Thanksgiving 2014

This year on Thanksgiving I have so much to be thankful for in this privileged life I've been afforded. This post, though, will be dedicated to my boyfriend, friends, and my family who have all been so supportive of my journey. As some of you know, I was in a very dark place these last few years not being able to ride. Every time I would discuss my past riding experience I would begin to cry and had to push it out of my mind. It got to the point that I had to hide fellow riders on my Facebook because if I saw pictures of them and their horses I would break down crying. I was able to ride a friend's horse here and there and my mood would improve tremendously, but it was always temporary. I took a few lessons and while those were fun, it wasn't the same as having my own horse and that is what I really missed. With the mounting stress of graduate school, things were looking pretty bleak for me now that my passion was gone. Thankfully we are required to be in therapy and I was able to tell all of this to my therapist who suggested that I seriously consider getting a horse again. In her words, "if people can have kids in grad school, you could easily handle a horse."

I had never considered the option of getting back into riding, it always seemed too expensive and that I would have to return to riding as an "amateur," or in my 30s and 40s. The more I thought about the horses, the more I realized I could do things inexpensively. If I were to find a less expensive horse, less expensive boarding, no competing, and less expensive equipment I might actually be able to swing this. I had researched getting a mustang ever since freshman year of undergrad because the desire to have a horse again never left me. Fast forward to 5 years later and the rest is history. However, the support I received from my boyfriend, friends and family has been tremendous. I was hesitant to share my horse purchase with others because I figured they wouldn't understand, that they'd think it was just a poor financial decision. Yet the response I received could not have been more opposite! Everyone understood how my mental health was more important to me and offered to help in whatever way they could.

So thank you boyfriend, friends and family for understanding how important horses are to me and continuing to support my choices. You all have put up with my stress and been very accommodating in so many ways, so thank you! While I still struggle with stress due to grad school, I'm in a much better place and it's in no small part because of all of you :)

 My boy Lordanus "Donny" and I (about 12) cleaning up at the championship horse show

My last horse Carjo (prounounced Kai-o) "Kai" in our first show together, I'm about 14

Back home at the fairgrounds in a schooling show

Riding my friend's horse a couple of years ago, he was super fancy

The day I picked up Calvin with a mile-wide smile :D

Happy Thanksgiving from me, my boyfriend, Calvin, Heidi, Charbon, and Gracie!

Training Refocus

I mentioned before how I was deciding between Western and Dressage. Well, the decision has been made and the winner is.... dressage! Now most of you may be wondering what happened to Endurance? The simple answer is: nothing! I still very much want to do endurance. However, to even enter an endurance competition a horse has to be 5 years old to do "limited distance" or 25 miles and 6 or 7 years old to do endurance rides of 50, 75, or 100 miles. They have this rule because horses joints and spine haven't fully developed until 6 or 7, so they want to maintain healthy horses. Not to mention that to even get to endurance rides you have to have a truck and horse trailer, of which I have neither! Therefore, those dreams will have to be put on hold for now. While waiting for him to grow up, I'll just focus on dressage and some light trail riding. I want to focus him on a specific discipline so Calvin would learn different skills that of course transfer to the trails.

The main focus of our dressage training, therefore, is to build a "topline." When we refer to a topline, we're talking about the line of the back:

Most horses have some curve to their back and when you work them properly, they'll build up back and hindquarter muscle. As the picture above shows you, when a horse's head is up their back arches (top example). When the head is down (example 3), the back muscles engage and you see what is referred to as "roundness" all the way through the hindquarters. With enough work, the horse's back will look the same as the third example down no matter the head position.

The topline is important because only when a horse's topline is developed can we bring our horses into the beautiful head carriage or "frame." A strong topline also is the foundation for more advanced dressage work as well.

Notice the horse's curved neck and head position, this is the classical dressage headset. Horse is able to keep this frame because he has strong abs and a strong back.

Anyway, in order to build up a topline we have to work on stretching down like these two examples:

I've been reinforcing this training by using side reins and lunging. The side reins don't set his head into any position, but rather they act as the riders hands by guiding him to find balance. When he raises his head too high, he can feel them and when he lowers his head, they release. There's quite a bit of controversy over using side reins, but it's a tool that when used correctly and for short periods of time is beneficial. Some people use side reins so tightly that the force the horses' head in, which is not how I'm using them:

I've adjust the side reins loosely so that he can find his own balance but still have the reins as a guide so he doesn't run around with his head straight up. 

Still lots of room to move his head and slack reins.

Calvin took to the training very well. These last few days I've been lunging him in these at the walk/trot and I can tell a huge difference in the saddle. He's much more willing to stay in this lower headset and he responds to the rein aids more effectively. I don't work him too long because he's still young and learning, but I'd say he has good potential to be a dressage horse once he fills out!

Trail Update

I forgot to post this a few weeks ago. This was our most recent trail ride as I've been mainly focusing on arena work lately. I'm focusing on arena work because it's more of a workout for Calvin in terms of mental stimulation. He has to focus on his feet and the rider's cues which he has a tendency to blow-off on the trail. Once I can get more than 2 days off a week again we'll hit the trails.

Anyway, on our last trail ride Calvin was kind of antsy the whole time and off in la-la-land. I had to pick up some speed to get him to focus again. I could tell he was holding back a serious amount of energy, like making a ADHD kid sit in a chair for an extended period of time. Since he was behaving, I decided to let him gallop a bit. Man, I forgot how fast the horse was! The minute I asked for more canter speed he was off at a dead run, it was exhilarating!  I let him go for about 200 yards before pulling him up and walking him back home.

After his run, he settled down and was pretty tired. Hence I got to get some pictures.

Sweaty Calvin after his run. You'd think with a winter coat he would be calmer in the 95º heat.

Calvin likes to make his mom worry by getting scratches just centimeters from his eyeball. And if you're wondering how he does that, your guess is as good as mine.

Half asleep in sunflowers

Killing three birds with one stone by working out the dogs: Heidi my German Shepherd on the left and my parent's standard poodle Reese on the right.. They were only ever a few seconds behind Calvin. 

We're supposed to go on a trail this weekend with a friend. If so, I'll take pictures and write another update.

Baby Horse Problems

Sometimes Calvin likes to remind me that he is a 3 year old horse. This can manifest itself in many ways: Whether it be spooking at objects that aren't really scary (tarps over hay!). Or neighing for his pasture buddies because he's been separated from them for an hour, despite the fact that he always returns to them at some point. Or just his overall gangly-ness and awkward growth.

He's all legs! Still growing as you can tell because he's "butt-high" meaning that the top of his rump is higher than his withers, that reminds me, I should measure him soon. This was after his bath, as you can see he isn't tied to anything because he loves baths. This picture shows him licking the water off the metal. 

Other times his baby-ness comes out in more shocking ways, like realizing that he is loosing more teeth! 

This is a normal process thankfully. As most of you probably know, you can predict a horse's age by their teeth. Here is a good chart that shows the typical progression. Anyway, Calvin is loosing his deciduous teeth and getting his permanent ones. 

However, he had a difficult time when I gave him a whole apple. Usually horses can just chomp an apple in half with ease. Yet Calvin only has his two front teeth and bottoms, so he had to scrape off parts of the apple using the ground for leverage. Poor baby!

"Mom, why didn't you cut this up for me?!"

 Here's a video for reference showing how easily horses can eat apples when they have all their teeth.

Dressage or Western?

I'm not sure what I should focus on with Calvin and his training. While I want to ride endurance on the trails, I want to put a solid training foundation on him before we reach that stage. This will make him a more well-rounded horse both on the trail and in the arena. However, I need to choose a focus and I'm debating between Vaquero and Classical Dressage. The reason I have to decide is that the equipment is vastly different and since I'm on limited funds, I can't buy both getups as any horse gear is expensive.

 The vaquero tradition typically uses their "finished" horses as extremely skilled companions for ranch living: sorting cows, working long hours, etc. The classical dressage movement stems from the cavalry and training a skilled horse for the battlefield. To be honest, there aren't a whole lot of differences between the two despite a vastly different turnout in appearance. They both focus on natural horsemanship and both stem from traditions that have been around for centuries. 

Buck Brannaman riding his finished Vaquero horse at the canter

I also love classical dressage, not to be confused with competition dressage (too short reins, constant pulling on the horse's mouth, etc.). Classical dressage is similar to the vaquero tradition actually, focusing on harmony but from an "English" riding perspective.

Anja Beran riding an advanced level dressage horse in the "piaffe"

Luckily Calvin is still young so we're working on basics which underlie each of these foundations, but something to think about for which direction we take within the next year or so.