Aah, such a nice week, I got to ride both Mick, the new Arab gelding, and Mia, the Arab mare I've been riding.  Two Arabs, I haven't gotten to ride two Arabs in one week for decades.  Joy!!!!!!

Yes, I know each and every horse of every breed and type is a wondrous creature, but to me Arabs have that little extra.  That extra sensitivity, that extra intelligence, that extra cooperativeness, and that extra personality.  They require a light hand and a decent rider and they keep me riding well.  I am so lucky to have found a hunt seat stable that will welcome Arabs and which uses Arabs for lessons.  Debbie likes teaching on hot bloods, TBs and Arabs.  This is good, sensitive horses teach their riders how to be sensitive, how to react quickly, and how to gently persuade the horse to perform.  Debbie turns out better riders because she is willing to put them up on the sensitive hot bloods.  And riding her Arabs makes me happy!

Mick acquired a new owner!  One of Debbies students got him, that lucky, lucky girl, she has a wonderful horse, and every time she sees Mick her heart will melt, he is so gorgeous.  He is on part board and Debbie can use him for lessons, so I can still ride him!  Mick is one fortunate horse, he has a little girl as an owner, he lives in a stable run by a good horsewoman who loves Arabs, lesson riders who have ridden hot bloods, an experienced rider who simply adores Arabs (me), a veterinarian who likes Arabs and a blacksmith who is used to Arabs.  Mick will not be as bored going around the ring since he will have a variety of riders.  It will take a while for Mick to realize just how lucky he is as he is still adjusting to his new home.  I am sure he still misses his previous horse friends and his old owner.  But now he has a new owner and medical insurance Debbie can turn him out with other horses and Mick can find a new equine friend.

I rode Mick in the Spirit Bridle (just one pair of reins) with the running martingle.  Debbie and I discussed his use of his neck, apparantly when she uses Mick in lessons, with a bit and no martingle, he carries his neck properly.  She is beginning to think that Mick was trained at one time by a Western trainer who used a 'training fork' (a REALLY short running martingle) to give Mick a "proper" Western head carriage.  Mick may consider any running martingle to be that fork, and since he is such an obedient horse he puts his head into that horrible Western head carriage.  I will have to stop using the running martingle on Mick, I can't accomplish any good physical therapy to his hind end when his neck is 'broken' at the third vertebrae.  To strengthen his hindquarters I need to get him to push his weight forward with his hind legs, when his head is curled down he is on his forehand and his hind legs are lazily trailing behind and not pushing at all.  Debbie also thinks that this hypothetical Western trainer also used spurs and that Mick takes a spur signal as one to suck back instead of moving out, I'll just have to be sure to keep my feet in their proper places and not use the spur.  I'd take the spurs off but they help me feel where my feet are, and when I don't have them on my feet tend to wander back and forth.

I switched my fly whisk for a riding crop this week and it made a difference.  Mick walked with impulse.  With the fly whisk Mick just tried to laze around, with the crop he strode off.  I did not have to use the crop, just carrying it did the trick.  The first time I wanted him to extend more I hit my own leg with the crop, he saw the crop move and heard the crop hit but he was not irritated by it because it did not sting and he moved out.  The crop did not help his trot though, and I was constantly urging with my legs.  I am lucky in that Mick was ridden in lessons by Debbie's students, they built on what I did by riding Mick without constraining him, and during my ride Mick's back started to swing at the walk.  He still is not too sure about the ultra slow walk, he is beginning to understand moving one leg at a time but he did not see any reason to just creep along right after he gave me a good, swinging walk.  I did a few circles, getting to practice keeping him on the line of the circle with both my hands and legs, he was pretty supple going to the left but quite stiff going to the right.  Backing up was fine, as were the turns on the hindquarters and on the forehand, Mick had also gotten quite good English training in his past.  I am glad, this makes it easier for me to get his hind legs stronger.  Between getting his neck straight so that the hind legs PUSH his body forward, the turn on the hindquarters that put some more weight on his hind end, and the turn on the forequarters that exercise the abductor and adductor muscles of his hind legs, I will be able to encourage the growth of the proper riding muscles in his rear.

I ended  my lesson by doing a sitting trot around the ring.  I had to keep urging with my legs otherwise he fell back into a walk.  Fortunately his back is starting to swing at the trot so I was able to keep both seat bones glued to the saddle instead of bouncing up and down on Mick's back.  His sitting trot is still rough to me (Mia has spoiled me), but that little extra swing to his back made it rideable.  Debbie said I made his sitting trot look easy to ride even if I was moving my pelvis a good bit.  She realizes that moving my pelvis to keep my seat bones glued to the saddle is a way I keep in the saddle, know where I am in the saddle, and how I keep track of the horse's movement so I can time my aids correctly.  It might not make a 'pretty' hunt seat but since I will never show I really don't care.  I'd rather be secure in the saddle than look pretty any time.  I'm still riding forward in the saddle, using Forward Control and doing Forward Schooling, this is just a compromise I had to make with the pure FS so I could still ride well in spite of my handicaps. 

And Debbie and the veterinarian found one problem that has probably been affecting Mick's athletic performance for a while, a HUGE bean in his seath, up under his prepuce.  The poor guy hadn't had his sheath cleaned out for years.  People, if you own a gelding you HAVE to clean his sheath out periodically.  Geldings do not exist in nature, the stallions produce enough slimy fluid so they usually do not get a build up like geldings do.  If you own a gelding, learn how to clean the sheath out, or pay the vet to do it for you.  It HAS to be done, not every week of course, but I'd recomment every year at a minimum.  Mick was a good horse, the vet did not have to tranquilize him to get the bean completely out, Mick just waved his hind leg around warning that he did not like what the vet was doing.  Debbie said Mick was remarkably cooperative during the procedure, poor horse, such a sensitive area!  It will be interesting to see how Mick's movement improves when the soreness goes away.

I got to ride Mia again on Friday.  Since I hadn't ridden her for two and a half weeks to let her sole bruise heal up her hooves had GROWN, and I had to spend some time rasping her long toes down and trying to even out the edges of her hooves.  This was hard, hard work for me, at least in the fall and winter her hooves will not grow as fast.  It took me three times as long to trim Mia since I had to stop and rest between hooves, and Mia got a bit testy about me holding her hind hooves up so long.  Rasping Mia's toes isn't too tiring when I can do it twice a week, but getting those long toes down on Friday was a lot of work.  Luckily I was just planning to walk most of my ride since old horses can lose condition faster than young horses and I did not want to strain Mia's muscles and tendons.  I really did not have to worry about this, visually Mia had not lost any muscle mass or defenition, so she must have kept herself moving around. 

I used both reins on the Spirit Bridle with the running martingle on the cross-under reins, and Mia happily reached for and kept contact with my hands.  As it got hotter during my ride I had more and more problems keeping the reins in my hands properly, but Mia either stood or walked calmly while I repeatedly adjusted my reins.  Since I let the reins slip through my fingers when the horse asks for more rein I need to continually adjust the length of my reins.  This was soooo much easier for me to do decades ago!  Nowadays I drop the reins, confuse one rein for the other, and I have trouble getting both sides at the same length.  I am so glad that I did not have bits at the other end of the reins, if I had Mia would have gotten most displeased with me, as it was Mia was a perfect personification of patience, acceptance and good will toward her bumbling rider.

Mia went correctly, within the limitations of her arthritis.  Her hind legs were always pushing her body forward, her neck was always straight or slightly arched up near her poll, and, as usual, Mia tried to obey every aid perfectly.  She did limp at the trot when doing the tighter turns to the right, I think she lost a little freedom of movement during her vacation.  She backed up four steps straight, she tried to give me a turn on the forehand even though her hocks had stiffened up some, and she was basically a good girl and a joy to ride.  Since it has started to get cooler Mia was more reactive to everything, but once I gave her chances to LOOK at everything she calmed down and concentrated on her work.  She has improved so much during the year and a half I have ridden her, changing from a spooky weak horse who felt like she was falling apart to a calm, confident, solid and properly moving riding horse.  Pretty good for a thirty year old!  I have found that good sane riding can improve even horses that look hopeless, even if the horse just gets 30 minutes to an hour of riding a week.  All it takes is patience, willingness to do slow work, and a rider who knows what she or he is doing.

There will be no blog from me next week as I will be visiting my grandson!  Then I am going up to Maryland where my husband has a stamp show, then on Sunday I will have a lesson with Karen Fenwick at North Fork School of Equitation in Jefferson, Maryland.  North Fork is one of the few Forward Seat schools left, and this means that I will be able to ride a horse that is already trained to go Forward Seat so I can concentrate on my riding.  Not that my riding will be very good at all, this is a loooong trip for me and I will be very tired when I finally get to my lesson, I will be doing good just to keep my head up and my heels down while Karen gently tries to correct my many faults.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran