Snow day

So this morning was sort of entertaining...

I get to the barn and feed - all normal. Tack up Jack and go to take him out; door won't open. That's right, snow drift big enough that even the Jacksaurus couldn't plow through. Boo. Ok leave Jack in cross ties and shovel our way out. Eventually get out to the ring - Jack was pretty high, so it was a fairly intense and long ride. But eventually get something good and he can finish and go home.

So then start t/o -- about half hour late since Jack required more time than usual. Apollo sees the snow and starts dancing. hmmmm ok. Let him free and he goes for a good gallop around his paddock. Think galloping teddy bear. hahaha Girls all turnout ok. Then turn out the rest of Apollo's paddock. Sienna first. Who hasn't been ridden in weeks but is still super fit so feeling pretty full of herself. So she's running around in the paddock all by herself (Apollo totally ignoring her). I turn Jack out and before I even have the halter off she's there trying to convince him to play with her. Rearing and spinning and running in circles - just generally being a pest. Jack takes one look at her "look lady, I just worked for over an hour, I'm going to eat." and promptly strolls to the hay bale completely ignoring her while she runs in circles around him. So I go get Nick. Sienna's at the gate again "play with me, play with me!" Nick does the equine equivalent of rolling his eyes at her and goes to roll in the snow. Even as he's rolling, she's trying to play halter (or in his case crib-coller) tag. I don't think I've ever seen a horse continue rolling with another horse behaving like that. But when he gets up, he deigns to play with her for a bit and the two of them boot it around the paddock for a while. Apollo goes to roll and comes up with all his black markings white, which drew both their attention. Si was super excited to have TWO horses playing with her. And all three of them tore around for a bit - Apollo has to take the occasional short cut to keep up *g* And Jack, all the time, just hanging out in the round bale. Anyways - it was a lot of fun to watch and it made me smile, so I thought I'd share. I'm glad *someone* is enjoying the snow!

And now I have an hour to do 2.5h worth of chores. hmmmm :)

Spring Fever

Alright so it occurs to me that I haven't ridden since Friday. And for some reason thought nothing of putting three horses on today's schedule. Anybody surprised by this?

So Jack was, well, a superstar. Scroll down for that story :) Did all the usual chores. Then the debate: go eat lunch or ride. The thing is if I eat, I won't usually ride. And I wasn't particularly hungry. But I've been trying really hard to make sure to eat at least two meals a day so lunch had to stay on the schedule... hmmmm ok well go get lunch fast and be careful not to get into anything too complex on the computer while I'm at it. Cause really, once I start that "more necessary" work I'm in till time to feed. So answer some emails and be done eating at about the same time. Handy that.

And head back out. Yeah! Lissy first. She's easy and fun. Usually :) But today very very annoyed with me for bringing her in without her other half *g* To be fair, Lissy's idea of protesting is to run around a little and lean instead of bend. By the end, she was back to being her usual superstar self. However, it was way more of a ride than I'd been planning on. I actually had to *work*. The nerve.

Alright so Sienna's turn. I basically decided I wasn't up to more dressage so I'd just put on jump tack and have an easy ride of the conditioning variety. Wanted to go hacking but footing was very dodgy. So go out and get on, all good. She walks two strides and starts cantering. Not actually doing anything bad and still steerable (side note - I can't believe my spell check doesn't flag that??? But misses teh???) and even somewhat ratable, just *really* wanted to canter. Of the 45 min ride, a solid 35 mins was at the canter with the other 10 being at a power trot. The first 10 mins were a bit exciting but after that some of the *best* trot and canter work ever. Forward, round, light. But really?!?!?!

So when she was eventually done, I took her out for a walk outside to cool out for a bit -- respiration dropped to normal within about a lap of the sandring. Amazing how fit she is given how rarely she's ridden these days *g* I love TBs :)

So I get off and sort of mentally celebrating being more fit than I thought I was, feeling all fine when I rarely ride more than two these days - and even that's seriously hit or miss (literally haven't sat on a horse since Fri!?!?!). Put her away and start afternoon chores and all of a sudden the adrenaline wore off. Oops. hahaha maybe not *quite* so fit afterall - just have enough instinct to ride well when I have to... And I would be wondering about Si too, except that I've ridden her when she's on an adrenaline high and that's not that horse :) Will be interesting tomorrow morning to see if *either* of us has any energy!

So I have to laugh at my latest take on "the little things" in life. It's amazing how excited I get when I actually manage to fix some little thing around the farm - like the gate latch that didn't *quite* reach. Takes no skill or knowledge to fix but somehow still easily excited but the little successes. But it kinda highlights the completely different lifestyle now. No more celebrating the finished project or the great presentation or acing the thesis - nope now it's yeah! The gate closes! hahaha but somehow so much more satisfying. Not sure exactly what that says, but it amuses me to no end.

While today was incredibly productive, tonight... Sadly not so much. All of tonight's things have been rescheduled to tomorrow. Yikes! Wish me luck :)

It's just like flying a plane...

Alright so this week's lesson learned was how to use my ocd/workaholic tendencies to my advantage. hahaha.

So the background... I've been having real trouble finding time to ride my own horse - because, unfortunately, she's rather low priority, and by the time I get to her, I'm exhausted (I know every bo/bm out there is nodding along with this). So I had a lesson last week that was pretty disastrous, essentially because my horse had been ridden exactly once in the week preceding, 4 days earlier, and not by me. And she had no friends in the ring with her and it was early morning and she was feeling pretty good. Well let's just say control was ummmm negligible.

Now financially and time-wise, realistically my lessons should be put on hold for a while. But the thing is, I know way too many people who've burned out in this job precisely because they did exactly that. And stopped riding. And it became all work. And soon enough started resenting their clients. And so on and so forth. So knowing that the lessons are the only thing making sure I ride at least occasionally, I've kept them in. We'll use the business argument of improving my skills is good for business :) And the fact that I really enjoy them, which puts me in a good place to teach others also makes for a worthwhile expense. And it sometimes provides fodder for amusing blog posts :) Which is, of course, an entirely justifiable reason.

So lessons stay. But in order for the lessons to be useful, the horse has to be ridden essentially every day. And I wasn't about to have a repeat of last week's fiasco (my coach was very patient, but I'm not sure how long I'd get away with that...). But up till now, I either fill all day doing other stuff, or by the time I have time to ride, I'm too tired for her (I could hop on Apollo and have a good giggle, but Si I have to be a little more with it ;)

And here's how the ocd/workaholic comes into play. The work will get done, no matter how I'm feeling about the situation it's not in me to leave stalls undone or buckets filthy or arena unraked or horses not properly cared for. But it's easy enough for me to say "Sienna doesn't need to be ridden today, that can wait till tomorrow." So I changed the order around a bit. Horses get fed and turned-out and *then* Si gets ridden. Before stalls are done or barn is cleaned or anything else. Which, I have to say, is ridiculously hard to leave the barn a mess to go "play" when there's soooo much that has to be done. But now my pony's getting ridden every day and is much happier with life, and since I'm awake and energized when I do chores, they're actually getting done *faster*. Sweet bonus there! hahaha As in I'm done working at the same time every morning as I was before I started riding in the am, but now getting to ride too.

Don't know how long it'll last. And I definitely feel moderately guilty "sneaking out" to ride when the barn's not done yet. But for the moment it's a system that's working for me and both Sienna and I are happier with it sobeit -- just don't visit before noon and you'll never know the difference :)

That being said, lesson today and for the first time Sienna was her normal self alone in the ring. No spinniness or silliness. Only slightly higher than she is with friends (which is where I like her to be - w/ friends she's tooooo quiet :)

So my coach shows up and acknowledges that we're in a much better place than we were last week *g* Schools us on the flat for a bit (oh was Si ever not happy with him at one point *g* Let's just say there was lateral work, a wall, and a lunge whip involved...), however - the end of which my tiny totally downhill OTTB is floating around the ring uphill as though she were a giant wb. The most incredible trot I've ever had from her. Even coach had a slightly stunned look on his face. hahaha. We didn't get to canter in the flat portion of today's activities :) Quit while you're ahead type moment.

And then it's time to jump. And I explain the issues I've been dealing w/ this week (jumping out of a trot = hunter school pony. Jumping out of a canter = wingnut frantic ottb. Less of a good game). Ask if we can do some trot gymnastics or something (my theory being, she's approaching calmly in trot but then jumping fences out of a canter). "What, you just want to do easy stuff?" "Well, I want *her* to do easy stuff," I clarified... "you can make it as hard for me as you want. Wouldn't be the first time!" hahhaa so we had a good conversation about that as he's moving stuff around in decidedly not gymnastic fashion *sigh* - I should know better by now.

In the end we ended up working on the wheel of death with poles on each of the quarter tangent points. Trot and canter w/o losing our little brain. Now last summer Si was doing this with all jumps (including 2 bounces at one point) so this IS a huge step backwards. But last week cantering a 20m circle was a challenge, so compared to that it's good. N once a quiet rhythm was established, just playing w/ stride length and line (everywhere from 3-6 strides between the poles) etc. But mostly just reminding her over and over again that there's no need to run. So not terribly exciting and definitely not impressive, but really after the flat work what more do you want? >;-P

What amused me to no end today though were the analogies. I always feel that the stranger the analogy, the more likely it is to work. N I know I've thrown some rather unusual ones out there at people (squeaky toy?) in the past. N I've stolen some great ones from other clinicians too (love Pat's "sit on the couch and grab your glass of wine" for jumping position). So today was all about the mental aspects of riding. Riding is like playing cards - you have to work with the hand you're dealt, and each hand is different, but each hand can win. (this was as we were discussing Si's current mental state compared to where she was 6 mths ago. That horse is all about the mind - she can jump the moon, but keeping her brain between her ears is sometimes a challenge). Ok so fine, I can go along with that.

But the one that really made me laugh was when she's playing a little and he tells me to remember that riding is really like flying a plane. And I start to nod wisely like I entirely understand this, n then think wait a sec, I've never flown a plane. hahaha not that I wouldn't love to learn, but I kinda figure one exorbitantly expensive hobby is enough (haven't learned to sail for the same reason). So telling me to ride my horse the same way I would fly a plane is, well, somewhat less useful. N while I'm puzzling this all out and wondering if he's ever flown a plane, I get the second half of the statement -- "you may occasionally hit turbulence, and you need to ride it out and come through the other side safely and under control." Alright, I'll give him that one. But now every time for the next 6 mths or so that I'm sitting on a horse who decides to be a dork I'm going to be thinking "the captain has turned on the seatbelt sign. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts." But hey, it'll make me laugh, which'll make me relax, which'll make me ride better. Which is essentially the whole point of lessons to begin with. No matter how it's accomplished *g*

So now I'm off to fly a plane :)

This time last year I was searching for a hot place to visit...

Brilliant but cruel advertising:



Current temp of -20 and a photo of beach and palm trees. And a price even I can afford? Effective cause if not for the farm, I'd be gone. Cruel because I know that and can't follow through on it. Yet *g*. In a couple years hopefully I'll get a warm escape. For now, I know I need those extra layers again this morning...

So as every horse person knows, all horses have their own personalities. But when you buy a bunch all at once, sometimes it takes a while to get the hang of them... I'm starting to get there now. How many of these types do you recognize?

Sienna - if you've been reading the blog for any length of time, you'll know this one already. She's the egotistical sports star. Super calm and athletic most of the time, but when something she doesn't like happens in her little world she'll have a complete drama-queen meltdown and never quite get over it. And really, she'd prefer it if everybody just stayed out of her bubble until she chooses to invite them in. She lives at the end of the barn so as to only have one horse beside her and is quite happy with that scenario. Even if it does mean she gets fed last (which she tells me every day is not acceptable!)

Jack - is the kid who was smarter than the teacher in every class and knew it. But not the geeky one, this is the one who was friends with everybody. The type of class clown who amuses the class because they're bored. Super smart, reasonably athletic, and very personable. That last trait has saved him more than once!

Dixie - is the much older sister. Everybody else is still in highschool and she's finished university and got a job she's good at. Been there, done that, handed down the t-shirt ages ago. When she doesn't like something she lets it be known, but in the professional manner of filing a report with management.

Lissy - wants to grow up to be Dixie. And would prefer never to be apart from her. Lissy is mentally the youngest of the group (although not in years) and really thinks her entire job should be to run and jump and play. She's the little kid who had too much sugar and *really* wants to play with the big kids. That being said, she has enough maturity to turn it off when her job is to look after a new rider -- for them she stands quietly and walks and jogs like a 30 yo school-pony.

Apollo - is by far the most personable of the group. He adores people, horses, cats, dogs, anything that enters his bubble, he wants to be friends with. He's the kid in class who was always bouncing with their hand in the air "pick me! pick me!" May not always have the right answer, but tries super hard and always wants reassurance that he's doing it right and somebody loves him.

Nick - is too cool for everything and everybody. He's the only horse I know who can roll his eyes. Knows his job and is very good at it - if the boss is watching. But if he doesn't have someone telling him what to do, he's going to do the least amount possible and even that with a big sigh so we all know what an effort he's making. Couldn't care less what the other kids are doing -- or even if they're there. Equally happy alone or with others, Nick is fully confident with who he is and what he's doing.

hahaha well that was fun procrastination, out to the cold I go now :)

The first few days are always fun...

hmmmm "Your book has been received and is #332 in the queue." -- so approximately sometime about oh 1 or 2 am tonight's nano will be up. hahaha ah well -- they're letting us use their great service for free, I guess a little bit of a lineup is fair enough :) I'm amazed people actually seem to be reading it! (or, well, at least downloading it :) That's almost as exciting to me as writing it. Makes it way more motivating than the last time I did this. hahaha So for the moment I'm still a few days ahead in writing than publishing (yeah starting with a running start). Very handy since I don't always write in order, so for the moment I still have enough time to go back and fill in the pieces before publishing. But the publishing is catching up! hahaha well we'll see :) I've got the start, and pieces of the end... Now I just need the in-between! hahaha On the horse side of things, Si's mystery lameness was conclusively diagnosed earlier this week as a rather excessive bruise on the toe (farrier took pads and shoes off so we could see what was going on :) So while that sux, it's not tragic. She's still hovering in the 95% range, so hopefully good to go soon. Ok, off to write something for tonight... Wish me luck! oh and hey -- I'm now only 315 in queue >;-P Enough procrastinating.

Pat Burgess Clinic - Day 2

So I have some great videos that I wanted to include in this one, but I ran into technical difficulties... So we have the still version instead. Enjoy! So to recap... hahaha nah you're not new here -- if you want the recap, scroll down one post :) Day 2: So I got up bright and early Sunday morning. Ok that's not entirely true, neither I nor the weather was particularly bright. But it was early. And headed off to the barn. I still wasn't sure who I'd be riding -- the night before I was definitely wishing I'd taken Arthur up on his offer. Argh - my own fault for not wanting to impose. Clearly I had a feeling Sienna wasn't going to be good to go, because I fed Moe before taking Si out of the stall to check. So I lunged her and she was at about 90%. Taking roughly one nqr stride per circle or circle and a half. But that stride was still there. And jumping for 2h would not be a good idea :( So instead I got Moe ready to go and put him on the trailer. Also being a superstar he just walks right on (esp good as it was pouring rain at the time!) but then he got very upset when I didn't put a friend on with him, so I wasn't sure how it'd go. Fortunately he settled as soon as we started going. By the time we got there when I went to check on him, he was busy muching away on his hay and gave me a look like "yeah? What do you want?" hahaha Took him off the trailer and he grew an extra hand or two -- but then he noticed . . . GRASS!!!! And that was about the end of Moe's excitement. Put him in the stall Sienna had had the day before and went to offer assistance hauling poles in out of the rain as the clinic was relocated indoors. "We're just about done." Perfect timing once again *g* But I did at least help move stuff around a bit so the riders in the first group could go get their horses ready. At some point in the organizing I mentioned to Arthur that I wished I'd taken him up on his offer, which he told me I was welcome to do and Suzanne convinced me it'd be ok to accept. So I did :) And from that point on was kinda like a little kid at their first lesson *g* hahaha I'm quite certain I provided the entertainment but omg I had so much fun doing so! Again volunteered for ring-crew duty and the clinic followed much the same format as yesterday. Starting with gymnastics and leading to cantering single fences, with the focus being on keeping a "medium length" canter (not to be confused with a medium canter in dressage!) -- medium length so that should you need to lengthen or shorten you have the option of going either way. It was really great watching the young-horse group and seeing how much their (the horses') confidence had improved from the day before. So when it was our turn I brought Arthur's wonderful horse out to the ring (who was all tacked up for me and everything! I was so incredibly spoiled :), and while I've never seen him before, Pat knows him so I figure we're good to go. He's compact -- the sports-car model :) Very much like Zel that way with stop/go/turn on a dime abilities. And far more in-tune to both balance and leg then many I ride *g* Our first couple transitions were ummmm enthusiastic :) N of course I'm trying to be all soft and quiet and not do anything wrong on Arthur's baby... Which was less than effective. After about 2 minutes of this (everybody else was still getting on and organized) Suzanne comes over and rolls her eyes at me "Just ride him. Like you would any other horse. Frame him up and go." Most polite smack across the side of the head ever. hahaha and exactly what I needed. Oh yeah, I *do* know how to ride and I'm not likely to break him. Seconds later horse is on the bit and instead of the sewing machine trot we'd had a few seconds ago we're floating around. Soooooo nice. Suzanne just looked at me and grinned. She knows. Had a few more examples of extra-response -- making a tight turn, turned even tighter than expected. Ask for forward and get HUGE. Ask for collect and get halt. Oops :) But I was having sooooo much fun playing around to find said buttons. And the saddle! So this thing crazy-glued my leg into position for jumping, but trying to do flatwork in it? Oh my... hahaha fortunately it was a jump clinic so this was not tragic. So we get to start jumping. And the first couple just had me laughing -- esp the canter after which was pretty sweet :) But then Arthur came to watch his super-horse jump (found out later he's never seen anybody jump him before??? Yikes! Double thanks then for letting me play :) and I promptly forgot how to ride. *sigh* got left behind on the first jump and couldn't quite catch up. Argh. And then overcorrected and got ahead. Pat asks "What were you doing?" "Trying not to get left behind." "Ok that's a good answer. Now go do it again." Eventually I got it, but it took more attempts than it should have! Felt really bad for A watching that. Fortunately Quinny was super kind and didn't seem terribly concerned about it :) Just wanted to go jump some more. Little ears pointing forward every time we turned even slightly towards anything that could potentially be considered a jump :) One we were supposed to do the gymnastic, canter around the short end, and halt. But it took me more than the short end to get the quality of canter that I wanted, so I rode a circle. But then when I *did* get it it was so amazing I giggled. hahaha and I get from the middle of the ring *insert British accent here* "If you're *quite* through cantering around up there . . ." hahaha but she was laughing too so it was all good. After that of course the exercise changes to jump the gymnastic and then circle -- so really, I was just a step ahead of the game :) That's my story and I'm sticking to it. The first couple flying changes I asked for were ummmm dramatic too :) hahaha but eventually I located the right degree of aid needed. Had a laugh at one point the exercise was ride a canter circle (and we launched into that transition! hahaha oops :) and then go all the way around and jump a tiny vert and all the way around once more by which point it'd be an oxer. So we did that. And the immediate comment was "you need to jump higher" hahaha yes, yes we do :) So we went around a few times with it getting slightly higher each time. Never *actually* got big but at least got to play a bit :) I swear that pony has springs in his shoes!!! Looking at the video afterwards I have to admit it looked neither as discoordinated nor as dramatic as it felt. Which I suppose is a good thing - rather like any other ride really. But man, it's now Tuesday and I still grin at the memory of it :) I wish I could share that feeling cause the videos just look like any other little horse cantering around over tiny speedbumps. But the feel. Wow. I guess drive your 20yo K-car around the track and then drive your 2011 Ferrari around the track. From the outside it's a car going around in circles. But from the driver's seat . . . I got a few comments from Pat about the excessive smile :) hahaha ah well -- better than being told to relax! The interesting theory conversation of the day was where to look -- off in the distance or at the fence. Pat, as with many other ul clinicians I've ridden with (Andrew Hoy in particular I remember really making a point of this), suggests looking at the fence on the approach (at least in your peripheral vision) until takeoff. "Beam your horse to the jump", and the corollary of course "jump one fence at a time" -- a couple riders' horses had in trouble when the rider was mentally on the third or fourth fence of the combo and their horse was still on the second. You could see a huge difference in the horse's ability when the rider stayed "in the moment". The only thing that could've possibly made that day better would've been to have been riding said awesome horse in the afternoon group which got to jump much higher :) But honestly, I haven't had that much fun since Zel. Which leads me to believe that perhaps Sienna, as superstar as she is, isn't really the right horse for me; cause to be quite honest, as much as I wanted to ride her, I wouldn't've had nearly so much fun. Starting to think now she may go in the school earlier than originally intended and I'll have to find me an unbroke sportscar model (since my budget never has and likely never will afford the broke version :) And so Entry it is again *sigh* Well we shall see. Have a lot of other things that need to happen in there too! So take-aways from the clinic: - breathe. - position position position. Leg must be still. Hands must be independent. - sit UP! Don't commit to a jump before your horse does. At best you throw him off balance. At worst you jump the fence alone. - use bounces to teach balance, coordination and thinking. - visualize -- horses think in pictures, so should you. - love your horse and make sure they know it. - stop while it's still good.

Pat Burgess Clinic - Day 1

Wow. So that was a clinic and a half :) Over two days I: - learned a ton! - felt my riding improve significantly - laughed more than I have in a long time - provided comic relief for everybody else HUGE thanks to Pat Burgess for flying all the way out here to teachus, being an amazing clinician who managed to make a difference in everybody from the most novice rider to the Advanced level competitor (and all the rest of us inbetween :), AND for being sucha great inspiration! If I'm still going the way she is at 80 I'llbe one very happy person :) More thanks to Arthur. This could take a post all in itself. First for once again providing this amazing facility for the clinic,getting everything ready, hosting and organizing. And then as if that weren't enough, for going so far above and beyond and lending me his absolutely amazing horse for the second day when mine couldn'tmake it. I'm still stunned he did that, honoured that he did, and still grinning from the ride :) You should see the pictures :) And equally huge thanks to Suzanne who had the facility spotless when we got there, stayed late after day one to harrow the ring for day two, came early to help move fences on when day two got rained on,took pictures day one, totally spoiled me with taking care of "thered-headed Connemara" when I inherited him for day two, spent allweekend setting fences and hauling poles around, and just generallymade the whole weekend an easy and pleasant experience. Also thanks to Trevor, Sue and Suzanne (again!) for the wonderful photos! That's the short version.... For the looonnnnngggg version, feel free to read on :) Consider yourself forewarned!!! As always,comments welcome -- especially from those who were there! Day 1: First group rides at 8:30, my group to ride at 10:30. But me being me, the chance to learn something, even from the ground, I'm going to be there before 8:30 :) Any chance to vulture a good coach's lesson I'm likely to take, but one like this??? No way I'm missing out. But this does mean getting up stupidly early to get to the barn and feed Sienna, pack up while waiting for her to eat, get her ready, load in the dark (I'm forever grateful for how well she loads!) and head out. Drive was just a little over an hour, pretty much as Google promised. Suzanne met us in the driveway (which until she said I'd had no idea she was working there now :) and directed me to parking and Sienna's stall. Got Si settled pretty quickly (I've never had a horse so easy to take places. Alone in a strange area and she's happy as can be so long as she has hay :) and headed out to the ring where people were moving poles around. "I brought an extra set of hands - how can I help?" Oh well we're just about done. Hahaha perfect timing! So I met Pat, who despite having just flown in from England yesterday and being somewhat jet-lagged was radiating energy and enthusiasm. Volunteering for ring-crew duty got me a place in the middle of the ring -- right where I wanted to be :) From there you can see and hear everything and ask a million questions of the clinician that you couldn't otherwise (she might've been ready to be rid of me by the end of the weekend :) And since day one was all about gymnastics, ring-crew actually *did* have a job to do! Now I have to say, I learned almost as much listening to that first group as riding in the second group. The first group was all 4-5yo horses so Pat took things a little slower and as a result, added in more detail. The first focus was on breathing. Breath in and out in a steady rhythm that matches your horse's stride (and thus their breathing). Ie, in for four beats, out for five. Etc. Pick whatever number works for you and focus on it. Relaxes you. Relaxes your horse. And if you're BOTH used to do this every time you get on, then when you get on in a tense environment it can significantly increase your odds of success. Another of her first suggestions was teaching your horse "ho" as a halt voice aid as opposed to "whoa". Why? Because when you need it at X in your dressage test you can sigh a *ho* without it ever appearing you've said anything to your horse. Woah isn't quite subtle enough for that :) hahaha And always "love your horse" -- let them know when you're happy with them in a way they understand (hard scratch at the withers, strong pat, etc - as another horse would communicate with them) so that it's to their benefit to do what you're asking them to do. And then your responsibility is to do it right. Have good enough position to at very least, never be in their way, at best, to help. The focus of the clinic was on jumping so she didn't speak much to flat position, but did do a lot about jumping position. "Jumping is 60% balance and 40% grip. And the grip must be your calf NOT your knee or thigh (as that will throw off your balance) and above all else, not your hand!" She suggests having the foot touching the inside of the stirrup bar -- which was new to me. Felt weird weird weird, but I admit it definitely helped make my leg a little more secure. Tricky though -- after 20+ years of riding w/ my foot on the outside bar it was more difficult to change than I would've thought. hahaha Then there was the conversation about folding at the hip instead of the waist -- eventers tend, as a group, to do the later as it's more secure and has a faster recovery time, but it doesn't allow the horse the same freedom to jump (hence why showjumpers don't do it). Pat was great for long thoroughly involved analogies. Here was the jumping position one: - you're sitting at home in your favourite chair. There's a glass of wine on the coffee table in front of you and you're watching your favourite tv program. If you get up, somebody's going to steal your chair. So you stretch way forward for your wine (conveniently located about half way up your horse's crest :), while keeping your seat in its position so as not to lose your seat. And that tv show is just so exciting you're not about to take your eyes off it :) And your feet stay on the floor all the time. Ok so it's a bit random, but it amused me :) And she made a point of emphasizing the use of the stirrups. Put your weight in your feet, not the saddle. Keep your weight in your heels and calf tight -- once you lift your knee up you have no support and will be thrown into the back seat. Alternately if your leg comes back you'll be tipped forwards. Either way, no good for the poor horse who's trying to jump under you! She did come around to each person and position them and have them practice sliding in and out of said position. Because of course her other thing was timing; you should be sitting UP on the approach -- no jumping position until the horse takes off. Most of the injuries in riding come from jumping ahead of the horse. Not only does this throw off their balance and make it much harder for them to pick their feet up, but it also puts the rider in a precarious position should the horse chip or quit. (hmmmm "jump first, jump alone" sound familiar anybody?) She drilled this in the gymnastics having the riders come back to a full vertical position in the one-stride (which some found very challenging!) and forward again on the out. And as though that weren't enough, when you come back to the vertical, staying light so as not to hollow or restrict the horse. This was turned into a bit of a game, scoring on a 1-10 scale. hahaha It worked though – by the end everybody was much better at it and the horses were jumping much freer. So I had learned all this before I ever even got ON my horse :) hahaha and *this* is why I vulture other people's lessons. Particularly theory is sometimes easier to absorb when you're not also trying to ride. The exercise itself that they were working through was a gymnastic on the centre line. Started with several trot poles with "sticks" running along the sides of them to keep the horse centered. The idea throughout the whole day was that the horse should have complete freedom in their head or neck to stretch. Then there was an X in the middle. Then the X became an oxer. And a new X was added at the beginning. And then the oxer became an X again and a third fence was added at the end (so now you've got a one to a one with ground lines in the middle of each). Then the last ground rail became another X giving one to a bounce to a bounce. Lastly the last fence became an oxer. So a couple things with this -- oxers always had a groundline on the landing side as well. This was one of my many questions -- why :) She patiently explained that the groundline on the landing side helped encourage the horse's bascule as they would drop their eye to it in the air. Cool :) I felt less silly for asking when another rider whom I really respect asked the same question an hour later *g* The bounces are used to teach balance, coordination/thinking, and proper jumping technique. Jumping green horses, esp at the trot, they'll often push off of only one leg. The bounce forces them to use both hind legs together to push off. Coordination/thinking -- how to get both feet in and out without knocking anything over and without panicking. And balance for both horse and rider to do all this without ending up ahead or on the forehand. She uses Xs rather than verticals to get them to tuck their knees up evenly. And lastly, never end on a bounce (was the first I'd heard this). After you've backed them off and made them really rock back and compress, it's important to get them jumping forward again. Essentially the same concept as finishing collected work in dressage with stretchy/forward work. So she opened the gymnastic back into a one to a one and had them do that a few times, and then worked on a single fence off on the side all by itself in canter. Most of the horses were cantering *really* nicely after all that gymnastic work!!! Then it was my turn :) I went and tacked up my pony -- was very proud of her for standing in x-ties despite being in a new environment with other horses unloading right outside the door! Took her out and hopped on and she walked around as quietly as an old school pony. She hasn't been offsite in several weeks so I wasn't sure what she'd do, but she was awesome! Stayed quiet through everybody getting ready and the intro discussion. Was an absolute pro-star through the pole exercises. A little sticky though – we didn't really do the warm-up she needs (ie there was no canter work before we started jumping, and she rarely relaxes and stretches properly before we canter). I gave her a tap with my stick once in the gymnastic -- and the stick promptly got removed and replaced with a dressage whip. A very long dressage whip *g* Like Denny, Pat recommends if you're going to carry something it should be a "tickler" that you can use without shifting your balance or your contact. But of course once I was carrying that, Si wasn't about to hesitate at anything again and we were good to go. After two or three rounds I was able to drop it. Pat prefers the dressage whip to the crop or spurs (very much against spurs) but was happier still with riders needing nothing extra at all. Anyways Si was jumping around all the aforementioned exercises like a pro-star so I was able to focus solely on me. Pat tweaked my position slightly and what a difference it made. Wow. Played with stirrup length a fair bit trying to find the "sweet spot" and ended up at the length I generally ride with anyways :) I was pretty excited though. Sort of interesting she put my leg where she wanted it to be and asked me how it felt -- and it actually felt like it was off the horse, but when I looked down, sure enough it was solid. My EQ's generally pretty reasonable, but this felt like it solidified it. That final level that I just haven't been able to apply consistently. So yeah I was pretty over the moon excited. And then I went to go again -- it was the start of the "opened up" gymnastic after all the bouncing. We'd had a bit of a long break while a horse had a meltdown in their turnout field and had to be brought in... And when I started to trot, Si was way off :( I was so disappointed. Got off her - no heat, no swelling, nothing in her feet. *sigh* Only thing I can think is that the bruise she had this summer maybe wasn't completely healed and she caught it somehow. :( Booo. So we hung out in the ring and watched the rest of the lesson. After that was lunch -- which was provided for us! Woohoo :) How very civilized is that??? So I grazed my pony for an hour or so while others were doing the lunch thing and then let her hang out in her stall again while I watched the next lesson. All the while trying to figure out what I was going to do the next day. Rachel gave me permission right away to take her horse, so I figured I'd lunge Si in the am and then decide what I was doing. Even contemplated bringing both horses and figuring something out once I got there. Cause I really wanted to school my horse. But I'd rather ride anything than not ride at all. And while I was concerned Moe wouldn't be fit enough to do the whole class (2h of jumping is a little much for his current fitness level) I figured half a class would be better than none. Somewhere in there Arthur mentioned to me sort-of off-hand "well you could ride one of mine", but I didn't really know if he was serious or just being polite and definitely didn't want to take advantage, so I just thanked him and let it go. The last group was a repeat of the previous two, this time w/ T/P level horses so the jumps were up a little higher. But was interesting to see the same principles being applied with the same results, regardless of level. And to watch the comments and changes Pat made to the riders. When they finished up, we cleared the ring of the jumps, I cleaned out Si's stall, loaded her on the trailer and headed home...

The Long Version

So I have been informed that "that was an amazing ride" is insufficient detail :) hahaha so here's the elaboration of last night's ride...

Basically anybody who's had a lesson with me in the last couple weeks will know what I was up to cause it's the same one I've been making them do :) I was waiting for a rainy day (literally - wanted to be inside so I didn't have to move an entire course to arrange it) and finally had one (don't need any more for a while now :).

So this exercise involves 6 poles on the centre line, each set 9' apart. 9'? What do you do w/ 9' spacing? Yeah we'll get there. And, with a little bit of creativity, will take you through steps 1-3 on our infamous dressage pyramid (that'd be rhythm, suppleness, contact for those who are temporarily drawing a blank on that :). And to be quite honest it could take you through the other 3 steps too -- but really, I'm sitting on a 6yo OTTB, who's built kinda like, well, a race horse. Imagine that >;-P So as a result, we don't worry too much about those lofty steps way up there -- any day we make it to step 3 is a good day :)

In the w/u the focus is entirely rhythm. Lengthening and shortening the stride while keeping the same rhythm, and because I know how this particular horse's mind works, the occasional insertion of basic lateral activities (shoulder fore and leg yield mostly) otherwise long and short quickly leads to gallop and halt -- which, while super for a reining horse, is generally frowned upon in the dressage ring *g*

Once she's moving freely and generally responsive we trot through the poles. Focus on holding a straight (see I told you the higher levels could come in!) line on exactly a 4.5' trot stride. The first time through was slightly less than graceful hahaha but after that the world was good. So then we did a serpentine or two using the poles as guides (ie left around the first two, straight between the second and third, right around three and four, straight between four and five, left around five and six). This was still pretty casual. Generally going the right direction but in a fairly long frame and not really engaging in the turns. Could've been for the stronger dr horses for sure -- but we only have so much strength in that hind end and there was a lot I wanted to do :)

Next step... In walk. Nice forward power walk. And with my horse that's an exercise all on its own *g* But sobeit. Establish said walk and point at the first pole. After pole one, before pole two, turn left and ride a circle that takes you back to the center of pole one. Walk straight over pole one AND pole two, then turn right before pole three and right a right circle that takes you back to the middle of pole two. Walk straight over poles two and three and turn left... Rinse and repeat >;-P So essentially at every pole you're riding a circle that is at absolute most 18' (and since I do striding in feet and circles in meters that requires translation -- it's slightly over a 5m circle!). Craziness. AND trying to get your horse unbent and properly straight inbetween. Focusing on accuracy of the circle (bend, shape, etc) and rhythm (no you can't slow down!). Let me tell you, by about the third pole you're thinking two would've been a good place to stop. hahaha

So we do that once or twice and then shake it off and go for a nice power-trot around the ring. Si was all for *that* idea let me tell you :) "Look Laur, look how much I can stretch! Let's just do this now." But alas, all to quickly we have to return to work. Ok so in trot, now in trot that'd be just insane, so instead we'd go over TWO poles, circle right, trot straight over four (insisting on the 4.5' stride we perfected earlier), circle left over poles three and four, straight over four through six, circle right over five and six. No problem. She actually did this really really well. Far better than in the walk. I was pretty thrilled at that :) Other than the minor need to shy at the barrel by E that'd been there the whole time but you don't go close to it in the smaller circle *g* Classic.

Off for a stretchy-canter around the ring. N what a canter it was too -- way up in the back. Pretty kewl :)

And then I got ambitious -- remember that idea that the walk exercise was too small for the trot? Well it probably is, but we did it anyways :) hahaha And it was *hard*. Really hard. For both of us. hahaha I'd say she really got two out of the six circles on any given attempt, but man they were about as close to perfect as it gets. And the others? Well there's no need to discuss those :) Needless to say we didn't do many repeats of that as she was trying SOOOO hard and while she's much stronger than she used to be, she's still not *that* strong. And after the twisty-turny trot circles the best halt at G ever. Square. Straight. And right from the trot. I was pretty happy at that.

So we leave the twisty-turniness and go for a canter around the ring. She settled into this lovely round UPhill canter (definitely not in her contract usually) so I thought I'd play with it a bit. Asked her to lengthen and instead of our usual scoot-forward-and-down variation she just floated a little higher and covered slightly more ground. So *that's* how it's supposed to work >;-P hahaha absolutely amazing. And then she topped that by actually coming back to me and collecting (which, to be honest, usually ends up with us in a horrible trot). Nice, balanced, organized. I was sooooo excited. (I think the resident h/j people were a little puzzled as to how I could be so happy with dressage :) So yes, we left it on that *g*

For the curious -- the canter variation of the exercise is usually circling *around* certain poles in reducing numbers (ie circle around 4 of them, then 3, then 1 -- good luck w/ that!, etc. 2 doesn't work so well unless you've got really short poles). The striding doesn't work so well to go over them the way it did in the trot, because of course it's set on a 9' stride -- and we usually aim for a 12' canter stride. If you're working on the collection thing you can bounce your way down the centre line :) Or if you're sitting on a pony :) But we skipped all those steps for today.

And *that* is the long version of yesterday's post :)

Trolls and jaguars and jumps, oh my!

So a couple days ago I had this as my status message on FB: "riding... teaching... teaching... riding... teaching... Is there any better way to spend a sunny fall day?" which received this comment: "You remind me of a Chinese proverb I live by 'if you love the job you do, you'll never work a day in your life'" N I thought that was pretty kewl. And reasonably accurate. Lessons all went well and I had two great rides - and at that point, it really doesn't seem so much like work :) Today was equally good, ending with an amazing xc school! So I took Sienna out on her own (oooohhhhh, ahhhhhh) hahaha. She's hacked alone a few times -- always super high when we do, but reasonable. Has never schooled XC alone, so I wasn't sure how it was going to go. Took her to a farm she's been to several times and she was kewl with it. Quiet while I tacked up and headed out. Went for a walk around our usual walk w/u field. A little looky, but still super quiet. The world is good. Go into the middle field and trot around, up and down some hills, she's alert, but paying attention. And we had a power trot and a half. Soooooo much fun. Jump over a few things, she lands cantering, nice and forward and ridable. And the best part -- she was actually taking me to the jumps. Not running at all but clearly had her job figured out and was all for it :) The kind of feeling you *want* going up to a XC fence! So we jump this one PT fence out of a nice power trot. She's focused, knows where she's going and what she's doing, but jumps the fence with a little more enthusiasm than is technically necessary and takes "land and go" to a bit of a new level. WHEEEEEE. hahaha She's getting the hang of trotting down hills, but cantering isn't really solid yet so I didn't *really* want her to gallop down. Fortunately I still had steering installed so I suggested we go UP the hill instead and she was kewl with that. And by the top was willing to come back. hahaha all good. I might've been a *little* bit run-away with but not bad :) Couldn't stop but could still steer so tis all good. Decided at this point perhaps some hill work would be a good idea. To get to the hills have to go through a tree line. Suggested trotting through but she wasn't entirely confident about that, so we took a mini walk-break to get us through the trail (that is guarded by fierce horse-eating TROLLS!!!! -- ummm these'd be rocks to the rest of us :) Once we got in the field though, the hill work actually went really well. Nice connected power trot up and reasonably balanced trot down. So we hop up the little bank back into the other field and trot around some more and I decide to try the pass-through in a trot again. Second time we did *technically* do it in a trot, albeit the slowest, most collected trot you've ever seen, while giving the trolls the evil-eye stare :) Now the bank that we'd already gone up once is actually part of a combo. A small (2'6" if you stretch your imagination) skinny, bending line to the bank. So since from this direction both the skinny and the bank are on our way back to where I want to be, I figure why not try it? No problem right? Ok well we landed from the skinny in a forward canter. But a nice rideable forward canter. And I know how the striding works having ridden this particular combo several hundred times on a dozen horses over the past few years, so I keep said canter to the bank... And it was lovely. Balanced. Rocked back on her hocks. Just what you want coming up to a bank. But I could feel the sheer power coiled there. hmmmm remember the land and go theory? And remember we've been *only* jumping out of a trot? There's a reason for that. The bank? No problem. Jumped it like an old pro. Then tucked her butt underneath her and was gone. *Very* proud of herself. Even tried to throw a buck of joy or two (still not a strength of hers, which is not a bad thing :). But she's flying -- and flying right towards the baby-bank. Ummmm less of a good plan. Got enough steering to get her beside it instead of off it which could *not* have ended well. But at this point we're now heading downhill in racehorse mode on slightly slippery grass with no studs in. hmmmmm that whole not galloping downhill thing? Yeah no longer negotiable. hahaha so this time definitely run away with and it was too funny to hear the "coach voice" in my head rhyming off basic instructions one second *after* my body had already done them (soften your hands, use your body to balance, leave her mouth alone, look where you'd like her to go, etc) A huge opening rein got the turn so we didn't crash into the trees or fall over and then w/ that immediate issue resolved we could play a bit. A few strides later she settled into the most amazing gallop rhythm, totally connected and through and just... Wow. But still a little ummm quick shall we say for the footing and terrain, so since by that point she was listening to me again, I was gradually able to bring her back and a lap and a half after we jumped into the field we were back in a trot. hahaha So we jump around a few more very quietly. She's pretty high now, but listening. So we're walking and I figure we'll go into the other final field, jump a handful of fences and then cool out. No problem right? Yeah you know better by now :) Well you see, there were cows turned out right beside that field. N Sienna had been able to see them from the second field, but hadn't really cared. So we walk through the treeline n I'm kinda thinking how nice it is to have a city horse who doesn't actually care about cows (esp after some of the others I've ridden!). Except that immediately on the other side of the scary treeline was a big black cow. And it was looking right at her. Well in Sienna's world, that's not a cow, it's a jaguar. And it's about to pounce. She spun and put her previous gallop to shame. And to make matters worse, I lost my balance on the spin which scared her even more. AND I knew that the direction she was heading ended in a dead-end very quickly. This would be a more serious version of being run away with. Managed to regain my balance, reorg my reins, get off her mouth, and get my body far enough back so that if we hit the dead end and she somehow *didn't* fall, I'd still be on. There are a few careers that require you to appear and speak calmly outwardly when inwardly your mind is going a million miles a minute and your heart is racing. Cops. Paramedics. ER doctors. These are all really important careers where that skillset is necessary and worth ingraining. Horseback riding? Yeah probably not worth the time or effort it took to train. But in moments like that I'm forever grateful I have. Because my horse knows and understands both "woah" and "steady" (and also "wait" but that one didn't come into play today) when said in the right tone. And despite the fact that at that instant that was as far from my little mind as it could possibly be (I was still working on staying on and trying to think through a plan for if I couldn't get her stopped in time), it came out in a way that meant something to her. And we stopped. Less than a stride before the dead-end. Of course the second we stopped she spun to check on the jaguar situation, but this not being the *first* scared horse I've sat on, I fully expected that. hahaha. She grew an extra hand or two and her ears tickled my nose. Her whole body was quivering. The second time that day I was sitting on her thinking "there's an awful lot of power here ready to explode." I guess that means I've finally got her strong :) But, to her credit, she didn't lose it. It took me probably 15 minutes to get her back to roughly were we started. The jaguars had clearly already feasted for the day since they were not the least bit interested in us. But WAIT. One is cutting through the other field to stalk us from behind! Poor Si was just about spinning. The new jaguar? A rather large black *horse* that had been ridden the whole time Si and I were out -- always in another field (we shared one field for about 10 seconds). The whole ride she'd been aware of the horse, but not concerned about it. But now. Now that she knew about the horrible black monsters plotting to EAT her, now it was scary. *sigh* Eventually I got her to walk a few circles in the vicinity of the jaguars; I decided at that point that more XC was not going to help the situation but I did take her into the sandring for some baby stadium. Now from here she could still see the scary monsters, but there was now a fence between us (well two technically, but the wire one she couldn't see very well clearly wasn't sufficient before :). So we trotted a couple fences in there -- the ones away from the cows were barely sufficient speedbumps. The ones toward were complete slow-motion jumps followed by an attempt to spin and run on the landing side. On the plus side, not once did she hesitate at a fence or consider not jumping it. YEAH!!!!! So when I got two quiet jumps in each direction with holding the line on the landing (and splashing through the "water obstacle" - aka large puddle), I deemed us done for the day and we went for a walk hack around our original w/u field. Except that when we were there she was now seriously stressed about the treelines. After all, jaguars could be lurking on the other side! *sigh* And since I can't have her stressing about treelines, this meant we couldn't quite be done. Headed back to the second field and walked along that treeline (it's ok, but she was actively searching for the monsters on the other side of the field). Up around our giant hill again. She started to relax somewhere near the top. Down the hill, through the treeline. Actually no problem. So we're back in the second field, nearing the pathway that had been so exciting again, and she saw them. But she just stopped and raised her head. Ok, progress. I got her to walk quietly and round and asked her for a square halt (our thing at home -- no dismounting till she's reasonably square). And to be fair to her, while one eye was definitely on the cows, she did listen to me. So I dismounted there, loosened the girth and took off her flash. Then took her over to let her graze by the monsters. Now by this point they had meandered slightly farther away then they had been originally and none of them were paying her the slightest amount of interest. But even still, she watched them with all systems on alert for a good five minutes before deeming it safe enough to take a 1/2 second break to grab the fastest mouthful of grass ever and then go back to watching them. We did this for a while till she would sort-of graze. Still tense but better. Then walked through the treeline to the other side and repeated the process. And then, finally, we could go home :) I have to say though that other than the rather unfortunate timing of the jaguars at the end of our ride, it was by far the most fun I've had with my pony this summer. And most importantly *she* was enjoying it too!

A lesson and a half...

Alright so I have to say that being a pedestrian down near the ROM today with both TIFF and last day of UofT frosh week on was quite the experience *g* And we'll leave it at that :) So I had a lesson today that shortly after getting off my horse and cooling her out, my legs went "ok Laur, we've had enough, it's time to sit down now." hahaha It's really not too often that I end up tired after a ride, but it *does* happen once in a while. And pony? Yeah she was sleeping in the roundbale. This same lesson apparently left other people puzzling over how, precisely, this exercise would be approached :) The short version: this lesson is the stuff Stephy's nightmares are made of. For the loooooong version, read on: Now some of you may be aware that the last few weeks have ranged from interesting to exciting to thoroughly frustrating -- sometimes all at the same time. So after last week's ride I spent this week simply chilling her out (some days that took longer than others!) We did one day of "real" (or as close as we get anyways :) dressage and a whole bunch of w/t/c around in relaxed hunter frame. And we walked and trotted over a ton of 2'6" fences. Over and over and over again mixed in with the shoulder in, transitions, bending, etc so there was never anything exciting about it. And yesterday, FINALLY, she was behaving herself like a school pony. Quiet, relaxed, willing. A little sticky still, but always accomplishing point A to point B on the first try. So this is good. And because it was good, I was half expecting to be on psycho-mare today. But I got on her and she was the same horse I got off yesterday. Sweet! Picked her up into a bit more of a dressagy frame, perfect. Let her back down again. Trotted her over a couple tiny fences (in dr length stirrups, so less than pretty) and she stayed quiet. The world is good. Coach shows up and watches for a few seconds. "She looks really good. Relaxed." So I explained a bit about our week and what's been good and what's not. And somewhere in there I mentioned that cantering a pole on a circle had created some tension -- that we worked through, but still... And left it at that. So I keep working my horse as he starts moving fences around while I continue warming up. "Wow, where's Lauren today?" hahaha took me a sec to translate that to he had watched our absolutely perfect canter transition (a fairly rare occurrence) and this was a good thing. "I left her at home and brought the one who knows how to ride." >;-P So then he was all annoyed at me for being too critical -- apparently that's his job *g*. So he continues to move poles, giving the odd instruction every once in a while. Apparently the focus of today's lesson is not flat. hahaha as in usually he doesn't even look at a pole till both of us are thoroughly into the dressage-thing. And I happened to glance at what he was building -- at first it looked like our standard of pole in front of little jump. This is what we used to *teach* her to jump, and we return to it every once in a while. Except that the pole was on an angle. And given the angle of said pole I had a strong suspicion this wasn't an accident. Gee thanks. I've spent the last two weeks jumping everything 100% perpendicular, and now my *first* fence is going to be a bending line? Just as well I trotted over a few before he got there *g*. But still all good. But then suddenly there was ANOTHER pole. Wait, canter poles on a curve? Definitely not kewl. We're not particularly good at that on a good day. We can bend (most days :), or we can navigate obstacles. But rarely do we do both at the same time! So I hadn't *quite* wrapped my brain around this being a good idea when he started to move standards over. Wait standards?!?!? That implies JUMPS. Which at that distance means bounces. On a circle. Now one day last year we did A bounce on a circle. It was ummmm entertaining. She was greener then, but at the time far more confident. Since then I don't think we've tried to hold a curving line over anything. And exactly once have we done two bounces in a row -- again when she was happy and eager and into the whole gymnastics thing. But no, he's not done building yet. Trot poles get placed parallel to the bounces, on the inside. And a random set of standards set up on the other side of the circle (think B and E if we had letters - circle slightly bigger than 20m). Ok so school the circle that goes through the single standards and over the trot poles. Keep horse in dressage frame, elevated/round/relaxed etc. Uh huh. hahaha first couple times I lost the shoulder entirely (but managed to keep the roundness and relaxation, just lost the bend a *little*). So eventually we get it right. Ok, trot over the other poles and over the jump, then ride the canter. So after a couple tries we were jumping our one fence well and having the canter rebalanced within a stride or two. Woohoo! Mission accomplished. This is HUGE after the last few weeks. Can we stop now? hahaha fortunately I kept that to my little self... Alright so the second fence goes up. Trot in, stick to the inside, bounce it. Ok... Got through with a significant lack of bend on an off distance and land a *little* fast (like as in I was back at the fences again - going around them - before I had the canter reorganized). Repeat a few times. Eventually get a rideable canter. Ok keep rideable canter and jump the middle of the bounces. On the circle line. In rhythm. Rebalance canter on landing and repeat. So realistically it was do the bounces, go around once to fix the quality of the canter, do the bounces. But after the third or fourth attempt, as we skipped it on the second round, a THIRD fence went up. HEY! >;-P But she navigated her way through. So we did this a few times -- and each time we'd land, balance,e all good, then just after the empty standards there was a scary tarp, that would rattle in the wind and we'd shoot forward and have to start over again. Keep in mind - 25m circle. There's not a lot of room for scooting and running! Also changed it up so it’s big circle w/ jumps, little circle (10m) inside standards without jumps, and back and forth. And eventually we got it a couple times in a row w/o a meltdown or need for a little circle. And we get a decently long walk break. Pony’s tired. That’s a LOT of jumping for one day. We’re done right? Uh huh, how about the other direction. *sigh* So in deference to the fact that she’s been less-than-confident lately, my coach took down the first two fences and let us start by trotting over the last one on its own, the same as we did the first way. We just progressed it a lot faster, moving on to the canter right away, putting the 2nd fence up after about 3 loops, and the third fence up after only one lap. The only concession to the tiredness factor was they were slightly lower. Going this way I had a real challenge holding the line; we had a pretty serious (and scary!) left drift going on, ending us w/ like a 4’ bounce. Hahaha but she started to figure it out and by the end, while still not bent as correctly as she should be for dressage, was much better than how we started. Much easier to keep her focused this direction because we’re not going towards the scary tarp *g* Ok so do that well and take a break. Now we’re done right? Yeah even I didn’t bother to mentally ask the question that time. Remember those empty standards? They got a jump put between them. Jump the vert, half a circle, jump the double bounce, half a circle jump the vert, keep going... No mini rebalancing circles allowed. BUT I got to pick which direction to go first hahaha Yeah me :) Now I could feel Si was *actually* starting to get tired. Seriously. I think that’s the second time I’ve ever felt her tired; the first was during a dressage lesson w/ M some time ago. So we did it right for two consecutive circles and got to stop. For a minute. Turn around and do it the other way. A really bad jump over the vert towards the scary tarp led to a slightly out of control run around the circle where I chose not to point her at the bounces, but control was regained, the vert jumped correctly and we made it to the bounces with some tension but not bad. The next round I got something that resembled relaxation (still very worried about the tarp each time – which was unfortunately immediately upon landing from the vert and about 4 strides before the bounces). But eventually she did it well a couple times in a row and then got to stop. For real this time :) I think I will have a very tired pony tomorrow, although when I checked on her on my way home from teaching tonight she was good and happy and alert, so all good :)

Remembering to have fun....

My pony finally had the edge off her today. Not tired, but not high either. All it took was four outings in five days! hahaha gotta love TBs. Had to laugh at Si on Tuesday. I pulled the beast out and hooked it up to the trailer, which I then parked directly beside the mare's paddock as that points us in the right direction for the highway. Now the beast really is a Beast. It's incredibly loud and not a small vehicle by any means. So every mare in the field came over to see what was going on - they were all lined up along the fence watching my every move. Except Sienna. Who took one look, gave the equine equivalent of rolling her eyes, and went back to the hay which she no longer had to share cause all the other horses were watching me. hahaha Gotta love it. So I loaded her to take her to her dressage lesson and she walks on perfectly, absolutely no hesitation, all is well. Except that after all her recent excursions and multiple trailer loads on Sun, she now thinks everywhere she goes she should have a buddy. Stood perfectly quietly until I closed the door without a friend on the trailer. Oh well now that was just not acceptable. hahaha quite the temper tantrum. But she settled again fairly quickly. Had a decent lesson - pony was a little stiff, but not bad, and grazed her for a bit before heading home. She did hesitate briefly before loading, but it was only half a second or so, so all good. So then last night I took Nicole to school XC. This being Sienna's 4th outing in 5 days I wasn't sure how thrilled she would be, but both critters just walked on, no problem. It is awfully nice to have horses that load hassle free. The environment is one Si's been to before and where she's quiet, so I was able to tie her to the trailer (which I've just started doing in calm scenarios). Made life super easy to get tacked up and ready to go. N tried to use the giant mounting block, which theoretically would've made things easier but unfortunately it was rather precariously balanced on a rock so was a little like trying to mount from the middle of a teeter-totter. hahaha Amusing from my viewpoint but I think not-so-much from hers *g* Esp as when her horse is excited he doesn't stand long for her to mount. So we head out, her horse definitely in the lead, having no idea where he was going but determined to get there first. We took our time warming up -- went for a long walk and then an equally long trot. N warmed up over a random PE log while I took Si up and down the equally tiny bank. She's definitely got the hang of up (even for the big ones). There's still hesitation on the down but I'm happy to say there was no launching at all and by then end she was actually stepping down properly. Woohoo! Progress. We jumped some little courses -- N's horse was having a blast! And once she got the hang of putting your leg ON to stop (kinda like hitting "start" to shut down the computer) she did too :) She managed to get him over the scary painted fence on the first try! Woohoo! and introduced him to the world of up-banks. Sweet. By the end they were complete pros! As for Si, her confidence is slowly coming back. I admit I let her look at almost everything before jumping her over it, but it lead to a significant increase in our success rate. Still mostly jumping out of the trot, but at least that's getting better. Hillwork went really well and general behaviour was excellent, so that was good. And the best part - she was having fun! I haven't felt that from her since before she was off, so it was really nice to experience. And grazing them afterwards as the sun set on a warm summer's eve? Yeah, it doesn't get much better than that.

Learning a new language

So just a suggestion -- don't go to Staples 2 weeks before school begins. hahaha Absolutely insane.

Insert abrupt topic change here.

Was supposed to go to Caledon to school XC today. Of course rain and thunderstorms put an end to that. Made some comment about it on FB (this is the 3rd or 4th time we've been rained out in a summer of otherwise incredible weather) and was reminded that any time I've gone to *teach* the weather's been perfect. So evidently it only rains when I plan to ride *sigh*. So who here is surprised by this? Yeah me neither >;-P

So just rode at home instead. Easy indoor ride with the simplest little gymnastic in the world. Spent as much time chatting as riding *g* But was really nice. I've been trying to ride in the way my coach introduced in my last lesson. Now part of the entertainment with that is I'm trying to speak to my horse in a language *neither* of us knows. Because of course, I trained her. So all the buttons are where I put them. Which is, sadly, not where I need them to be now. Oops *g*

So my first attempt coach says "talk to her" and see what happens. And the conversation went something like "So, how's the weather?" "Well the daemons from Minnesota are planning to take over Switzerland."

That was day one. Roughly translated to "How bout we trot now?" "Halt, ok." So technically wasn't our best ride in that what I *wanted* to happen, rarely happened... But be were both trying really hard and she was going really well -- just not necessarily where or how I was intending :)

Move on to day two. By now we've figure out some of the basic nouns and sentence structure. Conversations are more like "So, how's the weather?" "Wet." -- we're not winning any Pulitzer prizes yet, but we're at least attempting to speak the same language. This allows me to choose the gait and general direction, but not effect or improve said gait or direction. So we're trotting left. This is good. But the trot is downhill and the shoulders (or fore-quarters as one student declared them the other day :) are considerably ahead of the hindquarters. Less good.

Day three. Well now this was the really interesting one. Because you see, Sienna has now mastered the language. In fact, is significantly ahead of me. Which tells me that this is definitely a worth-while endeavor to embark on since she's clearly all for it. Today when I asked about the weather, I got a PhD dissertation on the effects of tectonic plate movement on weather patterns. I won't bother to retype it here. You wouldn't understand it anyways >;-P But what it meant was, so long as I was avoiding the way I've ridden all my life, I could move any part of her body and entirely control the pace, with essentially a thought. Was pretty friken amazing let me tell you. Have not figured out how to apply this in any way shape or form over fences yet *sigh* but our flat work jumped about two years in about half a week. So yeah, I'm pretty excited about that :)

So now since Sienna's way ahead of me in the new language, when something strange happens I work backwards. "Ok she did A. What did I do to cause A? I did X. So does that mean if I repeat X A will happen again? Yup. Very kewl." Languages have never been a strength of mine, but I have to admit I'm fairly entertained learning this one :) Just kinda wishing I'd done so 20 years ago!

My mother always said there'd be days like this; she just never told me there'd be so many!

So some of you might be aware that Sienna and I have been having a bit of a rough week. *sigh* I get that she has just decided she's a teenager, and this is all part of the fun and games, but really???? She's SIX now. We should be about 2 years past this behaviour. Of course we should be about 2 years past her growing too and she's still doing that. Ah well. Last Sat I jumped her around and she was absolutely incredible. One of the best jump rides I've ever had on her. Perfect little hunter pony. Ratable, listening. Hit every spot bang on, gave me every lead I asked for, lengthen/shorten/turn all no problem. Honest and confident. Just wonderful. One of those rides that makes you really glad you threw the schedule out the window and skipped dressage for one day *g* So there's a line about "it doesn't matter how good a trainer you were yesterday, your horse wants to know how good you are today" -- that was our next ride. It got its own post. Something about Why do I ride TBs? Can't remember the last ride I had like that on her. Last time she lost her brain that badly was @ Grandview this spring, but this was different in that this time it wasn't total sensory overload it was just one specific thing that the tiny TB brain couldn't handle. Conveniently it happened when I was feeling entirely patient and I basically kept repeating the question till she figured it out. So of course every day since we've been over the tarp. She's a long way from confident about it yet, but she's getting much better at it. Still wouldn't want to see one in competition though! hahaha not that I'm exactly concerned about that, but anything similar really. So the next day I decide to hop her over some baby stuff. Yeah that was bad. Very bad. It's as though our wonderful tarp school convinced her that A, everything is scary. And B, jumps are optional. Training rule #1: "Never teach your horse something you want them to forget." *sigh* I spent a very long time and eventually got her quietly trotting over a few fences and left it at that. Now you have to keep in mind, this is the *same* course she was jumping like a pro on Sat. Just lower :) But no, evidently in her world that's entirely irrelevant. Next day... Theoretically a schooling jumper show. Yeah no, I know better than that. Not worth screwing her up entirely to go play when things are not going well at home. Instead normal ride. W/u includes tarp. She thinks about it a whole lot but no serious meltdown. The advantage to the whole tarp w/u thing is it *really* brings her back up. Made the following dressage ride pretty seriously impressive. hahaha so yeah, was actually a good ride. She was very strong and a little high and it took a long time to get to the "relaxation" phase of things but when we got there things were quite good. Of course hacking back to the barn we had to shy at everything and end up a bouncing ball of tension. Which resulted in us practicing walking around quietly (much to the amusement of those grazing... "Ummmm didn't you just leave?" "Yeah, we need to practice walking." *sigh*) I was tempted to walk her through the drivethrough, but managed to restrain myself *g* Mostly cause losing it on pavement would be very very bad for my pony :( Eventually though she walked quietly and halted properly and I could dismount. I did end up going to the show -- entirely to socialize. Got talked into being a slightly useless groom (useless cause I kept wandering and talking to people :) but for people who don't actually need a groom so it's all good. Saw a friend and her superstar pony that I don't get to see nearly often enough. Chatted with a few people I haven't seen in years -- also entertaining. Generally not a bad evening. Of course anywhere there's horses and free wine is bound to be entertaining. So then we get to today. Lesson time. I got on w/ enough time to get our tarp-school in before my coach got there. Not *quite* enough time to get her relaxed (he's *always* early!) but close enough. And he asked me how she's going. And I told him. And apologized *g* Figured we should just get that out of the way. So he watches for a minute and comments on her great trot. Well yeah, the plus side of all this is awesome dressage. hahaha So for the dq portion of the lesson we worked entirely on me. And I'm not quite sure how he did it, but he made me tall! hahaha like I seriously felt I was on a horse a hh taller. Was really quite impressive. It was one of those "take all the pieces apart and put them back together differently" type lessons. Where for a little while I felt completely, entirely incompetent (which was definitely not aided by the fact that my incompetency was making me giggle. Ego aside, after the amount of experience I've had feeling like a beginner again is really really funny. Like riding the rolly-polly paint pony western *g* Or vaulting in university -- a sport that should never be attempted after the age of 12!), but by the end the difference was... Wow. Will be interesting to see if I'm sore tomorrow. I noticed it in the lesson, but was fine after... We shall see. Anyways, the end result of fixing the rider was our impressive eventing dressage became real dressage. Like the kind of dressage Zelli used to do all by herself :) Well maybe not *that* good. But far closer than I ever imagined Sienna could get. Only down side? Somewhere in the midst of the beginnerness I happened to mention that a lunge lesson would be potentially useful... That might've been a mistake. We'll find out next week *g* Superpony's never been lunged w/ a rider before. I've no problem galloping her at a 3' stone wall.... But going in a 20m circle w/ a line attached to us? Well that's scary! And I, well I have to admit I love lunge lessons. Of course I also love gymnastics. So yeah, basically I'm insane. You're not new here. This is not news. But, that being said, I haven't had one since I was riding with L... N that was in 2002. hmmmmmm So then we start to jump. "So what do you want to do?" (Wait, I get a choice? ummm I *never* get to choose!) "Something easy." He just looks at me, looks pointedly at the course I designed, and rolls his eyes. "Something easy?" he asks. "Trot fences." I decide. Knowing fully well that cantering and jumping at the same time is a bad combination for Sienna's little brain at the moment. So he watched us trot around and saw some of what I've been seeing from her. I avoided the tarp entirely (having already told him about that game, and already done it that am, he didn't push it), but trotted over everything else. Including the bench (which got an "I really like that jump" from him. hahaha yeah eventers!). Which she trotted over in absolutely perfect form. Her anxiety lowered as we went around. Never got to confident, but got back to reasonably calm and willing, so that's a start for today. We left it at absolutely nothing challenging or interesting, but at least accomplishing point A to point B in reasonable form. As for the show next week? It may well become a dressage show for us. But we'll see. It's all about the positive experience right? *sigh* The trainer side of me agrees with that entirely. The competitive side of me would like to get back to the winning. Like all three phases in one day. hahaha One day. Hopefully not TOOOOOO long from now.

To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.

"Sweet and achingly true" -- fav comment of the wk :) On my Facebook Friends story... Not nearly *as* sore today as I'd expected to be. Definite twinges of course, but yesterday was worse. Had a flat lesson this am -- it went really well all things considered (all things being that in a month off, my horse has forgotten six months of training). Tried an interesting experiment today -- undecided as to the safety factor of it but it was sort of interesting. My coach had me do up the reins behind my back (so the buckle was in the small of my back) and ride that way (just halt/walk). Mostly practicing transitions. The idea being that way she's connected to back/core/seat muscles rather than hands. Was sort of entertaining. Of course Si goes pretty much entirely from my seat anyways (really can't ride an OTTB from the hand - rarely works out well! hahaha) but even still was a good reminder of how it's supposed to work *g* Si is grounded till we get pads on her (no jumping, no leaving the sandring) -- which definitely outs XC, so I'm taking a client's horse to Cedar Run tomorrow instead. He's schooled PE xc exactly twice in his life, clearly PT should be no problem *g* hahaha actually it's not as bad as that sounds -- he can jump and is incredibly honest, he's just never done XC (a hunter convert). Was in PE for the rider's abilities not his. We shall see. So Gary posted this vid on Facebook and I was thoroughly impressed so figured I'd post it here. This doesn't even *look* easy hahaha particularly when I remember that I can't even hop my bike up a curb anymore! Sheesh. The first 30-45 seconds is kinda blah, but after it gets very impressive. I love the looks on some of the bystander's faces *g* Enjoy :)

The return of Superpony!

(taken from GRS Blog The superpony is back! I wonder how long she'll stick around for this time? So amazing dr lesson on Tues. Didn't ride Wed cause she had some weird puffiness where the girth should go. Well that and both pony and I were zonked (although *I* at least had the excuse of having gone running at lunch :) Thurs puffiness was less and when I squished it she didn't really care so figured I'd ride anyways -- not as though I ever have my girth tight to begin with >;-P She was still pretty tired but amazingly good. Rode for all of about 20 mins. Hopped over some tiny things, and then untacked and let her graze for the rest of our "work" time :) Everybody needs a day like that once in a while. This am I get her out and hop on and she's still in lazy mode. hmmmmm either dr lesson was far more intense than it felt (don't really believe that since she wasn't giving any "I'm tired" signs - which are usually pretty obvious, subtlety is not her strong suit - while we were there) or she's just chilled this week with the more civilized weather or whatever. We trotted around for a bit admittedly putting fairly little effort into our warmup. So coach comes out (with not one but TWO incredibly cute bouncing fluffballs :) and has us do some basic trot work - but not nearly as intense as it generally is (maybe we got excused cause I told him we did dr on Tues?). Ok forward into the canter and he wants me shifting between two and three point -- a valid and useful exercise except that I was expecting dressage and my stirrups were approximately 5 holes too long for that. Pulled up after all of about two strides "if we're going to play this game can I shorten my stirrups?" (of course already doing so by the time I finished asking the question -- which really translated to, are we going back to dressage after we run around?) I got a laugh and a nod so I figured that meant no dressage for us today. Altogether now: awwwwwwww. So we do a few laps alternating between a canter and a hand-gallop with focus pretty much entirely on my position (he made one little shift that made such a huge diff -- esp once we got to the jumping aspect of things! -- one of those "well why didn't somebody point this out 10 yrs ago?" sheesh. hahaha but it's all good. Now I just have to be able to replicate!) So I warm the pony up over random fences (thank Epona she's still being a saint :) while my coach builds our one and only fence for the day. Very nice hogsback, not particularly high - maybe entry level? "Ok, jump that at 350mpm". Hey wait a sec -- since when were we deemed to be where accuracy is expected? What happened to being please with simply getting from point A to point B without losing our little mind? Almost as bad as DQ coach asking for a circle and just expecting it would be 20m. hahaha no. My circles are random sizes (albeit I do aim for round!) unless otherwise specified. Funny, from that moment on (and that moment was several months ago) all circle sizes have been specified. >;-P Ok but back to today - jump that at 350mpm. This is not particularly challenging since I default to 350mpm and therefore Sienna is very comfortable jumping at that pace :) So yeah, no problem. Did it a couple times both ways consistently. All good. Then it's 450 down the long side, 350 around the corner, 300 to and over the fence. Ummm 300? We can trot 300 >;-P @ least when she's in zoomy mode we can. So the 350-450 increase was np (and as we did this multiple times over the lesson by the end we could even do it w/o falling on the forehand. Yeah us :), and back to 350 also ok (450 around the short end of that ring is a little terrifying so self-preservation kicks in @ some point). Back to 300 worked. For a stride or two. Then we trotted. Yeah pony can jump entry oxers out of a trot >;-P "Don't worry, I'll do it better next time," I assured my coach as we cantered away. Sometimes you just don't need to hear the analysis. hahaha. The next time with a touch more leg we kept the 300. Was still a really icky jump, but at least on pace and in the right gait. Then we just played with different combos -- 450 long, 350 short, 400 jump. Can she go forward and come back on command and can I keep whatever pace he wants me to keep consistently. There were a few cases where coming back took longer than it technically should've :) The 450 - 300 jump (ie long gallop to coffin) took an extra try (1st time we trotted) but we did get it :) But what really had me so excited was that by the end she was jumping beautifully out of whatever pace we were in, and more importantly, LANDING in the same rhythm. Woohoo!!! And most of those fences had her little knees up around her ears :) I will say though, after more than half an hour of cantering and galloping (albeit slowly) on the pony who wasn't particularly high to begin with, both of us were pretty zonked. And I definitely did not end up going for my run today. hahaha I think some more fitness is required for both of us; actually I think I just need to pick up another horse to ride. One at a time just isn't cutting it.

The day after...

Have you ever ridden a horse who's both high and tired at the same time? Yeah, that's where Sienna was today -- an interesting experience. I had planned on a very light stretchy ride. In fact, I had planned on just hacking around bareback - as relaxed as could be. Except that when I brought her out, she was bouncing. Couldn't help but look at her and shake my head. Really? You should be exhausted. Seriously. I figure I rode (and like really rode, not just sitting around killing time) for well over two hours yesterday. On top of the 4 hours in the trailer and the few hours hanging out walking around the property in search of just the right piece of grass... And then turned out all day today. She should be sleeping in her stall -- which she was. Till I got there :) But as soon as she *left* the stall... So fairly quickly abandoned the bareback idea -- my neck and back were still toasted from landing on them yesterday -- definitely not up to that on a jumpy horse. Hop on and head out to sandring (cause of course the weather's perfect today :). She spins when I get on and shies not once but twice in the 20 second walk out there. The walk that she makes every day without looking at a thing. Let her start trotting and it's her huge I'm-on-a-mission trot that then rolls into the we-need-to-get-there-NOW canter ok whatever. She wasn't frantic, just wanted to power-stride it. Fine. And then all of a sudden she was done. Breaks out of the canter and I need to work to keep her in the trot... Adrenaline over :) Ok so after a short trot we walk and chill - the original plan for the day. But after about three minutes she was ready to go again. Suddenly alert and looking around and back in power mode. ummmmm ok pony. We played the "letsgoletsgoletsgo okI'mdone" game a few times. Like she was feeling high but just didn't quite have the energy to pull it off. hahaha Obviously didn't ride for very long, but the time we did was amusing. To me at least :)

Stupid Should Hurt

This post is dedicated to those of you who I teach who don't believe me when I tell you I understand how you feel when things go disaterously wrong... Read on :) And to anybody else who can read this, laugh (*with* me that is :) and say "I've been there." Enjoy! ---- So today was Sienna's first outing. Short version: the good (if you stretch your imagination - creative writing at its finest!), the bad and the ugly -- all occurred on one day! Long version (you've been warned): It's been stunningly gorgeous for weeks, so of course they were forecasting rain and snow for show day. Sheesh. Friday I have a lesson. I get told about the walk - "Nothing less than an 8 on the free-walk is acceptable" which pretty much had me rolling my eyes since I've seen an 8 walk from my horse exactly once -- and that was on a solo hack on the way home. hahaha but then I discovered my coach was serious (imagine that :) and sobered up appropriately *g* Jumping was great but minimal "want to save her for tomorrow." ummmmm no, my whole plan with a lesson the day before was to tire her out so she'd be potentially ridable at the show. But ok... Fri aft I find out they're running XC too. Woohoo! Get in touch w/ Bob (who owns GV with his wife Sarah) to get myself on the last-minute addition list :) hahaha N being super-kewl, he agreed to that. So now very excited. Nicole, amazing supergroom, agreed to take a day "study break" during exams and come help -- being all dedicated she did, in fact, bring study material with her. For the kinds of courses that have "right" answers. Where's the fun in that? hahaha -- anyways, she met me at the barn after her 9:00 exam ended last night and crashed at my place so we could go early in the am. We had the most amazing times ever, didn't have to be in dressage till 10:45. Work back with me - 10:45 ride time, on by 9:30 (seem excessive? Yeah, you haven't met my horse), at farm by 9, leave at 7, at barn by 6:30, leave house @ 6 -- which means getting up at pretty well exactly the same time I do every day. Much better than three am though :) Now, you have to understand, I've driven the route to GV/GO/WW probably about 75 times over the last 10 years, and my navigational abilities are generally pretty impressive -- yet somehow I managed to miss the 400?!?! How does one do that? Seriously. And coming home I managed to miss the turn that takes you back to 11. The turn I've made so many times I can (and have!) done it in my sleep! Even asked N, in all the years she's been driving places with me, have I ever missed a turn? Nope... But today I did it twice, and *almost* a third time. Not quite sure which little part of my brain I forgot to pack today, but really need to relocate it. Very soon. Preferably before I try to ride again. Get to the farm -- only disadvantage to a civilized ride time is everybody else is already there. Means I have to back the trailer in, and to a specific space off a turn. Yikes. But I did it -- and it only took a couple tries *g* N's comment while I was attempting this was "nobody's judging you . . . yet!" hahaha well it amused me anyways :) So pony comes off trailer a little high, but not bad. It's snowing so we add an extra blanket before I head off to the secretary. All organized and ready to go we tack up and head down to dressage. Or try to anyways. There was lots of scary stuff along the way. Only *almost* trampled two pedestrians -- fortunately for me they were of the horse-people variety and could see very well what was going to happen and got out of the way :) In the warmup Si was a *little* high. And then I finally got her settled and somebody else came in with a very squeaky saddle. Well horses are *not* supposed to squeak! Had quite the meltdown about that. Never really did get over it, but the other rider showsheened her saddle so it wouldn't squeak :) hahaha It lasted for her till about 3/4 of the way through her test -- *almost* long enough. As for Sienna, after about an hour (no exaggeration there) she finally chilled enough to work. Did really well. Till we went over to the actual ring. And couldn't even make it around the outside. The judge was amazingly patient. Took one look, assessed the situation and told me to take my time. I don't know if the person before me got a small novel on her test or not, but it's entirely possible. Asked me if it was her first show, no but close to and first one of the year. When we finally made it all the way to the booth she told me she'd ring the bell when I got around the corner "so don't fall off" hahaha. All good. We put in a nightmare of a test. Entirely ADD. Incorrect bend (or pretzel bend) throughout pretty much the entire thing. Accuracy? Yeah we weren't even pretending we could do that. On the bit? hahaha to steal an image - does Giraffe on crack mean anything to you? (If not, you *really* have to go read the $700 Pony :) We did stay in the ring, in roughly the right gait, riding something that vaguely resembeled the instructions on the test. But the whole soft, supple, attentive idea? Yeah not so much. We almost made step one on the dr scale - rhythm was almost acceptable. Suppleness? hahahahahahaahahaha It was not my worst test ever (Parker will hopefully forever hold that title!) but it's entirely possible it counts for second. Went back to the warmup ring after to relocate her little mind again and then once we got one decent transition hopped off and left it at that. Quit while you're ahead -- even if it's only by a baby-step. So take pony back and untack her, convince Nicole to find another layer of clothing (it was *not* good standing around weather!) and then leave Sienna in N's amazing care and go to walk XC and stad. Both of which look amazing. XC had some of everything (bank, baby-ditch, water, steps) - fun fun fun. N stad was fair, very inviting, nice big turns and of course perfect footing (love the spring shows there :). Knowing that we'll be starting all over again in the stad w/u, I tacked up early. N for the first half of the w/u we were ummmm bouncing. Cause of course everybody is cantering and jumping (T level @ that) and this is way too much for my little tracky. Now when she loses her little mind, the fastest way for me to get it back is lots of little turns, bending, serpentines, changing directions, etc. This is not possible in a jump w/u ring because these turns would put you directly in the way of other riders jumping. So the first part of the w/u was brilliance or disaster -- going away from home was quiet, round and lovely; going towards home was on speed. But then I got lucky in that there was quite the break between T and PT, where I had the ring to myself for a while. Got superpony jumping then when all was quiet and had her chilled before other horses arrived. Got some *serious* air time our first few times over the vert, which then made it harder cause it scared her which made her launch even higher the next time. *sigh* but eventually she chilled a little and started jumping it reasonably. Had a bit of trouble the 2nd or 3rd time we tried the oxer - landed on it, demolishing it and sending poles everywhere. Very kind person reset the fence for us and the next time she was not having anything to do w/ it. Uh uh, that was SCARY. Third try, one stride out she hesitates. Mr crop outweighs hesitation. Cleared it by a foot high and about two wide - to applause from random people watching this. Next couple attemps she jumped properly. So in we go. She's looking at things, but not bad. First fence, beautiful. Textbook perfect. Landed and scooted a little, but came back to me. 2nd fence also beautiful and landing properly this time (and lots of people were having trouble getting to this one properly). Hesitated a little at three but took it in stride. But fence 4... Oh fence four. We got there bang on stride. But somewhere in her being so incredibly ridable and so good, I forgot that I can count the number of stadium rounds she's ever seen on one hand. Well it was a looky gate, of the type she's never seen, and I didn't ride it. And I knew better. And never even clued in. And as a result, I wasn't as defensive as I should've been. And when she propped instead being back and in position for a tap or a cluck, I ended up forward in position for her to spin out under me. I ended up on her neck -- and for a few strides I thought I might salvage it. Held the neck-riding thing a rediculously long time (at the canter might I add!) until she had enough of her rider's insanity and tossed her head - putting me that much higher in the air before landing on my back on the ground. Could literally hear the crowd's reaction to that. Ugh. Left the ring, remounted, waved the paramedic off (in that order -- they argue less once you're already on the horse) and jumped a few more w/u fences, which was kinda pointless as she was entirely apathetic about those by that point. Dismounted after a good fence and realized that I perhaps don't bounce as well as I used to. Was starting to feel really sore and, given our less than brill performance so far, decided to scrap XC. Sometimes you have to know when to stop. Chatting with people afterwards -- apparently there were wagers being made on whether I'd stick it or not. hahaha classic. Go into the office to pick up my dressage test (more for posterity's sake than anything) and Bob (who coaches me XC whenever I can possibly arrange it :) was there. He looks at me, "What happened?" Frig. I didn't even bother to explain. "Can we come school next weekend?" "I think you'd better." hahahaha Apparently he didn't actually see it, just heard about it later. That's prob for the best >;-P So for a laugh I looked at the dressage test on my way back to the trailer. Mostly 5s and 6s (like I said, the judge was super-kind) and the comments ignored all the obvious serious flaws and focused mostly on the incorrect bend/right head tilt issue -- which she mentioned to me after the test (I like it when the tests end @ G cause you get more of a chance to chat with the judge :). Fortunately I know about these already and I know they pretty well go away when I locate the brain (she tips her head right and the brain falls out the left ear. Putting the brain back in, straightens her out). And then I got to the mark for the free walk. Remember waaaayyyy back at the beginning of this post a few hours ago? Yup, we did it. An 8. hahahahaha Oh comeon - we had to do *something* right! So let's see down sides: - it was snowing - horrendous flat test (we're not even going to pretend that was dressage) - ate some dirt, and worse - deserved it - never ended up going xc up sides: - lost Sienna's brain THREE times (how is that up? Stay with me here) AND managed to relocate it each time. - survived two warmup rings - Nicole learned all sorts of new skills involving navigating the world with giant mitts on - unwrapping Banana bread and working the camera were two of the more impressive - had fun socializing with all sorts of people I don't get to see nearly often enough and learned little bits more about some of those I know only vaguely - discovered what we need to work on (and the list should keep us entertained for quite a while!) - Superpony eventually chilled out and got to deal with all sorts of strange and unusual things in w/u under semi-controllable conditions - met the only goal I actually agreed to (hmmmm might want to raise the bar a little next time :) - when I was riding, I was riding really well(next time though I think I'll *keep* riding till I intentionally dismount!) - the sun came out (thanks N!) - looking forward to schooling next weekend. And this is how a technically horrendous show can still leave me smiling at the end of the day.