Be the side reins

Mom's visiting for two weeks, so I've been a bad blogger and rider. Willow got four days off in a row this week. I'm sure she was devastated.

Saturday's ride was not bad considering Willow's extended vacation. I did decide that once again I've not got her enough on the outside rein, and that's allowing her to start some small arguments with me that keep me distracted from getting her to step through to the bit with her inside hind. ("She needs to bend in spite of the outside rein," is the Wolfgang advice I'm hearing in my head lately.)

So yesterday my goal was to be the side reins, especially with the outside rein. I stayed playful and cajoling with my inside rein and used it and my inside leg to get the bend in spite of an extremely steady outside rein. At the same time, I concentrated on making sure the whoa and the go were available to me at all times. Willow tried for awhile to convince me she couldn't do all of that at once, but I stopped letting her pick those fights. If the go went away, I booted her forward with both legs and whip. If the whoa went away I used voice and many less-than-ideal half halts to get her attention. Everything came together pretty quickly, and at the end of the ride I got a fantastic sitting trot, and the canter departs were coming within the frame instead of the usual leap forward.

My next-door-neighbors to the south have always had a "hedge" bordering our two properties that probably could be designated a national forest. It consisted of a jumble of trees and various shrubs, plus some gargantuan blackberry bushes, and was perhaps twenty feet wide and twelve feet tall. Two days ago, they hired some fellows to cut it all down. It has taken two days so far and they're still not done. After the first day, I had a funny dream that they had finished cutting everything down and it turned out there was a whole house underneath. Well, maybe I'm a little psychic, because it did turn out there was something unexpected under there:

Videographer a railing this time

Here's another video of Willow, this one from Wednesday night. It's still not very clear, but I think we're a little less itty bitty. It was a cold night, and she'd had two days off, so she was somewhat tense from time to time. Overall, though, her frame is much improved.

There's one lengthening on here that makes my heart glad, and the leg yields at the end are big and rhythmic. You can see that she's a little tense throughout the canter work, but at times she was very much on my seat in canter.

Still gotta work on throughness, but then, who doesn't?

For all of you who have been waiting with bated breath for an update on my carport project, you're in luck! I worked all day on Sunday. As carports go, I think mine is now quite beautiful.

Before:

After:

I realized as I was uploading the pictures that Sam the dog is standing in the exact same place in both, at the top of the staircase, peering out between the handrails. Don't worry, he did move about during the 8-hour project.

TGIF

Two weeks ago I had a nasty cold. Then, three days ago, I endured a (thankfully brief) bout of stomach flu. I am dog tired tonight. But I didn't let that keep me from the barn!

Willow's getting used to working in a shorter, higher frame (thank you, Leslie!) so tonight I started throwing in some first- and second-level stuff just to see how she reacted. It went quite well. The trot leg yields were super, as were shoulder-in and travers in trot. The best part, though, was some simply stupendous trot extensions. I don't know how I'm ever going to be able sit them. I'll worry about that later. Tonight I just said, "Whee!"

Towards the end of the ride I worked on getting Willow to really let go of the bit and be supple through the neck and poll even on the shorter rein. She's starting to get the hang of it. She's always such a good girl, even when I change everything up on her.

Tomorrow I'm going to buy utility shelving for my carport. It's kind of sad how excited I am about this project.

Why, yes . . .

My videographer was a fencepost.

Sorry. I was hoping to get a clear view of Willow's new, improved frame, but we are far and wee in this video. If you blow it up to full-screen-size, it's slightly better.

I think I can make out that Willow's neck is up and rounded, and she is less on her forehand. She felt really good today, and there was very little left-side crookedness.

I'll try to get someone to shoot a better video soon.

The great outdoors, part deux

The construction on the outdoor arena has been done for several weeks, but one thing or another has kept me from using it. Today Willow and I finally schooled in it. To get there, you follow a little path through a woody area. It's very secluded from the rest of the property. Willow had the snorties at first, so I had hand-walked her around the arena a few times until she settled. Then I mounted up, and off we went.

Willow sure does love to work outside. Her gaits were big and bouncy. We're still working our up-and-out-with-the-inside-rein exercises, and she felt great. My web reins have stops, and we're now easily working at a stop I was beginning to think we'd never get to! And I've been sneaking past it, too. To the right, she felt awesome, especially the canter. Y'all will be happy to hear we executed several balanced ten-meter canter circles to the right!

Working on the shorter reins to the left has exposed a lack of straightness on that rein. Once upon a time, I would have found that frustrating, but nowadays I'm always happy to discover the truth, so to speak. What's been happening is Willow doesn't want to step far under herself with the left hind (too hard!), so she tries to either go on the circle in travers, or else she swings her haunches wildly outside and tries to leg yield out of the circle, or else she canters.

After it happened the first few times, I had to stop and think about what was going on. I was pretty sure she was just trying to get out of something that felt hard for her. So, first of all, I kept very aware of how long I was working her on the left, and made sure to give her plenty of breaks. When she'd swing her haunches inside or outside in trot, I'd go to low and even on both reins and push her forward on a twenty-meter circle with almost no bend. If she cantered, I'd push her very forward in canter. I think I'm on the right track with these fixes, because the crookedness is cropping up less and less. Today in the outdoor she only tried her left-side shenanigans twice.

A big benefit to working in the outdoor is the awesome new footing. It's a sand mix, and it does make them work. I could hear Willow puffing more than once.

When we finished, I rinsed her off (for the last time this year? maybe), banged her tail, and went to town on her overgrown mane. I took it down to about three inches, and it looks very nice.

On my way home, I stopped by a friend's acreage. She's out of town for two weeks, and she told me to harvest her vegetable garden as much as I wanted. I think I picked thirty or forty pounds of tomatoes today. I blanched and froze seven quarts, and will take the rest to work to share.