Do You Trust Me?

In early May, the Budweiser Clydesdales were performing a routine in which 8 were pulling a wagon in tough-looking patterns. On a particularly tight turn, one of the inside horses stumbled and went down. If you've ever participated in a three-legged race and your partner went down, you can probably imagine what happened to the rest of the horses. But, you don't have to imagine - someone caught it on video and you can read about the incident and watch it here: http://www.horsenation.com/2014/05/14/budweiser-clydesdales-ok-following-scary-hitch-accident/.

Anyway, the ensuing dog-pile of horses was a heart-wrenching, terrifying sight. Anyone who's ever dealt with horses or knows anything about the animals knows that their typical reaction to any unsettling stimulus is to run. But the Budweiser Clydesdales stood stock still (those who were still standing, that is) and waited calmly for their handlers to free them. Talk about complete and utter trust.

Unrelated image of JJ enjoying a good roll in the dirt.
Because blogs are boring without pictures :)

JJ and I had our own version of the unsettling stimulus yesterday, and it goes like this...

I'd had a decent ride on JJ and on a whim decided to do some ground work in the ring. I was too lazy to go up to the barn, untack, and return to the ring, and I wasn't planning on spending much time with the groundwork anyway, so I just hopped off, loosened the girth, and pulled the reins over his head.

I pulled out the tarp, which had been sitting in a jump standard since the last time we played tarp games (when was that... February??). JJ hardly noticed it so I began leading him around in my right hand and dragging the tarp in my left. Didn't care. I laid it flat and walked all over it. Didn't care. Then I asked him to walk over it. This took slightly more convincing, but eventually he decided it might be OK and followed me over it. I picked up the tarp and started the whole process again, a few more times.

At one point I asked JJ to just stand on the tarp. He complied with ease, and I decided to call it a day. And then. Out of nowhere, the wind kicked up the tarp which was still under JJ's feet. Before his brain had a chance to process the information, instinct sent him straight into the air. He practically launched himself OVER my head. And before my brain had a chance to process, my own survival instinct kicked in and I let go of the reins. I LET GO of the reins. I have NEVER dropped a pair of reins in my life. I swore at myself. Swore for dropping the reins. Swore for not untacking him before playing tarp games. Swore for leaving the stupid f***ing gate open so that JJ could run straight out of the ring and back to the barn, or worse, into the road.

The worst imaginable situations played out in my mind as a stood watching him. I could only coo in my calmest, deepest voice "Hoooooo, hoooooo". The reins dangled dangerously close to those uncoordinated front feet. "Hooooo". The open gate glared at me. "Hoooooo".

Unrelated image of JJ getting fat (I hope).
Because blogs are boring without pictures :)

As JJ danced toward the gate, he stepped on the reins. My heart sunk. His head went flying and the bit popped out of his mouth - something broke. Better something leather than his mouth though. "Hooooo".

And to my complete astonishment, JJ hesitated. Just slightly. Then he turned his head and looked at me. Then he stopped, and turned to face me. He began walking toward me, and I couldn't even remember how to breathe. "Easy baby, good boy". I reached out ever so slowly and grabbed an intact piece of the bridle. I can't even put into words how amazing that felt, and I can't tell you how much time I spent standing there just praising him, petting him, soothing him. Does JJ trust me? Well, it's certainly a start.

Where's JJ's Brain?

JJ and I have fallen into something of a rhythm. Once JJ is tacked, our ride typically starts out with a game of Where's JJ's Brain. This is something like Where's Waldo, except in the search of JJ's brain your book is the size of an encyclopedia and the target may or may not actually be on any single page. JJ starts out all hyper and ADD, listening to the quad roving around, watching the other horses, eyeing the neighbors, and consistently trying to run and stay above the bit. During this time I do my best to stay patient with him. I know his brain is in there somewhere, it's just a matter of finding it and switching it to the "on" position. And so I've created some exercises. We start out by trotting a cloverleaf pattern around the jumps at the bottom of the ring. I'll do that until he begins to anticipate our turns, then ask him to walk and leg yield down the long side. He's really quite good at the lateral movement, but not so good at staying at a walk. Then I'll go back to the trot with more cloverleafs and some figure eights thrown in. In between circles of the figure eight I do some trot-halt-trot transitions. Again, he's usually throwing his head in the sky to avoid the bit at this point, so halt transitions are particularly challenging.

Anyway, after about 20 or 30 minutes (depending on the time of day - in the morning only about 10 minutes, anytime after 4PM 30 minutes+) of finding the brain games, JJ finally begins to focus and I start our ride. It's like instead of warming up JJ's muscles I need to spend that time warming up his mental game. Sometimes it's extremely frustrating and I really want to give up, but I know that's when I have to push myself harder. If I give up, I'll have twice as hard a time getting JJ to focus the next day. So I have to stick with it and find his brain because each time I do he begins to learn where it needs to be.

Once we start our real ride he's a lot of fun. He's slowly experimenting with stretching into the bit, and every now and then we get some really nice strides. He relaxes nicely once his brain is working and I can do all sorts of fun things with him. And, with all the cloverleaf patterns we've been doing, our bending and circles are becoming quite nice!

Thanks to a Barn Buddy I have some awesome videos and pictures to share today! Thanks Barn Buddy!

Videos 1+2: JJ towards the beginning of our ride. Brain doing pretty well at this point. I rode him at 1PM - early enough that my Where's Waldo book was only the size of a long novel.

I got a couple canters in today too! This was particularly exciting because up until this point I had only cantered in the field, and once in the ring, with no one to witness our awesomeness. I'm pretty sure everyone thought I was lying when I told them how nice JJ's canter was, but today we had a large audience!

Videos 3+4: JJ Cantering.

Monsters, Mayhem, and a Fourth Gear!

After a nice ride on Sunday and a day off on Monday, I arrived at the barn on Tuesday with a tight schedule. Because of this lack of time I planned on simply lunging JJ. I had also just received the chambon that I ordered in the mail, so lunging would work out well to see how JJ went with the chambon for the first time. I ordered the chambon at the suggestion of a good friend and former trainer of mine. It's a piece of equipment that goes over the horse's poll (just behind the ears), such that when he raises his head he feels pressure there. He is not restricted at all, but the more he raises his head the more pressure he feels, so he begins to play with the idea of bringing his head down. I like this much better than his being restricted by the German Martingale.

As I was lunging JJ, a friend of mine (and an EXCELLENT rider), showed up at the barn. She had just returned from her first year at college in Virginia, and was itching to be back in the saddle. I didn't even hesitate to offer her a ride on JJ - I knew this would be fun for both of us! After a few times around the ring at the trot and canter, she popped him over a few crossrails, then aimed him at a vertical, maybe 2' or 2'3'' in height (remember, I haven't taken JJ over anything really since the 2' vertical from a while back, which he trotted over quite nicely). He didn't balk at the fence, but he didn't really know what do with it either. He sort of jumped/leaped/fell over it, knocking the rail down and almost landing on his back feet instead of his front. I almost died laughing. Excellent-Rider-Friend then aimed him at the culvert pipe in the middle of the ring which, even though it has been there since before JJ came, apparently posed a threat. The culvert pipe is only maybe 12'' or 18'' in height, but looks like this:

Monster? JJ thought so. He did everything from stopping in front of it to rear/falling over the corner of it, but he was NOT going to go over it. I tried standing on the end of it with my arms out to block that as an escape route, but that just ended with me dodging giant horse baby. I'm really quite sure his little baby brain wouldn't even have registered running over the human in the way. So that didn't work. Excellent-Rider-Friend tried a few more times, then jumped him over the normal vertical and some more cross-rails before dismounting. I do not fault her AT ALL for not getting him over that culvert pipe, and to her credit she spent another 45 minutes or so working with him on the lunge. She tried leading him over the culvert and lunging him over it all to no avail. But she was not devoid of tricks yet. She lunged him over a simple vertical, then placed a black barrel in front of the vertical, leaving him enough space to jump next to the barrel. She lunged him that way a couple times, then placed two black barrels in front of the same vertical, leaving him space to jump in between. She lunged him that way a few times, then filled the entire from of the vertical with black barrels. JJ didn't like it, but LEAPED over the barrels like a flying Pegasus. The barrels are probably almost twice as big as the culvert pipe. She lunged him over the barrels a couple more times before calling it a day. I hopped on JJ's back just to cool him out, and was surprised to feel how anxious and unraveled he felt. Whew - his little baby brain got overworked today!! He eventually calmed down, stretched his neck, and began breathing again. 

It was really good for me to watch Excellent-Rider-Friend work JJ, because I saw how easily she ignored all his anxiety and head-upness and quickness, and just went about her job riding him. I've been trying to focus on that since.

On Wednesday I decided to let JJ take it easy. I took him up to the field and trotted and cantered a bit, then felt a little bold and squeezed him forward into fourth gear. The three beat rocking canter became a four beat, driving gallop. I let him run the edge of the field once before sitting up and quietly saying "ho". He dropped right back into an easy walk and I dropped the reins and let him relax again. So nice to have breaks!

Thursday was great aside from a minor incident in which my saddle ended up on the ground... I was doing a quick saddle pad change on JJ, with an arm looped through the reins to keep hold of him. I lifted my saddle while Sue attempted to switch the pad under it. As soon as things began moving around on JJ's back his brain seemed to disappear. He bolted forward, catching the reins on my arm and launching into a rear. SLAM went my saddle into the dirt. He reared again before I could get a real hold on the reins and calm him enough to keep his feet on the ground, and then he seemed fine. And my saddle is fine to, so it's all OK, and I ended up having a nice ride at the end of it.

New Directions

Pictures and videos! Today turned out to be one of my best days with JJ, despite something of a rough start. More and more often I've been noticing that JJ seems to be running around without a ticking brain in his noggin. This means I have the lovely job of winding that brain back up so it ticks again. Lately, that's meant a fair amount of groundwork as well as some low level dressage-type movements in the ring. I'm not the greatest dressage rider so I can't really say any of it is pretty, but it gives JJ something to consider while we do circles in the ring. And actually, there have been a couple of really nice moments where he has stretched down into the contact instead of coming behind the vertical or above the bit, which he usually does to evade the contact. His avoiding the contact has been one of our major ongoing hurdles, so having even just a couple moments of him stretching into it in the past two days has been AWESOME. Pics and video:

But mom this is HARD!
Also - can we please just talk about that left leg in the bottom right photo?
I mean, where is it going?!

And some nice moments...

And check out that lateral movement! JJ's got serious potential I think!

After ring work I took JJ out to the field to walk out. Since I've been taking JJ out to the field I've been dying to trot him out there, so today I finally decided to try it. He was amazing. SO amazing. So amazing, in fact, that I sat and closed my leg. JJ stepped into a soft, easy, quiet left-lead canter. It felt like a cloud. I was so thrilled and scared at the same time. Scared that I might ruin the canter if I tensed up too much. Scared that JJ would get strong and run. Scared that he would get excited and buck, rear, anything. I kept my seat and hands quiet and we cantered two large circles in the field before I closed my fingers and softly asked for a trot. He came right back. I was seriously so happy I almost cried. The past couple weeks I'd been having a really hard time with JJ and I'd been getting really frustrated. That brief but wonderful canter in the field today restored my faith that we might actually have potential as a horse and rider pair. YAY TODAY!

Fields and Fox Pups!

Well, the good news is that now that I've been getting after JJ about his feet the kicking out has pretty much stopped completely. We did have to have a brief but effective discussion about the appropriate uses of teeth today, but I think I made my point quite clear. This is the first time a teeth issue arose and it was very similar to the beginning of the kicking issue - no aggression behind the behavior, just typical baby stuff. But, alas, I've learned my lesson about ignoring the "baby stuff".

Random adorable fox baby at the barn

Every day that I've ridden JJ this week I've either started or ended in the field. I really think he likes to get out there even though we just walk around (barring any uncontrolled variables such as a herd of deer...). Yep, we did run into deer Saturday morning. They burst from the woods not 20 feet in front of us. JJ seemed to think that was the BEST THING EVER but calmed down after a few snorts, farts, and a moment of dancing.

On Monday I took JJ into the back field with a another horse and rider pair. I was pretty impressed with how oblivious he was to the other horse - that is until she hit a pile of leaves and scared the crap out of him. He's such a baby. Oh wait... He is a baby... I have to remind myself of that fact 20 times every day!

Random adorable fox baby at the barn

Always trying to keep JJ's brain ticking, I free lunged him in the round pen today and then set up a small vertical for him to ever so gracefully leap over. Ahem... or... Ahem... Run away from bucking... In hindsight, I clearly should have placed the pole on the ground before setting up the TEENY TINY little "jump", but hey, I'm still learning too. Sigh. I waited until he calmed down enough for me to lead him over the pole, and literally led him over it SIX TIMES going left. Yes. It took six times for him to stop spazzing out over the darn pole. I led him over it twice going right and figured that ought to be good enough. Got him trotting around again to the left and he trotted over the pole quite easily. I had him change direction and go right and OH GOD THERE'S A POLE THERE!!!! Sigh. Led him over the pole six times to the right. We did, eventually, get over it in both directions, and I even took a video of it for your viewing pleasure!

And finally - the bad news is that JJ seems to have developed a mild case of rain rot on his hindquarters. Rain rot is easily treated but makes little scabby bald patches in the coat which makes JJ look more scraggly and pathetic than ever. All well, I'm really glad it's not something worse!!

Promises

I solemnly swear that I will post at least once a week from now on. See, the problem is, I've been having various issues with JJ lately and when we have issues I get depressed and when I get depressed I don't want to blog about things that depress me. But, alas, the reason I started this blog in the first place was to be able to look over the bumps in the road from a very distant land in which JJ and I are galloping around the Rolex 4* on our way to winning on our dressage score.

So, I'll update.

I started my journey with JJ trying hard to put him in his place without putting too much pressure on him, because I've been trying so hard to build his trust. I think, though, that I've been a little too soft with him. He's developed this issue of kicking out randomly - like little temper tantrums from impatience. I'm beginning to understand more and more about how his little baby brain ticks, and I'm beginning to fully comprehend just how much work this little man is going to be. Anyway, today one of his little kicks came a little too close to my personal space bubble and I gave him a good hard thump and yell for it, at which he decided to dance in circles around me. All of this took place in the back field after I dismounted from a lovely ride. But it was close to 5:30PM and JJ's internal alarm clock was screaming dinner time and his impatience was over the top. So, I solemnly swear to get after him for all the BS he pulls, rather than excuse it as baby behavior.

Also, I'm pretty sure JJ is pretty sick of doing circles in the ring, so today we hacked out into the back field for the first time. I feel pretty comfortable with JJ - there aren't many things that bother him, and he really was fine out in that field... Once we got there. The clock was approaching 5PM as we headed out so JJ found a nice puddle along the way and used it as an excuse to avoid going forward and turn back to his paddock. We spent a good 5 or 10 minutes having a heated conversation about this behavior before I leaped off his back and marched him through the lousy puddle. Days passed the point of having any fear of JJ, I climbed back on his back in the middle of the field (Yea OK I was pleading with him not to take off while I hauled myself up). He stood quite nicely and once aboard we wandered around the field at the walk for a while. I think JJ enjoyed this and I solemnly swear I will keep him out of the ring as much as possible.

P.S. I don't actually have any ambition to ever compete at the 4* level. I think pre-lim is a pretty sturdy goal for me.

P.P.S. I broke Mike's camera (actually I blame JJ...) so documentation will be forthcoming...