Questions and Answers

We have many questions and one answer.

I'll do the answer first.  Gunner asked where I bought the new rugs for the kitchen.  They came from the Mission del Rey native American website.  This was my first time ordering from their website and I was pleased with the service and with the quality of the rugs.  They are rugs, not saddle blankets.  And, they are washable.  Sort of.  They are handmade, wool, and dry cleaning is recommended.  We don't wear shoes in the house and I purposely didn't put one of the rugs by the stove.  I'm hoping they stay relatively clean. 

Here's a shot of the whole rug.  I bought this runner and a couple small ones.

 Questions...

Flash is the first question.  This evening when the weather cooled down and we were both home from work, Brett longed Flash to see how he was moving since his hock injections.  He was sluggish and inconsistent in his tempo so it was hard to tell for sure.  But that is an improvement over last Saturday when it didn't require any thought to see that he was still off.  Brett is going to try riding him in the morning.

Brett's also starting to think about how much longer Flash will be sound to ride and wondering about getting another horse.  Brett isn't ready to stop riding yet but Flash is slowing down.  Way down.  Brett doesn't want a youngster - he dealt with six year old antics when we bought Flash and he doesn't want to go through that again.  He needs a horse with a calm, cool and collected mounted patrol compatible brain.  But he also wants to be competitive in lower level dressage -- and go out on the trail.  Anyone know of a tall, stocky, inexpensive horse that fits the bill?  I think this search is going to take awhile...  In the meantime, Brett is sad and depressed.  I know the feeling.  I look at him and remember going through the same emotions with Jackson.

The second question is less important.  I'm wonder whether Jackson will become sound enough for light riding.  He's been doing very well the past month, bucking and cantering off after his morning roll, striding around his paddock and hardly bobbing at all when he turns.  After Brett finished longing Flash, I got Jackson out and hopped on ... for about five minutes.  Max.  He stumbled a bit and turning wasn't comfortable.  But it was a very happy five minutes for both of us. 

One, Two, One, Two

This morning I worked with Winston before going to work.  It was nice and cool at 7:00 when I mounted up -- around 60F.  The high today was 95F at the house and at work... down in the flat lands of LA County?  108F.  Yuck!! 

I had a very stressful day ahead of me at work (talking to my staff about the upcoming lay offs), so I wanted to ride.  I was able to completely forget about work and just enjoy Winston.

When you ride a test at a show, a good judge will write comments that help you understand what you need to do to achieve a higher score in a particular movement.  There were a couple recurring themes in the judges comments on my tests Saturday. 

1) On my trot work, which scored 7s, she wrote "tempo varies, needs longer neck and better stretch."  So to score an 8 next time, I need to make sure our tempo is consistent and that he stretches to the bit. 

2) For our canter, which scored 6s: "needs better balance, bend and stretch." 

3) For the collective (overall summary) score: "tempo varies, transitions should be smoother, some bracing through neck, some disobedience."

This morning, we got to work.  When I was a kid, I played the viola in the school orchestra.  I loved it.  I sucked, but I loved it.  I could not play in tune to save my life, but I could keep time really well.  When Winston and I rode into the arena, I turned on my internal metronome.  I noticed that he slowed the tempo when he was unsure and when he was anticipating.  I kept my tempo the same regardless -- instead of following him.  I counted out in my head, and out loud at times, "one-two, one-two."  Winston flicked his ears on me What is that woman saying now??!  It doesn't sound like "good boy."  I'll just follow along and hope I'm not in trouble.  By the end, we were consistent and Winston understood.

We did a bunch of walk-trot transitions.  I would walk, transition to trot at C, trot in a forward even tempo  all the way around until we got back to C, transition back to walk, at the next letter pick up trot again and go all the way around.  Once we had made a transition at every letter, we changed direction and did it the other way.

We did a teensy bit of canter work, concentrating on balance and bend.

We finished up with some leg yield since he was so nicely balanced and even.

I went off to work.  My meetings went well.  I went to the gym after work and then came home and scarfed a sandwich.  A box had come in the mail (don't you just love that?  Boxes in the mail are the BEST).  I had ordered some area rugs for the kitchen.  The pads I stand on when working in the kitchen had started to curl.  They looked awful and we were forever tripping on them.  The new rugs cover the pads and I think they look great with the red stove.