Preparation Interrupted

Posted on August 14, 2014 by Britt

Ugh. Just when you make plans to be a ~~more than usual~~ dedicated and studious rider for the week, the weather and life get all in the way. I mistakenly passed up the opportunity to ride Sunday evening on my way back into town because I felt I had been neglecting the husband, who had been cleaning the house all weekend and probably needed some respite. Instead, I told myself I would be able to ride every other day this week- shouldn’t be a problem.

You get photos of Foster’s new hobby- getting disgustingly dirty

Shouldn’t.

Monday- storms. Tuesday- storms, but I attempted to get out and ride anyways, thinking that as long as it wasn’t thundering and lightning I could attempt getting on in the covered arena. 45 minutes of heavy rain and lightning trapped us in the barn, and when we thought the lightning bit had passed, we hustled into the covered arena. I did a bit of lounging, which was successful in that Foster was super relaxed, but not so successful in that he couldn’t respond to my voice cues because it was raining so hard on the tin roof that he couldn’t hear me. Heck, I couldn’t hear me, how could he? So I hopped on and no less than 2 minutes later the biggest crack of damn lighting hit, uncomfortably close to the covered arena under which we huddled. Luckily, Foster only scooted forward about 10 feet, and didn’t hurl me into the ground a la any western movie. I dismounted and called it a night.

Night 2 of coming to the barn to find the dirty.

So, after a grand total of 5 days off, I got on Foster last night and jumped him a little bit. I think most of the jumps were 2’3″, and one 2’7″-2’9″ish oxer in the middle of the arena. Remembering my lesson with Doug, I worked on the quality of canter, waiting with my shoulders, and not staring at the damn fence. I revisited the exercise of jumping the oxer on the circle, which went really well and I was able to almost all of my leads. Approaching the fences from a straight line and getting my leads was still a little iffy, but I’m hoping to work on that again tonight.

Last night’s Foster- scrubbing the face is not fun!

Tonight’s plan- have a short jump school so as to not over-do it, but jump 3’3″ height. I really need to get my eye used to this height again, and get a feel for the pace and again, the quality of canter I need. If all goes well, I’ll be on and off again in 35 minutes and packing, packing, packing.

My packing list.. yes, red bull, wine, and cheese-its are horse show staples for me. That’s how we roll. Also, yes, I have to remind myself to pack underwear. Don’t judge.

Tomorrow, you’ll get round 1 of puppy pics and I will be on my way to hunter jumper land!

Monday Monday

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Britt

If you were expecting another lesson recap, sorry. While I was away visiting my parents it dumped rain at home and the jumping arena had standing water in it- so, no jumping lesson for me. I will be trying to reschedule that lesson, but unfortunately don’t think it’s going to happen before the show this weekend. I’m on my lonesome, but I still think I picked up enough wisdom tid-bits to see me through one or two quality jump schools. As long as I keep my head on my shoulders. Ha, easier said than done.

Lots of showers make for pretty flowers

Otherwise, it was somewhat of a long, emotional weekend, but I got to visit with people I haven’t seen in a while, and help pick out bridesmaids dresses for a wedding I’ll be in in April! It just happens to be a sexy-ish figure hugging number, so my days of fro-yo and free M&M’s are numbered.

I do, however, have lots of puppy photos to share with you this week, and next!

Until then, keep it real folks.

Photography Friday

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Britt

A friend I made during the last photo shoot.

Off this weekend, hopefully squeezing in not one but two puppy photo shoots! Puppy breath galore! And then of course another lesson!

Lesson Recap: Showjumping

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Britt

Well, I’m still here, which means I survived my lesson last night with Doug Payne! (PS if you haven’t watched him Rolex helmet cam with commentary click that link- very interesting!) I’m going to go ahead and apologize for the long post, which is mostly for my own benefit to keep the lesson fresh, and the lack on pictures/video, of which I didn’t get any.

Enjoy gif’s instead

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a proper jumping lesson, and it’s been a struggle to find a trainer willing to come out to the new barn for just one student, so I was exceedingly happy when Doug offered to make the drive. I gave him a brief run-down of where we were, and after watching us warm up briefly he gave me an assessment.

Not a huge surprise here- Foster balances himself with the base of his neck, which in turn makes him a little hollow through the back and short-strided. This then causes some of our issues with getting the true ‘horse’ distances, because when I put on leg he will more likely put in more quick, short strides than lengthen.

We continued from there with a 20 meter canter circle over a pole, focusing on keeping him straight through the shoulder and getting an active, through canter. Canter poles will definitely be in our future, since as simple as the exercise sounds, we were not as successful as I would have liked! Foster was a bit dull to my leg and feeling pretty tired, and I was a little worried moving forward to the actual jumping.

Luckily, there wasn’t much cause to be concerned. Doug set up a smallish oxer on centerline, so that I would canter over it and alternate turning right and left. Foster really woke up then, and was taking really big strides after the jump which made the turn thereafter quite difficult. What was happening is that he was becoming a little on the forehand leading up to the jump, which caused him to land out of balance and quicken his stride in order to catch himself. When I sat up and properly balanced him, he landed much more softly and the turn became easier to make.

Round canter

This led us into the next exercise, jumping a decently wide 3′ oxer on a circle. The geometry of the circle helped me keep him balanced, and as long as I didn’t stare at the fence we got pretty good distances. This is also where the whole ‘weight the shoulder to get the correct lead’ idea kicked in. It is now blatantly (I guess I’m a slow learner) obvious that I have been in the habit of leaning in the direction I intend to turn, which then means he is going to land on the wrong lead because I’m essentially blocking him from picking up the lead I really want. I especially do this going left (will tell story of how my left side is absolute poop later).

When I kept my shoulders back and square to the fence, then shift my weight to the outside, we were able to land in balance and on the correct lead. Doug warned me not to put all the pressure on myself though, and to allow Foster to make mistakes, and to occasionally take down poles. He praised him for being smart enough not to make the same mistake twice, and his willingness to put in another stride for a deep distance rather than launch from the long spot as some horses are wont to do.

After a bit of this, we put together a baby course that included a 2 stride over a 3’ish vertical. I was really pleased that Doug made us revisit the circle fence again, to make sure the idea had cemented itself. Definitely still a work in progress, but I was glad that he was willing to stay a few extra minutes to make sure the lesson would stick.

Overall, here are the main takeaways:

Be patient with my shoulders
Don’t let him get overbent in the neck
Maintain an active canter with a through topline- have the confidence that he can jump 5′ out of a quality canter
weight the outside shoulder to get the correct lead on landing
keep him balance before the fence, the quality of the canter after the fence will tell how successfully balanced he was
Don’t stare at the damn fence

Obviously I learned a lot, and was impressed with the attention given to both horse and rider equally. Impressed enough that I have signed up for a second lesson Sunday! Even though we won’t get a schooling ride in in between, I’m looking forward to further cementing these ideas and hopefully getting more takeaways to keep in my pocket for the show!

Quick update

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Britt

Not much really has been going on since my last update last week regarding my decision to attend a hunter/jumper show in a couple weeks. Basically I’m just trying to get my ducks in a row so I won’t embarrass myself once I’m there ~~quite as much~~. Mostly this means tracking down tack that hasn’t been used in a while (oh, hello, plain brown bridle) and buy a whole bunch of other junk.

Plain brown bridle’s last appearance

These purchases include open front boots (because Brushing boots don’t seem necessary for straight jumpers), ratcatcher shirt for me (thank you Tack of the Day, now please send it to me in time!), and tan full seats.

Obviously not Foster’s legs.. Foster’s legs are white, in case you hadn’t noticed 🙂

And I suppose since I felt like I hadn’t spent enough money already, I have set up two lessons- another dressage lesson with Eliza for later in the month, and one with a new-to-me trainer who also happens to be an up-and-coming international eventer! This exciting event happens Wednesday, and I’m super hopeful that they like Foster and impart plenty of jumping wisdom on us. We need it!

Lesson recap to come!

Photography Friday: Alex and Bo

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Britt

As you know, I did a couple photo shoots last weekend for a couple dear friends of mine. The second of these was for my BFF (going to pretend like I’m not too old to say that), Alex. Alex and I have been buds for forever, even before she acquired Bo, the four legged love of her life. Bo is a 15 year old Appendix gelding with a personality goofy enough to match that of Alex’s. The understanding these two have for each other is inspiring and hilarious to witness- they are the perfect compliment of each other.

In the last few years, Alex has transitioned from Hunter-Jumper princess to ~~the dark side~~ eventing, and asked me to photograph Bo now that he is at the peak of fitness. Mere days after capturing these images, Alex felt there was something not-quite-right with Bo, even though he was, even to vet-trained eyes, sound. But from insistence from her, ultrasounds showed the mineralization of an old tendon injury. It’s still unclear how things will continue, but I’m all the more grateful that we were able to take these photos before that news. It all goes to show that horses are such fragile animals for all their size, and every moment we have with them is precious.