Month: March 2017

Sometimes volunteering can feel like just another obligation but I realized yesterday as I went help out with the Warm Beach Christian Camp  9:45 horsemanship lesson that it's actually free fun.  It doesn't cost anything to volunteer and so many other activities in my life do cost money.  And it is fun, even traipsing through the muck to collect the horses for the morning lesson.  I'm sure the horses are as done with the rain as I am.  They get to go to pasture after it dries out.

The students groom the horses but an adult needs to do the groom check to make sure the saddle and girth areas are free from mud that might cause painful rubs.  And the girls aren't as fastidious about good grooming yet.  They really want to know what they can get away with.  However, I found that one girl came clean when she put the saddle pad on upside down then realized that the saddle straps may rub.  I didn't notice when I did the tack check because not all pads have straps and I didn't expect a test.  Which means I've forgotten what it's like to test adults as a young teen.

I'm learning something new every time I help out, including how far to set apart trot poles using my own feet as measuring tools.  When I ride, trot poles and jumps are set up for me but I like learning how to do that.  I'm also being reminded of the importance of being straight and how far ahead you have to plan to be straight.

Even though I've ridden for many years and have trained in hunter jumpers, I still struggle with keeping my shoulders up and following the horse's mouth with my hands.  My tendencies are to either throw the reins away because I don't want to bump the horse's mouth or I plant my hands.  Sometimes throwing the reins away causes the horse to trip on the landing because the contact s/he had before the jump is suddenly gone.  Planting the hands gives the horse nowhere to go but up or back. I think I need a jump strap again so I have a visual to aim for.  I wish more trainers used them but maybe it's too insulting for the average client.  I'm not insulted by having to go back to the basics when I've forgotten something or maybe never had it in the first place.  If I need to be on a lunge line because I need to work on balance without worrying about direction and control or it's been a long long time since I've ridden without stirrups that's totally fine with me.  I want to do it right and safely.  My ego can just go take a rest.

This morning I volunteered for the 2nd time at Warm Beach Christian Camp horsemanship program.  What this means is that I help out with one of the lessons.  I'm lucky because this lesson happens to be 4 girls who ride at a Level 2 (according to the Certified Horsemanship Association standards) and are starting to jump.  I'm very interesting in learning how to break down the steps to get to jumping.

Last week was the first lesson of the 10-week session and we reviewed the different gaits, i.e. which leg moves in the walk, trot, canter.  The girls rode over trot poles, ideally in a straight line.  Riding straight was the challenge.

This week, I set up poles and brought in some jump standards.  Even though riding over the poles last week was not perfect, and neither was the review this week, we still moved on to going over a cross rail.  It's still cold outside so the horses are a bit fresh, especially when they're riders are a bit uncertain about the cross rail.

Lisa (horsemanship director)  set up the exercise so that the girls walked in straight, trotted a couple strides before the poles, trotted out straight, then walked to the end.  That mostly went well in terms of straightness so we went on to the cross rail.  The first horse is really cute: Eben.  I rode him during the jumping courses several weeks ago at the Certified Horsemanship Conference (CHA Region 1) and he is an enthusiastic jumper.  His rider rode him straight and he tucked up his front legs like he was jumping a 4' jump, even though it was 18".  Very cute.  The second rider on a fuzzy Appaloosa, Patch, went over well too.  The third rider was on another Appaloosa, Buckwheat, the horse I rode for the conference riding evaluation.  I got a Level 3 on him (3 out of 4) because when I got on him I was warned that he was a lazy school so I may have asked him a little too hard to canter and he surprised me with a leap into the gait.  Anyway, he is not lazy over jumps as Faith learned today.  He leaped the 18" cross rail with a lot of enthusiasm then proceeded buck down the line.  My job was to encourage Faith to sit up and ask Buckwheat to calm himself.  All went well, thank goodness.  The second time went even better and Faith has more confidence.  Fiona is still working on confidence over the jumps so Lisa dropped one side of the of the cross rail to make the jump seem lower (it's not).  Sasha, the Arab, walked over it the first time but eventually jumped it in fine form.

They all showed progress so I'm looking forward to seeing what we do next Saturday!

This morning I volunteered at the Warm Beach Christian Camp horsemanship program.  The camp is precisely a 10-minute drive from my house and I've known about it for years because a friend has volunteered there long ago and more recently.

Two weekends ago the Certified Horsemanship Region 1 conference was held there and I got to know more details about the program.  Plus my friend who volunteers there was one of the riding instructors during the conference and she encouraged me to volunteer.

I volunteered for the morning lesson session.  Lessons are in 10-week sessions and are held Thursday, Friday, and several on Saturday.  There were 4 young ladies in this morning's session.  I helped catch horses in the field, watched over the girls as they groomed (where's the pride in having a clean horse?!) and saddled.  The girls are beginner level and safety is a huge priority for this camp so they're really only allowed to groom the middle part of the horse, paying close attention to where the saddle pad and girth go.  No rubs or pinches for these tolerant horses!  The horsemanship director, Lisa, brushes faces, does the grooming check, tack check then lines everyone out.

I've ridden most of my life in different disciplines but have never thought about how to break down what 30 years of riding experience means to a beginner.  Some things you just know, but how to describe it?  We set out trot poles and the girls were asked to say which gaits were appropriate for those poles and why.  And why are they supposed to post or be in two-point over the poles?  They were asked to describe gaits in terms of their own hands and feet; they turned it into a little dance, which I hope to practice.  They were asked what the 4 natural aids were (legs, seat, hands, and voice).

The horses were a bit fresh even though those of us who participated in the CHA conference a couple weeks ago tuned them up a bit in our own lessons but it's been cold and a couple weeks.  The girls got to spend a little time going over poles but mostly they were instructed to keep their eyes up, shoulders back, heels underneath their hips, stay straight.  I worked with Bella, one of the girls a bit, as her horse was getting fast and frisky.

It's a challenge for me to turn experience and instinct into instruction but I like the girls and Lisa and hope to keep practicing instruction.

I could've easily named this post "I wonder…"  As in, I wonder what would've happened if I chose a different direction at the cross road instead of the one I did.  This post is a wander about my past, the part that ended after high school but didn't really start anywhere else.  If anything it was a journey of figuring things out, the journey that never ends.  It's also a musing about horses in my life.

So it begins: a couple years after I graduated high school my mother recognized that I was directionless yet unwilling to go to college.  This is where I get to place blame (tongue firmly pressed in cheek).  She suggested I take horseback riding lessons.  Yes, it was her idea.  She knew I loved horses because I spent many childhood weekends with a friend who had a couple Appaloosas: Jeanne and Makoola.  And whenever we went on vacation I'd insist on at least one trail ride at the nearest tourist trap.  You know the place: the horses are dull, muddy and shaggy.  The barns are falling down and the wranglers look like they spend the other half of their year working in amusement parks.  In other words, no one is really making a good living, including the horses.

For once, I took my mother's advice and found a stable advertised in the Yellow Pages (this was before the Internet) that offered lessons on lesson horses.  That was even more rare back in the 80s.  I loved taking lessons, loved really learning how to ride, loved learning how to put on actual saddles and bridles.  In short order I started cleaning stalls in exchange for taking riding lessons.  I was like an 8 year old except I was a couple years out of high school.  I had a full time office job and I paid rent on my own apartment or room in someone's house.  Not really like an 8 year old except in attitude and enthusiasm.

Not long after that I started working for a Quarter Horse trainer who was in her early 30s at the time.  I started out grooming and getting her horses ready for her then I got to ride some of her horses.  Plus I had two of my own horses by then.  It was really great.  Except at the time I didn't see a future in what I was doing.  Maybe she had a bad string of horses at that moment.  A couple of them were dangerous.  One mare was fine, except when she was in heat and then she'd lose her mind and forget everything we worked on prior to that time.  Bucking became her hobby.  It could've been the training methods at the time. I remember a lot of wet saddle blankets, a lot of insisting and little understanding about horsemanship at least on my part.  The other horse would fling himself against the wall when the trainer tried to put anything resembling a girth around his middle.  The trainer nearly got hurt at least once.  That scared me.  Plus maybe the day to day business of training wasn't very interesting to me.  I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere with the two horses I was working with.  One simply could not or would not pick up her right lead.  If I got her to pick it up once, I was happy but I needed her to pick it up twice to end the session, at least in my mind.  And it often didn't work.  Picking up the right lead seemed like luck rather than an actual grasp or acceptance.  I was very frustrated.  And a little afraid of the mare that was sweet one day and bronc-y the next.  Plus the horse that flung himself against the wall.  The only good horses we had were our own.  And my hours got cut so I found another office job.  With no future.

That's when I started thinking about college.  I thought about CalPoly's equestrian program but I wasn't sure about moving all the way down to California when I'd pretty much never left the state, except for family vacations in Oregon.  Plus I didn't know how I was going to keep both horses.

I ended up going to a local community college. And made a decision about my two horses that I still don't understand, except that I was completely unprepared for follow-through and commitment.  I sold both my horses and focused on my education. As if there was no room in my life except for education.  I didn't understand balance either.  Perhaps I'm a little bit of a fanatic.

Mentoring under the QH trainer who 30 years later has a very successful business is one road I didn't take.  The other road was going to CalPoly, in California, and having an adventure I couldn't possibly imagine and definitely was not brave enough to take then.  Bravery and adventure came later, during the latter years of college when I took a summer job as a wildland firefighter and traveled all over the U.S. and in parts of Canada.  That particular adventure ended 10 years later (14 years ago).  Having horses wove in an out of my life over those years but follow-through and commitment were still big struggles for me mostly because I lack imagination and faith.  I couldn't possibly see how things were going to work out, that they were going to be okay if I followed through during the tough times and remained committed to my passion.  The trouble with committing to one passion I suppose is that I'm actually passionate about a number of things and I have a scientist's curiosity.

I have no doubt that I took the right road, even now when the road in my career is bumpy and the future is blurred at best (10 more years!!).  However, I also know that I have a curiosity about horsemanship that I'd never had before and thankfully I have a horse that is a teacher because he continually challenges my linear thinking.  I also have a patient trainer, who is imaginative and flexible.  I can't clearly see where this road is going to lead but it's a good road because I'm doing what I love on many levels.  Still, I'm enthralled when I see people doing many interesting things with horses and I wonder what might've been had I chosen either of those other roads.