Valentine's Day tribute

You all probably know Trey Parker and Matt Stone as the creators of South Park and the broadway hit Book of Mormon, but before all that fame, they made a little movie called Cannibal the Musical as a college project.  The movie centers around Alfred Packer and his group of friends who are traveling from Utah to Colorado in the 1870's in search of gold.  Just as the title suggests, there's a bit of cannibalism, a lot music, and tons of camp!  What you might not glean from the title is that one of the main characters is Alfred Packer's horse, Leigh Ann, his best friend.

At one point in the movie Leigh Ann Runs away, and because this is a musical, Alfred Packer does exactly what you'd expect and breaks into song; not just any song, a love song to his horse (clearly written by a non-horse person).  With Valentine's day coming up it seemed like something that needed to be shared.

Go riding

You know those scenes towards the end of mystery movies when all the clues come together montage style, usually backed by some uber dramatic music, and by seeing them side by side you're able to determine the murderer?  I recently had one of those scenes in my head, but instead  of pointing towards the perpetrator of a murder, the clues were pointing towards a potentially interesting fact about my little horse.

Clue #1 occurred nearly two years ago when a mysterious bump appeared on Helix's neck.  Being the overprotective mother that I am, I had the vet out to look at him immediately.  "It looks to be a melanoma," he said, "but your horse is very young and the wrong color for this to be normal."  So to be safe, the vet removed the lump taking a very large margin to be sure he got all the potentially cancerous cells.  Analysis of the excised tissue showed it to be benign, luckily, but officially made me paranoid about the presence of unknown lumps on my horse.

photo by Biz Stamm

Clue #2 Just like any adoring mother out, I frequently share pictures of my "children" on social media (and FYI Mom, Dad, and in-laws, they DO count as real children even though they aren't technically human).  One day in August after posting  this picture,

photo by Biz Stamm

a friend commented "Wow!  His color is really lightening up, huh?"  At the time I assumed the lighting had just made him look washed out in the picture.

Clue #3 Fast forward to January when I received a photo from Helix's "babysitter" while I was in New Hampshire visiting family telling me that aside from having an extraordinary talent for taking out his braids, he was being a good boy.  He looked so handsome and grown up in the picture that I felt compelled to share it in the kiger mustang group.

Photo by Lisa Boragine

I got lots or responses along the lines of "handsome!' and "cute!" which satisfied the dopamine feedback loop we all crave from social media.  My brain was happy that people liked me... or at least "liked" me. Then one person asked "Is he turning gray?  His face and tail look like they are turning gray."   Again, I brushed it off thinking it must be a lighting thing, but when I got to the barn that day, I noticed his face was pretty gray, and he had little gray patches on the top of his hind quarters and on his back.  I started going through all of his baby pictures to compare his color then to his color now, and that's when all the clues came rushing into my head montage style. My first thought was "is this even possible? Can a dun horse also be gray (not grulla, but actually gray)?"  "Is my little dun horse actually a gray?"  I asked myself.

Helix now (left) vs. Helix as a yearling (right)

After doing a little research and consulting  with some of my very smart friends, I was able to determine that the gray gene is dominant and can be paired with any coat color, so it is indeed possible, but how to know for sure?!  I could look into the colors of his sire and dam to see if he had a gray parent, but I have no clue who the sire is.  I can wait it out and see what color he winds up being, but that could take years and seems incredibly inefficient. I know there is a better way. We have the power! What we can learn about living organisms from their DNA is pretty incredible these days. In fact, I spend a lot of my time looking at plant DNA, so I'm quite familiar with the  options molecular biology provide in this situation.  

The choice seems pretty obvious. While my horse's color mreally isn't that important in the long run, I'm curious, gosh darnit! I ordered DNA testing kits from UC Davis, and will be sending in a sample to test for the presence of the gray gene. Next week we will talk about how genes work and how a gene is translated into pigment in your horse's coat.  Until then, remember, a good horse is never a bad color.

Go riding!

Walk this way

Photo by Francy Haupt

The walk is one of those things to which one could dedicate an entire book, but since I lack the mental fortitude complete to complete such an ambitious project (just ask my husband how my "novel" is coming) and the internet has programmed us all to have TL;DR syndrome, I'm going to address two components that will help set the foundation for a quality walk.

Rhythm

The first major component of the walk is its rhythm.  Each gait has its own, unique rhythm which differentiates one gait from the next.  If your horse changes rhythm, he is in fact changing gaits.  While your horse's tempo (speed of footfalls) can change within a gait, his rhythm cannot.   With that said, the walk is the gait most prone rhythm irregularities, so what's generally happening there is that the horse is inserting little steps of trot into walk which alters the rhythm.  This is caused by tension of some form, and because dressage should always be ridden with a relaxed horse, rhythm irregularities are often a dead give away when the horse is not relaxed.

So in order to recognize when the rhythm is irregular, we need familiarize ourselves with the correct walk rhythm in the first place, and to help you with that, I'm going to give you a bit of a music lesson. 

So here we have the humble quarter note, which is equal to one beat, and for the purpose of understanding the walk rhythm, we're going to say that it also equals one stride.  Below is a short clip of Helix walking, and what I'd like you to do is tap your hand on your thigh every time his right front leg touches down.  There is your  quarter note/stride.

1 quarter note = 1 stride

Ok. I know I said my pony wasn't fancy, but he has one heck of a walk!



Below we have a sixteenth note (noted by the two tails). It takes 4 sixteenth note to equal 1 quarter note.  In our analogy, the sixteenth note is equal to one footfall, and it takes four, evenly spaced footfalls to create one stride.

 

Each sixteenth note =1 step and 4 sixteenth notes = 1stride

So let's go ahead  and count along with Helix's walk including each footfall, again, beginning with the right front leg.  ONE, two, three, four, TWO, two, three, four, THREE, two, three, four... etc. That rhythm needs to stay constant at the walk, otherwise you are no ling walking. In order to get a good feeling for this, walk your horse on a hard surface like the cement aisle at the barn and really listen to what that sounds like.

The balancing gesture

At the walk, the horse's head bobs along in what is called a balancing gesture.  You can see it a bit my clip above, but  I have also attempted to make an animation demonstrating it below.  Don't worry, I won't be quitting my day job to join the Pixar crew at anytime in the near future.

So your horse's head moves at the walk.  It is one the defining characteristics of the walk, but all too often it gets blocked by unyielding hands.  When riding the walk correctly, it is important to move your hands WITH your horse's balancing gesture.  Doing otherwise might cause him to stop, or move  up into a gait with no balancing gesture like the trot causing rhythm irregularities.  See what I did there?! I think that's called a callback.

Go riding!

Ah yes. The 20 meter circle, something that seems like it should be so simple, but still so many wind up looking like amoeba with flailing pseudopodia.  Is it because we all failed geometry in high school, or is it harder than it looks?  I'm gonna go with the latter if only to feel better about myself.

illustration by Joseph Leidy, 1879 

So what is the purpose of  riding a 20m circle?  First off, it is a simple test of geometric accuracy.  Schooling figures helps to strengthen and supple the horse, but only if the figures are ridden accurately.  Inaccurately ridden figures can lead to incorrect alignment and asymmetrical muscle development, so being accurate matters even while schooling.


The most common geometrically-based mistake I see is caused by the unmistakeable gravitational pull of the rail.  Being away from the rail is scary, so people have a tendency to stick to it, and instead of riding circles, they wind up riding squares with rounded corners.  So if you find yourself on the rail for more than a stride, you are not riding a circle.  I repeat! You are not riding a circle!

This is NOT a circle.

Illustration by Back to Basics Horsemanship

This IS a circle

Aside from testing our geometry skills, the 20m circle  requires us to create bend throughout our horse's body with our inside seat bone and inside leg, while controlling the degree of bend with the outside rein.  You know how people are always yelling "inside leg to outside rein!" That.  You need to be able to do that.   

Why you ask? (P.S. you should always ask "why?")  Well there are a few reasons.  First off,  lateral flexion (bending side to side) supples the horse over the back allowing for increased flexibility. Secondly,  a horse exhibiting a correct bend will be stepping diagonally under the belly by engaging the abdominal muscles, encouraging him to lift his back and become round.  Check in with my previous article to learn about the importance of a round back. 

Lastly, when the horse bends, you'll notice his neck presses into the outside rein as shown in the figure below, creating increased pressure in your outside hand.  You have two choices.  You can either open your ring finger or release your outside hand forward to allow for bend, which you will want to do to a certain extent on  a 20m circle, or you can keep your outside hand static and use that pressure on the outside rein as a restraining aid.  So seeing that the pressure in the outside rein comes from the bend in the horse's body, and the bend in the horse's body is coming from your inside leg, you are essentially creating pressure in the outside rein, which can be used to slow or rebalance the horse, with your inside leg. OMG!  There's that inside leg to outside rein thing again!

Illustration by Back to Basics Horsemanship

Illustration by Back to Basics Horsemanship (Don't worry, Morgane.  You clearly have job security when it comes to the whole illustration thing!)

Ok, so I know I started off this series telling you not to drill test movements, but the 20 m circle is one worth drilling.  You will be aligning, suppling, and strengthening the horse by doing so.  As I stated before, riding accurate figures is a key part of schooling, so I'm going to give you a few tips to ride an accurate 20m circle.  Start off by asking your horse for the appropriate amount of bend for a 20m circle.  This will require some trial and error and/or someone helping you from the ground.  Then just move forward while holding that bend and you should create a perfect circle.  I like to imagine it like an ice skater carving a circle in the ice.  Find your bend and carve that circle!

via GIPHY

Go riding!

New Year's resolution

In 2016 I resolve to not buy my horse new protective boots just because they're on sale...or because they're in a color that would look really cute on him...or just because.  I resolve to spend less time on tackoftheday.com and use the money instead to make some serious contributions to my IRA.  Ok. I need to stop myself because I'm a big believer in setting realistic goals, and let's be honest, the previously-mentioned resolutions are NOT realistic. So this year I have one major resolution and that is to embrace that which scares me and not let my own self doubt hold me back.  I know that sounds tough, but I assure you it's much easier than resisting those adorable, fleece-lined brushing boots!

Fun fun fun-damentals! Center line edition

First impressions mean a lot.  When you ride down that first centerline, you frequently set the tone for your entire test for both the judge, and yourself, so today we're going to talk about three fundamental skills that will not only help you rock your centerlines, but help you be a better partner to your horse as well.

via GIPHY
  
Trust

It doesn't matter how straight your centerline is, or how square your halt is if you can't get your horse near the judge's booth.  I've seen many "C- track left"'s turn into  "between X and G- bolt left"'s.  While you can never fully predict how a horse will react its first time experiencing something new and different, a little bit of work on building trust  can help make the process much less stressful for everyone involved.  Helix's favorite trust building exercise centers around the "touch" command where I point at an object that he might be a little unsure about and give him the command "touch." Upon successfully touching the "scary" object with his nose, he gets a cookie.  We do this in hand as well as under saddle.  The treat is not 100% necessary and can be replaced with a generous praising/petting for horses who get overly mouthy.  The main objective is to demonstrate to the horse that you will never expose him/her to anything dangerous.

Here Helix demonstrates the "touch" command and learns that the plastic page protector is nothing to fear.

In addition to the "touch" command, hauling to new places, trail riding, and essentially providing positive experiences where they see new things will go a long way in creating a spook-free centerline.

Forward Energy

The easiest way to ride a straight line is to create and then utilize forward energy.  To demonstrate this I'd like you to do a bit of an experiment.  Go out to the wash stall and place the the hose on the ground.  Now turn the hose on, but just barely, so the water pressure is very low. What does the stream look like? Probably a bit on the squiggly side, huh?  Now turn the water pressure up, and voila! We have a straight stream.  Your horse is very similar to the stream of water, but instead of turning a valve to create water pressure, you use your seat and leg to create forward energy. Crookedness averted!  Your can practice using forward energy to generate straightness by riding straight lines off the rail.  Quarter lines and long diagonals are great for testing straightness.

Preparation

In a training level test, the centerline is where the most abrupt changes is the horse's way of going take place.  You go from trot to halt, halt to trot, and from a straight line to a square turn all over the course of 40 (or 60) meters.  All too often we get to X and then think "Oh crap!  I need to halt!"  Or we get to C and think "Ahh!!! Must turn!"  With how responsive and forgiving horses can be, it's easy to forget that their brains need a moment to process our request before they can actually do the thing we them to do!  So a few strides before X, take a second to let your horse know that something is about to change.  Ask for bend well before you get to C so your horse is ready to make a balanced turn when you get to C.  

So there you have it.  Instead of practicing centerlines until you're blue in the face, work on building trust, utilizing forward energy to generate straightness, and get in the mindset of prepare--->do.  You'll be looking fine on centerline in no time!

Go riding!

Lady Gaga's latest little monster

Call all you want, but there's no one home. You're not gonna reach Lady Gaga's telephone, because she is off playing with her new horse that was given to her by Interscope records.   Not much information has been shared on this adorable grey mare that showed up on Lady Gaga's doorstep, but she did post a few pictures to her instagram showing the  ribbon-adorned horse after she arrived, munching on some hay in her stall, and taking Gaga for a very dreamy looking ride. 

So it looks like at least one girl this year got that horse for Christmas!

Go, Gaga!