Blog Hop: Truck and Trailer Set Up

Clearly I am woefully behind in blogging, so thanks to Eventing Saddlebred Style and Confessions of a Dressage Barbie for a nice easy blog hop to get back into the swing of things!

My set up is a 2000 Ford Excursion and a Goertzen 2 horse angle, step up, stock style bumper-pull trailer with a front tack room.

Ready to hit the road

The horse trailer I bought new years ago for what was a way better deal than I realized at the time (many years later I could sell this used for pretty much what I paid for it). Goertzen was a semi-local trailer manufacturer that mostly made flat-bed and utility trailers. They apparently made a brief foray into horse trailers and that's when I got mine. It's solid steel and heavier than the majority of two-horse trailers, but it's also simple and well built. I've never seen another one exactly like it. The Excursion was my parents, it actually still is, but they haven't needed it since they got rid of their camping trailer so I've taken over the maintenance and insurance costs (and my Mom appreciates that it isn't taking up space in front of their house any more). 

Things I love:

- Both are fully paid off, and despite their age are in good condition.

- I've had them forever so I know the ins and outs of them in detail (and can also maneuver them like a boss).

At a clinic with really tight parking,
I had to back into this small space between
 trucks to turn around
(only about 1' of clearance on other side too)

- Truck has keypad locks, super useful when at a horse show.

- Huge tack room, I can fit 4 portable panels in there plus hay, water buckets, mounting block, muck bucket, and still have room for my big tack tote. 

- Stock windows. The trailer has big open stock style windows. While they aren't ideal for winter hauling, they give great ventilation in summer, it makes the trailer nice and bright so horses like getting in, and I love seeing the tip of Kachina's white nose in my sideview mirror while I'm driving so I know she's okay. 

Nose always at window

- Generous 2-horse size, haven't met a horse who hasn't fit yet. 

- Well made and solid. I don't have to worry about any of the metal components denting or breaking no matter what a horse throws at it. 

- Divider. There's a divider between the two horse compartments and after experiencing some failures with spring and pin systems in other trailers, I love how it closes with a simple but foolproof u-bolt. Also, my divider can be pinned fully open as well which gives me a lot of flexibility (like for transporting furniture instead of horses). I was surprised to see how many angle haul trailers don't have this capability.

- Trailer is cheap to maintain. I've had to do some work to the trailer over the years, replacing the jack, rewiring, etc., but the trailer design is so simple that everything has been cheaper than expected to do. Also they put some fantastic bearings on that thing because I've had them inspected a few times and the maintenance guys are always shocked that they are factory originals because they look brand spanking new. 

- Excursion has lots of storage, as an SUV with fold down seats, there is lots of room for clothes and tack inside. 

- Tack room floor, I like that the tack room floor is rubber mats and that there is no lip on the door, makes it easier to both lift heavy things inside and sweep out hay.

Things I don't love:

- The Excursion is terrible when it comes to fuel consumption. It costs me about $120 for fuel for every 300km I haul (and most of my trips are 300km one-way)

- Trailer is heavy, which really doesn't help the whole gas consumption thing. Also means I will always need a heavy duty hauling vehicle. 

- Tack room isn't sealed. Dust and rain can get in through the door, hay and urine can get in from the horse compartment, so all my gear has to be in weatherproof totes.

- Nowhere to sleep. I love the idea of those gooseneck "weekender" trailers. I don't need a bathroom or kitchen but a place to put a mattress would be awesome to save on hotel costs. 

- Saddle stands. The saddle stands are not well designed and my saddles always fall off during transit. This basically makes them a waste of space because I have to put my saddles elsewhere. I'd like to replace these eventually.

- Tack room door ices up. The tack room door has tight clearance on the bottom and so when there is any bit of ice outside the door, I cannot open it at all. 

- No outside hitching rings. I can tie to the window column, but it's higher than ideal. Also nowhere to tie a water bucket. This is also something I may look at getting installed. 

- 100km/h vibrations. Something about the natural harmonics of the truck and trailer means that it shakes a bit at 100km/h. It's done this forever and I've looked into it a few times and nothing is wrong with the vehicle. Everything is fine at 90km/h or 110km/h, but it sucks sometimes when I'm stuck in a line of traffic going 100km/h.

- Excursion suspension. One known con for this model of vehicle is that it has really harsh suspension. I have to slow down a lot for potholes and railway crossings to avoid shaking Kachina and I around too much

Overall I think the love list wins by a long shot. The last time I was at the Mane Event, I was looking around at all the horse trailers that were for sale. Some had some nice features, but in general there wasn't a single one I liked better than my own trailer (and they were all $$$), so I think this one is going to be with me for a long while. I might want to eventually upgrade to a more fuel efficient pickup truck with a truckbed camper, but that's not in the budget anytime soon. 

What features of your hauling set up do you love or hate?

So Behind

Sorry for the couple weeks of radio silence. I have so much to write about but not enough time to write it! So here are some super quick recaps:

Angel Glacier on Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper National Park

Horse: I looked at media, decided I had to do a hard reset on myself to stop my leaning/pulling habit in it's tracks, took a clinic, did some serious thinking about what I need in a trainer and what I am now capable of by myself, figured out that Kachina was getting a bit herdbound which initially bummed me out but then I made and implemented plans to tackle that head-on, got some posture help, had some great field canters. This weekend I am going trail riding in the Cypress Hills which has been a long-time dream so yay! Then Sept 16th I am signed up for a small dressage show which I don't feel prepped for so eek!

Our easy hike

One of the 7 lakes we visited, all had crystal clear water

A very scenic walk to the washrooms through our campground

Life: I really can't complain about the weather here considering everything going on elsewhere (my thoughts go out to all affected by the wildfires, floods and hurricanes), but the heat and smokiness has made me hide inside some days. At work, my boss quit out of the blue so things have been crazy and are likely to remain so for the forseeable future. I had a wonderful week's vacation in Jasper camping, hiking and canoeing with friends, which also included a proposal from my SO and a "yes" from me (don't worry, this blog won't be turning into a wedding blog or anything like that, but wedding planning is taking up some of my blogging time). For anyone wondering, yes, I did consider the horse show schedule when deciding on a wedding date ;-)

Not the actual proposal moment, but a photo of us at one of my favorite hidden lookout points

A massive blue reservoir we passed on the way home

A Day in the Life

Stephanie at Hand Gallop did an updated one of these recently and I decided I would too

6:00am - First alarm goes off, promptly snooze it multiple times

6:40am - Relocate cat so I can roll out of bed, rummage around in piles of clean laundry that never got put away, get dressed, make bagged lunch.

7:10am - Leave for work

7:18am - Arrive at work, wave to security guard, be thankful for short commute and job that I can always be a little late for.

7:20am - Check emails, calendar, figure out what needs to get done today.

7:45am - Morning meeting

8:15am - Work (this varies hugely day to day and is not horse related in the slightest so I will just gloss over this part)

9:30am - Coffee break, aka breakfast time. Most people in my office don't eat breakfast before work and instead make food in the lunch room. On any given day there are eggs poaching, bacon frying, bagels toasting, etc. I keep it simple and generally have a bowl of cereal with milk.

9:45am - Work

12:00pm - Lunch - generally leftovers plus a yogurt.

12:30pm - Work

4:00-5:45pm - Leave work (I technically finish at 3:45pm but I'm frequently a little late in the morning so I always stay at least a little late, if I'm caught up with something the security guard will call me at 5:45 to check if I'm still alive before the gate closes at 6pm. That's my reminder that I should probably leave.

 5:55pm - Arrive home ravenously hungry. Heat up leftovers and turn on the TV/Netflix for something to watch while I eat (I am a huge fan of making massive pots of food that then feed me and SO for 3-4 days, especially since our schedules mean that our meal times only occasionally match up)

6:15pm - Finish eating, but decide I want to finish/watch another episode.

7:00pm - Turn off TV, move cats off my lap, put dishes away, get changed to go out to barn.

7:15pm - Leave for barn.

7:30pm - Arrive at barn, wave at BO as he passes in his truck, otherwise have place to myself. Grab grooming bucket from tack room, put some treats in my pocket and head towards pasture.

7:45pm - Finish hiking out to herd, Kachina's not hard to catch, but I still generally have to walk most of the way out to whatever corner of the field they are in. Loop lead rope around neck and remove fly mask. Put halter on, give Kachina treat (to encourage her to remain easy to catch). Walk back to gate working on polite leading manners along the way. Put down fly mask near gate.

7:55pm - Tie Kachina at hitching post, give quick grooming, fly spray application, and tack up. Lead Kachina to outdoor arena.

8:15pm - Mount up and ride. Start with lateral work warmup and then progress to work of the day, usually consisting of 20m circles and simple patterns but with focus on bend or tempo or my position or transitions.... Finish with short cool down (I try and do many walk breaks within ride so she never gets too hot)

9:05pm - Dismount, lead Kachina around to scoop poop, walk back up to hitching post. Untack Kachina and put tack back in tack room. Measure out maintenance feed and magnesium supplement, bring feed to Kachina to eat while I groom her. Put gentle cream on Kachina's chapped pink lips while Kachina acts like I'm trying to poison her.

9:30pm - Bring Kachina back to pasture, put fly mask back on, smile as she nickers at me for her final treat, set her free. Stand there for a while admiring Kachina's effortless canter as she runs to meet up with the rest of the herd (and fervently wish I could get that canter under saddle), and then watch the herd dynamics for a while as the sun sets.

9:45pm - Put the rest of my stuff away, lock the barn.

9:55pm - Leave barn.

10:10pm - Arrive home. Collapse on couch with SO and discuss our days (his shifts vary but one of them has him get home around 9:30pm)

10:45pm - Feed cats and go to bed.


Sometimes depending on when I finish work and how hungry I am I will go straight from work to the barn and ride first before coming home for supper. I try and do this more in the spring and fall when the sun sets earlier (In the winter it's already dark when I leave work so it doesn't really matter). In the winter I don't have to walk out to the pasture but I spend more time at the barn in general because my cool out/dry time dramatically increases. I also don't ride every day, I average a barn trip every second day when I'm not out of town. Wednesdays are dragonboat practices from May-September (which goes from 5:30-9:30pm), and I do pilates 1x/week October-April. Also some evenings are spent hanging out with SO or cooking my big meals/doing other chores and errands.

What does your day look like? Do you keep a pretty consistent schedule or change it up depending on what else is going on or how hungry you are? #planninglifearoundfood

Three Years

On August 15th 2014 I bought and brought Kachina home, so Happy Gotcha Day Kachina! Also Happy 15th Birthday! (kind of - because I don't know her foaling date but she was 12 when I got her so she's 15 now)

Years of 4-H record books taught me to annually analyze my horse's market value (anyone else do this?). That makes this day a little tough because the reality is that her age makes Kachina less valuable now than she was a year ago (or two, or three), and we don't have enough of a training progression to counteract that. The people I bought Kachina from did a good job with her, but over time I've realized that the limited training they did with her more just covered up holes in her knowledge instead of filling them in. It's apparent that Kachina did not have the best start in life and we've stumbled into multiple holes of tension and lack of understanding. On paper, we are in a similar place as we were 3 years ago, Kachina is still a great trail horse, but in the arena we are still a pair with hopes that training level dressage will be achievable soon. Off paper, we've both gone back to the beginning (several times) and we've built up a more solid foundation to grow from. I do believe that Kachina is a more educated horse than she was, and I'm definitely a more educated rider than I was, and that's important to me.

While I know the reality of the market for a 15yo grade horse at Training Level, I feel a lot more positive when I look at the prospects for Kachina staying with me. We may be at Training Level, but we've gotten here with an eye to building the tools we will need to progress farther. It hasn't happened yet but I do believe once we solidify a few more things, First Level isn't THAT far away. Even if progression remains slow, there's no rush (except for my eagerness). Kachina may be 15 but she's fit, healthy and sound with no sign of slowing down (knock so much wood). You never ever know with horses but it's entirely possible that we have another 10 years of full work to get where we want to get. The best part is that we're having fun now and I don't see that changing. Here's to the next year!

Free Walk

In the last show I had the good learning opportunity of doing 4 tests in the same level (okay so two were training level, and two were western dressage basic level but they are basically the same) in front of two different judges on the same day. By looking at the scores this should give me a pretty good baseline of what we can do acceptably and what needs work. I actually was super nerdy and started a spreadsheet categorizing all movement scores and coming up with graphs etc. but that's a post for another day.

There were certainly some movements where I could see/feel the problems for myself and 100% agreed with the judges' criticisms (e.g. canter transitions). However, there was one movement that I thought was a strong point but yielded us marks that were surprisingly low to me. That is the free walk.

Kachina has a good clear four beat walk. She was a forward moving trail horse before I got her and that pretty much means she can free walk with the best of them. She generally has clear overtrack and the walk feels marching and like it's going somewhere. In past shows we have sometimes bungled the free walk by breaking into trot for a stride or two (usually my fault). This summer I have done a lot of practice going from free walk to medium walk and back again which has reduced the breaks in gait considerable. I also have sometimes had the comment that I need to give her a looser rein. I generally hold the reins near the buckle, but the fact that Kachina does stretch out her neck a lot and that I have short arms means that we don't always have a lot of slack (and I don't want longer reins because they would be too long most of the time). At this show I made a particular effort to correct this lack of rein loop by holding my arms as far forward as they would reach.

In general, I was happy with our free walk at this show. I did five free walks in total (Western Basic Test B has two), and I was saddened and confused to find out that our free walk marks and comments were:

5.5 - more stretch more rein
5.0 - allow horse to stretch
6.5 - keep straight on track
5.5 - not enough stretch
5.5 - show more stretch

For a movement that always has a double coefficient, those scores hurt. Also, the comments suggest a serious and consistent deficiency, but one that I don't understand (except for the comment about staying straight, I know we did a bit of a zigzag on that one).

I don't have any video, but the photographer did capture multiple photos on the short diagonal of free walk that earned us a 5.5 and the "not enough stretch" comment (note, I did get permission from the photographer to use these watermarked proofs):

I feel like I look a little silly with my arms so straight like that, but to my eye I see a horse who is giving a significant stretch and a rider who is allowing the stretch. The judge clearly did not agree. I feel like I must be missing something (especially with similar feedback from both judges). Can you please enlighten me as to what is wrong with these photos and/or what the judge is looking for in the free walk?

For comparison sake please look at this image to see what a more normal head and neck position for Kachina is (and how long the rein bight is).

Pasture Sass

Kachina is around halfway through her summer out in the big pasture, and she's getting a little sassy about it. She doesn't resist being caught, but once I have her halter on and I start leading her towards the gate she starts pinning her ears and trying to lead me back to the herd by turning around. Her general ground work even once I get back to the barn has gone a bit downhill as well.

I chalk this behavior up to two related factors: 1. She'd rather be in the pasture than working with me. 2. She is more concerned with her herd relationship with her pasture-mates than she is on the herd relationship between me and her (she forgets I'm boss). I have investigated physical reasons too but there doesn't seem to be any issue on that side of things so I'm just calling it pasture sass.

I know a few people who elect to keep their horses in pens in the summer because they notice a similar pattern if their horse goes out to pasture and they don't want to deal with it. I am not one of those people. My thought process is that I ride only recreationally, and my horse has to be in a pen or pasture for far more hours a week than she is with me, so I want her to enjoy that part of life. Her pasture is a pretty nice place to be if you're a horse: about 120 acres of grass to run and graze, 2-4 friends to be a herd with, good water and shelter, and even the bugs have been at historic lows due to our dry weather. I really can't blame Kachina for liking the pasture more than the arena.

They're a pretty rainbow bunch horses

I like to call this photo "Four Big Butts and a Little Ass"

In the fall the cows will come home for winter and Kachina will have to go back to her pen anyways. I don't want to accelerate that happening, so for now I am enforcing good manners on the ground, like respecting my space, leading at a respectful location, and not biting (she's never come close, but she sometimes thinks about it), but I am trying to ignore the occasional ear pin and not take it too personally.

This isn't just a blue rectangle, look carefully on the left side
and you'll see a huge bird of prey (Swainson's Hawk I believe)
that was circling and screeching above the pasture
Side note: yep, our skies are this clear and blue most days

Does this happen to anyone else, where your horse is less glad to see you when they have a primo living situation?

Questioning - Clinic Recap Part II

Day one of the clinic was really awesome, but day two was not. Day two felt like the worst riding lesson I've had in probably 10 years. I will admit that I left the clinic feeling pretty frustrated. That's the main reason why these clinic recaps are late, I needed some time and perspective.

After my lesson on Day One, I stuck around to watch a few other lessons and I found out that the "natural curve" lesson was not specific to me, it was more a general theme for the clinic. (Quick recap, by "natural curve" lesson I mean Elaine's concept that when warming up we should let the horse keep their own natural bend in their spine and work on lowering their head and neck by massaging their ribcage with our heel/spur on the side that is on the inside of the bend of the horse. This should be the sole focus until the horse is consistently going around with their poll level with their withers and only then can we start to ask for bend.) In one lesson with a horse who does not like to bring his head down at all, the pair was struggling with figuring out how to do the exercise. Whenever the rider would accidentally change the bend, Elaine started to exclaim how that was hurting the horse's back and "..see how he puts his head up, that's because he's saying 'ow'...". I thought this was taking things too far, like yes you maybe lost the longitudinal softness for a second because of a change in bend, and yes, that's not following the exercise, but just because the horse's head goes up (on a horse who's head is always up) doesn't mean it's a pain response in my opinion. Mild discomfort maybe, pain no.

No clinic media so here are some unrelated photos to break up wall of text
I went to a rodeo last month where they had a really cool procession of heavy horses pulling restored antique carts

I went home that night and I was mulling over the clinic. I was thrilled with how well my ride went and I was excited to have a new tool for encouraging Kachina to relax and stretch down to contact. However, I was a bit dubious too because of the so called accupressure point and Elaine talking about how a horse couldn't change the bend without pain unless their head was consistently level first. I think Emma was right with her comment on my last post though, sometimes clinicians do make up a "story" to go with their lesson, so I chalked it up to Elaine exaggerating her concept to try and make it stick. Also I realized that in general the whole lesson could be boiled down to "longitudinal suppleness before lateral suppleness". In the last couple years I have more focused on using lateral suppleness to get longitudinal suppleness (my go to warm up is all about lateral bend and asking for Kachina to move her haunches, ribcage, shoulders and neck to either side), however I know there is a place for both approaches and we have been stuck a bit lately so maybe it's time to switch it up. I decided that I would give this concept a good try and see where it led.

Clydesdales with chuckwagon

Day two I mounted up and immediately started by explaining my previous warmup routine and asking Elaine how I should modify it to work with her approach. As part of giving the new approach a good try, I didn't want to go against it in my warmup. She told me to just essentially do what we had done in the lesson the day before, walking on the rail or in large figures and using my inside leg to ask Kachina to drop her head and soften over her back. I asked if I could add anything else to it to keep Kachina's mind more focused because that's the benefit of my current warmup, it's more about getting her mind ready than her body. Elaine said I could add some leg yields if I wanted to, as long as I wasn't changing the bend.

A train of three grain carts pulled by a three horse hitch
I imagine this would be tough work if all were really loaded up!

The lesson continued working on the same concept as the day before. Kachina wasn't trying to speed up or move over when I used my inside leg anymore which was nice, but I found she wasn't as responsive to my leg in general and it took more massaging with my heel to get her to drop her head. I thought this seemed like a reasonable learning progression on day two of a new exercise. I kept my leg on until she softened, but she was still softening so I wasn't getting after her about it. Before long Kachina was walking around with her neck at what looked pretty level to me and so I was aiding less frequently. Elaine at some point during this decided that Kachina wasn't listening to my heel at all and asked if I wore spurs. I told her that I had never used spurs with Kachina as she was a sensitive horse and I didn't need them with her. I kept walking around, asking for Kachina to soften from time to time when her head came up, but generally thinking that we were doing the exercise well. Then, Elaine comes and walks at my side and is getting me to ask for more. I feel Kachina tense and grow upwards and realize that Elaine has a set of spurs in her hand and she is applying them to Kachina's ribcage behind my leg! To my knowledge Kachina has never been ridden with a spur, she was responding to my leg how I expected (if I was asking wrong that's on me, not my horse), she is a tense horse with a probable history of abuse, and I can feel her wanting to go up in response to the spur (she didn't actually put a foot wrong, but I could feel something building). Especially as the spur was in Elaine's hand where I had no control over it or even view of it, I was scared that there might be an upwards explosion that I didn't want to ride. I told Elaine that I wasn't comfortable with her doing that. Those were my words: "I'm sorry but I'm not comfortable with you doing that", Elaine responded "okay" and stepped away when asked. I was actually shocked that a trainer had done something like that. Elaine hadn't asked or even told me what she was going to do, she just walked up and started spurring my horse from the ground, after I said I didn't use spurs. I get that using spurs is reasonable on lots of horses, but I feel it's still a dangerous assumption to make and this is only my third clinic with Elaine so it's not like she knows Kachina all that well. Internally I was angry, and a bit frightened about how Kachina might have responded, but the dominant feeling was just shock and surprise so I said nothing more about the incident and kept going. Through me asking a few questions and thinking about it I finally figured out that what looked like a level neck to me from the saddle was actually not quite level, so I needed to ask Kachina to soften more. I feel like this could have been explained more easily though.  

This cart was used to deliver ice from the river to home iceboxes

Kachina isn't a very one-sided horse so her natural bend switched a few times of her own volition, and a lot of the time her body was mostly straight and I could only feel slightly which way she was bent. I thought these were good things as I want to promote symmetry. At some point though Elaine starts telling me to hold with my inside rein so Kachina can't bend the other way. She also started using the line that Kachina was saying "ow" because "it hurt her back when she changed bend". This confused me because I absolutely was not asking Kachina to change bend, she was changing bend herself and from the day before I thought that I was supposed to go with whichever bend Kachina wanted to take. Also, in my mind Kachina had been going around for about 20 min with a pretty consistent head set by this point so I thought that meant we'd be able to start asking for bend pretty soon anyways. I started asking Elaine questions because I didn't understand this new development. She said that for Kachina in particular because she's too bendy of a horse I needed to keep the bend the same for a longer time. This was an answer, but I wanted to know why that was the answer, because that's the kind of rider I am. I never got a satisfactory answer but while we were going around Elaine then started saying that not only could I not allow Kachina to change the bend, I couldn't allow her to straighten either, and had me hold her into a substantial bend. I was trying to do as instructed, but it just felt wrong to me, I felt like I was forcing the bend which was not helping relaxation, and my own body felt all twisted as well. Also I am accustomed to there being an "ask" followed by a "release" in an exercise, but this had no release from the bend. In fairness, I didn't do a good job of explaining what exactly I was feeling, I just asked Elaine why I had to keep such bend because it felt wrong to me. I wanted to understand the reasoning for asking for overbend, and I was asking questions to try and figure out what to look for when working on this at home on my own. However, in hindsight, I can see how Elaine might have thought I was questioning her as a trainer.

The "Ranch Girls" doing patterns with flags

She started responding to my questions with more sweeping declarations like "I've dealt with lots and lots of horses like this", "I've trained horses and riders to Grand Prix so don't worry that I don't know what I'm talking about", etc. I really have pretty low tolerance for that kind of thing, because a) you aren't answering my questions, and b) even if you do have the best most universal training method, you only see me and my horse twice a year so that doesn't help anything unless you can explain your method to me adequately. I could see that she was getting frustrated with me, so I right out said "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to question you as a trainer, I just want to understand", she responded to that by spouting out some more stuff about her skill and experience so at that point I just fixed my face into a mask, went quiet, and tried to do what she was telling me, while internally just wanting the lesson to be over. It also didn't help that Elaine repeatedly talked about how Kachina was "resisting" me, or "trying to get her way" etc. while I felt like Kachina was really putting in a good effort for me, it was just that neither of us had a clue what it was we were trying to do.

The rest of the lesson was spent in this exaggerated bend, and it continued to feel wrong to me. We did some trot work and Kachina kept on speeding up, going lateral, and breaking into canter, which Elaine responded to by asking for more bend. It never really got better, and Elaine ended the lesson by saying she wished the clinic had a third day so we could "get" it.

After Elaine started with the next rider and I was released to cool down, I actually spent a little time walking and trotting Kachina without bend just because I felt like we needed a decent note to end the ride on. I got off and I was really pretty upset. I couldn't even bring myself to say thanks to Elaine for the lesson (which I always do for any riding lesson) because I wasn't thankful at that moment and I didn't trust myself to maintain composure if I opened my mouth.

All the bucking horses etc in the back chutes

Over the few weeks since the clinic I've realized that Kachina and I need to be better at bending and stretching down. Kachina keeps her neck fairly upright when riding so when I think she's lowering her head and relaxing her neck, it's not actually as far down as I think, just down relative to normal. Same with bend, I can feel slight bend and so I think that bend is obvious from the ground as well when it may not be. I need to readjust my view and feelings as to what is "enough". However, even if that was part of this issue in the lesson, I still have some issues with how Elaine responded.

Please let me know your thoughts: Where is the appropriate line for questioning a clinician, or trainer in general? Please give it to me straight: was I out of line in my questions and comments, was Elaine out of line, or was it nobody's fault and just one of those bad lessons? How would you have reacted if you were in my situation?

(Spoiler alert, I am signed up with another clinic with Elaine under the premise that this ride was an anomaly/a bad day/an unfortunate misunderstanding. I have had good experiences with her in the past and she is one of only a few clinicians who come to my area so I want to give it another chance, she better not spur my horse again though!)