Jekyll Willig, Grinning Martha

Driving to my lesson today, I had the usual sense of dread, and I realized why. With my jump lessons, I never know whether Willig is going to have a Jekyll day or a Hyde day. I HATE the Hyde days, although I'm always grateful that he's having one with Shannon there, because she always gives me some tips on how to deal with them (and now, for example, compared to last year, I can ride through most of his "bad" days - not his terrible days, but those are (knock on leather) few and far between), so that when I get one and I'm alone, I'm not totally at loose ends.
He had a kind of wild hair week - he bolted with J on Tuesday because he saw Bambi come out of the woods (from a walk - and she had already seen the deer, so she was prepared); on Thursday, as I already described, he had a fit about the spurs with Mike; on Saturday, where Bambi had been on Tuesday - horrors - a human was walking, so he got a bolty butt with me, and got to go work hills as his punishment; and so I didn't have the highest hopes for a good attitude today.
Well, lo and behold, he was in an excellent, easy going mood.
The main take aways were to:
1) Ride him straight to the center of the jump. He's going over the left side a lot, and then veering left on the far side. This must be me, but I don't know what I'm doing.
2) It's ok to give him a couple half halts a few strides out, but a couple strides out, relax and just ride the fence. Stop controlling and let him figure it out himself. Especially on an exercise fence, where there's ground poles and we're doing it repetitively.
We started with a cross rail on what I thought was a tight right turn, but was actually a very easy and doable right turn (see how easy your eyes - well my eyes at least - can deceive?). Shannon turned it into a vertical. Ho-hum.
Then we added a little combination - cross rail to vertical, around the blue barrels to the 4-stridish two verticals. Ho-hum. A little more "rushing" (not really, just feels like it to me) but no big thang.
Then the little combination turned into a vertical to vertical, and the 4-stridish got taller and then the lattice fence. "Yawn" says Willig.
The 4-stridish turned into an oxer and added the blue barrels. "Could you challenge me?" Willig says. (And I had a great moment here where I realized we were coming in too far on the left and several sides out tried to correct it. I wasn't successful, but at least I noticed, which is an improvement.)
The vertical before the oxer got taller, as did the lattice. Willig came in a bit short on the oxer and a bit long on the lattice, but he ... (drum roll) jumped them anyway - fixing himself - a bit awkward, but we went over fine.
And here was the shining moment - the first time over the oxer (which was 2'9" - I sheepishly snuck out and measured it afterwards) - holy floating, batman. When Willig jumps - when he actually has to lift himself a tiny bit into the air and create a bit of a bascule (right?) instead of just plodding over the "safe" 2' fences - oh my lord is he a pleasure to ride. It's these fences why I put up with the dread and the nerves that we're going to have a Hyde jumping day. It's like magic.
It's like - for those few seconds - that's when I feel present. Like a meditation style present. The same as when we've finally got everything together in dressage and he elevates his forehand. The same as when I used to rock climb. It's that moment of balance with the universe that is so incredible that it makes all the time and work and money and sweat and tears worth it - for those few seconds. And of course, the goal that all this work means that those seconds are going to come more often and last longer and that I'll have more ability to summon them. And hopefully until I'm 61, like the person riding at Rolex this year (!!).
And also, honestly, it makes me feel better that he pulls hijinks with better riders than me too. They may deal with it better than I do (they definitely do), but it's not because I totally suck that he tries to pull that stuff on me. He's just a horse.
On the drive, anyway, I remembered that was what John Camlin described about Willig when he was there for training. Some days, he was just a delight. Other days, he got up on the wrong side of the stall. And you couldn't predict and you couldn't change it - you just got whatever horse he was that day. That's just Willig. And I just have to cross my fingers that a show day is a Jekyll day and ride the best I can on a Hyde day.

Football = Riding?

A quote by Chuck Klosterman - he's writing about football, but I think it applies to any sport.
Riding "allows the intellectual part of my brain to evolve, but it allows the emotional part to remain unchanged. It has a liberal cerebellum and a reactionary heart. And this is all I want from everything, all the time, always."

Sleepy, yet naughty Willig

I asked today to work on some of the 1-3 movements. Although I can do them, I'm not sure I'm doing them the "correct" way - that a judge wants to see. In particular, the canter-trot-canter transition at X, the two 10 meter circles at X, and our straightness. I also wanted to review the walk-canter-halt work we started last lesson, because it has gotten really ... flailing as I've been working on it on my own.
So we started with just a 20 meter trot circle (thinking overflexed neck and then flexing him alternately left and right) with a lot of focus on the responsive transitions. And as we moved to canter, Willig decided he no longer knew how to pick up his right lead. So I got frustrated, and started collapsing in over my right hip, which would shove his hindquarters in (to the right) so he'd have to shove even harder out (to the left) and then would pick up the left lead. This got hilarious. In the sense that after riding for 20 years we couldn't successfully pick up the right lead canter is hilarious.
So after struggling with that, Mike switched us to some other work - doing the walk "pirouette" (feeling his hind leg crossing underneath) and then trotting, then a few steps of trot or walk and then back and just keeping him really, really focused.
Willig was, remarkably, lazy. He wasn't paying any attention to Prince, who was having a blast on the lunge line, Jessica riding, or me.
The other thing we focused on was me sitting up straight and tall - just like my trot position, and not to fold up and lean in when asking for the canter.
And to smack him with the whip when he ignores me. I'm very, very, painfully slow on this.
So then we did a bit of the 10 meter circles - all that stuff on the regular ground just makes him flexible and responsive and collected on his hindquarters, so this isn't as big a deal.
Then the left leg yield coming out of the 10 meter circle to the right - Mike said think "shoulder in" for a stride along the center line before starting the leg yield. While I got it in theory, I couldn't get Willig to stop trailing his hindquarters.
And of course, the walk-canter-halt work helps with the canter-trot-canter transition.
So Mike went and got his boots on, and came out and rode Willig for less than 10 minutes. Willig gave him a bit of a hassle at first (Mike said because of the spurs) but then settled down and just looked gorgeous.
When Mike got off, he said to work on keeping my left hand steady and kind of lifting my right hand - he thinks that I am probably squeezing with my right leg all the time, and also leaning on my right hip.
So I got back on, and holy cow - Willig was like a different horse. He felt puffed up in the shoulders - like someone had put a balloon between his front legs - and he was so sensitive. It was like I've been riding a horse with two dials (direction and speed) and after Mike got off, he had like 50. It was like switching from driving a beetle bug (two buttons) to a space shuttle (200 buttons). It was kind of overwhelming.
To wrap up the lesson, Mike was trying to get me to feel the straightness, and to get my body position better (turns out, I am riding around on the right lead with my left leg forward and my right leg back!), but mostly I was just "oooo, space ship".
I have NO idea how he does that with only 10 minutes on Willig. I wish I'd win the lottery so he could ride every day and I could take a lesson every day. Holy cow.
Like, he likes to talk about peeling the onion - we started with my heels down, and are gradually working into more and more detail. It's just that I thought the onion was like - I don't know - 10 layers. And today I realized it is at least 100 - maybe 1000.
So, unfortunately because we're working at the frontiers of my understanding, a lot of what happens in the lesson makes sense at the time (barely) but it doesn't stick enough on the first try that I can get it blogged properly. It's cool to be learning so much, but I wish I was a bit more natural at absorbing it.

EHV-1 in Washington

http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/vet-breaking-news/2011/05/17/washington-state-veterinarian-cautions-horse-owners-about-ehv1-outbreak.aspx
A Washington horse that attended the National Cutting Horse Association event in Ogden, Utah from April 30 to May 8, tested positive for Equine Herpes Virus 1 (EHV-1), a highly contagious animal disease. Several confirmed cases in horses with severe symptoms have been diagnosed in Utah, Colorado and elsewhere.

Symptoms in horses include fever, sneezing, excessive salivation and other mild symptoms. Serious cases of the disease are rare, but can include staggering, hind-end paralysis and even death. The disease is not contagious to humans.

“While I have not yet placed any restrictions on the movement of animals, I strongly suggest that horse owners isolate animals that attended the Western National Championships in Ogden, Utah,” says Leonard Eldridge, DVM, Washington state veterinarian. “For the protection of other horses, these owners are advised to keep their animals home for a couple of weeks.”

The disease is spread from horse to horse through direct contact, on feed, tack and equipment or on the clothes and hands of horse owners. Considering the possibility of disease spread, owners are advised to carefully wash their hands and equipment to prevent the spread of the virus.

The time of exposure to illness of EHV-1 is typically two to 14 days. Horse owners attending the Ogden show should consider limiting the movement of their horses and isolate them from other horses to prevent further spread of the virus.

The EHV-1 positive horse that attended the Ogden show was treated at the Washington State University (WSU) veterinary teaching hospital in Pullman and was confirmed over the weekend. Blood samples from several other Washington horses that attended the Utah event are currently being tested at WSU’s Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory.

Horses that show symptoms of EHV-1 should be seen by a veterinarian. Positive cases of EHV-1 must be reported to the State Veterinarian’s Office at (360) 902-1881.

2nd level canter transition work

Willig was having a high-spirited start, and I told Mike he might finally get the chance to really see Willig act up, since we spent 30 minutes warming up going past the "scary" blocks that have been out for over a week. No - Willig just made me show that what I'm doing (actually riding him) has been right, with just a little fine tuning to improve it.
Mike also pointed out that it's easier with another person on the ground, the other set of eyes who can see things differently than being the rider, and that even his younger horse will go past the blocks 20 times and then spook at them the 21st. All of which made me feel better - it's not just tiny brained Willig.
The high-spirited start came from a really soggy day of rain; it really makes a difference when he doesn't move around in his turn-out, because for once in the past two months, he'd actually been ridden for a couple days leading up to the lesson.
Anyway, so we worked on those "control" rides - which are the leg yield, circles, sitting plugged in, distracting him, asking him to bend his neck and give (he started out like riding a plank with a 100 pound weight on the end - even my wrist muscles were getting sore), and shoulder-in past the scary places. Mike suggested it as he can look with one eye, but not with both, which helped me know how much looking was ok.
For warm up, Mike suggested thinking overbent and overflexed, and then praising and releasing when he gave to me.
Then we worked on the one loop serpentine, and the responsiveness to the aids - when I ask for canter, he needs to be ready to leap into canter. And then from there, we ended with working on the 2nd level movement for simple change. A simple change is NOT from canter to trot back to canter on the other lead, but canter to walk to canter.
So we did a few walk-trot-walk transitions to get him responsive. Then I'd ask for the canter with a bit of a pop up. Like popping a wheelie. And a few times, albeit a bit ugly and ungainly, he'd "pop" and he'd kind of jump his shoulders up into the canter. We'd go just a few strides (like starting to do pull-ups Mike said - you don't do 30 the first time) and then think "halt" back down. I thought Willig did great, and Mike said to add this in to our work, just making sure to do a few strides only as he builds up to it.
It was a really satisfying lesson when I look back at a year ago, when I couldn't even ride him at the far end because he'd act up, and now I get irritated when he doesn't warm up perfectly at the far end when it's been raining and there's scary blocks.
And Mike pointed out that really, ideally if you were competing to win, you'd school 3rd level and show training level, and then you'd get 70s in training level.
I'm just happy that I'm able to ride Willig now, even with a bit of a hot start, and not need to lunge and I just kind of clench my jaw a bit and focus, and then he's just grateful I'm telling him what's what.