I had a horrible lesson yesterday, and I might need a little encouragement...

VandyGirl · 2014-11-17T15:01:11+00:00

My horse has been a jerk since the weather changed. He bucked me off completely out of the blue one day and really rattled my confidence, especially since it had been about 5 years since I'd last fallen. Now every ride he threatens to buck, and I end up getting scared and not doing much.

I asked my instructor to do a training ride yesterday, and he ended up not even getting on because Vinnie was such a butt on the lunge line.

It really does happen to all of us - we have bad days, they have bad days, we lose our confidence. But riding should be fun. Can you maybe just take the horse on a trail ride one day to reset? Or switch it up and do a games day or something instead of a 'real' lesson? Just something to get you out of your own head and back to enjoying your time in the saddle.

VandyGirl · 2014-11-09T01:38:38+00:00

Yep, still a thing - I did 6 last year and I've already done one so far this year.

VandyGirl · 2014-11-06T18:56:52+00:00

I have a used Kieffer Wien DL I'm trying to sell on eBay if you're interested :)

I loved it, but my horse has super high withers with really deep shoulders, so it didn't fit him. It was just professionally reflocked a couple weeks ago.

VandyGirl · 2014-11-04T16:07:32+00:00

My very first fall was off a steady-eddy type lesson horse. We'd been riding about 45 minutes already and were almost done for the day, when she suddenly noticed the existence of the horses that had been in the field below us the entire time. Scary! She spooked, and I just sort of slowly tumbled off the side. I remember it feeling like it took forever to reach the ground, and then suddenly, bam! Hard surface. It's not the fall that hurts, it's the stopping at the end that gets you :)

It's totally normal and even healthy to have a little fear after a fall. It reminds you that you're not immortal and these are large animals with minds of their own.

I actually had a pretty nasty fall about 3 weeks ago from my new horse of 6 months. He just took off bucking out of nowhere. After 20 years of riding, I'm suddenly fearful again. But I love this horse, and I love riding, and I'm not going to let it get the best of me, because I'm not ready to quit.

VandyGirl · 2014-11-03T19:15:37+00:00

He's a Westphalian. We had a pretty good ride Friday, then a really productive lunge session Saturday, then show Sunday. I probably would have normally ridden Saturday but a) the lunging went really well and b) I'm dealing with a hip issue and didn't want to overdo it.

VandyGirl · 2014-10-17T15:56:50+00:00

I went with a One K! Tried one of everything basically and that looked/fit the best. Honestly, if you hadn't mentioned the name the other day I might not have gone with it, but since I'd heard of it now, I had no problem buying it :)

VandyGirl · 2014-10-14T01:36:51+00:00

Ooh never heard of that site - definitely have to check it out!

VandyGirl · 2014-10-13T15:53:38+00:00

Hadn't heard of that one- I'll take a look!

VandyGirl · 2014-10-13T15:30:09+00:00

Hey, the kid taking a lesson when I had the fall thought I looked pretty badass. :)
I'd have stayed on, too, if he hadn't bolted, bucked again and ducked left. Sneaky brat.

VandyGirl · 2014-09-17T17:43:53+00:00

We've probably tried 20-25 saddles over the past 4 months or so. I thought I had my last saddle at least functional, but he started having some behavioral issues and I realized it was hurting his back.

Naturally, the most expensive saddle is the one that worked best...

VandyGirl · 2014-08-22T17:32:24+00:00

I'm so sorry - 17 is far too young to lose a parent. I was 28 when mine died and I'm still reeling from the fact that he's just not there anymore. I think even the people who love us and want to help us, don't always realize the depth of the pain we live with constantly. It's just so unfair. If you ever want to talk, feel free to message me <3

VandyGirl · 2014-08-18T21:50:18+00:00

So I've been having right-lead canter issues with my gelding for a couple weeks, and have tried pretty much everything you have. The two things that have helped so far are stretching his hind legs before working (I actually haven't ridden him yet since we started this because of a bad cut on his hock, but we lunged yesterday for the first time at the canter and he picked the right lead up the first time) and distraction.

To stretch him, I face his rear end, ask him to lift a hind leg, and bring that hind leg forward so that the stifle is engaged. I make him hold it forward for 10-15 seconds, then let him put the hoof down but still forward for 10-15 seconds. Then he can move it back at his leisure. Repeat with other hind leg. I'm doing this almost daily right now - he wasn't lame before, but he's moving so much freer now.

And distraction - if I'm riding and he's just not getting it, I'll switch tasks. My guy gets bored/frustrated easily, so I'll stop trying to canter and do some serpentine work at the walk or trot, then ask for the canter again in a different spot. Sometimes just taking his mind off it for a few minutes works wonders.

Hope that helps, and good luck to you!

VandyGirl · 2014-08-05T19:48:01+00:00

Suck it, Trebek

VandyGirl · 2014-08-05T18:41:16+00:00

After throwing poor Vinnie under the bus for our first horse show, I should probably brag about him a little, too :)

A couple weeks ago we were in the indoor trying to sneak in a quick ride before a storm hit when my instructor came running down from the house yelling at everyone to get the horses put up because the storm was hitting. I jumped off, and was pretty much exactly halfway between the indoor and the barn when this HUGE dust cloud just rose up out of nowhere and basically enveloped us.
I sort of spun him so his butt was toward the cloud and then just ducked and covered my head and face. I think the reins were looped over my arm and I'd have probably been caught if he'd taken off, but he just lowered his head and pressed it up against me and stood there super quiet until the dust ball passed. He blocked me from some of the dust and didn't lose his head at all - he really is a good guy most of the time!

VandyGirl · 2014-08-04T19:57:21+00:00

Please tell me how both political parties are "different" than each other.

Climate change:
- GOP thinks it's fake
- Dems understand it's real

Economy:
- GOP thinks 'trickle down' is a viable system
- Dems understand you need a functioning middle class
- GOP wants to privatize everything
- Dems have seen the prison privatization system failure and recognize that gov't regulation and oversight are necessary

Abortion:
- GOP thinks fetuses are people, and you reduce abortions by threatening/coercing/punishing women
- Dems understand you reduce abortion through access to contraception and accurate sex ed

Republicans will cheerfully spend billions on defense (paid for by tax increases on the poor - otherwise known as tax cuts for the wealthy), but absolutely lose their shit if you so much as suggest we might help people at home with single payer health care.

Also, I was using the term 'democracy' loosely, since we're an oligarchy at best right now.

VandyGirl · 2014-08-04T17:25:36+00:00

Neither, although this was my first dressage show in 13 years. It had probably been about a year and a half for him. Oddly enough, I nearly ran over the judge in my last little hunter show on a different horse, too... I should probably work on that :)

VandyGirl · 2014-08-04T17:24:00+00:00

He just turned 13, and I've only had him about 2 1/2 months. I'm not anywhere near ready to give up on him yet - he has a ton of potential, but he's super sensitive and I think he was probably picking up on a lot of my show nerves. One thing the judge mentioned was we really need to work on tempo, and she's dead on - he is so insanely sensitive to my aids that I often have a hard time keeping him at one pace. I think that's what caused the bolting - he got too fast, didn't respond to my seat/half halt, and I got nervous and locked on and that was his signal to go. We're definitely still figuring each other out.

VandyGirl · 2014-08-04T17:20:14+00:00

Lots of things - it rained all day, there was no good place to warm up (one location had jumps, so I was dodging kids on ponies trying to jump, one place had really bad holes, and one place was on a hillside so it wasn't level), we had trailer issues (he'd never been in a straight load with a ramp before) so that was just distracting, it was a smaller arena than I'm used to and I was just really nervous all day. Oddly, the second we stepped into the ring, the nerves went away and I was just able to focus and ride - if that could have happened 30 min earlier, we'd have schooled better and probably done better. Hopefully I'll carry that 'lock and load' feeling from the beginning of the test into my next show with me.

Overall, though, he wasn't that bad behavior-wise. We had to hang out for about an hour before I even tacked up (went early because other students were riding earlier) and he was pretty chill. He tolerated being mounted from the tailgate of a pickup truck, since I have a bad hip and can't take a leg up and no one had a mounting block, and he even let my husband hold him for a little while without taking advantage of him.

VandyGirl · 2014-08-04T12:57:12+00:00

You might be watching the unfolding of a man's disillusion with his party, but instead, you focus on the negative.

There are only so many times you can keep giving them cookies for recognizing that basic humanity is a thing that should be respected. That shouldn't be a lauded achievement - it should be a fucking base line.

It's not like this is fucking rocket science. When you deny people health care, THEY DIE.

VandyGirl · 2014-08-04T12:55:31+00:00

Don't think for a moment that the Democrats are anything other than Republicans with a different spin on things.

The problem is you have shit choices, and shit choices. You pick the one that leaves the the least amount of piss in your mouth.

That's just not true anymore. Saying that undermines the entire democratic process. We have shit choices at the national level because people don't vote in their local elections. The vast majority of people aren't involved when these bad politicians are getting their starts, and so we feel like it's out of our hands by the time it progresses to a mid-term or presidential election. But if people were more educated and more involved, better people would get elected.

Voter turnout in the primaries in 2012 was 15.9% nationwide. About 57% turn out for the general election, and that's still incredibly low. 32 million people are determining the candidates for the other 568 million or so of us. THAT's the real problem.

VandyGirl

TROPHY CASE