Just Barely!

WE GOT A 60.7% AT THE INTERMEDIARE II TODAY!!!

First let me thank those of you who commented on my last post- I was REALLY nervous for this show and all of those comments helped me SO much. So thank you guys!!!


We had the best warm up we've had at a show since maybe 2009. He was forward, on the aids, happy to do his job, and generally just responsive and receptive. I kept it to about fifteen minutes.

That was stressful. We did the following movements: piaffe, passage, and two tempis. We also did small circles at the canter, but no pirouettes. I primarily wanted him to be forward and round. So there was no half pass, no one tempis, no extended paces, and none of the little movements- canter-trot transitions, walk-canter transitions, canter-halt transitions, etc.

It was SCARY to go into the court being like "huh, I hope we have one tempis today, I didn't check" and "huh, I hope he goes sideways since we did NONE of that." But the plan was set: do as little as possible and trust that the horse is trained.


Turns out that he IS trained! Weird, considering who his rider is ;)

It was green, very green. The judge said "Good effort, still green in some movements but shows promise for the future."

For where we're at, I was VERY pleased. He gave me fantastic pirouettes (although the judge disagreed), great half pass at the canter, his passage was on point, and the extended paces were better than they have EVER been. However, we lost the piaffe in the test, he didn't actually give me many steps, so we got a 5 and a 4 on them. We also had no ones, we got a 3 on that movement.

But overall we earned a lot of 6s and 6.5s. Here and there were 7s (passage transition, canter half pass left, collected walk, a single change at the end of an extended canter) and one 7.5 (walk to canter transition). We also had some 5s (both pirouettes, even though the left one was good!) and then that 4 and 3 for piaffe and ones.


We came out with a JUST BARELY 60% and a second place out of two (whatever). I'm glad we did it! The judge is known for being a bit tough so I'm so happy that we got a decent score.


Onto the Grand Prix!! Just 29 days...

Will post pictures soon :)

Test Riding at Intermediare II

Rico and I had another lesson with Heidi this week! We decided to go through the whole Intermediare II test to see what it looked like. I haven't ridden a test for practice in YEARS. On Rico, the last time I practiced a full test in a regulation court was in 2009. I usually just wing it.

We didn't exactly do the whole thing, we kind of broke it down and stopped part way through to address the problems in the second half of the first pi/pa tour. But in the end we did do all of the movements, along with a metric fuckton of piaffe, passage, and pirouettes. Poor tired pony got a shower and the promise of a light ride tomorrow night.

Let me go through it for memorization purposes.

1. A enter collected canter
X halt
XC collected trot
- We're sticking with left lead this time, and I'm not allowed to touch the right rein lest he change, the asshole

2. C track left
HXF extended trot
FA collected trot
- These are getting SO GOOD! We might actually NOT get a 5 on them this show.

3. A down centerline
DG 3 half passes, 5 m to either side of centerline, beginning/ending to the right
C track right
- Heidi said that this would be a 7 with the comment "needs cadence"

4. Between R and B transition to passage
- We're planning to transition early since Rico sometimes is a step late so we don't want an ambiguous transition after B

5. BV on diagonal in passage
- I WILL keep my leg on through corners, it's possible

6. Crossing centerline piaffe 8-10 steps, 1m forward permitted
- The last part is key, let him go forward because we tend to stop if he doesn't keep going

7. In/out of piaffe (transitions)
- Yep, a separate score for transitions which is a big fuck you by the FEI to my horse in particular since he's taken to leaping out of piaffe right now

8. From piaffe VKA passage
- Turning is key here, we need to make it through the turn still passaging

9. A piaffe 8-10 steps
- Samesies

10. A transitions in and out of piaffe
- Ugh

11. AFP passage
- Almost done...

12. PS extended walk
- Rico's favorite

13. SHC collected walk
- Cue panicking riiiiiiiight now

14. C proceed in collected canter
CM collected canter
- And the hellish canter work starts

15. MXK medium canter
K collected canter and flying change
KAFP collected canter
- I have to remember to do the change on the diagonal, not in the corner

16. PX half pass left
X on centerline
- These are the steepest freaking half passes! I never noticed on Leo since he could basically do the splits but Rico thinks they're insane!

17. I pirouette to the left
C track left
- This was downright GOOD today, oh my goddd

18. HXF extended canter
- Flyyyyy Rico

19. F collected canter and flying change
FAKV collected canter
- That's what I'll be saying about now, FAKV!!

20. VX half pass to the right
X on centerline
- This one isn't as bad, he's got a decent right half pass

21. I pirouette right
C track right
- UGHHH this movement is only pirouette-like at the moment. Goal: get through it and don't lose confidence for the 2s

22. MXK seven two tempis
- This WILL be a 7 if I can do anything about it. Which I can. I need to remember that.

23. FXH eleven one tempis
- This will probably not happen so I just need to toss in eleven changes somehow and hope that some of them are ones

24. C colelcted trot
MXK extended trot
K collected trot
- This fucking downward transition is always so bad, today he just stopped. I had to pony kick him into trot, which he did off the bit with his head way off to the left as he spooked at something.

25. CM collected trot
KA collected trot
(also transitions included)
- They just want to let me really feel the shitty transition in my score, huh

26. A down centerline
Between D and L transition to passage
LI passage
- This has got to be a good score, but we'll be so tired.

27. I halt
- IT'S OVER!!


Overall I'm VERY nervous. I'm feeling confident in most of the movements, but I'm 100% sure that the ones and the right pirouette will get us. We'll see how reliable the piaffe is in the arena. I feel like we might have overdone it this week to be honest. Today he was just so tired in the piaffe.

I was thinking about scratching, I'm having problems with my left shoulder/elbow from pull-ups, and I'm just feeling like a bad score might blow my confidence a bit. However, Heidi said that there's definitely a chance I'll score in the 60s and honestly, what's the big deal of grabbing a 58 at this level? It's still motherfucking Intermediare II. On a horse I trained myself. On a horse who had surgery four years ago for a career ending injury that he wasn't expected to come back from. It hasn't even been a year since our Prix St George debut. The fact that we COULD score in the 60s is good enough for me.

Whatever happens this weekend, I'm happy to have this wonderful horse back from those injuries and cantering up centerline. Hopefully this time he won't add two tempis to it...

Basic Problems with Upper Level Symptoms

I haven't posted in a bit! Everything is going a little nuts over here as August is rolling in. The grad school crazy is coming, we all can feel it, but we have another couple of weeks before it really sets in. Meanwhile, I've been running around quite a bit. Boyfriend moved, twice actually. Once from his last place down to my place for two nights (country livin' for him!) and then into his new place. I was a good girlfriend, using the strength I've gained from crossfitting for these nearly five months, and helped him move both of those times.

I want this shirt

THEN boyfriend's car broke down. Luckily the new place is really close to public transportation and a bunch of stores, but I've been trying to make myself somewhat available to help with errands.

I'm also helping my parents out with the new horse. We're trying to find a bit to use for him- he came in this super long shanked western bit, and my dad is a strong/big guy so Riot keeps getting way behind the bit.  I put my dad in a myler comfort snaffle yesterday but that seemed slightly too mild for the trails. We're going to experiment with snaffles but my mom wants him in something with leverage to give her peace of mind, so I suggested a short shank pelham or a short shank western bit. I don't know much about western bits but I do know shanks and mouth pieces so there you go.

I get to ride him today! My mom and I are going to trailer out for the first time. My dad wanted to go, but just in case we have problems, my mom wanted me to ride him first. Thanks mom, I'm forever the crash dummy. 

I can't exactly crash today since Rico and I have a big week ahead. That's right! Besides keeping busy with work, boyfriend, new horse, and various other projects, I have this awesome FEI horse to ride every day. Oh how my life is going to change when he retires. What will I do with myself?!

I know what's on Rico's to do list

Rico wasn't great over the weekend. We got in a fight about the one tempis. It hit me that I had only a few more rides until the I2 and we need eleven one tempis. ELEVEN. We've only ever gotten five in a row and that resulted in me almost causing him to break to trot afterward because I was so shocked. It became apparent that we're not going to be anywhere close to eleven.

So I kind of lost my mind a bit. He's been a little lazier because it's been hot, which makes everything harder. That coupled with the lack of ones made me get after him a bit too much and we lost the changes for a day. It was so hard to just stop the workout after not only ruining the ones, but ruining the single flying changes that he's normally so good at, and just putting him back and apologizing to him. 

The next day we had changes up to the couplets and at my lesson yesterday, he gave me three in a row, but we're no where near five and certainly not capable of eleven.

Heidi had a few good things to say to me yesterday:

- There are three movements that can be absolutely ruined by tension and getting after a horse for doing them badly: the halt on centerline, the piaffe, and the one tempis. No matter what, under no circumstance am I EVER to do anything more than a tap in any of those movements. He does not get in trouble for them, he only gets encouragement. Why? Because relaxation is absolutely necessary to even perform the movement. So I get after him, he gets tense, we lose changes. 

- The problems we're having are all basic problems with upper level symptoms. It all boils down to this: if Rico is forward and stays through, he's a Grand Prix horse. If he doesn't, he won't make it through the test. The problem is this: I tend to ignore the forward/throughness until we're in the middle of a pirouette and it's a problem. All these years we got away with him being slightly lazy and slightly hollow. He is talented enough to get through even the Intermediare I test while he's behind me and still score okay. This isn't okay anymore. We've been prescribed twice per week basics rides where all I do is run him over the ground with his head between his knees (exaggerating...).

- I have to chill the fuck out about the one tempis. Rico WILL get them, he just doesn't understand it yet. I'm further confusing him by trying to get after him for doing them wrong. He doesn't do them well because the mechanic isn't right yet- he climbs up and gets hollow, then physically cannot perform the movement. Once as the mechanic is right (and I get this by doing small amounts of couplets and sets of three while encouraging him to stay rounder and bound over the ground), he'll do fifteen no problem. Don't ruin the ones by trying to beat eleven out of him. This weekend doesn't matter.

I'm glad I have Heidi to help me with all of this, I feel like she's quite realistic but still stays optimistic enough where I don't feel like she's discouraging me. She knows we have a deadline but isn't willing to sacrifice the basics to get there.

A New Addition

My parents bought a new horse today! His name is Riot and he's a 9 year old Tennessee Walking horse. He is SO sweet, my dad immediately connected with him (he's going to be his horse) and rode him very well. My dad has back issues so needed a horse that was smooth, easy to handle, and perfect on trails. Riot fit the description!

Riot at the vet check

I tried him before I left for Socal for my parents. I've been playing horse trainer and directing them away from horses that I didn't think were appropriate. I rode him for maybe ten minutes and knew that he was perfect. He just does everything you ask of him. If he doesn't want to do something, he gets a little resistant and then gives in.

Today was his vet check so I met my mom at the clinic after I worked this morning. They used the same vet as I do (Rico's lameness vet), so I talked to him about Rico's energy problem. He agreed with Heidi that Omelene would be a good grain to change to, so we're going to make the switch, we also may try red cell. He gave me some really good information about how energy works- animals burn sugar for the first 15-20 minutes of exercise, then burn fat. He said that the horses need a balance of fat and sugar in their diet to have enough energy for a whole workout. Omelene has more sugar and Rico is already on rice bran which has fat. We also may put him on red cell, since he was slightly anemic. My vet said that red cell basically allows for better red blood cell development and that helps by bringing more oxygen to the muscles.

Anyway, Riot! Riot had some minor issues related to his conformation- the beginning of side bone, a joint in the hock that showed regular wear, and one heel was lower than the other- but my parents are going to be trail riding primarily. All Riot needs to do is keep up with Stretch, which isn't hard! So they bought him.

Any horse that I can instagram from is a keeper

Then it was a frantic two hours at their barn to ready the place. He was VERY dirty, the barn he came from was restricting water due to the drought so he hadn't had a bath in ages. I bathed him all over, betadined his legs, and brushed out his tail and mane. My dad held him since he seemed slightly nervous in the cross ties. He never did anything, but you could just tell he was slightly uncomfortable. My parents have a private barn with now four horses, so it's very different than the big boarding stable he was at.

Now he's all settled in and clean. On Friday he gets the shoes put back on (they did hock and front foot x-rays) but his feet are tough so I might take him into the arena tomorrow just to get him out and doing something. After that, my dad has MAJOR trail riding plans and I've designed a conditioning schedule for him since he's a little out of shape.

Back to it

So it turns out that my sunburn is like a MILLION times worse than I initially thought. The first night I was incredibly sick- shivers, nausea, etc. Needless to say, I couldn't sleep, I got maybe 2 hours and spent most of the night playing video games and wishing someone was awake so I could complain.

The next day, boyfriend came to get me and we headed home. Did you know that a 6 hour car ride doesn't feel so good when your back is severely sunburned and sticking to the car seat? Well, it's true.

Today I woke up and luckily felt better, I got almost a full night's sleep (hoping that tonight is the night for sleep!). I managed to get a sports bra and breeches on and was ready to ride my horse!

This one

Rico was VERY good. Four days off and I was expecting him to be kind of an ass. Either high and wanting to get heavy or obnoxious thinking that he was finally retired. He wasn't either of those! He was happily forward and happy to work. I did a short ride, only a half hour. With the sunburn, I can't wear a back brace so I'm nervous about doing too much. I did manage to do some passage, a bit of piaffe, and a fair amount of canter work, including twos and ones (only 3 in a row, I wasn't going to push it).

Rico wanted to play so I let him run a bit. I don't turn him out (he lives in a HUGE paddock), but I'm happy to let him play while I'm on him since I think that's the safest for him (soundness-wise since we're in good footing, I can immediately re-balance him if he's going to get off balance, and I can prevent tight turns) and I don't mind riding out a few bucks. I know that sounds weird and mildly dangerous but come on, he's 18 years old and very well trained, if I tell him to buck, he bucks, if I tell him to stop, he stops. Never had a problem with him and I can sit everything he's got in him.

Anyway, I gave him the cue (letting him gallop and a special voice command) and he was SO excited. The first time around he just ran and struck out while shaking his head between his knees. The second time around he had a BIG buck to give me! I could tell he thought he bucked too hard, since he immediately slowed down and wasn't as enthusiastic from then on, but I'm glad he got to play.


This week we see Heidi on Thursday! Then it's two more lessons before the Intermediare II. I can't decide whether I'm more nervous or more excited, but it's definitely a little bit of both.

I may be heading down to the Monterey Aquarium this
week so more fishy pictures!

A Horseless Weekend

So I had my last Heidi lesson on Tuesday and then on Wednesday I left for Socal! I visited boyfriend's family and now boyfriend is in a wedding so I'm visiting my brother and his girlfriend until boyfriend comes to pick me up and we'll drive back up to Norcal.

Some artsy pictures!

 

Tired from his pi/pa school

This means that I haven't ridden since Wednesday morning! The ride was good, I'm really pleased with how great Rico is doing. I also signed up for the Intermediare II on August 9th. I have NO idea who the judge is but the plan is to just go in and see what happens.

On Wednesday, Rico was SUPER solid in the piaffe and passage, I think we'll probably have a few tiny mistakes but I'm feeling very confident about it. The ones probably won't happen, just saying, but I'm hoping that the judge doesn't give me a 1 or a 2, they're a double coefficient so ideally I want to do them in sets of 5 or 6 (or like 3 haha) and get a 4 for "miscounting." We'll see!

Passage

Piaffe

More passage

Then I hopped on a plane. Boyfriend and I (and some friends) went to the Griffith Observatory my first night there which was AMAZING. We're both science nerds so learning more about space was so much fun. The next night, his parents took us out for dinner since my birthday is next week. Then yesterday morning we drove down to the OC (haha) to hang out with my brother for lunch. Brother, his girlfriend, and I played disc golf last night and today we spent most of the day at the beach.

So interested

I have the WORST sunburn I've had in years. I put on sunscreen I SWEAR but then I think I must have gone into the water to boogie board and it all came off.

Tonight we have more birthday celebrations apparently (I'm not a big birthday person, in fact, I had scheduled a lesson on my birthday but then was encouraged by boyfriend to move it) and then tomorrow we return home.

Dirty pony

Such a good pony

What is Rico doing? Heidi encouraged me to give him some time off. I reluctantly agreed. I don't like him having days off, and I certainly don't like him having more than maybe two at the max! He'll probably have four total.

I wanted Heidi to ride him but she said that he's improved so much that she doesn't want to ride him unless we hit a big block. She said no one else really should be riding him just in case he a.) goes lame or b.) gets confused.

My mom is riding him for me, she walks him down the road and back while my dad rides her horse, Stretch. Hopefully my dad will get his own horse next week- we vet check on Wednesday. If it goes well, my family will officially own their first gaited horse. I'm in love with him. I'll give you more details if we buy him :)

Pretty face

Love the action to bring out the eyes

Moving on Up! But Not All the Way

I had a lesson with Heidi today! It was my first one in ten days so I was curious to see what she thought of my ability to keep him going.

So forward! Pictures by my awesome friend who stayed the
weekend with me

I'm still working on the editing, she gave me a bunch of PS
actions and I'm using a LOT of them

I warmed up as usual and started working on the energy. Heidi said he looked great! Nicely forward and engaged. We immediately jumped into the tempis. She had me do them up centerline at a mirror and pointed out a problem. The problem is that instead of tempis, we basically leap sideways in what appears to be a crappy half pass in between changes. Woops.

Heidi had me hold onto the outside rein a little more firmly in the changes and immediately they were MUCH better. She said that the theme for today was control rather than expression. We can add expression when we have control. We don't have control over the straightness in the tempis, so we reduce the expression to gain control. Makes sense!

His topline looks soooo good

Then we did some ones. She just said to do a bunch so I did a few couplets and then I did three in a row. Given how questionable they have been recently (I could barely get couplets this weekend), I was pleased. Then she said "show me five!" and I was like AHHH. But Rico did them! Well! She said that eight was the magic number, that once as we have eight we have fifteen. We'll see about that...

After that we worked the pirouettes. The left one is downright GOOD now, I have a lot of control over the size and the turn. The right one is... pirouette-like. I tend to ride it HUGE at first and then way too small. The main issue is the first step. Rico tries to stop every time and I have to hurl him around, so we made a plan to fix that. Heidi still said that the concept was there, he just needs to get stronger.

The piaffe and passage was next. We first worked the passage, which Heidi said was much better in front of me. She said "NOW he looks like a Grand Prix horse!" He was a lot easier to keep in front of me through the turns and he isn't trying to get behind me as much anymore.

Such a good boy

The piaffe was also great! She didn't really say much about it. He has really learned to stay on the spot well, and transitions well from the passage, but now we need to address the piaffe to passage transition. He basically gets a little hollow and BOINGS out of it instead of stepping forward over the ground. Occasionally there's a mini rear and then a leap, but that's almost gone.

We worked on lowering his neck in the piaffe and then pushing him out of it, which worked wonders.

Yes Rico, keep your neck down!

Afterward we had a discussion about shows. I really want to put him into SOMETHING before the September show we'll be doing Grand Prix at. We went over all the August shows and there was one on August 9th that stood out as a good one to do. I asked her what level, I don't honestly care. She said Intermediare II!

She said it would be a good test to see how the piaffe, passage, and ones are without putting the pressure of me doing my first Grand Prix on a horse I trained myself without a trainer.

So we're moving up! But not all the way up :)

Who's ready to be an Intermediare II horse?

Such a good animal