We did it!

We survived, and it was awesome.

So Miss Joy was a pain about getting in to the trailer, in hindsight I should of practiced a bit with her since it was her first time off the property in 2 years! We got to the barn a little late so my friend helped me tack up and we rode straight away. Joy was spooky and looky at first but settled down to work and we had a very productive lesson.

Sandi was great, taking time to ask questions about Joy and we talked a lot about the challenges and positives of  doing dressage with Arabians and Saddlebreds. We did fairly simple stuff (circles, spiral circles, turn on forehand and haunches and looooooots of transitions) but focusing on Miss Joy using her body correctly.


Okay, things I learned.

1- Keep my reins the length they should be, so when she relaxes her neck and picks up contact they are the correct length. Fairly simple concept,  instead of messing around with the reins just keep them "correct" (even if it feels awkward when she is doing a giraffe impression) and when she relaxes it is more comfortable for both of us.

2- Leg on! Joy is a hot horse, I generally ride with a relaxed leg and I like not having to motivate her constantly like you do with some really mellow horses. But in order to get her hind end under her correctly I need to be active with my legs.

3- Because she is so compact (seriously compact) circles are my friend, In a circle she has to focus a little to balance herself and I have the opportunity to get her working correctly. Getting her to reach under herself with her hind legs and stretch a little.

There is more of course but those points were the most helpful right now.

Now pictures, first lesson in 2 years! so no laughing.

Start of lesson, OMG IM A PONY RUN AROUND NOW

start of lesson WHEEEE IM RUNNING AROUND

starting to relax

My fav picture, I don't look awesome but she is so soft and willing here.

Mid lesson, she has  a neck!

working on bending

Oh Hai!

Overall I'm super pleased and am definitely going to work on making this a monthly thing. Joy was awesome and happy to be working.

ride in the rain.

I love my poneh, seriously she is amazing.

Joe was home and Smooshy was asleep so I had my first proper long ride on Sunday (as opposed to the "hop on, looook I'm riding" rides) Here are something I learned.

My muscles used to be reeeeeeeally strong, I wish I had appreciated them more, like when I had them. (please note the past tense)

All my saddles suck, since I was paying such close attention to my position I can't help but notice the dressage saddle tips me in a funny way. Saddle fitting is on the agenda this summer for sure.

Joy likes to spook, at chickens and things in the yard, probably because the yard is boring.

We like going fast, on the trails.

My mare is a snot to saddle and possibly always will be even when I have a better fitting saddle.

Spiral circles are one of the most useful training exercises for tense, high headed horses. (see below)

Joy is so remarkably sensitive it is ridiculous. Fun to ride, challenging to ride and totally ridiculous.

I was so completely happy to feel her be responsive and supple, we (obviously) haven't done much formal training lately. One exercise I particularly like is a spiral circle at the trot, you start out on a nice round circle and slowly spiral in  making it smaller and then out again until you reach the original size. Circle work is great for Joy since it forces her to slow down, balance, relax and stretch her body. The spiral is especially helpful because it requires her to focus on me instead of anticipating what comes next. It is super helpful for me to work on using my outside aides and staying focused.

Then it rained really, really hard.

More horse trial stuff

Today was great!

This morning I picked up my friend to head back to Cobblestone, Joy was a pain to load again which is so disappointing because I really felt like we were over that, she was sooooooooooo good for awhile. My friend had stadium today and I had the option to ride stadium or try schooling cross country again. I decided to school, and I am so glad I did! I started at the beginning of the course and jumped the first two fences, she felt really good so I took her through and jumped the first 7.

Next we went by the scary water and watched another horse jump in and out for a bit and then I asked her to step in, she got all tense and I must work on not looking down at the scary thing. It was weird water being in a shaded hollow, not at all straightforward. But she walked in with some encouragement and in no time was trotting through comfortably. I went back to the trailer and got some water since it was another scorching day. She still felt good so I went to the startbox and counted down and did the whole course, Joy was fantastic! It was a perfect ride. Forward and energetic without being being tense or out of control. We had a nice canter throughout and she was looking for the jumps and enthusiastic about going over them.

I could have ridden stadium but instead schooled over the practice fences in the warmup and called it a day, we ended on a good note and both had a great time. I really enjoyed hanging out with eventing friends, everyone was so nice. I am definitely hooked!

Cobblestone horse trial update

So, we did it!

Trailered out to friend's barn last night and schooled a little over their x-country course, Joy was terrible, just fizzy, spooky and unfocused, she eventually settled down and was ok but still very looky. I gave her a bath and put her in a pen at the barn for the night. Stayed over at my friend's place, which was fun, she is my eventing fairy godmother and has been amazingly supportive, helpful and kind.

Joy was a pain to load this morning, doing the setting back refusing to go in thing, very frustrating since she had been loading so nicely. But we really haven't trailered much recently so need to work on it again. She got to hang with her boyfriend Baxter (my friend's tall, dark and handsome TB) they are cute together.

My friend dressed me all spiffy for dressage, and made Joy look pretty, I guess even if mare-mare is being a tweak she can look cute!  Joy did better then I expected in dressage for how excited she was, I remembered my test and she listened fairly well, got mostly 5s and a few 6s. Judge said in the comments we are a nice pair but she needs to be more submissive to the bit and relaxed, which is what we have been working on, nice to know I am on the right track. Joy has been schooling really nicely at home so I hope next show she will be a little more relaxed and responsive. Joe surprised me and showed up right before I went in the ring, which was nice and I got some good pictures.

We had a big break between dressage and cross country so I got watch a lot and to help my friend, and Joy got some downtime, I am glad she ties well and doesn't mind being alone with her hay. My sweet friends bought me a fabulous embroidered saddle pad for cross country, it is purple with Joy's show name and it looks so great!

Cross country was a blast, she did awesome on most of the course. I missed the course walk the day before so just did a short one before dressage. I had one refusal at the second fence but she popped right over on the second try. We got through the rest really nicely, she needed lots of encouragement but was having fun. We had issues at the water jump, at the beginner novice level we just had to go though the water but she flat out refused so we got dismissed off the course, I was super bummed since I only had two jumps to go before we would have finished our first ever course.

So going to school cross country again tomorrow and school stadium, should be low pressure and fun.

going to pick black berries now :)

In which I post pictures of riding and helpful comments like "look up and stop making that stupid face"

Since I convinced my husband to take pictures last night of me riding in my new arena (don't get excited, it's just t-posts and tape, but it is weed whipped :) I have decided to start posting some pictures at the first of every month, for progress noting and critiquing.

It was a very nice ride, she was fairly relaxed and happy to work, despite the hay guy cutting in the back field and my diabolical plan to keep Baby Horse out of the arena failing. Worked a lot on transitions,circles and balance, she feels stiff right now. It is great to feel her relax and soften though, a great exercise for her is the constant circle, where we put in a ten meter circle go on the track for a few strides and put another one in, and repeat. If I really work on keeping my outside rein steady and give with my inside, and add a few little half halts she will soften nicely.

Overall I am happy with the pictures, I know my weak areas and the things Joy needs to improve in. I am not happy with the position the saddle is putting me in though, I am going to try a different pad and see if that improves it, I really feel I just need to bite the bullet and get her professionally fitted.

happy with her here,she is moving forward nicely

My leg is to far forward and I need  bend in my elbows.

Look up! and close your fingers

I would like to see her shifting more weight on her hind

Canter, upper body to far forward.

And in case you were wondering this is what an explodey bottle looks like.

I swear my brain has fallen out, day before yesterday I put a bottle of water in the freezer to cool it down for drinking fast, night before last we heard a weird popping sound and I couldn't figure out what it was, I just opened the freezer to get a Popsicle and there are glass shards form the Perrier bottle all over the freezer. I wouldn't be so hard on myself except I have been doing this shit all week, I'll be lucky if I don't burn the house down. 

So this is us now

 And this was us last year about the same time

So definitely an improvement there.
Except I think I look pudgier, but at least I am not throwing away contact. But time to start running again and try to convince my metabolism to do something rather then crawl around. Although to be perfectly honest I haven't done much in the way of dedicated exercise in awhile, unless sex counts.

 Now I need to go find some breakfast,since I have been neglecting feeding myself in favor of my blog, also going to take some ibuprofen and vitamin c, since all that weed whipping yesterday killed my shoulders and my allergies are crazy.

hothothot.

Wah it is hot, like 80 degrees and muggy, I know I was just whining about it being to freaking cold, but this warm in May seems excessive, I may have to start getting up early to ride (haha) Although today
I had to get up extra early because male offspring missed his bus, then later needed a pickup because he was dying of some mystery illness. I had to do lots of errands today so am feeling kinda burnout on doing stuff, still going to ride tonight though and need to get on it before Joe comes home.

Computers being screwy and not letting us access amazon or ebay without this weird phishing website that wants our credit info (and pin number!) to verify the account, not gonna happen. Unfortunately weird stuff seems to be happening with other sites like gmail as well, I'm considering performing a exorcism.

Babies are growing well, I ran out of goat's milk this morning and had to dilute it and they were not impressed. I think they took it personally. They will be ready for new homes after the 22nd, I will miss them but not miss having to feed them all the time. I can't believe how quickly they have grown or how sassy they are getting. I took teensy grey boy and two of the whites into town with me today to visit my friend Melissa (she is going to be taking home teensy grey boy) didn't take into account how hot it was and the poor things got to hot on the way over so I sprinkled them with water, they were not impressed but it helped cool them down a little, I love how mellow they are with people handling them though.

Had a really productive ride on Joy on Tuesday, good conditioning trail ride with lots of canter up hills and working on keeping connection at the walk. Also started some in hand work on Wednesday and then rode bareback, She took to the in hand stuff fairly quickly, it's not much different then regular leading just changing the angle and keeping her body alined with mine. She is quite fun to ride bareback, really working on transitions and relaxation, which I think is hard for both of us. I tried the exercise that the dressage lady from Eventing University gave us, the basic ten steps walk to ten steps trot and back again, Joy got kind of bored (and so did I) but it seems to be helping with the rush into trot whenever I shorten the reins thing. It works best if I add some circles and halts, Also got a couple really excellent trot rein backs (trot to halt then back a couple steps and into trot) Need to work on cantering bareback,she gets quick behind and I get tight and bouncy, no fun!

Big plan today is putting in my arena, got lots of t-posts and tape for it. Starting to doubt my ability to draw a straight line though, so might enlist Joe to help since I seem incapable of making things square. I am really excited to have a solid, dedicated riding space though. I plan on working Baby a little, maybe a small amount of free lunging and some ground stuff, she is almost one! and going to be huge (well huger then Joy, not that it is hard ) Also gotta figure out my chick order, if I am indeed going to have chickies.

Oh and little brown dog ate the checkbook, maybe she thinks I spend to much money.

Eventing University was a complete success!

Joy was perfectly wonderful. We tried cross country and stadium for the first time, got some great dressage tips and hung out with some really nice people, especially the owner of Joy's new boyfriend, Baxter (she likes them tall, dark and handsome!) I am officially in love with eventing and I love being able to take my horse to new places and enjoy her.

On Sunday it was cold and windy, spitting snow in the early morning. We had Cross Country first which I was unsure about simply because I haven't done it but I decided to have a positive attitude and try my best. I shouldn't have worried! Joy was perfectly happy and we jumped a lot of great obstacles. It was a mixed group so we started out slow, the instructor Amy was super nice and encouraging. After some little logs we tried a ditch, bigger logs, a coop, a bench thingy and big jumps. We did most of the Beginner Novice jumps on the course and a few Novice ones. Most of the big stuff was around three feet tall and fairly wide and Joy was perfect. We had one refusal at the tire jump but she popped over it second try,and we jumped a lot of stuff. I need to work on keeping my shoulders back and collecting her before the jump so she has support to get over it.

Stadium was with the same instructor after a long break (I ate lunch and talked, Joy got to flirt with her new boyfriend) I haven't jumped courses in years so it was good practice for me to try and remember everything, we started over some little cross rails and progressed to a small course with one in and out and an oxer. We worked on staying balanced and relaxed with our rhythm (hard! she likes to speed) and me keeping a good position, I think if I had a jumping saddle it will help me keep the leg back but right now I just want one saddle that fits perfect, don't care what it is!

Dressage was good, there were only three of us and my friend (riding Joy's boyfriend) left after her horse came up lame :( So we worked on relaxation, rhythm  and balance.I wish I had dressage early in the day since that is a true portrait of how Joy is on a daily basis and not when she is kinda sleepy and mellow. But I still feel we got some good feed back on the areas we need to work on and I got some really nice connection with her, she looks like a totally different horse when she relaxes her neck down, We got some really nice basic exercises to work on balance and connection so that was super!.
 

Everyone was super friendly and nice, so different then the dressage show we went to last year! I got lots of nice compliments on Joy, on what a cute little jumper she is and how much personality she has. The jumping instructor was very encouraging of us sticking with the eventing and remarked on what a strong bond we have and how much Joy trusts me.

I am glad Joe didn't come with me, he would have been freezing cold and bored, not to mention worried about some of the jumps we did, I think he might like it if we played "my little pony" instead and I just brushed them a lot although he is very supportive and happy I am having fun, he just worries about me getting hurt. There was a professional photographer there so hopefully will be some good pictures soon, although I reckon I will look like a super dork in all of them.

All in all a wonderful experience and I am very happy to have gone, now I just need to get a job so we have some extra money this summer I can do more events :) The day after I was so sore, actually still am in spots, especially my inner thighs, abs and shoulders. Definitely going to keep up doing Pilates and start doing the evil that is Yoga.