Horse: Quiz!
Time: 1 Hr
Ride: I have been such a bad blogger - I haven't even blogged about my last trail ride! Which, as always it seems, was a crazy/beautiful adventure-ride. I am blessed. Hopefully tomorrow I'll post that before I leave town for the weekend again.
On Monday I rode Quiz for the second to last time before summer starts. Crazy, you count down the days to something, wait and wait and wait... and all of a sudden I have a little more than a week before I leave for the entire summer. Along with seventeen pounds of laundry I need to do, packing up a whole life (atleast, that's what it feels like), taking a trip to Airdrie and Irvines for some feed, and a couple new bits I need, house-sitting for family friends, and of course, trying to fit in working as much as possible and a truck that needs some repairs before I leave - I'm going crazy.
Now - to my lesson... Quiz was acting like a bit of a turkey, she wasn't accepting the bit like she usually does, and she was back to her noodling ways. My trainer mentioned that I was doing better at correcting her than I have in the past, which made me happy. Noodle horse, why u show up right now?!
My trainer had set up a bit of an obstacle line, (for all you jumpers out there, you will laugh at the fact I call this an obstacle but here goes), there was a ground pole, a caveletti, two more ground poles, and one last caveletti. Quiz and I struggled, to say the least, going through this at a lope. Quiz would head one way, I would head the other, and that sure doesn't equal for straight and steady. However, I worked on checking, while also keeping my reins a little more even, and gripping more with my knees, and towards the end of the lesson I think we figured it out, princess Q and I.
This upcoming Monday is my very last lesson... I will miss Quiz dearly. :( Thankfully, as I am reminded by her wonderful owner (hi Caron), I will be back in September - Jingle in tow (if I ever find my little wild pony), and will still get to ride Quiz if I so wish. That's a pretty good deal, if you ask me.
For Next Time: Straight, calm and clear through all these crazy obstacles my trainer throws at me. On Monday she asked me if I dreaded Monday's and what she'd have cooked up, and the answer is no, never. I honestly am a total lesson-freak, I love them, even the bad lessons. I wish I had the money to do a different lesson every single day, on all sorts of different horses and in different disciplines, alas, we'll stick to the basics for now. ;)
Showing posts with label noodle horse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label noodle horse. Show all posts
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Riding Diary: 17
Horse: Cat (Justa Lil Cat)
(That Sly Cat x Justa Lil Tomboy)
Bit: I didn't get a great look at the bit, but it was some sort of ported roller with shanks.
Time: 1 Hr
Ride: So, after much phone-wrestling I made it out to the cutting horse trainer! I suppose I'll refer to him as "The Cutter" from now on in, as my other riding instructor has become known, blog-wise, as "My Trainer". I headed out to The Cutter's place Tuesday afternoon, hoping to avoid an imminent rainstorm, and trying to calm down the butterflies bouncing around in my tummy. I always get a little nervous heading out to places like this - it's funny, because your paying someone to train you, but at the same time.. you don't want to make a fool of yourself.
His place feels home-y, which I like. I worked at a big barn and it never, ever felt like home. My barn now, and his place, has a more comfortable aura around it. We chatted a bit about my experience, and I signed a waiver (which I really liked.. I've rarely ever had to sign a waiver anywhere - home-y but professional at the same time), and then away we went!
I rode a horse named Cat, I listed her pedigree above... so, I've now ridden a horse whose grandsires are Highbrow Cat and Freckles Playboy!! That is... so.cool. We got into the arena and talked about the differences between riding a cutting horse and other horses. A big thing My Trainer nagged me on when I first started was that I over-emphasized my stops, she wanted them very quiet, legs stay straight, etc. The Cutter wants my emphasis back, legs come out infront of you, rock your pelvis in, drop your hands, then back them, and then stand. He really made mention of getting a horse to stop, and wait for you. He told me that in his "misspent youth" he would make colts wait for him to smoke an entire cigarette before they could go back to work. I've never smoked, but I understood that analogy pretty well. For me, my stop and wait's are more like 20 seconds, his are about 4-6 minutes... an excruiting long time when you are used to 20 seconds.
We worked at the trot, and my horse wasn't being super responsive, and he thought that was because I didn't have spurs on. I've never ridden with spurs, but he said my legs were calm enough that if I rode in short, dull spurs it might just help cue her a little better. I'm a little nervous about that, I know that most performance horses are spur trained, but I can't help worry that one day I'll be taken by surprise and accidently dig into a horses side with a spur. We shall see how that goes. Somewhere along the line I've noticed people who really shouldn't be, or don't need to have, spurs on, spurring the shit out of their horses, and that old saying "you have to earn your spurs" creeps into my head, and makes my nervous about the fact that I have not, earned aformentioned training aid.
Then we worked at the lope, he told me that when a horse stops, he wants it to stop as it's lead leg is coming down to the ground, which means that it's powering from the hind end. If it's power is coming through the front, the stop wont be as big, or powerful, and will also lurch the rider around. He told me that everytime I felt the lead foot hit the ground I should think to myself "woah". So around and around I went thinking, "woah, woah, woah, woah" and when he told me to stop I had to just say it outloud - and tada! Great stop! I liked that trick.
We moved onto loping small circles and he asked me to focus on loping my tracks... harder than it seems.
Then we worked on a basic cutting drill - as if I was working a flag I would go in a line, trot, stop, back, rollback, and again. I was struggling a bit, I would over neck-rein and she would go flying out, and leak the rollback. Okay... so you are a cutting horse, you can really freakin' move. He kept reminding me to slow my brain down and focus on keeping her straight. (Oh look... I've created another noodle horse friend!) Every once and awhile he would ask me to back, and then wait... and we waited.. and waited... and waited.. and then - back to the trot. We quit after that and he said I did well, which made my big 'ol face smile and he said that after a couple more dry sessions I can move onto the flag.
I like his style of teaching, slow, methodological, calm... In a lot of ways, his riding style was similiar to the old barn boss, (a penner), I took a few lessons with. However, he was better at explaining and backing up things to me, so I could grasp the concepts a little better. Also, I never felt stupid - anyone that rides knows that you have those days when you feel like an idiot, but it always hurts 10 x more when your trainer makes you feel like a complete idiot who doesn't know anything. It was interesting to me how The Cutter and My Trainer's styles diffierentiated, but how some things they both mentioned to me. For example, I have a very odd tendancy of slightly tilting my head without noticing... gotta keep that head upright and straight!
For Next Time: ... so much! #1 is just remember everything I learnt! Nice, loud woah's, keep my head straight, focus on calm, collected rollbacks.
(That Sly Cat x Justa Lil Tomboy)
Bit: I didn't get a great look at the bit, but it was some sort of ported roller with shanks.
Time: 1 Hr
Ride: So, after much phone-wrestling I made it out to the cutting horse trainer! I suppose I'll refer to him as "The Cutter" from now on in, as my other riding instructor has become known, blog-wise, as "My Trainer". I headed out to The Cutter's place Tuesday afternoon, hoping to avoid an imminent rainstorm, and trying to calm down the butterflies bouncing around in my tummy. I always get a little nervous heading out to places like this - it's funny, because your paying someone to train you, but at the same time.. you don't want to make a fool of yourself.
His place feels home-y, which I like. I worked at a big barn and it never, ever felt like home. My barn now, and his place, has a more comfortable aura around it. We chatted a bit about my experience, and I signed a waiver (which I really liked.. I've rarely ever had to sign a waiver anywhere - home-y but professional at the same time), and then away we went!
I rode a horse named Cat, I listed her pedigree above... so, I've now ridden a horse whose grandsires are Highbrow Cat and Freckles Playboy!! That is... so.cool. We got into the arena and talked about the differences between riding a cutting horse and other horses. A big thing My Trainer nagged me on when I first started was that I over-emphasized my stops, she wanted them very quiet, legs stay straight, etc. The Cutter wants my emphasis back, legs come out infront of you, rock your pelvis in, drop your hands, then back them, and then stand. He really made mention of getting a horse to stop, and wait for you. He told me that in his "misspent youth" he would make colts wait for him to smoke an entire cigarette before they could go back to work. I've never smoked, but I understood that analogy pretty well. For me, my stop and wait's are more like 20 seconds, his are about 4-6 minutes... an excruiting long time when you are used to 20 seconds.
We worked at the trot, and my horse wasn't being super responsive, and he thought that was because I didn't have spurs on. I've never ridden with spurs, but he said my legs were calm enough that if I rode in short, dull spurs it might just help cue her a little better. I'm a little nervous about that, I know that most performance horses are spur trained, but I can't help worry that one day I'll be taken by surprise and accidently dig into a horses side with a spur. We shall see how that goes. Somewhere along the line I've noticed people who really shouldn't be, or don't need to have, spurs on, spurring the shit out of their horses, and that old saying "you have to earn your spurs" creeps into my head, and makes my nervous about the fact that I have not, earned aformentioned training aid.
Then we worked at the lope, he told me that when a horse stops, he wants it to stop as it's lead leg is coming down to the ground, which means that it's powering from the hind end. If it's power is coming through the front, the stop wont be as big, or powerful, and will also lurch the rider around. He told me that everytime I felt the lead foot hit the ground I should think to myself "woah". So around and around I went thinking, "woah, woah, woah, woah" and when he told me to stop I had to just say it outloud - and tada! Great stop! I liked that trick.
We moved onto loping small circles and he asked me to focus on loping my tracks... harder than it seems.
Then we worked on a basic cutting drill - as if I was working a flag I would go in a line, trot, stop, back, rollback, and again. I was struggling a bit, I would over neck-rein and she would go flying out, and leak the rollback. Okay... so you are a cutting horse, you can really freakin' move. He kept reminding me to slow my brain down and focus on keeping her straight. (Oh look... I've created another noodle horse friend!) Every once and awhile he would ask me to back, and then wait... and we waited.. and waited... and waited.. and then - back to the trot. We quit after that and he said I did well, which made my big 'ol face smile and he said that after a couple more dry sessions I can move onto the flag.
I like his style of teaching, slow, methodological, calm... In a lot of ways, his riding style was similiar to the old barn boss, (a penner), I took a few lessons with. However, he was better at explaining and backing up things to me, so I could grasp the concepts a little better. Also, I never felt stupid - anyone that rides knows that you have those days when you feel like an idiot, but it always hurts 10 x more when your trainer makes you feel like a complete idiot who doesn't know anything. It was interesting to me how The Cutter and My Trainer's styles diffierentiated, but how some things they both mentioned to me. For example, I have a very odd tendancy of slightly tilting my head without noticing... gotta keep that head upright and straight!
For Next Time: ... so much! #1 is just remember everything I learnt! Nice, loud woah's, keep my head straight, focus on calm, collected rollbacks.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Riding Diary: 11
Horse: Quiz
Time: 1 hr
Ride: ... ugh. I had one of those, "goddddaaaamnit" rides, you guys know what i'm talking about?
I just, couldn't.figure.my.shit.out. and to top it off I was having a "dumb day", just one of those days when you are not an intelligent person - these days rarely occur in my life, and when they do I become a train of stupidity, derailed and mowing down buildings with nonsensical babble. Jesus.
Anyways, I began with our typical warm-up posting trot. Sometimes I feel like Quiz tests me in the warm up, sometimes she's whizzing around the arena waaaay too fast, and then I ask her to slow down because, "frick child, this is a warm up", and she breaks down into this painfully slow trot that makes me look at her like, "Quiz... wtf.. are.. you.. doing?" Say that real slow, because that's how fast my bum is rising out of the saddle.
We then trotted some pole-bending style poles that were set up, and for the most part we did good. Aside from the fact that I get so absorbed in my body, and Quiz, that I become that aforementioned train, about to bulldoze other arena-users, "oops, sorry, didn't mean to get so close to you, woops, sorry, eek" - that's me. I know it's getting especially bad when my trainer is like, "LOUISA, stop passing so close, look where you are GOING"... eep, okay, i'll try, i'm sorry.
From our warmup we went into the lope, I thought that it was going to be one of those beautiful loose-rein easy-peasey-lemon squeazy days. I was wrong. Quiz was rushing me like a quarter back (.. is that what QB's do, they rush right?) and I was seemingly never prepared. So, we worked on me checking her back... again...
Can we go back to jogging? I can do that. Remember? Quiz and I turn into the WP queens with the sparkly jackets... let's go back there.
We attempted the pole pattern... yeah, that was disgusting. It was frantic, and I atleast thought she would just rush the shit out of it, but then at the very end, she broke down into a trot. Facepalms all around.
My trainer commented that my releases were simply too big and Quiz was taking advantage of them. So, lesson #1 - dial down the release, a simple wrist flick is all she needs right now. To counter Quiz's breaking down into the trot when I ask her to slow, we get lesson #2 - use a cap, aka your left leg. Every time I ask Quiz to back off, and slow down, my left leg has to be engaged to keep her consistently moving forward. Finally, Lesson #3, have a better hold on the reins when asking for a lope!
Then, Quiz all of a sudden turned into a noodle... right infront of me! All of a sudden I was riding a noodle. Her head was going one way, her bum the other, her legs were splaying about and for a minute (okay... more like 20...) I thought for sure that noodley little horse was trying to noodle me right into the rail. I'd tried to correct her head, and away her chest would go, I moved her hip back, her head would go the other way... all of a sudden my knee was getting glaringly close to the rail...
wtf noodle horse? stop that.
We finished up the lesson with a nice, slow lope that felt much better, and more relaxed, but that was after an hour of me feeling like an unbalanced sack of potatoes with iron-hands, and my horse morphing into a noodle... so, yeah, we probably should have had a slower lope at that point in the ride.
For Next Time: .... do everything right. duh..
Uhm, smaller releases, and continuing to push Quiz when she attempts to break down on me. Don't be afraid to use your hands! You aren't going to break her face off with your small midget hands!
Oh, and mainly... don't write about how good your lesson was last time, because then you get noodle horse extraordinaire.
Time: 1 hr
Ride: ... ugh. I had one of those, "goddddaaaamnit" rides, you guys know what i'm talking about?
I just, couldn't.figure.my.shit.out. and to top it off I was having a "dumb day", just one of those days when you are not an intelligent person - these days rarely occur in my life, and when they do I become a train of stupidity, derailed and mowing down buildings with nonsensical babble. Jesus.
Anyways, I began with our typical warm-up posting trot. Sometimes I feel like Quiz tests me in the warm up, sometimes she's whizzing around the arena waaaay too fast, and then I ask her to slow down because, "frick child, this is a warm up", and she breaks down into this painfully slow trot that makes me look at her like, "Quiz... wtf.. are.. you.. doing?" Say that real slow, because that's how fast my bum is rising out of the saddle.
We then trotted some pole-bending style poles that were set up, and for the most part we did good. Aside from the fact that I get so absorbed in my body, and Quiz, that I become that aforementioned train, about to bulldoze other arena-users, "oops, sorry, didn't mean to get so close to you, woops, sorry, eek" - that's me. I know it's getting especially bad when my trainer is like, "LOUISA, stop passing so close, look where you are GOING"... eep, okay, i'll try, i'm sorry.
From our warmup we went into the lope, I thought that it was going to be one of those beautiful loose-rein easy-peasey-lemon squeazy days. I was wrong. Quiz was rushing me like a quarter back (.. is that what QB's do, they rush right?) and I was seemingly never prepared. So, we worked on me checking her back... again...
Can we go back to jogging? I can do that. Remember? Quiz and I turn into the WP queens with the sparkly jackets... let's go back there.
We attempted the pole pattern... yeah, that was disgusting. It was frantic, and I atleast thought she would just rush the shit out of it, but then at the very end, she broke down into a trot. Facepalms all around.
My trainer commented that my releases were simply too big and Quiz was taking advantage of them. So, lesson #1 - dial down the release, a simple wrist flick is all she needs right now. To counter Quiz's breaking down into the trot when I ask her to slow, we get lesson #2 - use a cap, aka your left leg. Every time I ask Quiz to back off, and slow down, my left leg has to be engaged to keep her consistently moving forward. Finally, Lesson #3, have a better hold on the reins when asking for a lope!
Then, Quiz all of a sudden turned into a noodle... right infront of me! All of a sudden I was riding a noodle. Her head was going one way, her bum the other, her legs were splaying about and for a minute (okay... more like 20...) I thought for sure that noodley little horse was trying to noodle me right into the rail. I'd tried to correct her head, and away her chest would go, I moved her hip back, her head would go the other way... all of a sudden my knee was getting glaringly close to the rail...
wtf noodle horse? stop that.
We finished up the lesson with a nice, slow lope that felt much better, and more relaxed, but that was after an hour of me feeling like an unbalanced sack of potatoes with iron-hands, and my horse morphing into a noodle... so, yeah, we probably should have had a slower lope at that point in the ride.
For Next Time: .... do everything right. duh..
Uhm, smaller releases, and continuing to push Quiz when she attempts to break down on me. Don't be afraid to use your hands! You aren't going to break her face off with your small midget hands!
Oh, and mainly... don't write about how good your lesson was last time, because then you get noodle horse extraordinaire.
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