So That's Where the Eggs Have Been

I have been lax in my blogging duties of late. I rode yesterday, and didn't blog about it. Without further ado, I shall make amends for this transgression. After a very good phone interview(I have another one with the same company tomorrow), I ran outside and tacked Ziggy up. Since I was in such a good mood, I decided that I'd do some jumping. Like I usually do, I set up one jump on a flat approach and another one on an uphill approach.

For a warmup, I took Zigs for a quick walk around the neighborhood. I guess our clearances came through when I wasn't paying attention, because the dogs in the neighborhood were nice enough to allow us to pass by without challenge. The only thing I had trouble with while we were out in the neighborhood is that Zigs always wants to counter-flex, and keep an eye on what's going on on the other side of us. Fortunately, that was pretty easily solved with some half-halts. I'm getting really good at those at the walk. He still blows them off at the trot and canter. I'm not sure how much of that is him, and how much is me. At the canter, I'm almost positive it's my fault. At the trot, I think it's probably a bit 50/50. Once I can afford to take lessons again, that's one of the first things on my list to work on/figure out.

At any rate, after warming up around the neighborhood, I went back into my pasture to start jumping. Before I actually started going over jumps, I trotted around the pasture in two-point, so that Zigs could get a look at everything. Not that I thought he was going to spook or refuse or anything like that, I just always like to give him an idea of what we're about to go do. Of course, I'm not completely sure of the wisdom on that, as some day, when I start doing Horse Trials, he's going to have to jump courses cold. But for now, I'll keep doing it my way. I mis-judged my positioning of the first jump, which made the approach a bit difficult, since it was at a weird angle. It took a lot of doing to come at it straight from one direction. While I was riding, I was cursing my self for that one, but after talking to Saga's mom about it, she informed me that I had inadvertently created a unique training opportunity for improving my approach to jumps! It was very nice of her to salvage my feelings like that. ;) Outside of a tricky approach on one of the jumps, the rest of it actually went pretty well, although Ziggy likes to try to jump fences right of center. Either that or I set him up right of center. I think I had him going in straight. The next time Saga's mom comes over, I'll try to remember to have her look for that. I also don't feel like I was closing my angles enough over the jumps, which I'm pretty sure is due to the fact that I'm not relaxing my hips enough.

That being said, Ziggy was very happy to be jumping, and took to it with great gusto. I am also glad to report that I didn't catch him in the mouth, which is my #1 no no when I'm jumping. I can be out of balance, and look like crap over the fence, but I'd better not catch my horse in the mouth. Anyway, after several good jumps, it was getting pretty hot, so I called it a day and un-tacked. All in all, it was a good ride, and capped the day nicely.

Today was Dressage, and on the docket was canter, and some more work in two-point. I began my warmup by walking on a long rein, getting Zigs to really stretch out and step under himself. After doing that on both reins, I picked him up and started doing an exercise that Duchess' mom taught me. I think I've mentioned it before, but in case I haven't, this is how it works. you walk 10' diagonally, stop, turn on the forehand, and walk the opposite diagonal for 10', and lather, rinse, repeat. Ziggy keeps trying to go behind the bit on my turns on the forehand, and I haven't really been able to figure out why. He does it on both reins, so I'm not sure what's going on. In the meantime, I'll keep working on it, but the next time the Oracle is here, I'll ask her to work with me on it. After walking, I moved to trot in two-point, and did my penance to Epona. I still feel like I'm staying way too upright in two point, but my legs were absorbing the shock like they were supposed to, and I felt pretty in balance, so I guess I was doing it right. After I finished the Dressage test in two-point, I did some cantering in two-point. It went pretty well, at the very least Zigs seemed to rather enjoy himself.

I took a walk break and then proceeded to canter, which still needs a lot of work. I still need to fix my transition, I have a habit of trying to lean back like I'm in a recliner. I did manage to get one up transition without doing canter by Laz-E-Boy, so that's progress, I guess. The other big problem I keep having with canter is that I lose my stirrups. Fortunately, I spend a lot of time riding without stirrups, so when I lose them, it's not a total disaster. Although, I suppose that sort of also works to my detriment, since because I can keep my balance at the canter without stirrups, I'm not terribly worried about keeping them when I go in to canter. This is probably also something I should fix before I show. The only problem is, I can't really figure out why I lose my stirrups. Maybe I'm not keeping my heels down? The next time I ride, I might have Zhi watch me and see if she can see something that I'm missing. After cantering on both reins, I decided to call it a night.

I have another interview tomorrow, and I'll probably go ride after that. Although, it'll be 15:00 by the time I'm done with it, so that might be a little hot. I probably won't ride very long. I might wake up early enough to ride in the morning, but let's be realistic. I'm on vacation. Riding tomorrow night won't work, as Zhi and I are headed over to her trainer's place for a lesson for Zhi. More about that, later!

Ja! Mein leapen!

No, that's not actually real German. I chose that title because it is silly. I will pause for a moment to allow the shock to wear off.

Are we good?

Groovy. As alluded to on Saga's mom's blog, Saga's mom came over Sunday afternoon to help me with jumping. It was pretty hot, so we didn't work for a terribly long time. We started with trot poles up to a small X as a warmup. I need to work on closing my hip angles more, but I was doing a much better job of keeping my shoulders back and my legs where they need to be. Matter of fact, Saga's mom commented to me that my leg position looked really good, and that whatever I did to fix it, I should continue doing. I think the big thing that fixed everything was keeping my shoulders back. Anyhow, after a while going over the X, Saga's mom set up another fence on the edge of what would be a tank, but due to the fact that it won't hold water to save its life, it is merely a dip in the ground with delusions.

At any rate, I now had a bank up. and a bank down. with a hill coming into it. The fence wasn't big at all, but it was very challenging, because I had to balance Ziggy back, and make sure that he came into the fence properly. I can't say that every fence was roses, I had several bad ones, but when they happened, I was pretty good about riding what I had over the fence.

All in all, it was a wonderful day jumping, even if it was scorching out. I'm starting to feel more and more confident about Pine Hill! More to come tomorrow, when I can write a better post, because this one is not up to my standards.

Boing!

I'm probably going to fall asleep writing this post, but we'll see how far I get. Before I go into today's horsy activities, there's two quick additions /corrections to yesterday's entry. They are enumerated below, for simplicity:

1. I tend to drop my right hand so that it is not level with my left. This must end.


2. I am not so much leaning to the inside as I am collapsing my right side. I only do this on the right rein. This must also end.

Now that that's taken care of, on to today. As promised yesterday, Saga's Mom came over to help me out with jumping. I will, of course, go into more detail, but I would like to start things off by saying it was a significant improvement over Pine Hill. Not that Pine Hill was bad, oh no, Pine Hill went quite well! Perhaps that what I should say is that today, Saga's mom was able to help me fix the problems I was having at Pine Hill. To review, they are also presented in a numbered list, for simplicity and consistency.

1. Not being able to rate Ziggy to the jump.


2. Not being able to bring him back down to a trot after the jump


3. My Two-point was weak

Defying conventional chronology, I'm going to cover the problems in reverse order. As it turns out, my two point was weak because while my back was straight, I was rolling my shoulders forward. As soon as I straightened those out, my back instantly felt better, stronger, and straighter. The next revelation was with my legs. I don't want to say I was gripping with my knees, but I was doing something with them that was causing them to become pivot points to throw me forward. Saga's Mom told me that my base of support should be my calf, and that, combined with fixing my shoulders completely changed things. I felt significantly more secure, and the next couple of fences I took him over, it was a lot easier. I wasn't having to work nearly as hard to stay with him. I'd have to check my jumping pictures to be sure, but I think I had been having a pretty bad problem about getting left behind on the jumps.

Fortunately, I never was bad about catching Zigs in the mouth, which reminds me of the of the other problem with my two-point. Because I am so concerned about catching him in the mouth, I tended to throw my upper body forward over the jump, which to a TB (well, any horse, but TBs in particular) means "Run! For the love of God, RUN!". It turns out that all I needed to do was to move my hands forward, and leave my upper body where it is.

The last problem with my two-point form is my heels. As with most new jumpers, I have a habit of letting my heels come up when I'm coming in to the jump. This largely seemed to fix itself after I fixed my knees, but I still had to think about it a little bit, since it had sort of become a habit. Once I had all these things right, going over the jumps felt so much easier. I don't quite know how explain how it felt previously other than that going over the fence was hard. I felt out of balance, and was really having to work to keep everything where I thought it should be. Once I fixed all my positional problems, going over the fences felt like I was just sort of floating. I think that's because I wasn't putting my hands down on Zig's withers to try and balance, and because since my knee was relaxed, I could let my angles close and open back up the way they're supposed to. I wish i had some pictures so that I could go back and review them, but maybe next time. Now that I have jump standards and some landscape timbers I'll be able to get a lot more jumping practice in. (Only once a week, though!)

Now that we have covered the jumps, let's move on to the exits of the jump. I didn't have any trouble whatsoever bringing him back down to the trot. I think this is due to several things:

1. I was no longer leaning forward after the jump, so I wasn't encouraging him to run.


2. My reins were an appropriate length, so when i made it over the jump, I hadn't pitched him away.


3. After fixing my position in two-point, I was in a balanced position, so I was able to give more effective cues

I'm sort of running short on time now, as the vet's due to arrive any time now for Kanemura's brain surgery and Ziggy's annuals, so I'm going to have to shorten up the rest of the post. Regarding being able to rate Zigs to the jumps, I think that I was successful at it for the same reasons above. Another thing I'm getting better at is judging when I've done all I can, and I just have to ride what I've got over the fence and fix it on the other side. The thing is, during my un-lesson, I really didn't think "Oop. This is as good as it's gonna be, just ride.". It just happened instinctually. It may be that I've just gotten better at knowing how many strides out from a jump I am. At any rate, Sunday went a long way towards convincing me that going GAG at Pine Hill is indeed possible, if I can keep riding like that.

Later in the evening, Zhizhu and I drove down to Canyon Lake to check out a horse for her. He was a really pretty, big TB, but he was hotter than the sun, and not for a beginning rider. That's really all I have time to write now, I need to go corral the critters before the vet gets here.

Suck it, Korea

Just a short post tonight, as not too much horsy went on.  I was supposed to ride in a jumping lesson tonight, but my Korean overlords issued a diaboic edict, mandating that I was to attend a conference call at 18:30 tonight. I was... unhappy. At any rate, I got out of my conference call, and booked it out to the barn. Happily, I made it at the halfway point of the lesson. If I couldn't ride, I could at least watch and try and see the comments my trainer was making on everyone's form, and mentally apply them to the areas where I'm lacking. I don't know if that will actually help at all, but it certainly can't hurt.

Anyway, as the lesson wound down, one of the women I ride with from time to time asked me if I would like to hop up on her gray Hanoverian, and pop over a few Xs. I must have been looking rather wistful. This horse is a gorgeous Gray gelding, but sometimes he can be a bit of a goof to fences, so I'll admit I was rather surprised that she was allowing me up on him. She's a really good rider, and as stated before, he can be a bit of a goof. I asked my trainer if it was ok, (Read: Vanessa, am I really skilled enough for this horse?) She said, "wear a helmet". So, I borrowed Gusty's mom's helmet, and went ahead and hopped over a few fences. It was a lot of fun, and he was a very good boy. Just what I needed. I hopped off and tanked her profusely, belatedly realizing that I was still in my work clothes. She told me that I was very nice to watch, and I looked great on him. I'm sure that was just her being polite, but it was nice to hear just the same. ;) Tomorrow, I should be heading over to Duchess' house, and putting Sonata through her paces. Expect a post with more actual substance tomorrow.

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.