What I do at Work

Currently I'm sitting in a meeting and supposedly thinking about things like "certifying bodies", "accreditation" bodies", "scope of certification", etc.

So what topic could possibly take away from the fascination of implementing a British Retail Consortium system? I am of course, thinking about what I usually think about during work - horses, endurance, and how I can get better with both.

I'm also thinking about a chocolate cupcake - masquerading as a muffin - that was sitting in front of me. It (of course) won the battle and only the crumbs remain to chortle in glee at the lack of my willpower.

So, under the guise of "taking notes", here I am tap tap tappiting on the computer. Really, is this much different then those who are scrolling away on their blackberries? Like all that scrolling and intense "mmm...'s" are really work related.

So what AM I doing?
Last night I received a wonderful thing - a copy of my Tevis vet card and a data spreadsheet of all in/out times and pulses of all riders. How wonderful!

Here are some of my observations.

1. Confirmed that she was a grade 1 at Foresthill on the RF (intermittent lameness)
2. At Deadwood, where the lameness was identified, was also the first place she started getting B's. I did much of the trail on foot between Deadwood and the next check. It made a difference at the next check.
3. She almost certainly bruised her leg during the first canyon. Even though at the time she seemed very strong in and out of the canyons, next year, I will ride this section of the trail more cautiously.

Specific pace and time data

If you are considering riding Tevis, this might be useful.

1. I calculated the pace from check to check and tried to correlate that to the pulse downs at each check. There is no correlation. This is probably due to the fact that the pulse down times entirely depended on the length of the line....I would arrive at a check and immediately get into line. The vets would take the pulse at the same time as doing the vet check. Since it's a gate and GO, there's no advantage of getting your pulse taken the minute you arrive, versus waiting until you are ready to leave. Do it the way that makes sense logically for the check, let's your horse relax and eat and drink, and gets you out in a timely manner. If I had a choice, I did my pulse and vet-in at the same time - I think that was faster way than waiting for a pulse taker, recording the pulse drop, and then getting into line.
2. I spent a total of 47 minutes in gate and holds not accounted for in the official one hour holds. I lost 1 minutes pulsing down for the one hour hold at Robinson flat and 2 minutes leaving. My "official" pace at Tevis was 5.1mph overall. When you take out this additional hold time, my average "real" pace on the trail was 5.6mph. I looked at the time spent at each gate and go, and my time management and none of the times looked excessive to me. As I was not "riding the clock" during the race, I feel my pace and time spent at holds was reasonable.
3. I plotted my Tevis overall pace, along with the pace for each separate section, against the overall pace for all other endurance races. The good news is that my pace for each Tevis section matched very well to my preparation races. At no point did a Tevis section pace exceed a pace that I had been able to complete a 50 mile race in. For example, the faster Tevis sections were done slightly over 7mph. Farley has completed a strong 50 at this pace. I think that this will be a good rule of thumb for developing my plan for next year - the average pace of Tevis will be slower than my othe races, but the individual, faster sections should not be completed in a faster pace than a known 50 mile pace for that horse. What do you think?

My manager, sitting beside me is now frowning and looking suspicious, so I must contain my data-mining urges for now. Back to the fascinating world of regulation, 3rd party audits, and office politics.

Revelation

Since my trainer was out with the flu yesterday, it's up to me to find a revelation in life and horses without the help of her lesson this week.

"It's an interesting phenomenon where horses lose body weight as fast as humans (ie "me") gain it. Also vastly unfair is the related phenomenon of how long it takes, and how consistent you have to be to put weight back ON a horse, and OFF a human (again, ie "me")".

A little bit

Barbs etc. made me contemplate today the concept of asking for a little, and then being happy with, "good enough". She also makes an excellent point in that you may have to ask for something a different way. Think of the horse as a painting of your riding. If you don't like the painting, change your riding. I had an interesting ride this afternoon where I explored this concept.

I swing between 2 extremes. I will either:

1. Never ask for excellence and always be contented with a mediocre try, (addressed in this post) or,

2. Demand excellence and then drill it to death. (the most recent example being this)

I'm talkn' horses today, but it applies to everything else in my life too - music, relationships, and knitted socks (actually slippers currently, but I digress).

Let's take the canter.

Some of its her, some of its me.

The "demand a decent transition and keep asking until it happened" approach did not work. Both of us were so stressed over the transition that by the time the canter DID happen, it was tight, rushed, and stressed. In short - completely un-salvageable.

A different approach was called for. Here was was transpired today and over the weekend.

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This weekend I did not ask Farley to do anything on the bit above the trot. Any cantering or galloping and the transitions for those gaits were done on a loose rein, with plenty of time for her to "self organize" into and out of those gaits. What I wanted was relaxation. That was the only goal in those gaits. Farley started out tense and stressed when I asked for the canter, but by the end of the weekend, she was giving me some beautiful, relaxed canters.

Today, I wanted to keep the relaxation of the weekend, while building on that and have her do a "couple" of strides of canter on the bit.

I decided "screw the transition". Right now asking for a pretty transition causes her to be stressed and stiff. Instead, I asked for a nice relaxed canter on a loose rein.

Gradually, while encouraging her to be forward, I pushed her into my hand into light contact. For a few moments she became very soft and flexed. There was my 1% improvement and I stopped. I didn't try and repeat the miracle, I didn't say - "good lets do that again to make sure you 'have it'". I stopped. I praised her. And then I asked for the same thing on the other side.

Nope - my transition didn't improve at all today. But my canter did. And Farley and I are still on speaking terms.

Someday, after our canter is solid, I'll ask for that trot/canter transition. And just maybe - because I've put aside a battle I can't win today, she'll offer it to me in a distant tomorrow willingly.

So much of being successful with horses is being able to judge what we can ask of the horse in that day, that session, that moment. And not asking what they can't offer. Not asking enough devalues the horse, asking too much devalues the relationship.


Enough of wordy, contemplative posts!!!!! I'm swamped at work for the next couple of days so it will be quiet. This weekend I'll be riding with Jaime of Lullabelle's Managerie (see blog on right) and her new endurance horse, "Ocean". Then it's off to the Desert Gold 55 miler and then, before you know it, I'll be popping balloons off of Farley with a pistol at the next cav practice day. As you can see, I should have fodder for some excellent blogging coming up!

In which Farley proves herself

The title is a nod to AareneX who received the little sheep today as her prize and has decided to write him into her NaNoWriMo.

Farley proved herself in the following ways this weekend:

1. She demonstrated that she does not, in fact hate me, and is actually quite bonded to me

2. She can relax and have fun - not everything has to be about getting up and doing 50+ miles at an ung*dly speed too early in the morning

3. She can relax enough to give me quality dressage work in an unknown place.

4. She can gallop at top speed in wide open spaces and not get "hot". (and alternate this with quality dressage work!)

5. Sword target practice is no big deal

6. Battle scenarios including sword work and close-combat situations are no big deal.

So yes - all is well with my little pony and I have such a glow of satisfaction of a weekend gone well that I can barely stand it!

Here's the details (warning - this gets more and more gushy about my wonderful pony as the post goes on....):


Farley and I packed up this weekend and headed to Salinas.

(Can you see Farley in this pic - she's at the far side, coming closer at top speed)



Once there, the owner of the ranch gave me the option of letting Farley run in a pasture, while we got some work done (CHAS was having a work party to winterize some of our equipment).



So, Farley got to run in a HUGE pasture all day on Saturday. I was going to ride on Saturday, but she got quite a work out all by herself so instead I just let her run.



It was exactly what we needed after those dark nights in the arena - a change of scenery and some bonding time.

It was so cute - I would walk into the pasture and she would quit her self imposed exercise and come over to hang out. She would walk and run beside me. We played for a couple of minutes. I would dash at top speed and she would chase me. I'd stop suddenly and change directions. I would chase her as she pivoted to try and keep up with me.




I've never had a horse so bonded to me. Minx, in her own way loved me, but I think that her past kept her from having that same total trust without reservations that Farley has. Abuse leaves its mark.


While Farley was cavorting, I set upon my task for the work party - reassembling harness.




Above is a picture of the completed work. Two teams of tack was inspected for wear and repair, and for completeness.

Out of huge piles of leather on floors and tables, I and one other person was able to assemble a third, almost complete set of harness (one set of harness is for 6 horses).







Above is a saddle (a drive, non-wheel) complete and ready to be assigned to a team.

I love this sort of work.....Little strips of leather an buckles....what can it be? A valise strap? A throat latch? A cheek strap for a bridle? Is it artillery or cavalry?

(above - another shot of a completed saddle)




(Terri deciding whether that piece of leather is a Mcclellen stirrup leather, a back strap for an artillery saddle....or...something else...)

(More pieces of leather and parts to fit together into something recognizable)

I admit, I love this work and the day flew by.

That night the three people staying over and riding the next day - Alan, Terri, and myself went out to dinner. We washed the harness blankets and ate Chinese food and created grandiose ideas for events next year. Whether it was the influence of good Chinese food, or the intoxicating effects of green tea, I found myself agreeing to write an event proposal for 2011 AND to retake the photos of the CHAS horses for the website (for those of you that have gone and looked at the horses on www. warhorse.org, I have this to say - truly we have beautiful, well-kept animals. Unfortunately, late winter photos of hairy ponies in muddy pastures does not exactly showcase this).

All of us decided to sleep in our respective vehicles. All of us froze. All of us did not sleep (yes I know this is bad grammar). Farley was probably the most comfortable of us all. For the night I put her back on her spring tie at the trailer. She seems to be getting accustomed to the concept of "home" while at the trailer and immediately relaxed and drank, and ate.

Farley woke up at 5am wondering where I was and "shouldn't I be tacking and getting going already????". (She rarely spends a night on the trailer unless we are at an endurance ride.) Once she realized I was NOT getting up until at LEAST 7am, she relaxed and settled.

The plan was to set up a course and practice cavalry horse skills, with an eye towards the national and (hopefully) regional competitions.

Pictured are the 2 noble steeds.....

Here is the course. Yes, I know it looks like a jumbled up mixture of cones and PVC pipes. In actuality, there is a 20x40m dressage court, with 20 and 10 meter circles laid out in one half. Additionally there are 4 trotting poles set up outside on edge of the court, and on the other side, 7 bending poles with flags on the top. The back area of the pasture was left open. The footing was almost perfect!

Terri schooled 2 different horses in the round pen and me and Alan played for 2 hours on the course. It couldn't have gone better.

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(Warning - gushy part ahead and lots of self-patting-on-the-back about how I ended up with such a wonderful pony)

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We practiced patterns and circles and corners in the court. Farley felt so free and happy. We alternating our time with on-the-bit work at trot, walk, and schooled transitions then we would take breaks by cantering and galloping in the back part of the pasture. Then back to on the bit work in the court. I would canter her in great big, lazy circles, then ask for a full speed gallop from end of the pasture to the other, then back to a gentle canter. She never once bucked, never once got hot-headed. Even at a full gallop with me shouting and yelling she stayed perfectly level headed and calm. And was able to go back to quality dressage stuff. Wow!

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Then we got out the swords. Nice, light, wooden swords, which I think are a good 2 inches longer than the real thing. :) This is the second time I've asked Farley to do sword work, and she responded exactly the same way as she did the first time - no hesitation, no shying away, no jumpiness. I hit targets at a walk, trot and canter and she was absolutely solid. And remember - to wield a sword, I'm controlling her one-handed. And she doesn't neck rein. What she's really listening to is my seat and leg. Pretty amazing.

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Alan and I decided to do a little melee on horse back. I asked Farley to charge into Alan, jousting style and there was no hesitation. For 10 minutes we wheeled and spun, charging each other, ramming horses together and whacking each other with swords. We moved into close combat circling around, getting in hits all the while. Farley never hesitated, never baulked, never bucked, never objected at the other horse being in her space during the sword play. At one point I "cut off her ears" with my wooden sabre and she never flinched. (Sorry). If I didn't know her history I would conclude that she's done this before...somewhere....somehow....

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Our practice went so well, we are going to stage monthly practices. Next month, Alan I agreed to focus on pistols. I'm thinking I won't have a problem. So far she's taken everything I've asked in stride. I'm thinking pistols won't be that big of a deal and she'll have another feather in her cap.

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So yes, all is forgiven. She gets the day off today, since we've ridden or travelled for 10 straight days.

Dear Farley Part 2

November 16, 2009

Dear Farley,

I take back everything I said about you - you are the best horse ever.

Sincerely,

Your rider

Notes on Style

I think my mom is giving me a hint.

As I left my parent's house she shoved the classic "Elements of Style" into my hands. I casually placed it on the table where obstinately I "wouldn't forget it" and attempted to sidle out the door, sans book. I was intercepted and the book was firmly placed into my hands "so I wouldn't forget it".

In the future this blog will be concise, well-worded, and use a minimum of colloquial expressions (not to mention completely made-up words). It will resemble less of a stream of consciousness approach, and instead be well thought-out posts that have actually gone through an editing process....

Ha!

Ha Ha!

I can't help it. There's good posts and bad posts. It's not my fault! I never gave any guarantees regarding quality! :) I attempt to be entertaining, inspiring, and I love to take elements of style from other blogs I admire and incorporate them here. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't! I have a fondness for exclamation points and random periods.

I WILL be looking at style and editing for my ride stories. They are getting more and more boring as they get less and less eventful. There has got to be a way to make them interesting, or at least good to read....Editing and revision - here I come!

Hope you are having a happy weekend doing whatever your little heart desires. I have a cavalry practice with Farley. Maybe I'll start pistol work? The trick isn't shooting off her back the first time, the trick is staying on and being able to repeat that feat.

O-B-E-D-I-E-N-C-E

November 13, 2009

Dear Farley,

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I would like you to know that you narrowly missed being dead last night. If looks and thoughts could kill (which fortunately they can't), you would be dead as a door nail and this letter would be an obituary. In case your little walnut-sized brain has already forgotten the last night's incident, I will remind you of the facts:

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You had warmed up beautifully at the trot and canter - loose rein - and your desire to work, seemed to be back (you were a little grumpy after the LOVE ride so we took it easy for a couple of days). For 20 minutes you gave me decent work at the walk and trot, on the bit, with some decent transitions (thank you). You were the very epitome of obedience.

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I would like to break off the story here and remind you that - as an arab - you are automatically going to be marked down when we hit the dressage court. You are a short coupled, efficient mover which will not garner you high points. As a result you must be MORE round, MORE obedient than the competition. But I digress, because being a smart mare, you already know this.

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As we started the canter, it was obvious that the earlier obedience was a sham. You bucked, bolted, resisted, and was VERY disobedient. You do realize that such behavior will only make the session last longer? Because if you escalate the disobedience after the customary 45 minutes mark has passed, you are going to be out there for and 90 MINUTES. And don't give me that "I'm just a poor little mare" face. You are not young, you are not green, and you are not out of shape. If you can trot and Canter and fight me for 2-3 hours on the trail, you are fit enough to give me quality work for an hour in the arena, especially with all the breaks I give you.

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I'm don't know what your problem is in the arena, but you need to snap out of it. Your canter and canter transitions are acceptable on the trail, but are horrendous in the arena. Flinging your head in the hair, resisting the bit and attempting to buck me off obviously means you need more work at the canter. Because of last night, I'm throwing all my other carefully planned goals out the window and am focusing on one and only one thing in the next year - you will have a decent canter with transitions. So get over it.

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Signed,

Your Very PO'ed Rider (who is going to practice deep breathing at work today at an attempt to clear her mind and start tonight's session fresh and with a smile)

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Foot note: She really was a bad bad bad girl last night. She's very good at pretending to be very obedient, but if I push and dig a bit, I will come upon these cess pools of disobedience. These festering pools of disobedience is what results in the random fights at rides (20 MT, LOVE), and the behavior that "seems to come out of nowhere". In reality, she's NOT being obedient and until the cantering in the arena problem is solved, I'm going to come across these huge blocks of resistance. It's the same old story of the white elephant in the room. I've avoided the cantering issue until recently and now I'm having to deal with it in a huge way. I tried the - "focus on other things and it will resolve itself" and that did NOT work. So now I just have to do it. GRrrrrr....

Iver's Book Review: Part 4 Capabilities, Icing, Conclusion

Iver's Book Review Part 4 and end!

I especially appreciated ti's stance on the capabilities of a horse. Rather than waiting for that one brilliant horse that has such a mass of raw talent that they are going to succeed dispite the training technique, ti takes the stance that any (mediocre) horse can be developed and trained to perform at a superior level than most other horses on the track, if you condition correctly, because most do NOT optimally condition for performance. The entire book is devoted to developing this mediocre horse to be a winner, rather than how to recognize brilliance. My Endurance take: A properly conditioned mount could be a better 100 miler horse than a horse that shows promise through raw talent that is exploited and overridden early on. Don’t be too quick to jump to conclusions if your prospect isn’t brilliant early on.

There is a fascinating section on icing and cooling the legs post workout, including data that shows that ice continues to cool the interior temperature of a leg long after the ice is removed and the leg feels warm again. Icing is so important to preventing damage, second only to good conditioning. My Endurance take: Renewed focus on cooling the legs after endurance rides with ice, soaked polo wraps, etc. I may experiement with adding rubbing alcohol to ice water (which is colder than ice) and soaking polos. Yes, it’s more work than my ice boots, but I have renewed faith in the importance of a good leg cooling.

I must thank my aunt Sharlene (and fellow endurance rider) for lending me this book (as well as countless others). She jokes that I read the books for her since she doesn’t have the time. Hopefully by me doing reviews, she gets as much enjoyment out of her books as I do!

Although the book is a bit repetitive, it is overall entertaining as he frequently makes disparaging comments about the state of racing and horse exercise physiology in general. I especially enjoyed his "Dictionary" near the end of the book. I will leave with a few of my favorites:

Auction Sale: A place where things aren't quite on the up and up but you can't figure it out how. Until it's too late.

Bar Shoe: A shoe with the rear portions connected by a bar of metal usually used in correcting the idicies of the previous farrier. Supports a foot with no heel.

Bolt. v. to bolt.: Horse decides to ignore rider and head for greener pastures at maximum speed. Like an automobile with the pedal to the floor, no brakes and no steering. Integral part of the color and pageantry of thoroughbred horse racing.

Castration: Another tranquilizing technique used with whole colts with exhibit behavior embarrassing to the inept trainer. Breeding ptoential severely compromised.

Clocker: Fellow who records thoroughbred workout times in the morning, sometimes by actually timing the horse, sometimes by timing another horse and posting that time to your horse, somtimes by taking the trainer's estimate of the breezing time, and sometimes by thinking up the time all by himself.

Prepurchase Examination: A ritual dance performed by veterinatrians designed to please all parties, at least for the time being.

Standardbred: Once was any horse that could trot or pace a mile in 2:15 or better. Now a horse registered with the United States Trotting Association. The other way was better.

Stewards: Three racetrack officials with myopic vision, impaired hearing, and known for never making a decision that could possibly have a shadow of a negative impact on the mythical image of horseracing. Slow as molasses in January.

Iver's Book Review: Part 3 Training & Nutrition

Part 3 of the book review

ti's (I found out that this is how he preferred to be referenced as) interval training revolves around the goal of performing race distances at race times before actually racing. He also notes that the horse’s body is “super adapted” to race even faster 48 hours after a maximal effort. Trainers take advantage of this and will “race” their horses to better performance, after doing the interval training so that the horse will stay sound while doing this. My Endurance take: Although it was interesting to see how he constructed his programs with the various endurance, speed, and interval stages, this is where I eyes started to glaze over. After all, I’m not going to go out and do interval training for 50 or 100 miles. Or am I? This is why most recommendations are not to race a horse for the first year of competition. We are supposed to be using the first year of endurance races as part of the interval conditioning process! Yep, a horse will hold up for a while if you race 50’s after conditioning 30-40 miles in practice – but sooner or later that horse will break down because you have not done proper interval training to complete 50 or 100 miles at that speed. Just like a Thoroughbred that has been conditioning using a “conventional” training that values the develop of speed over distance, they may win races in the beginning, but be eventually be beset by injuries – unless they are that remarkable individual with iron legs – than just think of what they might have been able to do with proper training! What ti reinforces in his book is that distance precedes speed. Go longer, than faster, than slower and longer, than faster. None of this information was necessarily new to me, but it’s something that I need reinforced over and over.

Related to the concept above is that a horse will follow your set program for a max of 2 weeks. It’s like an unwritten rule. After that two weeks, someone better be paying attention and adjusting the program because something is going to happen. My Endurance take: Yep – that sounds about right to me…..

ti stresses again and again that you must feed the horse if it is to perform well. A horse may come into training looking a bit round, but during training he should not lose that weight. Instead, that weight should start to redistribute to other parts of the horses body. For example, a horse with a bit of a belly might lose that belly and gain it in the shoulder or hindquarters. It is true that a horse that it in peak condition may look a bit lean to folks accustomed to the rolly polly recreational stock horse look that is common (at least it is in my area), but overall the horse should not give the impression that it is skinny. My Endurance take: I think that the endurance sport has figured out that horses in good condition (5-5.5) tend to do better than the greyhound look. This still varies by the individual as I think Minx did better on the thinner side when she was fit, ~4-4.5 BC. I REALLY REALLY REALLY wish I had access to a scale for Farley. The scale can be an important training tool. You can track how a horse performs in relation to weight to determine it’s optimal performance weight, you can track a horse’s recovery after a hard workout (based on weight). If you have a fancy scale that has separate panels for the front and back legs, you can track how the horse is carrying itself. If you are even MORE privileged you can have a scale with 4 panels, one for each foot. You can catch subtle sore muscles and preemptive lameness. I think that’s a bit overkill, even for me the ultimate is OCD. I’ve decided I would be happy with a 2 panel scale….which is a mute point because I don’t have ANY scale. An no, weight tapes are not sensitive enough to take these types of measurements. :)

Newer is better

A new look for the upcoming new season!

I almost moved my blog to wordpress, but got frusterated with my lack of customization options. I'm very picky about the "look" of my blog and don't want to use a pre-made template.


Honestly I'm not sure why I bother - if you are like me, you are reading blogs in Google's "Reader" anyway and don't visit blogs except to leave comments....


If anyone is experiencing any readibility issues with the new look, please let me know!



BTW - here was the "runner up" for the blog header. It was close...but a header must represent the whole blog and the current, scenery header does a better job of describing my life of "between horse ears". This one only says "focus", and "endurance".