Marti and Toby's 2022 Florida Adventure

Tomorrow is my last day at Happy Horse Haven with personalized instruction from Linda. It has been quite an extraordinary learning adventure. I feel so lucky to, 1st, be accepted as a long-term (month) student by Linda, and 2nd, to be healthy enough to thrive during the month of intensive riding and daily care of Toby. I feel I am riding stronger than when I came, and with more agility and balance. Toby has also benefitted from a month of daily riding and attention, and he is also stronger, more agile and balanced.  While we arrived with a good connection to one another, the relationship has deepened. One thing I learned over 70 years of horses in my life is that building the relationship both off and on the horse is a never-ending process. Sort of the same with all relationships really, including human-to-human.  Linda is a brilliant teacher … knows how to diagnose the horse and/or rider problems/barriers; how to get me to improve incrementally and when to push me a bit out o...

Views on the drive to Linda"s this morning. Linda upped the bar on me today. Some things to be aware of and to improve, if I want to dance with my horse. Checklist of my body position's worst offenders ... Hand position - thumbs up and close fingers. Video shows that I ride with knuckles up and fingers flat ... makes contact not a comfortable feel for horse. Elbows bent and relaxed at side. They should move back/forth for speed control and turns,  and body move back/forth between elbows. Have a softer hold on the reins when doing transitions ... up and down. If I soften, Toby will soften. Keep reins equal length and don't fiddle with them so much. Be quiet and hold steady. Otherwise, Toby can't figure out what I am asking for. Remember to point “head lights on knuckles” in direction you want Toby's head to go and use pinkie turns.  I am really lopsided to the right.(So obvious when I see video.) Spent a lot of time adjusting and raising my awareness of when I am of...

   April 26-28 Fabulous set of lessons with Linda. I warmed up practicing what I had learned from Luis. We worked on improving the quality of the canter through transitions from trot to canter (only 3 strides) to trot and repeat. When transitioning from canter to trot, I need to get Toby into a controlled trot quickly … no run away strides.  Then, once there, reward with softness. Work in progress but improved canter today.  To be continued. Leg yield was good today. Just need to remember to use elbows for correcting straightness … no leg and no hands shifting around. Also, even though parallel to the rail, fix eye on point on rail where you are headed.   Also, spent some time continuing to work on my position. I have a tendency to lower my inside shoulder when bending to the right, and this results in squishing my rib cage, rather than be tall and balanced in saddle. Working on it. To continue to get the feeling of draping my legs around Toby, practic...

  Nothing to do with horses …   I am not a big fan of bugs. I know they have a role in the ecosystem, so I acknowledge their importance in the big scheme of things. But, still, that doesn’t mean I have to like them. My least favorite are ticks, even if they don’t fly.  Stink bugs do fly and nonchalantly buzz you, and they are indeed, stinky, if  you squash them. The Asian lady bug is also on my yucky bug list, as they cluster together in inappropriate places, such as air ducts, and smell horrid when they are roasted by the furnace heat on the first cold day of Fall.   Florida has provided a new inductee into my yucky bug club. The Binomial name is Piecia nearctica, and they are a member of the fly family. They are called by several names, all of which are cover-up names for what they really are … f@c%ing bugs. And, I mean this literally. That is, during and after mating, matured pairs remain embraced, even in flight for several days.  They are cal...

  A most interesting field trip last night. Near Ocala, there is an Endangered Animal Rescue Sanctuary (EARS)  https://earsinc.net . It was founded in 2001 as a  not-for-profit organization “that exists specifically to provide excellent living conditions for previously malnourished, abused and even abandoned big cats and other domestic and exotic animals.” Sue Nassivera , who is the Director of the Sanctuary, and her husband, David, are friends of Claudia and Bill Parkhurst (my hosts this month at their Forever Spring farm.) While I would have loved to have a tour of EARS, the weekly tours are on Saturday mornings, when I am training at Linda’s. However, Sue and David have a Siberian tiger named Maximus, who was born at EARS, and they raised him as a cub, and Max happens to live with them at their house.     Claudia and Bill invited me to join them for an evening visit at Sue and David’s house, which is when they have relaxing time with Max. Yes, in a wire ...

I have been very delinquent the past week with updates, due to being busy, busy, busy. Did I mention I’ve been busy? Luis Lucio came to Linda’s for 5 days of teaching, plus delivering 2 lectures with Linda. I have been fortunate to take 2 lessons from him, as well as audit the other lessons and attend the lectures. As an added bonus, Linda cooked delicious meals for us before the lectures. My mind is a buzz, and it is not from too much wine.   Luis Lucio has an extraordinary knowledge of dressage due to his riding and training experience, but what sets him apart is his training system, which integrates Horse Psychology into the training of Dressage movements.  He is a skilled teacher of all level of riders … from Olympians, FEI stars, and even folks like little ole me.   When Luis is looking at a rider, he is looking at three components … Horse/Rider  Relationship , Horse/Rider  Technical Model , and  Decisions made by the Rider. The importance of the ...

April 18   Today was a day off for both Toby and me. After giving Toby breakfast and cleaning out his paddock, I drove to Homosassa Springs, which is about an hour SW of where I am located, to meet my college buddy, Mary Estes., who drove up from Tampa. She arranged for us to take a 3 hour boat trip on the river, where we went to the springs area and took a swim, ate some lunch (compliments of Mary) and toured around. The boat captain, Anna, was knowledgeable of the area and lots of fun. Mary and I were the only passengers, so we had our own private tour.  Manatees are scarce this time of year, but we got a glance at a couple, plus some turtles, a Blue Heron and Pelicans.      Then, back to feed Toby, give him some grooming and grazing before tucking him in and heading back to my room. Twas a fun day. 

 April 16 I love Liberty because it is the true test of the connection you have with your horse. No rope or halter, so your horse is either with you or not or somewhere in between. While Toby is fairly advanced in Liberty, I needed some help on improving my clarity of requests. I wanted him to make a small circle around me, as opposed to circling around the rail of the round pen. He wanted to please, but could not figure out what I wanted. Linda got in the round pen with me to help me understand how to communicate this to him.  Then, we got the ultimate treat of watching Linda play at Liberty with Jazz and Highland. Linda has such finesse with her body language. She barely moves to "dance" with her horses. They are so connected, and she is so clear with her request. Jazz is elegant and powerful. Highland is so exuberant and fun to watch.  A real treat today. The afternoon was special because my host/hostess, Bill and Claudia, had a pre-Easter dinner, with their "Villager...

Another big day of learning. Linda had us working on a pattern to help with straightness and maintaining an even tempo. We used a metronome and posted to the beat that matched our horse’s trotting gait. Toby was 143 BPM (beats per minute.) We trotted along the long side of arena, but not along the rail. Focused on a spot at end of arena that is 4-5 feet off the rail and rode the line straight. Sitting trot around corners and then back to rising trot. Not as easy as it sounds. Reminder to self … keep elbows back and down, so there is a nice contact with Toby’s mouth without momentary slack in rein and keep it slow. Legs long, sit tall and don’t squish down in saddle when posting.   Afternoon was a continuation of blue tarp crossing. Toby was much improved. I moved the tarp to 6 different locations to build his confidence. He did so well, that we ended on loading onto a couple of trailers, which he finds easy.

Rainy morning, so we had a Theory Day, while Toby dried off in a stall with hay to munch. The theme was “bits.”   There are two types of bits … those used for direct contact or indirect contact.   A direct contact bit (e.g., a snaffle) is used for lateral flexion and power (which comes from horse taking the bit. Also allows for horse to become round in back and flex.) Considered “direct” because w hen you apply pressure to the reins of a snaffle bit, the horse feels the same amount of pressure in their mouth.     An indirect contact bit (e.g., curb bit in Western and in English double bridle) is designed to be used when you want to gain more vertical flexion, straightness and elevation. . Single curb bits are designed to be used for riding with one hand, not two hands, as they are not designed for lateral flexion movements. The curb bit is considered “indirect” because  it is a leverage bit , meaning that it multiplies the pressure applied by the rider. Unlike a...

Continuing to work on my position and doing bending exercises. I am getting more upright and finding it easier to keep legs draped and feet pointing straight ahead. Still a work in progress, though.    Linda introduced “leg yield made easy” where you don’t even need to use your legs! Swivel the headlights on your knuckles, while keeping wrists straight, in direction you want to go. Feeling is sort of like sliding the whole horse over. Horse needs to stay straight (parallel to rail) as does the rider.    Did some canter departs, which Toby does quite well. For some reason, I have no problem keeping my upper body upright when cantering. Linda will tweak a few things later this week or next to get it more refined.   In the afternoon, Tony Vaught, who is Linda’s farrier, and gave a talk at the HHHL Conference on April 2nd, came to Happy Horse Haven. He was nice enough to take time to look at Toby and give him a trim. I learned a lot from watching and asking question...

Mondays are a free day. No formal lessons. I decided not to ride, and give both of us time for our minds to do some digesting. After I did my morning chores of feeding, grooming and paddock cleanup, we did do another tarp session. Okay, but still initial skepticism. I read him better. He touched the tarp with his nose in both directions and actually crossed over it in both directions. Still, I would say still more obedience than  confidence.  I had a wonderful afternoon of being a tourist. My B&B hostess, Claudia, took me to the new World Equestrian Center (WEC) near Ocala. It is incredible … it is the “largest equestrian complex in the US situated on nearly 378 acres of multiple arenas (indoor and out), climate-controlled indoor stalls, a fancy hotel with excellent animal-themed art works, multiple restaurants, spas, gardens, retail stores, and even a chapel. The master mind and owner of WEC is Larry and Mary Roberts. To learn more about it, check out the website,   ...

  Sunday, April 10 Because Courtney was conducting a Clinic today, I had a private lesson with Linda in the morning. I wanted to tackle the “dreaded blue tarp” and work on Liberty with focus on improving my clarity of requests and becoming more subtle and graceful in my asks. I  have been working on crossing crinkly plastic tarps for 14 years, and he is always skeptical at first, but eventually will go over it. I knew that something was askew for him to always be nervous about it. So, asked Linda to help me figure it out. Linda coached me on how to approach/retreat, and the subtleties of reading when he is worried versus trying/thinking versus tuned out. Also, when to draw him toward me and send (a sort of mini “twirl and swirl”) and when to do nothing, so he can process and usually lick ‘n chew or sigh. Linda noted from his behavior that when Toby does go over the tarp, it is more about his being obedient than being confident. He knows what I am asking, but lacks full confide...