Dancing Lessons — Pick a Beauty

It remains an informal birthday tradition for my mom to recall to me the story of the day I was born. She reminds me of the walk she finally took in Brooklyn after eight months and one week of bedrest, how this immediately propelled her into labor, and how, several hours later, my father lifted me up by the waist (I was a c-section because the pregnancy was considered high-risk) in awe that I actually made it with ten fingers and ten toes. The doctors’ only concern upon my arrival was that I was a “little short.” This status (stature?) was short-lived and by the time I was in kindergarten I was taller than my (albeit very diminutive) teacher. In order to make sure I was able to carry my height with grace (I hit 6’ by age twelve), my mother enrolled me in dance class. First “creative movement,” where I learned ballet basics and then ballet, from about age seven to about twelve. Looking back, I am not quite sure how I mastered the steps and positions given my lack of spatial and directional awareness, but I am sure that being able to watch the students around me helped a great deal. What does this have to do with riding and training horses? Everything.

One of the things that has been tricky for me to visually capture about this journey with Oliver has been my role in working with him. I take lots of photos of Sean’s work with Oliver and we also video, but when Sean and I are working together or when I am working with Oliver alone, I don’t take as many pictures. Thankfully, Tommy was in town this weekend (and finally got to meet the new family member) and he was able to get some stills and video of our work, which will show in greater detail an added facet of Sean’s role in this process. In addition to working directly with Oliver, a large part of Sean’s work is the pleasure (ha!) of training me. This is not always an easy process I’m sure, and we often revisit basic sequences that Sean performs “without thinking” that I still think through one step at a time, often as I do them. Oliver’s responses, as expected, are equally as clumsy, but he catches on often faster than I do. We make a good team and Sean has the patience of a saint most days.

Enough context.

Oliver had three days off before we worked with him Sunday. Three days which he apparently took as serious vacation time and spent mostly lounging in the sunshine. He is starting to shed in earnest so we spent some quality time grooming before getting started. I also picked his feet for the first time (all four) and with the exception of the left hind, which I lifted at a bad angle, he was a perfect gentleman. He stood as we chatted about the weekend, nibbling at everyone in reach until the humans had a chance to catch up and we were ready to get to work.

We spent a good hour in the round pen together, starting first and pretty much sticking with the basics because it was clear we both needed a refresher. Oliver sometimes needs some support getting his focus before we get to work and when we got started I could barely get him to back up, which, as Sean explains, is really one of the most important moves. As I signaled with his lead, he looked left and right, tracking Dani and Raphael as they rode around in the arena and even with some pretty significant shaking of the rope he stood solid, once or twice looking sidelong with a little annoyance. It’s times like these that I depend on Sean to show me just how much pressure I need to apply to get Oliver’s attention and in this case, it required a few wake up snaps of the lead. Once Sean demonstrated, I was able to take over and things moved a little smoother.

We worked on walk-trot-canter transitions on the lead and also disengagement of the shoulder and changes of direction. This is a perfect example of a sequence of movements I have not yet made fluid, but am still working on. I stop to think and double check my stance, etc.; it is almost as if I were counting out the steps to a dance sequence in my head, rather than performing them as a series of connected motions. These pauses affect Oliver’s momentum, where he is holding the weight of his body and his attention to me. As time went on, we both got better, but additional practice is certainly in order.

We then took Oliver’s halter off so I could free round pen him for a bit, again working on the same things, but this time without the support (and hindrance) of the halter and lead rope. I was eager to see how he moved after his chiropractic appointment Friday. Caitlin (the chiropractor) noted that his rear right stifle was out and this likely impacted how he has been moving at the canter. Without a halter, Oliver let loose some of his clearly pent up energy. Lots of sass. Interestingly, he raised the ante when Sean and Tommy walked to the other side of the arena to look at something outside. Without their audience (or perhaps Sean’s presence) Oliver immediately changed direction and took off, cantering and bucking around the ring. It took me a minute (which is a LONG time in this circumstance) to cut him off and redirect him, but I was able to and once I did he regained his focus. By the end of our session he was much more attuned to me, and he also had a chest lathered in sweat. Sorry, honey, learning to be a domesticated horse is a lot of work!

We finished our time together with a walk down to the other end of the ranch and around the dreaded coyote circle (that I avoided in our last trek alone). Again, with the company of Sean and Tommy, Oliver was much more at ease. No spooking. No bolting. Just a nice spring walk.

I returned Oliver to his pen having cooled him out a little and gave him a few chia mint treats, which he enjoyed once he figured out how to chew them with his baby teeth.

Today (Monday), the focus was back on me and after an extended (Sean sticks with his students until they get it, and some of us take L-O-N-G-E-R than others) lesson for me on Lexi, one of Sean’s other mustangs, I cleaned Oliver up out in the sun and then took him in the arena for some quick solo work. I was on a time crunch, so we only worked together for about 25 minutes, but he responded well to my increased confidence when insisting on his attention--I am getting better at snapping the rope--and from that stronger start he did really well. We worked through all the transitions in both directions, today only with the halter and lead rope on, and there was no nonsense. Young and impressionable he, I noted mentally as we worked, picks up on things pretty quickly, so we have that going for us.