PhysicalSchizms

As requested..




I can't remember if I've posted this picture before, sorry:(
Kinda funny one, of a group of some of my favourite kids, 1985. Leo's body, Rainy's head, Sparky's ample, dependable butt. The best boys, evaR.


Picture Two.

Riding is a scary sport. Just hopping up there takes an act of courage, ya know. Or foolhardiness, if you're not interested in hopping up there. It's always been something we automatically admire people for.

OH, You RidE?? Oooh, you are so brave. It's just inherent. A built in reflex by people who don't ride. But then you have the youth of our culture, still fearless, and their snickers at our pale faces can be daunting, to say the least. That's why it's preferable to find beginner classes, in the beginning, with a zero audience of sneerage.

I always did my best to schedule the mature people for low population at the barn times. It's just nicer for the students. Now, I'm not saying no audience, and after awhile, you should be enjoying yourself enough that you can give out a belly laugh when you start thinking too much again.

That's the hugest problem with the mature rider, their brains. Yes, their bodies too, but mostly, brains.
Sorry:)

I read in Discover about athletes brains, and how their brain activity quiets, when they are performing athletic tasks.
Take away from that, they don't THINK about what they are doing, they just Do.

Now, if you've tried following my endless ramblings from the bitter beginning, you'll remember that on the ground, you should be carrying yourself like a rider. Your posture should always be good, your balance square over yourself, whatever that self looks like. That's what centering (with a genuine cower to Sally Swift) is all about. Do mini-exercises to keep yourself fit.

Put your left heel down while driving, your right, while idling in traffic. Stretch and flex the muscles that always scream at you after riding. If you cannot balance over yourself, you won't, on horseback.
(coughdancingcoughHelps)

You're thinking, How does that help when I'm up there? Riding should be an unconscious act, of following and flowing over/above the ground, directing the river of flight energy beneath you.
Stop thinking about it. Just do it. Lucky people, riding horses!

If you stay "over" yourself, you won't be going anywhere, gravity/ground-wise. At least, you shouldn't be, if you're riding one of my old schoolies, who'd never take a nasty step on a beginner.

Hours and miles. As the trust builds, so does the confidence.

Thanks for the inspiration, all my readers! The two of you can really make me smile:)

I am almost ashamed to post my old hatless pics now, after the latest tragedy. Maybe I should replace my head with a StickFigure's, I wouldn't feel quite so guilty.

I'm a re-rider, pretty much, in this pic, having been off about? 5 years at this point. I'm absolutely aware of my own safety, though. This old fugly gray and I had an understanding. I fixed his bridle, and he never ever scared me.

Good deal. Oh, my heart raced a bit, once, we were hacking up the driveway in the spring, it was chilly, wind-up-your-butt type weather. Gray twinkled-toed. I was wearing a hat. ALWAYS wear a hat. Especially when the wind's up your butt:)

I was STARTED scared, after all, at 11 years old. Check out picture two, up there. I am ready to/defended against falling off, because horses kept dumping me. Turns into a vicious cycle, in a way.

But riding the SchoolMaster GoLightly, unscared me:) Horses can do anything to us, you know. Thank heavens they aren't carnivores, has always occurred to me.

Riding is a scary sport. Well, of Course it is!
amen.

To Horses!

ConverselyStated

Hello!
My name is Flip, and I'm a member of the OAC, or Obsequiously Aggressive Club. I'm looking for more members, please send a SASE to 777 Wooof! Thank you!
I've been very, very, Very busy! Mom's OtherSiSter is here! I jumped up on her, and EvErYthing. Mom and OtherSiSter both tried to tell me aGain, that jumping is wrong, but hey, DADdy and Mom's BroTher let me! My Mom does NOT know AnyEveryThing. She's pretty well-trained now, though, my weird Mom. Her rules about chipmunk hunting are just plain silly. My VeryOwnDogBlaze just doesn't get the "ignore Mom when she's calling" rule, when on the scent of GooD. I found some more GooD tonight! (belch, fart, gulp)


I'll bore you with my tale of horse-show disillusionment, if I may.

I'm at my first recognized show, with my mare, in the green hunters. I'm a very early teen. I'm riding the hack class, having bombed out over fences. We ride around for that usual interminable amount of time, and the class begins to line up. A horse and rider sweep into the ring, tall dark handsome guy, gorgeous huge moving chestnut horse. The class is basically over. The guy wins it. He wasn't even THERE for three-quarters of it!

Oh, I was a kid, and I was aNNoYed. I wrote an impassioned letter to the Corinthian, (Horse Sport, it's called now) and it was published, to my delighted surprise.

Now, I had absolutely NO chance in that hack class. ALL the other competitors would have had to scratch. But I still felt that TallDarkHandsomeFamousOlympicJumperLaterBecameBN-TB-trainer won unfairly. Today, I'd be much more laissez-faire about it.

It was a hunter hack class. Best horse would win it. It doesn't take long for good judges to see the best. The rest are supposed to learn from that. Sure wish I had. You see, no-one replied to my letter, editorially speaking. If the editor had said, "Perhaps the best horse did win, because of blah, blah, blah", I might have learned something.

Instead, I was left to think I was right. (Hah, now That's a fractured pun, if I ever saw one.)
But, really, honestly, deep down, I was mad I hadn't won a darned thing. That should never, ever be the only reason for showing. It's to see who's "best". At whatever you choose to excel at.

Learning from the best, or just the better on that day, should always be a positive thing. I don't get why it isn't, really. I'm wondering why my youthful mindset was like that. Even though I was in the presence of a highly successful rider, I was blind to anything he was doing.

Learning to accept the inherent unfairness of life itself is a pretty hard lesson. It can be learned at a horse show, too.

Striking, how some never do seem to get it.

Nicely, Nuchally Speaking

HAD to post this, so that those of you with a faster internet connection can enjoy it all the way through, I'm at about the half-hour mark, after one hours wait time.
WAY cool. This guy is a riding genius, and funnier than, well, you'll see. GeoffBillington'sMasterClass
He's just gotten to the line "And then ya have John Whitaker walk in the ring, don't know if he's won 500quid, or lost 500quid.."
My heroes, those guys. Nick Skelton. John & Michael Whitaker. Geoff riding "It's Otto", the most spectacularly gifted horse for psychokinesis. This horse floated. His hooves danced, they didn't ever seem to touch the ground. Lightness. sigh.

The rest of this post isn't entirely finished, as usual, and I'll keep messing with that darned SaddleStickToon, until we're whiter in the face.





The Nuchal Ligament Post is still a heavy hitter on the old ping counter, not much else is, of course.

whooops, uncontrollable tangential direction!
Man, there are some seriously denuded peoples out there.

No wonder, not many get my unique brand of cyclopsosis. That's my new word for looking at something with just one eye. It helps to narrow down my ideas, and connects the dots in my head. Well, partially, anyway:)
I'm looking at western/english with just one "eye"dea.

I was reading on ABR about how Dr. Temple is a pawn/shill of the slaughter industry. Generally consensed, by all. (consensus, I KNOW, blogger.)

How sad/wrong is that? Heck, I think her autism gives her a unique advantage, at least as far as being able to handle the research. Would You like to research the most humane way to kill an animal? Oh, right, we should NeveR kill animals, I forgot...

Even if they are suffering? If you own one, you should try your best to NeveR let it suffer, in the first place, that much is obvious to us all, I hope. What about cause?

Cat has an abscess? How COULD you!! Dog has dysplasia? You Monster. Horse broke it's leg? YOUR fault. What IS really in your cat's food, hmmm? Nice.

Slippery, dippery slopes.

Back to a Completed(?) Nuchal Tangent, started way back when.
The nuchal ligament is important in every beast walking, but for the horse, it's the primary connection to the flow of energy from the horse's back end, that we have immediate access to.

People tend to try to "fix" the front end first. That's why it's so very wrong to be noodling their head position around too much.

I read with fascination, and a glimmer of hope, Brown-Eyed Cowgirl's comments, and her post about the working walk. I think classical riders of all disciplines know how important the walk is. Nothing loosens the nuchal ligament like a great walk. True for us all, by the way.

Brown-Eyed Cowgirls said
"... I am again reminded just how much a good ranch horse has in common with the beginning of making an ideal dressage horse.

Teaching a "ranch horse" how to be a joy to ride for miles on end, involves very little training...mostly miles. We do very little messing with the horse's head. Ideally, the horse is expected to figure out how to stretch his neck forward, release his shoulders, lift his back and push with his hindquarters.

If you asked most cowboys(or cowgirls) how they get their good horses to do that, they may look a bit confused. Not a lot of them think about the actual effort it takes for that to happen. The horse is allowed and expected to figure it out on their own.

A horse that can never seem to figure out how to stretch forward and stride out is considered a failure."

An honest english OR western rider, wants to have next to nothing to do. All the hauling and pulling and tugging and FIXing we do to the horse's head, only screws it up.
Riding is a lot whole lot simpler than we want to know or admit. Get on and go. Stop backing up and waving flags and moving their quarters and making them (puke) submit! GO.

Just go.
They want to, anyway. Going around in mindless/endless circles in just as mindless to TheM.

Horses are very two-dimensional creatures.
Leave the horse alone. He'll figure it out. If he doesn't, another horse can.

Another of my favourite reads says much the same thing in this post. But she's talking racehorses, you say!
But it's the same idea. Horses loosen up faster at the walk and the canter or gallop. The trot is hard on them, carrying us, as they warm up.
Less trotting in warm-up! ESPECIALLY sitting trot!! I'll make some picket signs for the horses...

BEC's truly brilliant blather continued..
"Western saddles come in a variety. Where you sit on the horse's back and how you sit in them depends on the make of the saddle and what "event" that saddle is designed for. Pleasure saddles and cutting saddles encourage that "couch seat", barrel saddles have you sitting more upright and balanced over your leg. Roping saddles although bigger and heavier do about the same. I haven't ridden a real reining saddle yet, but I suspect they also encourage a couch seat.

In a western saddle it is difficult and uncomfortable to maintain a different position than the saddle is made to put you in. Many people who struggle with maintaining a comfortable and correct position simply don't realize that they may need a different saddle."
Brilliant, makes so much sense! Thank you again, BrownEyes!

SorrrrrYyyyy, I ran out of eyesight for this Saddle-toon, so I'll let you try and figure it out, before I say anything about it.

Is it hard to see? I thought it was hilarious how this mare is clearly more enthused about western or dressage. Hunter/Jumper, she's not so keen:)
Oh, and sorry, CNJ, don't have a coronary, I removed your mare's withers, just to show you guys the look of a mare I rode. No withers is no fun, let me tell ya. She was a hand smaller in front, easy. How would you fit a saddle to a horse like that?
More pertinent question, Why bother? If the horse isn't built basically level, you're in trouble, tapirs and giraffes being the two extremes to avoid:)

BuT, I'd rather ride a giraffe. I like seeing the animal in front of me.
Oh, craP. I zinged right past the nuchal ligament, again. FOCus, please, focus.. (squints at keyboard...)
That rope of ligament in front of you? Treat it gently, kindly, softly. Don't scare it, or damage it. Leave it ALONE, for the first years of your horses' training.
Please.
You see, that rope is connected to that back you weight. Until he can learn to carry you comfortably, please, leave his neck alone.

To Toyota, for the luck o' the Irish.

The next question you've all been waiting for!
Where was this picture taken??
Well, of course, I've altered the green one, it's Saint Patrick's Day, donchaNO.

ToToyota.


But for the grace of the spirits that surround us, my nephew would have died, February 15th, 2006 at 2am. Just happens to be my Mom's birthday. Mom reached down from heaven, and said, "Uh, UH. Not MY Grandson". Other people could have died too. My nephew took his dad's brand new business truck, without permission, drunk, late at night. A Toyota Tundra. Nice big truck, for a Toyota.

Nephew insisted that the truck had suddenly taken off, and he'd had no choice but to embed the vehicle into the side of a house, coming around a sharp turn.

Nephew blew over, and was so lucky in so many thousands of ways. That morning was a blur to me. I saw my nephew on the early morning news, being carted off in an ambulance. My anger pretty much overwhelmed me, for a lot of years.

Now, with Toyota apologizing all over itself, I truly must wonder, how wrong was I to leap to the instant conclusion that nephew was lying?

I um, "borrowed" my parent's cars a few times, without permission. (Okay, many times.) My Mom's Toyota Tercel, poor little thing, I drove that thing into the ground in my teenage years.
I was always super-duper cautious, and never got caught. I was lucky.

My nephew is not, and was not THAT stupid. I wish I'd not jumped so quickly to his prosecution. He's been in trouble, yes, he has ADD, yes. He is a great kid.

"Toyota Canada apologizes for anxiety and inconvenience caused by it's massive recall". That's being repeated, over and over and over, on CP24 right now.

Maybe it's a little too late, Toyota.

To The Irish Eyes that smiled on my nephew that morning.
Thanks, Mom.

Older Memory

My "mind" reminded me of another horse I'd (mostly) forgotten about. Tried to forget anyway, obviously it didn't work. Remember Black Snake? That memory just happened right out of the blue.

The oldest horses seem to want remembered, more so than than the more recent, right now. My GoLightly memories are quietly hiding from me. Or, I mused hopefully, my horse memory is keeping itself lined up properly, while my older busier mind keeps doing the paying work.

Horses
Like a tall solid-red arab/walker chestnut risling. Some called them ridglings. Now they are just called cryptorchids. His name is lost to my memory, but his violence was unforgettable. This horse was angry. He would self-mutilate, anywhere. He would attack his own chest with his teeth, while being ridden, squealing like a pig as he savaged at himself. Weird, indeed.


Tangent, with correlations to relevance, MayBe.
As I gently try to remind the youth of this planet that horses have been ridden for a very long time, I'm struck, again, by how easily one can assume the worst of two variables. The horse, his wind impeded, will slow down, unless he's learned a way around it. Anyone else ever notice that? Maybe it's just me.
If you scare them, when they're in that position of less oxygen availability, you can seriously damage them. In many different ways. They have simple channels of energy, beautiful, explosive. Break that channel, and you can break them forever. Whoah, cue the metaphor monster mash..

Horses
Like a tall, fiery liver chestnut mare, first horse I jumped a six foot jump with. I was eleven. Mare was 16.3, with a high head and a wild white-rimmed eye. She had a peculiar "pinch" below her eyes, her nasal bones crimped by who knows what. Of course she was at F/W barn, where horses were often found to have stickers on their behinds. I didn't know what those stickers were, for quite a while.

Horses
Like a schoolie I taught with, at my first mare's barn, called Birchmount, 15 hands tall and wide, wise old whitely dappled-gray/merry-legged brat. He truly was built like a brick. He loved to wipe riders legs against the (mercifully smooth) arena walls, just to see what would happen.

Like SirLancelot, a coool old-schoolie horse, such an unusual colour of light bronze, with blonde mane and curly tail. One of those straight as a string, balanced all the way to his toes, but stiffened with age, gems. Lancelot moved like a pronghorn antelope, with the most symmetrical canter I've ever seen or felt. He was another schoolie with that disdainful stretch to his nostrils, reserved for the beginners. I started teaching while owning my first mare. I was 14.

Yeah, I know. I'd had three years experience! I was GeniuS. (I didn't have a clue what I was doing.) Heels down, that was about it, as far as I knew.

Those early school horses are mostly gone from my memory. They jumble up with the more memorable of the "OP" (other people's) horses.

Dakota Joe, another tall dark-bay appendix Polo Pony, so high-headed that a standing martingale was on guard at all times. Joe was snorty and blowy, and earnest. He showed me the stupidity behind forcing a horse's head into position, bless his kind soul.

"Why??" Joe turned suddenly inward, half-reared, and "clapped" his front hooves together three times, startling/shocking/shaming me, as I'd feigned to school him on the longe. His expression broke my heart, and I stopped, removed the side reins, and rubbed him hard all up and down his sweet neck and crest and back. Gah, Joe. I'm so sorry, but thank you for stopping me early. Many don't stop their ignorance/brutality, because the horses themselves are too kind to rebel. Some people can't seem to see expressions, at all.

Like that Linda Parelli video I posted on JR's blog. The expression of the horse never seemed to change. "HUH? WTF? WHY? OH!! OMG..."

No-one seemed to see that. Weird, and chilling that people will watch and mimic this.

A BirD has expressions, for goodness sakes. Widened eyes are prettY universal as a symptom/synonym for surprise/fear. The horse was blind in one eye, but his expression was still THERE.

sigh.

Oh, the horse that re-surfaced in my pool of old horse, was the psycho-albino "Exhibit A" (F/W barn, where else??). "A" had a penchant for careening into other horses, if he felt like running away, which was every time he was ridden. The girls weren't allowed to ride him, but the polo player guy that DiD ride him was pretty frickin' scary to watch. Horse could jump, but why would you want to? He was another tall/rangy type, long and bony, he wasn't skinny, but still seemed to look skeletal, almost transparent, with his ghostly lack of colour. I'm afraid that's where my "prejudice" against cremellos comes from.

Hey, I learned a new word this week. Myectomy. The things I learn, and wish I hadn't.

OH, and I keep forgetting. I have a BUNCH of "prizes". I haven't figured out how to do the ??? Contest, yet, but remind me. Prizes are jumper/dressage/eventer watch with eyes related, if you MusT have a hint;)

Hmmm, a point? Still working on one:)

Sleep Deprivation and Chocolate, maybe.

PressurePoints

As a staunchly true-red (faced) maple-leafed Canadian, I wish to apologize for the fizzling of the last post. Jeeesh, I did have a point, it evaporated. Many different parts of my life pull me away from my "own" life, such as it be. I've been hurried, harried, and wearied, as I watch my Dad struggling to breathe, looking forward to his next smoke.

Dad's in hospital again, the only place where I can feel that he's safe, at this point. He's not terrorizing the nurses and orderlies this time, at least:) His GP TOLD him to go to hospital. If I had told him, he wouldn't have gone. What do I know? Dad's always been a Man's Man, ya know? I had the nerve to tell him he shouldn't smoke anymore, how could I? His Doctor's been telling him for 50 years...

sigh.

Okay, so the last post totally reeked. Why?? I didn't give ya the "Legend"!! The explanation of those weird boxes might have been helpful. I'd still like a whole bunch of side shots of english/western. It would be AWEsome if I could get the same horse wearing first an english and then a western saddle, for totally accurate comparisons/engineering confabulations.
hint, HinT, HINT.
cough, cough... Sooner would be good. Who knows how much time I may have left??? Not as much time as some, I'll tell ya. (wheeeze)

OH, the explanation..
The Coloured Lines/Boxes
are exactly the same height
and width, in each picture...
I used the Western “Box Set”
and placed it on the Jumper
& the Dressagerererer,
then sized those horses to line up
with Ms. EnglishWesternBritish.

RED=>A=> wither to rider hip
BLUE=>B=> rider hip to horse hip, for interest only:)
YELLOW=>C=> shoulder/hip/heel
WHITE=>D=> proportions of horse/rider are approx. equal(in case you thought I was just making it up..)

I just found it really interesting to compare the Western to The Dressage to The Hunter/Jumper/Heck-quitation. The balance amongst all of them, and where and how the influences were the most important.

You see, the jumper seat shown can look like it will get you dumped, but I'm hear to tell ya, not necessarily. Not if you stay in the center of the horse.......... Remind me. Tad and the Mach-9 180 Turn...

I'll come back to this, when my eyes aren't quite so tired.

Dogs!

Flip, trying not to drown. I mean, swim. Same thing for her.

Have you been missing my dogs? Buddy Cathy Gillespie, the artiste genius listed over there >>>>>, sent me the totally coolest link for doggie stuff! The Bark!

Patricia McConnell, the writer of "The Other End of the Leash", a book that I've epiphanied all over, had an interesting post on fear and soothing. The current dogma (teehee) states that soothing/petting makes the dog worst, when he's scared. It's another example, and a good one, of how every training/life situation will need dealt with as it's OwN unique set of variables. Shortened sentence: Every dog is different.

My first sentient experience with a fearful dog was my dear neighbour's darlin' StandardPoodle, Mon Ami. I was just starting to look at dogs as I'd looked at horses and cats, for years.
Mon Ami was a happy, springy, funny puppy, with no obvious qualms about anything, well socialized from early days. Mon Ami, the first time he met my brother (who loves dogs), inadvertently jumped up into brother's hand, hard. Ami immediately cowered, and I cooed and ohhh'ed and carried on like an idiot.

Ami was petrified of brother for the rest of his 14 odd years, and his resolute fear carried to brother's wife, and child. Ami was never in danger of being a fear-biter, but he'd try to flee, and he'd cower, until brother or any of his entourage had left. I tried EVERYthing I knew, but it obviously wasn't enough. I wish I'd known more about fear in dogs then.

My latest epiphany from Dr. McConnell's post was this. You can't "remove" the fear. The fear is there, live with it and through it.

I'm generally jolly now when either of my girls shows fear. If they are hurt by an ooops from me, I apologize. Flip is a weather barometer, and nothing I do will remove her fear of storms, so we just live through it. I pat her and reward her for any signs that she's not completely closed up. The bad storms we've had? I don't much blame her. Flip will eat her meals through a storm now, she wouldn't when I first got her.

Blaze, on the other hand, will happily play FrisBee through almost ANY storm, except when her Mom jumps at a particularly loud crash. Blaze still has fear of crinkly plastic bags, the fear I instilled in her as a puppy, BAD mommy:(
Blaze just has more fear IN her, though. Her first instinct when she arrived as a pup was to hide, not meet and greet. She's the Chicken, whereas Flip is The Brave One.

Flip practically knocked us over at our first meeting:) Flip is such a unique individual, her aggressive obsequiousness a behavioural rarity, according to Dr. McC.
I always find them, though, don't I?

All dogs are different. DuH.

Brother should have apologized to Mon Ami, and I should have stfu, too.

I had to laugh at the girls this weekend, on our first walks through heavy wet snow after the melt began. Sloooshing/sloshing/OOooooooHhhhhh, EWwww, my tummy is getting WeT! Hind-Legs trying to lift higher and higher, while the cold wet keeps slapping their bare tums from their wet toes, they were practically doing hand-stands as we reached the edges of the deepest white slop.

Blaze is again mincing her dainty way through mud of any type. She HATES mud. Flip digs mud:)

OpticalDelusions

Seriously:)

Google Searches for western riding.
Interesting, fazinating really. Google "western riding training" and the first "up" are primarily from (are you ready?) England. You know?
Britain, Great?

That strikes me hilariously surreal. It's just, so, bleeeedin' ironic. I've been hiding under my equine-free rock for some time now. Imagine my surprise, as a staunch cheerily-o fan of the British/English whutever. I'm a Scot. It's genetic.

I truly expected to see riders/stables/ horses from the western side of the planet, ya know??

What the heck happened while I was carefully covering up my horse light all these years? I'm not annoyed about it, don't get me wrong. It just seems, well, wrong.

Then I tried to get Google to be a little more specific, which led to "team penning/barrels/cutting/roping/reining/WP/specialist/specialist/specialist/etc.".
I just could not find a picture of a NorthAmerican western rider riding, from the side. Even one standing still. Weird. No, I didn't look that hard. What, you think I have 48 hours in a day?

So, that's a British-English-Rider riding Western, in the multi-pic HorseStickToon below. I'm taking her position as an average to what I've seen. And, she's British. First up on the old google search. Plus, the english do it RighT:)
(mostly.)

I haven't watched much western. Okay, next to none. Only english. Got it?
Yeah, me either. This made much more sense in the car-wash.

Remember, I still believe that the two are essentially the same. They aren't, at first glances, and with first impressions. I'm looking with a purely clinical eye here, no preferences, no bias. I rode a tiny bit of western in my fooolish youth.

Tangent, still rankling, part of what got this post fizzing.
I've been totally mystified by the lack of a tent in a western saddle pad. Why don't the western folk tent? It boils down to use, I think, and where you are in the tack.
Where are you, exactly?



Humungous generalizations, which I hope you are learning to expect by now.

"english" defined. Gallop, jump, piaffe. Trot in aimless circles, if you ride dressage. (I'm KIDDING!!)

"western" defined. Lope along the fence line, stop, whirl, run down that cow. Shuffle along with your head in the dirt. Again, KIDDING.

Sort of:)

After reading CNJ's latest post on saddle fit, and really looking at the position and placement of the saddle upon the horse, an epiphany blew up in my head.

Of course, western sits further back!! I knew ThaT anyway, watching some good and not so good riders. But when I went to proof my hypothesis, this happened. What do you see?
western, hunter, dressage, in that order.
What do YOU see? (I tell you what I see further down, don't peek.)

Where do You want to be in the tack? Where does the Horse want you? What are you and the horse DOing?
These questions are crucial. Simple, but crucial. I think.


I still think western pads "would/could/should" be tented. I know they are way thicker and cushier, generally. I don't get why they are not tented up into the gullet, at the start of every ride...
I do obsess about the strangest things...
Pinched withers hurt!

PDF alert! But a great article on the horse's back... Functional Anatomy of the Horse's back
The whole search page is interesting, really.. Not the least of which, my blog actually comes up, what a freakin' miracle!









I see way more tack above the western horse's back. Duh.

I see a western/dressage leg more prone to the chair seat, which is the comfy human position, after all. Double duh. See the HorseStick Figures, couple of posts back.

I see more than that, too, but I'm curious, what do you see?

Wasn't quite worthy of the wait, huh? Oh, WeLL, I thought it was cool. So there.

omyGOsh, I almost forgot to mention this, jeeeesh, I need some ginseng. None of the positions shown are incorrect. When we speak of absolutes in riding, it's the absolutes of balance between you and the horse that apply. Not "look".

And in the end, the horse is the one with the absolutes that matter. He's the one carrying You, after all.


Pings and NonSense
OH, I forgot to tell you this, too. I've dropped from 1.5 millionth on the quantcast ping-counter, to 15 millionth! 10 to the negative 10th!!
Exponentially, I RULE.

ChampChompChangeItUp

Pretty Picture.


Letter to GoLightly

My mom told me to contact you about some horse questions I have. I am working with mom's horse and was wondering what tack changes I should make with her.

1) She has a very bad habit of biting on her bit. I am riding her in an English Snaffle. I've made sure that it not too high or loose but she still bites the bit. Her teeth do not need to be floated so I'm not sure if she needs something to play with (roller) or if this is maybe just her way of going. I am very light handed so I do not think that that is the problem.

2) She throws her head up in the air. I was going to put a martingale on her but was wondering if I should use a standing or running. I have only really used standing and am not sure what the difference is.I am not trying to make her some show horse cause she never will be but I am trying to get some good flat work on her to maybe do some very low level eventing in the future. Its been a while since I've been in the horse game so I need a refresher course on some things. Thanks for helping me with this one! Thanks for your time!

I'm not quite sure what you mean, biting the bit. Do you mean she's grinding her teeth a lot, or she "chomps" it, or what? What are you doing with her when she does this? Is she flipping her head as she "bites" the bit? Can she ride with just the halter, as in will she turn/stop? How do you start your ride with her?

Does she flip her head, with no contact from your hands? How many questions is that?? sheeesh, I've lost count:)

oops, dinner bell. Let me know, and we'll think on it.

Thanks for your quick reply. Mare chomps on the bit as soon as it goes in her mouth. From what mom told me (after I sent my first email) was that she has always done this. The owner before used a grazing bit on her. I first thought that it was the placement but have moved the bit to give her more than enough room for that. Still no changes. I have use let her stand to trying to ride her. I have not ridden her with a halter because she is a little barn sour and tries to go home as soon as I take her away from where she wants to be. We have been working on this and she is getting better.

Honestly I haven't been able to ride her as much due to the weather. The only riding I have done with her is just trails through our paddocks to get her over the barn sour issue. I'm taking baby steps. This horse already doesn't like me cause she doesn't get away with the shit she does to mom, don't want her to hate me! The head flipping thing is something she does mostly when she is mad, oh wait thats all the time. But she does hold her head a little high to being with so when she starts flipping it it starts to get a little dangerous. I.e her head hits my head, I fall off she goes back to barn, only one happy here is her. Of course this hasn't happened yet but I also haven't post yet. Wow this is a long email thanks again for all your help.

Okay, Now it's GoLightly again, italics hurt my eyes.

Well, I was stumped by the term grazing bit. I have no idea what that is, how much do I know?? Why would you want them grazing... duh.
I think this mare you've started working with (I know a tiny bit of her history, from your mom) is terribly opinionated. That's point number one. Point number two, she was "broke" by someone who only expected that she go where he pointed her. He might have been terribly rough on her mouth, we just don't know, right? Her flipping could be one of several billion things, most of them tied up in her head and neck.

It could be neurological, like a tic. I knew a few horses that developed this syndrome, as it is now called. I'd suggest searching "shaking head syndrome" in (I think it was) Practical Horseman. An old injury can leave this type of behaviour in it's wake. The less you react to it, the better, though.

I wouldn't recommend using anything other than a standing, adjusted loosely, if you're worried about your nose. Loose means she can still be very comfortable, and high-headed, because that's who she is. I think with this mare, just riding her out on trails if you can, before you do any other "fussing", will get her in a better frame of mind. I wouldn't start trying to do anything with her head, until she's fitter.

I wouldn't worry about ring "work" with this mare, for quite a while, until she's relaxed and trusting you. If she's barn-bound, she may need your mom on the ground with some encouragement, in the form of a longe-whip (if necessary) to help her change her mind.

Try not to do too much too quick, on any one day. You sound like you know what you're doing, just be patient:) (It doesn't seem to run in your family..)
<")

Build slowly, as she's been a pasture queen-beeetch for awhile. Mares can be the toughest nuts to crack.
Fair?

Oh, and sorry, could you explain this sentence, letter writer?
"I have use let her stand to trying to ride her."
I'm hoping others with strong opinions will pipe up and suggest stuff too.
It could also be her own impatience with people in general. Mares often just want to get stuff over with, so they can get back to their hay and buddies.

Thanks for writing, tell your mom I said hi!