2014 Goals

It's that time of year! New years resolutions! I don't typically make new years resolutions, but I do like to sit down and evaluate my goals for the new year. I also feel the need to clear some things up about what I don't want to accomplish this year.

My number one goal for this 2014 year is to make sure that my mare enjoys her job. I want to make sure that she is as happy working as I am riding her. There is nothing I hate more than riding a horse that I know is miserable underneath me. Making sure my horse maintains her good positive and confident attitude is my number one priority throughout this year. I don't follow the "they'll have to get over it" train of thought that a number of riders have while attempting to force their horses to perform tasks that they don't understand or enjoy. I think that there are certain occasions that this applies. Every horse occasionally needs a bit of an attitude adjustment when they refuse to perform their jobs, but as I've said before my horse's happiness and health is my number one priority.

As far as performance goals go for this new year my only goals are to continue to improve my dressage scores. My first show of the new year is January 11th, it's a schooling dressage show. My goal is to improve on Roanie's consistency in the bridle and her ability to yield to my aids. Following the German training scale, my goal for the next year is to be able to achieve true "relaxation" in my dressage tests.

"We can therefore perhaps characterize correct equestrian Losgelassenheit as a type of behavior in which the horse yields completely to the rider's aids and applies all of his strength and all of his muscles towards the energetic and impulsive execution of the present demands without feeling constricted."Lieutenant Colonel Gustav von Dreyhausen

Another goal I have for this year is to get Roanie fit enough to do a long format three day event. To compete at beginner novice three day I have to qualify at three beginner novice horse trials. Southern Eighths long format is in April and I originally thought that maybe I should try to qualify for it and compete. However, it wouldn't be fair to Roanie to rush her through the qualifying trials and then throw her into her first long format a few weeks later. I don't want to kill her confidence and I don't want to ruin her enjoyment of the job.

I feel the need to clear the air about what some of my more long term goals are with my riding. Some people seem to be confused with what I'd like to accomplish in my career and I'd like to set this straight. I have no desire to become part of the upper echelon of riders that compete at an international level. Every girl has her dreams, but I'm realistic and recognize my physical, mental, and financial limitations. I have no desire to make a career out of competing... I don't even enjoy competing that much. I feel so much more rewarded from knowing that I'm progressing logically and correctly with my horse and her training. Occasionally showing to test and make sure my training is progressing in the aforementioned manner is all I'm interested in doing. Showing every weekend is a waste of my money, no horse makes enough progress in one week (or even three weeks) to justify sinking hundreds of dollars every weekend to read the same comments from the judges.

That being said, I do enjoy the barn management side of competitive riding. Working in a barn full of horses that competes on a regular basis, managing each individual horses needs, and experiencing first hand how good management (and good ownership) makes a difference in performance fascinates me and is definitely the direction I want my horse career to take.

And if you have managed to keep reading all the way down here, there is just one more thing I have to say....

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

From me and Roanie 

Becoming consistent.

Lisa and I have decided to keep Roanie's feet firmly planted on the ground until next year. No jumping for us, Roanie gets too hot and tense and we lose valuable days of dressage trying to calm her down again and get her focused. At first it was a hard decision to make, because honestly, jumping is too much fun. However, after two weeks of just doing dressage with Roanie, I know without a doubt that it was the best decision I could have made. She has made so much progress in such little time that I frequently feel the need to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. Every week she spends a few days on the lunge line, with side reins set to a consistent contact, just so that she can become more comfortable and confident with my hands being there. This is making a world of difference with Roanie accepting the contact and becoming steady in the bridle. It has tremendously improved her ability to stretch downward too. Without the extra weight of a rider on her back she is much more willing to really stretch her topline. We have now installed buttons on her so that she understands when my inside leg is on her head should be down. It's so exciting!

We're becoming consistent. 

Our next big training challenge is having her keep the contact during a downward transition. To begin addressing this problem, I've started to ask her to come down to a walk on a 20 meter circle, if her head comes up, I close my inside leg and ask her to go forward again. It's like an exaggerated half halt. When I gently push her forward with my inside leg she reengages her hind end, re balances herself, and puts her head down. Then I gently ask for walk again, only allowing the walk if she does it softly in the bridle. Every day she makes improvements, every day it takes less and less attempts to get her into the walk properly. It's also extremely exciting to see her lips get frothy and know that she is enjoying her job and keeping her jaw relaxed and chewing. 

So much progress.

I love to just reflect on where Roanie was in October when I bought her. She has made SO much progress...

October....

Every single trot stride looked like this... yuck.

Now....

Streeeeeeeetch.

Today Roanie and I had one of those "Aha moments," where suddenly, something that my trainer has been telling me to do for months finally sunk in and all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. For years, before I began riding with my current trainer, Lisa, every dressage lesson had been focused on me being relaxed and loose, because if I had tension in my body, the horse can't be relaxed and loose. It's a very common riding style among amateur riders, we see loose floppy ankles, over exaggerated pelvis movement, and bumpy unsteady hands. A lot of instructors train their pupils to ride like that.

Since I began riding Roanie, Lisa has been telling me to "squeeze" my legs against her when she drops her nose out of the sky and quits being fussy with the contact. In my head I couldn't comprehend why on Earth I would want to squeeze after she did what I asked. It seemed so backwards and I couldn't really commit myself to doing what she asked of me. In my dressage lesson today Roanie was especially fussy with the contact and wasn't staying consistent in the bridle. Lisa was telling me every other stride when her nose would go down to squeeze her with my calves, but stubborn old me had been drilled from other trainers that tension is bad. Finally after about twelve frustrating twenty meter circles of Roanie flipping her head up and down I gave in and squeezed the daylights out of her. I assumed she would rush forward and get in touch with her inner giraffe but what happened surprised me. She instantly relaxed, accepted the bit contact, and settled into a lovely trot.

I learned that with Roanie, because she's so sensitive, when I'm not squeezing and holding my body still she assumes that every time I move, I am telling her to do something. She was suffering from sensory overload. When I squeeze, my body stays still, and Roanie doesn't have to decipher what every single leg wiggle is asking her to do. After this shocking discovery we were able to do something with Roanie that we hadn't been able to do at all with her, ask for the stretchy trot. She was able to stretch down for the first time and keep the contact. It was so exciting!

Dressage show.

We managed a red ribbon in our Training level test. 

My how far we've come! I was so proud of my Roan horse today! We ended up with very decent scores from a very critical judge and got some extremely helpful feedback. Roanie stayed relaxed all day long and didn't get frazzled during any part of the day. The only part of the show that I hadn't looked forward to was our training level test. I dreaded the judge's comments about our canter. Plus, our test started with the left lead, our challenging side. Roanie was a rockstar though and picked up her left lead right as I asked for it but right as we finished our 20 meter circle she swapped to her right lead.... Oh well, a month ago the canter didn't exist at all for her, so we're getting somewhere. Her canter to the right was absolutely amazing, contrary to the judges belief (who gave me a 5), it was soft, she was bent to the inside, in the bridle, and I was actually able to sit it. It was well worth AT LEAST a 12, I'm not sure why the judge didn't see that.....

We even finished first in our first western dressage test with a score of 69.3!

My only complaint about the day was that I couldn't read any of the scribes handwriting.... There must be some unwritten rule passed down from scribe to scribe that says "make sure you write as illegibly as humanly possible. Also, make sure to abbreviate obscure words that trainers and riders will try unsuccessfully to decipher for months on end."

Getting ready for a dressage show.

 Well, it's a big day/night for us here at DJR. Roanie and I have our first dressage show in the morning. We had a lovely ride earlier today where I practiced WTC transitions for longer than I care to admit. It was cold and drizzly, but Roanie was patient and willing. Every time I ask for a transition she gets in touch with her inner giraffe and sticks her nose so high up in the air that I seriously doubt she can even see what's in front of her. Sometimes I can even see her nose when I look in between her ears.... Dressage judges tend to frown upon that, so we worked diligently yet calmly and patiently on her staying relaxed and in the bridle during transitions. Roanie is incredibly smart and after a few transitions she began to practice them on her own and I was able to just stay centered in the saddle and stay consistent with my hands and let her figure out where I needed her to be. She eventually picked up on it and offered several gorgeous, light, and relaxed transitions. The name of the game tomorrow will be relaxation. I want Roanie to have quiet relaxed dressage tests. I don't want her to become frazzled and tense which leads to her rushing and becoming unbalanced. We are doing four tests tomorrow, one of which will have canter movements in it. She has come a long way with her canter, it has three beats now instead of four, and she can canter on both her left lead and her right lead as opposed to only being able to cross canter. It still isn't balanced and round but hey, we're just going for the experience. I'm so proud of how far the Roanie pony has come in the past few months and am so thrilled for tomorrow.

The four year olds getting clipped for tomorrow. Two different methods being used here. Leah and Joie and their tough love approach, and Lily taking a little chemically assisted nap for her clipping.

Roan goes to a clinic.

Today the Roanie pony and I drove up to Nani Lio farm to ride with 4* rider Bobby Meyerhoff. It was so much fun, as riding with Bobby always is. I was worried that with Roanies graceless canter we wouldn't be able to do too much, however, Bobby didn't see the canter as a problem at all and we immediately went to work on adjusting our stride length in between fences. This is where her bumbling lack of balance caused us problems. We were marvelous at removing strides and taking off from appalling flyers but adding strides proved to be as challenging as balancing a complex chemical equation. For the life of us we could not shorten that canter stride enough to add a sixth stride in a five stride line. To add to the challenge Bobby also wanted me to work on my position. In his words "your riding is effective, but it could be prettier." He wanted me to practice keeping my hands in one position and instead of opening my rein to try to adjust my horses drift to either side of the fence. Short reins, small adjustments, hands up my horses neck. I need to stop looking like one of those wacky waving inflatable arm dudes that worthlessly attempt to entice wary shoppers into a store.

All in all, it was a wonderfully productive day, I learned so much and have a ton of things to work on. I was so proud of Roanie who hopped off the trailer and went right to work. It was her first time being asked to adjust her stride and her first time having me ask her to not take off from a long spot (both her and I are notorious for taking flyers.) I'm so thankful for Bobby taking the time to do a clinic and for him being so patient as Roanie and I pulled down fences, stumbled around the arena, and missed takeoff spot after takeoff spot.

Our group: Candace and Hattie, Leah and Joie, and me and Roanie.

Plus, there was food! We got to bring our ponies to the party :)

The canter.

If only Roanie were this uphill.....

Words cannot describe Roanie's horrendously unbalanced canter. I've never ridden a giraffe, but I imagine they canter better than my mare. In fact, I do believe that Roanie holds her head higher than a giraffe while she's cantering...... Or, if you aren't familiar with how a giraffe frolics about the plains, the video below also accurately describes what it feels like riding the canter. Just put a saddle on that washing machine and you've got a tremendously accurate representation of Roanie (especially when things start to fall apart.)

Ok, ok, I know I'm being mean, but in all seriousness the canter gets better every day. Asking her to constantly keep her rear end underneath herself has made a world of difference. Trot sets in the field and jumping grids on a regular basis have done a lot to strengthen her topline and make the canter more fluid and rideable. It's a work in progress, and it's painful, awkward, and uncomfortable to ride but when everything finally clicks and comes together it's a lovely feeling that keeps me enthusiastic for what's to come. 

Roanie goes to school.

After quite a few years being ridden in a western bar bit without any emphasis on balance, I knew the transition into the dressage bridle was going to be a tough one. The first step for Roanie was to get her to understand that she could touch the bit without there being any repercussions. At first, whenever I touched her mouth she would throw her head up in the air and try to stop. After we established that when I touch the bit AND put my legs on that she should not come to a screeching halt, she began the "I don't want the bit to touch my mouth with my head up here so I'm going to try to run away from it by putting my chin on my chest" phase. Again, with time, patience, and steady constant contact she began to put some pressure on the bit and bring her poll up.

The next big challenge for Roanie was teaching her that her life would be so much easier if she would use her hind end efficiently. Roanie, being a quarter horse bred to work on a ranch, has an enormous hind end that likes to travel too far inside. To begin addressing that problem I taught her to do a turn on the forehand. I installed a button that spoke to the hind quarters. Me being able to push her hind end around using my seat and my legs is crucial for me to be able to balance her. Roanie was also worked on the lunge line and on the ground to reiterate that she should constantly be stepping up underneath herself with her inside hind leg to create balance.

Aside from learning dressage, Roanie also had to learn to trust me. So, what better way to gain trust than to successfully try new things:

A girl and her shoes.

Pete getting ready for his new shoes.

You know what they say, "No hoof, no horse." I always look forward to farrier day at the barn. It's the only time I don't mind being around horses all day without riding a single one of them. I'm always so fascinated to watch a good farrier work. We have a lot of consignment horses that come through our barn to get sold. In a lot of the cases, the horses feet have been moderately ignored or shod poorly before they arrived. Seeing the difference in how a horse like that walks up to the farrier stall and how they walk away from it is fascinating. Their stride is longer and more even and in many cases it makes a difference in the horse being sound and unsound to ride.When we do have soundness cases our vet is brought in to shoot xrays and collaborate with our farrier to determine the perfect course of action for that particular horse. It's so much fun seeing the internal structure of the hoof and how that affects the rest of the horses body and its movement.

The first jumping lesson.

This mare really surprised me the first day I jumped her. She has so much natural athleticism and such a willing "yes" attitude. This picture is the result of my trainer and I meticulously going through a video and choosing just the right frame where Roanie and I are looking our best. To view the video in it's entirety one would not get the same relaxed and graceful impression that the picture above conveys. What this picture doesn't show is the fish tail approach on an unbalanced four beat canter, it doesn't show Roanie sticking her tongue out fighting the happy mouth snaffle, and it doesn't show the two foot chip that every hunter rider cringes at that occurred at the base of the fence. That being said, this is a fine example of what this horse is capable of. She'd never jumped before and she didn't offer to do anything naughty as we continuously raised the height and width of the fence. She has such a great attitude about work and tries so unbelievably hard to please. She truly is delightful to work with.

CK LA Lori

Meet Roanie. She is a 2003 model quarter horse mare that I purchased in October of 2013. Before I bought her she spent a year out in a pasture just being a horse. Prior to that she was a trail horse extraordinaire out west doing everything from hauling dead elk out of the Rockies to packing out for weeks at a time. Needless to say, she doesn't have much of an English background. As a hopeful event rider, Roanie has become my ultimate project horse. From western saddles and bar bits to square knees and snaffles, this blog will chronicle my adventures with my mare as we move up the eventing ladder.