Who would've thought?

Last night I gout Aruba out and lunged her. I was hoping to get video of her on the line, in motion, but it didn't happen. The sun was far enough down the lighting sucked and nothing was getting picked up by the lens. Ahhh poop. But true to her nature, she started out at a walk on the line. Since taking notes and tips from Cheryl, this mare has turned some corners and really impressed me. Both by what she can do, but also what I am realizing I already know and can get her to do as well.

Let's start with her walk. Now this mare is Loooong. Not only tall, but long as well. She wears a size 90 sheet which is not easy to find and I have yet to make one for her, so there it is. She's 16.2h and pretty solid put together. Her walk was nothing pretty to begin with, but after Cheryl told me to use my legs and encourage her to step forward under herself more, taa-daa! She was starting to really stride forward and even had some overstep going on there.

I noticed though, that she was a bit more short in her stride on the right. She didn't quite overstep on that side. Her stiffness and tightness was on the left so I figured it was from compensation and let it go at that. But after having Dana work on her the first time, her stride evened out and she was close to a perfect match. The muscles were relaxed and she could move equally well on both sides.

Then came the revelation one night, riding her mostly bareback (saddle pad under the surcingle) to cool her out after some much needed long line work- I was not sitting on her evenly. My left seat bone had more weight on it and contact than the other one. What Dafuq??? So I texted Cheryl on my way home, hoping for some words of advice on how to fix this? She told me to ride bareback and feel with my seat as her back muscles moved beneath me. I shot one back- I was riding bareback and feeling her beneath me. That's how I figured it out! We both had a good laugh over that and agreed I need to do it more often as a reminder...

Working the mare more in the lines and riding her hit and miss, things didn't feel like they were progressing much and Aruba seemed stiff again. So another game of Tag with Dana over text messages and hit or miss on our schedules, yes, no I have the money, I don't have the money, I'm free this day/time, I can't make it... Argh! So I sent her a text on Friday and Saturday morning was on.

Dana worked on Aruba and got her all loosened up and relaxed. At one point Aruba was so relaxed, her eyes were half shut and she seemed to be fading out. Working on a pressure point under her jaw, Dana was able to get a huge release and Aruba stood there yawning and yawning and yawning some more, closing her eyes and trying not to let them roll back in her head. It was funny and awesome all at the same time.

Aruba had the day off on Sunday since the kids go to supervised visitation with their dad. The schedule of getting up at the asscrack of dawn to be there on time after an hour driving one way the opposite direction... does not leave much time for anything horse related on Sundays. Yes supervised visitation, but that's a story for another day.

Now let's talk about Aruba's trot. She has always lifted her neck waaaaay up in the air as if she is a giraffe. Add to that being behind the bit and a few other things in response to everything else and it's just not as pretty a picture as it could be. That's WHY we're working on things. Eventually she does relax and start moving off her back end, but you have to wait for it to happen. Otherwise it just gets ugly and she's not one to easily give in. But we're getting there. Slowly. Some days more so than others... lol

While I was letting Aruba cruise around on the line last night, something happened that has never happened before. She started using her body differently on her own. She was lifting her shoulders and reaching up under herself at the trot. She was striding out in a gorgeous frame and began to actually overreach. Enough so that I could hear it as she moved. Click. Click. Click. Click.... And I thought DAMN! Just don't pull a shoe! The farrier isn't due for another couple weeks and I guess I need to find bell boots now too.

Winners and Losers

This morning at the gym, a woman was wearing a T-shirt that said: Winners Train, Losers Complain. Boy is there truth to that! Not just in the gym, but also in horses. Think about it. When was the last time you went to any kind of competition and the winner was someone who rolled out of bed that morning, decided "Meh, I'll load up the horse, go to a show and clean house." Maybe if they have been working long and hard, their horse is fine tuned to the hilt and ready to go... Yeah, they could get away with it. But even then, their horse is not fine tuned from hanging out in the pasture as a lawn ornament while the owner binge watches their favorite TV shows.

Winners train. We take lessons, we talk to people, we read books, we watch videos, we attend clinics, we go to shows and when we don't do as well as we thought we should have.... We take a step back and look at what happened. We try to figure out how to IMPROVE. What we don't need to worry about anymore, what we should focus on instead, our strengths, our weaknesses. E.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. It's almost an obsession for some of us. And some of us are incredibly far more anal about things than others, but we all strive to do more, do better, get to the top, stay on top and reach our goals. Once reached, we set new goals and keep going.

I won't call the complainers Losers, although those who lose, often complain. But there are enough people out there who don't put out much effort, don't bother to try harder and when they don't place or even come in last, blame the horse, blame the footing, blame the judge, blame the announcer, blame the time, blame the place and blame the sky for being blue that day.... AS IF!!! That shit gets old pretty fast and soon we don't want to be around them anymore.

Zen pony

Aruba got worked on a couple weeks ago, getting a massage and an adjustment. She needed it. And now I have a totally different horse. She is totally chillin' now. Completely relaxed, peceful, softer than ever and for a change-> comfortable. I had noticed a while back that when going to the right she wasn't oversteppng with the right hind at a walk and at the trot she wasn't even coming close.

A few text messages back and forth. Hit and miss on schedules. Having the money at the time, then something comes up and it's spent... I knew she needed it and it would help her, but things just didn't work and it didn't happen. I would run into Dana at driving events and club meetings and we would agree- "We need to do this!" and still we tried to figure things out...

I had brought Aruba back to doing long line work and noticed she started having bigger issues going to the left. She seemed tight, stiff and at times looked like she was off in the front, but there was nothing in her feet, nothing to show she should be lame and a few strides later looked fine. I rode her again in the dressage saddle and things were more than obvious, something was not right. Again she was off and on 'off' and not moving like she should. I got on and figured we would work on some stretching and softening work and see if things improved. We ended up going out around the block and just trying to let her relax.

When we got back, finished up and I pulled the saddle there was a big dry spot high up on her left shoulder. That hasn't happened before, so yeah there's deffinitely something going on. After another driving club meeting Dana and I agreed, she needed to come work on Aruba. As much as Aruba was on edge and not sure of things when I led her out of the stall? She was convinced this was for the better and totally relaxed when I put her back. Even Dana made the comment she is a completely different horse now. Yes, yes she is.

She started with the Magna Wave and got the muscles to relax as well as letting Aruba get used to having this weird white thing moving all over her making her muscles twitch. She was reactive in both knees and her left hip was giving her a lot of issues. When Dana pushed on one spot on her hip, you could see the muscles in her back tense up and react. With plenty of work with the magna wave, some red light therapy and time to wait for it, finally Aruba relaxed. Finally the muscle let loose and pushing on it now, there was no reaction in her back. The adjoininng muscles lay flat and unresponsive to the pressure.

Some stretching, a few more releases some of the bound up knots in her neck, back and hips, an adjustment of her spine thru the loins, another resulting in 3 loud pops in her neck and suddenly it was like a light had switched off. She put her head down and was at peace, completely relaxed, soft and quiet. It was as if she was transformed into a state of zen. Aruba stood there as calm as could be as if she could care less about anything and everything around her. I have honestly never seen her like this at all in the 5 1/2 years I've had her.

I had her turned out overnight before her therapy session but when I put her away, I put her in the stall so she could relax in the shade by herself and enjoy her new state of calm peace. Before puting her back, we stood there under the tree, taking it all in and for the first time, Aruba was not only standing near me half asleep at times, but she would reach out to me and nuzzle me, working her nose back and forth the way a horse does when they scratch an itchy spot for each other. She was expressing her thanks for her new found sense of AAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh. I know how it feels.