Breakthrough!

Stitch has had his 20th ride. And it came with a little bit of a breakthrough!

The ride consisted of mostly walk again. The extent of the trot was a long side, big circle at the end, and another long side each way.  Nothing exciting. He felt slightly less downhill than the day before, but he was really stretching his neck out for his balance and felt like he was using too much of his underneck. No need to promote moving in that posture.

What I was excited about, was that this was the first ride where I felt that I was able to apply inside leg on a turn and he was able to stay bent around it and move away from it at the same time. Up until now, he had figured out how to turn off my outside leg, but would fall in if I asked for a bit of inside flexion.

Since he now is starting to understand inside leg, I started asking for the first time for a bit of contact and flexion. Nothing strong, just starting to give him the idea. It was all at the walk and I don't to mess with the forwardness.

Oh - I lied. We did one other thing at the trot. 

After yesterday's eagerness to do some walk/trot transitions, I wanted to see if he understood going forward in the trot off my leg. 

The first long side attempt he kind of went "uh, what?". The second side - he was all "I got this". He increased the pace and kept the rhythm with mostly just my leg (I think I clucked once). That was where we ended the ride. 

The next challenge will be trying to get the same inside leg reaction at the trot. That's going to take forever at the rate at which we are going!

 

Stll Thinking Forward

Okay, I know I said that Stitch was done for this year and was on his winter break.

But I managed to get a rare four days off in a row this week, and last week he was looking pretty balanced again. So I figured I would hop back in the saddle for three or four rides.

Stitch was lunged on the weekend with a saddle on as prep for my mid-week ride. There was a little bit of sass - there was one kick that was definitely aimed at a dangling stirrup, but the butt-tucked-underneath-him-scoot at the canter was probably due to the cool weather. Or so I hoped.

The plan was to take Monday off from the barn as per normal, and then lunge him again and practice at the mounting block on Tuesday so that getting on on Wednesday wouldn't result in any surprises. But that didn't go to plan after I spent an unplanned 12 hours at work o Tuesday on very little sleep and spent the evening clunked out in bed.

Thus, I hadn't put as much prep into Stitch as I had hoped. It's only been a month since he was last ridden, but he's only had a total of 18 rides. Not enough time that everything about being ridden is been there/done that for him.

I'm not that stupid, so before getting on on Wednesday I popped him on the lunge line first for just a few minutes. He was super boring so after a quick trot and canter it was time to hop up.

Again, I wasn't stupid, and had my mom there to hold him at the mounting block. I wasn't sure how easily Stitch would come to the block as the last couple of rides before we stopped he was a bit fussy about it and I haven't practiced it since. To my surprise he eagerly lined himself up, so eagerly that he stumbled over top of it, knocking me off and moving the block about 10 inches. He gets an A for enthusiasm.

He stood perfectly still and relaxed for me to get on. I had my mom lead him the first few steps, but having a leader and me on his back trying to steer seemed to confuse him so I quickly had her unclip the lead and let us free.

I couldn't get any post-ride pics with his ears forward. Guess he wasn't impressed about being back under saddle.

I had absolutely no agenda for this ride. If we only walked, I was going to be perfectly happy.

For the first couple of minutes, Stitch felt a little unsure about the weight on his back, but it didn't take too long before he relaxed and started to wak more forward. 

I decided to try a trot. I gave a little nudge with my heels and clucked - and Stitch slammed on the brakes. Oh no.

I tried again on the long side heading towards the gate and he picked it up right away. He trotted nicely forward and we did a whole lap before I asked him to walk. And then we went the other way and did an even better lap.

I was happy to leave the trot there because homeboy is feeling rather downhill at the moment. He didn't feel this way in September, so yeah, I'm pretty sure he's bum high again.

But Stitch had other ideas and broke into the trot when I asked him to walk forard. I didn't want to squelch his desire to go forward so we did some walk/ trot transitions with him going from a lighter and lighter aid. I added a quick turn on the forehand off both legs, and ended the ride.

All in all, I was super happy with him. My hope was that he would continue the forward thinking that we had been getting on the last few rides , and happily he did.

The plan is to do two more rides this week. They will probably be just as short and sweet since he's feeling so downhill, but that doesn't bother me. Then, depending on how high his butt is at Christmas, I might do a few more days in the saddle when I have some time off again. Provided it's not freezing cold, of course!

Catching Up

 I fell off the blogging wagon again, because, well, nothing's been happening.

In what seemed to be just a couple of days, Stitch had another growth spurt in mid-October. On the Wednesday my mom and I both looked at him before I tacked up and said that he was looking pretty level, by Saturday his butt was noticeably higher.

Definitely bum high.

I rode on the next Tuesday. His first trot felt a bit discombobulated and he stumbled a couple of times, which he hasn't done since the first couple of rides. (This could have also been because the other horses left the ring and he had some feelings about that.)

I was kind of thinking that maybe it would be best to start his winter break early, and when I wentout on Friday to ride I looked at his back and the way it was swooping up to his much higher butt and said, nah, he's done for the season. 

In case you missed it in the first pic.

However, I allowed myself to have one more ride around the field the next day if someone was around to go with me. It was supposed to be a beautiful day, quite possibley the last of the season. 

Sure enough, I woke up in the morning with a text from someone asking if I wanted to head out after my lessons were done for the day. Of course I said yes.

So off we went, on what turned out to be a somewhat overcast and gloomy afternoon. Very much not what was forecasted.

Stitch had only been ridden once that week, so he definitely had a bit of sass in his step. Not fancy prancing horse sass, but I knew there was something in there.

I also figured out why he always has a dorky center part in his forelock - he has a giant cowlick at the base. His forelock is never going to lay flat without assistance.

What was different on this ride from our previous jaunts around the field was that the other rider's dog was accompanying us. He was full of energy and was running everywhere, including into the ditches, which then meant popping back into the field from behind the tall grass along the edge. 

I'm sure you can guess where this is going. 

Stitch was fine along the first side of the field, although he was keeping a close eye on the spaniel.

As we turned the corner I moved him a little closer to the edge of the field and onto the packed road. We weren't there for long before the dog popped out of the grass, and Stitch showed me just what his big spooks were going to look like.

He spun to the left. Very quickly. Pretty sure his front end dropped pretty good too, but it was so fast I really don't know. 

The good news is that we had our first canter, and it was on the left lead that will be his tougher one to get!

The spin threw me out of position - I lost my left stirrup, the saddle slid quite a bit to the right, my reins were long so my hands were way up in the air (but not that long because I was kind of anticipating something was going to happen). As I was starting to look for a soft landing place, I realized my dressage whip was flapping around way up in the air which probably wasn't helping things. 

I thought to myself if he's going to buck, this is where it's going to happen. 

But he didn't.

And I got myself somewhat organized and just rode the canter out. Stitch came back to walk, gave that dog a dirty look, and we continued. 

I mean, I wasn't crazy enough to really tempt fate and go back to the edge of the field. We stayed more so in the middle and ended the ride much earlier than planned. The other rider is of the nervous sort so she was also a little traumatized by my spook and was quite happy to change the plan up.

I still call the ride a success. Something happened, we survived, and we continued on. It didn't go the way I wanted it to, being the last ride that we were going to have for a while, but, hey, it made a good story.

Easy & Yassss

This is the face of a horse who was so forward at the trot for the first time that I actually had to slow him down.

And a damned cute face it is.

Wednesday's ride, which I kind of dragged myself out to, felt like a bit of a breakthrough.

When Stitch picked up the trot, heading away from the gate, he propelled himself forward down the long side. I had to take a slight feel of the reins to steady the trot a bit, while saying "easy" to him. 

This continued through the ride, however most of the time "easy" was followed by "yasssss". It finally felt like he got it. This was the first ride that I thought I might even be able to ask for a canter, but I'm not ready for it yet. I want our steering to be a bit better first.

This is the body of the horse who looked level on Wednesday (my mom and I both were saying so), but by Saturday looked bum hight again.

Stitch moves nicely off my outside leg to steer, but hasn't figured out moving away and bending from my inside leg. Now that we don't have to focus so much on getting forward at the trot, we will start to add a bunch of steering, which will hopefully help him get the idea about the inside leg.

Here's hoping that the breakthrough sticks!

First Ride Out

We've been experiencing a last kick at summer this week. The daytime temperatures have been beautiful, it just takes all day to get there. It now gets dark by about 7:30 in the evenings, which makes it difficult to get a chance to do any riding outside after work as I don't get to the barn until about 6pm.

This week, my day off happened to be on one of the nicest days of the week, so I was determined that I would be riding outside. I was really hoping to head out to one of the stubble fields that surround the barn, but would need a barn mate to babysit Stitch and I. If that didn't pan out, then I would settle for walking around the yard. 

I put a post up on the barn's Facebook group the night before and there was one person who was able to join me (and a whole lot who I will try to get out with on a weekend). Plans were made and we were riding out at noon on Monday. 

We had two options on where to go. The field on the opposite side of the road had been planted with potatos this year. They were harvested a couple of weeks ago, which of course involves digging the rows up. We couldn't tell until we got over there just how deep the rows were going to be. Last year I took Cisco over at the end of the season and they had harrowed the field and it was a foot deep with loose top soil. Not great to walk through. If that is what we were heading into, we were going to move down the road to the stubble field, which is a bit further away but would be easier to walk in. 

It turned out that the potato field was the perfect place for a walk - there was a packed road all around the field, wide enough for probably 3 horses to walk side by side. Perfect to be able to walk around on a loose rein and chat with a friend. Especially when your horses were behaving perfectly, as ours were.

This was Stitch's 14th ride. I was pretty confident that he would be a good boy on his first ride out, and I was right. We did almost the whole thing on the buckle. There were short moments where he had to lead, and lots of time that he was behind.

Stitch was in the lead when we came around a bend that the bushes were hiding a big, scary green monster - some sort of John Deere harvesting equipment. Stitch gave it the hairy eyeball but stayed in the lead to get us past it. 

This is passing the big scary green monster. 

The only time that he needed reassurance from his babysitter was almost at the end when we apporached the pipeline site. It's a small chainlink fenced area that has large white pipes that come out of the ground, a small shed and a flagpost with a wind sock. I'm not sure what he saw there that worried him, but he gave it a very wide berth.

It was a perfect first ride out for a baby horse. Now I just need the weather to cooperate so that we can get out there again before winter sets in. 

First Pole Course

As we have started working on steering at a trot, Stitch has shown an interest in the poles and jumps that seem to inevitably set up when I ride. He' s always seemed to have a thing for poles - even when I was long lining him he often made a beeline for them. 

Last Friday I finally got a free arena so that I coul set up a simple pole course suitable for a horse on his 13th ride. Namely, single poles on each quarter line and diagonal. Nothing fancy at all. But more than enough for an unfit baby horse.

We picked up our trot along a long side and Stitch immediately dove to the inside and took us over a pole. Like I said, he likes poles!

I didn't do much of a warmup with him once we got trotting - he doesn't have much stamina at this point and I wanted to get the fun stuff done before he ran out of energy.

We did our little 4 pole course two times. The first time, the first three poles were good, and just before we turned to the last pole he surged forward, which ordinarily I would be stoked about, but it meant that the turn across the diagonal, which was right after the pole on the quarter line, was a little wonky so when we got to the last pole he was a bit off balance and stalled out over the pole. 

For the second course, I just wanted to keep him going without stopping until we made it over all the poles. Again, the first three poles went well, but then Stitch was pretty sure that he was dying and dropped down to a walk along the short end. With a tap from the stick of encouragement, we got going again. The last turn across the diagonal was only slightly better than the previous time, but he was better balanced over the pole so kept trotting. Until the corner after the pole - he had to stop to poop.

Other than the last turn, everything else was nice and straight, before and after the poles. and Stitch used the full length of the arena. The turns were nicely bent to the inside and he turned nicely off of my outside leg. 

It looks like poles will be a good way to keep Stitch coming forward and working on turns and lines. We'll definitely be doing it regularly.

Making Slow Progress

Rides 8 through 12 weren't terribly exciting (just as I like them to be). We are continuing to focus on Stitch thinking forward, which is coming along nicely. I would say about 80% of the time he is forward. He tires out easily (poor unfit baby horse) so the sessions are still very short. When he slows down due to complete and utter exhaustion (according to him) I ask him for just a little bit more - around the corner, or down the next long side, before asking him to come back to walk.

We got outside for a walk after a quick ride. Steering wasn't great, but we got where I wanted to go, in a somewhat drunk fashion.

We're adding some steering at the trot. Simple stuff - diagonal lines and big circles. He moves nicely off my outside leg as a turning aid but doesn't really have the idea of bending around my inside leg yet. 

It's been hard to get the arena free of stuff set up all over the place, which in some ways is good because it gives us things to aim to go around, but in some ways is bad because we can't do small circles or really direct turns yet. 

It's also bad because Stitch seems to want to aim himself towards the thing in front of us, whether it be a pole on the ground or a 2'6" oxer. I turn with the intent of going past it, he hones in on it, and I have to pull him to the side. Is he going to be the horse who gets me back in the jumper ring? We'll see in a couple years. He's only jumped once on the lunge, and let's just say he is not a naturally gifted hunter. 

I'm starting to feel that he is asking questions. Can I slow down yet? Not yet bud, just a little more trot first. Do you want me to go into the corner? Why yes, thank you for that! There are moments where he still slams on the brakes from a trot, but they are getting fewer and I'm able to get him going again right after. Although, I still haven't started getting after him for stopping to poop. We'll leave that until next year. 

Stitch can now do a mean turn on the forehand away the wall. He halts from a walk when I close my thighs. We've started some baby leg yields at the walk - I think he's just on the cusp of figuring them out. 

I'm still planning to stop riding him for the winter at the end of October. That's only about another 12 rides if I continue with the current three days a week schedule. That's not enough time to perfect anything. I'm looking at this fall as a chance to introduce him to a bunch of things. He's a smart cookie, and I don't think he'll forget very much over his vacation. 

Rides 13 and 14 had a couple of firsts happen - but I'll write them up for later in the week. 

I'm Weak

I'm behind on blogging again. Stitch is up to his 14th ride, most of which haven't been too exciting,  but there have been a couple of notable firsts. I do most of my typing on my tablet and I hate using the on-screen keyboard. I can't find my Bluetooth keyboard, so another one is on it's way from Amazon and I can get everyone caught up on our hijinks.

That's not the only online purchase I've made recently.

I know, I said that I wasn't going to buy any blankets for Stitch until he stopped growing. But I had a moment of weakness when I found a deal.

A local-ish place is getting out of Horseware, so everything is 40% off. Sizes were limited, but I did a quick look, you know, just in case. I don't know in case of what, but just in case.

There was one thing that they had in the size I would need. Something that I've coveted for quite a while. Something that would look great on Stitch. And something that I totally didn't need.

The dopamine hit is real.

I waited a whole day before saying fuck it and buying it. 

I love it and it looks great on Stitch.

The classic gold/red/black Whitney cooler.

It retails for $150-$180 in Canada. I got it for $90, so I consider that a good deal.

I've wanted one for a long time, but just couldn't justify buying yet another cooler to add to my collection (which I think is down to 6?), especially since it doesn't have a full neck, which is the only reason I was permitting myself to buy another one when the time came.

Now, Stitch isn't going to be working this winter, and won't be clipped, so he won't be wearing it for a while. I just hope he doesn't outgrow it - it's only about one size too big at the moment. I thought it would be bigger on him.

Although, if he outgrows it, it might make it onto my couch....

Thinking Forward

I'm back to work this week (sad face) so Stitch is getting his workload dropped down to three days a week (maybe a lunge on a fourth day on occasion). He was ridden six days last week, which is too much, but the first few rides were only about 10 minutes each and most of the rides have been at a walk. I wanted the repetition for the first few rides, but now that we are past that I'll drop it down. I'm kind of going with the 3 years old = 3 days a week rule. 

Ride #8 was on Monday. Again, the focus was on forward at the trot, with generally minimal steering. If all went well, I was hoping to take him for his first walk around the yard under saddle. It gets tough to get outside when I have to ride after work at this time of year as it's getting dark so much earlier, so I like to take advantage of the daylight when I can. 

Stitch had had two days off, so I was hoping that this would help him think forward - and he was!

I used my brain and started the trot heading towards the gate. The impulsion was kept through the short end and I didn't have to work as hard to keep him going down the long side.

Unfortunately, the arena footing was a little wonky as they had watered but hadn't harrowed yet (the quad used to pull the harrows had been out for repairs, they were picking it up that afternoon) and there was one spot that he keeps tripping over something. I can't figure out what, other than that the footing changes a bit from deep to shallow maybe? So I tried to avoid trotting through that section, which meant I didn't get full laps. But I was much happier with his forward thinking through this ride. He wasn't perfect, I'd say he got it about 80% of the time. 

Again, we didn't do a ton of trot, but we did go outside for a walk. There was quite a bit of activity happening, and other than trying to look at something and gravitating to the right when I was trying really hard to go left, he was quite good. We didn't fall into any gopher holes so I would call that a win. 

Redemption

After the previous day's ride where Stitch's butt came up behind me when he had a little hissy fit about having to keep trotting past the gate, the focus for ride #7 was going to be just focusing on forward. I really don't care too much about steering at the trot, he's not diving all over the place, he's just cutting the ends a bit short, but until we get forward I don't want to fuss about anything that's going to back him off. 

The first trot was definitely not as forward as I am looking for, but it got better and better as we got going. We didn't have any issues getting through the short end by the gate, he backed off a bit but kept going, but then he kept backing off heading down the long side into the opposite end. 

I was going to be done, but thought, nah, I just want to do one more short end by itself, from B to E on the track. 

And Stitch nailed it. It was super forward, no stalling out, with definite intent of going forward. It was the perfect decision and the perfect place to end the ride. 

We found a lovely little laneway at the end of our road that I would love to ride down when the leaves start dropping. Unfortunately, the people that live at the end of the road are not horse people and do not like anyone trespassing on their property. We might have to try to get some pictures from along the road.

Our rides are still quite short- homeboy is not at all fit (and neither am I judging by the amount of huffing and puffing I hear in the videos), and I want to make sure that he wants to keep trying for me. 

There were some moments on this ride that I finally felt Stitch getting a bit steadier underneath me which allowed me to anchor myself better in the saddle. There's nothing like a baby horse to make you feel like you are a beginner rider again!

No Longer the Golden Child

The golden child's halo slipped a bit on ride #6. 

I had gone into the ride with the plan of just working on getting him trotting forward, with the goal of being able to trot a full lap of the arena. Turns out that was exactly what was needed.

I've always said that Stitch has more whoa than go, and I figured that getting him going was going to be my biggest problem. He has a natural engine behind him once he's moving, just convincing him to get moving might be tough. 

He'd had the Wednesday off, and I was hoping he wouldn't go too much backwards. Sometimes the greenies seem to forget everything after a day off.

He seemed ok at a walk; still remembered how to steer. 

Eventually, I picked up the trot to the left, starting at the end opposite the gate. He picked up the trot fine, trotted forward down the long side towards the gate, and stalled out as we approached the corner. I asked him to trot again, got no reaction, ramped it up a bit, dug in my heels, and up popped his back end. 

Very much the toddler equivalent of no, I don't wanna.

Very much not acceptable. As cute as it was, I can't condone it. 

It's also not a complete surprise that he got sticky at the gate - the first couple of times that I lunged him at that end there was a little bit of a hissy fit about the expectation to keep going.

I had my assistant stand in the end with the lunge whip to help encourage him through the short end, which got him through the short end, but then he stopped and planted his feet on the other side. 

Enter Mr. Tappy.

I kind of figured he'd be a horse who would need to be ridden with a whip, but was hoping to not have to do it so early. But if that's what it takes, so be it. 

Mr. Tappy worked his magic, and Stitch decided that he could keep on going. 

We ended up doing a lap and a half at trot in both directions, so that we could go through the short end twice and we didn't come back to walk on the long side until he was trotting forward.

And then he redeemed himself by figuring out his first steps of turn on the forehand.

This horse is smart. I need to make sure I keep him thinking that this is fun, or he may choose to use his brain for evil.

No Ego

When people have asked me if I was going to start Stitch myself, I said that was the plan. I'm in no rush, I don't have a demanding client that wants the horse to be doing all the things within 30 days, so I can take my time and do things slowly. 

I've been saying that I have no ego in this - I will be asking for help. Hopefully, it was just of the lead me and hold my horse the first few times type of help, but if I felt it was warranted I would employ the services of a pro to put the first few rides on. It doesn't appear that they will be needed. 

Thankfully, Stitch has not yet developed an ego, because he's been getting so many compliments from people at the barn that it would go to anyone's head.

He keeps hearing things like:

He's so handsome.

He's so shiny.

He's such a nice shade of bay.

He's got such a good brain.

He's looking so good.

He's so tall. (This came from a quarter horse person, lol)

He's so cute.

He's so friendly.

Now that he's under saddle, he's such a superstar.

I really need to just let him get scruffy over the winter so that I don't have a 4 year old who thinks he's the shit next year. I don't want him to get a big head and have to buy a new bridle to contain it.