Progress? Why yes!

No Stirrup November is coming along quite nicely, while I haven't ridden in the bareback pad again, I can tell I am riding much better in the saddle.  My seat has relaxed and is more balanced, my legs hang straighter and, for some reason, my hands have come higher.  Overall?  Win!  AND I haven't even been sore the entire month, something I was sure was going to happen.  So yay me!

Do I have any awesome stories to tell about how No Stirrup November changed my riding and now Mia is doing first level movements?  Well, no.  Overall it's been pretty boring, what you might expect from someone who hasn't had a dressage lesson in almost a year and is putting the final polishes on the basics.  Yeah, boring.  My ride last night was cool because RB4 came out and she hasn't been out since October.  She watched me ride and I ride the dressage test, she looked surprised when I was done.  I asked what she thought and she said it looked great, actually.  She was quite surprised at the difference the month has made.  Huh, more no stirrup work more often?  Haha!  Mia was fairly soft in the bridle, she was fairly steady in the bridle and she didn't drop her shoulders much.  Progress indeed!  Now I need to get my butt in gear and take a lesson, if nothing else break down and call H if I can't haul anywhere for one since I don't have my new truck yet (being built this week!!!!).

I did jump a little though, and in true No Stirrup November fashion, it was sans stirrups.  And I didn't fall off!  I may have thought about it.... but didn't lol.  The first time over the little crossrail of a jump she jumped it awkwardly I wasn't prepared enough for it.  My vice grip thighs clamped down and I grabbed neck and pulled myself back on TOP of the horse, I have absolutely NO desire to fall from a 16.0h horse thank you.  The rest of the ride went well, I can feel myself jumping better thankfully.  If I keep feeling myself jumping like crap, I need to remind myself to get back to basics and jump cross rails with no stirrups.  Something I think H should have had me do when I was complaining about my position in the spring but hey, what is one to do.  We finished doing trot and canters up to the little 2' crossrail with no stirrups to work mostly on myself.  We did some jumping at angles too, introduce something different, and Mia didn't care.  So yeah, boring

So sorry for the lame update but it is better than nothing right?  This week will be hell, I have the next 3 nights booked with things that include me not riding.  Wednesday the in-laws and others come in, I will have an additional 7 people staying here for 3 days for Thanksgiving.  Everyone is leaving on Friday thankfully but man I think I am going to be wiped out.  I am planning on riding Friday, maybe an update then!  Happy Thanksgiving (US bloggers anyway)!

No Stirrup November

True, I may not be posting much (or riding much thanks to the weather and my schedule) but I am doing No Stirrup November.  I even rode Mia for the second time bareback, my first time actually doing something other than walking around.  She was pretty good, definitely not as easy to ride as TWH or App bareback though as she is inconsistent and wiggly but she is MUCH more comfortable with her tiny bounce trot hehe.  It is SO much easier to sit her trot than it is either of the boys trot, that makes it very easy to ride bareback in the trot :)

I rode a quick w/t/c bareback and it is very obvious that I needed No Stirrup November, my balance is not where it is supposed to be.  While I didn't try to fall off, really fall off anyway, I wasn't as secure in my seat as I should be.  I stick like glue still but the balance is just not as great.  The trot is good and even the canter is pretty good but the canter to trot transition is a little unbalanced and sharp turns leave me off-center.  I think I am just not adequately preparing and maybe muscle memory is rusty.  Nothing to really report though, Mia was behaving quite well and letting me work on myself without being too much of a sassy redhead.

Last weekend I rode Mia out on the road and ponied the App, the goal was to just trot forward and try to get her to stop shying at things while we are out and we were mildly successful.  K came with us on TWH and she laughed when Mia body bumped App because she shied away from a big stick on the side of the road.  SMH.  The horse lives in a pasture that is 1/2 wooded in an old growth forest.  Of course she would shy from a stick. At the last third of the ride, K and TWH cantered on ahead with Mia, App and I trotting behind.  Mia picked up a slow canter and so I allowed it and we were going along quite well for about 10 strides.  Then App decided it was time to take off and Mia didn't listen to my seat to stop so I could deal with him.  So here I am riding a horse who isn't stopping trying to hold onto another horse that is trying like hell to break free and gallop off because he is being an asshole.  It took almost an eighth of a mile to stop the two horses and I went off on App.  The asshole knows better and if it hadn't been for the fact that I had been holding the rope in both hands with Mia's reins, he would have successfully gotten free.  Grrr!!!!  I was ponying him in a rope halter (as it is more effective than a nylon halter) but now and thinking I need to have a damn chain over his nose if we go out again.  Stupid horse.  At least I felt better that he was tired when he got back from all of the trotting we did, he deserved to be tired.  Stupid horse.

Last night I rode Mia again while K rode TWH and it certainly went better than my last rides.  K was using the bareback pad so I rode in the (cold, COLD!) saddle and we had a pretty good dressage ride (sans stirrups).  I worked on sitting Mia on her butt so we could do some small circles and changes of direction.  Mia is doing much better of not dropping her left shoulder when we do a figure 8 and her transitions are nice and crisp.  Her right lead canter is still her harder one, she is often dropping her inside shoulder, giraffing her neck or going as fast as she can but we were successfully able to get a full circle of a good canter on 2 different occasions.  Yay!  Hopefully at the beginning of December I will take a lesson and get someone else's opinion and help me develop a road map of where to go from here.  Let No Stirrup November continue!

Old becomes new again or Blogger Family Love

Back in 2010, we moved to MI and Old Man Appy didn't approve.  He didn't tolerate the cold before and he certainly didn't tolerate it any more by moving north.  The first couple of years I used the Ohio blankets but I didn't like having to use a stable blanket with the medium weight t/o blanket to keep him from shivering so I ordered a new McAlister blanket.  It arrived and I was happy.

Appy wore his medium weight when he started shivering when naked (around 15-20 degrees out) and wore this one when he started shivering in his medium weight (around 0 degrees).  It worked well enough until he had to wear it for almost a week, after 3 days I saw that it was rubbing his hair on his shoulders.  UGH.  It just wasn't fitting like I wanted.  Every time I would use the blanket, I added a shoulder sleezy.

Last year I used the blanket a few times but I kept getting frustrated at the rubbing when he would wear it for more than a few days.  When it gets cold here, it stays cold for DAYS/WEEKS.  I bought extra shoulder sleezys to help rotate and I would use the stable blanket with the medium weight a couple of times to give him a break.  If it is rubbing, it can't be comfortable.

Over the summer I went to a yard/moving sale and the people were having the "fire sale" for the last day.  Everything half off or make an offer, they wanted everything gone.  I got some cool stuff, Stubben irons for $5, Courbette side reins for $5, IRH helmet for $5, really nice dog nail clippers for $1, dog crate foam pad for $1, plush rocking horse for $25, etc.  The steals though were the blankets.  I got 3 rain sheets and one medium weight blanket for an absolute steal.  2 of the rain blankets fit Mia decently and have patches, one doesn't fit and is new condition so I will resell that one (84" if anyone is interested!).  The medium weight blanket was WAY too big but turned out to be a new, in package Rhino blanket, a $200 blanket!!  I sold it a couple of months ago and was able to buy a used HW Amigo with a hood with the funds so it was basically a trade.  WIN!!

I am really looking forward (well, not really) to using it, it looks like it fits Appy much better and I hope Appy appreciates all of the effort I put into this blanketing for him lol.  That left my old blanket, I washed it and just let it sit around until I read about Chrome needing a blanket.  A light went off in my head.  Last November (good lord has it been that long ago...) Gingham held a tack give away and sent me a truly hard to look at Sleazy, the pattern is pretty crazy but it fits Mia well and I have used it twice now.

Yes, this is the pattern.  Really!

I figured I could send the good Karma along and I sent achieve1dream a FB message telling her about my blanket and offering it to her at a really good price.  The fact that it was blue (ish purple) sealed the deal and I got a price quote.  UPS wanted $25 to ship and USPS wanted $30, that is way too expensive so I got my hands on a USPS board game flat rate box ($17.90!!) and made it my mission to stuff it in.  And stuff I did!  

After using almost a quarter of a roll of tape to ensure that if it exploded in transit, the tape would hold the blanket until it reached Chrome, it arrived.  Alas there was no explosion but apparently they had a time even getting it out of the box.  HA!

I am very glad I was able to pass on the blanket to someone that could use it.  Achieve1dream says it fits Chrome pretty well so I hope it works out for them.  Happy Blogger Karma being paid forward works out for everyone!

I won something!!

I say this because I rarely ever win anything so when I do, I get SUPER excited.  I have actually won a couple of things so it is even better to share with you!

Achieve1dream was holding a contest for some license plates she had and one of them was an eventing plate.  Well, we KNOW that I had to put my name in for that one haha.  I have an Appaloosa license plate and I need a 2nd one so both my car and truck will have a special plate.  Low and behold, I WON!  After confirming that she is not, in fact, an axe murderer, I sent her my address and this is what showed up!

Check out that awesome shag carpet.  You be jealous, I know.

This is so going on my truck :)  Speaking of truck, I did something I have never, ever done. I bought a new truck.  Like BRAND new!  I even ordered it so it has EXACTLY what I wanted!!

OMG SO AWESOME!!

I am so excited it is hard to stand myself.  I am, however, really sad that I am not going to have the Silverado anymore.  I love that truck :(  It is a great truck, it just needs 2k of maintenance before the next show season and SO wanted to get something new for once.  EEEE!!!

What else have I won?  Well, TWH and I won a high point year end award for our Novice division!! GO TWH!!!!!!!  We are such a great team together, it makes me very happy that we won.  We also won an award for our cross country outfit, apparently his sparkling clean look with a "ground dragging tail" goes well with our "eye catching blue".  We won a bucket with grooming supplies in his colors!!

It has a bathing mitt, 2 brushes, green spot remover, ShowSheen, vetwrap and a sticker.  AWESOME!  The down side is that I won't be showing him next year, K will be so she will get to use this awesome stuff but it is still so awesome that we won something for our efforts.  It is even more amazing because it was an award done on a voting process so people actually VOTED FOR US!!  I am so, so happy with TWH and am so, so happy that I have found someone that wants to ride him regularly.  He totally could win more awards next year and he deserves all of the awards he wins.

Shoulders up, go straight

K is having a really good time with TWH, I am really happy that the lease situation seems to be working out so well with her.  It gives TWH a job and someone to love on him daily which is exactly what he wants.  So happy!  She has even ridden him bareback and loves my bareback pad.  She agreed he feels like a big ol couch!  Fluffy and comfy.

I have been working Mia on some basic dressage again, I am really trying to get her to keep her shoulders where I put them and keep her off of my legs.  When doing figure 8's, or even when making circles, she has a hard time going from the right to the left without dropping her shoulder and leaning to the inside.  That is something to work on so it has been hour homework for the past 2 rides.  She is getting there, during our last ride she was finally able to  make 2 full figure 8's without dropping her shoulder.  Yay!

I also rode Mia on a 3 hour trail ride with RB3, someone I haven't been hanging out with for a while.  It was a pretty good ride and visit, maybe we can start riding together occasionally again, we will see.  Mia was really good for the trail ride but it was funny how much RB3 laughed at us as Mia showed her green-ness.  Spooking at birds, spooking at rocks, spooking at sticks, the absolute inability to go in a straight line.  The sudden, veer that goes directly into the horse RB3 is riding because Mia shied away from something. Ah, green horses.  She even did really well at the bridges, we went over 2 of bridges twice and while she was very hesitant I was able to get her to go up to them without having someone else go first.  Yay!  She even held it together as we went under the interstate overpass even though someone else had to go first lol.

This upcoming week will involve no riding as I will be out of town on business, I am going to really need some horse time by the time I get back!

Last show of the year!

Our last show of the year was this past weekend and man was this past weekend busy.  It was literally nonstop action from Friday at 6p until Sunday at 730p.  Friday night I had to go to a Halloween party and we didn't get home until 1130p.   Had to get up at 8a to get stuff packed up and ready for the show as K and I were hauling 1.5 hours away to school at the show grounds and we wouldn't have time to get ready by the time we returned.  Thanks to some frantic laundry being washed this past week, everything was clean and ready to go!

At noon we hauled out and went xc schooling.  Mia was super looky at everything and kept randomly stopping but jumped the xc jumps with ease.  The map was super confusing and it took a good 20 minutes before we figured out the start box was not the normal start box but instead a pile of hay bales.  Uhh, ok!  The first 4 jumps were stadium fences and Mia was convinced they were not okay.  I had to seriously kick her just to get her to walk up to them before she would even consider jumping them.  Oh mare!  After the first 4 jumps we went to xc fences which she was SO much better for, she didn't even look at xc fences but stadium fences she gives eyeballs to?  Weird mare.  Mia even was great for the water, no balking or much hesitation at all, go Mia!  She handled the baby ditch very well, the road crossing required a canter/trot/walk/stop/kick to get her to go over (smh) and a green flowerbox she literally climbed over from a standstill as she wasn't sure if she really wanted to jump it.  She jumped the rock pile without concern as well as the log to the down bank, yay!  The last 3 jumps were stadium jumps, however, and by golly they had high suspicion value and she knocked one of the poles over as she tried hard to not go over the fences.  Why are you so silly mare??  XC jumps should be spooky, not stadium jumps!

TWH was awesome and K had an absolute blast schooling him, we got back home at 5p and gave the horses a quick bath (Actually warm enough for it!!!!!!) before throwing them in a sleezy and blanket and kicking them out for the night.  4a was early but up I hopped and started Sunday in the dark.  The horses may have tried hard but they were still clean so no 2nd baths were required.  We hauled out at 615a and got to the show a little later than I hoped.  I got Mia all tacked up and over to the dressage ring in plenty of time but she was super looky.  Duper looky.  And stiff.  And inattentive.  And head tossy.  Very green horse like.  I worked at suppling her the best I could in the crowd I had around me and after some figure 8's she at least was moving fairly decently.

I was the second to go so in we went.  Our test started well, she was forward and straight (and earned a 7!) and it went downhill from there.  Mia was looky, tense, didn't want contact and was pulling on the bridle.  Ah mare.

She considered not giving me the first canter transition but a good poke with the spur got her into it.  She wasn't super bent and was very much on the forehand but it was adequate.  Our free walk was decent and the rest of the test was okay.  Nothing special, but not too bad.  

This got a 5 for a free walk.  She was consistent, I thought it deserved higher!

The judge disagreed and hated it.  She commented that my hands were way too low for dressage (trying to fight a mare here lady!) and I got almost exclusive 5's.  Blech, it put is in 12th place.

We rushed back and got TWH ready for K, she was SUPER tense.  It was her first show outside, first show with jumps, first show being hauled out, first on lots of things and she was freezing up.  I coached her through and she finally was relaxing enough to get decent transitions.  She went into the ring, however, and just froze up.  Poor girl was so nervous she wasn't giving consistent queues.  TWH cantered a few times in her trot circle and up the center line to a halt.  They liked what they saw, however, and didn't put her last at least.

We rushed back to the trailer to get Mia ready for XC and she seemed a little more calm (finally, geez!).  I was SO glad we had jumped the course the day before, she was very behind my leg for the 3 stadium jumps and she put an extra stride in jumps 3 to 4 as she couldn't go straight but we made it over.

She jumped the XC jumps REALLY well, not backing off of any of them.  She had a momentary pause at the water but cantered in, yay mare!

Let's NOT "look" at the water, let's just go in

The rest of the XC jumps went perfectly.  She approached them all very well, she jumped them all very well and acted all grown up.   Getting TO the jumps was another matter, at one point I yelled at her "Just Go Straight Drunk Mare!!!".  She came to a walk going through one field as she had to go through a gate and she just Could Not Do It.  She shied pretty hard at a patch of yellowed grass where a jump used to live.  She was changing direction in her canter stride at almost every stride.  Some points in the ride had me looking like a bad barrel racer.  Ugh, green horses!

Just Can't Even.  I am sure I looked like this.

We finally went down the bank and went (kicked/trotted) over to the road to the last 3 stadium jumps.  They were on a bending line and she made it to the first one but I don't think I set her up nice enough for the 2nd one as she knocked the rail down.  Ugh!!  I just can't go double clear on you, can I mare?  The last fence was clear and we walked back to the trailer.

Yay water!

We got TWH ready for XC and, no surprise, he absolutely rocked the course.  K was a bundle of nerves but TWH didn't care and went over everything without even a glance.  He is such a good horse.

We finished up the day all ribbons, Mia got 8th out of 17 and TWH got 5th of 12.  Better than half the field for each of us, I would consider that a success!  Mia's homework is to get her OUT and get her cantering forward in as straight as a line as possible.  This girl needs a lot more exposure.

Riding success!

So who rode horses over the weekend?  Who made sure ALL horses were ridden over the weekend?  That would be me!  After the lapses I have been having, getting a leasee who is required to ride with me present for the first 30 days has rebooted my riding schedule and I have successfully ridden every day since Wednesday.  Yay me!  It is good timing too, as Mia's show is this upcoming weekend and I am not even close to stressing about it.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were dressage rides, Mia is doing SO much better than even at our last show.  As I was talking to RB4 I said I think that Mia plateaued around early summer where she "got it" but decided she didn't really want to do the work so she wasn't.  That was the timeframe that I finally broke down and put the draw reins on her to force her to submit, accept contact and cooperate better.  Once we got over that hump, things have been getting steadily better and I haven't used draw reins in months!  Mia is MUCH more consistent in the contact, especially at the trot and canter, she is MUCH more balanced in the canter and she isn't regularly fighting me.  Yay!

Saturday K and I went for K's first ride outside, we first rode around the pasture and then around the short loop.  TWH was, of course, awesome and Mia is doing better.  She is still very looky and spooked pretty hard at an empty trailer that rattled by us but I think TWH's calmness helped her and she quieted down quickly.  We rode most of the loop at a trot and I even cantered Mia a little and she was awesome.  She didn't try to run off, she kept the speed I asked and did well in her transitions.  My girl is growing up!  K was very impressed with TWH and loved that she still had as much control in the hackamore than she did with a bit, she had never ridden with a hackamore and was slightly nervous.  She said she is really falling for TWH, she talks about him nonstop apparently.  I am glad she is working out so well, TWH  really isn't ready for retirement and I think he will do well with her.

Before K left on Saturday K said she wanted to jump on Sunday, no problem.  Except I have 1 jumping saddle and am NOT ready to jump Mia bareback so we can't jump together.  I got up early and had RB4 come over and I jumped Mia.  We started out small and Mia is rocking jumps.  She is picking up her canter (with correct leads) effortlessly now and is starting to listen to my cues as we approach jumps.  In no time we bumped the jump up to a 2'6" oxer and Mia was doing good.  At one point Mia came at it and she wouldn't make the distance at a 3 stride.  I applied leg and Mia responded, she opened her stride and got it in 2.  That was amazing, it was the very first time she has responded to my request to change her striding before a jump!!

We bumped the oxer up to 3 foot, the second time she has ever gone that high under saddle.  The first time she jumped at that height had mixed success, she had a hard time not knocking poles down.  This time she brought the fence down a single time when we messed up the striding and couldn't get out of it but there was no refusal (YAY!) and once RB4 put it back up Mia went over it like it was a 2'6" jump.  It is amazing how small she makes the jumps feel, love!

Later in the day K came out to jump TWH so I hopped on my App to give him a workout.  I grabbed the dressage whip but apparently it wasn't needed.  App was very good and did really nice shoulders in/haunches in, 10m circles, serpentines and balanced canters without fighting.  It was so cool to ride him and not fight with him, I miss that.  App has so many talents that hasn't been used in a long while, if I keep this up maybe I can get him worked regularly again.  I even put him over the 18" crossrail and while he was way overjumping it, he still jumped and cleared it and seemed to enjoy it.

K jumped TWH and fell in love all over again.  She repeatedly missed her stride but the biggest jump was a little 2'3" vertical and TWH had absolutely no problem figuring out how to get over it no mater where he was placed.  He is SUCH a good horse :)  I will have her jump probably once more before the Saturday and on Saturday both K and I are going cross country schooling in preparation for our show on Sunday.

Such a long update, I haven't had this much to talk about and also time to write about it in a long time!  I am hoping for pics on Saturday, stay tuned.  Speaking of updates, have you seen achieve1dream's 5 year anniversary contest?  It is the 5 year anniversary of her getting Chrome and she is doing a giveaway.  Hoping to win the Eventing license plate!!  http://rdxhorses.blogspot.com/2014/10/five-year-anniversary-first-ever.html