My First Clinic

"She is just the cutest thing..."

I have been riding with a group of fantastic women for a year now- all of them ride dressage. When I moved to Cotton Meadows, I had only a rudimentary understanding of the dressage world. At first, I was super determined to stick with hunters, but after a full of year of nagging, these ladies finally finagled me into a dressage clinic with Wolfgang Scherzer.

Shout out to Tammy, who gave me her lesson spot and was kind enough to let me use her dressage saddle (since I don't have one)! And thanks Karen for helping me tack up (lol) those dressage saddles have super goofy billets...

I told Wolfgang that Ruby and I had only done about a half dozen dressage lessons plus a few training rides with Debi. He was still very polite and patient, although I am sure I am much below the skill level of his usual students.

We started out with the basic warm-up: walk, trot, accepting the bit, getting round, etc. Ruby has a tendency to lock up on the right, so we spent a fair amount of time trying to get her to be more supple in the neck. Next, we focused on me: I lock up on Ruby, especially when I have a short rein: to help with this, Wolfgang had me go around on more of a 'half/medium' rein, working on keeping my shoulders and elbows flowing: at one point, he took the rein (with me continuing to hold them as well) to show me the amount of pressure I needed for contact (yup, I had WAY too much haha). The canter has always been difficult. Ruby will be super nice at the trot, but the second I ask for the canter transition, she wants to take off running. It took a God-awful number of circles, but she did finally come back to me, relax, and take contact with her head nice and supple/relaxed. Maybe he was just being nice to the newbie, but he seemed to like Ruby and thought I did a good job.

Many of the things we worked on where the same things Debi has been telling me. I will ride with her in my lesson tomorrow and compare notes I guess. I did find a way to work the splint and gloves for my broken finger today as well,...yay for that!

Poor pony is going to get a spa day after having two hard rides back-to-back.

Thanks to Dan for coming out to watch me ride!

Ruby Gets a Truck

"I bought a show pony and can't get to shows!"

There are 7 horse trailers at my barn (last time I counted)...and I still have not been able to get Ruby a ride to a show. I have one friend who would take me but I hate asking her to go to a hunter show when she rides dressage.

So...

I bought a truck (which has been dubbed 'Hedwig'). Step one in getting pony to shows!

I did a TON of research on trucks for towing horses. That was the easy part- shopping was its own terrible beast. Some tips:

1. Do your research: know what you will and will not accept in a vehicle- towing capacity, engine size, 2wd or 4wd, cab size, mileage, etc.
2. Make sure the title is clean! My truck had a lien on the title and it has been a nightmare getting the auto loan and registration paperwork done.
3. PRE-PURCHASE INSPECTION (PPI)! This will cost you about $100. If the dealer is uncomfortable with you taking the vehicle off-site for inspection, walk away. I took mine in, and it ended up needing about $2,000 of work- which the dealer agreed to pay.
4. I had multiple dealers flat out lie to me about towing capacity. If you don't know, check the manufacturer's specifications (usually online). The easiest way is to pull the manual out of the glove compartment and look yourself. 
5. Online tools include: AutoTrader, Kbb, TrueCar, and RepairPal
6. If you can, look for a vehicle sale that comes with a warranty. My truck was an auction purchase which meant I saved a lot of money, but it was sold "as is" (making that PPI even more important).
7. Always test drive. Listen and feel for any abnormalities and make sure you are comfortable driving the vehicle. 
8. Never pay full value for a truck. Many dealers set prices high knowing the buyer will want to haggle. Look up the vehicle's trade-in value; the closer you can get to this price, the better! Holidays are always a good time to buy, as many dealerships run specials. Also consider how long the vehicle has been on the lot, as well as the vehicle condition.

A lot to think about, but a vehicle is an important piece of equipment. The last thing you want is to purchase a vehicle that ends up not working for you!

First Ruby Injury

"My finger kinda hurts..."

My last lesson started like most of my other ones: warm up walk, trot, canter; bending, getting on the bit, etc. Debi has had me warm up over a 'circle jump' for the past few rides:
                 
               .        .
       .                        .
    .                                .
____                          ____
   .                                  .
       .                        .
               .          .

Nothing too fancy; Ruby and I have done this same exercise with 4 jumps (back with Connie before we moved to AL).

I'm actually not entirely sure what happened; we had been going around the circle a few times working on looking for the next jump and picking up the correct lead. We were going clockwise. When we came up to the left jump (probably the third time over it) we got a really terrible distance. Basically, I jumped up her neck thinking she would take the long spot, she went 'what the hell woman'...and we just fell apart. I landed on her neck in front of the saddle and kind-of figured there was no point trying to save it and toppled off her left side. The fall wasn't bad since I knew it was happening, but I landed still holding my reins while she was trying to run for her life (lol).

I did get back on and rode the exercise a few more times to make sure Ruby (or I) didn't have any issues going over it again, but decided my fingers weren't quite right shortly after and headed home for a nice hot shower (which is my happy place). A few more hours past that, my finger had swollen significantly so Dan got dragged out to the hospital with me.

After 4 hours in the ER, I did finally get confirmation of the break (and this picture). It looks like the pull from the reins twisted my finger until it snapped- note to self: let go and let your idiot horse run into the road...

Honestly, I am a little proud of Ruby and I- we have been together for 7 years and this was our first injury in that time, and our fist fall in AL (we were past due- it had been about 2 years since I popped off her).

My check up appointment is on the 24th, where I will get another x-ray to make sure everything is healing straight and whatnot. It might just be the swelling, but even now it does look a bit more crooked than my left hand finger- uh oh!

So the moral of the story? If you ride horses, you will get hurt at some point. "Occupational Hazard," you know? Fortunately, Ruby and I have been able to stay out of real trouble *knock on wood.* For now, all I will say it that there are definitely certain tasks that are exceptionally challenging to accomplish with your non-dominant hand...

Stay safe, and keep riding y'all!

Dragged Over Jumps

"Half halt, half halt!"

Happy New Year! After taking some time off to travel, and then deciding it would be fun to contract 'the plague,' it has been about two weeks since I have been able to ride Ruby. Ruby does best with consistency, and when I am unable to give that to her, things get wonky.

Monday was pretty much what I consider a 'training ride;' we get stuck on something I consider 'basic' and play on repeat for the lesson.

The jumps were only set to about 2', but for some reason Ruby wanted to drag me over them at full speed- we even had some bucks and head-throwing in there. I was hoping she would chill out after a few minutes, but this didn't happen. So what to do? Spend 40 minutes doing transitions until she FINALLY figured out what I wanted and listened. The only thing worse than having a horse that won't 'whoa' is one that won't go...both are equally frustrating!

The key (here's that word again) is consistency. If you let your horse run off with you, they will continue to do it. Debi had me do trot-halt-trot transitions until I no longer had to do it with loads of hand force (your horse *should* stop or slow down when you lean back and close your leg, but we missed that memo). I then took her over the jump and halted after until she had that down. Next up was canter, where she forgot what she was supposed to do so we had to go through the exercise again: canter-halt-canter. The biggest difficulty here was that smarty-pants figured out the routine and started cantering like a slug...not what I wanted. I needed her to be full on cantering like she normally would and still halt when I asked.

Not exactly the lesson I wanted to have, but sometime you have 'those days.' With the weather being as cold as it is, it has been hard to get out there and ride.

I can't even imagine how those of you up north ride in this!

Christmas 2014

"We are all the same dead grass color..."

Merry Christmas from myself, Ruby, Dan, and Bailey!

Thanks to Erin for the pictures! They turned out awesome!

Visiting My Hometown

"I know, it's been almost a year since you rode him last!"

Since I came to visit family and friends this week, I figured that included the four-legged kind as well! Connie was nice enough to let me hop on Sully.

I had a little bit of trouble at first- the only horse I have been able to ride since I moved was, well, Ruby. Sully is massive compared to her, and going from little pony strides to big horse power trot is was a bit of a challenge. Ruby has no bounce to her, so I am a tad shocked I didn't somehow post myself right off Sully's back. His canter motion was also different, and it took a few laps around before I figured out/remembered his rhythm.

When it came to jumping, I was even less prepared. Instead of my little pony hunter jumps, I got massive movement with Sully. I stayed with him pretty well coming up to and over the jump, but the landing was definitely different- it's as if all of his weight and force comes crashing down. If I didn't know where the ground was before, I did now! It bounced me a little bit and I started snapping up out of two-point too quickly, but hey. It's been a long time since I've felt anything other than Ruby.

Connie also has a new, super adorable ottb named Lady. For whatever reason, I have always seemed to do better with the mares, so I was pretty excited to be able to try her out! What a nice horse! Super balanced (especially for a greenie/baby) and she floated around the ring. I could sit that trot all day! Lady is definitely going to have to be a hunter horse. Ignore my goofiness in the photo- I was explaining to Connie how Lady felt like a priss; I talk with my hands.

Had fun riding. It is nice to know then even as rusty as I am with riding other horses, I can still get by on them.

Thanks to Dan for coming out to take pictures!

Loops and Turns

"Look where you are going!"

This week was another super star pony week! Debi had us do something similar to last week's lesson: grid and a course. The theme of this lesson seemed to be "Loops."

We started with the line as we did before: poles, raised the first jump, raised the second jump, raised the last jump. As we progressed, Debi raised the last jump in the gymnastic line, just to see how ruby would handle it.

This is the final course we did for the day- and it was tough! Up 1 going north, loop and lead change going down to 2, to 3, lead change and loop to 4, lead and direction change through 7 and 8 to get to 5 on a diagonal jump, follow around to 6,7,8 one stride line, lead and direction change to 9 and follow the south curve to 10.

Ruby has gotten pretty good with her lead changes- if she has issues, it is usually that she swaps in the front and lags in the back. You should be 'resetting' your horse (slowing down and getting the pace controlled) after each jump, but it is even more important when this happens- slow down to let the back end 'catch up.'

Here is a photo down (most) of the line: I believe that is the first of the three jumps, going in the opposite direction as in the course above.

For Ruby, I really have to get her going strong at the first jump. If we do not have enough power, she will do this awful chip stride and manage to cram 2 strides into the 1 stride- not fun! When this happens, I tend to get up her neck and it really is not pretty.

The photo above is my favorite from the lesson. Go pony go! To the right is the last jump in the grid, going the same way as the course above. As I mentioned, Debi kept raising this one up as we went along. Maybe 2'9" ish? It is always hard for me to tell. Remember that Ruby is only 14.2hh; she looks like a horse when she jumps and sucks in her pony belly!



Special thanks to Erin McMahon for coming all the way out to the other side of town to snap these shots for me!!!