Naughty or uncomfortable?

The saddle fitting experience has highlighted something to me.  Before the saddle fitting, Lil was very girthy, putting her ears back and baring her teeth at me.  Of course, she wouldn't bite me, so instead, she used to sink her teeth into the hitching rail.  After the saddle fitting, this all stopped.  Now when I do up the girth she looks around, sniffs my elbow, and then gazes off into the distance.  Massive difference.  From this I conclude that when she is comfortable, Lil is relaxed and happy.

Now onto riding.  Firstly, when I try to get on, Lil tries to walk off.  Is this just a bad habit?  Or is she uncomfortable about being ridden?  (I will add here that I do not use a mounting block.)  Then when I ask her to trot, she sometimes throws her head up.  Especially on the left rein, which is her stiffer side.  Is this a sign of discomfort?  Or is she just being naughty?  Or, is she confused?  Not sure whether to go forward from the legs, or to slow down from the reins?

It is important to remember that, according to Dr McLean, horses are sometimes victims of their own habits.  That is, once they have acquired a habit, they just do things out of habit.  It takes a human (or some other factor) to actually come along, and train the habit out of them.

Walking off while I am mounting may well be a habit.  However, I don't think throwing her head in the air when being asked for trot is a habit.  It escalates when she has been ridden several days in a row.

The problem here is that I am asking her to trot on her stiffer side.  So of course, she is stiff.  Yes, that is uncomfortable.  But I need to trot her, in order to build up the muscle strength on that side.  Yet, every time she throws that head up into the air, she is building up a habit of head tossing.  The result is that in two months time, she might have the muscle strength to trot, and she may no longer be stiff and uncomfortable, but she will still be tossing her head!

Ahh, the fun and games of training horses.

So what's the answer?  Ask for trot, and don't allow the head toss.

Luckily, Lil is very keen to work with me.  So every time she tosses her head in disagreement, I ask her to lower her head (with a firm, short, sharp downward tug on one rein, followed immediately by a firm downward tug on the other rein, followed immediately by a slight loosening of both reins).  This makes her lower her head, carry herself, and relax.

Of course, I haven't really tackled the confusion theory so far.  Lilly may well be confused.  However, the two tugs followed by a slight release should also deal with the confusion issue.

To Cair or to flock?

Bates and Wintec saddles (and possibly other brands) come with a choice of stuffing - Cair or flock.  Flock is the traditional stuffing that looks a bit like cotton wool.  Cair are air panels.

Riding on air sounds kind of cool, and it sounds like it would be good and comfortable for the horse too.  However, when Gally didn't seem too happy to be saddled, I got researching (as you do) about the Cair panels.  I found a few private ads selling the saddles with Cair, accompanied by a statement that the horse appears to not like the Cair, and goes much better in a flock saddle.  I also found the topic discussed in some equestrian forums.  But at the end of the day, there was little more to go by than the "my horse goes better in a flock saddle".

Since I suspected that some of my issues with Gally were due to Cair, when buying Sabina a saddle I was adamant that it had to be flock.  Once the saddle fitter was out, we had a solid chat about the two types of stuffing.  And here is the low down.

Cair tends to suit the narrower horses, preferably with a high wither.  It sits well on their backs, moulds to their shape, and prevents pressure points.

When you get a horse with a wider back, and a lower wither, the Cair tends to roll around a bit.  Which means that as the rider's weight shifts, the saddle rolls over the air bubble that is Cair.  With the wider horses, this can be a fair bit of roll, simply because of their shape.  Now, some horses won't mind this, just like they won't mind a fly.  But other horses ... well it will just freak them out.  Yep ... that sounds like Gally (who incidentally, detested flies).

After this conversation with the saddle fitter, I have basically made up my mind that flock, in general, is better.  Obviously, for the time being I am stuck with Cair.  I will give it a solid go with Lil, as she has "the prefect back for it" apparently.  However, I will be keen to compare it with a flock saddle if I get the chance.  And in the long run, I am intending to replace our Cair saddles with flock ones.

So maybe, the title of this post should have been "Back to the flock"?

Saddle fitting

I have said it before (see here), and I will say it again - money spent on a professional saddle fitting is the best money you will ever spend on your horse.

Firstly, the time had come to buy Sabina a saddle for Bel Bel.  I had been using my old 17 inch Bates Olympia, and while there is nothing wrong with this saddle; it was 1) too narrow for Bel Bel, and 2) too long for her back!  In addition to that, 6 year old Sabina was swimming in it.  Fine while you're walking, but anything beyond that and you're not doing your child's riding development any good.  Having conferred with other mothers at Pony Club, I went in search of a 15 inch saddle.

Sure enough, our local Horseland store had just the saddle in stock.  (Wintec All Purpose 250 (flock).)  Sabina sat in it in the store.  Then she sat in a 16 inch saddle.  Both the sales lady and I very quickly came to the conclusion that the 15 inch really is the right size for now.  So we arranged for the saddle fitter to come out, to make sure that the saddle fits the pony as well as the rider.

Well the saddle fitter sized up the pony, and changed the gullet.  Then he showed me exactly where the saddle sits well, and where it doesn't.  He explained how the saddle should sit no further than the horse's last rib.  Then he added some more stuffing, and an attachment point for a crupper - should we need one.  Finally, he showed me how, after all the adjustments, the saddle fits very well. 

Then we moved onto Lilly.  Initially I had ridden her in my Bates Caprilli All Purpose (with Cair), which had been fitted to Gally.  Then a friend lent me her Bates Maestro (dressage saddle, with Cair).  This had the medium gullet, and Lilly definitely preferred this saddle.

Enter saddle fitter.  Well, for starters - definitely medium gullet for Lil.  So the saddle fitter pulled out the blue (Gally's) gullet, and put the black one back in.  Then he had a look at the adjustment pads.  These were in totally the wrong place!  We suspect that while the saddle was being used on Gally, they were in the right place, but once the saddle was used on other horses (Lil, Dingo) they may have moved.  So he pulled out the pads, and put some new ones in.  We put the saddle back on Lil - the fit looked just perfect.

Lil's verdict - well when I used to do the girth up, she used to put her ears back and lash out with teeth.  She would never bite me, because she is just too nice, but she wasn't happy.  Now, she just sniffs my elbow if she notices that I am doing the girth up.  Sometimes, she doesn't notice, and she just stares off into space with a goofey look.

So, one question remains (two actually).  I have been riding Lil for about 8 months now.  Why didn't I have a saddle fitting done earlier?  Because I was too scared to part with that X amount of dollars!!!

What's the other question?  Cair or flock?  See my next post.

Lilly's outing

Yesterday Dingo had an outing, today it's Lilly's turn.  Except that she's not off to a clinic.  She's off to the state forest for a walk.

We are barely out the front gate, when Lilly first sinks her hooves in the ground and refuses to go forwards.  I am carrying a crop, but at this point I don't feel the need to use it.  There is a lot of going backwards, and she tries at all costs not to go forwards.  But in the end, she relents, and we walk on, up to the state forest gates.

There are two gates into the state forest, and the 40m in between them is hardly enough to bother getting back on.  So while I am walking her between the two gates, Lilly kindly tries to bulldoze me.  Nothing a bit of "stop" and "back up" can't fix.

Once we are on the state forest track, firstly it takes me a while to get on, due to Lilly spinning about.  When I am finally on, she takes up to going backwards again.  A bit of a tricky task, as there is quite a slope in places, and the ground has all sorts of nasty branches lying in long grass.  I persist gently.  The fact that the gate is closed is a real help - at the very least we can just stand there.

After about 10 minutes, she gets over it, and goes forward.  Uncertainly at first.  I encourage with my seat, and she decides to trust me.  And the rest of the ride is pure pleasure.

Of course our tustles mean that we have wasted time, and I probably don't have the time to do a loop.  Not to mention, there might me more tustles along the way.  So I pick a nice safe looking spot and stop.  Then I ask her to go forward again.  Yes, this is really important.  It tests the friendship.  I can feel her hesitate, but we're good.  She goes forward.  I reward her by turning her around and heading home.

On the way home, I ensure that she is on her best behaviour.  There is to be no getting excited, no trit trotting, no head shaking, no shying.

Once we're back at the hitching rail I feel really satisfied with my ride.  It has shown me that we need to do much more of this.  But I have also returned feeling that quiet persistance, which is so much in my nature, works really well with this horse.  And I just think we make such a solid partnership.

Showjumping clinic

I took Dingo to a showjumping clinic today.  It was supposed to be a cross country clinic, but either due to lack of interest, or wetness of the cross country course, it ended up being a showjumping clinic.  Never mind.  If the pony is to compete, then any clinic is a good clinic.

Well we arrived without any issues, I saddled up and then I looked at our arena.  It was indoors.  Dingo had never been in an indoor before.  (Well, he actually had.  Back in February when I took him to a dressage day.  But we only did a short warm up in there.)  He took it all in his stride, though.

The instructor made some interesting points in the lesson.  Some to which I nodded wisely, and some which were quite new. 

Firstly - confidence is everything.

Secondly - if you feel things are not going right, and you do nothing, then your worst fears will come true.  Do something.  As long as you do something, chances are you will change the situation for better.  But, never, ever, do nothing.

Thirdly (and this was the new one to me, and my favourite) - do not jump from a standstill.  If your horse stops at a jump then show your displeasure, then take him around again and make him do it from canter, and make him jump it.  In fact, the coach went as far as saying that you don't jump from a trot either.  Nor from a walk.  The reasoning being that in a competition you will be jumping from a canter, so train your horse to jump from the canter always.  If they sometimes stop, then you will never know whether they will stop or whether they will jump, and so you can't be confident.  See first point.

Fourthly - if something goes wrong, then it's your horse's fault.  But you have to correct it.  Which might not look pretty.  When you've finished your jumping round, you might want realise that it was actually your fault, and you might want to apologise to your horse.  But while you're jumping - it's your horse's fault.

We jumped a warmup jump.  Then we did a little course - a mixture of grade 5 and 4.  Then he added a second part of the course at grade 3.  Dingo did the first part of the course, and we had fun doing it.  He did a great job of it.

I skipped the grade 3 part though.  I have every confidence that Dingo can do the height.  But to me, he just wasn't travelling well enough on the day.  And I kept thinking that if he jumps funny, then there is just not enough neck to land on.

It took me all afternoon to work out that what I should have done is sat back more, and looked up more and treated the upcoming grade 3 jump as though it was a grade 1 jump.  Next time.

The instructor was really happy with Dingo and with my riding.  He really thought I should have done the second part of the course.