Gratuitous Friday Photo Spam

It is high time we review all the cutest pictures of Cuna taken since he came to me early this year. 

Day One

After some lesson badassery 

The day before we left for Thermal

At our first show together

Just hanging out

First photoshoot with Ellie

Playing the role I  really needed him to

Jumping giant jumps together

Being adorable

So photogenic

Snuggly cuteness

Having a gallop

XC instructions: Just hang on.

First canter in the water

Chilling with the vet

Being so cliche

Fancy showjumping horse

Learning to love the XC

Highlights

Picture taking still isn't Cuna's favorite thing ever, but he's learned to put up with it. It's obvious just how much he has done for me--I came to him completely traumatized and riding poorly,and look where we are now.

I will say that he has just blossomed now that he has his own person. He was pretty stand-off-ish when we met, but now he nickers and snuggles and throws hissy fits and is just generally adorable and hilarious. He may be a total doofus most of the time, but so am I. <3 the old man horse.

Gettin' Dangerous!!

It is my 666th post!! Omg. I was going to do something silly with it, but XC PICS ARE IN(!!!!!!!!!), so y'all get to see those instead.

Jump 1

The first (and last) jump on the course was this tiny little coop. When I walked the course, I thought, "Oh, a nice little inviting jump to start with." Then I realized the whole course was in kind. Hm... Well, now we know to push a little harder next time.

We came out of the start box, got our canter right away and popped over this like nothing. I always remind myself to ride the first fence so nothing untoward happens, but Cuna was totally nonplussed.




The second jump was the blue barrels. Cuna got a little crooked to them, but I insisted and he's way broke, so we hopped over and were off to the first gallop stretch. This was where we'd find out if I had anything close to enough brakes.

Answer: yes. We had this lovely little maintainable gait that let the spectators observe just how dashing Cuna looks in chocolate. He's rocking the black boots, but really folks. It can't go on.

The only bugaboo was that my course plan accounted for Cuna being super strong and me needing to swing wide and make a circle to get him back under control. He was super manageable, but I rode the wide line anyways. Because he is a MACHINE out there (and I was casual about giving direction), he just locked on to the novice jump we were cantering by. Ooops! I pulled him off it, and he gave a dramatic leap away as if to say, "Oh MY GAWD!!!! WHY did you almost let me JUMP that??"

Goofus. <3

Tidy. Cute. <3

He really didn't have to "come back" around the turn to fence three because he was already going so nicely. This is the jump that scared the crap out of me with Izzy and looked "rolex sized" when Cuna and I came and schooled here a month or so ago. Now? Yeah, not so much. Even with Cuna taking a tidy leap over the teeny fence, we were rather unimpressed.







Jump 4 was the drop, which is really not that interesting to look at. The important part is that I didn't want to rocket off the drop, so my course plan involved bringing him back to a trot so we could place nicely off the bank.

That was also on my last course plan and trot was never achieved.

Here you go. Photographic evidence that Cuna in fact can trot on an XC course.

Ears pricked! 

We had a swooping right hand turn after the drop to a ramp, one of the bigger jumps on the course. Let's be honest: it still didn't phase me and since it was after we'd already established a rhythm, I knew Cuna would take it in stride. This whole "trained horse" thing is amazing. Really. Y'all need to try it at least once.

Cuna skipped over it and we were on to the next field!

Cantering over it

Jump six was the most solid thing on the course, a log pile. I made sure to ride like an XC jockey--sit in the tack about 3 strides out, keep leg and hand steady, stay a little behind. You can see I kept my heals down and upper body open. Cuna jumped like it was nothing.

Already looking for 10

Jumps 7 and 8 were in the far field. One was a coopy/rampy thing that was probably max height (a whole 2'7") and the other in that range, but a log pile. They barely even felt like speed bumps. We jumped the big log pile back into the main field and headed for jump 10.


We actually shared fence 10 with the intro BN riders, so it was a pathetically tiny double log that I almost brought Cuna back to a trot for just to be sure he actually saw it. It was also the jump that Izzy and I wrecked over. I can say any issue I had with that jump is officially over. Total non-event.

Yep, non issue.

Fence 11 was actually the most challenging jump on the course. It was a long, steady downhill to a max height coop. There's nothing inherently difficult about jumping on a slight downhill, but I don't get to do it a lot. Thus, I knew the theory behind the ride, but have very little practice.

I half halted before the turn, kept my shoulders back, my feet a bit out in front, and my stirrup leather vertical. Cuna let me ride him positively to the base, and it was perfect.

It wasn't a difficult jump, but of the whole course, I am most happy with how I rode it. I made a plan, stuck to it, and things went great.

On to 12!! We now had to jump the blue barrels backwards. I wasn't concerned about the jump and my arms were actually still attached to my body (thank you giant bit), but my lungs felt like they were going to explode!! Yikes. Need to do some more conditioning on the human side. I sent Cuna to the jump and we cantered along and popped over. Seriously. It felt almost too casual.

Me: "BIG BLUE BARRELS CUNA OMG!!!"
Cuna: "Herp derp. Now what?"





The last fence was just the first teeny coop jumped backwards. On my coursewalk, I decided the only potential problem at this point would be taking it for granted and forgetting to ride. As such, as we cantered in, I kept a strong kept with my leg ON and let him know I wanted to go OVER THE TEENY JUMP in no uncertain terms. He may have thought I was a bit over the top about it, but he popped right over and we hand galloped across the finish line.




I was thrilled with Cuna, thrilled with how I rode, and not that excited about the course. I mean, it was a perfectly acceptable for that level of course on decent footing. The questions were fair and the judges quite good.

It's just... the Old Man Horse has brought me so far even just in the last month that I found the whole thing a little underwhelming. I would never have believed in February when I first started riding him that he could take me this far in this short of a time, but the truth is that I was/am itching to try out the novice jumps. They looked more fun, maybe just the right amount of challenge.

In the back of my head, I was hearing Stephanie talk to me this spring when she said, "You are capable of jumping a 3' course and you're afraid of crossrails." It was when we were discussing selling Ms Izzy, but it's stuck with me. I know I'm not the be all and end all of riders, but I think I'm finally ready to move up.

 So of course, I did the smartest thing possible. The following morning I texted Steph that I wanted to go faster and jump bigger jumps. We're now on the lesson schedule for tomorrow. Can't wait!!

All y'all are just jealous of my old guy

Aimee and Cuna, moving forward.

The Competitive Prancing

I'm still waiting on XC pics, since apparently people other than me have lives. That's cool and all, so let's talk about dressage.

At our last show, the dressage scores were all between 5 and 7. Consistent, unimpressive, reflective of where we were at. I'd share some pictures to back it up, but there aren't any. So it goes.

This time, we stepped it up several notches. I finally learned how to get Cuna to go like a horse (instead of a camel) and he responded well. I swear that horse grows muscles overnight. We had much better engagement, some motion through the back, and even a decent frame most of the time. There is room for improvement, but more in a point or two here and there instead of the whole freaking thing. This time we scored everything between 6 and 8, so again, consistent.

We had good and bad moments. Let's start with bad, so we can end with pretty pictures of the world's cutest old red man.




Trotting is our best gait, but that's not to say we've mastered it. Cuna takes a lot of leg. In this shot, I've continued holding him up with my hands but dropped him with my leg, and he's falling on his forehand accordingly. Need more core, more leg.







You may (or may not, I suppose y'all have lives too) remember that our first canter was less than stellar. I surprised him into it, then had my reins too long, my body too forward, and if I know anything about myself, my hips were tight and my body was likely swaying in the wind. You know, because that's attractive.

Cuna is responding by running forward on the forehand with his head up and his nose poked out. We are about to get one of our low scores, the super resistant trot transition that is almost late.



Ok, I've about had it with ugly shots when there are so many cute things to enjoy about our test. Let's talk good moments for now.




Down center line.

I'm sitting up and riding. Cuna is obedient and engaged. I really should be in a dressage saddle. Those pants are unflattering.

There is a reasonably good line from bit to elbow and Cuna is cute and alert.










Free walk on a long rein. This is actually another of our low scoring movements, but I'm pretty proud of it. Nothing about this is natural to Cuna--he likes to go fast with his head in the air and jump stuff.

I had to carefully ease him around the corner and slowly let him take the reins out of my hands while keeping LOTS of leg on to encourage forward and sitting VERY still so he didn't jig. Oh, and too much leg also meant jigging. Complicated balance to strike. We'll keep working on this and developing his dressage muscles, but it's not really a strong suit for him.



We had a bad canter, but we also had a good one. This time I remembered to prepare him for the transition and stay really, really steady with my hands. He stepped right up into it and stayed quite round.

I'm riding in a jump saddle, so "dressage position" isn't really happening, but I love how harmonious this shot is.




Random adorable trot shot. I'm not really sure where in the test this is, but I love this picture. Cuna is engaged and alert and I'm even sort of looking where I'm going, all of which are good things.

I mean, seriously. How cute is that face?













And the final halt. I think we actually didn't get a great score on this, most likely because I gave up the whole "legs and core" thing and stopped him with my hands at the last second, but it isn't bad considering. Cuna is about 90% square and submissive and I look pretty balanced. A nice end cap to a nice test.

We still have plenty to work on. I need to use my core more effectively and get that leg engaged. Just think how toned I'll be when I can finally ride a long horse correctly. I need to get my thumbs up, my eyes up, and my butt more in the saddle.

Speaking of, I am seriously coveting one of those old brown stubben dressage saddles in a medium or narrow... Think how rocking the old guy would look in that!

RHF Horse Trials!! (super long)

As you probably know, we were running the local, unrecognized horse trials this weekend. Cuna and I have been to two jumper shows and one derby (dressage, then xc/stadium as one phase). This was our first ever three phase horse trial. We've only had one jumping lesson recently, but after getting a 38 in dressage at our last show, I decided it was time to step up our game in dressage. We took three lessons from ST and busted our butts practicing, then got Cuna's hocks injected.

I went into the weekend with two goals: 1) improve my dressage score by 5 points. 2) Bolt for 50% or less of the XC course instead of the whole thing.

Saturday morning, we rode dressage bright and early. I got Cuna ready too early, but he came out great--forward, responsive, balanced. We worked on some of the stuff from our lessons and totally impressed Steph, who hadn't see the new and improved version of us.

How cute? So cute.

Next I made friends with the girl carrying the biggest camera I could see and talked her into getting some shots of us, because I've been dying to see how cute Mr Dressage Cuna can be.

I trotted Cuna around the outside of the ring a couple times while we waited for the judge. He was a little spooky in one corner, but I used the full array of his experience to my advantage, and he calmed down almost immediately. Good boy!

I realized BN test B is not the most interesting thing in the world to read about, but hey, it's what we did. Cuna trotted nice and straight down centerline. He was about 150 pounds in my hands, but he was using his back end and going forward, so I just smiled and kicked on.

It's coming along

Our potential bugaboo in this test is the fact that the freewalk is the movement with the coefficient, and let's just say it's not our strongest move. ST and I had discussed this. She helped me with generating the best possible walk for Cuna and I and then reminded me that since I would lose points here, I needed to not give them away anywhere else.

I'm actually quite pleased. He stayed nicely round and didn't jig at all. It was a hard earned 6.

Fancy prancing

Our first canter transition was not a thing of beauty. I was a bit tense and I cued too strongly. Cuna LEAPED into the canter and gave me a full-blown pony nose. Fortunately, I managed to stay quiet and with him, but we had a struggle to get back down to trot as quickly as the test demanded. I think we made it at the end letter.

Our second canter (pictured) was much, much smoother. We were spot on our markers and he was nicely balanced.

Square!

When we trotted down center line for our final halt, I knew it was the best test we'd ever ridden. It was also the second test we'd ever ridden. I suspected it was enough for the 5 point improvement I wanted, but I was a bit antsy waiting to find out.

Cuna was pretty much over the whole dressage thing at this point. He maxes out around 20 minutes, so I put him away, dressed him in fly gear and let him have some "me time" at the trailer. All ingredients to a happy Cuna.

When the tests were finally scored, I scooted into the office to find out what we got...

29!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Twenty-freaking-nine!!! Yes!!!! A nine point improvement from last time. We were tied for second with one pro, and just a few points behind another.

Cuna got a couple of hours off while I obsessively walked and memorized my XC course. Nothing on it looked overly huge, but I wanted to 100% know where I was going and how I was getting there. I didn't allow myself to think over the details too much. Any time I started to obsess, I redirected the energy into remembering the exact course map. I even selected certain jumps to serve as markers, like "If the drop is 4, I need to have jumped 3 already. Which ones are they?"

Before I reached the boiling point, they got the show jumps set and it was on to learn another course.

I'll be honest--the jumps looked pretty small and unimpressive to me. The course was nice and flowing and I had no concerns about it. Of course I was taking it seriously. I mean this is me, the obsessive addict, we're talking about, but even so... 2'7" just doesn't really scare me anymore.

Ooops

I hadn't accounted for my minimal show experience as an adult. Despite a course which would have bored me out of my mind at home, I got super tense for the first part of the course.

I tried to keep Cuna slow by pulling on him and then jumping ahead, which is a combination of the things he hates the most. Not a great idea.

He had a head flipping fit, but kept cantering forward and jumping clean.





About half way through the course, I realized my maybe if I let the old man canter forward to the jumps, he would be happier.

Magic. All of a sudden we found our rhythm and looked awesome.






 

I love this shot!!

So awesome. We are FANCY!!!

The joys of having an ol' broke horse: Cuna never touched a rail or looked at a fence. We finished the course double clear.







Because we are rocking.

The nice girl with the giant camera, my mom, and a friend of mine all took SJ pics. So many fun options! Thanks all!







Sunday morning was XC time. I stayed calm and focused and even had a decent night's sleep, which speaks volumes for my much improved anxiety levels regarding solid obstacles. I walked the course one last time, visualized it about 50 more times, and started to get the old man ready at a leisurely pace.

Way cute

I decided to gamble that Cuna wouldn't get rubbed by his newly-scrubbed neoprene boots and then added a running martingale to give myself some extra leverage just in case.We looked legit.

If only we had brown boots.... oh well. ;-)

I had some nice warm up on the flat. Steph was busy warming up the girl ahead of me, and I needed to stay in my head, so I went calmly about my business. When the girl went in, I was supposed to have five minutes. I canter the crossrail once, the vertical once, and the oxer twice. Cuna felt awesome, so I brought him to a walk and headed over to the in gate lady... only to see the hind end of the third refusal of the girl ahead of me.

Our turn!! I'll save the more in-depth course recap for when I have XC pics (oh yes, they exist!!!!), but we were rocking all the way through. I'm very, very happy with how I rode and absolutely thrilled with how Cuna went. A couple of times I got in a little crooked, and he totally fixed it for me. What a guy!

I'm pleased to say that the new bit was just right. Apparently, BN XC is not nearly as exciting as galloping ridge lines, and I had just the right amount of brakes. Well, that and the footing was a hair slick, and the old dude wasn't going to skid out. That would just be silly.

In place of a proper recap, I leave you with a picture:


We are the champions!

Let's Talk Olympics

I don't have cable access, so I haven't been able to watch any of the Olympic equestrian events (or any other events, but who's counting?). That said, I definitely have my favorite riders. In the case of an intergalactic eventing challenge presented by marauding space aliens of an equestrian persuasion, here is the eventing dream team I would send out against any in this universe or otherwise:

Damn fine position

1) William Fox Pitt. He's more machine now than man... Not in the bad, Darth Rider sense of the word, but because he's so freakishly and consistently good. Plus he's classy. Win.

Soooo matchy!

2) Michael Jung. I may not be the biggest fan of the German system, but it's obviously working for this candidate. He isn't my number one pick because all his success has been on one horse. I think WFP could pull something out of a kill auction and run a one star on it within a week on sheer talent alone.

And a helmet on a victory lap

3) Mary King. She's like the female WFP. Consistent, brilliant, down to earth, and super classy. Of course she brings her second and third string horses to Rolex and goes 1-2 and still nobody gets pissy. She's the real deal.

Toddy meets the coppers

4) Mark Todd. Brilliant rider, ridiculously experienced, good sport, and the man knows how to party.  He just can't stay away.

P Dutty

5) Phillip Dutton. As much as it pains me to leave Neville (and Boyd) off this list, I do think Phillip is the better rider as this point. Give Boyd some time and he'll totally make it. Plus I actually don't like Phillip very much, so his position is the most tenuous. Despite his unconventional style, Phillip gets the job done time and time again.

Boyd on a previous mount

So there you go. The top five best eventers in the world in my opinion. 


Marauding aliens, you have been warned.

Putting the Pieces Together

Dressage schooling this morning. Cuna's old owner came out to help us. We'll call her ST. She immediately dropped my stirrups a hole. I can ride effectively with short stirrups, but since we're looking to impress a dressage judge, we need to think about creating length.

And connection. Have I mentioned Connection yet?

Right now, connection is the result of three main things: leg on, core engaged, outside rein. All three pieces must be in place.

Cuna tends to anticipate, so I need to use that to my advantage. Go forward immediately in the warm up. Use that trait to help me and have him DO something. If we're walking and he wants to jig, I need to immediately circle, shoulder fore, or leg yield. Give that energy a productive outlet. Then focus on going forward. Do trot/canter transitions and focus on staying exactly the same with my hands through both gaits. This gives Cuna the consistency that makes him feel comfortable.

Soft hands, following elbows. Always. Make sure to reassure Cuna that he's doing the right thing, otherwise he will worry. I need to keep my reins short so that I have a constant connection. Always have twice as much in my leg as I have in my hand. ENGAGE CORE.

MORE CORE.

We did a little bit of ring craft. When coming down center line, the judge can see our track and the consistency of Cuna's frame and not a ton else. Make sure to put Cuna's outside on centerline. If I think "middle of horse on center", I will overshoot it and lose points. Stay connected. Halt from core. When trotting off, think about the straight line ahead instead of the turn following. Cuna knows to stay in the ring, but don't force him to anticipate the turn.

Thanks to the butt kickings for ST and our consistent practice, Cuna is going really, really well. I think we're going to rock our dressage test. I may even get all wild and crazy and take him to a dressage schooling show next month.

Almost There

 Logged in today to see this. Yes, I had 66000 page views of 660 posts. How fun!

Steph is at her summer barn, so Cuna and I are prepping for our first ever horse trials together all by our onesies. Monday was a light hack to get him loose and bending. Tuesday we galloped the ridge line to practice our brakes. Today was our last jump school before the trials. Tomorrow we snag another dressage lesson with Cuna's old owner, and Friday will be another light hack to keep him supple.

I was a little nervous to jump today. It was a week since we'd done it last and I was in kneepatch breeches. We did an easy warm up since it's supposed to be a "light" day. (Hard work yesterday and tomorrow). Cuna was just as bendable and pliable as I've ever seen him and he was happy to go forward. It was baking hot, so I felt a little weak, but I got myself together and pointed at a fence.

Balance? Check.

Leg on? Check.

Hands steady? Check.

And it was great. I was balanced over him. I remembered to engage my core and fold at the hips as he took me to the fences. The brakes seem to be working (though I'm a little concerned that they won't be enough out there... eek).

I anticipate great things in dressage tomorrow. In no time at all, we'll be doing this again: