Keep Calm and Carry On.

It's funny. I don't think of Dee as being a particularly difficult horse to ride. I mean, yes, she is forward to the jumps, but she doesn't ever make me nervous... maybe because I've ridden some horses who can be truly scary over the fences when they "make a bid" (Elvis, Roo, Dusty...even Tango at the clinic...). I may try to push myself this week... put the fences up a bit and see how she does over a course. I only hesitate because even after little fences I have some trouble with my back, but I kind of want to see what she's like.
I had someone try her out yesterday, and was really surprised at Dee's behavior over fences. She was WILD. As soon as she saw the fences, she would stick her head in the air, throw her weight off to one side and start doing that hollow-backed canter that no one ever wants their horse to do because you feel out of control when they do it. The she would leap over the fence like a jack-rabbit and take-off. She even threw a buck after a few of the fences, which is VERY uncharacteristic. I mean, I love jumping her now because I feel safe with her... I would never expect her to act like such a wild beast. And who knows, maybe she doesn't act like a wild beast with me because I expect her not to and don't ride her like a runaway. Maybe it's just because from my experience with Dusty, I learned that the more you clamp down on a hot horse while you're jumping, the bigger the mess ends up being. Hell, I made Dusty a crazy mess for awhile there until Jen got me to stop riding backwards.
Tango also helped me with riding a runaway when I took him to the Jon Holling clinic. With him, it was a little different, because he wasn't running because I was riding backwards... he was just being as ass. Jon helped me realize that if you keep a cool head and just quietly deal with whatever the horse is doing, it will eventually get better. The key was not making it a big deal... just make little corrections so the horse knows what is happening is unacceptable, but other than that, keep yourself calm and carry on.

Counting Down

I only have about 4 weeks until I leave for Tennessee, and I'm starting to panic because no one seems interested in either leasing or buying Dee baby. I don't actually want to sell her, so I guess I'm glad no one wants to buy her, but I desperately need to find someone interested in a free lease. I mean, she's such a good girl now! Who wouldn't want to play with her for 3 years!? Anyway, I'm not sure who reads this blog, but if anyone reading happens to know anyone who might be interested, please please please pass the info along! My e-mail is amy.bergamo@gmail.com, and I'd be happy to address specific details through that (where exactly she's living, my cell # to discuss her further, etc) To be vague, she's currently in Woodbury, CT.

Anyway. We had a fabulous jump school yesterday. We did lots of different gymnastic-esque exercises. One strides galore, a double bounce to a one stride, etc etc. The first time she did the bounce to one stride, we had the out set up as a little cross rail. Well, that's not very challenging, mom! So I'm just going to flatten out and skid over the top of it, dragging my toes and not even bothering to acknowledge that it's there. Solution? Crank up the height. With the bigger vertical, she actually bothered to look and balance and jump nicely. I have to say, when the fences get higher, she's got a big, fun jump to her. It sort of reminds me of Tango, but a little less of the back-cracking, jump you totally out of the tack style that he did so well. With her, you can feel the power, and it is a big effort, but I don't feel like I need to hang on for dear life like I did a lot of the time with Tango. She's a bit more comfortable in that department. The only downer of the day was that by the end of the school, my back was so exhausted that over the last combination, the most I could do was bury my hands in her mane to keep myself propped up. I mean, we did do a lot of jumping, but it was still frustrating.

On the flat work front, she's been doing fairly well. The canter work has been especially promising. These days, she's actually been coming up in front and carrying herself a bit instead of trying to pile drive her withers into the dirt. Can she hold it for long? No. She can make one trip around the whole arena, and maybe a circle afterward before she starts falling forward. But it's progress! I can only assume as she gets stronger that will get easier.

On the not-my-horse front, we got two new stallions in at B's this week. They are drop-dead gorgeous. I also had my first solo baby handling yesterday, and he was a very good little guy. I was especially impressed since as I was moving him from one pasture to another, I had Rascal screaming and freaking out that I was taking his baby friend away and I had the new stallions inside sqwaking about who knows what. He didn't even bat a little eyelash at the commotion... just ambled along to the other paddock. Very cute.

Ok, now that it's raining, I suppose I should get away from the computer and go ride before it starts really pouring.

Jump Jump

I finally jumped Dee a little bit on Friday! The jumps were little, but Dee was lovely and took care of her momma's bad back. There was no leaping and no scooting off or landing in a heap. I don't know if I'll get her to any events this summer, but you know what? I'm not sure I care at this point. I'm enjoying my girl, and that's enough. I WOULD like to find a dressage show to take her to, though. I'll have to talk to B and see if she has any nearby suggestions.
In other news, I took a self defense class on Saturday. It was super fun and good stuff to know. The company is called East Coast Training Systems, and they pair with Jane Doe No More to put on an Escape Alive program. I think all women should take a class like this at some point.
Considering that the class took all day, I didn't get a chance to ride my girl, and yesterday I was BEYOND sore. To the point of not being able to swallow without the muscles in my mouth hurting. Needless to say, yesterday was spent hobbling around the house. Well worth it, though!

Catch a Hot One

Today's magic word is "HOT". Dee is getting a well deserved day of rest and lounging in her nice, cool stall. Yesterday she did quite a bit. I got on and did a little flat work... I can't tell you how much I've missed having someone on the ground to yell at me about my bad habits! I get too rigid through the arms and I have terrible posture, so actually being reminded to "Lift your hand!" "Relax the arm!" "SIT UP STRAIGHT!!!" is wonderful and MUCH MUCH MUCH needed! Funny how something as simple as lifting my hand gets her off her head at the canter.
Anyway. After I rode, one of the girls agreed to get on and do a bit of jumping with her. I think I'll be able to try next week... fingers crossed. I'm looking forward to taking jump lessons at this barn, because I like the way that N operates. It seems to be all about making the horse jump naturally and quietly, without too much interference from up top. For instance: Dee is a good jumper, but she hasn't learned how to handle the landing side of a fence. She jumps, lands in a heap, and then just kind of scrambles away. To help that, N set up a little grid. Trot pole to x-rail, one stride to small vertical, one stride to pole, one stride to pole. She was doing ok over the first pole, but then ignoring and scrambling over the second, with no thought of balance or poise. So N made it a tiny vertical to force Dee to THINK and BALANCE. It worked wonders! She was actually forced to land and BALANCE for the raised pole at the end. Good girl! I enjoyed watching the girl ride her. She did a very good job of convincing Dee to be a bit quieter about the approaches, because her first inclination is to rush. She's been like that since I first started her over fences last year. She just gets in a hurry. I think we're at the perfect place to sort that out, because hunters don't hurry. They approach the jumps quietly (and then look fabulous in the air). Wouldn't it be fun to get there!?

Dee comes home

"I feel marooned in this body..."

I'm going a bit stir crazy. It hasn't even been 2 weeks, but it seems like years.

Anyway, I talked to Steph today. Dee is no longer at the bottom of her riding list! Yay! I guess she's been pretty good lately... her long and low work is very nice and she's much less crazy when she jumps. Apparently the left lead is still a bit of a problem, but she just has trouble with it because she's still weak, not because she's being bad. Steph was impressed with how clever she is to the fences, because she's quick to put herself where she needs to be, and can stuff in a short one before the fence without getting off balance or launch from the long one and only be sort of off balance on landing. She also thinks that she has a lot of jump and said that she has a pretty impressive kick behind over the jumps, which is interesting, because Bettina has also mentioned how big of a jump she has behind just in her gallop. Who knows... maybe this summer we'll focus on jumper shows. Steph seems to think that might be her niche.

Dusty and Dee

FINALLY, some proper video of Dee! She's not being very respectful of the little jump (she seemed more concerned with playing around before and after. The jump was just something to get out of the way of). Steph agrees that she probably needs to be challenged a bit more in that department.
That said, I've got some hard decisions to make. After talking to Steph, my parents, and even some of my friends, it seems that the general consensus is that I would be stupid to keep her through school. I'm not sure that I disagree. My main trepidation with leasing her is that someone will take her on lease and then decide that they don't want to keep leasing her. At that point, I'll be stuck trying to take care of a horse when a) I have no time, because law school is pretty all-consuming and b) I have no money, because at least for my first semester, I will have no job. Then what do I do? I don't want to end up in a situation where her well-being is compromised. I desperately want to keep her, but maybe I'm just being selfish. My other worry is that the job market out of law school isn't great, and I'm going to be in debt up to my ears. Can I really be sure that I'll be able to support a horse and myself on top of paying off loans? If anyone reading would like to weigh in, I would GREATLY appreciate it.

Now, with all that weighing on my mind yesterday, I headed over to Stoneleigh-Burnham School to visit the best mare ever - Dusty! I was so excited to see her. When I got there, I stopped someone who was bringing horses in and asked if he knew Dusty. He said no, the name didn't ring a bell. Then he checked the stall-listing, and there was no horse named Dusty on it. Hmm. Ok, well... maybe they changed her name. I went to the office to speak with the head of the program.
Before I go on, I would like to add that Jen sent her an e-mail the day before telling her I would be stopping by, and to call or e-mail if that was a problem.
Well, apparently it WAS a problem, but the woman just didn't bother to tell Jen. The problem? They SOLD Dusty. SOLD HER. They never even sent Jen a message or gave her a heads up. The worst part of that is that Jen had specifically told them that if Dusty didn't work out for their program, that she would take her back. She didn't want her to just be sold on. To add insult to injury, when I asked the woman who they sold Dusty to, she told me she didn't know! Now, between Jen and the people who used to lease her, there were plenty of people who could have worked together to find a nice home for Dusty, and it was specifically requested that they be notified if Dusty wasn't good for the program. I am appalled that Stoneleigh just sold her on without ever contacting Jen.
Jen is going to try to get more information about what happened to Dusty and why she wasn't contacted, and I will update as I find out.
The moral of this story? Don't send your horse to Stoneleigh.

Dusty, I hope you're ok, wherever you are!

"Hey, Lionel Richie, ya ain't gettin' paid to dance"

Oh Reggie and the Full Effect, I do love you so!

Some quick news on the Dee front:
She jumped twice last week (just little cross-rails). Apparently, there was much over jumping and celebratory bucking and charging after the fences the first day, but she was better the second time. Steph is thinking that she will try to pop her over something small just about every time she gets on so that jumps aren't something to get all hyped up about. Also, I was told "She feels like she has a ton of jump in there." That's my girl!

She went out for a hack on the road BY HERSELF. She was fabulous.

I was also told "She is a very cranky mare". I know... it's part of her charm, I guess!

I'll be visiting on Thursday and plan on getting MUCH video!

Bounce!

Dee has been doing LOTS of trot poles lately. Tuesday, we did 4 poles instead of the 3 that we've been doing. I set it up on the circle and had the first pole on the ground, the second two raised, and the fourth on the ground. She trotted through to the left REALLY nicely - there was no dragging of the LH. She didn't start out as well to the right, but I think it was mostly because it was hard for her to see the poles. She was trotting right into the sun, and just seemed surprised when some poles turned up in front of her. Once she knew they were there, she was much better, and very cleverly (I thought) approaching with her head very low. I mean, she stretches going left, too, but it just seemed like she figured out that if she stretched her nose long and low enough, the sun wasn't such an issue.
Yesterday I decided to up the ante a little. I set up 3 trot poles on one side of the ring and a small bounce on the other. We began over the trot poles, which she did very nicely, and then moved on to the bounce, which is a whole new experience for her. The first time through, she didn't quite know what to make of it and just treated it like a weird trot pole set-up. With a little extra encouragement the second time, she actually jumped it properly. After that, she was popping through the bounce like an old pro. The only issues she had was swapping between the bounce and the trot poles. Once or twice she got confused and either tried to jump the trot poles or trot the bounce, but then she'd realize the mistake and correct herself the next time.
I would just like to add that she is possibly the cutest thing ever. I set up the exercises while she was in the ring, and I just left her in the middle of the ring. She didn't move a muscle the entire time I was setting up - she just watched everything I was doing. Too adorable. I should add that she wasn't wearing any tack while I was setting up - just her halter - so if she had done something silly, it wouldn't have been a big deal. I wouldn't have left her to her own devices if she was wearing her tack!

My little Kindergardener

Dee and I had another very good jump school today. She jumped a grid with three elements, and just attacked it like a pro. She was focused, quiet and balanced, but most of all, she felt CONFIDENT. Then, my very long span of NOT jumping caught up with me a bit. We turned one of the little blue boxes into a little x-rail oxer (around the box). Well, that freaked her out a little, and she made a HUGE, deer-style leap over top of it. I totally lost my leg and ended up in a heap on her neck, which only served to freak her out MORE. Of coarse, being that this mare has a heart of gold, she gamely jumped it again, even though mom was a disaster the time before. It's just very frustrating to me, because my position used to be SO much better. Now, I can FEEL myself sucking, but the fix-it tools seem to have fallen out of my tool box. With nancy there to yell at me to take a deep breath, sink my weight into my leg and keep my upper body back, we managed to have a few nice go's over it, but it doesn't change the fact that I let her down the first few times, and I'm pretty upset with myself for it. I mean, this mare is truly amazing. I don't want to mess her up. I guess I'll just have to spend lots more hours in the tack to get my form back where it used to be.

Nancy and I were chatting about young horses today, and she told me something that I really liked, and therefore have to share:
When you start taking the youngsters to competitions, you sort of need to think of them like a kid in Kindergarden - the experience is not as much about the competition as it is about singing and holding hands. I just love that, and it's completely true. Just as Kindergarden teaches the child the student role, the first few competitions of a young horse's career teaches her the role of competition horse. It lays the groundwork for the rest of the horse's career. Sure, right now Dee is still in pre-k, where we play in the sand box and try to avoid eating the paste, but I'm sure she'll graduate soon, and I can't wait to start singing and holding hands with her in the fall.

Jumping Fool

Dee is so utterly brilliant. We had our second ever jump lesson with Nancy today, and you would have thought the mare has been doing this her entire life. Today's exercise was a little grid. We started out simple, with just one pole. Dee locked onto the pole and actually JUMPED over it. Next it was half of a cross-rail. No issues there. Next was the full cross-rail, and she just quietly popped over that going both ways. So, Nancy set up a pole 18' from the cross-rail. We figured that might back her off or make her a little nervous. NOPE. She locked onto the cross-rail, jumped it, BALANCED HERSELF and cantered the pole. BIG pats for that. Then the pole turned into a cross-rail. We thought that this would SURELY make her hesitant. Wrong again! She once again trotted the first cross-rail, landed, took a canter stride and jumped the second. No big deal. So THEN Nancy made the second fence a little oxer, with one side of it down. I don't think Dee even noticed. So then we put the back rail of the oxer up completely. Now... this is really when you would expect a baby to go 'whoa, this is weird'. Not my mare. She jumped the cross-rail, balanced and jumped the oxer beautifully. So then nancy had me go around and jump the blue box. I jumped up her neck a little bit at it, but Dee saved me and jumped it nicely anyway. Then we went around to the other blue box, which had a very short approach out of the corner. Now... steering isn't always our forte. I tend to lose either the shoulder, haunches or both when we have a tight turn, and that did happen, but as soon as she saw that there was a jump, she straightened out and just got to it. She jumped it brilliantly. I honestly cannot believe how amazing this horse is. She didn't put a foot wrong and acted like she's been doing this her whole life. It was like she said 'well, you taught me how to do this last week, so now I know all the answers.' She is brave, clever, and a lovely jumper, which means I'm a very happy camper! I honestly CAN'T wait for next week. If we continue along this way, we'll be eventing in no time at all!
Now, as promised, here's a picture from Rachael's visit. Not very good, but oh well.

ups and downs

Ok, so I haven't posted in awhile. Life's been busy. I've got some photos from a few days ago, but I haven't gotten around to uploading them, so stay tuned for those.
Here's a quick recap of what we've been up to (I'm not sure where I left off, but I know it was after she got her teeth done, so I'll start with last Thursday):
5/20
My friend rachael came up to see Dee, and we had a lovely ride. The right lead canter magically improved. She was round and soft instead of inverted and resistant. All in all, she was pretty good. Rach got on her at the end and walked and trotted her around a little. Dee was well behaved for the most part, though she did try to take advantage of rach a little bit.
5/22
I got on her at dinner time, which automatically made her none-to-happy with me. She was tense and grouchy for 90% of the ride, but her left lead canter was brilliant. I thought 'great! we've got BOTH leads down, now.' Well, Dee thought 'Mom, I did well going that direction, now I'm done playing.' She was atrocious going right. I'd ask for canter and she'd slam into my right leg and swing her haunches into the center. I'd give her a kick and she'd drop behind my leg. Finally, I just went back to walk to have it out with her a little bit. After some hard kicks with the right leg and some convincing wacks with the whip, she finally straightened herself out and got down to business. The canter wasn't great - she was still fighting me - but it was forward and relatively straight, so I left it at that.
5/24
The. worst. ride. ever. She was even MORE tense and even MORE grouchy than she had been on Saturday, and she was not in the mood to play. Half the time, she would just stop (or break to walk) and refuse to do anything else. It didn't matter how much I kicked or wacked, she was just not going anywhere. We did manage some half-way decent canter work in both directions, but it was basically a disastrous ride. It certainly wasn't what I wanted the day before I took her to Nancy's.
5/25
Needless to say, I was a little worried that our time at Nancy's was going to be spent having another knock-down, drag-out fight about forwardness. Turns out, though, that I didn't have anything to worry about. As I was telling Nancy about the horror of the day before, Dee decided to have a nice pee RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RING. Oh, hello raging heat, glad you're back. Nancy just looked at me and went "well, you may have your reason for the issues yesterday". As I was getting on, nancy's barn hand was just heading out to mow around the indoor and her barn manager had just turned on the leaf blower to clean the aisles. Well, the mower sometimes got quite close to the indoor and kicked rocks up onto the walls, but just watching Dee go, no one would be able to tell that anything was happening. She couldn't be bothered with the mower or the blower, and she had her game face on. It was awesome to be riding in an enormous indoor with heavenly footing, because I was just able to let her really toodle around. Her trot was big, bold and steady. Both leads were forward, balanced and soft. The flat work was the best we've ever had, and I think Nancy was really impressed with Dee.
After our flatwork, it was on to some jumping!! Yup, that's right. Miss Dee Jumped!!! At first, nancy just laid a caveletti standard down and had us walk over it. I think we actually insulted Dee with this, she just sort of sauntered over the pole going, 'yeah yeah, whatever'. So, Nancy put it up a little and had us trot it. The first time, Dee thought about jumping it and actually landed in canter after making a small effort, but after that she was over it and just trotted over the little caveletti like it wasn't there. So, we set up another. Yup, still not bothered! We ALMOST cantered the second one once, but she asked if she could go back to trot about two strides away and I let her. After that she wasn't even landing in canter, so we didn't bother. After we did the little line, Nancy had us try a little blue box. It took us a few tries to get over that one, mostly because I wasn't convincing enough and Dee was basically just saying 'well, if you aren't sure, I don't think i'm going'. She wasn't bad, she wasn't being naughty, I just wasn't giving her a reason to go OVER the scary blue box. On the fourth attempt, we made it over. It just got better from there, and she was getting more and more confident as we went. By the time we came to it the final time, she was actually fighting with me a little bit because she wanted to canter it. Due to the fact that our steering isn't quite up to par, though, I made her trot. Nancy was very pleased and told me that over the box, Dee was VERY cute with her front end. Yay! Poor mare was totally cooked by the end, but you could tell she was proud of herself. She got lots of pats and a nice shower. I felt bad, because on the hottest day so far this year, she had to work harder than she's ever worked before, but she was a superstar, and as it turned out, the next day was EVEN HOTTER.
5/26
Yesterday was out of this world hot. The thermometer was reading around 100, and even the barn (which felt cool and heavenly) was right around 85 degrees. Yikes! I did about 25 minutes of work before I quit for the day. It was just too hot. After 25 minutes, Dee was covered in sweat and so was I, but she had been REALLY good. She was forward and lovely and had a beautiful left lead canter transition (those are usually ugly).

Gosh, I love that mare.
Like I said, I've got some pictures from when Rachael came to visit, so I'll post those soon. Now. Off to ride!

Free Jumping (Launching?)

So, I decided to have Dee do a little bit of "free jumping" yesterday. I didn't let her off of the lounge, because I didn't want her to just run around. I set up the 13" height next to the fence with a guide rail on the open side. First I put a side down and let her walk over it (no problems), then I sent her out to tackle the full 13" solo. She was adorable, to say the least. Approached it just the way I like to see - stretching her neck out and looking at it - and then just LAUNCHED herself over it. her HOOVES were about a foot and a half over top, and her body? I don't even know. I think her reasoning was, 'well, I don't know what to do with these big long legs I have, so I'll just jump SO HIGH that I don't have to worry about them'. Abbett used to do that a little bit. She trotted over it about 5 times and then I got ambitious and put one side of the jump up to 2' (left the other side down for her). It didn't phase her at all. Same ole' quiet approach and huge leap. We only did that once because I really didn't want her to do too much and she was such a good girl. I made a huge fuss over her and told her how wonderful she was, and I swear, she had quite the little spring in her step on the way back to the barn. I think she was proud of herself.

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!

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!).

Back to Blog

I know I know, it's been too long! The past two weeks have been sort of crazy and I haven't had a moment to think about blogging. I believe we left off at the fact that Tang and I were about to head up to Orange to hang out with Steph for the weekend. Well, that went AMAZINGLY well. There was a brief mix-up on the way up there, because steph had forgotton to write down that we were coming and was going to be gone until six that evening, but it worked out all right, Tang and I just hung out until she got home.

Our lesson on Saturday was on the flat, and Steph was pleased with how he looked soundness-wise. She was also happy to see how much more educated he is now compared to last time she saw him, but told me that it was time to start putting a little more pressure on him. She had me really riding him from behind into a more uphill balance. What really pleased me was that he just did it, he pretty much understood and gave the right answers every time, it was really cool.
Sunday we rode at nine and it was time for my first time jumping since last summer, when he was sound! Stephie's instructions to Tango were "Can you please NOT jump these like they're 3'6 so that your mother's back doesn't get sore?" haha. Well, he listened! He really has gotten a lot more educated all around. We kept the jumps low (mostly for me), but he was really pretty good overall... a few naughty moments, but that's to be expected, I guess. I feel like those will disappear as the jumps get a little bigger, because he simply doesn't pay attention when they're smaller and thinks it's playtime. Silly boy.
After stephie's, I went up to Jen's to horse-sit for the week and got to play with Piglet! I have lots of pictures, and if I can ever figure out how to get videos on my computer, I'll post those, too!











I was supposed to have a jump lesson Tuesday with Nancy, but Tango decided to stick his foot through the fence Monday night. He was lame lame lame on Monday, so I iced and poulticed. Tuesday he actually jogged sound, but it was still fat enough that I didn't feel comfortable riding him, let alone jumping him. I'm currently trying to re-schedule, because we really need to get in gear if we're hoping to have ANY chance at Riga Meadow!!

Jumping!

Well, it's official. Tango did his first little jump set on Monday, and I was very proud of him. Julie rode him for me, since I don't think it's entirely smart to jump just yet (pretty soon, though! my back is getting better all the time!). We started him off over a tiny little vertical, trotting back and forth quietly, then raised it a little (to about 2', 2'3") and had him trot over it a few more times. I then added another fence to make it an 18' one stride.
It took a few tries for Julie to get him to settle enough not to eat the distance completely, but they got the hang of it and he did it a few times VERY nicely. Yay!
We called it quits after that, because I'm terrified of him going lame. I linimented his legs up and turned him back out. He got yesterday off because A) I'm paranoid about him going lame and B) he hadn't gotten a day off since the previous wednesday, so he was due. I went up and checked on him, though, and he was sound and happy.
Today we just did a quick flat session, mostly long and low.
I'm hope hope hoping to be able to go up to Stephie's next weekend, if she's around. I'd really like to be able to have a nice proper jump set with her.
In other news, Julie and her little mare Dixie may be coming to Riga Meadow, too! That would be tres cool, and I'm going to see if Jen might be able to do an XC school with us at the beginning of July.
In other OTHER news, big BIG news, Dusty is due to foal ANY DAY NOW! I will post a million baby + mommy pictures as soon as I can!
I'll also post the one or two pictures from Tang's jump school, even though there are no real jumping pictures... just a few failed attempted and some flat work ones.