bit of the bend out of the 10 meter into our lope (shoulders up haunches to the inside).
After a little walk break we worked on getting the bend for our circles on the straight wall while going straight and asking for a lope. We'd lope 3-6 20 meter circles then back to a walk and work on shoulders and hips while walking.
We had some great jog work, and I felt like I finally figured out Oscars lope. I wasn't afraid to use my reins a little bit, to help me frame him up a little bit especially when it was something we were working on at the walk and the jog it was just a continuation of that.
I felt like I was really able to RIDE him this time rather than just being a passenger at the lope. We had some absolute great lope steps and some awesome transitions from the walk to the trot. I had some moments where I was like "This right here is why I love western pleasure". And no not the head bobbing sideways lope that you see at the shows, but the soft easy slow lope that's so wonderful when you find it.
D said that Oscar's legs were the best he's seen them in a long time.
And we never got around to trail, but that was ok too :)
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Being thankfull.... or not
Well we had a good steady rain all day which is exactly what we needed. Fingers crossed that this continues for the rest of the night.
I've been having a couple of bad days. Not so much the pain from the RA, but being grumpy and having the munches from the steroids. It could just be emotional eating (not like I haven't done that before!) but it drives me crazy at work when I cant grab a healthy snack. My ankle bothers me at work but wearing my brace seems to be helping it when I cant put it up. Right now its the only joint that is hurting so hopefully the next round of drugs on Aug 7th will help.
I am thankful that I wasn't in too much pain after my ride on Saturday. I've gotten clearance from Oscars owner to go ride again on Friday night which will be a big test. My cousin is getting married on Saturday (the first of the cousins on my Dad's side to get married) and I'm going visiting in the city in the morning before I have to get ready. I'll have plenty of time Friday night to get a good sleep so lets hope that I'm not too bad on Saturday.
And then me and my best friend are off to the AQHA show on Sunday to watch. It should be interesting... there were only 60 horses at the last show which was LESS than the open show that I went to watch 2 weeks ago. Unfortuity the clubs board of directors is running the club into the ground, and the direction that AQHA itself is taking on the western pleasure industry is making us all take a step back and re evaluate.
I've been having a couple of bad days. Not so much the pain from the RA, but being grumpy and having the munches from the steroids. It could just be emotional eating (not like I haven't done that before!) but it drives me crazy at work when I cant grab a healthy snack. My ankle bothers me at work but wearing my brace seems to be helping it when I cant put it up. Right now its the only joint that is hurting so hopefully the next round of drugs on Aug 7th will help.
I am thankful that I wasn't in too much pain after my ride on Saturday. I've gotten clearance from Oscars owner to go ride again on Friday night which will be a big test. My cousin is getting married on Saturday (the first of the cousins on my Dad's side to get married) and I'm going visiting in the city in the morning before I have to get ready. I'll have plenty of time Friday night to get a good sleep so lets hope that I'm not too bad on Saturday.
And then me and my best friend are off to the AQHA show on Sunday to watch. It should be interesting... there were only 60 horses at the last show which was LESS than the open show that I went to watch 2 weeks ago. Unfortuity the clubs board of directors is running the club into the ground, and the direction that AQHA itself is taking on the western pleasure industry is making us all take a step back and re evaluate.
Monday, January 9, 2012
More western
So I rode Lucas on Sunday (we are trying to stick to a once on the weekend, and once during the week for the month of January) and we had another excellent ride. No spook no nothing and I was even able to get on him again without someone holding onto him.
So we did some side passing just to build on what we did last time. Hes really trying to figure out what my legs mean and I'm trying to be really consistent with what I'm asking and not just go to my hands to fix it. He is a really good boy, but I could tell when my legs were uneven by the way he was side passing (crocked) We then did some trotting and changing reins across the diagonals and worked into 2 tracking the second 1/2 of the diagonal then to 2 tracking the long side.
I'm not cantering yet but figured that I can work on that in another week or two.
I really worked on having him meet the rail at an even rate and using my leg gradually so that he didn't just go right to the rail but moved over gradually. I really tried to work on shifting my balance to 'open' a way to ask him to move into the rail as well which seemed to help. Any increase in balance and fitness will definitely help that! We also did a lot of work with one hand even some of a min pattern with come circles, turns on the haunches, backing up and trot poles.
We ended up walking the walking track 2 nights last week and again tonight, averaging about 2 and a bit km each time. Fitness goals are on track and will probably (hopefully) keep going they say the first couple of weeks are the worst :P
The first show of the year is going to be introductory AQHA so I hope to do the Showmanship, Halter, Equation, HUS, Horsemanship and maybe pleasure depending on the number of horses (Lucas can lope but his jog is still more of a trot and I wont ruin a class for someone else).
So we did some side passing just to build on what we did last time. Hes really trying to figure out what my legs mean and I'm trying to be really consistent with what I'm asking and not just go to my hands to fix it. He is a really good boy, but I could tell when my legs were uneven by the way he was side passing (crocked) We then did some trotting and changing reins across the diagonals and worked into 2 tracking the second 1/2 of the diagonal then to 2 tracking the long side.
I'm not cantering yet but figured that I can work on that in another week or two.
I really worked on having him meet the rail at an even rate and using my leg gradually so that he didn't just go right to the rail but moved over gradually. I really tried to work on shifting my balance to 'open' a way to ask him to move into the rail as well which seemed to help. Any increase in balance and fitness will definitely help that! We also did a lot of work with one hand even some of a min pattern with come circles, turns on the haunches, backing up and trot poles.
We ended up walking the walking track 2 nights last week and again tonight, averaging about 2 and a bit km each time. Fitness goals are on track and will probably (hopefully) keep going they say the first couple of weeks are the worst :P
The first show of the year is going to be introductory AQHA so I hope to do the Showmanship, Halter, Equation, HUS, Horsemanship and maybe pleasure depending on the number of horses (Lucas can lope but his jog is still more of a trot and I wont ruin a class for someone else).
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Trust X2
So another fantastic ride on Lucas! Once I got on we stood in the center of the ring while one of the kids worked out some kinks on her own horse. Then once she was done she stood in the center while we practiced walking in and out of the "line" up, good practice for the show ring. Then we started working. We did our walking and trotting on a loose rein. Keeping both of us relaxed and forward.
Then we loped/cantered on a loose rein :) No head tossing, no freaking out on my part, just a smooth canter transition.
Then D started a bit of a challenge to me, I had my reins loose in my outside hand (of a large 20 meter circle) when he got heavy, or his head got too low I had to reach down and slide my inside hand down the rein and lift that rein up. Once he got re-balance I let go of the inside rein, and continued to ride with my outside rein. It involved me moving around a fair bit in the saddle (while keeping my legs solid and consistent) and a fair amount of trust.
So we worked on it at the trot and then we worked up to a canter. You know if you had told me less than a month ago I would be cantering Lucas one handed on a loose rein I would have laughed at you, but we did it! It was hard work, keeping my legs consistent, while moving around and picking up my reins. But I finally got my hips to flow which allowed my upper body to be more independent. We did have a bit of a misstep when I lost my outside leg for a moment when trying to push him out of the circle a bit and we got a fantastical smooth lead change!! It wasn't supposed happen but it was great all the same. :)
By the end of the ride we were doing great transitions on a loose rein. And keeping a good balanced canter (and wow it was nice! I totaly LOVE his canter on a good day!) and trot on a good loose rein. Lots of lift and drive, and so easy for once!!! Its really teaching me to stop being so dependent on my hands, (extremely bad habit I seem to pick up all the time!) and since he is always worse at home, if I can have him go like this at a show........ I need to stop picking on him!
Then we loped/cantered on a loose rein :) No head tossing, no freaking out on my part, just a smooth canter transition.
Then D started a bit of a challenge to me, I had my reins loose in my outside hand (of a large 20 meter circle) when he got heavy, or his head got too low I had to reach down and slide my inside hand down the rein and lift that rein up. Once he got re-balance I let go of the inside rein, and continued to ride with my outside rein. It involved me moving around a fair bit in the saddle (while keeping my legs solid and consistent) and a fair amount of trust.
So we worked on it at the trot and then we worked up to a canter. You know if you had told me less than a month ago I would be cantering Lucas one handed on a loose rein I would have laughed at you, but we did it! It was hard work, keeping my legs consistent, while moving around and picking up my reins. But I finally got my hips to flow which allowed my upper body to be more independent. We did have a bit of a misstep when I lost my outside leg for a moment when trying to push him out of the circle a bit and we got a fantastical smooth lead change!! It wasn't supposed happen but it was great all the same. :)
By the end of the ride we were doing great transitions on a loose rein. And keeping a good balanced canter (and wow it was nice! I totaly LOVE his canter on a good day!) and trot on a good loose rein. Lots of lift and drive, and so easy for once!!! Its really teaching me to stop being so dependent on my hands, (extremely bad habit I seem to pick up all the time!) and since he is always worse at home, if I can have him go like this at a show........ I need to stop picking on him!
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Snow, cold, but new shoes!
Well we didnt make it to our horse expo today. The dumping of snow that we got yesterday (16cm in 5 hours) just made the roads too bad. So we spent the day puttering around with her dogs, cats and husband. And then she broke her tooth of (her front one!) Its the one that is 1/2 fake due to a freek accident when she was a kid, so not like a 'real' tooth breaking. Thankfully she was able to get in to see the emergancy dentist, and got a temporay cap on it untill Monday.
Shes also scedualed to go have surgery, to repair the tendon in the knee that she broke last year, in a couple of weeks. Its going to mean some serious time off for her 3 year olds (a HUS gelding, and a WP mare) so we had a talk about what shes going to do with them. Shes in the same frame of mind that I am, we love QH's, we love the people that love QH's... we just dont like what some people are doing to 'win'. She had her HUS in training for Nov. and Dec. but pulled him due to the trainers antics. And this is a guy we KNOW, shes 10min from the barn and there every night but there was still bad stuff going on.
For example we worked the two 3yo today the WP mare got shown last year but the HUS horse just got broke out. We figure they are going to need a couple of months each to go and show localy. The HUS gelding needs travel miles, the WP mare needs a refesher (shes been off since sept)
Compare that to the 3yo the 'trainer' was riding today. That gelding was so distorted and crooked going down the rail he never got to go straight for more than a stride, hes been ridden since he was 2 and had his hocks injected 2x already. His owner is a nice lady but thinks that if she paid big money for the horse and training she wants to win.
I guess we just love our horses too much.
Lucas got his shoes on Friday Am so the plan is that Im going to go drive him tomorrow and do some more playing around, hopefully next weekend Ill be riding again!!
Shes also scedualed to go have surgery, to repair the tendon in the knee that she broke last year, in a couple of weeks. Its going to mean some serious time off for her 3 year olds (a HUS gelding, and a WP mare) so we had a talk about what shes going to do with them. Shes in the same frame of mind that I am, we love QH's, we love the people that love QH's... we just dont like what some people are doing to 'win'. She had her HUS in training for Nov. and Dec. but pulled him due to the trainers antics. And this is a guy we KNOW, shes 10min from the barn and there every night but there was still bad stuff going on.
For example we worked the two 3yo today the WP mare got shown last year but the HUS horse just got broke out. We figure they are going to need a couple of months each to go and show localy. The HUS gelding needs travel miles, the WP mare needs a refesher (shes been off since sept)
Compare that to the 3yo the 'trainer' was riding today. That gelding was so distorted and crooked going down the rail he never got to go straight for more than a stride, hes been ridden since he was 2 and had his hocks injected 2x already. His owner is a nice lady but thinks that if she paid big money for the horse and training she wants to win.
I guess we just love our horses too much.
Lucas got his shoes on Friday Am so the plan is that Im going to go drive him tomorrow and do some more playing around, hopefully next weekend Ill be riding again!!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Lesson
Had another lesson last night. Rode a mare that gave me great feedback. If I was in the perfect positon she got soft and slow I would shift my weight and she would speed up. Bunny just kept getting pissed off at me I needed this ride!
At the end we were lopeing slower than the other girl was on Bunny, and he was working on me keeping her head up at the lope. She was a great horse to practice the leg/spur then hand because eventully she responded to the leg only.
At the end Herb was picking on me that I wasnt smiling.... then I started smiling because I figured if thats the only thing he had to comment on everything else must be good!!
At the end we were lopeing slower than the other girl was on Bunny, and he was working on me keeping her head up at the lope. She was a great horse to practice the leg/spur then hand because eventully she responded to the leg only.
At the end Herb was picking on me that I wasnt smiling.... then I started smiling because I figured if thats the only thing he had to comment on everything else must be good!!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
doing more things at the same time
Blah.... So i go for my lesson tonight and I get to ride Bunny!!!! Her real name is Really Noluckneeded, but everyone knows her as Bunny. She was a congress finalist at one point and has a wack of points. More importantly I've seen her and Herb kick ass at the AQHA shows so it was really cool to get to ride her (I think i might have only lucked out because my usual horse had a little kid on it!!)
Honestly I was shaking.... I was nervous thinking I was going to mess her up but we started off really well and had a good ride untill we went to lope (again on my bad direction but I got Herb to lengthen that side one hole and it worked alot better!) Again I screwed up the transistion (I really need to rock that hip back instead of just using legs and closing my eyes!!) And it wasnt horrible I mean for my 4th ride in 6 months but its not easy and I get somthing and the horse goes bad, I get that and were off our circle. AHHHHHH!!!!
Im learning alot though, I really got that 'feel' all though my but thigh and calf tonight (except during some of the crappy lope stuff) But I do know where my holes are in my training now a lot better. Im ok at the colt stuff but its getting to have the horse hold the frame better, without using my hands so much! But I've never had stuff this broke to ride before (except for the jumpers) Its alot of work but Im loving it and wanting to learn more all the time, not so bored but intrested again. Its been a while for that feeling!
I had to laugh to the girl that Herb has working for him was lunging a young colt and couldnt get him to stop. I didnt say anything but I felt like telling her to back up instead of running at his head.....
All and all a great birthday ride. I told Herb that getting to ride her was the best birthday present, and it was!
Honestly I was shaking.... I was nervous thinking I was going to mess her up but we started off really well and had a good ride untill we went to lope (again on my bad direction but I got Herb to lengthen that side one hole and it worked alot better!) Again I screwed up the transistion (I really need to rock that hip back instead of just using legs and closing my eyes!!) And it wasnt horrible I mean for my 4th ride in 6 months but its not easy and I get somthing and the horse goes bad, I get that and were off our circle. AHHHHHH!!!!
Im learning alot though, I really got that 'feel' all though my but thigh and calf tonight (except during some of the crappy lope stuff) But I do know where my holes are in my training now a lot better. Im ok at the colt stuff but its getting to have the horse hold the frame better, without using my hands so much! But I've never had stuff this broke to ride before (except for the jumpers) Its alot of work but Im loving it and wanting to learn more all the time, not so bored but intrested again. Its been a while for that feeling!
I had to laugh to the girl that Herb has working for him was lunging a young colt and couldnt get him to stop. I didnt say anything but I felt like telling her to back up instead of running at his head.....
All and all a great birthday ride. I told Herb that getting to ride her was the best birthday present, and it was!
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