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.

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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!

Teaching to the test

Back in the day I took this biology class with a bit of an unusual format.  There were 3 exams, each with a pre-prescribed set of questions. I know teachers will often recycle exams to save time, but this class was unique in that we got access to the content of all 3 exams at the very beginning of the term. There were recommended homework assignments, but in the end, your final grade was determined upon your ability to answer those questions you were given at the beginning of the term.  I found that most of the students memorized the exams and regurgitated answers when it was time to take the test.  There were a few students, however, that did all of the recommend homework and really took the time to develop a deep understanding of the material. While they did not necessarily perform better than the other students in this particular class, they were much more prepared to tackle the challenges of the upper level classes that laid ahead of them.  All right. I confess.  I'm not really talking about a biology.  I'm talking about competitive dressage.

My mother, before she retired,  made a living as a teacher, and she was an excellent one at that.  When the No Child Left Behind policy was introduced, I remember her concern that teachers would teach to the test in order to receive high scores instead of focusing on the fundamental skills kids need to be well-rounded learners.  I think with the format of competitive dressage being what it is, it's easy to do the same thing to our horses when our goals are centered around achieving a particular score at a horse show.  We worry about movements X, Y, and Z without necessarily addressing the underlying principles that make our horses well-rounded equine citizens.  The tests should be just that; tests that indicate the quality of our training, not the training itself.

Now some people decide not to show because of this, and that is a completely acceptable decision, but I think horse shows are fun, and I'm pretty sure if I remain a thoughtful, analytical rider, I can avoid the pitfalls of teaching to the test.  Recently the date for the first Oregon league show of 2016 was released (February 27-28), and I plan on bringing Helix. While it's really easy to get caught up in horse show fever (Who doesn't love a beautiful ribbon?!), I'm going to try my best to keep my horse in a training program that makes him a better, stronger, healthier horse, and not necessarily just a better competition.

 Ribbons are nice, but good training is better.  In a perfect world (an sometimes in an imperfect one) you can have both.

So here's the plan.  Helix will be showing training level, and each week between now and the show, we'll be breaking down the movements in training level test 1, discussing the underlying principles, and suggesting exercises (other than riding the movement over and over and over) that will improve your horses ability to perform that movement successfully.  In other words, we will be doing the "recommended homework" in hopes that we will prepare ourselves well for the test in our near future, equip ourselves with the skills we'll need to move up the levels, and most importantly, make well-rounded learners out of our horses, and ourselves.
Next week, centerlines!

Be sure to check out the Back to Basics Facebook page to get updates on Helix's daily antics.
Go riding!

Your daily dose of "SQUEEEE!"

We all know that adorable sells, and Amazon Prime targets the "SQUEEEEE!" reflex within us all with their latest ad.

Reach for the sky

As I have mentioned in previous entries, I have some issues with the lateral alignment of my spine.  I have also mentioned that I am training a 4 year old, and despite a popular misconception that young horse trainers just need to be tough and brave, it is completely necessary for a young horse trainer to have, what I like to call, an articulate butt, meaning the ability to communicate clearly with the seat. It is during these early, formative years that horses decide whether changes in your weight distribution matter or not. The only way to teach a horse that the seat does matter is to ride like it does from the get go.

So back to my crookedness.  It's not just a me thing. Most people are at least a little crooked in one way or another and this has a big impact on our ability to effectively apply the seat aid. So how do we go about fixing this? To explain this, I'm going to need the help of my trusty sidekick, Piper Kleiner.

So as you can see, Piper has a slight curvature in her back.

Let's see what happens when we try and fix that curvature by making a lateral shift.

Crap! Still crooked! That's right, attempting to fix lateral misalignments by making additional lateral shifts will more often than not just make you crooked in the other direction.

OK. Let's see what happens when we try and fix Piper's alignment by stretching up through the top of her head.

 You can see, while Piper is now in much better balance, she is still not perfectly straight.  In order to improve her lateral alignment to a great extent, she will have engage in a regular stretching and strengthening routine to address unevenness in musculature, but for now, stretching up has put her in a position to much more effectively use her seat. So there you go. If you're starting to feel off kilter in the saddle, plant your butt firmly in the saddle and stretch up towards the rafters. "Reach for the sky!" my parents always told me, and I feel like I am continually reaching in terms of lofty life goals, but these days I am also reaching for the sky... with the top of my head.

Go riding!

George Morris Clinic

This past weekend I had the absolute privilege of attending a George Morris clinic in Wilsonville, OR.  I am primarily a dressage rider, but have begun to dabble in the jumpers with my horse, Kalvin, who was dissatisfied with a dressage-centric lifestyle. I was hoping to gain some useful insight on riding him, which I did, but if I'm being honest with myself, I really just wanted to watch George yell at people.  That is what he is famous for, and that is what we expect.  George did not disappoint.  He began the clinic by giving a stern talking to a group of spectators who were fawning over a dog when he was trying to begin.  "This is a riding clinic!" he said. "Not a dog petting clinic!"

Throughout the day George was tough on riders, spectators, and the jump crew just as expected,  but despite a bit of a show and some good jumping advice, I got something quite unexpected out of the clinic, a full on dressage lesson.  It turns out that George is a student of the classical German school.  He stressed the importance of keeping the horse in front of the leg and had riders schooling shoulder-in, renvers, and travers during the flat portions of the lessons.  He was also quite generous  with praise when it was due, and with the quality of horse and rider at the clinic, that was frequent.  The highlight of the clinic was the last group of riders which included Olympian and World Cup Champion, Rich Fellers, along with his wife, Shelly, who is quite the rider in her own right. Watching George teach such a talented group was a real pleasure and truly inspirational.

So just like people expect a bit of a show when they attend a George Morris clinic, they also expect George Morris clinic recaps to be presented in meme form.  I'm not one to disappoint, so here you go!

Fear of being judged (working title)

Ah yes,  insecurity,  my achilles heel as a rider. The prospect of being judged is one that has always filled me with anxiety.  The fear of not being good enough can sometimes be enough to make me sick to my stomach. I remember expressing this sentiment to my instructor, Doug, after a lesson for which I had a bit of an audience. He starred back at me and said "You picked the wrong sport, kiddo," and it's true. Not that I wasn't meant to be a rider, but that my stage fright was something I'd need to face if I planned to continue on in my life as an equestrian. Even if you choose not to ride competitively, the horse world is an extremely judgmental place. Unless you plan on only riding in the absence of all other life forms, someone is bound to have an opinion on your riding, and here's the kicker. It might not always be positive.

When I started this column, in the back of my mind I knew that in order to truly bring you along on Helix's and my journey, I'd have to periodically post videos of our progress. Because I'm currently in the process of training a 4 year old, and I'm not Reiner Klimke incarnate (though I try my very best to channel him), there is a good chance that any video I post will not be perfect. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but if any place is more judgmental than the horse world, it's the internet.  It is just so easy to point out someone's flaws when you don't have look them in the face and see their eyes deaden as you crush their spirit with your words.

  

Yeah, so this girl who hates being judged has put herself in situation where one of the most judgmental communities around can judge her on the platform that has made the sport of armchair quarterbacking one of the world's greatest pastimes. What was I thinking?

I'm still not entirely sure. Maybe I thought it would be a good way to face my fear and learn how to let criticism roll off my back. Maybe I'm totally insane. Yeah.  I'm definitely insane, but I don't think it's relevant in this case. Or maybe I know that as judgmental as the horse community can be, it also has the potential to be the most loving, supportive community around.

I know that videoing myself (or should I say schlepping the husband out to the barn to video me) is a useful training tool.  I have no mirrors in my arena, so it is useful for me to pick apart my riding, Helix's movement, and how those things impact one another.  As I get braver, I will share more, the good, the bad, and the ugly, but first I need this tiny, relatively painless nudge to get the ball rolling. So here we go, my first baby step towards putting myself out there, a (very) short clip of Helix and me during some trot work on 12-1.