Thursday, July 27, 2017

Onward and Upward

     Mort's eyes were essentially better yesterday with only the tiniest bit of discharge.  He also looked bored and ready to get out of this stall and do something (though, in his head, it was probably something along the lines of grazing).  The heat index had made its way back up into the high 90's so it wasn't going to be a ride working on lengthening and shortening his stride, but I wanted to hop on him none-the-less.  I adjusted my goals to taking a long walk with no pressure then just asking for straightness on contact in the trot and canter.

     We started out with a long, loose rein walk along the gravel road and fence line.  It was luckily fairly cloudy so we weren't under the direct sun.  He was happy enough wandering around other than the occasional horsefly.  Those darn things are out to get him.  Have I

     When we got back to the grass area I asked for him to walk on contact.  We did a few mini leg yields then picked up trot.  Thankfully Mort was very attentive and calm.  He did about 1.5 laps of trot each direction.  He stayed straight when asked--even on the side that is open to the barn--and quietly accepted contact.  He bent around my inside leg nicely in the corners.  We walked for a little while (because a million degrees) and cantered about 1.5 laps each direction.  He was listening fairly well, if a bit on the lazy side.  I played a bit with haunches-in.  We walked a cool-down in the pasture on a loose rein.

     It was the world's easiest ride, but sooo much more successful and satisfying than Monday's ride of tension and frustration.  Hopefully Monday was just a fluke and we're back to our current normal.  He's really getting the haunches-in right and I'm ready so start actually playing with it in transitions and different gaits.  I can't wait to play with more and more lateral work to hopefully continue to improve his movement and lift that front end.  He still gets stuck going left and I know part of that is my fault.  I focus too much and end up trying to hold him together and get stuck myself.  If we don't work through it some over the next couple months I'm gonna have to bring it up in the next clinic I go to.

     It's really interesting for me to bring along my own horse.  I never rode a real dressage horse when I was young--puttering out around training/first.  Fred was well trained, but was really a hunter style horse and I had no idea how to do much else.  In college I got the opportunities to ride some really amazing horses, but they were already trained.  Taking Mort from track trained and trying to make him a dressage pony is just a really interesting journey and it's amazing that we're getting anywhere at all really.  Hopefully I learn from my mistakes with Mort along the way so that I can get better with every horse that I end up owning.

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

So Itchy

     Ugh, poor Mr. Mort came in yet again with a swollen eye yesterday.  I'm not sure what it's from this time as he didn't lose his mask and we kept it on him all day in his stall.  Needless to say, we didn't get a ride in yesterday.  I spent time grooming him and getting all of his itchy spots taken care of.  Then putting ointment on all of the aforementioned itchy spots (poor OTTB in the pasture in the summer).  According to the BM his eyes are better this morning so I may go out tonight and try to fit in a ride--or just take care of more itchy spots depending on how he's doing.

     I'm working on ordering ingredients for a homemade bug spray that we used growing up.  Fred used to get really bothered by the small biting gnats and this really helped him.  We used the homemade stuff in combination with Ultra Shield Ex (still my favorite for "regular" fly spray) and didn't seem to have as many skin/bug issues as Mort is fighting this year.  I know that Missouri is a lot buggier, especially with ticks, than Indiana and TBs are often super sensitive, but more things fighting the bugs and itchies won't hurt.  (Right?)  It has Avon's Skin So Soft in it, so I'm hoping that will help with his skin issues some at the very least.

     In other words, it's looking like another somewhat light week for Mort and I.  I've got some mending to do on one of his fly masks and his fly sheet so I'll have to spend at least one evening doing that this week.  I'm spending time online shopping for ingredients (essential oils is ruining my life with their stupid small containers taking over the market when I'm looking for 16oz).  Hopefully I can get a few rides in this week and we can enjoy some relatively cooler weather.  I'm in charge of chores a couple days this weekend, so barring more swollen eyes or other issues I'm sure I'll find the time.

   

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Is Anybody Home?

     Ooof.  Since last week was the worst as far as weather goes Mort got four light lunges (and hosed down lots) and the weekend off.  Yesterday I went back out to work a bit on lengthening and shortening his stride.  Spoiler alert:  he had other plans.  It being (relatively) cool and Mort's time off made him think that taking it easy was not a fun idea.

     We started out well enough by hacking in the pasture as a warm-up.  He walked very forward, but on a loose rein.  He did spot the neighbor cattle which caused some upset (and continued to throughout the ride), but nothing dramatic.  He just wanted to stare at them forever.  When we got back to the grassy area that is where the future outdoor will be I tried to pick him up some and test how he was listening to my leg aids.  The answer was wiggly and wild.  He'd shoot sideways, and when I tried to just ask for a step at a time he'd get frustrated and shoot sideways the other way.  Quiet corrections were NOT OK.  He was jiggy and antsy so I decided to just let him trot to see if it would settle him some.  (It didn't.)

     The good news is that after some trot he still felt super uphill and ahead of my leg so we had an awesome right lead canter transition where he was happy to use himself instead of dragging himself into it.  The bad news is when we went into left lead canter I let him pick the pace for a lap (to see if it helped wear him down a bit), and he did not want to let me be in charge again after that.  We spent a lot of time trotting and cantering.  We did a ton of changes of direction.  When he tried to lean into my inside leg we'd do a 10-15 meter circle (or three).  It was way too much work.

     Essentially he had reverted to the Mort of a year ago with only moments of the Mort of present day.  I don't think I ever really got a calm, straight walk out of him on contact.  I could get him to do what I wanted if I was constantly switching it up every couple of strides but relaxing was not in the cards for us.  I decided to stop trying because I knew that he was just worked up about the cooler weather and so much time off.  I picked a simple exercise that we've been working on to try and not have a complete wash of a ride.

     He really struggles with keeping his left bend when we do haunches-in.  I've been breaking it down at the halt to hopefully help him understand the concept.  I establish the left bend with my hands and a quiet pressure from my inside leg at the girth.  I then ask for one step over of his hind legs with my outside leg a bit further back.  After he's getting this I slowly start to add forward.  When it feels like he's going to lose it I go back to the halt to keep all of the pieces together.  We've been working on this for a little while and he's usually really receptive.*

     Yesterday this was not the case.  His response to quiet corrections (like me putting my inside leg on if he stepped out the wrong way) was to freak out.  Not quietly freak out, but kick out, try to run backwards, or do tiny rears.  Poor guy's brain was overloaded yesterday by the teeniest thing.  Unfortunately none of those responses are something that he gets to end a ride on so I had to soldier on quietly making corrections until he felt he could stand still for a minute.  There were a few times where I just shot him forward or dropped all pressure when he even thought about listening.  Eventually I got some OK responses to the exercise and quit.

     Hopefully today's ride will be more fruitful for all.  I hate rides like that because we both walk away feeling a little defeated.  I hate having to correct really bad behavior (like rearing and running backwards) because I so want us to be past that point.  I hate feeling like I've put too much pressure on my horse, even if it was accidental.  Hopefully he'll have somebody home upstairs today and we can have that easy, relaxing ride working on stride length that I was hoping for yesterday.


*I have no idea whether this is a good way to teach haunches-in or not.  Tracking right he's getting it just fine, but I had to do something easier for him tracking left.  

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Heat Wave

     As much as I loathe the summer heat that seems to be settling in Missouri, it is at least coming at a good time.  After being fairly busy with clinics and the show I wanted to give Mort a couple weeks to a month of easier work.  I want him to stay fit and not become totally stagnant in our training but he deserves a bit of a break.  He's been working really hard for me lately both mentally and physically and I don't want to over work him ever, but especially in this darn heat.  Midwest summers always kill me.

     Yesterday we started off the easy life with a 20-minute lunge outside on a very slight hill.  It got him moving and we did a few transitions each direction but he wasn't even breathing hard or sweating  much (which I found rather concerning actually and will be monitoring closely) at the end of it.  He got a cool hose-down and parked back in front of his fan.  I doctored all of his skin issues and geared him up for battle against the bugs and took him outside to graze.

     Since the move to grass pastures he's been really struggling with bugs/skin issues more.  He loves the grass and I don't think his hind-end muscles have ever looked better with the extra walking and calories, but other parts of him are itchy and gross.  His fly mask is starting to rub so I ordered him a new one to rotate into work.  He comes in sweaty from his fly sheet.  He's got a ton of tick bites in his forelock, mane, and tail.  Thankfully his battle with scratches seems to be about over.  I always just feel so bad for the horses this time of year.  I know how miserable that I am covered in bug bites and heat rash and I get to go into air conditioning sometimes while his only respite is his daily cold hose.  I'm hoping less work will help with some of the heat and itching issues for a while.  I'm doing all that I can for the bugs but fall cannot come soon enough.

     Anyway, he's gonna get an easy month.  I'll do some more lunging like yesterday.  We'll do a lot of walk work--both meandering and working on lateral movements.  I'm hoping that we can play a bit more with straightness out of the arena since that's a real area where we struggle.  But essentially I don't have much planned.  I do miss the trails at the old place a lot right now for their shade and relaxing fitness.  Hopefully I can convince another boarder to travel someplace for some trail riding in the next month or so if the heat breaks ever.  Other than that Mort and I will just be busy trying to stay cool.

Monday, July 17, 2017

Confidence

     Saturday Steven and I headed out to do morning chores and haul Mort to a schooling show at a local show venue that holds a lot of recognized shows.  I wanted Mort to experience the venue before I dropped $500 on a recognized show.  He travels fairly well, but I'd always rather be safe than sorry.  BM was out of town but she generously let us borrow her trailer and we borrowed the in-laws' truck.  It worked out really well and I am excited for the future when I have my own trailer and Steven and I can go on horse show adventures together.

     We got to the show super early considering my first ride wasn't until 5:08pm, but we wanted to get there for the lunch break so that I could walk Mort around and show him the sights and sounds.  He was only moderately "looky" and after a couple laps I considered it good enough.  It was miserably hot so we stuck him in front of his fan and left him alone while we tried to stay cool ourselves.  There was another horse show going on so we wandered back and forth watching a stock horse style show and a casual dressage schooling show.  I think it was moderately educational and very boring for poor Steven.

     When it was finally time to start my warm-up it was boiling hot and very humid in the arena.  Both the warm-up and the show arena were indoors and neither had much in the way of a breeze.  Add in all the sweaty horses and people for some high humidity and it was hot.  You could literally feel the temperature rise as you walked in from the stabling area.  Rough.

     As I have said before Mort isn't a huge fan of hot weather (neither am I), so I did my best to keep his warm-up minimal.  He seemed to be fairly obedient overall other than his canter departs.  When he's feeling lazy he tries to throw himself into the canter instead of using his hind end to lift himself into it.  So far the only way I've really been able to fix this is to do several canter transitions in a row and really amp him up.  But with it being so hot I only did about three until he gave me one mediocre one and called it good enough.  I pretty much put him through his paces and did a lot of walking.  (Did you read all of the red flags for a bad warm-up?)

     When we trotted in before our test Mort immediately grew at least three inches.  While this made his trot work feel a lot better I knew that it meant I did not warm him up nearly enough.  I did several walk/trot/walk transitions to try to get his mind back on me and it went alright, but it was really just too late.  The test definitely wasn't a disaster by any means (we even got an 8 on one of our leg yields), but it was not the work we had in the warm-up.  Each end of the arena had an open door that Mort enjoyed trying to gawk at.  Our canter transitions were crap (should have known better in the warm-up).  Overall he was just too tight over his topline and didn't move in a nice fluid and relaxed way.

     We pulled a 62.2% and I thought that was pretty spot-on.  We had some good scores in the 7-8 range and we had some really poor scores in the 4.5-5 range (canter transitions and not becoming immobile in the halt).  I will say that I got one of my favorite comments on a dressage test to date "horse has confidence in rider".  We may not have been perfect, but at least it looked like Mort trusted me in spite of wanting to be nervous.

     Needless to say our warm-up for the next test involved a bit more pressure for Mr. Mort.  His canter transitions were still hit and miss (we just need to ride about a million more over time before it really clicks with him that doing it correctly every time is the right answer).  We only had about twenty minutes between the two tests so after about fifteen minutes of working I let him walk for five.  I know that I should have gotten him more on his toes if I wanted a really good score, but I also know how hot and miserable that I was and I didn't want an overheated, miserable horse at the end of the day.

     Mort was better for First 3 in spite of it being the first time we've ran through the entire test.  He was still sticky in the canter departs and struggled with tension, but I felt like I had a better horse.  He was more uphill in the canter and more adjustable.  We did really well on the counter canter one-loops and the scores on those showed.  This judge really wanted a stretchy free walk and trot circle and Mort and I weren't able to deliver very well on those Saturday.  We pulled a 62.8% on this test.  Definitely nothing to write home about but nothing too spectacularly horrible.

     I really think the moral of this weekend is confidence.  Mort does have confidence in me at this point.  He trusts me to take him through (acidic and terrifying) water on the trails and to new places with scary fans and open doors.  I need to have the confidence to ask him to give me his best at shows.  I need to have confidence that the training I've given him is correct enough that it'll stick.  I need to be more demanding on myself and on him.  Lord knows I've been told that enough times by myself and others.  We need more millage under our belts to know what I need to ask for in a warm-up and how I can correct him during a test without causing drama.  Mort isn't an unbalanced and uneducated OTTB anymore and I need to stop reverting to thinking that he is.

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

July Clinic Re-Cap

     Mort and I started the clinic like most do--with our regular warm-up.  I generally let him walk a couple laps each direction on a loose rein then play a bit with changes of direction on contact, but not collected.  I just test to make sure he moves off my leg when I ask and lets me play with him with little fuss.  We then usually do the same in the trot work.  We do long and low each direction and a couple of small leg yields (often on a circle).  After that I usually canter him a bit each direction trying to make sure that his hind end is really powering the ride.  At this point I consider us physically warmed up and start actually "riding".  My goal with this warm-up is to test his attitude and responsiveness while slowly powering up that hind end.  It's not good enough at this point in our riding anymore.

     Essentially Holger said that the hind end was so powered up that his sticky shoulders were struggling to keep up.  TBs are often really stuck in the front end and Mort is no exception.  We get to his comfort zone and stop there.  Obviously this isn't awful, but we're not going to get that wow factor ever.  (Is this the story of my life or what?)  He said I need a whole lot more lateral work in the warm-up to get his shoulders working and up.  Not only do we need more lateral movement but my lateral work is just "nice".  He's calm and obedient, but it's not really pushing the envelope in terms of actually increasing Mort's range of motion.  Moral of the story is the same as always--I need to push my horse more because he's capable of a lot more than I give him credit for.

     We started with a very functional leg yield exercise that had us leg yielding out of a corner toward the middle then turning back toward the same wall, while leg yielding his butt around that turn, to leg yield the other direction back toward the middle.  You only use half of the arena but it gets you working both directions.  I liked it because it worked and wasn't overly complicated.  We again got some talk about "nice" versus having a "plus one" option.  Essentially if I think I can get more I should ask for more.  Eventually I'll hit his limit but I also need to keep pushing this limit over time because it will get further and further from where we are now.  We had some good work started and his left shoulder is definitely more free than his right.

          Here is a link to a video of us working on this exercise:
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4lNLzwXyu4&feature=youtu.be

     The next thing we worked on was shoulder-in.  It gave even more focus to that outside shoulder really lifting.  We put in a lot of half-halts to try and put that hesitation in his stride.  Lots of forward and backing off to try and find that sweet spot between pushing too far and being complacent.  I really enjoy watching the videos between the two exercises and watching his trot become more and more swinging and free and uphill.  All this work really had him focusing on me well and we both felt very light and connected--that feeling we're all always searching for.

          Here is the next video:
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l7JByJugGo&feature=youtu.be

     We worked a little more on shoulder-in in the walk and trot after that then tried to do some of these in the canter.  It really pointed out that my half-halts in the canter are more of a suggestion that Mort decides whether he wants to listen to or not.  He'd shoulder-in, but it took us about half of the darn long side to get a decent one.  So instead of continuing down this freight train we adjusted to another exercise.  We are all (probably) familiar with some sort of square exercise.  He set up an octagon instead with the inside line being about three feet from the outside line and we had to stay between them.  The goal is three strides of canter then a turn, keeping him straight between the turns and not letting him just turn it into a circle.  It was tough and still further pointed out my inability to get a good half-halt out of him in the canter.  We'd get a few in a row then he'd try to swing his butt out instead of actually using himself and it would take another two turns to get him back again.  We were a hot mess.

     We worked on this some more, but instead of just keeping the canter every two-three strides I'd drop him back to trot, then back up to canter.  All of the down transitions helped make my half-halts more effective.  After a handful of these he was a lot more uphill and attentive.  By the time we did some of this each direction we'd been riding for an hour and fifteen and we were both tired and sweaty.  Mort never asked to quit and I just fall in love more and more with that OTTB work ethic.

     Holger said that Mort has a lot of potential and I just need to keep pushing the envelope and not settling for "nice".  We came away with a lot of homework and renewed importance on me working harder.  He had yesterday off and enjoyed a long nap.  We've got a schooling show this weekend so most of this week will be focused on breaking down some pieces of tests and working on the regular items, but next week I look forward to pushing the envelope more and more.


   
   

   

Monday, July 10, 2017

Catching Up

     It's been a while since I last posted and lots of things have happened.  The biggest thing is that Mort moved!  ACS purchased 32+ acres and built a brand new barn and indoor arena.  I'm much happier with the airy-er barn and bigger indoor (and future plans for a large outdoor).  Mort is much happier with grass pastures instead of dirt turnouts (I'm also happy about that).  For a little bit we had to wait on indoor footing so we were stuck riding outside in the grass.  We had some rain over the 4th of July weekend so he had a few days off to settle into his new digs.  After that we had to get back to work since July is a busy month for us. 

     Our first ride was Monday and it was in the grass area where the future outdoor will be.  For now it's just a mowed rectangle.  Mort was definitely up and distracted so it wasn't a wonderful ride but we got the first ride out of the way I guess.  Tuesday was only slightly better.  Mort doesn't misbehave after time off, but he doesn't work as hard either; he likes to test and see how lazy he can be.  By Thursday the footing had been delivered for the indoor so Mort and I tested it out.  He gave me some good trot work and some alright canter work.  He was still playing distracted pony while gates were being hung outside.  All this construction will probably be good for us to overcome any distractions we encounter at shows.  

     Friday I came out to swollen eyes.  I had taken Mort's fly mask home to wash it as it was starting to cause some balding around his ears with sweat and such.  Mort's eyes objected strongly.  Obviously I didn't ride him in this state because I know eye pain is rough.  I flushed his eyes and gave him a cool shower (because it's officially summer in Missouri and it's awful).  A group of us boarders went to celebrate the move with Mexican food and margaritas that evening so it wasn't a total wash. 

     Saturday morning showed no improvement in his eyes because while he had gone out with his fly mask he decided to take it off at some point in the night.  I had a clinic ride Sunday morning that I was now worried I wouldn't be able to attend so I started to think of people who would be interested in riding in our place.  Luckily all that worry wasn't necessary as when I went out Saturday evening Mort was all better.  Being inside with his fly mask on was all it took to reverse the irritation.*  

     I hopped on for a short ride of a million transitions to do my best to get us on track for our clinic ride without getting him tired.  He got to go out and graze for two hours while I cleaned stalls and tack.  I brought him in and fed everyone.  All the other ponies got to go outside for the night but I didn't want to risk another night of him losing his mask so the poor boy had to stay in after his bath.  Sunday morning his eyes were bright and clear and after feeding we headed out for our clinic.  I'll recap that in another post since this one is long already.  




*In case anyone wants to point out all the things I should have done:  We checked both eyes for ulcers with fluorescein dye and flushed them with saline.  They were showing no goop or extreme sensitivity, just puffy and sad.  I've also ordered another fly mask to rotate with so he should never have to go without again.