Back home

The previous week I was away at a conference, so my trainer L. and her working student/groom/fellow boarder T. rode Odin.

Sunday I came back to a much more supple Odin, and I was able to get a really great lesson even if had been away for a week. We worked on bend and getting that elusive elastic feel on the rein contact. Hard, but some rewarding moments. I wish my hands were better!

Monday was more of the same, with a bit of counter canter, which really helps to make him more supple. It definitely feel like he has an easier time collecting and bending in the canter than the trot. Ir probably helps that I sit better in the canter too...
At the end of the lesson we had a little argument. I was chatting with L. and Odin kept moving around. She told me to make him stand still on the bit for 20 sec. This turned out to not be that easy. L. walked over to him and made him stand by standing next to me, showing that it is a respect issue... He knows he can fool me. So I really tried not to be the fool. He huffed, and puffed, and cantered on the spot, but in the end he stood still. Funny horse as he is, Odin has the look of of, 'oh, OK, I can do that. I just wanted to see if I could get you to give up'.

Tuesday, it turned out that along with a little positive reinforcement, this really helped me to have him respect me on the ground too. Nice. My lesson was not so good, I was very tried, but we worked on more bend, suppleness etc.

This morning I had a really great lesson. Along with everything else, L. made me constantly think of my own balance, and not leaning on the reins, and keeping a steady (elastic) connection. Still pretty hard, but we had our moments. Of course, when I get my seat and hands independent and stay in my own balance, Odin is more balanced too, and our transitions are really so much better.
In the end of the lesson we did some canter three loop serpentines with trot transitions in the middle, a very useful exercise. And I think it went pretty well :)

Recap

The last 2 weeks we have mostly been working on sensitivity to the aids and bend to the right. Odin is a lot less supple on the right side, and I have up until now not really been able to do that much about it.

The first week we mostly worked on him listening to my aids. If I asked him with a light tap of the leg, and he didn't have a really convincing reation, I corrected him with a large aid with the whip. Doing it a with a little more, and a little more, etc would just need to nagging, which really is a bad habit of mine. Two things I learned that I must remember:
1) Most of this is mental, I must demand a immidiate and large reaction to my aids, not be satisfied with a little bit.
2) I cramp with my right leg. Because Odin is not really in front of it very often, I nag, pull my leg up and cramp it on. Much easier for him and me when I manage to relax it and use it lightly!

This week we worked on bend to the right, now I could get him to move off my right leg. We did a lot legyield on the left lead, and shoulderin or shoulder fore on the right lead, and I could feel him getting easier to bend. Nice!

Wednesday we did this weeks most interesting exercise. I was having trouble keeping him in front of my right leg countercantering on the left lead, not really figuring out how to apply my right leg and keep him on the left lead.
L. had me do this:

We go on a circle to the right, and do some shoulder in in walk. Straighten him, ask for canter to the left. Half halt and collect, keeping him in balance. If he stiffens against my right hand, back to walk and shoulder in, then back to left lead canter. If he popped a change, keep cantering on the right lead, shoulder in (ish, as well as I can do it) in the canter. When he feels softer, do a change back to the left lead.

It was a little hard for me to do, lots of thinking, but in the end I could feel him being softer on the right, more in balance, and I could see how doing all the right bend was helping him to be more in balance, and making it easier for him to do what I really wanted. That was a very cool feeling!

Bonus fact...

8. my farrier just raised his prices for a full shoeing from $110 to $115.

I think it would be interesting to compary horsey price points around the world, like prices for shoeing, board etc. Should even be done in something like 'liters of skimmed milk' or another price index instead of cash value, with the dollar right now I am sure this looks a lot cheaper to European eyes than it was even 2 years ago...

7 things

Diary of a Young Horse tagged me to write 7 things you might not know about me (or Odin, I suppose), so here goes:

1. I have lived my whole life within a 50 km radius, until we in July 2005 moved about 7800 km from Copenhagen to the Seattle area.

2. I have had one dream about Odin (that I remember), in which it was very important that I bring him to Verden for the Hannoverian stallion licencing. I thought it was a bad idea, but his breeders (whom I have never met), told me it was very important for the owners of the foals he had sired. This being a dream it made no sense, even though Odin presumably have sired some foals before he was gelded at 5 years old. I remember I was stressed in dream over bringing him to Germany (why on earth would I bring a 15 year old horse across the ocean for that?), but not over riding him, which is funny since I pretty sure I would not be able to present him in any way to his advantage :P. Anyway, I guess dreams a silly like that.

3. Unlike so many horse people, I am not really a dog person. I like other people's dogs if they are nice, but I would never own one. We have 2 cats, and I also have a freshwater aquarium tank (which had been somewhat neglegted after I got Odin)

4. It is hard to make out in pictures, but Odin has a tiny white snip on his lip. It is very cute.

5. I am in many ways a real geek, I am a software developer by profession, I love sci-fi shows (Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica), playing PC and console games. Actually, if I am not in the barn, I am probably in front of the computer, or maybe the TV.

6. After we moved to the US and could suddenly afford decent cars, both my and my husband got a lot more interested in them. I love my 2005 Mazda MX-5 Mazadaspeed, so much fun. We ended up spending a lot of time looking at cars, we now have 3 for the 2 of us (our American friends mock us and say we have been assimilated), we go to car shows, sporadicly reads car magazines etc. We don't have a truck, though (yet).

7. I rarely watch sports, but I love figure skating and follows it closely. I try to catch every thing the send on TV, what I can find on youtube (Russian tv shows every competition, apperently, yay!), reads about the skaters and so. I am trying to figure out how I can watch the figure skating in the 2010 Olympics, since it will be just around the corner in Vancouver, BC.

Metaphor of today

In today's lesson, I was working on the general stuff I have been all week, namely getting Odin to move in balance, with out me hanging on his mouth, and letting him hang on my hands (we're really good at the dragging each other off balance, making it worse and worse).

One thing L. (my trainer) focused on today, was the fact that he is out of balance and doesn't bend on the circle. One of the reasons for this is that he is not in front of my legs, so he is just slugging around.

We did some exercises like haunches out, leg yields and turn on the forehand, to get him more responsive to my legs. However, L. nailed it when she said that I really don't have the right idea about how he should feel when he is in front of the leg, I am satisfied with a little bit. Like I ask him to go more forward, and maybe he does, a tiny bit, for two steps. I have to demand more.

So the metaphor she used, which I think works for me, is that he should be like a puck on an air hockey table. The very slightest of aid should have him move, and keep moving. He is like an hockey table with no air, I push, he moves, stops, I push again. Turns into nag, nag, nag, and he really isn't in front of my leg. So I have to turn the air on!

A lot of this is really mentally demanding a really good answer from him. He can do all this stuff. He knows what he should do. He just knows he can away with not doing it. Then I tell him no, he has to, and then he gets all huffy and puffy, because he knows that there is a chance I will be intimidated and back off. So I really mentally needs to tell my self that I am doing the right thing, I should be aware of what I ask and get it.
And then he will grunt, say OK, and do it. Wonderful well balanced canter suddenly, isn't it nicer for him to be in balance and bending nicely too? Hmmm....

Anyway, I need to turn the air on for that table, be able to make him respond to the lightest of aids. Maybe then I can rid of this stupid nagging habit I have!


on another note:
- I was riding Sunday, when suddenly there were two coyotes outside the arena. Bigger than one should think. I think I was more startled than Odin (hugs my safe, sane horse)
- Echo tagged me, I will get around to that, I hope.

Some pictures

Well, I emptied my camera...

Newly pulled mane, looking all groomed:

In the stall:

Horses are silly:

L. riding Odin. Very fuzzy, but you can see the wonderful big arena I ride in (love it, except on cold days):

Balance

this has been the theme for the last couple of lessons. Both mine and Odin's, since we of course influence each other.
L. has been making me aware of the fact that Odin's balance is constantly changing, every time I ask him to do something, like be a little more forward, a little more round. So I am trying to be aware of this, and keep his balance steady. It is so much my ability as a rider that is the problem, it is not that he can't be in balance, but we do pull each other around a lot.

Also, I had a light bulb moment this Wednesday morning in my lesson. Odin likes to lean on the bit a lot, and it is quite hard for me to make him stop, and get him forward enough. However, I managed to get him to be light in the hand (still not steady enough, still have balance issues!), and L. pointed something out to me... I tense up and feel insecure in the saddle, when he doesn't pull at my hands! So basically I lean on him, and he leans on me, and I let it happen because it makes me feel more secure.
That is really, really annoying. I have to encode my brain and body to him being light being a good thing!
At least now I know.

It feels like there is a million things to work with sometimes. Sometimes I feel a bit sorry that Odin has to put up with my faulty riding, but at least it keeps improving. I am sure that every horse I will ride later in life will be grateful to him.

Otherwise, it is really cold (freezing) right now, and that is really annoying in a covered arena. Brrr. Where is that Seattle cloud cover? On the other hand, that means I have had plenty of opportunity to use one of my Christmas gifts, a Rambo Newmarket Quarter Sheet. In goldenrod stripes, it so reminds me of winter back in the stable in Denmark... I feel all nostalgic when I look at us in the mirrors.