Monday, January 31, 2011

Two Steps Forward, One step back.

Minor setback today. =[

I had time for a quick ride tonight. I got Sasha ready, she was very cuddly, blah blah blah. I bring her into the arena - one other person was riding her 17hh Percheron x Trakehener [sp?] around, but he was also having a "green horse day" - and tighten her girth. She is puffing up like a maniac - first sign of a "fun ride" - and she swung away from the mounting block when we went up to it. I ended up sandwiching Sasha between a jump standard and the mounting block, then I swing on. Sasha starts walking off, and at this point I am thinking "Ohhhh crap. It's going to be one of those days." Not trying to cause problems, but yeah.

Well, it was. Sasha randomly would try to trot off when we were walking, and when we trotted she would try and canter. I had to REALLY sit back and HAUL for her to slow down. I'm all for being soft and quiet, but that wasn't working today.

I felt kind of bad only walk/trotting, but I'd rather be completely sure and confident before I do it when she's like this. Being ran away with last week cracked [not totally shattered =P - and my lesson yesterday helped bring some of it back, but...] my confidence, and so I've been very cautious. I think tomorrow is a "let 'er rip" day. AKA, turn Sasha out in the indoor and flick a lunge whip at her so she's "terrified" and gleefully gallops around launching some huge twisting bucks that make me glad I'm not on her!

Overall, Sasha was way to fresh for a horse that was worked pretty heavily the last three days. She had no reason to be so hard-mouthed and stubborn. However, apparently there is a killer snow storm headed our way, and animals can sense big weather events. Fingers crossed for a snow day.


P.S. We just got a new [to us] Ford Explorer with 7,000lb towing capacity. It's our new "haul the horses to the show" car, plus we're getting a two horse trailer soon. Should be fun!

P.P.S. The grand prix rider from last Wednesday [I think I posted about it Friday] moved her horse to my barn yesterday. He's a huge 17.2hh bay Hano. I can't wait to see him move and jump!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Yes! Yes! Yes!

I had a lesson today. I'm having two lessons/week for a few weeks probably until we can calmly do courses.


But, Sasha was incredible! I know I seem like I've been bragging a lot, but it is so nice to have a horse to have fun with and not stress over.


So, our flatwork was good. I ended up cantering her on a very loose rein on a circle, and she was almost LAZY! Sasha actually broke into the trot! =O My riding instructor made me do figure eights within the circle...at a canter. Um, yeah, we got lots of flying lead change practice! I just need to keep my inside leg on more because we both sort of ducks in after she does her lead change. It's nice - she almost auto changes, but she sometimes gets "scrambly," so I'll just work on really balancing her for them.


Jumping went well. I had the lesson to myself. We started right off with an in-and-out. I was pretty happy - we actually got some height today at 3'. I thought it was 2'6" lol, but Sasha gets SO ROUND and SO SO SOFT at that height! We had one refusal when I collected her trot too much around the turn and then didn't send her forward enough, but I was fairly balanced today so I didn't tip forward like I occasionally still do [oops.] Sasha was a little...rambunctious after the jump the first few times, but she settled after I made her walk at the end of the arena and we cantered around the corner the last round.


And I learned that the higher the jump, the rounder and quieter Sasha gets. Hmm. Interesting. =P


Though, quick random note, when the jump hit around 2'9", I think my brain was like "AHA! Not a baby jump!" and I ducked like crazy over it [only the first time, then I corrected it.] My RI said something like "What did you do over that last jump?" Me: "Ducked like crazy." Him: "Yeah, you ducked like it was 6'. It's not. Sit up!" So yeah. 


Oh, fyi, I'm going to do a chart at the end of my posts on "Achievements" and "Things to do Better." Some stuff may not be in my post - rather, they are reminders to me.




Achievements

  • Hit the 3' mark
  • Cantered nearly on the buckle
  • Stayed fairly balanced even through refusals.
  • Got Sasha soft/ROUND by the end.


Things to Improve

  • Flying Changes
  • Lift inside hand more through turns
  • Be more proactive and react more quickly to what Sasha does.
  • Try not to duck even over one jump!
  • Desensitize Sasha.  

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Carrot Crunchies: ♪They make a horse go mad♪

Yup, that was my inner Shakira coming out.

So, this is the treat that Sash goes WILD for! She starts doing her bending exercises [where I make her bend her neck as far to her side as it will go for a treat {and to supple her}] by herself, licks and nuzzles my leg, sniffs my pockets, and trots up to the gate in the field for them.

A batch lasts about a week of going to the barn every day and spoiling my horse rotten. <3

Sasha's Cookie
  • 1 Cup Dry Oats
  • 1 Cup of carrots, chopped finely
  • 1 Cup Flour
  • 3 teaspoons* of vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/4 cup - 1/2 cup✝ molasses
Preheat oven to 350℉, or if your oven is weird and too hot like mine is, 325℉. Add all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Mince the carrots so they are in small chunks. Add the molasses and vegetable oil. Stir with a wooden spoon until blended. The mix will be chunky and sticky - you should have just enough moisture so that the cookies a medium brown color with bits of oats and carrots. I found that you can actually taste the mix. If you can tolerate it, it is fine. If you find it disgusting, add a little bit of sugar. Put on non-stick cookie sheet. Approximately twelve medium sized balls can be formed. Do not worry if they are a bit crumbly; just pack them as tightly as you can. Put in oven and cook for about 15 minutes, or until the cookies stick together but are still flexible. I often split the cookies into smaller chunks before feeding to my horse to make them last longer.


*Add more if needed to make the mix more moist, or if you want to help produce a healthy shiny coat. Do not add so much that the mix is runny; it should still be sticky.

✝You may need to add the molasses as needed. 1/4 cup often does not blend the mix enough, so if this is the case, add a little dash at a time.


Things are "going good."

So....Hi people.

Sasha has been amazing the last few days. <3

Yesterday, I had a lesson with my friend and her horse Noodle. My instructor lunged & rode both as they are both green. Noodle was shown and did very well for a few years in the area, but then was sold and neglected for about two years. =[ Anyway. So, both horses were ridden. There were walk/trot beginners that were flying everywhere, and two dads were sitting on the bench in the corner of the arena. Well, Sasha gave my RI a bit of sass. Nothing terrible, there were just arguments about where her head should be [not with her muzzle pointed to the sky] and who exactly was in charge. -eye roll- It involved tail-swishing, ear pinning, head tossing, but it got sorted out.

I hop on, and immediately we are told to trot over the cavalettis that are set up along the long side of the arena. We are going towards the bench. I think the dads thought it would be funny to try and scare the horse. >=[ One, staring me STRAIGHT IN THE EYE, stuck his legs out and thumped them together. Sasha, saintly Sasha who comes through when she needs to, pricked her ears WAAAAYYY forward but did not do anything bad. I was so proud of my baby girl! They were flailing there arms at Noodle, too, but I don't think my trainer saw them because when I was near the obnoxious people, he was focused on my friend, and vice versa. I think they may have thrown a freaking rock at us too, because I felt something hit the bottom of my foot at one point and Sasha jumped a little bit. However, that seems a little hardcore even for annoying people...

But enough about people that are really just...arghhh!

Sasha was so so soft yesterday! She was rounding up, she stayed on the bit more consistently than she has been, etc.

The poles turned into poles leading up to a crossrail. Sasha, not batting an eye, hopped the crossrail and cantered off quietly. Thinking about it now, I want to almost cry with pride or...I don't know what this emotion is. It is a mixture of pride and joy and disbelief. A month ago, Sasha didn't even know what trot poles were. She couldn't even do three without rushing and getting nervous. She had done the 2'6" hunters, but she was always nervy. She also couldn't do crossrails without GALLOPING, and I mean GALLOPING after. Sasha had two gears after jumps: stop or RUN! She would halt when asked, but she wouldn't slow down.

Yet, we trotted into a set of cavalettis then popped over a crossrail and softly cantered away in an arena with six other horses in it. And this isn't a huge arena, three riders were 6-9 year old walk/trot beginners, one is a woman who comes and just walk/trot/canters her horse around bareback, the other was a walk/trot/canter/one itty bitty crossrail beginner, and the other was my friend.

We repeated the crossrail about five times, then took a break. Our next task: Sash and I's first in and out.

She handled it like a pro, trotting in, jumping in, jumping out. She needed some half-halts coming through the turn, occasionally one through the poles. After a few times, Sasha got more excited, causing a half-halt to be necessary in the middle of the in and out. I was happy, though, because we weren't out of control. We had normal problems to deal with, like being slightly crooked, not "HOLY $%^* WE ARE GALLOPING AND NOT GOING TO SLOW DOWN EEP!" At the end of the arena, my friend and I were supposed to trot then come back around. You know what? We actually were able to TROT and come back around!!! No crazy circles or excessive halts. Sure, I think I had to halt her twice after the jump when she got excited, but even then she hadn't been crazy bad, it was mostly a reminder when she felt like she was getting quick.

The second jump turned into a vertical, then before I knew it, there were three jumps a stride apart. A triple, a gymnastic, call it what you will, but Sasha had never done them we think. The barn where she was doesn't do a lot of training exercises with their horses; it's just courses and lines. Those are fine for a more experienced horse, not necessarily the best thing for them, but for a young horse..eheh. So, now it was brown crossrail to a tiny brown 2' vertical, to A REALLY SCARY TINY CROOKED WHITE CROSSRAIL! AHH! Sasha trotted through the cavalettis then stopped at the first jump...oops on my part. My instructor was a little "sharp" Friday, so he yelled at me a little but whatever, you get over it quickly because you know he doesn't do it out of spite.

The second time through, I actually had to close my legs and ride forward. [omg never thought I would say I did that on Sasha] She [reluctantly] jumped, half-trotted half cantered the next jump all while staring at it because it's lower now and it is suddenly scary, and REALLY looks at the next jump, trotting, over jumps slightly, then canters away. My riding instructor say that's okay, the worst thing you can do is try to "chase" them through because then you get stoppers. The best you can do is pick your hands up and close your leg [which I did, yay!] to encourage but not rush them through.

After that, it was smooth sailing. The jumps got higher, Sasha decided that she could handle [and try to quicken through, tsk tsk] three jumps in a row, and I ended up sitting down and half-halting in between all the jumps. I was happy because I was back to jumping at least 2'6". I was jumping 3' courses last year, so it was nice to FINALLY not be doing tiny tiny jumps. But yeah. It ended with everyone still on the horses, happy riders, happy horse that loooveee to jump, and a satisfied RI.

Today's events. [I feel like that should be bolded or underlined lol but it's a statement, not a title so....]

I planned on riding with Noodle and his owner, as well as the girl who rides my mom's pony Velvet. We got together, tacked up the horses, and got on. There were one or two lessons going on, but no one was cantering or jumping, so it was fairly sane and quiet. Velvet was going well, Noodle was lazy as he always is on the flat, and Sasha was eager and out walking everyone but she still listened to my hands.

The ride was fun. It was fun riding with my friends, and I did more cantering on Sasha then I usually do. Actually, to be honest, I usually haven't cantered her outside of lessons because it always seems to end badly. Very badly. [See last post.] Yeah....But we probably cantered between 5-10 minutes total. I lose track of time when I ride. We did lots of calm circles. The only time she got quick was when I made her pick her canter up from the walk, but that was only for a stride or two and then she settled.  Velvet's rider ended up cooling off bareback after I told her Velvet was really fun bareback and I more or less dared her to ride bareback. =P 

Oh, I almost forgot! I think Sasha FINALLY has settled in and accepted me as her new owner! She's always been sweet, but she usually was slightly reserved. Today, she kept begging for cuddles and treats. She is across from Velvet and they are at the end of the barn. So, Leah [Velvet's rider] and I both had the horses in their stalls with the stall guards up. I gave Velvet a cuddle [we were just hanging around after they were untacked] and Sasha actually was acting "jealous!" She kept stretching her head and neck out as well as pulling silly faces and tilting her head to the side in her "jaw scratch please!" position. Leah got pictures; I'll have to harass her for them.

Wow, that was really long! Hope you aren't falling asleep my nonexistent stalke....er, followers. I am about to put up a recipe for a type of treat that Sasha and the horse I used to lease both went CRAZY for! So maybe your horse or pony or whatever, giraffe or something, will like them too. Bye!

<3 my stalkers.

-Cruce

Thursday, January 27, 2011

HEAT WAVE! And Updates.

Heat wave = 20s/30s. 

Yeah....Kind of sad.

BUT that mean I have been riding.

So let me go over the events of two days ago. Sasha did not have exercise for the previous 3/4 days eheheh.....That meant I was DEFINATELY lunging her! So, I brought her out for a lunge session and the arena is CHAOS. She is "spooky" - basically fake spooking at everything, she was just too full of beans. The BO told me to tell her if I needed help. A few minutes in, I asked for it. She sent in her cousin, a grand prix rider that flies Ernest Dillon over from the UK for lessons - eep! - and the cousin comes over. I expected her to lunge Sasha for me. Nope, she tells me she is riding Sasha, and then goes to throw on a pair of boots and a helmet.

She hops on Sasha, who is a perfect angel walk/trot. Grrr, Sasha, you are making me look bad by saying you were going to be hot today. Well, then comes canter time. Sasha EXPLODES! She took off, shaking her head, randomly leaping up in the air, swapping leads, everything. I guiltily admit, I was happy that Sasha did not make me look like a total idiot....

So, the woman finally wrestles Sasha into submission after an hour and a half of trotting and cantering. I then get on, trot around for another half hour [did not want a galloping horse in a busy arena when I am not a grand prix rider.]

Then, last night.

My mom dropped me off at the barn because she needed to go grocery shopping and there were people there so it was okay to abandon me. =P Anyways. I get Sasha ready, get on, etc. I warm her up, and my riding instructor is giving a lesson to a friend of mine who rides my mom’s pony and another girl. After about twenty minutes, he sets some cavalettis up and tells me that I can go over them too. He was explaining to the girls about how cavalettis should encourage a horse to round its back up, lower its head, etc etc. I think Sasha understands English. As he was explaining, she went on the bit, rounded up beautiful, extended her stride and was fluid over the poles.

Of course, she only did that once. *eye roll* Either way, she was being good.

Well, trotting over the poles at least. There were four other people in the arena. A beginner, the two other girls, and an advanced beginner. I would place myself somewhere between beginner and intermediate, MAYBE a low intermediate. MAYBE. So, Sasha and I were trotting around. My RI told the girls in the lesson to canter after the poles and once they reach the straightaway. After a few more times, I decided to follow their lead. [No pun intended in any way, shape, or form. It just happened.]

Again, Sasha exploded. She TOOK OFF. Completely. We were tearing down the arena, with my RI telling everyone to WALK RIGHT NOW AND GET OFF THE RAIL. Oops. I think I interrupted the lesson…I pulled Sasha up by the end of the arena, near the makeshift stalls at the end of the ring. Pulley reins=best friend. I was joking with my friend that that was our racehorse impression. Needless to say, again I decided not to canter anymore that day just because it was crowded. We trotted and went over the cavalettis [walking after] but no cantering. The lesson people jumped a bit, but I just did lots and lots of trotting.

My mom showed up [after the main event.] with our Cavalier King Charles puppy. After cooling Sasha down, my mom turned him loose in the barn. First, he attacked the muck pile the gross dog, then we went to the indoor. My friend and I jumped him over the cavalettis, and then I started doing courses in the indoor on foot.

I think Sasha needs a good run in the indoor. My mom, who has Thursdays off, turned her out in the indoor this morning. Apparently she was galloping for about 10 minutes straight. So hopefully it got her weeblies out. It better – I have a lesson tomorrow. Fun stuff.

<3 Cruce

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Brrr...it's cold out! / Award Ceremony

Alright, hey everyone! I'm Cruce. I live in upstate New York, but that is all the information you are getting. Anyway, enough with the introductions. =P

So, currently it is -checks desktop widget- a whopping 11oF outside! Brrr. Too cold to ride. A fancy-schmancy barn in the area was planning on having a show today, but they cancelled it because of weather. I was not planning on going anyway [Sasha and I are no where NEAR ready!], but meh. So yeah. It is literally freezing out. >.< On a side note: anyone know any decent quality quarter sheets that go under the saddle that are less than $50? I really want a Newmarket sheet, but they are pretty expensive. =[ I will just stalk eBay instead maybe possibly....


Last night was the end-of award ceremony/banquet/party thing. It was pretty fun, except I made the bad decision to wear a strapless dress. It was super cute, but I spent half the night holding it up because I was dancing like crazy!


I was really annoyed because they only went up to 6th place with the ribbons. =[ I was in 8th out of 20-something. Usually they go up to 10th place at the end of year awards. Sigh. It was fun either way.


The raffle had a few amazing items I wanted. They were a portable DVD player, a pink ribbon trimmed saddle pad [my mom really wanted it for her pony, so I dropped a ticket in there], an Ariat grooming tote, a bathing kit [for the horse], a First-Aid kit [I get hysterical about Sasha's legs and health!], a leg care set with liniment, supplements, etc., and a hoof care set. You know what I got? The thing I thought was a full sleazie/jammie sheet but was actually just a navy shoulder guard...which Sasha has haha. Oops. Well, her other one is gross and dirty. I just hope this fits her - it is XL!


On a more somber note, I found out one of my horse show friends had to put her horse down. =[ They found him out in the field with a broken hock, and since he was fit, in his prime, etc., they euthanized him. RIP Sly Prince.


Ciao! <3