Tag Archives: Eventing

Finding dressage ‘zen’

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As a classic over achiever, I am constantly getting excited about the next project or goal. Last Saturday I had a lesson with a trainer where my vet could be present to discuss some of the straightness issues we’ve been experiencing. The trainer reminded me that as an over achiever and a perfectionist, it can be easy to want to do more, but for now it would be best to take the time to revisit some basics before asking for anything else. 

While I am a firm believer in the basics, and not preceding to the next level before accomplishing the one before, what is most challenging is that word revisit. We’ve done more, and if I’m honest, I was ready to move to the next level and am having a hard time because I am expecting Foster to pick up exactly where he left off.

Part of what I think is going on is this: Foster tweaked himself somehow in the field, we made adjustments and treated and now he is getting back to normal. But now he has some mental and physical baggage. Physical because he is still building strength back in his hock and mental because I imagine he needs the confidence back to know he can use it and be comfortable. Time and patience will help both. 

In my lesson, I learned that I need to not fixate on his crooked haunches and instead give him a ‘zen’ ride to help him be confident in his abilities. Transitions in particular, especially the right lead canter, get him anxious now, if only for a few steps before he comes back to normal. My job for the next while will be to help him relax through those transitions instead of making things happen at an exact moment in time. 

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Those lips are a good indicator of the relaxation we had before

This is hard for me, because I have been feeling that at this stage in our training he should be able to transition between gaits at the letter. Relinquishing some of that control will be difficult, but I can do it. And when he has learned that he can be relaxed and happy through transitions, the rest will come back, plus some.

wine being poured into glass

Maybe one of these before schooling dressage will help me find ‘zen’

So really, I am still excited about the future and think my goals of moving to Novice by the end of the year are reasonable. I just need to add zen to my everyday approach to getting there. And who knows, maybe a glass of wine before a ride wouldn’t hurt 😉

Foster showjumping course

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Foster had officially made a full turnaround from the days of rushing crossrails. Tonight’s goal was to do related lines without getting disorganized, and canter the entire course successfully. Check and check! Need more work on my position, but I’m very glad with where we’re at! Novice here we come!

Trotting down memory lane

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A book should never be judged by its cover- we hear this all the time, and often applied to the horse world as well. But the fact still remains that there are people out there who have very strong prejudices about colors and breeds and all sorts of things. Ever heard someone say “Hell hath no fury like a chestnut thoroughbred mare”? Well, I’m not here to judge anybody’s opinions on colors, breeds, whatever, but it got me thinking about the unique horses I have grown up with over the years, and I thought I would chronicle them here for you!

Heidi (Shetland Pony)
Heidi was my first pony, I was probably 4 or so when we got her and she’s the one that started me riding and even showing. I remember riding in the walk trot classes with 20 or so other horses, and being the only pony. Definitely a saint of a pony, and she lived out the rest of her life well into her twenties with our family.

Heidi in her youth and enjoying retirement in her twenties

Heidi in her youth and enjoying retirement in her old age

Tanner (Haflinger)
We had several haflingers over the years, but Tanner was especially important to me. He was a trail riding machine, and a fantastic jumper. We foxhunted first flight together and did tons of parades, fun shows, even barrel racing! For a draft type pony this guy was super athletic and a real confidence builder for me.

Tanner in a July 4th Parade and in a Jumper Show

Tanner in a July 4th Parade and in a Jumper Show

Merry (Irish Sporthorse mare)
Merry was my first real horse. While she was probably way too much horse for me at the time, she taught me a ton. She was a straight show jumper in England and together we learned about dressage and eventing. Merry never touched a rail, and definitely had a bit of that fire-breathing-showjumper in her that never translated well in the dressage ring, but we still navigated successfully up the levels to Training. When I left for college we bred her to a Friesian stud and she produced one of the prettiest fillies I have seen to this day.

Portrait with Merry and at one of our first events

Portrait with Merry and at one of our first events

Mac (Haflinger stallion/gelding)
Mac was a stunning horse that we bought as a stallion from Ohio. He was a former National Driving Champion, but had less than 10 rides on him when he arrived. He was a super fun horse, whose naughtiness landed him as a gelding after a while. I evented him through Beginner Novice. It was always funny that he seemed to do no wrong in dressage, judges seemed to be fascinated by his dark liver chestnut color and snowy white mane. He also did very well in the breed shows in Raleigh (only time we could win money through showing) which were so much fun!

Mac, our first ride, and on the beach

Mac, our first ride, and on the beach

Ivan (Irish Draught stallion/gelding)
I was never really meant to ride Ivan, as he came to us as a two year old stud and was meant as a sales prospect. To make a long story short though, he ended up coming home as a gelding and spent the next several years with me at school. He was exceptionally talented in jumping and dressage, but had a definite naughty streak that kept me from eventing him. Ivan was a big personality though and my heart horse for a long time. He was the first horse that I was truly competitive on, and we cleaned up in local dressage shows. I only sold him because I really wanted to event and at the time, was between college and career and hadn’t a full time job to support a horse.

Ivan (the sometimes terrible) dressage and jumping

Ivan (the sometimes terrible) dressage and jumping

Foster (Oldenburg x Appendix gelding)
After Ivan sold, I of course landed a permanent position and almost immediately went on the hunt for another horse. It took months of obsessive searching, but when I first saw Foster online, I headed out that weekend to Maryland with checkbook in hand. I had been looking for a 5-7 year old with enough experience that I wouldn’t have to start from scratch again and Foster was a supposedly 3 4 year old at the time. More importantly though, he had a fantastic brain and the build I was looking for in a horse (after years of drafts I wanted something super uphill!) and the match was made. If you’ve read this blog at all you probably know that we are currently competing at Training level dressage/Beginner Novice eventing and intend to move a level in each by the end of the year.

Why we have horses

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Horses can be frustrating, heartbreaking, hell, they can be downright dangerous to be around sometimes. But to those that are obsessed with love them, the cons never really outweigh the pros. When you have a great ride, the elation that follows has long lasting effects that make riders who they are.

Tonight, Ali (my fellow equestrian partner in crime) and I had great rides. To see her on her boy Baron looking like they haven’t missed a beat and to have Foster actually in sync with me and not fighting was magical.

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So magical they damn near sprouted wings and horns

Since the show last week Foster has continued to be angry and tense in his back, compressing like a coil rather than relaxing and accepting the bit and covering any kind of ground. Yesterday we had a saddle fitting appointment where my couch dressage saddle had every bit of stuffing taken out of it and then reflocked, and we discovered that actually the half pad I ride in was hindering his shoulders more than anything. Hopefully these changes will help his off back soreness and improve his attitude.

I don’t know if it’s voodoo, but tonight is a pretty good indicator that we are back on track. That is, we are still traveling laterally on 3 tracks, but at least forward and happy in the bridle for the first time in a week, and lighter in the forehand to boot!

Meanwhile, I am so excited to see Ali with Baron in the arena. Double bonus that her husband will soon become master carpenter with our fun and exciting plans for future jumps! Can’t wait to see what more magical rides the future has in store 🙂

Baron jumping

This is what Baron thought about the roll top- can’t wait to see what he thinks of the jumps we have planned (PS can you say scopey??? or room to spare??)

Another show in Review: MacNair’s Combined Training

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After our last outing to Fenridge (read Back in the [Eventing] Saddle for details), we decided to do another schooling show at MacNair’s, a lovely farm about an hour away near downtown Raleigh. After schooling a novice sized course at home I decided to keep things simple and do a beginner novice course, as our confidence and *fitness* definitely needed improving. Thanks to the rain that hits us Sunday-Wednesday, I am so glad we decided to take that route.

Wednesday and Thursday I was able to get on and ride in the driveway, as the arenas were closed due to the rainfall. Luckily the driveway is not paved, and we were able to practice some serious walk work and even jogging lateral exercises, but nothing in the way of cardio work. So that left Friday to run through our test and Saturday to hop over some fences as a refresher, with the show on Sunday.

Sunday has now come and gone, and I write about it now in hopes that it will provide a good comparison a few months down the road. Our warm up started out alright, but as soon as I asked him to start serious work the warm up arena became a war zone of dressage riders and maiden competitors schooling fences. My normally focused, wise, horse apparently left his brain in the trailer. Preferring to watch the ponies circle round and round, he did not appreciate my nagging to pay attention, and after 20 minutes we left the warm up arena and were waved in to do our test. PS this place really is quite inviting, and even though it was busy it was much less crowded than the Fork last November where Foster was a SAINT. Also I’m quite familiar with the place having shown there many times over the years:

Ivan at MacNair's, probably 2008/9

Ivan at MacNair’s, probably 2008/9

I did my best to get him to relax, thinking about a frame that would help him stretch his neck forward and relieve the tension in his back. While there were some moments where we were successful, there were many other times when the tension got the best of us. The bright moment of the test was his walk- thanks to the practice we did this week he earned an 8. Thank goodness one gait is back to normal!

dressage test

Foster in one of the better moments of his test

Showjumping was more successful, but again Foster was spooky. Not at the fences necessarily, but at random things- like Tyler photographing, the people along the rail, the mounted sprinkler on the fence.. Again this is a little odd for him, as normally these things just don’t phase him. Anyways, as a result I felt like I needed to bring him to a trot a couple times to get reorganized. Cantering the course though was a success, with no rushing and no horrible ugly super deep (or long) spots. And he looked so cute in his green ears 🙂 In the interest of honesty, here’s the video:

I would also like to do a quick shout out to the amazing group of people that came to support me. It’s not usual that I have cheerleaders and I thought that was super nice of everyone to stand around in the sun and watch me turn into a tomato! Y’all are awesome!

Coming away from the show, we are going to focus on not fighting to maintain focus and a steady connection and lots and lots of stretching over the topline to get him loosened up. Until we get back the quality in our dressage work we won’t move up a level. But if I had to write down a schedule for the rest of the year (in pencil, mind you, as plans tend to go awry), it would look like this:

Summer XC schooling as much as possible, lessons if funds allow
Aug 24th Jumper show
Sept 15th Horse Trials @ Beginner Novice level
Oct 6th Horse Trials @ Beginner Novice level
Oct 20th Horse Trials @ Novice level
Nov 10th Horse Trials @ Novice level

What about you guys? What plans do you have for the rest of the year? Does anyone have feedback on magnesium supplements for summer-sweating-related spookiness?

Kentucky Gentleman- the horse, the whiskey, and why I need them both

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ImageThis is Foster, who also goes by the alias of Kentucky Gentleman when we dare to compete. Foster is a 6 year old “Oldenburg X Appendix” gelding that puts up with my antics of playing dressage and eventing.

I love Foster a lot, he’s super sweet and cuddly and is always excited to see me.

But lately, Foster has been driving me to drink his namesake whiskey. 

It all started last fall, when it become obvious that something was not quite right- haunches right became our normal mode of travel and jumping became something unpleasant at best. After dilly dallying between days of perfection and happiness to days where I could not figure out what was wrong with my poor boy, we finally got a vet out. One scary SI injection later and poof! Foster is magicked back into consistent perfection. You want to jump that 3’3″ fence? No problem! Lengthenings? I got this! Shoulder In? You betcha! But alas, it was not meant to last.

Fast forward through the horrific wet winter we had, where arenas were constantly closed and trails were dark by the time I got off work. Riding was at a minimum, and both Foster and I were sad. (Just kidding, he probably loved being hairy and dirty and lazy). And once the weather looked to be improving, I became distracted by the non-horsey aspects of my life. Namely, buying a house and getting married. My limited rides during this time took me back to the days prior to our injection, adding to the mix a lack of forward energy that was very unlike him. Luckily my best buddy Ali offered to try to get him in shape for me and do all those boring stretching exercises at nice, slow paces to help him develop muscle over his topline.

Now that the days are longer, the wedding is over, and the house is starting to really resemble a house, I can focus again on my four-legged love. We’ve had several vet visits now and he is finally starting to get better and better. The forwardness is starting to return, we’re getting a little straighter, and we jumped a short round that could make a hunter jealous. Conditioning is now the name of the game to get him back into top form, and my Kentucky Gentleman is well worth the effort.

Fingers crossed!