At the end of my last post, we left off with Banner having ripped off his shoe, and while it is now back on, we definitely could not do our lesson on Tuesday. Originally, I was planning to just cancel that lesson, since B was clearly out of commission. But with my work schedule preventing my lesson last week, and ponies need dentals next week, so cancelling this lesson would have put me out for 3 weeks. Not the end of the world, but I also was a bit sad about missing lessons for that long.
I wavered back and forth for a while on Sunday night about whether or not to cancel, and finally decided, what the heck, lets do the lesson & I'll bring Charmer! So I texted Trainer C, letting her know I would actually come, and that I was bringing Charms. He has been in off and on work for a little while, but my schedule has not been super flexible to keeping him in a program. And honestly, I tend to ride him better when I actually have a lesson or two with someone on the ground yelling at me to ride forward and not grab at his face (things I know, but quickly forget when things go wrong with him).
On Monday, I came home from work and took Charmer out. I spent probably a good 20+ minutes grooming him because he was filthy. Finally, his coat was passable enough for me to justify tacking up. I haven't ridden him much in the last 3 weeks because I was focusing on making sure Banner was ready for this last weekend.
I threw Charmer on the lunge line and just let him trot for a while, slowly warming up those tight back/hind end muscles. He did probably about 10 minutes of trotting both ways before I saw him loosen up enough to ask for a canter. For the first 3-4 transitions either direction, he did an awkward porpoise impression as he sort of cantered/crowhopped around the circle. He settled into a decent canter after a few strides each time, and then I got a couple of nice transitions out of him each way. By this point, he had been on the lunge for probably the better part of 20 minutes, so his out-of-shape little self was pretty tired. Perfect conditions to get back on for the first time in a while haha!
I climbed aboard & really only had one goal for the ride. Stay forward. This included not pulling/grabbing if he got fast, just allowing him to stay forward in all of his gaits. A couple of walk laps to remember that we have manners and to double check that I did in fact have brakes, should we need them, and then we went to the real work. Lots of trot work, making sure I kept my leg on and kept as light of a contact as possible.
During the trot work, I did my best to keep him entertained and his mind focused. Lots of transitions, serpentines, changes of directions, circles, even some leg yielding in and out on a circle or a few steps of laterals down the sides. It took him a bit, but he checked in and was enjoying the game of "what are we going to do next?". I got a few nice canter transitions both ways as well. He is sticky in the canter, just from being stiff (and possibly needing hock injections - I'm following up with vet next week to see what she thinks), and his pelvis feels a touch rotated to me as well, but he was happy to pick up a pleasant canter both directions. The more forward I asked for, the nicer he went (imagine that...).
I had a little 2' jump set up in the arena from some work I had done with Banner a few weeks ago, so I decided to pop Charms over that a few times to see how he felt. A few big overjumps for sure, but that is his natural go-to move anyways, so I didn't think anything of it. After the 5th time, he settled a bit and jumped nicely. We did most of the jumps in trot, but I decided to throw him over it once each way out of the canter, and he was a very good boy! We quit at this point, since he was tired and had tried very hard for me.
The next day, I loaded him up for his lesson. Banner was thoroughly confused as to why I was taking Charmer somewhere without him! Charmer was a bit confused why he was the one going as well, but he loves adventures so he climbed right on the trailer, looking very excited about what was happening!
We unloaded at WSH & Charmer looked around for a moment but settled almost immediately. Even though its been over a year since he had gone there, he didn't mind at all. He travels well (perks of OTTB), and he is incredibly comfortable at that facility after years of lessons & even living there for a while.
Once I got him all tacked up, I headed to the ring to lunge him for a bit again to get some of the "first time out in a long time" willies out. This lunge session was significantly shorter than the day before. He loosened up quickly and settled in just under 10 minutes. I had to giggle just a bit when one of the workers (who has never seen him before), came over and was like "wow someone is a bit wild today". Yeah...that is not his version of wild. But I just laughed it off and said "yeah he's had the better part of the last year off".
I climbed up on him and he was definitely a bit more on edge being off property than he had been at home the day before, but he was doing his best to be good and listen to me. Immediately, I gave him jobs. He needed something to occupy his mind. So I put my leg on and got a nice marching walk from him and did some exercises at the walk, before moving on to trot and canter.
He was still just a bit stiff, but I wasn't surprised by that, and the more work we did, the looser he became. Trainer C came over and we chatted about what he's been doing (spoiler alert: not much). I told her mostly light w/t/c work and a few jumps here and there. We haven't jumped higher than 2' in a while.
She set up the circle of death, with itty bitty little 12" verticals. Charmer thought that was the most exciting thing ever, and definitely jumped the first fence like it was 2'6". A few more positive rides, and he finally started just gently popping over them. I had to remind myself over every fence to really bury my hands in his neck in order to not catch him in the mouth. He jumps super round and has a tendency to throw me around a bit, and I really wanted to not accidentally punish him if he jumped big.
Once we jumped around a bit both ways through the circle with the teeny jumps, She raised them up to about 2'ish. His tiredness & being generally out of shape really showed here, because as the jumps raised (even though still little), it made the turns in between them a bit harder for him. I really had to exaggerate opening my inside rein and use lots of outside leg to turn him around. We skipped a lot of fences because sometimes he just obviously wasn't going to make the turn, but we managed to make a full circle a couple of times.
One of my friends, who works at this barn & has known Charmer for years, rode in the ring during our lesson, and at one point called out "so um, did you drug him?!". I laughed and said no, and she responded "wow he is going so calmly and nicely, I legitimately thought it was a possibility". Honestly I totally took it as a compliment. He really was being so calm and quiet about everything, that for him, it was like him being drugged. But instead, he was just using his brain, and I am learning to ride more positively (thanks to Trainer C & a year of lessons on Banner), that he was acting this way as a "default setting".
Giving Charmer the better part of the last year off made me feel guilty at points. He's only 9yo and part of me felt like it made me a bad horse mom, but honestly it has turned out to be really good for him! It gave his body time to mature and even heal a bit (he had a tendency to be bodysore/backsore and I haven't noticed that as much since he had time off & filled out!), and it gave his brain a chance to grow up. Super happy with how he has been in the last few months as I have very slowly been bringing him back into work. Excited to hopefully continue in a semi-consistent program with him!
I wavered back and forth for a while on Sunday night about whether or not to cancel, and finally decided, what the heck, lets do the lesson & I'll bring Charmer! So I texted Trainer C, letting her know I would actually come, and that I was bringing Charms. He has been in off and on work for a little while, but my schedule has not been super flexible to keeping him in a program. And honestly, I tend to ride him better when I actually have a lesson or two with someone on the ground yelling at me to ride forward and not grab at his face (things I know, but quickly forget when things go wrong with him).
 |
| All photos from random old lessons/shows |
On Monday, I came home from work and took Charmer out. I spent probably a good 20+ minutes grooming him because he was filthy. Finally, his coat was passable enough for me to justify tacking up. I haven't ridden him much in the last 3 weeks because I was focusing on making sure Banner was ready for this last weekend.
I threw Charmer on the lunge line and just let him trot for a while, slowly warming up those tight back/hind end muscles. He did probably about 10 minutes of trotting both ways before I saw him loosen up enough to ask for a canter. For the first 3-4 transitions either direction, he did an awkward porpoise impression as he sort of cantered/crowhopped around the circle. He settled into a decent canter after a few strides each time, and then I got a couple of nice transitions out of him each way. By this point, he had been on the lunge for probably the better part of 20 minutes, so his out-of-shape little self was pretty tired. Perfect conditions to get back on for the first time in a while haha!
I climbed aboard & really only had one goal for the ride. Stay forward. This included not pulling/grabbing if he got fast, just allowing him to stay forward in all of his gaits. A couple of walk laps to remember that we have manners and to double check that I did in fact have brakes, should we need them, and then we went to the real work. Lots of trot work, making sure I kept my leg on and kept as light of a contact as possible.
During the trot work, I did my best to keep him entertained and his mind focused. Lots of transitions, serpentines, changes of directions, circles, even some leg yielding in and out on a circle or a few steps of laterals down the sides. It took him a bit, but he checked in and was enjoying the game of "what are we going to do next?". I got a few nice canter transitions both ways as well. He is sticky in the canter, just from being stiff (and possibly needing hock injections - I'm following up with vet next week to see what she thinks), and his pelvis feels a touch rotated to me as well, but he was happy to pick up a pleasant canter both directions. The more forward I asked for, the nicer he went (imagine that...).
I had a little 2' jump set up in the arena from some work I had done with Banner a few weeks ago, so I decided to pop Charms over that a few times to see how he felt. A few big overjumps for sure, but that is his natural go-to move anyways, so I didn't think anything of it. After the 5th time, he settled a bit and jumped nicely. We did most of the jumps in trot, but I decided to throw him over it once each way out of the canter, and he was a very good boy! We quit at this point, since he was tired and had tried very hard for me.
The next day, I loaded him up for his lesson. Banner was thoroughly confused as to why I was taking Charmer somewhere without him! Charmer was a bit confused why he was the one going as well, but he loves adventures so he climbed right on the trailer, looking very excited about what was happening!
We unloaded at WSH & Charmer looked around for a moment but settled almost immediately. Even though its been over a year since he had gone there, he didn't mind at all. He travels well (perks of OTTB), and he is incredibly comfortable at that facility after years of lessons & even living there for a while.
Once I got him all tacked up, I headed to the ring to lunge him for a bit again to get some of the "first time out in a long time" willies out. This lunge session was significantly shorter than the day before. He loosened up quickly and settled in just under 10 minutes. I had to giggle just a bit when one of the workers (who has never seen him before), came over and was like "wow someone is a bit wild today". Yeah...that is not his version of wild. But I just laughed it off and said "yeah he's had the better part of the last year off".
I climbed up on him and he was definitely a bit more on edge being off property than he had been at home the day before, but he was doing his best to be good and listen to me. Immediately, I gave him jobs. He needed something to occupy his mind. So I put my leg on and got a nice marching walk from him and did some exercises at the walk, before moving on to trot and canter.
He was still just a bit stiff, but I wasn't surprised by that, and the more work we did, the looser he became. Trainer C came over and we chatted about what he's been doing (spoiler alert: not much). I told her mostly light w/t/c work and a few jumps here and there. We haven't jumped higher than 2' in a while.
She set up the circle of death, with itty bitty little 12" verticals. Charmer thought that was the most exciting thing ever, and definitely jumped the first fence like it was 2'6". A few more positive rides, and he finally started just gently popping over them. I had to remind myself over every fence to really bury my hands in his neck in order to not catch him in the mouth. He jumps super round and has a tendency to throw me around a bit, and I really wanted to not accidentally punish him if he jumped big.
Once we jumped around a bit both ways through the circle with the teeny jumps, She raised them up to about 2'ish. His tiredness & being generally out of shape really showed here, because as the jumps raised (even though still little), it made the turns in between them a bit harder for him. I really had to exaggerate opening my inside rein and use lots of outside leg to turn him around. We skipped a lot of fences because sometimes he just obviously wasn't going to make the turn, but we managed to make a full circle a couple of times.
One of my friends, who works at this barn & has known Charmer for years, rode in the ring during our lesson, and at one point called out "so um, did you drug him?!". I laughed and said no, and she responded "wow he is going so calmly and nicely, I legitimately thought it was a possibility". Honestly I totally took it as a compliment. He really was being so calm and quiet about everything, that for him, it was like him being drugged. But instead, he was just using his brain, and I am learning to ride more positively (thanks to Trainer C & a year of lessons on Banner), that he was acting this way as a "default setting".
Giving Charmer the better part of the last year off made me feel guilty at points. He's only 9yo and part of me felt like it made me a bad horse mom, but honestly it has turned out to be really good for him! It gave his body time to mature and even heal a bit (he had a tendency to be bodysore/backsore and I haven't noticed that as much since he had time off & filled out!), and it gave his brain a chance to grow up. Super happy with how he has been in the last few months as I have very slowly been bringing him back into work. Excited to hopefully continue in a semi-consistent program with him!
so glad all the horses are doing well!
ReplyDelete