I'm Alive

I'm sorry I have been away. Its been a hell of the past few weeks. I lost my job, started training full time, and have been riding like crazy. I'm starting school in August to be an EMT. YAY!

I have 3 horses in for training and am working Andy like crazy. I'm keeping up with their training journals/blogs and trying to get everything else done too. I do come over and read everyone's updates though!

Skate - The Welcoming Committee Chairpony

Its nice to have such a friendly horse...but a pain when he feels the need to befriend the new mare in the neighboring field. Skate turned into a loudmouth last night when he saw his new BFF being taken away. Luckily, all his dreams were fulfilled when they rode in the indoor with us!

I figured, after hearing the "miss you!" screams in my ear while tacking up, that Skate would be a horrid pain to ride...but he was a very good boy. I don't know if things would have gone so well if the new BFF wasn't IN the arena with us!

How do you get a horse to shut the hell up? I feel like there's no need to punish, as long as he's behaving. He does this at shows, too...screams for anyone and everyone, yet behaves just fine. He can get tense, but still does what I ask. What do you do? Ignore?

Fiddling around

After a couple of conversations with people at the barn and Kate's work with keeping her reins longer, I decided to try a different sort of ride with Pro than normal today. I started with my reins LONG (4th stop as opposed to the normal 2nd) and just let him walk on a relatively loose rein. That didn't mean he didn't have to pay attention, but just that I didn't care about collecting him up. Instead I did a lot of circles and serpentines to get him listening. Even from the beginning he was reaching forward for the bit and seemed happy. Interestingly, with the longer reins he really didn't try to rush. Once I was happy with how he was going forward I shortened my reins to the 3rd stop and then started bumping him forward to get him really in front of my legs and stretching down across his back. Then back to a longer rein for a bit before asking him to step up into the trot.

He immediately went into a nice, rounded back trot and it really felt like he was coming up to meet my seat. We played with that for quite awhile. He was staying round and happy, but wasn't as lose in his shoulders as I was hoping for. The BM was riding with me and I asked her about it to see what she suggested. She had me do a 15m circle at a collected trot in the corner, then half-halt HARD as we came around the corner towards the diagonal and then send him out down the diagonal. The first time I dropped my reins at him and we got nothing. The second time I cut it to a 10m circle, half-halted and then released the energy from my seat instead of dropping him in front. He extended pretty nicely for a stride or two. A couple more tries and he shot off down the diagonal so extended that I think he freaked himself out. It actually felt like his front legs had some SNAP to them as opposed to shuffling. From there we spent most of the rest of the ride getting him settled and comfortable again and playing with loose and forward but not rushing. I also made sure to give him longer reins periodically and send him down and out to check that his back was staying loose.

When we cantered he was sort of rushy and off balance, but once we did a couple circles and half-halts he found his balance and really settled in. I lengthened the reins at the canter to see what he'd do and he stretched down and down and down for the contact and then started falling on his forhand. D'oh! Back to the trot, a rebalance, and then we walked around on a loose rein. I think I'm going to play with this looser rein and more focus on forward (in balance, of course) for the rest of this week and see how the lesson goes. As the BM pointed out, he's really still more of a Training level horse and at this point he should be going in a longer frame so we can work on the throughness of the back. I think we had to collect him more than you normally would when starting a horse to help him find his balance, but now that he'll look for it on his own, we need to help him learn to carry the energy forward instead of getting stuck. I could be wrong though, so we'll see.

More Straightening...

I had another lesson this morning...Skate was a very good pony - quiet, attentive, and willing. Our exercise of the day was a short leg yield as we come off the short end of the ring. So, building on the straightening (in the corner) exercise of last weekend, we came down the long side in a sitting trot, spiraled in to a circle that would be at about the quarter line, then leg yielded quickly back to the rail. The first time I tried it we lollygagged back to the rail with barely any real crossing over of the legs. My instructor then stood in front of me about 3 strides off the short end so I would have to really push Skate over and get him really crossing over. We got it easily tracking left. Tracking right, however, was much harder. Our combined right-handedness makes for a very crooked horse in that direction so when I asked him to quickly yield left, his butt was somewhere else. So, I realized the point of the exercise - to position him straight (quickly) coming off the short rail so that our leg yield wasn't a failure.

Skate loves the lateral work...he's gotten so he likes to crabwalk around showing off how he has a butt that can move independently of his head! I think we could zigzag around all day in leg yields and he'd be a happy pony. As long as we're moving forward he's fine. Ask him to do a TOF and he gets pissy - its something about feeling trapped, I guess.

I've also gotten him a pretty set of white fleece boots...we are really looking like DQ's now! I have got to get some video/pics of us motoring around doing leg yields and sitting trot. I can't believe I've finally made it here!!!

Next lesson I'm planning on having my instructor help me over fences (cavelletti, really). I took Skate out on Monday and tried to hop him over some little stuff and felt all discombobulated. Ugh. I could NOT get out of the saddle...either due to weak legs or a poor fitting saddle. I'm going to blame it on Skate's recent weight and muscle gain and say its the saddle. Ha.

Carousel in the rain...

What a fantastic lesson! :) I'm getting it all written down now before I forget. Sadly, I could not convince my mom to take pictures but it's a good thing, since it ended up pouring rain the last 15min or so of the lesson.

We started off getting everything un-crooked at the walk, LENGTHENING my reins, and getting my hips straight. Which felt crooked. But they're really straight. Pro sighed a lot, which meant that he was exasperated with my bumbling incompetence, but pleased when I finally got it right. I need to remember to keep reins longer than I think so that he can unkink that long neck of his. He may look short, but he has quite the long neck. Once we got that, we worked on small circles and keeping my outside hand to the OUTSIDE instead of letting it be evil and try to cross his withers. After circling, we did small figure-eights at the walk and focused on me keeping my hands the SAME while his body changed underneath me to accept the new bend and the new outside rein. Eventually we had him chasing the bit at the walk, stretching down and lifting his back, and chewing.

Then we picked up our trot and started with the sameness routine - same stretch and up-back as the walk, same chew, same straightness ("bend") around the circle. Gayle is now weaning me off a new habit - compulsive giving with the inside rein. She's trying to get me used to the feeling of steady contact and letting him chase the bit on his own, instead of defaulting to continually helping him chase it. And to give the inside rein strategically - to give it whenever he pushes the energy back at me instead of pushing it forward, chasing the bit. It worked (haha, of course)! Especially feeling him so straight on the circle. Spiraling in by moving his shoulder to the inside, and spiraling out by pushing his inside hind leg toward the outside.

At 35 minutes into the lesson, Gayle announced that we had achieved dressage-worthy trot. :) So we played with it! We moved him down by the bunny tree, and focused on keeping him in that wonderful carousel sameness. With his back up, he would have to work pretty hard to suck back and invert (to spook), so if he started to think about looking, I just bumped him forward and gave the inside rein. I made it his safe place to be. And (finally, showing that he's FINALLY starting to trust me), he would retreat to his chasing-the-bit safe place. He felt so bold, so confident! It was like he was saying "HA! I'm a BRAVE pony!" to the bunny tree area. And we just trotted like that - forward and beautiful and balanced - for a good 15 min while it downpoured. He was so focused and so much fun. Gayle couldn't stop saying how damn CUTE he was. :) And he was!

Here's a video from last week's lesson...it was a lot rainier today, but it gives you an idea of how steady and rhythmic he's become. And this video has cantering!

Trying Another Farrier

Yesterday I went to check Jay, and could hear his glue-on shoe clicking before we got two steps.  I pulled up his bell boot to find that 5 tabs had come unglued.  Ugh.  So I hosed it clean, dried it off as best I could, wiped the hoof and tabs down with alcohol, and used super glue to glue the tabs back on.  For good measure I added a diaper and duct tape over that!

I had already decided to try a different farrier, but was just not sure when since since Jay's lameness seemed to be evening out some, and I hated have that glue-on shoe removed if it would actually work.  This situation has made it clear that I want/need to pursue another opinion and different options now.

The farrier who arranges the case studies for Davie County Large Animal Hospital (DCLAH) did decide that Jay sounded like a good candidate for a case study, but this month's meeting is already booked full, so it would be July before Jay could get in there.  I really hope that we can get something resolved before then!  So then I had to decide whether to go through a vet at DCLAH to get in with one of the clinic farriers, who are VERY good, or go another route.  If I went with them, I do not know if either of the clinic farriers would then keep shoeing Jay as his regular farrier, but I don't think they would.  The farrier I spoke with there also did not know of anyone to recommend who he thought would come to me.

I have been corresponding with a farrier who responded to my post on NC Horse News.  She is a Certified Level II Proper Balanced Horse Trimmer, and did her apprenticeship under an AFA Certified Journeyman II Farrier.  She does not use traditional keg shoes, though, and that was one of my reservations because I am not familiar with the Hoof-It composite shoes she uses.  After doing some research and talking with her further, though, I think they are worth a try. This farrier is VERY convinced that Hoof-It shoes are just that much better for the horse.  They have a wide web, and she says they are more flexible and shock absorbing than traditional shoes, and give more support.  They don't rely solely on the hoof wall to hold up the entire horse;  the sole, bars, and frog share in the weight bearing, which allows better circulation in the hoof and ultimately better growth.  It is also possible to nail or glue them on, or use a combination of the two.  She also says they pull off less easily at the heel because they will bend instead of pull, they have good traction, and they can be rasped to a custom fit.  Add ALL of that up, and they sound like they may be exactly what Jay needs right now.  She has also got some Equi-Cast on hand, and I think Jay may need that too right now.  

This farrier says that she usually takes about an hour just trimming the horse because she wants to watch them move and see how they are responding.  She says that she just can't bring herself to do a 20 minute trim just to try to undercut the competition, because the horses (and her reputation) are just too important to her.  If her work and these shoes work out for Jay, she is also willing to travel to me, which will be nice! 

Carousel pony

Friday's lesson was good - intense. We worked with longer reins, which warped my mind a bit. At one point Pro threw a fit about something, and I was so focused that Gayle had to remind me that she was trying to teach me how to fix him, if only I would stop having a stroke. ;) So I had to disengage emotionally, which is really hard. Pro is my only horse, so all of my dressage success/failure depends on his progress. So it's hard to step back and stay calm.







At the trot we worked on "sameness" - keeping everything the same...tempo, rhythm, bend, stretch, etc. As well as working on clearly differentiating between bending...and straightening...bending...and straightening and just dropping him down, down, down. He resisted a little, and Gayle said he was getting so into himself and just having fun being round and bouncy, that he really didn't want to stretch down and over himself, but he eventually got it. Once I had him, he felt like a carousel pony - we just made circle after circle of steady sameness. Muscle-building sameness!!

And we even cantered, like a big boy. :) I was quite proud! I remembered Andrea's lesson and tried to erase everything I've ever been taught about sitting the canter. I pulled my legs off of him and immediately he seemed to relax.

Since the lesson he's been fairly good - my goal is to get him to carousel pony, and work him there for 10-15minutes so that he continues to build that muscle. We had talked about keeping his back up to prevent him from spooking, and last night it actually worked. After a 5min argument at the start of the ride where he just valiantly threw 50 evasions at me, one after the other in rapid succession, he gave in. But later in the ride, he spooked at one corner of the arena (I have no idea what, it seemed pretty genuine) and was only able to scramble beneath me instead of getting his head up and inverted. Pretty cool! I knew to be prepared when I passed there again, but my dizziness hit and he was able to suck back from the rhythm, invert, and spook. I got off and walked him around for a little while to regain my non-dizzy state. I really *wanted* to take the blunt end of the whip and beat him over the head with it, but I refrained. :P

I got back on, we resumed working, and he was fine. Even some carousel pony work. :)

Compliments from strangers!

Pro and I had a pretty good ride last night. The new boarder was out and she decided to walk her Lipizanner around the arena by hand while we were riding, but then she got bored and hopped on to ride him around bareback. Since he hadn't been ridden in several years before she got him, she asked that I keep it at a walk while she was on.

Pro was having his normal "debate" about whether or not he wanted to stretch down at the walk, so that was fine with us. We spent much longer at the walk than normal and on a slightly looser rein, but I made him go all over the ring and change direction periodically rather than our normal boring 20m circle. FINALLY he gave in and started stretching down and over at the walk. The new boarder and I both told him GOOD BOY at the same time, so it was neat to have a 'higher' level dressage rider (I think she's shown 2nd or 3rd level in the past?) agree with me. Once she went in we moved it up to the trot and the fact that we'd gotten the walk solid showed in his trot. We spent awhile keeping the correct bend to the right (focusing on not over bending) and even got some decent forward out of it. The canter in both directions also went really well, with the new boarder spotting us and commenting that he had a very nice canter and that it looked easy to sit. :) I pushed him to keep the canter for a little longer than he was comfortable with, but stopped before it completely fell apart. It sounds like cantering may become a regular part of our lessons so he's going to need those muscles again!

A steady connection - Finally!

Skate and I had a lesson on Saturday. After a week of vaca and a show going on at the barn, I expected the worst....and was pleasantly surprised! There was that one instance where a spectator had a giant black and white geometric print umbrella up and was twirling it - that turned Skate into a complete statue. His little pea brain could NOT process what the hell that thing was. Luckily, the umbrella user must have scared one of the special olympics horses in the show, b/c it was put down quickly.

The lesson topic of the day was straightness. We all know straight on a horse means anything but straight. It means the exact bend necessary for the figure and the one sidedness of that horse. My instructor even got confused when trying to explain how we should be positioned for a correct corner. Haunches in, haunches out, shoulder in, shoulder out, bend of neck, blah blah blah. Just ride it and we'll see what we get! So we set up square corners (the ring is an oval) and did basic figure eights...I learned that Skate has progressed past me! I am still trying to correct his imbalances like it's last year - when he's gotten strong enough to do a training/1st level corner without my help. All I succeeded in doing was getting him off balance. After that exercise my trainer praised him profusely and I got the lecture! Ha.

We both noticed how well he did (after getting over the excitement of the show going on in the indoor) with a steady connection. We almost have this down pat...my only need to really address with the connection is when he spies something way more interesting than the figure we're currently working on, which can be fairly often. He does still like to drag me down when he gets tired or behind my leg....but when I push him forward in front of me, he's fairly steady. We do much better in a sitting trot than a posting trot with the steady connection...I will probably ride my next test/show in sitting trot, even if I sacrifice some forward. I've also learned that Skate likes a heavy contact (heavy for me, as I prefer whisper light reins flappin in the wind sort of contact). Because I prefer the extra light version, I'm actually too forgiving with my elbows. I allow him to pull me down and forward instead of holding my position.

Things to work on - I should ride Skate like 75% of him is in front of me; when he feels like he's hanging behind, push him forward. Support him around the turn, but don't overcorrect. And, as always head up and ponytail to ponytail. Whenever my head drops everything falls apart.

Walk...walk....WALK

Yay, sunshine! Before getting on this morning I spent a peaceful hour or so brushing filthy little Tango to a shine, de-dreadlocking his tail, and also thinning out and evening up his mane (just to my own lax aesthetic standards). At least he doesn't have that "Pigpen meets Bob Marley" look happening anymore!

We worked for about an hour again today, and it was apparent immediately that he hadn't been worked since my ride last weekend -- probably thanks to the weather, and also because his owner is pretty busy lately. It makes it a little more difficult to get "full of beans Tango" settled down for a productive ride, especially when I don't know how often his owner is getting on or what she's doing with him. We really need to coordinate better, but it's hard when everyone is so busy.

Anyway, there was lots of jigging and silliness. So in the spirit of Ellen's suggestions, I kept him at a walk for longer than I usually do at the beginning of a ride and worked on how we pick up contact. I discovered that when I pick up contact, I manage to keep my legs from tensing up but do actually struggle with keeping my seat, and with keeping my elbows flexible once I have those shorter reins. Drat. So I experimented for quite a while and eventually, after many tries, managed to pick up contact (outside rein first) without a jig and sustain a nice walk with contact for a couple laps around. It was a short-lived victory -- once I asked for a circle at the walk, he got all bunched up again, so we went back to square one and did it all over again in both directions until I was satisfied that I could pick up and drop contact without a jig. Thanks, Ellen, for the suggestions! These hyper-horse days can be so rough.

After all of that, I asked for a trot and got some rushing, but before too long we settled into more or less a nice, relaxed trot and got some decent figures. I figured that was the most I could ask from him after a week off, so I called it a day even though I hadn't exactly tired him out. More to come Monday, when hopefully the horse won't be quite so up.

Yes, I'm still here!

Drat this rain, I haven't ridden since last weekend, and Tango is happy to maintain his out-of-shape fatness while I wait for the weather to clear up. Stinker. At least he has finally lost all the extra winter fluff and (minus his neglected mane and tail) is looking beautimous. I will see about getting some pictures over the weekend.

But we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. After several round pen rides, we got back into the ring on Saturday and for once I had time to work for a full hour. Because he was more hopped up than usual after having a few days off, I decided to forgo the canter section of our normal warm-up. But in retrospect, that might have helped to calm him down. I was getting a lot of the usual over-responsive silliness -- like jigging at simple suppling cues at the walk, or if I picked up the reins too quickly after a stretch break. Does anyone else's horse do this periodically, and if so, how do you deal?

I was also struggling to keep the tempo consistent at the rising trot, since he was in rushy-rushy forehand mode. My solution to this was to try rising trot along the long sides of the ring, and sitting trot along the short sides of the ring, to keep him more focused on MY tempo. This actually seemed to work pretty well. I also put him over some trot poles. Since we were sharing the ring with a lesson, the poles were a bit close for him, but this actually didn't bother me, since he needs to be more mindful of what he does with his feet anyway. After trying to jump the poles a couple times (lol), he actually did figure it out and went through calmly. Good horse.

My leg needs some work, so I am thinking about doing some no-stirrup and sitting trot work over the weekend. With the exception of Saturday, I haven't asked Tango for much sitting trot work lately, but since he's mildly out of shape it might be good for both of us to focus on it a bit more. Out of curiosity, what place does sitting trot have in your workouts?

"The Jay's New Shoes"

Well, he's not an emperor, and he doesn't wear clothes (well, a fly sheet), but he does have new shoes!   The farrier came out 2 weeks ago (5-15-09), and tried his best to get a shoe on Jay.  There just wasn't enough wall left to nail to, and he quicked Jay trying.  So Jay ended up being left barefoot that day, and my farrier and vet got together and decided to try a glue-on shoe.  It had to be ordered, and came in last week and was put on my lame pony last Thursday (5-21-09).  He put an aluminum shoe on the other front foot.  It was an even more expensive proposition because Jay had to stay overnight at my vet's so that the glue could set!  I unfortunately don't have a set up that I can keep Jay out of mud for 12 hours right now, since it is even muddy right outside of the stalls.  The good news is that Jay jogged out sound when I picked him up the next day!

The bad news is that Jay was lame again by Sunday, on the foot with the glue-on shoe.  I called the farrier again on Tuesday as Jay was approaching "abcess lame" (3 on a scale of 5) and he came back out yesterday.  Jay was a little better, though, and the heat that had been in both heels was just in the medial heel.  He was about a 2 out of 5 lame.  We decided to leave everything alone and watch Jay.  Today he is a little better yet, only 1 out of 5 lame.

This is the lateral side, and if you look closely you can see hoof wall missing at the clip.  Medial is worse!

Gabby had some good points in response to my last post.  Jay has not been consistently pulling the same shoe, so I am hoping that this issue is not due to some other lameness issue.  When we can get enough wall to nail to again, the thought is to go with aluminum shoes on the front, and when I add back shoes again to put trailers on them.  My current farrier doesn't hot shoe, but I wish he did so we could really square the back toes and put proper trailers on.  If Jay continues having problems I may end up going with another farrier anyway.  I like the way my current farrier and vet work together, and he used to work for her and still shoes her horses, and he is just great to work with, but he is not the most experienced farrier out there.

The left side is lateral:

I went without Jay to try to work out my saddle issues, and I really hope I have made the right decision!  I was really wanting to get separate dressage and jumping saddles, especially after reading the good article Gabby posted in response to my May 5th post.  In it Jim Wofford states:  "Before I tell you how to find out if your jumping saddle fits you, let me make this point: If you are currently using an "all-purpose" saddle for all three phases of eventing, continue using it, but budget for a new saddle. If you are serious about improving your riding and the way your horse goes--which, of course, means improving your position--you are soon going to need at least two saddles: one designed for dressage and one for jumping. Why? Because what makes a saddle good for one discipline makes it wrong for another."

I TOTALLY understand and agree with this concept.  The only way I was going to be able to afford to do this was to get Wintec or Collegiate saddles, but I went in quite determined to do this.  The bad news is that none of them felt quite right, and the fit wasn't very good for me on any of them.  Then Dennis pulled out a Bates Caprilli All Purpose, and it actually felt really good.  The point was made that although it might be best to have separate dressage and jumping saddles, if they don't fit right then that is going to work against me, and would probably neutralize any benefit to having a discipline specific saddle.  I have been using all purpose saddles for years, and they have been functional for me.  I don't aspire to compete at high levels, but I do absolutely want to ride to the best of my ability.  After weighing the pros and cons back and forth, I decided to go with the Bates.  I just hope I have made the right decision, and that it rides as good as it felt in the store!  The saddle was available in black, so we ordered that one and I am scheduled to take Jay back for final adjustments and to pick it up June 5th.  Two of my other saddles have sold on eBay, so I guess it is good timing in a way that all of this is going on while Jay can't be ridden anyway.  I sprained my ankle last week, too, so when it rains it pours!  (If Jay comes sound, though, I have been toying with the idea of getting on him bareback...even though he is still "feeling his oats"...or beet pulp and spring grass as the case may be!  I have decided to stop his beet pulp for now.)

Final Sweet 16 ride

Today is Pro's 17th birthday (happy birthday, Pro!) which made our ride yesterday his final ride as a sweet 16 pony. I started out the ride by making myself not give to him when he flips his head against the bit. Considering he started balking before we even got to the ring gate because of whatever it is he's spooking about now, it wasn't his best start ever. There were some geese by the ring, but they've been there for the last four months or so, so they don't make a very good excuse for spooking.

Once we (mostly) established that I wasn't going to give with my hands he settled down more and we started working on correcting our bend. I was going to the right, which is my harder direction with him. He tends to overbend to the inside so it takes me awhile to remember to swap from reinforcing the idea of getting off my inside leg to getting him straight and off my outside leg. Once I took a firmer hold of the outside rein to correct the over-bending we started to get better work. His walk was pretty good and I got some trot work that was really good for our bad side. He never got quite as forward as on Friday because he just wanted to rush and get unbalanced again. Once I got him balanced though he reached forward and unkinked his throatlatch some, so I was pleased with that. While walking him cool I fiddled with keeping the bend down the long side, which he didn't seem pleased with, but was willing to consider.

We cantered!

Pro and I had our first canter in a lesson with Gayle on Friday. :) I'm very excited and happy with how he did.

Thursday night when I rode he started doing mini-spooks in the corner near his paddock gate. I'm not sure what he thought he saw, but he would occasionally just bulge in and try to give it the death stare as we went by. He worked pretty well despite having to deal with that.

When Kate got out on Friday she said he'd freaked by the bunny tree on Wed, so we figured that he was in one of those moods this week. When I got on for the lesson he was still looking in that corner, and it didn't help that both my dad and Kate were standing there giving him extra reason to look. So it reverted into one of our original lessons for about 10 minutes where if he didn't want to stay bent properly he got to spin around with his head pulled to the side until he decided that he was willing to think about what I was asking again. Gayle had us use his annoyance against him and had me work on using that energy and bend from the spinning to get him set up correctly on the circle. So our lesson ended up being like 5 min walk, 5 min trot, 10-15 min walk, 15 min trot, 5 min canter (roughly). So not our normal progression. We got a really awesome trot going pre-canter. Hopefully Kate will update with some pictures. It was this awesome forward trot.

When we started cantering Gayle's first comment was that I need to work on the lunge at the canter ;). But once I realized we weren't supposed to be doing 2-point "baby" cantering with him and sat up and got my legs off my seat fixed itself. Pro did awesome at the canter, very balanced and forward. We went back to the trot for a little bit and he started stretching for the bit even more and opening up his throat-latch some so he didn't feel as compressed.

The most useful thing I got from the lesson that I can use every day though was the idea of bending. I knew the whole "inside leg at the girth, outside leg behind the girth" thing, but wasn't sure how to apply that with the idea that we're not supposed to squeeze. Gayle said it's just adjusting your seat bones/thighs and not using your lower legs. So instead of me making a rectangular box with my legs and the reins, I make sort of an arc with my aids to channel him in.

Who is this horse I'm riding? Where's Skate?

Every one of my rides has been wonderful. Skate is Mr. Happy lately and just pitter patters around the arena with a smile. I love it.

He's so happy its giving me an opportunity to work on myself and try new things with my position instead of trying to avoid a fight. No one likes a fight! I've been trying new things with my hands to get him steadier on the bit - he does well if I follow his head up (of course) keeping the line straight from bit to elbow. He doesn't really raise his head to avoid the bit, he raises his head to look around...so I have to try to keep his attention. One way that seems to work is massaging the inside rein and getting him to relax his jaw. Is this bad? I have a feeling when I do this its somehow riding front to back...but the Jane Savoie video says its the thing to do during a half halt, so I feel like as long as I'm pushing his hind legs forward with 'go forward' aids, while doing the strong outside rein with the massaging inside, I'm okay. Right? Any input? I guess it reminds me of the QH thing where you see saw to get them to drop their heads. Ugh.

Anyway, I'm also working on transitions and keeping my position steady, especially in trot/canter and canter/walk. I SUCK at downward and we both fall apart. Last ride I got a bunch of canter/halt and a wonderful walk/canter that were balanced and steady. I was so excited I ended the ride after 20 min and went for a hack through the field. We saw deer bounding away and flushed some birds and Skate didn't even blink.

Well, if I'm riding a new horse, I want to keep this one. He's fun!