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.

Hacking out and four-in-hand Friesians

So, as I was hacking out today...

Oliver and I came head to head with a four-in-hand, Friesians too, with people hanging off the sides and the back of the carriage and everything. Needless to say, Oliver was bug-eyed about it, but he really did handle it quite well. He did jig a bit away from them (probably thought they were going to pop up again and surprise us). I tried bending Oliver side to side when he jigged, but he just kept on jigging, and I was getting annoyed, so then I thought, right, I’m going to shorten the rein and push you onto the bit, and that seemed to work, but he kept wanting to look behind him to see if that carriage was after him, so then I put him into a shoulder-in, our very first one, and that solved the problem nicely. I don’t know if it’s because it was harder work for him than jigging, or it got his mind on something else, but after a few steps of shoulder-in, I let him stretch into the contact and he did a lovely free walk along the trail a ways before I gave him a loose rein all together and we walked on home.

It was GLORIOUS today. Temps in the mid 60s, sunny, and this is where it gets really surreal – the trails had actually been groomed. I saw it happening on the way out – there were a few people with rakes combing all the pine straw off the trail and smoothing the footing down. Unbelievable. Only in Southern Pines do you have people out there raking the horse and people trails. Oliver hadn’t been on a hack in a while, so it was good for both of us to get out. We did some trotting, and he offered up this lovely stretchy trot for quite a ways down the trail, which was a challenge to my balance as he got very bouncy, and even picked up his right lead and cantered a stretch, and then cantered in a lovely balanced frame downhill on the way back on his left lead with very little help from me. Oh, and we jumped that fallen tree on the way out to the Woods. I was a little nervous, as I’ve never jumped it before on Ollie, just Sam, and he just pricked his ears and popped it in style. SUCH a good boy.

It has been the week for making huge progress. I had my lesson on Friday, flat. I asked Christan how she warmed him up, and Christan told me that it depended on whether or not he was offering a stretch. If he offered to stretch correctly (and she said he had been doing this more often, so I guess that means I’m doing something right!) she would stretch him right off the bat, but if he was being stiff, she would immediately put him on the bit. I had a revelation about how to keep my lower leg on all the time, and what it means to do that, and keep the thighs open. I was trotting around letting him stretch (he was having a limber sort of day) and I asked Christan, “Is it okay if I turn out my toes at first while I work on this keeping the thigh open thing? I can’t seem to keep my toes in and keep my thigh off him at the same time.” And Christan said, of COURSE it’s okay, why would you want to keep your toes turned in? I told her that ever single dressage trainer I’ve ever had has practically forced my toes in, so that it’s become a habit with me, and she said that if I turned my toes in, I would clamp my thigh against his sides. I know that the upper level riders are able to do it without closing their thighs, but I can’t, and it turned out that when I turned my toes out, it wasn’t like they were sticking out sideways or anything, so it was actually not as bad as I thought. And, when my toes are out, I can keep my entire leg back from the hip and keep my lower leg on Oliver. I thought I had my lower leg on, but not all the time, because when I did start to keep it on consistently, he would squirt forwards away from the leg and hollow. I thought about wrapping my lower legs around him and just holding them there, and if he tried to get quick and hollow, I would close my leg a little more firmly and keep my hands still and just keep doing that until he softened and gave. Oh, and I found out just how much I use my hands when I ride. I don’t think I’m fiddling, but even the squeezing I do with my hands is “knocking him off the bit”, according to Christan. I know I’ve been better about not sponging the rein anymore, but I guess I was still squeezing with my hands too much and I wasn’t getting consistent contact. When Oliver gets quick and hollows, or falls behind my leg, or pops his shoulder, I have to concentrate hard on NOT doing anything with my hands, even squeezing them, and use my leg and push him up onto the bit, and then when he softens, not to allow the reins to get too soft. In short, I have to stop releasing so much, and taking so much, and make everything a lot smaller and more consistent. We had some lovely uphill work, both up and down in the transitions, and got the right lead every time (although it wasn’t too pretty), and I was relieved. I’m still a bit irritated at all the people who have told me to ride with my toes in, thigh on, hands spongeing, blah. It’s all wrong! Sometimes I worry about what would happen if anything went south between Christan and me. I don’t want to go back to the old way of riding, ever. I know it’s wrong, and the way Christan is having me ride is more like what they talk about in the classical dressage books, like Klimke’s Schooling the Young Horse, and others – from back to front, leg to hand.

In which my seat gets all turned around

I wish someone had taught me this earlier. Like, 10 years earlier. It's so simple that it makes you wonder why nobody else teaches this - simple, but not easy, but I believe that with a lot of determination and self-discipline, I can make this automatic in the future.

I had a lesson on Sam with Christan today, and lately I've been riding without stirrups to deepen my seat and try and keep my lower leg a bit more stable, especially in the canter and when jumping. I warmed up without my stirrups, and Sam seems to actually like it better when I sit the trot without stirrups, as he seems to get freer in the back. Christan really emphasized opening up my thigh and keeping my lower leg closed around Sam, as she said that when she rode him for the video, he (at first) wanted to scoot ahead when she put her leg on, and that Oliver was doing much of the same thing. C stressed that it shoudn't require a lot of tension or work, just concentration - I had to keep a hollow in my lower back, thinking about keeping my pelvis pressed forward and down into the pommel of the saddle. It helped to think about having a suction cup there and keeping that suction cup pressed down and forward, keeping my thigh back in the saddle. If I allowed my pelvis to tilt backwards and tuck my bum under me, my thighs automatically tightened and I would start to pinch with my knee, and in turn Sam would get bouncier. It was interesting how everything fell into place once I concentrated on keeping my seat where it should be - C pointed out how my hands stopped burying themselves down and were carrying themselves where they should be, and how Sam softened his back and became extremely light and uphill, and his trot and canter very soft and light and "up" and most of all, easy to sit. If I tightened with my thigh, immediately his trot became more jarring and I would lean backwards, tucking my seat underneath me. Christan also said that sitting this way made me look longer and leaner, as it lengthened my leg and stretching up created the visual impression that my tummy was flatter. Talk about incentive to ride that way!

The most revolutionary idea in all of this was when we transferred it over to two point. C had me thinking about sliding my seat down and back, thinking about it sliding along the saddle, and really keeping my thighs open and my lower leg closed. I had been standing out of the saddle too far for two point, and grabbing with my knee, which caused several things to happen - when I sat down in the saddle before a jump, the horse would hollow out from underneath me. Riding two point the way C showed me, there was very, very little movement adjusting from two point to a full seat to rebalance before the jump, and as a result, there was no disruptance in the horse when we approached the jump. Over the jump, I had to think about sliding my seat down and back and really arching my lower back so that I didn't make a move with my upper body. That was much harder to do, but then I need to practice galloping around in the new two point, switching between the two seats, before I can get used to closing my hip angle the way it should close over a fence.

i'm frustrated, due to having practiced the wrong way for so long - various teachers have told me to steady my lower leg (Holly) to keeping it underneath me (David O'Brien), but nobody addressed the root of the problem, which was my pelvic triangle and seat. I'm elated, because just changing the way I sit on my pelvis made such a HUGE difference in the way Sam went. I'm anxious to try it on Oliver.

Oh, and the most interesting thing of all - I sat in Christan's Prestige 2000D dressage saddle. She talked me into it, since I didn't want to as it was a 16" seat and I thought for sure I would overlap the seat, but amazingly enough - when I dropped my leg and sat the correct way, it actually wasn't too small at all! I had plenty of room in front and behind me. Weird. So, C and I both think that my saddles are too big for me, which causes me to tuck my butt underneath me as the balance point is too far back and I'm unconsciously trying to find it with my pelvic triangle. I guess i need to be looking for a 17"-17.5" seat, instead of the 18" which I always have thought were the right size for me. I feel skinnier already! :)