Second Saturday

 Two months ago, my friend and I decided to start taking confirmation shots on the second Saturday of each month.  This last Saturday was our third time taking pics and we also took some videos.  We're hoping to be able to better track general fitness, weight, training, etc.  I figured I might as well post these to the blog as well, as I've found it helpful to go back and look at prior blog posts for inspiration (inspiration such as "man, we used to suck so bad!  We don't suck nearly as bad anymore!").  So here we are for January 2018!

He looks so tiny!  He's actually 14.2 1/2!  Top is January, bottom is November.  He's leaned out since November (not surprising considering my riding program has changed pretty significantly).

WTF am I doing with my hands at the beginning of this trot video?  I'm not sure.  My left hand is and has always been a zombie, but it's really gone rogue.  Must quiet the hands!

2018 Goals

2018 Goals

  


Not a horse, but look at this cute pugger

 

I’m a little late on the 2018 posts (per my standard blog behavior), but I did want to share my 2018 goals

 

Horse goals

1)      Qualify for RMDS championships at training/first level and compete

2)      Get my first level scores towards the bronze medal

3)      Ride 4-5x a week

4)      Monthly confirmation shots on second Saturday of each month

5)      Lesson twice a month with local trainer

6)      Lesson once a month with one of two different ‘S’ judges that frequent the area

a.       Try to get these recorded

To sum it up, my goal is to ride more, learn more, and show. 

Old man puppy boy

 

Personal goals

1)      Gym 3-4x a week (2 classes a week)

2)      Learn more about the CFP (certified financial planner) program

3)      Continue to slowly grow EQ Accounting (my very small accounting services business that I offer to friends, family, and equine-related businesses)

To sum it up, continue to work towards good physical fitness and to grow professionally in a direction I enjoy.

Oh Suzannah!

(much word vomit, pics of new saddle at bottom)

Sure, Christmas was 5 days before, but on Saturday I woke up with that sort of early morning kid at Christmas excitement.  It was NewSaddleFitting Day (a holiday only horse girls are aware of).  

Before I talk about the saddles, I want to talk about the method in which this saddle fitter works because I really believe in it.  

Step 1) you go to her shop and you sit in any saddle she thinks might work for your build and your budget.  She makes notes on which saddles to bring with her for the actual fitting.  This is important because it weeds out a lot of saddles that she'd otherwise have to cart around.

Step 2) she comes out and takes sketches of your horse's back.  This is done for record and she saves them for future saddle adjustments.

Step 3) She sets each saddle on the horse's back to see if the saddle fits the horse.

Step 4) You ride in each saddle that fits your horse's back.  Bam - bam - bam - bam.  This is something that I really believe in now that I've gone through the process twice.  It's a great way to quickly compare how you feel and how the horse feels in each saddle.  I always used to take one saddle on trial and then another.  This works, but I prefer trying them all during one ride.  It allows you to compare each saddle with the impression of each one fresh in your mind.

Step 5) You buy a saddle.  She doesn't do trials.  This is a bit of a bummer, but it's how she works and I get the impression that she is rarely wrong on finding the "right" saddle.

So back to today - I was so excited.  There were so many saddles to try.

-Adam Ellis Avanti 

-Prestige X-Breath, monoflap

-Prestige X-Breath, regular flap

-Prestige Passion

-Ideal Saddlery Suzannah, monoflap

-Keith Bryan Santis Boutique

-Selleria Equipe Emporio

I had sat on all of these saddles in the store and the saddle fitter deemed them all worthy of a visit to Gav's back.

We sat each one on Gav's back, and the saddle fitter sorted them into two groups (winners/losers)

Winners on Gavin's back:

-Both Prestige X-Breaths

-Ideal Saddlery - Suzannah

-Keith Bryan (would need modification)

-Selleria Equipe Emporio

Losers on Gavin's back:

-Adam Ellis (I was surprised by this as he went well in an Adam Ellis jump saddle and Jen with CobJockey rides in one)

-Prestige Passion (just no)

First up to try: Prestige X-Breath, Monoflap.  This saddle may have not got the best shake.  It felt weird to sit in a dressage saddle for the first time in two years, my stirrups were too long, and Gav was still in his early warmup phase (as was I).  This saddle had my pelvis tilted at a weird angle and that was no good.  It was uncomfortable.  After about 5 minutes we moved on to the next X-Breath.

Prestige X-Breath, Regular Flap (the favorite coming into this competition).  Fixed the stirrup length and found that I sat totally differently in this saddle compared to the monoflap.  No pelvis tilting/junk smashing going on.  We rode around in this for awhile - seemed like a winner.

Selleria Equipe Emporio - I got on and got about 5 strides away from the mounting block before getting off.  This saddle just did not work for me.  I've never felt so locked in by a saddle before, which was an odd sensation, but what really sent up the red flags was it's almost immediate junk smashing/pelvic tilting sensation. I'm pretty sure it would've destroyed my nether region at the sitting trot.  TMI, I know, but that's important to determine when trying saddles.  

Ideal Saddlery Suzannah, Monoflap - I had absolutely ZERO interest in this saddle when she sat me in it at the shop or when she brought it out and sat it on Gav's back.  It was just meh to me.  There is no denying that the Prestige saddles are gorgeous - and this saddle is no Prestige in terms of dashing good lucks, but it felt great to sit in and it felt great to ride in and it even felt pretty damn good to sit the trot in (god, I am soooo rusty at that - poor Gav).  I approved, Gav approved, and the saddle fitter approved.  And so, that's how I wound up with the Ideal Suzannah.

I didn't even try the Keith Bryan.  It wouldn't have been a great fit on Gav without adjustment, and it was an extra $1300 over the Ideal.  The choice was obvious.  I bought the Suzannah!  :) 

The next day was horribly cold, so I spent it indoors obsessing about the saddle.  I finally got to ride in it again yesterday and it was just as awesome as I remember it being the first time around.  It definitely needs some breaking in, but I think it'll do perfectly for me and Gav.

 



Imagine my surprise at lifting the flap and only finding this...

Dressage Reboot

I’m sure this is obvious by now from my several months of posts and training recaps, but a few months I went back to the not so warm embrace of dressage.

Phyllis Stein pin <3

 

I can’t say that there was one thing that brought me back to it.  Mostly, it just felt nice to work on it.  In some ways, dressage can be addictive.  There are few things that bring me the satisfaction of a really smooth canter transition or a really forward, but relaxed trot or canter that your horse is stretching into.  That may sound insane and likely pretty boring to most of you, but it’s true for me.

This has brought about a few different not so nice feelings in me. 

For one, it makes me feel a bit guilty.  My bff and horse-riding buddy is a skilled and talented rider (a more effective and patient rider than I’ve ever been), but she’s just not all that enthused by dressage.  She’s noticed my lack of desire to jump and I think it bums her out, which bums me out. 

I also feel like a bit of an asshole.  Ever since my first training session on a cross-country course I kinda knew deep down that what I really liked about riding in the great outdoors isn’t jumping things – it’s just cantering along at a brisk, but controlled pace.  Now – if there was such a sport that just required outdoor controlled-cantering, I’d be like “SIGN ME UP!”, but that’s not eventing. 

Random puppy picture to break up word garbarge

As for stadium – well, I still like it, but only at small fence heights.  As my friend’s horse became more confident in his abilities to jump (and boy, does he have some ability!) the jumps slowly crept up in size.  They’re at a place that I just don’t enjoy jumping at (2’6”).  I’m happy to jump around at 2 feet, but I’m not happy jumping 2’3” – 2’6” courses.  It drives me nuts and embarrasses me that it scares me, but it does.  I have to pep talk myself over that fence height, and pep talking oneself and ones horse through an entire ride isn’t what I consider fun.  So I don’t do it very often.

I am absolutely all about pushing myself and my riding abilities, but what I’m not into is pushing myself into areas that make me nervous every single ride.  It seemed like a natural fit to start working on dressage again and I feel like I came back to it fresh and inspired.

Anyways… I haven’t said all this before, because as I mentioned above – it doesn’t give me the greatest feels, but I felt that an explanation was in order before I have a post on what is about to occur *cough* dressage saddle shopping *cough*.  J

Top - December, Bottom - November - I'm seeing progress!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from me and Gav.  :)  I hope everyone gets to spend today doing exactly as they please with family and friends.

December Goals

Goals for December (ignore the horrible formatting!)

Pugtato

 

Goals for December

Me

1.        Soft elbows (as soft as I want his jaw to be)

2.        Praise more often at smaller tries (especially around others)!

3.        1 lesson (December 8^th)

4.        Research whether it is required in 2018 to ride in dressage saddle at 1^st level (I heard this change was made, but I want to confirm before I freak out about how poor I’m about to be)

5.        Register with: WPCSA, RMDS, and send in breed paperwork to USDF

 

Gavin

 

1.        Continue growing out mane

 

2.        Research skin/coat supplements

 

3.        Stick Gavin

 

4.        Confirmation pics on second Saturday

 

 

Gavin/Me 

1.        Transitions – trot-walk-trot, trot-canter-trot, walk-canter

2.        Lateral work

a.       Leg yields from the quarter line – 2 strides with lateral, 2 strides forward, 2 strides lateral, etc.

b.       Shoulder in on the circle

c.        Shoulder-in down the rail

                                       i.      Walk

                                     ii.      Trot

1.       Use 10 m circle to go into shoulder in

3.        Have someone video the lateral work (specifically shoulder-in as I have a hard time knowing if my angle is right)

November Goals Recap

Goals for November

 

Goals for November Recap

Me

1.        Soft elbows (as soft as I want his jaw to be) – huh… I kinda forgot about this one.  Continue into November.

2.        Track length of ride with length of warm-up, intervals, down-time, etc – Successful.  Rides tend to be 45 – 55 minutes with a  pretty standard 20 minutes devoted on warming-up/loosening-up

3.        Don’t forget to give breaks – Successful.  Tracking the length of my rides, intervals, etc helped significantly with this. 

4.        Praise more often at smaller tries – I’d call this somewhat successful.  I’m good at this when I’m alone.  I need to be better when others are riding around me.

5.        2 lessons (scheduled for November 10^th, November 24^th) – Successful!  Trailered alone for both and he was a good boy for both of them.

Gavin

 

1.        Continue growing out mane – Successful.  It’s mostly flopping over now, but still has some length to go.  Will continue this goal.  Will likely add in a skin/coat supplement as well to help with the dandruff.

2.        Get session for bodywork – with new half-pad, change in footing and size of arena, Gavin is moving like a champ.  Holding off on any chiro/acupuncture.

3.        Stick Gavin to determine if he can compete as a pony in 2018 dressage classes – per new dressage trainer – Unsuccessful.  Have a date to stick him at my next lesson (December 8^th)

4.        Weight tape Gav with Confirmation pics (do this monthly going forward) – per saddle fitter – Mehhhh – sorta successful.  Didn’t get a weight tape, but did take confirmation pics.  Will take confirmation pics every second Saturday of the month going forward.

Gavin/Me

1.        Transitions

a.       Trot to walk (a stride) to trot

                                                               i.      Somewhat successful.  A very helpful exercise.  I’m focusing more on him staying relaxed through his back and jaw and going forward into both upward and downward transitions rather than how many strides of walk or trot are involved.  He’s getting it, but I have to stay loose and play with the bit lightly to keep him from locking up.  Will continue into November.

b.       Trot to canter to trot

                                                               i.      This has been a very helpful exercise for us.  His trot to canter transitions are much improved and this also helps with walk-to-canter.  Will continue into November.

c.        Walk to canter with no trot in the transition

                                                               i.      Successful…sometimes.  He likes to throw a stride of trot in, but if I prep him with some solid trot-to-canter transitions he picks it up beautifully.  This might always be a work in progress.  Canter is hard for him.

2.        Walk squares

a.       Somewhat successful.  I have a hard time keeping him loose during these.  Makes sense – he kinda sucks back on the turns.  It’s a useful exercise, and I think it’s helping the shoulder bulge.   Just gotta keep him thinking forward.

3.        Lateral work

a.       Leg yield along wall (walk)

                                                               i.      Total success.  He’s figured this one out!  And I think it’s really helped him understand how to move laterally.

b.       Leg yield from quarter line (trot)

                                                               i.      Somewhat successful, but like the square turns – he gets a bit sucked back.  Trainer has suggested two strides sideways then forward, two strides sideways, forward, etc.  She says this is mostly him not understanding that we want both forward AND sideways.  Lots of leg yield will help.