Lesson #47: Nifty Knows Best

Aug 16, 2013

It was just me again. I was looking forward to getting out of the city and as usual, had a nice relaxing drive out that way. I still get anxious when I think about the new outlet mall out that way. So far, things have been good. I hope the upcoming long weekend is the same good luck!

Today I ride Nifty; he's a sturdy and sensitive Quarter Horse. I think that he's probably misunderstood by riders who don't know him better because of his sensitivity and then think he can be a little much to work with because of his sensitive and overly obsessive attention to details. I read that sentence again and realize that I might have just described my own character traits. HAHAHA no wonder work has been going the way it has! ADW would tell me I'm sensitive (on the boarderline of being overly-sensitive) and obssessive about details. Sounds like me and Nifty will be just fine... in time. Afterall, I'm not sure I'd be friends with me if I wasn't me!

We've been told that because Nifty is a chestnut with pink skin, he tends to be more sensitive overall. His skin is thinner than most horses and he actually can get sunburned! Gillian puts sunscreen on his nose when they're out in the sun. He also is not a fan of being groomed since his skin is thinner than most horses and so it must feel like an unwanted and uncomfortable scratch/rub-down. He's also very sensitive in the mouth--he hates when riders yank on his face and prefers leg aids! The best thing about Nifty is his responsiveness to leg aids. The others are not as responsive to leg aids and sometimes I'm really going to town with my leg to get them to move.

Anyways... :) my first impression of him today is that he's not too cranky pants and might actually be cooperative. We get started out in the ring with Kristy as Sheri's got a personal commitment over the weekend. That said though, we warmed-up as usual and got into things just as we would. I've had a rather stressful week and been experiencing some anxiety with work and other things so my head wasn't exactly in the right space. But, I didn't recognize this until I started riding Nifty. I had some difficulty getting him moving in a forward thought at the start... when we did get moving, he just sort of clopped along. The posting trot was fine with him but the seated trot was (as usual) not particularly enjoyable. Of all the horses I've ridden at Greyden, Nifty is the one that I am the most hesitant to ride when we increase the gaits. I've gotten used to some of the others who are a bit more challenging but Nifty remains the source of canter-related anxiety. The first time I rode his canter was during the Mother's Day Ride.

Now we move towards the canter *gulp*. I feel myself tense up (and so did he!) so trying to get him going was like trying to do something without your heart in it. Everything was fine up until this point; I was confused and frustrated because he was responsive to pretty much everything else. At the time, I was growing more frustrated with the unresponsiveness to notice much else but in hindsight, I recognize he was just responding in-kind to my own anxiety and since I'm not quite "alpha horse" in his eyes, he was doing what he thought was best for me (and himself). At this point, I was told to correct him when he was doing his funny bend against the way he was to be bent. I spent possibly a quarter lesson correcting him.

I did get one canter around but that was about it. It was by no means graceful or happy. The silver lining in this stormy grey Dark Kloud (as an old friend affectionately referred to me as; coinciding with my initials of DK) was that we managed to get through a line of X-jump and a low straight jump through a trot turned canter (a la Nifty). I was also able to turn him around nicely before calling it a night. Not too shabby considering my less than stellar headspace. Thanks Nifty!

Lesson #35: Switch Up

I took Friday of as a personal day to run a bunch of errands; and let me tell you: I am amazing. I literally packed more to do in a single day than I could potentially be productive at work with. ADW and I started the day even earlier than usual and dropped Bucky off for his snip snip procedure. The rest of the day was spent running from place to place to check out venues for the pending nuptials. Trust me, venue hunting is not fun.

Anyways, this meant we had flexibility throughout the day, leading up to our lesson in the evening. Bucky was picked up in the mid afternoon and we stayed with him until he settled in at home and seemed okay. Then, we headed out at the time I would, if I was going from my place and the traffic was really really good.

We arrived and I started the lesson riding Indy but ended up with Nifty by the end of the evening. Good ol' Aspen was having some fits of his summer asthma so had the weekend off--the horse with hay fever! hahaha. We were working on the usual transitions and some jumping of the Cavaletti. While Indy was his usual mischievous self, Nifty was being really unruly. He refused to move forward and even almost backed into Indy at one point! We weren't sure what was going on at first and Sheri was saying that it might be some of his tack because even though Nifty is known to have a bit of an attitude, he's never unruly without reason.

ADW and I switched it up and I took Nifty and things got a teeny bit better and he wasn't refusing to move forward anymore. But, he wasn't really listening to my aids and was shaking his head and chomping on the bit a lot. Sheri decided to remove the martingale and the half pad to see if that got a bit better--a little bit. But, he was still getting into canter and speeding around without me asking him to.

One of the parents mentioned that he was chomping at the bit more than usual and so Sheri checked his mouth to see if there was something bothering him in there. It appears that there might have been some sharpness in his mouth and because of the way horses' teeth wear, they can leave hooks or sharp edges that rub into their mouths. Unfortunately for me, Nifty's super sensitive to a lot and doesn't even like being brushed so, it isn't surprising that if it is his teeth that's bothering him, he's going to be cranky about it.

I tried a few times to get into a good trot around the outside ring but it seems like he just would break out into a canter and deek about. With my lack of experience with Nifty and riding in general, I found it very difficult to stay seated properly and the constant pulling didn't help. In addition, Nifty has a super rocky canter which I have yet to master to ride without feeling like I'm launching out of the saddle. Since he wasn't being an unruly douche for the fun of it, I figured it'd be best to take it easy. We just walked a few times around the ring and called it a night.

Overall, the lesson was very frustrating for me (and I'm sure Nifty was not happier) and one of the more disappointing ones. I was frustrated with not being able to canter around and do the jumps because on Aspen, everything just comes together. However, in order to master the ability to ride any mount, I"ll need to do just that; and get on any horse and ride through whatever it is that isn't working.

Riding Out in Caledon with My Mom

I'd like to start this post off by wishing all those awesome moms out there, a great Mother's Day! As much as mine often drives me to drink, I (suppose) wouldn't have it any other way. Today, I took my mom (aka Captain Obvious, sometimes) north and west to the Caledon area. We started out the early day by heading out to Greyden Farms for their Mother's Day Ride. Students ride a regular lesson and mom's ride for free.

Unsurprisingly, the weather was as unpredictable and unpleasant as a mother's wrath! Believe me, I know first-hand. Hail, snow, rain, wind... It was as if spring decided to head back south. After warming up at the nearby Tim Hortons (along with pretty much everyone else), we headed to Greyden to tack-up and get suited up for the ride. I rode Nifty today and my mom was on Nikki.

We rode indoors with another mom and daughter. The young girl (like 12??) has been riding for 3-4 years and was riding cantering circles around the rest of us like it was nothing at all! And I get the rockiest canter ever. Everytime Nifty took a stride, I felt like I was going to be launched out of the saddle! Not as I was expecting but certainly a good step forward seeing as I didn't fall off and was able to control him enough to transition up and down--though let's not get ahead of ourselves and say I was doing so gracefully.

Nifty and me

Captain Obvious was riding at a slower pace with Nikki who seemed very content to just hang out and take her time. Good thing too! Because it was the first time the good Captain had been on a horse. Despite this lack of exposure, she did pretty well for herself and remained seated firmly on Nikki for the hour lesson.

Having a great time!

After lesson, we headed to Spirit Tree Estate Cidery for lunch. They're known for their wood burning oven pizza and we were really excited to have some but they opted for a special Mother's Day menu instead. But, they did feature some of their wonderful hard (and non) cider in cocktails for moms. My mom tried their orangey mimosa alongside her salmon quiche. AAAnd! We had an amazing fiddlehead puree soup! DELISH! Totally in-season, local and wonderful for you.

We rounded up our day by visiting the Cheltenham Badlands to see what all the fuss is about. Every time I've visited this site, I've always gotten this idea that aliens came by and had a party there but it's entirely man-made (by accident) due to poor farming practices.

Captain Obvious told me that she had never known that so much interesting sites and places were within an hour of the city. There's one place that I wish we had the time to go and see and that's Andrews Scenic Acres--another time! This is a great agri-business that brings families closer to the agriculture sector by making it fun.

It's always nice to get out of the city and explore the country--there's a lot to see and do! Driving out this way is incredibly satisfying because there are so many curves in the road and lots of wonderful scenery. Whatever you did with your mom, I hope it was as enjoyable as our day!

Happy Mother's Day!!