Tag Archives: Ranger

Ranger Recap: Riding through it

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Thursday evening continue to be my Ranger time. Pretty much the highlight of the week. However, before I get to that, the REAL highlight of the week might be this gem I found at work.

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Books, glorious books

 

As a librarian doing collection review, we’re currently trying to weed the collection (it’s a 5 year project that involved 3 million books…). Anyway my subject areas are health sciences and agriculture. Fine. But, somehow under health sciences I also have sports and recreation? Somehow it relates to athletic training which lives in the college of health science to which I am the library liaison (yay academia). Anyway, while working on that section yesterday, I found a book called the Big Red Machine. Instead of just looking at circulation stats, I actually opened it up to see if it was about Russia or Secretariat (answer: Soviets). But, this book is a GEM. img_5277

Anyway, I have NOT weeded it from the collection and will be reading it.

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Seriously, this book is gold. 

More later.

the caption is priceless…

Ranger. Ranger. Ranger. What can I say. Last lesson he was SLOW and just wanted to eat cookies. Last night? Slow? Yes, at the trot he was slow.

We had a GORGEOUS canter. That canter should have warned me he was not going to repeat last week’s slowness. Canter took NO effort and NO leg.

We warmed up with my FAVORITE think (sarcasm). Cantering a half circle over our log jump. Left lead was amazing. We had a nice pace, turned with both hands and when I remembered where I was going on the landing, we actually picked back up the correct lead (user error). Right lead? Well, other than that one time when I forgot to keep my leg on him and saw a really nice, but long spot and Ranger laughed in my face and ducked out to the left… So then I remember to keep my leg on and it was fine… Thanks Ranger. I don’t know, I HATE this exercise but it is good for me. Pace was LOVELY. This would NOT last.

We then cantered down the long ride to second jump of our inside line (going the wrong way) with the stone pillars. From here, we were to continue to the other inside line (green line). Last week I had a HELL OF A TIME with this line so the goal was to remember to STAY OUT using both hands and then turn using both hands. To the first jump he felt a touch strong but was OK and then we nailed the line that we struggled with. All it took was 6 times last week for me to finally figure it out. Go figure…

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Perfection. 

From here, we repeated those 2 jumps and then continued down our outside single towards the barn and then continued around to the inside line doing the whole line the correct way. So, again, towards the first jump, he was strong, a touch stronger and I tried to lift, but didn’t. Then we needed NO LEG to the next line, but again the first jump was lovely. The single was actually OK (but a touch quick) for feeling HUGE since no one put the jumps down and it was legit LARGE but Ranger doesn’t care and then the inside line which concluded at what felt like a massive oxer (again, legit big oxer because no one put the jumps down) and I curled up in a ball… We made it through, but it was ROUGH.

So after chatting about somethings (and Ranger offering his thoughts about how he REALLY SHOULD  BE OUT IN THE FIELD WITH HIS FRIENDS BECAUSE ALL THIS WORK WAS ABUSE), we attempted the course again, this time my goal was to sit back and lift him up and not let him drag me around. The first fence was OK. I help him to a closer spot than I’d have liked, but he actually came sort of back to me and it wasn’t a RUSH AND BOLT type of fence. The green inside line a lovely. Since I’ve actually figured the entrance out, I instead focused on the middle and was able to tug up a bit and fit in a nice 6, rather than the OMG RUSH like the time before. We held the canter and a couple tug ups gave up a NICE outside single (though the thing was still huge) and then the inside line was NICE, like let go and just a slight tug and then sit and  wait nice. Somehow during the course I learned how to ride and Ranger remember to listen and it all worked out. And I didn’t curl up in a ball! What a nice change from the course before!

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This is what we think of work. 

This was probably the first ride in a while that Ranger has been strong and forward and that I’ve been able to get him together without needing to halt and back which is our normal solution. We just continued doing what we were doing and kept him in check. I mean, he never truly got THAT strong (been there, done that), but definitely had his moments of “I want to go, Go, GO!” that were building on it that, but I think I stayed ahead of him this week instead of behind which I sometimes do. Either way, we ended after my last course (and  I realized I never actually freaked out out loud about the size of those 2 fences — sort of hard to do that when you’re trying to keep your horse in check…) which Ranger was super thrilled about.

He was less thrilled that he needed a shower and time to cool out… And was super impatient in the crossties… After inhaling carrots and being reminded he DOES know how to walk on properly, he politely waited for me to remove his halter in the field before galloping off to find his friends… Yep, no looking for more treats this week…

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Me, poorly behaved? NEVER!

Nonetheless, he’s still the best. I may get a different ride each week (slow, quick, strong, heavy, light-ish), but he’s always the same, safe, honest Ranger who will NEVER stop at a fence, even if I bury him at an awkward, horrible spot (which I’m happy to say I rarely do). I’ll love him for that forever.

 

Ranger Recap: Feeling SLEEPY. And COOKIES.

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Instead of chatting about colic today (which I. STILL. HATE. — but Batts seems to be recovering ok-ishy-ly), I figured I’d do  a lesson recap after my lesson when I actually remember my lesson, rather than days later when I forget my lesson or am too busy to actually recap.

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“Skip the work and FEED ME!”

The last few weeks Ranger has had energy. It hasn’t helped that someone has turned him out and I’ve had to get him from the field.  OMG, the WORST, according Ranger. He HATES being turned  out and then coming in to work. He’s on night turnout so usually he stays in until after lessons and then goes out for the night. So, if he goes out he’s convinced he has no job. If I then catch him, Life=OVER. Which has been the story of my last couple lessons. So, basically the last few lessons have included screaming for friends as we canter to jumps and overall distraction. Add that to the fact that he’s not actually easy to catch… Yeah. Each week we’ve had a boogie jump that includes bolting/galloping over and landing/halting/backing… It’s been fun.

So last night I rushed to get there (some texting with trainer to see if I could ride at 6 vs 6:30 due to a cancel) just to leave my house to a text that said “Oops, I forgot someone, don’t rush.” See, I live 3 minutes from the barn so that sort of didn’t help so from her driveway I texted back, “Ha, now you tell me” and  walked in. We laughed about it (I guess she forgot the 4 year old lead liner), and I was told to come out whenever, but at least Ranger was in his stall. I did take my time grooming/tacking and then when I went out to the outdoor.

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Still looking for cookies…

 

When I got on, Ranger just was QUIET. I mean, he’s always quiet, but I added leg and he just looked at me. I was exhausted from a  night of colic checks and stress, but Ranger? He never takes leg like this. So, I guess he decided it was a  day to make me work. Trainer agreed and we had a nice flat ride including extending under pressure (thanks Ranger–I almost considered a pony club kick!), bending, sitting trot, circles, sitting trot tiny circles, etc. Then we cantered and I died to keep him forward. Seriously horse, HELP ME OUT. Oy. Ranger was sleepy. I was sleepy.

So, we started our warm up cantering left lead over our straw bales towards the road and then around to the barn jump/inside single/blue plank which has at times been our boogie jump. This jump I needed to remember to TURN EARLY and steer to it. That said, today it was easy and Ranger just maintained his pace and I was fine and had no issues. Trainer raised the jumps and we repeated the pattern a couple times adding in our inside green line after the straw bales the second time. It was any easy 6 though I did NOT see my spot at the first fence so sort of got left, but Ranger is Ranger so whatever. Then we moved up nicely for the second fence.

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Seriously the cutest face around…  He got ALL THE COOKIES. 

 

We changed it up from here and cantered DOWN the straw bales towards the barn–our other possibility for a boogie jump and  then were to continue to the other inside single which was also a 6. While we moved UP to the bales, there was no drop, drag, and bolt in sight and it was a lovely fence.  The 6 was nice too and through the 6 corner to the first fence of the line I was able to keep him out and maintain my pace (we were passing the gate and moving AWAY from the barn–life is hard for Ranger…).

Eventually we stuck all of this together. Green inside line, blue plank/inside single/barn jump, outside single, straw bales towards the barn, other inside line. Everything went pretty well but the first jump of the very first line.

My pace was a bit slow (we had only done the line with momentum from other  jumps) and my turn was late/didn’t turn with both hands. So we repeated that line (no video, sorry). Same mistake, this time it clicked that my trainer was saying to stay ON the fence longer (using both hands) and then use both hands to turn OFF the rail. Trying that method, the line suddenly made sense. It’s way harder of a line than I realized before! But, we got it and ended there.

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Do you keep cookies in your car?

As a reward, Ranger got all the cookies in the world and got turned out with his friends. Interestingly enough, he kept returning to the fence to see me (and find out if I had more cookies). Maybe cookies are magic? Last week he was offended by my offering of an apple… And I forgot to by carrots again.

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Please? Another cookie? I came to the fence! Ignore  Elliot.  Me.  Cookies. Please?

Ranger Recap: Sit back and hang on

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Getting to my lesson this week was a success. In my ongoing wasp saga, I managed to get stung AGAIN last Wednesday a week ago (this time on my wrist) and my entire arm swelled up past my elbow towards my shoulder.  To make matters worse, I went to the doctor’s office and saw someone in the practice  who decided I didn’t need steroids and decided instead to put me on what felt like 12 different antihistamines. Except instead on helping, swelling increased. So, an rx for prednisone was called in. Except, it appears I’m actually allergic to prednisone (I was on prednisalone last time) and broke out in hives from the prednisone. But you can’t just get off high doses of prednisone so I’m still on in (last dose tomorrow), but at least it brought the swelling down. After all the fighting to get steroids… On top of  that, I ended up with bronchitis from severely compromised immune system.

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Nicely played facebook… 

Then, on top of all that, work has been hell. 5 classes to teach this week, so, again, getting to my lesson was a miracle. I was exhausted, had a migraine that morning and residual headache, and probably should  have  stayed home. But, Ranger. And I wanted to see him, I was just tired.  My husband convinced me to go and armed with a bag of carrots,  I headed out.

I arrived at the barn to find Ranger in the field. Typically Ranger is in when I show up, but someone turned him out. So, armed again with carrots, I bribed him into coming in, led a crabby and grumpy pony into the barn. Crabby was the best way to describe Ranger. We had to scream multiple times to Forrest and Elliot. Because, how could be separate him from his BEST FRIENDS? How would he survive?  (Elliot asked the same question…)

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After tacking up, I got on and pretty much felt like jello. I’m pretty sure that was the most exercise I had in a  week. I had to dodge ponies and Ranger had to scream to his friends. Then the  ponies left and he had to complain more. We eventually remembered how to bend at the trot. At the canter he did move nicely, but we were a couple strides away from “let’s take off and gallop around the ring” though he wasn’t strong or anything, just pretty much pissed off that his life was terrible and he HAD TO WORK. The injustice of it all…

We also had a  new course, like an entirely new course with some brand new jumps, gorgeous new standards and everything. I was tired so no pictures. But my brain was on overload. Things looked new. We started off trotting over our straw bales towards the barn, landed, halted and backed to basically remind a certain Ranger-pony that was not in control… This went surprisingly well. That said, I was also at the trot. We then cantered up our outside single towards the road which again went well. Spots this lesson were just… there.

Next things got a bit…Hard. We  were  to canter down an inside single around to an easy inside line in the 7. The issue was going to be the single as picking up the canter, a certain someone wanted drop his head and bolt at the jump. First time, I decided to circle because  I didn’t appreciate it which was a good plan, but then I could NOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME FIGURE OUT THE DAMN TURN and the sun was blinding me. Ranger also started looking at another fence which didn’t help matters. Finally, to help a bit, my trainer stood in front of the other jump and reminded me to look sooner. Picking up my canter, lifting him up and NOT HALF HALTING, I was able to actually get a nice distance to the boogie jump, but got dragged on the landing. I got it back eventually and got the simple change and the  inside line was lovely. We repeated and I got him back immediately and it was all good and easy. The line rode really nicely.

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We didn’t jump puppies, but this is what happens when you have no media and you resort to stealing media off the barn’s instagram

From here, we switched to the straw bales and cantered those towards the barn and then continued around to our other inside line in the 6. I was a bit concerned about the straw bales, but other than trying to drop his head at the canter early in the corner, he really listen when I gave him a little tug to lift and then the 6 was gorgeous. It was just a let him go type of line as we were moving past the in gate and I needed to be careful not to interfere. (Don’t let his perfection convince you that he still wasn’t be tortured. There was still much headshaking and screaming for friends and an overall refusal to stand still while we talked about anything….)

Finally, having found my stride, we again cantered towards our straw bales. This time Ranger held the loveliest of canters on a loose rein and I was even able to move him up to a forward distance. Landing, adding leg, we continued to our inside line in an easy 6 and then continued DOWN the  outside single towards the barn with just the slightest lift to remind him not to drop and drag. And we finished with our other inside line in the 7 with a little hold just to make it nice and even. He was perfect.

I cannot explain just  how amazing these jumps felt. It was just one of those lessons.

I had the opportunity to take him for a walk to cool out but Ranger saw the barn, I saw the barn, and hands and legs started shaking. I figured it was a good time to end.

There’s a show on Sunday at the barn. I said no to it and I meant it, but now I’m thinking about it. But, then again I’m so tired I probably shouldn’t. But, it would be nice to go to a show in my backyard with no hauling fees. But right now I’m just exhausted.

Ranger Recap: It’s all in the canter

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We’re FINALLY having gorgeous weather! High 70s, no humidity, and sunny. Perfection. Seriously amazing weather. If only summer wasn’t ending. I have serious issues with the end of summer. I also have serious issues with students returning to school [all college students in DE need to take remedial street crossing EVERY SINGLE SEMESTER. A few have returned to campus and already are causing street crossing problems and classes haven’t even started…]

Anyway, due to timing (I was early, someone else was late),  I ended up riding with Katherine and Mikey, which meant nothing other than I got some breaks here and there while she jumped. Sometimes it’s nice to get breaks? It also meant there was a little less variety in fences as  I stuck with my fences at the  2’6″-2’9″ height while she had her 3′ fences.

Flatwork Takeaways:

  • USE MY INSIDE LEG DAMNIT. Ugh. I don’t know why, but my inside leg did NOT want to cooperate in the beginning. Regardless of the direction, sometimes I just don’t have  an inside leg. Eventually my inside leg woke up and helped me out on turns and we could successfully circle around our fences without looking stiff as a board…
  • Occasionally I have the habit of turning my head sideways which then unsquares my shoulders. I need to stop doing this so it doesn’t become a bad habit that I need to undo. When I look ahead, STOP TURNING HEAD SIDEWAYS IMMEDIATELY!
  • When transitioning from the trot to the canter on the right lead, without fail, I rush the transition and pick up the wrong lead. It DOES NOT MATTER WHICH HORSE I AM RIDING. I need to stop rushing. I need to take my time and think about my transition (I have a terrible habit on Batty of screwing up just this trot-canter transition ALL. THE. TIME. and it appears it’s not a Batts issue but a me issue. Oops.)
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Ranger ❤

Over Fences:

We warmed up both directions with our outside single. Normally this jump is easy. I decided to start cantering left lead away from the road. For the LIFE OF ME I could not hit the right distance and we had an OK spot but not a great spot. My trainer said I had the canter for the distance, but backed off at the last minute.

From the right lead, we had the same, nice canter, though perhaps an inch more forward and hit a gorgeous spot. Ranger didn’t entirely lift his feet so it was a tad clunky, but other than that… Sometimes though I still think about the jumps which make me think this one was probably in the 2’9″ range vs the 2’6″ as a pole was added later to make it 3′ for Mikey’s final course. So, that’s my excuse for looking at least the first time.

We returned to the left lead and I got the same damn spot. So I repeated it again and this time, I changed my canter. We actually got a better spot and I got a lecture. We don’t change our canter to fix our spots. Which I know. But, unable to figure out what I was doing wrong, I figured I could just ride a little faster and it would solve the spot issue. It did, but that wasn’t the solution we were looking for. True, I know it’s true. We ride the same canter the whole course. If I need to, I can lengthen or shorten, but the canter SPEED must stay the same. So, me picking up an entirely different paced canter was not the solution. Establish pace then make an adjustment to stride length if needed, not to the actual canter itself. Does that make sense? We want rhythm.

Finally, I tired and starting to have a mental block with this stupid jump, I decided that it wasn’t my canter, it wasn’t necessarily even my stride length, but my approach. Ranger was sort of dragging me at the turn so  I was holding him a little too deep in the corner. We weren’t turning later, but by staying out longer, I was adding in an extra stride and not seeing as well as I should have because I was fighting him. So,  instead,  I changed my approach and staying off the rail and cut the fight with Ranger (by staying out so long before,  I had to first fight to keep him out, then fight to turn because, hello approaching gate). The turn was easier,  I was able to stay steady to the fence and then keep him moving for the forward spot. Finally we got it and could move on.

Course work! Yay! Basically, our course consisted of right lead to the outside single, around to the (tight turn) to the inside (christmas tree) line in 3 around to the outside line in 4.

Course 1 (no video):

We started off well enough and actually the first half was the best we did. Our single was perfect as well our inside line. I HATE the turn to the inside line because it’s SO easy to turn late and basically you pretty much have to turn at the jump your second jump of your outside line and not take out the standard. Then, depending on the entrance, move up for the 3. All of this was really good. But, on the landing, we had too much speed and I starting fighting we Mr. Strong Head and we didn’t stay out. He pulled, I pulled BACK instead of up and we cut our corner and had a terrible approach to our line. Despite that, I seam to have an excellent ability to correct in lines and the 4 worked out nicely. I just made WAY too much work for myself.

Course 2 (Ignore the commentary…):

First jump: the distance was great, but we fell in on the landing and swapped. We regrouped with the simple change, but it took a stride or 2 or 3 to re-establish our pace which was critical because we were near the gate and needed to keep MOVING. Then we chipped the in of the line but moved up to for the 3. Then instead of riding the horse I had, I rode the horse I had last course and held him out (GOOD), but slowed him down (BAD) in case of pulling (none in sight because he realized who was riding him the second I lifted him up). As a result, I rode him towards NOTHING and then had to work entirely too hard to make up for it through the rest of the line.

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Lesson learned: I need to ride what’s under me, not what I rode last course.

Course 3 (continue to ignore the commentary):

First jump: We seemed to be nailing this jump all day. On the landing however we were both able to stay balanced and square which fixed are issues of last time. Maintaining our pace, we had a nice ride to our inside line and continued to hold the canter to our outside 4. Of course, I saw NOTHING and we have a long spot, but it didn’t matter because, Ranger. The line rode well and we ended there. I love this horse.  Seriously, I love this  horse.

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At this point, I have no idea how large anything is. And that’s fine. The out of the outside got a top rail for Mikey to make it 3′ and then we both called it a night. A year ago this lesson I had my nice crash of Batts. Now I don’t even care what I jump. I think I’ve come a long way?

Again, Ranger.

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Oxford in the summer

Recapping : Ranger, Subi, and life challenges

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Sorry for the radio silence here. Work sort of started taking over my life again and I forgot to blog…

My swollen, eye returned (mostly) to normal thanks to mass steroids and I was able to have my regular lesson on Ranger last week. Now, trying to recap the lesson,  I’m reminded that I really should have recapped sooner because much of the lesson was a  blur… oops.

Some of the highlights:

Flat work:

  • Ranger was as stiff as a board in the beginning and decided to pay me no attention at first when I asked him to bend. It took an insane amount of leg and hand and effort to start getting any response.
  • It occurred to me that there was some sort of camp this week which meant kids…
  • I asked Ranger for some small circles around jumps and after our 3rd attempt he FINALLY softened and realized who was on his back and I had my Ranger back and we started bending.
  • Once we worked out the kinks at the trot, his canter was LOVELY. Truly, truly LOVELY.
  • Our halts were gorgeous as well.
  • My trainer reminded we that I am the only advanced rider or rider with any sort of education that rides him so I get to do all the reschooling. Which is why I got to have “fun” in the beginning of the ride. But, it’s also why when I get through to him, he gives me 150% (I think it’s the pounds of carrots and peppermints that I stuff down his throat after lessons and the fact that I don’t hang on his mouth).
  • I rode with my new boots and didn’t feel as secure because, new boots. But, supposedly my leg looked fantastic…

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Over fences

  • The plan was to do more, but we ended up working on 3 jumps the entire lesson (which was fine since it was HOT and I was feeling strange still from the steroids–unlike a normal person,  I get wired and restless and tired and add in heat and I just felt weak).
  • The course was our inside single brown boxes towards the road around to our inside line of the straw bales to the stone wall oxer (or whatever the second jump was). The plan today, unlike our normal forward course, was slow steady, and holding with the add. So, the line was to be done in the 6 vs the normal 5. [In the picture below, the inside single is the brown jump in the middle and the inside line is the one with the white winged standards. The heights were different but at least I found a semi accurate picture?]img_4573
  • First time through we were fine for the first jump, but it turned out I learned we could have been slower, but I didn’t slow down enough on the landing. Ranger started pulling a bit because he’s just STRONG.  But, because we took the scenic route, (read: we wiggled our way to jump 2 in our line), we managed the 6.
  • Take 2, same thing. First jump was fine, then too much speed, but then we move up for a 5. The 5 is nice. I mean, really, really nice. He’s not out of control.
  • Take 3, repeat.
  • Take 4. This time we talked first about lifting and tugging him up. I came in MUCH slower and managed to land slower from the first jump. But, turning to the line, even trying to lift him up and lightly tug tugging, he started pulling and we got the  5. Let me tell you, this horse is strong. I mean, really, really STRONG. He was a big head and when he uses it… He’s STRONG. He’s not bad, he’s not anything, but strong.  So, the really take away was that I have to be way more aggressive to shorten him up. I was a little passive that time.
  • Take 5. Gorgeous first jump. He was off his front end, super collected, shorten right up, landed, stayed collected, and we held that stride right to the first fence of our line (good boy Ranger!). In the end, despite EVERYTHING, by staying perfectly straight, I ended up legging him at the end up for the 5 because I saw that despite everything that we weren’t going to fit the 6 and I didn’t want the half stride chip. So I made the decision to get a nice 5 vs an ugly chip/crash/trot stride.  My trainer said she’s not sure he could actually fit in the 6, but what she wanted was that ride. We ended there.

Take aways:

  • Trainers comment: 2’6″ has become easy. It’s starting to look small?

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In other news, the vet was out on Tuesday for vaccines and Subi also got his teeth floated. The other guys get done by the dentist, but at this point, I just suck it up and get the vet to do Subi so that he can get sedated. He’s been acting even more strange about food lately so I was hoping she’d find an issue with a tooth, but they all looked pretty OK (He has amazing teeth for a senior.  Actually, I think the statement was he has amazing teeth for pretty much any horse), but he’s so sensitive that hopefully the float will help anyway. It did last time. That said, he was super drunk from very little drugs. Falling over drunk. We had to hold him up drunk. Once he was back out in the field, he was still a little hung over but I didn’t think anything of it, but after work, when I came out to feed him meal 2 of 3 (he’s currently on the 3 meal a day plan…), he just stared at it. I eventually swapped it out for chopped hay which he did eat. Dinner time 3 hours later, he just sort of moved his lips around in his soaked cubes after much coaxing to even show up to his bucked. Breakfast the next morning? Ate no grain, but did managed to polish off a bucket of chopped hay (I skipped meal 2 yesterday). It was only last night, a full 36 hours after the sedative that he attacked he meal with gusto and seemed completely alert and normal. This morning he ate his grain (mixed with beet pulp) and chopped hay and was waiting for breakfast when we came out to feed.

 

Horses. Are they trying to drive me insane?

And because I can’t leave anyone out, my poor puppy decided to have her seasonal allergies start back yesterday so we had to have an emergency vet appointment for her yesterday as well (0-100 in severity overnight. She and I were up all night while she itched and cried non stop. This happens every year and every year I forget to get meds to have on hand…). I don’t need money at all, do I?

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Ranger Recap: Happy Place

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I’ve been awful about blogging lately. I had a great lesson last week on Ranger and a really nice ride on Batts on Sunday (we rode in the ring and both enjoyed ourselves), but never got around to writing about it. Oh well…

Last night I managed to drag myself out for a lesson. I wasn’t in the mood, but I made myself. And then showed up to an empty barn. Thankfully after messaging my trainer, she was home and willing to come out and teach me when I was ready so I got Ranger ready and rode.

I guess it was camp week so I had a camp horse. He wasn’t exactly responsive on the flat. I mean, I had great brakes, but that was about it? He was sluggish and just wanted to drift to the middle. So, inside leg was the mode of the day. Great. I had none. But, despite that, he was a good boy and was quite willing to move at the trot. [We also spent way too much time on sit trot circles… Good thing I practiced those without stirrups on Batts…] Canter to the right? Not so much. But, once we re-established that when we don’t pick up the canter I will stop asking, recollect, and ask again, rather than looking like crap until I do get a canter, I got there, but damn, inside leg was necessary because someone wanted to drift in. So, when we cantered left, I was crazy surprised that we stayed out, because normally we don’t stay out that easily to the left.

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You can sort of see the course… Not the best view of the ring, but I took it from Ranger’s back while on a walk so…

It was another course change, but our outside single mostly stayed the same (but we lost the inside quarter line I liked so much). We started out cantering up our outside single and then down our inside single (brown boxes) which was actually UP to start with. Goal of this exercise was basically our path and pace. First time through, eh. I was a tiny bit slow the the first fence but the the spot was there, simple change was actually pretty neat and quick, we stayed out and had a nice path to our inside single. However, I didn’t actually trust someone enough and we were too slow to our inside single heading to the barn and chipped. Basically, I had no pace and  rode too passively. When I’m unsure, I get passive because Ranger will jump me out of pretty much anything.

So we circled and started over, this time with pace and energy and had a much better pace to fence one which we then carried on to the second fence. Now, after realizing that  I was riding Ranger, Camp Horse, aka, “I’m lazy and tired,” I was also I little more confident and active? Ranger can get strong and pull even though he’s amazing and perfect so knowing that heading toward the gate that this was NOT the horse I had, I rode his much differently and actually moved him up. So, turning the  corner to our fence, I saw the distance and instead of steadying him, we maintained our pace and had a nice forward pace and distance. From here, we continued to our inside line (I first almost turned to the wrong inside line… oops) in a 4, moving up on the landing of the first fence to actually get the 4.

Do you ever have one of those rides that after the first jump or 2, you just can’t miss?  That’s what this ride turned out to be. I saw every distance, made every correction necessary, because we didn’t actually come in perfectly at every given time. But, my eye was on. I need to remember and trust that I can actually find distances as scary as it seems. I just, most of the time, don’t trust that I can.

Our next course was basically the same in a slightly different order/directly. So, we came up the inside single (towards the road/away from the barn), down the outside single (towards the barn) and the same inside green line. And, because, for some reason I’m convinced my trainer likes me thinking on my feet, we can’t ever just do what I’m told, we have to add and keep going. So, after the green line, she had me do the brown boxes again, heading towards the barn. This time though, it just felt easy.

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Some of my favorite ears…

We ended with our brown boxes again, towards the road, to our other inside line, gross straw bales (it’s rained a lot lately and they haven’t done well) to the white stone oxer. We landed from the straw bales pretty slow and drifted left but since we started jumping, Ranger has been SO responsive and moved up off and forward off my leg and jumped the crap out of that jump just because I asked him to. I mean, he had campers all week on his back so he wouldn’t have if I hadn’t asked, but he was happy to do so at the slightest asking. Such a good boy. Everything felt easy. I love him so much.

We ended with a nice walk around the property and a bath before helping turn out. Hanging out with him is really becoming my happy place. How can it not be?

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summer in chester county

Oh and just because, meet Biscuit!

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The Biscuit “Bisquick” kitty

Ranger Recap: Devon and the Dixon Oval

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On Monday, we had the local hunter show at Devon, Brass   Ring   at   Devon. This was probably the biggest local 1-day show possible in Chester County, because, it’s Devon and everyone wants to show at Devon. The thing is, Devon is Devon and despite being right here in our backyard, there just AREN’T local shows at the Devon Horse Show grounds. You have a few things (Devon, Dressage at Devon, and now Brandywine I and II, but that’s just about it), so getting to have our local show is pretty cool.

Let me start by saying it was a long ass day with an insane number of entries. Schooling was the night before for those interested, but no O/F schooling day of. Show started at 7:30 and rumor throughout the day was the estimated end time was 11:30PM. Insane. Seriously. 2 rings. The class after me was estimated to start no earlier than 2pm but let’s just say that come 5:45 they were still on Baby Greens, division 5 of the day in the Dixon Oval… I’m pretty sure Baby Greens went on for 2.5 hours. They ended up moving Thoroughbred Hunters to the Gold Ring at the end of the day to try and save time… I finally rode at 7ish after a small(er) low hunter division.

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Somehow I ended up with a franken-number ala IHSA… The secretary stand failed to tell the other family sharing Ranger that they should leave the number and since the show went on for a million hours, they’d already left when I showed up… They didn’t want to re-issue another number so they made me this lovely number… Yeah.

Meanwhile is was insanely sunny and freaking hot all day. Because you’re only ever getting burned at Devon OR in the pouring rain. And then the storm clouds started moving in… At some point there was a massive crack of lightning and a long roll of thunder (I swear only 6 of us saw the lightning) and then basically nothing until I went into the ring. Pretty much a little rain and the storm skirted Devon completely (at home we lost power long enough to require clocks to be reset).

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I don’t know where I’m looking but Ranger is cute… Probably calling for whoever he thinks is his new best friend…

Anyway, the classes were huge (I think we had 17-20 in pleasure under saddle classes) and the horses worth way more than Ranger I’m sure, but we rode in the Dixon Oval which was just about the coolest experience of my life. The cherry on top was our amazing Pleasure W/T class where we snagged our 6th place ribbon in a huge ass class.

He was great in his W/T/C but I got stuck on the rail too much and just wasn’t seen. Oh well, I’m not used to showing off… I don’t even care. I’ll be honest, I couldn’t even figure out where to go.

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Over fences? Our course sucked. First off, it was a test not a course (4 fences…) and I never established a pace or a rhythm and screwed up fence 1 (but, Ranger being Ranger didn’t care and we got over even though we took a rail…). Fence 2 was still too slow, but I moved up and started riding to still get the strides for fence 3 and rode again to fence 4, halted, and trotted out of the ring. Seriously though, I had my rhythm by that point and it was over. I hate courses that aren’t courses. Oh well, I still was in the Dixon Oval, jumped my fences, stayed on, and had fun. We weren’t going to get a ribbon over fences anyway so who cares?

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The “lovely” course but whatever… I failed at riding it but who cares. Ranger saved my butt because he’s the best

And with that, I rode at Devon Horse Show grounds on the best Ranger Horse there ever was.

Ranger Recap: It’s HOT outside

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So I’m finally back in the swing of lessons, hopefully at least for a few weeks or maybe until Pony Finals?

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With wonky weather and a horse show, I moved my lesson last week to Friday evening and it was gorgeous and then somehow we finished, were about to go for a trail ride to cool off, felt 2 drops of rain and though better of it, walked into the barn, and the skies opened up. Downpours for what felt like at least 45 minutes. Then it ended, I managed to turn Ranger out, and then more insanely heavy rain.

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Lacking media this week so the Lasagna Kitty reminds your she is god. 

Unfortunately, I remember very little of my lesson other than for the first 3/4 of my lesson I could NOT use my corners and therefore could not find a spot to save my life. I was a mess. Eventually, I actually stayed on the rail and stopped rushing and bam! the spots where there. Go figure?

This week the mid atlantic is experiencing a lovely heat wave with unbearable humidity. Today they’re calling for the heat index to be near 105 but really the humidity is what’s bad. So, I moved my lesson to 8AM to try and beat the heat.

It was still damn hot even at 8AM.

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It wasn’t much better at 8am either…

In preparation for our show on Monday (more on that later), the goal was 15mph trot, loose reins, and trot somewhere you haven’t trotted before each time around the ring, trying to keep him round and not interfering with my hands and keeping the bend. Sometimes I was more successful than others. Lots of trot-halt-trot transitions mixed in as well. Left lead we cantered a circle using first half the ring then later a small circle not passing the mounting block down at the far end. The left lead is a struggle for us at the canter and I had to work to keep my body back, look ahead, and not break AND not turn early enough. Add in heat… Somehow we were actually successful today. Small canter circles, left lead in particular, I HATE. I think Ranger helped. I’m pretty sure he knew we’d still be working on the damn circle if we broke…

Right lead we were spared of circles and added in the our log jump (outside single). First time through we had a nice soft canter. Second time around, I was asked to be more forward so I asked for more canter. Still a nice easy jump. At this point, I’m pretty sure Ranger was ready to be done.

We started cantering down my favorite straw bale jump towards the in gate (now in a new location) and continued around to a brown box jump so it was sort of a figure 8. Goal was not to rush to the bales, but to keep the energy to the boxes and remember to stay out long enough on the rail but then to use both hands to steer to the center. Today was the start of “I can see my spots today” and “Jumping is easy?” It was turning out to be that kind of lesson.

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Next we came up the straw bales and then down the inside line on the quarter line and continued around to our brown boxes. First time, picking up the canter, Ranger was a bit strong and even through I tried to “tug-tug” I also held a bit. As a result, we broke turning the corner to the bales and then got our canter back. The spot was still there but the rhythm wasn’t a nice as it could have been. Still, remember that the turn to the inside quarter line was tight, I remembered to stay out (yay for fixing last week’s mistakes!) and look and our turn worked and again, spot was there and the line was there. We kept our energy and continued to the last jump which was fine. We repeated our exercise to improve my hands and not fight and with a better first turn and better balance, we didn’t break–everything else stayed the same. We walked our corner to looked at the angle of a broken line (I like looking at lines whenever possible, especially if the turn is weird).

From the first jump of our broken/bending line, we turned left and picked up a canter and cantered down over the outside single log jump, cantered up our brown boxed, and then continued around to our weird broken bending line. What can I say, I was have a good day? I don’t know…

 

By this point, we’d jumped everything in the ring but 3 jumps. So, we ended with trotting the cross rail on the end (awkward entrance) down the long side to the inside line (goal 6 strides). First time through we came in from the left. The cross rail was fine (Ranger wanted to rush it, but whatever), but then I struggled to bring him back for the change and  I never re-established our canter rhythm. By the time we approached the first jump of the line, we were crooked and it wasn’t pretty. We ended up with a 7 because that was what was there and I didn’t have any rhythm. We did it again, this time from the right. The cross rail was better (I found the right approach easier even though most evidently like the left approach better?), he still wanted to rush, but we landed less draggy. I managed to bring him back for our change right away and then established a rhythm rather than fighting and could actually look for my spot. First jump was there and then I could move him up for the 6. Thankfully after that, we were done.

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One Hot Ranger

I tried to walk him out a bit, but moved on to the hose pretty quickly. I’m pretty sure I spent 30 minutes hosing and scraping before he actually felt cool. No one was ever going to dry today…

Meanwhile we’re supposedly showing on Monday… I’ll be off from work for the week and agreed to this. It sounded like a good idea at the time. Like all shows do… But now? Local show at Devon which is mostly the reason. How often do I have the chance to show at Devon? Pretty much never. So, for that reason I’m going. But then I think, why spend money so that people can judge me? Makes little sense… Regardless, this will probably be it show-wise for me for a while. I need to build up my reserves. Maybe sometime in the fall, maybe not. But definitely it for the summer. Possibly the fall. But maybe I’ll get some nice pictures out of this one?

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Love my Barn Dog Apparel T-Shirt!

Ranger Recap: We go to a show and I don’t pass out!

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After not showing since… February? I finally agreed to show again. I almost could have showed last weekend but didn’t and then agreed to show this weekend. For what it’s worth, it was both a better decision and a worse decision. Better because as it turned out I got to split the hauling costs again (yay for $34 hauling!), but it was hot (last weekend was humid as hell and rainy, but not sunny so…?) and sunny and hot and I don’t do heat. (Plus, the jumps were tiny and everyone basically agreed that we didn’t care and just not to raise them for the horses (it was a combine pleasure pony/horse division so they just left the fences at 2″)). Honestly I was hot and didn’t care. Other negative for this show? Pleasure is normally 2 flat and 1 over fences. This show was 3 over fences and 1 under saddle. Under saddle in pleasure is Ranger’s strength normally so… But, it turned out to be a positive…

[We didn’t end up having a lesson on this week as my trainer was at a show so I just went out and rode and had to force myself to jump a bit. I trotted and canter and Ranger was tired, I was tired and thought, “he’s perfect, why do we need to do more?” Meanwhile the teenager in the ring with me was doing mini courses and all that. Meanwhile I was happy just to sit on Ranger and plod around. That said, we did (eventually) pop over a few fences. Our hay bales in both directions (yay! the tug method worked beautifully!), a skinny single a few times, and the outside single. With a little nagging, we did our outside line twice as the first time I had no pace (nerves… — in my defense, the second fence was a solid 2’6″+ (though it felt bigger) oxer that I’m not entirely sure I should have jumped outside a lesson–not that Ranger had any issue with it…) and added for an ugly 7, the second time I had pace and rode for a nice 6. We called in a day and went for a walk to cool out. Then I bathed him, scrubbed half his grass stains out to see how clean he’d be on Friday… Very. I just had to wash his legs. And he stayed clean outside overnight in a storm Friday night into Saturday. Good boy!]

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I don’t know what that child is doing but… or who that child is actually… 

So the joys of hunter shows. We got there at 12:30 and my ring was just getting ready to start short stirrup eq. So I got to watch Ranger and his kid. He was adorable though they didn’t get much love from the judge. He was in the bottom of the ribbons, but looked adorable doing it. Kid’s eq wasn’t bad either. After that it was down to the trailer for grass and water and then time to watch the other ring for a while. And wait. Because that’s what you do at hunter shows. Wait.

What felt like a couple hours later (and probably was), it was time to retack Ranger and realize that pretty much none of the girths in the trailer fit. I managed to squeeze him into a stretched out 44″  (I had a 52″ in my car… that wouldn’t help either)–we usually wear a 48″? I guess I need to keep an old girth of Subi’s around just in case… Too many pony girths! And hit the schooling ring. We had a ring conflict as children’s horse/pony combined was about to start right as I was heading in to school (my schooling break consisted of short stirrup hunter and pleasure pony/horse combine) so I made the executive decision to school myself. For right or wrong, I basically went in, jumped everything once in 1 direction (all jumps we were to do in both directions but whatever), didn’t die (though people started falling) and then one of trainer’s kids told me I could stop and leave so I did. Whatever, I was fine with it. I needed to jump something and the schooling was for me, not Ranger. Sorry Ranger.

Then it was untacking and saddle swapping for short stirrup so that Ranger could do that division. He did decently over fences (2 seconds and a first) and then AGAIN failed under saddle. Seriously, this judge did NOT like him under saddle. Then it was a saddle swap and my turn. By this point, they had decided only to raise the jumps to 2 ft and put small gates/boxes under what didn’t have stuff, but when my coat went on and I declared my goal wasn’t to pass out, I decided I really didn’t care. I was told I need more ambitions goals. But, think back to my first show when the goal was not to die. I think not passing out is a fine improved goal. At least I’m not worried about not dying!

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yay courses! I took a picture so I could look at it and then instead forgot I had a picture of the courses… 

So first class in and I go in and promptly pick up…the wrong lead because I’m a complete idiot. But, whatever, we never had the goal of picking up the correct lead right?

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Second class, I almost forgot the course right before walking in. The course was fine. Goal was the pick up the right lead. I stopped caring after that part. Nothing to write home about. My turn to the inside single sucked as I turned too late. Oh well. The rest was ok. And with all our courses we cross cantered a lot because it’s Ranger and we don’t exactly have our changes so whatever.

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Third course. Same as the first. Right before the first jump there’s a nice crash in the other ring. You should be able to hear it. I don’t know exactly what happened other than it sounded like someone crashed through a jump? No one died or fell, but… It was really loud. I was dead at this point so survival because the goal. Spots became long. Or short. And ugly. I barely had a canter at the end. I don’t know how I made it out of the ring. I was dead.

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Somehow I still needed to hack. Oh how I just wanted to die instead. So we hacked. I was dead. And the ring was tight since all the jumps were still up and there was no where to go… It was fine. I rode around on a loop and got my leads and rode fine. The judge did everything she could to find something wrong. Hacking is our strong suit. Which is why we were third. Then they announced the o/f portion and I managed a 1st (1st course, must have missed the lead…), 2nd, and 2nd. So, my strong suit of the hack was our lowest placing portion. The judge did NOT like Ranger on the flat. Though the 3rd was his highest placement u/s that day.

Ended up Reserve for division which was fine. Thank you Ranger for carting my butt around and keeping me in the saddle. You are 100% the best!

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Ranger Recap: Differentiating between the half halt and the tug tug

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Lessons 2 weeks in a row? Shocking! But once again, seeing Ranger was the highlight of my week. After all, when your week includes things like window estimates, dying pool pumps, migraines, and kitties (!!!!), ok, forget the kitties, how could Ranger NOT be the highlight of the week?

I did not steal kitties Quijote and Sancho from their family, but I thought about it…

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The Lasagna kitty was NOT impressed by our visit with kitties.

Well, maybe the kitties were the highlight, but other than the kitties, Ranger certainly was MUCH better than that other stuff!

Ranger (and Ranger’s adorable new pasture mate)

Unlike last week, Ranger has a bit more energy to offer (not that he was fast or anything, but just slightly more energetic than asleep). Me on the other hand? I was back to being lopsided and riding on the flat with my right shoulder in the air and my hand raised… On top of it, my right hip was hurting all day (I think it’s finally better as of today) so I was riding even more lopsided so I’m sure that wasn’t helping. Eventually I guess I evened out? Or my trainer just stopped nagging me about it. Who knows. Flatwork wasn’t my strength this lesson. I was doing too much with my hands so compensate for my hip?

We started off trotting in to our outside line in the 7. Ranger had other ideas and 2 strides out broke into a canter and while we did manage a 7 (I still had too much energy and had to woah late), less than pretty would me my description. Second time through, I was able to actually ride to it and we trotted in nicely and I was able to maintain rather than woah at the last minute.

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Single and straw bales

We then moved onto our outside single and thankfully cantered in nicely to that and then continued to our inside straw bales coming down to our in gate. The goal here was not to let Ranger get too fast and charge to the gate, because, being Ranger and having a bit of energy, we might do that. Coming around the corner, I felt him pick up the pace so I half halted and he slowed down-ish and but still pulled so I half halted again and he slowed but pulled again and but did not speed up. In my mind, mission accomplished?  And we came to the most awkward spot ever where I held, he added and it was super ugly. My trainer was happy I held so we didn’t take the super launch but… before we could talk, we continued around to jump 3, our white oxer around the corner to the inside  outside line we had just been doing. We actually managed to keep our pace and jumped it nicely…

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our oxer and second fence of the outside line

So, our discussion and the point of this post.

Coming in to the straw bales I had been half halting to slow Ranger’s pace, but when I half halt, Ranger slows down, yes, but he gets really heavy on the forehand. So, instead of half halting, we introduce the “tug tug” method. Basically, a couple of short tugs, encouraging him to shift his balance off of the forehand whereas the half halt just gets him heavy. (Alternatively, if he gets really fast and draggy, we halt and back).

So, 3 jumps take 2. This time, the first jump was again fine. Employing our “tug, tug” method, we had a much better attempt at the straw bales and continued to the oxer which again was fine.

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Outside single collection of boxes ?

To end on, we would attempt the whole thing one last time. Except, we can never just end on good enough. Because after having the best first three jumps, really nicely employing a lovely tug, tug to the straw bales, and moving him up to the oxer, my trainer had us continue down our outside vertical (first jump jumped the opposite direction towards the in gate). This was a test to make sure I really understood the tug, tug method. Evidently not only did I understand it, but during this lesson I could use it AND move up to an appropriate spot. This this with this is, the “tug” really doesn’t do too much to change Ranger’s speed, at least once he realizes who is riding him. All it does is changes his balance. It gets him off the forehand and using his hind end so that he can really jump well and it make it even easier to set him up for the fences. Even coming towards things like in gates. He is so well trained to do what his rider say so to that if you add leg, he WILL speed up. If you point him to a fence, he WILL jump it. (Alternatively, if you point him away from something, he WILL skip said jump.) So, if you tell him to get off his front end, he will, but he won’t unless he’s told to. So, after the outside single, we were told to continue around to the outside line in a 6 and since I remembered to keep my leg on around the in gate corner and going away AND remembered to look, the line was easy (and small). And Ranger was perfect. Because he is. We might have finished here or with another jump. I remember finished on another part of the ring. But that was several days ago. So there’s a chance we rejumped the outside single just because. If we did, it was easy because  Ranger is Ranger. And at this point he realized there was no point to test me because I won the battle of the tug tug.

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Best Ranger Horse.

We finished with a nice walk along the fields to cool out. I enjoyed it, Ranger just wanted his carrots. Going to attempt to show soon (next weekend? Eeek). Really bad idea financially, but when are horses ever a good idea?

Meanwhile, it’s humid here. I’m stuck at work. Fun times.

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