New lead line rider!

Well, my sister decided to interrupt everyone's weekend plans and have her baby 6 WEEKS early on Monday. Causing my family to spin into chaos and exhaustion.

She had been in the hospital for a few days because they suspected her water ruptured. They were trying to keep the baby put as long as possible, but apparently after her ultrasound on Monday it was discovered that the baby was in distress and they yanked her out right away via c-section.

(I saw the video and did not vomit. Go me! But I am telling you, the last time I saw that much amniotic fluid spray out of someone was the last time I saw a HORSE foal. The medical name for this is polyhydraminos. In horses, we call this a "water baby" and they typically do not do well. Which is why my sister's baby was delivered early before damage was done)

5 pounder

I got a simple text from my dad on Monday that my sis was having her baby. I was literally in the middle of collecting poop samples for fecal tests when the text came in.

Man, talk about feeling like the loser daughter.

Oh, what did you sister do today? Gave birth to another human being.
And what did you do today, Karen? Oh, rooted around in shit.

But the good news is that the baby (Anna) seems fine, although she did spend a day on the vent and of course needs a little support for the time being in the NICU. My sister is tired, but is doing well. My parents are exhausted as they have been in charge of my other niece, a wild monster of a 3 year old. At one point they requested I take the toddler around the block and "lunge her like I do to make the horses behave," hahaha. Oh dear.

How many ponies do you want, Anna?
Five? ok!

I can't visit or hold the new addition yet (NICU restrictions), but hopefully she will be home in no time.

Guess this means Hampton now has TWO lead line and Junior riders for the future!

Better get him broke.

Sit DOWN, Felicia!

This is supposedly a flying change.
(From 2015)

Before I do the second day of my freestyle clinic, I must brag on my horse.

Boy do I wish I had video of the hot mess that has been flying changes for an embarrassing number of years. Perhaps then would you really get an idea of how far Hampton has come.

The only thing I could find was this line of tempis (no count required) in 4-1. No, neither one of us is drunk. Maybe I should have been.



I mentioned in my last post about how this clinician was ... "doubtful" about our abilities to do her choreography. Well, Sunday morning we brought a better game to the table. The pirouettes are still a struggle, but that's ok I have time to clean those up.

What was most impressive is how Hampton was pumping out 4 tempis like it was ain't no thang!

Important detail: I had a headset on that provided 2-way communication between myself and the clinician. Way easier than shouting over music.

As we were testing out some patterns, she told me to do four 4-tempis down the long side. Then she said, "You probably won't make it happen today" in this sort of snarky tone.

Well, here's what happened:



As I hit the end of the line, I said sort of under my breath "Yeah, sit DOWN, Felicia." ... then quickly remembered I had a mic right by my mouth!!! I don't think she knew what that meant. She probably just thought my horse's name was Felicia.

I kept my mouth shut the rest of the ride. ha.

He still swings his haunches some, and I REALLY need to quiet down my aids now that he doesn't need so much help. But holy crap, CLEAN, on my aids, straight enough for the ring!

#neverthelessshepersisted

The Making of a Freestyle Part 3: Choosing music

Ok one of us was sleepy, the other was wide awake.

Hampton and I drug our sleepy selves to Lexington Saturday and Sunday morning for a freestyle clinic. It's a lady who frequently does freestyles in the area. I was really curious as to how she puts these together.

Plus, I can't turn down an opportunity to ride in Lexington. Every farm I have been to there has been lovely. This one was particularly ridiculous.

You pull up to a gate that magically opens for you.

House.

Front of the bigger barn
(yes that's a BARN)

Back of the barn

It was originally built and owned by the Chanels (yes, THOSE Chanels) who apparently had daughters who did the show jumpers. When they lost interest, they sold the farm. It's now for sale again ($3,750,000!!!!), and a dressage trainer leases the arena and a smaller barn, and I'm not sure who leases out the rest. Fields were full of retirees, broodmares and some young horses. Probably Thoroughbreds. Absolutely gorgeous farm.

Indoor arena

Day 1 consisted of music selection.

I requested Talking Heads, or any 80s funk. She had some 80s music, but pretty much ignored my request for funk. I thought that's fine, she's the pro. I can roll with it.

She has literally 8000+ songs on her computer, and had be trot and canter around until she found songs that worked for each gait (and walk of course). It really did not take us too long to find 3 songs that worked rather well with Hampton, I must admit. Even though I would not have selected these songs for my own inspiration.

Lexington Horse farms are UNREAL. This was neighboring farm Donamire
(has a work track surround this barn)

Another shot of Donamire

A couple of songs I requested she would not let me use because another client of hers in the area was using it. This I do understand and respect her for that.

Walk: Landslide (Stevie Nicks)
Trot: Sail Away (Styx)
Canter: .... some current pop song that's always on the radio but I can't remember the name of! lol

After we selected the songs, she again had me trot and canter while she adjusted the tracks to the tempo of Hampton. Not much adjustment was needed, just little tweaks. Obviously if you don't have the software, you can't really do this. So you would need to find a song that matched right off the bat in it's original state.

We started some canter choreography at the end, and Hamp and I were sort of a hot mess. We stood around for 20 min talking, and then she immediately had me pick up, do a canter zig zag, to 10m counter canter circle to a fucking half pirouette. I felt that was a little unfair and it was a borderline disaster. Ooops.

C'mon. Someone pony up the $4M and buy me this farm.

I wasn't super impressed with the attitude that we were "not capable" of the movements she wanted to include. I was mildly insulted, and told her we were green 4th level and my plan was to "grow into" this freestyle over the summer. Obviously I would not let us be overfaced. It will be June at the earliest that I will be showing it anyway.

Admittedly, I left a little perturbed but shook it off and really did have a good time hacking around to loud music! Hamps worked great and is feeling fresh these days.

After dropping Hamp back off in Louisville, I went to work until 115 am. With my alarm set for 530 am on Sunday to do it all again. The things we do for these horses!

To be continued ....

Blog Hop: Barn Bathrooms

I stole this blog hop from L over at Viva Carlos, who nabbed it from someone else I think ...

but anyway.

What is the bathroom at your barn like?

After a long, tiring day at the barn - you can waltz into our bathroom and have your pick of either a sauna, or Jacuzzi to help your aching muscles.

Of course there is a view of gorgeous grazing horses, as well as a saltwater aquarium in the bathroom for those who like sea creatures.

Of course there are squeaky clean toilets, cleaned hourly by our cabana boy.

Our cabana boy. His name is Milo. He carries my saddle for me, too.

We also have bidets to wash your swamp ass from breeches on hot days. Ahhhhhh. Cabana boy feeds you grapes and massages your feet at any time.

View of one of the pastures.

There is also a large shower if you don't have time for the hot tub. (Cabana boy will shower with you upon request and for a nominal fee)

The shower.

........

Yeah.

Actually, this is our bathroom:

Lessons. Inspiration. Information.

Handsome horse. Nerd rider.

The schooling show was just the first of several adventures I have planned for March.

Next up - making the 3-hour drive to Indiana for a couple of lessons with my old coach at FHF. I love my coach here in KY, but there is just something about going home to the place that made you fall in love with dressage.

I came with specific requests. I need help developing the canter piros, and I need more polish on the changes.

I left with a TON of information to process. Much improved piros, changes, half steps and a handful of big lightbulb moments. I'm trying to process all I learned the past two days. So, I apologize if this is a bit scattered.

Hampton was a super star. I mean, he could not have been better. Hauled like a champ, and was butter in our lessons. Dare I say it, but the past two days he was an FEI horse. The trick is getting that Hampton in the show ring!

Want a levade lady? I can do that, too.

Canter pirouettes

•  I was coming in too hot. J had me break down the piros into different levels of canter. For example, a 3 canter is a normal working canter. a 2.25 is almost piro canter. A 2 is super collected piro canter. (I didn't ask what a 1 was. Ha). So we would start on a 20m circle. Produce a 3 canter, then 2.75, then bring it down to a 2.50, then let him back out to a 2.75 then bring him back down, in increments, until you have your piro canter, and turn. Go back out in increments, no rocket launching out.

•  From now on, it is ILLEGAL for Hampton to stop and/or change leads in the canter piros. If he stops, he is to immediately resume collected canter. NOT gallop out - because that is a reward. He cannot stop, change leads, or learn he can gallop out.
  
• In turn, I have to be quiet, soft and not surprise him (like canter, ok now collect and TURN!!). It has to be methodical, steady.
  
•  After a good canter piro, CANTER OUT. Do not immediately walk or trot to reward the horse. That is starting a bad habit. Canter out, then find a place to walk or trot or whatever.
  
• After I had control of the canter a little better, J stood in the center of my circle and said, "Ok - make a pirouette around me."  Then she held up her hand. "Advance his hid leg to my hand." .. BOOM. Pirouette. Yes, it needs to come down to be smaller but we had it.
  
•  Do thousands of diagonals with canter pirouettes placed where you want them. 

Pictured: The tall boots that make my feet go numb and left sores on the backs
of my knees. Tried to break them on some more. Now have bleeding sores.

Transitions

•  During any transition, if you do not feel like you can promptly ride back out at any time, do not do the transition.
  
• Forward and back is your friend. J encouraged me to do more transitions within the gait, as my warm up consisted mostly of trot/halts. She said it appeared it was making him more on the forehand, so I need to stay within the gait and instead do forward/back. Like, live in it. 

Half steps

Changes

•  If your horse starts to feel fragile, or trigger happy, move his body parts around. Do not accept that fragile feeling. You all know what I am talking about. When the horse says, "Oh touch me, I dare you. I'll swap leads! Or buck!! or something!". No. Move the shoulders, move the neck, put your legs on. Ride the horse, don't accept that feeling.
• Ride half pass to centerline, then straighten on the diagonal - then change. This produced LOVELY changes for us.
• Ride mini-leg yields in between tempis. This exercises was a major lightbulb. Not only did it produce expressive, clean changes, but I felt I had control. Yes, you wiggle a little on your line - but it's YOUR idea, not the horse's. As I polish this up, I will only need the idea of leg yield. Example, starting on the right lead on the diagonal: Leg yield to the right - change - leg yield left - change - rinse and repeat. 

Not from the FHF lessons but still a nice change.

Whew. So much to absorb!

We also played a bit with half steps, and general quality of his show trot.

After making it safely home, Hamps promptly grabbed some grass and rolled. He was such a good boy. Can't wait to work on this homework!

Ahhhhh nice warm KY grass!

HIS FACE. Look at it.

The value of schooling shows

The wild stallion himself.

First show of 2017 is in the books!

Little schooling shows are so valuable for a number of reasons. For example:

1. You get to wrestle through new tests and see exactly what places are going to slam you.

2. You find out that somehow, over the winter, you calf got larger (was it the running or the cookie dough?). After spending 10 minutes cussing, sweating and pulling - you get your boot zipped. Only to have your ENTIRE LEG go numb during warm up.

3. You forget things. Like, your whip. So have to ride your kind of lazy horse through TWO fourth level tests with no whip.

4. You realize you need to run more.

5. But your horse is awesome.

___

So the longer version!

Hamps and I just did a day trip to the Kentucky Horse Park on Saturday. Our classes were at the end of the day, so I got to take my time. It is such a stark contrast being at the KHP when it is pretty much empty, in caparison to, say, Rolex weekend. In fact I parked the rig right next to my stall. Super nice!

The only problem with this show, is that they rent the crappy covered arena and one crappy warm up. I swear these are the only two rings on the property with shit footing. Half of the outdoor was deep, wet sand that you couldn't even ride through. The second warmup is so small that it's difficult even for a Training level horse to warm up in, much less anyone else.

Show arena

But we did our best in any case. Hamps warmed up like a champ. He was attentive, sharp, forward and very very willing. He was in a really good mood! He seemed happy to be on an adventure!

Our first test, 4-1, was pretty good. I am a little rusty in the arena, and the footing was causing Hamp to trip some - so I did lose some engagement and push from behind in places. There were a few moments where he lost energy, too. But overall pretty good for our first test since July. The judge rewarded us with a nice 64+% ... including an 8 on the left trot half pass!!!! Who would have EVER thought?! Lots of 7s, some 6s and a few 5s where we really lost energy and engagement. She is known as a fair, but not overly generous judge so I was pleased!

Before our 4-3 test, I took a little stroll around the park. We snooped around the Rolex arena, and also over to the Hall of Champions where WGC Bono was out grazing. It was a lovely, sunny but cool day. I decided Hamp really didn't need another full warm up. He was being so good.

Bucket list: To show in the Rolex arena some day!

WGC Bono enjoying retirement in the hall of champions

So right before 4-3, I quickly schooled the piros and a couple of canter-halts for our centerline. I won't be doing that again, that was a mistake.

So the test started out great. We can nail the trot work. But once the canter tour started, I knew I might be in trouble. He was behind the leg from the start and there are several movements before you get to do an extended canter. He stopped dead during one of the counter canter 10m circles, stopped dead in BOTH piros, and by the time we got to the tempis, he was WAY behind the leg and downhill, so those were a hot mess of late changes. I must have muttered "fuuuuuck" under my breath 10 times. And with no whip to "tap tap HELLO!" him with .... I had to flat out pony club kick him a couple of times. Because half halts don't work unless you have energy to back it up with!  At least I didn't freeze and hope things got better. (my usual reaction)

Not sure if we were supposed to be over here ....

So yeah, we rode the struggle bus in 4-3. But our good moments were really good, and we still scraped up a 60.7% for our first, rather ugly, attempt at this very difficult test. I suspect he was just starting to get tired and I really wasn't much help. He otherwise was very obedient. I think the stopping was a result of my schooling canter-halts too much in the warmup. So we had some miscommunication there.

Walking back to the barns.

Overall I am very very happy with our first outing of the year! I could not be more pleased with his attitude and willingness. We are just green at the level, and we have until the end of April to make things better for our rated debut.

Plus, once I can nail 4-3 .... out comes the shadbelly.

The Highest Compliment

Adventures are fun!

On Tuesday I had a wonderful opportunity to join a barn friend for a lesson with a local horseman, Lester Buckley. I had not heard of him before, but my friend talked highly of him and said not only was he an excellent "natural horsemanship type," but was also quite knowledgeable in dressage, show jumping, cutting and other sports. He was a "no judgement" type, and respects all horses.

I wanted to work on Hampton's spooking issues - which certainly are not bad, but can get annoying and really bite me in the ass in the ring. He goes "off the grid" and all my aids stop working. I was curious to see if Lester had any advice.

Mr. Cowboy I would like help with my wild stallion please.

So I tossed Porkchop on the trailer and we made the 20 min drive.

It was an absolutely lovely, adorable ranch with plenty of pasture, dry lots, an indoor, outdoor, round pen and trails.

Hamps has not been off the farm since October, so I just assumed he would be lively and up for this trip and hopefully spooky so Lester could help me work through that.

Remember this test when Hampton spooked at the judge,
so I put my inside leg on and he reacted by bucking?

... you probably know where this is going.

Hampton stepped off the trailer like a dead broke kids pony. Stood nicely to be tacked up, and sauntered into the indoor area as if he has been here 50 times.

sigh. Figures.

I am sure Lester must have thought I was crazy as I explained our occasional spooking problems. Meanwhile, Hampton is quietly standing by me basically half asleep.

But Lester started right in with some basic exercises I could use to settle Hampton should he ever be in a more ... exuberant .. mood. Lester uses very methodical, fair exercises to help quiet the horse's mind, and give them a safe space to come to when they are afraid or nervous.

After some ground work, I got on and we went through some suppling exercises (basics are all the same, people). The last half of the lesson we went up to the outdoor and Hamps suddenly had more energy! Yay! Maybe he will spook!

No.

There were even cows. COWS. In the distance. Hamps looked, but never really got tight even. But Lester was great in guiding me through even the mild looking.

After the lesson, I let him graze for a good hour and he thought
IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER.

His theory is, let the horse look. So he knows he is safe, but then "Ok, come back to me." Even if it just for a second, reward - give the horse a "paycheck" - and continue with work. Repeat repeat repeat. This respects the horse's instincts, lets him look and continue to move, and then rewards him for coming mentally back to you.

Certainly worked better for me than trying to override the horse by not letting him look, or "making him listen" that I am pretty guilty of.

Somebody else, who will remain nameless, can also benefit
from Lester's theories.

Basically his theories all revolve around bending the ribcage. Say you have a horse who is tight, looking, maybe feels like a bomb. Instead of freezing, taking your leg off and hoping for the best (GUILTY right here), start doing figure 8s, serpentines, asking the horse to walk on 3 tracks. This makes YOU keep your leg on, because you are hugging him with alternating legs as you change direction. It gives the horse something else to focus on. And it gives the horse is safe place. "Oh, remember that pattern we do at home? Well we are going to do that now." Always keep the horse's eyes tilted at the scary object. Never let the object get into their blind spots.

Make everything your idea. Say your horse snorts and bravely walks up to a scary object. In that moment, YOU turn him around and walk away. Re-approach again after some figure 8s. Make it your idea. That way the horse always thinks "Ok, there are no surprises and she will always keep me safe. I am not forced to face this."

Eventually, when you get in the ring, you should only have to hug that inside leg, and ask for a little inside bend, and maybe even do a tiny little serpentine - like inches - and the horse will come back to you. That's what is supposed to happen anyway. Easier said than done.

A relaxed Porkchop.

But I plan to use these concepts more in daily work. So should Hampton find something offensive in a show arena, there will already be a base of trust, and safety, and perhaps it won't be so dramatic. Like the time he can to a screeeeeching halt in the middle the dressage ring when we were supposed be doing shoulder-in? Yeah.

Back to the title of this post. Lester paid me one of the highest compliments I have ever received.

He said, "You have a really nice working partner in your horse. He isn't submissive like so many dressage horses. His ears are up, moving around. He has this youthful look on his face like he enjoys his work."

I mean wow. I would much rather have a horse who is interested, happy, than one who "assumes the position" with constant sideways ears, working to get it over with. Granted, he does get those focused airplane ears when he is really concentrating, as they all do, but I knew what he was trying to say.

He also called Hampton clever, safe, gentle and a really nice horse.

That I already knew. :)