Dressage Update

Hey!
Since my last post we took a day off then spent today working on our dressage which I can happily say is steadily improving. Actually, some HUGE leaps forward with only a few steps back. He carries himself very well in a forward working walk with his back feet stepping into his tracks if not stepping over them by an inch or sometimes more. I can move his shoulders apart from his neck with that apart from his hind quarters and then put them all back together to have a nice nose to tail bend. At the trot he is fairly consistent with traking up and maintaining the pace that I want. He is also giving to the bridle a lot more and allowing me to do what I want with his body which is good. Our work at the canter is still very.... um.... exciting. He will occasionally 'get it' and be soft/track up/ect but the rest of the time, you would think he has 5 legs. My dressage trainer got on him to work out his canter after I just couldn't make any headway with it. She told me later that she thought his canter was the strangest ever trying to work on a 20 meter circle. He just recently figured out how to canter anything but a straight line or wide turn without getting super unbalanced. I've figured out that figure-8s are the best way to remind him what he needs to do at any gait without risking a fight. I've tried to use them before but I didn't ride them correctly to get the reaction that I wanted.

So we're working and learning and poking around this new type of training with some success. We're going to start seriously working on the counter canter, trot lengthening, side passes and 10 meter circles once we get more consistency with his basic gaits. We've played around with these movements but mostly just adding them in when Jazz was having a good day, not walking in the arena with the intent to work on them. So far the counter canter is proving to be the mostly difficult for him to understand but after 7 years of people trying to drill auto-changes into his head when going across a diagonal or through a turn so I'm not surprised. He'll get it eventually with some more correct muscling, added impulsion, better balance and more schooling.

We'll get there sometime!!

Jumping Without Stirrups

Hey!
Well today I schooled Jazz over fences by myself which is kind of unusual for me but really fun. I don't particularly like jumping over 3' without a trainer but I wanted to work on some stuff before Pony Club Camp. My goals for this lesson was the school giving to the bridle/flexing (mostly on the flat but working to carry that over fences) and to confidently school 3'6" oxers (ramped and square).

Our flat work was pretty ok. Jazz was not really wanting to work, especially if it was working at the trot on dressage so I just made him do what I wanted before moving onto the canter. We did some flexing exercises at the canter to both sides (the right side is the stiffer one) before doing some more basic work with our counter canter. Jazz will canter a nice bouncy (not on the bit but we're working) 30-40 meter circle on the right lead tracking left. He's correctly bend into the circle but loses it and tries to swap leads if the circle gets any smaller. To the right (bent right on left lead) he cannot maintain a circle so we are just doing nice canters up and down the fence counter flexing to the right then straight then counter flexing to the right then straight. We've only schooled it a few times and he is already a lot better about giving in the jaw and poll but not quiet flexible and balanced enough to canter the large circles. We're a work in progress. : )

Anyway, after that I went into the jumping arena and began with some 2', 2'6" and 3' warm-up jumps. I then started jumping a 3' parallel oxer with a halt at the end. There was a just little more than 20 meters on each side of the oxer to work with so everything had to coordinate to keep from having a bad stop/run into the fence. So after jumping that for a bit we started a figure-8 over the jump just playing around and working on waiting for spots, going to spots and balanced turns. Then I decided to drop my stirrups. We schooled to 3' a couple times without stirrups before tying the reins in a knot and coming up to the jumps on a loose rein before dropping them a couple strides out. We did some jump exercises (no hands, playing with deep spots, ect). I ended up mostly scraping the requirement of completely balanced turns when I was giving up my reins to jump. He just had to stay well enough balanced (not totally on the forehand, not dropping his shoulder, ect) to get to the jump correctly. Eventually we worked our way up to 3'6" doing the same exercises. By the way, on a 15.2 thoroughbred that is super narrow, 3'6" is pretty big. We've done up to 4' but its big. My trainer came out at one point and checked my riding/Eq. before we moved up to 3'6" by the way.

So after one of our breaks we wen't back up to the fence (no reins, no stirrups, been riding for over an hour) and I let Jazz back off the jump when I didn't see a spot. Big oops. So he kind of jumped, kind refused and kind of landed on top of it. Sort of. He was fine and I checked him nose to tail and besides a small scrape on his nose he was just fine. For whatever reason, I had put on our thick neoprene XC boots instead of our leather jump boots so Jazz had a fair amount of leg protection. I reset the jump and we went at it again. This time when I didn't see a spot I foze in the saddle and Jazz made to correct decision to not go over the fence unbalanced with a non-functioning rider. So he refused/stepped out of it and we circled back to take it again. This time I put my leg on and went to the fence when I didn't see a spot. And we cleared it without a problem. We then jumped is 2-3 more times to make sure it was a good exeperience before quiting for the day.

I was pretty proud of him and am looking forward to camp next week! I also got some videos of the ride and put them together in a video. Here it is::

Swimming!

Hey! Well to start off, I'm trying to keep up with this blog a little bit better now that schools out. The only thing is that there is a delay between when I do things, write about them and when I post them (obviously) but I like writing using the word today when writing soooo that's just how it goes. Anyway, not that it really matters but I can't help but tell whoever might read this blog. Does anyone read it? I hope so but honestly, I just like being able to write and show pictures. So yeah.

Ok, today I went out to the barn and it was honestly 95 degrees. So I scraped any real training and decided to teach Jazz how to swim. Which kind of worked. I can ride him into water up to his belly but after that he gets worried and tries to bolt toward land. I got off and lead him into the water this time until he started to feel uncomfortable then let him stop and started splashing him with water until he stepped in a little bit more to follow me. We messed around for 30-45 minutes with him getting deeper and deeper until he needed to actually swim. Then he'd launch himself into the water, swim a circle around me and try to run back to shore. The circling around me was actually him getting worried and deciding to deal with that by coming toward me and me having to push him away.
He acts big but the second something happens that makes him even a touch uncertain, he has a bad habit of crowding my to stay confident that something isn't going to kill him. After 3 and a half years he trusts that I won't ever ask him to do anything that he can't do. Including swimming. So he kept comming in deeper and deeper as I asked him to which was really fun. Finally we concluded the day by swimming across the pond. Which is only about 25-30 meters wide bit gets deep enough in the middle that I (I'm 5'8") can't touch the bottom and Jazz actually has to swim.
Anyway, I kept asking him to go deeper until I pushed off the bottom and asked him to swim after me and he DID! I was super proud of him and as he swam past me I grabbed his mane and had him pull me across as I slid lightly onto his back. Once he could touch on the other side we walked then trotted out of the pond and with some big pats we galloped back to the barn.
I had some videos of him swimming around me but I can't get them to go from my dad's Blackberry and save to the computer. Hope to get something up soon!!!
Overall a very fun afternoon!
Bye!

Random Pictues

^^ Trail riding with Jazz

^^ This is from Show Jumping Rally. I don't particularly like this picture because my release isn't so hot. This was the first in a 2 stride combo so I was holding him for that. I'll leave it open for someone to guess what else is really wrong that lead to a hard/difficult landing.

^^ This is from Show Jumping Rally in the Equitation round I think. 3'3".

^^ This picture is from the Mateeba CT show. Its not the greatest jump but I still like it. 3'.

^^ This is also from the Mateeba CT show. Jazz just canters over 2'6".

Summer

This pictures shows a tiny bit of the ring, barn and pastures that we took the C-2 rating at. Jazz and I are on the right hanging out talking to the examiner. Here is a pic of us going cross country for the test:

Summer is finally here and wow, is this one going to be busy.

Recap of the last month: Jazz got a week long break after eventing rally because we had been training really hard all spring and he was getting a bit brain fried. He was still jumping and riding fine but he just didn't seem happy to be working. We then started back up to get ready for the C-2 rating that we found out about 2 weeks before the rating. After running through some more training and riding 6 days a week we passed the rating and Jazz got another week off. I just started back with easy riding 2 days ago and he seems happier after the break. He will come up to me in the pasture and stick his head in the halter instead of looking sullen and annoyed when I go out to get him. He even left his girlfriend who he is OBSESSED with to come find me in the barn. It was really exciting to know I had my happy-go-lucky horse back.

Here are some pictures of him hanging out in the pasture and in the barn. I went out to unpack the trailer, clean tack and check on Jazz twice during his week off and got some pictures on Saturday. Here they are:


Anyway, that has been our week! Next week, Jazz and I will be traveling to train at Pony Club Camp! Hope to have some more awesome times with friends this year!

C-2 Rating - Pony Club

Hey!
This past weekend my mom and I traveled 6 hours (each way) to a beautiful town to complete my C-2 rating for Pony Club. It was a great experience and has opened more than a few doors with with riding which I am very very excited about.

These are the basic expectations for the C-2
RIDING TEST EXPECTATIONS: Candidate should ride with confidence and control on the flat and over fences, demonstrating
a secure balanced position and progress toward an independent seat and coordinated use of aids. The candidate should begin to
initiate free forward movement establishing balance and rhythm while developing a light contact.
HORSE MANAGEMENT EXPECTATIONS: The candidate should show a solid awareness of cause and effect in horse
management skills. Assistance/supervision is allowed in the demonstration of bandaging, longeing, and loading mount.
The full test is here: http://ponyclub.org/files/bin/3524

Anyway, I was suppose to take this in December but several factors (horse injury, lack of experience in XC and dressage, lack of confidence) made we wait until the spring to go for the test. The only issue with that is that all the clubs in my area were not having a C-2 rating because the girls that were ready had moved up in the winter! So with some major help from the amazing woman in charge of ratings, I got a date. 2 weeks before my rating was take place. In a different state, with a club I didn't know, on a weekend in the middle of exams. Jazz and I have trained our butts off this spring in dressage and XC so I was hoping everything would pay off.

We had a smooth ride up and stayed over in a GORGEOUS barn and woke up bright and early to begin the rating. It started formal inspection, checking of bandages and going over common unsoundnesses. Formals went well, bandages were great, and I almost got through the unsoundnesses without an issue. I couldn't describe navicular well enough for the examiner. I could see what I wanted to say and show but it just wasn't coming across. Thankfully, splints, sidebone, ringbone, curb, thoroughpin and a trick spavin question came across perfectly. Everything met standard. Then came the mounted portion.

I was BAD sick during the rating so my riding was just average but thankfully all our work paid off and average for us was more than enough to meet the standard for all the riding. The examiner had some helpful critiques that will help us with our riding on the whole. Everything met standard for this part too. The unmounted went alright with a couple mis-steps in wording that caused a little issue. One of the people rating up had had a tough time with the mounted and was super uptight. He knew all the answers and was determined to show he was a good C-2 so whenever I mis-spoke or paused to think he jumped on my answer before I could say it. That happened once or twice and I guess the examiner say what was happening and gave me an extra question to answer so I could show what I knew. I met standard in all the unmounted portions and EXCEEDED standard in my Record Book. I put over 15 hours of work into perfecting that book and was super happy that that work was being rewareded.

SO I PASSED!!!!!!! YAY!

After the test, I talked to the examiner for a bit and we are trying to work a few things out that could really help Jazz and I and allow us to progress. Can't really say much right now though!

Either way, this rating is out of the way and I'm signed up to take the H-B in September!!!

I'll keep this blog posted (hopefully more often) with our going-ons in training, PC camp, Nationals and everything else!

BYE!