What is a twenty meter circle anyway?

Lots to report over here with another successful weekend of riding behind us. If you live in the Northeast you know that we got an inordinate amount of rain and a freak thunderstorm during the week that left everything a big wet mess. We were able to get the ring sorta dragged Saturday enough to do some flat work and Riley got reintroduced to the Pessoa. In the ring we worked on slightly raised cavalettis and two canter poles set 60 ft apart. I could feel the gears turning in Riley's brain approaching the 4 raised poles like, "Am I supposed to jump all of these"? Luckily he didn't, though he felt like cantering a few of them made much more sense!

I took a trip down to Dover and Maryland Saddlery on the hunt for a few things for the pony and a dressage whip. I was also looking for a new helmet, but they didn't have any of the new ones in yet:/ I did pick out a new whip and also picked up this little beauty that I've been obsessed with (plus 30% off)!

From Dover's site: Because who doesn't love houndstooth?

DVTCA Schooling HT at Carousel Horse Park 8/24/2014

Phew! What a whirlwind weekend.

I'll start with Saturday as that was our prep day for the show. I was determined to have a really good jump school with Emily to feel tuned up for the show. Earlier in the week we had tried putting Riley back in a regular full cheek snaffle and he was dull and heavy in it, so back to the Dr. Bristol which he loves and is light and forward in.

She set up a classic exercise, trot in over an X one stride to a vertical, one stride to a slightly bigger vertical. We worked on maintaining a consistent tempo without him zooming around (he's getting quite keen to the jumps these days*). Emily threatened to punish me if I didn't start releasing properly and I took her seriously and rode like a normal person for once. We threw in a canter circle after the jumps and added a jump or two to make a little course (including a liverpool!)

Some highlights!

Actually releasing!

Our first time over the liverpool together!

Adding in the vertical after the line and the liverpool.

Dressage work, flat work, real work, whatever you want to call it.

My barn is a mix of riders, hunter/jumpers, jumpers, ex-eventers, dressage riders... we all warm up our horses a little differently and attack each ride with a different frame of mind. It's interesting to see how that pans out with each horse. I would say that Emily and I are most aligned in the kind of training we do with our horses... and mostly that's because she's my trainer. Though, I owe an awful lot to my former instructor too, she gave me a great basis for everything I've accomplished today.

Video still: Practicing our dressage test, this is our change of rein across the diagonal. And hey look, my elbows bend!

Riley is at the point in his life where I can expect a little more from him with every ride. We try to keep our weeks looking like this: one hack day (sometimes with a little real work in the ring) -- hack day can include hill work, canters, or just a nice cruise around for a few miles, a jump school, a trainer ride, and a flat ride. Generally, Emily will ask me if I want her to work on anything specifically during the training ride and we come up with a game plan together. We jump on good footing so I don't think it's unfair to jump him twice a week (especially since we're not doing anything big).

More test work: 20 meter-ish circle (this is where he's getting too deep in the contact). Also, I don't understand why he makes me look so small. he's 16hh and I am 5' 6"+

Anyway, it's no secret that dressage is truly the foundation for all riding, and I really believe that in order to expect your horse to jump or gallop xc he needs to be able to carry himself on the flat, lift his back and engage his hindquarters. Can you jump or event without this? Well yes, but there will come a time when holes in your training will show up and your horse may even start saying no. I want to always feel like I am setting my horse up for success (which I did not do for our first event, not because of training per se, but more my mental state at the time) and it would be remiss of me not to make sure that dressage basics were firmly installed.

For a horse who is built a little downhill he doesn't ride like it! That neck, tho!!!!!!!

That said, I am lucky because Riley is not the kind of horse who needs a lot of loosening up. In some ways he actually prefers that I sit deeper for the first 10 minutes than getting in a light seat. But a normal dressage day might look something like this: loose rein walk a lap in each direction. Gather him into a frame and ask him to use his body. Begin trot work. I ride with very light hands (which can actually be detrimental) and so I let him trot around freely and forward in a light frame and then gather him up a little. He likes contact and seeks it now all the time. We start trotting in either direction and then start adding in some serpentines. Then, we'll add in some harder work like 20 meter circles, and 10 meter circle in each corner (we both hate that exercise!), then I might ask him for some baby lateral work, going off the rail a few strides, forward a few strides and back to the rail. This exercise really helps straighten him out when he wants to throw his hind end around. I've been upping the continuous workload for both of us because I want it to actually feel like "work", we'll usually take a break and walk for a few minutes and then I'll do lateral work at the walk and then ask for the canter. His transitions are coming along pretty well (not as quick as I would like), but the canter itself is lovely. He's still pretty crooked to the right, but at least he can pick up his right lead 95% of the time when asked (and from a walk!) Usually I get off his back for a lap around and then sit and ask for some circles and more collection. I've just started adding in stretchy trot work (which he loves) and yesterday we did this for 10 minutes as a reward for good flat work. We just did figure-eights around the ring and he stretched beautifully down in both directions. He's starting to get a little deep in the Dr. Bristol, so I'm going to try a regular full cheek for flat work to see if that helps. I think the stretchy trot work will help let him loosen up too. Yesterday I added 10 minutes of no stirrup work and we both worked quite hard! Riley has a LOVELY trot to sit and he worked on lengthening down the long sides then collecting at the ends and doing figure 8's on the short sides. Without stirrups I was really able to wrap my legs around him and bend his body around my leg. I'm hoping to add more of this kind of work to each ride, but boy am I feeling it today!

You can keep your warmbloods, I'll stick with my paddling TB any day:)

BTW, this was my second ride in my Middleburg tall boots (my $55 score from the tent sale) and I am in love. They are so, so, so comfortable. I have heel lifts in them now, but they are so supple and comfy!

Emily was nice enough to take some video, which, if you'd like to be Facebook friends with me, you can see here:

Riley got borium on his new kicks yesterday and my farrier warned me that he might be feeling extra fresh and confident now that he knows he won't be slipping! Ha! He also got the bravest TB award from my farrier and he is the only one not afraid of the forge, the smoke, the hot-shoeing, the blow-torch and the sparks! Good boy Riley!

He's um, attractive?

Wonder farrier, working on his hinds. He has a long vertical crack in that white hoof but he showed me that it was only a sand crack that has not worked it's way through the hoof wall and that I could rasp it a certain way to keep pressure off it in between trims. At this point it's nothing to worry about:)

SO BUSY!

Well, prep week is in full swing as I figure out how to get ready for our little event on Friday evening. I had a busy weekend dog-sitting, cleaning up the house, doing ALL THE LAUNDRY, and finding time to ride! Saturday I worked both shifts at the farm and took Lucy and my trainer's dog Bandit out with me for the day. Little did I know my boxer Hugo was completely pissed off and managed to not only escape his crate but create mayhem in the basement while we were gone. Ah well, his nickname isn't Houdini for nothing!

Look at my fancy show horse:/

Riley was not too thrilled to be yanked from his stall in the middle of second breakfast and his mid-morning snooze. I took a little trip to Bartville after I fed and turned everyone out where I picked up this blue halter for him. He gets rubs from his leather turnout one so he gets to look snazzy in this instead (and yes, it has a leather crown piece). I wanted to take him out into one of the big fields and do some trot sets and a few gallops in the Berny Bros. to see if I was in love and it was fantastic! I felt incredibly secure up and out of the saddle and Riley was well-behaved coming back to me every time. He definitely was huffing and puffing a little during the trot sets (which he thought were really stupid), but we powered through and his fitness (and mine) and my legs will thank me later. We kept it fairly simple 2 mins. trotting, 2 mins. walk. 2 mins trotting. Rinse repeat. The terrain is slightly hilly which is even better. Our canter sets were more like 1 minute canter, 2 minute walk, repeat. Then we walked to the very hilly part of the field and walked down the hills and cantered back up about a half a dozen times. He's feeling much stronger behind and I am so thankful to have hills to turn him out on and work him on! I made an offer on the saddle and I'm still waiting to hear back! I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but it matches all my tack including my leather perfectly! My bridle is still a little lighter than I'd like but I picked up some neatsfoot oil so I can darken it when I clean all my tack this week.

Horse heaven.

Giving me some serious side-eye during our intervals.

He got a well deserved bath in our new wash stall! Yay! He's all beat up from his herd mates and he had a big swollen spot on his shoulder that was a bit worrisome, but he's also really sensitive so I know a few days away from the bachelor party will help his skin recover quickly. I would feel terrible brings my horse to a show with cuts and scrapes everywhere! I used some of the Absorbine massage foam that they sent me and I loved it. I think I had as much fun massaging it into Riley's muscles as he did. I scrubbed his sock in hopes that I could remove some of the dirt, manure and whatever else was on there so it wouldn't be so challenging to clean this week. To be fair, he's hardly had more than a hose down post-ride these days, so he got a thorough bathing Saturday! I still need to pull his mane and comb through his tail (and bang it again), but he should be looking very cute this week. I very, very tempted to braid him for the show even though it's just a little schooling show because it happens to be in the evening and I'll be at the farm all day. Plus I could really use the practice. I'm not gonna go crazy if I do though and I'll stick to rubber bands for now! I think turnout is really important and I'd love to see how he looks braided... not to mention his mane is wild no matter what the length!

Next up, I had the honor of riding one of Emily's horses! I had my choice between her super fancy mare Prima, or her gorgeous Two Punch baby Brody. I was a little short on time, so I opted for Prima. I haven't ridden her since maybe November but I've watched her blossom under Emily's training and boy is she fun to ride.

Equally enthusiastic.

My new saddle fits her pretty well so it was pretty great to try it on another horse to see how the balance felt. Prima's gaits have much more suspension than Riley's and I realized that it's been wayyyyy too long since I rode another horse than my own. *Note:I need to do this more often, preferably once a week or more. She's such a dream to ride and is has so much to teach me about sitting up and riding like an athlete instead of a passenger. We did lots and lots of serpentines at the trot and one of my favorite exercises which is making 10 meter circles in each corner of the arena, she moves so beautifully off the leg and it was so nice to ride a horse that reacts to that and lets me truly ride her from inside leg to outside hand (Riley is just starting to gather this concept). We cantered each way a couple of times and my God her canter is to die for. it's so uphill and fancy, she feels like a little sports car underneath of you. I got up out of the saddle in a light seat for one lap and then sat deeply and rode some really nice circles with her. She's all to eager to show off her changes and when you cross the middle of the ring you can already feel her setting herself up for them! Emily has been getting some tempis across the diagonal (3-4 changes every 2 strides), so the mare could certainly excell at pure dressage. I wish someone else had been at the farm because I would have LOVED to jump her, but I didn't want to take the risk. Plus, Lucy got loose in the middle of my ride and all of a suddenly I had her chasing me around the ring, I honestly wasn't sure what she'd do if she saw me riding a horse so I was ready to pull up and hop off if needed. Prima spooked once, but Lucy has a healthy respect for horses and just kind of hung out while we finished our ride. What a good pup!

Barn dog behaving herself in the ring.

This post took me a few days to write due to some unexpected changes in my schedule, so I didn't get to ride Monday or Tuesday! Whoops. Tonight, I'll have a jumping lesson with Emily and tomorrow I'll flat him in prep for Friday. I still don't have my ride times but I know it's between 3:30 and 6:30pm so I can always ride him a little in the morning if I feel like it. I still need to pull his mane and clean his tack but I can always bring his tack home with me Thursday evening:)

Here's a few cute photos from dog sitting over the weekend. Ruff life indeed for these three:

Bandit is a hound and tends to chase things so I thought Lucy could teach him the ropes of running loose at the barn. This worked remarkably well!

While I generally don't let the dogs on the couch it was a little hard to resist late Saturday night and then this happened. Cute overload!

I got a new laptop so hopefully my posts will be more timely!

Berney test ride, day one.

I managed to sneak away early from the office yesterday to meet with Emily and try out the new potential saddle. It was MUCH nicer in person than I expected and it has clearly been well loved. Middleburg does a great job of vetting their used inventory so you don't have to worry about things like shoddy repair work or broken trees etc (which is why I am terrified of buying a saddle on Ebay). The leather is supple and soft with minimal wear. in fact, I could only find wear marks on the billets and the edges of the cantle.

I was nervous, to be sure... Riley as I mentioned, is difficult to fit... and he's opinionated when he doesn't like a saddle. I tossed the saddle on him bare and like what I saw right away.

Really like the balance from front to back. I put a pen on the saddle to see where the center of balance was and it was perfect.

Overall, I liked the fit along the front of the flap. There was a slight gap toward the bottom but I knew that would change one it was girthed up.

Great clearance around his withers. He doesn't have protruding withers, and since he wears a wide it's important to make sure the saddle doesn't crowd them.

We decided to tack him up in just a simple pad to see how the saddle settled in once I was up (I usually ride in a half pad of some sort). Riley is the kind of horse that will really let you know when he's in pain of any kind. As I girthed him up he was licking and chewing and happy. No dancing around and no grumpy looks. I stuck my leathers on and realized that they match perfectly (so does my breastplate -- bonus!) and got on.

Whoa.

I felt like I was sitting INTO my saddle instead of perched on it. My leg felt locked it place and it was immediately super comfortable. I was very excited to go play around on it. Initially Emily was worried it was a tiny bit small for me (in the seat), but I could fit my entire hand behind me and she agreed it was just a completely differently style from my old saddle.

Now for more pictures (which is really all I am good for these days as a blogger):

Loving the position of my leg and weight in my heels for once! *just after a jump

Comfortable enough to find my own balance again.

Riley was VERY distracted by the cows off to our right and felt like myabe he should veer us into a standard as a way to escape them.

My leg is still slipping a bit, but my balance was much better.

I posted this one so you could see his cute expression, oh and my super talented way of climbing up my horses neck.

When I picked up the canter, he felt the best he's ever been and Emily commented on both of us one stride in. The difference in this saddle is remarkable.

And, then there's this... homeboy loves a stretchy trot.

Back swinging and happy.

We picked up our right lead canter first try from the walk and Emily was very excited for us! Jumping was a bit rough as it was a whole new feel of balance for me and not wearing spurs was not a good plan for such a hot day. But I needed to know how he felt over fences so off we went. Sadly, he gave me a serious case of whiplash after the last oxer by over-jumping and stumbling upon landing, if I had been in my other saddle I would have come off for sure!

I went on a nice hack after our ride and he was terrific. I hope this is the last saddle we'll need for awhile! 

And Blogger is being an a-hole so no video for you! Tomorrow, Emily and I are going to set up a little combined test for ourselves to run through our dressage tests and do some jumping! I'll let you guys know how day two in the saddle goes!

Oh yea, one last thing:

Entered!

Saddle woes and wins.

I have mentioned in the last few posts that I was going to be looking for a new saddle. I didn't want to give it too much thought yet because I don't have much of a budget, Riley is really hard to fit, and I pretty much need the size/style of saddle that everyone is looking for so I knew it was going to be a bit of a hunt. I've ridden in a few of Emily's saddles and while she's much taller than I am, I really like the balance of the Berney Bros. I thought it would be interesting to post some recent photos of me jumping in both saddles so you can see what I mean (these shots were roughly a week or two apart).

Current saddle. Heritage jumping saddle. Fits both of us well enough. smaller knee block and no thigh blocks.

On the flat, my position is quite good in this saddle, but you can kind of see here that if I want to put my stirrups up any higher I'm going to be in trouble with the knee rolls.

Case in point. The balance of this saddle doesn't allow me much security and I am thrown forward, pivoting at the knee.

I'm still jumping ahead, but my leg is staying firmly at the girth and underneath my body for a better overall balance.

When I am balanced, I'm able to give Riley all the freedom he needs. Having a saddle that gives me this kind of security allows me to find my own balance without throwing him off.

In between fences, love how my leg is in this photo, right where it should be.

 So, with Emily taking a trip down to Virginia for the WEG trials, I begged her to make a stop at the Middleburg Tack Exchange (aka, heaven) to look for my white whale of a saddle. She took a current wither tracing with her, my non-existent budget, and some parameters of what I was looking for.

In case you were wondering where I was instead of going to the WEG trials, I had a super long wedding to shoot on Saturday. While I was in the middle of shooting the ceremony, I got a couple of frantic texts from Emily saying that she found A 17" BERNEY BROS. IN WIDE. What!?! I was able to sneak away during the communion portion of the mass (there were also two other photographers) to go outside and make a call. She said she literally looked at hundreds of saddles and felt like it was a lost cause. None of the saddles fit Riley's wither tracing (did I mention he's hard to fit?) and she was starting to give up, when she saw on the top shelf a lone Berney Bros.

A small cross section of the used saddle inventory at Middleburg Tack Exchange

She pulled it off the shelf half-heartedly and nearly died when she was the size and shape. And then, this:

Like a glove.

Beautiful used condition. Love the balance of the seat and the more forward flaps than my current saddle. I don't have super long legs so I don't need a really forward flap.

Exactly what I was looking for, nice knee block and a small thigh block.

So I made the call, gave them my account info and it's mine on trial for a week. If I like it and it fits us both, I can make the seller an offer against the suggested retail price (all their saddles are on consignment).

So, fingers crossed for us that I have found something suitable! The very kind British woman who works at the shop mentioned to Emily that the Berney's never last more than a few days because everyone wants them and they last forever. What a score! I will post my current saddle for sale if this one works out to recoup the money!

Ps. I got a 17" because Berney's tend to be a bit generous in the sizing and don't usually come standard in half sizes.

Pps. Based on all of these photos its clear I need to do lots of two point work to lengthen my leg and stretch down into my heels. Sadly, I will never be one of those riders whose heels look super flexed (years and years of gymnastic has given my ankles early arthritis!)