The last of the Peter Atkin's October clinic at the Bea Hive, water complex.

Me having a little chat with Peter about a statement he made about hating boots on XC.  He said he sees boot cause more problems on XC.  That is the first time I have ever heard such a thing and had to ask.

Peter and madness in the water. I LOVE this conversation! Peter noticing that Jr. is not happy on gravel. Dorie states he is barefoot. Peter tells her if she knows her horse is bothered by rocks then she needs to always walk through the water find the best path through and throw out any large rocks in the way. I thought that was So facinating and shows his level of care for each horse.

Fantastic end to a fantastic clinic.  Amy from Moose on the Loose had her post about the clinic posted on Eventing Nation, which was super cool.  It was the post that I gave the link to previously.  It fired off quite the debate on EN which as Amy stated got people thinking about their riding.  Like Peter or not we have to agree that getting our minds working about our riding is always good!  I hope you enjoyed the clinic.  It was no small feat to upload and post all of the info but worth it if it was helpful to others.

The banks.

Favorite 'thing for me to remember', you stop kicking at jumps they start running at jumps. A few 'little' jumps on the way back toward the water. Another Pep talk with Peter He asked Sara if she just wanted to hang around novice and training the rest of your life, or do you want to go somewhere? LOL my answer would have been, I would be happy to be successful at Novice. I wonder how that would go over? We are almost done with clinic videos. Only water left to post. Homefront news, I spoke too soon about the weather. It rained all day and all night. Which put a damper on my riding plans. I did not enter the EN Dubarry contest because I am just not that creative but after yesterday evenings feeding, these were my thoughts. 'You know Amy rubber boots are only helpful if they don't have holes in them.' Just about then is when I stepped ankle deep into a puddle and felt my entire boot fill up with freezing, muddy/poopy water. Next thing that went through my head, 'I wish I would have won those Dubarry's'. But even still I cannot complain, sunny and 50's today and sunny and 60's over the weekend. Tomorrow we are off to the State Park to ride the trails. I am trying to decide to just take my 8 year old daughter and Moonlight or to take a friend and her daughter along with us. The problem is this friend cannot ride her horse(the one I talked about a while back that has issues that she is not capable of handling or riding). So she would ride Moonlight and my daughter would have to ride our mini which can be no fun after a few miles since he is so bouncy. I plan to ask my daughter what she would rather do since she is the one that would have to deal with the sore ribs after 9 miles of bouncing around on Snappy.

Practice what you preach! He sure does. And ditches.

I can watch this over and over and over again.  It gives me chills every time.  In any lesson with Peter he is adamant that you praise, praise, praise your horse.  If you watch this video he practices what he preaches.  He praises Henry after almost every single fence.  For all that this man has to think about on a XC course like that, he makes none more important than letting his beloved friend know how good he is doing.  Some links to Peter stuff.  Interview from Eventing Nation, Run Henny Run FB page to follow all their events, Run Henny Run merchandise(which has made it to my Christmas list.  I want the Rolex DVD and the shirt please!) all good stuff and fun for any eventer to check out.


First is a VERY short clip of Peter placing Sara's leg right where he wants it.  It give you the exact place he says to have your leg.

Next is Peter explaining that a newly built jump will most likely through a horse for a loop. They can smell the difference. A few jumps on their way to ditches. A Peter pep talk. On to ditches...Sorry abou the first one I was trying to take off my jacket. In homefront news I am getting very excited about starting the young haflinger in the spring. Gives me something to look forward to all winter! Steady had yesterday and today off which is pretty much torture in this beautiful weather we have been having. So I catch rode yesterday on my daughters horse and plodded around with him for a bit. It was good and I need to remember to do that fairly often. Just like any lesson/kid/beginner horse they can quickly get some bad habits. Luckily he is such a good boy he is a pretty quick fix kinda guy. Then cause I felt guilty riding my daughters horse and she hadn't ridden in over a week I gave each of them a 20 minute lesson before dinner. Great way to spend the evening! Tomorrow I will ride Steady again just flat maybe some trail riding will be nice. I am thinking that my daughter and I will get to squeeze one more trip down to the state park for a trail ride. I didn't expect that to happen this late in the season but I will not complain!

If you are sick of hearing about Peter Atkins, don't go visit this blog.

If you are tired of hearing, "Peter this, and Peter that, Peter, Peter, Peter!!!"  Then I have a blog that I suggest NOT going to.  She too is part of the Peter Atkins following.  She is a great writer and I have been encouraging her to blog more often.  But if you are crazy like us and cannot get enough of Peter then go over to read Amy's latest posts about the clinic.  She rode in the clinic that I have been posting about and has some great posts about it.  Head on over to Moose on the Loose, a great blog about Amy and her Pinto Moose and their eventing adventures.  It is also one of those blogs that blogger will not allow me to comment on but I really really want to.

In other news Sara Ivie came out yesterday.  She came a little late.  She showed up about 4:20 and chatted and she had me ride in my saddle first.  She evaluated my saddle and said I did a very good job with what I had to work with.  She said the shim pad with him is pretty much a must at least for the time being.  Then she had me ride in some of her saddles.  It was very interesting to me to feel a distinct difference in each one.  The difference in the way it felt for me but also the difference in Steady.  There was distinct tension in him when the saddle was not fitting well.  Resistence to rounding his back.  Then when they fit him well he was relaxed and even stretching some which is not something I get often out of him.  The 'conquest' was the narrowest tree she had which was narrow and still was not narrow enough.  WOW that was eye opening.  She said he needs and extra narrow!  As far as fit for me the twist was not good for me in this tree.  It brought my knees out away from the saddle but I did like the fact that I was not put in the backseat like I am in my saddle.  That made it easier to post correctly and get out of the saddle at the base of a jump.  She suggested that part of the reason I feel I am throwing myself forward at the base of the jump is because I am in the back seat so much that I have to kind of fling myself up to keep up with him.  Same kind of concept in my posting.  I always struggle to get that just brushing the saddle post and too often feel I am hitting the saddle then coming back up.  But I did not have that problem in any of the County's it was easy to have that brushing the saddle post I am always striving for.  Out of all of them of course I like the highest end 'sensation' but I also really liked the middle one which is the 'inspiration'.  As far as fit for Steady well she said I would need to have a custom saddle made for him to get an optimal fit.  Extra narrow tree, extended tree points, shoulder gussets and extended panel.  Of course right?!  I do agree with her and it made me feel better that I was not just crazy thinkign that he is impossible to fit because she had trouble and didn't have a saddle in her truck that would fit him even halfway decent.  But to fork over $4500.00  for a custom saddle is just not an option right now.  Some day?  Probably.  Now?  No way.  It is hard and a bit discouraging knowing the truth about my saddle but at the same time I am very glad I know.  My saddle fits OK.  The biggest problem with it is that there is a bit of a bridge in the middle of the panel.  Making pressure points in the front and under the cantle.  Then add to that, that it kind of puts me in the back seat, plus Steady already struggling with his lumbar going out and causing him issues adds up to definitely not optimal fit.  Pretty much what I found out was that he has a high wither, uh duh, hollow behind, lacking topline, oh wait I already knew all of those things, but it was good to get a professional confirmation of all the things I had read and studied and worried and stressed over with Mr. Steady .  I did find out that for as big as he is, he actually has a short back.  So the smallest seat size I can get away with the better for him.  That was great information to find out that I had never considered.  All in all she spent 3 hours!!! at my house trying saddle after saddle after saddle.  I was very impressed with her patience and determination to find something that will be best for not just my horse but me too.

So now my wheels are turning about a new saddle and it is going on the wish list.  My biggest concern about my saddle that I learned yesterday is that jumping is a problem.  I didn't realize that some of our jumping issues were so much connected to my saddle.  Riding in other saddles I could feel and see the difference.  He is holding his breath over jumps in preparation for landing because of the pressure on his lumbar region.  He is not jumping round and upon landing his back end is "left in the next county" as Sara put it.  Then he kind of runs off inverted and bracing.  Then in two of the other saddles we did not get that same reaction over the jump or after.  That is the hardest thing because now I know that jumping is causing him pain and it is hard to ask him to improve on something that he is doing because he is trying to avoid pain.  Grrrr...  So we will be doing flat for a while and slowly going back into jumping small stuff just to get a baseline of when, why and how the pain is being caused.  I know he was probably sore to start because we had jumped pretty hard two days in a row and I was planning to give him at least a week before jumping him again but I didn't realize she would have me jumping to evaluate.  So I am going to give him at least a couple weeks of just flat, then start from there.  All in all I am very glad I had her come out and would happily recommend her as a saddle fitter.

Soon to come are more clinic videos/posts, we still have ditches, banks and water to cover.  So stay tuned :)

Peter Atkins; The skinny on the skinny.

Video #4

"You cannot steer to a skinny."  "You do not steer straight you ride them straight."  All things that Lee Ann emphisised to me in my XC lesson.  Great mind think alike!  And definitely something I need repeated to me on a regular basis until I change my long time bad habits of steering.  Steady and I have been spending time galloping in the open field with my had planted at his neck and me steering with my body instead of my hands.  It is such a cool thing and it works.  Unfortunately I too often revert back to steering wheel hands.  And so we keep practicing.  I captioned this video, 'Dorie and Junior get put in timeout'.  It cracks me up when Peter says, "Nope, timeout!"  to Dorie.  Dorie is my friend for whom I was video taping the lesson and you I am sure have seen how awesome her and her very young horse Jr. are at XC.  They are just fun to watch! 


Video #5
"Longer reins and kick them to the jump."  It is so cool to watch a lesson with someone like Peter because you get to immediately see his teaching work.  Another thing that he is adament about it to "never beat a worried horse", and don't punish a horse for your mistakes i.e. looking at the jump, not riding straight, not kicking them to the jump. By beat he means use a whip on them.  I think that is facinating because I have seen many a trainer utilize the whip in situations where horses refuse out of worry and/or rider error.  But I have never seen Peter ever tell someone to whip their horse over a jump.  Along that same line you will hear throughout all of his teaching how important the horse is to him.  He truely cares about the horses and that is a huge factor in my respect for him.

"Do you all feel how effective your eyes are? They look where you look."  This is facinating.  Horse are AMAZING creatures.  To think just the movement of your eye can effect them so greatly, wow! Something he emphisized big time in a later video.

"Kicking the front end where you want them to go.  The back end is going to follow."  "Activating the front end with a soft rein.  They'll keep going and jumping"  GOOD STUFF!




Video #6

Treat a skinny like any other jump.  Your horse only jumps 2'6" width of any jump so it is no different than any other jump if the jump is wider than 2'6".



Video #7

Video #8

Video #9
I appologize in advance about this video.  It is hard to watch because I am running after Peter to keep up and trying to get all the jumps in.  I used the video stabalizing tool on youtube to try to make it a little easier on the eyes.

Getting back to basics.

I guess techinically if the basics were completely skipped to start off then it is not 'back to basics' then it is it?  More like going back to the beginning to do it right.  To be fair I did not intend to start out on this journey.  I never claimed to have any knowledge when it came to dressage starting out.  I trained hunter jumper for 8 years.  I learned that sport and I learned it well.  So when I got Steady I had the misconception that horseback riding was like riding a bike.  That if I rode that long and was a good rider that getting back on the horse it would all come back to me.

Somethings did stay with me.  The ability to stay on a horse.  How to post on the correct diagonal.  Leads, posture, heals down those sorts of things.  Pretty much basic equitation on the flat.  Though not pretty but functional.  Then starting lessons with a, how do I put this nicely?  With a not very good trainer.  That introduced me to dressage/eventing all together yet did not teach the sport correctly.  But I, at the time, knew no different considering it was my very introduction to the sport all together.  I figured she knew what she was talking about since I knew nothing.  Lesson learned. That is not always the case.  Just because someone seems, acts and says they are good and are confident that they are that good does not mean they actually know what they are doing or telling you to do.

So that is where I started.  New to the sport and learning it incorrectly.  There were even times my gut knew better than what she was teaching yet I didn't know a better way.  Luckily I did not only stick with her and ventured to use other trainers in lessons and clinics.  The problem was that what one did the other spent time undoing.  Counter productive much?!  Thankfully a  falling out with said instructor and I and that was the end of that.

 I don't think it sank in about how bad it was until just recently but  the seeds were planted in my mind over the last year.  A defining statement for me was, "Ahhh, just as I thought.  You are a rider with nice proper position.  Pretending to do dressage."  Made by one, Dorothy Crowell.  I didn't really get what she was trying to tell me at the time and thought it was kind of mean.  But now that I am starting to understand true classical dressage, it was a very accurate statement.  That was one of many seeds planted in my mind that have grown and are still growing.  This post will hopefully just become a continuation of knowledge and understanding that will progress over time and work.  It is, at this time, not conclusive and I hope that there is never a conclusion to learning about horses and my interactions with them.  At least while I am still alive.

Ride the horse you're on...or not.

I have heard that saying many times, "to ride the horse you are on".  I completely agree with it.  Sometimes we get on with our 'agenda' and sometimes it goes how we want it to but many times we realize that the lovely little dressage pony we were expecting to ride has turned more into an exhuberant fire breathing dragon.  So our 'agenda' must go out the window or we will at best end up frustrated, mad and riding a mad frustrated fire breathing dragon.  But I have to say there should be an optional ending to that saying, "ride the horse you're on, and if all else fails, get the hell off!'  Because sometimes you can take that fire breathing dragon and channel that energy into, galloping work, poles, trotting their butts off or even jumping and other times every avenue you attempt just takes that fire breathing dragon and makes him flip his head repeatedly in the air, or give you his best impression of a giraffe, or he is looking in every direction but where he is going, your best attempts to balance 'his craziness' just makes for more head flipping and falling out through which ever shoulder is not being blocked.  So you try trotting his butt off and there is incredible resistance to every request.  As a last ditch effort you resort to jumping because EVERY fire breathing dragon LOVES to jump.  Which results in run outs.  And that my friends is when I decided that maybe riding was not in the cards, hopped off and called it quits.  So most of the time you should 'ride the horse you are on'  but there are those times that you should, 'get the hell off'.

But of course just getting off and letting it go is beyond my minds ability.  I cannot just forget that every single ride we have had in the last month has blown my mind.  We have had more progress in the last month than I over the past 6, or at least it seems that way.  And now all of the sudden I find myself atop this hot mess of a horse that seems to lost even the ability to trot in a straight line.  So I started thinking and thinking and thinking and a light bulb went on.  I thought this has happened before.  Where?  At event camp.  If you watched the videos of our first lesson at camp with Peter Atkins you can clearly see a happy content horse.  Happy to do his job and working to do as I ask.  Standing patiently as Peter talks and is even is unphased when Peter smacks him on the butt or grabs his head and swings it back and forth.  Then 3 short days later I am riding what feels like one of those flatbed carts at the big hardware stores or they even have them at the feed stores.  You know the ones that have four wheels all on a swivel?  The ones that every attempt to make it go in one direction it inevitably heads in another and then when correcting the problem you end up running into the nearest shelving knocking down the display(not that that has ever happened to me ;).  Yup PITA.  Except this isn't a little cart I am talking about.  I am speaking of an 1100 lb 17 hh horse out in an open field and plenty of energy to take us to timbucktoo.  Who seems like he has no controls installed,  Steering:fail, brakes:fail, giraffe impression:flawless, head flipping:success, rushing off:perfected and a rider clearing not equiped to handle such situations.  See the difference between the first lesson and this one?  Be kind because I am posting a video of work that is NOT pretty but it is reality of training an OTTB in combination with a green rider.(BTW when he is yelling at Amy it is not always me.  there is also another Amy in our lesson)  You wouldn't believe how hard it was to simply hold him back let alone have any control.  I have progressed leaps and bounds from this video and am WAY more equipped to handle this situation than I was then but it took all of that for me to finally 'get it'.  For one I know now when things are that out of control to 'get the hell off'.  See progress :)! 
So if this has happened more than once what is the common denominator?

Also the rest of the XC lesson videos are to come!  Spoiler alert!  There is video of Peter skipping...hehe.

Free lesson!

There is so much great information packed into these videos it's like taking a lesson of your own.  I already posted the first video of this lesson here is several short clips from the same lesson. And youget to watch me and Steady fumble around in front of Peter.

Grids with Peter Atkins. Video, FINALLY!!!!

I took a long break from trying to upload any video from camp because of all the fits it was giving me.  I have been bummed about it because the amount of information that is in the lessons is something worth watching.  You get to see the real Peter in a lesson.  I went back and watched again today and I was amazed at how much I not only retained from it but have put it into practice and have made huge strides toward the exact things he was touching on.  I had so many light bulb moments during camp that I think that was the reason I was less than thrilled after leaving.  I was completely overwhelmed with information which in turn made me feel like a freaking idiot that probably didn't belong in the sport of eventing.  But I have moved on since then.  After a few weeks of  wallowing in the mire and tretcherous summer heat we started back at it.  And one day at a time have really made huge improvement in a small time. 

It seems from the get go Peter started "picking" on me be I just kept a sense of humor about it.  This was the first lesson on the first day. So without further ado this is the first of many videos of lessons from event camp.  This one is about 17 minutes long so if you want to watch the entire thing that gives you an idea.

Jump fun!!! Standard assembly and video.

Jumps have been a priority to me around here.  Making the move to beginner novice and only having 18" to 2 ft jumps to practice at my house and needing to add height to our work finding ways to do so have been on my brain.  I 'like' horsegirltv.com on facebook and this link was posted for a video on how to make jump standards.  After watching it I realized I already have everything I needed to make two jump standards.  All except the jump cups.  So I ordered some cheapo jump cups that cost me a whopping $18.00 for 4 including shipping.  So if you watch the jump making video just insert this guys 

 cute face and that is how my new jumps came about.  Yippee!!!   Here are some photos. 

Here is video of our first jumps over them.  I just 'love' my husband and daughter's vote of confidence in our abilities over a little 2'1" jump.  Gotta love them!


We started at 18" an moved them up to only  2'4" and clearly that height is just not a big deal to the big guy.  He just kinda hops over them.  But I am sooooo happy with the change in my jumping position, and my approach,again thank you Peter!  I no longer climb his neck and my leg is solid and no sliding back!!  On approach I sit back, plant my legs, push him forward and wait for him to find his spot.  Yay!  Also I am always open to critiquing, not that I am saying I will do what you say but I don't mind knowing what others see in our work.  In other words poor girl riding lessons :)

Video finally. dressage practice test, take 1!

I finally got a video of Steady and I working.  (disclaimer: if you are easily sea sick this video was taken my eight year old.  So watch at your own risk.  There you have been warned so no need to complain about the quality.  She did a pretty good job though.)  I am so so so happy with the progress we have made.  I feel I have event camp to thank for all of it.  So I would say it was definitely worth the money.  In all the lessons I have taken I don't feel like I have gotten more out all of them combined as I did camp.  I have Dorothy Crowell to thank for the lovely improvement in my ability to get Steady to work better, stepping under himself and starting to do 'real' dressage.  And Peter Atkins to thank for the 100% improvement in my jumping position(that to come in the next video post.)  I would like more stretching up and over and having a more rounded movement but one step at a time.  We have really focused on him reaching under himself in our training as of late and from this video you can see some of that put to work in our practice run of BN test B.  The test we will do at the Octoberfest charity schooling show in almost exactly one month.  Keep in mind this is our first run through the test so it needs plenty of work but I am very confindent we will have it down pat by next month.  It starts out nicely with decent trot work.  I spaced the place we were supposed to walk, oops.  Then we got the wrong lead both directions but this I am not too worried about, he gets the correct leads most of the time and of course he has to wait until the video is going to get it wrong...lol.  He needs much more fitness and that will be in our plans over the next month.  I kinda drug him through that 10 meter half circle at the end.   And at the end I love after I salute(to no one mind you) he just sticks there.  You can see me kick him on a few times and he finally moves, haha, goof ball.  All in all I am happy and confident that Octoberfest is going to go very well.  Will we be bringing home blue?  Probably not but it will be challanging yet within our abilities so it will be a good confidence builder for both of us.  And that is exactly what I want it to be. 



P.S.   I hate having to do this but I always feel with the blog world and posting video I always must put disclaimers because with many people viewing everyone seems able to pick out every thing wrong in it.  But I don't want to hold out on video just because that annoys me.  Don't get me wrong I have NO problem with people critiquing me and my riding so go right ahead.  But it is stuff like the fact that some areas of my pasture is over grown.  Yes I understand it is over grown and that my facility is not perfect but I do have happy, healthy horses and that is all that matters to me.  In other words I was mowing the pasture unknowingly as it was low on oil and a piston ended up jammed in the engine and now we are trying to scrape together a measely $1000 bucks to get it fixed.  Blech!  It is always something right?  Thus half mowed pasture. 


Also I must warn you I have 2 more posts already typed up and ready to post and I am excited about them so I probably won't be able to seperate them.  So sorry for the post over load ;)

I just have to say this...

I have been waiting to post about this because I really wanted to have video to add in with this post but not having someone at my beg and call to be my personal videographer I have yet to get any taken.  I promise to keep on working on getting a video but I cannot wait any longer to tell you how pleased I have been with my Steady lately.  Our work has been enjoyable and effective.  I think some of it has to do with the fact that there is little to no pressure ever since I have resolved to take it back a notch in lessons and competing to not drive us further into financial issues.  And a I think I have figured out why Steady has at times opposed to work.  After hundreds in useless injections I have determined that his legs are amazingly and wonderfully perfect just the way they are.  I feel now his objections are coming from his back :( His lumbar has continually gone out since I have known the big guy.  I have had it corrected through chiropractic but even the chiro said that she is not sure why she cannot get it to stay put.

It does bother him some here and there but over all he seems to be happy in work.  I am keeping a close eye on him and will decide the next plan of action.  I am considering trying acupuncture.  Anyways I am here to talk about how well Steady is coming back into work after a nice break when the unrelenting heat took over this summer.  We are slowly taking what we learned at event camp and putting it into practice in a no pressure environment and it has been one good ride after another.  After what seemed like a bad start to the year with one frustrating thing after another everthing has really come full circle and I am very grateful for the progress and I am mostly grateful for the enjoyble time I have had with my horse in the last month.  Event camp finally broke my fear of galloping a very good race horse and since I have been enlightened to the thrill of galloping!  And ohhh do I love to go fast and of course Steady does, I mean of course!  Our work has consisted of galloping, steering, lateral, moving off my leg, jumping and some great trail rides.  Well rounded and balanced training program to hopefully yield a well rounded balanced horse.  Taking on the tedious task that Dorothy gave us of getting him to 'get' moving off of leg pressure has made a huge difference in every aspect our work.  It has made his steering better, lateral work better.  Things are just going good.

Tonight, I rode kinda late and I could tell that when I came out with tack in hand that Steady was hoping that instead of a saddle I would have his dinner.  So I gave him a kiss and promised him that I would make it short and sweet.  I made up my mind to just get some very simple lateral movement and get him moving off my leg(most of which all our rides consist of).  He obliged with my requests so trot, leg yeilds and 20 meter canter circles, a straight centerline halt and viola, done!  Easy peasy.   He was quickly rewarded with his dinner.  He is starting to use his hind end a little better.  I am asking for small improvements, taking it slow to make sure he is comfortable and fit enough to do anything I am asking and it is working great!  He is enjoying work more and so am I.  Win win!  I hope to have video evidence soon.

Starter or Beginner Novice? THAT is the question!!!

No, seriously that IS the question.

I have decided to enter Octoberfest CT at Hoosier Horse Park on 15-16 in October(obviously!).  I am completely torn whether to enter at Starter or BN.  Really the only difference will be 4" in jump height that really would not be a problem.  It would be stiffer competition for us and we most likey will not place(which really isn't a concern for me).  The dressage test is no more complicated.  It is the difference of BN test A at starter(which we did in April and scored 41 straight out of winter) or BN test B at BN  I don't know.  I haven't done this very long.  When you make a move up you don't really start out winning on your first move up anyways, right?  It is about the experience in a schooling show anyways.  We did starter in April and it was fun and not a huge challange but good coming out of winter.  I cannot imagine starter being a challange at all.  But we will be at a new place and he has pretty much only shown at CAF.  So maybe that will add a challange, though for a horse how has raced in over a hundred races in different countries I cannot imagine it being a huge deal to him.  Hmmmm your thoughts? 

Off the topic of the CT though is that it is a 2 day show and they have OTTB classes which I would love to enter with Steady!!  And I have already purchased a XC schooling armband for HHP so we will get to school while down there!!!  I am starting to get excited!!  Yay!