Oats = good, soreness = not good

So, the oat experiment seems to be going well. Odin gets 1/2 scoop oats with 1 scoop pellets AM & PM, and I have a lot more horse suddenly. He doesn't get tired during my lesson, and is a lot easier to get to go forward. Now, I have to get used to it, he runs a little bit through my hands forward (evading that way instead of slowing to a crawl, I think its progress), but I just think I have to get used to it. Now I suddenly have more power, I need to contain it.

Now the other thing which has come up, some soreness/stiffness. Here the last week or 2 Odin has been a lot more reluctant to canter on the right lead, especially while being straight (or at least a little less crooked). As soon as I try to straighten or do a half-halt he is swapping leads. I can get him a little more supple on the right and it helps, but it is clear that he is uncomfortable cantering to the right.

L. and I talked about it yesterday and today. He doesn't look uneven or stiff/jerky in the trot at all, clear 2 beat trot. In the canter to the right he keeps stiffening his hind legs and swapping leads, especially when first cantering without suppleling. L. ride him today in the first part of my lesson to make sure he felt like that as well for her, she could feel he did the same with her as with me.
L. also poked his back, he was quite sore in his back, in the hind end.

So, what is it?
1) cold weather stiffness? Well he didn't do it in the end of December where it was very cold too
2) the oats? This started at the same time as the oats, and he was on a high-protein feed earlier. The pellets didn't seem to have any difference, but the oats are probably more starchy/sugar?
3) general stiffness. Well he is trained the same, and it does get better with riding, but the sore back indicates that it might be more than that.
4) Hocks. He had his hocks injected about 1 1/2 years ago, and he swapped leads then. It really helped with the stepping the right leg under himself. L. thinks the sore back points to a hock problem. (The saddle fits well)
5) bad riding. We don't ride him that deep/out/over his back, but he is not ridden hollow either, and he doesn't have any glaring conformation issues. I don't think he is ridden perfectly, but I think issues like this would have come up earlier, and I don't think the way he goes when I see L. ride him looks bad.

So, tomorrow the vet was NH coming by the barn anyway, so we will have her look at him, and probably flex him and see if she can see anything. So maybe an injection.

The other thing we can do is put him off the oats, and back on the Purina Ultium, but keep the pellets so he still has more energy. If NH doesn't think there is anything with the hocks we might try that.

He is getting a shot of Legend (HA) every month. I tried Adequan (Glucosamine) this summer and it made no difference, but I might try again, since this is new.

It might also be a combination of all the points, of course...

Well, he is almost 17 years old, and have been during dressage his whole life, so there probably is some wear and tear on the joints, and it is not so that he can't/wont do it, but that doesn't mean he should be uncomfortable being asked to canter right.
Hopefully it will get better.

The great oat experiment

When I got Odin, he was on the Ultima feed from Purina, a high protein/fat performance feed. When the prices rose the summer, L. and I discusses putting him on alfalfa pellets and see how he did (alfalfa & oats are included in board price). So we tried, and we didn't see any change. Saving cost and bother for barn manager (who had been so kind and pick up my special feed when he went to feed store).

So, the only difference was that Odin ate his pellets a lot slower than the Ultima, he always eats his hay first, but it is not as if he doesn't eat, its just clearly not his favorite stuff.

However, recently we talked about his energy level, and it seems very low. He has never been an energetic horse, but he feels so tired after 30-40 min work with me, and 20 min work with L.
So she suggested we try and feed him oats, just 1/2 scoop on top of the pellets. We will be trying the whole of this week, and evaluate Saturday.

I don't think he will get 'hot', but it will be interesting to see if his energy level is higher. He is also lazy, but L. reminded me that it is a training issue, you can have a hot and lazy horse. His whole 'I'm done, just end it' attitude (he runs and hangs on the bit (more) in the last part of my lessons) might be lack of energy, though.

I don't know if the Ultima fed him more calories, or were better for him and it just took a while to really discover, or if I work him a bit harder now, or if it is cold (for this area) and he has been worked little the 2 weeks prior and doesn't move around when there is lots of snow outside and thus got out of training ( I know I can feel 2 weeks not going to the gym!).

lots of things to consider, but it will be interesting to see how he feels on the oats. I know some of my TB owning barn mates feed oats in winter.

On another note, I had a few awesome downwards transitions in my lesson yesterday, from canter to trot and canter to walk. Both I think because I really tried to make him not hang on bit, do a decent forward half-halt before, and then align my seat bones and legs correctly in the downward transition. I had problems communicating the difference between a half-halt and a transition, but that last part with alignment helped.

I also got one nice upward transition into canter, where I could really feel the push behind. It is great to feel how it always should be!

Odin & Me at Whidbey Show

Odin & Me at Whidbey Show, originally uploaded by IdaWW.

Finally got the pictures I wanted from the pro photographer ordered. Here is one of the them. I really like the way Odin looks at the camera, and you can see the awesome braids M. made for me (yeah, I still need practice. Mine came out in the first test).

I look a little concened, and yes, I am hunched a little forward (but, really, you should have seen the other pics :P).

I do ride in jods, yes, I didn't own tlal boots, and it is actually legal. Now it is legal to ride in halfchaps through First Level, which I think is great. I have brought boots though, still waiting to break them in.

btw, we scored between 59 and 62%, and got some second and forth places, I was happy.

Riding from the inside leg to the outside rein

I saw that jesterjigger commented on my previous post, about releasing the inside rein while half halting the outside rein, while doing a transitions.

My last couple of lessons we have been focusing on driving Odin to the outside rein. He tends to fall out (or in) when I do a half halt, instead of coming together. L. had me tap his inside shoulder while half halting his outside rein, to make him have better balance. My problem is that I don't always feel him falling in, and I feel I have quite a bit of weight in both my hands (since Odin is usually heavy on the bit), so it hard to feel that I don't have enough on my outside rein.

This does require quite a bit of coordination, especially since I have to try and keep a consistent contact on the inside rein (I can't ride him together/balanced enough for me to have slack on the inside rein, yet). However, if I do manage this feat, I can see in the mirrors how much more balanced he is. It is harder for me to feel it, though, which is annoying, I need to feel if my corrections are effective.

Last lesson I did some counter-canter while doing this, and it felt a lot more balanced/straight that usual, when Odin is together he has a really awesome canter, it puts a smile on my face :D.

All this has really make me think about the title of this, you always read you should ride from the inside leg to the outside rein, now I understand a little of what that is about.

Timing

After being on vacation for 2 weeks, I have now been back for a week, and it feels good to ride again.

Yesterday we focused on timing in transitions, and it was a really good lesson. L. made me aware of my timing when doing a half halt to re-balance, it needs to be collect/contract - then forward immediately, which I knew, but not really concentrated on applying all the time. In transitions we did the same, collect, then immediately do the transition. I use to do a half halt, think about if it worked, then do the transition. Doing the half halt almost at the same time as doing the transition made them so much better, Odin was able to be a lot more balanced. Yay! It is really hard for me to remember to do, though, as with anything that is not a habit.

we also did a bit of lenghtenings in trot, here I could also feel how much I had to support him with half halts too keep his balance and collection in the lenghtenings. I don't think we entirely succeeded, but I could feel what needed to be done much better.

Great ride and being sick

Saturday I had a fantastic ride. We were outside, since a clinic was going on at the barn, and it actually wasn't raining. Odin started off with being silly, since a horse out side started galloping around in her paddock, bucking and kicking the gate - unfortunately I couldn't ride him through and keep him focused, but after that it got better.

I really was focusing on keeping him forward, and sitting back and deep, so he couldn't pull me forward and go on the forehand. The ride felt really good, but it was hard, and required a lot of concentration. Unfortunately I couldn't quite keep him as straight as I wanted when I did this; when he couldn't slow down or go on his forehand he tries to throw his shoulders in or out. However, I was pleased that I was able to feel this. We worked a little on that in the end of the lesson, and all in all it felt really good.

Monday, however I was sick. This is the 3rd time I have been sick in this last month or so, and I am getting very tired of it. My doctor said I kept getting reinfected with the same virus, I have had sore throat all times. So now I am trying to get really rid of it. The worst part is that I haven't been riding much in Oct/Nov, and in a week we are going on vacation for 14 days. So little riding :(.

Recap

so, I havn't updated in a while, which I should.

In August, the big thing was that we went to a recognized show. We did training level, just to try out showing without having to do anything difficult, and it went great. Got 5 out of 6 scores abobe 60%, and 2 second placings. A lot of feedback about the same things we work on at home, my seat, rein contact, forwardness, balance of rider (and badly influencing the horse). Lots of encouragements and comments about having a great horse to learn on.
And yes, Odin was a STAR. He is such a cool guy to learn on. He came, he was 'ok, this is a show. I know this stuff. Let me do my nice trot'. He really helped me get my nervousness out. Of course he should be more forward, more uphill, the stretchy circle and free walk need a LOT of work, but overall that wasn't the important things (though ribbons were nice), but that I am not nervous about showing him at all now, he is such a levelheaded horse.

I will try and see if I can find some pictures where I don't lean forward too much :P.

After the show we worked in the free walk and the stretchy circle a bit, and how to get an elastic feeling on the rein.

Recently we worked on straightness. We did some shoulder-in to renvers, which were really helpful in getting Odin more supple and straight. We practiced doing trot-canter transitions while straight, that is hard! I think two important things came from this: I try to make Odin less stiff and crooked, since it has been getting worse, and is shouldn't be, that leads to frustration. I think it is a bit better now. I also developed a much better 'feel' for when he is straight or not, and some skills to straighten him. I got the difference between when he falls out or in on a circle or long side, or when he stays straight or correctly bend. The 'feel' is the hardest part of riding, it is what you need master, but I now think it can be learned. And I do have the rest of my life for it :)

Lastly, the last week we worked on forward, half-halts, and expectations. I have been trying to expect more from him, to not allow him to come out of collection when I go forward, or slow down when I collect. It is hard, because now it has become a habit, Odin expects to slow down when I collect, so we need to do a bit of retraining. L. told me the other lesson, if you have to use your legs in a half-halt to prevent him to slow down, he is not in front of you legs. You collect and allow, not push. Hmm... we're not quite there yet, but I did have a bit of that feeling the last lesson.

these last lessons I have been riding with drawreins, which are not my favorite thing. I have a hard time organizing 2 sets of reins, I am terrified of using them too much. They do help me with not letting Odin lean on my hands, and also I don't lean on the reins either, because I have to be more careful with the drawreins. L. is good at making sure they are not used to make Odin curl his neck up and that they are loose enough. I am still sceptical whether this is ultimately the right thing to do, but now I try.

One more thing I have to remind myself, I could really feel a difference after the Legend shot in the start of Oct. The end of September he quite stiff in the right hind, but it really changed with the Legend. I tried an Adequan shot this summer, didn't seem to change anything, but I will definitely keep going with the Legend.