Part 1: 4/2 Lesson & Show Prep

I am going to break this three-day weekend up into 3 posts even though I said before it would be 1. I was writing one post, but it got stupid long and covered way too much ground. So each day this weekend (Saturday-Monday) is getting it's own post. Plus right now Penn is on vacation and I have more than enough material to cover a couple days while he's taking a well deserved rest.

Part 1: Lesson and Show Prep

Saturday was a LONG day. I worked at the barn in the morning (feed, turnout, stalls), then had a half hour lesson, then it was time to pack the trailer and drive to the show and do all the pre-show activities. Bedtime ended up being around 11:30 or midnight maybe?

Lets start with how one of the horses pooped in his feed bin, and because I wanted to keep rolling that morning in getting the horse out ASAP, I decided to hold another bucket up for him to eat out of instead of cleaning his bin out right away. It was fine until he got a drink and coughed. All over my freshly cleaned fleece jacket. I don't have children, but I now know what baby throw up is like, and it doesn't make children appealing. At all. I washed my fleece in the bathroom, hung it up, and prayed it would dry before we left for the show because the temps were only in the 40s that morning (with a mid-50s high), and now I only had my long sleeve shirt and polo.

Penn playing with Ike the dog. Towards the end of their play session, because Ike got a little overexcited and had to be called back. I wanted to get some video of it though! It's hilarious.

I found out that Penn has a dog-friend, Ike. I don't know how it gets started, but Ike runs and barks next to the fence line and Penn trots and canters and head tosses and bucks next to him. They parallel each other like a cutting horse and cow. They seem to really enjoy running back and forth, so that's fine. Ike generally stays out of the field, but BO is ever watchful and calls him back to the barn when it looks like he's going to go under the fence. I think the whole thing is hilarious!

Anyway, I got to lesson and the idea was to warm up a bit and go over one of our tests. Trainer got after me to keep his haunches in just a bit more on turns and circles. We used the trot loop and canter work from T3 to warm up, so I ended up riding T2 instead of practicing T3.

There were 4 major takeaways from lesson that are more show specific, but still helpful:

• When coming back to the rail- from a circle, diagonal, or shallow loop- make sure Penn's shoulder hits the rail first. When he gets all fish-taily, his haunches are actually hitting first.
• Once I'm on the circle or diagonal, push his trot or canter just a hair more forward and give the inside hand just a little. This let's him open up and get some loft in his step while stretching his neck and really lets me show off his gaits. Near the completion of the movement, collect him back just a hair and make sure he meets the rail properly.
• In corners and turns up centerline, think about keeping the haunches in (but absolutely DO NOT push them in at all), and use the thought of counterbend to help him not collapse in the turns.
• In T3's left lead canter work, Let his canter be a bit open for the circle and coming down the arena, but as I get closer to the corner, start collecting, and then keep collecting past the judge and down the diagonal. This will keep him from flopping like a fish down the diagonal.

Penn got clipped, which wasn't as much of an ordeal as it's been in the past (whiskers, goat hairs, bridle path, fetlocks). It seems if I start with his legs or somewhere on his body, he's more cooperative about his face. It's not that it scares him up my his poll either, because he doesn't give two hoots about the clippers buzzing away up there. He only cares when it's by his nose. I missed a huge section of hairs because I was trying to keep him from attempting to break the cross ties. More practice is needed!

I got all my stuff packed up (I cleaned my tack Thursday night), and Hawk and I loaded up the horses and off we went to the show! 

When we left around 2:30, it was sunny, breezy, and around 50 degrees. In general, it was warm feeling.

It turns out our early ride times saved our butts because they forced us to haul the day before the show. Just as we were arriving, it started snowing. A lot. The really wet and heavy stuff. And it was super windy.

About 10 minutes into unloading the trailer.
Where the hell did our sunshine go???

My fleece jacket, which had managed to dry before we left, became unwearable again after making several trips to the trailer and then standing out there to unhook the trailer. At least I grabbed my Carhartt jacket on a whim when I walked out the door Saturday morning. While it was too warm to wear it at home while doing chores and riding, it was very nice to have at the show grounds where it was 20-25 degrees colder (and much more windy).

Hawk and I got to ride in the dressage arena itself (yay!) and it was excellent practice. Penn was definitely less reactive on Sunday because of it. I finally got to school him in left lead canter past C. At all of the previous shows, he's turned into a spooky mess past the judge in T3. I just try to hold it together and get past it. Saturday night I got to reapproach and try again! And continue repeating it until he finally relaxed.

We braided after riding, but that's about when the barn started getting super cold. We'd been sharing the ring with another group, but they had only hauled over to practice and were going home... so they kept going in and out of the barn, leaving the main door open so all of the "warm" air in the barn was escaping and winter was coming in! Penn and Fiction got extra blanket layers and extra hay with their dinners, and we set off to find ourselves some dinner and go to the hotel for the night.

Can we talk about how a blizzard decided to happen while we were in the barn? Snow was creeping under the barn door, and there were several inches out in the parking lot. We'd only been in the barn for 3.5 hours. I used a broom from my trailer to brush off the windows and headlights of my truck because my ice scraper wasn't in the backseat anymore! The roads were horrible, the temps plummeted to around 22 degrees, and the wind was fierce (pumping 21 gallons of gas into the truck was a horrible experience). We were VERY happy that we hauled over Saturday. The roads would have been too treacherous for us to haul early Sunday morning.

WTF Mother Nature? April Fools Day was the day before! Also, we're in APRIL which is NOT WINTER!

Stay tuned for Part 2: Schooling Show - Series Finale!

Weekend Preview

The warm...

The cold...

The prizes...

And the damage.

Lists!

Today's theme is lists. This weekend is the finale horse show of the winter dressage series (it's big ass ribbon time!), and our plans got a little scrambled, so I have a lot to do before Saturday morning and I can't do any of it right now because I'm at work. Making lists is how I cope. So this post is going to be in list form!

1. So I've been riding all week:

• Tuesday: Honestly, I don't remember what we did. Penn must have been OK. I remember he was NOT keen on doing the haunches in exercises again. He kept losing his forward and threatening to rear. Silly horse. I think we jumped a cross rail.
• Wednesday: Also not productive, other than having a good time. I think he started well, was still not cooperative to the haunches in exercises, but was good enough. We jumped! A little cross rail was up, so we jumped that a few times, then we jumped Penn's first ever line of jumps! Two itty bitty tiny verticals that probably don't count as jumps. The last time through the line, he cantered the last fence. Penn's first canter jump! *tear* He was so good, and so proud of himself, haha.
• Thursday: Penn got patched. The Patch Lady found some extra tension in his hind end on the right and in his barrel/flank area on the left. That goes along with the haunches in exercises we'd been doing- the right hind lags. He was all licky and chewy and sleepy after he got his patches (he was very up and alert before because horses were moving around and a new horse came in and there was a lot of activity). We had a great ride after during which he cooperated with haunches in and half pass. Soft haunches in and while not stellar, it was a more agreeable half pass. His regular work was wonderful and he really responded when I got my act together (ie: thumbs up, elbows pulled down so I feel the stretch across my collar bones). He had two absolutely gorgeous shoulder ins, one each way, down the length of the outdoor, without a solid rail. Steady, consistent, soft, supple, flowing. Like, I could have taken it in a second level test for sure and earned excellent marks. He worked for about 15-20 minutes and I ran out of things to do because he was so good. So we jumped the cross rail again then stood around and watched some of the kids ride and jump.

Very mellow, post-patches, pre-riding.

2. Earlier in the week, I renewed my USEF/USDF memberships... and signed Penn up with his lifetime everything... goodbye to my share our tax return:

• Human USDF Membership: $75
• Human USEF Membership: $55
• Penn's Lifetime USDF Number: $95
• Penn's Lifetime USEF Membership: $200

I know I could have saved money by just doing the yearly membership for Penn ($75), however I do plan on having him for at least 3 years, so it makes sense to just fork it all over now and never pay for him again.

3. I chatted with the girl at the barn who works for Dover and got some recommendations for things I want/need. She yelled at me for using glycerin soap on my tall boots (apparently glycerin soaps take the dye out), and shoved two products in my hand from her own personal stock that won't pull dye out. I asked about using them on my Micklem because I have trouble getting the dye to stay on (guess what, it needs done again!), and she said the cleaner is safe for the bridle, but she wouldn't use the conditioner on it, but a leather balsam would be fine. The new list of items from Dover:

• Davis Splint Boots - For turnout. These are a need because Penn is chewing up all four of his legs.
• Circuit Sheepskin Square Pad - For shows. Making this one a need because my current white pad doesn't fit my saddle and I can't take it to recognized shows like that (which are coming up soon!)
• Sergio Grasso Boot Cleaner - This is what she recommended because it removes salt and sweat, but won't pull dye out. Need, if only because dying my Micklem every year is SUPER ANNOYING.
• Der-Dau Boot Conditioner - A want, because balsam will do just fine and I have some of that already. But man did it do a good job on my boots last night. Perfect shine without attracting dust.
• Effax Lederbalsam - A want, and one I will most likely indulge, because I already have balsam but I prefer this brand (I've used hers a couple times, and I love it).
• Effax Leder Combi Leather Cleaner -  A want, and one that can't go without the Effax Lederbalsam. They must be used as a pair. I'll probably pass on this one for now, because this list is getting very expensive very quickly and I have a lot of cleaners already.
• Warendorf Dressage Saddle Pad - A want that I might indulge to reduce the wear and tear on the Circuit pad listed above (I won't be able to bleach it to get it white!). Since I travel to trainers and they travel to me, I want to dress for lessons (white saddle pad, Penn's fancy white boots, good helmet, hairnet, etc). The white with black trim would match very nicely with Penn's white with black fleece boots!

Basically, this list amounts to $304.92 before our 7% local tax, which is amounts to it all costing way too much money. Can't justify all of the expenses. Removing just the Der-Dau Boot conditioner and Effax Combi just doesn't take the bill down enough. Maybe I'll hold off on the Warendorf pad even though I love it and do another round of shopping later in April or May for the rest of the stuff. Spread out the cost, you know?

4. Plans for today (Friday), include:

• Continue washing the long list of items that need to be cleaned (8 loads of laundry in two days, human and horse, because none of it can be washed together of course). We have a second washer because one came with our house (we haven't gotten around to selling it). I should really have gotten husband to hook it up so I could wash two loads at once!
• Scrub a water bucket that somehow got soap in it. Pray that I can get the soap scum out.
• Make dinner.
• Put gas in the truck.
• Locate(!!) and pack everything that needs to go with me this weekend.
• Make sure I have everything all set and organized so I can load and go Saturday morning.

Our plans got scrambled a bit because Hawk and my ride times are at 9:20ish Sunday morning. It's a 3 hour drive to the show, so we're hauling over Saturday and staying overnight to avoid waking up at stupid hours of the night to leave in enough time Sunday morning. Did I mention we have lessons Saturday too? And I'm doing my usual Saturday morning work? #toomuchtodo

I have a list for everything- human needs, horse needs, what goes in the truck, in the trailer, in my show trunk. I have a daily list of human needs because I've forgotten changes of clothes on more than one occasion. I have 11 different lists right now. To do lists, lists of what I'll need each day, then packing lists based on those lists! I do pack lightly for these things now, but I can only get it done with detailed lists of what I need! Plus they help me cope when I can't actively work on any of them. Maybe that's why I never save any of these lists to a computer to print out for next time.

Shamelessly stolen from a Google search because it fits too nicely!

In the slew of Type-A dressage queens out there, I can't be the only list-crazy person... right?

4 Odds and Ends

So I have 4 items that don't make up a post on their own, but together they do!

1. A great trail ride with Hawk and Fiction! Hawk showed me around the hay fields and up on the ridge on Easter. We had a great ride on a very beautiful day. When we came back, I hopped Penn over an 18" crossrail in the arena since I was in my jump tack. He completely overjumped it the first time, and then hopped over the second. That was enough for me, haha! Quit before I fall off from the combined effect of 1) not jumping seriously in several years, and 2) jumping a horse than has jumped less than 20 fences in his life. A side note, someone had set my cavalettis up on the highest setting to put up a tiny vertical last week and we jumped that a couple times! Wahoo, we're getting a little crazy, haha.

Buddies!

Looking around.

Attempting to fit Penn, Fiction and the beautiful scenery all in one shot. Nope, haha.

2. Penn has a lot of white ticking coming in. I noticed some white hairs in Penn's coat last fall, but there weren't too many. I gave him a vetrolin bath Sunday and took him out to hand graze and brushed him while he dried. As I brushed, I noticed a ton of white hairs near his flanks and then more and more white hairs over his rump and on his barrel. He has some white hairs in his tail (not anywhere near enough for a skunk tail), and I know Alla Czar passes on rabicano/sabino coloring to his offspring. Anyone know if rabicano white hair ticking gets bolder with age? Either way, it looks like it's manifesting stronger with this year's summer coat.

It doesn't show up far away, but there's a lot of white hairs in this bay coat!

3. I'm shopping for a new white saddle pad. I love my Classic Equine pad, but it's got a couple funny spots that I can't get washed out, they don't make that saddle pad anymore, and the drop isn't enough for Penn's saddle anyway. Saddle pad requirements: white, prefer no trim colors (I use bleach), square corner, no bigger than a 22" spine with a 21" drop (I like close fitting pads and these are the measurements of the BOT dressage pad that I do like the fit of). Also up for consideration: one with the half pad attached (and I will forgo the bleach).

I've had some excellent recommendations, and I did more hunting on my own. I'm torn between the Warendorf Dressage Saddle Pad and Equine Comfort Grip Tech Dressage Pad from Dover (plus some others sprinkled in the mix). Please vote for something.

Warendorf Pad- I love the black trim too (it would match Penn's fancy boots), and at $29.99 each, I could buy both!
A little concerned about the lack of curve in the spine.

Equine Comfort Grip Tech Dressage Pad- I like the puffy nature of the pad and I wouldn't use my half pad under it.
Possibly affordable at $114.99. The drop isn't quite long enough though. 

ECOGOLD CoolFit Dressage Pad - A more expensive version of the above? At $194.99, it's out. Plus I can't tell if it's puffy, and I'd want to use this in place of a regular pad and half pad.

Circuit Sheepskin Square Saddle Pad - Combines the pad and half pad. Not terribly excited about it (I wish it had a square corner), but I feel like $129.99 is a good price for something like this.

Total Saddle Fit Six Point Pad - I love love love this one, and I've wanted it for forever. Mikey was going to get one for the wither freedom, but I'm not so sure Penn needs it, and at $189 + shipping - possible return customer discount, this is expensive, and more than I want to spend.

4. I'm shopping for turnout boots. BO will put turnout boots on horses (yay! but I still have to check with her to make sure), and Penn is starting to interfere behind even more when he's out on his own (mid cannon height on the inside of the leg), and I'm terrified that he's going to hurt himself (he nicked himself this weekend and his leg had some slight fill). I'm mostly just looking for hind boots- he's good about the fronts. I was going to put Mikey's old DSBs on him, except I'm concerned that in the summer they'll hold in too much heat and then get waterlogged when it rains or gets too muddy. I'd like to stay away from fleece and neoprene simply because of the heat build up- he's going to be wearing these for at least 12 hours at a time. I really like the Equilibrium Tri-Zone® Airlite Allsports II Boots, but they're so expensive! I'd use them for trail rides too so they get more use than just turnout (also Penn hated the Roma ankle boots I put on him for our Easter trail ride), but it's still tough for me to justify that much money for turnout boots when plain splint boots would probably do the job. Also, the cost prohibits me from getting another set for his front legs. Any favorite turnout boots?

Possible solution to protect Penn's legs?

Lesson 3/26 - TRAINER IS BACK!!

TRAINER IS BACK!!!! *jumps for joy* I've missed her, haha.

Finding lightness and hop in the canter.

She had me do a quick run through of where we were at, during which Penn tried his best to make me a liar. I had said, "He's doing so well! I can't wait for you to see him!" and then he proceeded to be a distracted, kinda-sorta disconnected little bugger.

She was still happy with him. The first thing she noticed was that it looked like he grew... behind. And is now a bit croup high. Le sigh. As I said before, I measured him a week or two ago, and he is taller behind (by less than an inch). One can only hope that his front end will catch up, but seeing as how he just turned 7 and his grandsire was slightly downhill (and many of his grandsire's characteristics overrode the significant amount of TB in him), I'm not going to hold my breath. I may buy him platform shoes though. No, really. One of the farriers at the barn found these awesome clear plastic type composite shoes that are super thick (and super light) and they have a lot of shock absorption going on (plus some wicked tread!). She's experimenting with them on her own 17.3 horse before suggesting them to clients.

Alla Czar, Penn's grandsire.
He was a top hunter sire and made it to PSG himself. So I'm still hopeful?

Trainer also said that before she left, his front end was quite developed and he was weak behind, and now his hind end has caught up and surpassed his front end. Basically, the hind end motor is big and roaring to go and his front end can't get out of the way fast enough, which is where a lot of my unsteadiness in the bridle is coming from.

We spent most of the lesson using haunches in to give his hind end more to do so his front end can keep up. The weak hind leg is the right hind and the idea is to make it keep up and work harder, especially to the left because he tends to stand wide behind and fishtail out on bending lines (all those notes of "loss of outside hind", I just didn't know a good way to fix it other than to "outside leg him to death"). He understands my leg can mean to move the hind legs over, but he doesn't understand that it can also mean step more forward and under.

First we practiced on a circle- 15-18m in walk and trot: put Penn in haunches in, then "bring his shoulders around" without losing the outside hind, almost like a turn on the haunches but don't really turn on the haunch. Back to haunches in, bring the shoulders around. Lather, rinse, repeat. Do. Not. Lose. The. Outside. Hind.

Once that idea was planted and taking root in my brain, we moved on to the main exercise:

• 10-12m circle at the start of a long wall.
• Find haunches in on the circle.
• Send haunches in down the long wall, just inside of the rail.
• Bring the shoulders around and into half-pass. Do not lose the outside hind!
• Half-pass for 3-6 steps.
• Switch back to haunches in.
• Do the exercise in walk, then move on to trot.
• Trouble-shooting: DON'T LOSE THE FORWARD MOTION.

This was hard for Penn to the left. The right hind is on the outside and now it has to step under AND keep up. Poor Penn. He took it well and became very steady in the bridle when he wasn't fidgeting his whole body around in the half pass.

Trainer also got after me to pull drop my elbows down, basically lengthening my arm from shoulder to elbow, to take the tension out of my wrist (and do other things like get me to sink down in the saddle). Guess what? When you feel your collar bones being pulled down by your elbows, you can't break your wrists and interfere with the bit-to-elbow idea AND you have to sit up very straight. It's not the first time she's gotten after me about it, but it does make the biggest difference in my riding (along with the pushing a reluctant recliner back with my shoulder blades for a half halt, that's a good one too). She had to remind me about it as I asked Penn to do things besides trot around. Urghhh.

While the left was hard, and none of the half passes of true quality, it was a hell of a lot better than to the right!

Oh, the right. I got a charlie horse immediately in my left leg (the fail is on video but the video is turned the wrong way and my video software doesn't seem to like the file). Penn was not happy to half pass right or bring his haunches back around after. And I was in pain. So he may have gotten pony club kicked with my left leg because that's all I could manage, haha. He responded and I didn't have to do it again.

Interestingly, going to the right needs more right leg than left to make it all happen. Again, the right hind leg is the "slow" leg and it did not appreciate having to step under. Trainer had me find the motion of the hind legs and nudge each side in rhythm with them. This helped keep the forward motion that I lose when Penn and I both get frustrated. It's still a muddled concept in my brain that I'll probably spend a half hour during my next ride in walk trying to get it right on my own. That's a normal process for me- I spend some quiet time the next ride working it out on my own, then have Trainer check me in our next lesson.

She assigned the trot work to the right as homework, and we moved on to canter to the left on a 18m circle before Penn and I both fizzled out. Same idea: bring the haunches in and create the steady elastic horse (checking self carriage with the inside hand), then canter without losing the haunches in feeling. Once the canter is established, find the self carriage again and work on bringing the shoulders around to "straighten" the canter. This should create a light, connected horse.

Penn is such a good sport- I ask and ask and ask things of him and he just keeps trying. He never says no. I had to think about making the shoulder motion more of a pirouette feeling, but then he really got hoppy and light and connected! Then we stopped before we lost it, haha.

Trainer told me to work on the trot exercises and do my normal canter work while paying extra attention to the outside hind, but absolutely do not drill the canter like we did. Work it that way once this week. Trot builds muscle, canter builds wind, and what we need is muscle, so work it mostly in trot for now.

I got 3 other people to sign up for another lesson next weekend. I wanted another lesson before the final horse show in our winter series (it's big ass ribbon time!), and Trainer needs more than one person to take a lesson to make the trip to our barn worthwhile. I'll spend this week working on destroying me and Penn with the haunches in, and I'll need some help smoothing it all over before the horse show!

Here's a video of the final canter work that we did:

I'm so glad to have Trainer back! She came back and kicked our butt, haha.

3-21-2016 Stephen Birchall Clinic

Stephen Birchall came to DT's barn Sunday and Monday this week for a clinic. I've heard great things about him from Austen (here, here, and here) and Emma, so I jumped at the chance to ride with him.

Standing so quietly!

We did our little intro schpeel: Penn was just broke to ride last year and I got him last August. I've been showing him all winter and we're scoring in the mid 60's at Training Level and I'd like to move him up to First in April. I have issues with him bouncing off the contact and bending left.

The first thing Stephen did was commend me for dressing neatly and nicely for lesson. I think George Morris would be proud, if he was a dressage rider.

Stephen had me trot for like a circle, then stopped me and asked me to put up my stirrups one hole on each side. He wanted my leg to have a bit more contact with Penn's side to make it easier to bend him, and he wanted my heel down and didn't like how much I was reaching for the iron. I didn't notice much difference in leg length (they're still long!) but I did have a much easier time getting my leg on at the right time.

One of the things he had to continually remind me of was to keep my thumbs up (sorry!!! bad habits) and he took away my whip (not that I use it often, but I always carry it because I'll need it the one time I don't!). It was easier to keep my thumbs up without it, so maybe I'll ride without it for a while.

Warming up, we did a lot of walk/trot transitions on a figure 8. He said he thought Penn's bend left issue would be a lot worse from how I described it, because he didn't see a whole lot of issues. Some yes, but not horrible. He had me squeeze and release my inside rein as a reminder to go with my inside leg to outside rein. Not a take and release, but a squeeze the hand and release. Something clicked in Penn's brain and he was like, "Ohhhh, you mean supple and bend? Sure!" He had me pay extra attention to the pace of the walk and trot- Penn was in turbo mode on Monday since he was at a different barn and I think that was partially why Stephen took away my whip. In posting trot, he had me even out my posting and make it steadier, which translated well for Penn. All of these things will translate so well when I take him back to my winter dressage series- I have some good ammo for Penn's turbo mode and counterbend tendencies.

He had us do some shoulder in at trot and was very pleased. He made me watch in the mirrors for my angle and reminded me that the three track isn't much angle. It was really neat to be able to watch in the mirrors! Maybe we can talk BO into getting some at home!

We moved on to canter, and he had me do the same suppling motion from the trot- squeeze and release the inside rein, and reminded me that if I take the inside rein, I need to give the outside (something that Trainer and DT reminded me of too!). He had me stick to a circle then go straight ahead in shoulder fore. Why hadn't that ever occurred to me? I did it all the time with Mikey. He suggested shoulder fore to combat Penn's tendency to hit the straight line and splat down the longside. As soon as I got a smidge of angle, Penn had A TON of hop in the canter. And it was easy to get it to happen once Penn realized what I was asking.

After looking at the canter, he wanted to have a look at the leg yields. This is the first time ever that I didn't do one in walk first- we skipped straight to trot. He had me shoulder in down the long wall, turn up centerline and leg yield to the wall (in whichever direction would let us keep tracking the same way). The leg yields to the right were perfect. He praised me for waiting for Penn to sort himself out on centerline and then asking for the leg yield (thank you DT for making me do that!). The ones to the left were also good, but they don't have the same fluid motion that the right does. He does weird tripping/front foot dragging in them. Maybe because he was spooking at the people sitting in that corner? Who knows.

He had me do a couple thinking medium trots on the diagonal. From Mikey, I have a tendency to keep pushing down the diagonal or else it all fizzles out. After the first one that I pushed Penn through, he would chime in with plenty/support/maintain after the first few steps and then have me make the gait bigger on the next diagonal.

We finished with Penn learning to walk-canter-walk. I told him that I hadn't taught them to Penn yet, and that I sucked at the canter-walk ones to begin with. He said to make sure I don't collapse my shoulders or lose the straightness of the horse in them. Which, durrrr, that makes total sense. I totally don't remember how I taught Mikey to walk-canter. I feel like I just kicked harder? Not the best way to teach Penn. He had me prep by my putting my outside leg on to let Penn know something was going to happen. Penn promptly shifted his hindquarters in (Stephen loved Penn's response even though it's not what we were looking for, he just loved how responsive Penn is to the leg). He also had me collect the walk A LOT. Something else that has dropped out of my head.

The first transition was a little inverted (totally A-OK with that though), but I had the right lead canter after a step or two of trot. Coming back to walk wasn't the greatest. Cued again for canter and Penn lifted up and right into canter! Wahoo! That was definitely our most successful one. The rest were a step or two of trot into the canter. The downwards ended up being the problem. We tried a smaller and smaller circle into the walk, so he had me leg yield out and pick up the canter on the leg yield, canter a circle, then go straight down the long wall. At B he had me do a 10m circle as best I could, and in the step before getting back to the wall, ask for walk NOW. Penn dropped right into walk! He said to work on the downward transition using the wall to back Penn off since horses don't usually want to run into the wall.

Overall Stephen said:

• He loved Penn. He's a more thoroughbred type that is slightly croup high (I did measure him with a stick last week, it's true by about a half inch... sad face), so I'll have to work extra hard to get him to engage his hind end and bend his hocks and stifles to combat that. He loved that Penn tried so hard and responded to very light cues and worked so well off the leg. He asked if I hauled in and remarked what a great brain Penn has considering he's green and in a strange barn on a very windy day. I said he's been that way since I got him- at home or away, inside or outside, in the ring or on the trails, that I essentially have the exact same horse in all of those places, and that I lucked out when I got him. "Damn girl, he has good feet too! You did get lucky!" might have been uttered :-) Haha!
• Since Penn is a thoroughbred type, he warned me to keep up with Penn's nutrition and feed program and don't be afraid to throw food at him. He's in good weight now, but as the work gets harder to keep an eye on it. Stephen's thoroughbred types eat a ton to build the muscle for dressage work. I told him no worries, I had an OTTB before Penn that we threw food at like no tomorrow and he was still on the thinner side- he worked it all off for his 3rd level work.
• Penn is very capable of doing second level work right now, but I need to focus on building his strength for it. Every week, build a little bit more.
• He complimented me on having a great seat and position and how I sit so quietly on Penn- thank you Mikey! With a horse as sensitive to cues as Penn, I have to ride very quietly. He reminded me about my thumbs and to do a bit more sitting up through my shoulders to keep encouraging sit and lift from Penn.

I put together a video that is made up of 5 video clips from my lesson. Mom was my videographer using my phone, and I told her she didn't have unlimited space, so some of the better movements were missed. And at one point she managed to bring up my cat pictures and turn my phone off... At a break she asked me what she did, and Stephen had a good laugh about my cat pictures, haha. The clips hit the following points (in order):

• Shoulder in left
• Shoulder in right
• Suppling the right lead canter and shoulder fore in canter
• Lengthening trots
• Walk-Canter-Walk transitions (the canter-walk in this video is probably the best one I've ever done).

I had a really good time riding with Stephen. He is fun and hilarious! DT is planning on having him out frequently. I asked her to let me know when he's coming back because I'd like to ride at least once, if not twice.

Penn looked like a little kid all dressed to play in the snow in his shipping boots, hood and blanket, and head bumper, haha. My mom had me take a couple pics of him and send them to her... and I think the one with his tongue out is going to end up on the fridge... hahaha!

Derp face and oh so adorable face.

I rode outside last night, sans whip, paying attention to my thumbs and working the squeeze inside rein when I lost Penn's attention. I put him on the 3 loop serpentine and did a bunch of walk trot transitions. There's something about the thumbs up that really helps (go figure, proper equitation helps!). I kept my stirrups at the shorter hole and finally felt it- I felt like my knees were up in my eyeballs, but I found it easier to get my leg on my horse. Of course they were right where Stephen put them, haha. I got some fabulous trot and canter work on the serpentine, and I took that trot to the trot poles since they were still up. Penn was SUPER through them- up and lofty. Until he decided there was something to spook at to the outside and the poles were hard and so he jumped out of them, haha. I made him go back through twice more (and make it to the end). I never expected to have to keep him in them- not only are there blocks at the end of the poles, but when Hawk and I set them up, we changed a jump grid to cavalettis and left the standards outside the poles, so it's basically a chute. Oh well, Penn was really super last night so after 25 min of work he got to quit!

Exercises from Last Week

Last week we had some good rides. I'd like to record two exercises we did so when I look through my old posts I go, "Oh yea!" and remember to do them again later.

The first exercise is a 3 loop serpentine at canter with changes of lead through trot. I rode it with the end loops being on the right lead, the center loop on the left. Penn does not like to switch from right to left (easy direction to hard) and enjoys plowing through me in the left to right ("Left is so hard, OMG WE'RE GOING RIGHT, I KNOW WHAT TO DO!"). Using the changes of bend in the serpentine to make it clear to Penn that I wanted the left lead after the right lead really helped and I was able to make the change in 4-5 steps. For the other change, if he plowed through me as we approached the change to the right, as soon as I got to centerline, I'd put him on a 10m circle left to find some balance before bending right and picking up the new lead. I'd put an extra canter circle into the middle loop since we weren't spending as much time on that lead. After a few times up and down the serpentine, he became very light and responsive and stopped plowing through me... until he got tired, haha.

The next one is an oldie but goodie, the trot cavalettis:

We of course have worked these before, but this is the first time outside and with 8 poles instead of 6. Working the poles inside seems to generate more lift, whereas outside, he seemed to just lift his legs out of the way and got flatter faster. By the end of the poles, it felt like the distances were too short for him (set at 4'6" and him being 15.3, they really shouldn't be too small!). If I remembered to add a half halt coming in, and a reminder half halt around pole 4 or 5, it helped a lot and he rebalanced himself. I ran out of butt power pretty quickly, which meant I didn't get to really fix it like I wanted to... but whatever, that's a losing battle so it's best to quit and start again another day where you can pick up where you left off, but with a fresh horse.

Screenshots from another video that started out well until he dragged one of the poles with him:

1: I love this balance!
2: Look how high I can lift my feet!
3: Slowly sneaking downhill that will lead to dragging the 6th pole with us.

Next post, my lesson with Stephen Birchall!