A difficult course of no height and an old show is back baby!

Sunday Annie got to take another LAZ lesson and she was very happy indeed.  So happy she didn't want to do any on da bit trotting and kept trying to canter.  She bravely tackled 3 groundpoles at the canter despite my worrying that we were going to face plant over them.  Since we were in a lesson with some lower level people I got to do my first couple courses over groundpoles which was amazingly difficult trying to get the correct distance and not get left behind or ahead over a jump of no height.  Once the fences were raised I think it actually got easier! 

Then we got to go out into the XC field and do a little course of XC fences cold.  It was fun! 

After our lesson she got a massage by someone studying equine massage.  Which is interesting since I don't get massages after my lessons and I think I need one more then my horse!  For some reason jumping around with LAZ makes Annie walk a little tall and my dressage school after a lesson is always puncuated with lots of "THIS BORING CANTER!!!" The massage, lesson, and a Pentosan shot and I had a fire breathing chestnut mare Tuesday.  We did some sort of sproing thing because she accidentally got herself in collected trot in her tizzy and couldn't figure out what to do with it. 

For all the moments when Annie is a total cow there are so many more moments when she's a solid horse that gives me a lot of confidence.  She's not spooky, she has a ton of whoa, and she's not afraid to go.  She settles into work and seems happy to do it (Except for dressage that is).   Sometimes I find myself grinning like an idiot when I start off nervous and then realize I have nothing to be worried about on her. 

In other news DAN HOBYN IS BACK!!!!  They stopped hosting shows for 2 years during an instructor change but when the instructor took a job in another state they decided to host a "welcome back" CT.  Thanks to the kindness of other horse people Annie gets to hitch a ride for their September 1st show and I am going to enter her in BN and look at the pre novice.  Now before my fans (If I have any!) get all excited BN is listed as 2 feet and pre novice at 2' 6"  It'll be a great opportunity to go to a strange place and jump around and a real test of her bravery and my ability to pilot her around. 

Visit their Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/DanHobynStables?ref=br_tf for information about the show.  I'll be there, will you?

Steamy

Man, it's steamy outside.  As a result I've been spectacularly unmotivated.  I've piddled around not getting real serious about much (although we had some wicked nice right lead canter departs a couple weeks ago). 

I rode Annie in a rope halter

and was pleased to see that she did still have brakes.

Then I convinced Cathy to take Penny out on a trail ride for "Annie Bravery Purposes."  LAZ said that hacking out would help Annie in the bravery department XC since everything was a problem but the fences.

We headed out to  Southwestway yesterday while it was a balmy 91. 
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/204530125309/

For those who have never been, first, change that!  It's a great park inside the city that's a multi use trail.  Mountain bikes, people, and horses.  It has some great views of ravines and the river, flat open spaces for galloping, and plenty of hills for working on butt muscles. 

There isn't a huge parking area and we've never actually met other horses there although I've had plenty of friends who have been. 

Annie was a very brave horse, leading most of the way.  We stopped dead at our first patch of mountain bikers and I had to motivate her with my stick (Thank gosh I brought it!) after that the motivations decreased until she was fine.  I rode her on the buckle with her head well below her withers and when we struck up a trot she stayed in control and down shifted easily.  Except for giving the park benches the hairy arabian eyeball (un nature in the middle of nature?  how unnatural) she was super.

All the mountain bikers we met were fantastic, stopping off to the side or even getting off their bikes and pushing them. Thanks guys! 

We did meet some people walking loose dogs and a friend we were with shouted "I don't know about these horses but mine kicks dogs!"  She really didn't, but it made the owners collect their lab from under Annie's legs.  Leash your dogs people! 

All in all we had a fantastic time for just 17 miles from home.  Penny was fantastic for her first trail ride, and it was great having Lynne's horse Twigs there as the experienced endurance horse in case we got stuck anywhere. 

No stops who cares about time faults

I had two goals for this show

1.  No stops XC or stadium

2. Don't get eliminated

We had a steady and fairly normal dressage test, Annie warms up well but she's still not obedient enough in the dressage ring to not want to have her head up and look at things.  We've been working really hard on our trot canter transitions and she NAILED both of those, even her right lead.  We ended up tied for 4th which was fantastic.

I got to meet Cobjockey in person for the first time, she was on her way to dressage and I was on my way back from dressage and the conversation went like this "Hi, are you cobjockey? I'm weanieeventer!" I'm sure it sounded odd to outsiders.

LAZ arrived in time to warm us up for show jumping which was a good thing as I was slowly beginning to panic.  All Annie wanted to do was nap behind the bit and then canter off and I didn't feel comfortable at all.  LAZ told me to select the gait I wanted, insist on it, and ride her into the bit in it.  I think she made us jump the stupid oxer more then we ever have before all shows totalled up together!

Annie was pretty good show jumping, she did gawk at a few things so I brought her down to the trot when she was on the wrong lead but we cantered most of it just fine.  Fence 7 I had decided would be our bogey fence.  It was larger (to me), very bright, and at the side of the ring with the most activity.  I keep my eyes up, my leg on, and RODE MY PATH.  Annie really wanted to wiggle out of it but I didn't let her.  It also really helped having LAZ standing right next to the fence, nothing motivates you more then not stopping at a fence right in front of your trainer!

Here's a nice picture taken by LAZ.

We ended up double clear after stadium (I usually have time so yayyy!!!) and still tied for 4th.

I was mostly calm for XC warm up, even when LAZ had me canter down to the oxer and vertical.  Sigh.

We cracked right off out of the start box and jumped fence one boldly.....  then ground to a halt.  Trees, bushes, open spaces, and mud.  I whacked and whacked and kicked and eventually motivated Annie.  Then there was some mud in front of fence two, more whacking and I think we jumped fence 2 sideways. 

Then there was more mood, stone dust footing, and A GOLF CART lurking menacingly in the woods.

Eventually I got her feet moving again and we jumped fence 3, the bank.  This is us looking like we're out for a park horse class and not a HT.  This picture kindly taken by http://myhorsesloveeventing.blogspot.com/  who I got to meet in person.

We made it into the open field and we were on a roll.  I could be heard saying things like "That's none of your business over there, you do your job" and "See the fence Annie?  Jump that fence!"

Then we came to our bogey fence

It was large, weird looking, the footing was torn to heck in front of it, and it was covered in mud.  I kept my eyes up, my leg on, and my hands down and I'll be dammed if we didn't just canter right over it.  WOO!!  Totally badass.

Then we slammed to a halt on the road to the water.  The footing was different, there were cars, and people, and so many things to look at!  WHACK! WHACK!  Go Annie!  Move your feet Annie!  Come on Annie! 

After I got her moving we snorted all the way to the water, which I decided to take the option on.  With as many time faults as we had I didn't want to risk a stop at the water even though she'd never had a problem with water schooling and at our last HT (which she'd schooled through before) I figured better safe then sorry.  Next time.

After that we were on a roll and found our groove, over the last two fences.  We finished with an obscene amount of time penalties but since everyone else had stops it was good enough for 5th place.

So, what have we learned? 

I was very very happy with our placing.  Annie has only ever schooled at LAZ's place and she doesn't get out much besides that.  We need to get out different places to increase her confidence in scary new places.  I'm better at riding my plan and I kept thinking "over under or through" in my head.  I didn't back off to any of my fences and kept my hands down.  Dressage will come with more miles.  I'm really looking forward to the next time we can get out there and attack it!

The canter pole, or 5 steps backward.

One of the good things that came from my HT a few weeks ago were all the compliments I got on my position, confidence (ha, little did they know!), and a few compliments on Annie's flying lead changes.

Wait a minute.

Annie? 

Apparently.  I had pretty much decided we would just be doing simple changes or "counter cantering" as she would never figure it out.  So now I have a new goal. 

I found this excellent video of a rider teaching her horse changes.  I like the use of the pole to help with the jump in the change, and the guide rails to keep the horse straight.

 

 

So I set up a pole in the middle of the ring and set about cantering over it. To the left we were reasonable.  To the right... well I'm glad nobody was there to see it.  The few times Annie actually steered well enough to actually make it somewhere near the 9 foot long pole we ski jumped over it.  So much for working on lead changes.  We just needed to work on cantering without falling over.

I've been working on contact in the transitions or the more basic version of "can you please put your nose somewhere not straight up in the air?"  Annie has a lovely immediate halt (SLAM!) from the walk or the trot, I drop my seat, still my back and she stops.  Ask her to stop on the bit and she has a hissy fit (look, rhyming!).  She grinds, pulls, and shuffles until she gets enough rein to stop with her nose up.  I half halt, drop my seat, close my hands on the reins without pulling, put my leg on.  Squat.  Negative squat.  Just pulling.  I started holding onto the bucking strap to keep her from pulling the reins loose, at least it would give her some space to work in. 

She one upped me by physically pulling me out of the saddle and over the cantle.   

Oh, this will not do.  Not only is it ugly but I don't want to make a hard mouth and I'm obviously not getting through to her. 

I've also noticed that she tries to slam to the stop whenever she hits the bit and I think that I'm teaching her to stop by my hand which is sort of what I want but not really.  I don't want to half halt or accidentally grab on the way to a fence and have her obediently stop.  Lord knows we have enough problems. 

So I reached into my spare tack trunk (one of three) and pulled out my German.  Martingale that is.  Although I wish I had a stuffy German dressage master in there for help.  I like the GM because it is a self correcting tool.  When the horse is where you want them the martingale dangles loose, but when the horse hits the end the pulley action is immediate and self correcting without any hand use from you.  I end up using it for 3 or 4 rides and then pack it away again.

So on Annie it goes. At the trot every time she hit it she would try to stop so I had to remember to keep my leg on.

I had a really hard time getting her to pick up her canter because the martingale gently insisted on keeping her head out of the sky.  Not cranked to her chest mind you.  I took 3 canter transitions to the left and then gritted my teeth and turned to the right. 

Let's just say that when she tripped over the pole and came up on her right lead I praised her and called it a night! 

I put it on again the next night and it didn't come into play except for a few times at the trot so I'm hoping that it will be a gentle and easy way to explain to her that what I want is not bad and is actually possible. 

I will ride in it again on Monday then ride in my jumping saddle Tuesday and just do some hand galloping, then leave it off Wednesday and see what we've got. 

CAF June HT

Sunday was the CAF HT.

Saturday night I figured out that grass = eating or galloping to Annie but DOES NOT equal dressaging so we warmed up Sunday morning in the indoor. 

I was pretty happy with most of the test, she picked up both her leads with her head down (YEAHHH) but got slow enough in the right lead despite all my leg on her that I popped her with the whip and made her buck so we got a 3 for that movement.

Despite that we came in 6th out of 11 which was pretty darn good for us.

Stadium warm up was crazy.  I HATE warming up with a bunch of people and I would rather jump two or three fences and get out of there before I screwed something up but that didn't happen.   For some reason I have a huge problem with airy oxers in warm ups, I would rather not jump the oxer at all unless I am feeling confident up to that point which I was not at all.  I have more of an issue with the warm up oxers and less of an issue with filled in oxers in the ring.  This is how big my oxer was.  Or at least appeared to be.  It may have been wider.

I had to pull up several times because people either cut me off or were screaming their fences from down the road and around the corner.  I don't understand how some people don't call their fences, some do, and others call from a mile away.  I'd already landed in a heap over the vertical and crossrail and I was totally frazzled having to canter everything. 

So by the time I actually cantered down to the oxer I didn't WANT TO DO IT.  I think if I was able to take my time and trot to it I would have been fine, enough time to think and enough time to put my leg on and urge Annie onward.  I feel like my cantering courses is just now coming together and I feel like I'm out of control cantering the long spot of a warm up fence.  So we stopped.  Twice. 
Someone told me to do it again but by this point I was pretty much done.  Then someone was screaming at me to move as we stopped right in front of another fence and they were apparently not going to circle so I screamed at them.  Then apologized, but still. 

Luckily someone took pity on me and lowered the rail which I then trotted and the circled back and trotted it with the rail up.  After that I was pretty unnerved and only jumped another fence because someone made me.

So in the ring I let Annie stop at an oxer gate.  It was next to the warm up and she kind of looked in that direction and I figured she was going to stop anyway so I might as well not be belting down toward it so I let her.  The rest of the course rode well until the final fence, which a bunch of other people had problems with.  It was new and had words on it and came out of a corner and everyone else was stopping so why shouldn't I?  So once again I cantered down to it out of the corner riding backwards expecting a stop but not being proactive enough and she stopped. Twice. 

Here's the gate we stopped at.  After she stopped I did a circle and jumped it while yelling at her to GET!!!

So now I was officially out of any ribbon and got the big E.

XC warm up I went back to my official strategy.  Stay calm, jump as few fences as possible, then go.  I jumped the log twice and the crossrail once. 

LAZ had put gravel in front of the first fence to cover up an unsafe patch of ground and this proved to be the most challenging element.  Annie spun around, backed up, and then finally crept sideways around the gravel to climb over the first fence from a standstill.  More gravel before fence 2 and more snoring then she finally realized what we were doing and she was all business.  She pulled me toward all the fences and even trotted through the water without even a bit of hesitation.

So I'm happy with XC and Dressage but upset about show jumping.  I don't know what to do about the warmup.  Should I continue to do things in warm up that bother me because real eventers don't just trot two fences ignore the oxer and go in?  Or do I stay in my comfort zone in warm up until I'm comfortable enough to do more?  I'm fine cantering my course now because I've been doing that so does that mean that I'm not allowed to trot anything in warm up?  All I know is if I get rattled in warm up it's over. 

All photos courtesy of LAZ who not only runs the entire show but takes pictures as well!  As usual the food and the weather were fantastic!

Filling the holes I dug

Last Sunday I had another lesson with LAZ, once again we were with friends with green horses (wait a minute, I'm not on the green horse anymore?) so as soon as everyone warmed up I went out to gallop some XC fences.

Well, not gallop but we sure did canter everything.  Even if I had to carefully monitor my breathing to make sure I was still doing it. 

We cantered our first warm up fence and then proceeded to canter over everything out on the XC course without trotting anything first.  ACK!!!

A big BIG step for me.  After we had jumped all the starter size fences  LAZ had us jumping some BN fences which I immediately stopped riding over causing Annie to go around. 

Annie's not a dirty horse, and I think she's pretty honest, but she doesn't do things like lock onto fences without input and guidance from me and if my heart's not into it she's ok with not putting out the effort.   I do this thing where I am nervous about the size of the fence and what will happen if we stop in front of it or get in bad and don't make it over and I rationalize that if that is what is going to happen I shouldn't be gung hoing it down to the base since things are worse when you are going faster so I stop riding and let the stop happen.  Yet when I RODE those fences Annie wasn't concerned.  She wasn't wiggly, she wasn't spooky, she didn't over jump them. 

Same issue when LAZ upped my stadium fences after we took a break for the other riders to go.  Those were some BIG fences (somewhere between 2' 6" and 2' 9") and I certainly didn't march confidently toward them.  They were much bigger then the XC fences and while I thought I was fine cantering toward the line I decided a stride away I wasn't really that into it.  I was just fine with my small fences and I totally wasn't serious about moving up a division.    I made that line HARD.  I had to ride over the first fence, and then march down the line over the second fence and once Annie realized I wasn't really that into it my task became harder and I had to convince myself it was possible and Annie that I really meant it.  In the end the height wasn't really an issue for Annie, the motivation from me was. 

This was a tough lesson, requiring me to really step up my game especially when I was pushed outside my comfort zone with the height of the fences.  When I was confident and rode to the base with my eye on the fence Annie didn't have a problem, but she's not going over if she doesn't feel confidence from me.  So it was not a confident building lesson before a show by being an easy lesson where we coasted over everything, but a "these are the holes in my riding and when I plug those holes I have no problems" kind of lesson.   A very important lesson to learn because I obviously still have issues with not riding to the base and giving Annie a positive ride. 

On another note those stadium fences were the biggest fences I think I have ever jumped.  Or that Annie has ever jumped.  So that is an accomplishment in itself. 

I'm looking forward to the CAF HT.  My goal is to make time in Stadium by cantering everything.  My goal XC is to canter as much of my course as possible and not have any run outs caused by not riding.  I'd like to make time but not at the cost of losing control over my fences. 

Seasoned Eventers

In my Saturday lesson with LAZ Annie and I were the seasoned eventing pair, with Cathy on Penny and Amy on Chaplin, both green horses.  I jokingly let both of them know that I would be there to show them how it was done, and I think that Annie let it all go to her head.

We started out right off the bat with jumping a crossrail then rolling right into a line which I cantered out of!  No jumping one fence several times to warm up.  Then we cantered to all the other fences, not having trotted over them before, which is huge for me.  Annie boldly cantered over the gate and both of the panels.  I was able to sit up, think about riding to my fence, and having a supportive leg to get her straight and forward to the fence, and I swear I felt myself folding in the air like a little hunter princess. 

Today since I appeared to be so confident !!!!!!!!  We worked more on line and approach.  Counting our strides to the fence, how far out to look to see the fence, when to turn, etc.   LAZ even took her life into her own hands by standing in my way so I knew when to turn.  Nothing like the fear of flattening your instructor to make you plan a turn!   LAZ must've heard that I was interested in moving up as she discussed the things I needed to do to make for a nice BN round.  We added in a two stride line, which we've jumped at home before, but not out here in the big open arena where I actually had to (god forbid) navigate through.  Annie ran out once, then again just because she could, and LAZ finally stood at the end of the line to give me a focus point.  It really helped me to understand that you have to see the end of the line before you jump into the line in order to make it through. 

After that we took a long break and just stood and chilled with the other two horses worked over some simple courses of poles and X rails. 

When they were finished I got to jump up both sides of the bank with no problems at all, then we went out into the mare field with the water jump.  I think I've only done the water there as well as one small fence but today we strung together several fences in a row (which I trotted, but still!) that we had never seen before.  Annie felt much different out in the field, kind of drunken sailor like.  She didn't have any problems with the fences but I definitely had to make sure that I kept her in my tunnel of aids.  Towards the end she wanted to canter a bit but I kept her to a trot since the grass was very long and I didn't want her to stumble and fall. 

After that I asked LAZ if we were good to enter Starter so she pointed at this slightly enormous grey thing and told us to jump it.  I stared it down the entire way with my leg off and decided to pull out (read: chicken out) at the last second because I felt like (well a chicken) I wasn't giving her enough support.  We circled back and jumped it twice without any issues.  Then we finished up over the red and white library which is probably the widest thing we've jumped XC and the jump that made me skip the May Flowers Derby because I was worried about "making it over."  Guess what?  No problemo!

One of the most important things I realized today (and a bit the last time we jumped) is that Annie will jump anything I point her at confidently as long as I am confident.  So all in all I feel like I'm on a 17 hand horse and not almost a pony and we are ready to Rock N Roll at the June HT. 

No pictures or video since everyone was on a horse!