Even hotter and even higher...

We had our lesson set for Tuesday at 6:30pm. Unfortunatley along with the first day of summer, we got our first day of 100 degree heat! Ugh. I guess the lessons were pretty consistantly going long since several riders almost passed out, and there were lots of extra breaks added in for both horse and rider. We stood in the shade for a while since the previous lesson was still going on, and probably didn't get on until 6:45. It was still in the upper 90's!

We stuck with the usual plan, I warm up and try her over a few fences that so that both Lola and I can feel happy and confident. Then I push her a little over new thing. Then the trainer gets on to actually push her over the new thing, as in help her to do it correctly and not just well enough to get our butts over it!

We started with the same gymnastic that we ended with last time. It came right back to her no problem, easy and fun. Then we started a line of three fences. This was a little trickier for her. We trotted through the first time...sort of turned into the trot, trot, boing! But she was steady through. Then we trotted in and pushed to keep the canter through. Then we cantered in. This is tricky for us. The second two fences should be easy because the strides are set, the problem is hitting that first fence right! Lola is still learning her comfortable take-off spot and when we haven't set a gymnastic or pole in front of the fence she's got more to figure out. This also can make or break the next two fences! We were a little funky through it. I forgot to ask someone to video, so I'm not sure just what happened. I think she took off from a long spot at the first fence, so of course she made her two strides to the next fence only to find that she was a little long to that fence too, then one stride and, yep, still a long spot to the third. Here's the great thing though. She tends to figure things out pretty quick, if she takes the long spot the first time, she'll try again and end up coming in to close to the fence and brushing, and then the third time she gets somewhere in between. She troubleshoots! I like it. The nice thing is that we can just let her figure it out. I sit quiet and encourage her to stay straight and move forward, but otherwise stay out of her way. She keeps going, and regardless of how funky it feels or ends up, she always tries, and she's always game to come back and try again.

By this point I was feeling like a floppy sack of potatoes up there. I'm pretty sure if she had chosen to stop, duck out or anything like that I would have quickly been mashed potatoes! I think by then I had boiled in my own sweat! So I opted to hand her off to the trainer pretty early on. I did remember to get the video camera then. So the rest I got pictures or video of!

She warmed up over the same gymnastic from the tight turn. Lola was looking pretty good.

She moved on to the line she looked great going this direction, I believe it was her first time through. Of course I started to get confused on my zoom and screwed up the video trying to figure it out! Whoops.

We also bumped the fences up a bit to around 2'3" or 2'6". She was getting tired at this point but still was willing to work her little butt off! I can't post all the videos because of the size, but I've taken some cute still shots from the videos.

009 @ 2

011 @ 7

007 @ 9

Of course with the heat and the work she was dripping with sweat! But the trainer did comment on how quickly she seemed to recover. She was right, it really didn't take much to get her respiration under control.

Jump lesson

Jumping exercise from our last lesson!



This video is of what we ended on for me, and I was pleased as punch with it!

We finally got back to the eventing trainer that we worked with last fall. I like her a lot, and she competes at a really high level so I'm actually really lucky to have the chance to ride with such a talented trainer! I just have to catch her when she's not off at a competition! So for now we're making it work by doing Tuesday evening lessons.

She immediately commented how much better Lola's trot looked. (Also something my dressage trainer has been commenting on lately, she actually has some nice suspension when she trots now!) She made me redo at least one of my canter transitions. I know they suck, and I know that I need to ride her correctly and expect nothing but correct transitions, but I just tend to let it slide...not acceptable!

We worked on a cross rail first. Trotting in and then turning right even though it was fairly sharp. She did this so that we could get Lola's attention right away, she had to sit back and re-balance herself to make the turn.

Then we switched directions and cantered in. Lola was such a star! I was surprised how easy and fun it was to canter the fences! I just planted my hands on her neck a few strides out, which meant asking her to finish her turn with my body only, and she want through just fine! She didn't rush, we had a pole on the ground to help back her off, she only got funky striding a few times, and then she figured it out and her jump got noticeably better when she jumped from the base of the jump. I could actually feel the difference!

Then we moved on to the exercise in the video up top. We of course started by trotting in the first few times, then came the fun of cantering in! Since it was down the center of the rather small arena, this meant really hard turns! At least hard for me and Lola at the canter. We made it though! Never missed it once. She really just locked on to the jump after the turn, so even if we came out pretty wide, she'd move through the gymnastic a little off center but stay straight and true through the jump! Such a good girl. By the last time I realized that I should have asked her to video this! Whoops. So we just got the last go.

She brushed fence in that first time in the video, which I thought was funny since it didn't seem like she was rushing. When I went to look at the video, this was why:

She didn't jump the two raised poles! She just cantered right through, and so she actually had her back legs split going over each pole! So she brushed. But the jump actually looking great in a still!

Then I had the trainer hop on. I think this will be really helpful to have her school her a little each time to sort of clean up a few things that I tend to leave messy. (Canter departs for example "du jour".) She was getting tired by then since the weather decided to make a sudden change for the upper 90's! But she tried her little heart out anyway. One of the things that she really worked on was the turn. Lola had done them alright for me, but I think that both Lola and I were convince they were too hard, so the trainer was able to school her on them and convince her that she could turn tighter and re-balance! She also stopped her after the jump instead of cantering on like I had. This totally confused Lola the first time! She tried left, then tried right, then desperately tried left again, but the fence was there, so she stopped. Next go, she got it a little better. By the third go, she had stopped perfectly about 1o feet before the fence! Got it!

She is such a sweet little star. Despite the fact she literally had sweat dripping off her nose, she was trying her best, and even cantered perfectly through on the last go even though it was hard for her and she was tired.

Horse trials (turned Combined Training) recap!

Somehow a whole week has passed and I haven't even posted on our enormous success! Been busy I guess...also been waiting on pics from a certain volunteer photographer named Dad!

Overall the weekend was a huge success. We had to come in after work on Friday, so not schooling happened Friday. We'd been busy packing, so not much work happened that week prior anyway. We did have a jump lesson the Monday before that was great. Then a dressage lesson that salvaged a cranky horse and rider and managed to get to a break through. But we weren't as prepared as we could have been.

Dressage was pretty dismal, we got a 40.6, which was not exactly catastrophic, it was not at all living up to our potential. A few things contributed to that. I didn't leave enough warm up time. She lunged nicely, was relaxed, and looked ready to work. Then I had about 10 minutes to actually ride warm up: not enough time to work through the resistant and distracted mind to the supple submissive horse that is in there. Plus we warmed up on the grass field next the cross country jumps: wrong frame of mind. Then my frame of mind was just pissy and not helping: I deemed it hopeless before we ever stepped into the arena. I was mad at myslef that we prepared to have a mediocre test because of poor planning, and mad that I hadn't pushed the trainer (the one being paid coaching fees to warm us up for success) to do things my way. I think I would have been better off on my own.

We did get some good pics after though! Cutie!

Good news from it, we did improve on the walk and free walk, both items that I had specifically worked on! I screwed up the second 20 meter circle because I spaced and went deep in that first corner. I suppose that sounds like bad news, but it means I automatically improve my score next time JUST by following directions!

After the weekend I started thinking through her frustrating resistance and I've begun to wonder if tack was contributing to it. I bought a new bridle specifically for dressage, and it wasn't fitting quite right. The nose band is too small for her rather large (yet pretty) head. So the cavesson is sitting a little lower than ideal. It could be that the brow band is also slightly too small. She was shaking her ear a few times, maybe that is too tight and pinching. I also bought a new bit to go with said bridle. I bought the same type of bit (French link eggbutt) but a different brand which means it is just slightly different. Could make a difference I guess. So now we'll start experimenting what made the difference. Was it me? The setting? The tack?

I ask all these questions because she came out to warm up for cross country like a whole new horse! Refer to pic above- I look tense, she looks chill. She was relaxed with a big nice trot stride instead of her nervous pitter-patter, and we had just about the best canter warm up ever! Was it just simply that I wasn't nervous? Or did the bridle change make a difference too?

Its a shame this next one is not in focus, it is the best of the whole weekend! Of course she doesn't know to be anxious in the start box, so it isn't surprising that she is standing quietly, but man does she look awesome! Looks more like a halt at x than starting box for cross country!

A little background on the show... Due to a bad weather forecast they completely swapped the schedule around. We did dressage first thing on Saturday followed by cross country at noon. The idea being that is it rained a bit on Sunday we'd have a better chance of getting through the stadium rounds.

Cross country went great. The jumps were all super easy.

We had schooled the up-down bumps and the bank the weekend before, so nothing was a surprise.

The logs were all easy. I didn't get lost! Only problems was it was much harder to hit the optimum time than I thought! We were trotting mostly since it was set at a 275m pace.

We cantered away from a few jumps, but in general took extra long approaches thinking we'd come in too fast. Well, approaching jump 9 of 11 I realized we had only thirty seconds left! Yikes! We ended up with 3.6 in time faults for being just a bit over optimum time. That's, again, my fault, and something that better planning can change. Lola was nice and forward, but happy and relaxed the whole way through. We had some really good cantering on course which is a confidence builder for her. I felt amazing afterward! Lola looked please as well.

She was so pleased with herself that she took a big old nap afterward! I was hanging out by her stall a few hours later and she decided to just sprawled out on her side and sleep. Its great that she can still get some zzz's in the middle of the busy show grounds! Considering this was her first time staying over night at a show, I was impressed that she really didn't care! This was her cute clean self BEFORE napping in her shavings!

Saturday night the rain started, and man did it pour! By the time I got up to feed Sunday morning at 6am, there was a lake in the paddock next to Lola's. She was dripping wet on her head and neck, but with a warm dry body under her blanket she didn't seem to care. It didn't take long for the show organizer to come around to spread the news that we would be calling off the stadium portion and calling the show a combined training event. I walked past the arena to get coffee and the enormous lakes that had formed over night made be extra glad it was called off. Even if it had stopped raining (which it didn't) the arena was so wet and sloppy that I would not have felt good about riding.

Instead we packed up in the rain. Nothing more miserable than stripping a paddock of soaking wet shavings in the pouring rain! We were all in a rush to get horses loaded to dry trailers and get out, but we had to pull trailers out to the road to load because the grass was so wet by then. This created more waiting, and then a frantic flurry once it was your turn. I had to wait 20 minutes until I got down the road to get changed into dry clothes and pick up some hot breakfast. I don't think I've every been that wet for that long in my life! Bleh.

Really despite all that, the weekend was a huge success. Oh yeah, I finished 3rd in the Senior Elementary Division! She has come so far. I just am floored by the amount of unhappy horses at shows. Constant refusals, bucking, bolting, or even general pissyness are all indicators your horse doesn't like his job! Really, if what you're doing isn't working, change it, change you, change your trainer, or change his job. Don't just keep trying like it will just magically work one day! I am so pleased that Lola is really truly enjoying what she is doing. I understand that we can all have an occasional bad day, but I had a feeling these horses were really over-faced and with under prepared riders. Lola is growing more and more confident in herself and me every time we do something like this. It is such a great feeling!

Schooling cross country was a HUGE success!

Lola and I went out to school a bit on the cross country course at Eventful Acres on Saturday. This gave us a chance to get used to the place, get an idea of what we're up against, and see how the drive would be for next Friday.

We went with the barn that I started taking jumping lessons at, so it was me and a pack of 8-14 year old girls jumping much bigger than me! My fiance made fun of me, but I'm ok taking it slow with my greenie-beanie horse. While all the girls jumped more than we did their horses also had moments of being quite naughty, one bolted off, one kept doing the spook-spin-buck trick, one didn't want to go down the bank and showed off her rear-spin trick, and the super-star pony rolled in the first water feature (a lovely color of black with floating green algae) leaving the youngest rider forced to do a swan dive into the water! Lola, on the other hand, was an absolute star. None of these kids horses were unsafe by any means, and I was so impressed with the riders. I was still quite happy to be riding a horse that was happy in her work and eager to impress, even when trying her best to figure out where her feet go.

We schooled over tiny logs for the most part, but had fun jumping up and down banks for the first time, we had a tricky little fence that required us to go down a steep bank to cross a creek, trot up the other bank to jump a beginner novice sized log. Tricky since Lola is naturally suspicious of water. This was actually a problem for all of the horses, so we weren't the only ones that tip-toed in the first time through. She was a champ though, and she really improved each time through. This was the second water that we had schooled through.

The first time around we had to follow another horse in, but after that we started walking in with only a bit of hesitation and then trotted out. By the last water we schooled she was trotting through so nicely that I even picked up the canter and she cantered right through! I was so proud!

We cooled down by doing a some free walking to medium walk transitions in the arena where the dressage test will be set up. The whole day was such a huge success!

I feel like we're going to do really well next weekend, and I just can't wait!

Balancing act: Forehand vs haunches, side to side, work vs R & R

Our primary training focus right now is balance. Well, I guess really it is balance and rhythm, since those always go hand in hand.

Lola has been getting so good about not leaning on her forehand and plowing along, but we still have to address this when we venture out of the 20 meter circle. We’re working on not getting to heavy in front before and after fences. “No, Lola, plowing through the gymnastic is not correct!” Also we’ve been working on not losing balance or speeding up going down hill. We’ve got just the slightest slope to the jumping arena, and although you don’t see it, you can feel it.

Then we have the side to side balance. Lola, like most horses, isn’t the same on both sides. She tends to, if left to her own accord, over bend her neck to the right and pop her left shoulder, thus taking her to the outside when going on a circle to the right. She drifts left. So of course, going to the left she again drifts left, but this means she’s falling into the circle with a straight-ish to counter bent neck. We’re constantly working new exercises to help her warm up out of this, and develop the muscles to work more correctly through her body.

We’ve mastered these, at least passably, at the walk and trot, but the canter is the new focus. This means we’re doing many of these same exercises, but now they can be absolutely exhausting. She has certainly built up a lot of strength in the canter, and she can lift her back and take nice big relaxed strides, but when you add in work that pushes her to use that inside hind leg more and more, and bend enough to pick up the inside should instead of leaning on it, it means a ton more work!

So we come to the third balancing act. How much work can my little mare handle? More work when she’s already sore and tired doesn’t encourage her to work harder, it encourages her to cheat and avoid working. Working in the arena, whether it is dressage or jumping, can be both physically and mentally hard on a horse, you have to push past the spot where they’re comfortable, in both fitness and training, to reach the next step. So how do we keep pushing her forward without pushing too hard? I try to balance this with variety.

Lately we’ve been very regular with lessons, one jumping and one dressage a week. These days we’re pushed to work much harder than we would on our own. This is good for both of us. The days that we’re working really hard are guaranteed to be very correct work. Usually that means that she’ll be a little sore, so I limit us to one other jump schooling later that week, always at a really relaxed tone, and much shorter. I want to work on what we can do correctly and comfortably. We do at least one other dressage school in the week to work on the little bits of wisdom that we can remember from the information packed dressage lesson. This should leave three “flex” days. Sometimes I just can’t get out at all, so one or two of these maybe full days off. But really Lola does best with work, so we find ways to make work into rest and relaxation.

On an ideal week her flex days would be: 1) Lunging in the surcingle and Vienna reins- this is a complete workout on its own, and gives her back a break from saddles and my weight, plus it lets her work on stretching down and lifting and swinging through her back. (I do still lunge before riding as a warm up, but it is different with the more steady side rein, and our focus is to have a relaxed warm up to prepare for the ride). 2) Hand walking down the road- a little mental work encountering new things, but physically stress free, and encourages a marching, swinging, over-tracking walk. 3) Trail riding at the lake- this is our long conditioning ride each week, usually an hour and a half. Physically this means mainly walking, some hill trotting, working about ten minutes on a twenty meter circle on the beach in order to pick up the canter then canter down the beach a tiny bit. Training wise we’re trotting over whatever driftwood we find, crossing numerous streams without leaping wildly over them, crossing ditches, going up and down steps, and keeping control in an open and busy environment.

The routine has been working marvelously. The hand walking I can do on lunch break, and it means that I at least get 45 minutes of exercise too! Lunging can happen at lunch as well, so that helps to free up some evenings to actually see my fiancé! Trail riding is a much bigger time commitment, but it is never very hard to convince myself to do it. With the weather so nice, I’m literally sprinting out the office door to get out to the barn! Here’s a little of why….

The trees are green…

The sun is shining, which makes the lake look so inviting…

The wild flowers our out in full bloom…

My little red mare has turned into an AWESOME trail horse! We did our Sunday ride with the reins at the buckle. She was relaxed, confident, and conscious of where she placed her feet, even on a completely loose rein. I think we must be balancing training and fun pretty well, because we're on a roll!

Eventful Acres, here I come!

May 14th & 15th is now the much anticipated weekend. I've been waiting my whole life to go do this, and the excitement is double because I've trained this mare myself! I guess really its twofold, I'm proud of doing all the work, and afraid because... I did all the work!!!

That's not so say I've done it alone. My dressage trainer has been so very good at getting the most out of me, which never fails to get the most out of Lola. I know that we've got a ton of work ahead of us still, but really we have come so far when I step back and look at it.

We will be making our eventing debut at "Elementary" level. I am sad to not be going beginner novice, but the winter set us back so much more than I expected. I want this to be a positive experience for both of us. I'd rather kick butt at a level we're confident about than survive the level I know she's capable of.

I've started jumping lessons with a young eventing rider just minutes down the road. (I had been trying to do lessons with a rider who trains and competes horses at very high levels, but with her competition schedule and her full training clients, it was almost impossible to find a time that worked for both of us!) This new place is a) convenient- only 2 miles down the road, b) just my style- I really just need beginner drills to hone the basics for both of us, c) much easier to get scheduled! I've done two lessons so far, with a third scheduled Monday. She's got at least one rider also going to the same event, so I'm hoping to get to tag along for a schooling day the weekend before. The plan would be to get a good feel for the course we'll be riding while also schooling a few of the beginner novice jumps to know what we're getting ourselves into!

I'm excited and nervous. I think we'll do well, but being my first event, I have to admit I feel a little lost. I'm certainly not a novice rider, and horse show nerves are nothing new to me. Its just that I'm entering a new world that I'm not that familiar with. Its exciting none the less, and seeing as I can only justify this entry fee because of a decent tax refund, I'm going to enjoy the heck out of the experience. Who knows how long until it will happen again!

Good times had by all...PSSM is completely managed!

Lola was fantastic tonight! I hate to jinx it, but I think we're on a roll here! We had such nice light easy cantering. She was stretching in the contact, lifting her back, stepping under herself well, and even making an effort to bend around the 20 meter circle instead of leading with her inside shoulder. This is such a difference from last spring, and even over the summer, when she was tense, stiff, anxious and generally crabby and explosive.

I've realized that lately we've been having some of the best rides ever! The day before the derby, we had a fantastic lesson where I realized that Lola finally had a real trot, she is taking big pushing strides while still stretching to the contact. After the derby we had an even better lesson where Lola picked up the canter without fuss or tension, and maintained a nice flowing balanced gait. I absolutely burst into a smile it was such a nice surprise!

This weekend we had a trail conditioning day. She wasn't perfect and we had to spend some time "schooling" the water crossing, but over all she was very good! Considering we're still getting the hang of going out alone, she's doing amazingly well. We also started to do some jumping over the natural drift wood and logs on the beach, then found a good spot to work on a 20 meter circle to do some good trot work and a little canter.

This is such a testament to the right diet and exercise managing the PSSM. It is amazing how different she is with healthy happy muscles. Considering she was probably really uncomfortable last year and her muscle tightness was keeping her from doing what I was asking, she really was fairly patient and responsive. I am amazed how much training we did get done last year. We hit the wall when she physically couldn't do it though, like cantering. Now that she is physically capable she doesn't have the tension and anxiety about it. So now, with several months of her body rebuilding new healthier muscles with her adjusted feed, she's the moldable and trainable horse again. With the physical problems no longer stopping us, she is just working so hard to please.

Sunday, though, just took the cake. We lunged to warm up, and she did the sweetest most perfect mistake ever. I tend to bring her into a rather small circle on the lunge when walking so that I can walk towards her hip to encourage her to bend and step under herself. We started with that, and she did great. Then after trotting and cantering some, I went to start that routine again, but since we've also practiced canter departs from the walk in a similar fashion she misunderstood. I gathered the rope and tightened her circle, and the minute I stepped towards her haunches the very neatly stepped into the canter! I just laughed. It was PERFECT! She tries so hard! She really tries to please.

Lola says, "Aww shucks Ma... It was nothing..."

After lunging I was going to do some little jumps and gymnastics. Lola followed me around while I took the jumps down from 3' & 4' (we've got some big jumpers) to 18" to 2'. She patiently waited for me to be ready. Then the cutest thing ever. I took her over to the mounting block, and I tend to move her around a bit, and make her get into just the right spot with her feet square before getting on. (My theory is its one last chance to remind her that I tell her where to put her feet instead of just moving the block to the stubborn horse.) We'll in the process of wiggling her around to be just right, she decided that maybe all this fussing over where I had her feet meant that I wanted her foot ON the mounting block! She plopped it up there like, "Look, there, you have it! Isn't that what you want? Can we move on now?" We've only once before worked on stepping up on a platform, so she has actually been asked to do something like that, but it was over a year ago! Plus the mounting block is really not made to support horse hooves!

It was so funny though. There's my little mare thinking outside the box! I can't even get my staff to think outside the box enough to follow a string of logic far enough to problem solve for a client! My mare is clever and impresses me with her eagerness to please. I'd love to have THAT on staff in the office!

Derby report... Part 2

So moving right along... (I am finally done with tax season, and now I CAN move right along) to the jumping.


Lola and I had a bit more time to warm up over fences. She was feeling good, but same as she was when schooling at home, taking very long distances over the fences. We had a reasonably good warm up though, trotted in, cantered away, continued cantering half the arena, and trotted to the fence again. I was pleased with her canter, and her willingness to come back to the trot.

So out we went! Now the jumps were TINY! I mean a horse with NO jumping training could have gone out to do this course. But that meant there was nothing, absolutely NOTHING to get nervous about. That was sort of what we needed. So we enjoyed a nice trot out in an open field and every so often found a tiny jump in our way! That was it. Easy peasy.

The most of the jumps were just cross rails with jump standards that had been dragged out there. Just after the first fence we had to turn right around a little log cabin jump, probably about BN size, and nothing scary, but she seemed quite surprised to see it out there! We still made it to fence two fine, but she was a little wiggly. Fence three would have been a mini brick wall, but even mini was deemed toe high, so we had a cross rail again with the mini walls acting like wings off the sides of the standards! Fence four was a rail road tie. Tiny. BUT it at least was a natural obstacle and had barrels on either side. It felt a little more like cross country! Another cross rail later we can to the large white plastic tub jump. I thought Lola might get a little funny about this one, but it wasn't a big deal at all. Between the sixth and final jump we had to pass the tire jump that I was afraid she's spook at, but she listened to my half halt and with a little counter flexing to keep her from looking she went by with no reaction. Fence seven, and we were all clear!

This was the approach to fence two, you can see the log cabin that surprised her!

I was really hoping to canter her between fences more, but she was so quick to step back into the trot each time. She really didn't seem eager to canter away more than a few strides. Since we've not done much cantering on grass I let her stick with what was comfortable. The point was to build confidence. So if she felt more balanced trotting, I was fine with that.

Basically I got no time or jumping faults, so the final placings were pretty much based on the dressage score. I got second place! I was super pleased! Looked like there were at least six in the division that were adult (the juniors were placed separately), so it was an honest second place too! Not like getting fourth, out of four...

One more good experience, one more fun day, one more big step towards really getting her to her first horse trials!

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!