The storm that crippled the North East wiped out any chance of me making it to the Bangor Sportsman's show to support the Dog club.  Suddenly, my day became "free."  Amanda suggested we head over to Cedar Hill Farm to give Jen a hand.  Jay is away on business leaving Jen to take care of everything.  That's not too big an ordeal, except whoops! we had a snow storm.  Jen spent the morning plowing out; learning on the job.

The regular blog readers know that my relationship with Nick dates back almost a year.  He's a large Swedish Warm-blood.  Amanda and I have similar taste in performance animals.  We find the gifted and talented ones, those with the potential to be great, often have high spirit and an independent streak.  I have Dove.  Amanda has Nick.

My first experience with nick was a casual meeting in his paddock with a pound of carrots.  No riding, just stopped in to say hello.  Cedar Hill Farm seemed like an hour's drive each way and I couldn't believe how far out of the way it was.  Now it's the next town over.

After that, I watched Amanda train and ride on an irregular basis.  She was getting ready to ride First Level 1, 2 and 4 at a horse show in July.  It was a big come-back for both.  Two knee surgeries knocked Amanda out of the show ring, then a neurectomy (intentionally cutting a nerve) in Nick's lower leg put him on a long recovery.  Amazing that he can walk, more amazing that he's headed for upper level competition now.

At the horse show, I learned to perform groom duties, keeping Amanda and Nick clean, hydrated, and putting the peppermint candies to both of them.  I had a good time doing it, and became gradually more confident and comfortable around Nick.


Amanda and Nicky at the horse show.  Photo by me.  Aren't her boots shiny and gloves white?

I've learned over the past few months how to "tack him up" or get him ready for riding.  The only parts I have trouble with are the double bridal and the leg wraps.  They have to be just so tension wise and I'd probably strangle is feet.

We've been talking about getting me some riding lessons.  Jen suggested I start with one of her "halo wearing" lesson horses, which I was very keen on.  That whole high-spirit thing about Nick had me nervous.  However, since July, Amanda and Jen have been preparing for 3rd level.  They've packed maybe 100 pounds of muscle on his frame, which allows him to do the fancier Dressage maneuvers.  The extra work seems to be good for Nick's temperament.  My regular dealings with Nick made me more comfortable with him.

"Honey, I think it's time you rode Nick," Amanda announced.

So we grabbed my shiny new riding helmet, I donned my Gore-Tex hunting gear, put the truck into 4L and busted through the snow banks left by the plows.  By 9:00 the roads were slick, but fairly clear.  The first order of business upon arrival was to get a shovel and clear the entry door to the barn.

We tacked up Nick (actually Amanda did, my A.D.D. was in high gear and by the time I remembered to lend a hand, she was on the leg wraps).   Nick licked my hand.  Amanda told me pretty early that he might do that to me.  It's an odd behavior, but I recalled she said he did it to folks he likes.  This was my first hand lick.  Good sign.

Amanda put in a training ride and Nicky was not too cantankerous.  I did get to whack him in the butt a couple of times during the ride.  After about 45 minutes, she ordered me to "get your helmet." We headed over to the mounting block for my first ride in about 18 years.

The first thing you'll notice about an English saddle is there's a whole lot less of it than the western tack I used at summer camp.  It' gives better "contact" with the horse, but parking my butt on it without slipping off the other side seemed pretty unlikely from my vantage point.  Before I had a chance to think too much, Nick and I were riding down the long side of the indoor arena.  I don't know if it was being indoors, or if Nick actually covers more ground than any horse I've ridden int the past, but it seemed an uncomfortably fast pace.

A few times around the arena and I started feeling pretty good in the saddle.  Then came trying to steer him.  Dressage horses are trained to move in all kinds of crazy directions.  While appearing to be still in the saddle, the rider can "tell" the horse how to move it's front feet, rear feet, in what direction, which direction to put it's body, and at what pace.  Most trail horses you have (and need) no more control than your car; a couple forward gears, one reverse, left, right and stop.

I spent about a half hour accidentally making him do something (like go left) and then trying to figure out how to do that on purpose.  At one point he just stopped.  "Amanda, why is he stopped?"

"Because you are telling him to stop."

"No, I'm squeezing with my legs, he should go."

"OK, he's confused because you are telling him to stop with your pelvis."

"I'm doing WHAT? With my WHAT?"

"Roll your pelvis back, dear, and he will go."

"Huh?  OK, in aqua-aerobics I'm not supposed to loose my pelvis, now I'm supposed to roll it back?  I'm not sure any of this is even legal in this state."

"OK, dear, loosen the pressure with your knees and sit back on your butt more."

"Don't I squeeze with my knees to get him to go?  You said squeeze my legs."

"No he doesn't listen to you knees, he listens to your ankles."

"(Thinking:  How can he hear ankles?)  OK, Like this?"

Amanda replied "Yes" as he lurched forward.

Jen finished plowing and joined Amanda in the arena.  Apparently I have pretty good form.  I can't say because I don't know what good form looks like, but I did see myself in the mirrors and I feel good hips gyrating with the horse while my upper torso remains "still."  Apparently I have good "contact" with Nick, and I was suppose to "feel it" when I had good contact.  Mostly I felt like I was firmly in the saddle.

Jen suggested I move up to the trot.  I wouldn't have done it without such a suggestion.  Jen asked if she told me to jump off a bridge would I do it?  "If you were a professional bridge jumping instructor, I would."

Amanda had to ask Nick for the trot from the ground as I couldn't seem to find that gear with my butt, ankles and whatever else I was supposed to be doing.  I found it uncomfortable and a little frightening, but never panicked.  I got him to stop, and tried again.

I need to learn to "post" or move with the horse at this pace.  Right now, it's like a spanking machine, each stride just striking my butt, which is out of the saddle about 90% of the time.  No seat on the saddle, no power steering.

I tried some of the Dressage stuff I know about like 10 and 20 meter circles.  OK, it's boring to watch, but it's really hard to do.  My 10 meter circle was more like a 3 meter circle, and my 20 meter circle was more like a kidney bean shape and heaven only knows how wide it was.  For the most part, I was able to get him going in the general direction I wanted to go, and get him to do things that I KNEW I was making him do (like doing a right hand 270 degree turn in the corners of the arena instead of the instinctive left).  I accidentally got him to do some of the crossing leg diagonal movements.  I only knew what his feet were doing because of the mirrors. 

After riding, we helped Jen get the barn squared away.  Amanda and Jen mucked out stalls.  Jen asked if I could get the hay down from the loft.  Sure, no problem.  I'd seen a few flakes of hay outside each stall, SO I assumed like one or two bales would do.  Nope, ten.  Ten bails at 40-50 pounds each is, um, really heavy.  Then they had to be distributed to each stall.  Ten feet, 22 feet, 34 feet, 46 feet, 58 feet 70 feet, 82 feet, 94 feet, 106 feet and finally a 118 foot haul, after which I noticed the dolly that would have helped a lot.

I hauled out the wheel barrels full of "horsey litter" to the manure pile.  Wood chips soaked in urine and clumps of poo.  I don't remember how many.  (Note to self: when designing our horse farm, the manure pile should be DOWN hill from the barn.)  Then I mucked out Jefferey's stall, which was more than a load all by itself.  That guy is a P-I-G, pig.  As we finished up, the ladies started filtering into the barn, and Cedar Hill Farm returned to normal.  To me the day of manual labor was fun.  A wintry "dude ranch" experience.  It would get really old really fast doing it every day.

Jen thinks I should show Nick (Amanda concurs).  How'd we get to this point?  I've gone from being nervous about riding this horse to "If we're going to be at a show anyway, might as well be the only guy actually riding."  Jen suggested training level.  I'd rather get no ribbon at First than a ribbon at Training.  It's just my personality.

It would be a little like having Amanda handle Colt at Natural Ability level; easier for the animal than the person.  Maybe a good learning experience.  I already have even more respect for what Amanda and Nicky do after just one ride.  We'll see how it goes.