Holy Hamstrings

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Britt

… and quads, for that matter.

Well, I finally got my jump school in, after setting up 5 jumps in the small sand arena between 2’9″ and 3′. Foster was a really good boy and was jumping well with some pace (I think, at least it felt like a good pace) but I was a hot mess. I got left behind. My lower leg swung all over the place. I roached my back. Ugly.

Regressing back to 2012, when this was taken… Oh hello swinging leg!

To be a little fair to myself, it’s quite a tight space, with enough wiggle room for 3 strides before and after the jump at the widest part, so I was mostly focused on A) getting over the fence and B) not dying in the process. But I do wish all that muscle memory for jumping position was still there while I was at it!

So I went out there again last night and set up a gymnastic that I could work over. With no measuring tape I just walked the distances, and set up a crossrail-to-crossrail bounce, one stride to a 2’7″ vertical, two strides to a 3′ vertical.

After dashing out there this morning before work I hopped on and had a go of it. I remembered quite quickly that Foster doesn’t have a 12′ stride when the bounce became a one stride (what? woops!) and the two stride became 2 1/2. Ugh! So I interrupted my ride to shuffle fences around and try it again. We went through it a couple times, and I was somewhat able to focus on my position, and I felt my leg and shoulders improve quite a bit.

(Grid struggles from the clinic)

As I was cantering around, I was trying to remember all the handy pointers from the clinic, and ride with a longer rein, lower hands, and get my butt out of the saddle. While somewhat successful remembering the first two, the latter was still just as difficult. I just flat out haven’t practiced two point due to my lack of jumping for the past few weeks, and man, does it show.

Even Foster gets tired sometimes of carting my butt around…

So that’s where we are- a heavy butt, sore legs, and arms that feel black and blue from moving 54,230 jump standards around this week. But luckily, I’m not so worried about Foster’s stamina as much as mine for this weekend! While I know it will really only come with practice and time…if you have a magic Hulk formula for riding stamina… Please share!

A ride in the life of Foster

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Britt

Another blog hop from Viva Carlos… about what’s going on right now.

Yesterday I mentioned in my post, and to the husband, that Foster finally feels back on track from a dressage perspective. Imagine my surprise when he asked me what I was doing (Gosh I love him!). So in the interest of him, and Viva Carlos, here’s a typical ride for us recently.

No recent riding pics, so here are random filler photos for you 🙂

After the dressage clinic, I’ve been continuing to focus on a deep, round connection through the working gaits. I personally like to start each ride with a long (15 minutes usually) walk warm up, which generally consists of a couple laps just mosying around, followed by several minutes of a very deep working walk, maybe some walk/halt transitions to get him ‘keyed up’ to my seat, and then lateral work (serious haunches in or leg yields). In the walk, I’m able to break my aids down and focus on key elements (connection, seat, straightness) before moving up into trot or canter. I think it helps my brain warm up as well as him!

After this I will start with some stretchy trot, and generally because he’s a little lazy, move him into a stretchy canter pretty quickly. For the stretchy canter I get off his back, encourage him to take the rein, and do giant laps around the arena. It gets him thinking forward and releases any tension in his back quite nicely, even if I ~~look~~ feel like a bit of a yahoo doing it.

His head looks huge from this angle!

Finally, I start working on whatever the day’s goal is. Since it’s the week before the show, I’ve stopped doing any kind of leg yield at the trot, since he gets so sensitive to it, it’s easy for me to get him lateral going down centerline- a big no no! So instead we’ve been doing lots of transitions between gaits, mock centerlines, and circles, focusing on him not leaving his butt behind. This is definitely getting better, along with the canter transitions. They’re still not perfect, but there’s some improvement to be sure!

Ran out of Foster pics, sorry.

My biggest concern that has come out of the last couple rides is his very active mouth. We used to have trouble with bracing, and this feels more like constantly playing with the bit. I notice he gets quieter when I sit than when I post, and I wonder if I’m being a bit more active with my hands when I post which is translating to his mouth. We’ll see if he does it at the show, and whether I decide to post or sit our test will be completely dependent on how he feels that day!

So that’s our routine, which last about 40-45 minutes on average. How long do y’all ride? What’s your warmup routine, and what are you guys working on these days?

Dressage Clinic Recap

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Britt

Stop leaning forward!

Welp, we did the clinic! After attacking the wind puff with some DMSO based cream, the heat magically vanished and the worry-wort inside me took a deep breath of relief. We got in maybe one decent dressage schooling and then clinic day was upon us!

I definitely cut my warm up time short (let’s be serious- what warm up time?) by arriving a mere 10 minutes before my scheduled ride (um, it was Rolex XC day!), but this gave us a good opportunity to talk to Brendan about what’s been going on ~~or not~~ with Foster. I was hoping to get some confirmation of the lateral work we’ve been working on this winter, but it seems we had bigger fish to fry- the dreaded under neck.

Hot mess moment, displaying his fabulous under neck muscle

After our lesson last year, I worked really hard to get this muscle softer and encourage Foster to use his bum to balance himself instead- then things fell apart a bit. Brendan wanted to see Foster go in a much deeper frame with his nose just in front of the point of his shoulder. We struggled for quite some time, and about half way through I felt some of the tension in his back melt away and he gave in to the new way of going.

Finally getting his head lower (also, let’s ignore how low my hands are and how big my butt looks in this pic!)

While working on getting him deeper (and deeper and deeper), we tried the canter transitions, again asking him to stay round without popping up in front. Mostly we were unsuccessful, but there were definitely a couple attempts that were close. I think it’s safe to say Foster is finally fit enough to do this correctly, and I will be working hard on this in the coming weeks!

Working on roundness in the canter

Lastly, Brendan got us focusing on riding forward and backward within the working trot. This will help us get closer to true lengthenings, although Brendan confirmed what myself (and Eliza, from our last lesson) thought, which is that he may never have a true, exuberant lengthening. If the trade off is a great brain, but no lengthening, I’ll take that trade any day!

Pushing forward within working trot

All in all, a great lesson and it was really interesting to watch the video (props to A) afterwards. A great lesson, even if I felt like I could not ride through most of the lesson, and basic steering flew out the window when I was concentrating on Foster so much! I was having some serious issues with my jods sticking to the saddle (and causing the extra bit of the stirrup leather to bunch up underneath my leg) and with the excess of reins getting in my way constantly. New reins will be in our future I think, as this has happened a lot recently as I ride with a shorter rein! Otherwise though, we have some serious work to do, and I am thankful for the opportunity to squeeze in this much needed dressage lesson!

A video clip from the lesson:

In other pony news, Foster has pulled a shoe. And sometime this week I need to fit in a jump school, to get ready for our first ‘big’ Novice at CHP on the 11th! Gosh, it’s coming up fast!

Good pony!

Love the one you’re with

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Britt

Viva Carlos has a great topic for their blog hop this week- loving the pony you have, whether you own them or just ride them. I’ve had many ponies over the years, and sometimes it’s unfair when I compare Foster to them, because in his own right, he’s got a lot going for him.

He’s super easy to handle (just last night I was clipping his legs, basically underneath him, and the BO thought he looked drugged, but he was just falling asleep!)

He self loads and unloads when traveling

He is adorably cuddly

This was my favorite moment from the shoot- Foster wanted to cuddle!

He’s adorably playful, and I have to watch that he doesn’t pick up stools, buckets, steps- you name it.

He’s got super fun lateral work

He knows his people (he picks me, and now my friend A, out of the crowd!)

He’s consistently tight over fences

He’s got a fun looking tail, and he keeps it mostly clean!

He doesn’t scare me over fences

He’s quite handsome 🙂

He’s got a good work ethic

Did I mention he’s adorable?

Prepping for Clinic # 2..

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Britt

Or this post could be called, “Attack of the Wind puff”.

Foster developed some swelling in his back fetlock while I was in Savannah, and after having several people who are much smarter than me (i.e, the vet who did his shots, another vet looking at pics, and a former vet-tech) all diagnose it as a fresh wind puff, I haven’t been too concerned. It had a minimal amount of heat it in, which again I wasn’t terribly worried about since it is so fresh.

Of course Foster doesn’t care, all he wants is more grass.. yay spring!

A few days ago though, this poofy blemish took on a little more heat than I was comfortable with. So I’ve been poulticing ~~the crap out of~~ it and hoping it goes down. I’ve worked Foster only a few times since the last clinic, and kept our rides pretty simple- lots of stretching, some basic transition stuff, and given him a gram of bute after each ride to reduce the swelling. After not seeing much change, I’ve gone the next step and started applying Surpass, a DMSO based cream, to it.

Fetlock a week ago

A couple days ago

Technically, Foster is sound and ready to go, but I’m being a total helicopter mom and watching his leg like a hawk. Nothing shows up lameness-wise when I ride him, and if anything he feels more forward than ever. There was a wee bit of tension in his back last night, but I put that down to us not working on transitions recently and insisting that he not use his neck to pull himself into the next gait. So, my hope is to ride him and apply more cream Wednesday, and check on him Thursday morning and see what it looks like. Rinse and repeat for Thursday night/Friday morning. If the heat really has not gone down at all, I’ll consider scratching.

thank you, google, for the pic of Brendan riding

If you’re wondering what the clinic is about this weekend- it’s a dressage clinic just 15 minutes up the road, with Brendan Curtis. I’ve seen Brendan ride many a time beside Jim Koford when they both trained at a barn I used to board at. I never got to take a lesson from him, but I have a friend who has become a beautiful dressage rider who highly recommends him, and I’m very curious to see what he would do with us!

So, our preparations this week are mostly focused on easing my mind about Foster’s leg, and if it gets better we will just have to see what happens at the clinic. He should at least be able to rock a stretchy trot and some lateral work! I’d love to have the opportunity to ride, but Foster comes first. We’ll see what happens.

Clinic Recap: Day 2

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Britt

Day 2 Cross Country

Day 2 was our second cross country lesson, and I felt really confident after the prior day’s success. Unsurprisingly, when I got Foster out on the field, he felt sluggish- the poor thing was tired! But he put his game face on and rallied (for a while). Since he felt so relaxed, I allowed myself to finally relax too, and felt a big difference in the ride. I could follow with my elbows more, and pay a bit more attention to the task at hand. Because I was feeling more confident, I asked Holly if we could push the envelope a bit, and boy did she deliver! We hopped over this rather large training oxer (right after the rollback in the video), and did a super fun bank combination. Foster particularly loved this, and launched himself off the bank with all the boldness I could ever want in an event horse!

Off the bank we go!

When that went well, Holly asked if I’d like to try the ditch/up bank combo. It’s a bit hard to see in the pic, but there is a shallow ditch behind the ground line- and I was super stoked to try it! Foster flew up it without hesitation- it was very exciting!

Woohoo!

The themes of the day were continuing to allow him to come forward, and keep my elbows soft (though this was improved over the day before). I definitely need to add more pace to bigger fences (such as the bank above, and the training oxer in the video), and keep him straight/allow for a straighter approach to the jump. Also might try lowering my hands, as with show jumping.

Unfortunately towards the end of the session, Foster had decided he had had enough, and put in a couple of naughty run outs. These were all to the left, and it’s my job to pull him right if this happens. No matter what! Things were going so well, I definitely let my guard down and he slipped out on me a couple times. I honestly think these were due to him being fully exhausted, and while that’s no excuse, I’m still proud of him for all the good work he did over the weekend. We ended on a good note, jumping over a small vertical into the water, and called it a day!

Summing it Up

All in all, this clinic was hugely helpful in re-establishing the basics and getting us back to where we need to be with our confidence. It was a nice, laid back atmosphere with fun people, and left us with a manageable amount of homework. I’m excited to hear that Holly will be hosting multiple clinics this year, and I am already looking forward to the next one!

Clinic Recap: Day 1

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Britt

Half Trakehner

Whoo! What a weekend. The clinic was a great success, and Foster and I came away tired, but with some definite goals and advice to keep with us as we practice on our own.

The clinic included 3 lessons of any combination, and knowing my weakest areas (jumping), I opted to do 1 showjumping lesson and 2 cross country lessons. Day 1 was our showjumping and first cross country lesson. And boy, did we struggle at first.

heads up like a turtle!

Day 1 Showjumping

One of the first things Holly pointed out is that I was riding with a dressage seat, and I needed to lighten my fanny for jumping. Needless to say, after about 3 months of doing almost nothing but dressage, that fanny felt heavy, and I struggled to find my balance after being out of practice for so long. She also had me lengthen my rein and lower my hands, to encourage Foster to have a slightly rounder shape and therefore jump with better bascule.

The course included a few single fences, a 3 stride line, a 1 stride, and the biggest grid I’ve seen (in life). Foster has never jumped a grid like that, and normally when we do grids we build them up bit by bit. Not to mention, when’s the last time he did a 1 stride? (I’m sure I don’t remember!) Thankfully he was game, and we struggled through.

This exercise showed us that we could benefit from more gymnastic practice, to get him sitting, me waiting (and steering), and improve balance issues.

Overall themes included getting a more active canter (no surprise there), looking without leaning, and getting him straight to the fences. The latter is one of my biggest issues right now, as I don’t tend to take the time to get his shoulders straight at the approach to the fence, and then we jump crooked, or if it’s a line, drift through it. I will be working on this for sure!

Luckily we did end on a good note where I actually started to ride, but the video is sadly a bit blurry. Just a few jumps together, but beginning to see improvement. I do notice in these videos that my form over fences has suffered some from lack of practice (belly button to pommel!), but hopefully we will be able to get more jump schooling in soon!

Day 1 Cross Country

Figuring out how to turn

After Foster had a quick rest, we headed out to the cross country course. I was pretty excited to see what he felt like, but that didn’t keep me from being tense. I had mixed success with getting the tension out of my elbows, but Foster was an honest, solid citizen the whole time, which helped me relax more and more. Everything stayed pretty small as we revisited the basics… No, we didn’t always get our distance, and tempo was occasionally a mixed bag (though admittedly, mostly on the slow side), but I was very happy and got the confidence boost I needed!

Again themes of more canter and allowing him to come to the fence (this is a trust issue with me, left over from his rushing days), and relaxing my elbows. Watching the video I can see exactly when I lock up and when I start to relax my arms, and generally speaking, he looks relaxed when I look relaxed. Definitely something I’ve been working on for some time, and finally started seeing better results towards the end of the lesson.

Following cross country, we headed back to the barn and Foster got a much deserved dinner and I got to hang out with my fellow participants, some of whom are friends from our old barn! It was so nice to catch up with everyone, and hear how they are progressing with their rides!

Drinking beer after riding all day? Yes, please!

Clinic Preparation

Posted on April 10, 2014 by Britt

After getting back from being out of town for a week (due to Pittsburgh work stuff, then our amazeballs Savannah trip), I wasn’t sure what to expect with Foster. My buddy A rode him a few times and commented on how straight and stretchy he felt, compared to last year when he wanted to be neither straight nor stretch. This is great news, and I really welcomed another opinion on how he is going!

Dirty pony is dirty.

Happily, I can also report that he is indeed gaining some more weight. Still not plump, but definitely not ribby anymore. I am hoping to further encourage weight gain by switching to SmartGain supplements (he was on Cocosoya before) and switching his feed to a higher quality mix. On the flip side, he has a bit of a puffy fetlock, but he’s sound on it, so we’re monitoring it closely. It seems somewhat superficial, thankfully!

Foster’s been going well on the flat, and last night I added some proper canter work in the mix. It’s still coming back, and he felt a little braced through the jaw in transitions, but I was happily surprised at the quality for the most part. He does seem to be slobbering a lot lately (a good sign!), and its been making all his polos nice and green. But I like happy, chewing Foster a lot. Slobber away, buddy.

Trying to share slobber

Otherwise, we are still getting ready for a clinic with Holly Hudspeth. We’ll be taking 2 lessons on Saturday (1 showjumping, 1 cross country), and a second cross country lesson Sunday. So I must get in a jump school tonight, since we haven’t jumped since the last show, weeks ago! I’m hopeful that he will go well nonetheless, as I’m feeling pretty confident at Novice right now. I do want to tackle trakehner and scary type fences cross country if we can, and I’m positive I’ll need work on my eye, straightness, and timing during the showjumping. Ok let’s be serious, I’ll probably have to work on everything, but that’s alright!

Also in the mix for this week is a saddle fitting presentation at Dover! I am very interested to go to this, since as you guys know, I’m in the market for a new saddle! And I may have found one, too! It is the right size for me, but too narrow for Foster, so I just need to decide if I should get it and invest in making it his size… Decisions, decisions! Either way, the presentation should be very informative, and bonus! We get $5 Dover gift certificates for attending! Maybe I’ll go crazy and buy myself… a carabiner or something!

Next post coming Monday- a recap of the clinic! 😀

[Flying] Changes a comin’!

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Britt

It’s been a mostly uneventful week in the world of horses, since the husband and I went down to visit my parents over the weekend, leaving Foster to eat to his heart’s content and work on bulking up a bit. In that department, luckily you can’t see his ribs anymore, but he still needs more poundage.

Not *as* ribby, but still a bit skinny

My great buddy A has offered to ride Foster while I travel once again, and after I complained to her that we are a cross cantering mess in the jumper ring, she decided to give me a mini lesson on flying changes.

Let me start by admitting, I have never done a flying change ~~on purpose~~. Somehow it just hasn’t happened yet in my riding career, and simple changes have sufficed. But how many times do we land on the wrong lead/cross canter in this video? A lot.

With that in mind, we set up a relatively simple exercise of a figure 8 at the canter, with a 1′ cavaletti at the center. So, canter a 15 meter circle left, and ‘jump’ the cavaletti, ideally landing right, then reverse, rinse, and repeat. I understood the concept of shifting your weight midair in order to encourage the change, but I felt like some sort of monkey cowboy throwing my body around over the cavaletti.

After several attempts though, we did get our first change! It appears the name of the game for the moment is a way over exaggerated open rein and using my new outside leg as we go over the jump. Also, I must come in to the fence at an angle and correctly bent- every time I came in straight, or with his neck cocked to the side, we didn’t get it.

No pictures unfortunately!

While at the end of the session we still weren’t getting them every time, it was much more consistent as I began to get the feel of changing my rein over the fence. Ideally, we will turn the fence into a pole, and then remove the pole and voila! Changes.

Looking forward to working on this fun new skill, and putting it in practice over real fences! Yay!

Resolution Check-In

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Britt

Since we’re about to end the first quarter of 2014, it seems a good time to see how we’re doing ~~(or not doing)~~ on our resolutions for the year. Let’s take a look 🙂

The Horse

Resolution 1: Move up to Novice with final score below 35 (or >67% in dressage)
We have gotten so close to this… or rather, the dressage score. Our score at the only Horse Trials this year is not worth noting, since I goofed so badly at the end of the XC course. If I hadn’t, we would have finished on that 35. At the Combined Training a couple weeks ago, we got a 66% in dressage… So this one is definitely doable, but not accomplished yet!

Resolution 2: Nail canter transitions
Well, this one we haven’t worked on pretty much at all. I’ve been babying him because of his fitness/condition and so avoided anything tough, like making him use his hind end to transition rather than his neck. With that said, he has actually gotten 7’s on them at the two shows this year! Sure surprised me!

Resolution 3: Not be embarrassed by lack of trot lengthenings
Nope, haven’t even touched this. Soon, hopefully!

I should have added ‘not do shit braids’ to my resolution list…

The House

Resolution 1: Landscape front and backyard
We’ve made lots of progress in the backyard, taking out the big mamajama pine tree and lots and lots of scruffy small stuff. Now what we’re looking at is 6″+ of leaf mold/debris in most areas, that will have to be hauled away before we can seed. We’re trying to get this done soon before the summer hits and nothing grows, else we’ll be waiting till fall!

Resolution 2: Kitchen Transformation
Oh, this one I am *so* excited about! Right now we are collecting quotes for all the different projects, and hopefully we will have either wood floors or granite countertops by the summer! Squee!!

Resolution 3: Replace grody couch
Done!! The cats kind of pushed this one along, as *somebody* (cough, Elliot), decided to let us know he had a UTI by peeing on the couch, thus grodying said grody couch to the point that we didn’t want to even sit on it. We have now replaced it with a pretty new leather couch! Yay!