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Goals for the New Year

 My goal for the new year is to try and post everyday even if it's just a quote about dressage or horses. I had an amazing lesson on Thursday by Doug. When I got there he was riding Lissy and she looked amazing. We have been working on the training scale together.




We have been really improving our sitting trot and working on the rhythm of the trot.  When Doug was riding Felicity it was amazing how much impulsion her back end was creating. After I had watched Doug ride for a while, which was wonderful she looked so fancy! It's crazy to think that she has only been in training for about 6 months and that I have only owned her for a year as of 12/31/11!! Anyway we worked on the contact and impulsion elements of the training scale on my lesson on Thursday. It was really helpful to have Lissy warmed up and riding nicely so I could work on my rein connection.

Finally I will leave any readers I might have out there with a quote from my wise trainer Douglas Puterbaugh:

"Horses will try to evade your aids in two ways: speed (slow or fast) and crookedness.

Merry Christmas!

Our First Musical Freestyle (Felicity and I)

Today was the Christmas party and musical freestyle exhibition at the barn. Overall it went pretty well, Lissy was distracted by the time we got done with the warm up and did our routine but I feel like I handled it well. Also despite ourselves we managed a killer free walk across the diagonal. I could really feel our progress. At the Christmas party afterward there was a raffle and I won a photo shoot and a quarter sheet! I also got some deeply discounted seat lessons :)

Quick Update

Chance has been in training since the end of August and he has really muscled up in the legs and his back has become higher too. I actually got a 'chance' to ride him a few weeks ago! I intended to just get on him and walk around but my trainer asked if I could trot him and even though it had been almost a year since we did it! And it went well! Felicity and I did another schooling show and improved our score by 5% points with a 57.25%. The main thing that bothered me with this show was that everyone else got a considerably higher score than me even one girl who was showing for the first time. It seemed like it was a contest of who paid the most money at the barn not necessarily who did the best performance. The walk trot class was completely bogus, the girl who got first place in the class, her horse spooked at the end and the other woman, her horse kept slowing down and stopping and she kept messing me up because I was behind her but I started off almost half an arena away from her. She got second place. I am just waiting for her to move up a level or for me to move up a level. My Felicity did her best but just because she was at a different level meaning she isn't always round we got marked down.

Since then Felicity and I have been working really hard on our circles and trot work. We are doing a dressage freestyle in December, I'm really excited to do this! We are really improving and I'm just so happy about it
:)

Dressage Camp Day 1

Felicity and I have been working very hard on our walk pirouette and canter for advanced moves and working on getting her round in the trot as well. We had an excellent ride on Tuesday and a pretty good ride today. The problem with today was that Doug was late coming to my lesson because he was busy talking to another participant. So Lissy and I were walking around aimlessly in the arena for a good 15 minutes. After that we did some posting trot at large in the arena and Lissy kept stopping so he handed me a whip and that just went poorly, we are obviously not ready to add a whip into the combination. However on a good note Lissy started to really bend at the poll and pull her head in and down. She is coming along very nicely for only being in training for about 5 months. I don't know what's wrong but part of me just feels kind of let down, I guess I feel like I didn't get a whole lot out of my lesson today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better and Doug will be less distracted so my lesson will be better.

Felicity's First Show!

Felicity and I rode our first dressage show this Saturday September 3, 2011.

I'm going to spare details because I have video of that but I don't have video of my lesson with "S" judge Sonja Vracko.

Walk/Trot: 3rd place

Intro A: 52.25%

In my lesson with Sonja Vracko:

• Focus on alternating half halts (left, right, pushing downward)
• Raise core/stomach towards horse's ears, clinch butt muscles, tuck pelvis under
• Make upwards transitions when the inside hind leg is forward 
•  Keep shoulders back
• Post fast to keep from stopping, post slow to keep the rhythm
• Work with the center line often, not just when practicing tests. 
• Bend all the way into the corners
  

Sitting the Trot without Holding the Saddle!!!

So even after having a week off I was able to pick up pretty much where I left off two whole weeks ago! Lissy's tempo is coming along nicely and that certainly makes it easier to sit the trot. = ) The biggest accomplishment this lesson was the ability to sit the trot and hold the reins correctly. All in all a great lesson!!

Equine Assisted Healing

On Saturday I went to a clinic of sorts on the subject of equine assisted healing and how the person hosting the clinic got into the field herself. It really solidified to me that this is something I am interested in and would like to pursue this as a career. 

Lissy Needs Ground Manners, but her undersaddle is coming along nicely

On Tuesday I went for my lesson and we worked on the lunge line with sitting the trot even when she was leaning in and making tight circles. I made a lot of progress on sitting the trot, partially helped by holding on to the saddle. All that holding on to the saddle near her withers made my fingers really sore. But the trot is coming along so nicely.

Unfortunately her ground manners SUCK!!

Wednesday Lissy needed her feet done and so I went back out there to hold her while she got her feet trimmed. Lissy was an absolute basket case, she was running through me and in and out of stalls and the whole trimming process took over an hour!! And it ended with me having to chase her but not before she stepped on the side of my left foot and gave me rope burn. I think I will see if  she can get some ground manners along with her dressage training. *sigh*

Lesson Learned

"The horse is no machine, its readability no permanent state; it cannot be wound up for use when desired, poorly ridden for days and then put back in the corner."
-Douglas Puterbaugh


I learned this lesson in a very real way today. I decided that even though I haven't worked with Chance since November today was as good of day as any to try and ride him bareback. After all bareback should be low key and low stress easy on his back......right?

WRONG!!

Before I got on I backed him up and then worked on getting him to line up with the mounting block. Then once he was lined up I leaned over his back and put pressure on and told him he was a good boy. He wasn't particularly thrilled but I figured I could get him over it.

WRONG AGAIN!!!

I think I was on for roughly 2-5 seconds and then I was on the ground on my butt. OH NO! That was NOT cool!! So instead of getting away with a nice leisurely walk Chance got lunged at the trot. The crazy horse is going to need a lot of work to get up to where he was. It probably doesn't help that he was misbehaving when I stopped riding him. Anyway I'm just glad that Lissy is being trained so that I can work with Chance in my fleeting free time. 
 

The Sitting Trot

My sitting trot has really progressed since last week, I think Lissy's training has helped her gait and therefore made it easier for me to sit the trot. I found that holding on to the saddle and getting the correct leg position. I just really enjoy riding her and making progress.

Dressage Lesson Notes

Meet Felicity! Chance's Sister by ownership

So it's been a super long time since I have updated this blog and a lot has changed since my last post. Chance was having back problems so I decided to give him some much needed rest and look for a new horse to ride in the mean time. I leased one horse for a month thinking he was only 9 or 10 when he was actually 18! After that experience I decided I should probably look into a lease to buy horse that was younger. In the meantime I came into contact with a different trainer who owns a more affordable boarding farm. She was able to hook me up with a guy who was selling a Percheron draft cross (his words not mine) and was willing to bring her to the barn for trial. When the then 'Rosie' arrived she was skinny but gorgeous. I knew there was no way I was ever going to let her go back to where she came from, she deserved so much better. This all happened in late December.

Since then 'Rosie' has been renamed, as she didn't know her name anyway, to Felicity (Lissy for short). We made great progress, got accepted into the training class and then decided that the methods were not ones I wanted to support or use.  Then about 2 weeks ago I took Lissy up to Puterbaugh Dressage for a clinic and we learned so much that I decided to leave her there for a while, maybe permanently, she is improving dramatically and has already gained muscle.

Of course I haven't forgotten about Chance, he will stay at the farm that is nearby my house, as Puterbaugh is about 45 minutes away from home. Chance is still the best little pony ever and I love him very much, always will. He has been battling eye problems first recurrent uvetis in the left eye then in the right. and then the right eye turned into an ulcer and when that healed the left eye got something that may be a third eyelid tumor. Poor Chance has been dealing with a lot so we haven't been doing much riding or lunging lately.

Oh did I mention that Lissy and Chance look alike except for the fact that one is tall  and one is short :)