A video demonstrating the differences between shoulder-in, haunches-in, and renvers-our next project! (This video is not mine, it belongs to a Youtube user that goes by the name PrinceElmelund. Their website is http://www.paardenbegrijpen.nl. Prince Elmelund is also the name of the 4-year-old Frederiksborger gelding in the video demonstrating these moves in hand.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u91N-voqAHo
Elisabeth had arrived at the barn and was tacking up Christa to go out. Lily and I joined them and we left the barn together, walking all the way to the park, then around the park road and through the pretty side trails, where we trotted. Coming back out of the trails, we came face to face with the children. There were school buses of kids at the park. We walked past a large group of them "Oh the horses! Look at the horses!" There were adults with them, so the children didn't even think to come running towards us-my greatest fear. This happened to one of our boarders: a group of campers ran towards her and her horse one day in the park. Just to pet the horsie. This woman was riding bareback with no helmet, and her horse is a very, very nervous old man. Upon seeing the tidal wave of kids heading his way, the horse spooked and bolted, and she ended up in the hospital with a pretty serious head injury.
The children called to us and waved, and we smiled and waved back, like riders in a parade. Christa and Lily walked on like nobody's business. We came onto the smaller field of the park, which has several small rolling hills. There is a small shelter next to it, which was also full of children having a birthday party; a clown was talking loudly and making noises. On the other side of the small field, there was an enormous tractor/lawn mower that looked like something you'd use to cut hay. I'd never seen anything like it, and if filled the air with a deafening noise. Lily's ears flicked every which way, but she remained attentive to me and did not spook or shy. I asked Elisabeth if she wanted to work the mares in this area; I wanted to test Lily to see how much she'd focus. Christa was fine; she's one of the most bombproof horses in the barn. We trotted large circles in one of the little valleys, and I was inmensely surprised when Lily arched her neck and engaged in a very forward and long trot, despite the 3 million and one reasons she could've used to be distracted/nervous/jiggy. Feeling brave, I asked her to canter. She gave me beautiful round canter, better than anything she had done yet at home! We worked in both directions, then joined Elisabeth and Christa on top of one of the hills. Lily received a lot of pats and thank yous.
We then meandered our way down to the other side of the park, cantered down one of the straightaways, and arrived at the power lines. With a big grin, Elisabeth asked me whether I wanted to trot or canter. We were facing home, and I knew that no matter which gait we chose, the mares would go faster than if we'd been going in the opposite direction. I let Elisabeth choose, and she said that Christa will try to gallop if cantered in this direction, but she thought she could control her. So canter we did. I let Christa go in front and held Lily back so the mares wouldn't think they were racing side-by-side. The wind whistled in our ears; it was a breezy day, and the palm trees were dancing. As we flew past the first electric post, I realized that Lily's stride was getting bigger. I shortened the reins more and sat up straighter. Lily did not slow down. I half-halted her to make her pay attention, and right at that instant, Christa spooked and dove sideways off of the powerline track and onto the grassy drop to the right of the track. Elisabeth flew off. Lily shied at Elisabeth's fall and went in the opposite direction, onto the grass on the left side of the track. I lost both stirrups, and lost my balance but somehow managed to get myself back upright in a nanosecond (I think I grabbed mane), at the same time I called out, "Whoa Lily!" Lily slowed and in 2 strides came to a stop by the bushes next to the grass on the left side of the track. Christa was cantering away, and Elisabeth sat up. Thank God she was okay; I had flashbacks of that student's fall a month or two ago. Lily was now very jumpy; I tried riding her over to Elisabeth but my mare felt like she was about to explode. I had her stop and she was trembling. She had no idea what had just happened; I don't think she'd ever witnessed someone fall from another horse, and on top of that, her friend had just run away in the middle of a very stressful situation. I firmly told her to whoa 3 times before I trusted her to stay still long enough for me to hop off. The minute my feet hit the ground, I saw Christa trotting back to us. Thank God again! I'd been afraid Christa would run all the way out of the park and onto the road to get back to the barn. "Christa!" I called softly, holding my hand out to her. She came to a stop right in front of me and let me grab her reins. Elisabeth was still sitting in the grass. She looked okay, not in pain at all, but she had a bewildered expression. "Are you okay??" I asked her. "Yes." she said, "what happened?" "Christa shied to the side, and you came off. I have no idea what scared her." There had been nothing there-nothing had flown by, there had been no changes in terrain or anything lying on the ground that could frighten her. All I could think was that she had heard something in the wind.
Elisabeth stood up and came to take Christa's reins. I studied her every move as she walked over and reached for Christa, and she still seemed fine; she was moving and speaking normally. I was still kind of freaking out; Elisabeth is 59 years old. "My goodness, I'm so glad I always wear a helmet!" she said. She had felt her head bounce off the ground. She was lucky she'd dropped on a nice soft patch of grass too; if it had been on the hard track it might've been a different story. After making 100% sure she was okay, I helped her get back on Christa. Lily stood still while I mounted up. "I guess we should do it again?" Elisabeth said, "we can't just end it like that." "I don't think we should canter them, though, " I said. "They are both nervous now and the wind isn't helping." I suggested we do a nice, slow sitting trot down to the park gate, then trot back up the powerlines and leave through the other exit. This way we could reinforce a positive experience as well as not let them think that just because they had had a bad scare, they'd get to go back to the barn right away. Both girls were very good both ways. Afterwards, we made our way across the big field at a walk. Elisabeth was still a little shaken up and nauseous, but I kept her talking to distract her. We made it out of the park okay, but rounding the corner onto our street, she stopped speaking mid sentence and just looked very pale and weak. I brought Lily in closer to Christa, "Are you okay?? Do you need to stop, get off? Please don't faint" I had all the intention of catching her if she started to slide off of Christa. She insisted she was fine; she was just very nauseous, but she didn't want to stop for a break. "Please don't tell me you don't want to ride with me again, " she said. This made me laugh; it caught me so by surprise! "I was going to say the same thing!" I said. I love Elisabeth; she is like a German version of my own mother. She has that same quiet serenity that can make everything okay just with her presence. Every time we hang out together, I feel at home.
After what felt like a thousand years (but was actually just 5 minutes), we made it back to the barn in one piece. Christa spooked again on the driveway, for no apparent reason again. Lily did not react at all. I actually reached over to grab Elisabeth. She just laughed and said, "This is why I keep saying that Christa is the first in this barn that needs to be desensitized!" We had been talking about doing a sort of obstacle course as an exercise for the horses to get them used to scary things/situations.
I helped Elisabeth untack Christa and brought her water. Her hands were shaking; I opened the bottle for her. Around that time, her daughter called on her cell (intuition maybe? The timing was perfect), and Elisabeth sat down in the rocking chair by the barn entrance to talk. She seemed much better sitting down and I didn't want to hover, so I took Lily outside for a bath. When I was finished, I returned to check on Elisabeth and found her lying down on the clubhouse sofa, which frightened me. She opened her eyes when I came in, and assured me she was fine before I could open my mouth to ask. After about 10 minutes, she came back out and finally seemed normal; she got to work mucking Christa's stall. At this point it felt okay to stop watching her obsessively.
I made a point of hugging Lily and thanking her for having stopped when she did, for listening.
Afterwards, we ended up going to our local tack shop to check out the consignment dressage saddles. Our tack shop is pretty awesome. It has been in the same spot for 25 years, always with the same owner. The owner competes nationally in dressage, and her trainer also works at the store part-time. Thus, there is usually a large selection of good quality consignment dressage saddles. Elisabeth talked to the shop owner about her mare and what she is looking for (the owner is also a certified saddle fitter), and she brought out some of the saddles that might fit Christa for Elisabeth to sit in. She took her time with the more affordable ones (there was one consignment saddle going for $2600! I don't want to know the cost of it new! It was in good condition, however, and had the super cushy seat and giant thigh blocks that are so desirable now) and she finally settled on a beautiful Dominus. It must've been used only a handful of times, it barely had wear marks on it. I knew for a fact that that saddle had been in the store over a year, and explained to Elisabeth that she might be able to talk the owner down on the price based on that alone. That afternoon, we tried it on Christa. (Elisabeth was really and truly fine after all-she was 100% herself when we met again at the barn) It seemed to fit okay. Not perfectly, but not horrible. I explained this to Elisabeth. Behind her shoulders it fits well, and I could not feel any bridging underneath it. I felt that the panels did not follow the contours of Christa's back as nicely as mine, but they did not seem to dig into her back either. There was full clearance of the channel over her back, but the front of the saddle was a good 5 fingers above Christa's withers (she basically has no withers), which is considered excessive. I'm not sure why this is a bad thing, but when she came out to do fittings on my previous horses, the store owner had explained to me that you don't want that much clearance either. I placed my saddle on Christa to show Elisabeth, and also to compare them for myself. There were minuscule details that indicated my saddle was still a much better fit. Not a favoritism issue at all, just a reality. Of course, I'm not a professional fitter either and I could be completely wrong. I'd just like Elisabeth to find something that fits as well as possible-I think this will help Christa tremendously with her back problems. My verdict for Elisabeth was: try the saddle, see how it feels so that she'll have an idea what she likes for herself as well, and then have the store owner come out and take a look at it on Christa before making any offers on the saddle.
Afterwards, I took Lily out to try some of Buck's training on her (I'm totally hooked on that movie right now). I had her walk next to me on the lead rope. I would stop, expecting her to stop next to me. Distracted, she would keep on walking until she was in front of me and then swing around to face me. I corrected her twice with a gentle tug on the lead rope when I stopped, to indicate she was to stop too, and she understood. Afterwards, I just kept a loop in the lead rope with a very light hand. I would then take one step forward and halt. She would do the same, staying next to me. I would walk fast and she would accelerate; I would then stop and so would she. I did a very slow walk, moving my legs in slow motion, and had to laugh when she actually did the same, moving her legs slowly too. I brought her to a stop, stood in front of her, and with one hand pointed the direction I wanted her to go in. She went. But this is something she's already good at-this is how we change directions on the longe; all I need to do is point in the direction I want her to go, and Lily understands.
I would then bring her to a halt facing me, and would walk forward towards her shoulder. She instantly backed up as I stepped forward. It was like a dance, and I was smiling from ear to ear when I took her back to the barn. I don't know if someone trained her this way-to pay attention, or if Lily is just unusually sensitive by nature, but it is really one of my favorite things about her-she is so tuned-in to my body language and emotions it's almost like she can read my mind sometimes. When I broke my toe, right around the time I became Lily's owner, I got around at the barn by hobbling or with crutches. Lily was absolutely amazing at the time. She would walk very slowly and carefully as I clutched a handful of mane with one hand and used her as support when leading her to and from the turnouts or to longe her.
Back home that evening, I decided to go for a jog. I have not done this in a year and a half. At that time, I had a personal trainer and a gym membership, and I worked out like a fiend, hard-core, 6 days a week. I lost 10 lbs and welcomed my 30th birthday the fittest I have ever been in my life. That changed when I got a horse. The money that used to pay the personal trainer went to pay board, and the money that went towards the gym membership became more useful as hay money. Around that time, I also finished tech school and started working full time. Between the job and the barn, I am on my feet up to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. I make healthy food choices and Charles and I try to cook at home when we have the energy and motivation to do so (not as often as we'd like, but this comes with the territory when we have opposite sleep schedules and we both work crazy 12 hour shifts...). The 10 lbs have stayed off, and my arms are as defined, if not more, than when I had the personal trainer. However, I have not done worthy cardio (running, Spinning, plyometrics, etc) in 1.5 years, and it has been nagging at me. Horseback riding is hard work; it involves a lot of core and leg strength, and while I can post forever at the trot (everyone tells me this is like crazy unusual), I get wiped out after a good canter. I've been thinking about how much better I'd be if I were getting some real cardio in. So I went for a jog. "Jog" by my definition involves intervals of walking and running. I have to work very gradually into steady continuous running, as I hurt one of my Achilles tendons pretty badly a long time ago while training for my first 10K. Go too long too soon, and it will flare up again in a matter of days. So I did 1 minute running, 2 minute walking intervals for 20 minutes. Not a lot, but it was getting dark fast, and I didn't want to overdo it the first day either. I was surprised to discover that cardiovascularly, I had no problem running hard for the 1 minute, and was recovering within a minute of slowing to a walk. Not bad after such a long time without formal cardio! I guess all that walking, lifting and riding has been worth something after all. I did quickly remember muscles that I had forgotten existed. And of course I was sore today, but I was ready to go again for a short run this afternoon after the barn...except it started raining at 4:00 pm and is not supposed to stop until sometime early next week. *sigh*
Yup, welcome to the "Sunshine State." Right.
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| Christa & Lily enjoying the grass. And the sun, while it was still shining! |
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