If you watched the Brego Rocks the Quintain video from the other day, you saw the short clip at the end of hubby feeding the Black Rhino a treat. Honestly, it's sort of like watching a great white go after a bait fish.
Alas, Black Rhino teeth and hubby's fingers don't mix.
Ow.
Fortunately, it's just a flesh wound, and hubby has learned that care must be taken when hand-feeding Bregos. Brego doesn't mean to hurt anyone, of course, he just gets so excited about a treat that he sort of forgets what his teeth are doing. As for me, I'll be feeding Brego treats out of a feed bowl. I want to keep all my appendages, thanks!
In his defense, Hubby says that the Brego is dirtier than the house, and needs vacuuming more. He also thinks that we might need a heavier-duty vacuum, since vacuuming a Brego is like vacuuming a thick shag rug.
In between fox hunting, dressage lessons, and jump lessons, Hubby has been working with Brego on jousting training. It takes a pretty special horse to joust - we have found that the bossy horses do best, as they are not intimidated by another horse barreling down the lane directly at them. Brego thinks he owns the world and everything in it, so that's covered. They also have to be OK with the sound of armor, both on their rider and on other riders. Paddy probably won't ever joust, because the sound of a full set of armor really bothers him. Brego only wants to know if perhaps there is a treat tucked somewhere in all that armor. Surely, there must be... somewhere?
Training a horse to joust is a multi-step process. You have to introduce the armor, a few pieces at a time (more armor = more clanking + heavier rider). Getting a horse used to having things swinging around his head also takes time, since many horses don't like it when things magically appear in their field of vision. You need good halt-canter canter-halt transitions, and horses must learn to stand patiently at the end of the lane for each pass. When you have those elements, you can introduce the quintain. The idea is that it gives the rider target practice, and it also allows the horse to experience the sound of a lance hitting. Here's Brego's first few passes at the quintain.
Brego still has a way to go in his training. He's already done "honor" passes (no targeting) against me on Paddy, but I don't have the armor needed to do a real pass where the riders actually try to hit each other. We're hoping to meet up with some of hubby's jousting friends in the next month or two so we can have a real practice against some opponents. Given how easily Brego has handled all the "scary" jousting experiences, we have no doubt he'll rock the actual joust just as well as he's done everything else!
I got email yesterday that our GMO's year-end championship show this Saturday is cancelled, due to lack of entries. I am really disappointed - I was super excited that we managed to qualify, especially since Paddy had so much time off due to his injury. Blarg.
On the bright side, the weather forecast for Saturday is 100% chance of thunderstorms with the potential for severe thunderstorms. So I will enjoy sitting at home in my warm, dry house, instead of being soaked and freezing at a show. They do say there's a silver lining in every cloud...
I mean, who DOESN'T want to show in this weather???
After visiting the local Dover store and trying on every jacket, then heading to the regional dressage championships to try on even MORE jackets, I finally came to the realization that any jacket I bought would have to be tailored. I visited a local tailor, and she told me to find a jacket that fit me in the shoulders... anything else could be fixed.
After trying on so many different jackets by so many different manufacturers, I came to the conclusion that the technical fabric jackets just aren't for me. I had tried on the Pikeur Diana and I really, really liked the smooth, crisp, professional look of the jacket. I figured I would find one in my shoulder size (turns out I'm a 10 in European sizing), order it, and have it fitted. But... BUT... I saw a beautiful brown Kingsland jacket at the dressage championships. It was too big for me in the shoulders, but GAWD it was just so pretty. The velvet collar and pockets, the detailing on the cuffs, and incredible Italian stretch wool looked so classy and was very comfortable to wear. It was also shorter that the Diana, but not super-short like a lot of the newer jackets are, so it didn't look odd on me.
Sooo, I found the Kingsland on sale, in black, and ordered it from the UK. Since the style was 2013, it was super-duper on sale, and even after I paid shipping AND for tailoring, it was a very good deal.
Vellllvet.
And y'all, this coat is just SO PRETTY. These pics don't do it justice, but I'll be wearing it next weekend at the year-end show so hopefully I'll get some better pics of it in action soon!
So classy-looking.
Pocket detail, and I love the little detail around the waist.
Even the cuffs are pretty!
"Attitude is the little thing that makes a big difference". Yes, yes it does.
The title of this post may be slightly misleading. I attempted to clip Paddy the Yak last night. This was his second clip of the year.
Technically I suppose I succeeded, since he is in fact clipped. However, the results are somewhat less than stellar.
Always start with a clean-ish horse. Bonus points if you wait for three hours for him to dry, then decide he's never going to dry in the next month, so wtf you can clip wet, right?
And before you ask, yes, my blades were sharp (sharpened the week before). I used two sets and switched out when they got warm. Alas, we are still plagued by stripes (don't worry though, the spots are all-natural).
The end result, two hours later. Paddy looks as thrilled with his moth-eaten-look as I am. I intentionally made this picture small so you can't see the lines. Oh wait, you can, even at this resolution. Fail.
Yak Haffie hair is interesting stuff. He looks palomino from even 10 feet away, but when you look close-up, he looks shimmery coppery chestnut. And the clipped hair looks like a mixture of chestnut and white - nary a palomino hair to be seen.
On the bright side, we have a week and a half before our next show. Hopefully he can grow out the lines before then?
Before Paddy's two-week all-expense-paid (directly to the vet) vacation, we took a lesson with a new dressage trainer who is quite a bit closer to us than the eventing trainer that we often ride with. The lesson with the new trainer was a huge eye-opener for me - she teaches VERY differently, even though her end goals are the same. The number on take-away for me was:
DO NOT. PULL BACK. ON THE REINS.
No really. Don't do it. Don't even THINK about doing it. Because apparently I do this constantly - try to "take" the contact instead of following what he gives me. I needed a recording of someone saying "Don't pull back!" approximately every 10 seconds, that's how bad it is. But... BUT... when I follow and am soft, don't half-halt, don't move my hands, don't pull, stay steady and even in BOTH reins, and allow him to come to me, he will. Eventually. After 35 minutes or so. And then he's abso-fucking-lutely amazing - which makes it totally worth it.
And how did we accomplish this miracle? Quarter and half-turns on the haunches. Constantly moving his shoulders around, at the walk. At first, he mostly ignored my leg. Then he moved better off my leg, but threw his shoulders around (this is where not being even in both reins became glaringly evident). Then he ignored me some more. And then... THEN... miracle of miracles, he started moving his shoulders STRAIGHT, and evenly, and I held on to both reins (but didn't pull), and he moved off my leg, and came up over his back, and I felt like a fucking centaur because it was all about my leg and body and had nothing to do with the reins, except to keep him straight.
And then we picked up a trot and worked on making sure he was listening to my seat half-halts so I DID NOT PULL ON THE REINS. That took some doing, and she had me move my hands up instead of back - I didn't worry about his head or his back or anything else, just that he responded promptly. And then I had a horse that I could trot on a light rein, in 10 meter circles, both directions, and at the slightest change of pace or loss of balance I could sit up and tighten my core and NOT PULL BACK, and he would respond. And our leg yields? Fucking amazing. He felt like a Grand Prix horse.
And that inside leg to outside hand? Nope. Both reins equal, at all times. Don't drop the inside rein, DON'T YOU DARE.
So yeah. COMPLETELY different way of riding. I SO want to take, to half-halt with the inside rein (or drop it completely, 'cause I'm really good at that! As a reward, you know.) But instead I am to give, to soften, constantly, and to wait for him. I need a Costco-sized dose of patience that I am struggling to find, so thank goodness trainer reminds me constantly to just wait and soften. I need to take some of this magic trainer dust home so I can replicate the amazeballs work on my own.
This weekend, we were able to take a second lesson with her. This time we worked on moving his haunches, because he was a leeetle too eager to throw his shoulders around. He moves his haunches off my left leg really well, right leg, not so much. Again, we made sure he was off my seat and leg at the walk before moving on to the trot. Interestingly, the walk was not as good this time, but the trot was so much better earlier on in the ride. Yay progress! We really worked hard on not falling in, on having a supporting leg and hand in every change of direction, and on owning one rein (he kept looking around so I found it hard not to pull on the reins but keep his nose straight). We also worked a lot on transitions, especially on me following the transitions with my hands and not blocking him, either up or down (i.e. DON'T PULL ON THE REINS), but instead using the concept of "hip to hand" to get the transitions (i.e. roll my hips up by tightening my core to get the downward tx.) In the trot work, every time he would get heavy, I'd half-halt with my seat and put on inside leg. If he went behind the bridle, or above the bridle, more leg. Basically, every problem was solved with more leg and less hand.
This is a strange concept for a horse that tends to run around like a lunatic. It's like reverse rider psychology.
Toward the very end, he felt so light and balanced that I asked for a right lead canter and... whoa. Magic. Balanced, uphill, light, totally maneuverable. What's interesting about the new and improved canter is that we did not achieve this by doing tons of canter. Instead, we made sure that he was straight, balanced, and on the aids in the walk, then the trot, before moving to the canter. It's like we needed the building blocks before he could actually hold a good canter. Super interesting. Hubby manage to get the left lead canter on video, which wasn't as nice, but still... soooo much better than it's ever been before.
Look! Haffie is making progress! Now I just need to bottle the magic trainer dust and sprinkle it on before every ride.
