Ok so I am not the best at getting my posts written and up in a timely fashion. I must say cudos to those that do! But here is a quick little blurb about how our first horse trials of the year/season went! Even if it is two weeks late.... though I do have a good excuse! The blogger app on an iPad sucks and I was on a work trip all last week and didn't take my computer. So my plans to write were foiled because I couldn't get pictures and words to co-operate which made my mental capacity to even care at a staggering level of -5. So sorry bout that, but here it really is: FENCE HT BooYa!
What? Can I just eat grass please...
Going into the FENCE HT if you had asked me what I was the most worried about I would of told you hands down the cross country. I wasn't sure what to expect from Chimi, and a stop is a pretty beasty amount of penalty points. Epecially at Beginner Novice adding 20 points to your dressage score can really mean the difference between 1st place and not even getting a ribbon. Chimi's confidence has been getting better and better but until you're out on course you don't always know what is going to happen. So because of this, and our score of 26.something or other at the Long Shadows Mini Practice Event- I really wasn't all to worried about the Dressage. Well as we all know horses are the most humbling of creatures. Our warm up was ok- he was super tight and tense at the start and then he relaxed into the trot and we even had some nice canter circles. Our Dressage test was suppose to be in the covered arena and I wanted to get over there and watch the 2 horses in front of us go. But of course the best laid plans don't go as planned. I completely messed up on the order of go and thought there was 1 more person in front of me then there was. As soon as we got to the covered arena the horse in front of us was walking out and we were being called to go in- crap! As we proceed towards A, Chimi freaks out at a decretive fern and the ring steward had to move it so we could go into the dressage ring. But that was just the start of it- I could never get him to totally relax and I ended up using a good bit of my 45 seconds after the bell to get him somewhat prepared to trot down centerline. We did have some good moments- but we also had really bad moments. He broke in both canters and I was ready to pinch his stupid little head because I know he can do all of this perfectly. As soon as we left the arena I had visions of our worst score ever and was annoyed with myself for not getting over to the covered arena sooner. After a moment of annoyance I brushed off the test and said- what's done is done and cross country is next. Out of totally curiosity I did check the scores when they posted- I was worried that it would say 50 next to my name but at the same time I didn't care. Surprisingly there was a 39.2 next to my name! I breathed a sigh of relief and then thought WTF? How was that test a 39.2 and scanned to see what place I was in- yep there is was- 20th out of 20 riders. Our judge must of been scoring super low but at least I was in the place I felt like I deserved after that test. Either way- onwards to CROSS COUNTRY!!!!
Ready for Cross Country!
After having a break between dressage and cross country it was finally time to tackle the phase I was the most nervous about. But I was also rejoicing over my last place placing after dressage because there was ZERO pressure. I could completely focus on having a positive ride without that niggling feeling of I have to do well so I can get a ribbon! My coach Annie was suppose to meet me in the warm up but she sadly wasn't able to make it- she was head of the cross country and thought she would be able to pass the job onto someone else for the 15 minutes of warmup but I think to much was going on that she had to stay. It ended up being a very good thing that she stayed where she was because she was able to watch most of our cross country ride instead of seeing only the first jump. Plus the warm up ride was so chaotic that she wouldn't of been able to help me anyways. There were so many kids running around on their ponies trying to maintain something resembling control, one horse with a professional rider was having bucking fits and his rider was doing everything possibly to have a positive ride without running all of the small children on their ponies over. Basically the warm up was a swirling mass of horses and shouting and bright colors. I stood off to the side for a bit and then picked up a trot and cantered both directions before popping over a couple of jumps. Chimi was a bit freaked out at all the horses headed towards him so we walked a lot on the edge of the field and when I saw an opening would ask him to trot and head towards a jump. He felt really strong and confident when we were jumping and that was all I wanted going out on cross country. Finally it was our turn to head over to the start box.
Jello, beer, and Morris the Horse- jump #4 on XC
My plan was to trot the first jump to establish confidence in Chimi and so he would understand what we were doing. In the past he's to busy not looking at where we're going that he doesn't realize we're about to jump until its to late and he stops because he was clueless about my intentions. I have found that if I trot the first jump, or at least trot towards the first jump, he's going slow enough that he can look around and then his brain will click into gear as he realizes what we're about to do. So as the count down begins and I hear "Go" we calmly trot out of the box and towards the first jump. Chimi was a bit distracted and was wanting to charge about and take over but I made him trot until the last couple of strides where I felt like he knew which jump we were going for. He leaped over it and took off at a very brisk canter through the woods and up the hill to our next jump. If we had a bad first jump I had planned to jump Starter's #2 jump to help establish a rhythm before the twisty part of the course- from jump 3 to 4 to 5 and to 6 you basically followed a snake and wiggled around the course before getting a chance to canter straight ahead. Since our first jump was ok but not stellar I decided to jump the very inviting baby log and then continued to canter up the hill towards my jump #2. All my worries were soon washed away because Chimi hit beasty mode and clicked on to every jump and took me towards them. He got a bit strong so after we jumped #3 I circled to the right to regain some control because it was a VERY tight left then right turn to #4 and Chimi was a bit on the wild side at that point. I was able to collect him back together and away we went. Trot/canter through water? No problem. Up the bank? No problem. Canter up FENCE Hill to the bending line towards the ditch, totally got it- oh wait what is that hole???? Guess this means jump HIGHER- yeah we probably jumped 4 ft over the ditch. But the good thing was the next jump was a bit away so I could gather myself back together and finish up the ride. Chimi jumped fabulous over the house on the hill (not Britt's blog- but an actual jump! ha!), clear over the last roll top and proudly blasted his way through the finish flags. I was so happy with how well Chimi just jumped around the cross country course that I couldn't stop patting his neck and giving him lots of hugs and telling him what a good boy he was! It was a break through in our riding and I felt like we were finally figuring out the game plan together. Yes there are still things to work on, but over all it was such successful run around Beginner Novice that he totally redeemed himself for the melt down in dressage :) I didn't care what place we were in after the weekend was over because to me we had just finished 1st with the way he ran around the cross country course. On out walk back we saw Annie and she was so proud of Chimi and was glad she had been able to watch most of the course. She thought he looked great out there and that we were definitely headed in the right direction with him! That was the best complement I could of received from her and I think Chimi knew it to. He felt very proud of himself too! After we got back to the trailer I untacked him and we headed home for a nice dinner a good roll followed by a good nights rest out in the pasture.
Jello standing on the "roof" of the House on a Hill with a View Jump- and what a view!!!!
The next afternoon was show jumping. They gave us all a time to ride and I was scheduled to go at 12:16. We had moved up from 20th to 14th after cross country, but I really wasn't interested in a placing- I just wanted a good ride around the stadium course. Annie helped us a little bit with our warm up but mostly she was there to remind me to keep my elbows soft and follow Chimi's head instead of get tight and restrictive. Chimi was fine with or without Annie standing there, but I'm sure he appreciated her reminding me not to get in his way! We were probably the 4th or 5th rider to go in the BN division (since we were towards the end of the placings...) and when it was our turn we headed in. It was a great course with a nice balance of turns and straight/bending lines. We wiggled our way through the other jumps and found a nice canter rhythm towards jump 1. Chimi jumped great and quickly figured out what we were doing. In the corners I brought him back and did some simple changes to make sure he stayed balanced towards the next jump and rode as smart as I could. We had one "flyer" jump where I wasn't sure where he was going to take off from and apparently it was from the long spot. Even with that he cleared all the jumps and we ended up double clear. Over all we moved up one place and finished up 13th overall.
weeeee!!! trotting around the field with Gus Sunday afternoon- guess he wasn't to tired after the HT!
As with all shows, you leave knowing what you were successful with and knowing where you need to focus and do some homework at home. Dressage is something very easy for Chimi (especially at the lower levels) but the atmosphere was the killer for us. I need to make sure I take him to plenty of schooling shows so he can get use to all the craziness that a show is. Just because we can do it at home doesn't mean for a successful weekend at a show. But on the other side of that, Chimi's jumping has come such a long way from where we started. He is so much more confident and his confidence is only growing. As his rider, I need to make sure I keep building his confidence so that when the questions get more complicated he will know how to answer them. Ribbons are icing on the cake but having a successful weekend is worth all the time, money, and energy spent preparing. I know what to work on and we will just see where it goes from here!!!!
Trying to keep my pre show panic jitters at bay! I'm a bit psyched out about all the things I have left to do and doubts about how ready I am for the show. I tend to talk myself through things- below is my inner dialog- excuse bad grammar- I'm conflicted between being 1st person and 2nd person! lol
Chimi not amused
So what if I forgot how to ride my horse today? After flopping around like a sack of potatoes and somehow expecting my horse to magically start cantering because I leaned, pulled, and tried to kick my way into the canter. Nope- he's not going to do that. But when I sit up and stop riding like a sack of tubers my horse suddenly becomes quite fancy and CAN canter on the right lead. Ride strong with a soft following elbow.
Johnny- FENCE 1999
So what if I've forgotten to take my show coat to the dry cleaners. It's just a jacket and the cleaners can clean it up for me in a day. The show is local so no worries about being 5+ hours away from your show coat. Or if they can't get it clean in time just take a damp cloth and wipe what you can off. It doesn't look that bad
Blue saddle pads are easier to keep clean- to bad my horse looks FABULOUS in white!
So what if I couldn't find my brand new WHITE Back on Track saddle pad that was purposefully bought for shows so it could stay white and I wouldn't be panicking over how gross it looks from daily use- thats why I have a brown one. Just ask for help looking for it and magically it will appear still in the same box you left it in to keep it safe from bad things.
Gus at FENCE 2013
So what if you're worried about fitting into your show breeches because your weight crept up on you and suddenly you found yourself not fitting into your old clothes. You still have a pair of pants stashed away just for such occasions and are working on reversing the number on the scale so it goes down. Just because I didn't make it to where I wanted to before the show- no big deal. Keep up the work and you will be successful soon.
Team Beebee at FENCE 1999
So what if you haven't been able to show consistently in years? What is important is that you are finally getting back out there. Just take it one show at a time. Just be time conscience and make sure you arrive on time/early for your dressage test. After that the show is in motion and you just ride the momentum.
Sugar to Starter jumps is like Chimi to Novice jumps- we can so do BN
So what if the cross country course is different then the years past. You know it changes yearly and Chimi has jumped a lot of the jumps out there. Ride confidently and trust that the jumps are small enough that he could walk over them if he had to. After all Chimi is 17h and the beginner novice jumps are only 2'7"ish.
Brit and Foster pants making Novice dressage look easy
So what if you haven't practiced your dressage test enough times. It's BN test A. You trot circles, canter circles, and walk straight lines. Ride with a smile and whatever happens happens. You can't fix anything the week of so just ride the horse that shows up to the show. There is plenty of time in the future to perfect small details. Just ride.
We gots this mom!!!
Enjoy the weekend and imagine safely finishing up the weekend. The ribbon color doesn't matter- or a ribbon at all. Yes a really pretty blue would be the icing on the cake but what is really important is giving Chimi a successful ride and building his confidence. He is a nice enough horse that one day he could be winning blue ribbons with ease, but it takes time and patience to get there. Ride confidently and your horse will be confident.
Here's to the last couple of days before the first show of the season.
It's no mystery that much of the past two weeks has been a wintery mess for a lot of people. Here in the foothills of South Carolina we definitely got our fair share of a very snowy (for us) two weeks. Riding has basically been impossible because all the outdoor rings are frozen, flooded, and snowed over. My riding "area" (since I don't have an arena) has been soaked and the trails are most definitely closed. Plus on some of the really cold days it was all I could do to feed ponies, make sure they were warm enough, break ice in their buckets/water trough, and give them extra hay.
My barn in the snow
Even though I do love snow there does come a point where enough is enough. Shows are starting up soon and if the ponies are going to be ready I had to figure a way to ride despite the less than desirable conditions. Even with the temperatures rising into the upper 30's and melting the snow I couldn't ride in my usual spots because the ground was saturated with melting snow. The trails were closed, I didn't want to tear up my front pasture, nor did I want my horses to slip while I was riding them. The only way to even potentially ride would be under a covered arena. Luckily, a local barn "rents" out their beautifully manicured covered large dressage arena for a mere $5 a ride- and oh is it sooooo worth the $5 to trailer over there and get some work done! They take immaculate care of the footing, it is consistently watered and dragged so the footing stays soft and perfect- plus there is a roof over your head so you don't have to worry about rain or melting snow! All you have to do to ride there is call and make sure the arena is free and no lessons are going on. Super easy!
psh- we don't need to work!
Even with the wonderful covered arena only a short 15/20 minute drive away I still had to get out of my driveway. Unfortunately I have to park my truck and trailer next to the fence in the grass in order to have room to turn around. This poses a problem whenever we have wet weather because everything turns to muck and my truck and trailer sink into the ground. But there is a lovely invention in my truck called 4 wheel drive that makes life just a whole heck of a lot easier. There is no way in hell that I would be able to move my truck and trailer if I didn't have 4 wheel drive. I can't even tell you how many times I have had to turn the knob to put my truck in 4 wheel drive to get out of my parking spot. It is the single most important feature of my truck and a requirement for any tow vehicle I ever purchase! Some people can get away without having 4 wheel drive but I most definitely can't!!
So much mud and slush under those tires... I would never move without 4 wheel drive
So with $5 in my pocket and 4 wheel drive I successfully rode a couple of days this past week. I'm still hoping for better weather because arena riding get so dull after a while and I much prefer working Chimi (or whoever) out in a field or on the trails than in the confined space of a ring. Cheers to everyone surviving winter wherever you are and fingers crossed some nice weather heads everyone's way soon!!! First show of the season will be here before you know it!!!!!!
This past weekend was a great start to the #yearofdoing! Not only did we finish a Beginner Novice "mini" event but we had an amazing dressage score and stadium round. Cross Country is still our weakest link but with more chances to go XC schooling I know Chimi will pick it up and it'll get easier and easier for him.
Chimi's ready
First up Saturday- We had a pony club mounted meeting with Jamey Price at Brights Creek. We worked on show jumping and it was a perfect way to prep before Sunday's mini event. I need to remember to stay in 3 point so I'm not constantly driving him to the jumps but if he starts to get squirrelly and backs off I can quickly drop down into the saddle and use my seat to keep him moving forward to the jump. We worked on trotting into a grid at the beginning and by the end of the lesson he was actually trotting the first jump! This was a major breakthrough because he is Mr. I MUST Canter!!! Even with trot poles he attempts to canter but I think he finally started to figure it out on Saturday.
Feeling a bit more prepared for our first outing at Beginner Novice, Sunday morning Becks and I drove over to Long Shadows for the practice event. We were both going BN and neither one of us had practiced our Dressage test before the show. But not to worry, BN test B is fairly straight forward and I wasn't to concerned. Plus this being a practice event I wasn't even sure if there were going to be ribbons and placings. Was more worried about making it through than about our final placing if there was one. (Ended up no final scores/placings but you could figure your own score)
Long Shadows Farm Mini Practice Event
Sunday February 8, 2015
Organizers: Amy Barrington and Beth Perkins
Divisions: Starter, Beginner Novice, Novice and Training
Judges: Dressage - Stephanie Gibson
Stadium - Amy Barrington
Cross Country - Beth Perkins
All participants will do a dressage test once, receive helpful advice about how to better your score, leave the ring and when ready perform the test a second time. Only the second test will be scored. At assigned times, riders will move on to the cross country phase with a course of no more than 10 jumps and be given the opportunity to do a do over, if they wish. The same format will be used for the show jumping phase. This event is intended to be educational but scores will be given as in any event and only the best scores will count. No phase will be timed.
Starter: USEA 2014 Beginner Novice Test A
Jumps will be no higher than 2 ft.
Beginner Novice: USEA 2014 Beginner Novice Test B
Jumps no higher than 2' 6"
Novice: USEA 2014 Test A
Jumps no higher than 2' 9"
Training: USEA 2014 Test A
Jumps no higher than 3' 3"
Test of choice may be performed.
The Dressage Test:
While waiting for our turn in the Dressage ring I did a very basic warmup with Chimi. Walk, trot, canter both directions, and ran through the canter parts of my test and final halt. He was wanting to run through me in the halt so we worked on that for a few minutes and then waited for our turn.
I've been trying to rotate this picture but for some reason it won't rotate on here- it's cropped and edited in iPhoto just not here!!! Annoying computer crap.... First Test Scores
For the most part he was nice and soft and responsive even though I could feel him tense up a little at the size of the arena. We don't have a dressage ring at home, heck we don't have a ring period, and the smallest arena we ride in is a little bit bigger than a large dressage- maybe 25x80ish meters? It feels a little bit bigger than a large dressage arena... Anyways there was a little claustrophobic feelings in the small arena for Chimi but he kept his cool and as the test went on he started to relax more. Our free walk was awful, and we had a bobble in our right lead canter, but the rest of the test felt pretty solid. After halting at X the judge got out of her truck and came over to talk to us about the test. She was really pleased with it over all and said we needed to work on our free walk. He wasn't tracking up behind and the judges are really going to look for the hind end over stepping the front end. After we talked with the judge for a few minutes she asked if we were ready to ride it again- sure!
Second Test Scores
Second test was much improved and at a show I need to try and make the 2nd test our first test since we only get once chance in normal circumstances!!! If I did my math correctly we got a 29.75 on our first test and a friction 24.5 on our 2nd!!!!!!! They only had collective marks for the second test so I used the same marks for both tests to get my final score.
The Stadium Course:
After a quick tack change we headed to the stadium warmup. After finishing up with Beck's 2nd course Amy came over and helped us in warmup. Chimi was being super strong so we worked on him staying balanced in the turns and me just sitting calmly in the saddle. When he finally stopped leaving strides out and over jumping all the warmup fences and became more manageable we headed over to the course. I don't know if it was all the filler bits in the course but Chimi was frickin PERFECT. He was responsive, didn't over jump anything, and stayed mostly rhythmical the entire course! He was so good that Amy and I decided he didn't need to do it again because there was nothing he needed to do over!
Cross Country
This was by far our weakest link. But to give Chimi some credit this was our 4th time attempting any sort of cross country schooling/showing. Plus the last time we had been cross country was at the WindRidge HT in May 2014 where we went Starter. So this was Chimi's first time in 9 months seeing a cross country jump.
The Cross Country Map
After discussing my plan with Beth, I popped Chimi over a simple log and then headed to the start. I was planning on trotting the first fence unless he started cantering and then I would let him canter the last couple of strides before the first jump. Well this was a great plan but I didn't do a very good job of executing it. Chimi trotted out of the start box and then immediately started cantering. He had been so good in stadium and over the log that I figured he was listening and would just jump over the first jump- whoops- not so much! I think Chimi was so excited to be out in a gigantic field that his cantering was just him wanting to run around like a crazy pony. As we approached the first jump it totally took him by surprise and he stopped. I tapped him on the shoulder (he HATES it behind my leg and I wanted to stay on) and circled back. Forcing him to trot and not drag me around he figured out what he was suppose to do and popped awkwardly over the first jump and continued to the 2nd. I brought him back to a trot for the 2nd fence because he had been so wobbly on the first and he gave me another awkward jump over a very scary black pipe jump. Then something seemed to click in his brain and it was like the light bulb finally went off in his head that we were JUMPING. He settled into a really nice canter and started taking the jumps in stride. I made him trot the 5th jump which was a very solid looking brick wall (painted that way) box jump that I thought he might need to look at more carefully. He didn't care and continued over it like it was nothing. He was looking for the next jump and started to really feel like a cross country horse by the time we got to the end of the course. I made him walk through the water because he's not 100% sure about water yet but other than that he never slowed down after the 5th jump.
I went back to talk with Beth about the course and how it rode and she agreed that it got better as it went on. So on that note we decided to do the whole thing again. I made sure he trotted to the first jump but I probably could of let him canter because his "light bulb" had already gone off and he was feeling great. He jumped up the up bank, trotted though the water, didn't blink an eye, basically he did everything he was suppose to!!! Lots of pats and cookies for Chimi!!!
As soon as we got back to the trailer Chimi fell asleep. He was tired from a very busy weekend but I couldn't of been happier with him! Even with the stop on course I feel much better tackling a real event this spring. FENCE HT are in April so with a couple of cross country schooling opportunities and a couple of dressage schooling shows, I think we have half a chance of completing. You never know until the show is over how you did but if you go into it as prepared as possible there is a chance for success!!!! Here's to the continuation of THE YEAR OF DOING!!!!
After my long winded flat work post I'm sure you guys are like geez there's more??? Well Yes. There is. Though I'm going to do my best to keep it brief and filled with pictures and videos instead of words.
Becks and Finn. I don't think I've ever seen him jump with his nose out- he's just that strange I guess...
Pony Club Winter Camp
***Pictures are from the group before mine. Becks and Finn were in the group and I got a few good pictures of them but better ones of the other kids. Figures that I'd have bad camera timing when Becks was riding!****
Grid Work
Last jump in the grid
On Sunday we had two lessons and in the first one we worked on some grid work. First jump was a skinny flower box that made us keep the horse between our leg and going straight. It was a particularly scary flower box and had really tall wispy fake grass coming out of the top with red tall flowers instead of the normal short bunchy flowers you see. This caused all of the horses to stop because it was something they've never seen before. Chimi trotted up and then went "THOSE AREN'T NORMAL WHAT DO I DO?!?!?!?!" I let him look at them and after that he never blinked an eye at them. So note to self I need really weird flower arrangements to school at home...
After the flower box we moved on to the grid. The grid wasn't anything over the top or complicated but was very helpful to develop the canter we wanted in our course work that afternoon. It consisted of a flower box bounce to an X, 1 stride to a vertical, and then 2 strides to an oxer. So it went trot approach, bounce, 1 stride, 2 stride, canter away. This was a perfect grid for everyone's level of fitness in the middle of winter. Chimi was perfect through the grid every time though he was really bad about wanting to canter in instead of trot. He always prefers to canter jumps and in the past I've let him do what he wanted because we were working on building his confidence not dictating how he should jump. Now that he's much more confident in his jumping I need to start saying "Hey! We're suppose to trot this!" More homework for us...
Course Work
For the afternoon lesson we expanded upon the grid and worked on some course work. After warming up over the no longer scary flower box and a vertical we started piecing together a course. It ended up being a really long course which was great except there was a lot to remember! Plus it was exhausting and further reminded me I need to really work on my fitness before show season starts! I was really happy with how Chimi did with the long course and we only had a mishap when we tried the in and out for the first time. This is where Chimi's greenness/confidence issues come in. I don't think I've done a 1 stride in and out with him before, especially one with lots of filler (gates, flower boxes, etc) and when we came around the corner to the in and out he panicked and was like "holy crap I don't understand! I don't understand! What do I do, I don't understand!" and thus I barely managed to squeeze him over the first jump and no way in hell were we going to make it over the 2nd. In hindsight I should of brought him down to the trot and let him look at what we were about to jump. But instead I kept him cantering and thus caused the mini panic attack. Jamie lowered the back jump for him and he made it over the 2nd time. And then later on in the course when we did the same in and out backwards he didn't even care. I just have to remember to take it slow with him and get lots of confident building milage on him. There is no skipping steps with this guy!
The course started and ended with the gymnastic we'd worked on that morning. This was so we could establish the correct canter before the course and to end on a nice canter. To save time I edited out the part where I turned the wrong way after the brick jump and the part right after the refusal. Otherwise there would of been a lot of boring trotting around as I navigated my way back to the jumps. Snooze. So here you guys go- the course!
So that about covers the week late weekend recap. Overall was really happy with how Chimi did and know we have a lot to improve on. But he's getting better every day and that's all I can ask for!
I've been meaning to write this post for a week now but between general life and trying to upload videos onto YouTube using the slowest internet connection possible (excluding dial up that is) so I could include them in this post.... well this is what you get- a Weekend Recap a Week Late!
My group from Winter Camp
The weekend of January 22-23, 2015 was my Horsemasters/Pony Club's Winter Camp. It was suppose to be Jan 2-3 but really cold rainy weather postponed the clinic until the 22nd. The clinician/camp instructor was Jamie Price, an upper level eventer who is wintering in this area until the first of April.
Flat/Dressage Lesson on Saturday Recap
******Pictures below are not from the Winter Camp- I didn't get any riding pictures from the first day so to break up text I give you random other Dressage pictures!*******
We were suppose to have 2 lessons on Saturday but rainy weather on Friday created a 2 hour delay in the schedule and leaving only enough time for everyone to have 1 lesson. My group was the first to go and there were 4 of us cramped into a large dressage area. It actually worked out really well because we had to be mindful of each other and keep our horses in control. Jamie had us all trot around the arena and think about how our horses were going. Are they moving off our leg? Are they to quick (ok this wasn't anyone in our group- we had LAZY ponies!!!) From there she wanted us to work on making our horses more adjustable using our seat and legs. Simple enough but an exercise that can be easily forgotten about.
Gus is Mr Fancy Pants Dressage Pony
As we were trotting around, Jamie wanted us to use our post to change the length of our horses trot. If you wanted to shorten their stride you simply posted more up instead of forward and really used your legs to keep them engaged and not let them break to a walk. To lengthen their strides we had to post more forward and think of posting with our hips going through our hands. (Ok she said it much more eloquently but it's a week and a day after the lesson and I've forgotten her exact words) Chimi is really good about listening to my seat so this exercise was really easy for him. But it was really fun to watch the green TB in the lesson progress from being tight and choppy to starting to stretch more through his top line and become comfortable within his gaits. He has a short neck to begin with but once his rider stopped worrying about trying to get him in a frame and just work on his rhythm and responsiveness he settled down and came round on his own accord. This is all information that has been drilled in my head time and time again so I didn't learn anything new per say, but I love watching it work every time. With green horses this is such an important step in their training so that later on you're not having to back pedal and go oh crap, guess I forgot to teach him how to listen to me!
Marley in a rare Dressage-y moment
Since the basic working trot to short trot, back to working trot, then to lengthening trot was super easy for Chimi, we started to skip the working trot and just go from short trot to lengthening trot and then back to short trot. This was great because I had to keep myself from flopping all over the place and keep Chimi connected so he wouldn't lose his balance. He was such a good boy and stayed responsive to my seat the whole time. Sometimes Chimi ignores my half halts and just runs through me but having to shorten and then lengthen really had him much more responsive and he was listening instead of charging around. I think this will be great thing to keep in mind at shows because he's so busy looking at everything going on that hopefully this'll help him focus on me and we'll be able to put in a descent dressage test!!!! Guess we'll find out soon enough if this plan will work or not!
After everyone was happy with their trot work we continued with this exercise in the canter. Chimi was good but started to lose his balance in the corners and would swap behind. I think the sloppy footing contributed to this being more of an issue because it felt like he would slip and then catch him self by swapping behind. I'm also working on strengthening his hind end because he doesn't have a lot of strength back there. Changing his trim really helped with the swapping behind back in December and he went from always swapping to only swapping when I got him out of balance. So I really do think that the swapping he was doing in the lesson was a result from the slippery footing. Even with that, he was really good at listening to my seat and when I'd ask him to go forward he would and then came back when I slowed my hips down. Shortening his canter stride back after lengthening it was the trickiest for us but I think it is more of s strength issue than a listening one. He tried to but with the arena being a Large Dressage ring we only has 60 meters to do all of that in and not run into the other horses PLUS he's a BIG horse! He's really quick for his size but he's not tiny and compact. There is a lot of horse to slow down! This is something we'll be working on at home so that if I decide to take him to straight dressage shows we'll be ready for first level!
Mom's horse Alec at NC State's IDA Show- loved this horse!
I ended up writing a lot more about the flat lesson than I thought I was going to so I'm going to break this post up into two parts.... Sunday Jumping Recap later with video- didn't bring my camera the first day :(
