Quickies

Last lesson from Mike:
- Willig is using poodle as excuse to be naughty
- If he bucks, turn him in a circle, so his hind legs cross
- My interpretation: we're dumbo with his feather (I hope) for the draw reins - Mike pointed out they're slack a lot of the time.
- We're making smaller (dressage arena size, not full arena size - I'm so lucky to be at Forest Park) circles so he isn't "surprised" as he comes around the corner.
Although after that lesson, I felt like I didn't "get" anything (but should have, and wanted to) - now that I've been working on it, I actually retained a lot more than I thought.

Willig in general:
- He's too skinny. Even though he is eating a hefty amount for how hard I work him, he's showing some ribs and hips. I'm going to Panacur PowerPac him, and we're going to try some probiotics for a few months.
- The plan is to try training for a month - hopefully in October if the weather hasn't gotten too horrible, keep working on me, and then maybe do some tune up riding when he comes back, if John Camlin thinks he's still got potential to be the horse for me.

Lesson with Shannon:
- Keep my outside rein contact! I drop this ALL the time.
- Keep thinking about pushing my legs forward. This position feels so much more secure.
- Plant my hands up on Willig's neck as we approach the fence, and hold my fingers so I don't let go of the reins. The reins need to be much shorter than feel "normal" to me - almost like my arms are extended.
- Let Willig figure it out. If he is a goof and rides around a circle on the wrong lead with three opportunities (x the number of times we go around the circle) to change it - let the light bulb go off in his head.
- I'm not a terrible rider and doing terrible things to him to make him act up. He needs some training because he's green, and I can't do it myself.
- We worked on a big circle (20 m) with three little cross rails, and it took me a looonnnggg time to not jump ahead, not let go of the reins, not yank my hands, etc. etc.
- We also worked on some flat, keeping him held together and engaged and actually working (I think squeeze and release on the inside rein, and push with my inside leg like I want a half pass going past the scary door), and those things combined mean he's too busy to look for the poodle.

We also started walking outside (twice now) with a bag of treats, and eating treats next to the poodle's house. Fortunately, we have been able to do it twice sans poodle, but the second time, Willig was about ready to jump in the yard where the poodle lives if I would just hurry up and give him the treat.

Wormer Schedule

Two way:
Jan/Feb - Pyrantel pamoate
Mar/April - Ivermectin
May/June - Pyrantel
July/Aug - Ivermectin
Sept/Oct - Pyrantel
Nov/Dec - Ivermectin

Three way:
Jan/Feb - Pyrantel
Mar/April - Ivermectin
May/June - Oxibendazole or Fenbendazole
July/Aug - Pyrantel
Sept/Oct - Ivermectin
Nov/Dec - Oxibendazole

Pyrantel: Strongid paste, Rotectin P, Strongyle care
Ivermectin: Equimax, Zimectrin Gold, Rotectin 1.87%, IverCare
Oxibendazole: Safe-Guard, Panacur, Anthelcide EQ

Lesson Review: Shannon & Mike August

Last week I had a jump lesson with Shannon in the (horrors) outdoor arena - what is to Willig the terrifying range of the poodle. After I spent quite a bit of time venting about how frustrated I am, we got on, rode big canter little canter, then jumped the little cross rail closest to the least scary side with ground poles 6' out on each side. After a couple of times stepping on them, and a couple times jumping all the way over the outside one, Willig pretty much got it.
The same can't be said for me. All I had to do was stay out of his way and point him at the jump, slowing his canter down on the way in. Yet that was too much for me, with dropping my reins, forgetting to look where I was going, steering all crazy, letting him go in sideways ... honestly - I'm not even sure why I ride sometimes.
After Shannon managed to wrestle me into some semblance of control (sit up! look where you're going! legs forward!), she set up two more of the cross rails with 6' poles on either side, so we had a serpentine AND the "condensed body" practice.
Willig did it all like an angel.
I need to work on thinking about pushing my legs forward (to make a steady base) and getting myself together faster in the event of a slip up (or just in the event that I fall apart). When we made the turns in the serpentine, it would take me half the turn to sit up and get ready for the next one.
Shannon and I discussed some of the options given poodle-hysteria. (By the by - although Willig started on the lunge line as a total ding bat giraffe, by the time Shannon got out he was mellowing out because the poodle hadn't come out, and since it was mid-day, much to my relief the poodle never came out.)
I can take some lessons with the trainer who works on desensitizing, and she will travel to Shannon's (and I think is there already for someone, sometimes).
I can have Mike ride him.
He can go to training; Shannon recommends her jump trainer, John Camlin at Caber Farms.
Given my level of frustration, Shannon thought it would be appropriate to try some training, see if that naughty streak can be corrected, and then see if it is me who can't ride him (I'm overmounted) or if I just need some help figuring out how to respond. She said the down the whole arena bucking is not acceptable.

Then today I had a lesson with Mike and once again feel like I know nothing, and the world is limitless as to how much I can learn. (In short, a very bad and a very good feeling.)
I explained, again, about the poodle, and what I've been doing to try to correct it, and how we basically have giraffe neck or snaky neck. Mike got treats, went to the scary side of the arena, I rode down there, and Willig proceeded to - once - do a very small snaky neck. In 40 minutes.
What he did do - interestingly - was take it up a notch. By "take it up" I mean, "fool me" and make me look like an ass in front of Mike.
Instead of doing giraffe neck or snaky neck, he started going very, very slowly. Like we were in slow motion. And I'm squeezing and grunting, and finally we go back to super beginner level 0 basics - how to apply your leg. A kick like to a soccer ball, not a squeeze up with the heel. Followed by a harder kick, and a sharp smack with the whip, and praise praise praise when he accelerates. Within, I don't know, 30 seconds, Willig is just prancing around in this gorgeous trot that he just keeps doing. With his head down.
(Oh yeah, and for snaky neck/giraffe neck, my job is to make waterfall neck.)
Ok. So this is frustrating because he NEVER rides like this when I'm alone.
It's also very positive because it feels great, it's consistent with my lesson with Shannon (if he has impulsion and is working, he can't act up), and I feel like, ok, maybe we can get this and be a good team, and maybe, just maybe, I'll learn something about how to ride a horse.
So Mike gave me a set of tools for the poodle problem: big, huge praise for not reacting - praise him ahead, talk to him, pat him, tell him he's the bravest chestnut in the universe; ask for this new level of WORK; no tolerating acting up or him being the boss - I'm the boss - if he rears (which he only did that one time, out of surprise, ages ago, when I bopped him in the mouth too hard), hang on to his neck, then ride the heck out of him, if he bucks, pull his head in a circle to the inside so his back legs have to cross each other and then ride the heck out of him, if he goes in slow motion, ask him and then smack him and praise him for moving forward. Willig did none of those things. Even when we changed direction, there was hardly an ear flick towards poodle-town.
So for now, Mike thinks taking him outside is setting him up for failure. Let him build confidence and learn I'm the boss and learn what I want inside - then start moving him outside. He said we can do an outside lesson with him in the future.

I feel like there were a few big lessons here, even though there was no grinning, beaming breakthrough like in my prior lessons. First, I was in a bad mood, tired from work, and frustrated with Willig, and definitely not looking forward to working on the least fun part of riding him. So I had a bad attitude. Second, aside from figuring out the sitting trot, most of what Mike has done so far is (very very quickly) reposition me to the proper way of riding - something that in theory I already knew (or should have known). Third, so today we moved beyond what I already, on some level, knew - into tools I have never learned before. I think that's why today's lesson was very hard and slippery for me to grasp. Although some of what we've done has felt really great (and different), it isn't entirely strange to me. This - how to react - was. And I feel like this is the missing piece. I've been riding horses as a passenger, not a boss, and Willig is just willful enough to not respect that. And that's my fault. I'm "teaching" him to do the wrong thing because I don't know how to teach him to do the right thing, and my communication skills aren't good enough to fix it once I've taught him wrong. I know something is wrong, but I don't know how to fix it, and the tools I have are not the right ones.
Willig may have a limited repetoire of tricks, but it's more than I know how to respond to, and my tools haven't been very effective, while my "un"training has been extremely effective. This is nice because he's pretty smart, and he gets it pretty quickly when I ask him correctly. So I just need to learn how to ask for everything correctly. Oh, just the universe of how to ride a horse.
So I don't think he needs more training. I think **I** do. I don't think it would do any good to send him to someone else to ride him. It would fix him temporarily, and then I would undo it and teach him the wrong thing again. I think I need more lessons. On him.
There were more little details (don't collapse my upper body; keep those &*&#*(&# heels down), but this was the interesting piece - this slowly dawning realization for me (not very intelligent me) on how to approach riding differently.
Also, from now on, I'm considering tears emotional sweat.
P.S. The poodle ran at another horse too. I was beginning to think it was an imaginary poodle that only me and Willig could see.

Artistic Light Willig

Sadly, not Martha riding the sitting trot on a misbehaving Willig, due to camera malfunction.

Silly Willig

Willig has developed a cute habit (other than the not-so-cute downward dog he does after a hard/stressful ride). He likes to drink out of the hose when he's getting hosed off after a sweaty ride.

Slight jumping improvement

Although my back is rounded and my heels are up, this is a considerable improvement over giraffe-neck Willig.