Cob Jockey

I have no media from my second National Drive lesson since Mary couldn't be there, but fortunately for you all I had a near duplicate of that lesson this week at home, so we're going to combine the two.

Home instructor looking over my work. All photos courtesy of Leah.

There's a driver's meeting every morning at 8:30am, so when I saw an 8am slot open on Joanna's schedule, I grabbed it. I guessed that there'd be no other horses out to distract Disco during the meeting, and, having already had a "working through getting his focus" lesson, I really wanted a different kind of productivity for the second.

I was right, and Disco was SO good. We had his focus from the very beginning, and Joanna was able to cover so much ground with me.

We spent more than half the lesson at the trot on the driving equivalent of a 20m circle, which was the first time I had really trotted him for a continuous amount of time in the cart. 

She was also able to drop some wisdom about how my cart fits me (as good as anything off the rack will, but I need some seat adjustments), how to use the whip (never for going forward if you can help it, only for bending, and never on the horse's back) and inside rein vs outside rein in turning (juuuuuuust like in Dressage).

It just worked out that my home trainer was also able to give me a lesson a couple weeks after The Drive. Last time she saw me before Christmas, I was in the wooden cart, my lessons were mostly at the walk, and I still felt overwhelmed by driving.

This time? 

We leveled up the work significantly and ended up doing trot serpentines! 

For whatever reason these videos' frame rates aren't playing nice with the GIF editor, but just imagine it at normal speed.

Things feel like they come up very fast in the cart and the indoor, so the trot serpentines felt like they were a lot to manage at first. Just like in riding, you can't just yank them from one turn to the next, you have to have clear aids and at least a couple of straight strides in the middle before you change the bend.

We also worked on pace and obedience. He's getting a LOT less sticky about up transitions than when this instructor last saw us, but of course now she wants more. 

We did a lot of transitions - a LOT of transitions - including starting to ask for transitions within the gaits. For the first time, I pushed him for a very big trot, and started to feel a glimmer of that big swing I've started to feel under saddle. With him, his default is this low-energy mincing pony trot, but you know there's more in there when you see it.

She pointed out, as did Joanna, that he's educated enough in the contact to start learning that the reins are for more than turning and stopping. I would ask for a half halt, for example, or for him to soften to the bit, and he would stop. 

This is something I need to start working on under saddle too, but I've been erring on the side of caution given my complicated relationship with contact over the years.

For the first time ever, I felt totally comfortable driving, even at speed. I enjoyed the heck out of that lesson, and was smiling most of the time. It's such a hard challenge to be a complete beginner at something that feels so foreign, but I feel like I'm getting there with it. 

This lesson was a great roadmap for the next few months and gave me lots of things to work on, although I hope to have her back out sooner than that!

Yesterday I took the first big step toward my goals and took my first lesson with a new trainer, one that can see me in-person regularly, which I felt was important for Disco's first year.

I reached out to her because it was her barn that Castleberrys Encore went to just over a year ago, and she has done a masterful, patient job with him over that time. He went from being basically unable to canter even at liberty to cantering politely with his adult ammie rider, on his own schedule - she didn't rush him. I could not be more impressed, or happy for Encore to have found such a perfect home.

Remember Encore? He's 15.2hh now!

But I shouldn't have been surprised - she's taken multiple driving-bred horses to the FEI levels, has a passion for off breeds, enjoys bringing young ones along, and has a particular knack for understanding what it takes to bring a pulling breed with a naturally high neck set up the Dressage levels. 

High neck set, you say?

When I learned this trainer (who I will call BDT) has a regular rotation of barns she travels to for lessons and was willing to add me to that rotation, I was sold. Not only would that enable me to lesson with her more regularly as my weekends fill up with barn chores and kid sports, but it meant that my fellow co-op members could ride with her too.

Connor being The Best Boy for his leaser in her lesson with BDT

We worked on three things in this lesson, which will serve as my roadmap for the next month: forward, flexion and moving the haunches. I'll add a number four not-goal: "Don't worry at all about where his head is."

Carrying me forward - but not too forward - was the biggest thing. He tends to walk very slowly if left to his own devices and leaves me feeling like I need to encourage him with my seat. She wanted him carrying me forward in whatever gait we were in, and to "let the horse train himself" by using the next gait up to incentivize him into giving me the gait I wanted. 

"You fit each other really well," was one of her comments, and I can't help but agree. He's the perfect size for me.

So, if he was giving me his "slug mode" walk, I would bring him up to the trot and stay there until he was carrying me at the trot, then I would bring him back down to the walk, and we would stay at the walk only if he was carrying me forward at the walk.

#slugmode

This, predictably, both really worked and also led to the most trotting under saddle he had ever done, which was another thing I just needed confidence to start asking for. My rides to this point have been mostly 15 minutes or less, and Mr. Work Ethic really rose to the occasion on the longer ride. I keep forgetting he is not Connor, and he seems to thrive on work.

BDT was also not shy about telling me when he got too quick, especially at the trot. "It would be easy with a horse like this to turn him into a rushy mess down the line, it can't be forward at the expense of everything else. You still need to help him find his balance."

Outside of that, we worked on the very beginnings of following the bit, which was (surprise!) easier to get when he was carrying me forward. And we worked on the very beginnings of hindquarters control (asking for one step sideways with the hindquarters while standing still), which he understood quickly.

At the end of it, he had had a full probably 30 minutes of riding, and he had been exceptionally good. He was not exhausted, but he parked himself in the center of the ring for final questions like he was. It's hard not to trust him - he's just so reliable under saddle already, behavior-wise.

I came away from the lesson happy and fulfilled. It felt good to learn again, it felt good to feel like I know where I want to go with Disco in the short term, and it felt good to feel progress on him from the beginning to the end of the lesson. I'm really looking forward to seeing where she can take us.

Sleepy baby stallion slept good that night

I don't even know where to start with this post, but I have to start. I've been witnessing an incredible transformation in my barn and learning a lot about horsemanship through it, and it deserves to be written down.

A couple of weeks ago I was videoing my barnmate's virtual Dressage lesson, watching her futilely trying to pony kick her 5 year old around a big psuedo-turn on the forehand at our Dressage trainer's instruction, and I realized it looked a lot like a groundwork exercise Kate had me do with Connor. I asked my barnmate if I could borrow Pyro for a Kate lesson, and she agreed.

Pyro (foreground) and mom Missy (behind)

I need to pause here and give some background context on Pyro so that you'll understand how massive this change has been. My barnmate bred and raised him out of her heart horse, and despite doing everything right with him, he was never a horse you could let your guard down around. He had no sense of personal space and little respect or regard for humans. He is also a bit ADHD, constantly into everything, and sometimes nibbling or even biting. I never handled him without a whip, since even arm waving or throwing my gloves at him to get him out of my space was met with a blank stare.

So with that stage set, you will understand why this...

(We're doing a lot more than ground tying, but the ground tying is the only thing I can get a photo of while working alone.)

We are two weeks and two Kate groundwork lessons into handling Pyro in this new way, and he is a totally different horse. Our relationship with him, mine and my barnmate's both, in both directions, has profoundly changed.

In the first lesson, I was standing facing him and asking him to step sideways and turn around me in a big TOF. Following a prescribed and predictable escalation pattern that takes into account the speed at which horses' brains are able to process new information and take action based on that information, we arrived at maximum force "ask" with the whip, and he just stood there and flinched his skin in anticipation of the hit rather than moving his feet.

Pyro learning to Dressage, wearing, fun fact, former Blogger Carley's Bobby's Micklem

It was fascinating. He knew it was coming and simply did not care to respond to the ask - he didn't respect me as a leader, and had learned he could outlast humans if they asked him to do something he didn't want to do. So, Pyro reasoned, if he stood there and took it, it would end eventually, which made a lot of sense in the context of his day-to-day personal space issues - he didn't want to move, so he wouldn't.

But after one Kate lesson, I was able to move him in both directions with the lightest of taps, and after a week, I could move him simply by moving the whip toward him and "pushing the air" toward him. Which was far more a consequence of the relationship changing than it was him learning a new cue - clearly, he understood the ask before, he just didn't want to.

Week 2 - relaxed posture, staying out of my space, engaged with a soft eye waiting to see what I'll ask for next. This may as well be a different horse!

The general change since then has been jaw-dropping. He's happier and far more relaxed in all contexts. His posture has changed, and he stands around humans with his head down and his back relaxed. It occurs to me now that in the past, he was as tense around us as we were around him, although that body language was so subtle, I missed it until it wasn't there anymore. We are now, all of us, regarding each other with curiosity and respect instead of suspicion and guardedness.

Here is Pyro voluntarily giving me and my dogs a 10-15 foot bubble as I cleaned manure out of the drylot last week. I didn't park him there or ask for this, this is him seeing my relationship to him differently and making different choices than he would have in the past as a result.

As Kate said, horses don't WANT to be the leader. In the wild, the leader gets eaten. So, now that we have given him reasons to work with us and not against us and proven our trustworthiness as leaders, he IS able to relax - he doesn't have to look out for himself quite as much. He is willing to wait and see what we ask him to do, even as he is also enjoying the moments of personal "be responsible for yourself" we're giving him too within the work.

It's not all sunshine and roses - he still tries to get nibbly sometimes or challenge us, but now that we have mutual respect, a desire to work with and not against each other, and a common language, we have clear ways to communicate "you're out of line, brother", and even the nibbliness is slowing over time. 

After nearly 3 years of knowing this horse, to see this big of a change in two weeks is mind-boggling, and I'm finding myself looking forward to my next groundwork lesson with him. Who even am I?!

Connor and I have started taking lessons again.

I had been feeling the itch for a while. Not to achieve any goals, I just miss learning. There's nothing like being surprised and delighted by the sudden shift in perspective or feel that a good lesson gives you, and I need to remember to find the joy in horses especially this time of year. 

Ugh.

Connor has been going well under saddle - not often, and not intensely, but well. I have been approaching his rides from more of a rehab perspective (even though he's not injured), focusing on making sure his crooked body is in as best alignment as possible and not forcing anything. But it wasn't until my barnmate used him in her weekly CGP lesson a few weeks ago that I was like, wow, okay Connor, I see you.

Connor got drafted into this lesson because he bit my barnmate's horse right where the saddle goes. Actions have consequences, Connor.

I was struck by how relaxed he looked in the contact and how his neck is not upside down. To be honest, he never looked like this during his Dressage career. Even CGP, who had not seen him under saddle in nearly two years, was almost shocked speechless at how good he looked and complimented the way he was going several times. I started to entertain the idea that I was doing something right with my slow, patient, horse-focused approach.

But as much as I love and respect her and will ride and compete with her again someday, CGP is not right for us right now. I don't really have a good way to articulate why that is, so I won't, I will just say that I knew instinctively that longtime blogger and friend Kate was who I needed to be riding with right now. 

I'm two lessons in and haven't ridden yet, and I'm loving it!

Someone said it looked like she was teaching a lesson here and I cannot unsee it, lol

Partially because I'm nursing a back injury and partially because I am fascinated by Kate's groundwork theories having seen her work with my horses in the past, I wanted to start with groundwork. Kate thinks and feels and learns with the horses in a way that I deeply admire and that does not come naturally to me. 

To describe it in a phrase, it's like practical natural horsemanship - if you deeply understand the horse as a horse and use that to work with and not against the horse in a competitive sport context, that's sort of how I view Kate's teaching. I think a lot of trainers THINK they do that, but at the end of the day, it's nothing like what Kate is doing. And two lessons in, it's already changing the way I interact with not only the horses, but also the people and dogs in my life too.

More to come!

The day after I clipped Connor, Monday evening after work, I made the four hour roundtrip to drop Connor off at CGP's for flying changes bootcamp.

Connor in his "dorm room". Thanks T for the photo!

It was harder this time than it was last year. Maybe it was having seen him tote baby Annie around the day before, or how much I've grown to appreciate this horse beyond any competition goals we could possibly achieve together, but whatever it was, leaving him there looking over the stall grate was incredibly difficult.

Miss this face already. Photo by T.

Guess whose freaking GORGEOUS best deal of the century Double D this is

T was there with her half-Welsh Cob mare (by Cardi) Karma, and it's thanks to her that I have media for this post, because I do not recommend oversleeping and forgetting your Pivo. I won't write about T's lessons myself, but I was personally grateful to get to watch them, as I haven't seen CGP work with many young horses yet, so it was great to see just how much progress T and Karma made in a single lesson with her!

I don't care how small your horse is, I will make it look huge

Just like last year, after three training rides with CGP I could already tell a huge difference. After she had him for two weeks in July, his canter was effortlessly uphill and it felt like there was nothing I could do to break it. After our USDF season ended in August though, it got flatter and flatter. But after three training rides, it was right back to where it was in July.

So far, all she'd worked on is strengthening and improving the canter, and after focusing on nothing but biomechanics through September and October, it felt great to work on Connor again. The focus of this lesson was getting him to step up with his hind legs when I closed my legs, rather than striking off first with the forelegs and leaving his hind legs behind.

This was.

Hard.

Connor is a pulling breed. I've talked a lot here about how he's most comfortable pulling his body along with his bodyweight over his chest. He likes to strike off from the halt into the walk by moving his forelegs first, and we were basically asking him not to do that. 

You can see in the GIF above how badly he wants to walk forward with his forelegs instead of stepping the hind feet up closer to the forelegs. This is physically difficult for him, with his hind legs hung off his hindquarters in a way that's more conducive for pulling than pushing, but not something he's completely incapable of.

Would so much rather look at the sexy pony in the mirror

But!

He did finally get it, and when he did, what do you know, suddenly those simple changes were just there.

I need to be able to get them this easily all the time

"This is the type of carriage and canter he needs in order to do flying changes, otherwise he's just going to splat into those the way he likes to splat into the simples," she said.

You mean...I don't just get to wave the white flag over simples and forget they exist forever? Sigh. Like I know it's the right move but sometimes I just don't want to eat my broccoli, you know?

(Actually I love broccoli, but I'm trying to make a point, okay!)

Trot's not looking too bad either

The quality of the canter and therefore the success/failure of the simple changes also had quite a bit to do with where I was sitting in the saddle. I don't sit on my outside seatbone enough in the canter, which has a lot to do with me, and potentially something to do with some body soreness on his part. More on that soon. But when I actually sat deeply on him, suddenly the simples got a lot easier, and we had good success with them overall.

Happy boy with his new friend, Fish

That would be the last time I see him for two weeks and the longest I'll go without seeing him this whole autumn, as Nick and I went out of town for the weekend for the first time in ages!

Before my in-person lesson with CGP on Saturday, my head was already spinning with so many new thoughts about riding and biomechanics, and then CGP proceeded to completely blow my mind.

THIS. FEELS. SO. CROOKED.

In the picture above, she had just physically grabbed my left thigh (after asking permission, lol) and yanked it down the saddle while moving my quad muscle behind my leg, then put her hand underneath my left seatbone and asked me to drop my weight down onto her hand. "There," she said. "Now you're straight." "Um don't take this the wrong way, but I don't believe you. I feel like I'm falling off to the left." So she went and got my tripod and took the above photo to prove it to me.

Mary Wanless teachers and touching people, name a more dynamic duo

When we moved onto doing this at the trot, she had me stand in the irons with 75% of my weight over the left side, then go back to sitting or posting. I'm doing that in the below GIF, and while it feels to me like I'm about to fall off of his left side, I'm actually pretty straight.

We also worked on my posting mechanic. It took both of us quite a while to get through to each other on this, but when she said "You're getting to the top of the rise and adding this extra...motion," I suddenly realized what was happening. I was using my glute maxes to lock out my hips like a CrossFit air squat, and it's that lock out motion that causes my leg to swing in the posting trot. You can clearly see it here:

Ingrained movement patterns are hard, yo

She had me think about keeping my hip bones pointing more forward instead of down and shortening the distance from my boobs to my pubic bone by keeping "crunched". And just to complete the CrossFit air squat thing, she also got onto me about sending my hips backward in the post, saying I need to kneel down more than sit back.

A lot of the posting mechanic work ended up being about my shock absorbers. I tend to neutralize my shock absorbers by not allowing my joints to flex in the saddle:

I lose my balance and post once partway through this GIF because I'm not allowing my shock absorbers to absorb his motion. I look still, but it's not a good still.

But it wasn't until she told me to soften the underneath of my foot to allow my arch to also act a shock absorber did things really change. The irony is that I teach a running class at my gym in which we begin our form analysis by jumping with a totally straight leg so they can feel how the shock moves through their body if they neutralize all their shock absorbers, and then jumping while allowing the joints to flex, allowing the arch to act as a spring. But for some reason I had never thought to apply my own lessons in the saddle before.

The last piece of the puzzle Saturday was my left arm. See, (and I have a whole other post on this, lol) Connor loves to toss me onto his right side using diagonal force that goes from the left hind to the right fore. I spent a lot of this lesson learning to identify and fight that, and you can see it clearly in this GIF right as we come alongside the door:

She's not wrong, you can see it in tons of my photos over the years. And sure enough, keeping my left elbow by my side felt like the last piece of the puzzle Saturday.

We didn't work on Connor AT ALL, he was practically a glorified lunge lesson horse, and yet:

Mary was like "What did you DO? I've never seen him move like this before!"

Literally nothing, except fixed my position!

...and bought him a saddle. "None of this would have been possible in any of the other saddles you've had since I've known you," she said. "You are not wrong!" I said.

I showed up for my emergency lesson on Sunday in Mary's flatter-than-flat CWD SE01. It's as huntery as it gets.

CGP was like, I don't doubt this would work, but let's see if we can do you better.

And that's how I ended up taking home a party favor.

I will actually review this saddle after I'm done with it, because it's everything I hate and everything he hates but we're both going quite well in it. Just one more data point to show Dressage saddle fitting is an absolute crap shoot.

It's a 17.5" XW Trilogy that belongs to one of the barn's two resident Haflingers (of course it does, haha). Mary didn't get to go with me, but I sent her fitting photos and she said, "Well, I wouldn't let you buy it, but you could've done a lot worse for something you're borrowing for 6 rides."

I mean...it definitely could be worse.

Despite the long front gussets and "awful" point billet (Mary, lol), Connor did not hate it and had no issues keeping his chest up, when I remembered to make him.

Forgot my black gloves so white gloves it is

The lesson itself was so productive and much needed after Wednesday's lesson. Her lessons immediately before shows are subtly different from her normal lessons. They have more of a "here's how we're going to get it done" feel and less of a "we're going to pick this apart and make it absolutely perfect" feel, and I appreciate that, because there's nothing worse than going into a show worried about perfection.

Just gonna screenshot this great canter over and over

She told me to carry my hands lower and in front of the saddle, which was a completely new feeling for me, but I could tell immediately that something just felt right about it. So I've been carrying my hands a little too high, which activates my biceps. Interesting.

Still a pretty mediocre medium trot, but he's doing an above average job (for him) of keeping his breastplate up here!

There's an interesting place we got to in the canter work that I don't have a fully formed thought about yet. In order to REALLY collect his canter enough for good c-w's, I have to get so involved with my own body. It's hard, and it looks like shit, and it's so not automatic, but when I can muster the strength and coordination to do it right, FINALLY the c-w's come easily and with good quality. But of course it's just easier to let him cruise, so I am constantly self-sabotaging at home when no one is around to make me really dig in and make him sit.

First of two very early mornings this week!

At any rate, I left for Chicago yesterday with a real live Dressage saddle to show in, which is exciting!