Guess what I did today...my horsey adventures
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@George-K Looks like a lot of fun. Hope you continue to enjoy
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My cousin just sent me this photo of my paternal grandmother—. I’m guessing circa 1920s when she was in her 20s, perhaps horseback riding in Brooklyn or Long Island.
I wonder if that's a police horse, given that seems to be a baton...
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@Ivorythumper interesting that she's riding him using a double bridle. There are four reins, two on each side. This is a style used by polo players, and the skill of using just one of the four reins to convey to the horse what you want is beyond belief.
And, they do it with one hand, because the polo mallet is in the other. A level of horsemanship I never even had dreams of achieving.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K could that be a mallet holster, rather than a baton???
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@Ivorythumper good thought!
An aside...
Before I met Mrs. George, she was dating a guy who played polo at the old Chicago Armory downtown (it was on Pearson St, iirc). She had just gotten her horse, Charlie, and somehow she met this polo player. He was quite the horseman, she said. He could hop on any horse, bareback, and using nothing more than a couple of ropes attached to a halter (no bridle), he could rid it.
He told her that she could go to the armory, where the polo ponies were kept, drop his name, and the barn attendant would let her ride one of the ponies.
So, after a day in the ICU, she went there. It was a block south of where she lived at the time. The attendant got one of the ponies, "Otis," out for her and she tacked Otis up, walked into the polo ring and hopped on.
Otis took off like a bat out of hell. He ran, he ran, and then, he ran faster. She was holding on for dear life (and remember, she was about 26 at the time).
"Help! How do I stop him!!!" she cried.
"Otis?" the attendant said. "Otis ain't got no brakes."
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Had an interesting lesson with Opal today. I think she and I are beginning to understand each other.
Horses will always do what's easiest. If you want them to walk, they will, but at a pace that's slow and easy. It takes some effort to put some "energy" into the walk. Think about someone who's on a stroll, and what they look like. That's very different from a "power walker."
Similarly, if you want the horse to trot, they will do it at the slowest possible, least energy-expending way possible.
With a school horse, it's very different from the one that you own. School horses take their time learning what you're asking, and it's all about communication and getting your energy up. Sometimes, that "energy" includes a crop. No, you don't smack them with the crop. You just hold it, and the horse begins to understand that you're serious, and you expect to have a conversation about what you expect from it. Just holding the crop in your hand changes everything. A slight tap on the shoulder changes it even more.
I'm finding my stamina getting better. A few weeks ago, I could barely trot around the arena without fatiguing out. Today, a couple of trips around and I was good. I was able to sense when Opal was going to slow down (she's older, and corners are hard), and I was able to "push" her through, encouraging her to keep going as we rounded the corners.
All in all, a better day than I've had in the last few weeks.
I miss Simon. That horse could read my mind.
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Annnd another thing.
When we had Simon, I realized that there are, basically, two styles of riding: Western and English.
The Western style was all about function. The Western saddle was designed to keep the rider in the saddle. It had a high cantle (the rise in the back) and a pretty high pommel (the rise in the front). The "horn" was not something to hold onto. It was a place to wrap your lariat around when you were roping cattle. You would rope a calf, loop the lariat around the horn, freeing up your hands so you could dismount, and get the calf subdued. The Western stirrup was a broad, thick piece of leather and metal to keep you firmly grounded in the saddle while you did your work.
Also, the Western style was all about riding one-handed. Horses were trained so that, when you rested the rein on their neck, they would turn their head to the opposite side and go in that direction. Having a horse that "neck reined" freed up your hand so that the non rein-holding hand could hold a lariat, or in the case of medieval riders, a lance or a spear for combat.
Western riding is all about function and work.
By the way, the best early American horsemen were the Spaniards. They called themselves the "vaqueros". That word is the ultimate compliment one can give a rider. It's someone who is totally "as one" with the horse. They are one entity, doing the job.
"Vaquero" eventually became corrupted to "Buckaroo."
Similarly, the vaqueros had to protect their legs from the brush that they would encounter. They wore leggings to prevent the brush, brambles and vegetation ruin and cut through their trousers. They wore "chapparos".
Chaps, as we know them today.
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It's all about function. The Western saddle was designed to keep a rider in the saddle and allow him to do his job.
Older saddles, such as medieval saddles were similarly designed to do a job - warfare.
In a medieval saddle you didn't sit "on it," so much as "in it." The cantle and pommel were high and firm. You couldn't be thrown off the horse backward or forward because the saddle kept you in place. Your legs in their stirrups provided the lateral support to keep you balanced, and warfare was easier to conduct if you were secure in your mount
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I mean, really, imagine sitting in this thing. You'd NEVER come out!
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Compare with a typical Western saddle.
See the difference?
In this example the pommel (front part) is pretty high. But the striking thing is, of course, the horn which you could use to "dally up" your lariat with the cattle you roped.
The horn serves no function other than that, and inexperienced riders think it's something to hold onto.
Nope...
I was fortunate that I learned to ride both Western and non-Western styles. It's all about balance. If you need to hold onto the horn, you're doing it wrong.
I've always felt comfortable in both styles.
More to come, with refinements, later.
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OK...so on to "English" style riding.
The "English" saddle is a totally different beast. Most people who ride English sneer at Western riders because, well they're English. And that makes all the sense in the world.
As with other saddles, the form is dictated by the function.
The smallest English style saddle is the "hunt seat" saddle. There's no pommel, a small cantle and, when riding "hunt seat" one keeps one's stirrups short. The whole idea is that you want to be able to rise up, out of the saddle, when going over barriers, jumps, etc. Get your butt off the horse and let it do its job! Just stay on top, balanced on the stirrups, and hopefully you'll have one leg on either side of the horse.
"Hunt seat" or "hunter-jumper" is what you'll see if you look at olympic competitions in jumping. Stirrups are short and the riders lean forward so as to keep their balance.
Mrs. George learned to ride using "hunt seat." When we had Simon, her saddle was a "hunt seat saddle. The picture here is not quite typical, in that the seat is "deeper" than traditional, keeping you on the horse better.
Mrs. George's hunt seat saddle was a Crosby. It was little more than a leather place with straps attached to stirrups. It was called a "close contact" saddle. This is the saddle I learned to ride "English" on.
Not sure if you can tell from this picture, but look at the "fenders," the part in the back of the saddle. They are quite short, and the "knee rolls" where, your knee would go, is pretty pronounced. There is practically no cantle (in the back) or pommel (in the front).
If you can ride in a close-contact saddle, you're going to be fine.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K Interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing.
I assume you like English saddle because that it what you learned on?
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@taiwan_girl said in Guess what I did today...:
I assume you like English saddle because that it what you learned on?
I really have no preference. I actually learned on a Western saddle in the beginning. However, when we moved Simon to the Chicago area, he was at a hunter-jumper place with all these small-assed ladies giving me the stink-eye when I'd ride Western. After a while, it stopped bothering me, and I just rode the way I felt on that particular day.
I was kind of the "weirdo" at that barn because I was the only male there. Also, people just couldn't understand how I trusted my horse to leave the property and take a ride through the subdivisions. Their horses were too skittish to take anywhere out of a controlled space (indoor or outdoor arena). Simon loved it. I would ride English or Western when we went for a stroll.
Later today, I'll talk about yet another style of riding - dressage.
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace. – Mike Ditka
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So, dressage…
“Dressage,” pronounced “Dress-AAJH,” means “training,” or “horsemanship.” The idea was to develop the best-trained, most responsive horse/rider combination, in the tradition of the Spanish vaquero. Having originated in the use of the horse as a tool of warfare. One needed a horse that responded to the most subtle cues, responding to what the rider thinks so that he can concentrate on the task at hand - killing someone.
That school of riding evolved to a competition in which long-strided, large horses are trained to go through a series of maneuvers in an enclosed 20 by 60 meter arena. The goal in the competition was to be “one” with the horse, with the horse responding to the most subtle of cues.
A dressage saddle looks a bit like a close-contact jumping saddle, but there are notable differences. First of all the flaps, or fenders, are much longer. This allows the rider to ride with a longer stirrup than in a jumping position, which, for the sake of balance, requires a short stirrup. Think of how a jockey rides. Stirrups are ridiculously short, and the jockey spends more time standing in the stirrups than sitting on the saddle.
The other major difference is the higher cantle, or back part of the saddle. This allows the rider to have a deeper “seat.”
Yeah, saddles are expensive.
Along with the longer-legged style of riding, his legs are in contact with the horse almost constantly. It’s almost like they’re wrapped around the horse. Because of this, the horse is trained to respond to leg signals as well as rein signals. This style has been quite the transition for me, and using my legs to cue the horse has been a challenge, not only because of the difference in style, but also because of the inherent weakness of muscle groups that I’ve never used.
If you watch any dressage competitions, you’ll see how the rider communicates with the horse via the most subtle of cues. It’s almost as though when you think it, the horse does it.
This is a pretty good example. Note how at about 1:30, the horse, at a trot, begins to extend his stride, not increasing the speed of steps, but greatly increasing his stride.
Link to videoNote how the rider looks like she’s glued to the saddle.
Then, at about 4:30, at the canter, the same thing happens. She asks the horse to extend his stride…and off they go.
At 5:00 - the horse does “flying lead changes.” Imagine you’re skipping, and you lead with your right foot. That’s what a canter is. The horse CHANGES the foot with which he’s leading the “skip” with every other stride. Remarkable.
But, at my level, with Opal, I’m just trying to get her to trot around the arena without breaking down to a walk, LOL.
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A bad day today.
It seems that poor Opal had a major disagreement with another horse while she was turned out.
Opal got kicked - hard - in her right rear hindquarter. The vet came out, and she was given some butazoladin (a major anti-inflammatory) and antibiotics because there was swelling in her right "thigh".
I couldn't get her to do anything today. She'd start to trot, and after about 40-50 feet, she'd give up - "This hurts too much." There was a lot of tail-swishing and head-tossing whenever I asked her to do anything more than walk.
I felt bad for the poor girl, and at the start of my lesson today, I didn't know that there was an issue.
After I found out, I was totally happy with just walking around, asking her for non-stressful things.
Not as good as last week, at all. Hopefully, she'll be more herself in seven days. I was looking forward to building on last week's progress, but I feel like a took a huge step backward today.
It's so different when it's not your own horse.
And...30 minutes is not enough.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
