That Deserves 100 Cookies

This post is dedicated to Carlos. He is the poster child for the OTTB- talented, full of heart, and the kind of horse every girl dreams of owning. I can only hope that one day Kwik and I will have the kind of bond that L and Carlos shared.

Our jump lesson on Tuesday with Ann was awesome! No surprise there though because Ann is our magical miracle worker. It was hot (probably about 85) and HUMID, and Kwik was lazy lazy. We worked on keeping up the energy at the walk and trot, focusing on looking in the direction I wanted to go and giving Kwik a purpose. Then we moved into the canter. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I think our canter work is better than our trot work right now! Kwik seems to have found his balance at the canter (probably because I am riding much better) and now easily carries himself. The left lead is a little more tricky for us, and he picked up the wrong lead the first time I asked. Our transitions are much MUCH smoother now. We are now able to circle at the canter, do a simple change across the diagonal, and pick up the other lead! It's a great feeling to see the canter becoming something we naturally incorporate into our everyday rides and not just something special we do in lessons. Now it's something we can practice and improve upon with each ride.



Ann set up a little course of jumps: one single crossrail on the rail, one vertical on the rail, a vertical-pole combination on the inside line, and a rail-crossrail-rail combination on the centerline. Ann always starts off with a little course. I actually kind of like this because it gets me and Kwik thinking right off the bat and gives me more practice memorizing courses (which I'm terrible at). We started over the crossrail pole combination, around to the single crossrail, over the pole-vertical combination, and then over the vertical. Kwik wasn't quite sure what to do over the pole-crossrail-pole combo and sort of just walked clumsily through the entire thing. He jumped the single crossrail nicely, and we had a good approach to the pole-vertical combo. Again he sort of ran out of gas at the pole, but I pushed him back into the trot on the approach to the vertical. Again, he wasn't quite sure what he should do and stopped at the vertical. By this time I had finally realized he wasn't going to take off with me and it would be okay to put my leg on and ride him confidently to each obstacle. After that, we didn't have any problems with stopping. He did feel hesitant a few more times over the vertical with the box, but all I had to do was put my leg on and ride with confidence. In addition, I learned to ride with a more relaxed rein so Kwik could use his neck over the jumps. This helped boost his confidence, and he started to jump better as a result - he even had quick (Kwik!) feet on our last trip through the pole-crossrail-pole combo!

My take home messages from this lesson were:

-If I ride confidently, Kwik pretty much jumps anything I ask him to
-Trust a little more and ride with a more relaxed rein over fences so he has more freedom to use his neck
-Focus on maintaining a balanced seat on the approach to and away from a fence and anchoring my lower leg over the fence

Hopefully these things will get easier and easier, just like the canter. I think this lesson makes it about 6 times Kwik has jumped EVER? What a good pony!

I'm Alive!

Whew! It's been a whirlwind week and a half. I drove up to Knoxville to see my little sister, Emily, graduate from nursing school last Tuesday and made it home in time to work a half day on Thursday. I desperately needed the weekend to get my life (and house) back together so I didn't get any pony time then either. I did manage to get Kwik's teeth done last Wednesday. I called Dr. P on my drive home on Thursday to see how everything went, and he had some pretty crazy hooks on his 2nd premolars (apparently as long as a thumbnail-eeek!) and a small ulcer on his left side. She said it looked like he hadn't been done in about two years. Poor Kwik- what a stoic boy!

Happy Graduation Em!

Celebratory dinner!

Emily is in town for her week of interviews, and the Tuesday event went so well she got called back for another interview next week! More fun sister time! I love entertaining, but I was DYING to see my pony so we headed out for a visit on Tuesday. It was a beautiful evening, and the horses were happily munching grass in the pastures since the farm switched to night turnout. Kwik genuinely looked happy to see me, and to my surprise, was CLEAN and shiny! Maybe he knew I was coming? I'm definitely starting to trust him more because I tacked up and hopped on without longeing first- I was just too eager to go for a spin. Kwik was super attentive and game for whatever I asked. We trotted around some and then cantered- both directions, getting the correct lead each time! I wasn't too concerned about where his head was since this ride was more about just getting moving again after a week off, and he did a wonderful job maintaining a steady, relaxed rhythm. I guess we did learn something in April! Em even took some video which, although slightly embarrassing to share, was extremely helpful.

I really need to focus on keeping my leg at the girth and not allowing it to creep back and my ARMS. Goodness, my arms. Maybe I should super glue them to my sides. I'll work on it, and it will get better, but I love how Kwik just lets me flop around up there and continues on like the gentleman he is. Best green bean OTTB a girl could ever ask for!

We Ride!

Kwik got the remainder of Monday and all of Tuesday off to get used to life without staples, and we went back to work on Wednesday. I don't really want to do a lot of lunge work in the next couple of weeks- no sense in putting added stress on his already stiff joints, but I figured it would be in my best interest to do a little round pen work before getting on a horse that hasn't been worked in three weeks. We did a little walk/trot free lunging, and he looked good for the most part. Its not like he had developed a ton of muscle before his accident, but he has definitely lost whatever he did have. He did, however, look very happy to be back to work. I got on for some stretchy walk work, and he definitely felt stiff. We did serpentines, changes across the diagonal, and some leg yields to try and loosen everything up, and he may have felt a little better towards the end.

We got a ton of rain the remainder of the week, and the ground was really sloppy this weekend. I was hoping it would be dry enough to do a little bit of lunging, but the footing was way too deep to ride, let alone lunge. P was teaching a lesson in the little grass dressage arena and offered to share with us. Kwik was nowhere near as stiff as he was on Wednesday, and he felt great after about ten minutes of walking. I did a tiny bit of trot work as well, and he felt good!

My plan for the week is as follows:

Tuesday: Continue stretchy walk work in the arena, ~20 minutes. 5 minutes of trot work. End with short paddock loop trail.

Wednesday: Arena warm-up: walking, 6 minutes trot work. End with 10 minutes walking hills outside of the arena.

Thursday: Arena warm-up: walking, 7 minutes trot work. Walking hills 10 minutes. End with short trail.

Saturday/Sunday: Off! Happy Easter!

I'll increase the trot work little by little over this week and next until we are back to our regularly scheduled program. Hopefully the hill walking will help build back the muscle that was lost and increase his fitness at the same time. I'll start bringing back our lunging with side reins in the third week. I'm hoping to schedule a trail riding session with Ann for sometime during the first week of April. If all goes well, maybe we can incorporate some more trail riding in our routine as well.