Golden State Mule Show, my First Show!

My first show ever, at the Sugarland Horse Park in Woodland, was an absolutely phenomenal! I had a great experience and successfully showcased all my skills, everything I have been working on this past year, and my love of riding, which was exactly what Laura and I desired that I should do.  Although I was the only person riding in the walk/jog class, and there were no other youth in my classes, it was still an amazing experience, and Laura thinks that I rode well.

Saturday: Western Pleasure Walk/Jog

 My first class, the 16th of the day, wasn't until late Saturday morning, and I only had one class a day, so I didn't have a stressful show weekend.  Before my class, I watched the cutting and cow working, which I really enjoyed.  There were several champion cutting mules there that have done well against horses, just like Laura's mules do well against horses in dressage.  Dyna's half brother was even competing there.  Ruby's owner, Casie, rode Ruby as cutback, someone who diverts the cow back to the person competing if the cow gets too far away, in the cutting classes to warm her up for me.  Shortly after the cutting began, my parents arrived, and not long after that, it was time to get Ruby ready for my class.  I tacked her up in the saddle I would be using, got dressed in jeans, a show shirt, my helmet, and a western belt buckle, the mounted and waited near the gate for my class to begin.  Laura and I discussed what I would do, and I watched the Bridled, Green, Amateur, and Donkey pleasure classes.  The time ticked closer to the moment I would enter a show ring for the first time, and though I wasn't extremely nervous, I was a bit tense.

I was so tense and concentrated so hard that I forgot to smile until near the end.

 Finally, it was time for me to enter the ring.  I squeezed Ruby into the jog and began tracking to the left in the arena.  She started out a bit fast, but after passing the gate or the first time, we both relaxed more.  After I had jogged around twice, the announcer asked for the walk.  I sat deeply in the saddle and complied, making a smooth downward transition.  Before long, I was asked to reverse, which was easily done, then jog around once more before halting and backing several steps.  She nearly broke gait after reversing and jogging, but I kept her going.  Finally, I lined up before the judge.  Everyone was happy with how I had done!

My first blue!

 The show ran late that night, until well after dark.  I enjoyed watching the other cow working classes, some of which were like a combination of cow working and trail.  While I don't remember what that was called, it looked like a lot of fun. The last class was the cow sorting, also an exciting class.

One Week to Go!

 I rode Ruby a two times last week, and have been steadily improving.  All the work at turning Ruby without out my hands are finally paying off; I did some nice maneuvers the last couple rides, and even improved at the cone serpentine.  While doing the cone serpentine, the goal is to keep the horse almost straight, sidestepping slightly rather than making a part circle, which I have done successfully. However, turning around the last cone proved to be the most difficult part until Laura explained how to do it properly.  Instead of trying to pivot around the final cone, she told me to start turning just after the second to last cone, making a circle around the last cone.  It worked out much better than attempting to turn tightly around the last cone.  I even attempted to jog the serpentine, though the cones were made a bit wider than it was before I attempted it at a jog.

 Laura also made me do a short course.  I started by entering the box at the walk and halting, then prepared to do a turn on the haunches to the right.  When I asked her to turn her shoulders, she went a bit fast, but didm;t bump any poles.  I straightened her, took a breath, and gently asked her to walk off.  As she stepped out of the box, I asked for the jog, heading straight towards the rail.  I focused intently on keeping straight lines of travel rather than allowing Ruby to cut in on the turns as I have before.  Cutting in does not look pretty, and I would likely lose points for that.  Once I reached the rail I turned right, continuing along until I was across from a cone marker.  Here I turned right again, traveling several strides before turning directly to the box.  I entered it, halting. After a few moments, I took off again, heading directly to the white wooden side pass pole.  Taking a deep intake of breath, I began to side pass to the right.  I slowly, carefully, pushed her over step by step.  I reached the end of the pole, jogging off almost immediately.  After just a few strides, I reached the rail, traveling left along the rail, down the short side and around the corner.  I swerved left and right through the serpentine.  I had barely exited the serpentine when I turned Ruby left into the box.  Laura thought I had done really well!

 I also practiced a side pass around the corner of the box. At first, my aids were discordant;  Ruby was unclear at what I was asking her to do, and I didn't prevent her from becoming crooked.  She began to get flustered, balking and becoming discombobulated.  I inhaled deeply.  Laura mounted her for a few moments to school her for a couple minutes, then allowed me to remount.  This time I relaxed, taking my time as I pushed her to the corner.  Then, I put my outside leg forward to push her shoulders over, asking her to do a quarter turn on the haunches around the corner of the box.  I poised my inside leg at her side block her should her shoulders move too far.  This time she moved around the corner smoothly and fluidly.

 I also worked on some western pleasure and cantering this week.  The walk and jog is going well, though I'm having struggles with the canter.  During the canter, my aids become discordant and unclear, my body tenses, my hips move against the rhythm and/or comes out of the saddle, and everything falls apart, becoming inconsonant, wild, and inharmonious.  In short, it was a disaster. It doesn't always happen to that extent, but I've had some of these struggles for a while.  Funnily enough, when I accidentally cantered last week, I did not have these problems, which proves that when asking for canter, something in my mind makes me shut down slightly.  It's not that I'm scared or nervous; I'm not sure why it happens.  Does anyone have any ideas on how I can relax in the canter, and move my hips in rhythm with it, and not against the rhythm?  I'm looking at articles online, but I'd like to know what anyone else thinks as well!  I'm just doing walk/jog classes, so I'm not too worried, and besides that, everything went really well!

Preparations Continue

 I rode Ruby two other times last week.  The second time, I rode her out of the arena and in an empty pasture while warming up, with Laura, who was on BB, following me.  I took up and down several steep hills, and circled around trees and rocks, trying to use as little aids as possible to turn her.  Before heading back to the arena, I worked on riding her on a perfect square.  It was difficult, and I kept letting her dive in on accident, causing the corners to become round rather than the sharp, 90 degree turns I desired.  I also overused my hands.  After riding it a few times in each direction, I got pretty good corners, though it still needed some work.

 In the arena, I once again worked on riding into the box.  This time I added a second element: a turn on the haunches to the left while inside the box.  The trick with this is to work it slowly, one step at the time, but the first several times I didn't block her with my inside leg in time,  causing the turn to become uncontrolled.  After a few times, I relaxed and successfully asked her to turn slowly.

 Next, I needed to jog out of the box.  This required me to be quick with my aids.  I had to first ask softly, and if she only walked, I had to immediately back it up with a kick.  If I was too slow, she would walk a few strides, which is undesirable.  I squeezed lightly.  She began to walk off, so I backed it up with a kick.  It was a bit to strong, because she ended up loping instead, which was not completely bad excuse it at least meant that she was listening.  However, she continued to be super responsive extremely responsive to me leg aids.  Even when I squeezed lightly to sake her to exit the box, she loped off.

 A couple tries later, I managed to slow her down, halting at a white ground pole several strides away from the box.  I was going to learn how to side-pass, a movement that is often required in a trail class. I walked Ruby over the pole, halting when I was directly over the pole.  Side-passing takes concentration, coordination, and skill.  Like the turn on the haunches, it is best done one step at a time.  I had to just barely lift my inside leg off Ruby's side, poising it near her side in case I had to block her from going too fast.  Furthermore, I had to keep my hands ready to stop her from stepping forward.  I side-passed to the left.  The first few times were fiascos–I failed to block her with my inside leg and my hands.  Consequently, she rushed to the side, becoming crooked and knocking the pole with her hoof, then surged forward a couple steps.  It took many tries, but finally I was able to push her sideways, step by step, without hitting the pole a single time.

 Friday,  I rode her for the third time.  This time, I worked on turning and on riding over the walkovers, a series of four poles that the horse walks over in a trail course.  I rode an exercise in which I would go over the walkovers, turn around a cone to the right, go back over them, turn left around a different cone, then repeat.  It was quite similar to an exercise I have done on Lucky before.

Such a good girl on Friday.

At the beginning of the ride, I had difficulty making tight turns, and used my hands way too much.  Once of my problems is that I don't turn my shoulders nearly enough while turning, especially to the left.  The walkovers, however, went well almost from the beginning.  Ruby bumped them the first few times through, but when I actually put my hand forward, allowing her to stretch, she walked over them nicely.  Midway through the lesson, I really concentrated on preparing ahead of time for the turns, making them much more tightly.  I did the same exercise at the jog,  but still walked over the walkovers.  I struggled with turning left tightly in the jog, had difficulty slowing the walk enough; Ruby bumped the poles with her legs as a result.

I then tried another exercise.  The walkovers were situated near the rail, so I headed over them, jogged off, and continued along the rail right after, tracking left.   When I was across from the box, which was not far from the walkovers, I turned left, entered it, then halted.  Next, I trotted out of it, turn right immediately, and circled to the right around the cone.  I jogged toward the walkovers(which were ahead of and to the left of the box), slowed to the walk, and walked over them.  I went a little too far out of the box before halting one time, but the exercise otherwise went well.

 Now, the only obstacle I haven't tried is the rope gate.  It's still a work in progress, and I have a lot to learn, but I'm starting to feel more confident in my trail abilities.  I am better at turning Ruby than I was the first time.  I need to focus on taking my time more when doing the obstacles though.  The show is on the 17th and 18th, so I have a couple more weeks.  I'll be entering a couple walk-jog classes: pleasure and trail.  I feel pretty confident about the pleasure class.  As long as I prepare during the transitions the same way I do with Lucky, and keep my split reins even, which I've had a problem with; I'm a rein leaker, I should do well.  Regardless of that, this show is about having a fun, successful first show experience.  A successful experience doesn't necessarily mean one where I place in the ribbons(although I would like to as I am a very competitive person).  Mostly,  I want to ride the way I am learning and not throw everything I learned out the window while I'm there.  I'm looking forward to it!

Lesson on Moxie(3rd Level Mule)

*Long, word heavy post without a lot of pictures, but there is a lot to tell!

Yesterday, I rode Moxie, Laura's big black john mule.  It was a great privilege to ride him because he is very well trained, and because of that, Laura doesn't let many people ride him.  Since he has a lot of training, he is extremely sensitive to the small nuances in the rider's position and aids.  Every aid means something to him, and he's always looking to his rider to be the leader, and to make all the decisions.  He is constantly asking what his rider wants next and he wants the rider to take initiative and control everything. This is the reason why he is not a lesson mule(and why high level horses don't always make great lesson horses).  It's difficult for novice riders to focus on controlling the horse/mule while still working out their own body, which is why most lesson horses are horses that will make their own decisions when the rider can't/doesn't.  It was a real privilege to ride Moxie, and I appreciate the opportunity because it shows that Laura trusts me.

For example, when I looked down and to the left before taking off, he went that way.  I can't just look down and squeeze him to make him go off like I might do with another horse; I have to be prepared, have a game plan, and look exactly where I want to go.

 I rode Moxie in a western saddle and bridle because I can possibly do a mule show at the end of the month(instead of the dressage show).  According to Laura, mule shows always have a very fun, relaxed atmosphere, even at rated ones like the one I might do, and the people are very friendly, so it will be a great first show experience.  Plus, Laura knows most of the people there–the horse world is small, and the mule world is even smaller.  If I go, I will enter a novice western trail course, and possibly a pleasure class.

 While riding, I had to be extra careful with my hands because like I said, he is sensitive, and curb bits can be strong and harsh in unsteady hands.  I rode with split reins and kept them long, with only a light contact on his month.  My hands stayed close together because in the show I will have to ride with one hand, which shouldn't be too much of a problem since I have been learning to turn with my legs and upper body instead of my hands.  However, if I did need my hands I was told to move my hands slightly to the inside so that the outside rein touched his neck, making him turn.  This is what is called neck reining.

 I struggled at first, using too much hand and becoming tight.  I walked him around a bit, then asked for the jog.  However, I was too tight and leaned too far forward, resulting in a tight, bigger than intended trot.  Laura got on for a few minutes to school Moxie and to demonstrate just how light he could be, then let me back on again.

 A western position is about relaxation, not tightness(no position should have a lot of tension but Laura told me to be relaxed and loose in western).  Also, I was told to sit more on my seat bones.  In my head, I kept a mental image of a reiner doing a sliding stop to help me to see how my position should be like. One mental image she used that was helpful in causing me to relax was to imagine that I was riding the best mule in the nation–the king mule.  It really helped me to sit upright and proud.  It should also be noted that riding western, I focused on having my legs more loosely at my side rather than keeping a hold Moxie's side.

Picture of Moxie from the first time I went to Laura's
ranch, back in January.  I miss the green grass!

The next time I asked for the jog was a bit better.  When I focused on leaning slightly back(really I was upright but it felt like leaning back because I had been too far forward in my upper body) and relaxing, Moxie jogged off really nicely.  To return to walk, I was told to lean slightly back, relax my body by breathing out, and to close my fingers slightly.  This is where the stopping reining rider imager proved useful, because my position should be similar to that, though perhaps not as pronounced.  The first few times, it took several dribbling strides to return to the walk.  However, after doing walk-jog transitions every few strides, and focusing on breathing out even more quickly, I began to get sharp transitions between the walk and the jog.  There were a few times throughout the ride when I became tight again and leaned forward.  Guess what?  It caused the faster, tight trot.  All I had to do to fix it was to sit up more.






 At the same time, I worked on steering without my hands.  To do this, I put my outside leg slightly forward and squeezed to push his shoulders over.  As the ride progressed, I had to do less and less with my hands.

 After a while, I tried one of the obstacles that had been set up around the arena.  There were walk-overs(cavaletti that are walked over in trail course), cone serpentines, a rope gait, a side-pass pole, and four poles arranged in a box, though I only worked on the box this time.  I jogged over it, turned around, and jogged back several times.  Moxie is surprisingly maneuverable in spite of his large size(17 hands).  Laura could almost turn him on the dime when she rode him!  I was able to turn fairly tightly when turning around to go back over the box.  I didn't make a large circle; I used leg to push his shoulder over and turn him around.  Unfortunately, one of Moxie's hooves dinged each pole when I rode over them, which would have resulted in a 1/2 point off for each ding had it been a competition.

 Next, I practiced the turn on the haunches because they always show up in trail courses, and are performed in the box, but I did it outside of the box.  To perform a turn on the haunches, I had to lift my inside leg to "open the gate," put my outside leg forward to push his shoulder over, and be prepared to close my fingers should Moxie decided to surge forward.  At first, I didn't close my fingers in time and he made a small circle instead.  Then, Laura told me to break it down step by step.  Doing this, I was able to get him to turn bit by bit, though he did go forward a few times before I could stop him.

 Then, I incorporated the turn on the haunches into the next exercise, which was to make a square at the walk.  At each corner, I had to do a quarter-turn to make the 90 degree angle.  Starting out, I used way to much rein, and I didn't close my inside leg in time to stop him from make a turn more than 90 degrees, causing him to cut in.  Consequently, I over-corrected and used the reins, pulling him too far to the outside.  After a bit, I breathed and decided to take my time.  I kept my hands at the horn and applied outside leg to push him shoulders over, then quickly blocked his body with my inside leg almost before he was finished turning, which worked out well.  There were a few times when I slipped into letting him make round turns again, but after I was doing the exercise well, Laura decided it was best to stop on the good note.

  I will continue to practice on Moxie and soon tackle the other obstacles.  If I can keep Moxie round, which I worked on too but didn't focus entirely on like I do with Lucky(he didn't have a martingale or training aid I might add), go through the obstacles without touching them, and ride one handed,  I should be prepared.  The key to trail course is for me to take my time; it is not a speed event like show jumping.  Lucky will get the month off as I get to know Moxie, but the next step with her is to ride her roundly without a training aid.

Connie Lara Western Clinic, Part II

 The second day of the clinic was a lot about reining and western pleasure, and I learned a lot. We started by learning some of the warm-up exercises that Connie does. We combined both arenas for more room. One of these exercises was one in you ride down the side of the arena, making a large circle at each corner. This is one way of getting the horse to be responsive to the aids. We did the exercise at the jog and the lope, working both ways. Another exercises Connie uses is the counter canter. Counter canter is difficult, but it helps the horse to become responsive and more balanced. First, we started on the left lead, cantered down the side of the arena, made a diagonal, circled, then headed back. This was very difficult, and the first time I intentionally counter cantered. Nevertheless, I could keep Anna in the counter canter without her falling into the trot/jog. the next exercise was more difficult: we had to ask for canter right away, rather than making a diagonal. Connie said to think of it as just asking for a right lead or left lead and not asking for a "wrong lead." Since I was heading left, I used my left leg when asking for the canter(from the walk) so that Anna would ice up the right side lead. She picked up the counter canter, but I difficulty maintaining for the circle and across the diagonal. It was great that I was able to get the counter canter right away, though.

Next, we rode some western pleasure. Western pleasure is a discipline that is very different than dressage. In western pleasure, you the horse to be in a low frame and you want the horse to take short, slow steps, rather than the big, expressive strides of dressage. I did a pretty good job at this,  except I need to lower my hands a bit to allow Anna to stretch down like the horses do in western pleasure.

 We also worked on reining circles. There were lots of cones that were it up into one large circle and two small circles within the larger one, and we would ride the big circle, then break it down into smaller ones. The practice of the day before had prepared me for this. I tried the exercise in the jog and the lope. However, I had a little trouble when I returned to the jog because I didn't continue to make a wide turn all the way out to the edge of the arena. I instead let Anna cut the circle small. I loped off and tried again, this time continue to focus as I returned to the jog, making a good, wide circle.

 In the afternoon, the riders who had done more reining practiced the reining spins. Since one other rider and I had never done this before, we watched the other riders instead. Then, we rode a mulemanship pattern. This is something at Bishop Mule Days where the riders ride down a koine of cones, following a set pattern where they have to walk, jog, and lope, circling some of the cones. I think the rider is judged in this one, as well as if they do do the pattern correctly(of course) and make even circles. The first pattern was simple: walk from the first cone to the second, jog to the third cone, lope off, circle to the left, return to jog and halt at the last cone. I did pretty good, except I came into the circle a little tight and halted a little early.

The next pattern was similar, except the lope circle was a figure eight first to the right and then to the left, with a simple change in between. Again, I cut the circle tight rather than going deep into the turn.  It's harder than it looks! The last time I did it, though, I did really well. I made transitions at the right moment, and made a great figure eight with large circles. Connie was so happy and proud of me for doing so well with her mule, especially considering that I had only ridden western a handful of times before that weekend, never before trying reining, western pleasure, or trail course. Furthermore, I was new to the mule, who isn't green but is only six and doesn't have much experience. I was the only teenager there, and held my own against experienced riders, many of which had been riding for 20+ years.

By the end of the weekend Anna and I had gotten the hang of each and my riding was greatly improved. A lot of the exercises I had done that weekend really helped me make better circles and to ride much less with my hands. Plus, I got to try a lot new things. Also, I just turned 15 on the 8th.

Connie Lara Western Clinic, Part I

 Over this past weekend, I rode in a western clinic taught by Connie Lara, a friend of Laura's. Connie let me ride Annalissa, her bay six year old mule that is actually very horse-like. At the start of the clinic, I learned about riding a good warm-up. If you have a warm-up plan, you will be better prepared to ride, and you will be more prepared when warming up at a show. Connie has a list of several things she wants in her mule when warming up. She wants her mule to be responsive on a small circle, driving from the hind end with impulsion. She also wants to be able halt and reverse her mule, and to be able to control both the front end and the hind end. If she loses any of these, she goes back to the beginning.

 Everyone warmed up together, moving the hind end and the front end after circling. I had some difficulty moving the haunches at first, but once I relaxed I was able to do it. We next worked on circles, a very important aspect of riding because every pattern in riding consists of either straight lines or circles. The goal was for the mule or horse to have a nice bend and to be in the proper western frame, where the equine's head is low. She also wanted each rider to be looking two cones ahead(there were four evenly spaced cones on the circle). When it was my turn, I made sure to use enough inside leg to keep Anna bent on the circle. Connie thought I did a good job and commented that I made her mule look nice. Because I had done so well, she had me break the circle down into very small circles at each of the four points. I had no problem doing this either and made the circles.

Spiraling it in. Each layer of cones represents a circle. This is before the circle was made into the smaller version.

 Next, we worked on adjusting our mounts by spiraling circles in. There was a large circle marked by cones, with several smaller ones inside, the smallest being only several meters in length. I spiraled in and out of this, making a fill circle at each layer. Then Connie made the circles even smaller, with the innermost circle being just large enough to put a barrel standing up in the center. I didn't have much trouble with this either.

Heading around the box

Before the box was made smaller

 In yet another exercise, we had to enter a box made of four poles, circle a cone within it, then exit the box. I did it well the first time. Connie made the box even smaller, and I tried again. It was a tight squeeze, but I made the circle. However, I rushed getting of of the box, going out at a steep angle and heading over the pole rather than going in between the corners. The next time around, I focused more, making the turn and heading out nicely.

The cone exercise in which I circle around several cones. I go to the middle cone on the right after this and circle twice to the left.

 The final exercise of the morning was one in which we had circle around multiple cones set in a pattern. Basically there was a row of several pairs set at an angle, and we had to circle the top one in the pattern, head to one set at an angle to it, circle it twice and continue. To do it successfully, one had to go straight across and not right next to the cone that would be circled, making a wide turn around. I did well on the first two cones, but in two tight heading toward the third cone and couldn't finish the pattern. The second time, the same thing happened. The third time, however, I really focused and made nice turns around all of them.

Going between the tall poles

 After lunch, we worked on straight lines. The first exercise was a straight line between several pole-bending poles. It was very narrow, and I almost bumped my legs on the poles, but I kept Anna going straight. There were also several sets of parallel poles set in a straight line, with each of these chutes set in front of and a little off to the side of each other. The object was for each rider to use their legs to push their mule over into each chute. The first few times, I was weaving in between them rather than leg-yielding over. Then I tried to use more leg and was able to push Anna over when I wanted to. Next with did the same thing, except for with cones set close together(like pole bending). The object was to push the mule over, rather than pull them and weave around the cones. I did well for the first few cones, but then Anna rushed off and I couldn't use my legs to push her over. This happened a couple of times, so Connie got on Anna, and it turned out that it was something Anna was doing wrong, not me.

Moving sideways from the poles to between the cones

 When I remounted, I was prepared to ask Ann to stay at a nice slow jog. I went through the pattern nicely, and could even wind my way back. I later tried the same thing with even closer cones that had poles set between then. I tried the exercise at the walk first, doing it successfully, then jogged it. It went well! It's amazing how much better I was at using my legs to move Anna than I was when I started the clinic.

The figure-eight after the poles.

 The final exercises involved poles set in a step pattern. We had to do some circles over each of poles, starting at the top and working our way down, so circles got larger further through the exercise. That wasn't too hard after the small circles from earlier that day. next, the poles were moved into steeper angles. This time, we had to jog a diagonal across all the poles in one line, then turn left and go across the sharp angle made by two of the poles. After that, we would make a shape u-turn go across another angle made by two poles, the jog to two barrels and figure eight around them. This was challenging, but I could do it.

 It's amazing how much better my riding was by the end of the day. I was better and more refined at turning without relying completely on my hands. Laura thought I did a great job holding my own against adult riders who had been riding for much longer than I have. Stay tuned for part II, where I try reining. Also, another highlight of the clinic was meeting Olivia from DIY Horse Ownership. It's always fun to meet a fellow blogger!