Off Topic!

I must really feel like writing lately.  I've been writing in my personal journal again as well as updating this blog.  Hmm.

This is pretty much off-topic.  I'll loosely tie it to my teaching and riding by saying that I've had teenage students ask me this question: What classes am I taking in high school that will actually apply to my adult life?  Or, stated another way, will I ever use any of this stuff again?

Here is my totally non-scientific, biased list of which classes are (or are not) useful in everyday life as an adult.  I'm not including classes that would be useful in a specific career -- these are all classes that will help an adult understand the news and current events, the world around them, and how to effectively function in society no matter what career path they choose.

First, the sciences.  Basic biology and chemistry are a must in order to grasp the building blocks of life.  You'll forget how to do the equations for the reactions but at least you'll take away an understanding of organisms on both the molecular and the whole-being level.  These classes were required at my high school and both were pretty well-taught.  I'd also like to see a required basic physics class.  I think this would round out the sciences nicely.  A good understanding in these three subjects would hopefully prevent flawed thinking such as "I'll turn the heat up to 90 degrees to warm the house up faster" or "the rainbows I can see in the sprinkler must be some sort of government conspiracy".

Math.  Why do people hate math?  My career does not involve any of the really fascinating things I learned in calculus but I use basic algebra and geometry all the time and I'm sure most adults do, even if they don't realize it.

Health.  Oh my gosh this class was boring and maybe it could be combined with biology but you really do need to know what is happening when you take a mood-altering drug and how to prevent pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.  I actually remember the things we learned in this mind-numbing required class.

Accounting.  We were required to take a personal finance class which I think was useful but didn't go quite far enough.  Some basic accounting concepts could have been added because no matter what you choose to do, even if you hire an accountant, you will be somewhat responsible for managing and keeping track of your money.  Personal finance was another painfully boring class but yeah, important.

History.  What don't I remember?  Ancient history.  We all had to study the Mayans or whatever but I don't see the relevance to adult life.  I did take a really nifty humanities class where we learned about mythology and art history... maybe ancient history could go here, as an elective.  What is useful is recent history.  For US high school students I would say that at the very least this should cover events that occurred on North America (and on other continents when it's relevant) from about the 1500s to the present.  I would say the majority of the subject matter should be very recent history, however, which is precisely the part we pretty much skipped.  Everyone should graduate with an understanding of all the wars and other major events within memory of our oldest citizens and we barely touched on this.

Ha.  I saved Engligh for last and that's because I think this is the class with the most misguided emphasis.  We were required to take English every year and still, the majority of my class graduated with not even a rudimentary understanding of English grammar.  Reading literature and poetry and guessing at symbolism and talking about how it makes you feel could be saved for an elective.  What you really need to know no matter what career you choose is how to write correctly and in a way that people will understand.  We had no grammar at all past seventh grade or so which is probably why most people who graduated when I did write on about a seventh grade level.  Seriously.

So there's how it would go, if suddenly I were to be named dictator of public schools or something.  I know there are plenty of other interesting or useful subjects but I stand by my list of what I would say are the bare minimum required necessities.  Students with interests in other areas may take other classes as electives.

Some smart-ass is going to notice grammatical errors in my post, I'm sure.  There you go.

Tips For Selecting A Riding Instructor

I'm a riding instructor, coach, and trainer.  Put bluntly, my job is to put small children on the backs of prey animals who are  five to ten times larger than the child is and who can easily run at least 30 miles per hour.  Then I teach them to jump.  Safety has to be my absolute top concern.

In this country there is no certification or licensing requirement for riding instructors and horse trainers so pretty much anyone can advertise and start taking clients.  Of course although part of me balks at the thought of having to take courses or tests to become licensed, it would certainly be a huge step toward making this sport safer for new families.  The way things are now, a mom or dad with zero horse experience is faced with selecting an instructor for their child and without an understanding of the important things to look for, they end up having to make a decision based mainly on distance from their home and their feel for the instructor over the phone or email.  There are plenty of instructors out there who are much better sales people than teachers!

As someone with nearly thirty years of riding experience and over a decade of teaching, these are the things I would look for in an instructor or program for my own child.  Of course some of this is based on my own opinion of what the emphasis of a good riding program should be, but this should at least be a good start for someone with no experience.

• A good program should have lesson horses in various sizes and riding levels.  The horses should be trained in the discipline the program is teaching.  Often the best lesson horses are ex-show horses (or even current show horses) because they are well schooled and have been exposed to lots of excitement.  You'd be surprised how many programs are using horses with very little training beyond basic under saddle work.  A horse who is not trained in the correct cues will not teach a beginner how to correctly apply these cues.
• A good program should have an instructor or instructors who are very experienced in the discipline they teach.  This seems obvious but remember, in this country, anyone can teach.  Not every program needs to be based on showing but often the only way for a new parent to find out whether the instructor can ride is by finding out whether the instructor has shown successfully.  If the instructor is currently taking students to shows, their students' own performance at shows can also be a clue to the competence of the instructor.
• The instructor should be able to get on the horse, if necessary, whether it is a lesson horse or the client's own horse.  Even well-trained lesson horses can occasionally be naughty and will need the trainer to get on.  If the instructor or trainer is unable to ride due to age or injury, there should be an assistant or working student available with the ability to get on and ride through whatever the horse is doing.
• A good program will insist on safety equipment for all their students.  If you go to observe a lesson, are all children in long pants, boots, and helmets?
• The lesson horses should appear to be in good health and weight.  A horse with a depressed attitude, very dull coat, or easily visible ribs (ribs may show slightly in a very fit horse) is unhealthy and it is inhumane to ride that horse.  Remember that there may be rehab or rescue cases in the barn who fit the above description but these horses should not be in the lesson program.  If you're curious about the condition of a horse, ask.

Some of these things will be difficult for an inexperienced parent to spot.  I would suggest observing at least one lesson from start to finish -- from the time the student gets the horse out to the time the horse is put away. 

 Try to chat with other parents while you are there.  You'll likely get a pretty good feel for the program by talking with them and you may find that the parents will volunteer the answers to some of the questions above.

It may be that you will select a program for your child and find out after they have already started that it is not a safe program or just not the right program for you.  Don't be afraid to tell an instructor that it isn't working out.  Sometimes it's just a bad personality match, which is something that's happened to all of us.  A good instructor will understand and respect your decision.

Why Don't I Show on the Welsh Circuit?

Out of the 21 horses currently in my barn, nine are eligible to show on the Welsh breed circuit. The shows are said to be cheap and friendly. Why don't I do it?

When I first joined the WPCSA I was told there was a wonderful Yahoo! group I should join to get to know some of the other breeders and start learning my way around the breed. As is my custom on new forums or online groups, I lurked for a while to kind of get a feel for the posting and then I introduced myself. I thought the Welsh breeders would be thrilled that I was getting Welshes and Welsh crossbreds out there and seen by people outside the Welsh world. After all, their own breed website boasts how versatile these ponies are. Instead, I was urged to show my ponies on the Welsh circuit. When I politely declined because open hunters is what I know, I was told that my Welshes were going to waste and what a shame it was that they were "lost to the Welsh world forever". (That's a direct quotation, by the way, and it makes me laugh so much that I pull it out and use it tongue-in-cheek whenever I see a Welsh cleaning up in pony hunters.) I know countless breeders do what I do, cross with Arabs and TBs and WBs and show open, and apparently just do it quietly and ignore the uproar from the Welsh breeders. I'm in possession of the USEF top pony hunter sires list from last year and out of the top 29 stallions (the number on the first two pages I printed) only TWO are not Welsh or half-Welsh. (The other two are a Connemara and a Thoroughbred.) A couple people posted to agree with me that Welshes and Welsh crosses should be out kicking other pony butt on the hunter circuit (seriously, nothing else can come close) and a few people contacted me privately to tell me that the ones causing a problem for me were a particularly vocal minority but the damage was done. The whole business left such a bad taste in my mouth that I did not renew my membership and have never shown on the Welsh circuit.

I think that any time a group of people get together, show a single breed of horse, and place "type" high on the judging criteria, weirdness starts to happen. Initially I think halter classes were supposed to showcase the correct conformation and yes, the certain look, of animals who were at the top of the competition in that breed's chosen disciplines. Over time, however, the look takes over and the animals showing in halter are no longer capable of doing anything but stand up. Does anyone want to tell me that this http://www.magnumpsyche.com/ or this
http://www.bertonqh.com/index_bqh.htm is even remotely what these breeds were originally promoted for?

Wow. Yeah. It's Just a Fashion Show.

I haven't blogged in a while but I ranted elsewhere on the internet this past weekend so who am I to let a good rant go to waste? I shall paste it here.

I am so **** sick of hearing about the snobbery of the hunter/jumper world -- that it's just a glorified fashion show.

There is fashion in every discipline. Do you honestly want to tell me that I could wear any old thing if I wanted to compete at a high level in Western Pleasure? Saddleseat? Pleasure Driving?

In any sport, from baseball to competitive ballroom dancing, there are acceptable outfits and uniforms and wearing them shows that you respect and understand your sport (and in a horse show, that you respect the stewards and judges).

And the body type? Again, in any sport there is a body type that will give a participant a leg up. A ballerina is willowy -- a sumo wrestler is massive. A certain body type may allow someone to excel in sprinting but be lousy at throwing a javelin. Of course there are always exceptions but if you pick a sport that favors a body type that you don't have, you can expect to have to work a little harder. The body type favored in hunters and equitation is not just a fad -- the short torso, long legs and lithe body is the type that will make learning to ride a little bit easier. I see it again and again in my lessons, that the girls who are not blessed with this body type just have to work that much harder. When they are willing to put in the work, however, some of these girls can do just as well as the ones who had it a little easier. My own trainer does NOT fit the norm for body type and she won and won as a kid.

It isn't fair to dismiss the hard work of the kids who show hunters as a fashion or beauty contest. Drop your stirrups and jump a course with us before you judge the entire sport.

Equitation works!

I have a whole post planned on equitation and I don't have time to write that now, but I have to share this photo. I just took three students to a hunter show, two of whom had never shown before. I didn't have a chance to get any photos because I was busy coaching so I emailed one of the moms to see if she had happened to snap any photos. She said she didn't get many, and the ones she got were dark. Here is the only riding photo she sent me so it's not as though I pawed through a whole slew of photos and pulled this one out.

This is one of the girls who had never shown before. She is nine years old. The pony she was riding was a little nervous and forward and she handled it excellently. The photo is dark and blurry, but to the best of my ability I put dots at her shoulder and heel and at her elbow and the bit and drew lines between them. You will see that a straight line from her shoulder to her heel goes right through her hip, and a straight line from her elbow to the bit goes right through her hand. Although the pony was going faster than she was accustomed to, my rider kept her foot underneath her, her leg is wrapped around the pony, and her heel is down. This allowed her to maintain her base of support and not lose her balance. And although the pony's head is high, my rider kept a straight line from her elbow to the bit to keep a supple, effective communication with the pony. She may not have known why she was doing these things, but she remembered how to ride, even under pressure, and I'm so proud!

I must stop enabling.

I received an email containing the following statement the other day:

I hate to see practices that put riding out of the financial range of so many people.

I keep thinking about this, and I have to say that I soundly disagree. I'll echo the often-repeated phrase from FHOTD, "Owning a horse is a luxury, not a right."

I've been mulling this statement over for the past few days and then today a few minor things happened and taken together, it's all really made me regret the way I've tried to make this sport easier for some of my clients. I have always tried really hard to give clients less expensive options, such as having relaxed training requirements for the horses and showing requirements for the riders and allowing them to work off or trade services for portions of their bills. I think it's backfired though, and now I have people expecting that I will pave the way for cheaper horse ownership for them, no matter what the circumstances are.

The vodka and I would now like to make some points.

• I founded this program with the intention that it would be pretty low pressure and I'm not going to force anyone into competing if it is beyond their financial means or comfort level. If you are going to show, however, it is going to be expensive. It just is. Don't expect me to let you go to shows with low-quality clothes or tack because not only are you representing yourself in the ring, you are representing my program. I can work with you to help you find quality used things if the cost of new items is prohibitive, but if even that is beyond you, you're in the wrong sport.
• If you buy a horse, there will be expenses you don't expect. I can list out for you the prices of vaccines and dental visits and hoof trims and other routine needs, but do not be surprised (or indignant!) if you buy a horse and it turns out that he needs supplements, or chiropractic care, or extra feed, or whatever. I cringe when people balk at paying for a minor extra expense because it always makes me wonder what will happen if a real emergency comes up. A vet bill in the thousand-dollar range is not unheard of. Plan for it.
• If you choose not to buy a horse, that's fine too. I have a barn full of horses and likely there will be one that works well for you to take lessons on or take to some shows. It is unfair, however, to decide that owning a horse is too expensive for you but expect to use my valuable horses as if they are your own. If you are taking lessons or showing one of my school horses, there will be limits on how high you may jump or how many shows you may do. I have to protect my investment in my school horses -- you might be shocked to find how much it would cost to replace them. The lesson horses are the most valuable animals in the barn.
  
• There are going to be disappointments. I can do my very best to pick a horse for you and we can get a pre-purchase exam and do everything right but things might still go wrong. Whether we have bought a $4,000 horse or a $40,000 horse, he might only be a day away from major illness or permanent injury. If this happens you make a decision and move on. Yes, it might get very expensive (refer to second bullet point). Yes, you might have to get another horse if you want to continue to compete (refer to third bullet point). My horse died. If your horse is still breathing, f-ing get over it.

Now, more vodka.

March!

The other day I looked at the calendar and realized that it's March. March! Not February! I made it!

If you know me in person you may have heard my February rants. It's my number one, most despised month. December is the first of the really rainy months but you have the holidays to look forward to (if you happen to like them) or at least to keep your mind off the weather. January tends to have the most ice storms but that's at least a break from the usual mud. February just sucks. Calendar-wise it makes you think that you ought to be heading into spring but you're just not. February is all cold, boot-sucking mud and darkness. Often in February a physical despair sets in with me that makes it difficult to get my outside work done. Last February was just about the worst ever even though last year I had a partner. This year, as February loomed closer, I was nearly panicky about how I would get everything done alone when I had previously struggled with help.

But suddenly, it's March! And February wasn't so bad! Don't get me wrong, my property was still covered in cold, heavy mud and I was still feeding in the dark, so the difference is in me. The point of this post, which has turned rather personal, is that it seems a relationship can cause every part of one's life to seem hopeless. I lingered in that relationship even though I knew things were going horribly, horribly wrong because the thought of being alone was scary. Well, ha! Not only am I happier in general, but everything seems easier. Who knew?

Be Like Maggie

Last Friday I rode Maggie. The ride was going really, really well. She's still a silly, green thing but she was listening and trying so hard. I'm eager to get her jumping so it will be easier to find someone to pick up a part lease on her but she hasn't been ready. Some things I look for in a horse or pony before I ask them to jump are the ability to hold their canter on a circle, and maintain a straight line without the rail, i.e. on the quarter line. We were cantering on the right lead and going down the quarter line relatively straight and I started thinking it might be soon that we can pop over some little jumps. Then we reversed and I asked for the left lead canter and everything fell apart. She couldn't get it. I bent her and asked again -- wrong lead. I put her on a circle to balance her and asked her again -- wrong lead. I put her on a ten-meter trot circle and asked for the canter just as we were coming back to the rail and her bend was just right and her legs were in the right place to get the correct lead -- wrong lead. I rode with both reins in one hand so I could back up my outside leg with the dressage whip just when I wanted her outside hind leg to move -- wrong lead. In desperation I let her keep her wrong lead and put her on a ten-meter circle, thinking she would switch to the correct lead to catch her balance -- nope. Through all of this Maggie stayed calm. Each time I asked and then had to bring her back to the trot and ask again she kept trying and trying and didn't get frustrated. She finally got it! I don't think I did anything different that time -- she just happened to pick it up and we cantered one time around on the left lead and we were done. Then sweaty Maggie got rinsed off and got to stand on crossties in a warm cooler.

Today I rode Oliver and was struck by the contrast between him and Maggie. Oliver has a low frustration tolerance and I drive him crazy. I wasn't even asking him to do anything that's hard for him, but I'm sure I ride him in a more active and demanding way than his young owner does. Oliver wants to be left alone to do what he pleases with his head and body. He seems to figure that as long as he is going the direction you want and at the gait you asked for, it doesn't matter what his head and shoulders are doing. If he can go deep into two corners and bend the correct way, he can do it in all four corners so this is something I am going to insist on. It's only when I'm not getting the response I want that my aids become very active, starting soft and getting rapidly increasingly annoying until I get my response. Move your body this way, I ask with my inside leg. I bring it up against his side lightly, then firmly, then press a little circle on his side with my heel, then tap tap tap my heel against him to get his attention and finally get him to move over. He grinds his teeth to register his protest but he does it.

Later, at the canter, he starts to get very strong going away from his spooky end so I put him on a twenty meter circle and do some pretty firm half-halts so he can't throw his head up and run. More grinding. Leave me alone, is what this means. I get a halfway decent canter and bring him back to the trot, doing lots of circles and trotting the poles and changing directions to get his mind off his frustration. It doesn't work. Grind, grind, grind. He's feeling good, moving huge and holding himself up, but he's just mad! Oliver will never be like Maggie so I have to. I ask Maggie something and she says, I'll try. I'll try again. Over and over. Oliver says no. I have to be able to keep asking without feeding into (or off of!) his frustration so that he can have a positive ride. When Oliver says no I have to be able to calmly say try again.

I do think that we had a positive ride today, even though he was so frustrated, because his frustration was never allowed to escalate into a fight or a temper tantrum. This is something I've had to work on with my training and riding since I tend to be a perfectionist and can get frustrated myself if something isn't going right. If I remain neutral while I ride Oliver, he will hopefully be able to relax and learn to use his body the way I am asking. If I get upset with him he will only get worked up more and we won't accomplish anything. Steamy Oliver got to finish his day with a nice, hard massage with the rubber curry. He's starting to shed -- spring is coming -- hooray!

Sometimes I'm Afraid To Say I'm A Trainer

I just finished reading FHOTD and am sad and stunned and speechless at what a "trainer" did to a mule. (If you want to read the details, click on Fugly Horse of the Day to the right. --->)

The question has been raised, however, of why the owner never went to check on her mule. Most of the horses I train are for my own students so they are at the barn on a regular basis and see how their horse is cared for and handled. I did have an owner in Alaska send me a pony to train and sell and I was in regular email contact with her and sent her photos and updates on his progress. While I may have used a stick on his roany-pony bottom to motivate his flying changes, he was certainly never in danger of any sort of abuse. I should have made sure the owner knew she was welcome to drop in unannounced at any time. Looking back on it, I am honored that she trusted me with her precious boy. (Alvesta Manroe the Giant, pictured above.)

Poor, poor mule.

:(

Some Things Are Just Not Going To Happen On Some Days

I rode Fly today. I had been thinking about his canter transitions before I rode him and was planning to work on walk to canter. I know he can do this, we've done it before, but it just wasn't happening today. I tried every which way to get him on my aids enough that he could do the transition (we backed, we did circles in the corners, and he really did feel light enough to do it) but he was growing increasingly frustrated so after several attempts, I quit. I let him trot around the arena long and low for a while, and then we did trot/canter/trot transitions on a twenty meter circle instead. He did a great job and we called it a day. Sometimes, something is just not going to happen and if it isn't a really big deal, it can be left for another day. I don't make this decision lightly because I don't want the horses to think they can get out of work whenever something is hard, but today it seemed like the right thing to do.

I can't publish this entry without saying a little bit about Midnight, the pony who arrived on Saturday. When I had been planning my day I had also decided that I wanted to take advantage of the sun and get some photos of her. I think my lesson for the day was to have flexible plans, because when I went to catch her she was completely caked in mud. It was warm enough for a bath so she got hosed off and then I clipped her face and bridle path. She is such a good pony! She stood quietly on crossties with the halter draped around her neck while I clipped so either she's the mellowest pony in the world or she's done this before. I can't wait to get a kid on her this weekend! I'll post an "after" photo of Midnight from today.

Don't Buy a Pony!

Yeah, I've been riding. It's been the usual stuff though and really not exciting to write about. Sometimes, training rides are soooo interesting. Who wants to read long descriptions of developing a straight way of going? Not me. Maybe if Reiner Klimke writes them, but otherwise, no.

Today was a bit eventful with a new pony and a runaway and an emergency vet call. I was chatting with the vet while she stitched my mare and she described an emergency call to a colic that was so far along that the horse was thrashing too badly for her to be able to safely euthanize him and the poor thing had to die that way, all because his owners were new to horses and did not recognize the signs he had been giving them. My vet could see that he had been thrashing in his stall for quite some time and they thought he was misbehaving (???) and took him outside and tied him up to something (a tree? A trailer? I don't remember) which is where he was when she arrived.

Anyway, it's right along the lines of something I've been thinking about recently which is that I sincerely wish that most people would just not own horses. Or, if they really must have one, and they are new to horses, they should keep it at a boarding facility and not in their own back yard.

I got a phone call about riding lessons earlier this week. The woman told me she had three daughters between the ages of six and nine and wanted to know about pricing and schedules and such for lessons. Then she said, "I bought them a pony a few months ago and they're scared to ride it!" This seemed shocking to her. The way she said it, she could have substituted "bicycle" or "skateboard" for "pony", as though a pony is something you can just work out for yourself and be on your way. Yeah, the pony outweighs the kids by several hundred pounds and has teeth and hooves. And a brain. Any kid who is reasonably aware of their own mortality would be wise to have a little fear in this situation. Then the mother went on to say that she also wanted the girls to learn how to take care of the pony because she had been doing all of that herself. Now I have visions of the poor pony, a herd animal all alone in someone's yard, which in January is filled with cold, Oregon mud. I actually Googled their phone number and found their address and now I'm tempted to drive by, just to see if I can check on the condition of the pony from the road.

A pony is not a Golden Retriever. You can't learn how to take care of one from books. You might learn a lot, but it takes years of hands-on experience to recognize the subtle signs of a horse in serious trouble. If a new owner could not recognize the signs of a violent, fatal colic, how can they be expected to see a laminitic pony rocked slightly back to get weight off his front hooves? Or the slight depression that can be sensed in a horse who has an unseen puncture wound buried under winter hair but is beginning to run a fever from the infection? Horses are masters at masking pain and injury. My mare Isabelle had a gaping wound in her side today but from the other side, you would never have known there was anything wrong. She stood calmly in her paddock without showing any signs of pain or distress.

I also sometimes get students who are taking lessons in preparation for buying a horse or pony to keep at home. This is a little better, and I hope in these situations that I can provide a realistic view of what is involved with owning horses. Here are some questions I would pose to anyone seriously considering purchasing a horse to keep at home, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.

• You do know that you need more than one horse, right? Horses are herd animals and will not function normally in isolation. A second horse can probably be found for free if you are willing to take a retiree or a broken-down show or race horse, but expect to pay more for feed and vet care for an animal like this.
• What kind of shelter will you provide? Horses do quite well in summer sun as long as there is adequate water and a three-sided shelter or some big trees for shade, but in the winter they need somewhere to really get out of the rain and the mud. Heavy hooves will churn the ground into sucking mud anywhere the horses spend much time which will be where you feed them, where they go to get out of the rain, and at the gate, unless you have gone to great care and expense to put in gravel and drainage in these areas. Expect to have to redo this drainage every so often as the high clay content of our soil will block it up. (I know this from experience. The path from the barn to the arena... yuck.)
• Where will you ride? Seriously? In summer you might be happy to tool around the pasture and maybe you'll be lucky enough to have access to trails. In winter, even if it hasn't rained in weeks, there will be the mud. (See my previous bulleted point. I can't emphasize the mud enough.) Of course since we're talking about Oregon here, it will likely be too wet and rainy to ride outside from about October to May.
• You realize that the horses will still need to be fed and groomed and vaccinated and dewormed (outside, in the mud, remember) for these seven or eight months, even if you can't ride them, right?
• Do you know that trained horses and ponies rapidly deteriorate to the level of their riders? That wonderful push-button horse you tried, loved, and purchased at a training barn may very well become sour and difficult after being ridden only by beginners. I've heard clients say, "find me a pony like Ginny" or "we want a pony just like Rocky". Ginny and Rocky are fantastic ponies. They both have full, busy lesson schedules with children because they're forgiving and sweet and well-trained, but even Ginny and Rocky get tuned up regularly.
  

If you can honestly say that you are prepared for all of these things, that you can handle the mud and you're building a barn and you'll trailer out for lessons or training and you're willing to spend a few years with a good instructor so that you can recognize a healthy horse and know when things are wrong, by all means buy a couple horses. There are certainly a lot of horses out there needing good homes. If you're in love with these animals like I am, there is nothing better than walking into a quiet barn and hearing nothing but horses chewing hay, or filling a water bucket while the horse in that stall puts her muzzle on your face and steams up your glasses.

However, if the idea of this sort of responsibility sounds too difficult, or time-consuming, or muddy for you, take lessons. Lease something. Buy something and board it somewhere reputable where someone else will worry about your horse for you and make sure he is fed and his stall is cleaned and his water is topped off just before bed, even if it is twenty degrees outside. (The only good thing about twenty degrees outside is no mud!!!)

So, there you have what's been going through my head. I know not every horse needs Rambo rugs, a twelve-by-twelve stall, and an acupuncturist, but every horse deserves the basics of appropriate feed, vet care, farrier care, companionship, protection from the weather, and a caregiver who will check on him frequently and recognize signs of illness or injury. I fear that a great number of people underestimate the time, energy and knowledge that goes into meeting these most basic needs.

Getting Reacquainted With Oliver

Oliver is a Thoroughbred x APHA gelding. I rode him today for the first time in... years? I don't even remember! I can't recall if I have ever ridden him at my new place so the last time may have been when we were still at Elk Ridge. I stopped riding him because he was going pretty well for S and for some reason he and I weren't getting along anyway. Really I get along with most horses, but he and I were clashing and we'd end up getting into arguments.

I decided to start riding him again because he isn't getting out enough. He isn't allowed to go outside in winter mud because of his ringbone so when S comes to ride him she has to lunge and lunge and lunge. He bucks and gallops which of course aggravates the ringbone anyway and then he gets sore. More frequent easy workouts should help both his soundness and his mood.

After I had already decided to start riding him I also came to the decision that I ought to be riding all the horses in the barn anyway. I don't see ever requiring all the students' horses to be in full training like at the big show barns -- I like working with the girls and letting them play a big part in their own green horses' training. They ride with me because they (or their parents) like the more relaxed atmosphere and I think they understand that being their horses' primary riders means that they will progress more slowly than if they were in full training. However, I can feel things from a horse's back that I can't always see from the ground, and I think it's important for me to be on them at least occasionally.

Oliver was really quite good today. He was sound and lazy. All I really did was ask him to go long and low (he prefers to stick his head in the air) and then we trotted and trotted and trotted, doing circles and lots of changes of directions and asking him to bend. It was a nice, easy start to riding him again and he got only mildly annoyed at me.

The photo I'm posting today is one of my favorites of Oliver. He tends to be very dramatic about jumping anything new, and this was the first time he saw the miniature bank jump I built last year. In fact, a friend of mine photoshopped something rather more impressive for him to be jumping, so I think I'll post that, too.

Friday is Maggie Day

Maggie does this thing when you ask for the trot from a walk -- a head toss with a twist to the right, and then she starts trotting. I suspect she needs her teeth floated but the weird thing is that she does it even on a totally loose rein so I think it isn't only the teeth.

I did an exercise that I like for tuning up transitions; I pick a number (I tend to pick twelve) and then do that many strides at the walk, then ask for a trot and do that many trot strides, then back to the walk and do that many strides, and so on several times either around the whole arena or on a large circle. You can do it with any two gaits and vary the number if you like. My favorite way to do it with trot-canter-trot transitions is to start at a number and make the number smaller by one until you get down to just two strides of each gait between transitions.

Anyway, Maggie is way too green for the canter one or the descending numbers of strides so we just did twelve strides of walk, twelve strides of trot, twelve strides of walk etc. She did eventually stop doing the head toss so it may just be behavioral but I'll have her teeth checked anyway. To cool out we went outside and walked around the property a bit. She even got kind of peppy when she was heading up a hill and wanted to do a big draft trot there. She was a very, very good pony today.

Pony Doesn't Like To Jump

Texas, the pony I bought to retrain as a pony hunter, really despises jumping. I'm not the kind of person who enjoys beating ponies over fences so Texas will continue his training on the flat and his Pony Good Citizen training and as soon as he sheds his cream-colored fluff he'll be put on the market. I won't be getting a pony hunter price for him because it's jumping that makes ponies valuable. sigh. Hopefully someone will fall in love with this pony face.

I just made "Pony Good Citizen" up, by the way. I was typing and it just came out, but I like it. Ponies must stand to be clipped and bathed and vaccinated and wormed. They must be able to be touched all over. They must load and unload nicely. They must be able to be fetched and tacked up and led into the arena by small children. Ponies should be able to be ridden alone or in groups and not get pissy about either one. Texas is pretty good at these things, although he will drag a child down the aisle if he sees food. Then again, what pony won't?

Today we worked on staying on the rail, going deep into corners and a little bit of bending. I clipped some of the goat-hair off his face and he looks much better than he did. Still soooo hairy though! Ponies in winter are really something.

Speaking of hair, Isabelle is shedding like it's March or something and I can only guess that it's hormones. She's not showing her pregnancy like some of my friends' mares who are due at the same time so I cling to any sign that she still has her foal. I keep being nearly certain that I can feel the foal move but I can't wait for one of those movements that makes the mare's whole belly jump so I can be really sure she still has it. If she does, we only have three months to go!

Wish List

I really do love this job, but I'm going to burn out if I don't get a bit of help. Here's what I'd like most.

• Someone to feed on Monday and Thursday mornings. Those are the mornings I sometimes have to drive my kids to school so feeding and making lunches and getting teenagers motivated to get up is stretching my morning a little thin. On the Monday and Thursday mornings I don't have to drive them to school, it might be nice to have coffee in my jammies for a change before I have to put on barn clothes and go outside. It really sounds heavenly.
• Someone to clean stalls on Tuesdays and Fridays. Maybe not even all the stalls, but a good portion of them. As long as I'm wishing, it might be nice to have someone do some of them on Mondays, too.

This isn't too much to ask, is it?

I Really Like This Horse!

A new stall cleaner was supposed to start today but she didn't show up and didn't call or anything. What is up with people who do that?? This is starting to become a pattern and it's frustrating. I really need to clean fewer stalls so I can ride more horses. I actually kind of like cleaning, but it doesn't make sense for me to spend that many hours on stalls when I have horses to ride. I managed to blow through them pretty quickly today and rode one whole horse. Woo!

I picked Fly, the Welsh Cob x Arabian gelding that was pictured yesterday. Fly belongs to a student and I ride him periodically to tune him up. I hadn't been on him in several months (except for once when I hopped on to make him go in his spooky corner a few weeks ago) but we hope to take him to quite a few shows this year, including the Arabian Region 4 show at Devonwood, and I want him a little more polished before he goes. His teenage owner has been doing a fantastic job with him, riding him in lessons and on her own, but there is still work to do. I plan to ride him at least every other week now through the show season.

Fly is the kind of horse you really have to ride. You can't just sit there and expect him to do the work, but if you ask for something he tries hard to get it. He was a little shocked to have me on his back today, I think, but settled into his work pretty quickly. The first five or ten minutes were spent asking him to bend and shift his weight off his forehand (and then he needs a reminder of these things with each new gait) but once he's listening, he's one of my favorite types of horse to ride. His gaits are very big, he is learning to come round for short periods of time, and he actually appears to enjoy his flatwork.

He's a fun and challenging ride for advanced riders but will pack an intermediate rider pretty well. He has almost auto lead changes when he's jumping courses and will jump anything as long as you're riding confidently. He used to turn a bit like a barge but we've been working on this in lessons and he's starting to wow us with his jumper turns! It's really satisfying to watch a horse go from totally green (we got him with about thirty days under saddle) to a horse with an education and some natural talent starting to shine. His owner wants to show him mainly in the jumpers now but the plan is to half-lease him to a less experienced rider who will do low hunters with him as well.

Not everyone needs a giant warmblood. Fly is about 15.2, has tons of bone, is never off and never needs shoes. He's a great size to handle both on the ground and under saddle. He has "Arab moments" sometimes but can generally be talked down from them. He's the first of his cross that I have trained and I really like that he is talented and fancy enough to show and sturdy and sensible enough to be able to take camping.

I should take a moment to plug his breeder. He was bred by Egret Flats Farm in southern Oregon. The Drum and Gypsy horses are not my thing, but I really like the Arabian x Shire and Arabian x Welsh Cob crosses they're producing. I'm trying hard to get another one in my barn!

Today's photo was taken last summer with his owner at the beach. :)

It's a Hunter or it's Not

You can have a hunter/jumper trainer, board at a hunter/jumper barn, and even go to a hunter/jumper show. All this means is that both styles of training or classes are taught or available. A horse, however, is almost always a hunter or a jumper. There are horses who do both, but usually they do well at one and just dabble in the other. (Or maybe they don't do well in either one but not every horse is meant to be an athlete over fences!) It takes a rare horse to excel in both disciplines. For this reason, it has always bothered me to hear horses referred to as "hunter/jumpers". It shouldn't, but it does.

So, what is a hunter? It has to do with movement, form over fences, and general way of going. Discussing all three would make for a very long entry, so I'm just going to write about form over fences right now.

A good hunter jumps in a shape called a bascule. The bascule is an arched, rounded form the horse takes over the fence. Horses who jump flat, or with their heads too high, do not have a good bascule. A horse may have a good bascule but still not pin in the hunters because of poor form with the front legs. The front legs should be tight and even, not dangling the knees or hooves. Again, a horse may have a powerful, careful jump but not snap his knees up into hunter form and therefore will not place well.

To be fair, I will demonstrate form over fences with horses from my own barn. First, here are horses and ponies with good hunter form. Owen, a half-Welsh gelding, is jumping this small fence with very good form. His knees are up, level with his elbows. His front hooves are carefully tucked up toward his belly. His head and neck are stretching forward and down to form the arched shape of the bascule. He would jump with even more "pop" with a smaller rider but he was being schooled for me this day by an older student.


Teddy, a Thoroughbred, is also demonstrating good hunter form here. He is just starting to unfold his legs for landing so they are not quite as tight as Owen's, above, but the knees are still up and even. He is also stretching his head and neck forward and down to form the bascule. Teddy pinned very well over fences both at 3' (pictured) and 3'6" where his bascule was even more impressive.


Here is Rocky, a grade pony, but boy can he jump! The photo is taken a little too soon to judge the bascule (which I suspect may have been hindered by tension in the rider's upper body anyway) but his expression is picture-pony-perfect and his front end is tight and even. You can see that his hooves are twisted to the outsides a little bit which might hurt him in the pony model classes because it's part of his conformation, but otherwise he displays a very good jump.


Now I'll show horses with poor hunter form. Here is Isabelle, an Oldenburg. She has a pretty good bascule, but she is unimpressed with this 3' fence and not only are her legs not tucked up very tightly, they aren't even doing the same thing! Isabelle is a beautiful mare and she loves to jump, but form is not her strong point and she is a jumper mare, not a hunter. When we do show her in the hunters and she puts in a nice round with good distances and all her changes, she places below horses with tight knees. She does better in equitation and medals where the rider is judged rather than the horse.


This is a low-quality photo because the arena was dark, but here is an example of a poor bascule. This is Ginny, an Arabian. She usually jumps in very good form but this photo was taken in the show ring, heading toward the in-gate, and she was very excited and jumped flat. See how her head and ears are easily the highest part of her jump and her back is flat and trailing straight out behind her instead of in an arch? While the bascule is poor, her front end is good. She is tight and careful with her front end which can still be seen even at this point of the jump with her legs starting to unfold.

Here is a more subtle one. This is Fly, a Welsh x Arabian. His bascule is decent for this tiny jump (about 2'3"), but his knees are lower than his elbows, just a little. He is at an earlier part of his jump than Ginny, above, so we can't blame his somewhat loose front end on getting ready to land. It's not a lot, but it would be enough to keep him out of the ribbons in heavy competition. I imagine Fly's form will tighten up as he matures and we jump him higher because the problem with his form is slight and he was very green in the photo. His conformation is not typical of a hunter however and his future is in the jumper ring where he has already shown promise at schooling shows.

Dull Ponies, Continued

I complained about dull ponies and then what happened? I got a draft pony in to train. Actually, I like her. She's more willing than Texas anyway!

Her name is Maggie and she is a Haflinger. I have no photos of her but will have to get some soon because she is dreamy. Every little student I have wants her. It makes it tough to sell "the short mane improves the look of the neck!" to a bunch of little girls who have now seen a pony with a two-foot long blonde mane. I am the biggest pulled-mane fan ever and I have to admit that sometimes I maybe sort of think Maggie's mane is pretty. A little bit.

Maggie is six years old and pretty much still a baby. She's started with some good basics but is still very green. She's the biggest noodle ever sometimes! Today I introduced side reins to try to straighten her out a little bit and she responded very well. That's one nice thing about a draft... the freak-out is pretty low key. What's this? Something new?? I think I can't go forward at all in fact I think I just might... oh never mind. Too much effort. And then we proceeded to walk and trot and make somewhat lovely circles with our head and neck basically in front of our body for about twenty minutes and we were done. Successful ride!

OMG it's January!

January means that I have to learn a whole new set of ages for all the horses. I love older horses, really, but I hate to think of what it means for my herd in the next five years or so. This year Owen and Rosalynn will turn 21, Tiffany will turn 20, Tickle will turn 18, Teddy will turn 16, Phoebe will turn 15, and Ginny will turn 14.

Previously I had decided that Tiffany was retired. Her story is typical of a Thoroughbred mare. She was used for breeding, first at a racehorse farm where I hear she had one stillborn foal and then at a couple warmblood breeding farms. Her foals were spectacular, earning first premium papers no matter what stallion she was bred to. The breeder of the first three Oldenburg foals was an excellent and conscientious owner but when that program disbanded she was sold. The last time she foaled she did not receive adequate postnatal care and has a tear that healed on its own with jagged edges. Because of the number and size of the foals she had, her vulva gapes open, leaks vaginal fluids, and sucks air into her uterus. After weaning her last foal she was turned out into a winter pasture (in Oregon this means mud and no forage) with no blanket and had to fend off two big geldings for her food. I went to see her because I recognized her as the dam of Isabelle and thought she might make a nice addition to the lesson program or broodmare herd or both. When I saw her I realized that she was in no state to do either but she needed to come home with me anyway. Not only was she severely underweight, but she had such bad rain rot that her skin broke and bled when she was brushed. Tiffany is one lucky mare that I found her and took her home to recover and retire. Many Thoroughbred mares are not this fortunate.

It is now several years later and Tiffany is living in luxury in the first stall in the barn so she gets all the attention from visitors. Her paddock door is open in all but the worst weather so she can go stand in her favorite corner spot outside. Her next door neighbor is her own daughter and I have taken down half their wall so they can visit. She wears a warm blanket and I pour food into her to keep her Thoroughbred frame filled out and her coat sleek. She eats more than mares who are pregnant or nursing! She is healthy and mostly sound (occasionally she appears to have a little trouble with her hips but she works out of it) so I was inspired by FHOTD and decided to start riding her again. She's a rocket! She flexes at the poll and moves off my leg, but her preferred speed is whatever is faster than I'm letting her go at the moment and if I half-halt too many times in a row she explodes straight up, even though I'm only half-halting with the strength of a few fingers. I love her.