Monday 4/20
My girl got a well-deserved day off! They have been turned out in paddocks 24/7 for the last four days or so, it's been SO nice and you can tell the horses really appreciate it.
Tuesday 4/21
Light riding day. A friend came out and got to ride, so Pandora just carted her around at the walk for a bit. Nice and easy.
Wednesday 4/22
Day off. They've still been out all day every day.
Thursday 4/23
A solid dressage schooling. Worked on bending and obedience to the leg. She was very good, and I can get some good work when I sit back. Practiced cantering slightly shoulder-fore -- very hard for her and I think it will be good to practice. Should have Mom videotape from front and behind so I can see what she's doing.
Still, I'm getting frustrated. Because Pandora's so good, we've hit the limit of what I know and can teach. I've never ridden at a higher level than we're at right now, so I don't know what to do and what to work on and what is the 'right answer' from her. So I really need to take some lessons. Once I get a few lessons and get pointed in the right direction, I'll feel better. I feel like we could really start progressing towards 1st level, if someone would just help me understand how to get her really swinging through her back and reaching into the contact.
Friday 4/24
Rode the 2-mile road loop with a friend. We spent most of the ride in the grass beside the road, so not much actual road work, but it was a fantastic workout. We trotted quite a bit, through/over many ditches (if we come up with some momentum, she goes through without hesitating, though she still wants to leap!), even through a little water. Although it was more like OVER the water, which was probably a 5-foot leap. But at least she went forward, and to me, forward is the right answer whether she's jumping it or going through it.
The rest we walked. We had a mildly hairy moment when we were about 5 feet from a fenceline that a herd of about 6 horses came galloping up to, but we got across the road before anybody had a meltdown.
Even though we spent most of it walking, Pandora was lightly sweaty when we got back. It was a great ride, beautiful outside.
Saturday 4/25
Gallop work in the field! SO much fun. I really needed to practice this, because I just don't really have any experience riding at speed, and it still freaks me out a little. I tend to want 100% adjustability all the time, and while that's good to strive for, I know that I have to let Pandora go a little bit in order to have her willing to come back to me when I ask.
We were both pretty nervous the first time, but I pushed my comfort zone and really made myself test the gears. Once we did it a couple more times, both of us relaxed a lot more. I was able to ask her to open up, and when I asked her to come back, she would. It took a much stronger half-halt than I want -- ideally, I could just open up my hip angle and close my fingers firmly on the reins -- but it's a definite start, and I didn't have to be harsh with the bit, just a few gentle tugs upward on one rein.
By the end, we could do large circles, going up to a pretty quick pace and then coming back. We even galloped a pretty long straight line back towards the barn. Before, she would really try to dig in and take off when we were facing home -- this time, she kept a steady pace and turned away when I asked her to. Good progress.
We have a long way to go, and I definitely need to learn how to tell what pace I'm going, but it felt great to get out there and practice. We have plans to do it again next Friday.
Sunday 4/26
Rest day. Still turned out.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
April Progress Check
End-of-month goal: Schooling consistently over 2'9+, riding calmly in the open at w/t/c (gallop if we can find the space). Willingly walk through water. Create passable dressage tests at Training level.
We're getting there. I don't think I'm going to be able to school water by the end of April, unfortunately. I will get to it ASAP but I have a feeling it won't happen until mid-May. Perhaps I can get a couple fellow Pony Club girls to trailer to Mt. Pisgah for a trail ride with some relaxed water opportunities?
I haven't schooled anything big at home, but some of the fences I jumped at the eventing derby were easily bigger than 2'9. This weekend I will do my best to set up a grid and set the last fence at about 3', but I'm a little less concerned about height than I was. Maybe I'll set up a chute and do more free jumping?
Riding in the open we have done, two weekends in a row now. I would like to be able to have a day where I can ride in a big field and do nothing but gallop work, because I'm realizing that I am definitely not 100% comfortable riding at speed. Still, we did w/t/forward canter the past two weekends and she was very controlled, so I'm feeling like we did a good job on that this month.
As for dressage...well, I've done some good work, but not enough. I got some good ideas and exercises from the clinic I rode in on Sunday, so I will focus really hard on dressage for the rest of the week and try to make some improvement.
In all, I think I'm reasonably on track for the month, maybe a little bit behind. Some things are unavoidable though, like the water issue.
We're getting there. I don't think I'm going to be able to school water by the end of April, unfortunately. I will get to it ASAP but I have a feeling it won't happen until mid-May. Perhaps I can get a couple fellow Pony Club girls to trailer to Mt. Pisgah for a trail ride with some relaxed water opportunities?
I haven't schooled anything big at home, but some of the fences I jumped at the eventing derby were easily bigger than 2'9. This weekend I will do my best to set up a grid and set the last fence at about 3', but I'm a little less concerned about height than I was. Maybe I'll set up a chute and do more free jumping?
Riding in the open we have done, two weekends in a row now. I would like to be able to have a day where I can ride in a big field and do nothing but gallop work, because I'm realizing that I am definitely not 100% comfortable riding at speed. Still, we did w/t/forward canter the past two weekends and she was very controlled, so I'm feeling like we did a good job on that this month.
As for dressage...well, I've done some good work, but not enough. I got some good ideas and exercises from the clinic I rode in on Sunday, so I will focus really hard on dressage for the rest of the week and try to make some improvement.
In all, I think I'm reasonably on track for the month, maybe a little bit behind. Some things are unavoidable though, like the water issue.
April Week 2 Review
Monday April 13
Sometime around the time it started hailing profusely during the day, I decided I didn't want to ride tonight.
Tuesday April 14
I actually had a quite nice ride. She was a little hot, and the pouring rain on the roof didn't help, but I took the energy and pushed it into some really good forward work. We did lots of transitions within the trot, forward then slower, bending, shoulders-in. When I warmed up I did serpentines and really focused on keeping her STRAIGHT when we changed direction. At first it was really hard - felt like she was bouncing between the reins and my legs, one direction, then the other! - but after a few times she understood, and stayed dead straight. It was a good exercise and I think it set a good tone for our ride.
With the extra power she had, I got a beautiful canter transition to the right: immediate and smooth. Not as much to the left, but I think I need to consider 'forward' a little more. I know that I tend to slow her down too much just because I can, but I think a more forward trot (as long as it's controlled) would be a good idea.
Wednesday April 15
Day off.
Thursday April 16
Another day off! Shame on me, I know. But they were turned out.
Friday April 17
Hacking day! They'd been stuck inside all day while most of the others were out, so Pandora was pretty much breathing fire by the time I took her out. Put them in the arena for a little while to let them burn off some steam, then tacked up and headed out for a lovely ride down the road. She behaved absolutely wonderfully. At one point, we were riding in the grass beside the road, and as we rode a ditch was on the left that had some water in it. We came to a ditch in front of us with water in it.
Uh oh!
I sat patiently, kept her nose pointing mostly forward, and let her make the decisions. I didn't harass her when she backed up; every now and then I'd suggest forward with a little squeeze, but didn't get insistent. We had a LOT of 'approach and retreat' going on, let me tell you! But each time, she got a little closer. Once we got close, she was adorable. She'd suddenly walk forward to the edge of the (shallow, with not very much water) ditch, gather her self, then lose her nerve and back a few steps. "I can do it I can do it.....oh no I can't do it!" I couldn't help but laugh. Eventually she gathered courage enough and took a flying leap over. I just grabbed mane, patted her on the other side, and we went on our merry little way.
Total distance was almost 1 mile. Just a short ride, but a very pleasant one, and she was more relaxed than the first time. Progress!
Saturday April 18
Day off.
Sunday April 19
Eventing clinic - flatwork, a little gridwork, AND cross-country. A mix of frustrating and insightful: the clinician was demanding but had good points. For flatwork, I need to keep my elbows more bent and my hands closer to me, while for jumping I need to sit up and bring them up more. She really got after me to keep Pandora moving FORWARD with the hind end, otherwise we're not going to build the fitness and balance we need.
XC was fun and I learned a lot. We were both tired but the clinician pushed us hard. I discovered that if I ride Pandora right, I can keep her up off her forehand and jump in balance even though we're both worn out. She was fantastic over the fences, didn't look or anything. We had one stop at the very very end -- I made my corner too tight and I was just so tired that I didn't ride it strong enough. When I set her up better, we went just fine.
Overall, a tough but really educational clinic. Biggest things: I need to sit back and wait for EVERY. SINGLE. FENCE. I cannot throw her away at the very last second or let her pull me down into looking at the fence too. It's hard, but I could feel it getting better.
Sometime around the time it started hailing profusely during the day, I decided I didn't want to ride tonight.
Tuesday April 14
I actually had a quite nice ride. She was a little hot, and the pouring rain on the roof didn't help, but I took the energy and pushed it into some really good forward work. We did lots of transitions within the trot, forward then slower, bending, shoulders-in. When I warmed up I did serpentines and really focused on keeping her STRAIGHT when we changed direction. At first it was really hard - felt like she was bouncing between the reins and my legs, one direction, then the other! - but after a few times she understood, and stayed dead straight. It was a good exercise and I think it set a good tone for our ride.
With the extra power she had, I got a beautiful canter transition to the right: immediate and smooth. Not as much to the left, but I think I need to consider 'forward' a little more. I know that I tend to slow her down too much just because I can, but I think a more forward trot (as long as it's controlled) would be a good idea.
Wednesday April 15
Day off.
Thursday April 16
Another day off! Shame on me, I know. But they were turned out.
Friday April 17
Hacking day! They'd been stuck inside all day while most of the others were out, so Pandora was pretty much breathing fire by the time I took her out. Put them in the arena for a little while to let them burn off some steam, then tacked up and headed out for a lovely ride down the road. She behaved absolutely wonderfully. At one point, we were riding in the grass beside the road, and as we rode a ditch was on the left that had some water in it. We came to a ditch in front of us with water in it.
Uh oh!
I sat patiently, kept her nose pointing mostly forward, and let her make the decisions. I didn't harass her when she backed up; every now and then I'd suggest forward with a little squeeze, but didn't get insistent. We had a LOT of 'approach and retreat' going on, let me tell you! But each time, she got a little closer. Once we got close, she was adorable. She'd suddenly walk forward to the edge of the (shallow, with not very much water) ditch, gather her self, then lose her nerve and back a few steps. "I can do it I can do it.....oh no I can't do it!" I couldn't help but laugh. Eventually she gathered courage enough and took a flying leap over. I just grabbed mane, patted her on the other side, and we went on our merry little way.
Total distance was almost 1 mile. Just a short ride, but a very pleasant one, and she was more relaxed than the first time. Progress!
Saturday April 18
Day off.
Sunday April 19
Eventing clinic - flatwork, a little gridwork, AND cross-country. A mix of frustrating and insightful: the clinician was demanding but had good points. For flatwork, I need to keep my elbows more bent and my hands closer to me, while for jumping I need to sit up and bring them up more. She really got after me to keep Pandora moving FORWARD with the hind end, otherwise we're not going to build the fitness and balance we need.
XC was fun and I learned a lot. We were both tired but the clinician pushed us hard. I discovered that if I ride Pandora right, I can keep her up off her forehand and jump in balance even though we're both worn out. She was fantastic over the fences, didn't look or anything. We had one stop at the very very end -- I made my corner too tight and I was just so tired that I didn't ride it strong enough. When I set her up better, we went just fine.
Overall, a tough but really educational clinic. Biggest things: I need to sit back and wait for EVERY. SINGLE. FENCE. I cannot throw her away at the very last second or let her pull me down into looking at the fence too. It's hard, but I could feel it getting better.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
April Week 1 Review
Wednesday April 1
Day off.
Thursday April 2
Nice dressage school. Good solid workout - w/t/some canter, really working on staying forward and getting nice bend.
I really need to take some real dressage lessons. I have never really ridden anywhere above the level I'm at right now, so I lack the practical experience. I would like to ride beyond Training Level at some point in my life, for goodness' sake.
Anyway. She was a good girl tonight.
Friday April 3
Good ride.
Saturday April 4
Betsy clinic!! I had a great time, and it was beautiful outside.
Surprisingly, this clinic wasn't as earth-shatteringly insightful as they have been in the past, perhaps because I'm at a much better place for myself this time around.
I picked up some really useful exercises. In particular, she had two sets of trot poles set up down a long side: one for a very very short, bouncy stride, and one for a more regular stride. First we did short to long, which was easy (my good girl got it the first try, woohoo!), but then we did long to short, which was hard. I'm going to practice at home.
Pandora was an absolute star. Wonderful for the canter poles. When we did our warmup fence, she was just perfect: steady trot pace, relaxed, easy, smooth jumping. I love this mare.
We cantered a course twice. The first time, I did not ride very well, sigh. Just because I can hold her back, I tend to do it too much, then we get kinda nasty distances, especially since I tend to see a long spot and freak out about adding a stride. After a gentle scolding, I rode much better the second time. I kept a medium canter going, allowed her to flow up to the base of the fence instead of picking, and we had a beautiful course.
Have I mentioned that I love this horse?
Sunday April 5
I was helping out at our second PC fund raising show - decided not to ride since I rode in the clinic yesterday and I knew I'd be tired. Which I was, since I just woke up from an hour-long nap!
We had beautiful weather - the horses were outside all day, turnout for the show was awesome, and life is good.
Monday April 6
Rode outside to enjoy the vestiges of the weekend's weather. We actually were able to ride in the mare pasture (~8 acres), and I was really hoping to get some galloping practice in, but it was just a little too squishy. I did some trotting and cantering. When we rounded a corner, Pandora did try to take off once - not too badly, but I had to floss her teeth a little to get her to come back. After that, we did some very quiet schooling up and down the long fenceline. Every time she went up to the next gait without me telling her to, I made her halt and stand for a second, after a quiet half-halt warning. Eventually she got to where she'd hold her gait nicely on a relaxed rein, even cantering, so we called it good.
All in all - considering this is the first time I've ridden her in the open (other than roads), ever - it was not bad. I don't blame her for being a little nervous, especially given the almost-questionable footing. We will get plenty more chances to practice galloping on much bigger and solid-er fields, so I'm not worried.
Tuesday April 7
I had an awesome schooling ride. I tried McKinna's jumping saddle on her, the much nicer one, and she's built up so much topline that it actually almost fits! So I rode in it.
I set up four cavaletti down the centerline, 4'6" apart, a normal horse-sized trot stride, which tends to challenge her a little. Why? Well, because they're raised a few inches off the ground which makes her take bigger steps, and because she tends to want to be a little short-strided at the trot.
After some warmup, we did a modified four-leaf clover exercise. The arena's too narrow, so we basically went down the centerline, turned right, turned right, turned right, and back down the centerline - like a big oval down at each end. She started off rushing through the cavaletti when she was taking bigger steps to make it through, but by the end she would relax the speed of her stride and get some bouncy air-time between each step. Cool feeling. I need to do this more often.
Wednesday April 8
Day off - relatives in town. They got free-longed.
Thursday April 9
Aaaaaand another day off. They were outside and it was POURING DOWN RAIN. Like it can only in the Northwest, I'm telling you. They were dirty and wet and had a fantastic time tearing loose around the arena. It's been a long time since I've seen them run that fast!
Friday April 10
Woohoo, I had a great ride! Though, as my mom asked when I said this, what else is new?
I set up two sets of cavaletti. Four cavaletti set about 11' apart (canter distance) and on the other side five trot poles (4'6 apart) with alternating ends raised about 6 inches. The canter cavaletti were set at their highest setting, which I think is about a foot high, so they were very challenging.
She was a bit uncoordinated about the raised trot poles, so I will have to reintroduce that slowly. I think I'll start with just raising one at a time. She went over them, though.
The canter cavaletti was magnificent to ride. I will definitely do that exercise again. She nailed them every time, except the time where I told her to add before going over and she didn't. Even that she made it out of fine. I think I will do this exercise again, perhaps set a little closer together - she had to really reach, so while she was forced to expand her stride in all directions (up and forward), she tended to rush through it. Next time if they're set a little closer together, I'm hoping it will help her rock back on her hind end and get some good steady strides in.
Saturday April 11
OMG. The Eventing Derby was SO. MUCH. FUN.
I can't even begin to describe it. I'll write a post over on the main blog in a little while.
Sunday April 12
Family here -- Pandora gave some pony rides. She was very good and patient, if sometimes a little confused :)
Day off.
Thursday April 2
Nice dressage school. Good solid workout - w/t/some canter, really working on staying forward and getting nice bend.
I really need to take some real dressage lessons. I have never really ridden anywhere above the level I'm at right now, so I lack the practical experience. I would like to ride beyond Training Level at some point in my life, for goodness' sake.
Anyway. She was a good girl tonight.
Friday April 3
Good ride.
Saturday April 4
Betsy clinic!! I had a great time, and it was beautiful outside.
Surprisingly, this clinic wasn't as earth-shatteringly insightful as they have been in the past, perhaps because I'm at a much better place for myself this time around.
I picked up some really useful exercises. In particular, she had two sets of trot poles set up down a long side: one for a very very short, bouncy stride, and one for a more regular stride. First we did short to long, which was easy (my good girl got it the first try, woohoo!), but then we did long to short, which was hard. I'm going to practice at home.
Pandora was an absolute star. Wonderful for the canter poles. When we did our warmup fence, she was just perfect: steady trot pace, relaxed, easy, smooth jumping. I love this mare.
We cantered a course twice. The first time, I did not ride very well, sigh. Just because I can hold her back, I tend to do it too much, then we get kinda nasty distances, especially since I tend to see a long spot and freak out about adding a stride. After a gentle scolding, I rode much better the second time. I kept a medium canter going, allowed her to flow up to the base of the fence instead of picking, and we had a beautiful course.
Have I mentioned that I love this horse?
Sunday April 5
I was helping out at our second PC fund raising show - decided not to ride since I rode in the clinic yesterday and I knew I'd be tired. Which I was, since I just woke up from an hour-long nap!
We had beautiful weather - the horses were outside all day, turnout for the show was awesome, and life is good.
Monday April 6
Rode outside to enjoy the vestiges of the weekend's weather. We actually were able to ride in the mare pasture (~8 acres), and I was really hoping to get some galloping practice in, but it was just a little too squishy. I did some trotting and cantering. When we rounded a corner, Pandora did try to take off once - not too badly, but I had to floss her teeth a little to get her to come back. After that, we did some very quiet schooling up and down the long fenceline. Every time she went up to the next gait without me telling her to, I made her halt and stand for a second, after a quiet half-halt warning. Eventually she got to where she'd hold her gait nicely on a relaxed rein, even cantering, so we called it good.
All in all - considering this is the first time I've ridden her in the open (other than roads), ever - it was not bad. I don't blame her for being a little nervous, especially given the almost-questionable footing. We will get plenty more chances to practice galloping on much bigger and solid-er fields, so I'm not worried.
Tuesday April 7
I had an awesome schooling ride. I tried McKinna's jumping saddle on her, the much nicer one, and she's built up so much topline that it actually almost fits! So I rode in it.
I set up four cavaletti down the centerline, 4'6" apart, a normal horse-sized trot stride, which tends to challenge her a little. Why? Well, because they're raised a few inches off the ground which makes her take bigger steps, and because she tends to want to be a little short-strided at the trot.
After some warmup, we did a modified four-leaf clover exercise. The arena's too narrow, so we basically went down the centerline, turned right, turned right, turned right, and back down the centerline - like a big oval down at each end. She started off rushing through the cavaletti when she was taking bigger steps to make it through, but by the end she would relax the speed of her stride and get some bouncy air-time between each step. Cool feeling. I need to do this more often.
Wednesday April 8
Day off - relatives in town. They got free-longed.
Thursday April 9
Aaaaaand another day off. They were outside and it was POURING DOWN RAIN. Like it can only in the Northwest, I'm telling you. They were dirty and wet and had a fantastic time tearing loose around the arena. It's been a long time since I've seen them run that fast!
Friday April 10
Woohoo, I had a great ride! Though, as my mom asked when I said this, what else is new?
I set up two sets of cavaletti. Four cavaletti set about 11' apart (canter distance) and on the other side five trot poles (4'6 apart) with alternating ends raised about 6 inches. The canter cavaletti were set at their highest setting, which I think is about a foot high, so they were very challenging.
She was a bit uncoordinated about the raised trot poles, so I will have to reintroduce that slowly. I think I'll start with just raising one at a time. She went over them, though.
The canter cavaletti was magnificent to ride. I will definitely do that exercise again. She nailed them every time, except the time where I told her to add before going over and she didn't. Even that she made it out of fine. I think I will do this exercise again, perhaps set a little closer together - she had to really reach, so while she was forced to expand her stride in all directions (up and forward), she tended to rush through it. Next time if they're set a little closer together, I'm hoping it will help her rock back on her hind end and get some good steady strides in.
Saturday April 11
OMG. The Eventing Derby was SO. MUCH. FUN.
I can't even begin to describe it. I'll write a post over on the main blog in a little while.
Sunday April 12
Family here -- Pandora gave some pony rides. She was very good and patient, if sometimes a little confused :)
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
March Review, April Outline
March Outline: Continue working on our jumping skills, but don't neglect the flatwork.
I will be focusing on some flatwork aspects as they apply to jumping: smooth balanced turns, rating and adjustability at all three gaits, obedience to the leg.
Since I did not complete my gridwork and single fence goals last month, I will make it a priority to set up a grid at least once a week, and jump single fences at least once a week as well.
End-of-month goal: Coursing smoothly over 2'6 with a calm, smooth, and balanced w/t/c. We should be able to significantly control our rating at all 3 gaits.
Evaluation: We are certainly getting somewhere. I have ridden a course set at 2'3 to 2'6 pretty smoothly and am developing an understanding of what it takes to maintain a smooth, steady pace around course. Rating at the walk and trot is there, and I can FEEL the beginnings of canter adjustability. We can do a tiny bit of lengthening and shortening without falling on the forehand or breaking gait. I have a tiny half-halt ability at the canter without breaking gait. It just needs to be developed!
I spent more time working with grids this month, and jumped single fences.
She was fantastic at the Rally and proved to me that she will jump scary fences even when she is frightened, AND that she's willing to put the effort out when I ask her to push her comfort zones in terms of speed and tight turns.
Overall, I think I can declare this month a success.
April Outline: Time to start thinking about XC as soon as the weather turns and courses are open for schooling. This will be the month for putting miles on Pandora: lots and lots of trail rides and road riding. We need to get over her fear of water ASAP so I don’t have to worry about it later in the season. Also need to find out if she’s controllable at speed in the open.
All our long slow distance should really help with conditioning for the upcoming months too.
I want to spend time jumping low, wide oxers and really adding frightening decorations to fences.
Finally, keep up with dressage. School some tests to troubleshoot difficult movements, and school them. I have let this slack off now that I've got a solid w/t/c with some lateral, so I need to push us in this area.
End-of-month goal: Schooling consistently over 2'9+, riding calmly in the open at w/t/c (gallop if we can find the space). Willingly walk through water. Create passable dressage tests at Training level.
April Activities: April 4, Betsy Clinic - Jumping (the woman is fantastic, I love her)
April 11, Eventing Derby - this will be the first real XC-type experience I have with Pandora, not to mention our first dressage test in quite some time!
April 17, Christy Lesson
So not much officially going on this month, though I'd like to do lots of outside riding. I'm looking forward to this, because it means I can really focus on my "homework," working hard on the things I've learned recently.
I will be focusing on some flatwork aspects as they apply to jumping: smooth balanced turns, rating and adjustability at all three gaits, obedience to the leg.
Since I did not complete my gridwork and single fence goals last month, I will make it a priority to set up a grid at least once a week, and jump single fences at least once a week as well.
End-of-month goal: Coursing smoothly over 2'6 with a calm, smooth, and balanced w/t/c. We should be able to significantly control our rating at all 3 gaits.
Evaluation: We are certainly getting somewhere. I have ridden a course set at 2'3 to 2'6 pretty smoothly and am developing an understanding of what it takes to maintain a smooth, steady pace around course. Rating at the walk and trot is there, and I can FEEL the beginnings of canter adjustability. We can do a tiny bit of lengthening and shortening without falling on the forehand or breaking gait. I have a tiny half-halt ability at the canter without breaking gait. It just needs to be developed!
I spent more time working with grids this month, and jumped single fences.
She was fantastic at the Rally and proved to me that she will jump scary fences even when she is frightened, AND that she's willing to put the effort out when I ask her to push her comfort zones in terms of speed and tight turns.
Overall, I think I can declare this month a success.
April Outline: Time to start thinking about XC as soon as the weather turns and courses are open for schooling. This will be the month for putting miles on Pandora: lots and lots of trail rides and road riding. We need to get over her fear of water ASAP so I don’t have to worry about it later in the season. Also need to find out if she’s controllable at speed in the open.
All our long slow distance should really help with conditioning for the upcoming months too.
I want to spend time jumping low, wide oxers and really adding frightening decorations to fences.
Finally, keep up with dressage. School some tests to troubleshoot difficult movements, and school them. I have let this slack off now that I've got a solid w/t/c with some lateral, so I need to push us in this area.
End-of-month goal: Schooling consistently over 2'9+, riding calmly in the open at w/t/c (gallop if we can find the space). Willingly walk through water. Create passable dressage tests at Training level.
April Activities: April 4, Betsy Clinic - Jumping (the woman is fantastic, I love her)
April 11, Eventing Derby - this will be the first real XC-type experience I have with Pandora, not to mention our first dressage test in quite some time!
April 17, Christy Lesson
So not much officially going on this month, though I'd like to do lots of outside riding. I'm looking forward to this, because it means I can really focus on my "homework," working hard on the things I've learned recently.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
March Week 4 Review
Monday 3/23
Flatwork school. Good ride. Worked on bend and figures, overall just a solid work.
Tuesday 3/24
Fantastic lesson. Really, really awesome - one of the best rides I've had on her. Hung out at around 2'3 for the fences, maybe closer to 2'6. Pandora was 'on' the whole time. Practiced lengthening and shortening at the canter, and actually got noticeable responses. Jumped the scary boxes and the big brush fence, neither of which she's seen/jumped before, and she didn't even hesitate. I made some big improvements on: 1. avoiding jumping ahead with my upper body, while 2. still releasing, while 3. not dropping her at the base of the fence by taking away leg and hand. Once I figured that one out, she was great.
Asked her to really move out down one long side because our 'jump-off' course had a looong track around the outside. Boy, was she excited about that! She really dug in and gave me a gallop. Surprised me and took me longer to bring her back than I expected, but she wasn't trying to run away, and she came back to a nice soft canter after one circle. Oops.
On the other hand, big accident when we got home. In the arena, Mom was taking her blanket off - got all the straps undone and then Pandora took off. Blanket slipped obviously, she freaked herself out, galloped all around, tore the blanket to absolute shreds. It was terrifying. Once she ripped the blanket all the way off, she stopped, hot and sweaty and shaking. Walked her out, hosed her chest and neck a little and she calmed down a lot. Wasn't lame but got a big ol' swelling on her right gaskin. Very liquidy and soft, not hot. Under a small abrasion. Gave 2.5 grams of bute, cold-hosed, walked to make sure she wasn't sore. Normal vitals. Came back at 8pm to ice and walk again, swelling down a little but more stiff.
Wednesday 3/25
Made an AM visit. Swelling down a lot (yay!) but area is hot, no sign of stiffness, w/t/c happily loose in the arena. Iced for 10 minutes, gave 2 grams of bute.
Evening visit, free longed for maybe 15 minutes, worked up a good sweat. Fine at all gaits in both directions. Swelling WAY down, hardly noticeable, still warm but not hot. Cold-hosed for 10 minutes, put a little Furazone on the scrape. I think at this point we're more traumatized than she is.
Thursday 3/26
She was feeling great. Free longed nicely in both directions, worked up a decent sweat with no noticeable stiffness. The farrier came out, told me I was being a tad bit paranoid and they didn't need to be trimmed for another few weeks (oops :).
Then came the test. I haven't ridden her since Tuesday before she injured herself, and I needed to see if she was going to stay sound with me in the saddle. So we set up 3 canter cavaletti at bounce distance (around 11' for Pandora) and a 2'6 vertical, tacked up, and went for it. I was really worried that she was going to favor the injured leg with me on board, but w/t/c both directions was just fine. We cantered the cavaletti several times in both directions and she was fantastic, nailed it every time and went through with enthusiasm. We jumped the vertical with no issues, made it a square oxer (a rather wide square oxer) and though we kept missing the distance for takeoff, she felt totally normal beneath me and showed no signs of soreness after jumping it several times.
That's way bigger than she'll have to do at rally, so I'm very very happy and feeling optimistic for this weekend. She'll have 3 rounds with 20 minutes of warmup each, so that's only a little more than an hour of riding total. I think we'll be just fine.
We cold-hosed again for about 5 - 10 minutes, which she stood very politely for, and dosed with 2.5 grams of bute. Now that I know she's sound with no bute in her system (hadn't been dosed since yesterday morning), I think we will continue with the bute through tomorrow just to help make sure all inflammation is going away.
Whew. Crisis averted.
Friday 3/27
Bathing day! We spent four hours out at the barn washing buckets and horses, and in general just making sure all our rally stuff was loaded up and ready to go. Pandora is now very very clean and shiny - not that she wasn't shiny before - and all ready for showing! I'll make sure to do some serious de-hairing in a good grooming session before we leave tomorrow.
Saturday 3/28
Rally day! Free longed the girls in the morning. She's totally sound and you can only tell she injured that hind leg if you touch the area, because then she'll move away. Loaded everything up, stuffed their hay bags with hay, booted up, and headed out! Settled in nicely, with some screaming for McKinna, and jogged out perfectly sound. Excited for tomorrow.
Sunday 3/29
Woohoo! We had an AWESOME day at the rally. Full report here. No refusals, no rails. She was nervous but got better every round and she has mountains of try. I love it. I'm very proud of her.
Monday 3/30
A well-deserved day off. They got to be outside all day for the first time in a long time.
Tuesday 3/31
An easy ride, but very promising. I hopped on and went for a short hack down the road, by ourselves for the first time. I planned on making it very short, taking her just past her comfort zone and allowing a little grazing before heading home.
Well, she impressed me. She marched right off down the road with nary a spook or scoot - only got a little bug-eyed when a horse in a field galloped up to us. So we picked up a merry little trot for a minute or so, went up a little hill, then walked back. She wanted to jig on the way back, probably because it was a cool windy day and she had yesterday off, but she walked when I asked her to.
Such a pleasant ride, and I'm pleased that she's sensible about going out by herself. This will make conditioning hacks very easy.
I'm looking forward to it. Plus, I like to sing to give us a rhythm and calm her down, so I get to work my way through my repertoire of old camp songs ;)
Flatwork school. Good ride. Worked on bend and figures, overall just a solid work.
Tuesday 3/24
Fantastic lesson. Really, really awesome - one of the best rides I've had on her. Hung out at around 2'3 for the fences, maybe closer to 2'6. Pandora was 'on' the whole time. Practiced lengthening and shortening at the canter, and actually got noticeable responses. Jumped the scary boxes and the big brush fence, neither of which she's seen/jumped before, and she didn't even hesitate. I made some big improvements on: 1. avoiding jumping ahead with my upper body, while 2. still releasing, while 3. not dropping her at the base of the fence by taking away leg and hand. Once I figured that one out, she was great.
Asked her to really move out down one long side because our 'jump-off' course had a looong track around the outside. Boy, was she excited about that! She really dug in and gave me a gallop. Surprised me and took me longer to bring her back than I expected, but she wasn't trying to run away, and she came back to a nice soft canter after one circle. Oops.
On the other hand, big accident when we got home. In the arena, Mom was taking her blanket off - got all the straps undone and then Pandora took off. Blanket slipped obviously, she freaked herself out, galloped all around, tore the blanket to absolute shreds. It was terrifying. Once she ripped the blanket all the way off, she stopped, hot and sweaty and shaking. Walked her out, hosed her chest and neck a little and she calmed down a lot. Wasn't lame but got a big ol' swelling on her right gaskin. Very liquidy and soft, not hot. Under a small abrasion. Gave 2.5 grams of bute, cold-hosed, walked to make sure she wasn't sore. Normal vitals. Came back at 8pm to ice and walk again, swelling down a little but more stiff.
Wednesday 3/25
Made an AM visit. Swelling down a lot (yay!) but area is hot, no sign of stiffness, w/t/c happily loose in the arena. Iced for 10 minutes, gave 2 grams of bute.
Evening visit, free longed for maybe 15 minutes, worked up a good sweat. Fine at all gaits in both directions. Swelling WAY down, hardly noticeable, still warm but not hot. Cold-hosed for 10 minutes, put a little Furazone on the scrape. I think at this point we're more traumatized than she is.
Thursday 3/26
She was feeling great. Free longed nicely in both directions, worked up a decent sweat with no noticeable stiffness. The farrier came out, told me I was being a tad bit paranoid and they didn't need to be trimmed for another few weeks (oops :).
Then came the test. I haven't ridden her since Tuesday before she injured herself, and I needed to see if she was going to stay sound with me in the saddle. So we set up 3 canter cavaletti at bounce distance (around 11' for Pandora) and a 2'6 vertical, tacked up, and went for it. I was really worried that she was going to favor the injured leg with me on board, but w/t/c both directions was just fine. We cantered the cavaletti several times in both directions and she was fantastic, nailed it every time and went through with enthusiasm. We jumped the vertical with no issues, made it a square oxer (a rather wide square oxer) and though we kept missing the distance for takeoff, she felt totally normal beneath me and showed no signs of soreness after jumping it several times.
That's way bigger than she'll have to do at rally, so I'm very very happy and feeling optimistic for this weekend. She'll have 3 rounds with 20 minutes of warmup each, so that's only a little more than an hour of riding total. I think we'll be just fine.
We cold-hosed again for about 5 - 10 minutes, which she stood very politely for, and dosed with 2.5 grams of bute. Now that I know she's sound with no bute in her system (hadn't been dosed since yesterday morning), I think we will continue with the bute through tomorrow just to help make sure all inflammation is going away.
Whew. Crisis averted.
Friday 3/27
Bathing day! We spent four hours out at the barn washing buckets and horses, and in general just making sure all our rally stuff was loaded up and ready to go. Pandora is now very very clean and shiny - not that she wasn't shiny before - and all ready for showing! I'll make sure to do some serious de-hairing in a good grooming session before we leave tomorrow.
Saturday 3/28
Rally day! Free longed the girls in the morning. She's totally sound and you can only tell she injured that hind leg if you touch the area, because then she'll move away. Loaded everything up, stuffed their hay bags with hay, booted up, and headed out! Settled in nicely, with some screaming for McKinna, and jogged out perfectly sound. Excited for tomorrow.
Sunday 3/29
Woohoo! We had an AWESOME day at the rally. Full report here. No refusals, no rails. She was nervous but got better every round and she has mountains of try. I love it. I'm very proud of her.
Monday 3/30
A well-deserved day off. They got to be outside all day for the first time in a long time.
Tuesday 3/31
An easy ride, but very promising. I hopped on and went for a short hack down the road, by ourselves for the first time. I planned on making it very short, taking her just past her comfort zone and allowing a little grazing before heading home.
Well, she impressed me. She marched right off down the road with nary a spook or scoot - only got a little bug-eyed when a horse in a field galloped up to us. So we picked up a merry little trot for a minute or so, went up a little hill, then walked back. She wanted to jig on the way back, probably because it was a cool windy day and she had yesterday off, but she walked when I asked her to.
Such a pleasant ride, and I'm pleased that she's sensible about going out by herself. This will make conditioning hacks very easy.
I'm looking forward to it. Plus, I like to sing to give us a rhythm and calm her down, so I get to work my way through my repertoire of old camp songs ;)
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
March Week 3 Review and Week 4 Outline
Monday 3/16
I had a history final from 6-8. No riding for me!
Tuesday 3/17
Had a great ride. Schooled flatwork and really worked on moving off the leg, and bending. We did some bow-tie figures which went pretty well. I practiced a little bit of spiraling circles with her - I can tell those will be fantastic schooling figures, because they were super hard for her! It's hard for her to hold a smaller circle, but she spirals nicely out when I ask her to.
We got some pretty good canter work, although she was a little sticky in her transitions.
I am working on asking her to carry herself up, then stretch down to follow the bit. This is a hole in our dressage. She will lower her head to stretch out if you give her a loose rein at the walk, but that's not following the contact down, and at the trot she either won't do it at all or she speeds up a lot. I practiced a little at the trot, and seemed to make some progress, so I will make sure to work on this more in the future.
Still not flexing to the left. I believe she is locked up somewhere in her upper neck/poll/jaw - she won't turn her face, she just tilts her head and shoulder, whereas to the right she rotates that face easily. Chiro coming out on Thursday should fix that!
Mom hopped on to cool her out. This is part of our plan to get her used to other riders, since she tends to get anxious. I will probably also have Christy (lady who gives the Friday lessons) school her once or twice, since she is a very very good and soft rider who I bet will help Pandora's confidence in strangers.
Wednesday 3/18
Jumping lesson at Robin's. Pandora did great, was way calmer than last time we were over there! It definitely helped that we rode in a lesson with McKinna and her rider too. She was just lovely, alert and sometimes looking at stuff outside the arena but very responsive and mellow. We got some very nice jumping in, and I am working on all the things I need to remember over the fence - sit up, stretch up tall, wait for the fence, but release! I got it together a few times.
We jumped over a few spooky fences - even got a refusal, but it was downhill to a scary box fence off a tight diagonal turn, so I don't blame her at all. She jumped it fine the second time, and we schooled it about four times until I could get her to relax enough to take off from a reasonable distance instead of super far away. Not that I don't appreciate the athleticism inherent in taking the long spot!
Anyway - a very successful lesson!
Thursday 3/19
Kind-of day off - longed her, then she got worked on by the chiro. I was definitely right about the left flexion. On the left side, she needed adjustments high in the neck, low in the neck, a little in the shoulder, and a lot in the elbow. Some slightly lesser stuff down the right side. Quite a bit of pelvic rotation, and quite a bit of stickiness in the stifles. He also worked her tail a little bit because I mentioned that it's still asymetrically muscled underneath the dock, and afterwards she was so relaxed back there! I've never been able to touch the point of her butt without her tensing up, but now it's nice and soft. I was glad he came out.
Friday 3/20
Lesson at Poseidon. A bit of a frustrating one! For the flatwork, Pandora was extremely inconsistent. Perfectly understandable - she was trying to figure out how to move after being adjusted yesterday - but still very frustrating, when I'm used to such a steady horse. I didn't discipline her for it, since I knew what was going on. The canter was a little better. Also, hallelujah, we have developed a tiny bit of a half-halt at the canter! If I close my outside hand and add a little lower leg, I can actually feel a response. Not very much of one, and not too consistent, and sometimes I don't use enough leg so she breaks to the trot, but it's THERE and we've never had it before. It's very exciting. A huge step in the right direction.
Jumping was also a bit frustrating. Once again we did nothing but tiny fences for the majority of the ride. I only got to do some set at around 2'3 on my very last few rounds. I understand the necessity to do well over smaller fences, I really do. But when my horse is getting lazy and sloppy and isn't really learning anything over the small fences, I think it's time to move on.
THEN, she started charging down this one six-stride line. Really taking off. Don't get me wrong, I love that she builds energy when she locks onto a fence. But this was totally ignoring my half-halts. So, after checking with the instructor, I got the go-ahead to do a little teeth-flossing with the bit down the line to get my message across. I hate doing it, but it worked. I got hard in her face, she was totally surprised and backed off for the last few strides, then halted reasonably nicely. The next time we went through, she started to launch, but backed off at a strong half-halt. Since she clearly understood the point, we called it good.
An educational but frustrating ride, I suppose. I understand why it went the way it did, though, and it wasn't Pandora's fault. I am looking forward to doing some schooling on my own for awhile with the tools I have picked up recently.
Saturday 3/21
Day off. Free-longed the girls.
Sunday 3/22
Day off again.
Week 4 Outline
Monday 3/23
Solid dressage workout. Get some good forward canter work, practice adjustability at all three gaits. Practice canter cavaletti.
Tuesday 3/24
Rally prep lesson at Poseidon. I am sure we will school lots of fences, practice jog-outs (which I've already practiced!), and the like.
Wednesday 3/25
Get in another good flatwork school, this time in the jumping saddle. Practice lots of canter cavaletti.
Thursday 3/26
The tack-cleaning day...oi. But, I should still ride. Maybe a light jumping school, easy and relaxed.
Friday 3/27
Day off and free-longe. Today is the day we'll wash McKinna to prepare for Rally, and trust me, you don't want to plan anything else on the same day! It's an exhausting enterprise.
Saturday 3/28
Longe the girls, load everything up into the trailer, and head off to Ridgefield, WA for the rally!
Sunday 3/29
Compete in the rally. 3 rounds, with 20 minutes of warmup each - not bad. Hopefully we will come home feeling happy and successful!
I had a history final from 6-8. No riding for me!
Tuesday 3/17
Had a great ride. Schooled flatwork and really worked on moving off the leg, and bending. We did some bow-tie figures which went pretty well. I practiced a little bit of spiraling circles with her - I can tell those will be fantastic schooling figures, because they were super hard for her! It's hard for her to hold a smaller circle, but she spirals nicely out when I ask her to.
We got some pretty good canter work, although she was a little sticky in her transitions.
I am working on asking her to carry herself up, then stretch down to follow the bit. This is a hole in our dressage. She will lower her head to stretch out if you give her a loose rein at the walk, but that's not following the contact down, and at the trot she either won't do it at all or she speeds up a lot. I practiced a little at the trot, and seemed to make some progress, so I will make sure to work on this more in the future.
Still not flexing to the left. I believe she is locked up somewhere in her upper neck/poll/jaw - she won't turn her face, she just tilts her head and shoulder, whereas to the right she rotates that face easily. Chiro coming out on Thursday should fix that!
Mom hopped on to cool her out. This is part of our plan to get her used to other riders, since she tends to get anxious. I will probably also have Christy (lady who gives the Friday lessons) school her once or twice, since she is a very very good and soft rider who I bet will help Pandora's confidence in strangers.
Wednesday 3/18
Jumping lesson at Robin's. Pandora did great, was way calmer than last time we were over there! It definitely helped that we rode in a lesson with McKinna and her rider too. She was just lovely, alert and sometimes looking at stuff outside the arena but very responsive and mellow. We got some very nice jumping in, and I am working on all the things I need to remember over the fence - sit up, stretch up tall, wait for the fence, but release! I got it together a few times.
We jumped over a few spooky fences - even got a refusal, but it was downhill to a scary box fence off a tight diagonal turn, so I don't blame her at all. She jumped it fine the second time, and we schooled it about four times until I could get her to relax enough to take off from a reasonable distance instead of super far away. Not that I don't appreciate the athleticism inherent in taking the long spot!
Anyway - a very successful lesson!
Thursday 3/19
Kind-of day off - longed her, then she got worked on by the chiro. I was definitely right about the left flexion. On the left side, she needed adjustments high in the neck, low in the neck, a little in the shoulder, and a lot in the elbow. Some slightly lesser stuff down the right side. Quite a bit of pelvic rotation, and quite a bit of stickiness in the stifles. He also worked her tail a little bit because I mentioned that it's still asymetrically muscled underneath the dock, and afterwards she was so relaxed back there! I've never been able to touch the point of her butt without her tensing up, but now it's nice and soft. I was glad he came out.
Friday 3/20
Lesson at Poseidon. A bit of a frustrating one! For the flatwork, Pandora was extremely inconsistent. Perfectly understandable - she was trying to figure out how to move after being adjusted yesterday - but still very frustrating, when I'm used to such a steady horse. I didn't discipline her for it, since I knew what was going on. The canter was a little better. Also, hallelujah, we have developed a tiny bit of a half-halt at the canter! If I close my outside hand and add a little lower leg, I can actually feel a response. Not very much of one, and not too consistent, and sometimes I don't use enough leg so she breaks to the trot, but it's THERE and we've never had it before. It's very exciting. A huge step in the right direction.
Jumping was also a bit frustrating. Once again we did nothing but tiny fences for the majority of the ride. I only got to do some set at around 2'3 on my very last few rounds. I understand the necessity to do well over smaller fences, I really do. But when my horse is getting lazy and sloppy and isn't really learning anything over the small fences, I think it's time to move on.
THEN, she started charging down this one six-stride line. Really taking off. Don't get me wrong, I love that she builds energy when she locks onto a fence. But this was totally ignoring my half-halts. So, after checking with the instructor, I got the go-ahead to do a little teeth-flossing with the bit down the line to get my message across. I hate doing it, but it worked. I got hard in her face, she was totally surprised and backed off for the last few strides, then halted reasonably nicely. The next time we went through, she started to launch, but backed off at a strong half-halt. Since she clearly understood the point, we called it good.
An educational but frustrating ride, I suppose. I understand why it went the way it did, though, and it wasn't Pandora's fault. I am looking forward to doing some schooling on my own for awhile with the tools I have picked up recently.
Saturday 3/21
Day off. Free-longed the girls.
Sunday 3/22
Day off again.
Week 4 Outline
Monday 3/23
Solid dressage workout. Get some good forward canter work, practice adjustability at all three gaits. Practice canter cavaletti.
Tuesday 3/24
Rally prep lesson at Poseidon. I am sure we will school lots of fences, practice jog-outs (which I've already practiced!), and the like.
Wednesday 3/25
Get in another good flatwork school, this time in the jumping saddle. Practice lots of canter cavaletti.
Thursday 3/26
The tack-cleaning day...oi. But, I should still ride. Maybe a light jumping school, easy and relaxed.
Friday 3/27
Day off and free-longe. Today is the day we'll wash McKinna to prepare for Rally, and trust me, you don't want to plan anything else on the same day! It's an exhausting enterprise.
Saturday 3/28
Longe the girls, load everything up into the trailer, and head off to Ridgefield, WA for the rally!
Sunday 3/29
Compete in the rally. 3 rounds, with 20 minutes of warmup each - not bad. Hopefully we will come home feeling happy and successful!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
March Week 2 Review and Week 3 Outline
Monday 3/9
Ended up talking myself out of riding. I will end up riding a lot more next week - this is dead week so lots of studying to do. Free longed the girls, they had a good time running.
Tuesday 3/10
Day off. Free longed.
Wednesday 3/11
Flatwork schooling in the dressage saddle. The ride started off really nicely, nice and forward, just took her through everything at the walk (serpentines, circles, leg-yields, shoulders-in and out) then the same at trot. But somewhere along the way she got anxious and I got frustrated, and she was racing a lot. We managed to end on a good note. I think my stirrups were too long, and I wasn't using the ThinLine like normal under the saddle - wonder if that makes a difference?
Ended up talking myself out of riding. I will end up riding a lot more next week - this is dead week so lots of studying to do. Free longed the girls, they had a good time running.
Tuesday 3/10
Day off. Free longed.
Wednesday 3/11
Flatwork schooling in the dressage saddle. The ride started off really nicely, nice and forward, just took her through everything at the walk (serpentines, circles, leg-yields, shoulders-in and out) then the same at trot. But somewhere along the way she got anxious and I got frustrated, and she was racing a lot. We managed to end on a good note. I think my stirrups were too long, and I wasn't using the ThinLine like normal under the saddle - wonder if that makes a difference?
Still resisting bend to the left, always. Very frustrating. I can get her to move off my leg, but she just will not take up the bend through her whole body with one smooth curve from head to tail. Chiro is coming out in a week so hopefully that will help fix things.
Thursday 3/12
Jumped with two of the girls at the barn. Pandora did very nicely over the low stuff, finding good distances, even volunteered the left lead on a pretty regular basis when going to the left. She did want to rush around when on the left lead sometimes, but I think that had more to do with cantering over a two-stride cavaletti line (all she has to do is yank her feet up, so she gets quick and careless).
Thursday 3/12
Jumped with two of the girls at the barn. Pandora did very nicely over the low stuff, finding good distances, even volunteered the left lead on a pretty regular basis when going to the left. She did want to rush around when on the left lead sometimes, but I think that had more to do with cantering over a two-stride cavaletti line (all she has to do is yank her feet up, so she gets quick and careless).
Still, was resisting the left bend hardcore. Grrrr. I am patient with it -- Rome wasn't built in a day -- but it gets very frustrating when nothing I do can stop her from leaning over the left shoulder. At least she will take her left lead and canter nicely.
When we raised the jumps, she was just lovely. We had a vertical set on the diagonal and a single oxer. By the end, the oxer was just a hair shy of 2'9, with two barrels beneath, and the vertical was 2'6. Pandora did very nicely, considering I don't school her over these heights often. She tends to want to ignore my half-halts coming up to the fence, so perhaps I should set up some grids that encourage her to settle back. She's comfortable taking the short distance, and manages to suck herself up enough when she takes off super close, which is nice to know. I'd like to get some video of me jumping her over these - it feels like she is just tucking her legs up instead of rounding her back, but she may just not do that until the fences get a little bigger.
All in all, despite a few issues, I was very pleased.
Friday 3/13
Lesson at Poseidon. It ended up as a two-person lesson, as the third girl ended up sick. This actually turned out to be for the better, because our horses are very similarly-strided, so we got to do some gridwork!
We ended up schooling over a three-fence grid set up almost straight down the centerline, on a one-stride distance. She set the grid up a little bit short, because both horses need to practice rocking back and waiting instead of getting long and strung-out.
Eventually we had the grid set with a takeoff pole, then poles between each of the fences. So essentially it was five bounces, just that every other one was a pole. This was very helpful for Pandora, who needs to practice not getting all strung-out or diving down on her nose.
She did very nicely. I managed to push the height issue a little bit, and she raised the fences a little more than she normally does for me. I think I will have to either be very insistent about it, or just accept that I'll school higher fences at home! Or both, of course.
In any case, I felt like the grid work was very beneficial. I plan to set up some canter cavaletti at bounce distance for practice.
Saturday 3/14
Day off.
Sunday 3/15
Another day off. Finals studying!
Week 3 Outline
For all [riding] days this week, if the weather is nice, we'll make a short pilgrimage out the front gate. I plan to work extensively on Pandora's ability to go out on the roads alone (she will follow another horse, but freaks out by herself). Not only will road work help conditioning-wise, the confidence she gets from learning to go out by herself should make XC a piece of cake.
Monday 3/16
No ride - I have a final from 6 - 8PM, ugh. But then it's spring break, woohoo!
Tuesday 3/17
Solid flatwork schooling. Working on flexibility all through the body, lengthening/shortening the pace at the trot, and plenty of cantering.
Wednesday 3/18
Lesson across the street at Robin's, jumping.
Thursday 3/19
Chiro appointment, finally! She will get free-longed beforehand.
Friday 3/20
Jumping lesson at Poseidon.
Saturday 3/21
Light flatwork schooling. Practice ring figures, perhaps over poles: figure-8s, half-turns back to the rail, spiraling circles.
Sunday 3/22
Jumping school. Set up canter-bounce cavaletti on an 11' stride, practice steady cantering. Start with three and maybe go up to five. Practice trotting a low, wide oxer with a placing and landing pole.
Friday 3/13
Lesson at Poseidon. It ended up as a two-person lesson, as the third girl ended up sick. This actually turned out to be for the better, because our horses are very similarly-strided, so we got to do some gridwork!
We ended up schooling over a three-fence grid set up almost straight down the centerline, on a one-stride distance. She set the grid up a little bit short, because both horses need to practice rocking back and waiting instead of getting long and strung-out.
Eventually we had the grid set with a takeoff pole, then poles between each of the fences. So essentially it was five bounces, just that every other one was a pole. This was very helpful for Pandora, who needs to practice not getting all strung-out or diving down on her nose.
She did very nicely. I managed to push the height issue a little bit, and she raised the fences a little more than she normally does for me. I think I will have to either be very insistent about it, or just accept that I'll school higher fences at home! Or both, of course.
In any case, I felt like the grid work was very beneficial. I plan to set up some canter cavaletti at bounce distance for practice.
Saturday 3/14
Day off.
Sunday 3/15
Another day off. Finals studying!
Week 3 Outline
For all [riding] days this week, if the weather is nice, we'll make a short pilgrimage out the front gate. I plan to work extensively on Pandora's ability to go out on the roads alone (she will follow another horse, but freaks out by herself). Not only will road work help conditioning-wise, the confidence she gets from learning to go out by herself should make XC a piece of cake.
Monday 3/16
No ride - I have a final from 6 - 8PM, ugh. But then it's spring break, woohoo!
Tuesday 3/17
Solid flatwork schooling. Working on flexibility all through the body, lengthening/shortening the pace at the trot, and plenty of cantering.
Wednesday 3/18
Lesson across the street at Robin's, jumping.
Thursday 3/19
Chiro appointment, finally! She will get free-longed beforehand.
Friday 3/20
Jumping lesson at Poseidon.
Saturday 3/21
Light flatwork schooling. Practice ring figures, perhaps over poles: figure-8s, half-turns back to the rail, spiraling circles.
Sunday 3/22
Jumping school. Set up canter-bounce cavaletti on an 11' stride, practice steady cantering. Start with three and maybe go up to five. Practice trotting a low, wide oxer with a placing and landing pole.
Monday, March 9, 2009
March Week 1 Review and Week 2 Outline
Monday 3/2
Did not ride. Lots of homework to do!
Tuesday 3/3
Another homework night. She got free longed both nights, though, so she got to work off some energy.
Wednesday 3/4
Sigh, another free-longeing night....because I rode McKinna! A girl in our Pony Club may use McKinna for the SJ rally, because her horse is working through some training issues and they don't want any setbacks. She is trying her out tomorrow night, so I hopped on to make sure she hasn't forgotten how to work ;) She did great. We did w/t/c both directions, and I set up a zigzag pole rollback exercise. We walked and trotted over it (our arena's too tight to expect her to canter it), but then as we were cantering, I'd change directions across one pole and ask for a flying change. The first time I didn't set her up right, but then we got two in a row! Impressive considering we never worked on flying changes...
Thursday 3/5
Finally rode tonight. I had a very good ride! We did a lot of cantering over a low cavaletto, a 2' ish vertical, and then a 2'3 ish narrow fence with bright yellow and red planks. Pandora was just lovely. I am REALLY getting somewhere now that I sit up and carry my hands all the way to the base of the fence - she holds a steady pace, I can half halt, her shoulders are higher, everything's good.
She still will not land on the left lead. I got her to do it once, by really asking hard. I have a call in to the chiropractor, but in the mean time I will just keep doing lots of bending and stretching as I ride. She picks up the lead fine and canters well (not as well as to the right), so it's not drastic, but still.
Friday 3/6
Christy lesson. Pandora did pretty well. I spent most of the lesson focusing on McKinna - the girl rode her tonight and they looked fantastic together! I'm excited.
Anyway - my ride was okay. She is doing very nicely at the canter. I have to work hard still to hold it together, but it's a huge amount better than when we first started. Her transitions to the right are turning into a thing of beauty! Light, fluffy, balanced, everything a canter transition should be.
The jumping just wasn't my favorite. She goes better when I ride better, of course. She had a very brief meltdown about a car driving past outside [in the dark], and I was pleased that she came back to me and began focusing after only a few minutes of acting silly. Still, the jumping just wasn't as good as I'd like it to be. I guess we just weren't 'on' tonight. We got some nice fences and some not-as-nice fences. I feel like she would do better if the jumps were just a little higher, but I'm also uncomfortable suggesting that because there's a pretty big ideal that 'if you aren't doing well over lower things, don't move them up.' I believe in this - I do, I do. It's just, she really DOES tend to do better over bigger things!
Still, before I say something, I need to do more homework over high and low fences. We will see how next week goes.
Saturday 3/7
Free-longed. I was very tired from last night. I will set up a short grid tomorrow to ride through.
Sunday 3/8
Set up a simple grid - just 4 trot poles 4'6" apart, then 9' to a low X. I figure I will slowly build up the complexity of our grids, since she seems to get anxious when she encounters them. She was lovely through it. Just a short ride, but it was productive, and we both enjoy rides like that sometimes where we don't spend a long time working on our issues but correct a few things and call it good.
Still doesn't want to land on the left lead unless I exaggerate the cue ridiculously. We will keep playing with this, but hopefully it goes away when the chiro visits!
Week 2 Outline
Monday 3/9
Flatwork schooling. Toss the dressage saddle on, grab the dressage whip, and work hard! We will practice leg-yield, correct shoulder-in (need to make sure Mom can be eyes-on-the-ground and maybe do some filming), and we will reeeeeeeeally practice our transitions.
I also need to regain a bit of the sharpness of my half-halts.
Tuesday 3/10
Jump some single fences. I will set up a low, wide oxer and a single, taller vertical. I'll do regular w/t/c schooling, focusing on getting that left bend without leaning over the left shoulder, and sprinkle jumps in here and there.
Wednesday 3/11
Night off - free longe and lots of love!
Thursday 3/12
Set up a simple grid. 3 trot poles 4'6 apart, 9 feet to a biggish Swedish oxer.
Friday 3/13
Jumping lesson.
Saturday 3/14
Day off.
Sunday 3/15
Light flatwork school.
Did not ride. Lots of homework to do!
Tuesday 3/3
Another homework night. She got free longed both nights, though, so she got to work off some energy.
Wednesday 3/4
Sigh, another free-longeing night....because I rode McKinna! A girl in our Pony Club may use McKinna for the SJ rally, because her horse is working through some training issues and they don't want any setbacks. She is trying her out tomorrow night, so I hopped on to make sure she hasn't forgotten how to work ;) She did great. We did w/t/c both directions, and I set up a zigzag pole rollback exercise. We walked and trotted over it (our arena's too tight to expect her to canter it), but then as we were cantering, I'd change directions across one pole and ask for a flying change. The first time I didn't set her up right, but then we got two in a row! Impressive considering we never worked on flying changes...
Thursday 3/5
Finally rode tonight. I had a very good ride! We did a lot of cantering over a low cavaletto, a 2' ish vertical, and then a 2'3 ish narrow fence with bright yellow and red planks. Pandora was just lovely. I am REALLY getting somewhere now that I sit up and carry my hands all the way to the base of the fence - she holds a steady pace, I can half halt, her shoulders are higher, everything's good.
She still will not land on the left lead. I got her to do it once, by really asking hard. I have a call in to the chiropractor, but in the mean time I will just keep doing lots of bending and stretching as I ride. She picks up the lead fine and canters well (not as well as to the right), so it's not drastic, but still.
Friday 3/6
Christy lesson. Pandora did pretty well. I spent most of the lesson focusing on McKinna - the girl rode her tonight and they looked fantastic together! I'm excited.
Anyway - my ride was okay. She is doing very nicely at the canter. I have to work hard still to hold it together, but it's a huge amount better than when we first started. Her transitions to the right are turning into a thing of beauty! Light, fluffy, balanced, everything a canter transition should be.
The jumping just wasn't my favorite. She goes better when I ride better, of course. She had a very brief meltdown about a car driving past outside [in the dark], and I was pleased that she came back to me and began focusing after only a few minutes of acting silly. Still, the jumping just wasn't as good as I'd like it to be. I guess we just weren't 'on' tonight. We got some nice fences and some not-as-nice fences. I feel like she would do better if the jumps were just a little higher, but I'm also uncomfortable suggesting that because there's a pretty big ideal that 'if you aren't doing well over lower things, don't move them up.' I believe in this - I do, I do. It's just, she really DOES tend to do better over bigger things!
Still, before I say something, I need to do more homework over high and low fences. We will see how next week goes.
Saturday 3/7
Free-longed. I was very tired from last night. I will set up a short grid tomorrow to ride through.
Sunday 3/8
Set up a simple grid - just 4 trot poles 4'6" apart, then 9' to a low X. I figure I will slowly build up the complexity of our grids, since she seems to get anxious when she encounters them. She was lovely through it. Just a short ride, but it was productive, and we both enjoy rides like that sometimes where we don't spend a long time working on our issues but correct a few things and call it good.
Still doesn't want to land on the left lead unless I exaggerate the cue ridiculously. We will keep playing with this, but hopefully it goes away when the chiro visits!
Week 2 Outline
Monday 3/9
Flatwork schooling. Toss the dressage saddle on, grab the dressage whip, and work hard! We will practice leg-yield, correct shoulder-in (need to make sure Mom can be eyes-on-the-ground and maybe do some filming), and we will reeeeeeeeally practice our transitions.
I also need to regain a bit of the sharpness of my half-halts.
Tuesday 3/10
Jump some single fences. I will set up a low, wide oxer and a single, taller vertical. I'll do regular w/t/c schooling, focusing on getting that left bend without leaning over the left shoulder, and sprinkle jumps in here and there.
Wednesday 3/11
Night off - free longe and lots of love!
Thursday 3/12
Set up a simple grid. 3 trot poles 4'6 apart, 9 feet to a biggish Swedish oxer.
Friday 3/13
Jumping lesson.
Saturday 3/14
Day off.
Sunday 3/15
Light flatwork school.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
February Week 4 and Review
I haven't kept up with this at all lately - but if I don't jump straight back in, I'll never get back on track!
Clinic Overview 2/21
I had a great clinic. She really focused on my position and FINALLY fixed my biggest position flaw: my lower legs were always too far forward. She helped me figure out how to fix that without messing up the rest of my position. It's really painful to maintain right now, but I'm sure that will get easier as I build up the right muscles!
Pandora did really well. She certainly moves out a lot more when I ride like that - I need to make sure not to stifle her "free forward movement," as I tend to want to half-halt more than is necessary and the clinician told me to watch that I don't slow her down too much. Her jumping was nice. Clinician reinforced that I should let Pandora make her own mistakes so she learns from them, especially turning after fences if she is unbalanced to force her to get herself organized. Also watch out for diving on the takeoff side of tight fences - only did it on one fence but still a big flaw.
Monday 2/23
Had a good ride. A really solid workout - for me, more than her! Maintaining the new (correct) leg position is hard. But we'll get there. Now that I know what the Correct Place For My Leg is, I can do stirrupless riding that is actually constructive.
We keep running again and again into issues with left flexion. I am pretty sure that it's not all in my head, or at least I hope not! It seems like she's unwilling to soften her jaw to the inside and relax her neck, so perhaps it's time to have some body work done again. This is a consistent problem I have been running into, and I need to be careful not to get into fights with Pandora about it. I can't just keep insisting that she bend, because she just stiffens more and gets upset.
It seems to help when I bring her back to a halt and ask her to flex a little, then do flexions at the walk (big circle, ask her to really bend on a small circle, then back out to the big circle) but I just can't get her to do it at the trot.
I have also noticed that she tends to favor her right lead over her left, so I'm definitely thinking we've got a body issue here. I will continue to work on asking her to soften so that we hopefully get it worked out through schooling, but I'd still like to have her worked on before the show jumping rally in late March.
Tuesday 2/24
Had a pretty good ride tonight. We kept it short, because another girl was going to have a lesson this evening. I carried the dressage whip because we've been having quite a bit of flexion issues lately, as I mentioned. It definitely improved things, but not all the way.
In any case, we got some very nice relaxed canter work on a large circle. I need to sharpen those transitions though - and make sure I'm asking right, because sometimes I forget to really keep her bent around that inside leg, and she hollows out and bends to the outside and rushes the transition.
I am still working on that damned leg position change. It hurts!
Wednesday 2/25
Don't remember...I think I took the night off.
Thursday 2/26
Free jumping. I set up a chute - a simple crossrail, one stride to a vertical. She was NOT a big fan of it at first, very nervous, but settled down after quite awhile. I think it would help to have my mom there to help me line her up and set up/rearrange the chute, as well.
Our final height on the vertical was 3'3". She looked pretty good :-) Next time I think I will set up a two-stride to an oxer. Maybe I will make it two X's set at bounce distance, then 2 strides to the oxer, but I'm not sure if the bounce will rob her of the momentum she'll need to get to a big fat oxer. We'll see - I'll probably just do the one X to start with. Simple is better!
Friday 2/27
Went to a lesson at Poseidon. Pandora was great! Christy said she could really notice a difference in terms of Pandora's muscling and ability to carry herself. We worked on asking her to really move forward without falling down on her nose, and got some super nice trot work. The canter is coming along splendidly. We did some nice jumping around a course - and once, after cantering to a panel jump around a short corner, Pandora got a wee bit excited and really powered over it. I wanted her to remember that I get to call the shots, so I directed her into a pretty sharp circle right after the fence to remind her that she can't just build up steam and roar forward - she did a lovely flying change into the circle :-) Nice and balanced and clean. Woohoo!
I REALLY learned that I need to wait for the fences. I tend to see (or not see) a distance, get a little nervous, and lean forward or drop the reins too soon. When Christy pointed that out, I made it a point to just sit and let the fence come to me. It worked nicely, and my distances turned out a lot better.
Saturday 2/28
Quiz rally!
Sunday 3/1
Dressage lesson at Poseidon. Pandora did fantastically here, too. She was nice and mellow, and when we did a little quadrille, the 'everyone canter on a circle' movement was great! I love that her canter is balanced enough now that we can ride on a circle without running everyone over.
So, here was the February goal: Be going smoothly through grids, jumping single fences easily at 2'9", and developing a steady canter.
Wellll....not so much. February was a pretty hectic month, as I'm sure you could tell by my lack of progress reports. Part of the problem is that we're working so hard on putting together smooth, steady fences that my instructors don't usually bump up the height. It's a bit of a paradox. I understand she should be going well over small fences before we bump it up, but she really does better over fences that are 2' to 2'3" in height at the absolute minimum. She's totally fine with crossrails, but they don't make her think at all, and she gets lazy and bored I think.
Anyway.
We have not practiced any grid jumping. Shock, horror. I am going to make this a priority next month, as grids will really help her figure things out for herself. As well as push the height.
We have not jumped single fences at 2'9" (exception: schooling show at the VERY beginning of the month). This I'm not too concerned about, because I know she can jump them - but, jumping single fences is very good practice, especially trotting them. It's not hard to set up a single fence that I jump occasionally while schooling flatwork (as long as I'm flatting in my jumping saddle!), so this will be easy to do next month.
We have been developing a steady canter. The more I carry my hands, the less she leans down on me while jumping, and the easier it is for me to keep her from revving up her engine too much as we approach a fence. So, we can consider one goal successful!
March goal: Continue working on our jumping skills, but don't neglect the flatwork. I will go to three jumping lessons at Poseidon, a rally prep lesson which will involve jumping, and finally the Show Jumping rally the last weekend in March (what a perfect way to check my progress!).
I will be focusing on some flatwork aspects as they apply to jumping: smooth balanced turns, rating and adjustability at all three gaits, obedience to the leg.
Since I did not complete my gridwork and single fence goals last month, I will make it a priority to set up a grid at least once a week, and jump single fences at least once a week as well.
By the end of March, I want to be coursing smoothly over 2'6 with a calm, smooth, and balanced w/t/c. We should be able to significantly control our rating at all 3 gaits. I want to set up a 5-stride line and be able to alternate between getting 4, 5, and 6 strides nicely.
I am very interested to see how Pandora does at the Show Jumping rally, which is in Washington. We are entered in the 2' to 2'3 division, which means that I won't have to worry about height at all - just about remembering my course! I am curious to see how she responds to a totally new environment. From my limited travel with her, she's given every indication that she can be nervous in new environments but she doesn't lose her head. Most importantly, she has never offered to stop or even look at a new, scary fence. If she again does not offer to stop or peek at the SJ rally, then I will be very happy!
Clinic Overview 2/21
I had a great clinic. She really focused on my position and FINALLY fixed my biggest position flaw: my lower legs were always too far forward. She helped me figure out how to fix that without messing up the rest of my position. It's really painful to maintain right now, but I'm sure that will get easier as I build up the right muscles!
Pandora did really well. She certainly moves out a lot more when I ride like that - I need to make sure not to stifle her "free forward movement," as I tend to want to half-halt more than is necessary and the clinician told me to watch that I don't slow her down too much. Her jumping was nice. Clinician reinforced that I should let Pandora make her own mistakes so she learns from them, especially turning after fences if she is unbalanced to force her to get herself organized. Also watch out for diving on the takeoff side of tight fences - only did it on one fence but still a big flaw.
Monday 2/23
Had a good ride. A really solid workout - for me, more than her! Maintaining the new (correct) leg position is hard. But we'll get there. Now that I know what the Correct Place For My Leg is, I can do stirrupless riding that is actually constructive.
We keep running again and again into issues with left flexion. I am pretty sure that it's not all in my head, or at least I hope not! It seems like she's unwilling to soften her jaw to the inside and relax her neck, so perhaps it's time to have some body work done again. This is a consistent problem I have been running into, and I need to be careful not to get into fights with Pandora about it. I can't just keep insisting that she bend, because she just stiffens more and gets upset.
It seems to help when I bring her back to a halt and ask her to flex a little, then do flexions at the walk (big circle, ask her to really bend on a small circle, then back out to the big circle) but I just can't get her to do it at the trot.
I have also noticed that she tends to favor her right lead over her left, so I'm definitely thinking we've got a body issue here. I will continue to work on asking her to soften so that we hopefully get it worked out through schooling, but I'd still like to have her worked on before the show jumping rally in late March.
Tuesday 2/24
Had a pretty good ride tonight. We kept it short, because another girl was going to have a lesson this evening. I carried the dressage whip because we've been having quite a bit of flexion issues lately, as I mentioned. It definitely improved things, but not all the way.
In any case, we got some very nice relaxed canter work on a large circle. I need to sharpen those transitions though - and make sure I'm asking right, because sometimes I forget to really keep her bent around that inside leg, and she hollows out and bends to the outside and rushes the transition.
I am still working on that damned leg position change. It hurts!
Wednesday 2/25
Don't remember...I think I took the night off.
Thursday 2/26
Free jumping. I set up a chute - a simple crossrail, one stride to a vertical. She was NOT a big fan of it at first, very nervous, but settled down after quite awhile. I think it would help to have my mom there to help me line her up and set up/rearrange the chute, as well.
Our final height on the vertical was 3'3". She looked pretty good :-) Next time I think I will set up a two-stride to an oxer. Maybe I will make it two X's set at bounce distance, then 2 strides to the oxer, but I'm not sure if the bounce will rob her of the momentum she'll need to get to a big fat oxer. We'll see - I'll probably just do the one X to start with. Simple is better!
Friday 2/27
Went to a lesson at Poseidon. Pandora was great! Christy said she could really notice a difference in terms of Pandora's muscling and ability to carry herself. We worked on asking her to really move forward without falling down on her nose, and got some super nice trot work. The canter is coming along splendidly. We did some nice jumping around a course - and once, after cantering to a panel jump around a short corner, Pandora got a wee bit excited and really powered over it. I wanted her to remember that I get to call the shots, so I directed her into a pretty sharp circle right after the fence to remind her that she can't just build up steam and roar forward - she did a lovely flying change into the circle :-) Nice and balanced and clean. Woohoo!
I REALLY learned that I need to wait for the fences. I tend to see (or not see) a distance, get a little nervous, and lean forward or drop the reins too soon. When Christy pointed that out, I made it a point to just sit and let the fence come to me. It worked nicely, and my distances turned out a lot better.
Saturday 2/28
Quiz rally!
Sunday 3/1
Dressage lesson at Poseidon. Pandora did fantastically here, too. She was nice and mellow, and when we did a little quadrille, the 'everyone canter on a circle' movement was great! I love that her canter is balanced enough now that we can ride on a circle without running everyone over.
So, here was the February goal: Be going smoothly through grids, jumping single fences easily at 2'9", and developing a steady canter.
Wellll....not so much. February was a pretty hectic month, as I'm sure you could tell by my lack of progress reports. Part of the problem is that we're working so hard on putting together smooth, steady fences that my instructors don't usually bump up the height. It's a bit of a paradox. I understand she should be going well over small fences before we bump it up, but she really does better over fences that are 2' to 2'3" in height at the absolute minimum. She's totally fine with crossrails, but they don't make her think at all, and she gets lazy and bored I think.
Anyway.
We have not practiced any grid jumping. Shock, horror. I am going to make this a priority next month, as grids will really help her figure things out for herself. As well as push the height.
We have not jumped single fences at 2'9" (exception: schooling show at the VERY beginning of the month). This I'm not too concerned about, because I know she can jump them - but, jumping single fences is very good practice, especially trotting them. It's not hard to set up a single fence that I jump occasionally while schooling flatwork (as long as I'm flatting in my jumping saddle!), so this will be easy to do next month.
We have been developing a steady canter. The more I carry my hands, the less she leans down on me while jumping, and the easier it is for me to keep her from revving up her engine too much as we approach a fence. So, we can consider one goal successful!
March goal: Continue working on our jumping skills, but don't neglect the flatwork. I will go to three jumping lessons at Poseidon, a rally prep lesson which will involve jumping, and finally the Show Jumping rally the last weekend in March (what a perfect way to check my progress!).
I will be focusing on some flatwork aspects as they apply to jumping: smooth balanced turns, rating and adjustability at all three gaits, obedience to the leg.
Since I did not complete my gridwork and single fence goals last month, I will make it a priority to set up a grid at least once a week, and jump single fences at least once a week as well.
By the end of March, I want to be coursing smoothly over 2'6 with a calm, smooth, and balanced w/t/c. We should be able to significantly control our rating at all 3 gaits. I want to set up a 5-stride line and be able to alternate between getting 4, 5, and 6 strides nicely.
I am very interested to see how Pandora does at the Show Jumping rally, which is in Washington. We are entered in the 2' to 2'3 division, which means that I won't have to worry about height at all - just about remembering my course! I am curious to see how she responds to a totally new environment. From my limited travel with her, she's given every indication that she can be nervous in new environments but she doesn't lose her head. Most importantly, she has never offered to stop or even look at a new, scary fence. If she again does not offer to stop or peek at the SJ rally, then I will be very happy!
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