Some Inspiration and Goal Defining

In another life, I think I should have made horses my job, or at least picked a more lucrative career that allowed me a lot of barn time.

I just had 10 days off work and I think at least half of each of those days were spent at the barn or out with the horses, and as the days passed, the further down the rabbit hole I went! I like to consider myself good at my job and my career is well suited to my strengths. I have a ton of hobbies and interests too. But horses are the only thing where I'm completely myself and where time gets lost!

Taking photos of my horses...also a time trap I'm enjoying.

Despite having a million other things I should have been doing,  I ended up spending pretty much all of Saturday and Sunday auditing a clinic and taking pictures for friends. I really enjoyed it and was wishing I'd known I'd be free further in advance so I could have booked a lesson for myself.

I like auditing clinics and lessons because along with the obvious riding and training tips you pick up, watching others and paying attention to the clinician's overall program and outlook gives a lot of inspiration for myself. I've been getting a little hung up on waiting for outside things (building a barn, buying a trailer, new saddles and saddle fitting, plus most importantly, saving the money for it all so as to not be debt stressed!)

This horse was SO cool.

I feel like I've got so much on my plate right now, and not in a good way. Kind of a 'what fire do I put out first?' way. I know what my big goals are, it's the getting there and prioritizing and setting the smaller progress markers that seem to be where I lose clarity....the bigger stuff seems so far away at this point.

In the absence of lessons and having my awesome coach EC at my disposal on the regular, spending time looking outside my own little world and the limitations I set on myself is so, so helpful in regaining inspiration and focus. I saw a lot of people working towards a lot of goals and overcoming a lot of different challenges to do so.

How cute is this guy? He loves this barrel :)  Seriously, I was having so much fun taking pictures for people despite feeling a little weird initially because I am obviously not a pro!

I've been reminded this weekend that there is never a perfect time to do the thing. The best time is usually right now!

We've got some fun stuff on the agenda for October, including the return of the Spooky Trail Course and some group trail rides. I'm pretty guilty of just doing my own thing, so October should be a nice change with a slightly bigger emphasis on more social outings and events.

Are you ready for some adventures, Sophie?

My hope is to get Sophie ready for some lessons and small shows and clinics next year. It's so far away but I'm eyeing up the dressage series in my coach's town - it would be a good opportunity to do a couple of overnight trips and ride some baby dressage tests in a relaxed environment with lots of support and help built in!

In the meantime in between time though, it's going to be all about keeping those tiny progress markers coming. Every walk on the trail and local event attended is a great experience for her. As we were reminded this weekend, every day brings an opportunity to take a step towards your goals.

5 Steps to Remember Jump Courses and Dressage Tests

News flash: I'm way out of practice at remembering courses.

Me, watching a couple of riders go the other weekend, while I was supposed to be gathering intel for our riders hacking over for stadium:

-"That's a nice saddle pad. Wonder where she got it?"

-"Riders are consistently getting in too close to the red jump."

-"The grey horse is gorgeous!"

-"OOHH PONY!"

-"Love her coat. Does it come in adult sizing?"

-"Are those thunderstorms coming?"

-"I'd like to build a jump like that at home..."*mentally calculating supplies required*

-"Ohh look, there's where the courses are posted" *gets distracted talking to show photographer*

Yeah, not such a great success rate on learning the course if left to my own devices.

This should have been a great picture, but I had the photographer crop my face out because I was SO STRESSED looking...and it was all because I thought I might forget the course :D

So, if you're like me and are directionally challenged and have the attention span of a gnat, here's some tricks I use that work for me:

1. Get the picture ahead of time. I'm not the type of person that can look at the course diagram posted on the fence and remember it. If I take a picture with my phone and walk away somewhere quiet to study it, it's much easier. Dressage tests are my jam because I know what they'll be weeks in advance. On the day, I often find it helpful to get a visual by watching people go before me. I always walk my jump or xc courses, and have been known to walk my dressage tests in my living room too.

2. Know my start inside and out. On a stadium or XC course: where it is, where I approach from, what kind of canter I'd like to have. In dressage, this equates to knowing what bend I'd like to enter on and what happens after x. I find I'm most nervous and apt to forget things as I'm riding in, so if I can visualize and nail down a great start, my brain freeze melts and the rest usually flows more easily.

After that:

3. I mentally group lines of jumps or dressage movements. I try not to focus on looking for individual jumps one at a time and will often group dressage tests by changes in gait. So, the trot work at the start is one part, the walk another, canter another, change rein trot work another, etc. In jumping, it's 'outside line' or 'down the hill' or ' the yellow farm themed ones' etc. Keep your groups of things to 4 or less - most people can remember a sequence of 4 things fairly easily.

4. Remembering turns or changes in the pattern, by giving myself a visual place marker of where I want to turn and what towards. In dressage this is easy, there are markers for that purpose. In jumping, I help myself out by picking something permanent, like a tree or the stables as a visual reminder of what direction to go. ie, I might plan 'after the blue line of jumps if I turn towards the maple tree, that will line me up perfectly for the next group of jumps'. My lizard brain then only needs to know to go to the maple tree after the last blue jump, and the next part of course will appear before me  :)

5. Noting where the finish line is. Probably not a problem for most of you, but I've been caught out before on jump and XC courses, giving myself unneeded worry by mentally checking out after the last jump and then having to look for the timer. Remember to ride that course all the way to the finish line, everyone!

Bonus: Practice at home. Remembering patterns can be a learned skill...ask me how I know. My coach purposely used to set twisty complicated courses at home and then mess with me by telling me the course once and having me immediately go do it.

Five Ways To Be A Better Rider

Since my riding life seems to come with a lot of ups and downs, I'm often pondering what I can do to be a better rider, particularly when I have some down time out of the saddle. There are tons of articles, books, and lists online that address this exact topic and I won't pretend to know any more than they do. I do, however, know myself better than anyone and I know what works for me. My top five is likely different than yours, but I thought it would be fun to share:

1. Focus. Striving to focus on the moment. I'm quite good at worrying or trying to be proactive about something that *might* happen. I'm also easily distracted. As in most aspects of life, if I can drop all that excess and simply "be"  I'm more apt to have a good feel of what my horse is telling me.
My favorite resources: Yoga, hiking.
Book suggestions:The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down, Inside Your Ride

Trail in our neighbourhood looking especially Zen.

2. Knowledge. I'm lucky I like learning things, because I'm not sure there's a sport out there that requires quite so much of it! A good coach is invaluable for reaching your riding goals. I'm so lucky to have mine! Auditing clinics is a cheap and effective way to learn. I've also found a ton of value in books, on the internet, and even in random places you might not expect. These days, while having eyes on the ground is invaluable, there is still a lot you can do on your own with freely available resources. Don't limit yourself to equestrian topics, if something interests you, try it and find out more about it! I think keeping an open and learning mindset benefits me in all parts of my life.
My favorite resources: The library, equestrian professionals, live streaming events with commentary. Youtube - there are tons of clinics and how to videos there. USEF network. Check out old Badminton dressage videos - Carl Hester is doing the commentary and giving a mini clinic while he does so! More recently, the Adequan West Coast Dressage festival has commentary from retired judges usually at least on one of the days.

3. Fitness. As we all know, riding well is tough. Staying mentally and physically fit is a huge help. I admittedly struggle with both, but again, there are a ton of resources out there and you don't need to join an expensive gym to see results. From my own experience, the fitter I am, the easier better riding comes.
My favorite resources: yoga, hiking, in saddle exercises like dropping reins and/or stirrups, two point practice. Book suggestions: Equine Fitness: A Program of Exercise and Routines For You and Your Horse, The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down, Centered Riding

4. Inspiration. Nothing gets me motivated to be better and set some big goals than surrounding myself with like minded people. My coach's barn is amazing for that. The times I'm boarding on my own? The internet and books are my friends. There are so many events that stream live these days, and good books are easier to find and acquire than ever.
My favorite resources: My coach, my barnmates, Youtube for riders I admire, bloggers. Outside the riding box: autobiographies, TED talks, and interviews with people who are passionate and excited about their chosen topic.

Legit would have never tried eventing without super inspiring barn mates encouraging me.

5. Ride. I used to worry that since I am not a perfect rider, unsupervised time in the saddle would result in bad habits. That is true, at least for me, but the benefits of simply putting the time in, whether its in the arena or out on the trail, have still been huge. I think, no matter what, you simply need hours in the saddle. Once you've got a good seat, the finer aspects of riding come a lot easier. Riding Bridget bareback all winter due to saddle fit issues improved my riding so much, even as someone who's been riding for many years. If you don't have access to a horse to ride all of the time, I've also learned so much by simply watching other riders and yoga has been a huge help in keeping me balanced and aware of my body.
My favorite resources: Bridget! The Trailforks app for planning trail routes and times, Equilab app for arena work.

B having a post ride snack.

Of course, it should go without saying that good horsepeople generally have a head start to being a better riders. I try to be as hands on as possible with my horses - for someone like me who doesn't have a lot of natural talent or "feel" for riding, it's a big help for me to know my horses inside and out.

I'd know this nose anywhere :)

So, thats my list! I'd love to hear the tips and tricks that help you improve.

Educating Myself

April is going to be kind of fun, I think!

I kick off the first weekend of April auditing a Severin Pederson clinic. Sev is super positive and great with nervous riders and young horses. Since I'm in a baby horse training frame of mind, I'm sure I'm going to pick up some useful tips. I hope to take Sophie to one of his clinics later in the year when she's ready to go a little under saddle. Until then, I watch and I hopefully learn.

Bridget is glad I won't be interrupting her field time with such ambition.

The second weekend of April a barefoot trimming clinician is coming. I've booked a consult for myself and Sophie. Long term, I'm expecting to always use the available farrier, and I'm always open to shoes, but learning and practicing trimming is fun too and will hopefully alleviate my worries when there is not a farrier near to us.

So enthusiastic

The third weekend of April I signed up for a first aid/bandaging clinic. I'm pretty confident I know the basics, but a refresher is always good!

The last weekend of April, I'm planning to move Sophie to Bridget's barn. Yay!

Come on Sophie, let's go!

On the side, I've also signed up for some design courses once a week throughout April and May to (officially) benefit my work, but they will hopefully (unofficially) pay dividends down the road on this blog and the photos I post too.

And, never fear, my favorite person providing equine education is still available and I haven't given up lessons and showing forever. I plan on lessons with EC (my riding coach on the South Coast) making a return later in the summer after her busy competition season has slowed down and my budget is replenished. I'm crossing fingers she can help me get Sophie going in the fall, but even if Sophie is not ready, resuming lessons on Audrey would be good prep for me as well. Ideally, this time next year, I'd like to be planning Sophie's first summer of baby dressage shows and have her boarded with EC so I can take weekly lessons.

Fingers crossed she likes her future job

We're a month away from my new work schedule and a season of baby Sophie boot camp! Poor Bridget will be stuck in the role of babysitter, so expect lots of random outings for her this spring and summer because I'm pretty much going to sign her up for anything and everything available locally so she can drag Sophie with her.

I'm excited, because I actually love introducing babies to the world. It's the 4/5 year old 'why should I?' stage I dislike!

Environmentally Conscious

I do try to be!

Further to Emma's post, I thought I'd turn it into an informal blog hop and outline how I try to keep my horse's environmental impact to a minimum.

The area I live in is super green and environmentally conscious. It's a beautiful part of the world that has sadly seen more than it's fair share of destruction from the past century of resource based economics. The positive though, is that I think (I hope) we've learned from those mistakes and the research is showing changes made in my lifetime are adding up to things like returning fisheries stocks and forest cover.

This post brought to you by scenic pictures from last week's hiking adventures. This is the Pacific and as you can see we look at a lot of islands here rather than open ocean.

The local residents are unlike anywhere I've ever lived. I got called out by a stranger a couple of years ago for buying a plastic bottle of water, and we'd better not get started on my organic veggie farmer neighbour's opinion of those pressure treated fence posts I bought that one time.

While there are a few things I can do to minimize my horse's impact, there are others I kind of struggle with.

My least favorite walking trail because it seems to be always flooded and it is closest to our house so I have to start the walk in wet shoes. First world problems. It was very pretty this weekend, though.

Feed:

- I try to buy local hay whenever possible. It's cheaper, the farmer I buy from doesn't put any chemicals on it, and it hasn't been trucked for hundreds of miles. it comes with baling twine, though. I reuse bits of it for all the horsey hacks and repairs we all know and love. I use some in the garden to build  'trellises' for the peas and beans. The remainder goes back to the feed store for recycling, but I have to admit I'm in the dark as to what's actually done with it beyond that.

- Grain bags. I buy the stuff that's made on Vancouver Island and comes in 100% paper bags. I reuse the bags in the garden instead of landscape fabric and also re use them for my super thrifty stash of wood shavings from the local sawmill.

Bedding:

- I use fir shavings from the local mill, so they compost well for gardening and keep the manure pile small (vs cedar, which no one will take for their gardens and is better as a mulch). In the winter I am guilty of buying the pelleted wood bedding to mix in, and so although I use them sparingly, I have about 10 plastic bags from this winter that are currently enjoying a second life as garbage bags.

Dewormer:

- Like Emma, I try to keep it to a minimum. I have no clue what to do with the empty tubes, so I throw them in the trash. Bad me. I wonder if the place that takes expired human medications might be worth looking into?

Trail to the beach.

General Horse Gear:

- I have way too much, and after reading about how bad even synthetic fabric waste is in our world, I've been feeling pretty guilty. I've been giving away things I know other people need, and trying to buy good quality items that will last forever rather than cheap, replaceable stuff. I have much room for improvement, though...in general I previously purchased a lot more than I really needed.

Water:

- Every place I've ever boarded has been on a well. And so, it's second nature to be aware of what you consume and what is going into the soil. I'm thinking of setting up a rainwater collection in B's paddock...her lean to is attached to the barn and it's all metal roofing. If nothing else, it would save me hauling out the hose to fill her bucket a good part of the year :)

Beach and pier near my work.

General Horsekeeping Considerations:

- Sacrifice paddocks are my friend in the winter. There is no point in trashing the fields. Picking poop all winter to compost for spring and spread in the fall makes for happier fields too.

- I don't ride off the trail or on trails I might damage. I know that might sound weird, but given our terrain, erosion (especially in winter rains) is a thing. Given the large numbers of people out there mountain biking and hiking too I want to keep the trails nice and I want to keep horses welcome on them.

- Keeping Bridget's fields mowed and weed free. Not only helps the fields stay healthy, but helps curb the spread of said weeds and invasives. If left neglected, not only do they spread on their own accord but if Bridget eats the weeds and poops on the trail, boom, potential for spread there too.

- Participate and support local events like Trash Bash (we have riding club team that marks places in the backcountry to clean up)

- I have no idea if this was a good thing or not, but after reading about how in the UK a lot of synthetic footing from arenas is essentially classed as hazardous waste if you ever need to replace it, I've mentioned to our local groups that maybe we should explore that topic further before decisions are made regarding upgrading our existing sand footing.

Lake on my drive home. I had to stop for the rainbow! Off topic: the camera so I can have nicer pictures on this blog is coming! I had a last minute doubt or two about which to order so I decided to look at them in person when we are in the city next.

Dressage Nerd

I think I've mentioned my goal of making time to study outside of lessons, so that I can optimize my lesson time by hopefully spending more time actually Doing The Things rather than having the concepts explained to me for excess amounts of precious lesson minutes.

It's not that my coach isn't genius at explaining things, because she is. I'm just sometimes a bit slow on the uptake when I'm trying to ride and listen at the same time :)

Luckily, it's very easy to watch videos and read articles from the comfort of my couch, lol

Last weekend's study time involved delving back into the Robert Dover Clinic, reading some excellent notes from a couple of different Carl Hester clinics, watching a few classes from the US Dressage Finals, and finally, watching some YouTube videos of riders I admire, trying to see what aids they're using and how they're using their horses and their own bodies to make it all look so easy. I watched a couple of vlogs from Olivia Towers too, which were super neat because they involved some clips of schooling, test riding, lessons, and what she works on at the gym and in her mindset to help what she perceives her weaknesses to be.

And so, in my lesson this week when my coach asked me to go from walk pirouette to canter pirouette my first instinct was "Oh haha, you're so funny!" Then, a couple of seconds later, I was like "Why not? She wouldn't ask if she didn't think I could." Followed by some further confidence because I had just watched video of Carl and Charlotte introducing pirouettes, as well as multiple US Dressage Final tests with the helpful commentary explaining the good and not so good scores for the movement.

You probably wouldn't expect me to have mastered pirouettes in my first attempt from watching video. And, I didn't. There were some nice steps, some trial and error where I lost the shoulder and they got too big or  where I used too much outside aids and they got too small and hopping. But you know what? It wasn't all terrible either. I had a good visual in my head of what I wanted, and how to set it up, and for that, the video watching proved really, really helpful for me.

Taking the feel and tempo I've been learning to seek in collected canter, and combining it with the bend and aids from a walk pirouette, also very cool. EC is great at giving you seemingly non related exercises for months, and then boom you're putting them together and you're accomplishing a thing.

(And, WHOA, did I mention I did my first canter pirouettes!!!I don't know why, but of all the horsey things one could do, canter pirouettes and tempi changes are both serious Goals for me. So, bear with me, because I'm pretty excited.)

Final words of wisdom from EC (paraphrasing):

"As a rider, you get to a certain point where I am not teaching you anything truly new. Now it is just a matter of taking the basics I've taught you, and refining it all."

In other words, her nice way of saying don't over think it. Those canter pirouettes at their simplest are taking the canter I know how to create, adding haunches in, and placing it on a circle.

Once I got the feel, I practiced riding in and out of them as you would in a test. Again, certainly not perfect, or even complete 360s, but oh so fun to play with.

My aids need refining. My timing needs improvement. There are also millions of other little things I will be fixing or working on. But for now, just knowing I CAN Do The Thing is pretty darn cool.

Not sure this mare will ever have a collected enough canter to pull it off, but I'd like to try

I think another excellent goal to carry on indefinitely would be to continue to take advantage of available educational opportunities as much as possible. Kind of a no brainer, really, but it's easy to get lazy and be happy just knowing what you know. I'm finding online resources invaluable in helping me figure out some of the finer points of what I'd like to accomplish as a rider, and I'm finding a lot of the material is really inspiring me with new goals and ideas to try.

Learning The Most

The recent 25 Questions survey that was circulating had one question that I really wanted to write further on:

What horse do you feel like has taught you the most?

My answer was Bridget. Because she's been the toughest horse I've ever dealt with, and yet, on paper, we've accomplished the most together.

I've had a post sitting in my drafts folder for months now, a general outline of all the lowlights that happened through the years - everything from straight up refusing to move to rearing and falling backwards on top of me to going through a phase of refusing jumps so hard she'd fall down. Let's not forget that dressage show where the judge complimented my riding, but followed that up by suggesting I find a slightly more 'honest' horse.

Still having fun, though.

To sum it up, Bridget's default answer to most things she perceives as new or potentially work related has always been "NO!" There was always a pretty fine line to negotiating that NO into a maybe, without it escalating into something undesirable.

My moral of that post was going to be that most good horses are very much made through training, and that a lot of the near misses and Very Bad Things were my responsibility for pushing her past her imaginary line drawn in the sand. That the very bad days were far outweighed by days of slow and steady progress and fun outing and adventures.

At the lake, looks like I must be taking a pic for you guys! :)

I keep refraining from pushing the 'publish' button on that post, because no matter how I word it, I worry that it reads as a list of all the bad things about Bridget and my relationship. When, in real life, I feel like we have a really great partnership and I'm beyond happy with her.

I think this was the weekend where she figured out sliding to a stop and bucking on downhill canters or after drop fences was a great way to lose me and I fell off about 2x a day. But again, we still had lots of fun too, this is part of a lovely uphill line the trainer kindly suggested we finish the day with :)

These days, I get frequent comments from my riding buddies about how lucky I am to own such a good horse, one that's always so easy. Don't get me wrong, I'd never argue that she's not good. She's great and she always has been. BUT people seem to equate quiet with 'easy' or 'good' or 'well behaved' and that's really a big assumption. It was just lucky that Bridget's happy place was to stand around quietly because that fits people's expectations of a good horse. Push her outside of that happy place, though, and...well...things used to get a bit 'real', lol

I was not riding nearly defensively enough off this bank lol, pretty sure I end up sitting in the bottom of the gully in a couple more strides ;)

She used to get so angry at being asked to canter

Saying NO to something, back in the day.

This used to be her trotting face, lol - she used to get really pissy about moving faster than a walk. 

Anyway, I like that the question above rephrases it all as something positive: a learning opportunity, a chance to be better, a gift of knowledge to take forward to new partnerships.

This journey with Bridget has definitely taught me so much.

-I've learned that sometimes you can push quite a bit past what should be possible on paper.
-She's not inclined to work any harder than absolutely necessary, so I've learned how to keep it interesting.
-She's not overly motivated to please anyone, so I've had to find ways of making things seem like her idea or or benefit to her.
-She has days where it's just not going to happen. So, I've had to learn to listen to that and be patient.
-She's not super athletic, so I've learned a ton about conditioning and strength building. 
-I've learned about equine biomechanics, about where to place her body exactly, so we can show her how to do everything from lateral work to cantering.
-Mentally, she's very quick to give up. So, I've had to learn to break things down into tiny pieces, and to be quick to reward.
-I've had to learn to be very, very consistent and fair.
-I've learned to be persistent, to not judge progress in a linear fashion.
-I've learned that despite all your best efforts, sometimes things just aren't meant to be. And that it's no one's fault.

So yes, I think Bridget is a horse that's made me a far better rider, trainer, and person. I'm just glad she came in a cute, small, not so athletic package - it was pretty hard to hold a grudge or ever get nervous.

A Tale Of Two Schoolmasters

Training Cupid left a lovely comment on my previous lesson recap post, calling Audrey a schoolmaster. My gut reaction was "I've been far too kind describing Audrey, she's anything but!", but then I reconsidered, and started thinking about what a schoolmaster is, to me at least. (Forgive me, I commute for about 7 hours a week in an area with sketchy radio and cell reception, so I have a lot of time to ponder such things :)

Ohh, sounds good! ;)

Horse and Hound has a good article, leading with "A schoolmaster is a horse with the experience and the ability to help a rider learn and perfect certain skills". 

By that definition, the door is pretty wide open. All my horses have helped me perfect a skill or two, although in some cases they're skills I'd rather not have had to learn :) Remind me if I ever sell Bridget "Schoolmaster event pony. Will teach you everything about nutrition and fitness for competition (you can spend hours a week monitoring her diet and getting her fit just for Starter level!)."

Sorry B, it's true. We love you, but your strengths lie more in the "will happily shelter in place and easily survive extreme climates by eating lichen and snow" category.

In all seriousness, I imagine an older, been there done that, saintly type of horse, probably trained to a moderate competition level. Confidence boosting, forgiving, patient and kind.

EC has a wonderful example of just such a beast. He's not overly old, but he's quiet and steady, very patient, and happily goes about his job without much fuss, whatever your riding level.

Just a pretty pic of B's field last week. I feel weird sharing pictures of other people's horses, so you're stuck with mine.

He took one of my barn mates up to 1* eventing, and currently is the dressage ride of an absolutely inspirational (and very elderly) European gentleman. My coach EC has been competing him a level or two above Audrey for a couple of years now. He got decent scores at Intermediare this year!) She's transitioning from a lifetime of eventing to a more dressage focus and he's forgiving enough for her to train up the levels and possibly make a mistake or two, before bringing Audrey along as her "big" horse.

The best part is he's decidedly not fancy with some very untraditional dressage breeding. Oh, and he's done FEI vaulting, and is a surprisingly decent barrel racer.

So, I guess the bar's been set pretty high.

As far as this blog is concerned, Audrey is perfect in every single way, so we won't go down the path of how she may or may not differ from the Original Mr Perfect the next paddock over ;)

What I have been pondering, though, is that some of the things that make me hesitate to put her in the same category as ECs other horse are actually qualities that make an excellent upper level prospect, and ones I've really grown to like.

Talking about her, I often use descriptors like : powerful, reactive, opinionated, big moving, super intense, serious, needs a job.

She's not your friendly, cuddly backyard pony you ride a few times a week, and that's OK.

It's not my story to tell, but she arrived at the barn right around the same time Bridget and I did, and was the same age and green bean level as Bridget. And, I used to dread having to deal with her. I think we all did, lol. Helping with Audrey was not a task you volunteered for lightly. But, after watching her talent and work ethic under saddle, I remember saying to EC that I got why she liked her so much, and that my new life goal was to learn to ride a horse like Audrey (and after some further thought, to have the tools to train one as well.) Thus began my not so secret obsession with A :)

Spent 3 years working hard trying to make Bridget more like A under saddle. The good news is, we kind of succeeded. Despite their obvious differences in build and talent, they have a very similar feel, and while Audrey is very much 'extra' in all the ways Bridget isn't, I feel equally at home on each. The miracle of sticking with a consistent training program, who knew.

Audrey has changed hugely in the last 4 years. No one expected it, but she's become a pretty reliable lesson horse. I take dressage lessons, and another lady events her at Pre-Training. She's learning to be patient and forgiving. She's starting to have an "off" switch. Her ground manners are passable. I make mistakes all day long, and dramatics in response are very few and far between.

So, after some thought, I'm changing my mind.  She's a schoolmaster, at least to me. She's taught me much more than my traditional picture of a schoolmaster. It's been really neat being a small part of her journey from silly green thing to reliable PSG mare.  As a rider wanting to move up the levels, I think EC's other horse might have been a better bet for learning. Maybe I'd be out there riding and competing at higher levels by now, who knows. Probably I'd still just be me, plugging away.

But, when we consider that it's more important to me to have a solid training toolkit (and now having a Sophie pony to bring along) I think Audrey is invaluable, and a most excellent schoolmaster. It's partly how EC operates, anyway, but take for example this whole flying change thing - the smallest part of the lesson is learning to ride them. The main part is schooling and going through all the useful exercises to set them up - teaching, balancing, and improving them - tools I will hopefully be able to carry home to my two.

Final thought: In the tale of the two schoolmasters, I have no regrets. I love Audrey more for her quirky, dramatic self than I would appreciate boring old Mr Perfect next door :)

Sophie the golden pony was looking quite golden this day! Fingers crossed she can do this dressage thing too! Please, please, grow up to be a mini Audrey :)

Not As Good

You knew eventually it had to happen! A not so great lesson on the lovely Audrey...

I could rationalize it a million different ways - she just ran XC yesterday (in line with my book review last week re: the horse with basic training - yes, she's competing PSG dressage, but she also jumps regularly and events a couple of times a year too). I've missed two weeks worth of lessons, which also doesn't help, when you're me.

I was really feeling this as my morning inspiration.

But honestly? I think we were just sort of due. I didn't bring my A game, which I find frustrating given how much I look forward to these rides and how much I can potentially learn. Mentally, it was a very long day and my mindset wasnt the most focused or positive it's ever been. I hate knowing what I want to do, and yet being unable to put the pieces together. My body and mind just didn't want to cooperate as well as they might have. Ah well.

Audrey had a little of her own thing going on, I think just kind of frustrated with my ineptness and also the fact she was missing dinner time, lol.

Sophie has similar opinions of me at times. Here she's mad I didnt scratch her butt just right, so she had to do it herself while giving me a mare glare side eye , lol

Low spots included my inability to keep her in a counter canter without some serious crab imitations, plus some very impressive kicking at my leg, one of which only narrowly missed the arena mirrors, but of course hit the wall hard enough to scare everyone, including herself :o Because if everyone didn't know it wasn't going great before, they sure knew now.

I was perusing Facebook yesterday and was like "I know those adorable ears!" Hi Ginger! 

On the plus side: I wasn't at all intimidated. I learned a lot. The bad things were mostly just moments in time that we worked through. We got some fantastic canter transitions between medium and collected, and I really feel like I'm sitting and influencing her canter a million times better than at the beginning of the summer. Trot work ended on a fantastic note, with some very fancy feeling movement!

And, a little something to look forward to - my coach is away for a few weeks, and I get to exercise Ms Audrey. Free rides to practice on one of my favorite horses are a gift I plan to enjoy fully!

The Horse You Bought

Thank you to Cathryn at Two and a Half Horses for more blogging inspiration!

This blog hop came along with pretty great timing, because facebook reminded me this morning that it's been 4 years since we brought Bridget home!

The horse I bought was not the horse I wanted to buy.

My wish list:

- 15 -16-ish hand been there done that, capable of jumping 2'6ish course and packing me around safely. Solid on trails. Solid basic flatwork. Nice enough for regional showing jumping/eventing, but doesn't have to win. Safe enough for G to handle on his own if needed. Could be older, provided no major vet issues.

What I bought:

A Bridget!

Turns out, what I really just wanted was SAFE. I was visiting Ginger's breeder to look at another horse, and ended up hopping on too young/too small/not trained Bridget, and liking her, even though the steering was non existent, she didn't wear a bridle, and trot was her fastest gear. When I found out she'd only had a few rides before I trail rode her all over the country side I was even more impressed with what a great mind she has.

Sept 2014. She was not a fan of contact or forward. Still isn't TBH, but it's pretty solid now.

I actually still didn't commit for a couple of months, because a super green pony was definitely not on my wish list, but I eventually ended up buying her, with the thought that worst case I could put a ton of trail miles on her and gain confidence for us both, and always resell once I found the 'right' horse. But, here we are 4 years later!

Navigating poles for the first time, fall 2014

First flat clinic, winter 2015

First xc clinic, spring 2016

There have been many great adventures along the way. Who would of thought that lazy pony would turn into my original wish list horse and then some? (albeit at 14hh a little shorter than planned!)

First event, 2016

Dressage show, 2017

XC camp, 2017

Lesson learned - the right temperament is far more important than training, at least for me.

Chillin' at the lake, summer 2018

Just Dressage

Another Monday night, another Best Lesson Ever.


We continued on with the travers to shoulder in to travers exercise of last week. Having done a little studying in the meantime, I felt a lot more confident and less confused about where to put Audrey's feet. It's really not complicated at all...to recap, the horse maintains the same slight "C" shape bend in both, you just move the front end or back end to the inside track depending on which you're doing. My brain does not do well with left/right directions somehow, so lateral work tends to happen by feel rather than step by step thought processes, which makes for poorly written blog recaps!

- Tip I found useful for both: ask for the same amount of bend and energy and hind leg activity you'd ask for on a good 10m circle.

An added complication: EC told me to grab "bigger" spurs before I got on. "Longer and pointier but not TOO long and pointy" I think were her exact words, lol. I grabbed the "TOO long and pointy" ones, obviously, because they all seemed long and pointy to me, so I was feeling pretty aware of my leg. As was Audrey, lol.

On a related note, she went from sleepy when I got on to pretty darn lively as the ride progressed :)

Bridget being lively this summer, and now helping break my wall of text.

But it was really, really good. Audrey was happy to show off her moves and add some extra flair to a pretty boring exercise (for her, lol) The trot was getting pretty darn passage-y feeling, and that added stepping under and elevation makes it pretty easy to move her body around. So fun!

The canter got a little "western" when I accidentally goosed her with my outside leg when she started to drift. It's frustrating, I know better, and yet at least once a ride I fail to use my inside seatbone and outside rein effectively, panic when I lose her, and go straight to yelling with outside leg. One day I'll learn for real!

We finished up with nice canter work in both directions, alternating having her move out a little, then bringing it back to shoulder in or travers and putting it on the same 10m circle exercise as the trot work. The canter was rougher for me geometry wise, and I had so much horse it was a bit of a novelty for me, but I felt like we got there and ended at a good place.

Given my concerns with the spurs and Audrey being so ramped up, I was glad we didn't push me by experimenting more with flying changes tonight. Surviving one mini rodeo and fixing it was probably a wise place to leave things for me, lol.

So, even with some challenges, it was Best Lesson Ever because the energy and amount of forward she brought to the table was incredible - a feel like nothing I've ever experienced. There were a couple of times I rewarded her by asking her to move out of lateral work to a straight line and the power on tap there was pretty exhilarating! Like an airplane taking off.

Which brings me to yet more pondering. People at our barn are often like "Oh, I don't jump/event/barrel race/whatever. I just do dressage." Like it's the lesser, safer thing to do.

I'm just going to put it out there: If the amount of athleticism, energy, forward and power required to do upper level dressage well is anything like what I've been experiencing on Audrey - holy crap, "just dressage" riders have some serious guts. There's a fine line between brilliance and crazy in some of those horses, I bet.  It's incomparable to anything else I've ever done, and at least for me, a bigger adrenaline rush. I wish I was a better writer so I could give you some sort of apt comparison to sports cars, coiled springs, airplanes, bounce grids, whatever. But I've got nothing. Just some advice:

If you ever get the opportunity to ride an upper level horse, try it.

I'm pretty sure I'm now well and truly addicted to dressage. Not exactly where I thought my life's equestrian adventures would take me way back when, but here we are :)

Actual picture of us post lesson ;)