So preparations for Mia's next show are not going as well as I would like, I have an alarmingly laid back attitude towards it. Yikes?!?! The show is a week and a half away and last night I just did some basic fitness and I rode her once 5 days prior in dressage? I am putting my big girl cap on though and am planning on riding every day until the show. SO is out of town this weekend which makes it much easier as well as I don't have him trying to lure me away with fun or work things to do.
Mia's dressage ride went pretty well, she is SO much more consistent in the bridle now! We are working on trying to get true bend in the trot and it is much better. I would really like to take a lesson before the show but I don't think it will happen, oh well. Tonight I will ride her in dressage again and really buckle down to get things accomplished.
I had a really, really fun trip last weekend where I went to the Ohio Quarter Horse Congress and also visited all of my friends I left behind when I moved. I really, really miss my network of people and I had the warm fuzzies when I thought about the sheer number of individual people that wanted me to visit them and made time out of their day for me to do so. Awwww :) I even went to a hunter pace, a friend brought a TB/Arab cross for me to ride. Despite never having seen the horse before, his resfusal to stand still for mounting and his pulling dirty stops for the first 20 mins of the ride, I actually had a really, REALLY good time. After he determined I was not going to just fall off and I WAS going to force him over the jumps, the gelding jumped everything and we had a fabulous ride. It was a lot closer to a cross country ride versus a trail ride and it was awesome. LOVED IT!! It put me in such a good mood, added to the fact I was actually on vacation, I was floating on cloud 9 for the whole trip.
The last piece of news I have is a biggie, I may have found a leasee for TWH! I have really been at an impasse with him as I really don't want to sell him but as I show Mia next year, I really don't have a use for him. He isn't quiet enough for lessons as he takes his confidence from his riders. He isn't talented enough to move up through eventing due to his gaitedness. I have been actively trying to find a leasee for him for a few months (remember, I even asked my readers!) and haven't had any real interest. It is odd because where I used to live, finding someone to lease was super easy! Anyway, I had placed as on Facebook, DreamHorse and Craigslist and I got a random email from Craigslist from a well spoken gal inquiring about TWH. We emailed back and forth, had a quick phone call, she came out and fell in love with TWH. I mean, everyone always does, but it was good she did too haha.
I told her I am looking for a long term lease and that she is able to show him if that what she wants to do. I showed her TWH's basic movements and we went over a 2'6" jump before I had her ride. It took her a few tries to get the trot and then a few more tries to get the canter but then was able to get his gaits without an issue. She then went over an 18" crossrail and said she loved his jump, he rocks back onto his haunches and is super round. He doesn't run at the jump or run away afterwards and she was very happy. So I sent her the lease agreement and she starts tonight actually! She was a good rider with really quiet hands and seemed to know her way around. I am requiring her to ride when I am there for the first 30 days so that we can work out any questions and she can get to know TWH before being "on her own". She is also interested in coming to my show on the 26th with TWH and showing the greenie division, how cool! Her name is K and I am excited to see how she works out :)
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Bit of a lull so some quick updates
Things went from crazy busy before the Mia's show to insane. I had to travel out of town for a wedding, we had to move half of our wood for the winter, change insurance companies thanks to yet another huge increase (now THAT will suck the life out of you) and general life getting in the way. My intention was to show TWH at the last show of the season on Oct 4/5. I was kind of excited about it too, it was at the same venue as the first show of the year and it was the last show we could earn points at and is possibly the last time I will be showing TWH in eventing (unless some magic pocketbook opens up and dumps some cash on me, I also take sponsors lol!). Best laid plans, however, did not pull through. I simply don't have the funds to go and even if I did, I haven't been riding him enough. With 2 weeks before the show and I haven't ridden him more than a few times since Mia's show, it just wouldn't really be fair. *insert sad face*
It is pretty disappointing but I am in a lull anyway so it is par for the course. Interestingly enough, it seems that a lot of my blogger friends are experiencing the same so I don't feel *quite* as bad. Hopefully I can snap the heck out of it. Add to it that my blog has dropped in page hits to half of their paltry number, it is a little disappointing. I was super excited to see I now have 25 followers (HEY ALL!!!) but I didn't even get 20 hits on my last post about Mia's show. I guess I didn't realize how awesome it was to know that people actually read my crappy writing and how much it helped spur me forward. Alas, it will get better soon, I have to ride before deathwinter 2014 comes along and I can't ride becase it won't get above 10 degrees. I blog just to track my progress, not for anyone else (that's just a bonus), so I shouldn't care if anyone reads it.
I did ride Mia last, I hadn't ridden her in about a week and surprisingly enough she did not throw a marefit about it and rode quite nicely! She has a very big tendency to be very consistent with consistent work but time off requires a good hard reminder that she should listen, this time I didn't get that attitude! A bit heavy in the bridle, a little lax in her trot/canter transitions but overall it was quite nice. I just bebopped around to get some saddle time in, I wasn't working on anything hard but was quite impressed with the mare's willingness. I hope it sticks around! We finished the ride with some basics, moving the quarters, sidepassing and backing. She was quite happy to ignore my leg when asking to move her haunches but a quick tap with the whip reminded her that ignoring isn't the best option. We finished on a good note and she got some carrots to help soothe her ego.
The App is doing really well, after he had his hocks injected (April? May? I can't keep track) he started moving really well. Giving him an IV injection of polyglycan once a month and giving him Smartsox plus MSM daily has made him a very sound and happy old man! He has lost a bit of weight as summer goes away, just like he has for the past 5 years, so he is now getting an alfalfa cube mush twice a day plus he is being left in overnight so he can be parked in front of a hay bag. He is gaining what he lost pretty quickly, thankfully, and I am glad I noticed it at the beginning of Sept instead of now because the cooler it is, the harder it is to get the weight on. Once it is on, however, we have to practically chisel it off, go figure!
I am seriously looking for people who would want to lease TWH next year to event with. If you are in the MI region, aren't afraid of a crazy internet blogger and want a horse that will event straight out of the box, send me your email and, if you are serious, I may come out of hiding and meet someone!
It is pretty disappointing but I am in a lull anyway so it is par for the course. Interestingly enough, it seems that a lot of my blogger friends are experiencing the same so I don't feel *quite* as bad. Hopefully I can snap the heck out of it. Add to it that my blog has dropped in page hits to half of their paltry number, it is a little disappointing. I was super excited to see I now have 25 followers (HEY ALL!!!) but I didn't even get 20 hits on my last post about Mia's show. I guess I didn't realize how awesome it was to know that people actually read my crappy writing and how much it helped spur me forward. Alas, it will get better soon, I have to ride before deathwinter 2014 comes along and I can't ride becase it won't get above 10 degrees. I blog just to track my progress, not for anyone else (that's just a bonus), so I shouldn't care if anyone reads it.
I did ride Mia last, I hadn't ridden her in about a week and surprisingly enough she did not throw a marefit about it and rode quite nicely! She has a very big tendency to be very consistent with consistent work but time off requires a good hard reminder that she should listen, this time I didn't get that attitude! A bit heavy in the bridle, a little lax in her trot/canter transitions but overall it was quite nice. I just bebopped around to get some saddle time in, I wasn't working on anything hard but was quite impressed with the mare's willingness. I hope it sticks around! We finished the ride with some basics, moving the quarters, sidepassing and backing. She was quite happy to ignore my leg when asking to move her haunches but a quick tap with the whip reminded her that ignoring isn't the best option. We finished on a good note and she got some carrots to help soothe her ego.
The App is doing really well, after he had his hocks injected (April? May? I can't keep track) he started moving really well. Giving him an IV injection of polyglycan once a month and giving him Smartsox plus MSM daily has made him a very sound and happy old man! He has lost a bit of weight as summer goes away, just like he has for the past 5 years, so he is now getting an alfalfa cube mush twice a day plus he is being left in overnight so he can be parked in front of a hay bag. He is gaining what he lost pretty quickly, thankfully, and I am glad I noticed it at the beginning of Sept instead of now because the cooler it is, the harder it is to get the weight on. Once it is on, however, we have to practically chisel it off, go figure!
I am seriously looking for people who would want to lease TWH next year to event with. If you are in the MI region, aren't afraid of a crazy internet blogger and want a horse that will event straight out of the box, send me your email and, if you are serious, I may come out of hiding and meet someone!
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Mia's eventing debut Pt 2
Sunday I was up bright and early to get ready, well not bright. I was again bathing a horse by a lightbulb. Mia wasn't happy about a bath and wiggled a lot until she realized I would let her eat grass if she stood still. Being as food motivated as she was, it didn't take her long to figure this out and our bath went well enough. I brought her in to braid as the sun was coming up and Mia was bored. She moved forward. She moved back. She moved away from me. She put her head down. She put her head up. I spent over an hour braiding (or trying to) and I never even finished! At the 75 minute mark, RB4 showed up and held her still while I tied up some of the braids, then and we had to wrap and load her up. We finished her forelock at the show, it took almost 1.5 hours to braid the mare. Grrr!!!!
Thankfully the rest of the day went much better. I got changed while RB4 tacked Mia up and we went into warmup. The grass was super wet so they were thankfully letting everyone warm up in the sand. Mia was really good, like really, really good! Nice and quiet in the bridle, prompt with transitions and not fussy at all! Apparently dressage and running her cross country the day before so she was tired and agreeable was a great idea. We finally went into the ring and showed our stuff. Our first circle could have used a little more bend but was very consistent. Our canter was nice (!!) though our free walk wasn't great, she had a good walk but wasn't consistent in her stretch down. Our trot was nice and balanced, her right canter was a little quicker than I hoped but it is her bad direction so not unexpected. Our final trot down centerline was a little wobbly and she wasn't square, but for our first BN test I was very happy! We headed back to the trailer to wait 2 hours for cross country.
About 45 minutes prior to cross country, RB4 and I meandered over to see the scores. Yep, there was our name, yep there was Mia, OMG our score was a 35.8!! OMG we are in 3rd place!! Not only did we have all 6's and 7's, we even got an 8 on our medium walk. An 8!!!! The judges comments said that she needed a little more bend, could reach more in the walk but she was prompt, balanced (4 times!) and "very accurate"! The judge said "scores will greatly improve with more suppleness through her topline" and we were "headed in right direction". Yay!!!
We tacked up 30 minutes prior to cross country, I wanted to give her plenty of time to be spooky, excited or weird during warmup but I was nervous for nothing. Mia was a super chill mare and was practically snoozing as everyone was running around in the warmup ring. The exact opposite from what I expected! I let her stand around until we were 3 horses from our go time and then pushed her over the crossrail,then vertical and she was awesome. I bopped her over the oxer and she knocked a rail down. RB4 was right there and set it back up, I gave Mia a nice smack with the crop and then she sailed over it with no issues for 3 times so we walked over to the cross country warmup fence. It was a BN barn but we had never jumped it before. Mia didn't get her striding right and banged her leg pretty hard on it as we went over but she went over without stopping or refusing. I set her up to it a second time and this time I think I saw her knees as we sailed over it, she did NOT want to do that again!
It was finally our time, after watching the previous horse freak going into the start box and have to be hand walked in, Mia decided it was a great place to nap lol. I gave her a nudge 10 seconds out and tried to wake her up as we started out. She headed to fence one and while she weaved approaching the jump, she went over it. I made a sharp turn to the right so I had plenty of time to be straight for 2 since we had issues yesterday and she was again a little wiggly and jumped 2 at an angle but was clear. Yay! Jump 3 was easy and 4 went by with me barely knowing she jumped anything. Jump 5 was a roll top into the woods and she got the striding wrong and hit her legs as we went over but was clear. At this point we were barely at a minute and I had to burn up a lot of time so we trotted through the woods to fence 6, trotted very slowly but avoided the willful delay penalty haha!
Fence 6 was on the top of a hill and the stride immediately following the landing was on a hill, Mia LOVED that jump on Saturday and today was no exception. She really seemed to enjoy being able to run down the hill after landing, silly horse. Jump 7 was an ascending oxer which posed no problem. Jump 8 wasn't an issue but right before 8 was a truck holding the volunteers. Mia thought we should pay attention to them more and I had to tug on her to remind her to look for a jump!! We trotted slowly down a small hill to get to 9 and saw we still had over a minute to burn up, damn! If I finished RIGHT NOW I would be too fast. We went over 9 and slowly trotted to 10. Even though we were trotting slowly, it did not help her steering and she was SO wiggly and drifted all over the place. 10 was uneventful and we trotted over to the bank up to the water. On Saturday she tried to jump over the water, again almost helping me fall off. This time I sat way up and back and Mia trotted into the water like she never thought to do anything different. Geez mare. We cantered through the water but trotted over to 13. 13 was a max height/width table so I gave her a good boot into a canter before the jump and she was perfect. 14 was a stadium oxer which posed no problem and we approached the final jump. 15 was a vertical that sat on the top of a hill, you had to jump up hill to get over it. Mia was pretty tired at this point and wasn't careful, she knocked the top rail of 15 off as we went over it and cantered into the finish 15 seconds before optimum time.
I was really disappointed about the rail but was SO happy with her behavior. She was obviously very green but she handled all that I threw at her with such maturity, regardless of the placing the show was a success! Not to worry though, even with pulling a rail she still placed 3rd out of 9. And if she hadn't pulled a rail? She would have placed 2nd. OMG that is awesome! Mia got a good rubdown with liniment and then some poultice, she will now have a good week off. Her next show won't be until the end of October, I am excited to see how she progresses!
Thankfully the rest of the day went much better. I got changed while RB4 tacked Mia up and we went into warmup. The grass was super wet so they were thankfully letting everyone warm up in the sand. Mia was really good, like really, really good! Nice and quiet in the bridle, prompt with transitions and not fussy at all! Apparently dressage and running her cross country the day before so she was tired and agreeable was a great idea. We finally went into the ring and showed our stuff. Our first circle could have used a little more bend but was very consistent. Our canter was nice (!!) though our free walk wasn't great, she had a good walk but wasn't consistent in her stretch down. Our trot was nice and balanced, her right canter was a little quicker than I hoped but it is her bad direction so not unexpected. Our final trot down centerline was a little wobbly and she wasn't square, but for our first BN test I was very happy! We headed back to the trailer to wait 2 hours for cross country.
About 45 minutes prior to cross country, RB4 and I meandered over to see the scores. Yep, there was our name, yep there was Mia, OMG our score was a 35.8!! OMG we are in 3rd place!! Not only did we have all 6's and 7's, we even got an 8 on our medium walk. An 8!!!! The judges comments said that she needed a little more bend, could reach more in the walk but she was prompt, balanced (4 times!) and "very accurate"! The judge said "scores will greatly improve with more suppleness through her topline" and we were "headed in right direction". Yay!!!
We tacked up 30 minutes prior to cross country, I wanted to give her plenty of time to be spooky, excited or weird during warmup but I was nervous for nothing. Mia was a super chill mare and was practically snoozing as everyone was running around in the warmup ring. The exact opposite from what I expected! I let her stand around until we were 3 horses from our go time and then pushed her over the crossrail,then vertical and she was awesome. I bopped her over the oxer and she knocked a rail down. RB4 was right there and set it back up, I gave Mia a nice smack with the crop and then she sailed over it with no issues for 3 times so we walked over to the cross country warmup fence. It was a BN barn but we had never jumped it before. Mia didn't get her striding right and banged her leg pretty hard on it as we went over but she went over without stopping or refusing. I set her up to it a second time and this time I think I saw her knees as we sailed over it, she did NOT want to do that again!
It was finally our time, after watching the previous horse freak going into the start box and have to be hand walked in, Mia decided it was a great place to nap lol. I gave her a nudge 10 seconds out and tried to wake her up as we started out. She headed to fence one and while she weaved approaching the jump, she went over it. I made a sharp turn to the right so I had plenty of time to be straight for 2 since we had issues yesterday and she was again a little wiggly and jumped 2 at an angle but was clear. Yay! Jump 3 was easy and 4 went by with me barely knowing she jumped anything. Jump 5 was a roll top into the woods and she got the striding wrong and hit her legs as we went over but was clear. At this point we were barely at a minute and I had to burn up a lot of time so we trotted through the woods to fence 6, trotted very slowly but avoided the willful delay penalty haha!
Fence 6 was on the top of a hill and the stride immediately following the landing was on a hill, Mia LOVED that jump on Saturday and today was no exception. She really seemed to enjoy being able to run down the hill after landing, silly horse. Jump 7 was an ascending oxer which posed no problem. Jump 8 wasn't an issue but right before 8 was a truck holding the volunteers. Mia thought we should pay attention to them more and I had to tug on her to remind her to look for a jump!! We trotted slowly down a small hill to get to 9 and saw we still had over a minute to burn up, damn! If I finished RIGHT NOW I would be too fast. We went over 9 and slowly trotted to 10. Even though we were trotting slowly, it did not help her steering and she was SO wiggly and drifted all over the place. 10 was uneventful and we trotted over to the bank up to the water. On Saturday she tried to jump over the water, again almost helping me fall off. This time I sat way up and back and Mia trotted into the water like she never thought to do anything different. Geez mare. We cantered through the water but trotted over to 13. 13 was a max height/width table so I gave her a good boot into a canter before the jump and she was perfect. 14 was a stadium oxer which posed no problem and we approached the final jump. 15 was a vertical that sat on the top of a hill, you had to jump up hill to get over it. Mia was pretty tired at this point and wasn't careful, she knocked the top rail of 15 off as we went over it and cantered into the finish 15 seconds before optimum time.
I was really disappointed about the rail but was SO happy with her behavior. She was obviously very green but she handled all that I threw at her with such maturity, regardless of the placing the show was a success! Not to worry though, even with pulling a rail she still placed 3rd out of 9. And if she hadn't pulled a rail? She would have placed 2nd. OMG that is awesome! Mia got a good rubdown with liniment and then some poultice, she will now have a good week off. Her next show won't be until the end of October, I am excited to see how she progresses!
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Mia's eventing debut Pt 1
With Mia's 1 year anniversary coming up, I wanted to see how she looked compared to how I got her. Her feet are now 100% mine and while there is still a single crack in her right front that has never gone away, her feet look awesome. I loaded up the camera and got some pictures. It wasn't until I made comparison shots that I was blown away! Left pic 9.6.14, right pic 10.3.13
I just can't even! The amount of muscle is super impressive. Her neck looks to be doubled in size! She holds it much nicer now and it isn't very ewe-necky at all! Her topline has filled out significantly and her build is much thicker. Go Mia! The only thing that would have been better is if I had some actually GOOD lighting, this was taken in the shade as the afternoon sun was way too harsh for any decent pics, this girl is super shiny!
Saturday was finally here, time to go cross country schooling before the big day! Eventually, anyway. I decided it was probably a good idea to ride dressage first since I hadn't been able to ride in a couple of days (BAD, BAD, BAD RIDER!) so I hopped on and was so glad I did, Mia was HORRIBLE. I rode outside in the pasture so I could simulate the conditions for Sunday and she just couldn't function. Bolting into trot transitions. Refusing to bend At All. No consistent contact. If I gave her a correction, she would double her efforts in offence of the correction. A solid 30 minutes of fighting went on before she finally decided to give a half rear in defiance. I absolutely flipped my lid, absolutely not mare! By this time I had a dressage whip and I put her nose to my knee while I smacked her with the whip on the haunches and forced her to spin a few times. I then made her stand there as I made her bend her nose to touch each of my toes. I walked her forward again, asking for simple bend and she threw her head up and around in defiance so I planted her nose to my knee again and smacked her again, hard. Girl, you need to stop being so much of a redhead! That seemed to do it, as soon as I let go of her nose her attitude was different. She stopped fighting and was agreeable. We did not only some walk/trot but was even able to get a canter transition that was good! We finished by going in the arena and riding the test twice (just to be sure lol) and had not a single argument. Phew! I untacked her and let her back out into the pasture so she could relax for the 5 hours before cross country schooling. Hopefully that would go better than dressage!
Mia was easy to catch and loaded right up into the trailer and we made it to the farm with no difficulties. We tacked up and started the course, she was a cool cucumber. Mia didn't scream for the other horses milling around and wasn't at all hot and excited, win!! We started out introducing the start box and Mia didn't care. We walked over to the first fence, a cross rail sitting between to 2 pine trees. It was a little dark over the jump and Mia stopped at the fence so I gave her a good smack and she stepped over it. I rode her to it again, this time at a canter, and she almost stopped in front of the jump before jumping it. This, of course, threw me way forward and if she had stopped I would have come off. Ride defensive silly!!! I made her go over it about 6 times before being happy that Mia wouldn't stop and we went to fence 2, a vertical. It was another one that she came up to before she stopped. Uh, mare? These are little stadium fences, you shouldn't be stopping! She got a hard smack with a crop for refusing and I circled her around again. This time I sat WAY back and she jumped over it without looking at it. Silly mare! Fence 3 was a stadium oxer and she hopped over it like it was nothing. Yay no refusal! Fence 4 was our first cross country fence and not only did Mia not refuse, she took it in stride and was awesome! The rest of the ride, actually, was awesome! I went over everything 2-3 times and at the end I rode the entire course from start to finish and she was perfect. Yay!! In other news, a Beginner Novice course feels SO slow and short compared to a Novice course HAHA!! I guess all that time with TWH is paying off, when I was done with Mia's course I was thinking, Gee, that's it??
Time to get a good night sleep and go to our first eventing show in the morning!
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| Funny, her neck looked SO long and now looks SO short! |
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| Click to view large :) |
Saturday was finally here, time to go cross country schooling before the big day! Eventually, anyway. I decided it was probably a good idea to ride dressage first since I hadn't been able to ride in a couple of days (BAD, BAD, BAD RIDER!) so I hopped on and was so glad I did, Mia was HORRIBLE. I rode outside in the pasture so I could simulate the conditions for Sunday and she just couldn't function. Bolting into trot transitions. Refusing to bend At All. No consistent contact. If I gave her a correction, she would double her efforts in offence of the correction. A solid 30 minutes of fighting went on before she finally decided to give a half rear in defiance. I absolutely flipped my lid, absolutely not mare! By this time I had a dressage whip and I put her nose to my knee while I smacked her with the whip on the haunches and forced her to spin a few times. I then made her stand there as I made her bend her nose to touch each of my toes. I walked her forward again, asking for simple bend and she threw her head up and around in defiance so I planted her nose to my knee again and smacked her again, hard. Girl, you need to stop being so much of a redhead! That seemed to do it, as soon as I let go of her nose her attitude was different. She stopped fighting and was agreeable. We did not only some walk/trot but was even able to get a canter transition that was good! We finished by going in the arena and riding the test twice (just to be sure lol) and had not a single argument. Phew! I untacked her and let her back out into the pasture so she could relax for the 5 hours before cross country schooling. Hopefully that would go better than dressage!
Mia was easy to catch and loaded right up into the trailer and we made it to the farm with no difficulties. We tacked up and started the course, she was a cool cucumber. Mia didn't scream for the other horses milling around and wasn't at all hot and excited, win!! We started out introducing the start box and Mia didn't care. We walked over to the first fence, a cross rail sitting between to 2 pine trees. It was a little dark over the jump and Mia stopped at the fence so I gave her a good smack and she stepped over it. I rode her to it again, this time at a canter, and she almost stopped in front of the jump before jumping it. This, of course, threw me way forward and if she had stopped I would have come off. Ride defensive silly!!! I made her go over it about 6 times before being happy that Mia wouldn't stop and we went to fence 2, a vertical. It was another one that she came up to before she stopped. Uh, mare? These are little stadium fences, you shouldn't be stopping! She got a hard smack with a crop for refusing and I circled her around again. This time I sat WAY back and she jumped over it without looking at it. Silly mare! Fence 3 was a stadium oxer and she hopped over it like it was nothing. Yay no refusal! Fence 4 was our first cross country fence and not only did Mia not refuse, she took it in stride and was awesome! The rest of the ride, actually, was awesome! I went over everything 2-3 times and at the end I rode the entire course from start to finish and she was perfect. Yay!! In other news, a Beginner Novice course feels SO slow and short compared to a Novice course HAHA!! I guess all that time with TWH is paying off, when I was done with Mia's course I was thinking, Gee, that's it??
Time to get a good night sleep and go to our first eventing show in the morning!
Friday, August 29, 2014
Mia'a afterburners are currently cooling off
With our first eventing derby in a week and a half (!!!!) I figured it was high time to get back to jumping since we are going Beginner Novice instead of starter. Funny enough, the dressage is the scary part with TWH. So far, I am completely not stressed about the dressage test with Mia. Ha! I am sure that will change as the date draws near but it is how I feel right now. A very pleasant change.
I rode Mia in dressage on Monday and we ended up doing 20 mins of walk work reminding Mia that she is not allowed to keep 40 pounds of pressure on each rein as we walk around, that she cannot drift her shoulders, that she should not bump her outside shoulder out so that she runs my leg into the wall, that she should not drift her hindquarters out on a circle instead of bending and that she should halt and then stay still when she does so. For whatever reason Mia decided some of the basics had escaped her! After some arguing and redhead attitude being flung around, she settled down and decided that she might as well see what I do if she listened. Ah, mares!
After the walk work fixed most of the attitude issues, we actually had a spectacular ride! She is so consistent in the bridle now which resolves most of the issues we have been fighting so we may actually make some real training progress. Her canter required a little work to remind her that her head should not be in my lap but I am feeling good about the dressage work. I am going to ride her again this weekend a few times and introduce the dressage test, wish us luck!
Yesterday I figured it was time to start jumping so I brought RB4 over and we set up 2 small jumps on each side of my arena, one a 2' vertical that had 4 trot poles and one an 18" cross rail. Mia took the first time over as a warmup before settling into a nice rhythm and was jumping things nicely. My habit of slipping the reins over the jump is currently a really bad idea for Mia, she really needs the support after the fence and giving her free rein makes her either really speed up and take off or stumble and practically drag her nose on the ground after the fence. I am working on it, habits are hard and this one is actually a good one mostly.
After bumping her up to 2'6" over the trot poles, I had RB4 move the vertical up to a 2'6" oxer which seemed to surprise Mia but she handled it quite well. No poles being knocked down and no real rushing. Success! After a few times over that, I had RB4 move the trot pole jump up to 2'9", the highest we have ever jumped under saddle! Unfortunately it was too hard for Mia, she kept bringing the fence down until RB4 suggested removing 2 of the trot poles to give her more time to be ready. That seemed to do the trick as Mia then stopped knocking it over and would alternate between jumping it really nicely and jumping it with her hoof rockets being on full power. She would get in front of the jump and at the tiniest, slightest bump of the leg she would accelerate and try to canter the trot poles and then leap over the jump. We gotta fix that!
After finding the combo of absolutely no leg, lots of rein to balance on each side of the jump and staying slightly behind the motion, we were finally able to go over the 2'9" without knocking it down or letting the hoof rockets stay at full power. Feeling brave and having no value to my life, I had RB4 go ahead and raise the (super skinny) ascending oxer fence to 3 foot. Yes, 3 foot high! The highest we would have jumped by 6 inches! There was a ground line but no trot poles, it was all me to get her ready before and after the fence. The first time over she cleared it and jumped it like it was a little 2'6" jump!! I was very excited but the next time over she knocked the top rail. And the next time. And the subsequent 3 times. I decided to change it up and instead of riding her to the fence like the 2'9" fence, I would apply leg and see if that extra push would get her over. Well, that was apparently the right answer to clear the jump. RB4 said Mia lifted her knees so high they were above the horizontal and her hocks went almost in line to her stifles she was trying so hard to clear the fence. She also was in a flat hand gallop when we landed and it took me half of my arena to get her back to a trot! We walked around and told her what a good girl she was before trying again, again with lots of leg. She again took down the top rail of the oxer, hmmm she is going to be tricky as we learn this huh? I went one last time and didn't apply as much leg and and she did very well and cleared the what I determined was the last jump of the night.
I am not quite sure how to take her jumping, we obviously need more grid work to get her solid but at least she is jumping, not refusing, not ducking out and is ok with bringing the fence down instead. I would much, much rather have a horse bring a fence down than refuse. And the extra bursts of (extreme) speed she likes to give will do well on cross country. I am really looking forward to schooling cross country the day before the show, I think it will do us both really well and will be good confidence booster for her. This week is a good mix of dressage and jumping, so little time before our first jumping show!!
I rode Mia in dressage on Monday and we ended up doing 20 mins of walk work reminding Mia that she is not allowed to keep 40 pounds of pressure on each rein as we walk around, that she cannot drift her shoulders, that she should not bump her outside shoulder out so that she runs my leg into the wall, that she should not drift her hindquarters out on a circle instead of bending and that she should halt and then stay still when she does so. For whatever reason Mia decided some of the basics had escaped her! After some arguing and redhead attitude being flung around, she settled down and decided that she might as well see what I do if she listened. Ah, mares!
After the walk work fixed most of the attitude issues, we actually had a spectacular ride! She is so consistent in the bridle now which resolves most of the issues we have been fighting so we may actually make some real training progress. Her canter required a little work to remind her that her head should not be in my lap but I am feeling good about the dressage work. I am going to ride her again this weekend a few times and introduce the dressage test, wish us luck!
Yesterday I figured it was time to start jumping so I brought RB4 over and we set up 2 small jumps on each side of my arena, one a 2' vertical that had 4 trot poles and one an 18" cross rail. Mia took the first time over as a warmup before settling into a nice rhythm and was jumping things nicely. My habit of slipping the reins over the jump is currently a really bad idea for Mia, she really needs the support after the fence and giving her free rein makes her either really speed up and take off or stumble and practically drag her nose on the ground after the fence. I am working on it, habits are hard and this one is actually a good one mostly.
After bumping her up to 2'6" over the trot poles, I had RB4 move the vertical up to a 2'6" oxer which seemed to surprise Mia but she handled it quite well. No poles being knocked down and no real rushing. Success! After a few times over that, I had RB4 move the trot pole jump up to 2'9", the highest we have ever jumped under saddle! Unfortunately it was too hard for Mia, she kept bringing the fence down until RB4 suggested removing 2 of the trot poles to give her more time to be ready. That seemed to do the trick as Mia then stopped knocking it over and would alternate between jumping it really nicely and jumping it with her hoof rockets being on full power. She would get in front of the jump and at the tiniest, slightest bump of the leg she would accelerate and try to canter the trot poles and then leap over the jump. We gotta fix that!
After finding the combo of absolutely no leg, lots of rein to balance on each side of the jump and staying slightly behind the motion, we were finally able to go over the 2'9" without knocking it down or letting the hoof rockets stay at full power. Feeling brave and having no value to my life, I had RB4 go ahead and raise the (super skinny) ascending oxer fence to 3 foot. Yes, 3 foot high! The highest we would have jumped by 6 inches! There was a ground line but no trot poles, it was all me to get her ready before and after the fence. The first time over she cleared it and jumped it like it was a little 2'6" jump!! I was very excited but the next time over she knocked the top rail. And the next time. And the subsequent 3 times. I decided to change it up and instead of riding her to the fence like the 2'9" fence, I would apply leg and see if that extra push would get her over. Well, that was apparently the right answer to clear the jump. RB4 said Mia lifted her knees so high they were above the horizontal and her hocks went almost in line to her stifles she was trying so hard to clear the fence. She also was in a flat hand gallop when we landed and it took me half of my arena to get her back to a trot! We walked around and told her what a good girl she was before trying again, again with lots of leg. She again took down the top rail of the oxer, hmmm she is going to be tricky as we learn this huh? I went one last time and didn't apply as much leg and and she did very well and cleared the what I determined was the last jump of the night.
I am not quite sure how to take her jumping, we obviously need more grid work to get her solid but at least she is jumping, not refusing, not ducking out and is ok with bringing the fence down instead. I would much, much rather have a horse bring a fence down than refuse. And the extra bursts of (extreme) speed she likes to give will do well on cross country. I am really looking forward to schooling cross country the day before the show, I think it will do us both really well and will be good confidence booster for her. This week is a good mix of dressage and jumping, so little time before our first jumping show!!
Monday, August 25, 2014
TWH kicks butt
Pissed. I was so pissed at myself for ruining the dressage ride, why, why, why!?! TWH absolutely cannot have a rider check out, you have to be there for him and he will be there for you and I failed him. I mumbled and grumbled until it was time to get ready for stadium, I think RB4 wanted to smack me lol. Maybe I could still pull a decent placing, I mean I heard a lot of people were having issues and several had been eliminated. Maybe they had been ahead of me?
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| Looking like a pro going XC! |
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| Good pic to show the height we were jumping. BIG! |
The course walk was uneventful, nothing was particularly difficult except jump 4, it was literally jumping up a decent hill on a max height/width oxer. Note to self, LOTS of leg at jump four!! 5 was a bending 4 stride and nothing else was of a concern so we settled in for our wait. 5 riders out I warmed up and had to wake TWH up as he was snoozing. The first jump he knocked over before I gave him a good boot and made him pick up speed at which point he started jumping nicely.
We went into the ring without knowing the optimum time so that added pressure was gone, if I don't know what I have to hit, I don't have to worry about timing ourselves. Just gotta go fast!
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| Look, no grabbing poor TWH's face! |
Jump one rode very well in fact! A recently discovered "trick" I have learned is to not look at the pole at all. Apparently I can't actually function like a normal person and will micromanage if I think the striding is even a little off. This makes me jump ahead or behind, all while grabbing onto TWH's face and looking like a fool who needs to go back to crossrails. By not looking at the fence at all, AT ALL, TWH is finding his spot and and is jumping much, much better. Rider fault, who would have thought. Ha! Jump 2 and 3 were unremarkable though I really put on the afterburners up to fence 4.
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| Fence 4. On a hill, max height, max width. |
TWH made fence 4 seem super easy, no reason I should have even cared! Aside from my stirrup being "home" instead of at the ball of my foot, it made for an awesome picture. Fence 5, 6 and 7 were easy
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| Ugh, equitation fail |
Fence 8a rode nicely but apparently I blanked out at 8b (or something) b/c TWH met it wrong and we had a quite awkward jump that had me out of the saddle but I stayed on and shouted at him to GO as we sailed over nine to the finish. I was so happy with TWH, not only was he double clear, he also jumped one of the best stadium rides ever. YAY!! My little gaited man is all grown up into an eventing horse. I watched the rest of the class and rail after rail was falling, sitting there waiting I started to get my hopes up. Maybe?
They finally called the riders back into the ring and they CALLED OUR NUMBER! I was so excited, out of a class of 17 I was in the ribbons! I didn't have to wait long before I was called, despite a horrible dressage score TWH jumped double clear in both XC and stadium and we took home 6th place ribbon. While obviously I would have liked to have gotten higher, the fact that I went from 13th to 6th on jumping alone shows how much of a awesome horse TWH is. And now that we seem to have stadium figured out, we actually look like we know what we are doing which is even better! HA!
They finally called the riders back into the ring and they CALLED OUR NUMBER! I was so excited, out of a class of 17 I was in the ribbons! I didn't have to wait long before I was called, despite a horrible dressage score TWH jumped double clear in both XC and stadium and we took home 6th place ribbon. While obviously I would have liked to have gotten higher, the fact that I went from 13th to 6th on jumping alone shows how much of a awesome horse TWH is. And now that we seem to have stadium figured out, we actually look like we know what we are doing which is even better! HA!
TWH got lots of treats and attention before being kicked out in a pasture for a week for his R&R. Mia's first eventing show is Sept 7th and possibly Sept 21st, let's see what we can get done!
Thursday, August 21, 2014
No love from dressage judges
The time finally came, time for our Horse Trial! Saturday was a combination of relaxing and hectic, while I wasn't super duper busy, my time was fully occupied and I wasn't able to do what I really wanted which was walk the cross country course. As we went out to dinner with a group of people, my stomach started doing twists. What if they had changed the cross country course from the prior weekend? I had walked the course last weekend and knew it but surely they did, they changed the course from last weekend and I won't know where my fences are! I stressed about it all night and debated about calling RB4 to see if she would come over an hour earlier so we could get there in time for me to walk the course but SO kept telling me it would be fine. Even if they HAD moved the course, I knew the property inside and out so stop stressing!
Sunday morning didn't go much better, I was super stressed and aiming to be there an hour before my ride time wasn't working out like I wanted. TWH needs so little warmup I had figured I would reduce my time at the show. I got TWH bathed and wrapped as RB4 showed up, I shared my stress and she scolded me for not calling her and having her come over earlier. We got to the show and the show secretary made my day by saying the course was identical to the prior weekend. PHEW!!!!!!!!!!
Alas I didn't have as much time as I wanted, however, the dressage rings were running a little ahead and I was behind. Never again will I only leave an hour of time between arriving and showing! I decided not to braid and instead got tacked up and hustled to the warm up. TWH was doing pretty well overall, he was giving me pretty consistent transitions (yay!) and was fairly relaxed despite my uptight riding. The more I tried to relax with breathing, the worse I was getting. Great, BAD RIDER!!!! Be all stressed when you have a horse that needs a calm, confident rider, this can't possibly go wrong? We finally up next and the surprisingly test started out pretty good! He was a bit more behind my leg than we had been in warmup but he was consistent. Our free walk wasn't as good as we had been practicing but was decent. Our first canter circle, however, something happened. I still don't know what happened as the video doesn't show it but TWH spooked at something. His head went WAY up and his back end went WAY down and he almost took off before getting back together and a stride later he was pretty composed. RB4 says it was over in almost a blink of an eye, the entire episode had the time span of 2 canter strides.
The down side? The test went downhill from there. TWH was quite upset over whatever it was and didn't give me a good canter/trot transition. He was tight and nervous over the diagonal and hesitant to pick up the opposite canter lead, it took almost 3 trot strides before he picked it up! That isn't a lot for a lot of people, but it is a lot for TWH as he always picks it right up. Immediately. Our last canter/trot transition wasn't good either, he gaited for 2-3 steps before trotting up the centerline. Damn.
We walked back to the trailer, I had only 60 minutes before cross country. We sat him in front of the hay bag while I looked at the video and kicked myself ruining the ride for him. Stupid stressed rider didn't help him in the test. Bad, bad rider. We got him ready for cross country and I was finally not stressed, dressage is our hardest part of eventing!! We warmed up and he did great, before we knew it we were on course. Fence 1, 2 and 3 were easy fences (even though 3 was awfully big haha!). 4 required a trip up a BIG ass hill to a set of barrels at the top and you can't really see the landing side. It had given a ton of refusals at the previous show held there and apparently quite a few refusals at this show. TWH sucked behind my leg but a good strong leg urged him forward and over we went :) We went DOWN the BIG ass hill to immediately go up another BIG ASS hill and went to 5. 6 went better than expected, it was a ditch and TWH didn't come to a COMPLETE stop (although it was damn close lol) and the 3 stride after the ditch rode well. Damn ditches. 7, 8a and b, 9 and 10 were all easy but by this time we were getting tired. Should have gotten 2 point up to 6 mins, bad rider! 11 was a the bottom of a big hill and then a U turn to go up a small hill to bop up a bank. 12 was into water and 13 was a jump out of water, easy peasy. 14 was funny b/c TWH approached it like he was drunk, he was locked onto the beginner novice fence and I had to keep putting and repointing him to the novice jump! Finally 15 came and went and we were double clear in cross country. Yahoo!
We wandered back to the trailer and settled in for a 2.5 hour wait for stadium, time to recharge and get the dressage score! Walking up to the scoring trailer I shook my head. Damn it, we were 13th out of 17 with a dressage score of 44. 44! That is our worst score yet! Damn it, my bad riding done screwed us up and this judge did NOT seem to like TWH. The best I could hope for is people to have issues with jumping.
Sunday morning didn't go much better, I was super stressed and aiming to be there an hour before my ride time wasn't working out like I wanted. TWH needs so little warmup I had figured I would reduce my time at the show. I got TWH bathed and wrapped as RB4 showed up, I shared my stress and she scolded me for not calling her and having her come over earlier. We got to the show and the show secretary made my day by saying the course was identical to the prior weekend. PHEW!!!!!!!!!!
Alas I didn't have as much time as I wanted, however, the dressage rings were running a little ahead and I was behind. Never again will I only leave an hour of time between arriving and showing! I decided not to braid and instead got tacked up and hustled to the warm up. TWH was doing pretty well overall, he was giving me pretty consistent transitions (yay!) and was fairly relaxed despite my uptight riding. The more I tried to relax with breathing, the worse I was getting. Great, BAD RIDER!!!! Be all stressed when you have a horse that needs a calm, confident rider, this can't possibly go wrong? We finally up next and the surprisingly test started out pretty good! He was a bit more behind my leg than we had been in warmup but he was consistent. Our free walk wasn't as good as we had been practicing but was decent. Our first canter circle, however, something happened. I still don't know what happened as the video doesn't show it but TWH spooked at something. His head went WAY up and his back end went WAY down and he almost took off before getting back together and a stride later he was pretty composed. RB4 says it was over in almost a blink of an eye, the entire episode had the time span of 2 canter strides.
The down side? The test went downhill from there. TWH was quite upset over whatever it was and didn't give me a good canter/trot transition. He was tight and nervous over the diagonal and hesitant to pick up the opposite canter lead, it took almost 3 trot strides before he picked it up! That isn't a lot for a lot of people, but it is a lot for TWH as he always picks it right up. Immediately. Our last canter/trot transition wasn't good either, he gaited for 2-3 steps before trotting up the centerline. Damn.
We walked back to the trailer, I had only 60 minutes before cross country. We sat him in front of the hay bag while I looked at the video and kicked myself ruining the ride for him. Stupid stressed rider didn't help him in the test. Bad, bad rider. We got him ready for cross country and I was finally not stressed, dressage is our hardest part of eventing!! We warmed up and he did great, before we knew it we were on course. Fence 1, 2 and 3 were easy fences (even though 3 was awfully big haha!). 4 required a trip up a BIG ass hill to a set of barrels at the top and you can't really see the landing side. It had given a ton of refusals at the previous show held there and apparently quite a few refusals at this show. TWH sucked behind my leg but a good strong leg urged him forward and over we went :) We went DOWN the BIG ass hill to immediately go up another BIG ASS hill and went to 5. 6 went better than expected, it was a ditch and TWH didn't come to a COMPLETE stop (although it was damn close lol) and the 3 stride after the ditch rode well. Damn ditches. 7, 8a and b, 9 and 10 were all easy but by this time we were getting tired. Should have gotten 2 point up to 6 mins, bad rider! 11 was a the bottom of a big hill and then a U turn to go up a small hill to bop up a bank. 12 was into water and 13 was a jump out of water, easy peasy. 14 was funny b/c TWH approached it like he was drunk, he was locked onto the beginner novice fence and I had to keep putting and repointing him to the novice jump! Finally 15 came and went and we were double clear in cross country. Yahoo!
We wandered back to the trailer and settled in for a 2.5 hour wait for stadium, time to recharge and get the dressage score! Walking up to the scoring trailer I shook my head. Damn it, we were 13th out of 17 with a dressage score of 44. 44! That is our worst score yet! Damn it, my bad riding done screwed us up and this judge did NOT seem to like TWH. The best I could hope for is people to have issues with jumping.
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