Wednesday, April 20

[gottawonder]

Today I am grateful for:

A more pleasant day, and no wind. Lately it seems we have had a lot of very windy days, usually because of drastic changes in weather. Today was a little above zero, so the massive amount of snow from yesterday is already melting and slushy.

I took the blankets off of everyone again.

I went to see River, and we had a lesson today. The woman who watched us work last week was there with her lovely Icelandic cross pony (almost a horse) taking a lesson. She trailered her horse.

We did a bit of groundwork, but tried to do more riding this week. Our focus was again on moving River with my leg more than hands, and getting him to move his shoulders over to begin to work towards a partial pirouette.

I am delayed in ordering the bitless bridle, because now it looks like R is considering buying something else off of that site, and we might pool our purchase to save on shipping costs.

I learned that Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam has founded an organization that builds skate parks in Montana (his home state). The organization has build 20 world class skate parks so far.

https://montanapoolservice.com/

Comments

[sherlockishere]

I love your descriptions of what you're working on with River. I know exactly what you mean when you write about moving him with your seat instead of with hands-- and I know it's challenging to do!

[gottawonder]

Yes, I really felt like I wasn't using my hands that much, until you're told not to use them at all!

[lantairvlea]

What bitless bridle did you end up settling on?

[gottawonder]

The Karen Rolfe dressage bitless bridle. Have you had any experience with it? We are really on a learning curve with this experiment.

[lantairvlea]

I assume you mean Karen Rohlf with Dressage Naturally, right? There is also a Jenny Rolfe who has her Naturally Classical line with the Gentil bridle, which is somewhat similar, just to add to the confusion. Karen Rohlf's came first though.

I haven't used Karen Rohlf's specifically, but am familiar with it. It is essentially a sidepull, though some would call it a sidecue because the rings are set below the cheek pieces. This and the jowl strap should make it pretty stable on the head, which gives a cleaner signal than some sidepulls that can rotate around the nose and pull the cheeks towards the eye.

In short: good choice. I hope he goes well in it!

[gottawonder]

Yes, the Dressage Naturally kind. What you said about the stability, that it stays away from the eyes, and the fact that it doesn't use pressure on the nose is what my barn owner, R, likes about it. I really hope he goes well in it too. I have tried several bits with him, and he always mouths them.

[lantairvlea]

Well it uses pressure over the bridge of the nose, but it doesn't squeeze around the whole muzzle and jaw like a mechanical hackamore, wheel hack, or scawbrig does.

Some horses are just very hard to find anything that is comfortable in their mouths due to their mouth shape or sensitivity. I hope this bridle works well for him!