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.

"The wrong answer to the question"

I thought for sure I posted this before but in going back and searching posts I cannot find it anywhere.  A post on EN then posted again on Nina's story of a horse totally misreading a jump and still making it work.  Reminded me of this incredible photo of my sweet friend Mary and her horse Elvis.  Elvis completely mis read the jump but neither he nor Mary hesitated and made it work.  Not to mention made this kick ass photo!  Mary's album title on FB is, "The wrong answer to the question"  LOL love it!!

Here is the entire series.

I am sorry but aren't these two just freaking ROCK STARS!!!!

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 ;)

"White Pants, Big Withers And Thoroughbreds Are All The Rage At Burghley"

I LOVE this article!  Not only is it hailing the big withered but proves that OTTB's are amazing beasts and not a thing of eventing past.  That they are very much a part of eventings future!  And I haven't been able to get the image of the photo of Sinead and 'Tate' out of my head.   Tate's body type looks insanely like Steady's.  It has given me a huge sense of relief that even this amazingly fit 4* horse who got 3rd in Rolex and had a very respectable run at Burghley at 15th place can still have not only shark withers but completely hollow behind and even a dip at the base of his neck.  And not veiwable in this photo but if you watch anyh other videos of them he also has large proturding hip bones that Steady also has.  Tate is as healthy as a horse can be and that is just 'him'.  It made me realize that a horse can just be made that way.  I have always felt by people's comments and standards that Steady was lacking something if he was not filled in behind his withers.  And that if he had the slightest dip in his neck then he could not be fit.  I would look at him and his boney withers every day and think I wasn't doing something right for him.  Not true.  It is his body type and so everyone else can kiss our healthy butts!

Now I am going on the hunt of Sineads saddle choices for such a saddle fitting nightmare.  I mean people can give me all the advice in the world but unless you have ever owned a horse and tried to fit a horse with such dramatic fitting issues you could not possibly understand.  It is not your run of the mill big withered TB it is much more extreme than that and it can cause many, many headaches.  But I got some peace of mind seeing that photo.

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!