Day 170

Sunday

First -- I have pictures! I'll put them in a separate post so this doesn't get too long.

I didn't make it out yesterday because I was working concessions for the team. That is something I won't even get started with...I was at the football arena for 8 hours! But overall, I'm really excited to be on the team again, everyone seems like they want to make an effort to remain drama-free this year, which is awesome.

My neck still kind of hurt today, but against better judgement I rode Brie without a bit. Not for any particular reason, I just felt like it. Brie was slightly confused and her headset wasn't very good at all, but she still had a good behavior, which is all I wanted. My mom and brother have been working on some kind of dressage circling exercise for the back legs with Nina and Harry, so when I joined in Brie's first thought was "Canter circles yay!" and proceeded to be confused when I wanted her to largo, not canter in a circle, but she obliged. I had to put a bit back on her before anyone else got on because they didn't want her to be totally off the walls with them.

I rode Harry today. It was such a weird feeling. Like...after not riding a horse for a while, you feel bad about it, even though someone else is. I got that a lot when I was training Harry last summer and my mom rode Brie all the time, and now I have it with Harry because my mom's been training him while I ride Brie. It's like a kind of guilt. I don't get that with Nina, though, because I never really ride her, just pet her since my brother is like a dictator over who rides Nina.

Harry knew that I hadn't been on him in a while and tried to get away with going sideways on the wall. I was more focused on getting him on the wall than his gait, and since he's very sensitive to leg pressure, he kept speeding up when I tried to make him yield to my leg. It was all very frustrating for a good 15 minutes and then he kind of got the idea and while he wasn't really on the wall, at least he was close to it and going straight.

His gait across the board was great, and his largo seems like it's really coming along with everything my mom's been doing. Paco finally confessed yesterday that he thought that if Harry was properly trained as a baby he would be a Fino horse, but since he's already 7, you can't really do much to change that, so he'll stay in Performance. It was a bittersweet moment, where I'm happy that he's Performance, but really kind of bummed that he could've been this amazing Fino horse. Either way, he's still my teddy bear. Really, once you get to know him, he acts like one and kind of looks like one with his huge brown eyes.

What I was really impressed with was how he acted on our little ride outside. As you may remember, he's really nervous going outside and likes to be thisclose to Nina all the time for fear if she leaves, the Sun might swoop down and eat him alive. But today he was only a tiny bit nervous when we started out and then really calmed down! Brie, on the other hand, was crazy enough for the both of them. Harry was totally calm when we walked by the pond (that Nessie lives in and might eat him at any minute) and even led everyone up the little hill in back and around back to the barn! I was so proud of him, I can't even describe it.

It's gonna be hard now, because I'm going back to school. Fall Quarter is always hard because I like to stay for the football games on Saturdays, so I only get Sundays to ride. I wanted to start doing some more Parelli work with Harry because I started such a while back and never got to finish because show season took over. I think it'd be really good for his mental state.

Equestrian Team Summer - Day 6

There's a first time for everything.

Today's lesson was going super well. We went outside because there was a Saddlebred show going on inside, and (one of) the outdoor arena(s) was superrrr nice. I loved being outside with Tommy. We're bonding and he's learning me like the back of his hoof (does that apply to horses??).

So we work lots on trotting -- mostly sitting trot, to two-point, to posting, repeat. This is just for my benefit. Learning where my body is supposed to be over jumps and everything, getting some sense of balance. I feel really great about it. My back is straight, my shoulders are back, I'm sitting tall and feeling awesome.

Then we go into canter transitions. Cool. Not the best, but I'm getting them. I want them to be BAM CANTER, so I'm working on that. Tommy starts pulling his head. Okay, try to fix it. Start feeling myself falling forward. More cantering, falling forward more.

Now we're cantering and acting like we're approaching a jump. I'm going into two-point (or trying to). Not working at all. I can feel my legs swinging backwards towards his butt and my top falling forward and Tommy's like "Oh we're going forward?! Cool, lemme pull my head down to help you." I'm not getting myself back enough to correct him, lose contact with my leg and he starts trotting. We're going around a turn and I know I'm not balanced and start to feel myself slipping over to the left side of the saddle. No longer posting, know I'm going off, and fall/jump out of the saddle as Tommy just decides to stop because he clearly has no idea what I'm doing anymore.

I somersault over his head and catch him looking at me on my way down kind of just like:

As I roll away, freaked out he's going to step on me. I guess I layed in shock for a while, not believing that I just fell off a horse for the first time in my entire life. I could only think of this one girl from an old stable who constantly fell off horses as I lie there, trying to figure out what the heck just happened.

After Stacy grabs Tommy who is clearly confused as to why it's now nap time, she runs over to me and my mom who ran down the arena fence to see if I was okay. I roll over to sit on my knees and it occurs to me that my left shoulder and side of my neck really hurt like I cracked it really hard, which I prolly did on my way down. I wanna cry more because of humiliation than pain, so after I get over myself and Stacy informs me that I now must make cookies (as that's the barn rule -- you fall off, you make cookies for everyone), I stand up, check myself out, don't feel like anything's wrong, so I get back on for one final trot around the arena (post, sit, two-point, repeat).

And boy, did I feel like a loser until I realized that 1) at least it wasn't on my own horse, 2) it could've been a bigger horse, 3) it could've been muddy.

Now I'm more keen to practice not freaking out when I start losing control over a canter and not try to go into a fetal position on a horse (which is basically what I was doing as I was failing getting control) and correct these school horses the minute they start giving me crap! My mom pointed out to me in front of Stacy that I never let Harry, Brie, or Nina get away with ANYTHING, so why should I let these guys? Stacy agreed and said even if I don't think I know how to correct one of them to just do something to let them know that they're being rude.

Oye vey. I've just been so worried about doing the right thing by the horse and not screwing them up since they're not mine and totally let Tommy walk all over me until I was on the ground (thankfully he didn't actually step on me). I can't wait to get back out there next week and have experienced what I want to avoid at all costs and be adamant on not ending up on the ground ever again.

Day 169

I love days like today. The sun is shining, the wind is blowing, it's perfect weather for riding.

I started by switching up where every one stands on the cross ties and started brushed Nina for a change (my brother was MIA). I never noticed how RED her coat is. It's so red it's almost purple, kind of. Then I tried to brush out her ears and she wasn't having any of it, so I got the carrot stick out for the first time in a while and started rubbing her ears with that and giving her carrots whenever she stayed still for a couple of seconds. By the end of it, she was staying pretty still, but when I brushed them she still fidgeted around and moved back and forth. My brother really needs to work on that. But I'm happy I got some bonding time with little Nina.

I rode Harry with his fruit basket first. My mom taught me what she's been working on with him, working him on a circle and pushing his rear kind of off of the path of the circle so that his back feet cross over every time he steps so he has to think about walking. We did that for a while and then I took him out on the board. I tried to largo him, but I wasn't able to give him my complete attention, which I felt bad about and really tried to, but it just wasn't happening and I didn't want him to suffer because of it, so I gave him over to my mom to ride and I got on Brie.

I took Brie into the outdoor arena after going around the indoor a couple of times and we corto'd around out there. Then I had my dad set up a little X jump out of two boards and a couple of traffic cones so we could go over it. Brie just wanted to charge the thing down every time we turned to approach it! She never refuses a jump (so far), so it was more for me to try and fix my posture going over it. By the end of it with my mom coaching me I had a better posture than at the beginning, but still not quite as good as necessary. I didn't want to stress Brie's joints too much, so we took a long walk around the property with Harry and Nina afterwards. She started out really calm but once we started heading back towards the barn she was GO GO GO! I was just focusing on trying to get her to not run into the barn, and actually had to turn her around so she wouldn't face the barn and do sidepasses to get in front of the door to go in straight without running herself or me into the siding! What a goof.

We still don't know if we're going to Nationals, but I really don't even want to anymore. It's so disappointing and because of everything that happened I didn't really enjoy myself as much as I could have today, which is even more upsetting...

Day 168

Today was a sad day.

Not because of riding. Brie was so good today. I think it's because I gave her a banana before we rode =]

But today was a sad day because I don't think we're going to Nationals anymore. I'm gonna take a break from same old training talk and go on a mini rant about my organization, just to be warned.

I sent in the entry forms this past Monday for Nationals. I only authorized paying for the classes right now and my mom would pay the stalls when we got there. Seemed normal. Shows usually let you do this. We thought we were good to go.

But then tonight my mom gets a phone call from the show secretary. They said my credit card was declined. That's odd because I had enough money in there to cover double entry fees. She calls them up to find out they were trying to charge it for the classes AND the stalls, which is NOT what I authorized for. What was I supposed to do if I somehow had enough in my account to cover this?! The secretary said that we had to pay everything in full up front, but no where on the rules did it say this.

She then proceeded to try and charge us for USEF memberships, which we don't have because the shows we went to weren't USEF sponsored. I was going to get my membership sometime closer to nationals because I need it for the USHJA and IHSA membership for the team as well, but they were trying to clear that. My brother was going to get his closer to the show too, but they said that since he's a minor he can't do that anyways.

Then, on top of all of it, we found out that we aren't guaranteed any of our money back if we can't make it. Only if there's a vet emergency, we might get 50% back from the classes, nothing from the stalls or shavings (the stalls and shavings are outrageous, btw). We've been to that venue before and they're 3x the amount as before, but whatever, it's Nationals, we were going to do it. They wouldn't give us money back if there was something wrong with US, only the HORSE. How is that right?! The horse wouldn't have a rider, so how could he/she possibly be in the class. What if there was a family emergency? Nope, no money back either. Get there and break your leg getting out of your car? Nope, tough for you. Die upon arrival? Sorry, you might get a little bit of money back.

It's just outrageous. I mean, the cost is one thing. We could handle that. But the fact that they won't give you any portion of money back if YOU, the rider, had an emergency is really stupid (for lack of a better word). Plus, it's in September, the month when most children in the United States go back to school. If they're always harping on about getting the kids involved, how about not making them choose between academics and their passions? And then they wonder why people are leaving the organization.

This whole thing makes me not want to show at all. What's the point if you can't go to Nationals? What's the point of spending your small amounts of money on weekend shows if you can't make Nationals your goal? If that's the case, to hell with my horses' gaits,  I'd rather have them be atomic bombproof on a trail.

I'm just really upset and really disappointed with the organization right now. If it were up to me, I would leave it for good. But we'll see how the rest of my family feels about it.

Equestrian Team Summer - Day 5

Today was SUCH an improvement. I felt so much better with my legs. But of course, since I got better with my legs, my top half fell apart!

I rode Tommy today again (yay!). I'm becoming quite attached. I'm glad she's letting me stick to one horse until I figure out what to do with the bottom, balance, and but the top half and bottom half together over fences.

I feel so great that I can finally see and correct my diagonals. I'm super happy that most of the time now I start posting on the correct one to start with!

One thing that really clicked for me this week was leg position. With the Pasos, you're usually really quiet with your leg because if you slightly kick them (unless you're in Brie's mule mode or Harry's backing up to rear mode), they'll be heading for the hills! Stacy really drilled it in my head today to open up my hips and keep my calves in contact with the sides of the horse all the time. I also learned a semi-obvious but neat little trick about head pulling and such that I can't wait to try on Harry -- instead of pulling back the reins to try to fight them to tuck their head back and stop pulling, give them a little squeeze and pinch your shoulder blades together so you're not really pulling, just kind of locking yourself in a firm upper body position for a minute while pushing them onwards with your leg.

Trotting was awesome. She had me really working on my two-point position today in a trot along the long walls of the arena which helped me balance over the fences WAY better.

But, since I managed to do something right with the bottom half, my upper half was lacking. I completely kept collapsing my ribcage over the fences instead of keeping a nice and helpful frame that I had before when I couldn't balance with my bottom half. So I have to think about that and remember it for next week!

Stacy also gave me some at home kind of exercises that would help me strengthen my two-point, which I think is fantastic and I'll be doing them alllll week.

I can't wait to get better. Since my first show with the team will be in November, I decided to ask her if she'll let me jump in it. She said if I keep improving like did today, she'll see if she can move me up to beginning jumping!! I can't wait!

Day 167

Brie never ceases to amaze me.

I passed off Harry to my mom today to work on since I was having no luck getting him to gait yesterday, but I'll talk about him later. Brie is insane! Here I am, all worried about riding her because she hasn't been in a while and her leg was stocked up this morning. It was so relaxing to really brush her and scrub at her elbows and what not and to put lineament on her hock and ankle in the back. She looked like she was happy to go.

Then I got on.

I knew from the minute she started swishing her tail that it wouldn't be a relaxing ride.

All I wanted to do was walk her around the arena, you know, take it easy on her. But nope, she was almost literally rearing to go. So after struggling with her, dismounting, longeing, remounting, and repeating, I just let her go.

We cantered for a while in a huge circle about half of the arena. My better judgement told me this was a bad move with her arthritis, but Brie was telling me, "LET ME GO ALREADY DAMMIT!" So we went. To say that she was in one of her fast modes today would be an understatement. We rode with Allison today for probably our last ride before she changes barns. I'm thinking maybe that's why she was a little goofy, but then again my mom said she was pretty crazy for her ride yesterday, so who knows.

Harry was also in a bad mood today because of the fruit basket. In the beginning he tried to buck my mom off. He really doesn't like that thing. But he looked better in his corto today! Even though we're supposed to be doing largo more, I didn't really get to watch it because Brie was always zooming past him. I do know that we have to do more circle work with Harry in order for him to really think about doing everything at once.

While we were out walking around, Harry started dancing but this time his back feet were keeping up with the front and Allison said "I think he's Fino-ing!" So it's not just us who think that he can do it. If only we had a different trainer to help us out, I'm sure Harry could be a Fino horse. But for right now, we're just gonna try to get him to largo for Nationals. We'll see what the winter brings.

Equestrian Team Summer Day 4

Oh man. I got in trouble today.

Yes sir, I had to ride without stirrups. But let's start from the top.

I get there and ride Tommy again this week. Fine by me! I feel much better in my trot and the canter is beautiful. I really feel like I'm getting the hang of this. I get him to trot over the poles only hesitating once. I feel like I got this.

Then she sets up the little X jump. I'm like "Yes! She thinks I can start jumping!!"

And it goes downhill from there.

There was just something not clicking with me and jumping. I still have a little bit of a hard time with the whole two-point idea, so I'm trying my best. I get over the two poles she lays out before the X jump, go over those and kind of freak, hoping the horse will go into overdrive and do it on his own.

Well he doesn't. More than once, we pop over the fence. I nail it down to not having balance in my two point because, guess what, I'm standing! I couldn't help it. Then I'd topple over, lose my balance, and hang on his neck so he couldn't go over the baby X.

After like 5 tries I never manage to fix this, it's not clicking that I need to SIT MY BUTT DOWN and finally Stacy's just like, "Okay, out on the rail. Drop your stirrups." And in my brain I'm like, "oh crap, wait how do I do this while trotting??" And try to walk and she yells, "STOP TRYING TO WALK, TROT AND DROP YOUR STIRRUPS!" So I fling them off (prolly shouldn't have) and immediately start falling from one side to the other side of the horse. I really feel like I'm gonna topple over and all I hear is her yelling, "POST! POST!" I try my hardest, I think I posted once. I hear her go, "Oh man. Okay, walk. Yeah, you'll be doing that every week now."

Great. I had to cling on for dear life with my little thighs for about 10 seconds and I couldn't feel them afterwards. How am I gonna do this for a good portion of the lesson for the next few weeks!??!

I'll really have to suck it up. All I have to keep thinking is that I'll be able to jump after this. =]