2009 Reflections and 2010 Goals

2009 was an incredible year. We went to 5 different events and qualified for the AECs our very first year at beginner novice. Our lowest dressage score at an event to date is a 33.7, which we achieved at Briar Fox, also the event where we got our best placing to date: 3rd! Although we placed abysmally at the AECs, it was a fantastic experience and my riding was anything but abysmal that weekend. Overall, it was a wild, fantastic ride. My only goal was going to the AECs, and I am beyond glad that we accomplished that. We were so ready for that show, and my only regrets are about our cross country round. I would love to have a second chance at that course. Since that's not a possibility, I'll just have to go again next year! :)

So, for 2010, our goals are:

Complete our first novice

Get rid of my dressage nerves

Get our very first 1st place win at a horse trial

Start doing real conditioning with Val

Fine-tune jumping/galloping positions

Do First Level Test I at a recognized dressage show

Do all the "scary" jumps- size appropriate trakehners, ditches, ditch and brush; bigger downbanks...

Have a tri-fecta show- do the best we can do in all three phases!

And, maybe, go to the AECs?

I'm really unsure about that last one. The AEC course for beginner novice was definitely a challenge- max height, interesting jump combos, interesting turns, a technically illegal mini-coffin... but, fortunately, we were ready. The novice course there was definitely something I would not have been able to do. I don't know if we'll have enough experience at novice and be comfortable enough at that level to go to a championship-level show this year. Heck, we might not even be able to qualify! So, I have no idea what will happen. My main goal for this year is to get everything to come together- I want to have at least one show were we do the best we can do in all three phases. I'm more concerned about that than anything else.

So, happy 2010, everyone!

New Years Revolutions

2010 is just 3 days away. Looking back, it's great to see how far we've come as a pair, but what's almost more amazing is how far Val has come in his training.

At the beginning of this year, Val had just your basic training- he was good walk, trot, canter, could jump simple courses, could round up most of the time, and had some adjustability of stride. He could do okay leg-yields and shoulder-ins. He was hardly ever hot and he was the type of horse you had to push for every stride, unless he was on cross country.

Change was gradual the first four months or so of the year and gradually built up to the last month's crescendo. Although I (unfortunately) haven't been blogging about it, we've gone through some radical adjustments to Val's training.

The first lesson with some really "new" stuff in it was maybe a month and a half ago. We worked on lengthening and collecting the canter and the beginnings of his working, collected, and extended canter. Pinching knees are starting to mean, "collect!" and a slightly driving seat combined with light leg aids, "lengthen!" Val's becoming fine-tuned! The change just in the last month has been incredible.

With our move up to Novice probable sometime this show season, there's one big weakness we needed to explore and fix- Val's sluggishness. About a month ago, we had a lesson that focused on what I like to call Val's "rocket launcher." We were essentially teaching him to go from 0 to 60 as fast and balanced as possible. He's great at it- he really uses his hind end and comes up in front. But even more amazing to me, he maintains the speed. My sluggish Val has finally found his motor!

At BN, the fences are small (no more than 2'7") and the optimum times are pretty generous. Most horses can easily make the XC and show jumping times. Novice is a speed increase of 50-100 mpm, up to 350-400 mpm cross-country. It becomes even more important that the horse have drive and impulsion from the hind end. Although we've only had time penalties because of refusals and other difficulties (more to come on that later!), and only at two competitions, we've mostly been closer to the slow side. I definitely think we can make novice time XC now.

Our biggest speed problem has always been in showjumping, though. Even though we've only gotten time penalties twice during showjumping, we were still prone to crawling around our courses last year. When you consider that the slower we go, the more my position deteriorates, it's a big problem. You can't have a nice jump without impulsion, which we were lacking in most if not all of our showjumping rounds last year. So, that's probably where our new-found speed will help the most!

We've been practicing stadium jumping at faster speeds. Going back to the rocket launcher metaphor, I like to imagine that I'm aiming a missile at the jump. I lock him on, and then we go; no sluggish oozing over fences.

One of the most interesting lessons we had lately involved a fake Weldon's Wall-like jump. There was maybe a 2' wide fake ditch (created with the use of a handy sheet) in front of a 2'9" vertical, and we were expected to jump it the first time as a part of a combination. After it, there was one stride to an oxer of similar height, then two strides to a skinny vertical. This quadrupled the difficulty- in order to get the two strides to the skinny, Val would need a forward-reaching, fairly fast stride from the very first fence.

I'm not too ashamed to mention I was feeling very nervous of that fake Wall. Whenever I'm nervous about whether or not Val will jump a fence, my first instinct is to get a nice, collected, fairly slow canter. Sure, it probably doesn't have the impulsion it needs to make jumping whatever it is easy, but that kind of canter also doesn't have the impulsion to launch me off my horse if he stops! I'd rather knock it down the first time then get dumped on top of it at speed. Not really a good idea if you're cross-country, though, and a dangerous frame of mind to be in at all. Our instructions were to jump it like a cross-country fence and get the striding right the first time.

So, we went right to it- Val's "new canter" has a totally different feel, and although I was nervous, I could still tell that he wasn't. He hardly even blinked at the strange-looking fence, and we got over that and the oxer just fine. We got over the skinny, but we took three strides in between. We continued to do the line over and over again, but eventually both Val and I were tired and we still hadn't gotten the 2 strides. My trainer jumped on and got 2 strides the first time: the current hypothesis is that I'm landing slightly too early after the jumps and nicking him in the back, making him reluctant to step out like he needed to to get the distance. We've started work on that, but we haven't yet tried to get a two stride again.


Despite that minor failure of the day, it was still an amazing lesson and I got to really feel a forward horse. He was happy to be going at a good clip and happy to be jumping, and I was happy to not have to constantly nag at him with my leg.

That lesson started Valerius' personal revolution. He's become a completely different horse in the past month; his dressage has improved exponentially from the added impulsion. I'm able to apply my aids much more selectively when I don't constantly need to nagnagnag for more, smoothing out the communication between us.

We've started serious work on haunches in and out, as well as shoulder in and out. The half-pass has even been experimented with at the walk, and it's all looking good! I now understand the idea of riding forward to the bit a lot better and our connection is better for it, although he was getting really fussy about taking contact for a few days. That's been mostly resolved. I love his new-found responsiveness more than anything; I can't even explain how incredible it is that he's changed so quickly.

While Valerius has mostly finished his impulsion revolution, I'm just beginning a fitness one. My general lack of fitness is just not acceptable anymore; I can't demand fighting fitness of my horse and not of myself. Fitness has always been an off-and-on battle with me. Although it's probably the most important thing I could do for my riding, I've never really devoted myself to it for more than a month at a time. This is the end of the road for that; I've made a fitness pledge to myself and my horse for the very last time. This time it will be fulfilled.

See you in 2010!

First Dressage Lesson in Ages

Oh, and were we ever rusty! But that's to be expected. Val felt pretty good, but he was stiff through his top line and locking his jaw on the right. My trainer got on him for about 10 minutes and presto-change-o, his back was swinging again and he was even in my hands when I got back on. We continued to work on asking him to come up to the outside rein, but he started locking his jaw on me again, which of course means it's something funky I'm doing him that's making him stiff.

We worked on a new exercise in shoulder-in that's very nifty. I will draw up a diagram when I have time, but a description will have to suffice for now. We would do shoulder-in down the long side from F to B, then do a trot lengthening from B to M. To sum up, shoulder-in from corner to middle letter, middle letter to opposite wall letter. My trainer says it really helps to get them to stay "together" in their lengthenings.

I also was nagging at the poor guy constantly with my heels, especially at the trot. Nag, nag, nag. My trainer "vocalizing" each nag helped me to stop, but the only way I was able to keep it from happening was to brace on my toe. I need more work on my foot position, but I did find a thought/image that helps me get my weight off the outside of my foot and more towards the inside: I imagined I was squishing a bug with my big toes! Gross, but it helped. Although that was causing my feet to want to make like flippers and stick straight out to the sides. Big sigh. With much finessing and straining, I could get my toes to point forward-ish and have my weight on my big toes. Yay! And now my heels need to go down more. Oh, the never-ending cycle!

So, my "homework" for the next few rides is:

1. Don't nag.
2. Keep him forward!
3. Re-establish bend. (We've gone from having way too much to having too little. Whoops!)
4. Make sure he's reaching forward to the contact and is even.
5. Start trying to react to what exactly he is doing and what needs fixing every day, instead of just following instructions.

Number 5 is definitely a long-term goal. The reason we went from having too much bend to having too little is because I was just following directions: asking for less bend every day, instead of realizing that Val was learning that I wanted a little less bend and was giving it. Oops!

So, lots of little things to work on. We also need to work on sitting trot if I'm going to do 1st level in the spring. I was also told that 3' jumpers is probably not quite do-able this winter; so I'll have to be happy with 2'6". I wish they had a 2'9" jumper class! Ah, well. Finally, I was informed that snow actually makes good footing, so long as there isn't ice underneath. The snowy trail-ride plan is a-go! Now we just need some snow...

A Relaxing Day/ Winter Contemplations

Val had another day off today. I went out this evening, and when I whistled to him while I was walking to his stall, he absolutely screamed at me, like, "Please come over here and feed me!" Silly boy. To his disappointment, I took him to one of the dry lots. I stayed in there with him, and just watched him for a while.

I think it's so interesting how they choose just the right spot to roll in. It can't be just any spot- it's got to be that one spot with the dirtiest dirt of all. I love that now that he's fit he can actually roll himself over- when we got him, he was too fat to get both sides!

When he was done rolling, he shook off the dirt, and I whistled to him. He walked over to me, poked me with his nose, and I rubbed his face a bit. Sweet boy. Then I went and cleaned his stall. When I was done, he got put back inside, and finally he got his dinner! He lives for that grain, I'm here to tell you. I wish I'd brought him an apple, though. I don't think I've filled the apple quotient for this week yet!

I'm really not sure how long he's going to be on this "reduced" schedule. I'm thinking at least two weeks, but I really hate to not ride every day for such a long period of time. I know he deserves his rest, though. He hasn't had a long break since we bought him; sure, he always gets at least one day a week off, but I think he needs the time to unwind a bit. So that's to be determined.

I've been thinking about this winter, and what I want my goals to be. My summer goal was to go to the AECs, and we managed that! I think I want to aim for doing a 3' jumper class, and getting him ready to go 1st level in the spring. Last winter, we did go to a few jumper shows, and we did the 2' and 2'6 class. I remember one trip where he was so charged up, it was hilarious. He was bouncing up and down with energy, practically. That didn't go so well!

There's two dressage shows in the spring, and we'll probably go to at least one. He's definitely ready to move out of training level, but we're not quite ready to show 1st level yet. We could probably do 1st 1 without make ourselves look foolish, but we'd massacre 1st 4! I think we can make a good push in our dressage over the winter.

I also need to practice braiding and pulling his mane. This should be more of a fall goal, though; that way I won't completely freeze my fingers off!

Finally, I want to take him on at least one trail ride in the snow. We did a very short one last year, but this time I want to go back on the actual trails. I think it'd be fun! Of course, we'd either take a cell phone or a friend with us. I love the snow, and he's always happy to go on a trail ride, so that should be fun. :)

Ahh, winter. I can't wait until the first snowfall! The first snow day where I get to go out and ride my horse on a school day. The first time the ponies get to go out and play in the snow. And of course, riding bareback to keep my bum warm! Winter is such a fun time of year.