Chris Von Martel

Woot. I've been really bad about updating this blog. It's been awhile, and I've been riding like a fiend. And by fiend, I mean in my weekly lesson.

Ok I'll do a quick recap of what's been happening in my weekly lessons. Last two weeks I've had privates because B had work related engagements that couldn't be missed. It was amazing. My mom finally met Debbie, and got to see me ride. She hasn't seen me ride since we were last at Diane's. **which I still need to finish posting about... Sigh.** And she has never seen me ride dressage. So it was nice to be able to go up with her. I rode Max, and he was so good. He's so old, but it's amazing. Definite improvement from each lesson. Debbie was funny, because she was like "Oh the girl who rides him on Thursdays loves it when you ride him. He's a little easier for her." Totally awesome compliment to my riding ability! So we were mainly working on getting him more collected and in a frame, and making him more supple. Max is so stiff sometimes! It takes me almost my whole lesson to get it together but then when I do, it's amazing. I got him to do an actual leg yield. That felt right. I was so excited about that. And I was glad that my mom was there to see it.

So that's my recap, and now onto the dressage clinic that I audited this past weekend. Chris Von Martel was the clinician, and he was a) a lot younger than I expected *and cute* and b) really good. It was really neat because I got to watch Debbie and other students ride, and then he rode and I got to see him ride. The only thing was that sitting down from 9 - 3 is SO uncomfortable. I moved around a bit, but being tired and uncomfortable does not make for a good combo. It was neat to see the things that he got  the riders to do, and how similar his teaching style was to Debbie and Barbara. It was nice to be able to see what I am supposed to be aiming for, instead of just blindly going.

A video of his riding.

xoxo

The True TESTament of My Ability

Last night's lesson... was eventful.

I wasn't sure who I was going to be riding, but I was fairly certain that it would be Max (picture still to come). But there was nothing on the board, and the weather was pretty bad, but B and I perservered this time. Debbie drops the bomb.

I'm riding... Gillian.



Sigh. At least she's inside right? I really try to like this mare. I was happy in the cross ties, I was happy getting on her, I was exuding happy thoughts. But this mare, she's just so... mare-ish. We were walking around just fine, and then I asked her for a trot and she's gone. Doing tiny circles in the middle of the arena (at least we weren't stuck in the corner..). So Debbie gives me a whip to help Gillian keep her left shoulder up, and omg. Did that ever work. Not fool proof, because she took off at a raring-to-go trot that I had a hard time stopping... I finally got her on a circle, and Debbie was helping me out. One way (to the left), I got it. It was amazing. I had her moving off my leg and body, and she was stretching out towards the contact, and I was able to relax and be light. But.. to the right. She would go ok for awhile and then decide to duck out on me. And take me all the way to the other end of the arena. This horse, she is FAST. I think the fastest horse I've ever been on. It's not just that she has speed, she also has this MONSTER stride that just eats up ground. I have zero reaction time. By the time the 3-second reaction time ends, she's already at the end of the arena and you're left wondering how you got there. Especially when she decides to canter to get there. Needless to say, I think I got one good circle before she decided to take off on me.

The other part of my lesson was that because it was raining and warming up a little, the snow on the roof kept falling off. Which kept freaking her out. So she had one good take off (which I managed to get under control faster than I could any other one) and a little smaller one. The middle of the arena also had some trot poles and the tiniest jump ever. Barely a foot. Well, guess who got to jump over that beast? Yup. Me. I managed to avoid it twice before I caved. The first time, I made her go over the trot poles instead. The second time, we missed the trot poles and she tripped/jumped a block. The third time, it was either jump or crash into it. I decided that we should jump it. I believe that as I made that decision, I said "Oh for the fucking love of God" *jump* (B afterwards said that this was hilarious because she heard it... She heard most of what I *thought* I was muttering under my breath... aka cursing at Gillian.) After that jump she kept trying to do it all the time, but I managed to get her to listen to me enough that we didn't try again. It was a definite work out. As I write this, I can feel my back ache and my core feels weak with exhaustion. Just another day after a lesson. My shoulders are all tight, and achey and I definitely didn't get enough sleep last night. To any random person who doesn't ride, this probably sounds like torture. Or at least enough pain to ask "Why does she put herself through that?" The main answer? It's a love. And it's rewarding as hell when you can actually get the horse to co-operate with you. When you both are working together and as one. Plus it's one hell of a work out. I've never worked so hard with my body while riding as I do with dressage. It's like people who run, or like pumping weights. I don't get it, but to each their own right?

At least I'm learning. As Debbie says, Gillian is the best teacher for teaching you to be light on the reins. If only it was easier... But riding Gillian will at least give me an interesting blog post every week.

Til next week,

xoxo

Winter Blues & 2012

It's amazing how quickly one's body hates you after exercise. My body is so sore, it's almost like I haven't ridden in years, not just missed one lesson.

Last night's lesson was intense. All my lessons are intense, but they're getting increasingly so. I'm getting not so much into harder stuff, or more complicated, I'm just having to USE more of my own energy to help motivate and drive Tiffany into her collection. We were working on 20 metre circles, and how to measure one. I've never had to learn that before, as in Western we aren't as exact with our circles. Large and Small circles. Not 10m or 20m. It was really cool to learn. Dressage also has more letters on the wall than Western, which takes some getting used too. Debbie's always like ok at P... and I have to look to see where the hell P is. So as we are working on collection, at a 20m circle, and making square corners, I'm also trying not to slowly fall apart as my energy starts failing. It's hard work, moving your core, keeping it tight. It really works to help keep the horse together, and it'll give me amazing abs. My thighs, they burn, but in a good way. I probably shouldn't have worn heels to work on a Wednesday because all through my lesson my toes kept cramping up. Very unusual feeling. It's like you have no control and your foot feels like it's stuck in the stirrups.

It's an amazing feeling when your horse starts to get it and work on it's own. By the end of the lesson, I had her doing some amazing circles, collected, flexing to the inside, and it's just like "Wow, this feels (almost) effortless". It took effort to get there, but once there, she's holding the frame, and your just driving her forward. I hate missing a lesson because I love that feeling. The feeling of accomplishment. Not to mention even though it was -20 outside last night, I was sweating. It was a great feeling to know that I can actually get a work up and build a sweat. In Western, I do have to say that unless it was ridiculously hot outside, I never actually felt like I was working hard every lesson. Sometimes, yeah. But every lesson? Not at all. I never in the winter would work enough to make my toes hot. Yeah, toes. I always had to wear double socks. Now? One pair. No long johns. It's crazy. **I am wearing winter boots and breeches, so I'm getting extra warmth that way.

Also, the barn cat had 2 kittens, and they look exactly like her: super cute, all white, and super blue eyes. Also they don't like their pictures being taken, they walk away! Sigh. I tried my best with these pictures, also with my phone that has no flash. There are only 2 kittens, it just looks like four because of the mirror!

On a slightly different note, it's very exciting because there are lots of cool "horse" stuff happening in the next coming year. Mirvish has released their 2011/2012 theatre season and there is a horse related production coming in February 2012! War Horse, is coming to Toronto. I'm very, very excited about it. It looks fantastic, and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to cry like a baby throughout the entire thing. Another thing that might be coming to Toronto is Cavalia 2! That should be amazing, just like the first one. I will definitely go see that, as now I have a new appreciation for the dressage work that they do.

War Horse preview!

Planning ahead to 2012,
xoxo

Another Cancellation...

Sigh. This time though, I can blame the damn weather. We had a snowstorm that put the whole city of Toronto and the GTA in alert. Even though people didn't think it was that bad, there were a lot of cars that ended up in the ditch. I talked to Debbie and she said that we would plan a make up lesson.

Damn weather! What can you expect for January in Ontario?

xoxo

Keep On Rising, Amazing Lesson #2

The lessons just keep getting better and better.

I may have missed last weeks lesson, but man, I think I'm better for it. I was on fire last night. Literally and figuratively as well. I wore all my new winter clothes, and was so warm. Totally worth the huge spending that I dropped in Greenhawk 2 weeks ago. My legs were warm without long johns, and my TOES. They were warm without two pairs of socks on. Shocking, I know. Granted the weather wasn't at it's all time low (-20) but at a gentle low of -6. That I can handle. I rode Tiffany again. I'm so not wanting her to get sold. I will cry if she does, because she's amazing and I can deal with her. We work together amazingly.

There are moments when she gets tense. Debbie (my coach) was talking to me about it. The girl who's interesting in purchasing her asked her why she's saying that Tiffany is "an intermediate" horse. She was telling me that it's because when Tiff isn't 100% sure what the rider wants, or if it's not going accordingly to how she thinks it's supposed to go, then she gets tense. Which brings on a major case of the wiggles, and over anticipation. I counteract that with just doing something else. Going back to slow. Walk to trot transitions instead of trot to canter. Serpentines. Circles. Leg yields. It was an amazing lesson. I was doing trot leg yields to the wall and then cantering out of them. My transitions are getting so much better. There are moments when going a certain direction that I know that I'm the one doing things wrong, not having enough support on the outside to counteract her wiggles, so then she falls apart. And won't be able to pick up the correct lead. Although, she makes it tough because she LOVES to counter-canter. I've never known a horse to love it so much that she won't change and does a serpentine on the one lead. And nicely too. She's so cute to ride. I think that she'll be able to teach me how to do flying lead changes (if she's around that long). I sincerely hope that she will be.

Until next week,
xoxo

Lesson #4 and #5

I am sad to report that Winston, has been sold. I was very sad over this, because I loved him. He was such a sweetheart!

So instead of riding Winston, I began riding a beautiful dapple grey mare named Gillian. She's really nice, REALLY trained, and so far... A major C-H-A-L-L-E-N-G-E.  For me anyways. I've had one really amazing lesson on her. It just worked. I had her doing what I wanted, not the other way around. Shocking, I know. I have no idea what I was doing that worked SO well, but I can't seem to get it back. Oh, trust me, it's not for a lack of trying. She tricks me, this mare. She'll do it off right and then I relax and she takes me where she wants to go. *shakes head* The good thing, is that Debbie got on her last night (I froze on the ground though. November is too cold for me already) and she was surprised at how bad she was. It was really cool to see Debbie ride though. It showed me how she rode, what she did to correct, and what it's actually supposed to look like. Also glad to know that it wasn't just ME who was being mentally handicapped when it comes to riding her. (Not that Debbie was, but I found out that she's ridden by 3 other people, and that she wasn't giving her ribcage at all, so it was more difficult than usual to do anything with her). I also realized that this week, she wasn't ridden before me, so she didn't have all the time to warm up.

A couple weeks ago, Bridget and I had our first Lunge Lesson. We had never really had one like this before at all. I was SO tired afterwards. My legs died. It was so intense, but it allowed me to try Kermi! It was so good. I got a canter out of him, and it was fun doing no reins, no stirrup work. So much easier when you don't have to worry about where your horse is going to end up! It was nice to be able to not think about other stuff that had to be done and just FEEL.

It's nice because I finally think that the other girls are warming up to us! They actually talk to us a little bit. I always hate being the new person in a barn. It's like school... So intimidating!

xoxo

Barns, Barns and More Barns!

Ok so this is a little behind, it's tough to keep up when this weekend was crazy-hectic!

It's so much fun just hitting the road with a fellow horse junkie who is also looking for a new place to ride and just seeing what barns are in the neighbourhood. I have missed that since I've either had a barn the entire time, or just wasn't ready to commit to actual lessons yet. I haven't had an actual structured lesson since I came home from college, so about 2 years. That's a really long time in this industry. I've probably picked up some bad habits along the way. Something that a new coach will have to deal with. Poor them :)

Anyways, Bridget had planned the whole trip and the communications with some barns, and only 2 replied to us, so we went to those too. First on the list was Cricket Lane Farms. Owned by a couple who is in the Jousting circle, Bridget is super interested in that. It'd be pretty cool to try out. The only thing is that it's out past Hamilton, so it's quite the drive for us (no weekly lessons there) and they are a new facility who haven't worked out all the kinks yet. Amazing ideas for their barns/boarders. It's a converted chicken barn, which is amazing. It's a 300 ft barn and half is being made into an arena (which is perfect for the jousting lists, because it's long and narrow), the rest is going to be stalls, standing stalls, tack areas and run-in sheds. Oh, and the area for the chickens and the pheasants. Of course. We left early in the morning to arrive there early (before we were expected. Good thing horse people are early risers.) Nicest couple to let us tour their place. Still under construction, it'll be amazing once done. They even let us ride! We got on their beast of a horse, Gloucestre.  He's a serious beast. He's a Trakhener/Thoroughbred/Breton Cross and just has weight to him. I'm so used to Peter and his nothing-ness (woooot he's maybe 700lbs) and just the aweome power of Gloucestre was exhilarating. 3 strides and I was at the end of the arena. I didn't throw the spear at the haybale, (Bridget did) I just have terrible eye-hand coordination. I helped Stephanie get out of her light armour (yes ARMOUR!). That was pretty cool in itself. So, they had to get ready for company coming over after lunch and they were leaving the next day for a tournament in Pennsylvania. So we hustled out of there as politely as possible, we didn't want to impose to much upon their courtesy. We left them with a lot of food for thought, we suggested maybe if we could come up once every month or two months for the day and help out, ride, etc. Now, we'll just have to see what happens when they come back from Pennsylvania in 3 weeks. 

Gloucestre and Stephanie

So we left their place at lunch time, and we were starving so we finally hit something that was decently big and ate at McDonalds, which is something for me because I had it twice that week. Makes my arteries cry just thinking about it. 


Anyways, we decided what to do from there. We decided to visit the only other place that responded to us, Equestrian Dreams, and see how it goes from there. We were supposed to arrive after 3.30 but since our timing was off, )even though we got a little lost...) we arrived early. At first glance it doesn't seem like much, but once you pull into the driveway, it's a gorgeous facility. The arena is huge, competition sized and so nicely ventilated and so light! So much natural light, it's amazing. The barn is so nicely done, with nice big tack areas and huge stalls. The horses are gorgeous and obviously well trained. Debbie, the coach had a lesson that she was about to go teach but she talked to us for a couple of minutes, before taking them into the arena. We talked with her husband Jim, for almost 2 hours. It was really nice. Another super nice couple, and very funny. It was nice to see that it wasn't pretentious even though she has many qualifications that could make it so. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting them and can't wait to start riding there. Bridget can't start lessons until September anyways, because work is so hectic for her right now, so I won't be starting until then anyways. I can't wait! I'm so pumped because I've been wanting to ride dressage for so long, and I'll actually be able to soon!


I will keep up the posting when I find out more information!
xoxo