Jon Holling - Saturday and Sunday

Thankfully, Saturday didn't have to be an incredibly early day, since Tango and I didn't ride until 1:30. I got up to the barn at 8 and gave him a much needed bath, packed the trailer and left by 10. It actually wasn't a terrible drive up, we didn't hit any traffic... even at the tolls. I rolled into Greenwood farm at about 12:30, put Tango into his stall, gave him water, got changed and started tacking up. Our warm-up went well for the first few minutes, but by the time all five of us were in the ring, he was starting to get bottled up and nervous. Jon started the clinic with us working through a grid. It was ultimately a grid with 5 one-strides, but he built it up slowly. We began with three trot poles, which Tango refused to trot over. It then turned into pole, x-rail, pole... which he bombed through. By the time we hit two jumps, Jon was actually walking in front of us as we came into the line to try to get him to back off and slow down! It sort of worked, but he still wasn't being very good. Once the fourth jump went up, I was SURE he would back off a little bit, but I was sorely mistaken. Oh well. After we had gone through the full line a few times we moved on to a little line. Jon told us that it was made to be five strides, but he didn't care if it was five or six, as long as we knew what we got. At first, they were just simple poles on the ground and the goal was to quietly get our strides. Once again, Tango had other plans and insisted on trying to charge the poles and bolt down the line... we ultimately got a semi-controlled 5 strides down it before jon put the jumps in.
While the two lovely, quiet horses got to canter into the line, Tango and two other horses were made to trot in. I think that we managed at least one decent trip through, but he was terribly unrideable for the most part. It was at least nice to hear Jon tell me I rode it well, despite Tango trying to run away with me before during and after the line. With the line (basically) conquered, we moved on to corner fences! This was a big deal for my little guy, who's never seen anything like it. They were very small... probably about 2 feet... but they were still corners. We started with just one, which Tango jumped pretty well, and then added another. The first time we jumped through was going away from the barn, so I actually had a pretty decent ride. He jumped into the line HUGE, barely made the three strides and then launched out over the second... I ended up slipping my reins and almost riding the second like a drop, since I wasn't entirely sure we would make it over at first. To my delight, Jon told me that I had ridden it really well, especially considering how aggressive Tango had been (aggressive, NOT wild or stupid, yay!). We tried it again and had a lovely line.
The last part of the day was a course. We did the grid, made a hard left, came around to the 5 stride line, rolled back to the verticle in the line and then came over the corner line, this time towards home. Our first time down the corner line didn't go very well. He charged in and I didn't quite have him in control, let him drift right and ended up with a run-out at the second. The next time through was the same problem. Jon then had us take the second one by itself and then come around to try the whole thing. That time, we had a very nice ride through. A good way to end the day!
Tango got a nice wash-down and grazing time while we watched the last group go. After the last group was finished, I gave him his dinner and set off to find my hotel and get some dinner of my own. Around 7:30 I headed back out to the barn to check on Tango one last time. I wrapped his front legs (the left front, where he stuck it through the fence, always seems a little puffy now), brushed him and left him alone for the night.
The next morning I got to the barn around 6:15. No one was around yet, so I decided to wait on feeding Tango until the rest of his barn got fed. He wound up with breakfast at about 6:45... I unwrapped him and was pleased to see that his legs looked great. All that finished, I helped Jeanie - who had set the clinic up - remove all the jumps from the ring so that she could drag it and then headed to the truck to eat my Dunkin Donuts breakfast. As I was sitting there, a trailer began pulling up the driveway. I thought the truck looked familiar, and it turned out to be Stephie! Very exciting! She was riding Merk in the first group of the day, so I helped her tack up and then settled in to watch her. Merk looks GREAT. She was jumping REALLY well.
I watched the next couple of groups, too, and at about 11 I took Tango out for a walk/some grass. We were riding at noon, so he had a good half hour of wandering around and eating before I started tacking him up. Our group was only three riders, so it was really nice. He actually warmed up pretty well... much quieter than he had been the day before... but that didn't last long. Jon started the day with cantering poles. There was a four stride line and a three stride line. Again, he didn't care if we got more (or even if we got less, since we were on green horses), he just wanted us to know what we got and keep a good rhythm. Well, the minute I asked for canter, Tango started flying sideways and trying to bolt. When I finally got him at least pointed towards the first line of poles, he got totally inverted and took off down the line. NOT a good way to start the day. We then made our way to the next line with similar results. I think it took us five or six tries before he was even marginally rideable. At one point, he sort of tripped over or kicked one of the poles and then very nearly bucked me off because he was pissed off about stepping on the pole. Jon's response to that was "Don't worry about it, that's his own problem for running the pole over." Next was a pole on the diagonal to another pole, five strides to an oxer. Tango got over the pole and then tried to make a bid for the oxer... I took a tug and made him add another stride, to which he responded by taking off bucking after the oxer. Jon laughingly remarked that "He's got an opinion about everything!" Yup... that's my boy. He told me that when he gets all worked up about these things I should just try to ignore it, but also be strict with him by letting him know that what he's doing is wrong... basically it just comes down to NOT getting frustrated with him. He also said that I had done well not to get upset with him, because it would have been easy to do over the weekend.
I'm not sure what exactly changed after that, but suddenly Tango's brain switched back on and the rest of the lesson went REALLY well. I really started to feel like I could put my leg on and ride him more forward. The course had a lot of tight turns, a triple and a bounce... I was really really thrilled about his performance. He was back in hand pretty quickly after the fences, and able to make the turns without circling. One thing I do have to be careful of is not getting him "stuck" in his canter when we go around the turns (especially the tight ones). The turn to the bounce was really tight, and our first time through he got way too up and down and totally lost the engine, but the second time I rode him more forward and we got a much nicer canter into the bounce.
All in all it was a great weekend for both of us. I was really pleased with Tango's performance on Sunday, and even more pleased to see that he was still really fresh when I got him home.. he took off galloping around his paddock as soon as I let him out!
We were supposed to be having a lesson with Nancy today, but I guess she forgot that she was going away, so that didn't happen. We'll get there eventually!
I really wish I had photos from this weekend, but sadly, I brought my camera and forgot my camera charger, so the camera was dead. Oh well!
We learned a lot and had a blast... Jon is an excellent teacher and I can't wait until he comes around again!

Jon Holling

We survived! I'll post more later, because I'm currently about to be late for work, but the little boy and I got through the clinic unscathed. He was absolutely wild and sort of frustrating, but Jon helped us through it and I had him going pretty well by the end of the second day. He got lots of pats and I look forward to riding with Jon again.
more later!

Clinic Preps... continued

Two more days until Jon Holling! I'm praying that the weather hold out so that we can XC school... it's looking good so far, but New England is pretty unreliable in that department. It's hard to believe it's already July... before I know it I'll be back in school. I just filled out my entry form for Kent... now I just need to write out the check, get it in the mail and hope they arent full. fingers crossed!
we've got a flat lesson tonight with Jen, which I felt was much-needed after last night's ride. We pretty much spent an entire hour arguing. Sometimes I forget about the fact that he's still only six and green.
I've put together my "Clinic Checklist" and have already begun getting my stuff together.. but I seem to have lost my flat back buckets... I have no idea where they may have gone, but it's really frustrating.
plan for the next couple of days:
today: flat lesson
tomorrow: easy hack
saturday: leave at 10AM for clinic - show jumping with Jon!
sunday: XC school with Jon or more show jumping if the weather is crappy.

yikes! well, I'm off to go to work and fret about the upcoming weekend.

Clinic Preps

This weekend is the Jon Holling clinic up in Sherborn, MA and while I'm excited about it, I am also nervous nervous nervous. We're going to be in the "Soft Novice" group as opposed to the other novice group, which is "Novice/Training" and DEFINATELY not us!!
This past week was a bit of a waste, and he had a LOT more time off than I wanted him to, but I'm not too worried. Last Monday (the 29th) I walked into the barn to find that his front left was all scraped up. It was hot and fat and he was head bobbing lame on it... GREAT! We were scheduled to truck down to Nancy's the next day, but that was not looking likely, so I called to leave her a message that my horse is an idiot and we might not be sound tomorrow. I cleaned the scrapes (Luckily that's all they were) and deduced that he had probably stuck his foot through the fence. After the scrapes were cleaned, I put ice on the leg for about 20 minutes and then poulticed it for the night, hoping maybe it would be magically better in the morning.
Needless to say, it WASN'T magically better in the morning... it was still hot and still fat. He WAS, however, sound on it, which made me extremely happy. We missed the lesson, and I re-iced/re-poulticed and took him for a hand-walk. I went back that evening to take the poultice off, put more ice on and re-bandage. Luckily, it was looking a lot better. By wednesday the swelling had gone down quite a bit and he was still sound, so I elected to do a little flat work. Thursday, I showed up ready to really put him to work and discovered that he had ripped that left front shoe off. Our farrier, being the WONDERFUL person that he is, came out within an HOUR of me calling him in a panic and fixed the problem, but I had run out of light for riding. Friday we did more flat work, but it was kind of an awful ride... neither of us was in sync. He was tense and pissy and I was impatient. After forty minutes of arguing and not getting much accomplished, I finally just had him do some stretchy work, which he loves, and called it a day.
Speaking of stretchy, I am really excited about how great he's doing with that. He really takes the contact down and stays engaged behind now, so I really feel like we're improving from the stretch work now.
Saturday we had a lesson with Jen, which wound up being somewhere around an hour and a half long. We spent about an hour on flat work, drilling transitions and working on lateral movement a bit. I really feel like he's starting to GET the transitions up and down, but I also feel like I need to help him out a little more. His trot work is really improving... he is more consistantly forward and has become easier to ride at in terms of asking for more trot. His canter is, as always, a work in progress... he has a pretty good canter naturally, but I never feel like it's as good as it could be. We're getting there... he's more forward than he used to be, at least. After working on the flat, we did a little jumping. Jen set up a 9' bounce and we continued working our transitions before/after it to get him more uphill. Eventually, she shortened the distance a little, and I really felt the quality of his gaits improve through the exercise... he was responsive, up in front and jumping in great form by the end. Now we just need to get him a little more careful over smaller jumps! He jumps very correctly most of the time, and uses himself well, but he sometimes gets lazy... especially when the jumps are small and/or plain.
I'll post more later (or after the clinic, if I don't find time before then!).