So, you can probably imagine how happy I was after cross-country. So proud of my boy. It wasn't perfectly ridden and I know that I didn't "ride every jump" and a handful of the jumps were probably just luck, but that's when having a great partner under you comes in handy! So, we floated back to the barn on cloud nine, Hick really didn't even break a sweat except for under his saddle and was hardly out of breath. Gave him a rinse, took off his boots, and unscrewed his studs, and threw him some more of the icky hay. Then Laura and I were off to check the standings, look at pictures, and eat lunch!
Went to the show office to see what was posted. We were in first after dressage!! By ALMOST four points. That's a pretty decent spread. So, things just seemed to be getting better and better. Wasn't sure if our little deal at the water was going to be counted as a refusal, later found out that your horse CAN stop without it being a refusal, only a refusal if he moves backwards. So, clear round= first have dressage and xc. Yay! I called Martha and was all happy and said, "We're in first after dressage!" And she said, "Well, yeah! That's what I expected! I told you that." Then Laura and I went to eat lunch at good old "Crackle" Barrel. Came back, looked at pictures, then she had to leave. Loved on my pony, fed him dinner, walked stadium course, let him graze. Mom and I decided to order pizza for dinner. We picked it up on the way back to the hotel and I was passed out asleep before we even got pick up the pizza. It is a LOT of work and there is A LOT to do at a horse show. Not only do you have to take care of yourself, but you have to take care of your horse and it all just is very tiring. I don't know how I would have made it through the weekend without my mom and Laura.
Sunday I wasn't supposed to do my stadium for a while, so we slept in til about 7:30 and got to the barn at 8. Breakfast time for a pony. Put his stall guard up and go in to pick his stall. I'm in the middle of cleaning it when I look over at Hick. He is coiled back on his haunches holding his front feet in the air Lippizan style. I said, "Hickory! Noooooooooo!" But it was too late. "See ya!" he said and leaped, in slow motion, over the top of his stall guard and out of his stall. The grass IS greener on the other side. He took about two strides and started grazing. He wasn't trying to run away or be ornery, he just really wanted that grass, it was tempting him. Took him for a ride. Came back. Got dressed. Got him dressed. Headed out to stadium. I was pleased with our warm up but it wasn't as spectacuar as our xc warm up. Did some flying changes and rollback turns in warm up as this stadium course was very twisty turny. Jump 1 was an oxer (they weren't messing around), it went well, on to the left was Jump 2 painted like a watermelon, it went well. Jump 3 was blue, it went well. Then there was a tight rollback right hand turn to Jump 4. It took a stride or two for that to click in my brain and then a stride or 2 more to it to click in Hick's brain so we had to hightail it to Jump 4 to make up lost time on that turn. Jump 4 went well, then it was a bending line to 5 that was difficult and we almost didn't make. Sort of a rollback turn to 6A and 6B that went well. Left hand turn to 7 which had funky painted rails, sort of optical illusion-y. But it went fine. U turn to 8 that went well then around to 9 which we took a rail on. Not really sure why. But i was bummed. And then 10 was the last jump and it was fine.
So, we ended up 2nd and got a pretty red ribbon and some horse shampoo!
Friday, August 13, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Penny Oaks Horse Trials
Penny Oaks was a great adventure. First time taking my horse somewhere all by myself and being completely responsible and in charge. It. was. fun. I packed up his water buckets and feed buckets, bucket hangers, saddles, bridles, saddle pads, girths, whips, my helmet and gloves, his jumping boots, studs and stud kit, hick's shampoo, grooming things, braiding kit, fly spray, his grain, bales of hay, filled his hay net, loaded all of it and him up in Amy's trailer alongside her big black Percheron cross Cally (we had Cally-horse and Callie-person all weekend) and off we went! But not before we realized that Hickory's Indiana Health Certificate was MIA. Had to run over to the vet's office to get a copy, and THEN we were on our way!
It was not a very bad drive at all to the Hoosier Park. When we arrived we unloaded and made our sweet ponies comfy and set off to walk our cross-country course. By the end of the course, I was nearly in tears. We hadn't gone xc in over a year and goodness knows the last time we had a clear xc round. This course looked HARD. And unfair! Usually on a Novice course you'll have your Novice max height jumps and then also some jumps below the max height, say BN level. Nuh uh! Not here! These suckers were massive! And if they weren't massive they were tricksy! It was very Training Level-similar. Multiple bending lines, one bending line was a three stride, had a ditch four stride to a table, a table seven stride to a bank tight turn three stride to a log, a two stride with two angled barns... You've got to be kidding me, was all I kept thinking. I got really angry lol, at the course. And I think Amy thought I was crazy. But it was definitely way better for me to be pissed and ride the course mad like I wanted to kill it than be intimidated by it. Amy kept saying, "Just think how awesome it will feel when you finish THIS COURSE, what an accomplishment!" And I was thinking, "This course is going to kick my ass." So, we walked it a second time and made a game plan for each jump. We also stood next to some of the real Training Level jumps which made ours seem smaller and by the end I was feeling a little better about it all.
My mommy was sitting outside Hickory's stall waiting for me when we got back to the barn! We tacked up and took Hick and Cally for a walk and to see the dressage arenas. Hick was excited, but good. Then it was bath time!!! Have to love having a gray horse. There were several bathing stations but really nowhere to tie your horse. So I looked at mom and said, "Do you want hold or do you want to bathe?" as Hickory dragged me across the parking lot to a patch of grass he spotted. She wanted to hold. Seriously? Oook. It was an interesting bath. I'm really not sure how clean my horse actually got. I'm thinking not very! haha. Hickory dragged mom around and mom jerked on him and he was completely unresponsive and she laughed and laughed and I stood there with the hose and my shampoo a little disgruntled but ended up laughing some, too. I gave Hick a look and his look back said, "WHAT! I'm hungry! And I want to go dooo something!" Took him out for a graze, fed him dinner (half of what he normally gets) and tucked him in! And then we went to McDonalds. Yum.
The next morning it was time to enact our well thought out plan. My ride time was not until 11:00 am. We were at the barn at 8. Gave Hickory his breakfast and cleaned out his stall while mom went to buy him a stall guard so he would be a little happier being able to stick his head out of his stall. While she was gone I went to walk my cross-country course for a third and final time. Preparation, preparation, preparation! It was pretty early and I was the only one out on the course. So I talked outloud to myself and walked with my arms in front of my pretending like I was holding my reins and did the entire course just like I planned on riding it, imagining every half halt and sparkplug and leading rein! I was ready to kick the course in the teeth! But dressage first! Back to the barn, tacked up, and took mister man out for a walk/trot to see what I had that morning. A little ball of fire! He was so happy to get out of his stall. Rode over to a small field next to the dressage warm up and basically rode through my dressage warm-up with my emphasis on his relaxation and acceptance than accuracy or looking good. I was pretty happy after about 20 minutes so we headed back to the barn. Popped him back in the stall but left his saddle on. He seemed to like his new stall guard, but was maybe plotting escape? Made my mom sit in front of the stall with a whip to shoo him back just in case! Braided up his new super short mane. Changed into my show clothes and hopped back on. He was sooooo much calmer this second time out. So calm and good. We had a GREAT dressage warm up and I was extra pleased about how well he was paying attenttion to me considering how crowded and busy the warm up area was.
My test went about like this. Down centerline he got a little strung out, and we have some straight line issues, track left FELT a little lurchy, I was still nervous. First trot circle at E--the first half he sped up the tempo and that's when my brain finally started working and I started riding. Half halted and rounded him up and got a good steady rhythm and swing trot going. Down centerline the second time was good, right turn at C was much better than the left, 20m circle at B was great. Our downward transition at A was better than it has been, still a hair late but got good marks on it. Very big free walk down the diagonal, he stretched about 50% of the time and wanted to look around the other 50%. Medium walk was a success with no jigging! ALMOST hopped into his trot early without me asking but I caught him with my seat and we had a nice, round transition at C. Canter transition was great, our circle was good, and our downward was Greeeat. And the same in the opposite direction, no lead issues. Down the centerline and a nice square halt! I was soo happy! Gave him lots of lovin! It just felt like a good test!
And I forgot to mention that before dressage LAURA arrived!!
So, back in the stall for Hick. Took all those yucky, girly braids out. XC time was upon us and XC time means stud time. Whipped out my stud kit and succesfully got my studs in all by myself! Geared Hick up in his xc boots and fly spray. Geared me up. Sprayed down saddle and boots with sticky spray. Put my pinny on over my vest. Crescent noseband? Check. Excited pony? Check check check! Hopped on and off we went!
Hick was soooooo excited when we got to XC warm up. He had an extra spring in his step and his eyes were wide open and his ears were forward. But he was suuuch a good boy and was listening sooo well. We have a little deal, that if he listens to me then I WILL let him go fast and run like a little heathen at some point on course. So, he was upholding his end of the deal. We had a fantastic warm up. My big focus was making sure he was in front of my leg and man was he ever! It felt great! And with the crescent his canter was very much uphill. And he was jumping like a super horse! And Amy was a great warm-up coach!
I kept him outside the start box until about 10 seconds to go. He was too excited to make stand still. When the countdown hit zero we rocketed out of the box. It initially had been my plan to give him a reminder pop with my whip before at least the first jump. But he was soo forward and a little bit too hot for that I decided as we approached fence 1 (a big log). I settled for a little spur sparkplug instead as he tried to change up his canter a little on me on the approach. Up and over! Let him gallop out to the second fence, a rolltop that was no trouble. Fence 3 was a brush that was also no trouble. Couldn't see fence 4 from 3 as you had a fairly sharp left handed turn to it. It was an open oxer which we had never before attempted so Hick gave it a funny look and I sat back and clucked to him and he was like "not really sure what this is but I guess I'm jumping it!" Nice gallop stretch and a sharp left to fence 5, an optical illusion-y type of jump. Another funny look from Hick but I was prepared to ride this one strong and we had no trouble. Another gallop stretch to a cabin, which we've had past trouble with. Lowered his shoulders a bit to look at it and I did use my whip on this one for the first time and he said, "Well hell ok I'm going!!!" Another gallop stretch through some woods, into an opening up and down a very steep little hill and towards the into the water jump. Hick slammed on the brakes but then kept moving, though a little bit sideways, broke to a funky trot and I spurred him over. Came to a halt one stride later at the water, gave it a funny look and walked in. The fence judge said, "What a good boy!!!" And I laughed. We walked through the water, trotted out, and trotted over our out jump. The next question was the ditch to the table. Jumped the ditch without hesitation but decided to kick his feet up at it afterwards. Got pretty crooked, but quickly straightened out for the table. Onto the BIG table, I'm not sure how I rode that table, it terrified me. But we ended up on the other side of it without a hitch. up the bank and tight turn to the log, no problem. Galloping stretch, let Hick roll. Brought him back a little ways before the red barn combination. Rode him HARD to that one. Whip before jump one, whip in the air over jump one, whip inbetween 1 and 2, up and over 2 with a lot of relief!. Galloping on, into a new field, around the edge of it to the three stride bending line. Got a nice stadium arena canter, took my time and got us lined up nicely where I wanted us. Up and over 1 nice gentle, calm, bending line to 2. One jump left. Galloping on. Collecting and super engaging hind end for the last jump, a very upright log on a hill. Up and over! Woohoo!!! Clean round!!!!!!!!!
It was not a very bad drive at all to the Hoosier Park. When we arrived we unloaded and made our sweet ponies comfy and set off to walk our cross-country course. By the end of the course, I was nearly in tears. We hadn't gone xc in over a year and goodness knows the last time we had a clear xc round. This course looked HARD. And unfair! Usually on a Novice course you'll have your Novice max height jumps and then also some jumps below the max height, say BN level. Nuh uh! Not here! These suckers were massive! And if they weren't massive they were tricksy! It was very Training Level-similar. Multiple bending lines, one bending line was a three stride, had a ditch four stride to a table, a table seven stride to a bank tight turn three stride to a log, a two stride with two angled barns... You've got to be kidding me, was all I kept thinking. I got really angry lol, at the course. And I think Amy thought I was crazy. But it was definitely way better for me to be pissed and ride the course mad like I wanted to kill it than be intimidated by it. Amy kept saying, "Just think how awesome it will feel when you finish THIS COURSE, what an accomplishment!" And I was thinking, "This course is going to kick my ass." So, we walked it a second time and made a game plan for each jump. We also stood next to some of the real Training Level jumps which made ours seem smaller and by the end I was feeling a little better about it all.
My mommy was sitting outside Hickory's stall waiting for me when we got back to the barn! We tacked up and took Hick and Cally for a walk and to see the dressage arenas. Hick was excited, but good. Then it was bath time!!! Have to love having a gray horse. There were several bathing stations but really nowhere to tie your horse. So I looked at mom and said, "Do you want hold or do you want to bathe?" as Hickory dragged me across the parking lot to a patch of grass he spotted. She wanted to hold. Seriously? Oook. It was an interesting bath. I'm really not sure how clean my horse actually got. I'm thinking not very! haha. Hickory dragged mom around and mom jerked on him and he was completely unresponsive and she laughed and laughed and I stood there with the hose and my shampoo a little disgruntled but ended up laughing some, too. I gave Hick a look and his look back said, "WHAT! I'm hungry! And I want to go dooo something!" Took him out for a graze, fed him dinner (half of what he normally gets) and tucked him in! And then we went to McDonalds. Yum.
The next morning it was time to enact our well thought out plan. My ride time was not until 11:00 am. We were at the barn at 8. Gave Hickory his breakfast and cleaned out his stall while mom went to buy him a stall guard so he would be a little happier being able to stick his head out of his stall. While she was gone I went to walk my cross-country course for a third and final time. Preparation, preparation, preparation! It was pretty early and I was the only one out on the course. So I talked outloud to myself and walked with my arms in front of my pretending like I was holding my reins and did the entire course just like I planned on riding it, imagining every half halt and sparkplug and leading rein! I was ready to kick the course in the teeth! But dressage first! Back to the barn, tacked up, and took mister man out for a walk/trot to see what I had that morning. A little ball of fire! He was so happy to get out of his stall. Rode over to a small field next to the dressage warm up and basically rode through my dressage warm-up with my emphasis on his relaxation and acceptance than accuracy or looking good. I was pretty happy after about 20 minutes so we headed back to the barn. Popped him back in the stall but left his saddle on. He seemed to like his new stall guard, but was maybe plotting escape? Made my mom sit in front of the stall with a whip to shoo him back just in case! Braided up his new super short mane. Changed into my show clothes and hopped back on. He was sooooo much calmer this second time out. So calm and good. We had a GREAT dressage warm up and I was extra pleased about how well he was paying attenttion to me considering how crowded and busy the warm up area was.
My test went about like this. Down centerline he got a little strung out, and we have some straight line issues, track left FELT a little lurchy, I was still nervous. First trot circle at E--the first half he sped up the tempo and that's when my brain finally started working and I started riding. Half halted and rounded him up and got a good steady rhythm and swing trot going. Down centerline the second time was good, right turn at C was much better than the left, 20m circle at B was great. Our downward transition at A was better than it has been, still a hair late but got good marks on it. Very big free walk down the diagonal, he stretched about 50% of the time and wanted to look around the other 50%. Medium walk was a success with no jigging! ALMOST hopped into his trot early without me asking but I caught him with my seat and we had a nice, round transition at C. Canter transition was great, our circle was good, and our downward was Greeeat. And the same in the opposite direction, no lead issues. Down the centerline and a nice square halt! I was soo happy! Gave him lots of lovin! It just felt like a good test!
And I forgot to mention that before dressage LAURA arrived!!
So, back in the stall for Hick. Took all those yucky, girly braids out. XC time was upon us and XC time means stud time. Whipped out my stud kit and succesfully got my studs in all by myself! Geared Hick up in his xc boots and fly spray. Geared me up. Sprayed down saddle and boots with sticky spray. Put my pinny on over my vest. Crescent noseband? Check. Excited pony? Check check check! Hopped on and off we went!
Hick was soooooo excited when we got to XC warm up. He had an extra spring in his step and his eyes were wide open and his ears were forward. But he was suuuch a good boy and was listening sooo well. We have a little deal, that if he listens to me then I WILL let him go fast and run like a little heathen at some point on course. So, he was upholding his end of the deal. We had a fantastic warm up. My big focus was making sure he was in front of my leg and man was he ever! It felt great! And with the crescent his canter was very much uphill. And he was jumping like a super horse! And Amy was a great warm-up coach!
I kept him outside the start box until about 10 seconds to go. He was too excited to make stand still. When the countdown hit zero we rocketed out of the box. It initially had been my plan to give him a reminder pop with my whip before at least the first jump. But he was soo forward and a little bit too hot for that I decided as we approached fence 1 (a big log). I settled for a little spur sparkplug instead as he tried to change up his canter a little on me on the approach. Up and over! Let him gallop out to the second fence, a rolltop that was no trouble. Fence 3 was a brush that was also no trouble. Couldn't see fence 4 from 3 as you had a fairly sharp left handed turn to it. It was an open oxer which we had never before attempted so Hick gave it a funny look and I sat back and clucked to him and he was like "not really sure what this is but I guess I'm jumping it!" Nice gallop stretch and a sharp left to fence 5, an optical illusion-y type of jump. Another funny look from Hick but I was prepared to ride this one strong and we had no trouble. Another gallop stretch to a cabin, which we've had past trouble with. Lowered his shoulders a bit to look at it and I did use my whip on this one for the first time and he said, "Well hell ok I'm going!!!" Another gallop stretch through some woods, into an opening up and down a very steep little hill and towards the into the water jump. Hick slammed on the brakes but then kept moving, though a little bit sideways, broke to a funky trot and I spurred him over. Came to a halt one stride later at the water, gave it a funny look and walked in. The fence judge said, "What a good boy!!!" And I laughed. We walked through the water, trotted out, and trotted over our out jump. The next question was the ditch to the table. Jumped the ditch without hesitation but decided to kick his feet up at it afterwards. Got pretty crooked, but quickly straightened out for the table. Onto the BIG table, I'm not sure how I rode that table, it terrified me. But we ended up on the other side of it without a hitch. up the bank and tight turn to the log, no problem. Galloping stretch, let Hick roll. Brought him back a little ways before the red barn combination. Rode him HARD to that one. Whip before jump one, whip in the air over jump one, whip inbetween 1 and 2, up and over 2 with a lot of relief!. Galloping on, into a new field, around the edge of it to the three stride bending line. Got a nice stadium arena canter, took my time and got us lined up nicely where I wanted us. Up and over 1 nice gentle, calm, bending line to 2. One jump left. Galloping on. Collecting and super engaging hind end for the last jump, a very upright log on a hill. Up and over! Woohoo!!! Clean round!!!!!!!!!
Crescent Noseband and NAJYRC
The next day was jump lesson day and trial run for new piece of equipment #892: The Crescent or Combination Noseband. It's hard to describe, so if you are curious about what it looks like, I would google it. But it is made for horses who cross their jaw and pull down or forwards. It's not to be used with a bit that acts on the poll as that combination would be very severe. How exactly it accomplishes what it is mean to accomplish, I cannot tell you. BUT IT WORKS!!!! I've been riding in it ever since and it is great. It's so much easier for me to keep his head up. And the combination of it with keeping my hands pretty light and still and using them minimally for slowing down and turning has yielded a great result!
Thursday was the first day of competition for the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships at the KHP. Lauren was competing so the whole family was in Lexington, meaning I got to be in charge!! Haha. Or at least take care of the dogs and the chickens. But, Martha also volunteered me to be 'Bit Check' for the dressage on Thursday morning. Dressage started at 7. I needed to be there by 6:45. In Lexington. From Louisville. Could not go night before because I had to let the dogs and the chickens out in the morning. So, wonderful wonderful Rachel and I were up several HOURS before the crack of dawn tending to the animals and trucking it across Kentucky to make it to the horse park. Thankfully, it ended up being a nice, overcast day. I stuck my fingers in a lot of very expensive horses mouths and watched some great dressage and got a free hat out of the deal! It was cool, but I was SOO exhausted by the time we got back to the farm I literally could not hold my own head up.
Thursday was the first day of competition for the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships at the KHP. Lauren was competing so the whole family was in Lexington, meaning I got to be in charge!! Haha. Or at least take care of the dogs and the chickens. But, Martha also volunteered me to be 'Bit Check' for the dressage on Thursday morning. Dressage started at 7. I needed to be there by 6:45. In Lexington. From Louisville. Could not go night before because I had to let the dogs and the chickens out in the morning. So, wonderful wonderful Rachel and I were up several HOURS before the crack of dawn tending to the animals and trucking it across Kentucky to make it to the horse park. Thankfully, it ended up being a nice, overcast day. I stuck my fingers in a lot of very expensive horses mouths and watched some great dressage and got a free hat out of the deal! It was cool, but I was SOO exhausted by the time we got back to the farm I literally could not hold my own head up.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Alex Gurding lesson
No day off for Hickory last Monday. Usually the horses get Monday off after they are at a show over the weekend, but, as Hickory did nothing but stand in his stall on Sunday... German dressage man Alex Gurding was back for the week to do follow up lessons and coach Lauren before NAJYRC (North American Junior and Young Rider Championships). He came in late Sunday night when dieke, lauren, and i were sitting in the living room--someone knocked on the door at like 11:30 and we were like hmm strange.. and then I remembered, 'it's the german guy!' He's very nice.
So, anyway, Monday I had an Alex dressage lesson! I was kind of nervous to ride for him. I used one of Pat's dressage saddles which I was trying out, but it sort of threw me up in the canter I felt like. So, we started out with a lot of walking and he asked me what our main problems come from. I told him that when Hickory gets really excited or tired he gets over-light on the bit and curls in his neck. There was a lot of 'ok, bring him rounder, bring him rounder.' We did some trotting and hit a problem area-- walk to trot transitions Hickory does not stay 'through' during the upward, his nose kind of pokes out in the air for a stride or two. So we did lots and lots and lots of walk to trot and trot to walk transitions, being sure to wiggle the bit around in the bit around before and during the upward to keep him very round and connected through the transition. I was really glad we worked on this, because I felt like it was one of those things that I had never really payed a lot of attention to or focused on, I knew his head was a little unsteady through our transitions but it always came back in a stride or two, but I feel like it has really made a difference in our overall performance. And I feel the need to mention that our downward transitions seriously were amazing in that lesson. So we're doing trot work and Alex keeps saying things like, "You are riding this horse with your hands like he is a light-mouthed Thoroughbred! Why do you do this? Communicate with your hands! Be more busy with your hands! Use those wire like things called reins they are for communication!! I do not see this horse curling or being too light, in fact I think he is being the opposite of light!" Because in my last few dressage lessons I've been supposed to be not using my hands, Alex!!!!!!!
We did some leg yielding and Hick was fantastic. A little canter work. And worked on getting the good swing-trot that you want for dressage via the leg yield and walk-trot transitions. I was really glad I ended up doing the lesson. It turned out much better than I had thought--there was lots of 'Ah, yes, this is nice, this is nice. Excellent, excellent!'
After my lesson Martha and I were talking about how it went and I was telling her I felt dumb for saying Hick gets overlight and then he didn't and Alex kept talking about how he was a big draft horse, he is not light! And Martha said how she wished Alex could have seen him when he first got here and how he was behaving at the show the past weekend. She said she almost said, 'Well, you should have seen this horse when he first came, how over-light he was,' but that she just decided to not say anything because he wouldn't have believed her haha, thanks martha.
More to come: Crescent Noseband, Penny Oaks, and more!
So, anyway, Monday I had an Alex dressage lesson! I was kind of nervous to ride for him. I used one of Pat's dressage saddles which I was trying out, but it sort of threw me up in the canter I felt like. So, we started out with a lot of walking and he asked me what our main problems come from. I told him that when Hickory gets really excited or tired he gets over-light on the bit and curls in his neck. There was a lot of 'ok, bring him rounder, bring him rounder.' We did some trotting and hit a problem area-- walk to trot transitions Hickory does not stay 'through' during the upward, his nose kind of pokes out in the air for a stride or two. So we did lots and lots and lots of walk to trot and trot to walk transitions, being sure to wiggle the bit around in the bit around before and during the upward to keep him very round and connected through the transition. I was really glad we worked on this, because I felt like it was one of those things that I had never really payed a lot of attention to or focused on, I knew his head was a little unsteady through our transitions but it always came back in a stride or two, but I feel like it has really made a difference in our overall performance. And I feel the need to mention that our downward transitions seriously were amazing in that lesson. So we're doing trot work and Alex keeps saying things like, "You are riding this horse with your hands like he is a light-mouthed Thoroughbred! Why do you do this? Communicate with your hands! Be more busy with your hands! Use those wire like things called reins they are for communication!! I do not see this horse curling or being too light, in fact I think he is being the opposite of light!" Because in my last few dressage lessons I've been supposed to be not using my hands, Alex!!!!!!!
We did some leg yielding and Hick was fantastic. A little canter work. And worked on getting the good swing-trot that you want for dressage via the leg yield and walk-trot transitions. I was really glad I ended up doing the lesson. It turned out much better than I had thought--there was lots of 'Ah, yes, this is nice, this is nice. Excellent, excellent!'
After my lesson Martha and I were talking about how it went and I was telling her I felt dumb for saying Hick gets overlight and then he didn't and Alex kept talking about how he was a big draft horse, he is not light! And Martha said how she wished Alex could have seen him when he first got here and how he was behaving at the show the past weekend. She said she almost said, 'Well, you should have seen this horse when he first came, how over-light he was,' but that she just decided to not say anything because he wouldn't have believed her haha, thanks martha.
More to come: Crescent Noseband, Penny Oaks, and more!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Gemwood & Pony Camp
Pony Camp!!!!! The week following Stone Place was Eventing/Pony Camp. Lauren L. and I had five little girls and their ponies to entertain for the week. They were darling and had so much fun. They had a jump lesson every day and we went on several "trail rides" down to the house and back (this entailed us going for a hike on foot beside them). They were big into silly bands and I got a princess/fairy wand silly band out of the deal.
The Tuesday after Stone Place, I did the group jump lesson. Neither myself or the other two riders had really jumped our horses since Martha had been gone and back. Therefore it was the jump lesson from hell. Refusals, crashing jumps, run outs... I was pleased at the end of the lesson to have only taken down one pole and one standard, haha. To add to it, Hickory had worn himself out that day galloping around his field and whinnying for Mr. Incredible, his pasturemate, who was being used in camp. So even though it was fairly cool out, he was preetty winded. We had a real skinny in our course, which was fun and Hick was realy cute at.
Wednesday we had a dressage lesson and practiced riding my test. Takeaway points were lengthen reins slightly after trot to walk downward transition to have a better medium walk, and bring him more round before canter departs. And stop forgetting my test. Well, actually, to learn my test.
Thursday I dressaged again, just practicing.
Friday we loaded up and headed out to Gemwood Horse Trials in Fairborn, OH. We had tent stabling, which I think actually turned out to be pretty nice--we had a GREAT breeze. Hickory was a little fireball Saturday when I got him out for dressage warm-up. Martha said, "Wow. Well, this is a completely different horse than at home." I had a difficult time getting him to relax and stop curling and move nicely in our warm up. And he really is like two different horses at home and at a show. to the point where you can't really ride him the same way. To the dressage test. It wasn't fantastic. It wasn't terrible, but I left the arena dissapointed. It was worse than our test last weekend at Stone Place. Not the winning ride we were expecting. It ended up being a 38, with most of the comments being about straightness and bend and line. The judge's final comments were "Good start, headed in the right direction." Martha was happy, she said this was a difficult judge who was hard to get good comments out of. So, that was so-so. I think I was in 8th place-ish after dressage. Then there was the stud fiasco. We needed to put in studs for stadium as it was in grass. Could not get my studs in. Hot. Working bent over with big Hickory's feet. Not happy. Had to get help. Ohh.. I wasn't using a T-tap to tap out my threads before I put my studs in. Oops. And then stadium was basically a disaster. He was behind my leg and jumping wickedly huge and cracking his back and I fell after the last jump. Should have recognized the behind my leg issue in the warm up. Was trying to ride him up and to my hand in the ring but didn't have any hand with the hackamore to ride him to. Hackamore tossed. Good at home, wrong for shows. Had a fun rest of the weekend, though. Saturday was Dieke's birthday so we all went out to eat. And everyone else had great rides.
Our improvement plan: Toss the hackamore. Feed at shows half the grain he normally gets. Take him out for a ride before dressage warm-up.
The Tuesday after Stone Place, I did the group jump lesson. Neither myself or the other two riders had really jumped our horses since Martha had been gone and back. Therefore it was the jump lesson from hell. Refusals, crashing jumps, run outs... I was pleased at the end of the lesson to have only taken down one pole and one standard, haha. To add to it, Hickory had worn himself out that day galloping around his field and whinnying for Mr. Incredible, his pasturemate, who was being used in camp. So even though it was fairly cool out, he was preetty winded. We had a real skinny in our course, which was fun and Hick was realy cute at.
Wednesday we had a dressage lesson and practiced riding my test. Takeaway points were lengthen reins slightly after trot to walk downward transition to have a better medium walk, and bring him more round before canter departs. And stop forgetting my test. Well, actually, to learn my test.
Thursday I dressaged again, just practicing.
Friday we loaded up and headed out to Gemwood Horse Trials in Fairborn, OH. We had tent stabling, which I think actually turned out to be pretty nice--we had a GREAT breeze. Hickory was a little fireball Saturday when I got him out for dressage warm-up. Martha said, "Wow. Well, this is a completely different horse than at home." I had a difficult time getting him to relax and stop curling and move nicely in our warm up. And he really is like two different horses at home and at a show. to the point where you can't really ride him the same way. To the dressage test. It wasn't fantastic. It wasn't terrible, but I left the arena dissapointed. It was worse than our test last weekend at Stone Place. Not the winning ride we were expecting. It ended up being a 38, with most of the comments being about straightness and bend and line. The judge's final comments were "Good start, headed in the right direction." Martha was happy, she said this was a difficult judge who was hard to get good comments out of. So, that was so-so. I think I was in 8th place-ish after dressage. Then there was the stud fiasco. We needed to put in studs for stadium as it was in grass. Could not get my studs in. Hot. Working bent over with big Hickory's feet. Not happy. Had to get help. Ohh.. I wasn't using a T-tap to tap out my threads before I put my studs in. Oops. And then stadium was basically a disaster. He was behind my leg and jumping wickedly huge and cracking his back and I fell after the last jump. Should have recognized the behind my leg issue in the warm up. Was trying to ride him up and to my hand in the ring but didn't have any hand with the hackamore to ride him to. Hackamore tossed. Good at home, wrong for shows. Had a fun rest of the weekend, though. Saturday was Dieke's birthday so we all went out to eat. And everyone else had great rides.
Our improvement plan: Toss the hackamore. Feed at shows half the grain he normally gets. Take him out for a ride before dressage warm-up.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Stone Place
Saturday was boot shopping day! Lauren K. and I left for The Hitching Post in Middletown around 10 on The Great Boot Hunt. It turned out not to be that 'great' of a boot hunt as it took a grand total of about 20 minutes. But I settled on the Mountain Horse Venice Field Boot. I've always had mountain horse boots in the past, just not tall boots. So, they are ordering them for me tomorrow. hopefully they will be here by Wednesday... giving me not very long to break them in before Gemwood this coming weekend............ :-/ but.. ya gotta do what ya gotta do!
After boot shopping we went down the street to this GREAT little local restaurant called The Cottage. If you are ever in Middletown and need somewhere to eat lunch, look this place up, it's fantastic. I'm definitely going back to eat there next time I'm in the neighborhood.
I rode Hickory dressage when we got back... trying to practice/memorize our test for the next day (today). It was the worst ride ever. We hadn't practiced riding a test in SO long. And then I started to get really confused about the lesson I had had with Lauren and the extent of the not using my hands rule.. and i couldn't get him to pay attention, and I couldn't get him to trot in a straight line down the sides of the ring and our corners were teeeeerrible and it was just a mess. And then I tried to change my stirrup length but in my stupid saddle when you try to do that while you're sitting in the saddle the stirrups always end up popping off. And so I'm hot and frustrated and my stirrup leather pops off. And of course you can't get it back in. So I just quit. And then I was supposed to do a trot set on Ghost but it started storming. So I did the barn instead.
But I had a great surprise when I got a text from Jason (my friend who went to Kenya/London with me) who was in the LaGrange area playing softball. Ended up at a cool place on the river for dinner.
And as a result got home way too late and had to get up waaayy to early to do the barn in time to leave for Stone Place at 8:30. Gave Hickory a bath and popped him in the trailer with Lilly. John drove the two horses, myself, and Lauren K. over to Stone Place (a little less than 15 miles down 42). Martha rode Lilly and Laura's filly Izzie in the Starter mini trial division. They won 1st and 2nd! I got on an hour before my ride (maybe a little early?) to warm up. It was super hot. I warmed up myself. I tried to be very thorough but at the same time not pick a fight with Hick or get myself frustrated. And for those two reasons, I'm glad I took so much time to warm up, because I felt like I had time and wasn't rushed. Our test went well. (Minus the part where I forgot what came next... definitely did not spend enough time learning this test, oops) I think I rode my test a little passively--as a result of how Hickory has behaved in dressage previously (can't do much with him because he will get too excited or too forward and then will curl up and everything falls apart). But all in all it was a decent test. Nothing BAD happened, none of the old BAD mistakes/habits showed up, and I think that is a great place to start. It could have been more spectacular, I coud have definitely ridden much more actively and given it a much better ride, but it was a good place to start and I was happy with it and so was Martha. The judge stopped me and talked to me before my test, she is a fellow Percheron/TB owner/rider and we bonded a little before I rode, lol. And her comments to me afterwards were that I could develop my trot a little more--make it more "passage-y" because she said she thought he looked like he was capable of it, and also to get the canter more uphill, more up in the shoulders. So, good comments! But these were just verbal comments, I haven't actually gotten my test paper back yet, I will have to run back over there one day and get it, so I dont' even know what my score was.
The end.
After boot shopping we went down the street to this GREAT little local restaurant called The Cottage. If you are ever in Middletown and need somewhere to eat lunch, look this place up, it's fantastic. I'm definitely going back to eat there next time I'm in the neighborhood.
I rode Hickory dressage when we got back... trying to practice/memorize our test for the next day (today). It was the worst ride ever. We hadn't practiced riding a test in SO long. And then I started to get really confused about the lesson I had had with Lauren and the extent of the not using my hands rule.. and i couldn't get him to pay attention, and I couldn't get him to trot in a straight line down the sides of the ring and our corners were teeeeerrible and it was just a mess. And then I tried to change my stirrup length but in my stupid saddle when you try to do that while you're sitting in the saddle the stirrups always end up popping off. And so I'm hot and frustrated and my stirrup leather pops off. And of course you can't get it back in. So I just quit. And then I was supposed to do a trot set on Ghost but it started storming. So I did the barn instead.
But I had a great surprise when I got a text from Jason (my friend who went to Kenya/London with me) who was in the LaGrange area playing softball. Ended up at a cool place on the river for dinner.
And as a result got home way too late and had to get up waaayy to early to do the barn in time to leave for Stone Place at 8:30. Gave Hickory a bath and popped him in the trailer with Lilly. John drove the two horses, myself, and Lauren K. over to Stone Place (a little less than 15 miles down 42). Martha rode Lilly and Laura's filly Izzie in the Starter mini trial division. They won 1st and 2nd! I got on an hour before my ride (maybe a little early?) to warm up. It was super hot. I warmed up myself. I tried to be very thorough but at the same time not pick a fight with Hick or get myself frustrated. And for those two reasons, I'm glad I took so much time to warm up, because I felt like I had time and wasn't rushed. Our test went well. (Minus the part where I forgot what came next... definitely did not spend enough time learning this test, oops) I think I rode my test a little passively--as a result of how Hickory has behaved in dressage previously (can't do much with him because he will get too excited or too forward and then will curl up and everything falls apart). But all in all it was a decent test. Nothing BAD happened, none of the old BAD mistakes/habits showed up, and I think that is a great place to start. It could have been more spectacular, I coud have definitely ridden much more actively and given it a much better ride, but it was a good place to start and I was happy with it and so was Martha. The judge stopped me and talked to me before my test, she is a fellow Percheron/TB owner/rider and we bonded a little before I rode, lol. And her comments to me afterwards were that I could develop my trot a little more--make it more "passage-y" because she said she thought he looked like he was capable of it, and also to get the canter more uphill, more up in the shoulders. So, good comments! But these were just verbal comments, I haven't actually gotten my test paper back yet, I will have to run back over there one day and get it, so I dont' even know what my score was.
The end.
Friday, July 16, 2010
XC Bit Search/You Are Not Allowed to Use Your Reins!/Used Boots Anyone?
Alrighty, going to start making a habit of making more frequent entries.
Let's start with this past Monday. Martha and over the half the barn has spent the last few days (monday-friday) at Come Again Farm's Eventing Camp in Indiana. But before Martha left on Monday, we took a little trip over to Flying Cross bright and early. The goal of the trnip was to find out if the fantastic hackamore would double as equipment for both stadium AND cross country. Sadly, it was nixed in the first few minutes of the ride. Another of Martha's students, Irene, who was schooling with us that morning offered her gag for us to try, so we went on with that. Thinking back, I am SO PROUD of how brave Hickory has been cross-country schooling, and I hope that it's the reflection of a good, trusting partnership. We schooled several Training level obstacles. We did one bank, but left it at that as he takes banks like a champ. And if your horse doesn't have problems with banks, it's best to not overschool them to save their joints. We did get to do the Sunken Road, though! A Sunken Road is like an inverted bank.... With a bank you jump up onto a higher level, take a few strides and then jump back down. With a sunken road you jump down into a lower level, take a few strides, and then jump back up and out. Hickory jumped down and jumped out like he'd done it a million times before! I was really proud of him. And as I am more or less a new learner at the proper way to jump off a bank... must remember: let your reins gradually get longer as you approach the drop (gotta trust your horse to stay straight, hard to do) and keep your hands low as you jump off! We went on to the training level one stride logs in the woods that I mentioned in a previous post. Our first run through was succesful but pretty sticky inbetween jumps. The second go around I just did a poor job of riding the correct line and we zoomed on by the second part. And this next part is strange, because I don't remember Hickory being at all overly worked up or nervous or hot to my leg. But we came back around and I stopped him in front of the second jump, I had my reins in one hand and was sort of talking to Martha about what had happened, not paying complete attention. I tapped him on the shoulder with my crop (crop on the shoulder is discipline for a run out, crop on the butt is discipline for a refusal), and a tap was all it was. And seconds later we were airborn over the jump. Completely not expecting that reaction from him, I'm surprised I stayed on. Martha said, "it wasn't your intention to jump that from a standstill was it?" and I was like "noooo!" and she said "I didn't think so." We checked out the water complex which was this time full with water. It was fun, we jumped off a little bank into the water and up a little bank out of the water. We also got to jump a jump where you landed in the water and jump a jump where you take off in the water and land out of it. The gag stopped working about 30 minutes into the ride, though, and at this point Hickory was super curled up and I was having an awful time of steering/stopping. So, the search for a cross-country bit continues.
Tuesday was a rainy day. I hit the barn in my rainboots and rainjacket bright and early. But I was a free lady after that, as everyone was gone to Camp. So I hit the road and headed into Louisville to run some errands and have some appointments. I had lunch with the lovely Megan Reid. My mom was also in town for a meeting, so we had dinner in LaGrange. I was a little miffed at this, because she said she would be in town and could take me out to dinner--I was thinking.. the Summit, Brownsboro Rd. area... nope. LaGrange. The choice was between Ponderosa and Waffle House. LaGrange's finest. And when can you ever pass up a Waffle House waffle? Never. Thanks mommy!
Wednesday morning I had a lesson with Lauren, Martha's daughter. Lauren is a great teacher, I came to find. She got on Hickory to warm him up and get a feel for him. And thinking about it, now, I don't know how anyone ever teaches anyone anything about their horse without first riding it themselves. The take-away lesson for the day was You Cannot Ride This Horse With Your Reins. And Carry Your Hands! There is no fidgeting in Hickory's mouth. He does not accept contact very well. You have to carry your hands yourself and keep them very steady--they are his constant. The hands. don't. move. Except a little tiny wiggle to get a little inside bend and a one-two-three half-halt on the outside rein for a downward transition. I worked on riding him TO my hand with my leg and especially my seat. It was all about the seat. You hear the phrase "Ride him to your hand" thrown around and your like oh yeah yeah, ride him to your hand. But when you actually DO ride your horse TO your hand with your seat, it's like 'ooohhhhhh, ride him TO your hand.' It's a really neat feeling to have your horse a little out of frame and keeping your hands and fingers motionless and constant, and push with your seat to have your horse meet your hands and come back into frame. It's a much better feeling than working his head back down with the reins. We also worked on transitioning back and forth between a BIG trot and a swing-trot using only a change in posting or a change in body position at the sitting trot, no reins or even leg. It was so cool how responsive and in-tune to my body he is. Lauren noticed also that he has a tendency to lean a little on my left rein, especially in the left direction, so we worked on that, taking away that left rein. Also cool body movement stuff. At the canter we would come down the long side and do sort of a mini/shallow serpentine or a "loop" down the long side, but keeping the same bend throughout. We accomplished this using no change in leg and no change in rein. I moved him off the rail and then back onto the rail at the canter with a fair amount of precision using just my seat. So, it was a very information-packed lesson, but incredibly helpful, and hopefully I'll get to take some more lessons from Lauren before the summer's over.
Later on Wednesday, the blacksmith, Daniel gave Hickory new feet! He complimented Rex's previous shoeing job a great deal. Daniel tells pretty good stories, so it's always a nice break in the day to have to catch and hold horses for him. I helped set jumps for Lauren while she schooled her horse she has been trying to qualify for Rolex with, Baaba Creek, over some cross-country stuff. This was actually the first time I'd had a chance to watch her ride him all summer and it was really fun to see. And I stopped and thought to myself. How lucky am I that I am here runnin around helping in a training session for an about four star horse and rider? Really lucky, really cool.
Yesterday was Thursday, nothing horsey occured. Lived in the basement and worked on my med school application all day.
Today was a busy day though! Barns in the morning, then whipped out the ol' tall show boots to try to break in (yes, finally Diane). It was awful. I hate those boots. With a passion. I know they aren't broken down all the way, but I think they are at least a half a size too big. I could not ride in them. It was hot nand one of those days and I had a coming apart and ended up calling my mom crying. Tomorrow is new boot shopping day. I just want a pair or soft, flexible zip up the back boots. If anyone even has a used pair they are looking to sell, let me know--I wear a 6.5 to a 7. I rode Denira for Pat, today. Love that horse. And I love these County saddles that everyone up here owns. They are so comfortable and make you feel soo secure in the saddle. Anyway, we did a 20 minute trot set and man. Twenty minutes of trotting on a big, strong horse like that-- is a workout!!! When I was done with her, I went down to the small barn and fed the horses and tacked up Ghost. We went for a hack and I think we both had a good amount of fun. He has so much personality and really enjoys being ridden. Again, another County saddle. After our ride, I finished up the barn. Lauren K. is staying the weekend this weekend and Martha got home from camp this afternoon so we had a big dinner outside on the patio. Lots of yummy fresh grilled veggies from the garden, steak, Corona, and good stories.
Let's start with this past Monday. Martha and over the half the barn has spent the last few days (monday-friday) at Come Again Farm's Eventing Camp in Indiana. But before Martha left on Monday, we took a little trip over to Flying Cross bright and early. The goal of the trnip was to find out if the fantastic hackamore would double as equipment for both stadium AND cross country. Sadly, it was nixed in the first few minutes of the ride. Another of Martha's students, Irene, who was schooling with us that morning offered her gag for us to try, so we went on with that. Thinking back, I am SO PROUD of how brave Hickory has been cross-country schooling, and I hope that it's the reflection of a good, trusting partnership. We schooled several Training level obstacles. We did one bank, but left it at that as he takes banks like a champ. And if your horse doesn't have problems with banks, it's best to not overschool them to save their joints. We did get to do the Sunken Road, though! A Sunken Road is like an inverted bank.... With a bank you jump up onto a higher level, take a few strides and then jump back down. With a sunken road you jump down into a lower level, take a few strides, and then jump back up and out. Hickory jumped down and jumped out like he'd done it a million times before! I was really proud of him. And as I am more or less a new learner at the proper way to jump off a bank... must remember: let your reins gradually get longer as you approach the drop (gotta trust your horse to stay straight, hard to do) and keep your hands low as you jump off! We went on to the training level one stride logs in the woods that I mentioned in a previous post. Our first run through was succesful but pretty sticky inbetween jumps. The second go around I just did a poor job of riding the correct line and we zoomed on by the second part. And this next part is strange, because I don't remember Hickory being at all overly worked up or nervous or hot to my leg. But we came back around and I stopped him in front of the second jump, I had my reins in one hand and was sort of talking to Martha about what had happened, not paying complete attention. I tapped him on the shoulder with my crop (crop on the shoulder is discipline for a run out, crop on the butt is discipline for a refusal), and a tap was all it was. And seconds later we were airborn over the jump. Completely not expecting that reaction from him, I'm surprised I stayed on. Martha said, "it wasn't your intention to jump that from a standstill was it?" and I was like "noooo!" and she said "I didn't think so." We checked out the water complex which was this time full with water. It was fun, we jumped off a little bank into the water and up a little bank out of the water. We also got to jump a jump where you landed in the water and jump a jump where you take off in the water and land out of it. The gag stopped working about 30 minutes into the ride, though, and at this point Hickory was super curled up and I was having an awful time of steering/stopping. So, the search for a cross-country bit continues.
Tuesday was a rainy day. I hit the barn in my rainboots and rainjacket bright and early. But I was a free lady after that, as everyone was gone to Camp. So I hit the road and headed into Louisville to run some errands and have some appointments. I had lunch with the lovely Megan Reid. My mom was also in town for a meeting, so we had dinner in LaGrange. I was a little miffed at this, because she said she would be in town and could take me out to dinner--I was thinking.. the Summit, Brownsboro Rd. area... nope. LaGrange. The choice was between Ponderosa and Waffle House. LaGrange's finest. And when can you ever pass up a Waffle House waffle? Never. Thanks mommy!
Wednesday morning I had a lesson with Lauren, Martha's daughter. Lauren is a great teacher, I came to find. She got on Hickory to warm him up and get a feel for him. And thinking about it, now, I don't know how anyone ever teaches anyone anything about their horse without first riding it themselves. The take-away lesson for the day was You Cannot Ride This Horse With Your Reins. And Carry Your Hands! There is no fidgeting in Hickory's mouth. He does not accept contact very well. You have to carry your hands yourself and keep them very steady--they are his constant. The hands. don't. move. Except a little tiny wiggle to get a little inside bend and a one-two-three half-halt on the outside rein for a downward transition. I worked on riding him TO my hand with my leg and especially my seat. It was all about the seat. You hear the phrase "Ride him to your hand" thrown around and your like oh yeah yeah, ride him to your hand. But when you actually DO ride your horse TO your hand with your seat, it's like 'ooohhhhhh, ride him TO your hand.' It's a really neat feeling to have your horse a little out of frame and keeping your hands and fingers motionless and constant, and push with your seat to have your horse meet your hands and come back into frame. It's a much better feeling than working his head back down with the reins. We also worked on transitioning back and forth between a BIG trot and a swing-trot using only a change in posting or a change in body position at the sitting trot, no reins or even leg. It was so cool how responsive and in-tune to my body he is. Lauren noticed also that he has a tendency to lean a little on my left rein, especially in the left direction, so we worked on that, taking away that left rein. Also cool body movement stuff. At the canter we would come down the long side and do sort of a mini/shallow serpentine or a "loop" down the long side, but keeping the same bend throughout. We accomplished this using no change in leg and no change in rein. I moved him off the rail and then back onto the rail at the canter with a fair amount of precision using just my seat. So, it was a very information-packed lesson, but incredibly helpful, and hopefully I'll get to take some more lessons from Lauren before the summer's over.
Later on Wednesday, the blacksmith, Daniel gave Hickory new feet! He complimented Rex's previous shoeing job a great deal. Daniel tells pretty good stories, so it's always a nice break in the day to have to catch and hold horses for him. I helped set jumps for Lauren while she schooled her horse she has been trying to qualify for Rolex with, Baaba Creek, over some cross-country stuff. This was actually the first time I'd had a chance to watch her ride him all summer and it was really fun to see. And I stopped and thought to myself. How lucky am I that I am here runnin around helping in a training session for an about four star horse and rider? Really lucky, really cool.
Yesterday was Thursday, nothing horsey occured. Lived in the basement and worked on my med school application all day.
Today was a busy day though! Barns in the morning, then whipped out the ol' tall show boots to try to break in (yes, finally Diane). It was awful. I hate those boots. With a passion. I know they aren't broken down all the way, but I think they are at least a half a size too big. I could not ride in them. It was hot nand one of those days and I had a coming apart and ended up calling my mom crying. Tomorrow is new boot shopping day. I just want a pair or soft, flexible zip up the back boots. If anyone even has a used pair they are looking to sell, let me know--I wear a 6.5 to a 7. I rode Denira for Pat, today. Love that horse. And I love these County saddles that everyone up here owns. They are so comfortable and make you feel soo secure in the saddle. Anyway, we did a 20 minute trot set and man. Twenty minutes of trotting on a big, strong horse like that-- is a workout!!! When I was done with her, I went down to the small barn and fed the horses and tacked up Ghost. We went for a hack and I think we both had a good amount of fun. He has so much personality and really enjoys being ridden. Again, another County saddle. After our ride, I finished up the barn. Lauren K. is staying the weekend this weekend and Martha got home from camp this afternoon so we had a big dinner outside on the patio. Lots of yummy fresh grilled veggies from the garden, steak, Corona, and good stories.
Friday, July 9, 2010
V-rails, hackamores, and German dressage masters
Yikes, a lot has happened since last time! I've been trying really hard to remember all the good stuff, though! So here goes...
I did what Martha wanted me to do and on an off day took Hickory up to the jump arena. I took my stirrups off my saddle and hopped on. In my opinion, jumping in a saddle without stirrups is much more difficult that just jumping bareback. I have been a bareback jumping fiend in my past, but saddles are much more slippery and harder to hold on to. So, I trotted around, posted and sitting, cantered, did some downards transitions where I almost fell off, etc. Hopped over some little stuff really trying to maintain proper leg position. Once my legs were nice and jello-y, I put my stirrups back on my saddle and went to work on this "compression" issue we had in our previous lesson. We were supposed to jump the roll top then six strides on a bending line to a smallish oxer. In our last lesson, I couldn't get in more than 5 strides (Hickory was just too excited to be jumping he didn't want to compress and go 'slower'). So, I needed to have a much more collected, balanced canter after landing off the rolltop. But, that doesn't mean that you're supposed to ride into the rolltop 'backwards' either. I finally got the hang of sitting up after the jump and saying 'hey buddy! listen up!' We got our 6 strides and even accidentally got 7 strides once. So, good to know, my horse IS compressible.
Another day, I had an AWESOME jumping lesson. We started warming up and I watched as Martha kept setting the jumps higher and higher and I thought 'hmmm this is fishy. those are getting big.' We jumped this oxer in one direction, then she would move it up a hole, and we would jump it in the other direction, and she would move it up a hole, etc. Until Hickory started knocking the rails. Once comment that will be good to remember during this process was when she said "When the jumps start getting big like this, you can't throw your body at them." You have to be very patient and not chase the jump with your shoulders, you have to sit up straight and wait for it to come to you. And I think, this is just me reflecting, that when you chase the jump with your shoulders that's when you end up getting the big distances (which, remember, you can only safely have 3 of in a round before things start getting messy), but if you are patient and wait for it, your horse can often succesfully add in another stride, which is beneficial if they are an athletic jumper and know how to maneuver their body to take a jump when they get in close to it? hmm. Anyway, the oxer we were jumping, it turns out, was a Prelim level oxer which is 3'6, which I was pretty darn excited about. But, since he kept knocking it, we moved over to a 3'6 vertical that Martha set up "V-rails" on. If you're approaching it, it's an upside down V. Two poles. The point of the v is in the center of the jump as the poles are resting on the top rail of the jump and the spread part of the v is coming out towards you like a chute. So, because of this chute, you have to jump the middle of the jump, but the middle of the jump has this maybe 3" higher point to it. The exercise teaches the horse a different way to use his body which is what they need to learn when they start jumping big jumps. It really makes them sit back and "rear up" in their take off. And MAN it feels like you are taking off in a spaceship! We jumped the v-rails several times, being sure to have an appropriate canter. A few times Hick bucked a little bit after the jump, but it was a 'woah, that was different, mom!' buck because he was using different muscles to jump differently. It was a really cool lesson. Not very long, we stopped pretty quickly, he was gonna be sore the next day!
The next day was Friday, my daddy's birthday and I was leaving to go home for the weekend. So that morning I hopped on for a little bareback dressage ride. We mostly did walk work--leg yields, shoulder in, consistent frame stuff.
Had a fantastic 4th of July weekend at home.
Tuesday I had another jump lesson with the training level group, but that day it was just me and one other girl. We tried something new with Hickory's bit. Took a piece of leather and looped it through both side rings of my snaffle and then took the ends and tied them up really snuggly around the noseband. The theory behind this was that we were trying to take some of the pressure off of the bars of his mouth and redistribute it to his nose--sort of hackamore-like-- to reduce the curling issue. It wasn't very pretty. Not terrible, but not pretty. He didn't curl a whole lot, but there was some curling, plus I had significantly less leverage than normal so steering and stopping were bad. But aside from a little tug of war, he was FANTASTIC. He jumped wonderfully.
Thursday we finally tried out the hackamore (like a bitless bridle). Instead of on the mouth, the pressure of the reins is distributed across the horses nose, and there is a curb chain for leverage. It's really weird, wondering what it's going to be like jumping your horse without a bit in his mouth... how's he going to act? how does this thing even work? But it was phenomenal. It was perfect for Hickory. He never curled up once, and I could stop so easily, steering will take a little practice but was pretty decent, and the overall quality of his canter and jump improved as well. His shoulders were up, he had an uphill canter, and Martha said he looked much "free-er." So, am currently searching out a good hackamore to purchase!
Wednesday and Thursday world-renowned Pferdewirtschaftsmeister, or dressage master, Alex Gerding stayed at Land's End to teach a dressage clinic. I didn't get to see much the first day, but I saw some really cool stuff the second day. One of the riders commented 'this guy is better than Michael Poulin!' Something interesting he said that everyone could benefit from--faulty use of technical term--the "outside" whatever does not indicate the side that is next to the wall/fence/whatever. "outside" refers to side off the bend. So if someone says use your outside leg, that is the opposite leg of the direction your horse is bent, regardless of the wall. He said 'we don't ride in relation to buildings!' In his great german accent. I learned a lot, but it is hard to explain because the things he taught were different and specific for each and every horse. At the end of the day Thursday, (Alex is staying at Martha's house) I was in the house getting ready to go to Junior League in Lexington with Rachel (saddlebred show), which is a dressy affair. So, I was all done up, actually did my hair, was wearing makeup, etc. I come upstairs to put my contacts in in the bathroom and there's Alex Gerding. I smile. He says, "And vere are you going?", noticing I'm dressed up. Me: "Oh, I'm going to Lexington to a Saddlebred show with my friend, and apparently we are supposed to dress up for it." He says, "Yes, yes, I see zis. You look very pretty. Ve like it, ve like it a lot." It was great. And he's coming back to Land's End in a few weeks to do a follow-up clinic. I wish I could scrape together the money to ride with him! The cool thing is is that he gets on almost everyone's horse during the lesson, so you get to watch him ride your horse.
So, there are the highlights from the past few days!
I did what Martha wanted me to do and on an off day took Hickory up to the jump arena. I took my stirrups off my saddle and hopped on. In my opinion, jumping in a saddle without stirrups is much more difficult that just jumping bareback. I have been a bareback jumping fiend in my past, but saddles are much more slippery and harder to hold on to. So, I trotted around, posted and sitting, cantered, did some downards transitions where I almost fell off, etc. Hopped over some little stuff really trying to maintain proper leg position. Once my legs were nice and jello-y, I put my stirrups back on my saddle and went to work on this "compression" issue we had in our previous lesson. We were supposed to jump the roll top then six strides on a bending line to a smallish oxer. In our last lesson, I couldn't get in more than 5 strides (Hickory was just too excited to be jumping he didn't want to compress and go 'slower'). So, I needed to have a much more collected, balanced canter after landing off the rolltop. But, that doesn't mean that you're supposed to ride into the rolltop 'backwards' either. I finally got the hang of sitting up after the jump and saying 'hey buddy! listen up!' We got our 6 strides and even accidentally got 7 strides once. So, good to know, my horse IS compressible.
Another day, I had an AWESOME jumping lesson. We started warming up and I watched as Martha kept setting the jumps higher and higher and I thought 'hmmm this is fishy. those are getting big.' We jumped this oxer in one direction, then she would move it up a hole, and we would jump it in the other direction, and she would move it up a hole, etc. Until Hickory started knocking the rails. Once comment that will be good to remember during this process was when she said "When the jumps start getting big like this, you can't throw your body at them." You have to be very patient and not chase the jump with your shoulders, you have to sit up straight and wait for it to come to you. And I think, this is just me reflecting, that when you chase the jump with your shoulders that's when you end up getting the big distances (which, remember, you can only safely have 3 of in a round before things start getting messy), but if you are patient and wait for it, your horse can often succesfully add in another stride, which is beneficial if they are an athletic jumper and know how to maneuver their body to take a jump when they get in close to it? hmm. Anyway, the oxer we were jumping, it turns out, was a Prelim level oxer which is 3'6, which I was pretty darn excited about. But, since he kept knocking it, we moved over to a 3'6 vertical that Martha set up "V-rails" on. If you're approaching it, it's an upside down V. Two poles. The point of the v is in the center of the jump as the poles are resting on the top rail of the jump and the spread part of the v is coming out towards you like a chute. So, because of this chute, you have to jump the middle of the jump, but the middle of the jump has this maybe 3" higher point to it. The exercise teaches the horse a different way to use his body which is what they need to learn when they start jumping big jumps. It really makes them sit back and "rear up" in their take off. And MAN it feels like you are taking off in a spaceship! We jumped the v-rails several times, being sure to have an appropriate canter. A few times Hick bucked a little bit after the jump, but it was a 'woah, that was different, mom!' buck because he was using different muscles to jump differently. It was a really cool lesson. Not very long, we stopped pretty quickly, he was gonna be sore the next day!
The next day was Friday, my daddy's birthday and I was leaving to go home for the weekend. So that morning I hopped on for a little bareback dressage ride. We mostly did walk work--leg yields, shoulder in, consistent frame stuff.
Had a fantastic 4th of July weekend at home.
Tuesday I had another jump lesson with the training level group, but that day it was just me and one other girl. We tried something new with Hickory's bit. Took a piece of leather and looped it through both side rings of my snaffle and then took the ends and tied them up really snuggly around the noseband. The theory behind this was that we were trying to take some of the pressure off of the bars of his mouth and redistribute it to his nose--sort of hackamore-like-- to reduce the curling issue. It wasn't very pretty. Not terrible, but not pretty. He didn't curl a whole lot, but there was some curling, plus I had significantly less leverage than normal so steering and stopping were bad. But aside from a little tug of war, he was FANTASTIC. He jumped wonderfully.
Thursday we finally tried out the hackamore (like a bitless bridle). Instead of on the mouth, the pressure of the reins is distributed across the horses nose, and there is a curb chain for leverage. It's really weird, wondering what it's going to be like jumping your horse without a bit in his mouth... how's he going to act? how does this thing even work? But it was phenomenal. It was perfect for Hickory. He never curled up once, and I could stop so easily, steering will take a little practice but was pretty decent, and the overall quality of his canter and jump improved as well. His shoulders were up, he had an uphill canter, and Martha said he looked much "free-er." So, am currently searching out a good hackamore to purchase!
Wednesday and Thursday world-renowned Pferdewirtschaftsmeister, or dressage master, Alex Gerding stayed at Land's End to teach a dressage clinic. I didn't get to see much the first day, but I saw some really cool stuff the second day. One of the riders commented 'this guy is better than Michael Poulin!' Something interesting he said that everyone could benefit from--faulty use of technical term--the "outside" whatever does not indicate the side that is next to the wall/fence/whatever. "outside" refers to side off the bend. So if someone says use your outside leg, that is the opposite leg of the direction your horse is bent, regardless of the wall. He said 'we don't ride in relation to buildings!' In his great german accent. I learned a lot, but it is hard to explain because the things he taught were different and specific for each and every horse. At the end of the day Thursday, (Alex is staying at Martha's house) I was in the house getting ready to go to Junior League in Lexington with Rachel (saddlebred show), which is a dressy affair. So, I was all done up, actually did my hair, was wearing makeup, etc. I come upstairs to put my contacts in in the bathroom and there's Alex Gerding. I smile. He says, "And vere are you going?", noticing I'm dressed up. Me: "Oh, I'm going to Lexington to a Saddlebred show with my friend, and apparently we are supposed to dress up for it." He says, "Yes, yes, I see zis. You look very pretty. Ve like it, ve like it a lot." It was great. And he's coming back to Land's End in a few weeks to do a follow-up clinic. I wish I could scrape together the money to ride with him! The cool thing is is that he gets on almost everyone's horse during the lesson, so you get to watch him ride your horse.
So, there are the highlights from the past few days!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Practice, Practice, Practice!
Yesterday was Monday which is usually sort of an off day. I've really needed to be able to find some time to work on the dressage stuff we've been learning in lessons. So, I tacked up and headed to the indoor. I was just warming up when Martha came in and asked if I wanted a lesson. Duh. I hadn't yet gotten to practice what we had learned in our last dressage lesson (the shoulder-in) and I like to have a session just me and Hick inbetween our lessons to really try to work through our issues. But it was a good learning lesson. It's now time to start putting Hickory in more of a frame when we're walking and trotting, so we worked on that.. having a consistent frame. A lot on posting and keeping the arms very still and steady to maintain a consistent connection, posting to your arms. Also, I'm supposed to start every ride by walk/trot/cantering and doing transitions without stirrups to loosen up and get moving with the horse. Our shoulder-in's at the walk were really good. We had issues at the trot. I couldn't get him to move his body off of my inside leg. When i would put it on him he would say 'oh speed up????' instead of 'move sideways?' So we worked that for a while and then martha left to let us work on our own some. Once I wrapped my head around things, which is a lot of the time most of the problem, we started doing some leg yielding at the trot as a reminder that leg does not always mean go faster, it can also mean move over sideways. Then we attempted some more shoulder in and it was much improved. We did some canter work, also, mainly transitions and one leg yielding pass in each direction and then that was definitely enough for him for one day.
Today we had a jumping lesson with the ladies. Things to work on: having compressibility of my horse. Need to be able to compress and expand him like an accordion between jumps. We had one line that was supposed to be a 6 stride and we kept getting it in 5 and I could not get him to compress to get it in 6. And that's fine for today, considering that everything we've been teaching him has been 'go go go!' But it's something to work on. Also, I need to get stronger and learn to land in more in my heels on our landing. I tend to land on my hands and get pulled forward. So when I come out to practice jumping I'm supposed to take my stirrups off and jump a lot of little stuff with no stirrups to get stronger. I got to ride Denera today which I was reeeeaaalllyyyy excited about. She is one of Martha's clients' horses. She is a gigantic Westfalen mare from Germany that Martha is competing. She is my favorite horse on the entire farm. It's the bay that Martha was riding at the Jan Byyny clinic (Amanda, Audrey, Diane). And she needed to be exercised today so I got to take her for a 20 minute trot. And it was fuuun!
Oh! And Hickory got a boo boo on his face somehow. He has a big lumb right smack in the middle of his face. It looks similarly to what you think of when you hear someone has broken their nose. Pictures to come.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
The Morgue
oThis entry is going to be pretty non-horse related, but still cool.
Saturday morning I woke up super early--4:45. I had to do the barn, go back to the house and change/get ready, and drive into Louisville to get to the Dr. Corey's office by 7:30. Dr. Tracey Corey is the state medical examiner--she does autopsy cases. She is also a student of Martha's, which is how I got set up to shadow her this weekend. I lucked out! So I'm driving around, lost (of course), but in the vicinity of where I'm supposed to be.. kind of looking at the buildings, wondering which one is the one I need... and then I see two people rolling a body bag out of a set of doors--found it! I went in, and met one of the interns who gave me a tour of the facility but was told that surprisingly, there were no cases that day. So, you can't really complain about there being no dead people. Not that I was wishing someone would die...... but I really did want to see an autopsy. I left, a little dissappointed, but ready to return the next morning.
(I took Hickypoo for an easy little bareback walk that afternoon, too, since he had such a big day the day before.)
So, same drill this morning. Up early, didn't get lost, though. A wave of tiredness has suddenly hit me, so I'm going to spare you the super gory details (they truly are extraordinarily gorey). I got to see three autopsies--an overdose, and a husband/wife homicide-suicide. I think Dr. Corey is pretty amazing. It was an experience.
Also, rode new horse Marco today. Likely, more Marco stories at a later point in time.
Saturday morning I woke up super early--4:45. I had to do the barn, go back to the house and change/get ready, and drive into Louisville to get to the Dr. Corey's office by 7:30. Dr. Tracey Corey is the state medical examiner--she does autopsy cases. She is also a student of Martha's, which is how I got set up to shadow her this weekend. I lucked out! So I'm driving around, lost (of course), but in the vicinity of where I'm supposed to be.. kind of looking at the buildings, wondering which one is the one I need... and then I see two people rolling a body bag out of a set of doors--found it! I went in, and met one of the interns who gave me a tour of the facility but was told that surprisingly, there were no cases that day. So, you can't really complain about there being no dead people. Not that I was wishing someone would die...... but I really did want to see an autopsy. I left, a little dissappointed, but ready to return the next morning.
(I took Hickypoo for an easy little bareback walk that afternoon, too, since he had such a big day the day before.)
So, same drill this morning. Up early, didn't get lost, though. A wave of tiredness has suddenly hit me, so I'm going to spare you the super gory details (they truly are extraordinarily gorey). I got to see three autopsies--an overdose, and a husband/wife homicide-suicide. I think Dr. Corey is pretty amazing. It was an experience.
Also, rode new horse Marco today. Likely, more Marco stories at a later point in time.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Three Lesson Catch Up
Alrighty. I've had three lessons since last entry.
First, was a jump lesson. It wasn't too eventful. We started jumping a little higher, I think. But, notable things to remember: 1. Toes out, heels down over the jump! 2. Don't curl your back with your horse when you jump, keep back more flat! 3. Don't take your eye off the jump until it dissappears from your field of view on the approach. 4. You have to ride hard into one strides and combinations. That's all I can think of...
Next lesson was a dressage lesson, and it was goooood. Still using the hot dog bit. Borrowed Martha's spurs. We learned all about the shoulder in. At first, when you ask for the shoulder in, it's easiest to start coming out of a 10m circle, because you already have the correct bend. Your outside leg is back a little bit. Your inside leg is under you. And your hands are to the inside, like when it is done correctly, your outside hand should be even with your bellybutton. And you should be sitting on your inside seatbone. It was hard for me to catch onto at first because when I think shoulder in, I think: use outside leg to push shoulders off the wall. Wrong. We get our bend with our hands, and if we need have our inside rein out like a lunge line. Then we use lots and lots of inside leg underneath of us to keep the horse on the track. This is where those spurs came in super handy. Because he is a big horse and that is a big body to keep molded into a certain position. And your horse is traveling on three different tracks. The inside foreleg is on it's own track. The outside foreleg and inside hind leg are on their own track together, and the outside hind leg is on it's own track. And the horse is moving forward. And the thing is, that you can't really tell what's going on down there under you when you're riding. All that 'track' business sort of went over my head. So, we were walking down the wall, attempting this and Martha keeps saying how you need to be looking straight ahead. (This is going on in the indoor where there are these FANTASTIC mirrors on the ends of the arena so you can see yourself. And finally she yells "LOOK STRAIGHT AHEAD! LOOK IN YOUR MIRROR!" And voila. I looked into the mirror directly in front of us that we were heading for and saw my horse and saw the three tracks. He looked like a three legged creature from straight on, one front leg moving on its own, the two diagonal legs moving together as one, and then the other hind leg. It was a 'eureka!' moment. But it was sooooo coooool! And we progressed to being able to do it without the 10m circle and could just do it out of our corners. Then we worked it at the trot which was a little rough, but we had some shining shoulder-in moments. And the purpose behind all this is that the shoulder in helps your horse learn to bring his inside hind leg closer to your outside rein, get his butt up under you and develop some hock action. We did some canter-work next, and worked on leg yielding at the canter. Again, with the same purpose as the shoulder-in basically. So we leg yielding and suddenly, when we did it right, he felt amazingly light on the forehand, and his shoulders were lifted, and his hind end was under him. Martha said 'tell him what a good boy he is!! this it hard for him!!' and I did and she commented again about what good work ethic he has. We worked some on leads, also. And she said that at this point, he knows. And that he is a big boy now and its not acceptable for him to keep taking the incorrect lead over and over again. She said to 'make an impression on him' when he takes the wrong lead. Which I did and he said 'oh crap, I really do have to use my brain and do what she asks.' And then she said when he does it right, you also have to 'make an impression on him.' So, when he would take the correct lead, I would lean forward and rub his neck and tell him what a good boy he is! It was a really productive lesson and the spurs were GREAT.
And today we went cross-country schooling at Flying Cross--a beautiful farm 6 miles down the road. Hickory was an ANGEL. We talked about how, when you are galloping along, you are off their back so they can roll under you, but you are disconnected. And then seven or eight strides out from the jump you should sit lightly and start doing the 'hoola hoop' like motion, to engage their hind end. This becomes a signal, the hoola hoop motion says ok, engage yourself, get that hind end under you, there's something coming up we need to prepare for. And you may also have to adjust their balance with your leg and reins but that eventually sitting down on their back becomes its own half halt and they learn what to do. We did some littler warm up stuff. Then we went to a different field and jumped off a pretty good sized drop. I was really really proud of Hick, because we've had jumping off bank problems in the past. And this one was basically like a big ramp you cantered up in the middle of the field and then jumped off. I was waiting for him to stop, but he stretched his neck down and peered off the edge as we got close and jumped right off! And my balance has been great coming off the drops lately, too. Then we had our first refusal. It was a pretty good sized rolltop looking thing and we were galloping a little uphill towards it. And he pulled his characteristic, 'we're going away from the barn/trailer, i'm going to get behind your leg and not go perfectly straight, don't really want to do this,STOP.' And I was very glad he did, because that meant Martha got to see it. She said, and i paraphrase, "He is just being silly. You lose him, he gets lost behind your leg and loses his straightness and it's just silly. He needs to be more trained at jumps like these, in situations like this. Train him. Don't let him stop. Don't let him get behind your leg. Teach him that we will NEVER put him in a situation that will harm him, use your spur and give him that bravery.' So we came up to it again and of course, it was the second time and we hopped right over it. But we then circled around to a pretty good sized log that probably wouldn't be on a Novice course, maybe a training? I will describe it as a fake Trakehner, there wasn't really a ditch underneath it.. but the log was raised up off the ground and there was a 'faux' ditch--like a little box that extended from a foot or two in front to a foot or two behind that you had to clear to clear the jump. It looked big and scary to me and I didn't think we were goign to jump it when we came into the field. But off we went. And I used it for a training ride to teach him. We tore at it and when he started to look a ways back I popped him on the butt and he said yikes! and kept his impulsion and stayed in front of my leg. He looked at it again a stride or two out and I popped him on the shoulder and then used my spurs at the base of the jump and he flew over it, perfectly! Everyone was happy. I don't think they put one strides on novice cross-country, but i'm not sure. So this next one might have been a training level jump. But it was two log stacks on a trail with one stride inbetween. We talked about needing to ride the first fence strong and really be sure to ride inbetween. And Martha commented on his nimbleness as he took the first jump like a champ and then skirted to a stop before the second one. But we weren't mad at him because he really hasn't done very many one strides in his life and this was a pretty sizeable one. So, the second time around I hollered 'Hickory, come on!' and used a little spur on the landing and he said 'oh, she means business!' and went on. He was really scared of the next jump we jumped, but at this point was starting to learn his lesson of the day and so was I. I really started to understand how to ride to cross-country jumps and inspire your horse to get over them. You really just have to ride strong and they learn not to be afraid, that you aren't putting them in danger. So, it was really great. On the way home we talked about how it's been the same in both my dressage and my jumping, that I haven't really pushed through to the horse on the other side, before. It takes some work on both of mine and Hickory's parts, but that there is a whole nother horse on the other side of the 'behind your leg, uninspiring trot, i think i might stop at this jump, i want to curl my head' horse and it may take some effort and work nand a few bucks maybe and some tail swishing to get there, but that's the side we need to be on to be doing things correctly. So, the game plan is to do Gemwood Novice and then maybe do one more Novice at Penny Oaks and then get a Training Level under our belts at Flying Cross and the end of the summer. Yay!
First, was a jump lesson. It wasn't too eventful. We started jumping a little higher, I think. But, notable things to remember: 1. Toes out, heels down over the jump! 2. Don't curl your back with your horse when you jump, keep back more flat! 3. Don't take your eye off the jump until it dissappears from your field of view on the approach. 4. You have to ride hard into one strides and combinations. That's all I can think of...
Next lesson was a dressage lesson, and it was goooood. Still using the hot dog bit. Borrowed Martha's spurs. We learned all about the shoulder in. At first, when you ask for the shoulder in, it's easiest to start coming out of a 10m circle, because you already have the correct bend. Your outside leg is back a little bit. Your inside leg is under you. And your hands are to the inside, like when it is done correctly, your outside hand should be even with your bellybutton. And you should be sitting on your inside seatbone. It was hard for me to catch onto at first because when I think shoulder in, I think: use outside leg to push shoulders off the wall. Wrong. We get our bend with our hands, and if we need have our inside rein out like a lunge line. Then we use lots and lots of inside leg underneath of us to keep the horse on the track. This is where those spurs came in super handy. Because he is a big horse and that is a big body to keep molded into a certain position. And your horse is traveling on three different tracks. The inside foreleg is on it's own track. The outside foreleg and inside hind leg are on their own track together, and the outside hind leg is on it's own track. And the horse is moving forward. And the thing is, that you can't really tell what's going on down there under you when you're riding. All that 'track' business sort of went over my head. So, we were walking down the wall, attempting this and Martha keeps saying how you need to be looking straight ahead. (This is going on in the indoor where there are these FANTASTIC mirrors on the ends of the arena so you can see yourself. And finally she yells "LOOK STRAIGHT AHEAD! LOOK IN YOUR MIRROR!" And voila. I looked into the mirror directly in front of us that we were heading for and saw my horse and saw the three tracks. He looked like a three legged creature from straight on, one front leg moving on its own, the two diagonal legs moving together as one, and then the other hind leg. It was a 'eureka!' moment. But it was sooooo coooool! And we progressed to being able to do it without the 10m circle and could just do it out of our corners. Then we worked it at the trot which was a little rough, but we had some shining shoulder-in moments. And the purpose behind all this is that the shoulder in helps your horse learn to bring his inside hind leg closer to your outside rein, get his butt up under you and develop some hock action. We did some canter-work next, and worked on leg yielding at the canter. Again, with the same purpose as the shoulder-in basically. So we leg yielding and suddenly, when we did it right, he felt amazingly light on the forehand, and his shoulders were lifted, and his hind end was under him. Martha said 'tell him what a good boy he is!! this it hard for him!!' and I did and she commented again about what good work ethic he has. We worked some on leads, also. And she said that at this point, he knows. And that he is a big boy now and its not acceptable for him to keep taking the incorrect lead over and over again. She said to 'make an impression on him' when he takes the wrong lead. Which I did and he said 'oh crap, I really do have to use my brain and do what she asks.' And then she said when he does it right, you also have to 'make an impression on him.' So, when he would take the correct lead, I would lean forward and rub his neck and tell him what a good boy he is! It was a really productive lesson and the spurs were GREAT.
And today we went cross-country schooling at Flying Cross--a beautiful farm 6 miles down the road. Hickory was an ANGEL. We talked about how, when you are galloping along, you are off their back so they can roll under you, but you are disconnected. And then seven or eight strides out from the jump you should sit lightly and start doing the 'hoola hoop' like motion, to engage their hind end. This becomes a signal, the hoola hoop motion says ok, engage yourself, get that hind end under you, there's something coming up we need to prepare for. And you may also have to adjust their balance with your leg and reins but that eventually sitting down on their back becomes its own half halt and they learn what to do. We did some littler warm up stuff. Then we went to a different field and jumped off a pretty good sized drop. I was really really proud of Hick, because we've had jumping off bank problems in the past. And this one was basically like a big ramp you cantered up in the middle of the field and then jumped off. I was waiting for him to stop, but he stretched his neck down and peered off the edge as we got close and jumped right off! And my balance has been great coming off the drops lately, too. Then we had our first refusal. It was a pretty good sized rolltop looking thing and we were galloping a little uphill towards it. And he pulled his characteristic, 'we're going away from the barn/trailer, i'm going to get behind your leg and not go perfectly straight, don't really want to do this,STOP.' And I was very glad he did, because that meant Martha got to see it. She said, and i paraphrase, "He is just being silly. You lose him, he gets lost behind your leg and loses his straightness and it's just silly. He needs to be more trained at jumps like these, in situations like this. Train him. Don't let him stop. Don't let him get behind your leg. Teach him that we will NEVER put him in a situation that will harm him, use your spur and give him that bravery.' So we came up to it again and of course, it was the second time and we hopped right over it. But we then circled around to a pretty good sized log that probably wouldn't be on a Novice course, maybe a training? I will describe it as a fake Trakehner, there wasn't really a ditch underneath it.. but the log was raised up off the ground and there was a 'faux' ditch--like a little box that extended from a foot or two in front to a foot or two behind that you had to clear to clear the jump. It looked big and scary to me and I didn't think we were goign to jump it when we came into the field. But off we went. And I used it for a training ride to teach him. We tore at it and when he started to look a ways back I popped him on the butt and he said yikes! and kept his impulsion and stayed in front of my leg. He looked at it again a stride or two out and I popped him on the shoulder and then used my spurs at the base of the jump and he flew over it, perfectly! Everyone was happy. I don't think they put one strides on novice cross-country, but i'm not sure. So this next one might have been a training level jump. But it was two log stacks on a trail with one stride inbetween. We talked about needing to ride the first fence strong and really be sure to ride inbetween. And Martha commented on his nimbleness as he took the first jump like a champ and then skirted to a stop before the second one. But we weren't mad at him because he really hasn't done very many one strides in his life and this was a pretty sizeable one. So, the second time around I hollered 'Hickory, come on!' and used a little spur on the landing and he said 'oh, she means business!' and went on. He was really scared of the next jump we jumped, but at this point was starting to learn his lesson of the day and so was I. I really started to understand how to ride to cross-country jumps and inspire your horse to get over them. You really just have to ride strong and they learn not to be afraid, that you aren't putting them in danger. So, it was really great. On the way home we talked about how it's been the same in both my dressage and my jumping, that I haven't really pushed through to the horse on the other side, before. It takes some work on both of mine and Hickory's parts, but that there is a whole nother horse on the other side of the 'behind your leg, uninspiring trot, i think i might stop at this jump, i want to curl my head' horse and it may take some effort and work nand a few bucks maybe and some tail swishing to get there, but that's the side we need to be on to be doing things correctly. So, the game plan is to do Gemwood Novice and then maybe do one more Novice at Penny Oaks and then get a Training Level under our belts at Flying Cross and the end of the summer. Yay!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy
So.
I am so freaking happy. I could try to describe all the reasons why this is such an awesome perfect summer, but I can't do it justice.
No huge new horse news to update you on, maybe tomorrow!
I am so freaking happy. I could try to describe all the reasons why this is such an awesome perfect summer, but I can't do it justice.
No huge new horse news to update you on, maybe tomorrow!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Glass Half Full?
So, today was one of those days that tests you a little bit. Like your life outlook. Kind of. I got up and was worn out. I now set at least 8 alarms on my phone. I got up and sat up in my bed for like 10 minutes trying to make myself move. And I finally did. I was kind of missing home and stuff but once I got moving I started to feel alright. And it was one of those days where I decided that I just wanted to look decent. Not that there is anyone up here to care about how I look, but sometimes you just have one of those days where looking nice makes you feel nice. This was one of them. So I straightened my hair for the first time in a while. I put on my faaavorite purple riding pants and one of those teal sports bra-becomes-shirt shirts. And I grabbed my cute sunglasses. And I looked in the mirror and was like, ah, now this is going to be a good day. So off I go to the barn, good song on the radio. Get to the feed room. Hook my sunglasses on my shirt. The big trash can thing that holds the feed is about empty. So I grab a bag of feed, open it up, and heave it up on my leg and dump it in the trash can. Full trash can of feed now. I scoop out two 1/2 scoops for Hickory and Mr. I, my first feed stop of the morning. I reach for my sunglasses. No sunglasses. I feel around on my shirt. Not there. I pat my head. Not there. I a little more frantically feel around my waistband. Not there. I turn and look back at the door. I look on the floor. I move to a different spot and look some more on the floor. I do the whole body pat down again. Not there. Then, I look at the trash can full of feed. I say, outloud, to whoever controls these things, "You're shitting me." Nope. I shove my hand down in the feed and dig around, coming up empty handed. Really???? I already started 5 minutes late. These are my GOOD, CUTE, prescription sunglasses that I love. Out comes the feed scoop. Scoop by scoop I fill up the first bucket, and then a second, and then a third. Sifting through feed searching for the lost sunglasses. When I run out of buckets I start filling up an empty trash can. Scoop after scoop. "You've got to be kidding me. This is ridiculous." And then I strike gold. Three buckets and half a trash can full of feed later. There were my sunglasses, lost in a trash can full of feed. How do these things happen to me? I wasn't quite sure at that point what kind of sign this was for the rest of my day--a little frustrating and irritating, but then it was kind of ridiculously funny, too.
So, then I'm hanging out at the big barn/stadium ring. Martha wants me to bring Mr. I up from the little barn pasture he's in with Hick so the farrier can look at his feet. So, I walk aaalll the way down there and get him and walk him all the way back up to the main barn. And the farrier had left. Haha. Hahaha. Ok, so I take him back. It's good exercise, I tell myself. It's 10:10, I have a cross country lesson at 10:45. Forgot my socks. Run back to the house and grab my socks and a banana. Eat banana, put on socks and boots and chaps. Saddle-check. Hickory's jumping boots-ehhhh. Flies here are ridiculous. Hickory is stomping his feet and moving from side to side, making it extraordinarily difficult to put his boots on his cute little legs. I would get one on and get the first strap on and then he would stomp his foot and the boot would slide down out of place. I was starting to get frustrated. It was really hot, and it's not really good to be late to your 30 min time slotted lesson. And then adding everything else that had already happened, this was starting to push it. I eventually got the boots on and then his bridle. 10:42. It's about a 6 minute walk from one barn to the other. A little faster if you're riding. But wait, I can't ride, because I LEFT MY HELMET AT THE BIG BARN! Gah! So off we go. So, I really had to work to pull that glass half full person out of me as we walked, before I got on. It's not good to get on your horse frustrated and mad and it's not fair to them and won't lead to a good ride.
And of course, once I got on I felt 10 zillion times better. Martha said "Good for you! Getting his hind end working early and not just settling!" about our warm up which was good. We did some stadium jumps to warm up, and Hickory was FANTASTIC! We did the one stride and the purple oxer and the triple bar to the four stride vertical. I think we did probably about as much in our warm up today as we did in all of our stadium lessons, he was soo good! And he was feeling really good and energetic. We headed out onto the grass. First was a wood panel with brush under it, with a long gallop to a log then a short gallop to another log, turn around and come back, jump up the bank and off the other side. Things went well. We galloped and then collected. Before the jump did the hoola hoop thing with my hips to say ok we're not just flat out galloping anymore, time to engage the hindquarters, there's something coming up! He hopped right up the bank but we were a little crooked coming off it. So back up it and down it the other direction. And then again. And then one more time. I need practice on the jumping down off the bank part, balance-wise.
The next part was kind of cool, but needs a little bit of explaining. So the little grass cross country section is flat but it is on a hill raised a little above the stadium ring that it is adjacent to (and there is no fence separating the grass from the sand, you can from one to the other). So, you can set jumps on directly along the edge of this hill so that your landing is downhill. You jump off of flat and land on a downhill. OR you can set your jump at an angle so that when you jump, you land on flat ground on the other side but your first stride will be going downhill. The latter is what we did. Rolltops generally have 2 pieces to them, and this rolltop was of decent size (I'd say 3-6in taller than the one at home) with a little brush/hedge on top of it), but we only took one piece of it, so it was a skinny-ish, with a standard on each side, angled on the hill. It was decently intimidating. And this is how Martha explained it should be jumped, "Take off as normal, then as you are in the air think about sitting straight up and letting your reins slide through your fingers about 1-3 inches and think about as you are over the jump saying ok horse here ya go, I'll meet you on the other side in about three or four strides!" And you gather your reins as you gallop off. And we were to gallop off into the stadium arena, make a big change of rein and loop around back to a second, real "skinny" that was a log with an uphill afterwards, then loop around to the ditch. So we came at the downhill rolltop and had a pretty good approach, Hickory and I both were a little unsure of it but at the base of the jump we ended up hopping over it! The funny thing was, I slipped him rein but we didn't go downhill! Martha said "He's too smart! He said, hey I actually don't have to land and go right down that hill, I can just turn left and keep going on straight ground!" So we did it again and this time went down the hill into the stadium arena. Had a big gallop around with a change of rein and headed to the skinny, which we were to approach with a "coffin canter"--small but bursting with energy. We jumped it, but it was a tad bit crooked so we came at it again. And this time with more of a transition from gallop to coffin canter. I personally was impressed with our coffin canter, it felt really cool to have that much energy packaged up under you. Great jump. Around to the ditch.. eeeeeeeeert. Refusal, I was expecting it. After about 2 more refusals we jumped across it from a standstill. And then the same thing again. Then we jumped it twice with some hesitation but no stopping. Martha said, "Finally! Something I can kick your butt about! We're going to be jumping sooooo many ditches! Prelim horse in the making right here!!"
So, I was really, really happy. Hickory was having a great time, I could tell. He was really excited to be galloping and playing. It was turning into a good day after all! I had a biiig break until I had to do the barn in the afternoon. Then, catastrophe struck again. One of the horses, Riper, wears a muzzle when he goes out in the field. And it's just like a halter, just with the muzzle on the end. I attached the lead rope and led him out and unsnapped his "halter" and let him go. Off he went like a rocket. Hmm. Walked back to the barn and went to hang his muzzle up on his stall. Wait. That belongs on his head. Shit. So I drive my car back over to his field, hop the fence and walk towards him. He says 'nuh uh buddy I am freeeee and gettin FAT!' and takes off. Again. I say outloud, "You've got to be shitting me." As I wade through the knee high grass. "Damn it to hell." I get close again and he takes off. I gave up. I went to start my car and realized I had no keys. I look around my car. Not there. I look at the field. Nuh uh. I took a quick look around at where I hopped the fence and didn't see them. Luckily, I had another set in my purse. No time to look for keys now, three more horses to turn out and 5 stalls to do. I finished up and had another go with Riper. Had to get the muzzle on him. Otherwise he would probably gorge himself on the rich grass, colic, and die, and it would all be my fault. I took him a carrot peace offering. Which he thankfully accepted. Muzzle on. But never found my keys. Oh well, I've got another set, and I did find my sunglasses.
Then I got a surprise phone call from Diane! Which made me very happy! So, yeah, it was a day full of ups and downs, but it all evens out in the end, I guess!
So, then I'm hanging out at the big barn/stadium ring. Martha wants me to bring Mr. I up from the little barn pasture he's in with Hick so the farrier can look at his feet. So, I walk aaalll the way down there and get him and walk him all the way back up to the main barn. And the farrier had left. Haha. Hahaha. Ok, so I take him back. It's good exercise, I tell myself. It's 10:10, I have a cross country lesson at 10:45. Forgot my socks. Run back to the house and grab my socks and a banana. Eat banana, put on socks and boots and chaps. Saddle-check. Hickory's jumping boots-ehhhh. Flies here are ridiculous. Hickory is stomping his feet and moving from side to side, making it extraordinarily difficult to put his boots on his cute little legs. I would get one on and get the first strap on and then he would stomp his foot and the boot would slide down out of place. I was starting to get frustrated. It was really hot, and it's not really good to be late to your 30 min time slotted lesson. And then adding everything else that had already happened, this was starting to push it. I eventually got the boots on and then his bridle. 10:42. It's about a 6 minute walk from one barn to the other. A little faster if you're riding. But wait, I can't ride, because I LEFT MY HELMET AT THE BIG BARN! Gah! So off we go. So, I really had to work to pull that glass half full person out of me as we walked, before I got on. It's not good to get on your horse frustrated and mad and it's not fair to them and won't lead to a good ride.
And of course, once I got on I felt 10 zillion times better. Martha said "Good for you! Getting his hind end working early and not just settling!" about our warm up which was good. We did some stadium jumps to warm up, and Hickory was FANTASTIC! We did the one stride and the purple oxer and the triple bar to the four stride vertical. I think we did probably about as much in our warm up today as we did in all of our stadium lessons, he was soo good! And he was feeling really good and energetic. We headed out onto the grass. First was a wood panel with brush under it, with a long gallop to a log then a short gallop to another log, turn around and come back, jump up the bank and off the other side. Things went well. We galloped and then collected. Before the jump did the hoola hoop thing with my hips to say ok we're not just flat out galloping anymore, time to engage the hindquarters, there's something coming up! He hopped right up the bank but we were a little crooked coming off it. So back up it and down it the other direction. And then again. And then one more time. I need practice on the jumping down off the bank part, balance-wise.
The next part was kind of cool, but needs a little bit of explaining. So the little grass cross country section is flat but it is on a hill raised a little above the stadium ring that it is adjacent to (and there is no fence separating the grass from the sand, you can from one to the other). So, you can set jumps on directly along the edge of this hill so that your landing is downhill. You jump off of flat and land on a downhill. OR you can set your jump at an angle so that when you jump, you land on flat ground on the other side but your first stride will be going downhill. The latter is what we did. Rolltops generally have 2 pieces to them, and this rolltop was of decent size (I'd say 3-6in taller than the one at home) with a little brush/hedge on top of it), but we only took one piece of it, so it was a skinny-ish, with a standard on each side, angled on the hill. It was decently intimidating. And this is how Martha explained it should be jumped, "Take off as normal, then as you are in the air think about sitting straight up and letting your reins slide through your fingers about 1-3 inches and think about as you are over the jump saying ok horse here ya go, I'll meet you on the other side in about three or four strides!" And you gather your reins as you gallop off. And we were to gallop off into the stadium arena, make a big change of rein and loop around back to a second, real "skinny" that was a log with an uphill afterwards, then loop around to the ditch. So we came at the downhill rolltop and had a pretty good approach, Hickory and I both were a little unsure of it but at the base of the jump we ended up hopping over it! The funny thing was, I slipped him rein but we didn't go downhill! Martha said "He's too smart! He said, hey I actually don't have to land and go right down that hill, I can just turn left and keep going on straight ground!" So we did it again and this time went down the hill into the stadium arena. Had a big gallop around with a change of rein and headed to the skinny, which we were to approach with a "coffin canter"--small but bursting with energy. We jumped it, but it was a tad bit crooked so we came at it again. And this time with more of a transition from gallop to coffin canter. I personally was impressed with our coffin canter, it felt really cool to have that much energy packaged up under you. Great jump. Around to the ditch.. eeeeeeeeert. Refusal, I was expecting it. After about 2 more refusals we jumped across it from a standstill. And then the same thing again. Then we jumped it twice with some hesitation but no stopping. Martha said, "Finally! Something I can kick your butt about! We're going to be jumping sooooo many ditches! Prelim horse in the making right here!!"
So, I was really, really happy. Hickory was having a great time, I could tell. He was really excited to be galloping and playing. It was turning into a good day after all! I had a biiig break until I had to do the barn in the afternoon. Then, catastrophe struck again. One of the horses, Riper, wears a muzzle when he goes out in the field. And it's just like a halter, just with the muzzle on the end. I attached the lead rope and led him out and unsnapped his "halter" and let him go. Off he went like a rocket. Hmm. Walked back to the barn and went to hang his muzzle up on his stall. Wait. That belongs on his head. Shit. So I drive my car back over to his field, hop the fence and walk towards him. He says 'nuh uh buddy I am freeeee and gettin FAT!' and takes off. Again. I say outloud, "You've got to be shitting me." As I wade through the knee high grass. "Damn it to hell." I get close again and he takes off. I gave up. I went to start my car and realized I had no keys. I look around my car. Not there. I look at the field. Nuh uh. I took a quick look around at where I hopped the fence and didn't see them. Luckily, I had another set in my purse. No time to look for keys now, three more horses to turn out and 5 stalls to do. I finished up and had another go with Riper. Had to get the muzzle on him. Otherwise he would probably gorge himself on the rich grass, colic, and die, and it would all be my fault. I took him a carrot peace offering. Which he thankfully accepted. Muzzle on. But never found my keys. Oh well, I've got another set, and I did find my sunglasses.
Then I got a surprise phone call from Diane! Which made me very happy! So, yeah, it was a day full of ups and downs, but it all evens out in the end, I guess!
Melting
So, Romario is the other guy that works for Martha. And he works like 7 days a week and never takes off. He takes care of the main barn and basically everything around the farm. And the night before last he asks Martha for the following day off (yesterday). And she gives it to him because he has a relative coming in. But this leaves just me available to take care of ALL the horses without any training in the main barn--I don't really know half of the horses that live in there. There are 13 stalls in the main barn plus my 5 in the small barn. When she told me I just kind of looked at her with these wide eyes and she looked back at me with a similar expression. And then she tried to give me a rundown of who the horses were and what they got fed 'so and so is the only horse from the barn that goes in this field, this horse wears a cribbing collar..' etc. So, she goes back upstairs and I'm sitting on the bed thinking about what a disaster this is going to be. It would be different if all the horses were in their stalls in the morning with their little nameplates and I could say, "Hello, you must be Jackson, let's put you in the gelding field." But, no. The horses are all out in their fields. And, for example, Jackson is a bay gelding who goes in, I think, stall 8, and lives in the back gelding field. But there are about 4 other bay geldings in that field. Which one is Jackson?? About 10 minutes later Martha comes back down the stairs and says, "Maybe we should draw a map." Good plan.
So, upstairs I went. Got my piece of paper and my pen. Drew out the barn. Numbered the stalls. Martha rattled off the names of the horses in each stall along with a brief description and the field they were in. (i.e. Bay gelding with cribbing collar, bay filly who is biiig for a 3 year old, bay gelding, at dark bay gelding who is just darn good looking). And then we wrote down what each of the horses gets fed. It was agreed, the next day was going to be a looong one. Then we talked a little more about shows this summer and decided to not go to the Flying Cross mini trial. She's taking Denira to Gemwood in Fairborn, OH that weekend and said it would be a good one to go to instead. So, now we'll be off to Gemwood!
I woke up an extra hour early to have time to do both of the barns in the morning. Things went pretty smoothly, I was surprised. I had my little map tucked in the waistband of my pants and I consulted it frequently. The feeding went pretty smoothly. When I passed Martha on my way back down to the small barn she asked how it went and I said pretty well, but she needed to check and make sure I got the right horses, that I was about 90% certain it was Joey in Joey's stall (the dark bay darn good looking gelding) and only about 80% certain that it was really Jackson in Jackson's stall. Romario wasn't there to take the tractor over the jump arena and smooth it over so I got to replace all the footing in front of the jumps the old fashioned way! With the rake! And it's really not bad. Every time I think 'ughh' I stop and think about what kick ass arms I'm getting and then I'm like 'yes! more raking!'
I had a dressage lesson yesterday, too. It went decently. We started working on leg yielding, since it will help with getting his hind end stretching up under him. We decided our leg yields were decent. He would move really well off my leg but his outside shoulder would fall big time in the direction we were going. Our very last pass I finally figured it out and we had some really great strides in there. We worked on coming down the centerline, too.
I was worn out. Came back to the basement, took a little nap. And woke up to feed the big barn again and turn horses out and do the stalls. I was like a walking zombie by the end. Usually, picking the stalls in the big barn involves pulling the tractor into the aisle with the manure spreader attached. But we weren't about to attempt that. So we just used muck buckets and then lugged them around to the back of the barn and heaved them into the manure spreader when they got full. Work out. I also got the "Stall Picking 101" lesson from Martha. I'm not very good at "making the bed."
Man.
So, upstairs I went. Got my piece of paper and my pen. Drew out the barn. Numbered the stalls. Martha rattled off the names of the horses in each stall along with a brief description and the field they were in. (i.e. Bay gelding with cribbing collar, bay filly who is biiig for a 3 year old, bay gelding, at dark bay gelding who is just darn good looking). And then we wrote down what each of the horses gets fed. It was agreed, the next day was going to be a looong one. Then we talked a little more about shows this summer and decided to not go to the Flying Cross mini trial. She's taking Denira to Gemwood in Fairborn, OH that weekend and said it would be a good one to go to instead. So, now we'll be off to Gemwood!
I woke up an extra hour early to have time to do both of the barns in the morning. Things went pretty smoothly, I was surprised. I had my little map tucked in the waistband of my pants and I consulted it frequently. The feeding went pretty smoothly. When I passed Martha on my way back down to the small barn she asked how it went and I said pretty well, but she needed to check and make sure I got the right horses, that I was about 90% certain it was Joey in Joey's stall (the dark bay darn good looking gelding) and only about 80% certain that it was really Jackson in Jackson's stall. Romario wasn't there to take the tractor over the jump arena and smooth it over so I got to replace all the footing in front of the jumps the old fashioned way! With the rake! And it's really not bad. Every time I think 'ughh' I stop and think about what kick ass arms I'm getting and then I'm like 'yes! more raking!'
I had a dressage lesson yesterday, too. It went decently. We started working on leg yielding, since it will help with getting his hind end stretching up under him. We decided our leg yields were decent. He would move really well off my leg but his outside shoulder would fall big time in the direction we were going. Our very last pass I finally figured it out and we had some really great strides in there. We worked on coming down the centerline, too.
I was worn out. Came back to the basement, took a little nap. And woke up to feed the big barn again and turn horses out and do the stalls. I was like a walking zombie by the end. Usually, picking the stalls in the big barn involves pulling the tractor into the aisle with the manure spreader attached. But we weren't about to attempt that. So we just used muck buckets and then lugged them around to the back of the barn and heaved them into the manure spreader when they got full. Work out. I also got the "Stall Picking 101" lesson from Martha. I'm not very good at "making the bed."
Man.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Hot, Rain, Hot, Rain, Hot, Rain Some More
Story of my life. So, sweet little Frank and sweet little Ghost drive me up the walls in the morning when I try to lead them in together. Frank doesn't want to be in the barn all day and Ghost can't wait to eat. So there is lots of dragging of me and dragging of Frank and pulling on Ghost and I end up in a really foul mood too early in the morning. So, today, I decided I would just make the extra trip and lead them each in separately. Problem solved.
Guess what's crazy. One of the ladies who rides here and I chat with every morning has a racehorse, too. And not just any racehorse, it ran in the Kentucky Derby and placed 5th! (Noble's Promise). Pretty cool!
I had an 11:15 jump lesson this morning. Diane and Silver joined us. I took a lot of really good stuff away from the lesson. So, you know how you can end up getting a big distance before a jump or getting a short distance if they chip in a stride? Well, if you didn't, you can. And a lot of the time as you are approaching the jump you see that you aren't going to hit the takeoff from a good place at the pace you are going (more or less) and so you ask your horse to either lengthen his stride (getting a big distance) and take a big one to close the gap or sit up and throw a whole nother stride in there before takeoff. One isn't really preferable to the other (that I know of yet) but if you throw another short stride in your horse has to work harder at the base of the jump to get over, and you have to make sure they know that that is a requirement. And so, during our warm-up we were doing "the circle of death" and my strides kept being a little bit off for takeoff and instead of sitting up and balancing before the jumps, allowing Hick to put in an extra stride, I kept pushing for the long distance, and we did like 4 or 5 jumps in a row like that and Martha was like 'stop stop stop.' And she said 'The rule I live by is that you can get away with 3 big distances in a round. But you can't get away with any more than that, something will happen. More than three and you're just pushing it/asking for trouble." And she said she keeps track in her head of how many big distances she takes. I thought that was really cool, and it helped me a lot as our lesson went on to think about sitting up to balance Hick.
We did a one stride and a triple bar again today, too. Martha set it up and said 'Look Callie a triple bar,' because I told her they made me nervous and she said she loves triple bars and sets them up all the time. And I said, "I LOVE triple bars!!!!!" Which was definitely the right response. Everything went well in triple bar land. Then she set up a triple combination: jump, two strides, jump, one stride, jump. The ONLY other time we had ever done a triple (not to be confused with a triple bar) was at Octoberfest last year in our Training CT. And we had a refusal, of course. And I said, "We've never really done a triple before.." and she looked at me. And I said "BUT I'M SO EXCITED TO GO TRY IT!" (we believe in positive self talk here). And came at it in a course off fairly tight right hand turn off another jump and i could not get Hickory turned (forgot the outside aids) but about three or four strides out I finally did and we sailed right through it! It was cool, it kind of feels like you are a little bit out of control through it (I mean you are) because you only have so much time on the ground and that time is so short there's not a lot you can do with it.
And at the end of the lesson I told her about our cross-country issues. She said that we would go xc schooling three days a week if that's what it took to get over our issues! Which was cool. But she said she thought that the dressage work and stadium work that we were doing would really help and should take care of it. She talked also about using my whip: That if we get out there on the course and he's not paying attention or is only half there (if he is running and being nuts, or lagging trying to go back towards the barn) and not focused that he needs to be popped with the whip, and if he bucks, he needs to be popped with the whip again. But that it's not a punishment, and it's not a way to say bad boy. The whip needs to become the cue for "GOOOOOOOO!" And if he is not paying attention and you use your whip, he should go and respect you and what you are telling him to do and trust that your decisions are good ones. And if he doesn't respect your whip and go, and bucks, you have to smack him again until he remembers what the whip cue means. She said 'Now, don't get bucked off, but be prepared for him to buck." And she said it could possibly result in him taking off with me or bucking but that it was necessary and we would be able to deal with it, that it is important that he knows the whip means go and respects it.
And she said she wanted to set up some skinnies for us to jump next time (i'm pretty sure skinnies don't come up in Novice, mainly just in Training and up, so that's cool that we're starting on that, as well as triples). And also that this week we would experiment with a hackamore (which is basically a bitless bridle) to see if Hickory would prefer it, given his tendency to curl and be really sensitive in his face. Sooo it should be an exciting week!
Guess what's crazy. One of the ladies who rides here and I chat with every morning has a racehorse, too. And not just any racehorse, it ran in the Kentucky Derby and placed 5th! (Noble's Promise). Pretty cool!
I had an 11:15 jump lesson this morning. Diane and Silver joined us. I took a lot of really good stuff away from the lesson. So, you know how you can end up getting a big distance before a jump or getting a short distance if they chip in a stride? Well, if you didn't, you can. And a lot of the time as you are approaching the jump you see that you aren't going to hit the takeoff from a good place at the pace you are going (more or less) and so you ask your horse to either lengthen his stride (getting a big distance) and take a big one to close the gap or sit up and throw a whole nother stride in there before takeoff. One isn't really preferable to the other (that I know of yet) but if you throw another short stride in your horse has to work harder at the base of the jump to get over, and you have to make sure they know that that is a requirement. And so, during our warm-up we were doing "the circle of death" and my strides kept being a little bit off for takeoff and instead of sitting up and balancing before the jumps, allowing Hick to put in an extra stride, I kept pushing for the long distance, and we did like 4 or 5 jumps in a row like that and Martha was like 'stop stop stop.' And she said 'The rule I live by is that you can get away with 3 big distances in a round. But you can't get away with any more than that, something will happen. More than three and you're just pushing it/asking for trouble." And she said she keeps track in her head of how many big distances she takes. I thought that was really cool, and it helped me a lot as our lesson went on to think about sitting up to balance Hick.
We did a one stride and a triple bar again today, too. Martha set it up and said 'Look Callie a triple bar,' because I told her they made me nervous and she said she loves triple bars and sets them up all the time. And I said, "I LOVE triple bars!!!!!" Which was definitely the right response. Everything went well in triple bar land. Then she set up a triple combination: jump, two strides, jump, one stride, jump. The ONLY other time we had ever done a triple (not to be confused with a triple bar) was at Octoberfest last year in our Training CT. And we had a refusal, of course. And I said, "We've never really done a triple before.." and she looked at me. And I said "BUT I'M SO EXCITED TO GO TRY IT!" (we believe in positive self talk here). And came at it in a course off fairly tight right hand turn off another jump and i could not get Hickory turned (forgot the outside aids) but about three or four strides out I finally did and we sailed right through it! It was cool, it kind of feels like you are a little bit out of control through it (I mean you are) because you only have so much time on the ground and that time is so short there's not a lot you can do with it.
And at the end of the lesson I told her about our cross-country issues. She said that we would go xc schooling three days a week if that's what it took to get over our issues! Which was cool. But she said she thought that the dressage work and stadium work that we were doing would really help and should take care of it. She talked also about using my whip: That if we get out there on the course and he's not paying attention or is only half there (if he is running and being nuts, or lagging trying to go back towards the barn) and not focused that he needs to be popped with the whip, and if he bucks, he needs to be popped with the whip again. But that it's not a punishment, and it's not a way to say bad boy. The whip needs to become the cue for "GOOOOOOOO!" And if he is not paying attention and you use your whip, he should go and respect you and what you are telling him to do and trust that your decisions are good ones. And if he doesn't respect your whip and go, and bucks, you have to smack him again until he remembers what the whip cue means. She said 'Now, don't get bucked off, but be prepared for him to buck." And she said it could possibly result in him taking off with me or bucking but that it was necessary and we would be able to deal with it, that it is important that he knows the whip means go and respects it.
And she said she wanted to set up some skinnies for us to jump next time (i'm pretty sure skinnies don't come up in Novice, mainly just in Training and up, so that's cool that we're starting on that, as well as triples). And also that this week we would experiment with a hackamore (which is basically a bitless bridle) to see if Hickory would prefer it, given his tendency to curl and be really sensitive in his face. Sooo it should be an exciting week!
Monday, June 14, 2010
HOT
It stormed big here last night! And so it was very very humid this morning. The ponies were good. Went up to the main barn and swept up the entryway, got rid of a lot of dirt and leaves--that took about an hour. I ordered the feed. They were taking the day off since they just got back from a show, so I went back to the house and had lunch and a nice two hour nap! Then I got up and did the horses again. Took Hick for a little ride bareback. He missed me. But I think he's really startling to settle in finally, because he didn't seem like desperate to get out of the field. We tried to explore the one 'trail' on the farm but it was really grown and we didn't have much luck. So we went up to the jump ring and ran into Kassidy. She took some pictures of us hopping over some little stuff, Hickory-style--you guys back home at the farm know what that is. We were just messing around and it was fun. I headed him at the bank complex that they have in the little x-country area and he was suuuuuch a good boy just hopped right up it like it was nothing! Ate some grass (Hickory, not me :) ). Put Hick up, and Kassidy drove us over to Flying Cross, where two of my shows are going to be this summer. It is like somebody's hobby farm FULL of cross-country stuff. KHP style. I'm now really itching big time to go school xc!!
Brandon--
Dressage (pronounced /ˈdrɛsɑːʒ/ or /drɨˈsɑːʒ/) (a French term, most commonly translated to mean "training") is a path and destination of competitive horse training, with competitions held at all levels from amateur to the Olympics. Its fundamental purpose is to develop, through standardized progressive training methods, a horse's natural athletic ability and willingness to perform, thereby maximizing its potential as a riding horse. At the peak of a dressage horse's gymnastic development, it can smoothly respond to a skilled rider's minimal aids by performing the requested movement while remaining relaxed and appearing effortless. Dressage is occasionally referred to as "Horse Ballet" (cf. nl:Dressuur). Although the discipline has ancient roots, dressage was first recognized as an important equestrian pursuit in Europe during the Renaissance. The great European riding masters of that period developed a sequential training system that has changed little since then. Classical dressage is still considered the basis of trained modern dressage.
Early European aristocrats displayed their horses' training in equestrian pageants, but in modern dressage competition, successful training at the various levels is demonstrated through the performance of "tests" of prescribed series of movements within a standard arena. Judges evaluate each movement on the basis of an objective standard appropriate to the level of the test and assign each movement a score from zero to ten - zero being "not executed" and 10 being "excellent". A score of 9 is considered "very good" and is considered a particularly high mark, while a competitor achieving all 6s (or 60% overall) should be considering moving on to the next level.
--thank you wikipedia
Brandon--
Dressage (pronounced /ˈdrɛsɑːʒ/ or /drɨˈsɑːʒ/) (a French term, most commonly translated to mean "training") is a path and destination of competitive horse training, with competitions held at all levels from amateur to the Olympics. Its fundamental purpose is to develop, through standardized progressive training methods, a horse's natural athletic ability and willingness to perform, thereby maximizing its potential as a riding horse. At the peak of a dressage horse's gymnastic development, it can smoothly respond to a skilled rider's minimal aids by performing the requested movement while remaining relaxed and appearing effortless. Dressage is occasionally referred to as "Horse Ballet" (cf. nl:Dressuur). Although the discipline has ancient roots, dressage was first recognized as an important equestrian pursuit in Europe during the Renaissance. The great European riding masters of that period developed a sequential training system that has changed little since then. Classical dressage is still considered the basis of trained modern dressage.
Early European aristocrats displayed their horses' training in equestrian pageants, but in modern dressage competition, successful training at the various levels is demonstrated through the performance of "tests" of prescribed series of movements within a standard arena. Judges evaluate each movement on the basis of an objective standard appropriate to the level of the test and assign each movement a score from zero to ten - zero being "not executed" and 10 being "excellent". A score of 9 is considered "very good" and is considered a particularly high mark, while a competitor achieving all 6s (or 60% overall) should be considering moving on to the next level.
--thank you wikipedia
Saturday, June 12, 2010
I'm from Chicago...
I hung out last night with my two best friends ALYSSA and KAI, the BEST future roomies EVER. We sat outside Jessica's apartment, add in Megan. It was really humid. They are SO COOL. We were really glad Brandon wasn't there though.. we don't like him very much. He's kind of smelly. But ooooohhhhhhhhhhh weeeeeeellllllllllll we're stuck with what we're stuck with now... and at least his room is on the bottom floor and not on the second floor with the three of us... I mean, Mertz is probably a lot cooler than brandon and we might even give Brandon's room to Mertz and let Brandon sleep on top of the washer and dryer. We could make him up a decenet enough little bed out of our castaway socks and underwear and tshirts.
But anyway. I'm a little worried about my horse. I hope he is not having a little panic attack, he is used to seeing me every day. :( I feel bad for leaving him. But today is Lauren's weddin! :D It is super hot, though. Laura's coming to do my make-up! <3 It is going to be woooonderful and the reception is going to be lots and lots and lots of fun!
But anyway. I'm a little worried about my horse. I hope he is not having a little panic attack, he is used to seeing me every day. :( I feel bad for leaving him. But today is Lauren's weddin! :D It is super hot, though. Laura's coming to do my make-up! <3 It is going to be woooonderful and the reception is going to be lots and lots and lots of fun!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Winning Prelim Pony in the making!
Alright, so the past two days hav been pretty great. I love it here. I love all the people at this barn. Martha rocks. My horse rocks. The weather has been beautiful..
We had our third dressage lesson yesterday. It went really well. Our canter departs were GREAT! Our new cue for the canter is to be on the circle, have our bend, outside sits back, cue with the inside leg at the girth. We were doing figure eights at the canter with simple lead changes in the middle like it was a piece of cake. We did some walk work also. We have been walking too slow and sluggishly. We worked on having a big walk with lots of movement and swagger. We did more "big" trot work also, and started on our extended trot across the diagonal, which felt pretty cool! And his head was fantastic yesterday, too. Everything was just really starting to come together. Whereas before it seemed sort of like oh man this is going to be a project, the few tweaks Martha made resulting in things just falling into place and opening us up to advancing by leaps and bounds! We were really happy, she commented on Hickory's good work ethic. She's a genious. And as I was walking Hickory back to his barn she drove by in her car and stopped to say, "I am just really pleased with the progress you are making!" And I had dinner upstairs last night, which was fun. We talked about horses, and Martha told me some about Lauren's career and horse, and we talked about this organized trail ride put on by the local Hunt Club and she said I have the perfect horse for hunting and if I took him everyone would be trying to buy him from me. Not for sale!!!! Oh oh and we also planned out my show schedule: July 24--> Flying Cross Big Mini Trial, July 31-Aug 1--> Leg Up Horse Trials in Indiana, Aug 20-22-->Flying Cross Horse Trial, and possibly a dressage clinic thrown in there, too. So it was a great day!
Today was a good day, too. I held horses for another one of the farriers. Everyone here thinks I'm 17. I have to keep explaining that I'm 20. I rode Mr. Incredible, well more walked him around really. It was interesting. He has the violent head shaking habit when you go to put his halter or bridle on that is pretty annoying and slightly dangerous, he shakes that head HARD and FAST. And then I had a jumping lesson. It didn't go as poorly as I thought it would. We had some lead issues that we needed to work through, mainly they were coming from me not asking him following the plan we set up in dressage. And I had to pop him once with my whip because I would keep asking him to canter and he would sort of pick it up but he wouldn't MOVE OUT, again like in dressage before, the same concept. We have to work on applying that same concept to asking for the canter when we are jumping. He was being really fussy on the circle and not taking his lead when he really did know better, was wanting to fall out to the left towards the gate and I popped him and he did a HUGE buck and I was like 'woah! haven't felt that one before!' And Martha said that's because you didn't correct him before because when you correct him you create this monster that charges around or bucks and you haven't wanted to do that. But it needs to be done, he needs to be corrected so he can learn what these signals mean, and so we ARE going to create this monster sometimes but its necessary and we're going to also have the means to get the monster under control. So, it's been fun working through these issues, like seeing things get really messy and have Hickory charge around or buck but then start to LEARN and have things fall into place so well and have him behave and give the right response every single time. We worked on setting up for the jump, getting the correct canter, rebalancing. I don't really have the hang of it yet, I'm not sure what canter we need or how to get it. But Martha did the work, she yelled "Now gallop! Now halt!" And I was like 'wha.. ok.." And halted out of our gallop. And then she said "Now gallop!" And we galloped and then she said "Now halt! GALLOP!" And as I was pulling him down from the gallop to what would have been a halt he completely rebalanced and I would ask him to GOOOO as soon as he rebalanced, before he came to halt. It was really cool, kind of like hopping up and down in one place for a second or two. It was a hard lesson and I'm still a little lost, but I think it was a lot like our first dressage lesson, in the next few days some things should start falling into place. Martha was impressed with him, though, I think. She said he was a heck of a horse and if we could get this stuff down we were going Prelim cause this boy can JUMP! I was happy! And I think Hick really enjoyed himself, too. And as she drove off she said, "It's Hickory! Winning Prelim pony! Now we're upping the anty!!" I always thought he could go training, but I'm excited that Martha thinks we, as a pair, can go Prelim, cause I think prelim is a big deal!
Now if only the stupid MCAT doesn't ruin all this for me..
We had our third dressage lesson yesterday. It went really well. Our canter departs were GREAT! Our new cue for the canter is to be on the circle, have our bend, outside sits back, cue with the inside leg at the girth. We were doing figure eights at the canter with simple lead changes in the middle like it was a piece of cake. We did some walk work also. We have been walking too slow and sluggishly. We worked on having a big walk with lots of movement and swagger. We did more "big" trot work also, and started on our extended trot across the diagonal, which felt pretty cool! And his head was fantastic yesterday, too. Everything was just really starting to come together. Whereas before it seemed sort of like oh man this is going to be a project, the few tweaks Martha made resulting in things just falling into place and opening us up to advancing by leaps and bounds! We were really happy, she commented on Hickory's good work ethic. She's a genious. And as I was walking Hickory back to his barn she drove by in her car and stopped to say, "I am just really pleased with the progress you are making!" And I had dinner upstairs last night, which was fun. We talked about horses, and Martha told me some about Lauren's career and horse, and we talked about this organized trail ride put on by the local Hunt Club and she said I have the perfect horse for hunting and if I took him everyone would be trying to buy him from me. Not for sale!!!! Oh oh and we also planned out my show schedule: July 24--> Flying Cross Big Mini Trial, July 31-Aug 1--> Leg Up Horse Trials in Indiana, Aug 20-22-->Flying Cross Horse Trial, and possibly a dressage clinic thrown in there, too. So it was a great day!
Today was a good day, too. I held horses for another one of the farriers. Everyone here thinks I'm 17. I have to keep explaining that I'm 20. I rode Mr. Incredible, well more walked him around really. It was interesting. He has the violent head shaking habit when you go to put his halter or bridle on that is pretty annoying and slightly dangerous, he shakes that head HARD and FAST. And then I had a jumping lesson. It didn't go as poorly as I thought it would. We had some lead issues that we needed to work through, mainly they were coming from me not asking him following the plan we set up in dressage. And I had to pop him once with my whip because I would keep asking him to canter and he would sort of pick it up but he wouldn't MOVE OUT, again like in dressage before, the same concept. We have to work on applying that same concept to asking for the canter when we are jumping. He was being really fussy on the circle and not taking his lead when he really did know better, was wanting to fall out to the left towards the gate and I popped him and he did a HUGE buck and I was like 'woah! haven't felt that one before!' And Martha said that's because you didn't correct him before because when you correct him you create this monster that charges around or bucks and you haven't wanted to do that. But it needs to be done, he needs to be corrected so he can learn what these signals mean, and so we ARE going to create this monster sometimes but its necessary and we're going to also have the means to get the monster under control. So, it's been fun working through these issues, like seeing things get really messy and have Hickory charge around or buck but then start to LEARN and have things fall into place so well and have him behave and give the right response every single time. We worked on setting up for the jump, getting the correct canter, rebalancing. I don't really have the hang of it yet, I'm not sure what canter we need or how to get it. But Martha did the work, she yelled "Now gallop! Now halt!" And I was like 'wha.. ok.." And halted out of our gallop. And then she said "Now gallop!" And we galloped and then she said "Now halt! GALLOP!" And as I was pulling him down from the gallop to what would have been a halt he completely rebalanced and I would ask him to GOOOO as soon as he rebalanced, before he came to halt. It was really cool, kind of like hopping up and down in one place for a second or two. It was a hard lesson and I'm still a little lost, but I think it was a lot like our first dressage lesson, in the next few days some things should start falling into place. Martha was impressed with him, though, I think. She said he was a heck of a horse and if we could get this stuff down we were going Prelim cause this boy can JUMP! I was happy! And I think Hick really enjoyed himself, too. And as she drove off she said, "It's Hickory! Winning Prelim pony! Now we're upping the anty!!" I always thought he could go training, but I'm excited that Martha thinks we, as a pair, can go Prelim, cause I think prelim is a big deal!
Now if only the stupid MCAT doesn't ruin all this for me..
Monday, June 7, 2010
Shh, let the baby be!
Let's see... what interesting happened yesterday.. Did the barn in the morning. Then took a fantastic nap. I was going to give Hickory the day off. But he didn't want the day off, he wanted out! I swear, this horse is just like a baby. If anyone has ever had a newborn sibling, you can relate. You walk by the crib when the baby is sleeping and now matter how much you want to, you can't pick them up. Because they are finally content. This is what it's like with Hickory. Usually he is walking around the field, looking for a way out or standing at the gate begging to be let out. But on the occasion he is happily grazing I have to tiptoe around and make sure he doesn't see me because then he would be at the gate begging to get taken out. And when the baby starts crying, you've got to let them out of the crib. So, the Hickory baby was crying yesterday, so I had to let him out. I was wearing shorts so I just hopped on bareback and we did a little dressage, much better than our ride yesterday. Really starting to get the hang of canter transitions. Then we rode aimlessly around the farm a little bit, postponing the dreaded return to the field. When we got done, I finished cleaning the last water trough.
Then I went for my run, like a good girl. And it was going a thousand times better than yesterday's run. It was cool out, I was feeling good. Got to the end of the gravel road and turned around. Run run run. POP. AHHHH. I was pretty sure for 15 seconds I had broken my ankle. Then I made myself put weight on it. Had a mild panic attack. Was already out of breath, add trying not to cry to the mix--could not breathe. I started to cry like twice and I literally told myself outloud "The only good crying does is to get you attention and there is nobody around to get attention from. SO DON'T CRY IT WON'T HELP ANYTHING." I didn't have anyone's phone numbers to call to come rescue me off the side of the road. It was a dilemma. I sucked it up and hobbled the rest of the way home. I don't think I should get punished with an injory when I'm trying to do a good thing like running.
Nursed the ankle. Shower. Went to Walgreens (ankle brace) and to see Shrek (very cute) with Rachel.
Woke up this morning in excruciating ankle pain. Borrowed some ibuprofen. Swollen like a balloon. Put on my brace. Did barn chores. Ordered feed. Help set jumps. Watered some plants. Ate lunch. Tacked up Denira. Cooled Denira out. Ran to Skylight supply and got: fly mask, dressage whip, curry comb, mane comb. Fed horses for the second time. Caught Roanie. Finished afternoon barn chores.
Oh I forgot. Hickory had to be moved out of the field he was in. I think because he was pretty bossy. So he got moved to a new field by himself where he didn't have anyone to boss. I was really sad for him because he had really just started to get adjusted to where he was. I woke up this morning and he was intermingling with the herd, so I was bummed for him to have to move out of the field with the horses he sort of knew and the big pond into a little field by himself. He didn't want to be by himself either. He paced the fenceline and worried and worried. So I rustled him up a buddy named Mr. Incredible. Hickory liked this present. I think Hickory is much more enthused with Mr. Incredible than Mr. Incredible is with Hickory. But oh well, at least Hickory is being nice..ish.
And I finished off my day with a ride in the evening. Sucked it up and put on my boots and chaps over my ankle brace and rode in a saddle. We had a little gallop andit made Hick happy. Then once I had put him up, I sat in a chair by the barn by his field and read my book and watched my pony. :)
Then I went for my run, like a good girl. And it was going a thousand times better than yesterday's run. It was cool out, I was feeling good. Got to the end of the gravel road and turned around. Run run run. POP. AHHHH. I was pretty sure for 15 seconds I had broken my ankle. Then I made myself put weight on it. Had a mild panic attack. Was already out of breath, add trying not to cry to the mix--could not breathe. I started to cry like twice and I literally told myself outloud "The only good crying does is to get you attention and there is nobody around to get attention from. SO DON'T CRY IT WON'T HELP ANYTHING." I didn't have anyone's phone numbers to call to come rescue me off the side of the road. It was a dilemma. I sucked it up and hobbled the rest of the way home. I don't think I should get punished with an injory when I'm trying to do a good thing like running.
Nursed the ankle. Shower. Went to Walgreens (ankle brace) and to see Shrek (very cute) with Rachel.
Woke up this morning in excruciating ankle pain. Borrowed some ibuprofen. Swollen like a balloon. Put on my brace. Did barn chores. Ordered feed. Help set jumps. Watered some plants. Ate lunch. Tacked up Denira. Cooled Denira out. Ran to Skylight supply and got: fly mask, dressage whip, curry comb, mane comb. Fed horses for the second time. Caught Roanie. Finished afternoon barn chores.
Oh I forgot. Hickory had to be moved out of the field he was in. I think because he was pretty bossy. So he got moved to a new field by himself where he didn't have anyone to boss. I was really sad for him because he had really just started to get adjusted to where he was. I woke up this morning and he was intermingling with the herd, so I was bummed for him to have to move out of the field with the horses he sort of knew and the big pond into a little field by himself. He didn't want to be by himself either. He paced the fenceline and worried and worried. So I rustled him up a buddy named Mr. Incredible. Hickory liked this present. I think Hickory is much more enthused with Mr. Incredible than Mr. Incredible is with Hickory. But oh well, at least Hickory is being nice..ish.
And I finished off my day with a ride in the evening. Sucked it up and put on my boots and chaps over my ankle brace and rode in a saddle. We had a little gallop andit made Hick happy. Then once I had put him up, I sat in a chair by the barn by his field and read my book and watched my pony. :)
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Today (water-trough wrestler part)
So, I was expecting today to be crazy busy, as it's a Saturday. But it wasn't! I think because a lot of people are at a horse show. I did the barn and then went up to the big barn and finished weeding and watered the tomato plants. Then I rode Hicky Poo. Then I got assigned the task of getting the bleach and scrubbing down all the water troughs. This is very hard work, as you must empty the water troughs with a bucket to the point where you can tip it over by yourself to empty it the rest of the way. And then these were reeeallly grimey water troughs that took A LOT of scrubbing and flipping over to rinse out. It took me two hours to do 2 water troughs. One left for tomorrow. Then I finally had enough energy to go for a run today! It wasn't the best run over (it was actually really lousy). But I went down that gravel road and back, feeling like my muscles were going to seize up and I was just going to die.
The end.
The end.
Explorers, Gardener, and Water-Trough Wrestler
Yesterday was jam-packed, so I didn't have time to share. Normally, I get done with morning barn chores at roughly 9. It took me an extra hour yesterday as Razor suddenly decided he was terri fied of me. Could not get near him. Long story short, ended up having to get halters for all the horses in the field, catch them, tie them up to the fence, and feed them little handfuls of grain. Razor got interested and I finally caught him. As soon as I was done with that, Martha zoomed by on her scooter and asked me to get the filly ready for her to get on at 10:45. So, I got the little princess ready (I love this horse) and as Martha was getting on she gave me some little projects to do while she rode--weeding and watering the flower bed and the tomato plants. I rinsed off Honour for Sally during this time, also. Then cooled Lilly out and gave her a bath and put her up. Then I started to clean Lilly's tack, but Martha needed help unloading some stuff out of the trailer at the house. We unloaded a massive water trough and about 12 stall mats (which are super heavy). THEN we had to put the guts back in the trailer (the big divider things that make the stalls). Between the two of us that took some serious wrestling. Then I went back and finished cleaning Lilly's tack. THEN it was time to do the afternoon barn chores--feed the horses, put them out, clean their stalls, new shavings, fresh water, throw down hay, sweep up. Whew. Looking back I'm not sure how I woke up today.
And poor Hickory was watching me go back and forth all day long, begging to get let out. So, of course, I had to take him for a ride. The sucky thing about this place is that there is really nowhere to go to get away and get off the farm. There aren't really any trails. And Hick loves trails. So I hopped on bareback and we set out to explore down this gravel road that passes by the house. It was so beautiful. It was 8 in the evening but it was still light out. And we just walked and trotted down this long gravel road and Hickory was so happy, he was looking around at everything. There were beautiful green corn fields on either side of us and forest behind that. Then we came up to a dairy farm at the end of the gravel road. I went to turn us around to go back but Hickory didn't want to go back so we rode down the driveway of this farm. Along the driveway in this grove of trees there was a really old graveyard which was sort of creepy/sort of cool. The creepy part was that it was definitely old but the newest gravemarker read 1996. But, really, it was a darn good lookin place to be buried. It is soooo pretty here. There are black fences everywhere and huge rolling pastures and fields of crops. If you love horses and love the country--this is heaven. We turned around after that and rode back. It was just a great ride, I put him on the buckle and we just walked along and watched the sun start to set. I think it made Hickory's day, it definitely made mine!
I went to eat dinner with Rachel afterwards. We headed into town but got stuck in so much traffic that the only place still open by the time we got there was Steak N Shake. But it was good!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Water Horse!
Frank and I are not going to be best friends. I bring him and another horse down from their pasture at the same time. Ghost acts like an angel. Frank has to stop and stare at everything and snort at it every five strides. I mean, it's not like he passes this stuff every single day of his life, right? Ohh there's a tractor up there, let me stop and look. Ohh we're 20 feet closer to it now, I need to stare at it again. Ohh, we're next to it, must stare. And now we're past it, I need to stare some more to make sure it doesn't get us from behind. Ohh Frank.
Then I went to visit Hick. He was very happy to see me, he chased all the other horses off when they tried to come near us. I loved on him for a while and then he followed me all the way back to the gate and we had a little trot and he wanted to come out but I had to tell him I would be back later!
So this little story was the highlight of my day. I had a pretty long break around the middle of the day. I went up to visit with Hick and he was playing in the water trough. Splashin, dunking his head under, and just having a big time all by himself. I watched him being cute for a while and then got to thinking.. I bet he doesn't know there is a pond in his field or he would be in it right now (the pond is behind a big hill). So I went out and grabbed him and we trekked across the pasture to the pond. He was so excited, I took his halter off and he went right in the water. I think it made his day, too. He splashed and played and I sat down and hung out with him for a while.
I had a lesson about an hour and a half later and when I went out to get him, Hick was still out in the pond! I had to wade out there and pull him in! I'm glad he found the pond, because since he refuses to make friends I think he is a little bored.
My lesson was great--I used the new bit and it seemed to work really well so Martha gifted it to me so it's our very own! It just about completely eradicated the curling issue, he only put his head down twice the entire lesson. What a good boy! We did some work on my sitting trot, which I found out needs a lot of work. Going with the concept of moving with your horse, I needed to move A LOT MORE with my horse, I was way too still. It was a great ab work out! And is also a work in progress. She also wanted to see a lot bigger, more "inspiring," trot. She said it takes him from looking like an old school horse to a winning dressage horse. And we also worked on canter departs which are still sticky but I think we're getting the hang of it--he is a fast learner. We had one really great canter depart today.
No lesson tomorrow, going to take him for a little lazy ride and try to find some Parelli games to play.
Then I went to visit Hick. He was very happy to see me, he chased all the other horses off when they tried to come near us. I loved on him for a while and then he followed me all the way back to the gate and we had a little trot and he wanted to come out but I had to tell him I would be back later!
So this little story was the highlight of my day. I had a pretty long break around the middle of the day. I went up to visit with Hick and he was playing in the water trough. Splashin, dunking his head under, and just having a big time all by himself. I watched him being cute for a while and then got to thinking.. I bet he doesn't know there is a pond in his field or he would be in it right now (the pond is behind a big hill). So I went out and grabbed him and we trekked across the pasture to the pond. He was so excited, I took his halter off and he went right in the water. I think it made his day, too. He splashed and played and I sat down and hung out with him for a while.
I had a lesson about an hour and a half later and when I went out to get him, Hick was still out in the pond! I had to wade out there and pull him in! I'm glad he found the pond, because since he refuses to make friends I think he is a little bored.
My lesson was great--I used the new bit and it seemed to work really well so Martha gifted it to me so it's our very own! It just about completely eradicated the curling issue, he only put his head down twice the entire lesson. What a good boy! We did some work on my sitting trot, which I found out needs a lot of work. Going with the concept of moving with your horse, I needed to move A LOT MORE with my horse, I was way too still. It was a great ab work out! And is also a work in progress. She also wanted to see a lot bigger, more "inspiring," trot. She said it takes him from looking like an old school horse to a winning dressage horse. And we also worked on canter departs which are still sticky but I think we're getting the hang of it--he is a fast learner. We had one really great canter depart today.
No lesson tomorrow, going to take him for a little lazy ride and try to find some Parelli games to play.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
"Please tell me you always win dressage." "Uhhhh..."
I did the morning shift by myself this morning. Progress. I only forgot to do one thing--one of the horses gets a beet pulp in the afternoons that whoever does mornings is supposed to mix up. Hickory was staked out at the fence all by himself again this morning.
We had our first lesson this morning, too, at 10! I asked for a dressage lesson first. It went about like this: Martha tells me to warm him up however I usually do. So, we're trotting and cantering around, and she goes "Callie." I say, "Yes?" (thinking uh oh what did I do) and she says, "Please. Tell me that you win dressage every time." And I'm thinking this is going to be one of those "tell me you win dressage every time, that's right, you don't. so you better listen to what I'm going to teach you because you DON'T win because you don't know what you're doing" speeches. So I say, "Uhh, no we don't." And she says, "You've got to be kidding me. This horse is too beautiful of a mover to not win dressage every single time. From now on, you will win dressage."
And she asked why we weren't winning and I first addressed our lead issues saying how we thought it was related to him not picking up the canter right when I asked (thanks Diane!) and she watched me and said that was exactly it. So, our lesson pretty much consisted of the following: we trotted in a roughly 20m circle. She noticed his habit of curling up and getting way too light on the bit (which he was doing a lot of as we were going around this little circle). I ended up with a dressage whip in each hand and every time he curled his neck I would tap him on the butt and say "nuh uh" and his head would come up. It made Hickory pretty mad-- the first time I tapped him he kicked at me.. and the 3rd and the 4th.. and several times after that, he says "DO NOT smack me!" And she emphasized that this where I was riding him with his head today was not where the final product would be--that we were just teaching him "not there." And that it is important to catch him EVERY time he curled, so that there is no gray area of "oohh, I can curl up my neck sometimes, sometimes it's ok," and just knows "I don't put my head there." And I have to work more on riding him every stride as opposed to getting what I want and then zoning out and saying "ok, thanks, now just stay there a while." I have to keep telling him this is what I want, this is what I want and not expect him to do it on his own. And lastly, she talked about how when I ride him he needs to be in front of my leg, especially in dressage. That it should be more like I am sitting back on his butt powering along than sitting more forwards and dragging him with me. He should be doing the dragging! And she gave me a different bit to try for dressage next time-- it's a really soft rubbery plain straight "hot dog" bit. She said the bit I have is definitely in the right category, on the right track, but that this one might be a little better with how sensitive his mouth can be.
And at the end of the lesson she said, "Well. I can see now why you don't win dressage. And it's going to be a little harder than I thought to get you there. But you're still going to win dressage!"
I hung around the barn for a while afterwards, there was an AccuPressure lady who came and was doing therapy with some of the horses. She seemed to know EVERYTHING about horses and what tiny physical signs could tell you about their health. I got put on the afternoon shift at the small barn, too. So, same horses but in the afternoon--feed, turn out, clean stalls, fresh water, hay, throw down hay, rake, and new shavings. So, I learned how all that goes and then went back down to the main barn to finish scrubbing some tack!
Definitely going to bed earlier tonight.
We had our first lesson this morning, too, at 10! I asked for a dressage lesson first. It went about like this: Martha tells me to warm him up however I usually do. So, we're trotting and cantering around, and she goes "Callie." I say, "Yes?" (thinking uh oh what did I do) and she says, "Please. Tell me that you win dressage every time." And I'm thinking this is going to be one of those "tell me you win dressage every time, that's right, you don't. so you better listen to what I'm going to teach you because you DON'T win because you don't know what you're doing" speeches. So I say, "Uhh, no we don't." And she says, "You've got to be kidding me. This horse is too beautiful of a mover to not win dressage every single time. From now on, you will win dressage."
And she asked why we weren't winning and I first addressed our lead issues saying how we thought it was related to him not picking up the canter right when I asked (thanks Diane!) and she watched me and said that was exactly it. So, our lesson pretty much consisted of the following: we trotted in a roughly 20m circle. She noticed his habit of curling up and getting way too light on the bit (which he was doing a lot of as we were going around this little circle). I ended up with a dressage whip in each hand and every time he curled his neck I would tap him on the butt and say "nuh uh" and his head would come up. It made Hickory pretty mad-- the first time I tapped him he kicked at me.. and the 3rd and the 4th.. and several times after that, he says "DO NOT smack me!" And she emphasized that this where I was riding him with his head today was not where the final product would be--that we were just teaching him "not there." And that it is important to catch him EVERY time he curled, so that there is no gray area of "oohh, I can curl up my neck sometimes, sometimes it's ok," and just knows "I don't put my head there." And I have to work more on riding him every stride as opposed to getting what I want and then zoning out and saying "ok, thanks, now just stay there a while." I have to keep telling him this is what I want, this is what I want and not expect him to do it on his own. And lastly, she talked about how when I ride him he needs to be in front of my leg, especially in dressage. That it should be more like I am sitting back on his butt powering along than sitting more forwards and dragging him with me. He should be doing the dragging! And she gave me a different bit to try for dressage next time-- it's a really soft rubbery plain straight "hot dog" bit. She said the bit I have is definitely in the right category, on the right track, but that this one might be a little better with how sensitive his mouth can be.
And at the end of the lesson she said, "Well. I can see now why you don't win dressage. And it's going to be a little harder than I thought to get you there. But you're still going to win dressage!"
I hung around the barn for a while afterwards, there was an AccuPressure lady who came and was doing therapy with some of the horses. She seemed to know EVERYTHING about horses and what tiny physical signs could tell you about their health. I got put on the afternoon shift at the small barn, too. So, same horses but in the afternoon--feed, turn out, clean stalls, fresh water, hay, throw down hay, rake, and new shavings. So, I learned how all that goes and then went back down to the main barn to finish scrubbing some tack!
Definitely going to bed earlier tonight.
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