The Show Will Go On...at this point...

So the weather took another dip this week. Lows in the 20-30s, highs in the 40s. I definitely wanted to sit in the house with some soup and maybe even some crackers. BUT there is a show scheduled for Sunday.

So far haha. Anyways, I expect the show to be cancelled, but I can't plan on that, so I looked at the calendar. I have a dressage lesson Thursday, cross country schooling on Friday, and the show on Sunday. And so Wednesday was the last likely day to ride. Cue the 20mph winds. I haven't really jumped 2'6" very much lately, but I needed to have a jump school before the show so off we went.

The ride was very mediocre. Knots and I are still having a lot of trouble communicating before the jumps. I tried to work on being relaxed and half halting with my body instead of my hands, but the habit is fierce. We did spend more time regaining calm before jumping, instead of letting him build between rounds. We still have a lot of work to do, and I think its also related to Knot's confidence that he can jump 2'6" and higher. He doesn't get as fussy at lower heights anymore.

On a positive note, I am not usually worried about whether we will clear the jumps. Knots is very capable at this height and he rarely knocks rails, so the main challenge is that I pilot him straight to the jumps and stay out of this way. No dropping him before the fence! So we were in a slightly better place than before, still lots of work to do as we try to become confident at beginner novice this year.

In other news, the ponies get to wear their blankets for the next few days and enjoy the misery outside while I feel guilty about not owning water trough heaters.

Riding Recap

I mentioned wanting to do more riding recaps in this new year, so here is the first one:

Monday night I had a few extra minutes and I decided to ride Knots. Unfortunately the weather has been awful, so finding a nice place to ride was more of a challenge then I was hoping for. The places with ok footing were taken up by beginner riding lessons while the extra places in the open were going to get dark quickly. I hustled.

Initially I walked into the jump field and tried to do some trot work, but the lesson was three very timid little girls, and there was not additional room for me to trot, much less canter. I tried riding on top of the "hill" and Knots actually stopped and looked at something. Knots never spooks. I have never seen him jump away from anything (although as I am typing this I imagine he will spook later this week and I will bust my hind end). Apparently there were some deer across the pasture that he noticed and we watched them jump across the fence into the back 300 acres. After the deer I putzed for a few minutes and listened to the little girls make excuses to their instructors for why they could not trot, and then walked over to an empty grass spot before the light disappeared.

We had enough room for a 20m ish oval, and so we tried to work on our dressage. Although I was being really optimistic about the riding and had tacked up in my jumping equipment... Anyways, he was really stiff and trying to hold onto the bit, so we worked on transitions and focused on bending instead of holding. He started to relax and gave me some relaxed work at the walk and trot, even without my spurs, which is a nice things indeed.

Unfortunately, the canter really fell apart and I can tell we haven't worked much. He was trying to motorcycle around the turns and giving me some trouble running and then stopping. I think he hit a wall of [easy] strength and started to remember how he has mostly just been eating a round bale constantly.... Anyways, I worked on more transitions and bending and let him rest when he did it correctly. We had just enough daylight to end on a mostly good note.

I was glad to have the good dressage ride, but I am also hoping to have at least a couple jumping schools before the show on Sunday... and maybe even something bigger than 2'3" haha.

This is Gracie and Jellybean hiding from the fireworks on New Year's Eve. Although in their defense, we were blowing things up reasonably close to them.

2015 Goals

When I typed out 2015 it felt real for the first time. I have been working at Christmas camp, and in my spare time I have been really relaxing for the first time in quite some time. Something about sitting around all day in my soft pants really makes things seem quite easy. Byron loves when I am home though...

For 2015, I want to set some monthly goals and see what we can achieve. I want to set reasonable goals, and I hope to earn enough money to pay for some competitions this year. Money-wise, I get caught up buying new equipment and tack. I am planning to attend schooling shows this year, so I should be ok apparel wise.

Equipment purchases this year:
Tall boots
Cross Country Vest
Dressage Coat
Show shirt, including dressage stock tie

January Goals:
Knots: HPD Beginner Novice: finish without being eliminated
Jellybean: Ride at least twice
Gracie: Maggie compete at HPD

February Goals:
Knots: Pine Hill Horse Trials, Beginner Novice
Jellybean: Ride at least twice; prep for Dressage Show
Gracie: Prep Robert for Schooling Derby

March Goals:
Knots and Jellybean and Gracie: Topsider Dressage Schooling Show
Knots: BN A and B, Jellybean Intro A/B, Gracie with Rob or Maggie?
Gracie: Robert takes Gracies GAG at HPD

April Goals: 
Knots: Keep fit
Jellybean: Start trotting over fences
Gracie: Robert compete GAG/Goldi at Three Brothers Spring Derby

May Goals: 
Knots/Jellybean/Gracie: Dressage Show again
Keep ponies in work!

June Goals: 
Knots: BN at Meadow Creek Farm
Summer camp, two weeks!
Pony Club Jumper Show?

July Goals:
Kids compete at Pine Hill! I want good experiences
Jellybean: jumping over poles and cross rails
General pony maintenance

August Goals:
Tack swap! Get rid of the old things.
Knots: prep for Sept HT
Jellybean: Prep for Dressage show
Gracie: Rob prep for Oct HT

September Goals:
Knots: BN at Meadow Creek
Jellybean: Dressage Show
Gracie: Robert Goldi at Three Brothers Stable Fall Derby

October Goals:
Take kids to horse trials again! Good experiences!
Knots: evaluate potential for novice
Jellybean/Gracie: general work

November Goals:
Knots/Gracie/Jellybean: Topsider Dressage Show

December Goals:
Knots: Novice at Pine Hill

Personal goals:
Improve jumping position: no turtles
Learn to count strides
Strong enough to hold galloping position during XC round

Blog goals:
Focus when I write a post. No more being distracted halfway through
Post more lesson/ride recaps

So these goals are a little bit fluffy at this point, I don't know about all the local show calendars yet. I also don't want to push horse showing above all else, especially for Robert. We do have other lives of course. Anyways. This is much more detailed than anything I have put together before, and I hope it will inspire me throughout the year.

2014 Year End Review

Well its been two years on the old blog front. And its definitely time to do some reviewing of last years business. 2013 can be found here!

January

It was pretty cold and miserable. I hopped on Jellybean for one of the first times without Robert's help. We first noticed Oberon's lameness right before the first dressage lesson. The first dressage lesson was just about trying to respond to aids, and it wasn't especially awesome.

February
Ahhh. The entire debacle with Oberon happened in February. Basically I had a meltdown and couldn't pull myself together to work the horse. In order to cheer myself up, I posted a recap of all the horses I used to ride as a kid and some of the things I had learned.

March
Luckily February didn't last long, and I managed to reach a tense peace with Oberon. The two major events in March were the horse trials and the purchase of Gracie. The horse trials was both exciting and disappointing; we survived, but we were eliminated. We got Gracie started and tried to figure out which horse was going to be sold.

April
We decided to sell Oberon and keep Gracie, and the whole month was spent brainstorming sales tactics and meeting with potential buyers.

May
May was a busy busy month. Oberon was sold. Unfortunately in hindsight, the new owner was a terrible person! I didn't learn this until approximately six months afterwards, when I was contacted almost out of the blue about Oberon. Luckily, there is a happy ending. The horse eventually made it back to the pasture with a previous owner and is going to live out his days there. We also went to a dressage show, finished up the semester, and got to know Gracie better.

June
Summer started out crazy. I taught summer camp and rode some of the ponies. Jellybean finally pooped while being ridden.

July
July started off with the horse trials at Pine Hill where Knots and I competed in Goldilocks! Then Rob and I went on vacation for two weeks. Finally July ended with a cold front of sorts and the beginning of the fall stress.

August
August was extremely busy! We bought and sold some cool things at the tack swap, Jellybean went on a trail ride, and I made some saddle covers. I also got bucked off of Jellybean, which hurt my back pretty good.

September
September was when school really started heating up. Ponies starting moving into the backseat. The ponies moved into a paddock and Knots joined them for awhile. The rain started and Jellybean managed to cut her leg apart.

October
October was personally an awful month for me. I took my prelims, and the month was basically spend doctoring Jellybean then coaching the kids at a couple of shows.

November
More coaching and more prelim awfulness! I recapped my competitions and the first really cold front came through. I threw down the gauntlet and decided to try for novice next year.

December
I finished my prelims and went to Ohio for Thanksgiving. Then I came back from vacation fired up! I got back on the riding bandwagon in between the crappy weather. I pulled manes and got my life rebalanced! I also volunteered at a show and audited the Buck Davidson clinic.

Wow. What a year. Now that I have reminded myself of all the things I have accomplished (or not) this year, I can start to put down my goals for 2014 on pen and paper. What was your favorite story from this past year? Leave us a comment :)

Winter Blehs

Short public service announcement: I have a lot of content I am behind on, so I am scheduling some posts every day for the next few until all the stories are drug out of me :)


Well. Winter break was supposed to be filled with ponies, and I have certainly spent a lot of time at the barn. However, the weather has been absolutely awful. Cold, rainy, temperatures in the low 40s with a wind chill down into the 30s. But we persevered and put on a Christmas camp. I only got to ride Knots one day in the past week or so, in the front pasture during a lesson with the kids. We worked on being calm in the open. I also tried out a new bit, just a D ring snaffle on a cob sized fancy hunt bridle. I didn't see a huge difference, and we will still have to evaluate when we get nervous, ie at a show.

Teaching winter camp was enjoyable; we had fifteen people attend! We had lots of little kids and a few adults. I mostly taught the adults, and I spent a lot of time discussing the key points of owning horses. I also helped with the kids and we had some fun inside-ish activities for the truly terrible days. We had the kids do a scavenger hunt to find different colored horses and even had then ride bareback on the last day.

Cross country schooling is scheduled for Friday, weather permitting! I am certainly crossing my fingers I can get out there and prep before the event on Sunday. I'd like to be less nervous by the time we compete next weekend (!!!!).

Did I tell you about that? Knots and I will be running beginner novice at High Point Farm. It looks like our first goal is to not get eliminated :p.

We have cats EVERYWHERE

Jellybean tossed her blanket in the mud

Byron hated the cold

Knots and I run at jumps

Earlier last week I got back on the jumping lesson bandwagon with Maggie. One of our favorite instructors blew through for jumping lessons with us and Jeannette. We talked briefly about goals and where we were having trouble, then Amanda set up a gymnastic. It started out as canter poles, about 10 feet apart, much like an exercise from the Buck Davidson Clinic the past weekend. Whew.

The magic of half-halting is so tricky sometimes. We had a lot of trouble working on coming into jumps balanced. I was also having trouble not dropping him before the jumps. This lesson was definitely a little bit of a wakeup call, I really thought I had made some more progress, but unfortunately I was not as far along as I thought.

I definitely feel like I have some more important things to work on and I am re-inspired to ride as soon as all this silly water dries off the ground.

Learning about the "Half-halt"... and the dangers of too much bravado.

As the title suggests, this is about a recent (a.k.a. last night) adventure I had while attempting to ride Gracie.

Let's start by admitting that I do not ride frequently and it has been some time since I was last in the saddle.  However, I felt that all was right with the world and my horse and I were ready to do whatever Amanda threw at us for our lesson... First mistake in the books.

Gracie felt fresh in the moderately chill fall air. She wouldn't stand for mounting and she was very eager to do more than walk. Amanda was kind enough to start our lesson promptly and started telling me to post slower in an attempt to slow Gracie's run-away trot.  She also suggested I relax A LOT and try a half-halt to get Gracie to listen.

So here I go, already trying to implement these words of wisdom to try and rein my wild horse back to a nice soft medium trot.  I am sitting tall, sitting down, leg back, core engaged, heels down, looking where I want to go and, trying to be relaxed all at the same time. Then Amanda says, "Now, half-halt and, release. Now, Half-halt and, release. ARE YOU HALF-HALTING?!?! YOU ARE JUST HOLDING HER FACE." Mistake number two comes with my response... " I am half-halting, and I am trying NOT to hold her face..."

Never make excuses with your instructor.  If she says you are not half-halting then, you are certainly NOT half-halting.  So, I got a lesson in trotting with no reins (essentially). I was told to loosen my reins SIGNIFICANTLY and, ask for the trot. Again, ask for the trot while, sitting tall, sitting down, leg back, core engaged, heels down, looking where I want to go and, trying to be relaxed all at the same time. (yes that is copy and pasted from above.)

The First Attempt:  I loosen my reins and get nice and set at the walk. I calmly ask Gracie for a nice slow transition to the trot and.... BOOM!   she runs away with me.  She takes a huge departure, rocking me back in the saddle, throwing my leg forward and, causing me to rebalance with the reins and pull her face...  Not anywhere close to the desired result.

The Second Attempt: Everybody resets, the trainer, the horse, the rider.  Amanda says, "I want you to stay balanced. Don't kick her to the trot, just cluck at her."  Loose rein, sitting tall, feeling balanced, ect. ect. ect.  So, I cluck at her. BOOM! off to the races... Amanda is insisting I sit heavy. Define the rhythm. HALF-HALT!  This one went better but as I was trying to sit heavy and define a rhythm Gracie took that to mean Canter...  hmm, now I have officially ben run away with.  Collect the reins, stop the horse and reset again.

Amanda is flustered, I am embarrassed and frustrated, Gracie is having a hell of a time understanding me and is quite done with me screwing with her face. Amanda decides it is time to step in and show me what to do. Thank God!

Surprisingly enough, when done correctly it is damn near impossible to see someone half-halt.  She took Gracie around the arena and asked me, "do you see what my hands are doing?" I looked and thought, maybe they twitched? But, unsure I said "They didn't do ANYTHING!"  Hmmm. "That's right! They didn't and, they shouldn't."  Got one right... mark the time.

After Amanda was convinced Gracie knew what a half-halt was she decided it was my turn to actually learn to half-halt.  Back in the saddle I went.

Step one: Amanda put her hand between my leg and the saddle and asked me to half-halt. I pulled on the reins lightly to simulate my half-halt.  "You didn't squeeze here?"  "Nope, am I supposed to?" "Yes! You half-halt with your body and reinforce with the reins. NOt the other way around." "oh..."
(yeah, that exchange happened)

Step two: Now that I am half-halting with my body first and reins as a back-up, let's try this again.  Reset at the walk, see above. loose rein and cluck for the trot. NO KICKING. Ahhhhhh, nice easy trot departure.  Now we are trotting and everyone is happy.

Step three: Squeeze with the thighs and relax you seat... what?!?!  why did the horse stop?  OH!  THAT is a half-halt.

Step Four: Repeat step three but without bringing the horse out of the trot.  oooooooooh... she slowed down!  this is nice!  "Good job, Robert."

Repeat steps two-four for the rest of your riding life. (adding this in at the canter eventually)

Lots of valuable lessons were learned in the arena last night.  One, half-halt with your body. Two, communicate when you think you are doing something and not getting the result your instructor wants. Three, Gracie really does want to work. Four, my balance and seat has improved dramatically over the past year. The wild Gracie cantering would have had me on the ground back then.

All said, half-halting and transitions will be my new warm-up plan when I ride. It will help Gracie start off right and will allow me to warm up my riding muscles as well.