The Sassy Gray Mare

 As soon as I hopped on Phantom on Monday night I knew she was feeling better.

She was pretty sassy. Maybe she was just happy to be inside and not out in the unexpected downpour of rain and wind that picked up just after I brought her in. 

Cool sky colour from inside the arena at the end of my ride. Everything was completely dry when I arrived at the barn.

But I'm pretty sure it was because her hocks felt better.

She was far less stompy and heavy on her forehand at the walk. When we picked up the trot, her first few steps were slow and shuffly, but by about step six she was picking up her pace. A little too much pace.

The whole ride really was just trying to keep her trot from getting silly. A little harder for me at the moment - I use a lot of thigh on her to half halt her and slow her down, but my left thigh is still sore (getting better slowly) and still hurts to squeeze in, so she wasn't responding as well as she would have if I could ride her better.

Whatever, I'm just happy she's feeling good!

Really, she was sassy and feeling great!

We didn't do a whole lot, a bit of walk/trot/canter, but because of the weather I took my time. On Saturday I had set up my Pixio determined to see if I can figure out a better setup as I've been having issues with it consistently losing me in one corner of the arena. I tried a couple of different configurations on foot and had a friend wear the tracker for a few minutes while she was riding and it all looked good so I was optimistic that I had found a better beacon setup.

I also finally got around to labeling the case for my Pixio. 

On this night, I took my time getting it set up, and was really happy to find that it only lost me once at the beginning of the ride - in a different corner than normal. Success!

It's only been one week since her hock injections so hopefully she will start to feel even better over the next couple of weeks. Now the challenge will be to try to build some muscle again (on both of us) - I need my leg to get better faster so that I can ride more!

Pixio Status

You may have noticed that there has been a lack of Pixio videos despite having received it back in November. Part of that is because I just haven't been riding much. Mostly it's because it hasn't been working properly.

The first two times I used it back in November I didn't really have any problems. The camera/robot was set up outside the riding surface at about E. I had to adjust one beacon forward which I figured was due to the metal scaffolding that was between the robot and the original beacon placement in the corner.

It only lost tracking of me in one corner, and then only when the tracking watch was on the outside (ie. tracking right as I had the watch on my right wrist). I figured it had to do with beacon placement and just needed to play with it.

Then everything sat for the 6 weeks that I didn't ride. On the first ride back I tried to set it up with the camera in the center of the arena. And discovered a big problem.

The robot won't rotate more than 180 degrees.

It's supposed to rotate a full 360. When tracking me it would hit the edge of the 180, then turn somewhere else. When I came back into the zone it would track me with no issue. I couldn't spin the robot on its base past that point either - it would stop at the same point every time.

Where did I go?

As has been well noted by other Pixio users, their customer service has been very good. It just takes a while to get things sorted out because of the time change - all their emails back to me have been around 3am my time.

My robot has to go back to France for repairs - there is a motor issue. I'm not sure if it was there right from the beginning or not. The first couple of times I used it the robot didn't have to rotate fully due to where I had placed it. But that might have been the reason that it wouldn't track me in that corner on my first ride with it.

It sounds like if I use their recommended method of shipping (Canada Post in this case) that I will be refunded the shipping charge since it is under warranty. The expected turn around time once they receive it is 7 days. If I get it out this weekend, hopefully, it will be back sometime mid to late February. It would have been nice to have been able to send it out before the recent cold spell, but I wasn't able to get the data that they wanted because it was too cold to set it up.

Be prepared for Pixio video spam. Eventually.

Comparison

I've finally spent a bit of time with the video that I took using the Pixio. I suck at any type of video or photo editing - I've just never had the patience to learn how to do it.  Since I'm going to end up with a bunch of videos over the next little while (well, when I manage to start riding again, hopefully in a couple weeks!) I've decided that this is the winter to learn.

I bought a new computer which came with Cyberlink PowerDirector installed. Might as well try the free program first before deciding if I need something better. It's supposed to be pretty easy to use, and there are some good Youtube videos on how to do things.

My first project wasn't too ambitious - just a side by side video showing some trot from March and from November. Child's play.

I'm not going to lie and say that the video is great. I think I needed to change where the zoom was centered for a part of it to keep me in the middle of the screen. But you get a good idea of what I was trying to show - the difference in Cisco's tension.

The ride in March was a fairly typical ride in the arena by himself - erratic pace, erratic contact, and we couldn't make it down to the scary end of the arena.

The ride in November is typical for our current rides. The scary end hasn't been an issue since the spring. He's now good in the arena by himself - there's no significant difference if there are other horses or not. This ride was only his third ride in three weeks and was 18 days after my surgery. I actually chose to ride Cisco over Phantom after surgery as he is much more consistent with his energy level.

We definitely have lots to work on, but now that he is much more relaxed it will hopefully come much faster.