Horses and Dogs Working Over the Weekend

First we have Dewey, who is due for his spring dental to address the balance of his teeth but he's riding pretty darn well considering!  It always impresses me how ground pole work improves the horses gaits.

Jasi rode Sam with me coaching them, and it was quite nice.  They're working on lengthening his stride without him getting behind the bit, which means without him tucking his chin.  Horses are much better balanced when their faces are at or in front of the vertical, which you can see in this first photo where the fence edge is just near his face.

We also needed a good shot of the gorgeous turquoise browband Sam wears.

Ferriana came out for a jumping school, and she was a bit wound up since I had two other mares turned out playing in the round pen that morning and Ferriana would have liked to be in on the action.

She also was insistent that she be able to smell the girth I was putting on her jumping saddle, because it smelled like the boy horse who wore it last and therefore it needed investigating.

Because Ferriana was full of beans, I worked her a little on the lungeline before I climbed aboard.  She showed off her amazing scope and cleared the four foot jump standards like they were toadstools.

Once I had mounted we did a thorough warm up to make sure that she was going to listen to me and behave.  It consisted of lots of circles and serpentines through the arena at the trot with some walk transitions thrown in to make sure she stayed focused on me.  Ferriana is hot, sensitive, and also stubborn, so it's best to get her cooperating by working her and giving her a task to focus on.  Trying to force her into anything would definitely backfire and cause her to use her athletic abilities in unacceptable ways.

Rizzo had a good time, too.

I can see the excitement in her face, also her eye expresses her realization that she's cut this particular jump a little close to the horse!

Jimmy has been doing some great work.  His strength improves a little each day, and we're working on cantering in the arena as well as walking in the fields and trot work in the sand.

I love this photo of Jimmy and Pascal chatting about how the ride is going to go.  Pascal is coming right along in his own coaching skills, and he does his best to demonstrate for the horses as well as stick with us during rides.

In these next photos you can see that I'm in a very light seat on Jimmy at the canter.  This is because it takes significant core and back strength for a horse to carry a deep seated rider, and Jimmy's not quite there yet.  Cantering is great for getting him to lift and stretch his back as well as really reach underneath himself with his hind legs, but I don't want to sit deep on him since he's not comfortable carrying my weight in that position yet.  When at the racetrack the horses almost never have riders sitting on them - the jockeys and exercise riders are always in a two point position poised on the balls of their feet on the stirrups.  Having a rider seated with longer stirrups is a new thing for a retired racehorse, and it take some getting used to when they need to balance with a rider in this position.

 (Pascal's work over the poles cantering next to us is a perfect example of extreme overreach!)

Eventually Jimmy should be able to carry a rider in a full seat position at all gaits, but it's better to develop his strength and balance gradually so that I don't make him sore asking for too much too soon.

When we're done in the arena, most of the time I can't be bothered to dismount to open the gate.  To justify my laziness I tell the horses that "every good dressage horse knows how to open gates".  Then I teach them to stand quietly while I lean over and grab the gate, and have them sidepass over as I open it.  Since they all see each other doing it several times each day, new horses figure it out super fast, and Jimmy is no exception.  Pascal looks on for moral support.

Once we're out of the arena I like to take the horses for a lap around the front pasture.  Usually whichever dog is working with me during that ride comes with us. 

I have a nice hill by the road that is great for encouraging the horses to use their core and is especially good for strengthening the hindquarters including quadriceps and gluteal muscles.  As we take our lap in the wide open I make a concentrated effort to include trips up and down the hill with correct biomechanics so the horse lengthens their topline and really pushes with their haunches.

All in all we've had some great rides this weekend!