The heat wave continues down here in NC, highs in the 90’s as far as one can see.  I just got to ride once this week, but to help alleviate my boredom I got to ride a horse I’ve never ridden before!

Tilly is a pony, about 13.3?  She is a sort of “dusty” palomino with a lot of pink skin around her muzzle.  She is 30 years old, and I learned a little about her history.  She was supposed to be horse sized (her dam was 16.1,) but her dam died the day after birth and she never grew much.  Decades ago she showed up at Debbie’s stable in the back of a truck, the owner of the truck had taken Tilly in payment for a debt, and he stopped by Debbie’s stable on the way to taking Tilly to the “glue factory” and offered to sell Tilly to Debbie for $500 USD.  So Tilly found a home with Debbie and after a few years of discussions and training became one of Debbie’s lesson horses.  Tilly needs A LOT of leg to get going, but she has the smoothest trot and canter in the stable.  Nowadays Tilly’s expertise is introducing beginning riders to the canter.

Debbie was gone this week, so I arranged to have a lesson with Debbie’s daughter, Sam (short for Samantha.)  Since I am giving Mia the rest of the hot weather off and because I don‘t feel “safe” on Tercel unless Debbie is in the ring with us, I needed a horse for my lesson with Sam.  Given the choice between a short, smooth gaited mare that needed a lot of leg and a rougher gaited and taller gelding that needed less leg I went with the smoother gaited horse, hey, it is HOT and my balance is not as good as usual.  I had brought out my ancient Stubben Siegfried, my Corrector pad, and my Micklem bridle with the Wellep bit, and miraculously everything fit adequately.  As Sam groomed Tilly and tacked her up I explained my riding philosophy--I do everything I can not to irritate the horse so the horse will forgive me all my inconvenient MS symptoms of unsteadiness, bad balance, in coordination, and legs that sometimes twitch uncontrollably.  Sam was not worried at all, after all Tilly is used to teach beginners, and said Tilly would appreciate being ridden differently.  Since Sam grew up with Tilly she is very familiar with Tilly’s peculiarities and understands what Tilly is “saying” about her rider.

So I got up on Tilly and told her to walk.  When she gave me her lesson horse walk (slow, very slow) I alternated my legs to get her to lengthen her stride.  Tilly strode right out, and before I got my leg aids timed exactly right she even “offered” me the beginning of a running walk.  When I got my legs straightened out Tilly strode fearlessly forth causing Sam to say “I’ve never seen Tilly walk that fast before!”  To add to my “statement” that I was not a beginning rider I started going around all the jumps, working on showing Tilly that we could do good turns with a totally loose inside rein, changing the flexions of her body just using my legs, seat, and outside hand.  I have found that showing a horse that I can get the horse to turn without using my inside rein often seems to relax the horse and calms it down, and makes the horse more attentive when I do use my inside rein.  The first time we halted Tilly did not understand what my alternating fingers meant, by the second halt she showed that she was beginning to understand my hand aids, and by the third time Tilly had it down cold, cheerfully halting to the alternate twitches of my little fingers.

Then I tried to trot her.  Leg, leg, leg, a shuffling trot that immediately petered out.  The next time I tried I got a slightly longer trot.  Then I asked Sam to find a crop (they often litter the ring), gave her my fly whisk, and Tilly was a little bit more eager to move on at the trot.  I was pretty hot and tired by then, so I got a short trot from Tilly where I firmly refused to let her shuffle back down to the walk, and then I went back to the walking the rest of my lesson.

At the end of my half hour I asked Sam how Tilly liked my tack, well Tilly liked my tack fine, and she had no problems with the Wellep bit and her back remained relaxed under my saddle/Corrector combination.  She also told me that Tilly had a specific behavior pattern when Tilly thought that her rider was riding her too harshly, Tilly just ignores the reins and goes in the opposite direction than what her rider wants (I call this running away at a walk) so she KNEW that Tilly had no problems with me riding her.  Then I asked Sam how I did riding, and Sam said I did great, my lower legs were steady and my hands stayed still.  Sam told me that anytime I HAD to ride a horse that it would be fine to come out, get Tilly out of the pasture, and ride her.  All during my ride I took into consideration that Tilly is OLD and still works for her living so I gave her (and me) plenty of rest breaks, a 4 MPH walk takes a lot more energy than a 2 MPH walk after all.  When I ride Tilly again I will probably ask permission to change my Spursuader spurs for my smooth rowel spurs, at least I will once it gets cooler and I know I can control my lower legs better.  That could help me keep her in her trot.

People, if you are a good rider consider riding a beginner lesson horse occasionally.  These angel horses DESERVE to have a good rider on them once in a while.  They know a lot about people, and I have found them to be unusually cooperative and capable of learning my sort of peculiar aid system within the first ten minutes of our rides.  Yes, there may be a few discussions while you prove to them that you know what you are doing, but since they are being ridden differently they often take great interest in learning new ways of doing the same old thing.  You may be amazed at what these plodding horses can do under a good rider.

On Friday I went out to groom Mia. She had not been fed yet so I held her bucket as she ate her breakfast.  Several times Mia made a point of gently grazing my hands with her muzzle as she ate, as if she was telling me how much she enjoyed eating her breakfast with me there.  Since I did not have to save my energy up to rider her I gave Mia a thorough currying, and Mia enjoyed every minute of it.  I kept on getting the message of “more, More, MORE” as she leaned into the curry comb.  When I brushed up between her upper hind legs Mia was in heaven, twisting her leg so I would be sure to hit every itchy spot.  The good news about Mia is that she did not cough at all even when I groomed between her jowl bones, something that had guaranteed a coughing spell the last few months.  She also did not cough when we worked on her hind hooves, a GREAT relief for me as I rasped her rapidly growing hooves down.

After my husband and I finished grooming Mia and I put on her fly spray, I asked my husband to walk her up and down the barn aisle three times so she could “earn“ her treat.  The bad news about Mia is that she sort of teeters when doing a tight turn, and I got a feeling of weakness from her.  Next week I will probably walk her up and down the driveway some, the turns won’t be as tight and I can let her get some fresh grass.  I hope I can get Mia moving better, right now she looks too unsteady to be safe to ride.  Once the heat wave ends I will ask Debbie her opinion.  Until then I will take care of Mia once a week, she LOVES being groomed.

Since I did not ride Mia I gave her only two handfuls of feed for her treat instead of her usual three handfuls (she gets more when it is cold.)  Mia finished her two handfuls and looked at me saying that I forgot the third handful.  Tough luck Mia, to get three handfuls in the summer as a treat you have to carry me around the ring.

Next week Debbie will be back and I will get to try my Stubben Siegfried with my Corrector to see if it will work with Tercel.  I am planning to bring the shims for my Corrector, I suspect that I will have to put the rear ones in so that the saddle is balanced for me.  If that does not work it will be back to the EZ-Fit saddle until I can afford to buy a jumping saddle that fits him better.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran       

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