January 2022

January has seemed especially long this year.  Our weather through fall and early winter was pretty mild with highs in the 50’s even in the end of December.  Since then, winter has had us in her icy grip.  I was able to haul Cruise out January 1 and since then it has been a variation of horrific wind chills with or without snow and just generally unpleasant weather for hauling out.  Add in that my newish tow vehicle is currently in the shop for the second time this month and you see where we are on the traveling front.

On the other hand, work has been going great in my teeny tiny indoor.  I can close it up tight to mostly diminish the wind chill and even though it is a small square, the footing is good and progress can be made.  Short in hand, lunge, and under saddle work with some target training mixed in.

The Dave Thind Method continues to totally revamp my rider biomechanics.  I’m on my second pass (of many I think) through the 60 Days program and getting a bunch of stuff I missed the first time.  My current big revelation is how to get my outside seat bone weighted properly.  Which leads to straightness on the circle with correct flexion and bend.  Which leads to correct engagement of the horse because the weight is not on the inside shoulder interfering with the thoracic sling.  Who knew?

I’m riding both boys 2-3 days a week.  Jet gets some in hand and then under saddle work usually totaling around 30 minutes with a lot of walking.  Mostly we are sticking to working gaits with splashes of collectibility while I play with my biomechanics and try different things.  Because he knows everything through 2nd Level but doesn’t always do things correctly, he is perfect to test out new and better ways of biomechanically asking for everything.  The combination of doing a DTM video and then playing around with my seat influences has been great and has really expanded my movement possibilities.  Feldenkrais is amazing and not physically difficult.  Cannot recommend enough.

Cruise usually gets played with every day even if it is 5 minutes of in hand work or a short session of target training at liberty.  He really wants to connect with me and has a busy personality, so a little attention every day seems to suit him. 2-3 days a week after a 5+ hour turnout on the tundra, I do 5 minutes of in hand connection training THEN I lunge him lightly in really loose side reins to get a little of the ENERGY out without him wiping out.  THEN I ask for some through walk and trot with lots of transitions on the lunge.  THEN  I ride for 10-15 minutes working on simple things like halts, straightness on the circle, serpentines, turn on the forehand, leg yields, and 1-2 trot circles at a time.  He has been really good, especially considering that he essentially has a summer coat and is working in some very cold temperatures.  Turnout plus some lunging to get the cavorting out seems to be doing the trick.  I am not a fan of side reins but in this case I am using them not to make a shape but to keep him from killing himself f#@$ing around.  It’s been interesting that it only took 2 under 10 minute sessions for him to understand he could play a little and get the jinks out but he couldn’t go totally WILD.  Not necessarily equipment I like to use, but I felt like it was the safest option to continue work through the coldest part of the winter.

So that is us.  Probably more of the same for February given the long term weather forecast.  What are your February plans?