Wonder Pony

I cannot express how amazing Misty is. She just continually surprises me in how game she is to try new things and how trusting she can be. Case in point, going cross country schooling.

I don't think we've actually jumped since the little hunter/jumper show we did several months ago... I feel kind of bad admitting that, lol. I popped her over a single jump on Thursday. She was a little squirrely at first (meaning she wiggled her way into and over the jump instead of going over straight). But by the end she was much more confident going into the jump straight.

That was it for our preparation. Friday was the first day (or maybe the second, not sure) that the cross country course was open. We got out there and immediately started trotting over a little intro log that was more like a pole on the ground. She did that fine, so we moved up to the larger log which she jumped great, then the even larger log.

The largest log in the set of three

We walked over to another part of the field to jump a little coop. I let Misty sniff it first and had to pull her off of it before she decided to climb over it, lol. I guess this is what happens when you have a trail horse! She jumped it absolutely perfectly the first time from trotting in. Unfortunately PM was trying to figure out the settings a bit on my camera (it's funny how different Canon vs Nikon is in some ways) so the photos came out blurry. Bummer. Especially because next I set my eye on a larger square coop. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to go over it since it looked HUGE (downside of not jumping at all recently is that absolutely everything looks giant). Misty politely refused it the first time. I say politely because she just sort of fizzled out instead of pulling a dirty stop like Jetta would. We tried again and she slowed down and chipped in, bunny hopping over it. Of course I felt super bad because not only did I catch her in the mouth but also hit her with my spurs because it was so unexpected. So we took it one more time and she jumped it perfectly!

I am the best at compensating for hitting her in the mouth the first time. Extra release!

Moved onto jumping the ditch (definitely the scariest obstacle out there! but she quickly got over it). She didn't hesitate for a second doing the bank up or down. Then moved to the next field to jump the little red barn and the baby trakehner. Also, a cool A-frame coop.

Up the bank

Down the bank

Red Barn

Then the water! Of course Misty doesn't mind water at all, the challenge was getting her to canter through it. So much fun! I just couldn't wipe the ridiculous grin off my face.

Overall, I had so much fun and I'm just in love with all the pictures PM got. It has me seriously reconsidering selling her because she's just so dang EASY. I love this horse.

I am going to take her to the one-day horse trial on the first of June. Unfortunately I've come to the conclusion that I just don't have enough money to do the recognized horse trial at the end of June this year. So incredibly disappointed. But maybe by the end of summer I'll have saved enough to go out of state to an event in Washington hopefully.

Getting spunky

 

Tweaked

So many things happening this week, but I've just been waiting for all the pieces to come together so I can write some more complete posts! Here's a not-so-brief synopsis.

Monday a friend came out to take pictures for a class project. She's taking a journalism class and has to do an article on a sport, so of course she chose horses. The plan was to get some pics of me riding Misty dressage and then do some jumping pictures of Jetta.

Neither horse was on their best behavior. But it was probably my fault with both horses. With Misty, I just didn't give her a solid enough warm-up so she was resistant the whole time and the only thing she wanted to do was open her mouth and chew on the bit. But she wasn't otherwise awful and tolerated PM laying on the ground and us trotting right next to her so she could get some "dramatic" shots.

Now with Jetta... I haven't jumped in MONTHS. I was worried my ankle wouldn't do well with it, but I thought Jetta would be totally fine. After all, she LIKES jumping which of course I told PM this exact thing. I think I jinxed it! (though my ankle was totally fine) Warmed up over a 2'9" cross rail just fine, so I set it up to a 3'3" vertical. She refused it a couple times, not badly, I knew they were coming, more my fault than anything for being wishy-washy with putting my leg on. Finally I got her over. First few jumps weren't super smooth, so I took her back over until we got two perfect jumps. I was going to stop, after all it was ending on a good note, we haven't jumped in forever... but then of course I decided "one more time" for the camera. Bad idea. Enter monster pony. She stopped DIRTY. Multiple times. I thought she'd be going over it but at the very last second she'd slam on the brakes and toss her head back catching me in the face. Fuuuun. So we dropped it back to 2'9" and popped over it a couple times then called it good. But I was not pleased.

Pictures will hopefully be coming soon though!

A couple pics to tide you over in the meantime:

Both smilin' for the camera

Tuesday I had a great ride on Misty. We rode western, warmed up in the snaffle then put the curb in and worked on our reining stuff. She's improved so much in this area. It's just so much fun. We were practicing our rollbacks and she spun around so quickly I tweaked my ankle. Was definitely not expecting that and now it hurts :( I call it my half-sprained ankle. I just want it to heal and get back to normal!

No ride Wednesday (last physics midterm ever!!)

Thursday was another awesome day. For my animal learning class we have to do a clicker training project, so of course I'm working with Jetta. The goal is to get her to learn to "fetch" a cone. I don't know how successful I'll be, but already after our first session, I'm excited. I'll do a more complete post on clicker training, what I've learned in class and my observations so far soon. But, I just have to share how neat it is. The first step in training this behavior is to get Jetta to touch her nose to the cone to get a click and a treat. We "loaded" the clicker and then started with me holding the cone close to me. She was super determined to get treats out of my hand, but she'd only get a treat if she first touched the cone. Gradually as she figured out that touching the cone was the only way to get a treat I moved the cone further and further away until it was sitting on the ground and she'd have to touch it then get her click and treat. So cool to see the wheels in her head turning as she'd look at my hand with the treats in it, then at the cone sitting several feet away. I'm really excited to see how this goes!

Then I had a great jump school on Misty. I just set up a single jump out of barrels in the outdoor. She did awesome! Definitely have to keep my leg on and really drive her forward to get her to go over straight and not chip in, but she is so willing and I just love that about her! Plus having flying changes/most always landing on the correct lead is so nice, when compared with Jetta. Just way easier in general.

And then, the most awesome, amazing cross country school happened today. Details and pictures to follow :)

Pictures!

So excited. The pictures of Misty taken by the professional photographer at the show just got posted. I was apprehensive that I had paid $25 to get our photo taken and to not have any good ones, but I needn't have worried. It is sooo expensive having this photographer do pics, but oh well. They turned out really well. I was just going to buy one (because for a low quality digital file it's $40) but now I can't decide if I want to dish out more money. Maybe I can convince my parents that they need to help me buy pics ;)

Votes? I'm currently loving the third pic of her trotting up centerline. The second cantering pic, the one of us randomly walking (second to last) and also the one of my brother and I chatting on the way back from my last test (I think my parents need to buy that pic. It's a miracle he came to my horse show).

http://marycornelius.zenfolio.com/p756505735

Heart of the Valley - Part 2

Super long recap of Friday/Saturday here

Day 2 of the show was much sunnier and nicer than the day before. Luckily I didn't have to ride until 9:55am so I had a little bit of time to sleep in before showing up and giving Misty breakfast, cleaning her stall, etc.

She was being such a beggar!

My first ride was in the terrace arena unfortunately. I heard of a lot of people scratching their rides in that arena because of the deep footing and supposedly one horse tore its suspensory during their ride. Yikes.

Misty was pretty good though. I lunged her first this time around so she could get all her bucks out without me on her back, resulting in a much quieter warm-up. I would have rather have ridden in the sand arena which had dried out, but at least the terrace ride was the first ride of the day so she wasn't too tired. Still had a moment or two where she wanted to canter to get out of the deep footing, but better than the day before. One more bobble in the last corner before turning up the centerline where it was like a sinkhole and she tried to walk, meaning we got marked down half a point from a 7 to a 6.5. The test was all 6's and 7's except for one 5 where she jumped into the canter before I brought her back down.

All 6.5's for collective marks except for a 7 for rider and the final comments: "Maintain verticle balance in canter circles. Tension in back creates some irregular steps at times. Work to supple this and develop a consistant reach to bit. Energetic ride."

I was super happy to see we got a 65%. Of course, only person in this class = automatic first place. Oh well. I think this was our best ride (well, not just because of the score, but how it felt). I wish we had gotten a video but my camera died.

We had a little time so she got to hang out in her stall for a bit then we got back on. She warmed up really well, before we took a group picture then we headed down to the indoor. Once in the indoor warm-up arena... Misty was AMPED. I don't think she's ever had this much energy in her entire life. I thought she'd be tired but noooo, she was a little fireball. We did serpentines and long and low and transitions. Nope. Nothing calmed her down. So we zooooomed around the indoor arena in our final test. She didn't make any mistakes but she was TENSE.

And our score of course reflected that. 60% and last place. Bummer. All the comments were "tight" "tense" and "hollow". Final comments: "Attractive horse who must be more relaxed and balanced and reaching to the contact. Too tense today. Keep working!" I don't think it was just the indoor that made her so tense because she's not typically scared of new places. Honestly I think it was the hot walker that terrified her! (They have one of those awesome Eurocisers). She just couldn't tear her eyes off of it whenever it was in her view and she was so antsy after seeing it. She was convinced the horses were being tortured and needed to be rescued!

Doesn't get any better. Hanging in the sunshine watching the 3rd level classes.

Overall, a really fun weekend. It was a great learning experience for Misty. I love that every show something new finally "clicks" with her. The last show it was transitions, this show it was the free walk. By the end she was finally "getting" what she was supposed to do. Great group of people I was with and I was happy with how Misty did. I just wish I could afford to do more recognized shows now!

No pictures of us riding. I wanted to take screenshots from the video, but apparently my video-editing software doesn't actually have that capability even though I thought it did? Still waiting on proofs to be loaded from the professional photographer. I plan on buying one or two from her. I'll post the link when it's available!

Video from Saturday:

Heart of the Valley - Part 1

Such a fun weekend! Thoroughly exhausted by it all, but I think that our first recognized show was a success!

Friday:

I had 6 hours to get everything done, from finishing loading the trailer, cleaning stalls, loading all my stuff in the truck, bathing Misty, etc. I got to the barn and hooked up the trailer and pulled it forward to finish loading it and... there was a flat tire. And my spare tire is still flat. Gah! Not helpful. I sent a frantic text to my friend that boards at the same barn and she said to just take her trailer. We have the same trailer in fact. Perfect! Only non-perfect thing is that my freshly cleaned and organized trailer would not be going with me and instead I would be taking my friend's very unorganized, full-of-basically-everything trailer. There just simply wasn't time (or space for that matter!) to take all of her stuff out and put it elsewhere. It was overwhelming the amount of things she has been able to cram in that trailer.

Anyhow, everything else went perfectly smoothly and I was able to get everything done in the amount of time I had before leaving the barn and picking up a friend who was going to groom for me on the way to Devonwood!

We arrived without a hitch and easily checked in and got Misty unloaded and settled in. She acted like a normal horse this time around in her stall, versus the last show were she was ping-ponging off the walls like she'd never been confined before. I opted not to ride her because the arenas were so muddy and she was SO CLEAN. Plus it was alternately sprinkling and pouring down rain. Awful excuse, I know, but I just couldn't do it. I had already spent at least an hour scrubbing those white legs to get the stains off. Instead we strolled around the grounds then she got dinner and I left. Devonwood is incredibly gorgeous and I was so excited to ride!

Saturday:

Morning came wayyy too early. My first ride was at 8am so I woke up at 5:30am to make the half hour drive from my friends' house to the show. Misty was still nice and clean for the most part, so a quick rinse and then we tacked up and warmed up. My first test was Training 1 and I was the only rider in that class since the other one scratched. I was kind of bummed to have no competition even though we'd get an automatic first place.

Getting all ready!

We warmed up and I kind of regretted not lunging beforehand. Misty decided that she was going to be a bronc horse. There was all sorts of leaping and jumping around the warm-up ring. Geez. She normally doesn't buck under saddle (unless you use a whip) but she was certainly feeling good! Finally she settled down and we were able to do an actual warm-up. I was just glad that I didn't fall off (Misty's "bucks" are pretty easy to sit) but someone else did end up getting bucked off and then their horse ran around the warm-up arena like a racehorse for 5 minutes until she decided she was done. Misty stood like a rock the whole time watching the mare run around in circles, bucking and doing sliding stops. Nice to have a chill horse sometimes!

Our first ride was in the sand arena which was nice and flooded in several areas. Misty doesn't mind water, but she didn't particularly enjoy trotting through it. It was kind of cute how high she picked up her feet when trotting through the water. It was not a great test. Misty hadn't quite settled into contact yet, especially in her bad direction to the right, and she threw in a buck during one canter transition and dropped to the trot in another area. But overall, not too bad for the first test of the day, which is always a warm-up test for me anyways.

Splish-splashing around

Surprisingly we got a 63.75% which I thought was fairly generous. I did have a momentary heart attack when I saw the score online to be 27%. Uhhh, how did I manage to get 2's and 3's across the board?! Luckily, it was a (major) typo and when I picked up my test I asked about it and they fixed it online so it wouldn't be send to USDF that way. Whew.

Mostly 6.5's with a few 7's and 6's. She halted suuuper crookedly both times which was a little frustrating after all our work. Comments mostly consisted of noting when she was tense or unsteady. Free walk wasn't very good (she still didn't understand the concept). I got a 7 on rider position which made me super happy since I struggle so much with sitting up straight and not rolling my shoulders. Overall comment: "Attractive, capable horse who needs a more supple back and topline and reach out to contact, especially outside rein. Watch use of spurs in canter transition so she stays more relaxed."

I know that contact is going to be a forever battle that I'm not sure will every be won, just because of the way she was started under saddle, though she's certainly improved in leaps and bounds from where I got her. But, suppling the back is certainly something that we can work on and improve now.

Gorgeous facilities

Second test was shortly after so I stayed on and worked on getting her a little softer in the bridle and straighter on our halts, with no explosiveness in our canter transitions before heading to the terrace arena for Training 2.

The terrace arena just had brand new footing installed and it was DEEP. I was warned about it previously but didn't think it would have too much of an effect until I actually rode in it. Geez. Now if it was Jetta, she would have been perfectly happy. She actually likes deeper footing and works well in it. Misty on the other hand is still not quite where I want her fitness-wise and she definitely got tired out in it.

I thought this was a much better test, despite having to really push her through the second half. She had a nice stretchy walk and trot, transitions were mostly good (one late canter transition), straight halts and she was steadier in the bridle this time around. She did try to canter several times during the trot work because she was tired (easier to canter than to trot). We ended up with a 62.14% which wasn't as high as I had hoped, but I was still quite pleased with Misty. Mostly 6's with a few 7's for all of our canter and trot transitions and the last halt. A couple 5.5's for the stretchy trot and a trot circle. This judge was a stickler for perfect circles which was the reason for the 5.5's. Overall comment: "Energetic ride. Be careful not to ride past his balance. Horse is still developing in connection. Pair is learning here. He needs confidence to consistently reach to bit from a supple hand." Hmm. Well, I guess you can't always have the most helpful comments.

At least we didn't place last, but I thought that we had gotten sixth place, but unfortunately the final results put us in 7th, just out of a ribbon :(

Misty got untacked, stuffed with carrots and given lunch hay before we went to watch the rest of the dressage team members. Two girls riding first/second level and one riding fourth level. JM, who was riding fourth, also had a musical freestyle. So much fun to watch, she did awesome. I think it would be so much fun to someday do a freestyle.

Overall, a really good first day to the show!

Since videos are taking forever to upload, I will put them up tomorrow and in the meantime you just get cell phone pictures and pictures I took of other people! Hopefully higher quality pictures of Misty and I will be following shortly.

That medium trot... One of the dressage team girls' sister

AH and Tova

JB and Bob

The Best at Preparation

I am currently winning at being the best at preparing for a show. Major fail. In the past six days, Misty has been ridden... once. Not exactly how I was hoping to prepare for such a big show, sigh. At least our ride yesterday was really good and Misty isn't the kind of horse that's going to be a fire-breathing dragon with so little saddle time.

At least I got to clean the trailer out. "Before"

"After"!

 
Also, I just wanted to say that I am so lucky to have good horse friends. My jumping saddle doesn't fit Misty now that she's gotten kind of fat and she needs a wide gullet (Jetta's Pessoa is supposedly a medium-wide, but closer to a medium). So I asked my friend ML if I could borrow her Bates saddle since she's been fully converted into a "Dressage Queen" and doesn't really jump any more. I've ridden in it before when we boarded at the same barn and I really like it despite it being a narrow twist/flat seat, plus it has an adjustable gullet.

I got it last week and finally had the chance to try it out on Misty. It fits wayyy better than my Pessoa (it has the wide gullet in). I rode Misty and she was really good, so hopefully this carries over to the show.

Misty wondering why we're taking pictures.

Tomorrow will be bath day, clean tack, load trailer, etc. Clothes are cleaned and ready, most of my other stuff is collected and ready to be loaded. Looking forward to this! I'm going with several other girls on the dressage team so even if I don't do as well as I hope, it's still going to be fun cheering everyone else on!

Almost Time

Geez, how did it get to be the week of the big show already?! So many things to do and so little time. Especially because I have two midterms this week. Sigh.

Both girls have been pretty good under saddle. I had the best ride EVER on Jetta. She was so good, I was just blown away. Made me think that maybe we actually will get to second level by the end of this year! Her leg yields and shoulder-ins were absolutely perfect, as were her upward transitions. Still need to work on downward transitions (especially for the simple change) and work on making her trot nicer/get her lighter in the bridle, but we're well on our way to second level! (Well, plus medium gaits and 10m circles. I think the circles will be fine, but mediums, not so much).

Pretty pony

It was definitely weird riding Jetta without her mane, but I still love it and I think she just looks so elegant and minimalist without it. True horse-person right there when you can say that about a horse, right?

Misty is doing okay, but not blowing it out of the water by any means and I'm having slight reservations about taking her to such a big show. Her third dressage show ever to be exact. I was having a "what was I thinking?" moment during our last ride. I'm sure the judge wouldn't actually tell us that we shouldn't be showing at the recognized level quite yet, but I'd rather not get that impression through the scoring at the very least.

She still needs a lot of "push" to maintain that nice dressage trot and canter throughout our whole ride. Which will be easier if I remember to wear my spurs. Halts are finally getting there. Circles are good but she still likes to pop her head up every so often. Transitions are doing well 99% of the time. And stretchy trot is feeling nice, but she still doesn't quite get the free walk.

Oh well, ready or not, here we come!

Checklist for this week:

• Sweep out trailer
• Organize stuff that lives in trailer
• Load non-essentials (stuff that I won't use before the show - grain, grooming tools, etc.)
• Clean tack
• Wash saddle pads
• Make sure clothes are clean
• Wash Misty (probably will do twice)
• Clean out back of trailer and re-bed with shavings
• Figure out how to get hay out of loft and into trailer
• Memorize tests
• Pack people food
• Charge camera
• And of course, ride my horse at least a couple times and try to stop worrying about the show!