Transition Tuesday

Today was a Kika day.

Despite my best intentions of getting both girls worked this evening, things conspired against my getting to the yard in time to do that. Somehow I don't think Nancy really minded *sniggers*

Kika was a great girl, we were far from perfect & had a few discussions as to how she was to carry herself (preferably not like an inverted banana) and what speed we were aiming for - not choppy, but proper strides where possible.

We started warming up with reins long at the walk as i briefly chatted with one of the WS as she cooled down her new horse. After K decided she couldn't possibly approach a scarf/wolly hat concoction along the side where I wanted to leave my jacket - we had our first conversation of the evening and she was fine to side right alongside it from the other direction! *eyeroll* She can be such a silly goon at times. Let the record show we had  o problems passing nor sidling alongside the offensive winter garment at any stage after that. Sometimes she takes the strangest notions...

Awkward-post-spin mirrorselfie

When I'd gathered up my reins and we'd started our trot work, I started our transitions goal for the evening. Walk/trot, then walk/halts asking with my seat and really focusing on encouraging her to relax her neck when we halted and  other stretching down nor tossing her head up in the halt. Square didn't matter, although she can be relatively good at that on her own, however her head/neck is a bigger issue for the moment as it shows a lack of attention on both our parts. Me in not being supportive & as certify enough to let her now we are not done working, that the halt is still part of what we're working on and K blowing me off - but mostly the first part. As 9 times out of 10 I am at fault - not her, although she will not offer me the halt I want unless I make it clear to her. Gotta love horses that make us better riders - 100% ♡

Is it wrong to drool a little over how good I think she looks?!

We mixed in some trot demi-volts (S shape comprised of two semi circles) and walk ones to regroup when she hollowed at the trot. We did lots of other circles and changes of rein by the diagonals & a couple serpentines. When the trot was good, I asked for canter/trot transitions. 90% were really smooth transitions up, however the first few hollowed out as she got a little hot, maybe her defence when/if i didn't get the tempo quite right to help her use herself better. Downward transitions from canter to trot are a bit of a shambles as i don't support her enough cos I'm a muppet who pitches forward so she hollows a couple of trot strides before we re find out groove. 

Most of the upwards transitions were really lovely, even if i do say so myself *blush*

#awkward-human

I changed things up with some trot/halt transitions and walk/trot, walk/halt and more demi-volts plus serpentines, changes of rein etc - to keep us from getting predictable as smart mare is too clever for me and if i do the same thing too many times she will preempt what's coming & hollow or get hot and we loose the run of ourselves. 

Although we are a long way off consistent and nowhere near perfect, we have come a long way. This time last year the hat/scarf incident at the start of our spin would have set her off & she would not have been able to concentrate in that area of the arena for the whole time (ask me how I know *eyeroll*) - Kika version 2point-whatever-we-are-on-now is such a superstar in my eyes.

Hissy fits

I successfully completed my first lunchtime madcap dash to turn the girls out today & thankfully they were angels as always. *swoon* ♡

It was such a glorious sunny moment when I turned them out that I would have loved nothing more than to throw the tack on Nancy & go for a hack in the woods with K on "a leash" - aka leadrope and head collar she is such a pet to walk calmly alongside N, which in turn keeps Nancy happy hacking "alone". They are actually wonderfully complementary creatures. I am so lucky to have then both!

Sadly I had to go back to work, but perhaps the nasty stinging cold of last Thursday & Friday may not be wholly upon us just yet - Yay!  That gives me hope & a warm fuzzy feeling inside that Autumn may stick around for a little longer yet ☺

She has not developed spots, the mirror is *LeGasp* dirty

Anyways, I went back to the yard in the evening to bring them in & decided to ride Nancy and lunge K in the pessoa afterwards if time. Before any tacking up was done however, I tied both ladies in the wash bays; picked their hooves & sprayed their frogs with the fun blue Klausan (sp?) spray. That their new barefoot trimmer recommended I buy for them and showed me exactly what to do for them on her return visit Saturday to check how K's hooves are holding up as we transition her to barefoot. One day at a time, her penchant for demanding attention by stamping/dragging her front feet across the ground has previously worn her feet oddly and required her to be shod again - but that was with a "normal" farrier who sadly wasn't always the best time keeper for our appointments which meant K's feet got too small & she hurt herself. So far this new farrier is great, and we're working together to hopefully make this transition painless & permanent for K & my purse strings ☺ Thankfully all is going really well & I have been truly blessed, that she hasn't take an ouchy or lame step *knock-on-wood*

Kika got to go back to her stable & scoff her feed while Nancy and i tried to rekindle some of the magic from our lessons last week. *pout* It wasn't meant to be magical as Little Miss Nancy threw her best hissy fits & locked her neck as often as she could in protest to everything I did, which outside of our warm up walk seemed to seriously offend her. Methinks a combination of not riding since our lesson on Friday and the reintroduction of a flash strap (on trainers recommendation) combined to make her very surly. 

Now surly Nancy is still nowhere near Kika's hissy fits, the worst Nancy did was jump (she thinks herself rebellious & bucking) into a canter transition. She also did a very good impression of a naughty giraffe - sticking her head in the air, hollowing her back and speeding up. She alternated that with locking her neck/jaw and suckling back on herself into choppy annoying strides - if i knew how to ask for such fancy dressage movements i bet she wouldn't be so willing to give them to me. Her inner dressage diva is dying to get out. I just need to figure out how to train mine ;-)
Despite her attempts to detail our spin, I stuck to my guns and kept asking for rein changes and trot/canter & trot/walk transitions till she softened and gave me two good transitions for each on both reins.

I'll take a Nancy hissy fit over Kika's everyday of the week & twice on Sundays ;-)

Sorry I didn't manage to snap any Kika photos today

Although I really should give K more credit, she is not the moody mare she used to be. She is much more settled in her brain, body & work these days so I cannot complain at all. She is a joy to work with, yet will always have her quirks, opinions and own spice to keep things from ever being predictable or boring. 

As i had a lazy weekend, to let us all chillax and marinate the learnings after our full on (for us) week of lessons. Kika hadn't been in tack since Thursday's lesson. I'm sure she wouldn't have been a problem to ride this evening, but i was running out of time so slapped the pessoa on her for a refresher course of lunging. She was an absolute angel as we played with transitions, changes of rein and circle size to start the process of rebuilding some of the back etc muscles she's lost due to my uber busy last 6 - 12 months. 

Tomorrow evening I hope to ride Kika & brush up ground work with Nancy, hopefully this winter we can get to better grips with her lunge work. Last winter she preferred to trot/run than listen to me when we lunged. First thing we're going to establish tomorrow is "stand" means stop...I think if i can get that cemented it'll be a start. Although obviously it will take multiple sessions, unlike Kika who loves an excuse to slow down...Nancy is not always looking for a reason to get out of doing work. ;-)

Last lesson (aka #IV)

My wonderful week off came to a close today with my final (for now) lesson with Nancy this morning. It went really well, S (teacher) was very happy with how it went and so was i - truth be told. Although of course I wish I was less of a lopsided putz,  but hopefully one day I'll manage to sort myself out ;-)

Mirror Magic post-spin selfie

My biggest takeaway from today's lesson is TRANSITIONS with Nancy, lots of upwards & downwards transitions walk/trot and trot/canter.

And circles + serpentines, I need to help her learn to bend through her body (especially going right). We both need a lot of work on that side, so we shall buckle down together. Oddly (and actually really cutely) when S had me release my inside rein and pat N our bend on that rein would improve. Lesson to be learned from that is unsurprisingly i am the problem. But now that I know that is a solution for now, I shall work with it while praising her - win/win right?!

Headless Horse

There was also plenty of "long leg" comments, this is teachers way of saying heel down. Again my left leg is worse than my right. It is also inclined to sneak further back than it should. I need to really concentrate on keeping it on or near the girth and turn my toes out, heels in and of course down.

Another takeaway from the previous lesson with Nancy which I forgot to mention in that post (lesson II) was my sensation of when Nancy is carrying herself well. Where I wrongly thought her over bent or curling in on herself, apparently she was actually doing well.
BAD ME! :-/

S also suggested I put a flash strap on Nancy to help stabilise the bit in her mouth as we'll be doing a fair bit of turning while we work on circles and serpentines and we are not yet sensitive enough to seat and legs to undertake these tasks without some rein aids.

She just stood up from a roll, she actually
wasn't as cranky as she looks lol

I didn't end up riding Kika today as it was super cold and I was on a deadline to meet my mam this afternoon to go to an outlet sale for kitchenware. Plus I wanted the girls to get some turnout before I had to bring them in early due to a road race going past their field this evening.
This has definitely been one of the best weeks off work i have had in a long time ☺
I am exhausted but in a good way and feel like I got to spend plenty wonderful time with my girls and can hopefully check back on these haphazardous write ups to keep the lessons in mind and all going well schedule a few more before this month is over! We'll have to see what the situation is at the office when I get back in Monday morning...

Lesson III

Today was Kika's turn to lesson again, also known as my first time on her back since clipping. Hardly ideal, when today was the coldest morning we've had this week. Can we say typical lolz.
K was a little spookier than she has been the last few months, but she also wasn't turned out Tuesday or yesterday, so really i only have myself to blame.

Little Miss Bedhead

We warmed up with walk/trot transitions before getting hooked up with the headset.

I'm a big meaney who woke K up for our lesson @ midday - the lazy bones

Takeaways from this lesson include:

- Inside heel sneaks up too much and leg goes backwards. Left leg worse than right

- Watch right hand that it doesn't get too low, especially when transitioning up and down to canter i need to support her better with my seat and keep my hands steady & balanced.

- Transitions, again I need to watch my hands and push Kika forwards so she doesn't fall onto her forehand.

- Work on halt from walk & trot.
I held my hand up and admitted to not having particularly worked on our halt (or walk for that matter - teacher laughed and said a lot of people forget to work the basics). K has a habit of stretching her neck when we halt, so S (teacher) had me focus on playing with the reins to have her give with her neck and not stretch against me. Teacher said halting square can be sorted later, K needs to learn that halt doesn't mean she can stop working and stretch her neck out.

Trainer said that it went better than our previous lesson, so baby steps towards improvement. ☺
I was still trying to process all the things she had told me, but looking back on it now it was a very productive lesson. Fingers crossed we can schedule some more and keep this Upward curve of improvement.

Kika then got her mane pulled, she hates it but was mollify ed by my stuffing her face with treats. I remember being told before that it's easier on them if we pull their manes after work as their pores/hair follicles are more open. I'm not sure Kika would agree, but she was a very good girl.

Nancy was up next for a quick spin & was a very good girl. I tried to keep my hands and contact steady while also making sure I kept my inside hand in check. We worked on all three gaits, circling, serpentining as we transitioned between w/t/c. The three of us then went out to the winter turnout, where the girls were much calmer than the previous two outings. They called a couple times, but were generally happier with being out in the afternoon sunshine. I made the final fixes to the fencing & checked it all to make sure electricity was traveling all around the area and left the girls alone for a few hours while i went home to warm up some before going back in the evening to bring them in.

Newly Naked

Today was a lovely relaxing day between lessons, so the two girls & I went for our first hack in the woods since we came back to the stable at the end of June! Where oh where does the time disappear to?!

Nancy checking in with her big sis on our hack ♡

Nancy then got her mane braided so that I could give her a lovely smelling Ecolicious bath before she got clipped this evening.

Right well as it's technically wordless Wednesday; I'm going to shut up now (well besides captions of course) and leave you with a photo dump from bathing, drying & clipping the cuties!

More "arty" shots
(aka yes I was bored while she dried)

What Nancy thought of my artistic attempts

Kika "the giant furball" pre- & during clipping

Nancy pre- & during clipping.
The difference in the thickness of their coats boggles my mind! 0.o

Awkward stance "pose" to showcase her new do

Always dramatic posing from KikaChiquita

Nancy rocking the mini-skirt rug look a/w ' 14
(methinks a size up required sooner rather than
 later for the monster mare)

And two final snaps, just cos how can I not share more pony spam! *blush*

Before & after of Hairy-Mary

Tomorrow's tasks include lessoning & tidying up Kika's mane & tail and Nancy's tail. That way all the special occasion pampering is done for a while ☺

Lesson II

Nancy's turn for a lesson today, so I arrived at the yard around noon armed with fleece, indoor & outdoor rugs as all going well Kika is getting clipped this evening. ☺

Sorry for fuzziness, only saddle shot i caught today

So i rode her first so she would be good and sweaty so that I could give her a nice Ecolicious bath. Her first since I got the lovely products - it just didn't make sense to me to bathe them when they lived out 24/7. *blush* #badhorsemama.

Giving me the evil eye for making her so sweaty

Right onto Nancy's lesson, I was right to think there might be traffic at the afternoon riding slot. There was one person lunging and another rider on a young horse that was more like Kika's character than Nancy's zen demeanour. So i tried to keep my HGV truck out of the way as best I could while concentrating on instructions.

Getting spoiled. Don't worry used warm water

Takeaways:

- we struggle much more going right then left, our collective bad sides. She is a wiggly worm, much practice needed.

- I am also apparently worse positioned on N than Kika, which I find funny seeing as N is probably the more solid & reliable creature. My right shoulder tries to creep over the pommel and hang out with my left shoulder when we are going right.

"Artsy" capture

- we need to work a lot on walk trot transitions. I have to stop my outside hand sneaking down towards her neck and keep tension in my outside rein.

- i need to play more with the reins and alternate her bend when she tosses her head up and locks against me. Legs are also useful to use for these scenarios - who'd have thunk it *blush*

K making friends with an adorable pooch
 who kept telling her off for stamping her foot

- as with K, long legs (heels down) & shoulders back.

- I also need to point my toes out more and try to keep my leg from slipping back.

Nancy getting her share of pampering

More awareness of what my body is up to is my #1 takeaway. Sorry again for haphazard lesson report, my head is such a sieve, the old memory needs a serious reboot or upgrade lol.

Lesson I

I am writing this as i stand under the solarium with Kika as she was a hot mess after our lesson so she had to have a hose down afterwards. So the awesomely nice mama that I am is splurging 2 euros for her to spend half an hour under the solarium before I toss her ass on the walker to dry out more so that she can go out for the afternoon. If i have my way she'll be getting clipped first tomorrow lolz - sorry N you'll have to wait till Wednesday evening.

Now for the lesson report, here's hoping I can remember the stuff we worked on. First off K was great for our first lesson in forever. I changed my mind and rode her for our lesson today as tomorrow's is scheduled for the afternoon & I figured Nancy might be a better choice if there is traffic in the arena at that time. K found enough things to distract her today when she was alone in the arena ;-)

Pre-work motivation & game face hah!

We worked on all three paces, with transitions, serpentines, circles and demi-volts - which was a new thing I learned today. I thought the were the tear drop shapes which can be used to change rein, nope. Turns out it's a fun S shape composed of two semi - circles. Once what we had to do was spelled out for me (cos I'm an idiot) K rocked them.

Takeaways from our inaugural lesson:

- watch my hands, keep my inside hand slightly higher and lighter than my outside rein. I really am terribly reliant on my inside rein so this will be a serious work in progress. Not mention that I ride with my hands super wide apart on Kika (no idea why, another one of my nasty habits)

- refocus her attention on me faster when she gets distracted and her head pops up.

- when riding downward transitions use my seat more and my hands less. Our trot to walk transitions were awesome once I started doing this. No more head tossing skywards - funny really when you consider i was no longer hanging off her face. Sorry mare - i know I'm a shambles.

- her canter will improve as we strengthen her back again, she finds it hard to maintain her frame. I also have to push her on a bit when we initially transition up to help her get her backside to work...or pretend to, she is renowned for avoiding using her hinney when she can.

Post-work hot mess posing

Sorry this is a little all over the place, I had hoped that typing this out straight away on my phone would help me with the memories...Sadly a lot has again been forgotten till I get back in the tack. However there was also a lot of the usual, shoulders back, longer leg (aka heel down) & hands. S (teacher) said there was plenty good there when I said there is a lot to work on, so baby steps and maybe some day I'll ride better ☺

Not to be left out

Nancy got a quick spin before my lesson, I arrived early and started tacking her up as i had planned to ride her for the lesson & Kika later. But I forgot I was early so we were ready early & the situation of potentially having more traffic for tomorrow afternoon's lesson so i opted to have a quick spin on N before quickly swapping horses. I am super glad they are in overnight again now as makes for easier access to them and quicker grooming lol!