Nicole is officially back from her layup, and is fit enough to go back into fulltime work. I'm not pushing it as hard now, she gets 3 or so days a week off right now, just to keep her mentally happy.
The first couple weeks with her canter were just odd. The first time I rode her canter (the first time in 2 or so months), I was just lost. It felt completely different, with her hindend 100% under my butt (meaning she was tracking completely under herself) and about 1000 pounds of weight in my hand. Couple weeks (and a few "Wahoo! I'm back in work! Wait, crap! I'm back in work!" moments) later, and she's back to normal.
So I took her out for a test drive. For the first time in months, we did canter half passes and lead changes. Nicole was born knowing how to do a canter half pass, and she did them perfectly both directions each time, on a fairly steep diagonal. She held herself in perfect self-carriage the whole time. Not bad for a horse that a year ago was barely able to hold a decent canter.
The lead changes are the next project with her. It feels like now is the first time that she is truly ready to work on them. We've been doing this for 10 months or something, but she honestly wasn't ready before, except I didn't know that she wasn't ready, and I was getting sunshine blown up my butt by a trainer attempting to keep me interested in her training. Never one for the garden path of fantasy, it's annoying that I wasn't given proper information at the time, but the horse is no worse for the wear, except she had undue pressure put on her.
The difference between ready and not ready lies in self-carriage and throughness. Nicole is now able to hold herself without help, and requires only small changes in weight to produce throughness and self-carriage. Before this stage, she was like a 3 year old human - you tell them to do something (or not do something, as the case may be) and immediately you have to remind them again. I'd ask for throughness, then immediately she would need help again. Not a good breeding ground to introduce higher concepts.
The time I spent only riding Nikita has served me well. When riding Nicole at the trot, I now know what I'm looking for in order to produce a more uphill, cadenced collected trot with Nicole. I understand how to get Nicole to push into the bridle so her hindend comes more underneath her. Nicole's favorite trick is to either put too much pressure on the bridle (so the rider ends up holding her) or to suck back so the bridle becomes super light (and not correctly loaded) and not push correctly. We still aren't at the point where she's pushing 100% correctly into the bridle, but I'm also at a point where I'm not 100% sure how to train that into her. I'm still feeling my way through how to get from Point A to Point B.
I'm lucky I have Nikita, but I think I'm also lucky I have Nicole, who is forgiving and has a short memory for bad training and mistakes. I'm lucky I have Nicole who I know so well that I can learn to train these higher-level concepts without also having to navigate an unknown psyche. It's not that often that someone has the opportunity to have a horse like Nikita to learn to ride on and also to have a horse they know very well to learn to TRAIN on.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
August 6, 2009
For right now Nic seems to be sound under saddle. But do you want to know what hell is? Having an FEI-level horse that has no muscle and no balance. Suffice to say, riding Nicole is tantamount to watching a drunken sailor try to walk, only less entertaining. Nicole is in the habit that if she doesn't have the muscle or the knowledge to perform up to her expectations, she rushes. So we've been off to the races the past couple days, and I'm getting my mint juleps ready (that is, if I actually drank mint juleps, which, let's face it, isn't hardcore enough for this audience) because I think we have a good shot at next years Derby. Actually, even more depressing, she feels like she felt when I got her 3 years ago. Except now I know that she's rushing because of lack of balance.
What sucks even further is that she has no neck muscle, so despite her best attempts, she can't really remain through. So we have the rehab blues. It's going to take a couple months before she's strong enough to do anything, and probably longer than that before she's ready to work on more advanced stuff. Yipee.
The main difference between Nicole and Nikita, besides the fact that Nicole clearly has a form of dwarfism and Nikita is gigantic, and that one is chestnut and one is black, is that Nicole is Speedy Gonzales on cocaine while Nikita has a normal amount of energy for a horse. I've never, ever had to use leg on Nicole except for bending and collecting, and because she's so short, if I move only slightly, that's enough of an aid to get a reaction.
So the fact that I have to actually use leg on Nikita is a new concept for me. And dealing with the varying degrees of leg pressure has been, well, interesting.
What sucks even further is that she has no neck muscle, so despite her best attempts, she can't really remain through. So we have the rehab blues. It's going to take a couple months before she's strong enough to do anything, and probably longer than that before she's ready to work on more advanced stuff. Yipee.
The main difference between Nicole and Nikita, besides the fact that Nicole clearly has a form of dwarfism and Nikita is gigantic, and that one is chestnut and one is black, is that Nicole is Speedy Gonzales on cocaine while Nikita has a normal amount of energy for a horse. I've never, ever had to use leg on Nicole except for bending and collecting, and because she's so short, if I move only slightly, that's enough of an aid to get a reaction.
So the fact that I have to actually use leg on Nikita is a new concept for me. And dealing with the varying degrees of leg pressure has been, well, interesting.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
July 26, 2009
Nic saw fancy-pants chiro/masseuse guy yesterday, so we will see over the next 2 weeks if she is better. 2 days off, lunge on Tues, and lunge only for 2 weeks. The problem is "her rib cage is tilted to the left", causing all kinds of mayhem blocking her shoulders from moving. To some extent I buy this theory based on the number of vets/chiro/masseuse people who have seen Nic over the past few years (and who've all uttered something similar), but in my experience these kind of fumblings in the dark are useless. In other words, she may have a tilted rib cage, but I don't think knowing this peculiar fact about my mare really will make or break anything. My left side is bigger than my right side, and my right 
foot will always be at a 45* angle thanks to 15 years of figure skating, but it's not exactly like those issues limit me or can be fixed - they just are. But she's been adjusted, and now has to rebuild her muscles in her shoulders, so in a couple weeks the verdict will be in. And considering what he was doing to her, and that she clearly found parts of it uncomfortable, she was surprisingly willing to just stand there. I'd probably have bitten the guy.Got 4 1-tempis on Nikita yesterday. I can do more, but just did the 4. Wheeee.
Trying to fix that whole leaning back too far in the trot thing, but now I'm having to reshape my own muscles. Not leaning back means using my abs and back more. Major ow.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
July 23, 2009
Video of the trot and tempis with Nikita. I wish the tempis were more collected. Something to work on.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
July 21, 2009
Let me explain better, although I doubt I really have to. I want to incorporate more video into Of Horses and Humans, and video is far more entertaining than my writing, I'm certain. But unfortunately, I don't really have anyone to video my rides, and sticking the video camera up doesn't do it for me any more.
Riding Nikita's trot is now much easier, and I can ride it without feeling out of breath or any such issue that was happening before. The difference is just that I took my knees off and used a super deep seat. It feels sometimes super bouncy, and like my legs are banging, although they're not. It's just how the loft in her gaits feel.
We got 4 tempis very good yesterday. For about 2 minutes I had a blonde moment and struggled with the counting - what can I say, sometimes my hair color just takes over and I had a "whoops" moment.
Note: to do an expressive single flying change, push the canter out the last 3 strides before the change.
Nic is doing much better. Only 1 out of every 10 strides is funny, instead of the opposite. She sees Steffan the masseuse guy on Saturday, and I hear he will set that rogue muscle right, and maybe I can get back to riding my mare. She's mentally ready to work, that's for sure. The look on her face when I lunge her says it all.
Riding Nikita's trot is now much easier, and I can ride it without feeling out of breath or any such issue that was happening before. The difference is just that I took my knees off and used a super deep seat. It feels sometimes super bouncy, and like my legs are banging, although they're not. It's just how the loft in her gaits feel.
We got 4 tempis very good yesterday. For about 2 minutes I had a blonde moment and struggled with the counting - what can I say, sometimes my hair color just takes over and I had a "whoops" moment.
Note: to do an expressive single flying change, push the canter out the last 3 strides before the change.
Nic is doing much better. Only 1 out of every 10 strides is funny, instead of the opposite. She sees Steffan the masseuse guy on Saturday, and I hear he will set that rogue muscle right, and maybe I can get back to riding my mare. She's mentally ready to work, that's for sure. The look on her face when I lunge her says it all.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
July 15, 2009
I finally got the vet in since Nicole has been lame for about 3 weeks with no improvement. Apparently she has some opaque injury to the deep tissue muscles that connect her neck to her shoulders that appears to amount to a muscle strain. Those muscles in her neck/shoulder were stretched somehow, most likely resulting from the marriage between a pre-existing condition and an incline in her turnout paddock.
It's nice to know this since we spent, oh, I don't know, 3 weeks guessing whether it was the right front or the left hind, only to find out it's basically both legs. No problem with the actual legs, but the "off-ness" of the limbs is symptomatic of this neck/shoulder issue. I had a feeling it the issue was in that area. She's on banamine and injectable steriods, and hopefully we won't be dealing with any mare roid-rage. She probably hasn't been in any pain, as indicated by her willingness to work, but she's off because the strain makes everything a little more clunky.
On another note, after a near nervous breakdown, I've finally figured out how to ride Nikita's enormous trot. This just re-affirms my belief that dressage shouldn't be this hard, and when it becomes this hard, it's time to reevaluate what I'm doing. If it's hard, I'm probably doing it wrong. Which I was. Now I can ride the mare's powerful trot all day long with no problem, whereas before I was huffing and puffing and wanting to put the Colt 45 to my head to end my misery.
What's interesting is that the riding ideology I've been using espouses that the knees should remain closed in order to produce a powerful show trot. I've found the opposite is true - closing the knees interferes with producing a deep seat - which is why I couldn't ride Nikita without wanting to blow my head off. Take off the knees (or reduce the pressure) and maintaining a deep seat is easy. And the mare doesn't want to kill me. And now riding is fun again. And there you have it.
It's nice to know this since we spent, oh, I don't know, 3 weeks guessing whether it was the right front or the left hind, only to find out it's basically both legs. No problem with the actual legs, but the "off-ness" of the limbs is symptomatic of this neck/shoulder issue. I had a feeling it the issue was in that area. She's on banamine and injectable steriods, and hopefully we won't be dealing with any mare roid-rage. She probably hasn't been in any pain, as indicated by her willingness to work, but she's off because the strain makes everything a little more clunky.
On another note, after a near nervous breakdown, I've finally figured out how to ride Nikita's enormous trot. This just re-affirms my belief that dressage shouldn't be this hard, and when it becomes this hard, it's time to reevaluate what I'm doing. If it's hard, I'm probably doing it wrong. Which I was. Now I can ride the mare's powerful trot all day long with no problem, whereas before I was huffing and puffing and wanting to put the Colt 45 to my head to end my misery.
What's interesting is that the riding ideology I've been using espouses that the knees should remain closed in order to produce a powerful show trot. I've found the opposite is true - closing the knees interferes with producing a deep seat - which is why I couldn't ride Nikita without wanting to blow my head off. Take off the knees (or reduce the pressure) and maintaining a deep seat is easy. And the mare doesn't want to kill me. And now riding is fun again. And there you have it.
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