These last 2 weeks have been super, duper busy. Both weekend days since Mia's show have been stuffed full of stuff that doesn't involve riding my own horse and week nights have not been much better. The only option? Getting up and riding at 615a. Very unfun to ride your horse AS the sun is coming up, and riding alone, since it is the only option for one to actually be able to ride. But as a result TWH has been ridden 5 days a week since Mia's show and I think we are ready for our show on Sunday!
Our first few rides back worked only on transitions. The month (plus?) that TWH didn't have me riding him as I got Mia ready did no favors with his non-gaited-ness. His trot was fine but his walk/trot transition was sluggish and had several sluggish steps before he picked up the trot. His canter was fine but his canter/trot transition had several pacing steps in there. His trot/walk transition was loose and sloppy, yeah we had a lot to fine tune. Thankfully a few rides tightened his responses right back up and he is doing quite well. He still isn't as snappy into the trot from a relaxed walk as I would like, I have to really get his attention before I can get a good, clean trot transition, but it should be more than sufficient. His canter/trot transition is back to where it needs to be as well has his trot/walk transition. Something that seems to have helped is to significantly increase the tempo, getting more speed is working for him so that is what I am going to ask for. Yay us! Tonight I am riding dressage again and am going to actually attempt the test, something I haven't yet done as I have been working on the individual pieces instead.
Jumping is going very well! We had a couple of small jump schools outside where I worked more on me than him. I really, really want to stop jumping ahead/being left behind and I really, really want to stop the practice of grabbing the reins over the fence. I NEED to fix myself and if H isn't doing it in my lessons, well damn it I am going to figure it out somehow. And I need pictures to prove it, but OMG I think I may have fixed it??? When cantering up to a jump, one should look at the jump until you can't see it between the ears and then look at your next fence. That is all fine and dandy except my brain refuses to do that. I have a tendency to look at the jump AT. ALL. TIMES. Because, you know, it might disappear. I tried not looking at the jump at all, whatsoever, and guess what happened? I started jumping better. Doh.
I jumped inside this week thanks to the 5+ inches of rain we got, everything is nice and saturated which makes for iffy footing when you are riding in a pasture. On the plus side, however, some improvements to my arena worked and my arena had so minimal flooding that I would consider it a non-issue. YAY!!!!!!!!! On Tuesday I set up 2 jumps and threw a tarp over each so they appeared to be solid jumps and started off at 2'3", TWH didn't care. 2'6", TWH didn't care. 2'9", TWH didn't care. Finally at 3' TWH sank behind my leg as we came up to the jump but I gave a good kick and TWH touched it. Good Boy! It was very apparent during that schooling that NOT looking at the jump whatsoever is really working for me, even at the 3' jump it felt like TWH was giving me an extended canter stride instead of trying like hell to get over. This AM I jumped again, this time with an oxer and a vertical. The vertical started at 2'3" before jumping straight up to 3' (jumping the 2'6" oxer in between) and while TWH knocked the pole down the first time over 3', he then cleared each of the subsequent 4 times. He feels SO much better with my not looking at the jump, apparently I have been the problem all along! I am really, really looking forward to pictures of our stadium course. If not looking at the jump will fix the problems at home, can we actually pull in a stadium round that looks decent?!?!?!
We are now up to par on conditioning, I feel confident we can do our course. We are up to 5 minutes of cantering/two point and I will be adding the 6th minute tomorrow morning. I have been doing conditioning on our (dirt) road this week thanks to the rain and it is actually working out quite well for us. It doesn't have the hills that I want to have like my pasture does but it does have a decent surface to go on with definite markers so I can tell how far I have gone. One more minute and we are show ready! I don't know if I will have pictures of our show on Sunday as SO isn't planning on coming and RB4 hates to take pictures but hopefully we will get some from the official photographer if not. Updates to come after our show!
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Mia's first show Pt 2
When we finally got to the showgrounds, we had 40 minutes before our first class. Considering it is just dressage and I am not showing the App? That is pretty good time! The App always required a full hour of riding allotted before a class in case he was a firecracker on a pogo stick, which was half of the time. I got my back number and RB4 set to unwrapping and tacking Mia up. I got changed into dressage attire and swung aboard, let's see what kind of mare I will have today!
Aside from being convinced a gravel patch would swallow a horse hoof, Mia was very good. I walked her around for 5 solid minutes to loosen her up and picked up a trot. She was a little looky but not bad and her trot wasn't rushed. Good mare! Our first class was a walk/trot class only so I didn't work on any canter but worked on our transitions. When I saw the judge take a break for lunch, I meandered over and let Mia inspect the judges booth. She was very hesitant to walk up to it and when she finally put her nose on it, she left it there for about 3 seconds before she teleported to the left. I came *THIS* close to biting it and was barely able to grab the saddle pad to help keep myself upright. Ugh, we love our baby horses. We love our baby horses. We love our baby horses... keep telling myself this.
I made her walk back up to it and when she finally relaxed we walked off. It seemed like no time at all before the judge came back and we were up. Mia went into the arena very straight and even had a good halt! The turn left at C had a little bobble but then she was fine. She did a nice circle to the left that did not have her drifting her haunches out (yay!!) and her transition to medium walk was a little abrupt but not bad. Everything else rode very nicely! We walked out of the ring and I felt really good about our effort.
An hour later we tacked back up and warmed up. Mia was a little sticky in the canter transition but a quick smack with the dressage whip reminded her she needed to canter with her rear legs at the same time as her front legs and one reminder was all she needed.
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| Whose swanky van in the background? OURS! Cause only cool people haul to a horse show in a van. |
I glanced at the test and reminded myself I had to turn right at C. We trotted in and had a decent halt even though she took a step backwards when I went to proceed forward. I trotted around and had our canter transition which went really well, I then dropped into my walk when the bell rang. Oh crap, now what? The judge walked out and told me I had ridden the whole thing backwards, which was why my diagonal I needed didn't work out. He was waiting to see how I handled it lol! I COULD NOT believe I did that, in the 10 years of showing this is only the 2nd time I have EVER been off course! The judge was very nice and said this was a fun show, so why don't we just leave the arena and we will start from scratch? Great idea OMG!
The second ride went much, much better however when I got to C, I ALMOST turned fricken left AGAIN. What the heck brain??? When we went for our right canter transition Mia actually gave me the wrong lead? She hasn't done that in a long time!! I quickly took her out of it and fixed it, technically we were still in the first quarter of our circle, maybe it wouldn't be too bad? After our free walk Mia was a slug, she was hot and tired and she definitely didn't have the energy for that last trot but we finished the test.
Right after our last test they read the results of our first class, I listen for my name and nope, not 8th, that was good. Not 7th. Not 6th. Not 5th. Wow, not even 4th? NOT 3rd??? Mia got 2nd at her first ever class!! We brought her back to the trailer and untacked her, pulled her braids and rinsed her off while we waited for our results. The second results came really fast, we hadn't even wrapped her up and they called out the results, 2nd again! My Mia who was virtually unbroken 10 months ago got 2nd in both of her first dressage classes! I am so happy and excited! She was such a good mare and is getting much better about being hauled places. She didn't holler for other horses the entire time, she didn't spook at everything, she was the same horse that she is at home. That is AWESOME.
Oh and our tests? Intro B was a 68.750%. We got an 8, AN 8(!!!) on our freewalk! We got 7's on everything except our medium walk which was a 6.5 because she likes to come to an almost halt out of the trot. Go Mia! Intro C was a 66.250% with more 6.5's but 2 7.5's on our medium and free walk!!! We did get a 6 on our canter transition where she got the wrong lead first but a 6 still isn't bad at all. This mare and I, we are going to go places :-D
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Mia's first show Pt 1
I have been really excited for Mia's first show, there has been a lot of work put into her for this big debut and I really wanted everything go to well. When I got my ride times on Friday, our first class wasn't until noon. That is awesome, not only do I get to sleep in, but I can even bathe her on Sunday and not worry about having a filthy mess of a mare if I bathed on Saturday! I spent Saturday loading most of my trailer and cleaning my tack. Because, you know, you should really only clean your tack within 24 hours of a horse show.
Sunday I got up at 4a to go to the bathroom and horse brain said OMG HORSE SHOW! TIME TO GET UP!! Body said Hey Brain, screw off, we get to sleep 3 more hours, go to bed. It actually took a while to get back to sleep and I didn't sleep deeply before the alarm finally went off at 7a. Time for a horse show! I got up, fed the horses, fed the animals, ate breakfast and was ready to start getting everything ready at 745a. Win! I was rocking it! I pulled the truck up and hooked up the trailer, I had to pull forward a half inch to drop the latch as the ball was just a smidge too far back on the tongue. As I pulled forward, my foot went to the floor and I heard a slight *psssssstttt*. O. M. F. G. I pressed the brake again to make sure and yes, there was zero brake pressure and most definitely a hissing noise, that noise would be a popped brake line. What now?!?!
SO was outside at this point and we confirmed that yes, a brake line blew out, I certainly can't haul with it now! I was racing through thoughts of other alternatives when SO suggested I take The Van, well it should work right? "The Van" is a 9 passenger GMC Savannah that he very recently bought for his own hobby, it is technically a 1/2 ton truck with a van body and CAN haul, we just haven't actually done it yet. And it isn't wired for a 7 wire plug. And it doesn't have a brake controller. Yikes!!
Desperate times call for desperate measures however and my only options at 815a on a Sunday were to use The Van or scratch the show. It wasn't that expensive of a show if I ended up scratching but I had been looking forward to going for a good while now. SO was nice enough to make the decision for me and said if I was comfortable hauling without trailer brakes, he would get the van set up to haul us. Well, okay then! I have hauled in much, much, much worse rigs than I have now, no trailer brakes? Heck, that would be like when I would haul my 2 horse trailer with a Jeep Cherokee but only better because The Van was bigger and heavier. (Yes, yes I really did haul the App in an old 2 horse trailer with a straight 6 Cherokee with no trailer brakes. For over a year in fact until SO hauled with me ONCE and said I wasn't allowed to ever do it again) He drove off to (who knows what store) to get an additional ball since the trailer's ball sits on a hitch with a 5 inch drop, needless to say the van doesn't need that! While he did that, I got to bathing and braiding.
Bathing was a fast affair, I cheated and used the EZ-All bath spray again and got her mostly clean. For her first official bath, she did pretty well. No dancing or anything, once she realized I would let her eat grass if she stood still, still is what she decided she wanted to do. Good mare! After a quick bath it was time to start braiding. My fingers definitely do NOT remember how to braid dressage braids! It has only been over 5 years since I put them on the App, I guess I need to brush up on my skillz :) I started braiding when SO got back and brought the van up to the garage to get it ready. I was almost done when he was finished, he successfully hill-billy wired it for a 7 way plug, got the new ball on a 2 inch rise hitch and we hooked The Van up to the trailer. He is so awesome in doing all this frantic work for me, he is such a good guy!
RB4 arrived and helped me get the last of everything ready, we wrapped up Mia, loaded up some water, grabbed directions and off we went. With everything that happened, we were only running 20 minutes late from my planned departure time!! I have not been more thankful for always being so early for things haha, I would still have 40 minutes before my ride time when I got there! The first few stops weren't bad though we had to run the first stop light we came to that had a very fast yellow. Thankfully we were still out of town and nothing bad happened as a result, it made me slow way down at stop lights though. We got to the event with 45 minutes left before my ride time, time to get the party started!
Sunday I got up at 4a to go to the bathroom and horse brain said OMG HORSE SHOW! TIME TO GET UP!! Body said Hey Brain, screw off, we get to sleep 3 more hours, go to bed. It actually took a while to get back to sleep and I didn't sleep deeply before the alarm finally went off at 7a. Time for a horse show! I got up, fed the horses, fed the animals, ate breakfast and was ready to start getting everything ready at 745a. Win! I was rocking it! I pulled the truck up and hooked up the trailer, I had to pull forward a half inch to drop the latch as the ball was just a smidge too far back on the tongue. As I pulled forward, my foot went to the floor and I heard a slight *psssssstttt*. O. M. F. G. I pressed the brake again to make sure and yes, there was zero brake pressure and most definitely a hissing noise, that noise would be a popped brake line. What now?!?!
SO was outside at this point and we confirmed that yes, a brake line blew out, I certainly can't haul with it now! I was racing through thoughts of other alternatives when SO suggested I take The Van, well it should work right? "The Van" is a 9 passenger GMC Savannah that he very recently bought for his own hobby, it is technically a 1/2 ton truck with a van body and CAN haul, we just haven't actually done it yet. And it isn't wired for a 7 wire plug. And it doesn't have a brake controller. Yikes!!
Desperate times call for desperate measures however and my only options at 815a on a Sunday were to use The Van or scratch the show. It wasn't that expensive of a show if I ended up scratching but I had been looking forward to going for a good while now. SO was nice enough to make the decision for me and said if I was comfortable hauling without trailer brakes, he would get the van set up to haul us. Well, okay then! I have hauled in much, much, much worse rigs than I have now, no trailer brakes? Heck, that would be like when I would haul my 2 horse trailer with a Jeep Cherokee but only better because The Van was bigger and heavier. (Yes, yes I really did haul the App in an old 2 horse trailer with a straight 6 Cherokee with no trailer brakes. For over a year in fact until SO hauled with me ONCE and said I wasn't allowed to ever do it again) He drove off to (who knows what store) to get an additional ball since the trailer's ball sits on a hitch with a 5 inch drop, needless to say the van doesn't need that! While he did that, I got to bathing and braiding.
Bathing was a fast affair, I cheated and used the EZ-All bath spray again and got her mostly clean. For her first official bath, she did pretty well. No dancing or anything, once she realized I would let her eat grass if she stood still, still is what she decided she wanted to do. Good mare! After a quick bath it was time to start braiding. My fingers definitely do NOT remember how to braid dressage braids! It has only been over 5 years since I put them on the App, I guess I need to brush up on my skillz :) I started braiding when SO got back and brought the van up to the garage to get it ready. I was almost done when he was finished, he successfully hill-billy wired it for a 7 way plug, got the new ball on a 2 inch rise hitch and we hooked The Van up to the trailer. He is so awesome in doing all this frantic work for me, he is such a good guy!
RB4 arrived and helped me get the last of everything ready, we wrapped up Mia, loaded up some water, grabbed directions and off we went. With everything that happened, we were only running 20 minutes late from my planned departure time!! I have not been more thankful for always being so early for things haha, I would still have 40 minutes before my ride time when I got there! The first few stops weren't bad though we had to run the first stop light we came to that had a very fast yellow. Thankfully we were still out of town and nothing bad happened as a result, it made me slow way down at stop lights though. We got to the event with 45 minutes left before my ride time, time to get the party started!
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Finishing touches
Mia's first show is in 4 days. 4 days!!!!! She is doing really well, I am very proud of her progress over the past couple of weeks. At this rate, I think she will do really well at our show if she rides like she is here at the house :)
The dozen rides with draw reins has made Mia do a complete turnaround in how she is handling contact. She has always been very inconsistent and regularly dropped rein contact when she could, consistency has been our homework at all times. After riding with draw reins, however, she is now accepting contact without dropping it and is being very consistent about keeping it. Yay!! I have stopped riding in the draw reins (though they are still sitting in the arena just in case) and my 3rd ride without them at all was last night. I did have issues with Mia being abnormally heavy in the bridle but if that is the most I can complain about, I am okay with that. Consistency for the win!
Some of the other things we have achieved over the past few weeks have been the direct result of weak spots in our dressage tests. We are riding Intro B and Intro C as Mia still needs the basics confirmed, thus my decision to not attempt Training 1. Maybe at her next show?? The first piece that was completely lacking was a free walk, Mia had no true free walk. When you slipped her reins she wouldn't follow the contact down, she would instead hold her head where ever she felt comfortable until you picked the reins back up. And no, that isn't a free walk. We spent this past weekend installing a free walk and it is now pretty decent. I taught her how to do it by using her "head down" command over and over until she would walk with her head down and then continued until she would walk with her head down with contact. It is pretty obvious that it is still a new skill for her, as she isn't 100%, but she does pretty well at it and is consistent in doing it when asked. Yay!
Another task we had to work on was her enter down centerline to the halt. Being young and green, she trots and halts straight about like your Cousin Eddie at a your wedding reception after about 6 drinks. I haven't been able to completely fix this yet, however she is much better at going straight down centerline. I started by keeping both legs on (which didn't help), then using a leg to control her drift and then just asked for speed as she turned. Speed is what helped her be straight and now I have backed the speed off a little bit so she doesn't look like she is doing a lengthening as she comes to a halt lol. Last night I rode without applying speed down centerline and she was a little wobbly but not as bad as she has been. Progress!
Halting square is another issue we had to work on. This one is more complicated because it is a 50/50 shot on if she will halt square on her own so I am not correcting her every time anyway. I started by asking her to step forward with the leg that was back and she wasn't understanding the forward, she just kept moving off of my leg which meant going sideways. Ah mare, yes I appreciate your turns on the haunches, however this is a slightly different cue I am using :) I hopped off and started teaching her to pick up a specific foot when I tapped her leg and progressed until she would pick it up when I tapped her elbow and then mostly at her girth. After I hopped back on, she made the correlation pretty well and now will pick up her the front foot I ask for under saddle about 75% of the time. So now if she doesn't stop square, I have a shot of fixing the square-ness.
Lastly we have to work on the left canter transition, I assume because we have worked on the right SO MUCH (as it is her worst direction) she gives it to me without a fight and is quite fluid in picking it up. Her left, however, results in her cantering in the front for a stride or 2 while trotting in the rear before she picks it up. She doesn't always do this, but she does do it regularly enough to know she CAN do it correctly and chooses not to for some reason. I haven't found the magic button to fix it however if I carry a whip and give her a smack when she gives me a bad transition, she will usually stop doing it for the rest of the ride. Unfortunately I tend to not ride with a whip anymore so at least 50% of the time I forget to have one. This issue, unfortunately, hasn't yet been resolved however I am riding again tonight and am bringing the whip from the barn so I have it for when I start cantering. I think if I can be CONSISTENT in correcting her for a few rides, she will correct herself. Self accountability and all, you know? Stupid rider lol.
Other than these small issues, I think we are ready for our show. Keep your fingers crossed!
The dozen rides with draw reins has made Mia do a complete turnaround in how she is handling contact. She has always been very inconsistent and regularly dropped rein contact when she could, consistency has been our homework at all times. After riding with draw reins, however, she is now accepting contact without dropping it and is being very consistent about keeping it. Yay!! I have stopped riding in the draw reins (though they are still sitting in the arena just in case) and my 3rd ride without them at all was last night. I did have issues with Mia being abnormally heavy in the bridle but if that is the most I can complain about, I am okay with that. Consistency for the win!
Some of the other things we have achieved over the past few weeks have been the direct result of weak spots in our dressage tests. We are riding Intro B and Intro C as Mia still needs the basics confirmed, thus my decision to not attempt Training 1. Maybe at her next show?? The first piece that was completely lacking was a free walk, Mia had no true free walk. When you slipped her reins she wouldn't follow the contact down, she would instead hold her head where ever she felt comfortable until you picked the reins back up. And no, that isn't a free walk. We spent this past weekend installing a free walk and it is now pretty decent. I taught her how to do it by using her "head down" command over and over until she would walk with her head down and then continued until she would walk with her head down with contact. It is pretty obvious that it is still a new skill for her, as she isn't 100%, but she does pretty well at it and is consistent in doing it when asked. Yay!
Another task we had to work on was her enter down centerline to the halt. Being young and green, she trots and halts straight about like your Cousin Eddie at a your wedding reception after about 6 drinks. I haven't been able to completely fix this yet, however she is much better at going straight down centerline. I started by keeping both legs on (which didn't help), then using a leg to control her drift and then just asked for speed as she turned. Speed is what helped her be straight and now I have backed the speed off a little bit so she doesn't look like she is doing a lengthening as she comes to a halt lol. Last night I rode without applying speed down centerline and she was a little wobbly but not as bad as she has been. Progress!
Halting square is another issue we had to work on. This one is more complicated because it is a 50/50 shot on if she will halt square on her own so I am not correcting her every time anyway. I started by asking her to step forward with the leg that was back and she wasn't understanding the forward, she just kept moving off of my leg which meant going sideways. Ah mare, yes I appreciate your turns on the haunches, however this is a slightly different cue I am using :) I hopped off and started teaching her to pick up a specific foot when I tapped her leg and progressed until she would pick it up when I tapped her elbow and then mostly at her girth. After I hopped back on, she made the correlation pretty well and now will pick up her the front foot I ask for under saddle about 75% of the time. So now if she doesn't stop square, I have a shot of fixing the square-ness.
Lastly we have to work on the left canter transition, I assume because we have worked on the right SO MUCH (as it is her worst direction) she gives it to me without a fight and is quite fluid in picking it up. Her left, however, results in her cantering in the front for a stride or 2 while trotting in the rear before she picks it up. She doesn't always do this, but she does do it regularly enough to know she CAN do it correctly and chooses not to for some reason. I haven't found the magic button to fix it however if I carry a whip and give her a smack when she gives me a bad transition, she will usually stop doing it for the rest of the ride. Unfortunately I tend to not ride with a whip anymore so at least 50% of the time I forget to have one. This issue, unfortunately, hasn't yet been resolved however I am riding again tonight and am bringing the whip from the barn so I have it for when I start cantering. I think if I can be CONSISTENT in correcting her for a few rides, she will correct herself. Self accountability and all, you know? Stupid rider lol.
Other than these small issues, I think we are ready for our show. Keep your fingers crossed!
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Straight? Who said anything about going straight?
With a little over 1.5 weeks before Mia's first REAL SHOW, I need to get my butt into gear. Of course, that says nothing about the fact that TWH's next show is in a month and we haven't jumped since our last show. I am such a bad horse owner.
I have been riding Mia in draw reins attached to the saddle d rings to help her be a little more consistent in contact and it seems to be working quite well! She is MUCH better at the start of our rides and the canter has stopped becoming her throwing her head as high in the air as possible and is more about carrying herself almost properly. Yay! I am not a big gadget fan but I do know there is a place for gadgets and am not afraid to use them for the short time frames they may help. Hopefully within a month I can stop riding in the draw reins and have the contact I have been working on getting since February!
Last weekend I rode without the draw reins so I could evaluate her progress and it is quite impressive. Her temperament was much better than it can be, she picked up the contact at the walk right away and didn't fuss about it. Win! I was undecided on if we should ride Intro C/Training 1 at our show or Intro B/Intro C so I figured I might as well work on stretchy work. Mia already has a "head down" rein command and the trick is to continue that command until she can place her head in the desired position and then keep asking whenever she moves her head from the position. We started at a walk and it didn't take her too long before she realized what I wanted but her consistency isn't there. After riding the majority of the ride with her head down, I gathered her back up and compressed nicely and didn't fight at all. Yay!
I rode the Intro B, Intro C and Training 1 tests to see what I liked best and I am 100% sold on riding Intro B and Intro C. For her very first show, I want an enjoyable experience that won't happen if I am pushing to introduce new things a week before the show. Her free walk needs more work in getting consistency and her canter departure to the left needs more work as she isn't as quick as I would prefer. She needs to go straight (or even straight-ish) down the centerline and stop drifting through the halt. To add stretchy trots and quick transitions into the mix would set her up for failure.
I have ridden Intro B and C several times now and am fairly comfortable with them, I think we will finish and the show won't be a disaster. If I can get her polished a little more I think she will be spectacular and I am excited to see how she behaves! The show is August 3rd, so I have a little more than a week to get her going. She has come so far, can I get her up to par to be a true, blue show horse?
I have been riding Mia in draw reins attached to the saddle d rings to help her be a little more consistent in contact and it seems to be working quite well! She is MUCH better at the start of our rides and the canter has stopped becoming her throwing her head as high in the air as possible and is more about carrying herself almost properly. Yay! I am not a big gadget fan but I do know there is a place for gadgets and am not afraid to use them for the short time frames they may help. Hopefully within a month I can stop riding in the draw reins and have the contact I have been working on getting since February!
Last weekend I rode without the draw reins so I could evaluate her progress and it is quite impressive. Her temperament was much better than it can be, she picked up the contact at the walk right away and didn't fuss about it. Win! I was undecided on if we should ride Intro C/Training 1 at our show or Intro B/Intro C so I figured I might as well work on stretchy work. Mia already has a "head down" rein command and the trick is to continue that command until she can place her head in the desired position and then keep asking whenever she moves her head from the position. We started at a walk and it didn't take her too long before she realized what I wanted but her consistency isn't there. After riding the majority of the ride with her head down, I gathered her back up and compressed nicely and didn't fight at all. Yay!
I rode the Intro B, Intro C and Training 1 tests to see what I liked best and I am 100% sold on riding Intro B and Intro C. For her very first show, I want an enjoyable experience that won't happen if I am pushing to introduce new things a week before the show. Her free walk needs more work in getting consistency and her canter departure to the left needs more work as she isn't as quick as I would prefer. She needs to go straight (or even straight-ish) down the centerline and stop drifting through the halt. To add stretchy trots and quick transitions into the mix would set her up for failure.
I have ridden Intro B and C several times now and am fairly comfortable with them, I think we will finish and the show won't be a disaster. If I can get her polished a little more I think she will be spectacular and I am excited to see how she behaves! The show is August 3rd, so I have a little more than a week to get her going. She has come so far, can I get her up to par to be a true, blue show horse?
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Mia's first "show"
After riding Thursday and not feeling all too bad, I decided to suck it up and try riding at the judged trail ride. It was supposed to be a small one anyway, add that it was cheap and close? Why not! I truly had little expectation for this, I was going alone, Mia is still sometimes inconsistent, we haven't done a ton of trails and we haven't extensively schooled trail obstacles. I got up decently early (but after the sun was up!!) and Mia was pretty clean so a good hard grooming brought her to a wet-like shine and all ready to go. I wrapped her up and went to the trailer, I was curious if she would just hop in. The answer was a resounding no, she walked up to the trailer before deciding that Nope, No Thank You she had no desire to hop on. I pointed her at the trailer again and she instead backed up a lot. I put the stud chain on and yanked her a few times and grabbed the dressage whip. I am not going to allow bad habits to form! I pointed her at the trailer again and she stepped on my little toe/ring toe/middle toe as she came super close to knocking me down. She got a very serious smack with the whip on her neck and I lined her up and gave her a good hard smack on her butt. It worked, she jumped in the trailer. Win! I backed her out and we re-loaded 3 times before I locked her in and headed down the road. Baby horses, ugh.
We made it to the event with little difficulty and I signed up before taking her out of the trailer. Everyone had assigned ride times and went out in groups of 4, I had a 1.5 hour wait. I unloaded Mia and tied her up, she was very happy to munch her hay and didn't call out to anyone, that was a first! I chatted with a couple of people and even walked away from Mia and she didn't act up once. Success! Eventually I sought out the port-a-john and left Mia alone at the trailer. When I got back she was still quietly munching on hay, what a good horse. I hung out for a while before tacking up and walking over to the start to wait for my assigned group.
I immediately found a rider in my group and we chatted while I warmed up. Mia was nice and quiet at a walk and trot (!!!!) so I figured I would try a canter. Not only did Mia give me the canter right away, she did so with her head in a normal, non-giraffe position AND kept her shoulder upright. OMG I was so happy! A couple of people walking by said she looked really nice and the event photographer took several pictures of us, maybe I will find them posted somewhere.
Our group finally organized and headed out, the first obstacle was a rope gate, something we had practiced at the house! Mia was a little hesitant to walk up to it and then had a little bit of an issue after we walked through it but did it and was told out of the 40 people through so far, we were the 2nd to actually do it. Yay! We then had to pick up a rain slicker with the horse staying still and she didn't move. Good mare! The third obstacle was going up a hill and the fourth was going over a tarp, both of which she had no problem what-so-ever with. The fifth obstacle was a log pull, something else we had practiced, and she scored a 10. The sixth obstacle was a wooden "bridge", a wooden platform to walk over. Mia unfortunately lost her marbles and in the 2 minutes allowed could not fathom how to walk over it. She ducked out to the sides, wouldn't walk forward, jumped over the platform and just wouldn't walk on it. We got our only zero :(
The seventh obstacle was to trot through a square, circle around and stop in the square, turn around and walk out. Mia aced it, trot poles win! The eighth obstacle was going over logs which she was a little looky at but went over. The ninth was to take mail out of a mailbox which she didn't move a muscle for and the 10th was to dismount and have the horse stand still, again she did perfectly.
We ended up 10th out of 25 in our division which I thought was awesome! I didn't agree with some of the scores I got but hey, whatev's, I am so happy with her performance. We definitely know we need to work on bridges and I think she handled everything wonderfully. I need to submit my entry for a dressage show with her on the 3rd, hopefully I am able to actually go this time. I am so happy with my mare :)
*Edited to add* Come Sunday morning I woke up and my back didn't hurt any more than it did Saturday morning. Awesome! I am now at 95% and expect to be at 100% within days. Yay!
We made it to the event with little difficulty and I signed up before taking her out of the trailer. Everyone had assigned ride times and went out in groups of 4, I had a 1.5 hour wait. I unloaded Mia and tied her up, she was very happy to munch her hay and didn't call out to anyone, that was a first! I chatted with a couple of people and even walked away from Mia and she didn't act up once. Success! Eventually I sought out the port-a-john and left Mia alone at the trailer. When I got back she was still quietly munching on hay, what a good horse. I hung out for a while before tacking up and walking over to the start to wait for my assigned group.
I immediately found a rider in my group and we chatted while I warmed up. Mia was nice and quiet at a walk and trot (!!!!) so I figured I would try a canter. Not only did Mia give me the canter right away, she did so with her head in a normal, non-giraffe position AND kept her shoulder upright. OMG I was so happy! A couple of people walking by said she looked really nice and the event photographer took several pictures of us, maybe I will find them posted somewhere.
Our group finally organized and headed out, the first obstacle was a rope gate, something we had practiced at the house! Mia was a little hesitant to walk up to it and then had a little bit of an issue after we walked through it but did it and was told out of the 40 people through so far, we were the 2nd to actually do it. Yay! We then had to pick up a rain slicker with the horse staying still and she didn't move. Good mare! The third obstacle was going up a hill and the fourth was going over a tarp, both of which she had no problem what-so-ever with. The fifth obstacle was a log pull, something else we had practiced, and she scored a 10. The sixth obstacle was a wooden "bridge", a wooden platform to walk over. Mia unfortunately lost her marbles and in the 2 minutes allowed could not fathom how to walk over it. She ducked out to the sides, wouldn't walk forward, jumped over the platform and just wouldn't walk on it. We got our only zero :(
The seventh obstacle was to trot through a square, circle around and stop in the square, turn around and walk out. Mia aced it, trot poles win! The eighth obstacle was going over logs which she was a little looky at but went over. The ninth was to take mail out of a mailbox which she didn't move a muscle for and the 10th was to dismount and have the horse stand still, again she did perfectly.
We ended up 10th out of 25 in our division which I thought was awesome! I didn't agree with some of the scores I got but hey, whatev's, I am so happy with her performance. We definitely know we need to work on bridges and I think she handled everything wonderfully. I need to submit my entry for a dressage show with her on the 3rd, hopefully I am able to actually go this time. I am so happy with my mare :)
*Edited to add* Come Sunday morning I woke up and my back didn't hurt any more than it did Saturday morning. Awesome! I am now at 95% and expect to be at 100% within days. Yay!
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Mia's turnaround
After our last ride where Mia had to argue, my next ride went fantastically. My next possible dressage show with her is at the beginning of August thanks to schedule issues however there is a judged trail ride in 2 weeks (now this weekend!). Maybe that kind of exposure would be really good for her! With that in mind I set up some obstacles. I had poles set up to walk through, an L set of poles to sidepass through, a tarp to walk on, a stick in a bucket to pick up/drop off, a grain bag on a jump standard to pick up and carry, a grain bag filled with twine that was hanging to drag across the arena and tie up somewhere else and a pole to walk underneath.
Surprisingly Mia did fantastically and was able to do ALL of them and didn't spook or shy away from any of it. ANY OF IT!! Did she care that we drug a bag across the arena? Nope! Did she worry about the tarp, not even a blink. Did she care about the grain bag? Well she did pick her head up and see what it was, that was it. Amazing. Afterwards I did a quick w/t/c session and Mia was awesome, she didn't try to take off. She didn't try to throw her head in the air, she acted like a nice, normal, mostly trained horse. Success!
Unfortunately after this I hurt my back again. Fairly badly and I have been out of commission for a week. I am TRYING to go to the judged trail ride this weekend, I am going to ride her for the first time in 2 weeks tonight to see how my back feels. It is still sore but it doesn't hurt to move like it did so I am hoping that a quick ride won't do me in and I can ride this weekend.
Sorry for the sparse updates, I started writing this almost 2 weeks ago and then got hurt and then got busy (got our 350 bales of hay, moved 2 cord of wood, picked/mowed the pasture just for starters) so I didn't get to finish it. Hopefully I will have updates from the weekend, maybe I can find time somewhere :)
Surprisingly Mia did fantastically and was able to do ALL of them and didn't spook or shy away from any of it. ANY OF IT!! Did she care that we drug a bag across the arena? Nope! Did she worry about the tarp, not even a blink. Did she care about the grain bag? Well she did pick her head up and see what it was, that was it. Amazing. Afterwards I did a quick w/t/c session and Mia was awesome, she didn't try to take off. She didn't try to throw her head in the air, she acted like a nice, normal, mostly trained horse. Success!
Unfortunately after this I hurt my back again. Fairly badly and I have been out of commission for a week. I am TRYING to go to the judged trail ride this weekend, I am going to ride her for the first time in 2 weeks tonight to see how my back feels. It is still sore but it doesn't hurt to move like it did so I am hoping that a quick ride won't do me in and I can ride this weekend.
Sorry for the sparse updates, I started writing this almost 2 weeks ago and then got hurt and then got busy (got our 350 bales of hay, moved 2 cord of wood, picked/mowed the pasture just for starters) so I didn't get to finish it. Hopefully I will have updates from the weekend, maybe I can find time somewhere :)
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