Courtney King Dye speaks about her injury (Riders4Helmets)

Many of you know about the Riders4Helmets initiative -- it's a a link on the left hand side of my blog, maybe you've seen it. I met one of the founders of Riders4helmets at Rolex, Lindsey White. She works with bloggers and others to promote her organization, and recently to promote the Helmet Safety Symposium that took place in July. One of the more significant moments of that conference was the airing of video that Courtney King Dye contributed: Expect the Unexpected.  It was posted on Youtube and you may have seen it promo'ed.

 I had been meaning to watch this video, and finally made the time during a lull at the reference desk/help desk this Saturday.

You need to watch Courtney's video. Now. Here.

All things considered, she looks great. She sounds good, all things considered. Her speech is slow and labored at times, and even this four minute video seems to tire her. She says, poignantly, that she strugggles to talk and cannot do "much  of anything" without help. But as she says, she is LUCKY.

If this video doesn't make you start wearing a helmet, nothing will.

Stoney stirrups?

I mean, wow! I don't know, there are so many cool things to highlight in a horse-rider dressage performance. Not sure those stirrups could share the stage with any more bling, and if you are going to have one bling item, would it be a stirrup???

Um... No. (no offense)

Sorry, but dressage bling it ain't. It just ain't.

And the closer we get, the stronger my case.

Why are riding clinics so pricey???

Many of us wonder why clinics are so expensive. Are we getting soaked by clinic sponsors? It would appear that the answer is NO. Let me share some typical costs for a Big Name Trainer clinic:

• Clinician fees: $1500/day x 2 = $3000
• Clinician mileage for a  relatlively local clinician: 225 miles x 0.51 = $114.75
• (round up to $115)
• Hotel Room for 1 night = $120
• Facility Fee: $150/day x 2 = $300
• Insurance Fee: $85/day x 2 = $170

Total =$3585

 If you divide that by 20 rides over the  two days (ten rides/day), then the member fees would be $185 per ride.   This is a break-even cost and does not include meals for the clinician or refreshments for auditors, the time and the labor to set up, schedule, staff, and run the clinic. This particular clinician was willing to do 10 rides a day -- some do not.

Charles de Kunffy Clinic report

The president of our local GMO, Gail Carpency, went to watch Charles de Kunffy at Hassler dressage. She prepared a wonderful clinic report for our LVDA newsletter (Charles de Kunffy: The Man in White, page 5). It's an exceptional article so I'll reprint an excerpt here:


On Rider Position 
  The hip of the rider should be above the seat bone, which prevents the hollowing of the rider's back. 

The rider should have “silent” arms, wrists and elbows and closed fingers.  The elbow must act as your seat bone.  If you tap your horse forward, the elbows must pull you down into the saddle preventing the rider's hands or torso from lurching forward.  If your elbow goes forward, it hangs on the horse's mouth without the rider's seat.  The arm must be part of the seat--the elbow back against the rider's side so it can become part of the torso.  The rider's toe should be positioned behind the knee.  The foot's heel should be out and the toe pointing in.  

Charles demonstrated how to attain a correct leg position by performing three circles with the rider's leg.  First, he pulled the rider's leg out from the saddle and circled the leg within the hip socket until the hip to knee was fairly vertical.  Then, he proceeded to circle the leg at the knee until the leg contacted the barrel of the horse.  Lastly, he circled the foot at the ankle joint and positioned the heel out and the toe in. Encourage the horse forward with a tap of the toe not the heel. 

  Charles's next focus was on the alignment of the upper body.  He told most of the riders to lean behind the vertical as much as 10-20 degrees but keep the lower back flat not arched.  This leaning of the torso a bit behind the vertical allows the rider to keep their seat in the saddle.  “Authority is in the seat, not in the reins.  Reins should never confine of shape the neck.”  

The Horse Says, “Charles is Right.” This was my favorite gem of Charles'.  Charles would tell the rider to lean back 20 degrees, which caused the rider to push down more into the saddle's seat so they were sitting into the horse.  The horse responded by coming on the bit and bringing its back up. When the horse would come on the bit, Charles would state to the spectators, “See, the horse says, Charles is Right.”  It always got a laugh! 


As Charles said, “Dressage is a contact sport (contact with the saddle), you have to be sitting and massaging the saddle”.  Charles explained that the leg energizes the horse; the seat modifies and informs the horse; and the rein verifies when the horse is correct by yielding (giving). 


To see the full article, go to: http://www.lvda.org/newsletter/july_11.pdf

Ravel and Totilas: Aachen 2011

Ravel gets a hug.

I overheard a conversation between two dressage riders -- one of them was present at Aachen a few weeks ago for the Aachen CDIO Nation's Cup. She said something interesting. The audience was very knowledgable, she said, and apparently willing to express their opinions. When Peters finished his highly difficult, flawlessly performed freestyle on Ravel, the audience went wild and he got a standing ovation. When Rath and Totilas completed their freestyle -- with mistakes and some might say an uneven performance overall -- they received a higher score than Peters and Ravel.

The audience booed. They booed their own countryman. Now, you won't see the booing in the footage below (tactful editing?) but you see the reaction of the audience to Peters -- it was simply overwhelming.







Ravel and Peters



Totilas and Rath

Heat: Harv and Ri

I don't know about you guys but we had record temps last week, and Friday was perhaps the hottest weather I've ever experienced -- about 104 degrees. It was just awful. One drawback of the "lower barn"  that Harv and Ri  live in is that ventilation is poor. It is easily 7-8 degrees hotter than whatever the temps are outside. In this weather, in this barn, the situation is Code Red.

Riley
Thank goodness for the staff at our barn. They watch the horses closely, and I got a call that Riley wasn't doing well. Some of the horses were getting hosed, and because they know I'm trying to keep Ri's feet dry they called and asked me what to do. My farrier was on site, and he applied a sealant to Ri's hooves. Then off he went to the showers. Before he returned to his stall, one of the boarders set up her extra fan directly in front of Riley's stall (so he had two fans trained on him).  Bless my barn buddies, we try to look out for each other. I'm sure it helped. But that night, when I went to turn horses out, he looked bad again.

Harvey
Harv? Even as he has aged (and presumably is less able to regulate his own temperature), he looked pretty darn good. Where Riley was standing with his head between his knees, drenched in sweat, Harvey stood in the adjacent stall, head hanging out the dutch door, dozing and dry.


To the showers: A comparison
I took each boy, one after the other, to the showers again. I applied cold water to Riley, grabbed a scraper, and started scraping. To my shock, the water that moments ago was almost too cold was HOT -- just from being against his skin. This alarmed me and I kepted rehosing him till the water I scraped off was cool. Then I moved him to cross ties in the upper barn, which is an old stone barn and much cooler than the lower barn. He stood quietly, for once, visibly relieved.

I pulled Harv into the showers next. Same treatment, same cold temp, and yet when I scraped Harv the water against his skin felt cool.


Hell on earth, temperature-wise, finally ends
Today was a relatively comfortable 90 degrees, and I rode Riley for the first time in five days. He seemed fine, but he fell asleep in the cross ties while I got him ready to go back in his stall. I think this weather sucks the life out of them. Thank goodness its over.

Striking photo

A BTB reader recently joined me on Facebook and I noticed a striking photo in one of her albums -- the on to the right! It was taken by Tom Reardon, husband of Lynn Reardon, the founder of L.O.P.E in Texas (Lonestar outreach to place ex-racers), a thoroughbred rehab center outside of Austin. Lynn wrote a book about ex-racers, Beyond the Homestretch: What Saving Racehorses Taught Me About Starting Over, Facing Fear and Finding My Inner Cowgirl.

The horse is named Red, and you can see why!

Riley's room with a view

Riley, Harv, and most of the other horses at the barn have a window to the outside, louvered glass protected by metal bars on the inside. The barn is many years old, and no horse has disturbed the windows. Till Ri-Ri.

A few weeks ago I noticed one of the louvered pieces was missing from Ri's window. Odd, I thought, till I found the broken piece outside the barn under the window. Ri can, and does, poke his nose through the bars. Wonderful.

Week two. Louvered piece number two breaks. Now it is easy for Ri to get his entire nose under the remaininging strips of glass. I'm mucking and make a note to remove the remaining glass pieces which are beveled but still sharp on the edges. I move to the next stall and as I go out to dump the barrel a half hour later, Riley reaches out over his dutch door to nudge me -- a swath of hair is scraped off his nose to the pink skin. Louver #3 is missing. presumed to be lying broken outside the barn.

I remove the remaining pieces and hide them (there is NO good place to store glass pieces at a barn). It was great fun to inform the barn handyman--who has just installed a length of wood along the top of Riley's stall to prevent him from harassing horses in the cross ties--of Riley's new behavior.

I offered to pay for the damage. No one has taken me up on it so far.

Riley needs a hobby.

Time is not on my side :-(

Lately I've been contemplating what it would take, from an astronomical/cosmic standpoint, to lengthen our current 24-hour day to about 26 or 27 hours. Those extra few hours would be oh-so handy. It's not just me. Others have contemplated the fact that the Earth simply rotates too fast. There is a book on Amazon.com on how to carve out two extra hours a day in your schedule. No, I'm not alone.

Marriage Moment: Bob's observation
Bob tells me I need to do more housework -- he does more than I, no doubt. Ye my time is pretty much accounted for from 6am till mid-evening, every day. I get home, I crash. Bob  comes home from work at midnight (second shifter) to find me camped out on the couch blogging, or newsletter editing, or whatever. He doesn't see the rest of my day, he just sees a spouse lounging around and an unvaccumed floor. 

What to do?
I'm calculating that horses take about 3.5 hours of my day, every day. I do the following every day, without fail:

• Muck Harv and Ri's stall and water (25 minutes)
• Ride Riley--well, 5-6 days a week anyway (2 hours/day on avg)
• Harvey patting, fussing, primping, hugging (10-15 minutes)
• Turn out Harv and Riley (10 minutes)
• Commute (40 minutes, both ways)
• TOTAL: 3.5ish hours

Recently I agreed to do evening turnout duty four days a week, taking my horse-filled time up to 4.5 hours a day.  Assuming I leave work at 5pm, that puts me home at 9:30pm or 10pm. And I haven't eaten. Yet with the exception of turnout, which I want to do for financial reasons. It may be voluntary activity, but it doesn't feel that way.  I can't NOT DO this. I totally get Bob's point, but still it's frustrating.   I miss the days when I could do this lifestyle without someone ruefully marking my time.

I'm afraid there is no answer to this problem, unless one of you has something to offer?

Centerline project designs: My least favorite

Of all of the design ideas presented on the Centerline Project, the idea for a hot weather sleeveless alternative to dressage jackets is the one I would welcome most. Unfortunately this jacket (which isn't unattractive) looks a little too close to what Errol Flynn wore in Robin Hood  -- the shoulders and skirt have  medieveal design elements, don't you think?


While I do like the lower/dropped waist, it's not a flattering look for many women. I'm a big fan of the empire waist myself. I'd like to see the show world adopt something close to the look shown below, from equetech.com. I don't quite see it with sort sleeves, though. For now, I'll stick with my Kerrits vest.

Game plan: Getting Ri out more

Relieved to be done!

One thing I learned at this last show is that Riley is not as seasoned as I thought he was -- he seemed to be a little unsettled/distracted Sunday during the warmup, and it has been awhile since he has been to a show away from home. Ri needs to get off the property!

We need to do a couple more shows, maybe do a clinic. I mentioned this to the LVDA President Tuesday, and she (strongly) suggested I consider joining the LVDA Adult Team and competing at the NJ Horse Park in Sept -- as it happens, there is an empty slot in the training level team, and with my scores at the last two shows I only need one more show to qualify. Joining the team will:

• get Riley to one schooling show and one "big" show this year
• let me work with two coaches I admire
• give me a little extra moral support
• experience something new -- team competitions!

Our adult team is incredibly successful at marketing and fundraising -- take a look at their Web page to see how much support they garner each year, in terms of dollars and in-kind sponsorship. The adult team coordinators are amazing -- actually the whole team is!

Training 2:We can Get the Canter, we just can't Hold the Canter

Happy moment in T2

By the time our second class rolled around, Riley was his usual self, and much more the "familiar ride" that I'd worked with previously. In many respects this test went a little better:

• 8 on our stretchy walk, the movement that had tanked so badly in T1
•  8 on our final halt 
• 8 on one trot circle left 
• 7 on trot circle right
• 7 on my position
• 7 on gaits, and the rest of the collectives were 6s 

And then there was...
The canter work. Brace yourselves, we got 5s. Notice, in the footage, that we lose the canter in BOTH directions. On the bright side we do pick it up again, but on the sad side he looks pretty nappy about the canter in general. If I wanted to make an excuse I'd say Ri was getting tired at that point, but that's not the real reason we stank.

Resuming our canter left

Post game analysis
In my prepwork, I had focused a lot on getting the canter consistently, and for the most part I did my canter work  on the circle.  I'm still a little chicken about cantering Ri outside in our unfenced outdoor ring, surrounded by inviting green rolling hills. faaar from the barn. Going down the long side he  still picks up speed and throws his shoulders around. I had not given much thought to Training 2, where the canter starts in a corner and goes down the long side. Not a lot of thought, and zero practice. The canter work in T2, is, I think, pretty unattractive. We need to work on energy and balance.

Our first 'real' show: Post game analysis and video!

Ri strides out on our 20-meter circle

I don't consider our June show to be a "real" debut since it was Intro level. Our first real show was Sunday, yesterday, and here's the scoop on our first Training Level test.
The Good News:  We got a 66.7% at Training Level 1, with an 8 on gaits, 7s across the board on the other collective scores (submission, rider position, harmony, etc), 7s on the stretchy trot, 8s on one trot circle and one canter transition. This was a first place ride.

The Bad News: Ri trotted twice on his stretchy circle (score of 4, a double coefficient), and our  halts were pretty sorry (one 6, one 5). Oh, and our first place? There were only two other rides at T-1, and both were kids, like 12 and 15. You guys are the only ones that need to know that factoid, I feel like a Grinch.

My perspective

Riley had been laid back in the previous rides that Friday and Saturday, and he was an old hand at showing on our home turf. He was turned out all night Saturday. So I can't figure out why he was jumpy the morning of the show. He was uncharacteristically upset by the other horses on the property, spooky about the judges stand, and leaping forward at gusts of wind. During the warmup in the indoor he spooked and bucked twice. When I say this, I should emphasize that he was wound up by Riley standards, which was not anything dramatic by any means. However, it was a challenge for me. I had focused all my preparation on getting Riley forward, and now I had to calm him down.

Given the rather dicey preparation, I thought the test went pretty well.

Oh, and the little back vest -- a Kerrits vest -- is the best money I ever spent (Ebay, $40). At 90 degrees, it felt like nothing and I think looked far more polished than me parading around the ring in glaring white breeches.

Coming next: Training level 2

The Centerline dressage fashion competition: My pick!

Have y'all been following the Dressage Today and Horsetech Centerline competition? I was so pleased to see efforts/encouragement in the direction of more innovative rider apparel. And the finalists have been selected! My favorite of all of them is the hardhat pictured right, in the hardhat category. It's adorable, safety conscious, and lots of high tech embedded, like:

• Bluetooth for trainer/rider communications
• GPS if a rider falls in a remote location
• Ipod/iTunes integration

It's environmentally conscious, it has retractable sunglasses, and it has bling.

As to the other categories and concepts? What do you guys think????

Visual attention of Grand Prix judges...

An interesting post about where Grand Prix dressage judges are looking when they evaluate riders and horses.  Interesting -- but I imagine the same research on lower level judges, esp. those who score training level tests. Where do you suppose they're looking?

I'm guessing they're looking at their watch ;-).

VISUAL ATTENTION IN GRAND PRIX DRESSAGE JUDGES | FEI.ORG

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

When you're not a natural, what'dya do?

I'm riding Ri-Ri solo, and the challenge is riding my youngster without a ground person to help. Two problems:

1. We start every session like he has a flat tire, and with the hotter weather I have to "do a lot" to get him moving with any energy at all--forget supple and swingy. 
2. Ri has a "fatal attraction" to the end of the indoor with the big door (close to the barn).  

In my teens I used to clinic with Jimmy Cantwell, a marvelous instructor and trainer (hunter/jumper). He  was innovative in finding simple exercises that help the less-than-perfect rider have success, and that helped the horse "figure things out" without the rider doing anything dramatic.  Jimmy's techniques would be hard to recount, but here's a simple example from my past life: if a horse is running out to the left repeatedly (jumping),  lay a pole across the left side of the jump. It may not fix the underlying problem but every jump establishes a good habit and confidence -- and it's better than having a battle.

I appreciate instructors who find ways to help you and your horse achieve a goal by being clever--and by letting the horse figure it out. I thought of Jimmy today when I set up an exercise that diminished both problems mentioned in the first paragraph. What exercise, you ask?

1.  Find two cavaletti poles.
2. Put the cavaletti on the quarterline, down the long side, at the end of the ring with the open door, where he drifts.
3. Trot Ri around on a "rectangle" at that end of the arena, and go over the cavaletti away from the open door. 

 The first few times going through, he stared out the door and drifted as usual, but he was taken by surprise when we turned into the cavaletti. The first few times were a bit sticky.  After that, though, and he grew interested in what was happening inside, not outside. He focused more on me, let me prep him so that he was lifting his shoulders, and bending, sitting down more. By doing the "rectangle" instead of a circle I took advantage of his improved balance, and we got some practice turning some nice corners.  Both of us were a whole lot happier.

Bretton Woods: Spider legs

The young Dutch stallion Bretton Woods (Johnson X DeNiro) was discussed on the COTH sport horse breeding board recently. Gorgeous as he is, he was used as a negative example to illustrate a point about breeding trends. Breeders are asking themselves, do longer legs and lighter build make better dressage horse? Lots of breeders don't seem to think that a leggy horse is really ideal for dressage. Bretton Woods, one poster lamented, is leggy "to the extreme." The advantages of a shorter leg/longer back were touted: lower center of gravity, more flexible spine, etc. So why the heck are we furiously breeding these horses-on-stilts???? Is there no research? No data on gait mechanics to drive this trend?

Is a leggy, light type horse just something that's (gasp) trendy? Fads like that have ruined several dog breeds to say nothing of the American Morgan and the Quarter Horse. When you think about the years it takes to breed and train a dressage horse, is there room for "fads" in type and conformation? I don't know, the whole conversation was a little distressing. You like to think that breeders are analytical, thoughtful, methodical, and yes, skeptical. You want to believe that they rely on facts and data -- proof of what works -- when selecting the stock that are chosen to advance our sport. The idea that they jump on any bandwagon runs counter to my impression of breeders -- it just sounds so Milli Vanilli.

I found it interesting that when I interviewed Natalie DiBerardinis, breeding manager at Hilltop Farm about their Quaterback stallion ("Hilltop Farm introduces a new stallion: Meet Qredit!," LVDA Newsletter, p.4), she said that she thought that the trend would swing back to a more substantive horse. I do love the leggy look, personally, but I love the heavier types too! To each his own?

VTO Saddlery makes my dreams come true

How, in my exhaustive search of tack stores on the Web for Devon Aire Freedom boots,  did I not NOT search VTO Saddlery? I love that store.

I stumbled across my discontinued Freedom boots at VTO Saddlery. On sale for $64. In my size.What is there to say, except...

COME TO MAMA!
Mein liebchen. Mon petite chou. While it's a shame I found them AFTER I'd replaced my old Devon Aires,  I can't resist my beloved  boot that looks great and feels great for everyday. I have placed an order and will soon  have three tiers of boots.

• The Devon Aires for general barn wearing, schooling, lessons.
• The Mountain Horse boots when I need to look a bit nicer, or when it is too rainy/muddy for the Petries. 
• The Petries.

I am truly blessed, bootwise. For those of you who are old enough to remember Imelda Marcos and her closet full of shoes, I think I'm channelling a little Imelda these days. A little Imelda, and a little Nancy Sinatra.

Training level here we come

This Sunday -- Training level 1 and 2! I hope we can pick up our canter promptly, and I hope it goes well. I love the Digital Horse video of the training levels, this is just want I want when practicing the tests in my head. The only thing missing is my own voice over...

Thanks Jane Savoie for your "perfect practice makes perfect" concept. Now when I practice my test I put in everything I need to remember, in the places it matters. My own list:

• Half halt (before and after every movement)
• Look up and around (corners, circles)
• Open thigh, relax leg, sit around the horse (throughout)
• Tighten core (throughout), control posting (throughout)
• Inside seatbone, outside leg (circles, corners)
• Hands down, apart (circles, corners)
• Swoopy hips, inside thigh, outside leg (canter depart)
• Shoulders back, open thigh, sit deep (canter trot transition)

New bedding for Harv

So after several years using Streufex, our barn has switched to straw--a special kind of straw, though.

What was wrong with Streufex?
Nothing is wrong with the product, but if you don't  train barn workers about how to manage it, boarders and management both will be unhappy. It only takes one lousy stall cleaning to ruin the rest of the bedding by the next day. Boarders didn't like the color of the bedding, which sounds silly but I have to admit...

Straw is aesthetic
There is nothing quite so lovely as a bed of good quality oat straw. That's what we're using now, and it comes from a local supplier who delivers chopped straw in bags. The cost is less than Streufex.  It's light, and fluffy, and easy to muck. It was initially a little slippery, but now we're coating the floor with gypsum to absorb the wet stuff and give the floor traction.

Straw is green
Okay, not really green, but it's being re-used! The mushroom growers are reportedly taking it and even paying for it.  Imagine how much the owners like that. Even the bags the straw comes in is being re-used, we return it to the farmer to restuff with straw.


Harv loves it but..
You know there has to be a downside -- it isn't quite as absorbent as shavings, and the mushroom growers won't take straw with ANY shavings in it (so I can't bed under the straw with shavings). So Riley is one of two horses in the 20 horse barn still on shavings. I'm supplementing the shavings with pine pellets. A layer of pellets in the center of the stall really extends the life of the bedding. The wet accumulates there, and it sits there (doesn't redistribute to the rest of the shavings. Top stays dry, like a baby's diaper.

Quaterback colt with bling!

Oh, my. Crosiadore Farm has some super quality stock, and I love the stallions that the farm uses. So many Quaterback offspring are chestnut, it's fun to see a darker hued-Qback.  He's a bit downhill in this growth stage but look at that trot! Can't wait to see him again in a year or so...

The Harvster showing his impatience

Harv's natural dignity prevents him from being so crass as to "paw" as a common horse would. Besides, I yell at him when he paws. Here is his adaptation. My favorite move, which he only briefly shows here (in the first few seconds), is the "hoof hover." Pretty sure this move is supposed to be mildly threatening ("don't make me bring my foot down--you don't want that"). He does this a lot when cross tied-- he looks at me expectantly, rasies the hoof, and wafts it around.

When he does paw, it's a modified version of what, say, Riley does. Riley's hoof sends sparks when he paws. Harv's is the merest suggestion that he is being made to wait. What a charming boy :-). Does anyone else's horse do this, or something like it?

Oh, speaking of charming, Kelly of Princess Diva Diaries posted her daughter wearing the shirt she won from BTB. It's adorable!

Untamed tails!

Harvey will sometimes swish his tail vigorously from side to side, but I don't think he has the motivation or flexibility to do what this horse is doing. Although it is visually stunning in its own way--like a propeller--I can't say I'm sorry Harv lacks this ability. If he had it I know he'd use it. Thanks to the owner for posting this to COTH!

Wasps: A case for harmful pesticides

 

Riley has a man-boob very much like Harv's, and almost identical to the one that trailhorserider.com has (pictured right). He'd had a botulism shot Friday and I feared a bad reaction to the shot. Then, a few nights after I noticed the giant lump on his neck, I was turning Harv and Riley out and...

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Some wasps have apparently set up shop in the gate to their pasture. I was stung, and suspect Riley was too at some point in the last few days.

Another barn worker,  a young girl more experienced in the ways of wasp control, showed me how she eradicates the wasps. Wielding a nearly-empty can of insect spray, she follows these steps:

1. Kick the gate hard once or twice.
2. Spray like mad.
3. Run away.
4. Repeat until all wasps are dead.

I admired her courage but  no way am I doing that, and besides she ran out of spray before the wasps were gone.

 I reported the problem to the barn owner, a retired lawyer in his seventies. He  promptly dispatched his brother to take care of it. The brother (Joe) used the same procedure as my friend the barn worker. He was surprisingly athletic in step 3. Seeing that spectacle twice in one night--wasp control across the lifespan -- qualifies as entertainment in my world.

Bob my husband got stung biking over the weekend when a wasp flew right into his v-neck shirt. We have matching sting lumps. I think it has brought us closer.

Riley canter work

We get the canter; we hold the canter! The downward transitions? Well. Oh well.

He has been good, but you can see the quality of the walk suffers as I keep nudging him to keep him gathered to pick up a canter. Last week I tried cantering him at the start of my ride -- it was a bit wild and woolly, but not dangerous.  I still feel a little unsafe at the canter in the outdoor arena with no fencing around it. I like to start with canter-walk-canter transitions before "going large."

The left lead canter is harder, because he tends to "lean and careen." In the walk-canter-walk transitions he seemed to be getting tense as we negotiated straightness at at the walk. I walked him on a long rein for a bit and went back to trot-canter-trot work.

Riley and I work with a nationally recognized coach

Here you see Riley and I work on the "funny hop" he exhibits to the right (throughness issue?) while internationally acclaimed former little league coach Bob Smith -- also my husband -- offers his expertise and insight. He did pretty well. I can usually feel it but he will often see subtle signs that I'm missing.

Seatbone silliness

I was told I need to use my seatbones more. Well, sure -- but how? Turns out I've been doing it wrong a long time. I've always thought of seatbones on one axis, basically up-down -- and I rode accordingly. I was also pretty unsubtle.  If 5 lbs of pressure is good, 10 lbs must be better. No? NO.

After doing some reading, and some trial and error, I learned it is erroneous to "press your seatbone down." I'm trying to think more about placing my seatbone very deliberately along the horizontal axis, and more specifically at a certain place on the saddle (e.g., toward the center).  I have had success  using my inside seatbone to push and hold the horse in a bend, as if I'm lunging . But wait, there's more! To make it work, you can't "abandon" the outside seatbone, it's gotta have a role too.  Curses to the instructors who tell their clients to "drop the inside seatbone," it is entirely the wrong image. As far as I can tell, both seatbones should be in light contact with the saddle, moving freely in concert with the thighs and hips to create a flexible scaffolding that shapes the horse.  Meanwhile above my hips, I'm stretching up with the spine, shoulders back and down and moving parallell to the horse's shoulders.

 It's all so easy in my theoretical world.  Are there errors in what I've written? I'd love to hear how my understanding could be improved.

I keep relearning that you can't force things in dressage. After overusing my leg and hands for so long, without much thought to my seat, which was tense anyway. When I relax my leg and move a seatbone forward and toward the center of the saddle, allowing the thigh to follow by "hugging" the inside of my horse, it is so cool to feel him readily bend his body. It never works to force things. Someone keep reminding me.

Riley and I: So proud of my boy

Well, it ain't perfect and bugs were awful, but this footage makes me grin. Riley is a good egg. The funky occasional "hop" when he goes to the right seems to go away when I get him straight and soften my aids (I tend to "force" things). He didn't do this with my trainer -- folks are telling me it's a throughness issue. It is getting better I think, as I get a bit more finessed about using my seat and when I'm more disciplines about tightening up more core.

I think Ri looks very cooperative and attentive, and he even looks reasonably happy even though the flies were HORRIBLE. I"m enjoying every ride...

Harv gets a good report

This picture is how I think of Harv...

The vet came, she saw, she ruled out. The one thing remaining is the blood work ($100, ouch!), just to make sure he's not off kilter somewhere. Here's the rundown.

• She didn't think the alfalfa itself would have caused the man-boobs or the nosebleed, although she acknowledged the leafy bits might have irritated him.
• Man-boobs have dissipated considerably, though still present -- she pronounced it a bug problem.
• His swollen RF looks like an old lateral semoidal ligament injury, resulting in some thickening of his fetlock generally and possibly causing swelling higher up on occasion.
• His eyes looked fine, but she did say it is very hard to evaluate the equine eye. A few nights earlier he was staring out the window, transfixed, and it took me a few moments to realize that he saw a young fawn over by the indoor -- at dusk, and quite a distance away -- his eyesight can't be too bad, can it? 
• The spooking? The vet said that as horses get older they get "addled" more easily, and she has a 38-year-old mare that sometimes goes to la-la land--seems to forget where she is, etc. She is gently guided around.
• Nosebleed? A little tougher. He does have scar tissue in that sinus cavity from a past surgery, and when you tap on it there is no hollow sound. She speculates that this side of his face may be more prone to injury, and if he knocked his head it might be more prone to bleed. 
• Vet noticed that as a result of the surgery, Harv's right tear duct is probably blocked and he drains tears through his nose on that side. This is a good thing.

So I'm waiting for the blood work, but in the meantime Harv is Harv. Last night I turned Riley out first and kept Harv by me so I could pet him. When Riley started to roll, Harv seemed antsy to go. I turned him loose and he did a little-old-man canter over to the grassy area where Riley was rolling, and they both rolled together for several minutes. When I drove down the driveway toward home, they were grazing with their heads together. It was so satisfying to see.

Old photo of Harv rolling, maybe 2001?

I see by your toes -- you're a horse person

Yes, I have horses. You can tell by the massive toe bruise! It looks much more vivid in person.

What happened?
Someone left an assortment of scary objects out near the pasture Riley and Harv go in. They bolted, and in the whirl of movement my eye caught Riley's hoof coming down on my foot. I remember thinking, with some bitterness, that of course it's his right hoof--the one that causes all the trouble -- now it's breaking my toe.

I don't think it's really broken...