Gutted

My trainer SJ is moving 9 hours away and I'm pretty gutted about it. She's become a good friend as well as my trainer. This is a great opportunity for her so I'm happy for her but really sad that she is leaving. She tried to give me as much notice as she could so that I could schedule extra training sessions to finish working on a couple things before she left, but then she broke her foot so she is out of commission for all of her remaining weeks here. She is going to try and come back for clinics once or twice a year but 9 hours is a pretty long trek for either of us and neither her new town or here have any commercial flights (rural Canada sucks sometimes) so opportunities to work with her are going to be few and far between. 

I don't feel right about posting photos of other people, so please enjoy some of the native plants and animals in Naia's new pasture, first up, Mr. Gopher

My blog's name is Autonomous Dressage for a reason, I'm no stranger to working without a trainer, I've done it before and I can do it again, but that doesn't mean I want to. 

As sad as I am to be losing her, I owe so much to SJ and everything she has taught me and my horses over the last 2 years. A lot of that time fell during the time that I was terrible at blogging so I'm going to make this post an ode to everything she has done for me. 

SJ is primarily a horsemanship trainer. She is interested in dressage as well but her specialty is ground work and working with scared and green horses. She started offering ground work obstacle clinics at my barn in February 2019 where I first worked with her when I did one with Kachina. I saw how patient and kind SJ was with horses, and I loved that her training methodology was well thought out and based on horse and behavioural science, and so got her to start working with Kachina more regularly. 

There's a killdeer bird somewhere here trying to lure me with her pretend injury

In earlier posts (like here and here) I have written about how no one else besides me could seem to catch Kachina, and that concerned me in case any emergency came up. Additionally, after a life as an outdoors horse, Kachina wasn't super comfortable inside the barn. I hired SJ to just do short sessions with Kachina to catch her, bring her into the barn, feed her, and then let her out again. The idea was to build lots of short positive associations with both another person and the barn. It also worked out really well because SJ kept her own horse at the same barn as me so it was easy for her to do frequent sessions. In reality, it took a while for Kachina to let SJ close to her so a lot of these sessions just ended up being approach and retreat within the paddock, and not a lot of barn time, but SJ did gradually earn Kachina's trust and was able to catch her easily. 

Through the Spring and Summer of 2019 SJ continued to work with Kachina on trust and I also participated in a few more ground work/obstacle clinics with SJ. We also became closer outside of our training relationship. 

November of 2019 was when Kachina colicked while I was out of the country at a wedding. Unfortunately that ended in tragedy but I am still forever grateful for SJ during that time. Even while sick Kachina wouldn't be caught by the barn owner so SJ was the one who caught her for the local vet, spent time walking and comforting her, and then later loaded her onto the trailer for my Dad to take her to the vet hospital in Calgary for surgery. I don't know what I would have done without her. While I am so sad that I wasn't there for Kachina at the end, it helps to know that someone else she trusted was with her while she was sick. 

Cactus

After I lost Kachina, I knew I wanted another horse but I really wasn't sure what kind of horse to look for. Gradually I began to realize other potential benefits of having access to SJ's training and experience with green horses. It has always been a life goal of mine to train a horse from start to finish. With both Ellie and Kachina I had learned to teach a horse basics of dressage coming from another discipline (Hunter Jumper for Ellie, trail horse for Kachina), but I had never done the "starting" part before and I knew I needed help and experience. SJ and I talked extensively and she was confident that I could handle an unstarted horse and she was happy to help me as much as I needed. Even at that time I knew that SJ probably wouldn't be around forever (not because her upcoming move was on the radar, just because that's how the world works) so it made sense to make use of the opportunity while I had it. I never would have bought a horse as green as Naia without SJ's support. 

Since getting Naia in February 2020, I have had 36 lessons with SJ, and it would have been more without COVID restrictions. She has talked me through everything from getting Naia to lead to our first trot under saddle. She was there for my first 6 rides with Naia and helped me so much when I was being a chicken. Even when pandemic rules or our schedules got in the way of lessons, she was always there for me to message about how my own training sessions were going, giving me advice and encouragement. For the most part, SJ has trained me to train Naia, rather than training Naia directly. I really wanted to learn how to go through this process so I really appreciated SJ being willing to work with me in this way even though I equally know that Naia could have progressed a lot faster in some areas if I had just handed over the reins to SJ. I feel like it is the "teach a man to fish" principle where all my future horses will benefit from what I have learned. However, there were a couple concepts where I was struggling and needed SJ to use her superior body positioning and timing to get Naia understanding what we were looking for, those two concepts were bridling and trailer loading. SJ did a total of 13 training sessions directly with Naia focusing on these concepts. Bridling is now a total non-issue. Trailer loading has come a long way, but we were taking the slow and steady approach and unfortunately I am still not confident that I will be able to consistently load Naia solo once SJ leaves (this was a big thing SJ was going to focus on before she left but that a broken foot makes pretty impossible). 

Early yellow locoweed - very pretty but can make horses or cattle go "loco" if they eat it so I've been digging up the few plants of it

Another thing I owe to SJ is the fact that she introduced me to AM. AM is a clinician who is now based in BC, but that SJ trained under for years. They have very similar philosophies, though AM has been training a lot longer and also has more dressage experience. My first clinic with AM was in the fall of 2019 with Kachina. In only one lesson she had pinpointed a vital training hole and completely revolutionized the way I trained free walk and stretchy trot. It was an amazing clinic, and was a great last ride on Kachina (she died 3 days later). Since then I have done 3 clinics with AM with Naia, one of which was where I had my very first 2 rides on her (but with SJ right there as well). SJ's relationship with AM is part of why AM came here for clinics, but I hope that she has enough other clientele here now to keep coming once SJ moves away. 

So in summary, I really appreciate SJ and the fact that she is moving away really really sucks and is throwing me for a loop for so many different plans. 

Sarcoid

 One unfortunate blemish Naia has is a sarcoid on the left side of her muzzle. It developed soon after I bought her. At first I thought it was ringworm, and tried treating it accordingly, but the fact that it didn't spread, nor respond to treatment made it clear that I was dealing with something else. I had my vet look at it and she is pretty sure it is a sarcoid, but she didn't think there was value in doing a formal biopsy to confirm. We talked through our options. There are multiple techniques that can work to remove sarcoids, but none are guaranteed, and all carry the risk that you may irritate the sarcoid and cause it to grow. Right now Naia's is not causing her any issues, but it's location is problematic should it decide to grow. Based on my vet's advice, I am leaving it be for now, but monitoring it's size and appearance. The second it shows signs of growing we will act quickly and my vet will try and do surgery to remove it with as good of margins as possible, but if it doesn't grow we are just going to let it be. 

Honestly, the most annoying parts of it are that it makes her a bit less photogenic on the one side, and I know it is something that would turn off some potential buyers should I choose to sell Naia in the future. While those things suck, they are not nearly significant enough to risk surgery unnecessarily now so we will keep monitoring Mr. Sarcoid and hope that he stays chill and small. In case you ever see a weird spot on her face in photos, now you know why! 

Anyone have any sarcoid stories of their own? 

Wordless Wednesday: New pasture

 

As you can see, the pasture isn't the lushest, this is by design so Naia doesn't become super fat (hopefully)

Panorama, to the far left this pasture connects to dry lot and goes all the way to the barn where there is shelter and waterer

Matchy Monday: Lilac

Confession time, I have a bit of a saddle pad addiction. It started with Kachina, since she was a pinto she didn't look great in white or black saddle pads so I was attracted to other colours of pads. It has kind of morphed and grown from that point. I don't care about collecting one specific brand or anything but pretty coloured saddle pads make me happy so I've slowly collected a rainbow. It helps that saddle pads are one piece of tack that I never have to worry about not fitting and that I can transfer from horse to horse. I also have some matching accessories (clothing, horse boots or wraps, browbands), but those only sometimes get used. 

I thought it would be fun to do an occasional "Matchy Monday" post to showcase what colourful items are in Naia's wardrobe. 

First up is lilac: 

Lilac-coloured lilacs in my backyard

Non-lilac-coloured lilacs in my backyard

The actual horse in lilac

Saddle pad: PS of Sweden Soft Lilac

Browband: Dark Jewel Designs

We obviously fail at selfies, but my $14 athletic tee from Mountain Warehouse is a pretty good match

In some lights it looks much more pink

Throwback Thursday: Naia's Ride #1-#5

As of starting this post, Naia has 22 rides on her. There are many ways to start a young horse. Naia isn't my first green horse but she was the first one I bought unstarted. Please don't think for a second that I am an expert or offering any recommendations on how young horses should be started. I just want to share what the journey has been for Naia and I because it has changed several of my preconceived notions and has been a huge learning experience for me.  

I haven't been involved in young horse starting myself before, but I have been exposed to it somewhat through friends, fellow boarders, grapevine etc. I am most accustomed to the system where you send a young horse away to a trainer for 30, 60, or 90 days where they are worked almost daily and come back green but knowing basics of carrying tack and a rider at all 3 gaits. The owner (assuming a fairly experienced rider) can then start riding themselves to focus more on their discipline of choice and teaching the finer points. This is pretty much the opposite approach from what I ended up doing with Naia.... 

 ... Naia now has 22 rides on her, all with me as a the rider, and spaced over 10 months. Some of this was by intention and some was just due to circumstance. I am going to do some Throwback Thursday posts to document her first 20 rides, 5 rides at a time. 

 Ride #1 July 18, 2020 First time fully climbing onto Naia's back. This was 5 months after I got Naia so we had already built a solid foundation of groundwork. Ride #1 was done at a clinic where Naia was bareback and the clinician was acting as ground person who was fully controlling Naia, I was just the "human curry comb" weight on her back that was petting her and rubbing her all over. Note that I have worked with this clinician several times before, and this clinician is the mentor of my regular trainer, I would not do this with a clinician that I did not already know/trust. In preparation for this step we had done lots of work in previous weeks at having her line up with mounting block and me putting some weight on her back and swinging my arms and legs around her sides (but with always keeping one foot on the mounting block). Naia was led around a little bit with me on top but very short ride to keep it light and positive. 

Ride #2 July 19, 2020 Same as Ride #1 and in same clinic, but this time I got on and off a few times and was led around more at walk. I also held the reins but did very little with them. 

 Ride #3 July 21, 2020 Same as last ride except with my normal trainer acting as ground person instead of clinician. 

 Ride #4 July 31, 2020 Same as last ride (so still being led around by trainer bareback at walk), but longer duration. Walked until Naia let go of that last little bit of tension and fully relaxed. 

 Ride #5 November 14, 2020 The three and a half month gap was not related to Naia herself, just the combination of me working 75 hours a week for 8 weeks and then having surgery and associated recovery time. This ride was my first ride in tack. I rode in my western saddle and with a bridle. Note that we did a lot of work with tack before even ride #1 but the first rides were bareback to make bailing easier if necessary. On this ride I did have ground person holding Naia's lead rope at all times but I did give some aids myself instead of just being led around. 

A Stick-y Situation

Apologies for the bad pun, but not really lol. This post is about riding with a dressage stick. 

Want to guess the last time I rode carrying a stick/crop/whip of any kind? Best I can guess, it was probably about 22 years ago (which is when I last rode lesson horses). 

My first horse Ellie was a spicy spooky Anglo-Arab, and Kachina was a very sensitive forward thinking horse. Riding such hot, sensitive horses meant that a stick or spurs were not needed in the slightest. They were both horses where the slightest aid would send them forward, it actually took more work to teach them that my leg could be even close to them and that it didn't always mean faster. They were also naturally fit horses who would go all day if I let them and so slowing down when tired was not a thing. 

Such a hot horse... not

Naia... is not that. Her chill nature is making her a great first horse for me to start from the ground up, but it's a big change for me. She can be forward when she wants to be but she can also be too unreactive at times and has a bit of a lazy streak. On a recent ride I was doing the trot pattern from the Intro A test, and on the final 20m circle Naia just broke to walk, and then stopped dead. She wasn't startled by anything, she just decided she was done trotting. I asked her to go forward, and nothing. I asked again harder and nothing, I used my seat, I tried to turn her to unstick her, I tried pony kicking her, I even tried reaching behind and slapping her rump with my hand. She eventually got moving again but in a slow ambling way. Clearly a lot more respect for the forward aids is needed! 

Yes, I am posting this super embarrassing video evidence of me doing everything I can to get my horse to just trot again!

From ground work with Naia I know that she can be trained to be light off the aids, but in order to do so I need a stronger aid to backup the initial ask. It's the typical progression of ask > tell > demand. Of course I want to just need a soft ask, but that isn't going to be 100% from the get-go. That's where the stick comes in. 

Here is where I need to confess that I don't know how to ride with a stick. I own a couple dressage whips, but I use them for ground work so I haven't ridden with them. For my first ride with the stick I had to literally ask my trainer to "Explain it like I'm 5" How do I hold the stick? Which hand does it go in? How do I change from one hand to the other? Where do I apply it? How do I get it to make contact with the horse without pulling back on the rein? I honestly felt like a beginner rider, riding with a stick is a pretty basic skill but it's one I just don't have! 

I started the ride by getting Naia used to me moving stick around while on top of her and practicing dropping it on the ground multiple times. I knew that I might need to ditch the stick suddenly if things got hairy at any point because I'm not coordinated with it so I wanted to make sure she wasn't going to freak out if she saw it fall to the ground. I then practiced moving it from hand to hand a couple dozen times to just get the feel for it and rode around holding it. I could definitely feel that I had a tendency to hold my knuckles too flat (piano hands) while holding the stick. It still feels really awkward and is going to take a lot of practice but I'm going to keep at it because it will give me an extra tool when I need it. 

Anyone else had to learn/relearn a basic skill with a new horse that just wasn't an issue with a previous horse? Anyone else have trouble riding with a stick?

Small Milestones: Grown Up Bridle

 In addition to our first dressage test, we had another milestone this weekend as well!

Up to this point I have bridled Naia over her rope halter, both to keep her in control while bridling, and so that I can more seamlessly switch between ground work with halter and riding. It has also been a security feature where I know that if my ride gets hairy I can hop off and clip a lunge line on the halter to work through whatever (we don't lunge off a bridle yet).

In order to make the bridle and halter fit together less awkwardly, I have kept the noseband completely off my bridle. However, as what would be show season begins, I wanted to start her wearing a bridle normally so that we won't get disqualified if we do try baby classes at a show.

After multiple calm rides and good progress with bridling I finally bridled her up without the halter and reinstalled my noseband. She looks pretty grown up now!