Potential Harness Horse?

I decided to start Jetta on some basic introduction steps to driving. Why? Well, I've always wanted a horse that I could drive. All of my horses learned to ground drive but I've never been able to afford a cart or harness so that's as far as I've gotten. But I still want to someday get there, so why not lay down the basics just in case? As a plus, it'll desensitize Jetta further. 

Jetta's been ground driving for several months and doing well. She still thinks I'm slightly crazy for standing behind her and booking it to keep up with her trot but its been going well. Unfortunately, I know of no one in my area who drives, though my aunt and uncle (the ones who gave me Katy and Colton) have introduced me to it, since they own a driving business. They've given me plenty of reading material in the past on training a horse to drive as well as teaching me to harness and hitch their horses. I even got to show one of their horses at the County fair one year. Anyways, today I decided to put on the makeshift "shafts" for Jetta to get used to. It went, interestingly...

"Meh. My mom's crazy. I've just gotten used to it."

First we warmed up off the lunge line. Jetta was being a dork and spooked herself when she kicked up a bit of dirt and it hit the arena wall. She then proceeded to do her best impression of a racehorse. After we got all that extra energy out I ground drove her a bit and then grabbed one of my poles.

"I think this qualifies as pony torture..."

 I've done some desensitizing with them, rubbing her all over with them so today I fashioned the most ghetto tugs ever before seen (don't worry, if/when she got scared the poles just fell out, or even if she didn't get scared they still fell out, lol) popped the pole in there and off we went! Jetta was super good at first. She had her ears fixed firmly on that pole the whole time but other than that didn't bother with it. I found out quickly though that if it touched her butt, that it was not okay. So for today we stuck with keeping it on the inside.

I switched it to her other side and she was much more worried about it. I gave her lots of pats and reassurance, but it was a lot scarier on this side. Still not allowing it to touch her butt, she was good. Then for some reason we had an "OMG its gonna get me!" moment whereby she managed to sweep me off my feet, landing me squarely on my back. She scooted a few steps away and stared at me. "Was that supposed to happen? I didn't mean it..." She looked rather contrite. After getting my breath back we tried again but she wasn't having it so I took it out of the "tugs" and rubbed her all over with it. Then I held onto it and we walked forwards and backwards together so she could see that when she stopped, it stopped and no, it was not going to eat her. I put it back in the "tugs" and we did a lap around the arena and called it a day. Originally I had thought to ground drive her during this ordeal but she obviously wasn't ready for it, so I just walked by her head.

"This side's ok, as long as it doesn't touch my butt!"

It was very interesting. I now know some things that we can work on. Do I ever think she'll make a good driving horse? I really don't know. She got rather panicked several times, but it's probably something that with patience we can work through. Another problem that I have is her disengaging her hind end and turning to face me. That's obviously not going to fly if there's a cart attached so I did some quick googling and found this. I love that there's this availability of information on the internet! This woman's methods seem very straightforward and common sense so we are going to work on this.

I also found this great article about teaching a horse to drive, which is basically how I've learned to do it. We are currently attempting step 10, since I do not have a cart to introduce (without hitching her to it) and at this point I don't think she's quite ready to pull a tire. I really like this guy though. I think we do need to go back and repeat step three. This is something I teach all horses when I start them under saddle, but we need a refresher on it and Jetta needs some more desensitizing around her hind end.

Next week we're going to do the same exact thing that we did today and just gradually build her confidence. I also think coming armed with treat will make it better too, as we all know, yummy stuff is the cure for everything :) Jetta definitely earned her reward today and got a nice apple at the end!

What do you think?

Book Review: The Eighty Dollar Champion

Wow, so these last two months I have read one book for fun. Sad, I am used to reading anywhere from two to five books a week!

I had placed the Eighty Dollar Champion on hold at the library and got on the waitlist for it. So when it was my turn, since it was a new book that's pretty popular I knew that I needed to read it asap otherwise give up on reading it for a long time!

So last Saturday I sat down and read it completely... and I really liked it! Granted, it doesn't take a lot to please me in a book, but I found it fascinating learning about past jumping practices, the difference in jumping position and other practices, plus I can't help but cheer for an underdog.

It was neat to see actual pictures of Snowman in the book and I found myself holding my breath as he competed. Snowman's owner Harry is a very likeable person and he embodies the horseman who succeeds on skill, not money. It would even be a good book for a non-horse-person or non-jumper since the jumping competitions and practices are explained in simple terms for every reader. Overall a great read and I definitely recommend it. Two hooves up!

Jomping!!

Had a great ride today! I got a video but of course it doesn't want to upload. I am going to try when I get on campus tomorrow and have the WiFi to do it, but really the video was not helpful. I set my phone on a barrel to get the video so basically you just see a big blur come into the picture about every 30 to 45 seconds and since I still haven't installed any editing software on my computer I can't chop it up into pieces so it's more bare-able to watch.

"Jomping is so much better than stupid dressage!"

But back to the ride. I set up a big old oxer for us to jump today and Jetta was totally game. Didn't even glance twice at it, just flew over. It's neat having a horse that I know has the scope to clear anything so I don't have to stress about it. I still can't find my measuring tape, but I think the jump was around 2'9" give or take a few inches.

We trotted over it for the first few times and she only had one or two rushy leaps at it, but I found that if I sat up and established a good rhythm we were pretty much set for a good jump. Then we cantered it and she was just as good! I wanted to finish on one more good canter jump but she tried to leap it again, so we circled and established a better canter and I sat up and we had a great jump. I love jumping, I just wish I could take lessons from someone locally!

Hopefully this summer we'll take some regular jumping lessons when I'm at home. And we've got three eventing clinics lined up in the upcoming months to prepare for Inavale. Getting excited already :)

PS: check back tomorrow and I'll try to have that video up for your viewing (dis?)pleasure.

Awfulness

Today has been awful. I had an awful, awful midterm for my Honors History of the Theory of Evolution and Modern Biology early this morning that I have been freaking out about for the past two weeks and studying non-stop for the past week. I don't think I did too terribly on it, but I still thought it was awful. Two hours writing essays would make anything awful. I never want to hear the word "evolution" or "Darwin" ever again.

My ride on the pony actually wasn't too bad. She didn't get ridden yesterday because of said studying. Usually she can be a little nasty after getting time off but she was actually not too bad. She was pretty good about carrying her head lower, slowing her pace a bit and doing leg yields nicely, though our right lead canter was still a bit of a jump into it and we had to have a discussion about halting when I say so. I was planning on staying at the barn for a while and giving Jetta a good grooming and cleaning my tack just to celebrate being done with that awful midterm, but just as I was finishing up riding I started to have an asthma attack. I hate, hate, hate allergies. I'm allergic to pollen which means hay and grass so being around horses can suck sometimes. Of course I couldn't just get off, I had to end on a good note, then untack and put everything away so by the time I got in my car and blasted the filtered air I felt like I was going to die via asphyxiation. An awful feeling. One Benadryl later and I'm feeling much better.

I'm going to go buy some allergy meds and start taking them so hopefully I won't have an attack tomorrow because tomorrow is our jumping day and I'm really looking forward to it!

Clinic Recap

Had a good clinic this weekend! I was super nervous about it, like always whenever I plan an event for the dressage team I stress incessantly all throughout the night.

The clinician was super nice (I'll call her TS) even though she had to fill out a ridiculous amount of paperwork through the university which I felt bad about, but I have no control over unfortunately. I feel like trainers and judges dread working with the team because it's so difficult! But TS was a good sport about it.

I did mess up with the ride scheduling unfortunately. TS said she wanted 45 minute lessons so I scheduled them for 60 minutes so that no one would feel rushed and there would be time for warm-up and cooling off since there was only a small indoor arena. Oops, I guess that was not what she wanted! But it ended up running smoothly, especially since I was hauling three horses so we all rode in quick succession so we finished earlier than originally projected.

I have a three horse trailer but I've hauled three horses in it a grand total of three times (including this weekend) and all of the horses were from different locations and lots of backing and turning around in small spaces was involved. But I handled it like a pro if I do say so myself :) ML moved to a new barn, which I'm not a huge fan of because it's pretty far from my barn and there's no turn around, it's at the top of a tall hill = not fun at all! Essentially I have to back up a large hill to turn around without falling of the cliff. With three horses in the trailer. Yikes.

The hauling all went smoothly, though Jetta did get nicked on her hock, but I believe that was from her trying to kick the gelding in the slant next to her. Mares...

When it was my turn to ride, we warmed up on the loose rein like usual but didn't get a whole lot of time. TS had me work on getting her to slow her rhythm down and have a lower neck set so that she'd use the muscles in her neck closer to her withers which is where she needs development. Jetta wasn't awful, but she was trying to rush around on her forehand and I think if I had just given her a couple of half halts, it would have gone a bit better.

She really liked Jetta. She thought she had good conformation (she commented that she had good bone!) and that I had found a good horse. I'm proud of my $750 horse :) And, get this, she told me that she believes that Jetta has FEI potential. Wow. That is the best compliment that I have ever received about Jetta, though everyone who sees her tends to like her ♥ I've never even thought about ever being able to go that high. I was hoping to get to third level! And this is coming from a Grand Prix rider. She commented that she had amazing gaits and her movement allowed her to mask her improper carriage - holding her head correctly and tracking up, but not lifting through her back.

We worked on getting Jetta off of my left rein as she tends to hang on it in both directions. With lateral work, she had me do a shoulder-fore down one long wall to prepare her to do a leg yield down the quarter-line on the opposite long wall, keeping her inside hind leg engaged as well as slowing her rhythm.Another helpful tip on the cantering front - transition up as I go towards a wall, which will help back her off and not rush as much into the canter. She thinks that her sloppy transitions are just due to a growth spurt which is why we have so many ups and downs in our training. Not that its a good excuse for her bad behavior though!

The neat thing about TS is not only does she have Grand Prix experience and has worked with trainers of international fame, but she's also a veterinarian who does chiropractic work and will do minor adjustments during your lesson. She told all the riders in the clinic that she wants them to do carrot stretches, tail pulls and pelvic tucks on the horses on a regular basis to help keep them in top form. Unfortunately, probably because of this, she's quite expensive. She regularly charges $100 per lesson, though she reduces her rate to $75 for the dressage team. Definitely not something I can afford on a regular basis! But we've got three clinics left with her, so I'm really looking forward to them.

I did get some pictures of the other riders during their lesson, but apparently I've exceeded the picture storage on this blog??? Has anyone else had this problem and what did you do?

Equestrian Problems

I saw this on HorseNation the other day and loved them! Very clever and I can agree with every single one of them. Go to Equestrian Problems for more! Here's ones that I related to the most:

Definitely been given dirty looks...

Most awkward tan line ever!

Definitely been asked this.

Short and Sweet

Just wanted to post a quick update. I've got a billion and one things going on making my life not-so-fun this week, but I was determined to go out and have a good ride on the mare today. And surprisingly it went well.

I had been coaching myself throughout the day - I know she's not going to be very good, but I just need to stay calm and ride through it, just correct her and move on, don't stress, low expectations, low expectations. That was my mantra. And it worked!


I went out and tacked her up. I noticed that she was sore in her neck so I gave her a mini massage and we did some stretching and that seemed to get rid of the nasty faces she was making. Warmed up on the lunge line with side reins and then switched to the sidepull to ride, just to change it up a bit. If I have 100% control of Jetta and her body with a bit, then I've got at least approximately 90% control with the sidepull, so I'm never worried about using it when she's acting up. It's good to give her mouth a break sometimes I think.


I got on and warmed up long and low at the walk and trot then gradually gathered her up. Every time I did it too fast she'd pop her head up and avoid going forward to the bit so I'd just ask her to move forward and stretch back down to the bit. I kept her in a slightly lower neck position than usual because I do think her neck is sore, why I have no idea, but this would help get her stretched out. I asked her to bend around my inside leg through the corners and she accepted my leg well. And then we cantered! Our transitions weren't great but they weren't awful like on Tuesday. I'm glad no one else was around because I talked me and Jetta through every little hitch and it helped. I'm sure I sounded a little crazy though!



I gave her lots of walk and stretching breaks throughout our ride and finished with trotting an actually straight line down the center and halting square. I got off and we called it a day. Not an amazing ride, but good. Short and sweet. I just hope that she behaves herself tomorrow and we get some good feedback in our lesson.