Pictures

Here's a picture of some of the fall colors at the barn:

It's been absolutely gorgeous here--cool overnight, but in the 60s or 70s doing the day. Unfortunately, the leaves are finally starting to fall.














Here's the aisleway that Izzy and I walk down to get to the turnouts.


















My fancy new leathers and irons. (And yes, the leathers are now nylon-lined. Yikes.)














Gorgeous bridle and breastcollar:



















And of course, my beloved fuzzies at home:














Aren't they so cute all snuggled together?

Huh. I was going to put some other pictures up, but blogger changed something about the uploading and I'm having trouble figuring it out. The pictures used to be in reverse order, one on top of the other, but now they're all crammed in side by side and if I try to cut and paste, more than one disappears. So weird.

Where the WB Wants to be a TB

AKA "conditioning day". According to the schedule that I more or less try to stick to, we were supposed to do trot and canter sets today. I'm always torn about this. I feel like if we do concentrated dressage for a few days, then we make some real progress. The only problem is that the progress comes at the expense of our jumping. Oh well. That's why we rotate, right?

So. Conditioning. I rode Izzy all over the facility today. We did a little warm up work in the big outdoor, meandered around the indoor, walked by the dressage arena, then crossed the bridge and went to the track. Fortunately, Izzy seems to be over her 'I absolutely cannot pass the barn to cross the bridge' phase. She thought about balking today, but a little extra leg convinced her to keep going.

We did a couple trot sets to the left. I let her walk a lap, then we picked up the canter. This is an excellent way to work on forwardness, right? She got rolling along, I got settled, and then I went up to two point to lighten my seat and work on my balance.

OUCH!

I almost fell off the mare. Apparently, even though my hip is now fine, my rump is still pretty sore from our tumble on Saturday. I thought about sitting down again, but my hip improved most when I went running and pushed through it, so I stayed in two point for three painful laps.

I know how long the track is and my goal is to build our fitness while figuring out how to accurately estimate my meters/minute speed. Unfortunately, I have so much to work on right now that I can hardly keep myself out of Izzy way, much less know what's going on.

Here's a typical set: Ok, we are on a corner going away from the barn. Walk to canter transition with much fuss. Check. Correct lead. Check. Elbows bending to follow motion of her head. Check. (Turn) Allow motion to roll from my hip to my knee, not hip to foot. Check. (turn) My left foot hurts. That means I'm putting too much weight there instead of balancing centrally (turn) Rebalance. Butt hurts. Shoulders too far forward. If she spooks, I'm going over her shoulder. One!!

And repeat.

After a few sets left, we switched to the right. On the second set, I finally seemed to get it more or less together. I felt like a race jockey coming around the corner; eyes up, body balanced, hands still, and oh boy, Izzy felt it to. We GALLOPED down the stretch and around the corner, at which point I freaked. Oh shit!! Is this track even designed for galloping? What if she loses her footing? Ack! No! Whoa! Izzy did a flying lead change, then one back.

Ok, I think that's enough for today...

Back to Dressage

The feedback we got at the jumping clinic was that Izzy needs to accept the bit and be more forward. Since that seems to be a theme for us, today we pulled out the dressage saddle and got to work.

Izzy started out pushy and even a little tense. She's going through a phase where she'll have a decent walk, but when I pick her up and ask for trot, she tries to fling her head up in the air and run on her forehand. I'm not really sure where this is from; it gets better if we work on it, but I haven't gotten it to go away yet.

Another issue I'm working on is getting my hands out of my lap, holding a steady contact, and riding Izzy into it. Conveniently, all these things seem to be tied together. When I hold a steady contact, the pony mare is able to trust it and balance on it, which smooths the transition. Even if she does attempt the head-fling-and-run, by holding the contact and stopping her with my body, I am refusing to play her game and focusing on the issue: the balance.

Finally, when cantering, I have apparently over-packaged and over-rebalanced her stride to the point that she doesn't really come under herself and balance. Instead, she has some sort of weird up-down motion. Whoops. That's what I get for only sort of knowing what I'm doing and sporadically working with trainers. Today, we focused on letting Izzy develop a lovely big canter and really carry herself around. While she did that, I tried to keep a steady contact, maintain my posture, and let her find her own balance.

All in all, I'd call it a good day. We started rough, but she (we) improved as we went along. At the end of the ride, she was pretty comfortable with the contact and was able to maintain a nice balance at all three gaits. Not fancy, but good. Hopefully someday I'll have another dressage lesson. This would all be easier if it was free, right?

The Best and Worst

First off, a picture of the barn dog "helping" feed on a windy day. He didn't want to get off the 4 wheeler.

Izzy and I had another jumping lesson on Saturday. Irie's mom was unable to attend, so the only picture I have is of Izzy waiting patiently at the trailer, even though I forgot to bring a haynet for her. <3 data-blogger-escaped-br="" data-blogger-escaped-her="">

The lesson was great! Izzy warmed up really well. We focused on 'fingertip control' at first, in which I try to get a maximum response to minimal aids. Next, we worked on focusing on where we wanted to go in order to get our horses to move with purpose. An example would be instead of just asking for a trot transition, focus on a place you want to get to and then ask. This gives you a goal and allows your horse to obey promptly.

We also did an exercise in which we lightened one leg at a time in the stirrups, allowing our whole leg to contact the side of the horse instead of just putting our weight in our stirrups. This will be important later.

The first exercise we worked on was just cantering over poles set at a 90 degree angle to one another. It was a long three, a comfortable four, or a short five, and we got to do all three variations. Next, Stephanie set the poles up to 2' verticals and had us canter over those both directions, focusing on getting four comfortable strides, jumping perpendicular to the fence, and staying balanced. It was harder than I thought.

Finally, we incorporated a third element: a 2'3" square oxer (which sounds tiny to those of you who actually jump, but it's good-sized for Izzy and I right now). The pattern was now this: canter in to a 2' vertical, turn left and 90 degrees in 4 strides, jump another 2' vertical, turn right and 90 degrees in five strides, jump a 2'3" oxer.

Whoa. That was hard.

I went first and really struggled with it because I have some major position flaws that this exercise highlights. First off, I tend to move around too much in front of the fence, which makes Izzy shorten because she's confused. Then, my in-air form is bad, so I take back on the reins and totally lose my legs, which makes leg yielding through the turn virtually impossible. We manage to get over the second fence, but not the third.

Finally (probably 3 or 4 tries later), I seem to get it. I shorten up my reins, and grab Izzy's mane about a third of the way up her neck. This forces my hands to stay forward, which keeps me in better balance and allow me to use my leg. We make the second jump on a fairly severe angle (yay Izzy! Already compensating for my dumbness!) We barely made the turn to the third jump (oxer), and I showed it to Izzy too late. BRAKES!

The good news is, I wasn't ahead of her and my position barely even bobbled when she stopped. It was just poor riding by me and greeness by her, so Stephanie had us canter around and do that jump alone. Izzy was brilliant.

Then, we put all three together. We developed a rhythmic canter to the first jump. I put my hands in her mane and kept my leg on. We did a nifty leg yield through the sharp left corner and caught the second jump square in the middle. I didn't worry about her lead and made the right hand turn quickly enough to allow her to see the jump before we were right on top of it. I kept my leg on and my hands still and we positively FLEW over the oxer!!

And then...














Yep, stirrup leather totally busted about a stride after the fence. If only I'd paid more attention to the lesson earlier about distributed my weight through my leg instead of just my stirrup. I went flying (dumping? It wasn't graceful) off Izzy's left side, and my lesson buddy assures me that she let out a mighty buck once I was off.

It was pretty hilarious. I mean, I was done. We nailed the exercise, so there was no reason to do it again. I just sat in the sand for a moment, hurting and processing. Then I got up, pulled the other stirrup off the saddle, and rode Izzy around to cool out while my lesson buddy finished up.

Several thoughts:
1) I have not fallen off Izzy in well over a year, so I was more than due.
2) I cannot imagine a better way to come off--neither of us has any confidence issues due to it.
3) Since I am a consummate tack-whore, it is kind of embarrassing to fall off due to tack failure.
4) That said, due to the aforementioned tack-whoring issue, I actually have a new pair of leathers (nylon-lined) at home. The only reason I wasn't using them was because they didn't fit my current irons and I was suppressing my tack-whoring impulse to go buy new irons. Lesson learned: never repress a tack whore.
5) I consciously decided not to give my tack a once-over the night before the lesson because I thought I was too busy. Ha. Pony club was right. Check your leathers.

This jumping thing is addicting.

Quick Ride

I scooted out to the barn yesterday afternoon. Never mind that I was cramming it in between lunch with the in laws and an evening commitment, I was going to ride.

Izzy did not think she should have to stand in the crossties, especially since I just used her rope halter that hangs on the front of her stall instead of getting out the leather one we usually used. Plus, I think she likes the noise she makes when she flips her head around.

I just ignored her antics as I speed-groomed and booted her up. (I learned my lesson about skipping boots when in a hurry last time when she tried to lame herself.) The gusty winds weren't my favorite thing ever, so I took Izzy to the indoor and put her on a lunge line in case she decided she was scared. She wasn't. That gave me just enough time to hop on, w/t/c both ways, and hop back off. She was ok. Not really good--she didn't really accept the contact, but she was pretty forward and relatively adjustable.

About halfway through our ride, another boarder showed up in half chaps and breeches and got her WB looking horse out to tack up in the aisle. I was super excited. Yay! Someone new to meet. Unfortunately, I was in a hurry and she was pretty absorbed in what she was doing, so we didn't get to talk. Now she probably thinks I'm a horrible snob, but at least I'm a horrible snob with an adorable pony, right?

Anyways. As I led Izzy down the driveway to get back to the barn, she decided to stop and poo. I wouldn't have cared except there was a group of people I didn't know standing by the barn and a car coming. Of course we'd stopped in the narrow part where the car can't go around. I tried to lead Izzy out of the way, but she was having none of it until her poo was done and I didn't want to pull the whip out with all the people watching. I know, she's my horse and they probably wouldn't say anything, but I just don't want people to think I abuse my girl... Am I over-reacting?

I've been noticing that Izzy tunes me out on the ground and just sort of ambles along at the speed she wants to go. Any recommendations for working on that? It's driving me batty, but I don't want to just whip her every time she does it. That seems mean.

Stress!

I thought that I had pretty well eliminated stress from my life by graduating and working less and all, but oh well. I got Izzy out yesterday and turned her out since I was out of town Sunday. She galloped and bucked and cavorted all around, so I let her be. It was blowing like 40 miles an hour, so I chickened out on riding. I was running late as it was and with all the other factors, I figured it wasn't worth it to try and force something.

Today it's pouring rain. Also, my husband is home sick. Also, I have to work. Also, I'm going to visit my grandpa. Also, I have a ticket to the game tonight. Also, I HAVE to go to the barn because the nutcase gelding next to Izzy has started her chewing and the B.O. isn't super happy about that.

Tomorrow looks even less likely for squeezing a ride in.

None of that would bother me, except I have a lesson scheduled for Saturday. It does bug me to pay for a lesson when I haven't been riding, so I need to RIDE.

Oh well. We'll figure it out, right?

Testing

Apparently there are blogs about how to use blogger. Who knew?

Technical Details

I have a new gmail address for my primary correspondence. Is there any way to migrate this blog over to it?

It's looking like I either have to keep the blog with this gmail account or download and re-upload at a new place? I'm not sure. Any tech savvy advice appreciated.

Where Izzy is a Good Pony

As I mentioned in the last post, my friend (and blog reader!) M came out to see Izzy with me yesterday. She would have come sooner, but she lives in a different state, which complicates pony trips. Here is a picture she took of me warming up Izzy for her.
I wanted to post it to prove that I do not always sit in a chair seat, though my hands are apparently still in my lap. Nuts. I thought I was doing better there.

Here is M on Izzy. She is only the 5th person to ever ride my wonder pony and the first to get a leg up on her. Izzy was kind of surprised, but quite good.

And they're off!
M used to have her own horse and ride a ton, but now she is stuck riding my mare here and there. Nice basics, though.
Izzy was super cute about the whole thing. She figured out that M wasn't 100% sure what she was doing, so she just played dumb and pretended she didn't know how to trot. Pretty funny, really.
It was so fun to watch the two of them. I almost never get to see Izzy go (since I'm riding) and she has grown up so much. I never thought she'd be a horse I could put someone on, but she was amazing yesterday.

Finally, we get a trot!
Not terribly forward, but calm and relaxed. Then we go the other way...
You may notice one of the other boarders in the background riding here. This officially marks the first time I have ever ridden in the arena with someone else at this facility.
There she is not in the background. Quite easy to share an arena with; she's good at steering. They're schooling 2nd level dressage.

Back to our stars:
I didn't make M ride her over the bridge, but she dismounted in a new place and then we led Izzy over the bridge and around the track. She was quite good throughout. I'm proud of her. (And YAY for seeing M!)

Improvement?

I didn't get out at all on Tuesday. I was home very sick. I did manage to go out briefly yesterday. Izzy must be feeling much better, because she met me in the front of her stall with her ears pricked. I suspect that she was tired and a bit bodysore after jumping and was letting me know she didn't feel up to getting out Monday.

Anyways. I turned her out for a while and did a couple barn chores before going home. Today I think I actually get to ride, and a friend of ours should be coming out with us. Izzy may give a pony ride!! If she does, I promise photographic evidence. (Note: I will not be making our friend ride past the barn. That would just be mean, though I bet I could get some fabulous photos.)