Busy Week!:)

Lots and lots to update!  Earlier this week Miss Roz got her very first in-hand session with Juan Matute, it's always interesting to see the greenies and how they take to it at first, Roz is a funny girl because she always takes a little while to catch on to something but then when she starts to get it she's eager to try it out, the in-hand work was no different, it took a good while at the beginning to get her reacting but then out of the blue she started to get it, when I got back on her I felt a huge difference, she was stretching more to the contact and her shoulders were much more square in front of me, since then she's starting to play around more and more with her hindlegs, right now it's usually just a clumsy jump behind or hiccup of the croup but that's okay, at this point in time all we are looking for is that she reacts in the right area, after that is more confirmed then we can start to narrow it down and explain to her how it is we want her to react, one step at a time.  Yesterday and today Nico and I attended our first show of the season, just a smallish schooling show and we rode two Grand Prix tests, generally speaking I was quite pleased with him, nothing amazing score wise or anything, it's all still a bit too green naturally and he had lots of little green mistakes but they were honest mistakes not due to him getting distracted or being silly so this I can totally accept.  Yesterday he was particularly focused and I was quite pleased with how our canter work went....except for the centerline pirouettes those are still quite tricky but we're working on it, but usually the canter tour is weaker than the trot tour and this weekend it was the other way around so that's a good step I think!  Our piaffe didn't want to work in the ring yesterday but that's just a bit of time to get him on the same page as me in the ring, we know he doesn't lack in talent when it comes to piaffe so that's just a matter of getting him dialed it to doing it on the mark.  Today we had a pretty big challenge, just as I was halfway to the warmup ring it started pouring, pelting rain and flying leaves, needless to say Nico wanted out of there and spun and took off back to the barn, I can't honestly say I blamed him I didn't want to be out in that either!!  I got back to the barn under cover and thought about scratching him but then the skies cleared to a reasonable amount of rain, unfortunately we now only had about 25 mins to warmup, half our usual warmup time but I figured oh well, got him out to the warmup and he was very tense, got through our warmup and then the rider in front of us missed her ride time so being that none of us could see a rider in that ring and yet we knew she had warmed up we couldn't figure out if there was a delay, then next thing I know the steward is calling me because the previous rider missed her time and now the judge had blown the whistle for my time!  So we trotted straight over and cantered right up the centerline, no going around the ring, relaxing him or anything, hardly ideal for a horse who tends to be spooky, but we managed to keep a lid on things and work it out not too badly, again too many mistakes to be anything spectacular score wise but fair mistakes, I was proud of him for coping under those circumstances, there was a time where that would not have happened at all so progress is being made:)  Basically because we have moved up to a new level it's going to take some time to find the ins and outs of the test, it's a huge leap from the small tour to the Grand Prix so I'm still figuring out where the trouble spots are for Nico and how to best navigate the test for him when we put it all together and he needs to gain a bit more confidence in some of the movements in the ring, it's a joint production to pull this all off, haha who knew dressage was so hard?!;)  Now I am going to sit down and make some notes while the tests of the past two days are fresh in my mind so that I can remember the trouble spots and how I want to ride them on the next go around:)

Half-Time!!

Another week has gone by already, I can't believe how fast the time is passing, we're already at the halfway mark of our time down here.  I did feel a bit homesick the other day, definitely missing my friends, clients and horses back home, but then I heard there was a big snow storm and that cured my homesickness pretty quickly haha!  This Wednesday we had Juan Matute come out to the barn to work a number of the horses in hand, Juan worked with Nico a bit last winter so it was nice to be able to have another session with him, I was especially pleased that he noticed such a huge difference in Nico from last year, said he wouldn't have even recognized him as being the same horse.  Juan is quite amazing to watch with the in-hand work, his timing and patient persistence with the horses is very admirable, he has some videos on dressageclinic.com which I would highly recommend to anyone interested.  Nico is really quite good with the in-hand work now and actually gets quite hot from it which is definitely good as it allows us to tap more into his hindlegs in the collected work, however this is a bit of a careful balancing act as today I had some moments where he felt fantastic but also a couple moments where I could feel him really getting a bit worried about his newfound engagement as, it's always a fine line to up the bar steadily but to also keep things under control so that the horse can achieve success and then relax into their newfound balance and power as well, oh well no one ever said dressage was easy!;)  Rozzie is also finding new pieces of herself out, she is starting to understand about how her hindleg joints work more and more and she gets moments where she really sits more and starts to push uphill, consequently she is starting to come up more in front and get more shoulder as well, she can't hold it long yet as she's not strong in this balance yet so we tend to get some fishtailing while she tries to figure it out then a few steps of really good and then she usually loses her balance and we resume the cycle, today she was able to hold an extension for a whole diagonal in quite an uphill balance and it felt really amazing!  I'm very impressed with her bravery to try and figure things out, she has her moments where she gets a bit pushy but it always comes from a good place, I feel she gets frustrated sometimes when she can't quite figure something out and I love that she's so interested in her work and wants to do things right so badly even when we do get some uncoordinated extras thrown in;)
On a personal note, those of you who know me well know how much I love music, these days I find Bob Seger's Against the Wind turning up on my ipod regularly, such an amazing song and of all the literature I've read and songs I've listened to over the years this one contains one of the greatest lines of all time in my opinion "wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then", that line is so incredibly deep and can relate to so many times and things in life and I'm sure pretty much every person on this planet could find a personal meaning to that very line, anyways just thought I would share that for anyone who is also a Bob Seger fan out there;)

Enjoy the ride!

Training continues to move steadily along, hauled Nico down to the Jim Brandon Center on Thursday again, this was the warmup day of the show this weekend so I was able to school him in the actual show ring rather than just the warmup ring which worked out really well, I was quite happy with how rideable he was, sometimes at shows he can get a bit nervous and consequently a bit touchy and edgy but he felt very much the same as at home, I felt I could really ride him and had good access to all of the movements, so our next step will now be to take it into a test and see if we can maintain this new degree of rideability in an actual test scenario, so in the next couple of weeks we will likely be taking in our first show of the season down here, exciting and scary all at the same time!  On the weather side of things we've had a whole lot of rain down here the past week, I know everyone back home is probably feeling very sorry for me haha!  One of the things about being down here in an environment so full of riders from across the continent is that you really become aware of different styles and techniques, which is natural considering there are so many different educational backgrounds available in this sport.   You really get the opportunity to see so many different riders, riding a variety of different horses and get a sense of how they train and how they've come up the levels etc.  When I look back on my experiences over the years and the horses I learned on I can honestly say that in the end it all worked out to make a path that has suited me well.  While growing up I never had the fanciest horse in the barn, nor the best equipment, nor the most lessons, but I had horses who challenged me and I was very committed to the education that I did receive at the time, and being the determined person that I am this was a good combination, as the years progressed and I rode many different horses and was able to gain consistent education I was able to evolve more and more and this continues to this day (and I hope will only continue to grow more each and every year:).  I can honestly say that every horse I've worked with over the years has had a valuable lesson for me to learn, some have taught me more than others and some it took me longer to figure out for sure, but through all the different types and temperaments I think I've gained really useable insight and many tools to draw upon in my day to day training.  I guess what I'm trying to get at here is that there are so many opinions of what the "best way" to learn is and for my feeling it's to commit to a path and then commit to learning on that path and continuing to evolve because no matter what, in the sport of dressage, you will never know enough and as riders it is our responsibility to continue to learn, continue to better ourselves (as riders, horsepeople and humans in general!) and enjoy the ride!

Flooding and Tack Fitting!!

The horses continue to impress me with their steady progress in training down here, this past month has really brought about some breakthroughs in training for both Nico and Roz.  Today with Nico we worked lots on the piaffe/passage work, trying to create more cadence in his passage by using frequent variation in the transitions, going from piaffe to a more forward piaffe into a smaller more expressive passage then straight into a medium trot and back to passage, I am pleased with how these little gear shifts are working more and more fluidly with him, we also worked with zig zag leg yields in the canter, this helps first of all to improve the zig zag half passes from the Grand Prix but also just generally it has really helped Nico to become braver about opening his shoulders up more and has gotten him much more into two reins in the canter work.  Roz was a good girl as well, with learning to sit more I find her becoming more confident in her balance as well, she still has a ways to go but I feel it improving regularly, I notice it in her flying changes more and more, especially the right to left one, she's been pretty good about the changes in general but before, she would get a bit away from me, especially in the right to left one, sometimes they felt like she was about ready to achieve lift off, now I feel the aids go through more smoothy and then I can ride sequence changes more and more without feeling like she's losing her balance and running through the changes, she is now able to do a greenish working canter pirouette as well.  In other exciting horsey news, Tango decided to dismantle his auto waterer last night, I must have had a sense as I went to do night check a bit early and as soon as I walked in the barn heard an abnormal sound coming from a waterer and sure enough he was in the process of flooding his stall!  Thankfully he hadn't done it too soon before I arrived as the stall wasn't too wet so I managed to turn it off and prevent Tango from floating away, crisis averted!!;)  Must be the week of flooding as it poured rain all day today and I literally have a pond right outside the trailer door, who knew I would be so lucky as to have lakefront real estate in the RV park!;)

On another note, was just reading the noseband article on Eurodressage and I have to say noseband fitting is one issue that drives me crazy with horses, I come from the good old pony club background of bridle fitting, four fingers under a throatlatch, two fingers under a noseband and the noseband height two fingers below the horse's cheekbone.  These days it seems everything is done to the extreme, either people ride with their nosebands so tight the horse has a permanent indent in their nose or so loose that it can be seen dangling a mile away, I equate noseband fitting to the fitting of a watch, you don't want it so tight that your hand is turning purple and yet you don't want it so loose that it's constantly sliding up and down your arm, the correct tension is enough to keep it quietly in place, I think this is common sense but then common sense with horses isn't always something that we see unfortunately.  In my opinion monitoring of the noseband tightness by stewards is a good thing, though I think a good steward who is well trained should naturally be slipping two fingers under the noseband during a tack check anyhow, if we can train 12 year olds in pony club to do this on a regular basis surely our dressage stewards should be able to do the same?  And on the rider responsibility end of things, riders ought to know the proper way to fit a basic snaffle bridle before climbing in the saddle, I'm pretty sure there are no hockey players out there who don't know how to properly lace up their skates!

It's all about balance!

Another productive day with the horses, I'm so happy with the steady improvement I am feeling in them day to day, this is exactly why, no matter what the level rider, it is so important to take the time to get routine help.  Every rider needs eyes on the ground and these few months of intense training during the year are so productive, I really found it made such a huge difference this last year and am finding it even more so this year.  Today the focus with Nico was to test out that things worked on the mark, in other words not trying to prepare everything to death before actually riding the movements but creating a set up and ride it marker to marker scenario.  Dressage is one of those perfectionist sports where it is so easy to obsess over the smallest detail and trying to make everything impeccable, often times we end up over-preparing and over-riding everything, I know this is something I am definitely guilty of and have made a conscious effort to be better about it and although I still find myself getting sucked back into that mentality at times I think I'm definitely getting much better about it.  Not to say that focusing on the small details and preparing things is wrong, it's definitely not, but it can be taken too far, to the point where we find ourselves setting up a transition for 20 circles before we actually do it, or constantly starting and stopping to correct and then starting again and not seeing the bigger picture of things, at the end of the day we have to be able to set up a movement in a reasonable amount of time and then execute it and a horse who is truly on the aids will do this with ease.  Basically what I am saying is that the one thing I find myself constantly learning in dressage (and maybe life in general?!) is that nothing done to the extreme is ever good, it's doesn't work to not prepare movements and it doesn't work to overprepare movements, we must simply prepare them in a reasonable time and then the aids have to go through and work, sounds so simple in print!!  I've found a lot of the work and exercises we have been using with Nico are beneficial to Roz as well and feel her more and more on my aids, she's a great little horse to work with, once she understands something she is keen to please and doesn't hold back, I think that characteristic is going to serve her very well in her career.  That's all for tonight, posted some fun reading below that I swiped off facebook for everyone to enjoy!

This might have been a retired English teacher who was bored, but
they're usually considered "boring." It must have been a wordsmith
with a lot of time on his or her hands. Anyhow, here it is. I've published
them both a few years ago (Helen Senhauser sent that version in.
If you're interested in these anomalies of spelling pronounciation, etc/.
let me know and I'll try to dig 'em out for you. Then, you too can learn
to sound like a bored/boring retired English teacher -- or Pathologist.

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger. and neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France .
Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig..
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth?
One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?
Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all.
That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick ?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this ...
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?
Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?
We call UP our friends.
And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.
We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has real special meaning.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used to one-up your friends.
It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.
One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP,
for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP!
Now it's UP to you what you do with this email.


Oh yes, one more. A grammarian refused to end
a sentence with a preposition. He said,

"That is something up with which I will not put."

Then, there's the Britisher who relates a story with "so I UPs
to him and I says."

 

Two Steps!

Today was a fantastic day!  I had a really great ride on Nico, one of those days where things really clicked, he felt in front of me and supple right from the beginning, it's such a great feeling when you first get on and pick up the reins and can just tell it's going to be a good ride.  His canter work is really starting to improve and the passage/piaffe work today was some of the best I've felt from him, he had two steps in the piaffe where he gave me more than he's ever given me before and actually totally surprised me how much he had in there all of a sudden, those moments where you feel your horse go out of their comfort zone to try and give you everything even for only two steps of brilliance, are what make all the hard work so worth it.  It's these subtle moments of dressage training that made me fall in love with this sport, as much as I am a competitive person and do enjoy showing it's the little victories in the day to day training that I truly live for, the moments where you really feel complete harmony with the horse under you.  Roz also had a very good day, she is learning how to use herself differently now, learning how to carry much more, especially in the canter, she's such a quick mare that she actually has to slow down a bit and take more time in her strides in order to use her joints to carry, this is such a different ride than Nico whose steps I'm always trying to make quicker so that he gets more push off the ground and articulation through the hindlegs and back, they're really polar opposites in their way of going and yet both very athletic horses and I love riding each of them and think it's a great challenge to ride two completely opposite type horses everyday.  So that was my great day, tomorrow the horses have a well earned day off, so I'll be doing the usual day off things, picking up grain from the feed store, watching a few of the other riders have their lessons and cleaning up the trailer.  On a non-horsey side, read a great article someone shared on Facebook the other day, link is as follows: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/the-power-of-introverts-a_n_1229320.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
As a person who is most definitely an introvert I really enjoyed this article and how it explains the misconceptions about introverts, particularly the part that talks about how introverts are not anti-social but differently social as well as the explanation of the distinct difference between someone who is an introvert and someone who is shy, I've always been annoyed when people use the term shy as I think it has such a negative tone to it, people can be quiet and reserved without being shy, anyhow for those who are introverts or know introverts it's a good and informative read, that's all for today:)