A tribute to Dancer

Today is the one year anniversary of Dancer's passing over the rainbow bridge.
I miss him terribly at times, and at other times I am happy that we had such a
wonderful life and that I was there with him when he passed. Today I am a little
sad, but mostly I am thankful that he was in my life for so long and that we grew
"old" together. We were both very lucky in that way :)

I was originally thinking of doing an organized outing today - either a dressage
show or trail ride. But instead I chose to go on a quiet solo hack with Buck. I took
him out on the rail trail and we walked almost the entire time. I'll admit that I was
more occupied with getting him straight and supple then with Dancer's passing. We
ran in to some dirt bikes on our way home (which are NOT supposed to be out there)
and I've gotta say that Buck was so good about 2 motorcycles riding up on his bum.
Dancer would've been running away at a very quick pace!!!!

I wasn't sure how I'd take today. I thought I might be a basketcase....but I'm not.
I think it is because I chose to live in the present and not fret the past so much.
RIP Dancer.

Another jumping lesson!

I am sort of in cram mode since we have GMHA coming up and the last event didn't go so hot. So today in the heat and sweltering humidity, Shannon and I met up once again with Mere for more torture.

We spent a lot longer on flat work today, and I was glad for it. I would say we spent equal time flat and jumping, and that was good. I didn't ride on Friday and Buck was a little stiff going in. I got on a little early and walked quite a bit. I am finding that I need a little longer at the walk than most "event" riders do...I think it's a throw back to when I was doing straight dressage....I'd spend about 1/2 my ride at the walk in the beginning. I want to make sure that everything feels right before going faster, haha.

So anyways, we worked up to some canter work....and while the right canter depart is still not great, the LEFT canter is becoming AWESOME!!!!! I was cantering around and at one point I had to stop and say, "OMG I ACTUALLY HAVE A DRESSAGE CANTER HERE!!!!!" YAYAY Buck!!!! hehe. It was a VERY long time coming. I had NO IDEA that it would take THIS long to get a decent canter that I felt test worthy.

At this point I start jumping an x-rail to get us thinking "jumping". Finally, we start a gymnastic line consisting first of a 2' vertical, one stride to a ground rail and then 3 strides to an x-rail. Slowly these jumps become all verticals. I learned today that it was VERY important to keep the GAS on while going around the corners! There were more "Oh that was terrible" moments today, and I do believe they had to do more with the lack of gas in the tank! So my major take home today was to keep him coming around the corner and press him forward to the base of the jump.

Getting back on the horse.....So to speak...

Today was my first time jumping after the disasterous Groton House Summer Classic. No, I didn't fall off, but after having 5 refusals total that day I had to think long and hard about how to continue. As we were fairly certain that the stops came from him not being sure he could do it in the slippery conditions and then my crappy riding, I thought I would give it some time and a few lessons to confirm this.

So I woke up this morning with butterflies in my stomach. On the way to my lesson I really thought long and hard about how and where I would like to see myself by the end of this season. Do I still want to event? Gawd Yes. Do I want to continue at elementary? Yes, the smaller sizes were too small. Do I want to be doing beginner novice by the end of Fall? Yes, to that too. But I actually realized a few things, too. I realized that in the past with Dancer, we'd have no problems at home but in competitions I'd get the stops...and we had a hard time re-creating them at home.

I went in to the lesson with a "game plan" in mind. Continue with me, working really hard to perfect the jumping skills on me. And then also speak with Mere about possibly riding him in a few competitions for me so I can watch him do it and love it. I can't say that she was *in love* with the idea, but I think that was more because she doesn't do a ton of competing of her clients' horses. When I asked her what it would entail for her to ride him (ie: how much money and training beforehand!), she said she needed to defer and speak with Denise (the other trainer at Scarlet hill) before coming with a game plan.

I felt better with a clearer direction. And thus, we started a gymnastic exercise. I think the BIGGEST visual I got was the "squeeze your boobs!" visual....hahahaha. I really want to jump ahead of the horse, but for some reason when I am told to squeeze my boobs together, my hands push me BACK in to the saddle and I don't jump ahead. Huh. Who'd a thunk it?! hehe. The other one that really helped was to make my self as "small as you can over the pommel" which in essence helped too. I have to say that having myself all "tucked in" like that made me feel SOOOO much more competent and less like I was flailing about!

So our gymnastic exercise was like a figure 8 that we had to canter around through and keep the boobs smooshed inwards. We had to turn left off a sharp curve and start a jump, then about 7 strides to another jump, turn hard right to another jump and then 7 strides to the last jump. I didn't have many "OH THAT SUCKED" moments! BUT, I did have one where I got ahead and wanted to jump for him - and he actually propped as if to say, "Look Lady, I thought we had an understanding....you stay back and I'LL jump first!" He DID go, but for a split second I thought we were going to have a stop. Way to illustrate a point, Buck!

I came out of the lesson MUCH more confident than going in! I'm not 100% sure where we'll end up going, but I do know that I'm going somewhere ;)

Groton House 3-Phase Schooling Event

So I guess I do need to write about this outing. I'm usually good about documenting things, especially events, but this time I needed time to think about it.

The short of it is I just should've stayed home. It was a nasty, misty/rainy day and Buck was just not his full self today.

Dressage wasn't terrible. We ended with a 34 pp which put us tied for 7th place. He uncharacteristically spooked at the dressage judge's booth as I walked him past it. Like he has never SEEN one before??? This one *was* painted like a stone wall type thingy so maybe that threw him off???? Anyways, we had good parts, including his left canter which he got nicely but unfortunately broke early on (but promptly picked it back up again). Also during our right trot circle he thought I wanted him to walk instead of trot? Apparently I must have tipped ever so slightly forward and he stopped.

We walk the cross country and stadium courses with my instructor. I wasn't thrilled with the cross country course. Everything seemed "big" to me in the beginning. The first fence was a moss covered ugly log. The second fence was a haybale jump (on the tall side of the bale) in a fence line. It wasn't particularly scary but there was A LOT to look at on the approach, including a stumpy thing with lots of "gook" growing out of it right on the left of the fence about 2 feet in front of it. Anyways, I'll get more to cross country after the stadium part, because that's what we rode first.

So the stadium course looked wickedly easy. Nothing we hadn't seen at Apple Knoll on Wednesday, and no scary stuff under the fences. It was also in sand footing, so I knew we'd be fine.

NOT. Stadium warm-up was in a grass area that had lots of terrain going on. He jumped the x-rails and verticals enthusiastically, but when we came to the first oxer he stopped. ????? First time this pony has EVER stopped, and it's at a boring oxer (it was an ascending oxer, too). Meredith tells me later that he had slid coming to it and she felt that he was worried about the footing and decided not to go. So I bring him around again and yes, we make it over. We take down the back rail, but we made it over. Meredith wants me to do it again, so I come again and he stops. At this point she tells me just to choose another fence and take it because it's now time for me to ride the course....eeek. I jump the vertical and it goes fine. So we go in to the jump round and I am CLEARLY rattled. Very upsetting for a horse to stop for the first time in the warm-up for BOTH rounds. (They ran stadium and xc back to back, so I warmed up once, did stadium and then went straight to cross country.)

I need to add a part in here about my history so that ya'll (all one or two of you readers) don't think I'm a nutso. My past horse Dancer, was a dirty, nasty, stopper. He'd "make believe" that he was going for a jump, and at the last (take-off) stride, he would just slam on the brakes, drop his right shoulder, rear/spin left and I fell off A LOT. I quit eventing last time because of this behavior. It just wasn't fun anymore and I wanted to keep my brain on. So I have some demons, and I've gone REALLY slow with Buck because I didn't want these "demons" to interfere with his training.

So we go in to stadium. Fence one is fine (it's a vertical), fence 2 is a bigger oxer and I rode the bajesus out of it - and he goes fine. Fence 3, 4 (another oxer), and 5 are fine too. Fence 6 - I asked him to trot before it because I was more comfortable and he stopped at it. I represented to it and he went....but the stopping bug is back in my brain. He jumps 7 no problem, but we got to 8 and he stops again (it's another oxer).....ugh. I represent and also ride like a bat out of hell and we get over the tiny little thang. And we finish over 9. So we racked up 2 stops and a rail at one of the oxers which added 12 penalty points.

Ugh. I go straight to cross country with these stops in mind and it just wasn't a great feeling. So OF COURSE it transfers.

We go out to fence 1 and he immediately sees it. It's cute because he kinda locks on it and is like, "I got it!". Fence 2 he did the same thing, but I got scared so I think I started riding backwards and he slowed to a stop. I represent and he goes willingly. Fence 3 is a canter through a field - and it was FUN!!!!!! We get to fence 3 and he sees it again and goes easily. Then we gallop through the field towards home. This is where it was most fun for me - we were going fast and the rain was pelting me in the face and I couldn't see a DAMN thing, hahahahahaha. It was fun! We slow down for fence 4, which is a really narrow faced coop. He goes fine over it though. Then we go in towards the Groton House water complex - I game plan to walk here because it looks a little slick and it's busy and very downhill here.....We walk and yep, he slips....but we trot off to our next fence which is a little log ramp thing. He kinda hesitated with this one, but didn't give any inkling of stopping. Then we snake around a slippery dirt path, and then in to the woods for fence 6. Fence 6 is a hanging ugly log. He hesitates but I think more because I was looking at it, not because it was scary. Anyways, then we go to fence 7 which is a log roll top-y thing, which goes fine. And so does fence 8 (red coop), fence 9 - MY FAVORITE on course, WEEE, which is a cord wood pile, and fence 10 - a REALLY narrow faced table. We finally get to our last fence, fence 11 and have a bobble, but I am determined NOT to have another stop especially at the last fence and we basically crawl over the damn thing. (This was a 1/2 house type fence with turf put on the "roof" area for excitement....maybe Buck wanted to stop and eat it.)

Over all cross country was a blast. I kicked myself at the end of having the stupid stop at fence 2. I know in retrospect that it was my nerves getting the best of me.

So I am going to be working really hard with Meredith to fix some of my defensive riding flaws - and also to gain more and more confidence. And we'll go from there.

What I DID learn was that Buck is NOT a nasty stopper like Dancer. He stopped dead on straight and just stood there as if to say, "what do I do now, Mom?". I'm actually pretty happy about this in retrospect. At least he isn't mean about it. And he also WILL go afterwards if I present the question so he understands it.

I was pretty hard on myself yesterday. I actually was bawling when I finished and ended up asking Mike and Cady to go for a walk while I untacked and put the pony on the trailer. Now, looking back, I realize how silly I was being. I kinda realized today that IF I had DANCER now and had done THIS WELL at an event I would have been ESTATIC to have done so well on cross country, haha. So I am happy to have completed. And we ended up 11th out of 23, which in retrospect isn't THAT bad. So I'll take it for now.

Fence 2, 7 and 8 in stadium

A Cross Country School

Ugh. Another crappy ride with crappy weather!

Thursday night we had a deluge, and I'm not kidding you! Lake Theroux has returned in full force with about 4 inches of water in it. Eeek. Today Shannon and I went to Scarlet Hill for a lesson with Meredith. With the amount of water we receive I went in REALLY concerned that we may not be able to school cross country. Thankfully Meredith knows how much we need to school and lets us do a few fences.

First we warm-up in the indoor. Of course I'm in my jumping tack and I just can't get my leg on him as well in this saddle with my stirrups up 3 inches! The flatwork goes pretty well, so we go outdoors in the drizzle drazzle grossness which is now called Massachusetts!

We do a few logs to start with, and Buck does the "OMG A LOG" at the first fence again. haha. Definitely planning a good spanking before the first fence at Groton House! The rest of the logs he is great too, despite the footing being grassy/wet/mucky. I could hear the sloshing underneath his hooves and definitely rode more conservatively. Buck was conservative too, thankfully!

Our next test is a small log which we are told that a TROLL lives under. I LAUGH at Meredith saying, "IT'S JUST A LOG!" I say this partly for my own bravery, but also for Kisses (Shannon's pony) to hear....hehe. Kisses gets the message, but apparently Buck listens to Meredith and LAUNCHES over the tiny log like it's 3 feet, hehehehehehehe. WEEEEEEEE. That was actually kinda fun. I'm not sure if we got that response because Buck was FOLLOWING Kisses or because there actually WAS a troll under it ;)

We continue the lesson. One of the fences is a log roll top, probably about 2'3" or so, but on an uphill approach. We try it in the canter and the first time he WHAMS it with his hind leg. OUCH. Apparently I came back in the saddle too quickly, causing him to drop his legs. I learned my lesson there. The rest of the fences were ho hum. We walked over a 2' olive colored coop.....I didn't ride forward to it because I was REALLY concerned about the footing....so Buck decided to walk it. haha. Note to self: if you present the horse to the jump, you need to RIDE to the base and jump it with him. Duh.

I really felt icky about this lesson though. He jumped everything the first time, but it felt all wrong. When we canter fences he is getting SOOOOO close to the base of the jump that it is scary! Meredith tells me that he is being SMART about his spots because a pony of his size NEEDS to get to the base of the fence to get across some of the wider stuff. She says it's appropriate especially when fences slope away from us and have a wider base (such as a coop or rolltop). She also told me that I need to LET HIM choose his spots and stay back. I'm going to have to get used to all of this, because it's new!

Buck was really conservative with the footing. Meredith thinks he slipped on the take off when he hit the roll top, so it maybe that he really wanted to tone it down.

I am hoping that the footing on Sunday is better than it was today....and that maybe we'll be able to get in to a groove again out on course so he can gain confidence once more!

Apple Knoll Jumper Show

Ugh. Well at least I learned a ton!

So we land early enough for me to do a warm-up round. I go in and do a bit of walk and trot, and then go to pick up the canter. I go for fence one, a pretty simple vertical and Buck slows and then HOPS over it from almost a stop....Woah? What happened there?!?! He's been doing this a bit lately, like he can't figure out what the hell to do with his legs on take off??? The rest of the warm-up round was great. He didn't hit anything, we got the one stride in the combination and that was that.

Well I should've quit while I was ahead!

Our "real" round, I go in and pick up a nice bouncy canter. The good news is that NONE of these jumps look scary or big anymore! Bad news is that Buck feels this way too and feels like he can clobber them. We get in REALLY close to fence 2 and I think I must have been too far ahead of him, because he basically rearranges a few rails in between his legs. Time stops and I brace for a fall....well thankfully he finds his 5th leg and we kinda both stand there dazed and confused for a second. WTF just happened??? Well, we must go on. We regroup for fence 3, about 4 strides out and the rest of the course goes okay. He feels sluggish, but he jumps everything else clean. In particular fence 5 to 6 ride GREAT and I was VERY pleased with that. Fence 6 was on the short side, so we had to bend the line from Fence 5 to 6. Fence 6 was a fan oxer, which Buck had never seen before and it rode wonderfully. Fence 7A & B were a one stride, which we ended up trotting in and then getting two strides (hehe).

So the things I learned was that perhaps he might be a little more "surprised" at the first fence....I think I'll start beating his butt at the beginning, as that has gotten his attention in the past. I HATE starting that way, but it may be my only way to get him in front of me??? Also, I shouldn't be jumping 10 fences in my warm-ups, plus I shouldn't school the course before riding it in competition!

I also brought Cady with me and she rode in the leadline class. She did pretty well but ended up 2nd out of 2. She was pretty good though!

A ROLF (saddle) moment....

So I had a dressage lesson with Heidi this evening. It was pretty low key. I have a BIG event coming up on Sunday, so I wanted to get in with her and just work on some more canter.

His canter is really coming along, but I wanted eyes on the ground to confirm what I was feeling.

Well, he was MORE than ready to show me what he had tonight! hehe....I went to do the left canter. Heidi says, "when you have your trot, then ask him for canter...." So I prepare and I go to ask for canter in my usual fashion. Leg yield out and tap with the right leg.....Except I didn't get to tap - I just LIFTED my right hip to tap him and he went.......Insert hysterical giggles here for about 1/2 the 20 m circle we were working on.

When I got Buck he was not sensitive AT ALL. It about took a freaking 2x4 to beat him in to moving his barrel over, and forget flexing his neck and softening his jaw. Now he is so sensitive that he can feel me just releasing pressure. Pretty cool beans. I just can't believe how far he's come in such little time.

I was really worried about dressage for this weekend, but now I'm thinking I need to CHILL and just keep the outside aids active at "A".......