August is turning out to be an eventful month!  First, my sympathy to all those on the East Coast who are suffering from Irene.  Over here in Stanly County we were very fortunate, we just got clouds, some wind gusts and a tiny bit of rain.  I feel sorry for all the people and domestic animals trying to deal with the enormous rainfall from this storm.  May your houses, barns, paddocks and pastures drain off soon!  How did the horses react to the earthquake in Virginia?  We only got a little tremor down here.

On Wednesday I got my lesson with Debbie on Mia.  I used my Spirit bridle with two sets of reins and the running martingle.  Debbie was full of complements on how Mia was moving, telling me that Mia's topline was much more relaxed and that Mia was reaching forward more.  She liked the results much more than what she saw when I rode Mia in my Jumping Cavesson bridle.  I mostly kept contact with the nose-band reins, during my ride the cross-under reins going through the running martingle rings were slack.  Even with the slack cross-under reins Mia's topline improved!  She accepted contact fine though her neck still gets tired pretty quickly and she wants to stretch out.  Mia's feet were still sore from the trim so I could not get her to extend her walk or her trot much, she tried but the joyful reaching forward just was not there.  This is the price I pay when I can't keep up with rasping her hoofs in the summertime, between the faster growing hooves and the stomping against the flies Mia's hooves quickly get chunks out especially at the quarters, and the farrier has to trim further up the hoof to get everything in balance.  Horses do not like walking directly on the soles of their feet!  Until her hoof walls grow out enough so they can bear her weight she will be sore.

On Friday I got to ride a new horse!  When we picked up my saddle from the tack shop my husband overheard a lady who was trying to find a good home for an Arabian gelding she was not riding any more.  My husband gave her Debbie's name, Debbie went out a few times to try out the horse, and Debbie ended up with the horse at her barn while she tries to find a buyer.  This Arab gelding, Mick, is a GORGEOUS horse.  Grey almost white, short craggy dished head, arched neck, good withers, wonderfully sloping shoulder, balanced, Mick is almost but not quite perfect.  He is taller than Mia (14.3 3/4?).  Though I usually ride on my own on Fridays Debbie kindly helped me ride Mick.  Poor Mick is sort of sad about having to leave his old home, the first time I got to talk to him last week I sympathized on how hard it was to leave a home and how much he missed his human and equine buddies.  It can be hard on a horse to leave home, Mick has had to deal with a strange barn, strange horses, strange people handling him, strange people riding him, strange saddles, and strange bridles and bits!  Mick is handling it like an old pro, but he still appreciates sympathy!  

So we groomed and tacked up Mick with yet another strange saddle (luckily my Stubben Siegfried with the Corrector pad fit him fine) and a whole new set of head gear, my Spirit bridle with the running martingle.  He had been trimmed this week after several months of neglect and he was also foot sore, fortunately Debbie's ring has deep sand.  My son found him sort of head shy so I quietly and sympathetically groomed his head, and since I was sympathetic I had no problems.  His head is so short that I had to shorten the cheekpieces on the bridle, he may be taller than Mia and Cider but his head is shorter.  The eternal variety of horses!   When we got out to the ring, Debbie checked everything over and I mounted.  Mick is a well trained horse, he stood motionless until I told him to move on.  Since his feet were sore (I think his toes were bothering him) I did not get the joyous Arab movement, but I could tell that when Mick's feet grow out that he will be able to fly.  He marched forward, obeyed all my aids once I explained them to him, and kept contact with the noseband reins just fine.   I was all happy until I looked down and saw that he was flexing his neck at the third vertebrae.  No matter how light my contact was, when we established contact he tucked his nose back.  Oh no!!!  I know that 99.9 % of horsemen seem to think that this is fine nowadays, but I am an old-fashioned rider and I feel like a total failure as a rider when my horse tucks his nose back.  Mick was obviously trained to tuck his nose when the rider put traction on the reins.  Since Arabs' necks are already arched it is comfortable for them to travel with the nose tucked in and it can be the very dickens to get them to travel properly, reaching out calmly into contact.

I find that nowadays I much rather get up on a horse without "good" training.  Yes they are rough moving and I have some interesting discussions with these horses, but once they understand what my aids are saying they reach out with their noses like a properly moving horse and start striding out boldly into the future.  Once they reach out I can train them.  But a well trained horse nowadays?  Overflexed, leading with the ears and poll instead of with the nose, false contact where the action of the rein does NOT directly affect the hind leg properly, and with their faces behind vertical they move TOTALLY ON THE FOREHAND.  Seriously folks, I'm a Forward Seat rider and I ride forward at least 95% of the time I'm in the saddle, so when I feel a horse is too much on its forehand believe me, I am right.  EVERY time I ride a horse with its neck breaking at the third vertebrae and its face behind the vertical the horse is pounding its front feet into the ground and its hind legs are wavering around behind.  No wonder Mick did not want to reach out with his feet, not only were they sore but the way Mick has been trained to carry himself meant that he was pounding them HARD into the ground.  Poor horse!  His hind end was not carrying as much of his weight as a properly trained and ridden Forward Seat horse does as a matter of course on both loose reins and on contact.  Sort of ironic, Forward Seat trainers get the horse to carry more weight on the hindquarters than is usual now, when everything is supposedly based on dressage and collected riding.  In fact come to think of it this strengthening of the hindquarters is the first thing I have to do nowadays when I start riding a horse unless the horse is trained Forward Seat.  "Collected" work with the face behind the vertical does not strengthen the hindquarters to my satisfaction.  JMHO.  I know most people disagree.   

I loved riding Mick!  If there was any way I could afford to support a horse properly Mick would be mine.  There is a VERY GOOD HORSE under the improper (though currently approved) training.  Next time I ride him I will try the Spirit Bridle with just the cross-under reins and running martingle.  If after a few weeks that does not work to get him moving properly I will switch to the Nurtural cross-under (without the running martingle) until I get him freely striding forward with his nose leading.  Then back to the Spirit bridle until his neck gets the proper muscles for proper movement strong enough to stride forth boldly.  Then, after a few months, I would try using a bit, probably a regular Dr. Bristol.  All this time I will also have to concentrate on his hind legs, encouraging them to reach forward under him and take some of the weight off his forehand!  But I don't think I'll get to ride Mick that long. 

I hope Mick gets sold soon to a good rider.  Mick will make anyone who buys him very, very happy.  He is so beautiful and so cute and sooooo well behaved.  He also likes talking to people once he knows them, Debbie called his owner while I was riding him to give her an update and Mick heard his owner's voice.  While obeying me perfectly Mick got the message through to me that he wanted to say HI! to his owner.  So we went up to Debbie, I told her what he wanted, she held the phone up to his nose and Mick blew gently through his lips, then he was content, he had said hi.  His owner told Debbie that Mick was always very vocal with her and her family.  When I left the barn to go to my car Mick actually gave me a neigh, THAT has not happened to me for years!  I so wish I could be the one to buy him, I liked the way he felt under me, solid, reliable and uncomplicated.  Oh well, sometimes reality sucks.

Cider was a lot more comfortable when I rode her today.  Shannon had made a fleece cover for the dressage girth and I had gotten some martingle fleece covers to put over the long billet straps.  These martingle covers are wonderful, they have Velcro down the whole length of the fleece tube.  Shannon cut the martingle covers in half and they covered the billet straps where they went past the skirt of the saddle down to the buckle of the girth.  With the girth and billet straps covered in fleece Cider decided to quit bitching about my Wintec Wide saddle.  Now she is back to bitching about my riding, as is proper.  I'm still having some problems adjusting my front to back balance in the saddle, I think I will have to lengthen my stirrup leathers another hole.  Then I will just be back to trying to stay centered in the saddle, my side-to-side balance is not much better than my front-to-back balance, and with Cider's wide flat back there is nothing holding the saddle in place.  This is not a new problem, EVERY saddle I've put on Cider shifts from side to side unless I am very careful.  I'm pretty sure that most of my problems with Cider come from the fact that I just can't keep myself reliably centered in the saddle.  Just one of my many limitations caused by my MS.

I hope I can ride Mick again next week!  There is nothing like riding a good horse, and a good Arab is even better (yes, I know, I'm prejudiced.)  Debbie's comment about him was that she would feel safe riding him down the local highway in just a halter.  She only says this about the very best horses she gets.  Sane horses, solid horses, horses that a rider can trust through thick and thin. 

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran