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!