Don't Leave Points on the Table

After going through the L Program Part 1, it's shown me a lot about how judges judge and why they have the priorities they do.

Dressage has a reputation for being something you can buy high scores in. The nicer the horse, the better the score, even if the training is bad. How many times we see riders on 6 movers lament about being beaten by a rider who is not nearly as good as they are, but who simply has more money than they do to buy a fancier horse. Hi, it's me, I feel like that sometimes. I've already posted about wanting to spend 4-5x what I spent on TC on my next horse to help myself out a bit. I work for every single 8 my naturally 6.5 mover gets. 

And, well. It's true. To an EXTENT. 

The purpose of dressage, the purpose of the entire sport, is to maintain and enhance the purity of the horse's gaits. Literally the point of this sport is to make your horse move with more freedom, suppleness, elasticity, throughness, and so on. And you know what, it's a hard truth that some horses just hit the ground moving like that, of course they do, we breed top horses to top horses to get... top horses. They move an 8 in the pasture while some horses will never score an 8 on gaits even with Steffen Peters riding them. It's kind of a bummer, but that doesn't bother me all that much, it's just the nature of the sport, unfortunately. 

What does irk me most is when I see riders putting in a sloppy test on a 6 mover, THEN complain that a beautiful, subtle, accurate rider on an 8 mover just bought their score. 

Not born moving an 8

So in response to learning that you CAN buy bigger gaits scores, I present: how to not leave points on the table on ANY quality of horse. Until a rider on a 6 mover's collective scores look like this: 

Gaits: 6

Impulsion: 6

Submission 7.5+

Rider position: 7.5+

Rider effectiveness: 7.5+

They are leaving points on the table and blaming the quality of their horse. Poor horse! He didn't decide to be a dressage horse, he doesn't know how much money was spent on him. 

Remember that impulsion <> energy and submission <> roundness
there is way more to it than that

Here are some things riders have under their control on any quality of horse that directly relate to the above collectives.

Subtle Aids

There is no such thing as "effective but not pretty" to a dressage judge. The subtlety of the rider's aids matters, just as much as the effect of the aids, if not more. It should look like the horse is going through the test on their own and a busy rider negates that immediately. 

The biggest place we see this is with wide hands. Wide hands puts the horse onto the forehand, full stop. The horse should be ridden from the leg and the seat into narrow, quiet hands. I forget who told me this phrasing, but "stop fiddle-fucking around with the horse's face" and ride from the leg and seat. I can't tell you how difficult it is to ride with my hands at the width of the bit, did not realize how much I depended on slightly wide hands to keep my horse on the bit (Tracey had me do that by bridging my reins and TC popped right off the bit at first hahahaha oh god).

This is directly related to the rider effectiveness score. Without subtle aids, even an effective rider will have a rider effectiveness score in the 6 range, maybe 7 if you have a very kind judge. To get an 8 or higher, hands need to be together and still, aids subtle and horse obedient. 

Wide hands, oh boy

Rider Position

Rider position includes alignment and stability, sure, we all need to plank more. But it also includes correct following mechanics, which is what I saw the most when I started the judge training. The way the rider sits should not only not bother the horse, it should enhance the way the horse goes. Good riding doesn't just involve absorption of the horse's forces, it involves transmitting forces onto the horse to positively affect the way the horse goes.

Many times we see horses who have been ridden by riders who prevent the oscillation of the neck in the canter. These riders take their 7 movers and turn them into 6 movers over the years, what a shame, I'm currently working with two riders on horses who have been messed with in the canter, it's a long hard road to get them to use their necks and backs again.

The rider needs to follow the horse's head and neck forward and downward with the final beat of the canter. In addition, the hips of the rider need to close on the back swing so there isn't airtime under the rider's seat bones in the moment of suspension when the hindquarters drop out from underneath the rider. More on this next week, as it's a huge focus of the Mary Wanless Workshop this weekend! I'm hoping to snag some videos of myself riding with different mechanics and do a nice post about it. 

Proper alignment, woohoo! I miss Rico sometimes, he was a way
easier horse to train and ride lol

Accuracy of the Test

This is so silly, but worth mentioning. Accuracy goes into both submission and rider effectiveness. It's especially bad if the lack of accuracy makes the movements easier. Riding three loop serpentines like two diagonals (get parallel across the middle), not going to centerline in the counter canter loop, riding a shoulder-in like a leg yield, making circles larger than they need to be, and allowing the horse to slowly come back after a lengthening all make the test easier. The test is designed the way it is for a reason! 

The submission part is important too, if the horse cannot be accurately ridden through the test, that's a problem with the horse's submission. If the rider's aids have to be loud to get the horse to perform the movements accurately... well, we already went over that. Take your time to practice movements! Even just practicing corners helps, set up two poles or some cones to give you a "corner" if you don't have a court. 

Know What's Expected

The number of people on my IG quizzes (@ohwellspotted) who didn't know that the word thrust was in the purpose of the levels for First level surprised me. If you don't have the necessary level of impulsion for First level, it's not going to be a great test. If the purpose of the level is met, the movements should come on easily! Many people go backwards, they put on the movements and assume that the horse is then ready for the test. Try it the other way and get excited when your not-particularly-talented friesian cross gets solid changes put on within 3 months of starting them (guess who did his first "line" of "tempis" the other day with two changes on a diagonal line?). 

Read the purpose of the levels!

Ease of Movements

Any part of your test that you go "oh god this movement again" is probably not one where the judge is going to score you very high. The movements should appear easy to the horse and that's directly written in the submission section. The judge is encouraged to watch how the horse's facial expression looks when the rider asks the horse to do something. Does the horse look like he's saying "omg YES I know how to do this, I am so good at the sideways thing" or like he's saying "oh god oh god not this again, she's going to be SO ANGRY if I don't get this right but I still have no idea what I'm doing."

You can see the confidence in the horse's face and it feels really good as a judge to see a partnership like the former! I'm so excited to give my first 8 on submission/rider effectiveness to a 6 mover, I just can't wait to reward a rider who values the partnership like that.

Make the Movements Obvious

One of the most common things in lengthenings and stretch circles is hearing "not enough shown" and getting a 5 or lower. These are movements that are possible to get 6+ on even if your horse is basically terrible at them. The way my brain works when I'm practicing judging is that if I have to go "wait did she know she needed to stretch on that circle?" is a 4 and if I have to go "oh dear, at least she knows something has to change" then it's a 5. Make sure that the judge knows what you're trying to do. If it's recognizable as the movement, it's at least a 5. If it's meeting the requirements of the movement (read the rulebook!), it's at least a 6, for ANY quality of horse. Straight 6s is a 60%!

Any time you get a 4 on a movement, your rider scores tank. So we need to make sure we're showing the judge that we do know what these movements are, even if they're not perfect. 

Non-Brilliance Movements

Finally, there are two non-brilliance movements that every judge is waiting to give EVERY HORSE regardless of quality a 10 on. 

Walk pirouettes (or TOH for 2nd and 3rd)

Rein back

Go snag your ten on those movements! Or at least get them to be a solid eight. 

This thing halts like crap and it's all my fault

The judges don't see a 6 mover and think "oh what a shit horse, I'm going to be extra mean, especially because the horse I just had in this ring was so much nicer!" Every judge in the program was so excited to see average horses being ridden well.

At no point were they rude or mean about ANY horse, they were just bummed to see mistakes or the rider not riding well. The only time they got irritated is when the rider was riding against the horse, regardless of quality. They never said anything like "well, that horse is just never going to score well" or "maybe the rider should get on something more talented" or what not. It was always like "wow, what a willing horse" or "I love arabs/paints/ponies/whatever, I rode one as a kid..." or "damn they are a great pair, look at how much she's getting out of that sweet horse." 

The judge has to uphold the standard of the sport, which again, is all about enhancing the natural gaits of the horse. So sure, we are encouraged to recognize quality of the gaits and reward it. BUT a horse who scores a 6 when they hit the ground should be able to score much higher on their gaits as the rider carefully develops them using the principles of dressage. And while the rider is carefully developing the horse, they should keep the above in mind to keep those scores up! There's always going to be a better horse out there than yours, but that horse's rider doesn't have to be a better rider than you are. 

Smoothing Out the Accelerator

It's typical for me to have lesson hangovers, especially when I don't take enough lessons, like right now. After my last lesson, I knew walking out of the arena that it'd give me a good hangover, and it totally did.

Since my lesson with Tanya, I've been trying to get TC a little more over his back and a little more forward, and it's been going okay. But then I went and watched a bunch of videos of us from 2018 and was bummed to see how much better he looked then when I was getting 2-3 lessons with Tanya a month. She just gets him in a way I don't think any other trainer does.

I had one crap ride where I came out and just had no idea what to do. I then emailed Tanya and begged for a lesson/advice before she comes down again. I still don't have a pixio so I can't have a remote lesson. She isn't available, but she just told me "keep riding him forward and round" and I see her next week.

God this horse is amazing, especially given that I paid less for
him than I did for my horse trailer

With that, I decided to break those down. Roundness is primarily suppleness at this point, the reason why she says roundness is because he retracts his neck back at me at times. She had me ride a lot of bending and suppling exercises that I've been doing and he's way better now.

The forward part was what I wanted to break down. I had an interesting conversation with Tracey awhile back about what forward means with this horse. She says he's never going to be quick off the aids because of his size and breeding. Tanya clearly disagrees and wants him snappy off my aids. A year of riding him a bit dull, plus all the work I had to do at the barn he hates to keep him from bolting, and he's way sluggish off my aids.

So on Monday I decided to get him hotter off my leg and failed miserably. TC is weird. He's always been very hot off the aids... well, off light aids. If you lightly touch him with the leg, he shoots off of it to an extent. But the heavier the leg aid, or really, the more pressure among all aids, the more he balks. He's a huge tattle tail on riders who are too busy or not subtle enough with their aids. He immediately slows down and will even start bucking and kicking, he even threatens to rear if you get real on his case with spurs + whip.

My riding has gotten better but I want to get TC back along
this pathway!

Light leg aids, plus my natural high-tone-ness, has allowed me to not have to really ever get the horse to respond to a heavier leg aid (you can put a spur on for lateral work, but never touch him with the spurs to get GO because he balks) because he fucking goes when you ask him to properly. But Tanya wants more than he's willing to give me from that light aid, and I have no way of adding pressure to show him how much more forward I want. Too many light aids in a row = busy aids = balking. Too heavy a leg aid = not subtle enough = balking.

I don't love getting on his case, but I now need those aids to work, and that means pairing aids that make him buck with aids that make him go. I strapped in and went for it.

It honestly didn't take long. My timing is somewhat decent. I made a big fuss over him when he got it, to the point where he would downshift when I applied the whip or put my spurs on. There was a fair amount of slowing down, stopping, bucking, slamming to a halt and wanting to go up, and lots of random lead changes, but about 15 minutes into the ride, I had a horse I didn't realize was in there. He was downright HOT to the aids and responding the way he should to the aids I've never been able to use.

Fancy pony

My trainer friend who has been my eyes on the ground lately came in and I told her what I was doing. I asked her to watch him go and tell me whether she thought he was under himself enough. She said yes and in fact said that she hadn't seen his back move like this ever. She asked if I could uncurl him a bit more (I was worried to do that because he was struggling with his balance a bit) and I did and she told me when she thought he looked the best. We went around like that for a while and then I let him be done.

I left the barn so excited, and TC seemed pleased with himself (given that 90% of the ride was me yelling GOOD BOY at him). I feel much better coming into my next lesson and am super glad I tackled this problem. There is an extended trot that lives in his collected trot now, and I'm obsessed with the idea that I can actually use all my goddamn aids now. A huge door has been opened and I know the corridor is long and I can't quite see where it ends, but I'm stoked to be on this path now.

New Riding Goals

There's a running joke with people in my life that I use up all my detail-oriented-type-A-ness on dressage and have nothing left over for the rest of my life.

For example: I continuously leave the oven/stove/lights on after using them; I don't notice when anything has changed, ever; and I forget things almost immediately upon hearing them if they don't relate to this damn sport. Honestly, if it wasn't for dressage proving to me that my brain works just fine, I'd go to the doctor and get a CT scan. I looked up the symptoms for adult ADHD and it doesn't quite fit, but that's how much of an air cadet I can be at home when I'm not paying attention.

Then I go teach and I'm like, oh, there it all is, all the ovens I've left on and all the stuff I don't notice, it's all in my teaching and riding.

TC spent an entire ride spooking at this man
and only not spooking when he was allowed to
stare at the man aggressively, great.

The L program has made me way more detail oriented though. It's just the nature of sitting in a classroom being lectured at by S judges for three full weekends I guess.

I could go on about how this has affected me as an instructor, but I feel like that's kind of boring for this blog (basically it's made me even more annoying to ride with I think). I've been a somewhat technical instructor with all the Mary stuff for a while, and before that, Tracey made me quite technical starting in 2013.

I've not been a bad rider, per se, but I've noticed some huge changes in my riding, especially after I got home from this most recent session.

My barn owner was like "want me to ask him to stop?" and I
was like NO PLEASE DON'T

We watched a video of Steffen Peters at one point to see what a 10 rider looked like. It's good to know what a 10 rider looks like, even if you very likely will never see one in your court as a judge. Reading the descriptions of what a 10 is for rider position and for rider effectiveness has been really enlightening. Those are scores you can achieve on any quality of horse.

It got me thinking... talent can be taught, I CAN ride as well as Steffen, we all can. Maybe I will never have the boldness in my riding like he has, the ability to get as much out of my horses as he does, and I certainly will never have the quality of horse that he has access to. But I can get higher rider scores than I do (I am a solid 7 rider).

I wrote a bold statement down on my whiteboard: I want to ride like an international rider. I want to basically have the only thing keeping me from the international ring being the horse, the money, and the desire... not the quality of my riding.

Riding with this in mind has helped a TON. I have a lot of little habits that have always bothered me. I look down, my elbows get away from my body, my hands get too wide...

Wandering by the same space another day

So since then, I've made some huge changes. Looking up has made a huge difference in me getting my feel in line. It's easy for me to look down and see that his neck is down where it should be and then ignore that he's a little braced, or a little retracted until I ask him to do something and them am all surprised when he does it... a little braced, or a little retracted. No shit, Sherlock.

I've been really on my own case about little things. One step of my hand coming wide and then returning to TC's withers is NOT OKAY. Why did it do that? What hole am I quickly covering up by popping my hand wide?

I've also started to ask a bit more from TC. More responsiveness, more throughness, more suppleness. Poor TC, he's like "bro, I don't have 'trot like Valegro' on my whiteboard, it says 'eat carrots, be happy' on it." But he's a good sport, so he's stepping up really nicely.

I love this horse

So that's the update from the last session on how that has been affecting my riding. It's made me sit down and realize that I want to do this. I've been back and forth about going for more than just competing at the local level, it's stressful, it's expensive, and it's HARD. But I want it. I want to compete internationally. And this is the first step. If I fall short, no regrets, I want to be a better rider.

Fitness Solution

Since I moved back to the bay, I've been struggling to find a fitness solution that works for me. When I was living up north, going to Crossfit every day was no problem because I didn't teach during the week and had a VERY set schedule with work because I couldn't work from home. Also I lived at the barn, so riding was easy in the mornings before work. Everything was predictable. My Crossfit friends were all around my age or a little younger, many of them PhD students at the local university or recent graduates.

Miss this place

We formed a group and would all attend the same classes, a lot of the time staying late after class to hang out. It was a huge bummer moving away from them, although I think a lot of people split in the following months. We still have a group chat, but it's mostly quiet.

When I moved back, I tried several crossfits (three in total, plus a powerlifting gym) and none of them stuck. Either the times weren't great, the programming wasn't my fave, or I didn't like the coaching. Then I got mono and was forced to stop anyway. And when I recovered from mono, I doubled my business load and then basically stopped going to the gym.

Since then I've struggled to figure this out. I love the group classes and weightlifting that Crossfit offers, but I can't make specific times. I don't have a set schedule because of teaching, I need flexibility in when I can hit the gym. Most of the gyms in this area don't have enough classes at random times to help me out there.

Ugh I should have gotten lifters
much sooner, my OHS and general
squat form is way better now

Then my brother and I went bouldering together in September kind of randomly, I went a couple more times with him and once with my boyfriend after that and then it kind of petered out, but I did like it. Boyfriend and I started looking around in the area where we are and couldn't find a single gym that wasn't just completely packed after work (which is the easiest time for us to go together, although he has a gym at work he can go to and he's also a cyclist).

But I went bouldering again recently with my brother (before he had a kid) and was reminded how much I love bouldering and how sparse the gym is in comparison to other gyms. So I decided to join!

They have group classes in the after work hours (TRX, yoga, a core class) and if I can't make one of those, the weight room is always scarce because most people are there to climb. The climbing is great! I can boulder by myself or with my brother (when he is back to normal life... eventually) and when my hands get tired, I can go squat or row or deadlift or something. It's also way less expensive than crossfit, which is good. And I get a free guest pass every month! My brother goes 1-2x per week and I plan on trying to go with him (again, eventually, can you tell I wrote this post before my niece decided to come into the world two weeks early?), plus once or twice more to do some weights. If I can't figure out what to do, I can look back at my old workouts (I have a huge amount of workouts just sitting in a saved folder from doing Crossfit all of 2018) and do those.

We don't have tons of hobbies in common, paddle boarding is
one of them (which we don't do enough, this summer for sure!)

Also hiking! This is from Lassen in 2018

Fingers crossed it will work out! I just want to go a few hours a week and keep myself active beyond just riding. And being able to share something with my brother is great. Yes he now has a kid, but he says that he and my SIL want to keep doing their physical activities (she does barre), so hopefully he can come with me once a week once they settle in with the kiddo.

L Program Part 2: Projected Expenses

I love this program so much, but it's expensive. I posted a projection for Part 1 back in July and it basically ended up being true! So I'm doing it again.

Some parts of Part 2 are cheaper (with it being in California, no flights for me, plus Peony is letting us stay at her house!) and some parts are more expensive (I'm selfishly insisting that Nicole, who lives out of state, will be my scribe because, well, if you know her you understand).

The majority of the cost of the L program is the travel, honestly. The full program itself is $2515, although I've seen some Part 2s cost way more than the $1500 I paid. I had a ton of points saved up, so it's less than $1,000 out of pocket for me. BUT travelling makes it expensive.

We're learnding!

For Part 2, I'm looking at sessions in Sacramento in March and July, and one session in Denver in May.

Flights

Nicole's flights seem to be in the $250 range for California, so that's good. We're going to fly her into the bay so she can hang out with Kate and I for a day, then we'll book it up to Sacramento and she'll fly out of there, at least that's our March plan. We will be making July plans later, though it might be similar. Both of our flights are looking like they'll be in the $400 range to get to Colorado.

For three sessions, flights will be $1300.


Hotel

Peony has graciously offered us her house for our March and July trips, her house is about an hour away from the facility, but super worth it for the excellent company and insanely comfortable guest bed. I looked at AirBnbs for our Colorado trip and am finding them fairly cheap!

For all three sessions (aka our Colorado trip), AirBnb will be $250.


Transportation

I'll be driving my own car for Sacramento, of course. Gas-wise it'll probably be a full tank there and back, plus we're going to Alexis' barn (did you think I was just taking over three of Nicole's weekends without making sure that it's at least somewhat worth it for her?), so maybe a titch more, let's say $125 in gas total for both trips. For the rental car in Colorado, I looked into it with boyfriend's discount and it'll be probably $150.

For all three sessions, transportation will be $275.


Food/MSC

There will be two people to feed this time! In Sacramento, we will need breakfast, coffee, and dinner while we're there (I assume they're feeding us but maybe not! I should calculate lunch). Same in Colorado. Again, I always forget things and so often times the first place I go when I travel is a target.

I'm going to budget $250 per session, so that's $750 for all three.


Offsets

For Part 1, I offset a lot of the cost with my points, I already used those though, but I do plan on cashing in for all of them that I earn between now and July to replenish my savings if necessary. Again, been saving for this for a long time. Also low key though the entire thing was going to be in Colorado so I was preparing for that.

See you never, San Tan Valley, Arizona

The Bottom Line

My projected expenses are as follows:

Program: $1500
Flights: $1300
Hotel: $250
Transportation: $275
Food/MSC: $750

Total Expected Expenses Part 1: $3477
Total Expected Expenses Part 2: $4075

Total L Program Expected Expenses: $7552


When I originally signed up, I figured the program would cost me $10,000 or so. So this is way under budget! I also yanked that $1500 out of my points, so that means it was more like $6k out of pocket.

Could have had another one of these weirdos instead of doing
that program! Remember when he used to basilisk in the show ring??

YMMV, of course, but I did want to be very upfront with how expensive it is to be a judge. Going through this program and paying out of pocket while I work two jobs to make ends meet at home has given me so much more respect for our judges. You don't just become a judge by being mean, old, and opinionated, you put in the time when you're young and dumb broke. Then you do it again for the little r program and then the big R and then the S program. And you kind of get paid like crap to be a judge. By the time I graduate from this program, I will be able to make more teaching a couple hours of lessons than judging for an entire weekend (which is also a loss of income because I can't teach if I'm judging). Judges do this for the love of the sport, not for the money.

I'm grateful for everyone who is willing to shell out the money they could have spent on a horse to be a judge! I know I'm immediately going to start saving for the little r program the minute I've recovered from this one. Phew!

Aunt Megan

I BECAME AN AUNT YESTERDAY!!

I got a call from my brother while I was at work. I was prepared to maybe be an aunt today because the baby had been lounging on its side and needed to be flipped, they said that could trigger labor, so I carefully planned on not teaching that day, gave my boss a heads up.

Then my brother called and I didn't pick up because I'm a terrible sister (also I was in a very important meeting). Then I got a text message. I believe I said this:

OHMYGODHAVINGABABYNONOTMEMYSISTERINLAWOHGODCANILEAVEOKAYBYE

... before I ran out of the room with all my stuff, ignoring whatever my boss said (which I assume was "okay yes you can go"). I drove like a bit of a maniac to the hospital (I was thinking I had been dosed with caffeine, which I am very sensitive to, earlier in the day so I was already on edge all day), kind of half sobbing and half giddy. I got there it turns out literally ten minutes before the baby was born.

It's me but with my brother's kid, also just me generally

However, because it was a C Section, my brother didn't come out for a few hours because my sister-in-law was recovering. So my parents and I sat in the waiting room like crazy people.

Finally my brother came out and we all got super emotional and he told us that it's A GIRL! They had waited to find out until the day she was born. I hoped she was a girl because PONIES (I know boys can ride ponies but come on, she's going to want to ride some fucking ponies) but I could also get excited about a boy because I can't wait to see my brother get too intense at his kids' hockey games.

I got to hold her, and while I'm super not a kid person, like at all (I got home and told boyfriend "we are never having one of those" lol), I was immediately obsessed with her. She is so fucking adorable when she yawns, it's like when a puppy yawns. And she makes these little gurgling noises that I'm sure every baby makes but hers are the cutest. Also she's legit cute even though she's a newborn, I was expecting her to look like an alien. I didn't know what to do with her so I just kind of sat there frozen just talking to her like she was a doggo while she slept. I also said the word PONY like 900 times to try to get it real deep in there, this kid needs to love ponies.

My mom and I waiting in the waiting room!

I immediately went home and told boyfriend that we were going to Target to get PINK THINGS, so we did. I'm dropping by the hospital to bring them that and anything else they need too. They're staying there for a few days and it's conveniently 10 minutes away from me! I also offered to cook them things all weekend so they have food and told them I'd go shopping for them/babysit/help out however I can.

I can't wait to get this kid on a pony, I've already started looking at saddles and planning out her entire dressage career (not exaggerating, my next horse will very likely be something that is quiet/small enough to be an FEI juniors horse, my mom had to tell me to stop yammering on about that). My brother is immediately horrified. Toooooo bad, Kevin, this is what you get for making me a new student.

L Program: Half Way Through Expenses Update

Whew, the L program Part 1 is officially over! And Part 2 starts in just a couple of months.

I posted a projection of expenses for it before I began and figured I would update it now that we are halfway through.

I'm putting out these costs to be totally transparent about how expensive these programs are to go through so that we can all get together and appreciate our judges a bit more. This is the first program that is necessary for our judges to go through and it doesn't even result in us becoming judges at the end of it!

Totally changed the way I ride this guy though!

I expected the entirety of Part 1 to cost me about $3500 and I just eeked in under that, here's the actual breakdown:

Program Cost: $1,000
Materials Cost: $15
Total Up Front: $1015

Session A
October Flight: $378 (SJC - PHX Round Trip on Southwest)
October Car Rental: $198 (this was absurd, it was going to be $350 and then I got annoyed at them)
October AirBnB: $121 (this place was very small but perfect for just me!)
October Food/Incidentals: $121 (had to buy my binder and print materials, also food!)
Total October: $818

Session B
November Flight: $377 (SJC - PHX Round Trip on Southwest)
November Car Rental: $129 (boyfriend has discounts through work that he let me use this time after hearing me complain last time)
November Hotel: $288 (oh god I got an Airbnb and then they canceled and Airbnb didn't tell me so I had to get a hotel the DAY I flew in, bad times, definitely confirming them ASAP from now on)
November Food/Incidentals: $182 (food! also parking at the airport because no one was available to drop me off and my diagrams were like $70, super worth it)
Total November: $976

Session C
January Flight: $187 (SJC - PHX Round Trip on Southwest, finally learned my lesson, buying flights INTENSELY EARLY)
January Car Rental: $159 (damn MLK weekend, but boyfriend's discount was great)
January AirBnB:  $121 (same place as Session A! And they didn't cancel on me, phew)
January Food/Incidentals: $201 (parked at the airport because boyfriend had a nasty bout of vertigo the day before so I refused his help, turns out parking was closed so I had to pay a BUNCH of money to park in a closer lot, booo, also food and flash cards).
Total January: $668

Total Cost Part 1: $3,477

Like I said in my previous post, I have been saving for this program for a long time now. I also used up all my points and worked a TON this last fall to get this done. It's not over yet because this is just Part 1. I cannot judge even a schooling show right now. I just have a lot more knowledge. And way less credit card points!

Can't wait for Part 2 to start, we head to Sacramento in March!

L Program Part 1 Session C

As of Sunday night, I completed the L Program Part 1! And as I said, I have been accepted into Part 2, so the excitement continues!

This time, we went over the collective marks, the part of the test that I've been ignoring in all my practice. Our organizer ended up being our instructor, which was great! And one of my favorite judges was there apprenticing to become an L faculty member. And we had our usual guest "S" judge. So another session where we had 3 "S" or higher level judges. Fantastic!

Best car I've rented so far!

Arizona is an hour ahead of California right now, so it felt like 6:30am when I signed into the first day. Saturday was spent fully in the classroom, which was tough.

I texted Alexis afterward, she is about 3-4 years ahead of me in these programs so she is always a good resource. She says that the reason why the classroom sessions are hard is that videos are easily distorted and look different from different sides of the room. I sat at one side so I could have my computer and so my scores were very off.

The biggest thing I learned in the first day was how FUCKING HARD JUDGING IS. Which, yes it is. Of course it is. But it's tough. You have to keep track of so many things and even differentiating between impulsion and submission for collectives in ITSELF is hard, even ignoring everything else. So I was very concerned going into the second day, really wondering if I was cut out for it all.

Going to miss my trusty AirBnb!

The second day was way way better. Seeing horses in person reminded me that I actually do know a thing or two about dressage and how things judge. The impostor syndrome kept me from feeling too confident in the beginning (in order to judge well, I thought, "what would X judge score this at?" rather than just judging for myself), but by the time we got to the end of our First level riders, there I was, in typical-Megan-fashion, arguing with the judges and palling up with a couple of the participants who agreed with me. I'm nothing if not... completely obnoxious confident... eventually.

At the end of both days, I sat and obsessively made flash cards. I'm very determined to go through part 2 easily and our first instructor for the first session is our examiner for the final. I want to go in STRONG to D1 and make her remember me as a strong candidate. So I've been studying like mad. Memorize key words in the glossary? I'll be memorizing all words in the glossary, even the copyrights. Memorize the purpose of the levels? I'll be memorizing all the criteria and directives of every movement that is in there. Memorize the meaning of the scores? I'll be memorizing the exact wording to the methodology behind every score of every collective mark.

Me making flash cards

And with that, I've completed Part 1 of the L Program! It's been an amazing journey so far and I'm so happy I did it, even if I don't pass. I refuse to not pass though.

I highly recommend doing the first part of the L program, it's available to everyone. Yes, everyone. No dressage or even horse experience necessary. It's such an amazing education and has given me so much good information specifically about showing. I'll be putting out information about how much it cost me soon, but I feel like it's so worth it. If you have one in your area (the majority of my expenses were due to me doing one out of state), please consider signing up. It's absolutely amazing.

Now that I'm done with Part 1, I'm going to start offering judging of tests through Second level (will include a test filled out and a longer comment section), it won't be very expensive because I'm not a judge yet! Stay tuned for that as I'm still working it out and have a few people who have sent me tests already that I need to complete now that my education isc complete.

By the way, I'm doing some fun L Program quizzes on my Instagram, it's private but if you're a horse person who has some friends in common, I accept most friend requests.

How to Make Boys Next Door Out of Assholes

I'm working with a client who has a horse similar to TC and it's bringing back a lot of memories from his past. The horse is really cool, but complicated and has some less than desirable behaviors going on. Nothing that I don't think we can fix with time and good ol' Academic Horse Training, but I think my confidence that we can work through this comes from TC being such a dingus for so long.

With this horse in my training program, I've thought a lot about what caused TC to go from being a horse I saw as unpredictable and kind of scary to a horse I can ride bareback around on a loose rein and take almost anywhere without worrying about him (aside from two barns that he HATES, his old barn and HPW, not taking him to those barns any time soon). I came up with a few things.

LOOK HOW DARK HE WAS

Clicker Training 

Clicker training was a huge part of TC's turn around. I used it a TON with him and continue to use it on a semi-regular basis. I find that it makes him focus a bit better on what he could be doing to earn clicks, which takes his focus from what is happening around him to what is happening inside him. You can click for all sorts of things, even relaxation (for example, I will click when he takes a deep breath or blows his nose). It also helps me not get frustrated, as I start thinking in terms of what I can click for vs just getting annoyed at him, because getting annoyed at him just makes everything worse.

My Own Mental (and Physical) Game

Controlling my own nerves was super important in the very beginning of his behavioral stuff, I am a nervous rider by nature so realizing that was adding to the situation was key. I used to force myself to ride through everything but then I realized that it wasn't helping TC out very much. So I basically told myself "if you can't be chill about this, you HAVE to get off" and that usually either kicked my ass into gear to control my nerves or gave me permission to get off and help him from the ground (then get back on and redo whatever from on top of him). 

Being physically stronger always helps me with my nerves, so I do my best to hit the gym a few times a week (less now than before ugh, I think I found a solution though, more on that later!). 

So retracted in the neck

Understanding the Landau Reflex

TC's major response to something he's nervous about is the landau reflex. He sucks back in his neck and gets on his underneck, then bolts. Realizing that the "push back" in his neck was an early sign of him getting away from me (didn't always lead to a bolt, but every bolt started with that) helped me correct that before he managed to dislodge himself. He can't bolt if he's reaching for the bridle (some of them can but TC never has), so I clicker trained the hell out of that. 

Academic Horse Training

The book, Academic Horse Training helped a lot, it described spooking/bolting/bad behavior as behavior that is outside of stimulus control. In a very basic sense, TC bolts because the whoa aid is not effective. So TC halted and reined back on a regular basis (at least 5x/day when he was being bad) to help him build the response for the whoa so that when I do ask for it, it's very much an ingrained behavior. This reduced the length of time that he was bolting and made me feel more comfortable with the possibility of him bolting because I know I can stop him.

Along these same lines, at one point Kate worked with an expert on clicker training, she very nicely asked the woman about TC's bolting and the woman said something like "at one point, the bolting resulted in a release of pressure/reward, so TC holds onto that." Understanding that took me out of feeling like it was such a personal thing. It's hard not to take a horse galloping away from your aids as something personal, but he was just doing something he knew worked to get pressure off of him. 

So cute

Training His Response

Speaking of pressure, he was a very claustrophobic horse. He still is. He trots through his dumb gate all the time because he gets worried he won't fit.

So I would put him in controlled situations where I set up something that I knew would disturb him (just the other day I threw my jacket just outside the court and made him work through wanting to stare at it) and would work to address his responses. This was helpful for me because then I wasn't under pressure to get him to get his shit together for a lesson/show/whatever, which is when I'd tend to get too hard on him and put extra pressure on him to be good and he'd actually just get worse. My main goal was to counteract his response (get away from object) by teaching him the opposite (reward for going toward object). I have this stupid voice I use when I want him to approach something, it helps calm me down too, I basically ask him "what is that?" and I can't emphasize how stupid and high pitched this voice is. But it's now a discriminative stimulus for him (discriminative stimulus = a reward is available) that if he approaches the object, he gets a click and a treat.

And I did that with EVERYTHING he even thought about spooking/shying/staring at. Especially drilling it with stuff he was just a little curious about or just glanced at was super helpful because it ingrained the behavior of see a thing - hear stupid human voice - approach thing - get treats. This helped a ton with a lot of his spooking. He now sees something sketchy and wants to approach it, which is a way easier response to deal with than running away. He's WAY less spooky than he used to be, sometimes I forget he was so spooky and unpredictable because he's so confident now. 

So on the forehand

Bombproofing Clinics

We did two bombproofing clinics a couple years ago that helped a LOT, it mostly put me in a situation where I had to get comfortable with him spooking/being nervous/getting over it/being curious because it happened so often during those days. They were each like five or six hours long with a lunch break. The instructors helped a ton, their advice was to stay calm, don't get pushy/angry/frustrated, let the horse's natural curiosity come out (vs shoving them toward an obstacle), and go at their own pace.

The biggest one that helped TC a ton was the pool noodle chute. Like I said above, he tends to want to run through small spaces, so it was good to help him learn to slow down. It was two pieces of plywood and a bunch of pool noodles, the horse has to walk through the noodles and it freaked TC out a ton because they'd touch him. He also hated walking through the car wash for I think the same reason. So those two things helped me understand one of his major triggers (feeling trapped/too much pressure) so I could work on that (set him up to feel trapped, then reward).

He was worth it

Time Makes a Difference

TC's worst years were his five and six year old years, which is very typical. I don't think I could have had such a great seven and eight year old year without battling through those years, but he's doing so well now. 

I'm certain that we can move forward with TC's twin and get him going well. It just takes time! Hopefully I keep this in mind when I get my new horse... also the new horse is going to be MUCH smaller than TC, just saying. 

Schooling Third Level Test 1

Since riding with Tanya, TC has been fabulous, if a bit high. The ride after her lesson, we couldn't wander around the ranch like we usually do because he kept jumping out of his skin. The minute we were in the arena, he relaxed mentally and was so excited to practice what we'd learned. Then on Monday, the same thing happened, he walked on tip toes being all weird until we got into the arena and then he was all business (except a small bolt away from the UPS truck). Never thought I'd have a horse who was more interested in working than I am.

Learning to be uphill!

I'm primarily working on inflating him up and getting  him to commit to being in that place. His canter is the toughest gait to get that commitment from him, so we've been doing a lot of that. The trot is pretty good, though it's quick to lose suppleness, so we've been schooling more lateral work and some circles/spiraling in and out.

All of this work culminated in my confidence that we could probably get through Third Level Test 1. Honestly, 3-1 is a relatively easy and simple test. The half pass only happens in trot and is not very steep, the trot extension/medium are split in the test (so you don't have to kill your abs), the canter work is exceptionally easy and short.

Really, the big parts of that test are the flying changes (which aren't even a double coefficient) and making sure there's a difference between the medium and extended paces. Honestly, I've seen plenty of people snag 60s or even 65s without having changes or the paces well defined.

Happy that I'm giving him water nearer to his
dry stall so he doesn't have to walk in the mud

So the fact that TC has run through 2-3 comfortably meant that the minute I had changes, he'd find 3-1 easy. And he did!

His changes were great in warm up, we were in the court so this was yet another new arena for him to do them in. His trot shoulder-in, haunches-in, and half pass were great too. So I figured I'd throw him at the test in the end, and it was clean, aside from the bolt!

The horse loves centerlines, so he charged up to his halt and was all excited, he was a little confused about not turning off centerline into a medium, so we had a stutter step into the shoulder-in. The lateral work pattern could flow better, the 10m half circle after shoulder-in was a little overbent at first as I left his shoulders on the rail a step too long. Then the half pass was quite good, though I rode it probably too steep. He just learned his zig zag, so the corner rode well as he willingly switched bend.

The first medium felt amazing, he got very elevated in front and stayed that way for most of the length of the long side. It just needs practice, which I need to do carefully. All the walk work was easy. I could have ridden the first walk pirouette better, it was just a bit big and I let him slow down a bit. The next one was picture perfect. His walk-canter transitions still need work, so he got a little crooked at C.

I opted to underride the medium canter because he had already spooked at the UPS truck. The 10m canter circle rode easily and then his change was ENORMOUS and clean. The other direction rode very well too, though the change wasn't as good, I think it was clean but he slowed down to do it and then stuttered afterward. Final trot extension wasn't great only because I was experimenting with getting more hind end without letting him out the front so much and he didn't understand. No problem, just gotta work on it.

I started my clinic at 7:15 last Sunday, the sunrise
was beautiful!

So I have a nice long to do list with most of it being kind of easy. Throughness and responsiveness in the walk-canter transitions, getting my head out of my ass for the walk pirouettes, bigger walk for the free walk (he wants to jig, it's very annoying), better suppleness in the lateral work, and continued work on the changes.

I was so proud of him! He's really taking to the Third level work so well, it gives me so much hope for his future. I was explaining to boyfriend that there are three big "jumps" for horses in dressage. The First - Second level jump, the early-Fourth to late-Fourth/PSG level jump, and the Intermediare I-II jump. Basically: collection/counter canter; pirouettes/tempis; piaffe/passage.

TC has surpassed the first of those three jumps and he's very comfortable where he's at. Hopefully he will take to the canter pirouettes well, I know the tempi changes will be easy (fitting them all in one long side might not be easy), then we'll find out how his piaffe and passage are going to come on hopefully this year! So by the end of this year, I hope to know whether he'll make it all the way.

Delicious

My stretch goal for this year suddenly is to see if we can do the 4-1 at the November show we might go to. Then next year is all Fourth level as we prepare for Prix St George. Two years from now, that shadbelly might have to fit me again! But that's all on whether I can swing regular lessons, still working on that.

The Importance of Organization

I spent an evening last week obsessively watching videos of myself riding. You know, like you do. I was staring intently at a recent video and boyfriend thought something was wrong, when he asked me if I was okay, I said "I'm just watching myself ride BEAUTIFULLY, I think I might actually be good at this sport one day, I'm riding so well recently" and he said "you've also been really humble recently" and that's why I keep him around.

I don't have any new pictures, oh well 

That evening was mostly spent watching recent videos of TC. I hadn't been able to get a lesson recently (then I did!) so taking Soloshot video and having my friends help me has been the only way to know where we are. Other than being a bit underpowered (which we fixed later that week), I was really happy! Way happy with my biomechanics, quite happy with TC.

I had also found my video of Rico's final test, my Gold medal ride, the test we earned a 65% on. I got excited to see myself at my riding prime and popped it in my computer. I hadn't seen it in years.

I was... horrified. Much like I said in this post here, I am really shocked at how I rode in the past. It's really easy to look at what I'm doing with TC now (like just scraping the mid levels of dressage) and think that I'm a way less good rider than I was five years ago, but I've actually improved so much, it's crazy!

Can't wait to be back out there

The biggest thing I see is that I'm a way more organized rider now. While my hands are still not where I want them to be, they don't randomly pop around anymore. I don't lose my balance in transitions like I used to (I didn't even know that was a problem I had!). I don't fling myself in the lead changes even though my horse is so much greener at them now.

For a long time, I was very much a get-er-done rider. Ask nicely and then just make it happen, one way or another. I think that's a very second-toolkit-trainer thing. You start getting disorganized when your trainer just yells the same instructions louder at you.

Studying rider biomechanics has completely transformed my riding and I believe it's the only reason why I'm able to bring TC along in any kind of organized way. He's a very disorganized horse, as opposed to Rico, who was very organized despite his rider. I could get a bit wide and chaotic with my aids on Rico and he'd just be a good boy and do his work. TC tries to get me wide and chaotic and then he gets wide and chaotic and soon we're just mowing along completely out of sync.

Best trail pony

It's mildly depressing to look back at what earned me my Gold medal. I'm proud of all the work I did but maybe not as proud of the end result of my riding (other than the physical medal, so proud of that thing!). I want a Grand Prix video I can be proud of, and I honestly think we're on the right track to get me that video... more on that tomorrow.

Blowing Up the Balloon

Last Thursday evening I had a lesson! It was not with Tracey, it was with Tanya, the trainer I worked with when I was living up north in 2018.

One of the reasons I haven't been able to ride with Tanya is that 1) she only comes down here once a month and 2) she is coming from far away, so her travel fee plus ring fees make her lessons a bit expensive. I need more than one lesson a month and I wasn't so great financially at the beginning of last year, so I got pulled off the regular list and ended up riding with Tracey.

Now I'm struggling because I am so busy on the weekends that I can barely ride with Tracey once a month AND TC is practically asleep at Tracey's barn (and Tracey doesn't travel to teach) so it's really affected the way I've been riding him (underpowered). So I figure if I'm only going to get a lesson a month anyway, I'll go back to ride with Tanya and see what the difference is.

Some shoulder-in, a little stutter but then super easy

Even ignoring how good he was in the lesson, I was VERY proud of TC that evening. He self loaded right after getting fed his dinner, was taken to a barn he hasn't been at in five years, and it was cold and getting dark. He was FOOT PERFECT the entire time. No spooking (other than wanting to stop and curiously glance down the barn aisle that you could see from the covered arena), no bolting, no leaping, no bucking. Nothing. He just buckled down and did his work.

Kate came with one of her students to watch and I got a ton of video! Love my friends.

Lol at him looking down the barn aisle and hesitating for a stride

We started out and I told her that I was struggling to keep him up into the bridle and to keep him up through his withers. She had some really interesting things to say about that, most of which was that I needed more responsiveness to my aids to get him to get up there and stay up there. He needs to get narrower and that in itself will engage his thoracic sling, as will getting his hind legs more engaged. There's not a specific aid to get him to lift through the withers, it's a consequence of other important things. Excellent!

In response to that, after we got him really forward and engaged and he felt amazing, I told her that I'm still battling some muscle memory from when he was a wild idiot. When he gets going that forward and is that hot off my aids, I can feel him surge and come up through his back... exactly how he feels before he bucks. So I've taught myself to quickly shut it down. So every time I put him there, I shut it down.

And this is why having Tanya is so great, because she won't let me shut him down, the moment she sees me do it, she yells at me to kick and go. I'm a good student (well...) and I started ignoring what I was feeling and just DOING what she told me to.

The result was better work than I've ever felt this horse give me. Holy shit. There might be an FEI horse living in that little hippopotamus.

Just trotting around like a fancy horse

The biggest takeaway is that he just needs to be more inflated. Everything is there, it's just dull. Add spark and trust my half halt to keep him from getting his hind leg out behind him (one of my biggest fears is running him off his feet).

It's like he's a deflated balloon. I've spent a really long time patching up the holes and getting the balloon really structurally sound (basics), but now I'm looking at it wondering why it's kind of soggy. It has nothing to do with any more patches that are needed and everything to do with how much air is in it. I just need to blow the balloon up!

Inflated and ready to scare me a bit, yay!

Finally, we chatted about training plans. I really want weekly lessons. I need them to be able to do what I want to do with this horse because he is just about too much horse for me to feel comfortable getting him this pumped up on my own. I hesitate and I need help to overcome that lingering fear of what he feels like when he's going the way he should.

Tanya mentioned that she herself takes Skype lessons and is willing to teach them too. Kate and I chatted and we're going to start figuring out how we can arrange this. This could be a game changer for both of us, be able to ride with one of the best trainers in Northern California in the comfort of our own barns and during the week.

Tanya said she has a Pixio for this and my heart sunk a little bit. Soloshot offers a live version, but you have to pay for it and as we saw from my gifs recently, Soloshot doesn't always keep me in frame. I don't want to pay for a lesson where my trainer can't see me (the money is one thing, it'd frustrate me as a trainer so I don't want to do that to Tanya). I also don't want to buy a Pixio not knowing if I am going to even be able to get the streaming to work.

Haunches-in looking pretty good for a horse who really told
me that this was an impossible movement for him

SO I talked to Kate and we agreed to get a video camera (which you can eventually hook up to the future Pixio) and just be each others' Pixios while we figure out the streaming part of it. Then if it works, I'll look into getting a Pixio. It'll end up paying for itself in less than a year given how expensive it is to haul up to Tanya and pay travel/ring fees when she's in town (though I will probably do that). So I'm not fussed about spending the money on it. I put together a yearly budget for lessons and it saves me more than you'd expect.

Taking remote lessons would be so amazing, I could switch barns whenever I felt like it without impacting my training situation. I can take lessons during the week without having it take any longer than a normal ride (so then my weekends are free to make money to pay for these lessons). Lessons would be more affordable without paying the travel fee, haul-in fee, or gas for my truck, plus just the time of hauling back and forth and the rigid nature of clinic days/times. And I could ride with anyone I felt like riding with (although I'm a stay-on-the-bus kind of person). The major downside is that my trainer wouldn't be able to get on TC (not a problem, I almost never put trainers on my horses) or make any physical changes to me (not a problem, I have a local biomechanics expert I can ride with) except the once a month that I ride with her in person.


I'm stoked! Doing research on camera now and then Kate and I are going to meet soon to try out this setup. Fingers crossed it works for us. I can't wait to be on a regular training program again. Third level, here we come (with a stop at Second level first!).