Winter's not over yet

That two week reprieve from the frigid weather was apparently just a tease, we're back down to the single digits at night. Brrrr!

Clicker training has been progressing. I've been trying to switch it up and not work on the same thing everyday. I don't know if that's the right way to do it or not (let me know if you know better), but I don't want her to get bored. Keeping that in mind, the next day we went back to the outdoor arena and worked on leading. Well, stopping actually. We stopped facing the barn, facing away from the barn, at the end of the arena furthest from the barn... By the end of it she was starting to anticipate the whoa and stop when I stopped my feet. Which is exactly what I want- she got extra praise for that.

Next night was targeting on something NOT in my hand. I put the target all over her stall and then stood on the opposite side before I asked her to target. She caught right on, smart little bugger. The only one that was a little hard for her was when I put the target on the floor and asked her to touch it there. She kept trying to just wave her nose over it and still get credit. Sorry dear, no dice.

Last night it was much too cold and windy to take her outside so I started training her to ground tie. That's going to take a while. First of all, she's started mugging me for treats now (I'll have to go a little backwards and teach her to turn her head away before I give her a treat), and second my timing isn't quite right for getting the response that I want. I think I might be waiting a bit too long to click her for the behavior I want. I touched her shoulder, said "stand" and took a step back. Almost every time she would immediately turn her head towards me when I stepped back. Hmm, I think I need a new strategy. Suggestions?

I haven't forgotten about my boy. Bit training is on hold until the temps come back up. I feel like it would be really mean to try getting him comfortable with the bit when it's cold enough for his tongue to freeze on it. So he's just been getting scratched in his favorite places when it's too cold to do anything else. He seems to be pretty happy with that.

Bursting with pride

Today was farrier day and I was nervous. I couldn't help it, farrier day has been touchy for the quarters. Every time I've had him trimmed, Coriander has tried to fall on the farrier, and Gwen has only been trimmed once and it still super anxious about picking her feet up (Well, technically twice. But the first time was before I got her and was completely traumatic for her so I don't count it).

I called the vet and made an appointment a week ago to have Gwen sedated for her trim. So while the farrier was trimming the other horses in the barn I sat and waited for her... and waited... and waited.

Finally I could wait no more, I pulled out Coriander first to buy some time. He was so good. He didn't even pull his feet away and showed me that worrying about him falling on the farrier again was stressing over nothing. Excellent. I'm sure that particular trick will emerge again someday, but getting through once without even an inkling of it was fantastic.

The vet still hadn't shown but I decided to pull Gwen out anyway. She's not too bad about her front feet so I asked him if he could try to do those, but if she got too upset and he couldn't that was okay. She did try a half rear once when he was working on her left front but after that she settled down and let him finish both feet without further issue. The vet still hadn't shown, but the farrier looked at her hinds and said she hadn't had enough growth to need them trimmed anyway (I guess hooves grow slower in the winter). So we left her at that. Overall it was a positive experience for her and I couldn't be prouder of how she handled herself. My little girl is growing up!

Gwen's new torture device

Well, it's not new and I wouldn't call it a torture device, but Gwen probably will. It's a Crosby Torino and I bought it off ebay. How could I buy a saddle off ebay you ask? I popped my Crosby Lexington on her back one day and it fit her, then I made a template of her back and took it to the tack store. The brand new $1K Crosby medium tree fit her too. So I figured that a Crosby medium tree made between now and 15 years ago when my Lexington was made would fit her. Well, more hoped.

I'm worried this doesn't fit her. It can't sit up any higher than that because it'll pinch her withers and interfere with her shoulders, but it looks like it sits really far back (of course I could be thinking that because I've gotten used to seeing my barn owner put her saddles way up on her horses' withers). I'll see if I can get some better pictures later in the week. If it doesn't fit her I'm not out much and I can just sell it, but I'm hoping that looking at it under better light will improve its prospects.

Yes, that is a kids basketball hoop in the back. There's a resident 4 year old boy where I board.

After saddle fitting I took Gwen out for more target training. This time I was really pushing the envelope. Due the rain and warm temps the outdoor has finally thawed, so I took her out there and turned her loose. She loved the footing and took off galloping all over the place. She is a vision when she's moving: agile, quick and effortless. Twice when she was cantering down the long side of the arena she started swapping leads at every stride. My jaw fell, my horse was doing one-tempis all on her own for the sheer fun of it. I tell you what, if I can get this mare under saddle she might make me one hell of a dressage horse.

After she got her gallop on, I pulled out the target and got to work with her still loose. She actually paid attention to me. Whoohoo! I'm really psyched about that. She was all alone, not another horse in sight, and she was composed enough to touch her nose to it every time I said "target." She wasn't standing still but she was listening and that's all I'm looking for right now.

Coriander also got his second dose of the bit tonight. Still doesn't quite have the hang of it yet, so I'll give him time.

Look who's wearing a bit

Sorry about the cruddy pic quality, the point and shoot doesn't do well inside the barn. Yes, I have bit keepers, I just wanted to make sure they wouldn't make the french-link sit badly on his tongue.

I'll let him eat with it in his mouth for a few more days, then I'll take him out and start the Michael Schaffer exercises with him.

Whoa means stop your feet

This concept has been very hard for Gwenevere to grasp. Until now I don't think she's ever really stopped her feet while being led. When I would stop, she'd just circle around me. If I tried to tug on the lead to get her attention, she would get upset and start jumping around.

Enter clicker training. For the past two days we've been working on whoa. I've only been walking her around the barn at this point but she's making huge improvements. Here's what I did: keeping her on a loose lead, I stopped my feet and said "whoa." Then I stood there, if she circled around me I did nothing, I didn't tug on the rope or say anything other than whoa and I didn't move my feet. If she stopped her feet, even for a split second, I clicked and gave her a treat. It took a couple times but she really started catching on. My goal is to get her to anticipate the whoa and stop her feet when I stop mine. Right now I don't have enough of her attention to get that but I think I will soon.

So far clicker training has been a success. I've noticed a distinct softness in her now when I take her out of her stall. Where before she was very anxious, almost hysterical, now she's willing to wait, she moves slower and she doesn't ram her shoulder into me anymore.

Today I switched it up and tried targeting with her while she was loose in the pasture. She was a superstar. Then I brought her into the barn and groomed her. I've been slowly working on getting her to pick up that left hind foot for cleaning, and today she finally let me. This is the first day that I've ever been able to clean out all of her feet!

Leaning tower on horseback

I've been motivated by the Fugly blog to post a training for riding tip that I've found invaluable:

I started with my current trainer last February. It was maybe my third lesson with her when she looked hard at me and said, "you lean a LOT to the left."

"Huh," I said, and then I went home and thought about it. I've had a couple of different trainers over the years, both huntseat and dressage, she's the first one who's ever said that to me and she was completely right. I remember that I used to find myself trying to jerk my saddle straight during trail rides because it would always slide to one side. It never occurred to me that the saddle slipping was my fault, obviously it was.

Now that I knew I had this problem I was determined to fix it. Fortunately for me, I work at a college with really good physical therapy and exercise science departments. I happen to know a professor in those areas that rides dressage, and I asked her for advice. She told me that muscle imbalances in the body could be the root of my problem and that I should ask my personal trainer (another perk of working at this school) to help me find out where those imbalances were.

So I met with my trainer at the gym and we found the root of my problem, one leg was noticeably weaker. So how did I fix it? I changed how I use the weight machines. If you use both legs, the stronger leg will compensate for the weak one and the imbalance will remain. I now use all the leg machines one leg at a time. I started doing one legged squats and step-ups with an aerobics block. The point being to really isolate each leg and get them to be evenly muscled.

It worked! After only a few weeks, my lean was greatly diminished and I was sitting squarely in the saddle. I know I'm not the only person with this issue, so I'm passing this along in the hopes that I can help someone else. Paying it forward!

Winter Diversion

Regularly scheduled horse-centric programming will return tomorrow.