Starr Vaughn Dressage II was absolutely beautiful this past weekend.  For a mid-November show everyone lucked out. Not only was it not raining, it was sunny with a light breeze that made warming up in jackets easy.

Philip was sporting his new clip and we cantered down the centerline to get a freestyle qualifying score at Fourth Level test 3. I realized I'd never shown the test so even though we'd gone out at Price St. George a couple of times we needed to do this for a freestyle to be a reality next year--because I found terrific music!

Happily, P earned 7's on gaits AND on submission. Yeah! Good training should make a horse more beautiful , enhance the gaits.l and my sweet little horse with the straightest shoulder you ever saw was not gifted with great dressage gaits, but he is developing them.

We scored a 63% and since I saw Tamara with the Camera outside the ring I'm anxious to see the pictures she caught. We still....ok, I still flubbed the flying change right in the half-pass zig-zag. More work to done on coordinating my left leg to left rein. Thank goodness I finally got into physical therapy for the chronic issues there from left humerus fracture and vertebra crunching in my jumping days.

Back to work this week. Train, practice, laugh,  and do it all again until we get it right for the sake of our horses.

Hope and Pray are Not Aids

Riding Breanna at First Level

The Confessions of a Passive Rider

I like to ride with softness. I love the feeling of a horse responding to little more than a thought. My horse's are my friends and pets. Lazy is also a word I'd use to describe myself when it comes to working out. Maybe I can get away with energy efficient-- I like to find the minimum effort required. Sometimes that's a very subconscious thing.

Fortunately, I am ambitious and motivated to achieve my goals. Furthermore, I have learned over the years to be honest with myself about what I am really doing or not doing to achieve those goals. There are no shortage of examples of hearing people complain about where they are at, when they are doing very little of anything productive to get to where they say they want to go. That is definitely NOT me.

Okay, so I can breathe some sighs of relief. However, I'm still guilty of something. There are times when I ride that I think I'm riding. I think I applied my aids--in actuality I did apply them. But after that? I relied on two aids that have no place in riding. They have no bearing on the horse. The good ole' hope and pray. I hope the aids work and I pray my horse will finish the rest of the task. But, for the remainder of the movement, I am little more than an adornment on my horse. He might use a different term, but I do very little else to help him.

Over the years, I have dissected the reasons why riders resort to hope and pray, by analyzing what I do and watching others. 

First, I think some aspect of this happens when a rider doesn't know what to expect. They are waiting and perhaps not recognizing that not enough is happening, or not the right reactions in the horse. This is an education issue and readily solved by watching really good riders do the same task, reading books and watching videos. If you horse isn't doing THAT, then you need to do more or different to get it to happen.

Second, and this is the one I am most guilty of, the rider avoids doing more in an effort to be soft, light, natural, kind...... there are a host of euphemisms. But, they all equate to passive or ineffective.  Get the right job done and then you can do that right job with lightness, softness, whatever you want to call it. If it isn't done right, it can't be called light-- a motto that has become a favorite of mine.

Third, and I do this too. It is simply focus fail. Whether laziness causes it, or distraction, its a lack of the mental and physical strength to keep riding through the movement, through the aid.  And I write this, because I found myself doing this yesterday when I was schooling. I was a lucky ducky because my horse is rather generous most of the time, even if he is a pasture potato pony. He was giving me the last lead changes in my tempi's nice and clean in spite of the fact that I found myself suddenly thinking, "oh, we're done." Yes, that is a sure sign that I was NOT mentally engaged in my task. If you find yourself thinking, "oh, shoot, we have a transition at this letter," or, "whoa, corner!" you have been guilty of a focus fail.

Riding with good focus ahead, legs on and a feel of my horse.

Don't worry. None of this is meant to inspire a beat-yourself-up session. Its just a dose of reality we all must face. Hope and pray are not aids that horses understand. Horses yield from pressures. When they don't the pressure was either applied wrong, or not enough of it to motivate a reaction. Riding really is quite simple, but it is not easy.

How many of you have been guilty of riding with hope and pray instead of your seat, legs, and reins? What strategies do you use to keep yourself riding every stride?

I'm Procrastinating

... and you are my excuse--my avid reader. National Novel Writing Month started last night and I amassed a great total of 2504 words in my first day (which is not yet over if I'd do that instead of this). Given the average daily total of 1667 words necessary to complete 50,000 by the end of the month, that is a decent start. The only problem is I have a paid writing assignment to finish. I don't have much left of it either. I should be finishing that right now too.

But, blogging is fun. Yes, really I enjoy sharing the things that spark my happy face and make me think, "oh, ooh, I need to share that!"

One really fun thing to share is my progress in training Destino towards Working Equitation. He's loving it. I missed out on the October virtual competition, and I'm likely to miss November given the novel writing challenge/fiasco.  But, perhaps in December. Eh, it really doesn't matter. The point is, we have goals. Last week our goal was to take the rein-back skills of the prior two weeks and introduce backing through narrow spaces in straight lines.  Destino thinks he is so smart now trotting into an alley, waiting with his arched neck and buzzing for the cue to begin backing. Tomorrow, we plan to add in some little arcs.


How to back your horse in a turn: 

In order to turn a horse while it is backing, there has to be a little pressure blocking the straight flow of the rein-back. To make the horse's rear head left in a rein-back, squeeze a bit more on the right rein while pushing slightly with the right leg. You will feel the haunches drift as the horse takes the step.

Simple! Be very careful to ask for only small amounts at first, then go back and ask for straight rein backs. When you and your horse are comfortable going either straight or on a curve, you will find that you can apply the same aids when asking for a tight turn at the canter. Using a half-halt or combined hold with the rein and press with the leg on the outside of the horse's body in a turn, you will get working pirouette strides.


A basic skill that leads to a more advanced one. 

Time to get backing!

Time for me to get novelling.