Jumping bean by day, dressage diva by night

As I said in a recent blog post, I am making an effort to be sure I get over to lesson with C more often because the difference is evident and carries over into our jumping. The more we dressage with her, the more soft and relaxed Tillie becomes. 

I was excited this time because I asked C to try her Custom Saddlery VLX again to see if it would feel just as awesome as it did a few months ago...and it didnt disappoint. 

Tillie really goes phenomenal in it. Her back swings more in all three gaits and our lengthenings were by far the best they have ever been - who knew a dressage diva lived in there! C agreed this was the most consistent in the contact and confirmed shes ever seen Tillie - yay!! 

The saddle also fits ME well, which has seemed to be a bit of a struggle. Tillie has large but flat shoulders and a very short rib cage and I have a short leg and large booty. Lol BUT I think at this point its going to finding an affordable exact match that will be the challenge. 

Here is the compilation:

I loved that right away when I got on Tillie was ready to work. She wasnt a looky at things even at the far side of the ring and when I picked her up there was much less rooting and fuss in the walk.

C had us right away ask to push the trot and get Tillie out of her comfort zone and then warm up with some gradual leg yields. Next, she had us do a bit of a serpentine/changing bend exercise that did wonders to unlock Tillie's neck and really get her supple. As the clinician said this winter, he neck is the key to getting her soft. And boy did it work! Even changing the bend from right to left was soooo smooth when usually she is a bit harder that way.

Our lengthenings are still slow to develop and she isnt quite letting all her balance go yet, but the feeling I got in this lesson was by the most "toeing the line" we have ever gotten and you can hear me in the video the last two times laughing and say "OH MY GOODNESS". Tillie LOVED doing them and it was quite fun to feel her really fill up the contact and dig in for them.

We sprinkled canter in around those...I am glad I have footage of our canter work since now we are digging more into canter. It didnt feel nearly as good as it looks and I was laughing at the end at how messy it felt. C reassured me that it wasnt, its just new so things feel a bit all over the place, but will settle the more we work on it.

So here, C had us trying to smooth out the canter transition and work on my not freezing and keeping the inside bend. What was so glorious about this, that if I rode it well, the resulting canter was really nice. C commented how nice her downward transitions have gotten and our goal is to get our upwards equally as nice. Yay!!

So all in all it was a great learning lesson. Most of them are with C lol, but I am super excited with how things are progressing!

Rolex bound & motivated to jump all the things!

I am sitting at my computer...11pm at night blogging rather than packing. Procrastinating much?! Lol not so much procrastination as much as just so freaking busy right now!

Today was my second day on the job and I have hit the ground running. I am so loving the atmosphere so far...everyone is super laid back and really excited to see how my flex schedule I get to determine will play out for this summer. (I am hoping this means some week night events!!).

I am so amped to do ALLLLL the events

I also had planned to school at a venue we havent yet, but is also the same venue Tillie and I will be doing our first novice event next in may. They only had today and May 1 open for schooling and Ill be enjoying the many views at Rolex on May 1st. 

So I scrambled after work to load up and make it to this place (Which Brita and I got terribly lost) and we did just in time for the officials to tell us we had 30 min to school. Not a ton of time, but I was determined to at least see what they had. My goal was to gauge my confidence, and Tillie's, to see if the move up here was something that would be a good thing or possibly a confidence shaker.

Tillie ready to go!

I am super protective of my confidence right now. Tillie and I are in a great place and it is almost terrifyingly awesome. I don't want my excitement to cloud my judgement so this XC school was meant to test how confirmed I felt. 

30 minutes is barely enough time to warm up and jump around, but it shockingly worked to my advantage because it set us up as if we were at an event and jumping jumps in stride we wouldnt see prior. 

a very sweaty but proud Tillie after schooling

Our hack up to the field with all the jumps was our warm up so some walking, then some trotting which lead to trotting over a tiny tiny coop and a few logs, did the water to  a telephone pole jump which developed a canter. It is pretty unseasonably warm right now so a long warm up wouldnt be ideal on a day like today either. 

So we went right for a stair step bank up...We walked a bit here to let us both catch our breath and survey all there was to jump and try to put them in an order. 

Once I had a good idea of the layout, I popped over a few inviting BN jumps, one was a bench, another coop and a house looking jump. She was lovely and adjustable here so I continued on and set my sights on the novice stuff. 

Very proud mom! and a tired Tillie

I chose to pop her over a blue bench a few times to A) let her know the height is higher and B) make sure we had the adjustability, especially in the more open canter. 

My goal for today was simple, jump the novice questions. Ride downhill including banks. Open up her canter and let her gallop. 

down bank from last year when I was soooo petrified

Once I felt like she was going over the warm up fence ok I sat up and continued on the start stringing together some jumps. Tillie made it feel easy, she tapped a few at first, mostly because I was burying her too much but I could hear Dan in my head saying get your bend, half halt then soften when she does and ride forward. 

Operative word being forward. 

So once I trusted Tillie more, she really fell into a nice rhythm and I let my curb rein slide out super loose. We jumped a split rail, two stride combo, cantered uphill to a skinny red house, jumped the bench and another split rail looking thing which opened up into a hand gallop....then it was a large novice sized log in a tree line to get to the other field. 

More old XC pics because I didnt get new ones

Tillie did balk a bit at this, but with some leg took it no issue. Another gallop (this time a more true gallop). In the past I have been so terrified to let her go because its resulted in her head between her knees and bucking/dolphining through the air. This was the first time Ive galloped her...I mean really galloped her and I get why people LOVE to do it when its right. 

After a quick inner-smile, a large black tube jump presented and we took it out of the gallop after a quick "pay-attention" half halt. This one landed down hill which did nicely to back her off...I was trying SOOOO hard not to grab at her since down hill terrifies me, but I could hear fellow blogger Emma in my head say how well downhill compresses and to let it happen. 

Galloping like this from last fall is what i am trying to avoid

I pulled up to trot at this point because we were approaching a down bank. Yes, an awful terrifying down bank. Which BTW was HUGE and I didnt realize it until we were a few strides out and it was too late to back out. Brita yelled "YOU GOT IT!" and down we went!

We landed and I had to reorganize all my crazy reins from letting them slip on the downhill approach to a ditch filled with fresh mulch. The ditch was in line with a few trakenhers which I noted to circle back to...Tillie took a bit of a look here being close to the tree line, odd coloring of the mulch and lighting, but she responded with a nice jump so another good gallop up the hill was her reward. 

We took a bit of a breather at this point....watched Brita jump some things and when we caught our breath I picked her back up and jumped a roll top both up and down hill. God I love to torture myself! But I am determined to get over my fear of downhill. 

looking forward to returning to Loch Moy!

We continued on to then jumped a crazy looking angled table which was uphill but had to do a half circle around to canter down the hill to jump a skinny chevron which set us up to the trakener. I had to use my crop for the first time on Tillie's shoulder here, but she is so brave, she took it from a nice stride despite never seeing a true one before. 

We did jump this a few times both ways and even did the next height up just to make sure it wasnt soooo scary to Tillie. 

I gave her a HUGE pat on her foamy neck and we cooled out while Brita finished up with some jumps. I cooed to Tillie super impressed that given especially that we werent able to fully school, but just go right for it, she took it all in stride. 

She took a few flyers and a few chips here and there, and those we did jump more than once to find the right distance, but I was over the moon at the ability to open her up a bit more and expose her to actual novice questions and still feel pretty darn good. 

We did finish with the stair step banks down, but that was mostly for me to reinforce down banks arent that scarey. 

so long story long, our brief xc schooling was a huge success and totally got me feeling a lot more relieved and ready to enjoy going to Rolex. I managed to convince a good barn friend to ride Tillie a few days just to push some buttons while I am gone, but I am no longer worried we will lost our momentum while I am there. 

If anything, Ill come back home like last year and be super amped to do more!

 

Jumping all the things

We finally made it out to see P for a jump lesson last saturday...I have been eager to see her and thank her for all our past lessons that have set us up so well lately. Thanks to her, I am able to confidently jump Tillie...not an easy thing to feel just a few short months ago. 

So game!

I don't have much to say about this lesson since it was a fairly large group of riders, so actual ride time was brief. BUT because Tillie did so well, short and sweet sometimes is just the way to be :)

There are some small things watching the video I know we will need to iron out (like the lead change thing) but all in all I am super excited and pleased with how well we are managing to stay in tune to each other. P had set some fun "different" jumps. 1 being a triple bar oxer which none of the horses even blinked at - but holy cow did all of them jump it so well!

The other was a line of two skinnies...which Tillie tends to tense up when she sees. I was really impressed with her this lesson because she did tense a bit questioning whether or not she knew how to jump over something so narrow, but with a small squeeze she picked herself up and went on through. 

Here is the footage:

I still notice I am getting ahead with my upper body which makes for the not so great jump on Tillie's part, so my homework is to wait on my shoulders and hold my release longer on landings. (AND get the damn lead). 

All in all I am feeling confident and hope that going to Rolex wont mean a set back from lack of time in the saddle. 

Late night blogging and needing a vacation

This weekend leading into today has been such a whirlwind...mostly my fault for always cramming my weekends so full of horsey things, but also because today marked the first day of my new job.

Its always a bit unsettling starting anything new, but for some reason I didnt get nearly as anxious as I expected. The staff was really welcoming and the laid back atmosphere was really inviting (despite the historical mansion and upscale surroundings).

But this is a blog mostly about my adventures with Tillie so here's a weekend overview with detailed posts to follow.

Just love how she's got her mare face on here before the last fence of the course

Got to see one of my favorite students!!!

Jumping all the things (the skinny jumps), even mr wick's ears

Sunday we dressage

Not sure you can see, but I am smiling sooooo large here

Excuse my odd position...but at least Tillie makes up for it

Living by this lately....for so long I felt like we werent progressing, but those harder rides and struggle periods have led to this sweet spot we are in. While it may not last, I am going to ride that wave as long as it lasts! 

The end is a new beginning

So not really horsey related, but today is the last day at my current job. Its bittersweet but I am very excited for the next chapter because it will allow me a flexible scheudle and that means my life will be slightly easier in regards to riding.

I am a bit stressed and the timing kinda sucks with Rolex and all next week making my first two weeks on the job shorter weeks. I honestly have listed my tickets for sale in the hopes I could stay and lay low.

I am really motivated right now to staying on track. I am worried from lack of teaching being able to do that because all those lessons cost some money :/ lol if only it grew on trees right? But I refuse to let them go because of just how much its working. I can see and feel the difference and I am determined to keep pushing on.

Will we have setbacks and bad periods? Sure. I know they will come around. But right now its GOOD. and its been a reallly long time for me to be able to say that and say it like I mean it.

So anyway, hope everyone has a great weekend!

Dont worry be happy

Lately I feel like my life has been so overwhelmingly busy that its flying by and all I have to keep me grounded is my horseback riding. Its the one part of the day that feels like I can breath. For a long time, Tillie added to my stress with her non-stop injuries, high energy sass and explosions and just general worry. Finally, she is the one thing that is the glue getting me through the day.

Such a gorgeous evening to ride yesterday

With my last day at my current job rapidly approaching, Rolex trip right around the corner and a friends wedding in the not so distant future...I am scrambling just to get it all done. Not to mention some pretty exciting freelance work I am doing on a way cool horsey product Ill announce once I am allowed to!

Last year at Rolex

What's crazy is despite all this great stuff happening, I found myself fretting. Almost like I needed to ask permission from people to allow myself to be excited and be happy. I was raised in a large family where we almost always were taught to sorta stay neutral because it might upset a sibling that may not be having a great time and if we celebrated it might make them more sad. My parents were great in that way because they were sensitive to us all, but at the same time with there being so many of us, more than likely someone was always having a not so great day so the happy sibling had to find another outlet to express joy. (I am making my childhood sound terrible...it really wasnt and it was awesome).

Trail rides are becoming more relaxed and pleasant

I admitted this to my therapist who promptly shouted: "Girl, you have so much right now to be happy about and you SHOULD be! Don't feel bad about, you earned it." She's totally right...I know how the highs and lows work. The highs make it worth fighting through the lows and boy did I have some not all that long ago.

I have so many really cool and exciting things and its OK to be excited about them! I celebrate when others have their exciting things so why cant I do it for myself?

Can barely see it, but there are tiny fox ears hiding from us in the field

So I am working on it...and trying to be exciting without sounding braggy. I dont want to be that person that walks around saying how awesome life is, but, as my therapist said, I am allowed to be happy.

So with that said, I am excited to ride right now. I have a plan, I know our homework and I can confidently flat AND jump at home. That wasnt something I could always say and I am sure wont be...and Jumping at home without an instructor present is a fairly big step since in the past I was too nervous to attempt it.

A portion of our hack out/cool down

I got on yesterday interested to see how Tillie felt after the massage and boy was she super supple. I am super thrilled with how she went especially in her canter. I decided to go ahead and try a jump school with the plan of starting out low and working on getting the correct leads on landing as well as the timing through the corners...I also made a point to attempt to let me reins slip a little longer and allow Tillie to maintain a rhythm with a little less contact.

Jumps are in the process of a face lift and fresh paint! This is the height we finished at.

She did this so incredibly nicely and came right back if she did get excited or flat so we upped the jumps to dig in and do more work. The course that was set up is really fun and had a lot of options, so I left it and just set the jumps a bit higher and adjusted the distances in the lines for us since the one stride (pictured below) and the oxer line (pictured above) would have been WAY too tight.

I started off with the one stride line, bending the the upright skinny barrels, around to the 3-4 stride line (we rode it in 3) to finish on the red white and blue filler.

Tillie jumped them all soooo well and the goal was to do them all out of a more forward, truer 12ft canter stride and she did it beautifully. She knocked a few rails at first...the first one out of the one stride which I dont think she realized they went up that high plus I didnt have her canter big enough and the last fence of the course because of my error. Once I sat up and made sure I didnt drop her to that last fence she jumped it quite well.

These were set at a pretty decent height, most at novice height...my goal was to be able to feel like we could navigate them all confidently to prep for our first Novice early next month. (Yes its true, we entered our first novice event!!! eek!) I am thrilled that its exactly what happened, even over the skinny barrels!! Although that is still one jump that will be homework for us since she really gets tense through her body on the approach. She didnt wiggle up to it like she did the first time we did them a few months ago, but she still doenst quite trust the question yet. BUT we jumped them twice willingly!

Tillie is starting to understand this whole sport horse thing

I didnt push it more than that and quit while we ahead....she half halted so nicely through the turns and came out in a nice forward stride like I asked. We just felt so in tune and on the same page which felt so incredible. What was even more awesome was she was able to go right back to dressage mode and relax which in the past has not been achievable.

To cool out I decided to hack out on the trails through the woods so we could hit some of the hills and get some walking conditioning in. Tillie was way more relaxed and confident than shes ever been and good thing too because we came across some illegal dirt bikers. Tillie flicked her head around a bit in protest and wasnt so sure about them but she kept her head on and I was so proud of her.

Being able to take her out for conditioning like that has been a goal of mine and its nice to feel like I can start trusting her more!

So if anyone read all that, kudos!! And my motto for the day. Dont worry be happy!!!

Rest days, some pampering and a discussion about amateur status

I always give Tillie the day off after an event...even though she barely broke a sweat, I know it takes a lot for them not only physically but mentally as well. So I dont have many updates on the riding front...I do have a student who recently brought horses to their property to try for a free lease and I rode both of them to make sure I felt they would be a good fit for them and because they have had well over a year off. Despite me being really sore, riding felt good and actually seemed to help my muscles - as Emma always says "Motion is lotion!"

Rode this cutie Monday for a client...despite having over a year off he was quite the gentleman!

I also recently had a person contact me that offers massage services asking to come out and do a complimentary service and discuss a partnership plan. I have had massages for Tillie before...a long time ago (I tend to use a chiro more)...and knew she liked it but just didnt really jive with that person so havent really done it again.

This person is also a local instructor and we have crossed paths before and she is starting to build her "equisage" / massage business. I am never one to not listen and turn down an opportunity for Tillie to get pampered so she came out last night.

It was cool to watch and see the points Tillie is holding on to tension and then see it release after some work...Lots of licking and chewing, yawns and sighs from Tillie on those. Tillie really seemed to love when she did percussion massage to her....it was quite funny actually.

I also loved that she gave me massages to do for Tillie on my own between sessions. I hope now we have our foot in the door that we can see if others in the same barn would also benefit from her massages...

Tillie LOVED her neck area being done and almost looked sedated!

I am excited to say I am now partially sponsored by her and will be receiving monthly massages and discounted ones if I want them more frequently in exchange for wearing her logo at events and social media shout outs!

I dont think I am a professional in the sense of bringing a long a string of horses like my own trainers, ( but hey that would be cool one day! ) but its kinda cool to have this!

So now the discussion of amateur or professional status.

In short, it doesnt change much for me since I already have to claim being a professional with teaching lessons.  I already enter in the "professional" divisions in starter trials, but recognized trials when we start doing those will be when this impacts me more...but even still it doesnt seem like it will with us being below Training level competition. I havent competed above BN and neither has Tillie so I could really enter any division (Horse, rider, open). I will definitely be consulting my trainers as to which in the future when entering.

Talking with one of my trainers before I registered Tillie and I with USEA last week, I do have to as a professional because I teach lessons and accept payment for services related to horseback riding instruction, training, etc.

Just to make sure I did some digging and Eventing Nation wrote a really helpful article on it here: Amateur or Professional: Where Do You Belong? But basically the rule is below:

The USEA uses the USEF Amateur Rule GR 1306 to determine amateur status. The rule defines a professional as any rider who accepts remuneration for services. Remuneration means compensation or payment in any form, such as cash, goods, sponsorships, discounts or services; reimbursement of any expenses; trade or in-kind exchange of goods or services such as board or training. 

However, amateurs would be well advised to read the rule, as there are many ways in which you can maintain amateur status if you are not strictly offering equestrian services. Amateurs are permitted to do all of the following: receive reimbursement for expenses related to horses, give instruction to handicapped riders for therapeutic purposes, accept prize money, appear in advertisements related to one’s achievements or that of one’s horse(s), write books or articles related to horses, and accept educational or training grants.

So while there is a gray area, I pretty much fall into the professional category despite my "amateur" like knowledge in the sport of eventing. I spoke to another one of my trainers this morning and they also said I needed to claim myself as a non-amateur but not to worry lol that it really isnt a huge difference and just means harder competition at times.

So I guess Tillie and I just need to stay the course, keep working really hard and taking lots of lessons!

I think Tillie will enjoy this perk!

Recap of our first event of the season!

Yesterday, Tillie and I competed in our first event of the season...her 4th BN event ever, 6th event in her lifetime (8th in mine!). Boy am I tired!!! I feel like I got hit by a bus today, probably mostly due to being too busy to remember to reapply sunscreen often enough so I am a but sun dehydrated (you know when you feel worn out and tired from all the sun). But also probably because I had a 4am wake up call and walked over 25,000 steps. I ended up walking both the novice course with my trailer mate in addition to my own BN course. We got a little lost walking the novice course...but that was an adventure and another story lol

The entire brigade ready to go at 6am

I really liked this particular venue...while I felt the course was a bit soft, it was a great season opener and was exactly what we needed - a confidence boosting event to make us feel ready to move up. Walking around I reflected to my lesson the day before. I ended up hauling up to D the- remember my trainer from last year before he left for Aiken!? Well hes back and at new digs! So I squeezed in a light jump lesson with him to fine tune us and boy am I glad we did.

Fancy footing at D's new place

He hasnt seen Tillie since before he left and it was nice to hear him remark that she looked much better trained. He had us practice slowing the trot and canter and then letting it go bigger. He really pushed me not to have too much contact on the inside rein and scolded me slightly when I went to give that contact away...he corrected and said rather than do that, just add MORE outside aid. Tillie happily obliged and was a good girl. We moved on to jumping applying the same idea and I was a bit bad about getting ahead with my shoulders...but we did just fine. He gave me some tips to jumping and prevent her from locking her jaw...how to half halt (timing) and then ride forward out of the turn. It came in handy the next day but Ill recap more on that later.

Point being I knew I would need to use some of these softening techniques in the jumping for this event.

Mane pulling the night before...apparently it puts Tillie to sleep

The drive to the event was pleasant enough and I loved that I was in such great company to help keep my nerves at bay since those have been my worst enemy. I am happy to report it worked and this is the least nervous I have ever been for an event.

XC course

Walking my own course while Brita got her horse ready, I was feeling confident. There were many options to make it an easier BN like skipping the water, bank and ditch options. I went into it knowing 2 things. NO trotting downhill and to do all the harder options to see if we were ready for novice. So water to the bank up at jump #6, actually doing the bank down rather then the jump next to it #8 and doing the ditch rather then the jump next to it for #13.

After walking that and the stadium course, I started preparing mentally for dressage.

Tillie stood on the trailer like a seasoned pro and I kept her on there until right before it was time to get ready. She was pretty calm and looked around a bit but nothing too crazy. I hopped on and she was soooo tense - Not unlike previous events. So I took a deep breath and new it was all about getting her comfortable. She ended up relaxing and warmed up quite nicely...until we walked over to the dressage arenas and Tillie could see the XC courses, stadium and the 4 dressage rings. Her little brain just blew up.

Now, she behaved for the most part...and wasnt doing anything to get us noticed. But the mini battle that happened at this point has made me realize this will need to be something we figure out for future events.

We got through our test relatively unscathed.

She would suck back behind the contact then lean on it and get quick, she would go straight like a board and not bend to over bending and blowing through my outside aids to only go sideways and not forward. I just kept talking to myself to stay the course and keep working through it until we were up and try not to feed into her baiting. Despite all her spooks and quirks I managed to get some ride ability back although nothing like the wonderful relaxed warm up we initially had.

Tillie feeling allll the feelings

We were on deck and  I shockingly wasnt nervouse at all...Tillie had one more final diva moment for our final lap before entering and off we went:

A few obvious errors...one being my own in our free walk doing the long diagonal rather than the short which, being the coefficient, cost us some silly points. Tillie was a bit backwards and you can see a few moments she sort of bounces back and forth between being ok to OMG I cant continue. It also didnt help right after left lead canter to trot transition I lost my inside stirrup.

Ah well...all in all the test was fine and we got ourselves a 26.

Left lead canter circle kinda got a bit too big...luckily judge didnt notice as much

Right lead canter...Tillie says no I do NOT bend right

Free walk in between rude rooting 

The scribe for the test is actually an occasionally fellow P lessoner in our group and he made sure to tell me after the show the judge was super impressed!

Next up: Stadium. 

I was feeling a lot more settled in at this point and apparently so was Tillie...even though I had the worst dry mouth and kept having to annoyingly ask poor Brita to hand me water. I was a bit apprehensive about it being on grass, but we have to get over that sometime right?!

In warm up Tillie tested the pelham a few times, just for good measure, but warmed up beautifully. We did a few closed strides and a few open with the main goal of the course to stay on the slower rhythm and do the adds if unsure...the purpose to keep it quiet and to set the tone for XC. It may not be the way to do it, but at least I had a plan. Now that she was able to do it QUIETLY (WOOO!!) I feel confident this year to start allowing a bigger more accurate canter to happen.

While our stadium wasnt flawless, I am happy with the rhythm and eager to start refining the rough edges.

Finally: Cross Country

ALLLL the media!! Tillie was eager to go so I made sure in warm up I just kept her walking. We came out of the start box a little too eager and the pelham did what it needed and I was able to use some techniques from my D lesson the day before to get her soft before the first fence. 

She landed balanced and fence 2 rode well even after being on an uphill approach after a downhill dip. Fence 3 I knew I needed to approach and ride well with it being a skinnier brush fence. Tillie did look slightly, but leg on and chin up she launched threw it no problem.

I let her roll over the next few and did let her out a bit coming up to the water and sat up a bit just before knowing she would probably back off the water. She did, but obediently kept the forward in and out. 

Water jump out

The next potential hard question was the bank down and Tillie proudly trotted up it and down - I smiled inside finally not fearing the ride down the bank!! Remember my irrational fear of them? Well I kicked its butt yesterday...at least for now lol.

The next few fences rode super easy and the next potentially challenging portion was the ditch off a downhill approach at an odd angle in shade and needing to land and take a hard left to the next fence a few strides after. I stuck to my guns and made myself keep Tillie cantering and took a bit of a risky angled approach to the ditch to set us up for the fence right after. Tillie ate it right up and we cantered up to home to the final fence. 

Love her expression here

Watching the bit of footage you can see us, it does look a bit slow paced, BUT the goal was to keep things easy peasy in light of our last event XC being a major issue with blow ups, bolting and general non-obedience. BUT I am really proud of Tillie and do feel like we achieved what we needed to with a new goal of now testing our training to allow a bit more speed and a bigger canter.

Tillie walked back to the trailer barely sweating despite and really warm 70 degree day with a swing to her step. You could tell she was really proud of herself. So with that said, I think it was the event we needed and potentially means we are ready for our Novice debut later this month?!

One trainer, two trainer, three trainer, four...

Jumping back to the clinic and how much it helped Tillie and I...not to mention my elation at trying someone new, it sparked a conversation with some barn goers questions just how many trainers I have and why the need for soooo many? The answer isnt simple, but the simple one I gave is, it works for us. 

Totally working for us

I work full time, freelance design and web work in addition to teaching beginner horseback riding lessons to sustain my hobby of competing my own 7 year old off the track thoroughbred mare. If it sounds like an impossibly fully loaded schedule, that's because it is! 

Being accident prone certainly didnt help us

When I do squeeze in riding my mare, Tillie, I want to make every second count. I take my riding seriously, but by the middle of the show season last year I found myself feeling not so great and realized I wasn't really enjoying it. Half the time I was riding scared of what antics Tillie would pull in her exuberance and I always felt a bit let down that I couldn't handle it. We had few falls and near misses during last year that took a bit of a toll on my confidence which didn't help either. It forced me to question whether or not Tillie and I were the right fit for one another and if I needed a been-there-done-that mount to show me around the sport of eventing.

Sass moments like these were typical every single ride

This winter I committed to pouring every penny I made into carting us to lessons with more than one instructor. The goal was to try to figure out what worked for us and if we could form a team through more understanding and knowledge. Slowly, things started to smooth out in conjunction with Tillie becoming more of an adult rather than a reactive baby. 

All business now!

I currently ride with more trainers and instructors than I have saddles (I have 4 to be exact but don't tell my husband). While some people may think this is too many and prefer one steady program, I say do what works for you. This system has done wonders for Tillie and my own confidence. I actually have a ridable horse that I can trust more of the time.

Like trusting her enough to jump this big cross country

I have a fabulous dressage trainer that has made understanding the technicality of dressage so accessible. I have to work hard at it and riding was never a naturally easy thing for me, but she makes me feel like we can do it. I also have a fabulous jump trainer that puts us through some pretty intense grids and exercises but in such a relaxed atmosphere it made all the difference from a crazed overly excited Tillie and a tense me, to going around 3ft courses like it's just another day. She has made the largest impact on my confidence and ability to trust Tillie. I have a cross country and jump trainer who I learn so much about being a professional in the sport and how to ride a young, developing horse...while this trainer doesnt exactly hold my hand, they challenge me to be a better rider. This trainer also happens to be my role model and watching this person ride...its amazing how easy it looks. I want to become a quiet efficient and effective rider like that. 

Finally, all these other trainers I try for clinics or random lessons...they seem to help to really catapult us to a new level of understanding something we have been hearing from our routine trainers, but because its from someone new it resonates more. 

In conclusion....do what works for you and your horse. Have 1 trainer have 20! But at the end of the day, its all about feeling good and we know how fickle that feeling can be.

Embracing the Challenge

After the Dom Schramm clinic two weekends ago, I was quite excited with how  well Tillie developed over the two days we participated. There were many light bulb moments and it certainly helped that Dom expressed how cool he thought Tillie was.

It got me thinking about trying him out for lessons outside of a clinic with him being a reasonable distance to us. Turns out he is close enough that he is willing to come to us!

Waiting for Dom!

So that he did yesterday and I found myself a little nervous. I haven't taken a lesson at home in a while, and in the past those home lessons were usually not so great. Not sure what it is about home... whether its because Tillie can see her friends, the footing or whatever, she just doesnt give me the same ride as off the farm. Almost like she thinks she knows better at home where as off farm, she relies on me a bit more. She gets a bit, what I call, squirley and sucks back then leans, goes too slow then jigs...just in general is just not as soft and willing. She anticipates and I can really only choose certain battles...

Dom was super pleasant and began setting up some jumps clearly knowing what he wanted to do. Something about his complete knowing and having a plan soothed my anxiety a bit. Warming Tillie up, she instantly felt softer both ways than in my dressage lesson the day before. We told Dom our plans for competing this Sunday and he asked if Tillie and I were doing the training division!? EEKS!!! lol I laughed and said no that we are starting out BN but training definitely a goal Id like to get to with her one day. He finished setting up and sent us out to warm up again.

Tillie figuring out where her legs go and sitting down to jump!

When we were trotting around warming up, he said right away to develop a nice energy level in the trot...for jump warm up you do want softness, but it isn't the same as a dressage warm up. Right away he picked up on my left hand dropping down issue and another light bulb moment...rather than tell me to lift that hand he said "your left leg just isn't doing much is it? So your left hand is trying to compensate." Don't know why that never occured to me but he laughed and after a few laps of actually using my darn left leg he said it was remarkably better.

Our canter transitions still arent 100% there, but they were better and less all over the place until Dom asked us to do one on cue. (of course right). At this point is when she started getting a bit lit up but Dom was understanding and really didnt force the issue, just said no worries take a walk and lets use the warm up exercise to develop the ride we want.

He said to let the warm up exercise help develop the canter and jump we wanted so we didnt spend too much time for warm up.

Warm up:

The first exercise was set as three small one stride jumps on a curve. The idea is to test the horse's balance and if they are their jump should show improvement over each jump so the final jump should build to a nice round  jump. It also is meant to test and develop your eye on distances since the approach should be a bit deeper take off from a smaller canter.

Easier said than done!

The first two attempts we got a bit long coming in so Tillie jumped flat. But once we found the sweet spot she did a nice job through and Dom just sent us through a few more times to confirm it. We changed leads and came in from the right and had a bit of a struggle bus moment again where Tillie drifted left a bit. Dom just reassured us, sent us through again but had us open the inside rein earlier on the approach which helped.



Serpentine Exercise

Next Dom had two verticals set up roughly 40 - 44ft apart...this is what he said he guestimated it at. With a 20 meter circle being 66 ft that it was set to ride on a 20-25 meter circle. He said that measuring it always helps, BUT you want to look at it and see if you can ride it in 4 strides in the arc primarily and then adding 5 and 6 strides would come as long as you could ride the 4.

He had me go first...yay us! He had us set out to try it thinking of changing our leads and get it in 6 strides first. We struggled at first getting the right striding and the left to right lead...but as we kept doing it we started hitting a decent rhythm. He told us not to slice the approach too terribly much and to use the curve for the right stride not the angle of the fence. That proved to be a bit challenging...

Then we tried it in 5 strides then 4. While we started getting some nicer even strides the precision of getting the number of strides we wanted wasnt always there. It definitely is my piloting error and in the nicest most encouraging way possible, Dom said I just need to be better at this and the better I get Tillie gets better. It is evident throughout the exercise that when I ride it right so does she. It also became evident that riding her on the more forward stride, there was more adjust-ability there...GO FIGURE!

What was really challenging but cool about this exercise :

1. is it helped develop our eye for the distance through the turn much farther out (rather than trying to adjust the last 2-3 strides before) and get the canter for the correct ride in the turn. 
• This will help me with Tillie's rideability according to Dom because she does get so lit up and strong that it will allow me to ride her through the turn and be softer once we lock on to a jump
2. Adaptability to be able to know in the future which striding or path is the one to take depending on the first jump. This technique will help with stadium courses and stringing together fences. 
3. Getting the lead mid jump and being more aware of that. 

So yea lots to think about, but it is a great exercise to show some holes that need to be ironed out. 

Putting it all together

Finally Dom put some fences up and had us ride a mini course to see if our horses learned anything and the goal being- did they (as well as us riders) develop accuracy and a nice form over a fence?

I would have loved to try the entire thing again, but Dom had us ride the oxer a few times more for me to work on the landing side keeping my hands forward to allow Tillie to finish the jump. He said she is so powerful with her hind end over them and kicks it up so high and her tendency to land strong has gotten me in the habit of sitting up quickly...which he said is the right thing to do, but do that while keeping my hands forward enough for her to stretch.

Again - duh! P has been trying to convey this very message to me for months now...more release more release and just a simple rephrasing was like Oh...well....Yea! 

Conclusion

I LOVED the lesson...while it didnt FEEL awesome, it was definitely a lesson with exercises meant to challenge and open up holes to fill. Dom still said how cool Tillie is and offered to keep coming down despite not having a full group that he would be happy to help us through the season. He also invited me and Brita (my lesson partner) up to XC school at Boyd's place anytime and to text him to set it up... UMMM YEA!!!!

He was reasonably priced and actually pretty affordable...so I am definitely thinking to keep trying this!

Here is the compilation of the lesson...sorry for the odd clips, next time Ill tell the kiddies to just keep filming since I like hearing his feedback and commentary too.