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

Spring!

Spring is in the air, and in the barn. The horses are shedding like mad. And by horses I mean the horse that I ride is shedding like crazy. I finish grooming him and I am covered in hair. He's a palamino too, so it's all really light coloured hairs, which show up on everything. I need to be brushed off before I can get into the car to go home!

Last night's lesson, was amazing. I'm totally loving riding Max. Such a cutie pony!! Reminds me a lot of Peter. So adorable. He's such an old man, but he's getting back into shape. Slowly but surely! I miss riding Tiffany, but Max just has such spunk about him. He's a little old man Quarter horse. It just clicked. He was on, I was on and we were working together. He was flexing, and I was using my whole body to make him work. It was amazing. Pure bliss.

The reason that I enjoy and love riding.
xoxo

Another Cancelled...

Sigh. I'm not doing so well this winter!

Another lesson cancelled due to weather, spring freak winter storms!! Can't handle them!

Until next week,
xoxo

Knees Turn to Jelly

I was all ready to ride Gillian. Not looking forward to it, persay, mainly because yesterday was a bitch-ass day, and not in the good way. So expect my surprise when I get there, Gillian had just finished being ridden and I had the CHOICE to ride either Gillian or Max. I chose Max. I was like, "Today is just not a Gillian day." Fighting with Max is a completely whole other ballgame.
And one that I can win easier.
And not get as frustrated.
We stuck with simple stuff, getting him to listen to me first off. Which is fine, because he listens until he just tries to go where he wants to. So you put him in his place with a quiet "discussion". Once you get him there, he's like gold. Light on the reins, moving off leg and body, perfect. He's a little out of shape so he's not perfection yet, but he still has it there. Under the covers. Definitely doesn't act his age.
It's amazing when you can apply pressure in one area in a certain way, you can feel him move. And where you want him to move.
I'm slowly getting used to using more of my knee to make them do what I want them to do. It's insane. My legs are like jelly once my lesson is over. I never used my knees in Western other than to not make them stick out. I feel like my body position is all over the place, but when I actually use my knee, it really does work. I just have to be more consistent with it. I had him working on leg yield, shoulder fore, and shoulder in. Plus circles. He was a little bit of a bugger in the beginning, he actually kicked out with me on him, but it was so non-threatening that I was more worried that he would hit Debbie.
My knees are paying for it this morning... I need to start doing more stretches and exercises to make me less... out of shape.

Until next week,
xoxo

Pictures That I Owe

Gillian :) 

Jazzy

Max

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

Back to QH Geldings?

Agghh.. I'm a little bit late in writing this, considering it's pushing it close to my next lesson... which will be tomorrow. But I guess better late then never?

Last week's lesson was interesting, to say the least. Little Tiffany is "on holidays" due to the fact that she has girth sores. So I got the honourable pleasure of riding Max. A cute little palamino QH gelding who was originally trained Western, but now does dressage. He is 17 years old, and she's slowly weaning him out of retirement from the school ring, and getting him back in shape for the summer when Jim starts riding him on the trails.

Since he hasn't been in the riding ring for many a moon since he was taking advantage of students, he was a mixed bag of feelings for me. Not truly angry that he had to work, but had the attitude of one that hasn't been made to work in a long time, and he liked it that way. But he also liked going, regardless of his current fitness level. It was an interesting start to the lesson. He was very pushy in the aisles, but nothing that I can't handle. We get on, and I'm walking around, and he keeps taking me into the corner where his buddy and his stall are. Oh no no no. We are NOT spending this lesson in the corner. I have spent my fair share and I'm better and more balanced then I was when I started.

We talked.
We discussed.
In the end, he decided that my way was happier.

He fought my decision, decided to see if he could scare me into caving. He was a little pissy. A couple times I thought he was seriously debating whether it would be worth it to throw me off. He didn't. He made the right decision. But he made me work for it. I decided to make him work at a trot, since he wanted to go fast, and on a circle away from his little buddy. The 3 women in the lesson before us, were just talking and watching, and they started shouting out to me. "Jasmine, make that little pony slow down!" and then he went into a canter, and one woman I heard her say "Ohh what a little doucher!". It made me smile but I was concentrating pretty hard. Once he realized that I was making him work, he seemed to chill (just a little bit). But he would occasionally test me throughout the rest of the lesson. I have a feeling that Debbie liked how I worked with him and how I handled him, so I think that I might be on him more often... Even if Tiffany comes out of her holiday.

We didn't really work on anything in specific, just some circles, serpentines, and some lateral movement. Mostly it was because Max couldn't really do too much being so out of shape. Even if he had lots of energy.

The Barn Holiday party!! I forgot to talk about it! It was so. much. fun. I went with Bridget, and Mom couldn't take the day off, so it was just us two. We were kind of awkward once we first got there, mainly because a lot of the people there all knew each other because they were all related in some way. Once more "barn people" started showing up it was amazing. The women there are so inspiring, especially for me being my age. Most are late 20's - early 30's, have careers, have horses, their own places. It's what I want for myself. They are hilarious, and even though they can afford their own horses it's not rubbed in your face and it doesn't stop them from talking to you. Super friendly barn. The best part is that there isn't that gossipy-back stabbing feel from the barn. Every one is truly happy with where they are, the coach, the treatment of their horses, etc. It's a nice change from most barns. I met another girl (woman...) who rides Tiffany as well, and we bonded over that, and she just recently got married. It was interesting because this was the first barn party that actually had alcohol. And people actually drank. It was pretty sweet. I didn't, but that's just me. It was finally nice to see people that Debbie's always talking about, and to talk about other things than horses.

This one was pretty long, more tomorrow!
xoxo