New month, new things

Happy belated Halloween everyone. Can you believe its already November?!

It seems like it wasn't all that long ago when this show season started...and it was this time last year Tillie and I were xc schooling and experiencing more not so fun moments more than we were experiencing fun moments.

Not so fun moment

I have resolved that November will be all about exploring and keeping an open mind. That will include me riding horses other than Tillie and being diligent in my own personal progress, outside of Tillie. (In addition to her too of course).

Tillie snoozing this morning

I have yet to sit down and really iron out a lesson schedule to stick to...but that is part of my plan so I have something to hold myself to. I need to make it a priority, but I am pretty busy with my latest drawings and commissions...I cant say no to them, and I LOVE doing them and the more the merrier! It'll all go in the bank towards lessons and our show season next year.

My latest drawing from last night - if you are interested in one, email me: kaitlyndzn@yahoo.com

My main focus on me right now are:

1. getting a better seat in the canter
2. being more firm with my hands (they will wiggle around when I don't take a firm contact)

For Tillie:

1. Improve the canter so she is less braced, more uphill and engaging
2. Improve canter to trot transitions
3. Keep her on the aids into a halt and from a halt to trot

Tillie after our ride yesterday looking chipper

The good news is, Tillie is happy to work and I am ready to dig in to my own homework. The trick is finding a place I can ride other horses...What sort of things do you look for in a lesson barn?

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!

Our First dressage clinic

I really didnt think Tillie and I were ready to embark on a dressage clinic and just recently turned down the change to enroll in a few in early spring...but a good barn mate just has major surgery and was feeling pretty down about her green bean not getting ride time and convinced me to take Tillie her her horse (I did not ride her horse in it, our trainer  you all commonly hear me talk about "C" did).

I couldnt say no and decided to forgo our normal saturday jump lesson to attend the clinic instead. all in all it was a great experience...It felt more like was really a really expensive lesson, but it was totally worth it!

Sneak preview from the video

I was a bit more aware because I had a lot of eyes on me with auditors...I even forgot my phone to ask someone to video. Luckily, some of my helpers caught some and I am hoping I can round up a few more clips in the next few days from a few others.

I got on a gave a brief overview of Tillie but didnt want to share too much to try to keep the clinician coming to their own conclusions and have a fresh perspective. Basically - Tillie: Red head mare, coming 7, competing at BN currently feeling a bit stuck and not adjustable in the frame.

Ill refer to the clinician as "P"

P had us start at the walk and said go ahead and start doing your thing and Ill speak up as I see things...well it didnt take long for her to speak up lol. Initially it was all good things about the walk. She really raved at how great Tillie's walk was and complimented how it was deliberate, clean and would score well.

Then we pushed up into trot and P immediately picked up on my crooked issues but amazingly pinpointed what to do to resolve it:

Basically look over her outside ear and think outside hip to outside ear since I tend to twist my torso. She also commented that by doing this I can use my seat and hip to make the turn rather then my lower leg. I really took this to heart and am glad to have something to really start working on to fix it! I was even more thrilled when P just kept swooning (ok maybe im exaggerating here) over Tillie.

But in all seriousness she did keep remarking at just how lovely she was and loved her build and bone. She said she had 3 really nice clean gaits but seemed to be the most impressed with her walk.

Next, we discussed the adjust ability of Tillie's neck and how to stay ahead of her getting "stuck" and getting braced or stagnant in a certain frame. Of course the first thing to do - more inside leg. AHHH the more inside leg fix! Who woulda thought...Its so silly how clear and simple that is. To build on that P described it as getting her bending more off the leg. She also emphasized playing with the bit more and keeping her mind active...counter flexion without changing anything with the reins, all from the leg and just keeping the bit moving.

It was nice since she has us go large around the ring quite a lot...which is a bit out of my comfort / familiar zone of staying on a circle. I really didnt think too much of it, but it forced me to test the bend I had more since the circle naturally tends to help achieve it easier. I was please to find Tillie was pretty consistent either way.

Unfortunately our first canter attempt didnt get filmed, but it involved some leaping through the air which is unlike Tillie lately...although P had us canter pretty quickly into the lesson which we normally do not canter for quite some time in our rides or other dressage lessons. I also think the crowd being there mimicked a show atmosphere which has led to some resistance to the canter aid and bucking in past tests.

Getting that bigger stride!

P gave me a few tips:

1. Canter sooner in the ride and make it not a big deal. Do it often so its routine.
2. Sit on her in the transition (P said Tillie has trained me to get off her back in the transition with her sass and she is capable of handling me sitting on her back...in fact she said she gets more confident the more I do and rely changes into a more relaxed horse when I can use my seat).
1. This will also prevent her getting croup high in the transition
3. WIDE hands...She complimented the height I carry my hands, they need to be wider though in the canter to promote using both hips not hands.

I was a bit nervous clearly and horror of horrors got the wrong lead at one point...but P didnt mind because it was a better more correct answer through the tension. We spent way more time in canter then I normally do in general and I am excited that it is moving towards one of my monthly goals in getting her canter more rideable and adjustable. We cantered the long side, circles etc and for the first time didnt feel like I had a freight train of a horse.

When we changed direction, we discussed the left bend since I clearly know this is our harder side and want to over bend her. P on the other hand told me no...and in the clip below can hear her coaching me on a more accurate ride. When we rolled into left lead canter, I had a much better balanced left lead then usual (i believe you can hear her remark how improved it looked even from right lead). 

I am hoping someone got footage after this I can share of working on our trot lengthenings and stretchy trot...P was right in line with what C said that the key to getting Tillie to do a stretchy trot is the lengthenings...it will get her stretching out her back and spine, trusting her balance which will lead to trusting the stretch.

P also kept telling me to ride mini leg yields with a stronger right leg aid since she could tell thats the side she hangs on which is the left bend issue i feel...its the outside right muscles making it harder and heavier. She reassured ALL horses have one rein like this and its just something you have to know and ride accordingly. Describing the weight difference she also said it was good it wasnt THAT extreme and riding the bigger trot this was would help even more to even it out.

fancy pants canter

so in line with C's homework is riding tillie larger and asking for lengtehings not just on the diagonals but around the entire arena. We had two brief breaks and each time I picked Tillie back up P really raved over her walk and at one point gave us tips to get the higher scores that would make us "unbeatable at the level we are riding" :)

• Dont be afraid to ride the walk forward. Tillie stays soft through it so ask for it. 
• Rein length discussion (she was impressed i brought this up). The level we are at it is perfectly acceptable to ride one length at the walk and another in trot. 

Much nicer trot after canter...one more reason to canter sooner

 P also really worked on getting me to keep my elbows at my body. That has been an ongoing struggle for me to learn giving at my elbow only straightens them out...and that doesnt help me or Tillie.

I really enjoyed P's teaching style and she couldnt have been more complimentary of Tillie. She so loved her shoulder movement (especially at the walk) and asked her bloodlines and then asked how well she jumped to which I sorta said, erm well she sorta jumps over her shoulder but its getting better...P said that shocked her and after further discussion reassured me she has the ability in there and it will come because you can see it in her flatwork.

It was so fast that it barely felt like an hour and it was really a marathon lesson with few breaks. Which is fine by me because we were able to cover SOOOO MUCH.

Tillie on the other hand wanted nothing to do with me after she was back on the trailer and just wanted to be alone with her hay:

#marefaces

Recent dressage lesson = TONS of homework

Continuing on my recap from the weekend...it also includes my Sunday dressage lesson. I dont normally do lessons on Sundays other then teaching my own lessons, but with it being overcast and a bit drizzly I jumped at the shot to slip in an opening that C had right after Emma had her lesson.

So we hitched a ride with Emma and I am thankful she got Tillie loaded up for me while I finished up with my last few lessons. After a bit of rushing around, it turned out C was running really late so I made it long before Emma got on and was able to watch hers! She'll be recapping her own lesson on her blog I am sure soon - here.

An indication of how our lesson went...a tired and itchy Tillie

I mentioned in my Part 1 recap from Saturday's lesson that lately I have felt Tillie falling back into the old habit of wanting to put herself in a safe zone and not being all that agreeable when I ask to change that. She'll happily go around straight, bent to the inside, high or low but once I put her there, that is where she wants to stay. She is quite smart and only recently did I figure out this is what she was doing rather then just being stiff or harder one way vs another etc. 

C pointed this out right away and said that while its a much better place shes putting herself in, we still need to be able to adjust her more readily and have more give at any time. So we went right to work and I can summarize all I can hear in my brain after the warm up:

1. Push her around the inside leg even more - SO much freakin inside leg
2. Watch out for a stiff right hand, but open and close to have more bend in both elbows especially the left (nice to know I have issues on both sides)
3. My left shoulder creeps forward making me crooked/twisted in my torso
4. Dont be afraid to take the rain until she softens BUT I must soften and follow her back

 Tillie had a few moments of "No I dont think so" before she settled into a nice rhythm and really started to dig into work. She was so into it, her vibe was contagious and I felt a bit like the little engine that could as if she were thinking "I think I can" over and over.

C had us going on a 20 M circle spiraling into a smaller circle focusing on really getting her to give and wrap around my inside leg before using a fairly quick leg yield to push her out without losing the shoulders. Here is where we talked about leg use and keeping it longer when applying it since I have the old habit of lifting my heel and my leg then shrinks about 6". Ok maybe not THAT short, but its a bad habit among many others I need to break.

Here is a video of warm up...notice Tillie really starting to dig it by the end of the clip:

After the warm up we continued trotting but started asking for leg yields, but really quick lateral ones to promote getting her out of her comfort zone. Tillie was all business. 

It felt really good and still amazes me how well she is progressing despite not riding at all during the week with our ring still frozen. After a bit of a break which had a lot less rude pulling and rooting then usual, C had me start back up said, "ok, now sit your trot"

Lol I made a face apparently because she laughed and said everyone makes that face!

Being fairly new to sitting a trot where my horse is actually going...it is not the most pleasant thing in the world. Ill admit, I feel as though I am riding it ok, until I watch the videos. The amount of discomfort that I am emulating is so apparent I was uncomfortable just watching it:

At this point, Emma started filming since my phone died. C  prompted for me to canter (I love how we will be going along and rides as you go and gives us commands a few strides before she wants it). Sadly we missed capturing on video the first and most wonderful right lead canter transition. It took both Tillie and myself by surprise that C even laughed and said it was all over my face.

C had us move onto leg yielding in canter to get her more mobile and rideable in canter. At this point its been all about the basics of balancing her and keep her from diving on the forehand...so it felt really good to receive a command that required taking our canter to the next step - which as you can tell in this clip Tillie wasnt quite prepared for: 

What I have loved about the sitting trot despite how uncomfortable it is, is how much it has helped me get a better feel in the canter. I can only describe it as me feeling more balanced and stuck in the saddle which allows me to use my seat to better help Tillie. The leg yields in the canter were quite fun! Tillie gained a bit of speed through them, but it didnt feel too bad with how soft she was. 

So we moved on the left lead canter which is our harder and weaker lead. C guided me on how to use a better timed half halt to get her more balanced and using herself better without me grabbing and bracing on her. 

It produced quite a nice canter and we were able to do some of the maneuvering from this lead as well. At the end C had us try some lengethings in the trot across our diagonals to promote testing the boundaries of balance which Tillie tends to err on the side of caution. You can see in the clips she gets a bit unsettled and really doesnt let go of her shoulder just yet in them...but C reassured me it would take some time for her to trust herself to just ride very straight, weight even and both elbows stay at my body. 

The lots of homework part includes:

• Taking Tillie big around the entire ring to test try to get her trusting lengthenings more
• Sitting trot there is no head wag which means rising trot happens from tension on my arms
• Bring my left shoulder back/straighter
• MORE inside leg and MORE bend to get her out of the safety zone
• Sitting trot practice rocking back more and letting my "crotch bounce" 
• Stretchy trot (which we did a few circles of here)

Poor Tillie was so tired after trying so hard she was ready to go to sleep:

Twisting turns in our Saturday Jump Lesson

Well as I let on in my previous post, my Saturday jump lesson with P was definitely one to remember. I am splitting it into two parts since the actual lesson was very different from the overcoming obstacles and self doubt part.

------------------------------ Part 1 ----------------------------- 

The east coast finally had a nice thaw this weekend with Saturday being so warm I was able to wear short sleeves!!! It was so nice out in fact that it got me to rally despite my severe sore throat, no voice and ear infection to go make my lesson. I am glad I did because the more I moved and longer my antibiotics were in my system, the better I felt.

WARM UP: 

Warming up before P arrived Tillie felt happy and ready to work. She has a new "sass" habit that is much milder then her blow ups before warming up that usually entail a few whip nae naes of her head when first asking to trot or first really using any leg. Its her way of saying...yeaaaaa no I am not really wanting to do that. She also tends to do this sometimes when we first canter OR when we do a jump really well and shes happy. So its universal way of Tillie saying, I am Queen Bee and I am in charge.

Queen Bee herself looking a little bit more like a giraffe then a Queen

I am not worried about it at all and happy that this is what I ride through now over bucking and dolphining without steering. 

I cantered her both leads and really tried to work on getting some softness and a true bend through her body since I feel like shes happy to stay where ever she puts herself, but as soon as I ask for something else she gives me the whip nae naes like our first canter warm up:

Her left lead canter warm up is below and she really started understanding and letting me manipulate her a bit more:

Once P arrived, we all filed in nose to tail and did some trot over ground poles to establish a rhythm. I am noticing that seems to be a trend the last few lessons. NOTE: Tillie's tail wag in her trot in this video really makes me smile:

As you can see in the warm up video, P had quite an interesting set of jumps for us. What is really neat about the exercise is there were lots of turns making establishing a good rhythm both needed and really hard (since riding forward through turns is something I never could do before with my hot horse) BUT a lot of lead changes throughout. It required me as a rider to really plan ahead and set up Tillie to bend and use my weight and seat cues to tell her to land on the lead in the direction we would be going. Easier said then done...so after some confusion about the order of jumps we all had a turn:

So we didnt quite get the leads at first...but I really didnt catch on this was the point until after watching everyone else go after my turn (I am a visual learner, what can I say?). So the next round I decided to commit to cantering the entire thing...we almost got all the leads!!! 

I would have liked the simple change to come a bit faster and cleaner, but she was a unbalanced through the turn so it took a bit of convincing her to stop bracing to get it. Other than that this was one of better more steady, even rounds. I just love her tail flip over the oxer:

P made it a bit harder and added a new pattern with bending lines...Tillie and chipped into the first fence but recovered nicely. We also came in slightly tight to the over, but I LOVED how well she sat to jump it rather then curl under herself like she normally does. Because of this we didnt get the lead, but it didnt throw off the tempo at all. We continued and didnt get the lead again which I think was my fault not shifting my weight in time after the tight turn. After the entire thing, I really was surprised at how nice her trot was...the quality of it as well as the relaxation:

There were ALOT of us in this lesson so we didnt get to have many chances at it, but I liked that...it simulated the standing around at a show and having to wake Tillie up and say pay attention! In the past we have had issues getting our ryhthm early enough in a course. 

Ill admit, I wasnt feeling totally great about this lesson until re-watching the footage. P had said after the first round to really sink my weight down in my heels more - which I think she meant it as how to shift or change balance better to get the change, but during the lesson it sounded in my brain like an up-down remark you hear all instructors say : "heels down, sit tall"...lol. Also, P said Tillie was a bit curled and not stretching like she wants and attributed it mostly to the tight turns but softly reminded me to think about that...I guess we need to start working on longer reins and achieve this same control.

us looking more dressage here than when we ride in dressage lessons

I got home passed out and this morning watched the videos and was pleasantly surprised to see how polished we looked despite our mistakes. 

So, Part 2 to come tomorrow!! Heres to hoping my ear infection will be cleared up before then since it quite literally hurts :( 

Harmonious Rides

As you have read, this ridiculous snow has forced us to either haul out to ride or not ride at all...which with work being as rough as it has been, having the time to haul out hasnt been there. BUT rather then teach Sunday like normal, I couldnt with our rings being frozen so I had another free day...so of course I make a point to haul to an indoor to ride.

so pretty

Tillie was an absolute star...I did some warm up in the walk just letting her free walk on a loose rein for a few minutes. I am still really aware of this head wag thing so my goal for todays ride was to see if she did it and if it was P's theory of not being through enough....so my goal was ride her forward thinking and see what I get.

Before I continue, the notion of getting a horse through or on the bit or in a frame...all those key phrases you hear...is always taught right the back end not the head. So yes, I should be riding more forward thinking always, but if you have been following my posts you know how hot my horse gets. The tricky thing about hot horses...when they get forward but are behind your leg so not really accepting the contact. THIS is what I mean by getting Tillie forward thinking...more accepting of my leg without being rushing forward but maintaining a rhythm and willing to seek the contact.

Bright eyed and ready to work

Today, I took dressage trainer C's advice and put her together in the walk before trotting. She was wonderful and remembered how to turn off my seat and bend with the use of my inside leg while keeping a nice marching walk. So without expecting anything other then a willing transition into trot I tried use the quick leg aid like the windshield wiper and she did a nice little spring into a trot. She settled into a nice rhythm and I only wanted rhythm and tempo to maintain at this point...after a few laps in each direction she naturally started seeking the contact on her own. AND NO HEAD WAGGING! 

I noticed tracking left she will tend to get forward more since she gets off balance more easily...while going right shell back off and I shockingly found myself using my driving aids to promote a bigger step. I am starting to think the head wag comes from my tension when she feels unbalanced...

I let her have a walk break keeping in mind we havent been in consistent work before picking her up again and boy was she in work mode. Normally shell start pulling and diving, testing the contact at the walk after I let her stretch...but she was quiet and our trot transition was spot on and connected. 

So we did our homework from a few weeks ago of lengthening and shortening the stride...lengthening on a smaller circle to prevent building or excitement and then shortening on a larger circle. She did it shockingly really well so I went ahead and tested them across our diagonals. 

They may not have been text book correct or pretty, but boy was riding that line fun. You could feel Tillie playing and testing her balance and get close to teetering into canter and re-balance with a small lift of my reins. 

She say oh yea thats fun!

Whats harder for her on these is coming back and restraining herself...which she surprised me again and was willing to come right back to a working trot. 

So after some laughs with my barnmate that hauled with us (she also tried these but on her green and very uncoordinated baby) We moved into leg yielding into canter transitions which my hopes would help a two things: 1) get our leg yields straighter through the body and not lead with the shoulder...and be soft / relaxing into it 2) improve the canter transition which would improve the balance of our canter. 

That sounds hard

It is a great exercise C has had us do a few months ago...and with Tillies left lead being much weaker and being unbalanced decided it would be a good thing to do. 

Tillie did the leg yields only first like a champ and was pretty darn willing to move her butt over when I asked her to keep it in line. So I went ahead and started on the harder lead first and the first canter transition into the left lead was slightly muddled but definitely not as bad as it was before the snow storm. So a few laps in left lead canter I was going to inside leg on and off to get her inside hind "jumping" and could hear C in my head saying "pop! pop!!" and got a pretty nice canter that didnt feel like our dressage lesson where it was on the verge of diving into the ground.

By the 3rd transition, it was spot on. Right lead canter was nice and I worked on getting more canter without getting flat. Its hard for me to think about adding more leg to get uphill when it feels fast, BUT this ride was nice because she felt in a good rhythm that I could push for more. 

After that we called it a day and ended with being a good quiet adult horse and gave a lead over a x-rail to the green bean and Tillie was such a good girl for that too! A few mere months ago that would have sent her exploding!

Now just to get in more riding time!

At least my horse knows when to behave

My last two posts documenting the worst day ever has certainly marked quite the welcome wagon to 2016. I really hope this doesnt set the tone for the rest of the year.

I decided to hope and pray that I could go to the barn yesterday and get some relief from the mess and have a nice relaxing ride.

The night after the shitstorm...Gunner and I taking shelter in my study with reinforcements. 

I got on and forced myself to not touch my reins at all in all three gaits. I let Tillie walk, trot and canter both directions for two laps - yes even the canter! Amazing how well shell canter on a loose rein, but as soon as I ask for more, she braces and speeds up.

Note to self: try this warm up more often. Not only did Tillie seem to enjoy it, I enjoyed it. There is just something soothing about getting up into a half seat or two point and jogging around.

I slowly put her to work and she was quite light in the bridle. Maybe a hair lighter then I would like so I started off asking for longer contact and stretch. She was slightly rude about it...she would carry herself high and then quickly dive down. I wouldnt call it rooting since she wasnt leaning, but was just lacking patience of the pace I was allowing her to take the contact since I wanted to be sure she was taking it without losing it.

So not appreciating my need to destress involving her 

I trotted her over this little grid to an easy/generous bending line a few times. First jump was a tiny X she could likely trot like a caveletti with 4-5 canter poles to a tiny 18" vertical with a two stride bend to a 2 ft vertical.

She was a bit sucked back, BUT I didnt use a ton of leg to push...I merely wanted to stay out of her way to see what she would do. Shockingly she meandered through and landed not really sure what the big deal was about. She was a bit fish-taily to the bending line so I went through a few more times and mixed in more flatting between to keep her relaxed.

All while riding amoung a group of small children where steering is questionable...and she did great!

I was about to move on to canter work when she started acting spooky towards the fields...with it being dinner time I didnt think too much of it and just used it as an opportunity to school her. She did quite well despite being a bit unfocused. Come to find out a horse had gotten loose and was enjoying quite the jaunt around the property. It caused all the other horses to get riled up which is what Tillie was reacting to. Dont you love when a horse gets loose and its like JAILBREAK!

After things calmed down I did A LOT of canter work, really focusing on her responsiveness to the cue. I wasnt so worried about her inverting since that cant be fixed until she clearly understands the canter aid first.

She was pretty darn quiet and was more willing to break to the trot BUT I started asking for a more balanced trot rather then the running, bracing on the forehand trot. She definitely got it by the end BUT started anticipating the canter aid and would be soft a few steps then would "OH GOD LETS CANTER" with any little movement of my balance and scoot her butt under herself and offer to canter. 

So we worked on getting the trot back again to which the contact was much nicer even if she was trying to lean...I just did the whole "well i wont carry you" and relaxed my contact until she figured out where she needed to be on her own. 

I ended the ride with cantering through the grid a few more times and let her cool out on a nice long rein. 

eating dinner....or what she felt like eating anyway...

She was cooled out and dinner was dumped, but she only ate a few bites before moving on to her hay. :( Looks like her tummy is still bothering her. I really am hoping its ulcers at this point and was a bit worried while brushing her and blanketing her and trying to coax her to eat more. 

Her weight still looks ok and she did pick at it a little more while I was hanging around chatting and cleaning up...

Luckily I got home to find a present! 

She will begin her treatment tonight! 

When you get sucked into your horse's antics

I was quite excited yesterday to be able to make it out for a ride at a decent ride after work. Despite the cold weather, which literally happened overnight, I was ready to get into our training regime and work on some homework. Not to mention, I was eager to try the new footing for myself!

I dont have any new photos to share unfortunately, so Ill just share some old ones for fun! 

Tillie was fairly nice about getting tacked up...she hasnt been lately with her soreness and ulcer issues, but shockingly she wasnt really back sore at all! Still girthy but her ulcer meds should be here hopefully soon. We did some carrot stretches (with left over candy canes!) and got a few pops out from her neck. Today it was only stretching to the right we got them...most days its both sides.

Anyway, we marched down to the ring with purpose to join fellow blogger Emma and another barnmate on her greenie. Knowing Tillie hates the cold, I planned to let her walk and trot around for a bit on a looser rein until she settled in. I made a mental note to bring my quarter sheet and BOT back pad as well (I dont spoil her or anything).

This was my first ride on our new footing and couldnt wait to see if I felt a difference.

New footing!!! 

It was a bit crunchy and starting to want to freeze, but I was really impressed that it still felt nice and bouncy and forgiving...the sand would have been as a hard as a rock. There is some deeper areas that provided some challenges later in our ride, but Ill touch on that later.

Starting out in the walk, Tillie really wanted to be quick...I tried not to fuss at all too much and decided to let it happen with it being so cold and just use circles and changing direction to monitor that. Pushing into trot she felt a bit tense through her body and was hesitant to turn off my outside aids, but she eventually gave in and started maintaining a nice rhythm.

After working on both sides I started putting her together in walk and established inside bend off my inside leg aids and thought about "catching" her with the outside. I took the opportunity to try to work on my own evenness as well. She worked well at the walk and while she wasnt totally relaxed as I would like, decided it didnt want to dwell too much.

Is this relaxed enough for you?

Pushing into trot we worked through the normal conversations and did some random figures and changing rein so she couldnt anticipate and started working into the forward and slower trot homework from our last dressage lesson. This all went quite swimmingly and she began to relax and offer to stretch when I allowed.

I decided it was time to ask for canter. Knowing it was the first canter of the ride tried to keep my expectations light and my own riding out of her way to let her warm up here. I got in pseudo half seat so my bottom lightly touched the saddle, put my hands forward and let her right lead canter just happen. I kept her on the 20 M circle for this. She offered a trot transition and I allowed so we changed the rein to do left lead and it started off just as nicely.....

I swear there is a nice canter in there some days.

...Until she went into the deeper footing in the corner. Her response was to brace and race. I did my best not to grab and put her on a smaller circle and let that do the work of suppling for me but Tillie has caught on to this trick and decided steering wasnt for her.

After a good 2-3 circles of establishing that NO TILLIE you MUST steer when there are this many horses in the ring, we came to trot and I prepared to try again. Well coming down to trot she reverted back to her greener days of holding her head and neck in the "im pretty and doing this whole on the bit thing" that is fake and there is NO contact there at all...but it looks like Im pulling on her because im trying to find some resemblance of weight in my reins.

Once I had at least something to work with, I tried for canter again to work on getting one that was more level headed. Once again it all was fine...until she caught site of the straight away and decided why not brace and head that way and build into a hand gallop...that sounds fun. NOT.

I had to use a one rein stop and kick the snot out of her with my outside aids since that is what she chose to ignore and after some protesting she came down to a walk. Took a minute here to reestablish contact and had to go back into trot work for a while since she wanted to do this choppy jiggy trot behind the contact and be cheeky with me like "Ohhh see I can go slow"

She produced some lovely trot work here after a few laps and was quite supple either direction, even left bend!

I knew I had to canter again though and get a quiet, SOFT canter before I called it quits so I started randomly asking for trot, canter trot and canter on a circle for a bit and back to trot.

She shockingly didnt get too expectant to canter but I just felt like we were out of sync. We werent clicking and I felt like transitions were full on in the 2 score range complete with giraffe mode and inverting.

can we go back to this night when we could canter outside of a circle without losing our brain?!

A few times in the ride, my trainer D's voice came into my head probably because Tillie has acted this way more in his lessons then with anyone else...but all I could hear was "nothings changed in a while, you need to do something to get a bigger response here..."

When walking her out to cool down she was still quite speedy...but at that point I didnt want to mess at all anymore or have any more arguments. I realized I got sucked into her antics already this ride and I felt really disappointed with myself. I have been really good lately about not getting so rattled, but this is the first ride in a long time it got to me.

I dont want to lose this magic!

I guess these rides are bound to happen...but I instantly feel helpless and like I shouldnt be riding unless in a lesson setting. I crave a dressage lesson so bad it puts me off wanting to ride again until I get one which is ridiculous. It doesnt help my last ride in the smaller ring wasnt particularly splendid either...even though that one I didnt get rattled as much it sorta caught up to me here.

Logically I can talk myself off the ledge, but emotionally I succumb to all the negativity. I realized by the time I got home, I have only been in 1 actual P lesson in a month between holidays and Tillie's shoe...and realized SHE has been the reason Ive had confidence and the cool calm go with the flow mentality lately.

I was contemplating missing this weekend to attend a local show, but I think after this ride it is apparent I need to make a visit with DR. P as I am calling her now.

Riding in the rain

I made it a mission that I would get my booty to the barn Monday despite the rain forecast...with it being close to 60 degrees in December I think it would be a poor excuse to not ride.

Well about halfway to the barn it started to drizzle. No big deal, a little rain won't make me melt. Luckily for me Tillie came galloping up to the gate again (I am sure it was due to being close to dinner time) and I was able to quickly get her ready to try to get on quickly before the heavier rain came.

I chose my shaped snaffle for this ride for times sake...the double rein experiment on the pelham would have to wait another day...so we head down to the ring and warm up at the walk. There were many other riders and a lesson going on, so a lot to look at, but Tillie didnt seem to mind too much. Shockingly, both left and right bend were there fairly easily just off leg and on a looser rein. I started adding contact and she initially wanted to bog down and lean but a few little bumps with the inside leg she went ooooh ok, work mode.

Looking for food before our ride. Note to self: My horse is starting to muscle out like a real horse!

We went ahead and started trotting which the first transition wasnt perfect, but with it being warm up I didnt fuss..just wanted a clean step up off my leg. She was a bit unsure of the rhythm she wanted at first...it was subtle though and simply closing my leg and being consistent in my post led her right to where I wanted. I knew her trot was a bit flat, but for Tillie, warming up there doesnt bother me since more usually isnt the issue and tonight was definitely a less is more kind of night. I could have clucked or used leg and she would have shot forward (usually what we want right!?) I just cant start off sending her off too quickly or else the rest of the ride is focused on getting her to loosen up her back from the excitement of going bigger.

Tillie has no issues with going bigger, we just need to make it relaxed and no big deal.

I focused more on closing the outside rein from my last dressage lesson and started asking for the stretchy trot. While it wasnt as pronounced as my C lesson, Tillie was trying and I could let her frame go longer and bring it back without and loss of connection. Sure it wasnt as long, but Ill take it!

So then we went to canter where I felt the entire ride our transition from my end didnt feel as together. Tillie was doing what she was supposed to, I just couldnt get my own timing right. I am just going to chalk it up to being out of practice...

I did some 20m circles both ways to warm up and establish trot transitions without rein...it was a little harder for her then usual, but again not as bad as I have felt before. I then went into the exercise C gave us for homework. It did exactly what it did in that lesson when we tried it and produce a much softer, maneuverable canter.

And that is when the heavier rain came.

No big deal...I just embraced it despite needing windshield wipers for my face. I was actually about to call it a day on that note, but looking at the time it had only been about 20 minutes and I know I need to start abiding by following a schedule and thought 20 min is usually just enough for warm up and I needed to get into something else to work on something to walk away with new.

I started off with some walk trot transitions in a serpentine pattern fully expecting Tillie to brace through the change from right to left like usual. She did at first and definitely got a bit rushy towards the barn, but a few rounds of that she gave in and became REALLY soft. It was quite lovely.

I was even able to start asking for a bit more of the energetic, working trot here and she was able to without losing the softness. Another win!!

Tillie feeling so proud of herself

Since she got that so quickly, I went ahead and incorporated this into canter trot canter work. I did the below exercise.

Again, I fully expecting bracing to happen and a lot of needing to circle in canter or trot a bit more before being able to complete this exercise. I did have to circle a few times, but all in all she was able to change the rein and transition really well! All while doing this in pouring rain!

Soaking wet selfie to document being awesome.

I could really get used to these more awesome rides :) It is starting to make this riding thing fun, and I know things will get hard again, and there will be ups and downs, but for now I am loving every moment.

Riding the human human blender: Grids

Friday was my last lesson of the season with my trainer D since the migration to Aiken for the local eventers has started. It was a challenging one, but really appropriate one to leave us with since the lesson left many things to be desired but also many things to appreciate.

See you next season! Hopefully 2016 will be just as
awesome for growth, but maybe a little less painful...

Our lesson was all about grids. Grids are so wonderful for so many reasons from educating the horse, to fixing rider form, to confidence issues...but it also happens to feel like a human blender. So I am really happy Emma made it out to help video because it certainly appeared better then it felt.

We spent very little time discussing flatwork this time (Hopefully that means it was just that much better?!) but D did have us work a bit at the canter to get her more through and scolded me a bit for letting my inside rein go before she really gives. So basically the idea is correct, but I need to work on feeling it better otherwise it doesnt achieve anything.

Well duh...

So we warmed up over a part of the grid to start and Tillie did not understand bounces and that adding an extra stride means its no longer a bounce. But we finally figured it out.

Then the fun part and D goes, well ok now the whole thing...

It just was a blooper shoot from the first fence and for the first time really messing up in a D lesson, rather then getting too much in my head about it, I laughed it off.

Thank god Tillie kept her head up and acted as an air bag...

Sometimes all you can do is laugh.

I was prepared the next time through though and, while it wasnt perfect, we completed the entire grid without wobbling, teetering or having airbags deploy.

So we came through again to try to smooth things out:

You can tell by now Tillie is starting to understand the exercise and starts to carry herself through more without needing me to push for forward. While I can sit here and rip my own equitation to shreds, I will not and just console myself with it will get better the more I do these grids.

So D then put the oxer  up and widened it finally adding a pole diagonally across which to me seemed to read more like a table or xc fence. I have seen him use this before at home jump schooling, so was neat to see it put to use here.

Then we changed direction and came through the entire thing the other way towards the gate "home" so I knew she would be more willing to move forward through the exercise. Can we also just pause here to take a minute to laugh at that statement...wanting more forward from my horse, who normally, is tearing the reins from my hands because she doesnt want to slow down. 

Anyway, here is the first attempt the new direction:

At one point we really missed the distance coming in and it involved some hairy moments...it wasnt caught on video sadly, but Emma commented on how I let the reins slip out, sat taller and let Tillie ride out the exercise to figure it out. Basically I rode less and did everything D is begging me to do every other time haha. Hey at least its in there!

So we came through at the trot one more time where she caught one fence pretty hard with her hind legs...but at this point she was pretty sweaty with how abnormally hot it was so didnt fault her too hard there...and because her trot right before this time through looked fancy as all get out.

To be sure she really understood, D had us try it at the canter so here is the first attempt where we had a nice forward canter but because D had me "let go" of my reins earlier, I could feel myself tense and you can see Tillie went through this much quicker then some of the other attempts:

So of course we had to do it again with the same energy just a bit more relaxed which has to be one of my more favorite "win" moments captured from this lesson. 

At this point you can see Tillie getting a bit flatter over the fences as she was getting pretty tired...she wasnt blowing or anything, but as I mentioned earlier, it was really warm out so she was hot and sweaty. She hasnt had any issues sweating with her winter coat until this lesson so I havent clipped her, but will watch that with the next few days and see if it continues when the weather gets cold in the next few days. 

But in true D fashion, it isnt over until you do it right both ways or off both canter leads so he had us go through one more time off the right lead canter. I was really trying hard to nail it the first time through for Tillie's sake, and I am so glad we did!

So all in all it was a positive learning experience...some interesting moments and some pretty glaring form issues on my part, BUT I had a controlled horse that didnt lose it even though she started off a bit heavy on me. In the past when she gets like that we would have lessons where I would want to cry every time D would want to send us back through lol. 

So big hugs to Tillie :) And she got started on her ulcer treatment today so should hopefully get her bit less grumpy about tacking up.