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.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)