Louisiana heat….it ain’t no treat!

It’s almost been a full week since we arrived in Hammond, and I have some very choice words for this state, but since this is a family friendly blog, I will refrain from telling you my true feeling about our current location. Friday was full of Louisiana adventures, as we rolled into site and had to clear 6 months of brush from the horse’s pens, as well as get water set up and start making camp. I was besieged by fire ants twice, swarmed by hornets, came face to face with a few giant banana and orb weaver spiders, and almost grabbed a water moccasin. The local wildlife has not improved at all, and the cherry on top is the lovely temperatures in the high 80’s with 90% humidity. Someone save me please…

Right off the trailer with my gals Christine and Daisy. Notice the cheery excitement… this was before I met the terrors of Louisiana!

We basically spent the first few days just getting some much needed R&R for us and horses, after 13 straight weekends of shows and 3 days on the road, we all needed it. Saturday was the first weekend we’d had off in months, and we spent it sleeping in, then enjoying a 3 hour breakfast with each other, and spending the rest of the day watching the spiders catch prey and playing cards. It was so nice, so so so very nice! As of Sunday, the whole team was officially present and settled in, and I must admit, I do like the setup of joust camp here and the fact that everyone and the horses are so close to each other.

Tuesday was the first day we got back to riding, and I am eager to spend the next month working on my technique and really honing my skills in the saddle. I know what my flaws are, and I’m in a sticky transition period of ditching my old ways of riding and learning the methods Kelly and Dave teach. Yesterday I rode Christine, and actually had a decent ride on her. Christine is one of the “old guard” horses, one of the few that have been doing this for so long, they know their job better than you do. But just because they know their job, doesn’t mean they’re going to do it the way you need them to. Christine’s biggest problem is she is very forward and pushy, and can be extremely stubborn and frustrating to ride.

Working with Christine, I really have to focus on keeping my hands from just hanging on her face, and instead, give my contact meaning. I’m also working on riding more with my seat and legs, and trusting the horse without always resorting to grabbing at their face. This is my biggest barrier, because when I panic, I want to snatch up the reins and pull them to a stop. So when Dave just tells me to sit into a stop, there’s always this instant panic of, “OH MY GOD! THIS ISN’T GOING TO WORK! MY HORSE WON’T STOP!” I have to push that away and just trust Dave and Christine, and lo and behold, when I sit deep, she stops.

Today I got to work with Marcus and Christine, and I do enjoy riding Marcus; he’s such a sweet old man! But just like Christine, he’s one of the “old guard” horses, and his biggest issues are keeping him in frame and having him nicely come off the line and not surging forward. I was very happy with how my rides went today, and even though they weren’t perfect, I’m starting to better understand how I need to work with theses horses and what I need to do to accomplish that. The exercises Dave’s had me incorporating into my rides help me to trust my horse more, work off a lighter hand, and ride more with my hips and seat. One of the exercises I’ve had success with is working in a circle and slowing brining your horse down into a pivot; all while trying to use minimal rein aids and working off your seat and legs. Dave also spent some time with me and Christine teaching me to frame her up and slow her down into a collected trot by simply firming my hands, rounding her with my legs, and relaxing my seat. One of the things Dave told me today that really stuck was to ride Christine with my fingertips. It really made me conscientious of my hands and how I was having contact with her.

Love the setup here. Marcus is right by my tent, so I get to hear his farts all the time!

It’s a different change of pace to go out to ride and spend most of my time just working on technique at a walk or a trot. Coming from a hunter jumper background where there was a lot of speed and jumps, it’s definitely different to spend so much time on the little things. I love it though, and I’m slowly starting to appreciate more and more the amazing training behind these horses. They are so finely tuned and so precise, and to watch Dave or Kelly ride them to their full potential, it really is a thing of beauty. Even though it may be extremely frustrating at times to spend so much effort and time on such little things, I can’t wait till it all clicks for me. All I can do is chip away a little bit every day, because as anyone who rides horses knows, there’s always something new to learn and strive towards.

Seeing as the Louisiana Renaissance Festival doesn’t start until the first weekend of November, I will mostly be focusing my posts on the riding technique and my time here in Hammond. If there’s anything specific you all would like a post about, please don’t hesitate to request it! I would love to do something that you, my readers, would like to know more about.

Anyways, it’s stupidly hot here today, and I unfortunately must venture out of the nicely air conditioned coffee house to head back to site to take care of the horses. Alas! Stay cool my friends, as I will not be. Much Love!