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Just in case anyone is interested. I went a little crazy with the Sony Vegas program. It was awesome!

FEATURED!

I promise some actual Greta-related stuffz will be coming soon, but until then, one of my posts has been featured on Mugwump Chronicles! Per my request, but nonetheless it made it!

http://mugwumpchronicles.blogspot.com/2009/11/mouthy-mondays.html

I have better posts, I feel, but this was my best one at the time.

Mmm pictures!

Firstly, I intended to get some pictures and possibly some footage of her while I was lunging her, but then I realized that holding a camera and being serious about having Greta listen to me was a bit cumbersome, don't you think? So, here goes:

Body shot, with tongue out!

Is it really just me, or does she look a little ribby? She's seems to be fattening back up though, so I'm not too worried.

Striking a pose. Diva.

OMG TREAT! Didn't mean for that to be in the picture :D

Bleh. That's it <3

Mål för November

Goals for October:

1. A much more collected canter. This has been a goal for a long time, and hopefully by the end of the year we'll be there if not close. Instructor said that her canter looks really nice for our level, so I'll take her word for it. And looking at in the mirror it looks pretty nice.
   
2. Trot lengthening and shortening. Least of our worries at the moment.
   
3. We need more drive from behind and work on rounding out Greta's back. This will also be a long-term goal, I imagine. It sure will be.
   
4. I want to start doing a lot of lounge work - so I can see how she looks on the ground before I hop on her - and walk work - so we can work on more advanced things such as shortening and lengthening and shoulder-in at a slower pace. Check!

Goals for November:

1. Continue lunge work and walk work, particularly a more energetic walk!
2. Keep my toes from pointing down when I'm really using my leg. Oops!
3. Improve my seat (I tend to want to sit on my left seat bone when we leg yield to the left and my right seat bone when going to the right. It's the other way around!)
4. Continue working on rounding out and straightening Greta's body at the walk and trot.
5. Continue working on leg yields and turns on the forehand.
6. Continue working on getting more drive from behind.

And now, let us end this with a fine quote by (and every rider better know who this guy is) Colonel Alois Pohajsky:

"Xenophon was the first one to claim that horses can become only more beautiful with correct training, never uglier. I would like to add to this that if the horse becomes uglier in the course of his work, it is the unmistakable proof for a wrong... training."

So far, so good!

Firstly, many thanks to 10 (count TEN) followers. I'm still geeking out about it. It really means a lot <3

And now, onto Greters. So I've been working with a resident horse trainer and we've been doing some back-to-basics ground manners for the girl. I have taught the ways of "silent treatment" (not as awful as it may sound) and they have been working wonderfully so far! The "silent treatment":

You can love and cuddle and "dress her up in a tutu if you want," but when it's time to work, it's time to work. You only speak when speaking is needed, otherwise "looky" (that's my instructor's wording and it's perfect, I could see Greta being the gossipy girl that has to see what's going on at all times, and in a bossy manner too. Love you too, girl!) horses will get confused with the constant influx of "good girl! oooh, such a smoochie, oochie, woogie sweetie pie!" and not be able to distinguish that from "whoa." You might be thinking, "um no, they should be able to tell good girl from WHOA!" but in my case I say one praise immeditaly followed by a comman and then another influx of praises, so in the end it's just a jumbled BLEH coming out of my mouth to her. So, I only speak, say I'm lunging, when I'm giving her a command. When I tell her to whoa and invite her back into my space at the center of the round pen, then we can do all of our smoochie-woogies.

Same when I'm leading her. I can't get all "ooooh, goody girl!" when I'm walking up to her and putting her halter on. Today I put a smile on my face, thought "YOU are the lead mare, Bre," and simply pat her neck before putting the halter on. She lead without a problem and without any tug-of-wars, which is a huge relief.

Now, why all of these tug-of-wars and refusals to lead, you ask? The simple truth is: Greta's figured me out. She knows what she can get away with, and as my grandmother put it, "she's waited for a horse for such a long time, so now that she has one, she wants to be best buddies with her and not hurt her feelings."

Greta, you can't shake me off, you're still my bestest buddy and I love you, but I'm still in charge.

There's more to it, but.... anyway, I also did have a scare the other day with her left front leg. She was limping a little trotting to the left in the round pen and I was just uneasy with it, so I asked another rider there, and she said she was definitely sore in that left front. I put some liniment on and stretched it out, and it was still a bit stiff today, so not much trotting in our lesson but a lot of walk-work (like I've been wanting to do anyway!). It was, however, significantly better than yesterday.

And we did a turn on the forehand. Go us!

Super freak, super freak, she's super frekay!

Firstly, Sam, I feel your pain about keeping a white horse white. But look at it this way: consider the extra hours you spend keeping Val clean and I spend keeping Greta clean as valuable bonding time!

After a week of rain and no turnout (fail!) but lots of riding (win!) it stopped raining (cross your fingers) and Greta has been able to start getting used to the mare pasture. I rode her and worked with her every day of the week and decided to give her a day off Saturday, plus I helped get a Halloween party ready, though I wish I could have seen how she did being turned-out. I came out today and she was absolutely chill. Really chill. Just dozing, and then grazing, and then going to get some water. It was really neat.

I need to get some pictures up (gee, how many times have I said that?) I don't know if it's just me being a hypochondriac horse owner, but Greta is looking a little ribby. The silly thing also apparently ran into fence and has a nice, superficial slice on her haunches, about 5 inches long that I tended to today. Oh, Greta! I should just bubblewrap you! jk

Also, I am signing her up for a Lifetime Horse Registration with USDF. I'm still debating on a show name. It's down to Gretakvinna/GretaKvinna/Greta Kvinna (I should probably get that solved too, I'm just sure if I do "Gretakvinna" somebody will say Gretak-vinna instead of Greta-ki-veenah) or Der Greters (too cute). What do you think? Ideas appreciated :D

And now something for other discussion. I did a speech for Speech class about some of the controversial methods of modern dressage (and almost everyone actually seemed to find it pretty interesting, go me!) particularly rollkur and performance-enhancing drugs, concepts that would be easy to grasp for non-horsey-folk. The topic revolved around Moorlands Totilas' recent double-whammy where he made a record of 89.4% and then beat his own with 90%! I loved the performance initially, though with time comes learning, and now I realize: holy moly that horse has some freaky gaits! If this is to be the standard for competitive dressage (God forbid we go with what Xenophon or Podjhasky or the FEI rulebook itself established quite clearly) well... can any horse do that without some funky genetics or cruel training techniques? I know Greta can't. Nor can any other normal horse I've seen. And I've seen a lot of normal horses :D

So that was my opinionated opinion. Discuss it here: http://www.behindthebitblog.com/2009/11/totilas-trash-talk.html

The Muddy Saga

This week was the dreaded CRAZY HOMECOMING WEEK! No riding (I'll explain that later), I started my volunteering at the people hospital (I'm the only one in the group who wants to work with horses, not people, and that's another story for another day and it won't be posted....) in scrubs and everything, and me and the entire familia have been arranging Greta's living arrangements. She is now in a lovely little paddock with a gorgeously green turnout pasture that she will get to be in for most of the day.

I haven't been able to ride for the past week-and-a-half because it's been raining a lot (which is good! It means there will be a very green spring and central Texas will be coming out of it's drought! But it's supposed to be a rainy winter, which will mean wet and cold for several months. Yay.) and that meant lots of mud which Greta is always a weenie about. It's really not that bad, but it was impossible to get her out.

I spent about three hours the Sunday before last trying to convince her to come out of the pasture. Another two hours Monday, and I realized we had a problem. Thankfully, we weren't the only ones, and another gate that had been wired shut was reopened and that did solve a lot, though if there were any patches of mud Greta would freeze. Weenie.

But nonetheless, with lots more convincing she came through! We realized that A) I needed to re-establish some ground manners (check!) and B) we needed a less muddy place for Miss Nibs (check!). We started our first session of Ground Work 101 today and it went nicely. With the help of a resident trainer, not our riding instructor, we worked on some basic round pen skills, as follows:

1. Greta goes when I tell her to go. I must refrain from saying "Good girl! Good job! You got it!" then entire time because then she'll tune my actual commands out.
2. Greta changes direction when I move away from the center and towards her front. She must learn to move around me and learn my body language. She will canter no more than five minutes one way around, and no more than five minutes the other. This will also help to get some of the energy out if I haven't ridden her for a few days and reestablish that I am the boss mare. Sorry Greta!
   
3. When I put down the lunge line and tell her to whoa, she whoas.
4. Her reward is not only when I tell her she can stop, but also when I invite her back into my space and pet her and tell her good girl.

I am sure there will be much more, but we're not there yet! I was told to really only use this round pen work if I haven't ridden her for a couple of days or if I don't have time for a full-on workout.

We also rode and did a little trail ride around the barn, and she went right over the footbridge that leads to her paddock! Yay! We did a lot of walking and trotting, and a lot of focus-on-me "rein bumping", and those worked really well. We cantered for a few steps, I bumped her with the reins to get her to focus on me and not the mare running through a pasture, and then she did a flying lead change. Okay... what did I do? It was cool, but not exactly what I was looking for. She has also done a half-pass on me with a couple of other riders watching. I had this bewildered look on my face, but then I saw than and I acted like a totally meant to do that. Oh, yeah, they understood haha!

We're both still kind of awkward right now- absolute noobs - but Greta has proven herself to be quite a smart cookie these past few weeks, and she is learning just as quickly under saddle. I'm still figuring things out myself. I love that girl! What a worker!

Pictures soon, I promise!

OMG A WEEK OF MAYHEM!

Well, this last week has been uber busy with (surprise) school and der Greters (lot of groundwork, no riding). It's a rather lengthy and private deal, so no big long essay here, but until the next riding session tomorrow and the next lesson Thursday....

Here is a cute video my friend made about why she rides. It really made me smile.



Do you think I'm a YouTube ho? jk