So last week in jumping lessons we worked on setting our horses up for success and then leaving them alone and staying out of there way. This meant getting a good pace in the corners, making a straight approach, and then settling into your jumping position well ahead of the jump, and trying to give them complete freedom with their head and neck so they felt they could use their neck for balance, and that they could decide to stretch out, or compress, to find the best distance, without worrying about interference from their rider.
Some of the horse's took advantage, and some riders just couldn't trust their horse enough, but for the most part, we saw that the horse's made the right decision and they improved once they were no longer worried about the rider shifting their balance right at the jump, or not giving them enough freedom with their head and neck to be able to make the best decision.
Being to able to get into the jumping position earlier helped keep rider's from being left being, and also helped discourage them from jumping ahead. Horses hate having their rider suddenly jumping onto their shoulders just as they are trying to lift off over the fence.
Previously we worked on counting to the jumps. Counting either 3-2-1, OR counting 1-2-1-2 helps rider's feel the horse's rhythm and be aware of their proximity to the jump. We also saw how being crooked really made it hard to see that distance...for both the horse and the rider, which helped highlight WHY we need to both approach the jump straight AND have the horse physically straight to help set up the best chances for a good distance.
So, this week we are going to combine the two. We are going to work on getting the horse straight, and having a good canter, and then leaving them alone to work out the jump for themselves...BUT, we are going to count 1-2-1-2 to the jump so you can tell when the horse is making a mistake and changing their rhythm, which requires intervention/correction from the rider as the horse should maintain a tick-tock rhythm to the jumps, and just lengthen and shorten from within that rhythm.
We will work on when and how to correct a change in rhythm, but first you need to know how to pick up on the change, to that end, there will be a bit of a surprise awaiting riders that may present some challenges for some horses...it should be fun!
Monday, October 28, 2013
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
A tack sale?
I know a few boarders have some extra tack taking up space, and was wondering if it may make sense to have a small, somewhat informal tack sale at the barn one Saturday afternoon in mid November.
Let me know if you would be interested. It would be pretty basic with tables set up in stalls or the barn.
Karen
Let me know if you would be interested. It would be pretty basic with tables set up in stalls or the barn.
Karen
and 28 hours later...
Last weekend was Rob's and my annual get-away.
Like last year, we left a lovely Edmonton weekend in exchange for cold/wet despite forecasts to the opposite. We seem to be cursed that way.
This year had an added twist to the curse...
As you may imagine, there is a lot of preparation that goes into planning a vacation when you have oodles of animals and a farm. This year it was great as Kyla was able to farm sit, and Laureen was able to cover the one morning Kyla had to go to her "real" job. Still, we needed to make sure all contingencies were covered, everything was ready to make things easy here, and the animals were considered.
This meant an early morning getting the barns done, organizing the house and pets, and then dropping off the doggies and Rob's parents. It all went well, and we arrived at the airport in plenty of time, which was good as the flight was listed as "on time". As the time to board approached though, they kept pushing the flight back further and further and further... (Rob and I had sat fairly far from the departure date as they had loud music near the gate that we didn't enjoy so we missed out in the free food vouchers they handed out). Finally 2.5 hours or so later, they let us board.
We sat down in our cramped little plane seat, and listened to the story from the guy beside us who told us this was day two for him to try to get to Comox due to the fog. The day before they had taken off, got to Comox, and come back. Surely they would not do that again?
Meanwhile in the seat behind Rob, was an obnoxious man who had spent the extra weight in the airport bar and divided his time between talking to the grade 3 child in his row, swearing with his buddies, and trying to convince the girl in the row across to come home with him. It was lovely.
But, we got to Comox turbulence free...and then spend 10 minutes doing circles. When you get motion sickness easily, this is not fun. Even less fun when the circles ended with the announcement that they couldn't land, so back to Edmonton we go! WTF?!? I get that if they can't land, they can't land, what I don't get is why we even took off in the first place!
So back to Edmonton. Then to get our bags. Then to stand in the slowest moving line ever to sort out what we would do instead. And by slow, I mean 2 and a half hours. Why? Because the customer service people couldn't just rebook us, they had to call in to the same booking line we could have called! (Rob tried to call in while we were in line, but got forgotten once and lost the call once, and didn't get called back through their call back system).
Eventually we were booked for 8 am to Victoria instead of Comox as it sounded like it was more likely the fog was going to clear from Victoria than Comox. We got a free hotel for the night and a taxi ride, as well as a dinner voucher...but as it was 11pm by the time we actually GOT to the hotel, it wasn't really possible to use the voucher. And of course the hotel was beside the train tracks...
Back at the airport for 6:30 am...flight shows as on time...until we go to get our boarding pass and find out it is cancelled! Fortunately there was a later morning flight that actually did manage to get us to BC. As Rob pointed out, it would have taken less time to just drive there!
Once we got there though, the smell of the ocean and the forest made the trip worth it. I do enjoy the air there. And the lack of garbage blown everywhere. Rob had rebooked us a hotel in Parksville, on the ocean after having to cancel our original plans. It was a decent drive and ferry ride: lovely scenery even with the fog. When we pulled up though, the hotel sign was right in front of an old style two story motel, that looked a little frightening and not all that "ocean front", but fortunately the sign was just placed awkwardly, and the hotel we actually stayed in was lovely and right on the ocean, and we had a nice room at the end overlooking the water at a very good rate.
Having missed an entire day of our vacation really cut short our plans, but we did manage to tour some Marinas, Rob took me on a Catamaran (as I think he wants us to vacation on one some day), and we made it up to Comox as I wanted to see how much it had changed since I was last there. We also ate some great sea food!
Of course the flight back was uneventful...we couldn't be stranded in Victoria just Edmonton. May have to make up that lost time with another trip later this year!
Karen
Like last year, we left a lovely Edmonton weekend in exchange for cold/wet despite forecasts to the opposite. We seem to be cursed that way.
This year had an added twist to the curse...
As you may imagine, there is a lot of preparation that goes into planning a vacation when you have oodles of animals and a farm. This year it was great as Kyla was able to farm sit, and Laureen was able to cover the one morning Kyla had to go to her "real" job. Still, we needed to make sure all contingencies were covered, everything was ready to make things easy here, and the animals were considered.
This meant an early morning getting the barns done, organizing the house and pets, and then dropping off the doggies and Rob's parents. It all went well, and we arrived at the airport in plenty of time, which was good as the flight was listed as "on time". As the time to board approached though, they kept pushing the flight back further and further and further... (Rob and I had sat fairly far from the departure date as they had loud music near the gate that we didn't enjoy so we missed out in the free food vouchers they handed out). Finally 2.5 hours or so later, they let us board.
We sat down in our cramped little plane seat, and listened to the story from the guy beside us who told us this was day two for him to try to get to Comox due to the fog. The day before they had taken off, got to Comox, and come back. Surely they would not do that again?
Meanwhile in the seat behind Rob, was an obnoxious man who had spent the extra weight in the airport bar and divided his time between talking to the grade 3 child in his row, swearing with his buddies, and trying to convince the girl in the row across to come home with him. It was lovely.
But, we got to Comox turbulence free...and then spend 10 minutes doing circles. When you get motion sickness easily, this is not fun. Even less fun when the circles ended with the announcement that they couldn't land, so back to Edmonton we go! WTF?!? I get that if they can't land, they can't land, what I don't get is why we even took off in the first place!
So back to Edmonton. Then to get our bags. Then to stand in the slowest moving line ever to sort out what we would do instead. And by slow, I mean 2 and a half hours. Why? Because the customer service people couldn't just rebook us, they had to call in to the same booking line we could have called! (Rob tried to call in while we were in line, but got forgotten once and lost the call once, and didn't get called back through their call back system).
Eventually we were booked for 8 am to Victoria instead of Comox as it sounded like it was more likely the fog was going to clear from Victoria than Comox. We got a free hotel for the night and a taxi ride, as well as a dinner voucher...but as it was 11pm by the time we actually GOT to the hotel, it wasn't really possible to use the voucher. And of course the hotel was beside the train tracks...
Back at the airport for 6:30 am...flight shows as on time...until we go to get our boarding pass and find out it is cancelled! Fortunately there was a later morning flight that actually did manage to get us to BC. As Rob pointed out, it would have taken less time to just drive there!
Once we got there though, the smell of the ocean and the forest made the trip worth it. I do enjoy the air there. And the lack of garbage blown everywhere. Rob had rebooked us a hotel in Parksville, on the ocean after having to cancel our original plans. It was a decent drive and ferry ride: lovely scenery even with the fog. When we pulled up though, the hotel sign was right in front of an old style two story motel, that looked a little frightening and not all that "ocean front", but fortunately the sign was just placed awkwardly, and the hotel we actually stayed in was lovely and right on the ocean, and we had a nice room at the end overlooking the water at a very good rate.
Having missed an entire day of our vacation really cut short our plans, but we did manage to tour some Marinas, Rob took me on a Catamaran (as I think he wants us to vacation on one some day), and we made it up to Comox as I wanted to see how much it had changed since I was last there. We also ate some great sea food!
Of course the flight back was uneventful...we couldn't be stranded in Victoria just Edmonton. May have to make up that lost time with another trip later this year!
Karen
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Yes, its pink.
It wasn't supposed to be pink. It was supposed to be tannish grey. Hoping that once finished it will look less pink, or that pink will end up being pretty. If not, it will be de-pinked.
Also shocked that Save-On seems to have sold out of frightening Halloween stuffed cats. I should have bought a couple when I had a chance! (Rob is reading this and thanking that I didn't). Perhaps a trip to the Dollar Store next week.
Karen
Also shocked that Save-On seems to have sold out of frightening Halloween stuffed cats. I should have bought a couple when I had a chance! (Rob is reading this and thanking that I didn't). Perhaps a trip to the Dollar Store next week.
Karen
Monday, October 14, 2013
This week in lessons
This week in lessons we are going to continue on with riding in a controlled manner, getting in corners, and counting 3-2-1 to the jumps. Our course will be longer this week, and it will be interesting to see if rider's can maintain their count as the course progresses.
Things that may help:
1) Make sure you sit up in corners, and keep your eyes up to the jumps. If you start tipping more and more forward it will throw off your eye, and will also change your horse's balance which will change their stride and how the chose to take the jumps.
2) You need to make sure that the horse is approaching the jumps along the path you are visualizing, and that their shoulders are following their nose. If your eye is visualizing an early turn and the horse ends up falling out its shoulder and going wide on the turn, the distance you see is not going to be able to be actualized. This is also the case in a straight line if the horse is allowed to travel crooked as their eye, and your eye will be looking at the jump along a different line than their body is following.
3) For better balanced and less rushed corners leaving the jumps, make sure you prepare your horse for the turn by LOOKING into the turn. You don't have to steer for it, and can actually hold the horse straight with the outside rein while still looking. Why does this help? Think of it this way. Your horse is landing off the jump with forward momentum. It is landing shoulder/front end first and it sees the end of the arena right there, requiring a turn. If you don't help set the horse up for the turn, the horse will remain on its forehand, dropping its shoulder and either cutting the end off, or going around the end with its head tipped outwards. This will result in a rushed and unbalanced turn with the horse thinking you are blind and don't see the turn so it better act asap or risk crashing into the end of the ring.
Now if you look for the turn while holding the horse out with the outside rein, the horse will feel your position change and understand you are seeing and ready for the turn, while you are still keeping them from turning too early. This will give you time to get the horse balanced and off its shoulders so that together you can negotiate the turn in a balanced and controlled way.
Karen
Things that may help:
1) Make sure you sit up in corners, and keep your eyes up to the jumps. If you start tipping more and more forward it will throw off your eye, and will also change your horse's balance which will change their stride and how the chose to take the jumps.
2) You need to make sure that the horse is approaching the jumps along the path you are visualizing, and that their shoulders are following their nose. If your eye is visualizing an early turn and the horse ends up falling out its shoulder and going wide on the turn, the distance you see is not going to be able to be actualized. This is also the case in a straight line if the horse is allowed to travel crooked as their eye, and your eye will be looking at the jump along a different line than their body is following.
3) For better balanced and less rushed corners leaving the jumps, make sure you prepare your horse for the turn by LOOKING into the turn. You don't have to steer for it, and can actually hold the horse straight with the outside rein while still looking. Why does this help? Think of it this way. Your horse is landing off the jump with forward momentum. It is landing shoulder/front end first and it sees the end of the arena right there, requiring a turn. If you don't help set the horse up for the turn, the horse will remain on its forehand, dropping its shoulder and either cutting the end off, or going around the end with its head tipped outwards. This will result in a rushed and unbalanced turn with the horse thinking you are blind and don't see the turn so it better act asap or risk crashing into the end of the ring.
Now if you look for the turn while holding the horse out with the outside rein, the horse will feel your position change and understand you are seeing and ready for the turn, while you are still keeping them from turning too early. This will give you time to get the horse balanced and off its shoulders so that together you can negotiate the turn in a balanced and controlled way.
Karen
Cookies
Does anyone who bakes cookies either from scratch or from one of those packages, ever get the number of cookies you are supposed to?
I made some peanut butter cookies from a package...supposed to get 36 cookies, or 24 larger cookies. I made tiny cookie balls, to make tiny cookies...and still only got 24 cookies.
We need an inquiry into the validity of cookie count estimation.
I made some peanut butter cookies from a package...supposed to get 36 cookies, or 24 larger cookies. I made tiny cookie balls, to make tiny cookies...and still only got 24 cookies.
We need an inquiry into the validity of cookie count estimation.
Monday, October 7, 2013
This week
It was interesting last week, how much it caused an issue to have jumps (albeit small ones) so near the corner. This shows how much the corner is destroying the canter quality, and also how much room riders want to prepare for a jump. Having jumps close to the ends will continue this week so we can work on this. A key is to not be lazy! Keep the horse active in the corners: this doesn't mean fast as you actually do need to compress the horse so it can balance in the short ends of the indoor, but it means using leg into hand to create contained energy that keeps the horse ready for the jumps.
We are also going to try counting 3-2-1 to jumps to help work on that idea of rhythm and power to the jumps.
And because last week was so fun, we are going to do MORE work without stirrups! Yay! This week it will be working on a serpentine over poles. For riders on horses that can handle the stirrups being left down, we will leave the stirrups hanging so you can get the idea of your LEG holding the leathers and stirrups, and also the idea of picking up and dropping the stirrups while trotting.
Karen
We are also going to try counting 3-2-1 to jumps to help work on that idea of rhythm and power to the jumps.
And because last week was so fun, we are going to do MORE work without stirrups! Yay! This week it will be working on a serpentine over poles. For riders on horses that can handle the stirrups being left down, we will leave the stirrups hanging so you can get the idea of your LEG holding the leathers and stirrups, and also the idea of picking up and dropping the stirrups while trotting.
Karen
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Chocolate
My name is Karen and I am a chocolate addict. I have not had chocolate for over 7 weeks now.
For those of you who know me, you know that this is an accomplishment! Once I was told to give up chocolate, I gave Rob the M&Ms and just weaned myself off with the remaining chocolate chip granola bars. Chocolate is everywhere though...it is rare to have a commercial break that doesn't have at least one ad for chocolate, whether it be candy, cookies or cakes! In the grocery store, there is chocolate on every single aisle... even the fruit section has chocolate dips! And if there isn't anything to go in the aisle with chocolate, then they put it in a display at one end or the other as a promotional angle. And then again at the check out! I think October and the beginning of November (price dropped Halloween candy!) is the hardest time for a recovering chocolate addict.
But you know what I did? I just didn't buy it. If you don't buy it, you can't have it, and then the habit is kicked. Sure I had moments where I REALLY wanted some chocolate and I would wander the kitchen for a replacement...but there is NO replacement for the smooth goodness and pick me up of chocolate... although Activia prune yogurt actually comes close.
I kind of wondered if I would ever have the will power to be a dieter or kick a bad habit...and now I know I do and I can. So now I have no pity for smokers. Seriously, it is just this simple...stop buying the cigarettes. Crack may be harder to quit as I assume crack dealers will find you and deliver to your door which would be hard to resist, but smokers have no excuse. At some point they decide to go all the way to the store to buy some cigarettes and keep on smoking. Which may be where being a little lazy is actually a good thing...
Rob actually ate chocolate in front of me in the truck the other day and I didn't feel the urge to smack him and steal it. This was my sign that my love affair with chocolate was over.
Now if someone can find me a snacking indulgence alternative....
Karen
For those of you who know me, you know that this is an accomplishment! Once I was told to give up chocolate, I gave Rob the M&Ms and just weaned myself off with the remaining chocolate chip granola bars. Chocolate is everywhere though...it is rare to have a commercial break that doesn't have at least one ad for chocolate, whether it be candy, cookies or cakes! In the grocery store, there is chocolate on every single aisle... even the fruit section has chocolate dips! And if there isn't anything to go in the aisle with chocolate, then they put it in a display at one end or the other as a promotional angle. And then again at the check out! I think October and the beginning of November (price dropped Halloween candy!) is the hardest time for a recovering chocolate addict.
But you know what I did? I just didn't buy it. If you don't buy it, you can't have it, and then the habit is kicked. Sure I had moments where I REALLY wanted some chocolate and I would wander the kitchen for a replacement...but there is NO replacement for the smooth goodness and pick me up of chocolate... although Activia prune yogurt actually comes close.
I kind of wondered if I would ever have the will power to be a dieter or kick a bad habit...and now I know I do and I can. So now I have no pity for smokers. Seriously, it is just this simple...stop buying the cigarettes. Crack may be harder to quit as I assume crack dealers will find you and deliver to your door which would be hard to resist, but smokers have no excuse. At some point they decide to go all the way to the store to buy some cigarettes and keep on smoking. Which may be where being a little lazy is actually a good thing...
Rob actually ate chocolate in front of me in the truck the other day and I didn't feel the urge to smack him and steal it. This was my sign that my love affair with chocolate was over.
Now if someone can find me a snacking indulgence alternative....
Karen
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