Clinic Thoughts, etc

Hi guys - as you are probably used to by now, it takes me a few days to digest everything from the clinic before I can make comprehensible posts out of it. This one is no exception.

Parts of my ride were extremely frustrating, and it takes me some time to let it go and be able to write about it without whining. Parts of my ride were very good and enlightening, and it takes me some time to figure out why. So bear with me!

Here's a quick summary: that particular clinician works us extremely hard. In most clinics, there are natural breaks where everyone watches someone else jump, or you stop for instruction. Not in hers. You keep going constantly. We did sitting trot and canter without stirrups (in jumping saddles, mind) for literally 30 minutes straight. On XC, she had us jumping down a very long line of 3 to 4 fences, then galloping forward and collecting back on the whole way back to the start, then jumping again without pause.

It was definitely good for me. It was eye-opening, and it showed me that I should push myself more.

I had also been sick the whole week before and it was just too much. So. Like I said, I just need some time to digest everything, relax, get some perspective. I did get some very valuable things out of it and I'm already working hard to put them into practice.

For example, last night's ride on Pandora (which was overall an excellent ride) was probably the first time I've ever gotten a balanced, strong canter all the way down the long side (sitting) without her asking if she could lean on my hands or fall on the forehand. I know the feeling of that canter now, and I got it from an exercise we did at the clinic. I also practiced my sitting trot without stirrups!

Anyway - full clinic report soon, complete with pictures and video. My buddy from PC took some great pictures of our XC ride, and I'm looking forward to putting them up. My dad also took some pictures, and he has uncanny timing for getting a shot where we're doing something stupid.

I also rode McKinna on Monday, while giving Pandora a very well-deserved day off. I love riding McKinna! She is where it all started, and she is such an awesome horse. It helps that her problems tend to be very opposite from Pandora's - I have worked so, so hard on lateral strengthening with Pandora, and I hopped on McKinna and was able to do much of the very same work it has taken me weeks to develop on Pandora. But, Pandora never ever has a problem stretching into my contact and finding a rhythm at the walk and trot, and McKinna is naturally fairly high-headed. Pandora has a much stronger canter than McKinna at this point, simply because I don't school McKinna's as often.

It is always a refreshing change of pace. The nice thing is, if I maintain both of them at a good level, I get to choose which one to take to different things! For example, the show-jumping rally for Pony Club is going to be in April. McKinna is an extremely tight, catty jumper and very fast. Pandora has a stronger canter and a longer stride and more balanced turns. Each has advantages and I get to work on them both! How exciting is it to have two such capable, athletic horses?

My C1 rating for PC is on Saturday. It should be fun, and I'm looking forward to getting to show my knowledge. I practiced my standing wraps last night and I got a very nice one, so I'm feeling optimistic about that requirement.

Finally, it is time to clip Pandora. She got ridiculously sweaty at the clinic (possibly understandable, since we worked our tails off) but she also got pretty sweaty from a moderate 45-minute ride last night in reasonable temperatures. She wasn't tired, just sweaty. I'm going to do a little strip clip tonight so she's clipped for the rating this weekend, but I'll probably go to a full trace before long. I hope our sad little clippers can handle it - we might need to buy a new pair!

I have lots of pictures from last night; I was taking conformation shots and analyzing her legs since leg conformation is part of my test. She is actually pretty good, though I think she is a little over at the knee. Forelegs are my weak spot, so I'm not sure!

I will put last night's pictures up tonight when I get home from the barn.

Music

Does anyone out there ride to music?

I've seen some dressage musical freestyles, and I would LOVE to try one sometime. There's, um, only a limited amount you can do at my level - you basically get three tempos! - but at the upper levels it's amazing. If you have never seen the famous freestyle from Blue Hors Matine ridden by Andreas Helgstrand, do yourself a favor and go watch it.

On the other hand, I watched a fellow member of my pony club practicing her Training-level musical freestyle on her big warmblood mare, and it was so cool. You don't have to ride at a super high level to be able to put some really good music to your ride - the girl in my club did a freestyle to music from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, and it was awesome. So every once in awhile I go through all my music and think, "Hmm, this would be fun to work into a freestyle...Ooh, and this one too..." But, I've never actually gotten around to doing it.

Sometime in the next few weeks I'm going to bring my mp3 player to the barn and try riding to some of those songs so I can get a sense for what Pandora's tempo is at each gait. Then, who knows - maybe I will put together a simple little freestyle, just for fun! I think it would be enjoyable. Not to mention that extra help with a solid rhythm can never hurt.

I imagine it's quite hard to balance choosing songs that you like and songs that would work well for a freestyle. If you watch the video I linked to, there was a medley of several different songs, none with vocals. I've done similar performances at the band leadership camp I attend every summer - only it's called a specialty, and it's done with conducting, marching, or flagwork. Each year I do a partner specialty with the girl who was my co-drum major, and it's a lot of fun. So far we've done them to AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds," the Prince Ali song from Aladdin, and Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero." I think the Aladdin one was my favorite, as we worked in a lot of funny things.

Words work well for that, since you need some material to act out while working in conducting at the same time. You can't exactly act things out with a horse, though, so maybe it would be better to do a song without lyrics.

There's an instrumental song I love - I think it's the theme from Boondock Saints - but it's rather distinctly Irish and would be definitely more suited to someone riding an Irish Draught or Irish Sport Horse.

Anyway, I'll let you know once I figure out some tempos and good songs to use.

Anyone else ride to music, for performance or just for fun while you're schooling? Do you find it helps you settle into a rhythm? Has anyone performed a musical freestyle before?

Mea Culpa

Hi guys - I'd like to clear the air a bit regarding the comment I wrote in my last post about western riders.

I intended it to be light-hearted and teasing, but it didn't quite come out that way.

I apologize if I offended anyone.

I understand that what I meant in good fun may be construed as me saying that I don't respect western riders, or that I'm a great western rider. This is not the case, and I am sorry that my poor choice of words could imply so.

I dislike condescending riding stereotypes as much as the next person, and I will be much more careful in the future about what I write.

Cows!

After a really, really nice ride last night, I took Pandora out to meet the barn owner's cows. And they are Cows, of the rather large sort, big and red and white. I rode into their big field and took her out to say hi to a little youngster first.

It was cute.

They both stopped and stared at each other. Then the cow jumped, and she jumped. Then they both stared at each other some more.

After that, Pandora was pretty relaxed. Curious, interested, but not scared. We pushed the little one back over to the momma cows, and it ran away, but kept turning back to look at us when we turned away. We went and said hi to the BIG cows, which all went fine, even when one went running past us. So we called it a day and headed in.

No big deal, good fun. I've decided that I'd like to take Pandora to some team penning practices this winter. I had a great time when I did it with McKinna when I was on the high school equestrian team, and I think it would be a fun change of pace. Pandora doesn't really neck rein or do rollbacks or anything, but she steers and stops and goes, which is good enough for me! Don't worry, I promise I'll get pictures. Everyone will laugh at me - I sold my western saddle a year or two ago, so I'd be team penning in my dressage saddle ;-) Still, I can be comfortable working cows...I wonder if the western riders would feel the same if I stuck them on an eventer in a jumping saddle? Kidding. Mostly.

Tonight I finally got the video from the Brian Sabo clinic! It's quite good - you can hear almost all of his comments. I'll see what I can do about taking some good chunks of it and putting it up here.

I haven't ridden as much as normal in the last week or so. First my grandparents were here visiting....then it was the first week of classes, and it does take awhile to adjust....then in the past few days I've been sick with a cold, so I took one day off, had an awesome ride last night, then went with my mom to her lesson tonight to watch her ride. So Pandora's had more days off than I prefer, but she's doing well and I'm sure she doesn't mind spending all day chilling out in the pasture.

Pandora is looking fantastic. Between the extra hay (she's eating 4 flakes of orchard/timothy twice a day, and they're big flakes!) and the flake of alfalfa we've added to her dinner, she's gained some weight and is filling out along her topline more. Her winter coat has started to grow in and she is officially dark bay, a very sudden change from the red bay that she is in the summer. McKinna, too, is growing hairier by the day. She's wonderfully soft in the winter - at our OHSET practices in the winter, all my equestrian team friends used to exclaim about how soft her neck was.

Oh, and I tried that turn-on-the-forehand around a circle thing the other day. Like I suspected, she was much better at it. Not perfect, but better, more responsive, and - most importantly - she showed a better understanding of what I wanted. Good things all around!

I have a clinic this Sunday up in Turner at the same location where my rating is the following week. I am feeling pretty good about it. I haven't jumped much since the clinic in Redmond, but eh. I don't think it's a big deal. I'll probably canter some ground poles tomorrow, and then we'll see how she does this weekend. I have a feeling I won't really need to school any fences before the rating. They only go up to 2'9 anyway.

Sorry for the infrequent updates. Hopefully as I settle into the school routine again, I can keep up a little better!

Tangible Progress

I love it when you can feel that you and your horse are making progress.

The other day I was riding - and I didn't feel much like riding for long, which is usually true after a school day - and I got to have one of those rare, "HOLY COW I CAN FEEL THE IMPROVEMENT" moments. (I ended up riding for longer.)

You know all the lateral work I've been doing? Maybe not. I've been working my (and consequently Pandora's) butt off. Slowly but surely, I've refined my control. Lots of turn on the forehand, both still and in motion. Turn on the haunches. A slowly growing understanding that inside leg back behind the girth plus a restraining outside rein/leg means move just the haunches over. Leg yields, back and forth and all over the place. Overbending, counterbending, regular bending. Spiraling in and out on circles. Transitions on a circle holding the correct bend firmly in place.

Lots of work.

But I have been so, so rewarded for it. Maybe I learn to pay more attention as I spend more time training Pandora and recording it in her training log - maybe it's just that it's the first time in a long time I have put in a concentrated dressage effort on one particular issue. Either way, I've been noticing true improvement, and this week I got a big one.

My leg yields have finally started to go through her back.

It doesn't sound big. But I never noticed just how much she was resisting me in her back and hips until she stopped resisting so much. Everything swings freely, or at least more freely than before. Her hind leg is actually crossing over, her body's remaining aligned (no diving on the outside shoulder), and she's not resisting with her neck either. It feels good.

Even at the trot, she is starting to let go. It's harder for her - she wants to speed up when I make her take big enough steps with that inside hind - but she is starting to get it. Give me another week or two and we'll have swingy, relaxed trot leg-yields too.

I know leg-yields are nowhere near the be-all and end-all of lateral work. They're not. But both the psychological and physical progress I can make with them is extremely valuable. She's learning to be more supple through her hips and back. She's learning that there are specific requests coming from my leg - sometimes I want the haunches over, sometimes the whole body, sometimes the shoulders.

I can move her haunches over with a very light cue now - another thing I have never had before.

It's so nice when you can tell, really tell, in an objective, measurable sense, that you're making progress.

To further test this, I'm going to try the "turn on the forehand in motion" exercise I mentioned very briefly in this post that caused the two of us so much frustration the night I tried it. She could not - or would not - do it. At all.

I bet that when I try it tonight, she'll be successful. I bet you that in the one month since we tried the exercise, we've made enough physical and mental progress to change her response.

I'm curious to find out. If she can do it, I will have an even stronger confirmation that we are on the right track.