Avandarre in Dressage

I participated in the Roz Kinstler clinic today.  My brain is overloaded! Next time I'm bringing a note book and writing this stuff down. Just listening to Roz teach the other riders was fantastic. The back story on Ava and my start to the day: Ava refused to load. Tried everything. Last November Ava was walking onto the trailer without batting an eyelash. Not today. Today, she didn't want to. My ride time was at 9:00 am, and I'm almost an hour away from where the clinic was at. At 8:39, Ava finally loaded. I was very lucky that my trainer offered to switch ride times with me so that I could still participate in the clinic today (Thank you so much, Bern!). The Ride: It started off getting Ava convinced that I could hold the right rein and move her shoulders over when going right. Roz had a great tip/tool of raising the inside hand about 2-3 inches higher than the left hand and then basically holding it in place. Kind of a "I am here, you deal with it" hold. ...

Quick update... Today was the deadline to apply for the Lilo Fore Clinic. After many, many obstacles, I shot off an email (application attached) to the organizer with a link to a crappy video. And let me tell ya, it is CRAPPY. I have jeans on. In my defense, I swear, I tried a half dozen times to capture us on video in our best attire and neatly braided with utterly no luck. So screw it. This is what I've got with the resources I have available. About an hour after emailing the organizer, she emailed back saying that the app looked good and she'll be sending it to the selection committee for review (next week since it's Friday today). Frankly, I didnt expect to hear anything back. Or if I did, it'd just be the word's "hahaha, you hick!" Anyway, application is in, no more getting angry about failed video attempts, and the best part... If I don't get selected I can blame it on the jeans and tank top and not my piss poor riding skills. I love s...

I just love when people say stupid things. It makes for a good chuckle. Well, after I stop steaming, and can cool off, THEN it's funny. Yesterday, a new dressage rider brought her horse to the barn. I'm not very good with general chit chat, so at an awkward pause I filled it with a "So, who do you train with?". We'd been getting along fine up 'til this point, with me making the obligatory 'oooohhh's' and 'aaaaahhh's' over her horse (he was very cute). Her response... "I ride with Blah Blah in Omgville." She stared at me for what seemed like an awful long time while I did the "I'm thinking" look (when in actuality I had no clue who she was talking about). I finally shrug and admit I know nothing about the trainer. I can tell she's offended by this. As though the mention of the name should've caused me to wet myself with envy and fear. I insisted it was my fault, since I really haven't been out in the d...

This should be so easy, and I'm totally not getting it. We went from perfectly (for us) balanced, soft, and engaged to... to... Yuck . Just Yuck. I'm seriously thinking about throwing in my helmet. It's so discouraging when you just can't fix the problem. I know there's a problem, I'm pretty sure I know what the problem is, but nothing I try fixes the problem. So then Ava hangs on that right rein, and twists her body so that it's impossible for her to work correctly. Then I get frustrated, and upset, and for some reason I think if I just try harder that that will magically fix it. HA (that was a sarcastic Ha). I feel like I'll never get this.  *sigh*

It's not really day two, but I've been busy, so I'll just mark these in chronological order. What I've learned in a week of working on a straighter horse that's using her back better, is this... it's all incremental levels of straightness, connection, and engagement. I think for some reason I've always had the idea that connection was either there, or not there. I mean, I get that connection can be better, or worse, depending on the day and other factors, but I think I was holding onto a believe that for the most part connection was just there. But it's more complicated than that. And my belief about connection was hampered by the idea that connection has to do with the bit and the horse's mouth. From what I'm learning, it has very little to do with the mouth, and so much more to do with having the horse directly between the knee's and powering off both sides evenly. This is my tentative theory on the whole thing (take it for what it...

If the horse doesn't meet the hand consistently, then I have a tendency to pull back. How do I not pull back? I'm supposed to drive the horse forward into contact, but the horse doesn't always agree with that. I shorten the reins to get back to a point where there is consistent contact and drive forward. But now the horse's neck is an inch long. And at this point I'm screwed. Return to forward hands.... I place my hands back in the box and press the horse forward with my calves. Horse meets the contact so I give a little with my fingers and release the leg pressure. Horse then leans solidly on the bit. I press horse forward again, head and neck come up and back, I shorten my reins (since there is now a big loop in them). Horse's neck is an inch long... Again. What I learned today is that it's all in the release. And, I'm not doing it right. I'm like 2 seconds too slow every time. I also learned that screwing it up is easy, fixing it is not.

I know you're all dying to hear how video taping went. Well... It didn't. I get to the barn and apparently every one, and half their family, decided that tonight was the night to ride. I haven't seen most of these people in over a week. I tell myself it's okay. Maybe they'll clear out before the lesson. The lesson I put on the board. The one in big block letters. So I pull out all of Ava's gear, and have to use the bathroom. Run up to the house, come back and every cross tie is full. I stand there a minute, but no one seems to be in much of a hurry to move. I grab Ava's stuff again and haul it all down to her stall to start getting Ava tacked up. Then the text message comes through. Our second vehicle, my hubby's truck, is spewing gas like a fire hose on full volume. Husband apologizes, saying he can't make it to video tape tonight. I finally get Ava tacked up and braided, and lead her out to the arena. At this point I notice the horse hand galloping...

My application for the Lilo Fore clinic has to be in the mail this week and I don't have a video yet. That isn't for lack of trying, but every time I plan on video taping, it down pours the night before. So these are my choices: take video in the dust bowl, postage stamp, arena and hope for the pity vote; or slog through knee high footing and pray I don't seriously damage my horses tendons (not a risk I'm willing to take). Tonight, my trainer is coming to help me finesse a great ride out of my horse, and my husband is coming to man the video camera. And..... it's snowing. In April. Why does this matter, you ask? Well, I don't have much in the way of asthetically pleasing riding attire that isn't designated as show wear. So, I figured I'd wear a polo shirt for my video. The, uh, "it's 70 degree's in the office and I'm freezing" short-sleeve polo shirt.  In my infinite wisedom, I decided to ask my sweet hubby to bring along a ther...

I was in the Marines for 4 years. While I was in, I achieved "Guide" in bootcamp (like platoon leader, except you have no power and you suffer the wraith of the Drill Instructors if anyone else screwed up).  I was Guide for nearly the entire last half of bootcamp. If you graduate as Guide, you get a promotion and all kinds of accolades for being the best of the best. I was || <- this close. You know what happened? I turned left, instead of right, when change of direction was called. I blew it. Months of being quarter decked for every single perceived infraction another Marine did, fire watch every other night for a straight month, AND I gave away every reward offered to me to the Marines in my platoon. That phone call home I earned half way through, where I could've heard my parents voices again? I gave it to the girl who missed her daughter so much that she cried herself to sleep every night. I had to be tougher, stronger, and faster then every other Marine there to...

March is over, so I thought I would do a recap of our improvements and stumbling blocks. Canter Transitions: We're still having issues with our canter departs and Ava throwing her head around.The walk/canter departs still create an immense amount of stress, and anxiety, for Ava. I've been trying everything I can think of to get her to relax, but nothing has worked. She had this same issue with the trot/canter departs last June, and the only thing that really helped was repetition. Repetition until she was so bored with it that she didn't care anymore. Until now, I haven't felt that Ava was really strong enough to do a lot of walk/canter departs so I've been fairly judicious about asking her for them. Weeeeeee! Yesterday I weighed out the pro's and con's and decided she's at the point where she can step up the engagement. I spent a majority of yesterday's lesson drilling walk/canter departs until she could do a few without making a big deal out...