Oliver rocks his division at FenRidge!

We won our division, with a 27.9. That’s including a missed lead. What I’m most thrilled about, though, is how Oliver went stadium and xc. He was a blast to ride and barely looked at a thing, and took everything out of stride.

We got mostly 7s and 8s on our test. We did get a 4 on our canter lead, so if you think about it, I probably would have gotten at least a 7 on our lead, so that would mean that I would have gotten a 24 on our test if I hadn’t screwed up. Unbelievable. The only negative comment the judge made was that she thought the test was a bit rushed, but she did give me lots of “very active” comments, and mentioned that I needed to slow the tempo down so that I could develop more swing. However, after talking it over with Christan (who saw the test as she was warming up and said that the score was well-deserved), she said that if I slowed him down at this point, he would just mince along and then I’d get comments of “not enough push from behind”. So, that’s what we’re working on – getting him to push from behind, and THEN we can slow it down and see if we can maintain it. Still, I’m thrilled, and that just means that I have something to look forward to. The weather was miserable. It was spitting rain and about 45 degrees, even though the forecast said “sunny in the 60s”. I was extremely tempted to go home after dressage, since there was a long wait before xc (dressage was at 8:50, xc was at 12:45, and I had been up at 4am to get there). I didn’t bring any cover and didn’t relish the idea of going xc in the pouring rain, which is what the sky was threatening to do, and plus Oliver didn’t have studs and the xc course was full of clover, so I was worried about him slipping. I stuck around for some perverse reason – I guess I was fearing the wrath of Christan if I didn’t – and I’m glad I did, because even though it didn’t warm up a lot (the wind was really blowing), the sun did start to peek out and it warmed up to about 55 or so. Perfect xc weather. Plus, I had the benefit of riding Oliver, who was a bit fresh but definitely manageable.

Stadium was next – it was a bit hilly. First jump was a birch oxer, which he peeked at, but rode well and then a bending line left to an orange vertical. Then, about a 90 degree turn to a largish pink oxer, very bright, and then downhill and to the left at about 7 o’clock over fence 3, uphill and to the right for a bending line that rode about 3 strides, vertical to oxer, going downhill, and then back around to the right to a domino jump, which was getting a lot of horses. Oliver didn’t care at all – he was in a good, solid rhythm. Back around to another oxer, downhill over the Liverpool, and then back over the Nemo jump. It rode incredibly well, if you balanced them through it. That was his best stadium round ever. I was so excited with his progress. On to xc from stadium.

I swore I wasn’t going to do it, but I peeked at the scores (I had nothing else to do). Since I was sitting in first place, Christan told me to play it safe xc and not take the harder ditch option in the woods. XC was pretty long – 17 jumps, which is on the long side for BN. Right out of the starting box there was a hay bale jump, so you didn’t really have a lot of time to get them in front of your leg. Oliver gawked at it but I took it from the canter and he landed galloping, so that he took a longish spot at the next, which was a steeplechase sort of brush fence side perpendicular to a slope, so that you had to jump it at a slight uphill angle. The footing wasn’t good until after the second fence, which was a long gallop into the woods, downhill to a skinny log, and then, quick left to avoid the spooky ditch and go over the log option to the left. Oliver slid twice in the woods, even though I had him balanced, so I was thinking about studs for sure at Novice. He didn’t seem rattled by it, so we galloped out of the woods, down the woodline, left over a cabin with stuffed scarecrows to either side, and then still along the fenceline, swoop left and over a cutout rampy thing going uphill. Back into the opposite side of the woods for a largish cordwood pile with pine brush in front, which rode beautifully, then back down to the water. He peeked at the water but you can see from the pictures that he had no issue with it. If only he could trot in the dressage like he did in the water! Check out that engagement behind! Out of the water, downhill a ways to a cabin. That rode well – Oliver has gotten to the point of where all I do is sit up, close my entire leg, especially my upper thigh, and he just comes right back to me and balances himself on a soft rein. From the cabin, back uphill over the required ditch. Back uphill and a 180 to a narrow green cabin with orange fall leaves. Then, downhill again and a right turn to the drop – I went over the smaller one just because I wasn’t sure how it was flagged and didn’t want to risk a technical elimination for jumping the wrong side, although Oliver would have had no problem with it – he likes drops, and so do I. About 6 strides to a ramp, then uphill again to a bench, and then a long gallop around to the picture frame jump, bending line to a couple of logs, and back to the start box for the final table. He was a bit tired towards the end, but we only trotted the drop and the ditch, so I felt like we made good time, even though I wasn’t wearing my watch. That was a deliberate choice, since this was really his first BN (I don’t count Foxtrack as they’re so tiny and short).

Then there was a LONG wait for the scores. For some stupid reason, they waited until the ENTIRE BN division was finished before placing anybody. Half of the show was doing BN, so that meant that we waited about 2 hours for scores. I didn’t know if I had any time penalties or not, so I stuck around. When they finally posted them, I had 10 time penalties for going too slow! 2nd place had 8.8, and the rest of the division had higher penalties than I did. That wasn’t right, so Christan went to investigate. Turns out that Patricia had forgotten a section of the course when she wheeled it, so you had to be going Training speed to make the time. She (Christan) actually lost her 1st place on Bella’s sister, Das Belladonna, because the girl who got 1st actually MADE the time. That girl must have been going like a bat out of hell. Everybody else in BN didn’t make the time. However, since Patricia had already given out some ribbons (namely, to the girl who placed above Christan and already took hers and went home), Patricia said that the scores would stay. Grrrr. Still, I consider myself going double-clear as it was obviously a stupid mistake. That meant that Trainor Eventing (myself, Christan, and Marissa) all won our divisions on our horses. All of us scored below a 30,too, which is even more impressive. First place was a very nice ribbon, with a blue bucket filled with a over-the-wall tack hook, a body brush (blue), a sponge (also blue), a leadrope (yup, blue again), and a few gift certificates to a feed store and such.

The one thing I regretted during the show was wearing those damn Sit Tight breeches with my long johns – I felt like I was sliding in my own skin. I haven’t felt that insecure going xc in a long, long time. You’d think that with the rubber seat on the Sit Tights, I’d be stuck like glue, but I slid INSIDE the breeches – I didn’t even know that was possible! I’m tempted to burn the damn thing, since I hate them.

So, the show photographer must have loved Oliver (everybody else did – I got compliments on how adorable he was from just about everybody, and not just little girls), because she took a TON of pictures of him, especially his face. There are only a few other riders who got as many shots as I did. There is one from dressage where his mane is flying everywhere and he’s got this LOOK on his face which makes me laugh – I’m not sure what he’s thinking, but it’s not too positive from his expression. I guess he feels the same way about dressage that I do. Anyway, I had to buy that one because it makes me laugh every time. I actually bought 4 of them, since they were only $8 a piece. That’s the best deal for pictures I’ve ever seen since I was riding Tanner.

So that's what it means to ride with leg!

I started off by getting him really forward and marching up into the contact, because for some reason, today he wanted to mince alone and just arch his neck. I did a lot of shortening the stride and lengthening it within the gait, and each time I lengthened, I asked for a little more, really concentrating on wrapping my legs around him and riding every step up into my hands. Once he settled into the contact – he would get pissy and start to bob his head around, so I kicked him forward every time he did that – he started to have some nice lengthening. I also had to concentrate on riding the outside shoulder. Something that Bruce Mandeville had me do with Miles clicked with me today – you press your outside leg right behind the girth (instead of back, where the belly sort of swells out, which is where I keep my legs wrapped most of the time), and press the shoulder over around a turn, using very little hand. Of course, they’ll want to fall in, which is where you keep your inside leg back (where the belly swells out) softly and ride them between your inside and outside leg, to keep the bend. Once they get to the point of where they’re practically going around the turn with no hand at all, except to support, it’s pretty easy to ride them straight into both reins. Oliver has a bad habit of popping his shoulder to the outside around a turn, or the open part of a circle, tempting me to pull him through the turn with my reins. It also creates a kink in his body which prevents him from truly stepping through. Anyway, after getting some good trot work, I started on the canter by walking a turn on the haunches by pressing my outside leg right at the girth (well, it’s really slightly behind, but I imagine that it’s at the girth) and getting him to step cross over in front with very little rein. Once he was responding to that, I would allow him to take a few steps of walk and then immediately canter from there, keeping the outside rein, and just sliding my outside leg back to ask for the canter. If I truly have him on my outside aids, he’ll pick up the canter smoothly and without hollowing, and I’ll get the most lofty canter strides I’ve ever ridden from him, with very little effort. I also make sure that I really ride him forward into the canter to keep the inside hind jumping through, and instead of keeping my outside leg back, I’ll bring it back to neutral position so I can press his shoulder back in if it pops to the outside. By this time, he’s really understanding my outside leg forward, so when I walk him, I head down the long side, slide my inside leg back from the hip to think “push his butt down the rail”, and then press my outside leg at the girth to keep the shoulders off the trail. It worked like a charm. He eased his way down the long side in a wonderful, correct shoulder-in, and it seemed effortless.

I’m finding that I don’t ride with leg, like I thought I did. I read in the latest issue of Horse Journal that dressage judges are seeing an alarming tendency for people to ride without leg, and it’s why the halt is crooked and sprawly in so many tests. They had a picture of a person riding from behind, and the lower leg wasn’t really wrapped around the horse. It wasn’t sticking out away from the horse, like I had imagined, but from the mid point of the calf down, it wasn’t really touching the horse’s side. So, that got me thinking. Today, when I slid my legs back to where I could really feel his belly under my calf, he squirted forward. That told me that I wasn’t really, truly riding with my leg, since he really isn’t a very touchy horse. I immediately started to keep my leg there, and when he tried to canter forward, I would just keep my hands still (and NOT pull down, which is very, very tempting!) and keep my leg on and just wait for him to accept it. He started to pull and yank away, which annoyed me as well as had the effect of pulling me forward in the saddle, so instead of pulling back, I lifted my hands and put more leg on, and that made him sit back on his butt more, and when he did that, I immediately softened and put my hands back where they belonged. So, he started to accept that at the trot, and then I started riding trot/walk and walk/halt transitions with my legs back there. He hated that – wanted to pull and root and yank, and every time he did, I would boot him forward into the bridle (making him work harder) and then ask again. It got to the point of where I could just sit back, put my leg on, close my hand slightly, and BAM – he’d give me a beautiful, uphill down transition, and even a square halt. At the canter, he protested just as much, so much so that I think I may have gotten some Grand Prix collected canter work (he would rather canter in place than do a correct trot transition???), but in the end, his canter would get lofty and then he’d slide into his trot transition and have a beautiful trot with self carriage right off the bat.

MacNair's CT

Well, we just finished the CT at MacNair's. I didn't go to Five Points, mostly because I'm a big weenie and missed the xc schooling in August, so didn't feel prepared, but a bit of that was due to finances (specifically, lack of). So, in spirit of working on Oliver's dressage and stadium, we did the BN CT at MacNair's.

Oliver was wonderful in the crazy warmup arena. He got a compliment from a very nice girl who said he was "adorable", and then someone asked me if I was riding a 4th level test, which made me go "hmmmm". Once we got down to the dressage arena, I quickly found out that the judge was MEAN. The ring steward and I apparently had watches that were about 5 minutes slow, so when I got down there, I found out that I had to go into the arena right away. I asked for time to finish walking around, but the judge looked straight at me and rang the bell, so I just shrugged and went on in. We had a lovely, lovely trot down the centerline when he caught sight of something and gawked, hard, and I had to overbend him to the inside so that we could turn right and not plow into the judge's stand. I think he saw the geese landing on the pond behind the arena. There were quite a few. In August, there weren't any geese, so I think he noticed the pond for the first time. We managed to get it back together for the short diagonal, and then had a nice remainder of the test. He had a very nice canter depart to the left - very prompt and obedient - and then had sort of a blurry one to the right, but the canter to the right was wonderful and uphill and light. However, after my halt/salute, the judge proceeded to give me a lesson about how my hands were too high and that I was stifling Oliver by holding his head up and in, and restricting his movement (huh?). She said that I need to ride the outside of him more than the inside, but that he was a lovely uphill mover. So, I had sort of figured out what score I got from her after that little chat.

Stadium seemed to flow better than last time. The "dreaded" yellow V panels and the stone wall were there. The stone wall was fence 3, off a bending line from a simple vertical, and the V panels were on the short side of the arena after a turn. I had recently practiced jumping Oliver over our stone wall at home, which looks a lot like this one, and also over a blanket tossed over the barrels to reinforce "jump no matter what" in his little brain. It had been going well, so I wasn't too worried, but I had to make sure that he saw the jump in plenty of time, and came in balance. I didn't realize you were supposed to check in with the gate steward, as last time it was complete chaos due to the absence of said steward, so I didn't get to go until the very end, because everybody else had apparently checked in. By this time, Oliver was thoroughly annoyed with me for using him as a couch, so when we picked up the trot, he charged over fence 1, leaving out a stride. I tried to balance him back through the turn to fence 2, but he grabbed the bit and charged over that, too, so I really sat him back on his butt for 3, which was the stone wall. I was afraid that if I didn't get him balanced and back, he'd duck out in surprise. He didn't seem to have any issues with the stone wall, and the rest of the course flowed beautifully, even those yellow planks. After the planks, we had a 90 degree turn to the last two jumps, and he popped his shoulder and we jumped the oxer a bit crookedly, so had a deep spot to the last fence, but we were double-clear.

After untacking, I found that we were in 3rd place with a 36. First place had a 32, and then 2nd had a 35, so I wasn't too far behind, even with the judge not liking the way I rode. She gave me a 6 for rider position, on account of my hands, which is funny since I got an 8 on my position last show. Oh well - you can't make them all happy. I have since reviewed the tape and I thought we put in a lovely test. I was very happy with Oliver and how well he went - his jumping is really coming along quite well.

In which Kim finally learns how to do the free walk

First of all, my parade got a little rained on because Christan told me not to get too disappointed at the next show if I scored higher than this last one. I sort of expected that, and told myself that I would be happy with a score in the low 30s (like 30-33), but I didn't expect her to allude to the idea that the judge was a wee bit more than generous at MacNair's. Sigh. I guess sometimes you get really lucky and the judge just loves you and your horse, and sometimes you get a judge that you cannot please on any given day, and most of the time you fall in-between. Guess this was my lucky day. I've got to look at the bright side of things and remember that it just gives me something more to work on (not like I was going to sit on my laurels and take it easy), but still! So, I'm feeling a tad grumpy right now.

These were the phrases of the day: "Don't pull with your hands - use your leg and push him into the contact." "Up and out". "Keep that outside rein." "Elbows over hips." "If he wiggles into the halt, immediately trot on." "Shoulders back through the turn." "Hands up". "Throw your reins away like you're finished with your ride." "He's so used to you using your rein to correct him that he over-reacts to your leg." "Correct him with your leg, not the rein."

So, we did flatwork during my lesson today. Oliver felt a bit sticky, but then, I wasn't wearing spurs. Christan had me lengthen my stirrups one hole to really get me to wrap my legs around him. We started off by trotting and keeping my leg on, hands up with thumbs up, and not giving away my right rein going left, and keeping the bend going right. Oliver was dropping his inside shoulder coming off the rail on the right rein, and also popping his shoulder to the outside on the open side of the arena. I think I was letting him fall off the rail because I was trying too soon to catch that shoulder and keep it from popping on the open side. Again, I need to ride every single stride. I flexed him to the inside, used my inside leg, and then when we finished the turn, I thought "counter-bend" to catch that shoulder. Apparently, he was also dropping behind my leg because Christan told me "Leg!", so when I added some leg coming out of the turn, he straightened up pretty much on his own. To the left, it wasn't nearly the problem, except that I very badly want to open my outside (right) rein and push it forward. I could really see it on the video that Joe did for me last week, and boy, is it ugly when I do that. Christan said, "elbows over hips", so I concentrated on pressing my upper arm to my side and keeping that elbow over my right hip, and that seemed to straighten him.

During the canter, Oliver felt pretty heavy in the bridle, especially to the right, so maybe next time I will wear my spurs to boot him up. However, to the left, we had some very nice canter work. He is still wiggly in the transition, so the draw reins might need to go back on. Christan looked over my test and decided to work on free walk and halt. We started the halt work by doing it on a circle - trot a 20 meter circle, then halt. The first few times, he was pretty darn good, so Christan had me turn up the center line and then halt. The minute he turned up the center line, he threw his hips to the left and wobbled into the halt, leaning on my hands, so Christan had me immediately trot off. Of course, I had to tap him with my whip to get him to hop off my leg, so he trotted off, and we took a few strides in trot, then halted again, concentrating on shoulders back, hands steady, and leg on. It only took one more try and he was halting square consistently. I love the fact that you can correct him and he doesn't get emotional about it. So, we worked on free walk next. Christan had me trot down the long side, get a good, uphill walk transition, and then free walk across the diagonal. As we turned down the diagonal, Christan had me basically throw away the reins "like you're finished riding". This was totally against everything I was taught in the free walk (let them take the reins out of your hands), but I did it, and he marched on but I had to really check him with my left leg as he wanted to wander to the left. We did this a few more times and Christan said, "There's your free walk". I always thought that the free walk was more about them putting their head down and stretching across their backs, but Christan said that when I keep a contact, he curls and his stride doesn't get as long as it could. She said that if I free walked like that, I could get an 8 on it instead of the 7s I've been getting.

We ended by turning down the centerline one last time, and halting. Bam - he was perfectly square and straight, so we called it quits on that.

We break the 30 mark!

So, my news is that Oliver and I got a 27.9 on our dressage test at BN this Sunday. He had never been to MacNair’s before, and their lakeside arena can be a bit scary, so I didn’t know what to expect. The warmup arena was CRAZY – people weren’t steering or looking where they were going at all, so it was quite frustrating and I didn’t get the warmup I had planned on. Christan had three horses going that day, so she wasn’t able to help me much. I was also riding in my jumping saddle since I didn’t think there was much time between dressage and when they opened up stadium – my ride was at 9:15 and they started BN stadium at 9:30. He warmed up nicely, given the commotion – I started off my stretching him long and low, and then brought him up and really focused on keeping my upper body back and my hands higher. My friend, who’s not a horse person (in fact, she’s scared of them, but for some reason loves Oliver and I think the feeling is mutual), was there watching, and I think the little booger was showing off for her. We went in and put in a rather nice test – there were some moments where he sort of dragged me forward in the canter and I could feel him tipping onto his forehand, so I had to sit up tall and really keep my leg on and just drive him up into my hands – but all around I thought it was a decent test. I figured we would have scored in the md 30s, like around 35 or so, and I would have been happy with that since we scored a 39 last time, both times, and had fits of bucking in the departs. No bucking this time, and he stayed fairly steady in the bridle. Milanne told me he looked very steady – of course, she’s not a horse person so I didn’t give that much credit, but it did feel pretty darn good to me. There were still definitely areas for improvement, and I think that if I had been in my dressage saddle, he wouldn’t have been able to pull me forward like that.

We went into stadium, which was a bit twisty, and fence 1 was a brand new brick wall, and two was a yellow and purple V plank. I watched horse after horse prop or stop at those two jumps, especially the V plank. I couldn’t see anything especially terrifying about the plank . In fact, it was pained pale yellow and lilac, so it wasn’t even much of a contrast, and there were no fillers at the plank. Still, it told me to ride very strongly towards it, and sure enough, Oliver peeked at the stone wall and propped in front of the plank, but then we landed and had a nice, flowing round over the rest. He rolled a rail with his hind feet over jump 6, which was off a bending line and I still don’t know why he rolled it, but we were clear. He obviously needs to see more colorful stadium fences, since he was rather impressed with what was out there. He doesn’t look at flowers or anything, so I still don’t know what was scary about the planks, but the other horses were scared, too.

When I went to check the scores, I couldn’t believe my eyes. 27.9. I thought it was a mistake and that it was maybe a 37.9, but they put the “pure” dressage score by the penalty points and sure enough, it was a 72.1%. First place had a 26.8, and Christan told me later that it was a Grand Prix dressage rider on her 4th level horse. So, here’s my score sheet:

Enter – down centerline 7 little tilt in head
Short diagonal, change rein 7 same
A circle left 7 slightly short in neck
Canter left lead 7 balanced
Circle left canter 8
Transition to trot 8
Half diagonal 7
Circle right trot 8
Canter right lead 8 uphill
Circle right canter 7 Mouth open; against hand slightly (this is where he was pulling me a little)
Trot transition 8 uphill
Walk transition 6 unclear; almost early (I forgot where the transition was supposed to happen)
Free walk/medium walk 7 could stretch more but you have the right idea
Trot; turn up centerline 7 little crooked
X halt salute 6 haunches right

Gaits 7 for an 8, need uphill scope ?
Impulsion 7 nicely forward
Submission 7 behind vertical and mouth open at times, but uphill
Rider 8 Nice job. Skillful riding. Some loss of balance at times.

Can you believe it?!?!? An “8” on rider position? I’ve never, ever had an 8 on rider position. The halt obviously needs work, which I know, and the 7s could have been 8s if he hadn’t pulled me forward a titch, which I also knew. I hate it when they give you 8s, then switch to 7s, and then back to 8s, but don’t tell you what you did to lower it a point, or raise it a point. Of course, I’m thrilled with all the 8s, so I’m not complaining.

Finally. All the hard work is paying off. I’ve been so incredibly frustrated with my riding in general because I feel like I’ve been starting over from scratch. I’ve also seen very few results at the shows, and then we’ve had that weird problem with Oliver and him stepping short behind early last spring. I think those hypnosis CDS are working a treat, since this time I was able to realize when I was doing something, like tipping forward, and do something about it. It has also made me realize that just because you buy a Warmblood, doesn’t mean that you can RIDE one :^P. I think that it’s harder in many ways to ride a horse like Oliver than Sam, or even Bella.

The incredible complexities of a simpe in and out...

Just goes to show you how incredibly humbling this sport is, and how you never stop learning. I think I'm understanding just why it is that people play golf....

Had my lesson today, and we started off with flatwork, since that is (was?) my Number 1 Nemesis lately. A little harder to sit up and not tip forward in a jumping saddle, but easier to put my leg on. I've switched to little hammerhead spurs so that I'm not afraid to really put my leg on, and it seems to be working. I had a lightbulb moment the other day schooling xc at the Secrists - Oliver took off with me on the landing side of a fence and I really sat back, dug my spurs in, and lifted my hands in a half-halt, and I really felt him tuck his butt underneath, raise his withers, and sit DOWN. Wow. So, that's what Christan means by leg-to-hand! Anyway, I've been using that visual a lot when I've been flatting - at first, I had to use draw reins to keep Oliver from just bullying through my hand and accept the contact, but I've taken them off recently and he seems to still understand that when I leg him up into the contact, he must sit down behind and not hollow and grab the bit and run. Which, of course, makes it easier to ride leg to hand, since he's responding correctly. We worked a little on transitions - while I can get a lovely upward transition now, uphill and into the bridle, the trot-to-canter is still a little tough as I want to tip ever so slightly forward and drop my hands into it. When I think of really pressing him into the contact and then asking for the canter, thinking about lifting my hands (so they don't drop), he tends to strike off correctly and stay round. I also have this bad habit of riding the canter to the left a bit under the pace, so I've got to sit back, ride him UP, and keep my leg on, even if it's faster than I think I need to be. We also worked on the halt transition - coming around the turn, Christan noticed that I tip just a tiny bit forward when coming down from the trot, and then he swings his butt to the right and doesn't halt straight (or square). If I come around the turn, think "up" and keep my legs pressed into him, he halts squarely.

So, Christan had me trot a vertical 2'6, one stride to another 2'6 vertical. I came in at a spanking good trot, and then Christan told me that I was coming in too fast, so we sort of blew through the exercise with him falling on his forehand. I was to think about keeping the trot exactly the same, keep my hands up, and not goose him at the last stride and tip forward. It was bloody hard to do because I felt that the trot was underpowered and at the last second, I had this need to do something and I inadvertently goosed him with my leg, which resulted in a scrambling through the exercise. Then, I went the opposite extreme - instead of goosing him, I held onto him too much, so that he felt the need to pull his way through, resulting in a jump that was over his forehand. Christan told me to ride the first jump and not worry about the second - she even had my close my eyes over the first. I closed my eyes, felt him jump the first, panicked, opened my eyes, and LEANED at the second. I haven't leaned that badly at a jump for years! Christan told me that if I were riding a trot lengthening, I wouldn't goose him with my leg or drop my hands, so I was to think "dressage frame" up to the fence, and then on take-off, soften and allow him to jump up and around the vertical. Over and over and over we did this - at the last second I'm still leaning at the first jump (just a tetch, but enough to rotate my hands backwards and take my leg off), or I gun him over it without any support from my hands. We had ugly, two scrambly stride jumps, once where I completely threw my upper body at him and he went left and didn't jump the second jump (not that I blame him - there was no way he could jump it with me hanging around his ears), a lot of jumping the first jump and then plopping over the second, but at the end I finally got it (I think) - I did NOTHING except keep my leg softly on, even if everything in my body was screaming that I needed more speed, more leg, moreSOMETHING, softened my hand, kept my chest lifted, and we landed over the first jump beautifully, sat up, put leg on, and while the second jump still wasn't perfect, it was so much better than the previous attempts. The biggest and most obvious improvement was that on the landing, I sat up, closed my leg and hand, and lifted him into a lovely, balanced canter and then down to a walk, each and every time - yay! Before, I would be so happy with finishing the exercise that I would allow him to pull me forward, tipping onto the forehand, and sprawling to a walk or trot.

At the close, I asked Christan if I could canter a simple fence, and she agreed with the condition that even if I messed up, I had to call it quits. Of course that put the pressure on, so I picked up a lovely canter, cantered toward the crossrail, the whole time thinking "dressage canter". He did try and speed up a few strides out (probably relieved that he was no longer trotting through the grid), but I kept my leg on, half-halted him, and it rode beautifully. Now, I know I should correct the speeding up, but Christan said I handled it very well.

It is soooo frustrating. The easy way out would be to allow him to pick up some speed, and then just breeze through the in and out. It's so hard to keep riding all the way up until the last stride, and then soften without tipping forward or clamping on your leg. I wish I had another horse I could ride that I could work on this, because I could tell Oliver was getting tired towards the end, and he was being a Saint and putting up with me getting left behind, hitting him in the mouth (only did that once, but had to slip my reins a whole bunch), putting him at a bad spot, etc.

Bella seems to be improving slightly. Greg did a quickie adjustment on her and she walked out much better afterwards. She is out in a bigger paddock with grass, and seems to be content walking around.

King of the Hill (umm....pasture)

So, little Oliver is testing me….

We went to the dressage show (Antares) this past weekend, and he warmed up like a superstar. We went in, proceeded to have a very relaxed test, and then I asked for the first canter transition – buck, buck, buck. Luckily, they weren’t that big of bucks and I was able to stuff him forward out of it and we were okay to the next canter transition – more bucky bucky. Argh! I was surprised at how well I handled it, though – I just sat down, and rode him through. So, Christan came and watched me warm up for my next test (Novice A) and she watched as he bucked in the warmup arena for those canter transitions, too – now I was getting really irritated because he has NEVER done this before. It’s not like I was tense and digging my spurs into him, for Pete’s sake. Christan told me that I didn’t have him connected enough, and that I needed to ride him more “up” and “out”, especially in the canter. We had a lovely warmup – C said that if I rode the test like that, I would be in the 70% range. Of course, that didn’t happen. He tried to buck into his first canter transition – I nailed him, and he was okay. The next canter transition, he fell in around the turn, picked up the wrong lead, and I couldn’t bring him down until we almost completed half a circle. The rest of the test was okay, except that he fell in around the last turn down the centerline and we had a sprawly halt.

OK. I wasn’t expecting great scores, due to the disobedience, but he got the exact same score for both tests – a 39pp. Which, oddly enough, was enough to earn him 2nd place in both classes. I guess the judge was scoring rather high that day, as Christan won one of the classes with a 36pp. I guess there was some improvement as normally there would be no way I could get a 2nd place finish with lots of bucking J. So, now we need to work on connection – we’ve obviously got the relaxation. The judge’s comments were all along the lines of “get better balance and you’ll get higher scores”, blah blah blah, which all mean that he needs to be more connected. As least he’s not getting pinged on “tight back” or “tight neck” anymore.

Christan told me that when I get into the arena, I start to tip slightly forward, and my hands drop and allow him to fall behind my leg a bit. I don’t realize it’s happening, so I decided to download a hypnosis for the eventer MP3 online. It seems to be working – the first one I downloaded was on concentration and focus, and I’ve noticed that even my riding at home has gotten so much better. I had a flat lesson on Tuesday and it was probably one of the best ones yet. C told me that there was nobody in the world who could get their horses through by holding in front and kicking them up behind. She said that the only way to get them to soften over the back was to ride inside leg to outside rein, which meant lots of leg yielding to start. She said that she doesn’t do a lot of lateral work with her horses because she’s ALWAYS riding them from inside leg to outside rein, but when they get stiff, she incorporates it. So, to start, she had me leg yield from quarter line to long side, really focusing on keeping him straight and not allowing him to pop his head above the bit. We did this several times to each side, also concentrating on keeping him forward off the leg, and then we cantered. C had me canter as small as a circle as I could without losing the impulsion, and then allow him to spiral out into my outside rein, again keeping his body very straight. This worked wonders for keeping him solid in the outside rein, and also helped me realize when he fell behind my leg or got crooked. It was pretty intense work, but not once did C have to tell me to keep my shoulders back or to lift my hands – yay! I understand more than ever now why he’s not getting good marks in dressage – I’m too happy with allowing him to stay light in the contact and just passively ride him, instead of riding him every stride. C says that when she rides the little Appy mare she has in training, she is riding EVERY SINGLE STRIDE. She’s probably going to always have to ride this mare this way, whereas I won’t always have to do it with Ollie because he’s built more uphill. He just needs to be ridden that way until he gets strong enough to hold himself there. As far as jumping goes, he’s coming along really, really well. He’s allowing me to half-halt him back onto his haunches without him inverting, and we almost always get a perfect spot as a result. I took him for a hack today to ride the hills out back and to go over the biggish ditch back there. He needs more work on the hills, for sure, but it was really humid and hot and I don't blame him for running out of steam before the top. We jumped a few little Maiden/BN jumps, and then I cantered him up the hill and aimed for the grey bench at the top. Well, I made a mistake - first, that jump is much bigger than it looks at first glance, and second, I need a lot more impulsion up the hill if he's going to be able to rock back and jump it. We came in a little crooked, I took my leg off and leaned, and of course he ran to the side. No biggie - all my fault. I took him back over a little BN ramp a few times, and then attempted the grey bench again, this time with more impulsion and I really focused on keeping my leg on, sitting back, and framing him with the reins. He popped over it, but it was awkward and that tells me that it probably was too big for him. Afterwards, I walked him up to the ditch. Predictably, he stopped and tried to run out to the side, but I popped him on the right shoulder ( he naps to the right), made him face it, and within 20 seconds he went over it without too much fuss. I brought him around, trotted it, and he went right over. Went around the other way, and he did gawk and stop, but I stuffed him over it from a walk and then next time, he went right over, and landed so balanced that I hopped over the Novice grey ramp afterwards. He's such a good boy!

I think I’ve discovered why he’s acting naughty lately. C told me that she’s had to turn on the wire tape around the pasture, because Oliver apparently thought it would be a great idea if he grabbed it in his teeth and pulled it, post by post, off the fence. Not only was he doing that, he also decided to play “King of the Mountain” by climbing his front feet on top of the big Training level rolltop we have in the fenceline (it’s definitely max height, and it’s made of round timbers). He’s also trying to hop his hind feet up there, but it’s too slick. We were afraid he’d get tangled up in the wire – it’s mostly tape, but the jumps have wire across them so you can unhook them easily when you want to jump in and out of the pasture. Oliver is being really cheeky, and I think it’s because he’s out in that pasture with three other young horses, all younger than he is. He’s definitely King of the Pasture, and I think he’s testing his dominance by testing ME. He’s been sort of wiggling one step forward, inch by inch, in the grooming area (he’s ground tied), and so when I realized what he was doing, I had to nail him for it. He’s been much better since then.

Oliver goes XC schooling!

We went xc schooling at Mari Secrist's (here in Southern Pines) this afternoon, and we had a BALL! I’ve never been to her place before (apparently, you have to be a friend of hers, or be with your trainer who is a friend) but I’m impressed - it's a little gem. Nothing too fancy, but there are all sorts of questions, from BN on up, and a lovely, LOVELY water complex and several different sized ditches and banks, with a great big hill for those balance/terrain questions. And everything is immaculately groomed. You should see her barn – it’s nicer than a lot of people’s houses. TONS of land, all beautifully fenced with split rail, and all rolling hills.

I think all the flatwork with draw reins has paid off. We started by walking through the lovely water jump, back and forth, and Oliver apparently doesn't have an issue with water as he was threatening to paw and roll on me, so I had to keep him moving. Warmup in a slightly undulating field went well - he was listening to my half-halts, staying in front of my leg, and really listening. We started by trotting back and forth over a small log pile, then cantered it, staying uphill and balanced and really concentrating on getting and keeping a good canter up to and away from the jump. From there, we did the little ditch between the two feeder trees, which Oliver barely looked at, and then came down to the bigger ditch. Not sure why he planted the brakes on this one, but I guess it was wider than he's used to and deeper, but after a bit of coaxing he went over, and we trotted and then cantered over it several times. I think if I had been more insistent, he would have gone over sooner, but I'm trying not to make a big deal about things. We started to string some jumps together - pick up a right lead canter, over the ditch, right turn over the big log in the field, gallop out and then rollback to the little log pile, and then canter on into the water. He was lovely, just like a hunter, loping along and nailing his spots. After we got bored with the water jump and ditch, we walked up the steep hill to the top, where there was a picture frame (very small, but Ollie's first!). We trotted the picture frame, but I forgot to keep my leg on and we wobbled on landing, which brought us in a bit unbalanced to the bending line over the shale wall, which he's never seen before. He gawked, but I booted him over it, and then he did a lovely "out" over the hanging log. We cantered into this little combination, which is bending line question, a light-to-dark-question (from a sunny field into a copse of trees), and a slight downhill question - whew! Oliver had a beautiful jump over the hanging log in, saw the "out" (the shale wall), and then grabbed the bit and barreled down over it, which resulted in a chip. Argh. Christan had me do it in reverse, which rode very well, and then reversed it. We cantered in - again, lovely spot - I sat up, put my leg on, half-halted and got his butt underneath him, and although it wasn't pretty, we stayed balanced and then next time, I was able to give a slight half-halt with my shoulders and leg, and he rebalanced himself and jumped it like a pro. Yay! We finished with a bank question. Oliver cantered up and down a little bank, and then Christan had me canter up the bank, one stride over a hanging log, and then down the hill and left turn and drop into the water. Oliver has never done a one-stride like this, but I kept my leg on, sat back and the one stride rode beautifully, then gathered him back up and we trotted into the water. I love how he just locks on to the jump in front of him – he did the same thing at the Horse Park over the Novice bank complex. It felt like he sort of scrambled in, but he did go in without hesitating - such a brave boy - and the next time (just trotting into the water), he was brilliant. He trotted down, saw the water, and picked up a bouncy canter of his own accord and just popped in. I was pretty happy with that! So, two little bobbles (ditch and shale wall), but totally greenie moments. The best thing was that he was so rideable throughout the whole thing, so I guess all that flatwork is paying off!

Bella's first post!

I've had so much to write about Oliver and breakthroughs that I've been rather neglecting the Bellasaurus (as Joe calls her). Friday I was reminded of why I didn't want another greenie; today, I'm reminded of why I bought her in the first place.

On Friday, we warmed up in the arena and she was going along very well. She has this new thing where she charges around in the trot on her forehand, going as fast as she can go, and I just have to sit it out and wait patiently for her to come back to me and rebalance herself, because if I try and put her together right away, she tends to screech to a walk - she's got some GOOD brakes on her. So, I am just thrilled with how forward she is off my leg and allow her to truck on forward until she feels like settling down, which usually doesn't take long at all. She is starting to get so much steadier in the contact and carry herself. I can feel glimmers of this light, uphill canter, and I'm very excited when I do because it's going to be LOVELY, just like her daddy's. We jumped a few fences in the arena to warm up, and she stayed nice and light and forward to them, so I headed out for the xc field. The first thing we attempted was the little baby up bank - the larger one (so it was about 1 foot high, as opposed to 6 inches). She sort of noodled towards it, popping her left shoulder, so I tapped her up it and she was fine. Don't know why she was gawping at it. Then, I picked up the canter, and headed straight for the BN hanging log. About four or five strides out, she started to look, pop that left shoulder, and then we piddled to a stop in front of the jump. I probably shouldn't have cantered her towards it, but I guess I took her for granted and forgot how green and young she actually is. I brought her around again, with the same result, so we trotted it and managed to get a silly heap of a jump over it. THen, I took her around to the little red dog house, with a similar result - pop that left shoulder, and then piddle to a stop. I was getting very irritated with myself and with her - she wasn't scared, just testing me. So, I smacked her hard, once, and brought her back around to the trot and we had a lovely jump, landed in canter, and then turned for the BN hanging log again, which we jumped both ways, twice, and the second time was much straighter than the first. I took her over the ditch, which she gawped at, and smack - she went over it. I went back to the barn feeling a bit discouraged and of course, blowing things out of proportion to reality. I mean, really - this is a four year old that I just tried to stuff over a BN fence, in the shadow, at a canter. I would never have dreamed of doing such a thing with Oliver so early on, but then, he was rather spooky. Bella has such a level minded brain that I just forgot that she hasn't been jumping all that long.

So, today, I took her out with Marissa and Goody. We did a quick warmup in the arena, with a beautiful uphill canter towards the jumps, where I could half-halt, sit back, and float the rein at her three strides out and she jumped right out of stride. We even cantered over the rolltop - I thought there was an extra stride there (and Marissa agreed with me), but Bella didn't think so, so we left a tad long, but it was a nice, round, gorgeous jump. Yay! Off to the field. We stepped up over the little bank without a hesitation (good girl), and then trotted the red dog house downhill. Bella started to wiggle on the approach and pop that left shoulder, so we had another stop and a smack on that left shoulder, and then I took her a little ways back, not giving her enough time to wobble, and trotted the dog house - she jumped it well, and then trotted back over it, this time uphill, which she did beautifully, even cantering the last few strides. I think it was the downhill approach that gave her time to wiggle out of it. We went back towards the Hitchcock pen, where they had the Maiden/BN and Novice bike racks. I went down the hill towards the woods, picked up the trot, and then Bella sighted the bike rack, cantered the last few stride, and popped it like a pro. Yay! that was enough for us, so the four of us wandered out towards the field in the back.

I had noticed that Denny had taken down the Weldon's Wall option over by the fenceline, so I decided to take her over the ditch. Since the grass is a bit overgrown, I didn't realize how wide and deep the ditch really was (wide for a greenie, and quite deep), since I had only seen it with the Weldon's Wall behind it. Of course, it was too late to turn back, since Bella was practically on top of it. She predictably spooked at it, planted her feet, and stared, but after a little encouraging, she pitched a mini-fit, which was good because I knew she was going to go. She planted her front feet as close to the edge as she could get, and then leaned as far as she could (it was hilarious), and then jumped it quietly. Such a good girl. We repeated this on the other side (sans mini-fit, but with much leaning), and she popped it again. That was enough; Marissa and I finished our trail ride without incident. I was so happy. She really is quite brave, and I remember now why I bought her. She can be such a fun ride, and it's only going to get better and better the more "broke" she gets.

Oh, and I've decided to call her Bel Canto, which means "beautiful song". it's also the name of my favorite book by Ann Patchett, so it's totally appropriate. I just can't seem to call her Bella Sera -it doesn't mean anything to me. Luckily, I have lots of time before I register her with the USEA so I can change my mind any time I want until then.

Trying to find the brighter side of things

I haven't posted about the show because, well, I'm trying very hard to see the brighter side of things. It's funny - 9 or so years ago, when I first started off in this sport, I considered dressage my strength, then cross country, and finally stadium. Now, I feel like dressage is my weakness, and it seems to be a never-ending battle of frustrating, some highs, and a lot more lows. Sounds rather like golf, eh? Guess that explains why golf as a sport has never interested me all that much.

I think part of the problem is that I had it relatively easy with Miles, my carriage horse turned eventer draft cross. He naturally had that gorgeous high set neck, with the arch, and he was so freakin' steady that he got good scores even though he really didn't deserve them. Yes, I worked my butt off with him, but since he was so steady and consistent, the bobbles didn't show as much. His canter was ever a work in progress, but the judges consistently loved him and we usually ended up 1-3rd after a show, finishing on our dressage score (did I mention my strength was in the jumping portion? How bizarre. I seem to remember a time when I didn't think it was possible to teach me how to jump.) I don't think I truly learned how to ride from back to front, and a score of successive teachers/coaches before Christan haven't helped me a whole lot in that regard. There are SO many people teaching the incorrect way - how to fiddle your horse's head down, etc. etc. etc.. I wonder how people get away with it and still manage to score well in dressage? Do they just have the right "type" of horse at the lower levels, where you can fake it? Do they somehow have this epiphany during all the instruction of "sponge the inside rein" and "keep his head down during the transition" that they realize how to ride from leg to hand?

It all started with Christan watching me for about five minutes ride Della in the dressage arena. She was sort of leaning on me and lugging me around, especially in the canter. I was allowing this to happen, as I was thinking that she was only four and didn't know any better. Christan told me to use a lot more leg into the canter, instead of trying to contain it with my hands. I asked her what I should do if she got quick - just allow it until she found her own balance? - and Christan said that if she sped up, to hold a little with my hands (not by pulling!) until she softened, and then keep my leg on. Ah ha. Lightbulb moment #1. Although I KNEW this cerebrally, it took me all these years to finally be able to put it into action.

My lesson today was epiphany after epiphany. Small ones, to be sure, but they were definitely lightbulb moments. We started off sloshing through the wed, red arena sand, and all the while I concentrated on keeping my hands ABSOLUTELY STILL and keeping my leg on. If he resisted against the bit, more leg and a squeeze of the hands until he softened, and then kept the leg on. Christan immediately got after me for allowing him to drop a shoulder in, or ignore my outside aids and push a shoulder out, and said that this kind of allowance tends to build and escalate, until you have a real issue on your hands. I felt that it was pretty slight, and was mildly annoyed because I really didn't feel Oliver drop that shoulder to the inside, but when I concentrated on it (after Christan pointed it out to me and told me to bend him WITH MY LEG to the inside), I did definitely feel a slight pushing against my inside leg, mostly to the right, which is his stiff direction anyway. In addition to having to concentrate on feeling him drop to the inside, I had to really focus on using my leg only to lift that shoulder, instead of using my hand to artificially create the bend (which is sort of what I've been taught to do in the past). Of course, I also had to keep that outside rein firm so that he had somewhere to take the bend, and keep it lifted so that he didn't drop behind the vertical.


Canter was the first big obstacle. Before we started, I confessed to Christan that I had been thinking a lot lately and came to the conclusion that I really didn't know how to ask for the canter, since none of my horses seem to be able to transition from trot to canter without throwing their heads, which leads me to attempting to pin their head in place with my hands, and then that leads to me throwing my upper body around in a vain attempt to get the canter, which they can't do because I've pinned their head in place. Urgh. Christan asked me what the aids were that I was using. I told her that I got the inside bend, then kept the outside rein, slid my outside leg back and then used both aids together, the outside leg a bit more than the inside. Since that was all checking ok, she asked me to trot and then when I felt that I had a good trot and inside bend, slide my outside leg back and canter. It wasn't too bad of a depart, as far as Oliver goes, but Christan pointed out that it took me two strides to get a canter, during which Oliver managed to throw his shoulder to the inside, lose the bend, and then hollow and stagger into the canter, as opposed to leaping into it. She said that the minute I felt that the trot was good, I needed to get the canter right away, instead of one or two strides later. So, of course the correction was to use the whip, once, smartly behind the leg. I got the trot, went about three strides to establish the bend, slid my leg back and asked for the canter. I could feel him drop down onto his forehand and start to sprawl, so WHACK went the whip behind my leg, and he immediately jumped into canter. No, it wasn't pretty. However, it was an instant response, so I brought him down to trot after a few strides, got the trot, and asked again. Bam - I got it right away, and without any hollowing, either. Christan also told me that it was very important to make sure that after the correction, I needed to ride like nothing happened - keep the reins soft until he gave me reason otherwise. So, that was the key. He needed to canter when I said canter, and not a stride or two later. As long as I didn't make a huge deal of it, he didn't get rattled and we got some very nice trot-canter transitions. In the canter itself, he was leaning on me and pulling me down onto the forehand, so Christan emphasized that the minute he got heavy, I was to ask him to lighten by squeezing that rein and using leg, and if he ignored me, I was to yank on that rein, HARD, and then immediately soften and go back to riding like nothing had happened. It was important that I yanked only on ONE rein, instead of both (a concept I had difficulty executing), and keep the leg on so that he raised his forehand and sat down more behind, instead of just hollowing. I hated the idea of yanking, but then I thought about it and realized that if I wasn't consistent about demanding lightness, and only yanked when it really irritated me (which I was guily of doing), then it was even more cruel to him because he would never know when the abrupt punishment was coming and be taught that ignoring me was perfectly acceptable. That made it easier to bear. Christan apparently demands this level of lightness and self carriage even from the babies, which means that I need to keep on insisting it even from Bella (who naturally carries herself this way anyway, but I need to reinforce it regularly). So, the minute it felt like he was taking me down and forward, I was to sit up, close my leg and hand, and if he pushed at the bit and ignored me, YANK on one rein, and then throwing the rein I just yanked back at him, still keeping my leg on, and allow him a chance to be light. It actually only took a couple of tries before he was listening to me and light as a feather.

Jumping was the next hurdle. Christan and I had an interesting discussion about how horses really don't rush to the jump because they're eager to jump - they only rush to the jump because they are nervous about something, like losing their balance. She said it was this way even with the upper level horses, and told me that she evented Teddy at Advanced in a huge, rubber snaffle. Christan said if I didn't have my horse as light as I wanted coming into a fence, I was to yank him to a stop immediately (keeping the leg on!) even if that meant right in front of a jump. Her reasoning behind this was that it was actually making the horses braver, because even though common belief is that you will teach a horse to stop if you stop them or circle right before a jump, it actually makes them more nervous because if you half halt and they ignore you, they tend to have a bad jump, and bad jump after bad jump leads them to not trust you anymore. If they know that you will never let them get a bad jump, they will trust you more and more and the jumps get better and better and start to build their confidence. They cannot reason that they had a bad jump because they ignored you - they can only reason that the jump was a bad one, so it's up to us to make sure that they have the best jump possible. Made perfect sense to me. So, we circled at the canter, getting a good canter depart each time (yay!), and jumped a little 2'6 plank vertical. Oliver started off by ignoring my requests to sit down and back and consequently, jumped the vertical like sh*t, so I sat him down hard on his butt on the landing side, got the canter back, and asked again, but this time, I made sure that I half-halted quite a few strides out and maintained the canter to the fence, and when he ignored me, YANK and then leg on, circle, soften, and reapproach. That led to some very nice jumps, but he was still sort of careening about on the landing side. Christan said that I was sort of nagging him with my half-halts and not really insisting on obedience, so she got on. What a revelation. She looped the rein at him in the canter, and when he blew her off, she sat him down on his butt HARD, and then cantered off softly. He learned quite quickly, especially when she took him down the line and he tried to run through her hands. After the third reprimand or so, he finally softened and went down the line like a hunter. I realized that if he landed and then proceeded to drag me around, he was never soft in the first place and didn't jump up and around the jump in balance. I didn't get back on afterwards, but it left me with quite a bit to ruminate on during the drive home.

I went and did it...I bought a mare!

Well, a filly, really. She's just four years old. I said I was NOT going to do it...not going to buy another horse....not going to buy a MARE....especially a young one....but then Christan said she was perfect for me...

...you see where this is going. It actually all started about two years ago, when I was in-between horses, and I was perusing one of my favorite sites for "horse eye candy", Mapleshade Farm's website. There was this filly, an Oldenburg by the stallion Donatelli, only about two years old. She was cute as a button and very well-put together, but the price was rather high. I inquired on her anyway, seeing as she had been up there for a while. The price had been dropped to around $10k, but it was still too high for me and I didn't really want a two-year old that would do nothing but sit around and eat its head off before I could ride it.

Right before we moved from off Hollybrook Lane back to Denny's, Christan had gotten in this very lovely, dark bay filly for sale/training. I admired her, but didn't think anything about it as her breeding is quite good and I didn't think I had a chance in hell of buying her, not to mention that I really didn't want to replace Sam just yet, and I was half-heartedly interested in Winny, the little dapple grey TB that Christan also has for sale. Not that interested in him, though - I was pretty happy with working with just Oliver. Fast-forward to a week ago. Christan tells me that the filly is absolutely wonderful, and if I wasn't totally against buying another horse, I should really consider her because her brain was fabulous. Yeah, yeah, I thought - still don't want another horse. Skip ahead to Thursday, for my lesson afternoon. I had come out a bit earlier due to taking a mental health day at school, and ran out of time to head down to Cabin Branch to drop off the blankets, so I was there in time for Christan to suddenly show up riding the mare. Wow. I really hadn't seen her close up, just in the field, and she is beautiful. Very much the Warmblood, with good, thick bone and very rounded. Dark, dark bay, with a small white star and I think two white hind bobby-socks. I was impressed just looking at her, and Christan headed off down to the arena to work her. Curiousity got the better of me, so instead of spending some quality time with Oliver, I took a short cut through his field, gave him a cookie, and then attempted to crawl through the fence to get to the dressage arena (didn't work). Again, wow. As I sat on the wrong side of the fence, watching the two of them, I noticed that she had a nice, sweepy stride that looked quite promising, and her canter seemed nice and rhythmic. Very impressive considering the mare hadn't been doing this all that long. Christan told me to get on her, and of course I couldn't resist, so I grabbed my chaps and helmet and we went into the jumping arena.

She is a nice, broad girl. Her neck seems a little shorter to me than Oliver's, but her shoulder is beautiful - nice and long and laid back. She still doesn't completely understand what contact means, but it didn't take her long to figure out what I wanted. When I asked for the trot, she really pushed from behind and she was very nicely forward, which I didn't expect since she appears so quiet from the ground. Her trot is going to be very, very good - I tried to sit back, roll my shoulders back, and get her to sit down a little more, and even though she couldn't hold it for long, she tried without complaint, and when she tried - wow! She's going to be very, very fancy! She even knows her leads at the canter, and picks them up better than Oliver (probably because she really can push from behind into it). Christan suggested that I pop her over a crossrail, which I didn't want to do since we were riding in her dressage saddle, but I trusted her (both C and the mare) and we headed for a crossrail made of two painted planks, with a plank set in between, parallel to the ground. Not the most inviting crossrail for a baby, but the mare just sighted it, and then hopped over it without a look. Impressive. So, Christan got back on, and took her out to the xc field behind the arena, Keith and Coda following. CHristan trotted her up the bank, dropped her off the bank (you could see the mare thinking about it as she flopped her big ears around, but didn't hesitate), and then popped her over the ditch - she dropped her head for a look but didn't pause), and then cantered on down over a little BN jump. Apparently there was a herd of deer on the other side, but you couldn't even tell from watching her because she never missed a beat. I was about 99% ready to buy her, but I wanted to take her trail riding myself and see if I could push any of her bad buttons (if she had any).

So, on Saturday, Cindy came out with me to ride Oliver while I rode the mare. She was a big, goofy four year old in the crossties - trying to eat the fuel cover on the tractor, trying to climb into the tiny space between the tractor and the stall door, etc. I was beginning to have some small doubts and started looking for reasons not to buy her (did I really want to deal with a BIG, goofy four year old again?), but since we had gotten this far, I at least needed to take her out on the trail. She stood quietly by Cindy's side while I rode Oliver first, just sleeping. I figured that if she were going to be pissy, it would be after standing there, tacked up, just waiting. I got on (no problems) and then proceeded to talk Cindy through riding Oliver from her back - again, she just fell asleep under me. It was time to get her moving, so I started her trotting, and remembered just how green she was - lots of leaning on the bit, popping her shoulder, etc, but it didn't take her long to remember how to move. At this point, I was still looking for an "out", so I trotted over the little x that we had jumped yesterday - she picked up the canter three strides out and jumped it beautifully (I was in my jumping saddle this time), and then I decided to circle around and jump the first vertical on the outside line. I figured that if she wobbled too much, I was going to circle and not try and do the four strides to the oxer out, which was about 2'3 and had the flower boxes underneath. She jumped the vertical nicely,landed, wobbled, but then straightened herself up and did a beautiful four strides out over the oxer with ease. I yelled to Cindy, "THIS is why I'm buying this horse!" because at that point, I knew I was going to. Never in my life would I have considered taking a VERY green four year old down a line, much less to a scary, bright oxer, when I had only ridden her for about 15 minutes a couple of days before. It was difficult to remember that she is only FOUR, and a young four at that.

Cindy and I went into the field and then wandered down the little path into the upper xc field. The mare didn't care if she led, followed, if the bugs were eating her alive (they were certainly bothering Oliver!), and even down the lane between the trees, where the creek is burbling, she didn't get antsy or snorty - just marched on down like an old trail horse. We emerged into the xc field, and I took her into the start box and then out over the big telephone pole "X". She cantered over the x like she had been doing it all her life, and then I went down, turned right (scared up some deer but she didn't even blink), and then cantered over the scary red rails that always seem to spook the horses. She took a longish spot and popped me a little out of the tack, but again - didn't hesistate. That was when I knew I couldn't let this one go. We finished our trail ride around the property without a hitch and I told Christan I'd write her a check that day.

The new mare's name is Bella Sera (beautiful evening), and I'm calling her Bella. Her registered name is Denali, and I toyed with calling her Dani, but I have a friend name Dany and I wasn't sure she'd appreciate the honor. Plus, Bella really fits her. I cannot believe the brain on this mare. Christan made me a heck of a deal and I would have been crazy to turn it down.

So, here's to two-horse ownership again! May it be less bumpy and more fruitful than last time.

Oliver does his first canter test at a pure dressage show.

Well, not much happened. It was such a small show that they put me in with one other BN rider, two Novice riders, and a Prelim rider. Oliver warmed up beautifully and was really listening, but when we got into the arena, Joe yelled that the bell had rung and I already knew that, so I got rattled and forgot to halt at C (too many eventing tests) and the judge rang the bell. Then, of course I was rattled for the rest of the test, and a small herd of horses came up over the ridge and Oliver gawked at that….some jigging in the free walk, anticipating at times…gave us a 57.9%. Yuck. Not terribly bad, but good enough to land us a 3rd place ribbon. I threw that test away. Comments were: lovely young horse with a lot of potential, work on relaxation yadda yadda yadda. Stuff I already knew. The second test, which was BN B, went much, much better. I thought it rode very smoothly, up until the point of where I picked up the wrong lead and it took me half a circle to fix it, so that got me a 4. 7 on gaits, 7s on all the right side work (which is weird since that is his bad direction), and comments of being slightly on the forehand for the left rein work, and again a comment on “lovely young horse”. A 37.9pp this time, which also got us a 3rd place – 1st place was the Prelim rider with a 33. So, all in all, not too shabby. I need to stop letting my reins get too long and start getting his balance towards the rear more consistently, and I think we’ll be scoring in the low 30s in no time. He was a very good boy.

Greg has been out to work on him, and the improvement this time was so much better that we have high hopes that we can continue to work through his scar tissue. Greg said that the 5th or 6th time was the magic number, and he was right - no more short striding on that inside right hind. I rode him today and he was so much more uphill and pushing from behind - I could really tell the difference when I stretched him. His withers stayed more up in front of me than before, and the balance was better. I've done a much better job of not allowing the reins to slip through my fingers - studying the way the upper level riders hold their hands at Rolex really helps, as I can visualize this. We have Foxtrack on the horizon for our first debut at BN, which will be low key and no pressure, and then I'm planning on doing some unrecognized dressage stuff with him for practice and schooling some more XC and possibly a hunter show or two to gear us up for Five Points in September. We're finally heading somewhere!

Oliver remains sweet as always....yells hello when I go and get him from his paddock. It still give me a thrill to hear him. I doubt I'll ever get sick of that.

Oliver rocks at xc schooling at The Horse Park

So, on Friday, last minute I decided to take Oliver xc schooling to the Horse Park, mostly because Marissa wanted to take her pony, Goody, and she didn’t have a ride. I didn’t think about taking Ollie because Christan is at Rolex this weekend and you know how those fences grow in size when you haven’t seen them for a while…well, I didn’t want to school without her (when did I become such a pansy?), and I didn’t have a groundsperson, yadda yadda yadda. But when Marissa said she’d come, and we’d bring MaryBeth along for our groundsperson, I decided that what Oliver and I needed was to gallop around and jump some stuff. It was HOT – around 85, but there was a good breeze blowing so not too bad. I wonder why it’s become so hot so early this year? When I got to the barn, I noticed that I had a VERY flat tire. It seemed that the valve stem on the tire had dry rotted at the base, so was leaking air. Argh. I rigged it with some duct tape and we threw the air compressor into the tack room and hoped and prayed we would make it to the Park. Oliver loaded up like a champ and with Goody installed, we were on our way. We stopped at the end of the driveway to check and see if my redneck valve stem held (it did) and then we immediately encountered a huge crowd of bike racers – I had forgotten that the Tour de Moore was this weekend, and so we picked our way through the crowds. At this point, I was wondering if all odds were stacked against us, but we made it there safely.

On Thursday, I had tried out my Antares again because Christan said something about not being able to put her leg on Oliver riding in her new Devoucoux (she likes her Antares better), and I was wondering if there was a difference between my Antares and my Albion. First of all, that Antares does NOT fit him – it’s too wide, and almost presses down on his withers, and the panels scoop away from him back, which is sort of flat because of how uphill he’s built. Immediately I noticed that I felt very much closer to him, but that could be because the panels are so much thinner and it’s too wide. I also noticed that posting the trot seemed like WORK – I started to feel some leg strain almost immediately and got tuckered out more quickly than I have been. I thought that was due to me being in bed from Wednesday to Monday, but when I started cantering, I couldn’t get my leg on him. The weirdest thing was jumping – that was when the Antares really shined. The balance is effortless over jumps, but I can’t seem to get my leg on him to the fences without lifting my heel up and bringing my leg back – ugh. I also felt a lot of leg and hip strain. I was confused. Do I keep the saddle that seems to be better balanced over fences, knowing that it actually hurts me to ride? I could always replace the foam panels with wool for about $400. I took the Albion with me for xc schooling, since it’s never really been put to the test, and immediately I noticed that the balance for flatwork was much, much better and seemed a lot easier. It also fits Oliver so much better. I borrowed one of Christan’s Thinline Trifecta pads, to see if I could get a bit more close contact feel, and it seemed to work pretty well. It only works because the saddle is a pretty good fit, I think.

Anyway, we warmed up with him stretching for the bit almost immediately, which was a nice surprise as there were quite a few people warming up out there, and it was a great big open field, so I thought he’d be quite distracted. We popped over the crossrail a few time, then the vertical twice, and then the oxer once, and since everybody else had taken off without me (rude), I caught up and headed over to the start box. The first fence was the one you saw when we were there – a simple hanging log on a pedestal. Oliver hasn’t jumped xc since December, but he picked up the canter towards it and then, about 6 strides out, really SAW it and started to wiggle, first one shoulder, then the other, but I put my spurs into him lightly and he jumped it quite nicely, albeit a tad underpowered. We circled around and tried again, but two people cut me off and jumped the jump just as I was heading for it (even RUDER), so I had to circle twice and then come at it, and this time Oliver jumped it nicely. That was when I realized that my Albion lets me put my leg on him. If I had been riding in my Antares, I’m sure I would have to resort to some hand riding since I can’t seem to get my leg on, and it’s possible he would have run out – he wasn’t trying very hard to escape me, but if I didn’t have my legs on, I think he could have wiggled out of it. Since the second jump went well, we went down that hill to the pheasant feeder, next to those HUGE brush fences at the bottom of the hill. I trotted the feeder, but Oliver saw it, started cantering about four strides out, and neatly popped over it and cantered up the hill to join the others. We all hacked up the hill to the spooky feeders (for some reason, they’re spooky and they get people every single show – maybe it’s the way they are angled on the top of the hill), and cantered over them – Oliver looked, but he stayed nice and straight and we had a lovely jump. We took a left and cantered the Hobbit’s Hut. This is where I noticed the benefits of having an uphill horse – the approach to the Hobbit’s Hut is downhill, around a group of trees, so the approach is a bit obscured until about 6 strides out. Oliver was having none of this trotting thing, so we cantered down the hill, me keeping my leg on, softly bumping his sides with my calves, sitting back, with my hands raised but forward, and he saw the Hut and just bounced over it without a look, and then cantered down the hill. Down the hill I had to sit up and really put my leg on and ride him up into the bit, but after a few half-halts, he softened on his own and we stayed in balance pretty much the whole way. The group walked down the hill and up to the sunken road complex, where we had to wait a bit for the group before us (the one that cut me off) to finish. We decided to make it a line of fences - first, the cabins, and then down past the sunken road, over the ascending oxer, and then down by the ditch/Trakehner complex to what is now a red and black barn where the hanging log used to be. Oliver jumped each one out of stride, never missing a beat. He’s so easy to ride to a fence because he rises in front of you, shifting his balance back, and he’s got that Warmblood sense of rhythm where every stride is practically the same, so the spots just appear. The last one was the best – Michelle told me to focus on something at the top of the hill, and I did and he powered it out of stride. We then cantered up the hill, popped the little hanging log off a right turn, and then we were faced with the Novice bank/drop complex. Everybody did it (they were all on more experienced horses), and it looked like such fun that I thought I’d try it. I used to be scared of this when I had Miles, but then Sam did it and made it so easy that I haven’t been afraid of it ever since. So, I wandered down the hill a ways to get some momentum, picked up the canter, and then about 6 strides out, started to showjump the canter. Oliver was a bit confused so he lurched up the bank, but then he saw the “out” log, straightened himself out, and leapt out over the log – he didn’t touch ground until the ground leveled on the other side. It rode beautifully – I just clamped my lower leg on, slipped the reins, and I think I even yelled “yeehaw”, much to my embarrassment, in midair. Of course, he over jumped it, but it was such a bold move on his part and so much fun that we didn’t do it again. SUCH a brave, good pony!!! We cantered over the gray BN bench as a let up/ easy fence for him, and then we walked through the water complex. Oliver barely hesitated through the water, so we trotted though the next time, and then hopped over a tiny rolltop about two strides out. We cantered the rolltop back in, cantered through the water, and then we decided to do the Novice combo – blue and white overturned boat, three strides into the water, jump out of the water over a log pile, and then hard right turn over the Novice cabin. He was perfect over the boat, cantered through the water easily, hopped out over the logpile, but I had to sort of yank him around the turn because he wanted to go straight, but then he saw the cabin, straightened himself out, and had a gorgeous jump over the cabin. I was so proud of him – he’s really starting to think and assess the situation for himself. The group went to jump the big brown table in the field – I opted out of that because it wasn’t necessary to jump it – I’m not going Novice any time soon, and it was just a big brown table. We went into the second water complex – the Duck Pond. It was a splash in, and then you had several options – a largish rolltop out, set at the edge of the water (Novice), or jump in, one stride water, through the water, one stride up over a pimple jump (Training). We did the Training one, foot perfect. By now, Sam would have been huffing and puffing and getting a bit tired, but Oliver had only broken a sweat (not foaming) and wasn’t breathing hard at all. The joys of a purpose-bred horse! We finished by jumping up the bank (Ollie understood the question now), and then bending line over a brown rolltop, then finished by jumping a grey bench out in the first field. Perfect. I jumped off him to walk him back, but he had so much energy that he practically pulled me back to the trailers.

I cannot believe how good he was. He didn’t wiggle to anything except the first jump – everything else he took like a seasoned pro. I had no intentions of doing anything other than a few BN jumps and paddle through the water – I never planned on doing some complex Novice lines! Plus, he’s jumping really well, really pushing off his hind end, rather than just cantering over the fence, and I felt very safe and secure in my Albion, which tells me that the Antares is for sale. I think we’re ready for Lumber River now, but since I’ve never had luck at that show, we’re doing FenRidge instead. Yay for Ollie!

Oliver's officially barefoot (and sound!)

So, I had a good jumping lesson, and Ollie is sound without shoes, even without Easyboots, so I’m hopeful that he can remain barefoot for a while, at least through Training level. I found this cool hand rasp in the Back in the Saddle catalog, which looks easier to use than a traditional farrier’s rasp, so I can use that to help smooth off the rough edges until the nail holes grow out. I’ve found with Oliver that I have to ride him up into the bridle right away, until he starts to swing through his back, and when he starts to offer a balanced stretch, I can let him take the reins down. He’s getting more spring in his trot, which is a really neat feeling, and also tells me he’s getting stronger. Christan found out a lesson or two ago about my combination phobia (in and outs, and bounces where you have to canter in are the worst for me), so she made me ride a few forward one strides. She also made me do a few bending lines. She kept the height low, but I found that what I tend to do is not get back into the saddle quickly enough between jumps, so I lean and pull at the second fence, which causes Oliver to jump over his forehand. I am really trying hard not to sit down and lean backwards in the saddle, tipping my pelvis under me, but there is a certain amount of leaning backwards I have to do to get my rear in the saddle and my leg on. Someone mentioned it before – your eyes are in the seat of your pants, and when I’m not sitting down, I can’t see my stride so I lean and pull. This, too, has to do with how Holly was having me ride – more forward and lighter in the tack, so I’m fighting those bad habits as well. Today, when I rode, I practiced opening up his canter, and then sitting down and collecting it around the corners, and then opening it up again, so I could practice sitting back down and rebalancing him without hollowing and pulling on him. I found that if I do more of a bump,bump, bump with my calves, instead of just squeezing, I can use my leg more effectively. I have had the hardest time with using my leg into more collection – it seems that I’m squeezing with all my might and nothing happens! So, I tried doing more of a bumping action today, and Oliver responded quite well. I don’t know if that’s the correct way to use your legs, but it seems to work for me, as long as I don’t take my leg off completely to bump him up. Funny how much softer in the bridle he gets the more leg you use ;^). Oh, and I just adore my Albion jumping saddle. I even like it for flatting, almost as much as my dressage saddle.

Oliver has a physical breakthrough!

OK, so Greg came out today and worked on Oliver. The first thing he said was that Ollie had put on some muscle, was standing taller and more evenly, and his neck looked good. Yay! He worked on him for about 45 minutes, which is good because he normally works on him for about an hour and a half (!), and said that Oliver was much better than before. He didn’t spend as much time on the areas that he used to (sacroiliac region, and inner thighs) and instead just worked a bit on the withers and a spot near the poll on the left, which he said was new, but no big deal. Although he (Greg) didn’t say it outright, Oliver is better than he thought he would be and we continue to have steady improvement.

Christan and I decided to go through with my lesson after all, even in the rain, which was a fine drizzly mist (what the Irish like to call a “fine, soft day”), and Greg thought it would be a good idea to get Oliver to stretch out his hind legs some over fences. Right away, I noticed a difference. Usually, when he’s feeling sticky, it feels like he’s really pounding the ground to the right – probably because he’s sort of hitching his right hind up instead of putting underneath himself and pushing himself along. Today, however, the minute I picked up the trot, it felt even to me, and Christan echoed my thoughts by telling me almost immediately that he looked just fine. I was thrilled! We trotted a bit, cantered a bit more, which also felt nice and soft and fluid, even to the right, and then hopped over a few small fences. He was very easy to place to the jump – I was careful not to sit too heavily on him to the fence and he responded by rocking back and jumping from a good spot. The best part was that Christan said that it was the best he’s ever jumped – he was rocking back more than usual and pushing off instead of just cantering over the fences. To top it off, he just had his shoes pulled (a misunderstanding by Christan, who thought I wanted them off now, instead of after the show) and was a tad ouchy, which is why we didn’t ride a lot more, and the ground was a tad slick from all the rain. We were both soaked when we were done, but it was a GOOD ride.

Discouragement and thinking about racing bikes after all...

Oliver doesn't seem to be getting a whole lot better - he's not holding his adjustments like we had hoped.

I had a lesson a couple of weeks ago and the whole time Christan was saying “don’t you FEEL that?” and I didn’t feel a thing. Made me feel like a real idiot – she didn’t, but the fact that I couldn’t and the fact that she was getting exasperated with the fact that I couldn’t feel anything made me feel less than stellar. I think it’s because I’m so used to any gait irregularities he has that I don’t notice anything unusual.

Argh. With all of this, I’m going through some serious motivational issues right now. Greg worked on him and said that after the 5th time or so, he has a good idea of how they’re going to be and if they’re going to make any more significant improvement. Well, this next time will be the 5th time (April 2). He’s not holding the adjustment and he keeps torqueing his hips to one side, which prevents him from truly swinging up underneath himself and pushing off evenly with both hind legs. What worries me more than anything is that I’ll get spun from the dressage because he’ll appear to be “off”. Greg said that it would really depend on the judge. This is very disheartening. It makes me not want to do a recognized show because I don’t want to get spun after dressage for a “lame” horse. Can you see where this is going? It makes me not want to show at all anymore. The real problem is that I absolutely adore Oliver, and don’t want to sell him and try again, this time with an extremely thorough vetting.

So I guess that leaves me with a very well-bred trail horse. Not even competitive trail horse, because he might get spun at the vetting. Just a plain old, ordinary backyard trail horse. I know I’m being pessimistic and overreacting right now, but this is sort of the way my mindset has been these past two weeks. And yes, it’s affected my desire to actually go out and ride. I’d rather ride my bike, which doesn’t go lame. It also doesn’t whinny at me and come trotting over for a head rub.

Christan was REALLY tough on me during my lesson. I mean tough, and even a little bit mean. She wanted me to jump a rolltop oxer out, roll back and then jump through the in and out, go out around the tree and roll back to a vertical plank, and then take a bending line to an oxer. I did a beautiful jump over the rolltop, panicked slightly about the “in” in the in and out (which is typical – I have this fear that if I don’t get in correctly, the out will ride badly), rode the “out” nicely, and then promptly forgot to roll back around the tree to the plank and just sort of cantered along aimlessly. She chewed me out for that one, saying that I had to start focusing more. I told her that I got rattled by the bad jump in, and told her why combination fences scare me, and she then pointed out to me that even though I had messed up the “in” every single time, I still managed to ride the one stride out without a hitch. I still don’t know why in and outs bother me. She also said that I had to really start to buckle down and get fitter by riding more and not just doing one or two circles and then taking a break – not fair, as I haven’t been doing that at all. I get out there and have started really pushing myself and Oliver longer and harder without a break, doing more concentrated work for a shorter period of time, but Christan doesn’t see that. However, she is probably reacting to the fact that I’m overweight and tend to turn red quickly, but I wish people would stop thinking that just because I’m overweight, I must sit around and not do anything athletic and that’s why I’m carrying a few extra pounds (well, maybe more than a few). Part of the reason I’m breathing harder these days is because of all the pollen flying around – I wake up short of breath and go around most of the day feeling a bit tight in the chest. I know that the pain in my left leg is partly due to lack of fitness on the horse, but there’s also something wrong with me physically that’s causing this pain, and I’m not sure what to do about it. Christan says I need to see Greg, but with Emma and Oliver both seeing Greg, I can’t afford to have him work on me, too.

Anyway, Christan did say that I’m riding better than ever before, and that is why she is being hard on me – because I’m capable, but I’m so, so discouraged about everything. I know I should stop making excuses for myself and just shut up and ride, and I do enjoy my rides, but I keep worrying about Oliver. C says I shouldn’t, because she said that if I gave her Oliver today, she’d take him Novice tomorrow and not think twice about it.

No Denny's HT for me (or Longleaf, or...)

Greg is still working through issues on Oliver. Sometimes, I wish I hadn't opened that can of worms and just let Ollie be, because I wonder when (if?) we're going to see the end of this. Ollie had regressed a little bit in his PT, and was moving a tad stiffly behind like he was before. Greg came out and worked on him and was able to go REALLY deep and unlock stuff he wasn't able to do before, which is good news, but it also tells me just how much more there is to unlock. Greg said something to the effect of "he must have been in a heck of a wreck" when he was younger. Oi vey.

Anyway, I let Oliver be for a few days afterwards, anticipating a lot of soreness and stiffness ( I remember how I felt my first time after Greg working on me!) and when I took him out, he lost his left lead. I was worried, but then I rode him again and it was back, but not was pretty as before (the transition, that is). I guess we're still working through thing. Due to all of this, I didn't get my entry fee in to Denny's in time, so I have to sit this one out - right now, as a matter of fact, because the show is in progress as I'm typing. OH well. I have my entry in for MacNair's for next weekend, so it isn't so bad. I'm hoping that we can school xc at the end of the month at the Horse Park, which will mean that I need to put in my Friends of the Park fee for that. We're going Maiden for MacNair's, and then in April I will most likely go BN. I think we might be able to shoot for Lumber River, if I don't chicken out due to the incredible heat we always get around that timeframe.

We have a dressage arena at our new place - wheee!!! I'm so excited. I'm such a geek to get excited about a blooming dressage arena, but it helps so much because I always get marked down for missing the geometry at a show. Plus, it helps me with my canter transitions. A real dressage arena is always bigger than I expect it to be. There's more room in there for canter work than I had origninally thought. I had a jumping lesson with Christan, with Joe watching for the first time, and it went really really well. I was so happy. I'm finally figuring out how to keep my leg on Oliver, even with a shorter stirrup, and maintain that bouncy canter to the fence. Christan said I do a nice job with rebalancing him about 8 strides out, but then I lose it and end up missing out spot because of it. Apparently, I also like the long spot, which baffled me as I thought I liked to go deep better. I think it's a result of trying desperately NOT to pull on his face to hold for the spot, so I just sort of let things go. Christan told me to really sit and "maintain the canter with my seat and leg" before the jump, not my hands, and what do you know - it worked like a charm. Once I could concentrate on keeping the canter with a different part of my body, other than my hands, it worked very well. Oliver kept the rhythm the same to the jump, no more rushing, and we were able to hold for the deeper spot. Then, we cantered over a vertical, and a very bendy line to an oxer. I tended to let Ollie run out of steam before the oxer, so we ended up with sort of a flat jump, so I had to really leg, leg, leg it to the base of the oxer. The jumps were more BN size than we've jumped before, and Oliver was sort of bored with the whole thing. That's nice to know that the size of the jump really doesn't impress him. It also tells me that he's able to sit down a bit better in front of the jump, so we're definitely making progress.

Took him for a trail ride yesterday, just around the property (there is really no place for a real trail ride), and he was quite good. A bit lookier than usual, but he behaved himself very well and even picked up his leads out there, trotting around on the bit. The new barn is gorgeous, but I miss the trails of Weymouth Woods.

Horses will always prove you wrong

Oliver, for the last two times I've taken him schooling at Denny's, has been a bit tense and wanting to tighten up and jig around and just not pay attention, so I took a cue from Marissa (who has been so good about taking Brady everywhere and letting him chill) and took him over to the Horse Park where they were having their Pipe Opener II and let him take in the sights of a show. He's never been to the HP, so this would be interesting. I fully expected him to a) balk at getting on the trailer, as we had a disagreement the last time he loaded; and b) be very excited at the commotion at the HP.

He started off by just hopping on the trailer. No arguments, no backtalk. Whew. I had suspected at the last that he might not have gone completely through the "cycle" that John Lyons talks about, but I guess that was the last phase and he was fully trained to load now. When we got to the HP, it was REALLY busy and crowded with trailers, and the wind was blowing in strong gusts, plus it was chilly, so I expected the worst and thought I might have to longe him. Oliver sat on the trailer and learned to be patient while I went over and hunted down Christan and Co. over at the warmup arenas, watched a few rounds, and then after about 20 minutes decided to head on back and let him off the trailer. He apparently didn't do anything at all, not even eat hay (wish he would - maybe he doesn't like that little haynet), so I unloaded him. He immediately tried to eat the dead grass, so I knew he wasn't too upset. Keith was over in the big field working Spike, who apparently was a little overwhelmed by the atmosphere, so I took out the longe line and decided to longe Ollie, who wasn't very interested in being longed. He wasn't excited in the least, just interested in everything going on, so after a few circles each way, I decided that it was pointless and tied him to the trailer with his pink hay bag (which he seems to like) and saddled him up.

We wandered over to the warmup arena and saw lots of scary things on the way there, but Oliver was all grown up and when he looked, I legged him on and he just marche past them. He gawked at people coming out of the PortaPotties, jumped a little at the loudspeakers overhead, and stared at a sign, but other than that he was a Very Big Boy. We walked around the warmup arena a few times, and he offered a stretch almost right away. I had to remember to not allow him to just put his head down, but to march him into the contact so that he took the reins forward and down so that the stretch would go through his entire back. We picked up the trot and I was able to stretch him at the trot, too, which was a lovely surprise. Cantered both ways, even picking up the right lead, and I figured we were done for the flat, and we headed over to the warmup for stadium to pop a few jumps. Luckily, they were still set for BN. I trotted the crosspole without an issue, picked up the canter, and then cantered the oxer (for some reason, I was less nervou about jumping the oxer than the vertical). He grabbed the bit and ran at it about two strides out, which really annoyed me. After trying to keep him round the next time, I slammed on the brakes and pulled his head around to get him listening to me, and then we cantered at it again, this time staying round to the jump. He is letting him ride him a bit more, although he likes to take off just a tad long instead of sitting down in front of the jump. I have a feeling that this will change once he sits more at the canter on the flat.

I was thrilled. He was such a good boy. He stood on the trailer for a little bit longer while I went to go pay, track down Christan and Co. and say goodbye, and we went home. I think we may actually be able to do Lumber River, if not Longleaf, soon!

Oh, and obviously I'm talking about Oliver only now, you may have guessed that Sam has been sold on. I hated to do it, but I was getting very stressed out about campaigning two horses. Sam has a new mom, Jean Long, who seemed to click with him immediately (not hard to do with Sam) and I'm sure she'll love him just as much as I do and have just as much fun. I do miss his silly face around the barn, though.