Derby report... Part 1

Well, a whole week has passed since we had our awesome little derby experience, and I'm JUST now getting a chance to write about it! (I have been SO busy at work! Since we're a tax firm, the last big push to the tax deadline means insanity.)

The day didn't go quite as planned, but we managed. First off, my mom got the stomach flu, so my photographers/grooms did not come out to the Derby! I was disappointed, but it wasn't the end of the world. I needed to stop by work quick that morning, and what I thought would be a quick 30 minutes to dash through my to-do list of emergencies was complicated by the fact that two of the partners were in! So a few extra resquests later, and one comment on my "Marty McFly" vest (a very nice Ariat vest that I was wearing to the show since it was sunny, but had a chilly wind). Hey, at least I put jeans on to go in, I was expecting a deserted office, and almost wore my breeches!

So with a late start and lacking help, my anxiety was rising. I also had been crazy busy the day before, so I hadn't cleaned tack, I at least had a reasonably clean horse, but was just feeling scattered and like I hadn't prepared correctly, which leaves me anxious. We made it there in good time, and got moving on getting ready.

I had packed my coat, white breeches and everything, but realized that with out a photography, my walk-trot test hardly justified such formal clothing. Since I was planning on wearing a polo for jumping, I just put that on. Then realized that my comfy, trusted, full seat schooling breeches were in the truck, and decided to dump the pretty white breeches for what I'm most comfortable in!

We got tacked up and went to the specified round pen to lunge, only to find someone else in there! I continued on to the other round pens, and found horses turned out! Ugh... After alerting ring stewards that I was REALLY late warming up and NEEDED a place to lunge someone moved a horse. Lola hardly needed to be lunged, but it gives me a chance to assess how she's moving, feeling, etc. We had a kick-ass lesson the day before, and she's always quiet, relaxed, and cooperative after those. So we literally had a 7 minute lunge session, and the I was ready to get on... except I had left everything at the trailer (helmet, reins, boots) thinking I was using the round pen right there within feet of the parking. So I checked in with the ring steward who said they were about 20 minutes behind, so I should be fine.

Thinking I had time, I took a longer route back to the trailer to walk her through the jump field since tons of people had taken their horses out to walk the course. I knew that she would look twice at the tire jump, it wasn't something we would be jumping, but we were going passing it on our direct route to another fence and if she spooked sideways I knew we'd miss our fence. As expected she got bug-eyed and scooted past it the first time, we mad a couple circles and continued back to the trailer.

I quickly gathered my things, threw my number on, and scurried back to the warm up arena. Upon checking in I learned that the rider in before me was in the ring already. Great! Not so behind as she had told me! The rider after me was ready to go, so she went first, and I had 5 minutes to warm up! NOT the best way to show!

We actually had a really decent test. Lola is always better worked daily, and, like I said, she is really willing and relaxed after good lesson days. We were doing the walk trot Into Test A, the one for 2011 is actually easier than the one from 2010! We had exactly what I expected. She bends better to the right than the left, she lowers her head well for the free walk, but doesn't really overstep and swing through her back. We got dinged for drifting, which was probably my nerves more than anything. And of course, she just needs to be more consistent in the contact. Here's the test:


The test was great! Respectable scores, and jumping to follow. More on that later... off to see the little red mare!

Big announcement- Derby on Sunday!!!

This will be BOTH Lola's and my unofficial entrance into the eventing world. Its a BIG deal for me! Aside from schooling cross country on other peoples horses, eventing has been foreign to me, just an idea, a way of life, a super cool, kick-ass way for OTHER people to have fun! Until now...

The UC Davis Eventing club is putting on a little Derby on Sunday, and, just my luck, they have a division for "Hopefuls" or in my case "Hopelessly Chicken"! I mean really, I've jumped before, I don't have any real show record over fences, but I've schooled over 3ft fences on and off in my life of taking lessons. I have a talented mare who really enjoys jumping. We COULD do something bigger, but why push it? I'm thrilled to be going, and even more thrilled that I will be able to convince myself we CAN do this despite show nerves, because of the super easy prospect of the Walk-Trot Intro Test A, and an 18 inch course.

This will be on the grassy field, and there will be a combination of regular jumps and natural obstacles, so we'll get a bit of a taste of the cross country. And that little bit will be plenty seeing as we've never formally schooled cross country!

I'm super excited. The pace is set for trotting and cantering, I will be perfectly happy trotting to every jump and trying our luck just cantering between fences.

I'm feeling good about the ride time of noon, gives me plenty of time to get there and get tacked up and warmed up without fretting. But I'm oh so confused about what time I'll be jumping.

I think I've got my grooms/camera crew on board. So its official, first schooling show of the season breaks me into the world of eventing!

Running free... and why we should check our tack...

This is why Lola is glad to be back at GBEC!

So far my week has been SO much easier with her so close.

Monday noon: left work for lunch, went to see Lola, took off her blanket, and turned her out in the big arena to play. Video shows how much she loved it! Mixed her sloppy supplements up to leave in her pen. Happy horse.

Monday PM: came out to ride after a marathon day... so it was already 8pm by the time I got out there. If she had been a 30 minute drive away it wouldn't have happened. Didn't lunge (bad idea) and rode under the lights in the jumping ring (Lola thought a bad idea, I told her to get over it), had a frustrating ride on a hot and anxious horse. I left frustrated that she's not 100% relaxed now that she's out there. IT WAS DAY ONE! Got over my unrealistic expectation not being met.

Tuesday noon: Same deal, no video today. Let her graze in hand after.

Tuesday pm: got out by 5:30 so I'd have plenty of day light! Good choice, especially since I wanted to jump a bit. Lunged! Good choice, maybe wasn't necessary based on what a good girl she was, maybe she would have been the same without lunging, but its such a good way to warm up. I lunged the very minimum, maybe 7 minutes. She was amazing! She wasn't quick, she stepped right into a nice light and relaxed canter, which is huge for her.

I hopped on and walked a warm up to get her listening to my leg. (I always feel like I have short little "half legs" when my stirrups are at jumping length!) Trotted a bit. She was relaxed and reaching for the bit, so I just got straight down to business. We trotted the poles (which someone else had left and I forgot to check) they were NOT spaced correctly for trotting. Maybe they had been, but they had since been knocked out of place and were too far apart for a trot stride, but too close together to put two steps in between. Ugh. But they did make her pay attention. We still did them a few times when I need her to stop thinking forward and think hoof placement. She made me laugh how hard she tried to make those poles work. After stumbling through twice, she figured that she could trot in, put a canter stride in, trot out and not touch one pole!

We put our sights on the first little gymnastic. A spacer pole on low blocks with one stride to a little cross bar. She trotted right through perfectly in stride and landed on the opposite lead than the approach (not that we actually cantered in) then cantered out. We cantered a half circle, came down to a loose rein walk and patted her like crazy for making it seem so easy.

We trotted around a bit, then tried it again from the other direction (approaching from a circle to the left) and she went through beautifully again this time taking the right lead so we cantered half the arena to the right, stopped and gave her a whole lot more pats.

Now she was getting excited about it so we did some circles and leg yielding at the walk so that she remembered that me picking up the reins from a loose rein walk does not means zoom off. We picked up the trot again and tried a single vertical plank, tiny one, probably not EVEN 18inches. She took off way too far away and launched over it. Silly and ugly, but I didn't feel insecure. So we go again, SAME spot! NO Lola, that's the WRONG take off spot! One more time from the other direction that allowed for a straighter approach, too long again. I'm going back and forth in my mind, I should have put a pole down to space her stride, no I shouldn't I won't have those at shows, but its better than making the same mistake three times, well maybe we just need to make it work another way. So I did. I walked her almost all the way up and only trotted about 5 strides out and said a nice clear "Easy" before the fence. Perfect take off spot! Again this is all at the trot, but if we can figure out together that "easy" means "please take your time and add and extra stride here" then next week when we move back into canter approaches I can only hope she'll remember!

We then set off to tackle the last little combo: a cross rail with two strides to another plank (this one a little higher). She trotted right into it, nice and straight, nailed the two strides, the second fence felt lovely! Then my iron disappeared! No, my foot didn't slip out of it, it literally fell off. So we ended the perfect jumping school imperfectly. The leather broke (more on why in a bit), the iron smacked her in the belly as it slid off. The last time a leather broke (some one else riding in their own tack) it was by the buckle and the iron was swinging under her belly smacking her! So of course her reaction was to start bucking, but I was able to stop her with in a few strides of the jump. The good news of it. I felt really secure!

So I have to confess I have been wondering if maybe I shouldn't be using these leathers. I pulled them out of storage because I'm now trying to use 3 english saddles (one jump, one dressage, and one at my parents for Bear) and don't have enough leathers! So I pulled theses off a saddle that hasn't been used for ages. They are old, dry and show signs of cracking... big duh that I should NOT be using them! Well really they probably would have held up, EXCEPT I wrapped them once around the irons. They aren't quite short enough for jumping length, and I didn't have a hole punch, so I just wrapped it once to shorten it an inch. That was enough added strain to do them in. This was DUMB, and no one reading this should repeat my mistakes!

So I'm off to buy new leathers tomorrow!

Pit stop while moving barns...

The barn that I just left (we'll call "Winter Barn") was not far from some wonderful trails. They were multi-use (and boy were they used by all types) but had plenty wide gravel trails that attracted most of the bikes and stroller, and then nice dirt trails for horses. They were a good mix of hills, with packed dirt that made for good footing for trotting (not like some of our granite trails that are, literally, hard as rock!).

I managed to get the two horses out together once, but didn't have much time. In fact I got farther down the trail when I did a great picnic/hike with my fiance. Then I took Lola out a few weeks ago along, and she basically tried to kill me every step of the way! Really, mostly my fault, never try to do something with a horse if they know you're in a hurry! Plus I took her straight out of the stall, no turn out, lunging or anything, and I'm pretty sure she hadn't been worked that week! WHAT was I thinking taking a silly mare with ALL that pent up energy out ALONE????

So Sunday when I moved her out, I couldn't help but take one last try at those trails. Things went marvelously! I had FUN! Imagine that. And she only tried to kill me once. HUGE improvement, right?

From Drop Box

The view isn't as good here, but with the wind the sky was so clear! I could way more than usual.

I started things off right, let her get her bucks out running around in the arena, and then left her turned out while packing up. I took my time grooming. No sense having her feed off my energy. She was good from the get go. Only minor spooks in place, nervous snorting and such, but that's expected as she gets used to going out alone. We even passed a couple of horses, and she didn't make any fuss about them leaving her.

Then came the stream. Now this was really just rain run off crossing the trail. No big deal. A tiny trickle of water with some standing water around the rocks. Except she's not a big fan of MOVING water. I knew she'd be trouble, so I got off from the get go. She tip toed around the edge while I stood right in the middle of the scary. She stuck her nose all the way to the ground. She wasn't really being too balky so I finally got firm about her crossing and boy did she come! I expected her to leap across dramatically. She's a red mare after all! What I didn't expect was to have her charge past me and straight up the bank on my left! UP the bank between the boulders INTO the trees! This of course yanked my upper body up and to the left, while my feet were still down and to the right, with the lovely bank using its trees and rocks to keep my knees from moving at all. Thanks Lola.

I am always amazed that a person can have fully intact clothing on the outside, while the skin underneath said clothing can get scrapped and cut galore. I have a lovely long scrape and bruise where one of the rocks kept my knee from following my upper body.

I was not happy. I was also totally disgusted by her choice to hop up a bank. That doesn't even make sense! I grabbed a stick (not a beating stick, just a make shit crop) and spanked her one when she wouldn't come OUT of the brush and back to the trail. From there she know I had a spanking tool, and she followed me back to the stream. This time she jumped only one stride, she didn't leap wildly, or run off, but still not quite good enough. So crossing back she managed to put all four feet through, and even stop in the middle. Good girl!

We took our time with the whole thing, and I was so focused on her that it wasn't until I started to walk away that I realized that there were two people on horseback standing about 15 feet up the trail! I have no idea how long they had been standing there! I was a little embarrassed, mainly because I wasn't sure if they had caught me being dragged up the bank and shouting wildly at my mare! I think they only caught the end. They congratulated me on making it across, I said she had to do it several times because the first time was so wild, they reminded me that's how they learn. So true.

We continued on. The trail presented lots of fun tests, we opened and shut two gates without getting off, crossed a big wide bridge over a rushing stream, then later a little narrow bridge (we walked it first, then rode), we trotted some of the hills on the back trails, then walked the hills home on a loose rein! Seriously! Best thing about it, we rode over the little trickle stream the second time around. No big deal. She'd learned. What an amazing feeling!

From Drop Box

Overall she got a good low impact work out, ie lots of walking hills, with a little hill trotting. She got a great mental workout! I got a rather intense work out and, pathetically, will be sore tomorrow. I forced myself to ride in the jumping saddle with shorter than usual (but not quite so short as jumping) length stirrups. Plus with the ups and downs it was a little like two point.

From Drop Box

I snapped this picture on the way out to the trail. Beautiful view! That's my trailer in the front. Since getting it back after the tree incident I'm reminded how lucky I am to have a trailer. I'm so grateful to have the freedom it affords. Days like today, one on one bonding with your horse, don't happen without a trailer.

Back on dry ground

Well I took my lunch to zip over GB Eq Center (the one close to work where Lola was last fall) and I was amazed that after the flooding we had last week, the paddocks were dry! There is still a patch right at the front fence line of each that had deep, half-dried mud, the kind that is dry and crusty on top, but still soft enough that the horse sinks in a little. I don't think this will be too bad.

The arenas are mostly dry, but in terrible need of dragging, and both have little puddle "bogs" where the water has been sitting so long it has turned green. Yuck. I can ride around that, and once they get back into a dragging routine that will slowly get groomed away.

I am thrilled to have her back out in the open. To be honest, her stall at the last place never seemed dry this last month. Either they weren't stripping it often enough, or the wet ground from excessive rain was not allowing it to drain. Either way she has a nasty case of thrush in one of her front frogs. Blech. And of course wet stalls means she's breathing in pee fumes. Also gross.

Of course the best of it is that she has WAY more freedom to move, which is ideal for managing the PSSM. Plus turning her out to gallop and buck in the smallish arena there at the barn just isn't as satisfying as letting her gallop all out in the big jumping arena at this place!

Best of all, because I'm selfish and busy, she's back to being only two miles from work. I can get out there at lunch to see her. I can still go out to ride no matter how late I get off work, so no more excuses that by the time I get out there it will be 8pm. No more getting home at 11pm because the barn is 35 minutes from work then 35 minutes back to the house.

Oh, maybe even better than best of all, I can have my dressage trainer come to me again. I LOVE having my lesson at home! I appreciate her arena for sure, and trailering her is good for helping her adjust to getting out and doing things. But it takes so stinking long! Hook up, load up, drive slowly and carefully there, guaranteed to take an hour no matter how quick and efficient I try to be. Then I have to do it all over again to get home! Having the trainer come to me is SUCH a treat. With time as limited as it is, having that travel time wiped away means I might even find time to ride Bear, or plan this wedding that is fast approaching, or just plain spend time with my honey. None of my time with the horses is EVER a waste of time. But driving them definitely is!

Where has this month gone???

Well I should be working, but that isn't really happening. I'm home sick with the stomach flu. Blech. I was planning on working form home yesterday too, but seeing as I couldn't eat anything, I just sort of slept the day away instead. Which, let's face it, I was entitled to after throwing up most of the night! I am sort of back to eating, as in nothing is coming back up, but it sure doesn't make my stomach very happy staying down either.

Ugh. What this all means is that I missed Tuesday night of going out to see the horses, and I will be working Saturday and Sunday to catch up at work, and I will be missing the first sunny weekend in ages. I glanced at the goals I posted for February through May. I just wish life wouldn't get in the way! Seriously, the craziest flooding rain I can ever remember in March, tree hitting the trailer which landed it in the shop for weeks, followed by the stomach flu?

I planned on getting Lola out to a schooling show last weekend to really test out our work jumping, but it was postponed due to the lake that had formed over the arena! No date so far. In fact the benefit of that show is that it was always one of the earliest to get out to, once April hits we'll have several options for little shows. So that goal is not happening in March.

Schooling cross country will probably be out several weeks as well, as I'm sure it is just as wet and sloppy out there! I am anxiously waiting for the ground to dry up so that I can move the little miss back out to the boarding place I had her last fall before their pen turned to a swamp. She will do so much better in an open space again, and (once its dry) it will be so nice to have a big jumping arena again. I hate spending 15 minutes to drag jumps and poles in to have 5 minutes of jumping time.

I did get her teeth done. Vet says she's got great chompers! I think we got out to trail ride twice, so that's not bad considering.

I'm hoping April will be more cooperative in meeting my goals. Work, at least, will get a whole lot less hectic at the end of the month. And spring seems to officially have hit! Warm weather, YEAH!!!!

Little jumps for a little bit

We're continuing with the "jumping what we can find theory". I'm also trying another saddle to see if that helps my "not so helpful" equitation. Still trying to get used to it.

Last weekend Lola was over at my parent's for a pony sleepover after trail riding on Saturday. So before I hauled her home on Sunday I used their pasture to ride around and jump some little logs. Fun to have the chance to jump over such little non threatening things out in the open. Not fun to have her so uber-concerned with where Bear was! Ho-hum...

We worked on a little log with one stride combo. I put it close together because I wanted to trot in, have a small jump, a collected stride, and a small jump... more like canter poles than anything. Like this...

Of course we only got that after several times trotting through, and she even managed to make it a bound once though! Silly mare. She is clearly pretty adjustable for a shorter horse.

We also did some hill trots with a little log pile. She really could use some more hill conditioning, so I think we'll work on getting out to the trails more often.

As you can see in the video she was raring to go, but did stop nicely after. So I made an effort to jump again week after I had a really good ride. I couldn't find the poles, so I kept with the idea of jumping what I could find, and we jumped the cones and the jump blocks instead!

From Drop Box

I started with the blocks flat, then popped them up on their sides to be something to actually jump. I figure if we do lots of this low easy stuff at home, she will think its easy and no big deal and just relax, and I will still be working on my position and thinking its no big deal and just relax!

Possibly the best find ever!!!

So over Christmas I happened past a Kieffer dressage saddle for what seemed to be too good of a deal. One of our local feed stores houses a used tack corner where all tack is donated then sold, and all proceeds benefit a local rescue. You can find some real steals in there some times, and just some great practical things too. So I cast a glance in that direction when I'm in there.

Well it was Christmas so I told myself I shouldn't even think about it. I told myself it was probably broken somewhere, or that it would be gone before I could come back for it, or that it wouldn't fit... and a few other things to convince myself to leave without it. The thing is I had ridden Bear in a borrowed Kieffer about a month before and he suddenly went from an average young horse to what felt like an $100,000 warmblood with olympic potential! I know that a saddle makes a big difference, but being that I've never been able to afford nice tack I don't let myself dwell on "what could be" very often. That borrowed saddle perked my interest in buying a real dressage saddle.

I know that many of the things I've been working on, like opening my hip angle, and swinging my hips forward in front of me at the canter would all be easier with a better saddle. I know that being an amateur, every little thing could help! So tonight I went back in to the store. I was sure it would be gone... so when that beautiful Kieffer was still sitting there the heavens opened up and angels sang. Well, actually that didn't happen until they told me I could take it on a three day trial. Both horses have substantial withers, and this is cut well for that, so fingers crossed that it will be a good enough fit!

So here's the saddle...

From Drop Box

I took it out to try on Lola tonight.

From Drop Box

I mean it is possible the best deal ever, aside from my horses who I think are pretty stinking talented. The saddle was only $350. It goes to a good cause, and I can't find much else worth looking at for that price... but if it doesn't fit, its useless!

From Drop Box

I'll get some better pictures in the day light, and will try it on Bear tomorrow. I'd love to hear what other people think of the fit though.

PLEASE comment on what you see, or what you look for when deciding on saddle fit. More pictures to come..

Oh, and I didn't have the heart to put leathers on it in case I didn't like the fit (I didn't even have a way to know what size it was when I took it) so I rode without irons tonight. It still felt awesome! I sure hope it fits Bear, because I'm in love.

Jumping whatever I can find...

So I knew when I moved barns that I was making a huge sacrifice giving up the jumping arena. I told myself that it was useless anyway with all the rain. Well, its hardly rained since! Ugh.

Now I am at a non jumping barn. I have no jumps. So how do I get past this? Actually it was Martha & Willig over at (Re)Training as an Adult Eventing Rider (sorry don't know how to make that a link) that gave me the idea. She was talking about jumping cones. Mainly because they were scary. So I start thinking, what a good idea for a great way to jump Lola. Really low stuff, but still challenging if its scary! Plus I really don't have much to work with, so it sort of adds to the creativity. I'm envisioning feed buckets, her blanket, tarps, what ever I can find!

What the barn does have is two pairs of those plastic blocks, and at least four poles. I didn't know where these poles lived, and quite luckily they were out in the arena last night when I showed up. Being a western barn there were set up, I can only guess, as "jog" poles. They were walk poles or "trot every other" poles for Lola! It was funny.

So I used them as trot poles, then let her off the line to free lunge. I little challenging in that size arena, but I made it work. I actually have asked her to change lead through the middle a few times while free lunging which has resulted in some surprisingly successful flying changes! So she was ignoring the little cone jumps that I set up, so I set up a canter line against one wall instead. I spaced out my four poles to canter through, and after letting her canter through the poles themselves a few times, I set the 2nd and 4th on the blocks and set the cones up right behind the 3rd pole. It made for a good line! The blocks also gave me the ability to let her canter over them as raised poles, then gradually bump them up, first raising the inside to give a half cross bar effect then get them upright on both sides.

It was a good workout both metally and physically for Lola. I didn't have much time last night because as soon as I got to the barn I went to grab my phone from my purse to carry with me only to realize I had left it at the office. Not the first office, you know the 50 hr a week job, but the SECOND office, the 10 hours a month job where really I can't say no, but I never have time to go to. I had stopped by on my way to the barn. Office two is on the way from office one to barn. It is NOT on the way from barn to home or from home to office one. So as soon as I got to the barn I knew I was going to have to leave early to go back and get my phone before the fiancé started calling the cops thinking I was dead in the arena. That's the trade off for riding alone late at night. You can NEVER forget your phone. When you do, you're assumed dead.

Anyway, it was a good use of our time together. I hadn't free jumped her through gymnastics for a while, and I just get a kick doing it. I love seeing her figure out where to put her feet. Seeing her come in being silly and rushing and then realizing that didn't feel right and being careful the next time. Seeing her come in a half stride off and seeing how she corrects with the ground pole so she doesn't blow through the three jumps. I love it because she can learn without me hindering her! Jumping will be a process of her learning to save my butt, just as dressage has been a process of her putting up with me riding well about 25% of the time (and still marveling at this great horse underneath me when I do).

When I cleaned up the jumps I was sad that I left my phone at second office... I am so sad to not take pictures of these things now that I have a phone that will do that!

Another sunny day for another positive lesson...

What a great day!

Lola and I had a great lesson today.



She is pretty cute in her furry-fuzzy winter coat, but its a pain in the butt now that we've got sunny days to make her shed out!!! So much hair! Of course just standing in the sun makes her sweat right now... it will be nice when its all shed out, but I've got a feeling that this early spring weather is faking us out and it will probably storm up again.

The lesson was great. Quite a lot of the same work as last, just not as extreme. Now that I've slowed her down in the walk (quickness of step) I can start asking her to step forward (length of step), which of course carries over to the trot, and, logically, the canter. So I'm riding each gait by strongly pushing her forward with my lower legs in rhythm, while keeping a strong steady contact in front. It is SO counter-intuitive to fix a quick choppy stride by pushing forward, but that's it exactly. She still has a rushed canter when she's not sure if she's balanced. I was amazed that when I sat up and drove her forward from both my seat AND my lower legs, that she didn't shoot out from under me, she actually got slower, rounder, and stepped forward into the canter more correctly! Hmm... this is why I take lessons. Sometimes someone else has to convince you it will work before you're willing to try.

After the lesson I took advantage of the sun and washed Lola's tail! It took two washings and a TON of scrubbing to get it clean. Oh what a mess the winter made of it. So its all conditioned and braided now to stay cleaner.

This week has some evening rides planned when I can get out there, and the weekend holds a trail ride with the fiancé. It will be interesting to see how the horses react to seeing each other again after a month apart!

Riding lesson and the ensuing wisdom

So in my last post I mentioned that got a lesson after quite a long time off, two months I think. Funny how when I go that long I find a way to create opposite problem that I had previously worked on!

Here’s the example. My first lesson after being gone for the summer, we worked on me sitting vertical, and keeping my head above my heels. SO basic, right? Except that I have always had a tendency to hover just in front of the center of balance, not sure why, I just have always fallen into that bad habit while spending too long riding alone. Then I wonder why I have a hard time sitting a refusal at a fence! Well, expectedly, I was leaning forward a bit after a summer of no lessons, and letting Lola poke around with all her weight on the forhand because I was trying to reward her for putting her head down and keeping a balanced even trot. At that end of summer lesson we worked on me keeping my center of balance back to keep her balanced. Well since then I’ve managed to work on it SO hard that I created a new problem! I have found the back of the saddle and decided to stay there!

So my last lesson was all about coming back forward again. I am pendulum swinging! As my trainer said, “A deep seat is not a heavy seat.” In my effort to sit up and get in the center of balance I found the behind the vertical balance point and started to really sit my butt in the back of the saddle. So she really nit-picked my equitation to get me sitting on the front of my pelvis and riding with the front-inside part of my thighs more in contact. Of course to sit more forward in my hips without leaning forward I had to bring my shoulders back more… also a bad habit I’ve had for years. These few simple things made my riding SO much more effective. It was great to actually FEEL the difference in Lola’s trot. By sitting back on her back muscles so much I was actually inhibiting the action and push from the hindquarters and swing through the back that I’m trying to get. Eye opening for sure.

I also had an eye opening lesson about the walk. I try to hard to be generous to Lola when she is being good. So I end up riding on a too-long rein hoping to reward her, when really I’m just providing an unstable connection. I let her walk out as she pleases because she marches along so happily, when really I’m allowing an impure walk that is more quick than marching, and Lola is taking quick choppy steps instead of long swinging steps. These were basically the two things we worked in lesson. Crazy simple. We spent most of the lesson trying to walk as slow as possible with a really short reined contact while doing some circles and halts (all while I tried to remember not to regress to the back of the saddle while turning) then picked up the trot. Because of the walk exercises the trot was 10 times better.

She then had me think about asking Lola to try with her back legs first. To be honest, I still don’t think I fully get how to ask for that or feel for that, but I used it as a mental image and it worked fairly well. I think I want to work more on that later because I have never been great about riding by feel.

Over all, the lesson was great. Lola was sensible and worked hard. I didn’t expect that based on her attitude warming up. She got pretty amped up about being out and about again and was just being distracted and reactive.

One FULL week and two days later, I finally got out to see Lola again. The barn is good about turning her out, but she really does best with regular work. So I was expecting to have a bit of a handful. I let her out in the arena to let some buck out before tacking up; then did my usual lunge with Vienna reins. She was calm and responsive and gave me a great relaxed canter both ways. That’s always a good indicator of a good ride to come, but I still wasn’t expecting much after a full week off. I got on and tried to simply recreate our lesson. She was fantastic! All that same work carried over, and when we got to the canter I could feel a difference there as well!

So the moral of the story: she doesn’t really have a problem with being ridden only once a week, I have a problem getting the most out of her! Good to know… now I can work on it!

Lots of changes... yet again...

Well we didn't survive the winter... all the rains in December proved to be too much for the pen at the boarding place by my work. All of December looked like this...

Yes that is Lola eating hay from the slop. That day when I came out to find that their feeder had been stolen and they were being fed in the mud was the last straw. I was sick of going through this to get into the pen...

I was sick of coming out looking like this...

And as you can tell from her expression...

Lola was sick of having her legs hosed off each time. (At least the water was warm.)
Here tail was literally one solid mud-cicle the day I moved her! So yes, long story short, I moved her. Yet again. I moved her.

Poor thing. I wish the last place could have been the right place. Spring, summer, and fall it was. Winter was just no good. So Lola is in a warm, dry, and cozy stall at another barn MUCH farther from work. We have great indoor arena to work in, and people that are out there late at night like us. So it has so far been a good move. I don't think the box stall is a good idea considering regular excercise and 24 hour turnout is recomended for PSSM, but knee deep much is not really good turnout, and I can't find pasture board with an arena and the right type of hay for her.

So for now, we're making it work. They make sure she gets SOME turnout each day. I try to keep her working often, although I'd love to find a great rider to free lease her half time just to guarantee daily work. She gets her blanket on and off when needed, and she has her supplements feed whether or not I get out there. Its a much better deal for me than having to take the responsibility for some of those daily tasks. The disadvantage is that she's not at the same location as Bear (he's having pasture vacation at grandma and grandpas'). The advantage is that she's not buddy sour any more!

She's been there a whole month now... which is a good reminder to pay board!! YIKES! She's settled in well, and we've even gotten out for a lesson. More on that later, that deserves its own post.

Good golly when will the rain stop?

You'd think I lived in the Pacific Northwest with all this rain! I thought living in California meant I could still ride in the winter!

Well I've had two lessons canceled in two weeks... I guess I'll try around Christmas. One Friday afternoon lesson was scheduled due to the fact that I'm middle management at my office and expected to drop everything for the good of the whole. Then yesterday's lesson was canceled due the steady drizzling rain that came down all... day... long. The rains came just when the arenas seemed to be manageable again, not dry yet, but at least you could ride with risking trotting into a lake or a horse eating bog. Now it looks like another 7 days straight of raining, and enough inches to have flooding. UGH!

I need some creative ideas for the indoor arena. It really is the size of a two 20 meter circles. That's it. Cantering in the tiny space is not conducive to building her confidence because she's worried about balancing, but trot circles and other figures could be good. I've been playing around with more leg yielding, and the beginning of shoulder in, so the walls will be a good tool to continue that. I just hate being so confined, but I need to look at the positives.

I am tempted to trailer and out test my luck with muddy trails, but can't really convince myself to actually ride WHILE its raining. Maybe I'll catch a break on a day that I have time to trailer somewhere.

Any good "tiny arena" excercise suggestions????

Trail class!

Of course this is several days to late to really hit what we did last weekend, but Sunday I hauled Lola out to a little schooling show for some trail classes! We had fun. The point was to get her out to a show environment, and give ourselves a different sort of challenge to keep things fresh. We were challenged and she was fresh! This is how I wanted her head..This is where she wanted to keep her head!

We did all right. You can see the course behind us in the pictures. Sadly my volunteer photographer had her 10 month old son strapped to her chest, and he decided that he just couldn't wait around. So I don't have any pictures of riding the course. Just one walking around warming up.


Lola was quite distracted and that was a huge obstacle to work through. She was nervous and it took a few tries to walk through the "chute", but she was good with backing the L, side passing, walking and trotting the poles, and going over the bridge. In general I though we did well. We had to weave around some stumps at the jog for two of the patterns, and this proved to be very difficult! It was like tight little serpentine, small half circle while making her keep the jog. We got it the second try though and I was very pleased. Basically we did three different patterns through the same obstacles, so it was slightly different each time, but she got to see the obstacle again which let us improve each time. Except for the gate... the gate that wasn't a gate.. the gate that was two jump standards with a slithery-snakey rope on the top. Lola can do gates, we do them all the time. This was not a gate to her, she didn't get it, and she REALLY didn't like it! It was something she'd never seen before, so I didn't fault her for it. We just spent some time trying to make some training progress with it each try. We didn't successfully complete the obstacle even by schooling show standards, but I made her work and try non the less. At the end of the last patter, the judge commented that I had put in some nice schooling on that gate. Always nice to hear a little encouragement for training since I wasn't going to get it by winning!

We follow up the trail classes with a little ride through the park. It was pretty chaotic there with horses and just regular families, plus the wind had really picked up, so there was a whole lot to spook at. She did alright, I got the challenge that I wanted!

What to do with sweaty horses after dark...

I took Bear out for a fantastic trail ride today, but that meant that I didn't get back to the barn until almost 5pm. So inevitably it was getting dark and cold by the time I worked Lola. I was just planning on lunging with the vienna reins so that we could have a short and non sweat inducing work out, but that never works out like planned. She was doing so well tonight, and she was eager to offer the canter. This is huge for a horse that was convinced she couldn't canter a 20 meter circle in the indoor last winter because it was too small! She was coming down to the trot and just asking to canter again and again, and she was doing it so well that I let her. She clearly needed to blow off some steam after being left behind today, and they were such beautiful canter departs that it seemed like making the most out of the situation. It meant, however, that she was plenty hot and sweaty by the time we were done, and after 20 minutes of slowing it down gradually through trot then walking, walking, walking, she still was wet.

I have been having this problem lately. What do I do with this wet horse when its getting colder and colder, but she's too hot to put the blanket on??? So I made the most of the long cool down ahead of us. I took the saddle off, threw a cooler on her, and hopped on bareback. I figured if she was going to have to walk it off for another half hour minimum, I might as well be training. We worked on a good quality walk on the bit with collecting and lengthening her stride. We worked on backing the L that I set up with poles, and then started some leg yield and side pass warm up attempts. She can side pass both directions, but her leg yield to the left is never like it is to the right. So I really worked on getting her to move her haunches, we made a square and at each corner I asked her to move her haunches out in order to turn the corner. Like a turn on the forehand each corner. We then moved that to more of a constant pushing of her haunches out around the circle and then tried another leg yield. Magic! It actually felt halfway correct! And really, halfway correct is as good as any of my yielding or lateral work feels.

We played around a bit more with side passing the L, and then opened and closed the gate to the arena. By time we had done all that, she was dry! She was all cooled out, and we both had more fun than if I had hand walked her for 30 minutes! I bet are all suspicious about all this playing around with trail obstacles! More on THAT tomorrow....