Training elves

Last week Sprinklerbandit came and had lunch with my mom and I and then came to the barn with me, yay friends, food, and pictures!

That stretch though

I was soooooo thrilled with my horse!  I kept it easy since he is rather soft after a couple slow months, but he answered every question I asked.  His walk was forward and swinging, his trot was ground covering and loose, and his canter was worthy of a dressage test.

Stupid hands

Ok ok, so maybe not dressage test worthy yet (as in what the heck are my hands doing), but overall a great ride.  I swear that the snow elves were training my horse while the arena was unusable.  Also, can we just notice how great he looks in this bridle?

Pink, purple, and snuggles

I was working hard to stretch my leg down as it has a tendency to creep up in the winter months, also I obviously need to get my hands out in front of me.  I am excited to be planning on some dressage lessons with my old dressage trainer.  I grew up in his barn and over the years have taken some of my client horses in for occasional regular lessons, but I haven't ridden a horse of my own with him in something like 7 (?) years.  I am really pumped to have one nice enough to be worth the cost!  He is someone who I can communicate with nearly no words.  He gives you excersices that you can do on your own time, and quiet moments during the lessons where you can think and absorb the information.  Often during walk breaks we discuss theory and ideas before picking up the reins again.  He is unapologetic, but never berating.  If the word 'good' actually escapes from his lips you know that you have truly earned it.

Life advice at the wedding

Yeah, you know I wore a princess dress.  Even when I don't see him all that often he is still there for me, he is my second dad.  Anyways, can't wait to get his help guiding Prisoner in his training.

Also he can yell at me to sit up

Snuggly pony dressage

Holy hind end

You see him reaching with his hind end in the canter?  We have worked very hard to get there.  I have to give time off its due credit though.  Nothing like a nice winter break for muscles to heal and the mind to be revived.  Now to get rid of my winter break flab!

Dressage stuff

In what feels like a lifetime ago Aimee came over and took some pictures of Prisoner and I, then I went and took pictures of her...and we thought we were cold.  HAHAHAHAHA!  Whatever the temp was then would feel balmy now.  Oh Idaho.  My phone informed me that the high tomorrow would be significantly warmer than today, 28 degrees, actually phone I don't appreciate hearing about how 28 degrees is warm.

This is what we do when it is less than 20 degrees

In all reality I would ride in these temps, except it rained while the temps dropped and the arena resembles concrete currently.  Fingers crossed the forecast doesn't change for the worse as right now it is saying that riding could happen on Wednesday.

How was this a week ago???

So back to our great dressage ride!

Black bridle, brown reins, I need to remedy this

 We played with wrap liners and decided that Prisoner is too much of a pony for them to look good.  He seriously has the shortest front cannons.

Yeah, I've got all the colors

 I warmed him up with lots of changes of direction in a stretchy trot, he really loves powering around.

Vroom vroom

 After he was feeling loosened up I added in some leg yield and shoulder in.  He is slowly starting to understand this concept, but I am working to get him more supple about it.  I would like him to move looser and freer in the side to side stuff.

Solid three tracks

 I hope that as we gain more suppleness all around that he will track up easier.  That is definitely currently his most weak dressage thing.  I almost think it is a bit confirmational, like his legs are too short to reach each other in the trot.  Tudor has long legs for days and tracks up with out even trying and even has a somewhat weak hind end.

But who care, he has the cutest face

 It ended up being probably one of our best flat schools.  Short, sweet, and to the point, Prisoner just seemed to understand the job.

Love the bend from nose to tail

 One thing that has seen significant improvement over the last few months have been our trot to walk transitions.  He used to just throw his head in the air, right at that last moment as the trot turns into walk.  The solution has been keeping him thinking forward and straight through the transition.  Now when we have a bad trot to walk transition we can blame it all on me.

Pretty horse, fugly riding

 All of his other transitions are pretty spot on.  We get the correct canter lead 99% of the time and his is willing for upward and downward between gaits and within the gaits.

Point those toes

 He actually has a very powerful trot that throws me around if I'm not careful, possibly I need to do some planking or something.  Maybe that would fix what ever the heck it is that I'm doing here:

Just no

 Seriously though, how cute is my horse??

Notice the silver tail

 Side note from the dressaging, his tail is not dirty in these pictures, those are white hairs you see.  I swear he is trying to grow a trendy silver tail.

Short fat pony legs...and human legs

 He still leans in a bit at the canter, but not bad for being 15 months off the track.

Please come back thawed arena

 He has a very fun canter to ride, he is willing to collect for small circles or to go big around the arena.  After we canter his trot always gets better.

BAM!

 I like my position in half of these pictures and in the other half I can hear my dressage trainer's Swiss accented voice telling me to sit on my back pockets.  My plan is to actually get in for some dressage lessons towards the end of December or in January.

There we go

 I look forward to those sore dressage lesson muscles, they are so satisfying.

Swooning at how his neck is developing

 I have been working to push my hands towards him so that he reaches for the bridle and builds a better topline, but I need to watch that I don't drop the contact.

Sitting up better

 I also need to spend more time in the canter.  I am bad about a few good circles each way and calling it a day.  I need to make use of all those coolers I have from race wins!

Work that boot P-Diddy

 He stands up a bit better to the right, but he struggles more to turn.

Wild mane!

 Our goals for next year are to break into the 20's at our events and if the budget permits maybe hit up some dressage shows.

Should have worn my spurs

 I love his willingness to try new things.  This summer he struggled with body soreness, but in the last month or two it hasn't flared up at all!

Whoops, too bent

 Can I just say that I love how curvy he is!?  He really isn't fat at all, he is just building up some great muscles.

Reasons they need joint support

 In case you are wondering why I am sporting nearly rust colored breeches?  They are warm and fleecy and wind proof, that's why.

Favorite canter shot from the day

 Check out that hind leg reach!

Favorite trot shot

There you have it, dressage stuff.

This and That

As is typical of late fall here in Idaho riding is sort of on again off again.  Much of last week the arena was wayyyy to wet to ride.  I finally got to ride over the weekend, yay!

Does it get any better than sunset riding pictures?

 Saturday was the first of the winter schooling jumper shows, Aimee and Alyssa and I went for the free entertainment.  You guys, it is such mayhem.  Much more fun to watch than ride.  Also, there was some shopping to be done and the new local tack trailer was set up.  Love, love, love having some decent local shopping available.

Happy ladies!

I brought back the bell boots that I had bought and had disintegrated by the fourth ride (sad face) and thought I would just exchange for a different pair.  Then we were going through the breeches, and OMG the sparkles.  After a bit of arm twisting I tried them on in two colors.  They are HKM out of Germany and were marked at a great deal.  Well I grabbed the 30's because they had no 32's and thought what the heck maybe they will fit.

Sparkle pockets

UhOh we know I have a thing for navy breeches

Well they fit like a glove!  Sidenote: I actually took a moment and thought about the breeches I own and more of the brands are 30's than 32's.  This made me smile since in typical female thinking I go from thinking that I am a 30/32 to thinking that I wear only 32's and might as well buy 34's.  Yay!  That said, the way they fit now is good motivation to not gain any weight.

Sparkles and sunset?  I think yes

 Well with the credit I had coming from my $35 bell boot return I thought wow what color do I choose?  I might have been texting with my mom who had been drinking wine and looking at overpriced breeches on line earlier that week.  Wellllll, she said buy both and Merry Christmas.   EEEEK!  And that is how mom's plus gambler's choice prizes are the best!

Kitty approves of the sparkles

I've ridden in the blue pair a few times now, and wow I really like them.  We will see how they wash up.  The tan pair I am going to attempt to save for clinics and shows.  But, I do want to feel fancy and wear them once with this vest.

I think the gold in the vest will look good with the gold sparkles

Here are some random riding photos I got from recruiting a girl at the barn that I teach, not bad for a phone and waning light.

Looking tall on my tiny pony

Streeetttchhh!

 I've noticed that I need to work on getting him laterally supple.  He used to be wiggly and we worked and worked on straightness and getting longitudinal suppleness, now we need to get some 'on purpose' wiggle back.  Watching Aimee's clinic over the weekend was a great refresher.  If I can get him looser/more free in his back than I will be able to get higher quality movements and better sitting trot.  Always something to work on.

First Event Derby

Flash back friday here.  This show happened after the two day Jan clinic( day 1 day 2).

Who really needs to touch the ground anyways

 My horse arrived at the show relaxed and ready for business.  After watching Sprinklerbandit put in a good test I went and tacked up.  Prisoner cracks me up, it doesn't matter where I trailer to, he is 100% patient until I start to put his bridle on, then he decides that it is time to walk somewhere as I fumble with the buckles.

Pony face

 I did lots of walking around in the warm up, letting him relax and find out that it shouldn't be stressful.  We did eventually walk, trot, and canter.  He stayed rideable and mostly unconcerned about the other horses.

Someone needs a smaller saddlepad

 Finally it was time to go in the ring.  Other than wanting to look and the tiny arena fence instead of where we were going, he was pretty good.

Floating

 He loved the free walk as he always does. I got a confusing score of 6 on it though, with the comment good stretch shown.  Ummm, a 6?

Stretching

Still stretching

 I definitely left some points on the table.  Mostly due to getting a bit rushed here and there as well as having not practiced in an actually dressage arena and having questionable geometry.

Not really tracking up

Over all I was really happy with it.  I don't remember our exact score other than it was in the mid 30's.  No complaints there since I knew right where I could have fixed things and shaved more points off.

Derp face at the judge

Happy with the effort

I forgot my gloves, shame!

Courage and Bacon had stalls, so I figured that Prisoner could enjoy the trailer.  It wasn't too hot, and he had a nice full hay bag.  Then it was time to walk the xc course, peruse the tack store trailer, and cheer on friends before I tacked up again.  I typically get way more nervous in xc warm up than I do on course.  There is just such a mix of nerves and emotions from all the other riders, combined with the lack of control from some pairs.  Prisoner was perfect though, calm, controlled, jumping well.  Sprinklerbandit snapped this picture before I headed to the start box, it pretty much sums up how I was feeling, relaxed and uber happy.

Smiles for everyone

We headed over to the start box, chatting with friends, petting my horse, and suddenly it was time.  I had been envisioning this being the first event on our path rolex #dreambigmuch?  He came out questioning but willing.

We got this

The first few jumps were very simple logs, a great way to start the course.  Oh, by the way we were signed up for Beginner Novice (2'7").  We cantered between, but I chose to come back to the trot for the jumps so that he could feel his most confident.

Ears pricked, ready to go

We hadn't schooled this jump the day before

But he was still willing

It felt like things were really starting to roll along.  He was just a tiny bit sticky, but still willing to go forward when I closed my leg.

Green but going

 We had a nice canter into the next field, and coming into the blue barrels (back at the trot)  I actually can't remember if he spooked at the jump judges on the hill (or if a different horse in previous years did), this is what happens when you do a show write up 6 months after the fact.  Either way he jumped it well and we were on to the next jump.

It was a little coop that he had jumped on the very first try the day before.

This one

Well, right as he should have been going over it, he ran sideways.  I smacked him once with the whip and came back around, but he said game over here is my middle finger (hoof?), take me home.  I was kindof flabbergasted.  I pretended I couldn't hear the jump judge telling me to leave and proceeded to trot over cross rails on my circuitous route off the course.  This was a schooling show, with the specific mention that if you weren't dangerous you could finish the course.

We got this

While rather (wildly) disappointing and frustrating, it is horses.  I couldn't take it personally, it was just time to keep training and put one hoof in front of the others.  We had several successful jumps, and I hadn't felt my old enemy fear creeping in, so I would focus on those.  They say the good horses are never easy, so keeping that in mind we would live to fight another day.  The best part?  Being surrounded by friends (and watching Alyssa make her first Novice look like a freaking walk in the park)!

Giant bag of trail mix for the drive home?  Check.