Tag Archives: riding lesson

What Wikipedia Can’t Tell You About Saddles

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Lesson #60 began with Karin instructing me to pick out my own saddle. This is never a good idea. Normally, when Paul or I go get our own saddle without immediate supervision (pointing) it becomes a process of trail and error.  Like fetching the exact right kind of screwdriver for Mr. Fixit.

“This one, Karin?”

This one, Karin?

This one, Karin?

“No! That’s a (Western) (English) (Children’s) (Not even a saddle).  You want a (English) (Western) (Adult) (Something you can actually attached to a horse).”

“This one, Karin?”

“No.”

“This one, Karin?”

“No.”

“This one, Karin?”

“No!”

Back & forth we go until the process of elimination does its magic and we finally get the right one.

However, for Lesson #60 there was no process of elimination. I marched into the tack room and declared my choice. I based this selection upon my recollection of how each saddle felt in the past, what The Great Book of Horse Knowledge refers to as “seat memory.”

I picked this one:

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I had fond memories of learning how to post at the trot using this saddle.  What heady days those were indeed!

Karin was occupied with another matter – I think a horse was trying to get away or something – so I proceeded without the usual scrutiny.

Karin returned and eyed my saddle selection. She paused. When Karin pauses, it means you better pay attention. It’s her verbal half halt for human students.

And then the cue:

“That’s the dressage saddle, Bob.”

“Yes, it is!”

“You don’t like that one.”

“I have fond memories of this saddle, Karin.”

Another pause.

“Okay, then… go ahead and tighten it up and let’s get riding.”

Five minutes into our warm up and I knew that my “seat memory” had failed me. Sure, they were fond memories. They just weren’t accurate. This was the saddle I was thinking of:

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The above is what Karin refers to as the All Purpose Saddle. The dressage saddle has but one purpose: to make me feel awkward as hell. Just one more reason not to do dressage. The other reason is the clothes they make you wear.

Despite the saddle problem, I was able to get Vinnie to canter a couple of times by myself. Back in the Heady Days, cantering was unthinkable without the umbilical cord:

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Next time, I would like talk about getting in shape for warm weather riding. It’s that time of year! Actually, it’s the time of year I should already be in shape for warm weather riding. So I’ll just consider this a way early start for next year…

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When Karin Left the Building

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Patrick Steven's doing his own Stand Up Project

Patrick Stevens doing his own Stand Up Project

I’m happy to report that The Stand Up Project is already working. No, I haven’t stood up on a moving horse yet, or even tried. But the mere notion is making everything else seem like small potatoes.  Posting, half-halts, transition to the canter – these once Near Impossible Dreams are now within easy reach.  Relatively speaking.

A cool twist on The Stand Up Project. From my friend Sybil Buzzkill TenEyck. Not sure if this makes it easier or harder.

A cool twist on The Stand Up Project. From my friend Sybil Buzzkill TenEyck. Not sure if this makes it easier or harder.

It’s sort of like being assigned a space mission to the third nearest star system (WISE 1049-5319) 6.5 Light Years away – that’s 38,207,000,000,000 miles in Earth Talk – and then being told the assignment has been switch to the friendly neighborhood planet of Jupiter, a mere 390,682,810 miles from us.

It takes a load off, I can tell you.

Warming up.

Warming up.

On Lesson #58, Karin put Paul on Krystal and me on Vinnie.  We did our usual warm up stuff while Karin took a few minutes to work with her new horse (yes, another one – more on that next time).  Then, as she was leading the new horse out of the arena and back to the barn, she turned and instructed us to “go ahead and canter.”

What? Just like that? “Go ahead and canter?”  Like she’s telling us to finish our orange juice?

She knows I can’t transition to a canter without her magic wand! Or something similar.

Did she forget about my problem with Transitional Defenestration?

Was she just being mean?

Then, I remembered The Stand Up Project. And all the effort and physical & mental conditioning I’ll have to do to prepare for that. If I can’t at least try to transition to a canter by myself on a warmed up horse that I’m already on, then The Stand UP Project is certainly never going to happen.

So I tried. I got my legs on Vinnie a little to get the energy level up and he responded by picking up the pace.  But before he broke into a trot, I held back slightly on the reins for an instant and then squeezed with my legs and commanded:

“Vinneeee… Achtung, Canter!”

And I’ll be damned – I saw his head start that beautiful rocking motion.  So I knew that we weren’t – in the words of loyal reader Danielle, -”trantering”:  the self-induced illusion of cantering, while the horse is actually trotting.

We had truly crossed the border into the Promised Land of Canter.

Karin was not there. I needed a witness.

“Paul, did you see that?”

“See what?”

We’re normally so focused on what we are trying to do, we just don’t have the time to see what the other guy is up to.

“We did it!”

“Well, that’s good… Did what?”

“We cantered by ourselves!”

“Well, that’s good…”

I needed Karin to see this. Now, I knew what the girls felt like at the horse shows when the judges wouldn’t look at them when they were doing something right.

There was nothing for me do to, except try again.  To make sure the first time wasn’t a fluke.

And again, Vinnie responded with the beautiful rocking motion.  I gotta tell you, at that moment, I was really enjoying this horse’s company.

I thought about cantering right out of the arena and finding Karin before Vinnie decided to quit. But here’s the door we would’ve had to squeeze through:

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So, no.

Instead, we stayed in the arena and did two more repeats for a Grand Total of four successful transitions to the canter in a row.

Karin said she actually saw us from outside the door.

But there was no magic wand.  Just pure magic.

Karin’s Magic Wand

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On Lesson #57, we worked again on transitioning to the canter.  I came armed with a clear concept, grim determination and a good breakfast.  Cheerios. And a little cantaloupe.  Cantaloupe just seems like such a positive fruit to me.

But it takes more than Clarity & Cheerios & Optimistic Fruit to get this job done. I’m not sure what that might be, but I didn’t have it in Lesson #57.

This time, I wisely refrained from any achtung trotting during the warm up. So that wasn’t the problem. And Vinnie seemed to be responding to everything else I was telling him. We went left when I told him left. We went right when I told him right. We backed when Karin wanted us to.

But as I took Vinnie around the arena, I couldn’t get the transmission to go from 1st to 3rd gear.  By building up energy and then applying the half halt, you create a small window of opportunity in which to make the transition. But I just keep throwing myself out that window.

“Transitional Defenestration,” I call it. You heard it here first.

Karin told me to take Vinnie in small circles around her, as if we were longeing.

Several small, imperfect circles later, both the horse and I were perfectly frustrated. I could almost see Vinnie’s thought bubble:

“Hu-mon.  Exactly what do you want?”

Karin knows the sound of car tires spinning in a snow bank when she hears it.

“You’ve told him several times to canter and he’s not doing it. You can’t let him get away with that.” It was time for another re-set.

This time, Karin actually got on Vinnie.  My job was to watch. Vinnie’s job was to listen.  After a couple of small circles we both got the idea.

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Karin always says that it’s very important to end a lesson on a positive note.  So whatever it took, this lesson was going to end with Vinnie and me cantering.

This is what it took:

A magic wand!

Why didn’t I think of that?

Lost in Transition

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For Lesson #56, Karin picked Vinnie for me and Krystal for Paul.  Since Krystal is part Thoroughbred and Vinnie is all Thoroughbred, Karin was obviously in the mood to make us race.

“Haul out the sun dial and clipboard, Paul! Karin wants to time us again!”

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But it turned out to be an ordinary lesson. Like last time, Karin left us in the arena to warm up while she fetched Mackie. And once again, Kaiah used her Dog Wish Powers to make Karin reappear again.

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As we were warming up, I thought about how nice this arena is compared to where we were last year. Even on this cold, overcast day the arena here is bright and inviting. I really think the open feeling has an effect on the horses’ energy level.

Last Year

Last Year.

 

This Year.

This Year.

 

The extra energy came in handy, because even though we weren’t racing, Karin was expecting us to get both horses to canter. Despite us not really knowing how.

I complicated matters for Vinnie and me by using up the Achtung! cue to get him to trot during the warm up. I forgot that Karin’s horses are accustomed to hearing Achtung! for the canter, not the trot.

After ten minutes of Achtung, Trot!  Vinnie duly and reasonably associated all my achtunging with trotting.  And as soon as Vinnie broke into a trot, I spontaneously started posting.  I’ve been conditioned to do this.

But it was a fast trot. I thought maybe, just maybe, we were actually cantering.

“Karin, are we cantering right now?”

She just looked at me with an expression that said, “If you have to ask, you’re not.”

I tried again: “Vinnieeeee —– Achtung, Canter!”

“You can’t tell him to canter and then start posting,” Karin chided.

But I had created the dreaded Vicious Cycle of Cue Confusion and we were stuck in it.  A re-set was in order.

Karin brought both Paul and me over to the edge of the arena.

“Okay, I’m going to choose a place where I want Mackie to pick up a canter.”

She pointed to a spot on the wall. “But, before I get there, I’m going to signal to him that a change is coming. Like this.”

Karin made a subtle twist with her wrist on Mackie’s reins.

“It’s called a ‘half-halt’.  You’re telling him to get prepared for some kind of change.”

“Ah, yes,” I said, “Like tapping on your brakes to let the guy behind you know something’s up.”  I like driving analogies.

“Exactly. And your creating energy which you’ll release when you actually cue him to transition to the canter.”

Karin demonstrated. There was an obvious pause between her wrist twist and the cue. Like loading a spring, she was building a moment of anticipation in the horse.

This stuff is so cool.

Of course, I think it’ll be even cooler when I’m actually doing it.  We did manage to canter, but it was clear that Vinnie was responding to Karin’s verbal cue and not on anything I was doing.

I noticed that when Vinnie picked up the canter that his head began a rocking sort of motion. Ah, so that’s what I’m looking for.  Good to know.

Karin told us that one of her other students said that you have to canter sixty times before you actually have it. While I question the process that determined this number, it’s better than anything I can come up with.  I think I’m at three or four.

Next time: a new colleague has arrived at Legacy Stables.  She’s very pretty.

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Well Grounded

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Prior to our lesson – or maybe as a part of it – Karin had Paul and me haul some stuff into the barn. She told us it was a “wheelbarrow race”.  So, not only did she get the stuff into the barn, she got it there fast. I’m beginning to think it wasn’t an actual race.

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For Lesson #55, Karin put Paul on Caspian and me on Goldie. Then she left us in the arena for Social Time with our horses while she went to get Mackie for her to ride.

Kaiah noted her absence. Would she ever see Karin again?

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I enjoy the little warm up time before actual instruction. It’s like the opening dialogue in a discussion the horse and I will be having over the next 30 to 40 minutes. The actual purpose is, of course, to determine who is actually in charge so that the discussion doesn’t become an argument later. I do my best to convince the horse that I’ll be making all the major decisions today, but I’m not sure they always buy it.

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Karin and Kaiah are joyously reunited as Karin leads Mackie into the arena.  Mackie actually belongs to a boarder and Karin is currently training him. This has been nice for Karin because it has given her a chance to ride a little, something she hasn’t much time for since the big move to Legacy Stables. It’s a good sign that things are finally settling into a kind of routine.

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Karin tells us that Mackie is a good horse, but that he has “self-esteem” issues. He’s low on the pecking order at Legacy and he seems less secure than the other horses.  He has had several different trainers over his lifetime (he’s about 9) and a little consistency could go a long way in building his confidence and trust. Karin works with him every day.

Karin demonstrated how she uses groundwork to develop a bond between her and the horse.  The following actually went on for several minutes, but the 40-second video should give you the idea.

I think I know how I would like to spend my next Social Time.

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Soft Ground

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It’s Lesson #53 and the date is January 17th.  So yes, it’s cold. There is just a hint of snow highlighting the landscape, but with the mercury dipping into the single digits, the ground becomes rock hard, uneven and unforgiving. Good terrain for an ankle twist.

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Karin tells me we are riding bareback today. I’m not upset about that at all. It sounds warmer than riding in a saddle.

But first, we have to bring the horses into the arena and give them a chance to run around and warm up. Expel a little of that excess energy. They’ve been reluctant to run outside on the frozen tundra. The dirt inside the arena is soft and feels good on their legs and bodies. We let them romp for a few minutes.

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Bareback still requires some tacking up. Karin puts the bareback pad on Maree and applies the bridle and bit.  That’s my job, of course. But Karin is distracted by her own talk.  And when she talks she works, a practice that this busy horse-centered life has taught her. It would be impolite to interrupt.

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Karin tells me about all the support and encouragement she’s received from so many quarters since she started Legacy Stables.  But it’s not just about nice words and kudos, people are actually volunteering their time and skills.  Friends from the horse community, people from her church, and parents of her students. Big help from the parents.

As she speaks, I can’t help but think of Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams. It occurs to me that the movie wasn’t just about baseball. Yeah, if you build it, they’ll come.

With the world that the media presents to us everyday, it’s easy to get cynical and hard. Political and government leaders can’t seem to get it done.  News from the entertainment world is inevitably annoying or depressing. Our sports icons let us down.  But here, in these places where we really live, when somebody creates something good, people believe and gravitate toward it.

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It was a good lesson. There is just something about bareback and the connection you feel to the horse.  As we moved around the pylons Karin set up for us, we warmed up just fine. And Maree’s magnificently slow trot on the soft dirt inside the arena felt like contentment in motion.

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Movers and Shakers

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After weeks on the fine Quarter horse ladies, Windy and Maree, Karin revs it up by putting Paul and me on Vinnie and Charley. A Thoroughbred and Morgan respectively. Lesson #50 was going to be a work out.

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We did the circle stuff, trotting & attempted posting and a little cantering. Karin even let Paul canter on Vinnie off the longe line.  Paul looked like he’s been doing it all his life.

It was a classic lesson with the instructor standing on the inside of the circles Charley and I were trying to make.  Karin spoke as we rode, saying almost philosophical things such as “your balance needs to be in your seat not the stirrups,” “don’t stand up in the stirrups” and “the reins are not a steering wheel.” Meanwhile, I was just trying to not fall off.

For me, all this bouncing around in the saddle brought back memories of my Pre-Jodhpur Days, those heavy work sessions when my legs got all beat to hell.

Karin noticed: “Aren’t you sorry you’re not wearing your breeches?”

“You mean my jods?”  I like calling them jods. Or riding trousers. I don’t wear breeches.

The jods did help with the sores, I have to admit. But I can’t fit into mine right now.

“That was twenty pounds ago, Karin.” I shuddered as I recalled the trauma of wearing them outside the house for first time.

 

Twenty pounds ago and far, far away.

Twenty pounds ago and far, far away.

“I can help you lose weight, Bob. We can post like this every lesson.”

Ah, motivation through pain. Or I could just buy bigger jods. Sometimes you have to outflank your instructor.

Karin concluded the work part of the session by bringing up a brand new rule: “You’re not a real rider until you fall off, Bob.”

Now that was not in the brochure.

“Define ‘falling off’, Karin. Does it count if I make myself fall off?”

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“Yes, that would be fine,” she replied. Then she let us go on a little trail ride. I think she was just trying to get rid of us at that point.

It was a good ride.

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A Fresh Horse

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“I would like you to ride Windy today.”

After nearly five months of Vinnie, Karin decided it was time for me to try a fresh horse.  So I spent Lesson #37 on Windy, Kathy’s Quarter horse Paint. If that’s the right way to say that. These color breed classifications sure do muddy the waters when it comes time to report what kind of horse you’ve been on.

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In any case, I trusted Karin’s decision to make the change. You learn to rely on your instructor’s deep pockets of wisdom and experience. I imagined Karin, the night before, pouring over her notes and charts like a baseball manager, pondering head-down-in-hands like Lawrence of Arabia into the wee hours of morning before her eyes light up with the epiphany:  Aqaba. Or in this case: Windy.

Or maybe she was just tired of me complaining about Vinnie. And vice-versa.

Actually, Vinnie and I depart on good terms. He was a perfect gentleman for Lesson #36 and we worked together beautifully in the Epic Ride to Nowhere. We always got along pretty well on the trail anyway.  And really, we’re not actually departing. I’m sure we’ll have more adventures together before the snow hits.

But for Lesson #37, it was Windy. And Windy is an absolute sweetheart.  She’s around 15/3 hands (if that’s the right way to say that), so a good size for me and very easy to ride. Kathy told me that she has a “slow trot” and a “fast trot”.  We did the slow trot this time.

It was a slow trot kind of morning anyway.  Karin had us in the round pen and I would have been content just to walk around in circles with my new friend. It was one of those perfect late summer mornings, the heat and humidity having lifted earlier in the week, a gentle breeze caressing us as we ambled around the pen.

There is just something about Willow trees as September approaches.

 

 

“El Towel”: The Killing Machine

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Karin was “back from nationals” in time for Lesson #36. She looked rested and ready for another round in the Fables of Legacy Stables. She gave Paul and me the choice between a traditional Circle Lesson and a trail ride lesson.  More properly: Instruction in Open Terrain.

We opted for the trail.  There’s big fun out there.

“Will there be horseflies again, Karin?” I was hoping that Bea had been some kind of monstrous aberration. Something that only occurs every fifty years or so.

But Karin knew better:  “There might be flies today. But I have something for that.”  She disappeared into her house for a few minutes.

Paul and I had been hoping we could become Karin’s Fly Killing Squad – a SWAT Team for Legacy Stables. I thought the idea was worthy of uniforms. Or at least t-shirts and arm patches. And, of course, weaponry.

Karin emerged from the house carrying an object that looked suspiciously similar to a dishtowel.  Had Karin gotten into a little Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on her “trip to nationals”?  (“A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have.”)

Karin explained: “This is what riders in Peru use to whisk flies. They tie a knot in one end to make it easy to hold on to.  Then, when they gallop, they turn it around and use the knot end to get their horse to go.”  The simplicity of the idea seemed to please her.

Interesting. I felt further research was called for and I wanted to know the technical term for this item. Karin shrugged her shoulders and replied, “I think they just call it a towel.”

The ever-helpful Paul chimed in with this bit of linguistic virtuosity: “They call it … el Towel.”

One thing for sure: we weren’t going to use the knot end. Paul and I don’t gallop yet. However, we clearly saw how el Towel  – more properly, la Toalla  – in the right hands could be used as a lethal weapon against our designated opponents.  It’s a start anyway. At least Karin was trying.

My favorite feature of the El Towel Killing Machine was the little decorative heart on its border. Gave it a kind of artsy incongruity like Joker’s “Born to Kill” notation on his helmet and his peace symbol button on his chest in Full Metal Jacket.

We spent some time “on maneuvers”.  That’s a good thing, because we needed the extra training for where we were going…

Picking Your Battles

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After all the excitement of the Vinnie Bite and Bea Battle in Lesson #34, I couldn’t wait to see what Lesson #35 would bring.  Whatever it was, I wanted photos this time.

For her part, Karin avoided this week’s tribulations with me by employing a simple, yet highly effective strategy:  she wasn’t there.  The word in the barn was that she had gone off to “Nationals”.  I’m thinking this may have been a euphemism for something. Perhaps something that involved the phrase “was admitted”.

Actually, I do remember Karin saying something about going to Nationals. I wasn’t exactly clear which Nationals, but when a horseperson tells you they are “going to Nationals”, you don’t question it.  That would only show you haven’t been paying enough attention.

Besides, whatever it is, it sounds impressive. And it’s the perfect free pass out of anything. The demands of the weekly routine should never get in the way of someone going to Nationals of anything.

So for Lesson #35, Paul and I got Kathy for our teacher. This was fun, because Kathy is a knowledgeable and experienced horseperson and she showed us some different things. For example, Kathy taught Paul how to use a hoof pick.  Karin hasn’t covered hoofpicking with me yet. I think she’s saving that for my third year.

Kathy didn’t show me, because I acted like hoofpicking had been covered in my first year. In truth, I’ve never even touched a hoof pick, except maybe to move it out of the way to grab something else I wanted out of the grooming basket.

I kept telling Paul how well he was doing.  You know, assisting the teacher with the junior student through positive reinforcement.  So Paul ended up doing all of both Mary and Vinnie’s hooves. I just wanted calm and peace this week.

And Paul did get pretty good at it. There is an art to lifting those legs.

The rest of the lesson was pretty interesting too.  I’ll tell you about that next time