Posts in category: iRide

Let’s focus on legs!

Off we went at a posting trot.  We hadn’t gone far when the dreaded words came from the announcer, “drop your irons” (that’s the stirrups on an English saddle). Ugh! Posting trot with no irons.  Yes, I had done it before and practiced it but I was not good at it.  My competitive spirit drove me on. I gripped the saddle with my legs with all I had in me and attempted to rise as high as my pathetic legs would take me,  This particular exercise usually didn’t last long in a class like this so when I finished one lap around the large rodeo style arena I was sure we were nearly done.

The announcer came over the loud speaker, “Extend the trot”. Oh please no! Keeping JR at an acceptable English trot was proving difficult already and now I had to extend?  I glanced across the arena and noticed a girl on a little white Arabian.  She and her horse were usually one of my close competitors. She was gracefully rising and falling in the saddle as if she had never left her stirrups and her little mare stretched out and extended beautifully at her rider’s cue.  Oh help me! My effort to extend my devoted western horse’s trot felt, to me, pathetic. After a second time around the arena the announcer called for us to return to a regular trot, but still we continued iron-less.  My legs were burning; screaming at me.

Shall I remind you that I am not athletic? I counted our third lap around the arena.  Its funny how just when your pride has swelled in you so that your hat is getting a little tight on your expanding head, something comes along to remind your pride that your hat size doesn’t need to grow.  Four times around the arena. I didn’t recall having signed up for a stirrup-less endurance class.  At four and a half times around that huge arena the announcer finally said the words I was desperate to hear; “walk your horses”.  Sweet walk. Wonderful walk. Glorious walk! We lined up again in the middle of the arena.

Image 1- Too relaxed. No leg and seat contact.

Image 2- Correct leg position with foot in the stirrup.

6. Don’t scrunch your legs up as this will cause you to pinch your horse’s sides causing you to miscommunication to your horse that you want more forward motion.  Scrunching your legs up may also cause your heals to come up and your upper body to be thrown forward out of balance (images 3 and 4).

Image -3 Too much bend in the knee. Heal is coming up and pinching horse’s side.

Image 4- Way too much bend in the knee. Heals are up and pinching. This is survival mode.

7.  The purpose of this exercise is to develop balance. Stretch your legs down and around your horse’s barrel and balance with your seat not your hands or knees (image 5).  Engage those core muscles.

Image 5- Stretch your legs down and around your horse’s barrel.

8.  Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.  Ride correctly. Don’t ride in survival mode and expect your seat and balance to improve.

If this winter arena exercise sounds just a little too scary and you would like to keep those stirrups thank you very much, start slow at a walk or jog. If this sounds super easy and somewhat pointless, I am guessing you were somewhere closer to the front of that athleticism line than I was.  For those of you like me, just think of the great leg muscles we will be building!

This blog is written and maintained by Danielle Otis, one of the wranglers (one job title among many) at Western Pleasure Guest Ranch.  It is a collection of tales and stories related to the ranch that come straight “from the horse’s mouth”.

The oh so fluffy horse that is featured in the pictures above is Little Horse, my POA mare. I don’t really have long legs, just a small horse.

Zeus my 2012 POA/Appaloosa

As we reach the midway point of December, our North Idaho countryside is usually covered in a blanket of snow, but this year it’s not.  November put out a great effort with nearly 6 inches of snow here at the ranch. However, since then it has warmed up and we have no more snow. Don’t get me wrong, it is still beautiful here and wagon rides and Christmas parties have continued at the ranch.

To get away from the weather coverage and get to my point, its been a while since I have ridden my horses.  I can tell this is going to be a long winter as I already have horse withdrawals. You may ask, “Why don’t you just ride in the indoor arena?”  A 70′ by 100′ arena gets pretty small when you start adding things like two of our smaller sleighs and one large motor home. (Insert sad face here) The weather, however, has warmed (48 degrees today) and the footing outside has un-frozen so I can get out on the trails again. Woohoo!

Smokey a four year old I put 17 days on before winter arrived and ended my fun.

While I have been sitting inside, listening to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, finding every scrap of info I can on Cowboy Dressage and Western Dressage, and reading dozens of articles on Horse Collaborative, I have been dreaming about riding my project horses Zeus and Smokey.  In the midst of my daydreams, I have compiled several horseback arena exercises.  Most of these are adapted from Pat Wyse’s Basic Handle.

Here are a couple exercises you can do in the often small spaces we have available for riding in the winter time. Whether that space is an indoor arena or an open patch of un-frozen ground, you can continue to make progress in your horse’s training through the cold winter months.

Exercise One: Corner Circles
This exercise can be done at any gait but be sure to introduce it at a walk first, especially if your horse doesn’t know that your leg means anything but go. For a green horse this is a great way to introduce guiding leg pressure in a low stress environment. For a horse farther along in training, this is a great warm up or cool down exercise to get them listening to your legs. You can also use this exercise for introducing the turn on the haunches as it keeps the forward motion needed to perform a haunch turn without falling backward in the spin causing a belly-button turn.

Start at A and ride deep into the corner.

B: Begin a right hand, 5-10 meter circle. Bring your horse’s nose around enough that you can see the corner of his eye. Use your inside leg just behind the girth to ask your horse to move out and away from your leg.  Pay close attention to the timing of your leg ques. When your horse steps away from your leg immediately release the leg pressure. Ask again with your inside leg. If this is your horse’s first introduction to moving off your leg, all your asking for is a little step then release, little step then release.  If your horse moves off your leg nicely you can ask for a more dramatic crossing over step away from your leg.  Remember to ask soft first and increase the pressure until the horse responds, then release. Always start soft and increase pressure as needed. Ride strait down the long side of the arena toward the next corner.

C: Ride deep into the corner again.  Begin a right hand circle. This time, use your outside leg forward, at about your cinch, to ask your horse to step their front end around.  Again, start soft and increase the leg pressure until your horse steps away then release. Ask again. Start soft and release when your horse steps over.  Remember, you can ask for a more drastic step over on the haunches from a more experienced horse. Only ask for a little step from a horse that you are just introducing the leg to. Ride down the short end of the arena toward the next corner.

D: Ride deep into the corner. Begin a right hand circle and complete as in at letter B.

E. As you ride out of the circle at D ride across the diagonal and reverse directions.  Complete this exercise tracking left following directions as above only apposite.

Exercise Two: Straight Lines
We use this exercise on colts that are in their first few days of riding and our most solid saddle horses. For that horse that constantly tries to cut the corners and dive to the middle this is great to get them listening to your aids as well.  Introduce this exercise at a walk but be sure to increase the speed as training progresses. Riding this exercise while rating your horse (speeding up and slowing down) is a great way to create focus in the arena.

B: Create an octagon as you ride around the arena or field.  Focus on a point in front of you and ride a straight line to the point, guiding with your leg and reins. Ride as close to that point as you can (without running into it) then release the guiding pressure turn and readjust to a new point and begin guiding again.  Use your hand and legs in coordination to guide your horse in straight lines.  Your legs are there for a reason. Use them!

A: The same principals apply as you make a pentagon shape with your horse.  This does add a degree of difficulty as your angles will be sharper.  The lines will also be longer so you will have more time to focus on the straight line and really perfect it.

I hope these winter arena exercises add a little variety to your riding and training this winter. Stay tuned for more winter training tips.

If you would like more information about visiting or riding at the Western Pleasure Guest Ranch visit www.westernpleasureranch.com or call toll free at (888)863-9066.

For more info about my horseback mentor, Pat Wyse, visit his web site at www.horsewyse.com.

I would love to hear what you do with your horse in the winter. If you would like to share some training exercises to be featured on this blog e-mail them to [email protected]

Amos and Andy were the best team of Percheron draft horses a person could ever hope to have. Amos was the motivated half of the team and Andy would rather just eat hay. They knew their job and they did it well. They taught all of us here at Western Pleasure Guest Ranch how to drive a team.

We lost Amos a few years ago at the ripe old age of 28. Andy is enjoying retirement and is currently the oldest horse on the ranch at 30 years young.

Andy misses Amos, his life long working partner, but has adjusted to life without Amos. In the winter, Andy has a private stall and run with a special diet of equine senior and hay pellets. In the summer, he has a part time job  babysitting the youngsters in one of our green pastures.

Andy loves any special attention he can get, especially if it involves a treat. So when you stop by the ranch be sure to find Andy and give him a scratch and a treat. Just make sure it’s a soft treat, he’s an old man and doesn’t have many teeth left.

Emily giving Andy a little love.

Andy- 30 years old and on a diet of grain and hay pellets and looking pretty good.

Andy enjoying some down time in his winter pen.

A memorial to Amos and Andy in the hallway at the Western Pleasure Guest Ranch lodge.

Winter is slowly loosening its icy grip on us here at Western Pleasure Guest Ranch and I am suffering from some serious cabin fever symptoms.  So today, I left the kids with mom for a couple hours so I could go outside for some winter horse therapy.

JR = Practically Perfect in Every Way

Of the many horses here on the ranch, three of them are my very own.  I have JR, my 21 year old Quarter Horse who is practically perfect in every way and has been my partner, teacher, student and friend for 17 years.  Little Horse is a 15ish year old POA mare and Zeus is her yearling POA/Appaloosa colt.

Little Horse = Nervous Nelly

I headed to the barn and caught Little Horse and JR to groom away some of that winter hair.  Little Horse is always a bit of a nervous Nelly when she’s tied in the barn, so she danced around while JR stood quietly enjoying the brushing and scratches I was giving him.  While some may consider getting covered in pounds of white horse
hair a pain, I consider the time spent in the barn brushing away those winter coats to be very therapeutic.

JR Thinks spring is coming!

Little Horse doesn’t think spring is coming very soon.

After JR and Little Horse were brushed out, I turned them back out and got a little show from them and their young pen-mates. Even my gimpy old man got in on the fun.

Then I went and visited Zeus at the little horse barn.  A winter of very little attention from me has caused him to be a bit jumpy and stand-offish. He is coming around however as he has discovered that I can scratch and rub away that winter hair in places that he just can’t reach to scratch.

It was very refreshing spending an hour with my fuzzy ponies.  There is a quote by Winston Churchill which I think is very true: There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.  ~Winston Churchill