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....

All of October in one go!

Well, I guess I might as well just do one attempt at recapping October, that way I can just move on to the current fun we're having without losing too much continuity.

We did a great poker ride at the beginning of the month. They stuck the cards in big white feed sacks and hung them from trees! So I definitely had to get off and lead her to the first tree! Really, big white bag swinging in the wind, and I expect her to walk up close enough to reach my whole arm in????? Well we got there by the end. She was a pro and swaying white crinkly bags by the end. AND we didn't do too badly with our poker hand and I was able to pick out some hoof supplement from the prize table! Of course its going to Bear... sorry Lola.

We had a great trail ride out at the lake early in the month, and after being gone all summer I was surprised to see so much beach and so little water! I'd forgotten what a difference there is in the fall versus the spring when its a reservoir lake like that!

Lola got her shots in October, and again she acted like we stuck a knife in her! Silly girl. Just provide the biggest possible contrast, Bear hardly blinked. I didn't even realize the vet had done it.

What else... we've had some great dressage lessons. She's really coming along each time. I really enjoy riding her each time! That's always a nice bonus! We've been working mostly after dark since I work all day, and she's adjusted to working in the big arena with lights really well. She's not a big fan of it when is sloppy and wet, but I can't blame her. She's also adjusted to the overly tiny indoor arena and we can actually get some lunge work done in there now. Just goes to show how much more balanced she is! Also, her canter work is becoming not only more consistent, but more balanced and more confident. It is no where near perfect, but enjoyable is a good place to start!

I guess that's the most of it. The weather has been a bit on and off. We went from sweating in the sun on Friday and Saturday to storming all day Sunday and switching to the heavier winter blankets on Monday. I still have the rain sheets out because I'm not convinced we're all the way into winter yet!

I'm looking forward to some drier days this weekend. I think we might actually go out and have some fun too!

We’re back in the lesson routine…

A still from the video of the trainer taking her through some of the "bigger" jumps,
but seriously Lola is jumping it like it was a house instead of 2 foot.

So I updated the summer, by September we were getting back into a groove.

We have a very talented eventing trainer in the area, and I’ve been hoping to take a lesson to try her out for over a year and a half. So while Lola was still living at my parents (a little vacation after Santa Barbara before heading back to boarding) we were much closer to the trainer and we went out for a jumping lesson. I’ve done about as much as I’m comfortable doing on my own. Lots of poles, cavelettis, grids, and low cross rails courses. I’ve basically been trotting up to everything and then cantering though the grids so she learns to jump from the base and stay relaxed. So for our very first lesson Lola calmly trotted up to the cross rail, picked up her feet and landed trotting away. The trainer laughed that Lola didn’t seem very impressed. I told that had been my goal. Easy peasy.

So she pushed us to jump a little higher x’s and some oxers, she had us cantering away and mixing things up a bit with some cantering around the arena. Then she got on to try her out and we popped the fences up a little higher to see if we could wake her up. The great thing about this is that I can work up to where I’m comfortable, and then the trainer can push her a little farther. I like this idea A LOT!

For the second lesson I dragged my boyfriend out to video. I was really pleased with the lesson considering Lola and I are both out of shape after about a month off. There is plenty of room for improvement in my jumping, but I could at least pick out some things to be happy about. Then when the trainer got on I was pleased with Lola’s willingness to keep going even though she was tired and this was more physically and mentally than I had ever asked of her. At the end, I was beat, she was beat, but I think we both felt pretty stinking proud of ourselves.

We did some canter poles...




Then we started with the easy cross bar with a pole down to help her with distance.




Then that got bumped up to a vertical...







And finally we tried an oxer! YIKES!
1st attempt is a little wiggly



Second go is a little better.

That was about the end of my comfort level since my legs were screaming from all the canter over poles... You can see I'm getting tossed about like a rag doll in these last two. But in my defense, she's jumping it big, and she's still jumping it a little awkwardly. When I freeze the frame it shows how much she's clearing the rails by!


So we did a different sort of pushing the comfort level. We cantered while approaching the cross bar! She was great.



Now if I could just keep this up at home we'd be jumping courses at shows in no time. But sadly time has been scarce and money for lessons is almost non existent. So we're taking it slowly. We've jumped twice since then very successfully, but we also kept it to 18 inches! I figure I better not push my luck. We'll jump real jumps while the trainer watches. We'll jump little fun things to keep our minds and bodies fresh in the mean time.

Silver lining shines through the worst thunder cloud

Well, I’ve briefly updated Bear’s blog, but Lola’s post is a bit more complicated. While Bear had a summer sitting in pasture, Lola’s summer was a little more like a long hard day full of emotional turmoil and dinosaur fights (my favorite quote from Meet the Robinsons). :) Basically I had the best bad news ever.

Lola’s nervous choppy trot seemed to be turning into explosive canter departs on the lunge line, and a general inability to work productively due to what seemed to be nervous, anxious, and overall negative energy. Mix into this some of the most productive and impressive rides I’d ever gotten out of her. Total craps shoot every day. I mean she gave me the best relaxed and on the bit trot I had ever gotten from her while enormous tractors were mowing down the 5 foot weeds all around the edge of the arena. Seriously, what horse behaves that well! Then other days she was like a bottled up rocket. I was pulling my hair out trying to sort out what I thought was a training issue. And then the life-changing event took place.

One evening, about 5 minutes into lunging she bucked when asked to pick up the canter, and then just wanted to stop. She seemed dead set on not behaving, she was nervous and dripping in sweat. I didn’t have a clue what was happening. I tested her out at walk trot and canter thinking anything under the sun. Maybe she hurt herself. Maybe she’s being super naughty. Maybe she’s just plain gone crazy. She looked stiff and slow. She looked like each step was getting smaller until she was jogging like a western pleasure horse. So with the trot-canter test failed, I thought maybe I could walk her out of this. Nope. Still dripping sweat, still stiff, and also shaking uncontrollably. So after maybe 10 minutes of desperately trying to figure it out, I was slammed in the face with the reality that something was seriously wrong. She was still sweating and shaking, and once she stopped, she was stuck there, couldn't move. Anyway, one complete and total emotional breakdown, and one emergency vet visit later, I got the best bad news ever. Sounds like she has PSSM, and simply put, she can’t metabolism feed high in starches. Feeds like the corn, oats, and barley grain, and the oat hay I was feeding her over the summer. Or the feeds with high sugar content like all the spring grass she was eating while in pasture up until May. Basically, since I’ve had her, I’ve been feeding her stuff that would trigger symptoms. These symptoms can include muscle tightness, a stiff choppy stride, reluctance to canter, a nervous or uptight demeanor due to just plain being uncomfortable, and most severely, PSSM horses will tie up, which is what happened that night. So good news from the bad news, once diet is managed something like more than 75% of horse have no more symptoms, a noticeable change in gait, and no more episodes of tying up! That one night sucked, I’m not going to lie, but I count myself lucky to have figured out she needed a diet change.

So long story short, I have a whole new horse. Well, not exactly, I have my good version of Lola. I had glimpses of her all along. My trainer had commented back in May that she seemed to need a 45 minute warm up before she could really work and use her body, like she just couldn’t do it early in the ride. The first time she saw her after the summer she commented on how different she moved, and that her muscles even looked less tight and contracted. Amazing difference! Canter departs are no longer a source of anxiety for her. She’s got better quality gaits. She’s relaxed and happy to work. She’s the good Lola all the time now. Also have heard in the prognosis for diet change that it can take four to six months for the changes to be complete. After that, if the diet is working, its just plain working. So I don't think she'll have another tie-up episode, and she's moving loads better.

So that’s the major update. Lot’s more good stuff to follow!

Lola's vacation home

Well here we are, a whole week into my Masters program, and I'm finally finding time to update the blog. Lola survived the LONG drive down here. We stopped about midway down to give her a 45 minute break to eat a "sloppy" with some electrolytes in it, and munch on the hay that she wasn't really eating while we drove, and to offer her some water. Aside from that we had a short gas station stop before and after, and one quick pee stop for me about 45minutes from our final destination. So with all that, it took 9 hours! Ugh... She did great. Luckily it was a nice cool day for driving. She didn't seem overly stressed, and she settled into the student boarding stables right away.

So the first day she got to just chill and take in the new surroundings. Monday I pulled her out and lunged her and worked her in hand just a bit. Tuesday we started back to work and she got a good ride. Wednesday she got an hour turn out. Thursday and Friday, more good training rides. I think this will end up being our pattern. Mondays and Wednesdays will be hard to fit in much of anything. In fact Tuesdays could get tough too. But Thursday through Sunday, I have the luxury of just enjoying being out at the barn and loosing track of time, which I inevitably do.

Saturday we did something awesome. We had a GOOD rider put a ride on her! Not that I'm a bad rider, but we'll just say that this rider has more experience at higher levels of dressage AND in bringing young horses along, AND she's just plain more talented than I am! I was very lucky to have the chance to see Lola go so well. This rider got a ton more consistency from Lola than I do. Where I get to see little glimmers of beauty her and there with a her feet flying every which way the rest of the time, this rider could keep her moving more the way she's supposed with only little bumps of chaos every so often. Green horses are always seeking to balance themselves and a rider that can create structure for the horse using their body to regulate the tempo. I can do this to some degree, but I'm also a work in progress. It was a huge treat to see her moving so nicely! The good news, it all stuck with her the next day! She was a fantastic steady horse when I rode her the next day! Let's see how long I can keep up the good work!

I am hoping to get her out on the trail soon. Since its a little complicated as to where we can ride and where we can't, I need to go out with someone that knows the trails the first few times. I'm hoping that this next weekend it might actually happen.

First jumping show!!!

We had a very successful little schooling show. It was a small show that was really geared to creating a safe environment for beginner riders and green horses. Perfect place to set Lola up for success.

The first class we did was a hunter course over just the ground poles. She did fine, she was just a little inconsistent by getting a little quick down one line, and her head was sort of all over the place as she kept finding her balance, but over all she felt like she was listening well and relaxed. The whole point of the first class was to get her in the arena, and get us both relaxed. Its no big deal, its no big deal, its no big deal...


Next class we did the exact same course, but trotting it over poles. Again, my whole goal was to create relaxation, focus on what I'm asking of her, and a steady forward tempo. We totally obliterated one jump! I mean come on Lola, they're cross bars! Actually they were quite easy to knock down because they were the hollow pvc type and were not weighted at all. A little knock or rub that would leave a regular wood pole in the cups sent these poles flying in all directions. Now that I've watched the video, I see that it wasn't nearly as bad as it sounded!


Third and final class (because we had been there FOUR HOURS for just three little classes) was the exact same course, just a maiden class instead of 18 and over. So my goal was to not destroy a jump (of course) and to get at least one line where she maintained a canter between jumps. She was understanding the idea of cantering away, but was unsure of herself and her stride approaching the next jump. Its fine with me that she trots to the base and jumps better because of it, but I do need to start challenging her. First line I just developped the idea of cantering away, but let her trot the second fence. Second line she tried to eat dirt. So on the third line, I suggested to her that she keep the canter. She got a little squirrely and started looking sideways, but still took the next jump like a good girl, I encouraged again, and, again even though she was looking to veer a little she jumped it from a canter. I was pleased! So we went right back to trotting, and finished the last line at a good trot to regulate her mind and rhythm after something new.


We ended up with thirds in both cross bar classes! Hurray for small schooling shows awarding our small training successes! I should also mention it was 95 degrees!! Officially summer, and I was officially beat!

Jumping, lesson, and accidental swimming...

Some of the same, some different version of the same...

Monday, I had a limited amount of time, but still wanted to ride. Lola did really well. I've realized she needs to build up her conditioning some, so I set timers and stuck to one gait until the timer went off. So we cantered for two minutes, which is surprisingly only a few laps around the arena.

We had another great lesson on Tuesday, despite the weather! We were stuck in the little indoor arena because it poured all day Tuesday. (Plus is was drizzling all through the lesson. Stupid rain!) So even though the indoor arena is perfect for free lunging over jumps, its tight for riding. So we worked on 20meter circles and started working on figure 8s. She was feeling silly, understandable for the weather, and was really looking and shying from a corner of the arena. This was great actually, because it was the first time the trainer has ever seen her have an issue with spooking, and gave us some great tips on how to work through it. The thing is, if I have her full attention, she's too focused to look at things. We didn't try any canter work since it is a small space, and there were some slick spots from being over watered.

Wednesday I went out at lunch and just turned Lola and Bear out to run through the puddles in the big arena, good enough footing still to gallop around like wild beasties, but I sure didn't want to ride in it! They had fun, and rolled, and that was it for the day.

Thursday we had our free lunge over jumps session. She did fantastic! Plus I got video! YEAH!
Here are just a few clips of the fun we had!







Then I hopped on her bareback with just the halter and rope (and helmet) and she was great considering she wasn't too sure about the whole yielding from the pull of the halter on a turn. She figured it out pretty quick.

Friday I was able to sneak in a quick ride before other plans. We warmed up really good with the circles and serpentines at the walk, then big trot circles. We had to get creative to ride in the very wet arena without hitting the deep mud spots. It meant splashing straight through puddles a few times, so she had to get over that. We ended with a big canter. Overall a good ride for the time I had.

Saturday was trail day!! Yeah! We had lots of ups and downs for building their butts, then came back to the trails that were a little less rocky to do some trot and cantering. Lots of fun! We did have two scary incidents! While crossing through some water up to their bellies, Lola suddenly hit a hole or a sinking spots because her head suddenly crashed into the water! She took two huge leaps forward to get out of it. She came out fine and the friend riding was fine, but watching it happen was scary, I thought they were both going down in the water! The second incident happened to Bear. The was a big old snake in the trail (rattler I'm pretty sure) and when Lola passed by it she trotted forward without my friend even seeing it. But having a horse walk right passed it got the snake pretty pissed off, so just as I came upon it and the snake came straight at me and Bear with its head raised to strike! VERY AGRESSIVE! I FREAKED out! I hauled Bear backwards as fast as I could and started to turn to go back the other direction, but as soon as I gave the snake a good five foot space again the snake slithered off to the bushes. CRAZY! It was like three feet long!

Sunday she had off, so Monday night I went out and did a little over fences work.

We started with just trotting over the poles on the ground.


Next we went to the little cross bar with trot poles leading in.


She was going really well, so I put up just a tiny vertical.


The vertical got better the second time since she got the canter stride after the poles.


Then made it into a little 2ft oxer. Excuse the equitation, it was 80 degrees with major humidity, and I was beat before I ever got to the barn, so I was very loose in the tack and getting left behind. She looks cute though!


We ended by just going back to the easy relaxing trot circle. She still isn't relaxing and stretching down in the bit because she's all hyped up about the fences, but over all it was a great improvement over last time. She's staying pretty steady up to the fence.