First Cold Front? Summer is Over?

Today is the last day in July, and it kind of feels like the last day of summer. The weather people say we will be getting a cold front today at lunch, which is crazy. Texas isn't exactly known for having a short summer, and it hasn't actually been over 100 yet. Maybe we are going to have an early fall? Of course, most people who know me know fall is my favorite season, so I definitely won't be complaining.

Anyways, we have been crazy busy this summer. You might think summer is a time for relaxing for "full time students," but its not. We have been working hard to make progress on our research at work and also find time to ride the ponies. I have been working hard teaching my lessons and even helping with summer camp [now that's a flashback]. Somehow though, I have actually been riding Jellybean very successfully.

Jellybean is mostly at the point where she needs lots of miles. She walk/trots/canters with minimal cues (although I always carry the dressage whip in case she thinks she doesn't have to). She stops pretty easily and turns ok. She is learning to check things out before she spooks and she is being ridden all over the farm. I want to take her on an off site trail ride as soon as we get the trailers, etc organized. She is still growing, and is currently taller in the back then the front. I really really hope she levels out, but since I have never actually seen her parents, and I have no idea of their breeding its just luck of the draw. Some of her recent achievements: walking over a cross country log, bridling easier, and being ridden bareback around the farm.

Gracie has been showing the most improvement. I took a lesson with Maggie recently, and she helped me figure Gracie out just a bit. I previously attributed Gracies lack of willingness to canter to her lack of strength. She seemed to me like she was having trouble carrying a person in a less collected canter. So Robert tried a few times to get her moving and she became increasingly resistant to the canter. She started throwing small bucks and rears to evade the forward motion. I put a couple of training rides on her, and Robert backed off asking her to canter for a few weeks. Then we went on vacation.

So when Maggie was helping me with Gracie, she was on the ground telling me to push push push her forward. I didn't bring my stuck-to-the-horse seat that day, and I was having some trouble. So she volunteered to ride her around a bit. And then Gracie was cantering around. We decided that this should be treated more like a sour lesson horse situation then a weakness.

And wow what a change. Riding Gracie carrying a dressage whip is like riding her in another world. She listens and goes forward and canters off without a fit. Go figure. So Robert has been riding her in his lessons and really enjoying his time cantering around. They even jumped some cross country logs the other day!

So now Robert is working on his seat again, and Gracie is being well behaved for the most part! Sounds like a win all around to me :) Anyway, the end of summer is fast approaching and we will be back to teaching and working and trying to fit some riding in. I hope to have more to talk about soon :)

Guest Post: Its a dog's life for me... until they put me in the car

Some highlights of Byron's vacation:

Why are we awake at 4am?

This car is uncomfortable.

Whoop! Kentucky!

This porch is ok, Philo OH is kind of slow.

Roscoe was a cool enough guy. He had a big yard in Dublin, OH

He isn't fancy enough to sleep on the couch (and I was being naughty)

Geneva-on-the-Lake is more my speed. Cool weather and great sunshine.

Down in NC I met this crazy kid, Bubba

We really got to know one another.

Now here was a nice place. I got to hang out with Comet, who was ok and sleep!

I didn't wannt stand too close to Comet, she was too pretty.

Where to now!?

The water in Linville, NC was tasty!

Aren't we cute?

I don't wanna miss Amanda coming back! No water for me!

Ok, so we're traveling again?

How did this get in my photos?

Upside down building!

Amanda can't take pictures of signs.

Almost home!

Thank goodness!

Back to my home state :)

Whew. Made it. Time to catch up on sleep.

Pine Hill Horse Show

Hey everybody,

I finally got some time to talk to Knots yesterday about the horse trial he and Amanda went to this past weekend.  He gave me all the gossip so I thought I would pass it on to you guys!

So, it all started on Saturday morning when Amanda and Robert came to the barn to get Knots and Panda ready to go.  There were baths and mane pulling and clipping of ponies everywhere!   Then they tied Knots and Panda in the stalls while the humans went to eat lunch.

When they got back that was when the real fun started.  Packing of tack and loading of horses into the trailer, I am not good with time but I feel like this took longer than expected.  This is where the first hand account leaves and all of the rest I heard from Knots.

After the long and hot ride down to a place called Bellville, Tx Knots and Panda were taken to their home away from home.  A swanky little 10x10 stall under a huge pavilion. There were quite possibly 100 stalls set up under this building and all of them were full of strange new faces to meet.  Knots said it wasn't too bad since Amanda remembered to bring hay and grain.  Once everyone got settled in for the night Knots says they had a huge party with all the new horses.  They wanted to stay up late but the trailer ride really tired him out.

Bright and early Sunday morning Knots saw Robert at the new barn! He was moderately excited to see another familiar face but he had no time to chat since Amanda already had him tacked up and about to head to dressage warm-up.  He said Sarah was there to help Amanda see all of his tricks and calm him down before they did their dressage test.  And suddenly it was time!   He said he gets so nervous when he is in the dressage arena because every move he makes is looked at by EVERYONE!  Well, he may be a bit of a drama llama but, I can understand the pressure. Knots said they did great!  He was a little confused on the canter departures since Amanda was nervous too.  Everyone said they did a great job though.  Whew, I am tired just relating this.  I am glad Knots got a rest and snack between dressage and stadium jumping.

After snack and lunch for the humans, Knots got all dressed up in his jumping gear!  Oh my I bet he looked dashing in his jumping saddle, running martingale, and that sleek looking saddle pad.  I'll have to ask Amanda for a picture to hang in my stall....   #dreamy
Knots said there were 8 jumps in the arena and he had never seen any of them before!  Sounds scary.... He told me that he just had to trust Amanda that the jumps were jumpable and that when he let her support him they did great.  Not even a single rail knocked down!   Good job Knots!

Then it was time for another break and a snack. (Eventing doesn't sound so bad with all of these snacks!)  After an hour, it was back in the tack for the cross country round.  Now this sounds like fun!  Cantering through the woods trying to clear 12 jumps in a specific time?  Is it a race?  Is it a challenge?  Knots said it was so much fun. He got to run through the woods and through some water (yuck!) and jump everything in sight.  He was very happy to carry Amanda over everything and let her enjoy the ride.

After all the riding was done Knots got lots of love and pats and "good boys" from everyone there.  Everyone was waiting for the scores to be posted.... How did we do?  Knots was confused, all the people left him in his stall and ran down to the scorers table.  Turns out that Amanda and Knots took SECOND PLACE!!!!  WOOOOOOOO!!!  Go Team!

When they got back last night both Amanda and Knots looked tired but victorious.  I am so proud and happy for my human.  I am glad that I am Amanda's pony.  With a trainer like her I know I will win ribbons too!  Knots says he thinks I can win 1st place someday.  I hope he is right.

I will see if I can get pictures from Amanda.

So long for now,

The JellyBean Horse   <3 <3 <3

Thoughts on Teaching Lessons

At this point, if you are following along with the blog, you may have noticed hints of this other fun thing I do in my spare time, teaching riding lessons. I usually have between two and ten students, and they are between 8-70 years old, although this blog touches on children. I teach newbies just starting out and I have even taught lessons to help students branch out of their disciplines. I have been teaching lessons off and on since I learned how to ride. I started out as an assistant helping my instructor at summer camp. Eventually I was teaching lessons at summer camp and leading trail rides. I took a break through much of high school and got started again at the end of college and the beginning of graduate school.

I guess all this background to say that there were two definitive phases of my teaching philosophy so far, and I expect my ideas will continue to change as I have more experiences. During my younger teaching days, I spent a lot of time working with temporary "students." We worked with visitors at conferences, just in for the weekend. We worked with students at summer camp, and we worked with very small children for their first lessons. At this point, the central focus of my duties was always safety. Safety safety safety. I needed to make sure the people I was helping didn't inadvertently hurt themselves as they were learning. This focus on safety gave me the tools to really pay attention to what others were doing around horses. And in fact, it made me very uncomfortable in several situations where the safety focus was not present. There are, of course, pros and cons to this approach, but it definitely gave me a solid foundation.

During and after college, I have really had the opportunity to develop my own teaching style. I have taken this safety focus and evolved it. I have learned how to make sure the lessons are engaging and fun, and level appropriate. I work very hard to ensure my students are progressing at an appropriate speed. Sometimes that means cantering, and other times that means trotting patterns for additional weeks. I really work hard to push my students out of their comfort zones in a safe, growth focused way. Now, don't misunderstand. Sometimes I push my students too much and I must back down to an easier lesson, but many times I am rewarded by watching their new found confidence. 

That is the part I find rewarding, and why I spend my precious extra time teaching lessons. I do appreciate working off my board, but I don't make enough money to justify the time and worry I spend. I take value from seeing my students succeed. I like it when they choose new challenges, and learn that "can't" is not a word in our vocabulary. I am always pleased when I switch horses and students who were scared to ride another horse have a successful lesson. Mostly I just want to teach the children entrusted to my care how to be independent thinkers, and how to think critically through the wide variety of challenges horses present. 

The first poop

Jellybean here. Just wanted to recap a crazy morning for my adoring fans at home. So this morning Amanda brings me to my breakfast, and I start eating and its awesome. But then, before I can even finish all my hay (I had it spread out for optimal eating position!!) she brought me to the tack up area and started brushing me. It was all fun and games until she brought out the dressage saddle and tacked me up. Oh boy. So I knew what was coming, and I decided to stretch. But of course she tied me too tight and I couldn't practice the downward dog nearly as well as Byron has taught me. So I settled for a stretch with my back right leg out to touch Jeannette, who chose a poor time to walk by.

So Amanda finishes dressing me and we go over to the big arena. She said something about wanting a fence since we hadn't ridden in a couple of weeks. So when we got to the arena I showed her the fence along the trailer parking and gave her plenty of time to look at it. She got impatient though, and started bumping me with her leg so I walked sideways until the next part of the fence I thought she might like. Anyway, then some other pony friends came in. Their riders didn't have saddles and they kept galloping around. I wanted to hang out, but then when I trotted to say hi Amanda made me start circling. Well that was no fun. I don't like trotting circles. I wanted to hang out, so I tried to throw Amanda a little buck to tell her to back off, but then she got really grumpy and started using the dressage whip on my hip. Blergh.

So then the boys and the other horse-friends left the arena and Amanda wanted to canter around. She forgot I am having a growth spurt and cantering around with my downward build and her big butt is exceedingly difficult. So we didn't do too much. But then Amanda wanted to look at the fences again, but this time at the roping chute. There are two sides and then this little cage thing. And its next to a building, so I don't trust it. I just know something is going to grab me. I tried to tell her, but she just kept bumping and tapped me with the whip. So I went in and then as I was leaving something scared me and I trotted away. Amanda dropped her dressage whip, so she jumped down. She then mumbled something about a too big girth and we went back to the mounting block.

I have been thinking about the mounting block, and I had some cool new moves. Amanda was not impressed and kept re-positioning me. Then she finally had to jump onto my back. Jellybean 1 Amanda 0. So then she wanted to walk out to the jump field, which is weird looking right now since there is no fence or gates. I watched Panda jump and canter around, but he wasn't feeling well, so we ended up just walking around. Then Amanda suggested walking around the pond. So we walked over, and she got this crazy idea we should walk through the edge. WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?! Panda told me there was a copperhead in there just the other day, and I don't want a snake bite! So I tried to convince Amanda this was a bad idea. But Panda wasn't scared and he was just standing in the water. But I didn't want to. I drank some water and pawed a little bit, but Amanda kept nagging. I was so worried about being bitten. I started sweating, and then, before I could even control myself, I pooped!!! WHILE AMANDA WAS SITTING ON MY BACK. What has this world come to?! After shaming myself, I finally put a tiny corner of my hoof into the pond and we were done.

When we got back to the barn, Amanda sprayed me off and then tossed me back into my stall. I looked her in the eye and rolled in the clean part of my stall. Ain't no clean ponies here.

Summer is CRAZY

Hi all, summer has started with a bang. After that awesome week of riding the ponies every morning, summer camp hit and my time was stretched extremely thin between work and pony things. But everyone survived, including the students and my ponies. So now we are in the lull before vacation! And I am trying to get some more riding in before the show July 6th. I will be taking Knots in the Goldilocks division, which is a 2'3" division here. Hopefully we can keep learning and go Beginner Novice in the fall. I have also been trying to fit in some schooling rides on Gracie, since she has picked up a couple of annoying habits in the last few weeks. Nothing a pair of spurs and some forward riding didn't sort out, but just another annoying thing to fix. I haven't actually gotten to ride Jellybean in a bit, so hopefully when next I saddle her up she will not have forgotten everything. In any case, some bonus pictures before I leave you until next time :)

Some delayed news of progress

Confession time: I have been a complete slacker. The weather has been perfect, and I have been spending all my spare time with the barn family and riding as many ponies as I can get my butt onto. And so I present to you a long overdue update on all the fun things we have done in the last couple of weeks.

Knots:
Knots and I have been spending some extra time together in a couple of jumping lessons around Memorial Day weekend. Thursday we went to Leaning Oaks Farm and had a jumping lesson with Amanda Merritt. It was pretty fun. She started with a two jumps, one stride apart. She started with trot poles to an X and then moved it to a crossrail, one stride, 2'6" oxer. Clearly I have been putting on my big girl pants. After we jumped that without completely awful form, we worked on a course of about 6 jumps set to 2-2'3" (I think). Then we schooled in the water, walking/trotting through and then jumping up and down a very small bank/log.

That was our warm up, and then on Monday we went down to Pine Hill and schooled out there with Amanda. Knots and I definitely brought our big girl pants, because we jumped everything with minimal fuss. We jumped lots of logs and then up and down a small bank and then a 2' bank/drop. We also jumped a BN trakehner and a couple of lines. We cantered through the water and jumped some brush boxes. Definitely a confidence booster. Knots is really trying to be point and shoot, he just needs me to help him keep pace and not fall off haha. No pictures because my lovely assistant was working.

Gracie:
Gracie and I had a schooling ride over the weekend through a surprise bout of allergies. We went out to the jump field and worked over some fences. She was fairly squirrly with me, which I haven't seen her do with Robert. I have a lot of ideas about why this may be, including poor hand placement and a shorter leg. Either way, we managed to figure it out. I have a couple of stills and a video of our last jump.

This was a great jump, I stole the still from the video posted below.

She looks awesome here, jumping over an 18" X.... Clearly I got left far behind.

And last but not least, Jellybean!

I have slowly been coming to the realization that Jellybean is no longer not broke. She is officially green broke. I have still been taking it very slow with her, and its definitely time to see how well she can hold herself together. So I rode her in the cutting pen without assistance. She was not very good, she didn't want to move off my leg and I ended up in a kick war. I knew this was not a sustainable plan, so I found a stopping point and tried again the next day. I rode with a dressage whip this time, and had much better success! She was actually paying attention and giving me reasonable transitions. She still didn't want to go in certain parts of the cutting pen, and she spooked at the leaves rustling, then she spooked when she stepped funny. Either way, we walked and trotted. Then I decided to push it and she how she would canter. Boom. Quiet and uneventful.

The next day I took her into the large arena and hopped right on. She was a little excitable and wanted to trot off and around. She made that decision, so I kept her trotting until she was very tired of trotting and then I started my little walk/trot/canter practice. I haven't been working her hard, just until she does what I ask. And that hasn't taken very long yet.

A couple days later I rode her in the large arena again, and this time she was even more responsive. She is starting to want to turn and go where I ask, and I am not having to nag her to move off my leg. She knows how to back up, and she is starting to learn how to stop better. All in all, exciting things happening everywhere! I linked the video of her w/t/c both directions from Sunday.

Basically, everything is going extremely well on the pony front. We are planning to go to an event on July 6th and then looking at some dates in the fall. Looks like we have awesomeness going on all fronts!