Things that were probably not a good idea...

...though I guess they got away with it?

So let's break this down.

This is a photograph taken for a promotional pamphlet about training at the US Government Morgan Horse Farm in Weybridge, VT. At that time, it was the cavalry remount station for the northeast, breeding primarily Morgans but also some other horses: Thoroughbreds, mostly. Their goal was to breed for the cavalry but also to research horsemanship as an outpost of the US Department of Agriculture. The photo was probably taken c. 1920 - 1925.

That is horse harnessed to a box made out of 2x4 boards with wagon wheels on the outside. The man sitting behind is holding reins which presumably are just for whoa and go, since the box is attached to a pivot point in the center. Scale is tough, but let's say it's a 20m circle.

HOW WAS THAT A GOOD IDEA?

I mean: I freely admit that driving makes me a bit nervous because of the potential for wrecks. In fact, the day I took this photograph I was researching in the archives of the National Museum of the Morgan Horse; for lunch, I got a sandwich and went over to Weybridge to eat at a picnic table at the Morgan Horse Farm. The current director of the farm was schooling a young horse in a cart on their wide front lawn, and said young horse gave a perfect demonstration of what it's like to train a high strung, fractious, young horse to drive. He was beautifully handled and it worked out but man, would I much rather have been in the saddle for some of those moments. Hats off to the driver, who was calm and professional and ballsy as hell.

But doing that while you're trapped in a 2x4 box? Not to mention this is pretty clearly not a permanent installation. No way is that flat platform bolted down to the ground. I've seen other pictures of the area where it is and it's a wide grass field. So if the horse went sideways, that sucker's getting dragged with him

Honestly, the longer I look at it and think through all the implications the worse it gets.

Wordless Wednesday: This View, Though

Patience and Deliberate Steps Back

I've been thinking a lot about the training pyramid lately. You know, that infamous dressage textbook illustration.

I know we've all seen it a million times, but I'm putting it up anyway.

My riding and training has been so hopelessly sporadic this summer. Not everything has been terribly productive, and I haven't put nearly the miles on that I wanted to. I was busy at work, the house demanded attention, Tristan went through health issues (again, some more, blog post to follow, resolved now), and then we went away on vacation.

A lot of my life is in a tumult right now. I've been doing a lot of long, hard, deep thinking, trying to mine my own brain to sort out my reactions to things, the ways in which I can control my own reactions and behaviors, and the decisions that I'm making. My watchword right now is deliberate: I have to be ok with the choices that I make and why. No letting things happen.

On Sunday, I had a ride that worked out beautifully. It was a combination of a lot of things that led to success, but if I had to put my finger on it, the thing that worked out best for me was after walking around the fields to warm up, we trotted around the outdoor dressage ring. Two times, each way, and all I asked for was rhythm and focus from him. No squirreling around, no sucking back, no slamming in and out of the contact, no fights. I simply held the reins in such a way that I could feel the bit, and asked him to trot forward consistently. It was nothing fancy or extensive - it took us maybe 12 minutes.

On lap 3, he started to soften through the corners instead of motorcycling. On lap 4, he started to fill out both reins evenly, and then by the end of the lap, he had stretched into the outside rein and begun to soften. I called it quits. I dropped the reins, patted him, and we moved on to something else - walking the roads for a bit, then up the hills to get some quality muscle work time.

I've been reflecting on that ride since, in the same way I am turning everything over endlessly in other parts of my life. I think I've finally untangled something in my brain. See, Tristan is a more or less trained horse. Buried inside his brain and in his body are all the tools and memories necessary to put together a very good Training test that on a good day is schooling first. 

But that's not where or what he is right now. I can't swing a leg over and expect that horse. And I guess I have been: I've been putting him through a cursory warmup and then trying to school shoulder-in, or haunches in or canter transitions. These are all things he has schooled well in the past, and yeah, we've been sort of getting to them. Not well - not happily - not cooperatively - but the work has been produced.

Sometimes it's the right call to muscle through and get to the horse you know is inside. Not right now. Tristan needs to go back to the base of the pyramid, and that needs to be our only focus. Just because he has all the pieces of the pyramid doesn't mean I can just slap them together and zip up to the top.

So, tonight: rhythm. Short, sweet, 30 minutes focusing on a forward, elastic gait in the walk and trot and maybe in the canter. If we get it, our reward will be a taste of relaxation at the end. Then we repeat. It's a self-discipline thing. Just because I feel something in him does not mean I have to reach for it and drag it out. Just because I know what a balanced connected trot and canter feel like does not mean we have to get it tonight. Or the next night.

It's both humbling and frustrating to have to do this again, once more, for the millionth time. Tristan is 21, and he has been under saddle for 11 years now. I have been riding horses for 2/3 of my life. Back to the beginning we go.

Pokemon Go!

Clearly, I have won the game.

Semi-ironically, I hatched this little guy from an egg after a long dressage ride.

House Post: Basement Organization

First things first: I'm still alive! And I have been doing quite a lot. I've even been writing blog posts in my head, which I guess doesn't count?

Anyway, back into the swing of things. The summer heat has broken in Vermont, it was in the low 40s overnight, and we just got back from a two week vacation, about which more later. So I am itching to DO things again.

Organizing the basement is a nearly-endless quest. I've made some huge steps, though.

Previously, we moved over the old huge shelving and made room for extra kitchen things.

That still left a whole lotta basement to organize.

Then there was this, in what we call the root cellar, a little adjacent room in the cellar. GROSS. After months and months of trying to make myself use it, I just could not. So I put it up on our local email list called Front Porch Forum and it was gone within 12 hours.

The guy who picked it up was amazing. He had it dismantled and I helped him carry it out and then he hauled it away with his Miata. I could not even.

The rust stain left behind should give you some idea of how gross that shelving was. Also, the walls will give you an idea of how badly I want to repaint all of the basement walls.

And finally, here's what that corner looks like now. Progress!