Plan for December

I'm going to try my best to keep a strict training schedule this month. I want to spend 2 days per week in the woods with Mara - one of those must be a weekend day for exposure, and I want to do 2-3 days per week in the arena riding, doing groundwork, and ground driving/double lunging. I don't necessarily have to ride in the woods, but I want to spend at least 2 hours out there per session. I'm back taking dressage lessons weekly again, so that will keep us busy too.

I'm going to try my best to blog about this even though I'm sure it won't be very interesting, just to stay accountable.

Yesterday, the 1st, I had no inclination to get on the horse after Saturday's ride, so I did an hour of groundwork, double lunging, and lunging over poles. I was listening to my ipod quietly and found that Mara's jog matches the waltz rhythm of Enya's Caribbean Blue perfectly. I don't really like that song, but it was really fun to watch her trot it. I must try this under saddle.

She's learning to stretch down when I put a little pressure on the lines, bringing her nose all the way to the ground briefly. This is impossible to achieve with side reins, so I really get the value of the double lunge. She gets a release, totally, when she relaxes her head down, and the outside rein pressure is meaningful to her - she sees it as a request to drop her head now. She's even starting, just barely, to be able to drop her head at the canter, which is pretty difficult for her, balance-wise. Fabulous, need more of this! Should have done more all along!

KT was out Thursday to help me with some groundwork issues - curious to see the difference between my very gentle Dressage teacher, and my so-strict-Mara-tried-to-bite Western trainer. KT just waves the whip in the air to ask Mara to move, and rarely has to touch Mara with it to get the first steps of a sidepass at a walk (from the ground). I had asked KT to help with the turn on the forehand, because that is the one that was so hard for Mara, she couldn't seem to cross her hind legs, and KT said to do the sidepass from the ground to help Mara get it. So far so good.

I'm also trying to teach Mara to do snappy trot-outs, where she trots immediately from a standstill, but that's tricky. I may need to resort to carrying a whip just to enforce it. I do the "Ready? Ter-rot" thing so she knows we'll be running side by side, but she's not snappy about it yet.

All Herr S's horses are on Winter paddocks finally and they were all standing in a row staring at Mara working, and I swear she loves her audience. She nickers to them and they stare unblinking, ears pricked to her every movement. Like I said it's almost unnerving to be stared at so intensely for so long!

Today, the 2nd, I took Mara into the woods for a walk, on a trail she'd only been on once, an extremely narrow ledge of a trail above a stream that is carved into a steep hillside. The hillside above is at a 45 degree angle, and the drop to the creek below is often pretty scary. The worst thing about this lovely little trail is that it's so narrow - less than one meter - when there are other trail users, sometimes it's impossible to get off the trail and someone has to backtrack to a less steep hillside to climb up. I usually try to be the one who climbs the horse off the trail to let people pass, out of courtesy.

Mara is very nervous about the steep hillside above, and stares up in the strangest way - she tilts her head at an angle to match the angle of the hill. It's funny, I'll try to get a photo next time.

At one point there was a tree over the trail that I had to duck under, and if Mara were 15 HH she wouldn't have fit, but she just barely did. Halfway under it she looked up at it, "Oh my, will I fit?" It was cute.

We finally arrived at Mara's first real hillside staircase, steps built into the slope, and she did it well. At the bottom was a no-rail bridge but it did not collapse under her like I thought it might.

This is really a lovely trail and in total I believe it's 5 miles to the cathedral where I once rode Baasha. But it was going to get dark so back up the stairs we went. I was impressed that Mara never stumbled even though the trail is full of bedrock sticking out, and roots to trip over almost constantly. My feet are quite sore right now from the rock. None of the rock was loose, it was just jagged.

Right when Mara was about to duck under that tree again, 5 senior citizens appeared from around the bend toward us. Mara was suddenly terrified - people!?! And one of them had walking sticks! The first man saw Mara's face and said, "Is he scared of us?" "Yes!" I was impressed that he knew horses well enough to recognize that. But as soon as we spoke, Mara calmed down a bit, and they were kind enough to step off the trail and let us squeeze by. I feel so bad about the squeezing. Earlier a jogger passed us and I just put Mara as close to the edge as I could and put my body, arms outstretched along Mara's length, between her and the jogger, shielding her from the horse in case she was worried about passing so close. Hrm, this trail is lovely but not so ideal for sharing!

Then halfway home a young black lab came running full speed directly toward us. It was running so fast its body was practically dolphining. I was appalled. It ran at us like we were its long lost friends. It slithered by me and ran directly under Mara's body and whipped around her back legs and her tail. I couldn't freaking believe it. On such a trail, I had no chance to respond in any way, I was helpless. On a normal trail I'd guard my horse from the dog, but I couldn't even get around my horse at that spot.

This elderly lady finally came and got her dog, and she said "Are you OK?" I said, "I about had a heart attack, my horse is inexperienced, and that was not very nice of the dog!" Then I wished her a pleasant evening, and as soon as I said it I wondered if she thought I was being sarcastic. Who knows, she probably was in shock herself, probably thinking that would end in a vet bill or worse for her young dog. I hope she learned something.

I think the reason I wished her a nice evening is because I was almost euphoric that nothing horrible happened - Mara held it together in a situation were she literally could not move to safety.  A few paces later I sat down on a rock and caught my breath (I'd been speed walking) and praised the horse.

So I'm torn, I love that trail (I got a bit dizzy on purpose looking down the steep parts!), and I can tell that Mara will someday be able to carry me on it confidently. I mean, maybe by 2020.

Almost home, it started hailing a pleasant, light hail, making the woods come alive with the sound of it hitting the dead leaves.

And now I must show you my yard. You might not know that colorful Christmas lights are extremely rare here, most people use only white and it's very elegant, but lacks the fun of color. I might have gone too colorful this year, but I know my grandparents would be proud.