NeI have a bit of catching up to do on sharing videos with you all so I am combining this post of my xc schoolings from last weekend and last evenings. We have been a bit busy with me wanting to really feel confirmed at prelim stuff going into the weekend.
Brother and sister stare down
Last Saturday, right from the start Tillie came out warming up super relaxed and waiting on me. It felt super comfortable and set the tone for the entire schooling. Its nice when shes like this because then I ride her more confidentially and forward like she needs to be for this level. This also was my first time schooling without a trainer there pointing at things telling me to go do it.
So picking and choosing was definitely something I had to think smartly about and feel out Tillie.
Here is some of warming up over some of the smaller stuff, but we finished off with the big table at the end! It felt nice and gave me more confidence to try the prelim stuff on my own.
This was pretty early into schooling after warming up. Tile came right up to this very confident. It was the first skinnier test of the day and she came in nicely without any worry. I knew I needed to keep my shoulders up with the terrain question.
Next we moved on to this bending line with corner/brush type fences. I knew my ride in needed to be accurate without drifting. We got a bit of an add to the second fence and it really should be a 4 stride not a 5 but we worked on this with Dom yesterday.
From here we moved on to the keyhole combo. I was very proud with how much Tillie hunted out the final skinny.
This was a fun combo to try! The first time through I came in too forward of a ride so came back and learned that I needed a better, deeper approach to the first log so we could be ready for the bending line out over the final log. It rode a lot nicer that way!
Then I felt brave and decided to give the big trakhener to the skinny a try. I knew we needed enough power to get over the trakehener but then be able to rock back and focus on the skinny. I was worried Tillie might land from the first and get too wooden before the second, but she shocked the hell out of me and coasted right along to the skinny.
Next up we moved onto banks...the dreaded banks. Its no secret that I dislike riding them despite down banks being fairly easy so long as you sit up and let your reins slip. Sounds so simple right?
But I knew I needed to conquer this because prelim drops, well, are much larger and more prominent on courses than previous levels. So I started with a bank down I did before so had that in the back of my mind to boost my confidence.
Tillie is super keen and has no issues with banks, so of course it rode just fine.
So I ran the house to bank down in reverse to add that shorter combo and timing to make sure I didn't anticipate too much and was able to keep my shoulders up. I knew I needed a deep distance into the house so she landed softly for the bank. Then we circled around to give the skinny a try that we have had issues with last year. Tillie jumped it cool as a cucumber.
We stepped up our game and did this bank complex. I remember looking at similar combos here before (they change jumps around but typically have similar questions around) and thinking wow that looks really scary. Tillie made it feel effortless. Riding this definitely turned a corner in my mind about riding banks!
Last but not least we moved on to water so I started with this slight bending line. Tillie came in a bit powerful to the log and I didn't let my reins slip enough. Luckily I sat up and recovered in time to direct her to the skinny out. NOTE TO SELF: Slip the reins!!!
I knew next I needed to conquer the larger bank into the water. At prelim there will be a combo there so I pulled up my big girl pants and gave it a try.
With that I ended our schooling for that day. Tillie gave me such try!
My kiddies
Up next (below) is a recap of our schooling last night. I don't have as much footage but will walk through the footage I do have. I wasn't feeling super great physically going into this schooling so came out of the gate riding more like a weenie. Which I believe caused Tillie to be a bit more keen to lean on me and be up to some old tricks to start like taking the bit any time she had a moment.
Dom reassured me its normal, we all have those days its just about getting the rideability you want before you go onto course. So it was actually nice it happened here so he could walked me through my XC warm up for Saturday in case she was more like yesterday's ride. He really implored when shes like that not to get too backwards. That I need to learn how to keep the forward and get her more rideable out of that forward canter without shortening it too much.
The first footage I have is this corner which she jumped great after this, but I only have the first attempt where I left her drift so she dropped her shoulder. She was still being a bit wooden at this point in the schooling but Dom talked me through it.
Up next we did the skinny brush bending line. This was the second attempt since the first one was nice and quiet, but he wanted me to come back and do it out of a more forward canter. While Dom agreed it wasn't as pretty, that's the canter we need to get smoother in these combos.
At this point I was still feeling a bit defensive and coming into this exercise was able to over come and ride it forward, but as we came to the table with it feeling a tad down hill I got a bit too greedy causing the dreaded gappy distance. We did finally manage to get the right ride, but no video footage unfortunately. This is the point in time we talked more about doing the homework of that forward ride...which until today has been better. He told me not to fret, just try to not make this the habit for Saturday which will likely be my go to with my nerves.
At this point she got much more rideable though and we gave the roller coaster complex a try. I was fully expecting issues from this one. This is the better take on it, the first one wasn't caught on film...but as a learning experience: I misunderstood Dom and rode the first time on a deep approach to the first jump causing a need to push to get to the second making the third jump just a tad less approachable.
So instead you want to come into this out of an open canter off the first with a longer take off so making the distance to the second you get that deeper ride. That way the second one backs them off on the landing so you have the adjustability to the final jump. My nit pick is I still got a bit forward in my shoulders here.
To end we went to the water like usual and we ran through this combo and small bank down. We refined my shoulders for the down bank before moving on but it felt pretty good!
Finally Dom laid it on us and had us finish with the big brush out. I was extremely skeptical we would get over the big brush at the end the first attempt but Dom confidently said as long as I got my right line, didn't let her drift and had the right canter she would do it.
Of course he was right!
So here's to hoping she feels ready and I feel ready on the big day.
I recently had a cross country lesson with Dom this past weekend. Overall, I walked away extremely excited but can't deny there were some hard moments that opened my eyes to how hard this sport can be. Dom reassured me that there cant be growth without pushing the limits and that I shouldn't stress about where we struggled and that the good news is, her reaction is very typical of a green horse at the level...I just need to put on my own big girl riding pants and learn how to help her better.
Like this happened...maybe the dap on horseback can be a new in thing?
Upper level riders certainly make riding through those tricky combinations so easy, but what we don't usually see, is all the training it took to get a horse to that point that they can skip through the questions so smoothly. So it was nice to have the reassurance of Dom telling me this is all par for the course and I will start getting better at reacting quicker the more we do them.
I realize I have been incredibly spoiled to not have ever had a stop or run out on this horse. So this lesson where we had not just one, but a few was mostly due to my lack of knowing how to ride it and just not reacting quickly enough. I thought for sure after the first one, it would throw me off a bit more...but I was so excited about the recent bit change that it didn't deter me one bit.
OMG an actual uphill canter
So onto the bit update: I was practicing galloping Tillie last week which resulted in some not so fun moments including Tillie bolting, getting her head low and bucking when I would try to half halt. It isn't the most warm and fuzzy feeling in the world, and this issue with her has been a recurring one.
It also has been nagging at me. With our move up to Training, going faster needs to be able to happen out on XC, without all the fighting. Its been something I have been talking to Dom about and other trainers, which resulted in the conversation about having her vetted in case it was a pain related issue.
Locking on!
After her vet evaluation, we know we would like to try injections, but it is so mild that it this isn't 100% physical and its the dreaded training issue. At least that's good-ish news right?!
So Dom schooled Tillie for me a few weeks back and had some discussions with Tillie about the half halt. It means NOW, not in five strides and not lean more on my hands...when I say balance or rate yourself it means do it now.
So we can avoid jumps like this
After our galloping incident, I had a horsey friend suggest trying a different bit. Not necessarily a harsher one, but one that applies pressure differently than the Pelham since the Pelham tends to promote lower the head when that's the last thing we need.
Most horses raise their heads when they get hot...mine likes to get down. So after some research and asking around, the gag bit was what came up. I did even more research and looked up some videos of Clayton Fredericks using one with his 4* mare Be My Guest. Low and behold the mare tends to gallop a bit like Tillie tries to and this bit allows him to let her gallop like her natural way of going and set her up before fences without needing to fight with her the whole time.
I read a bit more about it here: http://www.horsenation.com/2012/06/07/a-bit-of-advice-gag-bits/
Yea, no more of this....taken this time last year
Dom was kind enough to let me borrow his (which my inner fan girl almost died when he said it was the one he used on Boly - the horse he just got 6th on in the FHI 2*) and left it with me to play with for a few days leading up to our XC lesson.
Right away, as soon as I took a spin around the track and windurra, I knew it was exactly what we needed. Tillie didn't lean on it at all...and when she would try to test it, all she could do was slightly root, but would quickly come back up when she caught herself in the mouth.
I was able to let her gallop and bring her back...for the first time I felt comfortable keeping my leg on.
All smiles even when going really fast
Dom was quite excited about the change too and was pretty impressed with how quickly I could get her back again.
So now onto the actual XC lesson!!!
Dom had us warm up first in the field inside the track. It was a blistery cold, wet and windy day so we knew it would be a good test for the new bit...also since Tillie had a light two days prior (one day off, one day of 20 ish minutes stretching).
He reminded me to use my turns to get good lines to the jumps, look sooner at my jumps and to not mess with our canter....find a rhythm and stay there. So he had us do a figure 8 exercise to sort of establish where we needed to be.
Once we warmed up, we put a few of the jumps together...Tillie just got a bit funny to the one table resulting in my losing one rein, but we got it together to keep going:
And youll see we had our first run out at the skinny...and let me tell you, it surprised me how large it was as I approached it, so wasn't all that surprised Tillie wasn't sure. Especially since we haven't xc schooled in quite a while.
So we circled back to school the Skinny:
Not the prettiest, but we made it happen.
So next we moved on to a ditch and skinny log...which apparently Tillie doesn't care about ditches anymore and just runs through them:
This run out was totally my error...I was too busy chuckling about the ditch to properly present this skinny, also with brush and quite large. Dom gave me a bit of a talkin to on this one saying I needed to sit down in my tack, widen my hands and not allow her a way out.
So we do it again with some flair:
Clearly it still makes her a bit anxious so her response is to speed up. Dom explained that this is a normal thing and her being green to them and having this reaction is pretty standard so we need to keep skinnies in the forefront of our training. Build some small ones at home in the ring - especially with brush and just do them every so often to keep them fresh.
Next we schooled the corner which I did better and keeping her in front of me even with her anxiety with it:
The next portion of the lesson was definitely the hardest xc combo we both have ever seen...and it certainly gave us some trouble, but it was quite the learning experience for us.
First attempt could have gone better if I was more prepared and didn't lean at my jump:
Second attempt I had to really ride and be scrappy to get her through it...which she basically crawled over the second jump - but we got it done and Dom said that it was the kind of ride that needed to happen:
So he had us come through in reverse and I apparently forgot how to ride all together:
But after a good butt kicking from Dom we went through the whole thing one final time, nicely and in a good place:
WHEW! Shockingly I wasn't super nervous about doing these...even after the trouble we had. But looking back at the videos I cant help but think mayyybe I just turned my brain off because I HATE down hill anything and these are awfully steep downhill!
We moved on next to another line of jumps to a skinny combo around to a half coffin to which Dom basically warned me about the run out and told me to not allow it to happen:
We didn't have a run out!!! woo!! But we didn't quite get the right half halt to the second jump so Dom had us do it again:
Basically, I had the right idea, but I rated my canter a bit too much and needed to keep my leg on and find a more even distance there.
Finally we moved on to the water complex:
Apparently Tillie ignores down banks too! Luckily it didn't phase her from remaining being locked onto the jump in the water but Dom sent us out to try again:
Which resulted in her taking a funny leap into the water again...lol so one more time:
We ended after this with Dom saying he is quite pleased with the progression...I expressed some of my own ability frustrations as well as my excitement for the rideability I now have in the gag.
Dom lectured a bit, saying its all learning and there wont always be pretty moments...but as long as we both learn from them is what counts. So here's to progress! Even when it isn't linear!
It's amazing looking back at old footage or photos how easy it all looks. But we all know, in the moment or even moments surrounding that moment was a ton of blood, sweat and tears.
Lately, I have been really nostalgic and review tons of old footage and photos. I guess I am hungry to reflect, learn and keep growing despite feeling a bit unmotivated as far as actually getting in the saddle lately. I blame this some what on an impromptu weekend away at a barn friends bachelorette weekend...and it was right up my ally ( much to my surprise)
Dont usually like selfies or this much of a close up...but gotta love the beach curls
It was really nice to lay around, nap on the beach and most of all swim...what can I say, I am an active person at hear ;)
I realized on my mini vaca that I feel a bit unmotivated in general and have felt a bit weird lately when it comes to riding. Reflecting on this more, I sort of feel like its because I reached my HUGE milestone I set to make it to training level. While there is much to work on and clean up here, its a major accomplishment for me that we made it here and with me in the saddle.
Lots of this lately and its lovely
Dont get me wrong, the lessons are still happening...and lots of learning. I am just laying a bit low lately, hence the lack of blogging.
ALLLLLL the lessons still
Tillie has been on point, and we have gotten great feedback in lesson noticing overall improvement and thats great to hear! I am still my own worst critic and can admit at times when I feel defeated, I back off before I rally and make my big comeback to kick my fear's ass.
Like galloping on purpose at home in the field.
Ive turned to an old friend lately to help me relax when I dont ride, and its sketching or drawing!! For those that dont know me well, my degree is in art and design. While I do more marketing and graphic and web design now, my passion still is with good old fashion illustration and painting (particularly charcoal or oil paintings)
Beginning phase of my latest drawing but now including color pencil
Final result
It has felt reallllly good to pick up the pencil again...and I love being able to combine both horses and drawing together. My goal is to fill up my sketch book and just experiment....and i hope it carries over to my riding too. Stop trying to make it all so perfect and just get lost in the art of it all.
I finally today got my professional photos from our last event at Waredaca and boy am I excited to share them. I purchased them because I feel like they captured all Tillie and I have worked for this year...and it basically is me reliving the glory of this moment. Running the XC and being so stoked we ran Training I was choked up running across the finish here.
I really love the last two because you can see me grinning from ear to ear...which is rare to see me do when riding, let along mid-jump. Look at all the other photos and my face ranges from being dead serious, to GRRRRR to "holy shit."
But these last two really epitomize the relationship Tillie and I have built this year. This was one of the trickier combos on the course. It was the B element after a fairly decent bank up, bending line to this skinny. Tillie was brave, hunted the fence and took me right to the base of it without any hesitation at all.
I knew once we jumped it we were home free and my smile and HUGE praise to her and pats after this were just so ridiculous, but to me this moment was the height of all we worked for.
Call me a sap, call my sentimental...but getting to this point has been quite the journey. Most of it documented here. I fret over small things and agonize about our progress, but at the end of the day THIS photo captures our journey this season. Our #progressnotperfection.
I LOVE this mare so much for being able to start this season out at BN and doing Training, with me in the saddle, in the same season and feel sooo good doing it. Sure, her rider needs to figure her shit out and stop getting so nervous, but my mare has stepped up and proven she thrives in this sport. I cant even believe I ever questioned it now.
I promise to try to update my blog more regularly...we have some more things and events on the agenda before the season ends to stay tuned!!!
Fair warning, this will be a longer post that really dives into details so I can have an in depth account of my XC lesson yesterday. Mostly because I feel like Tillie and I are in another growing pain stage where we are pushing more outside our comfort zone to improve, so it feels a bit discombobulated. But I want to revisit this for my own merit so this lesson takeaway is my new mantra until we get it right.
Dressaging earlier this week after a storm...
I was so excited when Dom finally got back to me upon his return from his travels early Monday and said he could do a lesson Tuesday at windurra farm. With our approaching move up to Training this weekend I was really wanting one more jump lesson...and I was happy to jump on it being an XC one too since I feel the most unprepared in this phase at this moment.
So much water...but we needed it!
The ground was perfect after the rain we've gotten and boy did we need it. The ground has been so hard this season I was a bit concerned about continuing many events this year. But we finally got some rain so walking around at Windurra right away I was happy with how much better it was.
Tillie sees jumps in our field...this will become our homework after yesterday.
Its been a while since seeing Dom, and I admitted to him that Tillie and I feel like we've reverted to some of our bad habits...also mostly because some of my trust has slipped in her after the fall despite it not really being her fault. Ive fallen into the trap of trying to help her too much which allows her to lean on my hands and brace which helps no one. Dom laughed and understood completely and agreed when he rode her too shes a bit tricky regardless in that she does seek out "help" and used the most perfect analogy and it also happens to be the very theme of this lesson and the forefront of what we will be tackling:
Stronger or hot horses tend to make a rider want to ride half halting or holding all the time, similar if he said "hey, the brakes in my truck only work 1 out of 3 times you use them...you'll probably start break checking quite frequently to ensure you can stop"
Warming up
The trick is getting out of that mentality as far as horses go and use the other tools you have around you to get them to balance and slow down. So for us Dom wants me to start relying more on my turns and the approach to get it right and not fall into the trap of straight approaches and using my reins to get the right distance.
He made another excellent point that we need to find the happy medium between always me trying to get the perfect distance and letting the horse figure it out, but that comes with time and practice.
Get the gist yet? :)
Basically in a nut shell, stop using my half halts so frequently. Let Tillie make the mistake at times, but also let her carry herself. Use the turn to get the right distance and sometimes it will require pushing for it to get deep rather than holding the canter back.
If you arent bored to tears yet, Im going to go ahead and post my videos and break down each portion we schooled and what we worked on.
Warm up:
Here Dom is discussing using my turn better to get the distance. I went a bit too far out for his liking and wanted me to turn a bit closer so we dont have so many straight strides for the purpose of this exercise:
A little bit better, Tillie is still very excited and pulling at this point:
Using the turn finally the way Dom wanted us to and using my body over hands to set her up:
Putting together two jumps and incorporating turning
The first time through we achieved what Dom wanted at the first fence, but the second we had a bit of that flying distance Tillie likes to do if I hold too much. I probably needed to half halt harder on the outside rein father back in the turn, then be quieter:
Second time was better even being on the wrong lead:
Just a warm up over the small one which Dom wanted us very collected.
He wanted us to come back around and open up our stride more over the larger ditch then ride to the brush, but we didnt quite get there and stayed too compressed.
So he had us do it again:
It was at this point I believe he was starting to get me thinking about related distances and riding more prepared for the second fence rather than the first thing we are jumping. It didnt quite set it until a bit later.
Here is where we started really breaking down the accuracy question a skinny jump presents. Dom had me start with smaller logs and practice getting the right ride before sending us right over the larger wider skinny brush. He did have us walk up to too to present Tillie to it and introduce her.
Basically Dom said this one you want to ride sitting in the tack. You use the turn, get your ride and push to it but most horses will run out right at that last stride when most riders start to get into a 2-point. So he stressed to really ride it until her front legs lifted.
Hey - we know I have no issues riding defensively.
The next goal was the type of approach to it for your horse. You need to have just the right canter, not too forward or too compressed, but they need to be between both legs and pushing right to the base which we sometimes get that flyer when overthinking this...
Like so:
^^ basically exactly NOT how to ride it
So we try again and kind of over did it:
So Dom encouraged just find something in the middle:
He was satisfied with that and then sent us around to the double brush skinny:
Not going to lie, I feel pretty bad ass for accomplishing this one!
LOVE this still!
Before I could relish in how awesome it was, Dom sent us around to ride the corner to the skinny. He broke down how to ride it and it was definitely a more skinny and true "corner" than any other one weve ridden before:
You can see we hit the flag pole so my leg came back with it a bit...but Dom said he was impressed with our recovery.
Next up, how to ride a larger wider fence then compress for the tighter shorter stride combos we may start seeing at Training level. Dom warned me the first jump was much larger then it appeared so I needed to have a nice forward enough canter to it to make the width and let her gallop a few strides but use a quick half halt but be soft and get a compressed canter for the one stride at the angled roll / offset roll tops:
We got in a bit too deep so we came back just to do these again:
We moved on to a baby ditch combo where Dom said for these, you dont want to come in too under powered either because the one stride for this was quite longer. He also warned the jump had a bit of a downhill landing so not to let myself get pulled forward like I tend to happen when I hold too much with my reins:
Tillie put her foot in the ditch this first time lol, so we came to do it again, but otherwise Dom liked the ride and approach.
Second time:
This way coming in, made more sense to me as a rider. I struggled a bit more when we came back and did this combo in reverse. Once again, too much holding and trying to get deep or that perfect spot:
So we try again to no avail since my response was to try to sit her back more:
Dom finally said something that clicked about getting to the base doesnt always mean wait or add...it sometimes means the push. So we try one more time:
Dom was pleased with this one and said we came in a similar way all three times, but the way I rode it changed the way the combo rode. Try more for adding the leg not bring the canter back...which for me is sooo hard when I am lacking that trust in Tillie.
After the fence in the water Dom wanted us to do these skinny brush fences in a line around to a water combo. which we got a bit stuck at the brush fences when we ran into the same issue of Tillie not wanting to wait.
Part of it was being unbalance with the wrong lead around the turn, but Dom has us do it again and make it educational for her:
So we came back one more time just to set it in stone:
Which finally was our get out of jail free card to continue to do the water combo which Dom pressed to make sure I keep my eyes up and not let them drop on landing (another bad habit of mine) and really keep my shoulders up:
It went quite well! Dom did say he was pleasantly surprised with how well I stayed up and didnt get caught up with getting pulled forward with my shoulders. Tillie got quite excited with this combo!
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Corners Bending line
We ended the day with two corners on a slight bending line. The first attempt we took a bit long spot for the 5 but Dom didnt completely dislike it, but wanted us to try more for a controlled accurate distance and add for the 6:
All in all, I am proud of Tillie being so game...and doing well despite my slight hesitation. I am not quite on my A game like I have been earlier this season, but I am starting to feel some of my mojo come back. I wouldnt say I am nervous and scared when seeing jumps, But I am back to riding defensively. So I need to work on trusting Tillie again and I DO believe when we get there, my position woes will also come with it.
Our homework is to go home when we can and jump outside the ring, in a field where we can use the turns to help with distances and focus on not pulling so much. When Tillie does use other tools to get her to listen.
