Riding = Physics

Today's epiphany was that riding in the history of my life has been very much like physics in the history of my life.
My dad, the physicist, is naturally good at physics. My trainer, the best rider I've ever known, is naturally good at riding. (Though they both might argue that it took them lots of work over lots of time to get "naturally good".) Which means as I struggle along with them, I get frustrated and cry easily. For both. Which is embarrassing, now that I'm over 30.
Like physics, I have to struggle very hard at riding to "get" a certain concept, and once I get it, my only reward is to get another glimpse of how much more there is to get. I will never be a physicist, nor a professional rider.
Unlike physics, an object in motion, especially if it is Mercury, does not tend to stay in motion.
However, very much like what I think are quarks, when riding Willig, I tend to either know the velocity or the location of him, which is to say, I can either steer OR go the proper speed, but not both at the same time.
For both though, as with anything that takes effort, the rewards, though they may be few and far between, certainly make me feel I have earned them.

1/13 - Willig Lesson - Lunge, Ground Poles, and Prednisolone

We started today's lesson intending to have Bob watch me lunge Willig to see why he still doesn't listen and doesn't move forward. Since I couldn't get him to do either (in a spectacularly failing way), Bob came out to "get him to pay attention" and then Willig started to act up. We punched new holes in his cavesson, because it has been twisting and the outside rubs near his eye.
Then Bob set up a little jump (less than 2 feet) and lunged him over it a few times.
Willig did that pretty well.
Then I got on, and Bob set out four ground poles (the raised ones) where we spectacularly smashed around. Alice and Debbie were watching, and I got frustrated and started crying.
I asked Bob to do it, so I could watch to see what he did differently. While Willig tapped one every once in a while, he did not smash through them like with me.
I didn't learn what Bob was trying to teach me, but I did learn by watching Bob. He does his half halts much stronger than I do, and he says it's because he rides with a loose outside rein except for when he's half halting. I ride with constant contact, and a light half halt. So that was pretty interesting.
Bob doesn't think he was worked much over ground poles before. He seemed puzzled by them, but curious and with a good personality about figuring it out.
After Bob walked Willig around a few minutes, he asked him to trot again, and Willig almost bucked him off. It was the hugest buck I've ever seen. I don't know how Bob stayed on.
So then Bob had to ride him, do some trot and walk and canter to make sure he was behaving. He tried to buck again at the canter, but Bob was ready for it.
So I'm frustrated. The hives aren't going away and we have no idea what's causing them. Every time we drop the prednisolone down, they blast back into existence. And two people now have told me the human version makes them all aggressive and agitated, which I think is happening to Willig too.
I feel like every time I work with him, it's just more problems. I know I've progressed a lot from when I started with him a few months ago, but am I progressing fast enough, or am I ruining him in the meantime? It's helpful to see him act up with Bob, because Bob is basically a genius, so no wonder I feel frustrated, but it's a question of why he's acting up. Because I don't know what I'm doing? Because he's testing his boundaries? Because of the prednisolone?
And Mercury is still lame.
Chiropractor comes Tuesday, and I'm calling vet Monday about allergy tests.
So this week I am working on:
Lunge line - no "warm-up" time where I let him look around - he starts working with the first trot. When he ignores me or goes too slow, make the lunge line shorter so I am closer with the whip, and then go after him until he does it properly. Bob showed me what a "proper" trot looks like on the lunge line, so I need to try to remember that.
Riding - more riding, soft hands that are bossy and firm about commands, and keep the impulsion.
We looked at the 1st level tests, and I think Bob can probably ride that starting in Feb/March.

1/5/08 - Inside hand, Return of the Whip, Shows

This lesson started with my question about open hips - is it "right" to have hips that move like a nordic track (i.e. the two seat bones slide backward and forward like your feet on a nordic track) or it is right to have a soft belly and your hips sort of roll forward and move with the horse? Bob said it is moving WITH the horse that is correct. Pushing your seat bones backwards and forwards, especially when you do them one at a time, makes the horse off balance. You follow the horse, except when you are driving him with your seat, in which case you push, but you push equally with both sides. So even though I have felt both Willig and Mercury step bigger and out when I am moving my seat (nordic track), I am actually making them have to balance themselves.
The soft belly is easy to do when I am relaxed and laughing, but when I focus and try to do it, it goes away.

Miracle #2 from today's lesson was using my inside hand. I complained that I am still having trouble getting Willig to bend to the inside. It turns out it's because I leave my inside rein loose and floppy, so each half halt to the outside is actually turning his head to the outside. Duh. This will work well with last lesson's trick of holding onto the saddle pad - so long as I also keep the inside rein tight enough, we'll solve the head to the outside problem.

Willig has been a little slow - I thought it was because Bob was working him, and Bob thinks it is partly becuase of all the meds for the hives. So today we returned to the whip. There are two things I learned - first, keep the whip to the inside, because I have the rail on the outside to keep him in line. Second, use the whip on his shoulder (and tell him with a light tap that I have it), instead of on his butt. That prevents me from pulling on the rein when I move my hand back to tap him.

So, again today I begged Bob to stop because my brain was full. I already am almost at capacity with all the things I have to remember just to ride him around, so I can really only take one new thing per lesson to work on.

The most important thing to do right now is maintain his impulsion, because once he loses that we will have problems. For example, if I use my legs all the time, even when he's already moving forward, he'll start to ignore my legs and then when Bob uses his legs before an enormous jump, Willig will ignore him. So I also worked on holding my leg out stiff and not using them to tell him to go. He responded really well to the whip, but I had problems getting my legs to obey me, just like with the tap lesson.

We also talked about show expectations. Bob wants to take him to a couple at novice, then ride him training level next summer at the recognized shows. The following year, he wants to take him prelim.

Once again, the hives are almost completely gone. I thought they looked a little worse on Thursday, then better Friday, and almost gone today. The vet had us increase his pills from 10 to 15, twice a day, and I am supposed to call her Monday to tell her how he is and find out what to do next. I hope we can start cutting him back. We are going to put him on garlic and rosehips, Missing Link, and then have a homeopathic remedy. It's almost time for him to start eating oats anyway.

They're baaaccckkk

The hives came back today. There's only a few and they're really small, but they were not there yesterday. They are worse on his right side and they are primarily on his neck, although there's a few on his butt.

1/1/08 - Ringing in the New Year With a Tap Lesson

I had two problems in my one ride between lessons. Willig quit trotting when we were going across the diagonal about 20 minutes into our ride and I couldn't get him to go again (until he felt like it), and then the canter was a fiasco.
We didn't get to cantering today because there was a scary spot on the wall, and we worked on going past the scary spot. The breakthrough came when Bob realized that when he says "tap" I squeeze, which is, surprisingly to me, not the same thing.
A tap is an actual, honest to god, leg away from the horse then back on the horse, TAP.
A squeeze is when your leg doesn't lift up, even if you pinch with your knees and lift your heel up.
So after 10 times past the spot and me squeezing and Willig moving away from the wall, we did ONE time with the tap method and he stayed right on the rail. Perfectly.
It sounds simple, but I then proceeded to lose control of my body and my leg wouldn't obey me for the difference between tap and squeeze and I begged Bob not to add anything more becuase merely controlling my leg (on top of the other things I still have to think about) is more than enough until Saturday's lesson.
We tried on the saddle that one of the other boarders is selling, and although it is really nice and a Stubben, I didn't like the way it makes your leg hang, and it was too big for me, and wasn't a perfect fit for Willig. I need to get him two saddles though, so I can stop using Bob's. (And his own bridle and cavesson and etc. etc.)
I had to put a "stretchie" on his chest. His blanket is rubbing two bare spots on his shoulders. Fortunately, the one I had for Mercury fit him.
He's been very good about taking his meds. The vet cut them back since he responded so well to the dexamethazone. He is now getting 10 tablets twice a day for 5 days, then 10 tablets once a day for 5 days. I grind them in a mortar and pestle, then add warm water, then add apple juice. Today I stupidly gave it to him when he had hay in his mouth, so some hay and some meds came flying out, but not that much.
Alice and I talked about putting him on some herbs when we start giving him oats (when he actually starts working, which should be in the next month or so because Bob said the dressage shows start in February). Right now I am thinking: missing link, garlic & kelp, and an immunity mix.
Bob thinks he can ride 1st level and maybe 2nd level (with Bob), and then I hope I can ride him training level (if we keep working on the canter).
Also, Mercury is lame - no swelling, no heat, no tenderness, but I saw him bob a little yesterday and today it was much worse. I'm going to walk him only the next few days and see what happens. I'm guessing that Bob's prediction, like all his others (rubbing his head during a dressage test; stall guards break and horses can run loose at shows being two prior accurate predictions), came true, and he slipped running around when it was cold when I turned him out yesterday.