Ride Recap

It was hot and humid--and it's also horse fly season. Gross times a million.

My dressage saddle is away with the saddle fitter so that leaves me the options of riding bareback or in my cross country saddle. Since it was so hot I opted for the cross country saddle. After checking a few points of fit that I learned about on Sunday I felt like it fits him well enough to ride in (as I've done before).

I'm not sure if it was the hot, the day off on Sunday, or the saddle, or whatever, but Mort and I didn't start off very well yesterday. I was all buckled in for it to be one of our bad frustrating regretful rides and it really started out that way. I couldn't get him to move off of my right leg. Then I couldn't get him to bend left. So I did a ton of bend, counter-bend at the walk. I did leg yield with his head facing the rail. We had a small meltdown when we passed the open gate with that one. I did some straight leg yields across the arena. For the first time ever (probably not but if feels that way sometimes) we actually worked out of our bad mood/miscommunication/whatever.

I did much of the same work in the trot that we did in the walk and he just got better and better. There were of course a few bobbles here and there when I had to half-halt hard and refocus, but shit got better. We did some changes of direction. I added some shoulder-in. He just got softer. I thought about quitting and didn't and it somehow didn't bite me in the ass. I wondered whether or not I should canter and then I did canter and it didn't bite me in the ass either. After a bit more trot and walk after our canter I decided that I should actually quit before my luck ran out.

There are seriously few of these "bad" rides that I can turn around like that. And this was certainly the worst one that I have been able to. It wasn't on par with some of our best rides at the end, but holy crap was I happy about it anyway. I better put all that leg yield work at the walk in my toolbox for next time to see if it helps.

Saddle Fitter

This past Sunday I finally had the saddle fitter out to take a look at my Prestige dressage saddle. Mort was extremely sensitive to her and was a bit of turd about it all but it was still an educational and interesting experience. The saddle fits Mort ok. It fits his spine and withers well but it's a bit tight in the shoulders and stirrup bars. I sent the saddle with her to reflock it to his confirmation better. I'm interested to see how he goes in it when she's done. Side note--this is why wool flocked saddles are the way to go if you don't want to buy a new saddle every time your horse changes a bit.

The part of this experience I found most interesting was when we were discussing Mort's shoulders. I've always known they were a bit crooked (slightly in looks and certainly in the way he moves). Her tracings really showed just how crooked he was there. I had always thought it was him travelling crooked that made his shoulders look that way but apparently it's his confirmation. His left scapula is just a big different than his right--making it bigger. Not a huge deal but it just surprised me because I had it backwards in my head for so long.

She went on to describe what happens when his bigger shoulder can't slide under the saddle properly. The shoulder hits the front of the saddle, twisting it off to one side. This obviously makes me go to that side as well. Now he's got more weight taking him to that side so he falls out that direction. So one direction he'll bend easily but always feel like we're wanting to make smaller and smaller circles and the other direction it'll feel like he wants to drift out. She hadn't seen us ride or work or heard my complaints about his training but she summed up what I work on EVERY ride in a two minute discussion about shoulders and saddles. Should have had her out ages ago.

Literally my eternal struggle with Mort in a nutshell. He's soooo freaking crooked because of shoulder/saddle fit. The good news is that the reflocking should help. But the bad news is that it probably won't fix it 100% simply due to how much of a difference there is between his shoulders. She said when she brought the saddle back out she'd watch us ride and maybe make some more adjustments to the saddle itself, but the only way to really fix the shoulder issue is to put a shim (or two or whatever) in a half pad. She has several in her truck that I will be able to try to see what works best for my boy. To say I'm very interested in how it changes the way he moves is an understatement.

Hello Again

Well, today is something like 95 plus stupid amounts of humidity. I'm giving Mort the day off. This post is about catching up because I've been negligent for a while. I admit that people have no issues with that as far as the "blog" goes, but I really hate that I'm going to have a big gap in my training journal. Though, to be honest, it's been a lazy year with little progress to show so I guess that makes me being lazy on here a little better? Bleh. 

So June, July, and August. We didn't do any shows or clinics or outings. Mort hasn't gotten too noticeably better. My seat is marginally better if I can remember to think about it. Some days we can do fun second level things and some days I don't deserve to own a horse, let alone train one. Part one of this post is going to be about our lesson while part two will be catching up.

We've only had one lesson this year. There are a lot of reasons why, both in and out of my control, but it is what it is.

The woman came out for me and two h/j riders, so while she has dressage experience, I could unfortunately tell that it wasn't her focus. She did have one good exercise for Mort and I that was essentially mini-serpentines on and off the rail. It's a good one for Mort as he tends to lean and pop his shoulder. And it was a good one for me as I tend to focus too much on the outside rein and not ride him evenly into the bridle. It's one that I find myself still using occasionally. It's right up there with bend/counter-bend to get Mort and I tracking more evenly. Not mind-blowing, but a good tool in the toolbox.

Now we get to two things in the lesson that I was less than thrilled about.

We almost exclusively worked on the rail--no lateral work and no real focus on transitions. As a dressage human, I was a bit disappointed. I like a lesson that kicks our butts and shows where we're really lacking. I know that Mort and I are lacking in those two areas and they weren't even touched.

The second issue I'm probably being a "dressage snob" about.

Mort gets a head tilt sometimes when we're tracking right. I know that it's his hind end not tracking properly. Usually a half-halt on the outside rein and pushing him off my inside leg fixes it. Her solution was to just lift my inside hand. I did it and it worked on correcting his head carriage, but from my eyes that was only fixing the symptom and not the sickness. I did ask her more about why she told me to do that (in case I was missing something) but it was simply to get his head in line (while his inside hind was still getting away with being lazy). It didn't hurt me or my horse in any way. It wasn't "wrong" and is maybe something I'd pull out in the show ring for a stride if we're struggling. But it's not what I want to do in a lesson. Lessons are for working on the real issues--not just putting Band-Aids on. Also, like, the whole point of dressage is teaching the horse to use his body correctly, not just going around with his head in a frame.

There was obviously more in the lesson and it was all just ok. Not great and not terrible, but you can see why I haven't tried too hard to have her out since. I warned you all that I was a dressage snob.

Part two--catching up on the last three months (excluding a week of vacation at the end of July and two weeks in Puerto Rico for work at the beginning/middle of August).

Our dressage rides are pretty simple. We play with lots of different versions of changing direction. We do some transitions. I sometimes play with second level items and sometimes let him end when we're feeling great with first level work. Essentially we are just moving along slowly in the trenches. I do these rides probably two or three times each week.

I probably have one ride every 10 days where we're not meshing. Those either end in me fighting until I get something mediocre and tense or I just let us be lazy and we plod around on the rail or doing big circles and let him drag me along on the forehand. I'm a champion trainer; I know.

About two or three times a week we do "easy" rides. Sometimes I start off with the "basics" and if he's being decent that's all we do. About once a week all I plan is walking. We've been walking in the field, on the trails, and on the gravel road. Our favorite is the gravel road because it's the longest adventure. Mort is the first horse I've had that walks faster heading away from home versus heading home.

So essentially we 35-40% of our time working on getting really solid at first level and working on second level. We spend about 10% of our time with me being a terrible, frustrated horse person. We spend 30-35% of our time working on the "basics" and exploring. And we spend about 15-20% of our time on days off.

I'm hoping we can get to a clinic or two this fall and winter. I've talked to someone else about starting up the occasional lesson. It's probably time to get moving again. Life just gets in the way. Obviously work is busy sometimes. Mort isn't a huge fan of the new trailer we bought him so we've been working on that. Sometimes Steven is out of town. Sometimes Mort needs major feed adjustments to deal with energy issues. Not to mention we're still chipping away at the whole property/house building project. Time and money are in short supply and I could come up with a million more excuses. Hopefully we have the chance to be more productive soon--if not, Mort and I are still having a good time.