Tuesday
This was officially my last lesson of the quarter! It was spontaneous. One of the girls was able to get her car and drive us out there, and I'm glad that I got to end my quarter on such a good note.
I rode Wonder, this little white mare. She was kind of hard to get going, but Stacy had me working on transitions more than anything else. I wish I could just pick up the right diagonal when I start posting, I always have to switch and it bugs me that I know that I have to switch right as Stacy's telling me to. Ugh! I wish there were some trotty horses at my barn so I could practice for free over the winter without going out to lessons, especially when I'm not working over break, paying every week for lessons sure adds up!
At the end of the lesson, Stacy said that she thought that Wonder was "too much horse for me". I'm not really sure what she meant by that, because I thought I was handling her fine. She got spooked twice on one end of the arena because of construction noises and although I could have handled it like I would've the Pasos, I didn't know if I would get yelled at for flexing her far to the side into a circle to stop, so I did a big-ish circle to calm her down. It's not like I was going to fall off. I mean, yeah they shouldn't spook, but I don't know if they've worked under construction before, so it could've been okay for them to be scared of the noise. I thought I had a great lesson because I was able to recognize the wrong diagonals and not have to wait until Stacy told me when they were wrong and that as the lesson continued I got better at asking lazy Wonder to pick up her trot and canter.
Oh well. I can't wait to show Stacy how much horse I can handle! She's going to come out and ride at my barn over the break! I can't wait to show her what I deal with, where my roots are. I'm sure she'll just be amazed at how much we stress being like rubber-band flexible, because every time I circle a horse in a circle that I think is huge compared to what we do, she's always like "Not so small! You don't do that on these horses until at least third level dressage!"
Oh and a random note -- that show I was going to go to this upcoming weekend, yeah we're not going to it anymore. There aren't any gaited classes. I supposed I could take Brie for the barrel racing class for fun, but it wouldn't be worth giving up a day of training just for that, especially since it'd be the first time we'd ever do that!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Days 182 + 183
Saturday
Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans! While I'm sad that today was probably the last warm day of the year, it's a good thing because it's supposed to be cold in November. Unfortunately, that means that my horses will be quite stinky until it warms up enough to give them a bath. I can only shudder when I remember how dirty they got last year.
I thought that Brie was perfect today. She was responsive, well-mannered, and flexible. Perfect in every way --- until she hit the board. It was the most bizarre experience, being on Brie when she sounded like she was pacing. She's never been out of gait since she finished training 7 years ago. I thought, "Could I possibly be doing something wrong? Could she not really be as flexible as I thought she was being?" So we did circles and she still wasn't gaiting. My mom suggested that I ease up and let her just walk because it might have been her arthritis acting up. I felt so bad after that! It's so hard to remember that she might be in pain...my poor baby is getting old. =[ But after a nice (most likely) final bath of the year, she seemed pretty happy to go back and continue eating, as usual.
The reason why her leg could be bothering her is because she's KICKING THE STALL so much!!! I don't know what's her problem! Is she hungry? Is she bored? She has a salt lick and a Jolly Ball to play with. She gets outside. It's the saddest thing, especially when it looks like we'll have to be replacing the boards on the wall soon!
Mom worked with Harry today. He was being such a brat longeing! Paco had to step in and we've now made the decision that he won't be working off of the pisador when he's longeing anymore. He'll be working off of his noseband. I do not understand him. It's not that he ever wants to go too fast to stop him, it's that he speeds off and then fishtails out and back, pulling you forward. You would think that after a year of working on this, he would get the picture without having his nose held.
Sunday
Exciting news today! Taco is going to move over to our side of the barn! But now the baby has to take his place on the other side. I'll miss him =[ We don't usually go over there because it's where Ray keeps all of his horses and where the Gary keeps his and Ray just generally excludes us, but we'll have to wander over now and then to visit the cutie pie!
So now that Taco is moving over, we have to rework the stalls. Going back to Brie's kicking, Paco mentioned that maybe even though Nina and Brie grew up together, it's just a mare thing. It's funny that we never thought of that before because we humanized them so much. "Oh they love each other! It must be something else." But it's worth a shot. We know that Brie hates Harry from when she first started kicking to make damage to her stall and it stopped when she was on the end next to Nina for a while, but Paco says it's gotten horrible lately. So we're going to try moving Brie in between Taco and Harry and then putting Nina on the end. It might make her mad that she's next to Harry, but she seems to like Taco and hopefully her like for Taco outweighs her hate for Harry.
She was much better today, gaiting like normal. It must've been her leg bothering her yesterday. We worked more on flexibility today and keeping her corto contained after a largo, because usually after she largos she just wants to fly at a corto, but that won't do if I want to convince my parents to bring her along to shows this year!
I also got to ride Harry today after my mom worked with him. We put weighted bracelets on his back legs again to see if they would help with his tap-dancing, but I don't think they did...Anyways, we're figuring out what we want to do with his largo/corto difference and we're trying to collect his corto a little more and push is largo a little bit. Just a little in each direction. Going counterclockwise he works phenomenally, but clockwise is a little harder (just like longeing). After some fighting on the counterclockwise, we settled into a super collected corto and a smooth but not very fast largo. Clockwise, I fought with him the entire time until Paco told me to just walk and then quit after he gave in at a walk. I have a feeling that if Harry were a person, we wouldn't get along very well, we're both stubborn. But he did give me a nice walk at the end, so I'll give him that.
The farrier also came this afternoon. We did Brie without tranqing her, which is what's normal. She's 10, she's used to this, but he wanted her tranq'd every time he came out before this. I'm glad she was able to show what a good girl she is for the farrier. We started Harry but when he got to the front feet Harry started to try and rear, so we had to tranq him. Of course we needed to tranq Nina. I wonder if she'll ever be able to do it without being drugged...maybe we should lessen the amount each time until she can remember that it's okay? They're all going barefoot for the winter time, so I hope they don't get any cracks!
Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans! While I'm sad that today was probably the last warm day of the year, it's a good thing because it's supposed to be cold in November. Unfortunately, that means that my horses will be quite stinky until it warms up enough to give them a bath. I can only shudder when I remember how dirty they got last year.
I thought that Brie was perfect today. She was responsive, well-mannered, and flexible. Perfect in every way --- until she hit the board. It was the most bizarre experience, being on Brie when she sounded like she was pacing. She's never been out of gait since she finished training 7 years ago. I thought, "Could I possibly be doing something wrong? Could she not really be as flexible as I thought she was being?" So we did circles and she still wasn't gaiting. My mom suggested that I ease up and let her just walk because it might have been her arthritis acting up. I felt so bad after that! It's so hard to remember that she might be in pain...my poor baby is getting old. =[ But after a nice (most likely) final bath of the year, she seemed pretty happy to go back and continue eating, as usual.
The reason why her leg could be bothering her is because she's KICKING THE STALL so much!!! I don't know what's her problem! Is she hungry? Is she bored? She has a salt lick and a Jolly Ball to play with. She gets outside. It's the saddest thing, especially when it looks like we'll have to be replacing the boards on the wall soon!
Mom worked with Harry today. He was being such a brat longeing! Paco had to step in and we've now made the decision that he won't be working off of the pisador when he's longeing anymore. He'll be working off of his noseband. I do not understand him. It's not that he ever wants to go too fast to stop him, it's that he speeds off and then fishtails out and back, pulling you forward. You would think that after a year of working on this, he would get the picture without having his nose held.
Sunday
Exciting news today! Taco is going to move over to our side of the barn! But now the baby has to take his place on the other side. I'll miss him =[ We don't usually go over there because it's where Ray keeps all of his horses and where the Gary keeps his and Ray just generally excludes us, but we'll have to wander over now and then to visit the cutie pie!
So now that Taco is moving over, we have to rework the stalls. Going back to Brie's kicking, Paco mentioned that maybe even though Nina and Brie grew up together, it's just a mare thing. It's funny that we never thought of that before because we humanized them so much. "Oh they love each other! It must be something else." But it's worth a shot. We know that Brie hates Harry from when she first started kicking to make damage to her stall and it stopped when she was on the end next to Nina for a while, but Paco says it's gotten horrible lately. So we're going to try moving Brie in between Taco and Harry and then putting Nina on the end. It might make her mad that she's next to Harry, but she seems to like Taco and hopefully her like for Taco outweighs her hate for Harry.
She was much better today, gaiting like normal. It must've been her leg bothering her yesterday. We worked more on flexibility today and keeping her corto contained after a largo, because usually after she largos she just wants to fly at a corto, but that won't do if I want to convince my parents to bring her along to shows this year!
I also got to ride Harry today after my mom worked with him. We put weighted bracelets on his back legs again to see if they would help with his tap-dancing, but I don't think they did...Anyways, we're figuring out what we want to do with his largo/corto difference and we're trying to collect his corto a little more and push is largo a little bit. Just a little in each direction. Going counterclockwise he works phenomenally, but clockwise is a little harder (just like longeing). After some fighting on the counterclockwise, we settled into a super collected corto and a smooth but not very fast largo. Clockwise, I fought with him the entire time until Paco told me to just walk and then quit after he gave in at a walk. I have a feeling that if Harry were a person, we wouldn't get along very well, we're both stubborn. But he did give me a nice walk at the end, so I'll give him that.
The farrier also came this afternoon. We did Brie without tranqing her, which is what's normal. She's 10, she's used to this, but he wanted her tranq'd every time he came out before this. I'm glad she was able to show what a good girl she is for the farrier. We started Harry but when he got to the front feet Harry started to try and rear, so we had to tranq him. Of course we needed to tranq Nina. I wonder if she'll ever be able to do it without being drugged...maybe we should lessen the amount each time until she can remember that it's okay? They're all going barefoot for the winter time, so I hope they don't get any cracks!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Day 181
Oh Harry. I don't know what I'm going to do with him.
I only rode him today and we worked for a longgggg time. We started out just doing some circle-work and some serpentines around different parts of the arena. I was trying to get him to work off of my leg and he was getting it, slowly but surely. His corto was great, but we've had better. Then we start working on the largo and all he's doing is pacing. He's completely out of gait 90% of the time. I try shuffling my reins to regroup him -- doesn't work. I try pushing him back and forth in rhythm with my legs -- doesn't work. I try gently pulling his head to the side every couple of steps to regroup -- doesn't work. I try stopping and starting, slowing down the gait, flexing...nothing is working. I have no idea how to get him into rhythm when he starts going faster. He seems to completely overwhelm and lose it.
At least we worked on going on the rail straight. We got that down great after a couple rides around. But it's that darn gait that's going to get us. My mom's been working on it since August, but I can't tell any improvement. All we know is that he can't go very fast in the largo otherwise he loses it. So where are we supposed to go from here? Are we supposed to work on collecting and shortening his corto even more, or are we supposed to try and get him to relax and lengthen into his largo? Either way, we need a bigger difference in speed than we have right now.
I only rode him today and we worked for a longgggg time. We started out just doing some circle-work and some serpentines around different parts of the arena. I was trying to get him to work off of my leg and he was getting it, slowly but surely. His corto was great, but we've had better. Then we start working on the largo and all he's doing is pacing. He's completely out of gait 90% of the time. I try shuffling my reins to regroup him -- doesn't work. I try pushing him back and forth in rhythm with my legs -- doesn't work. I try gently pulling his head to the side every couple of steps to regroup -- doesn't work. I try stopping and starting, slowing down the gait, flexing...nothing is working. I have no idea how to get him into rhythm when he starts going faster. He seems to completely overwhelm and lose it.
At least we worked on going on the rail straight. We got that down great after a couple rides around. But it's that darn gait that's going to get us. My mom's been working on it since August, but I can't tell any improvement. All we know is that he can't go very fast in the largo otherwise he loses it. So where are we supposed to go from here? Are we supposed to work on collecting and shortening his corto even more, or are we supposed to try and get him to relax and lengthen into his largo? Either way, we need a bigger difference in speed than we have right now.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Equestrian Team Fall - Day 6
I think this was my last lesson of the quarter. And guess what! I didn't canter or jump! Nope, I got stuck with riding without stirrups. I'm seriously wondering how I didn't break my pelvic bone after that, it was so painful. Clearly, I'm not very strong-legged.
I got paired with Ranger today, who is probably the size of a T-Rex. I kid you not, he's the most massively tall horse that I've ever ridden, but he's super sweet and SUPER SLOW. I could not get that sucker to trot quickly for more than one long wall. Hence, why Stacy put me on him. She said my legs are "like a jello mold. They look good, but are ineffective." Thanks. I like jello, anyways...
Even though I was annoyed that I couldn't get Ranger to keep a steady pace, I'm happy I got paired with him. I can handle almost any type of high-strung horse, but stick me on a half-asleep snoozetown like Ranger and who I picked for the show last weekend and I'm completely useless. I kind of hope I get paired with him more until the next show because all of the IHSA horses are like Ranger and I need to know how to keep them awake!
I got paired with Ranger today, who is probably the size of a T-Rex. I kid you not, he's the most massively tall horse that I've ever ridden, but he's super sweet and SUPER SLOW. I could not get that sucker to trot quickly for more than one long wall. Hence, why Stacy put me on him. She said my legs are "like a jello mold. They look good, but are ineffective." Thanks. I like jello, anyways...
Even though I was annoyed that I couldn't get Ranger to keep a steady pace, I'm happy I got paired with him. I can handle almost any type of high-strung horse, but stick me on a half-asleep snoozetown like Ranger and who I picked for the show last weekend and I'm completely useless. I kind of hope I get paired with him more until the next show because all of the IHSA horses are like Ranger and I need to know how to keep them awake!
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Day 180
I really want to start working Harry first again.
I worked with Brie, which was fine. She was a firecracker today and even cantered on her longe, which she hasn't done in a while. But it took me a while to work out the skip in her step in the beginning and then we flew around the arena in a corto much faster than I wanted, so I was working on slowing her down. The fun show is in 3 weeks and I'm not expecting to win or anything, it would just be nice to make it through the class alive and not excused! So maybe I'll just keep working her first the next three weekends.
But I miss working Harry first. I got him second today and didn't really know how to handle him. We're supposed to be working on his largo, but I really enjoy his collected corto so I never want to and then when I go to, I don't know fast he can go without breaking or pacing so it's frustrating. Just as I was started to get frustrated with him, my brother decided that he wanted to play horse show with everyone riding. This ended up being a good thing because it took my focus off of being frustrated with Harry and put it on listening to my brother's speed commands.
I feel bad that I was angry with Harry. He's really a good boy and I know he's trying. It's just me who doesn't know how to get what I want out of him. This is why I want to work him first, because I feel like after my mom rides him, I feel like I can't work him as much because he's tired and I feel bad asking him to do a lot. I wish I could ride every day...then I'd have so much time to figure him out.
I worked with Brie, which was fine. She was a firecracker today and even cantered on her longe, which she hasn't done in a while. But it took me a while to work out the skip in her step in the beginning and then we flew around the arena in a corto much faster than I wanted, so I was working on slowing her down. The fun show is in 3 weeks and I'm not expecting to win or anything, it would just be nice to make it through the class alive and not excused! So maybe I'll just keep working her first the next three weekends.
But I miss working Harry first. I got him second today and didn't really know how to handle him. We're supposed to be working on his largo, but I really enjoy his collected corto so I never want to and then when I go to, I don't know fast he can go without breaking or pacing so it's frustrating. Just as I was started to get frustrated with him, my brother decided that he wanted to play horse show with everyone riding. This ended up being a good thing because it took my focus off of being frustrated with Harry and put it on listening to my brother's speed commands.
I feel bad that I was angry with Harry. He's really a good boy and I know he's trying. It's just me who doesn't know how to get what I want out of him. This is why I want to work him first, because I feel like after my mom rides him, I feel like I can't work him as much because he's tired and I feel bad asking him to do a lot. I wish I could ride every day...then I'd have so much time to figure him out.
Equestrian Team Fall - NU @ Notre Dame
My first team show of the year! I had a lot of fun. I was debating whether or not I should drive down with the team or go home and drive down in the morning with my family and I decided to go with the team. I'm so happy I did, I feel like I bonded with people =]
On our drive down Friday night, we stopped to see one of our team mates who's in the hospital. This was the first time that I'd meet her. She's so sweet and so young (she's a freshman)! I really hope that she gets better soon.
Then we hit the road for Indiana. The drive seemed so short and as soon as we got to the hotel, I crashed. I didn't even hear another girl come in to share the bed upstairs, that's how tired I was.
There's something about waking up early for a horse show...you know? It's so hard to wake up early for school or work or anything else except a horse show. I could probably wake up at 3 AM for one if I had to! Waking up bright and early, polishing my boots and heading out to the arena, we watched the home team warm up the horses.
Now, I find out that my class is second to last. Wonderful. At least it gives me the opportunity to watch everyone else compete, which is one of the most fun parts. One of our riders, Amy, lost a stirrup on her jumping class and completed the course almost spot on! Of course, she didn't get first, but it was amazing to see someone be able to do that! I certainly would've fallen and probably broken my neck.After a long day of photography, it was finally my class. In Intercollegiate showing, we just randomly pick a horse out of a hat really and have no time to warm him up and aren't allowed to ride him before we get into the show arena. It's supposed to make it a fair test of horsemanship or something like that. Anyways, I get a horse and he's supposed to be push button. Of course, I didn't know that meant half-asleep!
I start off the class switching from what I thought was the wrong diagonal to the actual wrong diagonal then have to switch back again. That really bugged me because I switched 3 times until I thought I was right, then found out I was wrong. Ugh! So points marked for that. Then going into the canter I could not get this guy to canter soon enough and his canter was really wonky so I couldn't tell if he had the right leads either. On the reverse, I thought I had the wrong lead, so I broke into a trot to pick it back up and apparently it looked really bad...
In the end, I got 5th...it's an understatement to say that I was disappointed. I really just wanted to win. I thought I had everything down pat before I got to the show and the one thing that REALLY bothers me is that I messed up my diagonals. I'm not even mad about the cantering. It's that I STILL don't have those darned diagonals down. So more work. The next show is in March, so I have a long way to go to perfect that and really feel them, since I'm just starting to be able to. Here's to working to ensure my first place next time!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Equestrian Team Fall - Day 5
It's so funny how one week can be the complete opposite from the next.
So remember last week when I was all moody and felt like crying in the middle of my lesson for no apparent reason? Well my hormones are back in check and this week was AMAZING.
First of all, I got to ride with my shmexy show boots a la my mom. I'm telling you, putting the $60 into reconstructing the soles was really worth it, because I didn't have to go through the pain of breaking them in. Thank God that younger-version-of-my-mom and I have the same calf width and shoe size!
So after shining them up from digging them out of the basement this past weekend, I was feeling mighty awesome. Once again, I'm riding Tommy (who looked like he fell into a mud pit for about a week). And I have exciting news.
I CAN FEEL MY DIAGONALS! I never felt them before! It's only taken a year to finally feel that I'm on the wrong one (when I'm paying attention) and switch. I just hope that I don't get too freaked out at the show to forget that and ride the wrong diagonal the entire class, but I'm sure that won't happen.
But wait, there's more.
I JUMPED PERFECTLY!
The first one I got left behind on because I was hesitant, thinking about last week. But then I told myself to get over it and I GOT OVER IT! LITERALLY! My heels were down, my legs on contact, my speed perfect, my position right on key. It was such an incredible feeling to just sail over my little oxer and not fall forward or backwards and stick the landing! I'm so happy =]
Stacy had nothing but good things to tell me. She's confident that I'll place in the show this weekend if I ride like I did today. Also, I'm banned from wearing anything else except my mom's boots from now on. Stacy said that I rode much better in them and I could feel it too. While they still kind of hurt because of one of the wrinkles digging in my ankle every once in a while, they were much better than my Steed paddocks that I've been wearing. Those are especially stiff on my ankle. So I'll just bring those back home to kick around the barn in when I feel like wearing jeans, which will pretty much be all winter until it snows and I wear my insulated Mountain Horse boots.
It's an understatement to say that today was a good day. Can't wait to compete this weekend!
So remember last week when I was all moody and felt like crying in the middle of my lesson for no apparent reason? Well my hormones are back in check and this week was AMAZING.
First of all, I got to ride with my shmexy show boots a la my mom. I'm telling you, putting the $60 into reconstructing the soles was really worth it, because I didn't have to go through the pain of breaking them in. Thank God that younger-version-of-my-mom and I have the same calf width and shoe size!
So after shining them up from digging them out of the basement this past weekend, I was feeling mighty awesome. Once again, I'm riding Tommy (who looked like he fell into a mud pit for about a week). And I have exciting news.
I CAN FEEL MY DIAGONALS! I never felt them before! It's only taken a year to finally feel that I'm on the wrong one (when I'm paying attention) and switch. I just hope that I don't get too freaked out at the show to forget that and ride the wrong diagonal the entire class, but I'm sure that won't happen.
But wait, there's more.
I JUMPED PERFECTLY!
The first one I got left behind on because I was hesitant, thinking about last week. But then I told myself to get over it and I GOT OVER IT! LITERALLY! My heels were down, my legs on contact, my speed perfect, my position right on key. It was such an incredible feeling to just sail over my little oxer and not fall forward or backwards and stick the landing! I'm so happy =]
Stacy had nothing but good things to tell me. She's confident that I'll place in the show this weekend if I ride like I did today. Also, I'm banned from wearing anything else except my mom's boots from now on. Stacy said that I rode much better in them and I could feel it too. While they still kind of hurt because of one of the wrinkles digging in my ankle every once in a while, they were much better than my Steed paddocks that I've been wearing. Those are especially stiff on my ankle. So I'll just bring those back home to kick around the barn in when I feel like wearing jeans, which will pretty much be all winter until it snows and I wear my insulated Mountain Horse boots.
It's an understatement to say that today was a good day. Can't wait to compete this weekend!
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