First off, fingers cross we can be outside this week! Hopefully it doesn't rain too much early in the week...jumping outside it just so much more fun and has more options course wise.
This week in lessons we are returning to lead changes, either flying, simple or in the air. Those of you who have horses with good lead changes can sit by and gloat...
This lesson plan is a direct result of the horse show: we had some lovely jumping, but the lack of any type of lead change really made it hard to shine in the hunters!
Step one is to know if you are on the wrong lead in the first place, to know if you need to ask. If in doubt though, ride the end of the ring as deep as you can to give you time to sort yourself out, and give your horse a chance to do the lead change in case one is needed.
Lead Change type #1: Simple Change through trot. At the show, our riders seemed to know they needed to trot the change, but didn't actually get the trot, so it was just kind of a slow down then go again with no real purpose. To work on this type of change we are going to just trot at each first corner...so don't let them turn until the trot has been achieved! This will help in two ways: one, it will help you think of using the ends, and two it will help you learn to balance in the corners.
Lead Change type #2: Flying change. Some horses just don't have them...maybe they are sore, or just don't have the training, but most horses can get a change over a pole, or if really set up for them with a forward and straight canter. To get the flying change, keep the horse straight, push the horse into the corner with the inside leg back like a leg yield into the corner, then catch the horse with the outside rein and leg and ask for the change more or less like you ask for the canter from a trot/walk. Important to maintain the forward, and to ask for the haunches first so they don't drop their shoulder into the turn and loose their hind end.
Lead Change type #3: Change over the fence. This is easiest when the jump is high enough to require them to actually have all four legs off the ground and a good moment of suspension in the air. The rider needs to put their weight in the outside stirrup (but NOT lean) to encourage the horse to land with the outside front leg first, and open the inside rein off the neck. Looking in the direction of landing can also help, but if you don't want the horse to turn on the land, you have to be careful with this. Looking means turning the shoulders as well as the head! Here is a good video to illustrate this.
Likely this week we will working on lead change type #1 (Simple) and #3 (in the air) and that will likely be enough, but in some lessons we may also work on the flying changes.
Advanced flat/dressage riders will work on haunches in this week. Haunches in (Travers) requires the horse to look down the track with the haunches travelling to the inside and crossing over. The best way to set up for a haunches in is coming out of a small volte/circle. Just before the horse's front end reaches the track, the rider asks the horse to maintain the bend and step laterally along the wall rather than straighten out along the wall. Aids for the haunches in: rider looks down the track with their head/shoulders. Inside leg active at the girth to maintain bend and activity, outside leg behind the girth to hold the haunch off the track and encourage the lateral crossing. Belly button looks to the outside so that the inside seat bone is forward. Inside hand supples and keeps the horse bent and soft to the inside, outside rein against the neck to keep the shoulder from dropping to the wall.
I really like haunches in as a strengthening exercise, but you need to pair it with lengthening and straightening so that your horse doesn't end up crooked and on its forehand as a result of getting overly tired as this exercise really works their hind end!
What else may be fun this week if riders took the time to clean tack before or after riding!
Karen
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Lessons for this week
Jumping lessons will work on a simple hunter course: starting small, then actual jumps.
We will then convert the horse to a basic jumper course if time allows. Again starting small, then actual jumps. Trying to incorporate roll backs before and after the jumps like we worked on last week.
This is in preparation for the MLM show next Saturday...let me know if you want to go! There are 2 trailer spots available.
Flat/Dressage lessons this week will work developing a hand that is independent from the seat and from the eye. A few of you have a silly/unproductive habit of looking down when doing transitions and such! It is important that you can adjust your seat forward or back, without your hand moving as well. Or move your hand without your seat moving.
Neck straps or hooking a finger in the mane may be useful for this lesson/skill set.
Karen
We will then convert the horse to a basic jumper course if time allows. Again starting small, then actual jumps. Trying to incorporate roll backs before and after the jumps like we worked on last week.
This is in preparation for the MLM show next Saturday...let me know if you want to go! There are 2 trailer spots available.
Flat/Dressage lessons this week will work developing a hand that is independent from the seat and from the eye. A few of you have a silly/unproductive habit of looking down when doing transitions and such! It is important that you can adjust your seat forward or back, without your hand moving as well. Or move your hand without your seat moving.
Neck straps or hooking a finger in the mane may be useful for this lesson/skill set.
Karen
A wasted Sunday
Margie and I got up early, and hit the road under the cloudy skies of yesterday. Headed south to Olds to look at a 15.3 hand QH mare, with a pretty colour. We had seen pictures, and a blurry video, so she seemed worthwhile to take the drive for, as apparently pretty colours sell quickly around Edmonton!
The owner wasn't to be there, but the property owners were ok helping us. Apparently helping us just meant showing us which horse it was, but never mind. We pull up...and notice we just missed watching them collecting semen for AI in their yard...because apparently it was breeding day. Who doesn't want to hang around on breeding day? Soon trailers started arriving with more mares and foals for breeding day...lots of cute babies|!
But who wants to approach a man carrying a fake horse vagina to ask about the horse you are there to see?
So we waited a little, then the wife came over and told use where to find the mare. So we go to the barn, scrounge for a halter and lead rope....and pull out what looked to be a pony. Obviously the same colour and markings, but nowhere close to 15.3! Maybe 14.3? And not a bulky 14.3 either. So we took her out of the stall...and she was also a tad obnoxious with a weird hoof crack that was NOT just a surface crack as we had been told...so we put her back, and asked if the farm owners had anything for sale.
They did, and pointed is in the direction of a field to look for a Buckskin (Margie heard Mexican, and was curious what a Mexican horse look like). So we go looking for horses in mud, grass and trees. And find a short palomino (why are the cute ones so short?), and a couple nice chestnuts, including one with lots of white and a grey mane...we liked that one. Further into the forest we found the buckskin, who was the unfortunate friend of a giant beast of a Quarter Horse who was a bully and a little worrisome to be around.
The buckskin was ok, but saddle scars on his shoulders, and a very small/common head.
We went back to ask about the chestnut we liked...and found out he was a well trained roping horse, so worth pretty good money...of course.
So we left and headed back to Red Deer to have lunch as we couldn't go see the next horse until 1:30ish. I was very excited about this one as it was advertised as QUIET and jumping well to 2'6". It has evented and done 4H. Good colour, and I thought pretty.
And she was pretty with a decent build. Kind of weird hooves, but nothing horrid.
Now the owner had told me when I made the appointment she had been hurt/bucked off her young horse, so couldn't ride. Something about soft tissue damage and a crushed hand... When we got there she said she could hack her for us, but I saw little point...after all, this was an ALL CAPS QUIET horse. And for hacking she was. She felt oddly short strided on the grass, but listened well, and I felt comfortable enough to drop the reins to the buckle and wave my arms (one at a time of course) at the canter. I kind of liked her.
The I started jumping. Went to trot into a cross pole...but mare wouldn't trot, and burst to a canter two strides out. Seemed odd for a QUIET horse, but maybe she hates trotting jumps, or just doesn't do it much. So I thought I would canter it the other way, giving her the reins to lope over it. She did stay decent to it...but flung herself over knees down...and then jammed her fronts into the ground on the land and crop hopped/bucked. I lawn darted into the lawn. Ouch!
So then the owner mentions she hasn't jumped for 2 and a half weeks...other the hay bales she jumped her over the night before "to cool her out" This made zero sense to me, but then I just did smoke my head into the ground face first.
So I looked at her and Margie and said: "So if you jumped her last night, why can't you jump her today".
"Oh, it was just little hay bales. I don't want to get hurt again."
"well, if you could jump hay bales, why can't you jump a little today? Am I making sense here?"
So yes, the owner got on the mare...which is what I should have done in the first place...and I could have seen the issue that lead to me injury..
First, the owner has taught the horse to canter two strides out from trot jumps. I have no idea why. Second, she sits up in the air and gives no release. Exactly how someone rides a horse that is either very powerful (think Justice) or wants to buck on the land. Third...there is something wrong with the horse...she jumped knees pointed down AKA is a leg hanger...a bad one. Over a bigger jump (which I didn't ask the owner to do) she swung her legs to the side.
So I asked if that is normally how she jumps, and got a wishy washy answer that she felt odd over the one jump.
So we left. And I struggled to bend my right leg enough to get my half chap off!
lesson learned...give sellers the 3rd degree before driving more than 30 mins and ALWAYS have them ride first!
Karen
The owner wasn't to be there, but the property owners were ok helping us. Apparently helping us just meant showing us which horse it was, but never mind. We pull up...and notice we just missed watching them collecting semen for AI in their yard...because apparently it was breeding day. Who doesn't want to hang around on breeding day? Soon trailers started arriving with more mares and foals for breeding day...lots of cute babies|!
But who wants to approach a man carrying a fake horse vagina to ask about the horse you are there to see?
So we waited a little, then the wife came over and told use where to find the mare. So we go to the barn, scrounge for a halter and lead rope....and pull out what looked to be a pony. Obviously the same colour and markings, but nowhere close to 15.3! Maybe 14.3? And not a bulky 14.3 either. So we took her out of the stall...and she was also a tad obnoxious with a weird hoof crack that was NOT just a surface crack as we had been told...so we put her back, and asked if the farm owners had anything for sale.
They did, and pointed is in the direction of a field to look for a Buckskin (Margie heard Mexican, and was curious what a Mexican horse look like). So we go looking for horses in mud, grass and trees. And find a short palomino (why are the cute ones so short?), and a couple nice chestnuts, including one with lots of white and a grey mane...we liked that one. Further into the forest we found the buckskin, who was the unfortunate friend of a giant beast of a Quarter Horse who was a bully and a little worrisome to be around.
The buckskin was ok, but saddle scars on his shoulders, and a very small/common head.
We went back to ask about the chestnut we liked...and found out he was a well trained roping horse, so worth pretty good money...of course.
So we left and headed back to Red Deer to have lunch as we couldn't go see the next horse until 1:30ish. I was very excited about this one as it was advertised as QUIET and jumping well to 2'6". It has evented and done 4H. Good colour, and I thought pretty.
And she was pretty with a decent build. Kind of weird hooves, but nothing horrid.
Now the owner had told me when I made the appointment she had been hurt/bucked off her young horse, so couldn't ride. Something about soft tissue damage and a crushed hand... When we got there she said she could hack her for us, but I saw little point...after all, this was an ALL CAPS QUIET horse. And for hacking she was. She felt oddly short strided on the grass, but listened well, and I felt comfortable enough to drop the reins to the buckle and wave my arms (one at a time of course) at the canter. I kind of liked her.
The I started jumping. Went to trot into a cross pole...but mare wouldn't trot, and burst to a canter two strides out. Seemed odd for a QUIET horse, but maybe she hates trotting jumps, or just doesn't do it much. So I thought I would canter it the other way, giving her the reins to lope over it. She did stay decent to it...but flung herself over knees down...and then jammed her fronts into the ground on the land and crop hopped/bucked. I lawn darted into the lawn. Ouch!
So then the owner mentions she hasn't jumped for 2 and a half weeks...other the hay bales she jumped her over the night before "to cool her out" This made zero sense to me, but then I just did smoke my head into the ground face first.
So I looked at her and Margie and said: "So if you jumped her last night, why can't you jump her today".
"Oh, it was just little hay bales. I don't want to get hurt again."
"well, if you could jump hay bales, why can't you jump a little today? Am I making sense here?"
So yes, the owner got on the mare...which is what I should have done in the first place...and I could have seen the issue that lead to me injury..
First, the owner has taught the horse to canter two strides out from trot jumps. I have no idea why. Second, she sits up in the air and gives no release. Exactly how someone rides a horse that is either very powerful (think Justice) or wants to buck on the land. Third...there is something wrong with the horse...she jumped knees pointed down AKA is a leg hanger...a bad one. Over a bigger jump (which I didn't ask the owner to do) she swung her legs to the side.
So I asked if that is normally how she jumps, and got a wishy washy answer that she felt odd over the one jump.
So we left. And I struggled to bend my right leg enough to get my half chap off!
lesson learned...give sellers the 3rd degree before driving more than 30 mins and ALWAYS have them ride first!
Karen
Monday, July 15, 2013
The week in lessons
Well, it looks like we will be indoors for at least the first part of the week as the outdoor arena is once again under a layer of water. Seriously...has it ever been this wet and humid in Edmonton?
I think we may cover the different (basic) ways of changing direction and why/when you would use them: Across the diagonal, through the middle, half circle reverse, reverse half circle, and the roll back. In keeping with that, for jumping, we might do jumping and turns/changes of direction, which may also lead to some work on lead changes, changing in the air.
We may also work on feeling for the lead both on the flat, and when jumping, so be prepared for lots of canter transitions as part of the flat work.
Karen
I think we may cover the different (basic) ways of changing direction and why/when you would use them: Across the diagonal, through the middle, half circle reverse, reverse half circle, and the roll back. In keeping with that, for jumping, we might do jumping and turns/changes of direction, which may also lead to some work on lead changes, changing in the air.
We may also work on feeling for the lead both on the flat, and when jumping, so be prepared for lots of canter transitions as part of the flat work.
Karen
No, a family of bunnies did not explode...
The plethora of hair is actually from Phelps.
What or who is Phelps you ask?
Phelps is the matted smelly beast that was laying in front of the barn door Saturday morning as I went out to feed. I am not always fully awake when I feed hay, so my brain was really trying to figure out what exactly was staring at me...did Ginger get fluffy or was it Amarillo the neighbourhood husky? Or did the neighbours get another fluffy creature that decided our place looked more awesome?
But it was none of the above...it was a neglected looking dog, with mats the size of dinner plates layered like scales on its back, and hanging fur balls looking like really sad Christmas décor. I immediately named him Phelps and called Rob. Between the two of us, I think we spend 4 to 5 hours brushing the poor guy over the weekend! So far, we haven't found any lost dog ads matching his description, and none of the nearby vets have been contacted, so we aren't sure if he was dumped or?
He appears to be an Australian Sheppard crossed with an ottoman. He seems old...teeth have bad tartar build up, and he has trouble getting going in the morning. He also seems partially deaf...or as Janine says, just has the typical male selective hearing! It doesn't seem like he has ever been trained or even worn a collar, and the collar we have put on him for containment purposes isn't to his liking. He also seems to think cats are edible...something I am really trying to discourage, but I wish a cat would help by clawing his nose rather than running away (which just makes it that much more exciting).
If you come out, feel free to take him out of the stall using the rope or lunge line to lead him or tie him up. He is really good with the horses, but I just don't want to risk a kitty catastrophe., and he doesn't know he isn't allowed upstairs or in the arena yet.
karen
What or who is Phelps you ask?
Phelps is the matted smelly beast that was laying in front of the barn door Saturday morning as I went out to feed. I am not always fully awake when I feed hay, so my brain was really trying to figure out what exactly was staring at me...did Ginger get fluffy or was it Amarillo the neighbourhood husky? Or did the neighbours get another fluffy creature that decided our place looked more awesome?
But it was none of the above...it was a neglected looking dog, with mats the size of dinner plates layered like scales on its back, and hanging fur balls looking like really sad Christmas décor. I immediately named him Phelps and called Rob. Between the two of us, I think we spend 4 to 5 hours brushing the poor guy over the weekend! So far, we haven't found any lost dog ads matching his description, and none of the nearby vets have been contacted, so we aren't sure if he was dumped or?
He appears to be an Australian Sheppard crossed with an ottoman. He seems old...teeth have bad tartar build up, and he has trouble getting going in the morning. He also seems partially deaf...or as Janine says, just has the typical male selective hearing! It doesn't seem like he has ever been trained or even worn a collar, and the collar we have put on him for containment purposes isn't to his liking. He also seems to think cats are edible...something I am really trying to discourage, but I wish a cat would help by clawing his nose rather than running away (which just makes it that much more exciting).
If you come out, feel free to take him out of the stall using the rope or lunge line to lead him or tie him up. He is really good with the horses, but I just don't want to risk a kitty catastrophe., and he doesn't know he isn't allowed upstairs or in the arena yet.
karen
Thursday, July 4, 2013
News Article
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/07/04/manitoba-man-charged-with-impaired-driving-causing-death-in-head-on-crash-that-killed-young-edmonton-woman?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=recommend-button&utm_campaign=Manitoba+man+charged+with+impaired+driving+causing+death+in+head-on+crash+that+killed+young+Edmonton+woman
I didn't even know she was a painter.
I hope her boyfriend pulls through. I met him at the barn, and he seemed like a nice guy. I hope he is still able to go away to get his Masters and pursue his dreams.
I didn't even know she was a painter.
I hope her boyfriend pulls through. I met him at the barn, and he seemed like a nice guy. I hope he is still able to go away to get his Masters and pursue his dreams.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Very Sad
(Percy) Clare died on the weekend after being hit head on by a drunk driver.
What a senseless way for anyone to die, much less someone who gave so much back to the community in working for the Sexual Assault hotline and through her chosen career as a psychologist.
Her brother called to inform me this afternoon. It feels surreal and so unfair. She had so much to look forward to in her near future, with her upcoming move to Montreal and her recent completion of her Masters Degree. So many moments unlived. So many memories unbuilt.
My heart goes out to her family and her boyfriend, as well as to everyone at Hillside that will miss her.
If anyone is able to attend, her funeral is this Saturday (the 6th) at 2pm, at Hainstocks Funeral Home, 9810-34 ave. Instead of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Sexual Assult Centre of Edmonton. https://www.sace.ab.ca/index.php/support-sace
I have a prior commitment that weekend, but Rob and I do plan on making a donation in Clare's honour.
Of course I would normally turn TO Clare for help in dealing with grief and emotions, and somehow that is just making it extra hard for me right now.
I will miss you Clare.
Karen
What a senseless way for anyone to die, much less someone who gave so much back to the community in working for the Sexual Assault hotline and through her chosen career as a psychologist.
Her brother called to inform me this afternoon. It feels surreal and so unfair. She had so much to look forward to in her near future, with her upcoming move to Montreal and her recent completion of her Masters Degree. So many moments unlived. So many memories unbuilt.
My heart goes out to her family and her boyfriend, as well as to everyone at Hillside that will miss her.
If anyone is able to attend, her funeral is this Saturday (the 6th) at 2pm, at Hainstocks Funeral Home, 9810-34 ave. Instead of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Sexual Assult Centre of Edmonton. https://www.sace.ab.ca/index.php/support-sace
I have a prior commitment that weekend, but Rob and I do plan on making a donation in Clare's honour.
Of course I would normally turn TO Clare for help in dealing with grief and emotions, and somehow that is just making it extra hard for me right now.
I will miss you Clare.
Karen
Monday, July 1, 2013
This week in lessons
This week is looking to be HOT.
I would kind of like to teach out there, but we will see. It was definitely cooler inside today!
Bring water bottles or something to drink, and dress sensibly just in case we do head outside.
Not sure what the lesson plan will be as my brain melted today.
Also, now that summer is here, lessons can be taught during the day, so let me know if you are available day times for July and August!
Karen
I would kind of like to teach out there, but we will see. It was definitely cooler inside today!
Bring water bottles or something to drink, and dress sensibly just in case we do head outside.
Not sure what the lesson plan will be as my brain melted today.
Also, now that summer is here, lessons can be taught during the day, so let me know if you are available day times for July and August!
Karen
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