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.

New Strategies

I keep meaning to do a big post on my last show, but I have to get the photos from my Mom. I had a lesson on Tuesday after the show. Sarah and I are trying a new strategy, she got on Werther first, and work with him for about 15 minutes. The plan is that she gets him really jazzed up and listening, so I don't have to spend half the lesson establishing impulsion and I can have a better feel of where Werther needs to be all the time. It really helped, because Werther was going forward I was able to make smaller corrections. When Sarah rode Werther one of the last things she did was some two tempis. Sarah let me try some flying changes on Werther in the lesson which was just a blast. I've done flying changes on Werther before, but this was different because I had been doing changes the hunter/jumper way. using opposing leg and hand. With the dressage change you ask with your leg and your hand on the same side. It is going to take a lot to get my muscle memory switched over! Thursday's hack also had some change in strategy, but nothing that was planned. I decided to ride Werther outside, and as I was getting on I dropped my whip. Now if I were to get off and get back on again, it would probably take me awhile depending on how cooperative Werther would be about standing. So I decided to try riding without my whip and see how it would go. Werther was really lazy without it. I did coax him into a canter, and got up to two point and got into the worlds slowest hand gallop in an effort to get Werther jazzed up. I went back down to the trot, and it was much better. I took advantage of some ground poles someone had left out and trotted and cantered Werther over them in a little course. Werther hasn't been jumped in a long time but he had a lot of fun with the ground poles, especially when I took a longer line, he really got his eye on the poles and got excited. While it wasn't my planned ride, it was a good lesson in how to work with what you have.

Sarah's Ride Yesterday

I got to go out to the barn and watch Sarah ride my Werther yesterday. It was fascinating. She was able to talk me through a lot of what she was doing and why. This isn't a exact blow by blow of the session, but these are the exercises that really stood out to me.
1. Early in the ride, after warming up she did a lot of shoulder in at the trot down the long side of the ring, stopping at the short side to do some turn on the forehand, the going back down the long side and doing renvers. She did this exercise several times to loosen him up and get him jazzed up about the ride.
2. The second highlight of the ride for me was something new she just started doing with Werther today. She had him to eight meter leg yield circles at the trot, kind of coiling him up like spring, and then made him give a really good quality trot across the diagonal, so he has more air time at the trot and gets stronger and already improves upon a already very good gait.
3. Sarah's rides are a little like circuit training for people, after doing that bit of strength training, she made sure to do more stretching exercises at the trot and gave him a walk break. After this she did some schooling canter pirouettes intermixed with some extended canter. I haven't seen Werther do pirouettes before, so even though they were not show ring pirouettes, they were still fun to watch.
4. Lastly she rode Werther through training level test 4 for me. It was really good opportunity for me to see how she would ride the test. It helped me to understand the serpentines a lot better, the bend is actually a lot more understated that I thought it was when I have been riding them.

Lesson

It was so nice to see Sarah after our missed lesson on Saturday, we both felt like we had not seen each other in an age. We rode inside today because the weather was being a touch unpredictable, and I need to use the dressage ring to get back into test riding mode. Sarah came out on Monday and rode Werther. She said Werther felt more supple, and she spent some time in a slightly longer and lower frame to stretch his top line muscles. We started by developing energy at the walk, a little squeeze with the calf and then loose legs. When we had a good level of impulsion, Sarah had me take a feel of the bit and frame Werther up but encourage him to keep the length in his neck and not curl up. Once we had the impulsion and the contact at the walk established, we moved on to the trot work. This is where I started to struggle, Werther was really testing me, trying to be either round or forward and not both. I was getting moments of correctness, but nothing consistent, and Werther kept ending up behind my leg. Sarah had me jump off and she hopped on Werther. One look at Werther and you could tell what he was thinking, "Just joking guys, give me back the other lady, she doesn't make me work as hard". Sarah started with Werther like I had, making him give her a really good walk before moving into the trot. She made Werther give a nice trot, and did a few trot canter transitions before handing the reins back to me. she couldn't have ridden him for more than five minutes but the difference was marked. Right away moving off of the mounting block I gave a little squeeze with my calves and he marched off for me. We repeated our initial exercise of establishing the walk and the trot. Once we had a good trot going we moved up to the canter. Here I struggled a little. I wasn't clear enough in my transition aids, and Werther kept offering extended trot rather than canter. Sarah said part of that was Werther, he was feeling really good today, very loose and swinging in his back, so he offered the extended trot instead because he is really good at it, and it was less of an effort for him to give a really good extended trot than a quality canter. Sarah said something really interesting that people often had the impression that horses should be working their back muscles all the time, but the back should never be tense. Instead the back should be loose and swinging and the strength should come from the horse engaging his core abdominal muscles. I kept trying to sit back and keep a good contact with my outside rein but when Werther wouldn't pick up the canter right away I would get out of balance and lean forward and throw my reins away, which unbalanced Werther, so it was all very cyclical. I got a little bit of really good canter, but in a effort to keep up my connection I would balance too much with my hand and not back it up enough with my leg and Werther would break. By the time we finished I felt I was getting comfortable using more leg, and really dressage subtle leg, not cowboy leg. We finished on a stretching trot circle, I had a totally had a brain lapse when we first started, but our second attempt was better. I getting the hang of keeping contact on the outside rein even when it is super long.

Tuesday's Lesson

Sarah rode Werther on Monday and she said he was particularly tight in his back. The main goal of the lesson on Tuesday was to get me used to doing some exercises that will help Werther with his suppleness. We did a little walk trot canter to get Werther warmed up first, the Sarah had me come into the middle of the ring to do some suppling exercises. We started by doing a series of small circles with almost no outside rein contact, asking him with a soft inside to bring his neck over by my knee, but not for too long, think about as long as you would hold a stretch doing yoga. Then we did some steps of turn on the forehand each direction to help stretch his hip muscles. Going to the left was very hard for me in the turn on the forehand, Werther is not particularly sensitive to leg to begin with and the turn on the forehand has to basically come entirely from the leg, and that is my weaker side. We went back to trot and canter work, which was much better after doing those stretches and then ended by doing quite a few stretching circles. It was really hard work, you can't let up at all in that movement yet for him, you have to keep on asking, but it kept getting better and better.

Mini Update

Talked to Sarah as I was getting out of work today. She said Werther was pretty tense during most of their ride. I'm not too worried, he was just basically be obnoxious because all of the jumpers are back, and they were wild. Werther is not a huge fan of working when his friends are not working, but he should settle down in a couple of days. I'm getting pretty close to being set with my horse show stuff, I have Intro Level Test B memorized now. Now it is just the nitpicky stuff like:

Return shirts to smartpak and get ones that fit

Get a carry bag for my dressage saddle

Work on my USEF dispensation letter

Get Werther's breed papers into USDF

Get fitted for new tall boots and get new stirrups

Also, my Mom said she would get dressage arena rails for the indoor so we could set up a ring that is the actual regulation size. I'm really excited to have a "proper" ring to practice in!

Lesson / Wesley Update

Lesson

Lesson went pretty well considering I'm so worried about Wesley. Sarah was very kind and took it easy on me today, but still gave me enough to work on I was plenty busy. Sarah said her ride with Werther went well, I'm kind of blanking on what she told me... I believe Sarah worked on getting Werther to come on the outside rein, and getting him more "thorough" she also worked on his hind legs, said he tends to canter with them either too fast or too slow. We talked for awhile about his walk. Sarah said Werther has a tendency to do a lateral walk, instead of a true four beat walk. Sarah said this is most likely from being pushed too collect at the walk too early in training. She also said there is not much you can do about it, but put a strong emphasis on making sure the back is relaxed in the walk and make an effort to do hill work at home. We spent a lot of time working on transitions, which are getting better. Most importantly equitation wise, moving my elbows with the horse and keeping my butt in the saddle. Also worked on going forward and maintaining the bend. Werther was lazy today, feeling very tranquil, as Sarah put it. I was glad for it today, I  really don't think I could have handled any antics. 

Wesley

Wesley still not looking very good. I'm posting a picture below of his swollen sheath, if that sort of thing upsets you skip it. He seemed in good spirits though, I went into his stall and talked with him for awhile and gave him treats. He was his usual sassy self. I don't know how long they are going to wait to see if the antibotics and bute fix it, but as the saying goes, I am preparing for the worst but still hoping for the best. 

Trainer 1, Student 0

I got my butt kicked in my lesson today. My lessons make me wish I was six inches taller. I'm trying to stretch my legs down, engage my core muscles and maintain a tall upper body to help Werther balance. Meanwhile, I still have to  loosen my elbows to move my hands with the motion of the horse, while still keeping my hands low so Werther has somewhere to move into the contact, and still keep my head up and look where I'm going. I feel like I'm being stretched like gumby. Werther was so lazy, he could have very well been "pokey" to take the analogy further. We spent the majority of the time working on my position and trying to get the timing of everything right. We also worked at getting Werther to move off the leg, so he does not use his shoulder to fall in. Werther spent most of the lesson trying to convince me he could not move forward and in a frame at the same time. I kept having to give him corrections with the hip because he was not responding to my leg and that was throwing my timing off. Also, we worked on posting over the hindquarters to help Werther balance, which is difficult for me because I am used to hunter posting where you are trying to be really light and almost going off of your pubic bone. Sarah said that post farther back helps the horse to balance, which makes sense to me, if you are using the energy from their hindquarters, that should be a lot less energy that has to be created and a lot less interference with the horse. Since I have not had a video up here in a while, I thought I would offer a gumby video to refresh everyones memory, embedded video is not cooperating so click HERE and enjoy!

PS, Sarah said Werther was good on Monday, she worked on getting him to move off of his hind end. 

Quick Post Before Bed

Going to Thermal this weekend was fabulous, I loved watching the world cup qualifying class and seeing Stoli in his new life as "hunter boy" for my Mom in the A/Os. My stuff from Aunt Karen was at the barn when I got there today. I did not have a lesson because Sarah was not feeling well. She rode Werther on Sunday and Monday and said he felt really good, he even got up enough ambition to throw in some playful bucks. She worked a lot with him on transitions. I was not in the mood to deal with any hijinx after a few days off so I turned Werther out in the indoor before I rode him, he had a good time rolling and galloped around and got a few bucks out. I just did a light hack in Karen's saddle, it is amazing. It is a high profile Albion SLK. I don't know if it is clear from the picture, but the pommel is higher and more cut back than a regular dressage saddle, which I think alleviated the problem of shoulder tightness we were getting with the other saddles I tried. Even up to the last hole the stirrups were still very much too long for me, but I felt really secure in the saddle's seat. This thing has some of the biggest knee rolls I have even seen, I'm not sure how that will affect my position. The cantle is also very high, I had trouble swinging my leg over to get out! Karen sent a couple different pads, I tried the EA Mattes pad with sheepskin lining that sits on the horse's back where the saddle goes and that seemed to work well. 

Sarah's Ride

I didn't have work today so I went out to the barn to watch Sarah ride Werther. I wanted to take pictures but I couldn't find my real camera and the cell phone camera just could not cut it. It was really helpful to me to watch Sarah ride. I don't have much experience with Dressage apart for watching the olympics. I was able to watch Sarah's position especially her hands, and see where Werther's neck should be when he is on the bit. We talked about what Sarah was working on with Werther, and her challenges when she rides him. Sarah worked  on getting a quicker reaction time off of the leg aids. She said he was more dull on the left side, which is the side that is effected by CP. She did half steps with Werther as well and is working him up to a full passage. She also worked on getting his canter more uphill and dynamic. One of Sarah's challenges when she rode Werther was getting him to overcome that intial resitanece and getting him to go to work. This made me feel better because this is my main challenge with Werther, abeit he testes me a lot harder that he does Sarah. Sarah has to work on keeping her hands soft with Werther as well. She said that Werther has the most sensative mouth out of any upper level horse that she has ever ridden and if you get too much in his face he shuts down and she sometimes struggles with how much hand to use. If you ask for something correctly and firmly Werther will do it right away. Sarah said he is almost so push button that she has trouble timing her aids right, especially for the flying change. We also talked about Werther in general, we think the reason he was sold to be a  big EQ horse is that while he is able to perform the movements, he is not quite flashy enough to be super successful at FEI level, and his quietness would make it a more difficult ride at that level. At some point I may have to do some soul searching a decide if I want to continue with Hunters or just do Dressage. Werther may not be a Grand Prix horse for me but if he can take me all the way to fourth that is a lot to learn. I feel like Werther is a horse that doesn't seem challenge when you first ride him, but as you continue things get more and more nuanced. I think he will teach me how to be a really good rider no matter what I decide to do.  

Lesson

I had my lesson today. Sarah rode Werther yesterday with the rein-aids still on my bridle. Sarag thought Werther went well in it, but it worked a little too well for her, she could not get the check she needed for the lead change and the passage. Werther was very good for me today, we worked mainly at the trot on the frame and leg yield. I have to relax my upper arms so I don't brace my hand against the motion at the trot. I need to have a low and steady contact with the outside rein and a soft, low and opening inside rein. I was much better in my leg yields today, I was able to use them properly as a tool to push Werther into the outside rein and make him frame up. I'm still struggling a little with the canter transition, I am getting the hang of using my inside leg to ask for the canter instead of the outside rein. If I don't keep Werther's stride collected and forward before I ask for the canter he uses his advantage to root or get in a buck if I get after him.  My homework for this week when I hack is to make sure I do not use the inside rein to balance, which is a bad habit I have from trying to accommodate my poor balance because of my CP. 

Monday and Tuesday Update

Sarah said Werther was good on Monday. She did a lot of canter transitions with him and worked on sharping his response to the flying lead change aids. She ended doing a little work on the passage with Werther, she said it seems like somebody started to teach him the movement but never quite finished. He gets the hesitation in the trot step, but has not quite figured out the airtime piece to it yet. Before I heard that I had basically won the tack lottery thanks to my Aunt Karen, I had ordered a saddle to try from a shop in White Bear Lake, a Stubben Tristan this time. It came today and I thought I would try it for my lesson. Werther pinned his ears and made faces when I put on the saddle, but I wrote that off as him complaining about me swinging the saddle over without the stirrups run up because they are wrapped. When Sarah and I checked on the ground, the saddle fit seemed to be OK, but when I got on and felt under the saddle, it felt a little tight on the withers. We started out with some trot with a light an gradually increasing the contact. Werther was a little spooky, but it was more of a bored spooking, than a I am actually scared of something spook. We decided to give Werther some work to do, since obviously he needed a harder task. Sarah had me ask for the canter, and he bucked repeatedly. 

We did the transition several times until he did it properly. We decided that the saddle was putting too much pressure on his withers, so we switched back to the one that I have been borrowing. Werther, the delicate flower that he is, was pissed for the rest of the lesson and I had a really hard time getting a connection with him. Overall I feel like I am becoming a much better rider these past few months with Werther, and I am glad that Werther's antics didn't phase me when they would have upset me before but I don't feel like I rode very well today. We worked on the leg yield at the trot on the circle and Sarah had me work on keeping Werther's neck straight and not letting him cheat by falling in with his shoulder. She also had me work on using less hand a more leg. This was really hard for me because we started out leg yielding to the right and I had to use my left leg which is the one that is effected by my CP. Automatically my brain wanted to go to using my hand, but that wasn't getting the result I needed. I need to to work more at using my dressage whip as a way to supplement the weakness of my left leg. Sarah's next big project for me is working on quieter hands, because Werther actually has quite a sensative mouth, and any jostling of the bit he wants to hold himself away from it. Which is why she thinks my ability to get Werther into a good frame right now is hit and miss. I guess this means more bicep and tricep work at the gym, as well as just really working on my mental awareness of what I am doing with my hand while I am riding. 

Monday and Tuesday Update

Sarah said her ride on Monday was good. I talked to her while I was at work and she said they worked on a lot of transitions to work on building Werther's muscle. She said that in the collection he wants to shorten his neck to cheat his way out of using his hind end, so she worked on lengthening his neck in the collection and making him use his hind end. (that makes sense right? I wrote down a few notes from our conversation). Werther tested Sarah a little, she was working on haunches in with him at trot and he slowed his pace down, Sarah initially let him because she thought he was doing it because he did not have the muscle, but she tried to haunches in again after she cantered and was able to do the exercise with much more impulsion. Our Lesson on Tuesday went really well, we started out with a loose rein walk and trot and gradually increased the impulsion and feel at the trot. Then we did some leg yields on a circle and worked on making him bend, but not too much, he has a tendency to want to over bend. We asked for the canter and he was good about his leads and I worked on my position. Next we worked on the sitting trot and we did some shoulder ins working on making Werther have a straight neck but still maintaining the angle. My sitting trot in getting better, I still need to put my shoulders further back. At about this point in the lesson, Werther decided he was bored and started fake spooking at the door to the ring. I'm really glad I didn't let it rattle me. We spent some more time at the sitting trot and I worked on maintaining my contact (Sarah: "You will hold that outside rein come hell or highwater!") . I got all the way around the ring with a really nice, forward, connected trot, I was very proud of my self. We let Werther walk and have a long break, when we went back to work he was pissed, he thought he was done. So Werther and I worked at the trot with shoulders fore, and shoulder in on the circle until he accepted the bit again and was going around in a nice frame and we quit with that.

I don't know about you Silly Pony, but I'm having difficulty with my saddle shopping. Sarah and I decided the one I've been trying isn't going to work for the long term, it is too wide and does not sit well on his withers. It works with padding, but I would rather have something that fits well enough I don't have to worry about it. So now I am looking for a 17 1/2 or 17 inch used dressage saddle with a medium wide tree. I'm hoping to keep it to about a grand. I'm going to call the local tack shop that is on the way out to my barn tomorrow and see what they have. If they don't have anything, I am going to get this shop in White Bear Lake to ship me one to try.

Sarah's Ride

This is from the message Sarah left me:

"Werther was pretty good today. He was not as energetic as last week but I forgot my long Dressage whip and I think maybe that was the difference. I worked on Werther's collect canter quite a bit, and I did lots of transitions to the canter from the walk and trot. I was trying to get his collected canter more energetic and I found that if his neck is a little longer he is a little less uphill but he has better energy and vise versa. What I think I need to do is play with going back and forth between longer neck with impulsion and and shorter neck with less impulsion, and work on getting him a little more jazzed. I did some tempi changes to see if I could get him excited, and he was not excited today, but the tempi's were pretty good. I did practice half steps, which are piaffe like steps a little bit to try and get him a little quicker on his feet and little excited, but he was still kind of sleepy, so it was not quite as good as last week. Also, he stumbled a few times at the walk, not any huge trips, but it was like he was not setting his right front down squarely."

Ellie in: I'm really okay with him being lazy, I would much rather have a horse that I have to work to create energy with than struggle to contain it. It lowers the risk level significantly for me with my disability. I don't know what the tripping was about, it was 20 degrees today which is like a heat wave to our horses compared to last week, so I bet he played really hard outside today and was just being extra lazy and didn't feel like picking his feet up. I have a lesson tomorrow so Sarah can watch him from the ground, and if he still has that little stumble we'll evaluate further and I'll probably have Dr. Sarah come check him out. 

Monday and Tuesday Update

Recap of Sarah's ride on Monday:

"Today, I did I fair bit of canter work and some hind end strengthening exercises. Such as transitions from medium canter to collected canter, some canter pirouettes and a little bit of canter half pass, as well as some zig zags in the canter half pass. I also did a fair bit of trot work, transitions from the collected to the medium trot to a little bit of piaffe and little bit of passage. Then I worked on the canter transitions some more and I did some stretching with him. He was really pretty good, except the cats were playing in the pile of jumps in the indoor and they knocked over some poles and he took of galloping and bucked a couple of times but I got him back, but I think it is good you lock the cats up when you ride."

Ellie in: I think it so cool that Werther can do all of this advanced Dressage work, and I am really excited to do more with him! 

Tuesday lesson: We continued  a lot of the work we started on Tuesday, more shoulder in work at the trot and we also worked at going back and forth between an extended and regular trot. We added in some serpentines to help get Werther moving. We worked on the canter transition, the hardest part for me is remembering to ask with my inside leg. I also need to work on my hands, something Sarah said that was very helpful to me was that "the outside hand creates the frame, while the inside hand creates the bend". We stopped at let Werther walk and rest for awhile about three quarters in to the lesson. We went back to working on Canter transitions, and Werther really tried to test me again, balling up and do a little crow hopping but not a true buck. He gets mad when he thinks he is done and has too see if he can intimidate me into not making him work anymore, so taking that extended break and going back to work is a good mental exercise for him and something I want to incorporate into my hacks. After he was good with canter transition we finished by rewarding him with an trot on a loose rein while still maintaining the frame, Werther's favorite part of the lesson. 

Thursday and Friday

I'm doing a quick paraphase of the call Sarah left me about her ride on Werther yesterday:

"Werther was really good yesterday. I worked a little bit on canter departs at the walk and the trot. I carried my long dressage whip and I think he responded a little better to that [than my huntseat crop], I may bring it and have you try it on Saturday. I worked with Werther on some strengthening exercises at the trot to build up his hind end, a little bit of shoulders in, haunches in, and half pass. I also played with transitions from working trot to collected trot. I think the stronger I can get his hind end, the less likely it is he will root with you. Then I played with the collected and working transitions and the canter and finished working on flying changes, trying to get him morse sensitive to the leg, which is going to help you with the canter transition."

Ellie back in: This all sounds like good training practices to me, if any  Dressage person has an opinion, I would love to hear your thoughts. 

Today's ride: Today was my first day riding at the barn totally by myself, no others riders or groom. I called my Mom to let her know I got there and was going to ride. Werther was good tacking up and stood quietly when I got on, thank goodness. He was a little tense going down to the far end of the ring, it is slightly darker, and the heater makes noises, but he didn't act on his nervousness. I practiced an active walk and taking a feel, he was pretty good about the bit at the trot but fought me and locked his jaw especially on the long sides at the trot. However when we did our leg yield circles at the trot he was much better about the bit. Werther was most excellent at the canter, he picked up his leads right away, had a ton of impulsion, was really moving off his hind end and was very accepting of my hand. It was a little bit nerve wracking to feel (and be in control of) so much power underneath me. I let him walk on a loose rein, and we finished without incident. 

Shoes: Scott came and did Werther, we decided to pull his hind shoes for the winter, Mom thinks if his feet hold up alright, he will have an easier time in the snow. In front, we did shoes with boreum and full snow pads. I'll post pictures tomorrow, I did not have enough battery to do it today.

Orvis pics:

Orvis is not even two yet, next to our 15 hand something three year old. 

Orvis's knee that got kicked before he left for Minnesota.

Last thing: I'm still nervous about riding by myself, any advice from anyone who rides alone on a regular basis would be greatly appreciated. 

Testing

Today was my first day riding after work. I got to the barn at 5:30, it was very quiet with the six horses gone to the show. I'd also never been to ride at night, which was strange. Werther was not ridden on Monday because Mom and Andre were packing the trailer in the indoor for Thermal. I thought about chasing him in the ring but I decided against it, since Sarah would be on hand to help. Werther had never been in our indoor at night, but what turned out to be a bigger problem was the barn cats. Without the dogs to chase them, the cats were running wild in the indoor and Werther was already a little fresh, so he was using as an excuse to act spooky. But when he actually leapt away from the cats and did a little canter jig,  he had to stop immediately to itch his nose on his leg so I could tell he was not too scared. We started out with a nice forward trot and he was being very good about the bit. However, when I went to start my canter on a circle he rooted so hard, I thought he was going to drag me out of the ring for a minute. Sarah got on him after than and he even fought her a little when she first made him trot. She made him do a lot of lateral work and really focus as well as a lot of transitions before I got back on. He was still really fighting me on the canter transition, and put in a little buck when I got after him about balling up and trying to root. Near the end he gave up his temper tantrum and we did get some nice transitions. Sarah thinks he was testing me to see if he really had to do the new level work we are putting him in, and that he may have had a more timid rider in the past the would have been intimidated by a little attitude so he could get his way. With the little snit he was in tonight, this seems like an accurate assessment,  and while it was not a good ride today, I'm glad I was able to convince Werther I'm not a pushover. The chestnut baby from the last post came just as I was leaving, he is a huge, he is only 2 and a minimum of 17 HH. Of course, Orvis got kicked the day before he left and his right knee is big, I'll post picks on my next trip out.

A question for any Dressage rider who might be reading: Sarah was trying to explain to me when Dressage riders ask for a canter transition they rock their hips while using the leg to encourage the horse to move up and forward and I'm not sure I'm getting what I should be doing, can someone explain this to me in a different way?

Rest In Peace, T.J.

This morning my Mom's horse T.J. was euthanized. T.J. was only six, but he had Lymes disease which had gone neurological and he was very lame. Mom tried to keep him as a pasture ornament, but he just was not happy without a job. It was the right thing to do, but it still makes you feel sad. Sarah rode Werther today, she said he was a little stiff which probably caused by lack of turn out and riding because of the holidays and icy conditions. Sarah said she did a lot of lateral work, leg yielding, shoulders-in, ect. to get Werther supple. Then Sarah had Werther trot canter transitions to stretch out his back, and do a collected canter to help build muscle in his hind end. I have a lesson with Sarah tomorrow, I am excited to start working on flat work for it own sake and not just a necessary precursor for jumping. I think this is going to make me a much stronger rider. 

Dressage ride

We changed Werther's bit today per Sarah's suggestion. We changed from the traditional french link snaffle on the bottom to the cooper loose ring french link with a ball center. Sarah came out and rode Werther today. I liked the way she rode him, she had him nicely framed up, but she didn't have a death grip on the reins and he wasn't over flexed so his head was at his chest like you see some dressage riders do. Werther was really good for her, Sarah said he was one of the nicest horses she has even ridden, which made me feel like a proud mother indeed. Sarah even had tempi changes, and she did not spurs on. She thinks somebody must have put in a lot of dressage training on him in the past because she had Werther doing movements up fourth level. She loved how soft he was in the mouth, but did say he could be a little more responsive off the leg. I'm really excited to take some dressage lessons now, it's really nice to have a horse that knows all of these things, so I can really work on becoming a stronger rider.

Werther and Vinny, Not a Match Made In Heaven

So when we put Werther out in his new turn out situation with Wesley and Vinny, Vinny was inside because Andre was going to ride him. When Andre turned Vinny out with Wesley and Werther, Werther tried to beat up Vinny, he did not want him anywhere near his friend Wesley. So the horses are going back to their old paddock arrangements. I could not get out to the barn today because Wesley had to be dropped off at Anoka Equine so he can get his tumor vaccine shot tomorrow, they have to inject it within the hour of receiving the vaccine. Andre rode Werther today, and I did hear anything from Andre so I am assume he was just fine, I will talk to her at the barn tomorrow and get the full report.