Looking at Mikey

I was going to make this post about my lesson this past Wednesday, but I changed my mind. Instead we're going to look at Mikey because I was running early for my lesson and decided to take a picture of him just standing.

He does not have short legs. He's 16.2! Why does he always look like he has short legs in these pictures? He does have a long back and long neck, which I'm sure amplifies it.

He's really not much to look at just standing. He's not downhill built, but he's not uphill built either. His withers are huge and shark fin like. Long in the neck and back. Neck attaches too low to his shoulder. Ewe neck that I'm trying desperately to get rid of (I'm sure a by product of too low neck placement and high withers). We're working hard to redistribute the muscle in his neck even though he's not built to have that nice dressage neck. Hind legs too straight for my (now) dressage taste. He needs to be fitter (in his defense on that one, he hasn't had the most intense riding year).

When we bought him, none of it mattered. He is honest as the day is long and he has an incredibly warm and loving personality. Even Trainer lets him get away with some shenanigans and has been known to give him extra scratches and even a kiss on the nose (she's not the lovey dovey type). He's now the steady eddy in the barn who can help give nervous babies confidence on their first trail rides, first trips down to the outdoor, and first water crossings.

The day I decided I wanted to own him, not just lease him, we were jumping. He had just learned to jump, and he jumped me out of the tack in a classic baby moment. I landed on his neck, completely out of the saddle, and instead of freaking out like a green OTTB, he stopped quietly about 20ft after the jump and just stayed still until I got myself back in the saddle. My parents fell in love with his personality, and it was all over (they had been saying for almost ten years, no buying a horse). He was a high school graduation present.

I love this horse. He's not built for dressage, but he makes up for it in heart and try. A reason I love OTTBs, 99% of the time, they always try and give their best. Even if they can be a bit misguided in their efforts sometimes. He's been my partner for the last 11 years.

Here's to you, Mikey.

7/20 Clinic with German Riding Master

Mikey is hilarious. I suck at taking pictures that are level.

Monday night I loaded Mikey into the trailer and took him to a nearby barn for a lesson with the German Riding Master (GRM). Everyone was very welcoming, lots of 'long time no see', then they were shocked to find out Mikey had surgery and we've been back in full, unrestricted work for about a month.

GRM knew Mikey had been off, but didn't know the full extent of what was wrong. We chatted for a few minutes about what Mikey and I were up to and what we wanted to do today. I asked to go over test 3-2 as I think it's right up Mikey's alley. GRM got the test and read it while I walked around and got started. He said we'll warm up each movement, then run through the test and see how it goes. He seemed ok with 3-2, stating that it was "a second level test with flying changes" and that he and I had covered everything in it in a previous lesson when we went over 2-3 last year. (It's nice to be remembered, especially when I only saw him 6ish times last year, and it's been 8 months since I saw him last.)

I picked up trot and started to warm up. I had to pay extra attention to post on the outside diagonal... I've gotten used to posting on the wrong diagonal and working my lateral stuff that way! The first thing GRM said after watching us trot around a little was, "He seems quite sound!" I trotted Mikey around, asking for some shoulder in and haunches in to start, and Mikey had his floppy ears going on. Yay floppy ears!

He noted that Mikey had much better contact with the bridle and much more swing in his step than he did last time he saw me ride in Nov/Dec. I told him that I spent 2 months doing walk trot without any lateral movement and the only thing I could do was push him to the bridle and get him deep and through and connected. He approved.

GRM asked for the shoulder-in (SI for the rest of the post) to renvers, and I believe we started with the SI right to renvers left. I rode it down one long side, before GRM shouted at me to "Stop, stop! Walk!"

He had me walk the next long side and SI to renvers, and take extra time in the change. SI right, to leg yield, to bending the neck left, to bringing the haunches around for renvers left. Break it down into those 4 pieces. Worked like a charm for SI right to renvers left. Back to trot, and lovely floating long sides.

I said, "I didn't know you could take that many steps to get the change done." He said, "Better to take the extra steps and slower transition than a quick inverted transition that never recovers." Well, doh. Once again, quality over quickness/quantity. Isn't that what dressage is about?

Back to walk, change direction. I opted to change direction via walking turn on the haunches, and we spent a few minutes on that. The first one I did was awful, just too big and more circle like. He made me turn around and do it again. He got after me about driving Mikey with my seat around the turn. He said the inside leg is moving very slowly, but it is moving, not pivoting, so it's ok for now. We spent some time working on both, then moved back to the SI and renvers.

This is where I got warnings about too much bend in the neck to the left. Mikey has a tough time getting true bend this way, and all of my seatbone to outside hand aids flew out of my head. I'd ask for the change and Mikey would invert and fight me, so GRM changed plans and had me keep the movement for a few steps and do multiple bend changes down the wall. That's where things fell apart a bit.

So I ride SI left, ask for the change to renvers right, then ask for Mikey to change back to SI left, and Mikey tried to drag me off the wall and pull me around. GRM said to focus more this direction on shifting Mikey's hind end around. Instead of thinking of it as shoulders coming off the wall, think of it as haunches pushing closer to the wall. Mikey picked this time to completely ignore my left leg. I wanted to crack him a couple times behind my left leg with my whip so he'd respect it, but I'm unfamiliar with how people at this barn would take that idea, so I struggled through it, kicking and tapping. Mikey may or may not have run his butt into the wall on more than one occasion as we tried to get our communications right.

At this point, GRM said, "Your homework is to do these transitions in walk for the next week, month, year, thousand YEARS until you can keep him on the wall and keep him from inverting." Talk about one big assignment! He said even though renvers to shoulder in isn't in the test, it's a transition we can't do properly. So we need to learn to do it properly. Well shit, that makes sense! It shows me a big hole in our training, so I need to fill it in.

After the transitions got a bit better in walk, we went to trot and did a handful that were much better than the first one I did.

We went on to half pass, which I started in walk to make sure Mikey and I were thinking the same thing. GRM was good with this, and I don't remember him having much to say about them, so they must have been ok for walk. Went on to trot, and he said the trot half passes were much better, but I need to make sure that in the half pass right, the haunches don't lead and that we don't get going too sideways. Half pass left, I need to be very careful about overbending the head and neck left. All in all, he was pleased.

He said in an 'oh boy' kind of voice, "Ok, let's see what the canter is like." I did my prep in walk, asked for canter left, and Mikey gave me one of the best transitions to canter ever. GRM said, "Very good transition... Ok... The canter is pretty darn good too." I did a couple lengthenings and circles, and GRM noted that I need to keep him straighter on the short sides because Mikey almost 4 beat canters when I collect him up and he gets overbent left. We moved on to canter half pass left. The forward in the canter powered us down the arena without much sideways. Then I screwed it up by trying to change leads at the other end of the arena. I got the, "Stop, stop! Start over."

He said to slow the canter down in the half pass, so I did. Right from the beginning. I basically crushed Mikey. He had me turn out of it after several failed strides and repeat again, but keep the forward in the start of the movement. Mikey needs it to get going, but tone it down once I'm in the movement with right to right half halts to slow it down and let Mikey travel sideways. At the end of each half pass (we were going from the wall to center line) Mikey would try to power through me in a mock change, so to finish to the left, he had me canter half pass into straight trot down centerline, then walk and pat. Looking back, the canter half pass left really needed me to find my left leg and seatbone to better get the bend, which would have resulted in a much better half pass and possible flying change at the end.

We repeated to the right, with a similar idea, only this direction seemed a bit easier for Mikey. By the end, he thought if I had asked for the flying change right to left, I would have gotten it easily. I asked if he wanted me to repeat and ask for it, he said no, we'll move on, and it is what it is.

Complete silliness.

We took a little walk break, then went off to ride the test. Which I started riding from the wrong end of the arena. I'm used to A being at the end of the arena that you actually physically enter the arena from the barn area. This barn has it at the opposite end of the arena. It also has a set of doors there, so maybe it's so that you can actually track properly into the arena from the outside. Either way, I found myself all kinds of flustered and messed up because I barely knew the test, I was disoriented, and I was riding a 3rd level test in a small arena.

I turned Mikey down centerline, and immediately had to turn around and redo it because I cut the corner way off. After redoing it, Mikey powered through me into a downhill transition into the halt. GRM told me to watch my forward coming down centerline. I don't need that much coming into it. Ha. Mikey made that decision, but I'll have to work on it.

I trotted off, and went to do my medium trot across the diagonal and GRM said, whatever it is, it is (knowing it's not our strong suit), and I asked for a bit and he was like, "Good! No more! Keep that!" It was much less trot than I thought I needed. I then asked for SI left, and I immediately felt him leave the wall as if to medium trot again, and I had to crush him back to the wall. After that, the SI left to renvers right flowed fairly well. Another good medium/extended trot back into a very nice and flowy SI right to renvers left.

I lost track of where I was going, remembered my two tear drop half passes were next just in time to get him down centerline at C. Half pass right started off haunches leading a hair, and just as GRM was mentioning it, I got it corrected. Half pass left was very good, he warned me to watch the bend. I actually lost my left stirrup in that half pass, then flustered myself trying to get it back, remember where I was going, and listen to GRM. So naturally, I cut the corners by C because they were also already partially blocked off for seating, which jacked up my turn across the school into my turns on the haunches. GRM was very displeased and said I need to do a much better job getting into my corners and making those turns properly or else I'm giving points away. *Insert crawl into a hole and die feeling here*

The turns on the haunches were alright. I was a little slow getting my extended walk going, but it recovered very well, and my transition to collected walk, to more collected, to canter was a bit rushed (getting 12m worth of work done in 6m will do that). So by the time I got canter, it was time to turn up centerline and half pass, and I never quite recovered from a poor transition. At this point, I'm chasing the test down, not thinking about each and every step in each movement, and forgetting about seatbones to outside aids that help with proper bend, so I missed the easier flying change.

I got my medium canter, did a little better with the next half pass, but absolutely was not set up to do the harder change (left to right) properly. I asked for the 20m circle with rein release, and Mikey attempted to blow through me and do a flying change. I think he was partially anticipating a change since we were going across centerline, but I also was not as good with my hips as I was when I practiced at home. GRM said to start giving the rein a bit late to ensure he stays on the circle.

Extended canter (needs more but good) into collected and turn up centerline, to a downhill transition to trot to a downhill transition to halt. Not the best finish ever, but Mikey was laying on my hand too. Another thing to work on.

GRM said not bad, and seemed to think I could score around 60% easily, but if I can get lucky and nail just one flying change, I'll be well over 60%. He didn't have that optimism last year, so yay!

Mikey was TIRED. He was puffing quite a bit. He's not in very good shape. :-(  I'll have to make sure we don't neglect our trot sets in the next month. My legs were jelly. Maybe I should do trot sets on the ground with him. Strangely, for as tired as he felt, if I had to come back in an hour and ride another test, I don't think it would have been that bad. Last year, he had a tendency to check out on me in the second test.

I couldn't get over the huge amount of praise both GRM and the hosting barn's dressage trainer had for Mikey's overall improvements from our last lesson to this lesson, and in general how good he looked. It was so hopeful. GRM said Mikey's work is a very very solid second level, and it's perfectly acceptable for third, if we're lucky and get the changes. I said I wasn't sure he'd be able to move beyond 3rd level, his leg might not hold up to it, and we'd just be third level queens. They didn't seem to think that would be the case. We'll see, I'm not going to get my hopes up! I'd still love to take Mikey to PSG though.

Things I need to pay attention to:

• Too much bend in the neck to the left, in all movements.
• When things get sticky, right to right half halt to get straight again.
• Remember that I can half halt like I do at home, inside seatbone/leg to outside rein, to half halt outside rein to outside leg/hip. Don't get so flustered and distracted that I forget that.
• Take it slow. Know your test inside and out so you're not surprised by anything, or how quickly things come up. Take it slow, use your corners, use every bit of arena you can (like a hunter). My best tests have come when I can separate everything out and have a slow-time-down kind of feeling. The horse has to be soft and responsive, and I have to have every step plotted in my head.

A very productive lesson!

I love him. He's adorable. He kind of looks like a deer.

Tack Cleaning Isn't Boring (picture heavy post)

Well it isn't boring when I'm going to blog about it, dying leather, soaking leather, and in general ending up filthy myself while my leather is spotless. Ah, the way of everything horsey.

So due to the intense riding schedule I have this week (Monday clinic, Wednesday clinic, Friday lesson, Saturday trail ride, Sunday horse show), I needed to have my tack spotlessly clean for basically a week. So I thought, I'll clean my bridle and saddle over the weekend, no problem. I also saw Leather Therapy Touch Up Dye in a Leather Therapy product review on Horse Nation and decided to give it a whirl while I had my bridle home.

Now, Mikey's Micklem was suffering a life of I guess too hard cleaning and not enough cleaning maybe? I donno, either way, the bridle never softened up and I had problems with the black fading off. The bridle looked black from a distance, but if you took a close look at it, you'd see things like this:

Fade!!!! Brown leather!!!! Also in the stitching, you can see some white flecks... Mikey rubbed his face on a white jump standard early in the bridle's life. I was mortified that I didn't realize what he was doing and stop him sooner.

The chocolate brown hues are apparent in the browband. The crownpiece has the same hue. All of the padding under the top flat leather doesn't have any fade and is nicely black.

My bridle is the only one of the Micklem's in the barn to suffer this fade. I take good care of my tack- I never leave it out in the sun. I try not to let it get soaked wet, and if it does, I wipe it down as soon as I get into the barn and run some leather balsam over it (or if I know it's going to get wet, I do that before riding). I clean it, and am in general very nice to it. It sees hard use, but never abuse to the leather. So it irked me that I had this fading.

I also decided while I was going to all this trouble of making the thing look nice, I was going to make it soft as well. Trainer has a system with all of her new tack: buy new bridle/reins/breastplate, put in bucket or bag, soak in neatsfoot oil for 2-4 hours. All of her tack is soft and supple with no cracking, even on some of the oldest leathers. She's been doing it for years, and her stuff sees hard use because she rides 5-8 horses a day, and the bridles have never given up.

So last Friday, the bridle got a good cleaning, then I nervously busted out the leather dye and did a test section on the noseband buckle. If I screwed up, at least it would be covered by another piece of leather. It came out very nicely! It was almost impossible to get it near the keepers, so I tried smudging with my fingers, then eventually gave up because when it's in use, you'll only see the keepers anyway.

Look ma! No brown!

The black was in fact so black, and my bridle so faded everywhere, that I had to cover the entire bridle in dye (nothing that sits against the horse or the padding). It has an easy to apply applicator that you run over the whole thing, so it was fairly easy to get a good even coat on everything. Quick drying too. Highly recommended. I had very limited dye wipe off too when I gently cleaned it later. I'd clean it several times though if you put it on a saddle just to make sure it doesn't come off on your clothes.

Nice black crownpiece.

As you can see in the background, and the poor lighting, I did all of this in my laundry room in the basement. We have a huge laundry room- shelves, bars to hang clothes to dry, hooks to hang things, drying rack, washer/dryer, double stationary tub. I brought out one of our big folding tables and set it up too. Poor Husband attempted to navigate my tack cleaning induced danger zone (oil, dye) in an attempt to clean his work clothes. Silly Husband.

Anyway, the next step was oiling the leather. I stumbled across a red/brown leather lead rope while I was down in the laundry room. I bought it a couple years ago and meant to return it because it was much redder than I liked, and it didn't match Mikey's brown leather show halter. I never returned it, so it's been sitting in my basement in the horse boxes. I decided I'd pull it out and oil it too and see if the neatsfoot oil would help darken it somewhat. I cleaned it briefly, took off a bit of the red dye, then dumped it in a bag of oil. I hate inflexible leather lead ropes, so if I was going to use it, it needed to be soft and flexible. It promptly sucked up most of the oil I put in the bag, and turned what was left red. Husband thought it looked like transmission fluid. It came out much darker!

(Update: That lead rope is still oozing red, even after hanging out to dry for 2 days. I don't know what I'm going to do with it. I think I'll give it a good cleaning next, then use a leather conditioner- no more oil. It's plenty soft. I didn't notice, but it got red oily ooze on my white show pad. Not happy. The pad got washed with bleach immediately last night within an hour or two of it happening, but I have to wait and see how it dries. On the plus side, it got soaked yesterday when I hosed Mikey off and the water beaded right off. So much oil in it.)

I dumped the Micklem into two more gallon bags, dumped oil in after them, swooshed them around, then let all three sit for 3-4 hours. Every so often I'd turn the bags to redistribute the oil and make sure every inch was covered.

Soaking in oil.

Soaking gave me some time to assemble my now favorite tack cleaning supplies. This was my first experience with Leather Therapy Wash, and I'm quite happy with it. I still enjoy my Belvoir Conditioning Bar, and Belvoir Leather Balsam. The Balsam is affectionately known in our barn as "equitation in a can" since it makes clean leather a bit tacky and helps you stick to your saddle. Just don't put it on your saddle flap and the inside of your boots.

So after you let leather soak for a couple hours in neatsfoot oil, it comes out a bit sloppy.

Umm, I need more newspaper.

I let it dry overnight like that, and then all day Saturday and Sunday. I wanted the oil to soak in, and it did. In the meantime, Saturday, I made a cake.

A very delicious blueberry zucchini cake with lemon buttercream frosting!
It doesn't look the best, but it was very good. A bit rich, but good. I'll make it with less sugar next time and less lemon. I had already cut the amount of lemon down, but I still thought the cream ended up too strong.

Does cake count as a fruit and vegetable when it has 1.5 lbs of zucchini and a pint of blueberries in it? I can follow a recipe, but I am not the best presenter. I managed to squeeze out the buttercream frosting layer from between the layers. Oops.

I ended up using my jump tack and bridle to trail ride Sunday. I thought, "This stuff is filthy! And stiff." So I brought it home to be cleaned too. Well, not the saddle. It's still at the barn in it's filthy state. It's time will come. After this week is over, haha.

I cleaned the jump bridle and dumped it in the bag of oil. Mostly dealing with it too this week because I have bags of oil now and I don't want to just throw it all away or pour it back into the bottle. I hate wasting the oil because it's like throwing away money. The jump bridle didn't soak up near enough of it! I also soaked my new grab strap. The leather that goes in the D-rings of the saddle was very stiff and bulgey. It worked in getting it soft enough to not cause the saddle skirt(?) to bulge. I also tossed Mikey's fancy show halter with his name in a bag of oil. I'm all about this now.

I finally put Mikey's Micklem back together. Very pleased with the result! A lot of the places where I had trouble getting the dye under the keepers seemed to have absorbed the excess dye while it was soaking. Who knows, but the couple spots where I couldn't get the dye are now dyed.

So black. And clean. And shiny.

No more fade!

Before and after.

Also, Herm Sprenger Diamond Paste is incredible (available at SmartPak or Amazon). It is expensive, but incredible. After this whole experience, I'll never clean bits or metal fittings with anything else again.

I have some Korsteel Loose Ring French Link bits that have been sitting around doing nothing for 1-3 years. I bought two while I was eventing because they were $25 a pop and I used the same bit to jump and do dressage, so it made sense to have two since I had two bridles. The jump bit saw discontinued use in 2012, and so had been sitting on my jump bridle doing nothing, then was replaced with a rubber mouthed pelham and it hung in the tack room doing nothing, and then it was moved to my trailer where it continued to do nothing. Let's just say, I was good at cleaning leather, not so good at cleaning bits. 4H taught me to use toothpaste and a toothbrush, which never seemed to get it as sparkly clean as when it first came out of the store. I'd rinse my bit off rarely (now I do after every ride since I'm using a $230 HS bit), so you can only imagine how filthy the bits became.

I wish I had taken a before picture of the bit so you could see the incredible difference this paste made in cleaning it. I tried using it as suggested, putting it on a rag and then rubbing the surface, but the bit was so dirty that while it helped, it didn't help that much. I ended up covering the whole damn thing in a layer of the paste and letting it sit for five minutes while I cleaned something else. I'd give it a rub and wipe off the layer of paste and voila! It's looking pretty good. Yes, it still has some stuck on grime that I probably need a chisel to remove. I'm just impressed because after 5-7 years of neglect and poor cleaning that it cleaned up this well since 90% of the bit was covered in the same grime! Makes me wonder about the active ingredients in the paste, even though it says safe for skin and hands. It did remove the Korsteel black lettering from the mouthpiece, but oh well. I know it's Kortsteel and it's not like I'm selling it or something. I'll do some before and after with my second bit. Maybe. It's not as bad as this one was, but it's still bad.

Hard to see how clean it really is in this light. Trust me, it's better!

I leave you with some pictures of my boot inspector, Penny. She managed to fit her head, front legs, and shoulders into my boot before deciding she probably wouldn't fit.

New Schedule and Small Successes

The past few days have a been a bit of a whirlwind- plans are changing, new plans are made.

"Hi Mom."

The new plan/schedule:

July 20- Clinic with German Riding Master. I haven't seen him since I think November last year. I'm hoping he'll be pleased with Mikey's general progress... even if I come back saying, "Nope, the flying changes still don't work right." We've only had 3-4 lessons working on them... sigh (of the 5 or 6 I've taken with him). I love riding with him. He has a very quiet, just do it way of thinking, and I always have good results. A lot of the failure afterwards comes from a lack of walls, poor footing, and inconsistent work which means I prioritize what we practice instead of hitting everything on a schedule like I should.

July 22- Clinic with an ex-pro dressage rider who competed on the European circuit, then a little in the USA until a horse reared, landed on her, and damaged her spine- she can't ride anymore. I personally have never ridden with her, but I've seen her teach and I like talking to her and other people seem to like her. She's also coming to my barn so it's an in house clinic, and I ride straight dressage and do clinics, so I think it's kind of expected for me to ride with her. I'm all about more help though before my next 3 outings.

July 26- Horse on Course Schooling Dressage Show. Kind of disappointed I'm doing 3-1 twice, not 3-1 and 3-2 (this'll be expanded upon later). Though the close date is July 22, so I can always email and ask for a test change. This'll be our first run through the tests for the year, and our first show since Mikey's accident.

August 15-16- WPDA Summer Sizzler & Encore USDF/USEF Recognized Show. Finally back to recognized competition! 3-1 and 3-2 are the tests.

August 29-30- PVDA at Loch Moy Farm USDF/USEF Recognized Show. We're going to have a 3rd level chestnut OTTB party with Austen and Pig. Very excited! Don't know why I never thought to go to Loch Moy, it's still about the same distance from me as Morven. This weekend works out a lot better too as I really needed to be home 9/12-13.

Then that's it. No more. I'm out of money! Mikey will probably need a rest too.

So to expand on being sad about not doing 3-2 at the local schooling show.

I rode last night with a friend I don't get to ride with very often (her horse boards at a different farm, but is at our farm for the week for a horse show Saturday). She claimed her horse is better when I'm there, I'm going to claim the same!

I made a grab strap out of baling twine (I ordered an actual grab strap yesterday, no worries!), and I've been using that for the past two rides to sit Mikey's medium trot. Monday when I tried it, we were both kind of surprised I didn't flop like a fish, so I left it at that. Yesterday when I tried it, I started the diagonal thinking haunches-in, then let Mikey power off it on the straight line while holding on to my baling twine for dear life. I kept myself in the saddle and when Mikey got a little unbalanced, not only was there a steady new outside rein, but I had my seat and leg to be able to influence him. Rebalance and keep on floating. The first one we did was an average medium trot, nothing spectacular. The second one we did was a wonderful medium/almost extended trot. I got the shoulder pop and could see the toes flicking and reaching in his shadow. I'm sure the movement is a little braced considering I've fixed my one hand to the saddle, but I'm so pleased with the grab strap. It really takes a lot of the worry away from that movement, from me and I think Mikey. I asked for it, and he said "Yes, ma'am!" Lots of praise. I wish I had gotten one sooner. Each time I ask for it, he gets better and better with offering more and more. Mikey, I'm sorry I flop like a fish sitting your extended gaits and seem to have punished you for years for trying :(

I tried a couple flying changes on the diagonal to very little success (several strides late behind right to left, and a completely botched left to right, like Mikey had zero clue what I was asking for). So I decided to mess with canter half pass even though we haven't touched it since January, and then double it up and ask for the flying change when we hit the new direction. The arena has a gymnastic set up down centerline, which made an ideal "wall" to half pass to and bounce off of, so that's what I did. Just about 20m forward of half pass that covered probably 5-8m sideways into the side of the line.

First up was half pass right with the right to left change. Mikey was so quiet and through and willing that I did a double take that he actually changed, and confirmed with my friend that it was clean because I didn't feel it happen. We half passed (very well I might add for not doing it in 6 months), I asked, he did. He got a ton of praise and pats on the neck and good boy's and in general you-are-the-most-awesome-horse-ever love. Then we took a short break to digest what just happened.

Next was the half pass left with the left to right change. The first half pass we did I botched because Mikey was expecting the change and fighting me, so I aborted the mission and re-approached. Second time around I got a bit better half pass (haunches leading for sure so still sucky), but I asked for the change anyway once we got to the standards in the jump line. He did it without any fuss! I confirmed with my friend that it was clean, it was, and so Mikey got the same butt-load of praise, long rein, and a more gallopy cross country canter to relax a bit. Then we were done. Two good changes to finish? Hells yea, praise and put that horse away!

I'd like to ride 3-2 now at the schooling show because it has half pass from centerline to the wall (I believe 36m to go 10m sideways), and then another 12m on the wall to make a change happen. Mikey totally understands halfpass to the wall to the flying change, so I'm 90% sure we could make those happen in public. I'd just make sure the change happened in the first straight meter, no reason to hold counter canter. I have a feeling that test will be better for us.

"Aren't you proud of me? I'm a good boy!"

It's an absolute tiny success in the grand scheme of it all, but I'm super thrilled. I'm curious to see how the changes fair when we see the German Riding Master in an indoor arena.

Weekend Riding Report + Horse Show Plans

Saturday was a super busy day for me. It all started with me getting my trailer to the barn's local mechanic shop to be inspected at the bright and early time of 8am. Which means I'm waking up at 6 like I do for work to have it there on time!

Trailer was about 2 months past it's inspection... no worries, I wasn't using it since Mikey wasn't going anywhere for anything. Trailer passed with a note to take the battery on the tongue home and try charging it for a couple days. The mechanic asked how much I used it this winter, and I said 3 times. I thought it was just chit chat, and a little later I asked about the battery because it never seems to come up green (charged). It's always charging. He said I don't use the trailer enough to get it to fully charge, so if I could take it home and plug it in, that would be best. If it won't hold a charge after that, get a new one. It's still safe to use because it holds enough charge to put the breaks on (part of the inspection).

I took the trailer back to the barn and tacked up for a lesson at 9:30.

Trainer and I chatted about what's going on at the farm, a dressage schooling show in a couple weekends, plans for the recognized show I'll do in August, and plans for the rest of the year and next year.

Before we get to lesson, here's some applicable info:

• 7/26/2015- Horse on Course Dressage schooling show. I was able to confirm that the show is still going on since the entry form isn't on their website at 16 days out from the show. I also got the entry form!
• I also will not be going alone to the above show! Not by a long shot. Trainer has several babies that need ring time, so those horses are going. She's also having everyone who is going to the mini trial the following weekend go to the dressage show to practice their tests. Then there's a handful of people who are also going because either they only ride dressage now or they've never ridden dressage and want to try eventing. Basically, we're a group of 10+ horses! I'm thrilled to not be going alone like I always do! I'll most likely have someone to share travel expenses too... and hopefully I can braid a bunch of the horses going to earn my entry fee money (I'll only need to do 3-4 to earn it), and maybe I can braid Trainer's horses to work off coaching fees. I better get to the farm early the Saturday before!
• For the above dressage show, we're going to ride 3-1 twice. Having the canter half pass work ready won't happen, and that way we get more chances to practice this test. This conclusion was come to after much discussion about 2nd and 3rd level and not wanting to confuse Mikey on his changes. I'd rather have him go, 'oh yes, we're changing directions, let's change leads via flying change' instead of me trying to force him to hold to his counter canter... It shouldn't be confusing- the change comes from seat and leg, but he's had a hard time catching on, so I'd rather he auto change on me. Which leads into the next few points...
• 8/15-16 WPDA USEF/USDF Show at Quentin Riding Club - ride 3-1 and 3-2 both days. Attempt to finish my Bronze Medal.
• 9/12-13 VADA/NOVA USEF/USDF Show at Morven Park - ride 3-1 and 3-2 both days. I'll go for sure if I miss my bronze in August, 50-75% chance of going if I do get my bronze in August.
• Next year I'd like to spend time riding 2-3 and 3-3. We're not sure if Mikey will hold up to 3rd level or be able to move beyond it, so I'd like to get a Dover Medal (win the AA 2-3 at an approved show) and above a 60% at 3-3 so I can work on and show a 3rd level freestyle. This will also force me to get my changes organized into happening when I want them to happen since we'll be moving between second (no changes) and 3rd (yes changes).
• 4-1 late next year/year after with Mikey. We aren't sure he'll be able to do the canter pirouettes anymore (I'm so glad I got to do them with German Riding Master last fall!), and 4-1 is the only 4th level test that doesn't have them.

Ok, and now on to lesson.

I mentioned to Trainer that the horse I had Friday night was super sensitive, super up, and very wiggly. I had mixed some shoulder in, haunches in, and half pass back into our work, and he responded by offering that instead of say, the circle I asked for. My error I know, but I just didn't know what to do with him because he's rarely like that. He was super attentive, but also felt like he was 2 steps away from a meltdown. He also ignored my left leg entirely.

I had been walking him as we chatted, so we went off to trot and added in some shoulder in and haunches in on the circle to start. He resisted, so it became, 10m circle into shoulder in, change to haunches in, 10m circle, repeat. We eventually took it down the long wall, same pattern.

A lot of the work focused on me not smothering him with my outside rein. Even weight in both reins by relaxing the outside rein! It feels like I'm pulling the inside rein, but I know I'm not. When I don't smother him with the outside rein, he keeps the tempo going and keeps stepping forward into the movement.

Mikey was awesome with shoulder in, and resistive to the haunches in, but he still maintained his bend (had a tougher time of it to the right). We did a lot of work on these, mixing in 10m circles and me posting on the wrong diagonal.

We took a break, then picked back up and started going from trot shoulder in and trot haunches in into trot half pass. I found this almost impossible to do in posting trot, so I spent some time swapping between that and sitting.

The left was ok. Keeping the bend wasn't bad, but keeping the tempo and forward throughout the movement was harder. To the right was an entirely different story. His haunches in right is already tough, but I asked him to move it into half pass with my left leg and he totally 100% ignored me. Spur, no response. I wailed on his left hip with my whip at that point. I asked with leg, then spur, and I got nothing from him, so I had to make my point heard. He of course went to invert and run off, but I forced him to hold the haunches in bend, but had to be very careful not to touch the outside rein. He was baiting me with it the whole time to escape the work. So after a round or two of that, he moved over very readily but we had trouble keeping the bend. I wanted to bring my right hand into my crotch or almost over the neck, but obviously that won't work. I ended up doing a give and take with my right elbow, while keeping my hand in it's correct placement. It's an odd feeling, but it worked. He immediately stopped fighting me and had to bend his body properly and soften.

Basically, I need to stop smothering him with my outside rein so we keep the forward in the movement, and really force the bend to happen by riding properly (who knew!). Plus I need to ride in posting trot on the wrong diagonal (helps me keep the outside hind moving). Mikey needs some time to strengthen up a bit more before I do a lot of sitting trot.

We finished up without getting to canter, which is fine. It wouldn't have been any good anyway!

I spent Saturday afternoon washing my truck. It was horribly dirty, and it doesn't even go anywhere! We park it under our tulip poplar, which had covered it in an oily dirty sap that required scrubbing to get it off. I also hosed out the bed because it had trace amounts of mulch in it and was growing grass! I did find some new chips in the paint (driving to OSU twice in the winter didn't help I'm sure...) so I need to get the right color touch up paint from a Chevy dealer so Husband can work his magic and cover them up so they don't rust.

Sparkly clean. Except for the tires. I'm horrible, I don't scrub tires.

Husband and I went to a local church's summer carnival for dinner. They had a Ferris wheel, spinning swings, tea cups, games etc. It was fun, but we didn't ride anything.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Sunday was a bit slower paced, I got up and went riding, and that was about it besides making dinner. With all the sun we had Saturday, the arena had finally dried out a good bit. It also wasn't too hot.

I spent about 20 minutes working shoulder in, haunches in, and half pass in walk. I made sure I was consistent in how I asked, rewarded Mikey for anything good and above, and in return he worked so much harder. We had to have the same discussion about moving away from the left leg. After doing all that work in walk, and a lot of it was very good, I moved on to trot.

I had a lovely, uphill floaty trot. Who knew developing the walk properly really did that? I used to not spend much time in the walk because all I did was piss him off and frustrate us both. I'm glad that's changed. I asked for a few lengthenings a promptly messed him up, but I'd half halt and collect and he'd come back to his good boy self. I think I'm going to try to get a grab strap for the front of my saddle to help me sit the trot in medium/extended trot. Hook a finger under it, I'll keep my balance and so will he, and I can still influence him.

Something that I found works well when I lose bend, throughness, uphill, or self carriage (for my own notes, and anyone else who struggles with it): inside seatbone and leg to outside rein until I feel him shift his ribs and shoulder out, then half half outside rein to outside leg to stop the movement out and straighten him, apply a tiny amount of inside rein to remind him of the bend. It doesn't have to be a huge motion from him in the first step, and it took me several days of walking to figure out how best to apply it, and it took my trainer's help to get it started (see my reins crossed lesson).

It only takes a step or two now for him to come back to me in this more complicated series of half halts, and when he comes back to me I have the nice uphill gaits back. It's almost like riding a giraffe (I know we usually talk about it being bad, but in this case it's good). He's a round, through and connected giraffe. Bad analogy, but that's how his uphill movement feels to me. It's the only way I can describe it. It's becoming quite consistent though! I'm so excited to take it in public.

I did a lot of shoulder in to 10m circle to haunches in each direction, mixing up the posting on the wrong diagonal as I could. I mostly sat the 10m circle and haunches in, but to the left I rarely needed to do that. He was very soft and cooperative. Praise makes him even more so. I had to remember my prim and proper shoulders up and back in the circles and all the movements- that really makes an immediate difference.

The hardest thing is getting my half halts done in the half pass before I run out of long side to continue half passing. Which is odd because I ride in a converted baseball field with no arena wall/line/markers, so I essentially have as long as I need to in order to get something done, well beyond the 60m. Since I'm not on my straight line I'm trying to work it out how to apply them and remain in the movement and keep my balance, but when I get it right he immediately softens and has all the correct bend he needs. I suck at it, but I'm so glad he's willing to reward me when I get on the right track.

I moved on to canter because we hadn't touched it the day before. I wanted to see how the rein release I'll need for 3-2 went. It occurred to me that Mikey tended to blow through me at centerline and change directions when we did 20m circles in canter at C, so doing a rein release there seemed like a bad idea. I decided to match rein release circles with diagonals for flying changes to make it obvious for him, and test him a little. He delivered on the rein release. I really held my hips to where I wanted to go, gave a release of both reins, and he didn't move an inch! Hello self carriage!

The flying changes still leave something to be desired. I was using my set of 8 trot cavalettis as a makeshift wall to force him to realize he needed to do a flying change. These had been picked up and stacked because they were in the way for the jump lessons that happened Saturday, so I didn't have my wall. Mikey absolutely gets it that he needs to change leads right to left. He tries. It's ugly, but he tries. The left to right... I'm not sure if it's a slow right hind (the injured one) or he doesn't get it. I think he gets it- he gives me the big hop up front but no change, even the front legs, but I think it's hard for him. In his defense, I didn't spend as much time as I should have developing the canter. We'd been out for 40 min working already... But he gave me many right to left changes without too much of a fuss. They won't be ready for the schooling show, but maybe they'll be good for the recognized one. I finished with a confidence building simple change through walk for the left to right change because I could not get him to do a flying change for the life of me.

I did a handful of trot/halt/rein backs as well in my trot work. Who knew that uphill trot into halt helped me create straight rein backs. Straight and willing. I got my 4 diagonal steps and was like, "Whaaaa..? No fuss? Straight? Pat and good boy! Moving on!"

Walking home. He was tired.

I think I'll do a bunch more of the simple changes to help build that leg up and get him to understand. It won't hurt the other change either! Our next ride needs to be trot sets. We're doing 4 3-min trots through the hills in the hay field with 3 min walks in between. After that one, I think we'll do a longer/lower ride with a lot of transitions. It'll be good for Mikey's brain too. Weather permitting of course... I can do trot sets when it's rainy, but if the arena is dry next time I'm out, I'm doing transition work!

Drumroll please...

I booked a hotel for a recognized dressage show for Aug 14-16! Which means Mikey is going to make a return to 3rd level! Super excited.

I'm looking at finances, and while I'd love to go 9/12-13 to the show at Morven Park, I don't think I'll be able to afford to go. If I can, it'll be awfully tight. Plus, I really need to stay home and dog sit for my parents. That weekend is the tail end of one of their trips... though they pay me to dog sit and the first part of the week will cover the entry...

I need to pick which tests I'm going to do. I plan on doing 4 tests, two each day. I think Mikey will be able to handle that. We started conditioning work this week to help both of us with that.

Definitely 3-1. It's basic and it doesn't have canter half pass. Our canter half passes haven't been touched since January, and back then they were great or they were horrendous.

Basic Review of 3-2:
Double Coefficient Movements: Renvers right, Extended trot, Renvers left, Extended walk, Flying change, Flying Change, Release of Rein in Canter, Extended Canter

• MXK Medium trot
• F-B Shoulder-in left , B-M renvers right
• HXF Extended trot
• K-E Shoulder-in right, E-H renvers left
• C Down centerline
• G-E Trot half pass
• A Down centerline
• D-E Trot half pass
• C walk, turn on haunch x2 between H-M
• S-P Extended walk across the super short diagonal
• F Canter, immediately turn down centerline at A
• D-R Canter half pass
• R-M Flying change between letters
• H-K Medium canter
• A Turn down centerline
• D-S canter half pass
• S-H Flying change between letters
• C Circle right 20m showing a clear release of both reins for 4-5 strides over centerline.
• M-F Extended Canter
• A up centerline, L trot, I halt salute

For your reference and mine!

Basic Review of 3-3:
Double Coefficient Movements: Trot Half pass left, Halt & Rein back, Trot Half Pass right, Extended walk, Canter half pass left, Half circle and Flying change, Canter half pass right, half circle and Flying Change

• HXF Medium trot
• K-E Shoulder-in right
• E-X 10m half circle right, X-B 10m half circle left
• B-G Trot half pass
• MXK Extended trot
• A Halt, rein back 4 steps, trot on
• F-B Shoulder-in left
• B-X 10m half circle left, X-E 10m half circle right
• E-G Trot half pass
• Walk, turn on haunch x2 between H-M
• R-V Extended walk across the super short diagonal
• K canter
• F-X canter half pass
• I-S 10m half circle left
• S-F across the short diagonal, flying change near centerline
• K-X canter half pass
• I-R 10m half circle right
• R-K across the short diagonal, flying change near centerline
• F-M Extended canter
• H Trot, E turn left, X turn left, G halt salute

So I don't like how the extended trot falls in either test. Mikey does best when it falls after the canter work. So moot point for that.

And holy hell on the number of double coefficient movements.

3-2 comments: Shoulder in to renvers isn't a big deal. Mikey's good at it. There is an obnoxious amount of trot between each trot half pass and the next movement. It reminds me of the first level tests that just took so darn long to get to the next movement. That doesn't suit me or Mikey very well. He loses focus and connection. I end up losing my seat a bit because his trot is so hard to sit that riding it down a straight line is actually hard. It's easier when I'm actively asking for something or going across the short side. The canter work comes up quick in the beginning, but I like how the flying changes are presented- on the long side after a half pass. He really understood that last fall and would give me good changes when I asked when we hit the rail. Release of rein in canter, no problem. The test doesn't have a halt/rein back. Our rein back is reluctant and crooked.

3-3 comments: I worked those exact trot half passes last fall on my own, combined with those 10m half circles. He did very well on those. This test has a halt/rein back, meh. Last fall Mikey was a little iffy when I asked for canter halfpass from the wall to X. It either went really well or really badly. I do like this canter work, half pass, a couple strides of straight into 10m half circles to diagonal and flying change. It gets a lot done quickly (which surprises me). I'm only concerned I'm going to fry Mikey getting him to the flying change. I think by the time I get to the flying change he'll be ready to tell me to F off! If I botch the half pass though the straight and half circle will fix his canter. This test only has the extended canter, no medium canter. Those are usually some of our best scores, so I'm losing places to make up points.

Based on the coefficients and test, I think I'm leaning toward 3-2. I'll work the half passes in my lesson this weekend and see how they go. If they're awful, there's no reason to try the double coefficient one and botch the half pass and the flying change. We'll see though!

This week's activities: Horse Show Groom, Painting the Dining Room, Lesson, Barn Slave

This past week has been a whirlwind of activity. Just doing a day by day list. Sorry!

Saturday/Sunday 6/27-28
I went to Stonegate MT to groom for Trainer. She was riding 5 horses (three green beans, one moving up a level, and one just plain difficult) and needed someone in the barn to have the next one ready to go when she came back. I braided all of them, in one afternoon, while cleaning the legs of whichever one had just finished working. I made 5 trips to the washrack Saturday and 10 on Sunday.

To say it rained a little is an understatement.

Monday 6/29
I took a day off from work after the horse show. Took Mikey for a long road walk in the morning. He had a good time and we got to enjoy the brief time that the fabulous sun was out.

Road walk. Mikey was not keeping up with the youngsters on the way out, but he beat them coming home!

Tuesday 6/30
I went into the office for work today, no riding after work. Too much rain? I don't know, it's all a blur of rainy days. I had to clean my house too.

Wednesday 7/1
I worked from home on my usual work from home day.
My mother in law came in today to visit. We all had dinner at my parent's house.

Thursday 7/2
I worked from home for the holiday.
My husband, mom and mother-in-law peeled wallpaper off of our dining room walls and got them ready to paint to remove the 50s and 70s era paint that was under the wallpaper.
I used an early out to leave 2 hours early from work... which I used to go to the barn and ride! Had an OK ride until the end- I got two flying changes, one each direction! I haven't gotten one left to right since pre-surgery. He gave a huge grunt and did a clean change! Yay! Obviously very exciting for us.

Came home to go to my parent's for margaritas and quesadillas. Yum.

Umm, yes.

I dropped some broccoli. It fell on Nickels' head. He ate it.

Friday 7/3
I was off that day for the holiday, so I went to the barn in the AM. Braided a horse, had a lesson, braided another horse. Worked off my lesson, sweet!

We reviewed what's been going on in the last two weeks during my lesson, with the idea to check in and then cross my reins again. We never got to crossing my reins again, Trainer didn't think it was necessary.

Three major points:

• Yes, we're pushing him to the outside rein. I am still allowed to use my inside rein. This is a total "Duh!" but I have a habit of getting heavy on the inside rein or over working it when the going gets tough. It's usually a right rein problem. In keeping with my last lesson's idea of inside leg and seatbone pushing to the outside rein, then outside leg kicking on for more forward, we should do the following: To the right: Since he doesn't fill up the left side of his neck, overbend to the right for a step or two, half halt, leg on, and give back. Repeat every 3-4 strides. To the left: Since he way overbends to the left already, counterflex him right for a step or two, half halt, leg on, give back. Repeat every 3-4 strides. The idea is to make him weigh both reins evenly, (again, totally duh!) and he has to let me half halt right to right, left to left, right to left, and left to right.
• He's been more connected and through than I thought for the past week. I have a baseline of what through and connected feels like, and for the last 3 months, that has been a super deep connection (long and low). In the last week, we did a little more uphill connection, and it felt like his nose was poking out in trot and canter and that I had lost my connection. In truth, I did not lose my connection, I had established a raised poll that simply can't connect as deeply as it can when I let him go long and low. Duuurrrrr.
• Start conditioning work again with Mikey. He just looked tired Friday morning. Nothing crazy, just start with trot sets and see how his hock holds up. If it doesn't hold up to trot sets through the hay fields, it'll never hold up to 3rd level work.

We finished in a very collected canter. Same leg, seat, and hand ideas from before (reading over this, it's a lot to think about, but it makes sense once I'm on the horse!), but applying collection by simply pulling my shoulders up and back slightly (think prim and proper) because that engages my core and thigh to collect. We moved between that super collected canter into working canter and back to collected. The transitions were EASY. Pushing it back out became as simple as allowing him to take a bigger stride, no leg necessary. Collecting it back in was a simple pull your shoulders back, but apply a good amount of leg and seat to keep the energy coming. Very good lesson. I wish the weather would break so I could practice on my own.

Went home Friday and painted my dining room for the rest of the afternoon and evening. And ran to Lowes on the worst home-improvement shopping day ever because the 3rd color we had picked for the trim was not going to be appropriate. Hello wasted paint.

The dining room's new colors. Edges still need cleaned up, stuff put back on the walls, window sheers need put on.
All the colors are a bit darker than we thought they'd be, so we traded a dark brown paint for white for the trim.

Saturday 7/4
Hello barn slave life. Trainer left Friday for an event, so I was at home taking care of horses. Put feed in stalls. Bring 17 horses in by hand (sets of 2-4 in hand at a time). Hay and water all the horses. Set up afternoon feed. Wrap the hoof of the horse with the abscess. Mikey lost a shoe, so call the farrier for him to come out Monday. No riding my own horse! We had trot sets in store for today, but that got scrapped since he lost a front shoe. I would have done them if he had lost a hind though. We'd be working on soft ground in the hay fields, and he's ok to work without the hinds on soft ground.

Since Mikey couldn't work, he modeled his new fly bonnet. He did not cooperate with me to take pretty pictures of him.

I ended up going home between morning and afternoon work. It's a 45 min drive, so I don't usually, but I was done at 11 and couldn't feed until 2 or 3 or ride my own horse, so I decided to go home, say goodbye to my mother in law, take a shower, wash my clothes (I was filthy due to rain/mud/uncooperative horses), and take a nap.

"Hello Human." Penny was my naptime buddy.

Afternoon feed involved putting those same 17 horses back out then cleaning stalls that had two days worth of gross in them because they weren't done Friday night (I couldn't skip out on more painting so Trainer arranged for someone else to feed and turnout only). I should have cleaned stalls in the morning, but I couldn't bring myself to do 17 stalls twice in one day. It's not the stalls were super gross for having two days of poop in them, the horses are out for 16+ hours a day. Hay, water, set up morning feed. Go home.

Tractor driving on the 4th of July.

Oh, and I rubbed two quarter sized blisters into the backs of my heels. Had to wear my damaged muck boots (neoprene on the back of the heel on the inside is worn away) to fetch the 7 horses on the hill due to mud at the gate. The trip involves walking a quarter mile each way to the field and leading the horses in a group of 3 and a group of 4, so two trips. Lovely.

Sunday 7/5
Barn slave life, part 2. Repeat Saturday's feed and bringing in with less problems than before because I wasn't flying blind. Went on a road hack with my weekend trail riding date, but I rode one of my trainer's "babies", aka 4 yr old OTTB Lucky, instead of Mikey.

Lucky and Leader on our road walk.

Go to Walmart. They have Subway, air conditioning, and running water/flushing toilets. Buy some groceries. Go to the barn. Stuff all perishables in the barn fridge.
Repeat evening chores. Stalls were much faster today with only one day's worth of poop.
Go home. Shower, Cook dinner. Make breakfasts and lunches for work for Monday and Tuesday. Pass out.