And now, show season is upon us…

Cheryle is awesome, and REALLY organized. I have organizational ideals, but often fall far from them. Like now, when she sent me this blog post almost a month ago, when we were planning the April Schooling show. I found it when cleaning my inbox today, a week AFTER the first show. Oops. Well, by being late, we get some pics of the first show!

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And Now, Show Season Is Upon Us

By Cheryle Oshman Blunt.

I started working for Straight Forward Dressage a little more than a year ago.  When it started, my job was to make a night check schedule for the boarders.  Pretty simple.  A couple of months after I started working for Ange, she decided we should have a staff meeting.  She had told me that one of her ideas was to have some small schooling shows right at the farm, and I knew we’d be talking about that a bit at the meeting.

When the schooling shows came up at our staff meeting, we pored over the show calendar figuring out who would be going where when and trying to figure out where to fit in our three initial shows.  A date would come up, and Ange would say, “Does that date work for you, Cheryle,” or “We need to schedule them when Cheryle is available.”

I thought, “Gosh, I might like to show, but they don’t really have to cater to me, especially since I’m not even sure I’ll ride.”  Oh, yes, the naiveté!  It hadn’t occurred to me that I was to be running these shows myself!  True, I’d volunteered at schooling shows back in Maryland.  True, my SFD job had grown a bit.  True, I had figured that I’d be sifting through the entries and perhaps even making the schedule, but running a horse show?  I definitely didn’t feel qualified for that.  I’m not sure when it dawned on me that I’d actually be in charge on show days, but it was a sobering thought.

The first show was a real learning experience.  How do we handle someone being so late that they’ve missed their ride times?  How do I make sure the judge is comfortable?  How early do I need to be there to beat the first trailer arriving?  (I guess 2 hours before their ride time wasn’t quite enough…)  Where do we park the trailers when the field is muddy?  Perhaps for seasoned secretaries or folks who have done a lot of showing themselves, these questions are not a big deal, but during that first show, they sent me running to Ange in between her many rides.

I learned a lot over the rest of the season and 3 more shows too.  I learned that I am competent and organized, even if I did forget to order ribbons once.  I learned that I actually enjoy planning these events, even when it all goes wrong.  I learned that sometimes I’m not even the most nervous rider and that I trust my pony more than I did a year ago.  I learned that I work with an amazingly supportive community – both inside and outside of SFD.  I learned that volunteers are worth their weight in gold, and by the last show, I didn’t even feel like I had to be everywhere at once!  By the end of the season, I didn’t have to run to Ange with every question, and was even (almost) comfortable the day she couldn’t be at the farm during one of our shows.

And now I’m realizing that our first show of the new season is mere days away.  New questions arise – Where will we park the trailers if the snow isn’t gone?  But I’m really excited for the five shows we have planned this year.  We have some new prizes, which means more tracking, but I’m ready.  I hope I’ll be seeing many of the same faces I saw last year, equine and human, and hope I’ll be seeing some new faces too.  Good luck to everyone this season!  See you in the ring.

Carol Lippa and Merrick

This is by Carol Lippa, who started out as a boarder, became a training client, joined us as staff, and has become a trusted friend. In her real job, she is Head of Memory Disorders at Drexel.  But in our world, she is Merrick's Mom.

 

After a year of Ange

Trotting to the Beat of a Different Drummer

By Carol Lippa

The thrill of having a horse who is athletic enough to win championships, jump the moon, and do a piaffe in hand, has been downsized by our seemingly endless inability to succeed at Training 1. Having a “project horse” can be humbling.

Riding involves a dynamic partnership with the horse-rider-trainer team, always keeping an eye toward how to perform better next time. Most serious riders and many horses thrive on this. Lovable and expressive in other ways, Merrick trots to the sound of a different drummer, often painfully lacking motivation when asked to expend energy at the riders command.


An Angeism: “to do dressage, you need to admit you _ _ _ _, then figure out what to do to fix it.” Complicating our efforts to “fix it”, Merrick’s training slows due to illnesses and interventions. Immunizations give him the flu, injections lead to muscle atrophy, medications worsen his ulcers, and sedation causes him to fall over. Don’t even think about riding after he’s been shod – his angles might have changed a degree. Wouldn’t it be nice to own a normal horse?


Over time, Ange suggests changes in training strategies to suit Merrick’s learning style at the moment, hoping that layering the approaches over time will have an onion skin effect. Maybe this will work; Merrick will happily trot over a jump now, and is starting to get a topline. My heart soars because I love to jump and so does he.

Merrick finally won his first multicolored ribbons. They hang proudly by his stall, and he has a vague sense of what the fuss is about. He seems to enjoy hearing people tell him that he must have been a “very good boy” to have earned them. But grazing remains more important to Merrick. Credit earned is credit due, and he deserves a good long graze for putting up with 20-meter circles, transitions and those annoying half halts.

Photos of Hasslers

I promised you photos, but cold is BAD for cameras.  But we were able to salvage a few.  

Here is Secret's new-and-improved taller canter. Her canter is a BLAST to ride.

Scott helped Linda with her connection, and used this awesome analogy of a wheel barrow to explain keeping the horse in both reins. Linda has ran with this concept--her last two lessons are the best riding I've seen her do.

Look - harmony!! My red girl is emotionally at peace.

I love this shot. This is from Friday, when her back was so tight, hence her croup is higher than I want. But check out her push-off from the left hind, and the diagonal pair of right hind-left fore is so clearly together that her hind cannon bone and front forearm are parallel.  Her canter rocks.

Day Three and Four in Hasslerville

Friday was COLD.  Apparently, this weekend, Hasslerville was in the Arctic Circle.  I’m generally not a wimp, but boy, it was COLD.  When I got on Venus, who I rode second, I couldn’t feel my thumbs.  Not good.  But it takes more than cold to keep me from my education.

Linda came along Friday and Saturday.  On the way down, she said, “How much difference can two lessons make?”  As I’m warming up, Secret answered her question.  As we cantered by I heard Linda’s “WOW.”  Yep, the black mare is getting fancy.

Secret’s big goals for the week were improving the swing in her trot, collection in her canter, having a plan for when she gets try-too-hard-150%-every-stride tension, and being able to move her hind legs around without getting more speed.

Secret has embraced the taller, more uphill outline.  Her canter in particular has changed pretty dramatically.  In her new balance, I can use my outside leg without her rushing forward, so those goals are addressed.  The walk-canter transition has really benefited.

Scott encouraged me to make shorter canter sets, even when it feels divine.  In her first trot steps, evaluate how she maintains her balance.  If she is stellar, then the canter set was productive. If she flattens and runs, then I over-faced her in the canter set, either by making it too strenuous or too long. 

In the trot, her try-too-hard can come out as quickness, so Scott had me ride my straight line work a bit more conservatively.  On lateral lines, even slight ones, that was the time to ask for more swing and power. 

My lateral work homework is to develop lots of smooth, flowing lines that go from one lateral work to the other.  Of course, this creates a little tension, so when it does, I have two plans. If she maintains tempo, hold my current lateral work until she relaxes. If she changes tempo, exit that lateral work, settle her, then re-enter it. 

Then, on Saturday, we took that even further, and started pushing her collected trot a bit.  My homework is to play with that only a little, as Scott says “She doesn’t really need more collection in the trot,” so only 2 or 3 times a week, at the end of the workout, so she doesn’t get it confused with her working trot.  When we pushed her collection during a leg yield, I actually felt hints of her piaffe to come.

Since collecting the trot worked so nicely in the leg yield, Scott broke his own rule and had me do some half-pass work next.  We kept the lines shallow, but she clearly offered crossing both front and hind without speeding up.  That is well on its way.

Friday, since Secret was such a star, we ended our work early, and had Linda hop on.  I thought she was going to pee her pants she was so nervous.  Secret took good care of her, and I think Linda got a lot out of her mini-lesson.

Venus, I didn’t have enough blankets on her Thursday night, and she told me very clearly in the right lead canter—it felt quite tight in her back.  To make herself more comfortable, she wanted to push her hips to the right and get faster.  

We worked on trying to solve it in the canter, but alas, she reacted to each correction with more speed.  So back to trot-halt-trot transitions.  She was brilliant in the upward transition, clearly lifting her shoulders, but took a LOT of strength in the downward.  After several (ok, TONS) of these transitions, we’d go back to the canter and evaluate. Bottom line, I couldn’t fix the canter in the canter, I needed to go to the trot to get access to the right hind, then go back to canter. 

Ironically, her trot work was unaffected by the cold. She was swingy and smooth.  I would have liked for her to be a bit more uphill, but neither Scott nor I was willing to risk it on Friday.  So we got her back swinging more freely, and called it a ride.

Friday afternoon I was able to turn her out to do her buck-prance-buck-prance thing she likes to do in turnout, and added an extra blanket.  It worked. On Saturday, she came out feeling much softer in her back. 

So Saturday we hit her big three–changes, half pass and half steps. 

For her changes, as soon as I have adjustability in the canter, I am to go for it.  I am a dressage rider, so I want everything absolutely perfect before I do the changes.  Problem is, Venus needs energy for clean changes, and my perfectionism is tiring.  When we got to the changes earlier in the workout, before she gets fatigued, and earlier in the canter sets, the changes were clean and calm.    

For her half pass work, the quality of Venus’ half pass is directly related to the work just before the half pass. If her neck and shoulders are awesome going in, she stays balanced and smooth in the lateral work, especially to the left. When her right shoulder wants to lead, I need to correct it with a circle or shoulder in, instead of trying to muscle the half pass itself.  Once again Ange, ride with your brain not your strength. Also, make steeper half passes, she is ready.

Her half steps on Saturday were fabulous. We moved them off of the circle and onto straight lines, asking her to hold them for longer and shorter periods of time, and to keep them more and more in place. 

Venus’ additional homework from the week is to keep her rounder and more committed to the contact in her lateral work, use transitions in and out of collection to bring her frame taller. 

So now the real work begins, being able to make this happen without Scott’s watchful eye.  Doug, the most amazing horse-husband ever, came on Saturday to video, so I have that to refer to. And hopefully we won’t be training in the Arctic Circle much longer. I did order warmer riding gloves though. I like feeling my thumbs.

 

Day Two at Hasslerville

Day two started with travel hassles – a truck full of bricks overturned on 202, shutting the road down, and abandoning me to creative detours.  Thankfully, books on tape prevents road rage, so I arrived tight on time but not tight on patience.

Secret was first to go today.  She came out of her stall in her usual let-me-at-the-work-I-can-do-it-better mode.  And she did. 

I warmed her up in her longer, lower neck frame, but when I sat into the saddle, she brought her back and neck up, putting her balance right where we had ended yesterday.  We continued to work on settling her into the outside rein by picking exercises that stretched the outside of her body.  When she became too light in the contact, she let me push her back into the connection with my leg.  She just gets better and better.

As we cantered along the short side, he had me ride in shoulder-fore, then he said, “That’s her third level canter.”  Third level???? She’s been a dressage horse for 16 months, but I’m not telling her that.  

“Down the long side, now 12 m circle.”  Piece of cake.

“Now 10m circle.” Sure, she can do that.

“Now 8 m circle.” Um, ok, that’s kinda small--well, never mind, she did it just fine. 

“Now walk, and collect it.” Collected walk?? On a first level horse? Um, ok. So I cued, and sure enough, she collected.  Wow. 

“That’s borderline too big,” so I adjust, and again the super star responded like she has FEI training.

“That’s your show collected walk, now extended walk.”  Um, ok, I guess…. “Keep her a little softer in the flexion, there, that’s what you want.”  So maybe we won’t stay at first level very long this season …

Then it was Venus’ turn.  She spent 25 minutes under Cara’s magnetic blanket (thank you thank you thank you), which she enjoys.

She started out feeling really lofty, but a little behind my leg—kinda like she was hovering in each trot step.  Not good, as she looks pretty from the ground but I loose some adjustability.  I was thrilled she was doing this, she gets this way once in a while, and I really wanted help. 

When her back feels this way, I, of course, in my normal go-go-go-push-harder mode want desperately to push her forward.  Pushing her forward does fix the behind-the-leg feeling, but I usually loose that loftiness.  I also risk getting her too excited.  I spend the rest of the ride settling her mind, and don’t really get to any real work. So I was ripe for a new plan.

Scott had me go to changing the lateral work on a 20-m canter circle, his stock exercise for a tight back. She did exactly what she does at home when I do this—she kept dropping out of the canter.  So he had me alternate it with pushing her a little forward, to 12 mph, and immediately follow it with shoulder fore.  The forward got the right hind moving better, and then the lateral work got it moving under her body. 

And what do you know, I had forward AND loftiness AND her mind. 

Holy crap my Baby Cakes is swinging like a fancy horse.

We went on to check all the lateral work in trot. In shoulder-in, when I needed more activity, a hug with my legs or a tap with the whip gave me more swing and carriage. In the half-pass, not so much.  The whip gave me a tail flip and a tight stride. 

So now we have two plans for lateral work. Her new half-pass plan—when I want more,  go out of half pass into shoulder in or 10m circle, get the activity where she is confident, then take that activity back into half pass.  As she gets more limber and confident in her half passes, I should be able to use my whip in the lateral work.

Then back to the canter. 

And Baby Cakes did her first changes in public. 

I’m still setting them up on very careful, don’t-get-too-excited kinds of lines.  My homework is to start to challenge her confidence, and move the changes around the arena. 

We went back to supple, then compress, then supple, then compress, rinse-and-repeat exercises that are Venus’ bread and butter, then he said, “We can be done with that, or we can look at her half steps.”

She likes the half steps, so why not?  Homework there is to start to have her stay in the half steps for more and more steps. 

Then he made my day.  He said “The piaffe is going to be a highlight.” 

Yes, I’m really that easy.  Praise my girl and I’m putty. 

Friday and Saturday Linda, Secret’s mom, and I are staying down there.  I get to watch Friday afternoon lessons and Saturday morning training, a real treat for me. Plus Scott promised us a tour of their new barn.  Weather will be pretty cold, so I’ll pack all of my warm stuff.  I may not have access to a computer, so you might have to wait until Sunday to hear about the last two days.  But I will report, I promise.

 

Day One at Hasslerville

  A few times a year I immerse myself in my education.  The mental side is what drew me to this sport (and away from my fringed chaps). Wednesday I loaded Secret and Venus up for four days of lessons at Hassler Dressage.

Carol started the whole “Hasslerville” thing, but in my over-stimulated-caffeine-induced-excitement, it went from fun to downright silly.  This goes to the tune of “Margaritaville:”

Driving down to train again at Hasslerville

Looking for my lost canter half halt

Some people say that there’s a German to blame

But I know

It’s my own damn fault

Ok, on to the training.  When I come for a multiple-day visit, Scott and I spend day one reviewing my homework and looking for any holes in my work--areas that, because of so many days riding alone, need a brush up.   

Venus was up first.  Last time Scott saw her in December, he sent me home with two pieces of homework.  First, I was supposed to be a bit less tolerant of her tipping onto her right shoulder, especially in half pass.   Second, I was to shrink the canter down, make it even a bit too up-and-down, to get her to quit rushing through me on any straight line, especially in half-pass lines. 

The right shoulder balance homework has come along really well. With the exception of haunches in on the right circle, it didn’t show up.  Excellent, onward and upward.

As I’ve worked on her canter homework, we’ve had good results, but tightness has started to peek in from time to time.  Sometimes I ask for a more manageable canter tempo and stride length, and she willingly obliges. Sometimes she gets a bit stiff and stuck behind me, especially in the left lead.

To work through this, first he had me settle her into the tempo we want, even if that puts her a little on the forehand.  Then go to lateral work to supple her back, and let that suppleness give me the uphill balance I’m looking for. 

Of course, it worked like a charm.  She went from a 2^nd level balance to a 3^rd level canter with a hint of even more power and balance in no time.  That is, if I was quick enough to clarify my half-halt when she got confused.  The best part-- she was willing to accept my corrections without getting tense. The girl is really growing up.    

One thing Scott cautioned me about, with her canter stride. It feels divine to me when it is a little too big.  When her giant canter gets to rolling along, she looses lateral suppleness.  So throw in little shoulder-in/haunches-in strides now and again test her balance.  If she can’t roll from straight into lateral work and back to straight without any tension, the canter has gotten too big for her balance.  I love tests like that, they give me confidence when I’m working on my own.

Scott hasn’t seen Secret since the BLMs in October, and her last “real” lesson with him was back in July, so I was anxious to have him check her progress.  Back in July, we had discussed getting more ground cover into her right lead canter, improving flexion before corners so she doesn’t fall against my inside leg, and holding long, shallow lines of lateral work.

Secret, in her normal, perfect-girl fashion, nailed her homework.   

So on to what I wanted to work on – I want her to carry her neck lower/longer and her nose out in front of the vertical, and I want more access to her hind legs, so I can get better crossing in the half pass and how to best prepare for clean changes (yea, she’s only been a dressage horse for 17 months, but she’s a super star, what can I say??). 

Scott disagreed with my first goal.  He didn’t think that a longer, lower neck served her balance.  He had me keep her poll up and her neck out, then ride accurate, supple lines until she relaxed her neck and reached for the bit.  So in short, ride her neck like an FEI level horse. Of course, after a few minutes she started pushing into the contact and quit fussing with the bit. 

Once we got her neck where he wanted it, we then added lots of lateral work. My first priority was to make sure she was settled into the bit before asking for the bending.  If she wasn’t settled, sure enough, she shortened her neck. Then we circled to settle her, and asked again. Within no time she had it all figured out. 

We did the same thing in the canter. Her canter is much easier to keep organized than Venus, so before long he had me making smaller and smaller circles.  Which, of course, she handled with ease.   Love this mare’s super work ethic. 

We also spent some time on the walk-canter-walk.  He had me really insist that she be with me in the first stride of canter.  He said that her delay in the first stride directly relates to getting clean changes in the future.   After one correction, of course, she was right with me.  This mare is a delight to train.

We talked a little about the show plan for Secret. Her uphill balance and Friesian blood make collection work easy, but it means the mediums will take longer to develop.  Showing her extensively at First and Second Levels, where the mediums account so heavily in the scores, probably isn’t going to be her best scores.  He agreed with my ideas of light showing this season, and let her develop. She’ll be a rock star again at Third Level.

Ok, heading out for day two. 

 

The Dressage Geek Mind

Our first educational event of 2010 is fast approaching, and as I plot and plan, I thought I’d give you a peek into the labyrinth of my mind.

In winter, as much as I hate the cold, I love the uninterrupted training.  I love wrapping my mind around why a particular thing is hard for one horse, then figuring out how to make my idea the easiest, most logical thing for my mount to do.  This is what drew me to dressage, not the tail coat and top hat.  So I guess you could say I’m not really a Dressage Queen, I’m a Dressage Geek.

I spend hours in DG mode.  I think about why one thing is hard for one horse, and easy for another.  I compare their conformations and I compare their minds. 

For me, this is fascinating stuff.  We all know the short backed, more Baroque style horses have talent for collection while the more rectangular-built horses have more talent for extension, but why?  If we understand why, can we talk the Baroque body into an 8 extension, without disrupting their delicate balance? Or how do we get the powerhouse hind ends to carry more weight without getting tense? 

In DG mode, I jump to role of physical therapist.  Can I help the compromised horse?  How can I select the right movements so dressage becomes therapy, improving their soundness as well as their training?  I stare at their hind-end muscles, comparing symmetry, and think of what exercises will stress the weaker leg without over-taxing it, and how to alternate muscle groups to symmetrically balance this horse’s body.

Then my DG mind crosses over to horse psychologist.  How do I settle the tension on my try-too-hard horses, without dulling their gaits? How do I jazz up my couch-potato types, without creating tension? How intensely can I stress their bodies without frying their brains? How often should I alternate between work that improves their confidence and work that improves their strength?   

Of course, my DG side doesn’t let my riding off the hook either.  How does my seat inhibit or enhance this horse?  If I sit more full on my seat, or more up on my thighs, which seat gives me more access to his topline? My half halt is very different on my over achievers than on a less ambitious horse.  Yes, the aids are technically the same, riding the horse between my leg, seat, and hand, but the flavor of them changes dramatically.  If I ride Venus’ half-halt on Secret, well, Secret would be a nervous wreck.  And if I did the opposite, Venus would have even less brakes. 

Then, because I’m such a truly annoying DG, I start babbling about these differences to anyone who will lend an ear.  Cara, Linda, and Lynn were probably entertained the first few times, but now, well, I think they’d rather hear “yea, it was a good ride” instead of the biomechanical and psychological break down of each footfall. 

So Thursday, I’ll babble to whoever wanders in.  I’ll even try to answer questions about my thinking.  I’ll do my best to let you inside my DG trainer’s mind.  It’s an experiment, and hopefully one you will find helpful in your own training.