The Princess P

FINALLY got out to see the original princess yesterday (after a much extended absence).  By my luck, Supermom was able to join me for the trip and her own first visit to P's Summer Camp.  (boarding school... whatever). 

Aside from always being glad for her company, there is the added bonus of having most excellent photos of whatever we end up doing.

To start with she got this great shot of me saying hi to Miss P in the pasture for the first time right when we got there...

sweet happy mare

It was an absolutely gorgeous day out on the peninsula.  The sun was shining, the mountains were out and everything was green, green, green.  As Supermom got acquainted with the place we came up with our plan for the day - Put needles in the puppy (she loves them!), run the herd in from the front pasture, eat lunch, go for a ride, relax.

Exactly the sort of agenda that I can support..

It was an incredibly relaxing day for me surrounded by people who I respect, and horses I adore (especially that one silly mare).  Pia is doing INCREDIBLY well.  I can't emphasize that enough.  I thought Cowboy Man was a bit crazy when he stated that P isn't working in a bridle anymore (that is.. she works in a halter only) but when we got out onto the trail it's clear that she doesn't need a bit (from a safety perspective) and that she is just so much more comfortable moving through the world than she was even just a few short months ago.

We did quite a bit (relatively speaking) of our work at a trot and Pia was completely up for it.  no head tossing, no fussing, no chest biting.  Just big, forward movement and an eagerness to keep going. That eagerness is what we've been missing for so long. 
I couldn't have ask for more. 

I could go on and on about each little twist in the trail, but instead I'll let Supermom's pictures speak for themselves.  She'll probably scold me for posting the unedited pictures but that's what happens when she puts jpegs in my hot little hands.  I can't possibly sit on them without posting. 

Plus all those wise old people say pictures are worth a thousand words.  So without ado, the first part of our day at Summer Camp:

Pulling on the mares ears (they are still firmly attached)

snacks and kisses

Eventually the herd wandered off and P ditched us to go find them

Maisy successfully stole a bone from one of the big dogs

And then she ran like a goober-dog

The herd coming from the front pasture through the main driveway

Pia was last in...

My vet's dog knows how to "fetch" a halter and leadrope then go up to her horse, wait for her to halter it, then the puppy leads it back to the barn....

heading to the barn... Maisy does not know this trick.

P hanging in the herd

Inside of the big gabled barn

Snack face.

Barn Cat

Ready to hit the trail!!

More pics to come of the ride! God I love this place....

The Types of Fun

I used to think that there was just one type of "fun" and that either you were having it. or you weren't.

But a few months back, at one of the lecture series I drag The Boy to, one of the speakers (a bad ass extreme film maker - now that's a sexy title for a business card) introduced me to his definition of fun, and it's various forms.

Type 1 Fun is the fun we all know and love.  Type 1 Fun is fun while you're doing it.  In the horsey world, type one fun comes when you're doing something that you kick ass at and are 97% sure won't kill you.  For some people riding their horse on a beach is Type 1 Fun. 

Type 1 Fun for the kid.  Not so much for the pony...

Type 2 Fun is slightly different.  Type 2 Fun is almost certainly terrifying while you are doing it, but in retrospect (like more than 24 hours of retrospect) is really fun to think about.  For me, riding P1 on the beach is Type 2 Fun - Because while it's happening "holy shit, she's going to lose it, omg a bird, oh god - this is where I die" is what goes through my head, repeatedly. 

But a few days later, when I look at the pictures and think about our nice ride (where I didn't die) I think to myself  "Gee. That was so fun." 

(it should be noted that anything that is Type 2 Fun usually sends parents/spouses/loved ones into a panic)

This is Type 2 Fun.  Maybe he peed a little, but I bet you he was smiling later!

Type 3 Fun (yes there's a 3) is an extreme version of Type 2 and typically requires at least of month of distance from the event to be considered "fun."    In horsey land I can only assign Type 3 Fun to a few events. 

Almost getting squashed by my idiot 5 year old schooling prelim for the first time counts.  (Months later I thought our adventure schooling was "fun" and "productive")  As does my youthful-ignorance-induced attempt to "tame" what I can only describe as The Black Stallion on steroids.  He wasn't as pretty, or as smart.  Mostly he was just mean and I hated every ride, but years later I thought the experience was "fun" and "valuable."(because I learned "so much"  when what I should have learned was how to say "I don't want to ride that")

Most death defying experiences that sprout from some sort of hobby can be classified as Type 3 Fun.  For the record, I no longer enjoy Type 3 Fun, or any situation that might render a Type 3 Fun situation.  (Backpacking, back country skiing and cross country of any sort are all currently relegated to potential Type 3 activities...  So is asking Pia for her right lead canter). 

What made me think about the Types of Fun is that horses are almost always fun (in one form or another) for me.  Even the scary as crap-why-do-I-do-this rides, my sick, twisted brain eventually reclassifies as  fun.  It's just a matter of how long it takes for the conversion to happen...

Right now, both mares are mostly Type 1 Fun.  Pia is still Type 2 fun if I'm on her back, and Prairie is still Type 2 fun if the wind is blowing, or some asshole is darting back and forth outside the openings to the indoor arena.  Having a bit of Type 2 Fun keeps me learning and growing,  but too much Type 2 (or god forbid Type 3) fun sends me running to my couch with a box of oreos and a box set of Friends episodes on DVD. 

I guess it's impossible to stick strictly to Type 1 Fun when your hobby of choice includes an animal that can trample you on it's way to dinner without noticing...

But I guess the real red flag comes when your crazy, horse infected brain decides that what should be Type 2 or 3 fun is really Type 1, thereby eliminating any sense of self preservation whatsoever..

Come to think of it, there's a name for that... I think it's called Eventing..

Jump Monster

Prairie and I wrapped up last week with a few more jump schools where I learned that the mare needs to have her brakes serviced.  Or perhaps installed.

It's one or the other.

Our first day of grid work was pretty great, but the two successive lessons saw the mare get more, and more.... AND more forward as she worked through her lines.  What I ended up with was a freight train capable of a 26' dinosaur stride and jumping anything from anywhere.  A technique that only somewhat totally undermined the goal of "teaching the mare to balance herself."

We tried lots of bounces.  Bounces make horses sit back and balance.  Not Prairie!!

We tried halting on a straight line after our jumps.  Halting usually backs them off you hand a bit and gets them ready to sit down...  Not Prairie!!

We tried all but walking into the line trying to turn down the energy we entered with, hoping for slightly less energy on the far side...   Nope!

Finally we dropped the jumps to cavaletti sized little-raised-poles in order to make them less exciting.  

.... and that seemed to help.  Mostly.

Here's a picture as we were "halting" after the line (but about 80 yards down the ring) and starting to lower the jumps to make the mare less exuberant..

Next stop.... Timbuktu!

(please note the HORRID heels... If I recall, I was *trying* to sit up and balance the mare but she was all but ripping me forward out of the tack.  If she magically froze in the air I would continue to somersault over her head and tumble to the ground)

I still couldn't canter in to our line without the mare turning into the Oriental Express, but trotting in we were able to come out the other side in a nice light canter that I could maneuver.

Two times through like that and we called it a day.

 I am having a lot of fun with these jump schools.  I forgot how much I enjoy working over (small) fences, but it is reminding me of all my bad habits in spades.  Prairie has a huge power plant and can jump herself out of any problem (so far), but her lack of experience is forcing me to really use my brain (and my body) and set her up correctly.

(but omg, it's so much fun.)

After a week in the jump tack, I threw the dressage saddle back on yesterday for a quiet hack while the barn was deserted on a warm, sunny, Monday evening.

I felt a bit guilty since the grain cart literally rolled by as I was bridling the beast.. but I was hungry too so I didn't cut the mare much slack.  You may recall that "rides at dinner time" haven't been a strong suit of ours, especially inside (where the sweet, sweet shade is) with everyone clanging their grain bins around while the barn boys scurry around finishing up chores for the day...

But I figured we needed to practice on our focus, so I stayed inside (in the shade) and started off by reviewing all our lateral work at the walk.  Starting with a slight shoulder-fore, with free walks across the diagonals every two long sides to switch directions.  Then we moved into a full shoulder-in with me really focusing on the difference in feel between a proper (gasp!) shoulder-in with a inside hind stepping up and under.. and a cheating shoulder-in where the mare just pops her butt out.

P2's big, swinging, huge walk makes these things very easy to distinguish, which is helpful for big fat cheaters like me.

Then we worked on our first level leg yields (meaning, 10m half circle, leg yield to the outside rein..)  Both directions, then we did a 10m half circle with a half-pass back to the inside rein... That was neat-o.  They weren't as fluid but P2 was very respectful of the difference in bend.  (love her).

All that took about 20 minutes and left me with a very focused, very drool-y, very soft mare.  I was feeling pretty good about ourselves.  So we picked up the trot, repeated the exact same list of exercises (with less focus on the half-passes... I didn't want to be greedy) and basically got the same result.  Soft, licking, chewing, and with me.

Before our canter work I let the mare walk on a loose rein (it was hot out, we were tired.) and I played with how much of our lateral stuff we could do on a loose rein.

P2 was confused for a bit as to why I was fussing about with my seat and my legs during her break but she sorted it out and it turns out we can manage our shoulder-ins and our leg yields sans contact.  wahoo!  they aren't as even or as pretty, but I loved the relaxation and response I was getting.  So again.  Love this mare.

Finally I picked up my reins and we worked on our canter.  I kept visualizing a buoyant, uphill, handy little stride, and we worked toward that.  Transitions weren't as clean as I wanted but our quality of the canter was a bit better.  at the very end I worked on our walk/canter departs trying really hard not to ask until I felt like I had everything right where I wanted it.  When I was vigilant about the set up - our departs were amazing.  When I wasn't - there was some slop.  So that pretty much means it's on me to package the mare up.  Not so much on her to listen better.... note taken.

Afterward I hosed Prairie off and threw her out in a big grass field where she got some bucks out and grazed a bit before coming back in for her dinner.

I left feeling like we were accomplishing things we were struggling with a few months ago, and like I got a focused, productive ride at a time when previously we would have had a spooky meltdown.

Happy Mare, throwing Happy Bucks

Photos from the July Show

I overwhelmed The Boy with video responsibilities at the July show, so I've been waiting for the pro photos to be posted in order to take a peek at a few stills.  I was really happy to see eighty four shots posted of us, since one can't hide bad habits in more than one or two carefully selected frames.


A picture's worth a thousand words which means I don't need to spend 84,000 words describing how I need to sit down and back, and get Prairie off her forehand (see - Canter).  But, it's always nice when things are consistent, and I didn't see anything in the pictures that I didn't feel during the ride, or read in the judge's comments.  Sadly there are no fantastico-amazing snaps of our "10" lengthening, but there are a few goodies, and since I spent over an hour of "office time" oogling the photographer's work, I opted to get a couple digital prints.  They aren't spectacular moments per se, but they're a good baseline of where we are at and frankly the download fee is worth having 84 shots to stare at and scrutinize.

Here's the two shots I opted to get:

Cantering! not *totally* on our forehand...

I'm abusing my inside rein here, but I really liked the picture..

The B& W on that second pic is my own picasa tweaking... mostly because I can't stand how brown my black horse looks.  Something about the color filter really makes her look much more bleached than she is in real life... argh.

There were a few more good ones that I like, but don't want to remember forever - these were two of the finalists that I might still splurge on (if I find some change in the couch cushions)

I love her legs here (so maybe I'll buy it), but The light is funky and I don't like how her braids are casting shadows... but look at that hind end! That's as balanced as we get right now.

Another good trot moment from our second test..

You can see the full gallery at Karen Wegenhenkel's site.  I clicked through some of the other entries and she got some pretty great shots given hard shadows on the arena.  She was at the first show as well, and hopefully she'll be there for last two in the show series!