Learning to Ride

Um, hi

Lots of things have changed since my previous posts, although I very much want to start riding again.  I'm now living in Berkeley, CA, and initial research has turned up http://www.grizzlypeakstables.org/, which is very close to where my partner works.

It might be a good fit, now to find time to get ahold of them.

Eighteenth Private Lesson

For the most part today's lesson went very well, it ended weirdly but that made us laugh so it was okay.

I found almost all the grooming supplies and tack before Catherine saw me today so I had Cypress ready pretty quick, the only thing I wasn't able to find was the western bridle.  He was being a butthead during grooming but also very affectionate, it was a weird combo.

I was generally able to use a lot less effort to get him to do what I wanted today and in some cases was able to use very subtle weight shifts.  There was the usual transition from walking to jog where he just wanted to head right to the middle of the arena but eventually he was responding well at speed, too.

One correction I need to really integrate into my body is lengthening the side that I'm applying pressure with so I don't collapse and lean that way, and instead lean the direction I want him to go.  Practicing that today made a big difference, sometimes the leaning alone made him move and the pressure was unnecessary.

We tried a figure eight at the end with two jumping obstacles.  It went well at a walk, starting going well at a jog and then Cypress got it in his head that you know what would be awesome?  Let's jump that little one!  Yeah!

So he did.

With me on his back.

Luckily it was down low and I was half expecting it but it was an interesting feeling for sure.

We could tell he was done with the lesson soon after, he jumped it again, was very resistant to any pressure or anything, and ended the lesson by slowly walking over both obstacles towards Catherine.  All three of us in the arena were laughing at this, it was too absurd and it seemed like he was really trying to show off for us.

I'm back in Colorado for the next two weeks, hopefully I'll have the time and energy to find someone to take one or two lessons from there so I don't lose this momentum again.

Seventeenth Private Lesson

Cypress: Butthead.  Check.

I was feeling a little out of sorts for today's lesson due to a (too) fun night before and Catherine wasn't 100% either, so we took it very easy and slow, and that was exactly what I needed.

Spent the entire lesson just working on fundamentals of communicating with Cypress and getting him to do what was asked.  For some reason it was night and day with Wednesday's lesson, where I felt I was trying to muscle him everywhere and having him hardly listen.  I was able to get him to do more or less what I wanted with very little signals.

Then turned him around to go the other direction and it was like starting over.

Overall it went great though, I feel a lot better about it.  I have another lesson scheduled for Monday afternoon and I think having three lessons so quickly after each other will help me get back up to speed again.  I'm seriously thinking about finding someone to take a lesson or two from while I'm in Colorado just so I don't lose the momentum

Sixteenth Private Lesson

Oof.

Another almost month break, unless something bad happens (again) I'll have a couple more lessons before I leave for Colorado for two weeks.  I really should try to arrange a lesson or two while I'm there.

I felt very out of practice today, worse than last time.  Cypress was a total mixed bag today, in some ways he was better behaved than he has been for a few lessons (mostly as far as getting groomed and tacked) but he flipped between not listening at all to being hypersensitive (and stupid, as Catherine pointed out).  So extremely minor shifts in weight in the saddle that he wouldn't normally listen to he was reacting as if I meant them with some urgency.

And since I was out of practice and not feeling comfortable as it was, things degenerated quickly and I got very frustrated.  Which caused me to tense up.  Which he reacted to.

Catherine put us on the lunge line for a bit to work on getting me relaxed and floating the in the saddle so I could practice giving him signals very lightly and correctly and have him react.  We did that for a bit and he did great and I felt better.  Put the bridle back on him, walk around, and now he's in butthead mode again even when I'm doing stuff (more) correctly.

I'm glad to have gone out, I'm sure Friday's lesson will go a lot better, but wow that was frustrating.

Fifteenth Private Lesson

I guess I can stop calling them private lessons since that's what all of them are at this point but it helps to keep track of it so I can make sure I'm paying Catherine for everything correctly.

It was cold out there today but nowhere near as bad as the last one.  It felt like it has been forever since I've been on a horse and it is a bit more than three weeks but less than a month.

I enjoy being able to use phrases like "It felt good to be back in the saddle again" literally.

Due to the bad weather the stables have been having all sorts of issues and Cypress had only had one lesson, yesterday, in three weeks, so he was out of practice too.  It showed.  He also hadn't had much socialization time with other horses, so he was a very interesting combination of affectionate and nuzzly and really badly behaved and disobedient.

Most of it went well but the second I took the halter off him to put the bridle on he walked right over to some food and began munching.  Catherine had warned me that he was partially in a bad mood because she had him on a diet but it was ridiculous, he absolutely would not listen and it took all my body weight and strength to get him to behave for half a second, then he'd go back to it.  A woman nearby stepped in to help and showed me where to pinch him on the nose (lightly) to get his attention, and that worked just long enough to get another halter on him and get him backed away from the food far enough I could move him to the arena and put his bridle on there.

Catherine joined me in the arena and noticed I had the saddle too far back and when she tried to adjust that he was being very fidgety and bad.  Weirdly I had no problems putting his bridle on except that I once again put the part that should have gone under his chin into his mouth and we had to fish it out.

The lesson itself went pretty well, he wasn't listening and I was out of practice so we took it very slow and went back to the basics.  I spent a lot of effort trying to regain the feeling of being correctly positioned in the saddle, applying just enough pressure, and just remembering what I'm doing.  We worked a bit on a style of turn that involved bending his head into the turn (since he was wanting to bend away), applying pressure with the inside leg to keep him moving to the outside and then the outside leg back to keep him honest with his rump.  It started feeling pretty good by the end.

Tried it at a jog (needed stirrups again to get him to listen) and was somewhat successful.

It felt good despite the frustrations of being out of practice, I was very happy to be out there and am really looking forward to having a couple lessons next week and getting back in practice again.

Fourteenth Private Lesson aka The Ice Bowl

Oh wow it was cold today.  Catherine gave me an out to cancel and save both of us the experience but I figured that between not having had a lesson in almost a month plus wanting to be able to ride in cold weather someday it was not something I could reasonably duck out of.  But wow was it cold.

The weather has recently changed to cold cold cold and the horses are not in a good mood because of it, Cypress even more than usual.  When I retrieved him out of his new stall (he had escaped from the last one and had an accident) he went straight for the hay next door and it took all my strength and weight to get him back to where he was supposed to be.  Grooming was more wrestling than anything else.

The lesson itself was mostly getting used to being in the saddle again, getting him to do what I want, making sure my signals are clear.  The new and interesting thing was my weight, which wasn't new as much as a refinement of what I'd done in the past with letting my body roll with the horse's motion.  That made everything a lot easier.  There was also a lot of work on how to correct misunderstanding of signals or bad behavior not so much because it was planned that was as that's what Cypress led me to need to work on.

By the end of the lesson my feet were frozen and my back was sore and stiff (I had a brutal workout with my personal trainer yesterday emphasizing core and leg strength, perfect huh).  Cypress was listening pretty well and I was correcting better and sitting in the saddle with more balance and fluidity.  I may have ended a few minutes early but I'd had enough, Catherine had been out in the cold long enough for her tastes, and I think Cypress was getting ready to really get moody if we kept pushing him.

I'm hoping the next lesson will be warmer but if not I'll still do it and just try to adjust my clothing, part of the experience for me is learning what I need in order to try to make it comfortable.

Luna as Cypress

Today we went to visit you and visited the farm.  Ana had a tough time getting Luna in from pasture, it seems that Grandmere wanted to play sillybuggers and get the group galloping around, making her chase them around.

She did eventually retrieve her, and after grooming and putting the tack on you rode her for a few minutes to see what was going on.  She was in quite a mood, probably due to changing weather, and was misbehaving (for her) quite a bit.  After she started listening better you adjusted the stirrups and I got on, since she was still being strange you put her on the lunge line for a little more control.

Cypress has startled and bucked a little on me but Luna really reacted.  I would squeeze her sides to get her moving forward and she'd act like I just goosed her.  When I got on her I was really focusing on the feel of my feet in the stirrups and balance and I'm really glad I did because it meant that when she startled or wiggled I was in the right place and never felt like I was off balance or in any danger.  That felt really good.

Didn't stay on her long and Ana rode her a little after I was done, but it was really nice to feel different tack, a different horse, a different environment, and not feel like a fish out of water and be able to work on something that I think helps me make progress towards being a better rider.

I had a lot of fun, thank you

Lesson the Thirteenth (Private)

Today was a fun lesson, and not just because I felt physically much better than the last one.  Cypress was being relatively well behaved up until I tried to put the bridle on him, the second I moved the harness to his neck he made a beeline for some hay and made it clear he was going to continue to eat if he could get away with it.  Rather than fight him on that, I put the harness back on and walked him to the arena and put the bridle on him there.  I almost got the lower part that goes under the chin in his mouth again but was looking for it and adjusted before putting the top bit around his ears.  Oh and I also checked the fit and sure enough it would have been too small, so I adjusted before even trying to put it on him.  Go me!

We worked on turning the shoulders where I lean back into one of his haunches to freeze it, pick up the reins and ask him to move while applying pressure to the girth on the same side.  I was fairly successful at it and Catherine seemed quite pleased, she said it was a very difficult thing to get just right.  As usual it then became a question of being able to do that at a walk, at a trot, etc.  Much more difficult, but I'm getting there, it'll take more practice to make it feel at all natural.

This was in aid of correcting him when he was being stubborn and not turning properly, not moving his shoulders, whatever.  There was a mare on a lunge line in the other half of the arena for the first half of the lesson or so and it seemed like he kept wanting to go over and say "hey baby how YOU doin" and I was fighting him on certain corners, so turning his shoulders like that was a correction to make him understand exactly what he was doing wrong.

Near the end she took off the bridle and put on the harness, got us on the lunge line and we worked on canter again.  It went a lot better this time, felt a lot better, still a long ways to go.  I told her I don't feel like I'm floating above the saddle, in fact quite the opposite, but at least I have an idea of what I'm going for.  She said it just takes practice, so for a little bit of time in each lesson we'll work on it.

She also said as we were putting Cypress back in his stall that she really liked having students like me who seem to learn quickly and progress well, so I'm very happy about that.

Private Lesson Number Twelve

Over the weekend I visited North Carolina for business and to see my brother and his girlfriend and drank waaaaay too much on Saturday night.

Yesterday I had a workout with my personal trainer where I felt horrible the entire time.  Today I woke up sore.

Last night I had massive insomnia and an overall horrible time for various reasons I won't go into here.

This is all relevant, I promise.

I slept in too much due to the insomnia and had to rush breakfast and coffee before driving out to the stables.  Got Cypress, groomed him (he was being a little bit of a butthead but not too bad mostly) but had a lot of problems getting the bridle on him.  Couldn't figure out why, the first time I got too much of it into his mouth and couldn't fit the rest over his ears, then after that he just was really obstinate and made it even harder.  So I put the harness back on him and went to look for Catherine so she could show me what I was doing wrong.

The biggest problem is that it was adjusted for a smaller horse and I didn't fix that, so it just plain didn't fit him.  I remembered she had said something about that in a previous lesson and saddle had the same issue, I feel dumb about forgetting that it was possible that they were on the right sizes for him.  But we fixed that and moved on.

Got him into the arena and I rode a little bit to get him warmed up and feel comfortable again, she took off his bridle and put the harness back on and attached him to the lunge line so we could... work on canter for the first time.

Okay now go back up to the top of the post to get the context again.

Cypress was in a bad mood to start, getting him on the lunge line and making him trot as fast as he can to get ready to try the canter made him even more surly.  At a certain point he was going very fast and I thought "wow okay this cantering isn't comfortable but I can handle it" and Catherine said "okay let's give him the signal to canter in 3... 2..." and I think my brain broke.

The first time he only cantered for a step or two but my left foot flew out of the stirrup and I think my eyes got very wide.  The next time we got a few more steps going and I felt like I was going to be sent to the side of the arena.  I started holding on to the horn and back of the saddle like she suggested and my arms, which were very sore from the workout yesterday, were very unhappy but just strong enough to keep me balanced and in the saddle.

She had me work more and more on getting into a better position with better weight distribution and balance and my posting got a ton better, having him going so fast and getting ready for cantering made all the difference in the world for that.

In the end we got a couple full circles at canter and I felt like I was solidly on and leaning into the circle and my weight was just about right.  I couldn't quite hover over the saddle with my butt the way I need to, but I at least could start feeling what I needed to do and what the right feel was.

That horse can go.

I asked "and a gallop is ever more than this?!" and she laughed and said "oh yes".

One thing that was tested many times during this lesson was my trust that as a horse he's not going to just run himself full speed into a wall because I didn't tell him to turn.  Every time he started getting close I wanted to grab the halter and tell him to TURN but I was finally able to let go of that after a few times around and know that he might do something dumb, but not that dumb.

It was fun and exhilarating, I hadn't felt that rush of adrenaline since sailing over the summer.  It felt a lot like my martial arts training used to, pushing myself physically to the edge and trying to do things I'm not sure I can handle.  Catherine said we're going to do a bit of it each lesson until I get the hang of it, and I have two more this week (since I'll be visiting Colorado for two weeks around Thanksgiving) and I'm really looking forward to it.

Eleventh Private Lesson

It was pouring down buckets today.

Mud everywhere, few survivors.

We got a slightly delayed start to the lesson today because Catherine had to have some words with her nine year old daughter, who reminds me in many ways of a cross between Katie and Ana.  If you can imagine that, some of the more willful aspects of each rolled into one, but she seems like a sweetheart when she isn't surled up.

We took Cypress to an inside cross-tie today for the first time and he was fidgety, I think he felt confined and of course it was a new thing which is never wonderful.  We got through it.  He was fussy again with the hoof cleaning, but I think that was also due to the environment more than anything.

Walked him up a ramp from there to the arena, they're adjacent, and she was quite happy with him going up it without any issues.  I did some of the groundwork we had worked on last week again and even though I forgot a few key things I did it only with harness and rope (forgot about the whip and some details on how to do it) I was quite successful.  Until Catherine returned. Then of course it got more difficult, but we added stuff back in and she corrected my technique and it started working great again.  Felt very good.

Next worked on picking up the pace and getting him to trot the circles and get more energy into the exercise.  That went pretty smoothly, a few issues to start with but again getting on him about what I meant not what he guessed I wanted was the key.

That transitioned into the "circle game", where I got him moving around in the circle and his job was to keep doing what he was doing until I asked him to change.  That meant moving around me in a circle at the same pace with me not push or driving or directing, just standing in the center and letting him move around while I moved the rope from one hand to the other, around the back, etc.  If he made a mistake I'd correct but otherwise let him do his thing until I moved to have him swing his butt around.

Since Catherine had worked with him on that just before me to show what needed to be done he was listening well and didn't give me many problems, after a couple tries he put his head down and was just awesome.

When we finished with that we were talking a bit about what to do next and some details and he just stood there, the most still I've ever seen.  She mentioned how she forgets how good that game is for him, it really gets him into his calm, trusting brain rather than his alert, survival oriented brain.

Put the western bridle on him then and did a little riding around the arena, trying to take those same lessons of leading, letting him continue what he's doing and only make changes or corrections.  It took a little while but as I went I had to do less and less to get him doing the right thing.  The hope is that I'll eventually only need to use the reins as a last resort and mostly be able to direct with weight and leg pressure.  Getting there.

She mentioned as we were wrapping up that I was ready to come ride on my own to practice.  How cool is that?  No idea when I'll get a chance, maybe a few times in December and early January, but it feels good to be making progress like that.