In which Sam goes to The Ark....

....and schools some Training level questions! Kelly and I shipped Sam and Czar off to The Ark with an "entourage" on Saturday (Erica and Corin, two eventer hopefuls). Weather wasn't looking too good - in fact, when we got to the xc course, it started raining on us. Sam was a bit of a dingbat about "running the gauntlet" - the driveway between the barn and the pot belly pigs and numerous other tame wildlife. It's a spooky area, so I can see why he would be skittery about it. I can just imagine taking Oliver through that area! Even Czar was a bit startled about the zoo critters.



We warmed up over the xrail and vertical they had out there. Clover is in full growth, so the boys were slipping and sliding around, plus the grass was wet. It wasn't an auspcious start to our day, but we discovered that the footing was better further out. I took Sam over some little BN jumps to start - he was all for that - and then we wandered in the direction of the water jump. The scary (to me) log and stone Novice/Training level jump was reversed from when I jumped it with Miles. I thought it was actually scarier this way, than the way I jumped it before - the stone is more recessed under the log rolltops, so that it looks like something is lurking under there. It looks just as big as it ever did. I actually think the Prelim jump looks more inviting. However, since this is my bugaboo, I cantered Sam at it. He looked hard (backed off a little, probably because he wanted a good look at what was underneath) but Sam, being Sam, jumped it gamely. I turned him around for another approach and this time he sailed over it. The landing is a little bit of a drop, which I had forgotten about but remembered as we were airborn for a bit longer than anticipated over the jump :^).



We schooled the lower water, and Sam galloped in and did the bending line to the boat without a hitch. We then wandered up to the woodline, with the intent of jumping the BN fishing pier and then going down into the water, but as I walked up there I saw the new Novice jump, which was built of upright timber and was on the skinny side, so I went into the woods a bit further, cantered over the Novice jump, and then cantered on down to the water, where I was tempted to do the Training level log in (I know he could have done this easily, so we'll do it next time). Such a good, honest boy.



The half-coffin came next, which Sam did like a charm (and so did Czar - I was so proud of both of them!). After the half-coffin, we did our next big question of the day. Both of us (Kelly and I) did the bank up, and then I did the bank down, and then I decided to do the double-bank up. Sam was a bit confused and wasn't sure where to put his feet, so we had a bit of a bobble going up. I went off the Novice drop down, and then turned him around and gave him a better spot gonig up the double-bank, so that time he did it quite well. Feeling brave, I decided to do the double-bank down. The first time through, it was a bit shaky as I got ahead and Sam got wobbly, but he was dead honest and we survived, and the second time he was wonderful. I think I still got ahead a touch, but on the landing side I managed to get back to where I was supposed to be with my body.



We next did the upper water, which involved cantering in (for Sam) and then out over the Training level rolltop. Erica got a great picture of us over that, and his knees were up! Yay! Apparently Sam needs the challenge of bigger fences for him to make any sort of an effort. There wasn't a good place to drop INTO the water, so I made a spot. I didn't realize that it was a fairly large drop into the water, but Sam, once again, was a trooper. Again, a nice picture of us launching into the water.



We finished up over the planters - the Novice first, and then the Training level one, which was so easy that I was very tempted to try the Prelim one, but didn't want to push my luck for the day.



All in all, a VERY good day, and I'm feeling pretty confident for Novice at Lumber River. I just hope that his allergies stay all right and he's breathing well.



Oliver also schooled well yesterday. I need to flat him more often, as he was pretty inconsistent in the contact, and he's hopping around behind at the canter at first (he does eventually settle into quite a nice canter). Jumping-wise, he's wonderful, especially when you put him in a gymnastic line and make him think about what he's doing. We got the second vertical up to about 2'9 and he just sailed over it, so it's time to focus on flat work for now, especially since we have MacNair's coming up and I really want to ride him in the Intro tests.

In which Sam starts phase 1 of his conditioning program...

...a little too late for Lumber River, but better late than never, right? We started off with a little flatwork, me in my Antares, and did lots of stretches first. To get the stretch starting from the back, I thought "nose to chest" and when he softened, a gentle push with my seat and legs to get him to stretch to the end of the rein, and when he popped up, thinking "nose to chest" once again and then the gentle push to the end of the reins. This works pretty well for Sam - it gets him to soften through his poll, which he is not always good at doing, and then gets him to push through the stretch and lift his back and start to swing. For some reason, he's switched stiff sides on my and he's now much stiffer on the right than on the left rein. It's probably because I love to throw away that right rein, so I had to concentrate very hard on not allowing with my outside rein (Sam's very good at talking me into giving him just one more smidge of rein), especially when I'm on the left bend. However, when I'm adamant about not giving it up and sending him into the outside rein with my inside leg, he is fairly quick to soften and lift his back. We still play that game every time I ride him, though.

In the canter, I had to think about slowing the trot down (think "tuck", as Denise would say) and then moving him forward into the canter, and making sure that I didn't tip my upper body at him - easier said than done. Then, I remembered I had a whip so when he didn't take the depart and started to hop around with his head flung up in the air, I tapped him and the next time, he had a fairly nice depart. On the right rein, his departs are pretty decent. On the left, they're still a bit hollow, but his balance is so much better on the left rein than on the right.

I put my stirrups up two holes and then we started to do some hand-gallop sets. He was pulling in the beginning (not hard, but pulling) and when I tried to let him out a notch and soften the rein, he just ran faster. Since we were in the arena, I didn't want him tanking off with me, so I bridged my reins and pressed them into his neck. Once he did a few laps, he started to settle down. After four laps one way, I checked my monitor and he was at about 150. We walked around and he pulsed down to the low 80s very quickly - within a minute or so. Once he was down in the low 70s, we picked up the canter the other way. We did this a total of four times (that's 16 times around the arena) and each time, he pulsed down fairly quickly, but the respiration was up a little too much for my comfort. After the last canter set and he pulsed down, I picked up the canter again and then cantered him through a little gymnastic (that was set for Oliver) and worked on coming out of the turn without sitting down, and keeping the quality of the canter up to the jump. We also did turns to the rolltop, both backwards and forwards, out there, working on getting him to jump from behind instead of rolling over his shoulder. The jumps were tiny, so he didn't respect them much, but I can feel when he jumps over his shoulder and when he actually lifts it.

Something I noticed - when cantering on the right rein, he tends to bulge left and push against my right leg, which is weaker anyway. I find that my right leg tends to swing a little more than my left, so I've got to work on strengthening it.

In which Oliver learns to jump his first gymnastic...

...and gets cocky! Which is a good thing, as he's very mild-mannered normally and very, very polite. After our jump school, he nudged me over as I was crouching by his grooming kit, which of course is very naughty but it was nice to see some spunk. He's not allowed to do that anymore, and he caught me off-guard, but he was forgiven seeing as he was a superstar today.

I hadn't ridden him about a week, so I wasn't expecting a whole lot. Optimistically, I had set up crossrail and then a little piles of poles that would eventually become a vertical four strides away, set just a tad on the short side since he would ideally be trotting in. We warmed up on the flat - it was a windy day and he was a little more forward than usual, but as explained above, he had practically a whole week off. I really concentrated on sitting UP, and keeping my lower leg very still on him but on the entire time, and pushing him out to my outside rein. Of course, he took that as a cue to trot, but I quietly brought him back and leg yielded him out to the outside rein and he stopped jigging. We cantered, first on the right lead (his preferred lead) and as usual (lately), he humped up his back a little bit and crowhopped a few strides, so I got off his back and just let him play. I think it's a balance issue with him. I don't think he's being naughty - the one time he bucked out of fun was from a pretty big jump over a 2'3ish plank. I think what's happening is that he gets so far underneath himself that he sort of kicks out his hind legs to get them sorted back out again. He never (touch wood) gets bad about it, and if I just keep my shoulders back and let him work out the kinks, he soon settles down into a nice, quiet rhythm and I can eventually sit down and start to rebalance him a little. He's got such a nice natural canter - I know I keep saying that time and time again, but it's one of the nicest I've ridden and he's not even broke yet!

Since things were going well on the flat, I trotted him up to the crossrail and predictably, he grabbed the bit and launched himself over it. I don't know, at this point, if he's doing it out of fun or out of nerves, but he landed in a canter and then cantered quietly over the little pile of poles on the ground, which is a huge improvement to a month ago where he was still gawking at anything new. I brought him back over the "x", and this time he jumped it quietly and made a very easy four strides over the pile, so I hopped off and raised it to a tiny vertical. He jumped the "x", landed very crookedly and then sort of wobbled over to the vertical, but he did jump it and I was so pleased that he didn't look for a way out. So, we came over it again and this time, he nailed it - quiet jump over the "x", four easy strides and a beautiful little jump over the vertical. Lots of praise, jumped off, and set the vertical a couple of holes higher so that it was 2'6ish. We trotted over the "x", cantered a lovely, uphill four strides over the vertical, which he "sproinged" over and landed in a gorgeous, uphill canter and came back down easily to trot.

I LOVE this horse. I have never had that uphill, bouncy feeling over a jump before! As green as he is, his balance is wonderful, and I love that on landing it feels like he's got his hocks underneath him. If he turns out to be as brave (or obedient - I'll take either) as he promises to be, he's going to be quite a nice little lower eventer for me

In which we discover the magic rein stop...

...and Sam and I come to an agreement about how short the reins really need to be. First, I need to preface this with a description of our jumping school with Holly on Friday, since I have never ridden back-to-back lessons with Sam before, and we did a jump school followed by a dressage school on Saturday, so he was pretty pooped on Sunday, which is why I gave him the day off.

Holly wanted to just work on jumping with us, so we worked on some pretty tight turns in her arena. She wanted me to tighten up my lower leg, which I thought was fairly tight but was moving just a tad back and forth while galloping. I'm not sure how to fix that without jamming my lower leg forward, but I'll figure something out. Also, I have a tendency to sit down too much in the turns, which takes away from Sam's forward motion and tends to hollow him - I've gotten much better about not sitting on the way to the jump, but I still want to sit and compress through the turns. Holly wanted me to keep my seat light and following, and keep a little more closed hip angle all the way to the jump, and rock Sam back on his hocks a little more. When I don't sit down in the turns and let him come forward to the jump, he flows through the fence a lot better. We did a canter-in bounce over some verticals, and I got a nasty surprise as I thought I was bringing him in deep and Holly said we were taking off from too far away, which led to a very ugly and uncomfortable "out". Yikes. So, I had to really concentrate on compressing him more for the bounce and really let him get under the first one, so he could bounce out over the second. I think I need to bounce more often, as I was still uncomfortable over the "out".

I rode him for that lesson with a heart-rate monitor that day, and noticed something odd: his heartrate would get up to the 160s and 170s, but then drop very quickly down to the 80s, but his respiration was still quite fast and heavy. I asked Doc about this later, and she said that he was most likely still obstructed a bit in his lungs and we were going to try and give him the full dose of Cough-Free in the morning, instead of separating them out for the am and pm feeds. I also talked to Joe about it, and he said that it sounded like he was fit, but without any endurance, which makes more sense to me. I guess the next step in Sam's training is to up his cardio, since the strength is there because his recovery is so good. He's like me, I guess - my heartrate drops quite rapidly but there is no endurance there. The plan is to gallop him and get his heartrate up about 3 times a week, and then bring him back down, and then jack it up again, so that he can sustain longer intervals of galloping. I know this is rather late for the party as Lumber River is coming up soon, but it's better than nothing.

In which I discover that Sam needs to be jumped more than once every other week...

...because he was FULL of himself today. It may have been the lovely cooler weather - it was about 65 with a wind and sun - but I think it was because he saw the jumps, realized that I had my Antares on, and wanted to GO. We worked on the serpentine exercise, which made me very aware of how much he likes to land and then cut his corners. A lot of that is my fault as I don't stay out long enough on the approach and then start to turn too early. Based on what I learned from my last lesson with Holly, I need to wait until I get lined up better (lack of depth perception). Once I got the approaches squared away, he jumped much better and the distances started to work out for us. That exercise is a lot of fun - it really forces you to keep them balanced and straight and not allow yourself to cut corners. Sam was in his Dr. Bristol, which didn't seem to make a bit of difference to him when jumping, but he is still respectful of it on the flat, which is all the better. I am going to try and run him Novice at Lumber River with just his Happy Mouth french link and no flash cavesson, as I think it might be hindering his breathing.

Since it was such a lovely day, I decided to ride Oliver, too. Erica was out in the arena already so I thought I would enjoy the company. Oliver is such a good boy - the wind didn't seem to affect him much, although he was a bit livelier today. I still wouldn't call him "hot", though. He was allowing me to put him together a bit more, so I started to sit up and close my leg on him a little more strongly and push him up to the bit to improve the connection. He liked the better balance and gave me some absolutely love flatwork, especially at the trot. The canter departs are coming along - he swapped sides on me, and wanted to pick up his left lead instead of his right, today. That was funny to me, because he has shown a strong preference for his right lead. The fact that he's swapped preferences tells me that it's mostly a balance issue, rather than anything else. The first time we cantered, he bucked along - head up, then tail, then head...it was laughable because he isn't a very good bucker (thank God), but it did get annoying after a while so I pulled his head back up and booted him forward, and he quit acting like a kangaroo. Since he was being so good, I thought we'd trot a few jumps, which he took quite big, and then we cantered a few more. Jumping out of canter is going to be easy for him as he's got such a nice, rhythmic canter stride. It's time to start putting together some simple gymnastics for him so he can start figuring out where to put his feet and how to keep a rhythm.

In which Sam work on the new Novice dressage test....

...and we both eat an entire field's worth of gnats. Yuck. Last year, they weren't so bad, but the rain this year has bred a healthy bumper-crop of gnats, and I feel like I'm boarding back at Denise Adomines' place again. It was so bad, in fact, that Sam launched a mini-temper tantrum and we barely walked through our schooling. I rummaged around in my tack trunk for the old "bomber-fly sheets" that I used to use on Miles when I was riding him with my broken leg (didn't want to get launched by one of those bomber flies landing on him), but when I finally found it, it turned out to be the Bullwinkle wise (read: warmblood) for Miles, so I immediately handed it to Kelly. It was slightly big on Miles, so it might have a real chance of fitting Czar. Off to Cabin Branch today to find a fly mask to ride in that will Sam's and Oliver's abnormally small heads.

Had to hop on Czar today, as he was being a real butt and Kelly was getting frustrated. He immediately started to tank off with me, so I had to sit him down on his rear pretty hard several times until he realized that I was sitting on his back and not Kelly. We worked on canter, and he slipped and slid around for a few circles until he stopped dropping his inside shoulder and spinning his haunches around to the outside, and then I gave him back to her. She's frustrated because he is such a big boy and he knows how to use his size and especially his neck against her. I tried to reassure her that it WOULD get better - it took me the better part of a year to get Sam's canter under control - but that it would take some time, because a) she's tiny, and b) he's huge, and c) he's unbalanced, and d) she's unbalanced. Drafts just weren't made to sit down behind and carry themselves, so she's got her work cut out for her.

Anyway, back to Sam - I tried running through my dressage test, and predictably, I tensed up my arms and he wasn't quite so soft today. There were definite moments of softness and through-ness, but our canter departs were definitely not as through and round. We still have a lot of work to do on those. On the whole, everything looked and felt much better than it did. I'm nervous about what the dressage judge is going to think about it - I'm riding with a much more uphill neck now, and to me, he feels relaxed into it and carrying himself, but I'm still not totally sure what it looks like. I'll have to get Joe or Kelly to tape me so I can see if there any improvements in his carriage. We still have a month to go before the show, which is a huge relief.

In which Sam FINALLY gives me his neck...

...and, being very typical of me and not having the sense to change just ONE thing at a time, I cannot for the life of me figure out if it's because he finally decided to relax into my hands, or if it was because of the "new" bit - an eggbutt Dr. Bristol. Whatever it was, it was heavenly.

Gorgeous evening for a ride, even with the gnats as my ever-present companions. As soon as someone makes a fly spray that will kill the buggers without poisoning us or burning my skin, I'll buy gallons of it. There's nothing more unpleasant than having a horde of gnats kamikaze their way to die on your sticky, sweaty face. Yuck. Still, with the breeze, it was lovely. Sam was his usual self - interested in his surroundings, as they dumped a lot of dirt into the arena in a futile attempt to try and get rid of the ever-present rut (I say futile, because it will always be there while people persist on riding on the rail). Started off with lots of stretching, and Sam is really starting to get a bit of bounce in his stride and come forward off the leg. Didn't feel like putting on spurs today, as the blisters from attempting to break in my "new" boots are still raw and tender, and the spur strap just aggravates them. In addition to paying with my soul for a fly spray that actually works, I will also forfeit my soul for someone who will break in my boots for me. I love them, but I am beginning to regret trading my lovely, buttery, ALREADY BROKEN-IN Ariats for these Mountain Horse zip up torture devices.

Anyway, I am finally learning to stop allowing the reins to slip through my hands. I have this stop that I really like, and unfortunately, Sam likes it too, so we don't help each other in this regard. It's located between the second and third stop on my reins, and Sam is pretty darn happy with me placing my thumbs there. Unfortunately, just because I like it probably means that I need to be just a tetch shorter - like on the second stop. You wouldn't think that a 1/4 of an inch would make a difference, but it does. In the past, when I've ridden on that stop (or attempted to), Sam whines and cries and pitches such a fit about it that I inevitably let the reins slide back to that oh-so-wonderful place between 2nd and 3rd. Today, I decided that I was going to put an end to the fussing, so I forced myself to ride on the 2nd stop and then, of course, "cheated" by allowing my arms to stick way out in front of me. Oh well, gotta start somewhere. However, this actually WORKED because I was, lo and behold, not locking my elbows in an effort to get him to soften, and I was actually able to ride from my leg into my hand, and Sam braced for a few seconds, then softened visibly and tactiley. Un-frickin-believable. It was so soft and up and lofty that I actually thought for a second that he had cheated by dropping the contact, so I tested it by lengthening the reins to see if he would take it down. He definitely did. I found that 2nd stop again, and he found relaxation again. We did 15 meter circles, then out to 30, and back to 15, shortening and then lengthening the stride, and he stayed soft the entire time. Picked up canter - same softness. Leg yield - soft. Lovely!

Lots of stretchy work in between, and lots of concentrating on pulling my shoulders back, keeping my leg back and my heels down (and NOT contracting my calf in a vain effort to push him off my leg), and everything seemed to click into place tonight. We both ended the ride very happy and pleased with ourselves. I have high hopes again for the dressage at Lumber River!

In which Oliver ventures out of the safety of the jumping arena...

...and explores the wild world of the dressage arena. Chris was banging around on the tractor, pushing big piles of dirt into the rutted outside track of the jumping arena, so I thought it best to go and school somewhere else. Since I didn't need to jump anything today, the dressage arena beckoned to us. He was fanstastic on Sunday, jumping every spooky little thing in the jumping arena on the first go - well, he did snort at the shark's teeth panel, but I booted him over it from a standstill - and was showing some bravery at last. The grass had been mowed all over, so that the natural ditch was spookier than ever, but Oliver dropped his head, assessed the situation, and then hopped right on over. Such a brave boy. I think he's naturally quite brave, as water and ditches don't seem to bother him - just the man-made stuff, which tells me that he just needs exposure. There was quite a pile of stuff by the outside of the dressage arena - lots of kid's plastic playground equipment, the white Bloks, and a lawn chair or two, and Oliver showed his increasing bravery by walking by without turning himself inside-out to avoid it. We trotted around, and he showed better balance and so I started to teach him to go long and low. He can be tricky as he wants to just curl his head in, since he's built that way, so the more I can teach him to lift his back and stretch his neck and head out, the better it will be for him in the long run. At the walk, he was starting to get it and I could feel an increased swinging through the back. He is still a bit shaky at the trot - that darn balance thing - but he's starting to release some more and swing. We played around with leg yielding at the walk, which he got right away, and then worked on canter. The right lead is quite good - he picks it up willingly, and canters in balance, but wants to pop that left shoulder going around the turn - typical. The left lead is much harder, since he wants to pop that shoulder and pick up the right. I had to finally carry my whip in the inside hand and tap him with it to get him to pick it up - it feels funny when he does. He'll get it, though, and I must admit that I'm thrilled with the natural quality of his canter - lovely and round and light. This horse is going to be a piece of cake to gallop downhill, as his withers are already up in front of me.

So, all in all, rather an uneventful foray into the "wild". I'm looking forward to some real trail riding with him as I think he's going to enjoy it. He's such a pleasure to ride and handle.

Of course, he tworked his left front shoe again, so Doc had to pull it off. I had a chat with Jackie and we're going to try and shorten the heels on the shoes so he has less to grab, and worst case scenario is that he'll put hind shoes on with some trailers to slow the back end down, and roll the toes on the front to speed up the breakover. Sigh. We went through this with Sam, and I know it's a balance thing, but it's irritating nonetheless. Oliver is built so uphill and he's very short-coupled, with those spider legs, so it makes it even harder for him not to step on himself.