HOT!

Poor pony's melting away in temps around 30ºC...

Saturday I worked him in-hand just before dark, finishing with some ridden walk work.

Sunday we went for a trail ride with DH on his bike. We had a nice morning ride to Jægersborg Hegn, and on the way back we went over the very scary bridge over the freeway - except it wasn't scary anymore, he just plodded along on a long rein without taking notice of the traffic, even when a very noisy motorbike passed underneath. Good boy! :D

Monday I brought him in from pasture, hosed him down, fed him beetpulp and supplements soaked in lots of water, groomed him, considered tacking him up, looked deep into his very sleepy eyes, hosed him down again (he was already dry) and lead him back to pasture ;)

Tuesday I dusted off my bike and rode along with M. We went to Egekrogen and explorerated, it's a small area but with lots of cool little paths. We even found a little log they popped over a few times. M rides him on a loose rein on trails whenever possible, and it was really neat to see how differently he moves now compared to a few months ago. Most of the time in all gaits he stratches forward and out, with no tension in the lower neck muscles, and his trot has regained a lot of quality.

We had a lesson this morning. I warmed him up on the longe, and then started with some lateral movements in-hand before mounting. I practiced bending him, shoulder-in, and haunches-in. This was the first time we tried ridden haunches-in in a lesson, and our trainer was very impressed by him :)

I talked with my trainer about how he's progressing. I've never trained a horse in the Academic Dressage system before, so have nothing to compare him to, and comparing him to horses trained in a more modern dressage system is kind of apples and oranges. The goals might be the same, but the path sure isn't ;) Anyway, she told me there's no reason to worry, he's progressing very well, and she's absolutely convinced that he'll be well above average when he's "done," so to just keep at it, and not get impatient!!

We discussed what the best training program would be for him, and what I'll do is to continue to combine in-hand work (all gaits) with ridden dressage (just walk for now, more focus on bending and lateral work), supplementing with trail rides (all gaits) on a loose rein (focus on transitions between all gaits, hill work, and a little jumping).

Hard at Work

Barokko's taking the day off today, after a tough week.

Tuesday M went on a long trail ride with him. They rode to EGE where they met J, and then they rode together in Rude Skov. They got lost, and ended up being out for about 3 hours! Mostly at the walk, but that didn't keep them from having an exciting ride, the horse J was riding is pretty hot, and not used to going on trails ;)

Wed I worked him in-hand. After warming him up I gave J a leg up, and she sat on him while I continued working him from the ground. He's been very resistant when I've tried to ride him in the arena beyond a walk, and I haven't been able to figure out why, so in the spirit of experimentation we decided to try in-hand work with a passenger, and see what happened. What happened was that he tried really hard to do what I asked, but he couldn't for very long at a time. He's OK with having a rider on him, he's OK with working correctly over the back, but both things at the same time is apparently physically very hard for him. It was really good for me to see it from the outside, I was beginning to think he might just not LIKE dressage :/ I think he likes it fine, but it's just really hard for him.
I've already stepped up the amount of riding I do, and I'll make sure to do a lot of hill work with him when we're out and about. Dressage-wise we'll continue from the ground and when I ride I'll focus mostly on getting all the signals in place at the walk. Trot & canter will come when he's ready.

Yesterday, J had another horse to ride, again a hot youngster without trail experience, so Barokko and I rode up to EGE to be her steady-eddie companions. We had another long ride, including getting lost :P Barokko was a star, perfectly behaved, and we had a lot of fun :D It was a hot day, and he was very tired on the way home. I got off and led him the last km or so which he seemed to apprechiate. Back at AG I gave him a bath, a tub of water, and a big handful of lucerne with electrolytes.

Playing With Poles :)

DH helped Barokko and me have some fun with poles this morning. He laid out 3 poles for us in the arena, and I started out just walking over them while warming up (worked from the ground today). I gradually let him go further out on the longe line, until I could long him over each of the poles so he crossed them in exactly the place and angle I indicated :) With a little practice we were able to do the same thing in trot also.

DH gathered the poles in a fan, and I longed him over in walk and trot, I love watching the way horses stretch and swing over the back when they go correctly over a line of poles :D

The few times I've tried longing over poles or cavaletti haven't been too successful, he's gotten really stressed. I wanted to keep it easy and fun for him, so in the canter I just put him over a single pole.

I finished up by practicing figure-8's in walk.

Barokko and I were both lazy dogs on Friday, I was going to work him in hand, but neither of us could really be bothered to do much of anything. I did about 10 minutes of bit acceptance exercizes, then closed off the arena, took off his bridle and then we just puttered around a bit. Horsemanship freaks would just about die for the connection Barokko and I have together on the ground, he is so absolutely trusting of me after all of the in hand and longe work, he's completely in-tune to my body language and follows my every little cue to stop, go, turn, back up, go past scary things like the horse-eating hay bales behind the fence at A... ;)

Saturday he got the day off after a long week, and then Sunday I tacked him up for some dressage. I tried to work him the same way I'd do from the ground. Started with lots and lots of walk work, stretching him FDO, working on alternating the amount of bend, keeping him stable on the outside rein. He tenses up easier under saddle than in hand, and this slow and quiet work in the beginning really helps to get him relaxed. Then I began doing walk-trot-walk transitions, just a few steps of trot at a time, focussing on the sharpness of the transitions. Once they were quick off a light aid I asked for longer periods of trot, asking for FDO in the trot, which he soon began to give me fairly stably. Then I started the canter the same way, first many brief transitions, and then on to asking for a steady connection. I got it, I also got a nice stretch FDO in the canter, and then I got a buck >:( Just one, but it shattered my relaxed contentment. I kicked him forward, cantered another circle, took him into trot, cooled him down on a few big figure-8's, and then I had to get off, my whole body was shaking like crazy.

It was a really good ride, the only times he was unstable on the bit was when he tensed up either because of scary things outside the arena, or if what I was asking for was a little difficult for him. I felt like all the imperfections in the ride were things I could correct with some more riding, unlike previously where I saw no rhyme or reason in his connection issues. So now I just need to get my confidence back so I don't have a nervous breakdown every time he throws in a buck - I don't mind other horses bucking with me, but when Barokko does it... *sigh*

M's back :) She's been busy with school so hasn't ridden Barokko regularly the past couple of months, but she's back now, and will be riding him Tueday evenings. Barokko hasn't been ridden alone on trails for a long time, so he's very tense and looky when they ride out. She's found a good route into Jægersborg Hegn, and will be riding the same route until he settles down with it, and then they'll start exploring more. This Tuesday their ride was quite exciting, they got caught in a thunderstorm when they were almost an hour away from the barn, and met all sorts of scary things (including a bunch of teenage guys hanging out in an empty drain pipe!). He spun around a few times, and bolted once (a group of roller skiers snuck up on him on the other side of a hedge, and all of a sudden popped into view with a mighty clatter of sticks and swish of little wheels), but all in all handled it very well.

Yesterday afternoon, I had a lesson. Barokko was tired from the previous day's adventure, and it was hot and muggy and there were tons of bugs >:/ After a few minutes I put his fly mask over the cavesson and doused him in fly spray, which helped a bit. I loosened him up on the longe in walk, he stretches FDO like a pro now. Our trainer noted that the muscles on the underside of his neck have become markedly smaller - and that he looks good after losing some weight ;)

I did some haunches-in with him in-hand, he understands the excersize pretty solidly now, so she told me to begin varying the angle, sometimes steeper, sometimes more shallow, to ensure that I can place him exactly how I want him. Also, she had me alternately lengthen and shorten his frame.

We tried shoulder-in also, but he was so distracted by bugs and two other horses in the arena that we couldn't really get it together. So instead we put reins on the cavesson and she gave me a leg up. For the first time I was able to easily bend him in the cavesson, and I got a pretty stable connection on the rein. We worked on ensuring he was connected on the outside rein, not hanging on the inside, and also on getting him to follow the connection into FDO.

She had me vary the pressure I put on my seatbones, lifting them up from his back as I asked him to stretch, and weighting them more when I asked him to come back up. Eventually, this shift in the seatbones should become the primary signal I'll use to indicate stretch vs collect.

Bit Training

I watched Phillipe Karl's 1st DVD again last night, refreshed the section on teaching the horse to "give the mouth" from the ground - mobilizing and relaxing the jaw, encouraging light chewing & swallowing, bending through an upward action on the inside rein, and lowering/stretching by a steady support on the outside rein. Initially, he just ignored waht I was doing with the bit, but after a while he realized there was actually a point to it, and began to show more interest and cooperation. I ended up being able to walk with him on the bit in inside and outside bend on both reins, and shoulder-in on both reins.

I'm feeling really hopeful about being able to work through his problems with bit acceptance with the help of this bit, I just wish I had found it sooner! I had never imagined that there could be SUCH a big difference between snaffle bits. Sure maybe a horse might prefer one bit to another in a direct comparison, but in Barokko's case he said "NO!!" to both thick and thin, unjointed, single and double-jointed, loose ring, eggbutt, and Boucher snaffles - and "oh, OK then, lets give it a shot" to the Myler. I'm glad I kept trying :)

Fly Mask

The new fly mask, originally uploaded by somebear.

FLIES! Hate them!
Barokko's been really bugged the past few days, so we got him a fly mask. Last one left at the store, so I had to take what I could get = boring black - I had been hoping for something like bright pink :P

Transitions

Another trail ride today. I rode a lot of transitions, and during the ride he became markedly more sensitive both upward and downward. His canter transitions were obediant, but he quickly ran out of gas. We met a tiny jump on the trail, and as soon as Barokko spotted it he pricked his ears and upped the tempo, so I popped him over. He judged it perfectly, not a hint of over-jump, and continued in smooth steady canter after the jump, good boy.

Trail ride!

Haven't trail ridden Barokko in AGES, but today I put on the jumping saddle and off we went, with DH on his bike along for the ride :) A beautiful, HOT, summer morning ride. We rode up to EGE, hosed down Barokko to cool him off, and then rode home again.

He was wearing his new bit (Myler Comfort Snaffle Wide Barrel Loose Ring) and he didn't protest against it a single time. Keeping my fingers crossed that I've finally found a snaffle he doesn't hate!



That's the good news. Bad news is that everything else sucks ;) He hasn't been ridden much since May. I still have confidence issues (namely a lack thereof) when riding Barokko, so I made a decision to ride a lot on other horses and the focus on the in-hand work with Barokko until I felt like getting back on. I think it was a good decision, I've gotten a lot of good, fun, challenging rides in on other horses, and when I rode Barokko out today I could really feel a huge difference, I felt much more secure.

All of his buttons need major re-tuning. He was a good boy, very looky but not tense. But he more or less ignored all of my aids. Legs, seat, reins, everything, no finess in the signals whatsoever. He wasn't doing anything wrong, it was just as though every aid I gave had to go through a wall of cotton wool before reaching him ;)

I'm going to be riding more now, I'm off work for 3 weeks starting next week, and I'll be spending my vacation on re-awakening him to ridden commands (from the ground he's super obediant, quick off my signals etc, it's not because he doesn't want to listen to me in general).

Dog eats Horse (well, sorta)

I have full time work this week, boy that's a drag ;) Especially because it makes it really hard to plan things like the farrier! M said she'd come up for it any day except Tuesday, and when does the farrier say he's coming? Tuesday of course... Luckily, DH was able to work from home, so he took a couple of hours off in the morning to go get Barokko from pastureand hold him while he was shod.

He brought home some of the hoof trimmings for the dog, which kind of conjured up a wierd feeling - my dog wolfing down something that was once part of my horse :P

I finally got a Myler bit to try on him, it's a loose ring wide barrel snaffle. Odin wears this same bit, and I really liked the feel of riding with it, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Barokko will agree. It's just for trail riding right now, but I want him to be as comfortable as possible, and I'd like to be able to ride dressage with a snaffle eventually so we can show, too.

He went on a long trail ride yesterday with M, so today he'll get the day off, the only time I'd be able to ride him would be in the heat of the afternoon, so even if he wasn't tired from yesterday I doubt I'd get much of anything out of it anyway. I'm looking forward to trying the bit tomorrow!