I decided to create this blog as a way to keep track of my training goals and notes with my 12 year old QH gelding, Henry. He's a great guy, and I'm doing my best to make him the best darn dressage horse I can - on a limited budget, with limited time, and with the best combination of patience and dedication that I can muster.
After work yesterday I microwaved some leftovers, changed clothes, and headed for the barn. I got there about 5:15 and got ready to ride. There were surprisingly few people there at that time, which was nice, since I prefer to have some room in the ring and to not block the aisle for everyone!
Henry was great, although not as steady in the contact at first. We worked on a lot of bending, circles, etc and then did several trot-halt-trot transitions. After a break we worked on leg-yields, shoulder-in, then haunches & half-pass. Still not quite right but it is amazing how well he will "sit" and slow down when I am asking him for lateral stuff. I had a really hard time using my right leg for this stuff. It almost feels like the inside of my right thigh is thicker or something? I end up turning my toe out just to be able to get a good feel on his side, which is troubling. I have theorized in the past that this might be because of driving, and using my right leg for gas/ breaks (therefore that leg's muscles get worked more, and so are bulkier) but I might be a little nuts to think that.
We took another break and worked a little in sitting trot, again with the trot-halt-trot transitions and then into a rising stretchy trot. At this point, people had started to come in and tack up for a 6:30 lesson taught by the BO, and she came out and saw some of my ride. She commented that she was very pleased with the stretching work and that we had come a long way in the past couple of months with it, which is true, and thank GOODNESS I have finally learned to PUSH him at the stretchy trot and hold his front end up so he doesn't fall all over himself. She then said that my trainer (her daughter) had commented on how nice of a horse he was, which combined with a similar comment from the farrier (relayed to me via another instructor/boarder yesterday) made me all warm and fuzzy inside :)
I gave Henry another walk break and then we did one or two canters each way, concentrating on uphill, steady slow pace, BENDING etc, but by this point riders were starting to bring in their schoolies for the 6:30, and Henry was getting tired (even broke once or twice) so I finished with one more stretchy trot around the arena - and he was so tired I had to push him to keep the trot! Normally if I go large with a stretchy he will prick his ears and *ahem* extend the trot unasked for...
I took his tack off and decided to take him out into the arena for a walk, to see if he would roll, even though he wasn't warm. He dug around a couple of times like he was going to roll, sniffed around for that perfect spot, but in the end decided that watching the lesson get started was more interesting! There were six riders in the lesson and not all of them felt like giving Henry any space to potentially roll, so after a couple laps we went back to his stall. By this point, two boarders had added their horsies to the already circus-like ring, so I was REALLY glad I had gotten there early! I cleaned his bucket and gave him some warm water, started to put his stuff away, and then when I went to groom him saw that he had taken half a flake of his hay and STUFFED it in the bucket, and was proceeding to take dainty little bites. Whatever makes you happy, buddy!
Two of my 7:30 college lesson riders (Fashion Boots Rusty Rider and Medieval History Practical Horseman - see Jan 27 post for more info) showed up while the 6:30 was still in progress, so I had them go into the barn to start grooming their schoolies. They were very eager to be able to ride which is awesome. They really are great students. The three other riders (Finance Major Linebacker, No Gloves International Relations Major, and Quiet Architecture Major) came right on time and all had matching gloves! Evidence, they said, of their dedication to the sport ;)
We got two more horses groomed and tacked, and I borrowed one from the 6:30 lesson, and once everyone was finally out in the ring I showed everyone how to mount. All of the guys in this lesson went from never been on a horse to steering, stopping & starting, and decent position in about a half hour. I was impressed. The best part was, the QAM had asked last week if he could wear cowboy boots to ride in (sure, why not...) and HE DID! Granted, he had a wicked chair seat, but those boots looked good :D
During the lesson, MHPH asked how much horses weigh. I gave him approximate weights for several of the horses in the ring. Then - "What about Clydesdales?" This guy is OBSESSED! He asked if we had any last week, to which I replied that no, we didn't, but there is another local college that has some. He asked if they would let him ride them. Umm... probably not. In honor of MHPH and his zeal for learning and love of Clydes, I give you the following Super Bowl Ads:
"Generations"
"Stick"
and my favorite of the night (seriously made me tear up a little!) "Circus"
With that, I am off to prepare for my 5:30 lesson with my trainer, and try to think of some interesting things to work on with my 6:30 BegInterVanced college lesson. I'm starting to look forward to Spring Break!
Oh wow am I tired. Long day at work yesterday, then straight home to eat some leftover pizza while changing into riding attire (which in the depths of bleakest mid-winter) includes pantyhose, thermal shirts, wool sweaters, and my new fleecy vest. Out to the barn to ride Henry, who was uptight and more sideways than forward (but not always in the good way). College lesson with 4 total newbies and a rusty rider who wants to brush up on her skills. Over to my parent's house to pick up the rest of my laundry from their (free) dryer. Home at 11, shower, fall asleep and have weird dreams about puppies (huh?).
When I got Henry out into the ring we started with lots of leg-yields at the walk. Center line to the wall. Quarter line to the wall. Quarter line to the opposite wall. Wall to center line. Quarter line to center line, back to quarter line. It was getting pretty good. Then two people came in to lunge their horses (one after the other, not both at the same time), so I took the far end of the ring (by the open door, not by the barn). We picked up a trot and tried to keep him up in his shoulders and at a reasonable pace, without me tipping forward, and keeping my hands forward. I don't know if it was because of our warm up not being warm enough for him, the other horse in the ring, or what, but he was tense. When Henry is tense he GOES. Despite my best half-halt attempts we never got a consistently nice pace for the whole night.
Every time I tried to slow him down, his shoulders would pop out to the inside or the outside. If I tried to keep a better hold on the reins he would tense up his neck and curl up, or stick his nose in the air. It felt like he was paddling around, so I would try to focus his energy into going forward to the bit without going slower. Did. Not. Work. I did trot-halt and trot-walk transitions to make sure he was listening to my whoa aids. Those were okay, but as soon as we got back into the trot for more than a few strides it felt like he wanted to take off again.
Then there was a lesson of 5 or 6 riders that came into the ring. The instructor (also happened to be the Barn Owner) asked them to stay in the short arena/ not go past F and K. Apparently one of them thought this meant to stay on the OTHER side of F and K, where I was struggling to contain my wild man. Great. She couldn't steer, either. Her horse kept drifting in and out from the track so it was almost impossible to work around her. Then another boarder brought her horse down to the circle I was on with this lesson horse. Yikes. I tried a couple of canters each way, but I knew they wouldn't be pretty. I concentrated on keeping him relatively slow, and responsive when I asked for the walk, and then I got the heck out of that ring! I had just walked him back to his stall when I saw two college-aged kids wandering into the barn, 25 minutes early for their lesson. *Sigh*
I untacked Henry and we all went into the tack room to wait for the rest of the lesson to show up. Got their liability releases signed, etc, went over rules, and learned a little about each of them. There are four guys and one girl. As I said the girl has ridden before and wants to refresh her skills. She also told me who she thought she should ride and that the last time she was at the barn they had switched her around a lot so that they could find the perfect horse for her. She didn't like mares and she couldn't ride one that was too short, because she has long legs (carefully outfitted with the most ridiculous fashion boots I have ever seen). She was a no-show last week because it was a holiday.
The guys seem very nice, if a bit clueless. One is a finance major (looks like a linebacker), one is international relations (forgot to bring gloves), and one is an architecture major (very quiet). The fourth is a piece of work. He wants to know everything there is to know about the practical aspects of riding. He's very interested in medieval history, so obviously becoming an accomplished equestrian is paramount to his learning experience. He was disappointed that we didn't have any Clydesdales, and wants to know if he can take several lessons a week. He also made a point to tell me that he was the captain of the fencing team.
We went over how to act around horses, how to safely maneuver around them in the stall, and grooming. Parts of the saddle and bridle, how to tack up. Then each of them picked a schoolie to groom and tack up. By this point it was already 8:30 (i.e. end of the lesson) and the Medieval Dude and Refresher Rider were more than a little disappointed that they couldn't ride. Hey guys, it's horsie bedtime! They told me they would be sure to get there early next week so that they could have a full hour to ride.
After they left, it was blankie time for Henry, lights out, doors locked, and go. The best (?) part is... I get to do it all again tonight!
Yesterday the weather was quite warm, into the mid 50s I believe. This meant that I wouldn't have to deal with Henry's scooty-OMG it's cold attitude. Yay! However, there was also a great deal of precipitation yesterday. Hmm...
When I got to the barn there was a jumping lesson again. I heard the trainer talking to the boarder afterward and she's a lot younger than I thought! She's looking for high schools! It's hard to tell when some young riders are so dedicated, and so quiet, but I suppose I was like that when I was her age as well (only sans horse).
Henry made some faces at me as I was tacking up, probably because it was shortly after he had been fed and he wanted to keep eating his hay. Oh well. My limited schedule becomes your inconvenience, buddy! There was another boarder there whose horse is in the stall next to Henry and she too was tacking up, but got into the ring before me (I waited until the jumping lesson was over, so as not to get in the way of the HUGE WB careening around and hurdling over things.
As I was getting ready to get on, I noticed something shiny in the ring footing - turns out it was someone's pocketknife (thankfully closed)!!! Then I started to walk around on the buckle and hmmm... what's that noise? Above the din of the rain on the metal roof, I heard an engine. I looked out the end door and there was a tractor, lights on, idling in the mud. Apparently there would have been a deluge followed by a very muddy ring if not for the impromptu ditches being dug. Henry was a little wary of all these shenanigans but after a couple of laps around the ring he settled down quite a bit. The only thing left to deal with was my neighbor-boarder, who apparently thought it was quite alright to practically run into Henry on her way around the ring. Um, what? Good thing he's not a kicker!
I warmed up with some shoulder-in at the walk, as well as some small circles and halts. His trot work was pretty great, though halfway into my ride there was another lesson starting (2 riders) so I mainly stayed on a large 20(ish) meter circle at A. Thankfully the instructor of that lesson made a point of asking neighbor-boarder not to follow too closely, saving me the trouble. I tried to work on some canter-walk transitions when I had a clear path, which was a little difficult, but towards the end we were doing quite a bit better than last week.
I hate sitting at a desk all day, and I really need to get back to the gym, because my position is one of the most important things I need to work on. How can I expect Henry to work and be his best when I'm tipping forward or being inconsistent with my aids? I'm not being fair. It's just so tempting to sleep as late as I can in the morning, hit the barn right after work, and not even think about the gym, but the consequences are *ahem* starting to show. I'm REALLY not a morning person but I might have to try to muster the motivation to get up and work out BEFORE work, because there's really no other time in the day I have free, but winter weather makes it oh-so-nice to stay under all my blankets when I wake up...
These time (and motivtion) limitations will certainly be exacerbated next month, when I will be taking a class (or two) at the community college, working full-time, trying to move my horse up to 1st level & taking lessons, and teaching a lesson at the barn... the BO asked me if I would be interested in teaching a beginner level weekly night lesson - um, YES!?! I taught a few private lessons there before I left for college, usually small kids getting acclimated before joining a group lesson. The lesson I would be teaching next month would be a beginner-level group lesson of college students (they get a PE credit - how cool is that?) and would involve teaching grooming, tack, anatomy, safety, basic riding technique, position, etc; a lot of what I've done at summer camp in years past, only with people whose attention span is longer than 15 minutes. I'm excited to hone my skills and I am finding more and more how much I love meeting new people, so hooray!
I have my own lesson tonight, and I can't wait to find out what we'll be working on. I will be using my quarter sheet to warm up with (I am keeping it in my locker, under my saddle as I read on COTH that the wooden rack could damage the flocking) because it has suddenly gone from 55 yesterday to... 30 degrees out today. Blech.
It is a busy, busy time of year. I have been riding, I just haven't been good about posting afterwards. To recap my week:
Monday - rode in the cold; Henry was a little all over the place Tuesday - amazing lesson, trying to work on position and down transitions Thursday - Henry was a little scooty in the trot, but his canter work was awesome Saturday - cold again! with a fleece quarter sheet though, Henry was more comfortable and warmed up quickly and easily (he is not clipped) trot work was super, canter-walk transitions are going to take a while!
So my week in riding was pretty eventful. I feel like we are progressing in leaps and bounds (mostly figurative), and I can't wait to see how the rest of the winter pans out. The last barn I was at had a couple of boarders who liked to show at the local/ schooling shows, and there were a couple of trailers on site. I'm not sure if there are many boarders at this barn who do show, and many of them ride purely for the fun of it (which is awesome). I DO like to show, so we'll see if there are any opportunities that come up in the spring. Our USDF GMO sponsors several shows, clinics, and "show and tell" events, and I have enjoyed going to shows hosted by other organizations and barns in years past. I'll start saving now for entry fees...
My week in life was somewhat eventful as well. We got a tree and my boyfriend trimmed it... well, the top half anyway. I am also planning on doing some serious soul searching to figure out what my next career steps will be. I am hoping to take one or two business classes at a local college in the spring, to see if it's something I could stomach. I've never envisioned myself going into business but... who knows?
Well, I didn't make it out to the barn today. Between family, food, and errands I ended up whittling away the day until there wasn't a good chunk of time to spend at the barn (I usually need about three hours with getting to and from the barn, grooming, tacking up, etc).
I did, however, get a call AND an email from a woman who saw the ad for Henry online and is interested in buying him for her 13 year old daughter. Hmmm. This is tough for me because I have never been comfortable with the idea of "getting rid of" Henry. I posted the ad at the end of the summer because I was anticipating grad school in the fall, and could not reason my way out of the fact that I would be borrowing money for tuition, living expenses, AND horse stuff. Then, I was offered a full time job and decided to postpone grad school (possibly forever, if I decide that my path is in another direction) thus somewhat alleviating the money situation. Now, don't get me wrong, I am on a pretty tight budget, as many horse owners are. But it would take a very special situation for me to be comfortable selling my horse. I left the ad up just in case there was just such a person who ended up contacting me.
The first call I got, not even a full 24 hours after I posted the ad, was from a woman in Maine who was very aggressive. She asked a million questions, which was great, but there were a few that were a bit off. Then she asked what my address was. I wasn't quite sure how to respond, so I replied, "If you don't mind me asking, why do you need my address?" She wanted to know what address to give her shipper. To come pick up my horse. That she had decided to purchase without vet exam, without meeting or trying out. I refused the sale even though she was willing to pay the asking price.
I got several more calls and a couple of people in state who came to ride him. Nothing really panned out. I got a couple of emails over the fall, asking "Does ur horse jump??!?!?!?!! I m reeeeeeeeely interested!!! Call me!!!!!" Yeesh. I even tried him out on some cross-rails in the field at the barn, to see what he would do. He's not a jumper. And now, out of the blue, two people this week are interested. Well, it IS Black Friday, and I don't doubt he'd be adorable with a big red bow on him, but...
I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I mean, I could definitely benefit from having all that extra money lying around (no farrier, SmartPak, board, or vet bills? Hmm...), but then again, Henry is going really well. When would I get the chance to buy another horse? What could I ride in the meantime to keep up my riding skills? Would I ever get the same honesty, the same amount of heart, and that cute face at a bargain like what I got EVER again? I doubt it. I really don't want to end up like so many of the girls I grew up riding with, who slowly find new hobbies and "get rid of" their horses. I have spent four years and countless hours of frustration getting this horse to trust me, and he is giving me a lot in return. I will probably never be able to import a warmblood or feel okay taking out a $75,000 loan for a horse.
My sensible, practical boyfriend pointed out that if I'm going to sell my horse I can't be too picky and I can't be too attached to him. But my boyfriend rides mountain bikes, not horses. He can sell a car without feeling attached. He won't care if the person who buys one of his bike forks online wrecks it. I could never forgive myself if I let Henry fall into a situation where he got skinny, neglected, or recklessly injured. I know I could maintain a buyback clause or whatever, but there is a point that many folks make on some of the other blogs I read: The only way to make sure that your horse is taken care of the way you want is to keep him, and do it yourself.
I had a great show season with Henry this year, and when I bought him I was sure he would never make it past Training Level. Well, with scores in the high 60s and even two 70s this year at Training Level, and with a remarkable trainer leading the pair of us through shoulder-in, lengthenings, and counter canter, I can almost feel the heat of a black jacket and the tension of a warmup ring as we get ready for First Level this summer. The thought of someone buying this horse and getting tired of him or "growing out" of him or "moving up" to their next horse and leaving him in the dust makes me feel so empty. I may eat these words in a few years, when I win the New York State Lotto (Hey, you never know) and send Henry to a retirement farm in Florida, and buy a golden saddle and a diamond encrusted bridle for each of my new Grand Prix warmbloods... but for now I might have to be a Grinch and keep Henry under my own tree this year...
My Pumpkinhead! He's getting the day off while I bake 4 dozen cranberry pumpkin muffins to distribute to the 30+ family and friends making the trip for Thanksgiving. Tomorrow I will head up to the barn to work on my homework from Tuesday night's lesson:
leg-yield to shoulder-in both ways
loosening up his middle (more on this in a minute)
working on lengthening in the trot
trot-halt-walk transitions
and introducing counter canter.
Henry is great front-to-back. He's got go and whoa, and a lot in between, and his neck is easy to move around, but my trainer's analogy was that from the withers back, "he's like a tube" - we have a hard time getting him to swing side to side, and put his haunches and shoulders where I want them. So, to loosen him up I'm going to have to do a lot of bending, spiraling in and out on circles (I usually start at 20 meters, circle down to about 8 meters, and back out to 20 - he's a small horse, so 8 meters isn't too hard for him), transitions, and lateral movements. I am also constantly working on getting him more uphill, so that he is sitting down on his back end and raising his tummy and withers up. Lots of engaging his hind legs to come up under him, and half-halts up front to keep him from curling his nose in and falling on the forehand. This is a lot to try to remember when I'm actually on, but somehow it works out. Even when there are big snow piles sliding off the roof, or other riders in the ring who forget to pass left to left, or REALLY interesting tractors outside, or friends coming in from turnout.
I went to college in Virginia, deciding to forgo my mom's alma mater, Mount Holyoke. Looking back I really do wish I had pursued something in the equine industry, but I'm very thankful for my college experience. I got to learn a lot about who I am, and what I love, and that there really are places where the coldest it gets is 30 degrees. I am also thankful for my boyfriend, who, when I mentioned that the articles like "Careers With Horses" in the December issue of Dressage Today make me wish I had chosen a different path, reminded me that I still could, if I really wanted to. Something to keep in mind before I go $100K into debt for grad school...
I am also thankful for my family and friends, who know that this is one of my lifelong passions, for having a job that allows me to pursue this dream, and for the barns and people that I've met during my horsey life that are encouraging, kind, funny, smart, responsible, dependable, and fun. For the teachers I've had - good ones and not so good ones - thank you. I always try to learn something (even if I'm learning how NOT to do something) from every lesson, every show, every clinic, and every day. I'm thankful for the horses that have taught me as well, from my first ever pony ride at 4 years old (not that I can actually remember it, but there's photographic evidence!), to my first lesson on the stubborn Appy Fancy Pants, to the first horses I showed (Ritchie, thanks for letting me cry in your mane), to the first horse I got to train for dressage (Hershey - still giving lessons to everyone and going well from the glowing reports I get from students and teachers at the barn), to every horse I had to get on at an IHSA show, to the skinny camp horses, to all the ones I can only see on TV.
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