Auditing Christine Traurig

Christine Traurig came to give lessons at a barn nearby a couple weeks ago and so Peony and I jumped at the chance to audit her. After finding out that the Laura Graves clinic cost $100/day to audit, we were happy to pay the $28 for two days.

I'm just going to put all this in bullet form since there was just SO MUCH information. She's very much the German school of thought, which is not always something that works with TC, but she had some really good points and really good exercises. I would totally audit again, but I think there are other clinicians better suited for the type of horse I have. 

I took a bunch of ranch pictures this last weekend

General Thoughts

- The horse must stay linearly in a unit, supple of course, but in a unit 

- Any canter departure should be able to be done in shoulder-fore, if not, do the transition in shoulder-in

- When one component (aid) becomes dominant, the horse must remain submissive in others (so like when you go to bend the horse, they should not stiffen the neck against you or put their haunches in or what not)

- Don't ride a stiff horse fast, ride a moving horse into the contact

- Do not kick a young horse, do not punish them when they are not educated (this was incredibly well put IMO, she wasn't even kicking him, but Christine was SUPER adamant that you not punish the horses)

- Feel the suspension in the half halt

- An engaged hind leg is committed to carrying and pushing, and you have to have total control over the ratio. (I fucking LOVE this, I LOVE IT. I think this is a huge thing for TC and I moving forward)

Fall leaves

On the Connection

- When the horse feels the contact, it needs to not feel like he needs to compress (this was affecting the canter mechanic and making the horse lateral, hey maybe that's why TC's canter used to be so lateral)

- If you don't have an elastic back, don't even try to compress them

- The rider's hands should be partners, not disharmonious. Don't bring one or the other back or out to straighten the horse. 

- An uptake in contact should not back the horse off, tighten the horse, or make him less elastic in the back.

- The horse should draw to the bit which is a feeling through the back and the topline (not just perpetual stretch circle) 

- "As a clinician, I feel like this horse has to do a lot of this [trotting in circles stretching to the bit], but I also feel like this lesson is so monotonous, but this is necessary" <---- story of my life as a clinician! Ask my students how many times they've had an entire lesson on a circle perfecting transitions or throughness. Sorry guys, one day you WILL leg yield. 

- In canter, the elbows must not be fixed or the horse will not move through the topline

- Relaxation is not only calmness, it's suppleness and elasticity. The horse is physically and mentally at ease. 

Quail!

Flying Changes and Tempis

- Before doing a change, think counter-shoulder-fore and establish throughness within this movement first

- In the flying changes, the rib cage has to feel supple and the hind legs narrow in a shoulder-fore 

- With one horse who liked to unload her hind legs in the one tempis, Christine had the rider ride tempo (not tempi) changes (aka forward and back) on the long side and said "the horse should not unbend the hing legs in the push off" into the longer step. 

- The new inside leg in the counter shoulder-fore in the changes help keeps the horse from jumping sideways in the change 

- Do changes straight at the mirror to understand how effective your new inside leg is at keeping the horse straight 

- When you need to solve a problem in the flying changes, do them on quarter line

- The horse must be straight enough to allow your leg to swing in the changes. If the horse doesn't stay straight on their own, you can't move your leg. 

- Christine said she had a friesian who was a "spaghetti salad" in the two tempis because he anticipated so badly, she never attempted the ones on him. 

Bridge to the pump house and the arena

On Lateral Work

- In the corners, think cadence coming into the lateral work, it is hard to develop it within the movement so start with what you want 

- Inside leg at the girth in the shoulder-in so you don't ride the inside hind leg too sideways

- In the half pass, you should have the same feeling in the outside rein as you get in the shoulder-in 

- In the half pass, don't let the haunches get anywhere near to leading or the horse will go downhill, you must find the shoulder-in within the half pass

- Christine was big on shoulder-fore. She said the shoulder-fore should not have any neck bend but should have suppleness in the rib cage. She had everyone ride it constantly. 

- Ride shoulder-fore until you own the canter (see? lol)

- You should be able to position the horse left without the shoulders going right

- As you enter the half pass, ride shoulder-fore so that you don't let the horse get wide behind

- The steepness in the half pass comes from the mobility of the front end, not how fast you can get the horse over (which just pushes the horse wide behind in the half pass and unloads the hind legs)

- When schooling travers in canter, do not lose control over the inside hind leg

This thing is so cute

Passage, Piaffe, and Pirouettes

- In the passage, more engagement and "more short coupled" feeling to make better transitions into piaffe. You should always be able to shorten the passage, it's not a static movement. Developing a "working" passage, which will then be the transition steps into piaffe. 

- The passage should not get slow, ride quick transitions back and forth to trot to keep the horse active and quick in the passage. 

- The canter pirouette should turn around the inside hind leg rather than getting wide behind (this is a common result of training pirouettes incorrectly - from the haunches-in), the shoulder-in should be the starting alignment for the pirouettes.

- Do not over-flex the horse or push the haunches around. 

Random stuff around the ranch

There was a moment with one young horse that kind of hit me pretty hard in a hilarious way. The rider said that she had wanted to ride with Christine before but that the horse was an idiot. Christine said "did you just call him an idiot?" 

She watched him go and he was probably right around where TC was last year. She asks how old he is, the rider says five, she asks how long he's been undersaddle and she said two years. Then Christine said "it's time for a dose of reality" and they got down to work. She at one point asked "is he coming five or coming six?" and the rider said coming six and she said "oh Jesus" into the mic. 

First, there is no timeline for horses. Like, TC is coming eight and getting ready to hopefully do Second and end the year at Third next year. He will be going Prix St George (hopefully!) when most horses are doing their first Grand Prix tests. 

Second, it did make me realize that TC still had some obnoxious behavior to squash out. And I don't just mean his enthusiasm undersaddle when it gets windy. I mean standing quietly at the trailer, standing quietly on the trailer, standing quietly in the cross ties, not climbing in my pocket when I'm holding him and talking to someone... most of it is just patience. I realized that I should probably address these minor things now before I try to sell a feral horse and have the new trainer say "oh Jesus" when they realize I'm selling an FEI dressage horse who rears himself quiet at the trailer. 

So since TC is off because of the smoke, we are doing a lot of things, and some of it is a dose of reality for TC. I'm really excited to see how he develops on this over the winter! 

Withdrawn

I was really hopeful for Sunday going into it. My ride time was earlier in the day, we just had one test (the 1-3), my parents had decided to come visit Sacramento that day so had agreed to come to the horse show and then we'd carpool into the city for lunch, he had gotten ridden pretty hard the day before, and it was scheduled to be much cooler (well, 88 degrees is still hot, but it's not 107 hot). 

All I needed was to get through this test, to get a 60% on it. TC generally scores in the mid to high 60s (I say generally and we've shown First level like... twice) so something would have to go terribly wrong to score lower than that. 

I got there with PLENTY of time to spare and gave myself 40 minutes to warm up. From the moment my butt hit the saddle, I knew that it might be a shit show. 

And it WAS a shit show, I hate being right

He generally was really well behaved in warm up, but he gets this feeling... I can't describe it. He can look totally nice and quiet and normal from the outside, but it's like I'm sitting on a rocket barely holding it together. I looked in the mirror and he looked *amazing* and I thought that maybe we can pull this off.

But underneath it all, I could feel an absolute psychotic mess of a horse. 

It wasn't like he was upset or pissed off or tired or cranky or in pain. He was having the absolute time of his life. He was shaking his neck at every horse who passed him, thought a horse doing lead changes near him was doing the COOLEST THING and tried to join in. He had a giant manic smile on his face. YAY HORSE SHOW BEST EVER LET'S PLAY YOU LOOK LIKE YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING FUN ME TOO. 

So when he held his shit together, he felt amazing. A bit locked in his back due to being on the brink of an explosion (a behavior I used to call "baby totilas" since he feels super giant but kind of mechanical), but amazing. 

Leg yield pattern rode pretty well at least

Forty minutes of mostly cantering later and I still had this feeling. My mom said "wow, he sure is fit now" and I was thinking yes, a bit too fit. But we had to go in, so off we went. I told myself, he hasn't done anything necessarily WRONG today, he just feels amped, maybe this is a good thing. 

It was not. 

I knew things were going to be bad when he bolted into the arena where the show ring was like I HAVE ARRIVED. He then thought that a golf cart was the Most Interesting Thing and wanted to shutter to a halt to stare at it. I got him back forward and we had a lot of leaping and shaking his neck. I thought about scratching right there... but also thought that maybe I could hold it together. 

I could not. 

Look how fucking short he can get nose to tail, that is not fun
to ride when he does it out of the blue like he did here

Up centerline we got a 7, then we turned for our lengthening and he leapt into the air and went to bolt, for a 3. Then we got a 7 and a 6.5 on our leg yield zig zag. Then another 3 on our stretch circle as I went to carefully put him lower and he went to buck. Then a 6.5, a 7, and a 6.5 on the circle pattern. At this point I knew I wanted to withdraw. I didn't know what the scores were, but we did not show ANY stretch at all unless you count the stretching of his underline as he went to buck. That's a double coefficient.

But I wasn't sure what to do. I guess I could just stop and say bye to the judge, but honestly I was really curious how the canter work was going to ride. So I kept going. He picked up the cross canter (WTF) into the right lead, went way crooked trying to take off with me in the lengthening, did a really nice quality loop, then proceeded to do his shit version of tempi changes across the diagonal, just like flinging his legs around like an idiot, picking up the wrong lead several times, and then finally landing on the new lead okay. 

Again the loop rode nicely, though he swapped leads on the lengthening. After that I was super fucking done so I waved at the judge and walked out. Judge told me to come up and said that he could have made me keep going. Um. If you had I might have just let him trot right out of the arena. An E vs a W is the same thing in dressage basically. Plus I'm not planning on selling him any time soon, so fuck his record (mostly, I didn't want to put a sub-60 score on him if I didn't have to). 

Right before some leaping, look at that mischievous face like
"I'm going to do something hilarious, hold my beer" 

Overall comments were "nice horse but a brat today, good luck," which I think summed up the whole weekend to be honest! He is a really nice horse. He's sweet and kind and silly. Sometimes too silly... Nothing he throws at me is hard to sit, he keeps his head up in his bucks and generally goes in a straight line. He thinks this is fun. 

So overall, a really bad show! But it was fun to hang out in Sacramento with my parents. We went to lunch (thanks Peony for the recommendation because despite being here for three months now, I've been to maybe two restaurants, it's what happens when you buy a trailer and refuse to stop showing lol) and then went to the tack store near my house. 

Then they took off and I sat at home and let the cortisol drain out of me. Yay horse shows... I'm glad the next one isn't for another month and a half, I need a break! And a trail ride I think.  

Story Over Comfort

Despite the high being 107 on Saturday, TC and I zipped off to a horse show. Because... I have no idea. I needed scores and I had already paid for the show and it's right around the corner. Ride times were at 12:27 and 1:17, and the heat of the day really isn't until 4pm, so it was only 100 when we were riding, and there was a breeze, so that was nice.

Saturday morning I drove to the show in my car and checked in, then went to the grocery store to fill my cooler up with ice. Loaded up a bunch of gatorade and water, plus some snacks for me, then took it down to the trailer and hitched up. It was already getting warm.

TC got hosed off and then I moved him under the fan for braids. He got hosed off again before getting in the trailer for the show.

Pictures from Sunday because I didn't get any on Saturday

Things were okay up until the point where we're half way to the show and there's a big slowdown on the freeway. Not wanting to sit around at the show forever, I had left with JUST enough time to get there. That was stupid. So we were running about ten minutes behind when I pulled into the show grounds and saw that someone had parked their trailer in the driveway.

In order to get my trailer off the road, I had to put my nose basically on their nose. The lady who had parked waved to me like "hey one minute" and I... I guess I need to work on my "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING" face because mine was not at all effective. She ran off to load her trailer up with hay. While my horse is standing in the 100 degree heat in my trailer and my test is going to start in 30 minutes.

I called to her as she came back with another load of stuff "I RIDE IN THIRTY MINUTES" and she just waved again and ran off to get her horse. Loaded the horse up and then stared at me. Bitch I am not backing my trailer up into traffic so you can leave. So I put my truck in drive and inched forward. She finally figured out that she was going to back up and did so extremely slowly because she was in no rush, you know.

I then had to park way too close to a car because it was the only spot open and I just thought "fuck it, if you're going to park your car in the trailer parking area then you're probably okay with my horse swinging his ass around right near your car" and unloaded to tack up at warp speed. Okay universe, I get it, I will arrive with enough time for everything to go wrong next time.

There were basically no good trot pictures

Into the warm up we went with exactly eight minutes before my ride time. I picked up the trot and learned quickly that TC was not at all affected by the heat, which would normally have been great news. Immediately I regretted not riding him the day before because my entire warm up was me trying to tire him out without tiring myself out. I was not successful.

We went in for 1-1 and it was a disaster. The whole time he was trying to take off and/or buck. I was basically just trying to keep a lid on him. We managed an 8 on our right ice cream cone, and then the rest of the movements were 7s for the trot work, 6s for the canter work (because his head was legit between his knees the whole time) and a glorious 3 for the trot lengthening where, in the corner before, he squealed and bucked. The comment on that was "v. naughty, explosive, well ridden :)"

Overall we got a 64. 4%, which was generous, though I knew this judge was going in, so that's why I didn't withdraw halfway through. Overall comments was "a nice moving BIG horse. A little tension but overall a horse with potential." I just... okay. He's only 16.2.

Seriously his trot was so tense, ugh

I didn't check my score until after my second ride because I just didn't care what it was or what the comments were. I hopped on with much more time in warm up and he spent much less time trying to play with the other horses in the arena.

Speaking of nice, freaking major shout out to one of Nicole's friends who probably saw me there about to cry after my second warm up and stepped in as my horse show mom for the second test. I was so stressed being there alone with my horse being insane and me feeling kind of blah because of the heat. She walked me over, checked my girth, handed me my gatorade, and even videoed my test because the person I was going to pay to video it left halfway through my test apparently... I dunno, this whole weekend was just ridiculous.

When he's good, he's good!

The second test was MUCH better, though still not as good as we could have been because again, many of the movements were done with TC's head between his front legs, shaking his neck around, but it was a little more on par with what we're doing at home.

We again had one 8, this time on our right canter circle, which should make Tanya happy since that was the direction I got my circle lesson on. Everything else was 6.5s and 7s and a few 7.5s (finally on our stretch circle where I wasn't fearing for my life as much as in the first test). Collectives were all 7s and the final score was a 69.2% with the comment "a steady test with correct outline, work on gaining his balance on lengthenings, nicely presented."

I think she was just impressed that I managed to keep his head out of his ass for a good majority of the test, hence the outline comment. I want to embroider "I DO NOT RIDE IN DRAW REINS, SOMETIMES HE JUST DOES THIS" on my shirt in big bold letters.

Tomorrow's post will detail this behavior... This was a trot
lengthening FYI, he is real enthused

The title of this post is Story Over Comfort. I was listening to a podcast on Friday where the hosts were talking about this idea that when things start to feel uncomfortable or go wrong, just think "story over comfort" and push through. So we did. And I guess this post is more interesting than one that just read "everything is amazing my horse is perfect we got a 75 and won everything" but like, I'd like for that to be one of my posts in the future!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's recap of Sunday when things got worse. Well, at least no one parked in the driveway!

Show Videos

I finally got the videos from the horse show a week and a bit ago. I'm really excited to share them because I think he's looking really good. There's so much to work on, and we are definitely working on it. But for the first rated show of the season, our first time at this facility, and first time riding 1-2 in a rated show? Pretty dang good.

First Level Test 1

First Level Test 2

Today is my first Monday off for my 9/80 and my plan is to ride, go help some friends move, and then go to a museum with them! Then tomorrow it's back to 9 hour days, which really hasn't been so bad. I kind of wish this could be a permanent thing...

Back in the Rated Ring

This last Saturday TC and I competed in our first rated show of the year! We rode 1-1 and 1-2. Despite me really wanting to have a rated show at Training level this year, it worked out better to grab two First level scores at this show for All Breeds.

It was my first outing in my own rig! My hitch was too low, so Peony and Andy let me borrow their BP hitch for the weekend and then I'd be in the bay the next day to pick up another hitch. So thanks, guys! Literally could not have gone to the show without it.

I was super nervous about parking the trailer since I tend to get way over enthused about turning it and end up nearly jackknifing it constantly, but I figured someone would be at the show to help me if I got it real messed up. I'm nothing if not way over confident with my abilities at this point.

I was also nervous about TC being a loon because of the storm that was passing through just before the show. Excuse me, it is summer now, right? No more storms!

He's the best

All of those nerves were totally unfounded!! TC was AMAZING and I managed to not get myself into any trouble with the trailer. I'm really not sure what I'm more excited about.

My ride times were kind of late, so I took my time getting ready to go. I hooked up the trailer early just in case it took me a while, but it didn't, so I was able to clean my bridle really thoroughly and double/triple check my list of things to bring.

Once as it was time to go, TC loaded up well and we were off! I was a bit uncomfortable at first but the trailer hauled great and I managed to not hit anyone parking it at the facility. TC came out and was really curious to wander around, so we explored for about thirty minutes. He's getting better and better at new places. He was a bit up at first, but wasn't that spooky and seemed mostly excited to be there.

Always blocking me from the camera

Warm up was held in the covered arena, which had mirrors (yay!) but was kind of spooky (bleh!). TC warmed up okay, he felt super in the bridle but he also felt a bit explosive. You know when you just... know... there's something in there even though the horse is being really freaking good? Yeah, that was it. And sure enough he squealed and bucked at one point, then squealed and just like... spazzed on the spot at another point. We recovered though (well, my back is a different story, I posted both tests), and were able to go out in the court adjacent to the show ring and do a bit more warm up. Out there TC felt GREAT and we did the minimum, then headed in.

There were two judges for this show, I think they anticipated being able to run two rings but there weren't enough entries. TC was very interested in the judge at E. He wasn't spooky about it, but just very curious as to who those people were and why they were under that tent. He kept glancing at them as we trotted around and then came up centerline. He couldn't stay very focused, so he came in on centerline kind of crooked, didn't halt square, and then stared at that judge while I saluted. Judge at C felt left out so we got a 5.

We got a 7.5 from both judges on our stretch circle, 7s on our walk-trot-canter transitions, which are always rough, and just a whole lot of 7s everywhere else. A few 6s/6.5s occurred when I totally forgot what letter my lengthening was going from and nearly missed it, and our centerlines could use some work. Or at least, TC could stay more focused on them.

Collectives were a bunch of 7s for both judges. Comments were that we were a nice pair and that TC was a handsome horse that appeared willing (lol I'm glad we give off that appearance). Overall score was a 68.61%, both judges were within .5 points of each other, so that was cool!

TC held this posture while I saluted, this is just after that
moment when I'm trying not to burst out laughing

Getting ready for the second test was kind of a shit show. I lost the backing of my gold medal pin, which I knew would happen eventually since it's been loose. While I was figuring out how to get it to stay on with no backing, the loose button on my jacket popped off too. Damnit! I managed to safety pin the button on and that worked out just fine, then I tied some yarn around the back of my gold medal pin and I can't believe it stayed on! Both need dealing with but at least we got through it without having anything pop off.

For the second test, I didn't go back to the covered warm up, just went to the neighboring court and had about five minutes to do some leg yields. TC really doesn't require much warm up for a second test.

First 2 was great too! I felt like I lost a bit of rideability at the canter though. I think that was just that he was getting tired. But still, we grabbed an 8 from one judge on our right leg yield, got some 7s on our lengthened canters. The only major downside was that I got an error because I went to the wrong letter in my second trot lengthening. I HATE these damn weird three-quarter length lengthenings. Just let me go corner to corner, damnit!

Collectives were again a bunch of 7s. Comments were super nice though, judge at C said "very steady and balanced horse overall, nice team," which made me really happy. Judge at E said "lovely horse, appears willing." The judges disagreed a tiny bit on the scores, Judge at E gave us a 67.2% and judge at C gave us a 69.4%. Damn those errors!

Canter lengthening, these were shockingly scoring pretty well
for a movement that he couldn't do until recently because he
would squeal and take off with me in them. 

Hauling home was a breeze. TC loaded up great, I managed to turn the rig around without hitting the cars that had parked, in my opinion, a little close. TC came out of the trailer well at home and I managed to park it in it's spot (I have to back in between another trailer and a tree) without hitting anything or jackknifing the thing. I think I have it all figured out!

Now that I've had the trailer out, I have a few things in mind that I want to stock in it. Like extra lapel pins. And a sewing kit for loose buttons. And a mirror to tell if I've lost any buttons or pins recently.

But not to complain at all- the whole show was stellar, I'm SO excited about how it went, I kind of can't believe it. We've only had two lessons together since the last show! And bonus, I felt like I had my actual horse in the show ring, which was not the case all last year.

We of course have a ton to work on, but for right now I'm just really excited.