Category Archives: The Horse

2015 Goals

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It’s now January 2015, which means a theoretical new start, and new resolutions and goals to be made. Some of the below list should be completely do-able, others, a little more dreamy but possible if luck stays with us and we’re dedicated to the effort. Here’s our list of hopeful accomplishments for the year!

For the Horse:

  • Here’s the big one! Move up to Training!
    Aiming for a May unrecognized horse trials at CHP. By then I hope we can come to grips with jumping more consistently again (boo daylight savings time) and hopefully have some Training CT’s under our belt. Date may move because, well, horses.
  • Increase strength in haunches
    Cavaletti work here we come.
  • Walk-Canter-Walk transitions
    which hopefully leads to….
  • Lead changes?
    Maybe! But it also leads to…
  • Completing a Second Level dressage test with a score over 63%
    A lofty goal for sure, but might be possible by the end of the year, if our schedule works out.
  • Get a 7 on a lengthening
    Which is going to be hard for my pony.. but we’ll try!
Preparing for Training, I hope.

Preparing for Training, I hope.

For me:

  • Be a better competitor
    By this I mean, get to the damn warm up ring with plenty of time, get to the start box with at least 1 minute to spare, put together a first-aid kit just for shows
  • Stop over-thinking the distance
    I’m irritating the you-know-what out of myself for overanalyzing the spot- looking forward to hopefully not doing this so much in 2015
  • Stop overthinking people
    Let it go, let it go!
  • Insert annoying weight-loss resolution here!
    I’ve got a beach vacation in February (hopefully) and a sexy bridesmaid dress in April- motivation!

Frozen4

For the House:

  • Granite countertops in the kitchen!!
    Please happen! Because I’m. So. Excited.
  • Aerate + seed front and back yard
    So we’re not the worst lawn in the neighborhood
  • Paint upstairs hallway
    Because red wine stains are not the color-du-jour
  • Paint the NC State Room
    Let’s face it, the Carolina room should never have gotten that much of a lead.
  • Be better about blogging about the house!
    Since 2 posts a year kind of makes the blog’s title a joke.
Better grass for Drake, please.

Better grass for Drake, please.

Happy 2015 to all, and may you accomplish all you set out to do this year!

2014 Accomplishments Part I: The Horse

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As of Saturday, Foster still wasn’t 100%. I left him alone Sunday in hopes that he just needed another day off, and I’m desperately hoping tonight he’ll be back to normal.

Anyways.

In an effort to think positive, and in keeping with last year’s series on the year’s accomplishments, it’s time to start looking back at the overall picture of 2014.

I’ve already done a complete rehash of our shows and the season (parts I and II here), where I detail our debut at the Novice level. But there are also the little things that made it an overall good year for Foster and I as a pair. We met our goal of finishing on a score of less than 35 at an event, and met other goals set early in the year. We moved barns in January, only to find that the level of care was absolutely sub-par, and Foster struggled with weight loss and sore legs from stamping at flies in the heat. This then led to moving barns again in June, where he has flourished with better footing and personalized care.

Dressage:

  • Our first 70% score since Intro Dressage, this time at a Recognized show
  • First 8 for Foster’s gaits
  • Participated in our first Dressage clinic
  • Started taking regular dressage lessons
  • Schooling second level movements
  • Confirming shoulder-in and haunches-in

trot2

Showjumping:

  • Jumping 3’9″
  • Learning to ride the backside of a fence
  • Angled fences
  • First actual showjumping courses
  • Successfully jumping in the mud
  • Started occasional showjumping lessons
3'9"!

3’9″!

Cross-Country:

Equitation:

  • My first 8 for Rider Score
  • New saddle with giant thigh blocks > no more chair seat!
Drop it like it's hot

Drop it like it’s hot

Final Thoughts
Overall, there haven’t been any gigantic breakthroughs this year. Instead, it’s been a steady improvement on last year, and the pieces seem to just have fallen into place. It really feels like we have the foundation built, and now anything that happens is the icing on the cake. Next year will likely be a bit turbulent as we prepare for another move-up, but hopefully Foster will retain the confidence he gathered this year and be ready for the challenges that await us.

Next up- the house.

Soreness and a Surprise

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Unfortunately, Foster was just as bad yesterday- in fact, I didn’t even get on. I decided to lunge and see what I was dealing with, and the answer to that question was a very stiff, sore pony whose lower back and pelvis was obviously hurting. Poor guy’s back was simply not moving, and he held his tail way down and against his body, even at the walk. [insert angry face here] I am hoping a few days off and some arnica gel, and hopefully a borrowed Back On Track blanket will allow everything to settle into place.

photo (15)

In other news, I received a ribbon in the mail the other day, completely unexpected. Apparently our few ribbons this season counted towards a series, and my points earned me 7th place. Since it’s been some years since I last received a big ribbon, I’ll take it. Thank you ribbon fairies of the NCDCTA Timex Series!

Cavaletti Exercises

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Well, Foster felt like utter poop last night, with the tightest back I have ever felt on him. Since I am promised rainbows and butterflies and a straight horse by the chiropractor, I’ll give it another couple rides and reserve judgement for now.

There were a few comments yesterday about also wanting to learn exercises for improving hind-end strength and using cavaletti. So, I did a little googling and found a couple resources I thought were helpful.

How to Space Cavaletti:
For those needing a reminder about cavaletti spacing, and how to raise cavaletti, this is a short and informative video.

 

Cavaletti Training Video:
This is the source of yesterday’s animated gif, and shows a buildup of cavaletti from 4 to 18 cavaletti in a row. Not any specifics on exercises, but interesting to watch nonetheless.

 

Cavaletti for Dressage and Jumping Article:
Walks through a few different patterns of cavaletti depending on the goal of the rider. Unfortunately, a long read and no diagrams.

Ingrid Klimke Cavaletti Clinic:
Video recording of a clinic, starts at the 8:30 mark. I didn’t get a chance to watch the whole video but looks like a great resource.

 

Ingrid Klimke Cavaletti Seminar:
Another Ingrid Klimke gem. Great website that walks through the beginner to advanced exercises, including distances (although in meters). Definitely recommend this one.

Qurkaufbauten

 

Stifle Strength:
An article on stifles and improving strength in these joints.

Gymnastics from Evention:
Who doesn’t love Evention? The Schramms are hilarious as well as giving good tips, and this video on gymnastics is no exception.

 

Bonus! Grid exercise:
As I was perusing the net for cavaletti I came across this grid for jumping… looks pretty cool to me! What do you guys think?

Screen-shot-2010-01-13-at-11.22.30-AM

 

Good luck to everyone in your cavaletti endeavors!

Chiropractic Results

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Foster had his chiro appointment Monday, and the results were both encouraging and somewhat as expected. He was a bit back sore, so the vet examined the saddle fit and found that the soreness is due to his pelvis being out-of-whack rather than due to tack. Always great to hear, because I’m not quite ready for another saddle flocking.

No new photos, so here are screenshots from the lesson

No new photos, so here are screenshots from the lesson

Other than a small adjustment around his withers, all of Foster’s issues seems to revolve around his hips and pelvis. She noted that his pelvis was particularly wonky, and I should expect him to travel straighter as a result of her adjustments. After getting the day off yesterday, today will be a return to work and it would be great to see some improvement as a result of the chiro session, which did not come cheap, sadly. A possible recheck in 2 – 4 weeks may happen as well.

Learning self carriage- better hind end muscling will only help!

Learning self carriage- better hind end muscling will only help!

Both vets have wanted to start introduce exercises into Foster’s regimen that will help him develop his hind end. Essentially, hills or cavaletti work. Since I am both adverse to trail riding and not familiar with where the hill in my area is (not to mention not having daylight during the week to get outside the arenas), I’ll be looking into incorporating cavaletti into our schoolings. Also, I need to get him to lift his back as we groom, working up to lifting his back 5 times for 5 seconds each, in order to strengthen his back muscles as well.

cavaletti-training-for-horses-o

Can anyone out there point me to a good resource for cavaletti and pole exercises? Of course we will still be jumping occasionally, but other recommendations for hind-end exercises would be great!

Foster may look like a body builder by the end of the year with all this muscle growing! Now I just need to hit the gym to keep up!

Bodybuilding meme that comes to mind every time

Bodybuilding meme that comes to mind every time

Dressage Lesson Recap: Collected Canter, Walk Transitions and Lateral Work

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Saturday I as finally able to get a jump school in, our first since the cross country schooling over 3 weeks ago. I waffled for a bit over how high I wanted to jump before deciding to set them up between 2’10” and 3’1″, essentially schooling Novice height. I worked on really planning our takeoff spot well in advance, and riding to that spot, which ended up being really helpful in getting our distances. We also got to school a one stride gymnastic which started out exuberant but ended on a really happy note for the both of us.

One stride (second element in an oxer) and a couple other 3' verticals

One stride (second element in an oxer) and a couple other 3′ verticals

Then Sunday I had my long awaited dressage lesson. We’ve been working hard on the collected canter work and walk-canter transitions, and I was eager to get some feedback on our progress. Ali was super kind in videoing the lesson, so I could actually see what it looked like.

One of the themes of the lessons were transitions from the halt to walk and trot. As basic as it sounds, this ended up being a really hard thing for us. By keeping Foster very round and flexed to the inside, I was taking away his use of underneck and asking him to step forward from behind. Many times though, my cues were misunderstood or muddy (especially because I tend to take my leg off in the halt, so when I reapply it he starts to think lateral movement rather than forward) and instead of going forward we would skew sideways, or even backwards, as he tried to understand what I was asking. We started pairing this exercise with the idea of a mental ‘reset’: whenever Foster starts to lean or pull, I halt. Then, depending on how soft he is in my hands, I flip his nucal ligament (the ligament the runs along the crest) from left to right by changing flexion. Then off we go again, with the idea that this is a more relaxed, mentally fresh horse.

Flipping the Nucal Ligament from side to side

Otherwise, we continued to check in with lateral work throughout the lesson- leg yields, lots of shoulder-in to keep thinking about lifting his shoulders, haunches-in (which is super easy for him, and only needs to be practiced sporadically), and shoulder-fore. Many of these movements are becoming more confirmed, and so we discussed keeping him flexible through the movement- as in not just putting him in position and keeping him there, but using parts of the movement/position to keep him adjustable as we work on other things. All about getting more finesse and control for a greater dressage picture.

Lastly, before this gets too long, we revisited collected canter. Eliza commented on our improvement, and Foster is definitely starting to understand the concept of compressing and sitting down, though he still can’t hold it for a long time. For myself, I need to really sit back in order to help him in the movement and put his weight in his hindquarters. We discussed practicing the movement going forward- there are two ways I should approach this in a schooling. The first is practicing the transition from walk to collected canter- focusing on the transition and only staying in collected canter briefly so he learns the idea, but I can repeat this 8-10 times in one session. Or, I focus on the canter itself, getting the transition then staying in collected canter for a couple quality circles before coming back to walk or trot. Gradually he will gain strength and be able to put it all together for longer periods of time, but for now, the game plan is to break it down.

Since as usual, my lesson recaps get a little lengthy, here’s my bullet points of things to remember!

  • Leg yield right- think about flexing right in order to control the shoulder (so he doesn’t fall to the right too quickly)
  • Turn my shoulders with the shoulder-in right
  • Flex my elbows, keep them by my side (this drives me nuts watching the videos!)
  • Keep leg on into halt (why haven’t I learned this by now…sheesh)
  • Sit back in collected canter but don’t let go with body

Foster gets to see a chiropractor tonight (lucky boy), which I’m guessing will be followed by a couple days off if the pattern follows. It will be interesting to hear her thoughts on his pelvis and crookedness in general. Post Wednesday with the results!

Frozen Dressage

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Last night we had one of those rare amazing rides where it feels too good to be true. After a kind of crappy walk warm-up (mostly due to me stopping to let him look at people walking in the dark, since I hadn’t unthawed enough to sit a spook if it happened), we had a beautiful trot warm-up, light in the bridle and nicely forward.

stall photos to break up text

stall photos to break up text

I decided to work on our [dressage quality] walk-canter transitions, starting with the right lead as his departs tend to be better in that direction. A couple times he tried to pull himself into the canter with his neck, but was quickly rewarded when he learned to stay soft into the transition. We were able to replicate our success several times, then repeat the process to the left.

From there I was easily able to transition into collected canter work, which was surprisingly satisfactory. So satisfactory that I wondered if maybe forward was becoming an issue, so we played with lengthenings- which while not huge, were still there even in the small arena.

Hopefully actual riding photos coming soon

Hopefully actual riding photos coming soon

I couldn’t put my finger on why he just ‘got it’ last night, especially since it was so gosh-forsaken cold and we should have been icicles instead of pretend dressage superstars. Maybe because I was more deliberate in my cues? Quicker with praise? In any case, Foster will be getting the evening off tonight while I get whisked away to the husband’s holiday work party (not really, I’m the DD), and then Sunday we will hopefully have a dressage lesson and validate whether we’ve been doing it wrong the whole time!

To Wedge or Not to Wedge

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First of all, thanks for the nice comments you left on my video yesterday. I always like to think that people are laughing with me, than at me, and trust me- I laugh when I watch that damn video. As for the American Idol comments, I do have a story to tell there. Maybe next week, or the next boring spell, I’ll write about that. Not to raise your expectations that today’s post is anything riveting, but still.

Ever since fall of 2012, Foster has worn wedged shoes on his back end. This was just one of many things that we did at the time to solve a hard-to-diagnose lameness, and since he stopped being lame, we’ve kept them on ever since. While his performance has been great in the wedges, though, my farrier recently pointed out that Foster’s heels were deteriorated a bit by being on plastic for so long, and we needed to make a change.

Foster's wedges

Foster’s wedges (please forgive how dirty his legs are)

Transitioning Foster back into normal steel shoes is fine with me, though I want to spread the process out over two shoeing cycles so the change is less dramatic. Winter time also seems a good time to try it, since our agenda isn’t so full as it is mid season. However, I worried that with the diet changes and chiropractic work Foster is about to get Monday, that introducing another element of change into the mix would make it difficult to tell what’s working and what’s not. So, for the sake of clarity, I’m keeping him in the wedges for another 6 weeks, and we’ll start transitioning back to normal shoes next time around.

All this hemming and hawing seems to me to be part of horse ownership, and pet ownership in general. Making decisions for an animal that can’t speak its mind is tough, and I hate the thought of sacrificing one thing just to improve another. Not that this particular decision is life threatening, just indicative of a greater type of stress we have as guardians of four-legged beasties. Has anyone else had to make a call for the greater good of an animal? What tough decisions have you had to make recently?

Foster – ‘Before’ Photos

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Posting Foster’s ‘Before’ photos as a reference, since at the end of this week he’ll be switched over to Purina Ultium and I should be able to start tracking his progress.

Foster_Before_12.5

Though the vet thought he was underweight, this photo was taken 2 days after the appointment, and I think while his topline and rear could be a little more buff, his weight looks fine. I think maybe he was just drawn up from the cold that day- it was 20 degrees colder than the day before. I’m not sure how much chunkier I really would want him to get.

Foster_Before_RearComparison_12.5

Here’s the photo that is most interesting to me. The two rectangles are the exact same size, centered according to the point of his croup. Looking at this, it’s obvious that Foster’s left side really is less developed than his right. So even though that left hind is stronger than it was a year ago, there is obviously a lot of room for improvement in the muscle tone there. If the theory holds from this diet experiment – better nutrition/vitamins > more muscle development > stronger left side > straighter traveling horse > no more haunches falling to the right.

Will be repeating this process in a couple weeks to see where we are!

Back to Work

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Well, the Holiday party was a success, meaning I didn’t poison anyone with Mulled Wine and people stayed well into the night. I spent most of Sunday in ‘crash’ mode, lazing around and making up for lost sleep, before finally making it out to the barn to see Foster.

Horse girls make the best friends :)

Horse girls make the best friends 🙂

Since Foster had two days off, one of which was spent indoors due to rain, I wondered what he would feel like. He definitely warmed up on the sluggish, stiff side, but loosened up substantially after a stretchy canter in both directions.

The mud eyebrows get me every time

The mud eyebrows get me every time

I wanted to work on straightness so I practiced a bit of leg yield, and found him somewhat more resistant than normal to the left, which makes sense since that left hind is still the weakest link. His tendency to balance with his underneck was displayed as he tried to compensate, and so we slowed things down until he was staying soft and moving over laterally with more relaxation. Through in some shoulder in to further test some lateral buttons, and that was our ride.

Foster gets confused about my photographing his backside

Foster gets confused about my photographing his backside

Today I’m getting the Purina Ultium, and we’ll start the process of transitioning him to the new feed. I finally feel like I can look past the end of my nose now that the party is over, and can start to create a game plan for the coming weeks.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!