Ozzy King of the Horses

I have only a half hour to write this, as Niles is intently watching me waiting to go to the barn - and for any of you that have Jack Russell Terrorists... you know how intently that stare is, and how patient they can be...... We had our second lesson on Wednesday, and I thought initially with it being kinda cold out and breezy Oz might be a handful. I had also heard the day before when Bri rode him, he was - well I think the technical term was, ASS.  Although he was listening to the leg, he was all about running through to the canter, on the wrong lead, all on the forehand, and having one of his tempertantrums. Yes Oz has temper tantrums - but they are in an Ozzy way, which is like he's having an ADD moment, and hyperventalating at the same time, I --- JUST ---- DONT ---- KNOW ----- WHAT ----- YOU ----- WANT ----- FROM ----- ME - So I'm going to be all sketchy and scared acting, and like I have no brain.... Its a behaviour one has to see and ride to appreciate it. So I thought this might be the behaviour I'd see on Wednesday, but instead I had a lazy lazy horse on my hands - literally on his head weight on my hands.  So while we attempted to wake him up at the beginning of the session, we worked on me. So worked on my leg position, and the first part of my lesson was done without stirrups. I can describe this experience in one word - PAIN - Trot without stirrups, walk without stirrups, sitting trot without stirrups, rising trot without stirrups, transition from walk to trot, hault to trot, all without stirrups. About 10 minutes into it, I lost feeling in my inner thighs, and felt nauseas - but no pain no gain.  Then I was able to have my stirrups back and we worked a bit on straightness, bending properly around my leg and not motorcycling through the corners. And finished with some jump work. At one point I asked for him to move up and under me, and he didn't so I made sure he realized I was wearing spurs and I will use them (forgot my crop) and with that I got the move I asked for, but I also got a spin of the tail, which is so unlike Oz.    At times he starting to behave like something other then the easy going Oz, occassionally we'll get a little buck now, a toss of the head - all him just feeling good and healthy and expressing himself.... I think as we continue to work him this year and we start to compete, he's going to start getting more and more excited - which is something I would love to see.   Hasn't been a half hour yet, but in Niles, Jack Russell brain its been 12 hours of waiting patiently - so off to the barn we go, no lesson today, but definately riding. I have a list of vents to start, but we'll start those later this coming week.

First lesson of 2009 - it was late, but it was the first day that the ring was simply amazing, and my lesson was incrediable but exausting!  Both Oz even with his clip, and myself were working up a good sweat.  We focussed a fair amount on the flat work, and fixing my leg which keeps shooting out in front of me. So I did a wee bit of work without stirrups, and originally thought, hey I've been riding bareback most of the winter, so riding without stirrups shouldn't be an issue. Um wrong! I had to position my leg correctly, keep it on and wrapped around that big beast - which is NOT that easy!  And then Brianne had me post without my stirrups and keeping my leg correct! It was hell! But I loved it - I know I'm sadistic but hey no pain no gain right. In fact the worst part was just wrapping my leg around him and keeping my toe pointed up, and heel down - I want to put my toes down and pinch with my knees. Then we worked on taking a feel with the outside rein and leg around the corners, and some felt amazing, but then I noticed after a bit my inside rein started the death grip again, or I kept dropping my hand. The ride felt better then say this time last year but not well enough that I'm feeling good about my talents (but hey thats me, my horses talents outweigh mine).    We worked a bit on poles on the ground, and then that moved into a cross rail - which at first he was like - YEAH!!! LOVING THE JUMPING !!! Until he relized it was just a wee cross pole.  So then when we were moving around the corner, the cross rail went higher - I didn't notice it, but Oz did, and then he was in his jumper brain again.  I need to work on keeping my leg on all the way through the ride, even as we are up and going over the jump, where I typically ride to the jump and then hold on for the ride and stop riding.  We had some jumps and landings that felt awful, but then we had some that felt great.  And we ended on a canter, which was painstaking to get today for whatever reason - he was just running through it, or we would end up on the wrong lead. We finally got it, and then proceeded to jump over the ground rail and cross rail, to stress out Brianne - as it wasn't a canter pole on the ground but rather a trot pole... oops - hahahaha, thats what you get for making me post without stirrups. :0) Then after that, we moved it so we could canter to it, but then he would land and it would be ugly. So then we worked on the canter on the ground and actually getting him up and under me and working the hind. It took freaking forever to get him on the right lead that time. But it felt so great... suddenly he was cantering and felt up, and it was so smooth and great! And I knew didn't matter if the jump was 2 foot or 4 foot, if he was to canter to it like that, I would trust that he would make it up and over it each time. And by the time we got it, we were done for the day, both out of breathe and he wasn't happy that now both of his mums was busting his ass... poor thing!   On one hand its fusterating to not be further along then I am - but thats me expecting to get it overnight somehow through osmossis. That said, some things are finally coming to me, now I understand how important the flat work is, in the sense that the jump is either going to happen or not. But if you have the flat work down and do your job taking him correctly to the jump, then if its right, its going to happen.  And when we are jumping and he's just running to them and on the forehand I relize I have no faith in him getting us safetly over them. But if we came to them like he was cantering at the end today then it just makes everything right feeling. No more death grip on his face. No more falling into the corners if we ride correctly which will then line us up for the jump better - I mean its not rocket science, but definately I could feel the importance today of flat work. Internally I feel like this year I want it more. Last year it was about trying something new to move Oz into a direction he enjoyed - I was along for the ride so to speak, but this year I want it badly. There are some shows that I want to do - that will be a stretch for me and my abilities without some more seriousness into practicing and lessons. I definately want to go to Calgary this year. All the horse though are feeling pretty fresh.  They have spent the winter running up the hill and doing the trail riding so that they stayed in good shape over the winter, but now they all think they are race horses when they actually get onto wonderful footing and the flat.  Its great though that we aren't going to be spending weeks or months trying to get the horses back into shape.  That said we are all a month behind over last year, just with ring work, as the ring has only now become snow free. Although in driving around, I notice that there are still some farms with outdoor arena's that are still covered with a good amount of the white stuff... so atleast we aren't the only ones that are suffering with this long winter.   We also got to catch up on the horsey world news with some old friends today, who were up looking at the barn. Hopefully they spend the summer with us, its always nice to add to the normal people on the farm. Fortunately our place is one of the least political and least catty boarding facilities in probably all of the Central Okanagan, its great to not have to worry is so and so at the barn now - hmm maybe I will just wait till they leave before I go up.   This sounds like its a lead into a vent, and it probably could be but I think I'll wait till later in the week to do that - I have a couple of them brewing, but I'll just wait for a few more lessons before I start to vent.   Its going to be a busy year for us. We have a full line up of shows we want to go to, not to mention some of the personal equine goals as well - whether its some things we have happening at the farm, getting a sponsor - even a small one, doing some PR work, etc, etc.   Our next lesson is this Wednesday and I'm going to look into video taping my lessons this year so I can look back and take it all in again - will post them up as soon as I start filming them.