Lightenting Crashes

We had a nasty storm last night. It had been gloomy all day long, but I really didn't think much of it when I loaded up the car with clean horse laundry, Turi and me. It drizzled my whole drive, but again it is spring in Chicago. It has been cold, but again it is spring in Chicago and completely unpredictable. When I arrive at the barn I go straight to Gramarye's stall, as I haven't seen her since last week. The barn is closed on Mondays and then last Tuesday the vet gave shots, which meant she was off Wednesday. I rode on Thursday and she was good, but then I went to Michigan to celebrate my Mother's birthday as well as my parents 45th wedding anniversary. I did ride Zion over the weekend, but that is another story. Back to Gram, she was very happy to see us, and very calm, especially considering she has pretty had about 10 days off of the last 12, our riding has been sporadic at best. After some quality time in the grooming stall, and lots of kisses and treats, it was time to make a decision. She was so good, I thought, what the heck, I will just get right on without lunging. The first 10 minutes were pretty good. She let out baby bucks and head tosses, but that is pretty normal for her if I don't consistently ride. We did walk, trot, canter in both directions, our normal warm up.

Then the big storm hit! The indoor is very well insulated so you never really hear the storms, but last night, it was as if there was not an ounce of insulation in the barn! The crashing and flashes of light it was first caught Gram's attention, then the hail came crashing into the side of the metal barn, and then the Pièce de résistance the metal doors lifted out and banged back into the metal walls. I could sense Gram's eyeballs rolling back in her head.

So I thought to myself, the smart thing to do is to calmly get off her back. So I kept talking, trying to talk over the sounds coming from mother nature as well as the barn boogie monsters. I pat her neck, and slowly leaned forward to test if she would explode. I toook my time and carefully lifted my leg cautiously, but ready to be put right back in case I needed to hold on, and then past the point of holding on positioned myself for a dismount that would hurt the least if she took off. To my shock, she stood like an old pro. Once my feet were firmly planted on the ground, I gave her a good face rub, and plenty of praise. Not a second later Gram lost it! She started screaming, the barn was also, so I couldn't really blame her. The loudest crash yet, and Gram wanted to take off. Even though she was about to lose her mind, she was very aware of where I was, and I think tried not to hurt me. Last year she would have just bolted for fear of her life and no regard for mine. Needless to say I was proud of my big girl.

I decided to let the storm pass over a bit, and then brought her back into the indoor to lunge to get some kinks out. She was good, jumped and kicked a couple of times, and then she was ready to work. Since it was a stressful night, I let her end without getting back in the saddle. We spent some more quality hand walking time, and then I put her to bed. Even though we didn't accomplish much, I was so very proud of her growth and maturity to handle herself while a huge storm lingered above us!

We like our work

Gram has been absolutely fabulous lately... I hope this doesn't jinx things! I have been getting out the barn regularly, so that probably helps. Last night she was a little wired, so I wasn't sure if that would cause our good girl streak to come to an end. To my surprise she was better than ever. When I arrived at the barn, she had a sad look, I had come right at feeding time, so she was not given her food. Everyone else was chopping away and I walked up to her stall, my heart felt for her. I gave her hay and a couple of handfuls of grain. She was very grateful, but still looked hungry. She was a big girl though and let me take her from her stall. I tacked her up rather fast, for the first time in a two weeks she was not completely caked with mud. She was very alert and even a little spooky. I took her into the indoor and she was literally afraid of her shadow. She quickly worked through it, but still felt like she might explode. Not the horse show explode from two years ago, but still anxious. She let out a couple of mini spooks and then a couple of little mini bucks in the canter stretch, but that was about it. It was more of a head down and little jumps, not a real buck... the kind that makes you giggle because it is playful, not angry.

I started to pick her up and work on transitions. I pushed a little more and asked for half steps. She actually produced a couple of nice strides without anyone on the ground, so we stretched again and took a walk break. I picked her back up and ask for half-pass and they were much better. She was lighter in my hands, and completely listening to my seat and leg. I was almost shocked at first. The transitions early on seem to be the key to getting her prepped. I do lots of trot halt, trot off again, sometimes I through in a rein back, but I am always leery of how much ask for the rein back, I don't want her to think that is what she needs to do every time, she needs to wait for my leg to go back. Lately, she has been getting a little "stuck in gears". When I first ask for the transition from trot to halt, she wants to get stuck behind my leg. It normally take a bit of gear grinding before she realizes she needs to stay in front of my leg. Normally the gear grinding takes shape in a back step, then a jump forward and up, into the trot. It is am honest mistake as far as I can tell. Afterall, I am just asking her to stop and then trot off again. :)

When then worked on our canter transitions. I am determined to start putting the flying changes on her over this summer. She was so great in the canter last night, I didn't want to stop! WE have been working on canter serpentine's with simple changes on the centerline. The first couple are normally really bad, but not last night. Like Gymnast she was sticking every landing and then departing again light as a feather in my hand. Normally she becomes more of a barrel than a feather. She is getting stronger, and really understanding her job, which makes my job with her fun. After we nailed a few simple changes into the light connection, I put her quarter sheet back on and called Turi dog into the arena for some happy dog in the sand running. Turi was happy in her dog bag with my heavy jacket draped over her. When she tried to come, my jacket stuck to her puppy harness, which caused the jacket to "move" on its own. Gram was slightly freaked, but Faible was snorting from her stall. The more Faible snorted the more Gram tried to fit into my pocket. But my big girl didn't do anything stupid, she just looked very alert... she wanted to run away, but instead stood there with faith that I would not cause something to hurt her. It was cute to witness. Gram and I then chased Turi around a bit which gave Gram time to cool down enough to be untacked and eat her dinner. All in all it was a great night, and made me love my girls just a little bit more than I already did!

Travels and such

I am about to make up for some lost time with the blog. Things have been off and on with my riding. Between work and travel, March was a rough month for me!

I will start with my visit to the Master's in Wellington! WOW, talk about being inspired. Going to the show made me realize just how much winter blah's Gram and I both had. I think we both needed a reset. So for 9 days Gram had a vacation from me! Some of the days were because of work, a clinic at the barn or Donnie and I in Florida. Watching Steffen Peter's in person was AMAZING. You could see just how important all the basics really are even in a world class Grand Prix horse. Ravel's transitions were something out of this world. The pair just made it seem so effortless. They have a harmony that is truly a sight to behold. While Ravel might not be as flashy when compared to Toto, he makes up for it all in his consistency and heart. My favorite part of the entire weekend was when I looked back at my horrible picture taking ability... I have really bad timing, but it was actually cool for the first time. Every single picture I took of Ravel and SP, was uphill, even when it shouldn't have been. I have included a few as proof:

I also discovered a new favorite of mine: Canadian Shannon Dueck and her giant mare Ayscha. Fun pair to watch schooling with Robert Dover. The mare looks like she likes her job.

She didn't score really well, but her warm up was really nice to watch.

I also witnessed Tina Konyot and Calecto V, another great pair. It seems that all the horse/rider combo's that I really liked were bonded in a special way that came through during the test.

I came back home ready to ride... well after I lunged the big red mare first! She was pretty good, just letting out a few bucks on the line, then I got on and she was ready to work. All of last week she was amazing! She was nice in the bridle and finally remembered what it meant to reach for the bit and stretch. I felt like we were actually ready for our Ryan tune up this weekend.

During our tune up, I got yelled at a lot for holding my hands too high... I blame it on my poor conformation, long torso, short arms and legs... it is really something I need to think about more. The first day Ryan asked us to do walk turns on haunches, and I screwed them up badly. The first two steps would be good, and then I would spin her around and cause her hind end to fishtail. I got yelled at some more :). By the second day I remembered how to ride them, and the yelling stopped. (When I say yelling, it really isn't yelling, I just don't like be told I am doing something wrong, so in my mind it is yelling. To those watching it is a correction made in in a very nice way.)

We worked on a bit of canter on the second day and it was all pretty good. I still need to work on developing her muscles to allow her to carry herself in the downward and not just fall. Ryan also had us work on a nice exercise in the walk. Medium walk to an extended walk across the diagonal, then halt, and walk off again thinking only of her hind legs. It helped me to help her engage. We also worked on our half steps. I have gotten into a bad habit of lifting myself up out of the saddle. I need to remember to sit in and drive her shoulders up to my hands, not life her up with my hands. All in all we had a great weekend of lessons. I am thinking that our best option though is to use this summer to train harder and maybe not show. Showing is so expensive! I would rather take more lessons then attend any shows this year. Plus I really want to have the flying changes on her and we think her strength just isn't there yet.

I wanted to end my blog entry with a funny picture. The entire time we were at the Masters, when Steffen Peters would walk by I would get gitty, like I just saw Bono :). My husband called me a dork a lot! This picture is my friend Anne and me sitting at our table for the freestyles. In the table over one and in front of us was SP and Akiko Yamazaki... so I had my amazing husband take a picture...

I look freaked out because I am in shock that he didn't have like a bodyguard protecting him from the dressage groupies (like me)! haha!

Spring tease

Well we had a wonderful spring tease this weekend, followed by yet an other snow storm. Those couple days of nice weather made it all worth it! I had some really great rides on Gram over the weekend. I think for the first time we will actually be prepared for our Ryan lessons this weekend!

We worked on much of the same, half-passes, counter-canter, transitions. Sunday I asked for some half steps, they were ok but there is a lot more in her that I need to figure out how to tap into. We had two really fun rides. She was very responsive to my leg, which just shows that I need to continue doing the things that I am not a fan of like half passes. She is really understanding our walk canters to the left nicely. I still need to work on the downwards and her just dropping down on the forehand. The slight turns on the haunches is working, but still isn't a consistent 8 or 9. I would say the first one is always a 4, and then we get a 8. I am still working on building her strength to get a great upward and a great downward. We just are not there yet.

Sunday the mare was just plain angry in the cross-ties, but as soon as I got on, she went to work and again gave me a free and clean flying change! WE stretched and I called it good after only 25 minutes.

On a side note, it has been really nice having someone to ride with in the evenings, but I found out that my evening riding buddy will no longer be out with me! It has been really nice getting to know her and watching her ride her young horse. There is so much that we have in common, and at the same time I felt watching her riding and training, only helped me to improve my own riding and training! So I will miss her a great deal!

Progress

Now that we have finally had an entire week to work, things are beginning to fall into place. We had a semi- breakthrough last night. I realized that I can push her even more than I thought :) This seems to be a common trend for me lately. My baby is growing up and getting bored with my babying her. I just feel like the basics are so important that sometimes I feel like I focus on them too much, to the point where she gets bored and wants to work on tricks to be a fancy horse. She recently decided that she doesn't want to stretchy trot any longer... I went with it at first, then realized I was probably not getting her as together as I could if I could just get her to relax in the beginning of our sessions. Last night I set out to encourage the stretch. Once I got a few nice strides, I decided that then I could get to work. I worked on collection in the canter. For a brief moment, I found myself sitting in more, and not accepting her just a little effort. To my surprise instead of blowing up, she gave me more. In fact I got a bit carried away asking for counter-bend on the circle and she gave me a wonderfully clean flying change! I literally almost fell off in shock.

We worked on our canter walk transitions incorporating the quarter turn on the haunches immediately after asking for the downward. She responded really well. As I walked her out, I realized that everytime I think I am asking enough, there is always more inside of her. We have a really nice bond, so she trusts that what I ask of her isn't going to hurt (provided I never try to change her bit again). Of course it was 60 degrees yesterday so we both finished after only 25 minutes of work soaking wet, and I walk was longer than normal! It took her a while to dry, but she deserves the night off tonight.

I am just excited to go ride on Saturday! Also my parents purchased a new puppy, McCloud, a Chinese Crested that we will have the opportunity to welcome to the family!

What a difference a week makes

In the last 14 days, I have ridden 4 times... This does not make preparing for the show season very easy! After the blizzard, we then had bitter cold, too cold to make riding safe. So I lunged Gram one night in just a halter, so she could stretch her legs for a few minutes, then she spent the rest of the week bundled up like Randy from Christmas Story:

I went out to ride on Saturday and she was very good. Based on our Ryan lessons the week before, he established that I need to start asking for more in the half-pass, which means I actually have to practice them. This is when I wished I had mirrors at least across the short side of the indoor. I know I get crooked, but if I could see what I was doing I would be able to fix it myself and would be more confident in my own position. But that is why I am lucky to have Ryan coming back ever few weeks to tune us up!

Here is what I need to keep in mind:
1. no locking my left hip (when I start working too hard on the half pass I lock up which doesn't allow Gram to cross over)
2. no letting her dive... I need to keep her tempo reasonable, ok to be a little slower right now, so long as I get the cross over
3. Outside rein to the outside (Kathy lesson tool)
4. Left elbow, wrist -no more chick wings

In the counter canter I need to sit back, I tend to lean into her which makes it harder for her- sit in!

Walk-canter, canter-walk exercises. In the downward quarter turn on the haunches, to get her rocking back... again I need to be mindful of that stupid locking hip on the left!

That about sums up my homework until next week! I will hopefully get Donnie to video for a couple minutes over the next few days.

Blizzard 2011-Snowed in

Well, I haven't been out the barn at all this week, mainly because this is my street:

Our car is located in the garage to the left... yeah have been snowed in. Last night the city finally got to our little side street armed with an earthmover like tractor and a dumptruck. They were scooping up the 5ft mound and putting into the truck. INSANE. Since I haven't been riding at all, and I have a Ryan lesson this weekend, I thought I would devote this post to the insanity that is a blizzard in the city of Chicago...

And for good measure here is the barn the morning after the blizzard as sent by the barn owner: