Bringing Up Baby!
Maybe I can't ride western! tried again. switched to my english leathers and had to go up three holes. Though my english leathers were the same length as the fenders. but i think the english saddles have a lot more "meat" to them so they take up more of your thigh maybe, thus shortening the stirrups by default??
played briefly but mostly just trying to get my tack right for the show. Going to end up using my english leathers and hope i can fit the western stirrup on them. :)
photos; three holes
Except not for the reason we'd hope! My saddle still hasn't arrived!! Sharon's did.. and her photos of it are beautiful! Mine didn't get to Mark today but I'm hoping that's because it's in Ringold getting the stamp put on the fender! So.. maybe soon! But, I did call in a favor and borrowed Kaitlyn's DP saddle to get me through the show at Ashland. I picked it up this morning and since we had a short day today, I took it for a test ride.
I liked it! It was pretty comfortable and Dan seemed quite happy in it. It actually seemed to fit him quite nicely to start but I ended up making it a hair narrower because at the end of our ride, my pad had slid a tiny bit. I also wore Sharon's boot cut pants to try them out. Plus I didn't want to mark up Kaitlyns saddle with jeans and it's getting hot!
So we headed to the arena. Well, not true. We headed to the XC field and then up and back to the arena for a little warm up walk first and for me to get used to the saddle. The stirrups felt about right at first, but then they felt a little long. But I figured they were supposed to feel long.
So we hit the arena and did some warming up. He felt good. I struggled to sit the trot but posting was fine, though I did feel like my stirrups were too long and I was standing on my toes a bit. We played a little bit and then went and did our Western Dressage Test 1-1 test. And oh gosh, so much easier when you have the arena actually set up and aren't just guessing. And, it isn't a trapezoid. ;) And he was so good! We got our canters and even did 15 meters. We didn't get the best stretchy work, but... that makes sense given that he's not really "on the bit" like he would be in a snaffle. Towards the end he did stretch more. And I do think I need to throw him away a little quicker than Funny for best results. Our free walk was about the same. He wasn't really stretching down like he can. But we'll work on it. And our leg yields were good and our serpentines are much better. I just have to remember to ask for the bend with my legs too. I felt like I didn't lose too much ridability in the saddle. But, once I got a few miniutes in.. the stirrups are definitely way too long. I was standing on my toes and my heels were halfway up my boot! And then because the fenders aren't quite turned properly yet... I felt like I was going to break my ankles! Ugh... I tried to shorten them, but they were on the tightest hole. Hmm... That's gonna be tricky. I tried sitting the trot but that didn't really work. My thighs got tight and my leg slid up. And the trot lengthen after the canter is so hard because I've lost my stirrups by that point! Doh! And, because they aren't fully turned, trying to catch them is almost impossible! So... I don't know if I put a half pad on, if that will help... if I need to try to roll them somehow (although I tried and can't figure it out), or if I should just put my english stirrups on and hope no one notices. ;) Or what! But anyways... we played a bit longer and got some nice work regardless. I do need to figure out how to sit better. I'm not sure if it's because he's moving bigger or if I just haven't found my balance yet, like in the dressage saddle. Or if i'm just out of shape because I haven't sat the trot in a saddle in probably almost a year! But I'm definitely more excited about the show. This test is fun and now that I've run through it a time or two and have gotten the hang of it, we won't embarass ourselves too much I hope!
We then headed to the field because Sharon wasn't there yet and I thought.. maybe i'll just canter him in the field and see if I can find my seat any better. So we trotted down the hill, which was a bad idea. He got all weak behind and wobbly and I lost my balance too. So we regrouped and trotted again and it was better. The we cantered and it was good. I kept my stirrups better but.. yeah, still gonna be tricky.
And then we headed back and Sharon had just got there. I decided that I would hop on bareback instead so he could splash in the lake. It's hot and he worked hard and I felt like he deserved some splashing and I didn't want to get her saddle wet. So that's what we did. Plus, we were waiting on Sharon to tack up anyways. I let him graze while we were waiting and he stepped on his little horse hair hangy thing off his bosal and ripped half the hair out. Then a second time and ripped the majority of it out, so I just took all the hair off. Doh! Oh well. Not sure we needed it anyways. I joked I should keep it for forelock extensions! Ha ha.
So then we headed to the lake. The boys were good and the woods felt lovely in the shade. It really was a beautiful day. Not too terribly hot and definitely not humid. A good breeze, and in the woods, it was quite pleasant! YAY! We splashed a good bit in the lake and then headed for a nice walk. Sharon had had a rough day so we just kept it simple and easy and had a nice long walk chatting. It was lovely.
Today was just a day for hard lessons. But at least this one was more fun. ;)
Danny and I rode with Liz today. I put the peter horrobin saddle on because I figured I'd have to ride in a saddle for the show. Although I am hopefully going to use Kaitlyn's DP western saddle instead of my english saddle. Which, sadness that it won't be my western saddle. I'll pick up Kaitlyns Monday. Although, supposedly our (me and Sharon's) saddles will arrive on Monday and then all Mark has to do is oil, add conchos' and get my fender stamped. So... not sure I'll have mine by Saturday but maybe???? Although not sure I'll get to ride in it before Saturday. So.. we'll get Kaitlyn's Monday and then I can ride in it Mon, Tues, and hopefully Friday. Then show Sat. But... maybe, just maybe I can get mine Friday and ride in it Friday and then show in it Saturday???
Anyways... I rode in the PH dressage saddle with long stirrups and my bosal. And he was good. We walked around a bit and did a tiny bit of trot and then we started practicing test movements. We didn't play with the leg yield but started with the serpentine. Oh my gosh I have such a mental block on it! Although, in my brain, I think Liz was screwing me up. She kept telling me to do a ten meter circle, change bend to the other 20 meter circle, then back to another 10 meter circle. But... that meant I went from quarter line to quarterline but then to the rail and then back to quarterline. And the drawing shows more of a flattened circle in the middle. So I was trying to do what she said but couldn't wrap my brain around it. And then add in the fact that I'm trying to ride it quarter line to quarter line vs off the rail... and add in the fact that my arena is too big so I'm just sort of winging it with the dimensions and don't have rails for half of my arena... So it was extra hard. THEN... I'm so dumb.. .we had a pole to mark the end of the arena near C, but not centered in the "large arena" but instead centered in my whole arena and my brain kept making that C instead of where C actually was. Once we moved the pole down, it helped me way more than it should have. Ha ha. I'm so spatially challenged. Anyways... once I started thinking of changing the flexion/bend to the same flexion/bend as I would on a 10 and 20 meter circle, but rode the pattern I had in my head that helped. And Liz also told me to make sure that I kept the bend the whole way around from A to the quarterline and then to centerline, then change my bend at centerline and keep that bend the whole way back to the other half of my circle on centerline before changing the bend again. I was riding too much of a straight line with a straight horse instead of a bend to a bend to a bend. Ahhhh. And by focusing on my bend changes being at centerline helped immensely. But good golly that pattern has taken me so long to figure out. We had to run through it about 20 times before I got it. Ha ha. BUT... once I got it, we got some really good ones. Although Dan was not really wanting to bend today. I had to use more inside rein than I wanted. And really step to the outside stirrup. AND.. keep my head turned to the outside (really straight but feels like to the outside). But then it was pretty good! Oh, and I have to keep him slightly slower paced so he doesn't fall on his forehand.
So phew... once we got that under control we talked about the canter. Liz pointed out that this test really set you up for success but that you had to ride it properly or else it would be easy to "fail". The serpentine really put you on a nice inside bend for the canter depart but if you didn't ride to the outside, your horse would fall in and you'd get the wrong lead. Ooof... good point! And then, we realized that it's a 15 meter canter circle not a 20 meter circle. Ooof! That's gonna be hard on the right lead for Dan. Whooops! I may have been a bit too optimistic on this test. Kind of like T-3 with Funny. But oh well. It is really showing the holes and things we need to work on. So we decided I would cheat a little and aim for a 18 meter circle to the right and aim for a 15 meter circle to the left. But I had to very much ride my serpentine almost to a leg yield coming back to the rail for the canter depart. I need to sit very much on the outside hind and make darn sure I'm looking to the outside! So that I can help him lift that inside shoulder instead of falling in on it. But it worked and we got our leads every time. Then I need to make sure that I support him the whole way around the circle and really sit back and up before the downward. Then sit the downward (not post) so that I can support him into the nice trot. And, stay slow. The right lope (hee hee... I keep saying canter but technically now I should be saying lope) is harder especially as we start to get towards the final quarter as he starts to fatigue, so I really need to support him and almost leg yield him out at that point. We practiced it a few times but not too many cause he was getting tired.
So then we realized that the trot lengthen was right after the canter. Luckily after the left lead canter because I'm not sure we could have done it after the right lead. Dang... how did I not realize how hard this test was?! ha ha. Anyways, and technically it's nice because it has you do a downward, then go straight for a tiny bit, then turn across the diagonal and lengthen. Which... seems helpful at first because you have time to get them back to a balanced trot, but... harder because you have to go straight then turn. We played with it but Dan was getting tired and either didn't lengthen or broke into the canter. Ooof. I miss bareback. So we decided that I needed to sit the downward from the canter, stay sitting, and then get him back and balanced and collect the trot, then start across the diagonal and get him straight and the allow the lengthening once we hit the quarterline. If I ask/allow before that he's going to fatigue and dump on his forehand around X, whereas if I'm a little later in the ask, he'll stay in a good lengthen until I can start bringing him back down. And the way I ask is to keep my hips swinging but ask for more with my hips and slightly push BOTH hands forward. Don't use one leg (which is hard if he starts to drift or tip), but squeeze with both slightly. And probably not even... just swing and ask with my hips. But I'll play with it again when he's not so tired. We did do it sitting because I felt like he's been doing it well when I'm bareback, but... I may play with sitting vs posting next ride and see.
Anyways... after that we let him be done because he was pretty tired. It was hot today and he was breathing pretty hard. Not terribly, and he caught his breath quick, but he was tired. And he was trying. He really did all the things I asked, even though sometimes I asked wrong. We chilled and then hacked home and I let him snack on the grass while Liz and I said our goodbyes. Then he got a little rinse. She did think he was a little muscle fatigued today. And... he probably should be. We ended up trotting for about 20 minutes which is more than he's been doing I think. (Ok, I looked.. not really a ton more, but definitely the most trotting he's done by a few minutes. And it's only been a few rides of more than 15 minutes, so... still getting back to his fitness level).
Whoo hoo!! My homemade bosal hanger works! And looks pretty darn snazzy if I do say so myself. :) I really wish I hadn't screwed up the more brown leather and had to get more, which was more burgandy. But oh well. Maybe I'll be motivated enough to try again but ... good enough for now!
I rode Dan at home since I had run out of time between my eye appt, Jacel lesson and then riding Lyric. But it was fine since I wanted to try out the bosal anyways. I just wish I had put all the groundpoles up because I couldn't really practice my test manuevers. Although to be fair, I have kind of forgotten what the test were anyways. Ha ha. I need to go back and learn them again! But we played with the pattern pieces anyways. At least as best as I could estimate around the poles. We also did the poles. He was super!! I really do like him in the bosal. Although I'm starting to get paranoid that he won't be able to feel my weight and seat aids and leg aids in the saddle as much as in the bareback pad and then our rides will suck. Ughhh. I need my saddle to get here soon so I can get some practice rides in!
He's still a little sticky bending, especially right, but iti was better today. Especially when I paid attention to my body. And we had some lovely leg yields. And our canters were decent. He didn't fall out of it today and I balanced him better but he struggles bending a bit more there too. We got some nice reinback too! I like Liz's technique... right rein, right leg, release, left rein, left leg, release and repeat. It works nicely! We practiced our serpentines and tried to do our barrel circles but it was hard not having an actual spot to circle around. But we tried. I'll relearn the tests and go practice at Ashland and then set up actual barrels or jump standards at home to practice that part for the obstacles! I'm also hoping to go get a lesson at Linda's farm on Saturday to practice the obstacles there.
He was very good boy and seemed pretty happy in the bosal. And pretty ridable too! Of course most of that is because it makes me ride off my seat and legs. And oh, we got a lovely trot lengthen across the diagonal today too! And played with the stretchy trot. Which wasn't as good as it has been. And definitely not as good as Funny's 10. ;) We'll keep working at it.
Good pony!
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group hack with sharon and jamie. dan's a wierdo. but weston likes him. rode in hackamore with headstall. definitely no control when dan wants to do what dan wants to do. ugh.
fun though. walk only. good recovery day. (ha.. 6 miles walk though)
good with sailor the dog
lesson with liz. halter and jump saddle. hunter perch. liz's work is done.
garocha pole
played with serpentine. DUH... it's a 10 meter circle, change the bend to a 20 meter circle the other way, then change the bend to a 10 meter circle the other way.
canter work. still weak. but falls out when he's tired and i abandon him, so hold him together at the end and compress to the downward
