December 10 Questions

Woohoo! L from Viva Carlos gave me a great way to procrastinate today.

1. What size horse do you prefer to ride?
I love ponies and small horses but at 5'6 with long legs, I look better on horses that are at least 16h. I'm fine with larger horses as long as they are adjustable and/or smaller moving. Rico is a big mover but incredibly adjustable so him at 16.2 felt better than some horses at 15.2!

2. Do you school in tall boots or half chaps and paddock boots?
Mostly half chaps and paddock boots.

3. What do you do with your ribbons after shows?
I'm trying to figure that out! At the moment, all of the ones I earned in the last few years are hanging in my old room at my parents' house. Everything else is smashed in bags in their garage. I do have a few in a big glass jar in my bathroom and am going to explore other ways of displaying them.

Cookie jar full of my favorite ribbons from Rico

4. Do you ride/board at a large show barn or a small private barn?
Definitely small private since Rico is at my parents' house. Baby horse lives at a pretty big barn but no one there shows (at least not dressage, I think some of the western people show). It's definitely different riding with other people in the arena.

5. Have you seen a horse give birth?
Nope! I haven't been around a lot of breeding operations.

6. What is your favorite breed? I feel obligated to say Holsteiner since that is what Rico is. I value the mind and their ability to do what I want them to do more than the breed. I typically get along with warmbloods and baroque type horses (I worked with a Friesian stallion in the past). I don't typically get along with the hot breeds- thoroughbreds especially. I think mostly because my seat is so hot.

Baby friesian stallion who I evented for a year

Do love those baroque types

7. Favorite tack brand?
Custom for dressage saddles and devocoux for jump saddles. My double is a passier, which I like, but I don't tend to like their saddles.

8. Would you ever buy used tack?
I prefer it! My saddle is a Custom dressage saddle that I normally wouldn't have been able to afford but it was $650 used (massive deal omg).

9. Ever been on a carriage ride?
Yep as a kid. I'm looking forward to driving Rico if he ever goes sound and the rain stops.

10. How often do you go to the tack store?
Almost never. I buy a lot of stuff from Smartpak and I try to avoid going into stores since I always find something that I need.

Lowering Expectations

Today I was super excited about going down to ride baby horse (he does have a name but I don't know how to spell it and don't want to guess so I'll just call him baby horse for this post)! I also needed to drop by my parents' place to drop off my saddle since I don't want it living in my car for a week while I'm gone. So I got to see Rico too.

I got to the barn and Ali ran to get baby horse since he now lives in a swamp due to the rain from yesterday. We did some more talking about Hilda's clinic while we brushed all the mud off of him. Then I tacked him up. I was excited to work on all the things I had planned and even told Ali some of those things. 

Baby horse!

As I was bridling him, he got annoyed and started pulling at me, trying to leave for the arena with or without me. That was when I decided to longe him and BOY was it a good idea. He exploded! He dragged me around the arena, randomly stopping to change directions (uh no thanks) and even did a clean lead change when he accidentally picked up the wrong lead and bucked. 

I chose to get on him earlier than I would have with a normal baby because he's so good right? And he's so lazy that I thought a bit of the energy would be appreciated. I'd rather direct the energy from on top of him rather than waste it as he gallops around learning that he in fact CAN pull people around on the longe. Because he can. 

He was a shit.

I'll give him these three very good things: he never bucked, reared, or bolted. That meant a lot. His version of being a shit was shaking his head at me, sticking his nose on his chest and wringing his neck, and careening around out of control as I tried to dodge two other riders.

His little gray face is growing on me

My goals were suddenly stay on the rail, don't crash into anyone, don't fall off when this morning they had been establish connection at the walk, get him bending in trot, teach him something resembling a lateral movement like sidepass or turn on the forehand. But that's green horses (and horses in general) for you, sometimes your expectations need to plummet in order to not get frustrated. I found it more amusing than frustrating, so that's good. 

At one point someone went to pass us when he was actually on the rail for once and he darted straight into them and then ricocheted off of them and found himself back on the rail. I spent much of my ride apologizing to people for nearly running into them or not being able to give them any space because he'd just dart over to them and I was helpless to stop him. 

EVENTUALLY he stopped being so bad and we had a lot of really good work with him staying on the rail and generally steering. By the end, I had his back loose (not on the bit consistently though) and he was moving forward much better in a relatively straight line. 

Nearing the end as he finally went on the rail and we had this
random moment of kinda-round

Managing to look horse-like before wringing his neck at me

Then Ali had me get on the horse she was riding. He's a super sweet Arabian gelding, maybe 8 years old, who she rides at Training level schooling First on. Ah to have steering and a GO button was so nice. Ali wanted me to play with the canter transition just to get a visual. He was excellent but sucked back in the canter transition so I played a bit with that and then Ali and I went on a short trail ride with me on the Arabian and her on baby horse. They both were great! Although both didn't want to step in puddles and kind of darted around them at first. Silly horses. 

Cute but kind of obnoxious

I then stopped by my parents' place to drop off my saddle and see the best dogs and the best horse in the world. The dogs were beside themselves as it rained all day yesterday and they had to stay inside the backyard rather than getting to go run around on the ranch. 

I went up to Rico and he was SO desperate for attention so I decided to take him on a walk down the road. 

You know when you're just going to walk and you're like "ugh I do NOT need a saddle for this" so you just jump on? I kind of felt that way today. With the saddle and the bridle. The hackamore was in the trailer, the snaffle bridle was pulled apart because I grabbed the bit to bring to a client, and the jumping bridle and double were just way too much for walking down the road. Ugh. 

But his neck rope was right there... 

Eying that grass...

So in a moment of stupidity, I grabbed it and hopped on him. Walking down the driveway, he shook his neck and struck out so I questioned my life choices for a moment. But then he was perfect the whole time. I walked him all the way down to the first set of cows and then all the way back home. He was actually a thousand times better than the baby in terms of steering, moving forward, and not careening around like a lunatic. I guess that's to be expected! 

At first, Rico was super enthused to get out, but then his feet started hurting again (ugh) so he slowed down and it became harder for him to turn around. That made me a bit sad but hopefully more time off will mean that his enthusiasm will start lasting longer and longer until we can walk on the trails without him feeling ouchy. He still seemed super happy when he would stand still and stare at things, but it was obvious that his walk started out very much marching and ended up just slowly moseying. Not normal. 

Wandering bridleless down the road

Now Rico gets a week off while I'm gone! And Ali said she'd take baby horse on a trail ride on Saturday and then I'll email her to set up time next week when I come home. 

2015 USEF Tests with Hilda Gurney (Part 2- 2nd, 3rd, 4th)

Part two! Onto second level.

Second Level
Second 1- this test got WAY harder holy shit. The trot work was basically the same, some shoulder-ins and mediums. The canter though, gosh. The first thing you do is the three loop serpentine but instead of it being in counter canter, it includes simple changes across centerline. HOW is this easier than the counter canter unless you're on a reining horse? Actually I have a horse who does simple changes but not counter canter but she's at first level and needed a hard stop put into her because she was kind of obnoxious. But still! So you get barely a half circle in canter before you're walking again. The counter canter pattern is easy, but you walk for a long time in between walking after the counter canter (M) and cantering again (C). So for horses that are chill, this is great. For horses that get tense and walk like shit, this is awful.

Hilda said this test was made for failure. It's too hard. The canter pattern isn't forgiving of any mistakes and gives no preparation for the horse. I have two horses preparing to move up to second and I'm quite frustrated with these changes.

Second 2- this test also sucks but not as hard as the first test. The trot pattern is shoulder in to a half circle, half circle, to travers. They introduce turn on the haunches (but it's in the center, not on the rail phew). The counter canter is a half 20m circle and there are four simple changes in this test, two of which are on a diagonal line which is tough.

Uh so Tracey, my old trainer, was the demo rider. On her Grand Prix horse. Holy shit was it a gorgeous test. But Hilda wasn't going to hold herself back teaching one of the top Grand Prix riders and judges in the area. So Tracey got an earful about riding her horse more open in the throatlatch, maintaining better balance in the counter canter, and even got nailed for geometry a couple of times. Damn.

Hilda and Tracey talked a lot about turns on the haunches at this point, with Tracey demonstrating common mistakes. Common mistakes were turns through the center (both haunches and shoulders move around), small circles instead of turns, too big, stepping out, and even Tracey's "favorite" and my problem- too much sideways. I'm proud to say that I no longer ride them that way, thanks to Tracey's near constant work with me on them. Rico actually does brilliant ones with just about anyone now. It was drilled into both of us!

Second 3- Hilda called this one almost rideable! They took out the stupid shoulder-in to renvers in this test (and forced it on the third level riders muahaha) so now it's just shoulder-in and travers again. I don't have much to say here because Tracey went through it and it was just perfect.


A Foray Into Grand Prix
So the next rider wasn't ready yet. Tracey finished her second level test and then she and Hilda answered questions. Then we were all sitting there staring. Tracey asked Hilda if she wouldn't mind helping with some piaffe and passage. Then the whole audience DIED.

Tracey has talked to me in the past about her horse's trouble with the piaffe and passage. It took him a lot of work, and I can confidently say that Tracey is probably one of the few people who could have developed this difficult horse to this level. Hilda immediately noticed what Tracey has said in the past- the horse gets behind the vertical, stacked in the neck, lowering the front, and getting hitchy behind in the passage. His piaffe now is GREAT, but Tracey said she went through a LOT getting it there.

Here is where we really saw Hilda in her element. In the passage, Hilda emphasized keeping his poll up and his throat latch open. She wanted Tracey to fluff him up "like the Germans do" and quiet her leg. She said too much spur in the passage makes the horse brace for the spur and then takes away the relaxation of the back. They went in and out of piaffe, since the piaffe was so good and improved the passage. It was amazing to watch. Two of the most talented riders in California working with a really amazing horse on upper level work. Coolest thing ever.

Okayyyy I guess we can go back to the attainable stuff.


Third Level
Third 1- not much happened with this test other than to make the trot half passes even more stupidly long. A half pass stops being a half pass if it gets too shallow and that is exactly what this did. We didn't have a demo rider for this one so onto the next one!

Third 2- so the shoulder-in to renvers is now in THIS test instead of in 2-3. I think that's probably a little more appropriate, although I never struggled tooooo much with that test. The shoulder-in to renvers requires a lot of control over the shoulder, so it makes sense to have it at a level that you're also doing half pass in. I totally forget the old 3-2 canter work so I don't know if it changed, but Hilda didn't say much.

Hilda emphasized the need for a LOT of bend in renvers, it's easy in this movement to just turn the shoulder-in into something crooked where the horse isn't bent and is just looking down the longside. She said there's a weight shift that occurs here. If you're tracking left, during the shoulder-in you should sit to the left but then as you transition, you need to sit right. Hilda also said that you need to build the lateral movement. Too often she says she has to write "abrupt" when the horse gets pulled into shoulder-in from straight, or into renvers from shoulder-in. She wants riders to let it take a few strides.

The demo horse was suuuper cute but was still ever so slightly green in the changes- he kicked or was late behind on occasion. Hilda said when teaching changes, control is just as important as getting a clean change. The horse isn't allowed to just change whenever (how will you ever do tempi changes?) and she says counter canter is very important at this stage. I agreed with her to a certain extent... I always stop the counter canter during the time when the horse is first learning. There's a phase where I don't care how often the changes occur off the aid or without any aid at all, as long as it's a change. I have two horses in that phase now, one about to come out of it and she's in for a big wake up call!


Third 3- The canter work in this test changed a bit. You half pass to centerline, go straight on centerline, half circle to the rail and then go immediately across the diagonal to change near centerline. We didn't talk much about this movement but I like it- I feel like it's a test of handiness almost.

Since it was the same demo horse, we just kind of ran through this test. The one thing that Hilda said during this time that I really took away is this: you can't punish a horse for overreacting because it only makes the horse overreact more.


Fourth Level
Fourth 1- This test was one that I rode a few times with Rico. They changed the walk work so that there is less collected walk, which is nice. It was a bit overkill IMO. They moved the lead change after the half pass to along the longside rather than at C, which I was disappointed in. I think that movement helps prepare horses for PSG but I guess 4-1 is still a bit away from PSG.

The demo horse was a super cute GP schoolmaster with an amateur aboard. He was LAZY. It's how I imagine Rico would be taking someone up the levels. Sweet and wonderful but not going to put any more effort into his work than he had to. This was especially apparent in the walk. Hilda said that he walks like he's got glue between his cheeks. She also said with a horse with a poor collected walk, to always walk on a loose rein unless you HAVE to pick up contact (like in a test). After the test- loose rein. She said "don't show the judge that walk, nobody wants to see that walk." Good to know! The horse DID have a good walk, he was just lazy.

For this test, Hilda was adamant that the three changes on the diagonal (one at the first quarterline, one at centerline, and one on the final quarterline) NOT be any less than 5 changes apart. If they're 4 changes apart, they're 4 tempis and that doesn't get you extra points.


Fourth 2- yay they finally know how to introduce pirouettes in a test without giving everyone a heart attack! The once half working pirouettes in this test are now quarter working pirouettes. And it isn't even 90 degrees, it's more like 60 given their placement. You leave on the diagonal at M, then quarter pirouette before you get to X so that you face H.

This test rode well, the rider was a gorgeous YR who rides with Heidi. Hilda wanted her to lower her hands (high hands make the back tight) and to be careful in the walk because the double bridle and the collected walk were enemies. She also reminded everyone about alternating your leg in the walk pirouettes to keep the hind leg moving. I never really got that down.


Fourth 3- aka the test from hell, the nightmare test, the circus trick test. This stupid test was hard enough in the last edition and now they've made it basically impossible to ride. Hilda said "people are just going to skip it and move on to PSG" and that's exactly what I did when I was moving Rico up because even the last test was HARD. This test is impossible. Hilda said repeatedly that she HATES it and I heard the other trainers in the crowd (including Tracey) say the same thing. The horse that demoed it was a beautiful Grand Prix horse and the test wasn't even clean. That's how hard it is- even a Grand Prix horse couldn't put in a clean test (it was a brilliant test though, beautiful horse and rider).

Alright so the changes- they've added a lot of stupid things. First- three tempis. Whatever, PSG has those. The three big changes everyone complained about were these:

1- the niggly squiggle
This stupid movement goes like this: true canter half 10m circle, counter canter half 10m circle, lead change at a letter down the long side. This used to be in the old old old Prix St George. It was created by someone whose last name sounded like Niggle or Niggly I think... I missed that part but I liked the name they called it.

This isn't a terrible movement. It prepares you for the sudden counter canter required at PSG. It is a test of balance and straightness, which ideally you'd have by 4th level (hah).

2- the stupidest halt pattern ever
This is a movement that used to be in the old old Grand Prix. It goes like this: halt at C, rein back 4 steps, walk forward 4 steps, rein back 4 steps, trot on, no stopping other than the initial halt. Cha cha cha.

Hilda hated this because it wasn't forward thinking and would create bad halts. It seems like one of those movements that you just can't do well. Hilda said that we're already teaching dressage horses the whole encyclopedia, why not leave this out since it does nothing for the horses?

3- the fact that the pirouette pattern sets you up incredibly poorly for PSG
There's nothing wrong with going across the diagonal, doing a working pirouette before X, and coming back to change at the corner letter except that it's the exact pattern for PSG but the change is early. So you spend all year working on this horrible test, compete at championships, buy your fancy shadbelly, head in for PSG and your horse wants to change at the letter.

Obviously you'd fix this at home first. The pirouette pattern at St George isn't very nice with the counter canter, so you could argue that 4-3 gets you set up for the pirouette part of it without the stress of the counter canter. But Hilda said she would have preferred it coming out of the RSVP letters toward the centerline, pirouette, then counter canter to the corner letter and change. A bit of counter canter, teaching a horse to wait, and PSG is still more challenging without 4-3 interfering. I dunno how I feel about it. I think in this test, the pirouette pattern should be the least of your worries.

I'm glad that the next time I show fourth level, it will probably be a different test! Although if Rico ever goes sound again, I want to try that damn squiggle.



Overall this was so fun! It made me itch to return to the dressage ring and ride all these tests. Unfortunately I'll probably only get to ride a few of them before they change again given my horselessness.

Tomorrow I'm riding baby horse though! I have plans to work more on the connection, bending, and maybe start some turns on the forehand. If I'm brave, I might try a canter or walk him down the road by himself... I'm working on getting my mom out there to get a video or pictures (she lives 3 minutes away! Ah). I'll be bringing my camera down though so I should get nicer ones of him standing around.

Today I finished my last final, woo winter break! Except that I'm taking several Udacity courses and working as a GRA for one of the professors (creating surveys right now) so it doesn't feel as break-like as it could.

2015 USEF Tests with Hilda Gurney (Part 1- Overview, Tr, 1st)

As I mentioned in my last post, today I headed down to watch a bunch of demo riders ride the new 2015 USEF tests under instruction by Hilda Gurney. This was an AMAZING experience and if your chapter puts anything like this on, go watch! Also free lunch was had and as a graduate student, I feel obligated to participate in anything that will feed me for free.

I'm going to break this post into two posts because I have a LOT to share and don't want to overwhelm everyone (including myself) with one huge post.

Overall the clinic was great! I learned SO much and took a ridiculous amount of notes (NERD). It went all day from 8am to 4:30pm and there were only a few short breaks. Riders rode every test from Training through Fourth except Training 3 and Third 1 because they were not very different. Horses ranged from young 4-5 year olds to Grand Prix horses and riders from kids to amateurs to professionals. Very cool.


General Impressions
First, Hilda told us a bit about herself. When she was younger, she was an event rider and wanted to go to the Olympics, but they wouldn't let her because she was a woman. So she switched to dressage! She said there wasn't much dressage on the west coast at the time, so she would trailer to New York for lessons (I bitched about trailering 45 minutes ah). She was basically a pioneer for dressage on the west coast. She helped start the California Dressage Society and the LA chapter within CDS.

She still rides and competes at age 71. She mentioned casually that she rides 18-20 horses per day and takes two lessons per day. Damn. She has taken over 45 horses to Grand Prix. Damn. I mean really this woman is amazing.

Overall she was very adamant about two main points:
1. Rider position- the rider should NOT block the horse. Much of what she was focusing on was the seat position. Riders who came in stiff in the hip were scolded, as were riders who did not follow with the hip in the walk and canter and who could not sit the trot properly. She spent a long time teaching one rider how to swing their elbows in the walk. She spent another long time forcing someone to ride without stirrups so they stopped bouncing.

2. FORWARD but balanced- she criticized riders for running horses off their feet but almost everyone was told to go more forward. Collection is not slow, it is not less ground covering, but it is more engaged, more powerful, and more uphill than working gaits. She was irritated that some tests were not about forward, she said that tests that backed horses off were poorly written and some of them she said she hated.


Collectives
We started by looking at the collectives. First, there is no more "harmony between horse and rider" as a collective mark, it's under submission now. I agree with that, I feel like three rider collectives is kinda silly- harmony comes with submission and quietness of the aids, which are already covered.

Gaits- Hilda said that gaits should be free and regular. Freedom meant that the gait had good reach, length, and articulation. Regular meant that the strides were symmetrical and correct.

Impulsion- Hilda emphasized elasticity of the steps and back, meaning that the horse was free of tension and that the horse uses their back and is engaged. She mentioned that we want the horse to be almost as inefficient as possible in their gaits. Hunters were meant to be able to trot and canter for hours out in the field so their gaits needed to be flatter and not take much energy to maintain. Dressage horses need more scope to their gaits.

Submission- meaning willing, cooperative, attentive, harmonious, and confident. Confidence in the rider means that there is no spooking. This also includes acceptance of the bit and an uphill balance. Even at training level, Hilda said that an uphill way of going was important. Drat. The horse also needs to make the test look easy- ease of movements was important.

Rider position- Hilda looks for alignment, evenness on both seat bones, the rider should have a developed seat so they do not block the horse. She really nailed a few riders for sitting to the outside of the bend of their horse and not knowing where to put their legs on small circles and in corners (inside leg at/slightly behind girth, outside leg further behind girth to hold haunches).

Rider effective use of the aids- the emphasis here was on clarity of the aids. She mentioned that she has very well schooled school horses (who I want to ride omg*) who some riders get on and they can't even get her push button horses to do anything because their aids are so confusing. The other big emphasis was on subtlety. Aids shouldn't be seen, she said NO KICKING EVER because she hates it when people bang around on their horses. She says she doesn't care how great a movement is, if the rider is too distracting, a 9 shoulder in would turn into a 7 instantly.

*she's in socal and I'm going to socal on Thursday but it's not on the way to boyfriend's parents and he's put up with my horse craziness so much this year that I don't want to put him through driving an hour out of our way for me to get yelled at and then have to listen to me talk about my lesson for a whole week.


Training Level
Training Test 1- so the changes to this test were that you develop the canter in the first quarter of the circle rather than second half, they eliminated that stupid half circle in canter, and there is no stretch trot circle! I like the changes to this test, I think it's silly to have so much canter work and so many places that require steering/good geometry for a young horse/rider. I also think it's a bit much to throw stretchy trot in there, it's a hard movement to ride well at this stage and it's nice to see a test that you can move your intro horses/riders to without being required to let go of the reins a bit at the trot!

The takeaway from T1 was an emphasis on geometry. The horse was super super nice and the rider was great but every circle was lopsided and the rider went way too far into the corner and the horse would lose balance.

Hilda was also adamant that suppleness and forward be the main priority at this level. The horse must bend easily in both directions, even at training, and must always think forward. The upper level tests back horses off so if you don't have a forward thinking animal, they will be hard. She said you never make it to Grand Prix on a lazy horse. Uhm.

Training 2- the changes to this test were basically only a bit more walk. I like this for the same reason Hilda gave. Because you can still score well with a shitty walk (city wok), lots of riders don't work on this. So more walk in the early levels creates a need for riders to work on their horse's walk, which is very important.

The takeaway from T2 was Hilda ripping into the rider for her position. Poor girl. We went through collectives and Hilda said "does everyone like her position?" and everyone said yes! And Hilda said "I don't." Hilda said that the rider kept her leg off the horse, meaning that when the leg came on, the horse overreacted. I remember someone telling me this: If you have a lazy horse, ride with your leg off. If you have a hot horse, ride with it on.

Training 3- was basically the same so we didn't have a demo rider


First Level
First 1- they brought the teardrop back!! Ah yes! I love that movement, apparently the last time they had it was 9 years ago when I was showing first, cool. But other than that, fuck this test (apparently). So in first level you have lengthenings at the canter for the first time. Your very first canter pattern in this test is this: C canter, S to V lengthened canter, V 15m canter circle. So you're on your hot young horse because no one takes lazy horses to Grand Prix and the first thing you do in canter at your first show at first level is gallop wildly down the longside with no setup. Hilda hated it. But the demo horse was lazy so she was like "well if you have a lazy horse, this is great!" This test had a lot less canter work than the previous 1-1, you basically go down a long side and circle once in both directions. Meh.

The big takeaway was another rider position moment where Hilda nailed the rider for being stuck in her hip. Hilda said that everyone needs to sit the trot without stirrups. If you want to be serious about dressage, learn to sit the trot. Once as you're past first level, you never post again. She said it kind of ominously. She said a lot of the problem comes from leg length. Too long in the leg tips you back and you get behind the motion, too short in the leg and you tip forward and get against the motion. She said to think of Michael Jackson's hips while you ride.

First 2- this test is so much better, there's not that horrible long waiting period between that first lengthening and the first leg yield. I guess this could be bad if you want time for your horse to settle, but in my experience, this stupid test just makes horses get distracted.

This rider struggled a lot. The first thing Hilda said was "can I give you a piece of advice?" and the rider was like "sure!" and she stared her down and said "put your horse on the bit." Terrifying. The rider was so sweet though, she took instruction brilliantly.

Because of how much she struggled and how much she improved, Hilda correctly guessed that the rider wasn't under regular instruction and she was scolded for that. She said without lessons, horses train us and we don't ride them to our or their best abilities. We can't be our own trainers. Hilda said that she, herself, takes two lessons a DAY, one on an upper level horse and one on a young horse.

First 3- they took out that horrible figure-8 in the middle of the leg yields. But that means that it's now a leg yield zig zag. I always school this anyway so I didn't mind, but people seemed to think that this made it harder. Disagree. But it depends on the emphasis in your training program and the horse you're on. Fuck that figure-8 though. They also added a weird trot pattern. You basically do a 10m circle at R or something, across the ring from E-B or B-E, halt over X for five seconds, then turn the other way and do another circle at V or something. Hilda said she forgot the halt when she was showing last weekend.

This test just kind of sucks (wait until you see the second level tests though ah). The big takeaway was to let the horse move. This horse was a really cute Spanish bred guy. Not a spectacular mover but cute. His trot was flat and his canter was tense. He didn't really walk. During a lengthening Hilda said to let go of his face, post, and kick him.

Then the horse turned into the most magnificent horse I've ever seen. His trot was HUGE and his freedom in the shoulder rivaled some of the biggest movers at the highest levels. His canter became very rocking horse like and even the walk softened a bit. Hilda said that she went from a 6 to an 8 on gaits.

The problem: the rider was blocking the horse by being tight in the hip. Her tension became his and he just quietly went around. He was very obedient, but the horse that came in was written off by most of the crowd. The horse that left was a thousand times nicer. Let the horse move.


Next up: Tracey (my old trainer) riders her Grand Prix horse to demo second level. Oh and then also gets a quick piaffe and passage lesson from Hilda OMG. Also third and fourth level featuring horses that kick at riders legs and how I totally miss Rico's antics. PLUS: I get to ride baby horse on Tuesday and might get a video of me riding him.

Let me know what you think!

Baby Horse

So yesterday I went down to ride the baby horse I mentioned a few times in my last posts. He's three years old (coming four in early 2015) and a Friesian x Oldenburg cross. His sire is the Oldenburg stallion, Ideal, and his mom is a Friesian mare who I've met and who is very very sweet.

Ideal

I got there and his trainer, Ali, took me out to see him in his pasture that he shares with a little black Morab. I've never seen such a young gray horse so I didn't even think that it was him because he's all black with random gray hairs. He looked like he was an older black horse who was graying but nope! Just a baby gray horse.

The first thing I noticed about him was that HE IS HUGE! He's 16h and he still has some growing to do. He had his head way up to look at us so he seemed enormous. I liked his conformation, he's got a short back, big feet (barefoot), and a long sloping shoulder. He's a bit steep in the croup but he doesn't move like it so I didn't mind much.

Cute little gray face

We brushed him off and Ali said that they didn't really have a saddle that fit him, so I ran over to my parents' ranch (which is like 3 minutes away, super convenient) to grab mine. Luckily my saddle fit him perfectly! He has some wither to him and is built pretty uphill like Rico so he went super well in it. He used a big fat snaffle, which I was glad to see too.

When I got back with my saddle, Ali was longeing him. He only gets ridden twice a week so she gives him a longe (and works on it since he doesn't really understand staying on a circle yet) before riding him. He didn't seem to really need it, he's kind of lazy (just what I need, right?).

He's got quite nice movement given his Friesian-ness, as Ali put it (since the mare is a little more baroque than sport horse type, although she's not too heavy). His trot was really great, and his canter wasn't as lateral as it could have been (since Ideal's canter was slightly lateral and the baroque type horses can get kind of earthbound and lateral, it crossed my mind). I think with development, he could actually be a nice little dressage horse. Here is a short video I took of him being longed:

I hopped on him and immediately felt what I had seen in the video- he's incredibly balanced for only being three. It was easy to walk in straight lines, turned without falling over his shoulder, and he only really felt like a baby when he got distracted. When I redirected him, he happily obeyed which was nice. A certain furry bay thing that I saw earlier in the day used to get all sorts of pissed off when he wasn't allowed to stare at something.

I worked the walk to get him a little more relaxed, he tends to want to get retracted in the neck and high in the poll so I wanted to immediately start on relaxation and getting him to understand lowering his head and neck so I could later access his back.

Poor guy was a bit confused. He tried everything. He pulled on me a little, stuck his head to the side to stare at me, stuck his head between his legs, and wrung his neck around. He never did anything bad, he just knew I wanted his neck and head to do something else and he wasn't sure what. Whenever he softened forward and downward (not getting behind the bit), I praised him. Soon he was walking pretty reliably on the bit! Such a fast learner.

This one didn't figure that out very quickly...

The trot was a little more baby-ish undersaddle. He struggled to stay balanced in the corners and on circles. He got distracted with staring at stuff so he'd randomly stop to look at something or hope that he could leave with the other horses. It wasn't mean or getting out of work, just a lot of stimuli.

Once as I figured out the steering (you have to prepare to make a turn SO much with babies ah! I was lucky that he had a good stop on him), I worked on the go button and getting him at least bending enough to turn more easily. I love how balanced he is already so I didn't want to mess him up by asking for too much bend too soon. Then we worked on connection. Again, I just wanted him to start going with his neck more forward and downward to encourage relaxation, he's not ready for being through or round just yet. He figured it out SUPER quickly, like scary quick, and was actually relatively reliable when I'd ask. His trot immediately got super floaty and big, SO much fun! He was a little worried about how big his trot got, he backed off quickly, but I praised him a lot and ended there. He needs more muscle before he can really hold that. It was nice to feel the potential there though.

I didn't canter, I felt like we made some huge strides with the forward, bending, and connection at the walk and trot that I didn't want to push it. Their arena is a touch small for his big canter so I feel like I want to give him a couple of weeks of trot work before I push it. He's big and those breeds are known for being slow growing, so Ali and I talked about not putting too much pressure on him.

Look at that hind leg! What a cool horse

When I got off, he immediately stuck his face in my arms to be cuddled. He loves people! We took him back and tied him up (he ties beautifully). Ali said I could play with him this winter, she really appreciated having someone else ride him, and I really appreciate having a toy to play with.

I think my plan is to go down there twice a week and play. My main goals for him would be to get him more consistently forward, more consistently relaxed so he lowers and lengthens his neck (again not round just yet, but the beginnings of it), and start really addressing bend on circles and changes of direction.

Oh yes, this one!

I also stopped in to see my animal of course. He was happy that I brought him cookies and picked the mud out of his feet. He was not happy that he doesn't get his pasture for a few weeks because it's too muddy, he stood out there staring at it the whole time I was there. The plan is to give him the rest of the year off and see what he looks like in the arena in January. I'm not convinced that he'll be okay for any sort of real work but I do want to give him a chance since he has enjoyed his jumping/dressage rides in the past. As I've said before, my main goal now is to get him sound enough to enjoy trail rides, even if I have to give him a bit of prevocox beforehand.

I'm glad I have baby horse to take my mind off of Rico's issues and I'm sure Rico is glad for me to have some entertainment while he has time off.

Tomorrow I'm going to watch Hilda Gurney give a symposium on the new 2015 tests! That should be really cool, I'm hoping to get pictures and have some interesting things to bring back to this blog.

Feel

This article made its way around facebook recently- http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/oh-what-feeling

It really got me thinking about feel itself, as well as what things feel like versus what they look like and how important it is to have eyes on the ground (or at least mirrors or a willing minion to video). Feel is a very important part of dressage and I want to go on about it.

I want this clock

How would you even define feel? I'm curious. Before defining it myself, I would argue that there are some basic requirements to be met before you can really start to develop feel. The main one, I think, is an independence of the seat and aids. We know that feel is disrupted by rider error, such as a seat that is too hot (me) or a rogue left hand that does what it wants (also me). My hot seat makes me think that horses are tense over their back when it's really me. My left hand makes me think that there is no horse on earth that is capable of bending left.

Of course, perfection is unattainable (dressage riders, I'm lying, it's totally attainable, keep up the good basically pointless work), so I would argue that an understanding of where rider position is lacking would be key for developing feel. Knowing, essentially, that I will always want to pull on the left rein like my life depends on it and that this causes me to sit to the right and feel like my horse isn't bending left allows me to still have feel through my errors, which is difficult but possible.

At my first lesson with Tracey, my left hand is RIGID as I was
trying not to yank on it..

So what actual is feel? I believe it is the ability to interpret what is happening underneath you in a helpful way that allows you to evaluate it and make the necessary corrections for improvement. But I'm sure other people have other, better, definitions. But I'll go off of that.

I think feel is something that can be learned. I know that some people don't think that, they think that it's natural and that some people have feel and some people don't. But I think with hard work and a good trainer, feel can certainly be developed. It's like learning anything, learning to recognize what is happening, define it, figure out what to do in response, and execute it. It's like learning to drive- you see a stop sign, you need to stop there, you need to put your foot on the brake, so you do. At first it takes a while for you to think about but eventually it becomes automatic like seeing a stop sign and stopping the car. If only dressage was like driving a car!

Not a BMW... but close to it

What this article talked about is when feel doesn't cut it. How certain horses can trick you into thinking that they are doing a movement properly and how eyes on the ground on these horses are incredibly important.

I would definitely agree with this- that some horses give you an amazing feeling while others feel kind of ho-hum even if both horses are going equivalently well. I would also agree that moving up the levels gives you a discrepancy between feel and what is actually happening as well. I'll talk about both.


First- I've had experience showing two FEI horses now. Leo, my previous trainers' Grand Prix horse, who I successfully showed through Intermediare II (and attempted Grand Prix) in 2011, and Rico, that weird brown horse who lives in pasture and is perpetually covered in mud (who happens to be my own horse who I trained from Training to Grand Prix and got my Gold on this year). Rico and Leo were as similar as I was going to get with two Grand Prix horses, and I was lucky that way.

Little Leo and I at our last PSG- earning
my USDF Silver Medal!

Both Rico and Leo had similar issues in the pirouettes- they wanted to get hollow and behind the leg. They also both had easy zig zags. They had an incredible ability to collect but the laziness prevented them from getting out of the collected movements easily. Both had great passages that would sometimes be "all back" and no leg (as in, not enough lift but they both were good at faking the feeling of it).

Weird... that the horse who I trained ended up being VERY similar to the horse I learned on, huh? But that's a discussion for another day.

But they were different in that Leo's changes (and everything) were incredibly easy, but slightly flat, while Rico tended to jump too big in the changes and back himself off of the ones and twos. Rico tended to be heavy in the bridle while Leo tended to get too light.

BIG changes

The main problem with my feel when I switched from Leo back to Rico was that my feel was ALL wrong for a horse coming up the levels vs an established Grand Prix horse. When I taught Rico piaffe, I expected it to be very much on the spot. When I taught Rico pirouettes, I expected them to be much smaller. My feel was way off. The piaffe Rico needed (half steps) felt like a jog, even though he was sitting well for his level of training. The pirouettes Rico needed (working pirouettes) felt like haunches-in on a circle with no collection. I was so used to that big SIT moment that would happen with Leo.

I couldn't recognize that Rico was sitting as much as he could given his level of training. I remember when I moved up to Prix St George, I was thinking gosh our pirouettes suck and our zig zag is so shaky and our tempis are big/sideways and then we got a 65% and second in a large class. My perception was off. Just like it is when I pull on the left rein or sit like I'm riding a cannon. But this problem was due to not being experienced enough on green FEI horses (you know, because there aren't just a bunch of those laying around).

Eventually my feel got better, Tracey was adamant that I not hold Rico to Leo's standards and I valued that a lot. Rico eventually caught up as much as he could to Leo and we were able to show Grand Prix.

And it was awesome!

Second- there are some movements that just feel weird when you're first learning them (and forever). I have a lot of analogies. Pirouettes feel like you're trying to ride your dinosaur out of a tar pit and you're failing at it (thanks COTH for that). Half pass feels like you've decided to roll a bag of bricks sideways down a hill and then regretted it so you're running after them. The zig-zag feels like you're throwing a bowling ball sideways, running to catch up to it so that you can throw it the other way. And don't get me started on tempi changes oh my god.

Passage was the only movement that I actually liked the first time I did it. The only one I could recognize was good. Until I showed it to Tracey a few weeks after Rico learning it and having her tell me that he was crooked, uneven behind, and drifting to the right. We then worked on rolling bricks sideways down a hill and the best half pass I got that day felt TERRIBLE but Tracey said it was great and I got a 7 on it at our next show. Whaaaat?

HATE half pass

These experiences have led me to believe that feel is incredibly complicated, not necessarily natural (maybe those with "natural" feel are just quicker learners in a kinesthetic sense), and is something that can be learned. One horse can give you a certain feeling that you can't apply to another horse (Leo to Rico). Movements can feel horrible when done right (half pass for me) and amazing when done wrong (passage).

The one thing I've learned is that eyes on the ground are important. Whether it be a trainer (but make it a good one), someone willing to video, or even just the luxury of having mirrors. Relying on feel alone, unless you're incredibly well versed in the issues that you are addressing, can be problematic.

I'm interested to see how this will apply to my next horse. I don't plan on working with a trainer very often (my once-a-week lessons the last two years were a fluke! I rarely take lessons on horses I train), but I feel pretty knowledgable about my own issues and I feel capable of bringing a horse along at least until second or third level without much help. But you never know. The horse may give me a bad feeling that I need help seeing past, and then I'll be giving Heidi a call!

Next horse will be far less talented and far less fun than this one

Looking forward to seeing if anyone has anything to add.

Let Down

This week I've been feeling intense pony withdrawal, missing my old pony, wondering where my next pony is going to come from, wanting to spend money I don't have on said new pony, questioning my need to live in a house instead of a box on the side of the freeway so that I could get a pony... this seriously sounds like an addiction that should probably be treated. But nah.

So today I FINALLY got to go down to the barn to ride Rico! Ah I was so excited. He was out in his pasture grazing when I got there, of course. I went out to grab him and he was unimpressed by me wanting to ride him. I always think that he'll be so excited to see me since I'm excited to see him but he's always like "oh... you" and turns away from me. One day I'll get something out of him.

He was thrilled to see me

I actually managed to climb on him in the halter from a stump in his pasture so I didn't have to walk in. He decided that he didn't know how to steer and tried to take me over to let him graze. Poor pony!

I took my time brushing him and picking all the mud out of his feet. He got lots of cookies too. I made him all pretty, chose my awesome saddle pad with the sunflowers, put on his boots, got on, and we went for a walk down the road. I was so happy to swing up into the tack, but that feeling went away soon after I got on. He felt kind of reluctant the whole ride. He seemed interested in looking around but wasn't all excited like I had expected him to be.

Look at how green everything is!

Yay!

I didn't think too much of it, it was warm and he has a very thick coat, I had taken him out of his beloved pasture... but then I turned around in a tight-ish circle (at the walk) to the right and he came up DEAD lame.

Trying hard to ignore it, I took him into the arena. I wanted to believe he was just tender on it on hard ground on a tight circle. Plenty of horses are hobble-y on hard ground turning but then are fine on soft ground with large circles. I cantered him first, because he's always a bit stiff and then came back to trot. He wasn't lame per say, but very uncomfortable. More so than what I had come to realize was his normal state of meh-ness these days.

I missed riding him in here so much

He wanted to work so badly though. He gave me passage without being prompted to, his canter was so collected and awesome, he was so sensitive to my aids. He gave me everything I wanted! But if I didn't pick him up off that right front, he would suck back and flinch whenever that foot landed. Still wanting to move forward, but in a very flat trot.

I put him away quite early into my ride and gave him prevocox. I talked to my mom and made the decision to start taking the steps to permanently retire him (pulling him off of his supplements, getting his hind shoes off and working to get his 3-week front shoe schedule out to 6 weeks). He's clearly uncomfortable doing any sort of real work. I'm still really hoping that maybe after this winter off, he'll be comfortable enough to trail ride, at least with some NSAIDs... But today he really told me that he wasn't excited about going out.

Wishing his pasture was as awesome as the neighbor's

I'm kinda sad. I was hoping to keep him going through the winter and spring just for fun until I had the money to buy a new horse. Now I'm feeling especially horseless, and I wasn't handling feeling sorta horseless very well before.


BUT I heard back from our family friend who has horses that I could ride. She offered me a young horse to play with, a three year old. That's SUPER young. I haven't ridden something that young in a while. But interesting things could develop with this horse so I will keep you guys updated.

I think I get to meet him on Friday unless the "storm of the decade" we're supposed to get on Thursday messes everything up for me. Fingers crossed! Can't wait to experience that slightly-out-of-control-no-steering-no-brakes feeling of riding a real baby again.

Rainy day at school last week