March 30th Ride

This weekend was the first dressage show for the club of the year. The show took place at the University of New Hampshire. Unfortunately I stayed behind to work. I wasn't chosen to ride on the team for this show so instead of tagging along I knew that getting a full days work in at the barn was a better option. Since everyone was gone the barn was super quiet which was HEAVEN! I love it when you sweep the barn isle and it actually stays clean, nothing more frustrating than sweeping and then having people bring in horses and making a mess. But it's a horse barn so it's bound to happen.

Chores were done by 12:30 and I had about 3 hours to ride. My plan was to ride Fiona and then groom a couple horses in preparation for our home show this weekend coming up. But because my plans never going accordingly, I ended up riding and groomed Fiona for 45 minutes. She is shedding like a beast and I knew she would enjoy a good grooming. I really wish I had a camera or could send picture messages from my phone without it costing me anything because the amount of hair was unbelievable. People would walk by and say "Did Fiona get clipped?" "Nope, just groomed" haha it was great and she looked great afterwards. I feel that grooming a horse well before and after riding is a way of being appreciative to the horse (and of course the horse's owners if you are not the owner). Like everyone there are days when I am in a rush but this was not one of them. 

The ride on Fiona went pretty well. I am still working on trying to get her round at the trot. Since I am able to get her round at the walk we worked on staying round during halt/walk transitions and she did great! I also attempted to do some cantering serpentines with some simple changes through the trot when crossing the middle of the arena but the transitions always seemed rushed and very much unbalanced so we didn't do that for long. 

While cooling down Fiona worked on being on a long rein without yanking the reins out of my hands. This is a problem we have during our tests at the free walk and when riding it is just annoying. I feel like she has all the reins she wants, she doesn't need to be trying to yank you forward. I attempted to fix this by starting off with short reins (not ridiculously short) and letting them out smoothly a little bit at a time. Every time she tried to yank the reins were shortened again and we started all over. Fiona caught on quick until I was holding onto the buckle, we had to repeat the shortening and lengthening at least 20 times, but she ended up making the connection and was able to walk around on a long rein without any yanking. 

Overall it was a great ride with minimal frustration. I try not to be frustrated when riding because if the horse isn't doing what I want I know by now that I'm usually not asking correctly. When this happens I attempt the task a handful of times and if I am not making progress I move onto something else.

Well that's my weekend in a snap shot. I hope everyone had a great Easter! Hopefully my next post will be full of pictures and congratulating the team on the kick ass show!

Thank you for reading :)

3/26 Lesson

Oh gosh I have finally had a lesson! It has been weeks since I have had a lesson (which is a bad thing since I'm on the dressage team and we are suppose to have 1 lesson a week!) Life has just been ridiculously busy with my sister opening up her new grooming business (which is THRIVING already) and my grandmother getting sick, though she is better now.

I went to the barn around 12:30, though my lesson wasn't until 2. I had planned on doing a fantastic grooming job today before and after my lesson. I asked Bryn who I was going to ride and she was saying that Fiona hadn't been worked yet. Becky then mentioned that Asti hadn't been ridden either, and then Jax was brought up. I spoke up and said how it would be great to ride Jax, so that is who I rode today!

For those who aren't familiar, Jax is a dapple grey QH X Percheron cross. I have mixed feelings about this guy, mostly because sometimes his ground manners aren't up to par but I had seen Bryn ride him before and from what I saw he looked like he had potential.

So I grabbed Jax, spent a good 45 minutes grooming him, and then tacked up. I was warned not to over do the warm up because Jax is out of shape and will fry out before my lesson if I work him to hard in the warm up. At first it was really difficult to get him round, but mostly because I didn't realize how much arm strength Jax needed, especially when trying to supple him up, but once Bryn showed me how much weight I would need to carry I was able to get him round and he looked GREAT! For me the best part was when I was able to get Jax to canter by just using my seat and a little swing of my outside leg. Jax tried really hard in our lesson today and I was very proud of him, and my abs were very sore after.

The one thing that is coming along very well in my riding is my ability to use my seat efficiently, and also my lower leg. There is no more kicking from this girl to get a horse to be more forward! Instead now I turn to my seat and then an encouraging squeeze if needed. 90% of the time the seat does the trick (especially if I make sure that I am not tight in my thighs or lower back), but then a squeeze really gets the energy flowing if needed!

Thank you for reading :)

2/22 and 2/23 Rides

Well her goes my first detailed post for the Dressage club! Though I am tempted to just write "I rode this horse today" I am going to make an honest attempt to actually say what I learned, and eventually I can do it in a timely manner instead of almost a week after!

So last Friday I had a lesson at 2, though I went to the barn early. It was a great day out and so I texted my boss to see if there was anything around the barn that needed to be done. Being such a nice day there was no way I was going to stay cooped up inside until my lesson. Boss told me to text my other boss, and which I did, and I ended up going to the barn around 1 to groom some horses for her to ride before my lesson. Getting a couple horses ready for her made me remember of the days I wanted to be a working student. I would still love to have the oppertunity to do so, but my dreams of becoming a vet take priority right now.

I rode Fiona for my lesson that day (no surprise there!) and we ran through our tests before our first dressage show of the IDA season. This semester I am riding the intro B test (my goal is to be in training level by the fall time or this time next year). The biggest problems that I have to work on are my hands and trying not to arch my back. My back has been my riding nemesis since day one and I still struggle with correcting myself. I guess at this point arching my back feels normal that when it isn't arched I feel like I am slouching. Before this lesson I believed that my hands were my best attribute. I tend to have really soft hands and over time I have learned to keep my fingers closed while still being soft. When I was riding my test my instructor told me that my hands were spread to far apart which the judge would interpret as a false sense of contact (whoops!) So at this point during my practice rides fixing my hands is the number one thing on my mind. I ran through my test twice and the second test was much better than the first test. My instructor also mentioned that I sometimes use spurs when I don't have to, which has always been my biggest 'fear' when using spurs. I have seen people ride with spurs who constantly have them dug into the horse's sides and I do not want to become that kind of rider.

The next day I did my required practice ride on Fiona. I didn't bring any riding pants so my boss said that I could ride bare back. I was super excited about this because the last time I had rode bareback was when I was in Minnesota and riding Mr. P and back then my balance was crap. After giving Fiona a nice groom I hoped on and tried to relax and really focus on my hands. It was nice to feel like I had some balance (though Fiona is kind of wide so it makes it kind of nice). I also really focused on my feet and trying to get my toes turned in (I still don't believe my feet can bend that way!) I always joke when my instructor tells me to turn my toes in and say that I should have never let Dr. K shorten the tendons in my ankle. Fiona really didn't get much of a work out since I was working on my position at the walk and trot but I feel like she enjoyed the ride. She really had her ears forward and was offering to go forward without me wearing any spurs or using a whip. I think I am going to ride without spurs for a while and see if we can keep this up! I did try cantering a couple times and it was great, though it felt SO WEIRD. I loved being able to feel Fiona's back and it was easy to tell when she was tense or relaxed.

Well I'm off to class and then heading home for spring break!

Thanks for reading :)

Hiatus BE GONE!

Well I think I have taken off enough time from blogging. I really wish there was 50 hours in a day, I love to blog but when school gets into full swing I just never seem to find the time.

My biggest reason to begin blogging again is because I made the Dressage Club at the University (YAYA!) and we need to have a lesson and a practice ride once a week.

SO, last week (2/11) I had a lesson on Majik, and I had a practice ride on 2/10.
This week I missed my lesson (blonde moment on my part) but I did do a practice ride ride on 2/16.

Because it's already 10 PM I'm going to type out details on a later date.

I have a ton to share and cannot, the toughest part will be finding a place to start!

Thanks for reading :)

New Chapter

Summer is officially over, well has been for about 3 weeks. When school first started I missed MN more than ever, especially the barn and my barn friends. My equine management class didn't help either. For the class we have to do chores at least twice a week (on AM and one PM), and clean a stall at least three times a week. Lets just say, the chores aren't as fun to do as they were in MN. I remember my friend Katy and I just chatting away and having a blast, but at this new barn I just feel like the workers (which are other students) are just kind of stuck up, especially the ones that have been working there for a while.

On to some good news, I have landed myself another barn job!!! I joined the Dressage Club on campus and talked to the owners of the barn that the club takes lessons at and they were looking for some weekend help, well lucky for me I have Friday-Monday off from school. The barn does shift work so I go to the barn for 8 and start with turnout, and then I proceed to muck stalls and clean until 1. Luckily there are always two workers in the morning shift or I'd be there all day. Even with two workers we didn't get done until about 2, which is fine for me. I am just so glad to be back in a barn setting.

The facilities are great and the barn owners are awesome. They are picky about how things are done, but I am the same way. Don't do a job if you are going to do it half asked. I do get paid and as an extra perk, every 40 hours I work I get a free riding lesson, so I work four days a week, five hours a shift, so that means every other week free riding lesson!

In the future I am hoping to do some extra riding at that barn, but right now I am just content being around horses all the time again, and yes, even cleaning stalls makes me happy!

Thanks for reading :)