Superstar

This time with pictures! So, as I stated in my previous post, Saga's mom, Zhizhu and I loaded up the trailer and camper, and drove down to Pine Hill Friday night. Yesterday morning, we woke up at about 06:30, and fed the ponies and ourselves. I suppose that it was patently obvious that I was a tightly bound ball of nerves, as Saga's mom kept telling me that I would be fine, and to breathe. I need to work on my poker face. ;) My goals were simple:

1. Not catch Ziggy in the mouth


2. Not get kicked off the course for unsafe riding


3. Stay on the horse

I am happy to report that I was successful on all counts, but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. As we were tacking up, the trainer we were taking lessons from arrived. She was a very nice woman who definitely knew her stuff. We were running a bit late tacking up, so she helped me put on the splint boots that Saga's mom was nice enough to lend me. Once we were tacked up, we went into the show jumping ring, and the instructor asked us to walk, trot and canter both directions, and show her our two point. The first thing that she told me is that I needed to pull my stirrups up a hole, making my jumping length 9 holes from the bottom, and my dressage length 4 holes from the bottom. For some reason, I seem to remember reading a book telling me that your jump length should be two holes above your dressage length. Obviously, I was mistaken. ;) Anyway, her main critique on my form for two point is that I tend to just put my upper body forward, and that to a TB means "RUN! FORTHELOVEOF GOD RUN!". I also need to close my hip angle more so I'm not off balance. We hopped over a small fence in the arena, which I'm assuming was for her to make sure we weren't complete disasters over fences.

Here's us going over that first fence:

So... yeah... lots of things to fix here. I'm not really closing my angles at all, and it's difficult to see from this angle, but he's not straight to the jump. He tends to want to land in a right lead canter, and veer away as soon as we land. I'm sure if I actually had some rein in my hand, I could do something to prevent it.

Apparently, we passed the test, so she said, "Let's go jump the fun stuff!". With that, we walked out of the arena, and through the gate to the Cross Country course. The first fence was a simple log on the ground, but before we jumped it, Toni explained that she'd like us to walk our horses alongside the jump, each direction, so that they could get a good look at it before they jumped it, just to make sure they weren't going to balk, spook, or whatever. Zigs and Saga were like, "Yes. It's a log. Boring!" So, Toni told us to go ahead and hop over it one at a time. Saga went first, and cleared it just fine. I went over it, and stayed on, but I didn't get him centered on the jump, and he didn't exit straight. (Noticing a common thread here?) After my second time over the jump, Toni explained that the jump is actually just a blip on the radar. The important part is how you set up for it, and how you exit it. With that in mind, we jumped the second jump, which was a little coop. That one went a little better, though I still sort of pitched him away over the fence and had to try to pick him back up. After we both jumped that one, we moved to a roll-top. That one went a little better:

I'm still pitching him away, although my reins are somewhere approximating a good length. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I got left behind on this one.

After that, we went to do a combination, a coop to another coop. Saga went first, and of course, cleared it beautifully. Then it was my turn. After the first jump in the combination, Ziggy must have read from my body language that that we were behind the clock, because when we landed, he kicked on the afterburners, as you can see below:

Since we were so out of control, I aborted the second jump, electing to instead get my Thoroughbred's brain back in his skull and halt. It took longer than I would have liked. But, once I did get some sanity back, we went over the second fence in the combination. It went considerably better. This time, I not only exited straight, I got a halt after the jump. Yay for progress!

After another roll-top, Toni took us into an open section of the course, and talked to us about rating from two-point, which is something I've always wondered about. Toni explained that there are two positions that you use for galloping in XC. The first one is what she called "cruise mode", which is the time in between fences. In that position, the rider's angles should be closed, and your belly button should be close to the horse. When you want to slow down, you open up and shift your weight back, and that should cause your horse to start collecting a bit before you go into the fence. The other thing that I found interesting was that she said it was actually ok to rest your hands on the horse's withers, and put a little bit of weight there to help balance. I tried it, and was largely unsuccessful, but there were a few brief moments when I was able to successfully do and feel what she was talking about. I can work on all this stuff when I'm riding on my own, and I'm sure with practice, I'll get it. While we were discussing form, Toni mentioned to me that I keep my hands way too low, and that it was probably one of the reasons I was having trouble stopping Zigs. Apparently, with my hands where I naturally want to put them, I wind up getting into a tug of war with him, and there's no way I can win that. But, by putting my hands UP, I get leverage, and the bit applies its pressure in a way that he really can't pull against. After letting that sink in a bit, she pointed to another coop that led into the woods and asked me why that particular jump could make a horse nervous. I responded that A) It was a jump from light into darkness, and B) there was a line of trees on either side of the approach, so your horse might get concerned that it's going into a more confined space. As it turns out, those were both right answers.

At this point, I kind of figured that the focus of the lesson would switch to Saga's mom, and I'd sort of become scenery, as that particular fence was a Beginner Novice fence. Saga jumped it first, and after his mom yelled "clear!", Toni turned to me and said, "Alright, go ahead!" I pointed Zigs at it at a brisk trot, and about 4 strides out, he cantered, and cleared it like it was nothing. I have no clue how it looked, as the lighting of the jump made it really difficult for Zhi to get a good pictures, but it felt fantastic. I think it's my favorite jump on the course! Toni had us both jump it the other way, which was equally as awesome. Once we had both cleared the jump going the opposite way, Toni told us that we had done all of the GAG obstacles, we were going to tackle a few more Beginner Novice jumps, which I was pretty sure meant Saga would do them, and Zigs and I would watch. The first fence we came to was actually the Novice ditch jump, which I was sure I wasn't going to get to do. Saga cleared it without hesitation, and then Saga linked that jump with the next one on the course, which looked like a ridiculous amount of fun.

Much to my shock and excitement, Toni turned to me and asked me if I wanted to try it. Hell yes, I did! And, checkit:

Yes, I did indeed stay on. My position is even something approximating decent! By this point, Saga and Zigs were just about spent, so Toni told us we'd just do a few more fences and call it a day.

The next element we came to was a bank up/bank down. After showing it to Zigs, and having Saga jump it a few times, Toni told me to hop up it. I did, and Ziggy got a little excited:

He's actually bucking in this picture. I informed him that that was unacceptable behaviour, and we did the jump a few more times.

By the time we were done, he was jumping it quite quietly:

After doing a quick bank down, we went to the water, and walked, trotted and cantered through it. Zigs walked, trotted and cantered through the water just fine, but when we exited the water at the canter, Zigs tried to inform me that we had lost way too much time, and we needed to engage warp drives to get to the next fence so we didn't incur time penalties. One discussion with psycho pony later, we trotted through the water again, and it was time to head back to the barn and untack. Good thing, since it was really starting to get hot, and Zigs and Saga both needed to go get some rest. As we were walking to the barn, another horse went cantering through the water, and Zigs spooked. In his defense, the horse kind of did just come out of nowhere as far as he could see, and for all we know, it could have been a horse-eating monster! After getting the TB brain back yet again, we walked to the barn, un-tacked, and hosed the horses down:

Although it may not look like it in the pictures, I had an absolute blast, and can't wait to do this again! Zigs was a complete rock star, and I couldn't really have asked for a better first XC outing. I'm hoping to be good enough by the time October rolls around, I hope to be good enough to go GAG at Pine Hill. Maybe I can convince Saga's Mom to go XC schooling again sometime. By the way, thank you sweetie, for taking all the pictures! ;)

Schooling!

This is just a placeholder post for me to make sure that I remember my big take-away lessons from today. Pictures will follow as soon as I beat my laptop into submission. As a consolation prize for not being able to make it to cross country camp, Saga's mom, Zhizhu and I hitched up the trailer Friday night and headed down to PIne Hill for a day of Cross Country schooling. Zigs travelled like a champ, and although he was pretty looky once we got there, he calmed down once I got him in a stall, and put hay and dinner in front of him. I had a hard time sleeping last night, due to my excitement. I knew that Zigs was ok to Stadium fences, but I had no clue as to how he would react to jumping in the open. I'm falling asleep as I try to write this, so here are the main things I learned:

• I neeed to ride with my hands higher when jumping.


• I need to work on Zigs' halt.


• Zigs is extremely brave over fences.

Tomorrow, once I have pictures, I'll write a more detailed post.

Progressing by Leaps and Bounds Or: Hell yes, I cleared a 2'6" Oxer

As you can see, I had a jumping lesson today.  Zigs was fantastic.  There was no stopping, no refusing, and no rushing!  We started the lesson by trotting on both reins, and I made sure to get him on the bit, and nice and light in my hands.  At one point, I had him going in a rather nice collected trot.  Then, of course, we cantered.  I had trouble picking up the right rein, due to my aforementioned problem with my knees coming up.  On the left rein, I made a concentrated effort to keep my leg "long" (as long as it can be with my stirrups at jumping length), and had a much easer time of it.  The only thing I don't like about jumping is having my stirrups so short.  I don't feel like I'm sitting as deep in the saddle as I do with them at Dressage length, but that's the point!

The first fence we did was a simple X with trot poles in front of it. I can't even begin to articulate how nervous I was as I made the turn to come to the jump. two strides away from the trot poles, Ziggy said, "Dude. Got it.", and I relaxed. He trotted in smoothly, sailed right over it as if it was nothing, and landed in the canter, looking for the next fence. We came around and did the fence several more times, and he was steady and consistent. After we'd all made it across a few times, my trainer changed it from an X to a straight across rail. Just like with the X, Zigs jumped the rail fence like a champ, and landed in a canter, looking for the next fence. After we'd all taken that fence several times successfully, our trainer changed the fence from a straight rail, to a bounce with an X. Ziggy took that one like a champ, too. At this point, it was pretty hot, and Zigs was blowing a bit, so I bowed out for a while, and walked him to give him a little more rest. We had also been taking plenty of rest breaks in between fences, but I just wanted to make sure that I gave Zigs as much time as possible to recover between jumping elements.

While I was walking Zigs, everybody sailed over the bounce, so our trainer made an 18" oxer after the bounce, seen at the top of the post. (It was the prettiest picture.) I went over that one with Zigs twice, and again walked him, to take it easy on him. After I'd walked a while, my triner announced the last fence, and proceeded to make a 2' 6" oxer after the bounce. l was expecting her to say, "Ok, that's enough for Ziggy", but no, she sent a few of the more experienced riders over it, and then said, "Ziggy, go.". Being the trusting sort, I picked up a nice, forward trot, and as I made my turn to go on the jump line, one of the more experienced riders asked, "How big is that Oxer?" To which, I replied, "I don't want to know!" as Zigs happily sailed over the bounce and fence. When we landed on the other side he was like, "That was AWESOME!". A picture of the illustrious jump is below:

As you can see, I was left behind, my release is not as high up his crest as it should be, but at least I'm looking somewhere resembling up, my heels are familiar with the concept of "down", and I didn't come off. Since this is only my fourth time jumping, I'm prepared to call this progress.

During the entire jumping lesson, I found Ziggy quite responsive, brave, consistent, and forward, without resorting to summoning psycho pony. I only really ran into two problems with him during the lesson. The first being that once he lands in a canter, he wants to try to canter into the next fence, which I believe is the "correct" thing to do, but not what I'm ready for at my current riding level. The second being that he spooks when another horse drops a rail. It isn't a bad spook, he just crow-hops a bit and tries to run, but all I had to do was half-halt, and he came back to me.

I, on the other hand, wasn't doing a very good job of keeping him straight on the exit to the jump, and as you can see in the pictures above and below, my release leaves much to be desired. But, hey, I didn't come off, and I didn't (as far as I can remember) catch him in the mouth. All in all, it was a great lesson, and I'm looking forward to doing more jumping in the future with him! My hope is that I can do a GAG horse trial with him at some point in the Fall or Winter. But of course, I really need to get a more consistent Canter transition, and going XC schooling would likely be helpful. ;)

I won't be riding Zigs tomorrow, as he is getting a well-deserved day off for being such a good boy! For now, I'm going to bed, as I actually have to work tomorrow.

Thank the Goddess for stubborn horses

They teach you a hell of a lot when you aren't paying attention.  This morning, I went over to The Baron's house and hopped up on Sonata.  My plan was to work on sitting trot, and to work on my canter transitions.  The sitting trot actually went pretty well.  There were brief moments where I was able to sit Sonata's Really Big trot.  Nowhere near where I want to be, but hey, it's progress.  If I keep working at it, I'm sure there will come a point where I can sit it without problems, and then, I'll be able to sit just about any horse.  That's the plan, at least.  The canter, as per usual, was problematic, and at long last, I've figured out why.  

What I thought I was doing was bringing my outside leg back, and just not picking her up with my inside seat bone.  What I was actually doing was pulling my knees up which pulled both seat bones out of the saddle leaving Sonata to say, "Ok, dude.  Seriously.  WTF do you want!?  How about this:  I'm going to trot faster, because that sure as hell doesn't mean canter." Step one is admitting that you have a problem. ;)  I started really concentrating on making sure my leg was long before I asked, and things went better.  My brain knows exactly what my legs need to do, but my muscles aren't necessarily always obeying it.  I was also reminded of a few stretches that will help with that.  I'll make sure to do them during my warmups from this point forward.  Once I felt that I was getting the canter on a more consistent basis, I picked up the lance and took a few runs at the quintain.  Well, I tried to, at any rate.  With the lance in my hand, my canter transition went to hell again, so I decided to simplify.  I put the lance back, and grabbed the dressage crop to hold in my right hand, with the reins in my left.  I finished off my ride working toward getting a consistent canter toward the quintain.  Sonata was pretty tired by that point, so I got a few good ones, and left it at that.   All in all, it was a good ride.  It wasn't necessarily the prettiest, but I feel like I did make some genuine progress.

As a random sidenote, (well, maybe not too random, since it is horse related) after my ride I went truck shopping.  A friend of mine works at a local Ford dealership, and he called to let me know that they just got in an 06 F-250 King Ranch edition, fully loaded with just 27k miles on it.  I went to look at it, and it is indeed tricked out, and a very pretty truck, but when I drove it, while it was very quiet, I found its handling to be a bit clumsy for my tastes.  I'm not sure if it was just that particular truck, or indicative of Fords in general.  To contrast, I've driven two Chevy Silverados from two different model years, and I found them both to be very comfortable, and to have significantly better handling than the Ford.  Plus, Chevy's Allison transmission is awesome, so that's another point in their favor.  On the way home from the Ford dealership, I passed by a Dodge dealership, and since I had nowhere I needed to be, I decided to pull in and see if I could get behind the wheel of a Ram, in the interest of doing due diligence.  (Ok, yes, fine.  I like driving trucks. ;))  I must say that I didn't like the Dodge at all.  (Sorry, Popeye.)  The interior isn't as nice as Chevy or Ford's, the brakes are way too sensitive, and there was far too much play in the steering for my tastes.  I've also heard that Dodge diesels are notorious for needing a new transmission after about 100k miles.  Since a diesel isn't really considered "broken in" until at least 150k miles, that seems an unacceptable lifetime.  I suppose if I really wanted to be through, I should go to a GMC dealer and drive a Sierra.  But really, I already have.  I'll just pretend that the Silverados I drove had a GMC badge on them, and call it good. 

After I got home from the various dealers, Jan and I discussed our current options at length, and we've come to the conclusion to put the truck search on ice for a while.  Waiting will enable us to be able to spend more money, and also to get a better deal, because honestly, now isn't exactly the greatest time to be buying a new vehicle.  We'll likely pick things up in September or October, when the 10s are coming out, but there's still 09s left in stock.  But, that's enough about that, this is a horse blog, so I should get back to horses.  Or, on second thought, since it's almost 0100, and I'm riding tomorrow morning, it might make some sense to get some sleep.  I think I'll do that.  

Witty title to be added later

Ahh,... a three day weekend ahead of me, and you can bet that there will be much riding.  Hoping to get things off to a good start, I tacked up Zigs.  I started out trying a bit of spiral in and spiral out on the circle, and was reasonably successful, but I wasn't strong enough with my outside rein and leg, so there were a couple circles that were more egg shaped.  I also tried a couple of turns on the forehand.  Those went considerably better.  I still have trouble walking into and out of them, but if I start from the halt, they go considerably better.  Since Ziggy is an OTTB, left is always easier than right.  I think from now on, I'm going to start by doing turns on the forehand to make sure that both of my legs are working, and that he's listening to them.  And, I'll make sure to do lots of them on the right rein. ;)  I also did some leg yields, and those actually went pretty well.  I'm having more success at keeping him from just popping his shoulder out and walking, rather than crossing his back feet.  All in all, the walk work we did went pretty well.

Then it was time for trot.  The good news is that I'm getting pretty proficient at sitting Zig's trot, and I actually had to let my stirrups down a hole. (yes, my heels were down). The bad news is that yet again, I had trouble with my downward transitions.  Zigs was also speeding up when we turned towards the barn, and my attempts to rate him with my seat really weren't working that well.  Unfortunately, my patience was not with me tonight (Bad week at work.) and rather than actually trying to figure out what I was doing that wasn't working, I went back to walking.  Now that I've had a chance to decompress and reflect, I realize that I was either just relaxing, which allowed him to just keep going on his merry way, or in an attempt to make a "brick wall" to slow him down, I was really just turning into a total sack of potatoes and bouncing all over the place.  The visualization I use when my down transitions have been good is that I turn my core into a set of really stiff springs that are in their stretched state during the "up" beat, and in their neutral state on the down beat.  When I ride tomorrow, I'll make sure to reinforce that image before I start trotting, so that it's fresh in my mind when I go to transition downward.  But, back to tonight's ride.  

After I'd had my fill of trotting for the day, I decided I'd try to do some canter work.  As has been typical lately, my up transition to canter was only about 40% effective.  When I worked with The Oracle last weekend, I uncovered several problems with my canter transition: 1) I tend to set my inside rein so that he can't have his head to come up and through for the depart. 2) I don't get my outside leg back so that I can "scoop" him up with my inside seat bone, and 3) I'm curling up my upper body, which totally negates what my seat's saying.  I think it's time to go back to the trusty longe line for a while to sort that out. 

Tomorrow, I will most likely ride Sonata in the morning, and then ride Zigs in the evening.   Of course, there will be a full report tomorrow night.  I know this entry isn't exactly the most coherent, but it's been a long week, and I'm a little tired. ;)

Systems Online

Ever have one of those rides where everything's going right? Your horse is collected, responds to the lightest of aids, the sun's shining, bird are singing, and you'd swear, that if you listened just right a chorus of angels is singing your praises. Aren't they wonderful?? Well, today was not one of those rides. The intention today was to work on down transitions, and fortheloveofgod keep my elbows at my sides.

I was half successful. Every time I had the presence of mind to check, my elbows were where they are supposed to be. The down transitions were another story, however. I'm at the point now to where I know that I am the problem, but I can't figure out what I'm doing that's making things not work. To add to the frustration, this was one of the big things I was wanting to work with Tina on while she was here this past weekend. I'm sure she would have helped me a great deal, except my rides with her were the of the sun-shining, bird-singing, angel chorus variety. Not that I'm complaining, though. I still got a hell of a lot out of my lessons. I just wish I'd been having trouble slowing Zigs down, so she could tell me what exactly it is that I'm not doing right. To me, it really does feel that I'm saying "walk" or "ho" with my seat, but either I'm not saying it strongly enough, or I'm actually just relaxing and making it easier for him to keep doing what he's doing.

There is one thing that I think may be attributing to it, although, admittedly, it's probably not that big a factor and may be more my own psychology at work. In my lesson with Tina, I was riding in an arena. When I ride at home, I ride out in the pasture, so I'm wondering if he is more conditioned to just being able to do what he pleases in a field, and is more used to "working" in the arena. One of the things I've really been wanting to do is put one of my more experienced friends up on him, (hi, Jen), in an open field, have them canter him, and see what they think. I'm fully expecting to be told, "No, it's you." ;)

As I mentioned previously, I'm to the point in my riding where I know that Zigs (or Sonata, or Lucky) is capable of what I'm asking but I either A) can't make my body do what it needs to do to push the button, or B) am doing the right things, but I'm not doing them firmly enough. And when I get responses that I don't want, I don't yet have the knowledge base to figure out which cue caused which reaction. I'm sure I'll get there eventually, (or, at least, I HOPE I get there!) it's just that sometimes I have trouble being patient. One of the other things I'm often guilty of is feeling like I need to "keep up" with all of my other horsy friends (all of whom could ride circles around be blindfolded on a cloudy day), and I get frustrated when I feel like I'm falling short. Then I remind myself that I've only been riding for two years, and I should really cut myself some slack. (Why, yes, as a matter of fact I am a perfectionist. Which I suppose, explains why I enjoy Dressage.) It's either that or my German blood. "Nein! Nein! Vhat ees zees with ze outside rein!? Mein Pferd braucht mehr Schwing!"

But let's move forward, shall we? Tomorrow, I am most likely going to go over to ride Steve and Dawn's to ride Sonata. I'm hoping to do a little work on the heads pattern, and tilt at the quintain. This week at work has sucked, and since tilting at co-workers, while not expressly forbidden, is considered unprofessional, I believe that the quintain will serve as a sufficient surrogate. And then Monday, I have a jumping lesson. I'm hoping to bring Ziggy to it so I can see how he is over fences, I suspect that he will be forward, brave and willing, and that my biggest challenge will be keeping his brain in his skull. But, he is a Thoroughbred, and that really is par for the course. That's really all there is to report at the moment, and since I really should get some sleep at some point tonight, I believe I will end this entry here. You may now talk amongst yourselves. ;)