Author: Laura Highcove

So my next step with Maggie has been Setting up, which is when you move a horse’s hooves so they are in a box. This shows off a horse in their best position and is apparently when, during a horsemanship routine, the judge comes over to look at the horse? Not perfectly clear on what the judge is doing the rest of the time yet, but I’m sure he/she knows, so I won’t worry about it.

This is actually something I learned way back when I started, but my first few (failed) attempts I was trying to make Maggie move her feet with only the little movements that Morgan and Deb can make, and of course Maggie would just ignore me. Once I was reminded that, as a beginner I should over exaggerate my signals I began getting a response, and am slowly working my way down to smaller signals. Though it it worth noting that Morgan told me to avoid ever trying to move the back right leg (on my left) unless the other three were perfect because it’s the hardest to move. I had noticed that by trying on several occasions. I think I will take her advice. 🙂

In other news, Becca rode Homerun today. She is thinking of buying him and wanted to try him out. Also, Nora has gone MIA to New Jersey. Not sure exactly what’s going on there, but I expect to be doing MWF mornings on my own for a while. Blah.

So recently we got a new horse in the barn named Scarlett. She’s solid brown with a flaxen mane and tail. She’s rather skiddish, and I’ve heard that several people had her charge past the wheelbarrow to escape the stall when it was being mucked out.

Today after I watched Rachael, Najerri (I know I spelled it wrong, but at least I know what her name is now.) and Morgan ride, Deb did some training with Scarlett in the round pen.

She ran her around and used a long rope (I forget what they called it.) to have her halt when she called out ‘ho’. After that Deb tried to join up with her, but Scarlett seemed to be too unsure of it. She stood and watched Deb, but didn’t make any attempts to go to her. Deb ended up eventually making her way to Scarlett, moving up whenever the mare looked away from her.

When I got home I did some research on Rocky Mountain Horses, which are an extremely hardy breed that was developed in the mountains of Kentucky. They are gaited horses (have an extra gait from the time they are born.) and apparently the “silver” gene is a trait, which is why they almost all have the flaxen mane and solid body.

Apparently poor Scarlett has trust issues because the the breed is supposed to be extremely loyal, like dogs. Thus the fact that she didn’t join up with Deb is unusual for the breed and is probably attributed to something that happened in her past. Hopefully she’ll feel better with some good, solid training.

Still having problems with Maggie just being ahead of me when I stop. She’s been doing pretty well stopping exactly when I do, but I’m still ending up behind her neck. It’s frustrating me, so today I did some laps without a horse seeing if I could figure out why I kept ending up behind. I didn’t come up with much.

In a month Carol (I realize now I never asked for a last name.) is going to be coming to give a clinic at the barn. Since I’m not riding yet, I would only be in the horsemanship part. I’m rather excited about the prospect, and the cost isn’t totally prohibitive, though it isn’t a nominal amount either. Plus even if I’m not in everything, I can still sit and watch. I’m learning tons around the barn just by doing this, so I’m actually still excited to just watch as well. I wonder if she’d let me tape it. I guess I could always ask. Worst thing, she just says no.

I also finally got my camera to the barn. Got some pictures of the horses who get turned out every day. It was a beautiful day, so I hope they turned out. I’ll see if I feel like posting them later.

So for this lesson Deb taught me the trot. It consists of lowering your body, crouching almost and jogging forward while keeping the top part of your body straight and hands still.

It feels kind of weird in a silly way, but Maggie responded immediately to it. My particular problem seems to be in that I kind of straighten back up a bit as I move, meaning when it’s time to go back to a walk, I don’t have much place to go back up to.

I’m still having issues with stopping. I practiced such that I don’t take an extra large step when I’m stopping which caused Maggie to think I was continuing forward, but it seems to be an issue that my arm is too long. I can’t have my hand beside her jaw and stand at the right place at her neck unless I have my elbow beside me instead of in front like I was told to.

I was getting rather frustrated about it as I keep being too far back even if Maggie stops right when she’s supposed to. I started dropping my elbow back even though I’m not really supposed to so I can try and stay in the right spot better.

Then today Morgan came out with Money and did some horsemanship. I’m not sure if it was for my benefit or not, but it was nice to see it up close again now that I know what to look for. The way she stops is something I really would like to aim for. She kind of leans back just a bit as she steps into her final place. Money still overshot her a few times, which made me feel a little better about my own failures. She also did a perfect haunch turn that made me extremely jealous. I haven’t tried that in a few weeks but I still remember the disaster that was my trying it.

Dill behaved himself today, which is the first time I’ve seen him do so. I also got his story.

More terminology: Leg yields, half pass

I’m working on my own posture now. Putting my shoulderblades together, which of course sticks out my chest, which is something I have avoided. That and my back is really weak so holding my shoulders back gets tiring really quickly.

I also seem to be thinking about stopping too much and tend to take a larger step when I am about to stop, which confuses Maggie. So I worked without her on Wednesday (Tuesday Deb couldn’t make lessons.)

Despite it being hard, I am enjoying it. Not always thrilled to get up in the morning, but once I get there my mood improves. The next step is working on losing weight and getting in better shape. Of course it won’t be easy, but after the doctor’s appointment tomorrow that I need to not forget, it’s my next goal.

So I was finishing up getting loads of sawdust when Megan told me I could join the advanced class in their horsemanship lesson with Maggie. This happened on Wednesday, so I was a little surprised, but it seemed like it would be fun to me.

I feel guilty about it, but I don’t think I remember the names of the two girls that were there. I want to say Rachel and Jenna, but I could be entirely wrong. Blah names.

Anyway, the girl I think is Rachel had Dill on a lounge rope, and the girl I think is Jenna had Ella on a shank, and was walking around like I was.

I walked around, working on my straightness and stopping again. I also managed to begin timing my steps so that I was going at a pace that matched Maggie’s. I could hear her hoof-beats (so glad she’s on my right) which gave me the right timing. I had less problems with her bending away due to my speed (or lack of it) as a result.

After a while, Megan came out to show me how to do a haunch turn. The goal is to rotate the horse on her back right leg, such that it stays in place and the rest of the horse moves around it.

Megan also traced in the dirt the three positions needed for horsemanship. Perpendicular to the horse, parallel to the horse, and diagonal (about 45 degrees between the other two)

Anyway, for a haunch turn I needed to be parallel to Maggie, shoulders squared at her head. The point is to step into her and have her move away from me while keeping her right hind leg in place and keeping her body straight. I also have to keep my eyes on that right hind leg the entire time. (If it goes out of view, then she’s bending which is a nono.)

I had some trouble with this one. Most of the time I failed to follow the ‘circle’ around her and kind of kept going straight such that she had to move forward to follow me. Far fewer times I moved too close to her, forcing her backward. I did manage to get it…for a few (slow) steps two or three occasions, but I still don’t feel how it’s supposed to be. And she’s certainly not staying straight, which probably means I’m not keeping my shoulders square.

Somehow I wonder why this is next in the list of things to learn instead of backing up (which I saw Jenna doing) which seems much easier than haunch turns since it seems like you just have to walk in a straight line. Well time will see if I eat those words when I get to backing up or not.

Oh, I also tried setting up…once…but she got bored with me and I gave up in embarrassment.