#88 - trial and error

I went an bought a narrow gullet for the all-purpose saddle and its made it fit perfectly. Who would have thought that Teddy, a 15.3 hh stock horse would require a narrow gullet? His stock horse line must have a lot of thoroughbred in it. In the past I would tell people that he has a high withers and they would say, "No he doesn't"; well this proves it.

So with a great fitting saddle and no riser I went out in the paddock with him today for our 2nd trial with the pee wee. He was doing great until I made him continually come to a complete stop and wait before going again - this started some head tossing. At first a little but I was determined to call the shots and he jigs about at times when asked to halt so the objective of the exercise was to do a drill at longer and longer intervals. We had already done a number of other exercises so this was to finish up. By the time we had done the exercise a heap of times and he had gone from being asked to halt at the count of 15 and then increasing two counts each request until we reached 40, e.g. count at a walk to 15 then halt, count at a walk to 17 then halt etc. By the time we got to 40 he was doing the halt perfectly, complete and not moving forward until asked, but he was tossing his head a lot again.

Even though the halt was asked very gently, literally only done with my two ring fingers on either rein, I guess the bit was making itself known and he was choosing not to accept it.

I'll have a think about how I am going to tackle this in the next step.

Teddy Log: #87 - a new saddle and bit added to the collection...

Teddy Log: #87 - a new saddle and bit added to the collection...: "I have recently purchased a second hand all-purpose Wintec saddle off ebay from Tassie. The lady who sold it said she had only used it twic..."

#87 - a new saddle and bit added to the collection

I have recently purchased a second hand all-purpose Wintec saddle off ebay from Tassie. The lady who sold it said she had only used it twice and I can honestly say that it looks like its never been used at all! It was a great bargain for something in such good condition and it has an interchangeable gullet so I can use it on pretty much any horse. The gullet in it at the moment is the standard black so I will need to get the red one as it's a bit too big. Until then I have been using my riser and it's fine. It's a nice, comfortable ride and it will work better when practising my balance. And I've saved myself about a grand in the process!

I also bought a pee wee bit to help with Teddy's head tossing issues. I've tried the full cheek snaffle, a hanovarian bridle with a egg butt snaffle, and a tom thumb but they made no difference so I continued my research on bits. It appears that the pee wee has had great success with working and training horses, particularly with Teddy's issues. I thought I would give it a go and I was stunned at the results!

I know it was our first go with it and it's still a trial for me but the improvement was remarkable! Where I was putting up with constant head tossing for the first 30 minutes or so and then it would slow down but not go away; this time I had five tosses at the start then nothing. I couldn't believe it. He wasn't in a hurry to get it out of his mouth like he usually is after a ride and he wasn't backing away, he stood there with his head low, gentle look in his eyes and nuzzling my side! Hopefully this isn't just a matter of a change for a day then back to normal.

The pee wee is a bit that you need to use sensibly as any rough handling could cause a problem but it is considered the gentlest bit on the market. It is to be used with a gentle hand and that is exactly what I am learning with my coaching from Kim. It's also not to be used as a curb as the chin is to be loose and just there to hold the bit in place.

At first I thought it was particularly good marketing but after researching a lot of leisure riders and professional riders comments I thought I should give it a go. People either have remarkable success with it or no success at all, very few have the latter. Even though it hasn't been approved for the dressage ring as yet a lot of dressage people use it for training and that is exactly what Teddy is doing - training to be a calm and relaxed, accepting horse. The pee wee doesn't work for every horse but that is the case with them all or there wouldn't be so many on the market.

Anyway, I'll take it around for Kim to have a look and I will be open minded about the whole thing, but so far so good.

#86 - Being whacked in the nose by a horse really hurts!

The morning started well but ended on a serious downer. Mainly due to the pain in my nose.

It began with me deciding that I would try Teddy with a Hanoverian bridle and a snaffle bit to see if this helped with his head tossing. I tacked up and then decided that I would take him across the road to the arena seeing as things went so well the last time we were there.

All was fine until we got to the grounds and were just near the arena and discovered that Kyneton Pony Club were there with about 30 horse and riders all set up to do various activities. At first Teddy was on high alert which was no problem, similar to last time and he took so much interest in the two other ponies. Then when we got to the arena I was told that on pony club days the KDARC arena was meant to be used for the pony club and I was asked if I'd be happy to share. That was very nice of them to offer but I was happy for them to use it for themselves, I just didn't know that this was the arrangement. It also wasn't a big deal as Teddy was getting more and more excited and needed to calm down. About 20 horses were closing in around the area and Teddy was becoming more and more reactive. I hadn't got on his back and decided that seeing as we couldn't use the arena I would stick around so Teddy could get used to the goings on around him and calm down.

Unfortunately he didn't calm down amongst it all and I didn't want to freak the kids out so I decided to take him to the edge of the paddock, about 100 metres or more away from a group of about 10 riders taking poles out of the ground. I stood well enough away but Teddy just ran around me in circles endlessly. If a horse neighed out he neighed back and he pooed a total of 6 times! Over excited, stressed, whatever he was going through he was running and tossing so I decided that I would just let him go through it for as long as it took for him to either calm down or tire out.

After about 20 minutes of this he was finally 'beginning' to calm. Steve showed up and was very nervous about the whole situation (thank god he didn't see Teddy at his worst!). I understand his apprehension as he is worried that Teddy is going to hurt me or someone else. After all my hard work Steve was starting to change his views on Teddy but this was taking us back a bit. Picking up on Steve's vibe Teddy started to nudge into me and when I was talking to Steve, not giving the situation my full attention, I turn right into a massive smack in the nose by my horse's head!

OMG it hurt! It hurt so much I let go of the reins and grabbed my face! Luckily I realised what I had done and grabbed hold of the reins again before Teddy bolted off and caused Pony Club mayhem! I stood there holding my nose with tears pouring down my cheeks. I thought I had broken it but there was no blood. Steve looked horrified and all I could think was that he would hate and fear Teddy again. He checked my nose and gave it the OK and then he said "He's dangerous!" My heart sank.

I tried to explain that this was just as much my fault for losing my concentration in a situation like this but Teddy was still hyper so it just wasn't the time or place. We headed home.

On the way home Teddy became much calmer, just being away from the environment and being one-on-one again did wonders for him. He was 80% better by the time we walked the five minutes to our house. At home I took him for a ride around the paddock until he was totally calmed. Unfortunately he was still tossing his head.

The cartilage between my nostrils hurts like buggery but I'm more sad about how Teddy behaved around other horses. I know its not the arena as we have been there before so it had to be the other horses and this really sucks because I want a trail riding horse. I don't know how I am going to work him through this but I'm determined to give it a red hot go!

#85 - everything is coming up roses!

Yep, Teddy and I are going gangbusters on all fronts. My riding is improving, Teddy's ground work is improving - his trot is normal pace now so I don't feel like a mexican jumping bean - he's behaving well, he's happy and relaxed and so am I... it's just great!

To celebrate I have posted a random picture I took of a quokka in WA... Go quokka!

#84 - Teddy's first arena ride with me!

I haven't ridden as much as I would have like to this past week - damn life gets in the way all the time! However I have ridden once at home and yesterday I saddled up and walked Teddy over to the KDARC arena. As before he was hyper alert once we go into the grounds and when we stepped into the arena itself he pranced around a bit. As there was no mounting block there I was trying to mount from a log about as thick as a telegraph pole. He was so hyper that he kept stepping over it, back and forth and I thought I was never going to be able to get on his back. He was starting to make me nervous. But I sucked it up, walked him around the arena a bit and he calmed down enough for me to mount.

During this time a woman with two girls that looked about 6 or 7 years old arrived with two ponies and used the public arena next door. It's all open air so they were right beside me and Teddy was very interested in these ponies. He couldn't take his eyes off of them! I was also interested to hear the woman instructing the children to whack their ponies! I guess that being so small it wouldn't have had much impact as the ponies would hardly feel it and it was probably her way of getting them to give aids that would be felt by the ponies; I just hope that they don't grow up to think that 'whacking' is the way to go.

I went through the paces with Teddy who was ridiculously forward moving to start with so I spent a fair bit of time just trying to get him to walk at a relaxed pace. In a while he was fine. Once again he was great with the aids so I did some balance work and then some trotting work with him. I was pleased with the improvement in my balance but still have a long way to go. Maybe I should be doing some sit-ups on a regular basis... and maybe not! (forget that! I hate structured exercises!) We both handled our session well except my stirrup leathers were giving me the shits. I haven't touched them and for some unknown reason the were bothering me. They have a safety on them as well so I know they weren't twisted. Go figure.

The change in weather and work with Teddy has made him lose a bit of weight. I guess the nutritional value in the grass has changed and the riding has increased his calorie burning. It is noticeable but not a concern as he was too fat anyway. However I do think I could now benefit from a new gullet in my stock saddle. Also, trotting in the stock saddle isn't ideal so I will start looking for a general purpose or dressage saddle and see what second hand deals pop up.

I'm proud of you Teddy! Well done!

#83 - A besotted boy and a busted butt cheek!

Yes, Teddy is still besotted by the recently born calf but has calmed down about it a lot. I don't think it's an issue for him anymore. His leg seems completely healed and he is in need of some attention so I will be back riding him after work on Friday and put my latest lesson into practice.

I had a lesson on Dick yesterday and in the process I must have strained the old gluteus maximus as it's causing me some pain, particularly when getting in and out of my chair. I think this is a result of working outside the arena yesterday.

I arrived at my lesson while Kim was working one of her horses. While walking to the arena I had the overwhelming urge to just go and ride - no lesson, just explore the property and venture out on a leisurely horsey adventure. I put this to Kim as she was working her green mare but she felt that the mare wasn't ready for such an outing but suggested that we could have a lesson with a difference.

We started off in another arena to the usual and Dick was a lot more forward moving in these surroundings. I hadn't ridden in over a week due to Teddy's injury and it felt like I had never been on Dick before! Dick has a lot more speed in him then he lets on! Also, that morning I was in such a rush to get to work and had my mind on a meeting I was having that I hadn't packed my jodhpurs or anything so I was doing my lesson in my work clothes. Luckily I wore my riding boots to work!

Anyway, after a while we went out into the front paddock which had a number of natural obstacles like tall grass, ditches, uneven surfaces etc and I was learning to improve my balance out of the seat out there. Just at a trot it was a whole new world of balance due to every few steps being a different surface. I concentrated on riding through ditches out of the saddle. I think that all the moving about made me pull a muscle of something. It was a great lesson though because it is definitely something I can replicate at home.

I will spend the next week working this through with Teddy. Although I feel stable and comfortable in the saddle and don't have an issue with any of this, the fact that I don't always balance correctly really annoys me. I really want to get this right and I know when I get it right but cant do it consistently as yet. I have to learn to keep the inside of my calves in contact with the horse at all times while rising out of the saddle without using my knees or thighs or moving forward. I know my problem is my feet so I really have to concentrate on this. The slightest move forward and I'm out of alignment; having my toes pointing down and I'm messes everything up etc. Damn annoying!

I will also read Sally Swift's Centred Riding to see if this can flip the switch for me so I get this the way I want it. I've been doing this now for two months (seems longer doesn't it?!) so I am happy with my progress in some sense, but I expect more of myself.