planBE

Riding four days in a row makes such a difference! My last two days were such magic that I got goosebumps as my wonderful steed carried me confidently forward on the trail. My last ride involved several canter departs, and most of them were on the correct lead at the first request. Occasionally I  needed to recorrect by the second stride but Q was not flustered for the first time ever of his little mistakes. In the past, he has gotten extremely amped and upset when I correct his canter leads on trail. The mellow soldier in the arena, is not the fiery dragon I have on trail. That said, I am just so impressed at how forward he is on trail. He is really a pleasure to ride. Not much leg is required to get a jump into the trot or canter. In fact, I have to learn how to make a softer and quieter canter depart with 10% of the pressure I need in the arena. Ive learned this week as I practice canter departs on trail, that I am struggling with the down transition to the walk because Q is jus...

I had a plan. My horse had another. I wanted to canter. My horse wanted to bolt, spook, and gallop! So we trotted and cantered up hills and across trails until the poor guy was winded. I let him walk and catch his breath, which of course is a little challenging when he is still jigging. I thought he had calmed down and we could start practicing canter transitions when a pheasant startled in the bush. Poor Q was wired! So we kept on trotting until finally 10 minutes later he asked to walk. I got this little clip after thirty minutes of trotting and just before he asked to walk. He is looking a little sedate, finally. Eventually I got to do some canter work on a wider stretch of the trail. At first the circles were ovals but eventually Q figured out my game.  Which got me thinking ... will I ever gallop? My old timer cowboy trainer told me many moons ago to be very careful about never “opening up” my QH on trail. So we kept our speed to hand gallops in closed spaces. But many trainer...

Was a lovely day spent in an apple orchard with a deluxe food basket for two and a bottle of local cider. The weather was brisk but sunny and it was lovely to be surrounded by an abundance of ripe fruit! Q got the day off after five days of good rides. He will get all the treats tomorrow with some nice grass if all goes well.

Im all for the student becoming the teacher, and learning to fly on their own. I live in a world where education is the core but everyone is an optional player. But I cant help someone who won’t help themselves or take responsibility for their situation. If you want to work with me you better be ready to commit to the process and do your homework. I have zero patience for slackers. Classes start tomorrow and Im revving up for my first day of the year speech where I explain to my students that they can choose to stay or go. But staying means work. They then have two weeks to withdraw. Our poor wounded warrior at the barn is having surgery tomorrow and probably getting her broken jaw wired shut for 4-6 weeks. An awful situation made worse for this self-employed rockstar that will probably not even be able to teach while she recovers from her broken jaw and ribs. And of course riding is out of the question. I am simply aghast that her two most bumbling students with no natural talent, wor...

Lots of things happened this week, to me and around me. Our local H/J trainer got bucked off and kicked in the face, fracturing her jaw and ribs on a young colt on his first ride. She was wearing a helmet and of course it could have been much worse. But we have all been a bit shaken by the event. She doesn’t remember what happened or how it happened but the owner was holding the horse, she put her belly on his back and boom! Next thing she knows she is sitting in an ambulance. I saw her today and she is a true warrior. Ive gotten to know her lately as Ive been helping her with her own 2 year old gorgeous Hanoverian colt in introducing the more difficult obstacles like the teeter totter and the waterbox, and helping her improve her groundwork skills to tackle the difficult obstacles. The colt is learning quickly, and she is building a new language of ask/release that is starting to work miracles. So much so, that one of her clients asked me to help her with the teeter totter. I knew thi...

We are in “back-to-school” mode with classes starting for me in 2 days. Lots of organizing to happen before then, plus the first trip to the hairdresser in months. It was awesome to dump 10 inches of hair to the floor!  And today delivered the first “feels-like-fall” day even though we still have another 25 days of summer to go. Weather dropped to 16C, and with blue skies and bright sun that has changed its angle in the Northern Hemisphere ... well ... every colour just seemed crisper. It was also a reunion of sorts for my first trailride with B and his horse Shadow. Shadow had two bad bouts of colic back to back in May and has been in recovery rehab after his two hospital stays. The events were brought on by a vet giving an incorrect dosage for a medication to help with headshaking. 10x overdose. Since the medication also has a sedative effect, the horse stopped drinking ... in the middle of a heatwave. Impaction colic. So for the rest of the summer, Shadow was taken off hay and g...

Yesterday was my fourth fall off Q, and probably my 200th fall since I started riding. My first three falls happened on my very first ride at the age of 6. I had been begging my parents to let me ride (or buy me a pony) ever since we spent the summer of the Montreal Olympics camping at the equestrian park. I was enamored at first site. Of course my parents did not buy me a real pony, but I then began the long process of receiving toy horses, horse books, and of course riding lessons and eventually summer riding camp for many years. I finally succumbed to my passion at the age of 19 and bought my first horse (a quarter horse named Rocky) with my own money. Life was never the same after that. And of course at that point in my life, through University and grad school, I had no money. But when I was 6 years old my mom took me to a trailriding barn and we went out with a group. I was at the back of the pack on a fat lazy pony that would always stop and eat grass. When the group got far enou...