New Toys!!

Since I am a consummate tack whore, when I found out Izzy would be moving into a fancy barn with an actual trainer, I promptly bought her a crapload of stuff. Some of it you've already seen... I think... Anyways, more cool stuff showed up yesterday.



Check this hotness out. Perhaps not the most flattering shot of Izzy ever, but this is her spiffy new "grown up" halter from Danzig Brothers. It's thick, supple leather that's super nice quality and it came with her name on it. So nice.

You should notice the lovely English chin. Mmhmm, no more nasty crap adjustable chins for me! It fits her exactly how I like it and looks stunning, if I do say so myself.


As much as I love the halter, I also wanted to go for a ride before it started snowing. Fun fact about having her in the mountains: I can watch all the nasty storm clouds build up in the valley below before they start rolling in.

Izzy was most excellent. I keep expecting her to do something stupid, and she's just stellar. Two things about riding today:

1) I'd been putting off riding in the jump tack because I'm just way more comfortable and secure in my dressage saddle, and I wanted to be ready for when she tried something. Oddly, when I got on today, I felt just as connected and secure as I do in dressage. So. Weird. I mean, normal for good riders, but weird for me. I'd argue it's because we're working with a trainer now, but she's left for Galway before Izzy showed up.

2) We completely ignored all the fun lateral work I was doing in dressage and just went forward. To get Izzy relaxed and focused, we did canter figure eights with halts in the center to change the lead. Yes, I mean canter/halt/canter transitions. They're not perfect, but she was doing them with just a stride or two of trot, and then when I asked, she NAILED a simple change with one trot stride. I know it's not really eventer-kosher to have flying changes before you need them in dressage, but dammit I want them. We'll get there.

Pony mare wants changes too. DRAMA!






Ok, back to tack whoring: here's Izzy's getup today. Notice anything?

Like the absence of a horrid fleece girth?

Oh yeah, we did get a super pretty new fancy stitch leather girth. It may be a smartpak cheapie, but it looks way classy and I love it. Plus, it just cleans right up. No washing required (die fleece die!!).

Plus Izzy is still looking fab. This is pre-clip, too.



The whole get up for today. No warnings about dropping reins and walking away--we are in an enclosed arena with the gate shut. I mean, yeah, she could jump out, but she's never been that motivated before.

Anyways. My tack is spotlessly clean. My horse looks amazing. If I were I person other than me, I'd be completely jealous of me.





This is actually not new, but here Izzy's rocking her fancy cooler. Good thing I bought one last year so I didn't have to this year, right? (Of course I'm not considering getting another one. You must be thinking of someone else.)










And another shot of the wondermare wearing both halter and cooler.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

We were in the Doom Bubble again today. Usually it's just our lessoner friend in with us, but someone scheduled a beginner lesson at the same time today. As a result, Izzy and I had to stay on the same end with our friend to avoid mowing over the beginner. We had to do a lot of lengthening and shortening since the lesson horse moves quite slowly. I've noticed that Izzy seems to tighten her body, then drag down on the bit, and completely ignore my body. In large part, I think that's due to me getting stiff, which isn't exactly helped by the cold. She gets better if I change the bend every couple strides, but it's still not great. We couldn't do many spirals today because there were other people around.

Oh well. We worked really hard. When Katie rode Izzy, she said that she knew the aids, but commented that our half halt/brakes weren't that good. I feel like I finally have Izzy going pretty well forward, so now we need to learn to slow down. We did a lot of big trot to shorter trot transitions, but it would take me a whole short side to get her to slow down. Ugh. Definitely need more work there. I'm thinking we may take some time to do what Frizzle is doing with Salem. Still, it's a pretty new concept for her because so much of our time has been spent going forward. I'm really looking for more quality downward transitions, both in and between gaits. She has a tendency to lose all her forward energy in a transition instead of going forward and down... if that makes any sense.

Cathy's out of town this weekend, but I'm hoping we can get on the lesson schedule next week sometimes. Beyond that, do you have any exercises that will help with softening us up?