Blessi and Jasper

Blessi has made friends with the new barn cat Jasper.  Blessi adores kitties.  He grooms them gently behind the ears.  While my friend Judy was taking these pictures, Jasper started to clean Blessi's eye so I think the attraction is mutual. Jasper is also discovering the joys of resting on the big, old, warm, soft Icelandic haunches.

Maintaining steady hands

There are a lot of factors involving bit and hand

position that can impact head position and gait on the horse.  Here are some general points--assuming I haven't misinterpreted something:

- type of bit

Different style bits are designed to impact the horse at up to 8 different places such as poll, bars, tongue, etc.  

- hand position/length of rein

Having hands up or hands down affects where pressure is applied depending on bit style.  A good rider knows how to use this to apply light signals to correct gait/impact head position.

- rein pressure

Magnifies impact of bit as affected by hand position/length of rein

- body position

  This goes into so many factors....Beginning riders tend to balance themselves off the reins at the trot and lock their knees which has a cascading negative impact on the horse.

One research study applied biosensors to the horse and rider to measure rein pressure, distance of hand from horse's bit, etc.  Observers noted any behavior by horse that indicated discomfort such as gaping mouth or swishing tail.  Advanced riders performed at a sitting trot.  In trying to maintain "steady" hands, the rider's right hand varied in distance from the bit from 5.1 to 18.1 inches --the left from 6.6 inches to 12.5 inches--depending on whether the horse is in the suspension phase of trot or down phase.  Subconsciously, the rider exerted more pressure on the reins on her dominant side which tended to tip the nose of the horse in that direction.

To maintain a consistent head set and happy horse at a well cadenced, correct trot, a good rider is making constant adjustments of her body, hands, etc., to achieve a following hand on the reins.  Adjustments can be done with just an adjustment of pressure of the fingers.

Sigh, poor Blessi.  When I ride the trot, he tries so hard to follow what I am asking but I am asking so inconsistently that his head set is all over the place.  And I am not even trying for a collected trot, just a nice working trot head set.  Not that I do much trotting these days.

Blessi is Not Slower than Molasses in November

Days are a bit chilly here in the Pacific Northwest with temperatures highs around 45.  Alan, one of the boarders, was treating his draft cross Belle to a warm bucket of water with some molasses to encourage water consumption.  He asked if I would like to have some molasses for Blessi.

Sue even got Blessi's bucket and filled it with warm water.  We added about two tablespoons of molasses and put the water bucket back in Blessi's stall.  As we watched Blessi dove right into the water.  I turned to say "Blessi loves it.  Tha....,"  when I was interrupted by BANG, BANG, SPLAAAASH, Bump, Splish.

Blessi decided that drinking a lot of water to get to the good stuff at the bottom was too time consuming.  He was doing his best to upend the bucket, which was attached to a wall bracket, spilling what looked like gallons of water about the floor.  I quickly intervened, took the bucket outside to dump most of it, and then let Blessi drink the last few inches of water and lick out the sweet stuff.  I then rinsed out the bucket thoroughly and filled with just water.

I hope Blessi does not destroy his water bucket (he has two large ones) in an attempt to find the on switch for the flow of molasses.   I now have to send an email to the stable owner explaining why his stall is flooded and offer to pay for a bucket if he gets creative tonight.