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.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
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 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.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
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.
...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.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
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.
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.
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