Sixth Lesson with Christine

Last night was my sixth lesson with Christine and I'm sorry to say that it didn't really go all that well. Not Christine's fault. I was just having a bad day. My depression and anxiety had been acting up and manifesting themselves physically in the form of headaches, slight nausea and severe lethargy. I almost called and canceled the lesson, but I didn't want the depression to win. My husband, Foxfire, was a champ and forewent staying home and riding his horse to make sure that I made it to the lesson okay. I am so lucky to have him.

Anyway, when I got to Christine's I decided to ride Meshack again. I'd actually been thinking of giving Will a try outside of the round pen, but because I was feeling so bad, I figured it was best to stick with the horse that I'd ridden the most. Things started out okay. We did some work on downward transitions walk/halt and trot/walk and even trot/halt. That went well enough though admittedly I was still feeling sort of out of sorts. We also worked on training Meshack to respond to lighter cues. I'd give a very light cue the first time I asked and if he didn't immediately go, I'd give him a very firm cue. By about halfway through the lesson he was actually responding appropriately to the light cues. So that was good.

While we were working on getting him to respond to lighter cues, we were also working getting him to give me a bigger more forward trot. Christine said that although Meshack is pretty lazy to begin with, that I'd been letting him get away with being even lazier than usual by not demanding a more energetic trot. So I would ask for a trot nicely, and if I didn't get a nice big forward trot, I would kick and cluck until he gave me one. Here is where me feeling bad made more of a difference. I would get the bigger trot, but because I was feeling out of sorts, I don't think I rode it very well. I felt just a little off balance and simply didn't feel as good about my riding as I had been feeling. This led to the worst problem of the night.

When we got to the cantering part of the lesson, it was rather a disaster. I'm pretty sure that it was almost all my fault, though Christine said that Meshack was testing me and that that was the problem. I don't know. I just don't feel really good about how things went. I would ask for the canter... and ask... and ask... and Meshack just wouldn't canter. In retrospect, I'm sure that I wasn't asking properly. And that Meshack could tell that I was a little off balance and unsure, and that he didn't want to canter with me like that. Anyway, he did eventually canter and once he was cantering things went well enough. Not great, I didn't feel like I was doing as well as last week, but not abysmal. We tried cantering a few more times and each time, it was extremely difficult to get Meshack to canter. However, I did eventually get a gallop.

It wasn't intentional, of course. I was trotting Meshack on the side of the arena near the driveway, asking for canter and not getting it, when suddenly he bounded into a flat out gallop. A car had turned into the driveway and spooked him. I didn't know about the car until later, I was too busy losing my stirrups and adjusting to this surprising new gait. Fortunately, or maybe not so fortunately, I've had a number of horses bolt on me before, so it didn't freak me out. I was, of course, startled and scared right at first. But as soon as I realized that all he was doing was running away, not bucking or anything, I wasn't really that scared. I managed to turn him to keep him in the arena, shortened my reins, sat deep and pulled him down to a halt in the center of the arena near where Christine and Foxfire were standing. I think Christine said something about me handling the spook well, but I'm not really sure. The adrenaline was still pumping and I was still recovering from the excitement. However, I think she was complimentary. I'm just glad that I stayed on and managed to get control back.

After that, we decided not to try for any more canter and I must say, I was relieved. I had not been doing well with the canter and was perfectly satisfied to leave it for another day when hopefully, I'd be feeling better. So we did trot poles for the rest of the lesson. Doing the trot poles actually went pretty well. My first time over was a bit awkward, but after that each attempt went a little better than the previous one... for the most part. During this time I was also trying to keep my knees turned in, rather than letting them turn out the way they do naturally. I don't think that I was very successful with keeping them turned in, because each time I returned my attention to them, they had turned out again. However, I was making progress with the trot poles. Near the end, I think I finally got the rhythm right. I just had to slow waaaaaay down on my posting. I think there was one time when I was actually completely in sync with Meshack. That was really nice.

Once we finished with the trot poles, I took my feet out of the stirrups and just walked around for a bit letting the kinks out of my knees and letting Meshack cool down. I'm afraid that I don't feel really good about this lesson. I know that I didn't do my best. But I suppose that I have to accept that I did the best that I could for that day. Oh well.

BTW, I noticed that I had forgotten to include something that Christine told me during my last lesson in that lesson's post. I have apparently been putting my feet too far forward in my stirrups. I had been placing my foot so that the ball of my foot was centered over the iron. You're supposed to just have the front of the ball of your foot on the iron, so the iron is sort of between the ball of your foot and the base of your toes. That placement allows you to get your heels down more easily and also makes it less likely that your foot will slip forward into the irons rather than safely out of them. I think that I fixed that during this lesson. At least during the spook my feet did slide out of the stirrups and not into them, which suggests that I got it right.

Oh... and Foxfire did take pictures, but I haven't even looked at them yet. Once I do, I'll post the more interesting ones.

Pictures from Fourth Lesson...

I realized that I never posted the pictures that Foxfire took during my fourth lesson with Christine. Here is a link to the lesson 4 album which has a fair number of the numerous pics my sweetie took.

From looking at the pictures, I realized that I tend to lean a bit forward at the posting trot:

And that I lean a bit backwards during the sitting trot:

Also that my hands are just about always too high (Though at least I'm not leaning forward or backward in this pic):

Also, in most pictures, my legs are too far forward and I need to tuck my elbows in. And in every picture my knees and feet are turned way too far out. Tucking my elbows in shouldn't take too much work(I hope), but from my discussion with Christine, getting my legs back will just take time. My feet will probably always point a little out since I am duck toed, but I can work on getting my knees/legs to go forward rather than out.

As for when I was cantering, I look pretty awkward in most of the pics. Not too surprising since it was my first time cantering off a lunge line. But according to JJ, I actually look pretty decent in this pic:

Anyway, feel free to look at the other pictures and give me feedback if you so desire.

Fifth lesson with Christine

It's been several rather busy days since my lesson, so I don't remember very many details, but I'll at least give a summary of what went on. I rode Meshack as usual, and we started the lesson with a discussion of leg position. I'd seen the pictures from my last lesson (some of which are posted here), and had asked what I could do to improve my leg position. Christine told me that it wasn't something that could be fixed just by deciding to keep your leg in position. That it takes time and repeatedly correcting your leg position when you feel it's out of place, before your muscles can "remember" where your leg is supposed to be and actually hold it there. So I'll just keep trying to put my legs back and hopefully someday, they'll actually stay in place.

Next we did some walk, trot, walk transitions. I think my downward transitions are slowly improving, but I still don't get a walk as soon as I ask for one, so they still need work. We then did some trot circles (or rather ovals). My balance or something must have been off that night because I had some trouble getting Meshack to go where I wanted him to. He'd always been pretty easy to steer before, so I'm pretty sure the problem was mine, I just don't know what the problem was. Hopefully, I'll figure out what was going on and fix it, or maybe it will simply get better with practice.

We did the trot poles a few times and that went better than previously, but still not that well. I kept my balance fairly well every time, but I still couldn't quite get the rhythm right. I think that when I'd done the trot poles before I must have done them in two point, because I don't remember having this much trouble with it. Part of me kept wanting to just stay up in two point instead of trying to get the posting rhythm right. Hopefully, with practice, I'll eventually get it.

Then we did a little bit of canter in the arena. Yes. Not on a lunge line, not in the round pen, out in the wide open arena. Meshack actually picked up the canter much more easily than when we were in the round pen. He's a good lesson horse and was able to figure out what I wanted even though I'm quite sure that I wasn't giving the canter cue properly. The first time, we only cantered for about a third of the way around the arena before Christine asked me to transition back down to trot. That transition actually worked almost immediately. I don't know if my cue was more definite or Meshack was just very willing to drop out of canter. Maybe both. We trotted for a while, then gave cantering another go. Again, Meshack went into canter pretty easily. This time we cantered about two thirds of the way around the arena before Christine told me to go back to trot. And again, the downward transition was almost immediate. I did bounce around a little during both canter segments, but I didn't bounce that much. I don't know how it looked. Probably not very pretty. But it felt really good to me simply to have successfully, intentionally, cantered a horse on my own.

We ended the lesson there. It was hot, I was tired and I'd mentioned to Christine that I'd been really exhausted after our last lesson and she didn't want to exhaust me again. She'd also been good about offering me drink breaks during our lesson so that I didn't get dehydrated again. She's a really good teacher, and I continue to be glad that I found her.

A Horse is a horse...Part Four -- Quinn

Quinn is an 8 year old, 16.3 hand OTTB gelding. He is an experienced hunter/jumper with a very nice video of him at an AA hunter/jumper show under his show name, Last Laugh. He had been originally trained at a barn that I'd actually visited during our search for Foxfire's horse and that had seemed like a very nice facility. He'd been sold from there to a wealthy family for their 13 year old daughter who hadn't even started lessons yet, for $12,000. He'd turned out to be too much for their total beginner daughter who had really just wanted a nice little trail horse that she could go bareback riding on with her friends. They'd tried to sell him for $9000 then decided to just cut their losses and gave him to a dealer to sell for whatever she could get for him. She told me that they'd probably accept $3000 for him which is pretty much the limit of what I can spend. I was pretty excited at the thought of getting such an expensive horse for so little, but I also figured that there must be a catch. However, from talking repeatedly with the dealer, calling the original training barn and talking to the owner there and watching the video of him, it seemed that he really was a very nice horse that was being sold by people who just wanted him gone, so Foxfire and I went to see him. It didn't quite go as hoped for. He was indeed a very well put together horse. And unlike the blue roan mare, quite photogenic.

However, he was hotter than the sun, as Foxfire put it. His ground manners were nice, but from the way he'd show a fear response whenever given a strong command or when anyone just moved too fast around him, I suspect that his training involved more fear and abuse than firmness and respect. It probably wasn't this trainer, she'd only had him a few weeks, but the parents of the little girl had sent Quinn to a “wenglish” trainer who supposedly fixed difficult horses. I suspect that he might be responsible. Anyway, the horse bucked several times just on the lunge line.

I almost told Foxfire we'd leave then and there, but the horse behaved well enough under saddle for the the trainer. He did some nice lateral work

and even jumped a very jury-rigged and rather frightening(at least to me) jump set up on some very uneven ground at the edge of the arena.

In retrospect, it seems like she was having to pull him back pretty hard most of the time she was riding him. But anyway, since he'd behaved under saddle, Foxfire got up on him. He seemed okay right at first, but then started to try and canter. It rapidly degenerated into Foxfire trying to slow down the psycho pony. He didn't buck or anything, just kept trying to run away. Fortunately, Foxfire got him under control and got off of him safely. The trainer/dealer seemed honestly embarrassed by Quinn's behavior and said that she hadn't seen him behave like that before. Maybe, maybe not. Who knows. But we said thanks, but no thanks, and left.

A Horse is a horse...Part Three -- Blue

Blue (Yes. They really called her Blue.) was a 15.1 hand, nine year old, blue roan quarterhorse mare. She only had western training, but was supposedly well trained and kept in shape by the stables hired exercise riders. The seller thought that she might do well for lower level dressage and jumping and wouldn't be that hard to re-train for English riding. She also looked decently conformed in the ad pictures. Her lack of English training meant that I wasn't willing to drive very far to see her, however, she was only 30 minutes away, so I figured I'd give her a try.

Picture from ad

When we got there, she was actually a very nice looking horse. The pictures I took don't really do her justice. And she behaved pretty well for her regular exercise rider, especially considering that her rider kept yanking on the reins to try and make her do a sliding stop from the canter. It made me wince and want to yell at the rider every time she did it. Blue did have significant trouble picking up her right-lead canter, but I'm not sure how much of that was the horse and how much the rider. Her gaits were a bit on the fast side and she seemed like she might be a little hot. However, when Foxfire got on her, she was hard to even get to walk. She'd just stand there or sidle sideways. Finally, Foxfire got her to walk and then to trot, but she was very gate sour and difficult for him to steer. However, she was definitely NOT going to run off with anyone. So even though I knew from watching how she behaved with Foxfire that I wasn't going to buy her, I hopped up on her to see how she behaved with me.

It was even harder for me to get her to move. She just stood there no matter how firmly I kicked, squeezed, "kissed" and said "walk". I finally used a wide rein to pull her head all the way over until I felt her give, and at that moment, I'd kick her, and she'd start to walk in a circle. Then I could straighten her out and get her to walk around the arena. Even then it was hard to keep her walking, especially past the gate, and I had to "re-start" her several times. Surprisingly, it was not difficult to get her to trot. One firm kick and she went into a trot. She tended to ignore your direction cues, but at least she was trotting. Of course, going past the gate was still a challenge. Strangely enough, I was actually sort of enjoying riding her, and so I kept at it until she was obeying me somewhat well. Or at least better than she had when I first got on her. However, there was no way that I was going to buy her. You can see the few halfway decent pictures that I got of her on my Blue Roan Mare album.

Foxfire riding Blue

A Horse is a horse...Part Two -- Hoss

Hoss is a five year old, 15.1 hand, blue roan quarterhorse gelding. He was listed as very friendly with some western training, but more suitable for dressage. (Though he didn't have any dressage training yet.) He was also listed as 16 hands high, and his pictures showed that he had pretty decent conformation.

Photo from ad

I first decided to try him out simply because he was in the same town and I wouldn't have to drive very far. It turns out he was right down the street, literally. When I called, the owner was on her way to ride him and told me to just come on down. So I did. As soon as I saw him, I knew he wasn't 16 hands tall, but even so, I sort of fell in love with him at first sight. He had the cutest face.

Photo from ad

And when I got on him to ride, I felt perfectly safe and happy even in a big uncomfortable western saddle. Unfortunately, his western training hadn't been very good at all. He was basically just green broke, even though he was VERY calm. Combined with his complete lack of english training and the unbalanced disaster that was his canter, it simply made him unsuitable for me. So even though I really, REALLY liked his personality, I decided that I would have to pass on him.

However, that is not the end of the story. I had made calls to several trainers that I'd either found online or that I had met while looking for Foxfire's horse asking if they had any horses for sale that might suit me. About two weeks after passing on Hoss, one of the trainers that I'd called, called me back saying that she had a horse that she thought I might like. She described him a bit and I thought that he sounded nice, then she mentioned his name. Hoss. It was the same horse. The people selling him had decided to bring him to this trainer (who was recommended by an olympic level dressage rider they knew) to start training him in dressage in hopes of being able to sell him for more money. I told her that I'd already seen the horse and really liked him, but that he just was too green for me, but that I'd be willing to come out and look at him again after she'd worked with him for a week or two.

Well, when we went to see him, he had improved noticeably. His canter actually looked fairly decent and he was more responsive to cues, but for some reason, his personality didn't seem as nice. Maybe he was still adjusting to his new surroundings and training, but I just didn't feel the emotional attraction to him that I felt the first time. (Maybe I was just imagining it the first time. Who knows.) Anyway... even though he had improved fairly significantly for just having a week of training, he was still just too green for me. And I'd begun to think that he was always going to be a bit lazy. I don't want a hot horse, but I do want one that enjoys going faster than a walk. Also, the seller was still asking way too much for what he was, and I simply wasn't willing to spend that on a halfway trained horse. We took some nice pictures which can be seen in my Hoss album in my photobucket account.

Foxfire riding Hoss

A horse is a horse, of course...NOT!

Searching for your first horse(or second or third, I imagine) can be a very frustrating process. First of all you have to weed through all the myriad horse search engines and local Craigslist ads and newspaper ads to find prospects worth a phone call or email. This is very time consuming and frustrating when the ad does not even have basic information such as the horse's breed, age, height and skills. And of course you have to try and weed out the ads placed by dealers whose every horse is child-safe, beginner friendly and perfectly suited for everything from western pleasure to three-day eventing. Just this morning I found a listing for a Friesian mare described as suitable for endurance riding,western pleasure and jumping with an asking price of $2000. Now perhaps this Friesian is VERY unusual for her breed and might actually make an endurance, western pleasure and/or jumping horse. Or possibly some idiot who knows nothing about evaluating a horse's potential simply listed these as being the most marketable things to say. More likely, it's some sort of scam. An obvious one. Some of them aren't so obvious. You can't even trust what you see in videos. Who knows what they've done to that horse to make him behave in that video. Worn him down beforehand, drugged him,...? Just weeding through the ads is frustrating.

And of course, there are those people who aren't intentionally lying about the horse, they are simply ignorant or "barn blind" and think their horse really is "all that". Let me pass on an email I got in response to an ad I queried. The ad read that,"This horse probably already is trained up to the 2nd level." I thought maybe the current owner had bought a previously trained dressage horse that didn't work out for the trail riding and play days that her kids wanted to do and therefore was selling it. So I asked if she had been told that he was trained to second level or was that her opinion based on her knowledge of dressage. Her response was,"I bought him to basically ride/train for my pleasure and exercise. I ride him in a dressage saddle. We work on seat and leg commands at the walk, trot, and canter. I have not been formally trained in dressage, but I have seen some magazines and videos. That is why I think Max fits somewhere at the 2nd level." Uh... yeah...

So anyway, after weeding through the dealers and idiots, and after all the research and talking on the phone and looking at the pictures and watching the videos repeatedly to make sure the horse seems like one that you would want to buy, you decide to make the drive (usually several hours) to go and check the horse out in person. And he/she is so very NOT what you were looking for. Of course sometimes the horse really isn't that bad, but he/she just isn't right for for one reason or another. It feels so hopeless sometimes.

Anyway, I'll be posting summaries of some of the horses that I've looked at recently.