the Hanoverian Chorus, part one, with the Squeaking Hinges

This week I decided to try and capture a bit of our morning routine here on November Hill. It was a gray and soggy day, and when I announced to the equines that I planned to document their performance for the blog they went uncharacteristically quiet.

The percussion section, as you will see, never even started up. But they eventually warmed up and I think you can get a small sense of what the regular chorus sounds like. Although the Hanoverian Chorus is the big act, you'll also see that the back-up act sort of steals the show. Alas, that is just how things go sometimes!

It was fun to see what goes on behind my back while I'm mixing up the feed tubs. :)

So without further ado, the Hanoverian Chorus, part one:  (click link to go to my YouTube channel! The rest of this series is still to come!)

Riding update:

We've had a few days off due to schedule craziness and rainy days, but this morning the Big Bay and I got back in the arena together and worked through a bit of stiffness to end up with a really nice bit of trot work. 

His chiropractor was set to be here on Wednesday but had a flat tire, and I think he needs her. I can feel one hip sitting slightly higher than the other at the beginning of our rides, though it feels like it works through to a more normal placement by the end of our walking warm-up. 

Today I was set to just do walking, but the sitting trot/walk intervals seemed to really feel good to Keil - he did them beautifully and then clearly wanted to go into big trot work, which we did.

We were joined by two donkeys who followed single line into the arena - after the rainy days, they too wanted to get a work-out. Theirs was a bit more rigorous than ours - involving flat out running, bucking, snorting, playing donkey-go-round, and they went in and out of the arena at times to run the entire front field and the dirt paddock. 

Must be nice to be young and flexible. :)

on moonlight bay (the Big Bay, that is)

Decided to ride this evening instead of during the day and ended up riding into dusk as the moon rose over A in the arena. It was so lovely.

We had one horsefly divebomb us, but it was a half-hearted attempt and one swat sent him packing.

We added in some 20m circles at the trot tonight and did a decent job with them. I was especially proud of the Big Bay because everyone else was getting fed in the barn while we rode and he handled it really well. :)

Couldn't resist the song - we had some really nice trotting with that lovely moon coming up, and some of the lyrics are pretty on target!

kairos, dreamtime, and a black mare day

I've been reminded lately of how much time simply stops when I am at the barn. On Saturday I was scheduled to go to a writer friend's book launch party and help out with coordinating book sales. I went out earlier to ride Keil Bay and got completely lost in the process. I was giving him a bath when husband came out to the deck and called to me that I had 20 minutes until I was supposed to be where I was going. Fortunately she lives about 3 minutes away, but I had to finish up with Keil, get myself dressed, and get there.

Years back when we first moved to November Hill I had a clock run by battery that I kept at the barn. The time had always been perfect on that clock, but once it moved into the barn, it often simply stopped. Usually the battery was fine when it did this but the hands would just stop and time would stand still. The hands would eventually move again, stop again, and I finally gave up and removed the clock.

Our trainer when we first moved here broke her watch one day (the band) and left it in the barn. By the time I found it she'd already gotten a new one so she gave it to us so we could keep track of time. (ha)

That watch did the same thing. It had an alarm function that started going off randomly, the time was always either an hour off or not working at all, and at some point the watch ended up falling into a crack or getting buried somehow and periodically I would hear the beep beep beep of its alarm. We never found it. Eventually it died altogether.

I think we've figured out that there's no point in trying to keep track of time out there. It's kairos. And that is just fine.


On another note, I dreamed last night that someone built a house with a tennis court at the end of our arena. The tennis court was situated so that balls regularly came flying over the fence. I had some chairs sitting between our arena and the tennis court and went out there to "prove" to the new owner that we were pretty constantly being bombarded with tennis balls. He felt I was being unreasonable to ask that he install a net to keep the balls on his side of the fence.

This was one of those dreams that could have gotten stressful at about that point. But somehow I think after the day we had yesterday (more on that later) I needed a better outcome.

A visiting friend of the new neighbor walked over and sat down in my line of chairs. He agreed that I had reason to be upset, and asked about my horses and my riding. Suddenly I realized he was Paul Belasik. I ran to the house to get my copies of his books and had him sign them. We talked for a long time and I was able to get a sort of mini-workshop about my work with Keil Bay. As if that weren't good enough, he said at the end of the dream that he'd read MY books and loved them, and he actually quoted one of them. LOL! That was a quite fine transition from nightmare to waking up from a dream with a smile on my face.

And now for yesterday's action here on November Hill. I was grooming Salina and rubbing an itchy spot on her belly in the barn aisle. She was loving it. Suddenly the pony came over, put his head over the door of the stall he'd eaten breakfast in, and bit her square on the barrel. It was her blind side, and she wasn't expecting it, so it was particularly upsetting.

Her squeals rang through the neighborhood.

She waited a couple of hours before getting revenge. Around lunchtime, still in the barn aisle, she waited. I'd moved Keil Bay to the end stall on Salina's side of the barn, giving him some private time with the grass paddock. Salina and her donkey boys had the middle stall, the barn aisle, and the entire barnyard. The pony and Cody were on the gelding side of the barn, with access to all three stalls, the dirt paddock, and the back field.

Salina waited patiently until the pony made the critical mistake of going into Keil Bay's middle stall. The squealing resumed. I warned the pony to stay back. Daughter went out and warned him again. And then he stuck his head over the door and Salina turned around the kicked the stall door in.

I heard the squeals, the huge bang of hoof meeting wood, and went out there to find the stall door in pieces and the pony standing a few feet back in the stall with a huge splinter of wood fragment IN HIS MOUTH. He was chewing on it!

I put him out of Keil's stall and closed it off to all of them.

Later in the day Salina went after Keil Bay.

On the one hand, whew. What a day. On the other hand, hooray! I'm glad Salina is feeling good enough to be so feisty. And relieved that when she kicked the stall door in, all she got was a tiny bit of scrape on her hind hoof.

When we got to daughter's lesson yesterday evening, I learned from her trainer that all the mares down there were being feisty too. Must be the time of year.

Today I'm aiming for a nice ride and a quiet afternoon.

another good ride and a day off

Keil Bay and I had a very good ride today. We did our warm-up and I realized that I was holding my abdominal muscles very tight - which seems to happen when I focus on making sure my lower back isn't arched. It took some thought and attention to practice straightening my lower back without engaging the muscles, but the moment I did it Keil Bay's walk became big and rhythmic with his characteristic panther swing.

Once I realized how much better we were going I abandoned all thoughts of anything but making sure I stayed relaxed. We finished the walking and then did our sitting trot/walk/sitting trot exercise. Oddly enough in the sitting trot I'm not tightening the abs so that might be part of why Keil Bay is so on the aids when I do it.

So many things improved with this simple observation and effort to release the tension.

We broke the trot sets up today - 3 circuits of the arena in one direction, then a walk break, then a sitting trot circuit, then a walk break, then 3 in the other direction, etc.

The walk after this first set was phenomenal - we had both really relaxed and loosened up, and everything felt so good. Although sunny and warm, there was a stiff breeze that felt good and kept the bugs away.

Another 3 circuits using the same sequence was equally nice. And we did more big walking before doing a final trot set each way.

The half halts and transitions were really nice too - another week or so of this, adding in the canter, and we'll be ready to put 20m circles into the mix. 

Today, although the temps were higher, Keil Bay's sweat pattern was completely between the hind legs, and since it was warmer, he got a full bath instead of a hosing after. He was completely happy and relaxed, standing beneath the oak tree, on the small stone wash area we created. No mud! And Salina and the donkeys came out to visit while he got his bath.

Tomorrow I'm taking daughter to her first foxhunting event of the season - an all-day clinic where she'll be riding the new Thoroughbred mare she's going to hunt with this season. It should be a fun day - two mounted sessions and two unmounted sessions plus breakfast and lunch provided. I'm auditing rider first aid and yoga for riders. :)

we went into power mode again today

Keil Bay and I had two days off due to rain, then got back to work yesterday. Our ride was good but much more laid back than previous days had been, and I wondered if something was off.

Today he had the characteristic Keil Bay spring and as I wondered how we got from yesterday to today with such a difference, I reminded myself of my own tendency when it comes to riding. I will ride through almost any tight muscle or stiffness in my own body but if I feel anything "off" with Keil Bay I tend to notch things way down and stop sooner than I would otherwise have.
The reason behind it is good-intentioned. I respect Keil Bay and I especially respect how good a sport he has been in bringing me back to riding over the past 8 years. I never want to ask more of him than he can give, or ask him to work when something hurts. I listen to him and he is honest with me.

BUT. Sometimes, especially as we get older,  there isn't specific pain or injury, but we have to work through a bit of stiffness to get to the better work. If I am too cautious, we stop too soon for no good reason and never get to that good work. Keil Bay has always been the kind of horse who likes to warm up for a longer time and do some big work first to loosen things up. Particularly when we're coming back to work after a chunk of time off, I go very slowly. For both our sakes.

I realized today when I got on that he was moving well, much better than yesterday, and that I needed to add even more time to our warm-up at the walk, but then add some stretchy trot work before moving into the trot sets we've been doing.

One of our favorite exercises (which breaks the rules a lot of folks have about sitting trot and warm-up) is to start the trot work in small spurts. I ask for the trot at a random dressage marker and we trot to the next marker, then walk, then trot again. This works really well with sitting trot because Keil Bay has big strides and if I am sitting I can half-halt, ask for trot, sit, half-halt, ask for walk, pretty perfectly between each marker, without getting discombobulated.

I decided to try this today after we'd done a nice long warm-up at the walk. He was completely on the aids and required only the slightest touch of my leg. It gave me a chance to practice half halts and offered both of us the chance to work on our timing. It was amazing, right off the bat. He lifted his back and really moved. We did several sets of this going both directions and then added some serpentine work going across the short length of the arena, using the same idea. Walk one line, turn, trot the next one, etc. etc.

It was clear to me that Keil Bay was feeling good and moving well as we did this work - when we finished this part of the ride we went out the back gate and took a short walk in the back field. Keil was willing but very "up" - and as I asked him to go to the very back of the field he started to balk. I quickly turned him in a smaller circle, same direction, and then did that one more time before going back to the arena. No power struggles over this - I just need to get him out there a little each day and take things a few steps further each time.

When we got back in the arena we finished our trot sets which by now were really feeling good. My hips had loosened up, Keil definitely found his schwung, and I noted when I dismounted that he had a wonderful sweat pattern - along the girth, between his hind legs, and equal on the saddle pad. Plus a nice small line of foam along his lips.

It was warm enough today that we went out and hosed.

An interesting tidbit: after I got Keil Bay hosed, scraped, fed, settled in with hay, etc. I was standing in the tack room door holding his bridle. Salina walked up and lifted her head to the bit. I acted like I was going to put it on her, and she was perfectly ready and willing to be bridled up and presumably ridden! I told her how much I wished I could ride her - I just don't think it's a good idea to ask her to bear weight with her arthritic knees. One hard thing about having a senior here who didn't live here always is that I am constantly wishing I had known her when she was young in body and spirit. What a ride that would be!

Keil and I will have another ride tomorrow and then probably a break on Sunday as daughter has an all-day foxhunting clinic. I'm hoping by next week's end we can add in some cantering. :)