Money money money!

 I went and got myself something pretty.  And huge.  Massive some would say.

The Behemoth had picked up enough gremlins that we decided a 20 year career would be enough.  The Behemoth is going to be moved on to a job slightly less demanding.  This is Betty.  Betty is a 2023 GMC Sierra 2500 HD so basically the exact same truck but with only 10 miles on it when purchased.  It's nice having things like a back up camera and integrated Android Auto.  The payments are less nice.  I traded in my daily driver car so the hubby and I are sharing his little compact hybrid and saving Betty for hauling.  We both work from home so one commuter car works just fine.

I still need to get the gooseneck hitch installed but that can wait until after Christmas.  My first hauling expedition looks to be April when I bring Kiki up to live with Trainer Z in her youngster field.  She's got a filly that is just one week older than Kiki that will be looking for a new pasture mate in April when her current friend is due to foal so it will all work out beautifully.  The two yearling fillies will have a friend and Kiki goes straight from her breeder to Trainer Z.   This means I'll have both of my trouble makers at the same address and I can start teaching Kiki to go for walks in preparation for breed shows that start in July.

Two ponies and a new truck means a certain amount of strain on the ol' checkbook.  But that's fine!  I calculated and simulated and it's a totally reasonable lift.  It's fine.

So yeah, right after I did that Theo made it clear that he only wants the Custom Saddlery Wolfgang Solo saddle that Trainer Z had been using because it fit her better.  It also fits me better so no loss there but it's still a saddle purchase.  Ugh.  I'm hoping the good mojo from it being Schrodie's former saddle will rub off on Theo.  I'll freely admit that I really like the saddle and Theo goes like a dream in it so it falls under the heading of buying Theo anything he wants to make him happy.  There is actually a category with that header in my budget.  I'm also keeping the Frank Baines because it's the same make and model that Kiki's breeder uses on her cobs so I'll probably want that in a couple years.

Theo's also scheduled to get his hocks done this month because next season is Third Level work and he's turning 19.  He's sound and we want to keep it that way.  He he also made it clear during his fall crazies that he could use a round of ulcer treatment to get him back to a blank slate before the next show season.  Both omeprazole and sucralfate, please.  As the kids say, I'm broke as a joke.

On the plus side, the crazies were brief this year and I only missed two lessons.  One for crazies, one because I went on vacation (gasp!).  We're already back to work figuring out how to get a quality half passe at both the trot and canter.  We may skip Third 1 and go for Third 2 as it suits Theo better.  The quicker the transitions and movements, the happier he is.  He'll also be hitting the circuit with his Second Level freestyle with Trainer Z in 2023.  We're talking about him qualifying for regionals.  He did so well at Saugerties that it seems like a good idea.  At least it seems like a good idea when it's months away.  It's more a Trainer Z problem than mine, I'm going to be working on my dissertation next September when the championships roll around.  But with a professional in the saddle and new ulcer meds on board, he may actually have a chance at Second Level freestyle.  Stranger things have happened.

The Second level horse

Discussing our show with Trainer Z and my clinic with Vern Batchelder brought something into focus that I didn't really expect:  Moving up was a big deal for Theo as well.

I usually hear about how big of a leap it is for riders to move from First to Second.  Many riders decide to stay at First because the leap looks too big.  But I don't usually hear about that leap from the perspective of the horse.  It's a big leap for them, too.  The power expected is different, the precision is different, the suppleness is different.  Theo has demonstrated quite nicely how much of a change can happen when you teach a horse how to think forward,  lift their shoulders, and then build up the muscles necessary.

He's always been prone to explosions when heading right.  He's hollow right and likes to fly out that left shoulder so heading right gives him that opportunity, especially when I'm prepping to canter.  We had a lid on it and had a string of shows with no problems since I could prevent it by basically not powering up his hind end.  You don't have to power up for working gaits.  You absolutely do need that power to collect.  I've had to let some of Theo's inner stud out to make the collection possible.  The explosion problem is back with a gusto.  Trainer Z shrugged and said welcome to Second level.

She wasn't the only one that said that.  Vern also said that our sudden submission issues were expected at this point in his training.  I've turned up the pressure while encouraging him to be a big, powerful pony.  There are going to be moments where we get it wrong and with all that power, wrong may include some dramatics.

Why don't any of the books or magazines discuss this part of moving up the levels?  Trainer Z did warn me that I might see an outbreak of naughty behavior as we jazzed him up, but I thought that was just Theo.  I didn't think it was a common thing across horses moving up to this stage in their training.  As I ask around, I'm finding that many people have outbreaks of trouble at this level.  Second is the start of Big Boy dressage and it's a bit of a learning curve to manage all that positive tension so it doesn't flip over to negative.

So I guess the misbehavior is a good sign if we want to keep going?  Because we now have the energy and enthusiasm?  But I could do with a bit less exuberance in our tests.

The magnificent land porpoise

Theo decided to remind us all that while he's a good boy, he is no saint.  The temps plummeted, the chiro gave him an adjustment, he got an extra day off, and we suddenly have a sighting of the rare and magnificent land porpoise.

One second I'm cutting across the short diagonal, the next I'm hanging on for dear life as my horse leaps magnificently into the air, props and attempts to bolt.  We've got enough miles that I felt it coming and didn't get rattled.  I sat up, halted, and looked over to the door to see someone looking horrified.  Theo heard them walking on the ice outside of the indoor and lost his mind.  It was a pity, he has so much more energy when he's sassy and we were getting some great work.

I dropped my reins to let Theo's brain reset while the teens yelled commentary about how cool Theo looks when he does that.  Yeah, yeah, it's great.  I'll be feeling that in the morning.  Jerk.

I worked him hard, then Trainer A worked him hard the next morning, and then his other rider got on him.  And he dropped her.  A little drop due to dropping his head and shaking it after a jump, but still.  Don't drop her!  We need her!

So I got on him today and did what I could when temps are at 23*.  I don't want his respiration up much, I don't want him to sweat, but I still need to get the energy levels down.  Ha.  Ha ha ha.  I went for forward trotting with bits of cantering on a long rein over 12 inch fences with walk breaks after every 4 fences.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  It certainly did the job.  He never got huffy or sweaty, but he was noticeably happier and calmer by the end.

He did squeal and leap in one of his changes, but at least the change was clean?  It was Trainer A's favorite, but it might have been because of the noise he made.  Seriously, he's a porpoise complete with really high pitched sound effects.

Hopefully he'll be done with this soon.  I don't need a lot of reminders on just how big and naughty he can be.  

Torturing the equine

Poor Theo.  I'm a terrible mother.  I talked to Trainer A and we have two things to work on over the next two weeks:

• Impulsion
• Working with distractions

Impulsion has improved mightily over the years, but clearly we need to make sure it's a very conditioned response so it doesn't fail when under pressure.  Leg goes on, pony goes forward.  Over.  And over.  And over.

And over.

Until I want to puke.  But that's how a conditioned response is created.  If he doesn't step forward promptly, he gets the little whip tap.  When he does, he gets the neck scritches.  We'll always need to work on this, but we're really going to focus in preparation for our next outing.

The distractions thing made Trainer A giggle with delight and clap her hands.  I've never been squeamish when it comes to torturing my pony in the name of desensitization and I've only gotten worse after our epic bombproofing clinic.  I have zero fear of what will happen when you surprise my horse.  Been there, done that, have the t-shirt.  Trainer A had full license to do whatever she wanted and she frankly needed it.  In his home indoor with people and horses he knows?  Mi papi is not particularly reactive.  He's in a safe place and he knows it.

She threw an empty milk jug around in a cubby where the jumps are kept, so he couldn't see her but could hear her banging around.  She found random equipment to bang against the walls when he went by.  She threw the barrels we use for jumping out of the cubby so they would bang and roll around.  She dragged out a huge piece of canvas and got her dog to ride around on it, tugging and growling, while she ran around the ring with it.  She banged on an empty barrel and sang loudly before rolling the barrel AT my horse while I was cantering.

She did it.  She shoved him into that hyper alert state where he starts to spook and stare at everything, even stuff he will usually ignore.  He spooked at a bag on the ground that he will usually pick up and carry around like a puppy.  I then worked him through it while not letting him brace or drop his back or suck back behind my leg.  It was not easy, especially when she started rolling barrels at us from the front and we had to canter by like nothing was happening.  It took a couple tries (and a little spank when he broke to trot) but he very bravely cantered by the moving threat with his tummy tucked up so it couldn't get him.

The reps were more for me than him.  Do NOT grab his face because he's distracted, get in the back seat and boot him along.  He knows how to be on the bit, once he's in front of my leg he goes into the contact just fine.  I know I can stop a bolt within a breath of it starting, so no need to guard against it.  If I want him to march past the scary thing, I can't also hold him back.  Over and over we went past scary, distracting things while I was reminded to give with my hands and get him in front of my leg.  Don't bring the bit back to him, shove him forward into the contact.  He knows what to do once he's there and frankly, he seemed to find the boundaries of the aids comforting.  His back came up.  I know it did because I could suddenly sit the trot just fine.  His hocks and stifles were definitely at work since he was trying to be as far from the things on the ground as possible. 

There was talk of recruiting the working students to stand around the outside ring with pom poms and do loud cheers while we run through our test.  No walk around for Theo, just straight up centerline with cheerleaders waving pom poms at C.  If this happens, I will demand video.

After that, the usual spectators should seem utterly boring. 

Down

I think I've come up with a piece of equipment that will actually help my dressage.

I see a market for this.  I need a Kickstarter.

While I work on the proof of concept, I'm working on getting his butt down the slower, harder way.  The fun thing that came out of my western dressage gone full dressage clinic was some work on getting Theo to tilt his pelvis and really sit.  He's now strong enough to try it, but he's pretty sure he can't do it. 

I love the fact that his new 'omg I can't' reaction is to break to the walk as opposed to throwing an ever loving temper tantrum.  We still get little moments of curling and 'ugggggh, woman!', but he's definitely turned the corner on being willing to give it a shot.  He trusts that I won't push too far and that there will be cookies in the end.  He gets the confused, flicking ears, but he doesn't throw down and quit the way he used to.

After a nice, long, low, stretchy warm up, I picked him up.  And then I asked him to come up a bit higher in front of the withers without bracing or sticking his nose out.  Oh, and without laying on my hands.  Tough, but doable.  Then I asked him to take some smaller steps.  Smaller, papi.  Not slower.  Smaaaaller.  The ears start flicking and he starts wondering what this is all about, but he tries.  We can get 7 - 10 steps of short, sitting trot right now without dramatics or inversion.  Yay!  Then he gets to go low again and trot around the ring nice and big.

It's amazing how asking him to sit changes the trot we get afterward.  He stretches out over that topline and has some forward momentum because that's so easy compared to what I just asked him to do.  We do a set going one way, stretch, a set going the other way, stretch, just like his old weight lifting exercises.  We're also working very, very hard on me not over riding with my leg.  I touch him, he goes, I take my leg off.  If he goes forward, I say nothing.  It gives him a way to make me leave him the heck alone.  Theo likes it when I leave him the heck alone.

Between engaging the hind end, the increased laterals, and my improving discipline with the leg aids, the canter is coming back.  It's still hard for him and he wants to throw his head down and lay on his shoulders.  Right now I just want a steady canter with a nice contact.  I'm not asking for power, just carry the canter on your own and keep your head somewhere near normal.  With your nose in.  Last night I half halted and he maintained the canter while on his left lead.  I nearly cried.  I wasn't kicking and he was still cantering even with the request to shorten up.  Not very forward (Trainer A would be losing it if she saw me cantering that slowly), but it was positive and gave me a chance to really reward the try and make it a pleasant experience for him.  Positive training has a downside.  He didn't want to step back into the trot because there are less clicks in trot.  Hm.  Might need to address that in the future.

I'm enjoying this new focus on his hind end.  He's now strong enough and light enough that I can ask him to actually tilt his pelvis.  It's a visible change in the way his butt looks in the mirrors.  I tried to get video but my camera tipped and it was five minutes of the arena ceiling with me saying 'good boy!' and 'little more, papi' a lot. 

I know I thought I was learning collection before, but this is a whole different ball game.  It's going to take forever, but at least we're enjoying the journey this time.

Fluff butt

It's that time again.  Time to clip the pony yet again.  I feel terrible plotting to strip him naked when the temps are about to drop another 15*, but he's been puffing a bit lately so it's got to go.  Despite all of my clipping, he's got more hair than half the horses in the barn that have gone unclipped.

I don't know who hates clip day more, me or Theo.  Actually, I think my boobs hate it the most.  My bra is the most amazing hair trap and even with a rain coat zipped all the way up, torture.  Horse hair garments used to be an act of penance.  I understand that.  Completely and intimately.

Pony-noia

I'm working on finding a clever term for ammy adult horse owner paranoia.  Ammy-noia?  AAHOP?  There's got to be clever term in there somewhere.  I'm currently using Pony-noia.  I have always suffered from Pony-noia and the fact that Theo is both sound (KNOCK ON WOOD) and lazy as all hell seems to bring it out in me.

I also think he reads this blog.

Doodling during work meetings for the win

Vet visits don't appear to be on his agenda.  I went out to get him yesterday and he gave a big ol' head toss before trotting up the field to greet me.  Uphill, uneven ground, totally even and happy to do it.  Well okay then.  Put his spiffy new western saddle on and took him to the indoor for some work and to have his saddle fit checked.

He was downright lofty at some points.  Cantered without giving me a lot of havoc, still a bit resistant to those left hand circles but it was more of a 'ugh, mom, this is hard, can't I do a bigger circle?' then anything.  He really seems to like his new saddle, he moved very nicely in it.  No resistance, no tension in his back.  I'm losing my stirrups every time I turn around, but that seems to be a fenders thing.  They're pre-turned, but pre-turned for someone with normal length legs.  I shortened them up and boom, not broken in the right way for my little legs.  I'm supposed to use a broom to turn the fenders while my saddle is on a saddle rack overnight to speed up the break in process.

I also can't sit the canter in a western saddle right now. The western trainer thought it was freaking hilarious.  She's watched me ride for a year and I usually look very competent.  Some would even say advanced.  Suddenly I could not sit the canter to save my life.  The saddle is trying to suck me down into the 'pocket' where I'm supposed to be, but I'm fighting it because . . . I'm a spaz?  I dunno, but it results in some rather fantastically bad cantering.  She coached me into it, but I felt like I was laying back in a recliner.  So.  Freaking.  Weird.  Sure, a western pleasure lope I've done, but Theo's fairly active canter?  It's a bit different.

But it's so pretty.  And comfy.

The western trainer hopped on for a bit to take a feel of the saddle.  She really likes it and thinks it fits him well.  We had a disappearing saddle pad problem, but it was a cheapie pad from Tractor Supply I picked up because . . . well, there's no western tack shops in southern NH.  By halfway through the ride, I had to hop off and readjust.  Part of it was my cinch was to loose.  I tend to ride with my girth on the loose side, but that's not a good idea with a cinch and a 3/4" pad, I'm finding out.  I'm also playing with the rigging.  There's three ways to do the rigging (how the girth attaches) and I'm experimenting to see what papi likes best.  The front ring seems too far forward and pulls the shoulders down on him.  The back ring seems pretty far back on him.  I think I'm going to go for inbetween.  7/8?  I have no idea, I am so lost.

Western trainer is dropping off a thick wool pad for me to try out.  The one from Tractor Supply has that fake fleece on the bottom and is very slippery.  I know slipping pads is a sign of saddle fit issues, but a thicker pad should handle it.  Western saddles don't have flocking, so my only option is to take the best fitting tree I can find and then customize the padding, aka the saddle pad.  I've still got some time on my demo if it turns out to be a problem, but right now, I think it's a winner.

And when western trainer hopped on my horse, no spurs, no whip, and put him to work?  Mi papi shrugged and went to work.  Walk, trot, canter with a connection and a halt that she thoroughly approved of.  Even showed off his excellent turn on the forehand.  Turn on the haunches?  Eh, sloppy, but he did offer with minimal fussing.  She really enjoyed him and thought he was unusually well broke for an English horse.  She thinks western dressage will suit him, since he'll be rewarded for his generally laid back attitude.  I'm hoping that going into the ring with the goal of chill as opposed to trying to make him electric will solve some of our spooking and bronc-ing issues.

I was very proud watching him go for someone that's never ridden him before and has a very different background.  And he looked very sound and even and happy.  So I'm going to tell my Pony-noia to chill for a bit.  Instead of telling myself that his stifles are blown and he's going to be retired, I'm adding some SmartMuscle Recovery to his supplements to help him recover from work and writing up a schedule to gradually build his canter back up.  Clearly pony does not want injections.

Let's make a deal

I'm a slow learner.  Repetition helps with that.

Theo was just awesome today.  Awesome-sauce kind of awesome.  Apparently a return to lateral work was what his left lead canter needed because it was much improved.  We started out with some halt walk transitions, getting him to move off a light aid.  Then we did some leg yields off of quarter line, really focusing on him staying balanced.  We had a stubborn moment in the outdoor because mi papi clearly doesn't have to listen to the leg or go forward in the outdoor, but once we pushed through that, we had lovely, very soft work in both directions including that left lead canter.  I'm suspicious his left hip (the stronger one, damn it) was tight and he needed to stretch it out.

Then we went on a trail ride.  A walking on the buckle trail ride.  We did have to spook at the new construction zone, but he touched the big Bobcat attachment with only a little shaking in terror.  Most of our hack went exactly like this.

So why is it suddenly so good?  Why am I not icing my shoulder or crying or panicking?  Partially he's done being dumb for fall.  Partially we've pushed through the wall on the whole flex thing and it's no longer a big deal to him or something he wants to fight me on (at least most of the time).  Partially I'm back out there on a regular schedule, getting him back in his routine with the exercise and attention he demands.

But mostly it's because I decided that this hobby is too expensive and dangerous for it to suck.

I fell into the old trap of forcing him to submit.  I don't like that part of me.  I didn't even recognize that it was happening until I looked back.  I was so frustrated that I couldn't MAKE him behave the way I wanted, the way that was expected of me.

All blinged out and nowhere to go

So, simple rule.

If my shoulders hurt, stop doing whatever the hell we're doing, walk on a long rein, and figure out what the hell has gone wrong (unless we're going cross country, then all bets are off).  In exchange, mi papi doesn't try to kill me.

Let's start with that and see if that's what I need.  The nice part about having a hurt shoulder is that it will make a great barometer.

Two steps forward . . .

One step back.

Not surprisingly, considering someone's sudden behavioral issues and distraction due to being a schoolmaster, we had a setback for our Mary lesson on Friday.  After three lessons were we showed marked improvement, we had a lesson where it was 'what happened?'.  Mi papi was not having it with this idea of stretch down and go forward at the same time.  Just not having it.  It was the exact same stuck feeling I'd been having since he started having his August blow up.  He wasn't going to give and stretch, so you could just go pound sand.

Poor Mary.  She had to get up and chase us with the lunge whip for most of our lesson.  As she put it, it's all I can do to manage the neck right now, someone else has to manage the butt.  Theo had locked me out again.  Not as bad as our first lesson, but not nearly the nice connection we had in our third lesson.  We've had a relapse while trying to find the forward.  It was all we could do to get to the point where we could trot and canter in a stretch in both directions.  My shoulders were absolutely killing me and my left hand was throbbing so much.

Oh, right, I took a massive chunk out of my knuckle on my left hand while cleaning my trailer.  Just my luck.  I was getting some sawdust off the ramp while it was up and managed to bash against the window frame in a perfect way.  Blood.  Everywhere.  I wrapped it up, asked a nurse friend, and was told it wasn't a candidate for stitches.  Elevate, pressure, ice, carry on.  I wore a glove on that hand to make sure the bandaid stayed put.  I looked like Michael Jackson.

So our lesson was brief but brutal.  I got a firm comment on my fitness.  It's fair, I'm only riding three times a week right now.  It won't do.  It's hard to get us both fit at the same time.  I need to ride more, be more fit.  Her working student could have mi papi bouncing along like a firecracker, but she rides seven horses a day.  I remember being that fit.  It was a long time ago.

So we've been ordered back to downtown and to find someone that will chase us with a lunge whip.  It really is the best way to get him popping along as opposed to trying to pop me off.  I didn't find any volunteers last time, now it's a number one priority.  I'm sure I can find someone if I try hard enough.  Who would think it would be hard to find someone to chase me around with a whip?  You'd think I'd have a line!  But yeah, we need to find someone to chase us because holy crap he's powerful once he's done being resistant.  Mary managed to shove us through the wall and get us clicking again.  My goodness he's got a lot to offer once he's going.  Both shoulders were aching, my legs were shaking, my hand throbbing, no damn oxygen, but we got him to stretch to the dirt and chew while cantering.  That woman does not give up.

It's going to be an interesting couple of months.  Mary is traveling at the end of September, so I'm going to do two more lessons in a row.  Yikes.  And then in the beginning of October when both his leaser and I are traveling, I'm dropping him off with Mary for some boot camp.  He's going to get a week or two of 'love' from the working students under Mary's supervision rather than sitting in his field or teaching beginners.  It'll be good for him!  And then Mary can teach me what else I'm doing wrong after Theo's been worked properly for a couple weeks.  Sure, he may eat her barn and try to kill her employees, but I did warn her.  It's ethical to warn her that my horse was pretty dramatic in his dark past and might lose his shit with zero warning.

Today we trail ride.  We've been super intense lately, I want to make sure we keep things positive.  We're coming out the other side of the temper tantrum, I need to make sure he's well rewarded for his return to work.

Push

I knew I was jinxing myself, posting about how my horse is so good with the trailer and how well it's been going.  I got up on Friday to absolute downpour.  The forecast was for the rain and storms to continue all day and into the night.  Local flood advisories were going up.  But my lesson was already scheduled and I'd already taken the afternoon off from work.  Hell or high water (literally), I was going to my lesson.

I budgeted a lot of extra time since I figured the drive would be slow.  I arrived at the barn and tried to back into the paved parking lot.  Nope, not going to happen when it's raining so hard that my back up camera and mirrors are borderline useless.  It's an angle going down hill over uneven terrain, the trailer just was not going straight and I didn't want to hit the rock wall.  I gave up and went to my usual turn around spot.  I didn't want to turn my truck around in a pasture in the pouring rain, so I tried to turn around by backing out.

I'll just skip to the part where I got myself so tangled up that I ended up between two paddocks with no wiggle room and a horse laughing at me.  About this point, I realized that I am really not that good with the trailer yet, especially when all of my mirrors are useless.  I extricated myself enough to point my hood at the Ritz, opened the gate, apologized to Trainer A, and turned around in the Ritz like the rookie driver I am.  With four wheel drive the truck had no problem with it and fortunately left only one small mark.

I got all of my junk moved to my trailer without getting it too drenched.  I pulled in my rather wet horse, cleaned him up as best I could, and let the summer campers rub his ears while I put on his shipping boots.  I tried to wait for a break in the rain, but it just kept coming down harder.  I finally gave up, grabbed my horse, and headed down to my trailer.  Important note here:  I couldn't find a chain shank anywhere, so I went with a regular lead.  And his regular halter.

I dropped the ramp, said 'Up-up!', and walked him up.  He got his front feet on the ramp, stopped and backed up.  Huh.  He does that sometimes.  I shrugged, turned, and started over.  Nope.  He suddenly decided that he does not know anything about loading into a trailer.

I did figure out that it was the absolutely torrential rain on the roof of the trailer.  It sounded like a freight train in there and papi wanted no part of that.  But I had a lesson to go to, so we spent about fifteen minutes getting his butt on that trailer.  I eventually got some help so they could grab the butt bar (and lend me a chain shank).  I was ten minutes behind schedule, absolutely drenched, and my horse was throwing a temper tantrum in his trailer.  Great.

I hit the road, dropping down as far as 35mph in a 65 zone when the rain was just unbelievable.  And all the cars around me were doing the same, so I know it's not just me.  I managed to still make it to the lesson with 20 minutes to tack up.  Mary is really sweet and let me park my wet, upset horse in the aisle to tack up.

After all of that drama, I was not expecting much from my lesson.  And Theo has been rather studish this week.  I think the mares are cycling and I looked back at my August entries for the past two years.  He always acts up this time of year.  It's little things, like being a bit too quick with those front feet and looking to bite when we'd mostly stopped that behavior.  He didn't want to focus and was giving me little temper tantrums while I walked and warmed up for Mary.

In the end, we had another good lesson.  Once he stretched and started working, it was okay.  It wasn't his best, but as Mary said, she doesn't want to see him at his best.  She can help more if he's at his worst. And as Theo's worst is being distracted and some head shakes, I think Mary is starting to actually like him.  She was very happy with our work on stretching and the much more honest, even connection.  She tested us with some leg yields and while we've got work to do, he can now leg yield neatly without bracing through his neck and throwing his head up.

Our new focus is going to be the push.  He doesn't have enough thrust right now.  His neck is now lovely, the connection is an actual thing, so now we're putting all attention on the hind end.  A lovely connection is worthless if there's no energy coming forward.  She described him as having this big gap in the middle and the energy isn't cycling from the hind to the bridle.  It has to cycle or nothing works right.  His trot is currently his natural gait, the one he chooses.  It's not a working trot.  He needs more push and not because I'm begging him.

First exercise was a lengthen canter right into a 10m canter circle.  Papi did not like that much.  The reasoning was that he doesn't have enough oomph to do a 10m canter circle right now unless he comes in with some extra power.  Getting him to come back without breaking to trot is doubly hard when he's in a bad mood and wants to suck behind my leg and stomp his feet.

Mary nodded, got up, and picked up a lunge whip.  Wuh oh.  20m circle, trot - canter - trot, with a little outside influence to get him in front of my leg without me begging for it.  She wanted me to feel the correct transition with no hop or head pop.  I have to say, the powerful, correct transition?  That's something worth working for.  It felt awesome, and frankly, I think Theo enjoyed it himself.  Once he was actually up in front of my leg, we went large.  Mary would get behind him in the corner and help drive him forward into a lengthen trot.  And we never came back down.  We just added and added, pushing him to really find what he can do.

By the end, he was over tracking by about half a hoof print.  Mary's sure he's got a medium in him which by her definition is overtracking by a lot (it looked like a foot, she put her hands up about that far apart), he just has to find it.  He was puffing hard after that trot work.  I can't remember the last time I felt him stretch and push like that and certainly not down a whole long side.  I may have never felt it before.  I can't do it on my own currently, he just says no.  So we have been assigned fitness for our homework.  Yes, work on the connection and softness and transitions, but mostly go forward.  Not our current forward.  More forward.  Still more forward.  Take him out for a gallop, do hill work, jump, raised trot poles.  Anything that gets him forward and using his hind end.  He's too weak right now, he needs to be stronger and his cardio needs to be better.

Well, gee, that I can do.  That I know.  And I'm sure Trainer A will be more than delighted to chase us with a lunge whip to assist with our trot sets.  Gallops and hill work and gymnastics are a go!

I told her about our schooling show and getting an 8 on a stretchy circle.  She said 'See?  Stick with me, kid, I'll get you through this'.  She also reiterated that I'm not to show First right now.  When I go back to First, she wants us completely confirmed in the bridle, in the impulsion, and in the movements.  I will be going back into the ring to win, not to get a 60%.  Which is kind of a new world for me.  Me?  And Theo?  Winning at shows in New England?  I'd never considered that.

This is what I needed.  This is so simple for her.  She's been doing this longer than I've been alive and for her, getting a perfectly reasonable horse ready to go First is bread and butter.  Well worth driving through a monsoon.

Downtown

Poor Theo is living in downtown and he's not loving it.

My horse's new theme song

As assigned, we've been working on Theo's reflex of popping his head up when I take up the contact, when he hears something, when someone talks to him, when he sees something, when the wind blows, when the sky is blue, and when he relies on oxygen to fuel his metabolism.

Seriously, now that I'm working on it, this horse just likes to stick his head up in the air.  I gather the reins and his head pops up before he settles into a nice feel.  Can we just not do the pop up bit?  Theo says no, it's required, it's in his contract.  He also says no to stretching down in an honest way, since that's much harder than doing transitions with a head pop.

We got one transition today that was just awesome.  He was trotting perfectly chill with a nice stretch down and I asked for the canter.  No pop, no tension, just a big lift in the shoulders.  It was one transition in twenty, but it's a start.  Working with his head down is requiring him to use new muscles so we're having to take a lot of breaks to avoid massive negativity.  When he starts to get tired, he'll play fun games like twisting his head or curling back behind the vertical or rushing.  That's usually my cue to get a good transition so I can give him a break.

He's not honest in the stretch right now and frankly, we're weathering the temper tantrum part of the cycle.  It's dawning that he must now flex AND stretch at the same time.  Mi papi does not think this is possible or a good idea.  Sure, stretch down, but also flex correctly?  Relax?  Chew?  Nope, nope, and nope.

Bit Butter actually works, btw.  When I use it, he does tend to work the bit more and it's in a positive way.  I'm not sure if it's just that the corners of his mouth are more comfortable or he likes the taste of it on his bit or the texture it creates, but it does have a positive effect on my lock jaw pony.  It's also a fantastic lip balm for me.  I love sharing stuff with my horse.

We're also working on the basic concept that he can't quit working for every little distraction.  A horse he knows walked into the ring and he threw his head up to watch.  We had a discussion about no, you keep working.  I didn't notice his distraction so much when his head was already up there.  Now it's being thrown into laser focus.  Explains why I have trouble getting him to focus while trotting around the outside of the dressage ring.  Error appears to be between reins and saddle.  Hm.

But with lots of pets and rewards, he's coming around.  He hasn't thrown any temper tantrums as grand as the one where we taught him to flex.  I'm being very careful to give him lots of pats when he gets things right so he doesn't get negative.  When he starts to tense, I have to lure him into success and then reward heavily.  Then his ears start flipping around again and his jaw starts moving.  If I forget to pet and give him those verbal rewards?  He starts flipping me the bird damn quick.

Fortunately our show on Sunday is Training 3 and First 1.  Nice, easy tests.  It's mostly about calmly going in the ring and doing the job, not about the test.  Which I think is going to be my grand lesson from this season.  A test for show should be ready for more than survival, because gods know I've got my hands full just showing up.  Half of my brain is completely occupied with managing my partner and his swings between terror and needing a nap.

Expect the Unexpected, indeed.

Living in the now

I blame my lack of employment for my over focus on all things showing related.

Ever have that moment when you read something and all of a sudden your thoughts just kind of pop into place?  It's almost an audible 'thud'.  I'm surprised no one heard me downstairs.

Heather over at The Graduated Equestrian replied to my post on a hunter division with "I'd always rather wish I'd done more than push for too much and miss my chance to go back to smaller stuff."  Holy crap, I hadn't thought of that.  It's a one and done thing.  I can't go for the big division then back down like when I was eventing.  Once I go over 2'6", I can't go back to 2'3" if it turns out my horse wasn't ready.  I have to wait three seasons.  How did I forget about that?

Also, I have a dressage horse.  I don't have a hunter.  I'm not cheating by doing a lower division regardless of what I did over a decade ago.  I'm giving my dressage horse a fighting chance to cope with a world that's radically different than where he usually plays.  I'm giving myself a fighting chance when I haven't worried about the striding of a line in over a decade.  And he doesn't have a flying change.  Let's all be honest, I'd be wasting my money trying to do an eq medal qualifier without a change.  Even Trainer A gave me the 'wtf' blue screen of death look when I said adult eqs.  Why would I do that?

That flying change isn't coming any time soon.  We are currently sweating blood over the simple change through the walk.  It really is a hard movement, I can see why it's something that really defines that jump to Second alongside sitting the trot.  We had a 'come home to Jesus' ride about the canter-walk-canter transition on Saturday.  It was time.  He's been doing that transition all winter.  The muscles are there, he knows how to do it, there's no excuse for being a lazy brat about it anymore.  When I picked him up and said walk and he replied with 'hey, just a couple of trot steps, no biggie', I decided to have the conversation about how that's no longer allowed.  Once he was going nicely and listening, I asked to canter.  Then I halted his magnificent booty at X with extreme prejudice.  If you can halt with a breath at the trot, you can do the same at the canter.  Diving against my hands and dragging me into a sloppy trot is not acceptable.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  When I say whoa, I mean whoa, damn it.  Once I had his attention, we did walk-canter-walk-canter until he was reliably stepping into the walk on both leads.  Goodness, papi, it's not that hard.

I am going to have to accept that I won't have a consistent flying change this summer.  I can't risk ruining his change by throwing a swap on him in a hurry just to have one.  I certainly don't want to deal with an auto change that would wipe out my counter canter.  He's still a dressage specialist first (unless he gets out there and blows the judges away -- *cough*) and we're going into the modified and baby green divisions because this is our fun vacation time stuff.  I'm going to have my hands full when he realizes he's supposed to go in that big ring full of alien hiding spots, I don't need to add height to the equation.

Definitely time to take a breath, check my ego, and sign up for the division we need today, not the division I would have picked twelve years ago with a different horse.

Nekkid

There's one rite of spring that I can't escape:  Theo's last clip.  No horse grows hair like mi papi.  It's ridiculous.  And then he's super attached to it and doesn't shed out quickly.  He still had marks from his clip in June last year.  With the temps hitting 87* today (I still have 6 - 9" of snow melting in my backyard, I give up on this weather), I had to make sure his winter coat was gone.

You know how they say never clip a dirty horse?  There's a reason.  Theo hadn't had a bath since September.  His coat was about two inches long in the places that weren't clipped in his trace clips.  This meant even my most vigorous attempts with the curry comb didn't get to the skin.  There was about a half inch of oil, dirt, and dead skin zone.  I couldn't give him a bath until that massive winter coat came off.  I couldn't get my clippers through his winter coat without a bath.  They gummed up and stop clipping within 30 seconds with the state of his coat.  I had to dunk the blades and clean them out, then try again.

The end result was my gorgeous horse looking like a giant moth attacked him in his sleep.

I was so embarrassed.  Every time his sheet came off, I cringed.  I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture.  Especially his haunches with the bits sticking straight up. Today was a spa day with Trainer A and I doling out baths while temps are hitting 80*.  After his scrub down, I gave him a new clip job.  Much improved!

He looks like a real show horse!

His royal highness

Someone is spending the night in a stall.  And why would the infamous stall chewing rage monster be kept inside when he has his very own field and run in? 

We're under a flood watch as over an inch of rain falls on our leftover snow.  Even with the improved drainage around his run in, it's going under water tonight.  And if Theo doesn't get to lay down and sleep at least a couple of hours each night, he gets very ragey.  He doesn't like to sleep somewhere muddy.  So tonight, Trainer A is letting him wreck a stall so he can sleep somewhere nice and dry.

Yes, my horse is coming in because he's cranky if he doesn't get enough sleep and his run in isn't going to be to his liking.  He's such a spoiled brat.  I had to explain to someone that I need to monitor Theo's sleep to keep his raging tendencies in check and she looked at me like I'd lost my mind.  I sound like one of those owners.  I swear I'm not!  He just needs his specific blanket determined by temperature, wind, and precipitation, his very carefully calculated meals, and to come in if it's going to be too wet for him to get a good night's sleep.

I really am that owner.

Horse? What horse?

Poor papi.  We're having one of those weeks.

Saturday we had a jump lesson with my friend where Juicebox decided he needed to be a ridiculous little appy pony and we traded mounts.  She had a wonderful return to jumping with Theo's steady, straight forward style while I handled the pony that was clearly at his wits end with being told to go slow.  After we worked through the fact that I thought his temper tantrums were cute, not scary,  and would not make me take my leg off, we cantered around and jumped nicely.  It was a lot of fun and a serious change of pace for both of us.  So tiny!  I got ahead of him to one jump because I thought it was time to launch and he had a whole other step to put in.  Trainer A cracked up.  But no real time with papi, I handed him over within five minutes of the start of the lesson when Juicebox started bucking and trying to bolt.

I need a new picture of Juicebox

Sunday I ran a 5k.  I visited to swap his blankets, give him a kiss and a cookie, then send him back out to his field.

Pretty much the situation every day, all winter

Monday is his day with Trainer A.  She worked his canter - walk transition and is happy with his progress.  He knows what we want now, so she can start working on it going canter canter canter walk instead of canter canter canter fall on face walk.  For the record, I'm still firmly in the fall on face phase so I'm glad she's getting some real transitions.

Tuesday we had freezing rain and I couldn't get to the main road.  I texted Trainer A and missed another day with mi papi.

I saw him on Wednesday!  We had a nice lesson working on turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches, and our walk - canter - walk transitions.  After such hit and miss work he was tense in his poll but otherwise a role model of agreeable behavior.  Except when the smoke was coming out of his ears because we made him turn on the forehand while stretching his neck down, but he didn't offer to toss me so that's a good night.

Today?  12" of snow and a snow emergency.  Not going anywhere.

And so it begins

Tomorrow?  Not sure yet.  Depends on the temperature plunge.  If it's single digits, he'll be bumming around for another day.  Can't do much more than walk in that nonsense.  But the boss is out on Friday and my calendar is clear so I may try to sneak out in the afternoon and ride while I've got the chance. 

Because this is my forecast.

Winter is going out with a bang!  Damn it.

Identity complex

Poor Theo.  No one warned him that being bought by an adult amateur would end up like this.  It's a wild whirly gig of random things.  He never knows what's going to happen once the brushing and fawning over him part of the visit is over.  What tack will it be?  Where are we going?  What insane request will she have for me now?

Poor pony.  He's cute when he's quietly contemplating my death.

First I decided I needed to jump without reins or stirrups.  Theo went along with that and had the patience of a saint, as I mentioned in my last post.  After that ride, I figured he'd earned a day off and I took another step toward my winter goal of teaching Theo to go bridleless.

And there's my pretty pink rope halter.  It fit like a charm!  Just a little adjustment under his nose to tighten up the noseband (his face is actually a little bit delicate for an oversize fit) and we were good to go.  That's my PS of Sweden lead rope attached to the halter.  I got it with his show halter and the end is a leather loop to attach the snap.  I undid the loop, pulled off the snap, and relooped it on his rope halter.  Done!  And long enough to be looped around and act as very primitive reins.

It's a good thing Theo and I have worked on neck reining since steering with no bit or proper side pull is a bit tricky.  But with a bit of work, we were trotting and cantering around in a perfectly sane and controlled manner.  We made some students laugh by trying to get through cones set at pony sizes.  Theo's legs were just too long.  Once he had the idea, we were neck reining along like old pros.  He has some western trail horse in his background, I may not be the first person to hop on bareback with a rope halter.  I'll have to get video, my precious dressage horse jogging along in a rope halter.

Before everyone thinks I've quit dressage and will now be a bridleless, natural horsemanship hunter rider, we did the dressage thing, too.

Keeping papi from getting ring sour with all of this variety means that when I get on with a real saddle, my spurs, and some intent, he's more likely to pick up and show off.  He had some energy to burn on Thursday so I threw my tack on him to burn it off in a positive way.  He put on quite a show, stretching and snorting.  As Trainer A put it, he looks good with some extra energy.  Alfalfa is a wonderful thing.  Now to find the balance point between feeling that regularly and not getting unloaded.

So in one week, Theo did two serious dressage schools, two jumping lessons, two goofball rides, and one day off.  He seriously has no idea what we're going to do when I tack him up.  We may be working on his lengthen trot (still sucks) or we may be playing soccer.  He now has three completely different outfits for me to pick from and I can't help but think how fantastic he'd look in western gear.

Identity complex.  I'm giving him one.

Bombproof

Theo and I got our first clinic of 2017 today.  Yay!  We had another round of winter weather, but I have the Behemoth and a couple inches of snow wasn't going to stop me from attending my bomb proofing clinic.

Today was a ground work lesson.  Not a surprise, only a fool takes a group of horses they don't know, in winter, and puts riders on them before throwing random things out.  Today she handed out rope halters and we worked on respect and attention.

It was really weird seeing my dressage pony in a rope halter.  I've used them before, but not with him.  I brought him down in a bridle since I couldn't find my chain shank, but rope halter worked better for the plan of the day.  And it was interesting.  The trainer is a Montana born and bred trainer that uses national horsemanship.  She's very big on manners on the ground.  Her first impression of Theo was me trying to pry my dressage whip out of his mouth.  Hahahahaha, I swear he's not a rude spoiled brat with no respect.  Honestly!

We worked on disengaging the hind legs.  The good news was that I've done this with Theo a million times and he was happy to turn like a top without me even touching him.  Then we started lunging a bit, making him change direction back and forth on the circle.  Poor papi, he was so confused by the change in direction.  As a school horse lunge pony, never changing directions on the lunge is a rule.  But once he figured it out, he was a gold star student.  The trainer had little to say about him since he just went to work, energy levels chill and chewing away.  He's very in tune with me and once he knew the game, he'd change direction off of a hand gesture.

As for the actual bomb proofing?  Theo was a riot.  He put everything in his mouth.  Walk over the tarp?  Grab it on the way over.  Walk over grain bags?  Pick it up and carry it back to mom.  Investigate a roping steer?  Try to take a chunk out of the wood frame.  He just didn't care, and since he wasn't getting a reward for just investigating (old hat for him), he decided to offer something more.  I can't argue with his courage and brains when he decides that the next step after touching the scary thing is to pick it up and bring it back.

Soccer ball?  Nothing.  Banging corrugated metal?  Nothing.  A little bit of a look since it was a strange sound, but he immediately reached out to check them out.  Theo already appeared to be respectful and bombproof, even standing ground tied while I swapped out blankets in the 17* weather.

But funny thing about experienced trainers.  They know how to spot a weakness.  I startled at the corrugated metal sound, so Theo eyed it.  The trainer noticed.  So at the end, while talking about the different horses, she made an example of Theo.  We were done, Theo was dozing, I wasn't paying much attention.  She went behind us, continuing to talk, and then slammed the soccer ball against the wall.

I jumped about five feet and Theo spun around, spooking for the first time in the two hour bombproofing clinic.  It was something she'd done five times while showing the soccer ball to other horses, but when it startled me, the both of us spooked.  Lo and behold, we were the perfect example of a pair where the horse takes confidence from the rider.  The rider gets spooked?  We're toast.

I enjoyed the clinic.  I do a lot of ground work with Theo, but it was the first time I've done a formal clinic on ground work.  It's also the first formal introduction I've had to natural horsemanship.  We did disagree on treats (she doesn't believe in treats at all and, well, we all know my stance), but we agreed to disagree.  Theo is so adapted to my method that she never even noticed him getting a treat.  He got several for being a very good boy in a lesson where the rules were very different.

Next clinic will include under saddle work and I expect her to bring out the big guns, since Theo and I weren't phased by anything we did today.  I think I'll pick up a rope halter for him to lunge in, I liked the way he worked in it.  Most of the time when I'm lunging him, I'm trying to get him to relax and stretch out without my interference.  The rope halter could work for that.  Also will work for my plot to ride him without a bridle.

But I was proud as punch when my horse was the gold star student, the demo, the unflappable.  He yawned and dozed and generally enjoyed a day of something completely different.  A cold, snowy day is a good day to play a totally different game.

Behemoth

Over the holiday break, I took my trusty little Yaris in for it's annual inspection.  I adore my Yaris.  It's the perfect size for me and can hold four bales of hay if I flip the back seat down and use the passenger seat.  It can also fit six teens, two adults, and one gassy dog when offering rides across a horse trial facility.  I call my Yaris AJ, the mighty jelly bean. 

 I've had this car for 10 years and 105K miles with no major repairs and only occasional maintenance needs.  Last year I got a new belt and battery.  That was a big year spending year for AJ.  Something was up with my exhaust (I'm not car savvy) last year, but it was patched and we went on our way.  This time, I knew I needed new tires.  No big deal, I knew that was coming, so we slapped on a new set of tires.  My husband pointed out that my right rear wobbled.  Guess what?  That wheel bearing had gone.  Needed to be replaced right away because that's not something you mess with.

I took the hubby with me to kill time.  We got pizza, shopped for furniture, and wandered the mall catching Pokemon.  I was trying out recliners when my cell rang.  You know it's bad when the mechanic asks if you're sitting down.  I used the power recline function, put my feet up, and braced for impact.

My exhaust manifold had failed.  It needed to be replaced.  OUCH.  AJ, you traitor!!!!  My total bill for tires, realignment, wheel bearing, and manifold hit $2K!!!  That's the size of a vet bill for lameness!!

So I thought about my balance, my savings, and my travel schedule.  I had the wheel bearing done (and the oil change, though I really don't think AJ deserved a spa day after that betrayal).  The manifold needed to be ordered, so I took my little jelly bean home to wait.  I leave for Vegas on Tuesday (omg, I should start planning for that), so my car will just sit until I get back.  That gives me another pay day to help absorb the costs.  So much for my head start on my show fund.

This also means that I can't legally drive my car this week.  It failed a state inspection for safety reasons.  Did you know that a failed exhaust manifold results in exhaust going into the passenger compartment?  Neither did I!  Might explain some of my road rage.  So how do I get to the barn?

Behold, the behemoth.

This is the truck my hubby bought over the summer to be our tow vehicle.  He uses it to haul equipment and a big, flat trailer.  He loves it.  His trailer is loaded up with all sorts of heavy equipment and he can still zip along on the highway like it's nothing.  It's set up to tow a gooseneck, so I'm starting to shop for my very own trailer.  At least I was before AJ turned on me.  Right now, this is my commuting vehicle.  The hubby let me use his Scion for a long drive yesterday, but he kind of needs his car so my only option to get to the barn is the behemoth.  It's a 3/4 ton crew cab monster.  I feel like I'm climbing Mount Everest to get into the thing.  The hood goes on forever and I feel like I have to stretch to see over the dash.

I'm going from a two door sub compact to a 3/4 ton truck.  I might as well be driving a tank.  I'm not very good at parking to begin with.  But on the flip side, I'll get in some practice with the truck before I start learning how to haul a trailer.  I've been practicing with the tractor and trailer I use to haul food and water out to the poultry at home.  I'm trying to learn how to back up with something approaching accuracy.

Hubby has video from our security cameras of me getting stuck on a hill and then jack knifing with my little tractor and trailer.  No, I will not be sharing.

Cross your fingers, blogosphere.  This afternoon, I take the behemoth on my maiden voyage to the barn for my lesson.  Do they make phone books anymore?  I may need some help seeing over the dash.  Oh, and it's raining.  FML.

The positive reinforcement pony

Unlike the dog training world, positive reinforcement isn't seen as much with horses.  Pats on the neck and verbal rewards are pretty much it and it's haphazard, forgotten in the heat of the moment when working on a concept.  Bits, spurs, and crops are mainstream, but giving your horse a cookie while training under saddle is seen as weird.  Leaping off of my horse and loosening his girth to mark a break through?  What on earth am I doing?  I have a lot of experts that think I'm ruining my horse when they see me whip out cookies in the midst of a training session.  You're spoiling him!  Your horse is going to get rude and nippy!  He won't work for you if you don't have a treat for him!  He won't respect you!

Ladies, gentlemen, and those that choose to not use those labels, I am here to tell you what it is actually like to have a horse that is a positive reinforcement pony.

First, some definitions:
Positive reinforcement = adding something positive as a reward, like a cookie
Negative reinforcement = taking away something negative as a reward, like releasing pressure on the bit, but this can also happen when a horse learns to evade something (and we wonder why horses learn to stop, its very rewarding to avoid the effort if the effort is seen as a negative)

Positive punishment = adding something negative as a punishment, such as a smack with a crop
Negative punishment = taking away something positive as a punishment, such as me turning away when Theo's being pushy

Your horse will get rude and pushy!

No more than any other horse.  Any horse can learn to be rude and pushy when they think a treat is coming.  Having the process of earning and receiving a cookie being formalized can actually help with pushy behavior.  Theo is not allowed to push for a treat.  He begs when he thinks there is a treat coming and he's not working (whickers, pricks his ears, arches his neck, acts cute), but he is not allowed to try to take one unless it's offered.  He is not allowed to reach for a hand that's not offered or step into a person's space.  It's important that he not get pushy or nippy.  Trainer A is very appreciative.  At the end of a lesson, she usually shares an apple or Kind bar with him.  He will arch his neck and beg, but he won't touch her, crowd her, or try to take something from her unless it's deliberately offered.  It keeps fingers and toes safe.  Theo is more polite with treats than many horses I've met because he's been taught how he has to behave in order to get one.

He won't work if you don't have a treat!

First, I always have a treat.  Always.  I keep them in my pocket at shows, when trailering, when I bring him in from the field.  No matter what situation, there is a cookie in my pocket.  And all of my breeches have pockets.  It's just how I do things.  It helps with a lot of situations, even ones with horses that aren't mine.  More than once I've had someone ask me for a cookie while loading a horse in a trailer or handling a situation like clipping.  I always have something in my pocket.  Theo assumes that I have a a cookie at all times.  It's been very helpful at shows, since he assumes he could get a reward at any time.  Lots of horses get 'ring smart' and realize they won't get disciplined in front of the judge.  I sure don't want to use my whip while in competition.  It's not a good impression for the judge.  But judges, in my experience, think handing a treat to your horse is cute or totally not worth noting.  He's not 'ring smart' because I have rewarded him in the ring at competitions.  He associates the judge's booth with cookies because I always have them just in case he does something amazing like go past without broncing. 

Second, he works regardless of me handing him a cookie.  He's on a random reward schedule, so if he doesn't get one, he assumes he needs to do more to get his cookie.  He doesn't have xray vision, he doesn't know if a treat is in my pocket.  He assumes I have one available, and if he does something good, he'll get a reward.  Random reward schedule is very important for this.  It keeps him trying even if he doesn't get a cookie immediately for any given action.  There's a very specific verbal marker that represents a cookie being delivered.  So long as I don't use that verbal marker when I don't actually have a reward, he will work with pets and cooing until it's time for his treat.  Pets and cooing serve as information for him, he's on the right track.  At the end of a string of correctly executed maneuvers, he'll get a treat.  He's just not sure where the end of that string of maneuvers is.

He's working for the cookie, not you!

One, check your ego at the door.  Who cares?  Horses need more of a reward than some mythical bond with a strange, bipedal omnivore that doesn't speak their language and controls every part of their lives.  Your horse is probably not as in love with you as you think.  Your approval is not what he lies awake at night and wishes for.  Two, I'm the one providing the cookie.  He's begging me, not the cookie.  It's a solid, concrete reward.  Petting and verbal rewards are still a huge part of working with him.  I coo to him, talk to him, scratch along his crest, and give him quick pats with a release all the time.  I use cookies to very specifically mark a behavior when I'm developing it or reward him for overall effort.

I have a degree in psychology.  I taught rats to do a lot of things using nothing but operant conditioning as part of my college work.  I have a fair bit of training for this skill between dog training and rat work.  Timing is everything.  When I first introduce something difficult to Theo, I'll shape his behavior.  He gives me an honest try, I mark the behavior with a specific word ('good boy'), followed by a cookie.  I do this a couple times to get him rolling.  Then I expect more from him to get the same reward.  For shoulder in, he got marked for the first offer of shoulder fore to start.  Then I asked for more angle before I'd give him a reward.  Then I weaned him off of the reward, asking for several reps to get a reward.  Now it's old hat and he just does the movement.  He'll get a reward if he really blows my socks off, like doing it at the canter, but for the most part he understands and gives me the behavior without needing a cookie.  He gets a pat on the neck, a verbal reward, and we keep working.

He won't respect you!

Make no mistake, Theo respects me.  Just because I formally mark and reward behaviors doesn't mean that's the only thing I use.  He's a thousand pound animal.  He tries to push me or bite me, I carry a dressage whip for a reason.  However, because of his personality, after he's been sharply corrected, I will give him a chance to earn a reward very quickly.  He gets rude during a hand walk.  I snap the chain, back him up, and give him a verbal correction.  Then I turn, act like nothing happened, and find something to play the 'touch it' game.  Lesson learned, but I also end the fight.  My horse respects me.  I'm going to guess this myth comes from the natural horsemanship world.  Yes, I've seen a lot of horses with Parelli levels that have no respect for humans.  This isn't natural horsemanship.  It's conditioning, pure and simple.

There's a lot more myths and variations, including concerns about what I'm doing to my bits and bridles.  But these are the ones I hear the most.

It's proven that positive reinforcement is more effective than positive punishment when learning.  Positive punishment is associated with increased stress in animals (and people).  If I have an option to use a technique that will lower stress, increase motivation, and increase the likelihood of the behavior being offered, I'll take it.

I don't recommend every single horse and rider pair jump into positive reinforcement with both feet.  It takes some study for the rider to really get it.  It takes careful timing and practice.  It also takes practice to manage the cookies, especially with gloves.  You have to consider your wardrobe in terms of pocket space.  My poor washer and dryer have processed a lot of forgotten horse cookies.  I don't use a treat pouch since that gives him something to visually cue on for the presence of cookies.  Cookies should be a source of mystery, magically appearing in the rider's hand from hammerspace or some other dimension.

Some horses get obsessed with the reward.  Same as dogs, some can't work with something that they want so badly.  It becomes a distraction rather than a help.  But I think positive reinforcement has a place with horses and is often overlooked or dismissed when it should be a common tool in the toolbox.  Theo is highly food motivated and used to have a terrible work ethic.  Really, what was in it for him?  He got kicked either way and work was hard.  He hated work.  Adding something he loved improved his opinion.  He now associates work with rewards to be earned, rewards that are more motivating than the random pets of someone that's also making him do the nonsense.  I could have tried kicking him more, getting bigger spurs, used the whip, any number of negative reinforcements, but we're all happier with the positive reinforcements. 

In the average ride, Theo gets about three to five rewards.  Despite the jokes, I'm not a pez dispenser.  The number sky rockets when we're adding something new that needs heavy reinforcement (turn on the haunches for the first couple weeks, teaching him 'touch it', right now it's his canter to walk transition and flying changes), but he typically gets one when I mount (he never moves a foot, even when I'm mounting on trails or at hunter paces), one after warm up, one after his hard work is done, and one when I dismount.  Two of those cookies are to reinforce his behavior when I'm mounting and dismounting.  It has saved my bacon several times that he stands completely still for both maneuvers no matter where we are, waiting for his cookie.  When we're jumping, he'll get one when he's completed a full course or when he's on break between sets with the grid. 

Dog training manuals give excellent advice on positive reinforcement, for anyone that wants to consider adding a couple of sugar cubes into their regime.  Horses, as a rule, I don't consider to be candidates for strictly positive reinforcement training because they're so big and sometimes, just sometimes, I need immediate obedience.  Like when standing on my foot.  Horses also do an awful lot of communicating in the herd with shoving and biting.  But the equestrian culture leans too far toward negative reinforcement.  I think horses need a reward to work toward, something more concrete than our approval.  The most powerful reward I have is to vault out of the saddle and loosen the girth.  That should say something in regards to how horses view their work.

I do see dressage riders presenting their horses with a sugar cube at the end of a test and it makes me feel less odd.  Maybe we'll find a spot for equestrian culture that's not so dependent on negative reinforcement or positive punishment.  I can hope so.  Some horses just need a bit more positive motivation than others.

Vacation life

Since I still have a corporate job, I'm still on holiday break.  Today is my last official day of Christmas break, but with everyone gone, my productivity isn't going to be much over the next three days.  Then another three day weekend.  I've been at the barn for hours every day and it's been amazing.  My Fitbit has been impressed with my step counts.  I was planning on cutting out early and riding all week, but we have a nor'easter blowing in for Thursday.  Yuck.

I did get a treasure under the Christmas tree worth sharing.  The hubby is a genius and found these on Amazon after seeing a show bow on my wishlist from Smartpak.  Not that I really wanted a show bow, but Trainer A insists that I have one for formal occasions.  But look at these beauties!

I will be the matchiest match dressage rider in my region this summer.  Black and grey for formal days, navy for the navy coat I've promised myself, and pink to go with my pink browband.  Just don't tell Trainer A.  I don't think her heart can take it.  This is only encouraging me to look at different color coats.  Hubby has finally broken me of my resistance to wearing a show bow.  I want a brown coat so badly.

As for Theo, got a hair cut for Christmas.

For those keeping count, this is his fourth for the winter and his fifth overall for 2016.  But it did the job and his respiration has been much better.  Today we got up to 50* and I was still able to ride him without issue, so problem solved.  And here I was starting to freak out and think he had COPD and I'd have to retire him because of heaves and --

Yeah, horse ownership can make the most sane person obsessive and whacky.  I forget that the areas I clipped are shaggier than many horses' winter coats.  He was simply too warm and uncomfortable.  He's feeling quite frisky now with his half naked bod.

I also gave him a day with no dressage and just jumps.

He approved.   A total gentleman on the cross ties after a day of just going forward and jumping.

In honor of the h/j shows showing up on our calendar and after a day of jumping courses, I've decided it's time to install his flying change.  Having only a simple change on course is starting to irritate me.  He's plenty broke enough and strong enough to do a change while on course. 

Due to his training and jumping mileage, I decided the best route was to build off of the changes of lead over fences we've been doing as a cheat to hide the fact he can't do a flying.  As Trainer A puts it, a jump is just an extension of a canter stride.  Today I had ground poles set on the diagonals across the arena.  We canter over ground poles all the time, it's pretty nonchalant.  We did it a couple times so he was just chilling over them.  We got a nice forward canter, I approached the pole, rebalanced, changed the bend, asked for the change, and boom, flying change over the pole. 

I had him do it in both directions to make sure it wasn't a fluke.  Sure enough he swapped out in both directions.  We had some baby bobbles, he botched the footwork (break in the rhythm, the change was clean) on one and wasn't clean on one, but fixed it within two strides so not bad for a baby change.  His ears were flipping back and forth, figuring out what on earth I wanted.  It's like he had to figure out how to manage his feet when he didn't have the hang time that comes with a 2'6" fence to help him out.

He's cute when he's a bit confused.  A couple cookies and big pats made sure he understood that's what I want.  He didn't buck or barge off like a lot of babies will do, so I was very pleased.  Hopefully we'll be able to get a consistent change on him this winter so I don't have to do simple changes when I jump any more.  He'll be in boot camp with Trainer A while I'm in Vegas for a work trip, she can really lock them in for me.

I love vacation life.  I can revel in my pony time, ride while the sun is up, and not have to rush anything.  He's gleaming, I've done body work on his sore muscles, his tail is completely brushed out, all of his stuff has been cleaned, it's amazing.  Going back to reality is going to suck.

Though Theo may not miss me.