As mentioned, I’ve been working hard on some designs, a couple that I have to share with you today. I’m still trying wrap up all of my freelance projects, but was able to knock out a couple this past weekend.
Here’s one super fun invitation, for a sweet friend who also happens to be an equestrian!
This also happens to be the greenest patch in my yard.. and it’s clover. Sad.
And the second is a t-shirt design that I do every year (for the past, I dunno, 13 years?) for a Day Camp back home- this year’s theme – Peter Pan!
I’ve got a few other things in the works, that I can’t yet reveal, but hope to make more headway on this weekend! Y’all have a great one, and keep kicking!
Didn’t I say this weekend was supposed to be relaxing? Haven’t I been whining about burnout and wanting a day off? Welp, that didn’t happen! This weekend was filled with much manual labor and design delirium, sprinkled with a *tiny* bit of horses and drinking (no, not together) instead. Anything but relaxing!
Though sometimes horses and drinking do go together, in the form of fancy-pants wine charms, and sipping while braiding…
The little bit of saddle time I got this weekend was in a showjumping lesson with Holly. My main complaint that I brought to her was about the show- I noticed in all of our showjumping pictures (see #6 in particular) that he was jumping over his shoulder terribly. His knees were still tight, but there was no lift in his elbow, and we got around the course mostly by his over-jumping things. The only fence he jumped in good form was the oxer I buried him to going into the 2 stride (picture 13).. so, I wanted her thoughts on what was going on.
To start with, we went over a small exercise of pole-vertical-pole. It was set up on the tight side, to make him rock back on take-off instead of lobbing himself over the fence like a lazy pole vaulter. I definitely struggled with the exercise, which quickly unveiled a habit I didn’t realize I had- squeezing him and throwing him at the fence in the last two strides. So, we worked on my establishing the canter I wanted early and then maintaining it all the way to the jump. Big difference there!
Foster’s best pretend grumpy face
After that, we worked through a one-stride with a pole in the middle with the same canter in mind- forward and uphill at the same time. He was jumping beautifully, so we deduced the over-the-shoulder jumping at the show was likely because he was strung out. Since one of my main goals for the show was to go for time with the forward pace, this makes sense to me- next time, I need to be forward but more packaged in my approach.
The rest of the lesson was spent on a short course that included the combinations, a tight turn, and a long approach, all focusing on the quality of the canter I needed to each element. Foster was extremely rideable, and for once I actually felt confident in my jumping abilities! I remembered the good advice my friend N gave me earlier in the week and didn’t get a single comment on my elbows (score!). Double bonus that my bum didn’t feel like it weight 10,000 lbs and I was able to stay out of the saddle the whole lesson! Woot! Now if I can just keep riding like that, all will be well.
Happy and ready to go back home!
I wish I had photos to share with you guys, but unfortunately I was there by myself! But that’s ok, our next show is only a week and a half away! Can you believe it’s almost June? Crazy!
After putting in some serious overtime this week, I think I am finally making progress on my giant to-do list. And, husband and I had a lovely date night/night off to boot.
I had an excellent mini-lesson with best friend N, who has coached me in the past and has wonderful ways of explaining things that just stick with me. We revisited ‘belly button to pommel’, added ‘underarm to bra’ (to help my arm/elbow position), and worked on getting Foster sharp to my aids with some rather bright simple changes and crazy angled fence exercises. Lots of wisdom to remember moving forward! We also jumped 3’3″ for the first time in a while, and it’s making me wonder if I could do a Training CT in the near future.. probably not, but I’m thinking about it! I have another showjumping lesson tomorrow with Holly tomorrow, and we’ll see how it goes.
Ignoring my crap position, Foster thinks he could do training here.. maybe…
Outside the realm of horses, I have multiple freelance projects I’m working on and hope to dedicate this weekend to wrapping some of them up. Should have some fun designs to share with you next week!
Remember to thank our soldiers, past and present, and have a great Memorial weekend y’all!
You know you’ve maybe taken on too maybe things when you start googling ways to insert more hours in the day. (not possible, by the way, I checked)
The past couple weeks have been a little hectic, to say the least. Between all the house projects, clinic/lesson/shows, riding in preparation for those clinics/lessons/shows, and being signed up for 70 hours worth of work each week… I’m more than a little fried.
Even this scene was less than therapeudic
Non-caffeinated me has become a frazzled, fast talking, stress ball mess. Caffeinated me is just a faster talking, stress ball mess. It’s not pretty. And for my friends and husband that have to deal with me on a daily basis, I’m sorry.
No, not really
When I was in college, I took on too many projects (21 hrs of classes, 3 jobs, and being Captain of the dressage team), and literally made myself sick. In one semester I must have visited the student health center 10 or more times, with things ranging from Scarlet Fever (their diagnosis, not mine, and it turned out it wasn’t), crazy dizzy spells, and a very debilitating version of tonsillitis. In the end, I took the hint- stop trying to do all the things and be a slightly less crazy person.
So I’m going to try to prove that I am a wiser, more mature individual, and try to take a little break once I finish my to-do list. Hell, I may even take a day sometime soon, I hope. Thank goodness for Memorial Day.
Expect a couple days away from the keyboard next week for me, as I try to get a handle on the burnout. Otherwise, happy Tuesday, y’all!
As the glow surrounding the show starts to wear off, I’m starting to look forward again to getting back to the grind and working on the weaknesses illustrated during competition.
Foster always gets the day off after any serious taxing day, such as a private dressage or jumping lesson, and any show. Then on day 2 post-show I like to get him moving and stretch, stretch, stretch. I find it’s a nice way to ease back into work and release any soreness-related tension he might be harboring still.
Day 3, I generally do some kind of dressage work, but not at a typical intensity. Then day 4 we’re back to our normal routine of either a 45 minute dressage session or light jump school.
So that’s my routine. What do you guys like to do after a show? Do you give lots of time off, or get back to business right away?
But before that, let’s recap on the goal(s) for this show. Primarily, don’t do anything stupid. Ride every fence/movement. And then secondly, allow for the forward pace (i.e, go pony go!) and have soft elbows.
Dressage
We arrived on Saturday and first thing I hopped on and schooled dressage, which turned out to be OK, but exhibiting some tension in his neck and back. So Sunday before our test I spent the first 15-20 minutes solely on stretching work. This definitely helped with the relaxation, but got him a little flat with his movement. I made the decision to sit the trot and use my seat to get him moving a little more up. So with that, we went in to do our test.
Overall, I felt like the test was pretty good. Sure, we had a bobble in our canter depart, and he ran into the fence in our walk/trot transition (at least he didn’t take it out this time!), but I was really proud of myself for riding every corner, and preparing at every diagonal and centerline. I think the judge was a little rewarding, but here’s what she thought:
5 8’s! Booyah!
And here’s the video of the test.. Other than my chair seat, I know we could improve a bit with the impulsion and forward energy, but otherwise a respectable test in my book. Also- I have to call out the ‘beautiful turnout’ comment by the judge. My friend A was my eyes on the ground, coach, and groom, and every time she helps me get ready for a show we get this comment! Kudos to her!
Showjumping
There were a ton of professionals in my large division of 18, so my 31.3 test landed me tied for 7th headed into showjumping. Watching the showjumping go, we noticed a lot of people getting either poles or time penalties. I have faith in Foster’s handiness to get around the course, so our warm up focused on getting a good pace and keeping my elbows soft and following. I think the pace held up through the course (with again unfortunate counter cantering from 6 to 7), though we got seriously stuck heading into the 2 stride combination, and the last 3 fences are as a result… fugly. But clean and clear and onto XC!
Cross Country After walking the course twice (I was not going to get lost this time), I felt like this was a nice, inviting course to build confidence in horse and rider, and the technical and terrain questions were really appropriate to the Novice level. Here’s a look at the jumps:
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Goofing off while looking at the jumps.. we’re not in Beginner Novice anymore!
The fences I was worried about, and planned to ride aggressively to, were 3 (the skinny), element 9A of the sunken road, and the second bank. But as I rode through the course, I don’t remembering using my bat at all! Foster locked on to every fence and I didn’t feel an ounce of hesitation- he ate it up! All the photos show his ears perked and a confident expression on his face, which makes me swell inside with happiness. We came through the finish flags with 1 second to spare!
Wrapping up
Ending on our dressage score of 31.3 earned us a fourth place ribbon. Considering the seriously stiff competition, I never imagined placing, and feel really good about future Novices this year. I am heartened by the thought that we can definitely improve on our score, and… we checked off our major goal for 2014!
Get a 65% or better on dressage and go double clear in show jumping and cross country.
Check!
I also need to give credit where credit is due… This weekend would not have been nearly as successful or fun without A by my side! And if you are reading this, A, thank you again!
Part of the excitement on our trip last weekend was getting to meet my brother’s new furry companion- Magellan the border collie puppy. Nothing better than puppy breath! He was a tricky little bugger to photograph, but it was special to document the moment!
And of course whenever my camera is out, I can’t help but snap one of Drake. Here he is, watching Magellan from a distance.
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!
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?
Red on the Right 