New Year, New Goals!

I'm back after a bit of a hiatus. I've been really busy studying for my GRE and riding a lot. I addition to regular lessons I have been doing monthly lessons with FEI judge, Janet Foy. She has been really great about encouraging me to take my riding to the next level and to try and get my qualifying scores for selection trials for World Equestrian Games. Also on the horizon, I am going to spend mid-February to mid-March training with Debbie McDonald in California and riding in my first Para-Equestrian CDI. Werther has been doing really well, Sarah is going to ride him one more day a week for a little bit, to help get him a little more supple, now that I am capable of establishing the forward on my own.

This is what I wrote to Debbie about my current training goals:

To improve my ability to ride effectively. I need to get my hands out of the way so they don't interfere with the forward but still have connection. I also need to sit further back, and rewire my way of thinking a little bit, when I get my self into trouble I get into to more of a hunter position, which is not effective when you are trying to do dressage!

To improve Werther's lateral suppleness. He is really good longitudinally and has really nice extensions but I have to work really hard to get him soft laterally. I am always looking for ways to improve his suppleness.

Increase Werther's responsiveness to the forward aids. Werther is by nature a quiet horse, which is good. I don't have the finesse to handle something really hot with my disability, but I would like to see more promptness in my requests for him to move forward. Some of this problem may be because my balance and aids aren't the same as a typical rider and he gets a little confused. For example, right now I am working on walk canter transitions and I have to use a little kiss voice aid, I would like to eventually get away from that.

Improve may ability to preform movements that challenge me. In the para-FEI tests, if I had to pick the three movements I am probably going to have the lowest scores on/and or most difficultly performing they would be the right lead counter canter, the turn on the haunches, and the walk canter transitions

My showing goals for the next year are:

To successfully ride a CDI (just halt to halt without any errors)

Get my 60% at a CDI to ride in selection trials

Ride my first freestyle (I have to have one ready for the CDI)

Move up to first level (i'd like to revisit training level test 4 and see how I score on that before I do)

Have fun!

Exciting events on the horizon!

I had a mini vacation this weekend, I went to New York City to visit some friends. I saw Jude Law in Hamlet, a excellent production, I recommend it to any theatre junkies. Sarah worked with Werther while I was gone. She is going to be working with him a little bit more in the near future, Sarah's mare Sabrina is hurt, which really sucks. Since Sarah can't ride Sabrina in some clinic she was going to participate in, Sarah is going to take Werther, he is the only one of her regular rides that has the level of training to match Sabrina. The next one coming up is the Conrad Schumacher Symposium. She is definitely going to ride on Friday, and depending on if Conrad thinks he is a good demo horse, he will go back on Sunday. I'm really excited, it should be really cool to get feedback from such a well known trainer. I'm going to ride Werther in two three day Janet Foy clinics in October and November. I'm also going to attend (and hopefully riding a borrowed horse) a para-clinic in Maine at the end of October with Paulien Alberts. If Sabrina is still out of commission Sarah may also ride Werther in a Betsy Steiner clinic in November. I had a lesson on Tuesday, Sarah got on Werther again first. We were able to dive right in because I had the impulsion and roundness right off the bat. After a weekend off it took me a little bit to get into the rhythm of things but I felt like it was a pretty good lesson. We spent quite a bit of time practicing leg yields, it has been awhile since I have done those, I had a hard time finding a happy medium between being to restrictive with my hand, and still having enough contact to keep Werther round. I'll have to put these in regular rotation in my hacks, so I can get better.

Amazing news!

You heard it here first! My Mom and I were bidding on Debbie McDonald's clinic and we won! The item was set up by PVDA Ride for Life, and 100% goes to Johns Hopkins Breast Cancer Research. Special shout out to Bob McDonald, thanks for peer pressuring Mom into bidding more. (: There are 6 time slots after one for me and Werther and one for Sarah and her mare Sabrina. I'm going to try and get para dressage riders in those spots if I can, I think it will be amazing! Also, I've got to say I love my Mom for be amazing and so enthusiastic about my dressage endeavors. My hands are still shaking a little, my adrenaline is going strong!

I'm back!

I have a new motherboard in my computer and I am back in business. I had a good lesson last Tuesday, we got the indoor set up to the proper 20 x 60 regulation size. It was really windy outside, so the indoor was creaking and making a fair bit of noise, which I think worried me more than it worried Werther. We just did walk trot work, but we really focused on making full use of the smaller space of the Dressage ring. We worked on really getting deep in the corners on the ring and putting a lot of bend in the turns. We did some really tiny 8 meter circles at the trot to practice. We also spent a good chunk of the lesson working on the turn up the center line. The goal is turn sooner than you need to and leg yield over, but under no circumstances overshoot the turn, because it makes it much difficult to get back on the center line. We also worked on the halt to trot transitions and the free walk. We worked on the freewalk serpintine in Intro Level Test B. I think that the freewalk is coming along well and the directions Sarah gave me really about where to turn really helped. Werther got a little mini vacation because my Mom and I flew to Chicago on Thursday night to go watch the CDI show at lamplight and to get my para dressage certification. We were able to watch the Prix Saint George in the morning, and I did a little bit of shopping (socks, new shirt, and stock tie pins) and went a did my certification. They did a series of physical therapy tests checking my range of motion, response time, and strength and flexibility. I am  now officially classified as a Grade III para dressage rider. Grade III tests are equivalent to first level dressage. I am also allowed to have certain dispensations, I can salute while still holding the reins (just nodding my head), I can carry a whip in championship level classes, I can tie my left stirrup to the girth and I can use a rubber band to keep my foot on stirrup iron. By the time I was done with my evaluation it started monsooning, and I had to watch the Grand Prix from the snack bar. I braved the outdoors for the para classes, but it was still raining really hard. It was really nice to meet a lot of people involved in the para dressage community, everyone was very nice and I am really excited to get started showing. I talked with Sarah about it in my lesson yesterday and she thinks I will definitely be ready to show first  level next year. I think the show inspired me, I had a really good lesson yesterday. Werther had a few moments of distraction, but we were able to work though it. Sarah gave me some good advice "If he has enough energy to be distracted, he is not working hard enough.".