Stephanie Mosely Clinic

Yay! What a fun weekend so far. And I think it will get more fun tomorrow. Or at least as fun. :) 

 Friday I went to The Stables at Union Hill for a clinic with Stephanie Mosely. She's a Mary Wanless instructor. Dan was able to stay in the paddock and I stayed with Cindy. Dan and I ran out of time for adjusting him and bathing him, but... oh well. I can only do what I can only do. He wasn't too dirty but.. not as clean as I'd like for a clinic. But at least Kelli was able to pull his mane so we weren't quite so feral. We got there and I groomed him as best as I could. As I was cleaning his legs, I picked a scab and he bled and bled. Sigh.. Oops! And the day or two before he somehow smacked his face and was missing some fur on his head. Oh well. As I was grooming him a nice lady walked up and introduced herself and said "I think we're riding together, I just wanted to let you know my horse is half-donkey". I replied with "Ha! That's okay.. mine is half app, so you're in good company". Then she kept talking and said something about how some horses are scared of him and I realized she meant he was a mule! Which... should be fine. Dan is okay with mules I think. (for the clinic, Stephanie taught two people at the same time... but you flip flop back and forth with your instruction. It's kind of nice because you get a few minutes to breathe and play with things on your own). Anyways, I got on and walked him around a little bit but we were riding in the covered, so ... I ended up going in as they were finishing with lunch so I was able to let him settled a little. ha ha! He did not settle. :) He wasn't terrible. Just sooooooo ADD. He was distracted by himself in the mirror, by the mule in the mirror, by the mule, by what was going on outside of the arena, by the people watching, by the chairs, by .... everything! He was cracking me up. The wall of the indoor came up to about his mid neck. So he would randomly stop, put his nose on the top of the wall and just stare out and over. Hee hee. Then he was pinning his nose and wrinkling his lips at the horse in the mirror... Um... that's you Dan!! You're making faces at yourself! EVERY... SINGLE... TIME... we went by it close. Ha ha. So... I tried to do noodle neck but he was so distracted. We got a little bit so.. oh well. Stephanie asked the other girl about her and her horse and their goals for the clinic. Then she got to me and was like "I know you! We're facebook friends...so what do you want to accomplish this weekend?". Neato!! That was kind of cool. :) She KNOWS ME! :) So I told her that I just wanted to be a better rider and not block Dan. I also told her about the "rein lameness" and that I was trying to figure that out. 

The first day's ride we just did walk and trot. She changed my position. She said I was a little bit too defensive, braced, and... "startled". I was leaning too far back, sitting up too high, and had my shoulders too open, which made me very ineffective. And also made Dan more inverted and hollow and braced. She told me to slide more forward in the saddle, up towards the pommel. She had me sit more on the front of my pelvis rather than back on my pockets. But I still had to be strong in my lower abdomen on the front... almost like how I lift my sternum, but in my pelvis. Then she rotated my hips and my thighs and calves so that my knees were pointing forward and my toes were pointing forward and had my snug my thighs up into my knee blocks. She had me ride more off my thighs. And... despite the fact that Cindy has been trying to get me to turn my toes in for years... for some reason, it seemed a little bit easier to accomplish this weekend. ??? No idea. Maybe it's because I changed how my pelvis was up top? Maybe it's just timing and progression in my body?? Anyways... she wanted me to drop my shoulders too... like make my elbows get heavy. And then she had me think "boobs to knees and knees to boobs". I think she called it "bearing down". It was a way of getting me more centered and stronger. She also said that Dan was all over the place and I sort of let him be that way. I needed to be more "Me Tarzan.. You Horse". We talked about how on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being no control and 10 being me controlling every footstep... where were Dan and I? I said probably a 6. She asked what I thought was necessary to stay safe.. and I said "probably a 6". So then as we worked through.. we got up to 8 or so.. and at one point a 9. :) Not that I was directing every footstep, but... I was able to keep him on track and focused and keep his body somewhat straight. :) So that was the gist of it. It wasn't anything amazing, but it was helpful. And I did feel like Dan was getting nicer underneath me. Except.. he felt sooooo lame! Not legit lame, but... that "rein lame" nonsense that I cannot fix. Stephanie seemed to think it was just resistance and evasion and told me to just keep doing what I was doing and not to get sucked into changing because he was all over the place. And.. to a point, I agree... but I'm paranoid... and to go off on a throught tornado... I understand that it's tracking left, at certain connection degrees, and not all the time.... so maybe it is resistance and/or evasion.. because it hasn't gotten worse and it goes away when I've got him put together and in work mode. But... why is it only tracking left? Why doesn't he evade tracking right? Anyways... we kept working through it and it did get a little better, but.. it was probably as bad as it's ever been... Sigh. Kind of embarassing as there were people watching.  Anyways... After our lesson, I ended up adjusting Drogon for Amanda and she worked on Dan. She founds ome right hamstring tightness, some right shoulder and scapular fascial restrictions, and some right lumbar issues. She ended up doing kinesiotaping. Dan was a good boy and enjoyed being out in the pasture overnight and I had a good evening with Cindy and also Dawn. 

This morning Dan nickered at me when I came up to feed him! :) Awwwww... he does love me! Then he immediately flipped his feed pan over and had to eat his grain off the ground. He was being super out in the paddock by himself so I let him hang until it was time to ride. We went back in to the indoor and he was much less ADD today. We got to canter today. :) We did the same stuff as yesterday. Stephanie said I was doing well today with what we had done yesterday, so yay for that! Then she had me use a grab strap and had me hold it at the base.... and push forward and pull up on it. It was hard as it hurt my hands trying to hold all the things. But she explained that it was isometrics training. (Later in the lunch lecture, she had us all sit on the edges of our seats, like in a saddle. Then put one hand in a fist, holding our reins, and then make a flat paper hand over it. She had us push the one hand against the other and asked what we felt. OHHHHH..... my seat on that side and my lower back/shoulders. That's the isometrics to help keep ourselves straight and tight and strong in the tack. And to help the horses create power. Aha! So the grab strap showed us how to do that. She also explained that most of us amateur riders tend to be slightly behind the horse and therefore any time we lost connection, we tended to fall back and thus pull on the reins. And.. she's right!! I found myself doing that a few times...even if it was super subtle. But that's not riding the horse into the connection! That's riding backwards! So anyways... I tried to use the strap, but.. I may just have to practive the isometrics out of the saddle until I can find a better way to ride with the grab strap. She also said that my right hand tended to live down and back and out... which is fine on occasion, but I tended to hang out there. So the grab strap kept me from floating out of the "box". So.. the only other thing we did today was canter. Which, was not done any differently than what we had done the day before. I had to sit forward towards the front of the saddle, get my thighs rolled in and forward into the knee roll... ride knees to boobs and boobs to knees... and drop my shoulders. She also had my drop my elbows and lighten my hands. Which.. I took to mean that my elbows needed to be heavy and stay at my sides, which let my hands rise up a little bit and be "lighter"/softer. And... what was cool was that Dan's back came up and he started to sit a little. And I think.. I THINK... that my butt was plugged in.. instead of bouncing up and down. I think I may have finally gotten my butt in the tack. Oh, and we also practiced walk to trot to almost walk to trot to almost walk to trot. Dan actually started to sit and engage a little! Whoo hooo! The very very beginning of half steps. And I was able to feel myself "startle" a few times and break the forward, so... Yep! VERY helpful and pretty neat how he changed. Or at least how he felt like he changed. :) And... today he was sooo much ... less lame! So... I don't know if it was less ADD... more comfortable because of the work Amanda did... ??? 

But yep... we're back home for tonight and then tomorrow we get to go for a jump lesson with Kelly!

Spicy Boy!

Today was fun. I woke up with another headache.. not quite a full migraine but close. It was that feeling of having the vice around my head. And I just felt icky. And hormonal. Poor Mike.. I (hopefully!) over-reacted to a text and basically started crying for no reason.. other than being tired and hormonal. And I had left the ponies in last night because it was raining all night long again, after raining all day again. So anyways.. I got up and fed them and let them out and then went back inside. I took a pill and laid down for another 30 minutes and then decided to just go ride. It was either stay home and try to nap and pout.. or go ride. Or... do chores and paperwork. So.. I got up and rode. And by the time I got to Ashland the headache was gone, although I was still feeling puny. We got on and took a hack to warm up. And Dan was a bit on edge. But it was a wierd on edge. He kept stopping and spinning to stare at things, but wasn't spooky. Or was kind of spooky but... mostly it was the stop and stare. Then we finally got back to the arena and he kept trying to stop and stare... and I thought it was at Laura and her horses (she had come to do a jump ride) but he wasn't spinning to stare at them... but to the side of them. Weird... weird pony! It even got a little ridiculous so he got a spanking. But then he settled down and we were able to do some work. 

He was so good. He was super fresh and hot off my leg, which was nice! We got some decent work. We did shoulder in and haunches in and I felt like those were pretty great. Then we did some half pass... which still desperately needs work. I think. I need mirrors... or a video. Then we did some canter work and I got some amazing canter! Our right lead counter canter was the best it's ever been! I was even able to counter-flex him while maintaining the true bend and the true lead. To the right!!! We also got some pretty decent true bend to counter bend to walk transitions. Then we did some canter walk canter transitions on the figure 8, but still focused on changing the flexion. Then we did some trot lengthens and at one point... I swear it felt like Totilas! He was just banging out those trot extensions down centerline! I don't know why he likes strutting so much on centerline. Although now I'm made him paranoid about the halt so I can't get him all the way to G. But we managed it today. So we quit with that and went for another hack. He was soooo good and so spicy! It was great.

Our hack was short and sweet. We walked to the lake.. and then he wanted to go in the woods back from the lake, so.. we did that instead of going around the lake. Which was a very good thing as I was late to my appts as it was. He was breathing kind of hard so I worried a bit, but I think it was just hot and humid after not being hot and humid. He wasn't sweating by the time we got back and his breathing was better and he was normal back home, so...  I turned him out for about 45 minutes and then I had to put him back in his stall because Freddie was coming. Poor guy. He was so mad. It's SUNNY MOM!!! Why am I in Jail again MOM!! I'm sorry buddy.. I'm sorry! 

Potatoe Party!! (Minus the best potato head of all)

So.. today was a fun day! Mike and I slept in... then I took a short nap since I had another brewing migraine and took a pill. Then Mike had to leave for Tennessee... (sadness). So I went to the chiropractor and he could tell my neck was super tight! So then I came home and finished painting the one side of the fence. In the sunshine!!!! I ran out of time to paint the fence on the other side of the barn. Well, I ran out of time and patience. Ha! But... still, making progress. Oh, but before I went to paint I pulled Dan's sheet off and while I was out in the front field, I rolled his barrel back out some. As soon as I had walked out.. he started rolling it and chasing it! He had it rolling fast!! And then it rolled right back into the prickers. Drats! So then I guess he got bored so he noticed I was painting and came up to investigate. We hung out for a minute and then I let him go graze the good grass by the trailer. I opened the gate and he went out and then within 30 seconds he was eating the chair that I hadn't put back in the trailer yet... then he was pulling on the halter I had hanging. DAN!!! So I chased him off.. and then Emma took note so she took off after him. So then they had an intense game of tag... with him running and bucking... at one point he even almsot ran into Fleck, who had come up by this point. Goobers. So finally I put the dogs away and Dan settled down and him and Fleck had fun grazing for awhile. But then I noticed Dan's nose! Oops! Guess Emma won that round!

So anyways... I ended up going to Ashland to meet Kelli. She wanted to bring both her horses and offered to let me ride Marvin. By the time she was able to go, it was already close to 3:30 pm, so I decided to leave Fleck at home. Which is sad, but I'm glad I did because I barely had time to ride Dan! We got to Ashland and spent a little bit of time looking at Dan and trying to decide if he was fat (slightly!! But yahoo) and if he was having any muscular development issues. (I feel like he's getting a little bit of the divot between his lumbars and sacrum and I panicked!). Then we got both of hers tacked up (and we were quick!) and went and did about 30 minutes of dressage. Marvin is fun! He's so different than Dan. But it was fun. Then we took a short hack.. just around the lake and back.

We got back and untacked him and then I got Dan tacked up. And it started to sprinkle. Ugh. But... I got on anyways and as I was walking up to the jump ring, I realized that it wasn't just rain.. it was sleet/hail! Tiny little hail balls, but.. hail! How odd?! But we just sucked it up. It wasn't that cold and it wasn't raining that hard, so... we kept on. And it quickly stopped. We warmed up fairly quickly and he was pretty good about being in front of my leg. I needed to remind him once or twice and that was it. Then I jumped a few fences to warm up. And... to be honest.. he was pretty stinkin' straight!! Like.. I didn't have to dab. He was just straight! So then Kelli set up the fences for me and we jumped a few as she was setting them up. That darn oxer still gets me. I don't know if it's the placement in the arena.. the fact that it's a square oxer... or what. But we got over it. Without any issues.. other than I just had to "eeeek!" a little over it. And probably a little "eeeek"ing to it. But we did it! So then we did a few more and he was so good! So then I did a course. Kelli and I talked and we decided that I should do the oxer from the brick vertical on the slight bendy line because that way.. I had less time to get strung out and flat to it. So we came up with a course and off we went. He was super!! I mean, there was a spot or two where we got a little deep because I rode a little too aggressively and we went past the distance a hair.. and one spot where we took a flyer but.... It was mostly good! And it wasn't unraveling! And he went. And we fixed it! We even got the two stride on the first attempt. And on the long side... I did NOT hold... or half halt.. and pushed.. and he moved up to it and it was great!! Kelli was super proud of us. :) I decided to be proud too. Then Kelli mentioned that if I wanted to "nitpick" about anything... that my hands got a little wide and my reins got a little long. So... we picked three more easy jumps (Because... my thought process is that... as long as I'm not pushed too much past my comfort, I can continue to keep the momentum going and keep pressing forward. If I get a little bit too much past my comfort, I'll resort to holding or riding backwards and we'll back track. And.. at this point... at my comfort level.. I am almost to the point of wanting to finesse things a little but I'm afraid to do too much at once. So.. the plan is to stick to my comfort zone and pick one thing to "finesse" and only do one or two fences at it... so that I can make sure I don't mess it up!). Anyways.. we picked three easy jumps and I shortened my reins. The first fence he got underneath it because he thought we were done and I didn't quite get him in front of my leg enough, but... then I corrected it and he was awesome over the last two! And Kelli is right. If I can keep my reins a bit shorter, then I can ride with my elbows and keep the connection. And then I can stay with him better and help him balance better. Because I can be quieter. :)

So yay!!! Fun night! I really really wanted to take him on a long hack too but it was getting dark and cold, so.. we headed home. Oh, and he was kind of snuggly today. :) Like... he even gave me kisses and snuggled with me a little bit. :) AWWWWW.... baby potatoe does love me!

Riding in the ..... SUNSHINE!!!!!

Whoo hooo!!! Sunshine... sweet, glorious sunshine!!!!

Mike was super sweet and told me to go ride while he went to visit his Mom and check on the boat. So I did. Well, after getting hay and feed. We got to ride in the sunshine!!! We did some dressage in the jump arena (because the lower arena was closed and the middle arena was booked). But it was fine. We played with all of the things and had a good ride. Then we went for a nice long hack! He was silly! He got a little up and snorty but we had fun and it never escalated. 

He's so pretty!!!!  :) 

Rain, Rain, Rain....so much stupid rain!!!!

ARGHHHHHHHHHH..... Apparently we've had more rain this year than Seatle... the rainiest place ever. :( Everything is soaked and saturated... it's nasty! :( I couldn't get my lesson on Sunday because it was raining and... my truck was stuck. :( I was going to ride in the rain but... because it won't stop... and my drive is all churned up because of getting stuck before.... even though I went the clockwise way.. as soon as I hit the turn... I started to slide towards the ditch!! ACKKK. NO!!!! I was able to back it up back to solid ground but... I was afraid that if I tried again, I'd end up super stuck. So I called uncle and pouted. Then Monday it rained and I worked 12 hours. Then Tuesday morning it rained and since it was only a drizzle, I would have probably ridden had I been able to get the truck out, but alas... nope! And I had needed to add one patient since they somehow got deleted from the day before... and yeah... so no riding Tuesday. And then because I had to add a bunch of add on patients.. it was a 10 hour day. Then Wed... was a very slow day.. I had one at 10, one at 12:30, and then cancellations. So... yay, I can ride. Except nope... it's drizzling all day and I can't get my truck out. ARGH! So.. I ended up getting home at 3ish... eating lunch, and then deciding.. screw it. I was going to ride even if it meant I hacked down the road...  

I decided to be smart and just ride on the property since that road is scary. I had to go catch them from the front field so when I was out there... I reset my grid to alternating raised ground poles... (raised on the right, raised on the left, raised on the right) to a skinny low vertical. Then I caught Dan and tacked him up and as I was doing that... guess what?!? It started to drizzle again. Sigh. Too bad.. I was committed. So we got on and headed down to the "arena" because I thought that might be the least slick spot. It was pretty wet... even had some standing puddles. And it was squishy. So we walked. We did shoulder in, haunches in, leg yield, half pass, turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches, and then we were able to do about a 15 meter circle with small trot to walk to small trot transitions. Then he started getting fussy because Fleck was being smart and staying in his stall. We headed to the front field... thinking maybe we'd try the grid. Big Fat Nope! WAY too slick.. we were sliding even just walking. And then Dan got even more mad and tried to rear and spin and bolt but he ended up slipping and abandoned that plan. So we just finally gave up and went back in. I bemered him and did some fascial work. By the way... he gets so quiet and still for that quiet fascial and kinesio work. I think he likes it. Then I fed them and then... Mike was home!!! Yay! Only a half week this week :) 

And then... Thursday poured rain again and I worked another 12 hours. And then Friday morning I headed to pine top to jump judge/stadium crew. And guess what?! IT WAS SUNNY!!!!! Yahoo!!! And... they came and fixed my drive so I can get my trailer out and won't get stuck again. YAY!!! They put down crushed asphalt after grading and smoothing my turn around. Whooo hooo!! It was a long full day so I didn't get to ride, but.. it looks like sun tomorrow and sunday, so.... it's on!!! :) 

More happyness!!!

Ahhhh... Mike is back! I snuck out and worked on one horse (emergency chiropractic visit... hee hee) and then I was still home in time to have the whole day to spend with Mike. We decided to go to lunch, so I ran out to change blankets as it was warming up. And.. Dan was in the round pen eating grass and when I pulled his blanket off, he tried to eat it. So.. I told him no, but then saw the red ball. I kicked it towards him and he looked at it.. and then started to roll it! :) Hee hee. We played for a minute and then I went back in so Mike and I could go eat. But I peeked from the porch and saw that he was playing byhimself now. SOOOO adorable!! 

Danny plays soccer


Then I guess that got boring, and he found the old mat again... so new shenanigans ensued. 

And more fun with the floor mat now

I finally peeled myself away and Mike and I went to Arbys. We decided that it was okay for me to go ride because... sunshine!! And it's supposed to rain again and I wanted to jump before it got nasty again. So I did. I went to Ashland and was hoping to get in a quick XC school and get back home quick. Unfortunately, although it was super nice to see everyone and chat, I got side tracked by seeing a bunch of friends so it took us a lot longer than I had anticipated. Luckily... we had a great school! The footing wasn't too bad so with the studs I put in, we did great. I was able to get him in front of my leg and he jumped everything!! We still have our right drift if I forget to correct for it, but.. he jumped out of stride and took me to most things! Yay!! I was a good girl and kept it to the novice stuff or lower. Because... I'm trying to put money in the bank. For both of us, not just him. But we had fun! We even jumped the full coffin and then there was a jump in the ditch that we jumped, without batting an eye at. We jumped the smaller ramp. We even did the up bank to the squatty fat log on an angle. Nothing too exciting height wise, but that's okay. I'm betting he would have been fine had we upped the ante, but I think it was also a wise decision NOT to. :) It was a good day! We both left the field feeling confident and happy with each other. So then we joined Melissa and Gail for a short hack around the lake and then headed home. 

 Ha ha... what a goof!!! :)

Then it was date night at the Optimist so... didn't want to miss that :) 

My Furry Valentines!

Today is Valentines Day. Which is also Roany's birthday.... So.. Cheers Roany Pony!!! I miss you so. 

Which is also why I decided that since the weather was cooperating (Yahoo!!) and I had some time... I would take both Fleck and Dan to go ride. Because... I don't want to regret not spending as much time with Flecky. 

So I took them both to Ashland and rode Dan first. We had a good ride. The dressage arena's are still sloppy and the rails are all over the place, so we went back up to the jump arena. We worked on more dressage but I tried to not spend quite so much time drilling. I'm telling you though... Daniel is SMART!!!! We picked up the canter and I just went to change the direction and he started the inside bend to straight to counter bend to downward sequence without me even having to ask. Ha ha... I swear I think had I been prepared, he would have attempted a change even. :) Sneaky little fool! But he listened and we had some great work. I swear his right lead canter feels so much better so maybe his SI was really bothering him. We even got counter canter on the right lead. In the jump arena! So then we worked on some other things too... like the simple changes through a figure 8. I felt like we weren't getting the downwards quick enough with the change of bend sequence, so I did just a few on the figure 8, while still doing the sequence. He understood that better. So.. we'll keep doing a little bit of both. 

Then we went for a hack. It wasn't super long because Fleck was waiting but it was a nice long hack. And holy moly he was soooo good. We were going past the hay barns and I was admiring the old one with the rusting parts when it clanged loudly!! I almost jumped out of my skin, but Dan barely flinched and kept mosying along. Seriously good boy. 

It was just a great ride. I feel like Dan and I have gotten over some of our anxiety/anger/frustration/whatever with each other.... not each other. But with life maybe??? I don't know, I guess I feel like maybe I'm in better control of my emotions which means that they aren't translating to Dan and this is making him happier. Overall, we just seem to be getting along better and having a lot more fun together. I'm sure the fact that our jumping situation has improved has helped too. :) But it was just a happy sunshiney day. 

Then I took Flecky out for a quick spin. And he felt really good! He was feeling quite good apparently as he put his head down and starting his little crow hopping porpoising thing!! Flecky!!! Hard to believe he was the BAD pony today. :) Ha ha... Dan was the good one!!! I know, it sounds weird. ;) but yep... a great day. I didn't ride Fleck for very long because I was getting super cold. And it turns out that Mike was already home, so.. I wanted to see him. :)