And what can I write about this week?  For my lesson on Wednesday it was HOT and muggy.  Then it cooled down on Friday, when I could not ride, it didn't even get up to 70 F, nice, cool and breezy.  Now the heat is coming back in, this morning when I rode it was not too bad but the weathermen are predicting brutal heat by Wednesday.  It was nice to have a break in the heat. 

My riding just was not as good as it should be this week.  This happens every summer, I start off thinking that maybe this year I'll be able to adapt but as the weeks go by my body just deteriorates.  Of course the mares are quite willing to tell me so in case I haven't noticed.  So I have to gear back and content myself with just a few good strides of each movement until my body messes up some and the mares tell me to back off.  I don't blame them, everything in my body gets worse, my balance, my coordination, my proprioceptive sense, my endurance and my strength just disappear and the mares are willing to put with just so much from me.  Their response to my worsening aids deteriorates, how can they help it?  I am sure that my hands and arms are not responding like I think they should to my thoughts.  And the correct coordination and timing of my aids just disappears.  This gets worse when it goes from hot to cool and then hot again.  In the cool weather my body improves, and then the worsening from the heat feels even worse.

I had a pretty good ride Wednesday even though Mia's bruised foot still bothers her some which limited trotting.  Since I did not have enough energy to trot that worked out well.  After a short trot on each side we just walked around and Mia actually picked up contact.  The Spirit reins roundings seem to give us enough cushion so we both feel comfortable with the contact.  Since I have finally gotten my Dr. Cook's cob sized cross-under equipped with the Spirit reins I could finally lend it to Debbie, she was pleased because she wants to use it on her problem child and see what the results are.  So the second part of my ride I was showing Debbie the mistakes I had made using the Spirit bridle and how I had adapted my hand aids to using it.  Mia did not like me repeating my mistakes at all, even just for a stride or two.  I got some sour looks from her until I mended my ways then she relaxed though she did not offer to pick up contact again.  I sorted hated repeating my mistakes but since there is a definite difference between the Nurtural cross-under and the Spirit bridle I felt like I had to show Debbie how Mia reacted when Mia considered my hand aids too rough, especially when I alternated the hand aids too quickly.

I asked Debbie if she could get feedback on the Spirit Bridle used with the running martingle from her dressage student, Bev.  I am interested in how horses with different levels of sensitivity react to it.  Mia is sort of sensitive, she will put up with some mistakes but she really appreciates good riding.  Debbie's problem child, an Arabian gelding named Tercel, is even more sensitive that Mia on her worst days, plus he has a problem with keeping his attention on his work, he'd rather be scared of everything outside the ring.  Bev is riding horses who are not quite this sensitive.  Between the three of us, each with decades of riding experience, we should get a pretty good idea of the uses and limitations of the Spirit bridle.  I also told Debbie that to me the Spirit bridle was a refined guidance system, like the double bridle or bosal/spade bit systems.  As such I think that it should be saved for her more advanced riders.  The Spirit bridle NEEDS the rider to have an independent seat so that the contact is LIGHT.  If a beginner uses the Spirit bridle then the horse would become deadened to its effects just like a horse's mouth gets "hard" when ridden with unsympathetic hands.  I think that the Nurtural cross-under bridles are more suitable for beginners than the Spirit cross-under bridles.  Especially since Debbie's students mostly jump!  Both cross-under systems work off the lower jaw bones, but I think that the flat straps of the Nurtural are less likely to hurt the horse if its rider looses her balance.  The rounded parts of the Spirit bridle seem to give the horse a much more noticeable signal, this is why my hand aids have to be so light with it! 

Cider was not very happy with me today.  Since I was having to recalibrate my body from those wonderful cool days I wasn't anywhere my top form and Cider made sure that I realized it!  She was continually trying to dive in toward Shannon and I could not get my aids coordinated enough to prevent her from twisting herself into a pretzel and I'm afraid my hands got heavy.  Her first trot was doggy, no impulse at all.  So I worked at a walk on serpentines and circles for a few minutes just to loosen her up and her next trot was full of impulse but she did not want to trot for long.  So we went back to the walk, still doing serpentines and circles, and I worked a bit at keeping her out at the arena fence and finally got her out of her pretzel movements.  At the third try she gave me a decent turn on the hindquarters, almost turning around her inside hind.  She promptly extended her walk some when I asked her to, and she even straightened out some while doing it.  Her halting and standing on loose reins also improved, the first two times our "discussions" were shorter and at the third time she mostly consented to standing though she would try to move a foot occasionally, but when I blocked her she went back to standing with the reins loose.  The most progress was at the end of my ride, of course, Cider finally consented to me "parallel parking" her several feet away from Shannon without any discussions at all.  Ah, progress!

I am so glad that I have alternatives to using a bit during the hot, hot summers!  I shudder to think how badly my hands would deteriorate during my rides, going from good light contact to unsteady and rough contact as I got tired.  At least I am not tormenting my horse's mouths when everything goes bad.  Using the bitless options in the heat of the summer is the only way that I can guarantee that the horses' mouths will be light and responsive in the fall when I can ride better in the cooler temperatures.  Using the bitless bridles I have to be really aware of where my hands are so that I do not get into such bad habits as not keeping my hands steady in relation to the horse's head at the posting trot, something that is easy for me to do when I do not get feedback from the horse's mouth.  I also have to be careful not to move my hands too much keeping contact at a walk, last summer my hands got into the bad habit of moving up and down to keep contact as well as back and forth.  At least I can always depend on Debbie to tell me when I start riding badly!  She has finally stopped yelling at me about my lower legs, I am now keeping them where they belong.  Now she works on my posture mostly, in the heat my body just wants to melt into a shapeless blob of protoplasm.  NOT good for riding a horse!

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran