BLAH!

White/Grey Death '10

The storms from California are starting to roll into Nevada. Stead, where I live, is catching it worse than Spanish Springs, where Dixie lives, so I think I'll be able to ride regardless. And of course Truckee, up where Zach lives, is probably getting buried under snow right now, so I'm not complaining at all!

Yesterday I rode with S. We did the canyon - about 6 miles in 2 hours. (I don't feel like plugging in the GPS for the exact numbers!) Dixie behaved, the humans had a nice chat, and I didn't see anything new or noteworthy. Kind of boring, but very good stuff.

Then I made a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies and went to the NNGHC meeting. It was a potluck, shared with the local CW re-enactor club - I can't remember their name, but they were pretty cool! I met some really nice people, and talked to a few kind of weird people, and ate very well indeed. Then I drank a lot of coffee, because it was 9 pm and I was 30 miles from home. When I got home I couldn't fall asleep. I think I laid in bed, half-awake, til 3 am.

Oddly enough I did not feel like riding today, and it's a good day to give her a break. I rode Friday and Saturday, and as long as there's not a ton of rain forecasted I'll ride tomorrow and Tuesday and maybe Wednesday too.

No news is good news

Wednesday Dixie and I had a very nice ride with CM who rides Mama. I don't think I've gone out with just Dixie and Mama before, and I figured they'd be ok but I was a wee bit worried - Mama is very much the omega horse, and Dixie is the Queen Bitch. They were great together. CM and Mama do ok alone, but Mama won't lead in a group (until she turns the Magic Corner to head home!) So Dixie and I led out.

We did the Mines, kind of. When there's snow on the rocks in the canyon, we cut up the side of the hill and ride above the mine canyon. 4.0 miles, 1:18, 3.1 mph. The really nice thing about Mama is that she walks fast! She can't walk at 4.5 mph like Dixie can when she's really working it, but Mama moves out really well for a QH. We talked about trotting and cantering the nice bits when the weather warms up - the trails were really soggy that day. A very nice ride.

Today I pushed Dixie for a faster average - we did 6.03 miles in 1:38, a 3.7 mph average. That includes about two miles of slow warmup and cooldown, and that's definitely a solid pace for us. She was tired but not exhausted on the way home. I saw a coyote - neither Dixie nor Cersei noticed it though. And Dixie sidepassed about 10' to the left and back when she noticed some evil wicked new gravel on the road - she cracks me up.

There are bad storms coming in to CA this weekend, and the weather service still isn't sure how much snow we'll get next week. I'll definitely ride tomorrow, with S, and maybe Sunday with her as well. Then hopefully I can get in one more faster ride Monday before the snow starts. Double hopeful it won't be much snow and I won't get sidelined for a week again!

I joined AERC a couple days ago!! Once I get my # I'll send in my entry for the Rides of March LD. Will the weather cooperate enough to get Dixie ready for a 30 in two months?! We shall see!


Edit!
The snow's been melting fast this week, and there's a couple of puddles beside the road. And my horse drinks out of those puddles on the way home! Part of me is like "Ewww gross horse, don't drink out of that nasty puddle" and part of me is like "Yes! Drink when you're thirsty! Any time you want!" I've been letting her drink.

I do feel better about her not drinking at the NEDA New Years' ride now. If she'll stop at a puddle to drink, then she'll drink anything. She just wasn't thirsty on that cold day.

Weirdness

On the way to the gym. Saw a guy waiting at a bus stop wearing a chain
necklace. About as thick as safety chains on a trailer. Ends were held
together with a padlock. WTF?!

Sent from my iPhone

Balance

I've been thinking about this for about a week, mulling it over and trying to get a good post, but that's not happening, so I'll just post it anyway.

Dixie's very unbalanced to the right. I'm left handed. My instinct, when I ask her to circle, is to circle left. These things are obviously connected, and I've started deliberately adding more right-hand turns. It took a while for her to get this way, so it'll take a while to correct it.

I have a barn backpack. I carry apples, powerbars, the GPS with charger, that kind of crap in it. I always sling it on my right shoulder. Same with the Camelbak. Maybe I should try carrying them on my left shoulder?

In the dead of winter, my desire to go work out waned significantly. I just started going to the gym again last week, and I think I should spend more time doing yoga before and after lifting weights. Not sure what else will help me become more balanced, other than general awareness.

A sense of wonder

Today I picked back up with cruise control, same as Friday. The horse-beatin' lead rope only had to spring into action twice. Dixie's not a stupid horse; she's just going to take as much ground as I give her, and I've given her a lot of slack lately. I got on, rewarded her for standing still, and asked her to move off. She took two steps and stopped, so I hollered "WALK!" and walloped her with the rope. She didn't get mad, she just walked off and didn't give me much trouble about it again.

I had a Plan today too - one full lap down the short section of road, then one trip around the pueblo house, then a surprise. I had to wallop her one more time for oozing down to a walk when I'd asked her to trot, but again, after that she stuck to the gait I requested. I should note I'm not riding truly Western - I give gentle dressage cues with my legs every stride. So the walloping isn't coming out of nowhere - she's already ignored my first two "asks."

When we finished our circle, I had her keep walking past the barn. Oh no! Her head was up and she was a bit jiggy, and every now and then she'd try to sidepass off the road and turn for home. I made her walk about 2/10 of a mile past the barn, where OMG! Look! An apple has appeared! I'd dropped it off from the truck on the way to the barn. :)

One of AareneX's mares (Story?) thought every new "scary" thing in the world was really just a sugar packet dispenser. I loved that story, and I'd like for Dixie to have some really exciting and pleasant surprises happen to her. She needs a sense of wonder about the world. :)

I dismounted, fed her the apple, loosened the girth, and walked her home. (I walk her home quite a bit - it won't do me any harm to walk, and it's a nice way for her to cool out and relax with me.) Anyway, Dixie was pretty worried about something invisible over the horizon, but she did eat the apple. Every bite of it seemed to bring her "back" a tiny bit.

After we got home, I worked on the wonky toe just a bit again. I've got it pretty balanced right now. And our stats were 3.0 miles in 52 min, with a dry relaxed horse at the end. I want to go a bit further on Wednesday - either a double loop around the pueblo house, or maybe the mines. We'll see how the weather holds out, and how waterproof my jacket really is!

The terrible, horrible, no good ride

Thanks to everybody for all the comments on my last post. I do really appreciate it, it's just that I had a Bad Ride Friday and I didn't feel like talking about my stupid horse or thinking about her or writing it down. I was sulking.

It's so much easier to only write about our successes and good rides, but that's really not doing anybody any favors. I like to look back and see how horrible my horse was in the past, and if I never write down the horrible, I won't have anything to look back on in 2011. And this is, hopefully, a teaching blog. It's more of a "don't do what I did" style of teaching, but that's valuable too. I remember the weirdest bits of training philosophy from reading yall's blogs - but it's almost always from someone fixing a disaster. It's not at all helpful to me to read "Oh, we did Tevis, I'm tired but it was no big deal" or "Worked on canter pirouettes today; my horse was very soft and round." It's fun to read that, but I don't learn from it.

So. The terrible horrible no good ride.

Almost all of our rides are out the driveway and to the left - that's where the really open space is. Friday I decided to go right out of the driveway, down the road to ...??? She wasn't in a ~mood~ when I got there and headed out, and we made it about 3/4 of a mile before we came upon some barking dogs and she got nervous. I kept pushing her to work through it and keep moving forward, and we made it past a gauntlet of dogs on both sides of the road before she just shut down.

Dixie's scariest habit is just freaking out and forgetting humans exist. When I'm on her back, I can't get an ear, I can't get flexion, I can't get any movement based on any cues. It's a precursor to melting down and bolting, so I don't even try to ride it out anymore. I just get off and wait for her to "come back" to me. It doesn't happen all that often - less than once a month - and honestly, it only happens when I push her too hard mentally. The problem is that the "too hard" point is not static, so I don't always know when it's coming.

Anyway, we'd walked exactly one mile down the road when she came unglued. I got off and got her off the road and checked the GPS - I figured it'd take 5-10 minutes for her to calm down and acknowledge me again. I waited patiently while she circled around me, head up like a Saddlebred. I gently lunged her in small circles - not to burn off energy, just to get her thinking about how I existed and was controlling her feet. I asked her to back up and asked her to follow me as we "crazy walked" (Kate's term, but I love it so I'm stealing it!) I did all these things, over and over, for THIRTY MINUTES, to no avail. She would not even look at me!

She probably would've stood still enough for me to get back on and ride her home, but it would've been either a bolt home or a huge nasty fight to keep her from bolting, so I didn't even try to get on. I gave up. I walked her home. And the more I walked, the madder I got.

By the time we got back home, I decided that I have health insurance and a magical helmet and I didn't care if she killed both of us, we were going back out. I was totally flummoxed about how to help her work around the coming unglued issue, but the only thing I could think of was to work more on cruise control - staying in the speed I ask you for.

When I first got Dixie, she was so terrified of the rider on her back she would've racked off a cliff if that's where she was pointed. It was horrible - extremely unsafe, with a fearful horse who didn't even look where she was putting her feet. I spent a ton of time letting her know it was ok to stop and look at scary stuff, and it was ok to walk slow sometimes. Now she's at the point where she stops and looks TOO much. I hesitate to ascribe human motivations to a horse, but it's like she's sandbagging. Maybe we need more balance - if it's really scary, we'll stop and you can look at it. But I will not let monsters eat you, and I need you to go when I say go.

So I got back on my horse (who was acting totally normal again) and we went back out and worked up and down a short gravel road (to the left!) I carry a spare lead rope clipped to the breastcollar D's, draped over her withers, and I used that as my horse beater. I'd ask, with voice and the gentlest possible leg cues, then again with a good squeeze and some heels, then I'd start whacking with the end of the lead rope. It's just a nylon rope, no popper or metal hardware, so it didn't hurt her, but it definitely got her attention. I probably had to resort to the horse beater the first three times I asked her to move out away from the barn, and after that she'd walk or trot/rack on polite leg cues. No cantering - our minds weren't right for that!

When I decided to head home, I worked her at the driveway too. I'd ask her to trot about 20' from the driveway, then absolutely insist she keep trotting PAST the driveway for another 20'. Then we'd turn and I'd have her walk briskly PAST the driveway. Rinse and repeat probably 10 times.

Dixie actually did very well. She didn't get pissy - no head tossing or tail wringing - so I don't feel like I was unfair or asked too much. I am not sure if getting her more responsive to my aids will help with the coming unglued problem, but it's definitely something worth working on either way.