Pursuit of Perfection

I'm sitting here watching the test that Ingrid Klimke just put in on FRH Butts Abraxxas (you can watch it here!!), leaving them the current leader at Burghley, and I see her perform a collected trot shoulder in from the corner toan  8m circle at B to a half-pass to centerline to a transition to extended walk at C... whew! She did it beautifully and I can't help but lament my lack of a horse capable of doing those movements, back when I had Pie I could do those things! And it was SO MUCH FUN.

I think that's a lot of my problem with Cash... I want so bad for him to be like that, to listen to my leg, and bend, and move sideways when I ask, and do a shoulder-in and move off my aids, and give me a consistent contact, and, and, and....

AND, I keep forgetting that he doesn't know how to do that! 

Yet.


So, getting into an argument with him over that is pointless, fruitless, and only results in major frustration for me and for him.

That's why it's SO SO SO important with green beans to focus on what they can do and build on it.  And what Cash can do is stretch (he's looooves his stretchy walk/trot), he can walk/trot/canter (albeit not always prettily), he can go over trot poles and little jumps, he can doing simple lateral work like shallow leg yields, some steps of side pass, turns on the forehand, and pretty decent turns on the haunches (granted the circle described by the hind end is still pretty big). 

I really need to get back to doing poles/jumps more often, he does soooo much better when he has something like that to think about.  He is not going to be a straight dressage horse that's for sure... bummer, cuz I love dressage.

In other news....

Last Saturday I went and jump judged for a nearby One-Day Event.  It was a good way to spend the afternoon, the volunteer effort and the radio communication from control amongst the jump judges on cross country was not quite the best, I was often left wondering what happened to a particular rider when all of a sudden rider numbers started skipping around. 

Regardless, I enjoyed myself and was pleasantly surprised to find such a neat cross country course less than half an hour away from me! YAY for schooling location!

It was also the first time I've witnessed an Intro level at a recognized event... THAT was VERY entertaining!! There were some experienced riders piloting around very very green horses for their first XC outing... but mostly it was very inexperienced riders being taken advantage of by bratty school horses.... A couple near run-a-ways, several lost riders (they'd jump a jump and just, keep, going..... ), quite a few skipped fences, and one snotty barnsour pony with a very brave and determined little girl who was going to get that pony over those jumps if it was the last thing she would ever do.  I wanted to stand up and applaud for her!

I always enjoy jump judging, it never fails to give me a kick in the pants to get my butt in gear with riding. Inspiration for the win!  Now, finding time in my schedule is another thing.

Cheers!
Emily

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He Stays... and, riding video!

For now, anyway.  I still have ads listed apparently for Cash from back in Feb when I listed him for sale... I got a phone call off one of these ads yesterday and without even thinking or hesitating I answered "Oh, I'm sorry, that horse isn't for sale anymore."  So, dear Mr. Cash, you get to stay with me for now.

He's been really, really good in the roundpen.  I rode him in there and it's such a little area for him that it really forces him to stand up and be correct in his body--no getting away with diving on the inside shoulder here!!  The ground work is also really increasing his attentiveness to me.  He still, however, remains hard to catch and I'm completely stumped by it.

Anyway, here is some non-eventful riding footage--I was working on getting him to yeild to the aids.  The video is not very long as my roommate quickly got bored, she was hoping for a little more excitement as the last time she saw me ride she got to witness Cash being a whirling dervish charging around at warp speed... But, it's riding video nonetheless!!

Look! A rare photo of me actually on my horse!

School starts on Monday and my life is about to become very insane, hopefully I'll still be able to squeeze in time to ride!

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Roundpen Revamp and Sewing Project!

So after my last post and a few of the suggestions made in the comments I had come up with an entire post on trainer rides, but decided to trash it as it was entirely too self serving. (and, by the way, I love and appreciate all the comments, suggestions, ideas, and kind words left on my blog! Don't stop!!)  In short, my personal opinion on trainer rides is that doing just one or two really only provides a second opinion on the horse and isn't going to do much to correct any underlying training holes/issues. For a trainer to be effective there needs to be a long term commitment, either in the form of lessons or in training itself. Lessons I can afford--and I really should look into it, I need to find a trainer that I trust. Full on training I unfortunately cannot afford right now. 

Anyway, I do want to say that I am more than capable of handling this horse, I'm not afraid of getting down and dirty with the more "ugly" side of horse training.  I have dealt with some dirty, mean, rotten, and bullheaded horses in the past and while Cash is challenging, he's not mean.  It's not that I don't have the ability and knowledge to train Cash, the question is do I want to?

That said, I've decided to take Cash back to the roundpen for the foreseeable future.  I need a more manageable space to get him listening and respecting me as he is not listening in any shape or manner in the main arena.  So far I've only been doing ground work with him--doing my own variation on the "join up" routine.  And, I'm pleased to say it's been successful!  He's been super relaxed at the end of each session and much more in tune with my body language.  One day he was completely running through me, and was constantly trying to outrace me.  When I would shift my body to ask him to change directions he would kick on the afterburners and rocket past me, continuing in his current trajectory around the roundpen.  I had to get a bit aggressive and things got kinda dusty but we worked until he was listening... as a result the next day he was hypersensitive to my cues and I really had to pay attention to what I was doing!!  While the day before I was having to make extremely exaggerated movements to make him listen, here the slightest shift in my posture would make him brake to a halt and look to me, asking if he was to go the other way.  Good boy!  He really is a smart horse, and I think that's a big part of the "issue."  He's a little too smart...

I'm going to focus on short and sweet with Cash and see where that gets us. With that goal in mind, it should also hopefully give me a decent chance of working with him semi-regularly with school starting.

Ok, now onto non-horsey business....

SEWING PROJECT!!! Haha, I'm only just a little excited about this.  They are doing a 1950s day at work, and I'm going ALL out.  I picked up some gorgeous satin fabric from Joann's (after I got it I realized that the material it's made out of probably isn't entirely 100% period accurate, but oh well, I love the pattern!) and I've been busy sewing all weekend.  I'm making a simple but lovely V-necked sleeveless tea length dress.  I ordered a big, poofy petticoat to go under it and I'm so excited!!!!

Pattern!

Having fun!

It's my last week of freedom before school starts, so I figure I better enjoy it while I can.  I am going to do my hair up in curlers and style it in a late 40s/early 50s do, who knows, maybe I'll pay tribute to WWII and do some victory rolls.  Then, pin-up style makeup complete with cherry red lipstick will finish the look. I better win best dressed!! (my only drawback is lack of a bullet bra, I sat for awhile trying to figure if I could modify one of my bras to get pointy boobs, but decided it was probably not the best idea!)

Which, this reminds me, I never did get finished photos of my last sewing project, the 1860s mourning dress.  My sister is here this weekend and we are planning to do a photo shoot of the 50s dress, maybe I'll break out my corset and hoop crinoline and do a shoot with the 1860s dress as well.  I've probably said it before, but honest to God, I swear I was born in the wrong decade/century.  I love historical attire of any type!  I'll be sure to post finished photos of this baby!

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Feel unmotivated...

Maybe ya'll can talk some sense into me.

I'm feeling very unmotivated with Cash, and the thought of selling him has crossed my mind more than once as of late.

It's kinda flirted in the back of my mind for awhile, but what with him bucking me off, then kicking them, then being a royal turd on the lunge every. single. time. I work with him, and just now in my most recent ride on him last week he bolted and ran off with me.

Now, I'm a good rider, I have stickability and can tough it out with the nastiest of horses. I'm not scared of Cash, and nothing he's throwing at me is something I can't work through in time. But, with all that is going on in my life, what I've been through, I want a horse I can enjoy and trust to be the same animal day in and day out... is that too much to ask?

Plus there is the time factor. He needs to be ridden 5 days a week. That's definitely possible right now. But I start the fall semester in two weeks and my days are going to get very, very long. I'll prob still be able to get out there a decent # of times until the days get short, at which point I'll be leaving the house before sun-up and not getting back till after sun-down. And we don't have an indoor or lighted area. That sucks.

Partially it's just me being frustrated. I know he needs time to mature mentally. But it's hard to get past the fact that he tries to be a jerk because he can. When he bolted and ran off with me it was because of a stupid white cooler sitting on the other side of the fence.... YET just beyond that in the adjacent garden were 4 blonde headed boys running and yelling and popping in and out of 6 foot tall sunflower rows shooting nerf guns and waving foam swords, he didn't even blink. But the cooler... that white cooler. UGH

Anyway, what do y'all think? Am I totally off my rocker? Everytime I go horse hunting online I realize that he is far nicer than any other horse out there within my price range... yet then I go work with him and 9 times out of 10 come away feeling "blah". I'm not feeling the connection I had with Pie or with Buddy, my two previous OTTBs.

Well, I'll leave my ramblings at that. On a postscript note, I need a new color sceme/layout for this blog, this one has been around for awhile and I'm ready for a change.

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Listen to Me!

A bit behind on blogging, I'll admit, but oh well.  I spent a week in California on vacation--I got to hang out with my aunt, my cousin and her kids, my grandparents, and just enjoy a week of no work, no errands, no appointments, no running around, no alarm clock in the morning--it was fantastic!!

I am slowly but surely figuring out how to reprimand Cash.  First, is his spooking, I am starting to find that line between yes, he is actually spooking, and no, now he's just being a jerk.  Yesterday was a great example, I was lunging him and he initially was very looky at "that end" of the arena.  I let him stop and look, and then move on again.  But he kept looking each time we'd come around and would get this little pattern going: slow down, duck in, speed up, pull out.... and after about 10 times of this I was like "Ok, enough. Time for you to listen."

So when he slowed down I snapped his butt with the whip, when he ducked in I snapped his shoulder, when he sped up and pulled out I gave him a nice pull back in and by then we were back to his slow down spot and I repeated. He's a smart cookie, once I was onto his game it only took me doing this twice for him to go "Oh, sorry mom, I'll listen." Turd.

I experimented too with a side rein set up and I'm super pleased with the results.  When lunging (and when riding) he really braces in his neck and can pull and fall in super easily as a result.  I'm not a huge side rein fan as I feel that they are very unforgiving and hard on a horse's mouth--there just is no suppling action.  So what I did was attach a side rein to the outside to be that steady outside rein the horse works into.  On the inside I took the lunge line and ran it through the bit and back to the girth and attached it as the same height as the side rein.  This gave me that inside rein suppling factor and a GREAT way to also effectively disengage him when he tries to brace and pull on the lunge line.  I can say that I've been really happy with the results of how he carried himself the last couple of lunging sessions.

My training goals for Cash for the foreseeable future are two very simple things:

1. Rhythm and Relaxation
2. LISTEN

Note the emphasis on #2... this also applies to in hand.  I'm making it a point of taking him out for walks on the road, and he can sometimes loose focus and starts invading my space.  The week before I was in Cali he decided to suddenly take a feel good leap forward during which he then kicked out at me and caught me square in the knee.  I kid you not I thought I didn't have a knee anymore as it instantly went numb.  Thankfully I must have got just the end of the kick because I could still walk just fine and I promptly brought the fear of god down upon him--I was NOT happy!  He's been much, much more respectful now and listens instantly the moment I correct him.  There is a reason I hand walk this horse in a stud chain!

So, I've decided to implement a rule of that he is allowed ONE good look for each scary item, after which he HAS to listen to me.  Also, when he gets his one look, he is looking only, no slowing down, no speeding up, no stopping unless I say, and especially no spinning and trying to go the other way.  Sounds simple enough, right??

On another note, go take a look at this cutie!! If I had the money for another horse I would so snatch him up, just look at that uphill canter! http://denver.craigslist.org/grd/3935382886.html

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Hi-Yo Silver!

With my Mom being in town for the 4th we decided to take a night and go see The Lone Ranger

Talk about a FUN movie!! I was not quite expecting the humor and punch lines scattered throughout the movie, but I enjoyed every minute of it. 

Aside from a few historical and factual errors (such as the women's clothing being more reminicient of late 1850s than late 1860s and that they were trying to say that the Transcontinental Railroad went through Texas) it was just a good ol' fun western movie.  And, Armie Hammer is pretty easy on the eyes ;)

And, can I just say that I am loving these new "modern" westerns? Movies such as this one along with "3:10 to Yuma", the remake of "True Grit", and TV mini-series shows such as "Broken Trail," "Into The West," and "The Hatfields & McCoys". Yep, I love it.

I swear, I was born in the wrong century....

Regardless, go see The Lone Ranger if you haven't yet!

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RIP Google Reader

As many of us now know, Google Reader was officially terminated on July 1st.  This was much to my chagrin... I had the gReader app on my phone and would happily scroll through my feeds--which were all imported from Blogger.com.  Well, with Reader down the tubes my easy phone access to my blogs was suddenly cut short.

You would think getting Blogger RSS subscriptions imported into a RSS reader app would be no big deal...

I just spent the better part of an hour trying to figure out how!!  I failed to import my subscriptions out of gReader into another app before it shut down, so I had to figure out a round-a-bout to get things switched over.

I ultimately went with Feedly as my RSS reader of choice.  I then went into Google Takeout and exported my Reader subscriptions into a .xml document (which is ultimately downloaded as a .zip file, and you have to go into it and copy/paste the subscriptions.xml document into another folder), from there I could go into the cloud portion of Feedly and import it (which is referred to as a OPML Import--and no, I don't know what that means).  That, thank goodness, finally brought all my blogger feeds into Feedly.  But, now I don't know if it will automatically pull in new feeds, or if I'll just have to subscribe to them through both Blogger and Feedly?? Guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there....

In the meantime, in honor of the 4th of July weekend and because it is the 150th Anniversary, I am watching my favorite movie of all time: Gettysburg

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