First Oxer and Gymnastic Line

Kathy and Dylan came over this morning to ride and set fences for me and Lynx.  We took a walk around the fields and neighborhood, with Mahzi the dog right alongside us.  Pascal got distracted chasing the barn cats again so he joined us later for the jumping exercises.

Once we were ready to work with the jumps, we started with walkibg over ground poles as our first step in this progression.  The pivo was convinced it should be tracking Dylan, so Kathy went through the gymnastic line of ground poles too.

We went through it both directions at the walk, then we each trotted through.  The basic idea is to start small and go slowly, then gradually raise the jumps and increase the speed. I did make a couple adjustments to the distance between jumps as they got higher so Lynx would have an easier time getting the strides right. 

Lynx had looked at these jumps yesterday during our ride, and I could tell he was interested.  I wanted to wait until I had someone here before tackling this particular exercise, and Lynx was definitely eager to work on this today! 

Once he was cantering through the line accurately we raised the jumps again, making the blue crossrail quite a bit larger on the sides.  It was no problem for Lynx, he jumped right through.  

I did notice that he was getting a little flat over the last fence, though.  This is a common thing as a horse is learning to jump.  He jumps harder to get over the bigger obstacle, but doesn't realize he needs to change the shape of his body in the air.  We want more of an arc, less of a flat back.

The easiest way to teach this body shape over fences is to make them wider, with an increasing element.  So I set up the last fence as an oxer, with a smaller crossrail in front of a slightly higher horizontal pole. This was Lynx's first oxer, but because I've introduced jumping to him so systematically, it seemed to him like the logical next step in the progression.

Here are the videos of the jumping efforts, this is so exciting!  Lynx really does like these thinking exercises, I'd love to get him out on a cross country course!

https://youtu.be/X8gn7Fe7Jic?is=-eaXVCJpeak0PjIR

We have another horse show this weekend, so be sure to follow along for his next batch of fancy horseshow photos!

First Cantering

 

It was a serendipitous first canter - and we had great success!  Lynx and I were out with the dogs riding around the fields and the neighbor's, and we were aggressively followed by one of those horse flies that's gigantic - the ones that are the size of your thumb.  Lynx was upset about it flying around him, so I said let's trot to get away from it.  We trot all the time in the fields, so nothing new there.

As we kept trotting, though, Lynx continued to wring his tail around in a circle, and I figured the bug was still with us.  In an attempt to outrun it, I asked him for a canter.  He has cantered on the lungeline previously, and recognizes a kissing sound as a canter cue, so when I added a little leg and kissed, he picked up the canter right away.  He did a great job and was quite balanced, so we carried on until we were back at the front fence line.  When he came back to the walk he was moving oddly, so I looked back to see the darn bug stuck to him, right next to the base of his tail!  I leaned back and squashed it and then gave Lynx a good scratch.  He was relieved to have the bug finally gone, but he also had figured out cantering under saddle!  

Lynx did so well the first time, that we rode to the back of back field and tried again.  This time he went into his big trot, then picked up the canter going up the hill, and we cantered all the way to the front of that field!  He even gave me a lead change when I shifted my weight around one of the corners.  This guy is a natural.  

Sadly, I managed to forget my gopro in the house, so we were down to the cell phone again.  This smart horse had no trouble, though, since I've spent an inordinate amount of time videoing our rides and talking to the camera while neck reining.  As I described the first couple canters to the video, Lynx knew what I was talking about.  He asked if we could do it one more time, so I agreed.  

 https://youtube.com/shorts/8CNWGJlLDrk?is=pZCM3JrfuCNoQmSe

This was our video capture for the day, with me cantering while neck reining with one hand and holding the phone to video with the other.  At the end of the video he lost his balance since I wasn't able to help him as much while multi-tasking, and broke into the pace.  No big deal, I expect things like that to happen until he is really confident and strong in the canter.  I just brought him back to a walk and reorganized.  He gave me one more good go of cantering to make up for it, and then we walked back to the barn to cool off.  

Tomorrow we'll try the gymnastic with canter strides, and I'll have help so hopefully that will be a great next episode in Lynx's story!

Hacking Around at Home

This morning Lynx and I took it easy, using the bareback pad and going for a hack around at home. He does really seem to enjoy our little jaunts with Mahzi!

I feel so lucky to live in such a beautiful place with so much space to ride.

Trailride with Dylan at the Farm

Yesterday we picked up Kathy and Dylan on our way and headed over to the farm for another ride.  The cattle were nowhere to be seen, but we had a great time anyway!  

As we headed out away from the trailer we rode over the wooden bridge in the driveway.  Lynx of course remembered it from last time and marched right over with no hesitation, and because he was so confident, Dylan followed easily.  On the way back, Dylan was brave and went over first!

https://youtu.be/fCMHld_qzcM 

Going up into the farm we pass all kinds of equipment form years past, which is great for the horses to look at and helps with desensitizing.  

 https://youtu.be/k3SfXRog5D0

 

We went out through the wooded trail and cruised around the open pastures along the way.  Lynx remembered the pond in which we'd seen the giant birds and cattle last week, but he simply looked really carefully at it, he didn't spook or do anything silly.  In another spot he remembered we'd done some big trotting.  He does enjoy opening up and getting some speed work in when the footing is good!  There was no misbehaving, he just had a little more pep in his step as he politely asked me if we were going to trot again?  Ultimately now that Kathy and Dylan have seen the area we decided to trot and canter work next time. 

One other spot we entered a field through a slightly overgrown area.  Lynx was leading, so had to push his way through the tree branches.  Often I'll teach this at home by setting up a chute with pool noodles a horse has to walk through, shoving the styrofoam pool noodles out of the way with his chest.  However, Lynx has been with me such a short amount of time that I haven't had a chance to set up the whole Bit of Honey Circus for desensitizing.  Lynx didn't end up needing prior exposure, though.  With just a little encouragement he pushed the branches out of the way with his face, neck and chest, and made his way into the field.  

https://youtu.be/CYMbEOJM4CY 

Ultimately we had a great time!  We always enjoy our trailrides, whether we go on our own or with friends.  

We got the one selfie at the end, too!

Working on Wednesday

I'm not entirely sure how Lynx knows what I want when we get to taking selfies, but somehow he manages to turn on the charm and smile for the photos!

We were working at home this morning with some of the gymnastics.  Lynx remembered jumping at Lena's over the weekend and started out strong over the blue crossrail.  

I'd set up a bounce (no stride between the jumps, just land and then jump again), but it was a little confusing for Lynx.  The first time through we did what I like to call "jumping by braille", where he hits every pole in order to determine where they are.  This is super common as I start horses with this kind of work.  

Because his eyes are on the sides of his head, the jump actually moves into the blind spot immediately in front of him, just as he needs to take off.  Sort of gives new meaning to the expression Flying Blind!  You can imagine how he might feel the need to hit every pole if three jumps repeatedly appear then disappear right when he needs to takeoff!  This is why I always try to walk the horse around the jumps first, with his side parallel to the poles, so he can actually see and assess the jumps before I ask him to go over them.

https://youtu.be/adePUhpdsTY?is=jp9mimszKNvLxvJw

As I go back over the video and photos from today it's also remarkable that Lynx tries SO HARD to do this jumping thing right.  He is still determining whether things are cavalletti to be taken in trot stride, or a jump to be hopped over.  He's athletic enough that he can lift individual legs quite high!  Once he figures out that he can canter these jumps much more easily than trotting them, it will be a real game changer.

Look at how high he lifts that right hind to clear the pole!

Check out his right front leg, knee to nose, hoof to chest! And note how high the sides of this crossrail are.  I often set this up so the jump will look bigger to the horse and he'll clear it easily in the center. Lynx is smart and attentive enough that he was trying to get over the oddly angled poles at the trot, not realizing it was ok to canter in and jump.

Here he's stepping equally high with his left front- this is some serious athleticism and try.

This crossrail's sides are a little smaller, and you can see him "sitting" more in his hind end with this jumping effort.

This is the bounce, after I changed it to be ground poles to a vertical because he needed something simpler.  I'm always happy to simplify an exercise for him, I want him to end a session feeling confident and accomplished.

Now he's getting the idea!  Next I'll set some fences on a long straight-away in the fields.  I'll let him pick up a little speed and see if I can get him to break into the canter and go through the bounce that way.  In this little ring it's difficult to get much impulsion before needing to turn, and he happily canters in the pasture all the time.  

This small ring/round pen has been useful for getting him started because the smaller space has made him think about his balance, without him ever needing to pick up much speed. Lynx has terrific brakes with a breathing halt, so if the rider exhales and shifts her pelvis into a more posterior tilt, Lynx will shift his pelvis and slow down then stop in response, doing the same thing with his body as the rider does. He'll quietly halt like this anytime, after a jump, when trotting downhill, it's a great tool to rebalance him when riding on terrain.  I also use a variation of this method to teach my western horses how to slide.

Not bad at all for a horse who's only been under saddle and riding for five weeks!

The Jumps Get Bigger

Lynx and I took another trip to our friend's place and used her jumps again, and cooled out with another trail ride.  Lena took the video and photos again too, because she's awesome and we're so grateful!!

https://youtu.be/2SkkTefLl6A?is=-3bh9FrjVg45UTav

Lynx has the idea now about jumping, and while he's athletic enough to trot over some substantial crossrails, we raised a vertical to (I think) 2'3", which was big enough that he had to actually jump, using both hind legs to push off.  It took a few tries, the first time he hit his hind legs.  On the next attempt he tucked up his hinds but wasn't thinking about his fronts, so hit the those on the pole.  A little frustrated but determined to get it right, the next try he cleared it with all of his legs.  

It's remarkable how he rarely makes the same mistake more than once.  He may take a few tries to get it right, but he makes different mistakes each time and learns from them and makes corrections every time.

This was a little coop, a cross country style jump that didn't have any standards, which makes steering very important!  He looked at it the first time or two, then figured out it was just another kind of jump and hopped on over.

We're getting some great canter strides after landing over the larger jump, too!

Hooray for Lynx getting better with his jump form all the time!

And a trailride to cool out afterwards.

Some glamour shots with the newly painted Hermes jump standards.  

Lynx is kind of hilarious, he's very particular about who he likes and who he doesn't.  There's no in-between!  He pins his ears at Dylan like in this photo, but doesn't make faces at Lena's horse, Blaze.  I don't know why, since Dylan is one of the easiest "go along to get along" creatures I know, but I have to admit, I don't like everyone I meet, either.

New Voting Link

Go to the ReBrand Initiative Facebook page for a new chance to vote for Lynx and get him points in the competition!  Once more he's accomplished a lot in just a couple weeks, and here's the summary:

https://youtu.be/Cd2H1YZCgJI?is=xQX4TPrS9OvcpJ3v